her, there appears that manifestation of complete satisfaction with
his officers and crew, with those surrounding him as subordinates,
that so singularly characterized his habit of mind. "I have an
exceeding good ship's company. Not a man or officer in her I would
wish to change.... I am perfectly satisfied with both officers and
ship's company." Down to the month before Trafalgar, when, to the
bidding of the First Lord of the Admiralty to choose his own officers,
he replied, "Choose yourself, my lord; the same spirit actuates the
whole profession, you cannot choose wrong," there is rarely, it might
almost be said never, anything but praise for those beneath him. With
the "Agamemnon," "We are all well; indeed, nobody can be ill with my
ship's company, they are so fine a set." At the Nile, "I had the
happiness to command a band of brothers; therefore night was to my
advantage. Each knew his duty, and I was sure each would feel for a
French ship. _My friends_ readily conceived my plan." His ships in the
Mediterranean, in 1803, "are the best commanded and the very best
manned" in the navy. So his frequent praise of others in his
despatches and letters has none of the formal, perfunctory ring of an
official paper; it springs evidently from the warmest appreciation and
admiration, is heartfelt, showing no deceptive exterior, but the true
native fibre of the man, full of the charity which is kind and
thinketh no evil. It was not always so toward those above him. Under
the timid and dilatory action of Hotham and Hyde Parker, under the
somewhat commonplace although exact and energetic movements of Lord
Keith, he was restive, and freely showed what he felt. On the other
hand, around Hood and Jervis, who commanded his professional respect
and esteem, he quickly threw the same halo of excellence, arising from
his tendency to idealize, that colored the medium through which he
invariably saw the men whom he himself commanded. The disposition to
invest those near to him with merits, which must in part at least have