For the single victories of St.Vincent and Camperdown, each commander-in-chief had received a pension of L3,000.

The Nile and Copenhagen together had brought him no more than L2,000; indeed, as he had already been granted L1,000 a year for St.Vincent, another thousand may be said to have been all he got for two of the greatest victories of the war.

In submitting a request for an increase, he asked pertinently, "Was it, or not, the intention of his Majesty's Government to place my rewards for services lower than Lord St.
Vincent or Lord Duncan ?" There was, of course, the damaging circumstance that the conditions under which he chose to live made him poorer than he needed to be; but with this the Government had no concern.

Its only care should have been that its recompense was commensurate with his deserts, and it is revolting to see a man like Nelson, naturally high-toned and always liberal, forced to the undignified position of urging--and in vain--for the equal remuneration that should have been granted spontaneously long before.
In his criticisms of the Admiralty's general course, it does not appear whether Nelson, who was hereafter to be the greatest sufferer from St.Vincent's excessive economies, realized as yet the particular injury being done by them to the material of the Navy.

In his passion for reform, the veteran seaman obstinately shut his eyes to the threatening condition of the political atmosphere, and refused to recognize the imminent danger of a renewal of the war, because it necessarily would postpone his projected innovations.