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Maxims And Opinions Of Field Marshal His Grace The Duke Of Wellington, Selected From His Writings And Speeches During A Public Life Of More Than Half A Century by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

A >> Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington >> Maxims And Opinions Of Field Marshal His Grace The Duke Of Wellington, Selected From His Writings And Speeches During A Public Life Of More Than Half A Century




On the 9th, the Duke was entertained by the corporation of London in
the Guildhall, and previously to the banquet he was presented with a
sword of exquisite workmanship, which had been voted him by the common
council. Four years and a half before, as will be remembered, the Duke
was publicly attacked by this same common council, and he then says, "I
act with a sword hanging over me." During the interval, the common
council had learned to apply their sword to a better purpose. In fact,
all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, now combined to do honour to
the Duke of Wellington.

When Buonaparte landed from Elba, the Duke was at Vienna, the
representative of this country at the congress of the allied sovereigns.
From that point he wrote to Lord Castlereagh, stating the interview he
had had with the sovereigns on the subject of Buonaparte's movements,
and adding that he had no doubt whatever of their support, and their
determination not to lay down their arms until Buonaparte was put down.
A numerous force was assembled, and of the whole, whether British or
foreign, in Belgium (already seen to be the point on which the fate of
Napoleon would be decided), the Duke of Wellington assumed the command.
The campaign was closed by the decisive victory of Waterloo, on the 18th
June, followed by the abdication of Napoleon, and the convention of
Paris.

During the subsequent proceedings, the Duke of Wellington was
instrumental in stopping the savage revenge of Blucher and the
Prussians, who were on the point of destroying the beautiful bridge on
the Seine, called the bridge of Jena, because it had been named in
honour of Napoleon's victory over the Prussians at that place.

The Duke, however, did not interpose to prevent another act, which was
one of real justice, the restoration to the several nations of the
various works of art of which they had been plundered by the French. It
was in answer to complaints of his conduct in this respect that the Duke
wrote his letter to Castlereagh, in which he said--"It is to be wished,
as well for the happiness of France as of the world, that if the French
people are not already convinced that Europe is too strong for them,
they may be made to feel that, however extensive for a time their
temporary and partial advantages over one or more of the powers of
Europe may be, the day of retribution must at length come. According to
my feelings, then, it would not only be unjust in the sovereigns to
gratify the French people, but the sacrifice they would make would be
impolitic, as it would deprive them of the opportunity of giving the
French nation a _great moral lesson_."

The thanks of both houses were voted to the Duke for the battle of
Waterloo, and an additional grant of 200,000 l.

From the year 1815 until 1823 the Duke of Wellington's name rarely
appears in connexion with any public transactions, with the exception
that in December, 1818, he was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance,
an office which he continued to fill for some years.

In 1819 he made one speech in parliament in which his declared his
belief that Roman Catholic Emancipation was impossible, unless there
could be a proper security for the Protestant religion, which he
doubted.

In the year 1823, on the appointment of Mr. Canning to be Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, Duke of Wellington was named as the Plenipotentiary of
the King of Great Britain at the Congress of Verona. It was supposed
that the subject matter of the discussions of the sovereigns at that
congress would be the relations of Russia and Turkey. On the Duke's
arrival at Paris, however, he found that Spain would form the main
subject. He wrote back for fresh instructions, and Mr. Canning's answer
distinctly stated that should France attempt to interfere in Spain
either by force or by menace, he was to instruct the Duke "frankly and
peremptorily to declare, that to any such interference, come what may,
his majesty will not be a party."

The words "frankly and peremptorily" could not have been better chosen,
or more agreeable to the character of the Duke. He stuck simply and
stedfastly to his text throughout the negotiations, and when at last, in
consequence of the state of affairs in Spain, the three great powers
agreed to withdraw their ministers from Madrid, the Duke told them he
should not withdraw ours but leave him there in the hope of allaying the
irritation which the measures of the others were calculated to produce.

The Duke returned to Parts in December, and found the French not
indisposed to some arrangement. When it subsequently became necessary to
send a special communication to the Spanish government, a mark of
respect was paid by Mr. Canning to the Duke of Wellington, more
gratifying perhaps to him than his titles or honours. The desire of the
British Government was to attach a special character of friendliness to
this communication, and for that purpose the Duke of Wellington was
requested to make it. This course was taken because it was believed that
the private opinions of a man who had conferred such distinguished
benefits on Spain, and who had been on terms of personal intercourse and
friendship with many of the leading men, would be listened to with more
deference than even an official communication. It is unnecessary to
pursue this subject farther, as the Duke of Wellington's connexion with
it ceased; except that he gave, in the House of Lords, on the 24th of
April, a full explanation of his share in the proceedings.

In 1826, the Duke having been appointed ambassador to St. Petersburgh,
on the anniversary of the entrance of the allied army into Paris under
his command, the Emperor Nicholas addressed a letter to him, in which he
told him that in order to testify to him his particular esteem for his
great qualities and for the distinguished services he had rendered to
the whole of Europe, he had given orders that the Smolensko regiment of
infantry, formed by Peter the Great, and one of the most distinguished
of his army, which was formerly under the Duke's command in France,
should thenceforward be called the Duke of Wellington's regiment.

In 1827, on the death of the Duke of York, the public mind pointed to
the Duke of Wellington as the fit successor of his royal highness in the
important post of Commander-in-Chief, and he was immediately appointed.
The Duke held this office until the appointment of Mr. Canning to be
Prime Minister, when he resigned it, and also the Master-Generalship of
the Ordnance.

The circumstances attending this resignation must of course hold a
prominent place in any memoir of the Duke. But there were personal
matters mixed up in the affair, which make it necessary to enter into it
at some length, for the better understanding of his Grace's character.

On the death of the Earl of Liverpool, in the beginning of the year
1827, the king called on Mr. Canning to form an administration. As Mr.
Canning had all along advocated Roman Catholic Emancipation, and as the
cabinet of Lord Liverpool had firmly opposed that measure, it became a
question how far the premiership of Mr. Canning would compromise the
position of those who had hitherto acted with him in the cabinet of Lord
Liverpool. The question very soon received a practical solution, by the
simultaneous (though not concerted) resignation of six of the most
influential members of the government, including the Duke of Wellington.

The political friends of Mr. Canning, and those of his opponents with
whom he was agreed on the Roman Catholic question, concurred in
representing this act of the seceding ministers as a cabal against Mr.
Canning; and the Duke of Wellington, more especially, was made the
subject of most unsparing abuse. The ground of this was that he had not
contented himself with resigning the office he held directly under the
government, but had also resigned the command of the army, an office
unconnected with politics. This was supposed to indicate some special
determination to crush Mr. Canning.

Now with regard to the motives of the Duke on this occasion all men will
form their own opinion, not so much with reference to facts, as to their
political feelings. It may however be fairly laid down as a principle
that where admitted facts sufficiently supply an explanation of a man's
conduct, all reference to motives are unnecessary; and the more so
because in all cases, however strong suspicion or presumptive evidence
may be, the truth with regard to a man's motives must ever remain locked
in his own breast. The open, manly and fearless character of the Duke
would however, except in the heated imagination of partisans, almost
preclude suspicion in the first instance.

But let us turn to the facts, as stated in the house of lords on the 2nd
of May, when the peers met after the Easter recess. On the 10th of April
Mr. Canning wrote to the Duke of Wellington the following letter:--

_To his Grace the Duke of Wellington._

Foreign Office, April 10, 6 P.M., 1827.

My dear Duke of Wellington,--The king has, at
an audience from which I have just returned, been
graciously pleased to signify to me his majesty's commands,
to lay before his majesty, with as little loss as
time as possible, a plan of arrangements for the re-construction of
the administration. In executing these commands it will be as much my
own wish, as it is my duty to his majesty, to adhere to the principles
upon which Lord Liverpool's government has so long acted together. I
need not add how essentially the accomplishment must depend upon your
Grace's continuing a member of the cabinet.

Ever, my dear Duke of Wellington, your Grace's sincere and faithful
servant,

GEORGE CANNING.

To this the Duke of Wellington replied in a characteristic way:--

_To the Right Hon. George Canning._

London, April 10, 1827.

My dear Mr. Canning,--I have received your letter of
this evening, informing me that the king had desired
you to lay before his majesty a plan for the re-construction
of the administration; and that, in executing
these commands, it was your wish to adhere to the
principles on which Lord Liverpool's government had
so long acted together. I anxiously desire to be able
to serve his majesty, as I have done hitherto in his
cabinet, with the same colleagues. But before I can
give an answer to your obliging proposition, I should
wish to know who the person is you intend to propose
to his majesty as the head of the government?

Ever, my dear Mr. Canning, yours most sincerely,

WELLINGTON.

On the next day came the following from Mr. Canning:--

_To his Grace the Duke of Wellington._

Foreign Office, April 11, 1897.

My dear Duke of Wellington,--I believed it to be
so generally understood, that the king usually intrusts
the formation of an administration to the individual
whom it is his majesty's gracious intention to place at
the head of it; that it did not occur to me, when I
communicated to your Grace yesterday the commands
which I had just received from his majesty, to add, that,
in the present instance, his majesty does not intend to
depart from the usual course of proceeding on such
occasions. I am sorry to have delayed some hours this
answer to your Grace's letter; but from the nature of
the subject, I did not like to forward it without having
previously submitted it (together with your Grace's
letter) to his Majesty.

Ever, my dear Duke of Wellington, your Grace's
sincere and faithful servant,

GEORGE CANNING.

And finally, on the evening of the same day, the Duke wrote thus to Mr.
Canning.--

London, April 11, 1837.

My dear Mr. Canning,--I have received your letter
of this day, and I did not understand the one of yesterday
evening as you explained it to me. I understood
from yourself that you had in contemplation another
arrangement, and I do not believe that the practice to
which you refer has been so invariable as to enable me to affix a
meaning to your letter which its words did not, in my opinion, convey. I
trust that you will have experienced no inconvenience from the delay of
this answer, which I assure you has been occasioned by my desire to
discover a mode by which I could continue united with my recent
colleagues.--I sincerely wish that I could bring my mind to the
conclusion that, with the best intentions on your part, your government
could be conducted practically on the principles of that of Lord
Liverpool; that it would be generally so considered; or that it would be
adequate to meet our difficulties, in a manner satisfactory to the king,
or conducive to the interests of the country. As, however, I am
convinced that these principles must be abandoned eventually, that all
our measures would be viewed with suspicion by the usual supporters of
the government; that I could do no good in the cabinet; and that at last
I should be obliged to separate myself from it, at the moment at which
such separation would be more inconvenient to the king's service than it
can be at present, I must beg you to request his majesty to excuse me
from belonging to his councils. Ever, my dear Mr. Canning, yours most
sincerely,

WELLINGTON.

This closed the correspondence; and it is needless to add that the Duke
continued to hold aloof from the new administration.

The Duke's explanation in the House of Lords related to two branches of
charge. The first was a charge of want of personal courtesy to Mr.
Canning, as exhibited in the foregoing correspondence; the second was a
general charge of hostility to the new premier, founded on personal
jealousy, and on every other ground, probable or improbable, which the
malice of party could suggest. The Duke began by observing, that the
House of Lords was scarcely the proper place to enter on such subjects,
but that his only excuse was the necessity of vindicating his character
against what had been said in another place, to say nothing of the
manner in which he had been treated by a corrupt press, which if not in
the pay, was under the control of the government. He then proceeded to
meet the first charge, that of personal discourtesy. It was said, that
his asking in reply to Mr. Canning's first letter, "who was to be at the
head of the new government?" was intended as an insult to Mr. Canning.
This he denied. The letter of Mr. Canning, he said gave no information
who were to form the new cabinet, or what members of the old one had
resigned, or were expected to resign. Nor was he invited, as he found
the other ministers had been, to receive personal explanations on the
subject. Under those circumstances the inquiry was made. But that was
not the first communication that had passed between them on the subject.
Early in the month of April, continued the Duke, he had had a
conversation with Mr. Canning, in which, anticipating the possibility of
his being called upon to reconstruct the government, one of his plans
was to recommend that Mr. Robinson (now the Earl of Ripon) should be
raised to the peerage and be made premier. Of this plan the Duke at the
time approved, and it was with this in his mind that he wrote the first
answer, which gave Mr. Canning so much offence. Precedent, also, he
contended, was against Mr. Canning; for it appeared that in 1812, when
Lord Liverpool, by command of the Prince Regent, waited on Mr. Canning,
to know whether he would form part of the proposed administration, the
first question Mr. Canning asked of the noble earl (then in the same
position Mr. Canning was in now) was, "who was to be at the head of the
new administration?" The Duke's letter was written on the 10th, and Mr.
Canning only kissed hands as minister on the 12th; so that, even in that
point of view, the Duke's question was, he contended, necessary.

It may be said that there is enough on the face of this communication to
show that the Duke of Wellington took a narrow, and, so to speak,
technical, view of the relative positions of himself and Mr. Canning;
that the latter expected a more conventional and generous construction
of his position and proposal from one with whom he was on terms of
intimate friendship.

In answer to this, it may be as well to remind the reader that, where
the slightest movements of public men may be construed into a compromise
of public principles, a rigid attention to etiquette becomes a matter of
duty. Many acts of the Duke of Wellington, not merely as a civilian, but
even as a military commander, have been misjudged, because this obvious
principle has been overlooked.

In answer to the second charge--that of hostility to the new
administration on personal grounds--the Duke referred to the known
opinions of Mr. Canning on the Catholic question. How could he be in
office under a minister whom he must oppose on, at least, one vital
question of domestic policy? How could he give the right honourable
gentleman that fair support which one member of a cabinet had a right to
expect from another? The principles of the new government could not be
those of that of the Earl of Liverpool. The principle of the latter was
to maintain the existing laws; of the former, to change them in a
fundamental particular. The absurd calumny that he had threatened the
king to resign, unless he were prepared to make him prime minister,
hardly deserved an answer; and then came his celebrated _nolo
episcopari_ speech, which created against him in a year after, so much
ridicule and rancour. He said--"Was it likely that he would resign the
office of commander-in-chief," a situation so consonant to his feelings
and his habits, "for the mere empty ambition of being placed at the head
of the government. I know," continued the Duke, "I am disqualified for
any such office; and I, therefore, say, that, feeling as I do with
respect to the situation which I recently filled at the head of the
army; liking it as I did from the opportunity it gave me to improve the
condition of my old comrades in arms; knowing my own capacity for
filling that office, and my incapacity for filling the post of first
minister, I should have been mad, and worse than mad, if I had ever
entertained the insane project which certain individuals, for their own
base purposes, have imputed to me."

His reason for retiring from the command of the army was founded on the
peculiar circumstances of his dispute with Mr. Canning. "No political
opinions would have prevented him," he said, "under ordinary
circumstances, from continuing either at the Horse Guards or at the head
of the army in the field; but, from the tone and tenor of the
communication he had received from his majesty; from the nature of the
invitation to join the administration, contained in Mr. Canning's post
letter, and from the contents of the last letter he received from Mr.
Canning, by his majesty's commands, he saw it would be impossible to
continue his relations with that gentlemen, either with service to the
country or credit to himself. His resolution had been adopted after the
most mature deliberation."

The foregoing is the substance of the Duke of Wellington's explanation
of his own share in the general resignation of the chief members of Lord
Liverpool's cabinet.

Another circumstance occurred a few days afterwards, which still further
increased the public belief that there was a serious quarrel between the
Duke and the new premier. The former moved an amendment in committee on
the corn bill, which had the effect of defeating the new government on
that measure. This was regarded as an act of hostility on the part of
the Duke, and, shortly after, a correspondence was made public between
him and Mr. Huskisson, then President of the Board of Trade, in which
it appeared clear that the Duke had moved the amendment in the belief
that the government had agreed to it through Mr. Huskisson, and equally
clear that the Duke had been mistaken. There were not wanting those who
asserted roundly that the Duke had taken advantage of an ambiguity in
Mr. Huskisson's letters, in order to have a pretext for inflicting this
injury on the government. And, unhappily, Mr. Canning himself, carried
out of parliamentary decorum by an irritability of temper, springing
from the difficulties of his position and from his advancing illness,
went so far as publicly to declare that the Duke of Wellington, great
man as he was, had been but in instrument in the hands of others.
History, he said, afforded parallel the actions of other great men.

The Duke maintained a dignified silence with respect to this attack;
but, in the following year, long after Mr. Canning's death, and when he
had himself become prime minister, he took an opportunity of
disclaiming, in strong language, the existance of any personal hostility
on his part to the deceased statesman.

On the formation of the new administration, under Lord Goderich, the
Duke of Wellington resumed the command of the army. This was on August
the 27th.

Early in January, 1828, this administration fell to pieces, and the Duke
of Wellington was called on by the king to form another. He was at first
reluctant to do so, but ultimately gave way. He rallied round him Mr.
Peel, and most of those who had seceded on the accession of Mr. Canning;
so that his administration was nearly identical with that of the Earl of
Liverpool, except that Mr. Huskisson and some two or three of the
coalitionary whigs, were retained.

In the following May, these were got rid of. Mr. Huskisson gave a vote
on the East Retford Bill, adverse to those of his colleagues; and on
leaving the house, sat down (at two in the morning), and wrote a letter
to the Duke, which was construed into a positive resignation of office.
An amusing correspondence took place between the two statesmen, Mr.
Huskisson declaring he never meant to resign, and the Duke as positively
adhering to his original construction of the first letter. Mr.
Huskisson's place was filled up, and he resented that proceeding by
declaring in the House of Commons his belief that he had been sacrificed
as a peace-offering to gain the support of some of the old tories.

The whole of the Duke's share in this correspondence is highly
characteristic; and it was in the course of negotiations for the return
of Mr. Huskisson that the Duke uttered the sentence so often quoted of
him: "It is no mistake; it can be no mistake; and it shall be no
mistake!" Strange to say, although the Duke's mode of proceeding to Mr.
Huskisson was somewhat arbitrary, it gained him a sort of popularity, on
account of the firmness with which he stuck to his point. The laugh was
fairly on his side; and many of the vessels in the Thames hoisted flags,
and exhibited other signs of rejoicing at Mr. Huskisson's dismissal.

On his appointment to be Prime Minister, the Duke again resigned the
command of the army (Feb. 14th).

The first important measure, during the Duke's administration, was the
repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. In giving his support to that
bill, the Duke met an argument, that it was a step towards Roman
Catholic emancipation, by a declaration that, though he voted for the
measure, no man could be a more determined opponent of those claims than
he; and he added, "Until I see a great change in that question, I shall
certainly oppose it." In the June following, however, the commons having
in the meanwhile passed a resolution indicating favour to emancipation,
the Duke declared that he looked on the question as one of expediency;
and concluded his speech by recommending that the public mind should be
allowed to rest. In the end, it might be possible to do something; for
he was most desirous of seeing the subject brought to an amicable
conclusion.

Causes altogether independent of parliamentary majorities or discussions
had in the mean time been at work, and had proposed this change in the
tone of ministers. Mr. O'Connell, although a Catholic, had been returned
to parliament as member for the county of Clare; and during the summer
and autumn, the whole of the Catholic population had become so
organized, under the Catholic Association, as seriously to threaten the
continuance of the existing system in Ireland. These events produced
their effects upon English statesmen on either side of the question; and
the more moderate of the Conservative party began to think that some
concession to the Catholics would be inevitable.

Still, however, the government gave no sign of yielding. On the
contrary, a circumstance occurred, in the month of December, which led
to an opposite inference. Dr. Curtis, a Roman Catholic prelate, who had
been on terms of personal acquaintance with the Duke of Wellington at
Salamanca, wrote a letter to him on the position of the Catholic
question, to which the Duke wrote an answer, which seemed to deny all
hope of a speedy settlement. It was immediately made public by Dr.
Curtis through the Catholic Association. The effect of the letter was to
make that body redouble their efforts.

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