I don’t expect we shall get much by it, except having had a full opportunity of speaking my mind.”  The Premier’s arguments had been to him wholly inconclusive.  Oddly enough, as things were, the Sultan sent him a decoration for Copenhagen.  Coming from a foreign sovereign, there was, in accepting it, no inconsistency with his general attitude; but in referring the question to the Government, as was necessary, he told the Prime Minister, “If I can judge the feelings of others by myself, there can be no honours bestowed upon me by foreigners that do not reflect ten times on our Sovereign and Country."[55]

In conformity with this general stand, when it was proposed in June, 1802, to give him the thanks of the City, for taking command of the force destined to defend it against invasion, he wrote to request that the motion might be withdrawn, on the express ground that no thanks had been given those engaged at Copenhagen.  “I should feel much mortified, when I reflected on the noble support I that day received, at any honour which could separate me from them.”  He alleged the same reason, in the following September, for refusing to dine with the Corporation.  “Never, till the City of London think justly of the merits of my brave companions of the 2d of April, can I, their commander, receive any attention from the City of London.”  A like refusal was sent to his invitation for Lord Mayor’s day.

After the interview with Mr. Addington, the question of medals was dropped.  He had explained his position fully, and felt that it was hopeless to attempt more, so long as the Admiralty was against him; but when the Administration changed, in May, 1804, he wrote to Lord Melville, the new First-Lord, enclosing a statement of facts, including his correspondence with St. Vincent, and requesting a reconsideration of the matter.  “The medal,” he said, is withheld, “for what reason Lord St. Vincent best knows.  I hope,” he concluded, “for your recommendation to his Majesty, that he may be pleased to bestow that mark of honour on the Battle of Copenhagen, which his goodness has given to the Battle of St. Vincent, the First of June, of Camperdown, and the Nile.”  Melville, in a very sympathetic and courteous letter, declined, for a reason whose weight must be admitted:  “When badges of triumph are bestowed in the heat and conflict of war, they do not rankle in the minds even of the enemy, at whose expense they are bestowed; but the feeling, I suspect, would be very different in Denmark, if the present moment was to be chosen for opening afresh wounds which are, I trust, now healed, or in the daily progress of being so.”  So it resulted that for some reason, only dimly outlined, no mark of public recognition ever was conferred upon the most difficult, the most hazardous, and, at the moment, perhaps the most critically important of Nelson’s victories; that which he himself considered the greatest of his achievements.