Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/49

 officer of Sir Robert Stopford's rank and services, but it was highly ungrateful. In this convention business there is not a spark of gratitude to his kind old chief; but indeed I don't think the soil fitted for a plant of that nature. I wonder what commander-in-chief will ever trust him again’ (ib. p. 213).

On 2 Dec. 1840, in acknowledgment of the capture of Acre, all the captains present were nominated C.B's., and Napier, as second in command, was made a K.C.B. He also received from the European sovereigns of the alliance the order of Maria Theresa of Austria, of St. George of Russia, and of the Red Eagle of Prussia. From the sultan he received a diamond-hilted sword and the first class of the Medjidie, with a diamond star. In January 1841 he was sent on a special mission to Alexandria and Cairo, to see the convention duly carried out. He rejoined the Powerful early in March, and being then sent to Malta obtained a month's leave and went home. His fame and his achievements, with a good deal of embellishment, had been noised abroad. At Liverpool and Manchester he was cheered by crowds and entertained at civic banquets. He was presented with the freedom of the city of London; he was invited by Marylebone and by Falmouth to stand for parliament, and, as his leave was within a couple of days of expiring, he applied to Lord Minto for an extension. ‘It takes time,’ he said, ‘to make inquiries before pledging oneself.’ For such a purpose the application was refused, whereupon Napier requested to be placed on half-pay. This was done, and at the general election he was returned to the House of Commons as member for Marylebone.

During the next few years he was mainly occupied with parliamentary business, speaking on naval topics, more especially on proposals to improve the condition of seamen, and on the necessity of increasing the strength of the navy. His ideas, in themselves frequently sound, were spoiled by the extravagance or inaccuracy of their presentment; and though some of them found favour with the ministers, they had little difficulty in showing others to be absurd or impracticable. He was busy, too, in writing his ‘History of the War in Syria’ (2 vols. post 8vo, 1842), a book deprived of most of its value by want of care and accuracy. On 9 Nov. 1846 he attained the rank of rear-admiral, and in the following May hoisted his flag on board the St. Vincent, of 120 guns, in command of the Channel fleet. In August the fleet was sent to Lisbon, and Napier, on the ground that it would be a compliment to the Portuguese, applied for permission to assume his Portuguese title. Lord Palmerston refused in a semi-bantering letter: ‘We cannot afford to lose the British admiral Sir Charles Napier, and to have him converted into a Portuguese count.’ During the greater part of 1848 the squadron was on the coast of Ireland, and in December was sent to Gibraltar and the coast of Morocco, to restrain and, if possible, to punish the insolence and depredations of the Riff pirates.

In April 1849 the squadron returned to Spithead, and Napier was ordered to strike his flag. He had expected to hold the command for three years, and the disappointment perhaps gave increased bitterness to the many letters which he wrote to the ‘Times’ denouncing the policy of the admiralty. Many of these, as well as some of earlier date, were collected and edited by Sir William Napier under the title of ‘The Navy, its Past and Present State’ (8vo, 1851). Many of the reforms which he urged were salutary, and many of his criticisms just; but the tone of the book as a whole was offensive to the service. He had already applied for the Mediterranean station when it should be vacant; but the admiralty and the prime minister were agreed that they could not trust to his discretion. This led to further correspondence, and to an extraordinary letter to Lord John Russell, in which Napier maintained that the appointment of Rear-admiral Dundas [see ] to the command was defrauding him of his just rights, and, recapitulating the several events in which he had taken part, arrogated to himself the whole of the merit. This letter, with others which he published in the ‘Times’ of 19 Dec. 1851, brought down many well-substantiated contradictions (Times, 23 and 27 Dec.), and was cleverly travestied in verse with historical notes (Morning Herald, 9 Jan. 1852).

On 28 May 1853 he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and in February 1854 was nominated to the command of the fleet to be sent to the Baltic. Popular enthusiasm indulged in the most extravagant expectations as to what the squadron might accomplish if war with Russia should be declared (EARP, p. 14), and at a semi-public dinner at the Reform Club on 7 March there was a great deal of ill-timed boasting (Times, 8 and 9 March). It was reported that Napier promised, within a month after entering the Baltic, either to be in Cronstadt or in heaven: words corresponding to those—then unpublished—which he had addressed to his wife twenty years before, on sailing to take com-