letters, few as they at this time were, shows rather dignified
acceptance of a treatment he had not merited, and a steady resolve not
to waver in his readiness to serve his country, nor to cease asking an
opportunity to do so. Many years later, at a time of still more
sickening suspense, he wrote: "I am in truth half dead, but what man
can do shall be done,--I am not made to despair;" and now, according
to a not improbable story, he closed an application for employment
with the words, "If your Lordships should be pleased to appoint me to
a cockle boat, I shall feel grateful." Hood, whose pupil he in a sense
was, and who shared his genius, said of himself, when under a
condition of enforced inactivity: "This proves very strongly the
different frames of men's minds; some are full of anxiety, impatience,
and apprehension, while others, under similar circumstances, are
perfectly cool, tranquil, and indifferent."

The latter half of the year 1792 was marked by the rapid progress in
France of the political distemper, which was so soon to culminate in
the worst excesses of the Revolution. The quick succession of
symptoms, each more alarming than the other,--the suspension of the
royal power at the tumultuous bidding of a mob, the September
massacres, the abolition of royalty, the aggressive character of the
National Convention shown by the decrees of November 19 and December
15,--roused the apprehensions of most thoughtful men throughout
Europe; and their concern was increased by the growing popular
effervescence in other countries than France. The British cabinet, as
was natural, shifted more slowly than did the irresponsible members of
the community; nor could Pitt lightly surrender his strong instinctive
prepossessions in favor of peace, with the continuance of which was
identified the exercise of his own best powers.