It's very odd, two Admiralties to treat me so: surely I have dreamt that I have 'done the State some service.' But never mind; I am superior to those who could treat me so." His contempt for money, however acquired, except as a secondary consideration, remained unchanged.

"I believe I attend more to the French fleet than making captures; but what I have, I can say as old Haddock said, 'it never cost a sailor a tear, nor the nation a farthing.' This thought is far better than prize-money;--not that I despise money--quite the contrary, I wish I had one hundred thousand pounds this moment." "I am keeping as many frigates as possible round me," he wrote to his friend Ball, "for I know the value of them on the day of battle: and compared with that day, what signifies any prizes they might take ?"[75] Nor did such utterances stand alone.

"I hope war with Spain may be avoided," he wrote.

"I want not riches at such a dreadful price.

Peace for our Country is all I wish to fight for,--I mean, of course, an honourable one, without which it cannot be a secure one." But his outlays were very heavy.