"The Captains Collingwood were the only officers, with myself, who ever attempted to hinder the illicit trade with America; _and I stood singly with respect to seizing_, for the other officers were fearful of being brought into scrapes." Backed by the royal approval, and with his legal expenses guaranteed, Nelson's course was now smooth.

He continued in all parts of the station to suppress the contraband trade, and his unpopularity, of course, also continued; but excitement necessarily subsided as it became clear that submission was unavoidable, and as men adapted themselves to the new conditions.

The whole procedure now looks somewhat barbarous and blundering, but in no essential principle differs from the methods of protection to which the world at present seems again tending.

It is not for us to throw stones at it.

The results, then, were completely successful, judged by the standards of the time.