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 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 FIRST DUKE OF WELLINGTON
 
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 PEESOI^AL EEMINISOENOES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 WITH SKETCHES OF 
 SOME OF HIS GUESTS AND CONTEMPORARIES 
 
 BY 
 
 THE LATE 
 
 GEOKGE ROBERT GLEIG, M.A. 
 
 CHAPLAIN-GENERAL TO HER MAJESTY'S FORCES, ETC., ETC. 
 AUTHOR OF 'the subaltern' 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HIS DAUGHTER 
 
 MARY E. GLEIG 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNEK'S SONS 
 
 153-157 FIFTH AVENUE 
 1904 
 
 Ali Rights reserved
 
 DEDICATION, 
 
 DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, 
 
 It is with the greatest pleasure 
 that, with your permission, I dedicate to you my 
 fathers reminiscences of the intim^acy ivith ivhich 
 your illustrious grandfather honoured him. 
 
 Jliey were written ivhen m,y father s mind ivas 
 as clear and his pen as vigorous as at any period 
 of his life, although he ivas verging upon his 
 ninetieth year; and they are published noiv as 
 they were written, with the exception of one or two 
 sentences and certain names which it aj)peared 
 desirable to suppress. 
 
 That you have been so hind as to read the proofs 
 and give me your opinion on some points on ivhich 
 I greatly felt the need of helj), affords me a very
 
 VI 
 
 coiifident liope that lohat it ivas such a labour of 
 love to my father to record, and to myself to edit, 
 ivill 2^'i'ove not unacceptable to the general public. 
 
 Tlie only directions left by my father ivere that 
 his reminiscences were not to see the light for 
 several years — Eighteen have noiv elapsed since he 
 began to ivHte these. 
 
 With many thanks for the trouble and interest 
 you have taken in the book, 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 DEAR DUKE OE WELLINGTON, 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 MARY E. GLEIG. 
 
 HAMPTOJV COURT PALACE, 
 April 1904.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 IXTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His military genius — As a party leader — Dislike of domestic 
 politics — Admiration of the old constitution — His relations 
 with his colleagues — Eoman Catholic Relief Act — Mistakes 
 in policy ....... 1 
 
 BOOK I. 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 With the Peninsular Army — Introduction through ' The Sub- 
 altern ' — A projected biography — Sir Thomas Munro — First 
 visit to Walmei' — Offer of a Crown-living . . .19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Agricultural distress in 1830 — Machine-breaking at Ash — In- 
 cendiarism at Ash — The Duke and Sir Robert Peel — The 
 Duke and Palmerston — The Duke and Huskisson . . 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Political situation, 1830— Fall of the Duke's Administration . 45
 
 VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEIt IV. 
 
 Pai-liamentary reform — The Reform Bill — Passage of the Bill — 
 A scheme for a newspaper campaign — The Duke's contempt 
 for the Press — His fear of reform — A suggested compromise 
 — The Duke's answer . . . . . .50 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 The dissolution of 1831 — The Duke on the crisis — Sir Edward 
 KnatchbuU — The military and politics — The House of 
 Lords and the Bill — A confidential letter — Question of 
 petitions . . . . . . .71 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 A suggestion from 'Blackwood' — The Duke's confidence — 
 'The Morning Herald' — The Duke threatened — Lord 
 Harrowby — Lord Douro — The Duke on George IV. — Dinner 
 table-talk ....... 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Lord John Russell's offer — A personal explanation — The in- 
 cident closed— Farewell to Ash — End of " confidences " . 110 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 OF THE DUKE'S PLACES OF RESIDENCE, AND 
 SOME OF THOSE WHO VISITED HIM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The nation's gift — Stratfieldsaye — The Rector of Strat- 
 fieldsaye — The Curate of Stratfieldsaye — A case of plu- 
 ralities — Walmer Castle — The Cinque Ports — His life at 
 Walmer . . . . . . .123
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE duke's foreign QUESTS. 
 
 Talleyrand — The Duchess of Cumberland — The blind King of 
 Hanover — Prussia and Hanover — General Alava — General 
 Nugent— The Duke's little joke . . . .141 
 
 CHAPTER lir. 
 
 THE duke's guests " DII MAJORUM GENTIUM." 
 
 Lord Lyndhurst — Sir Robert Peel .... 161 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " DII MINOUUM GENTIUM." 
 
 Charles Arbuthnot — Mrs Arbuthnot — John Wilson Croker — 
 
 Lord Clanwilliam — The Marquis of Salisbury . .198 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " DII MiNORUM GENTIUM " — Continued. 
 
 "Dirty" Charlie— Sir Robert Wilson — " Billy " Holmes— 
 "Chin Grant" — Lord Carrington — Billy Holmes' joke — 
 Lady Stanhope . . . . . .251 
 
 BOOK III. 
 THE DUKE IN HIS DOMESTIC EELATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Lady Catharine Pakenham — The Duchess of Wellington — An 
 
 unfounded belief — Students' escapade — The Duke's sons . 271
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 SOME OF THE DUKE's SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 His love of music — His love of hunting — A memorable drive 
 — Major Todd — Colonel Gurwood — Lord Charles Wellesley 
 — Chancellor of Oxford University — His aristocratic views 
 — Relations with the army — His temper — As army re- 
 former — Opposed to short service — Ambassador in Paris 
 — His view of Napoleon — And of Marlborough — The Gov- 
 ernment of the Regency — His aid to Napier — A character- 
 istic trait — His secretiveness — His self-possession — His 
 gentleness — His good fortune in battle — His memory — A 
 stickler for etiquette — His views on army education — His 
 last years — The aged warrior — The Baroness Burdett- 
 Coutts— Epileptic fits— His death . . . .282 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Memorandum on the War in Russia in 1812 . . 344
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 FIRST DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is not my purpose in the following pages to 
 speak of the Duke at length as either a soldier or a 
 statesman. In both capacities the world has judged 
 him very fairly. I don't think the continental 
 writers do his genius as a military commander full 
 justice, nor can we be surprised at the circumstance. 
 Their military systems are so different from ours 
 that they cannot see the force of events which con- 
 strained him in making war to exercise the quality 
 of prudence to an extent which would have been in 
 the case of some of their leaders quite blameworthy. 
 They forget that while they raise their armies by 
 conscription, we depend for recruits on voluntary 
 enlistment, and that the loss of a few thousand 
 men in a battle, even if it went in his favour, might 
 cripple a British general throughout the remainder 
 of the campaign. In his Indian wars, when no such 
 incubus lay upon him, the Duke exhibited as much 
 of dash as the most apt scholar in the school of 
 Napoleon could desire. But when he came to 
 
 A
 
 2 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 operate against the French, in the Peninsula, he 
 soon found that caution was more necessary than 
 enterprise, because the Spaniards were worthless 
 except in guerilla warfare, and hardly to the last 
 could the Portuguese be relied upon. Hence thirty 
 thousand or forty thousand British troops — and he 
 never but once had more than forty thousand in 
 hand — were the backbone of his strength, and he 
 was obliged to nurse and spare them, because of 
 the difi&culty of supplying the places of such as 
 might be destroyed. Napoleon fully understood 
 this, for among his instructions to his marshals in 
 Spain one was frequently repeated : " Force Well- 
 ington to fight on every possible occasion. Win if 
 you can, but lose a battle rather than deliver none. 
 We can afford to expend three men for every one he 
 loses, and you will thus wear him out in the end." 
 
 Was not this President Lincoln's policy during 
 the great Civil War in America : " Peg away, and 
 wear them out" ? I have heard that the Duke was 
 taken to a phrenologist on a certain occasion, who 
 examined his head, and not knowing who was 
 under his fingers, pronounced that he had never 
 found before in man so large a development of 
 the organ of caution. 
 
 The Duke's military excellence was the veritable 
 inspiration of genius. He had received no scientific, 
 scarcely any tactical education, but he possessed a 
 wonderful power of grasping quickly whatever pro- 
 blem was submitted to him — a marvellous eye for
 
 HIS MILITARY GENIUS 3 
 
 country, and an extraordinary faculty for calcula- 
 tion. He served with both the infantry and the 
 cavalry as a regimental officer, yet scarcely long 
 enough with either to acquire by process of routine 
 what ordinary men take in after constant practice. 
 In spite of this drawback, however, caused by his 
 serving a good deal on the staff, he proved, when 
 put in command of the 33rd Regiment, one of 
 the best drills, and most efficient commanding- 
 officers in the Army. He knew likewise as if by 
 intuition what men could both dare and do, how 
 much they could endure of privations and fatigue, 
 and never, except in the last extremity, overworked 
 his troops. Even the retreat from Burgos, though 
 it called forth loud complaints both in and out of 
 the Army, was conducted without excessive suffer- 
 ing. I was much struck with his criticisms on 
 various military commanders, both domestic and 
 foreign, especially with reference to what they lost 
 for lack of well considering these points. To Sir 
 John Moore, for example, he gave full credit for 
 talent as well as bravery : " but his defect was, that 
 he did not know what his men could do." He 
 thought highly of the Archduke Charles of Austria, 
 both as a leader of armies and a military writer ; 
 " but," speaking of him in the latter capacity, he 
 added, "he forgot that men are not mere machines, 
 one as good as another, and that a plan of action 
 which would be perfectly justifiable in an officer 
 commanding English troops, might be the reverse
 
 4 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 in one commanding Austrians or Prussians." 
 Jomini's great work he had by heart, but he criti- 
 cised it, just as he did the Archduke Charles. 
 " The theory is correct throughout except on an 
 important point in tactics. His preference of 
 columns of attack, to lines, is a great error. Columns 
 cannot fight, they are only formations of manoeuvre. 
 But excellent as his strategical lessons may be, the 
 commander of an army who considers himself bound 
 to adhere strictly to the principles there laid down 
 may find himself beaten by a less learned and 
 more enterprising opponent." What he thought of 
 Napoleon will be told by and by. 
 
 It is a curious fact that he, who, at mature age, 
 earned so proud a name, both as a leader of Armies 
 and a Statesman, should have been in boyhood 
 remarkable for his indolence. A letter from his 
 mother. Lady Mornington, still exists, in which, 
 speaking of her sons, she says : " They are all, 
 I think, endowed with excellent abilities except 
 Arthur, and he would probably not be wanting, if 
 only there was more of energy in his nature ; but 
 he is so wanting in this respect, that I really do not 
 know what to do with him." That his first start in 
 life bore out Lady Mornington's appreciation of his 
 temperament there can be no doubt. He made no 
 figure at Eton, and seems to have been as little 
 conspicuous at Angers.^ And even after joining the 
 
 ^ " I should be glad, if I possessed the requisite information, to give 
 some account of the Duke's manner of life while a pupil in the military
 
 AS A PARTY LEADER 5 
 
 Army and becoming aide-de-camp to the Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, he appears to have lived a 
 rather dreamy and solitary life. Doubtless it was 
 for this reason that he never of his own accord 
 alluded in conversation to his schoolboy days, 
 and always, if by chance a reference happened to 
 be made to them, changed the subject. Yet how 
 entirely those were mistaken, who anticipated for 
 the indolent boy an obscure manhood, the lapse of 
 a few years made manifest. 
 
 As a constitutional politician, meaning thereby a 
 skilful party leader in a free state, the Duke cannot 
 be placed in the foremost rank. He had grown 
 up under the shadow of the first French Revolution, 
 and entertained an exaggerated dread of the Demo- 
 cracy. Yet his perceptions of what was best for 
 Europe and for England at the close of the great 
 war were clear and just. He deprecated and 
 prevented the dismemberment of France in 1815, 
 because he foresaw that such a measure, while it 
 weakened one Power, might lead to endless complica- 
 
 school at Angers. If any memorials of him were ever established 
 there, the avalanche of the first French Revolution must have swept 
 them all away. But none would appear to have been set up. His 
 early friends, of whom not one now survives, used indeed to say that 
 he made better use of his time at Angers than he had done either at 
 Chelsea or Eton, and he himself stated that he formed some agreeable 
 ac(iuaintances in the neighbourhood, from whom he learned to speak 
 French with the accent and precision of the days of the old monarchy. 
 But here our materials for narrative fail us. We know nothing more 
 than that he pursued his studies at Angers for about a year and a half 
 or two years, and then returned home." — 'The Life of Arthur, Ihike of 
 Wellington, by O. R. Oleig.
 
 6 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 tions among the rest. He regarded Russia with 
 great suspicion, which subsequent events have shown 
 to be well founded. He would have been glad to 
 see parliamentary institutions introduced into Spain 
 and Portugal, but entirely disapproved of England 
 going to war in order to force them upon these 
 countries. Of the breach of their promises to their 
 subjects by the continental sovereigns he always 
 spoke with regret and censure, but he had no 
 sympathy with secret societies or popular insurrec- 
 tions. He was anxious to avoid all interference in 
 the quarrel between the Spanish American Colonies 
 and the mother country, except so far as this must be 
 done by recognising for commercial purposes the de 
 facto government in each. In a word, his view of 
 the policy of England in her relations with foreign 
 states was in substance this : that she should stand 
 aloof from the intestine strifes of all, taking no part 
 either with the sovereigns against the peoples or 
 with the peoples against the sovereigns except 
 when invited to mediate : and then doing what was 
 possible to bring about an equitable compromise. 
 He would neither join the Holy Alliance, nor 
 give the smallest countenance to Carbonarism or 
 Freemasonry. 
 
 The Duke was dragged against his will into 
 taking a prominent part in domestic politics. He 
 detested them, not only because the whole course 
 of his active life had carried him, so to speak, out- 
 side their sphere, but because the shifts and devices,
 
 DISLIKE OF DOMESTIC POLITICS 7 
 
 not always either creditable or honest, to which 
 party leaders are driven, were to him peculiarly 
 distasteful. It was Canning's readiness to fall back 
 upon these, whenever he had a point to carry, and 
 his consequent coquetting with the leaders of the 
 Opposition, which quite as much as his strong 
 personal ambition alienated the Duke from him. 
 No doubt these peculiarities of temperament were 
 the main cause of the serious mistakes into which as 
 Prime Minister he fell. Yet it is impossible not to 
 recognise the beauty of those moral qualities which, 
 worthy of all admiration in the man, rendered him 
 incapable of ever becoming the successful adminis- 
 trator of the affairs of a country jealous of its 
 liberties, and prone, as all popularly governed 
 countries are, to be cajoled into clamouring for 
 whatever adroit flatterers lead them to regard as 
 conducive to their welfare. 
 
 Strange as it may appear and unpleasant as 
 the statement may be to read, the Duke as a 
 politician held in contempt what is called prin- 
 ciple. His theory was that the obvious needs of 
 the times and of the nation suggest the co\irse 
 which, from year to year, the Government ought to 
 follow. The settlement of 1688 he held in high 
 respect because the civil and religious liberties of 
 the people were assured by it, but he no more 
 considered it to be the duty of statesmen to main- 
 tain it to the letter in secula seculorum, than it was 
 their duty to resist the repeal of any law which
 
 8 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 had become obsolete and therefore mischievous. 
 This was shown in rather a curious way after 
 dinner one day, as early I think as 1824, at which 
 among other guests two clergymen were present. 
 The incident, as related to me by his son, the late 
 Duke, occurred at Strathfieldsaye, when a lady 
 asked him what he thought of the laws affecting 
 Koman Catholics. He replied almost in these 
 words : " The laws against Roman Catholics were 
 passed at a time when the Protestant Church of 
 England stood in need of protection. Whenever 
 the Protestant Church is strong enough to stand 
 without them, they will be repealed, and ought 
 to be repealed." 
 
 On the other hand, the Duke had a perfect 
 horror of everything that savoured of bad faith 
 between man and man sitting in the same Cabinet. 
 Canning, as has just been shown, he always dis- 
 trusted, not only because of his backstairs connec- 
 tion with the Whigs, but also on account of a 
 shifty method which he had of conducting the 
 correspondence of the Foreign Office. Some one 
 happened to speak in his presence of Canning as 
 obstinate and unyielding. " Unyielding! " was the 
 Duke's answer. " I never knew a public man so 
 pliable. We saw all the drafts of his more impor- 
 tant letters, of course, and made our remarks on 
 them. He never took oflPence, but on the contrary 
 expressed himself obliged by the pains that were 
 taken to improve them ; yet it invariably happened,
 
 ADMIRATION OF THE OLD CONSTITUTION 9 
 
 somehow or another, that when sealed and sent off, 
 they reiterated almost all the sentiments to which 
 we had objected. The fact is, that while the anno- 
 tated copy passed into the archives of the Foreign 
 Office, the finished production expressed, though 
 in somewhat different language. Canning's own 
 views just as he had originally submitted them to 
 us. Canning might be obstinate, but he was 
 certainly not unyielding." 
 
 When I speak of the Duke as holding light what 
 Lord Eldon, and statesmen of his class, regarded as 
 principle, I refer only to political arrangements 
 which, however suitable they may have been to the 
 condition of the country when entered into, made 
 it next to impossible, under a total change of 
 circumstances, to carry on the Government. The 
 settlement of the Crown in the Protestant line he 
 held to be essential to the maintenance of a Pro- 
 testant Constitution. Penal laws, which excluded 
 from Parliament, and from holding office under 
 the Crown, Romanists and Dissenters from the 
 Established Church, he regarded as evils which, 
 as soon as they ceased to be necessary, ought 
 to be got rid of. The case was otherwise with 
 regard to arrangements on which the very con- 
 stitution of society, according to his view of the 
 matter, depended. England was the happiest and 
 most prosperous nation in the world because all 
 real power was vested in the aristocracy. Hence 
 his admiration of the old constitution as it existed
 
 10 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 prior to the first Reform Act. Hence his partiahty 
 for the Corn Laws, without which he did not see 
 how the great landed proprietors would be able to 
 hold their own against a powerful democracy. 
 But apart from this one point, the Duke was a free 
 trader, long before either Huskisson or Peel began 
 their attacks on the system of protection to British 
 industry. 
 
 Holding these views, and actuated by the same 
 high motives which carried Falkland into the royal 
 camp in 1642, the Duke took office, with a mind 
 fully made up to conduct the Government for 
 the sake not of party but of the country. It 
 has been charged against him and not without 
 some show of reason, that his doing so was incon- 
 sistent with his own express views of what the 
 specialities of the Prime Minister in a constitutional 
 country ought to be. To a certain extent this is 
 true. He did declare in the House of Lords, when 
 explaining why he had refused to support Canning, 
 that he was fully conscious of his own unfitness to 
 become the head of an administration ; and from 
 that opinion he never deviated, either when in office 
 or out of it. But with him the principle of loyalty 
 was carried to an extreme, and when the King told 
 him in plain terms that, unless he consented to 
 form an administration, the Government could not 
 be carried on, he felt or believed that there was but 
 one course for him to follow. Even then, however, 
 as the published correspondence shows, he made an.
 
 HIS RELATIONS WITH HIS COLLEAGUES 11 
 
 effort to put Peel in the foremost place. It failed, 
 and nothing remained except to dare the worst. And 
 the worst was in truth as formidable as it could 
 well be. The old Tory party was already broken 
 up. The Whigs had shown themselves incapable of 
 forming an administration, and the Canningites 
 with Kobinson at their head were at their wits' 
 end. Where was he to look for colleagues of 
 whom a reasonable hope might be entertained 
 that they would prove true to him and to one 
 another ? 
 
 We all know now whither he turned in search 
 of colleagues, and the selection which he made 
 ought to have prepared the country for the direc- 
 tion in which his views tended. He counted too 
 much, however, on finding in others that unswerv- 
 ing loyalty to their chief which had ever been with 
 himself a leading principle, and possibly his manner 
 of setting forth his own views in Cabinet may have 
 savoured a little of the tone of a Commander of the 
 Forces explaining his plans. However this may be, 
 we find in Lord Palmerston's published correspon- 
 dence ample proof that Mr. Huskisson and his 
 followers, including Lord Palmerston himself, took 
 office, neither expecting nor perhaps desiring that 
 the Duke's guidance would be to them agreeable. 
 The miserable East Ketford question only brought 
 to a head jealousies that had long been festering, 
 and showed that in the Duke's hands at least the 
 work of creating a truly national party was not
 
 12 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to be achieved. It might have been better perhaps, 
 both for his own reputation and for the Common- 
 wealth, if under the pecuUar circumstances he had 
 either accepted Huskisson's explanation or himself 
 relinquished the attempt to carry on the Gov^ern- 
 ment. But the Duke was not a man to withdraw 
 from what he held to be the path of duty because 
 it was beset with difficulties. He let it be known 
 in Whig circles that the way was open to negotia- 
 tions with Earl Grey and the more high-minded 
 of the party. But meeting with no response, he 
 fell back upon his own personal adherents. Of all 
 that followed no detailed account need be given 
 here. His measures, whether on a small scale or a 
 large, failed to satisfy the people. Forgetting that 
 the English are not, like the Spaniards, constitution- 
 ally temperate, he opened beer-shops all over the 
 country, which, instead of breaking in upon the 
 monopoly of the great brewers, served only to 
 increase drunkenness and give a fresh stimulus to 
 poaching. His foreign policy likewise was con- 
 demned as un-English, because it was based upon 
 a strict adherence to treaties, and a resolute absten- 
 tion from interference in the internal affairs of other 
 countries. But the crowning offence of all was the 
 passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act. That 
 this measure of justice to a large portion of the 
 King's subjects came too late, is certainly true. 
 Had it been conceded in 1801, when Ireland merged 
 her parliament into that of the United Kingdoms,
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF ACT IS- 
 
 the condition of the sister country to-day would 
 have been very different from what it is. Nay, 
 had the arrangements with which the Duke pro- 
 posed to surround it been carried into effect, it is 
 probable that the Roman Catholic hierarchy would 
 have been as manageable in Ireland, as it was at 
 that time in Holland and in Prussia. But can any 
 man in his senses deny that the passing of the 
 measure in some shape or another had become in 
 1829 a necessity ? I must not, however, in such a 
 sketch as I propose to draw, run into the considera- 
 tion of great questions of State. The angry Tories 
 insisted at the time, if any of them survive they 
 probably would insist still, that the Duke's duty, if 
 unable to fight against destiny, was to resign ; and, 
 leaving the Whigs to carry what was in truth their 
 own measure, to come back as the recognised leader 
 of the English Protestants and govern with in- 
 creased vigour. But surely this is to contradict 
 both the facts of the case and the inferences to be 
 drawn from them. The Duke did resign on the 
 King's refusal to sanction the proposed measure. 
 The Eldon section of the Tories declined to form 
 a Government on Protestant principles, and the 
 Whigs, had they been requested to steer the ship, 
 which they were not because of the King's personal 
 dislike to Earl Grey, would have certainly refused, 
 knowing that they could not command a majority 
 in either House. What was to be done ? The 
 Duke could not leave the King without a minister..
 
 14 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Peel would not consent to endow the Roman 
 Catholic clergy. The only course left open was 
 that which the Duke followed, and its consequences 
 are familiar to us all. 
 
 It is not so easy to vindicate or even to palli- 
 ate the next mistake which the Duke committed. 
 Daniel O'Connell, as is well known, had been re- 
 turned for the county of Clare, while yet the laws 
 excluding Roman Catholics from Parliament were 
 in force. He did not present himself to take his 
 seat till the Relief Bill was passed. Technically, 
 no doubt, his claim to be received as a member of 
 the legislature was invalid, and the House had a 
 right to do what it did, i.e. to send him back to his 
 constituents for re-election. But everybody knew 
 that his re-election was certain, and it was quite 
 within the competency of the Government to make 
 light of a mere technicality, and to throw open at 
 once to the victor in the great struggle doors which 
 could be closed against him only for a few days. 
 O'Connell, though a demagogue, was not without 
 generous impulses. It is quite upon the cards that 
 such a concession to personal and Irish feeling 
 might have stirred them to some good purpose. It 
 is certain that the treatment which he received 
 had no slight effect in making O'Connell what he 
 afterwards became. 
 
 Worst, however, of all was the blunder into which 
 the Duke fell, in his abrupt and uncalled-for decla- 
 ration against parliamentary reform in any shape.
 
 MISTAKES IN POLICY 15 
 
 Had George iv. been still alive, and the Parlia- 
 ment which granted Emancipation still in existence, 
 the announcement, though not very wise, might have 
 been harmless, because with the exception of Lord 
 Winchelsea in the House of Lords and Sir Edward 
 Knatchbull and one or two others in the House of 
 Commons, there were none among the exasperated 
 ultra-Tories so insane as to pronounce in favour of 
 farther constitutional changes. But to thrust it 
 forward without any provocation in the face of a 
 Parliament, in which he could not count on a 
 majority, was a mistake as fatal in politics as a 
 flank march in presence of a vigilant and superior 
 enemy in war. Not one of the angry Tories was 
 conciliated by it. They regarded it, on the con- 
 trary, as a sort of unprovoked defiance, and as men 
 usually do when under the influence of blind fury, 
 they sacrificed themselves, and all that they had 
 fought for through life, by cheering the Whigs, 
 when one after another they stood up to declaim 
 against it. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, there is no denying that 
 the great Duke's two years' tenure of ofiice as First 
 Lord of the Treasury added nothing to the glory 
 which his eminent services in the field had ensured 
 to him. I have often heard him say, that they 
 were to himself the most unsatisfactory in the course 
 of a long life — a life which he had no desire to Hve 
 over again. But neither of his proceedings as a 
 statesman, nor of his great deeds as a soldier, was
 
 16 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 it my present purpose to speak. The little that has 
 been put on record on these subjects must there- 
 fore be treated as nothing more than a necessary 
 introduction to what follows.
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CONFIDENCES
 
 If EH DVKE (D? WIELIIIN&TOH, 
 
 KTBIISHED Br "W. BLACKWOOD * SCWS, ESIBBTIRSH. tLOHTOS.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I SAW the Duke of Wellington for the first time in 
 September 1813, when a movement among the 
 French, on the other side of the Bidassoa, led to 
 some changes of position among our own people. 
 The 85th was winding its way in a long thin column 
 by a sort of mule track along the side of a mountain 
 towards the foundry of St. Antonio. Three horse- 
 men overtook us, and stopped to converse with 
 Colonel Thornton. One of these was the Duke (then 
 Marquis) of Wellington ; another, if I do not mistake, 
 Lord Fitzroy Somerset ; who the third was I don't 
 know, but he may have been an Orderly Dragoon. 
 There was no escort, nor any pomp or parade. The 
 Duke was then forty-six years of age ; his counten- 
 ance was very animated ; his keen, clear, violet- 
 coloured eye full of intelligence. His hair was 
 beginning to show the slightest tinge of grey, but 
 not so much as to detract in the slightest degree 
 from the youthfulness of his general appearance. 
 He was dressed in a light grey frock-coat (he always 
 wore grey when there was a chance of active work, 
 the colour being more conspicuous from afar than 
 blue), a cocked-hat, low in the crown, without a 
 plume, and covered with oilskin. A pair of black 
 
 19
 
 20 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 leather leggings, fastened at the sides, and reaching 
 half-way up the calf, protected his legs ; and he 
 wore a light steel-mounted sabre, without any 
 sash. He spoke kindly and cheerily to Colonel 
 Thornton about the appearance of his regiment, 
 asked where we were going, told him we should 
 find some traces of the recent battles as we went 
 along, and then getting off the track, so as not to 
 inconvenience the line of march, trotted on. 
 
 My next vision of the great man was during one 
 of the pauses in the battle of the Nive. The 
 left of the army had been more or less engaged during 
 four days, and the 85th was in line, lying down 
 behind a screen of thin underwood, and waiting till 
 the pickets which were engaged in our immediate 
 front should be driven in. These were falling back, 
 and Thornton, a fiery Irishman, had just shouted, 
 " Now 85th, we '11 give them one volley, and charge 
 them to hell," when a crowd of horsemen arrived 
 in our rear, the Duke in his war-dress being 
 conspicuous among them. It was then that he and 
 Soult, from opposite ridges, gazed at one another, 
 each trying to divine his rival's object. The Duke 
 noticed the hurried departure of one of Soult's 
 staff-officers towards our right ; in other words, 
 the French left. He had not dismounted, though 
 Soult did ; but turning his horse sharp round, 
 said, in tones loud enough to be heard along our 
 line, " Now lads, hold your own, for there is nothing 
 behind you," and dashed away at fuU speed, followed
 
 WITH THE PENINSULAR ARMY 21 
 
 by his staff and escort, in the direction towards which 
 the French mounted officer had gone. 
 
 After this I saw the Duke repeatedly in St. Jean 
 de Luz, where the headquarters of the army were 
 established during the winter. On one occasion, 
 when we had marched three miles to the rear, in 
 order to be present at a church parade, in the 
 Grande Place of that town, he came in his blue 
 frock-coat and plumed hat to attend the service. 
 The congregation consisted of the brigade of Guards, 
 of all the staff, and departmental people off duty, of 
 our brigade, and a good many dismounted cavalry. 
 Not one word of either prayers or sermon could I 
 hear, the square being far too large for any human 
 voice to embrace it. But the Duke was probably 
 more fortunate, for he stood near the clergyman, 
 and seemed to pay the most devout attention. 
 This, by the way, was the only occasion on which I 
 saw the face of a chaplain during my service in 
 Spain and the South of France, and only once 
 during the year spent in America did a chaplain 
 officiate in my hearing. 
 
 The Duke's habits were very simple at this time, 
 but I need not describe them here, having told the 
 tale faithfully and fully in my memoir of the great 
 man. 
 
 Thus far my acquaintance with the Duke was on 
 a level with that of every soldier in the Peninsular 
 army. I met him, indeed, more than once in the 
 hunting-field, for he kept his hounds, and during the
 
 22 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 winter months beat the coverts and got occasionally 
 a good run. But not till after I had retired from 
 the service, and become a beneficed clergyman in 
 the diocese of Canterbury, could I claim the 
 honour of being personally known to him. Mr. 
 Croker, in his Diary, has told under what circum- 
 stances I was brought under the Duke's notice, very 
 briefly ; I venture to hope that, in supplementing 
 his account, I may carry the interest of the reader 
 along with me. 
 
 I had from an early period, both before and after 
 the appearance of The Subaltern, been an occa- 
 sional contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, not as 
 a party writer be it observed, for till the era of the 
 first Reform Bill, I never wrote a political paper in 
 my life ; but as a somewhat sarcastic reviewer of 
 some so-called evangelical tracts, as a describer of 
 detached incidents in the Peninsular War, and as 
 the author of letters on the then "Present State of 
 India." 
 
 In 1824 I began a series of papers to which 
 Blackwood gave the name of "The Subaltern," and 
 which in the year following were repubhshed in a 
 separate volume. The book met with great success, 
 and, being anonymous, public curiosity — as is usual 
 in such cases — was exercised on the subject of its 
 authorship. Instigated, as I now know, by Croker, 
 Lockhart wrote to me and asked whether I had any 
 objection to let my name be known. I had not the 
 most distant notion as to the purpose for which the
 
 INTRODUCTION THROUGH "THE SUBALTERN" 23 
 
 question was put, and seeing no moral necessity for 
 answering it otherwise, I told my correspondent 
 that he might do in the matter as he thought fit. 
 The secret, if such it may be called, was in con- 
 sequence confided to Croker, and Croker brought 
 The Subaltern under the notice of the Duke. No 
 time was lost by Lockhart in letting me know in 
 what flattering terms the Duke had spoken of the 
 volume, and in adding his advice to that which 
 Blackwood had urged, that I should ask the Duke's 
 permission to dedicate the work to him. I did 
 so, and by return of post received the following 
 letter : — 
 
 " London, Nov. 9, 1826. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I have by this post received your 
 letter of the 9th inst., and I beg to assure you that 
 you have been correctly informed that I had read 
 your work with the greatest interest, and that I 
 admire the simplicity and the truth with which you 
 had related the various events you had witnessed, 
 the scenes in which you had been an actor, and the 
 circumstances of the life you had led as an officer in 
 the 85th Regiment in the army, in the Peninsula, 
 and the South of France. I should be happy to 
 have an opportunity of testifying my sense of the 
 merits of your work by consenting to the dedication 
 to me of the second edition, only that I have long 
 been under the necessity of declining to give a 
 formal assent to receive the dedication of any work. 
 I conceive that, by such assent, I give a tacit
 
 24 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 guarantee of the contents of the work so dedicated. 
 I know that I should be considered to have placed 
 myself in that situation by some who might not 
 perhaps approve of the contents. 
 
 " From what I have above stated, you will see 
 that I could have no objection to stand in the situa- 
 tion described in relation to your work, and I must 
 admit it would be better to draw a distinction 
 between good and meritorious works and others, 
 and to give my sanction as far as to consent to 
 receive the compliment, if the dedication gives such 
 sanction to the first and not to the last. But there 
 comes another difficulty. Before I give the sanction, 
 I must peruse the work proposed to be dedicated 
 to me, and I must confess that I have neither 
 leisure nor inclination to wade through the 
 hundreds, I might almost say the thousands, of 
 volumes offered to my protection, whether the con- 
 tents are such as what I can sanction, and become a 
 species of guarantee for their worth, their fitness, 
 etc., etc., etc., or not. I have therefore taken the 
 idlest and shortest way out of the difficulty, by 
 declining to give a formal consent to receive the 
 dedication of any work. 
 
 "This mode of proceeding frequently gives me 
 great pain, but in no instance has it given me more 
 than on this occasion, as you will perceive by the 
 trouble which I give you to peruse, and myself to 
 write, these reasons for declining to give a formal con- 
 sent to accept the compliment which you have been
 
 A PROJECTED BIOGRAPHY 25 
 
 SO kind as to propose to me. If,however, you think 
 proper to dedicate your second edition to me, you 
 are perfectly at liberty to do so, and you cannot 
 express in too strong language my approbation and 
 admiration of your interesting work. — I have the 
 honour to be, dear sir, yours most faithfully, 
 
 " Wellington. 
 
 " I was informed when I landed at Dover in April 
 of the change in your line of life and circumstances 
 by one of your former brother-officers." 
 
 In 181^6 there was among publishers a per- 
 suasion, suggested to them, 1 believe, by Sir Walter 
 Scott, that fortunes might be made by bringing out, 
 in a cheap form, works on all subjects, provided 
 they were written by well-known authors. Mr. 
 Constable of Edinburgh was the first, if I recollect 
 right, to act on the suggestion, and his Miscellany 
 was advertised and becrun. Amonor other writers 
 I was applied to, and the subject proposed for me 
 was a military life of the Duke of Wellington. It 
 was assumed that from annual registers, and old 
 gazettes and newspapers, abundant material for 
 such a biography might be found, and the price 
 offered for it was a liberal one ; but the flattering 
 terms in which the Duke had virtually authorised 
 the dedication of lltc Subaltern to him, caused me 
 to stipulate, before accepting Mr. Constable's offer, 
 that the Duke should approve and even assist me 
 in the performance of my task. I therefore wrote
 
 26 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to the Duke, explaining exactly what it was pro- 
 posed to do, and begging him to say whether such 
 a military biography would be acceptable to him. 
 Almost by return of post I received the subjoined 
 reply, which at once put a stop to all further nego- 
 tiations with Mr. Constable. 
 
 "London, Nov. U, 1826. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 
 10th inst., and am much flattered by your desire to 
 write my life. 
 
 "The fact is that the history of my life is the 
 history of various military campaigns and political 
 negotiations and transactions, upon which, if ever I 
 am to be a party to communicate anything to the 
 public, it must be the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but the truth. I don't think that anybody 
 will be of opinion that the latter could now be 
 published. Indeed I am at present in a situation 
 which would prevent ray declaring many matters 
 that I know to be necessary to elucidate trans- 
 actions to which I have been a party, and the time 
 is too near in which most of these transactions have 
 occurred to render it proper of me to talk of them at 
 all. 
 
 " In respect to military transactions, the same 
 objection does not exist, at least not in the same 
 form. I am at liberty to publish what I please, 
 and no inconvenience to the public could result from 
 such publication. But if I insist upon publishing
 
 SIR THOMAS MUNRO 27 
 
 the truth regarding not only individuals but nations 
 (and anything in the shape of history that is not 
 the truth would be unworthy of your pen, as it 
 would be very disagreeable to me, and would besides 
 do no good), I shall for the remainder of my life be 
 engaged in controversies of a nature most un- 
 pleasant, as they will be with the wounded vanity 
 of individuals and nations. I have therefore con- 
 stantly declined to give any information to any 
 historian or authority from myself to write any- 
 thing, and I confess that I should alter my course 
 in this respect with reluctance. — Ever, dear sir, 
 yours most faithfully, Wellington." 
 
 Gratified as I naturally was by the manner in 
 which the Duke had met my demands upon his 
 notice, I was still personally a stranger to him when, 
 in 1829, Mr. Ravenshaw, a director of the East 
 India Company, and a former and great admirer of 
 Sir Thomas Munro, offered to hand over to me the 
 materials which he had collected, provided I were 
 willing to write a life of that distinguished officer. 
 It happened that through my intimacy with Mr. 
 James Gumming, at that time head of the Judicial 
 and Revenue Department of the Board of Gontrol, I 
 had become surcharged, so to speak, with knowledge 
 on Indian affairs. The letters contributed to Black- 
 ivood, and bearing the 7iom de plume " An Old 
 Indian," were the results of the books I had read, and 
 of the conversations I had held with Mr. Gumming,
 
 28 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 and Gumming, who was on friendly terms with Mr. 
 Ravenshaw, had doubtless spoken to him of me as of 
 one well posted up in Indian subjects. Be this as 
 it may, I felt myself strong enough to close with 
 Mr. Ravenshaw's proposal, and the Munro papers — 
 a huge pile — were in consequence sent to me. On 
 looking them over I found a good many letters, both 
 from Sir Thomas to the Duke and from the Duke 
 to Sir Thomas, which, though written while one 
 was plain Major Munro, and the other Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley, I did not feel at liberty to make use of 
 without obtaining the consent of the survivor of 
 the correspondence. Accordingly I wrote to the 
 Duke, informing him how I was circumstanced, and 
 in due course received the subjoined reply. 
 
 "London, Aug. 10, 1829. 
 "Dear Sir, — I will be very much obliged to 
 you if you will send me by post all my letters to 
 Sir Thomas Munro, and if you will be so kind as 
 come over to see me, when I shall be at Walmer 
 Castle in the end of the week, I will tell you 
 whether I can consent to the publication of any, and 
 of which. — I have the honour to be, dear sir, yours 
 most faithfully, Wellington. 
 
 " I beg that you will dine and sleep the day that 
 you will come over." 
 
 The Duke was at that time Prime Minister. He 
 had just passed the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, and
 
 FIRST VISIT TO WALMER 29 
 
 was in the midst of all the anxiety and labour con- 
 sequent upon the undisguised break-up of the party 
 which had forced him into high office. Yet, even 
 under such trying circumstances, he found time and 
 inclination to give, in the kindest manner, attention 
 to the concerns of an individual whom he had never 
 seen, and who had no claims upon his notice. His 
 former letters had gratified me much, his present 
 one more. I could not sufficiently admire the 
 nobility of character of one who was thus able to 
 postpone even for a moment his own great cares in 
 order to meet the wishes of a stranger, and at the 
 same time offer him hospitality. 
 
 The invitation to Walmer Castle was accepted of 
 course, though accompanied by a request that I 
 might be excused from sleeping there. The truth 
 is that the prospect of becoming the guest of so 
 great a man a good deal overawed me, and I pre- 
 ferred driving eight miles home to the prospect of 
 spending the night under his roof. I had not been 
 ten minutes in his presence before all fear of 
 approaching him disappeared. He was most un- 
 affected, frank, and open, at once putting me at my 
 ease. The party consisted of Lord Chancellor and 
 Lady Lyndhurst, and Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot, 
 Lord Carrington, and Lady Stanhope, with others 
 whose names I have forgotten. The dinner was a 
 very pleasant one, and at nine o'clock or there- 
 abouts, the ladies having retired a little earlier, we 
 adjourned to the drawing-room. About ten o'clock
 
 30 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 I rose to take my leave. The Duke went with me 
 into the long passage, and pulling out the letters I 
 had sent him, gave them to me. "There's nothing 
 in any of them," he said, "that I should care to 
 hide, but I have marked a few, which it might be 
 as well to suppress, because a man in my situation 
 is a mark for all manner of calumnies, and my 
 meaning would be sure to be misrepresented." 
 The Duke, as I have said, was at that time Prime 
 Minister. His Beer Bill had offended some of his 
 supporters ; his disinclination to allow that there 
 was much real distress in the country offended more ; 
 and, most disastrous of all, he had repealed the 
 disablinof laws ao-ainst Roman Catholics. Of course 
 I paid the strictest attention to his wishes, and went 
 beyond them so far as slightly to change an ex- 
 pression in one of his letters to Munro. A freeboot- 
 ing chief was giving great annoyance to Munro's 
 district, and the Duke, advising him how to act, 
 said, " I recommend three yards of rope for Mahtab 
 Kan, if you catch him." I knew that the Duke's 
 enemies on reading this would raise a cry of cold- 
 blooded indifference to human life, so I substituted 
 the phrase, " I recommend you to treat Mahtab 
 Kan, if you catch him, as he deserves." 
 
 From that date, August 29, till I quitted Ash 
 in 1834, I had the privilege of living with the 
 Duke on the most friendly terms. He never 
 visited Walmer without inviting me to spend some 
 days with him there, and making me acquainted
 
 OFFER OF A CROWN-LIVING 31 
 
 with many persons well worth knowing. As long 
 as he remained at the head of the Government, our 
 intercourse, though on his part uniformly gracious, 
 never extended to confidence. That would have 
 involved a mistake on his part, into which he, of all 
 men living, was the least likely to fall. But he 
 showed his goodwill towards me by offering me a 
 Crown-living in Devonshire, which partly because, 
 in point of value, it would have added little to mv 
 income, and partly because of its distance from 
 London, I considered it prudent to decline. 
 Patrons, and especially patrons of Crown -livings,, 
 do not usually care to have their courtesies rejected. 
 The Duke rose far above such weakness, and said 
 with a smile, " You are very right. We must wait 
 till something better comes in the way."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The year 1830 will long be memorable for the 
 startling events which marked its progress both at 
 home and abroad. In England there had been for 
 some time previously much distress. The poor- 
 rates were everywhere onerous, and in some of the 
 agricultural districts well-nigh doubled the rental. 
 All the efforts made to reduce them failed, as well 
 because they were misdirected, as because the law 
 itself had become a huge abuse. Farmers dismissed 
 their men in shoals, and took on again just as many 
 as were absolutely necessary, whom they paid, in 
 great part, out of the rates. The residue they 
 compelled, in my neighbourhood at least, if single 
 men, to come to the workhouse, whence they were 
 marched out every day in gangs to do whatever 
 jobs the overseer might think fit to put them to. 
 It chanced, also, that the overseer of Ash for that 
 year was a harsh taskmaster. If no better employ- 
 ment could be found for able-bodied paupers, he 
 caused them to dig holes in the ground, and fill 
 them up again, and wounded their susceptibilities, 
 perhaps still more deeply, by substituting for the 
 good product of malt and hops, which used to be 
 the workhouse beverage, beer brewed from molasses.
 
 AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS IN 1830 33 
 
 Whether similar practices were followed elsewhere, 
 I did not know then, and do not know now, but 
 that for some reason or another a bad spirit was 
 universal among the working-classes soon became 
 evident. No barricades were raised in the streets 
 of London, but throughout the provinces, especially 
 in Hampshire, in Sussex, and in Kent, a civil war 
 of the worst kind broke out. The cry was raised 
 that men were wantonly thrown out of work by the 
 substitution of machinery for manual labour. As 
 had been the case in the manufacturing districts, 
 when spinning-jennies put hand-looms out of date, 
 so now, in the rural districts, threshing-machines 
 became abhorrent to the labouring-classes. Day 
 after day, gangs of excited men marched through 
 the land, invading farmhouses, and compelling their 
 occupants to bring out their threshing-machines 
 in order that they might be broken. From such 
 invasions Ash, my parish, was not exempt. It 
 played, on the contrary, rather a conspicuous part 
 in the drama, and thus brought me face to face 
 with difficulties of no common order. For up to 
 that moment I had been on the most amicable 
 terms with all classes of my people. I could not 
 indeed approve of the manner in which with us, as 
 well as elsewhere, the poor-law was abused. But 
 I had no power to prevent it, nor, to confess the 
 truth, could I clearly see my way to a better system 
 of management. With the farmers therefore — and 
 we had no resident squire — my relations were always 
 
 c
 
 34 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 excellent, and by the labourers and their families 
 I was held both in respect and affection. But it 
 was impossible for me, with some of the habits of 
 my original calling still unchanged, to sit still and 
 see the parish in a state of mutiny. The invasion 
 of Ash took place, I well recollect, on what was 
 the market-day at Sandwich. I was sitting hard 
 at work in my study, when my servant rushed in, 
 pale and out of breath, to inform me that *' a 
 thousand men at least " were marching through the 
 parish, breaking machines, and compelling the 
 farmers' wives to give them drink. I ordered my 
 horse to be saddled, and, running out of doors, found 
 six or eight of the tenantry all mounted and 
 grouped together in the village street. The crowd 
 was in a remote part of the parish, though not so far 
 removed as to prevent our hearing the shouts which 
 accompanied every act of violence. I urged my 
 neighbours to follow me and help to put a stop to 
 the tumult. Only one man responded to the call ; 
 the rest, pleading business in the market-town, 
 rode away, indifferent to the reproaches which in my 
 indignation I sent after them. And good George 
 Quested, the parson's churchwarden, and the parson 
 himself, were left to face the mutineers, and take 
 the consequences. 
 
 All that followed is as fresh in my memory as if 
 events which occurred sixty years ago had occurred 
 but yesterday. We trotted down to the district 
 called West Marsh, and encountered a body of some
 
 MACHINE-BREAKING AT ASH 35 
 
 forty or fifty men who had just smashed a threshing- 
 machine at one farmhouse, and were moving towards 
 another. We saw at a glance that the bulk of the 
 throng were not parishioners ; the leaders, on the 
 contrary, and a good many of their followers, were 
 strangers, both to Quested and me, thereby giving 
 confirmation to the opinion, which was prevalent at 
 the time, that the impulse to mischief came from 
 abroad. As soon as the crowd saw us approach, and 
 heard me desire them to stop, almost all the Ash 
 men hung back ; the others moved on, led by a 
 fellow in the garb of a sailor, and shouted to us 
 to get out of the way, otherwise worse would come 
 of it. I was satisfied that the majority of the rioters 
 would certainly not join in any attack upon us, and 
 persuaded myself that they would interfere, if the 
 need arose, in our defence ; and in this faith I rode 
 at once against the leader and seized him by the 
 collar. His own people made a move to close round 
 him, but meeting with no support from behind, they 
 stopped short. Then followed a sort of parley, of 
 which the conclusion was, that the rioters agreed to 
 follow me quietly into the village and then disperse, 
 provided I did not insist on making a prisoner of 
 the sailor. And they kept their word. Once, and 
 only once, coming on a threshing-machine, which a 
 farmer had brought out of his yard and placed in 
 their way, a partial rush was made towards it. But 
 when I dismounted and planted myself beside it, 
 saying at the same time that I would mark the first
 
 36 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 man who laid a hand upon it, a shout was raised to 
 " Let it alone." And let alone it was. We there- 
 upon resumed our march, Quested and I leading, 
 without an attempt made to commit any other out- 
 rage by the way. 
 
 Whether any report was made of these proceed- 
 ings to the Lord- Lieutenant, or my conduct on 
 one or two subsequent occasions had attracted his 
 attention, I do not know. But I was soon after- 
 wards surprised and gratified by receiving a 
 communication from the Clerk of the County to the 
 effect that my name had been submitted in the 
 proper quarter for a commission as Justice of the 
 Peace. I could not possibly decline the honour, the 
 country being in so disturbed a condition, and may 
 even go so far, without boasting, as to say that in 
 my new capacity I did some service to the State. 
 Machine-breaking had become troublesome, and to a 
 certain extent dangerous. Had the county magis- 
 trates acted at the outset with greater vigour, it 
 never could have grown to what it became, for one 
 or two convictions, followed by transportation for 
 seven years, put a stop to it. Hence, while men's 
 minds misgave them in London, and other great 
 towns, we in the country persuaded ourselves that 
 from danger to person and property we might now 
 consider ourselves free. We were not left long 
 under this delusion. A more formidable evil soon 
 overtook us, because we had more to guard against 
 in the shape of incendiarism. Night after night
 
 INCENDIARISM AT ASH 37 
 
 stackyards and barns took fire, and when engines 
 hurried from the nearest towns to each imperilled 
 spot, the crowds which gathered to watch the blaze 
 refused to work with them. I remember to this day 
 the impression made upon me when returning home 
 from a visit to Scotland with my family. I saw, as 
 I approached Ash, late in the autumual evening, the 
 glare of the strong red reflection of what was 
 evidently a fire upon a large scale. Nor were 
 we left in doubt as to the case. The overseer's farm 
 and stackyard were in flames, and the crowd which 
 had gathered to watch the progress of the con- 
 flagration shouted as rick after rick caught fire. 
 Becker, for such was the overseer's name, had 
 acquired and deserved a high character for courage. 
 He was a powerful man, against whom at market- 
 dinners, when a good deal of strong drink was con- 
 sumed, few ventured to stand up, and those who did 
 invariably went down. He expressed himself like- 
 wise on all occasions in very contemptuous terms 
 of the hostile feelings of the working-classes, and 
 boasted of a double-barrelled gun always ready for 
 such of them as should attempt to do him an injury. 
 There was an end of all this display of bravado now. 
 As he moved about among the wreck of his property, 
 haggard and incapable, as it seemed, of giving direc- 
 tion to others, it was impossible not to pity him, 
 and the more because from time to time scores were 
 heard to cry aloud, " Where's your double-barrelled 
 gun now, Becker ? Why don't you hand out your
 
 38 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 treacle beer ? " Nor was the Beckers' the only fire 
 that spread dismay and brought disgrace upon the 
 neighbourhood. Far and near, night after night, 
 huge bonfires of corn and fodder broke in upon the 
 darkness, and the very atmosphere for days was 
 scented with the odour of smouldering ashes. 
 
 It was during the prevalence of scenes like these 
 that the Duke paid his usual visit in the autumn 
 of 1830 to Walmer Castle, and there, for the first 
 time in my life, I met Sir Robert Peel. Of the 
 impression he made upon me I will not speak here, 
 because the proper time for doing so will occur by 
 and by. But I may mention, in passing, the state of 
 the country, and still more, perhaps, that the condi- 
 tion of the Tory party appeared to have made a deeper 
 impression upon him than they seemed to do upon 
 the Duke. This is not perhaps to be wondered at. 
 Peel, who, as Home Secretary, was charged with the 
 maintenance of public tranquillity, had not gone 
 through that training which enabled the Duke to 
 remain cool and collected amid pressing dangers. 
 It would have been strange therefore had he been 
 as able as his illustrious chief to put a restraint 
 upon his anxiety. But whether this was the sole 
 operating cause, or other feelings moved him, I 
 could not but be struck at the marked difference in 
 the tone of their conversation when passing events 
 were referred to. The Duke spoke openly on the 
 prevalence of discontent at home, and the unhappy 
 way in which it showed itself; of the French
 
 THE DUKE AND SIR ROBERT PEEL 39 
 
 Revolution, and its mischievous influence abroad ; 
 and on the probable results of the General Election 
 consequent on the demise of the Crown. Peel, on 
 the other hand, sat silent and reserved, or, if he 
 spoke at all, it was only to show that such discus- 
 sions were the reverse of agreeable to him. One 
 custom, however, I noticed, common to both. They 
 abused the newspapers, and professed to hold 
 their comments in contempt ; yet twice a day 
 copies of all that were published in London arrived 
 in duplicates at the Castle, and twice a day both 
 the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary spent 
 much time in studying them. On the whole, how- 
 ever, the brief interval between the Dissolution 
 and the meeting of the new Parliament proved, so 
 far as the Duke was concerned, one of comparative 
 quiet. He might be, and probably was, little satis- 
 fied with the general aspect of public affairs, but, 
 unlike Peel, he kept his anxieties to himself, and 
 made his house as agreeable to his visitors as if 
 there hung no cloud on the political horizon. 
 
 They who read these sketches can scarcely be 
 made to understand how anxiously public opinion 
 was affected in 1830 by the first advances of railway 
 travelling towards a system. Up to that date the 
 possibility of acquiring such a mastery over steam as 
 to make it the instrument of locomotion by land as 
 well as by sea was called in question, and the engineer 
 who proposed to construct a line which would connect 
 Liverpool with Manchester was spoken of in general
 
 40 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 society as next door to a madman. The work was, 
 however, completed, and in order to give ^clat to 
 the triumph of genius over nature, the Duke of 
 WelHngton was invited, in his capacity of Prime 
 Minister, to take part in the opening journey. It 
 chanced that he was at Walmer and surrounded, 
 by a large company of guests when the invitation 
 reached him, and not a few, especially his lady 
 friends, were urgent with him to decline. "No 
 great or permanent good could come of the inven- 
 tion, because stage-coaches already travelled at the 
 rate of eight or nine or even ten miles in the hour, 
 and if the attempt were made to exceed that pace, 
 the respiration of passengers would become painful, 
 perhaps impossible." The Duke would listen to no 
 remonstrances. He thought, as others did, that the 
 experiment was risky, and derided the idea of ac- 
 celerating the pace, as was promised, to twenty 
 miles an hour. Even a twelve- mile pace he 
 regarded as excessive, because difficult, if not im- 
 possible to control, and agreed in the opinion that 
 iron way would never, for general traffic, supersede 
 our macadamised roads, then brought to perfection. 
 But he considered himself bound to play the part 
 assigned to him, in what was represented to be a 
 great national enterprise, and, insisting on his friends 
 remaining in the Castle till his return, he departed. 
 We did wait his return, which was not delayed 
 beyond the time required for the double journey, 
 and he arrived, dining with us a changed man. The
 
 THE DUKE AND PALMERSTON 41 
 
 unfortunate death of Huskisson, due entirely to his 
 own lack of presence of mind, had made a very 
 painful impression on the Duke. He described it 
 as the most shocking spectacle he had ever wit- 
 nessed, and though freely admitting the fault lay 
 with Mr. Huskisson himself, he never afterwards, as 
 long as it was possible to find posthorses, could be 
 persuaded to travel by rail. 
 
 The company broke up soon after the Duke's 
 return, only Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot and myself 
 remaining, at his request, behind. It seemed as if a 
 load were lifted from his mind by the departure of 
 the others, for he became, to an extent which was 
 new at least to me, communicative on all manner of 
 subjects. He spoke much of Huskisson in connec- 
 tion with Canning and Palmerston, insisted that 
 Canning had learnt more from Huskisson than he 
 taught him, and censured Palmerston for widening 
 on all occasions, instead of trying to reconcile, 
 divisions in the Cabinet. Even at the last, he said, 
 it was quite in Palmerston's power to have arrested 
 the break-up. " But Palmerston never liked me. 
 I stood in his way when he attempted and all but 
 succeeded in subordinating the office of Commander- 
 in-Chief to that of Secretary at War, and he never 
 forgave me. As Secretary at War, in his proper 
 place he behaved well enough, but as a member of 
 my Cabinet he was by no means an agreeable col- 
 league. I may be wrong, but I have always sus- 
 pected him of having put Huskisson up to the move
 
 42 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 which led to the tender of his resignation. He 
 imagined that without Huskisson and his friends, 
 himself being one of them, I should not be able to 
 get on, though what he expected to follow my fail- 
 ure, I do not pretend to guess." 
 
 " Did you really feel Huskisson to be a 
 serious loss to your administration — he was not 
 a great speaker, and Peel and he had little in 
 common ? " 
 
 Duke. " He was not a great speaker, certainly, 
 but he had clear views of his own on most subjects, 
 and expressed them clearly in Parliament. He 
 didn't much like Peel, nor Peel him, but they got on 
 tolerably well together — as well, that is to say, as 
 men constituted like them could be expected to do. 
 It was not an easy team to drive, I can assure you, 
 and Huskisson, though he made a bad start, was 
 by no means the most restive of the set. I should 
 have been very glad to keep him, had he taken the 
 only course open to him by withdrawing his letter, 
 but it was impossible for me to accept his assurance 
 that he never intended to resign, and had not 
 therefore resigned at all. I gave Dudley a pretty 
 broad hint of what would set all to rights, and if 
 Dudley conferred, as I have reason to believe he 
 did, with Palmerston, before seeing Huskisson, it 
 seems to me more probable that Palmerston per- 
 suaded him to be silent, than that Dudley, who 
 really did not wish to leave me, should have 
 deceived Huskisson."
 
 THE DUKE AND HUSKISSON 43 
 
 " We all know that Huskisson was very sorry for 
 the part he played in the Penrhyn case, and would 
 have come back to you on your own terms, if you 
 had given him any encouragement. It was with 
 this view that he was invited to meet you at Lord 
 Hertford's." 
 
 Duke. " I am quite aware of all that, but it 
 was then too late. I could not possibly request 
 Murray, or anybody else, who had joined me in my 
 hour of need, to make way for one who had twice 
 kicked over the traces, and was just as likely as 
 not to do so again. The Government would have 
 lost rather than gained strength, had I acted other- 
 wise than I did." 
 
 " You found a coalition with the Whigs to be 
 impossible ? " 
 
 Duke. " I never tried to coalesce with the 
 Whigs. Lord Grey was made aware that I was 
 open to any proposals from him, because I believed 
 that in repealing the laws against the Catholics I 
 had bridged over all serious differences of views 
 that kept us asunder, and had he acted on his own 
 judgment, I believed at one time that he might 
 have formed such a Government as would have 
 commanded the respect of the country. But Lord 
 Grey, able man as he is, and eloquent in debate, 
 is very proud, and, at the same time, deficient in 
 self-reliance. He was over-persuaded by those 
 about him, and especially by his son-in-law, to 
 reject my advances, and was the more easily
 
 44 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 induced to do so because of the King's former 
 treatment of him. His refusal, and the de- 
 fection of the Canningites, left me no alterna- 
 tive except to work with such tools as came to 
 hand."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The new Parliament met on the 26th October 
 1830. While the General Election was going on, 
 hopes were entertained that the Government would 
 command a small majority, but as return after 
 return came in, these grew continually fainter, and 
 in the end vanished away. The truth is that the 
 Duke's administration had never been much in 
 favour with the country. There prevailed in those 
 days, among all classes, an extreme jealousy of 
 soldier-statesmen, from the influence of which the 
 Duke, in spite of his eminent services, was not 
 exempt ; and though the extent to which he 
 reduced public expenditure was freely admitted, 
 even that failed to enlist public opinion on his side. 
 The press, likewise, was generally hostile to him ; 
 he had never courted it, but, on the contrary, em- 
 braced every opportunity of vilifying and sneering 
 at it, and, when Prime Minister, avoided as much as 
 possible all communication with newspaper editors 
 and writers. Now Canning, throughout the whole 
 of his public life, had acted on a principle directly 
 the reverse, and his followers, aware of the policy 
 of so acting, took their cue from him. The con- 
 sequence was that even the Courier, at that time 
 
 46
 
 46 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 almost the sole ministerial paper in London, gave 
 to the Duke's ministers but a half-hearted support, 
 while all the rest, especially after the passing of 
 the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, did their best to 
 write him down. 
 
 Fully alive to these facts, and convinced that the 
 prevalent hostile feeling was personal to himself, 
 the Duke could not bring himself to believe, in 
 spite of the equivocal results of the General Election, 
 that it would be impossible to carry on the Govern- 
 ment as it had heretofore been conducted. All 
 that was needed in order to keep things straight 
 was, in his opinion, that he should retire and a more 
 popular statesman take his place. His language 
 was this : "There are not fewer than six parties in 
 the country — the Radicals, who oppose all Govern- 
 ments ; the ultra-Tories, with the Duke of Cumber- 
 land at their head; Lord Grey, his followers not 
 very numerous; the Whigs, of whom Brougham 
 may be regarded as the spokesman ; the Canningites, 
 and ourselves. We are much stronger, both in 
 Parliament and out, than any one of our opponents, 
 and if I were out of the way, it appears to me that 
 they would be unable to agree among themselves 
 respecting our successors ; factions holding views 
 so widely divergent would scarcely unite for the 
 single purpose of turning us out. If I remain 
 at the head of the Government, it is likely 
 enough that the hatred of me may lead to a 
 movement of this sort, and should this occur.
 
 POLITICAL SITUATION, 1830 47 
 
 and our ministration be broken up, the conse- 
 quences cannot fail to be serious. For, however 
 difficult it may be for an Opposition so disjointed 
 to form an administration from it, sometime or 
 other they will, and unless they bring forward at 
 once obviously revolutionary measures, a Govern- 
 ment fairly beaten and forced to resign would be 
 guilty of postponing public duty to party purposes, 
 were it to refuse to its successor a fair trial. On 
 these grounds I am very desirous that Peel should 
 become First Lord of the Treasury. He might, 
 though I could not — after the line taken by Lord 
 Grey at the opening of the last session — make 
 another attempt to bring him into the Government. 
 I doubt whether the Government would not lose as 
 much as it gained by such an arrangement, because, 
 though the late King's death has removed the most 
 serious obstacle out of the way, Lord Grey would 
 not prove a very manageable subordinate. His 
 following is small. But the trial might be made, 
 and failing success in that quarter, the Canningites 
 — with whom, after all that has passed, I could not 
 act — would hardly refuse to take office under Peel. 
 Moreover, the fact that the Prime Minister sat in 
 the House of Commons and not in the Lords would 
 go some way to win the favour of the public. On 
 the whole, therefore, though far from sanguine, I 
 think the tide would turn in our favour were I to 
 go back to the army and Peel take my place. And 
 I am confident that if we could tide over the first
 
 48 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 few months, our party would ere long become as 
 powerful as it ever was," 
 
 Peel, as is well known, declined to accede to the 
 Duke's wish. Perhaps he really distrusted his own 
 power to conciliate any section of the Opposition, 
 for — and I write the words with some diffidence — 
 he might have no particular desire to extricate from 
 his difficulties one who, on a memorable occasion, 
 had made, as it were, a scapegoat of him. Be 
 this as it may, the Duke, though he bore himself 
 bravely in public, felt keenly the difficulties of his 
 position. Foreign affairs were all in confusion — 
 the revolution in Paris made itself felt in every 
 country in Europe, leading to the revolt of his 
 Belgian provinces against the King of the Nether- 
 lands, the expulsion of the Bussian garrison from 
 Warsaw, and popular risings in Germany ; then 
 with the disputed succession in Portugal and the 
 threatened intervention of Spain, the internal affairs 
 of her neighbour exercised him greatly, because of 
 the danger lest one mishap or other, or all combined, 
 should bring on a great European war. At home 
 the state of Ireland threatened to become more in- 
 tolerable than ever. The concession of the political 
 rights to the Boman Catholics only encouraged 
 them to make fresh demands, and the hostility 
 between them and the Orangemen in the North 
 grew every day more rancorous. Moreover, a faint 
 cry for reform of the House of Commons began to 
 be heard, and so unpopular had the ministry become,
 
 FALL OF THE DUKE's ADMINISTRATION 49 
 
 that for the Secretary of State for the Colonies 
 no place in Parliament could be found. All but 
 despairing of the future, the Duke put a strong re- 
 straint upon himself, and through Lord Clive offered 
 Lord Palmerston a place in the Cabinet ; the offer 
 was declined, and nothing remained except to face 
 whatever the near future might bring about. 
 
 I must not, however, trespass further on the pro- 
 vince of history. They who read it, if it be only in 
 the Annual Register, will learn how, during the 
 autumn of 1830, discontent and incendiarism spread 
 throughout the country. 
 
 Birmingham led the way in forming a political 
 union which had its branches in London and other 
 great towns. Wild, anonymous letters, full of 
 threatening, reached public men, and hence the 
 King, after promising to dine at the Mansion 
 House in November, was restrained by the Govern- 
 ment from fulfilling the engagement. 
 
 With these and other great events arising out 
 of them I have no right to meddle further. They 
 proved too strong for the Duke's administration 
 to grapple with, and, defeated in the House of 
 Commons on a question affecting the Civil List, 
 members announced that they retained ofiice 
 only till their successors should be appointed. 
 And in due time, though not without some delay, 
 caused by Lord Grey's reluctance to stifle 
 Brougham's Reform Motion, by raising him to the 
 woolsack, appointed they were.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 I NEVER saw the Duke so depressed as he appeared 
 to be during the few days he spent at Walmer, 
 prior to the reassembling of Parliament. For the 
 resignation of his Government occurred on the 
 16th of November, and the Houses having ad- 
 journed, after passing a few urgent measures, did 
 not meet again till the following February. Of 
 this interval, one portion was spent in London, 
 another at Strathfieldsaye, and a third — a very 
 limited one — at Walmer. The great man made no 
 attempt to hide from the few friends who met him 
 there his anxiety respecting the future. He spoke 
 openly, likewise, about the causes which had led to 
 the ministerial defeat, which he attributed in part 
 to the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, 
 in part to the French Revolution. He would 
 not admit for a moment that his own abrupt de- 
 claration against parliamentary reform had the 
 slightest influence on the matter. " I did not 
 declare against parliamentary reform in any 
 shape. What I said was, that Parliament, as now 
 constituted, provided means for attending to the 
 interests of every portion of the Empire, and of
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 51 
 
 every class in the community ; that in what are 
 called nomination branches, seats were provided for 
 gentlemen representing the interests of India and 
 the Colonies ; that the labouring-classes had their 
 spokesmen in the freemen of some boroughs, and 
 the potwallopers of others ; and that till I saw 
 a scheme better adapted to serve all their interests 
 than that now in existence, I would never propose 
 or support any proposal to interfere with it. My 
 speech had nothing whatever to do with our defeat, 
 which had been arranged and determined upon 
 before the Houses met. It was, as I have just said, 
 the Catholic question that gave us the first shake 
 which the French Revolution, occurring just as the 
 General Election had begun, completed. I confess 
 that I did not count on losing so many of our 
 friends as forsook us in consequence of the Catholic 
 Relief Bill. Nor do I believe that we should have 
 lost them but for the extraordinary influence 
 exercised by the Duke of Cumberland over the late 
 King, and the King's extraordinary method of 
 carrying on the business of the country. But so it 
 was, and there was nothing left for us, except to let 
 all parties understand that office was accessible to 
 every man against whom the King did not enter- 
 tain a personal prejudice. We hoped thus to 
 strengthen ourselves by bringing in the more 
 moderate of the Whigs ; but the Whigs would not 
 come except as a party, and as a party we could 
 not receive them. We had the Canningites, and
 
 52 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 having no success with them, we determined to 
 fight the battle by ourselves, and as we were by far 
 the strongest party of all, I have no doubt we 
 should have fought it successfully, but for the 
 French Revolution. That came at a most unfor- 
 tunate moment, and turned the heads of the 
 constituencies. And, now, what is the prospect 
 before us ? The gentlemen now in power are com- 
 mitted to Revolution by the applause with which, 
 as private persons, they greeted those in Paris and 
 Brussels. They must thus be at one in their 
 foreign politics, though how they are to govern in 
 the King's name, and in maintenance of his con- 
 stitutional authority, I, for one, cannot see. But 
 now about our home policy. No two of them think 
 alike about corn laws, currency, and income-tax, 
 or even parliamentary reform. And their ideas 
 as to the proper mode of governing Ireland are so 
 expressed as to mean anything. The short and the 
 long of it is, that with such a Government to direct 
 our affairs, I anticipate both foreign war and 
 confusion, not to say revolution, at home." 
 
 Holding these opinions, the Duke still deprecated 
 any attempt prematurely to overthrow the existing 
 administration. The breach between his party and 
 the ultra-Protestants was still open ; and he felt 
 not only that it would be improper not to give their 
 members for the time being a fair trial, but that 
 were any combination capable of throwing them out, 
 there was no party capable to take their place.
 
 THE REFORM BILL 53 
 
 But no sooner was their scheme of parliamentary 
 reform made known than all his enercfies seemed to 
 return. The question raised was in his opinion 
 whether the monarchy should make way for the 
 democracy, and all the great institutions of the 
 country, as well as the rights and properties of 
 individuals, be set aside, not by violence, but by 
 due course of law. " It was a Revolution in itself," 
 he once said to me, " which ought to have been 
 crushed in the bud, and I suggested to Peel the 
 propriety of moving that leave be refused to in- 
 troduce the Bill. But Peel always had his own 
 views about what was due to the House of 
 Commons, and my advice was not acted upon. 
 And now you see what a mess we are in." What- 
 ever may be thought of the ruling motive which 
 guided Earl Grey and his colleagues in their policy, 
 there is no denying the skill with which their 
 ministerial measure was concocted, and the adroit 
 manner in which, during the progress of incubation, 
 its authors kept their own counsel. Not the House 
 of Commons only, but the whole country, was taken 
 by surprise when the details of the Beform Bill 
 were made public. Not the most advanced of the 
 Liberals in town or country had anticipated any- 
 thing so drastic, and even of Conservatives, or, as 
 they called themselves, Tories, there were many 
 who at the first blush pronounced in favour of it. 
 As to the newspapers, all, or nearly all, without 
 exception, as well metropolitan as provincial,
 
 54 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 joined in a chorus of applause, and it seemed for 
 a moment as if, without the slightest opposition in 
 any quarter, the Government would achieve a great 
 success. Yet the interval between the first and 
 second reading of the Bill sufficed to dispel in 
 many quarters the delusion — for so the Duke 
 pronounced it to be — under which men laboured, 
 mainly, it must be allowed, because of the extrava- 
 gant terms in which the press spoke to the 
 working-classes of the benefits they must receive 
 from the new order of things. The reaction, how- 
 ever, was not so decided as to make them in any 
 way alive to the folly they had committed. They 
 might see the peculiar tendency of the course 
 which the Government had entered, but they 
 could not bring themselves to arrest it, because 
 a defeat of the present Government must bring 
 back the Duke and Peel into power. Hence not a 
 few, who had to repent the proceeding, voted in 
 favour of the Bill on the second reading, thus 
 enabling it to pass by a slender majority of nine. 
 This was all that the Government desired. They 
 had no intention, if they could help it, of fighting 
 the battle of Reform with the existing Parliament, 
 and seized in consequence the first appearance of 
 opposition in Committee to dissolve. Amidst what 
 disgraceful scenes the command for a dissolution 
 went forth, I need not stop to discuss. Angry 
 mobs traversed the streets of London, without the 
 faintest attempt made by the police to disperse
 
 PASSAGE OF THE BILL 55 
 
 them, committing all sorts of outrages, and break- 
 ing, among others, the windows of Apsley House, 
 where the Duke was in attendance by the dying 
 bed of the Duchess. 
 
 The ministers, doubtless, saw in this the ultimate 
 triumph of their policy. Its immediate effect was 
 to open the eyes of many who, had they not 
 allowed themselves to be blinded by passion, 
 would have earlier seen that the repeal of the 
 last of the penal laws against the Koman Catholics 
 constituted no ground of permanent estrangement 
 between them and the Wellington administra- 
 tion. 
 
 As I have elsewhere said, I had not up to that 
 moment taken much interest in politics, and had 
 never written a political paper in my life. My con- 
 tributions to Blackivood had all been either literary 
 or theological, and even these, in consequence of 
 numerous engagements elsewhere, had of late been 
 withheld. But it was impossible to be as much in 
 the Duke's society as I then had the happiness to 
 be, and to hear him day by day speak as he did, 
 without catching the infection, and becoming as 
 fully convinced as he was that on the defeat of the 
 ministerial measure depended the existence of the 
 monarchy. Naturally my first thought was turned 
 towards the best means of working upon public 
 opinion. Though never myself a contributor to 
 any newspaper, either daily or weekly, I had 
 made the acquaintance of many gentlemen who
 
 56 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 did contribute, and fully understood from them 
 how different was the treatment they and their 
 collaborateurs received at the hands of the Tories 
 and the Whigs. This knowledge it was which 
 induced me to begin a correspondence with the 
 Duke which gradually mixed me up more closely 
 than I anticipated or desired in a struggle, from 
 the outset, all but hopeless. 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, April 4, 1831. 
 
 "My Lord Duke, — If the aspect of the times 
 were different from what it is, I might well 
 apologise for the contents of this letter. As the 
 case stands, I persuade myself you will not con- 
 sider the suggestions I am about to make either 
 impertinent or valueless. 
 
 " I think it was Lord Wynford who said in the 
 House of Lords that the few who stand up in 
 defence of the British constitution are cramped and 
 hindered through lack of a greater support from 
 without. Why is this ? Not because you have no 
 friends and adherents in the country, for you have 
 many, but because you have no unity among your- 
 selves ; and, above aU, you exercise no control over 
 the periodical press. Now the press is a very 
 powerful engine, of which your opponents fully 
 understand the value, and of which they wisely 
 make use. My Lord, you must endeavour to do 
 likewise, otherwise there can be no hope for you in 
 the present or any other great struggle.
 
 A SCHEME FOR A NEWSPAPER CAMPAIGN 57 
 
 " There is one branch of the periodical press to 
 which, it appears to me, due attention has never 
 been paid. I allude to the country newspapers. 
 Let the London papers write as they will ; but if 
 the party of which your Grace is the head, the 
 genuine supporters of your country's greatness, are 
 in earnest, I beseech you to come forward not with 
 your voices in the senate only, but with your 
 influence out of doors. In other words, if you feel 
 that the present is a great crisis, make arrange- 
 ments for setting up in every county one or more 
 newspapers which shall advocate the cause to 
 which you are attached. I will stake my credit 
 upon it, that if this course be pursued to its proper 
 limits, you will work even yet such a change in 
 public opinion as shall surprise both you and 
 the Government. No doubt, such arrangements 
 will be attended with expense, but it is quite 
 evident that neither your Grace's high character 
 in the one House, nor Sir Robert Peel's authority 
 in the other, is adequate, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, to stem the tide that has set in. 
 You must find an organ through which to 
 address the people at large, otherwise you labour 
 in vain. 
 
 "I do not know how other counties are circum- 
 stanced, but in Kent, papers are published in three 
 different towns, in Maidstone, Canterbury, and 
 Rochester. You ought to command one in each. 
 I am much deceived if the money laid out in the
 
 58 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 establishment of them would not eventually be 
 recovered, but at all events the experiment is 
 worth trying. 
 
 " I have only to add that, though a poor man, I 
 am ready to subscribe my proportion, and, as far as 
 I can, to give a direction to the tone of all the 
 Kentish papers ; and I speak from book when 
 I say that there are many gentlemen in the 
 county who would willingly come forward in like 
 manner. 
 
 "Permit me to crave one favour here. I have 
 not dropped a hint of this idea to any one, and 
 I trust that your Grace, if you think it worth while 
 to notice the suororestion, will write to me in con- 
 fidence, so that I may hear from you before 
 Thursday — Friday our Quarter Sessions are held, 
 when without committing you, I might feel the 
 pulse of my brother-magistrates. 
 
 " Believe me, with the most profound respect 
 and admiration, your Grace's obliged and faithful 
 servant, G. E. Gleig. 
 
 " P.S. — I have already done my best to get the 
 command of one paper, but found the proprietor 
 stubborn because the Tories, as usual, seem afraid 
 to speak their opinions. There are multitudes 
 whom dread of abuse in the public papers keep 
 neutral."
 
 THE duke's contempt FOR THE PRESS 59 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, Ajoril 6, 1831. 
 
 " I have received your letter of the 4th inst. I 
 acknowledge that I allowed my contempt for the 
 newspapers — a contempt founded upon the experi- 
 ence of a long life, of their utter inefficiency to do 
 an individual any mischief, even when directed by 
 such men as Cobbett, Walter, Brougham, Jeffrey, 
 Perry, Alexander, etc. — to influence my con- 
 duct in respect to the press, when I was in office. 
 The press is an engine of a very different descrip- 
 tion, when it attacks individuals, and when it 
 attacks the institutions of the country. It is 
 powerful in respect to the latter, and no man can 
 blame my own neglect more than I do. But I 
 must say this, the fault is not entirely mine. I 
 succeeded to a period of total disorganisation. 
 There were neither funds nor men at my disposal to 
 do even the little I wished to do upon this subject 
 when I was in office. In the meanwhile the French 
 Revolution and its consequences, and the press, 
 destroyed the Government, and here we are in 
 a real crisis. I assure you that I am not insensible 
 to its importance. I firmly believe what I stated 
 on my legs in the House of Lords. 
 
 " In a short time, and that a period approaching 
 nearer to be counted by months than by years, 
 nothing will remain of England but the name and 
 the soil. Its greatness will be in history, but every- 
 thing which occasioned it, preserved it, and would
 
 60 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 perpetuate it, will be annihilated. Our laws are 
 strong and even sanguinary, but our Government 
 is mild, and has of late years become more so daily, 
 insomuch that we scarcely feel that it exists. To 
 this habitual mildness, I might almost say apathy 
 of the Government, I attribute the want of sensi- 
 bility of men in general to measures proposed by the 
 King's ministers, which must occasion the destruc- 
 tion of all Government and authority in the 
 country, and deprive all of the protection hitherto 
 enjoyed for persons and property. 
 
 "In a country in which there are the largest 
 properties, real as well as personal, held by subjects 
 of any in the world, in which there are various 
 institutions established by law, or by charter, or by 
 usage, necessary for the peace, the happiness, or the 
 security of the country or its individuals, in which 
 there are questions daily occurring for the arbitra- 
 tion and decision of Government, between general 
 utility on the one hand, and private property on 
 the other, we have of a sudden discovered that we 
 can go on without a Government in Parliament ; 
 that the popular influence in Parhament is not 
 strong enough, and that we must try new theories 
 in order to strengthen that influence, which, at the 
 same time, we are assured will not produce the 
 efiect announced to be intended, but will tend to 
 strengthen the influence of property in Parliament, 
 and the Conservative influence in the country. 
 We are thus to be cheated to our ruin and destruc-
 
 HIS FEAR OF REFORM 61 
 
 tion, which I consider to be as certain, if this 
 measure passes the Parliament, as it is that I am 
 writing by the Hght of the day. 
 
 " I have done everything in my power to awaken 
 the public to a sense of the danger, but hitherto 
 without much efiect. Expense has not been spared 
 to obtain some assistance from the press, and I 
 believe that some progress has been made. But, of 
 course, I can have but little, if anything, to say 
 to these eftbrts. If you should have no objection, 
 however, I could put you into communication with 
 some persons who have turned their attention to 
 this subject, and in the meantime I think that you 
 would do well to communicate with those whom 
 you may think capable and willing either to con- 
 tribute or exert themselves in the general cause 
 in Kent. 
 
 " Of this all may be certain, there never was a 
 cause to such a degree the cause of the 2>^iblic in 
 general as this is. The question reduced to its 
 simple terms is this. Shall we continue to have a 
 Government capable of protecting our lives, pro- 
 perties, and institutions, or shall we not ? Or rather, 
 shall we incur the certain loss of all these — the 
 happiness, and prosperity, and greatness of our 
 country, in order to follow the example of the 
 delusive theories of our neighbours ? — Believe me, 
 ever yours most faithfully, Wellington."
 
 62 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 " Ash, near Wingham, April 8, 1831. 
 
 " I have only time, before setting out for Canter- 
 bury, to acknowledge the receipt of your Grace's 
 letter, and to beg of you to make any use of me 
 that you may think proper. 
 
 " I still cling to the idea of bringing influence to 
 bear upon the provincial press. The London papers 
 are seldom read by the yeomanry or the tradesmen 
 in the provinces, and they exercise comparatively 
 little influence over the minds of the educated 
 classes. Besides, the London press probably find 
 their own interest better consulted by sailing 
 with the stream rather than endeavouring to 
 arrest it. 
 
 *' We had a meeting of magistrates and country 
 gentlemen yesterday, almost all of whom were 
 opposed to the Bill, though, except one or two, all 
 seemed afraid of so much as getting up a petition 
 against it. To-day the subject will be resumed, 
 and I still hope that something may be done. 
 
 "Though I agree with your Grace in thinking 
 that change of any kind is dangerous, will it be 
 prudent to take up that line of argument ? Will it 
 not serve our purpose better to speak generally of 
 a wish to abolish corruption without trenching on 
 vested rights ? 
 
 " Our county member. Sir Edward KnatchbuU, 
 has been in communication with me for some time, 
 and seems ready to follow your Grace's lead ; but
 
 A SUGGESTED COMPROMISE 63 
 
 he lacks moral courage. — Believe me, most truly, 
 your Grace's obliged and faithful servant, 
 
 **G. R Gleig." 
 
 " Ash, near "Wingham, 
 ''Saturday Night, April 9, 1831, 
 
 " I have just returned from the Quarter Sessions, 
 and I think it right to communicate to your Grace 
 the substance of all that has been done, and is 
 likely to be done, by the gentry of this county. 
 
 "As an individual, I take the line of professing 
 hostility to any sudden change in the constitution. 
 Especially such a change as the Bill must produce. 
 But I do not find, even among the most decided 
 Tories here, one man in twenty who will subscribe 
 to the same sentiments. A conviction has gone 
 abroad that reform in some shape or another must 
 be accepted, and the only question seems to be as 
 to the extent to which changes shall be carried. 
 Whether this proceeds from intimidation, or from a 
 lialf-belief in the wisdom of the measure, it is not 
 worth while to inquire. Such, however, is the 
 plain state of the case, and I am much afraid that 
 if we strive to hold the ground which your Grace 
 has taken up, we shall be left without a single 
 supporter in this county. 
 
 " With this conviction in my mind I am prepared 
 to declare in general terms that I am not hostile to 
 the principle of reform, provided a reform can be 
 effected which shall not break in upon vested or
 
 64 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 corporate rights. A large majority of the gentle- 
 men of the county are ready to make a similar 
 declaration, and on Tuesday next Sir Brook Bridges, 
 Mr. Hammond, and Mr. Morrice are to dine here 
 for the purpose of drawing up with me a public 
 statement to this effect. It will be signed, I make 
 no doubt, by fifteen out of twenty of the landed pro- 
 prietors of the county, and will explicitly condemn 
 the ministerial measure as one fraught with the 
 most dangerous consequences. More than this it 
 is useless to attempt, and I assure your Grace 
 that some management was necessary to obtain 
 even this, 
 
 " And now permit me to press one point upon 
 your Grace's most serious consideration. It is quite 
 evident the Conservative party has become com- 
 paratively feeble, only because its members are not 
 at one among themselves. Will it not be prudent 
 to yield a little in order to remedy this most dis- 
 tressing evil? I do not ask your Grace to retract 
 one syllable which you have spoken or written. I 
 do not even desire to find you employing, in the 
 House of Lords, other arguments than those which 
 you already use there. But in your private corre- 
 spondence, I can see an incalculable measure of good 
 likely to arise from a certain modification of opinion, 
 could you bring yourself to adopt it. My Lord, 
 we want a leader, and we look to your Grace to 
 become such ; but we are composed of stufi* so 
 heterogeneous that we w^ll not follow, as our
 
 A SUGGESTED COMPROMISE 65 
 
 interests require us to do, any man who directly 
 opposes popular clamour. In plain language, if 
 your Grace would take the trouble to write me 
 such a letter as I could show to my fellow com- 
 mittee men on Tuesday — a statement, for example, 
 that while your own opinions remain unchanged, 
 you are ready to adopt the lesser of two evils, by 
 bringing forward a measure of your own, or at 
 least that you will not object to some measure of 
 temperate reform — I am much mistaken if it do 
 not immediately lead to the formation of a strong 
 and active Tory party in this quarter of the kingdom. 
 If we could thus throw out the Government, time 
 at least would be gained, and much might occur 
 in the interval to direct public attention in some 
 degree into other channels. 
 
 " The view of reform which seems to be most 
 generally taken here is this : l5^. That the large 
 towns, Birmingham and such like, shall have 
 members. 2nd. That the boroughs absolutely 
 decayed, Old Sarum, Grampound, etc., be dis- 
 franchised, ord. That the right of voting in other 
 boroughs, such as Romsey, Rye, etc., be extended 
 to all inhabitants paying a certain rental or assess- 
 ment, and in some cases thrown open to the 
 hundred. ^th. That some changes be effected 
 in the elective system of Scotland which shall 
 connect the privileges with absolute property in 
 the soil. 
 
 '* When I submit these four propositions to your 
 
 B
 
 66 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Grace, I do so with no intention of seeking to 
 influence your private judgment. All that I am 
 really anxious to obtain — and I confess that in this 
 I am deeply anxious — is some general assertion on 
 your part that, though unconvinced by any argu- 
 ments you have heard, you are still ready to with- 
 draw your opposition from everything in the shape 
 of reform. Were this given, however guardedly, it 
 would do more towards restoring unanimity among 
 the true friends of the country than any other 
 steps that could be taken. 
 
 " In case you think fit to consider this point, 
 may I beg the favour of a reply which shall reach 
 me, if possible, on Tuesday morning. — I am, with 
 the greatest respect, and most truly, your Grace's 
 obliged and faithful servant, G. R. Gleig." 
 
 "London, April 10, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letters of 
 the 8th and 9th. It is curious enough that I, who 
 have been the greatest reformer on earth, should 
 be held up as an enemy to all reform. This 
 assertion is neither more nor less than one of the 
 lying cries of the day. 
 
 " If by reform is meant parliamentary reform, or a 
 change in the mode and system of representation, 
 what I have said is, that I have never heard of a 
 plan that was safe and practicable that would give 
 satisfaction, and that, while I was in office, I should 
 oppose myself to reform in Parliament. This was
 
 THE duke's answer (J7 
 
 in answer to Lord Grey, on the first day of the 
 session. I am still of the same opinion. I think 
 that Parliament has done its duty — that, constituted 
 as Parliament is, having in it as a member every 
 man noted in the country for his fortune, his 
 talents, his science, his industry, or his influence, 
 the first men of all professions in all branches of 
 trade and manufacture, connected with our colonies 
 and settlements abroad, and representing, as it does, 
 all the states of the United Kingdom, the govern- 
 ment of the country is still a task almost more 
 than human. To conduct the government would 
 be almost impossible, if, by reform, the House of 
 Commons should be brought to a greater degree 
 under popular influence ; yet let those who wish 
 for reform reflect for a moment where we should all 
 stand if we were to lose for a day the protection of 
 Government. 
 
 " That is the ground on which I stand in respect 
 to the question of reform in general. I have more 
 experience in the government of this country than 
 any man now alive, as well as in foreign countries. 
 I have no borough influence to lose, and I hate the 
 whole concern too much, to think of endeavouring 
 to gain any. Ask the gentlemen of the Cinque 
 Ports whether I have ever troubled any of them. 
 
 " On the other hand, I know that I should be the 
 idol of the country if I could pretend to change 
 my opinion and alter my course, and I know that I 
 exclude myself from political power by persevering
 
 68 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 in the course which I have taken. But nothing 
 shall induce me to utter a word either in public or 
 in private that I don't believe to be true. If it be 
 God's will that this great country should be 
 destroyed, and that mankind should be deprived of 
 this last asylum of peace and happiness, be it so. 
 But as long as I can raise my voice, I shall do so 
 against the infatuated madness of the day. 
 
 " In respect to details, it has always appeared to 
 me that the first step upon the subject was the 
 most important. We talk of unrepresented great 
 towns. These are towns which have all the benefit 
 of being governed by the system of the British 
 constitution without the evil of elections. Look at 
 Scotland. Does Scotland suffer because it has not 
 the benefit of riotous elections ? I think that reform 
 in Scotland would be, and I am certain would be 
 thought, a grievance by many in that country. I 
 can answer for there being many respectable men in 
 Manchester, and I believe there are some in Birming- 
 ham and Leeds, who are adverse to change. 
 
 " But how is this change to be made ? Either by 
 adding to the number of the representatives in 
 Parliament from England ! or by disfranchising 
 what are called the Botten Boroughs ! The first 
 cannot be done without a departure from the basis 
 and a breach of the Acts of Union ; and mind, a 
 serious departure and breach of these Acts, inas- 
 much as the limits of the extension could not be 
 less than from fifteen to twenty towns.
 
 THE DUKES ANSWER 69 
 
 " The last would be, in my opinion, a violation of 
 the first and most important principle of the con- 
 stitution for no valid reason, and upon no ground 
 whatever, excepting a popular cry and an apprehen- 
 sion of the consequences of resisting it. But this 
 is not all. I confess that I see in thirty members 
 for Rotten Boroughs thirty men, I don't care of 
 which party, who would preserve the state of 
 property as it is, who would maintain by their 
 votes the Church of England, its possessions, its 
 churches and universities, all our great institutions 
 and corporations, the Union with Scotland and 
 Ireland, the union of the country with its foreign 
 colonies and possessions, the national honour 
 abroad, and its good faith with all the King's 
 subjects at home. I see men at the back of the 
 Government to enable it to protect individuals and 
 their property against the injustice of the times, 
 which would sacrifice all rights and all property to 
 a description of plunder called general convenience 
 and utility. I think that it is the presence of this 
 description of man in Parliament with the country 
 gentleman and the great merchants, bankers, and 
 manufacturers which constitutes the great difference 
 between the House of Commons and those 
 assemblies abroad called Chambers of Deputies. 
 It is by means of the representatives of the close 
 corporations that the great proprietors of the 
 country participate in political power. I don't 
 think that we could spare thirty or forty of these
 
 70 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 representatives, or change them with advantage for 
 thirty or forty members, elected for the great 
 towns by any new system. I am certain that the 
 country would be injured by depriving men of 
 great property of political power, besides the injury 
 done to it by exposing the House of Commons to a 
 greater degree of popular influence. 
 
 " You will observe that I have now considered 
 only the smallest of all reforms, a reform which 
 would satisfy nobody ; yet it cannot be adopted 
 without a serious departure from principle (principle 
 in the maintenance of which the smallest as well as 
 the greatest of us is interested), and by running all 
 the risks of those misfortunes which all wish to avoid. 
 
 " I tell you that we must not risk our great 
 institutions and large properties, personal as well 
 as real. If we do, there is not a man of this 
 generation so young, so old, so rich, so poor, so 
 bold, so timid as that he will not feel the con- 
 sequences of this rashness. 
 
 " This opinion is founded not on reasoning only, 
 but on experience, and I shall never cease to 
 declare it. — Believe me, my dear sir, ever yours 
 most faithfully, Wellington."
 
 CHAPTER y 
 
 From this time forth up to the termination of the 
 great struggle I had the happiness of being ad- 
 mitted into the Duke's entire confidence. He told 
 me of all that he had done and was going to do, in 
 order to hinder the Bill from passing. He showed 
 me his correspondence with the King, when reports, 
 founded on what appeared to be good authority, 
 reached him of the secret meaning of the Birming- 
 ham movements, and pointed out emphatically 
 those portions of his Majesty's reply which he 
 believed to be the outpouring of his own feelings in 
 contradistinction to the dictates of his ministers. 
 He spoke with some bitterness of the attack upon 
 Apsley House at the period of the dissolution, and 
 was intensely interested in regard to the pending 
 elections. If I were to transcribe all the letters 
 that passed between us — whether relating to the 
 parliamentary contests, or to the establishment of 
 a Conservative press — I should fill volumes. I con- 
 tent myself, therefore, with giving a few specimens 
 of the tone in which our correspondence was 
 carried on, as being sufficient to bring into full 
 light, both the views of the great man, at this 
 
 71
 
 72 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 important period of English history, and the 
 arguments with which he supported them. 
 
 We have long known that the hopes entertained 
 by the Tories of 1831 of holding, if not their own, 
 at all events some portion of their ground at the 
 General Election in April of that year, were ground- 
 less. The nation had lost its head on the subject 
 of parliamentary reform, and every effort, whether 
 at the meetings or elsewhere, to let the con- 
 stituencies understand the real nature of the 
 situation, failed. In Kent, it is true, the Tories 
 had more than common difficulties to contend 
 against. Our leading member. Sir Edward 
 Knatchbull, had taken a prominent part in bolster- 
 ing up the Wellington administration, and Lord 
 Winchelsea, perhaps the most popular nobleman 
 in the country, followed up his duel with the 
 Prime Minister by denouncing him, and still 
 more. Sir Kobert Peel, at one public meeting 
 after another, as traitors to the constitution. It 
 was no great gain to our cause that now, when 
 the results of their policy began to show them- 
 selves, they cried " Peccavi." Their conversion 
 confirmed rather than shook the confidence of the 
 constituencies in the wisdom of the ministerial 
 proposals, because they saw in it only the deter- 
 mination of these gentlemen to prop up old abuses 
 even at the expense of their own consistency. 
 Hence, wherever the elections failed of their own 
 accord to place reformers at the head of the poll.
 
 THE DISSOLUTION OF 1831 73 
 
 mobs took care that only reformers should find it 
 safe to vote according to their consciences. 
 
 In the elections for Kent, for Canterbury, and 
 for Sandwich, I naturally took a lively interest. 
 Kent was a wider field than I could hope to act 
 upon to any purpose. Canterbury, being nine 
 miles from Ash, could be approached only through 
 others. But Sandwich was close at hand, and 
 being a very small town with a limited constituency, 
 and no other resident gentry than the banker, the 
 solicitor, and the clergyman, looked in some degree 
 to me for guidance only, I believe, because the 
 Duke had noticed me. At the General Election 
 which followed the demise of George iv.. Sandwich 
 returned Mr. George Price, a barrister, and a sound, 
 constitutional Tory, in opposition to Mr. Marriott, 
 a city merchant, and a Whig. Mr. Price wisely 
 refused to support Mr. Parnell and Sir Edward 
 KnatchbuU in their attack on the Civil List. Ac- 
 cordingly, when the change of Government took 
 place, and Lord Grey's Reform Bill was brought 
 in, Mr. Price gave to it, at every stage, an uncom- 
 promising opposition. Of this course, some of the 
 leading men in Sandwich assured me that the bulk 
 of the constituency approved, and no eftbrt was 
 wanting on my part to confirm them in the faith 
 thus professed for them. 
 
 The dissolution in 1831 took us all by surprise. 
 It showed us at the same time how inaccessible to 
 argument the ministers were, and that only by
 
 74 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 success at the hustings, which few were sanguine 
 enough to expect, could what we held to be the 
 first move in a great revolution be arrested. Alas, 
 alas ! we who had fostered such a dream found 
 ourselves in a miserable minority. In some places 
 Tory candidates refused to come forward at all ; in 
 others they no sooner perceived that the odds were 
 against them, than they threw up the game ; and a 
 third section, after fighting the battle out, found 
 themselves beaten, though not dishonoured. It 
 was in reference to matters of this sort that the 
 following letters were written to the Duke of 
 Wellington : — 
 
 " Ash, near Wingham, ilfay 9, 1831. 
 " My Lord Duke, — Your Grace is of course 
 aware of both the defeat of Mr. Price, and the 
 withdrawal of Sir Edward Knatchbull. The 
 latter event is, in my opinion, scarcely to be 
 deplored, because Sir Edward had so committed 
 himself on the subject of reform, that he could 
 have done no good service had he succeeded in 
 his election. The former is indeed a heavy blow. 
 I have said to Mr. Arbuthnot, and I venture to 
 repeat it to you, that at a crisis like the present, 
 when talent and a thorough knowledge of the 
 constitution are sorely needed in the House of 
 Commons, a vacancy ought at almost any cost to 
 be made for Mr. Price. He will more than repay 
 whatever exertions are made in his behalf. —
 
 THE DUKE ON THE CRISIS 75 
 
 Believe me to be, with the greatest respect and 
 admiration, most truly your Grace's obliged 
 servant, G. E,. Gleig." 
 
 •* Strathfieldsaye, May 13, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of 
 the 9th only this morning. I was very sorry, 
 indeed, for Mr. Price's disappointment. I assure 
 you he is one of those I should be most anxious 
 to see back in Parliament if it should ever be 
 in my power to take any steps upon such a 
 subject. 
 
 "The crisis is imminent, and the danger to the 
 country very great and even certain. If the 
 reform should not produce all the mischief which 
 its enemies and best friends expect from it, it will 
 occasion a woeful disappointment, and scenes of 
 riot and plunder which the revolutionary members 
 are very little able or disposed to meet. For the 
 same reason, any opposition to it in the House of 
 Lords will ensure the same scenes. The revolu- 
 tionary members will not protect persons or pro- 
 perty. There is no safety for, and there can 
 exist no freedom of opinion. Since the dissolu- 
 tion of Parliament and the manner of it, the King 
 has lost all authority, and must do as he is bid, and 
 his revolutionary servants and the mob are at this 
 moment threatening the gentry in all parts of the 
 country. This is the point at which we have now 
 arrived.
 
 76 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 " In fact, the King and the Government, the 
 Radicals, the Dissenters, and the mob are acting 
 in a combination against the bulk of the property 
 of the country, real and personal, the Church, and 
 all the great religious, political, commercial, military, 
 and naval establishments. 
 
 " I shall be in town to-morrow, and stay at all 
 events till after Tuesday. — Believe me, ever yours 
 most sincerely, Wellington." 
 
 "London, June 30, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — As far as I can form a judgment 
 on the temper of the times, I should say that the 
 fever of reform has passed away, and has been 
 succeeded by an apathy in this town which is 
 quite remarkable. Whether the fever will revive, 
 or there will be counteraction, is more than I can 
 tell. Only conceive, that on the day of the first 
 reading of the Bill, not a word was said upon the 
 subject in the newspapers, that not a soul was to 
 be seen in the avenues of the Parliament, and that 
 in the House of Commons, returned for the special 
 purpose of passing this Bill, not a speech should 
 have been fired off in support of it, on this first 
 stage, except the one by the mover. Lord John 
 Russell. The course pursued by the anti-reformers 
 could not have produced this silence if there had 
 existed any real feeling in the House in favour of 
 the Bill. On the other hand, there were no 
 petitions. For our sins, however, we shall have
 
 THE DUKE ON THE CRISIS 11 
 
 the Bill through the Commons, notwithstanding the 
 want of feeling in its favour there, and the dislike 
 of it by every well-constituted man in this town, 
 and I may say throughout the country. 
 
 " You will ask me what the House of Lords will 
 do in that case. I should say that the House of 
 Lords can reject it without risk of the imputation 
 that it is opposing itself to the decidedly expressed 
 wishes of the community at large ; that its 
 decision will be supported by many, I might say 
 all whose judgment is worth a straw, and that it 
 ought to take that course. 
 
 " I think that the House will take that course. 
 Nay, more, I think the Government will be aware 
 that that will be the fate of the Bill, and that they 
 have made up their minds to reproduce that Bill, or 
 to bring forward another early next year. You 
 will see therefore that I don't think that we are 
 likely to come to an election in Kent at an early 
 period. 
 
 " My opinion is that the county of Kent will not 
 be satisfied unless Sir E. Knatchbull is its member. 
 Who the other, or the others, ought to be is a 
 question with which I am not sufficiently informed 
 to deal. But the information which I have given 
 you of the state of the public mind here will 
 suggest to you the course which it would be most 
 expedient to pursue to influence the public mind in 
 Kent. — Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 Wellington,"
 
 78 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 It had been proposed to establish in Kent con- 
 stitutional societies in order to hold the party well 
 together — whatever the fate of the pending measure 
 might be ; and I wrote to the Duke on the subject. 
 Here is his answer : 
 
 "London, Julyi, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I quite concur in all that you 
 suggest as steps to be taken, with the exception of 
 the formation of societies. We must never forget 
 the Roman Catholic Association in Ireland, or its 
 various modifications and forms. There is nothing 
 so easy as to give a society a constitutional title, 
 and to hold out for it the most beneficent objects, 
 and then to turn it to the most mischievous pur- 
 poses. Those who have not had to deal with these 
 mischievous societies are not aware, as we hacks 
 are, of all that can be doDe with them. I don't 
 think that I could belong to one that had the most 
 innocent views and objects. 
 
 " You allude to the general policy of the Govern- 
 ment. This, if there exist any policy apart from 
 the Government, is a very large question. The 
 distilling from molasses is a bad precedent, and will 
 have the effect which you predicate, but they have 
 not prepared the measure. They refer it for 
 inquiry to a Committee of the House of Commons ; 
 that is to say, throw the responsibility from their 
 own shoulders. The Irish Arms Act is a measure 
 which we ought to support, but it is quite incon- 
 sistent with their representations of the state of
 
 THE DUKE ON THE CRISIS 79 
 
 Ireland, and their views of Government in that 
 country as held out to the public. 
 
 " In respect to their foreign affairs, they will un- 
 doubtedly have a general war in Europe, out of 
 which it will be scarcely possible for this country to 
 keep itself I attribute this to their flirtation 
 with France, and with the war party there, and to 
 the want of confidence in the allies, and in the 
 peace party in France and Belgium, and to the 
 views and conduct of this country, which has been 
 occasioned by the course which our ministers have 
 followed. They have not advanced one step in the 
 settlement of Belgium since the 30th November 
 1830. 
 
 "We are on the eve of an attack upon Portugal by 
 France, which must terminate in our interference, 
 or in the subjugation of Portugal by France.— 
 Believe me, etc. Wellington." 
 
 "Canterbury, July 14, 1831. 
 " My Lord Duke, — I am so far on my way home 
 from Sir Edward Knatchbull's, whither I went 
 yesterday for the purpose of pressing upon him the 
 necessity of moving in times like these, and taking 
 a lead in the matters about which I formerly wrote 
 to you. I found him as usual, doubting, hesitating, 
 distrustful whether we should do more harm than 
 good, but at last I succeeded in showing him that 
 if we do nothing, we must go to the wall ; and 
 should our efforts on the present occasion fail, we
 
 80 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 we can only go to the wall at last. The result has 
 been that he pledged himself to move heaven and 
 earth in the good cause, and the following is the 
 course which we propose to pursue. 
 
 "There is to be a large yeomanry meeting at 
 Eastwell Park next week. Sir Edward has assured 
 me that he will seize the opportunity to organise a 
 regular system of petitions. The county is to be 
 divided by parishes into so many districts, and from 
 these will be sent up simultaneously such a load of 
 petitions as you have not received for a very long 
 time. In addition to this, a declaration will be 
 drawn up to the effect that we are determined, 
 with our influence, our lives, and our property, to 
 defend the Constitution, the King, the Lords, and 
 Commons. And the very day after you throw out 
 the Bill, we will collect all the signatures we can 
 and give it publication. The idea of forming a 
 constitutional society is abandoned in deference to 
 your Grace's opinion. You know my opinion of 
 Knatchbull, but let me add this : though difficult to 
 move, and wavering till his mind is made up, once 
 he comes to a determination, there is no man more 
 obstinate. I do not therefore at all doubt but that 
 he will, in the present instance, give us all the 
 assistance which his unquestionable influence in 
 the county can afford. 
 
 " So much for local politics, and now a few words 
 on general matters. We walked out after dinner 
 into the garden, where, having first locked the door,
 
 SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL 81 
 
 he opened his mind to me freely on the aspect of 
 affairs. We spoke, of course, of the possibility of 
 a change of ministers, etc., and I gather from him 
 that he is ready to render every assistance in his 
 power to your Grace, personally ; indeed, he writes 
 by this post to all his friends in other counties to 
 give in their unequivocal adherence to you. So far, 
 so good, for it is beyond dispute that, up to this 
 moment, the recollections of the Catholic Relief 
 Bill have operated cruelly in dividing the Con- 
 servative i^arty. We talked next of men likely to 
 take office in an administration of which your Grace 
 might be the head, and I gathered that he would 
 desire some place in the Cabinet. I think it right 
 to tell you all this, because events may occur 
 which shall render such knowledge useful, and I 
 quite believe that you will not find any man more 
 ready to adopt implicitly your views, in case such 
 an arrangement should be effected. I need not add 
 that I neither did nor could pretend to hold 
 towards him any other than the most general 
 language. 
 
 " I hope that I shall find, when I go home, 
 a letter from your Grace announcing that the 
 arrangement in favour of Mr. Grove Price is com- 
 plete. I am sure he will be most useful at the 
 present moment. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 G. R. Gleig."
 
 82 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 "London, July 16, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of 
 the 14th this morning. I cannot yet tell you that 
 I have arranged the affair for Mr. Price. I pressed 
 it again strongly yesterday, but it is not settled. 
 
 "You can judge as vrell as I can of the state of 
 the Reform question in Parliament. The ministers 
 are beat in argument. There is scarely a member 
 who speaks on any part of the subject, who does 
 not state his apprehensions of some part or other 
 of the Bill. But the majority still adhere by their 
 votes to the whole of it, each individual declaring 
 that, bad as the plan is, it is necessary to adopt it. 
 The case of Alderman Thompson is that of more 
 than one-half of the members of the present 
 Parliament. 
 
 " They dare not vote according to the sugges- 
 tions of their own judgment after discussion; they 
 are sent as delegates for a particular purpose under 
 particular instructions, and not members of Parlia- 
 ment sent to deliver it de arduis regni. Whether 
 petitions presented at this moment would turn 
 these delegates into members of Parliament, is more 
 than I can say. 
 
 " I think it scarcely possible that the Bill can be 
 out of the House of Commons' in the month of July. 
 This being the case, petitions in August would be 
 in time. I should say that I would not move in 
 respect to petitions to the House of Lords till the
 
 THE MILITARY AND POLITICS 83 
 
 time should approach when the Bill would come 
 under discussion. The person who was to present 
 such petitions would, of course, be able to choose 
 the moment. But if once voted and signed in the 
 county, we must not suppose that our adversaries 
 would be so supine as not to set in motion all 
 the means of getting counter-petitions, and even to 
 create agitation in the county. 
 
 *' From what I hear from all parts of the country, 
 I should say that the feeling is the same as it is in 
 Kent. It is doubtful whether they are as ready to 
 declare themselves. But an example may do a good 
 deal. I should doubt any prorogation of Parlia- 
 ment till the Reform Bills are decided. If the 
 Government are not prepared to meet the diffi- 
 culties in their House of Lords, they will probably 
 adjourn both Houses. — Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 Wellington." 
 
 "London, July 17, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — Since I wrote to you yesterday, 
 it occurs to me that there is one part of your letter 
 to which I ought to have adverted in detail, 
 and upon which I said nothing. It relates to 
 the meeting of the yeomanry at Eastwell Park. 
 As Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire I have been 
 under the necessity of desiring the commanding 
 officers of some of the troops of yeomanry to refrain 
 from addressing their troops as military bodies on 
 political subjects, and even of talking of politics to
 
 84 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the men at all. I desired them to point out to the 
 yeomanry that their duty is to obey ; that the 
 sphere of their service would probably be to pre- 
 serve the peace of the country in aid of the civil 
 powers, and that their duty must be performed 
 whatever may be the policy of the Govern- 
 ment and the legislation on any particular 
 question, such as the reform of Parliament. 
 
 "At the time this doctrine was circulated, the 
 stream of opinion in the country was running in 
 favour of reform, while that of Parliament was sup- 
 posed to be against the Bill in particular, but pro- 
 bably against any reform. Since that time I happen 
 to know that the attention of the Government has 
 been drawn to the subject by an address by Lady 
 Verulam to a corps of yeomanry in Hertfordshire, 
 in which her ladyship hoped they would protect 
 her and the property of the country against the 
 emissaries of the new opinions, or some such 
 sentiment. 
 
 " The Secretary of State was much displeased 
 with this speech, and said what is true enough, 
 that Parliament would be very unwilling to defray 
 the expense attending these corps of yeomanry if 
 it was supposed they were to be arrayed against 
 the opinion of Parliament. This statement will 
 show you the diflSculty of the case, and how import- 
 ant it is on every view of the subject that the 
 yeomanry, as troops, should not be addressed upon 
 it, or be called upon to express themselves. Indeed,
 
 THE MILITARY AND POLITICS 85 
 
 I should say that if the meeting at Eastwell Park 
 is one of the yeomanry for the purpose of exercise 
 as troops, that opportunity should not be taken 
 of addressing them at all on political subjects. I 
 wish that you would consider all this, and make the 
 use of it that you think desirable. — Ever yours, 
 
 Wellington." 
 
 " London, /w^y/ 18, 1831. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I enclose a letter I wrote to 
 you yesterday, and wished to send by yesterday's 
 mail, but Lord Fitzroy Somerset, who was to have 
 sent it, was out of the way. I had another con- 
 versation yesterday about Mr. Price's seat. It is 
 wonderful that the persons who have the return 
 of boroughs in their hands should be so anxious as 
 they are to return young men of family. The 
 greatest difficulty I have is to keep my son Charles 
 out of their hands ; they insist upon having him 
 rather than anybody else. However, I have sent 
 to Ireland in favour of Mr. George Price. — Yours, 
 etc., Wellington." 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, July 19, 1831. 
 " My Lord Duke, — I have received your Grace's 
 letter of the 17th and 18th, and you may depend 
 upon my doing what I can to hinder any rash 
 speech from being spoken ; but with Lord Win- 
 chelsea at the head of the meeting, it would be 
 rash to make sure of moderation and judgment. I
 
 86 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 hope, however, that he will be kept within bounds ; 
 and as there is reason to believe that hitherto the 
 subject of politics has been avoided by the officers 
 in their intercourse with the men, I see no reason 
 why it should be introduced now. Still, as I have 
 just said, nobody can answer for the event, and it 
 is rendered doubly doubtful in consequence of the 
 arrangements made. The yeomanry are to receive 
 their colours on Thursday, with a speech from Lady 
 Winchelsea. It is a mere toss up whether her 
 ladyship shall desire to emulate Lady Verulam or 
 avoid the rock on which the latter has split. I 
 need scarcely add that it is not the intention of Sir 
 Edward Knatchbull, or anybody else with whom 
 I am acquainted, to say a word to the yeomanry 
 on any topic whatever. We shall merely avail 
 ourselves of a numerous assemblage of leading 
 persons in the county to pave the way for future 
 and simultaneous action. 
 
 " I am going to hazard an opinion and to ask 
 a question or two, which your Grace will either 
 answer or not as you see proper. It is evident 
 that the Bill will come before your House with all 
 its deformities. How do you intend to deal with 
 it ? Are you strong enough to throw it out ? and 
 if so, what tactics wiU be pursued ? 
 
 " There are two modes of dealing with the Bill. 
 Assuming the Conservative party to be true to 
 itself and sufficiently powerful, you may either 
 reject it at the second reading, thus taking all the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS AND THE BILL 87 
 
 odium on yourselves, or you may permit it to go 
 into Committee, and destroy it then in detail. If 
 you adopt the latter course, you must be prepared 
 to manufacture out of its ruins a Bill of your own, 
 which will necessarily lead to a conference between 
 the two Houses. No result will follow such con- 
 ference, and so the amended Bill, being brought 
 back to the lower House exactly as you have drawn 
 it, and being there condemned, the blame of re- 
 jection will possibly be shared between the two 
 Houses. It is not for me to offer an opinion in 
 such a case, but I have reason to believe that there 
 are many timid persons whom a direct refusal of 
 the measure by the Lords would frighten out of 
 their senses, but who, if they were led to believe in 
 a disposition on the part of the Lords to give the 
 subject due consideration, would give them a hearty 
 support. Now, if I am right, and I think that I 
 am not wrong, this latter device may be at least 
 worthy of consideration. 
 
 " I am not surprised at the anxiety expressed 
 to have a son of your Grace as member for any 
 borough ; but I do lament, on many accounts, that 
 the mere qualification of good family should be 
 rated so highly. It is not impossible that this fact 
 may have contributed, with other causes, to the 
 present madness. I will inform your Grace of all 
 that occurs at East well Park. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 " G. B. Gleig."
 
 88 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, July 22, 1831. 
 
 " My Lord Duke, — The yeomanry meeting went 
 off on the whole extremely well. Lady Winchelsea's 
 speech, if not remarkable for any other quality, had 
 at least the merit of not pressing upon the notice 
 of the men any particular views with reference to 
 disputed questions, and I am happy to add that, 
 neither in the field nor at the dinner, was the subject 
 of the Reform Bill introduced. I am led to beheve, 
 moreover, that the whole thing has done good. 
 Though politics were ^visely left out of the toasts, 
 it was evident, from the manner in which the 
 names of individuals were received — your Grace's, 
 for example, as connected with the mihtary glories 
 of the country — that the feeling among the yeomen 
 themselves was favourable to the Conservative 
 principle. Lord Winchelsea gave your health with 
 great apparent cordiality, and it was drunk with 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 "Writing unreservedly to your Grace, as I 
 venture to do, I feel bound to state that it is to 
 you personally that the Tories of this county look 
 as their head. Of Sir Robert Peel there is a 
 decided distrust. I had almost said that the 
 feeling bordered upon hostility, and, as far as I 
 can learn, the same feeling prevails elsewhere than 
 in Kent. 
 
 " Our Radical newspapers, our county papers I 
 mean, have unwisely for themselves begun a series
 
 A CONFIDENTIAL LETTER 89 
 
 of attacks upon the yeomanry. We shall not fail 
 to turn these to account. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 " G. R. Gleig." 
 
 "London, July 23, 1831. 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of 
 the 22nd. I am convinced that the line which I 
 told you yesterday that I should follow in the 
 House of Lords is the best, even if the object 
 should be ultimately to secure a moderate reform. 
 At all events I could not follow any other. I am 
 aware that there exist great prejudices and strong 
 dislikes against Sir Robert Peel. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 *' Wellington." 
 
 "London, July 30, 1831. 
 
 ^'Private and confidential. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I wish to draw your attention 
 and that of your friends in Kent to what is passing 
 in Parliament, and to the threats of the interfer- 
 ence of the Common Hall of the City of London, 
 the Birmingham unions, etc., etc. 
 
 "There can be no doubt that the deliberations of 
 the House of Commons have opened the eyes of 
 the public to the real nature of the Bill under dis- 
 cussion. I wish that you would consider whether 
 it would not be possible for the gentlemen of Kent 
 to come forward in case the Common Hall should 
 interfere, or the Birmingham, or any other of these 
 Radical unions.
 
 90 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 " I would propose that they should state no 
 opinion upon reform in general or upon the Bill, 
 but declare that they will support Parliament in 
 its deliberative functions. 
 
 '* I think that something of this kind might be of 
 use. I write into Hampshire to inquire whether 
 anything of the same kind might be done there. 
 If we can succeed, it is very desirable that we 
 should proceed with secrecy, otherwise we might 
 alarm our antagonists, and they would stop the 
 Common Hall. — Believe me, etc., etc., 
 
 " Wellington." 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, July 31, 1831. 
 " My Lord Duke, — I have written by this post 
 to Sir Edward Bering a confidential letter on the 
 subject of your Grace's communication. To-morrow 
 morning I will set out for Sir Edward Knatchbull 
 in order to press the matter upon him, and I have 
 requested Sir Brook Bridges and one or two others 
 to dine with me to-morrow on my return, and I 
 trust that we shall succeed. I have suggested the 
 measure as one of prudence, and gone only so far 
 as to say that I have reason to believe it will be 
 acceptable to the heads of the Conservative party. 
 — Believe me, etc., G. R. Gleig." 
 
 "London, August 3, 1831. 
 " My dear Sir, — By reference to the papers you 
 will see that the Speaker has put down the attempt
 
 QUESTION OF PETITIONS 91 
 
 to petition by the Radicals of Bristol and the 
 Association of Birmingham, and that at a meeting of 
 some of the Livery yesterday, it was determined 
 that they should postpone the meeting of the 
 Common Hall, and meet themselves at the end of 
 a week, and consider whether they will call a 
 meeting of the Common Hall if it should be thought 
 necessary. 
 
 "It is quite obvious that they find that the 
 public are not prepared for the system of bully 
 proposed, and that it would do more harm than 
 good to the cause of confusion. Under these 
 circumstances I confess that I should doubt the 
 expediency of coming forward at all. It would be 
 like firing a great gun at a sparrow, which is not 
 wise, and ought to be avoided. 
 
 " I think that the putting down these meetings is 
 an evidence that the ministers are pretty confident 
 that they will carry their measure, and it might be 
 desirable to get some declaration of the country 
 against them ; but still I should say that, upon the 
 whole, matters are not ripe. — Believe me, etc., etc., 
 
 " Wellington." 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, August 4, 1831. 
 " My Lord Duke, — Your Grace's letter has in 
 some degree anticipated one which I had intended 
 to write as soon as I perceived the issue of the 
 Radical movement. It struck me that, under such 
 circumstances, it would be prudent to lie still, and
 
 92 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 I am happy to find that my judgment was correct. 
 No steps of importance have been taken. Our 
 plan has been communicated only to a few indi- 
 viduals worthy of trust, and we shall rest upon our 
 oars till you desire us to go to work again. — 
 Believe me, etc., etc., G. R. Gleig."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 All this while unceasing efforts were made to 
 obtain the support of at least one morning journal 
 in London. The Standard indeed still supported 
 the party, and John Bull was at once faithful and 
 effective ; but apart from these not a newspaper, 
 whether published in the morning or the evening 
 or once a week, but wrote up the great ministerial 
 measure, and did its best to write down the 
 characters of all who opposed it. There lies before 
 me a whole pile of letters on this subject, of which 
 I shall transcribe only a few, because the matter 
 will be brought more appropriately under con- 
 sideration when I come to speak of the great 
 Duke's contemporaries. One attempt to secure 
 the support of the Morning Herald had failed, 
 under circumstances hereafter to be stated. 
 Negotiations were then set on foot to purchase the 
 Ledger, in which an active part was taken by Lord 
 Mahon, while Billy Holmes was treating for the 
 management of the Albion. It is to them, on our 
 second endeavour to secure the Herald, that the 
 following correspondence refers. 
 
 I had been called up to London to take part in
 
 94 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the deliberations of those to whom the management 
 of this affair was entrusted, and after once or 
 twice conferring personally with the Duke, returned 
 home, leaving this letter behind me. 
 
 "Athen/EUM, Sept. 9, 1831. 
 " Private. 
 
 " The affair of the Ledger is in train, and shall be 
 so arranged that not a penny shall pass into the 
 hands of the other party till our object has been 
 accomplished. In the meanwhile we must get a fund 
 
 ready, for Mr. J is not, I suspect, disposed 
 
 to disgorge his £1000. I have not heard from him 
 since I sent him the note of which I showed you 
 the copy. I have settled with Lord Mahon that 
 Mr. Clark shall have access to him in case of need. 
 This will completely keep you. Sir Henry Hardinge, 
 and myself out of sight, and Lord Mahon is fully to 
 be trusted. 
 
 " With respect to the Albion, Lord M. and I have 
 remonstrated with Holmes, and hope to get it into 
 the hands of one of the cleverest fellows in London, 
 Dr. Maginn, the co-editor with Giffard of the 
 Standard. So much for our efforts with the press, 
 after which the question naturally arises, Will all, 
 supposing them to succeed beyond our wishes, 
 avail ? I am afraid not. I much fear, from what I 
 hear and see around me, that there is such an 
 obstinate perversity of intellect in a large portion
 
 A SUGGESTION FROM " BLACKWOOD " 95 
 
 of the community, that nothing short of proving to 
 them how faithless their leaders are, even to one 
 another, will have the smallest efiPect. Even the 
 rejection of the Bill by the Lords will be of 
 little use, unless it be accompanied by other 
 arrangements. 
 
 " Have you looked into the last number o? Black- 
 ivood, and observed what is said there in the 
 * Noctes Ambrosianse ' ? The speaker is made to say 
 that the country might yet be saved were Lord 
 Brougham and Peel cordially to unite. Now I 
 confess that the same idea had occurred to me ever 
 since I was made aware of the overtures that 
 were made to your Grace. I am aware how pain- 
 ful it must be to a mind like yours to entertain 
 the thought of acting with such a colleague ; but if 
 with so much at stake there be no chance of 
 breaking up the present Cabinet, except by en- 
 couraging them to betray one another, even your 
 high sense of honour might, I think, come under 
 the influence of necessity. For it is not the mere 
 acts of the Cabinet that we have to consider, but 
 rather the new doctrines which the people tire 
 encouraged to imbibe under their guidance. 
 
 " Do not hesitate to send for me, whenever I 
 can be of use, but unless really wanted, I could 
 wish to remain quietly in the country for a week 
 or two. I have been so often absent from my 
 parish of late, a thing not usual with me, that I 
 begin to fear I may lose something of the moral
 
 96 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 influence there which I have heretofore exercised. — 
 Believe me, etc., G. R. Gleig." 
 
 "London, Sept. 17, 1831. 
 
 " I have received your letter of the 9th, when 
 I was out of town the end of last week. I have 
 since had a family misfortune, which, it is true, 
 has long been expected. I have been out of town 
 again, and I returned last night to resume the 
 thread of affairs, 
 
 " There are such heavy calls for money for 
 matters which press more urgently than those 
 upon which we conversed, that I am afraid that I 
 must postpone for the present the consideration of 
 the latter. The subscriptions do not come in. I 
 am afraid that, after all, we shall fail. 
 
 " I have two objections to the course which you 
 propose. The first is one of conscience. I could 
 not deceive any man. I prefer another to Lord B., 
 whether as a debater in Parliament, an officer in 
 a court of justice, or a colleague, or an honest man. 
 The second is, that if there was no such preference, 
 I could have no confidence in that gentleman. I 
 cannot pretend that which I do not intend. All 
 this may be very foolish. I may not be equal to 
 the difficulties of the times, but I cannot help it. 
 I believe that in these times, as in all times, 
 honesty is the best policy, and adherence to 
 principle the only true guide for one's conduct. — 
 Believe me, etc., Wellington."
 
 THE duke's confidence 97 
 
 "Ash, near Wingham, September 18, 1831. 
 
 " I do not know whether the line which you have 
 made up your mind to follow is that which, at a 
 crisis like the present, and amid such actors as 
 crowd the stage, will lead to good ; but this I do 
 know, that it ought to lead to good. One thing, 
 too, is quite certain, that if it were possible to 
 increase the respect in which your Grace is already 
 held, the sentiments expressed in your letter of 
 yesterday's date would produce that effect. God 
 help us well through our difficulties, for with such 
 a King at the head of affairs, nothing short of a 
 miracle can save us. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 "G. R Gleig." 
 
 "London, September 19, 1831. 
 
 " I have received your letter of yesterday. I 
 never despair of anything, and I think that we 
 shall get through our difficulties. I am convinced 
 that I am on the right road ; indeed, upon the 
 only road that is practicable. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 " Wellington." 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, October 23, 1831. 
 
 " I received this morning your letter of the 21st. 
 I received one yesterday from Lord Mahon upon 
 the same subject, in which he told me that he was 
 going to dine with you. I wrote him an answer 
 yesterday. 
 
 " You have put the question on the right ground.
 
 98 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Can I recommend this arrangement respecting the 
 Morning Herald to those noblemen and gentlemen 
 of the party who have the means and might be 
 disposed to subscribe for the paper ? But I have 
 reason to believe that the Morning Herald could 
 not be sold. There is a Thwaites, or a person of 
 some other name, with a claim to a share in the 
 concern, who is a minor. The affair will get into 
 Chancery, and in all probability all concerned will 
 be blown upon as well as lose their money. 
 
 " But you will say that is the business of the 
 gentlemen in the City who are about to buy the 
 newspaper. We, the subscribers, will have nothing 
 to do but to pay £5000 a year and give the tone to 
 the politics of the paper. We must, as we did in 
 the late proposed arrangement, give a sum in 
 advance, which sum would be lost if the question 
 respecting the paper gets into Chancery. It may 
 not be lost as the last sum was, as I believe Mr 
 Mallalieu to be an honest man. But if we en- 
 courage that arrangement with our eyes open to 
 the risk, we must stand by some of the loss result- 
 ing from it, and our advances will be the smallest 
 sacrifice expected from us. But this is not the 
 only objection which I have to the proposed 
 arrangement. Certain gentlemen propose to pur- 
 chase the property of this paper and to alter the 
 tone of its politics. Is this wise or otherwise 
 in the view of men who intend to profit by the 
 speculation? Will the paper extend its circula-
 
 ** THE MORNING HERALD " 99 
 
 tion ? Will it remain where it is ? Will its 
 circulation fall off? In the two former cases the 
 real demand upon us would be but small, and we 
 might satisfy it probably without any extensive 
 subscription. In the last supposed case we ought 
 to pay in proportion to the loss which the pro- 
 prietors would sustain by the decrease of the 
 circulation of the paper and of the profits. But 
 if we do this, must we not engage for more than 
 a year or even two years ? Who will make such 
 engagement ? Observe that any subscription is 
 demanded only because it is supposed that the 
 tone of politics assumed by the paper will occasion 
 a diminution of the number of its readers. 
 
 ** In any view of the case, is not the sum of £5000 
 very large ? I know that we were about to pay 
 £6000 for a year, but we might discontinue when 
 we pleased, giving a short notice. Our payments 
 were to be monthly after the first two months, 
 and to be made only after the performance of the 
 contract. In this last case, however expensive, 
 and with our eyes open to its enormity, we should 
 have seen our way at every step, but in this recently 
 proposed course we proceed entirely in the dark. 
 I don't think that I ought to approve of such an 
 arrangement with a view to its adoption by others. 
 
 " The mob could not get at the pictures in my 
 gallery. They destroyed Lady Lyndhurst's picture 
 in my room below-stairs. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 " Wellington."
 
 100 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Our efforts to secure the direct support of some 
 of the London newspapers were not very success- 
 ful. In the county we were more fortunate. The 
 Kentish Gazette, much read by the middle classes, was 
 gained over for a while, and when a falling off in its 
 circulation caused it to change its tone, a new paper 
 was started under the management of Mr. Mudford, 
 formerly of the Courier ^ which still, I believe, advo- 
 cates constitutional principles. But the tide ran 
 too strong against us, and the action of the Lords, 
 in rejecting the Bill on the second reading, led the 
 way to scenes of violence and confusion which have 
 long passed into history. History, however, is not 
 quite fair in the account which it gives of this up- 
 heaving. During the brief interval in which all 
 government lay in abeyance, matters came to light 
 of which history has failed to take notice. Though 
 no secret is now made of the correspondence between 
 Mr. Attwood and Colonel Napier and Evans, silence 
 has been completely preserved in regard to the 
 provision of arms made by the unions for a hundred 
 thousand men, as well as respecting the days and 
 nights that were spent by the leaders of these 
 unions in burning papers which, if they fell into 
 the hands of a Conservative minister — as was at 
 one moment likely to happen — would have placed 
 more than one eminent individual in the felon's 
 dock. In Kent we had no more violent demon- 
 stration than was manifested by the assemblage of 
 crowds on Pennenden Heath and elsewhere in order
 
 THE DUKE THREATENED 101 
 
 to denounce as enemies to their country the forty 
 peers who had presumed to think for themselves, 
 and, above all, their great leader, once the idol, 
 now the enemy, of his country. But if Maid- 
 stone and Canterbury escaped the fate of Bristol 
 and Nottingham, the acts of personal violence 
 against individuals were bandied about, one of 
 which, as it came somewhat circumstantially to 
 my own knowledge, I felt myself bound to com- 
 municate to the object of it. The following is 
 the answer received : — 
 
 "London, November 7, 1831. 
 
 "My dear Mr. Gleig, — I received your letter 
 only yesterday morning on my road to London. 
 It is my duty to go to Walmer and to Dover, and 
 I am not to be prevented from doing so either by 
 threats of injury or insult. What I always do in 
 these cases is to give information to the magis- 
 trate. It is his duty to protect all his Majesty's 
 subjects, particularly those acting under the King's 
 authority, and even to take precautions for their 
 protection, if necessary. It is my opinion that 
 these secret informants, who will not and probably 
 dare not come forward with their information, do 
 more harm than good. There is a perpetual gossip 
 going on in the public-houses upon all sorts of 
 plans of mischief Is it quite certain that these 
 informants do not suggest the very plans of which
 
 102 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 they give information? I intended to have been 
 at Walmer this night, but a letter which I sent to 
 announce my arrival did not go. I shall therefore 
 set ojff to-morrow morning, and I hope to come 
 early in the day. I suspect that those who will 
 attack me on the road will come rather the worst 
 out of the contest, if there should be one. — Ever 
 yours, etc., Wellington." 
 
 Notwithstanding the tone of this letter, I 
 thought it prudent to communicate privately with 
 a few gentlemen on whom I could rely, and to 
 invite them to join me in providing a sort of body- 
 guard for the Duke in his progress from Sandwich 
 to Walmer. We were six in all, and each carried, 
 besides a heavy hunting-whip, pistols ; five men 
 to wait in Sandwich, while I, mounting my horse, 
 rode back to meet the Duke before he could reach 
 Ash. I found him in his open caleche, provided 
 with a brace of double-barrelled pistols, and having 
 his servant likewise armed, seated on the box. He 
 insisted on my giving my horse to his man, and 
 entering the carriage with him. But when we 
 reached Sandwich, I made the Duke's servant 
 resume his place on the box, and while the horses 
 were changed, sent forward three of my little party, 
 directing them to avoid drawing attention by 
 riding a couple of hundred yards or more in front 
 of the carriage. In case a mob should be sighted, 
 they were to pull up and wait till one who rode
 
 LORD HARROWBY 103 
 
 after the carriage should overtake them. No mob 
 appeared. Nor was the Duke's journey in any 
 other way interfered with, so that the escort, after 
 seeing him safe within the Castle grounds, had the 
 satisfaction of feeling that they had done what was 
 right, and no blood was shed. 
 
 How the winter of 1831-32 was spent I need 
 not here describe. While mobs burnt towns and 
 sacked gentlemen's houses, the King prorogued 
 Parliament, and the Government made ready to 
 introduce, after a brief recess, a third editioji of the 
 Bill into the House of Commons. It is not to be 
 wonderfed at that, among the Lords who had joined 
 in rejecting the former ministerial measure, there 
 were those whom a dread of greater evils induced 
 to consider whether the differences between the two 
 parties in the State might not comjDromise. Two 
 noblemen, both men of undoubted high honour and 
 ability, Lords Harrowby and Wharncliffe, placed 
 themselves at the head of what soon became a 
 movement. They not only wrote circulars inviting 
 their brother-peers to co-operate with them, but 
 they entered into negotiations with Earl Grey, and 
 for a time were deluded into the expectation that 
 he would consent to modify his measure in several 
 important particulars. They found him unyielding, 
 yet persisted in their efforts to secure a second 
 reading for their Bill as it was. And persuading 
 themselves that the King: would in this case refuse 
 to create peers, they counted on being able to
 
 104 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 modify the measure for themselves. To this policy 
 the Duke was thoroughly opposed. He rightly 
 argued that if the King had been weak enough to 
 agree to a large creation of peers at one stage of 
 the dispute, he could not refuse to do the same at 
 any other, at which the Government might receive 
 a check ; and he did his best by writing to as many 
 of his friends as possible to secure their support 
 when the day of battle came. From me he kept 
 nothing back of all that was going on and expected, 
 and by and by invited, me to work with him. The 
 following letters explain how. 
 
 "London, Febniary 26, 1832. 
 
 ** My DEAR Mr. Gleig, — I send you Lord 
 Harrowby's letter ; you will see an abstract of it and 
 some observations upon it in the Times of this day. 
 I don't think it clear that much can be done upon 
 it. — Believe me, etc., Wellington." 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, February 29, 1832. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Gleig, — I enclose a note from 
 Mr. Escott which is very curious. I came here this 
 day. If you should come to London and wish to 
 see me, I wish that you would come down here. A 
 coach comes from my house in London every 
 morning at nine, and arrives here at three. — Believe 
 me, etc., Wellington."
 
 LORD DOURO 105 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, March 2, 1832. 
 "My dear Mr. Gleig, — I have received your 
 note from Ash, dated 1st March. I wrote to you 
 and suggested that you should come here. I think 
 you would do more here in a day than at home in 
 a week. I have no copy of my letter here except- 
 ing the original one, which you would never be 
 able to make out. — Believe me, etc., 
 
 Wellington." 
 
 The purpose for which the Duke invited me to 
 visit him at that time in Hampshire was that, out 
 of materials which he could supply, I should write 
 an answer to Lord Harrowby's circular, and pubHsh 
 it anonymously as a pamphlet. It was impossible 
 for me, after all that had passed between us, to 
 decline the task thus suggested. Indeed, I accepted 
 the proposal at once, only pleading that I might be 
 allowed to do the job at home. But the Duke was 
 urgent, and I did as he wished me to do. It would 
 scarcely be worth while to make this record, had 
 not my journey to Strathfieldsaye brought me face 
 to face with my old friend, the second Duke, then 
 Lord Douro, under somewhat novel circumstances. 
 We had often met at Walmer Castle when he com- 
 manded the depot of the second battalion of the 
 Rifle Brigade, then quartered in Dover, and he had 
 been my guest in the vicarage of Ash, where we 
 shot together over the grounds of Betshanger, and
 
 106 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 I gave him his first lesson in fly-fishing in the 
 little Stour. Now proceeding to Apsley House, in 
 order to be there taken up by the coach, I found 
 that Lord Douro was in town, and, early as the 
 hour was, had breakfasted. I went to his room 
 and found him hard at work on the Archduke 
 Charles's Campaigns, with a large map of the seat 
 of war on the table before him, I mention this 
 incident to show that, however anxious he may 
 have been to pass current as an idler, he was at 
 that time a student of his own profession. Poor 
 fellow ! he never did himself justice before the 
 world, and the world arrived in consequence at 
 very inaccurate conclusions respecting his tastes 
 and character. 
 
 I will say nothing here about the pamphlet, or 
 the circumstances attendant on its accomplishment, 
 for of these notice may be taken elsewhere. But 
 a few words descriptive of the tone which marked 
 the Duke's conversation during my visit may 
 without impropriety be given, for, after all, no pre- 
 tence was made of secrecy, for which, indeed, all 
 reason was wanting ; and had the case been other- 
 wise, I, who write these lines, am the last survivor 
 of the party, and shall have followed the others 
 who have preceded me, before what is written can 
 see the light. 
 
 For the first two days our party consisted, 
 besides the Duke, only of Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot 
 and Lord Fitzgerald, Lord Charles Wellesley, and
 
 THE DUKE ON GEORGE IV. 107 
 
 myself. With these the Duke seemed to consider 
 himself free from all restraint, and made no secret 
 of the despondency with which he contemplated 
 the future of the country. He was not sparing in 
 his remarks on George i v. , to whose lack of fidelity 
 to his ministers he attributed most of the diffi- 
 culties which he had been called upon to meet 
 when in office. " And there is no excuse for him 
 as there really is for his successor. George iv. was 
 naturally an able man, and was by no means want- 
 ing in knowledge on all subjects, and especially 
 on politics. But there was a moral twist in him 
 which made it impossible quite to believe what he 
 said at the moment, and still less to depend upon 
 his promises. The Duke of Cumberland, though 
 neither as clever as he, nor possessing a tittle of his 
 general knowledge, had enormous influence over 
 him, simply because he had, while the King had 
 not, a strong will, and he exercised it while he was 
 First Lord of the Treasury in the most mischievous 
 manner. But for him the King never, after con- 
 senting to the Catholic Relief Bill, w^ould have 
 gone about complaining that he had been coerced, 
 and thus blown the flame of anger among the ultra- 
 Tories which destroyed me. Still his death, when 
 it occurred, was a great misfortune. We could 
 have got on with the Parliament which passed our 
 Bill — ay, in spite of the Revolution in Paris. And 
 I am convinced that in a short time our mode of 
 dealing with Ireland would have healed all sores,
 
 108 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 and ensured for the country a Liberal- Conservative 
 Government for many years. But the King's 
 death rendered a dissolution inevitable — a serious 
 hazard of itself ; and when, just as the elections were 
 in full career, the French monarchy fell before the 
 mob, there needed no gift of prophecy to foretell 
 that, let come what might, there was an end of us." 
 
 Mr. a. "But why did you resign on a question 
 so unimportant as that raised by Parnell and 
 Knatchbull ? There are many precedents for sub- 
 mitting the civil list to the consideration of a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons. Why, knowing 
 as you did that out of such a scrutiny you would 
 come with flying colours, could you not have 
 assented to their proposal ? " 
 
 " For two reasons. First, because we could not 
 afford twice to avoid defeat by adopting the 
 enemy's tactics. Remember the Test and Corpora- 
 tion Acts. And next, because we had Brougham's 
 motion hanging over us, and we didn't care to be 
 beaten on a question of reform." 
 
 Lord F. " True ; and we felt that the Con- 
 servative party was broken up, for which, let me 
 add, we have ourselves a good deal to answer. The 
 Whigs have been wiser in their generation than 
 their rivals. They never failed, whenever they had 
 the means, to reward services rendered to their 
 cause, whether by public or private patronage. 
 We are too pure, forsooth, to act on that line, and 
 now, see where we are."
 
 DINNER TABLE-TALK 109 
 
 Duke. " We are not in a very flourishing con- 
 dition, I allow, but I don't find the cause of the 
 evil where you do. I have more experience in 
 public affairs than most men, and you may rely 
 upon it, that there never was any country or town, 
 great or small, or any concern, whether important 
 or otherwise, arranged upon an exclusive party 
 principle. It may answer for a time, it may be 
 necessary at certain seasons, but nothing can prosper 
 permanently that is so managed. To tell you the 
 truth, I believe that their exclusive party partiali- 
 ties and practices, however convenient and advan- 
 tageous to some individuals, are one cause of the 
 failure of the Whigs as public administrators. 
 How they will get on hereafter, when cramped with 
 the Radicals as colleagues, remains to be seen." 
 
 On the third day, a multitude of guests arrived, 
 and the conversation at table, and everywhere else, 
 became more general. We spoke of Napoleon and 
 his marshals and of our own generals, concerning his 
 estimate of most of whom, Mr. Croker, in his Diary, 
 has stereotyped the character of one of our most 
 dashing commanders, General Crawford.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 It was on these terms that I had the happiness 
 and honour to live with the great Duke during one 
 of the most important eras in the history of 
 England. When all his endeavours, first to defeat, 
 and by and by to modify the great measure, failed, 
 our correspondence became, as a matter of course, 
 less continuous, yet did not cease till circumstances 
 hereafter to be mentioned caused a cloud, though 
 not a dense one, to arise between us. Never, to 
 the day of his death, however, did he cease to treat 
 me kindly as often as we met, and though unable 
 himself to advance me in my profession, he was 
 indirectly instrumental in bringing me to London, 
 on the invitation of a Whig minister. The cause 
 was this. 
 
 After having taken part to the best of my ability 
 against reform, I was very much surprised to 
 receive one morning, in February 1834, a letter 
 from Lord John Russell offering me the chaplaincy 
 of Chelsea Hospital. My first impulse was at once 
 to communicate with the Duke, and to ask for both 
 advice and information, and in due time I received 
 from him the following reply : —
 
 LORD JOHN Russell's offer 111 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, February 12, 1834. 
 
 "I don't think it will be disagreeable to you or 
 to any person to tell you what I know of your 
 appointment. 
 
 "Lord John Ptussell inquired about you from Lord 
 Fitzroy Somerset, who told him that he would 
 apply to me about you. The object of the inquiry 
 was to know whether you were a party writer. I 
 desired Lord Fitzroy to tell Lord John that you, 
 as most other good clergymen of the Church of 
 England, were a zealous Conservative politician, 
 but that I did not believe you had ever been a 
 party writer ; that when I was in office I was 
 anxious to promote you, on account of your eccle- 
 siastical works, and that I had earnestly urged on 
 you by all means to avoid party discussions ; that 
 I never heard of your having engaged in them, 
 and that I firmly believed you had not. I think 
 you had better keep this anecdote to yourself. 
 
 " I shall be very sorry to lose your society at 
 Walmer Castle, but I hope that I shall see you in 
 London. — Believe me, etc., Wellington." 
 
 I have placed on record this letter, not alone be- 
 cause it is due to the great Duke that it should be 
 read by others than myself, but also because it enables 
 me to place in its true light my own conduct under 
 somewhat trying circumstances. No sooner was Lord
 
 112 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 John Russell's offer to me made public, than he 
 was furiously assailed, as well by the more violent 
 members of his supporters in Parliament as by the 
 Kadical press in London and in the provinces. I 
 was described as a party writer from my earliest 
 days — especially in Blackwood's Magazine, and as 
 the editor of more than one Kentish newspaper 
 — as a Tory, in short, of the most rabid kind, who 
 neglected his parish and made enemies of his 
 parishioners. Not aware of this attack, I went to 
 London in order to see whether the chaplaincy 
 would suit my purpose ; and having satisfied myself 
 on that head, I proceeded, relying on the informa- 
 tion which the Duke had given me, to wait upon 
 Lord John. I found him more stiff than I had 
 anticipated, and soon discovered the cause, for, 
 without expressing the slightest regret at what 
 had passed between us, he told me frankly how 
 much the rumours that had reached him distressed 
 him. A good deal taken aback, and not forgetful 
 of the contents of the Duke's letter, I at once 
 proposed that, under the circumstances, it would be 
 best for both of us to consider the offer of the 
 chaplaincy as withdrawn, and he went on to say 
 it would, however, greatly relieve him if I could 
 refute what he was pleased to call these calumnies. 
 So I told him at once exactly how the case stood. 
 I had never written a public article for Blackwood 
 in my life. I had been no party writer, much less 
 editor of any newspaper, either in Kent or else-
 
 A PERSONAL EXPLANATION 113 
 
 where, till the reform question came to the front, 
 and that then believing as I did, that the measure 
 would prove fatal to the best interests of the 
 country, I opposed it in every way, and wrote 
 against it in one local newspaper. That question 
 was, however, settled, and from the moment the 
 Bill passed into law I had withdrawn entirely from 
 politics. Lord John thanked me for the explana- 
 tion I had given, saying that it quite agreed with 
 what he had heard of me from other quarters. 
 
 I returned home, feeling that I had done justice 
 to all concerned — to Lord John, who had made the 
 offer ; to the Duke, on whose advice I had accepted 
 it ; and to both them and myself, in explaining 
 exactly how far I could be regarded as a party 
 writer. But in a day or two I received a letter 
 from Lord John, in which he informed me that he 
 had been again assailed by rumours which were to 
 him so unpleasant that he must beg of me to give 
 him in writing the same explanation I had given 
 him by word of mouth. I felt no hesitation in 
 complying with his request, and the consequence 
 was the appearance in the John Bull, and I think 
 in the Standard, of the following letter, sent to 
 them promptly through Lord John : — 
 
 "Sir, — I gather from a paragraph in yesterday's 
 Standard, that the Times and Morning Chronicle 
 have gone out of their way to vituperate Lord 
 John Russell and myself, because his lordship has
 
 114 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 thought proper to present me to the chaplaincy of 
 Chelsea Hospital. Were I alone attacked, I should 
 not trouble you with any counter-statement. In 
 justice, however, to Lord John Russell, I beg to 
 assure you, first, that I never wrote a political 
 article in Blackwood' s Magazine in my life ; and, 
 secondly, that I am not, nor ever was, the editor of 
 any newspaper, either in Kent or elsewhere. With 
 respect to my professional merits or demerits, I 
 beg to refer you to my Diocesan, the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, as well as to those among whom I 
 have lived and laboured for upwards of twelve 
 years. 
 
 " I do not deny that my political principles are 
 different from those of the Times and the Morning 
 Chronicle, and that during the agitation of a 
 question more momentous than has come under 
 discussion in this country since the Revolution, I 
 felt, as I believe all reflecting men did, warmly. I 
 plead guilty also to having written various papers 
 against the Reform Bill ; but the measure being 
 carried, I ceased to make politics in any shape the 
 subject of my literary labours, because I have 
 always believed that it is my duty as a clergyman 
 to set an example to those around me of obedience 
 to the laws. 
 
 "If there be anything in this which renders me 
 unworthy to receive preferment, I confess that I 
 cannot discover it, and much more am I at a loss 
 to conceive how Lord John Russell should incur 
 
 I
 
 THE INCIDENT CLOSED 115 
 
 the hostility of a Liberal press, because of his un- 
 solicited offer of patronage to one who holds these 
 opinions." 
 
 May I be pardoned, if, in order to bring this 
 episode to a close, I state, that my letter to the 
 newspapers proved satisfactory to Lord John, and 
 that having sent him a little volume of my sermons 
 which I had preached in Ash Church, and after- 
 wards published, I received from him the following 
 acknowledgment : — 
 
 "Wilton Crescent, March 30, 1834. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I ought to have thanked you for 
 the present of a copy of your sermons — indeed I 
 should have done so, but that I wished to have an 
 opportunity of reading them, and this, with my 
 occupations, was not very easy to find. Now that 
 I am acquainted with their merits, I am the better 
 able to assure you that I appreciate very highly 
 the value of your discourses, and to add my humble 
 advice that you will continue in this course, by 
 which you may not only be of essential service to 
 the veterans of Chelsea, but likewise to our active 
 forces in every part of the world. — I remain, very 
 faithfully yours, John Russell." 
 
 Agreeable as was to me the prospect of living 
 in London, comprehending, as Johnson said of it, 
 "the whole of human life in all its varieties," I did 
 not turn my back on Ash without a pang. I had
 
 116 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 resided there for twelve years on terms of warm 
 friendship with all classes — there was no dissent- 
 ing chapel in the parish — a good deal to say of a 
 place containing two thousand inhabitants, and the 
 church was crowded as often as services were per- 
 formed. It soon appeared likewise that the active 
 part I had taken in opposition to the Reform Bill 
 had not lost me the good opinion even of those 
 whose views on that subject were different from 
 my own, for a movement was set on foot to present 
 me with a parting gift, the subscriptions towards 
 which soon amounted to £80. There was no squire 
 in the place, and the class of farmers and thriving 
 tradesmen did not number more than about a 
 dozen persons, and of these only two held back. 
 
 But what was lacking elsewhere the penny sub- 
 scriptions of the labouring people and small shop- 
 keepers made good, and a handsome silver epergne 
 was purchased. Then followed a dinner at the 
 Ship Inn, and a presentation, attended with 
 speeches, all of them from the heart. I look 
 back at this day with infinite satisfaction on the 
 refutation thereby given to the slanders of the 
 Liberal press, and trust that the piece of plate thus 
 received will never pass out of my family, so long 
 as there remains man or woman to represent it. 
 
 It is a curious coincidence, and, to me, most 
 gratifying, that while in my ninetieth year I am 
 putting on record events such as these, I should 
 find myself deep in a correspondence with several
 
 FAREWELL TO ASH 117 
 
 of the inhabitants of Ash, and learn from them, 
 that though few of my contemporaries in point of 
 age survive, I am still remembered with affection 
 and respect in the parish. This I attribute to the 
 manner of my daily intercourse with their parents, 
 quite as much as to the fidelity with which I 
 endeavoured to discharge my duties among them ; 
 for though they were two thousand in number, I 
 knew them all by name, and greeted them on every 
 occasion, whether in their own houses or elsewhere, 
 as if they had been connected with me by some tie 
 of kindred. Hence, though all did not take the 
 same view that I did of the Reform question, there 
 never arose the slightest personal estrangement on 
 either side, and when the strife came to an end, all 
 who had the right to vote went with me to the poll. 
 It would have been idle to expect that, as chap- 
 lain to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, I should see 
 as much of the great Duke, or enjoy so large a 
 share of his confidence, as I did while residing 
 within eight miles of Walmer Castle. Indeed, the 
 time and occasion of special confidence between 
 men moving in spheres so different were passed. 
 Not that he seemed to consider himself as bound to 
 reticence on any subject that cropped up when I 
 was his guest, either singly, or in a crowd. But he 
 spoke the truth when he assured Lord Fitzroy 
 Somerset, and, through him, Lord John Russell, 
 that he was always averse to my mixing myself up 
 in any way with the strifes of parties. This did
 
 118 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 not prevent him, however, from telling me that Sir 
 Robert Peel had gone abroad in 1835 contrary to 
 his advice, because he was satisfied that the King 
 waited only for a convenient opportunity of getting 
 rid of Lord Melbourne's administration, and that, 
 in his opinion, Sir Robert ought to have been 
 within earshot at the time of Lord Spencer's death, 
 and the removal of Lord Althorp to the House of 
 Lords, to help the King in the exercise of his pre- 
 rogative. He even went so far, on one occasion, as 
 to express regret that Sir Robert had not followed 
 the example of Pitt in 1784, and held on against a 
 small majority in the Commons, having the King 
 and the Lords, and the wealth and intelligence of 
 the comitry at his back. But never again did he 
 invite me to act with him or his party either by 
 my pen or otherwise. Indeed, he went so far, 
 after the publication of the Chronicles of Waltham, 
 as to censure as imprudent on my part some 
 expressions in that book, which were liable to be 
 treated as attacks on the Liberals — as a body. 
 Thus our intercourse became simply that of kind- 
 ness and consideration on his part, and of grateful 
 devotion on mine, for he had very much gratified 
 me on one occasion by standing godfather to one of 
 my sons, and he did me a substantial favour by 
 giving to another a presentation to the Charter- 
 house, and subsequently appointing liim to a 
 Highland regiment, in which, at the early age of 
 twenty-one, he became a captain.
 
 END OF "confidences" 119 
 
 Few letters passed between us, though our 
 epistolary correspondence did not entirely cease, 
 for besides seeing him often in London, I more 
 than once visited him both at Strathfieldsaye and 
 at Walmer Castle, from the latter of which places 
 there is in my collection a note which tells me : 
 "Your friends in this part of the country regret 
 you much, and none more so than yours, most 
 sincerely, Wellington." 
 
 I must therefore content myself hereafter with 
 speaking of him and his fortunes in such general 
 terms as befit a looker-on from whom the curtain 
 was only partially withdrawn. 
 
 END of book I
 
 BOOK II 
 
 OF THE DUKE'S PLACES OF RESIDENCE, AND 
 SOME OF THOSE WHO VISITED HIM
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 From the date of Lord Liverpool's death to his 
 own demise, the Duke was accustomed to dispense 
 his hospitaUties in one or other of his mansions. 
 Apsley House became his town residence by pur- 
 chase from his brother, Lord Wellesley, in 1816. 
 By an expenditure of £90,000, or thereabouts, 
 he made it what it is, an extremely comfortable, 
 though scarcely a palatial abode. He was his own 
 architect, and thence one or two peculiarities, as, 
 for example, stabling approached by a sort of tunnel 
 passed under the house, and a hall pitched at a 
 level which left no room for Canova's colossal statue 
 of Napoleon, except in an out-of-the-way corner 
 under the main staircase. There, during the London 
 season, took place his great entertainments — the 
 Waterloo banquet ; dinners to royalties, diplomatic 
 bodies, and Cabinet ministers ; balls, routs, and 
 such like — at some of which were exhibited displays 
 of gold and silver and precious china, more gorgeous 
 than any other subject of the British or other 
 European Crown could exhibit. In Apsley House, 
 however, the Duke may be said to have been 
 always playing a part. Mornings occupied in public 
 business — now in his own study, now at the 
 
 123
 
 124 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Ordnance Office or the Horse Guards, now in the 
 House of Lords — were followed, evening after even- 
 ing, by attendance at gatherings, when crowds of 
 well-dressed ladies and gentlemen met to make them- 
 selves as agreeable as possible to one another. They 
 who encountered the Duke only amid this whirl 
 saw but the outside of the man. His subordinates, 
 whether in Pall Mall or Whitehall, found in him, 
 no doubt, a perfect master of the business in which 
 they were engaged. But to the casual acquaintance 
 he appeared in the light of a well-bred man of 
 fashion, remarkable chiefly for the ease and grace 
 with which he received the respectful attentions of 
 all who approached him. I speak of him, of course, 
 as I myself found him, after he honoured me with 
 personal notice. Others said of him, and I believe 
 said truly, that when he first entered into what is 
 called London society, having spent the best part 
 of his life in camps, his manners were somewhat 
 rough. So at all events writes Baron Stockmar, 
 whose acquaintance with him began as early as 
 the marriage of Princess Charlotte of Wales. But, 
 whatever may have been the case in 1817, in 1828 
 all traces of the rude training of camp life had 
 disappeared. It was, however, elsewhere than in 
 the artificial atmosphere of London that you must 
 have needs sought the Duke, if you desired to see 
 him in a natural light, and to the other houses to 
 which reference has been made we shall accordingly 
 follow him.
 
 THE NATIONS GIFT 125 
 
 Strathfieldsaje, the gift of a grateful nation to 
 one who had rendered to his country and to Europe 
 more important services than any man of his age, 
 was purchased in 1817 from Lord Rivers, and 
 settled by Act of Parliament on the Dukes of 
 Wellington for ever. The trustees appointed to 
 guard the appanage from abuse were the Lord 
 Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 
 the Speaker of the House of Commons for the time 
 being. The price paid for the article was £500,000, 
 and the conditions under which it was held were 
 stringent. The incumbent, whosoever he might be, 
 is prohibited, not only from selling an acre of the 
 land, but from cutting down a single tree except 
 with the consent of the trustees. Such consent 
 having been given, he is required to render a strict 
 account of the produce of the sales, in order that 
 a portion of the purchase - money may be set 
 aside as a provision for the younger children. The 
 estate is a valuable one, abundantly, perhaps over- 
 timbered, and in the park are noble avenues of elm 
 and oak, one of them exactly a mile in length. 
 There is much variety of rise and fall in the scenery, 
 to the beauty of which the river Loddon, enlarged 
 into something like a lake where it passes the house 
 at a distance of perhaps three hundred yards, adds 
 not a little. As to the house itself, the most that 
 can be said of it is, that it is a fair specimen of the 
 taste of the early Georgian era, during which it 
 was built. Looking at it, as you approach the
 
 126 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 main entrance, you see only a narrow frontage 
 rising two stories from the ground, with all the 
 offices, stables, dog-kennels, servants' lodgings, 
 tennis-court, etc., separated from the porch by a 
 circular patch of turf round which runs the road. 
 In the rear, that is to say facing the river, the 
 edifice is rather more imposing ; but what it gains 
 in amplitude is somewhat marred by the absence of 
 proportional height, and the coat of yellow plaster 
 with which all the outer walls are covered suggests 
 the idea, not an idle one, that the materials com- 
 posing them are neither substantial nor likely to 
 be durable. It is right to add that the interior 
 more than fulfils the expectations that had been 
 raised by a contemplation of the exterior. There 
 is a noble hall open to the ceiling, and the living- 
 rooms, though narrow and low in the roof, are 
 extremely comfortable. They run ofi" into long 
 galleries of which the effect is good, and the bed- 
 rooms are both numerous and convenient. Among 
 other arrangements contemplated when Parliament 
 voted the sum necessary for endowing the dukedom, 
 was one for building a house which should rival 
 in the grandeur of its details the ducal palace at 
 Woodstock. It is to be regretted, having this 
 object in view, that the agents entrusted with the 
 duty of purchasing a domain had not been instructed 
 to make an offer for Sir John Cope's magnificent 
 place, Bramshill. There they would have found 
 ready to their hands a mansion which James i. is
 
 STRATHFIELDSAYE 127 
 
 said to have built for Prince Henry. Either the 
 mistaken idea that Sir John would be unwilling to 
 sell, or a belief that the land at Strathfieldsaye was 
 greatly superior in quality to that of Bramshill, 
 hindered them from looking beyond Lord Kivers's 
 estate. The Duke, delighted with the contour of 
 Strathfieldsaye Park, and especially with its long 
 avenues, entirely approved their decision, and set 
 his architect to work, preparing plans for the new 
 house which was to replace the old one. When I 
 mention, however, that the charge for the plans 
 alone, and they were drawn in full, amounted to 
 £700, an idea may be formed of the enormous sum 
 that would have been required had the work been 
 executed. The Duke wisely contented himself, 
 under the circumstances, with purchasing and re- 
 building Apsley House, and taking possession of 
 the house at Strathfieldsaye exactly as he found it, 
 pronounced it to be as convenient and comfortable 
 a place of abode as any man could wish to inhabit. 
 
 Though considerably more free from restraint at 
 Strathfieldsaye than in London, the Duke was still 
 a good deal encumbered when there with social as 
 well as official duties. It was during the winter 
 months that for the most part he resided in Hamp- 
 shire, and then came at intervals royal and other 
 sportsmen, to kill his game and share his hos- 
 pitalities. He was likewise Lord-Lieutenant of the 
 County ; and however light most of the duties of 
 that functionary might be, they were all attended
 
 128 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to with the greatest punctuality. Indeed, so far 
 was he accustomed to carry his devotion to the 
 Crown, whose representative he held himself to be, 
 that, postponing all other claims on his attention, 
 he made a point of receiving the Judges and enter- 
 taining them at Strathfieldsaye House as often as 
 they came on to the county on circuit. On the 
 other hand, when his guests consisted only of inti- 
 mate friends, and all the calls of duty were attended 
 to, the Duke threw restraint and artificial manners 
 behind him. He hunted three or four days in the 
 week — now with Sir John Cope's, now with the 
 Vine hounds, to the maintenance of both of which 
 he contributed liberally. With his immediate 
 neighbours, if I except Mr. Shaw - Lefevre, first 
 one of the members for the county, and, after the 
 passing of the Reform Act, Speaker of the House 
 of Commons, he held little familiar intercourse. 
 Indeed, almost the only local gentry you met at his 
 table were his nephew, the rector of the parish, and 
 Mr. Briscall, the curate, in connection with each of 
 whom there were circumstances not perhaps un- 
 deserving of notice. 
 
 Lord Rivers, while owner of Strathfieldsaye, pre- 
 sented to the rectory Mr. Bastard, a gentleman 
 who had married his natural daughter. A year or 
 two afterwards, another rectory of which he was 
 patron fell vacant in Gloucestershire, and to that 
 also Lord Rivers presented his son-in-law. Unfor- 
 tunately for Mr. Bastard, the value of the new
 
 THE RECTOR OF STRATHFIELDSAYE 129 
 
 benefice was too great to allow his retaining the 
 old, and in order to meet the requirements of the 
 law, he resigned Strathfieldsaye. But those were 
 times when ecclesiastics made wonderfully free 
 with both law and decorum, and Mr. Bastard 
 accordingly accepted a fresh presentation to his 
 Hampshire benefice, in the not unnatural expecta- 
 tion that the blot would never be hit, nor himself 
 disturbed in his comfortable plurality. Things 
 remained in this state for many years after the 
 Duke became Lord of Strathfieldsaye. It never 
 entered into his head to suspect that the non- 
 resident rector was in truth an intruder, and so 
 long as the duty was done, whether efficiently or 
 not is another question, he allowed things to take 
 their course. And the duty was done in a way 
 peculiar to himself by the Kev. Mr. Briscall, who, 
 after serving through a large portion of the Penin- 
 sular War, as chaplain at headquarters, was well 
 pleased, in default of better preferment, to accept 
 a curacy which brought him once more into close 
 relationship with his former chief Briscall was a 
 man of refined manners and a good presence. The 
 Duke in his despatches speaks favourably of him, 
 especially on the ground that he kept down 
 Methodism in the army. I believe he did more 
 than this, by performing divine service every 
 Sunday, so long as the troops occupied winter- 
 quarters, though I and many more never saw him 
 but once, and then could not hear a word he said. 
 
 I
 
 130 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 But a constitutional shrinking: from encounters 
 with pain and sickness kept him from visiting the 
 hospitals ; and as to reading the burial service over 
 the dead, that, during the wars of the French 
 Kevolution, was a thing unheard of Into huge pits 
 dug to receive them the slain in battle were cast, as 
 manure is cast into a trench, and the victims of 
 fever and privations were in a somewhat similar 
 fashion disposed of Even the officers, though 
 interred apart, had no prayers read beside their 
 graves, for this, among other reasons, that the 
 chaplains of the army were very few in number, 
 and of these few, not one, so far as I know, cared to 
 make more than a convenience of the service. 
 
 Mr. Briscall, whom the Duke had more than once 
 recommended to Lord Liverpool for preferment in 
 the Church, was, when I made his acquaintance, 
 a chaplain to the forces on half-pay, and curate 
 of Strathfieldsaye. His habits were somewhat 
 eccentric and his manners agreeable, but he had 
 a nervous fear of infection, and could not bring 
 himself, be the case what it might, to visit a 
 dying parishioner. He dined every day at the big 
 house whenever the Duke was in residence, and 
 with the same regularity if the Duchess were there 
 alone. Poor fellow, though his ostensible expenses 
 were moderate enough, he was always in debt, and 
 ready at any moment to give a note of hand in 
 exchange for a loan to any one who might be good- 
 natured enouofh to accommodate him. He was less
 
 THE CURATE OF STRATHFIELDSAYE 131 
 
 regular in repaying than in borrowing, and lacked 
 judgment to discriminate between those with whom 
 this system might be pursued with impunity and 
 those to whom it would present itself in the guise 
 of fraud. Now the Duke was the most particular 
 of men in money matters. Liberal he was in his 
 gifts to such as begged from him, as will be shown 
 more at length by and by, but for debts to trades- 
 men he made no allowance, and he looked upon the 
 man w4io put off a creditor with a note of hand, 
 without being sure that he would be in a condition 
 to take it up when due, as little better than a 
 swindler. In an evil hour for himself, Mr. Briscall 
 borrowed £500 from the Duke, giving him a note 
 of hand payable in six months. The six months 
 ran their course, no settlement of accounts took 
 place, nor was any explanation offered for the 
 causes of delay, and the Duke, while he took no 
 open notice of the matter, treated Mr. Briscall ever 
 after with marked coldness. The curate remained, 
 indeed, in the rectory, and dined as usual, day 
 after day, with the lord of the manor, but the lord 
 of the manor took no more notice of him, either 
 at table or afterwards, than as if he had not been 
 present. 
 
 I have told this story because the sequel to it 
 illustrates, in my opinion, a marked peculiarity in 
 the Duke's idiosyncrasy. 
 
 The money affair was a private matter between 
 Mr. Briscall and himself. As the individual out-
 
 132 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 raged, he showed his displeasure in the manner 
 here described. But a blunder in private life could 
 not make the Duke forget what he believed to be 
 an official's claim, on account of services rendered to 
 the country and the Government. Hence, one of 
 his first acts after becoming Prime Minister was to 
 offer Mr. Briscall a stall, either in Worcester or in 
 Lincoln, I forget which. The offer was gratefully 
 accepted, and Mr. Briscall looked forward to spend- 
 ing the rest of his life in the enjoyment of what 
 was then a diofnified sinecure. He did not calculate 
 aright the strength of the Duke's allegiance to the 
 principle of aristocracy, another of that great man's 
 marked peculiarities. Within a day of his con- 
 versation with Mr. Briscall, the Prime Minister 
 received a letter from the Duke of Beaufort asking 
 for the vacant stall. It happened that there was at 
 this time a living in the fens of Lincolnshire of equal, 
 if not greater pecuniary value, at the disposal of the 
 Crown. The Duke sent at once for Mr. Briscall, 
 and telling him he would be glad if he, Mr. Briscall, 
 would accept the benefice, and thereby enable him 
 to oblige the Duke of Beaufort, Briscall felt that 
 he could meet the proposal only in one way. The 
 stall was given to Lord W. Somerset, the Lincoln- 
 shire benefice to Mr. Briscall, who found both the 
 situation and the duty so uncongenial, that he was 
 obliged, after a brief experience of both, to apply 
 for a licence of non-residence. This he got, and 
 died, after I became chaplain-general, assistant
 
 A CASE OF PLURALITIES 133 
 
 chaplain to the garrison of Chatham, leaving heavy- 
 debts unpaid behind hini. 
 
 Meanwhile another incident, not less character- 
 istic of the Duke's habits of thought, may be worth 
 relating, Mr. Bastard, as has just been said, though 
 resident on his benefice in Gloucestershire, still 
 retained the rectory at Strathfieldsaye, and more 
 than that rectory. His father-in-law, in presenting 
 him to Strathfieldsaye, had added to it the adjoining 
 rectory of Turgis, of Avhich the gross annual value 
 might amount to £600. Now, as Strathfieldsaye was 
 thus computed to be worth £1000, Mr. Bastard had 
 every right to consider himself amply provided for. 
 But whatever his views might be, his patron 
 thought otherwise, and the Gloucestershire living, 
 with its superior house and glebe, became, by the 
 process already described, a substantial addition to 
 the son-in-law's income. For a good many years 
 the fortunate incumbent of the three rectories 
 rejoiced in his pluralities, and would have probably 
 done so till the day of his death but for an acci- 
 dent. Gerald Weliesley, the Duke's nephew, 
 whom his uncle had in some sense educated with 
 his own sons, took orders, and was, while yet 
 a young man, chosen by Dr. Van Mildert, Bishop 
 of Durham, to be his domestic chaplain. It 
 chanced that some member of the Episcopal stafi", 
 I think it was the Chancellor, had a taste for 
 ferreting out mistakes in the administration of 
 Church afiairs, and having learnt that the Bishop's
 
 134 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 chaplain would have been rector of Strathfieldsaye, 
 had the benefice not fallen vacant during Lord 
 Kivers's time, he looked into the conditions on 
 which Mr. Bastard kept Mr. Wellesley out of his 
 inheritance, and found them to be inadequate. The 
 old law relating to pluralities was lax enough, but 
 it did not sanction the retention of two bene- 
 fices in Hampshire by the incumbent of a living in 
 Gloucestershire so valuable as that to which Mr. 
 Bastard had been presented. The effect of his 
 induction into the latter caused an immediate 
 lapse of the former, his continued retention of 
 which was an illegal act, persevered in, doubtless, 
 through inadvertence. 
 
 Informed of all this, and instructed as to his own 
 rights, the Duke was neither tardy nor ungenerous 
 in acting upon them. He might have carried Mr. 
 Bastard at once into Court, in which case Mr. 
 Bastard would have been compelled, not only to 
 surrender his benefices, but to refund the revenues 
 derived from them during the past seven years. 
 This he did not do, but, pointing out that such a 
 course was open to him, he invited Mr. Bastard to 
 resign, which Mr. Bastard wisely and properly did. 
 Mr. Wellesley thereupon became incumbent of the 
 rectories of Strathfieldsaye and Turgis, and retained 
 them, much to his own credit and the benefit of his 
 parishioners, till transferred to the deanery of 
 Windsor. 
 
 We come now to the third and latest acquired of
 
 WALMER CASTLE 135 
 
 the Duke's three houses, and that in which, I may 
 add, without the smallest hesitation, he most 
 delighted to find himself. Walmer Castle, the 
 most perfect specimen extant of fortresses huilt 
 in the reign of Henry viii., stands upon the 
 margin of the sea, at a distance from Dover on the 
 one side of six or seven miles, and from Deal on the 
 other about two. It is one of three which were 
 designed for the protection, not only of the coast, 
 but of merchant-vessels navigating the Straits, 
 and this service they performed in their day with 
 tolerable efficiency. Indeed, down to the intro- 
 duction of steam and 40-pounder guns, they could 
 still be of some use in covering traders which at 
 full tide might run close inshore and anchor under 
 their lee. They are quite worthless now as places 
 of strength, and one, Sandown Castle, the sea has 
 entirely swept away. In 1828, however, all three 
 existed, and all were occupied. Sandown, the 
 most northerly of the group, stood about three 
 miles from Deal, in the direction of Sandwich. 
 Though equally with the castles of Deal and of 
 Walmer placed nominally under the charge of a 
 captain, it gave quarters to a detachment of the 
 Coast-guard, and continued to do so till it became 
 a ruin. Deal Castle can still boast of its strong 
 stone walls, its circular bastions, its moat, draw- 
 bridge, and even of a battery looking seaward ; 
 but successive captains have piled up such a mass 
 of modern buildings within tlie ramparts as in a
 
 136 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 great degree to mar its symmetry as a fortress. 
 Walmer has escaped this sore blemish. A modern 
 superstructure, erected, I believe, by Mr. Pitt, 
 scarcely raises its modest head above the level of 
 the parapet, and thus while adding to the house a 
 comfortable dining and drawing room, it in no 
 degree spoils the contour of the edifice. These 
 two castles stand apart, with an interval between 
 of perhaps a mile and a half, and are in every 
 respect exactly alike, except that the town comes 
 close up to the outer edge of the ditch at Deal 
 Castle, while Walmer, separated from the village 
 of that name, stands within a paddock of perhaps 
 twenty acres in extent, and, considering the effect of 
 sea-air on timber, well wooded. 
 
 Walmer Castle is now, and has been for many 
 years, the official residence of the Lord Warden 
 of the Cinque Ports. The office itself is as old 
 as the days of the Conqueror, being contemporary 
 with that of the Constable of Dover Castle, a 
 high officer of State, to whom was assigned the 
 governorship of what were then the five principal 
 ports or harbours in the Channel. The five towns, 
 which originally made up the Cinque Ports, were 
 Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich. 
 To these by and by came to be added Winchelsea 
 and Rye as principals ; and later still, other places, 
 viz. Sandgate and Deal, became offshoots from the 
 particular ports to which they stood nearest, and 
 therefore partook both in their obligations and
 
 THE CINQUE PORTS 137 
 
 their privileges. These, in old times, were con- 
 siderable. Each port was required to provide, 
 equip, and man a given number of ships for the 
 King's service. This put a considerable strain 
 upon their resources, but the strain was in some 
 degree compensated for by the exemption of the 
 inhabitants from the payments of subsidies, and 
 from answering in any other courts than their own 
 for their proceedings. Nor was this all. To each 
 Cinque Port — and the title remained after the five 
 ports had gro^vn into seven — was awarded the right 
 of returning a member to Parliament, while to the 
 Barons, as certain local magnates were called, was 
 assigned the honour of bearing the canopy over the 
 King's head at his coronation, and of partaking in 
 the feast which followed that ceremony at a table 
 placed by itself apart on the King's right hand. 
 
 The glories of the Cinque Ports had faded con- 
 siderably in 1828, when the Duke became Warden. 
 They had ceased to keep watch and ward over the 
 safe navigations of the Channel, and were in con- 
 sequence held liable to the same public burdens as 
 were borne by their countrymen in general. But 
 to one of their privileges they wisely adhered. 
 Each port still returned its member to Parliament, 
 and hence the Boyal Navy, though no longer largely 
 recruited from among their citizens, added not a few 
 of the sons of the Cinque Port boroughs to the list 
 of distinguished admirals and captains. Dover 
 Castle, likewise, still boasted of its Constable, who,
 
 138 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 residing at Walmer, made over both his apartments 
 and the responsibiUties of his office to a deputy. 
 From him the Guards — for a garrison of regular 
 troops held the place — received day by day the 
 countersign, and a Cinque Ports jail afforded 
 accommodation to Cinque Ports debtors, the tink- 
 ling of whose bell, let down from their prison- 
 house, perched above the zigzag roadway leading 
 to the main entrance, appealed for alms to every 
 well-dressed person who approached the castle 
 gate. Nor as yet had the Lord Warden been 
 deprived of his right, both to collect the droits 
 of Admiralty and to appoint chartered pilots, to 
 refuse the services of whom, when bound for the 
 Thames, or any other harbour within the ancient 
 limits of the Warden's jurisdiction, would have 
 subjected the masters of trading vessels to a heavy 
 penalty. Besides all which, the Lord Warden 
 exercised within the same limits the authority 
 of Lord-Lieutenant. By him justices of the peace 
 were nominated, having jurisdiction coincident 
 with that of the mayors and aldermen in chartered 
 boroughs. And had there existed then, as during 
 the French War there did exist, corps of Cinque 
 Ports militia and volunteers, in him would still 
 have been vested authority to appoint the officers. 
 In one not unimportant respect, however, the Lord 
 Warden's position fell short of what it used to be, 
 even in Lord Liverpool's time. The salary of 
 £4000 a year came to him no more. Like
 
 HIS LIFE AT WALMER 139 
 
 lieutenantcies and sheriffdoms of counties, his 
 office was honorary so far, that it carried with it 
 no other substantial benefit than the right to 
 inhabit, whenever he chose, one of the most 
 agreeable marine residences in England. 
 
 To this charming seaside home the Duke took 
 flight, usually about the middle of September, and 
 rarely left it, unless called away by what he held 
 to be duty, before the beginning of November. 
 The signal of his arrival to the country round was 
 the hoisting of the union-jack, which all orders and 
 degrees of men, prior to the outbreak of the Reform 
 mania, hailed with satisfaction. For not less at 
 Walmer than elsewhere was the Duke scrupulously 
 careful to discharge the obligations of his office, and 
 to distribute among the tradesmen of the place, the 
 butchers, bakers, and such like, his custom, with- 
 out any regard to party politics. At the Court of 
 Loadmanage, which met from time to time at 
 Dover, for the appointment of pilots and other 
 business connected with the ports, he was a regular 
 attendant — controlling and guiding the consulta- 
 tions of the Barons with as much care as if he had 
 been chairman of committees in the House of Lords. 
 But more than this. He hunted with a pack of 
 harriers which were kept at a neighbouring farm- 
 house ; shot occasionally, though partridges were 
 scarce, over the Walmer manor, and dispensed a 
 generous hospitality to the naval and military 
 officers within reach, as well as to such guests from
 
 140 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 a distance, as shoal after shoal volunteered visits or 
 accepted his invitations. Of some of these latter, 
 whom I was privileged to meet either at Walmer, 
 or Strathfieldsaye, or at both places, I now propose 
 to speak in connection with onr host, just as they 
 made an impression upon me at the moment, and 
 more in detail of others, for an intimate acquaint- 
 ance of whom future opportunities were afforded 
 me.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE duke's foreign GUESTS 
 
 A KINDER or more considerate host than the great 
 Duke of WeUington could not be. He made you 
 at home in the happiest manner possible by leaving 
 you throughout the greater part of the day to take 
 care of yourself, and making it optional whether 
 you would or would not join any combined excursion 
 that might be proposed. As to his table, it was in 
 every respect such as became his position. His cook, 
 a Frenchman, who had once been in the service of 
 Napoleon i., knew perfectly well both how to select 
 the materials for a banquet and how to deal with 
 them when chosen. His wines also were excellent, 
 though, strange to say, his cellars contained but a 
 scanty supply at any given moment. Indeed, it 
 was his custom both in town and country to lay 
 in from time to time just as many dozens of wine 
 of different sorts as would suffice for a month or 
 six weeks' consumption. They were all mellow and 
 ripe, because he paid large prices for them, yet, 
 so far as he was himself concerned, the oldest could 
 not have been more than a couple of months in his 
 possession. Of his reasons for thus acting he made 
 
 141
 
 142 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 no secret, and he acted in a similar manner with 
 every consumable article required in housekeeping. 
 " At one time," he said, " I used to do as others 
 do — gave my orders to the house-steward, and 
 handed him the money to pay the bills as he pre- 
 sented them to me. This went on for a year or 
 two, when, to my surprise and disgust, I got letters 
 from tradesmen humbly begging I would settle 
 their accounts which had been long standing. I 
 found, upon inquiry, that the fellow had been gam- 
 bling with my money, leaving my creditors unpaid ; 
 and from that day to this, I have made it a point 
 to pay my own bills, and to keep my accounts with 
 tradesmen as short as possible." 
 
 Of the distinguished foreigners to whom his in- 
 vitations extended, by far the greater number used 
 to visit him at Walmer Castle. This was natural 
 enough, because Walmer lies but a little way out of 
 the direct route from London to the Continent, and 
 it was usual for ambassadors and foreign princes and 
 princesses to travel homewards just about the time 
 the Duke was accustomed to betake himself to the 
 seaside. Even to set down in order the names and 
 titles of all who, from time to time, made Walmer 
 Castle their halting-place would be to make out a 
 bead-roll of celebrities. I shall content myself there- 
 fore with noticing only two or three, in whom, for 
 obvious reasons, I was led to take special interest. 
 
 Foremost among these may be placed Monsieur 
 Talleyrand, ex-Bishop of Autun, and successively
 
 TALLEYRAND 143 
 
 high officer of State under the Directory, under 
 the Consulate, under the First Empire, under the 
 Restoration, and, finally, under the Citizen King. 
 The Duke, at the period when I first met this 
 remarkable man at Walmer Castle, was Prime 
 Minister of England, and Talleyrand, Ambassador 
 from the Court of Louis xviil to that of St. James. 
 Of his varied career it would be ridiculous, in a 
 sketch like this, to attempt an account, were it 
 indeed possible to add as yet any details worth 
 recording to those already known. Even of his 
 personal appearance it may seem well-nigh super- 
 fluous to speak. A flat head, covered with a mass 
 of perfectly white hair, which, combed down over 
 the forehead, gave to it the a2:)pearance of being 
 preternaturally low, contradicted the received 
 theories which make a lofty brow and oval crown 
 the outward and visible signs of genius. His eyes, 
 small, black, and sunken in their sockets, were 
 surmounted by bushy eyebrows perfectly black 
 and straight. A nose short and retrousse, a com- 
 plexion ashy pale rather than sallow, and a chin 
 strongly marked, made up a countenance which, 
 when in repose, was well-nigh repulsive. At in- 
 tervals, when some brilliant or cynical thought 
 struck him, it would light up ; but these intervals 
 occurred rarely, because in society he was habitually 
 taciturn, taking no part, and apparently little in- 
 terest, in the general conversation which went on 
 around him. If, however, anything were said,
 
 144 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 which seemed to him to present an opening for a 
 clever or cutting remark, he rarely failed to take 
 advantage of it, and the effect upon the company 
 was telling. Nor was it possible, in pubUc at least, 
 to lure him into an argument. That he could hold 
 his own at proper seasons with the most acute of 
 diplomatists, all the world was persuaded ; but 
 grave discussion he considered to be inimical to 
 digestion, and he therefore made a point of avoid- 
 ing it, both when eating and after eating, which he 
 held to be the most critical period of the day. For 
 he never ate except once in the twenty-four hours, 
 and his meal was in consequence enormous. Like 
 his countrymen in general, he drank little wine, 
 and that only at dinner, and both tobacco and 
 coffee he eschewed. Talleyrand was rather above 
 the middle height. For a Frenchman he might be 
 considered tall, and in spite of his lameness (for he 
 had a contracted foot) his figure was not without 
 grace. He dressed like a gentleman of the old 
 school after ruffles and wigs had ceased to charac- 
 terise it. The Duke did not share the popular 
 belief in his extraordinary abilities. On the con- 
 trary, he regarded him as rather a commonplace 
 politician, who owed his advancement to the anxiety 
 of the French Government, after the fever of revo- 
 lutionary madness abated, to obtain the services of 
 as many aristocrats as were willing to make common 
 cause with it. As to his honesty, the Duke held, 
 that reflected pretty accurately the moral condition
 
 THE DUCHESS OF CUMBERLAND 145 
 
 of the society into which he was thrown. He 
 could be honest, whenever he believed that honesty 
 would be convenient. He spoke the truth, if truth 
 served the purpose of the moment. According to 
 his own statement, Talleyrand's opinion of the 
 Duke was very different. He regarded the Duke, 
 or professed to do so, as the foremost Englishman 
 of his day, as well because of his perfect integrity 
 as on account of his thorough knowledge of what 
 was necessary to preserve the peace of Europe, and 
 the wisdom of his measures for securing it. Talley- 
 rand was accompanied by his niece, the Duchesse 
 de Dino, a beautiful and accomplished young 
 woman, of whom the censorious world used to 
 speak slightingly, though I dare say without just 
 reason. 
 
 Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, afterwards King of 
 Hanover, can scarcely be spoken of as a foreigner. 
 Neither was he at any time much in favour with 
 the Duke of Wellington. But the Duchess of 
 Cumberland was foreign by birth, and on the only 
 occasion when I met her at Walmer she had ceased 
 to be even a naturalised Englishwoman. It was in 
 the winter of 1830, for the Duke remained longer 
 than usual this year at Walmer, that the lady paid 
 him a visit, bringing with her her only child. 
 Prince George. They were on their way to join 
 her husband, and his father, to whom the death 
 of George iv. had opened the succession to the 
 Hanoverian throne, and who immediately after the 
 
 E
 
 146 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 royal funeral at Windsor had gone to take posses- 
 sion. Of him, therefore, I saw nothing, but there 
 was much in the situation of his family, and in the 
 manner of the new Queen, which was calculated to 
 excite interest, A large woman, in whom few 
 traces of the beauty of other days could be dis- 
 covered, she was yet graceful in her manner, if 
 indeed it did not strike one as more subdued 
 than was necessary. We, the other guests, were 
 assembled in the drawing-room previously to the 
 announcement of dinner, when she entered, the 
 Duke leading her by the hand. We all rose, of 
 course, and stood in a sort of semicircle, round 
 which the Duke conducted her, introducing to her 
 by name individually each lady and gentleman 
 whom she confronted. She had a few words to 
 say to all, but their meaning never varied. It was 
 evident that the one thought which filled her mind 
 was an anxious desire that a favourable impression 
 of the family should be left in a country which 
 they had so long inhabited and were now quitting 
 for ever. "You wiU not forget us quite, I hope, 
 when we are gone. We leave you with great 
 regret, and would be sorry not to believe that you 
 would miss us." Then she spoke of their journey 
 from London, and the manner in which they had 
 been treated all along the road. " Nothing, I 
 assure you, could be more gratifying. Not a single 
 insult was offered to us. The people, whenever we 
 stopped to change horses, were quiet and most
 
 THE BLIND KING OF HANOVER 147 
 
 respectful." They to whom she made her appeal 
 answered as was fitting, though in reference to the 
 behaviour of the people, they came to a somewhat 
 different conclusion from hers. They knew that of 
 all the members of the royal family the Duke of 
 Cumberland was the most unpopular, and that had 
 the mobs of Chatham and Canterbury been aware 
 that his family filled the carriages on which they 
 were gazing, no chivalrous feeling of respect for 
 womanhood would have restrained them from vent- 
 ing on the wife the abuse which, if due at all, was 
 due only to the husband. Nobody, of course, said a 
 word which could tend to deprive the poor lady of the 
 satisfaction of believing that the obsequious attention 
 of hosts and ostlers, and the orderly conduct of the 
 few loiterers who stopped to see the horses changed, 
 were tokens of respect for her, and not merely the 
 stereotyped behaviour of persons too much ac- 
 customed to speed travelling princes on their way 
 to take any notice of the escutcheons emblazoned 
 on the panels, or the liveries worn by servants. 
 
 Prince George was at this time about eighteen 
 years of age and stone-blind. The sight of one eye 
 he had lost in childhood, and just before the ascen- 
 sion of his father to the Hanoverian throne an 
 accident extinguished the other. He was swing- 
 ing a double silk purse carelessly too near his own 
 face, when one of the pouches, heavy with coins, 
 struck the sound eye. Inflammation set in, and 
 all the skill of the best oculists in London failed to
 
 148 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 save the vision. Either because his parents still 
 clung to the hope that vision might return, or 
 because he was himself as yet unreconciled to the 
 inevitable, the Prince, during his stay in Walmer 
 Castle, shut himself up in a darkened room. 
 Several of the guests, besides the Duke, were in- 
 vited to visit him there, and all came away much 
 impressed in his favour. His manners were very 
 taking, and he alluded to his own misfortune with 
 an attempt at cheerfulness which was, in truth, 
 most touching. Poor boy, his fate in after-life was 
 the more sad, that neither he nor his father had 
 done anything to deserve it. The father's unpopu- 
 larity in England may, or may not, have been fairly 
 earned. He never courted the masses. His moral 
 conduct, to say the least, was far from correct, 
 though in this respect he might stand a comparison 
 with those among his brothers whom the people 
 most lauded ; and being by far the most resolute 
 of the family, he established an influence over 
 George iv. which often proved very inconvenient 
 to his Majesty's ministers. But, with all his 
 faults, he was a man of his word, as was shown in 
 this that he alone, of all the continental sovereigns, 
 fulfilled to his subjects the promises that were made 
 to them when thrones were in danger. The conse- 
 quence was that in Hanover he was as popular as 
 in England he had been the reverse, and that the 
 devotion of the people to the father was continued 
 to the son when the crown devolved upon him. It
 
 PRUSSIA AND HANOVER 149 
 
 has been charged against George v. as an act of 
 folly that in the quarrel between Austria and 
 Prussia he took the wrong side. Prussia, it is 
 said, being, like Hanover, a Protestant state, sound 
 policy, not to speak of higher motives, ought to 
 have led him to make common cause with her. 
 But they who argue thus forget the old standing 
 grounds of antipathy which rendered a cordial 
 alliance between the two powers impossible, except 
 in opposition to France. Ever since the days of 
 Frederick Prussia had schemed to absorb Hanover. 
 And once, by the favour of France, to whom she 
 was then a mere satellite, she succeeded in doing so. 
 It was natural, therefore, when the long-pending 
 struggle between Austria and Prussia for supremacy 
 came on, that Hanover should cast in her lot with 
 the former. And that this was the feeling of the 
 nation, not of the Court only, was shown by the 
 fact that large sacrifices were cheerfully submitted 
 to in order that a well-equipped army might take 
 the field. Had Bavaria been more on the alert, 
 and Moltke less master of strategy, the Hano- 
 verians might have escaped the necessity of fighting 
 the battle of Langensalza single-handed. As it was, 
 they came out of that contest defeated indeed, but 
 not disgraced, after proving that the noble qualities 
 which distinguished the soldiers of the German 
 Legion in the Peninsular War had by them been 
 handed down unimpaired to their sons. This could 
 not, however, avert the catastrophe. The lost battle
 
 150 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 cost Prince George his throne, and Hanover its in- 
 dependence as a separate nation. 
 
 Of another distinguished foreigner, General 
 Alava, I must give some account, because of the 
 intimate relations which used to subsist between 
 him and the Duke. So intimate indeed were at 
 one time these relations, that Alava may be said 
 to have been rather an inmate in the Duke's family 
 than a guest. Alava began life as an officer in 
 the Spanish navy, in which capacity he took part 
 in the battle of Trafalgar. When the war of 
 independence between Spain and France broke out, 
 he at once joined the national party, and at a later 
 period served with credit at the Duke's head- 
 quarters. Nor did his connection with his great 
 chief come to an end with the peace of 1 8 1 4. In 
 1815 he was appointed, on the Duke's suggestion, 
 Spanish Commissioner with the English army in 
 the Netherlands, and was present in that capacity 
 at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. We 
 find him next, on his return home, supporting King 
 Ferdinand against the jDolitical party among his 
 countrymen who insisted on retaining a democratic 
 constitution with a titular sovereign at its head. 
 Whether he entirely approved of the coup d'etat 
 which set aside Juntas altogether may well be 
 doubted. At all events, it was with him that Lord 
 Fitzroy Somerset chiefly communicated when sent 
 by the Duke's advice on a semi-official mission to 
 Madrid, in the hope of persuading the adverse
 
 GENERAL ALAVA 151 
 
 sections to come to a compromise. But Spain was 
 by this time a mere arena of hostile factions the 
 intrigues of which, one against the other, rendered 
 all equally deaf to the counsels of wisdom. It was 
 not in Alava's nature to keep clear of the rocks 
 on which other public men lost themselves, and the 
 consequence was that after the Due d'Angouleme's 
 promenade from Bayonne to Cadiz, Alava was forced 
 to go into voluntary exile. He took refuge with 
 many others in the south of France, whither his 
 wife followed him. While there, the Duke's kind- 
 ness to him was untiring. He sent him money from 
 time to time, and invited him to come to England, 
 where either apartments in Apsley House, or one 
 of the Duke's many mansions in Hampshire, would 
 be at his service. As long as Madame Alava lived, 
 Alava preferred remaining where he was. On her 
 death, he gladly closed with the Duke's offer of an 
 asylum, and from about 1826 to 1830 subsisted 
 entirely on the Duke's benevolence. 
 
 Alava was a Spaniard to the backbone, and a 
 liberalised Spaniard. Whether he had any religious 
 belief at all, is doubtful, but certain it is, that 
 he hated the Boman Catholic priesthood with no 
 ordinary hatred, and that the feeling extended 
 itself during his residences in England, till it 
 embraced the whole body of the clergy of the 
 Established Church, and the ministers of all de- 
 nominations. His education, like that of the great 
 body of Spanish gentlemen of his day, had been
 
 152 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 utterly neglected. He knew nothing of the litera- 
 ture or history of other nations, and little, if any- 
 thing, of the literature and history of his own. In 
 the faculty of acquiring languages he seemed to be 
 particularly deficient. His spoken English, after 
 years of residence in the country, was scarcely 
 intelligible, and his French was not much better. 
 In spite of these drawbacks, however, he was 
 cordially received into the best society of London, 
 entirely because of his apparent devotion to his 
 benefactor, for he followed the Duke from place to 
 place hke his shadow. He entered with zeal into 
 all the Duke's projects, approved, or professed to 
 approve, all the Duke's suggestions as to the best 
 means of procuring for Spain the blessings of good 
 government, and when the question of parliamentary 
 reform came up at home, declared himself entirely 
 in favour of the Duke's policy and proceedings. 
 Neither the Duke nor his friends were aware that 
 Alava was all this while in communication with 
 Earl Grey, informing him of the plans of the leaders 
 of the Opposition and of whatever differences might 
 arise among them as to the course of action to be 
 pursued. Nor was it till after the death of 
 Ferdinand had removed every obstacle to Alava's 
 return to Spain, that so much as a suspicion was 
 awakened in the minds of those who trusted him, 
 of foul play on his part. When, however, he came 
 back to London in the character of Queen Chris- 
 tina's ambassador, he threw himself completely into
 
 GENERAL ALAVA 153 
 
 the views of Lord Melbourne's Cabinet. He no 
 longer sought either the confidence or the com- 
 panionship of the Duke. On the contrary, he kept 
 entirely aloof from him, as well he might, while 
 settling the terms of a treaty of which the Duke 
 disapproved, not because he was favourable to 
 despotism as it prevailed under Ferdinand vii., but 
 because he held it to be, on the part of France and 
 England, an iniquitous interference in the internal 
 affairs of Spain and Portugal. Of Evans's legion, 
 which Alava was mainly instrumental in creating, 
 and of its operations in the Basque Provinces, the 
 Duke could never speak with patience. It seemed 
 to him monstrous that England, which had so 
 largely helped the Spanish people to get rid of a 
 foreign yoke, should suspend her own laws and 
 allow the Spanish Government for the time being to 
 raise an army in England in order to put down a 
 rebellion to which the bulk of the people were 
 favourable, because they held Don Carlos to be 
 their legitimate sovereign. 
 
 Alava's appearance was very much against him. 
 His features were coarse, his stature short, and his 
 complexion sallow. His conversation consisted 
 entirely, either of the gossip of the day, or of 
 anecdotes of the Peninsular War, neither very 
 interesting in themselves, nor very articulately 
 repeated. You could not help, on first making his 
 acquaintance, sympathising with him as a martyr 
 to principle, and as I have just said, his apparent
 
 154 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 devotion to the Duke added strength to the 
 feeling. In proportion, however, to the growth of 
 your intimacy grew a distaste for his company, 
 which, but for the high patronage under which it 
 began, had really nothing attractive about it. As 
 to his fetching and carrying at the era of the 
 Keform movement, that was probably more the 
 result of constitutional weakness than through 
 either dislike to aristocratic, or a passionate love of 
 democratic, institutions. It was not in his nature 
 to abstain from intriguing whenever and wherever 
 intrigue might present itself, and though the 
 power to do miischief might be small with him, the 
 spirit of Spanish liberalism by which he was moved 
 constrained him to make the most of it. 
 
 Another foreign officer, whom it was my privilege 
 to meet at Walmer Castle, deserves to be noticed, 
 were it only on account of the circumstances which 
 brought about his intimacy with the Duke. An 
 Irishman by birth, and descended from a good 
 family, Monsieur Nugent entered the Austrian 
 service at a time when Roman Catholic gentlemen 
 were by law prevented from holding commissions 
 in the British army. He served with distinction 
 through the earlier wars of the French Revolution, 
 and in 1812 had attained the rank of general. It 
 will be recollected that in the summer of that year 
 Napoleon's fatal invasion of Russia occurred. In 
 that enterprise all the German States except 
 Austria took part, each furnishing a contingent to
 
 GENERAL NUGENT 155 
 
 the Grand Army, and each, with the single exception 
 of Saxony, detesting both the war and its author. 
 The world knows now what was known only to a 
 few persons then, that between Austria and Russia 
 a secret understanding existed, the object of which 
 was to restrain the further ambition of the con- 
 queror, and to win back, for both, part at least of 
 the territories of which they had been deprived. 
 That Napoleon should have been kept in the dark 
 respecting this matter is scarcely more surprising 
 than that he should have consented to the 
 neutrality of Austria after making up his mind to 
 strike at Russia. Probably his marriage with the 
 Archduchess Maria Louisa, and the exaltation con- 
 sequent on being received thereby into the family 
 of princes, may have misled him. Perhaps, too, he 
 fancied that Austria, having much more to expect 
 from a close alliance with France than with any 
 other power, would never be induced to act against 
 him. Be this, however, as it may, the fact remains 
 that Austria prevailed upon him to sanction not 
 only the withholding of a corps which at one 
 time he had demanded, but the maintenance in 
 Bohemia of a stout army for the ostensible purpose 
 of overawing other states which he distrusted, and 
 keeping open his communications with his own 
 rear. 
 
 It was at this juncture, when Europe watched 
 with intense interest the slow and somewhat 
 uncertain progress of the Grand Army, that General
 
 156 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Nugent, quitting the corps he commanded in 
 Bohemia, made his way to London. By whom he 
 was commissioned to undertake the journey, if 
 commissioned by any one, was then a secret. No- 
 body, moreover, pretended to attach any special 
 importance to the visits which he paid to Lord 
 Liverpool and Lord Bathurst ; and when, furnished 
 with a letter from the Colonial Secretary to Lord 
 Wellington, he took ship at Portsmouth for Lisbon, 
 the proceeding was regarded as one quite to be 
 expected from an Austrian general curious to see 
 of what materials the British army in Portugal 
 was composed. Thus, without giving rise to 
 speculation in any quarter, he arrived at Frenada, 
 where the British headquarters were established, 
 and where he received from the commander of the 
 forces a very cordial welcome. As a matter of 
 course, the Duke showed to the Austrian general 
 his troops, with whose appearance and bearing the 
 Austrian was delighted. " I could scarcely believe," 
 he used to say, " that I was looking at men, horses, 
 and materiel, which had just begun to rest after 
 the retreat from Burgos. They were all as fresh 
 and clean and orderly as if they had just been 
 marched out from barracks at home." 
 
 General Nugent's visit, however, to Frenada was 
 not one of mere curiosity. He went there, after 
 confidential discussion with the English Govern- 
 ment, to sound the Duke as to whether, in the 
 event of an alliance hostile to France being got up
 
 GENERAL NUGENT 157 
 
 between Austria and Prussia, he would consent to 
 take the command of their combined forces. Whether 
 he was authorised by the Emperor to make this 
 proposal, or whether he acted as the agent of that 
 section of the Austrian Cabinet which abhorred the 
 French alliance, and was eager to escape from it, 
 nobody knows. Nugent himself was always 
 reticent on that head, years after the need for con- 
 cealment might be supposed to have passed away. 
 But however this might be, the Duke's answer to 
 the proposal was exactly such as a man so cautious, 
 yet so astute, might be expected to give. " The 
 proposed alliance being still a thing of the future, 
 a direct acceptance and a direct refusal of the pro- 
 posal would be alike out of place. Nor must your 
 Government allow its policy to be determined by 
 a circumstance of such secondary importance as my 
 compliance or non-compliance with its wish. I am 
 not my own master, but must do, both at this 
 moment and hereafter, whatever my own Govern- 
 ment may desire. But you may assure those for 
 whom you act that, whatever I can do to promote 
 a scheme so wise, indeed so necessary for the 
 salvation of Europe, I will do with all my heart." 
 
 With this answer and a strong assurance from 
 the British Government that, whether the Duke 
 went to them or not, the Power which projected 
 the alliance would receive from England every aid 
 in money and material, Nugent returned home. 
 By and by there followed events of which little
 
 158 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 need be said here, Nugent reached Vienna after 
 the fatal retreat from Moscow 'had begun. He 
 hastened thence into Bohemia and reassumed the 
 command of his corps, which formed part of the 
 Austrian force collected in that province. He 
 became a member of the diplomatic body, which 
 strove in Dresden to brmg Napoleon to reason, 
 and when the negotiations were broken off and 
 Austria made common cause with Eussia and 
 Prussia, Nugent took the field. In the operations 
 that followed, including the defeat of Vandamme 
 at the back of the Carpathians, and the battle of 
 Leipsic, he played a conspicuous part. After this 
 we find him co-operating with Lord William 
 Bentinck in the Mediterranean, and at the head 
 of a hastily organised levy falling upon the French 
 garrisons in Dalmatia and Croatia, and compelling 
 them to surrender. From Trieste to Fiume, and 
 from Fiume to Agram, he carried all before him, 
 achieving much honour to himself and important 
 advantages to the cause. He was rewarded for his 
 services by being made a member of the Aulic 
 Council, and a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. 
 He had previously married a Croatian lady, who 
 brought him as her dower a fine estate and a com- 
 fortable house, in which he resided, when not called 
 by duty to Vienna, or seeking recreation in foreign 
 travel. 
 
 Count Nugent was a perfect gentleman in 
 appearance and manner. He entertained the
 
 THE duke's little JOKE 159 
 
 highest respect and esteem for the Duke, in the 
 long list of whose correspondents his name more 
 than once occurs. Whether he came by invitation 
 to Walmer Castle, or volunteered his visits, I do 
 not know, but the Duke always received him with 
 marked cordiality. I have elsewhere recorded an 
 amusing little incident which occurred during one 
 of these visits, but no great harm will be done if I 
 repeat it here. Count Nugent was a Eoman 
 Catholic, and when Sunday morning came round, 
 he said to the Duke, "Do you go to church?" 
 Duke— " Always. Don't you?" Nugent— "Oh 
 yes, but, you know, I am a Catholic, and can't go 
 to your church." Duke — "Very true, I had 
 forgotten." Then turning to Captain Watts, who 
 was present, he continued : " Captain Watts, 
 Count Nugent wants to go to the Roman Catholic 
 chapel ; do you know where it is ? " " Yes, your 
 Grace." Duke — "Then be so good as show 
 Count Nugent the way." Count Nugent, taken 
 quite aback, did not know how to parry the 
 thrust, and was walked off under Captain Watts's 
 charge to a poor little Roman Catholic chapel in 
 Deal. The Duke seemed much amused with the 
 expression of his guest's countenance, and as the 
 rest of the party were proceeding to the parish 
 church at Walmer, he said : "I knew he did not 
 want to go to church himself, and was anxious that 
 I should stay at home with him, but it was best 
 that we should both go to church."
 
 160 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 It was my privilege a few years later to visit 
 Count Nugent's chateau in Croatia, to wMch he 
 invited me, both when I met him at Walmer, 
 and subsequently at Vienna. Unfortunately he 
 himself happened to be from home when I arrived, 
 but from the Countess I received a hearty welcome, 
 as well as from his eldest son, at that time a captain 
 in an infantry regiment. Poor fellow, he got into 
 some quarrel with a brother-officer not long after- 
 wards, and was killed in a duel. This was a severe 
 blow to his father. 
 
 Mention has been made of Captain Watts. Watts 
 joined the 85th Light Infantry in the early spring 
 of 1813, on the same day that I did; indeed, we 
 travelled on the top of the coach together from 
 London to Hythe, where the regiment was then 
 quartered. He served in Spain, the south of 
 France, and America, was an excellent regimental 
 officer, and the most simple-hearted and innocent 
 of men. The regiment was an expensive one, and 
 Watts, whose means were not great, sold out as a 
 captain. But his good qualities had secured for 
 him the esteem of all his brother-officers, and in 
 1830, when the Captaincy of Walmer Castle fell 
 vacant, the place was obtained for him. In point 
 of emolument it was of little value, but it brought 
 him into daily communication with the Duke, who 
 fully appreciated his sterling qualities, and was not 
 offended by his shy and retiring manners. Watts 
 died in 1873, a military Knight of Windsor.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE duke's guests—" DII MAJORUM GENTIUM " 
 
 Foremost among the Duke's political guests, by 
 reason both of the office which he held, and the 
 part which he played in constructing the Duke's 
 administration, may be placed Lord Lyndhurst. 
 The son of a distinguished artist, and by descent 
 an American, young Copley took a foremost 
 place, both at school and in college. He chose 
 the bar for his profession, and soon became as 
 conspicuous for his successes in court as for his 
 social qualities. It came to pass, however, that 
 Copley so managed matters as never to become 
 rich. On the contrary, his pecuniary affairs were 
 always in confusion, of which the consequence was, 
 that when he achieved the honours of his pro- 
 fession he had acquired habits of expense, with 
 little more than his daily earnings wherewith to 
 indulge them. " My poverty, but not my will 
 consents " might be said by many persons in real 
 life, as truly as by Shakespeare's starved apothe- 
 cary. It was this, combined perhaps with an 
 ostentatious indifference to party obligations, 
 
 L
 
 162 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 which earned for Copley, rightly or wrongly, the 
 reputation of being the most venal of politicians. 
 When Canning became Prime Minister, Copley 
 took office under him as Attorney-General. On 
 Canning's death, Viscount Goderich advanced him 
 to the woolsack, as Baron Lyndhurst, and when 
 the Goderich administration got into difficulties 
 he at once transferred his allegiance to the Duke 
 of Wellington. There is nothing to show that he 
 made any effiDrt, direct or indirect, to retain the 
 seals when Lord Grey came into office. Such an 
 attempt, after the conspicuous part played by him 
 in resisting the progress of the Reform Bill, would 
 have been almost more hopeless than discreditable. 
 But an ex-Chancellor's pension, not then, as Lord 
 Brougham by and by contrived to make it, £5000 
 a year, proved inadequate to his wants, and he 
 applied to the Whig Premier for the post of Chief 
 Baron, and obtained it. The consequence was, 
 that for several years the voice which had been 
 most frequently heard in biting condemnation of 
 the policy of ministers became mute, and so con- 
 tinued, till another turn in the wheel of fortune 
 placed the Chief Baron for the second time on the 
 woolsack. Lord Lyndhurst, like most men of his 
 moral and intellectual calibre, had a large acquaint- 
 ance, few real friends, and many enemies. Among 
 his friends, Benjamin Disraeli may be said to have 
 taken a foremost place. There was very much in 
 the two men common to both — with just enough in
 
 LORD LYNDHURST 163 
 
 an opposite direction to save, so to speak, the 
 individuality of each. Lockhart abhorred them 
 both. On the occasion of Lord Lyndhiirst's ap- 
 plication to Earl Grey, he wrote, printed, but never 
 published a bitter pasquinade, which I once knew 
 by heart, but have now unfortunately forgotten. 
 The Quarterly Review under his management dealt 
 frequent blows at Disraeli, and if it spared Lord 
 Lyndhurst, the circumstance cannot be attributed 
 to any strong personal predilection on the part of 
 the editor for the ex- Chancellor. 
 
 It was while both were in office that Lord Lynd- 
 hurst was most in the habit of visiting the Duke. 
 I do not remember ever to have seen him either 
 at Walmer or Strathfieldsaye after the Beform Act 
 came into force. If of any man it could be pre- 
 dicated that he wore two distinct faces, the assertion 
 might be hazarded in his case. His countenance in 
 repose wore a sinister expression, which disappeared 
 the moment he became animated. The weight of 
 his brow in some sort accounted for this, over- 
 hanging as it did the rest of his face. But get him 
 into conversation on a subject which interested 
 or amused him, and the cloud immediately lifted. 
 Then a bright, piercing, hazel eye twinkled with 
 fun, or looked grave and thoughtful as the occasion 
 suggested. His features were regular and his com- 
 plexion a clear brown. Few men could make them- 
 selves more agreeable than he, for he had read 
 ■much, remembered what he read, and was never
 
 164 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 at a loss how to make use of his knowledge. He 
 was, moreover, a lawyer, and la^'yers have special 
 opportunities of observing the grotesque as well as 
 the base and bad in human nature. Lord Lynd- 
 hurst had manifestly not allowed these to pass 
 from him unimproved. His anecdotes were both 
 abundant and racy, and if he had a story to tell, 
 he told it admirably. When I had the honour of 
 first making his acquaintance, he was married to 
 his second wife, who got the credit, whether justly 
 or not I cannot say, of keeping him by her ex- 
 travagance in constant difficulties. 
 
 Lord Lyndhurst was vain of his personal appear- 
 ance, and not without reason. To the last he 
 dressed so as to appear young, and wore a brown 
 wig. The scandalous world alleged that he pro- 
 vided himself with no fewer than twelve wigs, so 
 constructed that from time to time he might seem 
 to have had his hair cut. For example, on the 
 last of December his wig was shaggy ; on the 1st 
 January it was a crop. The crop in course of time 
 gave place to a wig with hair slightly longer, till 
 he appeared at last surmounted by the wig which 
 had done duty on the previous 31st December. I 
 believe this to have been a true story. 
 
 Another anecdote illustrative of the view which 
 he took of the uses to which the patronage of his 
 office might fairly be turned, rests on individual 
 authority. Mr. Martin, author of the History of 
 the British Colonies, lived at one time, or said he
 
 LORD LYNDHURST 165 
 
 did, on intimate terms with Mr. Disraeli, while the 
 latter was as yet nothing more than a young man of 
 great promise about town. Martin conceived that 
 by the publication of his work he had done good 
 service to the country, and not being overburdened 
 with shyness he applied, through Disraeli, for an 
 office of considerable emolument in the Chancellor's 
 gift. The application was favourably received, 
 Disraeli being, at this time, an intimate friend of 
 Lord Lyndhurst, and through him a promise was 
 given that the coveted office would be conferred on 
 the applicant. Accordingly, at the end of a week, 
 a gentleman — not Mr. Disraeli — called upon Martin, 
 and, putting a paper into his hand, requested him to 
 sign it. Martin read the paper and discovered, to 
 his surprise, that it was a document pledging him 
 to pay to the Chancellor two years' salary of the 
 office. Martin declined to attach his signature to 
 the document, informing his visitor that the office 
 was promised to him, whereupon the visitor took 
 his leave. "The office," Martin went on to say, 
 " was given a few days subsequently to another 
 person, and the next time I met Disraeli he cut me 
 dead." I do not vouch for the truth of this story, 
 and am apt to believe that, whatever part Mr. 
 Disraeli may have played in the transaction — 
 assuming it to have occurred — he was by far too 
 sagacious to act as Martin represented. With 
 respect to Lord Lyndhurst himself, if there be the 
 slightest foundation for the tale, he may possibly
 
 166 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 have acted in the case on a conviction that a course 
 adopted by the greatest of his predecessors, even 
 though it befell two or three centuries ago, could 
 not be unworthy of imitation ; and he at least had 
 a plea to urge, which Bacon had not, in mitigation 
 of the wrong, if wrong it was. 
 
 I come now to another and still more prominent 
 member of the Duke's Cabinet, of whom I desire 
 to speak only as I found him. Sir Robert Peel's 
 personal appearance need not be described ; it is 
 accurately given in a thousand engravings, with 
 which Englishmen in all ranks and conditions of 
 
 o 
 
 life are familiar. His manners, so far as my ex- 
 perience goes, were stiff, cold, and therefore for- 
 bidding. The impression they made upon you was 
 that you were in the presence of a man so terribly 
 afraid of committing himself, that he could not 
 utter a word on any subject till he had well weighed 
 all its possible consequences. This awkwardness — 
 for to such it amounted — might in part be consti- 
 tutional. No one afflicted with an excess of self- 
 consciousness can, under any circumstances, acquire 
 a frank demeanour. But if it be fair to judge from 
 the habit to which Sir Robert was addicted of 
 speaking of himself in season and out of season as 
 one of the people, it is impossible to avoid coming 
 to the conclusion that at the root of this apparent 
 shyness lay no small amount of mistaken pride. 
 The son of a man who, beginning life as an operative 
 weaver, rose to be one of the most successful and
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 167 
 
 affluent of English manufacturers, Sir Kobert was 
 from boyhood brought into contact with an aris- 
 tocracy which, though in the main both Uberal 
 and enhghtened, is at least as jealous of its social 
 privileges as any in Europe. As years passed, Peel's 
 great wealth and undoubted abilities fully entitled 
 him to break through the conventionalities, and 
 break through them he did for all practical purposes. 
 But neither at Harrow, nor at Oxford, nor later, 
 when he became a Member of Parliament and a 
 Cabinet Minister, could he entirely succeed in 
 effacing from his own mind the idea that, though 
 with the magnates of England, he was not one 
 of them. This was shown, not alone in private 
 society, but by many of his speeches in the House 
 of Commons ; and nowhere more distinctly than in 
 that clause of his will which forbade his sons to 
 accept a peerage, or any other token of the sense 
 entertained by the Crown of their father's services. 
 
 Had he been able to forget his own origin, or, 
 better still, to look back upon it as an accident 
 not to be accounted of, except as testifying to the 
 excellence of the institutions under which he lived, 
 he would have escaped many moments of self- 
 inflicted pain, and made himself more agreeable 
 than he did to those with whom he could not avoid 
 holding constant intercourse. 
 
 Of his mode of proceeding in his own house, I 
 know nothing, never having had the honour of 
 being his guest either in town or country, but
 
 168 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 wherever else I chanced to meet him, he was 
 always the same. He took no part whatever in 
 the general conversation at dinner, and when an 
 adjournment to the drawing-room took place, he 
 withdrew into a corner apart, and unless pursued 
 by some irrepressible admirer, would take up a book 
 and read, or pretend to read. It was one of his 
 characteristics that, though an excellent classical 
 scholar, he had no real taste for works of imagina- 
 tion either in verse or prose. Even Sir Walter's 
 novels, which, when I first met him, were in the full 
 blaze of their popularity, he declared himself never 
 to have read. I confess that hearing him say this, 
 I took it for granted that he was bamboozling his 
 questioner, a lady, and I still believe that it must 
 have been so. But being destitute himself of 
 imagination, it is probable enough that the works 
 of Malthus and E-icardo and John Stuart Mill were 
 more familiar to him, and better relished than those 
 of Bulwer, then just beginning to take the public 
 by storm, or even Lord Byron or Scott. 
 
 A story is told of the late Lord Stanhope, who, 
 though the most amiable of men, and a man of 
 large acquirements, did not always say the right 
 thing in the right place, that seeing the Duke of 
 Wellington in front of him in the Hyde Park Bide, 
 he drove his horse furiously against that of the 
 Duke, well-nigh dismounting the rider, and at the 
 same time asked the question, "Duke, what is 
 your opinion of Sir Bobert Peel ? " The reply which
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 1G9 
 
 the Duke evaded, I shall do my best to give. The 
 Duke's opinion of Sir E,obert Peel varied at different 
 periods of their intimacy. While both were 
 members of Lord Liverpool's administration, the 
 Duke thought highly of Peel, both as a man of 
 talent and strict integrity, and as a rival to Canning, 
 in whom he had no confidence. Li 1828, when the 
 care of forming a Cabinet was imposed upon him, 
 the first step the Duke took was to request Peel to 
 meet him, with the view of urging upon him the 
 acceptance of the post of Prime Minister. • Perhaps 
 I express myself a little too strongly in saying the 
 Duke urged this point. It would be more correct 
 perhaps to say that he sounded Peel on the subject, 
 for, cautious as Peel might be, the Duke on all 
 public affairs was at least as cautious, and there is 
 nothing in his pubHc correspondence to show how 
 far he went in this or any other direction. They 
 had both been taught from the issues of the debates 
 in previous sessions of Parliament that Catholic 
 Emancipation, the great question of the day, must 
 sooner or later be settled, and the problem sub- 
 mitted to them for solution was how best this 
 inevitable end might be achieved. The Duke, 
 whose opinions on that head were based on ex- 
 pediency and not on principle, took oflice, prepared 
 himself to face the danger — for a great danger to 
 party stability he knew the attempt to carry 
 such a measure would be — but this he held to 
 be less fraught with mischief than an endeavour
 
 170 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to carry on the Government under existing con- 
 ditions. Peel did not see the matter in the same 
 light. He, too, felt, and indeed acknowledged, that 
 the policy of other days had failed, and that by 
 making the repeal of the laws against Catholics an 
 open question in the Cabinet, ministers had paved 
 the way for emancipation. At the same time he 
 had always been an advocate on principle of resist- 
 ance to the Catholic claims, and to take now an 
 active part in an opposite direction must, he felt 
 assured, destroy his influence in the country. That 
 the Duke with great difficulty overcame these 
 scruples is well known ; that he was grateful for 
 this act of self-sacrifice on Peel's part is equally 
 certain. Yet it is scarcely a secret now that, from 
 the date of the passing of the Catholic Relief Bill, 
 the two statesmen for some years looked coldly the 
 one upon the othei:". 
 
 I never met Sir Robert Peel at Strathfieldsaye, 
 and only once at Walmer Castle just after the 
 passing of the Catholic Relief Bill, while he was 
 still Home Secretary. Facts which subsequently 
 came to my knowledge were then hidden from me, 
 otherwise I might have taken a more accurate 
 measure of the relations in which he and his host 
 stood towards one another ; for, without doubt, a 
 more potent cause, than that which I accepted for 
 the extreme awkwardness of Peel's manner, would 
 have suggested itself to me. He was sore under 
 the recollection of the part he had been over-
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 171 
 
 persuaded to play in carrying the measure, while 
 the Duke could not but feel how cruelly, through 
 Peel's deference to the bishops, its chances of 
 success in bringing permanent peace to Ireland had 
 been lessened. The Duke was indeed too much of 
 a man of the world to evince in his manner any 
 coldness towards his colleague. On the contrary, 
 he did his best to put Peel at his ease, by treat- 
 ing him before others with marked cordiality, and 
 inviting him from time to time, as was natural, to 
 private conferences in his own room ; but Peel 
 would not be enticed out of his reserve. Of what 
 passed between them during these conferences I 
 know nothing. All that I do know is, that Peel 
 took no pains to make himself agreeable to the rest 
 of the company, and that after a while he was left 
 to take his own course. 
 
 I expressed myself with hesitation concerning the 
 Duke's desire that Peel should undertake the con- 
 duct of the Government in 1828. Of his repeating 
 this proposal in 1830, urging its acceptance, there 
 can be no doubt. The death of George iv., and the 
 accession of William iv., seemed to him to offer an 
 excellent opportunity of winning back the old 
 Tories, in the face of opposition from whom he 
 could not well see how the Government could be 
 carried on ; and believing, as he did, that their 
 hostility was against himself personally, he antici- 
 pated no doubt that, were Peel to become first 
 Lord of the Treasury, they would all take office
 
 172 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 under him. As to himself he would promise a 
 cordial support, in a subordinate office, or out of 
 it, just as might be considered most conducive to 
 the wellbeing of the State. Again Peel refused to 
 stand in the breach, and the Government went on 
 as before, with what results, as soon as the dissolu- 
 tion came, I need not pause to describe again here. 
 It would have been extraordinary if these 
 repeated differences of views had failed, in some 
 degree at least, to break in upon the cordiality 
 which previously held the two statesmen to- 
 gether. Nor did Peel's line of policy run parallel 
 with that of the Duke after the Whigs brought 
 forward their measure of parliamentary reform. 
 The Duke was most desirous that the Bill should 
 be met at once with a refusal to read it, and we 
 know now that, if Peel had been bold enough to 
 act on this suggestion, a considerable majority of 
 the House of Commons would have supported him. 
 But Peel shrank from a course so little sanctioned 
 by parliamentary usage, and the first reading passed 
 with scarcely a dissentient comment. A day was 
 fixed for the second reading, after an interval well 
 chosen to suit the purposes of the Cabinet. Time 
 was thus gained for working on the hopes of the 
 ambitious and the fears of the timid, and the 
 Government, though successful on the second read- 
 ing by a very small majority, prevailed upon the King 
 to dissolve. From that moment the game was up. 
 Even if the Duke's advice had been followed, and
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 173 
 
 the first reading of the Bill been refused, the old 
 system could not have been maintained in its 
 integrity. The King might, and probably would, 
 have changed his ministers rather than dissolve a 
 Parliament which had been only a few months in 
 existence, but a Reform Act of some sort had become 
 inevitable, and the best thing a Tory Government 
 could do would be to frame one on the lines of Mr. 
 Pitt's Bill, unhappily stifled by the French Bevolu- 
 tion. No doubt, even this would have caused 
 divisions in the party, not, however, such as to 
 destroy it, or very seriously weaken it. 
 
 But it was not so to be. Under Peel's guidance 
 the opponents of the ministerial measure fought, 
 in the House of Commons, a battle, imperfect suc- 
 cess in which proved fatal to themselves, and amid 
 the excitement of a General Election (the most 
 remarkable in English history) one cry was heard 
 on every hustings, " The Bill, the whole Bill, and 
 nothing but the Bill." 
 
 I look back upon that time, now more than half 
 a century ago, with amazement. Judicial blindness 
 seemed to fall upon the nation, for not one voter in 
 a thousand had the most remote idea of the con- 
 sequences, either to himself or to others, of what he 
 was doing ; yet everywhere, even in small boroughs, 
 not less than in the counties, and in populous towns, 
 the tide ran with resistless force in one direction. 
 Let me not be misunderstood. I am not now in 
 any degree what the excitement of a great political
 
 174 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 struggle made me then, to a certain extent, a 
 defender of the abuses which, in 1830, overlaid the 
 constitution. In one of my letters to the Duke, 
 which his son did not publish,^ though he published 
 his father's reply to it, I ventured to enumerate 
 several points on which I thought concession to 
 public opinion might advantageously be yielded, 
 and now for many years past no one could be more 
 satisfied than I that the hurricane of 1830 was 
 brought on quite as much by the neglect of the 
 Tories to revive between 1812 and 1827 Pitt's wise 
 measure, as by the boldness of the Whigs in bidding 
 high for office in 1830. Still, even at this hour, 
 and with these convictions more deeply impressed 
 upon me than ever, I cannot reflect on the historical 
 incidents of 1830 without positive pain. Other 
 revolutions, even if we go no further back than the 
 great Eebellion, and the change of dynasty in 1688, 
 were originated and guided by the natural leaders 
 of the people. The revolution of 1830 was both 
 originated and carried through in opposition to the 
 natural leaders of the people. The unnatural alliance 
 between the Government and the mob proved too 
 strong for the wealth, station, and intelligence of 
 the country, and the democracy learned thereby 
 a lesson it can never forget. The Church, the 
 Throne, the House of Lords, the order of society as 
 it used to exist, and to a certain extent still exists 
 in this country, are all at the mercy of the mob, 
 
 * See page 63.
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 175 
 
 and the mob knows it. Doubtless the decadence 
 has been more gradual than any of us expected it 
 would be, when we vainly strove to reason with 
 madmen. But not the less steadily has it gone on 
 till we have reached a depth but a little way 
 beneath which lies democracy, with its inevitable 
 consequent — in such a country as this — com- 
 munism. 
 
 Firm in his own conviction, and hoping against 
 hope that even yet the country might be brought 
 to see the dangers that threatened society, the 
 Duke, as is well known, induced the Lords to 
 throw out the ministerial measure, and when, after 
 a brief recess, it came before him again, he accepted 
 his defeat as he would have done a reverse in the 
 field, and did his best to make it as little decisive 
 as possible. Again Peel stood apart from him. He 
 would have nothing to do with the attempt that 
 was made to take the question out of the hands of 
 those who had raised it, by forming a new adminis- 
 tration. It was no secret to him any more than it 
 was to the Duke, that the King's eyes had been 
 opened to the deceits that were practised on him, 
 and that whatever support the Crown could give 
 to ministers would be given to a Cabinet of which 
 he would consent to be a member. The Crown's 
 support, even when backed by the House of Lords, 
 was in his eyes as a feather in the scale when 
 weighed against the will of the House of Commons. 
 Nor could he be brought to believe either that there
 
 176 EEMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 were existing in the House men patriotic enough 
 to postpone their own crotchets to the public good, 
 or that a second dissolution could effect any other 
 purpose than to bring back a House more radically 
 disposed than that which had preceded it. The 
 consequence was that the Duke was obliged to 
 abandon any attempt to form an administration, 
 and that without any positive break between them, 
 he and Peel ceased for a while to take counsel 
 together. 
 
 It was a matter of surprise to me at the time, 
 that after meeting Peel at Walmer while he held 
 office under the Duke, I never once saw him there 
 during the desperate and protracted struggle that 
 followed the introduction of the great measure. 
 For surprise there was, in truth, no ground ; much 
 as they were thrown together, and highly as on 
 the whole they thought of one another, there never 
 lived men of natures so divergent as those osten- 
 sible leaders of a great party. The Duke, had he 
 lived two centuries earlier, would have played a 
 conspicuous part among the Cavaliers. For him 
 the Crown was the source not only of honour, but 
 of power, and it was the duty of the King's 
 ministers so to manage Parliament, as that while 
 preserving the liberties of the subject, they should 
 uphold in their integrity the Crown's prerogatives. 
 Steadily refusing himself to become the owner of 
 a borough, and censuring those who used their 
 boroughs for selfish purposes, he stood up, both in
 
 SIR ROBERT TEEL 177 
 
 his speeches and in his letters, for the order of 
 things which he found in existence, any change in 
 which, by throwing open the constituency to the 
 masses, must take the government out of the 
 hands of the sovereign and deliver it over to the 
 House of Commons. He had other objections to 
 Lord Grey's special measure which I need not here 
 enumerate, because they are set forth at length in 
 his correspondence. Peel, disliking Lord Grey's 
 measure mainly because it must necessarily change 
 the composition of the House in which the minister 
 for the time being could usually count on being 
 supreme, took a much more lowly view of both the 
 rights and privileges of the Crown, which he held 
 as having been reduced to their proper dimen- 
 sions by the Revolution of 1688. The Duke was 
 a Tory, such as Tories became when they ceased to 
 be Jacobites. Peel was at heart a Whig, and would 
 have acted with the Whigs from the beginning 
 of his career, had they not gone over to the 
 Jacobins. 
 
 It was in the House of Commons and for the 
 House of Commons that Peel lived, and finding 
 himself after Canning's death master there, he 
 would gladly have kept it, as Canning left it, an 
 admirable make-believe of the People's House, 
 though in reality a well-chosen oligarchy. The 
 principles on which their opposition to the Whig 
 measure rested were not the same therefore with 
 him as with the Duke. The Duke fought for the
 
 178 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Crown as the head, not of the United Kingdom 
 only, but of the great British Empire. Peel strove 
 to maintain things as they were, because they gave 
 him a House of Commons which he believed he 
 could manage. 
 
 The King's strong dislike of his Whig ministers 
 soon became an open secret. Their financial policy 
 satisfied nobody, and in O'Connell, who had been 
 of great use to them in carrying their Reform 
 Bill, they found a source of permanent weakness. 
 Great differences likewise early arose in the 
 Cabinet, of which the outcome was that the Duke 
 of Kichmond, Lord Stanley, and Sir James Graham 
 sent in their resignations. Lord Grey, himself, 
 was not slow in following their example. In a word, 
 as early as 1834 it became apparent that the 
 Government, reconstituted as it was under Lord 
 Melbourne, might at any moment fall to pieces. 
 The views taken of the situation by the Duke and 
 Peel respectively were again at variance. The 
 Duke, convinced that the Bevolution begun in 
 1830 would, unless speedily checked, make short 
 work with the great institutions of the country, 
 was all for supporting the King in his avowed 
 desire to change his ministers. Peel, thinking 
 more of present difiiculties than of possible evils to 
 come, shrank from hazarding a conflict in which he 
 could not see his way to certain victory. Instead, 
 therefore, of waiting and watching as the Duke 
 did, he became suddenly taken with a desire — quite
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 179 
 
 novel to him — for foreign travel. The consequence 
 was that when the crisis came, the King, but for the 
 extraordinary courage of the Duke, must have been 
 left without any other alternative than to recall 
 the members whom he had just dismissed. In 
 those days railroads were few on the Continent, 
 and the electric telegraph was unknown. I never 
 saw the Duke more put out than on his return 
 from his first interview with the King at Brighton. 
 "Just like him," was the expression he made use 
 of when storming at Peel's inopportune absence 
 from the country, and most inopportune it certainly 
 was. If he had been at hand, either his refusal 
 to form a Conservative administration would have 
 stopped the movement in that direction at once, or 
 he would have hindered a dissolution of Parliament 
 till the Commons should have made their disloyalty 
 so obvious as seriously to alarm the constituencies. 
 The Duke's bold assumption of an administration 
 and interview left him no choice except to hurry 
 home and accept, though with undisguised reluc- 
 tance, the responsibilities with which he was 
 charged. 
 
 I am not in a condition to say whether the 
 memorable address to the electors of Tamworth 
 was seen by the Duke before it was published. I 
 am inclined to believe that it was not, because the 
 line it took went wide of the Duke's notions, as 
 usually expressed, and caused much alarm among 
 a considerable section of the party. The Whigs
 
 180 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 had held out no threat of interfering with the 
 EstabUshed Church except in Ireland, and their 
 plan in reference to it in that country had lost 
 them the support of some of the most influential 
 of their colleagues. That Peel, coming in as the 
 head of the Tory Government, should have attacked, 
 in what was his appeal for support, existing abuses 
 in the Church of England, could be accounted for 
 only in one way. It seemed impossible that he 
 could have regarded these abuses as the worst 
 feature in England's social system, otherwise he 
 would have made an effort under Lord Liverpool to 
 correct them. But now, change of any sort, pro- 
 vided it weakened the influence of the aristocracy, 
 having become synonymous with reform. Peel 
 found in the Established Church a capital subject 
 on which to operate. The bishops had made them- 
 selves unpopular by swelling the majority in the 
 House of Lords, which had once dared to vote 
 against the Reform Bill, and the unpopularity 
 which overtook the bishops extended to the whole 
 body of the clergy. What could be more likely to 
 secure Liberal votes at the hustings, than an 
 assurance from the Prime Minister that, if retained 
 in power, he would avenge the people's wrongs on 
 both bishops and clergy. Observe that I am far from 
 asserting that such were Peel's reasons for medi- 
 tating a plan of reform in the temporalities of the 
 English Church. All for which I venture to blame 
 him is, that, instead of just making sure of his own
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 181 
 
 position and then bringing forward his scheme, he 
 should have put in the forefront of his manifesto a 
 declaration which all who read looked upon as a bid 
 for votes, likely otherwise to go against him. As 
 I have already said, I am without grounds for 
 forming an opinion as to whether or no Peel took 
 counsel with the Duke or any other member of his 
 Cabinet, before issuing his manifesto ; but ventur- 
 ing on one occasion to express regret about it to 
 the Duke, I got from him this answer : " Be assured 
 that I will consent to no changes which the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury and other heads of the 
 Church disapprove." 
 
 Peel failed, as is well known, to carry the House 
 of Commons with him. The majority against him 
 was not great, — if I recollect right, something under 
 twenty. Pitt, under similar circumstances, would 
 have held on, knowing that the King was with 
 him, and the great bulk of the wealth and intelli- 
 gence of the country. But Peel was not Pitt, and 
 immediately on the cessation of the cheers which 
 greeted the Liberal triumph. Peel announced that 
 his Majesty's ministers would retain office only till 
 their successors were appointed. 
 
 Peel's brief administration began and ended in 
 1835. The Whigs returned to Downing Street 
 under the presidency of Lord Melbourne, and one 
 of the first objects to which they gave their atten- 
 tion was that which Peel had suggested to them 
 in his Tamworth manifesto.
 
 182 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 They found a scheme ready prepared to their 
 hands, and at once adopted it. The law which had 
 heretofore treated each separate benefice in the 
 Church as a corporation vote was to be set aside. 
 The condition of the prelates, who had heretofore 
 sat in the House of Lords in right of their baronies, 
 was to be altered. An Ecclesiastical Commission, 
 composed mainly of laymen, was to be created, and 
 out-lands seized, and Church dignities suppressed 
 by Act of Parliament ; a fund was to be provided, 
 with which power was given to the Commission to 
 deal, avowedly for the benefit of the Church at 
 large. 
 
 That a measure so sweeping, which placed all 
 orders of the clergy in a condition which, in point 
 of fact, left it doubtful whether they had not 
 become mere dependencies of the State, should 
 have caused great alarm among the body so affected 
 cannot surprise any one. I confess myself I re- 
 garded it with much disfavour, not because I was 
 adverse to the objects proposed to be attained by 
 it, but because the means adopted for their attain- 
 ment were as unconstitutional, as they were likely 
 to be used by some future Government in justifica- 
 tion of other and more drastic remedies for the 
 great abuse of all, the existence in a free country 
 of an endowed and established Church. 
 
 With none of the members of Lord Melbourne's 
 administration had I any acquaintance, and the 
 London press was closed against me by the almost
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 183 
 
 unanimous approval expressed in its columns of 
 the Tamworth manifesto when first published. I 
 made up my mind therefore, not without great 
 difficulty, to communicate with Sir Robert Peel 
 himself on the subject. 
 
 The following correspondence accordingly passed 
 between us, which will not, I imagine, be without 
 interest, as showing to what extent thoughtful men 
 were anxious that steps should be taken, not to get 
 rid of Church Reform, but so to conduct it as to avoid 
 the dangerous consequences with which, if affected 
 by the machinery proposed to be created, it might 
 be attended. 
 
 " London, December 24, 1836. 
 *' Dear Sir Robert, — Were the subject on which 
 I venture to address you less important than it is, 
 I should have the utmost reluctance to intrude 
 upon your attention, especially as my claims to 
 notice on the score of personal acquaintance are 
 very slight. But the question which I am going 
 to discuss is one of great moment, and cannot, I 
 presume, fail to be perpetually present to your own 
 mind. I allude to the reform of the Established 
 Church, and to the suggestions of the Commis- 
 sioners, with which I am aware you have no imme- 
 diate concern, but which will be accepted or rejected 
 or modified, in all probability according as you shall 
 decide. Pray, pardon me, if, having felt a deep 
 interest in the matter ever since I read your
 
 184 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 address to the Tamworth electors, I presume to 
 lay my sentiments before you. 
 
 " What is done cannot be undone. The re- 
 modelling of the bishoprics may be either a wise 
 or an unwise arrangement, but it is done, and 
 there is an end of it. And its advocates have this 
 much to say for themselves, that as, in all ages, 
 bishops have had the power to alienate their estates 
 for pious purposes, so the mere transfer of a por- 
 tion of the revenues from one see to another, both 
 bishops assenting, affords no precedent for the 
 work of spoliation. But the recommendation of 
 the Commissioners in reference to the cathedral 
 bodies, what shall we say for these ? We cannot 
 deny that there is spoliation here, for the deans 
 and chapters unanimously protest against the 
 measure. Is it to be carried through in spite of 
 this protest, and in direct opposition to the wishes 
 of a vast majority of the clergy ? 
 
 "Contrast, I pray you, the advantages and the 
 disadvantages of the scheme. There is a grievous 
 deficiency of church room in the country, and some 
 thousands of the old benefices are so poor that 
 they cannot maintain their clergy in residence. 
 It is vain to look to Parliament for funds sufficient 
 to repair those great evils, and private beneficence 
 will not overtake them. Therefore you are forced 
 to suppress an order in the Church and to devote 
 the revenues of that order to parochial purposes. 
 
 " And now, will the fund which you obtain from
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 185 
 
 this source be adequate, or nearly so, to meet the 
 exigency of which you complain ? Say that you 
 gain £100,000 a year — and after the expenses of 
 collection and management are defrayed, I don't 
 believe you will get more — how far will this go ? 
 There are probably two thousand old livings in 
 England which require augmentation. To meet 
 the wants of a growing population, at least as many 
 new churches will scarcely suffice. Here then are 
 four thousand demands on you, the first two 
 thousand of which will exhaust all your fund, yet 
 give to each needy incumbent no greater increase of 
 revenue than £50 a year. And see the price which 
 you pay for this pittance. You unsettle men's 
 minds on Church matters altogether. You dis- 
 satisfy the clergy themselves. You take away all 
 intermediate gradations between the bishop and 
 the parish priest. You cut off the scholar and the 
 man of letters from the hope which, through long- 
 years of toil and neglect, may have supported him. 
 You innovate so much upon the constitution of the 
 Church as practically to destroy it, for the deans 
 and chapters, though long restrained from exercis- 
 ing their rights (and I need not tell you that the 
 statute of Prcemunire was enacted as a defence 
 against papal usurpation), are still, and always have 
 been, the body by whom the bishops are elected. 
 You render it impossible that the cathedral services 
 shall anywhere be performed with decency, or the 
 cathedrals themselves kept in decent repair. And
 
 186 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 jou give the advocates of spoliation an argument 
 which you will find it very difficult to controvert, 
 for they will tell you with truth that there is no 
 such thing as Church property in the abstract — that 
 the Church is not a corporation, that each benefice 
 is a corporation in itself, and that if you are justi- 
 fied in plundering one, in order to enrich another, 
 you are equally justified in plundering both for the 
 purpose of founding schools or in any other way 
 educating the people. 
 
 " But is it necessary, in order to make the 
 cathedral funds available for the general necessi- 
 ties of the Church, that any such rude expedient 
 should be resorted to ? I do not think it is. Adopt 
 so much of Lord Henley's scheme, that to six or 
 eight stalls in each cathedral the pastoral charge of 
 one or more poor benefices shall be attached. Do, 
 in fact, in all cases what you did in the case of 
 Westminster, only reserving three or four prizes 
 for men of studious habits, and the good which you 
 accomplish will be much more immediately felt than 
 if you fritter away in driblets the spoils of the whole 
 chapter. At the same time, provide that no man 
 shall henceforth hold more than one Church dignity, 
 and make the chapters aware, after all is done, that 
 they are expected to act liberally and largely on 
 the Act which the archbishop carried through, for 
 the purpose of enabling the patrons of poor bene- 
 fices to augment them. 
 
 '' With respect to the patronage of the chapters,
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 187 
 
 I regard that as a point of very secondary import- 
 ance. I think the bishops will do themselves no 
 good by claiming it, and I am quite sure that much 
 more has been said as to its abuse in chapter hands 
 than is reasonable. I persuade myself, though I 
 have no other authority than my own suspicions, 
 that the chapters would not hold out very strongly 
 against that point were their numbers kept up, 
 even thouofh dealt with as I have ventured to 
 suggest. 
 
 " Pray forgive me for laying these suggestions 
 before you. Were you what you must soon be- 
 come — Prime Minister — I should not have troubled 
 you ; but at present you may have leisure to think 
 on the subject, and I am sure that the conclusions 
 at which you arrive will be dictated by an honest 
 desire to promote the best interests of the Church. 
 
 "Believe me, with great respect, your obedient 
 servant, G. R. Gleig." 
 
 " Drayton Manor, Tuesday, January 3, 1837. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — It is much to be lamented that 
 any serious division of opinion should have arisen 
 among the members and friends of the Church in 
 respect to the recommendations of the Church 
 Commission. 
 
 "I will not enter into details of any measures 
 suggested by the Commissioners, and will only 
 remark that objections urged against such details 
 should, in my opinion, receive the fullest and most
 
 188 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 respectful consideration, particularly where they 
 are urged by persons sincerely attached to the 
 interests of the Church. 
 
 " I confess I see nothing to repent of, or regret, 
 in the arrangements made with regard to the 
 bishoprics. To have one bishopric overloaded with 
 duties, which no human strength can perform, 
 while another has comparatively few, cannot surely 
 be for the spiritual interests of the Church. 
 
 " I must also say, as a member of the Church of 
 England, and sincerely anxious for its welfare, a 
 rigid, unvarying, adherence to the present distri- 
 bution of Church property (considering the total 
 destitution of many very populous places in respect 
 of religious instruction) would not be satisfactory 
 to me, apart from all considerations of a political 
 nature. I should view with very great regret, for 
 instance, in the event of a vacancy, the appointment 
 of a Dean of Durham, with emolument of £8000 or 
 £9000 a year, and not any onerous duties to dis- 
 charge, while in the diocese of Durham there are 
 thousands, and tens of thousands, who never heard 
 the doctrines of the Established Church, for want 
 of the means to inculcate them. 
 
 " We must look at all sides of the question, and 
 can we be surprised at the amount and increase of 
 dissent, unless we make some vigorous effort to 
 recommend our own religious faith ? Will laymen 
 undertake this duty, if the Church shall refuse to 
 set the example "? Or will Parliament, as at present
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 189 
 
 constituted, supply the means by public grants ? I 
 think not. — Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " TloBERT Peel." 
 
 Though somewhat surprised to find a man of Sir 
 Robert Peel's great knowledge appearing to re- 
 gard as synonymous the terms "the Church" and 
 " the Clergy," I did not think it worth while to 
 notice the blunder ; but wrote to him the following- 
 letter in answer to his apology for the proposed 
 attack by Parliament on particular benefices : — 
 
 "London, January 6, 1837. 
 
 " Dear Sir Robert, — I am much obliged to you 
 for the trouble you have taken in replying at so 
 much length to my letter. 
 
 " I do not believe there are ten men in Enofland 
 so blind to the state of the country as not to be 
 aware that changes, and great changes, in the dis- 
 tribution of what is called Church property have 
 become necessary. The sole question at issue, 
 therefore, is, How shall these changes be eftected 
 so as to innovate as little as possible upon the con- 
 stitution of the Church, and by so doing diminish 
 its influence, while at the same time admitted evils 
 are lessened, if they cannot be entirely got rid of? 
 The Church Commissioners recommend measures 
 which, while they will certainly not satisfy the 
 Church's enemies, distress and alarm her best 
 friends ; and the worst of it is that were these
 
 190 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 schemes carried into effect to-morrow, we should, 
 as far as the supply of adequate church accommo- 
 dation is concerned, be little, if at all, the better 
 for them. What we say is, spare the minor digni- 
 ties as far as you can, and render them what they 
 once were, and always ought to have been, nur- 
 series of theological learning, and a connecting link 
 between the bishops and the parish priest, and we 
 think we can point out means more effectual than 
 yours for the purposes which both of us are trying 
 to effect. 
 
 "You very justly ask. Shall the Dean of Durham 
 be left with his £8000 or £9000 a year, w^hile there 
 are tens of thousands of persons in the diocese of 
 Durham to whom the doctrines of the Established 
 Church are never preached ? Our answer is, 
 Decidedly not. But while you strive to make 
 the Deanery of Durham available for the spiritual 
 wants of these untaught multitudes, do not mar 
 your own work by confiscating seven-eighths of 
 its revenues, and making over the spoil to a central 
 or general board. There are many chapter livings 
 in Newcastle and other great towns of the North 
 which do not provide their incumbents with a 
 competency. There is a grievous lack of church 
 accommodation both in these towns and elsewhere. 
 After you have provided the dean with an ade- 
 quate maintenance, cause him to augment the small 
 benefices in his own gift, and when that shall have 
 been efficiently done, make him endow new churches.
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 191 
 
 Deal in the same way with all your cathedrals. 
 There is not a diocese in England in which 
 claims enough of this legitimate order cannot be 
 advanced. But do not shock the moral feelings 
 of the country, and waste your own resources, by 
 arbitrarily suppressing so many canons in each 
 chapter, and handing over their revenues, as well 
 as the plunder of the deans, to a Board of Church 
 Commissioners. I am not casuist enoufjh to con- 
 tend that there would be in this no interference 
 with the rights of property, but I am certain that 
 the interference will be much less flagrant, and 
 establish a much less fatal precedent, than the 
 measure proposed by the Commissioners, while 
 the good arising from it would be at once more 
 conspicuous and more important because occurring 
 in places where everybody would be alive to the 
 value of the benefit received and acquainted with 
 the sources from which it came. Besides, central 
 boards, particularly boards over which ecclesiastics 
 preside, are not famous for managing their funds 
 judiciously. When the late treasurer of Queen 
 Anne's bounty died there was a deficiency in his 
 accounts of something like £30,000 or £40,000, 
 and who will undertake to insure the new Board 
 of Church Commissioners from a similar calamity ? 
 
 " But there is another and a still more pro- 
 ductive source open to you in a readjustment of 
 the scale on which first-fruits are levied on all 
 benefices above a certain value. You are aware
 
 192 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 that the scale now in use was established during 
 the reign of Henry viii. Why adhere to it ? Why 
 not consult your Clerical Guide, which, owing to 
 the returns recently made to the Commissioners, is 
 for such a purpose accurate enough, and recast this 
 machinery ? What if you required every benefice, 
 of which the net annual proceeds amounted to 
 £250, to pay £50 as first-fruits into Queen Anne's 
 bounty ? You might then proceed upon an ascend- 
 ing scale, till from all livings of £1000 a year and 
 upwards one-third should be exacted as their con- 
 tributions. I am aware of the popular objection to 
 this — that it would be hard upon a man when first 
 presented to a benefice to have so large an addition 
 made to the heavy expenses attendant on induc- 
 tion. But the general advantages to be gained 
 would so far exceed their opposites that even the 
 individuals affected by the arrangement would raise 
 no voice against it. 
 
 " I will not waste your time by saying one word 
 relative to the bishoprics. I wish, indeed, they 
 had not been reduced to the condition of State 
 pensioners by the clause which subjects their 
 revenues to periodical adjustment, and sends them 
 to the Commissioners for their stipends ; and I do 
 regret sincerely that the Commission itself is to be 
 from henceforth the organ by which the financial 
 afiairs of the Church of England are to be managed. 
 
 "There is but one thing more to which I would 
 shortly allude. In dealing with pluralities, the
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 193 
 
 recommendation of the Commissioners, if adopted, 
 will preserve for us all the odium and none of the 
 benefits of the system. If money value, and not 
 the distance of one benefice from another, were 
 made the criterion, things would be better. But 
 the real truth is that the best arrangement for the 
 Church would be the suppression of pluralities 
 altogether. 
 
 " Once more apologising for the demand I have 
 made upon your time and attention, believe me to 
 be, with great respect, your obedient and obliged 
 servant, G. R. Gleig." 
 
 To this letter I received in due course the follow- 
 ing answer, and then our correspondence ended. 
 Peel's scheme of Church reform was carried into 
 effect, and not long after the Commissioners were 
 beginning to think of distributing a portion of 
 their funds, their secretary disappeared. He had 
 speculated in railways with the proceeds of 
 suppressed canonries, and his accounts, being 
 examined, showed a deficiency of something like 
 £150,000. The scandal was hushed up, though 
 whether the Commissioners considered themselves 
 bound to make good the loss to the Church, I never 
 heard. 
 
 "Drayton Manor, January 25, 1837. 
 ** My dear Sir, — You must not attribute either 
 the delay in answering your last letter, or the 
 brevity of my reply, to the slightest feeling of 
 
 N
 
 194 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 indifference towards your sentiments on the great 
 question on which you have addressed me. On the 
 contrary, I am much obliged to you for the com- 
 munication, and have read it since my return from 
 Glasgow with the attention to which it is so justly 
 entitled. But I have been in such an incessant 
 whirl of occupation since your letter reached me, 
 and have still such an arrear of correspondence, that 
 I must restrict myself to the assurance that under 
 all my engagements your letter has not been over- 
 looked, and that I thank you for it. — Believe me, 
 my dear sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 "Egbert Peel." 
 
 I should travel very wide of the course which in 
 these sketches I had traced out for myself w^ere I 
 to follow in detail Peel's subsequent career. But it 
 is necessary to account in some degree for the 
 extraordinary importance which the Duke ap- 
 peared latterly to attach to retaining him at the 
 head of the Government. It had its source much 
 more in distrust of the new leaders of the Con- 
 servative party than in absolute confidence in 
 Peel himself The resolution to repeal the Corn 
 Laws, at which Peel so unexpectedly arrived, dis- 
 tressed the Duke beyond measure. He could not 
 see how such a procedure could in any way tend to 
 alleviate the distress in Ireland. Cheap food is no 
 more accessible than dear food to men who are 
 destitute of money wherewith to purchase it. To
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 195 
 
 a Government compelled to dispense food gratui- 
 tously to a starving population, nothing could be 
 more easy than to abstain during the continuance 
 of the famine from levying any duty on corn 
 imported into the suffering provinces. 
 
 The ferocity, however, with which Peel was 
 assailed by members sitting behind him in con- 
 sequence of the changes he had previously intro- 
 duced into the commercial policy of the country 
 showed so determined a purpose to oust him from 
 the leadership of the party, that the Duke, taught 
 by experience how difficult it is to reconcile 
 political differences based on personal antipathies, 
 conceived himself bound to sacrifice his own con- 
 victions rather than countenance in any degree the 
 proceedings of Mr. Disraeli and his supporters. 
 
 That Peel mismanao-ed in 1846 the business he 
 had set himself to carry through, both those who 
 approve, and those who still regret, the total 
 repeal of the Corn Laws, must now admit. Had 
 he called the party together and explained his 
 views, leaving it to them to decide whether he 
 should take the lead in carrying them into effect, 
 or resign, the party, whatever its determination, 
 might have kept together. But to execute a 
 second surprise upon them was more than the 
 English aristocracy could endure. It was not, 
 however, in Peel's nature to conciliate by any 
 appearance of openness those whom he con- 
 descended to lead.
 
 196 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 The Duke's fidelity to Peel was the more to be 
 commended that Peel, during his tenancy of office 
 as Prime Minister, did not always treat the veteran 
 statesman and soldier with the respect and deference 
 that were due to him. The Duke, be it remembered, 
 accepted a seat in Peel's Cabinet without a port- 
 folio, and though red boxes came to him from day 
 to day, it is doubtful whether they always con- 
 tained their full measure of papers. It is certain 
 that he felt, and to his most intimate friends 
 occasionally complained of, something like undue 
 reticence on the part of his colleague. A single 
 example of the nature of the relations which sub- 
 sisted between the two men at that time may be 
 given. It happened one day during the early 
 progress of the Irish famine that the Duke, riding 
 down by the Green Park from Apsley House to the 
 Horse Guards, was overtaken by Peel. There had 
 been discussions in the Cabinet on the previous 
 afternoon regarding the measure which it might 
 be prudent to adopt under the circumstances, and 
 the Duke, remembering how open he himself used 
 to be when First Lord of the Treasury, naturally 
 expected that Peel would enter at once upon the 
 subject. No advance in this direction having been 
 made by Peel, the Duke referred in general terms 
 to the recent discussion. He was answered after a 
 most diplomatic fashion in vague platitudes, under 
 cover of which the conversation took a different 
 turn. And the two men held on their course, till,
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL 197 
 
 on reaching the parade ground in front of the 
 Horse Guards, Peel wished the Duke good-morn- 
 ing, and rode off in the direction of Storey's Gate. 
 The Duke felt this slight, for such it was, very 
 keenly, yet, loyal to the last, he thrust personal 
 feeling into the background, and, as he himself 
 expressed it, " holding as more important than 
 any laws the retention of Peel in office," he used 
 his influence in the House of Lords, and ensured 
 thereby the passing of a Bill of which he entirely 
 disapproved. 
 
 How Peel bore himself subsequently to the dis- 
 ruption of the Tory party all the world knows. 
 His adherents, never many in number, gradually 
 fell away from him, till there remained only a little 
 knot of able men, of whom the late Lady Theresa 
 Lewis used to say that they were " always putting 
 themselves up to auction and buying themselves in 
 again." To this, however, they came, only after 
 the sudden and melancholy death of their leader. 
 With the Duke he had kept little or no intercourse 
 during the remainder of his life, though few took 
 more to heart than the Duke the sad tidings of 
 its extinction.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "dii minorum gentium" 
 
 I DO not know how far the Right Honourable 
 Charles Arbuthnot and his charming wife ought 
 in strict propriety to be ranged under this heading. 
 If we look to the decree of estimation in which 
 they were held by the Duke, their names ought 
 undoubtedly to stand elsewhere. If we take into 
 account the influence for good or evil of their 
 own work on society, then I give them their proper 
 place in this catalogue of worthies. Whether right 
 or wrong in thus acting, of this I am sure, that 
 they themselves, were it possible to consult them, 
 would be satisfied with the arrangement. Be this, 
 however, as it may, the course of action left open 
 to me by the plan of the present book is obvious. 
 I can speak of men and women only as I knew 
 them, and was able to judge from what they said 
 and did in my presence of their lives and habits 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Charles Arbuthnot played his first conspicuous 
 part as a public man in diplomacy. He repre- 
 sented the English Court at Constantinople at the 
 period of Admiral Duckworth's abortive attempt 
 
 198
 
 CHARLES ARBUTHNOT 199 
 
 to overcome the Porte, and was subsequently 
 appointed to various offices of trust in the Home 
 Government. Twice married, he had by his first 
 wife one son, who achieved rapid promotion in 
 the army, and died a few years ago, a general 
 officer. His second wife. Miss Fane, brought him 
 no children, and was still, so to speak, a bride, 
 when he and she in 1814 visited Paris, where the 
 Duke was British Ambassador. Arbuthnot was 
 then between forty and fifty years of age. He 
 was decidedly good-looking, fair in complexion, 
 with a figure slightly, though not feebly framed. 
 His manners were singularly gentle, it might 
 almost be said feminine. He gave you the im- 
 pression — and it was a perfectly correct one — that 
 you had before you a man of at least average 
 ability, of considerable information, and of great 
 prudence. Whether his acquaintance with the 
 Duke began, or was only renewed, in Paris, I do 
 not know ; but this is certain, that they took to 
 one another with a warmth and sincerity of friend- 
 ship which never during the remainder of their 
 lives sufi'ered the sliofhtest abatement. Never 
 were two men ostensibly more unlike. Bold, 
 ambitious, resolute, a born ruler of men, the 
 Duke's bearing contrasted forcibly wdth that of 
 his timid and retiring friend ; yet it was precisely 
 this divergency of gifts which drew the two to- 
 gether. I speak, of course, of what occurred after 
 the Duke had virtually sheathed his sword and
 
 200 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 begun to take part in the management of civil 
 affairs. From 1815 to 1818 his attention was 
 given up as Commander-in-Chief of the army of 
 occupation to foreign policy. Hence when he 
 joined Lord Liverpool's administration, he did so, 
 strong in good sense, but entirely ignorant, or 
 nearly so, of the usages of Cabinets. Now Arbuth- 
 not, besides having been all his life a civil servant, 
 was gifted with a marvellous memory as well in 
 small matters as in great. Whatever the subject 
 might be on which the Duke desired to be informed, 
 he found in Arbuthnot a walking almanac. And 
 of infinite use to him, after he became Prime 
 Minister, was the facility with which he could, so 
 to say, in a moment, quote precedents for arrange- 
 ments of which others might call in question either 
 the legality or the expediency. It was not, how- 
 ever, in matters of public moment exclusively that 
 Arbuthnot got the credit of being serviceable to the 
 Duke. If information was needed respecting the 
 conduct and character of individuals (and when 
 patronage is to be dispensed, and applicants are 
 numerous, such information must often be needed), 
 Arbuthnot was the channel through which it was 
 usually sought. He was, moreover, perfectly trust- 
 worthy — that is to say, he never repeated a remark 
 carelessly dropped in conversation, much less dis- 
 closed a secret, under any circumstances, confided 
 to him. Whatever the value might be which the 
 Duke attached to his opinions, it is certain that to
 
 CHARLES ARBUTHNOT 201 
 
 nobody was the Duke's confidence more unreservedly 
 given than to Arbuthnot, nor was there any one in 
 whose society he found greater satisfaction. The 
 friends of great men, not being themselves great, 
 are everywhere exposed, both in their actions and 
 their motives, to misrepresentation ; and Arbuth- 
 not's case was no exception to the rule. Some 
 declared him to be a spy, not in society at large, 
 but on individuals in whom the Duke took an 
 interest. Others went so far as to insinuate 
 that he was not above making the most delicate 
 sacrifice in order to ingratiate himself with his 
 patron. As far as I am myself concerned, I entirely 
 disbelieve and denounce the latter base insinuation, 
 and to the former I give only as much credit as is 
 due to the authority on which it rests. But of the 
 Duke's sincere and lasting friendship for Arbuth- 
 not, and Arbuthnot's devotion to the Duke, the 
 surest credence is afforded in the lives of the two 
 men. No higher gratification could come to 
 Arbuthnot than in trying to anticipate the 
 Duke's wishes ; nor in the companionship of any 
 other man did the Duke take greater pleasure. 
 Now, looking to the character of the Duke of 
 Wellington, of this we may be sure, that though 
 he might tolerate the acquaintance of one who was 
 useful to him, he was incapable of making a close 
 friend of any one whom he could not respect. 
 Arbuthnot was his close friend to the last. After 
 both had become widowers, Arbuthnot gave up his
 
 202 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 house in Carlton Terrace, and at once had apart- 
 ments in Apsley House. His place in the country 
 he, of course, retained, and was in the habit of 
 spending some time there when the Duke left town ; 
 but his home may be said to have been under the 
 Duke's roof from the day of his wife's death, and 
 under that roof he died at last, the Duke, as chief 
 mourner, following him to his grave in Kensal 
 Green Cemetery. 
 
 It is not, however, too much to say, that had 
 there been no Mrs. Arbuthnot, or had Mrs. 
 Arbuthnot been different from what she was, 
 Arbuthnot's influence, not with the Duke only, 
 but with the Government of which the Duke was a 
 member, might have failed to reach the point which 
 it achieved. When first introduced to the Duke in 
 Paris, she must have been perfectly beautiful. In 
 1828, when I made her acquaintance, she was still 
 most attractive. The bloom of youth might indeed 
 be gone, but there remained the soft brown eye, a 
 profusion of brown silky hair, features both regular 
 and expressive, and a figure singularly graceful. 
 But there was much more to admire in her than 
 this. To great natural abilities there was added 
 a large stock of knowledge, acquired both from 
 books and from intercourse with men. Her con- 
 versation was in consequence always agreeable, 
 often brilliant, without the slightest apparent effort 
 made to go out of the common ruck. To her like- 
 wise belonged a charm, which, when intellectual
 
 MRS. ARBUTHNOT 203 
 
 women can boast of it, renders them mistresses 
 of all hearts. She sympathised, or appeared to 
 do so, even with those from whose opinions she 
 dissented. Whether her intimacy with the Duke 
 created the taste, or whether her taste was intuitive, 
 the subject which most deeply interested her was 
 politics. Her views were, of course, the Duke's 
 views on all disputable points, so much so indeed, 
 that from her men generally believed he kept no 
 secret. I venture to doubt the fact ; because the 
 Duke, though by no means indifferent to female 
 blandishments, possessed the quality of caution to 
 a greater extent than any other public man of his 
 day. He was well tried at the Congress of Vienna 
 by all the leading beauties of Europe. He fooled 
 them to the top of their bent, and encouraged 
 them to imagine that they were paying him off 
 in kind ; but not one secret did they worm out 
 of him, 
 
 I believe that so it was with Mrs. Arbuthnot. 
 More perhaps than any living woman he trusted 
 her ; but till her journal sees the light, if it ever 
 see it, he will arrive at the most probable con- 
 clusion who assumes — that there were in the 
 Duke's heart and mind records which she was 
 never permitted to read. Mrs. Arbuthnot had 
 a large spice of jealousy in her composition. 
 She was jealous of all who came about the Duke 
 and were admitted into closer intimacy than of 
 common acquaintance. This remark, however,
 
 204 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 applies more to men than to women, for her 
 jealousy had nothing whatever to do with love in 
 the common acceptation of the term. What she 
 aspired to engross was the Duke's confidence, and 
 having no fear that any member of her own sex 
 could come between her and the object of her 
 wishes, she looked with perfect complacency on 
 their endeavours to engross him. It was not so 
 with men, and especially with new men. I mean 
 with those with whom the Duke had recently 
 become acquainted, and with whom the pressure 
 of events might have induced him to take 
 counsel. Of these she was obviously jealous ; and 
 as the Duke was believed to make use of her, in 
 testinoj the discretion of his new friends, so the 
 whisper went round that she did not scruple to 
 keep them apart from him, to misrepresent at 
 times the result of her investigations. I should 
 be slow to credit, except on the strongest evidence, 
 the truth of this scandal. That she did test for 
 him, occasionally, the discretion of those in whom 
 he meditated reposing an important confidence, I 
 have the best reason to know. But that she mis- 
 represented the issues of the trial, I do not believe. 
 The case was this. 
 
 At that eventful period elsewhere referred to, 
 when the Reform Bill was thrown out in the Lords, 
 and certain Peers, unable to see their way further, 
 entered into negotiations with Earl Grey, the Duke, 
 who disbelieved in any possible compromise, while
 
 MRS. ARBUTHNOT 205 
 
 the Whigs retained office, and was therefore bent 
 on fighting the battle out to the bitter end, wrote 
 to me and requested that I would come to him at 
 Strathfieldsaye and there write a pamphlet, for 
 which he would supply me with materials. He at 
 the same time explained its object ; that it w^as 
 intended to warn other Peers from being misled 
 into the notion that anything the Waverers, as 
 they were called, could say or do, would have the 
 smallest effect in hindering Earl Grey from passing 
 his measure in its integrity, even if to effect this it 
 might be necessary to coerce the King into the 
 creation of an unlimited number of new Peers. I 
 was not much disposed to undertake the task, 
 partly because I distrusted my own ability to do 
 full justice to the subject, and partly because, owing 
 to my parochial duties at Ash, and the pressure of 
 literary work which had fallen cruelly into arrears, 
 I did not desire at that time to leave home. I 
 therefore suggested that the Duke should send the 
 materials to Ash, where I would do my best to 
 meet his wishes. To this I received a reply, 
 repeating the Duke's desire that I should go to 
 him, and pointing out that more could be done in 
 two days at Strathfieldsaye than in a week any- 
 wdiere else. After this I felt that nothing remained 
 for me, except to put other matters aside and do as 
 the Duke wished. 
 
 There were no railroads in those days which could 
 be of use to me ; but one stage-coach carried me to
 
 206 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 London, and another put me down in the afternoon 
 of the following day at Strathfieldsaye. The only 
 guests there, when I arrived, were, besides Lord 
 Charles Wellesley, Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot, though 
 the morrow brought Percy, now Lord FitzGerald, and 
 others whose names I have forgotten. We played 
 whist in the evening, a mode of passing the time 
 usual enough in Hampshire, but very seldom had 
 recourse to at Walmer. Next morning after break- 
 fast the Duke followed me to my room, and after 
 fully explaining both the end he had in view, and 
 the sort of reasoning which appeared to him best 
 calculated to achieve it, he laid a bundle of papers 
 on the table, and left me. 
 
 The pamphlet, which took the form of a letter to 
 Lord Harrowby in answer to one by him, which 
 had appeared in the newspapers, was completed, 
 and approved of by the Duke. It went, I believe, 
 to the shop of Roake and Varty in the Strand, 
 the great publishers at that time of everything that 
 was written in opposition to the Reform Bill, and 
 did just as much, and just as little, as its con- 
 geners to embarrass the Government. Indeed I 
 had forgotten all about it and the little incident 
 which connected it with Mrs. Arbuthnot, till I read 
 it, reproduced in the great Duke's published corre- 
 spondence. Then came back to me very vividly 
 the recollection of a scene to w^hich I affixed no 
 significance at the moment, but which I now 
 believe was not without a meaning. To the com-
 
 MRS. ARBUTHNOT 207 
 
 pilation of the pamphlet I used generally to devote 
 the hours between breakfast and luncheon. On 
 the day ])ut one previous to the breaking up of the 
 party, I declined accompanying the rest on some 
 excursion, that I might put a finishing touch to 
 the document. Having completed the job, I 
 strolled out into the pleasure-grounds, where, a 
 little to my surprise, I was almost immediately 
 joined by Mrs. Arbuthnot. Our acquaintance had 
 by this time been of considerable standing ; and 
 as I greatly admired her, and she was good enough 
 to make me fancy that my conversation was not 
 disagreeable to her, we chatted as usual for a while, 
 discussing the prospects of contending parties, and 
 then stopping and turning towards me she said, 
 somewhat abruptly : 
 
 " By the bye — why did'nt you go with the rest 
 to-day?" 
 
 " Because I was busy, and had not time," 
 " Hadn't time," she rejoined, looking me full in 
 the face. " Why, what were you doing ? I have 
 noticed that you went to your own room, every 
 morning after breakfast, and we saw no more of 
 you till luncheon. Now tell me honestly what you 
 do there? We wanted you yesterday to go with 
 us to Silchester. Why didn't you come ? " There 
 was an arch smile on the lady's face when she said 
 this, which made me smile also. It was quite 
 true that the Duke did come to my room the 
 previous day, about twelve o'clock, but certainly
 
 208 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 not for the purpose of enticing me away from the 
 work on which I was engaged, and though not the 
 shadow of a suspicion crossed my mind that she 
 was trying to pump me, I thought it would be good 
 fun to evade the question. 
 
 "It happens," was my answer, " that I was terribly 
 in arrears with many matters, and that leaving 
 home just at this time was rather inconvenient, so 
 I am obliged to work here, when I would much 
 rather go about with you." 
 
 Mrs. A. " Oh, that won't do ! I know you have 
 something particular in hand. The Duke knows it 
 too ; you can't deceive me. What is it ? " 
 
 I, laughing outright. "Well, if I really have 
 something particular on hand, and the Duke knows 
 what it is, why don't you ask him ? You know, 
 and I know, he keeps no secrets from you." 
 
 Mrs. A., laughing also. " Oh, I see you are deter- 
 mined to make a mystery, and won't give me a 
 clue. / will show you some of my letters if you 
 like, but I don't think they would interest you." 
 
 In this manner the conversation went on, the 
 lady pressing her point, I evading it, more, I now 
 believe, because the whole proceeding amused me, 
 than because of any idea that to the Duke it would 
 have signified a farthing whether I had told her 
 the truth or not. I believed then, and still beheve, 
 that mine was not one of the secrets which he 
 cared to withhold from her, still I was well pleased 
 at the moment, and continued to be well pleased,
 
 MRS. ARBUTHNOT 209 
 
 that I kept my own counsel ; assuming her to have 
 asked under instruction, the issue of our conference 
 — if fairly reported — must have told in my favour ; 
 if unfairly reported, I might suffer from the 
 report, but should have the satisfaction of knowing 
 that I suffered unjustly. 
 
 Other stories were told of her, tending in the 
 same direction, and some of them much more dis- 
 creditable either to her or to those who gave tliem 
 circulation. I offer no opinion as to their credibility 
 further than that I myself was, and continue to be, 
 slow to believe them. Be this, however, as it may, 
 her worst enemies could not but acknowledge that 
 her devotion to the Duke, and her unbending 
 fidelity to his interests, were beyond question. So 
 likewise her tact and wisdom in holding intercourse 
 with him did as much credit to her understanding 
 as to her heart. She never bored him by any 
 ostentatious show of admiration. It could not be 
 said of her as it was said of others — that she ever 
 threw herself in his way. But whatever might be 
 her engagements or occupations, she at once threw 
 them aside as often as he notified his desire, whether 
 in town or country, to converse with her. Yet 
 close and intimate as the communication between 
 these two persons was, the most censorious found 
 it impossible to point to a situation in which the 
 most distant approach to wrong-doing could be 
 predicated of either of them. As often as she 
 was the Duke's guest, either at Walmer or Strath- 
 

 
 210 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 fieldsaye, her husband was his guest also. The 
 doors of her house in Carlton Terrace were indeed 
 always open to the Duke, and arm-in-arm they 
 would walk like brother and sister through the 
 streets ; but if, when he was with her, other visitors 
 called, they were in no case refused admittance, 
 and Regent Street is scarcely the locality which 
 persons meditating any outrage on decorum would 
 select as the place of recreation. 
 
 There are those who discredit the possible exist- 
 ence of a pure and lasting friendship between 
 persons of opposite sexes. I do not belong to their 
 number. I believe, on the contrary, that such 
 friendships are more frequent than the world sup- 
 poses, and that wherever they are formed and con- 
 firmed by time, they elevate the natures of both 
 parties. Of the depth and endurance of Mrs. 
 Arbuthnot's friendship for the Duke, and his to 
 her, there can be no doubt. To the last moment 
 of her conscious existence this hero-worship re- 
 tained its influence over her. She was taken ill 
 at Arbuthnot's country-house, I think, with gastric 
 fever, and feeling that her case was hopeless, she 
 sent for the Duke. He hurried down and arrived 
 just in time to receive, so to speak, her last breath. 
 She died with one hand clasped in his, and the 
 other in the hand of her husband.
 
 john wilson croker 211 
 
 The Right Honourable John Wilson Croker. 
 
 Of this gentleman it is not necessary that in 
 these sketches I should say much. Mr. Jennings 
 has told his story admirably and at length, and 
 in the review of his book, contributed to Black- 
 ivood's Magazine, in the numbers for November and 
 December 1884, I have taken a tolerably accurate 
 measurement of the place which belongs to Croker 
 among the worthies of his own generation. It is 
 a distinguished one, undoubtedly, and might have 
 been still more so but for certain obvious defects in 
 Croker's composition. His abilities were of a very 
 high order, his reading was extensive, and his 
 industry untiring. Had he persistently followed 
 any one out of three courses in life that were open 
 to him, nothing could have prevented his attaining 
 to a foremost place in it. He had but to choose 
 between law, literature, and politics, and perfect 
 success in one or the other would have been the 
 consequence. But he preferred dabbling in all 
 three, and the result was something far short of the 
 eminence at which, in any one of them, he had a 
 right to aspire. Unfortunately, also, he made his 
 first start as an author in a line which could not 
 fail to make enemies ; and never, to the close of 
 his career, could he succeed in removing from the 
 public mind the evil impression thus early created. 
 There was, moreover, a good deal in Croker's off- 
 hand manner which offended as much as it enter-
 
 21 -2 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 tained society. Meet him when you might, and in 
 company with whomsoever you would, he insisted 
 on your regarding him as the most important person 
 present. His talk was incessant on all manner 
 of subjects — generally more or less instructive, no 
 doubt, and sometimes amusing; but the worst of 
 it was, he appeared incapable of understanding that 
 there are times and places for all things. For 
 example, though no sportsman in the well-under- 
 stood sense of that term, Croker used to accept 
 invitations to shooting-parties at Strathfieldsaye 
 and elsewhere. Not even when the line was formed 
 (and the Duke formed his shooting-line exactly as 
 he would have done his line of battle) and the 
 march through woods and copses began, not even 
 then could Croker hold his tongue ; but, regardless 
 of the effect on both game and shooters, persisted 
 in pouring out, at the top of his voice, whatever 
 story or notion occurred to him. Provoked as they 
 often were, his comrades to the right and left could 
 not help being diverted by all this. But when 
 over the dinner-table or in the drawing-room he 
 insisted on laying down the law, not even the 
 soundness of his views, and the clearness with 
 which they were expressed, sufficed on all occasions 
 to prevent his being regarded as a bore. I myself 
 once heard him lecture the Duke of Wellington 
 on the manoeuvres which preceded the battle of 
 Talavera. I never forgot the moral with which 
 the discussion ended. " Well, Duke, you may say 
 what you please, but if history should fail to do
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 213 
 
 you justice, you will live for ever in my poem as 
 the hero of that day 1 " 
 
 Born in Galway, the son of a gentleman high in 
 the Inland Revenue Department, Croker graduated 
 in Trinity College, Dublin, whence, in 1800, he 
 passed over to London that he might study law in 
 Lincoln's Inn. Soon after this he began to send 
 contributions to the Times, and by-and-by, in co- 
 operation with the authors of the Rejected Addresses, 
 set up a weekly newspaper of his own. It soon 
 died a natural death, whereupon, author in his 
 own proper person, he published two excellent 
 books, or rather pamphlets, which offended many, 
 more than they amused, by satirising both the Irish 
 stage and the tone of general society in Dublin. 
 We find him next a practising barrister on the 
 Connaught Circuit, and in due time returned to 
 Parliament as a Member for the Borough of Down- 
 patrick. His success in the House of Commons was 
 as striking as it was immediate. He spoke on the 
 first night, after taking his seat, and to such excel- 
 lent purpose, as to attract the attention of Canning 
 and to secure the good opinion of the future Duke 
 of Wellington. But that which opened for him the 
 door of advancement was his successful defence of 
 the Duke of York against the attack made upon 
 His Boyal Highness's character by Colonel Wardle 
 and Mrs. Clarke. 
 
 It was perhaps unfortunate on the whole for 
 Croker that he should have attained very early 
 in his career to a well-paid otiice under Government.
 
 214 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Had it been convenient for him to retain his inde- 
 pendence for a few more years, devoting his time 
 and attention exclusively to politics, it is scarcely 
 going too far to say that he might and probably 
 would have been called upon to form an administra- 
 tion of his own ; for he entered Parliament when 
 very young. His views, so far as ■ they may have 
 been at that time settled, were in advance of those 
 of the party with which on principle he acted ; and 
 both his skill in debate and his aptitude for busi- 
 ness were recognised from the outset by all who 
 came in contact with him. A man thus favoured 
 by circumstances needed only the presence of a 
 lofty ambition to bring within his reach the highest 
 honours of the State. But we are none of us 
 masters of our own destiny. Croker was not, like 
 Peel, a rich man ; nor like Canning, the protege 
 of a powerful Prime Minister. The offer of the 
 Secretaryship of the Admiralty was too tempting 
 to be declined, and the place itself too comfortable 
 to be rashly thrown away. Hence Croker subsided 
 under its influence into the desultory essayist, and 
 the chosen friend and adviser of statesmen, none of 
 them either more able or more honest than himself. 
 Mr. Jennings has made it clear that many sins 
 of authorship were laid at Croker's door of which 
 he was not guilty. It is not the fact that he 
 assailed either Miss Martineau or Mr. Disraeli in 
 the Quarterly Review. For the attacks made by 
 them upon him, not even the poor excuse of out-
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 215 
 
 raged vanity can be pleaded. We cannot say so 
 much of his manner of handling the writings of 
 Maurice and Kingsley, and — what is infinitely less 
 excusable — the men themselves, throutrh their works. 
 Maurice was neither a heretic nor a demagogue, 
 nor was Kingsley a communist. They were simply 
 Christian enthusiasts, whose aims were as praise- 
 worthy as in the present state of society they were 
 unattainable ; and certainly were far from deserving 
 the ferocious onslaught that was made upon them 
 in the pages of the Quarterly. Poor Lady Morgan 
 might be fairer game, yet not by Croker was she run 
 down, though she and her friends held him respon- 
 sible for the biting critiques which did their best to 
 make her ridiculous. Croker took very little heed 
 of the outcry to which his assumed delinquencies 
 gave rise. It may even be a question whether, on 
 the whole, he was not pleased with it, for his was 
 not a very sensitive nature ; and to be an object of 
 violent hatred was to him proof that he was feared, 
 and to be feared was perhaps more acceptable to 
 his self-consciousness than to be loved. Let me 
 not, however, be misunderstood. Croker was as 
 capable of strong attachments as of strong anti- 
 pathies. His friendship for Canning was as sincere 
 as it was lasting, and his feelings for the Duke of 
 Wellington amounted to something like reverence. 
 With Sir Walter Scott, with Southey, with Lock- 
 hart, with Sir Henry Hardinge, he maintained very 
 kindly relations, though more perhaps like one who
 
 216 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 confers a favour than is gratified by the intimacy. 
 How the intimacy between him and Peel first began 
 I do not know, but the characters of the two men 
 were in many respects so different, that an intimacy 
 which seemed for many years to be based on unity 
 of sentiment proved after all to have had no surer 
 foundation than mutual convenience. Croker, as 
 he has himself confessed, regarded allegiance to 
 party as the first duty of a statesman. Peel har- 
 boured no sentiment of this kind, because his early 
 associations galled him, so that he looked upon 
 allegiance to the claims of party to be incompatible 
 with due regard to the public wellbeing. Be this, 
 however, as it may. Peel and Croker came gradually 
 to discover that, while avowedly working together, 
 their aims were different. That breach between 
 them occurred which, in my poor opinion, tells as 
 much against Peel's moral nature as the causes 
 which led up to it take away from his reputation 
 as a wise statesman. 
 
 If Peel, by w^hatever motive guided, at once 
 betrayed his own followers and played into the 
 hands of their rivals, Croker cannot be altogether 
 credited with unwavering fidelity to party. There 
 is this, no doubt, to be said in defence of the course 
 he took on a memorable occasion, that he believed 
 it at the outset to be the best that could be fol- 
 lowed, looked at from a party point of view, and 
 that when partially disabused on that head, he had 
 gone too far in one direction to retrace his steps.
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 217 
 
 I allude to the part he played on the occasion of 
 Lord Liverpool's illness, and after Canning's suc- 
 cessful intrigue to become Lord Liverpool's suc- 
 cessor. No blame surely could attach to him for 
 believing that among the existing Cabinet Canning 
 was the best qualified to become its chief. And so 
 believing, it was but natural he should endeavour to 
 win over both the Duke and Peel to his own views. 
 But it seems impossible to justify his manner of 
 proceeding after it became clear to him that the 
 administration, of which Canning was at the head, 
 could not carry on the government, except with 
 the support of the Whigs, to whom Croker had all 
 his life been opposed. Canning, as is well known, 
 would have been well pleased to keep his old col- 
 leagues about him, at all events at the outset of 
 his career. That he would have gradually weeded 
 some of them out — assuming the King to have lived 
 and supported him — no one who knew him intimately 
 could doubt. And possibly had these contingencies 
 befallen, a better order of things might have been 
 brought about than actually came to pass. But all 
 with whom, up to that moment, Croker had been 
 accustomed to act, refused to serve under Canning, 
 and nothing remained for the new member except 
 either to resign or to seek support from the Opposi- 
 tion. Even thus supported, however, his tenure of 
 office could not but have been precarious. Such a 
 coalition as he had it in his power to form, must 
 lean for support more on the favour of the Crown
 
 218 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 than on the support of Parliament, because in the 
 Lords it was in a decided minority, and on a pro- 
 minent majority in the Commons, influenced as the 
 constituencies then were, he could not reckon. 
 Croker, in urging Canning to pay court to the 
 factions in small boroughs, went far enough to 
 consider the party coalition, as he himself under- 
 stood the case. He passed a long way outside of 
 it when he brought the Duke of Clarence to the 
 Admiralty, and congratulated Canning on thus 
 securing the support of two sovereigns. His well- 
 known boast — " Play your cards well, and you are 
 minister for two reigns " — fell upon the ear of one 
 whose days were numbered. Canning survived this 
 utterance scarcely six months, and Croker found 
 himself for a brief space isolated, because mistrusted 
 by new friends as well as old. 
 
 Most men, after such a fiasco, would have with- 
 drawn as much as possible from active interference 
 with State affairs. There was no reason why he 
 should resign his place at the Admiralty, because 
 the fact of having served out of the Cabinet under 
 both Canning and Robinson could not place him 
 in antagonism towards whatever Tory Government 
 might be formed. It might diminish the confidence 
 heretofore placed in him by the Duke and Peel — 
 and for a little while it had this effect, so far at 
 least as Peel was concerned. But it imposed no 
 necessity on either, in the event of power passing 
 into his hands, to send Croker about his business ;
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 219 
 
 and Croker, fully understanding this, proved true to 
 himself. Instead of holding back while the Robin- 
 son Cabinet was in difficulties, he advised Disraeli 
 to bring the Duke into his Cabinet, and failing that, 
 he urged that a command of the army should be 
 pressed upon him. He took care that the Duke should 
 know what he had done, and hence, when the crisis 
 came, he was at once taken back by his first patron 
 into favour. And never again, through good report 
 or evil, can it be said of him that he wavered in his 
 allegiance. When the battle of the first Reform Bill 
 came on, he was at once the ablest and the most un- 
 compromising supporter of the Duke's policy. If he 
 declined, at a subsequent period, to help the Duke 
 and Lord Lyndhurst to form an administration, 
 small blame attaches to him. He had then no seat 
 in Parliament, and though one might perhaps have 
 been found for him, he knew, and so did the Duke 
 and Lord Lyndhurst, that his presence in the 
 Cabinet would add nothing to its strength. Peel, 
 the Duke never entirely forgave for deserting him 
 on that occasion, any more than Peel ever forgave 
 the Duke for using him as an instrument in passing 
 the Catholic Emancipation Act. But both the Duke 
 and Peel knew perfectly well that, however useful 
 he might be as an outside adviser, Croker, because 
 of his excessive self-appreciation, would have made 
 by no means an agreeable member of a Cabinet. 
 
 Croker, like the Duke, took a very gloomy view 
 of the effects of the Reform Act. Both regarded
 
 220 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 it as the first step towards a great social as well as 
 political revolution, and both expected that the 
 monarchy would not last their day. So com- 
 pletely, indeed, had this conviction forced itself 
 on Croker's mind, that I once heard him say to the 
 Duke : " If you and I were twenty years younger, 
 the best thing we could do would be to emigrate. 
 As it is, I advise you to follow my example by 
 withdrawing as much of your personal property as 
 possible from the English funds and investing it in 
 American or Russian securities." Whether Croker 
 really took this step, or was only speaking at ran- 
 dom, as he sometimes did, I do not know. The 
 latter was, I suspect, the real ground of the sugges- 
 tion, to which the Duke was too much of a patriot 
 to pay any regard. 
 
 They who desire to know what Croker was as a 
 politician and essayist will do well to read Mr. 
 Jenning's volumes. There Croker paints his own 
 portrait in letters and extracts from diaries which 
 cannot be misunderstood. I have to deal with him 
 here only as a member of society whom it was my 
 good fortune occasionally to meet, and of whom 
 many stories were told. His appearance was 
 decidedly in his favour. His features were good, 
 and his general expression that of a man of high 
 intellect slightly, one remarked, or more than 
 slightly, marred by a tinge of self-assurance. To 
 use a vulgar phrase, he was as cool a hand, however 
 socially placed, as it is possible to conceive. No
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 221 
 
 presence whatever abashed him, nor did he scruple 
 to interrupt and talk down any one who threatened 
 to come between him and the lead in conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 His clever defence of the Duke of York in the 
 famous Wardle case gained him the friendship of 
 the royal family, and he appeared quite as much at 
 ease when a guest at any of their tables, as at that 
 of any nobleman or commoner within the circle of 
 his acquaintance. For example, it happened on 
 one occasion that during a dinner at Carlton House 
 Croker sat next to the Duke of Clarence. They 
 were conversing together, when the King, who 
 could not overhear what was said, called out 
 suddenly, " Croker, what are you two talking 
 about ? " 
 
 " Nothing very particular, sir," was Croker's 
 reply. " His Royal Highness is only telling me 
 what he means to do when he becomes King." 
 George iv. winced a little for a moment, being 
 very sensitive on that head, but he soon recovered 
 himself, and laughed aloud, the whole party, as in 
 duty bound, laughing in chorus. 
 
 Much was made, in disparagement of him, by 
 Croker's enemies, of his intimacy with the Marquis 
 of Hertford. The Lord Hertford of Croker's day 
 was beyond all doubt a very disreputable person, 
 whose acquaintance, were society such as we could 
 wish it to be, respectable men and women would 
 have shunned. But society is not as yet, and is
 
 222 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 not, I fear, likely to become such as could be 
 wished at any period short of the millennium. 
 As long as rank and wealth continue to be objects 
 of ambition, their possessors will command atten- 
 tion — be their moral conduct what it may — pro- 
 vided always that they keep clear of certain 
 offences against which society, by the establish- 
 ment of arbitrary laws, has guarded itself And 
 if to high rank and great wealth be added abilities 
 above the common level, with much influence in 
 politics, the magnate so favoured becomes, I am 
 afraid, a fit companion for bishops. Croker, a 
 young member of Parliament, attracted the atten- 
 tion, among others, of Lord Yarmouth, and saw 
 no reason why he should reject the friendship of a 
 man, apparently well thought of by the leaders of 
 his own party, and who, on the death of his father, 
 must become Marquis of Hertford, and owner of 
 not fewer than seven seats in the House of Com- 
 mons. That he ever countenanced the orgies of 
 his patron is a gross calumny invented by his 
 enemies. He could not, indeed, be ignorant that 
 such things were. Nobody in London or Paris 
 was ignorant, but the hospitalities of Sedbomme 
 he shared with such guests as the Duke of Grafton, 
 the Duke of Gloucester, and the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, of whom not even the most rabid of 
 partisans could venture to insinuate that any 
 approach to indecent associations would by them 
 be tolerated. Again, it is quite true that Croker
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 223 
 
 watched over the management of Lord Hert- 
 ford's affairs, and in doing so rendered him very 
 important services. But it is not true that he was 
 paid for so doing. On the contrary, he refused a 
 handsome salary which Lord Hertford pressed upon 
 him ; and if at Lord Hertford's death he succeeded 
 to a legacy, it was scarcely more in amount than 
 a wealthy nobleman, without legitimate sons or 
 daughters to provide for, might be expected to 
 bequeath to a confidential friend. 
 
 The Duke, much as he liked Croker, had no 
 objection to see him shut up, as occasionally hap- 
 pened, when laying down the law. It fell to my 
 lot on one occasion to correct him, after he had 
 been demonstrating to a large party at the Duke's 
 table that, but for the Revolution of 1G88, it was 
 quite possible that a descendant of Napoleon i. 
 might have become heir to the English throne. 
 This he showed by pointing out how the Houses 
 of Sardinia and Austria became connected, and 
 how Napoleon, having married an Austrian prin- 
 cess, might have been the ancestor of some future 
 English sovereign. He quite overlooked the fact 
 that the line of succession must have been through 
 the wife of Louis xiv., if by any chance a French 
 prince were to become a candidate for the British 
 throne, and was by no means pleased when, 
 having had recent occasion to write up the ques- 
 tion, I was able to set him right. He did as was 
 his custom when thus beset — he argued and blus-
 
 224 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 tered, and at last became silent. The Duke was 
 greatly amused, and repeated the little incident 
 with infinite humour to more than one set of 
 visitors afterwards. Croker never stood so high 
 in the estimation of his party as during the debates 
 that immediately preceded the passing of Lord 
 Grey's Reform Act. No speaker in the House 
 came near him for promptitude in reply, and the 
 skill with which the arguments of the members 
 and their supporters were pulled to pieces. He 
 was especially happy in exposing Macaulay's fre- 
 quent misquotations of history, and earned in 
 consequence the lasting hatred of that able, though 
 far from generous, rival. When Lord Grey re- 
 signed, after his defeat in the House of Lords, in 
 Committee, Croker was invited to join the Duke in 
 forming an administration. This he declined, pos- 
 sibly, perhaps, because he saw that the game was 
 up. Be this, however, as it may, I venture to 
 doubt whether either then, or at any future period, 
 Croker's presence in the Cabinet would have been 
 acceptable to the bulk of those with whom he 
 would have been called to act. An admirable par- 
 tisan all admitted him to be. But, except to the 
 Duke of Wellington, he was never known to have 
 yielded a single point on any controverted subject ; 
 and a man who cannot take as well as give on all 
 subjects which admit of controversy, would prove, 
 however able, a source of weakness, rather than of 
 strength, to a Cabinet. Whether Croker himself
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 225 
 
 felt this, as much as others felt it, I do not know ; 
 but he steadily resisted all the efforts that were 
 made to bring him back into Parliament after the 
 Reform Act became law, and thereby made it im- 
 possible for outsiders to suspect that when the tide 
 of public opinion turned in favour of the Con- 
 servatives his admitted claim to high office had 
 been set aside. 
 
 The Peel administration which was formed in 
 1841 Croker supported with his pen as long as it 
 was possible for him to do so. He had, doubtless, 
 begun to distrust somewhat the head of that ad- 
 ministration before he took office ; but against this 
 misgiving he manfully struggled, even after the 
 feeling was shared with him by a considerable 
 section of the party. Hence the sternness with 
 which, acting in concert with Peel, he denounced 
 Disraeli's exposure of " the organised hypocrisy " ; 
 for down to the very eve of the surrender no 
 political article appeared in the Quai^terly Review 
 till it had been read, or in substance approved, by 
 the Prime Minister. 
 
 At last, however, came that rupture which, while 
 it must have for ever kept them apart as politicians, 
 gave no warrant for the tone of Peel's letter, which 
 put an end to all personal intercourse between men 
 who had been friends for forty years. 
 
 That Croker suffered much from the quarrel 
 admits of no doubt. Peel, cold, and wrapped up 
 in self, cared no more about it than he did about
 
 226 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 treating the great Duke with something like dis- 
 respect, while pretending to work with him. 
 
 If his adherence to principles of which Peel long 
 professed himself to be the champion cost Croker 
 the loss of one friend, it had no power to alienate 
 from him another. The Duke, for reasons he has 
 himself left on record, supported Peel in a policy of 
 which he disapproved, but did not therefore with- 
 draw his confidence from Croker, who wrote against 
 it. Apsley House, Stratfieldsaye, and Walmer 
 Castle were still as open to Croker as they had 
 ever been, and the correspondence of the two 
 men, if more restricted — for the Duke was begin- 
 ning to find w^riting laborious — lacked nothing 
 of its old cordiality and openness. The one did 
 not long survive the other. Croker, though the 
 younger of the two by eleven years, died first, 
 after a protracted illness, though not till after 
 they had taken leave of one another, in an inter- 
 view of which in the Croker papers a touching 
 account is given. The memorandum of what 
 passed between them Croker circulated long ago 
 among his friends. Mr. Jennings has done good 
 service to the memories of both by reprinting it in 
 his valuable memoirs. 
 
 Croker was charged by some of his envious con- 
 temporaries — and he had many — with doing nothing, 
 though himself a prolific and successful writer, for 
 literature and men of letters. He gave his cousin 
 a clerkship in the admiralty, and doubtless would
 
 JOHN WILSON CROKER 227 
 
 have done more for him had he not been the author 
 of The Fairy Legends of Ireland. But Dr. Giffard, 
 long the editor of the Standard, with whom he 
 had close relations, he allowed to die in a state 
 of bankruptcy, and Maginn, whom likewise he 
 encouraged in his Tory diatribes, he entirely 
 neglected. Maginn was one of those brilliant men 
 of genius whom it was impossible effectively to 
 serve. It rested entirely with himself to be either 
 independent or in constant difficulties. He could 
 earn with perfect ease an income more than sufficient 
 for all his wants ; and from time to time he did earn 
 it. But such was his reckless extravagance that he 
 went about in constant fear of arrest, and was 
 repeatedly bailed by his friends out of a sponging- 
 house. Had Croker found for him employment in 
 the public service, he would have neglected it just 
 as he did the sub-editorship of the Standard, which 
 Giffard procured for him. But though debarred, 
 and justly debarred, from putting such a man in a 
 place of trust, Croker did give him money, and got 
 more for him in his last illness from Sir Kobert 
 Peel. As to Dr. Giffard, I question whether he 
 would have accepted any favour at Croker's hands. 
 A proud man, and firmly believing that as editor of 
 a newspaper he was a power in the State, Dr. 
 Giffard certainly never solicited or expected that 
 any minister of the Crown, and especially Croker, 
 would provide for him. But if these and a few 
 similar cases were pointed to, some years ago, as
 
 228 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 proofs of Croker's heartlessness, we have ample 
 proof now of his readiness to serve both literature 
 in the abstract and men of letters, being at the same 
 time men of character. How he effected these ends 
 Mr. Jennings has told us. 
 
 On the whole, Croker was a very remarkable 
 man. His faults were those of temperament and 
 manner. His good qualities were not over-balanced 
 bj them. His abilities were of a high order, and 
 as I have elsewhere said, if he failed to achieve the 
 highest honours in any one walk of life, it was 
 because he frittered away his powers in too many. 
 
 Lord Clanwilliam 
 
 It was to Walmer Castle in the year 1831, 1 think, 
 that Lord Clanwilliam brought his newly-wedded 
 wife — a daughter of the Earl of Pembroke and 
 sister to Sidney Herbert. Lord Clanwilliam was 
 then a handsome man, with as much of the Thun 
 blood in his veins as that of the Meades. His 
 mother, a member of that powerful Bohemian 
 family, gave him his dark complexion, dark 
 brown eye, and regular features. He was above 
 the middle height, well made, and active. His 
 wife, without being critically beautiful, was one of 
 the most attractive women I ever saw. She, too, like 
 her lord, was of mixed origin, her mother being a 
 daughter of Prince Woronsow, for many years 
 Bussian Ambassador at the Court of St. James,
 
 LORD CLAN WILLIAM 229 
 
 a charming person, who long survived her husband, 
 and died, just as the Crimean War came to an 
 end, in her own house in Grafton Street. 
 
 What Lord ClanwilUam might have achieved had 
 he done justice to the talents with which he was 
 gifted it is hard to say. He began life as a diplo- 
 matist, was attached to the Duke's Embassy at 
 Vienna when Napoleon returned from Elba, and 
 at the close of the Waterloo campaign was trans- 
 ferred to Paris. France was at that time in a 
 very disturbed condition. The wreck of Napoleon's 
 army had disbanded itself, and overspread the whole 
 face of the country with bands of brigands. The 
 young diplomatist fell into the midst of one of these 
 gangs, and used to give a ludicrous description of 
 the treatment he received from them. Not content 
 to deprive him of his money and watch, they 
 stripped him to the skin, and left only a worn- 
 out military cloak to cover his nakedness. In this 
 plight he made good what remained of his journey 
 to Paris, and proceeded at once to the British 
 Embassy, when the servants refused to believe his 
 story, and ordered him out of the house. And 
 out of the house he would have been turned, but 
 that Lord Stratford de RedclifFe happened to pass 
 through the hall when the discussion was going 
 on, and recognised the voice of the intruder. This, 
 of course, saved him. 
 
 Why he gave up his profession after serving at 
 more than one foreign court is accounted for in two
 
 230 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 ways. One maliciously charges him with an act of 
 indecorum at Berlin, which, if it ever occurred at 
 all, must have been the result of a moment's want 
 of thought. He had walked, it was said, from his 
 lodgings on a summer evening to the house of a 
 magnate in which a gathering of fashionables was 
 held, and observing that his shoes were covered 
 with dust, looked about for some means of cleansing 
 them. Every hall table was crowned with a 
 pyramid of plumed hats, every gentleman in Prussia 
 in those days being a soldier, and no soldier ever 
 appearing abroad except in uniform. Clanwilliam 
 seized one of these hats, and without giving a 
 moment's consideration to the light in which the 
 proceeding might be regarded, flipped the dust off 
 his shoes with the plume. The moral drawn from 
 the fable, if fable it be, is that the whole Prussian 
 army became furious, and that getting a hint that 
 his further stay in Berlin could be dispensed with, 
 he quitted at once the Prussian capital and the 
 profession. Lord Clanwilliam himself gave another, 
 and, I suspect, a more accurate account of the 
 motives which induced him to retire into private 
 life. " There are two classes of people in the world," 
 he said to me, " workers and drones. I belong, and 
 always did, to the latter. As soon as my father 
 died, and I became independent, I got out of 
 harness, and have never since been tempted to 
 encumber myself with it again." The fjict, for it 
 was one so far as his manner of life came under my
 
 LORD CLAN WILLIAM 231 
 
 notice, was much to be regretted, for he was not only 
 an accomplished but an able man. He spoke and 
 wrote correctly almost every European language, 
 and on every question discussed, whether it dealt 
 with politics, or literature, or art, he had always 
 something to say that was worth hearing. But 
 continuous labour appeared to be intolerable to 
 him. Hence he divided his time in almost equal 
 proportions with the amenities of society and field 
 sports. You found him in London, as long as the 
 season lasted, now dispensing such hospitalities as 
 clever men delight in, now mixing freely in crowds, 
 where he was always welcome, then rushing off 
 when the proper time came, either to kill salmon 
 in Scotland — and he was a first-class fisherman — 
 or to shoot chamois in the Alps, or wild boars in 
 Bohemia, or wolves and bears in Hungary or 
 Bussia. His life, certainly, could not be called a 
 stirring one, but it was both an innocent and a 
 happy one. His charming wife never lost her 
 hold on his affections, and shared with him his 
 rural sports, as well as his recreations. She died 
 in 1855 at a Highland inn, whither they had 
 gone for salmon fishing, and he can never again be 
 said to have been the same man. The letter I 
 received from him in answer to one I wrote on 
 hearing of his bereavement was as touching as a 
 letter could be ; but it failed to express all he felt. 
 Poor fellow, I went with him years after into his 
 bedroom and found that beside his own uncurtained
 
 232 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 crib stood that in which, after her Bohemian fashion, 
 his wife used to repose, and that on a Hne with the 
 foot of his bed hung a portrait of the loved and 
 lost, which he had removed from the drawing-room, 
 in order that on it his eye might rest the last 
 thing on extinguishing his candle at night, the 
 first thing on awaking in the morning. 
 
 He was by far too manly, however, to let the 
 world see into the depths of his heart. He returned 
 after a season to some of his old habits, and 
 especially to his autumnal excursions into foreign 
 lands, and retained his vigour of body to such an 
 extent that at eighty-one he held his own against 
 Tyrolean huntsmen, both in scaling the mountains 
 and in bringing down his game. 
 
 Lord Clanwilliam could say sharp things when 
 he liked, and was not by any means particular 
 against w^hom they might be directed. The Duke 
 of Cumberland, the same who on the death of 
 William iv. became King of Hanover, made a 
 point when in Berlin of appearing on all State 
 occasions in the uniform of a Prussian cavalry 
 colonel. Meeting Clanwilliam on one occasion, 
 dressed, as was the fashion for all diplomatists, 
 in an embroidered blue coat, with red facings, 
 white breeches, and silk stockings, his Koyal High- 
 ness shouted out, " Why, Clanwilliam, you look 
 like a livery servant." "Perhaps I do, sir," was 
 the answer, " but the livery I wear is that of my 
 own master, and not that of a foreign Sovereign."
 
 LORD CLANWILLIAM 233 
 
 I have spoken of the devotion of my old friend to 
 his wife. She was in every respect worthy of it. 
 Full of talent, full of knowledge, 5''et in the best 
 and holiest meaning of the term, a true woman. 
 Whether conversing with wits, or chatting with 
 young ladies, or superintending the affairs of her 
 household, she was always, and in every situation 
 exactly what you could have wished her to be. 
 Her little dinners were some of the most agreeable 
 in London. The guests, rarely exceeding half-a- 
 dozen, were always agreeable, and often gifted. 
 You met among them the Ambassadors of Austria 
 and Russia, with whom it was always pleasant to 
 converse, because they put no reserve, or appeared 
 to put none, on what they said ; and their anec- 
 dotes, both of their own and of foreign courts, were 
 often racy. Of all, or almost all, including host and 
 hostess, it can only be said, while I write these lines, 
 that their place knoweth them no more. 
 
 Clanwilliam took no active part in politics after 
 the era of the first Reform Act. His views were, 
 for the most part, those of the Peelites, doubtless 
 because of his connection with Sidney Herbert ; 
 but when he took his place — which was seldom — in 
 the House of Lords, he sat on the Cross benches. 
 Like the Peelites in general, his feeling towards 
 Mr. Disraeli was one of strong personal dislike, yet 
 he so far controlled it as never to go into violent 
 opposition even after the death of Lord Derby. 
 Naturally enough, he disapproved of the strong
 
 234 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 ante-Reform policy which found no favour with 
 the Tory Government, but he made no public 
 move in opposition to it, contenting himself by 
 censuring its objects in private letters. 
 
 On the death of Lord Dalhousie, the Duke of 
 Wellington, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, 
 nominated Lord Clanwilliam to the captaincy of 
 Deal Castle. In a pecuniary point of view the 
 appointment was little worth, but it gave to the 
 incumbent a marine residence, next to that of 
 Walmer Castle perhaps the most agreeable on the 
 south-east coast. To Lord Clanwilliam the gift 
 was particularly acceptable, as he had no country 
 house in England, and not any to which he was in 
 the habit of going, on his property in Ireland. A 
 portion of every autumn he spent at Deal, as long 
 as Lady Clanwilliam lived, much to her satisfaction 
 and to the delight of his sons and daughters. 
 
 How far their familiarity with the sea and all its 
 moods created or only nourished a passion in his 
 sons for adventure, I do not know, but two of them 
 entered the navy, the eldest to earn a good name 
 as an officer, and to reach flag rank ; the younger, to 
 fall a sacrifice to his zeal in the service. Torpedoes 
 were things unknown in this country forty years 
 ago. Young Meade, then a lieutenant, turned his 
 attention to the subject and worked hard to perfect 
 an instrument, if not precisely the same with that 
 which has since expanded into a recognised imple- 
 ment in war, in principle closely corresponding to
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 235 
 
 it. When filling the shell with which his craft was 
 to be armed, a spark unfortunately fell upon some 
 loose powder ; an explosion followed, and Meade, 
 as well as the seamen who aided him in his labours, 
 was killed on the spot. 
 
 One fact more I may venture to state in connec- 
 tion with my old friend's fondness for Deal Castle : 
 it was there that he suggested to me the under- 
 taking of a work which I subsequently completed, 
 and towards the completion of which he was of 
 great service to me. I allude to the transla- 
 tion of Brialmont's Life of the Duke of Wellington, 
 on the military portion of which the people's edition 
 of my own volume is mainly founded. 
 
 Lord Clanwilliam retained his vigour both of 
 body and mind to a great age. In 1880, however, 
 his strength began to fail, and he became subject 
 to frequent attacks of bronchitis. In 1880 he died, 
 having reached his eighty-sixth year. 
 
 The Marquis of Salisbury 
 
 From the list of guests at Walmer Castle, 
 the names of Lord Salisbury^ and his charming 
 (first) wife must not be omitted. Lord Salisbury 
 possessed a large share of the Duke of Wellington's 
 confidence, and deserved it. Without being bril- 
 liant, he was endowed with the more solid gifts 
 of great good sense and a sound judgment. Like 
 
 ' The second Marquis, wlio iliiul in 1868.
 
 236 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 his illustrious friend, he held that such measures as 
 Catholic Emancipation ought to be dealt with on 
 grounds of expediency rather than of abstract 
 principle. The disability to which, however. 
 Catholics were subjected at the period of the 
 Revolution in 1G88 had been imposed for special 
 reasons, and the reasons for their imposition 
 having, in his opinion, lost their force, justice 
 required that the disabilities should be removed. 
 At the same time he held that, looking to the con- 
 dition of Ireland, where the great landed pro- 
 prietors, or most of them, professed one religion, 
 and the bulk of the people, including a majority 
 of the shopkeeping and perhaps also the profes- 
 sional classes, adhered to another, the entire and 
 unconditional repeal of the laws as they existed in 
 1827 would be unwise. While, therefore, during 
 Lord Liverpool's administration, he inclined more 
 to Cannincr's views on that head than to those of 
 Lord Eldon, he seems to have kept in reserve 
 a condition, without securing which he would not 
 be a party to repeal ; though the opportunity of 
 explaining what it was never occurred till the 
 Duke became Prime Minister. We all feel now 
 that George iii.'s determination to abdicate rather 
 than consent to break in upon the settlement of 
 1688, was a great misfortune to the country. Had 
 he yielded to the remonstrances of his faithful 
 minister Pitt, Ireland might have been ere now as 
 amenable a portion of the empire as Scotland or
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 237 
 
 Wales. For in 1801 the faith of the Irish in their 
 French allies was shaken, and Napoleon's treatment 
 of the Pope a few years later made them positively 
 hostile to him. 
 
 Nor can it be denied that the good King's 
 obstinacy afforded too much ground for the com- 
 plaint that Ireland had been cajoled into the 
 parliamentary union with England. For though it 
 be quite true that the Cabinet, of which Pitt was 
 the head, never gave, as such, an explicit promise, 
 nor anything like an explicit promise, that emanci- 
 pation would follow at once upon the union ; it is 
 equally certain that individuals connected with the 
 Irish Government won over many, who would 
 have otherwise voted against them in the Irish 
 Parliament, to expect that such would be the 
 sequence of events. The consequence was, that a 
 measure carried by means of deceit as well as gross 
 corruption, so far from drawing the Irish and English 
 people together, produced a directly opposite effect. 
 To the wrongs inflicted on their manufacturing 
 industries by a British Parliament — for the Acts 
 passed for the avowed purpose of protecting British 
 industry ruined that of Ireland — was now added the 
 bitter thought that in a point at least as interest- 
 ing to the people at large as either their woollen or 
 their cotton trades, they had been over- reached. 
 Nor did these evils come alone. The suppression 
 of the Irish Parliament gave a prodigious impulse 
 to absenteeism, the greatest curse that ever befell
 
 238 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 a purely agricultural country, of which the eftects 
 were soon apparent in country-houses falling every- 
 where into ruins, and towns, including Dublin 
 itself, deserted by the gentry. 
 
 Lord Salisbury was too young to have been in 
 any way connected with this great political move, 
 either in promoting or opposing it. Maynooth 
 likewise had been established, and was in full 
 swing, before he entered public life. He could 
 therefore only notice with regret, as others did, the 
 evil influence which this exercised over the people 
 through their clergy. Mr. Pitt doubtless meant 
 well when he provided for Irish aspirants to the 
 priesthood a place of education in their own land. 
 He persuaded himself that, trained amid home 
 associations, a new generation of religious teachers 
 would inculcate loyalty upon their flocks. He was 
 mistaken. The old priest educated at Douay or 
 Salamanca belonged not infrequently to a good 
 family. He might not be satisfied with his position 
 when he returned to Ireland — how indeed could he 
 be ? But, with rare exceptions, he held aloof from 
 secret conspiracies, and lived on excellent terms with 
 such neighbours as still lingered on their estates, 
 whether they were Koman Catholics or Protestants. 
 It is not pretended that he did not share in the 
 general discontent that prevailed among his flock. 
 On the contrary, he made no secret of his abhorrence 
 of the deceit which had been practised on them as he 
 contended, but he opposed himself to unconstitu-
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 239 
 
 tional means of redressing the wrong, his hostility 
 to the Government being passive, rather than active. 
 
 I am not now, be it observed, stating anything 
 on the authority of mere tradition. I began my 
 military career in Ireland so long ago as 1812, and 
 found priests, educated abroad, still carrying on 
 their ministrations in many parishes. With several 
 I became personally acquainted, and found them to 
 be at once well-informed gentlemen and agreeable 
 companions. They slid out, however, by degrees, 
 and were succeeded by the very worst specimens of 
 an ecclesiastical body in Europe. Taken almost 
 exclusively from the small farmer class, and imbued 
 with all their prejudices, the Maynooth priest is 
 trained to consider himself the consecrated Pro- 
 tector of the People against a tyrannical Govern- 
 ment, and being dependent for subsistence on the 
 voluntary offerings of his flock, he takes care to 
 conciliate their good opinion by posing ostenta- 
 tiously in this character. And very great is his 
 influence so long as he guides the stream in the 
 channel through which he finds it flowing ; let him 
 try to stop or divert it into another, and recent 
 experience proves that he is powerless. 
 
 More than one opportunity presented itself 
 between 1801 and 1829 of enlisting the Irish 
 priesthood on the side of the Government, but no 
 advantage was taken of them. In Pitt's plan, for a 
 plan he had, though prevented from bringing it 
 forward, provision was made for subdividing the
 
 240 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 whole body. What the "Talents" intended to do 
 when they acceded to office after his death is not so 
 clear, further than that so determined were they to 
 force the King's hand, that they took a step which 
 gave him the much desired opportunity of getting 
 rid of them. 
 
 Had Canning and Lord Wellesley succeeded in 
 forming an administration, there is reason to 
 believe that a measure of emancipation, somewhat 
 similar to that which Pitt was desirous of carrying, 
 would have been put forward. For up to that date 
 the prospect of having a provision made for them, 
 out of the public revenue, was hailed by the Romish 
 hierarchy as very desirable. Nor did they refuse 
 either then, or in 1824, to grant to the Crown a 
 veto on the nomination of their Bishops. But when 
 it was made clear to them that George iv., their 
 earnest champion, while yet Prince of Wales, was 
 become as hostile as his father had been, they 
 began to see that a supplicant attitude would do 
 nothing for them, and that only by working on the 
 fears of the ministers could they hope to prevail. 
 From that hour their tone was changed. Their 
 champions in and out of Parliament made no more 
 appeals to the generosity of the two Houses. 
 What they demanded from their clients was, that 
 they should be placed on a perfect equality, so far 
 as political rights were concerned, with members of 
 the Established Church, and in regard to ecclesi- 
 astical affairs on the same footing with Noncon-
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 241 
 
 formist bodies. As to concessions on the one 
 hand, and favours to be conferred on the other, 
 points like these entered no longer into public 
 discussion. 
 
 The hierarchy had proclaimed that they would 
 not accept payment from the State, nor permit the 
 Crown to interfere in their ecclesiastical arrange- 
 ments. What they demanded and what alone they 
 would accept was the repeal of laws, some of which 
 were so cruel that, for mere shame, nobody could 
 now be found to put them in execution. They 
 were content, they added, to subsist as their pre- 
 decessors had done before them, on the liberality 
 of the laity, provided that to the Roman Catholic 
 laity the same rights and privileges were extended 
 as to their Protestant fellow-subjects. It could 
 not fail but that this show of disinterestedness 
 should endear the priests to their flocks. 
 
 The boldest champion of the cause which they 
 favoured was on all occasions the most abject in 
 professions of respect for their order. O'Connell 
 did nothing, or professed to do nothing, without 
 the sanction of the clergy, and to what effect he 
 made use of their influence over the masses every- 
 body knows. 
 
 Had Canning lived to wield the power of the 
 State any number of years, it is doubtful whether 
 Catholic Emancipation would have been carried in 
 that generation. He himself had been its advocate 
 ever since he entered public life, Init George iv. 
 
 Q
 
 242 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 had changed his mind, and Canning knew well that 
 the first attempt on his part to put constraint upon 
 the royal will would be followed by immediate 
 dismissal from office. Nay more : had the Duke 
 become Prime Minister in 1827 and Canning re- 
 tained his vigour of body and mind, the Duke him- 
 self would have found it impossible in 1829 to 
 carry the measure. The same thing may be said of 
 the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, to 
 which Canning always declared himself opposed, 
 and in resisting which he would have voted with 
 the ministry, just as he would have taken an 
 opposite course whenever a Catholic Kelief Bill 
 might be brought forward. For though he had no 
 sympathy with either Lord Eldon or Peel, he had 
 as little liking for Lord Grey ; and, making a pre- 
 tence of deep consideration for the feelings of the 
 sovereign, he would have delivered a brilliant 
 speech and voted against the conclusion to which 
 it naturally led. But Canning died, and the idea 
 of forming a purely Canningite party died with him. 
 The Duke came into power, and those events fol- 
 lowed, of which the inevitable consequences are 
 every day becoming more and more apparent. 
 
 Do I blame the Duke for conceding to the King's 
 Roman Catholic subjects what ought to have been 
 conceded to them twenty years previously ? Not 
 at all — neither did Lord Salisbury. But I do 
 blame, as Lord Salisbury did, all those whether in 
 the Cabinet or out of it, who forced the Duke to
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 243 
 
 erase from his Bill all the clauses which afforded 
 any chance of rendering it politically effective for 
 good. I allude to the provision made in the original 
 draft of his scheme for bringing the lloman Catholic 
 clergy of Ireland under the control of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Whether the priesthood would have consented 
 in 1829 to accept the salaries he proposed to 
 settle upon them, and to take out licences from 
 the civil power for the performance of their ecclesi- 
 astical functions is uncertain. In 1829 they offici- 
 ated, subject to these conditions, in Holland and 
 Prussia, nor could any good reason be assigned 
 why they should not do the same in the United 
 Kingdom. But their willinofness or unwillinofness 
 to comply with the conditions proposed by the 
 legislation was not, in the Duke's opinion, a matter 
 for the Government to take into account. The time, 
 he contended, had come for admitting Roman 
 Catholic citizens within the pale of the constitu- 
 tion, and it rested entirely with the legislation and 
 the government to determine in what manner this 
 desirable end should be attained. 
 
 Full of this idea, and satisfied that with or with- 
 out some show of reluctance the Irish priests would 
 pocket their salaries and take out their licences, 
 the Duke explained his scheme to Lord Salisbury, 
 and requested him to move the address in the 
 House of Lords in answer to the speech from the 
 throne. This Lord Salisbury willingly consented
 
 244 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to do. But when the opposition of Peel and the 
 Bishops compelled the Duke to modify his plan, 
 Lord Salisbury felt himself obliged to retract his 
 promise. He looked upon the rejected clauses as 
 the main strength of the Bill, and could be no con- 
 senting party to a measure from which they were 
 erased. The reply to the address was therefore 
 moved, not by him, but by Lord de Bos, the senior 
 English Baron, and a good soldier, but possessed 
 neither of territorial nor much personal influence. 
 
 The passing of the Boman Catholic Belief Bill 
 broke up the Tory party, and it did more. It em- 
 bittered private feeling, making personal enemies of 
 many who had been friends through life. On Lord 
 Salisbury it did not operate thus mischievously ; 
 for whatever personal estrangement followed his 
 refusal to move the address was entirely on the 
 Duke's side. The estrangement, however, if such 
 it deserved to be called, was not of long continu- 
 ance, for Lord Salisbury, while lamenting that the 
 Bill had not been more wisely drawn, abstained 
 from voting against it ; so likewise, after the dis- 
 solution he refused to join the band of discontented 
 Tories, who with their eyes open to the inevitable 
 consequence of the proceeding, combined with the 
 Whio-s to overthrow the Government. It was not, 
 therefore, with him as it was with many others, 
 both Peers and Commons, when the awful spectre 
 of Parliamentary Reform rose up before them. He 
 had no humble pie to eat, but as a steady ally he
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 245 
 
 fought side by side with the Duke the battle of 
 the constitutional monarchy, and lost it. 
 
 It was during the height of this contest that I 
 most frequently met Lord Salisbury and his charm- 
 inof wife at Walmer Castle. A o^ood deal of corre- 
 spondence passed between us both then and subse- 
 quently; but as it bore almost exclusively on the 
 political questions of the hour, the insertion of any 
 portion of our letters here would only tell over 
 ajrain the tale that has been told elsewhere. 
 
 Lord Salisbury took much interest, as was 
 natural, in the politics of his own county. There, 
 Mr., afterwards Sir Henry, Ward was his great 
 adversary ; for both had established, or were mainly 
 instrumental in establishing, county newspapers, 
 and both wrote — each for his own journal. Several 
 of Lord Salisbury's letters to me referred to this 
 matter, and asked for aid in the controversy, which 
 I dare say was rendered. But Salisbury was some- 
 thing more than a political partisan ; he was an 
 admirable man of business, when working for the 
 public good as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Militia 
 and afterwards as Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex — 
 or when improving his own property, which had 
 somewhat got into confusion. With what measure 
 of success the latter enterprise was attended may 
 be judged of by his boast that he succeeded to a 
 nominal rent of £25,000 a year, and would leave to 
 his successor one of £70,000. The truth is that 
 Lord Salisbury was no more ashamed to defeat
 
 246 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 chicanery aimed at himself than to prevent or 
 expose jobs in public affairs. 
 
 In 1835 a fire broke out which destroyed a con- 
 siderable portion of Hatfield House. It originated 
 in a suite of apartments occupied by the Dowager- 
 Marchioness, a leader of fashion in the days of 
 George lii., and to the end of her life a conspicuous 
 figure in London society. I see her, while I write, 
 mounted, of an afternoon, on a horse, to which 
 gossip, utterly false, afiirmed that she was tied, 
 and in the evening gorgeously dressed and covered 
 with valuable jewels. She was then upwards of 
 eighty years of age, falling indeed into her dotage, 
 but still a thorough lady, and from time to time 
 even brilliant. 
 
 The house was full of visitors when the fire broke 
 out, but the old lady's apartments were so entirely 
 removed from others, that the whole were in a 
 blaze before the alarm was given. By no effort 
 could they be reached, and all the water poured 
 upon them by fire-engines from without produced 
 no effect. At last the whole wing fell in, and of 
 the dear old lady nothing was found amid the ruins 
 except a few charred bones, near which lay in a 
 molten state the settings of the ornaments she had 
 worn at her last dinner. The effect produced upon 
 all who witnessed the catastrophe may be imagined, 
 and Lord Salisbury was overwhelmed with grief 
 
 A great historic house could not however be left 
 to become a ruin, and to restore it to the condition
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 247 
 
 in which it was prior to the fire must necessarily 
 be attended with expense. Like a sensible man, 
 Lord Salisbury set about the work of restoration 
 judiciously. He made his contract with architect 
 and builder, but stipulated that all necessary 
 materials should be supplied by himself. How he 
 got together stones, bricks, tiles and such like, the 
 tradition has not been preserved, but the timber 
 required — and both the quantity and variety were 
 great — he provided thus. Dressed like a master 
 carpenter, he visited numerous yards, and made all 
 the necessary purchases on equitable terms, in 
 other words on such terms as timber merchants 
 consider to be fair, when dealing with the trade. 
 There was of course a mighty clamour as soon as 
 the timber merchants discovered the prank that 
 had been played upon them. They did not so 
 much as pretend to disguise the truth that had 
 they been aware of the real condition of their 
 customer, they would have charged at least fifty 
 per cent, more for their goods than they knew them 
 to be worth. 
 
 Lord Salisbury's hospitalities, both at Hatfield 
 and in Grafton Street, were very liberal. He had 
 an admirable helpmate in his first wife, who took in 
 some sort the part of Lady Castlereagh in keeping 
 the Tories together. I do not mean for a moment 
 to undervalue the qualities of the lady who, on her 
 lamented death, became Marchioness of Salisbury. 
 The two were different in almost every respect, yet
 
 248 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 each in her own way was most agreeable. Number 
 two — at the moment when I write, Lady Derby — 
 has perhaps more mind than her predecessor could 
 boast of. She reads much and thinks deeply, she 
 is gentle also, though somewhat retiring. Her part 
 does not consist in making her soirees attractive ; 
 she never was nor ever can be a skilful recruiting 
 oflficer for her political party. Her predecessor, on 
 the other hand, won all hearts by her evident desire 
 to please, and a tact which was the outcome less of 
 knowledge of the world than of genuine goodness 
 of heart. There was no country house far or near 
 in which it was more satisfactory to find yourself 
 the guest. From breakfast till luncheon, and again 
 from luncheon till dinner you were master of your 
 own time. If a sportsman you made one of a group 
 for whom coverts stood open and beaters were in 
 attendance. If you preferred riding, a saddle horse 
 was at your disposal. During dinner the conversa- 
 tion was always lively, because your noble host 
 took care to intermix wits and scholars with 
 charming women, statesmen, and men about town. 
 The band of his militia regiment, and a very fair 
 band it was, played on more formal occasions just 
 enough to fill up pauses without interrupting con- 
 versation. And finally, in the drawing-room, the 
 sober whist-table, music, charades, and story-telling 
 had their respective votaries till bed-time. I cannot 
 recollect a dull evening at Hatfield, though when 
 Theodore Hook was there, and there he often was.
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 249 
 
 the fun grew fast and furious. Poor Hook always 
 drank his full share of wine topped up with an 
 occasional glass of brandy and was thereafter in his 
 glory. Seating himself at the piano he kept the 
 company in a roar with his clever improvisations. 
 Well would it have been for him had he gone to 
 bed as most of us did at a reasonable hour. Instead 
 of this, he gathered round him in his chamber some 
 of the more thoughtless of his fellow-guests, for 
 whom the butler provided cards and materials for 
 punch ; and morning often found them deep in 
 play from which Hook rose almost always a loser. 
 Hence not unfrequently when we met at breakfast, 
 it was found that an unexpected summons had 
 called him to London, the true cause of absence 
 being this : that he had gone to borrow money at an 
 exorbitant discount, wherewith to pay off I.O.U.'s 
 and challenge other risks not often more fortunate 
 than those which had preceded them in their issues. 
 Let me not be misunderstood. Gambling was 
 never countenanced in any shape at Hatfield, and 
 that which went on on the sly could scarcely be 
 accounted such. But Hook had a passion for play, 
 which he could not conquer, and the charm of his 
 wit brought young men about him who might have 
 little or no taste for games of chance and lost or 
 won with perfect honesty. 
 
 When the Tories grasped at power in 1835, Lord 
 Salisbury gave them his support, though scarcely 
 approving Peel's celebrated letter to his constituents.
 
 250 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 He seems always to have distrusted Peel, yet he 
 stood by him again in 1842, professing to believe 
 that a minister so deeply pledged to his supporters 
 would scarcely throw them over a second time 
 without warning. Hence on the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws, and the subsequent break-up of the Tory 
 party, he threw in his lot with Lord Derby and 
 Mr. Disraeli. 
 
 In Lord Derby's last administration Lord Salis- 
 bury took office as President of the Council. That 
 place he retained till the celebrated leap in the 
 dark, when with Lord Carnarvon and General Peel 
 he resigned. His life thereafter was that of a 
 nobleman, not certainly indifferent to public affairs, 
 but neither desirous nor competent to control them. 
 He voted according to his conscience on every 
 question that came before the House of Lords, thus 
 holding himself entirely free from party obligations. 
 At his death he left behind him an estate, much 
 improved, and the character of a man just and 
 honourable in all his dealings, shrewd in business, 
 sagacious in council, and, though prudent, both 
 generous, when the need arose, and hospitable.
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 "dii minorum gentium" — Continued. 
 
 If I were to particularise one by one all the 
 members of this class of guests to whom the Duke's 
 hospitalities were extended, a list of names of un- 
 conscionable length would disfigure my pages. 
 From all parts of England, from Scotland and 
 from Ireland, poured in between 1830 and 1832, 
 from day to day, peers of the realm, members of 
 the House of Commons, and aspirants for seats, 
 the greater portion of whom had co-operated in 
 overthrowing their host's administration. Re- 
 pentant they were now when it was too late, and 
 eager to be advised as to the course to be pursued 
 by the very man whom in their interval of blind 
 rage they had driven from power. His conduct to 
 them all was marked by the greatest possible 
 amount of generosity and forbearance. Never once 
 in their presence did a syllable escape his lips of 
 reference to the past — and to all their suggestions, 
 however extravagant some of them might be, he 
 listened with the utmost patience. Not that he 
 did not feel the wrong they had done, less to 
 himself than to the principles of which they pro- 
 
 S61
 
 252 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 fessed to be the guardians. " You see how they 
 throng about me now," he said to me on one 
 occasion, after all sorts of wild projects for resisting 
 the abolition of nomination boroughs had been 
 suggested. "As if I cared a two-penny damn 
 whether their personal influence can be propped 
 up or not. If, when masters of these boroughs, 
 they had thought more of the country and less of 
 themselves, the storm which threatened to sweep 
 away all that made England what she is might 
 never have come, and now they want me to put my 
 neck in the noose — for what ? That whenever I 
 take a step again of which they disapprove, they 
 may again overthrow the Government, of which 
 they clamour that I should be the head. I will 
 certainly do my best to defeat the Bill, but it will 
 not be because I approve of the use these gentlemen 
 made of their influence, but because under the new 
 constitution which the ministers propose to give us 
 I don't see how the King's Government is to be 
 carried on." 
 
 Under these circumstances it will best suit 
 my own inclination, and prove most agreeable 
 perhaps to those who may read what is written, 
 if passing by these selfish and not overwise mag- 
 nates, I place in my gallery the portraits of one 
 or two individuals, by no means unknown while 
 they lived, though doubtless forgotten long ago 
 even by their contemporaries, should any such 
 survive.
 
 DIRTY CHARLIE 253 
 
 Sir Charles Natter 
 
 It can hardly be said that Admiral Sir Charles 
 Napier belonged to the order either of ciphers or 
 oddities. Between him and the Duke there was 
 indeed little in common, and the circumstances 
 under which he became the Duke's guest at 
 Walmer were scarcely calculated to convert ac- 
 quaintance into intimacy. When Belgium broke 
 away from Holland, and England joined France in 
 undoing the work of her own hands, Sir Charles 
 Napier commanded the English portion of the 
 combined fleet which had it in charge to blockade 
 the mouths of the Scheldt. Nothing could be 
 more distasteful to the Duke than this alliance 
 unless it were the object for which it had been 
 contracted. But the gentleman was too strong 
 in him to allow these feelings to operate against 
 the officers who were acting in obedience to their 
 respective Governments. He therefore invited 
 both the French and the English admirals (the 
 fleet being detained by stress of weather in the 
 Downs) to dine and sleep at the castle. The 
 French admiral declined, the English accepted, 
 the invitation; and "dirty Charlie" arrived fully 
 justifying in the condition of his attire the 
 sobriquet which his contemporaries bestowed 
 upon him. It is not necessary to describe in 
 detail either the career or the personal appearance 
 or manners of a man so well known as Sir Charles
 
 254 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Napier, both in society and in the House of 
 Commons. A brave man, a good seaman, and a 
 hard drinker, Napier reached the summit of his 
 renown when with an inferior force he destroyed 
 the fleet of Don Miguel, and opened thereby for 
 the young Queen the way to the Portuguese 
 throne. His latest services both against Belgium 
 and Kussia added no fresh laurel wreath to the 
 chaplet already won. The English fleet had no 
 share whatever in wresting Antwerp from the 
 Dutch, and the naval campaign in the Baltic 
 scarcely fulfilled the expectations which Sir James 
 Graham's famous after-dinner speech at the Reform 
 Club had created. At Walmer Castle Napier was 
 very quiet, very ill dressed, and not over cleanly 
 about the hands ; and forasmuch as he takes his 
 place in this portrait gallery only so far as he 
 connects himself with his illustrious host, it scarcely 
 becomes me to discuss at length either his public or 
 private character. His correspondence with Delane 
 while in command of the Baltic fleet gives indeed a 
 curious insight into the influence exercised at that 
 date over the fate of Empires by the Times news- 
 paper. That, however, is a point on which it would 
 be injudicious to dilate, because it could not be 
 touched at all without reference to what was in 
 point of fact the moving power which sent Lord 
 Bafylan and his army from Varna into the Crimea. 
 Therefore we take our leave of "dirty Charlie" 
 with this passing remark, that those who knew
 
 SIR ROBERT WILSON 255 
 
 him the most intimately esteemed him the most 
 highly, though blind neither to his failings nor to 
 the fact that daring courage was the one sailor-like 
 quality which gained for him a good name both in 
 the fleet and in the country. 
 
 Sir Robert Wilson 
 
 A very different style of man, both in dress and 
 appearance, from Napier was General Sir Robert 
 Wilson. In one respect, indeed, but only in one, 
 they resembled each other. They were both 
 boasters. But while Napier contented himself 
 with magnifying his own exploits at sea, Wilson 
 made the most of his exploits in the held and 
 of his successes with the fair sex and his triumphs 
 in diplomacy. That he should have regarded him- 
 self as a first-rate soldier is not perhaps to be 
 wondered at. He had served in Egypt under 
 Abercromby, and published a narrative of the 
 campaign, which, appearing at a time when 
 British oflScers rarely pretended to be capable of 
 writing an ordinary despatch, gained him enormous 
 applause ; nor is it doing him more than justice to 
 add that he loved fighting for its own sake, and 
 was conspicuous in many fields for personal gallantry. 
 He saw some service in India, was present at the 
 taking of the Cape, went with Beresford to South 
 America, and had borne his part in the Duke of 
 York's campaign in Flanders. He next makes his 
 appearance in the far North, accompanying the
 
 256 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Russians to Eylau, and by - and - by, when the 
 Peninsular War began, he attached himself to 
 Marshal Beresford, and through him obtained 
 permission to raise and command a Portuguese 
 irregular corps, to which he gave the name of 
 the Lusitanian Legion. He did not shine as an 
 independent leader of men. Probably the materials 
 with which he had to work were none of the best. 
 But, however this may be, he contrived, by sending 
 in an inflated report of triumphs achieved which 
 led to nothing, so to dissatisfy the Duke, then Lord 
 Wellington, that he was deprived of his command. 
 After this, when Europe rose against Napoleon, he 
 joined the allied armies in Silesia, and was present 
 at most of the great actions that followed, including 
 the battles of Dresden and Leipsic. Unfortunately 
 for himself, Sir Bobert Wilson chose to play the 
 rdle of a bitter Whig politician. Early introduced 
 to Fox, Sheridan, Mr., afterwards Lord Grey, 
 Erskine, Fitzpatrick, Sir Francis Burdett, Lord 
 Moira, and Tom Paine, he imbibed all their opinions 
 respecting the tyrannies of George iii. and the 
 Liberalism of the Prince of Wales, and out of this 
 there grew in him, as there was in others, an 
 impatience under the administration of Pitt, the 
 Duke of Portland, and Lord Liverpool, which 
 vented itself in terms not always becoming, and 
 made him personally obnoxious to the powers that 
 were. The part which he played in aiding the 
 escape of Colonel Labotaire did him no good ; yet
 
 SIR ROBERT WILSON 257 
 
 it was characteristic and disinterested. So much 
 can hardly be said of his foolish interference be- 
 tween the Life Guards and the mob on the occasion 
 of the Queen's funeral. His visit to Brandenburg 
 House during the progress of the trial had already- 
 given great offence to George iv., and however 
 well-intentioned his remonstrances with the troops 
 might be, it was not a proceeding to which a general 
 officer ought to have lent himself. Let me not, 
 however, be misunderstood. England never had a 
 weaker and therefore a worse Government than in 
 the days of Lord Liverpool. The Queen's trial, as 
 the inquiries into her proceedings when travelling 
 on the Continent came to be called, was an insult 
 to the nation — for though no one will now speak of 
 her as a model of decorum, it ill became her Royal 
 husband to visit her backslidings as he did. But 
 Wilson quite forgot what was due to the Sovereign 
 whose commission he bore, when he put himself 
 ostentatiously in the front rank of the King's 
 personal enemies. He suffered for his folly by 
 having his name struck out of the army list. 
 Deprived of military rank, Wilson got himself 
 elected member for Southwark. He took his 
 seat, as might be expected, on the Opposition 
 benches, and so deep was the sympathy felt for 
 him by the party to which he belonged, that a 
 subscription was set on foot to make up for him 
 the pecuniary damage he had sustained. A con- 
 siderable sum of money was raised — if I recollect 
 
 B
 
 258 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 aright, between £15,000 and £20,000 — which he 
 gratefully accepted, and till the death of George iv. 
 posed before the world a well-paid martyr to 
 Liberal principles. 
 
 The Duke, though not blind to Wilson's failmgs, 
 which had their roots in nothing worse than lack 
 of sound sense and morbid self-appreciation, never 
 approved of the severity with which they had been 
 visited. He was no more able to prevent Wilson's 
 dismissal from the army than he had been able to 
 save the life of Marshal Ney ; but he seized the 
 first opportunity that presented itself of making 
 amends for the past. On his recommendation Sir 
 Robert was restored to his rank, and became 
 titular Colonel of the 15th Hussars. From that 
 day Wilson became a devoted adherent of the 
 Duke. His change of principles, besides costing 
 him his seat for Southwark, gave great offence 
 to the subscribers to the fund, and a formal request 
 was got up, that, having recovered his place in the 
 army, he should disgorge the price of his martyr- 
 dom. But Wilson was not the man to be disturbed 
 by any such ridiculous clamour. He kept his money, 
 and treated with contempt the squibs with which 
 the Kadical Press assailed him. 
 
 Wilson was a very fine - looking man. His 
 general bearing had about it more perhaps of 
 the camp than of the court, and his conversation 
 was almost always about himself. Covered with 
 foreign orders, he delighted in referring to them,
 
 •' BILLY HOLMES 259 
 
 to the occasions on which they were bestowed, and 
 his intimacy with the sovereigns who conferred 
 them. Besides this he took care that the world 
 should not remain in ignorance of the favour with 
 which he had been received by the beauties of St. 
 Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna. You could not 
 fail to observe likewise, that he regarded himself 
 as irresistible, — for if by chance some handsome 
 woman was spoken of with whom he was not 
 acquainted, he laid himself out in the most undis- 
 guised manner to obtain an introduction to her. 
 Another of his peculiarities was this : Wherever he 
 settled himself, if it were only for a week, he put 
 every accessible engine at work to find out what 
 manner of people his neighbours were, how they 
 employed themselves, and to what families they 
 belonged. " I acquired this habit," he used to say, 
 " in the field, and it has stuck to me ever since." 
 
 My gallery would indeed be incomplete if there 
 were omitted from it the portraits of persons so well 
 known and justly appreciated half a century ago as 
 Mr. William Holmes and Sir Charles Grant. 
 
 Mr. William Holmes, or, as he was more generally 
 called, Billy Holmes, was an Irishman whose father, 
 it is believed, was an agent on one or more of the 
 Beresford estates, and who himself served, when a 
 young man, both in the militia and in the line. 
 Good-looking, active, intelligent, and not over- 
 scrupulous, Billy made friends for himself during 
 the rebellion of '98 among the leading Protestant
 
 260 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 gentry. He soon exchanged the sword for the 
 agent's desk, and through the influence of either 
 the Beresfords or the Londonderrys, obtained a 
 seat in Parliament. His ready wit, his perpetual 
 good-humour, and the entire absence in his nature 
 of everything approaching to shyness, recommended 
 him for the post of whipper-in to his party, for his 
 services in which capacity he was rew^arded by 
 advancement in later years to one of the subor- 
 dinate places in the Board of Ordnance. But 
 Billy's great talent lay in electioneering. He 
 knew, or was supposed to know, exactly what 
 price the owner of a borough would accept ; who 
 was the fittest person to be recommended to him ; 
 and when a contest arose either in borough or 
 county, how it ought to be conducted. If you had 
 any relish for stories not always very refined, but 
 undeniably humorous, you might search far and 
 wide without meeting with a more agreeable com- 
 panion than Billy. To see him at a dinner-table, 
 surrounded by the freemen, say of Sandwich, or 
 passing from house to house on a canvassing tour, 
 was to see him in his glory. The sourest radical 
 could not long hold out against the broad Irish fun 
 with which Holmes assailed him. And if the 
 coveted vote could not be secured, the voter in- 
 variably went away less rancorous than when the 
 two men encountered. Billy lost his place in the 
 Ordnance through some mistake about the arrange- 
 ment of a line of railway that was to connect
 
 "CHIN grant" 261 
 
 London with Chatham. A charge was got up 
 against him, and one of his colleagues, of pro- 
 moting a job by which the public interests suffered. 
 The allegation was never proved, but Billy and his 
 friend felt themselves bound to allay the storm by 
 resigning their places. What became of him after 
 the Tory party went to pieces I do not know, but 
 both as a political partisan and a fellow of infinite 
 humour in private life he stood unrivalled. 
 
 In every respect different from Billy Holmes, 
 though they were somehow usually classed to- 
 gether, was Sir Alexander Grant, Bart., more 
 commonly recognised among his friends and 
 acquaintances as " Chin Grant." Heavy in hand 
 as a companion, incapable of putting half-a-dozen 
 sentences together either on the hustings or in the 
 House of Commons, it seems impossible that Grant 
 could ever have served his party except by steady 
 voting. A West Indian proprietor, he was at one 
 time rich, and spent his money freely in electioneer- 
 ing. But the Reform Act shut the door of the 
 House of Commons against him, and the Slave 
 Emancipation measure subsequently passed re- 
 duced him, as it did many others, to comparative 
 indigence. Grant was an accomplished " gourmet." 
 On the establishment of the Carlton Club he be- 
 came a member of the Committee, and it is due to 
 him to add that under his management the Carlton 
 held its own, even against the skill of the famous 
 artiste at the Reform. Grant himself lived much
 
 262 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 at that place of refuge for struggling Tories, and it 
 is ludicrous to observe the adroitness with which 
 he generally contrived to place himself on one side 
 or the other of the Premier in petto. Grant's 
 patience under privations and faithful adherence to 
 party were not overlooked when Peel succeeded at 
 last in forming a stable government. He became a 
 commissioner of customs and spent the last years of 
 his life in comparative comfort. 
 
 Casual Visitors 
 
 The Duke's hospitalities were more promiscuous, 
 so to speak, at Walmer than at Stratfieldsaye. 
 Those whom you met at the latter place were, with 
 very few exceptions, what may be called house 
 visitors, like yourself, — in other words ladies and 
 gentlemen invited to spend a day or two with their 
 host, and, at the close of the appointed time, disap- 
 pearing. At Walmer his invitations were extended 
 to the captains of Deal and Dover Castles, to the 
 ofificers of the garrisons of both places, and to 
 admirals and post-captains, most of them retired, 
 who resided in the neighbourhood, and to one or 
 two gentlemen with whom accident brought him 
 acquainted. He never, as far as I know, dined out 
 of his own house during the twelve years of my 
 residence at Ash, except twice — once with myself, 
 when he did me the honour to stand godfather for 
 a boy who died in infancy, and once with Mr.
 
 LORD CARRINGTON 263 
 
 Morris of Betshanger, whose acquaintance he 
 formed at my table. His reception of these casual 
 visitors was always as cordial as if they had been of 
 the number of his intimates, and intimates, in one 
 sense of the term, some of them became. The late 
 Lord Stanhope was one of these, of whom, how- 
 ever, I will say nothing here, as I have reserved for 
 him a distinct place among the Duke's contempor- 
 aries. But of his good old grandfather, Lord 
 Carrington, in those days Captain of Deal Castle, 
 just so much notice may be taken as tends to illus- 
 trate one part in the very manifold social character 
 of the great Duke. 
 
 Lord Carrington, formerly Mr. Smith, the head 
 of the great banking house of Smith, Payne, & 
 Smith, had been a steady supporter of Mr. Pitt's 
 administration, and was rewarded by this great 
 minister for that and other services by being ele- 
 vated to the peerage. From Mr. Pitt likewise he 
 received the appointment which he still held, and 
 regularly as the autumn set in he took up his abode 
 in the comfortable marine residence which went 
 with it. He was, and had long been, a widower 
 when I first became acquainted with him. His son 
 — or sons — (for I do not know how many he had), 
 were themselves heads of families ; and of his 
 daughters one was married to Earl Stanhope, the 
 other to Lord Grenville Somerset. Lady Stan- 
 hope, with her son, Lord Mahon, generally came 
 with the old lord to Deal and kept house for him,
 
 264 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 and were frequent and welcome additions to the 
 Duke's dinner parties. 
 
 At the time of which I speak Lord Carrington 
 must have been upwards of eighty years of age. 
 The devotion which in his youth he had rendered 
 to Pitt, he transferred in his old age to the Duke. 
 The Duke, when at Walmer, made a point of 
 dressing for dinner in the Cinque Ports uniform, 
 i.e. a blue coat with scarlet cuffs and collar, and 
 buttons showing the Cinque Port arms. Lord 
 Carrington adopted the same custom, and went 
 beyond it, for he never called on the Lord Warden 
 of a morning except thus arrayed, and always went 
 to church in what he called his uniform. In every 
 respect, besides, he tried to make the Duke his 
 model, and to an extent which led on one occasion 
 to a ludicrous denouement. 
 
 There is a small dockyard at Deal which was in 
 those days superintended by a post-captain. This 
 gentleman, in reality a staunch Conservative, hap- 
 pened to say something one day when calling at 
 Deal Castle, which the noble castellan accepted as 
 if it conveyed a censure on the Duke. The old Lord 
 fired up, made use of strong language, and sent his 
 guest away, not offended, but annoyed that his 
 meaning should have been entirely misunderstood. 
 He wrote a stiff, but not unfriendly, note, pointing 
 out that Lord Carrington had done him an injustice, 
 and sent it to the castle. Now the duel between 
 the Duke and Lord Winchilsea was still fresh in
 
 BILLY HOLMES* JOKE 265 
 
 men's minds ; and Lord Carrington appeared to 
 think that a good opportunity had presented itself 
 of proving that he at least took the same view of 
 the single combat that had been expressed in the 
 Duke's memorable letter. He accordingly answered 
 Captain Vincent's note by announcing that he was 
 quite ready to render to him that satisfaction which 
 every gentleman had a right to demand, and no 
 gentleman could refuse to give. This done, he 
 posted off to Walmer Castle, where, the Duke 
 being engaged, he saw Billy Holmes, and unfolded 
 to him his case, with all the circumstances attend- 
 ing it. He could not have put the matter into 
 better hands. Billy, though intensely amused, 
 put on a grave face and discussed the question of 
 seconds. It would hardly do to ask the Duke's 
 co-operation in an affair of the kind. He himself 
 was out of the question, but he would consult the 
 Duke as soon as he could be seen, and communicate 
 to Lord Carrington the result of their conversation. 
 " I was thinking of Hardinge," said the old Lord ; 
 "he managed the Duke's affair admirably." "A 
 good thought," replied Holmes, looking as grave as 
 a judge. " But had we not better see what the 
 Duke says to it before communicating with Plar- 
 dinge ? " This was agreed to, and Lord Carrington 
 took his leave. 
 
 The Duke roared when Holmes told him the 
 story, and carried on the joke so far that he com- 
 missioned Billy to convey a message for him to the
 
 266 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 effect that, Captain Vincent being a Conservative, 
 it would appear to the enemy as if there were 
 divisions in the camp, if two such good men and 
 brave as he and Lord Carrington were to fight a 
 duel. The message was duly conveyed to Deal 
 Castle, and the old Lord, fully satisfied that he had 
 acted like a man of spirit, yielded to the reasoning 
 of his political chief, and did not invite Sir Henry 
 Hardinge to go out with him as his second. 
 
 Another story connected with this good old Lord 
 may be worth repeating, as illustrative of the keen 
 sense of the ludicrous which was one of the Duke's 
 characteristics. 
 
 Lord Carrington was considerably past eighty 
 when a buxom widow, the relict of a deceased 
 archdeacon, cast a spell over him. He proposed 
 and was accepted, and in due time Lady Carrington 
 the second arrived at Deal Castle and took her 
 place at the head of the table. Marriages of this 
 sort are not usually agreeable to the bridegroom's 
 family, and though there is nothing to show that 
 in this instance the ordinary course of events was 
 departed from, there is as little to prove that open 
 war between the old and the new connection was 
 declared. On the contrary, the new wife would 
 seem to have played into her step-daughter's hands 
 more vehemently than was judicious, of which the 
 consequences, though the cause of some mirth to 
 others, were to her very serious. 
 
 Lady Stanhope proposed to give a ball — sent
 
 LADY STANHOPE 267 
 
 out her invitations far and wide against a certain 
 evening. It happened that two days prior to that 
 for which the ball was fixed, Lord Carrington's 
 brother, who had long been ailing, died — I think 
 in London. What was to be done? There was 
 time, no doubt, to put off the entertainment so far 
 as the invited guests were concerned, but all the 
 other preparations were complete, and for some 
 reason, best known to herself, Lady Stanhope had 
 set her heart on getting this party together. To 
 postpone the gathering under existing circum- 
 stances would be tantamount to an entire abandon- 
 ment of the affair, and to that the noble founder of 
 the feast was decidedly averse. A council of war 
 was in consequence held, in which Lady Carrington 
 took part, and it was agreed that the old Lord 
 should be kept in ignorance of his brother's death 
 till the festivities were over. So far as this ball was 
 concerned all went well. The company assembled. 
 The good old Lord gave them a hearty reception, 
 and Deal Castle rang with the voice of music and 
 flirtation. But the morrow came, and with it a 
 terrible retribution. Lord Carrington was furious 
 at the outrage — for such it was — that had been put 
 upon him ; and laying all the blame on his wife, 
 ordered her instantly to quit the house. She 
 refused, as might have been expected, whereupon, 
 recollecting that, as Captain of Deal Castle, he 
 owed some sort of military obedience to the Lord 
 Warden, the old Lord despatched a messenger with
 
 268 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 an official packet desiring that it might be put into 
 the Duke's hands without delay. All was done 
 according to orders. We were at dinner when the 
 packet, marked O. H. M. S., was delivered to the 
 Duke ; and he, taking for granted that its contents 
 must be important, opened and read it. He made 
 a great effort to retain his gravity but did not suc- 
 ceed, he was obliged to laugh aloud. The despatch 
 requested a reply to two questions: — 1st, Whether 
 Deal Castle was or was not a fortress ; and 2nd, 
 Whether he, as Governor, had, or had not, a right 
 to expel by force, if necessary, any person whose 
 presence within the walls he might consider un- 
 desirable. There had been rumours afloat of domestic 
 differences in that quarter, and the Duke, guessing 
 to what end the query pointed, so framed his 
 answer as to meet the case. 
 
 "Certainly Deal Castle was a fortress; it rested 
 with the Captain, as Governor, to admit or refuse 
 admittance to whom he would. In the event also 
 of a siege, or the apprehension of a siege, he had 
 a perfect right to expel any inmate whose fidelity 
 he distrusted ; but he (the Duke) would not advise 
 too rigid an exercise of these powers unless upon 
 trustworthy evidence that the safety of the place 
 might otherwise be compromised." The official reply 
 to the official despatch had the desired effect. The 
 lady was not summarily dismissed, but she with- 
 drew from the castle a day or two afterwards, and 
 never entered it again.
 
 BOOK III 
 
 THE DUKE IX HIS DOMESTIC RELATIONS
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE DUKE IN HIS DOMESTIC RELATIONS 
 
 The Duke was not very happy at any period of 
 his life in his domestic relations. Of his father 
 he saw little, for Lord Mornington died while his 
 children were young, and with his mother he was 
 never a favourite. The financial condition of the 
 family was moreover straitened, and their home in 
 consequence by no means attractive to its younger 
 members. Even among the brothers there seems 
 to have been no very warm love one for the other. 
 In after life, no doubt, they drew more closely 
 together, impelled thereto rather by pride of race, 
 perhaps, than by natural affection. But in boyhood 
 little intercourse took place among them, none 
 indeed of which any record has been preserved. 
 How far these circumstances may have created or 
 fostered that dreaminess of temperament for which 
 the Duke was remarkable at Eton, it is not worth 
 while to inquire. Enough it is to know that, being 
 coldly looked upon at home and treated as a dull 
 boy, the Duke learnt to think himself dull, and 
 shunning rather than seeking the companionship of
 
 272 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 his schoolfellows, formed no early friendships with 
 any of them. 
 
 It cannot be said that marriage, which, for most 
 men, proves a turning point in life, had any effect 
 in changing the Duke's habits either of thought or 
 action. Not that he was deficient in any of those 
 qualities of heart and mind which fit a man to 
 become a loving husband and father. On the con- 
 trary, there never lived a public man in whom 
 the yearning for sympathy was stronger, and who, 
 had he found it beside his own fireside, would have 
 cared less to seek it elsewhere. But he did not 
 find it there, and the consequence was a long life 
 of brilliant success and well earned honour, of 
 which he was heard over and over again to say 
 that it was not worth living for. 
 
 Many causes have been assigned for this. The 
 true one was, I believe, as follows : — 
 
 The Duke, when a very young man, fell in 
 love with Lady Catharine Pakenham, one of the 
 daughters of the Earl of Longford. He was at 
 that time a Captain of Cavalry and aide-de-camp to 
 the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, with little besides 
 his pay on which to subsist, and without any 
 immediate prospect of bettering his condition. The 
 lady's father, regarding the match as undesirable, 
 refused his consent, and the young people separated 
 without any direct pledge of constancy from either 
 side, but with the tacit understanding that both 
 would wait for better times. It was probably in
 
 LADY CATHARINE PAKENHAM 273 
 
 the hope of realising this vision that the Duke, 
 on his return from the war in the Low Countries, 
 besought his brother to apply, in his behalf, for 
 a commissionership of Customs. Fortunately for 
 Europe, the application, if made, proved unsuccessful, 
 and, as Colonel Wellesley, the Duke followed his regi- 
 ment, with which, in due course, he landed in India. 
 How the Duke spent the interval between 1797 
 and 1806,1 have told at length elsewhere. Whether 
 any written communication had or had not passed 
 between the lovers all this while is uncertain. 
 The probabilities are that they had not ; because 
 Lord Longford could not, under the circumstances, 
 sanction such a proceeding, and the Duke's sense 
 of honour was too keen to permit his embarking on 
 a clandestine correspondence with any one. Hence 
 we bring no serious charge against either party if 
 we assume that an absence so protracted may have 
 produced its not uncommon effect, in so far at least 
 as to render one or both indifferent as to whether 
 the dream of other days was to be dreamt over 
 again or not. Be this as it may, the wooer of ten 
 years ago presented himself in an entirely new 
 aspect when he appeared in Dublin as the hero of 
 Assaye and Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant of 
 Ireland. When, therefore, he renewed the offer 
 of his hand the offer was accepted, both by father 
 and daughter, and in a short time the marriage 
 took place, much, as it appeared, to the satisfaction 
 of all concerned.
 
 274 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 There was, however, one party to that transaction 
 whom a discovery, made too late, deeply wounded. 
 Lady Catharine, it came out, had, before the Duke's 
 arrival, been engaged to another suitor and had 
 broken the engagement in order to become Lady 
 Wellesley. There was nothing really wrong in this 
 second engagement looked at as a thing apart, nor 
 in the lady's extricating herself from it, if only she 
 had adopted the proper means of doing so. These 
 were obvious enough. When the Duke proposed a 
 second time, she ought to have told him how she 
 was circumstanced, not concealing her preference 
 for her old lover if she retained it, but leaving him 
 to decide whether or no the fresh engagement 
 should be held binding. This, unfortunately, she 
 failed to do, and the Duke, to whom the story was 
 told in a spirit by no means friendly to the poor 
 lady, received the impression that he had been 
 grossly deceived, and never afterwards got rid 
 of it. 
 
 The Duke was not one who readily forgave in- 
 juries, particularly if there were involved in them a 
 deviation from truth. There was, however, much 
 chivalry in his nature, and this first slip might 
 have been got over, had the lady shown herself 
 more capable than she subsequently did of entering 
 into his views of things and sharing his anxieties. 
 It was a great misfortune for both that she utterly 
 failed in this respect. Very amiable, very religious, 
 entertaining for her husband unbounded admira-
 
 THE DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON 275 
 
 tion, she could not bring herself to take the slightest 
 interest in the subjects which mainly engrossed 
 his attention. Even in the smallest matters their 
 tastes seldom agreed, and she had a habit of ad- 
 miring him in public which was as little agree- 
 able to him as Mrs. Disraeli's open worship of her 
 husband sometimes appeared to be to the late Prime 
 Minister. Not that the Duke had any objection 
 more than other great men to receive the homage 
 of all who approached him, and especially of women ; 
 but such homage pleased in proportion as it was 
 delicately administered. It became intolerable 
 when administered wholesale, whether by a stranger 
 or a member of his own family. But worst of all 
 in his eyes was her excessive timidity, hurrying 
 her occasionally into deceit. One instance may 
 suffice to illustrate what I mean. 
 
 When the Duke took the command of the army 
 in Portugal, he made arrangements for the comfort- 
 able maintenance of his family during an absence 
 from home which he anticipated would be pro- 
 tracted. He took a house for them in Hamilton 
 Place and settled on the Duchess such an income 
 as he believed to be more than sufficient to meet 
 all their wants. At the same time he received 
 from her an assurance that she would never incur 
 debts (of debts he had always a horror) and that 
 in the event of her finding the allowance inadequate, 
 she would let him know in order that an addition 
 might be made to it.
 
 276 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Wives who stand in awe of their husbands, as 
 is sometimes the case when there is little sympathy 
 between them, are prone to hide from them what 
 had better be disclosed. The Duchess failed to 
 make the two ends of her annuity meet, and failed 
 also to state the fact to the Duke. The consequence 
 was an accumulation of debt, of which the Duke 
 knew nothing till after his return at the close of 
 the war. Had the relation in which they person- 
 ally stood to one another been different from what 
 it was, even this breach of confidence, though a 
 serious one, might have been condoned ; but the 
 payment of a large sum to tradesmen on which he 
 had not counted gave additional bitterness to the 
 reflection that she whom he had chosen to be the 
 companion of his life was a failure. Now the 
 Duke, like most men on whom the calls of pubHc 
 duty, or the necessity of providing by hard work 
 for the needs of those dependent on them, keep 
 the mind much upon the stretch, yearned for what 
 he could not find at home ; and yielding to a natural 
 impulse sought it abroad. There was scarcely a 
 gifted woman in England whom an instinctive 
 knowledge of how the land lay elsewhere, did not 
 impel to offer to him that of which he stood in 
 need, and one at least, as has elsewhere been 
 shown, attained the desired end, and kept it till 
 the day of her death. But however innocent in 
 themselves such intimacies may be, they almost 
 necessarily come between a man and his domesticity,
 
 AN UNFOUNDED BELIEF 277 
 
 and for this very reason fulfil their purpose im- 
 perfectly. They may refresh from time to time 
 the spirit wearied and ill at ease, but they alienate 
 the man himself more and more from those whose 
 natural claims on his affection ought to be the 
 strongest. Again let me guard myself against 
 being misunderstood. The vulgar belief concerning 
 the Duke is that he was a profligate among women. 
 Never was vulgar belief more unfounded. His 
 physical temperament was cold rather than severe. 
 He may have erred in youth, as others have done, 
 when exposed to strong temptation. But his lady 
 friends were to him friends only — at all events 
 during the latter part of his life, as well as previously 
 to the death of the Duchess, and after that event 
 left him free to contract a second marriacje had he 
 been so disposed. 
 
 The inevitable effect of the Duke's dislike to the 
 society of the Duchess was to make him, if not an 
 unkind, at all events an undemonstrative father. 
 Though fond of his sons in his own way, he never, 
 as far as I know, played with them in their child- 
 hood or made them his companions after they grew 
 up. He was indeed most anxious that they should 
 not suffer, as he often said that he himself had 
 done, from an imperfect education, but he made no 
 attempt himself to enlarge their minds, and the 
 gentleman to whose care as private tutor he 
 entrusted them seems to have failed in working on 
 their affections, and through them acting at once
 
 278 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 on their intellectual and moral nature. Nobody 
 who knew the late Vicar of Brighton will challenge 
 either his scholarship or his high character, but a 
 man may be both a scholar and the best of men, 
 yet lack some of the qualities which are needed in 
 a private tutor. In this case the error seems to 
 have been an exaggerated notion of discipline, of 
 which the effect was to make his pupils cordially 
 detest him. 
 
 The Duke was often consulted by parents and 
 guardians as to the sort of training which boys 
 ought to go through in order to fit them for the 
 army. His answer was in every case the same. 
 " Give your son the best education England can 
 aflford. Send him to a public school or to one of 
 the universities. In this country an officer must 
 be something more than a fighting machine, and 
 should therefore acquire such knowledge and habits 
 of thought as shall qualify him to fill, with credit 
 to himself and benefit to the public, such a post as 
 governor of a colony and to act, if called upon to 
 do so, as a magistrate." And on the advice he 
 gave to others, he himself acted. His sons went to 
 Ebon, their tutor being still retained to aid them 
 in their studies, and that they did not fail to make 
 good use of their time I have shown elsewhere. 
 They proceeded next to Oxford, where they were 
 entered at Christ Church ; the eldest as a nobleman, 
 the youngest as a gentleman commoner; and at the 
 same time half-pay commissions were purchased
 
 students' escapade 279 
 
 for both — a mode of connecting youths with the 
 military service, not then uncommon, but long since 
 abolished. 
 
 It is well known that after a while the Duke 
 withdrew his sons from Oxford and sent them to 
 complete their educational course at Cambridge, 
 The reasons which induced him to take this step 
 have never been fairly stated, and censure has 
 accordingly been meted out in a wrong direction. 
 These are the details of the case. 
 
 Lord Douro on a certain occasion had a wine 
 party in his rooms, including Lord Charles and 
 others of his friends. No doubt the young men, as 
 in those days was customary, drank a little more 
 than was good for them ; and under the influence of 
 wine, a suggestion was made that it would be a 
 flne thing to go out into the town in defiance of 
 college rules and closed gates. No ulterior object 
 was contemplated. What was proposed to be done 
 was to be done as a lark ; for they who undertook 
 the perilous enterprise were pledged to return and 
 explain how it had been achieved. Lord Douro 
 himself did not join the forlorn hope, though 
 whether he entered any protest against the pro- 
 ceeding is uncertain. His brother. Lord Charles, 
 did. The little band ran downstairs — made for 
 the lodge, and called aloud upon the porter. To 
 open the wicket and let themselves out was the 
 work of a moment. To and fro they paced for a 
 few minutes in the street, rejoicing in the success
 
 280 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 of their manoeuvres. They had, however, committed 
 a great mistake in neglecting to take the key of 
 the wicket with them. They suffered for it. The 
 porter, who recognised their voices, had no difficulty 
 in getting through the window and immediately 
 turned the key in the lock. For them there was 
 no return except at his pleasure. And he did not 
 fail on admitting them to charge them with what 
 they had done. At which they only laughed. It 
 proved, however, to be no laughing matter. The 
 outrage, for so it was termed, being reported to the 
 Dean, he sent next morning to the delinquents, and 
 having ascertained from them where they had spent 
 the evening, he proceeded, in a way peculiar to 
 himself, to vindicate the outraged honour of the 
 College. Lord Charles and his associates had 
 impositions set them. Lord Douro, because it was 
 taken for granted that the escapade, if not suggested 
 by him, had been planned at his table, was rusticated 
 for what remained of the current term. The Duke, 
 as was natural, was both surprised and indignant 
 at the proceeding. He wrote to the Dean a well- 
 considered letter, pointing out that Lord Douro had 
 been guilty of no offence whatever, and begging the 
 Dean to reconsider his judgment, so far as to cancel 
 the sentence of rustication upon an innocent man. 
 He received in due course an answer as unbecoming 
 as it was illogical. " The Dean begged to assure 
 His Grace that though he might be master of the 
 art of commanding armies, he was no judge of how
 
 THE DUKES SONS 281 
 
 discipline must be maintained in a college." Such 
 was the nature of the provocation which led the 
 Duke to transfer his sons from Oxford to Cambridge. 
 Having completed there a short academical course, 
 they were placed upon full pay, first as cornets in 
 the Blues, and by-and-by as lieutenants, one in 
 the GOth, the other in the Kifle Brigade. Lord 
 Douro subsequently exchanged into the Rifle 
 Brigade and Lord Charles into the 15 th Foot. 
 When the former retired from the service he had 
 attained the rank of lieutenant-general. The latter, 
 after commanding a battalion some years, became 
 a major-general and died, leaving a widow and two 
 sons and three daughters.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SOME OF THE DUKe's SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 If ever it could be said of a man, distinguished 
 among his fellows, that he educated himself, the 
 aphorism holds good in the case of the Duke of 
 Wellington. We have seen that as a boy he was 
 held to be the dunce of the family, and we know 
 that at Eton he made no figure. As he never 
 spoke of Angers, it is fair to conclude that the one 
 accomplishment he mastered there was the ac- 
 quisition of the French language. His early 
 association with the leaders of men doubtless 
 stimulated into action faculties which, had his 
 lot been cast in a different mould, might have 
 remained dormant to the end. But the channels 
 into which they were directed carried them, so to 
 speak, from common things, leaving him master in 
 the art of controlling courts and armies, and in 
 minor matters of daily life ignorant as a child. 
 Though spending much of his time in the country, 
 he never learned the very rudiments of farming. 
 Arbuthnot used to tell a story illustrative of this 
 fact which seems almost too absurd to be credible.
 
 HIS LOVE OF MUSIC 283 
 
 Riding through a field of turnips one day, the Duke 
 asked him how the vegetables propagated, whether 
 by seed, or by cuttings, like the potato. His 
 acquaintance with the literature of his own country 
 was very limited. Though he read several foreign 
 languages, and wrote two of them with tolerable 
 accuracy, he had no acquaintance whatever with 
 the writings of the master spirits in any of them. 
 As life had been to him a drama in which living 
 men played their part, so in his retirement, history, 
 which tells how bygone generations schemed and 
 acted, monopolised his attention. For poetry he 
 had no taste, and not much for prose writing of 
 fiction. As to physical science, that, in all its 
 branches, was a sealed book to him. On the other 
 hand, he was devoted to music, and at one time 
 played the violin with considerable execution, but 
 even in music his taste was antiquated. A generous 
 patron of the classical concerts, he cared very little 
 for any compositions more recent than those of 
 Mozart, and preferred pieces by Handel and even 
 by Corelli to the best modern composers could 
 produce. 
 
 I have spoken of the Duke as being in the little 
 matters of private life as ignorant as a child. One 
 exception must be made to this rule ; it is a house- 
 keeping one. The man whose solvency depends 
 upon keeping a steady eye on his household expenses 
 could not be more careful or better acquainted with 
 the details of his menage than the Duke. Having
 
 284 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 once suffered from the roguery of an upper servant, 
 he never again entrusted the payment of his bills to 
 any hand except his own, and kept his cellar low, as 
 has elsewhere been stated, in order that his wine 
 account, like his accounts with butcher, baker, and 
 coal merchant, should always be of short standing. 
 
 Though the Duke rose early, you never saw him 
 on ordinary occasions till breakfast was served at 
 ten o'clock. A great economist of time, he made 
 short work of this meal, and returned immediately 
 to his own room, which both at Stratfieldsaye and 
 Walmer Castle served the double purpose of sleep- 
 ing chamber and study. Of the narrow camp bed on 
 which he slept at Walmer and the sofa which at 
 Stratfieldsaye did duty as a couch I have else- 
 where spoken, as well as of the volumes which 
 stood nearest to him in the shelves. Here I may 
 venture to add, that one of them, his Book of 
 Common Prayer, has, through the kindness of his 
 son, come into my possession, and that I prize it 
 greatly. At two o'clock luncheon might or might 
 not, according to the amount of business to be 
 transacted, bring him forth again ; but it rarely 
 happened, at all events in the country, that he 
 failed in the afternoon to take his exercise, some- 
 times on horseback, sometimes in an open carriage, 
 and sometimes, if the weather were broken, on foot. 
 After he had ceased to be Prime Minister, and the 
 battle of Reform was fought out, the Duke seldom 
 failed to interrupt this routine order of existence.
 
 HIS LOVE OF HUNTING 285 
 
 In Kent a pack of harriers gave him great amuse- 
 ment. In Hampshire he hunted regularly with 
 both Sir John Cope and the Vine hounds, con- 
 tributing largely to their maintenance. And here 
 he exhibited the same faculty in losing his way 
 for which he was noted in the Peninsula after 
 makint; an extensive reconaissance. 
 
 The Duke was never more agreeable than when 
 you found yourself alone with him at Walmer 
 Castle. Throughout the early part of the day he 
 left you to your own devices. When the hour for 
 exercise came round he told you what he proposed 
 to do, and invited you to join him. The invitac^ion, 
 as may well be believed, was never declined. Let 
 me describe the details of one such proceeding. It 
 is a clear bracing day in November, with just as 
 much of frost in the air as to make the covering of 
 a cloak in an open carriage agreeable. The roads 
 are in the best order, and the proposal is to visit 
 Ramsgate, a point distant from Walmer about nine 
 miles. The carriage is a two-horsed phaeton, which 
 the Duke drives, taking his seat on the left because 
 of deafness in that ear, thus turning his better ear 
 to you. I have elsewhere mentioned that the 
 Duke's seat on horseback was loose, and that he 
 ■was somewhat of a careless rider. His driving was 
 of the same order, but in whatever respect it might 
 fall short of excellence, it never failed to carry you 
 along at great speed. As to conversation, that 
 never slackened, and should political economy come
 
 286 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 to the front his opinions were the more deserving of 
 attention, that they sometimes surprised you. Take 
 the following as an instance. 
 
 The Duke had done more than any minister of 
 modern times to diminish the public expenditure. 
 He had reduced to the lowest level, consistent with 
 modern efficiency, not the army and navy alone, but 
 the staff of our dockyards, of our arsenals, and of 
 all the public establishments in the country. The 
 wisdom of so doing is hesitatingly disputed, and 
 the Duke, admitting the force of some of the argu- 
 ments in defence of the objection raised, "Yes," 
 he observed, " it is quite true that dockyards and 
 arsenals fully manned give employment to many, 
 whereas when you reduce them to a minimum you 
 may throw whole families upon their parishes, but 
 it is not easy to convince the ratepayer that if 
 they be called upon to pay a little more in the 
 shape of taxes they recoup themselves through the 
 diminished poor-rates." Bear in mind that forty 
 or fifty or sixty years ago the difficulty ex- 
 perienced, especially in rural parishes, was to find 
 work for men willing and able to labour, and that 
 England was still suffering from the loss of her 
 carrying trade by sea and agricultural depression 
 on shore, from the changes that had suddenly taken 
 place, little more than fifteen years previously, 
 from a state of war to one of peace. Then trade, 
 its conditions and prospects, are discussed, and the 
 futility dwelt upon of imagining that England
 
 A MEMORABLE DRIVE 287 
 
 could hope to continue for ever the workshop of 
 the world. Just as we are entering Ramsgate, 
 and while the possibility, under consideration, of 
 forcing markets abroad by a reduction in the price 
 of manufactured goods at home, the Duke suddenly 
 discovers that he has come out without a pocket- 
 handkerchief. We accordingly stop at the first 
 draper's shop that comes in our way, when the 
 Duke gets down, and presently comes out again 
 with a cotton handkerchief in his hand. It is 
 white, with red spots, and, unfolding it, he says, 
 " Now, here is an article which one would think 
 might find a market anywhere. I paid only a 
 shilling for it." 
 
 You return home before dark, repair for an hour 
 or more to your respective chambers, and meet 
 again at seven for dinner. It is a very simple 
 meal, consisting of soup, fresh herrings, an entremet, 
 a small leg of Welsh mutton, a roast pheasant, and 
 a pudding. The Duke has an excellent appetite, 
 and eats fast. He still drinks his wine, though 
 moderately, and after wine and coffee you repair 
 to the drawing-room, where an arm-chair is set on 
 each side of the fireplace, with a little table and 
 candle near it. One of these chairs the Duke 
 occupies, you sit down on the other, and each 
 takes his book or his newspaper, as the case may 
 be. From time to time one or the other looks up 
 and makes a remark. If it be germane to any 
 matter previously discussed, or prove in other
 
 288 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 way interesting to the vis-d-vis, down go both 
 books, and for jvist as long as is necessary, agree- 
 able conversation takes the place of reading, and 
 so the evening passes till about eleven o'clock, 
 when the Duke rises and quits the room, observing 
 as he passes, flat candlestick in hand, " Don't forget 
 when you go to bed to ring the bell." 
 
 Having furnished his house to his own mind, the 
 Duke did not consider himself called upon to go to 
 extra expense in order to put up a gorgeously 
 equipped chamber for guests, however exalted in 
 rank. The Queen and Prince Albert were received 
 at Stratfieldsaye with all the respect and devotion 
 which was their due, but the set of apartments 
 allotted to them underwent no change from their 
 ordinary condition. If, on the other hand, he him- 
 self observed, or the circumstance was pointed out 
 to him, that something was wanting, the presence 
 of which miffht contribute to the comfort of a com- 
 ing visitor, he did his best to supply it. Miss 
 Pellew, for instance, and her father, Lord Exmouth, 
 were expected on one occasion at Walmer. Miss 
 Pellew was a great musician and excelled as a 
 pianist. There was no piano in Walmer Castle, 
 and the music shops at Deal being overhauled and 
 found not to contain a first-rate instrument, the 
 Duke ordered one to be sent from London. 
 
 With all this urbanity and gentleness, when 
 neither irritated nor provoked, the Duke could 
 make himself, when he chose, a very disagreeable
 
 MAJOR TODD 289 
 
 controversialist. Great men can seldom endure 
 contradiction, and are not always tolerant of mis- 
 takes, even if involuntary. If these be serious either 
 in themselves or in their consequences, the best 
 thing the defaulter can do is to keep out of the 
 way till the waters of wrath subside. To beard the 
 lion in his den while the fit is on him will only 
 make bad ten times worse. 
 
 Major Todd of the Staff Corps was an ofBcer of 
 considerable merit, and famed for his skill as 
 a bridge maker. He was of humble origin, being 
 a son, if I recollect right, of the butler of one of the 
 royal Dukes, through whose influence he obtained 
 a commission. It happened during one of the 
 operations, soon after the army entered France, 
 that a bridge he had thrown over a stream gave 
 way under the pressure of a gun in transition, a 
 heavier piece than he had expected would be 
 advanced by that route. Tidings of the accident 
 reached the Duke while he was at dinner. Having 
 among other guests the Due d'Angoulerae near him, 
 and knowing that the consequence must be con- 
 siderable delay in executing the plan he had 
 formed, he was furious. Unfortunately for him- 
 self, Todd arrived just at this moment to explain 
 and make his report. He was listened to in silence, 
 and then in no measured language informed that 
 his excuses were worthless and himself a bungler. 
 Quite unprepared for such a reception, the major 
 stood riveted to the spot where he stood, close to 
 
 T
 
 290 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the Duke's chair ; whereupon, hurried away by- 
 temper, the Duke turned round and said, " Are 
 you going to take up your father's trade ? " Poor 
 Todd hurried out of the room. There was an 
 action next day of which a portion consisted in 
 a smart skirmish between the French Hght troops 
 and our army in some vineyards. The officer com- 
 manding in that quarter chanced to have been 
 present at the Duke's dinner the previous evening, 
 and seeing Todd approach on horseback, rode up 
 and tried to enter into conversation with him. 
 Todd took little or no notice, but trotted on in spite 
 of the remonstrances of his companion. 
 
 " You have no business there, you can do no 
 good, they can hardly miss you if you place your- 
 self in an alley like that." " I don't want them to," 
 was the answer, and almost immediately the poor 
 fellow dropped dead, riddled with musket balls. 
 
 Another instance of the Duke's over-severe 
 censure of a proceeding, less excusable doubtless 
 than Todd's, though under the circumstances 
 scarcely unnatural, may be given. 
 
 Colonel Gurwood, as all the world knows, was 
 taken up by the Duke in consequence of his 
 gallantry at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, where 
 he was fortunate enough to receive the Governor's 
 sword, after himself making him prisoner. He 
 subsequently published, first the Duke's general 
 orders when commander of the forces in the 
 Peninsula and the south of France, and later a
 
 COLONEL GURWOOD 291 
 
 selection from his dispatches. Brought thus for 
 many years into daily communication with the 
 Duke, we can hardly blame him for making 
 a record of the great man's conversations, doubtless 
 with a view to becoming at some future time a 
 Boswell to that gigantic Johnson. 
 
 That in such a work he would have done justice 
 to the hero of his tale may partly be questioned, 
 for Gurwood though brave, and not wanting in 
 intelligence, was very vain, and certainly did not 
 possess mind enough to read the Duke's character 
 aright. Still the compilation of these manuscripts 
 was to him a labour of love, and carefully he 
 arranged and laid them by as they accumulated. 
 Had he kept his own counsel, matters might have 
 taken the course he desired them to take, but he 
 lacked discretion enough for that, and unfortunately 
 for himself made a confidant of one whom I shall 
 not name, because he behaved abominably. 
 
 If there was one thinor more than another which 
 the Duke abhorred, it was that what he held to be 
 the sanctity of private intercourse should be 
 violated. Men who were known or suspected of 
 keeping diaries he accordingly shrank from, and he 
 denounced such works as Captain Basil Hall's 
 Schloss HainfeJd as base, and their authors as dis- 
 honourable. No sooner therefore, was he informed 
 how Gurwood had been occupied, than he sent for 
 him, and requested that the manuscripts should be 
 burnt.
 
 292 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Had his own life been demanded of him or that 
 of his wife, Gurwood would have felt it less than 
 the order to commit these precious papers to the 
 flames. In comparison with the delight he took in 
 correcting and adding to them, everything else 
 which he possessed or hoped for seemed stale and 
 unprofitable. And now to be called upon all at 
 once to destroy them — the prosj)ect was terrible. 
 What, however, could he do ? All that he had in 
 life, his advancement in his profession, his office in 
 the Tower, the honour of being recognised as squire 
 to his great chief, he owed to the Duke. There was 
 but one course open to him, and he took it. He 
 made a bonfire of his precious memoranda, and 
 never held up his head again. 
 
 For Gurwood was preternaturally sensitive. He 
 may be said to have lived upon the favour shown 
 him by the Duke, and in some sense to have 
 merged his own identity in that of his patron. 
 You could not help seeing this in all his proceed- 
 ings. Begin with him the discussion of what 
 subject you might, he never failed to bring in the 
 Duke's judgment on the point, and his movements, 
 his expressions, the very cadence of his laugh, were 
 all the closest possible echoes of the Duke's. Other 
 tokens he gave besides of a temperament nervously 
 excitable. I remember his being present on one 
 occasion in the chapel at Chelsea Hospital when one 
 of the psalms for the day, being the 18th of the 
 month of June, led me to speak to the old men of
 
 COLONEL GURWOOD 293 
 
 the Battle of Waterloo, in which many of them had 
 borne a part. Gurwood sat in what was then the 
 major's pew, behind that of the governor, and 
 under the organ gallery, and there, after vainly 
 striving to control himself, he burst into such 
 a passion of weeping, that it was necessary for Sir 
 John Wilson to lead him out of the chapel. Poor 
 fellow ! he was precisely the sort of man who could 
 " enter the battle sepulchre at the cannon's mouth " 
 without one twinge of fear, yet for whom the 
 sudden collapse of hopes which he had cherished 
 for years would have the effect of a death-warrant. 
 
 Let no man lay to the Duke's charge the deaths 
 of these two men. We may regret that he should 
 have wounded the feelings of either, and perhaps 
 censure him for lack of delicacy in reminding one 
 of them of his lowly origin. But it showed exces- 
 sive weakness on both their parts to treat a passing 
 mortification, however keen, as if it covered them 
 with such a load of shame as rendered life unbear- 
 able. 
 
 The Bev. Mr. Briscall knew better how to take a 
 slight, though it must have been hard enough to 
 bear, because it was of long continuance. 
 
 The Duke often complained of being asked for 
 advice by persons who had little or no right to 
 trouble him, and on subjects which concerned only 
 his correspondents themselves. He was quite jus- 
 tified in doing so, yet I venture to think that these 
 marks of respect for his judgment were not dis-
 
 294 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 agreeable to him, and this I know, that nothing 
 offended him more than your first asking his advice 
 and then acting contrary to it. " When you ask 
 my advice," he used to say to those who failed to 
 abide by it, "I expect you to follow it. You 
 have not done so on this occasion, and I must 
 therefore decline to be your counsellor hereafter." 
 He was equally impatient of any disposition to 
 evade or act contrary to whatever directions he 
 might have given. How beggars of all ranks 
 harassed and latterly imposed upon him I have 
 told elsewhere, but the following anecdote seems 
 worth repeating for more than one reason. 
 
 There came to him from Edinburgh an earnest 
 entreaty for help, backed up with a pitiful story of 
 suffering on the part of an officer who had sold out, 
 lost his money, and, with a wife and family, was 
 starving. The Duke sent for his son Charles, gave 
 him the letter, and with it a ten-pound note, 
 desiring that it might be forwarded to the proper 
 address. Lord Charles, who had been quartered in 
 Edinburgh not long before, saw reason to suspect 
 an imposture, and instead of sending the money, 
 wrote to a staff-officer on the spot and requested 
 him to inquire into the case. In a few days the 
 answer arrived, bringing incontestable proof that 
 the whole tale was got up by a knot of swindlers, 
 and that no such case of distress existed. Armed 
 with his letter Lord Charles went to his father's 
 room, put it into his father's hands, and with it
 
 LORD CHARLES WELLESLEY 295 
 
 the ten-pound note. The Duke read the letter, 
 pocketed the note, and then said in a stern voice, 
 "Charles, when I desire you to do anything I 
 expect you to do it." 
 
 A kindred incident, in which Lord Charles again 
 played a part, may be worth describing. The place 
 for the meet of the Vine hounds was so remote from 
 Stratfieldsaye, that the Duke found it necessary on 
 one occasion to send his horses forward overnight, 
 while he and his son joined next morning early, 
 in a carriage. The carriage was a phaeton with 
 German windows, through one of the panes in which 
 the reins were passed, and the Duke was the driver. 
 After a time he began to nod, and Lord Charles, 
 on looking out, saw that, pulling steadily on one 
 rein, his father was directing the horses towards 
 a wide wet ditch which skirted the road. Not 
 desiring to awake the sleeper, and anxious to avoid 
 a catastrophe, he seized the other rein, gave it a 
 jerk, and brought the horses back from the brink of 
 the ditch. But he did awake the sleeper, who 
 exclaimed in an angry voice, " What are you about, 
 Charles?" Lord Charles told him, and received 
 this reply : "I wish you would mind your own 
 business ! " 
 
 Being on the subject of his dealings with his 
 sons, truth compels me to acknowledge that the 
 eldest, his successor in the title, received but scant 
 justice at his hands. When estrangements occur 
 in families there are invariably faults on both sides.
 
 296 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 and Lord Douro, it must be admitted, was not in 
 all respects as attentive as he might have been to 
 meet his father's wishes. Possessing excellent 
 natural abilities, and a large share of acquired 
 information, he never took the place he ought to 
 have taken in public life, but wasted, rather than 
 cultivated, talents which, had he been obliged to 
 work his own way in the world, could not have 
 failed to secure to him both independence and 
 distinction. The Duke, absorbed in public affairs, 
 could not understand his son's indifference to them, 
 and much resented it. He was unable to see that 
 a young man of Lord Douro's temperament is just 
 as likely to be deterred by the contemplation of the 
 exceeding greatness of his father from following in 
 his footsteps as to be enticed into them. The con- 
 sequence was an alienation on the father's part 
 which did the son no good, but which the son paid 
 back by becoming, in after years, the devoted 
 guardian of his father's fame. I have got, how- 
 ever, upon very delicate ground, and must turn 
 from it. 
 
 No one less relished than the Duke, argument, 
 when it threatened to degenerate into disputation. 
 He seldom, therefore, contradicted in society per- 
 sons who spoke at random, and was rarely tempted 
 into abstract discussion. " Duke," said the late 
 Lord Stanhope to him one day when they stood 
 together over the hbrary fire, having just returned 
 from hunting, " what is your opinion respecting
 
 CHANCELLOR OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY 297 
 
 the influence of circumstances over Bonaparte ? 
 Did they make him what he became, or did he bend 
 them to his own purposes ? " " My dear Lord 
 Stanhope," replied the Duke, " it would take a 
 volume to answer your question. I must go and 
 take off* my muddy boots ! " The Duke and his 
 party encountered, on another occasion, Mr. Byng, 
 better known as Poodle Byng, in Dover. Byng 
 began immediately to criticise the strength of the 
 works, and to enlarge on the possible effect of the 
 castle falling into the hands of the enemy while a 
 British garrison held the heights. He had the talk 
 all to himself, for the Duke, though he appeared to 
 listen, never put in a remark. " How came you to 
 let Byng talk such rubbish ? " was the question 
 asked durinc]: the homeward drive. " Because I 
 never contradict anybody if I can help it, especially 
 when I see he knows nothing at all about the 
 matter in hand." 
 
 No event in his life ever surprised the Duke more 
 than his election to the Chancellorship of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford. His first impulse was to decline 
 the honour, but a private deputation from heads 
 of houses, and the entreaties of his political friends, 
 overcame his scruples. The Oxford Conservatives 
 reckoned perhaps too much upon both the power 
 and the will of their military Chancellor to protect 
 the University from changes. From the day when 
 the constitution of 1688 was broken in upon in 
 Parliament, change had become inevitable through-
 
 298 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 out all the institutions of the country, and the 
 most that the Duke, or any other Chancellor, could 
 effect for Oxford was to make the inevitable changes 
 come as gradually, and therefore as innocuously, as 
 possible. This the Duke accomplished, though he 
 fought the battle at the outset under great disad- 
 vantages, arising, in some measure at least, out of 
 his own ignorance of the subjects with which he 
 had to deal. A curious instance of this may be 
 given. 
 
 A debate came off in the House of Lords in 1836 
 or 1837 on some scheme for improving the general 
 course of studies in the Universities. References 
 were of course made to the probable costs of the 
 proposed measure, and to the resources whence 
 they could be met. But so awkwardly was the 
 subject handled that the distinction between the 
 property of the University and the property of the 
 several colleges got confounded together. One of 
 the Duke's friends — not a peer — happened to be 
 behind the throne at the time, and the Duke, 
 seeing him, made his way up to the bar and said : 
 " What do they mean by University property and 
 College property ? Are not the Colleges part and 
 parcel of the University ? " His friend explained 
 to him what everybody knows now, that our col- 
 leges in Oxford and Cambridge are only the enlarge- 
 ment of hostelries or lodging-houses provided by in- 
 dividuals for the accommodation of persons pursuing 
 their studies at the University ; that these assumed
 
 HIS ARISTOCRATIC VIEWS 299 
 
 their present proportions only by degrees, and 
 that the landed estates and Church livings with 
 which they are endowed came to them through the 
 bounty of private benefactors, and are no more con- 
 nected with the University than the estates of any 
 of the neighbouring landowners. The Duke took 
 in the information thus communicated to him with 
 marvellous rapidity, and made one of the best, 
 because one of the most lucid, speeches of the 
 evening. 
 
 The Duke was heart and soul an aristocrat, and 
 never pretended to be anything else. He earnestly 
 desired that the people should be well and wisely 
 governed, but he scouted the idea that wise and 
 just rulers were to be found among the uneducated 
 classes. According to his own view of the case — 
 and have not time and events confirmed it ? — the 
 lower you bring the franchise in a constitutional 
 monarchy the nearer you come to democracy — of 
 all the forms of government under which to live 
 the most detestable. It was to the influence of an 
 aristocracy, patriotic, moderate, and just, that 
 England owed her moral superiority over other 
 nations. Secrets were never betrayed in our 
 public offices or in our embassies. Why ? Be- 
 cause })ublic offices and embassies were officered by 
 gentlemen who, unlike the officials of other states, 
 were proof against bribes. The English army was 
 the best in the world, not because Englishmen are 
 braver or more enduring than other races, but
 
 300 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 because the officers of the EngHsh army are gentle- 
 men. No doubt he carried this sentiment at times 
 a little too far. If a man of noble birth and a 
 commoner ran a race, the former not being superior, 
 perhaps somewhat inferior in point of ability to the 
 latter, he would favour the noble. Lord Cardigan's 
 case is one to the point. 
 
 Perhaps no officer in the army ever gave the 
 Duke more trouble as Commander-in-Chief than 
 Lord Cardigan. He was continually doing harsh 
 and ungracious things, and at last got into a 
 difficulty which made it necessary to place him on 
 the half-pay list. A commoner so circumstanced 
 would have probably spent the remainder of his 
 days in retirement. It was not so with Lord 
 Cardigan. After a brief interval of seclusion he 
 was brought forward again, placed in command of 
 the 11th Hussars, and kept there in spite of fre- 
 quent complaints, and at least one duel, followed 
 by a trial, till he attained the rank of general 
 officer. For his employment on the staff of the 
 army in the Crimea the Duke was not responsible. 
 That blunder, for a blunder it proved to be when 
 taken in connection with Lord Lucan's position, 
 was the work of the Duke's successor at the Horse 
 Guards. 
 
 On the other hand the Duke would do nothing 
 out of the way for his own relatives. His sons 
 purchased all their commissions, and if they 
 attained field-rank somewhat early it was because
 
 RELATIONS WITH THE ARMY 301 
 
 of the facility of purchasing unattached commissions 
 which, being open to them as to all the world, was 
 embraced regardless of expense. So likewise his 
 nephew, afterwards Dean of Windsor, owed nothing 
 more to the Duke than the Rectory of Stratfield- 
 saye, a natural appointment, inasmuch as the 
 church and the rectory stand both within the park. 
 It is understood, indeed, that he did make an effort 
 to get his brother, the Canon of Durham, raised to 
 the episcopal bench, but the effort seems not to 
 have been a very strenuous one, and it failed, as 
 perhaps the Duke himself, looking to all the cir- 
 cumstances, might have wished it to do. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the feeling of the 
 army towards the Duke, as well in the Peninsula 
 as at home, was one rather of respect and con- 
 fidence than of personal devotion. This is not to 
 be wondered at. Strictly just, according to his 
 own views of justice, the Duke took no pains 
 whatever to conciliate the love or stir the en- 
 thusiasm of his followers. In the hour of danger 
 his presence was worth the arrival of a strong rein- 
 forcement, and his cheery word and lively manners 
 acted like a charm on the men however hardly 
 pressed. His little speech to the 85th regiment, on 
 the 12th December 1813, made them a match for 
 twice their numbers of the enemy ; and to every- 
 thing which bore upon the substantial well-being of 
 the troops — their clothing, provisions, supplies of 
 blankets, and the care of the sick and wounded —
 
 302 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 he paid unremitting attention. Yet he never, as 
 far as I know, visited the hospitals in person, and 
 his general orders were almost always the reverse 
 of complimentary. Even his published dispatches 
 after a battle went little further than to describe 
 in as few words as possible how it had been fought 
 and won, and to express in general terms his satis- 
 faction with the conduct of officers commanding 
 divisions, brigades, and regiments. Now it is a 
 mistake to suppose that the British soldier puts no 
 store on words which appeal to his chivalry and 
 recognise the many good qualities which belong to 
 him. Such rhapsodies as Napoleon was in the habit 
 of addressing to his army would excite only ridicule 
 in the ranks of a British regiment. But British 
 regiments love to be told that on their valour and 
 endurance the country can safely rely, and the 
 leader who omits to season his habitual rebukes 
 with well-timed compliments to this effect commits 
 a sfrave mistake. This was the mistake which the 
 Duke committed ; and though no evil effects came 
 out of it so far as the conduct of the men was 
 concerned, it left upon the minds of the general 
 bulk of the army an impression perhaps unfavour- 
 able, and in a degree unjust towards its illustrious 
 commander. Talk to a veteran of the old war 
 about Lord Hill or General Craufurd, and you 
 heard as much of his kindness as of his gallantry. 
 Speak to him of Wellington and he readily ex- 
 pressed his confidence in the man as a leader, but
 
 HIS TEMPER 303 
 
 of personal love towards him not a word would 
 be said. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for this circumstance. 
 The Duke himself had little enthusiasm in his com- 
 position. He had the strongest possible sense of 
 duty, and would do or suffer all that human nature 
 can suffer or do at the call of duty ; but not a par- 
 ticle of romance was mixed up with this principle, 
 and it never therefore entered into his imaPfination 
 to conceive that anything beyond the coldest direc- 
 tions how certain duties were to be performed could 
 be necessary for others. Another peculiarity of his 
 character deserves notice in connection with this 
 subject. A temper naturally hasty became, through 
 long exercise of absolute power, intolerant of the 
 slightest provocation, and every breach of discipline, 
 no matter how limited its range, made him furious 
 with the whole army. Hence frequent general 
 orders, as violent as they were essentially unjust, 
 wherein, because of the misdeeds of a few, all who 
 served under him were denounced — the officers as 
 ignorant of their duty, the men as little better 
 than a rabble. And yet the same man, who thus 
 addressed his army while leading it from one 
 victory to another, stated in his evidence before 
 a parliamentary committee, that it was the most 
 perfect machine ever put together, and that with 
 it he could go anywhere and do anything. 
 
 This temper, which grew upon him in the held, 
 he carried into private life. Frank and even genial
 
 304 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 in general society as he appeared to be, he had few 
 intimacies, and in order to retain your place in his 
 confidence, it was necessary not on any occasion to 
 contradict or oppose him too openly ; and, likewise, 
 if you asked his advice on any matter (and in reality 
 he liked to be consulted, though often complaining 
 of the extent to which the practice was carried) he 
 expected you to follow it implicitly. If you did 
 not, you were soon made to feel that you had fallen 
 in his estimation. This I know from personal ex- 
 perience, and the experience was long a source 
 of intense grief to me. The Duke, when Prime 
 Minister, abolished the office of Chaplain- General. 
 He and Sir H. Hardinge between them allowed the 
 chaplain department to die out of the army, and in 
 placing me where Dr. Dakins had been, neither of 
 them calculated on my making any effort to undo 
 their work. Both, but especially the Duke, resented 
 the course which I felt it my duty to take in this 
 direction, and when I proceeded to suggest a 
 reform of the Duke of York's school and the estab- 
 lishment of a system of education in the army 
 itself, I lost his favoiu- altogether. Sir George 
 Brown, my old brother-officer and friend, who was 
 as much opposed to change as the Duke himself, 
 took care that I should know this more distinctly 
 than the Duke himself. After telling me how 
 angry the Duke was, he quoted the Commander- 
 in-Chief as saying : " By Jove ! if ever there is a 
 mutiny in the army — and in all probability we
 
 AS ARMY REFORMER 305 
 
 shall have one — you '11 see that these new-fangled 
 schoolmasters will be at the bottom of it." 
 
 It would be a great oversight were I, while on 
 this subject, to pass by unnoticed the charge 
 which has been brought against the Duke of 
 neglecting, during his long continuance in office, 
 the best interests of the army. As Prime Minister 
 he reduced the artillery to a state of inefficiency. 
 He allowed the wagon-train to die out, and virtu- 
 ally extinguished the commissariat. His distribu- 
 tion of each battalion of infantry into six companies 
 for foreign service, and four to act as a depot at 
 home, was in itself excellent. But like every other 
 institution in this country it lay open to abuse, and 
 for lack of close and persistent watching, it was 
 abused. Officers, well connected and otherwise, 
 commanding what was called interest, generally 
 managed, if their regiments were sent to unhealthy 
 or disagreeable stations, to spend most of their 
 time at the depot. With the members of a regi- 
 ment serving in India this indeed was impossible, 
 because Indian regiments left but single companies 
 at home to recruit for them. But in his day, we 
 must bear in mind, British regiments garrisoned all 
 the Colonies, of which some, and notably the West 
 Indies, Mauritius, and Ceylon, were very unpopular. 
 Neither did this system, good as in many respects 
 it was, provide for returning battalions at moderate 
 intervals in foreign stations. Once landed in India, 
 the chances were that the bulk of the men com- 
 
 u
 
 306 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 posing a battalion would never see England again, 
 and even the transfer from the Mediterranean to 
 the West Indies, and from the West Indies to 
 North America, suffered constant interruptions. 
 The truth is, that the Duke attempted, with 
 a numerically weak army, to do what could not be 
 done effectually except by a very numerous army, 
 and the consequence was that our dependencies 
 were taught to rely for their defence on feeble 
 garrisons, and we were to all intents and purposes 
 helpless at home. It may be said, that not till 
 long after the Duke's death was there any call 
 upon England to assume more of the character of a 
 military nation than she had done from time im- 
 memorial. Except in Russia, foreign powers re- 
 cruited their armies as they had done in years past, 
 and dismissed their conscripts, after they had served 
 their appointed time, into private life. And Prussia 
 was not fifty years ago what she is now, the ob- 
 served of all observers. The desirability of having 
 available a trained reserve on which to draw at the 
 outbreak of hostilities never therefore occurred to 
 the Duke, much less the wisdom of passing through 
 the ranks as many men as possible within the com- 
 pass of a limited number of years. On the contrary, 
 he remained till the day of his death an admirer of 
 service for life, and was with difficulty prevailed 
 upon to yield when the proposition of enlisting for 
 twelve years only was brought forward. So like- 
 wise his views as to the^ proper mode of treating
 
 OPPOSED TO SHORT SERVICE 307 
 
 the soldier were, in 1850, just what they had been 
 in 1796. He could not divest himself of the idea 
 that only the scum of the earth would ever think of 
 enlisting, and hence that to keep an army composed 
 of such materials in order, a stern discipline was 
 necessary. The truth is that the Duke, rigidly 
 conservative on all other points, was specially so in 
 regard to the army, and "he is the best friend of 
 the army," he used to say, " who most religiously 
 keeps it out of sight. It is a necessary evil, as most 
 expensive institutions are, and we should be mad 
 were we to make a pet of it, thus promoting one or 
 other of two ends. For either the country will 
 take it into its head that it is a fine thing to have an 
 enormous armed force, in which case taxation will 
 be largely increased and property crippled, or else 
 an outcry will be raised, and some fine morning we 
 may find ourselves without an army at all." It was 
 in this spirit that when the scare came, incident on 
 the Spanish marriages and the coldness between 
 France and England, the Duke asked for no more 
 than the addition of 20,000 men to the regular army 
 and the calling out of 50,000 militia. Alive to the 
 critical nature of the position, he undertook to 
 guard against it with the smallest possible increase 
 to the regular army, supported by a force, which, 
 if somewhat less efficient than troops of the line, 
 would return at once to their ordinary occupations 
 when the threatened danger should pass away. 
 It was no easy matter to persuade the Duke that
 
 308 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the "Brown Bess" of his own day was not the 
 queen of weapons. He long resisted the substitu- 
 tion of the copper cap for the flint and steel, on the 
 ground that the cap might be forgotten to be given 
 either in bulk or to individuals, and thus, when in 
 the presence of the enemy, the army would be 
 helpless. His objection to the Minie rifle was 
 not less strong, yet in both cases he yielded to 
 conviction, though it was one of his peculiarities 
 that on practical points he never gave up an old 
 belief to mere argument. Make him see the 
 machine at work, and if it worked well, there was 
 an end to his conservatism. Sir George Brown 
 carried him to the marshes below Woohvich, showed 
 him with what accuracy the " Minie " threw its 
 bolt, and he sanctioned the change of weapon, not, 
 however, without a pang of regret. 
 
 I have referred elsewhere to the Duke's impatience 
 of contradiction and his impatience under so much as 
 the appearance of making light of such advice as he 
 might give. The temper which on small occasions, 
 and with small people, broke out in hard words, 
 and then died down, stiftened into permanent 
 alienation when called forth by the conduct of 
 higher dignitaries. 
 
 The Duke when Ambassador in Paris, and sub- 
 sequently commanding the army of occupation, 
 never forgave the French Court certain slights 
 which were put upon him. He has been charged 
 by Monsieur Thiers and others with declining
 
 AMBASSADOR IN PARIS 309 
 
 to petition for the life of Ney, which it is alleged 
 would have been spared had he asked it as a 
 personal favour to himself The fact is that Louis 
 XVIII., apprehensive lest the Duke should make 
 such a request, more than once on pretexts 
 obviously frivolous declined to grant him an 
 audience. 
 
 The Duke, a proud man, deeply resented the 
 slight, so much so, indeed, that when an intimation 
 was given that the King would see him — Ney 
 having been shot — he took no notice of the message. 
 One courtier after another intimated to him that 
 the King was hurt by his persistent absence from 
 Court, and at last a special ambassador called upon 
 him, and entreated that he would forgive and fororet 
 what was never meant to wound his feelings either 
 as a man or the representative of the honour of 
 England. The Duke's answer was characteristic : 
 "As commanding my Sovereign's troops, I must 
 remain here, and whatever is officially required of 
 me I will do ; but I am likewise an English gentle- 
 man. The King has insulted me, and unless the 
 insult be atoned for, I will never go near him 
 except on public business." The King's messenger 
 upon this burst into tears, and the Duke did so far 
 relax as to accept a Royal invitation, but he never 
 again affected to be on intimate terms Avith the Court. 
 
 One of the Duke's characteristic peculiarities was 
 a habit of making elaborate memoranda on all the 
 subjects which engrossed his attention.
 
 310 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 There will be found in his pubHshed dispatches 
 from the seat of war a carefully arranged summary 
 at the close of each campaign of the principal events 
 which marked its progress, and of the objects which 
 had, on both sides, been aimed at, attained, and 
 defeated. It was the same with such historical 
 works as interested him, especially if they were on 
 recent operations, whether of war or politics. The 
 character of Napoleon he has analysed in many of 
 his letters, but the estimate which he took of that 
 extraordinary man as a general will best be under- 
 stood by those who read his papers, which he com- 
 piled after a careful study of two of the most 
 important campaigns arising out of the invasion 
 of E-ussia in 1812, and that which ended in the 
 crowning battle of Waterloo. The latter is, I 
 presume, familiar to every student of the art of 
 war, and may be regarded as a criticism on the 
 Prussian version of the campaign. The former 
 will be found in Appendix to this volume. It was 
 written after he had read Count Segur's and all the 
 other accounts of the operations which he was study- 
 ing. A more masterly review of great military 
 enterprise never was penned. It proves to demon- 
 stration that the true cause of Napoleon's failure 
 was not the premature coming on of winter, but 
 the false principle on which he carried on war — 
 overtaxinof men and animals with forced marches, 
 taking no proper care to establish either magazines 
 or hospitals, and by long halts throwing away the
 
 HIS VIEW OF NAPOLEON 311 
 
 advantages which these rapid marches were in- 
 tended to secure. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the great man was that, 
 though he spoke out freely, and even constantly, 
 while discussing points that might be raised in 
 conversation, he was very jealous of such records 
 as might be made of his sayings, and embraced 
 the first opportunity that presented itself of set- 
 ting his real meaning in a just light. Among his 
 friends, none more delighted to get him into 
 discussions of this sort than the late Lord Stan- 
 hope. In particular, he often questioned him as 
 to the estimation in which he held Napoleon and 
 the Duke of Marlborough as generals, and, as it 
 appears, tried to get his views enumerated in con- 
 versation reduced to writing. The Duke seems to 
 have said that he regarded Napoleon's presence in 
 the field to be worth 40,000 men, a loose expression, 
 manifestly, yet scarcely so regarded by his inter- 
 locutor. The following, which I extract from a 
 little volume published in 1863 by the late Lord 
 Stanhope, may be taken as a sample of the Duke's 
 mode of softening down energetic expressions. It 
 draws likewise a very fair comparison between the 
 Duke of Marlborough and himself as leaders of 
 armies : — 
 
 "It is true that I have often said that I con- 
 sidered Napoleon's presence in the field to be equal 
 to 40,000 men in the balance. This is a very loose 
 way of talking, but the idea is a very different one
 
 312 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 from that of his presence in a battle being equal to 
 a reinforcement of 40,000 men. I will explain my 
 meaning. 
 
 " First, Napoleon was a grand homme de guerre — 
 possibly the greatest that ever appeared at the 
 head of a French army. 
 
 ^^ Second, He was the Sovereign of the country, 
 as well as the military chief of the army. That 
 country was constituted upon a military basis. All 
 its institutions were framed for a purpose of forming 
 and maintaining armies with a view to conquest. 
 All the offices and rewards of the State were re- 
 served in the first instance exclusively for the 
 army. An officer — even a private soldier of the 
 army — might look to the sovereignty of a kingdom 
 as the reward of his services. It is obvious that 
 the presence of the Sovereign with an army so 
 constituted must greatly excite their exertions. 
 
 " Third, It was quite certain that all the resources 
 of the French State — civil, political, financial, as well 
 as military — were turned towards the seat of the 
 operations, which Napoleon himself should direct. 
 
 " Fourth, Every Sovereign in command of an army 
 enjoys advantages against him who exercises only 
 a delegated power, and who acts under orders and 
 responsibilities. But Napoleon enjoyed more ad- 
 vantages than any other Sovereign that ever 
 appeared. His presence, as stated by me more 
 than once, was likely not only to give to the 
 French army, as above detailed, but to put an end
 
 DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH 313 
 
 to all the jealousies of the French marshals and 
 their counteractions of each other, whether founded 
 upon bad principles and passions or their fierce 
 differences of opinion. The French army thus had 
 a unity of action. These four considerations in- 
 duced me to say that his presence ought to be con- 
 sidered as 40,000 men in the scale ; but the idea is 
 obviously very loose, as must be seen by a moment's 
 reflection. 
 
 " If the two armies opposed to each other were 
 40,000 men on each side, his presence could not be 
 equal to a reinforcement of 40,000 men to the 
 French army, or even if there were 60,000 men on 
 each side, or possibly 80,000 men on each side. It 
 is clear, however, that wherever he went he carried 
 with him an obvious advantage. I don't think I 
 ought to be quoted as calling that advantage as 
 equal to a reinforcement of 40,000 men under all 
 possible circumstances. 
 
 " I quite agree that the Duke of Marlborough is 
 the greatest man that ever appeared at the head of 
 a British army. He had greater difliculties to con- 
 tend with in respect of his operations, and the 
 command of his troops in the field, than I had. I 
 had no Dutch deputies to control my movements or 
 intentions, whether to fight or otherwise. But, on 
 the other hand, I had armies to co-operate with me, 
 upon whose operations I could not reckon owing to 
 the defective state of their discipline and their 
 equipments, and their deficiencies of all kinds. I
 
 314 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 could not rely on 10,000 of them doing what 500 
 ought to do. The Duke of Marlborough did not 
 labour under these disadvantages. Then again the 
 Duke of Marlborough carried on his operations in 
 countries fully peopled, according to their extent. 
 He never experienced any inconvenience from the 
 warnt of supplies of provisions. It was impossible 
 to move at all in the Peninsula without previously 
 concerted arrangements for the supply of the troops 
 with provisions, means of transport, etc. The Duke 
 of Marlborough's difficulties were greater than mine 
 in relation to his own operations — mine were greater 
 than his in every other respect. 
 
 " But this is not all. The Duke of Marlborough 
 generally, if not always, commanded an army 
 superior to his enemy in the field. The army 
 commanded by me was always inferior, not only in 
 reference to the description of troops, but even in 
 numbers." 
 
 Lord Stanhope, it would appear, in writing to the 
 Duke, had censured the King's Government for 
 failing to support the commander in the field as 
 they ought to have done. The Duke thus deals 
 with the allegation : — 
 
 "But that which I particularly object to is the 
 last paragraph. I have always in j)ublic, as well 
 as in private, declared my obligation to the Govern- 
 ment for the encouragement and support which 
 they gave me, and the confidence with which they 
 treated me.
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REGENCY 315 
 
 " I was not the Government as the Duke of 
 Marlborough was, nor were all the resources of 
 the nation at my command to carry on the war 
 which I was conducting as the resources of Great 
 Britain in the reign of Queen Anne, military, naval, 
 political, and financial, were at the command of the 
 Duke of Marlborough. The nation at that time 
 were heart and hand bent upon carrying on that 
 war. France was not then so powerful as she was 
 from 1808 to 1814. England was not threatened 
 with invasion. It was not necessary to protect 
 society with an army of 20,000 men of the best 
 troops. The United States had not been formed, 
 and it was not necessary to defend our vital interests 
 on the continent of America against their attacks. 
 
 " The resources of the country then, instead of 
 being exclusively devoted to carrying on the war 
 which I conducted, were invariably devoted to 
 other objects. 
 
 "Besides all this, there was a formidable opposi- 
 tion to the Government in Parliament which 
 opposed itself particularly to the operations of the 
 war in the Peninsula. It would not be fair to 
 compare the conduct of the Government of the 
 Begency in relation to the war which I conducted 
 with the conduct of the Government in the reign 
 of Queen Anne. I cannot, and never have com- 
 plained of them ; and I should not like to say that 
 I supported the Government more than they, 
 supported me.
 
 316 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 " It is quite certain that my opinion alone was 
 the cause of the continuance of the war in the 
 Peninsula. My letters show that I encouraged, 
 nay, forced the Government to persevere in it. 
 The successes of the operations of the army sup- 
 ported them in power. But it is not true that 
 they did not in every way in their power, as 
 members and as a Government, support me." 
 
 Nothing can be more characteristic of the Duke 
 than both this chivalrous attempt to cover the 
 shortcomings of the Government which he served 
 and the modest preference which as a military 
 commander he gives to Marlborough over himself. 
 I do not however believe that history approves 
 his decision. The Government which he served 
 was the feeblest that had guided the destinies of 
 England since England became a first-rate power. 
 And the difiiculties which beset Marlborough, 
 though grave, were far less serious than those 
 which Wellington encountered and overcame. 
 Both were brave men ; it would be hard to say 
 which was the bravest. 
 
 The discussion of questions such as these calls to 
 mind the Duke's steady refusal to hand over his 
 papers, either to Southey, when engaged on the 
 history of the war in Spain and Portugal, or to 
 W. Mudford, who desired to become the historian 
 of the Waterloo campaign. Napier likewise applied 
 to him, and was, like the others, refused. But while 
 declining to permit information in this way, the
 
 HIS AID TO NAPIER 317 
 
 Duke caused Napier to be informed that any 
 question he might wish to put viva voce would viva 
 voce be answered. The consequence was that 
 Napier hired apartments in the Wellington Arms, 
 a neat little inn which abuts upon one of the 
 entrances to Stratfieldsaye Park, and being in- 
 vited to dine with the Duke every day so long 
 as the Duke remained in Hampshire, he learnt 
 more in conversations with the great man than he 
 would probably have been able to condense from 
 the most careful study of many boxfuls of papers. 
 Napier attacked me furiously for having stated in 
 The Hussar that intelligence of the approach of 
 Junot's army was carried to Sir Arthur Wellesley 
 by Sergeant Landshit of the 23rd Dragoons. Lands- 
 hit was a German, and the Duke, it would appear, 
 had told Napier that a German officer of dragoons 
 was the bearer of the tidings. One would have 
 thought that the point was scarcely worth disput- 
 ing about, especially as I wrote down what is stated 
 in The Hussar from Landshit's lips. But Napier 
 was intolerant of contradiction, and though shown 
 that the official state of the army at Vienna did 
 not contain the name of a sino;le commissioned 
 German officer, he persisted in his charge, very 
 unbecomingly worded, of false statements on my 
 part. This, however, is a matter of no moment. 
 Napier's great work has taken its place among 
 our great English classics, and though we are 
 bound to believe the Duke when he savs he never
 
 318 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 read the book, we are at the same time left with- 
 out ground to question the general accuracy of the 
 historian's narrative. 
 
 Reference has been made to the Duke's im- 
 patience of interruption when occupied with 
 important business. Get him to make an 
 appointment with you, and whatever might be 
 the inconvenience to which the arrangement 
 put him, he saw you at the time fixed, and 
 discussed patiently whatever questions might arise. 
 But break in upon him without any previous 
 warning, and the chances were ten to one that you 
 found reason to repent it. Once, and only once, 
 this happened to myself. The master of a 
 trading vessel, a native of Deal, was desirous of 
 becoming a Cinque Ports pilot. I made the 
 closest inquiries about him, and found that in 
 every respect he w^as a deserving object. I do 
 not now recollect whether these inquiries were 
 made by the Duke's desire. My impression is that 
 such was the case. But be this as it may, the 
 Duke accepted him as a candidate, and after pass- 
 ing through the customary examination before the 
 Court of Load Manage he was pronounced qualified 
 and virtually appointed. Some delay occurred, 
 however, in making out his warrant, and the ship 
 of which he still retained the command was getting 
 ready for sea. The poor fellow was naturally dis- 
 inclined to throw up one situation before being sure 
 of another, and so pressed me to speak to the Duke
 
 A CHARACTERISTIC TRAIT 319 
 
 upon the subject that I could not well refuse. I 
 knocked at the great man's door, and entered his 
 room as I had often done before. He was writinor, 
 and looked up, expecting, no doubt, that I had 
 something of importance to communicate. But 
 when I mentioned the ship captain and his case, 
 the Duke sat bolt upright, looked me full in the 
 face, and said in an angry tone : " Tell him I shall 
 do my own business in my own way." That was 
 all. I withdrew at once, vexed with myself, and, 
 in a less degree perhaps, w4th the Duke, and the 
 pilot also. It happened that I was at that time 
 the sole guest at Walmer Castle, and when we met 
 at luncheon the Duke's manner appeared to me 
 more than usually kind. " I am going to drive to 
 Kamsgate this afternoon," he said; "wall you go 
 with me ? " And then followed the conversation 
 which stands recorded elsewhere. I refer to the 
 incident here because it illustrates that trait in the 
 Duke's character which I never saw so strongly 
 marked in any other man. It seemed to be a 
 settled principle with him never to acknowledge 
 that he had done wrong. But sooner or later he 
 made amends for whatever wrong was done by a 
 process which, though indirect, was infinitely more 
 agreeable to the sufferer than any apology could 
 have been. He sent poor Hamsay home from Spain 
 for disobeying orders under circumstances which, 
 with any other general, would have been accepted 
 as excusing the act. He took care, however, to
 
 320 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 get Bamsay attached to the army that fought at 
 Waterloo, where he was killed. If a name were 
 omitted from a dispatch which ought to have 
 figured there, neither entreaty nor argument could 
 prevail upon him to write a supplement. But he 
 never failed on some subsequent occasion to do 
 justice, perhaps more than justice, to the merits of 
 the slighted individual. So it was on the present 
 occasion. He expressed no regret whatever for 
 having wounded my feelings, but made amends for 
 the pain I had suffered by the marked kindness of 
 his manner throughout the drive. 
 
 The Duke was a very considerate landowner. 
 He put every farm situated on his estate in good 
 order, and in all cases advised and encouraged 
 his tenants to farm highly, and for the exten- 
 sive outlay necessary to promote these ends he 
 used to account by saying, " I have resources which 
 will die with me ; and I must therefore do what I 
 can to improve the property for those who come 
 after me." On the other hand, he had the greatest 
 disinclination to fell timber, even where the growth 
 had become rank and the oaks were deteriorating. 
 This, however, was not the result of pure prejudice. 
 The Act of Parliament, which settles on the Dukes 
 of Wellington for ever the lands which were pur- 
 chased by public grant, requires that a portion of 
 whatever money may accrue from the felling of 
 timber shall be set aside to provide for the younger 
 branches of the ducal family. The Duke had more
 
 HIS SECRETIVENESS 321 
 
 than he considered to be sufficient for his younger 
 son. He therefore left the oaks and elms standing 
 for the benefit of the junior members, should either 
 of his sons have a family. 
 
 There was united in the Duke to great frankness 
 of manner, which prompted him to speak out on 
 many occasions when most men of his position 
 would have been cautious, if not reserved, an 
 amount of secretiveness quite peculiar to himself. 
 State secrets he of course knew well how to keep, 
 and confidences reposed in him by others he never 
 betrayed. But the commonest transactions of daily 
 life he often invested with an air of mystery which 
 it was hard to account for. To such an extent was 
 this feeling on more than one occasion indulged 
 that I shall not be angry with my readers if they 
 hesitate to believe what I am going to write. He 
 entertained great respect for land as an investment. 
 He believed that it would rise higher and higher in 
 price, and fancying that much more would be de- 
 manded of the Duke of Wellincrton than from a 
 private person, he instructed his solicitor to pur- 
 chase an estate in Norfolk in his own name. This 
 was done ; and it was only after the great Duke's 
 death that his son, being in the hands of an honour- 
 able man, found himself lord of v^aluable property 
 which, had the solicitor chosen to play the rogue, 
 might have been held by himself and his heirs 
 during pleasure. 
 
 The Duke, as I have elsewhere stated, went very
 
 322 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 much, during the London season, into society. No 
 ball or rout was considered perfect unless he was 
 present at it, and to balls and routs he went because 
 — as I have often heard him say — he felt himself 
 bound in this, as in all other of his proceedings, to 
 gratify, as far as he could, the British public. He 
 himself had little taste for them, yet he made him- 
 self agreeable to all who approached him, and was 
 not unfrequently crowded upon, especially by ladies. 
 He had his favourite resorts, too, one of which was 
 the house in Stratton Street, whenever Lady, then 
 Miss, Burdett-Coutts, dispensed her generous hospi- 
 talities. For among his many admirers none more 
 truly admired him than she, nor had she, in all her 
 extensive acquaintance, one who held her in higher 
 esteem than he. 
 
 What follows, in smaller type, is taken from my 
 Life of Wellington, changed slightly only. 
 
 Of the Duke's habits of patient industry it may well 
 appear supertiuous to speak. We have seen how in India, 
 in the Spanish peninsula, and in France, hours which 
 others would have devoted to necessary repose were spent 
 by him in toil. And as if all this had not been sufficient 
 to tax his energies fully, he seems to have made copies of 
 many of his own letters, and to have arranged and 
 docketed them all. This, indeed, was a practice which 
 he appears very early to have begun, as if there had been 
 present with him from the outset a conviction that his 
 name would sooner or later become historical, and that 
 means ought to be at hand of connecting it only with the 
 truths of history. And he never abandoned the habit to 
 the end. Boxes of his papers, chronologically arranged,
 
 HIS SELF-POSSESSION 323 
 
 Stood in their proper order at Apsley House when he 
 died, and stand there still. When re-examined and re- 
 sorted, a process to which the filial piety of his son is now 
 subjecting them, they will account, in a great degree, for 
 the manner in which every day of the Duke's long life 
 was spent. 
 
 A volume might be filled with anecdotes illustrative of 
 various traits in the Duke's character; his perfect self- 
 possession in moments of difficulty and danger, his kindly 
 disposition, his wit, and severe wisdom. 
 
 Of his self-possession on the field of battle I have given 
 in the course of this narrative several examples. Many 
 more might be added did the occasion require; for no 
 event in war appeared to take him by surprise, no blunder 
 on the part of his subordinates discomposed him. He 
 was equally calm and collected on other occasions less 
 in unison, as might be assumed, with his professional 
 habits. He never went to sea Avithout encountering a 
 storm ; he never in the wildest hurricane exhibited the 
 smallest token of alarm. At the opening of the Liverpool 
 and Manchester Railway — an experiment, as was believed, 
 full of peril — he put himself with child-like docility into 
 the hands of the engineers, and kept his seat, as they 
 requested him to do, till the accident to Mr. Huskisson 
 stopped the train. He was the first to reach the wounded 
 man, and to speak words of comfort to him. Indeed he 
 would have put a stop to the pageant, had it not been 
 explained to him that great public inconvenience would 
 have been the consequence. We have seen how he bore 
 himself when threatened with assassination on the King's 
 highway, and mobbed and assaulted in the streets of 
 London ; and as he was then, so he invariably appeared 
 amid the bitterest struggles and perplexities of political 
 life. 
 
 The Duke's wit was sometimes caustic enough, but
 
 324 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 never ill - natured. A gentleman, not remarkable for 
 always saying the right thing at the right moment, 
 happened to dine in his company one day, and during 
 a pause in the conversation, asked abruptly: "Duke, 
 weren't you surprised at Waterloo ? " " No," was the 
 answer, delivered with a smile, " but I am now." When 
 Sir De Lacy Evans' operations were going on near St. 
 Sebastian, the question was put, " What will all this 
 produce ? " " Probably," replied the Duke, " two volumes 
 in octavo." In 1815 the Commissioners for the pro- 
 visional government in France announced to him gravely 
 that the empire was at an end. " I knew that a year 
 ago." A Colonial bishop having remonstrated with the 
 Secretary of State because military guards were not 
 turned out and instructed to salute him, the minister 
 sent the letter to the Duke, who returned it with this 
 remark upon the margin : " The only attention which 
 soldiers are to pay to the bishop must be to his sermons." 
 Sometimes the Duke's mots hit harder than he intended 
 them to do. The late Sir William Allan used to tell 
 with great glee, that being sent for to receive the price 
 of his picture of the Battle of Waterloo, he found the 
 Duke counting over whole piles of bank notes. Sir 
 William, anxious to save the Duke's time, ventured to 
 observe that a cheque upon his Grace's banker would 
 serve the purpose quite as well as notes. Whereupon 
 the Duke, not over and above delighted with the inter- 
 ruption, looked up and said, " Do you think I am going 
 to let Coutts' people know what a d — d fool I 've been ? " 
 A cavalry regiment being suddenly ordered to the Cape, 
 one of the officers, not remarkable for zeal in the per- 
 formance of his duties, applied for leave to exchange. 
 The memorandum was this : " He must sail or sell." 
 
 Of his kindly disposition, the following are manifesta- 
 tions. An old gentleman of the name of Robertson 
 desired one day particularly to see him. He was ad-
 
 HIS GENTLENESS 325 
 
 mitted to an audience, and stated that he did not expect 
 to live long, but could not die in peace without seeing the 
 Duke, and that he had travelled from Scotland for that 
 single purpose. Touched with the old man's manner, the 
 Duke not only expressed his own gratification, but begged 
 Mr. Robertson to stay and dine with him. " Many 
 thanks," replied the old Scot, " I can't do that. I have 
 seen your Grace, and have now nothing more in this 
 world to wish for," and so withdrew. 
 
 He was walking one day in the streets of a manufac- 
 turing town, when an operative accosted, and desired 
 permission to shake hands with him. " Certainly," 
 replied the Duke, " I am always happy to shake hands 
 with an honest man." 
 
 He never met, in his rides and walks among the lanes 
 near Walmer or Stratstieldsaye, any poor man who claimed 
 to have served under him without giving him a sovereign. 
 He used to laugh at himself for doing so, and acknow- 
 ledged that it was ten to one against the object of his 
 bounty deserving it ; but nothing would induce him to 
 omit the practice. 
 
 But perhaps the most touching testimony to his gentle- 
 ness is that which Mr. Richard Oastler, the great and 
 honest mob orator, has placed on record. Describing an 
 interview to which the Duke admitted him, and his own 
 embarrassment when he found himself closeted with the 
 hero of the age, Mr. Oastler continues : " On that space " 
 (a space free from papers on the sofa), '" at the bidding 
 of the Duke, I sat. His Grace standing before me, said : 
 ' Well, Mr. Oastler, what is it you wish to say to me ? ' 
 I observed, ' It is very strange that I should sit while the 
 Duke of Wellington stands, and in Apsley House too.' 
 ' Oh,' said his Grace, ' if you think so, and if it will please 
 you better, I '11 sit.' So saying, he took a seat on an easy- 
 chair, between the sofa and the fireplace. I was then 
 desired to proceed. Being strangely affected with a
 
 326 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 reception so very different from that anticipated, I ex- 
 pressed my surprise, and craved the Duke's indulgence. 
 Placing his right hand on my right shoulder, his Grace 
 said : ' We shall never get on if you are embarrassed. 
 Forget that you are here; fancy yourself talking with 
 one of your neighbours at Fixby, and proceed.' " 
 
 It is not worth while to transcribe more of what passed 
 between them ; but the result must be given in Mr. 
 Oastler's words. " In a short time I returned to Hudders- 
 field, met thousands of people at an out-door assembly, 
 and told them all that the Duke of Wellington had told 
 me. Oh, how they cheered 1 " 
 
 The Duke's wisdom, like that of other wise men, was 
 shown more in his life than in his conversation; yet 
 certain sayings of his have passed into aphorisms, and 
 will never be forgotten while the English language exists. 
 Here are a few of them : — 
 
 " A great country ought never to make little wars." 
 
 " Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary 
 to be mysterious about any." 
 
 " The history of a battle is just like the history of 
 a ball." 
 
 "Animosity among nations ought to cease when hos- 
 tilities come to an end." 
 
 " He is most to blame who breaks the law, no 
 matter what the provocation may be under which he 
 acts." 
 
 " One country has no right to interfere in the internal 
 affairs of another. Non-intervention is the law, inter- 
 vention is only the exception." 
 
 The Duke dined one day in Paris with M. Cambaceres, 
 one of the most renowned gourmets of France. The host 
 having pressed a recherche dish upon the Duke, asked 
 eagerly, when the plate was cleared, how he had liked it. 
 " It was excellent," replied the Duke ; " but to tell you the 
 truth, I don't care much what I eat." "Good heavens!"
 
 HIS GOOD FORTUNE IN BATTLE 327 
 
 exclaimed Cambaceres, ' don't care what you eat ! Why 
 then did you come here ? " 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in this great man's history, that 
 though always ready, often too ready, to expose himself in 
 action, he never received a wound which left u scar behind. 
 At Seringapatam, as his Indian correspondence shows, a 
 bullet tore the cloth of his over-alls and grazed his knee. 
 Again at Orthes, a spent ball struck him so sharply as to 
 unhorse him. On this latter occasion he was watching 
 the progress of the battle — General Alava sitting on horse- 
 back near him — when a musket-ball struck the Spaniard 
 severely on that part of the person, any injury done to 
 which is the occasion more frequently of mirth than of 
 commiseration. The Duke, as was to be expected, laughed 
 at Alava, but had not long enjoyed his joke, when another 
 ball, after hitting the guard of his own sword, glanced oii, 
 and gave him such a blow as caused him to spring from 
 his saddle and fall to the ground. He got up, rubbed the 
 part, laughed again, but rather more faintly, remounted, 
 and went through the action ; but for several days after- 
 wards he was unable to ride, and suftered great pain. 
 
 It is almost more singular that he who carried on war 
 in so many parts of the world should never have lost 
 a gun to the enemy. " Returning with him one day 
 from the hunting-tield," says Lord EUesmere, " I asked 
 him whether he could form any calculation of the number 
 of guns he had taken in the course of his career." " No," 
 he replied, " not with any accuracy ; somewhere about 
 three thousand, I should guess. At Oporto, after the 
 passage of the Douro, I took the entire siege-train of the 
 enemy ; at Vittoria and Waterloo I took every gun they 
 had in the field. What, however, is more extraordinary 
 is, I don't think I ever lost a gun in my life. After the 
 battle of Salamanca," he went on to explain, " three of my 
 guns attached to some Portuguese cavalry were captured 
 in a trifling afi'air near Madrid, but they were recovered
 
 328 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the next day. In the Pyrenees, Lord Hill found himself 
 obliged to throw eight or nine guns over a precipice ; but 
 those also were recovered, and never fell into the enemy's 
 hands at all." 
 
 Though pretending to no eminence either in scholar- 
 ship or science, the Duke entertained the greatest respect 
 for both. On two separate occasions he expressed a desire 
 to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At first his 
 meaning appears scarcely to have been understood, but 
 the wish being repeated, the Royal Society at once, and 
 with peculiar satisfaction, received him among its Fellows. 
 He was proposed by the late Marquis of Northampton, 
 and seconded by Sir Robert Harry Inglis ; and he seems 
 to have been better pleased with this distinction than 
 with many others conferred upon him by the sovereigns 
 and peoples whom he had served. Again we find him 
 brought into contrast with Napoleon, in a matter where, 
 at first sight, it might appear that there was only 
 parallelism. " I knew what I was about," said the French 
 Emperor, " when I caused myself to be elected member 
 of the Institute. Our soldiers follow me, not because 
 I am brave, but because they believe me to be a man of 
 genius and well read." 
 
 The Duke's eye for a country was, as may be imagined, 
 singularly accurate. He could take in at a glance all the 
 features of any landscape through which he rode. And — 
 which was, perhaps, more remarkable — he seemed intui- 
 tively to divine the lie of a district beyond the limits to 
 which his gaze extended. This was shown upon one 
 occasion in rather a curious way. 
 
 He was going to visit a friend in Rutlandshire, and 
 finding that Mr. Croker had received an invitation to the 
 same house, he oti'ered him a seat in his carriage. The 
 offer was accepted, and the two travellers, after exhausting 
 other topics, began to amuse themselves by guessing at 
 the nature of the country which lay on the farther side
 
 HIS MEMORY 329 
 
 of various ranges of hill and down as they approached 
 them. The Duke's guesses proved on all occasions to be 
 so correct, that Mr. Croker at last demanded the reason. 
 " The reason ? " replied the Duke. " Why what have 
 I been doing for the greater part of my lite, except that 
 which we are doing now — trying to make out from what 
 I saw the shape of the country which I could not see ? " 
 
 Strange to say, however, the same man, whose faculties 
 enabled him thus to draw inferences almost always correct 
 in regard to great matters, was remarkable for his blunders 
 in small matters of the same sort. The Duke was noted 
 for losing his way not only when riding back after recon- 
 naissances before the enemy, but when returning home 
 from the hunting-tield near Stratfieldsaye. 
 
 Of the great tenacity of the Duke's memory notice has 
 been taken elsewhere. It never forsook him to the last. 
 In 1843, when the terror of the Seikli invasion was at 
 its height, he was requested by the Government of the 
 day to draw up a plan for the defence of India. This 
 paper or memorandum he read " with great emphasis " 
 to Lord Ellesmere, who says : " It embraced all three 
 Presidencies, and was full of geographical details. It had 
 been written, as he told me, without reference either to 
 a map or a gazetteer." 
 
 It was soon after this, that when called upon to name 
 three officers, one of whom might be selected to go out 
 as Lord Gough's successor in command of the army, he 
 wrote, " Sir Charles Napier, Sir Charles Napier, Sir 
 Charles Napier." 
 
 I must bring these anecdotes to an end. Hundreds 
 more, equally characteristic, are doul)tless in circulation, 
 every one of which deserves its own place here ; but 
 already the limits at my command are passed, the subject 
 remaining still unexhausted. If told in detail, they could 
 scarcely add to the measure of admiration in which, by 
 all who know how to value real greatness, the memory of
 
 330 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the Duke of Wellington is held. He was the grandest, 
 because the truest man, whom modern times have 
 produced. He Avas the wisest and most 103'^al subject 
 that ever served and supported the English throne. 
 
 The Duke took the fjreatest interest in Colonel 
 Garwood's first publication. He was a good deal 
 startled when Gurwood proposed to collect and 
 give to the public his general orders, but having 
 overcome the reluctance to appear in print at all, 
 he soon entered into the spirit of the undertaking, 
 and gave Gurwood all the assistance required. 
 Then followed a proposal to deal in like manner 
 with a selection from his dispatches to which, 
 with less hesitation, he assented, not, however, 
 without stipulating that whatever tended to throw 
 discredit on individuals should be suppressed. How 
 faithfully his directions were attended to, all who 
 perused Gurwood's compilations must be aware. 
 But only those who were on intimate terms with 
 the great man know with what childlike delight he 
 read liis own writings over, and how astonished he 
 was at both their multiplicity and clearness. 
 
 ** I can't think," he would say, as he laid down 
 some documents more striking than others, " I can't 
 think how I ever got time or had wit enough to 
 write that." Had he lived to see the still more 
 voluminous selection, now accessible to the whole 
 world, his modest astonishment would have been 
 increased fourfold. 
 
 The Duke, as an official, was a great stickler for
 
 A STICKLER FOR ETIQUETTE 331 
 
 etiquette. He held that in matters affecting the 
 pubHc interest too much courtesy could not 
 be exercised in approaching questions on which 
 differences of opinion had occurred, and in his 
 intercourse with the Court his bearing was almost 
 more than respectful. As Commander-in-Chief he 
 could not tolerate the slightest infringement on 
 standing orders. In particular, he objected to 
 officers ever appearing, except in London, out of 
 uniform, unless absent from their regiments, or 
 engaged in field sports. A story is told of his 
 visiting Dover Castle on one occasion in his 
 capacity of Warden of the Cinque Ports, and 
 sending for the officer in command of the garrison 
 that he might confer with him. The officer com- 
 manding happened to be his son, Lord Douro, who, 
 anxious not to keep his father waiting, hurried out 
 of his room in a dressing-gown and slippers. The 
 Duke took no notice of the circumstance at the time, 
 but on the second day after the Duke's visit Lord 
 Douro received an official communication from the 
 Horse Guards, sharply reproving him for having 
 forgotten what was due to the Governor of Dover 
 Castle, and desiring that he should be more careful 
 in future. The Lord Warden had, it appears, re- 
 ported Lord Douro's misbehaviour, through the 
 Adjutant - General, to the Commander - in - Chief, 
 and hence the censure that followed. 
 
 Whether there be any foundation for another 
 anecdote — which describes the Duke as passing
 
 332 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 his son in the streets of Dover unnoticed because 
 he was in coloured clothes — I cannot say ; but for 
 this I can vouch, that Lord Douro never came from 
 Dover to Walmer Castle except in uniform, and 
 that only in their uniforms were the officers both 
 of that and the garrison of Deal received at the 
 Duke's table. 
 
 The Duke was for some years after taking posses- 
 sion of Stratfieldsaye a strict preserver of game. 
 He delighted in offering good sport to his guests. 
 Among them were all the most illustrious members 
 of society, such as the Duke of York, the Cabinet 
 Ministers, Foreign Ambassadors, and so forth ; 
 and neither care nor expense was spared to keep 
 his coverts well stocked. All went well for a 
 while, and poaching, if it occurred at all, was on 
 a scale too diminutive to attract attention. At 
 last, however, the coverts were invaded in force, 
 and in the struggle which ensued one of the 
 keepers was killed. From that day the Duke 
 gave orders that the stock of game should be 
 gradually diminished. He left no stone unturned 
 to discover the perpetrator of the outrage, who was 
 arrested, tried, and condemned to death. But, 
 mainly through the Duke's influence, the sentence 
 was commuted to transportation. " I would rather 
 be without a pheasant on my lands," was his remark 
 when speaking of the affair, " than that such scenes 
 should occur again." His lands were never without 
 pheasants enough for real sport, but an end was
 
 HIS VIEWS ON ARMY EDUCATION 333 
 
 put to wholesale slaughter, the result of excessive 
 breeding and perpetual watching. 
 
 The Duke had no desire to see what is to be 
 called Liberal Education extended to the working- 
 classes. He was violently hostile to plans for 
 educating the army. His opinion respecting 
 officers was this, that before joining their regi- 
 ments they should, if possible, pass through a 
 public school and one of the universities, and 
 betake themselves to the study of their profession 
 after entering on its practical duties. He held in 
 contempt staff schools, war schools, and the other 
 technical seminaries in which Continental armies 
 were rich, and held that the best training for the 
 staff was to be in a well commanded regiment, the 
 officers sent to him from which he pronounced to 
 be of infinitely greater use than the others of the 
 senior department of Sandhurst. As no serious 
 attempt was made during his lifetime to initiate a 
 new order of dealing with the upper ranks, he con- 
 tented himself with speaking in general terms 
 against such change, and yielded with a bad grace 
 to the medical examination of aspirants for com- 
 missions and the semblance of an examination of a 
 subaltern's fitness to take charge of a company 
 before he should be promoted. But the proposal 
 to train masters and to open schools for the benefit 
 of non-commissioned officers and men made him 
 furious. He never forgave me for adding this to 
 the grave offence already committed of forcing on
 
 334 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the restoration of the Chaplain department. Of 
 this I received both officially and in private life 
 distressing proofs. The official proof came in this 
 fashion. Before establishing the training school at 
 Chelsea I suggested to the Secretary of War, then 
 Mr. Herbert, that it might help us to arrive at a 
 just estimate of the educational wants of the army 
 were I to visit a few military stations, and getting 
 regiments together, to ascertain what the intellectual 
 condition, or rather the general intelligence, of the 
 men was. The idea was at once taken up and 
 approved. But I had scarcely begun this inquiry — 
 I had visited, in fact, only two stations — when on 
 arriving at a third, in Manchester, I was informed 
 by General Arbuthnot, commanding the district, 
 that he had received orders from the Horse Guards 
 not to assemble the troops for my inspection, nor 
 in any other way to countenance my proceedings. 
 A stop was thus put to a preliminary operation 
 which might or might not have coloured more or 
 less others which followed ; but it did not stop or 
 even delay them. The schools were formed ; they 
 became popular at once with the men, and came in 
 time to be regarded with favour by the officers. 
 By the Duke they were treated to the last as 
 mischievous innovations, and the not improbable 
 foci of mutiny. 
 
 As to the marks of disapproval which met me in 
 private life it would be waste of time to do more 
 than allude to them. Wherever and whenever we
 
 HIS LAST YEARS 335 
 
 met he seemed to have underorone no change. But 
 for the last four years of his life I never broke 
 bread in any of his houses, nor received from him 
 any such letters as gave a tone to our former 
 correspondence. The loss of the great man's 
 intimacy grieved me more than I am able to 
 express. Yet it did not lessen the veneration in 
 which I held him, nor can I now see a way by 
 which, consistently with my sense of duty, it could 
 have been averted. There is no sadder sifrht in 
 nature than that of a great mind lapsing into 
 senility. It is melancholy enough to watch the 
 decay in a once vigorous frame ; but the advancing 
 feebleness of an intellect which we have known in 
 the full flush of its powers humbles in its effect 
 upon ourselves, even more than it awakens sorrow 
 for the sufferer. It would be absurd to deny 
 that in this respect the Duke obeyed the 
 great law which makes its influence felt through- 
 out humanity. As he stoutly resisted the ap- 
 proaches of physical weakness, so he fought 
 with characteristic tenacity against the mental 
 infirmities incident to old age ; yet it must be 
 admitted his success was incomplete. Doubtless 
 to a large extent the failing body bore down the 
 energies of the mind, and though he refused to 
 admit the fact either to himself or to his friends, 
 not a day passed without the occurrence of 
 incidents which brought conviction to the minds 
 of all who witnessed them. He had always been
 
 336 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 impatient of help in the performance of the 
 operation, whatever it might be, in which he was 
 engaged. He would not allow his servant to aid 
 him in dressing or undressing. You could scarcely 
 oflfend him more than by offering to hold his over- 
 coat or button his cloak when he was getting ready 
 to return from a ball or a rout. " Let me alone," 
 was the usual recognition of civility of some evident 
 admirer, who sprang forward to help him out of a 
 difficulty. Indeed, to such an extent was this 
 feeling of independence carried as sometimes to 
 cause results which were as comical as they were 
 ludicrous, and yet even in this respect he could 
 at times put up with what was disagreeable to 
 himself rather than give pain to another. 
 
 The Duke, much gratified by his election to a 
 fellowship of the Royal Society, made a point of 
 attending the President's soirees at least once a 
 year. The company, aware of his peculiarities, 
 usually allowed him in departing to put on his 
 own cloak which a servant handed to him. It 
 chanced that a young gentleman, whether a fellow 
 or not I don't know, observed one evening that the 
 cloak had got into a tangle, and sprang forward to 
 put it to rights. He was greeted, as the others had 
 been, with the curt exclamation, "Let me alone," 
 and stepped back mortified and. confused. The 
 Duke happened to look up at the moment, and 
 observing the expression of anguish on the youth's 
 countenance, smiled, and exclaimed, " I see w^hat
 
 THE AGED WARRIOR 337 
 
 you want. You want to be able to say you have 
 helped the Duke of Wellington in a strait, and so 
 you shall. Give me the end of the cloak and clasp it 
 for me." This was done. The Duke allowed the 
 youth to have his way, shook hands with him, and 
 left him in a state of high delight. 
 
 Regularly as noon came round the Duke got 
 upon his horse and rode to the Horse Guards. 
 He would accept of no help either in mounting or 
 dismounting. The slope of the junction leading to 
 and from his underground stables at Apsley House 
 afforded some vantage ground during the former 
 process, while the latter, though accomplished in 
 the end, was accomplished slowly and with great 
 difficulty. Arrived at the covered passage which 
 separates what was once the Commander-in-Chief's 
 office from that of the Secretary of War, he had 
 nothing for it but to let himself down as well as 
 he could from the saddle. A little crowd always 
 collected to watch this proceeding, and on every 
 face there was an expression of mixed reverence 
 and alarm. Wearily the right leg scrambled, so 
 to speak, over the croup of the saddle. Slowly 
 and painfully it sank towards the ground, and 
 then the whole body came down with a stagger, 
 which was never witnessed except with dismay. 
 Yet nobody presumed to touch or even to approach 
 him. Through the open doorway he passed without 
 taking any notice of those about him, and, mounting 
 the steps, made straight for the little room in which 
 
 Y
 
 338 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 he transacted military business. But the business 
 transacted there came in the end to be sometimes 
 of the smallest possible importance. Not un- 
 frequently he would fall asleep the moment he 
 sat down in his arm-chair, and Adjutant-General, 
 Quartermaster-General, and Military Secretary were 
 all too full of respect to disturb him. They looked 
 in one after the other, each with his papers in his 
 hand. They withdrew again silently, waiting till 
 his bell should ring, and if it never rang at all, as 
 was not unfrequently the case, they being familiar 
 with his views, and having numerous precedents to 
 guide them, went on with the current business of 
 the day to the entire satisfaction of themselves and 
 of the army. On these occasions the Duke usually 
 slept on till four o'clock, when his horses were 
 brought round, and he departed as he had come, 
 the observed of all observers. 
 
 This state of chronic feebleness was, however, to 
 the last often broken in upon by spurts of astonish- 
 ing vigour. Put him upon his mettle, either by 
 bringing some important question under his notice, 
 or by an appeal to that chivalrous courtesy which 
 never forsook him, and the old spirit revived, and 
 he was himself again. On the 18th June 1852 he 
 gave his usual Waterloo dinner, and appeared to his 
 guests to be as vigorous in body and clear in 
 mind as he had been on previous occasions. The 
 same session he spoke in his place in the House of 
 Lords in favour of Mr. Walpole's Militia Bill. Later
 
 THE BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS 339 
 
 in the season he entertained at Walmer Castle the 
 Grand Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 
 and himself drove them to Dover and saw them 
 on board the Calais packet. Nevertheless the 
 work of decay had well begun both in mind and 
 body. His temper, which he used to hold in 
 marvellous restraint, often got the better of him, 
 and occasionally he told stories, which to say the 
 least amazed his hearers. Speaking one day of 
 Indian jugglers, he pointed to a decanter with a 
 neck more than usually narrow which stood upon 
 the table, and said to the lady who sat next to him 
 at dinner, " I have seen them put a live rat into 
 just such a glass as that." " It must have been a 
 very small rat, Duke." "No, nothing of the sort, 
 it was as big a rat as any you will find in our 
 sewers." " You see," observed Lord Fitzroy 
 Somerset, " what we have sometimes to bear at 
 the Horse Guards." 
 
 The last time I dined in company with the Duke 
 was on the 1st of May 1852, when the Baroness, 
 then Miss, Burdett-Coutts entertained him and a 
 large party, including the two sons of King Leopold, 
 in celebration of the official closing of the Great 
 Exhibition. He appeared to be in excellent health, 
 but dropped asleep soon after the ladies withdrew, 
 and was suddenly recalled to consciousness by the 
 Due de Flandres rising to propose that, this being 
 his birthday, we should drink his health. His mode 
 of receiving the compliment was very characteristic.
 
 340 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 He took no notice whatever of the compliments 
 which the Royal Duke showered upon him, but 
 rising, said, "Gentlemen, I am very much obliged 
 to you — don't you think we had better join the 
 ladies?" The Duke's seat on horseback, though 
 upright, was loose. He was, however, a bold rider 
 in his day, and made very light of a fall. His 
 horses, when he bought them, were all good horses, 
 serviceable and enduring rather than beautiful, but 
 he got attached to them, and continued to ride them 
 long after most men in his station would have either 
 sold or turned them out. " Copenhagen," his famous 
 charger, was no beauty, as indeed was shown in the 
 colossal statue which very accurately represents him ; 
 but he had served his master well in the Peninsula 
 before he bore him through the great day of Water- 
 loo, and richly deserved the honour paid by the 
 second Duke to his memory. 
 
 It is not, I believe, generally known that the 
 Duke had for many years prior to his death been 
 liable to epileptic fits. His first seizure occurred, I 
 think, in 1826, after his return from his special 
 embassy to Russia, whither in 1825 he went to 
 congratulate the son of Alexander the First on his 
 succession to the Imperial throne. He had reached 
 his own door after riding in Hyde Park, when, 
 without the slightest warning, self-control aban- 
 doned him, and had not his groom fortunately 
 alighted, and thus been able to receive him in 
 his arms, he must have fallen to the ground. The
 
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 EPILEPTIC FITS 341 
 
 fit was comparatively slight, and soon passed away, 
 but returned at intervals, and always with increased 
 violence. Lord Stanhope, in a volume printed for 
 private circulation, gives a distressingaccount of one 
 of these attacks which fell upon him at Walmer, and 
 lasted several hours. It had not apparently the 
 effect of depriving him of consciousness even when 
 at its heifxht, but the weakness attendant and con- 
 sequent on it lasted two days. It is curious that 
 the Archduke Charles, undeniably one of the best 
 officers among the Duke's contemporaries, should 
 have been subject to the same weakness. Unfor- 
 tunately for him the approach of the malady was 
 not deferred till after the close of the great war. 
 More than once an epileptic fit overtook him at a 
 critical moment in the operations he was conducting, 
 and marred them. This was especially the case at 
 the time when after the fall of Vienna Napoleon's 
 fate may be said to have hung in the balance. The 
 Archduke was struck down just before the pre- 
 parations were completed for an attack on the 
 French position which Napoleon was not in a 
 condition successfully to meet. 
 
 The Duke died, as is well known, after a very 
 short illness, and in strong convulsions. No special 
 cause of the catastrophe was so much as hinted at 
 when it occurred. Men were content to remember 
 that he had on former occasions suffered from like 
 attacks, and they took it for granted that before an 
 unusually violent access of the malady his failing
 
 342 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 strength had succumbed. But further inquiry has 
 since produced a strong suspicion that had his 
 medical attendants been aware of certain of the 
 Duke's pecuUarities, and dealt with his case 
 surgically, his life might have been prolonged. 
 It will be remembered that as long ago as 1825 
 the Duke put himself into the hands of Mr. 
 Stephenson, the well-known aurist, and was by 
 him treated for partial deafness. From the treat- 
 ment to which he was subjected, and his own 
 neglect of the means prescribed by Mr. Stephenson 
 for averting a not improbable consequence, the Duke 
 never recovered. The drum of his ear was destroyed, 
 and he not only became stone deaf on that side 
 of the head, but unremitting attention became 
 necessary in order to avert further mischief. 
 Among other precautions to which he had re- 
 course was a thorough investigation of the ear 
 every day by a medical attendant, and the careful 
 removal of the wax from the cell whenever it began 
 to coagulate. But old men grow weary of processes 
 which young men hardly endure. The Duke became 
 as years advanced on him more and more lax in 
 attending to the state of his ear. Always most 
 fastidious over his toilet, he forgot that when the 
 drum of the ear is destroyed the mere process of 
 washing and cleansing the exterior of the cell 
 establishes no security against the accumulation of 
 wax internally. The process appears to have gone 
 on for months unnoticed either by himself or any-
 
 HIS DEATH 343 
 
 body else, till at last the wax pushed inward in the 
 shape of a cone, and, hardened by time, infringed 
 upon the brain. Had a surgeon been informed of 
 this, and taken immediate steps to remove the 
 pressure, the convulsion would have ceased, and 
 the Duke might have recovered. As it was, the 
 remedies adopted served only to aggravate the 
 malady by rendering the paroxysms of sickness 
 more frequent and more severe. The Duke's 
 strength was unequal to sustain a prolonged 
 struggle with convulsive fits, because the cause 
 of the fits was not internal derangement, but 
 direct pressure upon the brain from without. 
 
 Note. — My father was urged in his declining: 3'ears by 
 many friends, amongst them Lord Wolseley, to write his 
 reminiscences of the great Duke, but always pleaded old 
 age for not undertaking the task, — invariably adding, 
 however, that among his papers ample material would be 
 found for an interesting volume on the subject. And yet, 
 such Avas the vigour of his mind, and so strongly was 
 writing second nature to him, that in his ninetieth year, 
 when his family hoped he was quietly resting in his room, 
 he actually undertook the task himself, and compiled the 
 volume which is now before the public, even heading the 
 four books in the manner he wished it " some day " to be 
 published. 
 
 At the end of the MS. I found this touching little 
 sentence : " I am not now able to read this all through, but 
 I hope some one will be at hand to correct any little 
 mistakes I may have made." 
 
 MARY E. GLEIG.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 MEMORANDUM ON THE WAR IN RUSSIA IN 1812 
 
 1825. 
 
 Se^ur's, work^ has drawn the public attention to the most 
 extraordinary and stupendous transactions and events of 
 modern times, and of which no times have ever produced 
 a parallel. The details of these transactions and events 
 have consequently been accurately examined by many, 
 and the result has been a conviction that the common 
 sense which guides mankind in the ordinary transactions 
 of life had but little influence either in the origin of, or 
 the preparations for, the Russian war, or the conduct of 
 the operations which are the subject of the work. 
 
 It is useless to consider what was the cause of the war 
 between Napoleon and the Emperor of Russia. The 
 ostensible causes of dispute were clearly removed. The 
 diplomatists had agreed upon the principle of the mode of 
 settling them all ; and there would have been no difficulty 
 in the application of that principle. But at the very 
 moment at which this principle of settlement was agreed 
 upon, Napoleon moved armies, to the amount of about 
 600,000 men, into the dominions of the King of Prussia, 
 in consequence of the treaty with Prussia, which Prussia 
 had been induced to solicit ; and the Emperor of Russia, 
 seeing clearly that the war was not to be avoided, that 
 the points, the settlement upon which had been agreed 
 upon, were mere pretexts ; and that his disgrace in the 
 
 ^ Histoire de Napoleon et de la Grande-Armee pendant l'ann4e 1812. 
 Par M. le General Comte de S^gur. Paris, 1824.
 
 APPENDIX 345 
 
 eyes of Europe in the first instance, and the ultimate 
 destruction of the power and influence of his government, 
 were the real objects of Napoleon, determined that he 
 would resist upon the question of the Prussian treaty and 
 occupation, which brought fairly before the public the 
 real point at issue, and to the recollection of public men 
 that States have an interest in the transactions of other 
 States with their neighbours, and a right to question those 
 transactions. 
 
 It is clear, then, that there was no legitimate French 
 interest involved in this war. There was no point of 
 public honour, at least on the part of France. When the 
 principles of the settlement of the trifling points of dispute 
 were agreed upon, there was no occasion for carrying into 
 execution the treat}' with Prussia. To carry that treaty 
 into execution was a menace to Russia which was in- 
 jurious to its honour ; and, if submitted to, was calculated 
 to deteriorate the power and influence of Russia both at 
 home and abroad. There might have existed a necessity 
 for endeavouring to destroy the power of Russia growing 
 out of the transactions between France and other States of 
 Europe, and the apprehensions that those States might 
 look to the assistance and protection of Russia. But the 
 legitimate necessity for war, or for measures which must 
 lead to war, must not depend upon the choice be- 
 tween two different lines of policy. In this case there 
 was an option, viz., for Napoleon to soften his policy 
 towards those States in whose favour or on whose behalf 
 the Russian interference was apprehended. That policy 
 was a system of insult and menace. It was not influence 
 growing out of treaty, but it was menace founded upon 
 the success of former wars, the insolence of exorbitant 
 power in the hands of new men, and the constant appre- 
 hension which an innate sense of injustice produces even in 
 such minds, that the oppressed must turn against their 
 oppressors. The maintenance of such policy, which can-
 
 346 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 not be publicly stated and avowed, cannot be fairly con- 
 sidered a ground for war. 
 
 There was no French interest involved, and no real 
 ground for war then between Napoleon and the Emperor 
 of Russia. The war was occasioned solely by the desire of 
 the former to fight a great battle, to gain a great victory, 
 to occupy with his army one more great capital, and to 
 subject to his rule the power of Russia. 
 
 It was in this light that the war was viewed by the 
 French politicians of the day ; and it is curious to observe 
 in these works the total absence of principle in the 
 examination of this great question of war or peace. No- 
 body adverts to the injustice of this intended attack upon 
 the Emperor of Russia. Its difficulty, its danger, its 
 expense, the absence of all prospect of remuneration and 
 relief from financial difficulty by confiscation, plunder, or 
 the levy of contributions, and the little probability that 
 success in this intended war would bring to a conclusion 
 the disastrous war in Spain, were all insinuated or urged 
 with more or less of vehemence according to the character, 
 the station, or the degree of intimacy of the person urging 
 those topics with Napoleon. But nobody ventured to hint 
 the injustice of the war itself; and, in truth, all admitted, 
 some in positive terms, that the time was come at which 
 it was absolutely necessary that Napoleon should bring 
 under his subjection this one independent power remain- 
 ing on the continent of Europe. It is curious to observe 
 his answers to each of those who ventured to hint obj.ec- 
 tions to his proposed measures, each of which contained 
 what he must have known at the time was a falsehood. 
 
 Then in the preparations for this war there was as little of 
 national policy as there was in the war itself. This war was 
 in the contemplation of Napoleon for a considerable period 
 of time previous to its commencement, — it is believed from 
 the period of the refusal to give him the Russian princess 
 in marriage, and from that of the celebration of the mar-
 
 APPENDIX 347 
 
 riage with the Austrian princess, in the year 1810. It is 
 certain that Prince Metternich, on his return to Vienna in 
 the spring of 1811, apprised his sovereign of the proba- 
 bihty that the marriage which had been celebrated would 
 not have the effect of giving to Europe permanent tran- 
 quillity. Yet, notwithstanding that this war had been so 
 long intended, no political measures Avere adopted to en- 
 able Napoleon to carr}'^ it on with advantage. Russia has 
 two neighbours, the Porte and Sweden, with which Powers 
 it had always been the policy of France to connect herself; 
 and such connection was not only honourable to France 
 but useful to Europe. It is not useless to examine the 
 conduct of Napoleon in relation to these Powers, as this 
 examination will show how entirely the national policy of 
 France was lost sight of by him when his own personal 
 objects were in question. 
 
 The first idea of the Russian marriage occurred at Tilsit, 
 This is the real secret of that treaty. In pursuit of that 
 object Napoleon sacrificed to the Emperor of Russia the 
 interests of the Porte and of Sweden. He lost the oppor- 
 tunity then afforded to him of reconciling the Porte, 
 and of attaching that power to France for ever ; and he 
 not only alienated Sweden from France, but absolutely 
 sacrificed that Power to Russia by his consent to the 
 conquest of Finland ; and he thus destroyed the balance 
 in the North of Europe by depriving Sweden of all means 
 of annoyance against Russia. 
 
 Useful as the existence and strength of both of these 
 powers were to the world at large, and honourable and 
 advantageous as their connection with France was to 
 France at all times, it was more particularly necessary in 
 a war with Russia, waged on Russian ground. Command- 
 ing as those powers did the navigation of the Russian 
 seas, situated as they were in 1811 and 1812 in relation 
 to the means of defence of Russia, it might have been 
 expected that Napoleon, upon the eve of the war with
 
 348 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Russia, would have turned his attention to the con- 
 ciliation of those Powers, and would have endeavoured to 
 procure their assistance. 
 
 But having abandoned them both to the will of Russia at 
 the period of the Peace of Tilsit, he appears to have for- 
 gotten that they existed till a period long subsequent to 
 the Austrian marriage ; at which period it is clear that he 
 began to think of the attack upon Russia. Even then he 
 neglected the Porte, and made but trifling efforts to recon- 
 cile that government to France, and to induce them to 
 connect their cause with his. 
 
 Towards Sweden the conduct of Napoleon was even 
 worse than that towards the Porte. Even after Bernadotte 
 had been called to the succession of the crown of Sweden, 
 he treated that Power with more ignominy than ever ; 
 and the more probably, as it is hinted in Segur's work, 
 because Bernadotte had been the rival of Bonaparte in the 
 transactions of Paris which preceded the 18th Brumaire, 
 and on account of their subsequent disagreements. He 
 seized upon Swedish Pomerania and the island of Rugen 
 by way of enforcing the continental S3'stem against Eng- 
 land, and otherwise insulted Sweden at a moment at which 
 the assistance of that Power would have been worth more 
 to France than that of both Austria and Prussia. A 
 sovereign having the honour and interest of his country 
 at heart, instead of those personal to himself, would have 
 forgotten, or at all events have laid aside for the moment, 
 all consideration of those personal causes of offence ; but 
 Napoleon could not forget them. He, on the contrary, for- 
 got the interests and ancient policy of France, and gratified 
 his personal resentment against the Crown Prince. 
 
 Not so the British government. They treated the 
 Swedish government with the utmost moderation and 
 kindness, notwithstanding that the two nations were at 
 war in consequence of the authoritative mandate of 
 Napoleon given to Sweden. They likewise seized the
 
 APPENDIX 349 
 
 earliest opportunity which circumstances afforded of 
 making peace with Russia and with Sweden, an<l of 
 mediating a cordial union between those two powers. 
 They made the greatest sacrifices on the part of Great 
 Britain to induce the Crown Prince to postpone his pre- 
 tensions to Norway, and the execution of the engagement 
 of the Emperor of Russia to assist Sweden in making the 
 conquest of that country ; and the result of these arrange- 
 ments was not only to relieve his Imperial Majesty from 
 the necessity of defending himself on the side of Finland, 
 but to place at his disposal for operations against the 
 French troops on the Dwina the corps of Russian troops 
 collected in Finland for the purpose of performing his 
 original engagement to Sweden. 
 
 Then in respect to the Porte, the British Government 
 seized the earliest opportunity of exerting their influence, 
 and succeeded in inducing the Porte to make peace with 
 Russia, thus relieving his Imperial Majesty from the 
 contest with the Porte, and from the necessity of defend- 
 ing himself on his south-east frontier. 
 
 If the great statesman who at that period conducted 
 the foreign affairs of Great Britain had never rendered to 
 his own country or the world any other service than those 
 above noticed, his name would have gone down to 
 posterity as the man who had first foreseen and had after- 
 wards seized the opportunity of rendering to the world 
 the most important service that ever fell to the lot of any 
 individual to perform. There is no child who reads these 
 histories who will not see that by those arrangements not 
 only was Napoleon deprived of all the assistance which he 
 might have derived from the operations of the Turkish 
 troops, but that the Russian troops opposed to those 
 operations, and those stationed in Finland with a view to 
 Swedish objects, were at the same critical moment of the 
 campaign thrown upon the rear of the French armies in 
 Russia.
 
 350 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Great as the loss in the French armies was by war and 
 famine, and the consequences of those irregularities which 
 are inseparable from such a system as that of Napoleon, 
 and aggravated as all the distresses of the army were by 
 the intense severity of the season, it must be obvious to 
 all that the great destruction of the French army in 
 Russia was to be attributed to the position of the Russian 
 troops upon the Orcha and the Berezina, in November, 
 1812 ; the very troops thus brought into action in con- 
 sequence of the political arrangements above referred to. 
 The movements of these troops might have been more 
 scientifically and vigorously conducted, and their opera- 
 tions even more successful than they were. That is the 
 affair of the generals who commanded them ; and the 
 question whether they were well or ill conducted can 
 never afl'ect the reputation of the late Lord Castlereagh, 
 by whose political measures and negotiations the Emperor's 
 government had these troops at their disposition to be 
 employed against the common enemy.^ 
 
 Then another political arrangement, which would have 
 been of the greatest importance to the French army 
 engaged in these operations, related to Poland. The 
 Emperor of Austria had possession of Polish Galicia, and 
 had required from Napoleon an engagement that no 
 measures should be taken to reconstruct the kingdom of 
 Poland without the consent of his Imperial Majesty, and 
 without giving to his Imperial Majesty compensation for 
 the probable loss of his Polish dominions by the retro- 
 cession by France to his Imperial Majesty of the Illyrian 
 provinces ceded to France by his Imperial Majesty by the 
 recent Treaty of Vienna. France having lost the assist- 
 ance for which Napoleon had sought, but sought too late, 
 if really in earnest in his wish to obtain it, viz., that of 
 Sweden and the Porte, there is no doubt that that to 
 
 ^ The policy here attributed to Lord Castlereagh was originated by 
 the Marquess Wellesley, who preceded Lord Castlereagh as Secretary 
 of State for Foreign Affairs. — Ed.
 
 APPENDIX 351 
 
 which he ought to have looked was the assistance of the 
 Poles. He did derive great assistance from the Poles of 
 the Duchy of Warsaw ; and he endeavoured to derive 
 assistance from those of the province of Lithuania, in 
 which he established a government; and he delayed at 
 Wilna for a considerable period of time at the very open- 
 ing of the campaign, in order to organise and put in motion 
 that government. But the Poles soon discovered the 
 secret, that it was impossible to constitute, as an inde- 
 pendent State, Poland or even those provinces of the 
 ancient kingdom of Poland which should be conquered 
 from Russia, on account of the engagements between 
 Napoleon and Austria ; and because it was quite certain 
 that Napoleon would not make the sacrifice to Austria of 
 the Illyrian provinces in compensation for Polish Galicia, 
 which Austria would have lost by the reconstruction of 
 Poland. The language of Napoleon therefore was loose 
 and cold in answer to the addresses of the Poles on the 
 subject of their independence; and the efforts of the 
 Lithuanians were directed against him, or, if made in any 
 instance in his favour, were lukewarm and weak. 
 
 Invading Russia as Napoleon did with an army of 
 600,000 men, the military assistance of the Lithuanians, 
 or of the people of any of the Polish provinces under the 
 Russian government, could not have been necessary to 
 his success ; but their good will and activity in supplying 
 his armies would have been desirable, for the very reason 
 that, and in proportion as, their military assistance was 
 not necessary. Great difficulty nmst have existed in 
 feeding and supplying the large armies with which the 
 invasion of Russia Avas necessarily made ; and the active 
 and zealous co-operation and assistance of the Lithuanians 
 was absolutely necessary in order to overcome or lessen 
 the difficulties which must have^been expected, and were 
 expected, as it will appear presently, to attend this im- 
 portant branch of the service.
 
 352 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 The advantage of their assistance was lost because 
 Napoleon would not sacrifice to Austria the lUyrian 
 provinces, which were useless to France; and much of 
 the mischief which occurred must be attributed to the 
 same fact. Napoleon, then, led the armies of Europe into 
 Russia without any of the assistance the country could 
 afford, whether of a military or of a civil or political 
 nature, which common attention, or the ordinary policy 
 of a statesman, would have placed at his disposal. Yet it 
 appears by these accounts that he was well aware of the 
 difficulties and dangers of the enterprise which he had 
 undertaken, and most particularly of those difficulties 
 respecting provisions which at last destroyed his army. 
 He was to invade a country of great extent, but of small 
 population in proportion to its extent, and that population 
 consisting of slaves, and but very unequally distributed 
 in the differents parts of the country. The country 
 contained but few large towns from which any military 
 resource could be drawn. The soil is in general marshy 
 and overgrown with timber, and the roads and communica- 
 tions very rare, and those which existed difficult at all 
 times, and scarcely practicable for wheel-carriages in wet 
 weather. 
 
 Napoleon, aware of the difficulties of subsistence in 
 that country for a large army, formed squadrons, 
 regiments, and brigades of carts loaded with provisions 
 and other necessaries for his army, which followed its 
 movements through Prussia, in which country it was 
 provisioned on its passage, under the treaty of alliance 
 with the King of Prussia. Droves of cattle were moved 
 through Germany from Italy and France. Yet so little 
 did these arrangements answer the purpose intended, that 
 before the army quitted the Duchy of Warsaw we see 
 complaints of the plunder of that country, and remon- 
 strances from Napoleon to his marshals of the evil 
 consequences (compared to those in Portugal) which
 
 APPENDIX 353 
 
 must result from the irregularity of the troops, and from 
 the mode in which they took provisions from the enemy. 
 
 At Wilna, the first place at which a halt was made 
 within the Russian frontier, and at which a hospital was 
 to be established, we see what the means were which this 
 army of 600,000 men possessed. 
 
 This army of 600,000 men could establish hospitals 
 for only 6000 men at Wilna. These were without pro- 
 visions, beds, covering, or even straw to lie upon, and 
 even unprovided with medicine. Yet it is a curious fact 
 that the Wiirtemberg army had an excellent hospital at 
 Wilna, because the King of Wurtemberg paid the expense 
 of the hospitals for his troops. This fact shows to what 
 circumstances all these difficulties were to be attributed. 
 At Vitepsk, where another hospital was formed, we see by 
 the account that hospitals for only 1400 men could be 
 formed; Russians and French in equal numbers; the 
 Russians having been left for three days without assist- 
 ance, when they were taken into the French hospitals. 
 
 The surgeons were obliged to use their own shirts for 
 dressings, as well as those of the wounded soldiers. It 
 must be observed that these hospitals were for wounded 
 only ; the sick shifted for themselves as they could. At 
 Smolensk, on the second night after the establishment 
 of the hospitals in that town, everything was wanting to 
 dress the wounds of the wounded soldiers ; and paper 
 found in the archives Avas made use of instead of lint. 
 Then Segur says, " Nos chirurgiens accables, s etonnent ; 
 depuis trois jours un hopital de cent blesses est oublie. 
 Un hazard vient de Ic faire decouvrir." 
 
 After the battle of Borodino 20,000 French wounded 
 were left in the Abbaye of Kolotskoi. Segur says, " Les 
 ambulances avaient rejoint, viais tout fut itisuffi.sant " ; 
 that is, nearly three months after the frontier had been 
 passed ; and Larrey, the chiritrgien-en-chef, complains in a 
 publication, that no troops were left with him 'poiir
 
 354 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 requerir those articles which were necessary from the 
 neighbouring villages. Pour requerir is, in plain terms, 
 envojer a la maraude — plunder in order to supply the 
 hospitals ! ! 
 
 The causes of the failure of these measures of pre- 
 caution are worth discussing, as the discussion Avill convey 
 to the minds of the readers of this paper the real cause 
 of the disasters of the French army in Russia. 
 
 The truth is that Napoleon learnt at Paris and Dresden, 
 and the information was confirmed on his arrival at 
 Konigsberg from Dresden, that the Emperor of Russia 
 had collected his army in the neighbourhood of Wilna. 
 He conceived that he should surprise his enemy in that 
 position and defeat him ; or that in his retreat he would 
 have it in his power to fall upon and destroy some 
 detached corps. Forced marches were then to be under- 
 taken, even from the Vistula, and were continued till the 
 army reached the Dwina and the Dnieper. The carts, 
 the carriages, the cattle, and all the supplies brought from 
 France and Italy, were left behind; all the difficulties of 
 the enterprise were forgotten, and nothing thought of but 
 the prospect of finding the enemy en flagrant delit, and 
 of destroying him at one blow. 
 
 It is curious to read the statement in Segur, which is 
 confirmed by all who have written the history of this 
 war, of the loss sustained by the army in the first marches 
 from the Niemen and the Vilia. Not less than ten 
 thousand horses and many men are stated to have been 
 left dead upon the road, and thousands of stragglers from 
 their regiments were wandering about the country. This 
 loss is attributed to the storm of rain which occurred at 
 that period. But those who know what an army is well 
 know that a storm of rain in the summer, whatever its 
 violence and character, does not destroy the horses of an 
 army. That which does destroy them, that which renders 
 those who survive nearly unfit for service throughout
 
 APPENDIX 355 
 
 the campaign, and incapable of bearing the hardship of the 
 winter, is hard work, forced marches, no corn or dry 
 fodder at the period at which the green corn is on the 
 ground, and is invariably eaten by the horses of the army. 
 It is the period of the year at which of all others a 
 commander who cares for his army will avoid enterprises 
 the execution of which requires forced marches or the hard 
 work of the horses. 
 
 In like manner, storms of rain do not destroy soldiers of 
 the infantry exposed to them, in a greater degree than 
 other men ; but forced marches on roads destroyed by 
 storms of rain, through a country unprovided with shelter 
 and without provisions, do destroy soldiers, as every one 
 left behind is without resource, is exposed, unsheltered 
 and starving, to the effects of the storm ; he cannot follow 
 and overtaice his corps, and he nmst perish. 
 
 The second chapter of the third book of Segur's work 
 contains a curious and true specimen of what a French 
 army was, in the account given of Davout's corps; and 
 how formidable to its enemy, if common care had been 
 taken of it : — 
 
 " II a soixante-dix mille hommes dont I'organisation est 
 complete ; ils portent pour vingt-cinq jours de vivres. 
 Chaque compagnie renferme des nageurs, des ma^-ons, des 
 boulangers, des tailleurs, des cordonniers, des armuriers, 
 eniin des ouvriers de toute espece. Elles portent tout 
 avec elles ; son armee est comme unc colonic : des moulins 
 k bras suivent. II a prevu tous les besoins; tous les 
 moyens d'y suppleer sent prets." 
 
 Called together by the conscription, each battalion of 
 the French array had in its ranks good and bad, of high, 
 low, and middle classes, men of all trades and professions. 
 The French soldiers scarcely required the usual discipline 
 or punishment inflicted on soldiers to keep them in order. 
 The good, under the superintendence and encouragement 
 of the officers, took care of the bad, and kept them in
 
 356 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 order ; and they were upon the whole the best, the most 
 orderly and obedient, and the most easily commanded and 
 best regulated body of troops that ever existed in Europe. 
 They were destroyed by their privations. The French 
 Revolution first introduced into the world new systems of 
 war, the objects and results of which Avere to render war a 
 resource instead of a burthen to the belligerents, and to 
 throw the burthen upon the country which unfortunately 
 became the seat of its operations. The system of terror 
 and the misery of the people in France ; and the conscrip- 
 tion, the execution of which was facilitated by the first ; 
 placed at the disposal of the government of the day the 
 whole of the serviceable male population of the country. 
 All that the government had to do or did with them was 
 to organise them into military bodies, arm them, and 
 have them taught the first movements of the use of their 
 arms and of their military exercises. They were then 
 poured into some foreign country to live upon its 
 resources. Their numbers stifled or overcame all local 
 opposition ; and whatever might be the loss or misery 
 which the system itself might occasion in the French 
 armies, the first was of men who when dead could not 
 complain ; the success stifled the complaints of their 
 survivors. 
 
 Napoleon was educated in this system. He succeeded 
 to the power it gave to the government, and carried its 
 action to the greatest possible extent. The system of his 
 tactics was founded upon forced marches. War, being 
 the principal resource of his government, was to be 
 carried on at the smallest possible expense of money to 
 his treasury, but at the greatest possible expenditure of 
 the lives of men, not only by the fire of the enemy, but by 
 privations, fatigue, and sickness. Till this Russian war 
 he had never thought of supplying his armies with the 
 necessaries requisite to enable such great bodies to keep 
 the field. His object was to surprise his enemy by the
 
 APPENDIX 357 
 
 rapidity of his marches, to fight a great battle, levy con- 
 tributions, make peace, and return to Paris. But these 
 objects were always attained at the expense of the utmost 
 privations to his troops. 
 
 These privations, which must have rendered the soldier 
 unfit for service, and must have destroyed him at once if 
 not relieved by breaches of order and discipline, and by 
 plunder and its consequences, occasioned all these evils, 
 till the army, however well composed originally, and how- 
 ever orderly and well disciplined and formidable as a 
 military body to its enemies, became at last a horde of 
 banditti, all equally bad, and destroying itself by its 
 irregularities. Indeed no other army, excepting the 
 French army, could have subsisted in the manner in 
 which the French army did. No other army known in 
 Europe is sufficiently under command. 
 
 His mode is really curious, and worthy of observation. 
 The army started with a certain number of days' pro- 
 visions upon the men's backs, seldom less than seven 
 days, and sometimes provision, that is to say, bread or 
 biscuit, for fourteen days. Cattle were driven with the 
 army to supply the rations of meat. These articles were 
 procured either from magazines, or from some large town, 
 or from some rich, well-populated district in which the 
 troops might have been cantoned. The cavalry could 
 not be loaded with provender for the horses for more than 
 three or four days. 
 
 Thus provided, the army started upon its expedition by 
 forced marches. In very few days it was generally dis- 
 covered that the soldiers, unable to carry their loads upon 
 these forced marches, had either consumed in two or 
 three days that which ought to have lasted seven or ten 
 days, or had thrown it away ; or the General command- 
 ing, being apprehensive that the provisions which his 
 troops had in possession would not be sufficient to last till 
 he should be able to have another regular issue, com-
 
 358 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 menced to procure supplies by Avhat was called la 
 maraude; that is to say, neither more nor less than 
 plunder. 
 
 Authority was then given to send out a certain number 
 of soldiers of each company to obtain provisions at each 
 village or farm-house in the neighbourhood of the road by 
 which the army marched, or of the ground on which it 
 encamped. These soldiers were to force the inhabitants 
 to deliver these provisions without payment or receipt; 
 and it may well be believed that these acts of violence 
 were not confined to forcing the delivery of provisions. 
 Other articles of value were taken at the same time, and 
 by the use of the same coercive measures ; and it is not 
 astonishing that officers and soldiers so employed should 
 become habitual plunderers. 
 
 The provisions thus brought in were issued among the 
 troops under the command of the officer who had sent 
 these detatchments on the maraude. It is obvious that 
 even this system, bad as it was, could not be resorted to 
 with any prospect of success where the country through 
 which the army marched was thinly peopled, or if the 
 army was making extraordinary forced marches, or in the 
 neighbourhood of the enemy; but it must be observed, 
 that even if not resorted to by authority, it was invariably 
 by the private soldiers, and not unfrequently by the officers, 
 of the French army, on their own account. They generally 
 required the food because they had consumed or thrown 
 away the enormous loads which had been packed upon 
 them. But even if they did not necessarily require it, 
 biscuit or ammunition-bread, and the meat of an animal 
 but just killed after a forced march, is but bad food in 
 comparison with what can be got from almost any village 
 in the country; and, in addition to the food, the man 
 a la maraude could pick up money and other valuable 
 property. 
 
 It must be observed that a French army, after quitting
 
 APPENDIX 359 
 
 its magazines or a friendly country, never received a ration 
 of provisions not procured by la maraude; and that this 
 army which entered Russia, from the time it quitted the 
 Niemen, in June 1812, till it returned to Smolensk, in 
 November 1812, excepting perhaps some of the Guard, 
 never received a ration which was not procured by la 
 maraude. 
 
 In all these accounts it is frequently stated that 
 Napoleon complained that his orders were not obeyed, 
 and that magazines of provisions for his army Avere not 
 formed, upon the retreat, at the places at which he had 
 ordered that they should be formed. This may be true. 
 But it must be observed that these orders were not given 
 as other Generals at the head of armies have given similar 
 orders, pointing out the places where, and the means by 
 which, these provisions were to be collected and stored in 
 magazine ; and by supplying the money necessary to pay 
 for their cost. There was but one resource for collecting 
 these magazines ; that was, la iruiraiule. 
 
 Officers were placed in fortified houses or posts in the 
 towns and villasres on the high road from Smolensk to 
 Moscow, with orders to collect magazines to supply the 
 troops in the post, and to assist the reinforcements, 
 recruits and traineurs, coming up to join the army, and 
 eventually the army itself. Was money placed at their 
 disposal to purchase these supplies in a country overrun 
 with Jews, who, if money had been produced, would have 
 procured provisions in exchange for it from any distance ? 
 No ! The officer in command of such post was to plunder 
 the villages in his neighbourhood, already ruined and 
 exhausted by the passage and operations of two hostile 
 armies, and by the repeated plunder which they had 
 suffered by detachments or single traineurs. 
 
 If Napoleon entertained expectations that magazines 
 would have been formed in such situations, it is not 
 astonishing that he should have been disappointed on his
 
 360 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 retreat : it would have been astonishing if any officer 
 had been able to collect a magazine under such circum- 
 stances. 
 
 At Smolensk and at Orcha on the Dnieper, on the 
 return of the army, in November 1812, it appears that 
 magazines of provisions were formed ; that is to say, some 
 of the squadrons, regiments, and brigades of carts before 
 mentioned had found their way to, and had discharged 
 their loads into, the magazines at those places ; but the 
 army was at that time in such a state of disorganisation 
 that those magazines were of little or of no utility. The 
 truth is, that nearly the whole army was, from the period 
 of the commencement of the retreat, a la Tnaraude in search 
 of provisions. Nobody would believe that there could be 
 any regular issue of provisions from any magazine ; and 
 no officer or soldier would join his corps in hopes of obtain- 
 ing his portion of such an issue. Besides, the truth is, 
 that the officers of the French commissariat and the 
 gardes magasins, etc., were so little accustomed to make 
 such issues, that they were not expert in the performance 
 of this part of their duty. They performed it but slowly ; 
 and men who were starving with hunger and cold were but 
 little disposed to wait to satisfy their appetites till these 
 persons had gone through all the formalities required by 
 their coniptabilite, the meaning and use of which they did 
 not understand. It is not astonishing, then, that they 
 should have eaten the horses fit for service, employed 
 in the draught of pieces of cannon upon the glacis of 
 Smolensk, while waiting to receive their rations from the 
 magazines in that town. 
 
 The system of the French army, then, was the cause of 
 its irregularities, disorders, and misfortunes; and of its loss. 
 
 Let us now see what was gained by the forced marches 
 which, it will not be denied, rendered it necessary to leave 
 behind all the means of supplying the army which the 
 foresight of Napoleon had provided.
 
 APPENDIX 361 
 
 The ()l)ject which Napoleon had first in view was to 
 oblige the Emperor of Russia to fight a great battle, or to 
 cut off one of his detachments. The Emperor's position at 
 Wilna, and the entrenched camp prepared at Drissa, on 
 the Dwina, had been known to Napoleon at Paris previous 
 to his departure from thence. The information was con- 
 firmed at Dresden ; and the conversation and boast of the 
 army was, that the Emperor of Russia should there be 
 caught en flagrant delit. 
 
 In order to effect this object, the army was to move by 
 forced marches, first from its cantonments on the Vistula 
 to the Niemen, and thence to the Dwina. 
 
 In order to understand these movements, it is necessary 
 to follow them in some detail. Napoleon, after having 
 remained at Dresden twelve days, quitted that town on 
 the 29th of May. He stopped at Thorn two days, at 
 Dantzick four days, at Konigsberg four days, at Gum- 
 binnen two days ; and he arrived opposite Kowno, on the 
 Niemen, on the 23rd of June. 
 
 The army which had been cantoned on the Vistula 
 broke up from thence about the 1st of June, and marched 
 in different columns by corps and by forced marches to 
 the Niemen, which river it reached in different points, but 
 principally in the neighbourhood of Kowno, on the 23rd, 
 and commenced to cross it on the 24th. 
 
 From the Vistula to Vitepsk, on the Dwina, is 700 wersts, 
 or about 470 to 480 English miles, 3 wersts being nearly 
 equal to 2 English miles. From the Vistula to the 
 Niemen is about half the distance. The whole distance 
 might be marched by an army, with all its train, in forty 
 marches; in fact, an army would march with facility 20 
 wersts in a day. It appears therefore that up to the 
 Niemen, Napoleon had already lost four days in compari- 
 son with an army moving by the ordinary marches. Yet 
 he had moved by forced marches, and had left behind all 
 the equipments and stores of provisions which his fore-
 
 362 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 knowledge of the difficulties of his enterprise had induced 
 him to provide. 
 
 Excepting that it is the necessary fate of a French army 
 to move by forced marches, there was no occasion for the 
 movement in this manner from the Vistula. The 
 Emperor of Russia must have known of the march of 
 his enemy from the cantonments on the Vistula, yet he 
 made no movement, as will appear presently, till the 26th 
 of June, two days after he heard that the head of the 
 French army had crossed the Niemen. But an army 
 which makes even the ordinary march cannot procure 
 provisions for everybody by la niarawde. There is not 
 time. The modern French armies therefore move by 
 forced marches through poor and thinly inhabited 
 countries, and halt for one or more days in the neigh- 
 bourhood of lar?e towns, or in the richer and better in- 
 habited districts, for the sake of la inaraude ; and thus 
 the time is consumed. The consequence of these forced 
 marches, however, is that the troops, and the horses of the 
 array in particular, become knocked up. The convoys of 
 provisions, etc., are necessarily left behind, and are no 
 longer under the inspection and control of the superior 
 officers of the army ; robberies and other disorders are 
 committed ; and it happens not unfrequently that the 
 stores belonging to one corps of the army are plundered 
 by the soldiers of another, probably a la. maraude in search 
 of provisions. 
 
 It appears, then, that the French army not only gained 
 no time, but lost time by its forced marches up to the 
 Niemen. Its subsequent operations to Vitepsk shall now 
 be examined. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia had four armies. The first, 
 under Barclay de Tolly, with which he was himself in 
 person, had its headquarters at Wilna ; its right was at 
 Keidany, under Wittgenstein ; its centre at Swentziany, on 
 the high road from Wilna to the camp at Drissa ; and its
 
 APPENDIX 363 
 
 left at Lida, under Doctorof. Its numbers were 126,500 
 men, includinf^ 7000 Cossacks, at Grodno, under Platof, 
 It was intended to concentrate this army at Swentziany 
 as soon as the French army should cross the Niemen ; and 
 that from thence it should fall back upon the entrenched 
 camp at Drissa. These movements were carried into 
 execution, excepting by the Cossacks under Platof, and a 
 division of the 4th Corps under General Dorokhof, which 
 did not receive in time its orders for the movement. 
 These troops joined Bagration, and retired Avith him. 
 The main body of the army arrived in the camp at Drissa 
 on the 11th of July. 
 
 The second army was under Bagration. It consisted of 
 39,000 men, including 4000 Cossacks. This army was 
 besides joined by Platof with his Cossacks from Grodno, 
 and by the division of infantry of the 4tli Corps under 
 General Dorokhof. Bagration's headquarters were at 
 Wolkowisk. Those of Platof at Grodno. One Corps of 
 Bagration's army was at Novri-Dhor and another at Zelwa. 
 It must be observed that Grodno and Wolkowisk were 70 
 wersts asunder, and each 80 wersts from Lida, where the 
 left of Barclay's army was posted ; Lida was over 80 wersts 
 farther removed from the camp at Drissa than Wilna, 
 where Napoleon had his headquarters on the 28th of 
 July, and Wolkowisk and Grodno were 150 wersts farther 
 removed from the same points than Wilna. 
 
 It is not necessary now to detail the positions of the 
 3rd and 4th armies. The third Avas in Yolhynia, under 
 Tormasof : the fourth, still on the Turkish frontier, under 
 Admiral Tchitchakof. 
 
 Bagration's army was originally destined to operate in 
 rear of the right of the French army which should cross 
 the Niemen, but that destination was altered by the orders 
 received by Bagration from Barclay de Tolly on the 28th 
 of June, the day on which Bagration received intelligence 
 of the passage of the Niemen by Napoleon. It was found
 
 364 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 that the King of Westphalia, at the head of an army, sup- 
 posed 80,000 men, covered that movement of the French 
 army, and it was therefore considered useless to employ 
 Bagration's corps against such a force. Barclay de Tolly 
 accordingly directed him to march by Minsk on Borisof, 
 and thence to the left of the Berezina. 
 
 Bagration moved on that evening upon Zelwa; but 
 upon the 30th he received fresh orders from the Emperor 
 Alexander directing him to move upon the camp at 
 Drissa. 
 
 It will have been observed that he received these orders 
 two days after Napoleon had estabhshed his headquarters 
 in Wilna, and that Bagration was at 150 wersts of greater 
 distance to the camp at Drissa than the troops at Wilna, 
 or seven days' march. It may therefore be fairly com- 
 puted that he was seven days too late. 
 
 Neither Napoleon nor any other general ever had so 
 fair an opportunity of carrying into execution his favourite 
 measure, of placing his army on the communication of 
 that of his enemy by cutting the army of the enemy 
 in two. 
 
 It would appear, however, that he was not aware of the 
 advantage he had over his enemy till the 30th of June. 
 He had detached all the cavalry under Murat (with the 
 exception of the corps of cavalry under Latour Maubourg, 
 and that under Grouchy), three divisions of the 1st Corps 
 under Count de Lobau, the 2nd Corps under Oudinot, and 
 the 3rd Corps under Ney, in pursuit of Barclay de Tolly's 
 army towards the Dwina. On the 30th June a patrol of 
 Davout's fell in with one of Doctorof's at Osmiana, and it 
 was then that the nature of the movement of Bagration 
 was known. 
 
 The 5th Corps under Poniatowsky, the 7 th under 
 Regnier, and the 8th under the King of Westphalia, and 
 Latour Maubourg's corps of cavalry, had been collected at 
 Grodno, and were under the command of the King of
 
 APPENDIX 365 
 
 Westphalia. These troops, except the 7th Corps, which 
 was sent to join Schwarzenberg, were sent in pursuit of 
 Bagration ; while three divisions of the 1st Corps under 
 Davout, and the corps of cavalry under Grouchy, were 
 detached from the side of Wilna upon Bagration's right 
 flank. 
 
 Bagration was even forced to give up the direct line of 
 his march upon Drissa; next that by Minsk and Borisof; 
 and he passed the Berezina with some difficulty at 
 Bobruisk, which post had been fortified. He then 
 marched upon the Dnieper and endeavoured to pass that 
 river at Mohilef, but failed in consequence of having been 
 repulsed in an attack which he made upon Davout, near 
 that town, on the 23rd July. He then crossed the 
 Dnieper, on the 2(3th July, lower down, at Staroi-Bickoff, 
 and marched upon Smolensk, where he formed his 
 junction with Barclay de Tolly on the 1st and 2nd of 
 August. 
 
 During these movements by forced marches of the 
 wings of his army. Napoleon remained at Wilna with the 
 Guard and the 4-th Corps under the Viceroy, and the Gth 
 Corps under St. Cyr, till the 16th of July, when he like- 
 wise moved with those troops towards the Dwina. The 
 troops had moved on the 12th and following days; the 
 Russian army quitted the camp of Drissa on the 14th of 
 July, crossed the river Dwina, and marched by the right 
 bank to Polotsk, where it arrived on the ISth. The 
 Emperor there quitted the army, and went to Moscow. 
 The army renewed its march on the 20th, and went by 
 the right bank to Vitepsk, where it arrived on the 23rd, 
 having again crossed the Dwina, and took up a position on 
 the Luczissa, on the left bank of the Dwina, with the right 
 flank to that river. 
 
 Wittgenstein's corps was left behind on the right of the 
 Dwina to observe the road to St. Petersburg. The French 
 army, with the exception of the 2nd Corps under Oudinot,
 
 366 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 which was left upon the lower Dwina opposed to Wittgen- 
 stein, followed on the left of the Dwina the movement of 
 the Russian army on the right bank ; and the whole, joined 
 with the Guard and the 4th Corps, at Beszenkowiczy, on 
 the 24th of July. 
 
 There was an affair of advanced guards the next day, at 
 Ostrowno ; the Russians retired, and the French army en 
 miasse moved forward upon Vitepsk ; and the two armies 
 were en ^^resence near Vitepsk early on the 27th of July. 
 
 The object of the Russian movement from the camp at 
 Drissa was to effect the junction with Bagration, who had 
 been ordered to move upon Vitepsk, by Orcha; and 
 Barclay de Tolly would have fought a battle to secure the 
 junction. On the evening of the 27th of July, however, 
 Barclay de Tolly learnt that Bagration, having been 
 repulsed on the 23rd, in his attack upon Davout, near 
 Mohilef, was under the necessity of passing the Dnieper 
 lower down ; that he could not therefore move upon 
 Orcha and Vitepsk, but that he would march upon 
 Smolensk. 
 
 Barclay de Tolly therefore marched in the night of the 
 27th of July towards Smolensk, where he effected his 
 junction with Bagration on the 1st and 2nd of August. 
 
 Napoleon might have attacked the Russian army on 
 the 27th, in the afternoon, or he might have posted troops 
 on their flank in such manner as that their movement must 
 have been known to him as soon as it should be made. 
 But this precaution was neglected ; and the Russian army 
 made a retreat so clean, and in such regular order, as that 
 some time elapsed before it was known by what route they 
 had marched. Indeed this want of knowledge of the 
 movements of their enemy from positions in their sight 
 was more frequent in the armies commanded by Napoleon 
 than in any other. It occurred again at Smolensk, once 
 before and once after the battle of Borodino, and again in 
 a very remarkable manner at the capture of Moscow.
 
 APPENDIX 367 
 
 Thus it appears that the object of all these forced 
 marches was frustrated. There had Ijecn no battle and 
 the two Russian corps were joined. 
 
 The French army had suffered severely by the forced 
 marches which it had made; all its supplies had been left 
 behind, and a halt at Vitepsk became necessary. Se^^ur 
 asserts that the plan was here altered, which is denied 
 by Gourgaud ; ^ but whether it was or not, it is obvious 
 that the distress of the army was imminent, that their 
 losses were already immense, and that the seeds of their 
 destruction were laid. 
 
 But not only was the object of the forced marches lost, 
 but time, still more precious, was lost. The army had 
 been fifty-seven days from its cantonments on the Vistula 
 to Vitepsk, the distance being 700 wersts, which might 
 have been marched with ease in thirty-five or forty days. 
 
 But I will go farther, and assert that the loss of time by 
 Napoleon in these first operations was the cause of the 
 failure in effecting the object for which they were under- 
 taken. It is obvious that the corps of troops which 
 pursued Barclay do Tolly were too strong for that officer 
 to attempt to turn round and meet them in the field, as 
 were those under the King of Westphalia and Davout 
 much too strong to be opposed by Bagration. 
 
 Napoleon had the advantage of knowing to a certainty 
 before he commenced this war what his enemy's first move- 
 ment would be. The entrenched camp of Drissa was the 
 position of his enemy's reserves and magazines; it was 
 near the road to Petersburg; and the position of the 
 Russian army behind the Niemen, and of the head- 
 quarters at Wilna, showed that the first movement would 
 be upon this camp. 
 
 Napoleon must be supposed to have made up his mind 
 as to what his object was in the war, and that this object 
 
 1 Napoleon et la Orande-Armde en Ruasit ; par le General Gcourgaud. 
 Paris, 1825.
 
 368 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 was Moscow. He might then with safety have left his 
 wings to pursue the enemy opposed to them respectively ; 
 and he might himself, with the Guards and the 4th Corps, 
 have moved direct upon Vitepsk from Wilna, or upon 
 Rudnia, or even upon Smolensk. He ought to have made 
 this movement as soon as possible after his arrival at Wilna ; 
 and certainly as soon as he had received positive intelli- 
 gence of the position of Bagration. No forced marches 
 would in that case have been required ; he might have 
 moved direct upon Moscow from Wilna by the ordinary 
 marches. He would have found himself at Vitepsk on 
 the 20th of July, leaving Wilna as late as the 4th of July, 
 with above 120,000 men between the two armies of the 
 enemy, with no force in his front, with all their lines of 
 communication at his mercy, and with a superior army 
 following each of theirs ; and he would have been accom- 
 panied by all the resources and equipments avowedly 
 necessary to enable his army to keep the field in such a 
 country as Russia. 
 
 On that day Barclay de Tolly was still at Polotsk on 
 the Dwina, having remained in the camp at Drissa only 
 three days, and Bagration still on the right of the Dnieper, 
 below Mohilef, and Napoleon would have had it in his 
 power to choose whether to attack either, or to continue 
 his march to Moscow between both. This advantage was 
 lost, however, by the unaccountable delay at Wilna, from 
 the 28th of June to the 16 th of July. 
 
 In the meantime Barclay de Tolly made a flank march 
 along the whole front of the enemy's army of not much 
 less than 250 wersts, and ended by effecting his junction 
 with Bagration at Smolensk, on the 1st and 2nd of August, 
 thus defeating his enemy in all his objects. His troops 
 were collected ; they had sustained no defeat. They were 
 posted on their own line of communication with the points 
 and provinces which they were destined to defend ; and 
 they were evidently in a better position, and in better con-
 
 APPENDIX 369 
 
 dition for the future operations of the campaign than were 
 those of his enemy. 
 
 Napoleon halted at Vitepsk ; and the armies were then 
 posted as follows in the beginning of August. 
 
 The Grand Russian Army at Smolensk. The corps of 
 Wittgenstein on the left of the Dwina, at Osweia, in 
 observation of the movements of the French in that 
 quarter ; the corps of Tormasof, in Yolhynia, opposed to 
 the Austrian corps under Prince Schwarzenberg ; and the 
 7th Corps of the French army under General Regnier, 
 which had been sent back from the army commanded by 
 the King of Westphalia in order to co-operate with Prince 
 Schwarzenberg against Tormasof. There was a Russian 
 garrison in Bobruisk, on the Berezina, and a corps of 
 15,000 men, under General Hoertel, at Mozyr. 
 
 Tchitchakof s army was still upon the Danube. 
 
 The French army was stationed as follows, begiiming 
 with the right. The Austrian corps under Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, and the 7th Corps of the French army, 
 were upon the Bug opposed to Tormasof. Latour 
 Maubourg's corps of cavalry was blockading Bobruisk; 
 but was at this time relieved by Dombrowsky's division 
 of the 5th corps: and Latour Maubourg joined the 
 army. 
 
 The 5th Corps under Poniatowsky, the 8th Corps under 
 Junot (the King of Westphalia having withdrawn from 
 the army in disgust), were upon the Dnieper, between 
 Orcha and Mohilef. The corps of cavalry under Grouchy, 
 and the three divisions of the corps under Davout, were 
 cantoned between the Dnieper and the Berezina. These 
 were the troops which had followed Bagration. 
 
 The Guards, three divisions of the 1st Corps, the 3rd 
 Corps under Ney, the 4th Corps under the Viceroy, and 
 all the cavalry, with the exception of the corps under 
 Latour Maubourg, at Bobruisk, were with Napoleon in the 
 neighbourhood of Vitepsk, being cantoned between the 
 
 2 A
 
 370 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Dwina and the Dnieper, and along the Dwina as far as 
 Souraij. 
 
 The 2nd Corps, under Oudinot, was lower do^vn the 
 Dwina, at Polotsk, in observation of Wittsfenstein. 
 
 The 6th Corps on its march to join Oudinot. 
 
 The 10th Corps under Marshal Macdonald, consisting of 
 the Prussian corps and other troops, was in the neighbour- 
 hood of Riga, being destined to carry on the siege of that 
 fortress. 
 
 On the 31st of July Oudinot had an affair with the corps 
 under Wittgenstein, in the neighbourhood of Kliastisky, 
 on the road from Polotsk towards St. Petersburg, but he 
 was obliged to retire. Napoleon then reinforced this 
 corps by joining to it the 6th Corps, consisting of 25,000 
 men under St. Cyr. Excepting this affair, and an un- 
 successful attack upon Oudinot and St. Cyr, joined at 
 Polotsk on the 19th of August, nothing important was 
 done on either side on this flank of the army from that 
 period till the end of October. Macdonald had collected 
 at Mittau the means of making the siege of Riga ; but the 
 place was not even invested. 
 
 There were thus on the left flank of the army upon the 
 Dwina the 3rd Corps of 37,000 men under Oudinot, the 
 6th Corps of 25,000 under St. Cyr, the 10th Corps of 
 33,000 men under Macdonald. 
 
 On the right flank of the army Schwarzenberg and 
 Regnier, after beating General Tormasof in an affair at 
 Gorodeczna on the 12th of August, obliged him to retire 
 beyond the Styr River on the 29th of August. 
 
 The Austrian corps consisted of 34,000 men, of which 
 7300 were cavalry ; the 7th Corps, under Regnier, had 
 17,000 men. 
 
 Affairs remained in this situation on this flank till 
 Tchitchakof, from the Danube, joined Tormasof on the 
 Styr, The army of the Danube, consisting of 40,000 
 men, commenced its march, on the 1st of August, from
 
 APPENDIX 371 
 
 Bucharest, and arrived upon the Styr on the 16th of 
 September. The two Russian armies in this quarter, when 
 joined, Avere 00,000 men. 
 
 The accounts are contradictory respecting the objects of 
 Napoleon's halt at Vitepsk. This measure was certainly 
 necessary for his army, already exhausted by its useless 
 and fruitless forced marches. Segur asserts that Napoleon 
 intended to take up his position for the winter at that 
 point ; that he commenced the improvement of his head- 
 quarters ; and various conversations are reported in which 
 that determination is positively stated. Reasons are not 
 wanting which would have made that appear to be the 
 preferable plan for Napoleon. 
 
 It must be observed respecting S6gur that he filled the 
 office about headquarters which was most likely to give 
 a man of talents, which he certainly is, the means and 
 opportunity of knowing all that passed. His particular 
 duty was to take up and distribute the quarters in the 
 headquarters of the army. It is not improbable that in 
 making this distribution he took care of himself; and he 
 doubtless had a very agreeable house, wherever such was 
 to be had. No officer could have gone to or from head- 
 quarters without communicating with Segur; and most 
 probably, indeed certainly, if he is the man of ability he 
 appears, he must have heard the story of every officer 
 who arrived at or departed from headquarters both 
 before and after he had seen Napoleon ; and as he had no 
 occupation excepting that of superintending the distribu- 
 tion of the quarters at headquarters, he must have had 
 ample time to hear everything. There cannot, then, be a 
 better authority than Segur ; and it must be observed that 
 he is a great admirer of Napoleon ; and those who know 
 the French army will see that Segur is not a /aiw; frere. 
 
 The intention of remaining at Vitepsk is, however, 
 positively denied by others of great authority ; and it does 
 appear extraordinary that Napoleon should in the month
 
 372 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 of July take up his quarters for the winter. However, 
 whether he ever did or not seriously intend to take up his 
 quarters at Vitepsk, he afterwards abandoned that inten- 
 tion, and on the 12th of August made a great movement, 
 which it is the next object of this paper to discuss. 
 
 The Russian army at Smolensk, seeing the manner in 
 which the French army was dispersed in cantonments 
 between the river Dwina and Dnieper, moved, on the 7th 
 of August, towards Rudnia in order to beat up their 
 quarters. They succeeded in surprising those of Sebastiani, 
 and did him a good deal of mischief in an attack upon 
 Inkowo. In the meantime Barclay de Tolly was alarmed 
 by a movement made by the Viceroy about Souraij, on 
 the Dwina, and he countermanded the original plan of 
 operations with a view to extend his right flank ; and for 
 some days afterwards the Russian army made various 
 false movements, and was in a considerable degree of 
 confusion. Whether Napoleon's plan was founded upon 
 the march of the Russian army from Smolensk, as 
 supposed by Segur, or upon their position at Smolensk 
 in the first days of August, he carried it into execution 
 notwithstanding that march. 
 
 Accordingly, he broke up his cantonments upon the 
 Dwina on the 10th of August, and marched his army in 
 different columns by corps across the front of the Russian 
 army from these cantonments to Rassassna upon the 
 Dnieper. The false movements made by the Russian 
 army between the 7th and the 12th of August prevented 
 their obtaining early knowledge of this march ; and they 
 were not in a situation to be able to take advantage of it. 
 On the other hand, Napoleon could have had no knowledge 
 of the false movements made by the Russian army. 
 
 Being arrived at Rassassna, where he was joined by 
 Davout Avith three divisions of the 1st Corps, etc., he 
 crossed the Dnieper on the 14th. The corps of Poniatowski 
 and Junot were at the same time moving upon Smolensk 
 direct from Mohilef.
 
 APPENDIX 373 
 
 Napoleon moved on upon Smolensk. 
 
 The garrison of that place, a division of infantry, under 
 General Newerowskoi, had come out as far as Krasnoi in 
 order to observe the movements of the French troops on 
 the left of the Dnieper supposed to be advancing along 
 the Dnieper from Orcha. Murat attacked this body of 
 troops with all his cavalry ; but they made good their 
 retreat to Smolensk. Murat endeavoured to destroy this 
 body of troops by repeated charges of his cavalry. These 
 charges were of little avail, however ; and this operation 
 affords another instance of the security mth which good 
 infantry can stand the attack of cavalry. This division, 
 of about 6000 infantry, had no artificial defence, excepting 
 two rows of trees on each side of the road, of which they 
 certainly availed themselves. But the use made even of 
 this defence shows how small an obstacle will impede and 
 check the operations of the cavalry. 
 
 It would probably have been more advisable if Murat, 
 hearing of the movement of Poniatowsky and Junot 
 direct from Mohilef upon Smolensk, had not pushed this 
 body of troops too hard. They might have been induced 
 to delay on their retreat in order effectually to reconnoitre 
 their enemy. The fort would undoubtedly in that case 
 have fallen into the hands of Poniatowski. 
 
 On the 17th of August Napoleon assembled the whole 
 of the operating army before Smolensk, on the left of the 
 Dnieper. It consisted as follows : 
 
 
 Men. 
 
 The cavalry under Murat, . 
 
 40,000 
 
 Guards, .... 
 
 47,000 
 
 1st Corps, Davout, 
 
 72,000 
 
 3rd Corps, Ney, . 
 
 39,000 
 
 4th Corps, the Viceroy, 
 
 45,000 
 
 5th Corps, Poniatowski, 
 
 36,000 
 
 8th Corps, Junot, 
 
 18,000 
 
 297,000
 
 374 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 These corps had, about six weeks before, entered the 
 country with the numbers above stated. They had had 
 no military affair to occasion loss, yet Segur says they 
 were then reduced to 185,000. The returns of the 3rd 
 August are stated to have given those numbers only. 
 
 The town had been attacked on the 16th, first by a 
 battalion (really a division) of the 3rd Corps, which troops 
 were repulsed. 
 
 In the meantime Bagration moved upon Katan upon 
 the Dnieper, having heard of Napoleon's movement from 
 the Dwina, and Barclay de Tolly having authorised the 
 resumption of the plan of operations in pursuance of which 
 the Russian army had broken up from Smolensk on the 
 7th, he moved thence, on the 16th, along the right of the 
 Dnieper back upon Smolensk. He immediately re- 
 inforced the garrison of Smolensk. He was followed that 
 night by Barclay de Tolly, who relieved the troops under 
 the command of Bagration which were in the town ; and 
 the whole Russian army was collected at Smolensk, on 
 the right of the Dnieper. 
 
 Bagration moved during the same night with his army 
 towards Dorogobouje, on the road to Moscow. Barclay 
 remained in support of the troops in Smolensk. 
 
 Napoleon, after waiting till two o'clock in expectation 
 that Barclay would cross the Dnieper, and move out of 
 Smolensk and fight a general battle, attacked the town 
 on the 17th with his whole army, and was repulsed with 
 loss; and in the evening the Russian troops resumed 
 possession of all the outposts. Barclay, however, with- 
 drew the garrison in the night of the 17th, and destroyed 
 the bridges of communication upon the Dnieper between 
 the fort and the town. 
 
 The enemy crossed the Dnieper by fords, and obtained 
 for a moment possession of the faubourg of Petersburg, 
 on the right of that river, but were driven back. The 
 Russian army, after remaining all day on the right of the
 
 APPENDIX 375 
 
 river, opposite Smolensk, retired on the night of the 
 18th : and the French that night repaired the bridges 
 on the Dnieper. 
 
 Before I proceed farther with the narrative, it is 
 necessary to consider a little this movement of Napoleon's, 
 which is greatly admired by all the Avriters upon the 
 subject. When this movement was undertaken, the 
 communication of the army was necessarily removed 
 entirely from the Dwina. Instead of proceeding from 
 Wilna upon Vitepsk, it proceeded from Wilna upon Minsk, 
 where a great magazine was formed ; and thence across 
 the Berezina upon Orcha upon the Dnieper ; and thence 
 upon Smolensk. 
 
 The consequences of this alteration will appear presently 
 when we come to consider of the retreat. It is obvious 
 that the position of the great magazine at Minsk brought 
 the communications of the army necessarily upon the 
 Berezina ; and eventually within the influence of the 
 operations of the Russian armies from the southward. 
 
 Napoleon's objects by the movement might have been 
 three. First, to force the Russians to a general battle ; 
 secondly, to obtain possession of Smolensk without the 
 loss or the delay of a siege ; thirdly, to endeavour again 
 to obtain a position in rear of the Russian army upon their 
 communications with Moscow, and with the southern 
 provinces of the Russian empire. 
 
 This movement is nmch admired and extolled by the 
 Russian as well as the French writers upon this war, yet 
 if it is tried by the only tests of any military movements, 
 its objects compared with its risks and dithculties, and 
 its success compared with the same risks and ditiiculties, 
 and with the probable risks and the probably successful 
 result of other movements to attain the same objects, it 
 will be found to have failed completely. 
 
 The risk has been stated to con.sist, first, in the march 
 of the ditterent corps from their cantonments on the
 
 376 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Dwina to Rassassna on the Dnieper, across the front of 
 the Russian army, ^v^thout the protection of a body of 
 troops posted for that purpose: and next, in the risk 
 incurred in removing the communication of the army 
 from Vitepsk to Minsk. This will be discussed presently. 
 
 In respect to the first object, that of bringing the 
 Russian army to a general action, it must be obvious to 
 everybody that the fort of Smolensk and the Dnieper 
 river were between Napoleon and the Russian army when 
 his movement was completed, and the armies not only 
 in sight, but within musket-shot of each other. It was 
 impossible for Napoleon to bring his enemy to an action 
 on that ground without his consent ; and as the ground 
 would not have been advantageous to the Russian army, 
 and an misuccessful or even a doubtful result would not 
 have saved Smolensk, and there was no object sufficiently 
 important to induce the Russian General to incur the risk 
 of an unsuccessful result of a general action, it was not 
 very probable that he would move into the trap which 
 Segur describes as laid for him. 
 
 Neither was it likely that Napoleon would take 
 Smolensk by any assault which this movement might 
 enable him to make upon that place. He had no heavy 
 artillery ; and he tried in vain to take the place by storm, 
 first by a battalion, then by a division, and lastly by the 
 whole army. He obtained possession of Smolensk at last 
 only because the Russian General had made no previous 
 arrangements for occupying the place ; and Barclay kncAv 
 that if he left a garrison there unprovided, it must fall 
 into Napoleon's hands a few days sooner or later. The 
 Russian General then thought proper to evacuate the place 
 when he retired his army from it ; and notwithstanding 
 the position of Napoleon on the left of the Dnieper, and 
 his attempts to take the place by storm, the Russian 
 General would have maintained the possession if he could 
 either have maintained the position of his own army in
 
 APPENDIX 377 
 
 the neighbourhood, or have supplied the place adequately 
 before he retired from it. 
 
 The possession of the place depended, then, upon the 
 position of the Russian army ; and what follows will show 
 that other measures than those adopted, and other move- 
 ments, were better calculated to dislodge the Russian army 
 from Smolensk than that which was made. There can be 
 no doubt that upon Napoleon's arrival at Smolensk he had 
 gained six marches upon his enemy. 
 
 If Napoleon, when he crossed the Dnieper at Rassassna, 
 had masked Smolensk, and marched direct upon any 
 point of the Dnieper above that place, and there placed 
 his bridges, he would indeed have posted himself with his 
 whole army upon the communications of his enemy with 
 Moscow, and his enemy would scarcely have attempted to 
 pass across his front to seek the road by Kalougha. He 
 must have gone to the northward, evacuating or leaving 
 Smolensk to its fate ; and Napoleon might have continued 
 his march upon Moscow, keeping his position constantly 
 between his enemy and his communications with that 
 city and with the southern provinces. The fate of 
 Smolensk could not have been doubtful. 
 
 Here then a different mode of manoeuvring, even upon 
 the same plan, would have produced without loss two of 
 the three objects which Napoleon is supposed to have had 
 in view by these movements. But these were not the 
 only movements in his power at that time. 
 
 The Viceroy is stated to have been at Souraij and Velij. 
 If, instead of moving by his right. Napoleon had moved 
 by his left, and brought the 1st, 5th, and 8th Corps from 
 the Dnieper to form the reserve, and had marched from 
 Souraij upon any point of the Upper Dnieper, he would 
 equally have put himself in the rear of his enemy upon his 
 communications. 
 
 He would have effected this object with more certainty 
 if he could have ventured to move the 1st and the 5th
 
 378 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 and 8th Corps through the country on the left of the 
 Dnieper; and in this last movement there would have 
 been no risk ; first, because Napoleon's mancEUvres upon 
 the Dwina would have attracted all the enemy's attention ; 
 secondly, because these corps would all have passed 
 Smolensk before the Russian Generals could have known 
 of their movement, in like manner as Napoleon passed 
 the Dnieper, and arrived at Smolensk without their know- 
 ledge. 
 
 By either of these modes of proceeding Napoleon would 
 have cut off his enemy from their communication; would 
 have obliged them to fight a battle to regain it ; and in 
 all probability Smolensk would have fallen into his bands 
 without loss, with its buildinsfs entire. Either of these 
 last modes of effecting the object would have been shorter 
 by two marches than the movements of the whole army 
 upon Rassassna. 
 
 The advantage for the French army of this position 
 upon the Upper Dnieper was so obvious that Barclay de 
 Tolly would not allow a night to pass over his head Avith- 
 out occupying it. Accordingly, on the very night of his 
 arrival, that of the 16th, at Smolensk, he sent off Bagra- 
 tion along the Dnieper to proceed as far as Dorogobouje. 
 He retired himself on the night of the 18th, and proceeded 
 at first for some worsts along the road from Smolensk to 
 St. Petersburg, and thence turned to the right to join the 
 road from Smolensk to Moscow. The point of communi- 
 cation of the two roads is at Loubino. Barclay de Tolly's 
 object in moving by the road of St. Petersburg was to 
 avoid the loss which his troops would have sustained by 
 the fire of his enem}' 's cannon from the left of the Dnieper. 
 But he ought to have kept a sufficient rear -guard in 
 front of Loubino in order to protect the movement of his 
 army from the Petersburg to the Moscow road at that 
 point. 
 
 On the morning after the retreat of the Russian army
 
 APPENDIX 379 
 
 Marshal Ney crossed the Dnieper : and here again the 
 movement of the Russians had been so clean, and had 
 been so little observed by their enemies, that Marshal Ney 
 halted some time before he determined by which of the 
 routes he would pursue the enemy. 
 
 He first moved by the route of St. Petersburg, but 
 Napoleon stopped him ; he then moved by that from 
 Smolensk to Moscow. He very soon overtook the 
 enemy's rear-guard, when an affair ensued in which both 
 sides sustained great loss. The Russians, however, having 
 reinforced their rear-guard, were enabled to maintain their 
 position during a sufficient length of time for their army 
 to pass Loubino, the point at which the road of communi- 
 cation with the high-road from Smolensk to St. Petersburg 
 joins the high-road from Smolensk to Moscow. As soon 
 as the whole army had passed Loubino, the Russian rear- 
 guard retired. 
 
 Davout supported Marshal Ney. The failure of the 
 operation of the day is attributed to Junot, who, hav- 
 ing been detached from Smolensk to cross the Dnieper at 
 Prouditchevo, upon the left flank of the Russian rear- 
 guard, omitted to move forward after he had crossed 
 the Dnieper with his corps. 
 
 It must be observed, however, that parts of three corps 
 d'armee having been engaged in this operation. Napoleon 
 ought to have been on the ground himself to superintend 
 and direct their movements. 
 
 The French army was formed into what were called Corps 
 d'Armee, each commanded by a King, the Viceroy, a 
 Marshal, or a General Officer having pretensions founded 
 upon former services to be promoted to that rank. Each 
 corps d'armee was composed of officers and troops of all 
 arms, and completely equipped with bridges, artillery, 
 commissariat, etc., to enable the corps to act separately as 
 an array. A corps d'armee consisted of from six to two 
 divisions of troops, each commanded by a General de
 
 380 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 Division. Each division of three or two brigades, each 
 commanded by a General de Brigade. Each brigade con- 
 sisted of three or two regiments, and each regiment of 
 three or two battahons. A division upon taking the field 
 was about ten or twelve thousand men ; so that the strength 
 of the corps d'armee varied from about 25,000 to 70,000 
 men. Each of the officers commanding these corps 
 d'armee exercised over the movements of his own corps a 
 command independent of all excepting of Napoleon him- 
 self. Not only they declined to obey each other, but 
 would not attend to suggestions or advice in respect to 
 the operations of their several corps in critical moments ; 
 and from the great caution with Avhich it appears that 
 Napoleon proceeded in placing one of these authorities in 
 command over others, and the paucity of the instances in 
 which he adopted such a measure, it may almost be 
 believed that he was apprehensive of a refusal to obey the 
 order. 
 
 There are several instances throughout this service in 
 Russia of inconvenience resulting from the refusal of the 
 commander of one corps d'armee to obey the commander 
 of the other upon occasions in which it appears from the 
 letters that Napoleon had ordered the senior to take the 
 command of the whole; and as the juniors refused to 
 obey, it is probable that Napoleon had omitted to inform 
 them that they were placed under the command of their 
 senior. 
 
 This organisation of corps d'armee gave great efficiency 
 to the French army when under Napoleon, and was very 
 convenient in all great movements and operations. But 
 this organisation rendered it necessary for Napoleon him- 
 self to be present upon all occasions in which it was neces- 
 sary to employ more than one corps d'armee in an opera- 
 tion. He ought to have been present, then, in this affair 
 with the Russian rear-guard. He was aware of, indeed 
 present at, its commencement, and the action took place
 
 APPENDIX 381 
 
 within hearing of headquarters. He knew that two corps, 
 besides the cavalry under Murat, were employed and 
 that that of Davout was stationed in the neighbour- 
 hood of the field of battle ; and he was called upon for 
 reinforcements, and he sent a division of the 1st Corps 
 (Davout's) to reinforce Ney. If he had gone himself, he 
 would have seen the advantage of moving Junot's corps 
 from the bank of the river. His order would have in- 
 duced that officer to move, and the result would have 
 been, that in all probability the Russian army would have 
 sustained great loss in its equipments, and all the troops 
 which had not passed the point of junction of the two 
 roads would have been cut off. 
 
 The Russian army, however, having effected this move- 
 ment, was again collected upon the great road to Moscow, 
 with its communication with that city and with the 
 southern provinces of the Russian empire open, and 
 Napoleon's plan had again been defeated. 
 
 The accounts show in what state Smolensk fell into his 
 hands ; and that this place did not afford him even shelter 
 for the wounded of his army in the fruitless attempts to 
 take the place by storm ; and in the action which followed, 
 which produced no result. 
 
 From this place Murat, supported by Davout, pursued 
 the march of the Russian army; and although some 
 circumstances occurred in this march worthy of observa- 
 tion, this paper is already so long that I will observe but 
 little upon them. 
 
 As usual, Napoleon delayed for seven days at Smolensk 
 in uncertainty, as stated by St'gur, whether he should pro- 
 ceed or not. He was at length roused by the report of the 
 prospect that the Russians were disposed to take up a 
 position to fight a battle at Dorogobouje, four or five 
 marches from Smolensk. In this expectation, however, 
 he was disappointed, as the Russian generals did not 
 approve of that position. They continued their retreat
 
 382 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 then to Borodino, where Kutusof, having joined and taken 
 the command, the Russian army halted, determined to 
 tight a general action Avith their enemy. They were re- 
 inforced by all the troops which could be sent to them 
 from Moscow, etc. ; and the position they chose was 
 certainly naturally strong; and they augmented its 
 strength by works. But notwithstanding the advantages 
 with which they fought this battle, and the political 
 advantages which resulted from it, it may be doubted 
 whether, upon mihtary principles, it ought to have been 
 fought. 
 
 For pohtical reasons it was necessary to light a great 
 battle before the enemy should be allowed to obtain 
 possession of Moscow ; and it would not have been safe to 
 fight a great battle against such an enemy at a position 
 nearer to Moscow than Borodino was. But a great risk 
 was incurred ; and if the result of the day had been more 
 decisive, the campaign would have been lost. Notwith- 
 standing that Napoleon had halted seven days at Smolensk, 
 he was under the necessity of halting two days at Gjatz to 
 collect and prepare his army ; and he arrived in presence 
 of his enemy, at Borodino, on the 5th September. The 
 army was thus, from the 19th August, seventeen days 
 marching by forced marches from Smolensk, the distance 
 being 280 worsts, or about fourteen marches. 
 
 A criticism upon a battle in which the critic was not 
 present is not likely to meet with much confidence or 
 attention, particularly when made upon the conduct of so 
 consummate a captain on a field of battle as Napoleon 
 was. But it certainly appears that the measure stated 
 by Segur to have been recommended by Davout would 
 have been the best and would have had the most decisive 
 results ; such as alone could render any action desirable to 
 the French army, or be really detrimental to their Russian 
 enemies. 
 
 Davout's recommendation was to force and turn the
 
 APPENDIX 383 
 
 enemy's left by the old road from Smolensk to Mojaisk ; 
 and to attack the Russian army by its rear from the 
 heights in that quarter of their position. 
 
 This operation ought to have been performed by a much 
 larger body of men than was proposed by Davout: pro- 
 bably the whole of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and Sth Corps, and 
 half the cavalry; keeping half the cavalry, the Guards, 
 and the 4th Corps in reserve nearly in the position occu- 
 pied by the Guards during the battle. The attacking 
 troops might have been formed across the rear of the 
 Russian left on what appears, from the plans and the 
 courses of the rivulets thereon delineated, to be the highest 
 ground in the country. Every movement they would 
 have made would have brought them nearer their re- 
 serve ; and the slightest success would have cut off the 
 Russian army from its point of retreat, Mojaisk. It is not 
 to be supposed that Napoleon was not aware of this mode 
 of operation; and it is most probable that he did not 
 adopt it because he must have trusted some officer with 
 the execution of the plan ; and he could not trust Murat, 
 or decide between the conflicting pretensions of Ney and 
 Davout. It is quite clear, however, that having omitted 
 to adopt this plan his success in the battle was not de- 
 cisive ; and not sufficiently so, even in his own opinion, to 
 enable him to allow his reserve of Guards to attack. 
 Indeed some little circumstances are mentioned which 
 show how little decisive the success was, owing princi- 
 pally to the omission to attack the Russian left in sufficient 
 strength. 
 
 One of these is that the Russians weakened their ex- 
 treme left opposed to Poniatowski, in order to strengthen 
 that part of their line opposed to Davout. Yet Ponia- 
 towski could make no progress ; and in point of fact made 
 none till Davout had carried the heights and works 
 opposed to the advance of the troops under his own com- 
 mand ; thus fiicilitating the movements of Poniatowski
 
 384 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 instead of receiving assistance from the 5th Corps. 
 Another is that the action was continued along the line 
 throughout the evening ; and that the Russians, although 
 they had lost their works and their first position, did not 
 retire till the night, and then only as far as Mojaisk. 
 
 Their rear-guard again successfully contended with 
 Murat's advanced guard on the day after the battle for 
 the possession of Mojaisk ; and the Russian rear-guard 
 did not quit that town till the second day after the battle. 
 
 Then if the success was not what Napoleon wished or 
 expected, or of a nature to relieve him from the difficulties 
 of his position, the loss of the French army was immense ; 
 and there was but little chance of saving any of the 
 wounded ; as the Convent of Kolotskoi to which they were 
 sent was but ill provided as a hospital. 
 
 Upon the Russian retreat from Mojaisk one of those 
 circumstances occurred respecting which astonishment has 
 already been expressed. It was not known for some time 
 by what road they had retired. Napoleon suspected that 
 they had retired upon Kalougha, leaving the road upon 
 Moscow open to him ; and having already halted the 8th 
 upon the field of battle, he halted the 9th, 10th, and 11th 
 in Mojaisk ; he did not move from thence till the 12th, 
 when he had received intelligence upon which he could 
 rely that the Russians had retired upon Moscow. To this 
 point he followed them, and he arrived at Moscow with 
 his whole army on the 14th of September, in 106 days 
 from the time he quitted the Vistula. The distance from 
 the cantonments of the French army on the Vistula to 
 Moscow is 1200 wersts, or 60 to 70 marches ; and they 
 marched over that distance in 106 days by forced 
 marches, attended by such fatigue to the troops and 
 horses of the army as to have arrived at Moscow nearly 
 in a state of disorganisation from starvation and distress 
 of every description. Napoleon himself, with his Guards, 
 halted 18 days at Wilna, 18 at Vitepsk, 7 at Smolensk,
 
 APPENDIX 385 
 
 and 6 days afterwards, making the whole 49 days. These 
 delays will account for the time lost in effecting the 
 march. 
 
 The Russian army retired through Moscow on the 14th 
 September, after a council of war, in which it was deter- 
 mined that it was not expedient to tight another battle to 
 save that city ; and they directed their march upon Rya- 
 konow. They crossed the Moskwa about four marches 
 from Moscow near its junction with the Pakra, and con- 
 tinued to march along the course of that river by Polotsk, 
 till they reached the old road from Moscow to Kalougha, 
 They then marched along that road till, on the 2nd of 
 October, they took the position of Taroutino on the 
 Nara, about 75 wersts from Moscow and 75 from 
 Kalougha. 
 
 Napoleon, after delaying some time at the gate of 
 Moscow in expectation that a deputation of the in- 
 habitants would be sent out to lay the keys of the toAvn 
 at his feet, entered the town, and found it abandoned by 
 all its native inhabitants, none of those having remained 
 excepting of the lowest rabble, who had even attempted 
 to defend the Kremlin against Murat's advanced guard. 
 
 The French advanced guard appears not to have pursued 
 the Russian army from Moscow. It appears that they 
 did not molest the march which they made round the 
 town, and did not even know for some days, till the 2Gth 
 September, in what direction the Russians had gone. 
 
 They got upon the right road at last, however, and 
 having ajDproached the Russian army took up a position 
 near Winkowo in front of the Russians on the Nara, in 
 which they remiiined till Kutusof attacked them. 
 
 On the day Napoleon entered Moscow he ought to have 
 made his arrangements to withdraw from that city. 
 Moscow was not a military position. The possession of it 
 was important to Napoleon only on account of its political 
 importance to the Russian empire. But when the inhabi- 
 
 2 B
 
 386 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 tants had fled, with the exception of the German and French 
 merchants and a few of the rabble, the possession of the 
 town lost its value, and after the fire was no resource to 
 the French army, even in the way of provisions or military 
 equipments. The burning of the town is attributed by all 
 these authors to Rostopchin, who on his part has published 
 a pamphlet in which he denies that he had anything to 
 do with the burning of the town. 
 
 If these histories^ are read with attention it will be 
 seen that Rostopchin was anxious that another battle 
 should be fought even at the gates of the city to save it 
 from falling into the hands of the French, and that a 
 Council of War was assembled on the 13th September to 
 decide whether this battle should be fought or not. The 
 decision was in the neirative, and the total evacuation 
 took place next morning, the Russian army having moved 
 through Moscow and the French army having followed 
 them. 
 
 It is quite clear that Rostopchin can have taken no 
 measures to set fire to the town previous to the assembly 
 of this Council of War. He could not have foreseen its 
 decision, and if the decision had been in favour of a 
 battle, the Russian army might have fought with the 
 town on fire in their rear, and the reward of their victory 
 might have been its ashes ; or on the other hand the 
 Russian army might have had to retire through a town 
 on fire. No man in his senses could have incurred such 
 a risk. 
 
 Then between the period of the breaking up the 
 council of war and the retreat of the Russian rear-guard, 
 was there time to adopt the measures stated to have been 
 adopted to set fire to this town ? If there were time, 
 Rostopchin could not have executed those measures him- 
 
 1 In addition to the works of Segur, book viii. c. 2, and Gourgaud, 
 
 p. 260, see Hisioire de VExpddition de Russit ; par M , vol. i., p. 365. 
 
 Paris, 1823, in two volumes.
 
 APPENDIX 387 
 
 self. There must have been some agents, some witnesses 
 of the measures adopted, and Rostopchin could not have 
 contradicted the fact in the face of the world without 
 somebody having been found able and willing to state the 
 truth. 
 
 The magazines were not burnt. No mischief was done 
 to the powder magazine in particular, yet in a town 
 abandoned by its inhabitants, doomed by its native 
 governor to be destroyed by tire, surely the object to 
 which he would have tirst turned his attention, that in 
 which he would most willingly have tried his infernal 
 machines, would have been magazines of arms, cannon, 
 etc., and above all the powder magazine. 
 
 It is by far more probable that the soldiers of the 
 French army, finding the town abandoned by its inhabi- 
 tants, broke into the houses to search for plunder on the 
 night of their arrival. Light for this purpose is generally 
 procured by flashing off a firelock, and setting fire to the 
 oil rag with which the musket is commonly kept clean. 
 This oil rag is kept in the hand as long as the latter is 
 not burnt, the rag is then thrown upon the ground or 
 anywhere, and something is found and set fire to, to 
 answer the same purpose. It is thus that a house 
 abandoned by its inhabitants, if plundered by troops, 
 is generally burnt. 
 
 It will be observed accordingly, in the account, that but 
 few houses were on fire the first night ; a very large 
 number the second night, and the whole town the third 
 night. 
 
 It is quite consistent with this mode of setting fire 
 to the town that some of the inhabitants were found 
 engaged in burning houses. Such inhabitants as re- 
 mained in Moscow are not generally unwilling to share 
 in the benefits to be derived from the sack of such a town 
 as Moscow ; and it is not improbable that they increased 
 the confusion and pillage.
 
 388 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 The destruction of Moscow by fire apparently made no 
 alteration in Napoleon's intention to remain in that city. 
 He had made endeavours to open a negotiation with the 
 Emperor of Russia for peace, which he flattered himself 
 would be successful; and that this event would relieve 
 him from the difficulties and dangers of his position, 
 which it is impossible to believe that he did not see as 
 well as others. He had written a letter to the Emperor 
 of Russia which Kutusof had consented to forward, and it 
 may be supposed that the expectation of a favourable 
 answer had tended to divert Napoleon's attention from his 
 real situation. 
 
 It is certain that, excepting to give orders to evacuate 
 the hospital at the Convent of Kolotskoi, he took no step 
 to prepare for his retreat or for his movement at all from 
 Moscow. 
 
 When the future prospects of the army were discussed 
 it appears that he never contemplated a retrograde move- 
 ment to a greater extent than Smolensk. At times he 
 looked to pass the winter in the southern provinces of the 
 Russian empire about Kalougha, and it appears that he 
 could not bring his mind so far to consider the truth as 
 to calculate the relative strength of the armies opposed to 
 each other upon his flanks, and to ascertain whether it 
 was such as to enable him even to retreat from Russia, or 
 remain within reach of his enemy's armies, much more to 
 maintain a position within that country. 
 
 The habit of Napoleon had been to astonish and deceive 
 mankind, and he had come at last to deceive himself. 
 These works contain innumerable instances of this habit 
 of his mind, but those which I am now about to discuss 
 are the most remarkable and the most fatal to himself 
 and his fortunes, and the most fortunate for the world that 
 ever occurred. 
 
 It has been already stated that, on the 19th of August, 
 Wittgenstein had made an unsuccessful attack upon the
 
 APPENDIX 389 
 
 united corps of Ouclinot and St. Cyr, the 2nd and 6th 
 Corps, at Polotsk on the Dwina. Wittgenstein had been 
 repulsed, and retired to his position at Sebej to cover the 
 road to St. Petersburg, and no farther operation was under- 
 taken by either party on this flank of the army from that 
 time. Macdonald, with the 10th Corps, had collected the 
 ordnance and stores necessary for the siege of Riga at 
 Runthal and Borsmunde, but no steps had been taken in 
 order to carry on this operation. 
 
 The strength of these three corps is stated in page 370 
 to have been 95,000 men upon their entry into Russia. 
 Before the battle of Polotsk, of the 19th August, the 2nd 
 and 6th were already reduced — the 2nd Corps to 20,000 
 men, including the corps of cuirassiers under Doumerc, 
 from 37,000 men ; the 6th Corps, to 15,000 men from 25,000 
 men — the former having had only the affair at Khastitza, 
 and the latter having only made its marches to Polotsk. 
 The 10th Corps having had no severe marching, and hav- 
 ing been but little engaged with the Russians, was not 
 weakened to the same degree. But as long as Napoleon 
 persisted in the design of carrying on the siege of Riga, the 
 10th Corps under Macdonald could not be considered 
 available to the purpose of protecting the left flank of the 
 army at Moscow. 
 
 The only troops available for this service were the 2nd 
 and the 6th Corps, which, supposing them to be as strong 
 in October as previous to the battle of Polotsk, consisted 
 of only 35,000 men. Indeed the Russian accounts say 
 they had only 30,000 men. 
 
 Wittgenstein, who on the side of the Russians com- 
 manded against Oudinot and St. Cyr, had been in the 
 meantime very considerably reinforced from the interior 
 of Russia as well as from St. Petersburg. These re- 
 inforcements joined him in the middle of October. 
 
 But he was besides joined by the Russian corps under 
 General Steigentheil, which had been stationed in Finland
 
 390 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 with a view to the defence of that province, and detained 
 there afterwards in order to carry into execution the em- 
 peror's engagements with the Crown Prince regarding 
 Norway. The reinforcements augmented his corps to 
 40,000 men,and the corps of Stoigentheil,after leaving some 
 men in the garrison of Riga, amounted to 11,000, so that 
 Wittgenstein was enabled to commence his operations 
 against St. Cyr with a considerable superiority of force. 
 
 Accordingly he attacked the French at Polotsk on 
 the right of the Dwina, on the 18th and 19th October, while 
 Steigentheil moved by the left of that river. The French 
 were defeated and obliged to retire toAvards the Orcha. 
 St. Cyr was wounded and quitted the army, the command 
 of which devolved upon the Bavarian General Wrede. 
 There was, however, a dispute respecting the command 
 which was exercised by the French general, Le Grand, and 
 de Wrede consequently took his own line of retreat towards 
 Glubokoe with the Bavarian troops. 
 
 When Napoleon determined to move on upon Moscow 
 from Dorogobouje on the 26th August, he had ordered 
 forward to Smolensk the Due de Bellune with the 9th 
 Corps, consisting of 33,500. The instructions to this corps 
 state that it was to be the reserve of the army at Moscow, 
 and the connecting link of the wings of the army then 
 upon the Styr and upon the Dwina. 
 
 But as soon as St. Cyr was defeated by Wittgenstein 
 there was an end of this reserve, Victor was obliged to 
 move in all haste from Smolensk in order to save the 2nd 
 and 6th Corps, and prevent Wittgenstein from performing 
 the part allotted to him in co-operation with Admiral 
 Tchitchakof. He, therefore, moved from Smolensk, and 
 joined on the 31st October to the 2nd and 6th Corps, of 
 which Oudinot had by this time taken the command. 
 
 The losses sustained in the affair at Polotsk on the 19th, 
 the separation of the Bavarians and direction given to 
 their march, had so far weakened the 2nd and 6th Corps
 
 APPENDIX 391 
 
 that, even when joined by Victor, be did not consider him- 
 self strong enough to do more than maintain a defensive 
 against Wittgenstein. 
 
 In consequence of being repeatedly urged by Napoleon 
 to make the attack, he did make it on the 14th November 
 at Smoliantzy in the neighbourhood of the Orcha, but 
 failed, not only because he was not sufficiently strong, but 
 because the two marshals, Victor and Oudinot, could not 
 agree in opinion on the plan of attack. 
 
 Then on the right flank of the army it appears that the 
 Russian forces on the Styr consisted on the IGth of 
 September of 00,000 men. They were here reorganised 
 and received some reinforcements. General Tormasof 
 was called to fill the place in the Grand Russian Army of 
 Bagration, killed in the battle of Borodino. The whole 
 force was commanded by Admiral Tchitchakof. General 
 Sacken was to command in Volhynia when the admiral 
 should move towards the Berezina. 
 
 As soon as the Russian corps joined upon the Styr, the 
 Austrian corps and the 7th Corps of the French army 
 retired before them till they crossed the Bug. 
 
 Tchitchakof, after some delay, occasioned principally by 
 the movements of the combined Austrian and French 
 armies before the Bug, separated from Sacken with oS,000 
 men, leaving Sacken with about 28,000. Tchitchakof 
 pursued his march towards the Berezina, and General 
 Lambert, commanding his advanced guard, took po.ssession 
 of Minsk on the IGth November, having driven out the 
 French garrison. Thus was lost the grand magazine of 
 the French army on its only line of retreat. He followed 
 up this success by marching upon Borisof, of which place 
 and its bridge upon the Berezina he likewise obtained 
 possession on the 21st November. Lamliert was wounded 
 in this affair, and Count Pahlon, who succeeded to the 
 command of the advanced guard, pushed forward till he 
 met Oudinot on the 2.3rd of November at Losnitzka, who
 
 392 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 having met the troops fl3ing from Borisof joined them to 
 the 2nd Corps, and attacked Pahlen and obliged him to 
 retire across the Berezina at Borisof, of which place, 
 however, the Russians destroyed the bridge. 
 
 The admiral had passed the Berezina with his whole 
 army, and had that river at his back with only one bridge 
 to retire by. He consequently lost in Borisof all the 
 baggage of his army. Admiral Tchitchakof then posted 
 his army upon the Berezina from Bobruisk to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Zembin. 
 
 Schwarzenberg, whose Austrian force was by that time 
 reduced to 25,000 men, followed the movement of the 
 admiral, leaving Regnier with the 7th Corps of the French 
 army opposed to Sacken. But Regnier was soon found 
 too weak to hold his ground ; and Schwarzenberg was 
 obliged to return in order to prevent the Russians from 
 reaching Warsaw. 
 
 Thus then both Napoleon's flanks were turned and 
 overpowered, and the greatest of all misfortunes threatened 
 the retreating French army, that of large and superior 
 bodies of troops posted on its line of retreat to impede 
 and prevent its march, while others were pursuing it. I 
 will presently discuss the measures taken to get the 
 better of these difficulties, and the nature, amount, and 
 causes of their success. It is now necessary to discuss a 
 little the causes of the misfortune. 
 
 Napoleon would never believe, or act as if he believed, 
 either that he was himself, with the body of troops under 
 his immediate command, under the necessity of retreating 
 from his position of Moscow, that any preparatory steps 
 were necessary to enable him to perform that operation, or 
 that the French corps destined to protect his flanks were 
 not stronger than the Russian corps opposed to them. 
 
 There is a curious instance in these works of the dis- 
 position of his mind to despise and depreciate his enemy, 
 and to exaggerate the means at his own disposal.
 
 APPENDIX 393 
 
 General Hoertel throughout the campaign commanded 
 a corps of observation at Mozyr, and Latour Maubourg, 
 who was employed with his cavalry to blockade Bobruisk 
 on the Berezina, and afterwards Dombrowsky, who relieved 
 him, were repeatedly urged to destroy this corps of General 
 Hoertel. Both felt they were unequal to the task. But 
 at last General Hoertel fell upon Dombrowsky and drove 
 him from the blockade of Bobruisk ; and it was not till 
 this misfortune occurred that Napoleon was convinced 
 that it was not in the power of DombroAvsky to destroy 
 the corps of General Hoertel. If Napoleon could have 
 taken a correct view of his position he would have seen, 
 as will appear soon, that it was not in his power, retreat- 
 ing from Moscow on 19th October, to maintain himself 
 within the Russian frontier during the winter ; and that 
 even if ho did he could not during the winter carry on 
 the operations of the siege of Kiga. Ho ought then, as 
 early as September, to have sent away his battering train 
 and stores. This measure would have rendered Macdonald's 
 corps disposable for operations in the field, and would have 
 given the French a numerical superiority over Wittgenstein 
 upon the Dwina; even after the junction with the latter 
 of the corps of Steigentheil. 
 
 Then Napoleon must have known of the direction of 
 the march of Tchitchakof from the Danube, of his arrival 
 upon the Stener and junction with Tormasof, of his 
 consequent numerical superiority to ScliAvarzenberg ; and 
 of the impossibility that the latter should be able to 
 maintain his ground. Napoleon should have reinforced 
 his right by moving thither the 9th Corps under Victor. 
 He had nothing to apprehend in his rear excepting by 
 movements from his flanks, in consequence of the 
 superiority of his enemy on both flanks. But there were 
 still Durutte and Loison's division and other troops at 
 Wilna which might have reinforced the centre of the 
 army, and have occupied points in its rear if such rein-
 
 394 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 forcement had been necessary to the centre after the wings 
 had been secured. 
 
 These arrangements, however, particularly that of send- 
 ing back the battering train and its equipments, which to 
 be of any use must have been made in September, would 
 have betrayed to the world the flict that Russia was not 
 to be conquered by coup-de-main or in one campaign. 
 That on the contrary the natural difficulties of the 
 enterprise and the resistance had been found so much 
 more formidable and effective than had been expected, 
 that the means of conquest, however in magnitude and 
 efficiency surpassing any ever before heard of, were not 
 equal to the task of subduing the country ; and that the 
 concentration of all was necessar}^ to enable Napoleon to 
 withdraw his main body, his guards, and his own person 
 from the position into which he had adventured. It was 
 preferred to incur all risks, and to trust to all chances 
 rather than to let out this secret. Napoleon endeavoured 
 to convince everybody around him, even to the last 
 moment previous to his departure from Moscow, that he 
 had it in his power to remain for the winter in that city 
 or where else he pleased in Russia. But these relations 
 make it clear that if he deceived himself, if he deceived 
 others at a distance from the seat of the war, at least the 
 principal officers of the army were not deceived, all of 
 whom were aware of the critical nature of the position in 
 which they were placed. 
 
 On the other hand the Emperor of Russia appears to 
 have taken every measure which could tend to the total 
 defeat and destruction of his enemy. He took no notice 
 of the insinuations made to him of Napoleon's love for 
 him personally, and of his sincere desire for peace, except- 
 ing to censure the officers who had conveyed them. He 
 reinforced his armies most judiciously, and particularly 
 those destined to act upon the flanks of the enemy ; and 
 his orders for the recommencement of their operations
 
 APPENDIX 395 
 
 after the junction of the reinforcements at the same period 
 of the month of October are most judicious. It appears 
 that after Murat had discovered the direction of tlie 
 retreat of Kutusof from Moscow, on the 26th of September, 
 he followed his movement, and after some skirmishing the 
 French advanced posts finally took up their position 
 opposite the Russian army on the 27th September. 
 
 Poniatowski, with the 5th Corps, was at Wereia, and it 
 was necessary to detach many other troops from Moscow 
 to support the advanced guard or to protect the commu- 
 nication with Smolensk, as notwithstanding that in the 
 course of the communications between the two armies 
 there was a sort of understanding between Murat and 
 Kutusof that hostilities should be suspended, which 
 suspension extended only in front of the two bodies 
 opposite to each other, operations were carried on much 
 to the disadvantage of the French army in their rear, and 
 even upon the troops of the French advanced guard on 
 their foraging parties, and it was agreed between the 
 parties that even this suspension of hostilities might be 
 put an end to by either party giving to the other six hours' 
 notice. 
 
 Nothing could be more disadvantageous to the French 
 army, and no proof more strong could be given of their 
 weakness than the consent of Napoleon to such an 
 arrangement; and the Russians took every advantage 
 of it. 
 
 At length, however, even this state of repose, and 
 Napoleon's dreams of peace, of passing the winter at 
 Moscow, etc., were put an end to, and Kutusof attacked 
 Murat in his position in front of the Russian army on the 
 ISth October. He defeated Murat; and the advantage 
 he gained over him was very considerable. But certainly 
 not what the Russian tjencral had a right to calculate 
 upon. As soon as Napoleon heard of this attack, on the 
 18th October, he put his troops in motion, and his army
 
 396 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 marched on the following morning by the old route of 
 Kalougha. 
 
 He left behind him Mortier with la Jeune Garde and 
 other troops, with orders to maintain himself in the 
 Kremlin. He sent orders to Mortier on the 20th to remain 
 till 23rd at night, then to blow up that palace, etc., etc., 
 and to retire upon Wereia. It is impossible to advert to 
 this fact without expressing the horror which it inspires. 
 If Napoleon had destroyed a magazine or a work of utility 
 to the Russian army or nation, or even a monument of 
 art, or one to recall the memory of some glorious action 
 by the Russian army or nation, the reader would not 
 have been shocked as by the perusal of formal instructions 
 to destroy the ancient palace of the Czars, solely to mark 
 the impotent desire of revenge because the Emperor of 
 Russia, having declined to submit to insult, had after- 
 wards refused to listen to insidious offers of peace. 
 
 Then we shall read of the complaints of the French 
 nation of the occupation of their capital, and of the contri- 
 butions which they were obliged to pay ! 
 
 The first marches of Napoleon from Moscow were 
 evidently directed to relieve Murat from the difficulties 
 of his position. After the affair of the 18th he had retired 
 across the Moskwa; and the advanced guard of the army, 
 under the Viceroy, having crossed the Pakra on the 20th, 
 they were in immediate communication with Murat. Ney 
 joined him ; and the remainder of the army moved by a 
 cross road from the old to the new road to Kalougha; 
 which road they entered at Fominskoe. 
 
 Napoleon's headquarters were at Fominskoe on the 
 22nd October. 
 
 On the 23rd the Viceroy with the advanced guard was 
 beyond Borowsk. Delzons' division of the 4th Corps was 
 forward ; from which two battalions were detached to take 
 possession of Malo-Jaroslavetz. Napoleon had his head- 
 quarters at Borowsk on that day.
 
 APPENDIX 397 
 
 It appears that Kutnsof, who after the aflFair of the l<Sth 
 had left Murat beyond the Moskwa, returned to his camp 
 at Torontino ; and in fact had no intelligence of the French 
 army till the 23rd, when he learnt from Miloradowitch, 
 who commanded his advanced guard, that the French had 
 evacuated Moscow ; and that after making two marches 
 on the old they had crossed the country to the new road 
 to Kalougha. He immediately detached Doctorof with his 
 corps, and directed him first upon Borowsk ; but Hmling 
 that the French were there in force he directed him upon 
 Malo-Jaroslavetz, and followed with the whole army in two 
 columns in the evening. 
 
 Doctorof arrived at Malo-Jaroslavetz early on the 2-ith, 
 and immediately attacked the two French battalions in 
 the town, and drove them out. They were supported first 
 by the whole of Delzons' division, and afterwards by the 
 4th Corps, and then by the 1st Corps ; while Doctorof was 
 supported b}^ the Russian army as it arrived. A furious 
 combat ensued, which ended by the toAvn remaining in 
 possession of the French ; but during its continuance 
 Kutusof had taken up a position across the new road to 
 Kalougha from Moscow, about two wersts from Alalo- 
 Jaroslavetz behind the little stream Louja; in which in 
 the reduced state of the French army, and particularly 
 of the cavalry, it was not thought expedient to attack 
 him. 
 
 Napoleon had moved his headquarters on the 24th to 
 Gorodnia. The 25tli was passed in an examination of the 
 ground on which the battle of the previous day had been 
 fought ; the whole army made a forward movement to- 
 wards Malo-Jaroslavetz on the 2Gth ; but as the retreat 
 was then determined upon, and that it should be made by 
 Mojaisk and Wiasma, they returned the same day and 
 Napoleon had his headquarters that night at Borowsk. 
 He moved on the following day, the 27th, to Vereia, and 
 arrived at Mojaisk on the 2.Sth, having thus passed ten
 
 898 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 days from the day of his retreat from Moscow, and being 
 only four days' march from that city. Davout had the 
 rear-guard, and the Viceroy was to support him. 
 
 Before I proceed farther it may be as well to consider 
 the objects of these movements since the departure from 
 Moscow. 
 
 The armies opposed to each other were of the strength 
 as follows : — 
 
 French infantry, 89,640, including 4000 dismounted 
 cavalry; 15,314 cavalry, 12,000 artillery, etc., with 569 
 pieces of cannon. 
 
 Junot, with the 8th Corps, was at Mojaisk ; and Poniatow- 
 ski with the 5th at Medyn ; and M or tier had been left in 
 Moscow with 6000 or 8000 men. These detachments would 
 make a deduction from those numbers of about 15,000 or 
 16,000 men. 
 
 Prince Kutusof had on the 18th October 78,440 men 
 and 620 pieces of cannon, without including the Cossacks. 
 
 Napoleon, therefore, had still a superiority of force even 
 after his detachments are deducted from his numbers. 
 
 It is evident that his first intention was solely to 
 relieve Murat; and he probably hoped that his adver- 
 sary would give him an opportunity of fighting a battle 
 with advantage. The mode in which it appears that his 
 intentions were at first confined to these objects is that he 
 did not send Mortier his instructions to march on the 
 23rd at night upon Vereia till the 20th ; the da}^ on 
 which his advanced guard crossed the Pakra, and was 
 within reach of Murat. It is likewise probable that if he 
 had left Moscow, having in view eventually even the march 
 upon Kalougha, he would have sent his baggage and 
 encumbrances by the new road on that place, which was 
 the most direct; and would have marched with a light 
 army only for the relief of Murat, and for the eventual 
 purpose of attacking Kutusof. Napoleon started then from 
 Moscow with one principal object in view and another
 
 APPENDIX 399 
 
 eventual, and he took up a third two days afterwards ; that 
 is to say, to march upon Kalougha upon his enemy's left 
 flank to anticipate his enemy in that town, avail himself of 
 his enemy's magazines, etc., and make his retreat thence 
 upon Smolensk. When he formed this design it must be 
 observed that although two marches nearer his enemy 
 than when at Moscow, he was at nearly as great a distance 
 from Kalougha as when at Moscow. Indeed as he was 
 obliged to march from the old to the new road to Kalougha 
 across the country, the time necessary to march over the 
 ground Avould be as long as if he had started from Moscow, 
 and moreover the probability that the design would be 
 discovered by the enemy was much greater than if he had 
 marched at once upon Kalougha from Moscow by the new 
 road to that town. When he determined upon this move- 
 ment upon Kalougha he was seven or eight marches from 
 that city ; and Kutusof, at Taroutino, Avas only three or 
 four marches. 
 
 It is certainly a matter of surprise that Kutusof should 
 not have heard till the 28rd of the direction of Napoleon's 
 march made on the 20th ; but it will have been seen that 
 Kutusof was still in time, and was enabled to take a 
 position in front of his adversary between him and the 
 object to which he was directing his march. Even if 
 Kutusof had been a day later, he would have had it in his 
 power to anticipate his adversary and to reach Kalougha 
 Iteforc him ; but his march on the evening of the 23rd was 
 important inasmuch as it placed him in such a position in 
 relation to the roads from Kalougha to Smolensk as that 
 Napoleon could use none of them ; and was obliged from 
 Borow.sk to retire by Mojaisk, leaving to his adversary the 
 shortest road to Smolensk, the best and most plentifully 
 supplied with provisions. 
 
 It will have been seen that Napoleon, even after deduct- 
 ing his detachments, had still a numerical superioriry of 
 force to Kutusof. It is astonishing that he did not attack
 
 400 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 his adversary previous to the commencement of his 
 retreat; and endeavour to remove him to a greater 
 distance; and particularly from the roads leading from 
 Kalougha upon Smolensk. 
 
 The consequence of this omission will appear here- 
 after ; as will likewise that of the time lost (six days) in 
 moving from Moscow by Malo-Jaroslavetz upon Mojaisk. 
 The leaving Kutusof in possession of these southern com- 
 munications with Smolensk must likewise be viewed, in 
 connection with the establishment of the great magazine 
 of the army at Minsk. If Napoleon could have directed 
 his retreat upon Vitepsk, the possession of those southern 
 communications by Kutusof was not of such importance. 
 But as he Avas obliged to go to Smolensk and thence along 
 the Dnieper and across the Berezina upon Minsk, the 
 possession of those communications would have been fatal 
 to him and his army if the Russians had been more 
 active. 
 
 Then in respect to the mode in which the retreat was 
 made it appears equally faulty with all the previous 
 measures and manceuvres. 
 
 Napoleon should have rendered his army as light as 
 possible, should have destroyed all superfluous baggage, 
 and have reduced as much as possible the number of 
 wheel carriages; as however convenient to individuals 
 they are the most inconvenient and burthensome to the 
 army, create great delays, expose the rear-guards in 
 whose charge they fall, and aggravate all the difficulties 
 which occur on the march. 
 
 He should then have marched by two or three separate 
 roads, one column covered by its rear-guard being on each 
 road ; or 'he might have marched back as he marched 
 forward, in three columns, on or immediately close to the 
 same road, which might have been given up to the wheel 
 carriages of the army. 
 
 By any of these modes he might have saved his army at
 
 APPENDIX 401 
 
 least from any military disaster; and time, of the greatest 
 Importance to him, would have been saved. 
 
 Instead of adopting any of these modes of retreat he 
 marched in one long column Avhich extended the distance 
 of two or more marches. 
 
 In this form the army continued its retreat to Smolensk, 
 where Napoleon with the Guard arrived on the 9th 
 November. Junot with the 8th Corps had arrived before 
 him. The rear-guard under Ney ; the 3rd Corps having 
 relieved the 1st at Viasma on the 3rd November, where 
 Miloradowitch attacked the 1st, 3rd, and 4tli Corps, and 
 they sustained great loss. 
 
 On the 7th of November the frost had commenced ; 
 and it is curious to observe the use that is made of this 
 event in all these accounts, particularly by Gourgaud, who 
 is Napoleon's apologist. First, the frost was premature, 
 and earlier in that season than it had ever been known in 
 others. This is not the fact ; but what is the fact is that 
 an early frost was foreseen ; and the necessity of guarding 
 against this state of the season urged in the 23rd and 
 24th bulletins in the midst of all the boasting which those 
 documents contain. Any other people in the world, after 
 reading these words written on the 9th, 14th and 20th 
 October, would have been astonished that the famous 
 29th bulletin of the 3rd December should have attributed 
 the misfortunes of this army to the frost. 
 
 But if the frost destroyed the army, and particularly 
 the horses of the army, how did it happen that those 
 corps of the army under Napoleon's own direction lost 
 
 ^ men and ^ horses between the 1st of June and 
 the 18th of October, of which number not one-sixth were 
 lost in military actions in the field. 
 
 Then we are told the loss was occasioned because the 
 French horses were not rough shod. Why were they not 
 rough shod ? Is there never any frost in Russia ? But 
 
 ' lilank in manuscript. 
 
 2c
 
 402 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 the excuse is not founded in fact. Those who have 
 followed a French army well know that their horses are 
 always rough shod. It is the common mode of shoeing 
 horses in France; and in this respect a French army 
 ought and would have suffered less inconvenience than 
 any other army that ever was assembled. 
 
 The date of the commencement of the frost is well 
 known ; and the reader has only to refer to the following 
 passages to see that the confusion and indiscipline in the 
 army commenced before it had arrived at Mojaisk, nine 
 days before the frost appeared ; and in point of fact 
 Miloradowitch took advantage of that confusion at 
 Viasma in his attack upon the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Corps. 
 
 It will be seen from these observations that Napoleon 
 was obliged to abandon all his projects one after the other, 
 and to choose for his retreat the road least advantageous 
 in his o^vn opinion for his army, the most circuitous, not 
 only positively but relatively, Avith that which he left 
 in the power of his adversary ; and this without attempt- 
 ing to gain a military advantage over his enemy, notwith- 
 standing his own still existing superiority of numbers. 
 Yet there is a letter to show that he was still on the 
 11th November, when at Smolensk, thinking of taking 
 his winter cantonments on the Dnieper ; although having 
 retreated with his centre without fighting he knew at the 
 same time that one of his flanks had been overpowered, 
 that he had reason to believe that the other would be so 
 likewise, and that in fact he would find not only that he 
 could not maintain himself within the country, but had 
 not the power of retreating from it. 
 
 Napoleon having arrived at Smolensk on the 9th 
 November and remained till the 14th, must have been 
 aware that Kutusof had arrived at Jelnia. A brigade of a 
 division of troops under General Baraguay d'Hilliers had 
 been cut off, and other military misfortunes had occurred 
 in that direction, which must have proved to him that his
 
 APPENDIX 403 
 
 adversary was in force on the roads which lead from 
 Kalouirha to Smolensk and all the towns on the Dnieper. 
 
 The Rnssian army had on the 26th of October, the day 
 on which Napoleon finally retreated from Malo-Jaroslavetz, 
 likewise made a retrograde movement and took up another 
 position twenty wersts from Malo-Jaroslavetz and nearer 
 Kalougha, at Gonczarowo. Davout with the French rear- 
 guard evacuated Malo-Jaroslavetz in the night of the 
 26th, and the next morning the retreat of the French 
 army was known to the Russian generals. The Russian 
 army, however, did not move till the 27th at night, and 
 then towards Medyn. But Kutusof did not at once take 
 advantage of his position to move direct upon Viasma or 
 Smolensk; hut he followed the direction of Napoleon's 
 march, although it was obvious that the head of the French 
 army, being at Mojaisk on the 28th, had already gained 
 four marches upon him. 
 
 The reason for moving in this direction was that it was 
 not supposed possible in the Russian army that Napoleon 
 should move on his retreat by the road by which he had 
 advanced, and upon Minsk. The movements at that 
 time in the course of execution by the Admiral 
 Tchitchakof on the Berezina were known to the Russian 
 generals ; and they believed that Napoleon would prefer 
 to direct his march by Wolokowisk, etc., towards 
 Witepsk. 
 
 It was only at Kremenskoe, on the 80th of October, 
 that the true line of the French retreat was known in the 
 Russian army. Platof was then ordered to follow their 
 rear with the Cossacks and one division. ]\Iiloradowitch 
 was directed upon Gjatz, and Kutusof himself with the 
 main body moved on the 31st towards Viasma. Napoleon 
 was at Viasma on the 1st of November, where he loft Ney, 
 and marched on the 2nd to Sendewo. 
 
 On the 3rd of November there was a serious affair 
 between the French troops at Viasma and Miloradowitch
 
 404 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 in which the French sustained considerable loss. After 
 this affair Kutusof directed his march upon Jelnia with a 
 view to intercept his enemy at Krasnoi. The Russian 
 army arrived at Jelnia on the 8tli of November, that is on 
 the day before that on which Napoleon reached Smolensk. 
 He halted there the 9th, on which day his detachment 
 gained the success above mentioned against the French 
 division commanded by General Baraguay d'Hilliers. In 
 the meantime Miloradowitch and Platof were, — the first 
 marching on the flank of the French corps moving on the 
 great road towards Smolensk, and the last following the 
 French army ; and both doing them all the mischief in 
 their power. 
 
 Thus then on the arrival of Napoleon at Smolensk his 
 adversary, notwithstanding all the mistakes and false 
 movements he had made, was as forward as he was ; while 
 the French whole column was harassed and distressed by 
 the corps of Miloradowitch on their flank, and their rear- 
 guard, which since the affair of Viasma on the 3rd of 
 November had been commanded by Ney, was pursued 
 and harassed by Platof. 
 
 Under these circumstances Napoleon halted at Smolensk 
 till the 14th November. 
 
 If he had remained with a view of refreshing the ex- 
 hausted troops, or of collecting his columns in order to 
 march en masse, and to be able to oppose his whole force 
 to the force of the enemy in case they should endeavour 
 to avail themselves of the advantageous position which 
 they had acquired, either to attack the French army or to 
 intercept its march, this delay would not have been sur- 
 prising, as the Viceroy, who with the 4th Corps had 
 passed by Dukhowizina from Dorogobouje, sustained 
 great loss in the passage of the Wop ; and the 4th Corps 
 did not arrive at Smolensk till the 13th November. The 
 rear-guard under Ney had been delayed on its march to 
 protect the movement of the Viceroy, and did not arrive
 
 APPENDIX 405 
 
 till the 15th. But the improvement of the mode of the 
 retreat was not the object of this halt however dangerous 
 and disastrous, and however this improvement was neces- 
 sary, as it must have been kno\^n that the Russian army 
 had been at Jelnia since the (Sth of November. The French 
 army commenced afresh, on the 14th, its retreat from 
 Smolensk in the same form as that in which the retreat 
 had been made up to that point, and Ncy with the rear- 
 guard was ordered not to quit Smolensk till the Kith, and 
 he did not in fjict march till the 17th. On the 14th 
 Osterman was with his corps near Koritnia, and Milora- 
 dowitch close to Krasnoi ; and Kutusof was near enough 
 with the whole Russian army to support liiiu. 
 
 It is astonishing then that the French army should 
 have suffered the military disasters, described nearly in 
 the same words in all these works, which it did suffer on 
 its march from Smolensk to Orcha. These disasters were 
 short only of total destruction ; which must have been 
 the fate of the army on this ground if the Russian generals 
 could have known the state to which their enemy was 
 reduced, and Kutusof had been a little more active. But 
 a close examination of the movements of these armies will 
 show how little of the internal state of one hostile army is 
 known to the other; and it is not astonishing that 
 Kutusof, being aware of the numerical inferiority of his 
 own force to that of his adversary when the retreat com- 
 menced, and of his own losses in the pursuit, should not 
 have believed that the Guard and those troops which had 
 been the terror of the world were so reduced in numbers, 
 in discipline, and efficiency, as to be unequal to defend 
 themselves against the reduced numbers which he could 
 bring upon them. He was aware of what was passing 
 upon the Berezina and Orcha, and he had reason to 
 expect that the armies under Tchitchakof and Wittgen- 
 stein, and fresh and increased natural difficulties, would 
 to a certainty accomplish that destruction of which the
 
 406 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 commencement had in a short time been so well effected 
 by the troops under his command. 
 
 Each of the corps marching from Smolensk, excepting 
 the Guard, was obliged to quit the high road and to 
 abandon every equipment it possessed. Ney's corps not 
 only quitted the high-road, but crossed the Dnieper on 
 the ice, to march along the right bank of that river ; and 
 every wheeled carriage, and every horse, and every 
 creature unable to make the greatest exertion for his 
 safety, was left behind and fell into the hands of the 
 enemy. 
 
 It will have been seen that Napoleon delayed from the 
 9 th till the 14 th at Smolensk. He did not arrive at Orcha 
 till the 19th on account of the necessity under which 
 he found himself of waiting again at Krasnoi for the 
 troops in his rear, both to save them and himself and his 
 Guard. 
 
 He heard at Dombrowna on the 18th that Minsk had 
 been on the 16th taken by Admiral Tchitchakof, and 
 although he immediately saw all the consequences to the 
 future safety of his arm}-, he still hoped he might be in 
 time to cross the Berezina at Borisof. 
 
 Ney did not arrive at Orcha by the right of Dnieper till 
 the 21st, at midnight, with the remains of his corps ; but 
 Napoleon had left Orcha in the night of the 20th, having 
 waited there one day in hopes of Ney's junction. The 
 retreat was still continued in the same form, notwith- 
 standing the military disasters and loss of time which had 
 resulted from the use of it. Napoleon heard at Toloczin, 
 on the 22nd, of the loss of Borisof; and that Oudinot had 
 immediately determined to attack the Russian advanced 
 guard, which had been under General Lambert, but which 
 was commanded by General Pahlcn since Lambert had 
 been wounded in the attack of Borisof. The Russians 
 had, however, destroyed the bridge on their side of the 
 river, and Oudinot found the localities were of that descrip-
 
 APPENDIX 407 
 
 tion that it was impossible to attempt to pass the river at 
 that point. 
 
 Napoleon was then in this situation on the 24th Novem- 
 ber, in the morning. His army, which had been to 
 Moscow, on its march between the Dnieper and the 
 Berezina in one column, of which the head was three 
 marches in front of the rear-guard ; and the rear-guard 
 was quitting Orcha upon the Dnieper. 
 
 The grand Russian army under Kutusof was upon the 
 Dnieper, Miloradowitch with the advanced guard had 
 crossed that river, and threatened the rear and left of the 
 French army. 
 
 The Berezina was in his front and must be crossed. 
 This river is difficult to cross at all times. There are but 
 few places of access to it. There are marshes upon both 
 banks, which as well as the river itself must be passed by 
 roads on Avhich there are bridges; and both might be 
 destroyed with the utmost facility. 
 
 The Berezina was occupied by the army of Tchitchakof 
 from Bobruisk to Zembin. 
 
 It has been seen that Napoleon had been obliged to 
 withdraAv Oudinot from the body of troops opposed to 
 Wittgenstein on the Orcha ; and that Oudinot had already 
 cleared his road for him to the Berezina. But the con- 
 sequence was that Victor was no longer in strength to 
 hold his ground opposite to Wittgenstein. Victor was 
 obliged to follow Oudinot's march with the Oth Corps. 
 Victor was within a march on the 24th of the road on 
 which the main French column was marching ; and Witt- 
 crenstein attacked his rear-jjuard. The ri2:ht of the French 
 army on its retreat, as well as its front, rear and loft, was 
 exposed to the enterprises of a superior enemy's army. 
 
 Oudinot had been directed to discover a place for the 
 passage of the army over the Berezina ; and he by accitlent 
 and fortunately discovered that there was a passage near 
 the villaere of Studianka.
 
 408 REMINISCENCES OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON 
 
 He moved there on the 25th from Borisof; and im- 
 mediately commenced the construction of the bridges for 
 the passage of the army at that place. When Oudinot 
 arrived at Studianka there was still a Kiissian corps under 
 General Tchaplitz posted on the opposite bank of the 
 Berezina. But this corps had been ordered to move upon 
 Borisof, as the movements, dispositions, and demonstra- 
 tions of the French had indicated an intention of passing 
 between Borisof and Bobruisk, and even at Borisof rather 
 than above that town. 
 
 The admiral, therefore, had been led into error. But 
 General Tchaplitz, from what he had seen on the 25th, 
 left a regiment of infantry and twelve pieces of cannon in 
 a position opposite Studianka. 
 
 On the 25th, Wittgenstem moved upon Baran within 
 
 ^ wersts of Studianka. On the 26th Napoleon arrived 
 with the Guard at Studianka. Oudinot crossed the Bere- 
 zina upon the bridges; took possession of Zembin and 
 drove away the Russian troops as far as Stachova. On 
 the 27th all the troops crossed the river as fast as they 
 arrived at Studianka. Victor had been the rear-guard at 
 Borisof, and one division of his corps remained as rear- 
 guard at Studianka; while another, that of Partonneau, 
 followed the march of the army and left Borisof on the 
 27th at night. This division was, hoAvever, taken by 
 Wittgenstein. 
 
 At length, on the 28th, the Russians ascertained where 
 the French were crossing the Berezina. Tchitchakof 
 attacked them on the right of that river, while Wittgen- 
 stein attacked Victor on the left bank at Studianka. Both 
 Avere repulsed, but with immense loss to the French. On 
 the 28th, at night, Victor crossed the Berezina ; and on 
 the 29th, in the morning, the bridges were destroyed ; and 
 the French army continued its march upon Zembin to- 
 wards Wilna. From this time there was nothing in their 
 
 ^ Blank in manuscript.
 
 APPENDIX 409 
 
 front to impede their movements. They were followed, 
 harassed, etc., by Cossacks, etc., but there was no body of 
 Russian troops which could venture to stand between 
 the army and Loison's and Pino's Italian division, which 
 were still in reserve at Wilna. 
 
 Wellington. 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
 
 t 
 
 ^ i^i^yMv
 
 DATE DUE 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 HIGHSMITH 45- 102 
 
 MINTED IN USA
 
 oh'. 12 H4(JbJ4 
 leiq, Georae Robert, 1 / ^o- 
 
 1 888 . 
 
 ?rsonal reminiscences of 
 
 -,he first duke of 
 
 AA 001377 977 
 
 3 1210 00493 9581