"What they can mean by sending him with only five sail of the line," said Nelson, "is truly astonishing; but all men are alike, and we in this country do not find any amendment or alteration from the old Board of Admiralty.

They should know that half the ships in the fleet require to go to England; and that long ago they ought to have reinforced us." About this time Nelson was made colonel of marines; a mark of approbation which he had long wished for rather than expected.

It came in good season, for his spirits were oppressed by the thought that his services had not been acknowledged as they deserved; and it abated the resentful feeling which would else have been excited by the answer to an application to the War-office.

During his four months' land service in Corsica, he had lost all his ship furniture, owing to the movements of a camp.

Upon this he wrote to the Secretary at War, briefly stating what his services on shore had been, and saying, he trusted it was not asking an improper thing to request that the same allowance might be made to him which would be made to a land officer of his rank, which, situated as he was, would be that of a brigadier-general: if this could not be accorded, he hoped that his additional expenses would be paid him.