NELSON-THE MAN

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1930, Page 3

NELSON-THE MAN

AFTER 125 YEARS

(by S.S.j

“AVlio’s Who” and other educative publications of the kind have been remiiKimg us for twenty years and more of the fact that Air Arthur Corbett.jinith is a figure of some consequence in more than one domain of literary world. An old boy ol Winchester, a graduate of Oxford, a barrister of the Middle Temple, a prolific author, a successful dramatist, a composer of music and photoplays, a sold er, rising to ti.e rank of major in the Great War, and withal a cultured and observant gentleman, Air Corbett-Smith deserves all the appreciation that has been thrust upon him during recent years. His portrait study of “Nelson, the Alan,” published no longer ago than 1926, is an entrancin picture of the intrepid sailor who saved the Empire during the early days of last century from its Cont nental enemies and left to the British Navy an abiding fame which one ot these days may become the leading factor in the establishment of universal peace,. Meanwhile the only reasonable objection that can be urged against the author’s narrative are quite unnecessary allusions to Nelson’s personal imprudence after the hero o'f Trafalgar had' lain in St. Paul’s Cathedral for 125 years. “There is nothing new of Nelson that a man can say now,” writes Air Corbett-Smith in dedicating his work to his son, a lad scarcely out of his teens at the time. “All that is to be said has surely long since been told. And a new writer can hope to do no more than tell it in a different fashion and through the medium of his own personality. Indeed f feel that in each successive generation some man should tell the story anew for his children. This, then, I have tried to do for you, and for a million othei boys and girls, though much you will not understand until you are of full age.” In spite of his declaration that lie had nothing new to tell of Nelson and his achievements, Mr CorbettSmith managed to unearth many interesting episodes n the life of the great adnrral which did not 'appear in our school hooks and certainly found no place in Southey’s “Life of Nelson,” which our author mentions, significantly, as not having seen since the days of his very early childhood. MAKING OF THE MAN.

Having disposed oi his preface and his “overture,” thus reaching Ins first chapter, Air Corbett-Smith tells us of die arrival of. Horatio Nelson at Chatham by stage coach, on Ins way to l his dist snip and Iris first acquaintance with the sea. “Here’s Chatham, young sir,” the coach driver called to his only outside passenger,“hut I doubt if ye’ll and your ship to-night in this fog. Better come inside first and see if they’ve left any dinner for us.”.” Nine years, ten at most, the lad looked, and our author gives us some idea of his appearance, obtained, no doubt, from reliable sources. “A frail, delicate little fellow, with large haunting eyes and a warm, sensitive mouth. A hoy around whom you would instinctively lay your arm in protection.” The lad, in spite of cold and hunger, was anxious to be about his business. “1 should like tc be getting on board,” lie said to the driver. “Time enough,” his good friend replied cheerily. “Victual up first 1 says. A full stomach makes a full fighter. And from all they say ye’ll ge L all the fighting an’ little of the victuals.” And Horatio, reluctantly it would .seem, accepted his friend’s advice. As the meal progressed the hostess of the house learned that the lad was on his way to a battleship, and demanded to know “what his mother was thinking about,” and, alternatively, what he meant by “running away.” As a matter of fact Horatio was just 12 years old, and had left home not for love of the sea, but on account o'f the straits of a wifeless father with a large family. “What has poor little Horatio done?” cried Captain Suckling, his uncle, who months before, when he beard of his nephew’s request for a place on his ship, “that he, being so weak, should be sent to rough it at sea. But let him come, and if a cannon ball takes off his head he will at 'east be provided for.” And so the nation’s most popular hero to-day faed his destiny, and reached it at Trafalgar, to become the symbol of triumphant sacrifice. SPIRIT OF ENGLAND.

It would he impossible to compress into a note of this kind evenjtn untune of the three hundred and s xtyfour pages into which Mr CorbettSmith has crowded his story of the urief life of the greatest of the nation’s great sailors. This being the ease, 1 may approach nearer to my purpose by quot ng a few lines from the author’s dedication to his son. “You have chosen Nelson,” he writes, “and in choosing Nelson you have chosen England. For Nelson is the Spirit of England And, be--ause it is so and because Nelson by his life and death exemplified most perfectly that spirit of our island race, .so have we, by our consent, set before us the teaching and the spirit of Nelson our our guide There is some-

lliing for everyone in Nelson’s life. There is nothing in it by which a man may not profit. Hi' will learn lessons of friendship, of unselfishness, of care for others, of courtesy and chivalry, of moral courage,' of a soul that can conqner an emaciated, paiu-tortuied bo(f\. Ife will learn fearlessness in reponsib- : ty, courage of conviction and tenacity of purpose .... But wth all this, •nul much besides, he will find, to his happiness, that Nelson was no god, but a man of his own kind ; who had sympathy and love from a full heart be-

cause lie had decended into the nethermost hell of human suffering both in mind and body.” In concluding his dedication, Air Corbett-Smith observes that it is a little odd in writing of those far-away days when war was mare or less ail affair c.f chivalry, to come face to face with the fact that they are distant from living people by only a generiiton. “Nelson’s daughter, Horatia,” the author states himself, “was actually living in my own lifetime, and I might well have been taken to see her.” Me in 1880, a bake in. arms, would have met a lady well beyond the allotted three score years and ten. Had Nelson himself survived to this age quite a number would he able to boast of having seen him in the flesh. THE FINAL SACRIFICE, xiie most interesting portion of Mr Corbett Smith’s hook is to he found in ts concluding chapters, in which we ■ire told of Nelson’s last home-coming, “depressed and sick,” after chasing the French across the Atlantic and back, and failing to firing them to action. And yet England knew. “The news of the Victory’s arrival had spread like a prairie lire, we are told, and all Portsmouth turned out to welcome him. But now there was a new note in the people’s greeting. ]t was no longer the half-crazv mob enthusiasm of the Nile days or Copenhagen. It was .something far bigger, deeper and strong! r. The peole knew Nelson for what he was .really was.” “It was really quite affeetng,” wrote Lord Alinto, “to see the wonder and admiration, love and respect of the whole world, and the geniine expression of all these sentiments it once from gentle and simple.” The only meeting between Nelson and Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the Duke of Wellington) took place during the former’s brief holiday. The sold er at first was taken aback by the speech of the sailor, Nelson being unaware erf the identity of his casual companion, but after they had been introduced Wellington speedily recognised that he was speaking to one “who talked like an officer and a gentleman.” It was Nelson. during his short stay ashore, who outlined to the British Government the probable movements of the French and Spanish fleets as they later actually occurred. “Now,” asked \\ illia-Pitf, at the conclusion of the .discussion, “who is to take command?” “You cannot have a better one than the present one, Collingwood,” Nelson promptly replied. “No,” Pitt insisted, “that won’t do you must take the command.” Nelson protested, arguing his need for rest • but under further pressure acceded to the Minister’s appeal and expressed his readiness to leave at once. The rest is history which will‘endure as long as our race exists.