On the 21st of December, when the famous bill of his noble friend, the Earl of St. Vincent, then First Lord of the Admiralty, for a commission of Naval Enquiry, which brought on such a train of important but unexpected consequences, and was pregnant with so many beneficial effects to the service, underwent a discussion in the House of Lords, at it's second reading, Lord Nelson made the following exquisite speech, in support of it's proposed objects—
"MY LORDS!
"In the absence of my noble friend, who is at the head of the Admiralty, I think it my duty to say a few words to your lordships, in regard to a bill of which the objects have an express reference to the interests of my profession as a seaman. It undoubtedly originates in the feelings of the Admiralty; that they have not the power to remedy certain abuses, which they perceive to be most injurious to the public service. Every man knows, that there are such abuses; and, I hope, there is none among us who would not gladly do all that could be constitutionally effected to correct them.
Yet, if I had heard of any objection, of weight, urged against the measures in the present bill, I should certainly have hesitated to do any thing to promote it's progress through the forms of this house. But, I can recollect only one thing with which I have been struck as possibly exceptionable in it's tenor. It authorizes the commissioners to call for, and inspect, the books of merchants, who may have had transactions of business with any of the boards, or prize agents, into whose conduct they are to enquire. But, the credit of the British merchant is the support of the commerce of the world; his books are not, lightly, nor for any ordinary purpose, to be taken out of his own hands. The secrets of his business are not to be too curiously pryed into. The books of a single merchant may betray the secrets, not only of his own affairs, but of those with whom he is principally connected in business; and the reciprocal confidence of the whole commercial world may, by the authoritative enquiry of these commissioners, be shaken. All this, at least, I should have feared, as liable to happen, if the persons who are named in the bill had not been men whose characters are above all suspicion of indiscretion or malice. I may presume it to be the common conviction of the merchants, that in such hands they will be safe: since they have made no opposition to the bill, in it's progress; and since they have offered no appearance against it, by counsel at your lordships bar. And, truly, my lords, if the bill be, thus, superior to all objection; I can affirm, that the necessities, the wrongs, of those who are employed in the naval service of their country, most loudly call for the redress which it proposes! From the highest admiral in the service, to the poorest cabin-boy that walks the street, there is not a man but may be in distress, with large sums of wages due to him, of which he shall, by no diligence of request be able to obtain payment; not a man, whose intreaties will be readily answered, with aught but insult, at the proper places for his application, if he come not with particular recommendations to a preference. From the highest admiral, to the meanest seaman, whatever may be the sums of prize-money due to him, no man can tell when he may securely call any part of it his own. A man may have forty thousand pounds due to him, in prize-money; and yet may be dismissed, without a shilling, if he ask for it at the proper office without particular recommendation. Are these things to be tolerated? Is it for the interest, is it for the honour, of the country, that they should not as speedily as possible be redressed? I should be as unwilling as any man, to give an overweening preference to the interests of my own profession; but I cannot help thinking that, under all the circumstances of the business, your lordships will be strongly disposed to advance this bill into a law, as speedily as may be consistent with the order of your proceedings, and with due preference of deliberation!"
Next day, in a committee of the whole house, on the third reading of this celebrated bill, the Duke of Clarence having suggested the propriety of instituting a distinct enquiry, under a particular act, into the abuses of prize-money, Lord Nelson expressed himself to be of the same opinion; but, though severely animadverting on the flagrant enormities of prize-agents, his lordship, nevertheless, candidly acknowledged, that there might be instances where the delays of the payment of prize-money resulted, not from the villainy of the agents, but from accidents by no means easily avoidable in the common course of human affairs. In regarding the naval interests of his country, Lord Nelson was not unmindful of it's commercial prosperity; in censuring criminal abuses, he was careful not to involve innocence with guilt.
Lord Nelson's love of humanity led him, in February 1805, on the trial of Colonel Marcus Despard, for high-treason, to bear the most honourable testimony to that officer's character: they had, his lordship said, formerly served together on the Spanish main; together been in the enemy's trenches, and slept in the same tent; and he had every reason to believe him a loyal man, and a brave officer. His lordship, however, was fully satisfied, in the end, that Colonel Despard had been guilty of the crime for which he was executed in Horsemonger Lane, Southwark, on the 21st of the same month. Lord Ellenborough, the learned judge before whom Colonel Despard was tried and convicted, on noticing, in his address to the jury, the circumstances of Lord Nelson's testimony, from the seat of justice which he so worthily fills, delivered this fine panegyric on our illustrious hero—"You have heard," said that manly, wise, and virtuous judge, "the high character given of the prisoner, by a man on whom to pronounce an eulogy were to waste words! But, you are to consider whether a change has not taken place, since the period of which he speaks. Happy, indeed, would it have been for him, if he had preserved that character down to this moment of peril!" Had there been a gleam of doubt, as to the guilt of the culprit, the jury would certainly have acquitted him in consequence of our hero's testimony as to his character; and such was, after all, it's influence on their minds, that when, in the usual form, they were asked whether he was "Guilty, or not guilty?" the foreman, though he replied—"Guilty;" immediately added—"but we earnestly recommend him to mercy, on account of his former good character, and the services he has rendered his country." No recommendation, however, the crime being so atrocious, and the guilt so manifest, could reasonably be expected to avail. It is said, though such disabolism can scarcely be credited, that attempts were made, on this occasion, by secret enemies of his lordship in very high rank, to prejudice characters still more elevated against him; and thus, as in some other respects, vilely insinuating that his most honourable and virtuous heart was tainted with the very vice which he ever held in the greatest abhorrence. Among the various gross imputations against his lordship, which the future historian may find registered in some of the preserved licentious public journals of blended facts and falshoods, and inconsiderately adopt, is that of the Hero of the Nile's having been so addicted to gaming, that he lost, at a single sitting, the whole he had gained, both pay and prize-money, during the year of that memorable victory: whereas, in truth, his lordship was so extremely adverse to this vice, that he had scarcely ever, in his life, entered any one of the fashionable gaming-houses; nor ever, as he repeatedly assured his friends, whom these base reports induced particularly to ask the question, won or lost even the trifling sum of twenty guineas! Notwithstanding this undoubted verity; there will, probably, always be found weak heads firmly believing, and vicious hearts basely pretending to believe, that this exalted man was actually of a gambling spirit. So difficult is it entirely to eradicate the rank but fertile growth of once disseminated calumny; which, sown in darkness, by the arch-enemy of mankind, springs up, and spreads it's pernicious influence, to check the fairer growth, and defeat the just hopes of the meritorious husbandman.
It has been already observed that, owing to the unaccommodating disposition of a neighbouring farmer, Lord Nelson had been unable to enlarge the grounds of his retirement at Merton, till he agreed to purchase the whole of Mr. Axe's estate. This, however, had been so far effected, at the latter end of the year 1802, that there wanted nothing, but certain legal formalities, for the conclusion of that business. His lordship and friends had already rendered Merton Place a little paradise, by their tasteful arrangements. They jointly directed the disposition of the most beautiful shrubs; and not unfrequently placed them in the earth, Sir William or Lady Hamilton assisting his lordship to plant them with his single hand. A small mulberry-tree, now only a few feet high, and standing in front of the house, not far distant from the canal, where it was fixed by Lord Nelson's own hand, may hereafter rival the celebrated mulberry-tree at Stratford upon Avon, planted by the immortal Shakspeare; the first dramatic bard, and naval hero, "take them for all in all," the world is ever likely to know. The prospect of immediately executing the desirable additional improvements in his lordship's estate, the plan of which had already been long contrived, was a source of considerable satisfaction to their anticipatory minds, as the spring season advanced. The purchase, indeed, was compleated the beginning of May 1803; but, events were now destined to occur, in the few intervening days, which rendered the possession of what had been so eagerly sought, of little value to either of the persons by whom it had been regarded as so sure a source of increased enjoyments.
Towards the latter end of March, Sir William Hamilton, then in his seventy-fourth year, suddenly felt himself more than usually indisposed. He was a gentleman of the most exalted understanding; and knew, perfectly well, from the nature of his sensations, that the period had arrived, when his corporeal dissolution must hourly be expected. This circumstance conveyed, to his excellent heart, no uncommon alarm: the serious contemplation of death, had not been deferred to the last moment of his existence; and he therefore beheld, without dismay, every step of it's awful approach. With a calmness which he was unable to communicate to his lady, he announced the solemn certainty; and declared his resolution immediately to leave Merton Place, lest he should, by dying there, render it an insupportable future abode to the feelings of his tender and illustrious friend. Sir William, on arriving at his house in Piccadilly, the 29th of March, instantly annexed the following remarkable codicil to his will—
"March 29,1803.
"The copy of Madame Le Brun's picture of Emma, in enamel, by Bone, I give to my dearest friend, Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte: a small token of the great regard I have for his lordship; the most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character, I have ever met with. God bless him! and shame fall on those who do not say—Amen."