Whether underneath lay some spot of self-seeking, of the secondary motive from which so few of us are free, matters little or nothing.

The thing was right to be done, and he did it.

If the Government and the City of London, by calculated omission, proclaimed, as they did, that these men had not deserved well of their country, it became him to say, as he did, openly to the City, subordinately to his superiors, that they had done men's work and deserved men's reward.
"If Lord Nelson could forget the services of those who have fought under his command, he would ill deserve to be so supported as he always has been." Thus he closed his last letter to the Lord Mayor on this subject, a year after the correspondence began.

It was this noble sympathy with all beneath him, the lack of which has been charged against the great Commander of the British Army of this period, that won for Nelson the enthusiastic affection which, in all parts of his command, however remote from his own eyes, aroused the ardent desire to please him.

No good service done him escaped his hearty acknowledgment, and he was unwearied in upholding the just claims of others to consideration.