the same reason, that he on the spot was a better judge of local conditions and recent developments than one at a distance.  To one, Naples was more important than Minorca, more important than a half-dozen ships in a possible fleet action; to the other, Egypt was more important than the presence of sixteen thousand veterans, more or less, on a European battle-field.  It is impossible and bootless, to weigh the comparative degree of culpability involved in breaches of orders which cannot be justified.  It is perhaps safe to say that while a subordinate has necessarily a large amount of discretion in the particular matter intrusted to him, the burden of proof rests wholly upon him when he presumes to depart from orders affecting the general field of war, which is the attribute of the commander-in-chief.  What in the former case may be simply an error of judgment, in the latter becomes a military crime.

On the 16th of January, 1800, Nelson, who some days before had been notified by Keith of his approach, and directed to place himself under his command, left Palermo for Leghorn, arriving on the 20th.  The commander-in-chief was already there in the “Queen Charlotte.”  On the 25th they sailed together for Palermo, and after nine days’ stay in that port went on again for Malta, which they reached on the 15th of February.  No incident of particular interest occurred during these three weeks, but Nelson’s letters to the Hamiltons show that he was chafing under any act in his superior which could be construed into a slight.  “I feel all, and notwithstanding my desire to be as humble as the lowest midshipman, perhaps, I cannot submit to be much lower, I am used to have attention paid me from his superiors.”  “To say how I miss your house and company would be saying little; but in truth you and Sir William have so spoiled me, that I am not happy anywhere else but with you, nor have I an idea that I ever can be.”  Keith’s comment—­the other point of view—­is worth quoting.  “Anything absurd coming from the quarter you mention does not surprise me,” he wrote to Paget, who succeeded Hamilton as minister.  “The whole was a scene of fulsome vanity and absurdity all the long eight days I was at Palermo."[3]

When Keith returned, the capture of Malta, and of the two ships-of-the-line which had escaped from the Battle of the Nile, were, by common consent, all that remained to do, in order to round off and bring to a triumphant conclusion Nelson’s Mediterranean career.  Fortune strove hard against his own weakness to add all these jewels to his crown, but she strove in vain.  “We may truly call him a heaven-born Admiral, upon whom fortune smiles wherever he goes.”  So wrote Ball to Lady Hamilton, alluding to the first of the favors flung at his head.  “We have been carrying on the blockade of Malta sixteen months, during which time the enemy never attempted to throw in great succours.  His Lordship arrived off here the day they were within a few leagues of the island,