The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-17
coMEsro LORD NELSON'S DEFENSE
An English Woman on His Relations
With Lady Hamilton.

defense of Lord Nelson in his relations
his own time Nelson's relations with
Lady Hamilton We're the subject of
very unfavorabl comment The worst
construction possible was placed upon
them, even by many of his own friends
1t was something of a public scandal
that this magnificent seaman put away
his own lawful welded wife and went
about ostentatiously with a woman
who was the wife of his devoted friend.
The stories reached George III. and
| royalty turned its back coldly upon its
ablest and most brilliant servant. Other
men than Nelson might have their pri-
vate faults and follies; none paraded
them so openly as he.
But when he died for his country the
| death of the hero there was a reaction
Men began to say that such man
could not have been guilty The deep
| inward piety revealed by the bulk of
| his correspondence was, it was urged,
additional evidence in his favor. 1t
was not perhaps, fully realized that
man, even a great and good man, can
convince himself that what seems a
Migrant sin to others is honorable and
right for himself.
For some so years after Nelson's
death the opinion was generally held
! that his attachment for Lady Hamil-
ton was only platonic, and this in spite
| OF the fact that in 1919 Dr. Pettigrew
printed two volumes containing numer-
Gus very compromising letters. But 1t
was said that these We're untfdstworthy
ana lnconclusive forgeries, and il was
not till the original letters, upon which
DR.. Pettigrew had drawn, We're discov-
cred that the verdict went against the
| greatest admiral.
| MRS Gamlin sets out by attacking the
| Pettlgrew letters and ignoring the fact
| mat the originals have been discovered
some in the Morrison, some in the
Egefton collection of manuscripts. This
is not very promising. If you start with
a preconceived idea of a hero and de-
| clare that everything which conflicts
with that idea is a forgery or an inven-
tlon, you can maintain any thesis and
any view. And this, unfortunately, is
Mrs. Gamlin's method of exeulpating
Nelson and Lady Hamilton. Incident
ally she asperses in every way the
memory of Lady Nelson.
mat Lady Nelson was not sympa-
thetlc in many respects to her dear
and gallant admiral" as she called him
IN her letters, is doubtless true. That
she wrote of trifles to the admiral is
made ground of indictment, though
few We're the women at that time who
wrote of much else. That her son Mel
sons stepson, the wild, irregular, but
gallant Josiah Nisbet, who had by his
bravery and presence of mind saved
Nelson's life, disliked Lady Hamilton.
and, being only child, showed his dis
like, is set forth as another weighty
cause of complaint by Mrs Gamlin.
Here was the husband of Nisbet's
mother going about with woman
whom Nisbet suspected to be his mis-
tress. and who some months later did
actually become his mistress Can we
wonder that young man of ungovern-
able temper broke out in passion at the
sight and that the injured wife showed
GOODNESS and Indignation?
There may sometimes be great fric-
ton without the family without lasting
estrangement. Here, however, Lady
Nelson had to accept her husbands
paramour if she wished to live at peace
with her husband, and to such conduct
she rightly refused to stoop.
Mrs. Gamlin denies in toto that Lady
Hamilton was more to Nelson than a
very dear and intimate friend. She de-
mics that the famous Horatia was their
daughter. Yet we have the absolutely
convincing evidence of autograph let
tiers in Nelson's hand which shows that
whether or no Horatia was Lady HAM
ilton's daughter by the admiral, Nelson
believed her such. For Lady Hamilton
has been accused of foisting a SUPPOSE
ttious child upon Nelson--a charge of
which, however, few people believe her
guilty. She was designing, but not the
wicked and unprincipled woman that
her enemies have represented her.
month after the date of Horatio's
birth, Nelson, then on his way to bonn
m ha ore yxrifh 10
of death hanging over him, wrote thus
to Lady Hamilton:
Now, my own dear wife-for such
you are in my eyes and in the face of
heaven-I can give full scope to my
feelings. You know. my dear
est Emma, that there is nothing In the
world that l would not do for us to
live together and to have our dear lit
tie child with us. s. love, |
never did love anyone else. l never
had a dear pledge of love till you gave
me one"
The evidence of this autograph cannot
be 'gainsaid. Mrs. Gamlin does not at
tempt to disprove it's authenticity In
deed, she passes it over in silence. 1t
ends with the ouching postscript: kiss
and bless our dear Horatio-think of
that" This letter was one Of many 9TH
ers in the same strain.
To this direct evidence must be ad-
utu Tie JndC TIE lnQlFecL
evldence-Nelson's oblivious infatua-
ton for Lady Hamilton, the love he
always showed to his daughter, and
the fact that on the morning of Tralfa-
gar, with the enemy's fleet and DEATH
as he foreboded, in sight, he left, by
codicil to his will Lady Hamilton and
his adopted daughter, Horat ito Nelson
Thompson" to the beneffcence of his
country. And when at the very brink
of death, lying mortally wounded in
the Victory's cockpit, the thought of
these two, nearest and dearest, pos
sessed his heart
Remember" he said, that I leave
Lady Hamilton and my daughter as
legacy to my country. Never
forget Horatia." These were the last
words of that great soul before his
final cry, THANK God, have done my
duty"
The facts then, are these beyond
denial. His countrymen. his biograph-
ers, have for the most part rightly