The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-04 00:00:00

people proud of tht fame and memory of this
immortal, Englishman. Every one amongst us
surely sears in vivid recollection the records of
that strange and inspiriting biography the fame of
which opens in the sequestered rectory of Birnam
Thorpe, and closes only with funereal pomp under the
gorgeous dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Yes, and we
all of us, each and all of us, men and women,
sages and children have listened to that moving
narrative not without peculiar and profound emo-
tion. For we have unanimously recognised the
hero-patriot under the form of that " little pale
lameter"—withered and blurred one might almost
deem it by the storm of those thunderbolts which
he had called down upon his head as a champion,
or hurled around him as an avenger—mighty soul
in a feeble ftame thus apostrophised by an elo-
quent writer of our generation—" Admiral Ho-
RATIO, Viscount NELSON, and Duke of BRONTE :
great at heart as a TITIAN ; gallant and heroic as
all the world and age of chivalry ; leader of the
might of England ; commander of her strength
on the deep; hurler of her thunder over the flood."
(SHIRLEY, iii. 63.) Yes—it is thus that NELSON,
ever since the famous day on which he died, has
been loved, andhonoured, and idolised by hisfellow-
countrymen. It is thus that he has long since come
to be regarded as " the darling hero of England."
It is thus that the souls of his compatriots glow
within them at his remembrance. And nobly,
and touchingly, and exquisitely has it been said
of him, as we well bear in our recollection, by one
whose comprehensive genius finds sympathy for
all the indications or attributes of sublimity, whe-
ther of war or peace—nobly, and touchingly, and
exquisitely has it been said of " the darling hero
of England" by Sir BULWER LrrToN—that the
glorious race of mariners that commenced with
BLAKE, " found their most illustrious archetype
in the gentle and daring heart—in the patriotism,
disinterested and sublime—in the valour that was
ever merciful—in the ambition that was never
base—in all the memories of devoted life and
heroic death, which, age after age, shall render
not less holy than unfading the laurel -and the
cypress upon the tomb of NELSON." (The Sea
Captain. "Preface," p. viii.) Britain felt
this when in the first anguish of her loss,
she offered to the remains of her hero-
son the posthumous homage of a more
than-- regal sepulture. It was in that first
sense of her calamity that England went, in her
regard, beyond even the ambition of the dead
conqueror of Trafalgar. Victory had been his—
but Westminster Abbey in her eyes, in the estima-
tion of the country for which he had yielded up
his life in a blaze of glory, was not worthy, with
all its grand historic associations, to memorialise
the grateful homage of a nation by becoming
the depository of his ashes. And so the body of
NELSON, on its arrival in the Thames, was buried
in great pomp under the dome of the metropolitan
cathedral.

Deprived of her hero through the very achieve-
ment of his last and greatest exploit, England
endeavoured in some measure to attest the depth
and fulness of. his appreciation. Together with
a grant of 6,0001. a-year, an earldom was be-
stowed upon his brother. Parliament voted, in
addition to this, 100,0001. for the purchase of an
estate for the family—and granted the sum of
10,0001. to each of his sisters. Monuments
were erected, and statues sculptured to his me-
mory in most of the principle cities of the United
Kingdom. The leaden coffin in which he had
been conveyed homewards, was cut into small
fragments, and scattered among the fleet as relics
of the departed warrior. The flag that had be-
longed to him was, by a spontaneous movement,
torn in pieces by.the sailors, as it was about to be
lowered into his grave, and the shreds treasured
up by them as sacred mementos. Every one vied
at that period in displaying the sense entertained,
that the loss sustained by the empire was, in the
fullest signification of the word, irreparable.
Was there not in all this, let us ask, a secret
feeling of compunction ? Had not England a
painful consciousness that she never once acted
generously to NELSON during his lifetime Did
she act—during all those four-and-thirty years of
unexampled heroism and devotion—did England
act even once towards NELSON with generosity
Why, at the period of his death he was only
a Viscount ! After all his victories !
After losing an arm, and an eye, and
being hacked and hewn away piecemeal as
never Sea Captain was before or since ! After
having, even as early as 1795 passed through no
less than 140 separate skirmishes and engage-
ments ! While HOWE, for a single triumph, was
created an earl during the same reign ! Nay—
while JERVIS was advanced to an earldom for that
battle of St. Vincent which NELSON gained for
him by a splendid act of disobedience ! For this
the captor of the " San Josef " and the " San
Nicholas " was merely promoted to the dignity of
knighthood ! For the Nile he was simply de-
clared a Baron, and for Copenhagen a Viscount
—being insulted, moreover, after gaining the
former "then" matchless victory, by being placed
second in command under Sir HYDE PARKER on
the fitting out of the Danish expedition. Nor
was this all. Unfortunately, it was very
far from constituting the whole of our
national ingratitude during his lifetime
towards the greatest Sea Captain of any ago,
or of any country, of whom mention has been
made in the records of either ancient or modern
history. England—the wealthiest country in
the world—England, who was then subsidising
the armies of the Continent by such enormous
sums of money that she increased her debt in two-
and-twenty years by the vast additional amount
of 500,000,000/. sterling; England, who after
the death of NELSON could give 10,0001. to each of
his sisters, and 6,0001. a-year to his brother, and
vote 100,000/. in a single grant to purchase a
family estate—could yet leave her hero during his
lifetime in a condition, literally, of comparative
indigence. We do not exaggerate. We upeat
the phrase comparative indigence. Why
NELSON was so poor; even after he had been so
very munificently raised to the peerage, he was
so embarrassed in pecuniary matters whenever he
returned home for a little repose after active ser-
vice afloat--that ho was never once enabled to
keep a town-house—although a patrician. It
may be argued, however, that even a peer can
manage to exist very comfortably without a town-
house. Not a very generous excuse, howbeit,
for the paltry treatment of a man who had shed
his blood so often in the cause of his country—
who had gained three such battles as St. Vincent,
the Nile, and Copenhagen—and who, besides all
this, had gone through the flame and smoke of
nearly one hundred and fifty separate engage-
ments. But let that pass. We have something
to say about the poverty in which NELSON was
allowed to remain, up to the moment of his death,
by England. It is not generally known, we be-
lieve, but it is, nevertheless, not one jot
the less true on that account, that Lord
NELSON was so straitened in pecuniary
circumstances at the period when he was
going to join the fleet off Cape Trafalgar that he
was without sufficient plate for ordinary purposes
to keep up a decent appearance at his table as
Admiral on board the " Victory !" And to relieve
himself from this embarrassment, and to supply
the deficiency, he was actually compelled to
pawn the few jewels presented to him in gratitude
by foreig,n Sovereigns ! This, remember, in order
that he might be enabled to go out to sea for the
last time, there to purchase, by a glorious death,
the t
Chy, Trafalgar.it may
ape
riumph of England through the victory off
be inquired, are we, nowadays,
at this particular period, forty-eight years after
our " darling hero " was interred in St. Paul's
Cathedral, recalling the popular attention to this
very grievous and lamentable evidence of national
.ingratitude ? We answer sina,ply—Because, not-
withstanding that great lapse (xf time, rather let
us say by reason of that great lapse of time,
we feel assured there is need, as we know there is
unregarded by the opplloort:AriityA,
is still
iu hreparation.iving
,heAr,seolfnebewinhgo the
na-
tion—a numerous family inheriting from her the
fame of her illustrious
wife of a poor clergym •
aisiire—Hostm'
an almost unexampled claim upon the country, a
claim, arising out of the one fact that she is—Lord