The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1

Part 1

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THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HORATIO LORD VISCOUNT NELSON:

BARON NELSON OF THE NILE, AND OF BURNHAM-THORPE AND HILBOROUGH IN THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK; KNIGHT OF THE MOST HONOURABLE MILITARY ORDER OF THE BATH; DOCTOR OF LAWS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE SQUADRON OF HIS MAJESTY'S FLEET; DUKE OF BRONTE, IN FARTHER SICILY; GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDER OF ST. FERDINAND AND OF MERIT; KNIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF THE OTTOMAN CRESCENT; KNIGHT GRAND COMMANDER OF THE EQUESTRIAN, SECULAR, AND CAPITULAR, ORDER OF ST. JOACHIM OF WESTERBURG; AND HONORARY GRANDEE OF SPAIN.

BY MR. HARRISON.

IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.

Lord Viscount Nelson's transcendent and heroic services will, I am persuaded, exist for ever in the recollection of my people; and, while they tend to stimulate those who come after him, they will prove a lasting source of strength, security, and glory, to my dominions.

The King's Answer to the City of London's Address on the Battle of Trafalgar.

LONDON: ======= Printed, at the Ranelagh Press, BY STANHOPE AND TILLING; FOR C. CHAPPLE, PALL MALL, AND SOUTHAMPTON ROW, RUSSELL SQUARE. 1806.

TO THE KING; AND HIS SUBJECTS, IN EVERY QUARTER OF THE GLOBE, FORMING WHAT IS DENOMINATED THE COUNTRY; THESE MEMOIRS OF LORD NELSON'S LIFE, WHICH WAS SO HONOURABLY DEVOTED TO, AND SO GLORIOUSLY LOST IN, THEIR SERVICE, ARE MOST HUMBLY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY JAMES HARRISON.

LONDON, JANUARY 4, 1806.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

Never, perhaps, was a greater panegyric pronounced on any human being, than that which is comprised in the motto to this biographical account of Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, delivered from the lips of the Sovereign who had experienced his worth; and who, with a noble gratitude, deigned thus publicly to acknowledge, and record, the transcendent heroism of his Lordship's meritorious services: heroism and services, the recollection of which, His Majesty generously anticipates, must not only exist for ever in the memory of the people; but, by continually stimulating future heroes, prove a perpetual source of strength, security, and glory, even to the country itself. A reflection worthy of a King! Inciting to heroism, by the consideration of a more enlarged motive than seems to have been heretofore sufficiently regarded; and thus entitling himself to participate the very praise he is so liberally bestowing. The expressive voice of gratitude is thus, sometimes, surprised by a similar unexpected but grateful echo; and the rays of royalty, beaming with their fullest lustre on a brilliant object, are in part reflected back to their source.

The general history of the world, to almost every part of which the influence of Lord Nelson's services may be considered as having in some measure extended, must most assuredly preserve the remembrance of one of it's chiefest heroes; and the future historian of our own country, in particular, will not fail exultingly to dwell on each of his Lordship's great and glorious victories, with all the animated and enegertic glow of conscious dignity and truth.

Still, however, we are desirous to know more of so exalted a character than any general history can with propriety supply. We wish to see him not only as a hero, but as the hero of a respectable historian; and are anxious, with a laudable zeal, for such minuteness of detail, in the developement of every circumstance, not only relative to his public and professional character, but even to his private and domestic transactions, as is to be alone expected from what may be denominated the more humble labours of the biographer: who, nevertheless, must not be permitted to boast much of extraordinary humility, if he pretends to combine, in a single picture, any tolerable portion of that sublime grandeur, and that delicate simplicity, which constitute the Iliad and the Odyssey of literature.

To produce a work not altogether unworthy the hero whose life it records, is the utmost that his present biographer can reasonably hope to accomplish. Even this, he freely confesses, he must have despaired of ever effecting, had he not been indulgently honoured by the kindest communications from some whose near affinity to the immortal Nelson, is evidently more than nominal; who not only have the same blood flowing in their veins, but whose hearts possess a large portion of the same unbounded goodness, generosity, and honour: as well as from other dear and intimate friends, professional and private, who were united to his Lordship by the closest ties of a tender reciprocal amity.

Encouraged by such generous aids, the author may be allowed to boast that he has, at least, a considerable store of novelties to offer: it will be for the public to judge, on perusing the work, how far he has succeeded in making a suitable arrangement of the excellent information acknowledged to have been thus bountifully and benignantly afforded him.

Particular acknowledgments will be seen in the preface, to such of the family and friends of Lord Nelson as may have generously assisted the researches of the author; the number of whom are likely, from obvious circumstances, to be considerably augmented during the progress of the work.

It may seem scarcely necessary to add, that the preface, though always placed, as the very name imports, at the beginning of a book, is usually the last part printed.

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PREFACE.

There are few works, the authors of which can possibly be permitted to recommend them as worthy of universal regard, without the imputation of intolerable vanity; an imputation little likely to be diminished by the consideration, that other writers, over whom a decided preference is claimed, may have previously occupied the same subject.

A Life of Lord Nelson, however, replete with original anecdotes, many of them from the mouths of his lordship's nearest and dearest relatives and friends, with whom the author has, for many months, been honoured with an almost constant communication; and abounding in a profusion of interesting letters, and extracts of letters, written by the hero himself, which have generously flowed in, from all quarters, to aid the biographer; he may surely, without the charge of presumption, these facts being self-evident on the slightest inspection, be allowed to assert, must necessarily be entitled to very general notice and esteem.

So numerous, indeed, have been the invaluable documents kindly tendered to the author's acceptance, that he has not only been under the necessity of greatly enlarging his original design; but may, probably, at a future and no very distant period, feel encouraged to present those who have so indulgently expressed their approbation of his present labours, with a sort of supplementary work, not necessarily attached, but still more minutely illustrative of many circumstances which relate to the life and character of this greatest and best of heroes and of men.

It is not without painful sensations, that the author feels compelled to notice the many dishonourable insinuations which have been promulged by bold speculators on public credulity: some of whom, by prematurely publishing, have already sufficiently evinced their want of genuine information; and others, after the most illiberal reflections on all contemporaries, have found it expedient entirely to abandon their own boasted performances, or to wait the completion of the very work which they have thus meanly and insidiously laboured to depreciate, before they could possibly advance.

This biographical memoir, like the character of the immortal man whom it proudly aspires to commemorate, rests on no false claim. It offers not any meretricious attraction to the eye; it submits itself, wholly, to the understanding, and to the heart. Should it fail considerably to gratify the one, and powerfully to interest the other, it will be in vain for the author to urge, however true, that he has exerted himself, with a due sense of the dignity of his subject, and of the difficulty of the task, to produce a work which, though it can never sufficiently honour the incomparable hero, should as little as possible disgrace the kind contributory aids, and the generous patronage, which he has had the distinguished favour to receive from so many estimable and illustrious personages. To add a list of names, might seem ostentatious; but, certainly, such a list would contain almost every great and virtuous character allied to his late lordship, in the bonds of affinity as well as of friendship. With most of these, it will ever constitute the chief pride and happiness of the author's life, that he is also permitted to boast a considerable degree of intimate friendship; and, in the delightful retreat of Merton Place, surrounded by all who were most dear to the heart of the hero, in consanguinity as well as amity, have many of those valuable anecdotes been obtained, with which the work is so abundantly enriched.

Prompted to this undertaking, by a strong sense of conviction, that our chief hero, when his character was clearly understood, would be found as eminently good as great, the biographer has fearlessly endeavoured freely to investigate transactions of the utmost delicacy in private life; and he is fully prepared to assert, and as far as possible to prove, that there seldom has existed any human being adorned by the practice of so many positive virtues, so little sullied by any actual vice, as that immortal man, the chief particulars of whose history will be found, the author may, at least, be permitted to maintain, most faithfully recorded in the work now confided, with all it's imperfections, to the just judgment of the world; a tribunal which seldom fails doing compleat justice, either sooner or later, to all the merits both of heroes and of authors, of men as well as of books.

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