deck in the sharp sea air put a man on his mettle
again; a battle must have been a capital relief; and prize-money,
bloodily earned and grossly squandered, opened the doors of the prison
for a twinkling. Somehow or other, at least, this worst of possible
lives could not overlie the spirit and gaiety of our sailors; they did
their duty as though they had some interest in the fortune of that
country which so cruelly oppressed them, they served their guns merrily
when it came to fighting, and they had the readiest ear for a bold,
honourable sentiment, of any class of men the world ever produced.

Most men of high destinies have high-sounding names. Pym and Habakkuk
may do pretty well, but they must not think to cope with the Cromwells
and Isaiahs. And you could not find a better case in point than that of
the English Admirals. Drake and Rooke and Hawke are picked names for men
of execution. Frobisher, Rodney, Boscawen, "Foul-Weather" Jack Byron are
all good to catch the eye in a page of a naval history. Cloudesley
Shovel is a mouthful of quaint and sounding syllables. Benbow has a
bull-dog quality that suits the man's character, and it takes us back to
those English archers who were his true comrades for plainness,
tenacity, and pluck. Raleigh is spirited and martial, and signifies an
act of bold conduct in the field. It is impossible to judge of Blake or
Nelson, no names current among men being worthy of such heroes. But
still it is odd enough, and very appropriate in this connection, that
the latter was greatly taken with his Sicilian title. "The
signification, perhaps, pleased him," says Southey; "Duke of Thunder was
what in Dahomey would have been called a _strong name_; it was to a
sailor's taste, and certainly to no man could it be more applicable."
Admiral in itself is one of the most satisfactory of distinctions; it
has a noble sound and a very proud history; and Columbus thought so
highly of it, that he enjoined his heirs to sign themselves by that
title as long as the house should last.

But it is the spirit of the men, and not their names, that I wish to
speak about in this paper. That spirit is truly English; they, and not
Tennyson's cotton-spinners or Mr. D'Arcy Thompson's Abstract Bagman, are
the true and typical Englishmen. There may be more _head_ of bagmen in
the country, but human beings are reckoned by number only in political
constitutions. And the Admirals are typical in the full force of the
word. T