court upon the propriety of the seizure; but this the circular explicitly forbade, until the case was referred to England.  If the decision there was adverse to the captors, the other party would look to the responsible naval officer for pecuniary redress, and as, during the delay, the cargo would be spoiled, costs could come only out of the captor’s pocket.  Nelson’s experiences in the West Indies, ten years before, naturally made him cautious about further legal annoyances.

All this he stated with his usual lucidity; but the case was one in which his course could have been safely predicted by a person familiar with his character.  The need for the proposed action was evident.  “The whole of the necessity of stopping all the vessels is comprised in a very few words:  that, if we will not stop supplies of corn, etc., going to France, the armies will return from whence they came, and the failure of this campaign, from which so much is expected, will be laid to our want of energy; for the only use of the naval co-operation is the keeping out a supply of provisions.”  He therefore, after a night’s reflection, told the minister that if he would tell him, officially, that it was for the benefit of his Majesty’s service that he should stop all trade between the neutral towns and France, and places occupied by the armies of France, he would give the proper directions for that purpose.  It would have been possible for him, though with some delay, to refer the matter to Hotham, but he knew the latter’s temperament, and distrusted it.  “Our admiral has no political courage whatever,” he wrote to Collingwood, “and is alarmed at the mention of any strong measure; but, in other respects, he is as good a man as can possibly be.”  With a superior so little decided, it was better, by his own independent initiative, to create a situation, which the former would be as backward to reverse as he would have been to change the previous and wholly different state of things.  Like the American frontiersman, whose motto was, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead,” Nelson, when convinced, knew no hesitations; but further, he unquestionably derived keen enjoyment from the sense that the thing done involved risk to himself, appealed to and brought into play his physical or moral courage, in the conscious exercise of which he delighted.  “I am acting, not only without the orders of my commander-in-chief, but in some measure contrary to them.  However, I have not only the support of his Majesty’s ministers, both at Turin and Genoa, but a consciousness that I am doing what is right and proper for the service of our King and Country.  Political courage in an officer abroad is as highly necessary as military courage.”  “The orders I have given are strong, and I know not how my admiral will approve of them, for they are, in a great measure, contrary to those he gave me; but the service requires strong and vigorous measures to bring the war to a conclusion.”