until the latter Board was at last abolished.

It is, fortunately, unnecessary to follow farther this dreary record
of old-time dishonesty. Nelson continued to interest himself
strenuously in the matter for two years after his return to England,
both by letter and interview with persons in authority. His own
position and influence were too insignificant to effect anything,
except by moving the home officials, whose administration was
compromised and embarrassed by the malpractices of their
representatives. Though uphill work, it was far from fruitless. "His
representations," said Mr. Rose, in a memorandum furnished to his
biographers, "were all attended to, and every step which he
recommended was adopted. He thus put the investigation into a proper
course; which ended in the detection and punishment of some of the
parties whose conduct was complained of." The broad result appears to
have been that the guilty for the most part escaped punishment,
unless, indeed, some of them lost their positions, of which no certain
information exists; but the corrupt combination was broken up, and
measures were adopted to prevent the recurrence of the same
iniquities. Upon Nelson himself the effect was twofold. His energy and
intelligence could not fail to impress the powerful men with whom he
was in this way brought into contact. The affair increased his
reputation, and made him more widely known than as a simple captain in
the Navy he would otherwise have been. As the various public Boards
whose money had been stolen realized the amount of the thefts, and the
extent of the conspiracy to rob the Government, they felt their
obligations to him, and expressed them in formal, but warm, letters of
thanks. On the other hand, the principal culprits had command of both
money and influence; and by means of these, as so often happens, they
not only impeded inquiry, but, according to Southey, who wrote not