In April 1816, the Pilot accompanied Lord Exmouth to Algiers and Tunis, and returned to Plymouth in July following, when she was paid off. It is an act of justice, not only to Captain Nicolas, but to the officers of the Pilot, to allude to the beautiful state of discipline in which she was kept, which excited the admiration of those who saw her, and frequently produced to her commander the most flattering expressions from his superior officers. Nor did it escape the Admiralty, that the perfect order for which she was distinguished in the Mediteranean, was produced without severity of punishment; and when, in January 1813, their lordships thought proper to reprehend an excess in a late gallant captain of a frigate, they directed his attention to the Pilot, on board of which not a man had been flogged for twelve months.
For upwards of three years. Captain Nicolas remained on half pay; and during his residence near Falmouth, his mind was employed in arranging a plan for placing the packets under the Admiralty, instead of the Post Office. He communicated his ideas on the subject to Lord Melville, in 1819; and in 1823 his suggestions were adopted, by the transfer being made.
In January, 1820, Captain Nicolas was appointed to the Egeria 28, and sent to Newfoundland, where he had to perform the anomalous duties of a naval surrogate. Though of course foreign to his previous pursuits,yet by the exertion of his usual zeal and abilities, he not only succeeded in giving ample satisfaction to the inhabitants, but out of upwards of one thousand causes, which he tried at St. John and Harbour Grace, only three appeals were lodged; and in each of these his decision was confirmed by the supreme court. Having to trust to his own resources alone, as the ice prevented a reference to the chief justice on the numerous difficult technical points that occurred, it was his constant practice to study the best legal writers, after the close of the court on each day, and on the next to deliver his judgments. These, which evince unusual tact, and great versatility of talent, as they abound in references to authorities, and enter fully into the law of the case, were regularly reported in the newspapers of the island; and pre-
