Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/498

 412 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» a. iv. NOV. is, 1005. they do, let him quote it and the sailors who endorse it. If only we can establish the actual words, I am perfectly content to be proved wrong. I may still think them ill strung, but I shall be satisfied. At present I am not. Of Pasco, Thompson only says " I believe " he " had been disabled." What he does abso- lutely deny is that Pasco " had to do with the well-known" signal. PROF. LAUGHTON slurs the whole of this over as if it were a mere nothing. We have thus the distinct word of G. L. Browne denying what Pasco asserts, and giving the very words of Nelson. It struck the young lieutenant that " England " should be substituted; that "Nelson" would want six flags, whilst one would do for " England "; and he elicits the direct reply : "Right, Browne ; that's better." This brings it all home to me with a Plutarchean force that should accom- pany veracity. It has the further advantage of discharging from the phrase two improper words—" confide " and " that." The word " expects," that Pasco would sub- stitute for " confides," may have a flag in the code ; but how do you propose to accountfor what Browne says of Nelson as a word want- ing six flags ' This appeals strongly to me. The word "Nelson" was in debate, and the word " confides " was not. To_ me it is cleai that Pasco was not there (disabled or not disabled), and that Browne was. Whether "confide" was a blunder-word o: the great admiral's or not I cannot say. am not read in his dispatches. For such a purpose it is not worth referring to them. I: he likes to make a neuter verb into a verb active, I should say at once, " Good admiral make it as active as your own self, or the British navy, if you like." Let somebody produce the code signa from the actual log, if it exists. If not, away with all palaver about historical accuracy in the matter. It is lost, and nobody can replao it now that a hundred years have whittlec us away from it. Pasco's story looks to m< disabled, whether he himself was so or no at the minute of breathless interest we are now discussing. Browne's tale carries witl it the truth and heat that burn a picture in upon the brain as imperishably asShakspere' Csesar, when re-read for us out of Plutarcl by him. I am pleased to see that W. R. H. is wit] me so far as to reject the word that altc gether. I cannot agree with him that tod implies command. But his will do is just a sailorlike. Let us wait for the log. Before I quite finish, however, let me sa; iOw disappointed I have been of nay inten- ion. Weeks ago I wrote to the Daily Mail, eeling sure there would be blundering as to he words of this proud signal; but they withheld me from their circulation. I wanted all this to have been discussed beforehand, not after the event. When ' N. & Q.' kindly gave mo house room it came too late to orrect anything. On the 21st the Daily Mail put forth a picture with the Pasco •ersion. That gave publicity ; but publicity can assure neither accuracy nor veracity— Jie reverse rather, if anything at all. As we cannot, I fear, reach the truth now, it remains for the country at large to adopt w inal the best phrase—that which is most worthy of the occasion. " Whosoever," says Ralegh, " in writing a modern history, shall follow the truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth." There are three versions for us to choose from. We shall have to see which will lose its teeth by close running. Being of a positive temperament, I say that PROF. LAUGHTON'S teeth are perfectly safe in his head. It is only the log-book can make that true, and so cause him mutilation. The version "England expects that every man will do hisduty " I regard as impo&siUtto be true, and should still if fifty Pascos swore to it. The man who could reach the thought, being a sailor, would never so word it. " England expects every man will do his duty " is quite impossible because ineffective. "England expects every man to do his duty " seems to me, using the infinitive, to be fittest and most adequate of all. Mf tongue holds to it, even at the risk of the teeth. C. A. WARD. ' THE DEATH OF NELSON ' (10th S. ix. 365).- The whole of the recitative music commencing " O'er Nelson's tomb" is by Braham ; the first four bars of the melody of the air to the words, 'Twos in Trafalgar's bay We saw the Frenchmen lay, are note for note the same as Mehnl's 'Le Chant du Depart,' which was composed in 1794. The musical phrase is very simple—* trumpet-call. Possibly Braham never heard Mehul's song, and it must be noted that Braham added many more phrases not Mehul's, including a charming modulation in the harmony of the last verse. WILLIAM H. COMMIXGS. Guildhall School of Music, KG. "PIECE-BROKER" (10th S. iv. 367, 391).—DB. MURRAY asks if this word is actually used