As regards the soundness of Nelson’s grounds, and the propriety of his action in this matter, it must, first, be kept in mind, that, before the City voted its thanks to the Navy engaged in Egypt, he had spoken in the House of Lords in favor of the thanks of the Government to the same force, although, as a whole, it had there played a subordinate part; and also, that, although deprived of the medal which he hoped to get in common with others, he had himself been rewarded for Copenhagen by promotion in the peerage.[54] This separation between himself and the mass of those who fought under him, necessarily intensified the feeling of one always profusely generous, in praise as in money; but his point otherwise was well taken.  The task was ungracious and unpleasant, it may almost be called dirty work to have thus to solicit honors and distinction for deeds in which one has borne the principal part; but dirty work must at times be done, with hands or words, and the humiliation then rests, not with him who does it, but with them who make it necessary.  Had the victors at Copenhagen fought a desperate fight, and were they neglected?  If so, and the outside world looked indifferently on, who from among them should first come forth to defend their glory from implication of some undefined stain, if not their Commander-in-Chief, one whose great renown could well spare the additional ray of lustre which he demanded for them.  Whether underneath lay some spot of self-seeking, of the secondary motive from which so few of us are free, matters little or nothing.  The thing was right to be done, and he did it.  If the Government and the City of London, by calculated omission, proclaimed, as they did, that these men had not deserved well of their country, it became him to say, as he did, openly to the City, subordinately to his superiors, that they had done men’s work and deserved men’s reward.

“If Lord Nelson could forget the services of those who have fought under his command, he would ill deserve to be so supported as he always has been.”  Thus he closed his last letter to the Lord Mayor on this subject, a year after the correspondence began.  It was this noble sympathy with all beneath him, the lack of which has been charged against the great Commander of the British Army of this period, that won for Nelson the enthusiastic affection which, in all parts of his command, however remote from his own eyes, aroused the ardent desire to please him.  No good service done him escaped his hearty acknowledgment, and he was unwearied in upholding the just claims of others to consideration.  In the matter of Copenhagen, up to the time he left the country, eighteen months later, he refused any compromise.  He recognized, of course, that he was powerless in the face of St. Vincent’s opposition; but, he wrote to one of the captains engaged, “I am fixed never to abandon the fair fame of my companions in dangers.  I have had a meeting with Mr. Addington on the subject;