2£ HOOD'S SUPERSESSION

government could maintain in authority an officer of either service who had used that authority to attempt to induce the chief officers of the other to mutiny against their general or admiral. That is a point of view which may not have been quite obvious to the lady who produced so charming a life of Sir Gilbert, but it is very certain that the facts were not known to Captain Mahan when he penned some of his sentences either about Hood or about Moore, towards whom, given the assumed facts, he is both generous and appreciative. Nevertheless it was not due to any incidents in Corsica, but to a personal quarrel with Lord Spencer, then the head of the Admiralty, that Lord Hood's naval career was brought to an abrupt end. It is difficult to imagine a situation more trying than that in which Moore was placed. Fully recognising that General Dundas, though a good officer, was " perhaps not sufficiently enterprising," he would himself at an early stage of the operations have done the very thing that Sir Gilbert and Lord Hood desired, that is to say, he would have marched to the heights above Bastia whilst the enemy were panic-stricken ; but the opportunity once lost was not to be regained. The enemy had recovered themselves. He felt bound to support his General. Captain Mahan1 speaks of the "San Fiorenzo leven" of which Moore was, in the belief of Nelson and Hood, the source. I am mistaken if, when he sees these graphic details of Moore's decisions day by day, he will not agree with General Stuart, of whom Mahan2 himself speaks as " an officer of distinguished ability and enterprise." in thinking that under the most trying circumstances

1 " Life of JSTelson," vol. i. p. 145.

2 Ibid, p. 134.