Nelson's Words and Deeds. Edited by W. Clark Russell. (Sampson
Low and Co.)—The Nelson literature, biographical and epistolary, is embarrassing in its size, and Mr. Clark Russell deserves well of the reading public for giving, in a volume of not much over two hundred pages, a selection from the despatches and correspondence of the great Admiral, which shows him for what he was,—a man of action, with the impatience, the simplicity, and also the frailties, of the man of action. His unofficial letters, especially those to Lady Hamilton and some of his male intimates, written with what Mr. Clark Russell terms "quarter-deck candour," show him at his best. In them he talks really noble as well as patriotic sentiments, shows himself magnanimous, and yet electrically sensitive in regard to his recognition by the public, as when he talks of "the Nelson touch," prays like Gordon and yet swears almost like Wel- lington. In one of thorn, alas he writes to his mistress regarding his wife :—"I entreat, my dear Emma, that you will cheer up, and we will look forward to many, many happy years, and be surrounded by our children's children. God Almighty can, when he pleases, remove the impediment." Mr. Russell has sought only to give 4. the plums" of the Nelson literature ; but there is not much of a "plum" in the description of Deal as "the coldest place in England most assuredly." Little mistakes of this kind—mistakes of commission rather than of omission—are, however, very rare. On the whole, Mr. Russell's admirable little volume, while it does not throw, and does not pretend to throw, any fresh light on England's greatest naval tactician, gives a picture of him which is more satisfactory and likely to be more popular than any given in infinitely more ambitious works.
Previous page
