Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

“ It was necessary at whatever cost to anticipate the arrival of Soult with a relieving army, and on the 6th of April Wellington ordered the assault. The fearful slaughter which took place before the British were masters of the defences caused Wellington to be charged with indifference to loss, but a postponement of the attack would merely have resulted in more battles against Soult. Of all generals Wellington was the last to waste a single trained man, and the sight of the breaches of Badajoz after the storm for a moment unnerved even his iron sternness. ”

“ Wellington had from the first seen that, whatever number of men Napoleon might send against him, it was impossible, owing to the poverty of the country, that any great mass of troops could long be held together, and that the French, used to “making war support war,” would fare worse in such conditions than his own troops with their organized supply service. It was so at the end of 1811. Soult had to move southwards to live, and the English were again more than a match for the enemy in front of them. ”

“ He drove the French out of Oporto by a singularly bold and fortunate attack, and then prepared to march against Madrid by the valley of the Tagus. He had the support of a Spanish army under General Cuesta; but his movements were delayed by the neglect of the Spanish government, and Soult was able to collect a large force for the purpose of falling upon the English line of communication. Wellesley, unconscious of Soult’s presence in force on his flank, advanced against Madrid, and defeated his immediate opponent. ”

“ It is true we shall not have the vain triumph of entering Paris at the head of our victorious troops; but, as I have already explained to your Highness, I doubt our having the means at present of succeeding in an attack upon Paris; and, if we are to wait till the arrival of Marshal Prince Wrede to make the attack, I think we shall find the Sovereigns disposed, as they were last year, to spare the capital of their ally, and either not to enter the town at all, or enter it under an armistice, such as it is in your power and mine to sign this day. ”

“ Austria having made peace. Napoleon was at liberty to throw heavy forces into the Peninsula. Wellington, foreseeing that Portugal would now be invaded by a very powerful army, began the fortification of the celebrated lines of Torres Vedras (see Fortification) . The English army wintered about Almeida. As summer approached Wellington’s anticipations were realized. Massena moved against Portugal with an army of 70,000 men. Wellington, unable to save Ciudad Rodrigo, retreated down the valley of the Mondego, devastating the country, and at length halted at Busaco and gave battle. ”

“ These representations determined the allies to make the immediate evacuation of France the principal subject of discussion at the congress which it was arranged to hold at Aix-la-Chapelle in the autumn of 1818. Here Wellington supported the proposal for the immediate evacuation of France, and it was owing to his common-sense criticism that the proposal of Prussia, supported by the emperor Alexander and Metternich, to establish an “army of observation” at Brussels, was nipped in the bud. ”

“ On the 4th of April was signed the Protocol of St Petersburg, an instrument which—as events were to prove—fettered the free initiative not of Russia, but of Great Britain (see Turkey: History; Greece: History) . [9]
After the death of the duke of York on the 5th of December 1826 the post of commander-in-chief was conferred upon Wellington. His relations with Canning had, however, become increasingly strained, and when, in consequence of Lord Liverpool’s illness. Canning in April 1827 was called to the head of the administration, the duke refused to serve under him. ”

“ They know as well as I do they are not strong enough to wrestle with the king's government, backed by the law; they know perfectly well they would have been the first victims of that resistance; but knowing this, and knowing, as I do, that they are sensible, able men, and perfectly aware of the materials upon which they have to work, I have not the smallest doubt that the state of things which I have stated to your lordships would have continued for years, and that you would never have had an opportunity of putting it down in the manner some noble lords imagine. ”

“ As for the Greeks, the emperor said bluntly that he took no interest in “ces messieurs,” whom he regarded as “rebels”; his own particular quarrel with Turkey, arising out of the non-fulfilment of the treaty of Bucharest, was the concern of Russia alone; the ultimatum to Turkey had, indeed, been prepared before Wellington’s arrival, and was dispatched during his visit. ”

“ I left them at Etrées and went to the headquarters at Le Plessis to give the orders for the movement of the troops in the morning, and I overtook them again in the night at Louvres. I then told them that I had considered their last question since I had seen them, and that I felt no objection to give them my opinion upon it, still as an individual; that, in my opinion, Europe had no hope of peace if any person excepting the King were called to the throne of France; that any person so called must be considered an usurper, whatever his rank and quality ”

“ In April he was promoted lieutenant-general and placed in command of a division of the troops destined to operate against the French in Spain or Portugal. The conduct of events is narrated in a separate article, and need only be summarized here. Finding that the junta of Corunna wished for no foreign soldiery, he followed his alternative instructions to act against Junot at Lisbon. He landed at Mondego Bay in the first week of August, and moved southwards, driving in the enemy at Roliça on the 17th of August. On the 21st the battle of Vimeiro was fought and won. ”

“ It was now hoped by the so-called Protestant party that Wellington, at the head of a more united cabinet, would offer a steady resistance to Catholic emancipation. Never were men more bitterly disappointed. The Clare election and the progress of the Catholic Association convinced both Wellington and Peel that the time had come when Catholic emancipation must be granted; and, submitting when further resistance would have led to civil war, the ministry itself brought in at the beginning of the session of 1829 a bill for the relief of the Catholics. ”

“ In fact, if they were to restore the King, and His Majesty were to return to Paris, the troops remaining there, His Majesty would be entirely in the hands of the Assemblies and of the army, who cannot be considered in any other light than as the creatures and instruments of Napoleon. We must get rid of the army, therefore, and we may then hope that the King will be recalled without conditions, and that he will have it in his power to carry on his Government without the assistance of foreign Powers. ”

“ WELLESLEY, HENRY, Baron Cowley (1773–1847) , diplomatist, born on 20 Jan. 1773, was the youngest son of Garrett Wellesley or Wesley, first earl of Mornington [q. v.] , and Anne, daughter of Arthur Hill, first viscount Dungannon. He was brother of Richard Colley Wellesley, marquis Wellesley [q. v.] , of Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington [q. v.] , and of William Wellesley-Pole, baron Maryborough (afterwards third Earl of Mornington) [q. v.] In his early years he served in the army, exchanging from the 40th foot into the 1st foot guards in April 1791. ”

“ Supplementary Despatches; and Wellington Despatches, New Series, edited by the second duke of Wellington. Unlike Napoleon's dispatches and correspondence, everything from Wellington's pen is absolutely trustworthy: not a word is written for effect, and no fact is misrepresented. Almost all the political memoirs of the period 1830-1850 contain more or less about Wellington in his later life. ”

“ He conceived the agitation for reform to be a purely fictitious one, worked up by partisans and men of disorder in their own interest, and expressing no real want on the part of the public at large. Met with a firm Resistance, it would, he believed, vanish away, with no worse result than the possible plunder of a few houses by the city mobs. ”

“ This measure, my Lords, was recommended by the Speech from the Throne, and it has been passed by a majority of the House of Commons, consisting of more than half the Members of that House. But my noble Friend said that that vote is inconsistent with the original vote given by the same House of Commons on this same question, and inconsistent with the supposed views of the constituents by whom they were elected. But, my Lords, I think that is not a subject which this House can take into its consideration — for, first, we can have no accurate knowledge of the fact ”

“ How could a thousand words, or all the names that could be named, speak so powerfully—ay, even if I spoke with the tongue of an angel, as if I were to mention one word—Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the hero of a hundred fields, in all of which his banner was waved in triumph; who never, I invoke both hemispheres to witness—bear witness Europe, bear witness Asia—who never advanced but to cover his arms with glory ”

“ Much trouble was caused by the behaviour of some of the allied troops, notably the Prussians. Detailed reports of the condition of the country for the first months of the occupation are contained in the Bulletins de la correspondance de l’Interieur, copies of which are preserved in the Foreign Office records (F.O . Congress. Paris. Castlereagh, August, &c., 1815) . ↑ F. O. Continent; Paris: Wellington (No. 32) . ”

“ The administrative duties connected with the army of occupation would alone have taxed to the uttermost the powers of an ordinary man. [2] Besides this, his work included the reconstruction of the military frontier of the Netherlands, and the conduct of the financial negotiations with Messrs Baring, by which the French government was able to pay off the indemnities due from it, and thus render it possible for the powers to reduce the period of armed occupation from five years to three. ”

“ Whatever is essential to the national reputation, the welfare of the whole people, and, above all, to the stability of property, is sure to be originated, or, at all events, warmly supported by him.
For this reason a revolution never could have occurred under the government of the Duke; he has too intense a horror of the evils of civil contention, ever to have allowed matters to come to that pass. This, it will be admitted, is a quality rarely to be found in a soldier, and a soldier, too, of such an inflexible cast as the Duke. Not less intense is his regard for national faith and honour. ”

“ He would maintain the honour of the state at any expense, even of his own personal prejudices on home politics; for the Duke, like all strong-minded men, has his prejudices. He has vanquished, and obtained the mastery of the spirit of change, by showing that he can curb it, while he does not affect to play the tyrant over it. He knows when to be firm and when to yield. Many acts of the Duke of Wellington, in the course of his political career, that have called forth unlimited censure, have been based upon calculations which only so well-tutored and so well-stored a mind could have made. ”

“ It is an intellectual treat of the highest order to see the Duke of Wellington's demeanour in the House of Lords. It is essentially different from that of every other man there. He is almost the only unfettered man in the house. Others are fettered by obstacles which they create for themselves, in various ways, by the too eager pursuit of personal or party objects. But the Duke of Wellington's high reputation and standing place him above all such considerations. He can afford to speak the truth, and he does speak it on all occasions fearlessly. ”

“ England differs from France in this respect,—that while our neighbours are more ready to elevate talent above property than we are, they are less choice as to the degree of the talent which they exalt. But if the English once know that they possess a first-rate man, they place him from that hour securely on an eminence, whence he may look down as from the heavens, upon wealth, rank, blood, and every earthly distinction. The Duke of Wellington is a first-rate man ”

“ It is only necessary to read the dispatches and general orders of the Duke of Wellington, in order to be convinced that he is not a mere soldier winning battles by superior tactics, but that he is also a man of a very high order of general talent, with an unusual insight into human nature, and possessing almost an instinctive knowledge of how mankind are to be governed. ”

“ Rarely, at long intervals in the lapse of time, such opportunities have been afforded to great men; but still more rarely have even the greatest men been able to use them. To the Duke of Wellington, in our own time, has this high honour been especially vouchsafed; and no man ever yet lived who shewed himself more worthy the distinction, or more able to fulfill the demands of his country, whether in peace or in war. His youth and prime were spent in achieving victories: to preserve to posterity the fruits of those victories, in steady government, together with free institutions ”

“ The same magnanimous brevity that marked the public declarations of that haughty people, dignifies the addresses of the Duke of Wellington. Some of his sayings, as, for instance, "that a great nation can never wage a little war," will he embalmed in history. His denunciations are like the alarum of a war trumpet. The same character of simplicity which marks the Duke's speeches pervades his whole conduct, public and private. Though no man is more capable of enjoying the refinements of modern society, luxury has not enervated his mind or his manners. ”