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10 t'Jrreiis,(W,M.) M.P., The^Marquess 
 Wellesley, peo Consul and Tribune and 
 ^ARCHITECT of Empire, »» J^^f °^^^° P^;*"?]*' 
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PRO-CONSUL and TRIBUNE 
 WELLESLEY 
 
 AND 
 
 O'CONNELL 
 
 BY 
 
 W. M. TORRENS, M.P. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. L^THE MARQUESS WELLESLEY 
 
LONDON : rniKTED BT 
 
 EPOTTiaWOODB XSD CO., NSW-HTBEET EQCARE 
 
 AKD yAQLlAMEST 6TBEET 
 
THE 
 
 MARQUESS WELLESLEY 
 
 %uf^itttt of (ffimpire 
 
 AN HISTORIC PORTRAIT 
 
 BY 
 
 W. M. TORRENS, M.P. 
 
 Honlron 
 CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
 
 1880 
 
 \,Tk€ right n/ tfanslatiott is reserved \ 
 
^^ 
 
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 ^' 
 
 .t^^^ 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Of the eminent men whom in earlier years I had many 
 opportunities of closely observing, none seem to me so 
 characteristically representative of the two races long alien- 
 ated by evil laws as those whose likeness I have sought to 
 trace in these volumes. The ideas and usages of a dominant 
 caste, taught from childhood to believe themselves indispen- 
 sable to the maintenance of authority, and alone qualified 
 for the duties and privileges of freedom, have passed away ; 
 and with them the mute subjection, murmuring complaint, 
 deferential remonstrance, partial enfranchisement, and at 
 length organised agitation, by which the two estranged 
 communities were rendered one in the eye of the law. 
 Wellesley and O'Connell, each in his separate way, signally 
 contributed to the gradual revolution which occupied in its 
 accomplishment well-nigh the whole period of their lives, 
 and to which their best efforts were devoted. Yet a greater 
 contrast cannot be conceived than that presented by their 
 dissimilar ways of life, habits of thought, and impressive 
 powers of expression. Without flattery or disparagement I 
 wish simply to recaU how the illustrious statesman and the 
 
 o 13302 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 unrivalled leader of the people each lived and moved and 
 had his being. As they were seldom in direct contact or 
 antagonism I have had no temptation to resort to antithesis, 
 which in spite of what is deemed conspicuous success in many 
 well-known instances I must be permitted to think fallacious 
 and misleading in historic portraiture. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTKR rXGR 
 
 I. From WBLLES-LKiaH to Dangan. 1126-1760 . . 1 
 
 II. Harrow and Eton. 1770-1778 . . . . 20 
 
 III. Irish House op Lords. 1781-1783 . . .33 
 
 IV. Old St. Stephen's Chapel. 1784-1788 . . . 65 
 V. College Green and Carlton House. 1788-1791 . 74 
 
 VI. Board of Control. 1792-1794 . . . . . 89 
 
 VII. Holwood and Walmer. 1796-1797 . . .111 
 
 VIII. The Voyage out. 1798 . . . . . 132 
 
 IX. Fort William. 1798 . . . . .149 
 
 X. Seringapatam. 1799 . . . . . . 176 
 
 XI. Leadenhall Street. 1799-1800 . . . .203 
 
 XII. Paramount Power. 1801 . , . 224 
 
 XIII. Bassein. 1802-1803 . . . . . .247 
 
 XIV. Bhurtpore. 1804-1805 . . . . . . 274 
 
 XV. Portsmouth and Putney. 1806 .... 298 
 
 XVI. Nowhere. 1806-1808 322 
 
 XVII. Seville. 1809 346 
 
 XVIII. The Foreign Office. 1810 . . . . . 387 
 XIX. Torres Vedras. 1810 . . . . .421 
 
 XX. Oatlands and Dorking. 1811-1812 . . . . 449 
 
 XXI. Threshold of the Treasury. 1812 . . . 487 
 
r 
 
 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANGAN. 
 
 1125-1760. 
 
 In the parting of forfeit lands among the soldiers of the 
 Conquest, and the re- enfeoffment of the old possessors that 
 recked not who was king so they might hold their own and 
 dwell in peace, Henry I. confirmed to Avenant of Welles- 
 leigh in Somersetshire the lordship of his manor there ; and 
 granted him beside the grand serjeantry of all the country 
 eastward of the river Parret as far as Bristol Bridge. His 
 son, according to tradition, accompanied Henry II. as 
 standard-bearer into Ireland ; as an old flag preserved with 
 reverent care till recent times was held to prove, warranting 
 the emblazonry of St. Greorge's banner in the family arms. 
 In the next century the English heritage descended in the 
 female line, and the name became territorially extinct. 
 Meanwhile a younger branch struck root in Leinster, and, 
 grafting with more than one vigorous stock of like planter 
 origin, helped to form a stubborn and thorny fence along the 
 borders of the Pale. 
 
 Sir William de Wellesley had writ of summons as a 
 baron to the Irish Parliament of 1339, in right of his Castle 
 
 B 
 
2 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1531- 
 
 of Kildare, granted him by Edward II. on condition of his 
 holding it fast against the native enemy, and paying twenty 
 pounds a year for the pastures round the same. Later on 
 the FitzGeralds ousted him, as they did all their rivals in 
 Leighlin and Offaly; and the evicted favourite of royalty 
 was compensated by Edward III. in 1342 with the manor of 
 Demor. Sir John, his son, was active in the English interest, 
 and wrought wide havoc among the sept of the O'Tooles, 
 whose chief he caused to suffer on the scaffold. His descen- 
 dants dwelt at Paynestown in Meath, where in the fifteenth 
 century they had great possessions ; often serving the office 
 of sheriff and sitting in Parliament, sometimes for the 
 hamlets bidden by the Crown to send burgesses to the Lower 
 House, and sometimes in the Upper as Barons of Norragh. 
 
 Walter Wellesley was Abbot of Kildare and Master of the 
 Rolls, and in 1531, at the request of Henry YIIL, he was 
 appointed bishop of the diocese by Clement VII. in reward 
 for his services in obtaining the release of Delvin, the Lord 
 Deputy, taken prisoner by O'Conor. Many intermarriages 
 took place with the Cusakes, Plunkets, and Cowleys, who 
 were neighbouring lords of the Pale. A great-granddaughter 
 of Sir William and the fair Ismay Plunket was wedded to Sir 
 Henry Cowley, whose progenitor, a trusted officer of Eliza- 
 beth under Lord Sydney, espoused the daughter of Lord 
 Chancellor Cusake ; and is said by Hooker to have been one 
 of the chief foes of the malcontent FitzGreralds. In the 
 troubled times of the Stuarts the Wesley s, as they had come 
 to be called, dwelt at Dangan ; and the Colleys, as they chose 
 their name to be written, slumbered on at Castle Carbery ; 
 neither family losing or gaining by the vicissitudes of the 
 period. In 1700 Richard CoUey, who is spoken of as a 
 youth of genial temperament, not overweighted with learning 
 but much given to practice on the violin, unexpectedly 
 Bucceeded to his brother's patrimony: and fortune though 
 
-i699 FROxM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANGAN. 3 
 
 he knew it not, had in store still greater gifts for him. Of 
 his relatives in Meath he knew but little. Garret Wesley 
 and his wife (a daughter of Sir Dudley Colley) sometimes 
 visited Dublin ; but for the most part their childless days 
 were spent at the old house near Trim. It was but an 
 evening's walk from Laracor, the secluded village where 
 Swift spent some of his happiest years. Thither he had 
 persuaded Mrs. Dingiey and Stella to accompany him when, 
 in chagrin at the ingratitude of Whig patrons, he tried 
 to take to the life of a country pastor without flock to tend ; 
 and where for a time he amused himself with small garden 
 improvements, desultory writing in prose and verse, and 
 playing whist with his nearest neighbours. 
 
 Garret Wesley was but too glad to have for a com- 
 panion the man of all his countrymen worth knowing as a 
 guest or friend. Swift in 1699 had accompanied Lord 
 Berkley to Ireland as private secretary and chaplain. One 
 of his household, Bushe, having had sufficient influence to 
 supplant him in the former place, the Viceroy promised him 
 the best preferment that fell vacant. The deanery of Derry, 
 of considerable value, would have made him content for life ; 
 but Bushe asked 1,000^. for securing it to him; and Swift 
 not having the money, it was sold to another for that sum. 
 Jonathan, in a rage, exclaimed, ' Confound you both for a 
 couple of scoundrels,' and quitted his Excellency's service. 
 Berkley, afraid of his resentment, gave him the living of 
 Agher and the vicarages of Kathbeggan and Laracor, which, 
 with the prebend of Dunlavin, yielded an income of 400Z. a 
 year : and this was all he had, while plausible Addison con- 
 tinued to be Secretary for Ireland, and Godolphin to be 
 Lord Treasurer. Mr. Perceval, Sir Arthur Langford, Garret 
 Wesley and his wife, were his most intimate friends. Con- 
 gregation beside he had none, and even these not always. 
 So, like Sterne in his remote incumbency, ' he strove to be- 
 
 ]t2 
 
4 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. }']o\~ 
 
 guile the time with mirth ; ' and on wet days put the finish 
 ing strokes to ' The Tale of a Tub.' Dangan never failed in 
 welcome and good cheer ; and though Glasnevin was a three 
 hours* ride, and Addison the most dignified of hosts, com- 
 munity of tastes, and of political associations, often drew 
 him in 1709 to the house of his right promiseful friend. 
 Just opposite on the other side of the brook, he loved to 
 linger under the evergreen oaks of Delville, where later 
 on, at a private press in the garden, were printed the once 
 famous ' Drapier's Letters.' Before the fall of the Whigs, 
 Wharton who had succeeded Berkley, strove to rekindle 
 faith in failing friends and held out hopes anew to the no 
 longer forgotten Vicar of Laracor : for ' The Tale of a Tub ' 
 had made a sensation, and there were symptoms of coming 
 change in the humour of the Court. Somers too . and 
 Halifax were eager to take up over-due promises ; but the 
 bitterness of neglect had entered the w-ayward soul, and 
 Swift turned for satisfaction, if not for sjrmpathy, to the 
 society of Pope and St. John. By the former he was intro- 
 duced to Harley, with whom he quickly became intimate, 
 and through whom he would probably have obtained a mitre 
 but for the insuperable antipathy of the Queen. The 
 Wesley s seem to have resided occasionally in London, and 
 -Swift's friendship is indicated by his leaving a ministerial 
 dinner-table to read evening prayers to his kind hostess of 
 Dangan when in declining hezdth. 
 
 Her husband, whom she left childless and who thought 
 himself too old to marry again, looked round in search of some 
 young kinsman to whom he might bequeath his fair possessions. 
 A clergyman of his name was for many years incumbent of 
 Epworth in Lincolnshire, and had gained some reputation as 
 a controversialist in defence of the Eevolution and the 
 Toleration Act. His fanatical parishioners burnt his parson- 
 age over his lead, and his wife and children were with 
 
^1727 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANGAN, 5 
 
 difficulty rescued from the flames. The eldest John, was 
 destined to become the Savonarola of the English Church. 
 While his younger brother Charles was at Westminster their 
 father received a letter from Garret Wesley offering to adopt 
 the boy, and by way of earnest to provide for the payment of 
 his school bills. One day his unknown namesake called at 
 Dean's Yard and asked the youth if he was willing to live 
 with him in Ireland. After some hesitation Charles whose 
 mind was bent on Christ Church, gratefully declined ; and 
 John, destined with his help to attain religious influence so 
 memorable and lasting, noted the fact with the character- 
 istic comment, that his brother had thus had a fair escape 
 from the snares of the world. ^ 
 
 Though balked at first in quest of an heir, he still was 
 bent on making choice in his lifetime of^ a successor and 
 witnessing the anticipated joy to be by his will conferred. 
 Cousin Eichard, who had married a daughter of Dr. Sale 
 Registrar of the Archdiocese of Dublin, received from him 
 an unexpected visit at Butlerstown in Kildare, where was 
 wont to gather round him the musical circle whose clear and 
 innocent laughter still rings in the pleasant recollections of 
 the pretty diarist of Delville.^. Without preface or circum- 
 locution Garret Wesley unfolded his kind purpose. As 
 heaven had not blest him with posterity, he wished that after 
 he was gone the different branches of the family should be 
 knit together under his kinsman, whom with his young wife 
 he should like betimes to make at home at Dangan, and 
 treat as children of his own. One condition only he insisted 
 on — that Eichard Colley should adopt his name and arms. 
 The easy covenant was willingly accepted ; and save as a 
 prefatory surname, Colley of Castle Carbery disappeared 
 from the muster roll of Leinster gentry. 
 
 ' Southey's Life of Wesley. 
 
 * Life and Carrcs^ondence of Mm. Delani/t 
 
6 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1727- 
 
 By will in March 1727, the last descendant in the 
 male line of the lords of the manor of Welles-Leigh, be- 
 queatlied to his kinsman the mansion and estate of Dangan 
 and all that appertained thereto ; and on his death soon 
 afterwards, the heritages of both branches of the family were 
 united in the hand of one possessor. Kichard's heart enlarged 
 with his fortune, and his house became the seat for many 
 years of unaffected and unstinted hospitality. It was in its 
 way pretentious, and withal commodious, but the situation 
 was not attractive from the want of wood and water. These 
 deficiencies the new owner set himself to remedy ; planting 
 trees of great variety in well chosen spots, and taking ad- 
 vantage of the undulations of the ground to form ponds and 
 what were then called canals between. By help of drainage 
 from the hills around and the contributory aid of skies 
 too often given to weep, the artificial lakes widened and 
 deepened till at length a miniature royal yacht carrying its 
 due complement of guns, with all sail set and pennant 
 streaming (meant for a present to the Duke of Cumberland) 
 was safely launched upon the amplest of the park waters ; 
 in another swam a barge, the ^Pretty Betty,' which on a 
 picnic could accommodate a dozen people. How much 
 arboriculture is helped and hastened by the humid atmo- 
 sphere of the Grreen Land they best can tell who in a 
 few years have seen bald hill-sides clothed with luxuriant 
 foliage, and valleys through which the ocean breeze swept 
 and soughed unpityingly, converted into sheltered dells as if 
 k> catch and hold the fleeting sunshine. In long after years 
 a more illustrious owner of Dangan loved to recite laughingly 
 the lines of an eccentric rhymester all but locally forgotten : 
 
 Erin, thy weather's like a modish wife, 
 Thy words and tears for ever are at strife ; 
 To gain her end she every method tries, 
 And when she can no longer scold, she cries ; 
 
-1 731 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANG AN, 7 
 
 Like her, consistency thy whim disdains, 
 And when it can no longer blow it rains. 
 
 Swift no loDger dwelt at Laracor, but he came occasion- 
 ally from his deanery of St. Patrick's to recall genial 
 memories, and to gladden his old friends in Meath with his 
 quaint and sardonic pleasantry. Dr. Delany came too from 
 Delville, fascinated early by the winning ways and bewitching 
 smiles of Mrs. Pendarves, who for the first time visited Ire- 
 land in 1731 on the invitation of her cousin Lord Carteret, 
 and who has left in her letters many amusing traits of the 
 place and of the family, with whom she became an especial 
 favourite. 
 
 Allegoric names and accessories were the fashion of the 
 day; and the pastimes of a country house were marshalled in 
 fantastic order supposed to be classical. 
 
 ' Mr. Wesley (alias Paris) has provided each of his visitors 
 with a walking staff whereon is fixed the Parnassus name. 
 Mr. Usher, Vulcan ; young Murray Don, Mars ; and Mr. 
 Kit Don, Neptune. Our staffs are white, and when we take 
 our walks we make a most surprising appearance, somewhat 
 like the sheriffs' men at the assizes ! ^ 
 
 ^ In his garden there is a fir-grove dedicated to Vesta, in 
 the midst of which is her statue ; at some distance from it is 
 a mound covered with evergreens, on which is placed a temple 
 with the statues of Apollo, Neptune, Proserpine, and Diana ; 
 all have due honours paid them.' 
 
 The style of living was that of cheerful luxury without 
 ceremony or ostentation. In the large old hall were an organ 
 and harpsichord, where all the company met when they had a 
 mind, and where music, dancing, shuttlecock, draughts, and 
 prayers took their turn between the three o'clock dinner and 
 the convivial supper-time of ten. 
 
 ^ From Dangan, April 5, 1733. 
 
8 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1735- 
 
 By her friends Mrs. Wesley was evidently much beloved ; 
 she had very engaging qualities, and a very easy temper, 
 though her merits were scarce equal to her husband's. ' He 
 has certainly,' says Mrs. Delany, ' more virtues and fewer 
 faults than any man I know ; a proper mixture of good and 
 agreeable qualities : his wife, his children, his friends, his 
 poor and rich neighbours, can testify the truth of what I say. 
 He values his riches only as they are the means of making 
 all about him happy; no ostentation, no taste merely for 
 grandeur. He improves his estate and all the country 
 around him as much as if he had a son to enjoy it, which 
 there seems no great probability of his having.' The youth- 
 ful daughters of the house were its supreme grace and 
 joy ; ' engrging little creatures, and improving every day.' 
 One only blessing was hitherto denied him ; that of a son, 
 and the inheritance seemed to be once more destined to 
 pass in reversion to a stranger, if not a personal enemy. 
 Youngest bom ^ of his children came at last a son, baptized 
 Grarret, in grateful memory of the donor of the house, and 
 early destined to gladden his father's heart by rare indications 
 of a bright and playful intelligence, and of a susceptibility to 
 musical impressions still more rare. Even in babyhood he 
 gave, 'twas said, tokens of sympathy in his father's fiddling 
 of which the parent loved *to boast; but after Dubourg, the 
 well-known violinist, had been to Dangan, the boy refused 
 to listen to any other touch, and used to creep in childish 
 adulation. to the musician's feet, and gently pray him to 
 keep on. Then came the time for his own wanderings among 
 the strings, — cruel inflictions doubtless on all ears less lenient 
 than those of his eldest sister, whose chief trouble with him 
 was to keep his fingers off the harpsichord. From his tiny 
 inner consciousness he was incorrigibly bent on making out 
 tunes for himself: dimly giving discernible promise of the 
 
 > July 19, 1735. 
 
-I740 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANG AN. 9 
 
 melody to come which every true lover of catch and glee 
 cherishes with fondDess. 
 
 Diiboiirg was the favomite pupil of the once celebrated 
 Geminiani, who seems to have felt so much sympathy in his 
 professional success, that in his old age he came to visit him 
 at Dublin, and tarried there till he died. Richard Wesley 
 probably became acquainted with Dubourg after his appoint- 
 ment in 1728 as Master of the Castle Band, in which 
 successive Viceroys took much interest and spared no pains 
 to make perfect in its way. The Irish capital had little 
 politics in Carteret's and Chesterfield's time, but it was full 
 of merriment and music. Several societies existed for the 
 cultivation of the tuneful art among the educated classes, 
 each of which had its special object of local benevolence, to 
 which the profits from its amateur exertions combined with 
 professional aid were devoted. Mercer's Hospital, of which 
 Mr. Wesley was a governor, and the City Infirmary, were 
 prominent among these; and an association whose mercy 
 was not less needed of another kind, namely, one for the 
 release of unfortunate debtors of small amount, then a 
 numerous class of sufi'erers. The violinist had become 
 intimate with Handel when maestro di cappella at Canons, 
 the palatial residence of the Duke of Chandos, near Stanmore. 
 Thither he drew all London fashion on fine Sunday mornings 
 to hear him play, as none ever played before, in the little 
 chapel where his magnificent patron said his prayers, and 
 where were revived for the first time since the exile of the 
 Stuarts, orchestral accompaniments to sacred song. Handel 
 composed twelve anthems and more than one 'Te Deum' 
 for his patron the ex-Paymaster of the Forces, who gave him 
 a thousand pounds for the oratorio of ' Esther.' His subse- 
 quent career as composer and director of operas at the King's 
 Theatre, and the long story of his triumphs and his troubles, 
 ending in temporary dethronement and the shutting up of 
 
10 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i74r 
 
 the Haymarket House, have been often told. When at his 
 lowest depth of disappointment in the summer of 1741, 
 Dubourg, who never wavered in his devotion to his friend, 
 urged him to pay a visit to the land of his own adoption, 
 where his works, he said, were all well known and dearly 
 loved, and where he promised him such a welcome as would 
 kindle hope and joy in him again. The Duke of Devonshire, 
 then Viceroy, was induced to send him a courtly invitation. 
 Handel hesitated. He was busy with what he called ' some- 
 thing new,' which he thought would please, and which he 
 could not break away from incomplete ere quitting home. 
 Something new indeed — the like of which was never heard 
 by human ears before or since that day. Some weeks in 
 August and September he spent chiefly alone, piling up 
 with rapidity inconceivable the matchless melodies and 
 harmonies of his great masterpiece. When the score of 
 the ' Messiah ' was complete, he prepared to set out for 
 Dublin, where Dubourg had negotiated for him engagements 
 likely to be remunerative without opemtic risks or cares. 
 But in the shortening days the journey looked a long one, 
 when he heard it took the King's Lieutenant with sixteen 
 relays of horses five days upon the road from Piccadilly to 
 Park Grate ; and sometimes as many at sea. The letters of 
 the violinist were however more and more persuasive : Handel 
 was already in Ireland so well known, and the best people 
 would be sure to make so much of him. At last he made 
 up his mind, and engaging three or four artists on whom he 
 could rely to follow him by the middle of November, he 
 quitted home. 
 
 Weatherbound at Chester on his way, he bethought him 
 of his precious manuscript, and inquired for a chorister who 
 could read'- score at sight, that he might try over some of the 
 passages which were running in his head as he smoked his 
 long pipe at the inn. Jansen, a house-^painter, was said to be 
 
1 741 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANG AN. 11 
 
 just the sort of man he wanted ; and when his outdoor work 
 was done it was agreed they should begin. But the irritable 
 bard quickly grew impatient at the blunders and hesitations 
 of his half-taught assistant, and broke out in profanest poly- 
 glot of objurgation. ' You scoundrel ; 'pourquoi you tell 
 me you could read music at soight ? * — ' So I can,' said the 
 decorator, ' but not at first sight.' The soft answer turned 
 away wrath. The author of ' Saul ' and ' Israel in Egypt ' 
 burst out laughing, and they got on very tolerably for the 
 rest of the time. 
 
 At Dublin his welcome, in compliment and cash, was 
 far more than he had bargained for. The Ducal Court did 
 him all honour ; the Bar and University added their homage ; 
 and the fashionable world of music went fairly mad with joy. 
 
 In a letter to his friend who wrote the libretto of his 
 lighter pieces and adapted the Scriptural words of his ora- 
 torios, he tells how ' the nobility did make amongst themselves 
 a subscription for six nights which did fill a room of six 
 hundred persons, so that he needed not sell one single ticket 
 at the door : and without vanity the performance was received 
 with a general approbation. Signora Avolio, which he 
 brought with him from London, pleased extraordinary. He 
 found a tenor voice which gave great satisfaction ; the 
 basses and counter-tenors were very good, and the rest of the 
 chorus singers by his direction did exceedingly well ; as for 
 the instruments they were excellent, Mr. Dubourg being at 
 the head of them ; and the music -sounded delightfully in 
 their charming room, which puts him in such spirits, and 
 his health being so good, that he exerted himself on his organ 
 with more than usual success. They opened with the 'Allegro,' 
 ' Penseroso,' and ' II Moderato,' and he assured his friend 
 that his words of the ' Moderato ' were vastly admired. The 
 audience being composed besides the flower of the ladies of 
 distinction and o£her people of the greatest quality ; of so 
 
12 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1741- 
 
 many bishops, deans, heads of the College, and the most 
 eminent people in the law, as the Chancellor, Auditor- 
 Greneral, &c. ; all which were very much taken with the poetry, 
 so that he was desired to perform it again the next time.' He 
 could not sufficiently express the kind treatment he received ; 
 but the politeness of this generous nation could not be un- 
 known to his friend, who might judge of the satisfaction he 
 enjoyed. 
 
 The instrument above alluded to he had brought with 
 him from London in his anxiety to insure the due effect of 
 his performances. It was given by him to Mr. Wesley on 
 his leaving Ireland, and was long afterwards presented by his 
 son to the old Church of St. Paul, on the rebuilding of which 
 it was transferred to the Dublin Blue-Coat School.^ 
 
 Years and vexations had not dimmed Handel's sense of 
 humour, which never malicious, played freely among friends 
 and acquaintances as well as critics and rivals. During a 
 rehearsal, Dubourg who sometimes took a trip without leave 
 into the tempting field of improvisation, lost his way, and 
 had obvious difficulty in regaining the key from which he 
 had wandered. Having at length succeeded, he tried to 
 cover his escape with a brilliant shake ; Handel murmured, 
 "" Welcome home, Mr. Dubourg.' 
 
 Mr. Wesley was enchanted, as were his children, when he 
 carried with him both the eminent musicians to Dangan, 
 and invited all his neighbours of the country round to hear 
 Handel play upon the organ in the great hall. Who can tell 
 the depth of the impression made upon the precocious son, 
 then a child, as he watched the fingers of the magician press 
 the keys and bring forth tones of pathos and of power such 
 as his boyish fancy had never dreamed of or imagined. 
 
 Dr. Quin, who was a leading member of the local Academy 
 of Music, loved long afterwards to tell how Handel during 
 
 * Townsend ; on the authority of Mr. Geary, organist of the Chapel. 
 
-1742 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANG AN. 13 
 
 his visit to Ireland, lived in the utmost degree of friendship 
 and familiarity with many noble families.^ His concerts 
 were repeated dm-ing the spring, and with undiminished eclat. 
 The enthusiasm he found among all classes for melody, native 
 and foreign, gave him infinite pleasure. He noted carefully 
 many of the popular airs which were sung to accompaniments 
 on the harp ; and though Carolan was dead, there were still 
 not a few of the minstrels trained in his school who were 
 devoted to the national instrument. 
 
 Everyone pressed the illustrious stranger to prolong his 
 stay, and amid easy gains and flattering hospitalities he was 
 nothing loth. But what was to become of the Eoyal prin- 
 cesses and their lessons on the harpsichord ? for George II. 
 had only given him leave of absence for a few weeks' excur- 
 sion across the Channel. The Lord Lieutenant undertook 
 to obtain an extension of time, which was granted, and thus 
 Dubourg secured his heart's desire, that the chef-d^oeuvre of 
 his friend should be produced in Ireland for the first time under 
 his direction. Mrs. Gibber and Signora Avolio were willing 
 to remain, having reaped their full meed of profit and praise. 
 
 Society in Dublin was then full of cultivated taste, and 
 hospitality was its ordinary way of life. Handel longed to 
 hear the ^ Messiah,' and Dubourg encouraged him to pay his 
 Celtic friends the compliment of its first production. Singers 
 for the chief parts were not wanting, and for an orchestra of 
 sufficient range and skill the local societies would readily 
 contribute their best performers. But fitting choruses there 
 could not be unless the deans of the two cathedrals could be 
 induced to lend their choirs. Here was a difficulty. Swift 
 not long before had in a querulous fit made an order against 
 his choristers ' hiring their voices to clubs of fiddlers.' What 
 was indecorous at St. Patrick's, the singing men and boys 
 of Christ Church could not be expected to do, and all the 
 } Bumey, Jliitory of l^usic. 
 
14 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1742- 
 
 strength of both was wanted. Swift still lived, but was by 
 this time past objecting. ' Dead at top,' he was no longer 
 able to discharge his accustomed duties, or even to enjoy the 
 conversation of old friends. His functions had devolved on 
 the sub-dean and precentor. Doctor Wynne, who happened 
 to be trustee and treasurer of Mercer's Hospital, the funds of 
 which w^ould be further benefited by the new enterprise 
 should it succeed ; and fortunately the Dean of Christ Church, 
 Charles Cobbe,^ was a lover of music, liberal and enlightened 
 like himself. Dubourg persuaded both to let their choirs 
 practise together the choruses of the * Messiah ; ' and Handel 
 spent February and March in drilling his Celtic cheru- 
 bim when their surplices were doffed. The best players of 
 the confederate orchestra set about practising diligently 
 their parts. On April 30 it was announced that the 
 ' Messiah ' would be performed, and in a hall crowded to 
 excess by nobles, fair women, dignitaries, and dilettanti^ was 
 for the first time heard ' Comfort ye, my people.' Who can 
 realise the wonder and ecstasy of the hour ? Handel's own 
 account is simple and touching, giving praise to all con- 
 cerned except himself. Mr. Wesley, Dr. Delany, and all their 
 circle, save Swift alone, were there ; and the doctor, though 
 not apt to yield to emotion, was so carried away by the 
 pathos of Mrs. Cibber, that he audibly exclaimed, ' Woman, 
 for this be all thy sins forgiven.' 
 
 In 1743 Delany had the good fortune to win the hand 
 of Mrs. Pendarves, whose residence thenceforth in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dublin added a new charm to the society in 
 which Wesley moved. By her taste and skill Delville was 
 decorated and its grounds improved, until, for the size of it, 
 it came to be the most coveted spot in all the suburbs round. 
 Its mistress seems never to have been spoiled by the popu- 
 
 * Chaplain to the Duke of Bolton 1717; and in 1743 Archbishop 
 Dublin. 
 
-1743 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANGAN. 15 
 
 larity she enjoyed, and never tired of contriving how to 
 make others happy. When her cousin became Premier, 
 Chesterfield went to Ireland as Viceroy, and in his never- 
 ending hospitalities he was glad to pay especial devotion to 
 his fair friend. In one of her letters she describes with a 
 playful air of affectation the fuss at Glasnevin when his 
 Excellency offered to come to breakfast with his lady wife, 
 and how much he admired her shell-work, embroidery, and all 
 the rest. Mr. Wesley, who was certainly not a man to push 
 his way among the time-serving great, lost nothing in the 
 eyes of Philip the Magnificent by her known esteem for him. 
 The friends of his own station in life with whom he was 
 most intimate had been chiefly in sympathy with Opposition 
 during the administration of Walpole ; and it needed little 
 persuasion by Chesterfield to induce Lord Granville to 
 name him for an Irish peerage as one whom he might 
 remember during his own Lieutenancy to be a worthy 
 gentleman of good estate, the owner of an obedient borough, 
 and possessing not a little influence in his county. He was 
 accordingly created by Privy Seal Baron Mornington, a dignity 
 which he lived to enjoy for several years. ^ The cause of his 
 elevation is not distinctly noticed in any of the journals of 
 the time, and may probably be ascribed to his social popu- 
 larity and the support his family had for generations given 
 without much show of political preference, to the executive 
 of the day. The Irish House of Lords was then the least 
 exciting of assemblies, and few vestiges remain of its desul- 
 tory deliberations. Of the senatorial sayings of the new 
 peer, if he ever said anything, nothing is preserved. The 
 votes of the member for Trim were of inappreciable value 
 during the first half of the century, and could hardly have 
 weighed in the scale ; for there was then no debate in the 
 dull provincial taxing-house on any question of greater 
 » Patent bears date July 10, 1746. 
 
16 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1748- 
 
 interest to the world than the tithe of agistment or the 
 phraseology of an address to a carousing Viceroy, which some 
 neglected lawyer strove to pepper skilfully with sarcasm. 
 
 The new peer had hardly entered upon the enjoyment of 
 his honours, when through some accident unknown, the old 
 house at Dangan was discovered to be on fire, and the greater 
 portion of it was destroyed ; but enough was saved of furni- 
 ture and valuables to make the offices temporarily habitable 
 while the work of rebuilding went on. Familiar friends 
 came and made merry all the same. Mrs. Delany wrote in 
 terms of admiration of the improvements made in all the 
 surroundings since she had first been there. 
 
 ' The place is really magnificent. The park consists of 
 between eight and nine hundred acres ; the walk from the 
 house to the lake is six hundred yards long and fifty-two feet 
 broad. The lake covers twenty-six acres, with a fort and 
 islands full of wildfowl. My godson Garret is governor of 
 the fort, and lord high admiral ; he hoisted all his colours 
 for my reception, and was not a little mortified that I 
 declined the compliment of being saluted from the fort and 
 ship. The ground as far as you can see every way is waving 
 in hills and dales, and every remarkable point has either a 
 tuft of trees, a statue, a seat, an obelisk or a pillar. How 
 great a satisfaction it is to see so fine a place in the posses- 
 sion of a man so worthy of it.' 
 
 Lord Mornington was the same good-humoured agreeable 
 man he had been seventeen years before. His eldest 
 daughter, who had married Chichester Fortescue of Dromes- 
 kin in Louth, had become an invalid, and her sister. Miss 
 Wesley, did the honours of the table. ' My godson is a 
 most extraordinary boy ; he is thirteen, a very good scholar, 
 and whatever study he undertakes he masters it surprisingly. 
 He began with the fiddle last year and now he plays every- 
 thing at sight. He is a child among children and as trac- 
 
-1758 FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DANG AN, 17 
 
 table and complying to his sisters and all that should have 
 any authority over him.' One of the stories oft recalled of 
 the young musician's enthusiastic devotion to the art was, 
 that when he was told that a new organ had been ordered for 
 the hall, he eagerly offered for the post of organist ; and for 
 answer got the promise that he should have it if, when the 
 instrument was finished, he could play on it a hymn. When 
 the time came he not only proved able to comply with the 
 condition, but, to his father's wonder and delight, performed 
 a voluntary full of pleasant harmony and much variety, of his 
 own composition. Thenceforth his aim in life was fixed ; 
 and with the aid of native and foreign teachers he be- 
 came, as is well known, one of the leading amateurs of his 
 day. The memory of Handel's visit was fondly cherished 
 at Dangan ; and when his youthful admirer was old enough 
 to accompany his father to London, it was his chief delight 
 to hear the great composer play at the Foundling,^ which he 
 did regularly on Sunday morning for several years ; even after 
 he had been smitten with blindness ; ^ or to gaze on him 
 with tender admiration as he conducted on the organ the 
 performance of the ' Messiah,' and saw his tears drop upon the 
 notes in the piercing wail of Samson mourning his loss of 
 sight.^ 
 
 Garret Wesley was educated at Trinity College, and 
 obtained an honorary degree as doctor of music from the 
 Irish University. At three-and-twenty he succeeded to the 
 patrimonial inheritance, and thenceforth devoted his chief 
 thoughts to the pursuit of his favourite art. One of the 
 first undertakings of the harmonious peer was the recon- 
 stitution in Dublin of an Academy for the mutual culture 
 of music by amateurs of good wealth and good breeding. 
 In the good old times of the Irish metropolis when it 
 
 ' Ladies were told to come without hoops and gentlemen without their 
 swords. ' In 1753. « Schoelcher. 
 
18 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1759- 
 
 possessed a Parliament and a West End of its own, and was 
 full of the flutter and fashion of lavish landlords who rode 
 hard, drank deep, were never at a loss for a repartee, or for a 
 second at short notice in a duel, and dark-eyed, low-voiced 
 loveable women who circulated from one another's pleasant 
 mansions throughout the winter in gilded sedans, and on a 
 Sunday morning effectively wept at a charity sermon at St. 
 Ann's or St. Patrick's and left their bracelets or lockets on 
 the plate ; in those days when Dublin was a city ill- watched 
 and watered, but delightful to live in among those who 
 understood how to live, the young lord and his companions 
 swam down stream loving and beloved, the gayest of the 
 gay. Music more than ever was his fancy and his forte. 
 The rules of the new Academy excluded all kinds of pro- 
 fessional help. Listeners were admitted by tickets one 
 evening in every month ; and as many as three hundred 
 sometimes came in ruffles and brocade. To show they were 
 not proud, once every year the sons and daughters of Orpheus 
 played for money, when anyone might pay at the doors : the 
 proceeds being duly applied to the Indigent Eoom-Keepers 
 and the Infirmary. Lord Momington officiated generally as 
 conductor of the orchestra, and prominent among his fellow- 
 fiddlers was Sackville Hamilton, and pre-eminent for dainty 
 pleasings on the lute, the Lord Lucan of his day. Mrs. Monck 
 and Lady Caroline Kussell warbled divinely ; while Lady 
 Tyrone matronised the younger vocalists of her sex, as Sappho 
 might have done had she been married to a Beresford of an 
 Earl's degree. Admission to membership was by strictest 
 ballot, the subscription being high, and the improbable con- 
 tingency of a surplus being provided for by its appropriation 
 beforehand to a loan fund for distressed tradesmen. 
 
 The noble mfiaestro was for a time the accepted lover of 
 Lady Louisa Lennox, sister of Lady Kildare, and he seemed 
 to have found favour at Carton. But after a little while Mr. 
 
-i76o FROM WELLES-LEIGH TO DAXGAN. 19 
 
 Conolly of Celbridge, with half liis wit and twice his fortune, 
 crossed his path and made away with the prize. Consolation 
 for his wounded spirit soon presented itself in the person of 
 the fair daughter of Arthur Hill, of Bel voir in the county 
 of Down, who was afterwards created Viscount Dungannon. 
 The lady brought him no great fortune, but he settled 1,400/. 
 a year on her as jointure and 500/. a year as pin money. The 
 Meath estates yielded at the time 8,000/. a year, and were 
 expected to produce considerably more ; but encumbrances 
 had already begun to take root in the soil ; and during his 
 life-tenancy they throve apace. In Grrafton Street, at an old 
 mansion rented from the Corporation, which he purposed 
 buying in order to rebuild, on the 20th June, 1760, his eldest 
 son Eichard was bom. Not long afterwards he acquired the 
 additional dignities of Viscount Wellesley of Dangan, and 
 Earl of Mornington in the county of Meath ; ^ and in her 
 bridal year Lady Mornington walked as an Irish Countess at 
 the coronation of George III. 
 
 • 20th October, 1760. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1761 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HARROW AND ETON, 
 1761-1781. 
 
 It is easy to imagine with what pride the heir of Dangan was 
 regarded by his youthful parents and their sympathising 
 circle. Features are proverbially apt to change and the 
 thousand accidents and maladies to which immaturity is 
 liable, forbid parental confidence that beauty in the cradle 
 will be followed, after a score years of growth, by manly grace 
 and nobleness of bearing. But there are faces which when 
 we look upon them even in maturity, and forms we gaze upon 
 even in trembling age, that we feel instinctively must have 
 been from the beginning perfect of their kind. No baby- 
 likeness has survived to tell how symmetrical were the tiny 
 lineaments or rounded limbs that first engaged a mother's 
 care; and we know scarce anything of how the first ten 
 childish years were passed. But who shall say how much the 
 impressionable nature of the boy was moulded by what he saw 
 and heard around him? His father's house in town was a 
 place of festivity and fashion. Life among the higher classes 
 of society in Dublin was not perhaps more volatile or volup- 
 tuous than in other capitals. But with the exception of the 
 enthusiasm for the culture and practice of music, there was 
 little to redeem it from the character of frivolity : and we 
 know that, when looking back after an interval of half a 
 century upon the days of his bringing up, the statesman sighed 
 to think how few advantages of mental training he had 
 
-I770 HARROW AND ETON. 21 
 
 enjoyed in his early home. In winter tincie the family resi- 
 dence was Merrion Street/ near the lawn of Leinster House, 
 where Arthur, destined to fill even a greater place in history 
 than his eldest brother, came into the world. 
 
 But the long summer tide and perhaps still more en- 
 joyable autumn, were spent by the little lord — for he was 
 about the smallest Viscount in the realm — on the pleasant 
 uplands of the Boyne ; rambling in the dells and woods of 
 Dangan, and casually on pony-back loitering to the pre- 
 paratory school at Trim, where he learned as little as the 
 delicate son of a fine gentleman might be expected to do. 
 His after recollections of the period are but too reproachful 
 of his parents' negligence, although there is not a word in- 
 dicative of unkindness on the part of either. 
 
 Within the park-gates all bespoke the lavish ways of 
 luxury : without, everything the penury of serfhood and the 
 misery of squalor. Could a susceptible nature be unaffected 
 by the contrast, all the more because unconsciously, or by the 
 daily and hourly lesson it taught of the ineffable disparit}- 
 of caste and creed ? A boy does not philosophise or reason 
 about such things ; but ever, as in Lacedaemon, in Venice, in 
 Virginia till the other day, imbibes impressions and ideas 
 of unspeakable superiority to the subject community amid 
 whom he dwells, and whom he takes for a type of the bulk 
 of mankind. Everywhere the goodlooking, quickwitted 
 firstborn of a noble house is immeshed in the wiles of adula- 
 tion ; but nowhere more so than in Ireland even to-day ; 
 what then must it have been a century ago ? 
 
 His next brother William.^ being two years younger, 
 
 ' The house afterwards became the property of the Miltown family, 
 and eventually was purchased for the office of the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 mission. 
 
 * Bom 1763 : adopted by a relative named Pole, for some years repre* 
 sentative of Trim, subsequently Chief Secretary for Ireland and created 
 Earl of Maryborough. 
 
22 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1770- 
 
 was only beginning to be companionable when their father 
 made up his mind that Richard should be sent to Harrow. 
 His then only sister Anne and his younger brother Arthur 
 were still in the nursery : and though the English school was 
 a long way off and he knew that all around him would at 
 first be strange, the boy had self-control enough even before 
 eleven to disdain the suspicion of regret at quitting home. 
 The Diocesan School of Meath sufficed for the younger 
 members of the family. The building formed a portion of 
 the old Castle of Trim, where Lord Deputy Talbot liked to 
 rest in the intervals of his campaigns in France. The repute 
 of the county academy for discipline or learning has not 
 survived, but probably it was fortunate for himself and for 
 his country that Arthur was not suffered too long to linger 
 there. 
 
 For some years the musical Earl continued to hold his 
 honorary professorship in the University of Dublin, delivering 
 annually a course of lectures on vocal and orchestral harmony, 
 said to have been attended by well-bred votaries of the 
 art. During this period he published the catch, ' 'Twas 
 you. Sir,' and several glees and madrigals that caught the 
 popular ear. But it was not until a somewhat later period 
 that he entered into competition with the best writers of 
 vocal music in England, and justly earned a considerable 
 reputation. Among his best glees were, ' What is life and 
 all its pride?' ' See, the bowl sparkles ; ' ' Hail, hallowed fane;' 
 ' Come, fairest nymph ; '. ' When for the world's repose ; ' and 
 'Here in cool grot,' which in 1779 won the gold medal. 
 Of his madrigals, ' As it fell upon a day ; ' ' Come, shepherds, 
 come away ; ' and ' Orpheus with his lute,' are perhaps the 
 best remembered. 
 
 Either from a falling off in the attendance at his lectures 
 or a sense of weariness not inexcusable at the restraint upon 
 his otherwise complete freedom of artistic whim, he resigned 
 
-I77I HARROW AND ETON. 23 
 
 his office, which for some time remained consequently vacant. 
 As a member of the English Madrigal Society, and the old Glee 
 Club, he cultivated the society of Mr. Lock and Dr. Callcott, 
 vieing with Lord Sandwich and other persons of quality in 
 kindly and useful sympathy with younger followers of the 
 profession. A good deal of his time was spent in London, 
 and he continued indefatigably to compete with professional 
 and amateur composers for honourable distinction, and not 
 unfrequently with cheerfully acknowledged success. 
 
 Eichard went to HaiTow in 1770, where he chiefly distin- 
 guished himself as forward in the memorable barring-out of 
 a new head master Dr. Heath, because he was an Etonian, 
 and therefore in Harrovian eyes an intruder and usurper. 
 Daniel Eoderick, one of the assistant-masters, wrote a full 
 account of the affair.^ 
 
 On the death of Dr. Sumner in September 1771, Samuel 
 Parr who stood next in authority by general consent of his 
 colleagues and pupils, offered himself for the vacant post. 
 He was but five-and-twenty and as he had not taken his 
 M.A. at Cambridge the governors objected to his want of 
 standing, in preference leaning to Mr. Heath. The upper 
 form considered it as an indignity to have an Eton assistant 
 put over them when they had in their own school a person 
 of superior learning; and a petition well drawn up and 
 signed by every boy in the school, was presented to the 
 governors on the subject. Dr. BucknelFs carriage was 
 dragged from the inn yard and completely demolished, and 
 Koderick had difficulty in dissuading some of the mutineers 
 from breaking the windows of Mr. Horn, one of the 
 governors, for which they had armed themselves with stones. 
 Parr who believed that his real disqualification was a vote 
 he had given for John Wilkes in Middlesex, made no secret of 
 his sense of the injustice done him. He threw up the place 
 
 * Johnstone's Life of Dr. Parr, i. p. 58. 
 
24 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1771- 
 
 he had occupied with great credit for five years previously, 
 and opened a school of his own at Stanmore, to which forty 
 of his pupils followed him. Many more quitted Harrow 
 without leave, not caring to face the retributive wrath of 
 successfully vindicated authority. Heath called on their 
 parents to send them back for exemplary chastisement. The 
 tiny but intrepid insurgent returned to Dangan, where his 
 mother tried her best to look shocked at his incorrigible 
 impenitence, but shrunk from recommending that he should 
 be delivered over to the tormentors : and his father though 
 not given to Whig notions of discipline, agreed that he 
 should be transferred to Eton, where speedily forgetting 
 the jealousy out of which the strange affray had sprung, he 
 soon grew happy and studious, and learned to love the place 
 with a fervour savouring of romance that burned undimmed 
 to his dying day. The election of Heath and the subsequent 
 disturbance took place October 3, 1771. 
 
 Having by his own account profited very little by any 
 previous teaching, he was fortunate enough to fix the 
 attention and win the attachment of a youthful compatriot 
 three or four years older than himself, but who remained 
 long enough at the college to render him inestimable service. 
 John Newport was the son of a Waterford gentleman, of 
 small fortune but of good standing and public spirit, whose 
 chief ambition was to see his son occupy a higher station 
 than his own, and qualified for sustaining it. From 
 childhood he had shown much facility in acquiring know- 
 ledge, and later on the aptitude for imparting it to others 
 with a persuasive force and grace which made him in maturer 
 years the valued ally of influential and distinguished men. 
 The new comer whose singular features rivetted his gaze, 
 struck him as ill-suited for the rougher sports of his com- 
 panions in the lower form, and as having in his look some- 
 thing of promise rarely seen, with all the weakness and 
 
-1772 HARROW AND ETON. 25 
 
 waywardness of a spoiled child. At home he had been made 
 to learn nothing and to obey nobody. He was sensitive, 
 passionate, and full of the self-importance which the eldest- 
 born in the country-house of an Earl is pretty certain to 
 acquire when left to the companionship of hangers-on and 
 the flattery of servants. Luckily for him he happened to be 
 Newport's fag, and in this relationship his shortcomings and 
 the signs of good that was in him became daily noticeable ; 
 and then began that transformation of his mental nature 
 which, as he himself loved to tell, was the foundation of all 
 his subsequent success in life. 
 
 ' Under Mrs. Young's great tree at Eton the brotherhood, 
 for such it truly was, of Wellesley, Grrenville, and Newport 
 commenced, lasting undiminished through every vicissi- 
 tude of political life, and still subsisted vigorously in the 
 declining years of the survivors — proof against the estrange- 
 ment usually created by elevation in rank and remoteness of 
 removal.' ^ 
 
 Looking back at this period after the long fight of life 
 was done, wherein he achieved much more than most of his 
 contemporaries, he gratefully laid at the feet of Newport, as 
 the founder of his public character, the credit of it all. The 
 letter in which he asks his early guide and life-long friend to 
 recount to him all that he remembers of the time they passed 
 at Eton, is almost feminine in tenderness. There is in it that 
 dash of romance and morbid egotism which is traceable 
 throughout his whole career ; and which unquestionably was 
 the frequent source of unhappiness and error. 
 
 ' You found me an idle boy, and by your instruction and 
 example I was made diligent and studious, and inspired with 
 that glorious passion for solid fame, that noble ambition to 
 obtain power and honour by deserving them, which has been 
 my " star of Arcadie," my " Tyrian cynosure," through my 
 
 » From Sir J. Newport, 23rd March, 1840. 
 
26 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1777- 
 
 long and active life^ which has raised me to a station 
 
 impregnable by slander, malice, or faction. I acknowledge 
 
 this — I am proud to acknowledge it, and I have everywhere 
 
 and on all occasions boasted that to you I owe the foundation 
 
 of my public character.' 
 
 The closing words are curious : — ' You must remember 
 
 that you accompanied me from Eton to Dangan Castle, the 
 
 seat of my ancestors, where you passed some time with my 
 
 father and mother ; alas ! frivolous and careless personages, 
 
 like most of the Irish nobility of that time. You taught 
 
 them to respect me ^nd my literary pursuits, and to encourage 
 
 me in the career of honour and glory to which you had first 
 
 directed my steps. You were to me what my father might 
 
 have been : 
 
 Tu, pater ! es rerum inventor ; tu patria nobis 
 Subpeditas praecepta. 
 
 Be assured that I can never forget my duty towards you.' ^ 
 
 Ere he left Eton he had mastered the difficulties of 
 Greek ; and Groodall, one of his contemporaries, used to 
 recall his rare facility in Latin verse, in which he thought 
 him infinitely superior to Porson.^ 
 
 He was a frequent contributor to the ' Musae Etonenses,' 
 where his first ambitious effusions are preserved. In metrical 
 balance and the collocation of sweet-sounding syllables they 
 may still be read with pleasure : for was he not bom with 
 music in his soul, and was not every childish memory linked 
 with warbled cadence or with choral hymn ? To the end he 
 was wont to marshal all his words and thoughts in proces- 
 sional harmony. At Christ Church, where he matriculated 
 in December 1778, he pursued his studies during three years. 
 
 • Letter to Sir J. Newport; Kingston House, Knightsbridge, 28th 
 February, 1840. 
 
 2 Evidence of Dr. Groodall, head master of Eton, before Education 
 Committee of House of Commons in 18X8, 
 
-1778 HARROW AND ETON. 27 
 
 His tutor William Jackson, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, 
 urged him to compete for the prize in Latin hexameters, 
 which he won in 1780, the subject being the death of Captain 
 Cook. Among his class fellows, not a few of whom in after 
 life rose to eminence, the diligent and &2imij filius nobilis 
 was less of a favourite than a competitor open to criticism 
 and banter for his pretentious bearing ; but he was more 
 than compensated by the praise of friends whom he had the 
 faculty of attaching in a singular degree. Of these in every 
 way the most notable was William afterwards Lord Grrenville. 
 
 How soon far-off scenes of public excitement fired his 
 youthful curiosity and ambition cannot certainly be known ; 
 but they were made more real, one can imagine, by the older 
 aspirations and conjectures of Newport, and the glimpses of 
 political life caught through the companionship of Grrenville, 
 who had stories to tell about Lord Chatham and wistful 
 anticipations of what his cousin William Pitt might do in 
 Parliament. But vacations spent at Dangan did not abound 
 in stimulants to exertion, and though at his father's house 
 in Dublin he met men of legal reputation like Burgh and 
 Yelverton, or of growing popularity like Brownlow, Grardner, 
 and Grattan, there is no reason to suppose that the little 
 Viscount, equally proud of his good looks and prize verses, 
 cherished any idea of precipitate immersion in the struggle 
 and fray of public controversy in Ireland. The state of 
 affairs in that land of chequered fortune during his sojourn 
 at Oxford was indeed hard to comprehend, even by those 
 who were most conversant with it. 
 
 Eumours of American privateers hovering on the coast 
 had prevailed in 1777, but were treated with official disdain : 
 and when nothing came of the supposed peril the defenceless 
 towns went asleep again, and the populace laughed at the 
 scare. But when in April 1778, Paul Jones appeared in 
 the Channel, and landing at Whitehaven, where a crowd of 
 
28 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i-j-jc^ 
 
 merchantmen lay at anchor, levied a heavy ransom, spiked 
 the guns in the fort, and next day fought and took the 
 sloop ' Drake ' of twenty guns, affairs looked more serious : 
 and anxious inquiries were made of Grovernment by the few 
 who in those days had access to authority, as to the means 
 of resistance available at the outports should the dreaded 
 rover swoop down upon them. Next year reinforced from 
 Brest, he again swept the Channel, making prey of not a few 
 merchantmen and menacing now and then troop and store- 
 ships as they crept along the shore. On September 24, 
 1779, he attacked the Baltic fleet sailing under convoy off 
 Flamborough Head, and took the ' Serapis ' and ' Countess of 
 Scarborough ' after a sharp encounter, bearing them as prizes 
 into the Texel ; thence he again issued in December, and 
 spread once more the terror of his name along the southern 
 coast. 
 
 During the year amateur soldiering went on throughout 
 the greater part of Ireland ; Government not venturing to 
 be nice in the sanction given to its spontaneous organisation. 
 Every county had its regiment, of which the most popular 
 proprietor was by acclamation chosen colonel, and the leading 
 gentry ofi&cers. Some counties had several corps ; and the 
 towns and cities were not backward in furnishing their quota. 
 Lord Charlemont took the initiative in the movement and 
 by common consent was named commander ; and the enthu- 
 siasm spreading he found himself ere long the elected general 
 of a self-enrolled militia of from 80,000 to 100,000 men. 
 As the war went on, most of the regular troops were sent 
 beyond sea to succour the outnumbered armies of the King, 
 daily harder pressed by the French and American forces under 
 Rochambeau and Washington, until at last little more than 
 six thousand regulars were left in Ireland. Charlemont loyally 
 made the tender of his unpaid levies to take their place in 
 the performance of garrison duty. The Viceroy muttered 
 
1779 HARROW AND ETON. 29 
 
 thanks, hesitated to refuse, and wrote for definite instructions 
 to Whitehall, — instructions which never came. 
 
 The first fruits of the unlooked-for condition of things 
 which had thus arisen was the exaction in Parliament of 
 important concessions long demanded in vain. The tariff of 
 exports and imports imposed by the English legislature by- 
 virtue of Poynings' law had but one purpose, namely to 
 crush any attempt at commercial competition on the part 
 of the weaker country. No disguise was affected in the 
 purpose, and no scruple in the rigour of the repressive means 
 employed. Flood, after some years of opposition, had entered 
 the Viceregal Cabinet in the hope of effecting by expostu- 
 lation in council some mitigation of the injustice under 
 which his country pined ; and he consequently incurred the 
 distrust of his best friends, and no little obloquy out of 
 doors. Conviction of the futility of his attempt was hastened 
 by the unlooked-for resort of the community to arms, and 
 resigning his office of Vice-Treasurer he resumed his former 
 place as head of the popular party in the Commons. Mean- 
 while a younger and showier aspirant to pre-eminence in 
 that assembly, whom he himself had helped to bring into 
 notice, began to assert the magic power of an eloquence 
 singularly adapted to fascinate an excitable and imaginative 
 people. Flood would have hardly admitted to himself that 
 he could be jealous of Grrattan; yet jealous he certainly 
 became ; and their subsequent rivalry exercised no doubt a 
 baneful influence over the cause which both of them sincerely 
 had at heart. Both, however, in 1779 contributed materially 
 to wring from the administration of Lord North a measure 
 of commercial freedom which opened the trade with the 
 Colonies and the Continent to Irish enterprise ; and which, 
 from its novel and specious sound, an inexperienced people 
 without capital, shipping, or habits of business, fancied 
 would prove a charter of national employment and wealth. 
 
30 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 178 1 
 
 Dublin illuminated ; Cork and Waterford were full of joy ; 
 and Belfast and Derry counted up beforehand how much 
 they had to be thankful for. Grattan elated with his share of 
 the triumph, and with a notoriety easily and pleasantly earned, 
 pressed eagerly forward and urged, as did many others, the 
 demand for legislative independence. Flood, who was not 
 easily carried away, would fain have gone more slowly, 
 and have tried to consolidate year by year the advantages 
 gained and likely to be gained. But the course of events 
 in America and the decrepitude of the administration 
 in England put caution out of countenance, and wrought 
 men of all parties and dispositions to a pitch of panic, hope, 
 and venture, in which anything and everything seemed 
 possible and practicable. Disaster followed disaster to 
 the royal arms abroad ; and when the last reserves in 
 garrison were withdrawn for America, Charlemont by desire 
 of the chief men in the Volunteer army, waited on the 
 Viceroy to tender once more their services as a mobilised 
 force for the maintenance of the State.' Ere the offer could 
 be formally accepted, tidings came of Cornwallis's surrender 
 with 7,000 men to Washington and Eochambeau at York 
 Town. Humbled and paralysed, Grovemment had no longer 
 the nerve to maintain a tone of administrative dignity, and 
 betrayed its inability to resist further concessions. Grrattan 
 sat down to draught a Bill of Eights, and Flood to mature a 
 limited Mutiny Bill for Ireland on the English model. Such 
 was the strangely exceptional condition of things in which the 
 young Oxonian found himself suddenly called on to take a part. 
 Lord Mornington had never been a poKtician, and he 
 continued throughout life absorbed in measures of music 
 rather than measures of State. Attendance in the Irish 
 House of Lords was simply to him a bore. Society in London 
 had long had paramount attractions, and he passed a consider- 
 » September 1781. 
 
1 78 1 BARROW AND ETON. 31 
 
 able part of every year in town. He was living at Ken- 
 sington in the spring of 1781, occupied chiefly in com- 
 pleting his last compositions, ' Bacchus, sprightly god of 
 wine,' and ' Grently hear me, charming maid,' when he was 
 seized with an illness which in a few weeks proved fatal. 
 Richard was summoned from Christ Church to his father's 
 death-bed, and by his decease on May 22, 1781, he became 
 Earl of Mornington. He was scarce of age when he was 
 thus called away from collegiate studies and associations to 
 enter upon the responsible duties of life. 
 
 The first act of the young peer was to devolve the man • 
 agement of the family estate to his mother. Heavy encum- 
 brances absorbed a great portion of the rental, and for the 
 younger children scant provision had been made. His brother 
 Arthur seems to have been the object of his chief domestic 
 care : the school at Trim could do little to fit him for the 
 profession to which he was destined ; so at twelve years old 
 he was sent to Angers, then a place of high repute for 
 military training. Mornington continued to reside with his 
 mother and sisters for some time, first at DubHn and after- 
 wards in London. 
 
 The Irish House of Lords had ordinarily little to attract 
 a young man of quick temperament and good parts. The 
 chamber, somewhat Venetian in its quiet gloom, was about 
 thirty feet in width by forty feet long ; the roof supported by 
 Corinthian columns, and the walls on each side hung with 
 tapestries recording the civil conflicts of Derry and the Boyne. 
 Of the Irish peers one-half dwelt in England, where their 
 estates chiefly lay ; and of the residents in Ireland com- 
 paratively few, except the bishops and the occupants of 
 the judicial bench, were ever seen within its portals. Some 
 twenty great proprietors came on particular occasions to re- 
 cord their votes or to qualify themselves to act by proxy ; 
 and some half-dozen of the needier sort found it a convenient 
 
32 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1781 
 
 place to make themselves troublesome or useful to the Castle. 
 But as a national senate there was an air of unreality about 
 its whole proceedings, which resembled usually those of a 
 select committee when real business was doing, or of a fashion- 
 able debating club where the members quoted Latin and 
 waxed loud in bag-wigs and swords. He took the oaths and his 
 seat at the beginning of the most memorable session of Par- 
 liament held in Ireland since that of Kilkenny under the last 
 of the Stuarts. For generations the provincial legislature 
 had been exclusively sectarian and submissively subordinate. 
 Molyneux, Swift, and Lucas had striven hard, but striven in 
 vain, to stir in the nobles and gentry a sense of the humilia- 
 tion of their class and country. But not until one of them- 
 selves began to mutter aloud words of mutiny could even a 
 few of them be persuaded that an independent Parliament 
 might, and if it could, should and ought to make laws, levy 
 taxes, and call ministers to account in Ireland. It took 
 Henry Flood five years to mature his plans of legislative 
 revolt, and to organise a party capable of attempting it. 
 Beyond the exaction of a right of free trade with the Colonies, 
 which the tottering administration of Lord North was fain to 
 yield in 1779, even Flood in the one House and Charlemont 
 in the other did not venture to insist. But before America 
 had won her independence in fair fight Ireland was almost 
 denuded of troops, and her defence was left to self-organised 
 corps of Volunteers. An unlooked-for opportunity seemed to 
 have come. From the lips of Grrattan a voice as the breath 
 of the whirlwind broke forth, the like of which courtiers or 
 country gentlemen had never heard before. Even the sub- 
 ject multitude, disfranchised and hitherto dumb, caught up 
 the echoes and made as though they too would speak. With- 
 out money to buy, or troops to bully, or talents to cajole, 
 Grovernment had to give way ; and the legislative freedom 
 of Ireland was obtained. 
 
35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 
 1781-1783. 
 
 The first trial of strength in the session of 1781-2 was on 
 the Mutiny Act, which,, contrary to the Revolution model, 
 had heretofore been in Ireland perpetual, and which it was 
 now proposed to make annual. But Grovernment were strong 
 enough in the Lords to resist the claim by forty-three to ten, 
 the minority, as was the custom, protesting. It was on this 
 occasion that j^oung Mornington, at the instance of Grrattan, 
 was named by Gharlemont, Opposition Whip in the Peers. 
 One can easily fancy the pleasure his self-importance took in 
 this early initiation into public business. What letters he 
 wrote and what visits he paid to his luxurious and lazy but 
 not very numerous party; how many reports of his doubts 
 and perplexities he brought to Marino, and how profane were 
 his denunciations of those who were missing when wanted, tra- 
 dition fails to tell. It was one of his functions to have the 
 best reasons ready in the best language^and in the best round 
 hand for his out-voted friends to sign. At two-and-twenty 
 what better could an Oxonian prizeman wish for than for- 
 mulating in finest English a small State paper on some con- 
 stitutional question ? There is no mistaking the handiwork 
 of the protest on the Mutiny Bill, which presents a full length 
 portrait of patrician virtue in the manner of Vandyke. Six 
 peers signed, and there were as many reasons as peers ; all 
 
 D 
 
34 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1781 
 
 stepping daintily and with dignity, with every curl of wisdom 
 and buckle of logic in due order ; arguments keen and true 
 as the rapiers they wore, and about as useless for any practical 
 purpose.^ They were dissentient, ' Because we hold it to be 
 an essential principle of constitutional safety that Parliament 
 should for ever retain in its own hands the power of creating, 
 limiting, and controlling the army, since no other privilege or 
 franchise can safely exist without recourse being had to the 
 most desperate remedies if the absolute and uncontrolled 
 power of the sword be lodged in the hands of the executive ; 
 and though it may be alleged that while Parliament retains 
 the exclusive right of dispensing the public money for the 
 creation and maintenance of the army, and of refusing such 
 supplies as may be necessary for this purpose, no danger is to 
 be apprehended on the part of the Crown ; yet we conceive 
 that in a matter of this momentous nature, where the essence 
 of our rights and of our liberties is at stake, it is dangerously 
 absurd to part with one defence merely because another re- 
 mains in our possession, or wantonly to give up the strong 
 important and tenable outworks of our constitution, from an 
 idea, perhaps ill-grounded, of the security of its internal 
 strength. We say perhaps ill-grounded because that, as in 
 this kingdom His Majesty possesses an hereditary revenue, 
 already dangerously considerable, and which like those 
 maladies which grow upon oiu* health and strength, must 
 necessarily grow and increase in proportion to the prosperity 
 and commerce of the country, it appears to us by no means 
 impossible that at some future day the Sovereign may be in 
 possession of finances so fatally extensive as to enable him to 
 raise, or at least to subsist, a considerable army without 
 having recourse to Parliament for any additional duties ; not 
 to mention that in an extreme, though improbable case, 
 
 ' The signatures were — Westmeath, Arran, Mountgarret, Aldborough, 
 Charlemont^ and Mornington. 
 
I78i IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 35 
 
 points may arise with respect to which the revenues of an- 
 other country may be made subservient to the support of an 
 army in this kingdom for purposes the most fatal to the 
 constitution thereof. Our affection also for our sistsr king- 
 dom, and our unalterable regard and watchful attachment 
 to its rights and liberties, with which our own are so strictly 
 interwoven, has concurred to induce us, with all our weight, 
 to endeavour the limitation of a law which, in its present 
 perpetual form, by enabling some future prince to make this 
 country a place of arms, and to raise and maintain therein 
 an uncontrolled and unconstitutional army, may endanger 
 the liberty not only of Ireland but of Grreat Britain also.' 
 
 The fifth clause dealt with the ministerial suggestion 
 that if two Mutiny Bills must be passed annually the Irish 
 might at some time dififer from the English, which was only 
 met by the plea that as both required the royal assent the 
 difficulty could not arise. 
 
 Clause 6 ran thus : — 
 
 ' Because this last-mentioned argument, if such it can be 
 called, only excepted, all the other reasonings which we have 
 heard in behalf of the measure, have endeavoured no more 
 than to prove that the Act in its present form is not per- 
 nicious, without pretending to show that it can be attended 
 by any salutary consequence, or that a temporary law would 
 not be preferable ; so that at most, the perpetuating clause is, 
 by those who support it, deemed unimportant ; while on the 
 other hand, we who have opposed it are determined in our 
 belief, and have endeavoured to prove that it is fatally dan- 
 gerous ; an opinion in which we are joined by the people at 
 large, whose minds are in the highest degree agitated upon 
 this subject ; a fact which we know to be true, and which is 
 clearly evinced by the many instructions presented to their 
 representatives in Parliament by the constituencies of this 
 kingdom. Is it, then, reasonable or expedient that a measure 
 
 i>2 
 
36 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1781- 
 
 deemed unimportant by those who support it, and which its 
 warmest abettors have only endeavoured to prove inoffensive, 
 should be so obstinately maintained against the fixed opinion 
 of those who have loudly declared their apprehensions, and 
 against the sense of a brave and loyal people agitated and 
 alarmed by a firm persuasion that, from the consequences of 
 this law in its present form, all that is dear to them is at stake? 
 And ought not rather an unimportant point to be yielded and 
 given up, in order to calm those fears, which to us appear but 
 too well-founded, and to quiet the minds of the people ? ' ^ 
 
 It was natural that a long subservient oligarchy on the 
 eve of revolt should look round anxiously for adherents and 
 auxiliaries. They had won freedom for trade, and the traders 
 were loud in their thanks ; but manufactures would take time 
 to revive and capitalists were few. The Bar were garrulous 
 and enthusiastic at having something like constitutional real- 
 ities to talk about instead of a mere caricature of legislative 
 business : but politics with the Bar have always been too 
 closely mixed up with promotion and profit ; and the whole 
 profession were but a small importunate throng of recruits 
 waiting for party enlistment. But what of the outlawed 
 nation, — not yet a century bereft of citizenship ? 
 
 Some of the nobler and truer spirits of the dominant 
 race were for Catholic enfranchisement, not only because it 
 was right, but because it was the only means of establishing 
 insular autonomy. How could national claims, if yielded, 
 be realised into national possession, without a nation ? Luke 
 Gardner, a squire of good estate in Tyrone, asked leave to 
 bring in a Bill permitting Catholics to vote at elections, 
 which Grrattan, Ponsonby, and Hussey-Burgh supported elo- 
 quently, but which was rejected by 145 to ^^ on the advice 
 of Flood. Charlemont, who understood the inveterate preju- 
 dices of his order only too well, thought the stirring of the 
 » 8th December, 1781. Lwdi' Jownali, vol. v. pp. 249, 250. 
 
-1782 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 37 
 
 religious question would irreparably mar the immature coa- 
 lescence which was beginning to take place among all classes 
 of the community.^ 
 
 It is creditable to the sagacity and courage of Mornington 
 that, with aM his regard and reverence for his leader in the 
 Peers, he was ready from the outset to avow his devotion to 
 the great principle of religious liberty ; and that throughout 
 all the changes and vicissitudes of after life he remained un- 
 faltering in his early faith. 
 
 A Bill to relieve Protestant Dissenters from various dis- 
 abilities passed the Commons, but was warmly resisted in the 
 Peers by the episcopal bench ; and only carried by thirty-five 
 to twenty-three — Mornington telling for the majority.^ 
 
 Upon the fall of Lord North's administration, in March 
 1782, the Irish Whigs saw the opportunity had come for 
 exacting guarantees of legislative independence. Charle- 
 mont, Yelverton, Flood, and Grattan pressed the claim with 
 vehemence. The new Cabinet, through General Fitzpatrick 
 and the Duke of Portland, tried fair words, and asked for 
 time to consider. For a few w«eks there were parley ings 
 and negotiations ; but at length Grattan gave notice that he 
 would move the adoption of a Declaration of Eights. Lord 
 Kockingham and his colleagues could not easily be made to 
 understand how a body that had so long proved themselves 
 so submissive and compliant, could have become informed 
 by any genuine spirit of nationality.. Even though they were 
 in earnest, what mattered a minority of spendthrift nobles and 
 commoners strutting up and down the corridors of their hand- 
 some Palaver-liouse, declaiming platitudes about inherent 
 right and the insolence of Poynings' law, which the salaried or 
 pensioned majority of their colleagues would not stay from 
 dinner to liear ? The example of America was indeed obvious 
 
 • Letter to Flood, 7th January, 1782. 
 ' Lords' JournalSj 3rd May, 1782. 
 
38 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1782 
 
 and suggestive. But the insurgent Colonies were seven weeks 
 off by sea, with a trackless back country behind them, and 
 with French fleets and armies to foster their sedition. Ireland 
 lay within sight of the paramount State ; and so long as the 
 Grovernor of Dublin Castle had 5,000 troops under a perpetual 
 Mutiny Act at his command, and a viceregal civil list with a 
 secret service fund at his disposal, who could seriously believe 
 in the existence of an independent Irish party insisting on 
 self-government ? Fox had been too busy fighting his way 
 into office in spite of the King, or losing his money at mid- 
 night play, to study the question ; and even Burke, with all 
 his universality of observation, was only fretted and vexed 
 when Eockingham and Fitzwilliam looked anxious on receipt 
 of letters from Ireland. In a fit of bureaucratic impatience 
 lie curtly wrote, ' Can no one stop that madman Grattan ? ' 
 Mad indeed he was to all intents and purposes of corrupt 
 and overbearing domination ; for was he not in bewildering 
 rhetoric challenging an old country, full of wealth, strength 
 and freedom, to own the legislative equality of a pauperised 
 realm whose soil had been confiscated, whose people decimated, 
 whose franchises forfeited, whose church despoiled, and whose 
 very revenues, such as they were, were in the hands of its 
 rival ? Nevertheless, Grrattan, 'deaf to all dissuasives, finally 
 fixed the day for bringing forward his^memoiable resolution. 
 The Viceroy at the last moment sent him word that Grovern- 
 ment gave in ; and instead of a fierce contention, courtiers 
 and opposition assembled only to listen to a matchless song 
 of triumph. 
 
 ' Spirit of Molyneux, Swift, and Lucas, your genius has 
 prevailed ! Yesterday a province, I now salute a nation. I 
 stand here with a letter of Henry and the charter of John, 
 the aggregate opinions of the nobles of the land and all the 
 passions of the people.' The extinguisher had taken fire, and 
 the whole realm was wrapped in patriotic flame. For Grattan 
 
1782 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS, 39 
 
 the enthusiasm was ineffable. He stood the central figure in 
 a state of things incomprehensible by more staid communities, 
 whose liberty has been accomplished step by step and not by 
 a sudden breaking out from the twilight of subserviency into 
 the dazzling morn of national day. It was a paroxysm of 
 self-rule ; but paroxysms are not lasting. 
 
 Grrattan, still ia early prime, was an object of special 
 sympathy with the younger men of the day; and Momington 
 was one of his most fervent worshippers. At his father's 
 house, during Oxford vacations, he had early become known 
 to the great rhetorician, whose quivering lip, glittering eye, 
 and quaint theatrical expression, fascinated him beyond 
 measure, and who was not insensible to the admiration and 
 sjrmpathy of one so full of promise. He succeeded his father 
 as colonel of the regiment of Volunteers raised at Trim ; 
 and for a time continued to take an active part in their 
 musterings for parade or drill. But the inherent liability of 
 a force so constituted to dislocation by the conflict of opinions 
 social and political which prevailed around it, too soon grew 
 manifest. Even in the heyday of triumph, when the future 
 looked golden, it was not easy to preserve the rules of dis- 
 cipline. At a review of certain Leinster regiments in the 
 Phoenix Park, their general sent an order to a light battalion 
 to deploy, and wondered that it was not obeyed. The same 
 direction was repeated by a second aide-de-camp; but the 
 corps did not budge. Riding down the line, Charlemont 
 demanded in person why his order had not been obeyed ; and, 
 piqued at the silent obduracy he could not understand, he 
 was about indignantly to leave the ground, when a lance- 
 corporal stepped from the ranks and respectfully exclaimed, — 
 ' My lord, we mean no offence to you, but none of us happen 
 to be on speaking terms with the colonel.' Grreater perplexi- 
 ties were to come. 
 
 Flood had uniformly expressed grave and reasonable 
 
40 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1782 
 
 doubts whether the simple repeal of the Act of Greorge I. by 
 the English Parliament, and the declaratory repudiation by 
 the Irish Parliament of its overruling pretensions, brought 
 the constitutional controversy to an end. The same power 
 that had formerly chosen to assert paramount authority, 
 and in an hour of weakness and embarrassment to revoke its 
 assertion, might re-assert its injurious pretensions at some 
 future day. Something more of specific renunciation on the 
 part of Grreat Britain was needed to make the work of legis- 
 lative emancipation complete. Mr. Walsh, a man of rare 
 ability and learning who sat for the University, took the 
 same view, and in a minority of four divided against a con- 
 gratulatory address to the Throne, which pronounced all 
 constitutional dififerences between the two countries to be at 
 an end. Their foresight and warning of difficulties to come 
 was ascribed to a jealous and grudging spirit by their san- 
 guine colleagues ; and Grrattan who had been voted fifty 
 thousand pounds in reward for his services, was impatient of 
 cavil regarding them. Yet within a month of the declaration 
 of legislative independence. Lord Mansfield gave judgment in 
 the King's Bench at Westminster in a case which had some 
 time before been brought by writ of error from one of the Irish 
 Courts. Flood's misgivings seemed thus more than justified, 
 and the cry arose that unless the old jurisdiction of conquest 
 were formally renounced by Grreat Britain, the quarrel (as in 
 America after the repeal of the Stamp Act) would break forth 
 anew. Fox was indignant at the good faith of the Cabinet 
 being distrusted. Ponsonby and Yelverton plausibly deprecated 
 the expression of any doubt regarding the sufficiency of what 
 had been done ; and Charlemont, who was in the confidence 
 of the Whig ministry, was angry at the distrust of their good 
 faith, and wrote in a paroxysm of chagrin asking Flood what 
 he was about, to inflame a groundless popular suspicion.^ 
 ^ 28th June, 1782. 
 
1782 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 41 
 
 Grattan, irritated by an address of remonstrance from 
 the Dublin Volunteers, threw up his colonelcy. From that 
 day the fine gold of his popularity grew dim, while that of 
 his great rival gradually regained its lustre. But at heart 
 he and his friends were disquieted by the unrebuked re- 
 assertion of appellate jurisdiction of the Courts at West- 
 minster. 
 
 Early in the winter of 1782 Mornington visited London, 
 and became the channel of several unofficial communications 
 between men in power and their political supporters in 
 Ireland. His letters to Grrattan describe the state of parties 
 at the opening of the session while negotiations for peace 
 with America were still pending. 
 
 ' I seize the first opportunity of offering my sincere con- 
 gratulations to you upon the recovery of Miss Fitzgerald, 
 which I heard of last night from O'Beirne. I have felt very 
 anxiously both for your situation and hers ; and believe me, 
 nobody rejoices more thoroughly in the prospect of happi- 
 ness, which the return of her health has opened to you 
 both. 
 
 ' I sent a hasty account of the first day's business in the 
 House of Commons to Ogle ; the debate was very uninterest- 
 ing, and did not deserve to be particularised ; since that day 
 nothing has passed of any consequence. The report of a 
 peace gains ground every hour ; this morning it was believed 
 to have been signed, and that Gibraltar was ceded for Porto 
 Kico and Minorca. The cession of Gibraltar will be an 
 unpopular measure ; it was but hinted on the first day, and 
 the very suggestion threw the House into a ferment. The 
 language generally held is, that our successes in the last 
 campaign entitle us to an honourable peace ; and that if 
 France should be unreasonable in her demands, the war 
 must be prosecuted with vigour. 
 
 ' The situation of the ministry seems to be very singular ; 
 
42 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1782 
 
 the number of their devoted friends is certainly inferior to 
 that of their declared enemies ; but their enemies are divided. 
 Lord North's party are certainly the strongest in the House ; 
 but Lord North is equally averse to Shelburne and to Fox. 
 Lord North's language is, that he will support Grovemment 
 as far as may be necessary for the strengthening of the 
 nation's hands against foreign enemies ; but that he will 
 suffer no alterations in the constitution. You can easily 
 conceive what a scene of confusion the contest between these 
 three parties must afford — Fox, Lord North, and Pitt equally, 
 and by turns, opposed to each other. As yet there has been 
 no division in Parliament, so that I cannot with any ac- 
 curacy state the numbers of these parties. 
 
 ' Not one word has been said in debate upon Irish affairs ; 
 the subject is touched as you will see, very cautiously, both 
 in the Speech and addresses. 
 
 ' I have seen both the Duke of Portland and Fitzpatrick, 
 and have from both received the most firm assurance of their 
 intention, and that of Mr. Fox, to stand by the settlement 
 of last session. I was just proceeding to mention the matter 
 relative to Lord Mansfield and the Irish writ of error, when 
 I received your obliging letter. I will give you as well as I 
 am able under a total ignorance of law in general, the state 
 of that business as it has been represented to me. 
 
 ' The case had been, as I understand, entered for hearing 
 before the time of the operation of the Irish Act, and it was by 
 some accident delayed until this last term. The reason why it 
 was not dismissed when it came before the Court, subsequently 
 to the operation of the Irish Act, was that the time had 
 elapsed for pleading against the competency of the Court, as 
 pleadings had already begun upon the matter of the suit. 
 The legal expression, I am told, is, that as the parties had 
 already pleaded in chief, they could not afterwards plead to 
 the writ. Now at the time the cause was entered, the Irish 
 
1782 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 43 
 
 Act had not passed, and therefore the objection to the com- 
 petency of the Court did not exist at the only period when 
 it could have been admitted, consistently with the practice 
 of the Court. I do not know whether I have made myself 
 understood, but what I have stated comprehends all that I 
 have been able to collect upon the subject. I should observe 
 that Lord Mansfield himself gave no sort of reason for his 
 decision, but decided as a matter of course, without taking 
 any notice of the particularity of the case. The argument I 
 have alluded to was never touched by him. I think his 
 silence alarming; and I do not think the reasoning I have 
 stated at all satisfactory.' ^ 
 
 Some days later he wrote again to his friend. 
 
 'I conversed last night with Mr. Fox on this subject; 
 he told me that when he was framing the repeal of the 
 6th of George I., he expressed doubts to the Attorney ^ and 
 Solicitor Greneral here, whether that Act would extinguish 
 the appeal by writ of error to the King's Bench of Grreat 
 Britain, unless there was an express clause for the purpose. 
 He told me that both those great lawyers assured him that 
 the simple repeal would utterly terminate all jurisdiction of 
 the English courts of justice over Ireland. He seems now to 
 think something fiu-ther necessary, and to apprehend that 
 Lord Mansfield could not have done otherwise than he did. 
 I hold with you, that Lord Mansfield should have attended 
 to the Irish law, which in reason ought to be paramount to 
 the little forms of his Court. I should be very glad to know 
 from you what remedy you propose for the extirpation of this 
 sort of questions. I feel strongly the necessity of some 
 future procedure, perhaps a bill here, declaring that the 
 judicature is confined to Ireland and forbidding the inter- 
 
 » 9th December, 1782. 
 
 ' Lloyd Kenyon, afterwards Lord Kenyon, and John Leo. 
 
44 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1782- 
 
 ference of the English Courts. You must see — and I think 
 
 every man of common discernment in Ireland must see — that 
 
 if Mr. Flood's Bill of Eights had passed in Ireland, and 
 
 his Eenunciation in Great Britain, this very case would still 
 
 have happened ; so that Mr. Flood has no reason to plume 
 
 himself upon it as an example confirming his doctrine. I 
 
 am just come from the House of Commons, where a hundred 
 
 and ten thousand men have been voted for the navy this 
 
 year ; peace seems to become every hour more doubtful. 
 
 Lord Shelburne cannot stand ; everybody seems to be of this 
 
 opinion ; but who will succeed or what is to be the system, 
 
 is dubious. The prevalent opinion is, that Lord North and 
 
 the old party will return. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 MORNINGTON.' 
 
 Fiscal Acts had been passed since 1779 in England in- 
 directly limiting the trade of Ireland ; and Flood therefore 
 brought in a bill asserting the sole and exclusive right of the 
 Parliament of Ireland to make laws for that country, internal 
 and external. Grattan strongly opposed it, and moved that 
 to utter doubts of the supremacy of the Irish Parliament 
 was inimical to the honour and welfare of both countries. 
 But Fox, though he chafed and grumbled at the distrust 
 shown of English good faith, introduced a measure to quench 
 all further doubts regarding the constitutional parity of the 
 two kingdoms ; ^ and William Grrenville seconded the motion, 
 speaking from his observation of Ireland while Chief Secre- 
 tary the year before. 
 
 During the brief administration of Shelburne, he had 
 served in that capacity under Lord Temple ; and Morning- 
 ton lived much with his old class-fellow while he stayed 
 in Ireland. It cannot be doubted that to the influence of 
 
 ' January, 1783. 
 
-1783 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 45 
 
 their friendship may be traced many of the changes in 
 the personal history of both. Mornington continued to act 
 under his old leaders in Ireland ; but he soon began to look 
 towards a different field of enterprise and ambition. 
 
 To appease in some measure the jealousy felt by the 
 great Irish nobles at their almost invariable exclusion from 
 the distinction of the Garter, Greorge III. consented to insti- 
 tute a new order of knighthood equally limited in numbers. 
 The first knight of St. Patrick was Edward Duke of Kent, 
 and one of his nineteen brethren in heraldic arms was the 
 already prominent though youthful lord of Dangan.^ As 
 might have been expected, the wounded self-love of those 
 who were left out was far more active than the satisfaction 
 of the comparative few who were preferred. One of the 
 grand seigneurs who never alighted from a carriage drawn by 
 fewer than six horses at the door of the House of Peers was 
 the querulous and fantastic Lord Bellamont, who had fought 
 a duel with Lord Townshend when Viceroy, for having 
 turned his back on him in company. He was a man of con- 
 siderable parts and great possessions, but amon^ well-born 
 coxcombs merited the title given him by Sir Hercules 
 Langrishe of ' Vanity of Vanities.' He did not grudge the 
 star of the Shamrock to Leinster or Inchiquin, Clanrickarde 
 or Tyrone ; but rivals of later creation moved hira to exceed- 
 ing wrath, and though Wesley and Colley traced a lineage 
 more feudal than his own, he sniffed and scoffed at territorial 
 revenues so far inferior, and at the grandson of a commoner 
 being preferred to him. In reply to a speech of Morning- 
 ton on moving an address to Earl Temple when quitting 
 Ireland, he complained petulantly of the neglect which he and 
 other persons of consequence had suffered in the choice of 
 knights of St. Patrick. A sharp rejoinder promptly followed, 
 which elicited a courtly disclaimer of offence, and averted 
 * By letters patent, 5th February, 1783. 
 
46 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1783 
 
 the necessit}^ of a personal encounter : * for the duty of sending 
 and accepting a challenge on any occasion of affront in 
 debate was a traditional Standing Order of Parliament on 
 the other as on this side of the Channel, then and long after- 
 wards. 
 
 Grenville writing to Temple in Ireland on the break up 
 of the Shelbume Cabinet, frequently mentions young Morning- 
 ton's name, and says : ' Pray communicate a little with him 
 about your resignation ; it will flatter him, and he is beyond 
 measure disposed to you both in Ireland and here^ to which 
 he looks in a short time ; but you must not let him know I 
 have told you that.' ^ 
 
 Mornington spoke at length on the vote of thanks to 
 Lord Temple, which he moved in the Irish House of Lords. 
 He described the Act of Kenunciation as having produced 
 an instantaneous calm in Ireland. He specially dwelt upon 
 Temple's administrative probity and energy in breaking up 
 the evil system of corruption he had found in all branches of 
 the Irish executive. He would appeal to those whose high 
 stations and confidential offices gave them constant access 
 to the person and councils of the Viceroy, to testify to his 
 ability and assiduity in business, the extent of his researches, 
 the vigilance with which he had penetrated into the secrets 
 of departments, where the most gross rapine and peculation 
 had been practised for ages with impunity, and particularly 
 the firm integrity with which he resisted all jobs however 
 speciously concealed or powerfully recommended.' 
 
 A further safeguard of independence was sought in a Bill 
 requiring that in Ireland, as in England, Parliament should 
 be summoned to meet every year. The measiu-e was pro- 
 posed by Lord Mountmorres, and supported by the subject of 
 this Memoir. 
 
 » 23rd October, 1783. ^ From Pall Mall, 27th March, 1783. 
 
 " Debate in the Irish House of Lords, 18lh April, 1783. 
 
1783 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 47 
 
 Not a little perplexing to his friends was the conduct of 
 Flood. As if unsatisfied with having obtained the Eenuncia- 
 tion Act, and eager to secure his old ascendency as a party 
 leader, or desirous of rapprochement with Pitt and those 
 who had been left out of the Coalition, he sought to obtain a 
 seat at Westminster. In September he visited the Duke 
 of Chandos at Avington ; and for a sum of 4,000^. bargained 
 for the influence of his Grace at Winchester, which was to be 
 vacated for him previous to the ensuing session. He can- 
 vassed the borough in person, and lodged the money with an 
 agent at Lincoln's Inn : returning to Dublin in October, in 
 time to move for a reduction of the regular army on grounds 
 of economy. It was then that the long gathering sense of 
 mutual aversion between him and his illustrious rival broke 
 forth in the terrible encounter of which the record is perhaps 
 without parallel for condensed bitterness of reproach and 
 sarcasm. As a ministerialist, Grattan sneered at a new-born 
 zeal for economy hardly compatible with prolonged silence 
 imder a more prodigal administration. Flood boldly asserted 
 that he had rendered his country more service in office than 
 others had talked of doing who had never been there : and 
 he recalled the fact of his resignation when his advice was 
 neglected. Then scornfully alluding to the parliamentary grant 
 to his assailant, he exclaimed : ' A man does not necessarily 
 cease to be a patriot in office ; if he be true to himself and 
 his country, he may be all the more a patriot for being there. 
 I am the unpurchased friend of Ireland, and I will add of 
 England, but I am not the bondslave even of my countrymen : 
 I should not love the condition.' ^ 
 
 To the ever-pondering mind of Burke the idea of two 
 
 ' In the published account of this memorable altercation the latter 
 phrase does not occur, but it is to be found in the MS. report taken in 
 shorthand for the Government of the day, and now in the State Library 
 at \Vashine:ton. 
 
48 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1783 
 
 co-equal and co-ordinate Parliaments in the same realm 
 seemed a mere solecism in terms ; — a thing that in experi- 
 ment must prove to be an illusion. He would not have had 
 his countrymen make the rash attempt ; but having made 
 it, he would have had them rest and be thankful at the 
 point of vantage gained ; and set about the indispensable 
 work of consolidating their strength and freedom by enfran- 
 chising all who professed and called themselves Christians. 
 This would indeed have been the most efifectual way to put 
 bone and sinew into nationality, which without it, as the 
 issue proved, was but an imposing phantom. Ponsonby, 
 Hussey-Burgh, Yelverton, and Grardner were all zealous for 
 the prompt enrolment of the bulk of the people to defend 
 the claim of nationhood. In their hearts they felt that 
 nothing less than this would do. But Flood, whose influence 
 and experience outweighed all theirs, inexorably argued that 
 with an independent Parliament, chosen by a preponderantly 
 Catholic constituency, the dire feud of 1688 would be re- 
 opened ; and that all the pride of England, political and 
 religious, would be stirred to another life-and-death struggle 
 for ascendency, in which Ireland must be inevitably not only 
 beaten, but once more utterly crushed. ' I see my way,' he 
 exclaimed, ' to Catholic constituencies ; but who will answer 
 for a Catholic House of Commons.' And Charlemont reluc- 
 tantly went with him. 
 
 Flood felt, indeed, the perilous instability of the position. 
 He would, in fact, have been content to let legislative 
 emancipation come more gradually and less provocatively of 
 the slumbering power of the paramount State. But events 
 had hurried them all on faster and further than anyone had 
 foreseen ; and the question was, how to make the best of it. 
 If religious equality could not be ventured on, what remained 
 to fill the hollow panoply of nationalism with something like 
 the vital forces of popular manhood ? Nothing but Parlia- 
 
1783 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 49 
 
 mentary reform. For this species of organic change there 
 seemed to be rising on the eastern side of the Channel an 
 imprecedented feeling. The Duke of Richmond pronounced 
 for household suffrage, and Mr. Pitt on May 7 brought forward 
 a scheme for diminishing the number of close boroughs and 
 greatly extending the franchise in Great Britain. Why not 
 move in parallel lines ? The Volunteers, being chiefly 
 Protestant in their regimental staff and in the bulk of their 
 rank and file, would certainly prefer such a course to one 
 which they were told would tend to subvert the Settlement 
 of 1688, and which might eventually disquiet titles to the 
 forfeited estates not yet a century old. Charlemont hesitated 
 to embark in this new venture. He was ready, like others 
 of patriotic spirit, to sacrifice his influence as a borough 
 owner without compensation or compromise, in order to 
 facilitate the restoring of the representation to its presumed 
 original reality. But he feared the adoption of wild and 
 subversive schemes by irresponsible delegates of armed corps ; 
 and he was persuaded to act as President of a Volunteer 
 Convention for Eeform chiefly to exclude a competitor who 
 was believed to be eagerly ambitious of that station. A man 
 like himself, of cultured taste and amenity of bearing, and 
 one, from his peculiar position, commanding a degree of 
 social influence little inferior to his own, was the noble 
 and ir-reverend but energetic Lord Bristol Bishop of Derry, 
 son of the minister whom Pope impaled on the epithet of 
 Sporus. He was a man of undoubted talent and courage, but 
 eccentric in disposition, dissolute in life, a sceptic at the 
 altar, and insatiable of notoriety and applause. 
 
 Escorted by a brilliant gtaff, he rode from his palace at 
 Downhill to Dublin, a distance of 120 miles, to attend the 
 Convention of Delegates from the unpaid national army, 
 which was more like a Polish Diet on the eve of electing a 
 king than anything ever seen before or since within the Four 
 
 £ 
 
50 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1783 
 
 Seas. Lord Bristol urged that reform should include all 
 creeds and conditions ; a few supported him, and his faults 
 and foibles were forgotten in the excitement of the hour ; 
 but his physical weakness disabled him from undergoing the 
 fatigues of popular discussion. His counsel was rejected, and 
 the guidance of the self-styled national assembly devolved 
 on Flood. 
 
 Not all his reverence for Charlemont or his admiration 
 for Grrattan could blind Mornington to the usurping spirit 
 of the movement. He kept Grenville informed by letter of 
 each step in the proceeding ; and was fortified by him in the 
 conviction that at any risk of unpopularity it ought to be 
 opposed. 
 
 After a certain show of deliberation the members of the 
 Convention who happened to be members of Parliament 
 undertook to present at the bar the demand for reform ; and, 
 true to the melodramatic spirit of the time, they walked 
 in uniform, amid the cheers of an undoubting multitude 
 from the Rotunda to College Grreen. Grovernment, having for 
 their spokesman Yelverton, then Attorney Greneral, denounced 
 the proceeding as an open attempt to overawe ParKament by 
 presenting arms. 
 
 In the passionate interchange of threats and taunts, 
 warnings and reproaches which ensued, Molymeux, Brownlow, 
 Newenham, Parsons, O'Neil, Ogle, Curran, and Grattan 
 supported the proposition, while Langrishe, Ponsonby, Fitz- 
 gibbon, and Wesley Pole — who had just been returned for 
 the family borough — opposed it. ' I live,' said the member 
 for Trim, ' in a part of the country where there are perhaps 
 five hundred Volunteers ; there has been a meeting for an 
 address on this business ; eleven people met and ten of them 
 named me as their delegate. I refused to undertake the 
 commission because I do not admit the necessity of any 
 alteration in the existing system. I venerate the constitu- 
 
1783 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 51 
 
 tion which it is now attempted to subvert, and no man, 
 how great soever his force of eloquence, can influence me to 
 desert it. If this House should be so pusillanimous as to 
 adopt this Bill, I thank Heaven I can go to a country 
 where I can enjoy the liberties of Parliament ; but first I 
 will endeavour to support them here.' ^ 
 
 By 153 to 49 Flood was refused leave to bring in 
 his Bill. 
 
 In the Upper House an attempt equally ineffectual was 
 made to obtain consideration for the proposed scheme of 
 reform. An address to the Crown, condemning the de- 
 meanour of the Convention as subversive of all semblance 
 of legislative freedom, was warmly supported by many lords, 
 spiritual and temporal/ and by none with more animation 
 than Momington. 
 
 'This address comes from the Commons, and they 
 desire your lordships to concur in it. The assembly of the 
 Volunteers have sat for near three weeks with all the forms of 
 Parliament ; and will any noble lord say they have no inten- 
 tion to infringe the privileges of Parliament, and, perhaps, 
 to compass the total extinction of the legislature ? Have 
 not both Houses of Parliament been surrounded by armed 
 mobs ; and will any man pretend to say, it is not time for 
 this House to interfere ? Can any noble lord, high in office 
 though not in confidence, or any noble lord in confidence 
 though not in office, not have a sense of the danger of the 
 times, as the House of Commons seem to have ? I am for 
 this address, and upon this ground, that it offers to His 
 Majesty a sufficient and necessary pledge of our loyalty and 
 affection to his person and the constitution of the country ; 
 and to the people it speaks our firmness : for Parliament 
 will not be robbed of its privileges, even by its own children ; 
 and we cannot for the sake of our posterity, suffer it. We 
 
 > Iriih Debates, ii. 234. 
 B 2 
 
52 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1783 
 
 ought to give Grovemment our assistance when its instability 
 may require it, to support the constitution. A great deal 
 has been said relative to the Volunteers ; there is no man 
 that admires and respects them and reveres their services 
 more than I do. Their past temper and moderation has made 
 the greatest impression on my mind. But I am not blind to 
 their imperfections when I find they have gone beyond the 
 original idea of their institution. If the constitution is 
 suffered to be infringed, I will not remain to be a witness of 
 it, but leave the country. If the constitution is not sup- 
 ported, no body of people can be happy.' 
 
 Lord Mount morres, with the ambition but without the 
 ability to play a leading part, called the youthftd Whip 
 sharply to account for his Maccaroni airs and prematurity of 
 tone. 
 
 ' To all the big words and inflated expressions which I have 
 heard, of danger to the constitution and insults from conven- 
 tions of armed men, I answer in two short emphatic words — 
 prove it. If formidable spectres portending the downfall of 
 the constitution were to appear in this House, I admit the 
 noble lord is frightened with a becoming dignity ; the ancient 
 Roscius or the modern Garrick could not start with better 
 grace at the appearance of a spectre. But I, my lords, who 
 am a plain man and of not so lively a fancy, cannot see 
 them ; and I have still to ask what these dangers are, or how 
 fancy can torture into danger two respectable members of 
 the other House of Parliament asking to bring in a BiU for 
 the improvement of the constitution ? ' 
 
 At three-and-twenty it indeed required no little self- 
 possession to oppose on such a question many of the ablest 
 and best of his * political friends : and it may be that even 
 the approval of the Coalition Grovemment would hardly have 
 induced Momington to take so vehement a part, had he 
 intended to devote his time and attention exclusively to Irish 
 
1783 IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 53 
 
 parliamentary life. But already he was silently revolving 
 other efforts and designs. 
 
 Men awoke to the danger of a military revolution 
 narrowly escaped ; the Convention adjourned ^ never to meet 
 again ; and the crazy Bishop of Derry went back by the way 
 that he came, to scandalise his clergy by Voltairian jests and 
 to amuse himself with inditing fantastical lampoons. 
 
 In reply there appeared some Conservative verses which 
 ended with the couplet : — 
 
 Motley Hervey, adieu ; go home to your wife, 
 And begin a reform of your own wicked life. 
 
 A gentleman who had in a certain degree acquired his 
 confidence without sharing his erratic notions warned him 
 that he had been placed under espionage by the authorities 
 at the Castle, and that his favourite body-servant was in 
 their pay. ' I have long been of the same opinion,' said the 
 un-pious Prelate, smiling, * and I write long letters from time 
 to time which I give him to post for the purpose of bewilder- 
 ing the shabby sons of Ascalon.' But when the tide of sec- 
 tarian nationality went down he grew tired of unnotoriety ; 
 and residence not being required of a pagan patrician who 
 happened to be a bishop in those days,-he emigrated to Kome, 
 where he spent the residue of his days in the pursuits of a 
 refined voluptuary. 
 
 The debate on reform over. Flood hastened to take his 
 seat at St. Stephen's. Arriving late, and forgetting the 
 fatigue of his journey, he was tempted without due prepara- 
 tion to speak on the second reading of Fox's India Bill,'^ 
 which on constitutional grounds he condemned. The pro- 
 vincial pre-eminence in council and debate which he had long- 
 been used to find accorded him, misled him into the im- 
 prudent boast that he was unattached, to any party, and that,. 
 
 » 1st December, 1783. ' 3rd December, 1783. 
 
54 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1783 
 
 he spoke no sentiments but his own. This was exactly what 
 a House already tired of the best that could be said on both 
 sides was disposed only to yawn or laugh at. When the fate 
 of parties trembles in the balance and men are grown impatient 
 for a decision, few care to ask what will this new babbler say ; 
 and when Mr. Courtenay (a fellowKiountryman whom he had 
 some years previously snubbed as counsel before a select 
 committee) rose from behind Lord North to answer him, and 
 proceeded with ready wit to ridicule his pretension to speak 
 with authority self-derived, a good many on both sides laughed 
 aloud : and the disappointed orator was constrained to own 
 that he had made too free with his reputation. There was 
 nothing for it but to return to Ireland and bide his time. 
 
/)5 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OLD ST. Stephen's chapel. 
 
 1784-1788. 
 
 MoRNiNGTON was already beginning to grow disenchanted 
 with the vacillation and violence of provincial affairs when 
 an opening occurred for his entrance on a wider and 
 greater field of action. The overthrow of the Coalition and 
 recall of Mr. Pitt to power enabled Grrenville to suggest 
 his class-fellow's name to his relative as an eligible ad- 
 herent who might be attached by the offer of a seat at St. 
 Stephen's. After some negotiations, the particulars of which 
 would be hardly worth knowing if they could be exhumed, 
 it was arranged to have him nominated as a representative 
 for the Cornish borough of Beeralston. The village con- 
 tained about forty houses, and under an old tree a court 
 was yearly held to choose the port-reeve, and at election 
 time the members to serve in Parliament. Three or four 
 score inhabitants were endowed with the nominal rights of 
 burgage tenure, which they were expected to renounce after 
 each election. Without local interest arising from family 
 connection, landed property or trade, a young man of ability, 
 however great, had no chance, a century ago, of gaining 
 admission to the House of Commons except through the 
 quiet postern of a close borough ; and even men who had 
 attained legislative eminence sometimes preferred, after a 
 Parliament or two, this way of re-entrance, to the more 
 
56 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1784 
 
 costly and troublesome one that lay through the uproar, 
 treating and corruption of a contest for votes at the open 
 poll. 
 
 William Grenville, with whom the sympathies of ambition 
 rather than temperament bound him in maturing ties of friend- 
 ship, was a near relative and confidant of Mr. Pitt, and by him 
 he was personally made known to the youthful Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, on whom the eyes of men were set in curious 
 expectation. From the outset it was observable, if not at 
 the time observed, how the instinct of self-reliance prompted 
 the aspiring son of Chatham to look for friends among men of 
 his own age rather than amongst his elders and betters in 
 political experience, to whom his unbending spirit would not 
 suffer him to affect a deference he did not feel. In his 
 cousin's class-fellow he saw much that he coveted as an adherent 
 — youth, presence, culture, energy, talent, fortune less than 
 he wanted, and, above all, freedom from the ties and preju- 
 dices of rival parliamentary connections. By birth and 
 bringing up a Whig, Pitt was ready to serve under Shel- 
 bume as a King's friend ; or when his bark foundered, to be 
 captain himself of a mixed Tory and Whig crew. Momington 
 was just the man for him, and on learning his wish for a seat 
 at Westminster, while retaining his place at College Grreen, 
 he induced Lord Beverley to nominate him at the general 
 election of 1784. Like Flood he was returned as a burgess 
 to serve in the Parliament of Great Britain.^ 
 
 Other men whose fortunes could bear the cost, and whose 
 bodily strength the fatigue, had sat in both Parliaments at 
 the same time ; but they were comparatively few, and chiefly 
 to be found among the younger Irish peers, who, finding no 
 political career before them in their own country, availed 
 themselves of their eligibility as commoners in England to 
 seek admission to the representative chamber at Westmin- 
 
 » 1784. 
 
1784 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 57 
 
 ster. Such were Lords Ossory and Ongley, who sat for Bed- 
 fordshire, Lord Down for Petersfield, Lord Middleton for 
 Whitchurch, Lord Gralway for York, the Earl of Tyrconnel 
 for Scarborough, the Earl of Inchiquin for Eichmond, Lord 
 Palmerston for Boroughbridge, the Earl of Lisbum for Cardi- 
 ganshire, Lord Milford for Haverfordwest, Lord Melbourne for 
 Luggershall, Lord Hood for Westminster. But none of these 
 were at the trouble of crossing the Channel to take the oaths 
 and their seats in the provincial senate, even to qualify them- 
 selves for voting by proxy. Their residences, and for the most 
 part their properties, were in England, and a passage which in 
 bad weather sometimes lasted several days was in itself a con- 
 sideration with most of them in declining the performance of 
 a duty whose obligation they would probably have regarded as 
 rather a dull joke. But Mornington, full of the elasticity of 
 youth and of eagerness for distinction, was only too glad to 
 turn opportunities to account ; and he readily gave up winter 
 days and nights of tedious travel to the discharge of his two- 
 fold legislative functions.^ 
 
 Flood again brought forward his scheme of Eeform in the 
 Irish representation, hoping for support from Pitt's friends, 
 who were pledged to all its principles. But a majority as great 
 as before refused to consider the question, though means were 
 taken to keep out of sight or hearing reference to Volunteer 
 arms. The effect was seen in public meetings petitioning the 
 King to dissolve Parliament, broaching projects of Catholic en- 
 franchisement, and at last proposing an elective congress to sit 
 in Dublin to consult for the public welfare. The Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, in July 1784, refused his sanction to the Dublin 
 petition to the King, and in September the minister told the 
 Belfast petitioners that though still for reform he thought their 
 
 • Leave of absence to Lord Mornington, leaving his proxy, 1 8th December, 
 1783. Protested against postponement of Bill disqualifying revenue ofBcersi 
 at elections, 22nd July, 1782, Irish Lordit' Jou/rnals, 
 
58 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1785 
 
 scheme would create greater evils than those they sought to 
 remedy. Soon afterwards Lord Charlemont refused to ac- 
 quiesce in a vote of the Ulster Eegiments in favour of 
 emancipation. The Attorney Greneral warned the sheriffs 
 not to hold elections for congress under threat of criminal 
 prosecution. Meetings were held and delegates chosen 
 without the authority of the sheriffs, and strong denuncia- 
 tions passed of the conduct of Government. Mr. H. S. Riley, 
 high sheriff of the county of Dublin, having called a meeting 
 of freeholders to instruct their delegates, was attached in the 
 King's Bench, fined Zl, 6s, ScZ., and imprisoned for a week. 
 The magistrates of Roscommon and Lei trim were indicted 
 by ex officio information, with the printers and publishers 
 of the journals who circulated resolutions. Regardless of 
 these measures, on January 2, 1785, the representatives 
 of twenty-seven counties and ninety cities and towns — 
 200 in number— assembled ; and sat by adjournment till 
 April 20; and on May 12 their Bill, which left all details 
 of reform to the judgment of Parliament, was once more 
 brought in by Flood, and again rejected. 
 
 Meanwhile the failure of the free-trade enactments of 
 1779 to call up industry like Jonah's gourd, had caused 
 ignorant belief that the previous long want of employment was 
 owing to the import of British manufactures ; and an agitation 
 ripening at length into tumult and disorder arose, by which 
 it was hoped that exclusive consumption of linen fabrics and 
 the imposition of preferential duties amounting to prohibition 
 might be exacted from the Irish Parliament. Disinterested 
 and humane men like Mr. Gardner imagined that by adopt- 
 ing in vague generality the ideas of the populace, they might 
 avert other movements and direct the storm. But their 
 spells of rhetoric and evasion would work no charm either 
 on ministry or mob; and the only apparent result of the 
 outcry was a counterblast of protection from the manufac^ 
 
1785 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 59 
 
 turing towns of England, where the exclusion of Irish linens 
 worth 1 ,500,000^. a year, was sturdily demanded. 
 
 Pitt, having done with Electoral Keform, took up instead 
 the notion of commercial union. He had read Adam Smith 
 and listened to Dr. Price until, in theory, he had become a 
 free-trader before his time ; and persuaded, no doubt sin- 
 cerely, that a fiscal union of the tiiree kingdoms would lay 
 broad and solid foundations of imperial prosperity, he 
 set about devising a plan of reciprocal relaxations of 
 duty, having in view the ultimate extinction of prohibitory 
 and even of preferential duties, and the placing his im- 
 proved system by legislation completely beyond the reach 
 of transient gusts of popular jealousy on either side of the 
 Channel. 
 
 In the session of 1785 ministers essayed to carry what 
 they designated as a commercial treaty regulating the fiscal 
 relations of the two kingdoms ; but which, from the necessity 
 of the case, was in fact a Customs Bill, acquiring the sanction 
 simultaneously of both legislatures. Eleven resolutions, 
 professedly framed to secure to Irish commerce freer compe- 
 tition with that of England on terms of reciprocal .advantage 
 only, were hastily adopted on the recommendation of Mr. Orde, 
 who filled the office of Chief Secretary. And to the English 
 Commons, they were explained by Mr. Pitt, as forming 
 a basis of mutual prosperity, and as tending to draw closer 
 the ties of intercourse and friendship between communities 
 heretofore estranged by complicated tariffs. 
 
 On February 7 Mr. Orde brought forward his eleven reso- 
 lutions, which after some criticism were adopted. No picture 
 of Eldorado glistened with light so golden as that wherewith 
 he laboured to allay the feara of English competition. 
 Foreign trade would, through mere geographical necessity, 
 flow through the western isle, and * Cork would become the 
 emporium of the empire.' Ltyerpool and Bristol took the 
 
60 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1785 
 
 alarm, and asked to be heard by counsel at the bar. Political 
 economy had yet but few disciples, and Fox and North 
 raised a storm of opposition out of doors by their protesta- 
 tions that English commerce and manufactures were in 
 danger of being sacrificed to the free-trade fantasies of 
 Adam Smith and Dr. Price. The representatives of great 
 towns urged innumerable objections in detail ; and in the 
 attempt to meet or mitigate their force, the minister yielded 
 on so many points, and added so many provisoes, that the 
 eleven resolutions became twenty-two, and the Opposition 
 leaders revelled in raillery at the practical inexperience 
 shown by their inexpert rivals. Fox taunted ministers ^ with 
 the allegation of their Irish Chief Secretary, who, though in 
 London some days before, had prudently kept away from the 
 House in which he had a seat, lest he should have either to 
 repudiate or avow the phrase. 
 
 After many discussions and divisions the twenty-two 
 resolutions were carried by large majorities in both Houses, 
 and finally passed on July 25. Leave was then given to bring 
 in a Bill ; but no progress was attempted to be made until 
 the acquiescence of the Irish Parliament had been secured. 
 
 One of the changes made in the scheme, in a vain attempt 
 to appease English jealousy, was a permanent appropriation 
 of the surplus territorial revenue accruing to the Crown in 
 Ireland, which was to be devoted to the maintenance of the 
 Navy. Fox denounced this as a covert resumption of the 
 power on the part of the English Parliament to tax Ireland ; 
 and when the altered scheme was laid before the Irish 
 Commons, late in the session, parties broke their ranks and 
 habitual supporters of Grovernment coalesced with Opposition. 
 Grrattan and Flood agreed to bury in oblivion their past 
 differences, and at the eleventh hour the success of the 
 project seemed to be in danger. Mornxngton,. who was 
 » Debate, 12th May, 1785. 
 
1785 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL, 61 
 
 becoming more and more attached to Pitt, wrote to Grrattan 
 from Stratford Place, June 20, 1785:— 
 
 ' I was very sorry to see by the papers, that you had 
 found it necessary to take so strong a part against the pro- 
 positions, the more so as I cannot, after a very attentive 
 consideration, discover how they affect the rights of Ireland 
 as established in 1782. It would give me infinite pain to 
 differ from you on so important a question, but I declare I 
 cannot discern the danger you seem to apprehend. I am 
 persuaded that the administration here never had the 
 invasion of the independence of Ireland in contemplation, 
 and I know that they are disposed to give every consideration 
 to any doubts which you may entertain, and to remove your 
 difiiculties if possible. I should be happy to receive your 
 opinion, and to know in what part of the propositions you 
 see a subversion of Irish right. The question is of the first 
 magnitude, and most materially concerns the peace of both 
 countries ; those whose object is to disturb that peace have 
 expressed themselves with the greatest triumph in consequence 
 of your speech, and are now endeavouring to turn it to 
 purposes which I know must ever be remote from your mind. 
 Pray let me have the pleasure of hearing from you soon. 
 The propositions are now with the Lords, and likely to 
 remain there till the end of this month. Pray give my 
 best compliments to Mrs. Grattan. My brother desires his 
 to you and her. We intend to come to Ireland with the 
 
 propositions. 
 
 Believe me, dear Grattan, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 MORNINGTON.' 
 
 Plausibly Mr. Orde endeavoured to persuade the Irish 
 Commons to regard their previous vote of February as but 
 the ground plan of a work matured at Westminster, and still 
 
62 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1785 
 
 subject to their approval or rejection ; but which they could 
 best examine and modify by adopting the twenty-two 
 English resolutions into which their original eleven had 
 been commuted, and allowing him to bring in the Bill 
 embodying them as it had been passed in England. 
 
 ' The two nations acting in good temper and good faith, 
 should proceed to draw closer the bonds of union, and if it 
 were possible that anything he had introduced into the Bill 
 could be interpreted as trenching on the freedom and inde- 
 pendence of Ireland, he declared that he had no authority 
 for doing so ; on the contrary, were he to do so he would be 
 acting against authority.' ^ ' From the revolution which had 
 taken place in commerce and politics by the establishment of 
 the American States, it had become necessary to draw the 
 bonds of union between Grreat Britain and Ireland as close 
 as possible. By a rivalship in trade, both countries would 
 be injured ; foreigners only could profit or rejoice. The 
 resolutions therefore were framed upon the grounds of pro- 
 moting the interest of the two countries, as of one united 
 empire ; to open each country to the other ; to remove the 
 prohibitions which the jealousy of England had established 
 in order to keep her trade to herself ; to form a scale of 
 equal benefits and admit Ireland to every advantage which 
 she enjoyed. In a word, that each country should prefer the 
 other to all the world beside.' ^ 
 
 But the grounds on which the alteration had been made 
 at Westminster were not to be mistaken. By constructive 
 words deftly interpolated, a complicated harness was sought 
 to be imposed on the foreign trade conceded or extended 
 six years before. No share in this was in future to be 
 claimed by Irish merchants, but upon conditions of poi:t 
 dues and abstinence from infringement upon the chartered 
 privileges of the East India and other Companies, which 
 
 » IriiK Dehateij v. 331. 2 j„-,^ Belatett v. 340. 
 
1785 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 63 
 
 virtually amounted to maritime monopoly. It would be a 
 perpetual money bill, granting to the Crown the hereditary 
 revenues now subject to local control. 
 
 Ponsonby and Grattan assented. Flood, who had been 
 reproached with being in a minority of one in opposing the 
 scheme, exulted in the numbers who finally came to oppose it. 
 At Westminster the ' Propositions,' for opening and 
 regulating the trade between England and Ireland, were still 
 vehemently though ineffectually opposed by the Opposition. 
 In the protracted debates on this subject Mr. Eden took a 
 prominent part, and by his knowledge of finance, and the 
 skill and temper he displayed, gained the applause of the 
 House of Commons and the confidence of the merchants 
 and manufacturers, who were violently opposed to Mr. Pitt's 
 measures. The Minister persisted and was sanguine of 
 success. 
 
 While the issue was still doubtful Mornington and his 
 brother, on their way from London to take their respective 
 parts, as they believed, in carrying the ministerial plan 
 through its last stage, were delayed by contrary winds in 
 the Channel. Among their fellow-passengers was Mr. Wood- 
 fall, who asked if Lord Muncaster and other Irish peers 
 who leaned to the Treasury Bench were going over likewise. 
 ' The Earl said, " Oh no, you will see that we want no 
 recruits."^ So little was the event expected in Downing 
 Street. They arrived in time for the debate, in which 
 Newenham, O'Neil, and Curran denounced the modified 
 proposal as an ill-concealed departure from the terms of 
 reciprocity offered six months before. Flood more than 
 ever proved his superiority in practical acquaintance with 
 all the industrial interests of the country which he argued 
 were about to be sacrificed under a specious show of equal 
 dealings. Grattan tore to pieces the ambiguous stipulations 
 » Letter from Dablin (16th August, 1786) to Mr. Eden. 
 
64 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1786 
 
 of the so-called treaty shred by shred, but relied chiefly 
 on the constitutional objection suggested by Fox, that it 
 would work a defeasance of the financial severalty and com- 
 mercial freedom lately guaranteed to Ireland. The good 
 faith of national equality would be broken if the greater 
 country was to prescribe and the lesser to obey. The scheme 
 in its development was but ' a contrivance for raising in 
 Ireland an imperial revenue, to be subscribed by her Parlia- 
 ment without its consent, and in despite of her people.' 
 Wesley Pole charged the Opposition with flinging away 
 offers of closer connection, and with pointing the way to 
 separation. 
 
 At the close of a sitting which lasted seventeen hours, 
 Government only obtained 127 to 108 votes in favour of 
 bringing in the Bill. This being equivalent to a defeat, its 
 further consideration was postponed to a future day — a day 
 which never came. Woodfall met Mornington soon after- 
 wards behind the throne in the House of Lords, and had some 
 conversation with him on the subject. He owned ' the extreme 
 surprise he felt at the fate of the resolutions, and said he 
 thought matters wore a most gloomy aspect in Dublin ; ' ^ 
 so early had the fine gold become dim which he had had 
 himself a hand in burnishing. Before returning to England, 
 in acknowledgment of his fidelity to the cau^ie of Grovern- 
 ment, he was admitted to a seat in the Irish Privy Council. 
 
 His first speech in the House of Commons ^ was brief and 
 ineffective, and was delivered in reply to Lord North, who as 
 minister had defended the reappointment of Warren Hastings 
 after the Rohilla war. The topic was an enticing one ; Burke 
 had indicted the ex-Governor-Greneral as a great offender, 
 ' guilty of gross, enormous, and flagitious crimes,' and Francis 
 crucified his reputation with pitiless proofs that he had 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, 16th August, 1785. 
 « On the 1st June, 1786. 
 
1786 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL, 65 
 
 made a solemn compact with the Nawab of Oude to exter- 
 minate a people numerous and happy, habituated to industry, 
 possessing a cultivated and prolific country, and capable of 
 sending 60,000 men into the field.' 
 
 Pitt, oscillating mutely between what he knew to be the 
 strong feeling of the King in favour of the oppressor, and his 
 own high sense of public honour and justice, left it an open 
 question amongst his supporters. Powys and Wilberforce 
 assented to the motion ; Dundas and Grrenville opposed 
 it on party grounds, but without venturing to justify 
 Hastings : so did Mornington. He saucily twitted the ex- 
 Premier with the ignorance he had avowed of the circum- 
 stances under which Eohilcund had been subjugated and 
 sold to the Vizier of Oude. But impetuous and partial as 
 were the feelings of the hour, the House of Commons was 
 not disposed to give much heed to taunting criticism by 
 a coxcomb of four-and-twenty, however fluent and well-bred, 
 known by all to know nothing of his own knowledge of the 
 matter in hand. Lord North succinctly but successfully 
 defended himself with his habitual good-humour; and no 
 subsequent speaker in a protracted debate seems to have 
 thought the flippancies of his youthful censor worthy of 
 notice. Could he have foreseen that in the revolving turn 
 of fortune, he would himself be set in the midst of those 
 many and great dangers in which by reason of the frailty of 
 our nature we cannot always stand upright, he might have 
 been less reserved in his implied palliation of the daring 
 pro-consul. But when his day of reckoning as conqueror 
 and annexor of territory came twenty years later, he had 
 the satisfaction of feeling how great was the contrast in all 
 personal respects between himself and Hastings. 
 
 Burke though supported by Windham, Elliot and 
 Anstruther, was beaten by two to one : but ten days after- 
 wards the too lenient ministerialists were disconcerted by 
 
 F 
 
66 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1786- 
 
 Pitt's assenting to the motion of Fox respecting the Rajah of 
 Benares. ' Our victory,' wrote Elliot, ' has given me the 
 greatest satisfaction and comfort. It may perhaps lead to 
 little good in India, and will probably not carry such 
 unwilling converts much farther ; but it has saved the House 
 of Commons from the disgrace of approving another villainy. 
 Dundas voted in the majority : but Powney, who is called 
 the King's member, as he was brought in for Windsor by the 
 King's interest with his neighbours there, voted for Hastings.' ^ 
 Can anybody doubt that on the minds of both the future 
 rulers of India that were to be, the vote of the conscience- 
 stricken minister made an impression not to be forgotten ? 
 
 When the session was over, Momington was appointed 
 Junior Lord of the Treasury ; and in October the new Com- 
 mission was gazetted which included his name. He ascribed 
 his first oflBcial appointment to Lord Buckingham's influence 
 and to William Grenville's friendship, which had been exerted 
 with his usual warmth and sincerity on this occasion ; and 
 who, having been at the same time named Vice-President of 
 the Board of Trade, desired that his old class-fellow should 
 enter office with him.* 
 
 Rumours now prevailed of a project of Union. Charle- 
 mont wrote to Flood : — ' The English papers have been lately 
 infested with the idea of a Union, but except from them I 
 know nothing of it ; neither can I suppose it possible that 
 any such notion can have entered the heads even of our 
 present administration. When we had no Constitution the 
 idea was scarcely admissible : what then must it be now ? I 
 hope and believe, however, that it is merely the inflammatory 
 lie of the day.'^ 
 
 Lord Beverley, affronted with what he deemed neglect of 
 
 » To Lady Elliot, 15th June, 1786, 
 
 ' Letter to the Maxquess of Buckingham, 10th August, 1786. 
 
 » 12th November, 1786. 
 
-1787 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 67 
 
 his political claims, refused to return Mornington again for 
 Beeralston, whereby he was driven to seek for a seat in the 
 less compliant borough of Saltash. There was in fact a 
 contest, and he was returned by a small majority. In the 
 debate, February 21, 1787, on the conditions of the com- 
 mercial treaty with France (negotiated by Eden as one 
 of the English commissioners) he was put up to answer 
 Burke, and got through his task satisfactorily. With 
 proper feelings of deference for the great statesman, he 
 deprecated his jealousy of the liberal concessions which 
 had been made to conciliate French merchants and manu- 
 facturers. ' It had been said with the eloquence of great 
 authority that whatever its commercial merits might be, 
 the treaty in a political point of view laid the country 
 at the feet of France, and deposed Grreat Britain from her 
 European throne. He answered that the true majesty of 
 Grreat Britain was ber trade; and that the fittest object 
 of her ambition w^as the throne of the commerce of the 
 world. The industry and ingenuity of our manufacturers, 
 the opulence which these had diffused through various 
 channels, the substantial foundation of capital on which' they 
 had placed our trade (capital which had that night been well 
 described as predominant over the trade of the whole world), 
 — all these, as they had been our best consolation in defeat, 
 were the most promising sources of future victory : and 
 to cultivate, to strengthen, and to augment these could not 
 be inconsistent with the glory of the kingdom.' 
 
 A petition meanwhile had been presented by his opponent 
 at Saltash against his return ; and a committee, after due 
 investigation, reversing the decision at the poll, on May 6, 
 declared Mr. Lemon, whose family considered the suffrages 
 of the inhabitants part of their property, to have been duly 
 elected. He was thus left without a seat for more than a 
 year, and it was during this period he became enamoured of 
 
 F 2 
 
68 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1788 
 
 the beautiful Hyacinthe Gabrielle, daughter of Monsieur 
 EoLiiid, the fascination of whose charms exercised over him 
 a spell so lasting. 
 
 On the Duke of Rutland's death the Premier named his 
 cousin Lord Buckingham to succeed him in the government 
 of Ijvland ; and on his statf, at the request of Lady Morning- 
 ton, His Excellency appointed Arthur Wesley, then in his 
 nineteenth year and just returned from the completion of 
 his military studies in France. The new Viceroy wrote that 
 he must ' buy his men from the Charing Cross crimp that he 
 mi<;ljt not be spoilt by recruiting : but he was happy that he 
 could name him as aide-de-camp.' Such was the start in 
 military life of the illustrious commander. His brother, who 
 never ceased to take the liveliest interest in his career, wrote 
 to the Lord Lieutenant : — 
 
 ' You may well believe w-ith what pleasure I received your 
 appointment of my brother to a place in your family, not 
 only as being a most kind mark of your regard for me, but 
 as the greatest advantage to him. I am persuaded that under 
 your eye he will not be exposed to any of those risks which 
 in other times have accompanied the situation he will hold. 
 I can assure you sincerely that he has every disposition which 
 can render so young a boy deserving of your notice ; and if 
 he does not engage your protection by his conduct, I am 
 much mistaken in his character. My mother expects him 
 every hour in London, and before this time I should hope 
 that he had himself waited on you. Once more, my dear 
 lord, before I close this part of my letter, let me thank you 
 most warmly for this flattering instance of yoiu* friendship. 
 Greuville, I hope, has shown you my letter, in which I declare 
 that I would not have asked you for this favour, knowing 
 your inclination to attend to my requests, and apprehending 
 that you might suffer your regard for me to interfere to the 
 prejudice of your government ; but- certainly this object for 
 
1788 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 69 
 
 my brother was very near my lieart, and I accept it \^ith a 
 gratitude proportioned to the anxiety with which I desired it, 
 and to the most friendly manner in which it has been given.' ^ 
 
 The Secretary-at-War at first demurred to the young 
 officers on the Viceregal staff retaining their full pay. The 
 Earl in a fraternal rage flew at the great man, who ' hoped he 
 would deign to temper his anger with a little common sense ; 
 if not he threatened to send his brother with his newly raised 
 men to join his regiment in India, which would of coarse 
 be very unfortunate for Arthur, as he had concluded an agree- 
 ment for an exchange now only awaiting the mighty fiat of 
 the Secretary-at-War.' ^ Sir William Young yielded,^ and in- 
 stead of premature exposure to a tropical sun before his bones 
 were knit, the young ensign betook himself to Dublin ( '.isrle, 
 where during the next two years his military education pio- 
 ceeded in the salon of Lady Buckingham and the hunting 
 field of his Excellency. 
 
 A new question, of more and better than party interest, 
 now began to stir the minds of men. Clarkson and Wilber- 
 force had hitherto pleaded, as was said in vain, for the 
 abolition of the Slave Trade. Eoyalty, high birth, prelacy, 
 and great possessions were set in the scale against what was 
 nicknamed ' Utopian philanthropy ' by practical men. The 
 West Indian interest was one of the most widely ramified 
 throughout the community. It kept great houses, race-horses, 
 and rotten boroughs, and was equally strong in the City and 
 at Westminster. Historically it had much to say for itself, for 
 it could invoke the sanction of Elizabeth, the encouragement 
 of Cromwell, and the approval of all the statesmen who main- 
 tained the Assiento Treaty. A crusade against kidnapping, 
 slave-dealing, and the making of money out of innocent blood, 
 
 > 4th November, 1787. 
 
 * To the Marquis of Buckingham, 8th January, 1788. 
 
 « Secretary-at-War, 20th February, 1788. 
 
70 MARQUESS IVELLESLEY. 1788 
 
 seemed in 1787 to be one of the wildest speculations ever 
 entertained, and the appeals by which it was stimulated in 
 pamphlets and at public meetings suggested analogies so 
 subversive of the established order of things that many other- 
 wise humane men held the conviction that, whencesoever hewn, 
 slavery was the keystone of the arch, perilous to remove, on 
 which the national prosperity rested. Happily, not all this 
 prejudice or the political influence arrayed on the wrong side, 
 could deter young men of noble aspirations, in and out of 
 office, from giving their adhesion, in private first and after- 
 wards in public, to the righteous cause. Sheridan and Fox, 
 Pitt and Grranville Sharpe encouraged Wilberforce to bring the 
 subject under discussion, and Momington, though he knew 
 how deeply his friends Lord Buckingham and William Gren- 
 ville objected to the movement, told them frankly how much 
 he sympathised witii it. ' We are all very eagerly engaged,' 
 he wrote, ' in considering a plan for the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade which is to be soon brought forward by Wilberforce. 
 I hear that Burke is to prove slavery to be an excellent 
 thing for negroes, and that there is a great distinction 
 between an Indian Begum and an African Wowski.' ^ This 
 was, indeed, a strange mistake. Burke came forward on the 
 very first occasion to declare that he wished for the abolition 
 on principles of humanity and justice. If opposition of in- 
 terests should render its total abolition impossible, it ought 
 to be regulated, and that immediately. The Slave Trade 
 was directly contrary to the interests of humanity, and the 
 state of slavery however mitigated, was so degrading and 
 so ruinous to the feelings and capacities of human nature 
 that it ought not to be suffered to exist:* 
 
 In June 1788 another seat was found for him at Windsor, 
 which he continued to represent in more than one Parliament. 
 
 » From London to the Lord- Lieutenant of Lreland, January, 1788. 
 « Pari. Mst.y xxvii.i May 9, 1788, 
 
1788 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 71 
 
 During the prolonged debates on the Declaratory Bill 
 respecting the Board of Control, his friends constantly urged 
 him to speak, but from day to day his resolution failed him 
 when the House was thin and the Speaker would have given 
 him an opportunity ; and when listeners thronged the benches 
 and Opposition taunts stung his ambition into eagerness to 
 try, men of longer standing rose, and he had to gulp down 
 his regrets as best he might. Grrenville was so anxious that 
 he should make a figure, that he begged his brother in Ireland 
 to write to him urgently on the subject ; lest the session 
 should pass away without the realisation of his purpose. 
 
 In view of a general election the Marquess offered him a 
 seat for Buckinghamshire, a kindness he warmly acknowledged; 
 but he ' thought himself bound, by respect for the Person who 
 placed him at Windsor, to endeavour to preserve that seat for 
 him, that he might find his own friends where he was pleased 
 to leave them, wlienever he might happen to recover his 
 reason. He might fail perhaps in this attempt to maintain 
 the trust reposed in him, and the expense might be such as to 
 disable him from purchasing any other seat : in that case the 
 offer of the county would be most acceptable. He thought 
 his brother Pole had found an opening at Grimsby, long the 
 property of Anderson Pelham ; and Pitt would thus have two 
 seats at that place for about 5,000Z. W. Pole was able to 
 advance 1,000Z: and he meant to give 1,500^., which would 
 bring him in : another friend of Pitt's, R. Wood, agreeing to 
 pay the remaining money for the other seat.' ^ The dissolu- 
 tion did not take place till 1790, when Wood and Pole found 
 seats at East Looe in Cornwall. 
 
 At Hoi wood, purchased by Pitt from Mr. Rendall, he 
 was, with Dundas and Eden, frequently a guest. 
 
 The old house was a small stuccoed brick building, 
 near the old high road to Westerham, which had successively 
 ' From Hertford Street, 16th November, 1788. 
 
72 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1788 
 
 been occupied as a hunting-box by several persons who rode 
 with the Duke of Grrafbon's hounds. Mr. Calcraft made it a 
 sort of a quiet rendezvous for the heads of his party. A 
 rich ship-builder named Eendall bought it of Burrow, and 
 in autumn 1785 sold it to Pitt, who was a native of the 
 , adjoining parish, and by whom the ornamental grounds were 
 chiefly formed.^ 
 
 It is situated fourteen miles from London, in the parish 
 of Keston, a name derived from the castrum of Caesar on 
 Holwood Hill, on the southern entrenchment of which the 
 mansion stands.^ The outlook from the house extends from 
 Sydenham to Knockholt Beeches on the other side. 
 
 Lord Stanhope says the last instalment of the purchase- 
 money, 8,950Z., was not paid till 1794. In 1786 Pitt raised 
 4,000L on a mortgage of the land. 
 
 There, as at Downing Street, Pitt sat late, and sought to 
 stimulate his languid circulation in the morning by long rides 
 on horseback, or quick walks with his woodmen, lopping 
 sapless boughs and cutting new paths through the plantations. 
 To the park, which was not originally of great extent, he added 
 half as much more by help of certain provisions in a local 
 Act stopping the direct road over the hill and making the 
 new highway skirt it for a considerable distance round. 
 The intervening portion of the common, about one hundred 
 and twenty acres, was thus enclosed, and by way of compen- 
 sation to those who dwelt hard by, they were specially 
 exempted from paying turnpike for their carts and horses, 
 and everyone was freed from toll coming or going to Keston 
 Church on Sunday.^ To the mansion he added a large 
 dining room and a library on the other side, rendering the 
 
 ' Decimus Burton possessed a sketch of the old house pulled down by- 
 Mr. John Ward. It had undergone little alteration. 
 
 "^ Neale : English SeatSy vol. iv. 
 
 ^ 29 Geo. III. chap. 85, in the collection of Road Acts in the Library 
 of the House of Lords. 
 
1788 OLD ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. 73 
 
 edifice rather more picturesque than fitted for permanency. 
 Architectural pretension it had none, and what became of 
 the patched edifice after his time, he was too engrossed with 
 public business and the relaxations of the table to care. 
 Hayes, Chevening and Camden Place were not far off : and 
 from town not a few persons of wit, worth or distinction, came 
 at intervals to join his hospitable board ; Addington, Grren- 
 ville, and Dundas, full of serious politics ; Malmesbury, 
 Eden, Gower, laden with confidential gossip from Paris and 
 Berlin ; Wilberforce, not yet a power in the senate, but 
 brimming over with enthusiasm for religious and social 
 measures of improvement in which he tried his best to 
 engage the sympathy of the minister. A medallion on ivory 
 still depicts the young man of fashion in embroidered coat, 
 ruffles, and pigtail ; and though without colour preserves the 
 delicate beauty of feature combined with intensity of will 
 which characterise later pictures. On the back is written in 
 his own hand — ' Le meilleur portrait de moi^ selon Vavis 
 de toutes mes bellesJ' 
 
74 MARQUESS WELLESLEY^ 1788 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 
 1788-1791. 
 
 During the autumn of 1788 the condition of the King's health 
 rendered it necessary to provide by some specific measure for 
 the exercise of the royal functions. Pitt hesitated long about 
 making any formal communication to Parliament. The emer- 
 gency was unprovided for by statute ; the jealousy with which 
 Greorge III. regarded the confidential advisers of his son was 
 well known ; and the expectation universally prevailed that 
 imder him the policy of the Grovernment and the persons com- 
 posing it would be altogether changed. Few were taken into 
 council beforehand as to what should be done ; but one of 
 them was Mornington: for it was manifestly desirable to secure 
 if possible, concurrent action by the legislatures of the two 
 realms, if any conditions of Regency were to be imposed. 
 When the aberration of the royal intellect could no longer be 
 concealed,ministers proposed resolutions declaring the exercise 
 of the sovereign authority to be in abeyance ; and that it was 
 the duty of Parliament to make temporary provision for the 
 exigency by appointing the Prince of Wales Regent of Grreat 
 Britain ; but limiting the delegated prerogative for the space of 
 one year regarding dismissals from the Household, the grant- 
 ing of pensions out of hereditary revenue, and the creating 
 of peers. Fox, North, and Burke precipitately committed 
 
1788 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 75 
 
 themselves to the assertion that the Heir Apparent was as 
 fully entitled to take upon him the state and power of royalty 
 as if his father were physically dead ; and consequently, that 
 he ought to be allowed to do so without limitations. But 
 Pitt argued from precedent and principle, that the constitu- 
 tion recognised no such right by assumption ; that every 
 Protector or Kegent in past times had been named by 
 Parliament, with an Executive Council ; whereby practically 
 a check was imposed on all acts of importance ; and that in 
 every case on record the provisional trust was to cease and 
 determine by a given time. From the peculiar nature of a 
 case so unforeseen, no definite period could be set to the pro- 
 posed locum-tenency ; and the difficulties in the way of 
 naming a Council under existing circumstances could not be 
 easily overcome. As the sworn testimony of the physicians 
 warranted the Privy Council in anticipating the King's 
 recovery within a reasonable time, they were bound to take 
 measures as far as possible for preserving to him, against that 
 day, the discretion he had hitherto enjoyed in the bestowal 
 of honours and emoluments. By a large majority ^ these 
 views were accepted ; and a Bill founded upon them was before 
 Christmas brought in accordingly. 
 
 Pitt claimed for Parliament, in which he had a secure 
 predominance, the absolute right to nominate a Eegent and 
 to limit his powers. Burke argued ingeniously that this was 
 in point of principle to do what the Convention had done 
 in 1689; namely, to declare that the royal authority had 
 lapsed to whomsoever they might choose to appoint, and on 
 whatsoever terms, with this only difference, that James II. 
 had wantonly forfeited his office, and that Parliament had no 
 alternative but to supply his place : whereas Greorge III. 
 was simply derelict by natural infirmity, which furnished 
 no excuse for deviating from the rule of hereditary succession. 
 > By 268 to 204; 16th December, 78 . 
 
76 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1788- 
 
 Already the advancing" shadow of suljversive change was cast 
 over his anticipative mind ; and had the question not arisen 
 until somewhat later, when monarchy was overthrown by 
 the misapplication of Pitt's theory in France, Burke would 
 have prevailed. But the King's friends who had placed the 
 minister in office, were ready to keep him there, regardless 
 of theoretically possible consequences, which not even the 
 seer of Beaconsfield as yet thought imminent. What he 
 did foresee as likely to ensue, if the Whig view prevailed, 
 was the overthrow of Toryism, under the dictatorship of Pitt; 
 and it was this rather than any profound dread of unconsti- 
 tutional results that animated Fox and Sheridan, Lough- 
 borough and Erskine, to contend as they did pertinaciously 
 and long. They were ready in point of fact to come to 
 terms of limitation after their defeat on the ultra-legitimist 
 ground taken at the outset by Burke, — that to all political 
 intents and purposes the throne was vacant, only until, as in 
 the case of sickness unto death, the Heir- Apparent should feel 
 justified in calling on the estates of the realm to acknowledge 
 him as head of the State by inheritance, not election. They 
 soon found that their reactionary notions would not go down 
 with the public at large ; and they made such haste to 
 explain them away that Burke in a frenzy complained that 
 his advice was discarded, and that consistency had forsaken 
 the earth. To the end he persisted in his own view, calling 
 the Limited Eegency Bill disloyal, and all who voted for it 
 traitors. But his violence did not turn votes. Sir William 
 Young wrote to Lord Buckingham, after one of his unsuccess- 
 ful invocations of obsolete tradition, ' He is folly personified, 
 shaking his cap and bells under the laurels of genius.' 
 With the exception of Windham and perhaps Francis, 
 none of the leading men of his party went with him ; and 
 Gilbert Elliot thought with Pitt. 
 
 But under the gallery sat one on whom his invectives and 
 
1789 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 77 
 
 adjurations acted as a spell. Grattan had come over from 
 Ireland to confer with Fox and the Duke of Portland. He 
 too was willing to take the high prerogative line in favour 
 of the Prince ; and the attempts at compromise proving futile 
 he went back disposed rather to adhere to the course at first 
 advocated by Burke. Still it is possible that wiser counsels 
 might bave had sway if the Government by their mode of 
 dealing with it in Ireland had not entangled the question 
 with that of legislative independence. Eenewed discussion 
 at each stage and upon every clause delayed the passing of 
 the Regency Bill through the Lower House at Westminster 
 for several weeks ; and it was not until the 1 2th of February 
 that it was carried to the Lords. Meanwhile tidings came 
 that in Ireland the arguments in favour of unconditional 
 Regency were, irrespectively of party ties, likely to pre- 
 vail. In opening the session on 5th February, 1789, the 
 Marquess of Buckingham was content to communicate the 
 fact that for some time he had been left without instructions 
 from the King in consequence of the malady from which 
 His Majesty was suffering ; and that full information would 
 in due time be submitted on the subject. The Chief Secre- 
 tary, Mr. FitzHerbert, suggested that its consideration 
 should be postponed for a fortnight, obviously with the hope 
 of having* by that time the English measure before them in 
 its completed form. Grattan started : was this a new sug- 
 gestion of legislative subserviency ? if so, it was their duty 
 to contravene and crush it by initiating an independent 
 course of action. An early day being named for the pui'pose, 
 Mr. Connolly, foremost of the country gentlemen, moved, 
 and Mr. O'Neill who likewise possessed great influence, 
 seconded, an address to the Prince, requesting him to take 
 upon himself, during his father's illness, the executive 
 authority in Ireland. 
 
 Mr. FitzHerbert, a fair but feeble man, was no match 
 
78 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1789 
 
 for the varied talent and energy arrayed against him. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer was equally out of his 
 depth in the controversy ; and the brunt of the battle fell 
 on the Attorney General, who desired nothing better than 
 from his crown brief to urge any topic that would please 
 the minister or draw his opponents into untenable positions. 
 With the indifference to historic consistency and to ulterior 
 consequences which too frequently characterises law officers 
 in debate, FitzGribbon bluntly stigmatised what he called the 
 proposed Grovernment under an unlimited Eegency, as a 
 criminal violation of the Act of Settlement which the 
 Government to be still carried on in the King's name in 
 Great Britain, would not tolerate or allow. He affrontingly 
 told his hearers that their business was to move obediently 
 within the lines traced for them by the Imperial Parliament, 
 providing for the exercise of regal functions ; because the 
 crown of Ireland was appendant to the Imperial Crown ; and 
 because the Great Seal of England affixed to a Bill for 
 conditional Eegency would give it undoubted validity on both 
 sides of the Channel. If, exceeding their privilege and duty, 
 they affected in Ireland to clothe the Prince with preroga- 
 tives incompatible with those he might possess elsewhere, 
 they meant to risk separation ; and in the face of such a 
 danger no alternative would remain but that of a legislative 
 Union. Such a result he professed to deprecate, but sooner 
 or later, if they persisted in assuming co-equal legislative 
 authority, it would become inevitable. The immediate effect 
 of such language was to pique every illogical and high- 
 spirited waverer into swelling the ranks of Grattan, who with 
 Ponsonby, Langrishe, and Curran hurled back the ministerial 
 threats and taunts amid a tempest of patriotic cheers. Flood 
 looked on moodily in silence ; while his relative. Sir Frederick, 
 protested, like other country gentlemen, at the wanton in- 
 solence of the ministerial tone : and not a few of the habitual 
 
1789 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE, 79 
 
 adherents of Government went away. Wesley Pole, acting 
 in concert with his brother, was one of the few unofficial 
 members who ventured to stand their gromid. ' Pensions,' 
 he argued, ' might be granted, peerages bestowed, and places 
 given in reversion to designing men who had wormed them- 
 selves into the confidence of his Eoyal Highness.' He passed 
 the highest panegyric on the ability, virtue and integrity 
 of Mr. Pitt, but Grovernment did not venture to divide, 
 and the address was sent up to the Lords for their concur- 
 rence.^ 
 
 The over- masted ship, with all sails set, every defiant flag 
 unfurled, and firing significantly minute guns, made head 
 for the rapids. Had Flood's hand been on the helm he 
 would sooner have run her ashore than risk a catastrophe. 
 He would have preferred compromise to collision ; and would 
 have offered terms of accommodation, making partial conces- 
 sions to the irresistible majority at Westminster : relying on 
 the help of the minority there to modify the proposed limita- 
 tions. This would have been a course worthy of a statesman. 
 But Grrattan was a political poet who thought dramatically, 
 whose eloquence was epigram and whose logic antithesis, 
 matchless since that of Demosthenes and practically as 
 unavailing. He loved what the playwrights call a striking 
 situation ; and rather than lower his ambitious aim he was 
 ready to hazard its failure. 
 
 So little had the vote of the Commons been expected, 
 that Momington and other Irish peers were content to send 
 their proxies in the confident belief that in their House at 
 all events the influence of the Castle would as usual prevail. 
 But the pride of nationality, though of late it seemed dying 
 out, flashed up anew. Sanguine expectations of novelty 
 that must be improvement were concentrated in the Prince 
 of Wales, with how little discernment or reason time was 
 ' I2th February, 1789. 
 
80 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1789 
 
 ere long to show. Lord Buckingham's popularity was un- 
 able to control or guide the movement, which for the mo- 
 ment carried away many on whose stability he had hitherto 
 relied. 
 
 In terms identical with those of the Commons, the address 
 to the Prince was adopted by a majority of nineteen in the 
 Peers ; and his Excellency was requested by a joint deputation 
 to transmit the same officially to his Koyal Highness. 
 
 The Viceroy replied ' that under the impressions he felt of 
 his official duty, and of the oath he had taken, he did not 
 consider himself warranted to lay before the Prince an address 
 purporting to invest him with power to take upon him the 
 government of that realm, before he should be enabled by 
 law so to do.' 
 
 The peers and commoners reassembled in their respective 
 chambers to denounce the aflfront thus offered to their 
 legislative dignity ; and long and stormy were the discussions 
 that ensued. That Lord Buckingham did his duty to those 
 whose policy and purpose he was sent to administer was 
 plain : but not the less palpable was it that his act was one 
 *of open defiance of the Irish Parliament. It was felt, as it 
 was meant to be, an assertion summary and stern of para- 
 mount authority. Submission after the course that had been 
 taken would involve irredeemable humiliation ; yet resistance 
 in a time of peace abioad, and without preparation of any 
 kind at home was an alternative not to be thought of. 
 The showy scabbard of independence had been rattled in vain, 
 for within there was no popular sword. Mr. Pitt understood 
 well how thoroughly the vain-glorious patriotism of a pro- 
 vincial oligarchy was honeycombed by personal greed and 
 social aspirations. How he would have dealt with them had 
 there been occasion, we may infer by what happened later on. 
 In the crisis of 1789 he probably did not take the trouble to 
 think with regard to individuals or details ; but it was an 
 
1789 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 81 
 
 opportunity rare as unforeseen for avenging the affront put 
 upon him in 1785, and he used it with a ruthless hand. A 
 Eoman tyrant had vainly wished that his refractory sub- 
 jects had but one neck, that he might at a blow silence 
 their sedition : the English Minister saw his opportunity and 
 seized it without hesitation or scruple for humbling an un- 
 representative parliament that dared without counting the 
 cost to be unamenable. Sooner than succumb, the two 
 Houses simultaneously resolved to try issues with the Execu- 
 tive Grovernment. The Duke of Leinster and Lord Charle- 
 mont, with Ponsonby, Stewart, Connolly and O'Neill, were 
 named commissioners and ordered to take ship and hie forth- 
 with to London, there to lay the national desire at the feet 
 of the heir to the Crown. 
 
 On February 20, Grrattan moved, ' That the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant's answer to the request of the two Houses of Parlia- 
 ment that he would transmit their Address to His Royal 
 Highness the Prince of Wales has, ill-advised, contained an un- 
 warranted and unconstitutional censure on the proceedings of 
 both Houses of Parliament, and attempted to question the 
 undoubted rights and privileges of the Lords, spiritual and 
 temporal, and the Commons of Ireland.' After some debate 
 but 83 voted against and 115 for the resolution. The Lords 
 on the same day adopted a similar course by 40 to 21, in- 
 cluding proxies. Nor was this all. The sense of exasperation 
 still ravening for food, Grattan on the same day moved, 
 ' That in addressing the Prince of Wales to take upon himself 
 the government of Ireland, on the behalf, and in the name 
 of his Majesty, during his indisposition, and no longer, the 
 Lords and Commons of Ireland had exercised an undoubted 
 right, and discharged an indispensable duty, to which in the 
 actual emergency they alone were competent.' After another 
 threatening notice from the Attorney General to the country 
 gentlemen against embarking in what he termed a pernicious 
 
82 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1789 
 
 and perilous speculation, the resolution was carried by 130 
 to 74 ; and the House then voted that ' the Lord Lieutenant's 
 answer was ill-advised, contained an unwarranted and uncon- 
 stitutional censure on the proceedings of both Houses of 
 Parliament, and attempted to question their undoubted rights 
 and privileges.' 
 
 A vote of censure on the Lord Lieutenant in deliberate 
 and dignified terms, but if possible laying still more bare the 
 direct antagonism between the rival powers of the State, 
 was passed in the Upper House by 37 to 31 ; whereupon a final 
 protest, subscribed by Mornington and most of the minis- 
 terial peers, boldly challenged the autonomous authority of 
 the body to which they belonged — 
 
 ' Because,' the undoubted right and the indispensable 
 duty, ' declared in the said resolution to have been exercised 
 and discharged by the Lords and Commons of Ireland, do not 
 in any legal or sound sense appear to us to have any 
 existence ; and because the assuming a right to confer the 
 government of the kingdom upon the Prince of Wales, under 
 the style and title of Prince Eegent of Ireland, before he be 
 enabled by law to do so, seems altogether unwarrantable and 
 highly dangerous in its tendency to disturb and break the 
 constitutional union whereby the realm of Ireland is for 
 ever knit and united to the imperial Crown of England, on 
 which connection the happiness of both kingdoms essentially 
 depends.' ^ Amongst the dissentients were Lords Tyrone, 
 Hillsborough, Longford, Bective, Bellamont, and Conyng- 
 ham. 
 
 The Duke and his colleagues, reinforced by the principal 
 landed proprietors ^ then in town who were connected with 
 Ireland, proceeded to Carlton House, where they were re- 
 ceived by the Prince with effusive acknowledgments of 
 
 * Lords' JoumaU, February, 1789. 
 
 * Among the peers were : Devonshire, Inchiquin, Fitzwilliam, Damley, 
 
 I 
 
1789 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 83 
 
 gratitude and affection to the loyal and generous people of 
 Ireland which he felt indelibly imprinted on his heart. But 
 his Eoyal Highness was delighted to be able to inform them 
 that favourable symptoms had lately been observed in the 
 condition of his Majesty, and that a formal reply on his part 
 to their solicitations must therefore be postponed. Lord 
 Thurlow had, in fact, announced from the Woolsack the 
 evening before, that Greorge III. was convalescent, and that 
 in consequence the Eegency Bill would be proceeded with no 
 further. The imminent hazard of an open collision between 
 the legislative authorities of the two realms was thereby 
 averted ; and the waters of bitterness seemed to subside once 
 more into their customary channels. But the impression 
 made upon the minds of all who were capable of rejflection or 
 forethought was not to be effaced. 
 
 Mornington, who lived very much with the Grenvilles, 
 was in close correspondence with the Lord Lieutenant 
 throughout the controversy. His sentiments were doubtless 
 well known to the friends in Ireland from whom he differed, 
 and perhaps he was glad to be spared the pain of personal 
 collision with them on what they deemed a point of honour. 
 His name is appended to the several protests entered by the 
 minority in the journals of the peers ; and it has thence been 
 inferred that some of these vigorous denunciations of Whig 
 Jacobitism were from his pen. It has even been said that he 
 took part, as he was well qualified to do, in the memorable 
 discussion.^ But all uncertainty on the point is set at rest by 
 the fact that in every instance his signature is recorded with 
 those of Lords Altamont, Carysfort, and Courtown as having 
 been annexed ' by proxy.' 
 
 It is hardly too much to say, that in these once notable, 
 
 Galway, Besborough, Middleton, Ludlow, Rawdon, Lucan, and among the 
 commoners, Sheridan, Pelham, Burke, Conway, Courtney, Francis, &c. 
 ' Pierce, vol. i. p. 37. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1789 
 
 but soon overlaid inscriptions may be traced sharply and 
 clearly cut, the date and design of Pitt's annexing policy. 
 Consolidation and extension of empire was the dominant idea 
 of his life. About the means he was not nice, about the cost 
 indifferent. With him the purpose fixed and supreme was 
 everything; party ties, private friendship, disaffection of 
 followers, popular suffering, royal ill-humour, even the pride 
 of his own apparent personal consistency — nothing. Without 
 unification of the three old realms for defence and for 
 aggression he saw plainly that Ireland could never be peace- 
 able, Scotland could never be rich, and that England could 
 never again be great : and come what might he was bent on 
 accomplishing that which was indispensable to all these ends. 
 The rebuff he had received in 1785 from the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, on his scheme for fiscal union, served but to put a 
 keener edge on his resolve; and the untenable position 
 taken on the Eegency Question by the majority of both 
 Houses gave him the opportunity he was not slow to seize, 
 of reading them a lesson on the suicidal sin of contumacy. 
 The protest of the Lords was a white flag of surrender held 
 forth from the topmost pinnacle of a citadel, many posterns 
 of which he had already in his hands. From that day the 
 hearts of the most sanguine sunk within them as to its 
 eventual maintenance. Had swords never been actually 
 crossed they might have been pointed and brandished boast- 
 fully for many a day, popular credulity being undispelled as 
 to the invincibility of the shorter and the lighter one. But 
 in a passionate hour conclusions had been rashly tried, and 
 without drawing blood the glittering weapon was struck out 
 of the weaker hand. The Crown of Ireland, by those who 
 had most to lose within her confines, was confessed anew to 
 be a pendant on the Crown of England ; and as the English 
 executive, by the very constitution of a free government, 
 must be ever responsible in men and measures to the Parlia- 
 
1789 COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 85 
 
 ment of Westminster, a parliament in Dublin could never 
 effectually resist the one or change the other. No vote of 
 theirs expressing want of confidence could enforce the recall 
 of a viceroy if the Prime Minister chose to disregard it : 
 how much less could a vote conferring sovereignty on a 
 Prince of the Blood not already sovereign in Great Britain, 
 make him virtually a King ? It would be incredible if the 
 record did not remain, that men so gifted and accomplished 
 as many of the Peers and Commoners of 1789, should have 
 failed to see what now looks like an obvious truth, or that 
 they should have openly provoked the imperious statesman 
 whom they suspected to be bent on the subversion of their 
 legislative importance, to show to all the world the indefensi- 
 bility of their position. 
 
 The sudden recovery of Greorge III. delivered them from 
 the immediate embarrassment of their situation ; but the 
 wound inflicted on their dignity in the eyes of the people 
 and in their own, though it bled slowly and unobserved, was 
 even unto death. From that day faith in the stability of 
 the system began silently to fade away ; and long before any 
 project of absorption or annexation was even officiously put 
 forward by the scouts and pioneers of power, the more think- 
 ing minds of the community had become prepared to receive 
 it as a thing eventually inevitable. 
 
 George III., on coming to himself, favoured openly all 
 who had resisted the pretensions of his son, and the young 
 Irish peer especially for the active part he had taken. 
 
 It is hard to believe that a mind with the historic 
 culture, comprehensive grasp, and instinctive forethought of 
 Flood should have continued to regard the Constitution of 
 1782 as capable of long endurance. His bold attempt to 
 reduce theoretic right into actual possession by the creation 
 of a substantial constituency in Ireland had failed ; but he 
 was not a man to change his opinions or abandon his puv- 
 
80 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1790- 
 
 po.se at the bidding of either senate or mob. He saw that 
 Keform had no chance of being adopted in Ireland while 
 it was still refused in Great Britain ; and having a seat 
 in each Parliament, he strove in both consistently to 
 win adherents to his fixed and definite doctrine of household 
 suffrage. 
 
 One of the first decrees of the National Assembly in 
 France had more than acknowledged the principle of direct 
 representation, imparting thereby a new impulse of incal- 
 culable force to the movement of public opinion in its 
 favour. The recoil of the Eevolution was not yet come, or 
 even apprehended by ordinary men, though already the 
 scrutinising intellect of Burke had begun to be disturbed 
 and distressed by its ominous utterances. Of what might 
 become of the already damaged experiment of Irish legislative 
 independence Burke took little heed, and probably thought 
 of it, when he thought of it at all, as a mere transitional 
 state of thingswhich must sooner or later be commuted for 
 something more durable and real. At heart Flood thought 
 so too; but his reputation had grown to maturity on the 
 western side of the Channel, and he was too old to learn 
 indifference to the quasi-nationalism to which the best hours 
 of his youth and prime had been devoted. He clutched at 
 electoral reform as a common good which the popular party 
 in both countries might seek simultaneously to gain, persuaded 
 that out of its attainment might be safely left to grow, as in 
 the younger States beyond the ocean, mutual guarantees 
 of imperial strength and local liberty. His last speech at 
 Westminster was for leave to bring in a Bill to put an end 
 to rotten boroughs, and to enfranchise every resident holder 
 of a separate dwelling paying rates and taxes ; and although 
 ineffectual then it may still be read with profit and pleasure 
 by everyone who cares to trace th« just and generous pro- 
 portions of representative freedom. What decades of dis^ 
 
-I79I COLLEGE GREEN AND CARLTON HOUSE. 87 
 
 content and disaffection would have been saved had the 
 Parliament of 1790 listened to his proposal, which in prin- 
 ciple and detail Fox declared to be the best he had ever 
 heard suggested. But Burke and Windham had become 
 panic-stricken at what was taking place in France ; Grenville 
 vehemently protested he would never under any circum- 
 stances agree to democratic change, and to the last he kept 
 his word ; Pitt, without repenting of his early pleadings for 
 Eeform, warily asked for a more convenient season. It 
 would have been useless to hazard a division. Flood saw 
 the realisation of his hope afar off, and was glad ; but it 
 came not in his day. At the general election in autumn 
 he was not again returned as an English member, and in 
 the winter of the following year he had sunk to rest. Few 
 more thoughtful and courageous men took part in the 
 affairs of his time ; and few of his contemporaries have 
 left behind them nobler sentiments crystallised in nobler 
 language. 
 
 His death ^ removed a serious obstacle to Ministerial 
 schemes of Union, for with all his faults and prejudices. 
 Flood retained to the last great influence among the educated 
 classes in Ireland, and gifts, rare amongst them in his day, 
 of persistent application to the study of great subjects, and 
 of eloquently logical exposition. 
 
 Disparity of years, and a still greater difference in their 
 ways of life, precluded an intimacy between Flood and 
 Momington ; and there was a time when the latter was so 
 carried away by party feeling as to speak of him as the 
 ' arch-enemy of Ireland.' The young earl's preference for 
 Grrattan contributed, no doubt, to keep them apart. But 
 when by experience he learned the value of the temperament 
 which distinguished Flood from a community so impression- 
 
 ' At the age of fifty-nine, 2nd December, 1791. 
 
88 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1791 
 
 able and volatile as that to which he belonged, he not unfre- 
 (juently reverted in a certain tone of reverence to his elevated 
 and self-reliant character, and spoke of him as among the 
 not very numerous statesmen he had known whose antagonism 
 or support was always worth estimating for its own intrinsic 
 weight. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 BOARD OF CONTROL. 
 1792—1794. 
 
 For the first ten years it was the pride of the egotistic 
 Minister to rely upon himself almost alone for the defence of 
 his measures in debate. Of his Cabinet colleagues in the 
 Lower House, Dundas only was capable of encountering 
 the formidable adversaries arrayed against them. But all the 
 more Pitt liked to afford opportunities of distinction to 
 the younger men of his party occupying less responsible posi- 
 tions. The aspiring Lord of the Treasury desired nothing 
 better than to be allowed to show what he could do ; and 
 his chief, who liked his classic taste in the choice of words, 
 and the general tone of elevation in his thoughts and argu- 
 ments, was not unwilling he should have his turn. 
 
 Wilberforce had kindled such a sense of shame at the 
 continuance of the slave trade, that after it had been 
 abolished by the edicts of the French National Assembly, 
 English statesmen of humanity and wisdom felt it had 
 become impossible to defend further participation in the 
 odious traffic. Whigs and Tories vied with one another in 
 fervency of denunciation ; and though the rival leaders were 
 unable to overcome the sordid instincts of many of their 
 followers, they rallied to the cause of abolition the best 
 intellects of their younger partizans. Mornington was among 
 
90 MARQUESS WELLES LEY. 1792 
 
 the foremost, moving as an amendment to Dundas's plan of 
 deferred and gradual emancipation, that *the trade should 
 wholly cea?*e on the 1st of January next ensuing.' 
 
 Lord Sheffield, a man of some reputation in his day as a 
 political writer, undertook the palliation of the evil practice, 
 and tlie proof that it was the interest after all of the much 
 maligned crimps of the Grold Coast to bring their human 
 herds to market in good condition, and the interest of the 
 calumniated planters to keep them, like other stock, in 
 usable and profitable plight. To interdict the trade, and 
 send cruisers out to watch and chase the ships that carried 
 negroes across the ocean, would only tend to worsen their 
 chance of reaching shore alive ; and under civilised and 
 Christian masters they would be saved from all the casualties 
 and cruelties of barbarism ; they were certain to be well- 
 housed, well-fed, and well looked after. 
 
 Mornington in reply, disdained to palter with these 
 special pleas for wrong. He rejoiced in the blow given to 
 the slave trade, which however modified was in his opinion 
 no longer entitled to legalised existence. Modifications of 
 right or of wrong were in the nature of things inadmissible ; 
 and the true question was whether we could, in strict justice, 
 permit the duration for any space of time however short, of 
 a commerce acknowledged to be repugnant to every principle 
 of equity. 
 
 The slave trade, as actually exercised, was in direct 
 violation of the law by which the merchants traded on the 
 coast of Africa. That , law strictly prohibited them, under 
 the penalty of lOOL for. each offence, 'from taking or pro- 
 curing any African slave through force, violence, fraud, or 
 any indirect means whatever.' Such were the words of the 
 statute pleaded in favour of the slave trade. But who that 
 knew in what manner that trade was really carried on 
 would dare to assert that the statute was riot haLbitually 
 
1792 BOARD OF CONTROL. 91 
 
 violated ? Could such a traffic then claim the sanction of 
 the legislature, in defiance of whose will it notoriously broke 
 through the most essential restrictions laid upon it ? 
 
 Parliament having recorded in general terms its con- 
 demnation of the traffic, ' it was no longer invective to call 
 it inhuman and unjust. The question, therefore, now was, 
 not whether the slave trade should be abolished, but how 
 long should we continue to be unjust? How long should 
 we carry on a practice which we had declared to be unjust 
 and inhuman? Some thought that we should be unjust for 
 ten years more, and some for seven ; that at least the re- 
 mainder of the century should continue in disgrace, and that 
 justice was to commence its operation with the opening of 
 another ; but this, he trusted, would not be the sentiment of 
 the Parliament of Great Britain.' He moved that the 
 traffic should wholly cease in the ensuing year, but he was 
 beaten by a majority of forty-^nine.^ 
 
 Encouraged however by the Prime Minister, he subse- 
 quently proposed to fix January 1, 1795, as the day of 
 abolition, and pleaded the cause of humanity in a tone of 
 heightened zeal, and what his opponents chose to designate 
 fantastic declamation. 
 
 ' He was sorry that so infamous a traffic should be re- 
 spited for an hour. Being hated by all good men, and as 
 far as regarded its justice or humanity, abandoned by its own 
 advocates, what could be urged for its prolongation ? It was 
 said that time should be allowed the planters to cool, and to 
 discover the truth of those who contended that the abolition 
 would ultimately be for their advantage. What length of 
 time it would take them to cool and for truth to make its 
 way it was impossible for him to say. If he were to put the 
 question mathematically he would say : " The force of truth 
 being given, and the hardness of a planter's head being 
 » Pa/rl. i^w*. April 26, 1792, 29, 1229. 
 
92 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1792 
 
 ascertained, in what space of time will the former be able 
 to penetrate the latter ? " He was willing to give them two 
 years ; and he thought that heads which could not take in or 
 consider a truth in two years were not likely to be penetrated 
 by it in seven. He would therefore move that the trade 
 should cease from the 1st of January, 1795.' Lord Car- 
 hampton, for himself and his fellow-planters and the mer- 
 chants of Bristol and Liverpool, scoffed at philanthropy 
 borrowed from Kepublican P>ance, whose random decrees 
 had caused the ruin of St. Domingo ; and inveighed pas- 
 sionately against the robbery about to be committed on 
 the owners of West Indian property for doing only what 
 Parliament had sanctioned for two centuries and a half. 
 Dundas, by way of compromise, offered to fix the date of 
 abolition at the beginning of 1796, and Mornington was 
 defeated by forty, though supported by Pitt, Sheridan, and 
 Fox.' It ended in Dundas agreeing to December 1796 as 
 the period of compromise. 
 
 Grenville, having charge of the Bill in the Upper House, 
 pleaded as earnestly for its passing as his friend had done ; 
 but the slave trade being an open question in the Govern- 
 ment, a majority of the peers had no compunction about 
 voting its continuance; and though Pitt spoke 'like one 
 inspired'* for truth and right, as for freedom of trade and 
 electoral reform, he was content to live and die in office 
 without its legislative recognition. 
 
 It must be owned that the question of Eeform had as- 
 sumed an aspect never contemplated by his father or by him. 
 It was no longer, in the public mind, the renovation of ancient 
 usage or the awaking from the sleep of centuries old ways of 
 procedure ; but the setting up of an untried system modelled 
 on that of Republican France, and chiefly recommended for 
 English adoption in cheap editions of Paine's Rights of Man, 
 
 ' Pari Hut., April 27, 1792. 2 j^f^ ^y wme7'fo7'ce, vol. ii. 
 
1792 BOARD OF CONTROL. 93 
 
 It was there promulgated less for its own sake than as a 
 requisite preliminary to the breaking up of estates, the 
 destruction of Christianity and the subversion of the throne. 
 All who speculated on the attainment of any of these ends 
 ardently combined in demanding reform. Affiliated societies 
 under various names were organised as early as 1790 for 
 securing this indispensable means of further action. Various 
 plans, more or less closely copied from the Paris pattern, found 
 favour with the Constitutional Club, the Friends of the People, 
 and lastly the Corresponding Society to which several persons 
 of distinction were induced to belong. Sheridan, Francis, 
 Whitbread, and Grrey were ready to embark on the current 
 of new opinions. But from the publication of Burke's memo- 
 rable pamphlet on the French Eevolution ^ large and influen- 
 tial numbers of their party took the alarm as at the sound 
 of the fire-bell at the dead of night ; and though deprecating 
 open schism or the loosening of personal ties, hesitated with 
 daily increasing reluctance to aid or sustain demands they 
 had theretofore approved. 
 
 In private Burke ' received from the old stamina of the 
 Whigs a most full approbation of the principles of his work.'^ 
 Fox on the other hand disapproved, and took no pains to con- 
 ceal his disapprobation. He seemed to be daily drawn more 
 and more away from Burke, filling his best friends thereby 
 with sorrow and dismay. Fond as they were of the man, 
 and lenient to his foibles, ' in this it was impossible,' wrote 
 Elliot, ' for the reputable and weighty part of his supporters 
 to follow him.' ^ After the violent scene in Parliament, in 
 which Burke openly repudiated the friendship of Fox, the 
 breach widened till it became irreparable. The Dukes of 
 Devonshire and Portland, Lords Fitzwilliam and Spencer, 
 Windham, Elliot, and a large section of the once powerful 
 
 > October, 1790. ' Letter from Sir G. Elliot, December 4, 1790. 
 
 ' Idem, December 5. 
 
94 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1793 
 
 Opposition, aghast at the sanguinary progress of the Revolution 
 abroad, seceded from the ranks of Reform, believing that 
 property and religion were in danger, and that in the face of 
 the storm they could not with prudence advocate the trans- 
 formation of the State. In the excitement of the period 
 both sections drifted farther from their old moorings than 
 either intended or would have believed possible, and the 
 democratic associations on whose working the whole crew of 
 agitators by trade subsisted in turbulent idleness, were still 
 able to claim as leaders the most eloquent and able men in 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 Regardless of the earnest remonstrances of the English 
 and Austrian ambassadors in Paris, Louis XVI. and his 
 ill-fated consort were brought to the scaffold. Pitt, who to 
 the last had clung to the policy of peace, was at length con- 
 strained to give way. M. Chauvelin was told by Grenville 
 in a peremptory note,^ that his character as plenipotentiary 
 having ceased in consequence of the death of his royal master, 
 he must quit the realm within eight days. A message from 
 the King four days later denounced the atrocious act lately 
 perpetrated at Paris, and called for augmentation of forces by 
 sea and land, as necessary to secm-e general peace, threatened 
 by encroaching and subversive schemes. France thereupon 
 declared war. In a second message George III. appealed to 
 both Houses to support him ' in prosecuting a just and 
 necessary war to oppose an effectual barrier to the furtlier 
 progress of a system which struck at the safety and peace 
 of all independent nations, and the security and tranquillity 
 of Europe.' 
 
 Grey adhered to Fox, and undertook to bring forward the 
 subject of Reform in a practical and comprehensive series of 
 proposals. Erskine seconded, and Windham opposed his mo- 
 tion to refer a petition from the Friends of the People to a 
 » January 24, 1793. 
 
)793 BOARD OF CONTROL, 95 
 
 committee. Jenkinson and Anstruther opposed ; also Mr. 
 Stanley and Mr. Buxton unwilling to refuse, but thinking 
 the time inopportune. Sir P. Francis supported : Morning- 
 ton answering him, alluded to the rise of the nation from 
 the depression following the American War, 
 
 More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
 And trusts herself to fear no second fate. 
 
 Francis had presented a petition from sundry inhabitants of 
 London, Westminster, and the vicinity, praying for universal 
 suffrage as the only effectual, permanent, and practicable plan 
 of Eeform. The first signature was that of Thomas Hardy, a 
 name obscure in this country, but not unknown to the Na- 
 tional Convention of France, for in the November pre- 
 ceding he had signed, as secretary to the Corresponding 
 Society, an Address, so fervently embracing the cause of the 
 French Republic, and full of so warm a zeal for the destruction 
 of the British Government, as to be circulated throughout all 
 the departments and all the armies of the enemy. ' The desire 
 which was universally professed by every one of these societies 
 in the cause of Parliamentary Reform was mainly subsidiary 
 to the great object of introducing their favourite maxim in 
 the most advantageous shape. A change in the system of 
 representation was not the real end of their efforts, but was 
 pursued as affording the most favourable means of facilitating 
 the total subversion of the monarchy itself, which would ever 
 appear impracticable, even to the most adventurous and mis- 
 guided zealots while the constitution of Parliament should 
 remain unimpaired.' He then epitomised and derided Rous- 
 seau's principle of personal participation by all citizens in the 
 business of government after the manner of the ancient de- 
 mocracies of Greece, where the daily work of the community 
 could only be done by the maintenance of slaves. ' Here then 
 the petitioners might see the Rights of Man carried to the ex- 
 treme point of perfection, and might learn that, according to 
 
96 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1793 
 
 their own principles strictly and fairly pursued, civil slavery is 
 the only solid basis of true political liberty. This is the natural 
 course of all those who attempt to raise constitutions of 
 Grovernment on visionary speculations of abstract and indefi- 
 nite right. They commence their career with some specious 
 and plausible theory in view, but in endeavouring to pursue 
 it they are continually driven from difficulties in practice, to 
 contradictions in principle, and they find no resting-place 
 until they have reached some monstrous and insurmountable 
 absurdity. From thence they are compelled to trace back 
 their steps, and to seek the real substance of liberty where 
 alone it is to be found, within the just limits of expediency 
 and experience. However extravagant and ridiculous his 
 notions may seem, and however associated they are in his 
 writings with the most profligate maxims of immorality and 
 irreligion, Eousseau has been canonised by the people of 
 France, and is now one of the few saints remaining on their 
 calendar. Their admiration of his works and their reverence 
 for his memory have not been inactive ; they have imitated 
 with the utmost success his systematic dishonesty and his 
 zealous impiety ; and they have neither been less earnest 
 nor less successful in establishing his principles of political 
 anarchy on the most permanent foundations, and in securing 
 their full operation by most effectual provisions.' 
 
 In this spirit Mornington resisted the proposal of Mr. 
 Grey, which was avowedly meant to change the basis of 
 representation, and which was undoubtedly calculated to 
 encourage and strengthen those who cherished subversive 
 designs. The country, he argued, had thriven with its ex- 
 isting institutions ; and if there were anomalies and defects 
 they were far less evil than the risk of tempting the people 
 to try the experiment which empirics had set for demoralised 
 and bewildered France. His objections applied to the whole 
 spirit and substance of the measure which was the subject of 
 
1793 BOARD OF CONTROL. 97 
 
 debate. It appears to be no less than to change the very 
 genius and spirit of the British Grovernment. In a speech 
 of great length and ability he exerted himself to prove that 
 the benefits actually enjoyed by the nation were invaluable; 
 that no proof either had been, or could be, adduced of their 
 being unconnected with the existing constitution of Parlia- 
 ment ; and that there was the strongest presumption of an 
 intimate connection subsisting between them : that in com- 
 parison with these benefits the grievances alleged were trivial 
 and insignificant, and that they could in no degree be im- 
 puted to the alleged defects in the representation ; above all 
 that the new constitution likely to be given to us in exchange 
 for what we then possessed, so far from securing any one 
 practical good, or alleviating any alleged or practical evil, 
 would utterly subvert every foundation of our present happi- 
 ness and prosperity ; would aggravate every evil of which any 
 one could complain, and introduce many others of infinitely 
 greater magnitude and of far more mischievous consequences. 
 
 For these reasons chiefly, though not exclusively, he con- 
 cluded that no essential alterations should be made in the 
 existing frame of Parliament. 
 
 Fox, in his reply, quoted the well-known lines — 
 
 Let that be wrought which Mat doth say. 
 Yea, quoth the Earl, but not to-day ; 
 
 and lavished all the wealth of his eloquence in urging the 
 general right of the industrial community to a restoration of 
 their ancestral share in the representation, which once con- 
 ceded, discontent would cease. But the spectre of the guillotine 
 dripping with the best blood of France was not to be conjured 
 away ; and 282 to 41 refused even to refer the petition for 
 reform to a committee.^ 
 
 Compliments on the excellent tone and well-sustained 
 
 > Elliot's letters, May if 03. 
 H 
 
98 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1793 
 
 reasoning of his speech came from colleagues and superiors in 
 office, and led him to look for some advancement and for re- 
 moval from the obscure routine of formalities at the Treasury 
 to some department affording scope for the exercise of the 
 talents he felt he possessed. His feminine sensitiveness 
 would not suffer him to risk the mortification of refusal, and 
 he consequently forbore to ask what he longed to have. But 
 the same delicacy did not prevent his reminding those who 
 had influence at the Horse Gruards, that his brother Arthur 
 aspired to regimental promotion, and though as yet without 
 experience in the field had qualities that would not discredit 
 those who trusted him. In May he had the satisfaction of 
 receiving an intimation that Major Wesley had been 
 appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 33rd Foot, then under 
 orders for embarkation at Cork, to join the army in the Low 
 Countries. The untoward incidents of the campaign and the 
 eventual failure of the expedition were happily veiled from 
 his, as from other eyes. 
 
 When forty years of popular disenchantment had elapsed, 
 Paine and the contrat social forgotten, and the tide of 
 equality and fraternity had subsided within bounds not 
 incompatible with respect for property, toleration of thought, 
 and Christianity, Wellesley was ready to join with Grrey in 
 a measure disfranchising close boroughs and giving a wide 
 suffrage in counties and towns. 
 
 A few weeks after the debate in question he was sworn 
 a member of the Privy Council, and on June 28, 1793, 
 a new commission was issued constituting Mr. Dundas, the 
 Duke of Montrose, the Earl of Mornington, Lord Belgrave, 
 Lord Apsley, the Honourable S. Eliot, and the Honourable 
 Kichard Jenkinson, a Board for the regulation and control 
 of the East India Company's affairs. The junior commis- 
 sioners had practically little to do which deputies and clerks 
 were not more competent to perform. The President had for 
 
1793 BOARD OF CONTROL. 99 
 
 twenty years exercised unshared power in the department, the 
 patronage of which was naore lucrative and varied than that 
 of any other Minister except the Chancellor ; and in return he 
 devoted to his office the best energies of an intellect not the 
 purest or the highest, but penetrating, subtle, versatile, and 
 shrewd. He wanted no younger thoughts or suggestions, 
 and met the offer whenever it was made to relieve him of 
 part of his laborious duties with a cynical smile not calculated 
 to encourage future presumption of the kind. Nevertheless, 
 Mornington found it less irksome to study reports and 
 elaborate minutes, received with a broad joke and apparently 
 never thought of more, than intermittently to give per- 
 functory attendance, and to admit to himself that he was 
 fit for nothing but a sinecure, that was harder than any 
 amount of work ; and when the permanent officials left his 
 table bare day after day, he sent for books out of the limited 
 library which then existed, and occasionally for copies of 
 documents of importance from the archives, and from these 
 set about compiling, in the twilight of information concerning 
 the East which Burke himself had found it so difficult to read 
 by, a historical epitome of events from the times preceding 
 the establishment of our factories at Surat and Cossimbuzar. 
 Why he took so much trouble about it, he probably could 
 hardly have told at the time. But the irritable ennui that be- 
 set him wanted relief; and ambition has its instincts, often 
 salutary and wise. His memory being good, his epitome im- 
 pressed on it the features and proportions of European acquisi- 
 tion in the East, and sooner than he could have surmised, 
 served to facilitate his discharge of high and responsible duties. 
 As friends of Pitt, Addington and Wilberforce were daily 
 brought more and more into the company of Mornington, 
 both in town and at Holwood, and from their correspondence 
 they would seem to have contracted a degree of intimacy 
 which the diversity of their dispositions would hardly have 
 
 H 2 
 
100 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 led the world to suppose. A letter from Brighton, where he 
 was detained ' by the state of his miserable nerves ' dwelt 
 with much feeling on a recent vote of the Convention de- 
 nouncing the English Premier as an enemy of the human 
 race ; its author Gamier openly advocating the right of every 
 one to assassinate him. ' This last decree of the dogs of hell 
 against Pitt is the consummation of his glory and of their 
 infamy. But I own I dread their venom : they are capable 
 of encouraging any attempt, however base and inhuman, and 
 I am afraid they might find hands to execute their projects 
 even in this country. The very idea is enough to make one 
 tremble, and it is the more horrid because it is impossible for 
 any precaution to ward off such a blow. We must trust to Pitt's 
 fortune, and to that protection which must attend him against 
 such wickedness.' ^ 
 
 During the recess he visited the Speaker at Woodley, 
 confessing to him the restlessness and discontent to which he 
 was a prey. Addington saw clearly enough the ambition 
 with which he was consumed, and said, ' You want a wider 
 sphere ; you are dying of the cramp.' His letters from this 
 place record gratefully the solace and encouragement he 
 found in the sympathy of his friend.^ 
 
 The Speaker,if consulted, was not likely to have approved 
 of a step which he now resolved on, and which though ob- 
 viously dictated by motives the most generous and unworldly, 
 brought him neither credit or satisfaction. For a consider- 
 able time he had been devoted to the society of the daughter 
 of a French gentleman, M. Pierre Eoland, sometimes mis- 
 taken for the Girondist minister of that name, whose fate, 
 with that of his accomplished wife Manon, forms the subject 
 of one of the most tragic scenes of the Kevolution. Made- 
 moiselle Hyacinthe Gabrielle had not been particularly well 
 brought up ; her associations were unlike those of her lover ; 
 
 ' 26th August, 1793. « November 1793. 
 
1794 BOARD OF CONTROL. 101 
 
 but she possessed charms of beauty and of wit that held 
 him long in willing bondage. After the birth of several 
 children she persuaded him to make her his wife ; and 
 they were married November 29, 1794, in the presence 
 of a few of his political friends, at St. Greorge's, Hanover 
 Square. 
 
 On the meeting of Parliament, Mornington was put 
 forward to defend the continuance of the war against revolu- 
 tionary France. ' Regardless of the unaggressive declarations 
 of the Constituent Assembly, her armies had overrun Piedmont 
 and the Low Countries, and under the pretence of diffusing 
 the blessings of social and political liberty, these countries 
 had been made the prey of democratic ambition. France 
 itself was become the scene of every species of tyranny and 
 atrocity : many sections of the community were described to 
 be in such distress that they were unable to pay the taxes 
 requisite for the support of the State ; the consequence was 
 the emission of paper money to an amount that had totally 
 ruined public credit. Taxation, though oppressive, failed to 
 yield sufficient to maintain a wasteful expenditure, and the 
 sudden confiscation of estates reduced the selling value of 
 land to a degree that rendered spoliation unprofitable. The 
 people had been sneered out of their religion, and the Church 
 bereft of its possessions, without making any class wealthier 
 or better. 
 
 ' Could the inhabitants of Britain compare the situation 
 of the French with their own and not feel a determination 
 to guard their country from the causes that had produced so 
 much misery, whatever might be the cost, and how great 
 soever the hazards they might encounter? 
 
 ' Did the history of Europe afford the precedent of any war 
 since her civilisation, wherein the victor was allowed to retain 
 all he had taken and to recover all he had lost ? Such a 
 treaty was yet to be discovered, and such demands could only 
 
102 MARQUESS IVELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 proceed from a spirit of vanity, insolence, and rapacity that 
 ought to be manfully resisted. But were Grreat Britain in 
 conjunction with her allies to condescend to such meanness, 
 would it secure her from further insult ? A prostrate enemy 
 was proverbially an object of contempt, and would always be 
 trod upon sooner than a resolute foe that stood his ground to 
 the last. 
 
 ' Our choice must now be made between the vigorous 
 prosecution of our present exertions, and an ambiguous state 
 neither of open hostility or of real repose ; a state in which 
 we should suffer most of the inconveniences of war, in which 
 we should enjoy none of the solid advantages of peace ; in 
 which, if we could purchase even at the expense of our 
 honour and our faith a short respite from the direct attack 
 of the enemy, we should never for a moment feel the genuine 
 sense of permanent security, unless we could contemplate 
 without emotion the rapid progress of the arms and principles 
 of France in the territories of our allies, unless we could 
 behold without anxiety the rapid approaches of the same 
 danger threatening the British dominions, unless we could 
 sit at ease with the axe suspended over our heads, and wait 
 with tranquillity of mind the moment when these formidable 
 enemies, after the extinction of every element of order and 
 regular government in their own country, after the subjuga- 
 tion of every foreign power whose allegiance might assist us 
 in our last struggles, strengthened by additional sources, 
 animated by the prospect of new plunder, and flushed with 
 the triumphant success of their prosperous crimes, should 
 turn their whole force against the British monarchy, and 
 complete their victory over the interests of civil society by 
 the fmal destruction of that fair fabric of government under 
 which these happy kingdoms have so long enjoyed the in- 
 separable advantages of substantial liberty, settled order, and 
 established law. We cannot have forgotten that before the 
 
1794 BOARD OF CONTROL. 103 
 
 French had declared war against us, we had seen in their 
 conduct views of aggrandisement, projects of ambition, and 
 principles of fixed hostility against all established government, 
 and we had been convinced that, unless the foundation of 
 our complaints should be removed by a total alteration in 
 their system with respect to foreign nations, war on our part 
 would become at length inevitable. Before we can be justified 
 in relinquishing the principles by which our proceedings 
 have hitherto been governed, we shall require satisfactory 
 proof, either that the impressions which we had originally 
 conceived of the views of France were erroneous, or that 
 by the course of subsequent events the success of the war is 
 become desperate and impracticable. A variety of occurrences 
 since the commencement of the war, and many new and 
 striking proofs, have concurred to confirm the wisdom and 
 justice of our decision, not merely on general grounds, but 
 precisely on the very grounds on which it was originally 
 founded. In a letter to his constituents in defence of his 
 measures after he had fallen into disgrace, Brissot reveals 
 the whole secret and mystery of the French Eevolution, and 
 makes an open confession of the principles by which France 
 was directed in her intercourse with other powers, of the 
 means which she employed and of the ends which she 
 pursued. The views which are attributed to France previous 
 to the war were views of aggrandisement and ambition con- 
 nected with propagandism and aggression, principles in- 
 compatible with the existence of any regular Grovernment. 
 The particular acts by w^hich those views were manifested 
 were, First, the decree of November 19,* in which France 
 made, according to her own language, a grant of universal 
 fraternity and assistance ; and ordered her generals every- 
 where to aid and abet those citizens who had suffered, or 
 plight suffer hereafter, in the cause of what she called liberty. 
 
 1 17i)2. 
 
104 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 Her sense of liberty as applied to England was shown by the 
 reception of seditious and treasonable addresses, and by the 
 speeches of the President of the National Convention, ex- 
 pressing his wish for the auspicious institution of a British 
 Convention, founded, as such an institution must have been, 
 upon the destruction of every branch of our happy constitu- 
 tion. Secondly, the conduct of France in incorporating the 
 territories of other powers with her own, under colour of 
 voluntary acts of union pretended to have been freely voted 
 by the people ; particularly in the cases of Savoy and the 
 Netherlands, of both which countries France had assumed the 
 sovereignty. Thirdly, the opening of the Scheldt in direct 
 violation of the most solemn treaties guaranteed by France 
 herself. And lastly, by her general designs of hostility against 
 Holland. We were told by Robespierre that a part of the 
 general scheme of Brissot and his associates was to free and 
 arm all the negroes in the French colonies in the West 
 Indies. The Grirondin, instead of attempting to refute this 
 charge, takes merit to himself for the ingenuity and sim- 
 plicity of the invention; that by the simple operation of 
 purifying the colonial system of the French islands, he would 
 have accomplished the destruction of all the British colonies 
 in the West Indies. 
 
 ' A Revolutionary Grovernment ! a Government which, for 
 the ordinary administration of affairs, resorts to those means 
 of violence and outrage which had hitherto been considered, 
 even in France, as being exclusively appropriated to the 
 laudable and sacred purpose of subverting all lawful and 
 regular authority. The sense of the epithet Revolutionary, 
 which was so lavishly applied by the Convention to every part 
 of this new system, required some explanation. An extract 
 from the proceedings of the National Convention will serve 
 to exemplify the manner in which that singular phrase is 
 understood and admired by the most unquestionable autho- 
 
1794 BOARD OF CONTROL. 105 
 
 rity in the series of revolutions. M. Barrere makes a report 
 respecting the situation of the Eepublic in the month of 
 December ; he reads a variety of despatches from the 
 national commissioners in various parts of the Eepublic, and 
 at length he produces a letter from Carrier, one of the com- 
 missioners of the Convention, dated Nantes, December 10. 
 This letter, after giving an account of a successful attack 
 upon the Royalists, concludes with the following remark- 
 able words : " This event has been followed by another, 
 which has however nothing new in its nature. Fifty-eight 
 individuals, known by the names of refractory priests, 
 arrived at Nantes from Angers. They were shut up in a 
 barge on the river Loire, and last night they were all sunk 
 to the bottom of that river. What a revolutionary torrent 
 is the Loire ! " You expect to hear, perhaps, that the dis- 
 gusting relation of this inhuman action raised some emotions 
 of horror, if not of compassion, in the audience ; you expect 
 to hear that the Convention manifested its resentment at 
 this abuse of the revolutionary language ; but does any 
 symptom of such sentiments appear ? No ! after having 
 listened to this interesting report, the Convention votes the 
 following resolution : " The National Convention, highly 
 satisfied with the report of Barrere, orders it to be printed, 
 inserted in the votes, and sent to all the armies." Here you 
 learn the full force and energy of their new phraseology. 
 The Loire is a revolutionary torrent because it has been 
 found a useful and expeditious instrument of massacre; be- 
 cause it has destroyed by a sudden and violent death fifty- 
 eight men, against whom no crime was alleged but the 
 venerable character of their sacred functions and the faithful 
 adherence to the principles of their religion. But this 
 event is truly said to have nothing new in its nature ; I dwell 
 upon it for the application of the phrase, not for the singu- 
 larity of the fact. Every proceeding since the commence- 
 
106 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 ment of the troubles in France which has been dignified by 
 the title of revolutionary is marked with similar characters 
 of violence or blood. 
 
 ' Equally anomalous and irrational was their system of 
 finance. A letter is read in the Convention from Fouche, in 
 which you may perceive the first symptoms of a growing 
 indignation against gold and silver, which he says, " has 
 been the cause of all the calamities of the Kepublic. I know 
 not by what weak compliance those metals are still suffered 
 to remain in the hands of suspected persons ; let us degrade 
 and vilify gold and silver ; let us fling these deities of 
 monarchy in the dirt, and establish the worship of the 
 austere virtues of a Eepublic. I send you seventeen chests 
 filled with gold, silver, and plate of all sorts, the spoil of 
 churches and castles ; you will see with peculiar pleasure two 
 beautiful croziers and a ducal coronet of silver gilt." This 
 ingenious idea of vilifying and degrading valuable effects by 
 seizing th"fem for the use of the Republic was not lost upon 
 the French Minister of Finance. A few days after the 
 receipt of this letter a citizen appeared at the bar, and desired 
 to be permitted to exchange certain pieces of gold and silver 
 bearing the image of the tyrant for Republican paper. This 
 patriotic and disinterested offer, as one may imagine, was 
 gladly accepted by the Convention ; but upon a motion 
 being made that honourable mention of this transaction 
 should be inserted in the votes, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer rose with the utmost indignation to oppose so 
 monstrous a proposition; and delivered a most eloquent 
 and vehement invective against gold and silver. 
 
 ' Far worse than this folly was the frenzy against every 
 species of religion. In the month of October the Archbishop 
 of Paris enters the Convention, accompanied by a solemn 
 procession of his vicars and by several curates of Paris. He 
 makes a speech in which he renounces the priesthood in his 
 
1794 BOARD OF CONTROL, 107 
 
 own name and in the name of all bis attendants, and declares 
 that he does it because he is convinced that no national 
 worship should be tolerated excepting the worship of Liberty 
 and Equality. Julien, of Toulouse, a member of the Conven- 
 tion and a member of the Protestant Church, says : " For 
 twenty years I have exercised the functions of a Protestant 
 minister : I declare that I renounce them for ever. In every 
 religion there is more or less quackery. It is glorious to be 
 able to make this declaration under the auspices of reason, 
 of philosophy, and of that sublime constitution which has 
 already overturned the errors of superstition and monarchy 
 in France, and which now prepares a similar fate for all 
 foreign tyrannies. I declare that I will no longer enter into 
 any other temple than the sanctuary of the laws ; that I 
 will acknowledge no other God than Liberty, no other 
 worship than that of my country, no other gospel than the 
 Republican Constitution. Such is my profession of moral 
 and political faith. Dumont, one of the national commis- 
 sioners, announces to the Convention that, in order to destroy 
 fanaticism, he arrests all priests who celebrate religious 
 ceremonies on Sundays, and that he has made several 
 captures of these infamous bigots. The municipality of 
 Paris decreed that all churches and temples of religious 
 worship of whatever denomination, should be instantly shut. 
 The cathedral church of Notre-Dame, and all the parish 
 churches were shut up for some time until they could be 
 regenerated and purified from every taint of Christianity.' 
 He thus concluded : ' All the circumstances of your situa- 
 tion are now before you. You are now to make your option ; 
 you are now to decide whether it best becomes the dignity, the 
 wisdom, and the spirit of a great nation to rely for existence 
 on the arbitrary will of a restless and implacable enemy or 
 on her own sword ; you are now to decide whether you will 
 entrust to the valour and skill of British fleets and British 
 
108 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 armies — to the approved faith an 1 united strength of your 
 numerous and powerful allies — the defence of the limited 
 monarchy of these realms, of the constitution of Parliament, 
 of all the established ranks and orders of society among us, 
 of the sacred rights of property, and of this whole frame of 
 our laws, our liberty, and our religion ; or whether you will 
 deliver over the guardianship of all these blessings to the 
 justice of Cambon the plunderer of the Netherlands, to the 
 moderation of Danton, to the religion of Kobespierre, to the 
 friendship of Barrere, or finally, to whatever may be the 
 accidental caprice of any new band of malefactors, who in 
 the last convulsions of their exhausted country, may be 
 destined to drag the present tyrants to their own scaffolds, to 
 seize their lawless power, to emulate the depravity of their 
 example, and to rival the enormity of their crimes.' 
 
 A strange episode in the family history illustrates the 
 perils and perplexities of the time. Lady Anne Wesley who 
 married the Hon. Henry Fitzroy in 1790, had accompanied 
 him to Portugal, whither he had been ordered by his phy- 
 sicians. On hearing of his death in March 1794, her 
 youngest brother Henry, who was much attached to her, 
 repaired to Lisbon. When returning home the vessel was 
 seized by a French privateer and taken into Brest. On the 
 disclosure of their rank Mr. Wesley and his sister were 
 consigned to more than ordinarily strict surveillance in 
 the interior with other detenues, A worse fate had nearly 
 overtaken them. The Committee of Public Safety, then at 
 the height of its sanguinary power, was reminded of the 
 recent denunciation of its principles and practices by Morn- 
 ington in the House of Commons. So rare an opportunity of 
 vengeance was too tempting to be neglected, and without 
 trial or inquiry Mr. Wesley and his sister were consigned to 
 the scaffold. Their names actually stood upon the list for 
 the next holocaust in July, when happily for them, on the 
 
1794 BOARD OF CONTROL. 109 
 
 eve of their impending doom, Eobespierre fell, and with 
 many others they partook of the unexpected reprieve. One 
 may easily imagine the misery of suspense in which their 
 family in England lay during their imprisonment. Months 
 rolled away without their liberation. From her captivity 
 Lady Anne wrote to her brother in July, saying they 
 were well treated and in good health ; but he saw no 
 prospect at the time of their being set at liberty.^ It was 
 not until the end of autumn that means were found of 
 effecting their exchange; and Lady Mornington who now 
 resided permanently in London, had the happiness of again 
 embracing the beloved daughter who had been lost and 
 was found. By her subsequent marriage with Sir Culling 
 Smith she became the mother of the Duchess of Beaufort 
 and Lady Westmoreland. 
 
 The Premier did not, however, see his way as yet to give 
 him the promotion he coveted, and he imparted once more 
 his chagrin to his friend in the Chair. ' I am very much 
 afraid, from a variety of circumstances, that Pitt has no idea 
 of altering my situation this year. I cannot tell you how 
 much I am mortified at that and other symptoms, not of 
 unkindness but of (what perhaps I deserve) decided pre- 
 ference for others. I have serious thoughts of relinquishing 
 the whole pursuit and becoming a spectator (not a very in- 
 different one, as you may believe, either to the success of the 
 war or to Pitt's interest or honour), but I cannot bear to 
 creep on in my present position.' Soon after he wrote in a 
 different spirit. ' Before leaving town Pitt sent for me, and 
 told me that in settling the treaty (of Coalition) he had posi- 
 tively stipulated that I should have the next office (to be 
 held with the Privy Council) which should become vacant ; 
 and he further informed me that the Duke of Portland 
 entered very readily into this arrangement, and said it was 
 * Mornington to the Speaker, July, 1794. 
 
110 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1794 
 
 but reasonable that I should stand first for such a situation. 
 This is, I own, more than I expected, seeing myself wholly 
 passed over in the late changes, and having received no ex- 
 planation on the subject. I am now satisfied that I was not 
 entirely out of Pitt's mind, which was my principal appre- 
 hension.' 1 
 
 Under a chief like Dundas, who was a cormorant of work, 
 and an ever-ready debater, there was indeed little chance of 
 distinction. Meetings of the Board were infrequent; and 
 for the most part so entirely limited to giving formal sanction 
 to measures previously decided on, that there was little in- 
 ducement to attend : and when a Junior Commissioner was 
 absent, he was hardly missed. In 1794 Mornington's name 
 is recorded in the minutes as having attended but five times ; 
 the next year on as few occasions ; and in 1796 but once. 
 
 » To the Speaker, 27th July, 1794. 
 
Ill 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 
 1795-7. 
 
 Outbreaks of the black population in the West Indies, 
 incited by French agents from St. Domingo, scared timid 
 friends of emancipation ; but Wilberforce gave notice that 
 early in the session of 1796 he would renew his motion for 
 the abolition of the African trade. That year had been 
 agreed to, even by its defenders in Parliament four years 
 before, as the last of its duration ; and to rekindle the hopes 
 excited by the promise, ' Mornington agreed to write a 
 pamphlet without his name, Pitt being friendly just then.' ^ 
 
 On November 4, 1795, a Royal Proclamation appeared 
 warning the peaceable against attending seditious meetings ; 
 and a few days after Pitt brought in a Bill to suppress 
 assemblies tending to endanger the public peace. On the 
 second reading, November 17, a long and animated debate 
 arose. Mornington began his speech by asking three 
 questions : — 
 
 1. Did there exist an evil of magnitude sufficient to call 
 for some remedy ? 
 
 2. Was there power in the law as it stood, adequate to 
 meet the evil ? 
 
 3. Was the Bill competent to meet the evil, or did it 
 exceed the degree of power necessary for that purpose ? 
 
 ' Wilberforce' t Diary j 19th December, 1795. 
 
112 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1796 
 
 At the close of the previous session the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act was repealed, whereupon the Correspond- 
 ing Society and Friends of Liberty renewed their dissemination 
 of revolutionary pamphlets, and a monster meeting was held 
 at Copenhagen Fields to denounce the Throne, the Church, 
 and the Aristocracy : to petition for universal suffrage, 
 annual elections, and equal division of landed property. 
 Tyrannicide as the speediest means of ridding the world of 
 evil kings, bishops, and ministers was a favourite theme of 
 the revolutionary propaganda, and the scarcity of bread was 
 logically shown to be ascribable not to bad weather, but 
 to parliamentary corruption. In a cheap tract, meant for 
 popular instruction in the wrongs and duties of the time, 
 and sold at the printer's at which the petitions for Reform lay 
 for signature, the guillotine was defined as ' an instrument 
 of rare invention ; for as it is the custom to decapitate and 
 not hang kings, it is proper to have this instrument ready to 
 make death easy to them, supposing a necessity of cutting them 
 off.' Ankerstroem and Damien were held up to the reverence 
 of mankind. ' The publisher was one of those named to the 
 public by the societies in a list of patriotic printers. (" Name, 
 name," from all parts of the House.) Citizen Lee, of Copen- 
 hagen Street,' said the Earl. 'This is not even English 
 treason, it is all French. Does it not sound more like a 
 bloody page of Marat, or the Sanguinary code of Eobespierre, 
 than the production of an Englishman ? Two other publica- 
 tions, he happened to know, were likewise sold by the same 
 bookseller, entitled " King-killing " and the " Reign of 
 George the Last." Could there be any doubt as to the aim 
 and tendency of such publications, or that it was the duty of 
 Parliament to put a stop to them ? He believed the bulk 
 of the people were loyal and attached to the constitution ; 
 but if men were hpalthy and strong, was that a reason we 
 should suffer the indiscriminate sale of food that was poison?^ 
 
1796 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 113 
 
 At the close of his speech, throughout which he seemed 
 weak and nervous,^ he apologised to the House for not enter- 
 ing into the legal necessity for exceptional legislation, with 
 which he would leave others to deal. Sheridan followed, 
 quizzing ' the noble lord whom they had seen two years 
 before, with the same placid countenance and sonorous voice, 
 in the same attitude, leaning gracefully upon the table, and 
 giving an account, from shreds and patches of Brissot, that 
 the French Republic would last but a few months longer. 
 Unfortunately for the credit of the noble lord, not one word 
 of all his predictions had come to pass ; and he believed he 
 was as right in his later prophecies as he had been before* 
 He knew not the heart and disposition of the people, or he 
 would not have accused them of susceptibility to such foolish 
 and mischievous suggestions. But looking about for evi- 
 dence of dangerous plots, and finding none, he bethought 
 him of turning up the dirt of old bookshops and the rubbish 
 of bookstalls to make out symptoms of treason. If the 
 miserable scraps he had read were such, why did not the 
 Attorney Greneral prosecute the traitors ? if not, why pass a 
 Bill to denude the nation of its most valued privilege ? ' 
 
 By 213 to 43 the Bill was read a second time. 
 
 How early his hopes of promotion turned towards the East 
 is uncertain. Subordinate office, with its irksome yoke of 
 routine, certainty of small pay, and tantalising liability to be 
 asked every now and then for an opinion, which, put aside for 
 the moment, was often without acknowledgment subsequently 
 taken, had lost its charm. He had studied assiduously in 
 his department, though a zealot in the pursuit of pleasure. 
 He always worked perseveringly and patiently ; and in ac- 
 quiring knowledge or elaborating the exposition of what he 
 had acquired, no time or toil was grudged by him. Still he 
 
 ' Wilherforce's Diary. < Poor Mornington nervous, and Sheridan 
 brutal.' 
 
114 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1796 
 
 must have had enough of apprenticeship, and must have 
 longed for the enjoyment of self-assertion and the sense of 
 mastery. It is easier for a man born in the purple, even 
 though he be poor and without high connections, to let a 
 minister know what he wishes to be offered, than it is for 
 an outsider, who the minister thinks should be grateful for 
 having been admitted within the outer circle of adminis- 
 tration. Mornington was from the first peculiarly fortunate 
 in this respect ; and through the Grrenvilles he had always 
 access to the unofficial ear of power. Pitt liked him ; liked 
 him much ; liked him very much ; but during the war his 
 mind became more and more absorbed with its anxieties 
 and oppressed with its difficulties ; and in the face of con- 
 tinued failure abroad and hardly repressible disaffection 
 at home, he might well ponder conscientiously the specific 
 and comparative fitness of every candidate for important 
 employment, and put aside claims that, however fair, might 
 wait. Meanwhile, Arthur Wellesley (for reasons which need 
 not be dwelt on here) asked leave to exchange from his 
 regiment in Ireland to another serving in India, and his 
 brother who had not much else to give him, furnished him 
 with a letter of introduction from Lord Cornwallis to his 
 successor Sir John Shore, which might help him in that 
 distant field to make his way. ' Colonel Wellesley,' he 
 wrote, ' is a sensible man and a good officer, who will no 
 doubt conduct himself in a manner to meet yom* Excellency's 
 approbation.' ^ And this was the planting out of the sapling 
 
 which was destined to outgrow all other t^ees of the forest, 
 
 • 
 and to spread its arms till princes and potentates of every 
 
 degree were glad to shelter underneath its shade. Sir John, 
 
 who had no stomach for warfare but liked to be civil to men 
 
 of consequence at home, received the new comer kindly, and 
 
 found occupation for him in the Presidency of Madras. In 
 
 » lOth June, 1796. 
 
1796 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 115 
 
 compliance with his brother's request he sent him his im- 
 pressions of things around him, and his early letters bear 
 the same stamp of colourless accuracy and calm good sense 
 which characterised the mass of his subsequent correspond- 
 ence. Unlike the official and semi-official letters to the 
 Board of Control, they noted with a quiet photographic 
 fidelity how the system of government under the Company 
 looked and languished. They were confirmation from a 
 fresh and unsophisticated view of much that Mornington, 
 from his three years' familiarity with the weakness and 
 rottenness of the system, was already too well prepared to 
 believe. He valued them in this respect as confirmatory 
 evidence, whose trustworthiness so far as it went (and it 
 went not an inch beyond the range of personal observation), 
 there was no room to doubt. But he valued them for 
 another and quite a different reason, of more consequence to 
 the world's history. To his fraternal partiality they proved 
 that the boy he had sent to school, and the ensign he had got 
 named a viceregal aide-de-camp, and the subaltern whose 
 thoughtless debts he had not always chosen to pay, was at 
 five-and-twenty going to turn out no ordinary man. If he 
 should himself go to the East it would make a difference, 
 his being there : and a still greater difference to Arthur, his 
 being there. 
 
 In 1796 he found it convenient to change his nominal 
 constituency. In a tent under an old tree which marked 
 the boundary of what had once been the site of Old Sarum, 
 ' he was formally proposed with Mr. Greorge Hardinge, as a fit 
 and proper person to represent the former village, of which 
 all the houses had long since disappeared. Two clergymen, 
 three farmers, and Lord Camelford's bailiff composed the 
 unanimous assembly ; and three times a demand was made 
 whether anyone had a rival candidate to propose. No 
 response being made, the former member and the Eaii were 
 
 I 2 
 
116 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1796 
 
 declared duly elected to serve in the Commons of Great 
 Britain ; and a formal letter from the returning officer was 
 despatched, sealed with a plenitude of wax, to acquaint those 
 favoured burgesses with a proof thus given of the popular 
 confidence. It must not be supposed that because the voters 
 were select and the deliberation brief, the legislative honours 
 so coveted cost nothing. They had in point of fact, a price 
 quoted in the member market, and it was subject to little 
 fluctuation ; and such confidence subsisted between all the 
 parties concerned that the money was often paid to the 
 owner of the constituency before the object of their choice 
 had even been mentioned to them. Mornington sat for 
 Old Sarum till October 1797, when he was created Baron 
 Wellesley in the peerage of England, when his place was 
 taken by Charles W. W. Wynne. Some years later Lord 
 Caledon purchased from Lord Camelford the seats and the 
 farms of Old Sarum for 60,000?., the net proceeds being 
 700?. a year in rent; and the members of the family of 
 Alexander occupied the seats until the storm of 1832 blew 
 down the tent and the representation, never more to be set 
 up again. 
 
 The condition of afiairs at home and abroad in 1796 was 
 overcast with the deepest gloom. Bonaparte drove the 
 Austrians everywhere before him in Northern Italy ; and al- 
 though Jourdan and Moreau were forced to recross the Ehine, 
 the King of Prussia, deaf to all expostulation from his 
 allies, concluded a convention with the French Directory by 
 which he agreed to yield the left bank of that river. The 
 Court of Naples, terrified at the ill-fortune of Austria, sued 
 for peace ; and Spain, under the influence of Grodoy, not 
 only seceded from the grand alliance, but suddenly declared 
 war. In the new Parliament Opposition failed to recover any / 
 of the great constituencies it had lost, and the ministerial 
 phalanx was numerous and compact as ever. But the public 
 
 
1796 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 117 
 
 heart was sore with the dismal reiteration of reverses and 
 the unrelaxed pressure of taxation. The debt had reached 
 400,000,000/. — a sum unparalleled and appalling when 
 measured by the yearly earnings of the nation. In January 
 the funds were as low as sixty-seven, and in September they 
 touched fifty-three. 
 
 Eumours of invasion, for a time disregarded, waxed 
 louder during the summer of 1796, and Lord Camden grew 
 alarmed for the safety of Ireland, where popular despair of 
 reform and emancipation rendered too easy the promptings 
 of sedition. The confederacy organised by Wolfe Tone was 
 still immature, but it was avowed and notorious everywhere ; 
 and that irrepressible revolutionist visited Paris to concert 
 with Clarke and Carnot the expedition eventually led by 
 Hoche. 
 
 The remoter coasts of the west and south of Ireland, 
 full of numerous creeks and bays, and for the most part 
 difficult of access from the capital, offered facilities for 
 attack more easily forgotten at Holwood or Bulstrode than 
 at the Phoenix Park. The Viceroy wrote privately to 
 Mornington that he thought Ireland neglected ; and his 
 correspondent thought so too, though he ' would not vex 
 his chief at the Treasury at such a moment by telling him 
 so;' he preferred disclosing his apprehensions to the Speaker. 
 ' Without being prejudiced by the deep stake he had in the 
 safety of Ireland, he thought he might say that to neglect 
 the defence of that country was to ensure the conquest of 
 this, with all its attendant horrors of revolution and pillage. 
 A revolution in Ireland would be the infallible consequence 
 of the landing of even a small French force in that country ; 
 and anyone might judge what sort of a neighbour Ireland 
 would become. His gloomy apprehensions were the offspring 
 of serious and deliberate reflection ; and his great fear was 
 a blow in Ireland before sufficient preparation bad been 
 
118 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1796- 
 
 made for our defence in that most vulnerable and mortal 
 part.'^ 
 
 Most of their mutual friends shared these fears ; Pitt 
 alone was or seemed to be, undaunted by the dangers that 
 encompassed them. On the same day that Mornington 
 urged so despondingly, the Premier wrote from Weymouth,^ 
 whither he had travelled at some inconvenience to see the 
 King, full of elation at Lord Chatham's being raised to the 
 Presidency of the Council, and at obtaining the reluctant 
 assent of Greorge III. to making overtures of peace. Lord 
 Malmesbury was, however, able to accomplish nothing by 
 the proposed negotiation ; and a new loan at 5 per cent., 
 of 18,000,000^., with additional taxes of 2,000,000^. a year, 
 formed the principal items of the Budget laid before the 
 new Parliament.^ 
 
 Mornington did not omit however to remind his friend 
 the Speaker of his own claims and disappointments. He 
 thought that, as the Privy Seal must now be given away, he 
 might have once more a chance of promotion. Tired of the 
 perfunctory duties of a Junior Commissioner for India, he 
 wrote to Pitt, hoping that an opportunity of advancement 
 might soon occur ; that his wish would be to go to the 
 Upper House, but he did not press the point, thinking it 
 did not become him to enter into any detail with him in 
 that stage of the business. He was well persuaded that 
 should any occasion offer he would have the assistance of 
 Addington ; but he relied so much upon Pitt as to think the 
 application of other friends unnecessary.'^ 
 
 At the close of 1796 Malmesbury was desired by M. Dela 
 Croix to quit Paris within forty-eight hours ; but was told that 
 he might continue negotiations by letter. The Cabinet were 
 
 ^ Letter to the Speaker, 4th September, 1796. 
 
 2 Stanhope's Ufe of Pitt, vol. ii. 381. » October 1796. 
 
 * To the Speaker, 4th September, 1796. 
 
-1797 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 119 
 
 unanimous in resenting such an affront, and the address alter 
 Christmas, in reply to a message from the Crown, adopting 
 and approving their policy, was carried by 212 to 37 votes. 
 Though strong in St. Stephen's, Government was weak in 
 the country, and public credit sank from day to day. 
 It rained incessantly petitions against the War ; and many 
 thought the end drew nigh when Greorge III. came from 
 Windsor to hold a Council upon Sunday, for an Order to 
 suspend Cash Payments. 
 
 If Pitt was not the most humane of ministers he was the 
 easiest and best of masters^ He liked to make those around 
 him happy ; and to those he trusted he was never tired of 
 bringing gifts and gold, and the frankincense of praise, 
 exquisite and precious when conferred by him. His servants 
 robbed him now and then because they could not resist the 
 temptation of never being questioned, but they doated on 
 him all the same ; sat up for him night after night without 
 grumbling, and would have fought for him in the streets 
 had he been insulted. His confidants, with perhaps, two 
 exceptions, never wavered in their loyalty. It was not 
 concession to superiority of intellect ; it was devotion to the 
 man, so gentle, lenient, blind to errors, self-risking in defence, 
 forgiving even of neglect ; yet incapable of sympathy in 
 the varied feelings and emotions that made up the fever of 
 their lives. Love he had but one, but to that one his whole 
 existence from boyhood, when he stood beside his father's 
 gouty chair, and heard his tragic boast of overruling Crown 
 and Cabinet, and of holding Christendom at bay, to the day 
 when three great Whig peers, after ten years' hopeless op- 
 position, had consented to take office under him ; and from 
 that day on to the end — but one passion stirred the current 
 of his blood with hope, or hate, or joy. Consistent or in- 
 consistent, baffled or triumphant, securing for his country 
 the blessings of industry and peace, or exacting reluctantly 
 
120 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1797 
 
 from its impoverishment the resources for a war his wisdom 
 loathed, the all-absorbing aim and purpose of his being was 
 to rule : and for this he knew instruments pliant and attached 
 to be indispensable. No commonplace regard for family 
 ties can account for the number of great offices conferred 
 on near relatives. He made his cousin Lord Buckingham 
 Viceroy of Ireland, and on his resignation asked for him 
 a dukedom. In a cabinet of nine there sat already his 
 brother Chatham and his cousin William Grrenville ; and he 
 now desired that Edward Eliot, an equally near relation, 
 should be Grovernor General of India. Dundas, who could 
 refuse him nothing, forwarded the recommendation to 
 Leadenhall Street, and the Directors acquiesced. Eliot was 
 in private a popular man, in public a man without achieve- 
 ments or pretensions. But he was facile, intelligent, honour- 
 able, and devoted to his overruling kinsman; and nobody 
 seems to have questioned the appointment. Opposition had 
 made away with most of its means of influence for good or 
 evil ; and the public were too much occupied with the sus- 
 pension of cash payments,^ threats of invasion, suits against 
 the Press, United Irish plots, and mutiny at the Nore, to ask 
 or care who was to go to India. Eliot unexpectedly fell ill, 
 and was told by his physicians that he must not think of 
 serious work or a tropical climate : whereupon Lord Corn- 
 wallis, to his surprise, was asked a second time to undertake 
 the onerous charge. No objection was made on the part of 
 the Company, and the question remained, who should go to 
 Madras ? 
 
 Lord Hobart, not without some persuasion, had accepted 
 the Government of that Presidency with an understanding, 
 if not a promise, of the reversion of Bengal. He took little 
 trouble to conceal his impatience at being obliged to act in 
 subordination to the son of a supercargo — a man who avowed 
 ^ 26tli February, 1797. 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 121 
 
 in public and private his sense of obligation and anxious de- 
 sire to repair the original sins of invasion and oppression by 
 doing the most careful justice to the native races. His 
 demeanour to the Eajah of Travancore and the Nawab of 
 Arcot drew from the Grovernor Greneral at first remonstrance 
 and at last rebuke, and their official quarrel so increased in 
 bitterness that at the beginning of 1796 he wrote home 
 saying he wished to be relieved of his government if Sir 
 John Shore retained the superior post for which he was 
 tired of waiting. Dundas had as little respect for his 
 arrogant and fretful explosions of temper as for Shore's 
 tenderness for native feelings or his sedulous avoidance of 
 all pretexts for war ; and he referred confidentially their 
 respective complaints to the Master General of the Ordnance, 
 to whom likewise the offended Nawab of the Carnatic ad- 
 dressed a touching appeal for protection and justice. Bred 
 a soldier and proud of his conquests in Mysore, Corn- 
 wallis had little sympathy with theories of total abstinence 
 from warfare ; but as he subsequently proved, all his 
 tendencies were towards forbearance, leniency, and peace. 
 He thought however, that to maintain our position in the 
 midst of rivals so numerous and formidable as then existed 
 in Southern Asia, it was above all things necessary to have 
 unity in council and firmness in action : and though sin- 
 cerely averse from being personally involved again in Oriental 
 troubles, he could not recommend the retention in office of 
 either disputant. 
 
 Shore had evinced more regard for the prejudices and 
 claims of the Indian army than deference for the decrees of 
 the Horse Guards ; and he had taken upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of suspending a brevet in June 1796 which would have 
 put several officers of the line over the heads of their seniors 
 in the native regiments. This, and his difference with Lord 
 Hobart, determined Dundas to recall both, and to ask Lord 
 
122 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. ' 1797 
 
 Cornwallis to undertake a second time the arduous duty of 
 presiding over English affairs in the East. He was sworn 
 into office February 1, 1797; and applied himself at once to 
 arbitrate between the conflicting military claims, as repre- 
 sented in England by the Court of Directors, who supported 
 the Bengal army, and the Board of Control, who sustained 
 the pretensions of the King's troops. By his temper and 
 judgment he led them to agree to terms of accommodation 
 which might, he thought, reprieve him from the necessity of 
 immediate departure on a mission, at his time of life pecu- 
 liarly unwelcome. Momington had by diligence in his office 
 at the Board of Control, and by thoughtful study of the 
 history of our acquisitions in the East during the forty years 
 that had elapsed since the battle of Plassy, qualified himself 
 in a certain degree for administrative trust. Early in March 
 Dundas offered him the government of Madras, which his 
 first impulse was to accept without reserve. But his pride 
 after some reflection whispered that he ought not to take 
 Lord Hobart's place upon terms inferior to those on which 
 he had held it. He consulted confidentially Lord Bucking- 
 ham, who was the friend of both ; and some weeks elapsed 
 before he came to any decision.^ 
 
 He hesitated, as he declared, to take the situation until 
 assured that Hobart should have a pension and peerage during 
 his father's lifetime to compensate him for the disappointment 
 of his anticipations of further advancement in the East. But 
 on this being settled to the satisfaction of Lord Guilford 
 and other friends, Mornington agreed to take the subordinate 
 post when vacant, Dundas promising him the reversion of 
 the higher Presidency. About the middle of April he 
 finally accepted the government of Madras, with the pro- 
 visional succession to that of Bengal. His appointment not 
 
 ^ To the Marquess of Buckingham, from Hertford Street, 20th April, 
 1797. 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND IVALMER. 123 
 
 having been formally made by the Court of Directors he 
 could not yet acknowledge his destination to India. The 
 delays which had retarded the conclusion of this arrange- 
 ment had rendered it impossible for him to embark with 
 Lord Cornwallis, with whom however he was in habits of 
 the most confidential intercourse from day to day, and 
 with whom he wished to pass some weeks in Bengal before 
 the termination of his government. His own departure 
 would probably not take place before July or August. 
 Finding that the office of Private ' Civil Secretary would be 
 well worth his brother Henry's acceptance, he resolved to take 
 him with him. His intention was to take no other person 
 besides servants, and as a rule to avoid all engagements in 
 Europe, in order to guard himself against any temptation to 
 an irregular distribution of patronage. ' In this resolution, 
 which he formed very early, on principles which a long 
 attention to the affairs of India had enabled him to make 
 with some degree of confidence, he was strongly confirmed 
 by his upright and experienced friend.' ^ 
 
 Discontent at this time had become epidemic ; and every 
 class and order of men seemed to be distressed and demoralised 
 by its influence. Towards the end of April reports reached 
 the Admiralty of cabals among the seamen in the Home 
 Fleet, desultory and undefined, but of an unwonted de- 
 scription. Officialism, always incredulous of the gravity 
 of irregular questionings of its authority, smiled, sneered, 
 frowned, swore profanely, wrote one or two impatient letters 
 to Vice-Admirals in command, but upon the whole did not 
 think it could signify, and went to dinner. Day by day 
 gusts of — well, not exactly of mutiny, but something very 
 like the beginning of it — were stated to prevail at Ports- 
 mouth ; and Cornwallis who was resorted to continually as a 
 friend in need ready for all work, consented to pay a visit 
 
 ' lUd. 
 
124 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1797 
 
 of observation and enquiry to the malcontent squadron. 
 So little however was the matter thought to wear a serious 
 aspect, that Dundas continued without interruption to ply 
 him with minute interrogatories and verbose suggestions 
 about military reorganisation in Bengal which at last put him 
 fairly out of temper. While at Portsmouth he wrote, im- 
 patient at being urged to hasten his departure for Calcutta 
 or to spend time over details of Indian legislation, ' unless 
 the business of the fleet can be speedily adjusted, a few days 
 may place a French army in Ireland : is this a time to be 
 occupied about speculative arrangements of the Indian 
 army?'^ Already Pitt began to feel reluctance to lose him 
 at such a crisis, and to wish that instead he would accept the 
 government of Ireland. On his declining. Lord Camden was 
 sounded as to whether he would object to one so much his 
 superior in service, talent, and rank being appointed to the 
 command in chief of the army there. ^ His letter to Corn- 
 wallis was generous and patriotic in the highest sense, ofiering 
 to make way for him as head of the Irish Executive, or, if 
 he refused, to hand him over without reserve all the powers 
 of his office relating to military affairs. He did not however 
 choose to be placed in such a position. Continually in- 
 creasing doubts and anxieties respecting Ireland, with un- 
 confessed misgivings as to the capacity of those entrusted 
 wath the local conduct of affairs, rendered the minister 
 more than ever unwilling to spare his veteran colleague, and 
 for some months longer he remained Master Greneral of the 
 Ordnance. 
 
 The fraction who still adhered in Parliament to Fox 
 despondingly agreed to vote once more for a motion in favour 
 of Keform to be proposed by Grey.^ But the spectacle of 
 democracy run to seed, resentment against social propagandism 
 
 » To General Ross, from Culford, 9th May, 1797. 
 
 ? 23rd May, 1797, from Dublin Castle. » 26th May, 1797. 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 125 
 
 at the point of the sword, and the revulsion of feeling caused 
 by the ribaldry of Paine and his disciples, had estranged from 
 the cause of progress many in all grades of the community, 
 on whom Burke's vaticinations and invectives had been spent 
 in vain. The debate was but the strophe and antistrophe of 
 denunciation and despair, the issue being palpable and the 
 last scene of the drama being come. Ninety-one votes for 
 enquiry into the state of the representation were overborne 
 by two hundred and fifty-six ; whereupon Fox and some 
 others, contrary to every principle of consistency, dignity, 
 and duty, announced their resolve no longer to attend the 
 House of Commons. Sheridan's mother wit and Fitzpatrick's 
 sense of expediency forbade their following their leader in 
 secession ; and for the next two years the disjected members 
 of the once powerful Liberal party were to be found, 
 some thinly studding the benches on the left hand of the 
 chair, others clustering round Windham and Gilbert Eliot 
 on the benches opposite, and the rest playing whist at 
 Brooks's or sauntering at St. Anne's Hill. A like lamentable 
 result of extravagance in the leaders and disruption among 
 the led was exhibited in the Irish Parliament, where Grrattan 
 and Ponsonby withdrew in womanish vexation at their 
 counsel not being heeded, and left the despairing populace 
 to follow the mad beckoniugs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
 Arthur O'Connor, and Napper Tandy. 
 
 Logically it was easy for Pitt to confute such folly, and 
 histrionically to treat it with magnanimous disdain. But at 
 heart he deplored everything that tended to shake popular 
 faith in existing institutions. He knew too well the rotten- 
 ness of much of the rigging, and he had sincerely striven to 
 overhaul and refit the ship, before it had come on to blow. 
 Anxiously he had resisted putting out to sea, and wistfully 
 he watched for opportunity to make for shore. 
 
 Cornwallis had not been easily induced again to think of 
 
126 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1797 
 
 service abroad, and it was only on the understanding that he 
 was not expected to remain longer than might be necessary 
 to compose certain administrative differences, that he had 
 agreed to go. It was midsummer before Mornington could, 
 even in confidence, say that he was about to depart for 
 Madras, upon the understanding ' that if Cornwallis did 
 not go to Bengal, he himself was to proceed direct to 
 Fort William.' ^ On July 26 at the levee he took leave 
 for Madras. 
 
 Malmesbury not long before had been sent to negotiate 
 for peace at Lille ; and his confidential correspondence shows 
 liow sick the Minister was of war. When hard terms were 
 offered, Pitt told the plenipotentiary that ' he must stifle 
 to the utmost every feeling of pride.' ^ Grrenville, with his 
 harder nature, would have answered saucily every boast 
 and broken off at every new pretension of the Directory, 
 but Pitt would not be piqued or provoked, and made him 
 leave the door ajar. He wanted peace for the country's sake 
 and for his own, for he was too wise not to know that — 
 
 In war itself war is no ultimate purpose. 
 The vast and sudden deeds of violence, 
 Adventures wild, and wonders of the moment, 
 These are not they, my son, that generate 
 The calm, the blissful, and the enduring mighty ! 
 
 Even when the Envoy's pliancy and patience were at length 
 worn out, and he had to return home, Pitt was willing to 
 entertain a clandestine offer of Barras to sell him peace for a 
 private sum of money ; — so willing as actually to commit 
 himself in writing to terms encouraging the strange expe- 
 dient ;^ and with the King's assent he undertook at any risk 
 
 » From Hertford Street, to Mr. Sullivan, 3rd July, 1797. 
 
 2 Colchester'' s Diary, i. 117. 
 
 3 From Holwood, to M. Barras, 23rd September, 1797. 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 127 
 
 of cavil or criticism, to give secretly 400,000^. to stay the 
 ruin of industry and staunch the effusion of blood. Nor 
 was he to be warped to wrong by the recollection of splendid 
 victories by sea or the confident hopes, soon to be justified, 
 of fresh triumphs, notwithstanding the late outbreak of in- 
 subordination before the mast. To estimate correctly his 
 mood at the period in question, and justly to appreciate his 
 foreign policy, all this must be weighed and remembered ; 
 it was pending the negotiations at Lille that, after consulting 
 Dundas, he suddenly relieved Mornington from all further 
 doubt and tantalisation by offering him the greatest executive 
 office under the Crown. Believing in his friend's devotion, 
 and still more in the power of informing him with his own 
 spirit, he delighted him with the announcement that the 
 days of his official apprenticeship were ended, and that he 
 was to be sent forth to do something more than play the 
 showy part of Satrap of "Hindostan. Here then at last 
 Fortune had ceased to jilt him, and had fallen into his 
 arms. The fair Hyacinthe was not easily made to understand 
 ' what for ' was the speechlessness of his delight. How could 
 he explain it to her ? How explain to the most matter-of- 
 fact Englishman, and how much less to the most fanciful of 
 Frenchwomen, that one brief flash of ministerial will seemed 
 to light back all his chequered and oft despondent way — 
 from early days with Newport at Dangan, or brother Arthur 
 getting into debt as an idle aide-de-camp in Dublin, — to 
 this golden hill-top of promise, power, and, more than all, 
 opportunity of fame ? 
 
 He spent the third week in September at Hoi wood, 
 whither Dundas came from Wimbledon to talk over Com- 
 pany's affairs and the means of curbing the influence of 
 French mercenaries in India. The peaceful and frugal 
 regime of Shore had lulled to rest the fretful craving of 
 Leadenhall Street for higher dividends; and it were not 
 
128 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1797 
 
 well to wake it up (so thought the jobbing President of the 
 India Board), by meddling in native squabbles. If Raymond 
 was at Hyderabad and Piron at Ougein, so much the worse 
 for Tippoo, and the better for us. Let them fight it out 
 among themselves by help of European condottieri, who 
 after all could never take root in the country, and who 
 would never cease to be looked on with jealousy by every 
 home-born soldier of the Nizam or Scindiah. But the son 
 of Chatham was a man who through the openings of Keston 
 woods saw visions, and in the autumn sundown dreamed en- 
 during dreams. With axe in hand as he stalked along, putting 
 his companion often out of breath, or rested upon some fallen 
 stem to shelter from the shower, he would paint to the ex- 
 citable imagination of Mornington how England's influence 
 must be expanded, if her sense of power was to be retrieved, 
 or her place in competition with her rivals was to be made 
 permanently great. For empire thrown away in the West 
 compensation could be sought only in the East. 
 
 In company with the brother of the Minister the Pro- 
 consul Elect returned to town, and he saw Hoi wood no more. 
 To his latest day he cherished the remembrance of the genial 
 and ennobling society he was there privileged to enjoy, and the 
 influence of which in maturing his capacity for rule and eleva- 
 ting his standard of statesmanship he never undervalued. 
 
 The remaining weeks of autumn were occupied with 
 preparations for departure. We have come to think of a 
 journey to India as little beyond a pleasure tour, and of a 
 residence of five years with a good salary and allowances as 
 an enviable piece of good fortune, unclouded by any sub- 
 stantial cause for misgiving or regret. A few days' travelling 
 by railway and a few weeks' by sea enable us to span one 
 continent and half another with little effort or fatigue. 
 Eighty years ago the ocean voyage, with fine weather and 
 without accident took five months ; and the ordinary course 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND WALMER. 129 
 
 of post between London and Calcutta was ten. To a 
 susceptible, nervous, impetuous temperament the contempla- 
 tion was more depressing than dignity and ambition would 
 avow. The severance of domestic habits and those of long- 
 standing intimacy tried him sore. If not constant, he was 
 passionately fond of the beautiful and bewitching woman 
 whom he had made his wife ; and to their children he was 
 tenderly attached. What if he should never look into her 
 eyes or smooth their curling locks again ? To take them 
 with him was not to be thought of; to bid them good-bye, 
 perhaps for life, perhaps for death, was hard. Inaudibly he 
 felt with Byron on his thirty-seventh birthday — 
 
 The hope, the fear, the jealous care, 
 
 The exalted portion of the pain 
 And power of love I cannot share ; 
 
 But wear the chain. 
 
 Wellesley was just thirty-seven, and like the poet sought to 
 win fame in action encompassed with peril, rather than mere 
 distinction or pre-eminence in the more commonplace com- 
 petition for celebrity at home. 
 
 Negotiations for peace had been languishing for some 
 time when they were abruptly brought to an end by the 
 changes consequent on the cowp d^etat of the 18th Fruc- 
 tidor. Lord Malmesbury was summarily desired to quit 
 Lille and seek more definite instructions at home ; and 
 Hoche, with Tone for his adjutant-general, was sent to 
 organise an expedition, consisting of thirty sail of the line, 
 with 20,000 men and 50,000 stand of arms on board, 
 intended for a descent upon the coast of Ireland. While 
 the English fleet lay in wait for them in the Downs, Admiral 
 Duncan and his chief officers were frequently the guests of 
 the First Minister at Walmer ; and there Mornington found 
 them when summoned to receive his final instructions from 
 Pitt and Dundas ere setting out for India. It was an occa- 
 sion never to be forgotten, and the excitement of which 
 
 K 
 
130 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, lyc^j 
 
 cannot easily be realised in ordinary times. The fate of the 
 world might well seem to be in their hands. The old 
 monarchies of Christendom, after a long and wasting 
 conflict, had succumbed ; and the minor States were paralysed 
 by fear. The Jacobin party was once more ascendant and over- 
 bearing in the councils of Eepublican France ; and England, 
 without an ally and heavy laden with debt and taxation, 
 stood at bay. A man of tougher frame, and nerves less finely 
 strung, might well have sunk in spirit at the prospect of 
 having in a few weeks to set out on a five months' voyage to 
 undertake the government of vast and valuable dependencies 
 recently won by the sword ; and certain to become intractable 
 at the faintest whisper of ill-fortune or defeat. 
 
 To a man like Mornington it was of more importance 
 than he was conscious of at the time that he should in such 
 circumstances have been brought into hourly contact and 
 intimate counsel with the able, shrewd, experienced head of 
 the department at home with whom confidentially he would 
 have to correspond ; with the dauntless commander on whose 
 skill and energy might any hour depend the life of the nation ; 
 and above all with the minister but for whose indomitable 
 persistency under difficulties and dangers, all other elements 
 of self-preservation would have crumbled down into sub- 
 mission. The calm and clear forethought of Dundas, the 
 unboastful but buoyant confidence of victory over any odds 
 of Duncan, the fervid faith of Pitt in the destiny of the 
 nation and in his own, wrought without deception or delusion 
 as a spell upon the sensitive and ambitious spirit of the | 
 Pro-consul about to be. Gazing at the look and listening 
 to the talk of three such men at such a juncture, every high 
 and noble aspiration quickened within him ; and emulation 
 that had theretofore been but a fitful sentiment, waxed 
 strong and resolute of purpose. To act his part in the 
 world-drama about to be played, with men like these for 
 colleagues and for judges generous and just, but undeceiv- 
 
1797 HOLWOOD AND VVALMER, 131 
 
 able and inexorable, was a stimulus and incentive of rare 
 intensity. By anticipation be began to feel that he too 
 would be reckoned among those who should help to shape 
 the condition of their time. They separated ; and within a 
 week all England thrilled with the news of Camperdown. 
 
 Amid preparations for departure he wrote to the Speaker, 
 full of exultation at his appointment and satisfaction 
 at having obtained the peerage 'which was to him an 
 invaluable object both public and private.' He dwelt with 
 much concern on Pitt's impaired health, but 'relied on 
 Farquhar's prescriptions and the air of Walmer for his restora- 
 tion.^ Surely the glorious and inestimable victory over the 
 Franco-Dutch must have been a powerful cordial.' 
 
 But scarce had the rejoicings ceased when tidings came 
 that peace was signed at Campo Formio on October 17, 
 between France and Austria, by which the Netherlands and 
 Ionian Isles were ceded to the victorious Kepublic. 
 
 On November 3 he was presented to the Chancellor and 
 took the oaths and his seat as a peer by the title of Baron 
 Wellesley ; yet, strange to say, nine years were destined to 
 elapse ere he again entered the chamber whose privileges he 
 had been so ambitious to share. 
 
 Among the emblems of idolatry he took from home was 
 a full-length likeness of his wife and two elder boys, painted 
 by Hoppner in his best manner,* and which adorned the chief 
 reception-room at Fort William during his residence there. 
 
 Alluding to his showy outfit the ' Morning Chronicle ' 
 observed : ' To such a degree is the frigate encumbered with 
 stores, carriages, and baggage, that should the rencontre of an 
 enemy make it necessary to prepare for action, Lord Morning- 
 ton will inevitably sufifer from clearage in the course of five 
 minutes a loss of at least 2,000Z.' 
 
 ' To the Speaker, 14th October, 1797. 
 ' Now in the possession of Lady Houlton. 
 K 2 
 
132 MAR(2UESS WELLESLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE VOYAGE OUT. 
 1798. 
 
 Three months of noteless water-way, and with scarce anyone 
 capable of affording him sympathy or sustainment in his 
 arduous mission, his thoughts perpetually turned towards 
 home, and he yearned to catch the echoes of familiar voices, 
 and of occasional glances of that recognition in which his 
 soul was wont to sun itself. 
 
 From Funchal he wrote to Lord Auckland (November 2^\ 
 acknowledging his kind attention to Lady Mornington and 
 himself ' during the hurry or rather the agony of his last 
 moments in England,' ^ and hoping for the continuance of his 
 care and solicitude for her whom he had left behind, which 
 would be ' invaluable to her and to him during their separa- 
 tion.' 
 
 In the long days of that half- the-wor Id-round voyage 
 the young Pro- consul pondered the meaning of Pitt's parting 
 words — that England might recoup in the East the empire 
 lost in the West. In the solitude of his cabin, as the huge 
 East Indiaman rolled in the swell of the tropic ocean, or 
 as he paced the deck, dressed punctiliously as for dinner in 
 Mayfair, when with fair wind the vessel sped towards the haven 
 of Good Hope where she would be; he ruminated all the 
 
 * Correfpondenoe of Lord Aucklandf iii. 384. 
 
 1 
 
1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 133 
 
 instructions for his mission and tried to anticipate and 
 weigh all the possible contingencies that might await him on 
 his arrival at his post. 
 
 Lord Macartney, the first British Governor of the Cape, 
 received him with due hospitality. He had himself not long 
 before been named for the office eventually conferred upon 
 his fellow-countryman ; and being full of years and honours, 
 he had only been induced to accept for a brief season dignified 
 banishment to South Africa, by a salary of 10,000^. a year 
 and a pension of 2,000^. for life. Grreat importance however 
 was attached in 1797 to the acquisition of the old Dutch 
 settlement as a half-way hostelry and harbour on the route 
 to the East ; and the experienced and accomplished diplo- 
 matist, who from personal observation had reported on all the 
 kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, was assured by 
 Dundas that he was of all men living the man who could do 
 king and country a service by deciding on the spot what 
 ought to be done with our new possession. At the Cape de- 
 spatches from Sir Greorge Barlow (acting Grovernor General) 
 were brought to his supersessor which he opened and read : 
 thereby anticipating by six weeks what was thought and said at 
 Calcutta. There too, he met Lord Hobart on his way home, 
 at whose instance the troops on their way to Manilla had 
 lately been recalled ; from an apprehension lest the Carnatic, 
 left defenceless, should be suddenly invaded by the self-styled 
 Sultan of Mysore. 
 
 From the first acquisition of territorial power on the 
 Coromandel coast, the Moslem rulers of the table-land which 
 comprised an important portion of the peninsula, had been 
 at Madras the abiding cause of disquietude and fear. With 
 the Hindoo sovereigns of the country, the trading settlers 
 had seldom come into collision. For two centuries the princes 
 of the house of Wadiyar had governed from their ivory' 
 throne at Bangalore ; coining money, waging frontier wars. 
 
134 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 and refusing steadily to pay homage or tribute to the Mogul 
 emperors. By degrees hereditary decrepitude tempted 
 ambitious favourites to steal from them the substance of 
 power, and in 1761 an Arab mercenary had the craftiness 
 and hardihood to possess himself of the conjoint authority of 
 General and Minister for life. Hyder Ali never ventured to 
 depose the Rajah, who continued to live in all the pomp and 
 circumstance of state ; and who, though closely guarded, was 
 deferentially produced at festivals to keep up in the eyes of 
 the multitude the show of ancient sovereignty. Tippoo, less 
 sagacious and more vain, discontinued the practice. The 
 Eajah disappeared from public gaze and sunk unresistingly 
 into a state of humiliation and penury. The usurper took the 
 title of Sultan, and refused to treat with neighbouring States 
 unless they recognised in him that dignity. His restless 
 ambition was for ever plotting encroachments on some of 
 his neighbours, and a week seldom passed without some 
 mention of sinister designs, real or imaginary, being imputed 
 to him in the despatches to the Home Grovernment from 
 Fort St. Greorge. With the character of the man and the 
 way in which he was regarded by all within eyeshot of his 
 scowl, Mornington was consequently familiar; and he was 
 not disposed to undervalue Lord Hobart's estimate of detri- 
 ment and danger to be apprehended from Mysore. 
 
 Colonel Wesley with his regiment had formed part of the 
 intended expedition to Manilla, and after its recall he had 
 been invited by him to spend some weeks at Fort St. Greorge. 
 The account given of him by Lord Hobart to his brother 
 served to confirm the confidence with which the latter looked 
 forward to finding in him a sagacious and efficient auxiliary 
 in council and in action. He had been little more than a 
 year in India ; but, unlike most of his companions in arms 
 at that time, he had kept his blood cool and his eyes open. 
 He had spent his leave of absence at Madras in examining 
 
I 
 
 1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 135 
 
 carefully but quietly the outposts of the settlement, and noting 
 the structural defects in the works relied on for defence. 
 Thus unconsciously he was qualifying himself to take part 
 in affairs of the utmost moment at no distant day, of which 
 few yet foresaw a finger of the threatening hand in the 
 horizon. 
 
 From Major Kirkpatrick, on sick leave from the Deccan, 
 Mornington gathered much useful information regarding 
 the foreign auxiliary corps in the native States. His first 
 despatch to Dundas contained a lucid epitome of what he 
 then learned. Scindiah had twenty thousand sepoys dis- 
 ciplined by Europeans or Americans. This was originally 
 De Boigne's corps, and was then commanded by M. Perron, 
 the subordinate officers being chiefly British. Holkar, the 
 Peishwah, and the Eajah of Berar had smaller bodies of 
 troops similarly organised ; and D'Agincourt, described as a 
 French democrat of aggressive temper, had lately enlisted 
 for the service of Azim ul Dowlah a separate force en- 
 camped near Hyderabad. With what distinct purpose these 
 subsidiary legions were severally embodied by the princes 
 who watched one another with so much jealousy and emula- 
 tion did not distinctly appear. They were evidently looked 
 upon by their despotic paymasters as useful alternatives in 
 case of domestic need ; and no serious fear of the over- 
 growth of English power as yet troubled the dreams of 
 musnud or durbar. Nor does the existence of these strange 
 condottieri in Moslem or Mahratta pay seem to have caused 
 any uneasiness to the Anglo-Indian Government, save in so far 
 as they might possibly become dangerous in the contingency 
 of a French invasion. This had become, however, the 
 dominant misgiving of the hour, which connected itself 
 more or less intrusively with every other consideration. 
 Our best ally, the Nizam, had for some years a body of troops 
 organised on the model of our Sepoy regiments under a 
 
136 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 Frenchman named Raymond ; another under an American 
 named Boyd ; and a third under an Irishman named Fin- 
 glass, formerly a quartermaster in the 19th Dragoons. The 
 two latter forces had been taken into pay at the suggestion 
 of the British Resident, by direction of the late Governor 
 General, to serve as a counterpoise to the formidable force 
 under Raymond in case at any time it should prove insub- 
 ordinate. But after a time Boyd and his troopers grew 
 weary of inaction, and took themselves off to the Mahrattas, 
 for the sake, it was supposed, of higher incentives to heroism. 
 The battalion of Finglass, eight hundred strong, preferred 
 remaining at Hyderabad in friendly relation with the Com- 
 pany's troops. These had orders to keep an observant eye 
 on those of Raymond, whose muster-roll had lately been 
 increased to fourteen thousand men, besides a squadron 
 of horse and a train of thirty guns. For their pay a large 
 tract of country bordering on the Carnatic had been assigned 
 over, and a fortified post having regular communication with 
 the port of Narpilly, and several important places belonging 
 to the Nawab of Arcot. Recruits were supplied in part from 
 his territory and in part by deserters from our service. 
 Most of the officers were said to be fired with Jacobin zeal 
 against English interests and principles, and by national 
 pride in the recently unchecked triumph of French arms. 
 Proofs, of course, could not easily be had of correspondence 
 between Hyderabad and Paris, but the frequency of com- 
 munication with compatriots at Seringapatam who occupied 
 a similar position in the service of Tippoo Sahib was not 
 disguised. Raymond's contingent owed its origin rather to 
 fear inspired by the success of a similar force in the camp of 
 Mahdajee Scindiah, the encroaching chief of the Mahratta 
 States with whom the Mahomedans were continually at war; 
 and at Calcutta it had been regarded for a time as rather a 
 useful adjunct to the defensive resources of the Nizam, the 
 
I79S THE VOYAGE OUT. 137 
 
 integrity and independence of whose dominion were deemed 
 essential to preserve the balance of power in Southern India. 
 But when by degrees the auxiliary force grew to be a prin- 
 cipal portion of the Subadah's army, his astute minister, 
 Azim ul Omra, began to be troubled with misgivings he 
 dared not avow ; and while acquiescing in the French com- 
 mander's proposal for its augmentation, he secretly strove to 
 excite English jealousy to make countervailing efforts for 
 the security of his master. 
 
 Incidentally, many of the facts regarding this and other 
 foreign corps had already come under the notice of the 
 authorities at home, as Mornington recollected. But they 
 assumed for the first time a sinister significance when 
 grouped together in the graphic testimony of a soldier and 
 diplomatist who had had opportunities of closely observing 
 and calmly reflecting upon them. Hitherto dark and 
 motionless as tlie unconnected plates in the galvanic battery, 
 they might at any moment be brought into such contact as 
 would convulse the hand that held them. To the mind of 
 Mornington the possibility of the magnetic current being 
 set in motion from afar needed no proof. ' The result from 
 all the facts stated by Kirkpatrick is that the continuance, 
 and still more the further growth of the corps of Eaymond, 
 ought to be prevented by every means within our power 
 consistent with the respect due to the Court of Hyderabad 
 and with the general principles of moderation and justice 
 which ought to form the rule of our conduct in India. The 
 dangers to be apprehended from the existence of this corps 
 are not to be estimated by a consideration of its actual state 
 of discipline, or even of its actual numbers, or degree of 
 present influence over the counsels of the Nizam. I consider 
 it as the basis of a French party in India, on which, accord- 
 ing to the opportunities of fortune and the variation of 
 events, the activity of the enemy may found a strength of the 
 
138 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 most formidable kind either in peace or war. If the war 
 should extend to India, and if we should be under the 
 necessity of calling forth the strength of our allies to assist 
 us in any contest with Tippoo, what assistance could we ex- 
 pect from the Nizam, the main body of whose army would be 
 officered by Frenchmen or by the agents of P'rance, and the 
 correspondents of Tippoo himself? But I confess I carry my 
 opinion upon this subject still further. I have no doubt that 
 the natural effect of the unchecked and rapid growth of such 
 a party at the court of one of our principal allies, must be in 
 a very short period to detach that court entirely from our 
 interests, and finally to fix it in those of our enemies, to 
 subject its counsels to their control and its military estab- 
 lishment to their direction. That it has tended to encourage 
 Tippoo I have no doubt, and his correspondence with the 
 leaders of the corps will sufficiently show in what light he 
 views them.' ^ 
 
 Confidentially discussing with his old official chief the 
 various remedies suggested by Kirkpatrick for a state of 
 things he deemed so perilous, he puts aside as maladroit any 
 proposal to disarm the rival contingent or to detach by 
 corruption its subaltern officers. Better wait for an applica- 
 tion from the Nizam, soon expected, for an increase of the 
 British subsidiary force, and for the concession of a right to 
 employ it against internal as well as external foes — a right 
 hitherto always refused. In another letter on the political 
 state of India he gave at length his reasons for thinking 
 that it would be ' wise to check by timely aid the decline of 
 the Nizam's weight among the powers of Hindostan. This 
 could be done in no manner so effectual and imobjectionable 
 as by furnishing him with a large increase of Company's 
 troops ; the pay of the augmented force to be secured in the 
 manner best calculated to prevent future discussion and 
 » To Dundas from the Cape, 23rd February, 1798. 
 
1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 139 
 
 embarrassment. The British detachment now in his pay is 
 not only restricted from acting against the Mahrattas in any 
 possible case, but also from acting against certain Polygars 
 tributary both to the Mahrattas and to the Nizam. His 
 object would of course be to obtain our guarantee of his 
 possessions generally, with the assistance of a large force to 
 be employed with the same extensive powers as now apply to 
 the corps of Eaymond. For this object I have little doubt 
 that the Nizam would sacrifice the whole French party at his 
 court, and even the jpeishcush now paid by us on account of 
 the Northern Circars. This point perhaps might be reconciled 
 with the interests of the Mahrattas, if it were thought 
 prudent to enter into similar engagements with them, or in 
 other words to guarantee their possessions against any attack 
 from the Nizam. The effect of such an engagement with 
 both powers would be to place us in the situation of arbitra- 
 tors between them ; and perhaps their mutual apprehensions 
 of om- interposition in the case of any aggression on either 
 side might tend to restrain the resentment and ambition of 
 both. Such a system of treaties, so far from being liable to 
 the objection of an undue interference in the disputes of the 
 native powers of India, or of that description of oflSciousness 
 and intriguing spirit which tends to foment divisions and to 
 occasion war, might be made the best security for the 
 maintenance of the peace of India as well as the strongest 
 pledge of our disposition to preserve it from disturbance. It 
 could not be a wise policy to suffer the Nizam and the 
 Peishwah to weaken themselves by repeated contests while 
 Tippoo remained at rest. Some opening had been given for 
 our arbitration in settling the disputes between the several 
 Mahratta chiefs ; but the Government of Bengal had post- 
 poned the consideration of this proposition to a period of 
 time which he confessed he should think the most unfavourable 
 for the examination of this difficult question, and still more 
 
140 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 unseasonable for the negotiation of a treaty with such a power 
 as the Mahratta States ; this period of time was no other 
 than the moment when Zemaun Shah should again approach 
 the frontiers of Hindostan. He should certainly think it 
 his duty, upon his arrival in India, to proceed without the 
 delay of one moment to the examination and decision of the 
 proposal made by the Mahrattas ; if it should appear ex- 
 pedient to engage with them in a defensive system against 
 the threatened invasion of the Afghan chief, there could be no 
 doubt that such a measure would tend greatly to reconcile 
 to them any propositions which we might wish to offer with 
 respect to the arrangements at the Court of Hyderabad. The 
 inclination of his present opinion rather led him to think 
 that a general defensive alliance between all the existing 
 powers of Hindostan (Tippoo perhaps alone excepted) against 
 the expected invasion of Zemaun Shah, would not only be 
 the best security against the success of such an invasion if 
 attempted, but might have the effect of deterring that 
 prince from an undertaking which must end in his own dis- 
 appointment and ruin, if our Grovernment in India and our 
 allies did not neglect to make seasonable preparations of 
 defence.' ^ 
 
 Here as in pre-vision we have the ground-plan of the 
 lofty and splendid edifice of Paramount Power which in his 
 three months' voyage he had been elaborating. The spirit of 
 Captain-Greneralship was upon him ; he felt by anticipation 
 that, though still under authority, he was about to enter on a 
 scene where he should have armies under him, and where he 
 might say to prince or king go, and he goeth, and to another 
 come, and he cometh, and to hosts of his own fellow- 
 servants do this, and they must do it. That he burned with 
 the ambition to set his mark indelibly on the system of 
 
 1 First Despatch to the President of the Board of Control ; from the 
 Cape, 23rd February, 1798. 
 
1798 
 
 THE VOYAGE OUT. 
 
 141 
 
 British rule in the East, every line in his voluminous corre- 
 spondence shows. But his hunger was for fame that would 
 last, not for pelf that would perish. He coveted neither for 
 his country or for himself mere acquisitions of money, 
 jewels, or lands. His immediate if not his sole feeling of 
 antagonism was to Jacobinical France, and to the Sultan of 
 Mysore as her accessory in designs for the subversion of our 
 power. In iVsia as in Europe, this was the question of the 
 day to which all others must give place. But as yet it 
 hardly seemed so urgent as to set aside permanent and 
 peaceful schemes of reform and consolidation. He longed 
 to uplift the administrative regime of the Company from the 
 pettifogging practices of the factory and the grubbing 
 ways of the warehouse, to the higher-minded ideas of en- 
 lightened rule ; and he yearned even yet more passionately 
 to establish our relations with the native chiefs and princes 
 upon a footing of mutual good, consistent, frank, and durable, 
 instead of suffering them to depend on the impulses of a 
 hand-to-mouth policy, incapable of vindication, incoherent, 
 vacillating, unstable. How he thenceforth set about the 
 realisation of his far-reaching aims, often imperiously and 
 impetuously but never by unworthy means, the chronicles 
 of his septennate in India serve to show. 
 
 Keviewing the political situation, it was obvious that, 
 since the peace of Seringapatam, Tippoo had profited by 
 undisturbed tranquillity within his own confines, while his 
 neighbours had been mutually weakening themselves by 
 war. His intrigues at Poonah and Hyderabad had failed to 
 stir up enmity against us ; but he was believed to have found 
 more congenial confidants in the durbar of Zemaun Shah, 
 whose zest of aggression many repulses had not cooled, 
 and who had never relinquished the hope of making Oude a 
 tributary of Cabal. Tippoo longed for the opportunity to 
 act in concert with him by a renewed invasion of the 
 
142 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 Carnatic, and both relied on timely aid from France. In 
 the despatches from the retiring Governor-General in Council 
 these projects had been treated with incredulity ; although 
 one of the last measures of Sir John Shore was the making 
 of a new pact with the Nawab Vizier for his defence in case 
 of need against the Afghan. Momington read the facts 
 differently. The wisdom of masterly inactivity was to 
 him foolishness. ' I know that it is the fashion to treat the 
 projects of Zemaun Shah very lightly. The result upon my 
 mind of an examination of the account of his force, the 
 detail respecting his future intentions, and the causes likely 
 to obstruct their execution, is a conviction that Zemaim 
 Shah has not abandoned his project of invading Hindostan, 
 and the safest means of rendering that project abortive will 
 be to consider it as practicable, and to take the best pre- 
 cautions against it.'* The fact was that the enterprising 
 Shah had without molestation advanced with his army as far as 
 Lahore, the Sikhs having been dissuaded from opposing him : 
 when he was recalled by domestic trouble at the time not 
 thoroughly explained. It seemed very doubtful if Scindiah 
 would just then have cared to divert his troops from other 
 employment to withstand his* progress from Lahore to Delhi, 
 and the imminency of the danger had appeared so great 
 at Calcutta as to call for a temporary augmentation of 
 native infantry. The danger past, retrenchment was hastily 
 resumed ; but had the danger really passed away ? ' The 
 balance of power in India no longer exists upon the same 
 footing on which it was placed by the peace of Seringapatam. 
 The question therefore must arise, how it may best be brought 
 back again to that state in which you have directed me to 
 maintain it. The wisest course would be to strengthen the 
 Mahrattas and the Nizam by entering into defensive alliance 
 with the former against Zemaun Shah, and by affording to 
 ' To Dundas ; from the Cape, 28th February, 1798. 
 
1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 143 
 
 the latter an addition of military strength and the means of 
 extricating himself from the control of the French party at 
 Hyderabad. The treaty should not contain a hostile word 
 against the Afghan, excepting only with reference to the 
 single case of his projects of invasion ; and it shoidd be com- 
 municated to him with assurances of our determination never 
 to molest him in his own dominions nor to suffer him to 
 approach ours.' Then follow numerous suggestions about 
 reinforcements of British troops, which he urged, were 
 indispensable. The condition of Malabar could never, he 
 thought, be rendered satisfactory till the horde of peculators 
 and plunderers who had long made it their prey had been 
 eradicated. Tanjore was likewise a difficulty, the Eajah 
 having been sentenced to deposition by the Court of 
 Directors; but he would not hesitate to respite the con- 
 demned prince till a more convenient season. Wynaad was 
 a district whose retrocession Tippoo claimed under the terms 
 of the last treaty, and Mornington remembering the oral 
 injunctions of Dundas, given him at Walmer in the presence 
 of Mr. Pitt, promises its prompt restoration without any 
 equivalent, notwithstanding his intense feeling of distrust of 
 the Sultan's attitude and purpose. ' My idea is that, as on 
 the one hand we ought never to use any high language 
 towards Tippoo, nor ever attempt to deny him the smallest 
 point of his just rights, so on the other, where we have 
 distinct proofs of his machinations against us, we ought to 
 let him know that his treachery does not escape our obser- 
 vation, and make him feel that he is within reach of our 
 vigilance. At present it appears to me that he is permitted 
 to excite ill-will against us wherever he pleases, without the 
 least attempt on our part either to reprehend him for the 
 suggestion, or the court to whom he applies for listening to it.' * 
 At Madras, where he stayed some days, he found abundant 
 
 * Idem. 
 
144 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 evidence of the administrative confusion and discord, 
 political apathy and political cowardice, of which he had 
 heard much ere quitting England. Two parties in the 
 council railed at one another continually, and spent their 
 energies chiefly in reciprocal schemes of out-manoeuvring. 
 The Nawab still dwelt apart in pantomimic state, surrounded 
 by the luxury and pomp of sovereignty, but his power had 
 long since come to an end, the Dewanee and the command of 
 troops having been for several years engrossed by the Com- 
 pany's officials. Law was formally administered in his name, 
 salutes were fired as usual on set occasions, and in official 
 intercourse the forms of deference were still kept up as if the 
 old voluptuary was really Subadah of Arcot. Most curious 
 and suggestive is a short note addressed to him by Morn- 
 ington the day after his arrival, which photographs the 
 relation that continued to subsist between Moslem 
 authority fast crumbling away and the vigorous exotic that 
 was fain to creep gradually over the ruin : — 
 
 ' May it please your Highness, — It has given me great 
 satisfaction to learn from Greneral Harris that your Highness 
 enjoys a good state of health. My first inquiries upon my 
 arrival at Fort St. Greorge were respecting your Highness's 
 welfare. I return your Highness many thanks for the several 
 obliging messages which I have had the honour to receive 
 from you. I am very anxious to take the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of paying you my respects in person, and of presenting 
 to you several letters which I am charged to deliver to you 
 from his Majesty the King of Grreat Britain, from his Royal 
 Highness the Prince of Wales, his Royal Highness the Duke 
 of York, and the Marquess Cornwallis. I will wait upon 
 your Highness with great pleasure at any hour that you will 
 be pleased to appoint on to-morrow, or any day that may be 
 agreeable to you. I have the honour to be, &c., 
 
 ' Mor:<ington. 
 
1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 145 
 
 ' I date this letter from one of your Highness's houses, in 
 which Greneral Harris has placed me.' 
 
 Greorge III. under his own hand commended the Earl to 
 the confidence of his Highness as one who had filled various 
 offices in Government with eminent virtue and ability, and 
 in whom he counselled him to repose the utmost confidence. 
 The Heir- Apparent wrote : — 
 
 'Carlton House, October U, 1797. 
 
 ' The nobleman who will deliver this letter to your High- 
 ness, it is with great satisfaction I inform you, is a particular 
 friend of my own. He is justly celebrated for his great 
 talents, and his private character being that of honour, 
 moderation and mildness, must necessarily recommend him 
 to the confidence and good opinion of your Highness. I 
 could say much more upon this subject, but when I acquaint 
 you that his Majesty had previously bestowed upon him the 
 most eminent marks of Royal favour, I am sure it must be 
 deemed useless to suggest any other proof how acceptable 
 such a nomination must be to the interests of your Highness. 
 I shall conclude with expressing a hope that your Highness 
 may long continue to enjoy that health and prosperity to 
 which your exalted rank and character entitles you. 
 
 I am your affectionate friend, 
 
 G. P. W.' 
 
 Cornwallis, referring to the advice he had personally 
 given to the father of Omdut ul Omrah, and to himself, 
 against listening to the advice of those Europeans whose 
 jQatteries were only to serve their own corrupt purposes, 
 urged him to speak openly and freely to ' his friend the new 
 Viceroy, who had no object in view but the interest of his 
 Highness and that of the Company, which must ever be 
 inseparable.' 
 
146 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 The Nawab, released from the fears of resentment pro- 
 voked by oppression, was habitually tempted by usurers to 
 pawn the revenues of districts pledged to the Company for 
 the payment of their subsidiary troops ; whereby the monthly 
 kist was constantly overdue and a heavy arrear had gradually 
 accumulated. Lord Hobart had alternately tried to coax 
 and coerce him into surrendering the collection of the assigned 
 districts ; but he had been overruled by Sir John Shore. 
 Momington promised to reconsider the whole facts of the 
 disagreement, and if possible to reconcile the susceptibilities 
 of Chepauk with the claims of Fort St. Greorge. 
 
 Realising beforehand the duties and responsibilities of 
 political arbiter which his ambition prompted him to assume 
 as representative of England in the East, he boldly etched 
 the outlines of a new order of things which might well have 
 made his cynical old chief at the Board of Control smile 
 incredulously. Dundas was an unromantic man who kept 
 neither delicate scruples nor expensive aspirations. Addi- 
 tional provinces were in his mind merely additional invest- 
 ments, about which the only question worth considering was. 
 Would they pay ? If not they were hardly worth coveting. 
 
 Had Pitt remained of the same mind in 1797 that he 
 was when framing his first India Bill in 1784, Mornington 
 would have been left in no uncertainty on the subject. 
 Words more explicit inhibiting all further expansion of 
 political dominion there could not be than those which it 
 contained. Under no pretence was the Company thenceforth 
 to intermeddle in native quarrels, or to set up as a rival to 
 native powers. It might overbid or undersell them in barter 
 or contract as much as it pleased, and hold fast its gains, 
 however gotten, at bayonet's point. That was all in the 
 way of adventure ; and the adventure being distant and 
 perilous. Parliament would no more be nice about method 
 and means of bargaining or bullying than in hampering 
 
1798 THE VOYAGE OUT. 147 
 
 those who combined the business of merchant and buccaneer 
 in kidnapping negroes on the Gold Coast for the replenish- 
 ment of their sugar-fields in Jamaica. On the stage or in 
 the pulpit right and wrong were said to be without degrees 
 of latitude or longitude ; but in the making of laws and in 
 the governing of dependencies, right meant little more than 
 the greatest amount of wrong which was worth inflicting, 
 and wrong only meant the scandal or reproach of exposure in 
 some blundering attempt to enforce that sort of right. The 
 India Bill of 1784 was a set of earthworks hastily thrown up 
 to please the Court against the daring encroachment of the 
 Whigs upon the balance of patronage, and having served 
 that purpose it had probably no longer any peculiar merit in 
 the eyes of him who devised it. The world had drifted a 
 long way since then. France, from being a worn-out, 
 corrupt, and pauperised rival, with an amateur mechanic 
 for a King, a prodigal Court given over to heartless trifling, 
 an unbelieving clergy, an ill-fed army, and a nettle-eating 
 peasantry, had passed through the fire of revolution in 
 which the elements of old forces had been molten and sent 
 forth in lava streams through Christendom, resistless and 
 overwhelming. Every other power of the Continent had 
 been humiliated and discomfited by the Republic, and our 
 victories afloat had not saved us from insolvency. The 
 whole position of the State was turned, and Mornington 
 knew well how little his administrative master was like to 
 trouble himself about the literal or any other meaning of 
 abstract resolutions embodied in a great party Act of Par- 
 liament in days gone by. Ceylon and Trinidad had very 
 recently been taken from old allies and retained, on no other 
 plea than that it was better we should have them than the 
 French ; and one of the secret instructions of Dundas was 
 that the new Governor General should surprise Batavia if 
 opportunity served, and annex it also to the possessions of 
 
 L 2 
 
148 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 his Majesty. Sir John Shore who had been bred in the 
 counting-house school of Indian politics, was a man of 
 humanity and peace, who from a distance conned the Roman 
 hand of Imperial legislation ; took all the fine things about for- 
 bearance, moderation, and magnanimity said in Parliament for 
 gospel ; and who would as soon have thought of making puns 
 at his prayers, as of reading between the lines of statutes and 
 despatches forbidding interference in native quarrels, esoteric 
 rules for building up a paramount power by their mutual ex- 
 haustion. So little indeed, did that admirable head clerk of 
 the Company dream of the pageant or the prowess of empire, 
 that he took small pains to conceal the disputes between 
 himself and other members of the Government, notably that 
 with Lord Hobart, which led to the recall of lx>th. His views 
 of Indian administration were subsequently embodied by his 
 son in a volume of great interest and value, and may still 
 be read with advantage by all who care to know what were 
 the sins of oppression and misrule that grieved the soul of 
 the just man — some of them enduring unto this day. But 
 it appears certain that he lacked the vigour of supreme 
 authority needful to hold any executive system firmly 
 in hand ; and that after his departure and the brief 
 locum-tenency of Sir Greorge Barlow, a state of things arose 
 which would have speedily brought affairs to absolute con- 
 fusion had it not been for tbe timely arrival of the new 
 Pro- consul. 
 
 / 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FORT WILLIAM. 
 
 1798. 
 
 MoRNiNGTON sailed from Madras on May 9, accompanied by his 
 brother Henry, on the 1 7th landed at Fort William, and on the 
 day following entered upon the performance of his arduous 
 duties. A greater contrast could not have been conceived 
 than that with which everyone was struck between the 
 brilliant and ambitious little aristocrat stiU in the prime of 
 life and the worthy but weary son of the supercargo, who 
 roand by round had climbed the Company's ladder of pro- 
 motion, sat down for a while to rest at the top, and then 
 went his way. 
 
 His first despatch, written a few days after, vividly 
 depicts the scene on which he had entered. In Council on 
 May 31 he entered an elaborate Minute stating fully the 
 reasons which had led the Court of Directors and the Board 
 of Control, as arbiters of the disputed succession in Tanjore, 
 to decide against Ameer Singh, the brother of the late 
 Rajah, and in favour of Serfojee his youthful son. In 1786, 
 when at the point of death, Tuljajee, one of the earliest 
 allies of the Company, had sent for Schwarz, the well-known 
 missionary, for whom he had always avowed warm sentiments 
 of friendship, and confided to his care the boy, during whose 
 minority he desired his brother to govern the Raj. If the 
 regent failed to renovate the resources and preserve the 
 
150 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 government committed to his care, he succeeded in pro- 
 pitiating the leading members of the Presidency of Madras, 
 and in winning the friendship of Colonel (afterwards Sir 
 David) Baird, who always spoke of him as a humane and 
 diligent man. Serfojee by his kindly nature engaged the 
 affection, and by his singular talents the admiration, of his 
 German guardian. He early evinced rare aptitude for 
 European as well as Oriental knowledge ; and combining 
 with habits of study love of the chase and athletic energy, 
 he became as he approached to man's estate an object of 
 no ordinary solicitude and sympathy with all around him. 
 Schwarz saw with concern that his uncle, after many years 
 of power, had no mind to relinquish it to his ward ; but the 
 promise he had given his father, and the belief in the right- 
 fulness of his claim, stimulated the missionary to press upon 
 the Company the equitable duty of seeing the legitimate 
 heir placed on the musnud. The whole of the circumstances 
 were at his instance brought before the authorities in Eng- 
 land in 1797 ; and Mornington was directed to give validity 
 to their judgment, and to make an amended treaty with the 
 young Rajah as soon as he had been installed. As the 
 initiatory step in this proceeding the Governor General 
 placed on record his desire that the authorities at Madras 
 should see the transfer of power effected ; being careful to 
 preserve to Ameer Singh whatever he could rightfully claim 
 as his property, and securing to him a handsome stipend for 
 his life. It is seldom easy however to vacate a throne ; 
 the regent demurred to the legality of the decree, and his 
 personal friends at Madras helped him to delay its execution. 
 The transaction has been invidiously misrepresented by Mill, 
 by whom Schwarz is made to figure as a religious hypocrite 
 and Mornington as an aristocratic oppressor. But the 
 decision regarding the inheritance lay with men who had 
 certainly no spark of missionary zeal among them ; and who, 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 151 
 
 as they speedily proved, were far from stimulating the new 
 pro-consul to needless intermeddling in native affairs. 
 
 But money : — what was to be done for the wherewithal 
 of administrative reform or military reinvigoration ? The 
 broken and embarrassed plight of the finances etched by 
 Colonel Wellesley in a memorandum framed for the vindica- 
 tion of his brother's conduct forcibly depicts the embarrassing 
 condition of things. 
 
 Non-intervention had had a fair trial. From the depar- 
 ture of Cornwallis in 1793, not a shot had been fired in anger 
 or a claim made to interfere in the affairs of any native State. 
 The attitude invariably maintained by the government of the 
 Company was not merely unaggressive and unostentatious ; 
 it was unpretentious even to meekness, and shrinking even to 
 the look and language of fear. Shore had seen so much of 
 the sordid abuse of power, and was so conscience-stricken by 
 the recollection of the suffering inflicted by arbitrary and 
 sanguinary men, that his undivided aim in his five years' 
 rule was to atone, as he himself declared, to an injured 
 people for miseries that were irretrievable ; and to convince, 
 as he hoped, the native princes that in future they might 
 regard the European intruder amongst them as a peace-loving, 
 money-making, and inoffensive neighbour. The amiability 
 of the experiment was indisputable ; but its failure and the 
 fatuity with which it was made admitted as little of dispute. 
 No native prince was won to confidence or softened into 
 friendship by vague protestations of good-will. Not one of 
 them believed in his sincerity, for not one of them could 
 appreciate his acts or motives: and what the abject com- 
 munity subject to our sway thought of its casual mitigation, 
 there existed in his time no possible means of ascertaining. 
 The successor to a series of ruthless despots may be made 
 melancholy and contrite by the conviction he dares not avow, 
 that in point of abstract morality he has no business there. 
 
152 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 But if he has the capacity and courage to do no more than 
 recall his videttes, shorten the allowance of amnfiunition to 
 his guards, and bid his envoys and subordinates be sure to 
 take no offence if slighted, and whatever happens to quarrel 
 about nothing, he is only likely to tempt old grudge and 
 fresh jealousy, envy, hatred, avarice, and temerity, to try 
 how far it is safe to pluck his authority by the beard : and 
 certain by the exhibition of the feebleness of forbearance 
 to pile up all round the faggots of a deferred conflagration. 
 
 Even financially the policy of peace at any price had com- 
 pletely failed. The revenues of the Company had steadily 
 declined during Shore's administration by 165,748L ; while the 
 actual charges in India, notwithstanding various retrenchments 
 and cutting down of military expenditure, were 8,178,626^, 
 the total receipts were only 8,059,880Z. a year. The debt 
 had gone on increasing till ^ the Company's credit was at the 
 lowest ebb, and money could not be borrowed in Bengal under 
 twelve per cent.' ^ An annual deficit of 322,530^. could not 
 be disguised in the balance-sheet returned to the Directors 
 at home, while even to provide for the ordinary outgoings, the 
 Treasury at Calcutta was not imfrequently in want of funds. 
 
 Without active vitality of intelligence or energy, like 
 an elephant tied in a stall. Government had waxed fat and 
 kicked, had grown unwieldy without developing even for 
 self-assertion muscular power. The reins had been allowed 
 to fall upon its neck, and it tramped on sluggishly and 
 sulkily, praised by evil-doers and a terror to those that did 
 well. 
 
 Kivalry between the Company's troops and the King's 
 forces had from the first prevailed. They were differently 
 recruited, differently officered, and differently paid ; in 
 patriotic toasts they acknowledged the same allegiance, but 
 
 * Memorandum by Sir Arthur Wellesley in 1806, on his brother's 
 government of India. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 153 
 
 in the details of professional duty and fealty, the dragoons 
 and the line trusted and obeyed only the generals sent out 
 by the Horse Guards, while the cavalry and infantry of the 
 Company acknowledged no military obligation to any autho- 
 rity but that of their joint-stock paymasters. Promotions and 
 emoluments formed an everlasting source of jealousy, dispute, 
 and cabal. Comwallis as a soldier was able with difficulty to 
 quench some controversies and compromise others, but his 
 civilian successor found his recommendations of service and 
 merit neglected at Whitehall ; and he was unable to conceal 
 his sense of the injustice frequently done. Committees of 
 grievance became permanent in the barrack-room of every 
 Company's battalion, and neglected remonstrances tempted 
 men who for years had no enemy in the field, to begin to 
 talk of favouritism at Whitehall as the enemy at home. A 
 new set of army regulations framed by Dundas with the 
 assistance of Cornwallis in 1797 had not appeased the dis- 
 content, and the tone publicly indulged in at Calcutta and 
 Madras savoured oftentimes of incipient tendencies to mutiny. 
 Mornington resolved not to parley with a danger so serious. 
 He insisted on the regimental committees being dissolved, 
 but took care at the same time to let it be understood that 
 he would personally undertake to have justice done. 
 
 Nor was the civil administration less out of gear. The 
 council and all the chief executive posts were filled by elderly 
 gentlemen with accumulated savings, torpid livers, and troops 
 of dependent kinsmen for whom they wanted to provide 
 before they went home. 
 
 To the methodical mind of the new ruler, the first thing 
 requisite seemed to be to reduce to order the confusion, 
 laxity, and irresponsibility that had been suffered to overgrow 
 like smothering weeds every branch of the public service. 
 He would set the house in order, sponge up waste and dismiss 
 peculation, cost what it might at first, and vex whom it 
 
1.54 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 would. Very far however, were his notions from those of 
 grudging and shabby retrenchment which consists in snipping 
 and stunting the off-slioots of expenditure while the tap-root 
 remains untouched. He wished to stimulate rather than 
 repress the legitimate feeling of ambition in the Civil 
 Service, persuaded that a prevalent belief in the certainty of 
 advancement by merit proven would infuse into the whole 
 system a vigour and vitality which nothing else could do and 
 the lack of which would at any price be dear. His own 
 words best describe his views. ' In urging the necessity of 
 attempting the reduction of our expenses, I do not mean to 
 recommend that species of improvident economy which in 
 this country above all others would ultimately prove real 
 profusion and the source of every abuse. I do not mean to 
 deprive persons holding laborious and responsible stations 
 of the liberal reward to which they are justly entitled, and 
 which ought upon every ground both of policy and justice 
 to furnish them with the means of acquiring a competent 
 fortune and of returning to their native country within a 
 moderate period of service. On the other hand it is difficult 
 to believe that establishments of such magnitude and intricacy 
 as those of the British Empire in India should not in the 
 course of time require frequent revision. Without therefore 
 pledging myself to the amount of any saving which may 
 ultimately appear practicable, I propose immediately to 
 commence a general revision of all public establishments of 
 Bengal, and to direct the adoption of a similar measure at 
 Madras and Bombay, as well as at all our subordinate 
 settlements and in all our recent acquisitions from the enemy. 
 Any reduction in the effective strength of the army attended 
 with any degree of danger to the public safety would frus- 
 trate its own object. At present I propose to reduce merely 
 two articles of our military charges. The first the regiment 
 of Hindostanee cavalry purchased for two lacs of rupees from 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 155 
 
 M. de Boigne in February 1796 ; which I propose to trans- 
 fer to the Nawab Vizier on the same terms. I am aware that 
 it is desirable to reduce rather than to augment the force of 
 the Vizier, and this regiment may be substituted in the room 
 of any other corps that he may be induced to disband. From 
 August 1 it will be advisable that the troops quartered at the 
 fort of Allahabad should cease, and that in future the gar- 
 rison should receive the same allowances as that of Chunar. 
 The revision of the several branches of our revenue may very 
 properly be referred to the committee appointed to revise our 
 civil establishments under my inspection. The demand of 
 Grovernment on the landholders is fixed in perpetuity, and 
 consequently no addition can be made to the land revenue ; 
 but the customs, the stamp duties, and the tax on spirituous 
 liquors may admit of considerable improvements either in 
 the mode of collection or by the variation of the ratio, and 
 other soiu-ces of revenue may be devised without injury to the 
 country.' ^ 
 
 But ere any steps of importance could be taken in adminis- 
 trative reform, tidings came of a nature fitted to divert atten- 
 tion altogether from internal affairs. In one of the English 
 journals published at Calcutta appeared a proclamation by 
 M. Malartic, Grovernor of the Isle of France, dated January 
 30, setting forth an alliance offensive and defensive between 
 France and Mysore. Envoys from the Sultan had been 
 publicly received by the colonial governor with every mark 
 of honour, and negotiations were stated to have taken place 
 with a view to the enlistment of auxiliary troops under 
 French officers to act in concert with those of Tippoo for the 
 expulsion of the English from Hindostan. The temerity of 
 the project and the arrogant tone of defiance and denunciation 
 in which it was made known suggested naturally the idea 
 that the document was either a forgery or that it had been 
 
 ^ Financial Minute, 12th June, 1798. 
 
156 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 put forward without any warrant from the Sultan in order to 
 embroil him once more with his recent adversaries. To the 
 dyspeptic politicians who loitered on the banks of the Hooghly, 
 it seemed incredible that, in the midst of profound peace, a 
 single Moslem chief, recently shorn of half his dominions and 
 surrounded by distrustful if not hostile neighbours, should 
 rashly provoke an open rupture with no better reliance than 
 that of a far distant European State. The Viceroy himself 
 entertained doubts of its probability until authentic copies 
 were received from Lord Macartney and Sir Hugh Christian 
 on June 18. But pending this confirmation notice was con- 
 fidentially given to the Madras Presidency that it might be 
 necessary to collect forces on the Malabar coast preparatory 
 to a rupture with their old enemy. 
 
 But before midsummer General Harris had warning to 
 collect a force in case necessity should unfortunately require it, 
 but not to take any public step without further orders. The 
 Proclamation ' must become a matter of serious discussion 
 with Tippoo. How it might turn out it would be impossible 
 to say. M. Malartic might have exaggerated or wholly 
 misrepresented his intentions. But if Tippoo should choose 
 to avow the objects of his embassy to have been such as were 
 described in the Proclamation the consequences might be 
 very serious, and might ultimately involve us in the calamity 
 of war.' ^ 
 
 He would send him as soon as possible the largest supply 
 in specie which he could procure. ' If you would send with 
 your answer any intelligent officer capable of entering into 
 all the details of your force, of the seasons, and all other 
 circumstances connected with the object of striking a sudden 
 blow against Tippoo before he can receive any foreign aid, 
 you would greatly assist me in the arrangement of my 
 measures upon this serious occasion. You may rely upon 
 1 To General Harris ; from Fort William, 9th June, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 157 
 
 my unremitting attention to whatever communications you 
 may make to me, and upon my most cordial support in all 
 your exertions.' Harris, who had also received a copy of 
 the Proclamation from Mauritius, felt no doubt that Tippoo 
 had committed himself; and that the inveteracy of his 
 resentment would end only with his life. But withal he 
 advised that in our great want of cash he should be permitted 
 if he would to make the amende honorable. Meanwhile he 
 would follow his instructions implicitly, and quietly move 
 a battalion or two towards the point of assembly. ' It was 
 very pleasing to hear that his lordship had some cash to 
 send him, but the whole amount mentioned would not more 
 than make up the deficiency to the end of September, and 
 their debts were so injurious to their credit at Madras, that 
 until something was done in liquidation of them they could 
 not expect to raise a rupee by loan.' ^ 
 
 The Grovemment of Madras, in a fit of apprehension or 
 over-zeal, had publicly issued orders to Admiral Eainier for 
 the defence of the coast of Malabar, which the Grovernor 
 Greneral did not hesitate promptly and peremptorily to 
 countermand, rebuking what he deemed an encroachment 
 on his supreme function. ' The protection of India belongs 
 to me, and forms one of the most material branches of my 
 arduous responsibility. In the discharge of this duty I shall 
 always expect to be assisted by the co-operation of the other 
 Presidencies, but if they offer opinions to the commanders of 
 His Majesty's squadrons with respect to the distribution 
 of the naval force without reference to me, or any previous 
 knowledge of my intentions, the utmost degree of confusion 
 must be the result.' While laying down the rule thus 
 inflexibly, he deprecated in most soothing terms the idea of 
 any diminution of personal confidence or respect. 
 
 But the difficulties in organising and executing an 
 ' From General Harris ; Fort St. George, 23rd June, 179'8. 
 
158 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 invasion of Mysore daunted the Greneral. ' The dilatoriness, 
 indecision, and cowardice of our allies are beyond belief to 
 those who have not been eye-witness to these qualities in 
 them, and there is a moral assurance that not one of them 
 will take the field or be of the least use to us until we have 
 secured a position to cover their advance or gained a decided 
 advantage. The difficulties which press here are insuperable. 
 The draught and carriage cattle even for the defensive army 
 cannot be collected to enable us to do more than merely 
 reach Baramahal before the monsoon in October. Mr. 
 Cockburn, the best informed man perhaps in India on this 
 subject, fixes nearly the same period for the equipment of 
 the defensive army. A force capable of imdertaking the 
 siege of Seringapatam could not in all probability reach the 
 place before February 1 . The difficulty in feeding the army 
 obliged Lord Cornwallis to relinquish the idea of a siege the 
 first time he marched against it, and but for the almost 
 despaired of co-operation of the Mahrattas, he would hardly 
 have made the attempt.' ^ 
 
 Mr. Webbe, who had been for many years Secretary of 
 the Madras Council, was aghast at the orders from Calcutta 
 to assemble an army of observation on the coast. The 
 terrible reverses inflicted on our troops by Hyder and his 
 son in the second Mysore war, the fate of Baillie, of Mathews, 
 and other gallant men in the field or in the dungeon, and 
 his own intimate knowledge of the weakness of the civil and 
 military system he had to administer filled him with dismay. 
 'I can anticipate nothing,' he exclaimed, ''but shocking 
 disasters from a premature attack upon Tippoo in our 
 present disabled condition, and the impeachment of Lord 
 Mornington for his temerity.' Nor was this the hasty 
 utterance of surprise. After time for reflection Webbe 
 
 > From Fort St. George; 6th July, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM, 159 
 
 embodied in a Memorandum his ground for remonstrance 
 against immediate war. ' The garrisons of the Camatic 
 lowlands, which all lay open to raids from Mysore, were 
 weak and far between ; and reinforcements from Europe, 
 such as they had had in 1791, were not to be hoped for. 
 The Nizam and the Peishwah were better able then to afford 
 substantial help, and they were not unfriendly; yet they 
 could not be induced to move until we had fought a whole 
 campaign alone, and they had seen battles won and cities 
 taken. With resources far superior in stores and troops than 
 it would be possible now to muster, it took Cornwallis two 
 hazardous campaigns to bring the adversary to terms ; and 
 though he had been humbled for the time and shorn of some 
 dependencies, it was vain to doubt that he had reorganised 
 his army and that his coffers were full of treasure. The 
 exchequer of the Presidency was empty, and in the Coro- 
 mandel banks and bazaars treated as bankrupt. If war was 
 inevitable, and the present judged the most advantageous 
 cLi-cumstances under which it could be commenced, he feared 
 our situation was bad beyond the hope of remedy.' The 
 impetuous Viceroy was vexed at these unexpected thwartings, 
 and imperiously refused to discuss details in official corre- 
 spondence or to admit that he was wrong. But he took 
 warning in time, and pulled up on the brink of a terrible 
 and irretrievable error. 
 
 When all the hindrances came to be duly weighed and 
 measured, prudence dictated delay in publicly mobilising 
 the Madras army, whose unpreparedness grew palpable as 
 the contingency of a collision drew near. Mornington 
 wisely yielded to the representations made to him, and 
 instead of precipitating a rupture, set about diligently the 
 reduction of the French corps in the different native States. 
 The pride of the man was above the commonplace vanity 
 of official consistency ; and disdaining all disguise he wrote 
 
160 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 to the Directors : ' I have no hesitation in declaring that my 
 original intention was, if circumstances would have admitted, 
 to have attacked the Sultan instantly, and on both sides 
 of his dominions, for the purpose of defeating his hostile 
 preparations and of anticipating their declared object. I 
 was concerned however to learn, from persons most conversant 
 in military details at Fort St. George, that the dispersed 
 state of the army on the coast and certain radical defects in 
 its establishments would render the assembling of a force 
 equal to offensive movements a much more tedious and 
 difficult operation than I had apprehended.' 
 
 From Mr. Duncan, the Governor of Bombay, further 
 particulars came of the proceedings at the Mauritius. The 
 Mysore envoys while there had openly enlisted one hundred 
 and fifty recruits, making engagements for their arms and 
 pay. In March they proceeded to the Isle of Bourbon in 
 the French frigate ' La Preneuse,' hoping to raise additional 
 levies, and in April they debarked at Mangalore. 'In 
 numbers the force was never considerable; but regarded 
 probably as an earnest of greater help to come, it was 
 received into Tippoo's service with public marks of favour 
 and honour. The hostile intent of such proceedings could 
 not be overlooked on account of their incredible want of 
 caution and reserve. The failure to enlist a force adequate 
 to his design was no justification of so palpable a breach of 
 amity. He had plainly violated thereby existing treaties, 
 and committed acts equivalent to open threats of war. It 
 justified the occupation of his maritime provinces, and an 
 advance upon the capital in order to dictate there binding 
 conditions of peace ; to compel him to admit a permanent 
 Resident at his court, to which he had hitherto never yet 
 assented, and to reimburse the cost of the expedition ; 
 finally to secure the expulsion of all French officers from his 
 service, and to exact an engagement against their return. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 161 
 
 Every motive of justice and policy appeared to demand the 
 adoption of this or of some similar plan for reducing the 
 power of Tippoo to such a condition as shall render him 
 unable to avail himself of the solicited assistance of France, 
 or of any other collateral aid which the course of future 
 circumstances may offer to him for the prosecution of his 
 declared design of expelling the British nation from India.' 
 The army was reported to be in excellent condition, but 
 upon due consultation it was found that the state of the 
 frontier forts, of the field artillery, and of the stores of grain, 
 did not admit of the sudden movement of a large body of 
 troops, although they might be rapidly brought together. 
 Financial embarrassment made it impossible to equip an 
 expedition with provident completeness unless a high- 
 handed use were made of the commercial investments of the 
 Company to supply the military chest, proportionately 
 reducing the remittances home, suspending the payment 
 of the dividends, and fatally damaging the credit of the 
 Government. ' Under these circumstances he felt with the 
 utmost degree of pain and regret that the moment was 
 unfavourable to the adoption of the only measure which 
 promised effectual and permanent security to the territories 
 committed to his charge.' But while relinquishing the idea 
 of an immediate rupture with Tippoo, he could not brook 
 the thought of mute submission to the affront thus offered 
 by him, persuaded that our future security and honour would 
 be compromised by meekly condoning an indignity so un- 
 provoked, which would greatly ' tend to elevate the credit 
 and hopes of Tippoo and of France, and occasion a propor- 
 tionate depression of our influence and consideration in the 
 eyes of our allies, and of all the native powers of India ; 
 therefore he called on Tippoo to make a public disavowal 
 of the proceedings of his ambassadors ; and to declare dis- 
 tinctly the nature of his intentions towards us and our allies.' 
 
 H 
 
162 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 Meanwhile his first communication with Tippoo was one 
 of studied courtesy. Careful to avoid the entrance into 
 quarrels, and being still in doubt what his eventual purpose 
 might be, he frankly proffered to discuss on friendly terms 
 the Sultan's claim to the retrocession of Wynaad. Referring 
 to the article in the treaty of Seringapatam which provided 
 for an amicable settlement of boundary disputes, presuming 
 that Tippoo's disposition was to maintain faithfully his 
 public engagements ; and promising in return a religious 
 adherence to every stipulation in the compact, he proposed 
 ' to depute a respectable and discreet person to meet on the 
 frontier such officers as his Highness chose to name for the 
 purpose of conferring together and of satisfying each other 
 on all points respecting which any doubts might be enter- 
 tained. The result will be communicated by the Grovem- 
 ment of Bombay with all practicable despatch ; and they 
 might rely upon it that after regular discussion shall have 
 taken place, according to the established law of nations, I 
 will not suspend for one moment the full acknowledgment of 
 whatever shall appear to be your just right ; and I have no 
 doubt that we shall have no difficulty in terminating these 
 long depending questions to our mutual satisfaction.' ^ 
 
 And had the vengeful spirit of the despot shown itself 
 capable of appeasement or compromise, it is possible that a 
 rupture might even still have been averted. Mornington 
 understood well how averse his employers were from em- 
 barking in needless war ; and distrustful as he was of Tippoo's 
 intentions, he had many inducements to defer the risk of 
 hostilities if he could but hold him at bay. 
 
 When room for doubt was no longer left of the embassage 
 to Mauritius and the genuineness of Malartic's proclamation, 
 he wrote to the Board of Control for definite instructions for 
 his guidance in the changing condition of things. 
 
 • To Tippoo Sultan ; from Fort William, 14th June, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 163 
 
 So long as Tippoo could without hindrance keep up 
 his communications with the French in time of peace there 
 could never be security against a sudden outbreak of war ; 
 and to shut him in from supplies and reinforcements by sea, 
 the first opportunity ought to be taken to deprive him of 
 his provinces on the Malabar coast. His intriguing and 
 impetuous ambition would be certain to tempt him sooner or 
 later into affording such an opportunity. It was for the 
 authorities at home to think betimes whether such territorial 
 insurance would be worth the sacrifice it would necessarily 
 entail. A very able and exhaustive despatch ends with an 
 inquiry to which he asked from Dundas a definite and an 
 early answer. ' The orders of the Court of Directors and the 
 opinions of this Grovemment have uniformly concurred in 
 declaring that the landing of any considerable French force 
 in Tippoo's country must be the signal for an attack upon 
 him. I wish to know exactly if the term considerable is to 
 be construed as a limitation of my discretion. It appears to 
 me that the landing of any French force in Tippoo's country 
 is a sufficient ground of war, upon every principle both of 
 justice and of policy ; but more especially after the public 
 declaration which he has made of his designs against our 
 possessions. Any other construction will compel this Go- 
 vernment to remain an inactive spectator of his prepara- 
 tions for war in conjunction with France; provided only 
 that they be made gradually, and that the French force 
 be introduced into his country in small detachments.' * 
 The reply by anticipation of the Directors was already on 
 its way. 
 
 Simultaneously offers were made to the Nizam and the 
 
 Peishwah of a new system of treaty to increase the British 
 
 detachments at their respective courts upon condition that 
 
 the French corps should be disbanded or removed. Each 
 
 ' To Mr. Dundas ; 6th July, 1798. 
 
 m2 
 
164 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 power was made acquainted with terms offered to the other, 
 and the arbitrament of the Grovernor General in all cases of 
 dispute was stipulated as a means of averting future wars. 
 The Resident at Hyderabad was instructed to support 
 Secunder Jah the Nizam's eldest son, whose disposition was 
 deemed friendly, as against the undermining schemes of his 
 brothers who were supposed to be in league with Tippoo, and 
 to rely on Piron in any future contest for succession to the 
 musnud. A political agent dignified with the epithet of 
 ambassador was likewise sent to the Rajah of Berar with a 
 view of encouraging more intimate relations with us and with 
 the Nizam whom he inclined to aid in resistance to the grow- 
 ing power of Scindiah. On the other hand Scindiah was 
 specifically assured that if he would refrain from molesting 
 his neighbours he should have cordial and effective aid in re- 
 sisting the threatened inburst of the Afghans under Zemaun 
 Shah. Mornington sanguinely counted on the Mahratta 
 chiefs acceptance of his proffered friendship in order to 
 insure the integrity and quietude of his troubled realm. But 
 here as elsewhere, Asiatic despotism showed little apprecia- 
 tion of his exotic schemes for the establishment of a general 
 protectorate of peace. Like the twisted snakes of ancient 
 Greece or the thorough-bred wolf-dogs of feudalism, the 
 purpose of their lives was to wound one another ; and out- 
 landish inculcations to be quiet and to keep at home seemed 
 to them but unmeaning mockery. At each new turn of events, 
 indeed, the weaker combatant was always ready to profess 
 preference for Feringhee counsel and readiness to accept 
 the aid of British bayonets. Few opportunities were lost 
 by Mornington of improving occasions of this kind ; and by 
 degrees he contrived to weave a network of conventions and 
 contracts, subsidies and stipulations, which had each ally 
 (for so in Roman fashion he was scrupulously called) recog- 
 nised as a counterpart of many more, he might have less 
 
 \ 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 165 
 
 readily agreed to sign. But all other projects paled into 
 insignificance beside the primary aim of displacing or dis- 
 persing the Nizam's French guard. 
 
 The Resident at Hyderabad was instructed to engage for 
 a subsidiary corps of 6,000 men to be officered by us and 
 paid for out of assigned revenues by the Nizam, with whose 
 minister he was to confer without any disguise or reserve. 
 The French corps would be transported to Europe in Com- 
 pany's ships with their arms and stores, and landed in France 
 without any compromise or condition. But as the whole 
 object in view was the restoration of a triple defensive 
 alliance on a permanent footing, it was indispensable that 
 both the Peishwah and the Nizam should respectively engage 
 not to readmit French troops into their dominions, and to 
 acknowledge fhe Grovernment of Fort William as a court of 
 arbitration to whose judgment future differences were to be 
 referred. 
 
 ' Pursuing no schemes of conquest or extension of dominion, 
 and entertaining no projects of ambition or aggrandisement 
 either for ourselves or our allies, it is both our right and our 
 duty to give vigour and effect to our subsisting alliances 
 and treaties by restoring to our allies the power of fulfilling 
 their defensive engagements with us. Through the means of 
 moderate and pacific representations, confirmed by the force 
 of our own example, it must also be our policy to convince 
 the several powers of India that their real interest consists in 
 respecting the rights of their neighbours and in cultivating 
 their own resources within the limits of their several terri- 
 tories. To these efforts we must add a firm resistance against 
 the intnision of any foreign power which shall endeavour (to 
 the prejudice of our alliances and interests) to acquire a 
 preponderant influence in the scale of Indian politics either 
 by force or intrigue; but the primary object of all our vigi- 
 lance and care muet be the destruction of every seed of the 
 
166 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1798 
 
 French party, already grown to so dangerous a height and 
 still increasing in the armies and councils of the Nizam, 
 of Scindiah, and of Tippoo. The exclusion of the influence 
 of France from the dominions of the native States is 
 not more necessary to the preservation of our own power 
 than to the happiness and prosperity of this part of the 
 world.' ^ 
 
 Bent on forging a machine of government after his own 
 design, and of materials whose temper he could thoroughly 
 rely upon, he looked round with scrutinising gaze and studied 
 with single eye to their capability and adaptability, all the 
 younger men in the civil or military service of whom he 
 could learn by any means that they would if they could go 
 far on the upper path of distinction, and ' that they had it in 
 them.' While he stayed at Madras Captain Malcolm ven- 
 tured to forward some papers he had written on the condition 
 of the Deccan to Henry Wesley, with an expression of a hope 
 that they might some day be brought under his brother's 
 notice. On the voyage to Calcutta the packet was opened, 
 and more than one sagacious and un-timeserving sugges- 
 tion took the fancy of the new ruler. In September a 
 vacancy occurred in the Eesidentship at Hyderabad, which 
 Kirkpatrick was promoted to fill : and Malcolm, to his sur- 
 prise and delight, was named Assistant. The letter appointing 
 him was highly characteristic. ' I have been governed by no 
 other motive than my knowledge of the zeal, activity, and 
 diligence with which you have pursued the study of the 
 native languages and the political system of India. I wish 
 to see you previous to your proceeding to Hyderabad. There 
 are many circumstances relative to the political system of 
 India which it is proper you should learn from me as early 
 as possible. It will also be advantageous to the public 
 service that you should thoroughly understand my opinions 
 
 » To J. A. Kirkpatrick ; 8th July, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 167 
 
 on the various points with a degree of accuracy which can- 
 not be conveniently stated in writing.' * 
 
 Before the letter reached him Malcolm was on his way 
 to Hyderabad, whither he was sent by Lord Clive to promote 
 the reduction of the French corps and the proportionate 
 increase of our own. The change had been agreed to by the 
 Nizam, and an early day named for its completion ; but 
 adverse influences in the durbar contrived excuses for delay ; 
 and with only two battalions of sepoys at his disposal the 
 Eesident could not do more than urge and expostulate. 
 Early in October he was enabled to tell Azim ul Omrah that 
 four additional battalions with a due complement of guns and 
 cavalry were on their way ; and that if Piron and his com- 
 patriot officers were superseded there would be no indisposi- 
 tion to reincorporate the rank and file under our command ; 
 but if time were given there was reason to believe that the 
 distrusted legion would suddenly move toward the frontier 
 and take service under the Sultan in Mysore. The minis- 
 ter, sustained by the native general Meer Allum, obtained 
 at length the assent of the Nawab. A Proclamation appeared 
 on October 22 disbanding the French auxiliaries, and calling 
 upon them to lay down their arms and accoutrements as a 
 preliminary to re-enlistment in a new force. Piron, described 
 as a German adventurer intemperate in language and of un- 
 couth bearing, was personally unpopular with the men ; but 
 they had long known and liked their regimental officers ; 
 and called on without reason to discard old military ties of 
 long standing, they refused to obey. For some hours the 
 cantonment was a scene of passionate disorder. The English 
 troops had orders to take up a position near at hand ; and 
 had the mutiny lasted for a few hours longer a sanguinary 
 collision must have ensued. Malcolm being well acquainted 
 with the native language, gallantly offered to go alone into 
 ' Fort William, 10th September, 1798. 
 
168 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 the camp and try what could be done by reason and persua- 
 sion. He had made some way, when a counter-cry was 
 raised that he had been sent to betray them ; and he might 
 have fallen a victim to his humane temerity had not a 
 number of sepoys, who had formerly served under him in 
 the Carnatic and subsequently gone for better pay into the 
 Deccan, recognised their former captain, and making a 
 rush, raised him on their shoulders and borne him oflf in safety 
 from their angry comrades. 
 
 Some of the French officers came to terms the same 
 night ; and, mainly through the instrumentality of Malcolm, 
 all of them the next day gave in. Kirkpatrick, relieved 
 from an emergency most critical, did ample justice to the 
 merit of his able and chivalrous subordinate ; and when at 
 length Malcolm made his way to Calcutta he was received by 
 the Governor General with the warmest tokens of recognition 
 and confidence. His Excellency could not help showing how 
 pleased he was with his own discrimination — with having, 
 without even seeing him, chosen the right man for the 
 right place. Malcolm on his part was delighted to find a 
 ruler with the capacity and courage which he had long felt 
 were wanting at the head of Indian affairs ; and he mar- 
 velled every day more and more at the variety of Morning- 
 ton's knowledge of the complicated interests confided to his 
 care, and the maturity of his views concerning them. His 
 promotion rapidly followed. Mutual esteem by degrees grew 
 into a friendship lasting life-long ; and Malcolm, though he 
 did not always concur in the opinions of his distinguished 
 patron, never tired of extolling his great qualities, and bat- 
 tled eloquently with those who disparaged them. 
 
 In a Minute of Council an elaborate but laconic history was 
 put on record of the incidents and measures of the first three 
 months of the new administration. It recounted the growth 
 of rumour quickening into belief and ripening into fact of hos- 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 169 
 
 tility on the part of Mysore calling for defensive armaments; 
 of weakness in the Deccan requiring sustainment and help ; 
 and of turbulence and intrigue in the Mahratta States de- 
 manding vigilance and tact, combined with a manifestation 
 of resolve and readiness to curb all ambitious attempts at 
 encroachment. It laid down broadly and fearlessly the prin- 
 ciple of the new policy of empire — the assertion of the principle 
 that the government of the Company meant to be, and meant 
 to be recognised as being — primus inter pares among the 
 States of Hindostan. Self-consciousness breathes through 
 every line. Three months of unquestioned power, with nothing 
 but the sense of ultimate responsibility afar off, would have 
 beguiled a nature less ambitious and idealising into giving way 
 to the intoxication of power. Momington never grew be- 
 wildered or blinded by the dangerous potion. He was seldom 
 betrayed into official haste or heat. His enjoyment was not 
 delirium but ineffable delight. He looked as benignantly and 
 stepped as daintily as a king in a play. ' When it is remem- 
 bered that I did not take charge of this government until the 
 18th of May ; that the Proclamation of M. Malartic did not 
 make its first appearance at this Presidency until the 8th, and 
 was not authenticated until the 1 8th of June ; I trust it will 
 appear that I have proceeded with as much expedition as was 
 compatible with the due consideration of the various and im- 
 portant questions which demanded my decision. My present 
 intention is to explain and illustrate the principles upon which 
 that system is founded ; the means by which I hope to carry it 
 into effect, and the ends which I expect to accomplish by its 
 ultimate success and permanent establishment. In this retro- 
 spect of my conduct, I shall disclose without hesitation or 
 reserve the whole train of reflections which has passed in my 
 mind during the agitation of this intricate and extensive sub- 
 ject ; and I shall avow without disguise every successive varia- 
 tion of opinion, and every instance in which I have reluctantly 
 
170 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 submitted my unaltered judgment to the pressure of practical 
 difficulties : nor shall I deny that I have ultimately pursued 
 a course far within the limits of that to which the sense of 
 my own duty and character, the clearest principles of justice 
 and of policy, the unquestionable rights and interests of the 
 Company, and the honour of the British name in India, 
 would have directed me, if the obstacles to my progress had 
 not appeared absolutely insurmountable.' ^ Tippoo's last 
 communication to Sir John Shore, received at Fort William 
 on the day that the French force from the Isle of France 
 landed at Mangalore, had declared that ' his friendly heart 
 was disposed to pay every regard to truth and justice, and 
 to strengthen the foundations of harmony and concord estab- 
 lished between the two States ; and his desire that the retiring 
 Viceroy should impress his successor with a sense of the 
 friendship and unanimity for many years so firmly subsisting 
 between them.' 
 
 A despatch from the Secret Committee subsequently 
 authenticated the fact which had already reached him by 
 various forms of rumour that a great expedition had sailed 
 from Toulon on May 19 for the invasion of Egypt and India. 
 Grovernment had in consequence ordered 4,000 additional 
 troops for the defence of the Company's possessions, a part 
 of which they trusted would reach India not many months 
 after the receipt of their despatch. Should the expedition 
 not be intercepted in the Mediterranean, and be destined for 
 India by the way of the Eed Sea or by Bussora, two men-of- 
 war and probably a sloop would be stationed in the Straits of 
 Babelmandel and in the Gulf of Persia. * Our empire in the 
 East has ever been an object of jealousy to the French ; and 
 we know that their former Government entertained sanguine 
 hopes of being able to reach India by a shorter passage than 
 
 ^ Minute of Governor General, Secret Department, Fort William, 
 12th August, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 171 
 
 round the Cape of Grood Hope ; and we have no doubt that the 
 present Government would risk a great deal, and even adopt 
 measures of a most enterprising and uncommon nature, for 
 the chance of reducing if not annihilating the British power 
 and consequence in that quarter of the world. To effect 
 this without the aid and previous concert of one of the Indian 
 powers seems almost impossible and would scarcely be 
 attempted. In the present situation of India, Tippoo appears 
 to be the fittest instrument to be employed in the furtherance 
 of such ambitious projects. It is highly improbable that he 
 should have entered into any league with the French without 
 some apparent preparation on his part of a hostile nature in 
 furtherance of their designs. If such therefore be the case, 
 it would be neither prudent nor politic to wait for actual 
 hostilities on his part. We therefore recommend that you 
 should immediately take the necessary measures for bringing 
 him to a satisfactory explanation, accompanying it with such 
 a disposition of your force as may give effect to it ; and should 
 you judge that he is making preparations to act hostilely 
 against us, it will be advisable to take the most decisive 
 measures to carry our arms into the enemy's country, not 
 failing to make known to the powers in alliance with us the 
 necessity of such measure, and that we have not in view a 
 wanton attack upon our inveterate enemy with a design to 
 augment our own power, but a necessary and justifiable 
 defence of our own possessions, and calling upon them for the 
 assistance they are under engagements to furnish us. We 
 rely on your using the latitude allowed you with the utmost 
 discretion, that we may not be involved in war without the 
 most inevitable necessity, of which necessity the Governor 
 and Council must be the judge.' The despatch enclosed a copy 
 of Malartic's Proclamation. 
 
 The Porte incensed at the unprovoked invasion of Egypt, 
 was easily induced to write, dissuading Tippoo from his 
 
172 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 meditated alliance. Without warning and in a time of 
 profound peace, the Republic had secretly fitted out a great 
 armament and placed at its head their most adventurous 
 general for the partition of the Ottoman Empire. ' Conduct so 
 audacious, wanton, and deceitfully sudden was an unquestion- 
 able proof of enmity and treachery ; from intercepted letters 
 it appeared that the design of the French was to break up 
 Arabia into separate republics, to undermine the ascendency 
 of Islam everywhere, and to efface the religion of the Prophet 
 from the face of the earth. If allowed a footing in India on 
 the plea of opposing the English there, they were certain to 
 prove, as they had in all other lands, deceitful and rapacious. 
 They ought therefore to be by all means opposed in their 
 attempts to gain a footing, and discouraged in their machina- 
 tions against the English in the East.' ^ Tippoo was not 
 to be weaned from an alliance with France whose ultimate 
 aims he little feared, or led to forgive the injury and humilia- 
 tion he had suffered at the hands of Cornwallis ; and the 
 mediation of the Porte for the settlement of minor differences 
 between him and the Company seemed to his haughty and 
 implacable spirit but trifling with his lust of vengeance. For 
 him there was and could be neither rest or satisfaction till he 
 had reconquered all that Hyder had bequeathed him and he 
 had lost. Still the French might tarry in Egypt and come 
 not to his aid ; and till they came he must temporise and send 
 flattering messages and letters to Calcutta. In his private 
 answer he reminds the Porte how ' in forty years the English 
 had successfully subverted the Mahomedan powers in the 
 Carnatic, Bengal, and Oude ; and that they were now in open 
 confederacy with the Pagan Mahrattas who had conquered 
 Delhi, made the emperor their captive and put out his eyes. 
 They looked to the gradual reduction of all Southern Asia 
 to their yoke, and what respect could a nation have for the 
 1 Sultan Selim to Tippoo ; 20th September, 1798. 
 
I 
 
 1798 FORT WILLIAM. 173 
 
 religion of the Koran who everywhere had butchers' shops 
 open for the sale of pork ? ' ^ 
 
 Apprehensions of a French invasion constantly recurred ; 
 the Persian Government made no sign of interposition ; and 
 the aims and resources of Zemaun Shah were clouded in 
 obscurity. Bonaparte made no secret of his ambition to 
 invade Hindostan ; and even after he had devolved the com- 
 mand on Kleber, apprehensions from time to time were kept 
 alive at Calcutta of the appearance of a French fleet in the 
 Indian Sea. Coast defences were thought necessary at the 
 mouth of the Granges ; and the civil servants of the Company 
 with the professional and mercantile English residents were 
 embodied in militia corps for the protection of the town.^ 
 
 The commissioners appointed to treat respecting Wynaad 
 having made their report, the province was evacuated by the 
 Company's troops and restored to its former possessor. 
 Effusive professions of friendship and vows against the in- 
 terruption of peace were kept up during the autumn, while 
 all the time it was more than suspected that hostile intrigues 
 were carrying on with the French and preparations making 
 for war. On October 18 tidings came of Bonaparte's 
 landing in Egypt with his army, tidings which might well 
 quicken the pulse of responsibility at such a time. But 
 before the end of the month one of Nelson's lieutenants . 
 presented himself at Fort William, bearing the news of the 
 total destruction of the French fleet at the mouth of the 
 Nile. Calcutta was illuminated, and the event communi- 
 cated without delay to Seringapatam. On November 4, 
 preparations being advanced towards completion, Morning- 
 ton addressed Tippoo in terms at once frank and bold, re- 
 pudiating the semblance of any longer being the dupe of 
 
 ' Draft reply found after the fall of Seringapatam. 
 
 2 Letter to Lord Clive, Governor of Madras, October 11, and Despatch 
 to Secret Committee, 30th October, 1798. Quoted by Kaye, Life of Tucker y 
 p. 90. 
 
174 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1798 
 
 his false professions of amity, and warning him to break with 
 our foes or abide the consequences. ' It is impossible that 
 you should suppose me to be ignorant of the intercourse 
 which subsists between you and the French whom you know 
 to be the inveterate enemies of the Company, and to be now 
 engaged in an unjust war with the British nation. You 
 cannot imagine me to be indifferent to the transactions 
 which have passed between you and the enemies of my 
 country ; nor does it appear necessary or proper that I should 
 any longer conceal from you the surprise and concern with 
 which I have perceived you disposed to involve yourself in 
 al] the ruinous consequences of a connection which threatens 
 to introduce into the heart of your kingdom the principles 
 of anarchy and confusion, to shake your own authority, to 
 weaken the obedience of your subjects, and to destroy the 
 religion which you revere. Your letters to Sir John Shore 
 and to me have abounded in professions of friendship. It 
 was natural for me to be extremely slow to believe the 
 various accounts transmitted to me of your negotiations 
 with the French and of your military preparations; but 
 whatever my reluctance to credit such reports might be, 
 prudence required both of me and of the Company's allies, 
 that we should adopt certain measures of precaution and 
 self-defence, and these have accordingly been taken, as you 
 will no doubt have observed.' But to avoid a rupture, 
 Major Doveton had been deputed to negotiate terms of ac- 
 commodation on behalf of the Peishwah, the Company and 
 the Nizam, calculated to insure general peace. Time and 
 place were left to the choice of Tippoo.^ After seven weeks 
 the moody despot replied that he was delighted to hear of 
 the naval victory off the coast of Egypt, in which nine French 
 ships had been destroyed, and he hoped the Company's 
 Bahauder, who ever adhered to the paths of sincerity, friend- 
 
 > 8th November, 1798. 
 
1798 FORT WILLIAM. 175 
 
 ship, and good faith, and had the good wishes of mankind, 
 would at all times be successful and victorious ; and that 
 the French, who were of a crooked disposition, faithless 
 and the enemies of mankind, might be ever depressed and 
 ruined.' A ship had been sent to the Mauritius by trading 
 people of his Sircar which brought back a score or two of 
 adventurers seeking employment, and this was the only 
 ground of ill-natured rumours. But for himself the con- 
 tinuance of peace with all his neighbours was nearest to his 
 heart, and he was quite surprised at the mention of prepara- 
 tions for war. All he could promise was to observe existing 
 treaties whose modification he saw no reason to desire.^ The 
 vakeel spent a week on the road, and the evasive epistle did 
 not reach Fort William until Christmas day. 
 
 On the same day the Grovernor Greneral embarked from 
 the water-gate at Fort William on board the Grovemment 
 yacht for a frigate lying in the roadstead which was to 
 bear him to Madras, whither his zeal for the public service 
 impelled him to proceed, that no time should be lost in 
 correspondence where every day and hour had become of 
 moment in warlike preparations. 
 
 > Received 25th December, 1798. 
 
176 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SEEING AP AT A M. 
 1799. 
 
 Afloat once more upon the bosom of the Indian Sea, what 
 anxieties and aspirations stirred within him ! Amid the 
 pressure of affairs manifold and momentous, his thoughts 
 turned oftentimes towards home, and he longed for words 
 of recognition and remembrance by those from whom he 
 had been far removed for the first time. Out of sight, he 
 would fain be not out of mind. The ultimate verdict of 
 history on his performances in the East was a fine thing to 
 dream of in the dim future ; but the appreciation and ap- 
 plause of living competitors for fame is as a savour of life 
 imto life, to a spirit consumed by ambition. He found time 
 to keep up an animated correspondence with several of his 
 friends in England. Auckland, who loved gossip and wrote 
 well, kept him in news of Lady Mornington and his children, 
 and sent him the raciest articles and pamphlets on public 
 affairs, with confidential hints of what the world was not 
 allowed to know. How his susceptible, eager, inquisitive 
 nature must have gorged such delicious packets-full may be 
 gathered from replies like the following ; — 
 
 ' I request you to accept my acknowledgments for your 
 kind note of April 24, and for the " An ti- Jacobin," which has 
 amused me extremely. India cannot furnish an adequate 
 
1799 SKRINGAPATAM. 177 
 
 return for your letters and packets ; and if it could, you 
 know too well what the office of Grovernor Greneral is to 
 complain of the brevity of his letters. However I have 
 enclosed an extract from my letter to the Court of Directors, 
 and a return of the late French army at Hyderabad, which 
 will give you some idea of the state of affairs in this quarter, 
 and of the nature of my proceedings. The picture will be 
 filled up by such information as you will obtain from 
 Dundas ; and as the whole will only present myself in 
 different points of view, I think I may as well leave the work 
 to some other hand than my own. 
 
 ' On October 1 8 we learnt the destination of the Toulon 
 fleet and army to be towards India. Although I certainly 
 did not expect that the French would attempt the route by 
 Egypt, I have been convinced for a long time that their 
 views were turned this way, and accordingly (thank Grod) I 
 took my precautions as early as the month of June. We 
 can now defy them ; and I trust you will be of opinion that 
 the blow which I have struck at Hyderabad was not unseason- 
 able. It took place on October 22 ; and the intelligence 
 reached me nearly at the same moment with the glorious 
 news of the victory at Aboukir. Our accounts of the state of 
 Bonaparte's army leave little doubt of its final destruction. 
 Instead of " Delenda est Carthago " he must say now — 
 
 " Caxthagini jam non ego nuntios 
 Mitt am superbos." ^ 
 
 I cannot help thinking that this event will prove the signal 
 of a general revolt in Europe, and ttie source of peace and 
 security to the whole globe. 
 
 ' Let me express my gratitude, my dear Lord, for your 
 kind attentions to Lady Momington and to my children ; 
 such acts of friendship are of redoubled value at this dread- 
 ful distance. My health is and has uniformly been much 
 > Hor. Ode iv. 1. 70. 
 
178 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 better than it usually was in England ; and the pressure and 
 variety of business has been useful to my spirits ; but Lady 
 Momington must come out to me if she can. I am happy 
 to hear that you are formally in office : you have been so 
 efficiently for a long time. Pray remember me most cor- 
 dially to Lady Auckland and all your amiable family. I 
 hope they are all remaaarkably well in every respect what- 
 soever. 
 
 ' If any man can quiet Ireland, Lord Comwallis will 
 effect that great work. I trust you will now force a union. 
 It is difficult ; but in these days difficulties are our daily food, 
 and for one 1 find that I thrive upon it. 
 
 ' P.S. — I hope you will continue to let me know how 
 your quarter of the globe is managed.' ^ 
 
 The irrepressible sense of Jupitership in this is curiously 
 in contrast with the noble and tender language of the man 
 to whose goodness and wisdom he pays the just tribute of 
 his admiration as Viceroy of Ireland ; and who both preceded 
 and followed him in the government of India. His boast of 
 physical vigour amid the unaccustomed perils of Asiatic 
 temperature and treachery reminds one of similar words in a 
 letter of his great predecessor Warren Hastings, after he had 
 discomfited all his foes in council and in the field : — ' My 
 enemies died, sickened or fled ; I remained and carried on 
 the government.' 
 
 Would he remain long enough a Sovereign in all but name 
 of Hindostan, to build a monument as lasting of extended 
 rule ? His fate and fortune trembled in the balance. He went 
 as executive chief to supersede during the impending crisis 
 
 * The numbers of the Anti- Jacobin which afforded him so much amuse- 
 ment were those of the 16th and 23rd April, 1798, containing Canning's 
 well-known * Loves of the Triangles.' 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 179 
 
 the new President of Madras, and there})y to take upon him- 
 self, in the face of the watching world, the direct responsibility 
 for all that might ensue. Lord Clive, son of the victor of 
 Plassey, had been appointed to the second place of importance 
 in the East soon after he had quitted England, and the 
 correspondence that had taken place between them showed 
 how easily the stronger will led the more malleable. Never- 
 theless, a man of less judgment and temper than Clive might 
 have chafed at his virtual supersession by the presence of his 
 official superior on the scene. Happily no symptom of 
 jealousy appears to have marred their unity of purpose. 
 Mornington was too fond of flattery himself to forget how 
 agreeable it was to others ; and lavish in all things, he 
 bestowed it ungrudgingly on those he loved and trusted. 
 From Clive he had no secrets ; and relying on the ascend- 
 ency of his own intellect and will, he consulted him with 
 affectionate frankness as carefully on points where he had 
 long made up his mind as upon those of detail where he was 
 open to suggestion. Their friendship never flagged ; and 
 in his reports to Grovernment at home he never omitted an 
 opportunity of acknowledging, the devotion, probity and 
 usefulness of his friend. 
 
 Secretary Webbe had been propitiated by finding his 
 advice taken by the Governor General with reference to delay 
 in commencing operations. He was delighted moreover to see 
 at last at the head of affairs a great man who could measure 
 the greatness of difficulties, and who never wearied in wrest- 
 ling with them. He gave himself heart and soul to prepare 
 for the struggle he would have indefinitely postponed rather 
 than embark in unpreparedly ; and Mornington, who at first 
 resented his obduracy and railed at him in private as ' head 
 of the faction at Madras ' that stood in the way of reform, 
 learned to estimate justly his truly excellent qualities, and to 
 treat him with confidence and respect. 
 
 H 2 
 
180 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 A pleasant but unconspicuous house belonging to Mr. 
 Petrie, one of the civil servants of the Presidency, was engaged 
 for his accommodation and that of his limited staff; and 
 under the shade of the banyan trees in the garden he was 
 wont, ere the sun had risen too high, to walk up and down 
 dictating official despatches and confidential letters to his 
 brother Henry, and to a volunteer assistant from Calcutta, 
 soon to become one of his most prized and most devoted 
 friends. One of the birds, called by the natives Huma, was 
 observed to rest frequently on the topmost bough above his 
 head ; and happening to look into a Persian dictionary, he 
 was amused to find this species of eagle noted as the emblem 
 of prosperous empire, its image being emblazoned on the 
 flag borne before the prince in war. Few in the narrow 
 and busy circle of Europeans in Madras were likely to recall 
 classic auguries ; and not one probably amongst them knew 
 that an effigy in gold of the bird of presage still held in its 
 talons the canopy over the musnud of Mysore. What would 
 they not have given to know that ere many weeks the typical 
 clutch of power would be relaxed, and that the spirit of rule 
 was about to enter into a living and yet more aspiring 
 form ? 
 
 The whole tone of administration was gradually changed. 
 The coxcombry of clerkship was snubbed into diligence, 
 and fine-gentleman airs had to give place to civility and 
 regularity in office hours. Bankers and merchants took 
 courage from the spectacle of improved vigour in all branches 
 of the administration, and lent the Grovernment large sums 
 of money, where a few months before they would not dis- 
 count Treasury bills at less than usurious interest. The 
 remittances from Bengal in December were quickly exhausted, 
 and twenty lacs in addition were called for in aid of the 
 military chest. But by the time he had to move, Harris was 
 provided with specie sufficient to maintain his army in the 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 181 
 
 field till May.* Associated with him as a political council 
 with whom he should advise on all subjects of negotiation 
 during the campaign (subject to reference for approval to 
 Madras) were : Colonel Close, long Kesident at Poonah, 
 Arthur Wesley commanding the 33rd regiment, Major 
 Kirkpatrick who held a position on the staff, and Henry 
 Wesley his brother's private secretary ; with Captain 
 Malcolm fast rising into favour and influence, and Thomas 
 Munro, as joint secretaries. It is curious to note how, amid 
 all the labour and solicitude of the situation, the inappeasable 
 love of pomp craved for the means of display. In all the 
 excitement of gathering hosts and the impending peril of 
 the life and death grapple at hand, the Grovernor Greneral 
 found time to write to Fort William for his body-guard : a 
 request which Sir Alured Clarke had the good sense not to 
 comply with, and the good temper to invent plausible excuses 
 for neglecting. It would take too long to send them by 
 land, and the showy horses would be out of condition if sent 
 by sea ; ^ so his Lordship had to do without his toy 
 troopers. 
 
 Twelve months before Tippoo had proffered an alliance 
 to the French Government for the extirpation of the English 
 from India : his father had trusted kingly France, and he 
 put faith in Kepublican promises. In the last war the French 
 had forsaken him and their ambitious foe had prevailed ; but 
 let them now give their word and keep it, send him timely 
 reinforcements, and with the ' aid of their freed negroes and 
 their troops of the line he would purge India of these villains.' 
 He would pay, clothe, and feed his European auxiliaries, 
 except in the article of liquor, total abstinence being a 
 cardinal point of his morality ; but any amount of gun- 
 powder he would purchase gladly : and for the general prin- 
 
 • To the Court of Directors, 20th March, 1799. 
 
 '^ Private letter from Fort William, 6th March, 1799. 
 
182 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. ij^c) 
 
 ciples of democracy he professed profound respect. If the 
 Portuguese should interfere they must be expelled likewise ; 
 and the Peishwah and the Nizam must lose their dominions if 
 they gave succour to the foe.* 
 
 The Directory were too busy with affairs nearer home to 
 respond with ardour to the invitation from afar ; and it was 
 not until January 30, 1798, that the Governor of the Isle of 
 France was persuaded by envoys from Mysore to issue the 
 Proclamation destined to become so notable, of a joint 
 attack upon the possessions of the Company. 
 
 In a confidential letter to the Directory, Tippoo described 
 the embassy to the Mauritius, its objects and results, not- 
 withstanding the different colour put upon it in December 
 when trying to gain time. He alleged no ground of com- 
 plaint against us since the last war ; but avowed that his aim 
 was to recover the provinces he had then lost, and the expul- 
 sion of the English from all their possessions in Hindostan. 
 He was waiting only for a favourable occasion to commence 
 the attack, and he offered to make common cause with the 
 Eepublic under the most solemn vows of fidelity and zeal. 
 He proposed a descent on the Carnatic in concert with the 
 French landing at Porto Novo, but was ready to anticipate 
 its arrival if assured that it would come ere long. The 
 Portuguese colonies in Coromandel were to be partitioned 
 between him and the Kepublic.^ 
 
 Conflicting rumours from Constantinople, Bagdad, and 
 Bussorah as to the condition of the French in Egypt con- 
 curred only in attesting the presence of a large army there ; 
 what its destination might ultimately be was unknown. 
 From a private letter to the English minister at Philadelphia 
 we learn the strange and almost incredible fact that from 
 
 > 2nd April, 1797. 
 
 ' Copy of documents with the sign-manual of the Sultan found in his 
 palace after his death. 
 
1 799 SERINGAPA TAM. 183 
 
 August 26 till the end of March no authentic intelligence 
 had reached the Indian Government regarding Bonaparte's 
 army.^ As was natural, Bonaparte had lost no time in com- 
 municating with the ruler of Mysore. He had in point of 
 fact, addressed to him from Cairo a characteristic adjuration 
 to form an intimate and active alliance. 
 
 ' Liberty, French Eepublic, Equality. Bonaparte, member 
 of the National Convention, Greneral-in-Chief, to the most 
 magnificent Sultan, our greatest friend, Tippoo Saib. 
 
 * Headquarters at Cairo, 7th Pluviose, 
 7th year of the Republic one and indivisible. 
 
 ' You have been already informed of my arrival on the 
 borders of the Ked Sea with an innumerable and invincible 
 army, full of the desire of delivering you from the iron yoke 
 of England. I eagerly embrace this opportunity of testify- 
 ing to you the desire I have of being informed by you, by 
 the way of Muscat and Mocha, as to your political situation. 
 I would even wish you could send some intelligent person to 
 Suez or Cairo possessing your confidence, with whom I may 
 confer. May the Almighty increase your power and destroy 
 your enemies.' 
 
 Emissaries were forthwith sent to the Greneral, but the 
 negotiations languished, probably from the uncertainty as to 
 the means of naval transport to Perim or Cambay. What 
 hopes Tippoo still cherished in January 1799 can never now 
 be known ; but his tardiness in answering the English pro- 
 posals to negotiate pointed plainly to the design of wasting 
 the season until it should be too late to open the campaign. 
 On February 3 no answer had come from Seringapatam to 
 the Grovernor General's letter of January 9, though the 
 journey might l>e made in four or five days. The troops, 
 therefore had orders to advance, and with the consent of the 
 
 » From Fort St. George to Mr. Liston, Isb April, 1799. 
 
184 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 Peishwah and Nizam, war was declared. On February 7 two 
 vakeels with M. Du Buc, an officer of the French auxiliaries 
 from the Mauritius, sailed from Tranquebar with letters to 
 the French Directory, and on the 13th Tippoo's evasive 
 answer was at length received at Fort St. Greorge.^ 
 
 On February 1 9 the Nizam's contingent, commanded by 
 Meer Allum, consisting of 6,000 infantry, including a portion 
 of Piron's sepoys reorganised under British officers, an equal 
 number of subsidiary troops, and a large body of cavalry, 
 effected a junction with the corps under the English general ; 
 and on March 5 the combined armies entered Mysore. 
 
 The definite objects of the contest were declared to be the 
 eradication of French influence in the Peninsula and 'a 
 considerable reduction of Tippoo's resources and power.' He 
 had long been a source of trouble and alarm to all his neigh- 
 bom's, and the present was the second occasion within three 
 years that for self-protection and at heavy cost British 
 armies had to assemble on the Coromandel coast. 
 
 Six weeks of unremitting toil had been devoted by the 
 Governor General to superintending every ramification of 
 the comprehensive system of measures deemed necessary for 
 the impending struggle. Difficulties of finance, slackness in 
 the transport of supplies, deficiencies unsuspected in the 
 stores of ammunition for each corps, and shortcomings in the 
 baggage train ; want of appliances for medical aid and want 
 of horses for reconnoitring service ; every conceivable pretext 
 and device of indolence and apathy for procrastination and 
 of avidity for jobbing ; the irresolution of native allies and 
 the habitual indifference of Anglo-Indian officials, — all had 
 in turn to be dealt with, and their multiplied evils and 
 dangers anticipated and averted. If he could only infuse 
 into all around him something of his own sense of the 
 greatness of the stake, the true way of the game and the 
 
 * Despatch to Court of Directors, 20th March, 1799. 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 185 
 
 glory to be won, he had no doubt of winning. Nobler aids 
 in council or in camp man never had ; but how were subal- 
 terns without a political idea or a day's experience of 
 camping-out, of work in the trenches or the din of battle, to 
 be made partakers of his anxiety or partners in his ambition ? 
 With all the confidence reposed in him by the Directors of 
 the Company and by the Ministers of State, he could not 
 sleep for thinking how unpardonable in the eyes of both 
 would be the sin of failure ; how vain would be all explana- 
 tions, however true ; how pitiless the reproach of costly and 
 protracted preparation if, after all, the expedition came to 
 nought. It must not fail. Early and late, at noontide and 
 long past midnight, he was untiringly at work, conferring, 
 consulting, corresponding, correcting, re-examining, coaxing, 
 caressing, and it must be added in a whisper, occasionally 
 cursing after the manner of our troops who ' swore terribly 
 in Flanders.' It was the way of the time even with phleg- 
 matic natures ; and his was a nature in which it might be 
 said that phlegm had been left out when he was made. 
 By degrees however, and rapidly accelerating quickness 
 of degrees, he saw the fruit, under his signal power of 
 forcing, begin to look as if it would ripen, and then as if it 
 had begun to ripen, and at last as if it were really ripe. 
 With pardonable pride he could at length survey the pros- 
 pect opening before the army, and congratulate its com- 
 mander that nothing had been left undone to secure its 
 success. In a private letter to Harris when bidding hiai 
 go forth and anticipating that he would soon return 
 triumphant, he enumerates the varied pains that had been 
 devoted to needful preparation and the advantages they 
 were calculated to afiford. It has in it the ring of a silver 
 trumpet before dawn, solitary, penetrating, and clear. 
 
 'The army of the Camatic under his command was 
 unquestionably the best appointed, the most completely 
 
186 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 equipped, the most amply and liberally supplied, the most 
 perfect in point of discipline, and the most fortunate in the 
 acknowledged experience and abilities of its officers in every 
 department, which ever took the field in India, It com- 
 prised a more numerous and better appointed corps of cavalry 
 than any European power in India ever brought into action. 
 The army on the coast of Malabar appeared to be in an equally 
 efficient state.' As if after a final review he continued : 
 
 ' A powerful force destined to co-operate from the south- 
 ward was an advantage not possessed in the last war ; and in 
 the Baramahl every measure had been taken for the collec- 
 tion of supplies and to secure the earliest benefit from the 
 exertions made. The appearance of a large fleet upon the 
 coast could not fail to aid the operations by intimidating 
 the enemy and by encouraging defection among his subjects. 
 The Nizam's force appeared in the field at a much earlier 
 period than in the last war, and the cordial zeal of the Court 
 of Hyderabad for our success (so questionable then) now 
 admitted of no doubt. There was moreover no reason to 
 apprehend that the Peishwah would not make every effort to 
 assist with a large body of cavalry. The Greneral was invested 
 with full powers for the management of these extraordinary 
 advantages, and was surrounded by a staff uniting every 
 species of knowledge and ability. The enemy's country, the 
 nature of his resources, the strength of his defences, and 
 the character of his force were subjects perfectly familiar to 
 them : nor was any contingency likely to arise against which 
 they would not have provided. On the other hand, Tippoo's 
 army was known to have suffered essentially both in numbers 
 and discipline since the last war ; his finances were in great 
 disorder ; he no longer possessed the confidence of his army ; 
 his counsels were distracted by contending factions ; and his 
 spirits were dejected and broken by the disappointment of 
 his hopes of French assistance, by the retreat of Zemaun 
 
1 799 SERINGAPA TAM. 1 87 
 
 Shah from Lahore, by the failure of his own intrigues at the 
 Courts of Poonah and Hyderabad, and by the unexampled 
 vigour, alacrity, and extent of our military preparations.' ^ 
 
 After three months of fruitless offers to negotiate, further 
 delay was deemed inexpedient, and the allies appealed to 
 arms. In the declaration of war Tippoo's duplicity is set 
 forth in a brief but lucid narrative of facts, but while re- 
 fusing to give him further time for the foreign succour he was 
 awaiting, they were willing still to come to terms that might 
 reciprocally assure his dominions and theirs against encroach- 
 ment and invasion. Harris was authorised as Commander- 
 in-Chief to receive any embassy which the Sultan might 
 despatch to headquarters of the British army, and to concert 
 a treaty on such conditions as might appear to the allies 
 fitted to secure an equitable and permanent peace.^ From 
 Poonah came the disappointing news that in the distraction 
 wrought by contending factions there, all chance of the 
 promised aid from that quarter must be considered at an 
 end. Nor was it a slight aggravation of the anxieties of the 
 hour that week after week passed without any authentic 
 information from home regarding the disposition of the 
 English fleet eastward of the Cape, or of the probable 
 fortunes of the French arms in Egypt. From Constantinople 
 rumours came that Bonaparte's army was reduced to 1 7,000 
 men, but as to whether they were moving towards Syria or 
 remaining stationary, there was no account. In the retro- 
 spect of aftdr years Napoleon owned that he had often 
 dreamed of conquering the East, and measured more than 
 once strategically the time and toil that it would take, the 
 men and horses requisite, the troop-ships and magazines of 
 arms and food. His letters of blandishment to the Shereef 
 of Mecca, the Shah of Persia, and the enterprising Ruler of 
 
 > To General Harris ; Fort St. George, 23rd February, 1799. 
 « From Fort St. George, 22nd February, 1799. 
 
188 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 Afghanistan, suggestiug a concerted invasion of India, did 
 not evoke the responses he desired. But Mornington accu- 
 rately divined that in the winter of 1798 he found himself 
 caught in a trap out of which he would try to break at 
 any hazard. The Mamelukes overthrown, and under the 
 tricoloiu' order reigned at Cairo ; but the ships that had 
 convoyed his transports to Alexandria were sunk or captured, 
 and the armies of the Porte with British auxiliaries were 
 advancing through Palestine. Sooner than remain inactive 
 he would go forth to meet them ; and as he confessed at 
 St. Helena, he was persuaded that once ' possessed of Acre 
 his army might have gone to Damascus and the Euphrates ; 
 the Christians of Syria, the Druses, and the Armenians would 
 have joined him. Many provinces of the Ottoman empire 
 were ready for a change ; they were only waiting for a man. 
 With 100,000 men on the banks of the Euphrates he might 
 have gone to Constantinople or to India, and have changed 
 the face of the world. He would have founded an empire in 
 the East, and the destinies of France would have run into a 
 different course.' 
 
 But it was not till May 4 that Mornington's prognostics 
 were verified by the intelligence from Bombay that Bona- 
 parte was established in Egypt, had fortified Suez, and 
 was collecting craft at the head of the Arabian Grulf. The 
 season being then open for coming down the gulf, and a 
 possibility existing that some part of the French force might 
 escape the vigilance of our cruisers, it was become neces- 
 sary to look to the protection of every point which the 
 enemy might attempt, and to take the best precautions for 
 our security. To defend Calcutta it would be advisable to 
 prepare gunboats and armed vessels to cruise off the Sand 
 Heads, within sight of which French privateers not unfre- 
 quently captured our Indiamen. The French prisoners and 
 inhabitants of Calcutta required, he thought, the most 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM, 189 
 
 vigilant control ; and he directed the acting Grovernor of 
 Bengal in his absence to take immediate steps for placing 
 them under the strictest surveillance, giving him authority 
 to report summarily any whose conduct or language should 
 excite suspicion. The news thus transmitted in confidence 
 ought not to be prematurely disclosed ; but he added charac- 
 teristically, ' I believe nobody will now contest the policy of 
 my measures for the early reduction of Tippoo.' * 
 
 Napoleon's actual schemes on quitting Egypt, and the 
 means whereby they were destined to be foiled, were indeed 
 hidden from the eyes of those who prepared for battle on the 
 banks of the Cauvery. But had it been known at Madras 
 that already the French army had passed the isthmus and 
 occupied Gaza without a blow, another and if possible a 
 more imperative motive would have been supplied for 
 hastening the advance into Mysore. The mist of a trackless 
 desert hung impenetrably between ; and for many weeks, a 
 thousand miles apart, the like contention with empire for 
 the stake was destined to be waged eventually with the 
 same result. In the irony of fate the Moslem found at Acre 
 his chief ally and deliverer in an English commodore and his 
 blue-jackets ; while at Seringapatam his French allies were 
 unable to resist the rush of English bayonets. More 
 dramatic still were the foreshadowings of history ; Napoleon 
 being driven from his parallels against the Syrian fortress 
 at the very moment that Arthur Wesley was aiding in the 
 capture of the Mysorean citadel at the head of his regiment. 
 
 Amid the distractions of the time Mornington began to 
 ruminate projects of administrative reform for the future ; 
 and philosophically in his despatches home to note the evils 
 arising from our short-sighted system of displacing all the 
 men of the race which till recently had been ascendant in 
 civil and military rule, and providing for them no peaceful 
 * To Sir Alured Clarke (private and secret), 4th May, 1799. 
 
190 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 career whose duties or advantages should draw them into 
 the ways of order and acquiescence in our rule.^ 
 
 When Tippoo saw that a formidable invasion of his realm 
 was imminent he sent a letter of egregious triviality acknow- 
 ledging the admonition of Sultan Selim, but saying nothing 
 of his response thereto ; ceremoniously inquiring after the 
 Governor Greneral's health, and notifying his own intention to 
 go out hunting ; and intimating his willingness to receive 
 Major Doveton if he came with a slight escort. The season 
 was too far advanced to admit of further delay, and instead of 
 parley on the hill-side with Doveton, he was sternly told 
 that if he wished for peace he must now communicate with 
 Harris, who at the head of the allied army was about to cross 
 the frontier, but with whom he might still make terms. 
 What these terms should be were precisely defined in a 
 packet of sealed instructions. On passing the frontier the 
 Grenerai was to circulate widely the declaration of war, and 
 issue a proclamation guaranteeing from molestation all who 
 should not oppose him in arms, offering protection for life 
 and property to all who should furnish cattle, forage, or 
 grain. No pretence of pacific parley was to be suffered to 
 retard the advance to the capital ; but if before it was 
 reached, or the siege formed, authentic intimation should be 
 given by Tippoo of his readiness to accept certain specified 
 conditions, the commander was left discretionary power to 
 negotiate. And should he decline to send an embassage 
 before the junction of the invading columns and the for- 
 mation of the trenches round the city, * before opening a 
 battery or throwing a shell into the town the commander 
 was directed to communicate to the Sultan, either through 
 his envoys or by flag of truce, the demands of the allies. 
 1. He must agree to the interchange of ambassadors when 
 so required. 2. He must dismiss from his dominions all 
 * To Secret Committee, 22nd April, 1799. 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 191 
 
 citizens or soldiers of foreign States at war with Grreat Britain. 
 3. He must renounce all connection with France and debar 
 all her people access to his country, 4. He must cede to 
 the Company the seacoast of Malabar south of the Grhauts, 
 and the district and fort of Sacragerry, and make equal 
 concessions of territory to the Nizam and Peishwah. 5. He 
 must renounce his claims to certain districts in dispute 
 between him and his neighbours. 6. One crore and a half 
 of rupees must be paid for the cost of the war. 7. All 
 prisoners on either side must be released. The signature 
 must be annexed under Tippoo's seal, and the hostages 
 delivered within twenty-four hours. 
 
 Five days before Harris crossed the frontier, Tippoo at 
 the head of 1 2,000 men entered the territory of one of our 
 aUies to attack the column under Greneral Stuart advancing 
 from Bombay. After a sharp encounter at Seedapore he 
 was compelled to fall back, to await the main body of his 
 assailants in the centre of his dominions. On March 27 a 
 general action took place at Malavelly, the first in which 
 Arthur Wesley was engaged. His regiment threatened in 
 flank and front by the numerous cavalry of Tippoo, reserved 
 their fire till at close quarters, and then advancing with 
 fixed bayonets, won and held the central position of the day. 
 A general rout ensued. The swollen stream of the Cauvery 
 was forded without loss, and on April 7 the convergent corps 
 as originally planned sat down before Seringapatam. They 
 were there joined some days later by the corps of Stuart and 
 Floyd. On May 4, two months after the declaration of war, 
 the Mysore Capital was taken by storm and its infatuated ruler 
 was slain fighting sword in hand. The surviving members 
 of his family surrendered and all further resistance ceased. 
 
 The usurping dynasty having ceased to reign, the lineal 
 heir of the Rajahs supplanted by them was first to be con- 
 sidered. He was now summoned from the prison where he 
 
192 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 had been long immured, and treated by his unexpected deli- 
 verers with kindness and consideration. The right of conquest 
 placed indeed the whole of his ancestral territories at the 
 disposal of the allies ; and the population awe-struck at the 
 suddenness of the earthquake in which their late oppressor 
 and his adherents had gone down into the pit, obeisantly 
 bowed their heads to the will of the white-faced irresistibles. 
 Before the end of May the commandants of the provincial 
 forts signified their readiness to surrender ; the superior 
 officers were most of them prisoners of war, and it was 
 evident that no difficulty would arise in the re-settlement 
 of the country from the influence of the Mahomedan minority, 
 encouraged and enriched though they had been by Hyder and 
 his son. It had been their policy to crush Hindoo usages, 
 traditions, privileges and hereditary rights existing im- 
 memorially before their time, in order to concentrate in one 
 absolute and irresponsible hand the whole power of the State. 
 The knell of their despotism might therefore be made 
 the first note of native restoration, comfort and peace. This 
 magnanimous purpose the Grovernor Greneral conceived, and 
 would no doubt if he could have carried to completion. 
 The objects of the war had been declared repeatedly to be, a 
 reasonable indemnification for its cost, and the prevention 
 in future of the irruptive and intrusive dangers to the general 
 tranquillity which had made it unavoidable. For these objects 
 some annexations of territory to that of the Nizam and that 
 of the Company seemed indispensable, but a just rule of 
 partition was not so obvious or plain. 'A peace founded in 
 the gratification of any ambitious or inordinate view could 
 neither be advantageous, honourable, or secure. The ap- 
 proved policy, interests and honour of the British nation 
 therefore required that the settlement of the extensive 
 kingdom subjected to our disposal should be founded on 
 principles acceptable to the inhabitants of the conquered 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 193 
 
 territories, just and conciliatory towards the contiguous native 
 States, and indulgent to every party in any degree affected 
 by the consequences of our success. To have divided the 
 whole equally between the Company and the Nizam, to the 
 exclusion of every other State, would have afforded strong 
 grounds of jealousy to the Mahrattas, and aggrandised the 
 Nizam's power beyond all boimds of discretion. It would 
 have laid the foundation of perpetual differences, not only 
 between the Mahrattas and the Nizam, but between the 
 Company and both those powers. The Mahrattas unquestion- 
 ably had no claim to any portion of the conquered territory, 
 and any considerable extension of their sway was objec- 
 tionable, especially when accompanied by the possession of 
 strong fortresses bordering on the line of our frontier. It 
 was however desirable to conciliate their goodwill, and to 
 offer to them such a portion of territory as might give them 
 an interest in the new settlement without offence or injury 
 to the Nizam and without danger to the Company's posses- 
 sions. On the other hand it was prudent to limit the 
 territory retained in the hands of the Company and of the 
 Nizam within such bounds of moderation as should bear a 
 due proportion to their respective expenses in the contest 
 and to the necessary means of securing the public safety 
 of their respective dominions. An attentive investigation of 
 every comparative view of these important questions ter- 
 minated in the decision that the establishment of a central 
 and separate government in Mysore, under the protection of 
 the Company, and the admission of the Mahrattas to a 
 certain participation in the division of the conquered territory, 
 were the expedients best calculated to reconcile the interests 
 of all parties, to secure to the Company a less invidious and 
 more efficient share of revenue, resource, commercial advan- 
 tage, and military strength, than could be obtained under 
 any other distribution of territory or power, and to afford 
 
 o 
 
194 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 the most favourable prospect of general and permanent 
 tranquillity in India.' ^ Canara, Coimbatore, Daraporam, and 
 Wynaad fell to the lot of the Company, with certain districts 
 lying between their possessions in the Carnatic and the coast 
 of INlalabar. These completed the coast line of the Com- 
 pany's possessions from sea to sea, and their fertility left no 
 room for doubt that the revenue would meet the expenditure 
 requisite for their government. To these were added the 
 custody not only of the mouths of the Grhauts on our side 
 of the hills, but the entrances to the passes on the inner side. 
 The possession of the former alone furnished no effectual 
 barrier for the inhabitants of the lowlands against an enemy 
 possessing the summits of the mountains ; and the acquisition 
 therefore of all the entrances of the passes situated above the 
 Grhauts was an essential object of security against every 
 possible approach of danger from the table-land. Lastly, 
 the Company were to have the city and fortress of Seringa- 
 patam, by which their communications from east to west 
 were rendered more secure. To the Nizam were assigned 
 provinces in the aggregate quite as valuable, and to the 
 Peishwah a lesser accession, which being yielded as of favour, 
 was made conditionally upon the ratification of a new treaty 
 of alliance with the JNIahratta empire. JNIysore reconstituted 
 under the son of Tippoo would still have been a source of 
 distrust and danger from without and from within. Profes- 
 sions of acquiescence on the part of one bred in the treacherous 
 school which he had been, could not be relied on even in the 
 hour of abject submission. Humiliation of his family and 
 the diminution of his realm would never be forgotten, and 
 whatever his vows of friendliness and content he would be 
 constantly impelled to repair by some enterprise hatched in 
 conspiracy and launched without warning, the losses inflicted 
 by the recent war. His vices and even his virtues would 
 » To the Court of Directors ; Fort St. George, 3rd August, 1799. 
 
1 799 SERINGAPA TAM, 195 
 
 impel him to a secret course of enmity. ' The hostile power 
 of Mysore would have been weakened but not destroyed ; an 
 enemy would still have remained in the centre of our pos- 
 sessions watching every occasion to repair the misfortunes of 
 his family at our expense, and forming a point of union for 
 the machinations of every discontented faction* in India and 
 for the intrigues of every emissary in France.' There re- 
 mained the alternative of restoring the legitimate Hindoo 
 sovereignty in the person of the youthful Kajah whom every 
 feeling of gratitude ought to bind to those who had rescued 
 him from degrading captivity. Eeplaced upon the throne of 
 his ancestors, he would naturally feel the best guarantee of 
 its stability was the friendship of the power that had called 
 him from the depths of misery to set him on high amongst 
 the people. ' In the place of a power that had menaced our 
 safety, would be substituted one whose interests and re- 
 sources might be absolutely identified with our own, and 
 the kingdom of Mysore, so long a source of calamity and 
 alarm to the Carnatic, might become a new barrier of our de- 
 fence, and might supply fresh means of wealth and strength 
 to the Company, their subjects and allies.' The mass of the 
 population would instinctively look up with more respect to 
 a ruler of their own faith, and the sufferings which he and 
 his family had undergone could not but impart, wherever 
 they were known or remembered, an aspect of generosity to 
 an act which had at length terminated them. 
 
 The ancient Eaj with the addition of Bednore was not 
 in terms restored to the family of its Hindoo prince, but 
 granted anew as a fief of the empire, and recognised as such 
 by the treaty to which the Peishwah and the Nizam were 
 signataries. The only curtailment of its old Hindoo limits 
 was that of Coimbatore. 
 
 By a subsidiary treaty* to which the Peishwah and Nizam 
 » Ratified at Fort St. George 13th July, 1799. 
 o 2 
 
196 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 were parties, a civil list of a lac of pagodas and one-fifth of the 
 total revenues of the reconstituted State were settled on Eajah 
 Kistna Raj Udiaver, such portion of the remainder as might be 
 requisite being pledged for the payment monthly of seven lacs 
 to the Company to defray the cost of an auxiliary force and 
 of European officers to be permanently maintained in Mysore. 
 In default of payment the Grovefnor-Creneral was authorised 
 « to introduce such regulations anji#^Minances as he should 
 deem expedient for the intenlal management and collection 
 of the revenues, qr for the ])etter ordering of any other branch 
 and department of the Grovernment ,(>f^%iysore ; or to assume 
 and bring under the direct maj^gement of the servants of 
 the Company such part of the territorial possessions of his 
 Highness as shall be necessary to render the funds efficient 
 and available either in time of peace or war.' Mysore was 
 further bound to furnish rateably with its neighbours money 
 and men to resist, when called upon, any foreign foe. The 
 financial obligation thus created implied, no doubt, political 
 subordination and dependency ; but under the circumstances 
 it would have been hard to devise any conditions less stringent 
 that would have afforded a reasonable chance of giving the 
 native government newly set up, time to take root and grow 
 strong, while yielding such portion of the fruit as would 
 repay the cost of imperial protection : and without that 
 protection its stability could not have been secured. In 
 magnanimous or even forbearing justice-loving hands like 
 those of Minto or Bentinck, the discretionary power reserved 
 to the Viceroy for the time being would not be abused ; and 
 Mornington may be forgiven for not discrediting his suc- 
 cessors with the suspicion that the power he was thus creating 
 in perpetuity might come one day to be scandalously abused. 
 But even the Brahmin minister Poomeah, wise and expe- 
 rienced as he was, and naturally anxious to set firm the foun- 
 dations of the new government, could suggest no feasible alter- 
 
1799 SERINGAPA JAM. 1 97 
 
 native ; and he recommended the young Prince's Gruardian 
 to put her signet to the pact. On June 30 he was accordingly- 
 conducted to the musnud by the British Commissioners, 
 assisted by Meer Allum as representative of the Nizam. 
 
 While desiring sincerely to identify the future welfare of 
 Mysore with that of the Company's possessions, and discard- 
 ing with statesmanlike disdain the pitiful and rapacious 
 ideas of making the new feudatory State subservient to the 
 selfish ease or official cupidity of empire, Mornington felt 
 that it would be mere weakness to throw away in deference 
 to any theory or sentiment the opportunity which fortune 
 had placed in his hands of establishing on a firm and intelli- 
 gible basis the paramount authority, without whose reser- 
 vation in case of need or doubt, any general guarantee of 
 military protection must end in quarrel or failure. The 
 newly-constituted State might be ultimately made happy, 
 prosperous, and safe, if its prince and its people should 
 accept loyally the political conditions he proposed. He 
 desired to be thought of as a deliverer rather than a con- 
 queror ; but deliverance from the plagues of domestic op- 
 pression and frontier wars could only be assured by the 
 recognised presence of a subsidiary force, subject to the 
 orders of a British Eesident, and the public acknowledg- 
 ment that the restored Raj formed henceforth a constituent 
 portion of the Anglo-Indian Empire. The whole policy of 
 . his administration is boldly and even sternly, but withal 
 generously and wisely, recorded in exultant despatches to the 
 Directors. 
 
 ' In framing this engagement it was my determination 
 to establish the most unqualified community of interests 
 between the government of Mysore and the Company, and 
 to render the Eajah's northern frontier in effect a powerful 
 line of our defence. With this view I have engaged to 
 imdertake the protection of this country, in consideration of 
 
198 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1799 
 
 an annual subsidy of seven lacs of star pagodas ; but recol- 
 lecting the inconveniences and embarrassments which have 
 arisen to all parties concerned under the double governments 
 and conflicting authorities unfortunately established in Oude, 
 the Carnatic, and Tanjore, I resolved to reserve to the Com- 
 pany the most extensive and indisputable powers of inter- 
 position in the internal affairs of Mysore, as well as an 
 unlimited right of assuming the direct management of the 
 country (whenever such a step might appear necessary for 
 the security of the funds destined to the subsidy), and 
 requiring extraordinary aid beyond the amount of the fixed 
 subsidy eitlier in time of war or of preparations for hos- 
 tility. Under this arrangement I trust that I shall be enabled 
 to command the whole resources of the Eajah's territory, 
 to improve its cultivation, to extend* its commerce, and to 
 secure the welfare of its inhabitants. It appeared to me a 
 more candid and liberal, as well as a more wise policy, to 
 apprise the Eajah distinctly at the moment of his accession 
 of the exact nature of his dependence, than to leave any 
 matter for future doubt or discussion. The right of the 
 Company to establish such an arrangement, either as affect- 
 ing the Eajah or the allies, has already been stated. I 
 entertain a sanguine expectation that the Eajah and his 
 ministers, being fully apprised of the extensive powers re- 
 served to the Company, will cheerfully adopt such regulations 
 as shall render the actual exercise of these powers unneces- 
 sary. Much indulgence will be required at the commence- 
 ment of the new government, and it is my intention to 
 abstain from any pressure upon the Eajah's finances which 
 by embarrassing them might tend to the impoverishment of 
 the countiy and to the distress of the people.' Soon after 
 the enthronement of the Eajah,^ the Brahmin Poomeah was 
 appointed by the commissioners to be his Highness's Dewan. 
 » 3rd August, 1799. 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM. 199 
 
 Colonel Close, whose intimate knowledge of the habits and 
 language of the country had enabled him to render essential 
 service previously, was named Eesident at Bangalore, the 
 ancient capital, which was fixed upon as the seat of the 
 restored Hindoo Government ; and the Political Commission 
 having finished its work was dissolved. Colonel Wesley 
 was appointed Commandant of Seringapatam, thenceforth 
 the Company's fortress. The trust was felt to be one of 
 delicacy as well as importance, requiring undoubted skill and 
 integrity combined with more than ordinary vigilance and 
 care ; and it was upon these grounds that Harris recommended 
 him for the post. He still held the rank only of Colonel, 
 and there were in the army several officers of superior standing. 
 With respect to the language held by people on the occasion, 
 Mornington wrote to Harris, — ' You know that I never 
 recommended my brother to you, and of course never sug- 
 gested how or where he should be employed, and you know 
 also that you would not have pleased me by placing him in 
 any situation in which his appointment could be injurious to 
 the public service. But my knowledge and experience of his 
 discretion, judgment, temper, and integrity are such that, if 
 you had not placed him in Seringapatam, I would have done 
 so of my own authority, because I think him in every respect 
 the most proper for the service.' 
 
 General Baird, who led the critical assault and by his 
 intrepidity contributed so much to the triumph, gnashed his 
 teeth at what he deemed a slight in having a junior pre- 
 ferred for the honourable and lucrative reward. ' Before the 
 sweat was dry upon my brow, I was superseded by an inferior 
 ofiBcer.' His biographer resents the preference as a job, and 
 the historian brands it as a blot. Harris endeavoured to 
 console him with the assurance that the office being essentially 
 political, the choice implied no species of disparagement of 
 his merits as a soldier. But the case undoubtedly was hard. 
 
200 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 179^ 
 
 For many months he had lain a prisoner in the dungeons of 
 the fortress which now he had stormed. He was poor and 
 growing old, compensating fortune seemed at last to beckon 
 him ; and then when he had earned her kiss, she had mocked 
 him. The curse of caste was upon him, to have been born a 
 farmer's son : and it must be owned that in the Irish peer the 
 ieeling of family was strong. It may frankly be confessed, 
 moreover, that had the Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant 
 turned out to be what Baird in his anger called an inferior 
 officer, or had Baird himself been left to pine without distinc- 
 tion or reward, the judgment of history would confirm his keen 
 reproach. But no acknowledgment of service was ever more 
 eloquent, or claim for another's recompense more earnest, 
 than that addressed to Dundas on his behalf by Mornington : ^ 
 and of comparative pretensions to strategic fame it were vain 
 to speak. 
 
 After closing the narrative of the memorable events of the 
 campaign and subsequent settlement, the victor indulged in 
 paeans of triumph which might have been thought florid in a 
 eulogistic historian, but which indited by the author and 
 finisher of the work done in the discharge of his official duty 
 have certainly no parallel in the chronicles of self-glorification. 
 To point the contrast between the state of danger and 
 discredit which he found in the summer of 1798 and the 
 triumphant position of afiairs at the close of the Mysore^ 
 campaign was not difficult. The topics of the heroic anti- 
 thesis were sufficiently palpable, and no colouring was needed 
 to darken the one or brighten the other by the artist's hand. 
 Throughout the narrative of preparation, effort, self-sacrifice, 
 struggle, victory, and healing dispensation of benefit and 
 kindness, praises are lavishly bestowed on all concerned ; and 
 the approving recognition of the Directors at home is invoked 
 for the agents and officers, civil and military, whose unanimity 
 
 ' June 1799. 
 
1799 SERINGAPATAM, 201 
 
 and energy, fertility of resource and unweariness in well- 
 doing, might well furnish an example for all subsequent 
 time. But the artist takes care at each turn, with infinite 
 tact, to note that every detail from first to last was subjected 
 to his judgment ; and that without his personal suggestion or 
 sanction, nothing in council, in action, or in negotiation was 
 done. He sums up the net gains to the Company thus : ' By 
 the partition treaty an augmentation of territorial revenue of 
 259,056Z., and by the subsidiary treaty 280,009^., together 
 yielding, after liberal provision for the families of the van- 
 quished princes, a net addition of 459,056^. a year. The 
 ceded provinces it was estimated would under improved 
 management produce more than double what they had yielded 
 hitherto. At the same time the subsidy payable by the 
 Nizam for his increased contingent furnished in lieu of the 
 disbanded French corps amounted to 225,992^; and if the 
 improved produce of Canara, Wynaad reannexed, and Coim- 
 batore, realised what was anticipated, the annual fruits of the 
 policy pursued in the past few months could not be set down 
 at less than one million sterling. Additional charges would 
 no doubt arise on account of these new accessions and engage- 
 ments. But it should not be forgotten that while the 
 Company's territories were extended, their frontiers were 
 contracted and strengthened, their principal enemy utterly 
 destroyed, and an ally and dependant substituted on his 
 throne. The accumulated charges both of our preparations 
 and of the war must be considerable ; but from the moment 
 that Tippoo's negotiations with the French transpired, it 
 became an indispensable duty to place the Camatic in a 
 posture of complete defence. The only rational system of 
 defence against him was to assemble our armies on the coast 
 of Coromandel and Malabar in such force, in such a state of 
 equipment, and in such a position, as should excite in his 
 mind a just alarm for tlie safety of his capital ; no other 
 
202 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1799 
 
 plan was calculated to secure the Camatic against the ravages 
 of his numerous cavalry ; because no other plan would have 
 compelled him to concentrate his forces within his own terri- 
 tories for the defence of the vital points of his empire. His 
 capital was not only the object of his pride but the centre of 
 his power ; it was his strongest fortification, the principal 
 granary of his army, his only arsenal, the repository of his 
 treasure, and the prison of the legitimate claimant of his 
 throne as well as of the families of all his great chieftains. 
 On its preservation depended therefore the fate of his king- 
 dom ; and my judgment was always decided that he would 
 never abandon its defence but with his life. The rapid 
 movement of the British forces towards the scene of their 
 certain triumph was not only the most efifectual but the 
 most economical measure which could have been adopted to 
 frustrate the views of the enemy and to secure the tranquillity 
 of our possessions.' 
 
203 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 LEADENHALL STREET. 
 1799-1801. 
 
 On sick leave from Bengal, Mr. Tucker had visited Madras 
 in the course of the spring, and frequently lent his aid as 
 confidential supernumerary in the Viceregal bureau. When 
 Henry Wesley was appointed one of the Political Commission 
 to accompany the Commander-in-Chief, his place as private 
 secretary v\ras filled by the convalescent votary of work. This 
 brought him more closely than before into personal communica- 
 tion with the head of the Government, for whom his admira- 
 tion and attachment grew apace. Till his latest day he was 
 fond of recounting characteristic traits and anecdotes of the 
 life they led during that busy summer at Fort St. Greorge. 
 When alone the Earl spent little time at table, and was con- 
 tent with ordinary viands : but they must be served punc- 
 tiliously. An egg of doubtful freshness brought upon the 
 French servant who acted for the time as butler and valet 
 some hasty words of rebuke. ' Milor ! ' was the grave reply, 
 'dat not your lordship's egg — dat's the aide-de-camp's egg I' 
 and the delinquent was forgiven. The secretary's patience 
 was indeed sometimes tried, he thought unnecessarily. He 
 had gone to rest one night believing his day's work done, and 
 was half asleep when he was summoned to his Excellency's 
 room. He hastened thither in his dressing-gown, supposing 
 that some unexpected news had arrived permitting of no 
 
204 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1799. 
 
 delay. In reply to his anxious inquiry if anything was 
 wrong, the Earl put an ordinary paper into his hand without 
 making any remark ; but he probably felt the silence with 
 which his subordinate withdrew to be a respectful reproof of 
 his inconsiderateness : and nothing of the kind occurred again. 
 Mornington had the satisfaction of acquainting the Home 
 Government that an object for which he ha^d been negotiating 
 some time was peacefully attained. This was the occupation 
 of Goa, a fortified port near Bombay, in former days a place 
 of more importance to the Portuguese than it was ever likely 
 to be to us ; but nevertheless one whose position on the coast 
 of Malabar was certain to be coveted by a foreign foe, and to 
 be used as a convenient gate of communication by a domestic 
 enemy. The small garrison by whom it was held could not 
 hope to defend its old-fashioned ramparts against bombard- 
 ment from the sea or the fire of a siege train ; and proposals 
 were made to the governor that a British force should be 
 admitted by convention within the walls, of which the pay 
 should be ultimately arranged between the Governments of 
 London and Lisbon. Don da Viega Cabral hearkened to the 
 offer but hesitated to accept it. In the archives of Tippoo 
 documents however were found which left no doubt of the 
 intention to divide all the Portuguese possessions in India 
 with the French : and on their perusal the qualms of the 
 Estremadura noble gave way. On September 7 a British 
 detachment consisting of 1,100 rank and file under Sir 
 William Clarke, were received as welcome allies, and con- 
 tinued to perform garrison duty at Goa with the Portuguese 
 troops until the general peace. 
 
 The affairs of Tanjore pressed for adjudication ; but, ab- 
 sorbed in the manifold and tangled results of the campaign, 
 even the Earl's untiring willingness for work failed to find 
 leisure for the investigation of new and obscure details. One 
 evening late he handed Tucker a bundle of papers of which 
 
1799 LEADENHALL STREET. 205 
 
 he requested to have a careful precis by breakfast time next 
 morning. The recently appointed secretary opened the 
 packet in dismay, but resolved not to be wanting to his 
 exacting chief, he gave the night to his task and completed 
 it in time. There was little more than an hour to master 
 the narrative of contested claims to the musnud, and how 
 negotiations were begun, broken off, compromised, and re- 
 sumed again. The Council of the Presidency assembled, to 
 whose members the facts had more or less been familiar; and 
 each was in turn asked to state his opinion. Accustomed to 
 leisurely writing prolix Minutes rather than to the habit of 
 oral condensation, several hesitated, grew confused, and were 
 unable to explain their meaning. The Governor -Greneral 
 summed up, briskly and brilliantly going over the ground 
 which Tucker feared every moment would give way beneath 
 him, knowing as he best did how thin was the planking over 
 all sorts of pitfalls. But the little man trotted along lightly 
 and warily : and escaped without any noticeable stumbling. 
 Ameer Singh, whose title had been ascertained to be 111 
 founded, was set aside on a pension, and Serfojee, a son by 
 adoption, was recognised as the rightful Eajah. 
 
 A new subsidiary treaty was made with Serfojee on his 
 accession to his paternal inheritance ; and his character as a 
 ruler realised fully the promise of his youth. A quarter of a 
 century later he was pourtrayed by Bishop Heber as one of 
 the most singularly gifted and accomplished persons he had 
 ever known, being able to quote Lavoisier and Linnaeus 
 fluently, to appreciate fine distinctions of character in Shake- 
 speare, to write fair English verse, and withal to hold his 
 own with cavalry officers in judging the points of a horse or 
 killing a tiger at long range. 
 
 The ruler of Surat in the Bombay Presidency in the 
 following year was induced to agree to similar terms. A 
 further treaty was negotiated with the Nizam, by which he 
 
206 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1799 
 
 ceded certain provinces lately acquired by conquest, to pay 
 for the maintenance and equipment of three additional regi- 
 ments of sepoys, and for the unconditional guarantee by the 
 Company of his dominions against the encroachment of any 
 and all of his neighbours. This complete identification of 
 interests did not please the Mahrattas, whose normal state 
 was that of constant alternation between recovering from 
 one wanton war and engaging in another. But distrusts and 
 divisions amongst themselves prevented their combining for 
 mutual defence. 
 
 In September he returned to Calcutta. The adminis- 
 trative reforms designed in the preceding year were now 
 carried into effect. The Secretary's office was reorganised, 
 Tucker being appointed head of the revenue and judicial 
 departments. He was originally thought of to superintend 
 a general scheme for assimilating executive functions and 
 duties in the Madras Presidency to those established by Lord 
 Cornwallis in Bengal, and which in the main had worked 
 satisfactorily. Tucker did not want to be transferred,^and 
 deprecated the jealousy his intrusion would excite among 
 experienced and deserving officials at Fort St. Greorge ; whose 
 energies had been quickened by the irrepressible vigour 
 of the Viceroy during his stay amongst them. Before 
 Christmas they forwarded through Lord Clive a report so 
 clear and comprehensive on the subject of reconstruction, 
 retrenchment, and redistribution of tasks that Mornington 
 frankly owned himself satisfied that they could supply from 
 among themselves ' knowledge and talents sufficient for the 
 execution of the great plan he had in contemplation with- 
 out the aid of any person deputed from Bengal. He would 
 not send Mr. Tucker because he wished to leave to the 
 Madras service the full and undivided credit of its own 
 reform.' ^ In this as in a thousand ways, he proved him- 
 » Letter to Clive, 31st December, 1799. 
 
1799 LEADENHALL STREET. 207 
 
 self to have the rare wisdom of faith in sentiment as a 
 governing power. Impetuous and imperious in pursuit of 
 great and difficult aims, he would not be baulked by in- 
 dolence, stupidity, or worthlessness, or befooled by whimper- 
 ing complaints of hardship. If men would not move as 
 the public interest required, he would ride over them ; nor 
 pause to inquire if they were much hurt. But when he 
 found them ready to doff idle and slothful ways, and willing 
 to put their shoulders to the wheel of improvement, his sym- 
 pathy was prompt and outspoken ; for he longed to loyalise 
 their temper and to breathe into their hearts something of 
 his own spirit of pride and patriotism. Mr. Webbe the 
 chief civil servant at Madras, who at first had seemed to 
 Momington to be unyielding and resistant, was prominent 
 in suggesting the means of accomplishing what was desired ; 
 and from having been an object of distrust, perhaps even of 
 dislike, he became thenceforth a favourite of Momington 
 and in time of need a genuine friend. 
 
 ' I have found,' said Wellesley, ' the officers of the Secre- 
 tariat to possess the industry of clerks with the talents of 
 statesmen.' ^ 
 
 In the course of this year the Grovernor-Greneral called 
 on Mr. Tucker to accept the office of Accountant-Greneral 
 of India. It was no small responsibility, and no slight 
 labour. Financial embarrassment was at this time new to 
 the Indian Grovernment. Lord Cornwallis, on laying down 
 the reins of office had left an overflowing treasury ; and it 
 was not until the closing years of Sir John Shore's adminis- 
 tration that the surplus had disappeared. But Wellesley 
 found that terrible word deficit ready written for him in the 
 Indian accounts, and costly military operations were forced 
 upon him by the hostility of Asiatic enemies and the 
 intrigues of their European allies. At the commencement of 
 > Ibid, page 102. 
 
208 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1800 
 
 the century there were two causes ever in grievous operation 
 to aggravate the perplexities of Indian financiers. In the 
 first place there was a twofold demand for money. Money 
 was required for political and for commercial purposes. 
 There were armies to be paid ; and there was the investment 
 to be provided. In the second place there was no such thing 
 as public credit. When the revenue was exhausted, money 
 was to be borrowed. But money was then obtained by 
 Grovernment only at ruinous rates of interest. Nor was the 
 general want of confidence in Government expressed even 
 by the necessity of paying 12 per cent, on the money which 
 they raised by loan. In the spring of 1800 this 12 per cent, 
 paper — Treasury notes payable in the ensuing autumn — was 
 selling at a discount of 3 or 4 per cent. The native bankers 
 had no faith in Government securities, and either held back 
 their capital or employed it in their private speculations. 
 Exorbitant rates of interest were obtainable from the land- 
 holders, who looked under the operation of the Permanent 
 Settlement to the realisation of a still larger interest from 
 the improvement of their lands. And the general disorder 
 of the Company's finances abroad opened many sources of 
 gain to the capitalist, who was made the medium of ex- 
 change between difierent districts and trafficked largely in 
 the metallic currency. The revenue payer was for the most 
 part largely indebted to the native capitalist, through whom 
 his payments were principally made to Government. There 
 was a scarcity of silver coin in those days. The silver was 
 in the hands of the native capitalist, from whom it was 
 only to be bought at a discount, sometimes of as much as 
 6 or 7 per cent. 
 
 To the remedy of these evils Mr. Tucker brought the 
 experience of a practical man of business and the skill of an 
 adroit financier. He knew that to be weak is to be miserable : 
 to confess weakness to be miserable in the extreme. Whilst 
 
i8oo LEADENHALL STREET. 209 
 
 Grovemment were paying 12 per cent, for the money they 
 borrowed, their securities were at a discount because their 
 credit was bad. It was plain enough under the circumstances 
 to the Accountant- Greneral that if the public credit could be 
 established on a secure basis, all the rest would soon follow. 
 
 It is permitted neither to men or to nations all at once to 
 take large views of financial reform. The Accountant-Greneral 
 had not only to provide for the wants of the Presidency 
 to which he was immediately attached, but to answer the 
 demands of Madras and Bombay, which could not meet their 
 own charges. No small portion of Mr. Tucker's time during 
 the first few months of his term of office as Finance Minister 
 was consumed by the arrangements necessary for the supply 
 of remittances and the regulation of exchange operations be 
 tween the difierent treasuries in the Company's dominion. 
 
 Through the cloud of incense and flattery raised around 
 him, Mornington's heart yearned towards home, and he would 
 have given a thousand salaams and salutes in Hindostan for 
 one quiet word of exultant appreciation from friends at 
 Stowe or Holwood, to whose confidence he owed all. His 
 imagination dwelt upon this tantalising theme till the sen- 
 sation almost giddied him ; and made him querulous and 
 discontented as days and weeks rolled by without bringing 
 from England that gush of recognition for which his thirsty 
 egotism longed. 
 
 The fall of Seringapatam was not known in England till 
 September 1799. The delight of ministers and court was 
 for once thoroughly participated in by all classes of the com- 
 munity. Pitt and Dundas wrote commending, friends and 
 relatives exulting; everybody sympathising, whether they 
 would or no, in triumph so unexpected and so great. A dis- 
 tinguished female correspondent wrote : ' At this moment my 
 dear Lord, you are the admiration of all Europe. May you 
 long enjoy the glorious laurels you have gained, in health, 
 
 P 
 
210 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1800 
 
 happiness, and every domestic blessing. Lady Momington 
 was so good as to let your lovely boys come and see me when 
 in town. I left your friend and mine, Le Premier, in better 
 health and spirits than I have seen him for some years. I 
 spent some days at Wimbledon with the gang, and left with 
 regret. I hear Lord Cornwallis talks with rapture and sur- 
 prise of your noble administration in India, and he is a good 
 judge.'' From his earliest friend at Eton whom for years he 
 had not met, came a tribute truly touching. ' Believe me, 
 no man has more warmly participated in your triumphs or 
 done more ample homage to the ability which effected them. 
 I often glory in the exertions of the friend of my youth in 
 defence of our common country.' ^ 
 
 The King's speech at the opening of Parliament in Sep- 
 tember, and Pitt's affectionate letter of personal praise and 
 official pledge of honour and reward, made up for much of 
 the vexation of delay. Preoccupation with the pressing 
 affairs of a singularly anxious and exciting time in Europe did 
 not account to him for the silence of some who he thought 
 might have written. Lord Buckingham was not one of them. 
 He was in truth ineffably proud of the success which one of 
 his early proteges had so signally attained ; and in which 
 another had taken no inconsiderable part. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary was so blinded with the mass of 
 Continental correspondence that he was utterly unable to 
 read the Indian despatches. Eastern objects ' infinitely to 
 his honour and to the public service wholly occupy WeUesley's 
 mind, but for these I have hardly a pigeon-hole left in mine, 
 except as they are connected with his merit, which all man- 
 Jkind does justice to.' ^ 
 
 A letter to Lord Buckingham shows how warmly he felt 
 
 * From the Duchess of Gordon, Received February 1800. 
 
 2 From Sir John Newport ; February 1800. 
 
 s Grenville, Cleveland Row, 17th February, 1800. 
 
iSoo LEADENHALL STREET, 211 
 
 the terms of eulogy in which his old schoolfellow Grenville 
 had moved the thanks of the Lords for the successes in 
 Mysore. 'Your very kind and affectionate letter of Sep- 
 tember 27 gave me the greatest pleasure, and I cannot ex- 
 press to you my happiness at reading the account of your 
 manner of mentioning me in moving the address to the 
 King on the first day of the Session. My expectations of the 
 advantages to be derived from our success in Mysore have 
 been fully answered ; its operation pervades every interest of 
 G-reat Britain in India, to the remotest extremities of this 
 part of the world. Henry I flatter myself has afforded you 
 full satisfaction with regard to the settlement of our con- 
 quests. Pray, my dear Lord, remember me most kindly to 
 Lady Buckingham and all your family, and believe me ever, 
 with the most cordial sentiments of gratitude and esteem, 
 yours most faithfully and affectionately. 
 
 ' I continue in good health, and always in better spirits in 
 proportion to the increase of my business. Pleasure, dis- 
 tinct from business, is not a plant of this clime.' ^ 
 
 February 6 was by proclamation appointed as a day 
 of thanksgiving for the restoration of peace and the suc- 
 cess of our arms. In the early morning all the troops in 
 garrison mustered to take part in the celebration, and the 
 curious multitude thronged every housetop and window to 
 witness the spectacle. Ere sunrise the civil and military 
 functionaries of every degree assembled at Grovemment House, 
 and in procession accompanied Lord Wellesley on foot to 
 church, where a Te Bewm and appropriate anthems were 
 sung : salvoes of artillery from the ramparts concluding the 
 ceremonies of the day. 
 
 Henry Wesley who arrived in London soon after 
 Christmas, brought Lady Grenville a lion's head in gold and 
 
 > Fort William, 27th January, 1800. 
 f2 
 
212 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1800 
 
 a fragment of Tippoo's throne. To wife and children there 
 was no lack of dazzling presents. 
 
 The Court of Proprietors voted unanimously on November 
 13, 1799, thanks to the Grovernor General ' for the wisdom, 
 energy, and decision displayed by him in the discharge of his 
 arduous duty from the period of his arrival in India until 
 the glorious and happy termination of the late war by which 
 the power of the Sultan of Mysore and the influence of the 
 French in India have been crushed, events which promise 
 to establish on a firm basis the tranquillity and security of 
 the British dominions in India.' 
 
 Greorge III. readily assented on the recommendation of 
 his Minister to advance the Earl to the dignity of Marquess 
 in the Irish peerage, believing probably that with his slender 
 fortune he would therewith be content. For some reason 
 unexplained his new title was not gazetted till December, 
 but the intimation of what he might expect was contained 
 in a letter full of kindness and laudation from the minister, 
 who could not have imagined that it would have been 
 received with feelings of ineffable disappointment and chagrin. 
 Fed with flattery to the full, and far removed from the 
 corrective influences which at home would hardly have sufficed 
 to keep his egotism within bounds, the Grovemor-Grenerars 
 sense of his own glory and its desert exceeded greatly the 
 friendly appreciation even of Pitt. Instead of satisfaction 
 at being raised to the dignity of a Marquess, his disappoint- 
 ment overflowed in a letter to the minister : ^ 
 
 ' He could not describe his anguish of mind in feeling him- 
 self bound by every sense of duty and honour to declare his 
 bitter disappointment at the reception which the King had 
 given to his services, and at the ostensible mark of favour 
 which he had conferred upon him. In England as in India the 
 disproportion between the service and the reward would be 
 28th April, 1800; Fort William, Calcutta. 
 
i8oo LEADENHALL STREET, 213 
 
 imputed to some opinion existing in the King's mind of his 
 being disqualified by some personal incapacity to receive the 
 reward of his conduct. He left him (Mr. Pitt) to judge 
 what the effect of such an impression was likely to be on the 
 minds of those whom he was appointed to govern ; and with 
 what spirit or hope of success he could attempt to take that 
 lead among the allies which it must now be the policy of the 
 British Goverimaent to assume in India. He would confess 
 openly that as he was confident there had been nothing Irish 
 or pinchbeck in his conduct or in its result, he felt an equal 
 confidence that he should find nothing Irish or pinchbeck 
 in his reward. His health must necessarily suffer with his 
 spirits ; and the mortifying situation in which he was placed 
 would soon become intolerable to him. Mr. Pitt must 
 therefore expect either to hear of some calamity happening 
 to him or to see him in England ; where he should arrive 
 in perfectly good spirits, in the most cordial good temper 
 with all his friends, and in the most firm resolution to pass 
 the remainder of his life in the country, endeavouring to for- 
 get what had been inflicted upon him, and praying, " Novos 
 consules, legionesque Britannas, ita in Asia bellum gerere, 
 ut, me consule, bella gesta sunt." 
 
 Ever, dear Pitt, 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 
 MORNINGTON. 
 
 (Not having yet received my double-gilt potato).' 
 
 In fact the vainglorious Governor-General had made up 
 his own mind that a Dukedom was the fitting recompense 
 for his conquest of Mysore, and being given to prophecy 
 he had in all likelihood announced beforehand the coming 
 honours which from an ungrateful country never came. Pitt 
 was not to be moved by his friend's hysterics, and subse- 
 •quent ministers proved alike obdurate. To a private friend 
 
214 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i«oo 
 
 he wrote that he should never have health or happiness till 
 this outrage, as he called it, was repaired. The irritability 
 of temperament to which through life he was frequently a 
 prey, and the continued strain of daily increasing responsi- 
 bilities of government, led him unconsciously to exaggerate 
 the effect upon his bodily vigour of his political disappoint- 
 ment. But in more than one letter during the spring of 
 1800 there are allusions to physical disability from gout 
 and other maladies ; and in a private note to Sir Sidney 
 Smith in April, he apologises for not answering a confidential 
 communication from him respecting an expedition to the 
 Red Sea, to drive the French out of Egypt, through ' indis- 
 position which rendered him unable at that time to write- 
 to him with his own hand.' 
 
 Henry Wesley was sent home to render a full account of 
 the rape and rehabilitation of Mysore as the last partner 
 admitted to the federal household of Anglo-Indian Empire ;. 
 and Momington returned to Bengal where his presence was 
 anxiously looked for. On his first arrival from Europe he 
 had found government out of gear, and he had set about 
 the business of refitting and repair. But the pressure of 
 external danger and the military and financial requirements 
 of the time had absorbed too much of his attention to allow 
 him leisure for departmental or other reforms ; and during^ 
 his absence disorganisation and even disaffection had become 
 manifest in a variety of ways. 
 
 While awaiting at Madras the progress of the campaign, 
 on every detail of which he corresponded frequently with 
 Harris and with his brothers at headquarters, accounts 
 reached Mornington from Calcutta of the premature explosion 
 of a conspiracy to displace the Nawab Vizier of Oude and 
 set up in his room Vizier Ali by the help from Cabul of 
 Zemaun Shah. The pretender had fled from Benares, and 
 at the head of a numerous band of horse threatened to make 
 
i8oo LEADENHALL STREET. 215 
 
 himself troublesome ; but many of his accomplices had been 
 seized, and their papers revealed such ramifications of a 
 widely extended plot as made the Grovemor-Greneral im- 
 patient to return to Bengal. He believed, however, that 
 completion of his enterprise against Tippoo was the primary 
 duty of the hour, and that as long as his presence might 
 contribute to sustain or quicken the vigour of all engaged 
 in it, he ought not to quit Fort St. Greorge. He had identi- 
 fied himself in fact so thoroughly with the expedition, and 
 the tragic scene of the impending issue was so near at hand, 
 that his departure from whatever cause while its fate trembled 
 in the balance, would probably have chilled the fervour if not 
 the faith of many who had come to take fire from his exhaust- 
 less and inflaming spirit. 
 
 Among the Mahomedan population rumours of invasion 
 in the South by Tippoo, and in the North by Zemaun Shah, 
 might it was feared rekindle the scattered embers of resist- 
 ance to the rule of the Company, not yet thirty years old. 
 Shums ul Dowlah, a restless and presumptuous man, who had 
 married the daughter of the Nawab Nizam, was said to hold 
 language openly tending to foment subversive schemes, and 
 was suspected of plotting with certain French residents at 
 Chandernagore, and with persons of his own religion and race 
 in Orissa. His chief confidant was the poet Mirza-Jaen Ta- 
 Pish, whose romantic verse was recited with applause in the 
 presence of many a zemindar, and some of which in trans- 
 lation found its way to English ears. But his projects 
 would seem to have been as transparent and as frail as the 
 gossamer webs of Dacca, where he had been sent to dwell, 
 to keep him out of harm's way. At Moorshedabad they 
 were uniformly disowned and disfavoured ; and save that he 
 was compelled to give his parole to remain at or near his 
 recognised abode, no measure of severity was taken regarding 
 him. In a private letter from Madras the Grovernor-General 
 
216 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1800 
 
 commended his deputy's caution in not answering some 
 foolish message which had been addressed to him by Shums ul 
 Dowlah, the characteristically jealous terms of which are of 
 interest now that the foolish provocation had been absolutely 
 forgotten. ' I entirely approve of your judgment in referring so 
 delicate and important a question to my decision. Whatever 
 temporary inconveniences may occasionally result from the 
 delay incident to such references, the principle on which 
 they are founded ought to be strictly observed. The main- 
 spring of such a machine as the Government of India can 
 never be safely touched by any other hand than the principal 
 mover.' 
 
 He suggests however extra vigilance in observing any 
 tendencies to excitement in the old capital of the province. 
 No symptom of disturbance actually manifested itself, and the 
 interchange of amenities and courtesies was never interrupted 
 between the palace of the Nawab and Fort William. 
 
 A more difficult case was that of the ex-Nawab of Oude, 
 whom even Sir John Shore had found it impossible to tole- 
 rate and whom he was compelled to depose. For the sake of 
 vengeance or with some mad expectation of regaining his for- 
 feited throne, he had become a sort of political bandit ; and 
 surrounded by outlaws as reckless as himself he threatened 
 to become a terror wherever he roved, and to spread the sense 
 of insecurity under his kinsman's infirm rule. On receiving 
 an intimation that he must quit Benares and take up his 
 abode at Calcutta, Ali suddenly proceeded to the house of 
 the British Kesident, with whom he had hitherto lived on 
 friendly terms, and who in endeavouring to escape from his 
 revilings was treacherously slain. Five other English gentle- 
 men shared his fate, and but for the accidental presence of 
 a troop of cavalry a general massacre of all Europeans in the 
 town would have ensued. 
 
 The traditions of The Pale were not likely to make 
 
i8oo LEADENHALL STREET, 217 
 
 Momington nice about the way of dealing with such a 
 marauder. He wrote to Sir A. Clarke : ' I am concerned to 
 observe the slow progress made by Major-Greneral Stewart 
 against Vizier Ali and his banditti. I scarcely know a point 
 of more importance to our interests in India than the 
 capture or death of that young assassin and the dispersion 
 of his followers.' 
 
 After some months he was captured and brought to Cal- 
 cutta where he was detained in close custody in compliance 
 with the entreaties of the Court of Lucknow, whose fears of 
 insurrection and invasion were continually on the increase. 
 
 A treaty of friendship with Nepaul was made in October 
 1800, without any mention of territorial or subsidiary con- 
 ditions, but solely with a view of securing to the north-east 
 frontier the blessings of tranquillity ; and after some negotia- 
 tions with the semi-barbarous sovereign of Ava apprehensions 
 of disturbance from that quarter were likewise brought to 
 an end. 
 
 The incentives to sedition in the local newspapers caused 
 him much uneasiness. ' I cannot describe the anxiety excited 
 in my mind by several paragraphs which have lately appeared 
 in the newspapers at Calcutta. I cannot but suspect the 
 existence of a systematic design of mischief among the edi- 
 tors of several papers, particularly the " Asiatic Mirror," the 
 *' Telegraph," and the "Post." In these papers paragraphs 
 <5ontinually appear tending to magnify the character and 
 power of the French, and to expose every existing or possible 
 weakness in our situation.* He then gave directions that 
 one of the editors, Dr. Bryce, should be forthwith put on 
 board ship and sent home as an example to warn others 
 engaged in playing with political combustibles. He was 
 determined to adopt an entirely new system of police and 
 press control. 
 
 One aggravating source of anxiety and diflficulty, which 
 
218 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1801 
 
 in our days of telegraphy and steam we almost forget how to 
 gauge, was the length of interval which frequently occurred 
 without communication. ' In the present year I was nearly 
 seven months without receiving one line of authentic intelli- 
 gence from England. My distress and anxiety of mind were 
 scarcely supportable. Speedy, authentic, and regular intel- 
 ligence from Europe is essential to the conduct of trade and 
 government of this empire. If the sources of information be 
 obstructed, no conscientious man can undertake this weighty 
 charge.' ^ Its multivariety under his expanding and compre- 
 hensive policy grew greater day by day. 
 
 For the next five years he remained to extend and 
 solidify our empire in Asia, regardless of the misgivings of 
 Cannon Eow, which was always beseeching him to be quiet ; 
 and the protests of Leadenhall Street, whose stockholders 
 cursed his conquests and war loans; and the carping and 
 nagging of all the grumblers for whom he failed to find 
 room in his ever-expanding field of official patronage and 
 commissariat contracts. One of these was a commercial 
 speculator, Mr. Paull, a talkative gentleman of no great 
 talents, who early began to accumulate grievances and 
 grudges against the Governor-Greneral for the purpose of 
 impeachment on his return home. 
 
 The President of the Board of Control in moving certain 
 financial resolutions on June 12, 1801, regarding the in- 
 vestments and liabilities of the Company, congratulated the 
 country on the great improvement that had taken place in 
 the Company's affairs. Not only were the actual balances in 
 hand better than they had formerly been, but the outlook of 
 resources for the future had been enhanced by the increase 
 of territorial revenues to the extent of several millions 
 sterling. The area added since 1798 to the Company's 
 
 ^ To Mr. Hugh Inglis, Chairman of the Court of Directors, 6th October,. 
 1800. 
 
i8oi LEADENHALL STREET. 219 
 
 dominion in the peninsula was in fact as large as that of the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 The Captain-Greneral, as he loved to consider himself, con- 
 tinued to ruminate during the autumn the oft-deferred 
 plans for the acquisition of Batavia and the Isle of France. 
 At first he offered the command of the expedition to his brother 
 Arthur, who sagaciously preferred remaining in Mysore, 
 where as he said himself he was ' at the top of the tree,' 
 having rendered essential service in reorganising the country 
 and reconciling Wynaad and Coimbatore to our rule. In 
 November troops were collected at Trincomalee ; and Colonel 
 Wellesley was designated for the command, with the rank 
 of Brigadier-Greneral. Baird, incensed at being, as he 
 thought, again passed over, hastened to Calcutta, and in a 
 brief interview threw his Excellency into a most noble passion 
 by his bitter complaints of neglect, and his pointed in- 
 nuendoes that he had been sacrificed to fraternal preference. 
 There was no doubt some colour for the charge, though Colonel 
 Wellesley had been induced reluctantly to join the gathering 
 host in Ceylon, and to take an active part in preparing it 
 for foreign service. Baird gained his point and was finally 
 named for the command.^ But Marengo and the events 
 which followed it changed his destination. Austria had 
 made peace, and Egypt became once more the battle-ground 
 of France and England. To co-operate with the army under 
 Sir Ealph Abercrombie, Wellesley undertook to send all the 
 force that could be spared to the Eed Sea. Five thousand 
 Europeans and two thousand sepoys, after a tedious voyage 
 landed at Cosseir, and by a ten days' march across the desert 
 reached the Nile. Cairo had capitulated,^ but the junction 
 with the army under Hutchinson rendered the defence of 
 Alexandria hopeless ; hastened its surrender and the final 
 evacuation of Egypt by Greneral Menou. 
 
 » 5th February, 1801. « 21st August, 1801. 
 
220 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8oi 
 
 The threatened march of Zemaun Shah on Delhi led to 
 the assembling of an English corps under Sir James Craig at 
 Cawnpore to act in concert with the army of the Nawab 
 Vizier. Instead of venturing to call out his forces Saadut 
 Ali early represented that he could not rely upon their 
 fidelity, and earnestly requested that a British contingent 
 should be sent to protect him in possession of his throne. 
 What Vizier Ali had well-nigh accomplished might be at- 
 tempted by any adventurous talookdar or agnate of the 
 reigning house. What was called the army of Oude was no 
 better, than a licentious rabble ready to become the instru- 
 ment of anarchy or revolution : and when the Afghan invader 
 was reported to have reached Lahore, there were no terms 
 which the terror of the Nawab Vizier would not have made 
 to obtain a strong body of British guards. Negotiations 
 were set on foot accordingly ; and the revenues of certain pro- 
 vinces were pledged for the maintenance of a subsidiary force. 
 But when through the intervention of Malcolm's embassy to 
 Persia a diversion had been created in the province of Khoras- 
 san, and Zemaun was compelled to return for the defence of 
 his own dominions, Saadut was persuaded by his sycophants 
 that he had made an improvident bargain ; and his pay- 
 ments diminished with his fears. Lord Wellesley expostulated 
 with him on the fatuity of his conduct. ' Since my arrival 
 in India your Excellency has repeatedly complained of the 
 ruinous condition of your internal government, and earnestly 
 solicited my direct interference as being indispensably neces- 
 sary for the purpose of effecting a complete reform in your 
 affairs, and especially in your military establishments. After 
 having received a plan of reform from me, you expressed in 
 the most deliberate and unqualified terms your approbation, 
 and your hope that it would be carried into effect ; yet you 
 have recently declared to Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, that this 
 same plan never in any measure met with your approbation 
 
i8oi LEADENHALL STREET. 221 
 
 or acceptance, or was deemed expedient by you. You have 
 attempted by various means to delay and ultimately to 
 frustrate the execution of the plan above mentioned. The 
 means which your Excellency has employed for this purpose 
 are calculated to degrade your character, to destroy all con- 
 fidence between your Excellency and the British Grovernment, 
 to produce disorder and confusion in your dominions, and to 
 injure the most important interests of the Company to such 
 a degree as may be deemed nearly equivalent to positive 
 hostility on your part. In August 1798 and June 1799, 
 you made such forcible representations of the disordered 
 state of your government in its military as well as civil 
 branches, as, combined with my own intimate knowledge of 
 the actual existence of the evils so repeatedly and emphati- 
 cally described by you, authorised a full confidence in the 
 sincerity of your reiterated wishes for my active interference 
 and for my assistance in remedying the defects of which 
 you so justly complained. I therefore determined to adopt 
 without delay those measures, now apparently not less 
 requisite for the ease and satisfaction of your Excellency's 
 mind than essential to the safety of your person and to the 
 security and prosperity of your dominions. The conduct of 
 different corps of your army had in several instances pre- 
 viously to the approach of Zemaun Shah abundantly mani- 
 fested that no reliance could be placed either on their fidelity 
 or discipline. Many of them had mutinied, and were pre- 
 vented from proceeding to acts of open violence against 
 your Excellency's person by the presence of the Company's 
 troops. And you not only avowed to Mr. Lumsden and Sir 
 James Craig that your military force was inadequate to con- 
 tribute any assistance towards the defence of your dominions^ 
 but you required the presence of part of the British army 
 within your capital for the express purpose of protecting your 
 person and authority against the excesses of your own dis- 
 
222 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8oi 
 
 affected and disorderly troops at the moment when the services 
 of the whole of the British army were most urgently demanded 
 upon your frontier to resist Zemaun Shah. The necessity of 
 a radical reform of your military establishment being mani- 
 fest, a letter from Sir A. Clarke delivered to you such 
 further explanations of the proposed measure as the occasion 
 required. This was preceded within five days by repeated 
 complaints on your part of the turbulent and disorderly state 
 of your troops. I proposed that the greatest part of your 
 useless and dangerous forces should be disbanded and should 
 be replaced by a suitable number of the Company's troops. 
 Your Excellency declared your thorough concurrence in the 
 sentiment Sir A. Clarke's letter contained. It is certain 
 that the resources of your Excellency are inadequate to the 
 double burthen of the proposed additional force of the 
 Company and of your own existing establishment. The 
 dismission of the troops in question is not only recommended 
 by considerations of economy, but indispensably dictated by 
 the soundest maxims of prudential policy. In the event of 
 invasion a large portion of the Company's force must be 
 constantly employed to maintain the peace of the country, 
 for the necessity of controlling your own licentious and dis- 
 affected soldiery would increase exactly in proportion to the 
 magnitude and imminence of external danger.' He would 
 abstain from comment on the motives which had led to 
 the subsequent change of the Soubahdar's intentions until 
 he himself should have explicitly declared them. But he 
 frankly told him he believed that the threat of abdication 
 had not been used in earnest, but only as a pretext for delay. 
 Equally insincere had been the steps taken for reducing 
 gradually the mutinous corps, and for provisioning those of 
 the Company. Perseverance in so dangerous a course must 
 leave no other alternative than that of considering all ami- 
 cable engagements as dissolved. Protracted negotiations 
 
i8oi LEADENHALL STREET, 223 
 
 ensued. Henry Wellesley, who had returned from England 
 to resume his former functions, was despatched to Lucknow 
 with a treaty of ten articles for the signature of 'Saadut 
 Ali,' and after manifold delays and evasions he reported 
 to his brother the conclusion of an agreement on the subject. 
 In lieu of a money payment, certain districts yielding a 
 revenue of one crore and thirty-five lacs of rupees were 
 ceded to the Company. The Nawab Vizier was exonerated 
 from all claims in future for the cost of defending either his 
 own or the ceded territories ; and the Company in return 
 guaranteed their integrity and independence for ever. A 
 detachment of British troops with a due complement of 
 artillery should at all times form the personal guard of his 
 Highness. The ceded provinces were exclusively subjected 
 to the administration of the Company's oflScers, and no 
 deficiency in their revenues was to be made up out of those 
 of the Soubahdar. 
 
 In August the Marquess set forth with much pomp and 
 ceremony to make a progress, as it was termed, through 
 the North-west Provinces. At Moorshedabad he received 
 in state the Nawab Nizam of Bengal, and at Benares the 
 Kajah of that province. There he received the news of 
 the battle of Alexandria which was celebrated with every 
 mark of exultation. He was met at Cawnpore by the 
 Nawab Vizier, accompanied by several of his sons and 
 influential talookdars. At Lucknow, where he spent several 
 days, he was entertained with great magnificence. The 
 treaty was signed on November 10, 1801. 
 
224 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PARAMOUNT POWER. 
 1800-1802. 
 
 A GENERAL Older appeared in the Grazette ordaining the 
 observance by Europeans of a day of rest. The Supreme 
 Grovernment was thenceforth to be recognised as that of 
 a Christian power, and in its administrative character 
 to be treated as identical in principle and feeling with 
 the established system at home. Toleration the most com- 
 plete and xmdeviating was still to be observed towards the 
 various native creeds ; but the State publicly adopted the 
 obligations of Christianity, and confessed that its conscience 
 ought to be guided in morals and in laws by that hallowed 
 rule alone. Conforming to the practice long established in 
 England, newspapers were not allowed to be printed or pub- 
 lished on Sunday ; and under the influence of apprehensions 
 not yet whoUy dispelled of foreign intrigue insidiously 
 working on native ignorance and credulity, the supervision of 
 political news and political writing which had been hastily 
 and arbitrarily adopted in a season of exceptional perturba- 
 tion, was continued without relaxation, and was kept up for 
 many years. It was one of the points in the policy of Welles- 
 ley most sharply contested by his critics at home ; and that he 
 himself came eventually to doubt its wisdom hardly admits 
 of dispute. He was influenced apparently by the confidential 
 reports of Kirkpatrick in 1799, describing the mischievous 
 effect upon the native Courts of Hyderabad and Poonah of 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER. 225 
 
 false intelligence and factious articles in the English journals 
 published at Calcutta and Bombay. In time of war the 
 suppression of such elements of danger by methods however 
 summary is a duty plain and clear, but it does not follow 
 that the measures needful in a state of siege should be pro- 
 longed after that state has passed away ; and that the con- 
 dition of danger and of dread did pass away in his time was 
 his noblest vaunt. But so long as war prevailed with France 
 neither he or any of his successors ventured to restore the 
 liberty of the press. A rigorous censorship was kept up till 
 1818, when all the European world being at peace it was 
 abrogated by Lord Hastings. How he who devised and 
 ordained the rule felt in the end respecting it will be seen 
 by-and-by. 
 
 To build up the administrative power which they desired 
 should be made paramount Pitt and Dundas advised that 
 the Grovemor-Greneral of the Company should be appointed 
 Captain General of all the King's forces in India. Thereto- 
 fore the Commander-in-Chief of the royal troops was named 
 by the Horse Gruards, subject to orders and liable to be re- 
 moved for reasons wholly beyond and sometimes unknown to 
 the civil Grovemment of the Presidency. In many cases 
 the two functionaries were independent and co-equal ; and 
 although disunion seldom was allowed to be observable by 
 vulgar eyes, in council it occasionally manifested itself; and 
 in executive acts affecting the public peace or personal 
 susceptibilities, collision of authority occurred still oftener. 
 When a man of talent or high rank filled the Viceregal 
 chair of state, the General Commanding-in-Chief, who was 
 usually a self-made man, yielded much from an instinct of 
 social and political deference, and His Excellency had his 
 way. But few men possessing the ability of Hastings or the 
 rank of Comwallis were preferred by the Company ; and 
 men like Barlow or Shore exercised no such ascendency over 
 
 Q 
 
226 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1801 
 
 their military colleagues. They possessed in fact neither 
 the professional knowledge or the instinctive genius for 
 command, and veteran commanders declined to give heed to 
 their behests when they thought them inconsiderate or 
 unwise. Wellesley had proved himself capable not only 
 of planning great strategic movements and inventing the 
 means of defence and attack, but of organising victory rapid 
 decisive and splendid. The army of all ranks was as loud in 
 his praise as the civil community ; and they had even more 
 cause for gratitude and admiration ; for his foresight and care 
 had shortened their term of endurance within the briefest 
 span, and had secured their triumph at the least possible 
 cost of health and life. When therefore, on February 26, 
 1801, letters patent were received creating him Captain 
 G-eneral of all the forces of the Crown serving in the East, 
 not a murmur of dissent or disapproval anywhere was heard. 
 It was felt to be an acknowledgment fitting and just of pre- 
 eminent service in war, rendered to the Crown as well as to 
 the Company ; and to be another step in knitting together 
 the reins of supreme rule capable only of being held firmly 
 in a single hand. 
 
 The confidence of the army and their enthusiasm for him 
 were unbounded. In the division of the Mysore prize-money 
 100,000?. was by general acclamation of the camp reserved 
 for his share. With gentleness but with dignity he declined 
 to subtract from the victors in fight any part of their reward. 
 Even if his family had been dependent on what he might 
 officially acquire, he could not bear that they should be enriched 
 by depriving brave men who had risked their lives in battle 
 of their reward : and afterwards, when the officers tendered 
 him a gorgeous star of St. Patrick formed of the diamonds 
 that belonged to Tippoo, he refused it likewise, until called 
 upon to accept it by special vote of the Directors of the 
 Company. 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER. 227 
 
 By virtue of his new command he did not hesitate how- 
 ever to take possession of the mansion at Barrackpore 
 previously occupied by the General-in-Chief of the forces in 
 Bengal. In Fort William he felt penned up in a manner 
 incompatible with his previous habits and ill-suited to his 
 notions of the way in which it was becoming an English 
 pro-consul should live. In the comparative seclusion of 
 Barrackpore, his eyes (weary of glare) and nerves (ever too 
 sensitive) kept in tension by the requirements of state, found 
 salutary rest. To one moreover whose strategic reputa- 
 tion consisted altogether of departmental success as his own 
 Minister for War, and whose military rank was after all egre- 
 giously titular, it was pleasant to occupy the quarters of the 
 veterans who had gone before him, and to hear the clank of 
 the orderly's scabbard early and late in the courtyard below. 
 It could not be said by the most envious of his rivals or the 
 most captious of his critics that he had clutched at or schemed 
 for military precedency ; or that however wanting in drill- 
 shed knowledge, experience in camping out, or familiarity 
 with the watchwords of deploying and close order, he was 
 less able to plan or less qualified to direct a great campaign 
 than the professional commanders who had preceded him. 
 He had never led a charge or stormed a redoubt, encountered 
 a turbaned foeman hand to hand, or taken part in the sack of 
 a rich city. But he had fairly won, notwithstanding, by deeds 
 of arms, — for without his power of conception, combination, 
 and constancy deeds they had never been, — the rank and 
 dignity of Captain Greneral freely and spontaneously con- 
 ferred : and none were found to say he had not fairly earned it. 
 
 European tourists in the East were few in those days ; 
 but those who came thither in quest of adventure, informa- 
 tion, or amusement, or in pursuit of some object of discovery, 
 never wanted welcome. In the monotony of a limited 
 official circle their presence was unaffectedly prized. In the 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 MARQUESS WELLESLE\. i8or 
 
 East hospitality has from the days of the patriarchs been 
 an universal virtue ; and Englishmen, though wayfarers and 
 sojourners, easily caught the contagion, and learned to vie 
 in prodigal kindness to travellers from afar with the prince- 
 liest of those who were born in the land : and Wellesley's 
 ambition was to outshine them all. Had not the in- 
 stinct of munificence been fostered in him from his birth ? 
 Was there a memory of Dangan still lingering silently in his 
 heart unassociated with those of generous profusion without 
 respect to persons ? There as here, outward luxury and 
 show stood out the more conspicuously from the vicinage of 
 dark surroundings. Even to this day the Viceregal mansion 
 on the esplanade at Fort William and the handsome edifices 
 in its immediate neighbourhood contrast strikingly with the 
 low and crowded dwellings which for the most part constitute 
 the Black Town, and which at the beginning of the century 
 even more signally bespoke the political distance between 
 the indigenous and exotic occupants. Half the Hindoo 
 quarter at Calcutta was then built of mud, and thatched, 
 like Irish cabins. Nor was the density of the population 
 wanting as another feature of resemblance. From out 
 the native hive dusky swarms came forth at sunrise and sim- 
 down to gaze upon each military parade and civil pageant ; 
 and these continually grew apace in tastefalness and splen- 
 dour. The garrison quarters of Fort William had contented 
 former Grovernors, but they had ceased to seem befitting as 
 the dwelling-place of the Vice-king over kings. The new 
 Government House, constructed under his Excellency's im- 
 mediate auspices, was certainly a more suitable residence 
 under altered circumstances. Even the original estimate 
 of the cost caused the Secret Committee to growl; but 
 when the total charge for omissions and additions and after- 
 thoughts, furniture and embellishments, was presented the 
 growl grew into a groan. Why all this waste on colonnades 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER. 229 
 
 and verandahs, marble pavements and fantastic domes ? It 
 was not to rival heathen pomps or paynim grandeur that 
 men had been sent forth from England to barter or to fight, 
 but simply to improve the Company's fortune, and to make 
 their own ; and then return with whatever remnant of liver 
 they had left to live at Clapham, Cheltenham, or Bath ; and 
 now and then to attend a Court of Proprietors in Leaden- 
 hall Street. But times had changed, and the once isolated 
 factories along the coast had come to be concatenated into 
 a belt of mail of which the strength was steel if the bla- 
 zonry was gold. Pergunnahs for gardens had grown into 
 Circars for tribute ; and ceded provinces, though severally 
 distinct, seemed drawn and held together magnetically by 
 paramount power. For another half-century that power was 
 not to wear a crown ; but its representative for the time 
 being was regarded by subject myriads, and in reality was, a 
 sovereign wielding greater authority than any out of Europe, 
 and as gTeat perhaps as any there. To the Oriental mind it 
 seemed but natural that the Feringhee over-lord should be 
 housed magnificently ; that he should be with difficulty ap- 
 proachable through gradations of servitors and functionaries ; 
 and that when he did appear in durbar or in cavalcade his 
 entourage should be suitable to his dignity. The Marquess 
 thought so too, and entered with zest into every minutia — 
 of what players call the ' make up ' — of the imposing part he 
 undertook to play. With him spectacle was a science, the 
 play an epic, and the scenery and costume matters of con- 
 summate art. Even the state barge in which he floated now 
 and then upon the Hooghly was fashioned and equipped as 
 none had been before. ' It reminded me,' — said a fellow 
 coimtryman whom it was sent to convey from an Indiaman in 
 the roads, — ' of a fairy tale. It was very long in proportion to 
 its width, richly ornamented with green and gold ; its head 
 a spread eagle gilt ; its stem a tiger's head and body ; the 
 
230 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1801 
 
 centre would contain twenty people, and was covered with an 
 awning and side curtains ; forward were seated twenty natives 
 dressed in scarlet habits, with rose-coloured turbans, who pulled 
 away most energetically and speedily gained the landing- 
 place. His Excellency much amused me by the account he 
 gave of the manner in which my arrival was announced to him 
 by the messenger whom he placed purposely on the road. 
 " Lord Sahib ka bhanja. Company ka nawasa teshrif laia ; " 
 literally translated, " the Lord's sister's son and the grandson 
 of Mrs. Company is arrived." These titles originated from a 
 belief of the natives that the India Company was an old 
 woman, and that the Governors General were her children.'^ 
 It happened to be the eve of a fete given to inaugurate the 
 completion of Government House ; and he describes the 
 scene with all its accessories of music, feasting, illuminations, 
 fireworks, and salvoes of artillery ; with a wistful multitude 
 at a respectful distance looking on till near day-dawn. 
 
 A portrait was painted by Eobert Home, a Scotch artist 
 who had recently ventured to the far East in search of a 
 living, and practised his vocation at Calcutta for several 
 years. It was full length, the dress being that worn in state, 
 and the posture uncomfortably demonstrative of the sense of 
 authority. In the background turbaned servitors on official 
 Providence in shorts and bedizened with an exaggerated star 
 of St. Patrick on the right breast, look up in gaping 
 homage to his Excellency, while they point to his foreign 
 guard significantly as the monitor of submission. As a 
 conception the whole is simply detestable, betraying lament- 
 ably the conscious want of moral ascendency which after 
 all was the only thing worth asserting politically or pic- 
 torially. But the great little man could never get clear 
 of the histrionic, whether in giving audiences or in sit- 
 ting for his picture ; and the limner was but too ready to 
 
 ' Lord Valentia's Travels. 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER. 231 
 
 play up to the whim whose gratification might make his 
 fortime. His likeness however has one remarkable proof 
 of its fidelity. There is the identical expression which is 
 noticeable in Hoppner's beautiful portrait, caused by a sort of 
 contraction of the upper lip which entirely disappeared in 
 later times. It is not a peculiarity to be invented by any 
 artist desiring to please an influential patron; or if inad- 
 vertently ascribed by one flatterer on canvas was unlikely to 
 be attributed by another or second painter sedulous to win 
 the approval of a society daily observant of the countenance 
 pourtrayed. Hoppner was an artist of established repute, 
 Home a comparative beginner ; they could hardly have both 
 been mistaken. 
 
 There is another curious circumstance of which one is 
 reminded by this performance of Home. He painted about 
 the same time a full-length portrait of Colonel Arthur 
 Wellesley which was given by him upon request to the 
 Soubahdar of the Deccan in recollection of the military ser- 
 vices rendered that prince in the Mysore or the Mahratta war. 
 
 Engravings of both were made at Calcutta under the 
 direction of the painter, and when in 1809 a sudden demand 
 arose in England for a likeness of the victor of Talavera, the 
 print from Home's picture was the only thing to be had, and 
 the reproduction of this unattractive production, for want of 
 better, graced the shop-windows of London for many a day. 
 The young commander is certainly not invested with the 
 form or comeliness of a hero. Nothing can be less imposing 
 classic or picturesque. The look is hard without dignity and 
 unprepossessing without being shrewd or able. 
 
 One of the injunctions most urgently laid on the new 
 Lord Deputy by the Directors was to convert if possible the 
 annual tribute paid by the Nawab of Arcot for the service of 
 their troops into a fiscal cession of territory. Lord Hobart 
 had tried in vain to persuade him to yield ; and failing, had 
 
232 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8oi 
 
 gone such lengths in reproach and menace as to evoke bitter 
 complaints from his Highness in letters to the Prince of 
 Wales (to whom he frequently sent propitiatory presents) and 
 to Cornwallis whom he called his best friend. The Company, 
 as he truly said, ' wanted his country anyhow/ In spite of 
 all their disclaimers, they had become smitten with earth- 
 hunger, that craving never to be satisfied. But while 
 Tippoo lived and reigned, and French men-of-war made prey 
 of their galleons in the Indian Seas, they dared not tear 
 up existing treaties with Wallajah ; or openly assume the 
 sovereignty of his dominions. All that Mornington ventured 
 to propose when at Madras was similar to what Sir John 
 Shore had obtained from the Nawab of Oude, an assignment 
 of provincial revenues in lieu of so many lacs of rupees. The 
 justification for pressing this and the still greater change 
 which not long afterwards was compassed by means not free 
 from question, lay in the bewildering conflict of authorities 
 which had arisen in a long course of political dealings 
 between the Company and the Soubahdar. The complication 
 and confusion of central and local powers threatened to bring 
 the industry of the whole region to ruin, and thereby to 
 endanger the payment of the English and Sepoy garrisons 
 which had come to be its sole defence against external foes. 
 In the words of the most able and eloquent defender of the 
 rights of the family : ' The actual situation was intolerable. 
 Never was there such a provoking array of anomalies. To no 
 prince had such deference been paid ; yet no prince was kept 
 under such strict surveillance. He resided in Madras, beyond 
 the limits of his own government, within British jurisdiction 
 though exempt from it, surrounded by British troops, unable 
 to stir hand or foot without permission, and yet exercising 
 despotic power over millions of subjects who had learned 
 to look to us for protection. We were dependent on the 
 revenue of the Carnatic for the support of all our establish- 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER, 233 
 
 ments in the south of India ; yet we were compelled to see 
 the Nawab destroying the resources of the country for the 
 benefit of the birds of prey of all nations who flattered and 
 fleeced him. Advice and remonstrance were obstinately 
 rejected; and when pressed closely by the Grovemor of 
 Madras or the Grovernor-General, he reviled the Honourable 
 Company, and invoked their master, his friend and constant 
 protector, the King of Great Britain. No other prince of 
 India was ever admitted to the honour of direct correspon- 
 dence with his Majesty; and he was received everywhere 
 with a royal salute. The first of the family had not to 
 thank us for his elevation, though he fell in battle fighting 
 against the French in our quarrel. The problem of a 
 peaceful deposition was absolutely insoluble. He could neither 
 be persuaded nor coerced by any regular process. It was a 
 complete deadlock, and there was no hope of escaping from 
 it by fair means.' ^ 
 
 The correspondence of Lord Hobart and many conferences 
 with Lord Clive confirmed Mornington's impression that the 
 administrative plight of the Carnatic had become one of 
 insufferable weakness and scandal. The functions of govern- 
 ment were still exercised in the name of the Nawab who 
 ■continued to squander the declining revenue of the province 
 upon inordinate luxury ; and to neglect every executive duty, 
 judicial or financial. Mahomet Ali was recently dead, and his 
 son Omdut ul Omrah was an idler and a wastrel who lived 
 surrounded by native sycophants and European adventurers 
 interested in pandering to every foolish whim. Empty 
 phrases of courtesy and consideration lavished from time to 
 time by royalty in England upon father and son misled them 
 both into imagining that their friendship was really deemed 
 a thing of moment ; and they were confirmed in their self- 
 importance by the advice of Comwallis, on taking leave of 
 ' Major Evans Bell's Statement of the Arcot Claims. 
 
234 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8or 
 
 them, to cultivate amicable relations with their still formid- 
 able neighbom- in Mysore. Two of Tippoo's sons given as 
 hostages resided for some time at the Presidency and were 
 treated with ceremonious hospitality at Fort St. Greorge and 
 the palace of Chepauk. Through the officers appointed to wait 
 upon them, and after their release through the vakeels of the 
 Sultan, a correspondence was privily kept up, chiefly consisting 
 of the idlest gossip, but occasionally spiced with fragments 
 of conversations real or imaginary with Omdut and other 
 members of the family of Arcot. These were discovered 
 among other epistolary curiosities at Seringapatam ; and 
 their language in various points being enigmatical Lord 
 Clive was led to suspect that the Soubahdar and his son, while 
 professing friendship for the English and treated with 
 flattering deference and consideration, had furtively kept the 
 enemy advised of the preparations at Madras for war. Omdut 
 as a matter of course wholly denied the imputation. But Mr. 
 Webbe and Colonel Close, commissioners named to examine 
 the state of the finances, and into the abuses of all kinds 
 which were a source of perpetual complaint, were further 
 directed to sift and weigh the circumstances of supposed bad 
 faith on the part of the Nawab. The whole of the evidence 
 taken by them was sent with their report to England ; and 
 it was not until the Secret Committee and the Board of 
 Control had expressed their concurrent opinion that a thorough 
 change of system was necessary, that Wellesley instructed 
 the Grovernor of Madras peremptorily to insist on cession 
 of Circars adequate to pay the subsidiary garrisons.^ No 
 proof of political perfidy seems to have been gleaned from 
 the mass of rubbish found at Seringapatam, and the com- 
 missioners doubtless well knew that far from cherishing any 
 desire to exalt the power of the ruthless despot of Mysore, 
 the princes of Arcot remembered his father and regarded him 
 » 28th May, 1801. 
 
i8oi PARAMOUNT POWER. 235- 
 
 with detestation and dread, as low-bom usurpers whom no 
 treaties could bind and whom no chivalrous feelings restrained 
 from the cruelties of violence and rapine. Jealousy of 
 European predominance might innocently enough have 
 wrung from them in unguarded moments the utterance of a 
 wish that all the followers of the Prophet were united in 
 bonds of common sympathy and interest; but the recollection 
 of their fields laid waste, their villages consumed by fire, and 
 the detention in dishonour of the ladies of a kinsman's harem 
 seized and borne off by the marauding chief of Mysore, 
 little inclined them to exchange the mistrusted hand of 
 the Company for the butcher-like grasp of Tippoo. Their 
 acquittal on the charge of bad faith was in fact confessed in 
 the recommendation that the Nawab should still retain the 
 inland regions of the Carnatic while those along the sea- 
 board should be assigned to the Company. It was not however 
 until May 1801, that the Grovernor-Greneral in Council 
 authorised Lord Clive to enforce these terms of a new sub- 
 sidiary treaty. Two years had thus been allowed for extenua- 
 tion, if any could be given, or improvement, if any could be 
 shown. Omdut ul Omrah thought only of procrastinating 
 until Pondicherry should be given back on the conclusion of 
 a general peace, and a French flag should be again seen in 
 the offing. The rivalry of European powers was entwined 
 with the family history, and to that unhappy tradition he 
 inveterately clung. The Governor whose patience was ex- 
 hausted warned him in more than one personal interview of 
 the consequences impending if he persisted in delay. But 
 the ill-advisers who throve on corrupt and prodigal misrule 
 prevailed, and at his death a few months after, they gave his 
 reputed heir like fatal counsel. On Ali Hussein's refusal of 
 the proffered treaty of cession the Governor-General proceeded 
 to act on the authority he had received from home : Ali Hussein 
 was set aside in favour of his cousin Azim ul Dowlah, who- 
 
236 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 agreed to put an end to the unsatisfactory relations hitherto 
 subsisting with the Company, and to recognise in their stead 
 institutions analogous to those established in Bengal. Securing 
 him and his descendants an ample civil list and the pomp 
 and dignity of a court, the new treaty vested the military 
 and financial control of affairs in the Presidency of Fort 
 St. George. Azim was content to subside into the peaceful 
 enjoyment of a princely pension, and in July 1801 the Car- 
 natic was added to the Company's dominions. 
 
 It was a great satisfaction to have ultimately accomplished 
 an object long and earnestly desired by the Company, and 
 urgently recommended by the Directors to his special atten- 
 tion when he received the charge of government. They 
 knew of his solicitude for the accomplishment of this impor- 
 tant measure upon his arrival in 1798, and the repeated 
 attempts he made in 1799 to effect the same salutary ar- 
 rangement.^ ' The union of all local authorities and the 
 extinction of every principle of conflicting power would 
 preclude the operation of those causes of discord and counter- 
 action which must ever have impeded the progress of good 
 government in the Carnatic' 
 
 No sooner was the Peace of Amiens signed than the First 
 Consul sent a squadron with fourteen hundred disciplined 
 troops, a suitable complement of distinguished officers and 
 a military chest filled with bullion, to take possession of 
 the old place of arms ceded by Portugal to France. Napo- 
 leon seems to have formed expectations of raising Groa to 
 its ancient height, otherwise he would not have sent out to 
 a little territory of five miles of sea-coast, containing only 
 twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and yielding a revenue of 
 only forty thousand pagodas, so splendid an establishment 
 as arrived under Captain General de Caen, which consisted 
 of seven generals, a due proportion of inferior officers, and 
 ' To the Secret Committee, 21st October, 1801 ; from Patna. 
 
i8o2 PARAMOUNT POWER. 237 
 
 fourteen hundred regular troops. The dismantled works 
 were once more put in repair, and the tricolour again gaily 
 challenged British predominance. But it was then too 
 late. The whole of the Southern peninsula was consoli- 
 dated under the sway of the Company, and where local 
 government still remained in native hands resident envoys 
 made it difficult, if not impossible, for foreign intrigue to be 
 carried on. 
 
 Half a centiury had well-nigh elapsed since the adven- 
 turous emjployes of the Company had, without any regular 
 plan or forecast, begun their advance ' from factories to forts, 
 from forts to fortifications, from fortifications to garrisons, 
 from garrisons to armies, and from armies to conquests : 
 where they could not find a danger, determined to find a 
 quarrel.' ^ Grradually and steadily British influence had 
 undermined, without ostensibly overturning, the Mahomedan 
 governments of Southern Asia ; and sought to establish the 
 predominance of European methods of taxation, discipline 
 in war, and systems of judicature. The Nizam and the 
 Vizier of Oude still nominally exercised separate sway under 
 the phantom authority of the Mogul, who was a captive of 
 pagan conquerors at Delhi. He was still in the irony of 
 fortune designated the superior of the Lord of Dangan who 
 reigned more absolutely and magnificently at Calcutta than 
 George III. at Windsor. Soubahdars and rajahs had one by 
 one been reduced to mute submission ; and the adminis- 
 trative question which importunately demanded solution wa& 
 how were the scores of millions of Hindoo, Parsee, Persian, 
 Malay, and half-caste population to be soberly and decently 
 governed now that the old rule of their former conquerors 
 had been overthrown ? In many instances it was Wellesley's 
 hope and policy to set up again the Hindoo princes, and ta 
 restore the social and juridical systems rudely crushed rather 
 * Speech of Sir Philip Francis against Warren Hastings, 1787. 
 
238 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1802 
 
 than extinguished under Akbar and Aurungzebe. To be the 
 ultimate arbiter of all disputes, the supreme protector of all 
 interests, the pre-eminent light of remodelled and reformed 
 Oriental life, was the master thought that animated him. 
 High-handed and overbearing oftentimes, and not unfre- 
 quently inexorable and unsparing in working out his im- 
 petuous purpose, he was ever anxious to vindicate victory 
 by popular improvement ; and to redeem violence ofifered to 
 crumbling authority by making the community conscious of 
 their deliverance from bad masters. The Mahomedan regime, 
 though existing for several generations, had wholly failed to 
 convert ryots, jaghireders, or rajahs to its stern simplicity of 
 rule and creed. It had done little to justify its predominance 
 in arts or arms, still less in learning or in law; and it had 
 never deigned to mitigate the mortifications of conquest. 
 The Brahmin caste, in spite of many despoilings, insults, and 
 persecutions, had kept alive the flame of their antique faith 
 and the culture of abstruse and applied science of the highest 
 kind. Hindoo tanks and temples, manufactures and tombs, 
 astronomy and metaphysics struck even the utilitarian Mill 
 with something like reverence. Superseded as generals, the 
 Brahmins were resorted to by their subjugators as financiers, 
 and spendthrift oppression was fain to wheedle them as bankers 
 into help out of its embarrassments. The imagination of 
 Wellesley was fascinated by the hoary grandeur of institu- 
 tions compared with which our own are but gourds of yester- 
 even. Vainglorious and overbearing though he was, there was 
 in him nothing of the Vandal, nothing of the feudal robber, 
 nothing of the levelling Jacobin. He would if he could 
 build up rather than pull down, persuade rather than perse- 
 cute, and if the vast multitudes subject to our sway would 
 not forego their faith in Vishnu, at least he would try 
 to christianise the morals of public administration, and by 
 peaceable example show in the afiairs of this world a more 
 
i8o2 PARAMOUNT POWER. 239 
 
 excellent way. But how to begin or how to combine and 
 blend the elements of a new civil hierarchy which should be 
 English enough to ensure its loyalty to Government and 
 acclimatised enough to stand morally in lieu of an indi- 
 genous shelter against social wrong ? Was it a dream ? We 
 shall never know; but assuredly it was a specious and a 
 splendid dream, worthy of being associated with an illustrious 
 name. 
 
 After many ponderings, inquiries, and consultations he 
 conceived the plan of an Indian university, in which cadets 
 from England might be enabled to acquire Eastern literature 
 and sciences in combination with those of the West. The 
 cost of the undertaking would be great, and the difficulties 
 at the outset greater : both in a certain sense recommenda- 
 tions in his eyes, for he was begotten and bred in prodigality 
 and pluck ; and the habit of both stuck to him to his dying 
 day. Very vexatious habits doubtless to his merchant masters 
 and his Accountant- General : but what would British empire 
 in India have been without him ? 
 
 ' I think it necessary to apprise you of my intention 
 to adopt without delay a plan for the improvement of the 
 civil service at Bengal in a most important point. The state 
 of the administration of justice, and even of the collection of 
 revenue throughout the provinces, affords a painful example 
 of the insufficiency of the best code of laws to secure the 
 happiness of the people unless due provision has been made 
 to insure a proper supply of men qualified to administer 
 those laws in their different branches and departments. 
 This evil is felt severely, and arises principally from a defect 
 in the education and early habits of the young gentlemen 
 sent out in the capacity of writers. Two or three years in 
 some collegiate institution are requisite to impart the know- 
 ledge suitable to their intended duties. But I now wish to 
 inform you that I feel the mischief to be so pressing, that I 
 
240 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1802 
 
 intend without waiting for orders from home to proceed 
 to found such an institution at Calcutta.' ^ 
 
 * It is obvious that an education exclusively European or 
 Indian would not qualify your servants for the situation 
 which they are destined to fill ; the foundation of their edu- 
 cation must be laid in England and completed systematically 
 after their arrival in India by two or three years' instruction 
 under the discipline of some collegiate institution in branches 
 of knowledge suitable to their intended duties. The Grovernor- 
 General in Council has therefore determined to found an estab- 
 lishment in this Presidency of the nature of a collegiate insti- 
 tution ; the expenses of the institution to be defrayed by a 
 small contribution from all the civil servants in India, to be 
 deducted from salaries. It is my intention to open it in No- 
 vember; — lectures on languages the following winter : Arabic^ 
 Persian, Sanscrit, Hindoostanee, Bengalee, Felinga, Mahratta, 
 Tamul, Canara ; Mahomedan and Hindoo law, ethics, civil 
 jurisprudence and the law of nations, English law, regulations 
 and laws enacted by the Governor-Greneral in Council or by 
 the Grovernors-Greneral at Fort St. Greorge and Bombay 
 respectively for the civil government of the British territories 
 in India, political economy, and particularly the commercial 
 institutions and interests of the East India Company ; geo- 
 graphy, mathematics, modern languages of Europe, Greek, 
 Latin, and English classics, general history ancient and 
 modern, the history and antiquities of Hindostan and the 
 Deccan, natural history, botany, chemistry, and astronomy.' ^ 
 
 On July 10, 1800, it was ordained by an order in council 
 that a college should be founded at Fort WiUiam for the 
 training of young men sent out under the designation of 
 writers to take part in the local administration of affairs. 
 The spirit of monopoly in which the Company's charter had 
 been originally framed, and from time to time renewed, 
 
 » To Dundas ; 24th October, 1799. 
 
 * To the Court of Directors ; from Fort William, 9th July, 1800. 
 
i8o2 PARAMOUNT POWER. 241 
 
 forbade any attempt in the first instance to open a compe- 
 tition for political or military employments to those who 
 were born in the land. The Company's service was emphati- 
 cally styled ' the covenanted service ; ' and all encroachments 
 on the vested rights of profit and promotion, were resented 
 by the whole hierarchy of functionaries, from the yomigest 
 'prentice hand to the sexagenarian occupant of a Director's 
 chair. Wellesley had indeed been early impressed with the 
 danger of superseding without absorbing into the new regiDie 
 the energies and abilities of Islam. He saw clearly ' the 
 radical imperfection of our system in affording no means to 
 conciliate the goodwill or to control the disaffection of the 
 Mahomedans, whom we found in possession of the govern- 
 ment and whom we had excluded from all share of execu- 
 tive honour and authority, without providing any adequate 
 corrective of the passions incident to the loss of dignity 
 wealth and power. ^ Wherever it was possible to find extra 
 employment for able and promising youths of the supplanted 
 race he was ready to enlist them in the cause of order, and if 
 possible to loyalise their disposition. But every step in this 
 direction was certain to be regarded with inappeasable envy 
 by the whole Anglo-Indian community ; and to be reported 
 home with invidious embellishment and exaggeration : all 
 tending to create distrust of his policy and purpose. He 
 hardly dared disclose at the beginning what that policy and 
 purpose would have been in its mature development ; and he 
 was content to try whether enlightened and practical Eiuro- 
 pean culture might not be transplanted to the banks of the 
 Hooghley, and acclimatised there, even though its fruits for a 
 time should be exclusively gathered by P^eringhee hands. 
 
 The college of Fort William was opened with much ado 
 
 of philosophic pomp, and all the inevitable fuss and fawning 
 
 of colonial adulation, in 1802, without previous sanction 
 
 » To Secret Committee, 1800, i. 536. 
 
 B 
 
242 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 from the Directors at home. To them it seemed little better 
 than a chimerse, and a very expensive one. What did their 
 nephews and cousins want to know about the Vedas, or the 
 outlandish logic of Menu ? What was the good of an East 
 India Company except to make money out of indigo, ivory, 
 shawls, Dacca muslin, and Trichinopoli chains ? My Lord 
 Marquess was quite forgetting himself ; an ungrateful son in 
 a far country, wasting their substance in whims and vagaries. 
 In Leadenhall Street a cadet simply meant a younger son or 
 dependant who wanted a living, and who, as he could not 
 find it at home, was ready to earn it at the expense of ' the 
 niggers out there.' Why shut him up in a school for a couple 
 of years while he was still young and his constitution good, 
 instead of giving him work to do in the counting-house or the 
 tax-collector's ofiSce ? What did it signify whether the black 
 faces liked it or no ? that was their affair. But with all the 
 fine talk about victories, trophies, subsidiary treaties, and 
 extending domains, the provoking fact could not be gainsaid 
 that the India Debt went on increasing, that the price of the 
 stock was low in the market, and the returns on the invest- 
 ment gave but a scant dividend. Where was the money 
 wherewith to found an Oriental university ? or of what pos- 
 sible use could it be when founded to Honourable East India 
 Proprietors? Cynical old Dundas said less against the 
 scheme, but at heart had as little relish for it. Cornwallis 
 admired the design, but doubted. Pitt admired, and did not 
 condescend to doubt : and so the little pro-consul went on 
 with his plan, constantly muttering to himself : — 
 
 Exegi monumentum aere perennius. . . . 
 Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei 
 Vitabit Libitinam. 
 
 Professors, the best that could be found, with good 
 salaries, were chosen to take charge of the different classes. 
 Settling the curriculum was a matter of interminable talk ; 
 
i8o2 PARAMOUNT POWER. 243 
 
 but it was at last settled without the talk being terminated, 
 as most important things in this world have to be. Acolytes 
 came in readily ; the young Cadets showing up well in 
 most of the schools. After a while it came to be understood 
 at home that youths who were lucky enough to obtain 
 nominations for the Company's service would have to undergo 
 a period of collegiate training on their arrival out ; and a 
 salutary awe of the unimaginable process, and a frugal care 
 about the charge for living before they were suffered to earn 
 mercantile, civil, or military pay, began slowly to pervade 
 the jobbing classes of the community. At that time 
 there was no nice distinction between fitness for soldiering 
 and fitness for storekeeping, capacity for weighing evidence 
 in a court up country, or weighing tea by the thousand chests 
 for reshipment to Europe. A youth must take his chance of 
 what he might be set to do. 
 
 To the surprise and vexation of Wellesley, the Directors 
 signified from the first their disapproval of the scheme as 
 entailing a new and unnecessary charge on their revenues, 
 more than ever encumbered by establishment charges. 
 Jealousy of his personal pre-eminence was fostered by the 
 lofty, if not supercilious assumption of a right not only to 
 judge in matters the least pressing what ought to be done ; 
 but the privilege of making serious and expensive changes 
 without deigning to wait for express permission. In time of 
 war or civil trouble he might be pardoned for taking upon 
 him to decide what was needful to be done ; but if in schemes 
 of finance and education their income might be permanently 
 burdened without previous consent, where would it end? 
 It was indispensable to take some decided step for reasserting 
 their supremacy over their audacious satrap ; and instruc- 
 tions accordingly went forth that the new institution on 
 which he had bestowed so much thought and care should be 
 absolutely remodelled on a reduced scale. His anger on 
 
 b2 
 
244 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 receipt of the unlooked-for mandate was indescribable ; he 
 regarded it as a public repudiation of his counsel, and an 
 unpardonable affront ungratefully and unwarrantably put upon 
 him in the face of the world. His wrath was not to be 
 turned aside by the complimentary language in which the 
 order was couched. To cut down the salaries and limit 
 the classes, as it proposed to do, would render the scheme 
 comparatively abortive, and render him, as he believed, ridi- 
 culous. He would suspend the execution of the fatal decree, 
 and reason with his short-sighted masters, if haply he might 
 yet persuade them to come to his way of thinking. In an 
 elaborate despatch of one hundred and forty-one paragraphs 
 of his best Ciceronian composition he undertook to show that 
 he was right, and that the college in its entirety ought to be 
 preserved.^ Meanwhile however other points of difference 
 had arisen, on which he was as confident of the superiority 
 of his autocratic wisdom, and as deeply impressed with 
 the shabbiness and unworthiness of the contrary course he 
 was admonished to pursue. At the end of an irritating 
 correspondence he resigned his office, and intimated that he 
 wished to be relieved from its responsibilities as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 The year 1802 was one of prosperity and peace. No 
 menace of external danger or muttering of civil commotion 
 was to be heard. The finances were in a fair way of being 
 restored under the thrifty and enlightened administration of 
 Mr. Tucker. There was good ground for expecting that 
 * the actual result of the year 1 802-3 would be more favour- 
 able than the estimate, and that 1803-4 would certainly 
 prove a year of unexampled prosperity ; every branch of the 
 revenue promised improvement ; the civil charges would 
 not be augmented, and the military charges might possibly 
 
 » From Fc rt William ; 5th August, 1802. 
 
i8o2 PARAMOUNT POWER. 245 
 
 be diminished.' ^ Under these circumstances it was natural 
 that the founder of the College of Fort William should once 
 more deprecate the veto of the Board of Control, and pray for 
 stay of execution. Intending to quit India at the close of 
 the year, he could not hope to enjoy in person the satisfac- 
 tion with which the respite he pleaded for would be received ; 
 but he more than ever insisted on the policy and necessity of 
 maintaining his favourite institution, and with his wonted 
 vehemence declared his ' determination to devote the re- 
 mainder of his political life to the object of establishing it, 
 as the greatest benefit which could be imparted to the 
 public service in India, and as the best security which could 
 be provided for the welfare of our native subjects. If the 
 Court should ultimately abolish this institution, it was his 
 fixed and unalterable resolution to propose to Parliament 
 immediately after his return to England a law for the 
 restoration of an establishment which he knew to be abso- 
 lutely requisite for the good government of India.' He left 
 it to the minister's discretion how far this resolve should be 
 made known ; but the imprudence of threatening beforehand 
 to overrule the authorities whom he was still bound to obey, 
 hardly admits of question. Lord Dartmouth may have been 
 the most reticent of men ; but as his Excellency made it a 
 point with him to send copies of his official letter of expos- 
 tulation to Pitt, Dundas, Scott, and Wellesley Pole — lest it 
 should be ' buried by the Court in the abyss of Leadenhall 
 Street ' — he had clearly no intention of letting the light of 
 his indignation be hid under a bushel. Lord Castlereagh 
 sought to bring about a compromise, and a modified scheme 
 was submitted by him to the parsimonious Directors, and 
 to their imperious Lieutenant. It satisfied neither; but 
 the college was reprieved for a time. Mr. Wilberforce was 
 one of the disinterested observers of events who expressed his 
 
 ' Private letter to Lord Dartmouth, from Fort William ; 5th August, 1802. 
 
240 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 deep regret at the parsimony unhappily displayed. ' Con- 
 sidering the vast extent of our Indian possessions and 
 revenues, he would have economised anywhere rather than 
 in the Fort William College, which could not answer the 
 same ends if continued on a contracted scale. He greatly 
 deplored its having been shorn of its beams, and wished it 
 restored to its primeval splendour.' 
 
247 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 
 1802-3. 
 
 On New Year's Day 1802, Lord Wellesley indited from Cawn- 
 pore a comprehensive circumspect of the Company's affairs, 
 all of which then looked prosperous and sec tire. There was 
 not a ripple on the high tide of acquisition. The ceded 
 districts from Travancore to Benares were universally tran- 
 quil. Better ways of administration were gradually winning 
 acceptance with the subject communities ; improved revenues 
 might be reasonably counted on, and diminished military 
 charges anticipated from a continuance of peace, whose 
 interruption was no longer to be feared from Mahrattas or 
 Afghans. The time was therefore come when he might 
 with honour ask leave to return home ; and he hoped the 
 Directors would acquaint him by October with the nomina- 
 tion of his successor, in order that he might be able to quit 
 his onerous post by the end of the year. His desire that the 
 formal surrender of his trust should be accompanied with the 
 full details of the important treaty with Oude, led him to 
 withhold the despatch for several weeks. Meanwhile, news 
 came of the peace of Amiens which still more completely 
 relieved him from all anxiety regarding the stability and 
 integrity of our Indian Empire, and confirmed his wish to be 
 allowed to resign his government in the December following.^ 
 ' To the Directors from Benares; 13th March, 1802. 
 
248 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 The President of the Board of Control expressed his 
 earnest hope that nothing would impel him to quit a post 
 where he had rendered services to the empire so inestim- 
 able.i 
 
 Keturning to Calcutta after his protracted tour through 
 the Upper Provinces, his first act on taking his seat in 
 Council was to place upon record his unqualified praise of 
 the conduct of Mr. Barlow, who had acted as Vice-President 
 during his absence, not only in following the orders he had 
 given from time to time, but also in those cases where cir- 
 cumstances ' rendered the signification of his previous in- 
 structions impracticable, thus leaving no room for doubt that 
 the government would be carried on with vigour and wisdom 
 without his presence or aid.' ^ 
 
 Extreme displeasure had been repeatedly pronounced by 
 the Company at his supposed favouritism of the private 
 trade whereby the worship of the great goddess Monopoly was 
 set at nought and the gains of its craftsmen menaced with 
 ruin. He had abused it was said his discretionary power in 
 the case of the expedition to Egypt, to enrich private ship- 
 owners with Government freights to the extent of 30,000 
 tons, utterly regardless of the preferential claims of his 
 betrayed masters to the profits of the occasion. His vindica- 
 tion was one not of argument but of fact. Three private 
 ships only had been chartered by his permission to carry 
 stores at a particular juncture; and their total tonnage 
 barely amounted to a tenth of the supposed infraction of 
 the rule. He had indeed expressed, perhaps unguardedly, 
 opinions favourable to relaxations in trade; and had endea- 
 voured to bring Leadenhall Street to his economic way of 
 thinking. He was just thirty years, in this respect, before 
 
 ' Lord Dartmouth, 9th April, 1802. 
 
 ' Minute by the Governor General in Council, 21st April, 1802. 
 
i8o2 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 249 
 
 his time. No better motive occurred to them for his 
 insidious counsel than that of clandestine jobbing for his 
 personal interest ; and the anger which the baseless suspicion 
 excited broke out in discussions at home, on all manner of 
 other affairs. The haughty disdain with which he repelled 
 the injustice was well expressed in a confidential communi- 
 cation to Castlereagh,^ in which he points to the real 
 circumstances of the case in confutation of the charge of 
 pelfish un-patriotism. With equal scorn he justified his 
 choice of Henry Wellesley as lieutenant governor in Oude, 
 the outcry against which he described as ' only an additional 
 symptom of disordered temper.' 
 
 Egypt being evacuated by the troops under Baird on the 
 conclusion of peace with France, our ambassador at the 
 Porte was requested by the Sultan to express his warm 
 acknowledgments for the timely succour sent him from 
 India ; and to present the Governor Greneral with the star 
 and ribbon of the Order of the Crescent, in token of his 
 gratitude and esteem.^ 
 
 In July 1800 the Peishwah, fearing personal duress from 
 Scindiah, gave authority to certain of his ministers to sign a 
 subsidiary treaty with the Company on his behalf; and 
 the Governor General instructed the Eesident to sign the 
 engagement in case of his flight or captivity, and to 
 order British troops to occupy certain provinces of his 
 dominions. In the following spring the Government at 
 home were apprised of his having offered similar terms, with 
 an undertaking to drive the turbulent intruder from Poonah 
 by force of arms ; and no exception was taken to the course 
 then proposed. 
 
 In the autumn of 1802, the capture of Poonah by 
 Jeswunt Kao Hoikar, the flight of the Peishwah, and the 
 
 ' 12th February, 1803. 
 
 2 Lord Elgin from Constantinople; 1st May, 1802. 
 
250 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 gathering of the Mahratta clans under their respective chiefs, 
 menaced the Deccan and Hindustan with the plague of 
 general war, and almost necessitated the interposition of the 
 British power to protect their allies and secure the integrity 
 of their own dominion. 
 
 Late in November Wellesley wrote to Close the Resident 
 at Poonah, apprising him that troops were collecting on the 
 frontier with a view to interposing on behalf of the Peishwah.^ 
 
 On receipt of the Directors' reply to his proposal to resign, 
 in which they agreed to nominate Mr. Barlow his successor 
 ad interim, he wrote to them, ' that in accordance with 
 the wish he still entertained to return home he would 
 then be on the eve of his departure, if an important crisis 
 had not arisen in the state of political affairs in India. The 
 recent distractions in the Mahratta empire had occasioned a 
 combination of circumstances of the utmost importance to 
 the stability of British power. He could behold a conjunc- 
 ture of affairs which appeared to present the most advanta- 
 geous opportunity that had ever occurred, of improving the 
 British interests in that quarter on solid and durable founda- 
 tions. He entertained no apprehension of any occurrence 
 which could involve the British power in hostilities with any 
 of the contending parties at Poonah. His public duty, and 
 the service of the Honourable Company, appeared to him, 
 however, to require that he should be prepared to continue 
 in charge of the Grovernment until the general state of 
 political relations in India should assume a more settled 
 aspect. He had therefore determined not to embark for 
 England during the present season, unless a change of cir- 
 cumstances should render his departure expedient or neces- 
 sary.' 2 To the Secret Committee he transmitted a nar- 
 rative of all the incidents in the internecine struggle between 
 
 ' 29th November, 1802. 
 
 2 From Fort William ; 24tli December, 1802. 
 
i8o2 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 251 
 
 Scindiah, Holkar, and the Rajah of Berar; and of the 
 confusion and distraction out of which he saw his way by 
 timely interposition with a strong and resolute hand ' com- 
 prehending the Mahratta States in the general system of 
 defensive alliance with the Honourable Company and its 
 allies on the basis of the treaty concluded with the Nizam, 
 two years before.' Every document relative to the system of 
 measures which he had deemed it necessary to adopt for the 
 security and promotion of British interests in the existing 
 crisis, were therewith forwarded. 
 
 The Resident at Poonah had instructions in June to offer 
 terms of closer alliance and greater security against the 
 machinations of internal and external foes. But the 
 ministers of the Peishwah trusted rather to their skill in 
 intrigue with each and all of the turbulent feudatories 
 contending for ascendency : and the Prince, incapable of 
 any consistent or energetic course, wavered on from day to 
 day without either refusing or accepting the distrusted 
 profifer of British aid, until Jeswunt Rao appeared at the 
 head of a commanding force before the walls of the city. 
 Parley having failed to induce him to withdraw, the pro- 
 tection of Scindiah's troops encamped on the other side of 
 the town was invoked, with the consciousness that whichever 
 side prevailed, the Peishwah would become a dependent 
 instead of being any longer an arbiter, or supreme authority. 
 Clandestinely, a communication was therefore made on 
 October 25 to Colonel Close, agreeing to the conditions of 
 an extended subsidiary force, which in case of need, should 
 maintain or restore the authority of his Highness, who on the 
 same day quitted his palace and took the road to the frontier. 
 The rival aggressors then engaged, and Holkar won. He 
 had hoped to secure under the show of friendship, possession 
 of the Peishwah's person, and the nomination of his own 
 kinsman Amrut Rao to the post of Dewan while the military 
 
252 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1802 
 
 forces of the State should be placed at his disposal. ' This 
 crisis of affairs appeared to afford a tempting opportunity 
 for impartial intervention. Holkar's movement, though suc- 
 cessful, vs^as unpopular, and Scindiah would inevitably strive 
 to regain his predominance.' The continuance of the 
 contest would weaken both powers, and would afford us an 
 opportunity of interposing for the restoration of the Peishwah's 
 just authority, upon terms calculated to secure our relations 
 with the Mahratta empire. ' No reasonable apprehension 
 existed that the progress of this system of policy would be 
 obstructed either by the union of the contending parties, or 
 by the decisive success of either chieftain.' The pact tardily 
 agreed to was duly ratified, and the Grovernor General 
 prepared without hesitation or delay to employ the whole 
 force at his disposal, to emancipate the Peishwah from the 
 usurping thrall of his overbearing native protectors. Orders 
 were despatched to Madras and Bombay for the immediate 
 assembly of a military force, and a requisition was sent to 
 Hyderabad for the contingent that State was bound to 
 furnish, with a view to active intervention. Scindiah was 
 invited to co-operate in the restoration of an independent 
 government at Poonah. Meanwhile Holkar, baffled in his 
 original design, meditated placing the son of Amrut on the 
 musnud, while the timorous Peishwah asked the Governor of 
 Bombay to send a ship of war to convey him from Bancoote 
 to the friendly shelter of the Presidency. Holkar and Amrut 
 became alarmed at the prospect before them ; and professed 
 to desire nothing more ardently than British mediation. 
 But Colonel Close, acting on instructions from Fort William, 
 declined to enter upon any compromise, and quitted the 
 Residency for Bombay. Scindiah was equally warm in his 
 invocation of the Company's aid. Under these circumstances 
 the Viceregal diplomatist sanguinely believed that his inter- 
 position might prove effectual for the restoration of order and 
 
i8o2 TREATY OF BASSE IN. 253 
 
 tranquillity without resort to arms, and the acquisition of 
 commanding influence for the future in the hitherto foreign 
 affairs of the Mahratta empire.^ 
 
 The drift of all this is plain. The Grovernor Greneral was 
 asked to mediate, and he resolved to interpose. A new and 
 splendid game of empire unexpectedly opened before him ; 
 and as he gazed wistfully, marshalling contingencies and 
 realising the unheard and unseen, his imagination grew 
 excited, and he beheld new visions of greatness and power, 
 like him of old who, from the top of the rocks, gifted with 
 second sight, thought aloud ' as in a trance, yet having his 
 eyes open.' To the friend he loved and trusted most he 
 wrote — 'I have derived the greatest pleasure from the 
 accounts of your alacrity and judgment during the existing 
 crisis. The exertions which you have made for the early 
 assembling of the army on the frontier of Mysore were 
 extremely seasonable and judicious; and I anticipate the 
 greatest advantages in the course of our negotiations from 
 this wise precaution. My views are anxiously directed to the 
 object of avoiding hostilities, and I request your lordship to 
 bear this principle in mind throughout every contingency. 
 I entertain a sanguine hope of accomplishing the great 
 arrangement of establishing a British subsidiary force at 
 Poonah without proceeding to extremities with any party. 
 Indeed, all the more important powers concerned in the 
 contest have already directly solicited our mediation, or 
 manifested a disposition to accept it. The pacific conclusion 
 however of these extraordinary commotions may depend so 
 essentially on the degree of despatch with which questions 
 may be decided of a nature exclusively and necessarily 
 reserved for the personal decision of the Grovernor Greneral, 
 that I am desirous of proceeding with all practicable expedition, 
 to some point from which I can easily reach the principal 
 
 > To the Secret Committee ; 24th December, 1802. 
 
254 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 scene of negotiation, and direct the daily course of measures 
 according to the variation of circumstances and events. With 
 this view I propose to embark for Madras towards the close 
 of this month ; whence I can proceed into Mysore or to 
 Bombay, or to any quarter which may require my presence.' 
 And then, careful to disarm beforehand any personal jealousy, 
 he renewed his declaration of ' unalterable attachment, regard 
 and esteem ' for Clive, and his confidence that his ' arrival at 
 the seat of his lordship's Government could produce no 
 other effect than to manifest to the world additional proofs 
 of their indissoluble union in the public service, and of their 
 mutual contempt of the clamour of faction, and of the low 
 arts and intrigues of disappointed corruption.' ^ 
 
 General Wellesley was ordered to march on Poonah from 
 Seringapatam, and Lieutenant-General Stewart from Madras, 
 to restore our fugitive ally. The distance and difficulty of the 
 way, it was calculated, would require three months. Mysore 
 contributed effectively to the preparations requisite for the 
 expedition, and Purneah rendered cordial aid.^ 
 
 To Lake, then commanding-in-chief, he imparted at the 
 same time his wishes and designs. It was his ' belief that 
 the army assembled at Hurryhaul (within our own confines) 
 would never be called upon to act, either offensively or 
 defensively ; it might possibly march to Poonah, and after 
 having established a subsidiary force, return to its stations, 
 or it might furnish the subsidiary force without moving its 
 main body beyond our frontier. Its presence on the frontier, 
 in his opinion, would deter the invasion of any party, and 
 even of any vagrant freebooter of important strength : and the 
 general aspect of affairs led him to believe that we should be 
 enabled to conclude our alliance with the Peishwah, under the 
 pacific acquiescence, if not with the cordial consent, and to 
 
 ^ To Lord Clive from Barrackpore ; 7th January, 1803. 
 2 A. Wellesley to Colonel Clive ,• 1st January, 1803. 
 
l8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN, 255 
 
 the general satisfaction of all parties. The power which it was 
 BQOst important to hold in check was Scindiah. No serious 
 or alarming opposition was to be feared from any other quarter, 
 and he was inclined to believe that even Scindiah would act 
 at least a neutral, if not an amicable part.' He left it 
 therefore, to the Generals discretion without reserve, to 
 remain in the ceded districts in Oude, or join the army in 
 Mysore. Should Scindiah be tempted by force of arms to 
 thwart the negotiations with the Peishwah ' the most effectual 
 way of controlling him would be an irruption into his 
 dominions from Oude, and in that case the main and most 
 critical effort must be made from the quarter where Lake then 
 was present. Indeed, his determination was so fixed to employ 
 every effort for the purpose of avoiding hostilities, that he 
 thought it scarcely possible that he could be disappointed in his 
 hope of preserving peace. And his plan was therefore, rather 
 to form such arrangements as might present the most powerful 
 and menacing aspect to every branch of the Mahratta empire, 
 on every point of its frontier, than to prepare any separate army 
 with a view to one distinct operation. The General, whatever 
 course he might personally decide on, might rely on his 
 cordial support.' ^ A few days after, he received from Castle- 
 reagh, who had become President of the Board of Control, 
 warm assurances of undiminished confidence in his adminis- 
 tration on the part of Mr. Addington and himself, and their 
 united dissuasions of his intention to quit India until all the 
 great objects of his policy had been completely obtained.^ 
 
 Several of the lesser chiefs sent vakeels to offer aid, 
 hoping to make merit beforehand,^ and anxious to escape 
 from their overbearing superiors, by whom they were worn out 
 as tools, or treated as counters in the game. 
 
 ' To the Commander-in-Chief ; 7th January, 1803. 
 * 10th September, 1802 ; received 17th January, 1803, 
 " To Colonel Clive ; 21st January, 1803. 
 
256 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 Orders were given to General Stewart to advance from 
 Hurry ghur into the Mahratta territory at the earliest pru- 
 dential moment.* 
 
 On the last day of the year a treaty offensive and de- 
 fensive had been concluded at Bassein between Rajah Rao and 
 the Company, by which in consideration of districts yielding 
 twenty-six lacs of rupees, a subsidiary force of 6,000 troops 
 under English officers, with a suitable complement of artillery 
 and engineers, who were to be stationed permanently in the 
 neighbourhood of Poonah, or wherever else his Highness 
 might require their presence for the maintenance of his 
 government. When transmitting to the Directors this im- 
 portant document with its formal ratification six weeks later, 
 Wellesley declared his confidence ' that it would form the basis 
 of eventual tranquillity greater and more durable than had 
 theretofore ever been expected. At first it was indeed 
 possible that Holkar and Scindiah might lay aside their 
 mutual enmities rather than allow the suzerain of their con- 
 federacy to be indebted for his independence of their loyalty 
 to an alien power ; and no threat of their junction ought to 
 be allowed to baffle a policy so manifest as that embudied in 
 the treaty of Bassein. But if the Peishwah should be tempted 
 to accept a joint proffer from them of restoration to his 
 former authority, instead of relying on the guarantee of the 
 treaty, it was not his intention to attempt to compel the 
 Peishwah to adhere to the faith of his engagements.' ^ 
 
 Ministers urged the Court of Directors to join with them 
 in requesting him to defer his departure for another year, 
 and to give some signal proof of their continued confidence. 
 The ratification of the treaty with Azim ul Dowlah, and 
 approval of the Carnatic Settlement seemed the most em- 
 phatic mode of attesting their desire. Castlereagh in com- 
 
 i From Fort William ; 2nd February, 1803. 
 
 2 To the Court of Directors ; 10th February, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 257 
 
 municatiDg their assent did not attempt to disguise the 
 jealousy of Henry Wellesley's appointment as Vice-Grovernor 
 of tiie ceded districts of Oude entertained by the Company ; 
 nor the prejudice with which the late proceedings, both in 
 the Carnatic and in Surat, were viewed in many influential 
 quarters in and out of Parliament, as manifesting a settled 
 purpose of territorial aggrandisement, at variance with the 
 unrepealed inhibitions of the law. For himself he was ready 
 to defend all that had been done as expedient and just ; but 
 he thought it very probable that the questions involved in 
 these transactions would occupy a prominent place in the 
 debates of the ensuing session.^ Confirmed in what he had 
 hitherto done, though warned as to what he might attempt 
 in the future, he proceeded to mature the comprehensive 
 preparations already noticed for intervention in the Mahratta 
 States. His natural temper and five years' exercise of almost 
 absolute power, the accomplishment of vast results, and finally 
 the acquiescence of both Cabinet and Company in the face 
 of loud and unsparing attack, rendered him perhaps too 
 contemptuous of criticism and too indifferent to individual 
 pique or spleen. He overlooked or forgot the wisdom of 
 the sacred proverb, that ' the intrinsic worthlessness of the 
 flies that make the apothecary's ointment to stink is no 
 measure o>f their power to sting.' His anxiety however 
 continued unabated, that om- interference should never 
 assume the odious aspect of imposing on the Mahrattas 
 a ruler whom generally they distrusted or disowned. The 
 treaty of 1800 entitled the Peishwah to claim our active 
 support in defence of his authority ; but the spirit of our 
 engagements with him involved no obligation of such an 
 extent. Whatever might be the success of our arms, the 
 ultimate object of those engagements could not be attained 
 by a course of policy so violent and extreme. If therefore it 
 ' From Lord Castlereagh ; received 29th January, 1803. 
 
258 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 should appear that a decided opposition to the restoration of 
 the Peishwah was to be expected from the majority of the 
 Mahratta Jaghiredars, and from the body of his subjects, he 
 would instantly relinquish every attempt to restore him to 
 the musnud.^ This, be it observed, was not language used to 
 deprecate antagonism or to extenuate the possibly harsh con- 
 sequences of armed interposition ; but was written under the 
 seal of secrecy for the guidance of the Governor of Madras 
 before a picket had crossed the frontier or a shot had been 
 fired. Webbe was appointed Kesident at Nagpore with a 
 view to further the drawing of the Eajah of Berar into the 
 projected system of defensive alliance ; and Malcolm was 
 named to succeed him in Mysore. Both were chosen for the 
 knowledge of native customs and dialects they were known 
 to possess, and the temper and tact for which they were 
 distinguished. . 
 
 The Peishwah received the ratification of the treaty of 
 Bassein with demonstrations of the highest satisfaction, 
 and did not appear to entertain any disposition to accept the 
 invitation to the camp of Scindiah. Wellesley suspected that 
 Scindiah, notwithstanding his original application for the aid 
 of the British Grovernment in restoring order to the Mah- 
 ratta empire, meditated an accommodation with Holkar ; and 
 a confederacy with him and the Eajah of Berar for the 
 purpose of frustrating our arrangements with the Peishwah. 
 This suspicion was corroborated by the artifices practised at 
 his camp, with a view of eluding the communication of the 
 propositions with which Colonel Collins was charged ; and the 
 evasive replies he received after he had at length obtained 
 access to him. ' This perverse course of policy, habitual to all 
 the States of India, was the favourite practice of the Mahratta 
 powers ; but experience proved that a direct and steady 
 course of poUcy was not less advantageous to our interests 
 1 Secret to Lord Clive, 2nd February, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 259 
 
 than it was consistent with our dignity.' Scindiah then gave 
 a positive assurance of his wish to improve the friendship 
 subsisting between the Peishwah, the British Grovernment, 
 and his own State. The extreme hazard to which his power 
 had been recently exposed by the success of the insurgents 
 at Poonah may have opened a more distinct view of his real 
 interests, which were entirely consistent with those of the 
 British Grovernment. He may however have apprehended 
 the permanent diminution of his influence in the Peishwah's 
 councils under the Treaty of Bassein. But his influence had 
 been subverted previous to our mediation, and the existence 
 of his Grovernment had been greatly endangered. His sin- 
 cerity is confirmed by his inaction at Burhampore until the 
 season and the progress of our forces had advanced so far that 
 no exertion on his part could have enabled him to occupy 
 Poonah previous to the arrival of our troops in that capital. 
 He might however, wisely and justly, withhold his assent to 
 any new system of engagement until he had ascertained the 
 real sentiments of the Peishwah on the subject of the late 
 treaty. Holkar continued to manifest an anxious desire for 
 the accommodation of his difierences with the Peishwah and 
 with Scindiah by repeated applications to Colonel Close for 
 British arbitration. Colonel Close urged the Peishwah to 
 make such concessions as might compromise their existing 
 differences and admit of his returning peaceably to his 
 capital. But he manifested an insuperable aversion to offer 
 any concessions to Holkar, whom he considered to be a rebel 
 against the legitimate authority of the sovereign power of 
 the Mahratta empire. Colonel Close therefore addressed a 
 letter to Holkar, assuring him that our influence would be 
 exerted for the satisfactory adjustment of his claims on Scin- 
 diah or the Peishwah, and a hope that he would refrain from 
 any opposition to the establishment of a British force within 
 the Peishwah's dominions. Holkar continued to exercise the 
 
 8 2 
 
260 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 utmost violence and outrage upon the inhabitants of Poonah 
 for the purpose of extorting money for the relief of his exi- 
 gencies. This created the greatest disgust, and confirmed 
 the resolution of the Jaghiredars and of the rest of the com- 
 munity to support the Peishwah's cause. At the beginning of 
 April he withdrew his army in a northerly direction towards 
 Burhampore, to accelerate probably his negotiation with 
 Scindiah : and this movement admitted the uninterrupted 
 march of the combined forces of the allies to Poonah. Though 
 his forces amounted to 40,000 cavalry, 30,000 infantry, with 
 180 guns, he seemed thereby to have abandoned his hopes 
 of effecting a revolution in the Grovernment of Poonah, and 
 of seizing a share in the administration. The Eajah of 
 Berar was dissatisfied at the conclusion of the Treaty of 
 Bassein. But the Peishwah rejected every overture of the 
 ruling authority at Poonah and of the Rajah of Berar for 
 the adjustment of his afiairs through any other channel than 
 ours.* The allied forces under Lieutenant-General Stuart 
 had orders from Lord Clive to enter the Mahratta territory, 
 and a detachment under Major-Grenera] Wellesley was specially 
 directed to move on Poonah from Mysore. 
 
 In his progress Bajee Rao received welcome and homage 
 from many of the great Jaghiredars who in the days of his 
 misrule had sulked at their country seats, and refused to 
 attend his court. The outrages and exactions of Holkar's 
 bandit troops and the terrors of protracted civil war had 
 brought them back to loyalty ; and condoning the faults and 
 errors of their hereditary chief, they accompanied him with 
 their numerous retainers to the capital, where, on May 13, he 
 was restored to the musnud amid salvoes of British artillery 
 and demonstrations of popular joy. Holkar had withdrawn 
 as General Wellesley approached, and his professions waxed 
 daily more fervid of desire for a bloodless arbitrament of his 
 
 » To the Secret Committee from Fort Williaim ; 19th April, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 261 
 
 claims. But ere the last of his freebooters had disappeared 
 partizans of his more potent rival began once more to mutter 
 audibly complaints that he had not been a party to the 
 restoration. Were the foreigners going to remain at Poonah ; 
 and was the head of the Mahratta League about to become 
 independent in their hands? What if Scindiah and Eagojee 
 Bhoonslah reappear upon the scene ? Their disciplined bat- 
 talions, powerful ordnance, and unnumbered squadrons of horse 
 were known to have been lately mustering near Burhampore ; 
 and who could tell whether, sooner than endure the spectacle of 
 alien ascendency, Holkar might not be induced to join them 
 in a general war against the infidel ? The hour was critical, 
 and on Arthur Wellesley the responsibility lay of deciding 
 whether to abide the chances of Mahratta intrigue and cabal, 
 or to assume a peremptory tone to bring affairs at once to issue. 
 The danger of waiting till the effervescence of gratitude had 
 passed away, and his small army should be girt round at 
 Poonah by gathering hosts, was imminent. His choice was 
 silently but quickly made. Our Kesident in the camp of 
 Scindiah, by instructions from the Greneral, laid before him in 
 Durbar the full text of the Treaty of Bassein, which he and 
 his ministers owned had in it nothing of which he could 
 complain. But when called upon to give proof of the sin- 
 cerity of his acquiescence by withdrawing his army across 
 the Nerbudda, he sought by varied ingenuity of evasion to 
 avoid any definite pledge as to his intentions. And when 
 at length Colonel Collins pressed for a definite reply, he 
 haughtily broke up the conference by saying, ' that after his 
 interview with the Rajah of Berar appointed for the morrow 
 he would declare whether we should have war or peace.' The 
 mask thus dropped. Colonel Collins was at first minded to 
 depart without further parley. But the solicitude for the 
 preservation of peace expressed in all the Governor's letters 
 withheld him from taking an irretraceable step ; and deviating 
 
2G2 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 from the strict tenor of his orders from the General he 
 yielded to importunities frequently renewed from theMahratta 
 ministers that he would remain at the camp at Burliampore 
 in hopes from day to day of a peaceful solution of affaire. 
 He was not ignorant that the Bhoonslah's tendencies were 
 hostile, and that his influence was likely to be exercised to 
 warp his wavering ally towards desperate counsels. But the 
 state of the country, and just then of the weather, visibly 
 chilled Dowlut Rao's courage, and while a hope remained of 
 averting sanguinary conflict Collins believed that he inter- 
 preted aright the desires of his Government by leaving the 
 door of compromise ajar. 
 
 Meanwhile at P^ort William the duplicity of the Mahratta 
 professions of peace was revealed by a letter from the Rajah 
 of Berar to Azim ul Omrah, whicli announced his intention of 
 attacking the Nizam's territory, and of his concert with Holkar 
 and Scindiah to defeat the Treaty of Bassein. Wellesley ex- 
 postulated with him on the treachery of his conduct, remind- 
 ing him of his recent professions of unbroken friendship, and 
 warning him that he could not be allowed with impunity to 
 break the peace,^ To Scindiah himself a remonstrance was 
 addressed against the movement of his troops on Poonah, 
 where the Peishwah had been peacefully restored through our 
 intervention, and from the neighbourhood of which Holkar 
 had withdrawn. Any further advance in that direction on 
 the pretence of defending the chief of the confederacy from 
 molestation could only be regarded as a proof of hostile 
 designs against the British power and its allies. His specious 
 professions of contentment with the Treaty of Bassein when 
 made known to him in March, could not be reconciled with 
 his subsequent negotiations with Bhoonslah and Holkar. To 
 clear any erroneous apprehension from his mind of the drift 
 and purport of the treaty. Colonel Collins was instructed 
 1 From Fort William; 22nd May, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSE IN, 263 
 
 to furnish him with a copy of the whole of its provisions, by 
 which he would see that nothing indicated a desire to subvert 
 the independence of the Mahratta States. The Resident was 
 to ' convince him that in concluding the late alliance with the 
 Peishwahjthe objects of the Grovernor Greneral were to secure 
 the British dominions and those of our ally the Nizam from 
 the dangers of contiguous anarchy and confusion, to fulfil the 
 duties of friendship towards our ally the Peishwah, and to 
 provide at the same time for the safety of the several branches 
 of the Mahratta empire, without disturbing the constitutional 
 form of the State, and without affecting the legitimate 
 independence of its feudatory chieftains.' ^ 
 
 The sincerity of these professions was as little compre- 
 hended in London as at Grwalior. Castlereagh and ' The 
 Chairs ' could not be persuaded that interference meant any- 
 thing but a covered project of annexation ; and the semi- 
 barbarous Mahratta courts might naturally tremble lest the 
 fate of Tippoo and the Nawab of Arcot should be in store for 
 them. But it is certain that neither lust of spoil or hunger 
 for appropriation of territory animated the counsels of 
 Wellesley. He persuaded himself that while the lawless and 
 fitful ambition of the three great chiefs of the confederacy 
 remained without check or curb the tranquillity of our posses- 
 sions could never be secure. To hold the balance of their 
 rival interests, and to play the resistant energies from time 
 to time against the aggressive schemes of his neighbour, and 
 if possible to induce all of them practically to enter into terms 
 of subsidiary alliance with the Company, was the far-sighted 
 and far-reaching policy which alone he contemplated. In 
 outline it was vast, in detail sometimes vague ; but on the 
 whole it was characterized by greatness of purpose and compre- 
 hensiveness of design : and up to this period it was possible 
 to believe that it might be realized without war. The 
 * Secretary Edmonstone to Colonel Collins ; 9th June, 1803. 
 
264: MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 demonstration however of military strength was obviously 
 indispensable for this most favourable solution, and extra- 
 ordinary efforts were made to meet the contingency of a 
 sudden rupture, whenever and wherever it should occur. He 
 wrote warmly congratulating the Peishwah on returning to his 
 capital, an event which was published with due honour at all 
 the seats of British Grovernment. The independent authority 
 of his Highness would be scrupulously recognised by us so 
 long as our relations of amity lasted. His Highness was 
 lavish in acknowledgment of the services rendered him. He 
 professed unwavering confidence in his benefactors, and a 
 cordial disposition to be guided by their advice. It seems 
 still uncertain whether the counter alliance spoken of between 
 Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar was more than defensive, 
 and the excesses committed by Holkar's troops in the Nizam's 
 country having been brought to an end were hardly of suf- 
 ficient magnitude to call for reprisal or reparation. Such was 
 the state of affairs towards the close of June. 
 
 But Scindiah at length resolved to set at nought all his 
 previous professions of desire for peace and for our mediation, 
 and Greneral Lake had orders to prepare for a collision which 
 to the last he endeavoured to avert. ' A few days will 
 decide positively whether war will become inevitable ; from 
 that moment we must press forward without hesitation if the 
 alternative should leave no prospect of peace. You will at the 
 same time enter into my extreme solicitude to avoid every 
 proceeding which can involve expense, and which may not be 
 indispensable to our success.'^ 
 
 On June 8, Bhoonslah had a long conference with 
 Scindiah at his camp at Chickley. The Resident next day 
 asked for a final answer regarding their intentions, but was 
 met with the usual evasion. In a memorial addressed to the 
 Maharajah, Colonel Collins demanded categorically a reply to 
 ' To Lieut.-General Lake; 28th June, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 265 
 
 his oft-repeated question whether he meant peace or war for 
 the purpose of defeating the Treaty of Bassein. Should he 
 continue with his army south of the Nerbudda, and refuse to 
 give satisfactory assurances, the Grovernor Greneral must con- 
 sider friendly relations at an end, and for himself the Kesident 
 must only ask for an escort to Aurungabad. Greneral Wellesley 
 had advanced his troops several days' march north of Poonah, 
 and had plenary powers conferred on him to negotiate with 
 the Mahratta chiefs or to take hostile action. Acting on in- 
 structions from him, Colonel Collins quitted Scindiah's camp, 
 and informed the Governor General that the rupture was 
 complete. On receipt of this intelligence Wellesley wrote 
 forthwith to the commander on the North-west frontier : — ' I 
 have just received a letter from Colonel Collins under date 
 June 12, which has determined me to carry into execution 
 with all practicable speed the general outlines of the plan of 
 war against Scindiah stated in my letter of June 28. I shall 
 now write to you from day to day, but I would not delay this 
 communication for a moment. Scindiah's object is to gain 
 time. Ours must be to act between this time and the month 
 of October. The seizure of Agra would be a great and 
 masterly blow. I know you will attempt it if prudent.' ^ 
 
 Lake was to gain possession, if possible, of Delhi, Agra, 
 and a chain of posts on the right bank of the Jumnah, with a 
 view to the occupation of theDooab, or country lying between 
 that river and the Ganges. 
 
 There was no desire to extend the Company's territory 
 further, but it would be his duty to deliver Shah Alum 
 from his captivity, and induce him to fix his residence within 
 our confines. To alienate and take over or break up the 
 PVench contingent in the pay of Scindiah was an object of 
 primary importance, the means for compassing which were 
 left to the General's discretion. All connections which might 
 > 6th July, 1803. 
 
266 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 be found beyond the river line of frontier were to be placed 
 upon a footing of defensive alliance, so as to form a hedge of 
 locally self-governing, but politically dependent States between 
 us and the Mahrattas. It was likewise intended to take 
 possession of Bundlecund, the proximity of which to Benares 
 and other cities of importance made it a constant source of 
 danger in treacherous or hostile hands. Minute instructions 
 as to what might be done with advantage in various contin- 
 gencies were sent to Lake as suggestions for his consideration ; 
 but his judgment was left free to modify them as circum- 
 stances might seem to require ; always bearing in mind the 
 possibility that Greneral Wellesley held full powers to treat 
 with Scindiah, with whose main army he was likely to come 
 into collision in the Deccan. On July 18, the two Mah- 
 ratta princes were formally summoned to cross the Nerbudda, 
 and sever their armed coalition, if they desired a continuance 
 of peace. In case of refusal. Colonel Collins was to quit the 
 Mahratta camp without further parley. After a week's 
 hesitation they severally replied that they were within their 
 own borders, where they had a right to be, and that they had 
 sent disclaimers to the Governor General of any wish to 
 break the Treaty of Bassein or any intention of passing the 
 Adjuntee hills that lay between them and Poonah. In his 
 desire to avert hostilities. Colonel Collins deviated from his 
 orders and spent another fortnight in negotiation. 
 
 Wellesley awaited the result of the Kesident's prolonged 
 parleyings, hoping against hope, that at the last moment they 
 might prevail : sleeplessly revolving by night all the contin- 
 gencies that would need providing for in case of a rupture, 
 and by day silently pacing the halls of Government House, 
 nervously watching for the first tidings from Burham- 
 pore. At length they came. The die was cast, and every 
 thought and hand must forthwith be devoted to sending 
 instructions simultaneously, and without an hour's delay, to 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIX. 267 
 
 the generals and political agents at various distant points how 
 they might act best respectively and in combination. Lakg, 
 Kirkpatrick, Malcolm had all to be informed authentically 
 how and why Collins had upon August 3 finally quitted 
 Scindiah's camp, and that three days afterwards war had 
 begun. It taxed to the utmost all the energies, mental and 
 physical, of the Secretariat Staff to execute the requirements 
 of the Governor General. For many hours he remained in 
 the midst of his young guard of civil servants dictating 
 minute instructions, copies of important documents, or 
 transcribing despatches with modifications and alternative 
 paragraphs framed to provide afar off for possible events. 
 Strung to the highest pitch of excitement and ambition, his 
 confidential scribes throughout the sultry day and late into 
 the night, continued at their task without sign of weariness, 
 proud of its importance, and enthusiastic, as Metcalf loved 
 to tell, in admiration of ' their glorious little chief.' When 
 they had done, they were summoned to the supper table in 
 an adjoining room, and told that they were to make merry 
 and drink deep to the success of our arms. 
 
 On August 6, General Wellesley began his memorable 
 march, and upon the 8th war began. His statement of the 
 causfc of the rupture was couched in terms eminently charac- 
 teristic. In a frank though formal communication addressed 
 to Scindiah be said, — ' Your Highness will recollect that the 
 British Government did not threaten to commence hostilities 
 against you ; but you threatened to commence hostilities 
 against the British Government and its allies ; and when 
 called on to explain your intentions, you declared it was 
 doubtful whether there would be peace or war ; ^ and in con- 
 formity with your threats and your declared doubts, you 
 assembled a large army in a station contiguous to the 
 Nizam's frontier. On this ground I called upon you to 
 ' In conference with Colonel Collins on the 27th May. 
 
268 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1803 
 
 withdraw that army to its usual station, if your subsequent 
 pacific declarations were sincere ; but instead of complying 
 with this reasonable requisition, you propose that I should 
 withdraw the troops which are intended to defend the terri- 
 tories of our allies against your designs ; and that you and the 
 Eajah of Berar should be suffered to remain with your troops 
 assembled, in readiness to take advantage of their absence. 
 This proposition is unreasonable and inadmissible, and you 
 must stand the consequences of the measures which I find 
 myself compelled to adopt in order to repel your aggression. 
 I offered you peace on terms of equality, and honourable to 
 all parties : you have chosen war, and are responsible for all 
 consequences.' ^ 
 
 The first of these consequences was sharp and stunning. 
 The fort of Ahmednuggur, at the mouth of the Adjuntee Pass, 
 was attacked and taken,^ and the young Greneral thenceforth 
 pursued his venturous way. It was his first campaign in 
 separate command, and it proved equally notable in the book 
 of his fame and in the story of empire. The country had 
 been desolated by internal conflicts ; and without a commis- 
 sariat carefully prepared and amply supplied his troops must 
 have starved. The enemy fell back as he advanced, and it 
 was not until September 23 that he came up with them on 
 the banks of the Kistna, where he fought and won the battle 
 of Assye, routing his outnumbering foes and taking ninety 
 pieces of cannon. A month later followed the sanguinary 
 conflict at Argaum, and on December 15 the siege and 
 capture of Grawilghur. The Rajah of Berar sued for peace. 
 Bhoonslah agreed to relinquish several provinces westward of 
 the river Wurdah to the Nizam : to the Company he ceded 
 Cut tack and Bundelcund. 
 
 ^ To Dowlut Rao Scindia, from the Camp at Walkee; 6th August 
 1803. 
 
 2 11th August, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN, 269 
 
 The Grovernment of the Company was recognised in 
 future to be the arbiter of all differences with the Peishwah or 
 the Nizam, and no European or American troops were to be 
 thenceforth admitted into the service of Berar.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, at the opposite extremity of Scindiah's vast 
 dominions. Lake with an army of 10,000 men pursued his 
 equally triumphant course. With one European and four 
 native regiments of foot (about 4,000 men), three regiments 
 of dragoons and five of native horse, he crossed the frontier 
 at Alyghur. The Mahratta army, 15,000 strong, consisted of 
 picked men highly disciplined under European oflScers, who 
 were full of the confidence derived from never having been 
 beaten in the field. The}" had been trained by De Boigne, 
 a Savoyard by birth, who had learned war in the Irish Brigade 
 of France, and who had while still young become a trusted 
 and favoured lieutenant of Scindiah. He had been succeeded 
 by a .Frenchman named Perron, of known energy, and many 
 of whose subalterns were his compatriots, but some of other 
 European nationalities. Lord Wellesley was too wise to under- 
 value the strength of such a force ; and was ready to sap 
 its stability while preparing to confront it in the open. He 
 knew that Perron was the object of native jealousy, and 
 daily feared supersession by intrigue. Offers were therefore 
 circulated guaranteeing property, rank, and pay to such 
 European officers as might betimes come over to the side 
 of England. So bold an offer caused men hitherto faithful 
 to the Mahratta standard to distrust for the first time its 
 chance of victory ; and the soldier, like the woman, who 
 hesitates is lost. Within a fortnight Perron and many 
 of his staff covertly withdrew and left their battalions on 
 the eve of the first battle.^ Disheartened but undismayed 
 at being suddenly left to unrecognised leaders, these brave 
 troops met the onslaught of the British with such constancy 
 » 17th December, 1803. 2 29ih Auj^ust, 1803. 
 
270 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 3803 
 
 and vigour, that Lake was obliged to fall back, and did not 
 venture to attack again until the afternoon, when his 
 superior cavalry succeeded in throwing his adversaries into 
 confusion, which their inexperienced officers were unable to 
 retrieve. The defeat cost the victors dear, but it was de- 
 cisive. On September 4 the Fort of Aljghur was taken by 
 storm ; more French officers deserted, and Scindiah was 
 never afterwards able to array so formidable an army in the 
 field. The Governor Greneral recorded with effusion the glory 
 of the day and that of Ahmednuggur, the account of which 
 had reached him just before. In his heart he could not help 
 feeling that but for the preparations he had made betimes for 
 the advance of both armies long ere a whiff of conflict floated 
 in the stirless air neither victory had been won.^ 
 
 Lake approached Delhi on September 11, where another 
 detachment of the French Brigade under Bourquin prepared 
 to dispute his progress. In a sharp encounter he was again 
 successful; and on the 16th entered the ancient capital of 
 The Mogul. Amid the rejoicings of the multitude he pro- 
 ceeded to deliver from his long captivity the aged sovereign 
 who fifty years before, had granted the English, as an excep- 
 tional favour, a firman permitting them to exercise certain 
 privileges at the mouth of the Granges. From penury and 
 suffering he was now with his family to be delivered, and re- 
 stored to the enjoyment of luxury and state. An incident so 
 dramatic, and one whose consequences were likely to prove 
 historically so significant, furnished a theme of pardonable 
 exultation to the Pro-consular pen. 'It is impossible to de- 
 scribe the impression which Greneral Lake's conduct on this 
 interesting occasion has made on the minds of the inhabitants 
 of Delhi, and of all the Mussulmans who have had an oppor- 
 tunity of being made acquainted with the occurrences of 
 September 16. In the metaphorical language of Asia, the native 
 • General orders ; 8th September, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASSEIN. 271 
 
 news-writers who describe this extraordinary scene have 
 declared that his Majesty Shah Aluna recovered his sight 
 from excess of joy. In addition to many other marks of 
 royal favour and condescension, the Emperor was graciously 
 pleased to confer on the General the second title in the 
 empire.' ^ 
 
 Too late to give the old man back his sight, it would not 
 have been too late to restore the provinces or some of them 
 of which he had been bereft by his Mahratta foes, against 
 whom just then virtuous indignation was loud. But beyond 
 a limited suburban circle no restitution of lands was made. 
 The house of Timour was declared to have regained by aid 
 of our auxiliary arms its liberty and dignity : but we kept 
 its possessions. The coin of the Company continued to bear 
 the effigy of the Mogul, and 150,000Z. a year was indeed 
 secured for the maintenance at Delhi of palaces, elephants, 
 harems, and household troops ; but the control of the police 
 and the command of a Sepoy garrison were entrusted to 
 English officers, who were held responsible for the safety of 
 the imperial family, and whose instructions were positive 
 that under no circumstances should the Sovereign or his next 
 heir quit the precincts of the capital from which empire had 
 crumbled away. 
 
 From a severe attack of illness the news of these victories 
 revived the Governor General. He wrote at length from 
 Barrackpore, congratulating Lake, and covering him with 
 praise.-^ ' The result must be the extinction of the last vestige 
 of French influence in India, the defeat of the ambitious and 
 rapacious views of the Mahratta confederates, and a speedy 
 peace with ample indemnity and security to the allies.' 
 You are entitled to the highest honours and rewards which 
 your country and your King can bestow. My private 
 
 • To the Directors ; September, 1803. 
 ' Despatch ; 30th September, 1803. 
 
272 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1803 
 
 gratitude cannot be expressed.' Warm as these words of 
 appreciation were, they did not satisfy the ardour of his 
 excitable and enthusiastic nature. ' My life however pro- 
 tracted cannot furnish the means of satisfying my senti- 
 ments on this occasion. But whatever can be expected from 
 the most cordial, firm, and zealous respect, affection, and 
 attachment, must ever be commanded by you from me and 
 from every person connected with me.' 
 
 Agra surrendered on October 17, and Duderneg with 
 his staff and 2,500 men came into camp on terms of taking 
 service with the Company. The remaining battalions of 
 their devoted but deserted force, a fortnight later, fought 
 desperately at Laswarri and nearly cut to pieces the 76th Foot. 
 
 Lake, the day after, recorded the final dispersion of what 
 had been Perron's force, and the rout of Scindiah's last army, 
 though not without great fatigue, difficulty and loss. ' I 
 never was in so severe a business in my life, or anything 
 like it, and I pray to Grod I may never be in such a situation 
 again. Their army was better appointed than ours ; no 
 expense was spared whatever. Had we been defeated the con- 
 sequences must have been most fatal. Those fellows fought 
 like devils, or rather heroes ; and had they been commanded 
 by French officers the event would have been I fear ex- 
 tremely doubtful. They had a numerous artillery as well 
 armed as they could possibly be ; their gunners standing to 
 their guns until killed by the bayonet.' ^ 
 
 A favourite charger, given to Lake by the Gro vernor General, 
 was killed under him during the day. At the end of his 
 elaborate dispatch of congratulation Lord Wellesley added, — 
 ' I grieve for my poor friend Old Port ; but I have received 
 some fine horses from Arabia, one, if not two, of which I 
 shall endeavour to send to you.' ^ 
 
 * To the Governor General ; 2nd November, 1803. 
 « ISth November, 1803. 
 
i8o3 TREATY OF BASS EI N, 273 
 
 Scindiah, like his confederate, now agreed to peace, ceding 
 numerous and valuable provinces and fortified places. He 
 renounced all claims on the British Grovernment and its 
 allies, or upon the Gruickwar or the Peishwah. The losses 
 sustained by the great officers of his court and army by 
 the alienation of territories out of whose revenues they had 
 been paid were to be compensated by fifteen lacs of ru- 
 pees guaranteed by the Company. The Treaty was signed 
 December 30, 1803, and followed by one of defensive al- 
 liance some weeks later, by which he secured the service of 
 six battalions of sepoys to be stationed within or without his 
 dominions as he might choose, and to be paid out of the 
 revenues of the districts he had relinquished. While the 
 discomfited Rajahs retained without question their independ- 
 ence, their powers of molesting each other or their neigh- 
 bours were materially curtailed. The prestige of their arms 
 was effectually dissipated ; and after three-quarters of a 
 century Scindiah is still numbered among the native allies 
 of England in the East, and his people live in a security un- 
 known to their forefathers. 
 
 Nearly every object named by the Governor General 
 in his original scheme of policy was attained. Berar 
 ceded Maritime Orissa, thus giving the Company a con- 
 tinuous coast from Calcutta to Madras. Certain districts 
 (now called Berar Proper) were made over to the Nizam as 
 his share of the spoil on a pledge never to employ any 
 Frenchmen in his service, and to make no alliance with 
 the Mahratta States. 
 
274 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 BHURTPORE. 
 1804-1806. 
 
 Addresses of gratulation from the Anglo-Indian communities 
 in aU the great towns vied with each other in eulogy of 
 the past, and augury of settled peace for the future. The 
 praise has become history ; the prophecy was doomed to fail, 
 and was soon forgotten. Flattery would listen to no doubt 
 of England's recognition of the wisdom, firmness, and mode- 
 ration in council, which had sent forth heroism to triumph, 
 and welcomed it back with honour unstained by excess. It 
 was impossible that deeds so great should not be appreciated 
 as they deserved ; and if the immediate cost was heavy, the 
 price of so many and important gains must seem to all 
 thinking and reasonable minds as well worth paying. But 
 his experience of the querulous and grudging temper of his 
 employers did not lead Wellesley to equally sanguine ex- 
 pectations. He had for three years been in controversy with 
 them on many and weighty affairs, and he had come to the 
 conviction that his ways of rule would never be as their 
 ways, or his thoughts as their thoughts. They were intent on 
 money, he on glory ; they would save where he would spend ; 
 and they would clutch and keep where he would forego or 
 give back. War for any cause or with whatever result was 
 the one thing hateful and to be avoided, not because of its 
 cruelty, but on account of its cost. Just or unjust, fortunate 
 
I 
 
 1804 BHURTPORE. 275 
 
 or unfortunate, cautious or reckless, it was certain to send 
 down the price of the Conapany's securities in the market ; 
 and jeopardise the balance of profit on current account. 
 On the first news of a rupture with the Mahrattas, the 
 price of India stock had fallen from 215 to 160 : how many 
 brass cannon, damascened swords, mud forts taken, and 
 circars or jaghires ceded, would be required to bring it up 
 again to that quotation? The recovery of financial confi- 
 dence which had been rapid on the cessation of hostilities 
 could not be known in London till the middle of the year ; 
 and proprietors whose equanimity was ruffled by the sudden 
 fall were not likely to take much comfort from mere pro- 
 mises in half-published despatches, that all would be sure to 
 come right in due time. 
 
 Mr. Tucker, who had rendered important service in raising 
 the credit of the Grovemment while Auditor-General, early 
 in 1804 announced his intention to resign that post to be- 
 come a partner in the house of Palmer, Trail & Co., much to 
 the chagrin of his imperious patron, who at first playfully and 
 then peevishly upbraided him with desertion. His vindica- 
 tion lay in his being able to point truthfully and triumph- 
 antly to the change wrought within three years in the 
 available resources of the State. Treasury bills which in 
 1799 would not be taken at twelve per cent, were now eagerly 
 bought at Calcutta and Bombay at four ; though the public 
 expenditure and funded debt were greatly increased.^ 
 
 Wellesley knew that while the armies under his direction 
 were achieving so many triumphs, and his diplomacy was 
 winning so many permanent and splendid additions to the 
 dependencies of the Company, a considerable section of its 
 shareholders and directors were probably engaged at home 
 not only in public disparagement of his whole policy, but 
 in bitter vituperation of his personal character and conduct. 
 » Minute of Council, 1st May, 1804. 
 T 2 
 
276 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 Individual enmities whether caused by neglect and sliglit, 
 which all men engaged in arduous public duties are liable 
 unconsciously to offer, or by the resistance to selfish schemes 
 and projects which is unavoidable, are seldom forgiven. 
 He had made a surprising number of vehement and 
 active enemies. Worthy but wearied men, returned from 
 service in the East, regarded with aversion all tendencies 
 to territorial aggrandisement ; and frugal financiers in the 
 City, who distrusted the sanguine prospects of paying off 
 debt, and reducing the cost of military establishments be- 
 fore there was a rumour of Mahratta wars, lost all patience 
 at the sudden expansion of liabilities which the Governor 
 Greneral's measures of 1 803 too certainly entailed. They did 
 not believe in the profitableness of annexation, even under 
 favourable circumstances : and in the chance of deriving 
 revenue from the acquisition of political ascendency, won by 
 long marches and the transport of siege trains, they did not 
 believe at all. The quarrel with the Mahrattas, to nine out 
 of ten holders of India stock, seemed to be no better than a 
 romance by which its clever author might gain celebrity brief 
 or lasting, but about which they simply wished to read and 
 hear nothing. Reflecting and impartial politicians with im- 
 perfect information looked sceptically upon the affair, as bit 
 by bit its incidents were disclosed ; and party spirit, never 
 scrupulous in its choice of topics of attack, had no com- 
 punction in assailing an absent statesman for acts that were 
 easily made to look equivocal, and which the ministers of the 
 day sometimes found it embarrassing to defend. Papers 
 were constantly moved for in Parliament, petitions of com- 
 plaint presented, and denunciatory articles written, which it 
 was nobody's function particularly to answer, and which 
 thousands of dyspeptic or scandal-loving people found it 
 amusing or exciting to read. One of the most fertile themes 
 of sarcasm and reproach was the favouritism said to be 
 
i8o4 B HURT PORE. ^1*1 
 
 shown to his brothers by the Marquess. The real merits of 
 the Major-General as a strategist and administrator were not 
 yet and could not possibly be known ; and Henry Wellesley's 
 name having never been heard of in literature or legislation, 
 in negotiation or in the field, ill-nature took for granted 
 that the prominence given him as Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Oude was merely a fraternal job. He had however, ex- 
 tinguished the calumny by declining to take any extra pay 
 during the period of his residence at Lucknow, and he 
 subsequently returned to Europe, where he thenceforth 
 remained. 
 
 A serious charge preferred in the spring of 18('3, in proof 
 of dangerous autocratic tendencies, was the delegation of 
 unlimited powers to Lieutenant-General Stuart and Major- 
 General Wellesley to deal with political matters of the 
 highest moment at the head of their respective armies in 
 the field. It was stronglj? contended that in point of law 
 no high act of State, especially regarding foreign princes or 
 communities, could properly be done by the Governor General 
 himself, except in Council ; far less could he clothe another 
 with discretionary powers to bind his employers or his 
 sovereign, with powers which he did not himself possess. A 
 case for the opinion of counsel was elaborately and in- 
 geniously framed, and submitted to Mr. Ryder ^ and Mr. 
 Adam, who were at the time eminent practitioners of the 
 law. They concurred in thinking that none of the statutes 
 under which the office of Governor General was constituted 
 permitted his authority in matters of peace or war to be 
 devolved on any single person, not even upon the Governor 
 General himself; and that acts done by virtue of such a 
 commission required the confirmation of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment in order to give them validity. Several prece- 
 dents were found for the course impugned, both Hastings 
 > Afterwards Home Secretary from 1809 to 1812. 
 
278 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 and Cornwallis haviog, without question at the time, or 
 censure afterwards, been endued by the Supreme Council of 
 Bengal in which they presided, with the sole power of direct- 
 ing armies and of making compacts with foreign States. But 
 having regard to the manifest intention of Parliament and 
 tlie obvious policy of the nation, that our Chief Grovernor in 
 Asia should as nearly as possible occupy in the eyes of the 
 native princes the attitude of an independent sovereign, it 
 was not surprising that Parliament should have been ready 
 to ratify exceptional acts of the kind rather than disown 
 them on merely technical grounds. 
 
 The Minutes of Council, copies of which were regu- 
 larly though tardily transmitted home, disclosed the frequent 
 absence of the Governor Greneral from its deliberations. For 
 the first few months he had followed the practice of his pre- 
 decessors ; but after his return from his long sojourn at 
 Madras, the habit of thinking and deciding alone in the 
 weightier matters of State seems to have been too agreeable 
 to be laid aside. No extent of inquiry, scrutiny of details, 
 or length of personal conference in his own cabinet wearied 
 him ; but the obligation to sit for hours in a presidential 
 chair, and listen to the prosy and sometimes inconse- 
 quential expatiations of colleagues less thoroughly informed 
 than himself on grave or urgent questions of policy, tired 
 and fretted him. He could not doze, and he would not indulge 
 in undignified comment ; but he grudged the waste of time, 
 and got into the way of sending a full-dress message in the 
 morning that, ' His Excellency the Most Noble the Grovernor 
 Greneral signifies that it is not his intention to attend the 
 meeting of Council, and desires that the proceedings which 
 may be held at the meeting be communicated to him for his 
 approbation.' In the year 1801, this intimation was re- 
 corded nine times; in 1802, twenty-eight; and in 1803, 
 twenty-four times. The Directors did not disguise their dis- 
 
1 804 BHURTPORE. 279 
 
 appointment and their discontent, which they conveyed in 
 the mild expression of their belief that, except in case of 
 illness, the Governor Greneral had never before been in the 
 habit of absenting himself from Council. 
 
 Had the treaty of Bassein realised the sanguine hopes of 
 its author, all the world would with one accord have sung its 
 praise. While yet its actual effect was doubtful, political 
 sagacity showed its customary skill in taciturn reserve. But 
 when its unripe fruit was rudely shaken down, and a trying 
 interval of rough weather had to elapse before supplementary 
 grafts upon that stock could even begin to bear, retrospective 
 candom* waxed eloquent in doubts as to the necessity and 
 quality of the transaction ; and as to whether it might not 
 have been more economical at all events to let it alone. It 
 was not until more than a year had passed, and a sanguinary 
 campaign had been wa^ed and won, that Castlereagh by his 
 own confession found time deliberately to look into the whole 
 question. He then ^ elaborately explained to the man at the 
 helm why he ought never to have quitted port, or tempted a 
 stormy sea, or risked much harm and loss for the sake of remote 
 or contingent gain. We had better have been content with 
 things as they were at the close of 1802, perhaps; and on 
 the other hand, perhaps not. This is the art and mystery of 
 official tape ; what comes of setting an uninformed man to 
 pretend to govern the destinies of communities and realms 
 from the other side of the globe. Wars that are palpably 
 remunerative are invariably held to be just ; but expensive, 
 entangling, encumbering enterprises are always liable to 
 cause qualms of contrition. Castlereagh affected to read the 
 Pro-consul a lecture after he had begun to lose popularity 
 in England, on the ethics of acquisition. Here is a splendid 
 specimen of the scruples that haunt the ministerial mind 
 about victories that are not quite certain to pay. 
 > 4th March, 1804. 
 
280 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 ' It was not a matter of choice, but of necessity, that our 
 existence in India should pass from that of traders to that of 
 sovereigns. If we had not, tlie PVench would long since 
 have taken the lead in India, to our exclusion. Events 
 have latterly accelerated our progress so much, and we have 
 already accomplished so much in point of power and glory 
 that we should now be studious to give to our counsels a 
 complexion of moderation and forbearance, trusting, as we 
 may safely do, the preservation of our Indian possessions to 
 the resources abundantly contained within our present limits.' 
 
 But he adds, ' The eagerness with which we appeared to 
 press our connection upon all the leading States in succession, 
 might naturally lead them to apprehend that we meant more 
 than we avowed, that our object was ultimately to be masters 
 instead of allies, and that, having obtained either possession 
 of or absolute influence over every State, except the Mah- 
 rattas, with whom we had been in connection, oiu- object was 
 to obtain a similar influence over their councils. Under 
 whatever estimate of our views it may have been formed, the 
 fact is indisputable that a general repugnance to the British 
 connection on the terms proposed universally prevailed 
 amongst the great Mahratta powers. It was avoided by all 
 as long as they had any choice. It was only embraced by 
 the Peishwah when an exile from his dominions ; and the 
 jealousy of it was such as to have since led Holkar and 
 Scindiah to forget their animosities, and to league with the 
 Eajah of Berar against the Company and the Peishwah. 
 How long the Peishwah will continue faithful to engagements 
 which were contracted from necessity, and not from choice, in 
 opposition to the other Mahratta States, is yet to be seen. 
 The practical question to be considered is, whether an alliance 
 formed under such circumstances can rest upon any other 
 foundation than mere force ; and if not, whether the means 
 by which it is to be upheld are not destructive of its pro- 
 
i8o4 BHURTPOEE. 281 
 
 fessed advantages. The Mahrattas have never in any instance 
 commenced hostilities against us ; so far then as past experi- 
 ence goes, there seems no special ground to apprehend future 
 danger from them. The French officers in Scindiah's army 
 are just objects of jealousy, and their mixing themselves in 
 the affairs of the native Powers must be watched, and be 
 matter of alarm in proportion to the degree in which it 
 takes place, and as those States are near to or remote from 
 our possessions ; but this alone cannot render the alliance 
 prudent, nor is this danger at present of a magnitude to call 
 for the adoption of a system otherwise of dubious policy. 
 As far as the Mahratta interests are concerned, what motive 
 can they have in acquiescing in the ostensible head of their 
 empire being placed in our hands ? Whatever we may hold 
 out to reconcile the Peishwah to the alliance, and however we 
 may profess to respect his independence in the management 
 of his own affairs, we cannot deny that in fact as well as 
 in appearance, whilst a British army is at Poonah, he can 
 be considered in no other light than as politically dependent 
 on us. The same motives which before opposed Scindiah 
 and Holkar to each other now oppose them both to us, and 
 the Kajah of Berar joins the confederacy. Nor is it to be 
 expected that independent States, predatory and warlike, 
 can wish to make us the arbiter of their destiny. To aim 
 at a permanent connection with the Mahratta powers must 
 be, to say the least of it, extremely hazardous. It must be 
 difficult and expensive to establish, not less difficult and 
 expensive to retain. Such a result we disavow as our object, 
 as in principle and policy against the laws of the land ; and 
 we should avoid therefore a course of measures the tendency 
 of which leads naturally to that result. It may be said, if 
 the treaty had not been pushed with the Peishwah while 
 at Bassein, he might have refused it afterwards ; but it 
 is doubtful whether a treaty so obtained is a benefit, or 
 
282 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1S04 
 
 whether it might not have been better to let Holkar and 
 Scindiah fight it out before proposing any permanent con- 
 nection. The advantages of such a connection had always 
 been overrated. By keeping an army of observation on the 
 frontier, and not mixing in Mahratta politics, except upon 
 sure grounds, if we gained no more than securing our own 
 territory, as well as that of our ally, the Nizam, from insult, 
 we escaped war, whilst the Mahratta powers wasted their 
 strength.' ^ 
 
 It remained to be considered whether the Grovernor 
 General had exceeded his powers, and what instructions 
 should be given from home for the future regulation of his 
 conduct. It was not alleged that Holkar, when this treaty 
 was made, had either committed or meditated hostilities 
 against us or our allies ; the treaty of Bassein was therefore 
 not within the scope of the 42nd clause of the Act of 1793, 
 which forbade any treaty being made to bind the Company 
 to guarantee the territories of any State ; except in return 
 for active co-operation in a war already existing or actually 
 imminent. But manifestly he had not exceeded his in- 
 structions, regard being had to his communication from time 
 to time of all the proceedings at the Court of Poonah which 
 led to the making of the treaty, and which when acquiesced 
 ia might be fairly considered by him as approved of by the 
 authorities at home. A subsidiary treaty had been distinctly 
 recognised as politic and just, with a view to the liberation of 
 the Peishwah from the overruling influence of his too power- 
 ful vassal. The Company's standing army in 1 803 amounted 
 to 115,000 men, and subsidiary engagements with one or 
 more of the Mahratta States might secure us useful auxiliaries 
 without any excessive additions to our obligations. But 
 were the whole of their empire to be reduced to subjection, 
 we should be brought into contact with still more trouble- 
 ' Castlereagh to Wellesley, 4th March, 1804. 
 
iro4 BHURTPORE. 283 
 
 some and formidable neighbours, and sacrifice a tolerable 
 barrier for one infinitely more precarious. Our great object 
 ought to be bringing the war to a close as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 The Secret Committee wrote at the same time, acknow- 
 ledging the brilliant successes at Broach and Ahmednuggur ; 
 but regretting the commencement of hostilities, and in no 
 measured terms deploring results so unlooked for from the 
 treaty of Bassein. They were willing to modify or annul 
 any portions of the treaty which should tend to keep alive 
 the jealousy of the military chiefs, a permanent connection 
 with whom they did not approve. They frankly owned how- 
 ever, that when formerly brought under their notice in 1800, 
 the gravity of the objections to a guarantee of the Peishwah's 
 dominions had not been considered, and they therefore ' de- 
 sired to be understood as not attaching blame to the conduct 
 of their Grovernment abroad with respect to the form of 
 the treaty itself.' Though they thought the conduct of the 
 Mahratta princes had been faithless and aggressive, entitling 
 us to look for indemnity for the expenses of the war, the 
 object was not one for which they wished it to be prolonged.^ 
 
 In reply to Lord Castlereagh's strictures, Major-General 
 Wellesley argued that the principal motive which dictated 
 the treaty of Bassein, and the proceedings, political and 
 military to which it led, was the prevention of the resus- 
 citation of French influence in India. Although in the 
 former war they had lost their territorial possessions, it could 
 not be doubted that every French statesman sought to 
 diminish the power and prosperity of the British Grovernnaent 
 in Asia. 
 
 Our gains with those from Oude completed our rule over 
 the watershed of the Granges, the finest region and containing 
 the most civilised population of Hindustan. 
 
 » To the Governor General in Council, 6th March, 1804. 
 
284 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 Scindiah moreover accepted the gracious gift of a sub- 
 sidiary force. But Ahmednuggur was restored to him to 
 enable him to sustain himself against Holkar. 
 
 Just as the treaty was signed, despatches from England 
 forbade the war, desiring the treaty of Bassein to be can- 
 celled, and ordering abstention from intervention in Mahratta 
 affairs unless we were actually attacked. The whole of the 
 promised surplus from previous conquests had been spent 
 in the struggle, and the dividends were not incoming. A 
 minority of the Cabinet tried hard to defend Lord Wellesley's 
 conquests against his critics ; but the Secret Committee, in a 
 long Minute, though acquitting him of illegality, emphati- 
 cally reiterated the interdict against annexation. 
 
 On his part Wellesley did not conceal from those who 
 had his confidence his resentment at the manner in which 
 his advice was frequently disregarded and his acts overruled 
 in England. Men whom he had chosen for pre-eminent 
 fitness to fill posts of importance were in more than one 
 instance set aside ; and connections or dependants of in- 
 fluential proprietors sent out to supersede them. Mr. Webbe 
 was removed from the Secretaryship of Madras, where his 
 long experience and unfaltering rectitude had won the esteem 
 of all who had opportunities of estimating his worth. Lord 
 Clive, after vainly remonstrating against the injustice and 
 impolicy of the act, resigned the presidency sooner than 
 acquiesce ; and the Grovernor Greneral told the Premier that 
 Webbe's removal would be a severe blow to the Grovernment ; 
 while the direct appointment from home to the most con- 
 fidential office '' comprised every degree of personal indignity 
 that could be offered to Lord Clive and himself, and the 
 result had been to drive that honest, diligent, prudent, and 
 able public servant from India. He would not separate his 
 character from that of Lord Clive on this painful occasion.' 
 
 In his time the power of creating new appointments, and 
 
i8o4 BHURTPORE. 285 
 
 of fixing the amount of salaries, were open questions. Both 
 have since been definitely settled ; and in our day no new 
 office or increase of pay can be the subject of dispute between 
 the viceregal and imperial authorities. Patronage, in its 
 wider sense, ceased to be a matter of contention, even 
 before the transfer of the Company's possessions to the 
 Crown. The choice of every officer, civil and military, lies 
 with the local executive, and each salary is determined before- 
 hand by the India Office at Whitehall. Lord Wellesley had 
 to exercise in difficult times a discretion without recognised 
 limits ; and in the case of his brothers Henry and Arthur, 
 his conduct was again and again made the topic of invidious 
 and inflamed comment. He had upon his own responsibility 
 given a large salary to the Commandant of Seringapatam, 
 because, as his critics said, the Commandant was his kins- 
 man — because, as he said, the function was an important 
 and onerous one, and his brother was a very able man. In 
 the discharge of his duties in Mysore, Arthur Wellesley 
 fairly earned the confidence alike of natives and Europeans ; 
 but beyond the hunting out of Dhoondia and his bands of 
 rapparees, there was not any very signal service for him to 
 perform ; and when the spouters and vilipenders of Leaden- 
 hall Street impugned maliciously the preference shown him, 
 nobody dreamed of Ahmednuggur or Assye. The anger and 
 scorn which their attacks excited in the irascible mind 
 of the Marquess was rather heightened than abated by the 
 events of the Mahratta campaign. He would stoop to no 
 controversy about his acts or motives with his Joint-Stock 
 masters. He requested Castlereagh to be assured of the 
 deep sense he entertained of his honourable conduct in pre- 
 venting a tirade of aspersion being officially transmitted from 
 the India House during the autumn of 1803 on these sub- 
 jects; instead of which a comparatively temperate despatch 
 had been agreed to and forwarded. ' It was unnecessary to 
 
286 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 repeat his utter contempt for any opinions which might be 
 entertained by individual proprietors or by the Court of 
 Directors, as ne expected every practicable degree of injustice 
 and baseness from the faction.' ^ And recurring to the same 
 irritating subject, he expressed his reliance on the Minister's 
 justice and public spirit to frustrate the vindictive profligacy 
 of the Directors ; and to expose in the most distinct and 
 perspicuous manner the motives, principles, conduct, and 
 result of every branch of his administration in India : nor 
 could he or Mr. Addington by any act of friendship afiford 
 him a protection so grateful to his feelings, or so advan- 
 tageous to his character, as by a full disclosure to Parliament 
 of every act of his administration, and of every proceeding of 
 the Directors, since he had had the misfortune to be subjected 
 to the ignominious tyranny of Leadenhall Street. He hoped 
 to relinquish the service of his honourable employers in 
 January or February 1 805 ; but as no symptoms of tardy 
 remorse displayed by the Honourable Court in consequence 
 of his recent success in India would vary his estimation of 
 the faith and honour of his very worthy and approved good 
 masters, or protract his continuance in India for one hour 
 beyond the limits prescribed by the public interests, so no 
 additional outrage, injury, or insult which could issue from 
 the most loathsome den of the India House would accelerate 
 his departure while the public safety should appear to 
 require his aid in that arduous station.' ^ 
 
 Such was the defiant, if not domineering frame of mind 
 in which he was unexpectedly provoked into a new war. 
 Southern India during the Spring had sunk into repose ; the 
 Nizam and the Peishwah no longer thought of border quarrels 
 or feared molestation from their formidable neighbours, Scin- 
 diah or Bhoonslah. Holkar alone retained without curtail- 
 ment his revenues, guns, and legions of predatory horse. 
 » 1st March, 1804. » 19th June, 1804. 
 
I804 BHURTPORE. 287 
 
 But as he had kept clear of the terrible encounter in which 
 his rivals had been discomfited, he could afford to rest in 
 the comparative superiority it left him, and with unabridged 
 possessions to exult in the humiliation he had had no share 
 in inflicting. If the Mahrattas had really been a civilised 
 and politic confederacy they would no doubt have coalesced 
 against the intrusion of a stranger in their affairs ; and the 
 task of their reduction might have been much prolonged if 
 not more doubtful. 
 
 They say 'twas fate, a wayward fate, 
 
 Their web of discord wove ; 
 For when their foemen joined in hate. 
 
 They never joined in love 
 
 But hardly had the British troops been dispersed into their 
 summer cantonments, when the Eajah of Jeypore, one of 
 the minor States whose fidelity had earned our protection, 
 appealed for succour against Jeswunt Eao, whose bashi-bazooks 
 were pillaging and ravaging his principality. Lake was forth- 
 with ordered to clear the country of the marauders. Holkar 
 retired on his approach, but with sufficient show of fight to 
 draw the veteran commander farther and farther from his 
 base of operations. The hot season was approaching; no 
 fresh laurels seemed within his grasp, and the victor of 
 Laswarri thought he could afford to take sanitary care of 
 his brave comrades in arms. Leaving Colonel Monson with 
 a few sepoy battalions to watch lest Holkar should return, 
 he withdrew his army into quarters. The Mahratta chief 
 warily encircled the two small corps of observation, whose 
 disastrous retreat chequered the page of triumph as it 
 had not been since the day when Baillie was left equally 
 forlorn in the Carnatic. The remnants of the detachment 
 reached Agra at the end of their seven weeks' march, broken 
 and demoralised, and Lake was compelled, sore against his 
 will, to vex the Governor General with the details of their 
 
288 MARQUESS V/ELLESLEY, 1804 
 
 condition. He had early foreboded failure from Lake's un- 
 willingness to leave a certain proportion of British troops 
 with the native regiments under Monson. But how he bore 
 the mortifying result which for the moment threatened to 
 shake the prestige of ascendency recently established can only 
 be told in his own words. 
 
 ' I received this morning ^ your letter of September 2. 
 Grrievous and disastrous as the events are, the extent of the 
 calamity does not exceed my expectation ; from the first 
 hour of Colonel Monson's retreat, I have always augured the 
 ruin of that detachment, and if any part of it be saved I deem 
 it so much gain. I trust that the greater part of it has 
 arrived at Agra, but I fear that my poor friend Monson is 
 gone. Whatever may have been his fate, or whatever the 
 result of his misfortunes to my own fame, I will endeavour 
 to shield his character trom obloquy, nor will I attempt the 
 mean purpose of sacrificing his reputation to save mine. 
 His former services and his zeal entitle him to indulgence ; 
 and, however I may lament and suffer for his errors, I will 
 not reproach his memory if he be lost, or his character if he 
 survive. Your letter manifests your usual judgment and 
 spirit. We must endeavour rather to retrieve than to blame 
 what is past, and under your auspices I entertain no doubt 
 of success. Time however is the main consideration. Every 
 hour that shall be left to this plunderer will be marked with 
 some calamity ; we must expect a general defection of the 
 allies, and even confusion in our own territories, unless we 
 can attack Holkar's main force immediately with decisive 
 success. I trust that you will be enabled to assemble your 
 army in sufficient time to prevent further mischief; I highly 
 applaud your determination to leave nothing to fortune, and 
 rather to risk the internal tranquillity of the provinces for a 
 season, than to hazard any contest on unequal grounds with 
 » To Lake, Fort William, 11th September, 1804. 
 
i8o4 BHURTPORE. 289 
 
 the enemy. Holkar defeated, all alarm and danger will in- 
 stantly vanish. When I look at the date of this letter, I 
 cannot entertain a shadow of apprehension for the result of 
 this war. This is the anniversary of the battle of Delhi, — a 
 victory gained under circumstances infinitely more unfavour- 
 able than the present. Your triumphs of last year proceeded 
 chiefly from your vigorous system of attack. In every war 
 the native States will always gain courage in proportion as we 
 shall allow them to attack us ; and I know that you will 
 always bear this in mind, especially against such a power as 
 Holkar. If we cannot reduce him, we have lost our ascen- 
 dency in India. You will perceive that the only efifect pro- 
 duced on my mind by this misfortune is an anxious solicitude 
 to afford you every aid in remedying its consequences with 
 every degree of despatch.' ^ 
 
 It was not till the middle of October that he learned how 
 the great events of the preceding year had been received in 
 England. Parliament was sitting when the account reached 
 Government of the triumph of the armies under Lake 
 and Arthur Wellesley, and of the complete discomfiture 
 of Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar. The House of 
 Lords, on the motion of Lord Hobart, unanimously voted 
 thanks to the army and their high sense of the great 
 and important services rendered to the empire by the 
 late illustrious operations in India. They attributed the 
 brilliant and glorious successes which had crowned our arms 
 in that quarter of the globe to the vigorous and com- 
 prehensive system of measures pursued by the Marquess 
 Wellesley for bringing the various armies with promptitude 
 and effect into the field. On the same day Castlereagh 
 ^l0ved a like resolution of thanks in the Commons. He 
 disclaimed any wish to commit the House to a premature 
 approval of the policy of the Mahratta war ; but of its splendid 
 ' To Lake, Fort William, 11th September, 1804. 
 U 
 
290 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 success they must all be proud. After detaching a consider- 
 able force to Ceylon, and making provision for the safety of 
 other parts of India, Lord Wellesley was able to bring into 
 the field against Scindiah 55,000 men. Every part of 
 the plan of attack manifested such a degree of skill and 
 arrangement as particularly entitled him to the gratitude 
 of the country. It was the same judgment and vigilance 
 which had been evinced in the complete overthrow of the late 
 sovereign of Mysore. In three months Generals Lake and 
 Wellesley had made more extensive conquests and won more 
 decisive victories than had ever been achieved in the same 
 space of time in our military history. Eight fortified places 
 had been taken, four of these by escalade. Four pitched battles 
 had been fought and won. In that of Assye, with 4,500 troops 
 Greneral Wellesley defeated a force of ten times that number, 
 formidable from discipline, familiar with tactics, and capable of 
 varied and rapid evolution. At Laswarri, within forty-eight 
 hours before the engagement, our troops had marched sixty 
 five miles, and they had to confront twice their number, 
 under European officers and well sustained by artillery. 
 
 Francis hesitated to endorse the policy, while he extolled 
 the prowess displayed in the field. Fox and Grrey did not 
 wish to be committed on incomplete information to all that 
 had been' done ; and Wilberforce, though he hoped and be- 
 lieved that eventually it would appear that a collision could 
 not have been avoided, and that a quarrel had not been pro- 
 voked, felt that he was still groping in the dark for the precise 
 motives that had led to war, and for the justification of the 
 additions made to our territory. No one however was dis- 
 posed to challenge the proposed resolution, and it passed with- 
 out a division. 
 
 It was in allusion to these judgments of Parliament that 
 Grrenville, a few days afterwards, when acknowledging the 
 pleasure he derived from the uninterrupted interchange of 
 
i8o4 BHURTPORE. 291 
 
 old sympathies and sentiments wrote, — ' I have not done 
 more for you than you would have done for me on a like 
 occasion ; and if the intrigue planned against you is totally 
 without effect, and your measures have been approved before 
 they were arraigned, I cannot flatter myself with having contri- 
 buted to this result by my efforts ; but you may in my opinion, 
 consider the affair as terminated.' By a strange acci- 
 dent Grrenville^s letter was intercepted at sea by a French 
 ship of war, and with many others of a confidential nature 
 relating to the politics of the day published at Paris, and 
 reproduced in England some months before it ought to 
 have reached its destination. It described minutely the 
 condition of parties in the spring of 1804; the widening 
 severance of the writer from Addington ; and his renunciation 
 of the enmity he formerly entertained when in office to the Old 
 Opposition. Anticipating his correspondent's early return to 
 England, the only advice he wished to give him was, ' not to 
 engage for anything until he returned ; but to retain the 
 liberty of acting according to such motives as he should 
 judge proper to direct his conduct when on the spot.' 
 
 The Court of Directors, without pronouncing an opinion 
 on the political questions involved in the late campaign, had 
 resolved that, ' taking into consideration the despatches re- 
 lative to the late brilliant successes in the war with the 
 Mahratta chiefs, their thanks be given to Marquess Welles- 
 ley for the zeal, vigour, activity, and ability displayed in 
 preparing the armies of the several Presidencies to take the 
 field, to which might be attributed in a great measure, 
 the rapid and brilliant successes which had crowned the 
 British arms in the East Indies.' The Court of Proprietors, 
 notwithstanding the prevalence of bitter antipathies to his 
 person and policy avowedly cherished by not a few, felt con- 
 strained to join in the general acclamation, and recorded their 
 thanks in identical terms. The acknowledgments, simul- 
 
 n 2 
 
292 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804 
 
 taneously made, of the eminent services of the generals and 
 of the troops under their command, were duly published 
 in the ' Calcutta Gazette ' of October 26 ; but qualified by 
 political reservations. With those regarding his own conduct, 
 which the resolutions contained, he determined to abstain 
 from giving them publicity. Months elapsed before he could 
 bring his haughty spirit to explain the cause of his refusal to 
 make known what he regarded as valueless and invidious 
 praise. ' I have never been required to offer a greater or 
 more painful sacrifice to public duty than that by which I 
 renounced the satisfaction of publishing in India the marks 
 of approbation and honour conferred upon me by your Honour- 
 able Court, and by the Court of Proprietors ; but it appeared 
 to me to be necessary to submit the high personal distinction, 
 which I should have derived from such a publication, to 
 more important considerations of the public safety, and of 
 the interests of the Company and of the nation. The de- 
 termination expressed to withhold all judgment upon the 
 original justice, necessity, and policy of the war, could not 
 have been published in India by a formal act of the Grovern- 
 ment without conveying an universal impression of doubt 
 and ambiguity respecting the stability of every arrangement 
 connected with the progress and success of our arms. The 
 permanency of all the treaties of peace, partition, subsidy, 
 and alliance must have been exposed to hazard by such a 
 public declaration, proceeding from the high authority of 
 your Honourable Court and the Court of Proprietors ; and 
 announced by your Government in India to all your subjects, 
 dependents, and allies. It could not be supposed that either 
 your Honourable Court, or the Court of Proprietors, would try 
 the justice of our cause by the success of our arms ; the 
 prosperous result of the war, therefore, could not have 
 removed the doubts of its justice arising from the reserva- 
 tions expressed in your resolutions ; and the irresistible in- 
 
i8o4 BHURTPORE, 293 
 
 ference in the minds of all the native States would have 
 been, that your Honourable Court and the Court of Proprietors 
 might ultimately censure the whole transaction ; while the 
 general fame of your equity and magnanimity would have 
 precluded any supposition that in condemning the justice of 
 our cause, you would retain the fruits of our success, or enjoy 
 the benefits of the peace while you repudiated the necessity 
 and policy of the war. If the origin and policy of the war 
 shall ultimately be condemned, and the treaties of peace, 
 partition, subsidy, and alliance shall finally be abrogated by 
 the commands of your Honourable Court, those commands 
 will be issued in such terms, and accompanied by such 
 arrangements, as shall render the execution of your orders an 
 additional bulwark to the public safety, and a fresh security 
 to the public faith. During whatever interval of time your 
 Honourable Court may be pleased to suspend your determina- 
 tion, it would neither be consistent with the welfare of the 
 Honourable Company in India, nor with the respect due to 
 your high authority, that one of your servants, for the grati- 
 fication of personal ambition, by the ostentatious display of 
 the honours which you had been pleased to confer upon him, 
 should pursue a course which might embarrass the free and 
 deliberate exercise of your wisdom and justice in a matter of 
 the utmost importance to the national interests and honour ; 
 or that, by a premature and unseasonable publication of 
 your favourable acceptance of his services, the same servant 
 should risk the main object of those services, and endanger 
 the immediate security of a great political system of arrange- 
 ment which it might possibly be your future pleasure to con- 
 firm.' ^ 
 
 In October he learned that Mr. Addington's Administra- 
 tion was at an end, and that Pitt was again in power. 
 Dundas had become First Lord of the Admiralty, and 
 » To the Court of Directors, 23rd March, 1805. 
 
294 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1804- 
 
 Castlereagh, who continued at the Board of Control, apprised 
 his friend at Fort William of all that had taken place, and of 
 Pitt's desire that suitable honours and rewards should be 
 bestowed in India. Lake should have a peerage and a 
 pension ; Arthur Wellesley the Order of the Bath. ' In 
 considering what was due to others, his own strong claims 
 upon the King's favour did not escape Mr. Pitt's notice ; he 
 conceived however, that whatever distinction the King might 
 be graciously disposed ultimately to confer upon his lord- 
 ship, such a mark of his Majesty's approbation would be 
 bestowed in a manner more honourable to his character, 
 and at a moment more consonant to his feelings, at the wind- 
 ing up of the important transactions in which he was now en- 
 gaged, than while they were yet depending.' ^ Sustained and 
 stimulated by Wellesley, Lake became the assailant, and at 
 the head of British dragoons and Sepoy horse literally hunted 
 Jeswunt-Eao and his predatory host from point to point in the 
 contested Dooab, until at length he came up at night with 
 them at Futteghur, where they were suprised and routed with 
 great loss. Holkar thenceforth k^pt within his own confines, 
 but they were wide, and the remainder of the campaign, though 
 full of gallant deeds, was indecisive. The Rajah of Bhurtpore 
 sided against us, and after repeated assaults, his citadel re- 
 mained impregnable. Delhi, on the other hand, was success- 
 fully defended, and Deag was taken by storm. But the 
 continuance of the struggle month after month made Scindiah 
 and Boonslah repent their having prematurely given in ; and 
 the drain on the Exchequer began to make the most devoted 
 believer in the Governor- Greneral's statesmanship and strategy 
 look grave. 
 
 The year 1804 closed in gloom ; Malwa, though overrun, 
 was not subdued ; Bhurtpore, though closely invested, was not 
 taken ; the first attempt at escalade was repulsed on Christmas 
 » Received at Calcutta 14tli October, 1804. 
 
-i8o5 BHURTPORE. 2y5 
 
 Eve, the fourth on the 21st February. Scindiah evaded the 
 demands to give any categorical assurance that he would not 
 break the peace ; and when the Resident was about to leave 
 his court he found himself no longer free to do so. At 
 another time so glaring a breach of international privilege 
 would have fired the indignation of the Grovernor-Greneral, 
 and drawn forth quick and scathing flashes of his wrath. But 
 he began to feel that he had done enough for personal self- 
 assertion, and enough for national honour. The Treasury was 
 empty. His time for quitting India must be nigh at hand. 
 Already Barlow had been named to fill provisionally the seat 
 of supreme authority on his vacating it ; and any day might 
 bring a successor permanently to take his place. Private 
 communication from England revealed the weakness of the 
 Administration and prepared him for the abandonment of 
 his policy in the East. Two or three months passed without 
 decisive intelligence as to Mr. Pitt's intentions ; and in the 
 absorbing interest of the aggravated struggle with France, 
 he saw that it was vain to look for additional military force 
 from Europe. He deemed it therefore a duty to leave a 
 final decision for terms of peace with Holkar to whoever 
 should come after him. 
 
 In May 1805, two letters were received in Calcutta by the 
 overland route, announcing the reappointment of Lord Com- 
 wallis to the Grovernor-Greneralship of India. One of these 
 letters was received by Mr. J. Alexander, the other by Mr. 
 Tucker. Both gentlemen determined to keep their infor- 
 mation to themselves ; but a rumour was soon in circulation to 
 the effect that overland letters had been received in Calcutta, 
 and Lord Wellesley sent for Mr. Tucker. After some conver- 
 sation the Grovernor-General exclaimed : * 1 hear you have re- 
 ceived letters from England.' Mr. Tucker assented, and Lord 
 Wellesley asked, ' Do they contain any news of importance ? ' 
 ' The appointment of Lord Cornwallis,' was the reply. The 
 
296 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1805 
 
 accomplished actor was too much master of himself to indi- 
 dicate, by look or gesture, any opinion of the choice which 
 had been made. But he had abundant information from 
 confidential sources of the reasons which had led to it, and he 
 well knew that it implied the reversal, in many essential 
 particulars, if not the general renunciation of his compre- 
 hensive policy.^ 
 
 When the news of Monson's retreat reached England, 
 early in 1805, the faith of Government and the patience of 
 the Company gave way. The proprietary were in financial 
 despair at the dissipation of all their hopes of profit from 
 peace, so confidentl}^ promised as secured ; and Pitt's second 
 Administration was too weak and disheartened to assume 
 the responsibility of defending the policy of fighting on till 
 Holkar should be extinguished. What had been won was all 
 very well, and we must hold by it ; but what we had not 
 achieved had best be let alone, at all events until a more 
 convenient season. Cornwallis condemned in no measured 
 terms, the renewal of a Mahratta war, and the retention 
 of Gwalior and Gohud against the protests of Scindiah ; he 
 was asked if he would once more go as Captain-General, 
 to retrench expenditure and make peace at any price. On 
 the score of health he repeatedly declined ; but yielding to 
 the importunites of the City and Whitehall, he at last agreed 
 to go, conscious that he was never likely to return. 
 
 On July 29 the arrival in the harbour was signalled 
 of the ship of war which brought Cornwallis to Calcutta. 
 Lord Wellesley, leaving Barrackpore, became the guest of 
 Sir John Colebroke ; and on the following day resigned the 
 weighty trust he had held just seven years to his successor. 
 The antagonism of their views could not be disguised, and 
 the new regime was inaugurated without delay. The body- 
 guard, which so long had figured gaily in the pageants of the 
 » To General Ross, from Culford, 14th October, 1804. 
 
i8o5 BHURTRORE. 297 
 
 capital, was disbanded, and the new Lieutenant preferred an 
 ordinary carriage and pair to the stately equipage hitherto 
 in daily use. He wished it to be understood, as his reason 
 for these and innumerable other changes, that he had only 
 been induced to undertake the labour and responsibilities of 
 executive office from the necessity felt by the Company that 
 retrenchment should be summary and sweeping. Tucker was 
 induced by him to take charge once more of the department 
 of finance ; and instructions were sent to Lake to attempt 
 nothing further, but to be satisfied to hold his ground pending 
 negotiations. To conduct these in person the new Grovernor- 
 Greneral set out for the North-west Provinces, where his health 
 soon gave way. Scindiah was conciliated by offers to relin- 
 quish more than one place of importance he had lost ; and 
 there is reason to believe that Agra and Delhi would have 
 been given up but for the death of Cornwallis at Grazepore.^ 
 Ere that event occm-red Wellesley was far on his voyage 
 home. 
 
 » 5th October, 1805. 
 
298 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 
 J 806. 
 
 On the voyage home the excitement in which he had lived 
 during his Pro-Consulate had time to subside. He had 
 abundant leisure to review the great transactions of the past 
 seven years; to estimate calmly their relative proportions, 
 and their probable bearing as a whole on the future destiny of 
 his country. Naturally the question rose continually to his 
 lips, but died unuttered there, — What will England think of 
 me ? Would Pharisaism, grudge, or parsimony prompt the 
 Company to refuse him the acknowledgment he felt to be 
 his due for the vast possessions he had won for them in spite 
 of themselves ; and this, without deigning to appropriate 
 personally any part of a splendid spoil ? Or, if their jealous 
 and niggard spirit should continue inveterate because he had 
 courteously disregarded their prohibitions to make war without 
 leave from home, or to conclude treaties expanding the obliga- 
 tions of empire without permission beforehand though in every 
 case they held his acquisitions fast, — would public opinion 
 ratify their repudiation, or overrule ungrateful reproach? 
 About the reception that awaited him from Sovereign and 
 Minister, he had no misgiving. Pitt who had given him his 
 high office, and sustained him in the discharge of his duties 
 by his sympathy and approval, was again in power ; and as he 
 learned by the last letters he had received from mutual 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 299 
 
 friends, was sanguine of being able to retrieve the losses in- 
 curred in the renewed war with France. By him he had been 
 assured of cordial welcome ; and if Grenville was no longer 
 in the Cabinet, was there not all the more likelihood there- 
 fore that he himself would be pressed to enter it ? Compar- 
 ing the present with Pitt's earlier Administration, and with 
 the formidable array of talents opposed to it, he could not 
 help believing that he would be looked upon as an accession 
 of whom they would be glad ; and he was in fact warranted 
 by the private letters of the Premier ' to reckon confidently 
 upon the higheet honours and rewards the State had to 
 bestow.' Shut up for months in the cabin of an Indiaman, 
 with no other changes or vicissitudes to chequer the monotony 
 of the voyage than those of the fluctuating ocean, his mind 
 dwelt upon the past and future of a career which had 
 occupied so large a space already in the world's history ; and 
 which at forty-five he might well believe had yet long years 
 of usefulness and fame to run. Egotism, in the apt illustra- 
 tion of Coleridge, ' like a fish in a globe of glass, pursues its 
 ceaseless way without making progress or quitting its vital 
 element.' He recurred to his favourite books, and wrote 
 letters on chance of finding his long-neglected correspondents 
 still alive ; and paced the deck when the weather was fair, 
 and tried hard to sleep when it was foul ; but the weary 
 months of the passage round the Cape were mainly occupied 
 with anticipations of the reception he was to meet with at its 
 close. As the event drew near, he grew nervous and querulous 
 to a degree painful and uncontrollable. One of his morbid 
 apprehensions was that relatives or friends would think that 
 he was much changed by his residence in a tropical climate. 
 He did not want to be told that he was changed. He per- 
 suaded himself in point of fact, that he was better and 
 stronger than ever he liad been ; and so was that vis vivida 
 in him which our sensitive natures only learn to enjoy and to 
 
300 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 avow when we have succeeded thoroughly and greatly. He 
 might well be pardoned the buoyant belief that his country- 
 men would appreciate the great things he had done — the 
 greatest things done by any man of the time. He forgot 
 that memory beyond yesterday, and forethought beyond to- 
 morrow, are unknown qualities in the multitude ; and that 
 among the reflecting and forecasting few, personal ambition, 
 rivalry, antagonism, absorption in effort, and vindication of 
 misconceived motives preoccupy attention to an extent that 
 leaves but scant leisure for effusive salutation. He had 
 stared at the blaze of his own glory till he had grown blind 
 to the dull and disenchanting truth that ninety-nine out of 
 every hundred people in England knew nothing about him. 
 Yet into the tepid and muddy sea of uninquisitive indiffe- 
 rence his self-importance was about to be quietly dropped 
 down the side of the Indiaman come to anchor in the Solent. 
 Lady Wellesley and her children awaited him on landing, 
 and several private friends pressed round him with kind 
 welcomes. The Port-Admiral was there also, and certain 
 military officials eager to see the little man of whom they 
 had heard so much, and of being able to say that he had 
 shaken them by the hand, a familiarity the thought of which 
 had never occurred to him. There was in short, no lack of 
 fuss, and even of affection ; enough to content any ordinary 
 general or envoy returning home. But he was neither. He 
 had been playing king until the rarefied atmosphere of 
 kingship had become so habitual that the murk of common- 
 place in the best room of the best inn in a half-lighted seaport 
 town almost stifled him. Had the successor of Aurungzebe 
 come to this ? There he was, with wife and children, and two 
 or three friends from town, after all his impersonation of para- 
 mount power and enjoyment of Oriental magnificence, made 
 much of by vulgar waiters, just like any other Irish marquess on 
 his travels. He did his best to look pleased and be gracious ; 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 301 
 
 but his mortification was unspeakable ; and ere dinner was 
 half over he broke out in expletives of impatience that made 
 the circle stare. Hyacinthe, forgetting all that had changed 
 their lot in life since the time when as a youthful and hardly- 
 known official he had sat at her feet adoringly, said with an 
 unlucky laugh, — ' Ah ! you must not think you are in India 
 still, where everybody ran to obey you. They mind nobody 
 here.' The disenchantment was complete. He rose early 
 from table and withdrew, saying he was ill, and must be left 
 alone ; nor could any subsequent explanation or expostulation 
 mend the matter. It was the foretaste of a long course of 
 disappointment and vexation, wholly unanticipated, that was 
 in store for him. 
 
 On his arrival in town the welcome of many cordial 
 friends awaited him. His first visits were to Sidmouth, by 
 whom he had been, upon the whole, well sustained during 
 his Indian administration ; and to Grenville, who also had 
 parted company with their illustrious chief, and who was 
 out of office. 
 
 Pitt was at Bath, where the waters had proved unavailing 
 to renovate his health, as they had been wont to do ; and as 
 Parliament was about to reassemble, he crept by easy stages 
 back to his residence at Putney Hill, where a letter from 
 Wellesley awaited him. His reply was one of the last he had 
 the strength to write. 
 
 ' My dear Wellesley, — On my arrival here last night I 
 received with inexpressible pleasure, your most friendly and 
 affectionate letter. If I was not strongly advised to keep 
 out of London till I have acquired a little more strength, I 
 would have come up immediately, for the purpose of seeing 
 you at the first possible moment. As it is, I am afraid I must 
 trust to your goodness to give me the satisfaction of seeing 
 you here the first hour you can spare for the purpose. If 
 
302 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1806 
 
 you can, without inconvenience, make it about the middle of 
 the day (in English style, between two and four), it would 
 suit me rather better than any other time ; but none can be 
 inconvenient. I am recovering rather slowly from stomach 
 complaints, followed by severe attacks of gout ; but I believe 
 I am now in the real way of amendment. 
 
 ' Ever most truly and affectionately yours, 
 
 'W.Pitt; 
 
 How he clung to life and power fast fading from his 
 grasp ! He would not be thought as low as he really was, 
 many hours in the day being too prostrate to attend to any 
 subject of importance, and gradually becoming too weak to 
 take the requisite amount of nourishment. But the un- 
 quailing spirit struggled hard, during every respite from 
 pain, to forget the thraldom of disease, and escape ' shades 
 of the prison-house begun to close ' on his declining days. 
 He could not be unconscious that his second Administration 
 had so far failed to reanimate the hope and faith of the 
 country. The glory of Trafalgar had not sufficed to counter- 
 vail the depression caused by Austerlitz ; and to meet his 
 adversaries in debate his second Cabinet had no longer the 
 resources of experience and ability by which his Government 
 had been distinguished in better times. It can hardly 
 be doubted that he looked on his early favourite, now re- 
 appearing on the scene with all the prestige of administrative 
 success about him, as an ally just come in time, to whom it 
 was only necessary to assign a suitable position. Nor is it 
 likely, had the opportunity been afforded, that Wellesley would 
 have been dissuaded by the misgivings of others, or the diffi- 
 culties of the situation, from accepting a seat in the Cabinet. 
 
 On Monday, the 12th, Pitt saw Castlereagh and Hawks- 
 bury at his house at Putney. When they were gone he was 
 much depressed, and told the Bishop of Lincoln that he knew 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY, 303 
 
 he could not recover. Next day he felt better, and received 
 Lord Wellesley, who was ' the last official friend he saw. In- 
 stinctively they kept clear of business ; but the conversation 
 with an intimate so long absent overcame him, and he fainted 
 away before his visitor left the room.' Whatever may have 
 been the Ex-Governor's hopes on his way to Putney, they were 
 wholly dissipated by his visit there. His own account of the 
 interview was given in a letter to a private friend : — ' I was 
 received by Mr. Pitt with his usual kindness and good 
 humour. His spirits appeared to be as • high as I had ever 
 seen them, and his understanding quite as vigorous and 
 clear. Amongst other topics, he told me, with great kindness 
 and feeling that, since he had seen me, he had been happy 
 to become acquainted with my brother Arthur, of whom he 
 spoke in the highest terms of commendation. " I never met 
 with any military officer," he said, " with whom it was so 
 satisfactory to converse ; he states every difficulty before he 
 undertakes any service, none after he has undertaken it." 
 But notwithstanding his kindness and cheerfulness, I saw 
 that the hand of death was fixed upon him. This melancholy 
 truth was not known or believed by either his friends or 
 opponents. In the number of the latter, to my deep afflic- 
 tion, I found my highly respected and esteemed friend. 
 Lord Grenville ; and I collected that measures of the ut- 
 most hostility were to be proposed in both Houses at the 
 meeting of Parliament. I warned Lord Grenville of Mr. 
 Pitt's approaching death. He received the fatal intelligence 
 with the utmost feeling in an agony of tears, and immediately 
 determined that all hostility in Parliament should be sus- 
 pended.' Though full of sad foreboding, Wellesley scarcely 
 thought that he had pressed the emaciated hand for the last 
 time, and that he should see his face no more. But the end 
 came rapidly, and within ten days Pitt, whom he looked up 
 to as to no other man, had ceased to be. 
 
304 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 Brougham says that Wellesley was looked upon as the 
 person best fitted to take his place at the head of the Tory 
 Administration, but that from a sense of delicacy he declined 
 being put forward while PauU's accusation in Parliament was 
 pending. 
 
 There is not a hint of this having ever been thought of, 
 in the diary and correspondence of Malmesbury, who knew 
 everything from the Duke of York, with whom he discussed 
 the possibilities from day to day, and from Bathurst, Canning, 
 Hawkesbury, and Palmerston, with whom he lived on the 
 most intimate terms. With his Eoyal Highness he argued 
 that to attempt to patch up the concern would end only 
 in failure and humiliation, because there was nobody to be 
 found in public estimation who could be named as successor 
 to Pitt. And he pressed this view until the Duke grew 
 angry, and showed reserve for several days. From Canning, 
 too, he differed as to the duty of the out-going party keeping 
 together, which his lordship did not see. But with neither 
 is there an allusion to the ex-Proconsul for Premier. Not 
 even when, some months later, an attempt was made at 
 rally and reorganisation against the Talents, is there a word 
 of anyone being named as head of the party, except the 
 Duke of Portland. 
 
 What more than all else is conclusive on the point 
 may be read in a letter from Wellesley himself to Wilber- 
 force : 
 
 ' I know nothing of public arrangements, and all the re- 
 ports in the newspapers respecting myself are utterly ground- 
 less. To you I think it my duty to declare that the memory 
 of my ever-to-be-lamented friend will always be the primary 
 object of my veneration and attachment in public life, but 
 I will never lend my hand to sustain any system of ad- 
 ministration evidently inadequate to the difficulties and 
 danger of the crisis. I shall be most happy to labour in any 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 305 
 
 way which may promise advantage to the public service ; 
 but, having no personal object or pursuit, I shall not easily 
 be deluded from the solemn conviction of my mind, that our 
 recent loss cannot be repaired, nor our imminent perils be 
 averted, otherwise than by an union of the approved talents 
 and highest characters of the nation.' ^ 
 
 In the interval of political suspense which followed, a 
 disappointment of a very different kind came unexpectedly 
 upon him. Relatives and intimates delayed, while they 
 could, to acquaint him fully with the nature of the attacks 
 which had been made upon his character and government 
 towards the close of the preceding session ; and of which he 
 had heard only such passing notices as to excite his con- 
 tempt. But as the time for their threatened renewal drew 
 near, it became impossible to disguise their gravity, or to 
 defer consulting him personally as to the defence to be 
 taken of his acts and motives. Wellesley Pole and Lord 
 Temple undertook the painful task of making him under- 
 stand that, instead of being saluted as a conqueror, it was 
 seriously proposed that he should be tried as a cidprit. All the 
 preliminaries of national impeachment in the case of Hastings 
 had in fact, been copied or parodied with regard to him ; 
 and however he might scoff at the disparity between his assail- 
 ants and the great accuser who, by force of his persistent will 
 and matchless powers of invective, had dragged to the bar of 
 justice the * captain-general of iniquity,' and however proudly 
 he might exult in his own unsullied freedom from all impu- 
 tations of cupidity or corruption, the mortifying truth quickly 
 forced itself upon him that his public reputation was overcast 
 by a cloud which friends might call no bigger than a man's 
 hand, but which he felt, if not dispelled, would darken the 
 whole field of his future in life. His chagrin was so intense 
 
 • Letter from Lord Welleslej' to William Wilberforce, Park Lane, 
 15th January, 1806. 
 
 X 
 
306 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1806 
 
 that he refused to take the oaths and his seat in the House 
 of Lords, declaring, in a transport of passion, that until his 
 slanderers were silenced he would not exercise any privilege 
 as a peer. And though at the funeral of Mr. Pitt he walked 
 with Lords Grrenville, Abercorn, Euston, Bathurst, and 
 Lowther, as a special mourner, he would not be persuaded to 
 forego his angry resolve of abstaining from attendance in 
 Parliament. It was, as he subsequently came to see, one of 
 the greatest errors of his life, not merely because it filled 
 his traducers with exultation, or because it chilled his friends 
 with a vague sense of misgiving ; but because it was the 
 desertion of duties he had no right to renounce at the 
 questioning of men whom in private he branded with every 
 epithet of scorn. But Wellesley was a woman in suscepti- 
 bility of feeling, though in daring and endurance a man 
 amongst men Whether, if he had taken the opposite course, 
 and calmly defied calumny, his name would have been in- 
 cluded in the new Administration, we can never know. 
 Grrenville would not have shrunk from naming him to the 
 King, for he showed throughout an unfaltering faith in his 
 integrity, and he was a man who shrunk from nothing that 
 he thought right. On the other hand Fox, from the first 
 betrayed no little prejudice against him ; Grrey not so much ; 
 but Windham and Sheridan were among the bitterest of 
 his accusers. Whence all the mischief, and for a time all the 
 misery flowed, we must look back a little to descry. 
 
 For some time ere he quitted India, an obscure malcon- 
 tent, whose enmity he had never even suspected, was gather- 
 ing the materials for defamation at home, and with singular 
 energy preparing to compass his ruin. James PauU, a native 
 of Wisbeach, was bred a linen-draper ; but being of a ven- 
 turous turn, and not without some advantages of education, 
 he had while young sought quicker fortune in the far-ofi* 
 East. He traded for several years at Lucknow in English 
 
iSo6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 307 
 
 wares. But in 1802 he was, for some reason never clearly 
 explained, banished from Oude. His affairs would thereby have 
 been reduced to ruin but for the intervention of the Grovernor 
 General. On February 9, 1803, he wrote to Major Malcolm, 
 then secretary at Calcutta, ' that he thenceforth carried on 
 his extensive concerns quietly and unmolested. Knowing 
 with what satisfaction his Excellency on all occasions remedied 
 any injuries that were made known to him, he had taken the 
 liberty of addressing him directly, pointing out a very serious 
 and extensive injury that he experienced from the conduct 
 of the Government customs-master, particularly injuries to 
 him from the magnitude of his exports from Oude. Indeed, so 
 vexatious were the heavy and arbitrary exactions at Ghauze- 
 pore, where no rate of valuation was defined, that they almost 
 compelled him to stop business altogether ; and any direct 
 complaint against Mr. Kyder (the local resident) would only 
 render things worse. He seriously trusted he had not 
 offended his Excellency in the mode of transmitting his 
 address. His friend Sydenham told him that direct com- 
 munication with his lordship was the best. If, therefore, he 
 had offended it was most unintentional. For sensibly did 
 he feel the obligation he was under to his Excellency, for 
 whom he had only sentiments of gratitude and profound 
 respect.' * 
 
 This obsequious acknowledgment of the kindly disposi- 
 tion and public merit of the Governor-General, it need 
 hardly be observed, was long subsequent to the Treaty of 
 Cession made by him with the Nawab Vizier ; and so long as 
 Paull found it profitable to remain in Lucknow, his noble 
 benefactor was the best of men. But in 1804 he seems to have 
 quarrelled with the native authorities ; and not being able to 
 induce those at Fort William again to interpose on his behalf, 
 he transferred the good-will of his business to others, and 
 ' Auber, British Power in India, ii. 388. 
 X 2 
 
308 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 returned home, full of resentment at their neglect of what he 
 called his commercial wrongs. Part of the profits he had 
 managed to save he resolved to invest in a seat in Parliament, 
 in order to set up in tlie business of an un-common informer. 
 Denunciations of misrule in Asia had lost somewhat of their 
 power to fascinate the public mind ; but thej had still the 
 vague charm of gloom and grandeur about them ; and the 
 proofs of official shortcomings in Lord Melville's case had pre- 
 disposed the public ear to listen with credulity to other charges 
 against other members of the same Administration. Newtown, 
 in the Isle of Wight, happened to be in the market. It had 
 long been a legislative lodging-house where inferior politicians 
 put up for the session at a somewhat exorbitant charge. In 
 the Pension-Book of Charles II. an entry stood : ' Sir John 
 Holmes, a cowardly, baffled sea-captain, twice boxed and 
 once whipped with a dog-whip, was chosen in the night, 
 without the head officer of Newtown, and but one burgess 
 present ; yet voted this last election, and was re-elected.' 
 Its condition had not improved during the following century, 
 having neither church, town hall, or officer of any descrip- 
 tion ; a mere collection of seafarers' huts, two of which had 
 lately been bought from Lord Mount-Edgcumbe by Sir 
 Richard Worsley for 2,000 guineas. It paid but 3s. 8c? 
 yearly to the land tax ; and at the period in question, of its 
 thirty-three so-called electors, one only happened to reside. 
 Nevertheless its joint owners, the Honourable Charles Pelham 
 and Sir John Barrington, returned two members to Parlia- 
 ment, or let the respective seats when they did not happen 
 to want them. 
 
 Early*»in June 1805, the ambitious accuser took his place 
 at St. Stephen's. Not to lose time, he moved next day for 
 certain papers to prove how prodigal, vain, and corrupt had 
 been the administration of Lord Wellesley, and how violent, 
 oppressive, and cruel had been his treatment of native chiefs 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 309 
 
 and people. Emulating the passionate vehemence of Burke, 
 he assumed from the first a lofty tone of virtuous indignation 
 at the sufferings and humiliations inflicted by the wanton 
 insolence of English power ; and of stern reprobation of the 
 wasteful extravagance which had characterised the Grovernor- 
 General's warlike parades and love of courtly display. In his 
 high-flown descriptions, his hearers knew not how much was 
 founded on fact and how much was but efflorescence of imagina- 
 tion. Without varied and minute acquaintance with details, 
 it was vain to conjecture where the narrative of official facts 
 and motives ended, and where imitation chapters of ' The 
 Arabian Nights ' began. His pictures of the pomp and luxury of 
 Grovernment House were, not without skill, placed in contrast 
 with dark revelations of diplomatic treachery and grim details 
 of tyranny and extortion. With scant preface he proceeded at 
 once to charge the Marquess with ill-using a Prince of the 
 highest rank and dignity, whose court exhibited every mark 
 of splendour, and every proof of reverence and devotion on the 
 part of an opulent nobility, whose jewels alone were estimated 
 as worth four millions sterling; who was sometimes attended 
 with five hundred elephants richly caparisoned, and whose 
 retinue required several thousand horses : who had an army 
 of thirteen thousand cavalry, thirty thousand foot, and a 
 numerous artillery. He was described as being one of the 
 most faithful of all the allies of the Company, paying 
 a vast tribute annually, and who notwithstanding had, in 
 defiance of justice, and in the face of the most solemn 
 treaty, been dispossessed of a country containing upwards of 
 three millions of attached subjects, and producing a net 
 revenue of nearly two millions sterling yearly ; because he 
 shrunk from the alternative of resisting injustice and op- 
 pression by force of arms, and experiencing the fate of all 
 those who had attempted to oppose the encroachments of 
 the Company's Governors abroad. The case of this unhappy 
 
310 MARQUESS IVELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 prince, degraded and disgraced in the eyes of all the world, 
 exceeded in hardship, in every point of view, and in all its 
 bearings, that of Cheyte Singh, the Kajah of Benares, for whose 
 expulsion from his dominions Mr. Hastings was impeached 
 by the Commons of Grreat Britain ; with this marked and 
 essential distinction, that Cheyte Singh resisted demands that 
 he thought oppressive, whereas the Vizier of Oude submitted 
 to every demand, however illegal, arbitrary, or unjust. His 
 character had been described by Sir John Shore as not 
 unworthy his station; his capacity, though moderate, was 
 not mean ; his habits of economy approached to parsimony ; 
 in all his dealings he was fair and just ; and if moral defects 
 were imputable to him, they were not of the kind that 
 offended the public eye. His public conduct was without 
 reproach; and general tranquillity prevailed within his 
 dominions,^ He had been punctual generally in the payment 
 of the monthly kist for the subsidiary force agreed to be 
 kept up by the Company under treaty ; and the misgivings as 
 to its falling into arrear, PauU averred to be mere pretences 
 for aggression. The Act of 1784 had expressly forbidden 
 further territorial encroachment, as ' repugnant to the wish, 
 the honour, and policy of the nation, and it was declared 
 unlawful for the Governor General, without the express com- 
 mand of the Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee, 
 in any ease either to declare war or commence hostilities, or 
 enter into any treaty for making war against any of the 
 native Princes of States of India : except when unavoidable 
 to meet actual or impending attack ; or to secure the con- 
 version of stipidated tribute into annexed territory.' Pal- 
 pably these exceptions were wide enough to leave an 
 ambitious ruler pretences for aggressive enterprises when- 
 ever he was inclined. Direct communication overland was 
 
 ^ Despatch from the Governor-General in Council to the Secret Com- 
 mittee, 5th March, 1798. 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 311 
 
 in those days so tardy and uncertain as generally to pre- 
 clude its being attempted ; and the course of post by sailing 
 vessels across two oceans was seven or eight months, rendering 
 consultation in cases of emergency impossible. The question 
 was and must continue to be — were the emergencies the 
 result of native combinations and intrigues, or were they of 
 the Grovernor Greneral's own creation ? 
 
 To illustrate the cupidity and corruption of Viceregal rule, 
 great stress was laid upon the appointment of Henry Wellesley, 
 though not a covenanted servant of the Company, or directly 
 recognised in any way by them, as Lieutenant-Grovernor of 
 Oude ; an act of fraternal preference, it was urged, at variance 
 with law, policy, and justice. Windham, Whi thread, and 
 Sheridan sustained, with more or less acerbity, the tone of 
 inculpation, while Fox, too glad to forget the tedium and 
 trouble of the last pro-consular impeachment, and groaning 
 at the thoughts of another, submitted to be drawn within 
 the outer circles of the eddy, without calculating how he was 
 to avoid being again sucked into the vortex. On the other side, 
 Lord Temple, Sir J. Anstruther, Dr. Laurence, and Wellesley 
 Pole denounced the imputations on the retiring Grovernor- 
 Greneral as ungenerous and untrue. He was known to be on 
 his way home : why not wait till he was on the spot, to answer 
 for himself accusations which, until the answer came, could 
 serve no other purpose than that of exciting unfair prejudice 
 against him ? Castlereagh, with sagacious candour, would not 
 refuse the papers moved for, or any other papers that could 
 bhed darkness on the subject. He understood thoroughly the 
 reading and ruminating powers of Parliament, and how little 
 the reputation of his illustrious friend had to fear from the 
 multiplication of blue folios. But to quench the insinuation 
 of jobbing, which he knew was more likely to catch unthinking 
 credulity than any other, he quietly observed, as he sniffed 
 the rose-bud in his button-hole, that about the Deputy- 
 
312 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 Governorship of Oude there must be some mistake. It was 
 indeed, a confidential trust of an arduous nature, but brief in 
 its duration and without any pay. It turned out, in point of 
 fact, that when in critical circumstances, a special delegate 
 to Lucknow was considered necessary, Henry Wellesley had 
 offered to go, with no other recompense than the increased 
 confidence and affection of his brother. There was no more 
 to be made of the matter, and by the advice of Fox the pro- 
 posed scrutiny into general extravagance and profusion was 
 quietly dropped likewise. It would not, indeed, have very well 
 suited censors coming fresh o' nights from Carlton House to 
 provoke comparisons between lavish expenditure on the banks 
 of the Granges and on the banks of the Thames. The Prince 
 was just then in active Opposition ; and eager to eolist 
 recruits in Parliament, he thought it worth while to send 
 intimation to PauU of the sympathy he felt in his pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 In a curious letter, subsequently addressed to Lord Folke- 
 stone, as ' the only public man that really remained untainted 
 by corruption,' Paull recited how, on his return from India in 
 1 804, he took measures for obtaining a seat in Parliament, ^ in 
 order to make the conduct of the late Viceroy the subject of 
 legal investigation.' ^ He took his place in Opposition from dis- 
 like, he said, of the principles of Mr. Pitt, and admiration of 
 those of Mr. Fox ; but also because, ' before his last departure 
 from England, he had been honoured with very particular 
 marks of attention and kindness by the Prince of Wales, 
 he naturally and with great pride considered himself as 
 belonging to his party. As he could clearly prove, he had 
 given no small degree of satisfaction to his Royal Highness, 
 to whom all his intentions with regard 10 Lord Wellesley 
 had been fully and freely disclosed, and by whom they were 
 imreservedly approved. At a visit made at Carlton House, 
 ' In Cobbett's Register, 25th October, 1806. 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 313 
 
 soon after moving for the first batch of papers, ' the Prince 
 took occasion to express his entire satisfaction at his conduct, 
 in a manner eminently calculated to add to his zeal and per- 
 severance in the mighty task whicxx seeing no other man 
 willing to undertake it, he had imposed upon himself.' ' You 
 have opened a battery against the Marquess,' said his Eoyal 
 Highness ; ' his conduct in Oude has been truly shocking. I 
 have had much conversation with my young friend Treves on 
 the subject, who gave me the poor Nawab's picture. I trust 
 the battery will not be silenced next session, as some Indian 
 batteries have been.' The Prince further said that he had 
 talked to Mr. Windham a few days before at Sir John 
 Throgmorton's, and he congratulated PauU on the success 
 he had experienced — ' on the aid of such inflexible integrity 
 and unbounded talent on which he might confidently rely.' 
 This conversation occurred in July 1805, just after the pro- 
 rogation. 
 
 Colonel MacMahon requested Paull, in September, at the 
 particular instance of the Prince, to tell him on what ground 
 he should stand in case of a dissolution with regard to his 
 seat, as it was by all means desirable to secure for the party 
 as many seats as possible. Paull after consideration returned 
 an unfavourable answer ; and Colonel MacMahon assured him, 
 from his Royal Highness, that at the general election, he should 
 be so placed as to a seat as to leave him no reason to regret 
 that he had, without adverting to personal considerations, 
 entered Parliament at a most critical epoch. The same 
 assurance was not only repeated in January 1806, but a 
 borough in Cornwall was named by the private secretary, who 
 mentioned that the Prince had with his own hand inserted 
 his name a few evenings before, together with those of the 
 Hon. Gr. Lamb, Sir John Shelley, and others, as candidates to 
 be retained for the favoured boroughs. 
 
 Several gentlemen who had just left Brighton told Paull 
 
314 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 that his cause had been talked over lately at the Pavilion ; 
 and that he was sure of the hearty support of the Fox 
 party, particularly with every one connected with Carlton 
 House. ' But men,' he adds with plaintive patriotism, ' did 
 not then anticipate the events which the death of Mr. Pitt 
 were preparing ; or seeing his spirit prevail with increased 
 influence after death had silenced his delusive voice, and 
 the tomb had received his earthly remains ; with the silent 
 and submissive acquiescence of those men, and of that man 
 in particular to whom so many had always looked up as an 
 example of high spirit and just and humane sentiments, 
 he had ere long to find that all the promises he had relied on 
 had gone to the winds, and that he was left, with a few 
 exceptions, to contend against all the influence and arrog- 
 ance of unbridled power.' ^ 
 
 Though the session of 1805 had closed without anything 
 being done, Paull had become an object of curiosity, and in 
 a certain degree of interest, with many active politicians, 
 amongst others with Cobbett and Sir Francis Burdett, by 
 whom he was introduced to Home Tooke ; to whose Sunday 
 dinners at Putney he had a general invitation, of which he was 
 not remiss in availing himself, as his learned host did not fail 
 to remind him, when they fell out afterwards. Cobbett was 
 too keen a sportsman not to pat on the back, as he said, a 
 setter that could find such excellent game ; and the applause 
 of the ' Eegister,' then in the freshness of its ribald power, 
 was enough to turn the head of any man unused to notoriety 
 and elated with a first success. 
 
 In accordance with the general feeling, that the country 
 stood in need of all the available talent and experience its 
 
 * The exceptions he enumerates were Mr. Windham, Doctor Laurence^ 
 Lord Ossulston, the Marquis of Douglas, Lord Archibald Hamilton, Mr. 
 Martin of Gal way, Lord Folkestone, Mr. Martin of Tewkesbury, Sir John 
 Wrottesley, Sir William Geary, and Mr. William Smith, 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 315 
 
 service could command, the King sent for Lord Grenville, and, 
 without restriction, bade him choose his comrades in a new 
 Administration. He had in earlier life served with Fox, and 
 later in the Cabinet with Pitt. Without the former he told 
 George III. that it would be impossible to go on; but if 
 Sidmouth and his friends would join he would make the 
 attempt. Fox became leader of the Commons, and the 
 coalition was accepted by the King. In the preliminary 
 conferences many questions of moment were mooted, only to 
 be placed in abeyance : that of India amongst the rest. Paull 
 soon became aware of the change of Parliamentary weather. 
 On January 27, when about to move for further papers, 
 he was summoned to Carlton House, and told by Colonel 
 MacMahon, that the expectant Premier had spoken strongly 
 on behalf of Lord Wellesley ; and that, lest the Ministry then 
 forming should be embarrassed, the Prince wished that he 
 would consent, like Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Francis, ' to lie 
 upon his oars.' To this he replied, as Cato would have done, 
 that his character would be ruined in the eyes of all honour- 
 able men if he were to flinch at the last moment ; and that 
 'exquisite as might be the pain of acting contrary to the wishes 
 of the Prince,' he must do his duty. Forthwith proceeding 
 to the House, he moved according to his notice, for further 
 papers, and was seconded by Lord Folkestone. Next day he 
 wrote to Fox imploring him not to swerve from the accusa- 
 tions which he had encouraged him to bring. In an interview, 
 the following week, the newly appointed Minister owned 
 that as Sheridan had dropped the Carnatic and Francis the 
 Mahrattas, he had hoped that Paull might cease from 
 troubling about the Nawab of Oude. If that could not be, 
 and as Lord Grrenville had resolved to stand by the Marquess, 
 he would himself countenance a fair investigation but would 
 pledge himself to no specific measure. It had been sug- 
 gested that he and his friends might stay away ; but that he 
 
316 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 would not do. He would not sound a trumpet during the 
 preliminary stages of the investigation ; but when it came 
 on for decision he would do his duty. He acted up to his 
 word, abstaining generally from any part in the desultory 
 discussions that ensued. " The late Ministry and their suc- 
 cessors, though set against one another, agreed for the most 
 part in backing Lord Wellesley. 
 
 On January 27, 1806, Mr. PauU moved for a number of 
 papers relating to Oude, copies of which had been surrep- 
 titiously obtained by the French Grovernment, and published 
 in the 'Moniteur.' The Board of Control made no objection ; 
 but Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, with the irritation of an angry 
 friend, said their production would do harm in India. 
 Francis ridiculed his fears, and said more mischief was likely 
 to arise from even the revelation in France of the intercepted 
 letters of the Viceroy, which had been published in the 
 London journals. Wallace, on the part of Grovernment, 
 deprecated any reservation respecting the official corre- 
 spondence, and it was ordered without a division. 
 
 Paull resumed his inappeasable course of accusation in 
 an irrelevant and rambling style to an inattentive House. 
 Fox, as leader, made it understood that he would not inter- 
 fere in the preliminary stages, but he was believed to be 
 hostile to the policy of the ex-Grovernor Greneral. Francis 
 also professed neutrality, but he attended constantly, and 
 always leant strongly to the accuser. 
 
 Mr. George Johnston, an intimate of Paull dissented, but 
 Lord Folkestone supported him. Mr. Paull, in answer to what 
 fell from the noble lord (Castlereagh), from the near relation 
 of Lord Wellesley (Wellesley Pole), and from the Hon. and 
 learned baronet (Sir W. Burroughs), said that the situation 
 Mr. Henry Wellesley was appointed to was one of great trust, 
 honour, and emolument, as would appear when the papers 
 were laid upon the table ; a situation in fact that made him 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 317 
 
 second only to Marquess Wellesley, who was second to no other 
 man in pomp and magnificence on this earth. ^ 
 
 On February 25 he moved for papers relating to the India 
 debt, which led to a debate between Paull, Francis, Castle- 
 reagh. Fox, Morpeth, Hiley and Addington. A search for 
 precedents regarding impeachment was ordered. On March 1 
 Sidmouth wrote to Grenville respecting the necessity of 
 taking some consistent line upon the parliamentary question 
 on the motion for India, and Grrenville consulted the 
 papers. On the same day, Johnston moved for further docu- 
 ments. Lord Temple, H. Addington, Wallace, and Sir T. 
 Metcalfe took part for Lord Wellesley. Johnston, Francis, 
 Grrant (Chairman of the East India Company), Lord Folke- 
 stone and Paull blamed him ; Fox adhered to the committee's 
 policy, but did not encourage the attack on Wellesley. On 
 March 1 1 , Paull moved for papers about Lord Wellesley's con- 
 duct to the Rajah of Bhurtpore, and was seconded by Folke- 
 stone. He was defended by H. Addington, and by Lord Temple 
 in a speech of ability and spirit, that deserved the warm 
 acknowledgments contained in a letter to his father the next 
 day. ' I have not learnt from authority that Mr. Fox has 
 made any satisfactory declaration of his sentiments respecting 
 my conduct in India. But whatever may be his intentions, 
 or the vicissitudes of public affairs, I entertain no doubt 
 that I shall ultimately compel the public to understand the 
 miserable delusions which have been practised upon their 
 judgment ; and that I shall obtain from the rest of the 
 world, and from posterity, whatever portion of justice maybe 
 withheld from me in the present times. To you my dear 
 lord, and to Lord Temple, I am indebted for a species of 
 support, the recollection of which will ever constitute a great 
 part of the happiness and honour of my futme life.' "^ 
 
 ' Pari, debates, v. 566. 
 
 2 To Lord Buckingham, 12th March, 1806. 
 
318 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1805 
 
 Meanwhile, Wellesley's friends in both Houses, sympathis- 
 ing with the invidious and mortifying position in which he was 
 placed, invited him on March 22 to a public dinner at Almack's 
 Eooms. The veteran General Harris, who had taken Seringa- 
 patam, occupied the chair, supported by the Duke of Montrose, 
 Marquesses of Buckingham, Blandford, and Thomond ; Earls 
 Fortescue, "Westmoreland, Winchelsea, Sandwich, Dartmouth, 
 Chatham, Bathurst, Camden, Malmesbury, Westmeath, Carys- 
 fort, and Limerick ; Lords Hawksbury, Braybrook, Auckland, 
 Mulgrave, Carrington, Brayring, Glastonbury, Henley, Glen- 
 berbie, Clancarty, and Castlereagh ; the Speaker Abbott ; 
 Sirs Evan Napean, W. Farquhar, T. Metcalfe, W. Grant, A. 
 Wellesley, Alured Clarke, and J. Newport ; Generals Phipps, 
 Balfour, and Forbes ; Messrs. Canning, Vansittart, Sullivan, 
 Wallace, Steele, Holford, Hobhouse, H. Addington, W. Lake, 
 Dundas, &c. The Premier wrote to say that but for illness 
 he should certainly have been present to bear his testimony 
 not only of affectionate regard, but of respect for the splendid 
 services rendered to the country by his noble friend. 
 
 The first count of the indictment formally laid upon the 
 table was entitled ' Article of charge of high crimes and 
 misdemeanours committed by Kichard CoUey, Marquis Wel- 
 lesley, in his transactions with respect to the Nawab Vizier 
 of Oude.' It set forth the extent and population of the 
 Vizierate as about the same as England and Wales.^ Early 
 in the year 1800 a project was sent home for approval by the 
 Company of amicable rearrangements with Oude, for which the 
 basis was the cession of certain contiguous districts in lieu of 
 the annual subsidy, and the strengthening of the contingent 
 to defend the Vizier's territory against the hostility of 
 Zemaun Shah. A despatch from the Secret Committee^ 
 explicitly commended the plan ' as not less contributing to 
 the preservation of the Nawab Vizier's dominions than to the 
 
 ' Printed by order of the House of Commons, 28th May, 1806. 
 » 4th December, 1800. 
 
i8c6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 319 
 
 relief of the Company's finances, which seemed so necessary to 
 be made with a view to the ultimate security of our own posses- 
 sions against the Afghan chief, or of any other power hostile 
 to the British interests.' The treaty was finally concluded,^ 
 and the changes under it were finally approved after two 
 years had elapsed, by the authorities in Leadenhall Street. 
 Yet all these facts were forgotten or misrepresented in the 
 heat of party contest, where grounds of inculpation had to be 
 invented or assigned. 
 
 Truly appreciated for what it specifically was, and what 
 it was not meant to be, the policy of Wellesley, though 
 high-handed and arbitrary, was in its aim beneficent and 
 noble. Intrusive, hazardous, costly, and sanguinary, when 
 defied, it undoubtedly was, as have been all great re- 
 volutionary changes in the history of the world ; and when it 
 was averred that its inspiring motive was the ambition to 
 expand the sphere of British influence and to consolidate the 
 resources of British power in southern Asia, the allegation 
 must be admitted to have been correct. But, compared with 
 what preceded and followed it, the impartial annalist will say 
 that it was elevated in purpose, frank in its negotiation, 
 faithful to its word, magnanimous in triumph, unvindictive 
 in defeat, in a word, anxiously and continuously bent on re- 
 conciling the reasonable pride of native local rule- with the 
 lofty over-kingship of England. 
 
 On May 10 Grenville carried the Foreign Slave Pro- 
 hibition bill in the Upper House, against the King's influence, 
 the known dislike of the Prince of Wales, and the open 
 thwartings of two of his colleagues. It was a real vexation 
 to Wellesley not to be present, and take part with his friend 
 in the good work which they had begun together several 
 years before. But nothing could induce him to enter the 
 House of Peers during his threatened inculpation in the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 > In November 1801. 
 
320 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 Accustomed for seven years to the life of a court more 
 luxurious than that of royalty, the ex-Go vernor-Greneral was 
 difficult to please in a residence either in town or country. 
 The old mansion of his family, around which so many early 
 recollections dimly hovered, was no longer available. Be- 
 fore he went abroad, Dangan had for several years been 
 unoccupied, and in 1803 it was sold by his direction to the 
 well-known Koger O'Connor for 30,000L, the chief part of 
 which was to be allowed to remain on mortgage, and to be 
 liquidated by half-yearly instalments. These were seldom 
 punctually met, and various attempts were made from time 
 to time to recover possession by the Marquess, but all in vain. 
 Eoger was an adept in the wiles of the law, and inexhaust- 
 ible in the artiiice of cajolery and inventive falsehood. His 
 whole life was a romance of debauchery and crime, but 
 his honourable connections, fascinating manners, liberal pro- 
 fessions, and versatility of resource made him the accepted 
 lover of more than one pretty woman, the trusted friend of 
 men like Burdett, and the idol of the populace. Had half the 
 truth been known of him in 1803, his offer would hardly have 
 been accepted by the agent of the Grovernor-Greneral. But 
 as the nephew of Lord Longueville and trustee of his brother 
 Arthur O'Connor's estates in Ireland, he was deemed an 
 eligible purchaser, though virtually little more than a tenant 
 with the power to secure the equity of redemption. It was 
 not long, however, before covenants against wastes were dis- 
 regarded and arrears suffered to accumulate. Fine timber 
 began to fall on the outskirts of the demesne, and valuable 
 pastures were let for breaking up on payment of fines. 
 Wellesley Pole authorised bills of injunction to be filed in 
 his absent brother's name ; but explicit and exhaustive affi- 
 davits in reply were after due delay put upon the file, and 
 the work of dilapidation went steadily on. Trees and 
 pictures were gradually made away with, never to be re- 
 
i8o6 PORTSMOUTH AND PUTNEY. 321 
 
 stored. The outer skirts of the demesne grew shrunken, 
 and the hills towards Laracor again grew bare. The 
 mansion still remained, imtil supplies being wanting 
 to keep up the lavish style of living which the impostor 
 claimant of regal descent indulged in, he bethought him of 
 the device of a large fire insurance, the amount of which in a 
 few months he contrived to realise by committing the house 
 to the flames. The company, without dispute, paid him 
 7,000?., and he continued to reside in a portion of the ruin, 
 which was converted into a hunting-box ; dating, for many 
 years after, his bombastic effusions from 'Dangan Castle.' 
 Three years later, not far from the entrance gate, occurred 
 the tragic scene with which his name was long associated. 
 A lawless band organised by him, attacked and robbed 
 the mail from Dublin to Gralway. Considerable sums of 
 money and other articles of value were taken, several persons 
 were wounded, and the guard was killed. The empty mail- 
 bags, found within the park wall, were forwarded with a few 
 expressions of concern and horror, to the Postmaster-Greneral, 
 by the worthy contriver of the outrage ; and, bad as his cha- 
 racter was, no one ventured to charge him on oath with robbery 
 any more than with arson. Some of the wretched peasants who 
 had been accomplices in the deed were caught, endeavouring to 
 pass a portion of the bank-notes which had been stolen ; and, 
 being unable to give a satisfactory account of how they had 
 come by them, five of them were hanged at Trim, to appease 
 offended justice. 
 
322 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 NOWHERE. 
 1806-1808. 
 
 Fox spoke for the last time on June 19, deprecating gently 
 but earnestly the unlimited reception of unsworn evidence at 
 the bar, the unsatisfactory nature of which, with a view to the 
 great ends of public j ustice, every man of experience and discern- 
 ment knew. Witnesses who chose to offer themselves might be 
 led into desultory statements, of which the confutation might 
 or might not be obtainable ; because the House had no power to 
 compel witnesses to answer upon oath : and unless they were 
 prepared to prolong the session indefinitely, it was impossible 
 to see where inquiries so conducted would end. He did not say, 
 but it was known, that he felt averse from repeating the experi- 
 ment to which he had always been a hesitating party in the 
 case of Warren Hastings. It is a curious illustration of the 
 tardiness with which defects in our constitutional system, 
 even when recognised as obvious, are cured, that three score 
 further years were suffered to elapse ere the House of 
 Commons' was induced to assert its right to enforce the ex- 
 amination of witnesses on oath, and thereby to put an end 
 to one of the most manifest anomalies in Parliamentary 
 jurisprudence.^ 
 
 In his anxiety to bring about, if possible, the conclusion 
 
 » See report of Select Committee of 1869 recommending the change, 
 which was carried into effect by 34 and 35 Vic. cap. 83. 
 
i8o6 NOWHERE. 323 
 
 of peace, Fox persisted, against the wishes of his friends and 
 advisers, in discharging the responsible duties of his office, 
 and inditing or correcting every detail of the negotiations. 
 But as their frail threads snapped one by one he grew con- 
 scious that his hold of life was loosening also. Early in 
 August, G-renville, while unwilling to anticipate the worst, 
 felt himself bound to provide against the time when the 
 failing powers of his colleague would no longer enable him 
 to perform the duties, never more onerous and critical, of 
 the Foreign Department. He turned his eyes towards 
 Canning, who, when he held the seals in Pitt's first Adminis- 
 tration, had been his Under Secretary, and upon the coinci- 
 dence of whose views with his own regarding the war he 
 knew he could depend. He requested Wellesley to inquire 
 from him on what conditions he would take office ; and, until 
 Fox was convalescent (an event of which he did not yet 
 despair), if he would undertake the general conduct of busi- 
 ness in the Lower House, with a seat in the Cabinet. The 
 ambassador, as Canning called him, had full power to offer 
 Perceval any professional office he might desire ; but he was 
 not authorised to hold out any certain expectation of room 
 being made for others of the section who adhered to them. 
 Canning declined to sever himself from the associates with 
 ^hom to the last he had acted under Mr. Pitt ; but the offer 
 was more than once renewed, and, when the recovery of Fox 
 was declared hopeless, with many additional inducements. 
 Wellesley paid a visit of some days to his unpersuadable friend 
 at South Hill Park, where, during many pleasant loiterings 
 in the open air, there was ample opportunity for discussing 
 fully the difficulties of the situation and the perplexities of the 
 time. Canning believed that he had succeeded in satisfying 
 his visitor that, in honour and prudence, he was bound to con- 
 sult the feelings and the claims of others, together with his 
 own ; and that if the coalition was to be modified in the sense 
 
 y2 
 
324 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1806 
 
 proposed, it must be done by the express sanction of the 
 King. Unless Chatham, Castlereagh, and Liverpool had Cabinet 
 offices, and Eldon a seat without office (as he had 4,000L a 
 year retiring pension), he would not join. Fitz- William and 
 Fitz-Patrick were, it was supposed, willing to make way. 
 But the resolution to retain Windham was an almost in- 
 superable obstacle, from the resentment felt towards him by 
 Pitt's old friends. 
 
 It is clear that Wellesley himself was not included in any 
 of the contemplated arrangements, and that this must have- 
 been with his own tacit acquiescence, from his consenting 
 to act throughout as intermediary. All idea of junction was 
 at length abandoned. 
 
 Towards the close of the session, in discussing the 
 Indian budget. Sir Arthur Wellesley admitted that the in- 
 creased expenditure in 1803 and 1804 was above 2,000,000^ ; 
 but he contended that, bearing in recollection the extent 
 and efficiency of the preparations necessary for war with the 
 Mahrattas, this was not excessive for such operations and for 
 such exertions. At the close of Lord Wellesley's adminis- 
 tration in 1 805, the total revenues of our empire in the East 
 were 14,279,533^., the total charges 14,645,844L; the in- 
 terest of the debt 1,823,040^., which with other items left a 
 deficiency for the year 1805-6 of 2,655,957^. But this was a 
 deficit arising entirely from war. Every branch of the revenue 
 had improved, as he showed in detail, during the past seven 
 years. From 8,059,880^. the total had risen by more than six 
 millions a year. The discussion was prolonged for more than 
 one sitting, until thirty-one members only being counted as. 
 present, an adjournment took place without any decision. 
 
 The Parliament called by Addington in 1802 was dis- 
 solved by Grrenville,^ in the vague, and, as it proved, vain, 
 hope of lessening the majority pledged to religious intoler- 
 ^ 25tli October, 1806. 
 
i8o5 NOWHERE. 325 
 
 ^nce; but Ministers gained no strength to compensate for 
 the loss they had sustained by the death of their great 
 defender in debate. Sheridan's ambition was gratified by 
 his being named instead for Westminster, and the whole 
 strength of the Ministerial party was brought to bear in his 
 support. PauU, convinced during the autumn that he had 
 been dropped by the Prince and his friends then in power, 
 fancied that he had made sufficient name to rally round him 
 a majority of the electors ; and, supported by Sir Francis 
 Burdett, Cobbett, Home Tooke, and Major Cartwright, he 
 held meetings at the ' Crown and Anchor,' in which he 
 pledged himself to all the popular impossibilities of the 
 day. Whitbread at the hustings deprecated his opposition 
 rather in the tone of remonstrance than reproof, and bade 
 those who set great store on the impeachment of Lord 
 Wellesley believe that the proceedings need not fail 
 though their favourite were out of Parliament. Beaten 
 ^t the poll, Paull was half-stifled, half-crazed with the 
 sympathy of the crowd, who shouted his praise more lustily 
 than ever, and vowed that his wrongs must be set right 
 on petition. Bribery, treating, and intimidation were 
 averred ; subscriptions to any extent in support of the 
 petition were promised ; and Sir Francis Burdett put down his 
 name for 1,000^ In the new House of Commons most of the 
 prominent Ministerialists kept their seats ; but the balance of 
 parties was not materially changed. The place of Fox was 
 occupied, rather than filled, by Howick, whose aptitude for 
 business and ability in debate had not yet given him any- 
 thing like the personal weight which his predecessor had 
 long possessed with his party. The Com*t maintained a cold 
 and suspicious reserve ; and the aspect of foreign affairs was 
 gloomy in the extreme. As all the schemes of Pitt for resist- 
 ance to Napoleon had died at Austerlitz, so those of Fox had 
 -expired at Jena : and the Berlin Decree threatened half our 
 
326 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1806- 
 
 exporfc trade with interdict. England was never so bereft 
 of allies, and even the Neutrals had begun to waver. It was 
 a tinae when patriotic men might well have sho^NTi themselves 
 ready to gulp down personal jealousies and aversions, for the 
 sake of great principles of domestic reform or great measures 
 of foreign policy. At the opening of the session,^ Paull was 
 no longer to be seen among the busy and prominent members. 
 Lords Folkestone and Archibald Hamilton were still there ; 
 but Sheridan was too busy preparing to defend the Westminster 
 petition, and "Windham too heavily laden with the cares of the 
 War Office, to give heed to their suggestions that the Oude 
 charge should be resumed. 
 
 Nor was Homck's accession to the leadership encouraging, 
 though he had never lent himself to the tactics of accusation, 
 and had no mind to multiply supernumerary foes. Grovern- 
 ment, in point of fact, never stood more in need of reinforce- 
 ment. On Christmas Day Wellesley received by appointment 
 a visit from the Speaker, to talk over the possibility of the 
 proceedings against him being revived in the newly-chosen 
 House of Commons. He said that he regarded Windham as 
 his chief adversary in the Cabinet, and Ho wick as the best 
 inclined to letting the affair drop. It would be highly 
 objectionable, on grounds of public policy, to stimulate and 
 sustain in a manner wholly unprecedented, the prosecution of 
 a private individual before the High Court of India Judi- 
 cature. This gTeat tribunal had been specially constituted,^ 
 of thirteen Peers and twenty Commoners, chosen by ballot, 
 with one judge from each of the courts of law, to try ques- 
 tions from India on the requisition by the Crown or the 
 Company. Parliament, being supreme, might adjudicate 
 instead ; but should Parliament, having once taken the 
 matter into its own hands, decline to proceed, it would be 
 
 » 19th December, 1806. 
 
 3 By the 24 George III. chap. 25, sect. 2. 
 
-i8o7 NOWHERE. 327 
 
 monstrous to allow any irresponsible person to take the 
 initiative, and set such a judicial mechanism in motion. 
 Establish this precedent, and where would such proceedings 
 end ? or how could the administration of affairs in the East 
 be carried on ? After the interview the Speaker met ■ the 
 First Minister, to whom he recounted what had passed, and 
 who promised to consult with his new lieutenant as to what 
 should be done. Dining with the Speaker two days later, 
 Howick gave him to understand that he was not disposed to 
 proceed any further in the business. He thought it should 
 be left to the India Judicature, if the Board of Control 
 or the Court of Directors invoked its judgment ; but it was 
 clear that neither one or the other would do so. Grrenville 
 confirmed this decision ; and thus relieved from much 
 anxiety on the subject, Wellesley, on the last day of the year, 
 took the oaths and his seat in the House of Lords. 
 
 After the holidays the committee proceeded with the 
 trial of the return for Westminster, but had not gone far 
 when an appeal was made by Lord Folkestone on the per- 
 sonal petition of Paull, who invoked the direct interference 
 of the House to prevent an alleged tampering with witnesses, 
 and the concealment of important documents through the 
 influence of the sitting member. If privilege were thus 
 abused, justice could not be done. Letters of Sheridan, 
 offering money and employment for votes, had been made 
 away with, which, if wrung from the delinquent hands that 
 held them, would leave no doubt that he had compassed his 
 return by fraud, and that Westminster's true choice was the 
 petitioner. The approvers, who could testify to the facts, 
 were in attendance, and counsel waited to be heard. Much 
 time was spent in desultory discussion as to the fitting mode 
 of procedure in a case so exceptional ; and some of his friends 
 wished Sheridan to take time to consider what he should 
 do. But with his habitual pluck, he laughed outright at his 
 
328 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1807 
 
 accusers, and said he would be his own counsel. Drake, who 
 had married his natural daughter, when dismissed from the 
 navy had hung about him in the idler's capacity of oflfering to 
 be generally useful. With comrades still more disreputable, 
 he had been busy at the election, affecting mystery where 
 there was none, and acting in all things without authority. 
 Of the money subscribed by the rich men of the party he 
 counted on too large a share, and when disappointed, in a 
 fit of drunken spite went over to the enemy. With a 
 scoundrel named Harris he swore to having conveyed letters 
 from Sheridan promising certain appointments as the price 
 of votes. But on cross-examination he was forced to admit 
 that he had written one of the letters himself and his ac- 
 complice the other ; and that neither had ever been signed 
 or seen by their patron. Discussion arose, during which 
 witness and counsel were ordered to withdraw. But they did 
 so only a few feet from the bar ; and Paull improved the 
 occasion to confer with Drake, and seemingly to prompt him. 
 General Phipps called attention to the circumstance as an 
 open disrespect to the House, on which Paull exclaimed 
 that he was sorry he could not himself reply in his place as 
 a member to what had been alleged regarding him, ' but 
 when he heard an observation so gross as that which had been 
 made by the gallant general ' — the Speaker here interposed, 
 and ordered him to withdraw. ' He wished to collect the 
 sense of the House as to its practice, whether petitioners, 
 having made their election to be heard by their counsel, 
 did not relinquish their right to be heard by themselves.' 
 Ho wick, as Leader of the House, was so surprised at the extra- 
 ordinary conduct of the petitioner that he had only been 
 prevented by his feelings from calling attention to the 
 insolent and outrageous proceeding. The House was 
 called upon to adopt some measure in vindication of its 
 dignity ; and he therefore moved that Paull should be brought 
 
i8o7 NOWHERE, 329 
 
 to the bar, and acquainted by the Speaker with the sense 
 entertained by the House of the impropriety of his conduct. 
 Having been called in, the Speaker addressed him in the 
 following terms : ' Mr. PauU, I am directed by the House to 
 acquaint you that, in its judgment, you have been guilty of 
 great impropriety of conduct, and committed a gross out- 
 rage upon the privileges of the House. I have further to 
 acquaint you that, having made your election to be heard 
 by your counsel, you are no longer entitled, according to 
 the practice of the House, to be heard by yourself. I am 
 also directed to inform counsel that they must confine their 
 examination to matters of fact respecting the tampering 
 with witnesses and suppressing of evidence.' 
 
 Harris was forced to admit that he had worn disguises, and 
 that, when talking to Sheridan, he had passed for a chaplain. 
 The House got thoroughly out of temper, and gave such 
 audible signs of its anger that a third witness, Richardson, 
 fainted in fright and was carried out for dead. Howick rose, 
 and declared his conviction that the patience of the House had 
 been grossly trifled with ; and moved that the conspirators 
 should be sent to Newgate. Lord Folkestone tried to save 
 the honour of his friend upon the plea of credulity ; but the 
 matter had gone too far. Paull was summoned to appear 
 next day, and having been sharply reprimanded from the 
 Chair, was abject in apologies. Sheridan in a few scornful 
 phrases begged him oflf, and he was allowed to go. Further 
 proceedings in the election scrutiny were postponed, and ere 
 they could be resumed the shortest of short Parliaments, 
 with the Ministry that had summoned it, had ceased to be. 
 George III. dismissed Lord Grenville and his colleagues for 
 refusing a pledge in writing never to move again in the 
 Catholic question ; and Pitt's surviving friends, recalled to 
 power, held office for the next twenty years. Their first act 
 was to dissolve. 
 
330 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1807 
 
 Brougham, in his enthusiastic partiality, seems to have 
 persuaded himself that, when the coalition fell, delicacy alone 
 hindered Wellesley from taking the government while the 
 impeachment of his administration in India was pending. 
 There is not a trace of any such idea having entered the 
 mind of the King, or of any of the politicians seeking office 
 on this occasion: the competition for Pitt's mantle lay 
 between Perceval and Canning, and it ended in the agree- 
 ment- to put the Duke of Portland nominally at the head, in 
 deference to his rank and age, and because he was too easy- 
 tempered and unmeddlesome for either to be jealous of him. 
 The accused Pro-consul had never been in the Cabinet ; his 
 views on the Catholic question were not acceptable at Court ; 
 and he had no parliamentary connection worth considering. 
 But he had been an especial favourite of Pitt ; he was inti- 
 mate with the best men of the party, and they all had the 
 highest respect for his administrative ability, courage, versa- 
 tility, and skill. 
 
 In the formation of the new Grovernment a desire was 
 shown that he should be included. Hawkesbury, on March 
 23, said he believed that there was a good chance of his 
 taking office : all his family wished it. On the 24th 
 Malmesbury notes in his Diary that he was wavering all day,^ 
 but at last decided not to accept the seals. Canning was 
 offered the Foreign Department, but told the Duke he would 
 give way if Wellesley or Malmesbury would accept it. When 
 they were out of the question, he had his choice of it or the 
 Admiralty, and asked his friend which he ought to take. 
 Malmesbury advised the secretaryship ; whereupon he went 
 forthwith to Burlington House, and the same afternoon kissed 
 hands.^ 
 
 Freemantle, who gave place at the Treasury to Henry 
 Wellesley, inveighed bitterly against the Marquess for pro- 
 ^ Malmesbury 's Diary, iv. 376. '^ Ibid. iv. 377. 
 
i8o7 NOWHERE. 331 
 
 mising general support. He was probably still angrier at the 
 appointment of Sir Arthur as Secretary for Ireland. But the 
 Master of Stowe did not share his resentment, and in reply to 
 a kind letter, received one of acknowledgment and explana- 
 tion, frankly, defining the position. ' Your lordship is well 
 aware of the manner in which my brother has been treated, 
 since he came home, by those who formed the late Grovern- 
 ment, with the exception of the family and friends of Lord 
 Grrenville, Lord Sidmouth, and yourself; and you will not be 
 surprised that he and I, and our friends, should have thought 
 it impossible to follow those persons into Opposition, not- 
 withstanding that it was very painful to him to separate from 
 Lord Grrenville, and to me to have any concern in politics 
 with a Government which you should oppose. I accepted 
 my present office on condition that it should not prevent my 
 being employed in my profession ; and considering that Lord 
 Wellesley had determined to support the new Grovernment,^ 
 and that they were likely to be placed in difficulties in Ire- 
 land, I did not think myself at liberty to decline it.' ^ The 
 friendship of his old chief remained unbroken ; but Grrenville 
 could not so easily forgive ; and the old class-fellows walked 
 no more together. 
 
 On April 30 Parliament was dissolved, Grrenville, Howick, 
 and Eomilly being exceeding wroth. Sheridan and Paull stood 
 again for Westminster : both unsuccessfully. Burdett, the 
 newest favourite of the populace, refused to coalesce with bis 
 former ^ro^g^e, and outran all his competitors ; Lord Cochrane, 
 as a naval hero, came in second ; and Paull was in racing lan- 
 guage, nowhere. Forgetting former kindness, and furious at 
 this second defeat, he wrote an offensive letter to Sir Francis, 
 upbraiding him with treacherous desertion because he would 
 
 • Sir G. C. Lewis errs in saying that he * received the Garter as the 
 pledge of his adhesion ; ' it was not conferred, as will be seen, until three 
 years later. 
 
 ' Sir A. Wellesley to the Marquess of Buckingham, 8th July, 1807. 
 
532 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1807 
 
 not take the chair for him at a * Crown and Anchor ' meeting. 
 The reply heaped only fuel on his wrath ; and a challenge was 
 the consequence. No tragi-comedy was ever more complete 
 in all its parts. On arriving at Wimbledon, Mr. Bellenden 
 Ker acting on behalf of Sir Francis, tried in vain to ascer- 
 tain from his opponent's second who he was and where he 
 lived ; but beyond the fact that his name was Cooper, that he 
 knew nothing of such affairs, and was very sorry to be there 
 at all, he would tell nothing. But one pair of pistols proved 
 available for deadly purposes ; lots were drawn for these, 
 and for who should give the word to fire. It fell upon the 
 peaceful Mr. Cooper, who retired so far behind a tree that 
 neither of the combatants could see the signal. Mr. Ker 
 had at last to perform the duty. Shots were exchanged and 
 both parties were wounded. But one carriage was within 
 <jall, and in this the belligerents and their friends returned 
 to town. The newly-elected member lay up for a week, and 
 then came forth once more in St. James's Street to receive 
 the congratulations of his friends. His adversary was less 
 fortunate. His wound, though not in any vital part, proved 
 lingering and serious. From unaccustomed notoriety he 
 found himself fallen into ridicule and neglect. A controversy 
 with Home Tooke (a singularly disagreeable antagonist at 
 the best of times) had kept him in a fever when his physi- 
 cians would have kept him cool. All his spare money had 
 been spent upon elections ; returns from India were dilatory 
 and disappointing, and the remainder of the wasted session 
 hardly sufficed for one or two motions for supplementary 
 papers about India. He occupied himself with writing 
 various accounts of his past career, sometimes in pamphlet 
 form and sometimes in that of communications to the daily 
 papers ; two or three of his parliamentary allies looked 
 in from time to time, and tried to soothe his disappointment 
 with assurances that they would not give up the cause until 
 
i8o7 NOWHERE, 335 
 
 he should be again amongst them ; but he had ceased to be 
 an object of interest or fear ; and the world at length forgot 
 to ask what had become of him. 
 
 The result of the general election was that the Ministers 
 had a working majority. The Court, out of the privy purse, 
 were said to have bought every purchasable seat. Perceval's 
 biographer contends that there is no evidence of the Portland 
 Administration doing more in that way than the most virtuous 
 of their predecessors.^ 
 
 The 'No Popery Parliament' met in June. Canning 
 chafed at the want of a comprehensive policy, and declined 
 dining at Perceval's, where the speech from the Throne 
 was read. The Address was carried in the Lords by 160 
 to 67. Wellesley's name does not appear in the division. 
 In the Commons it was carried by 350 to 255 — in the fullest 
 house ever known. Notwithstanding this great numerical 
 preponderance Grovemment seemed weak and timid, and Lord 
 Temple wrote sneeringly, ' it proved a chattering lawyer does 
 not make a great manager of the House of Commons.' But 
 the Grrenvilles were intensely prejudiced against Perceval, and 
 much underrated, as the sequel proved, his capacity for leader- 
 ship. He had patience, readiness, and temper ; a thorough 
 acquaintance with the everyday working of the law ; a per- 
 sonal reputation without blemish, and the entire confidence 
 of the King. 
 
 Wellesley owed too much to the Grenvilles to renderit easy 
 for him to take part actively with those who had driven them 
 from power. Bathurst, Castlereagh, Hawkesbury, and Canning 
 were his intimates of long standing : and in the Portland Cabi- 
 net there was not one who had lent any countenance to Paull, 
 or who would hesitate about voting against Folkestone, whom 
 they looked on as a dangerous lunatic. There he sat, with the 
 obdurate air of an accuser waiting for the trial to be called on, of 
 » Life of Percevalt i. 252. 
 
334 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1807 
 
 great offences said to be committed by a great criminal, 
 which some at least of the outgoing Cabinet had professed 
 to believe provable, and which men like Francis, Creevey, 
 and Hamilton still declared they would prove. The most 
 memorable of all accusations in the history of Parliament 
 was not abandoned when its shameless author had broken 
 down. It was after Titus Oates had stood in the pillory 
 and been burnt in the hand, and Shaftesbury had taken 
 up his lying parable, that Lord Stafford and Archbishop 
 Plunket were put to death for the sham plot. Times had 
 grown less sanguinary; but the love of lion-hunting had 
 not become extinct. Burke had spent five years in pro- 
 secuting Hastings, and found congenial excitement and 
 the recompense of the widest celebrity in the performance 
 of the task. The very difficulty and hazard of the chase 
 are its chief allurements ; it may eventually fail, and the 
 noble prey escape the toils ; but while he crouches for the 
 spring, there is no meddling with him. 
 
 On June 29 Folkestone moved to reprint the Oude papers 
 of the previous session, and stated his desire to bring forward 
 the charges made in the former Parliament against the late 
 juler of India. Sir John Anstruther, Mr. H. Addington, 
 -and Sir A. Wellesley urged that the decision should not be 
 indefinitely postponed. In reply, Folkestone said he must 
 consult others before fixing a day. Nothing further was done 
 owing to the lateness of the session, and the most susceptible 
 and ambitious of men, in August, saw another prorogation, 
 with an indecisive judgment suspended over his head; 
 leaving the uninformed still in doubt whether he had proved 
 himself to be a reckless and sanguinary oppressor, or a great 
 statesman who had ruled an empire honourably. The fever 
 of vexation in which indefinite postponement and constantly 
 renewed menace keep a proud and sensitive man cannot 
 "be easily imagined; cannot be realised at all by any who 
 
1 8o7 NO WHERE. 335 
 
 have not similarly suffered. As already mentioned, his 
 brother Arthur was made Chief Secretary for Ireland ; his 
 chief qualification being that, in the Executive there, any day 
 there might be imminent need of military experience and 
 discretion. How little of the arbitrary spirit or summary 
 tone of the camp the newly appointed Minister brought to 
 the discharge of his civil duties his confidential correspond- 
 ence of the period shows strikingly enough.^ He had not 
 long been established in his office when Castlereagh asked 
 Lord Wellesley to ascertain if he would take a command in 
 the expedition secretly fitting out for Holstein, with a view of 
 preventing Denmark becoming the open ally of France. The 
 service was so critical, and the confidence implied on the part 
 of the Government so rare, that there could be little room 
 for hesitation.* Without assigning any ostensible reason for 
 adjourning discussions upon various local questions, magis- 
 terial and ecclesiastical, he temporarily quitted his post in 
 Ireland, and prepared again for active service abroad. In 
 the memorable events that ensued he bore a conspicuous 
 part, and for his reward was raised to the rank of Lieutenant- 
 General. When the captured Danish fleet was anchored in 
 the Downs, he quietly resumed his perusal of police reports and 
 correspondence with bishops and judges, as if nothing par- 
 ticular had happened in the interim. Brother Kichard was 
 more proud of him than ever. 'He always said that Arthur had 
 talents, and whenever there was opportunity that he would 
 prove it.' Nor was it less gratifying that Henry, of whom 
 he was still fonder, was appointed one of the Secretaries of 
 the Treasury. 
 
 Perceval led the Commons plausibly and circumspectly, 
 Howick had gone to the Lords, and Plunket gone back to 
 the bar. Sheridan and Whitbread, Francis and Windham, 
 
 ' Some of the more remarkable passages in his letters from Dublin 
 will be noticed elsewhere. 
 
336 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1807- 
 
 had in varied degrees the power of worrying ; and in debate 
 they greatly over-matched all their Ministerial opponents but 
 Canning. In the Lords the new Grovernment were equally 
 at a disadvantage, and their chief aim appeared to be to 
 tide over questions of domestic policy and fix public at- 
 tention on Continental affairs. All the schemes of official 
 advancement with which the Marquess had occupied himself 
 seemed doomed to adjournment sine die. His domestic re- 
 lations did not improve with the tantalising strain upon his 
 temper. Madame had grown querulous and pretentious as 
 he grew petulant and irritable ; her society no longer had for 
 him the charm it once possessed ; and he gave himself up to 
 other associations with as little disguise as was the prevailing 
 fashion of the day. At Court he was always received with 
 em'pressement ; and at half the great houses in England he 
 was welcomed with honour. He could hardly be looked 
 upon as a party man, for he had during a whole decade abso- 
 lutely taken no part in home politics. Leading men on 
 both sides desired his adhesion and sought his friendship ; 
 and the incense thus offered to his self-importance was too 
 grateful to be dissipated by envious disparagement or ill- 
 natured sneers. Autumn passed away in pleasures that 
 profited nothing, and it was the spring of 1 808 before any 
 serious change seemed likely to take place in his condition. 
 
 A letter, in pamphlet form, was in January addressed 
 anonymously to Lord Wellesley, on the perplexities of Ireland ; 
 which Speaker Abbot believed to be Grattan's, and ' in his 
 best style and best sense, approaching nearer to the truth 
 than anything he had seen.' It turned out to be from the 
 pen of John Wilson Croker, a young barrister then unknown, 
 who in the following year entered Parliament, by an un- 
 looked-for chance, as member for Downpatrick.^ 
 
 In the speech from the Throne, at the opening of the next 
 ' A Sketch of the State of Ireland, Past and Present. Dublin: Mahon, 1808. 
 
-i8o8 NOWHERE. 337 
 
 session,^ the chief topic was the policy of taking and detain- 
 ing the Danish fleet, without a previous declaration of war, 
 which gave rise to animated debates in both Houses. The 
 Duke of Norfolk moved for papers^ containing the substance of 
 all the communications that had been made to Ministers in the 
 course of the past year with respect to the state of the Danish 
 navy, of any apparent increase thereof, or of any steps taken to 
 prepare the same for sea ; the proclamation and correspond- 
 ence of our commanders at Copenhagen, and the substance 
 of all the recent communications respecting the secret articles 
 of the Treaty of Tilsit. He was supported by Lords Hutchin- 
 son, Erskine, Buckinghamshire, Moira, Jersey, St. Vincent, 
 Grrey, Darnley, and Sidmouth. He was opposed by Lords 
 Borringdon, Harrowby, Limerick, Hawkesbury, Mulgrave, 
 and Wellesley. It was the first occasion on which the 
 voice of the late Governor General of India was heard in the 
 House of Peers, and there was not a little curiosity as to the 
 tone he was likely to assume, and the place in debate he was 
 in future to occupy. Lord Folkestone's motion of censure 
 awaited in the Commons its long-deferred hearing. But 
 weary of tantalisation and regardless of empty threats, the 
 Marquess resolved to break silence, and assert his well-earned 
 right to pronounce judgment on the greatest question of the 
 day. As soon as the mover of the amendment sat down he 
 rose, and though intensely nervous and anxious, with the 
 imperturbable calm and consummate air of ease he knew so 
 well how to assume, he entered at length upon the antecedents 
 and strategic circumstances of the situation. In the words 
 of Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Premier), the cause, not so 
 much of Ministers, as of the country, was successfully main- 
 tained by his eloquent and argumentative speech. He 
 warmly approved of the expedition. ' If it were said that 
 the junction of the Danish fleet with the French could not 
 » 21st January, 1808. " gth February, 1808- 
 
 Z 
 
338 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1808 
 
 create any serious danger to us, it should be remembered 
 that there was a wide difference between the existing state 
 of affairs and that previous to the glorious battle of Trafalgar. 
 Now all the great Powers of Europe were in arms against 
 France ; but at the time of the Copenhagen expedition, 
 the whole of the Continent was subdued — subdued not 
 merely for the purpose of conquest, but for the subjugation 
 of England, through the overthrow of her naval supremacy.' 
 But forty-eight votes could be mustered in support of the 
 motion for censure in the Peers, against one hundred and 
 five ; and but seventy-three against one hundred and fifty- 
 seven in the Commons. Next to the great oratorical success 
 of Canning, whose matchless eloquence Erskine said had far 
 exceeded anything that had been heard in Parliament, the 
 honours of debate were accorded to Wellesley. 
 
 Mr. Whitbread had actively supported Sheridan for West- 
 minster against Paull, and on the hustings said that pro- 
 ceedings against Lord Wellesley need not terminate though 
 he were left without a seat in Parliament. This he construed 
 into a pledge that he and his political friends would under- 
 take the part of prosecutors. In a public letter on Fe- 
 bruary 8, 1808, he enjoined Mr. Whitbread, whose talents 
 and whose integrity he honoured, to redeem the implied 
 pledge. He believed that he could convince him of the deep 
 guilt of Lord Wellesley, and he felt persuaded that he would 
 not be silent or inactive when he saw how the country had 
 been disgraced, and how law, and right, and humanity had 
 been outraged by his enormities. He had seen the failure 
 of other trials, in despite of all that talent and eloquence 
 could urge ; but though the tribunals had refused to punish, 
 the guilt of the criminal had been established. To have 
 had the same success in the trial of Lord Wellesley against 
 all the art and influence of power and corruption, would have 
 been no small victory for justice. But he was now con- 
 
i8o8 NOWHERE. 339 
 
 vinced (after the debate on Copenhagen) that any attenapt 
 to bring this arch offender to justice would be worse than 
 useless. He must henceforth look on as a spectator of any 
 proceedings in Parliament relative to him, until the day 
 should arrive when the Marquess Wellesley and he might 
 meet before an unsold, an unprejudiced, and an uninfluenced 
 tribunal, and when a different spirit might animate the 
 people of England. 
 
 On the following day Lord Folkestone moved that the 
 papers in the Oude case might be printed and taken into con- 
 sideration. Creevey, Windham, and Dr. Lushington were for 
 their being referred to a select committee. Sir A. Wellesley 
 and Lord Temple besought the House to come to a decision, in 
 justice to the person accused. But Lord Folkestone adhered 
 to his proposal. When at length brought on, Creevey ridi- 
 culed the notion that the House was fit to judge of the rival 
 policies of Sir John Shore and his successor, unfolded in the 
 seven ponderous folios printed from time to time during 
 three years. The gravamen of the charge lay in the treaties 
 which divested native Princes of part of their dominions ; and 
 the justification was to be sought in the alleged perndy of 
 their conduct. But the Court of Directors had denounced the 
 conduct of the noble Marquess in these affairs, as contrary to 
 law, defiant of the Company's authority, and tending to convert 
 the executive Government of India into a simple despotism. 
 They had reprobated his profuse expenditure, and generally his 
 demeanour towards native Powers. He admitted that further 
 delay was hard upon the accused ; but was it not hard upon 
 the Company that their judgment should be overruled, and 
 the security of their position endangered, which would be 
 the case if the House, upon imperfect comprehension of the 
 facts, came to a vote of acquittal ? 
 
 Windham asked whether one in twenty of those present 
 had read the papers ? If not, was not the incapacity of the 
 
 z3 
 
340 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1808 
 
 House confessed? The accusations were those which were 
 incident to the lot of every great man ; they were taxes 
 which greatness and distinction had to pay ; nor was the noble 
 Marquess so destitute of friends, or so run down in the world, 
 that they bore upon him with any oppressive degree of weight. 
 
 Komilly argued that justice, in this as in every other 
 instance, required that the judges should know the facts and 
 understand their bearing. But without the intervention of 
 a committee, to arrange and condense the voluminous evi- 
 dence before them, justice he thought, could not be done. 
 He had himself at much inconvenience, gone through a con- 
 siderable portion of the documents, and if called on to vote 
 prematurely, he must give it against the noble Marquess. 
 But he did not thereby mean to deny that there might not 
 be further evidence foimd in the mass of papers on the table 
 which would fairly exculpate him. On the other hand, Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley and Mr. Bathurst contended that protracted 
 delay was palpably unjust, and that in the course of three 
 years, most well-informed persons had had ample opportunity 
 of acquainting themselves of the main points at issue. The 
 authority of Mr. Fox was cited against postponement ; and 
 Lord Folkestone pressed the House to come to a division. 
 It was ultimately agreed that the case should be taken into 
 consideration on its merits that day s'ennight. 
 
 Writing to Malcolm soon afterwards. Sir Arthur notes 
 the revival of his brother from the condition of discontent 
 and despondency in which he had lain during the inter- 
 mittent but protracted attacks upon him in Parliament. He 
 has at length 'got the better of the effect which these 
 base attacks had made upon his mind. He has lately made 
 a most distinguished speech in the House of Lords ; and I 
 have no doubt, he will come forward frequently in the same 
 way. I hope that we shall be able to bring the House of 
 Commons to a vote on the Oude case in the course of next 
 
i8o8 NOWHERE. 341 
 
 week ; not I think that it signifies essentially whether we 
 do or not, as time has had its usual effect upon the sense or 
 folly of the public ; and has convinced them that the man 
 they have been in the habit of abusing was the best governor 
 for India. It is desirable, however, to come to a vote on this 
 question, as several of Lord Wellesley's Indian friends are 
 anxious about it, as well as others who have more respect 
 than I have for what passes in Parliament.' ^ At length, on 
 the loth of March, a resolution, moved by Sir J. Anstruther, 
 of approval and thanks was carried by 189 to 29, and the 
 imputations of bad faith and oppression in Oude were thereby 
 extinguished. 
 
 While a last attempt was making to find some one who 
 would engage to bring forward the charge respecting the affairs 
 of the Carnatic, the fevered dream that had caused so much 
 contention came to an unlooked-for end. For many months 
 Paull had suffered much agonising pain from the wound re- 
 ceived in his duel with Burdett, and which, by some neglect or 
 mismanagement, had never been completely healed. Disap- 
 pointment in commercial as well as in political speculation 
 seemed to weigh him down, and in desperation he had sought 
 to repair his losses by resort to play. Here too he seemed at 
 odds with fortune; here too his wayward obstinacy would not 
 suffer him to be advised or warned. His associates Butler and 
 Sloper observed that he grew subject more and more to fits of 
 abstraction and despondency ; but at intervals the old fire 
 of vituperation would break out afresh in private talk or in 
 Cobbett's ' Register.' He appeared to revive, and for the 
 hour forgot his pain, as some subordinate of the Indian Grovern- 
 mtnt, or some supposed accomplice of his favourite aversion, 
 was set in the pillory of ribald scorn. Now and then his 
 malignity snatched a mouthful of daintier prey. The veteran 
 
 » From London, 25th February, 1808. 
 
342 MARi2UESS WELLESLEY. 1808 
 
 Lake had tottered home to enjoy the evening sunshine of 
 sympathy and homage from surviving friends, but without 
 having put by enough to support the advancement in the 
 peerage which Wellesley insisted on as his due. After the 
 taking of Delhi he had been created a baron, without inquiry 
 as to his private means, which had never been consider- 
 able. He lived but a few months to enjoy the dignity of 
 viscount conferred on him in 1 807 ; and Ministers proposed 
 that Parliament should vote a pension of 2,000^. a year ^ for 
 three lives, and 9,000/. to raise a fitting monument, as had 
 been done in the case of heroes of one instead of many vic- 
 tories. But what was Alighur or Laswarri to a morbid and 
 baffled vilipender, who, in the terrible words of Swift, was 
 ' dying of rage like a poisoned rat in a hole ' ? He tried to 
 persuade the crowd, ever greedy of improbable scandal, and 
 succeeded perhaps in convincing himself, for cruelty is 
 credulous of pretext, that between the old General and his 
 gallant son they had made away with a quarter of a million 
 sterling out of Madras jobbing and Mahratta spoil. The 
 truth came out in debate, that, during his period of command 
 in India, Lake had saved no more than enough to clear old 
 debts in England and make a modest provision for his younger 
 children. Whi thread was ashamed to object to the pension, 
 but grumbled at the proposed monument ; and Lord Greorge 
 Cavendish sneered at soldiers having peerages without landed 
 fortune to sustain them. Michael Angelo Taylor gave utter- 
 ance to worthier sentiments, which he declared were prevalent 
 in Opposition. ' True economy did not grudge substantial 
 marks of gratitude for great achievements, won by intrepid 
 constancy and signal valour ; and for himself he was too glad 
 to know that England had generals who, amid golden oppor- 
 tunities, disdained to enrich themselves by plunder.' On a 
 
 ^ The title was enjoyed in succession by his two sons, and became 
 extinct in 1848. 
 
i8o8 NOWHERE. 343 
 
 division but twenty-six objected to the grant, while two 
 hundred and ten voted in its favour.^ 
 
 The last chance of harpooning the great Pro-Consul de- 
 pended on finding some new hand with hardihood and inex- 
 perience enough to make the venture. Paull cast his eyes on 
 Sir Thomas Turton, a young Whig of some ability, who had 
 just come into Parliament ; and, as Francis said, in his own 
 irreverent way, 'He desired to have him, that he might 
 sift him as wheat.' . The baronet was ready, and the winnow- 
 ing went on till nothing was left but the chaff. Pain and 
 vexation meanwhile did their miserable work ; day by day 
 Paiill grew more dejected, uncertain, wild. Every guinea he 
 possessed was staked at hazard, and his last night on earth 
 was spent at a gambling house, whence he returned in the grey 
 dawn to his desolate home. He seems to have fruitlessly 
 sought death by opening a vein in his arm, and then in a 
 paroxysm of impatience, with his razor to have made an 
 end.2 
 
 Mr. Brodie, who had attended him, testified at the in- 
 quest to the utter wreck of reason in which his unhappy 
 patient had thus perished, and at the clubs next day the 
 lurid glare he had casually shed was thought of as little as 
 the flicker of the last wax candle. 
 
 Undeterred by the ghastly omen, the few who still clung 
 to the cause of impeachment, in the following month resolved 
 to bring forward the alleged wrongs of the Nawab of Arcot. 
 
 Six years after the transactions had occurred which 
 formed the subject of complaint. Sir Thomas Turton moved, ^ 
 'That the power entrusted to the Marquess Wellesley had 
 been employed by him wantonly and unjustly to deprive 
 the lawful heir to the musnud of the Camatic of his 
 undoubted right of succession as Nawab of Arcot, contrary 
 
 » 29th February, 1808. 
 2 15th April, 1808. =» 17th May, 1808. 
 
344 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1808 
 
 to every principle of justice and equity, in violation of 
 the sacred faith of treaties, and to the degradation of the 
 British name and character in India.' 'That at a time 
 when our implacable enemy was attempting to justify his 
 atrocities in Europe by the example of our conduct in 
 India, it was peculiarly incumbent on the House, in the 
 name of the people of England, to declare openly to the 
 world that the British Parliament never did or will coun- 
 tenance any act of oppression and injustice in its Indian 
 government ; and that a committee be appointed to inquire 
 into the circumstances of the case, and the substitution of 
 Azim ul Dowlah for the son of our old ally.' 
 
 Mr. Wallace, as Secretary to the Board of Control, entered 
 at length into the history of the Company's former dealings 
 with the house of Wallajah, from 1706 to 1801, when Omdut 
 ul Omrah died, leaving his throne to Hussein, both of whom 
 were charged with encouraging the intrigues with France and 
 Mysore against us. He argued that the Nawab was not inde- 
 pendent, but, by the terms of undisputed treaties, our vassal or 
 feudatory ; that the administration was corrupt and oppressive, 
 to the ruin of the country and to the peril of our position. 
 
 Lord A. Hamilton accused the Company of designs 
 to annex the Carnatic long before its rulers were accused of 
 hostility. Colonel Allen vindicated the Grovemor-General. 
 Windham moved the adjournment. The discussion was re- 
 sumed on June 1 1 by Sheridan, who suggested the omission 
 of several long resolutions reciting the alleged historical 
 incidents, and recommended the issue to be simply taken on 
 that of censure arising therefrom. He disclaimed having 
 ever impeached the private moral character of the noble Mar- 
 quess, though he always thought that he betrayed too often 
 a mischievous ambition that might be ultimately ruinous to 
 British interests in the East. 
 
 Sir John Anstruther supported the course of procedure 
 
i8o8 NOWHERE. 345 
 
 which met the historical resolutions by the previous question 
 and the criminatory one by a direct negative. 
 
 S. R. Lushington ^ vindicated the establishment of better 
 ways of rule under the Company, and painted in eloquent 
 language the extortion of the Nawab, which was ruinous to the 
 people. The treaty with Azim was justified by the law of 
 nations, not merely because it was beneficial to the Company, 
 but because it would dispense happiness to millions. 
 
 On the principal question the House divided, at two in 
 the morning : For the censure, 1 5 ; against it, 124; on which 
 Mr. Wallace said Government thought it superfluous to ask 
 for a counter resolution, which, had the division been less 
 decisive, it had been intended to move. 
 
 But on June 17, Sir T. Turton, persisting in moving 
 declaratory resolutions against the policy pursued in the 
 Camatic, though abstaining from any words of personal 
 condemnation of Lord Wellesley, a division was taken on 
 a direct vote of approval, when there appeared 98 against 
 19 votes. With this proceeding the accusations which had 
 originated with PauU came to an end. For three years they 
 had been a source of incessant mortification and annoyance ; 
 and had practically seemed to place under a ban one of the 
 ablest men of his day, as far at least as public employment 
 was concerned. It was natural that when they were finally 
 refuted, and his merit as a ruler under circumstances of 
 great difiBculty and danger, had been judicially recognised, a 
 reaction should set in, and that he should thenceforth be 
 looked to all the more as a statesman in whom the nation 
 might confide. 
 
 ' Member for Rye, who took the opposite side in the controversy to that 
 sustained by his kinsman. 
 
346 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1809 
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 SEYILLB. 
 
 1809. 
 
 The year 1808 had closed disastrously for the credit of Eng- 
 land in diplomacy and in the field. Napoleon, flushed with 
 the triumph of his civil strategy at Bayonne and Erfurth, 
 hastened to take the command in person of his armies in 
 Spain, and to execute his threat of driving his enemies to 
 their ships. Mr. Hookham Frere had, through the personal 
 preference of Canning, been sent as Minister to the Supreme 
 Junta, for dealing with whom he possessed few of the qualities 
 indispensable for success ; while the errors of the War Office, 
 in the instructions given to Sir John Moore and Sir David 
 Baird, led to the disastrous retreat to Corunna. Joseph 
 was reseated on his usurped throne at Madrid, and the 
 cause of Spanish independence seemed to be undone. But 
 with Cadiz still held by the insurgents, and Gibraltar intact 
 in our hands, the elements of insurrection throughout the 
 Peninsula gradually began to stir, and in the spring of 1 809 
 the Portland Cabinet resolved on greater efforts than before 
 to save Portugal and rescue Spain from foreign domination. 
 A large force was collected at Cork, of which the command 
 was offered to the victor of Vimeira, while the Marquess was 
 asked to go with plenary powers as ambassador to Spain. 
 Once more, therefore, on a field of action worthy of their 
 combined abilities, the two brothers were to be employed. 
 Grovemment, indeed, stood much in need of strengthen- 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 347 
 
 ing; and Wellesley's ambition, long deferred while the 
 wrestling with defamation lasted, naturally aimed at a seat 
 in the Cabinet rather than employment, however honourable, 
 abroad. 
 
 Canning would gladly have got rid of others. But how 
 was room to be made for him ? In conversation with the 
 Speaker he called Camden and Westmoreland ' useless 
 lumber, and Chatham perfectly unmanageable; Wellesley 
 would be a good colleague, but not as Premier.' ^ The chief 
 object of his professed distrust and real jealousy was Castle- 
 reagh, whose mismanagement of the War Department, in 
 spite of his activity and attention to routine, could only be 
 ascribed to ' incapacity for great affairs.' But the unpardon- 
 able sin of Castlereagh was the possession of an amount 
 of Parliamentary influence infinitely greater than his own. 
 The Viscount's shortcomings in debate were beneath his 
 sarcasm, and his own transcendent superiority to all rivals, 
 signally displayed in the session of 1 808, inspired him with 
 the premature hope of attaining the leadership of the party 
 whenever his failing Grace of Portland should retire. That 
 event, he knew (through private intimacy), could not be far 
 distant ; and for many weeks he strove to bring about two 
 objects, — the deposition of Castlereagh from the departmental 
 conduct of the war, and the substitution of Lord Wellesley 
 in his room. Even this change, though he deemed it would 
 be propitious to the gaining of his heart's desire, was not 
 viewed in prospect without some misgiving. Who could tell for 
 certain whether, at the critical moment, when the hand that 
 feebly clutched the Treasurer's staff should fail, some other 
 member of the Cabinet might not be sent for by the King ? 
 He would like, if possible, to make sure beforehand against 
 the mischance of having brought a new competitor into 
 the field when displacing the old one. With the air of florid 
 > Colchester's Diary, April 1809. 
 
348 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 banter, but with a keenness of subtle purpose, in one of 
 their conferences he said, ' I must tell you frankly that I 
 have serious objections, Lord Wellesley, to your being Premier ; 
 because, with your reputation, talent, and activity of mind, 
 you would reduce all the rest of us to mere cyphers.' Words 
 of disclaimer and deprecation were matter of course ; but 
 the egregious flattery told, as it was meant to tell. Canning 
 wanted to be thought rather afraid of overshadowing great- 
 ness ; had he really been so, he would have said nothing 
 about it ; what he did distrust was the King's estimate, not 
 his own, of — Greorge Canning. Till things could be brought 
 about as was to be wished, he offered to set aside Hookham 
 Frere, and to send the Marquess as ambassador, with extra- 
 ordinary powers, to Seville ; as if King Ferdinand were 
 actually in his capital, or at the head of the insurgent forces 
 of the realm. George III. would be more easily persuaded, 
 he well knew, to have him for his representative abroad 
 than for one of his Cabinet councillors at home. Beside 
 the taint of tolerant opinions in religion, he had the 
 fault in royal eyes, of being too grand and dignified by 
 half. Stories had reached Windsor of the courtly airs that 
 had prevailed at Fort William, which His Majesty did not 
 like. He spoke of the Governor General having considerable 
 merit in the conduct of affairs in India, but as inflated with 
 pride and with his own consequence, assuming to himself the 
 exclusive merit of all that had been done in the East, and 
 demanding ceremonious respect much beyond what was due 
 to his station. When reminded at Calcutta that he was 
 exacting from those about him more than the King used 
 to do, his lordship replied, ' Then the King is wrong ; but 
 that is no reason why I should improperly relax also.' His 
 Majesty believed that when he came back, ' his head would 
 be quite turned, and there would be no enduring him.' ^ But 
 
 » Rose's Diary, 1805. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE, 349 
 
 all the more he was eligible for the position of Ambassador 
 Extraordinary; and as it was of moment to impress the 
 Spanish people with a sense of om* determination to sustain 
 them in their uprising against France, the Cabinet resolved 
 to send a special mission to the Central Junta, with plenary 
 powers to direct and control the movements of our troops 
 and the disposition of our fleets upon the coast. The post 
 was not altogether one to be coveted under existing circmn- 
 stances. The Spaniards were known to be dispirited by 
 defeat ; their treasury was empty ; their army a crowd of 
 irregulars, ill-disciplined, ill-armed, ill-paid ; and the pro- 
 verbial cm'se of half-recognised authority filled their igno- 
 rant councils with rivalries and dissensions. On the other 
 hand, to a mind full of ambitious aims there was not a 
 little that was tempting in the speciality of the position. 
 He was to go forth to challenge, in the face of Europe, the 
 arrogant pretensions of Napoleon, and to re-organise a popu- 
 lace and peasantry into a nation capable of expelling their 
 invaders. That the brother whom he had brought up to 
 arms, and step by step promoted in his earlier career, and 
 aided unceasingly to advance in parliamentary and ofl&cial life, 
 should have been placed in chief command in the Peninsula 
 was in itself a strong inducement for him to accept. But 
 unless the forces destined for Spain were adequate to the 
 difficult undertaking he must decline the responsibility. Lord 
 Buckinghamshire complained in the House of Lords of Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley's being appointed to supersede General 
 Craddock,' who was many years his senior, and who, after the 
 death of Sir John Moore, had done good service by rallying 
 the allied forces in Andalusia and preparing for the defence 
 of Gibraltar. Ministers, however, defended their choice with 
 spirit, and Henry Wellesley, having resigned the secretaryship 
 of the Treasury, prepared to accompany his brother in the 
 ' 14th April, 1809. 
 
350 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 same confidential capacity in which he had served him with 
 so much devotion in the East. Canning was profuse in 
 his promises, and sanguine in his anticipations of being 
 able to furnish all the men and the money that might be 
 wanted for the vigorous carrying out of the enterprise. His 
 friend was satisfied ; he allowed his acceptance to be made 
 known, and on the 30th of April the ' Grazette ' announced his 
 appointment. 
 
 The ' Times,' not then given to indulge in editorial 
 comment on such matters, dwelt with peculiar emphasis on 
 the announcement : ' We consider the appointment as an 
 unequivocal pledge given to the nation by Ministers that 
 they are resolved to adopt no half measures, to pursue no 
 system of cold or timid precaution, to leave no outlets 
 for irresolution or vacillation. Lord Wellesley cannot be an 
 instrument for such purposes ; he possesses one of the 
 cardinal virtues, fortitude, which we would at the present 
 moment place above the others, because it is that which the 
 necessities of the hour render indispensable.' ^ Other testi- 
 monies of approval were not wanting ; but such was the rage 
 of party that Whitbread did not scruple to inveigh against 
 the nomination, and publicly to warn the Spaniards against the 
 Grecian gift, which however specious without, within was full 
 of treachery. ' At a time when the people of England were 
 everywhere talking of the injustice of Buonaparte towards 
 Spain, he was surprised at the national blindness to our own 
 aggressions recently manifested in the choice and approbation 
 of our ambassador to that country. If there were a man in 
 the universe who, in another part of the globe, had acted as 
 Buonaparte had done with respect to Spain, it was the Marquess 
 Wellesley. His conduct in the East Indies was perfectly 
 similar to that of the French Emperor. The people of Spain, 
 if they knew anything of the afifairs of this country, must 
 » 1st May, 1809. 
 
 i 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 351 
 
 know what the noble lord had done in India ; but then, all he 
 did there proceeded from an ardent zeal for the public service, 
 while Buonaparte, in acting the same part, was said to have 
 been urged on by the instigation of the devil. They were 
 palpably the same acts, though said to be inspired by different 
 motives. Be that however as it might, the nomination of 
 his lordship was certainly a bad omen, as the people of Spain 
 must know that the Marquess Wellesley would, if the oppor- 
 tunity should offer, treat both Spain and Portugal as Buona- 
 parte had done, through his ardent zeal for the service of his 
 country ! ' The choice of the new envoy, nevertheless, was 
 highly satisfactory to the country. Lord Holland, who had 
 not been bred in a school of favourable predisposition, was 
 too fearless and free-hearted to conceal his appreciation of 
 the foresight, comprehensiveness, and magnanimity of his 
 views. Far from joining in the attack of Whi thread and 
 others, he cultivated his society when in England, corre- 
 sponded with him when abroad, and constantly defended his 
 measures, saying ' that he was the person, above all the poli- 
 ticians he had known, who most impressed him with the idea 
 of a great statesman.' 
 
 Many days had not elapsed when he was informed that 
 Government thought of diverting a considerable portion of 
 the intended armament to sustain the ill-devised expedition 
 to Walcheren. With characteristic decision he forthwith 
 remonstrated against the change of plans, which he saw must 
 compromise any chance of success in the Peninsula ; and, fail- 
 ing to obtain satisfaction on the subject, he resigned. Owing 
 in part to chagrin at this new disappointment, he fell ill, 
 and was for several weeks prostrated by gout, though not 
 secluded from intercourse and sympathy with his political 
 friends. Canning often came and went, and towards the end 
 of June persuaded him to set forth on his important mission, 
 with reassurances that adequate military resources should be 
 
352 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 made available without delay. On the other hand he was 
 induced, strange as it now appears, to leave with Canning 
 a letter requesting his recall if ever his friend should re- 
 linquish the conduct of Foreign affairs. In other words, the 
 wily Minister thereby believed himself secured against the con- 
 tingency of a reconstruction of the Cabinet unless he were 
 at the head. On the voyage out the Plenipotentiary wrote 
 to Mr. Rose : — 
 
 I was highly gratified by your kind invitation to .Cuf- 
 fields, of which I most readily should have availed myself if 
 I had taken the route by Torbay ; but as I embarked at 
 Portsmouth, it was not in my power to wait on you. I sailed 
 on Monday, and we are proceeding very well. I find that 
 the sea has been rather advantageous to my health.' 
 
 The bells were ringing for the victory of Talavera when 
 the ' Donegal ' dropped anchor in Cadiz Bay. Her coming had 
 been awaited with anxiety, and when it was known through- 
 out the city that the English envoy was on board, there was 
 a general outburst of joy. The chief authorities put off with- 
 out delay to welcome him, and his landing was deferred till 
 the following day. 
 
 The occasion was indeed one that might have made any 
 ordinary man forget ceremonial in a sense of its singu- 
 larity as well as gravity. But the Ambassador Extraordinary 
 was true to himself in the performance of his part on the 
 world's stage. Before quitting his cabin he took his accusr- 
 tomed care to be arrayed befittingly, and each item of per- 
 sonal adornment was duly considered. When all particulars 
 were adjusted to his conception of the character he was to 
 sustain, as the incarnation of imperial power appearing as 
 a deliverer of an enthralled people, he asked how his staff 
 were dressed, and on being told that both civilians and sailors 
 wore cocked hats with white feathers, he declared that his 
 distinctive plumage must be green, and beneath a waving 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 353 
 
 profasion of that benignant hue the countenance of the 
 Marquess shone forth on Spain. 
 
 In a frenzy of enthusiasm a French flag taken in a recent 
 conflict with the corps of Dupont, was suddenly spread upon 
 the ground, that as he landed, he might as an omen tread on 
 the ensign of Napoleon's power. It is not certain that in 
 the tumult of the moment he realised the significance of the 
 act ; but the circumstance was laid hold of as a ground of 
 bitter reproach, being, as was contended, a manifestation of 
 premature and paltry triumph. The populace pressed round 
 him with their greetings, and drew his carriage from the 
 quay to the house of the Alcalde, where addresses of wel- 
 come, and felicitations on his brother's victories awaited him.^ 
 
 In his own words, he was ' received at Cadiz with every 
 demonstration of public honour, and with the most cordial 
 and enthusiastic expressions of veneration for His Majesty's 
 person and respect for his Grovemment, of zealous attach- 
 ment to the British alliance, and of aflectionate gratitude 
 for the benefits already derived by the Spanish nation from 
 the generosity of His Majesty's councils ; and for the per- 
 severing activity, valour, and skill of his officers and troops.' 
 The difficulty of obtaining a suitable house at Seville caused 
 him to linger more than ten days at Cadiz, which thereby 
 enabled him to receive ' continual and distinguished marks 
 of attention and respect towards His Majesty's embassy from 
 every description of the public authorities, civil, military, 
 and ecclesiastical, and from every class of the nobility, gentry, 
 and people.'^ 
 
 Popular excitement kindled as he moved from Cadiz into 
 the interior, and at Seville he was hailed with every form of 
 welcome indicative of national joy. Royalty was in abey- 
 
 ' Mr. Jacob, who was present, says nothing of the incident in his Note» in 
 Spain. 
 
 ' Despatch to Mr. Canning, from Seville, 11th August, 1809. 
 
 A A 
 
354 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 ance, and the order of the day was spontaneity in the most 
 democratic fashion. Guerilla bands took up the position that 
 to each of them seemed best, and squabbled about preference 
 and pre-eminence on grounds unintelligible to all but them- 
 selves, with appropriate uproar of patriotic vows and profuse 
 invocation of all the saints in the calendar. OflBcials of the 
 old Court were jostled by those of provincial importance, 
 whom the exigency of the nation tacitly, if not always blandly, 
 acknowledged ; and self-appointed deputations from distant 
 cities swelled the numbers of the Junta, in their eagerness 
 to be duly demonstrative of national gratitude to England's 
 envoy. Nor had the stronger sex all the boast of patriotism 
 to themselves. Beautiful Andalusian women, of various ranks 
 and antecedents, gazed from balcony and housetop upon the 
 stirring scene ; and crowds of peasant girls and dames 
 thronged the narrow streets and narrower byeways along 
 the route appointed for the cavalcade. But there was one 
 conspicuous above all others by virtue of self-sacrifice, 
 and for whom discourteous men and jealous women cheerfully 
 made way. Augustina Zaragossa was come to meet and 
 thank the ambassador of Britain, and she thought that her 
 fitting place and part in the ovation was upon the lower 
 step of the entrance to the great hall in which he was to be 
 received in state. Accordingly the dark-eyed heroine waited 
 there, much to the satisfaction of the multitude, who sympa- 
 thised in her notion of what was becoming in the bravest of 
 women, and delighted at her characteristic retention of the 
 Arragonese costume, and the serious vivacity of her talk and 
 mien. Nobody had an idea of what she meditated at the 
 critical moment of the day, and least of all did the illumi- 
 nated copy of Britannic Majesty suspect what awaited him. 
 At last the carriage stopped, and he prepared with inefiable 
 dignity to descend ; but hardly had his foot touched the 
 second step, when the ' Girl of the Portillo Gate ' approached 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 355 
 
 with a cry of ecstatic joy, clasped the exquisite envoy in her 
 arms, and carried him triumphantly into the Town Hall, amid 
 the frenzied ' bravas ' of the multitude. A more disconcerted 
 and displeased plenipotentiary cannot be conceived than the 
 object of her unexpected care, when with a hearty kiss, she 
 let him down at last at the foot of the grand staircase. But 
 his mother-wit prompted a semblance of good humour, wliich 
 he did not feel, and whispered. Better seem to share the 
 popular mood even at the cost of dignity, than by unavail- 
 ing testiness provoke a jibe. He gallantly thanked the 
 heroine, and the more decorous portions of the ceremonial 
 proceeded without interruption. A flattering address was 
 duly read in sonorous accents by the Alcalde of Seville, 
 and answered suitably in words of classic brevity and beauty. 
 So eminent a master of language was not to be found want- 
 ing on a great historical occasion. Lord Wellesley, by all 
 accounts, acquitted himself worthily, and won the prepos- 
 session of his difficult and somewhat querulous hearers, on 
 whom a word mis-interpretable into condescension would 
 have fallen like an explosive spark, even amid all the remind- 
 ings of national humiliation. 
 
 But when the pageant was over, and the hour of disrob- 
 ing came, pent-up irritation had its way. It was indeed 
 hard times with the personal attendants of the ambassador 
 for some days after he had been caressed as described, 
 by unauthorised female fervour in utter disregard of all the 
 rules of ambassadorial etiquette. He could not complain ; 
 but he could not forget the indignity, and those about him 
 had to pay the penalty not to be inflicted on others. His 
 body servant, who had long attended him, and knew his ways 
 and weaknesses, came in for something more than an allow- 
 able share of his most noble wrath. Whether the Irish love 
 of merriment betrayed him into some ill-concealed allusion 
 to the unpardonable liberty tatken with his august master, 
 
 A A2 
 
356 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 or whether the faithful valet had in some less unpardonable 
 manner failed in his duty, it is said that His Excellency, 
 in a paroxysm of rage, uplifted his delicate fist, and hit his 
 stalwart dependant a box on the ear. The man quietly said, 
 * It is a pity your lordship should forget yourself, and forget 
 me, like this ; for you know that if I chose I could crush 
 you with a blow.' Then, leaving the room, he refused to 
 reappear until next day. The better nature of his master 
 having regained its ascendency, he made amends by send- 
 ing his offended servant his watch as a present and peace- 
 offering. 
 
 William Jacob, who had a seat in Parliament, had been 
 with his friend Mr. Eidout for a long tour through the southern 
 provinces, and happened to be then in Andalusia. From 
 many opportunities of observation he evidently formed deep 
 impressions of the moral worth, the firmness, and the perspica- 
 city which the new envoy displayed. ' His arrival produced 
 an extraordinary sensation, neither prepared nor fostered by the 
 body to whom he was sent, whose narrow souls were jealous 
 of his character, and apprehensive lest his powerful talents 
 should detect and expose their contracted policy and futile 
 projects.' ^ The Junta was unpopular, and incapable in all 
 eyes save their own. A conspiracy, on the eve of explosion, 
 was revealed to Lord Wellesley, who thought it his duty to 
 warn them of their danger. They affected little alarm, and 
 were above the hypocrisy of professing gratitude ; while the 
 accomplices in the baffled plot were left to bewail their 
 communicativeness.' ^ His conversation with the travellers, 
 to whom he was frequently accessible, discovered an accurate 
 knowledge and comprehensive view of the state of Spain. 
 
 The sanguinary but triumphant battle of Talavera was 
 the first- fruit of the campaign. The tragic story needs not to 
 be told again, but the language of the calmly-judging victor 
 » Letters from Spain, iv. 1809. 2 ibi^. 
 
iSo9 SEVILLE, 357 
 
 of the morrow, descriptive of the deplorable condition of his 
 little army, portrays more vividly than any other words could 
 paint the difficulties which from the first beset the conduct 
 of affairs on the eve of the new envoy's arrival at his post. 
 While demagogues in the Junta were reiterating their 
 sonorous vows of devotion to country, and death to the 
 invader, the Provisional Government, who corresponded with 
 the English General, seemed bent upon excusing their own 
 want of power to fulfil unbounded promises of supply and aid, 
 by invidious criticism on his strategy, and ill-disguised 
 reproaches at his pretended want of spirit in the cause. * It 
 is not a difficult matter for a gentleman in the situation of 
 Don M. de Garay to sit down in his cabinet, and write his 
 ideas of the glory which would result from driving the French 
 through the Pyrenees ; and I believe there is no man in Spain 
 who has risked so much or who has sacrificed so much 
 to effect that object as I have. But I wish that Don M. de 
 Garay, or the gentlemen of the Junta before they blame me 
 for not doing more, or impute to me beforehand the probable 
 consequences of the blunders or indiscretion of others, would 
 either come or send here somebody to satisfy the wants of 
 our half-starved army, which, although they have been en- 
 gaged for two days, and have defeated twice their numbers, in 
 the service of Spain, have not bread to eat. It is positively 
 a fact that, during the last seven days, the British army have 
 not received one- third of their provisions ; that at this 
 moment there are nearly 4,000 wounded soldiers dying in 
 the hospitals in this town from want of common assistance 
 and necessaries, which any other country in the world would 
 have given to its enemies ; and that I can get no assistance 
 of any description from the country. I cannot prevail upon 
 them even to bury the dead carcases in the neighbourhood, 
 the stench of which will destroy themselves as well as us. I 
 positively will not move, nay, more, I will disperse my army, 
 
358 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 till I am supplied with provisions and means of transport as 
 I ought to be.' ^ His total force did not exceed 20,000 men, 
 and all his plans for protecting Lisbon, and crossing the 
 frontier into Galicia, depended on additional troops promised 
 him from England, for which he still waited in vain. On 
 the same last day of July the Marquess wrote from Cadiz 
 announcing his arrival. In reply to which Sir Arthur sent 
 him the florid votes of the Junta creating him a Captain- 
 General of Spain, but reiterating in detail the state of desti- 
 tution in which his troops were left, owing to the exhausted 
 state of the country, to the inactivity of the magistrates and 
 people, to their disinclination to take any trouble, excepting 
 that of packing up their property and running away when 
 they heard of the approach of a French patrol, to their 
 habits of insubordination and disobedience, and to the 
 want of power in the Government and its officers. Since 
 the 3rd instant the army had had no bread till yesterday, 
 when about 4,000 lbs. of biscuit were divided among 30,000 
 mouths. ... ' You have undertaken a Herculean task ; 
 and God knows that the chances of success are infinitely 
 against you, particularly since the unfortunate turn which 
 affairs have taken in Austria.' A week later he wrote that he 
 wished much he could see him, but his situation was such 
 that he dared not leave his camp, or spare either of the persons 
 to converse with whom would be of any use. His Excellency 
 had better therefore send somebody to him as soon as he 
 could, if he should be able to hold his ground in Spain : but 
 this he believed to be fast becoming impossible. ' A starving 
 army is actually worse than none. The soldiers lose their 
 discipline and their spirit. They plunder even in the pre- 
 sence of their officers. The officers are discontented, and 
 almost as bad as the men ; and with the army which a fort- 
 
 1 From Talavera, 31st Jul^, 1809, Sir A. Wellesley to Mr. Frere, 
 
 Minister at Seville. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 359 
 
 night ago beat double their numbers, I should now hesitate 
 to meet a French corps of half their strength.' ^ 
 
 The evil tidings above referred to were the crushing 
 defeat of Wagram, and the consequent submission of Austria 
 to the humiliating terms exacted by Napoleon. 
 
 The intelligence of the splendid achievements of Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley and his gallant troops at Talavera was 
 accompanied by grave alarms respecting the state of their 
 supplies and means of movement, thus mingling a considerable 
 degree of concern and solicitude with the sentiments natur- 
 ally inspired by the extraordinary and glorious circumstances 
 of that memorable victory. The Ambassador's anxiety had 
 been further increased by the despatches which Mr, Frere 
 had been careful to forward to him during his detention at 
 Cadiz ; and the letter of Sir Arthur Wellesley exhibited the 
 most afflicting view of the condition of the British army in 
 Spain. This letter reached him early in the morning as he 
 drew near to Seville, and its urgency appeared to be so great 
 that, though his audience of credence had been fixed by the 
 Junta for the 15th, he took advantage of the visit of Don M. 
 de Garay soon after his arrival, to press upon his Government 
 the indispensability of immediate supplies. The verbal and 
 written assurances of the Spanish authorities led him to hope 
 that immediate exertion would be made by them to fulfil 
 the promises held out to their allies : and he sanguinely ex- 
 pressed to the Foreign Secretary at home his anticipation 
 that he should be permitted to superintend the completion 
 of the several details necessary for the commencement of an 
 improved system of supply and movement for the troops in 
 the field. But the impoverished state of the country, the 
 weakness of the Government, and the inveterate defects of 
 the military department in Spain, rendered any speedy im- 
 provement impracticable, and induced him to apprehend great 
 » From Deleytosa, 8th August, 1809. 
 
360 MARQUESS WELLESLEY 1809 
 
 difficulty even in the ultimate success of any plan which could 
 then be suggested. To the causes which had produced and 
 augmented the sufferings of the army, were to be added the 
 perverse and intractable disposition of Greneral Cuesta, the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish troops acting with Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley. Innumerable proofs of this unhappily 
 abounded.^ 
 
 He lost no time in addressing friendly requisitions to Don 
 Martin de Graray, then Chief Secretary of the Provisional 
 Grovernment, for magazines of provisions, to be formed at such 
 places in the rear of the allied armies as he should point out, 
 and for the supply of 1,500 mules and 100 Valencian carts, 
 as means of transport, according to such a plan as he should 
 suggest. 2 Everything was promised without delay ; every- 
 thing had, it was said, been anticipated. Orders for mules, 
 carts, oxen, sheep, and biscuits, with plenty of money to 
 bring them, having been sent some days before by reliable 
 commissariat commissioners; but, to prevent mistakes, orders 
 should be despatched forthwith a second time. It was 
 impossible not to seem satisfied with assurances so cordial ; 
 but unfortunately no results were visible in the British camp. 
 The Greneral chafed in vain from day to day at the condition 
 of his victorious troops, who were literally half-starved, and 
 who, for want of invalid train or ammunition waggons, were 
 hardly able to move. They had consequently to remain 
 on the south bank of the Tagus for nearly a month, near 
 Deleytosa, and eventually to withdraw into Portugal ; the 
 reasons and necessities being grimly photographed between 
 the plain-spoken Commander and his eupheuistic brother at 
 Seville. The correspondence was published when laid before 
 Parliament, and produced a deep conviction of the inherent 
 difficulties of the situation, and of the rare ability, patience, 
 
 * Marquess Wellesley to Mr. Canning, 15th August, 1809. 
 2 12th August, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 361 
 
 and endurance engaged in struggling against them. Wilber- 
 force, long after referring to these papers, said to a friend, ' I 
 remember thinking that I had never seen anything at all 
 equal to them in talent.' 
 
 The envoy's language was all that fraternal faithfulness 
 and public confidence could desire. ' Immediately after my 
 arrival at this place, and even before I had been admitted to 
 an audience by the Supreme Junta, I employed every en- 
 deavour to induce the Grovernment to adopt the measures 
 and arrangements suggested in your letter of August 8. I 
 enclose a note, presented yesterday to the Secretary of State, 
 and his answer. The orders of the Due del Parque were 
 transmitted to you by an express courier this evening, and I 
 am inclined to believe that the Grovernment is disposed to 
 make every effort compatible with its powers, with the state 
 of the country, and with the inveterate defects of the 
 military department in Spain. You are, however, sufficiently 
 aware of the impossibility of relying upon such efforts, unless 
 a regular system can be established under such authorities 
 as may secure its efficiency and seasonable operation ; and, 
 although you may be assured that 1 will omit no endeavour 
 to contribute to the establishment of such a system, I cannot 
 entertain a confident expectation of success. It is evident 
 that, in order to secure to your army the articles which you 
 require, supplies must be drawn from remote sources to such 
 points as may be properly calculated for the establishment of 
 magazines ; and that your means of transport and of move- 
 ment cannot now be furnished from the countries in which 
 your army is acting. I have therefore advised this Govern- 
 ment to call forth every resource of the southern provinces 
 of Spain, and to convey the requisite articles, in the first 
 instance, to Santa Elalia, a plain in the rear of Monartino, 
 where I understand a magazine might be formed with ad- 
 vantage. From this magazine you might draw forward your 
 
362 MARQUESS WELLESLEY 1809 
 
 supplies to any other points which you might think fit to 
 indicate ; but the efficiency of the whole arrangement must 
 depend in a great degree upon the proper selection and 
 control of the agents for the collection and the conveyance 
 of the several articles required for your use. Under a 
 serious and painful impression of the difficulties of your 
 situation, and of the sufferings of your army, I feel the 
 indispensable necessity of communicating with you on the 
 most minute details of the subject of your distress ; and I 
 therefore forward this despatch to you, under the care of 
 Brigadier-Greneral Doyle and Major Armstrong, to whom I 
 request you to state all the circumstances of your situation, 
 and every point connected with the means of relieving your 
 wants, and of securing you against similar inconvenience, if 
 you should think it practicable or advisable to remain in 
 Spain. As soon as these officers shall be fully apprised of 
 your wishes and intentions, I request that you will direct 
 them to return to me with yoiu- despatches. In the mean- 
 while I shall not fail to use every exertion to accelerate the 
 efforts of this Government for your relief. You may be 
 assured that I shall take a proper opportunity of representing 
 to this Grovernment the defects of the Spanish army, which 
 you describe in your despatch of August 8. I have received 
 with great concern the description contained in these letters, 
 of the distress of your army, and of the perverse conduct of 
 General Cuesta. This Government is disposed to remove 
 General Cuesta from his command whenever it shall have 
 received from you, or from the British ambassador, a regular 
 and detailed statement of his misconduct. It is my intention 
 to present to the Secretary of State a recital of the several 
 facts stated in your despatches respecting General Cuesta ; 
 but, in my judgment, it would not appear to me to be proper 
 that I should directly insist upon his removal. As far as I 
 can collect your sentiments upon this point, they appear to 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 363 
 
 coincide with mine. It is not to be supposed that this 
 Government will continue to employ Greneral Cuesta in the 
 chief command of tlie army after having received full notice 
 of the several facts which you have stated ; and I am 
 satisfied that his removal would be made with more cheer- 
 fulness and alacrity, and with less danger of unpopularity, if 
 it should appear to be rather the necessary consequence of 
 his own conduct than the result of the interference of the 
 British ambassador.' 
 
 Another fortnight passed without succour in food or 
 means of moving the sick and wounded ; and on August 21 
 the army withdrew into Portugal, where they were welcomed 
 as friends and treated as guests. The tidings were received 
 at Seville with dismay, where the corruption and perfidy of 
 the Spanish commissariat were unknown, and the severance 
 of the allied corps was ascribed to some sinister influence 
 operating on the mind of the English general. A more 
 embarrassing position for his kinsman and friend, whose 
 confidence in his judgment and hardihood was unwavering, 
 and who felt his credit and success inextricably bound up 
 with his own, cannot well be conceived. 
 
 In all the published reports of encounters in the field the 
 bravery of the Spanish troops was lauded to the skies. It 
 was necessary to keep up the national spirit under great 
 disheartenment ; and even Sir Arthur Wellesley, matter-of- 
 fact in all things as he was, did not blame Spanish ofificers 
 for being silent as to instances of cowardice and desertion. 
 But among the insurrectionary levies, these in the campaign 
 of 1809 were so frequent and so glaring that they suggested 
 serious cause for hesitation whether the two armies should 
 in future act together or apart. On this point, with the 
 feeling of deference long habitual to him. Sir Arthur, after 
 submitting his ideas to his brother, 'requested the aid of 
 his superior judgment to enable him to decide upon it in the 
 
364 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 manner which would be most beneficial to the national 
 interests.' At the battle of Talavera, he wrote, ' in which the 
 Spanish army was hardly engaged, whole corps threw away 
 their arms, and ran off, in my presence, when they were 
 neither attacked nor threatened with an attack, but frightened 
 I believe by their own fire. When these dastardly soldiers 
 ran away they plundered the baggage of the British army, 
 which was at the moment bravely engaged in their cause.' ^ 
 So deep was his despair of cordial or efficient co-operation 
 that he thought matters would not have been bettered had 
 the greater armament actually been sent to the Tagus 
 instead of the Scheldt. ' You could not have equipped it in 
 Galicia, or anywhere in the north of Spain. If we had had 
 60,000 men, instead of 20,000, in all probability we should 
 not have got to Talavera for want of means and provisions ; 
 and if we had, we should probably have had to separate 
 without a battle, or afterwards, for want of means of sub- 
 sistence.' After the presentation of the ambassador's note 
 of urgency, supplies were foi-warded, in hopes that the 
 English would be dissuaded from recrossing the Portuguese 
 frontier. 
 
 Proofs were accumulated in subsequent letters of the 
 suicidal jealousy which governed all the proceedings of the 
 Spanish authorities, and led them to withhold, with almost 
 childish perversity, the means of transport, without which 
 their allies were often paralysed. The damning particularity 
 of the evidence thus furnished was rendered all the more 
 convincing by the total abstinence from imputation of motives, 
 or indulgence in expletives of indignation. As he read de- 
 spatch after despatch, full of dignified complaint of ill-usage, 
 the irritable ambassador could not but marvel at the disci- 
 pline into which the general had brought his epistolary 
 temper, or help feeling how volcanic his own style of com- 
 1 From Merida, 24th August, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 365 
 
 position would have become under such provocation. But 
 he recognised too clearly the nobleness and wisdom of 
 reproachful equanimity in remonstrance not to adopt it 
 substantially in his communications with the members of 
 the Junta. Disclaimers and reassurances on their part were 
 tendered him daily, fresh and fresh, till he grew deaf to their 
 iteration. But in his confidential replies * he thoroughly 
 approved of his brother's resolution to separate his troops 
 from those of Cuesta, and encouraged his refusal to imperil 
 their safety again as auxiliaries in the cause till the Spanish 
 chiefs learned to keep faith and the rank and file to hold their 
 ground. While leaving the door of diplomatic audience ever 
 ajar, and blandly encouraging Ministerial promise to ripen 
 into actual performance, it was necessary that he should 
 inflexibly sustain the stern resolve to treat Portugal as a land 
 capable of being served and saved. No artifice was spared by 
 the alternately boastful and panic-stricken Ministers at Seville 
 to shake his purpose. Spain, he was one day told, had the 
 historic spirit and sublime courage adequate to emancipate 
 herself without foreign help ; and if the sense of self-interest 
 did not prompt Great Britain to share in the struggle, 
 neither could she expect to share in the gains of triumph. 
 Next day, when tidings came of some farther advance or 
 acquisition of the French, the same men were plausible in 
 explaining away their foolhardy talk, and unbounded in their 
 professions of readiness to be advised and guided by the 
 representative of the only Power that could efiectually aid 
 them. It was no secret that prominent politicians at Seville 
 kept up constant communication with leaders of Opposition in 
 Parliament ; and these had, from the outset, denounced the 
 expedition to restore the old monarchies of the Peninsula, 
 and had scoffed at the embassage to a sovereign who was still 
 a prisoner in P>ance. If in six months from his landing the 
 ' 28th, 29tb, and 30tli Auirust 1809. 
 
366 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 general, though ennobled for his success in battle, should 
 publicly abandon a cause for which he was sent forth to fight, 
 either as unworthy or unsustainable, what would be the 
 ridicule and blame heaped upon the enterprise? Greneral 
 words of sanction from Grovemment at home would afford 
 little consolation if discomfiture must be ultimately confessed. 
 But, on the other hand, the statesman and commander, 
 however widely differing in temperament, were completely 
 one in discerning that no course less fraught with immediate 
 peril could lead to eventual safety. The French armies, at 
 the end of August, south of the Pyrenees, were not fewer than 
 125,000 men, while those under Wellesley and Beresford 
 combined were not a fourth of that number. Honour, 
 humanity, and prudence concurred in forbidding any step 
 which could put in jeopardy this small but heroic force. The 
 Portuguese, who had been true to duty, had a paramount 
 claim to all the aid we could afford ; and the best, if not the 
 real hope of redemption for the Spaniards was to teach 
 them, at the point of reverse bayonets, that ' bondsmen who 
 would be free, themselves must strike the blow,' and that 
 stedfast loyalty to allies is far more to the purpose than 
 rhetorical vows of gratitude in time to come. 
 
 Soon afterwards the Greneral, growing hungrier and 
 angrier as well he might, every hour, wrote to his most 
 noble kinsman point blank as became him. ' I have the 
 honour to enclose an answer which I have received from 
 Greneral Cuesta to the letter which I addressed to him on 
 the 11th instant, with my reply. The plan which he pro- 
 poses, of dividing between the two armies, in proportion to 
 their numbers, all the provisions received at Truxillo, how- 
 ever specious in appearance, would be fallacious in practice, 
 and would probably starve the British army. It would not 
 be difficult to forbid the convoys of provisions coming from 
 Seville from going to Truxillo ; and it is probable that the 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE, 367 
 
 supplies of provisions from Seville do Dot amount to one- 
 fourth of the consumption of both armies, the remainder 
 being supplied by the country, in which, of course, the 
 Spanish army has the preference. An arrangement of this 
 description is impracticable of execution, even if the com- 
 missaries of the two armies would act fairly by each other ; 
 but this is not to be expected ; every commissary will do 
 the best he can for the troops to which he is attached ; and 
 many articles must be procured in the country which will 
 not be brought to account in the magazine of Truxillo. In 
 short, my lord, it comes to this, either the British army 
 must be fed with the necessaries which it requires, or I will 
 march it back into Portugal, whether that kingdom is invaded 
 or not by the French corps, which have moved within these 
 few days towards Placentia. I beg to mention to your 
 Excellency that the troops have received this day and yes- 
 terday only half an allowance of bread ; and the cavalry have 
 no forage, except what they can pick up in the fields. The 
 troops suffer considerably for want of salt, and neither officers 
 or soldiers have had any wine for the last fortnight. In 
 case I should move, I must leave behind me two-thirds of 
 the small quantity of ammunition I have got, having been 
 obliged to give all the Portuguese carts (which had carried 
 the ammunition hitherto) to move the wounded, and not 
 having been able to procure means of transport for anything 
 in this country. Surely, my lord, the Junta have had 
 time since the 19th of last month to supply the wants 
 of the army, with which they were then made acquainted.' 
 His enclosed rejoinder to Cuesta was equally downright. 
 ' When the British army entered Spain, I had reason to 
 expect, and I expected, that a great effort would be made to 
 afford us subsistence, at least for payment, and those means 
 of transport, and other aids, without which, your Excellencv 
 is well aware, no army can keep the field. Your Excellency 
 
368 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 also knows how these expectations have been fulfilled. Since 
 I joined your army the troops have not received, upon an 
 average, half a ration, and on some days nothing at all ; and 
 the cavalry no forage or grain, excepting what they could 
 pick up in the fields, of an unwholesome description, by the 
 use of which hundreds of horses have died.' 
 
 Consternation seized the Junta when the resolution of 
 Sir Arthur was blandly and regretfully conveyed to them by 
 the serene envoy. ' The greatest alarm was excited by the 
 proposed return of the British army into Portugal. The 
 Government appeared, he said, not only to contemplate the 
 probability of that event with terror and despair, but to 
 consider it as the symptom of a disposition to abandon the 
 cause and to relinquish the obligations of the alliance.' De 
 Garay, and a deputation from the Junta, urged the ambassador 
 in the most pressing manner to use his influence for detaining 
 the army in Spain, and for averting the destructive conse- 
 quences which must ensue if the French arms should be turned 
 into Andalusia. But though deeply sensible of the urgency 
 of the crisis, he could not attempt any other mode of averting 
 the calamity than the active employment of the Spanish 
 troops in the northern provinces, and the establishment of 
 such regulations as might render the subsistence of our army 
 in future practicable and secure.^ In simple Saxon he meant 
 to make the rhetoricians and jobbers at Seville see that it 
 would not do ; and that if we were to fight for Spain, Spain 
 must share with us cattle and corn. Had he infirmly 
 yielded to their entreaties, disunion between himself and the 
 general would have inevitably ensued, and ruin might have 
 been the consequence. He had been but four days among 
 them, and a rupture so soon was not agreeable to contemplate. 
 But insight into character — that quality which cannot be 
 described or analysed, imparted or taught — enabled him to 
 
 » To ilr. Canning, 15tli August, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 369 
 
 measure correctly those with whom he had to deal. While 
 anxious and agitated at heart he listened patiently, smiled 
 imperturbably, and gave them unrelenting refusals wrapt 
 in platitudes the most polite ; but he frightened them into 
 giving some carts and mules, and a good deal of beef and 
 biscuit, and things went better afterwards. 
 
 But administrative capability does not grow like a gourd 
 overnight. On August 21 , another despatch from Jaraicejo, 
 announced the general's determination to endure no more, 
 and forthwith to cross the frontier. ' I can remain in Spain 
 no longer ; and I request you to give notice to the Govern- 
 ment that I am about to withdraw into Portugal. I have no 
 doubt that they have given orders that we should be provided 
 as we ought to be ; but orders, I have to observe, are not 
 sufficient. In order to carry on the contest with France to 
 any good purpose, the labour and services of every man and 
 beast in the country should be employed- in the support of 
 the armies ; and these should be so classed and arranged as 
 not only to secure obedience to the orders of the Govern- 
 ment, but regularity and efficiency in the performance of the 
 services required of them. Fifty thousand men are here 
 collected upon a spot which cannot afford subsistence for 
 10,000 ; and there are no means of sending to a distance to 
 make good the deficiency. I hope your Excellency and the 
 Government will believe that I have not determined to go 
 till it has become absolutely necessary. I assure you that 
 there is not a general officer of this army who is not con- 
 vinced of the necessity of my immediate departure.' 
 
 Anticipating the crisis which had now arrived, the 
 ambassador had carefully prepared materials for a plan, with 
 elaborate calculations supporting its details, by which the 
 dreaded event might at the last moment be averted. This 
 he now submitted to the Junta, undertaking, if it were at 
 once adopted, to endeavour to dissuade his brother from his 
 
 B B 
 
870 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 purpose. The members, in an agony of fear lest their frail 
 authority should go to pieces on the disclosure that they had 
 been talking, and not governing, besought the Marquess to 
 believe that they had done all he wanted, and that they 
 would do anything he asked. On the 22nd he wrote, in 
 accordance with their entreaty, for further delay, until they 
 could decide whether his scheme of auxiliary commissariat 
 could be- realised. ' I am fully sensible, not only of the 
 indelicacy, but of the inutility, of attempting to offer to you 
 any opinion of mine in a situation where your own judgment 
 must be your best guide, and where no useful suggestions 
 could arise in my mind which must not already have been 
 anticipated by your own experience, comprehensive know- 
 ledge, and ardent zeal for the public welfare. Viewing, 
 however, so nearly the painful consequences of your im- 
 mediate retreat into Portugal, I have deemed it to be my 
 duty to submit to your consideration the possibility of 
 adopting an intermediate plan, which might combine some 
 of the advantages of your return into Portugal, without 
 occasioning alarm in Spain, and without endangering the 
 foundations of the alliance between this country and Great 
 Britain.' On the 20th, however, the army had begun to 
 fall back ; and its commander, on the 22nd, described the 
 plight to which matters had come — ' Having no provisions, 
 no stores, no means of transport, being overloaded with sick, 
 the horses of the cavalry being scarcely able to march, or 
 those of the artillery to draw the guns ; and the officers and 
 soldiers being worn down by want of food and provisions of 
 every description. Nobody feels more disappointed and 
 hurt than I do, that so little attention has been paid to the 
 demands which I have frequently made ; and whatever may 
 be the consequence of the steps which I have been compelled 
 to take, I am in no manner responsible for them.' By slow 
 marches he drew sufficiently near the frontier to obtain relief 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 371 
 
 from the Portuguese magazines. At last, on the 28th, nine 
 cart-loads of biscuit reached them at Merida. He had 
 also some tardy supplies of linen ; but those who brought 
 them ran away with the mules, and he was therefore forced 
 to leave them behind.' To the Grovernment at home he 
 was compelled to confess that, after ten days spent in 
 protestations, the Provisional Government, through^ their 
 dilatory and inefficient management, had destroyed the 
 foundation of his plan for enabling the British army to 
 continue in Spain at any distance from the frontier of 
 Portugal.^ 
 
 In England the news of Talavera revived the national 
 feeling, and the King readily acceded to the desire of 
 Ministers that a peerage should be conferred on the suc- 
 cessful general. A despatch from Canning conveyed to the 
 Marquess the gratifying intelligence, but the newly-created 
 Viscount would not, as he said, ' take up his title until the 
 " Grazette " should arrive.' This did not come until the 26th of 
 September. 
 
 Hitherto their political tendencies had manifested no 
 divergence, and the younger habitually deferred to the elder 
 brother in the conduct of public affairs. But the sense of 
 power and responsibility matured in him opinions of his own, 
 which by degrees assumed very different form and character. 
 The earliest manifestations of dissent worthy of note appeared 
 about this time. An essential part of the policy the 
 ambassador urged upon the Spaniards was the summoning 
 of a Cortes, according to national usage, who might he 
 thought be trusted more safely than any ephemeral body 
 like the Junta, with the supreme control of affairs. Without 
 such authority he saw it was impossible to raise taxes, pay 
 troops, exact responsibility from Ministers, or deal authori- 
 
 ' Despatch, 31st August, 18()i). 
 * To Canning, 2nd September, 1809. 
 B B 2 
 
372 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 tatively with foreign Powers. The members of the Pro- 
 visional Executive affected to acquiesce, but in reality strove 
 to baffle a design which could hardly increase their impor- 
 tance, and which might lead to their supersession. It had, 
 however, been agreed upon by the English Cabinet as an 
 object of the utmost moment, forming part as it did of a 
 comprehensive attempt to call into activity constitutionalism 
 in the west of Europe against the military imperialism of 
 Napoleon. It was, in short, an efifort to put insurgent Spain 
 in line with the representative States of Christendom, 
 and so to encourage each and all of them in l&delity to a 
 common cause. Somewhat to the surprise of his Excellency 
 he received from the quarter whence perhaps he least 
 anticipated it, strong expressions of misgiving as to the 
 expediency of the measure. The general was very uneasy at 
 the recommendation of the assembling of the Cortes ; not that 
 he doubted the satisfaction it would give in England, but 
 that he feared it would be worse than anything they had 
 had yet. He acknowledged that he had a great dislike to a 
 new popular assembly. Even our own ancient one would be 
 quite unmanageable, and in these days would ruin us, if the 
 present generation had not before its eyes the example of the 
 French revolution ; and if there were not certain rules and 
 orders for its guidance and government, the knowledge and 
 use of which render it safe and successfully direct its proceed- 
 ings. But how would all this work in the Cortes, in the 
 state in which Spain was then ? He declared, if he were in 
 Buonaparte's situation, he would leave the English and the 
 Cortes to settle Spain in the best manner they could ; and 
 he entertained very little doubt that in a short time Spain 
 must fall into the hands of France.^ 
 
 Canning's instructions were to stimulate by every means 
 the Junta to a vigorous and diligent prosecution of the war, 
 » Frum Badajos, 22nd September, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. n73 
 
 and while abstaining from all display of a wish to dictate in 
 domestic affairs, to encourage the hopes of a more constitu- 
 tional system of government under the monarchy, whenever 
 it should be restored. To the Cortes, duly convened, belonged 
 alone the right to legislate for the kingdom. But if the 
 Junta were wise, they would earn public confidence by 
 maturing beforehand projects of liberal laws, instead of 
 ' throwing such topics loose before that assembly without any 
 settled plan by which their deliberations might be guided.' ^ 
 Lord Wellesley was warned at the same time against holding 
 out exaggerated hopes of military aid from England, while 
 enterprises requiring great exertions on our part had to be 
 made elsewhere. 
 
 He had now been six weeks at Seville, and was able to 
 appreciate fully the condition of things, both civil and mili- 
 tary, around him. All tended to disheartenment and distrust : 
 Cuesta had been replaced by Equia at the head of the Spanish 
 army in Estramadura, only to withdraw it farther from the 
 scene of conflict. The French exulted loudly : the ' Moniteur ' 
 asking why as Wellington on the eve of his retreat was created 
 a Viscount, Chatham was not created Duke of Walcheren ; and 
 Napoleon, writing to the Czar, scoffed at the fatuity which 
 had thrown away five-and- twenty thousand men in the 
 marshes of Holland without firing a shot, and impelled the 
 small British force in the Peninsula to hazard an advance 
 which they were unable to maintain. The Opposition journals 
 at home triumphed in fulfilment of their prognostics, and 
 called for desistance from further intermeddling in Spanish 
 affairs, and the penitent recall of the army. 
 
 It is remarkable that, amid the prevailing gloom, the 
 
 two men who seemed to have been the least disposed to give 
 
 up the game as lost were the diplomatist and the general, 
 
 whose personal feelings had been most severely tried by the 
 
 ■ 27th June, 1809 
 
374 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 vanity and un veracity that marred their best endeavours ; 
 and whose firmness in resisting reckless importunity had con- 
 tributed more especially to the laying bare of the position. 
 And now, with all his love of the magnanimous, the British 
 envoy saw that the time had come for being very plain with 
 the Junta and their Ministers. He formally declared to M. De 
 Garay 'that the condition of the Spanish forces, the failure 
 of concert and co-operation, and the mismanagement of the 
 whole system of the military department, opposed insurmount- 
 able obstacles to the ultimate success of the English army. 
 Even if the system of supplies could have been corrected, 
 the defects of the Spanish army alone would have formed an 
 irresistible motive for withholding any expectation of future 
 co-operation while the same evils should be left unremedied, 
 and should menace the recurrence of the same misfortunes on 
 every similar occasion.' 
 
 The details of military disaffection, as vainglorious ex- 
 citement waned, and revolutionary authority loosed its hold, 
 is vividly described in a letter to Canning. 
 
 ' Many officers, even in the highest command, were noto- 
 riously disaffected to the cause. In reviewing the events 
 of the campaign it was impossible to imagine any rational 
 motive for the conduct of some of the generals and officers, 
 unless their inclinations were favourable to the enemy, and 
 that they concerted their operations with the French, instead 
 of the British general. Whether the Government, so ill- 
 informed, be deficient in sincerity to the cause of Spain 
 and the allies, is <jertainly questionable. Whatever jealousy 
 existed against the British Government or the allies was 
 principally to be found in this body, its officers or adherents ; 
 in the people no such unworthy sentiment could be traced ; 
 but it was evident that the Junta did not possess any spirit of 
 energy or activity, any degree of authority or strength ; that 
 it was unsupported by popular attachment or good will; while 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE, 375 
 
 its strange and anomalous constitution united the contra- 
 dictory inconveniences of every known form of government, 
 without possessing the advantages of any. This was the true 
 cause, at least, of the continuance of that state of weakness, 
 confusion, and disorder of which the British army had recently 
 experienced the consequences in the internal administration 
 of Spain, and especially of her military affairs.' He strongly 
 recommended that a council of Kegency consisting of five 
 members, should be named, to exercise the powers of the 
 Executive until the Cortes met, which ought to be with the 
 least possible delay; and that the Junta should superintend 
 the elections, and prepare the subjects of deliberation ; that, 
 besides the redress of domestic abuses, the grievances of the 
 Colonies should be remedied, and a share given them in the 
 representation of the empire. But though deeply conscious 
 of many drawbacks and defects, he should not fail to employ 
 every effort in his power to maintain the temper of the 
 alliance, and to cultivate a good intelligence with the exist- 
 ing Ministers, as far as was compatible with the interests and 
 honour of his own country. His persistent fortitude was not 
 shared by Canning, whose susceptibility to ridicule, and im- 
 patience of what he termed the incapacity of his colleagues, 
 led him to remonstrate seriously with the Duke of Portland 
 against retaining Castlereagh at the head of the War De- 
 partment. The Premier, through timidity and a wish to 
 temporise, entertained the suggestion for a considerable 
 time, without any intimation to him or any one but Lord 
 Camden, that his supersession was contemplated, and on 
 its avowal the official world was scandalised by the report 
 of a deadly encounter on Putney Heath.^ Mr. Canning 
 was wounded, and both combatants resigned. Mr. Perceval 
 was authorised to propose a coalition to the Whigs; but 
 both Grenville and Grey declined to negotiate on any 
 ' 21st September, 1809. 
 
376 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 common basis ; Lord Palmerston was named to hold the 
 seals as Iocutti tenens of the War Department, and Lord 
 Bathurst those of Foreign Affairs while they were offered for 
 acceptance to Lord Wellesley. Mr. Sydenham, whom he had 
 long confidentially employed, undertook to be the bearer of 
 the important proposal, and of his answer ; while a duplicate 
 was sent by another route. A few hours before the packet 
 was to sail, Perceval learned from the King that on taking 
 leave. Canning, for the first time, had disclosed the fact that 
 on setting out for Spain, his friend had left with him a letter, 
 desiring his recall if he should for any ckuse quit the Foreign 
 Office. His last official act had consequently been to bid the 
 Marquess leave his post, and devolve his powers on Mr. 
 Hookham Frere, who lingered still in the orange groves of 
 Seville. Wellesley Pole, who was Secretary of the Admiralty, 
 had orders to stay the departure of the vessel till Bathurst 
 and other members of the Government had time to explain all 
 the circumstances of the case. If he would not return to 
 join the Cabinet, all urged him to retain a position which the 
 extreme exigency of the time required. A friend known to 
 be in his especial confidence told Lord Auckland^ that, 
 notwithstanding the singular engagement entered into with 
 Canning not to hold office without him, he felt sure he would 
 accept. It had been he said obtained from him by manage- 
 ment, and had occasioned him no inconsiderable misgiving 
 and regret ere quitting England. Canning probably felt 
 embarrassed at enforcing the obligation in a condition of 
 things so wholly unforeseen, and enclosed the original letter, 
 with leave if he would to disregard it. The Prince of 
 Wales, who was already showing his willingness to give up 
 his exclusive reliance on the comrades of Fox, wrote himself, 
 pressmg fervently his adhesion to the Government ; and after 
 some days' delay the newly-made Commissioner of Excise 
 
 . 1 6th October, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE, 377 
 
 embarked at Plymouth on his special mission. The weather 
 was untoward, and it took him nearly three weeks to reach 
 his destination. 
 
 Wellesley Pole, who possessed his brother's confidence, 
 acquainted him with all that had occurred. The prevalent 
 feeling of the astute unwisdom of Canning's conduct 
 was not likely to be abated by his last official act, which 
 seemed to be a desperate attempt, when beaten, to strike 
 an indispensable piece off the board in order to baulk 
 his rival's play. The self-asserting spirit of Wellesley would 
 not tamely submit to be thus used. He thought he had been 
 wrong in having ever made his individual action dependent 
 on the personal ambition of another man, however pre- 
 eminent in the House of Commons he might be. He could not 
 but feel that the show of generosity in letting him break 
 his incautious pledge to retire with his sapping and mining 
 friend, after it was laid before the King, and thereby 
 made known to Ministers, was of but little value, and that, 
 if meant seriously, it amounted rather to a challenge to 
 break off relations of confidence than an appeal to continuing 
 in official friendship. Canning had been left to deal with 
 the difficulties of Court and Cabinet how he thought best, and 
 he had dealt with them so undeftly that he had driven himself, 
 as well as Castlereagh, out of office, and thereby rendered 
 the Marquess, in a degree he had never intended, far less 
 desired, Vhomme inevitable. Yet at this very moment 
 he plainly sought to render impracticable the reconstruction 
 of the Administration of which till yesterday he had formed 
 a part. 
 
 On learning how he had acted towards Castlereagh, 
 Wellesley wrote, October 7, in terms of mingled vexation and 
 reproach, sardonically as Belial might have done had that 
 distinguished person ever condescended to take office and 
 expose himself to retaliation from the keenest wit of the 
 
378 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 time. Their mutual engagement at parting in July had 
 been not to seek separate interests with regard to power ; 
 that in the energetic prosecution of the war against military 
 despotism they would take counsel together ; and if unable 
 to compass the adoption of such a policy, that both would 
 refuse to share official responsibility. Palpably the only 
 alternatives contemplated were a Cabinet of which Canning 
 should be spokesman in the Commons, and Wellesley in 
 the Lords ; or a Cabinet identical in profession, but more 
 vigorous and able. He had never meant to bind himself to 
 break up the only combination possible after Canning and 
 Castlereagh had both withdrawn, and thereby to justify 
 the public scoff of Napoleon, with whom the Opposition, 
 if they came in, were willing to come to terms of peace, 
 abandoning Spain as incapable of help or rescue. This would 
 indeed be utter self-stultification. He had not gone on a sham 
 embassy ; he had not staked character, and advised his brother 
 to hazard reputation, for a worthless cause. In spite of 
 reverses and dissension, it was still the cause of European 
 liberty in his view, as he had believed it to be in that of his 
 wayward and exacting friend, whose half suicide only made 
 him more resolved to take office until the season should 
 return when they might again hold it together. As for his 
 improvident pledge to throw up his embassage, if construed 
 literally, he had kept it au pied de la lettre, for he was 
 coming home ; if interpreted in spirit, it beckoned him the 
 way to Downing Street. Without waiting for his letter. Can- 
 ning ill-ad visedly suggested, in a subsequent one, the ridi- 
 cule he imagined would attach to an acceptance of Perceval's 
 offer, if their recent engagement were generally made known. 
 At this the wrath of the fearless little man boiled over in 
 a stream of scalding sarcasm, not easily to be forgotten or 
 forgiven. His letter bore date October 30, and, being sent 
 in copy to Wellesley Pole, was shown to intimate friends in 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE, 379 
 
 London. He addressed to Mr. Perceval the following 
 reply : — 
 
 ' The papers which Mr. Sydenham has fully explained to 
 me, by reference to every circumstance of the late extra- 
 ordinary events in England, combined with such information 
 as had already reached me, leave no doubt in my mind in 
 regard to the principles both of public and private duty 
 which should govern my conduct in the present crisis, and in 
 the actual situation of his Majesty's service. I therefore 
 accept without hesitation the office of Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs ; and T shall return to England with all 
 practicable expedition, for the purpose of discharging the 
 duties of that important station with the zeal and attention 
 which his Majesty may justly claim from a person so deeply 
 indebted to his Majesty's gracious favour, and which he may 
 expect from the whole tenor of my public life and services. ' ^ 
 
 Private letters had acquainted Wellington at Lisbon with 
 what was taking place, and he hastened his return to Badajoz, 
 in the hope that, posting hard, he might reach his brother ere 
 he left. It was not an occasion to be missed. Both longed 
 for a full interchange of views and feelings, retrospects and 
 felicitations. How much had happened of intense interest 
 to each since they parted in England scarce six months before ! 
 The Grrand Lodge of Administrative Masonry, at whose 
 door the orator and statesman had so long waited in vain, at 
 length opened to him : nay, they had sent across the sea to 
 compel him to come in ; and the aide-de-camp of Lord Buck- 
 ingham of twenty years before ^ was now a victor in European 
 as in Asian fight, the object of thanks by both Houses of 
 Parliament and the toast at the ceremonious board ^ of ' his 
 
 ' Seville, 28th October. 1809. Walpale's Life of Perc&val, vol. ii. 
 p 41. 
 
 « See letter from Wellington to Lord Buckingham from Badajos, 16th 
 November, 1809. 
 
 » 2nd November, J 809. 
 
380 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 Excellency,' as ' My Lord Viscount Wellington.' Three days 
 were spent at Seville by the General amid preparations for 
 departure, gazing at fine pictures and into black eyes, and 
 bidding members of the Junta not to lose heart, and clearing 
 up arrears of false reports and misunderstandings, and com- 
 paring paragraphs of English and French journals in quest 
 of a flicker of light through the all-surrounding darkness : 
 and then to Cadiz for as brief a span. 
 
 The recalled ambassador left Spain on November 10, 
 amid every demonstration of respect from the people, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Forbes, Colonel Armstrong, and the Hon. 
 Mr. Clive. The same frigate that had brought him out 
 bore him home again. Though a fine vessel, it was the 
 sixteenth day ere she reached the Needles. He landed at 
 Portsmouth on Sunday, November 26, and on the 28th 
 found himself at Apsley House. 
 
 The friends and organs of Administration took courage 
 when all remaining doubt as to the course he would pursue 
 had disappeared. His joining, they believed, would give 
 strength to the Government, but whether enough to carry 
 them through remained to be seen.^ Grenville thought he 
 might have anything he asked for, — the Garter, and even the 
 Treasury. 
 
 At a council on December 6 he kissed hands as Secretary 
 of State, and in a private audience was received by George III. 
 very cordially, as being the only one left of the old friends 
 he had had so long about him. 
 
 As a delicate attention his presumed wishes were antici- 
 pated by the nomination of his eldest son Eichard for 
 Queenborough on the Med way ; where dockyard labourers 
 were not allowed to vote or ask questions. One thing, 
 long desired and long withheld, would have gratified him 
 beyond all else — the advancement in the peerage which he 
 
 ' Rose's Diary. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 381 
 
 was mortified at not having received ten years before from 
 Pitt ; which neither Addington nor Grienville, though well- 
 disposed personally, had been able to obtain for him ; but 
 which it was hardly possible for Perceval to propose to the 
 King. The Minister had in fact set his face against new peer- 
 ages : he thought, as many others did, that they had of late 
 been injudiciously multiplied ; but the facility with which 
 they had been conceded had naturally encouraged hopes and 
 demands in so many quarters that it became easier to lay 
 down a general rule of refusal than to attempt to discrimi- 
 nate between nicely balanced claims. An English Marquess- 
 ate was not to be had ; but there was a vacant Grarter ; 
 and might not that sufficiently mark the high degree in 
 which the new Secretary of State was appreciated by the 
 Crown ? It had been indeed already promised to the Duke of 
 Eichmond, then Viceroy of Ireland. The new Premier told 
 the King that, previous to the arrival of Lord Wellesley, he 
 deemed it advisable, in order to avoid every possible mis- 
 understanding, to prevail upon Lord Bathurst to represent 
 to his Grace ' the urgent state of the case with regard to the 
 late Duke of Portland's Kibbon. in connection with the 
 application which the Duke of Rutland had made to his 
 Majesty on behalf of Lord Wellesley, and of his anxiety 
 upon the subject.' After Bathurst had opened the subject 
 to his Excellency, Mr. Perceval wrote to him himself, but 
 stating that he thought it better to take no step with 
 regard to it until the ambassador came home ; and his Grace 
 of Richmond had, in the most handsome manner, desired 
 Mr. Perceval to understand that if it should be found at all 
 desirable for the benefit of the King's service, under the cir- 
 cumstances in which the Government was now placed, that 
 his Majesty should give the Order to Lord Wellesley, he 
 would readily decline urging any pretension to it whatever. 
 Mr. Perceval had found, since his arrival, that he did feel 
 
382 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1809 
 
 extremely anxious upon this subject. He had first introduced 
 the subject through Mr. Arbuthnot, to whom he had ex- 
 pressed his feelings upon it in the strongest manner. The 
 Premier had since seen him, and explained what the Duke of 
 Richmond's wishes were upon the point, adding his own 
 private opinion that he thought the Marquess would judge 
 better for himself if he omitted to press the object at 
 this time : that it would be open to unfavourable interpreta- 
 tion as connected with his accepting his present office ; but 
 if he continued really to wish it, he would certainly submit 
 his desire to his Majesty, with an humble recommendation 
 that it should be complied with. His lordship thought 
 that as it was so well known by Lord Grrenville and others 
 what his pretensions were, to ask this favour ; and as the fact 
 was that he had actually signified his intention to accept 
 office before he knew the Duke of Portland's death had 
 made the vacancy, it would not be possible that his conduct 
 should, among reasonable people, be open to misapprehension. 
 No allusion was made in the correspondence to the Order of 
 St. Patrick, his place in which he would of course resign on 
 obtaining the higher distinction. He expressed his wish very 
 strongly that an early occasion should be found for represent- 
 ing to his Majesty his anxious desire upon the subject ; and 
 the Minister accordingly submitted that it was desirable, 
 under the circumstances, that the King should be graciously 
 pleased to confer the honour upon him.* Greorge III. con- 
 veyed his reluctant assent in the following terms : — 
 
 ' Windsor Castle, December 1, 1809. 
 
 ' Although the King acquiesces in Mr. Perceval's wish that 
 the vacant ^Blue Ribbon should be conferred on Lord Wel- 
 lesley, his Majesty considers that his previous suggestion to 
 
 ^ Draft of letter to the King, in Mr. Perceval's handwriting, 30th 
 November, 1809. 
 
i8o9 SEVILLE. 383 
 
 Lord Wellesley was perfectly well founded, and that it is to 
 be regretted that it did not receive due attention. At the 
 present season of the year it would not be possible to collect 
 a sufficient number of Knights of the Grarter for the cere- 
 mony of investing Lord Wellesley ; nor can the delay be 
 material. 
 
 ' GrEORGE E.' 
 
 Mr. Perceval then wrote : — 
 
 ' I have just received his Majesty's answer to my letter 
 recommending your lordship for the vacant Blue Eibbon. 
 His Majesty adds, that at the present season of the year it 
 would not be possible to collect a sufficient number of Knights 
 of the Garter for the ceremony of investing your lordship ; 
 nor could the delay be material. I am so uninformed upon 
 this subject as not to know what is the necessary number ; 
 but this is easily learnt, and being kept in mind, I should 
 hope the delay will not be long. I circulated some time 
 ago a paper giving the view which, with the aid of Huskis- 
 son, I had taken of our financial situation, and explaining 
 the necessity which appeared to me to arise out of that situa- 
 tion for contracting the expenditure of the country as much 
 as possible. I have directed a copy to be made, and I 
 trust I shall be able to send it to you to-morrow. Permit 
 me to request your very particular attention to it when you 
 receive it. I do not believe the statements to be exaggerated. 
 You will see the necessity of keeping it in view in the con- 
 sideration of our future plans of military operations, to which 
 we must all see the necessity of devoting our best attention 
 without loss of time.' 
 
 The concession to his wishes was acknowledged in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 ' I am most deeply sensible of his Majesty's gracious favour 
 in the intention, which he has been pleased to signify, ot 
 conferring upon me the high honour of the Order of the 
 
384 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 Garter. I request you to assure his Majesty that my zeal 
 for his service required no incitement; and that my grati- 
 tude, for the long course of favours and goodness which I 
 have experienced since I have had the satisfaction to serve 
 him, could not be increased. But the distinction which his 
 Majesty has now been pleased to grant to me is so pecu- 
 liarly calculated to mark to the world his Majesty's approba- 
 tion (after full knowledge) of my endeavours to serve him 
 and my country in many arduous situations, that I can- 
 not receive the notification of the King's pleasure on this 
 occasion without returning a most particular expression 
 of my humble thanks and most cordial satisfaction. With 
 respect to the particular moment of completing the cere- 
 mony necessary for the investiture, I am too sensible of 
 his Majesty's condescension to feel any other inclination 
 than that of awaiting the King's pleasure. I request you to 
 accept my sincere acknowledgments for your kindness on 
 this occasion, and to believe that no more acceptable addition 
 could be made to his Majesty's favour than that it should 
 be communicated through a person so justly entitled to high 
 respect and esteem.' 
 
 The same day he wrote : — 
 
 ' I have returned a separate answer on the subject of 
 the Garter. With regard to the proposed delay, I wish to 
 submit entirely to his Majesty's pleasure. It is however 
 very "desirable that the honour should follow my Spanish 
 embassy as closely as possible. 
 
 ' Instances may be found of publishing the honour in the 
 " Gazette " before (and I believe even without) formal investi- 
 ture : you will find these cases by reference. But I leave the 
 whole of that point to your discretion. 
 
 ' I shall be very happy to receive the statement of our 
 financial situation, which you have prepared. I am fully 
 impressed with the necessity of founding all our plans of 
 
i8c9 SEVILLE. ■ 385 
 
 military operation on the basis of our financial means. I 
 am also desirous of framing the whole system of our plans, 
 of every description, in a regular and connected manner, 
 before we commence any scheme of action ; and I shall be 
 happy, at a very early period of time, to submit to your 
 consideration such ideas as may have occurred to me.' 
 
 The announcement was made in the usual way, but 
 no time for the investiture was fixed, and the delay led to 
 some further correspondence. On December 20 the Premier 
 wrote : — 
 
 ' I mentioned to the King how desirable it was that his 
 Majesty should complete his gracious purpose of conferring 
 the Order of the Garter upon you, and how anxious you were 
 (from finding that the cause of the delay was misapprehended) 
 that the purpose should be completed as soon as was conve- 
 nient to his Majesty. He cordially replied that his rule was 
 not to hold a "chapel" before the spring or the end of 
 March ; but he desired me to say that it should take place 
 on an early day in February. I thought I could not press it 
 further at the time, and I think you will be of the sarr^e 
 opinion when I detail to you more at length than I can well 
 do in my letter the particulars which passed upon the subject. 
 If you come down to your office to-morrow I will explain 
 them to you, or will see you here.' ^ 
 
 The investiture did not take place luitil some weeks 
 later,^ his iMajesty being amused and the Ministry amazed 
 at the fretful impatience shown about the matter. 
 
 In Grenville's candidature for the Chancellorship of Ox- 
 ford his early friend took much interest, sending his private 
 Secretary Vaughan to vote for him. On his success he 
 wrote congratulating him warmly. ' His residence at Seville, 
 
 ' For the above, and many other confidential letters in MS., I am in- 
 debted to the kindness of the Premier's grandson, Mr. Spencer Perceval. 
 « 3rd March, 1810. 
 
 
 
386 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1809 
 
 and holding the tapers for two hours at the high mass per- 
 formed in the cathedral for the repose of Sir John Moore's 
 soul, had much ameliorated his sentiments on the No Popery 
 system.' Grenville's reply was cordial as formerly, and up 
 to this time no trace was observable of a flaw in their old 
 friendship. 
 
 The first copy of the ' Moniteur ' read by the new Foreign 
 Secretary was that which contained Napoleon's address to 
 the Corps Legislatif, recounting the effects of the campaign 
 of Wagram, announcing his resolve to tranquillise the Pen- 
 insula by the overwhelming power of his then imdivided 
 armies, and ending by the memorable threat, — ' When I show 
 myself beyond the Pyrenees, the English leopard will plunge 
 into the ocean to escape from shame and death.' Nor was 
 this said in merely idle boast. Nine corps d'armee, con- 
 sisting of 366,000 men, many of them sharers of his great 
 victories, and led by his best lieutenants, were already muster- 
 ing for the final subjugation of Spain. To Massena, with 
 85,000 veterans, was assig-ned the specific duty of evicting 
 Wellington from Portugal. 
 
 J 
 
387 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 
 1810. 
 
 Never in oui' time was the charge of Foreign affairs so 
 heavy with danger and trouble as at the opening of the 
 new year.^ Napoleon had crushed nearly all his enemies, 
 and stood at the summit of unequalled power. Spain, 
 Italy, Holland, and Westphalia had been in turn subdued, 
 and conferred as kingdom-fiefs of his Empire. Prussia lay 
 gasping from her recent wounds, and Austria was only respited 
 on condition that her daughter should supplant in marriage 
 the faithful and fond Josephine. The Czar, no longer queru- 
 lous, had come to terms ; and the Pope was a pensioner and 
 a prisoner on parole. The Turk professed fidelity to us, and 
 perhaps meant it as far as he dared ; but he had public warn- 
 ing not to provoke the displeasure of him whose dominion 
 stretched from the Tagus to the Saave, and from Hamburg 
 to Palermo. Portugal still held out, and with squadrons 
 in the Tagus and in Cadiz Bay, and succours afforded in 
 sufficient time, it might still be possible to belie the 
 sanguine vaunt that before Easter the Imperial eagle should 
 be set on the towers of Lisbon. But masses of veteran troops 
 were pouring through the Pyrenees to reinforce the rule of 
 King Joseph, and to complete the extirpation of the intru- 
 sive Islanders. Could reinforcements for the out-numbered 
 
 ^ Sir G. C. Lewis, Administrations of Great Britain^ p. 318, 
 c c 2 
 
388 MARQUESS IVELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 host at Badajos, numerous enough and well-enough equipped^ 
 be sent forth in time ? If not, there was no European question 
 of Foreign affairs worth solving or trying to solve. 
 
 So low had the popular spirit sunk on learning the defeat 
 of the Spanish army at Ocana, the advance of the French 
 on Seville, and the retreat of the British to the lines round 
 Lisbon, that petitions influentially signed implored Govern- 
 ment to abandon the struggle ; and nearly all the leaders of 
 Opposition prepared to take the same desponding tone. 
 Thomas Grrenville wrote despondingly to his brother, — ' We 
 are treating with America, which not to do would be madness ; 
 we are reinforcing and defending Portugal, which to do is 
 madness.' ^ Public faith in the one favourite of fortune began 
 to fail ; and Wellington became an object of distrust and dis- 
 paragement. What was he about, and what could he mean ? 
 Was he going to Cintra again ? 
 
 The Common Council of London addressed the King 
 against any reward or dignity being conferred on a man 
 ' who, by his rash advance into Spain ; his useless sacrifice 
 of life at Talavera ; his flight before a beaten enemy, and 
 the abandoning of his wounded,' had deserved ill of hi& 
 country ; and a petition to the same effect was presented to 
 the House of Commons.^ 
 
 Unmoved by the folly of such injustice, the inflexible 
 commander held on his difficult way ; from time to time 
 keeping his younger brother, who became envoy at Cadiz, 
 and his elder brother in England, to whom he still looked up 
 with a deference he did not affect to conceal, informed of all 
 his purposes and perplexities. He sometimes feared that 
 ' Ministers were as much alarmed as the public, or as the Op- 
 position pretended to be ; and they appeared to be of opinion 
 that he was inclined to fight a desperate battle to answer na 
 
 * To Lord Buckingham : Cleveland Square, 10th January, 1810. 
 2 26th January, 1810. 
 
 i 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 389 
 
 purpose, throwing upon him the whole responsibility of bring- 
 ing his army away in safety, after staying in the Peninsula 
 until it might be necessary to evacuate it.' But the newly 
 appointed Foreign Minister did not intend that the army 
 should come away, re Infecta, With due deliberation and 
 dignity he put on record the principles and purposes of 
 his policy ; which being submitted to the King and in 
 Council adopted, ceremoniously but completely committed 
 the Grovernment to an energetic support of the war. Re- 
 sistance was a duty, not for the sake of the house of 
 Bourbon or the liouse of Braganza, but for the sake of the 
 people of England, whose commerce and whose independence 
 were meant to be outflanked by the annexation of the Penin- 
 sula to the Buonapartian empire.^ 
 
 ' The condition of Spain and Portugal has engaged his 
 Majesty's most anxious attention, and I am to signify to you 
 his determination to maintain the cause of his allies in the 
 Peninsula by continuing to supply to them every assistance, 
 ^compatible with the resources and security of his own 
 dominions, as long as the contest shall appear to afford any 
 reasonable prospect of advantage against the common enemy. 
 It is intended to employ in Portugal a force of 30,000 men 
 and an annual sum of 980,000^. This great and generous 
 effort cannot fail to inspire confidence and additional regard 
 in the Portuguese Government and nation. You will offer, and 
 even urge advice, as to rendering available the resources of 
 Portugal, obtaining monthly accounts of the expenditure and 
 the state of the corps receiving British pay ; and generally, 
 of the financial condition of the country. No jealousy or 
 suspicion must be harboured under such a pressure of 
 -common danger. The great sacrifices which we have made 
 for our ally must not be frustrated by any considerations 
 inferior to the main purpose of our mutual security ; nor 
 ' To Mr. Villiers, at Lisbon, 6th January, 1810. MS. in Foreign Offce. 
 
390 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. iSio- 
 
 can we now hesitate to take the lead in any measure 
 evidently necessary to enable Portugal to contribute a just 
 share of efforts and resources for the accomplishment of her 
 own safety. His Majesty has observed with deep regret 
 the circumstances of infirmity and irresolution which you 
 have remarked in the councils and character of the Eegency, 
 though you have never doubted their loyalty and good faith. 
 Experience has proved that the most powerful obstacle to the 
 success of the French armies is the determined resistance of 
 the body of the people. This resistance will be most active 
 in proportion to their affection for the person of their Sove- 
 reign and for the principles of their government. The great 
 difficulty which the French have experienced in Spain has 
 been the general spirit of the Spanish people. The British 
 Government would look with satisfaction on any measures 
 in Portugal calculated to unite the masses of the nation in 
 interests and affection with the Executive power.' 
 
 Parliament met on January 23, and the speech from the 
 Throne, delivered by commission, was the first in whose com- 
 position Wellesley had a share ; and conventional as are the 
 forms adhered to on such occasious, the Koyal message in ques- 
 tion bears the impress of a hand more like that of Pitt than 
 of any that had recently taken part in this peculiar species 
 of political literature. The secession of Austria and Sweden 
 was lamented candidly but without reproach, as the result of 
 necessity ; and our failure in the Scheldt was unfalteringly 
 avowed. A confident hope was expressed that, though the prin- 
 cipal ends of the expedition had not been attained, advantages 
 in the future prosecution of the war would be found to result 
 from the demolition of the docks and arsenals of Flushing. The 
 expulsion of the French from Portugal by the forces under 
 Viscount Wellington, and the glorious victory obtained 
 at Talavera, had contributed to check the progress of the 
 French arms in the Peninsula. King Ferdinand had sum- 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 391 
 
 moned a meeting of the Cortes, which would give fresh 
 animation and vigour to the councils and the arms of Spain, 
 and successfully direct the energies and spirit of the Spanish 
 people to the maintenance of the ancient monarchy and 
 to the ultimate deliverance of the country. 'The most 
 important considerations of policy and of good faith required 
 that, as long as this great cause could be maintained with a 
 prospect of success, it should be supported, according to the 
 nature and circumstances of the contest, by the strenuous 
 and continued assistance of the power and resources of his 
 Majesty's dominions ; and the Kegent relied on the aid of 
 Parliament in his anxious endeavours to frustrate the attempts 
 of France against the independence of Spain and Portugal, 
 and against the happiness and freedom of those loyal and 
 resolute nations.' ^ 
 
 There is no mistaking the tramp of these serried pledges 
 and aspirations. The vanquisher of Tippoo and Scindiah 
 would not have taken office under circumstances so critical 
 with any half-hearted resolution. The falterings and 
 blunders of the past, he stipulated that he must not be 
 expected to defend ; but a new leaf must be turned over, on 
 which all who ran might read the lines of another policy ; 
 and hence the vigorous and almost vaunting tone of the royal 
 speech regarding foreign affairs. Grrenville denounced in 
 scathing terms, the mismanagement which had led to the 
 disasters of Corunna and Walcheren, but carefully avoided 
 all allusion to Wellesley's diplomatic service in Spain, 
 or more recent adhesion to what he termed a wasteful and 
 infatuated Administration. He possibly had some inkling 
 of the actual condition of things in the Cabinet, where grave 
 misgivings prevailed as to the possibility of going on. Grey 
 alluded pointedly to the absence during the debate of the 
 newly appointed Foreign Secretary. Without his aid his 
 * Life of Perceval, by Mr. Spencer Walpole, ii. 65. 
 
392 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 colleagues had a majority indeed of fifty-two, and in the 
 Comnions they were not less fortunate. But within a week 
 they were beaten on several occasions by majorities varying 
 from five to thirteen, and the biographer of Perceval states 
 that ' Lord Wellesley had made up his mind that their task 
 was impracticable, and had concluded that the reins of gov- 
 ernment were on the eve of falling into his own hands. The 
 disappointment which he felt at the contrary result is said 
 to have been the cause of the rupture which ultimately took 
 place between Perceval and him.' No breach however was 
 observable by the outer world in their relations. Wellesley 
 Pole was Secretary for Ireland ; Henry Wellesley JMinister 
 to Spain ; and a pension of two thousand pounds a year for 
 life was voted by two hundred and thirteen to one hundred 
 and six, on the cordial recommendation of the Premier, to 
 the victor of Talavera. 
 
 When thanks were moved to the army in Spain, more 
 than one biting criticism of the strategy of the general was 
 indulged in, in both Houses. The Foreign Secretary warmly 
 defended his gallant kinsman, neither deprecating inquiry, 
 or depreciating the motives of Earl Grrey, whose language 
 was especially severe. ' If his noble adversary had found it 
 painful to his feelings, as he said, to impugn the value of the 
 services rendered by Lord Wellington, how much more pain- 
 ful mus^ be the situation in which he stood, who could not 
 but be open to private feelings, while he also had a public 
 duty to perform, who had to vindicate the character and con- 
 duct of so near and dear a relative as a brother, of an oiBBcer 
 w^hose eminent qualities he had had such frequent oppor- 
 tunities of observing ; qualities w^hich, whatever opinion it 
 might please the noble earl to entertain, were attested by 
 the universal voice of the officers and soldiers of the 
 armies he had commanded, and of the countries in whose 
 defence they had been exerted : of Portugal, w^here he was 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 393 
 
 almost adored, and where he was invested with power little 
 short of royal ; and of Spain, where he was equally beloved 
 by the people and respected by the Govemment.' He pro- 
 ceeded to analyse in detail the circumstances under which 
 the British army crossed the frontier ; the capabilities of the 
 countries through which they had to march ; the strength of 
 the Spanish army under Cuesta, and its failure to execute 
 its part of the concerted movement against Marshal Victor. 
 His close correspondence from Seville (already quoted) 
 enabled him to speak with peculiar accuracy and emphasis of 
 the deplorable lack of supplies furnished by the Junta to our 
 troops after the victory. Although compelled eventually to 
 withdraw within the confines of Portugal, it could not be 
 denied that the safety of that realm, which was the piimary 
 object we had in the campaign, was substantially secured, and 
 that for the season the outnumbering hosts of France were 
 effectually kept at bay. Their progress was thus arrested in 
 the south of Spain, and breathing-time given to an old and 
 faithful ally to organise the means of future defence. ' All 
 these advantages were fairly to be ascribed to the skill, the 
 courage, and the activity which directed the exertions of the 
 English general and his army ; and upon the whole, he did not 
 hesitate to say that his brother was as justly entitled to every 
 distinction which his Sovereign had conferred on him, and to 
 every honour and reward which it was in the power of Par- 
 liament to bestow, as any noble lord who, for personal ser- 
 vices, had obtained the same distinctions, or who sat there by 
 descent from illustrious ancestors.' 
 
 No division took place, and the Minister had the satisfac- 
 tion of transmitting to his brother next day the unanimous 
 thanks of the Peers. Many angry and bitter things had like- 
 wise been said in the Commons about senseless projects, want 
 of strategy, and criminal waste of life and treasure. But 
 Canning, though out of humour and out of place, would not 
 
394 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 lend himself to a course he knew to be at variance with the 
 instincts of the nation ; and sooner than reveal the weakness 
 of dissension, the more vehement section of Opposition de- 
 clined to divide. 
 
 Full reports of the debates in Parliament regarding 
 foreign affairs were carefully reproduced in the ' Moniteur,' 
 and they contributed greatly to mislead the French and other 
 Grovemments as to the real feelings of our people. Napoleon 
 was beguiled into the belief that, because orators out of 
 office scoffed at their rivals as incapable, and denounced 
 their policy as spendthrift and sanguinary, they seriously 
 meant if they came into power, that the country would 
 consent to succumb, or that they themselves would venture 
 to make the suggestion. But the depressing effect through- 
 out the Continent on all the friends of national freedom was 
 for the time as palpable as the encouragement in wrong- 
 doing given to the aggressive schemes of despotism. Eng- 
 land, it was said, was fairly cowed ; weary of unavailing 
 efforts, and anxious for peace at any price. Did not her 
 ablest and most eloquent statesmen say so, and in the most 
 unmeasured terms ? Void, Messieurs ! And month after 
 month the columns of the official organ of Imperialism were 
 filled with the speeches and letters of the anti-war party in 
 England, who were supposed to sympathise with the policy of 
 France. 
 
 Preparatory to the discussion of military affairs, papers 
 relative to the late campaign in the Peninsula were asked 
 for in Parliament ; and the lesser instincts in office prompted 
 some to question how far information in detail should be 
 made public of differences in council with our Allies, and 
 of shortcomings on their part in the field which had led ta 
 disappointment and disaster. It would seen ungenerous, and 
 it might prove imprudent, to mark too plainly the reasons 
 why our sacrifices on their behalf had not been more availing^ 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 395 
 
 Higher and bolder views pointed to the need of taking the 
 nation into confidence, and satisfying them that the lives 
 and treasure they had put in hazard for the rescue of Por- 
 tugal and Spain from alien despotism had not been trifled 
 with or thrown away. To leave it dark, or even doubtful, why 
 it was necessary for the British to fall back after a victory, 
 and why the Spanish army had wholly failed to protect 
 Seville, would be to quench the national hope and wound 
 the national faith irredeemably. If the war was to be carried 
 on to any good purpose, public opinion must be thoroughly 
 satisfied that our statesmen and commanders had not been 
 wanting, and that they might be relied on whoever else was 
 to blame. With the Foreign Secretary there was no wavering 
 about the course to be pursued. ' In every discussion,! he 
 said, ' my judgment has inclined to the most ample and 
 complete disclosure of all the papers which can tend to 
 illustrate the conduct of Grovernment at home, of our 
 Ministers and Generals abroad, and of the Spanish Grovern- 
 ment during the late campaign. The same principle has 
 always been applied by me to questions in Portugal. My 
 opinion has been that the earliest moment should be seized 
 to open to the public every branch of our transactions. In 
 my judgment they have been highly honourable both to our 
 councils and to our arms ; and I am satisfied that the most 
 direct course with respect to granting information would 
 prove the most politic and secure. The moment is arrived 
 in which no possible objection can arise on the ground of 
 delicacy towards the Junta (if any such objection was ever 
 solid), and if we look either to the future exertions of Spain,, 
 or to our own means of aiding her, we must satisfy both Spain 
 and England that our conduct has been right, and that the 
 causes of past misfortunes are not irremediable, because those 
 causes are to be traced to errors and to faults which may 
 be corrected, and which we are resolved to correct by the 
 
396 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 utmost efforts of our influence. If the Spanish and Portuguese 
 papers are to be suppressed, I confess that it appears to me 
 that we shall deprive ourselves of our main advantage in 
 the conflict with the Opposition. They will not be able to 
 withstand the intrinsic and honest strength of our cause, 
 as founded on that information. We shall be subject to 
 -every kind of prejudice, misrepresentation, and calumny if 
 we refuse to produce evidence of what we must assert. But 
 I wish it to be understood that I think we shall derive the 
 greatest benefit from producing them. You will excuse my 
 solicitude in urging most earnestly the step which I recom- 
 mend from a conviction that a contrary course will lead to 
 interminable difficulty and even disgrace.' * 
 
 .The papers were in consequence laid upon the table, with 
 what result will presently be seen. 
 
 From his entering office the Foreign Secretary took 
 every opportunity of having it known that he disclaimed all 
 participation in responsibility for the Walcheren expedition. 
 The inquiry in the Commons occupied February and March ; 
 and at its close the evidence was summed up in resolutions 
 of censure moved by Lord Porchester, which, if carried, 
 must compel the retirement of all who had sanctioned the 
 ill-starred enterprise. 
 
 ' The result will be, they imagine, fatal to the existing 
 Administration, on the point of the retention of Walcheren, 
 with the exception of Lord Wellesley and, perhaps. Lord 
 Harrowby. A new one must therefore be formed. The 
 Wellesleys are satisfied the Marquess will have the King's 
 command to that effect ; and what is more they are equally 
 <jonfident of forming one which shall be equally perma- 
 nent. Of the co-operation of The Doctor they have no 
 doubt. Already is Lord EUenborough's powerful assistance 
 in the House of Lords calculated upon, who however will 
 
 ' To Mr. Perceval ; Apsley House, 12th February, 1810. 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 397 
 
 not be in the Cabinet. Lord Buckinghamshire is an old 
 friend and a most honourable man ; Bathurst very respect- 
 able and useful ; Vansittart an able financier. Lord Eldon 
 is not to be touched, nor Lord Melville to be taken in. 
 Yorke of course will come forward prominently ; nor are 
 the doors absolutely shut, by the course which Parliamentary 
 indignation will take as it is supposed, upon Canning and 
 Castlereagh, as they were both out of office before the 
 retention of Walcheren became culpable. The leanings of 
 Lord Wellesley are all towards Castlereagh. There exists 
 between them the most perfect understanding. The great 
 difficulty would arise in taking both these personages into 
 the same Cabinet after what has passed. Canning only ob- 
 jected to the conduct of the war ; but Castlereagh will not 
 conduct it; and would not for his private resentments 
 break up a plan in which so many of his friends will be 
 mixed, and in which he is treated with so much considera- 
 tion. Ireland will not be disturbed, the Duke of Richmond 
 having the greatest regard for Lord Wellesley. I should not 
 be surprised, if all this go on, should Lord Powis ^ come into 
 the Cabinet without office. You will see in all this that the 
 sacrifice is Perceval, who gets nothing, nor can get anything. 
 If Lord Wellesley does not form the new Administration, 
 The Doctor will. In the latter case I think Lord Wellesley 
 would hold his present office.' ^ 
 
 All these conjectures proved to be illusory. Canning and 
 Castlereagh equally considered themselves bound in honour ta 
 bear their share of blame with their former colleagues, and in 
 debate exerted themselves with such effect that the condem- 
 natory resolution was rejected by a majority of forty-eight. 
 
 The unexpected result was as surprising and mortifying 
 
 • Ex-Governor of Madras. 
 
 2 The writer of these curious conjectures was believed by SirG. C.Lewis 
 to beMr. Dardis, who had the confidence both of Apsley House and Stowe. 
 
398 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 to the Wellesleys as to the public. It was not attributed 
 so much to any peculiar exertion made by the Government 
 as to the course of the debate. Canning particularly dis- 
 tinguished himself, for he had not been tempted in the 
 proposed arrangements to quit the path of generosity and 
 honour. That Wellesley could have seriously contemplated 
 trying to carry on the Grovernment without his aid as leader 
 of the Commons seems strange ; but he probably diplomatised 
 too finely and too long with him and Castlereagh, not 
 intending to throw over either of them, yet not choosing to 
 make his attainment of power conditional on the adhesion of 
 either. The lesson was a severe one, and he lost no time 
 in endeavouring to efface the impression, if it really existed. 
 Not many days after, the political world was surprised at the 
 confident assurance that a complete reconciliation had been 
 effected with Canning. The unfortunate misunderstanding 
 of the previous autumn, it was agreed, should be buried in 
 oblivion, and the two friends were henceforth to act together 
 as they had bound themselves to do twelve months before. 
 Canning who was then in office, had laboured indefatigably 
 to bring Wellesley in. Their relative positions were now 
 changed, and the Marquess declared that he considered 
 Canning's re-admission to the Cabinet indispensable, if he 
 was himself to continue in power. ' This chivalry on his 
 part,' wrote Lord Buckingham's correspondent, 'was very 
 little to the taste of his nearest friends, who as little ap- 
 proved of the proposed sacrifice as of the reconciliation with 
 Canning.' ^ 
 
 On March 30, Grrenville moved for a Secret Committee, 
 to whom the papers relative to the campaign in Spain and 
 Portugal should be referred to select and prepare them for the 
 House. The mischief that must arise from the disclosures 
 made through the strange, unaccountable, and unpardonable 
 ^* 2nd April, 1810. 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 399 
 
 negligence with which the correspondence had been thrown 
 on the table, he was afraid was already done. It was now 
 published to the world, and would he feared prove highly 
 injurious to the interests of the country. It was a sacred 
 <luty with Ministers to take care, in negotiations with friendly 
 States, that the public councils of their Grovernments should 
 not be betrayed, and that no improper reflections should be 
 made public upon the Grovernments themselves ; no disclosure 
 should be made of the quarrels or disunions of the leading 
 persons in such Grovernments, or of those who were confiden- 
 tially employed by them. It was, above all, a most sacred 
 duty to take care that the safety and the lives of persons confi- 
 dentially employed, or through whom information was obtained, 
 should not be lightly compromised or wantonly put to hazard. 
 This rule had heretofore been invariably acted on, until 
 Mim'sters then in office had, on a previous occasion, published 
 papers that ought to have been withheld. He regretted 
 that complaint and protest had not before been made in 
 Parliament, as it might have prevented the repetition of 
 conduct so unworthy and disgraceful. But it was now an 
 imperative duty to complain of Ministers having published 
 documents tending to betray the honour of the country and 
 to endanger the lives of individuals. The papers relating to 
 the Spanish campaign were full of passages most improper to 
 be published. Their whole tenor was to show the wretched 
 weakness of the Supreme Junta, and especially to impugn 
 the character and conduct of the commander of the Spanish 
 armies. A foreign commander had never before been thus 
 brought before Parliament, with whole pages of invective 
 against him. Such shocking injustice had not before stained 
 their proceedings. He knew nothing of General Cuesta, but 
 if he were a man of honour and character he must feel acutely 
 being reviled by Ministers whose attacks would be published 
 even in the country where he was serving. How was he to 
 
400 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 defend himself to the Spaniards against our accusations ? 
 What foreign general could feel safe if the Administration 
 under which this country had the misfoi*tune to groan would 
 put on paper, make official, and circulate such imputa- 
 tions? In one of Mr. Frere's letters it was stated to be 
 a matter of general suspicion that Greneral Cuesta medi- 
 tated some serious plan of vengeance for the affronts 
 experienced on the part of the Central Junta; and that 
 Greneral Venegas did not possess that military reputation or 
 commanding character necessary to counterpoise a man of 
 Cuesta's authority and decided temper. Blake and 
 Albuquerque were said to be the only men fit for com- 
 mand, and neither, through no fault of his own, was at 
 the head of an army in the field. A letter, obviously meant 
 to be confidential, from the Duke was addressed to the Junta, 
 asserting the desire of the whole Spanish army that Venegas, 
 Blake, or himself should be appointed in the room of Cuesta, 
 who was no longer trusted or obeyed. What would be thought 
 of the noble writer of that letter when its contents were 
 divulged at Cadiz, where he and the commander he would 
 have deposed were together in garrison? The putting to 
 death of several hundred French prisoners was, without a word 
 of censure or rebuke, ascribed to another Spanish officer; and 
 no proof was to be found in the papers laid upon the table. 
 Could there be a more outrageous attack upon the Junta 
 than to proclaim that they failed to employ an able general 
 because he was a man of rank and fortune ? In what a situa- 
 tion was the country placed by these indiscreet and criminal 
 disclosures! Would not British Ministers be in future 
 shunned, and all confidence withheld by foreign Governments ? 
 He did not blame Mr. Frere for collecting and communicating 
 information and the opinions entertained regarding in- 
 dividuals. The blame rested altogether with Ministers for 
 publishing such information. He did not think that any man 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 401 
 
 would have the nerve to defend such disclosures. But he was 
 mistaken. The nerveless, because half-occupied, companion 
 of earlier days had been disciplined by heavy responsibility 
 into a political veteran, and Grenville's ungenerous sarcasm, 
 at what he mistook for an incorrigible susceptibility of tem- 
 perament, hissed harmlessly off its object, wrought up to a 
 white heat of scorn. Without hesitation or any symptom of 
 emotion he rose to reply. 
 
 He professed his readiness to accept the general prin- 
 ciple laid down by the noble lord respecting the selection 
 of diplomatic documents for publication. He fully owned 
 that, in answering the demand of either House of Parlia- 
 ment for the production of such documents, a sacred duty 
 was imposed on the Executive power to take care that such 
 publications should not violate the good faith subsisting 
 between Governments, or compromise the personal safety of 
 individuals. Admitting freely the obligation of that duty, it 
 was also requisite to attend to the nature of communications 
 made to Parliament, and to the peculiar circumstances of 
 the case, which in the present instance must be acknowledged 
 to involve matter of great delicacy and difficulty. This was- 
 a case in which Parliament and the nation were entitled to 
 know the truth ; and it was difficult, if not impracticable, 
 to satisfy that great public and natural right, consistently 
 with the overstrained restrictions which the noble lord would 
 attempt to impose on the preparation of the official documents 
 required for the information of the House. Their Lord- 
 ships would not fail to recollect how general and anxious 
 a wish had been expressed throughout the kingdom that 
 every aid should be affijrded to Spain which miglit enable 
 her to assert her national independence, and to restore her 
 ancient monarchy on the basis of the happiness, the pros- 
 perity, and the freedom of the people. It was necessary, 
 therefore, to show how the efforts of this country in that 
 
 D D 
 
402 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 noble cause had been frustrated. Above all, it was necessary 
 to show why the glorious achievements of the British arms 
 in the Peninsula had not been followed by beneficial conse- 
 quences equal to their splendour and to the fair expectations 
 which they had raised both in this country and in Spain. 
 This could not be effected without tracing these failures to 
 their proper cause, and without pointing out the real source 
 of the calamities which have been accumulated on the 
 Peninsula. The real difficulties in the Peninsula were not 
 fully understood in this country. It was essential, therefore, 
 to state unreservedly all the facts and circumstances to which 
 partial failure was to be imputed. It must be the wish 
 of Parliament and the nation at large, as it certainly was 
 his earnest wish, and the wish of all his colleagues, to disclose 
 all these circumstances with the least possible reserve. This, 
 however, could not be effectually done without producing the 
 papers as they appear on their Lordships' table, from which it 
 must be seen that the dissensions, the intrigues, and the cor- 
 ruptions of the Spanish officers, and that the weakness and 
 incapacity of the Spanish Grovernment, had been the real 
 sources and springs, as well as the proximate causes, of all the 
 misfortunes which have recently afflicted the Spanish nation. 
 The noble lord was of opinion, however, that the publication of 
 these documents must prove highly injurious to the character 
 of the Spanish Grovernment; but he appeared to have 
 forgotten that the provisional Grovernment, to whose conduct 
 the papers referred, was actually extinct. The Central Junta 
 was dissolved by its own weakness, and a different form of 
 administration had succeeded. He and his colleagues were 
 desirous to demonstrate the nature, the progress, and the 
 result of these events ; but they could not discharge their 
 duty if they were to be precluded from revealing the real 
 state of a Grovernment which no longer existed, and which had 
 fallen amidst the confusion occasioned by its own defects. 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE, 403 
 
 The noble lord had complained of the publication of Mr. 
 Frere's letter, in which that gentleman stated his opinion of 
 the cliaracter and conduct of Greneral Cuesta. Now he would 
 challenge the noble lord to rise in his place, and to mark a 
 single point in that letter respecting Greneral Cuesta which 
 was not of general notoriety throughout all Spain, which 
 was not in conformity with the opinion of every officer and 
 soldier in the Spanish army, and of every man who really 
 felt and avowed an attachment to the Spanish cause. So 
 thoroughly and universally was the conviction of Greneral 
 Cuesta's incapacity felt, that Mr. Frere, as appeared by the 
 papers, had actually demanded his dismissal from the 
 coDomand of the army, a circumstance which the noble lord 
 had omitted to notice. He (Marquess Wellesley), on his 
 arrival at Seville, did not think it necessary to insist on that 
 demand, being satisfied that Greneral Cuesta could not remain 
 in the command ; and that the influence of general opinion 
 respecting his incapacity, the infirm state of his body, and 
 the decrepitude of his mind, must speedily occasion his re- 
 moval without any interposition of British power. The noble 
 lord seemed to suppose (a supposition, however, in which he 
 was mistaken) that General Cuesta still held a command 
 at Cadiz. General Cuesta had had no command in Spain 
 since his removal, which, to the general satisfaction of the 
 Spanish army and people, took place in the beginning of 
 August. 
 
 The next charge made by the noble lord against His 
 Majesty's Government (a most serious charge if founded on 
 fact) was a violation of honour in publishing a private letter 
 of the Duke of Albuquerque. Now he would assert in front 
 of that noble lord, that there was not a sentiment contained 
 in that letter which was not of perfect notoriety throughout 
 Spain ; that there was not a sentiment in it which that 
 illustrious person had not himself publicly and loudly pro- 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 claimed. So far from complaining of the publication of 
 that letter, the Duke of Albuquerque would heartily rejoice 
 at it ; and confident he was that he should receive the cordial 
 thanks of that spirited officer, of whose personal friendship 
 he boasted, for having thus publicly recorded his real opinions, 
 and his just pretensions, to which, on every occasion he was 
 proud to bear testimony. But the talents and merits of 
 that gallant and illustrious commander stood in need of no 
 testimony from him. Let the safety of Cadiz, let his rapid 
 march for the defence of that last hold of Spanish indepen- 
 dence, attest his zeal, his patriotism, his skill, his fortitude, 
 Ms glory. If Cadiz still was safe, its safety was due to the 
 prompt decision of that gallant and noble mind, whose 
 conduct formed a splendid contrast to that of many others ; 
 who might, therefore, justly condemn examples which he 
 disdained to imitate, and avow his claims to the superior 
 command of the armies of a country whose existence he had 
 saved. Thus far their Lordships would see how groundless 
 were the apprehensions, how superfluous the invectives of 
 which the noble baron was so prodigal in censuring the 
 pretended indiscretion of His Majesty's Ministers. But the 
 further instances adduced by the noble lord in justification 
 of these invectives, would afford a still stronger proof of the 
 injustice of these charges and of the ignorance which dictated 
 them. The noble lord, as an additional proof of the thought- 
 less and unfeeling indiscretion of Ministers, had stated the 
 case of three persons, who, it seemed, would be exposed to the 
 most imminent danger, and to the most rancorous resent- 
 ment of the enemy, by the publication of certain facts in the 
 correspondence laid upon the table. The noble lord had 
 abstained from naming them, but he could assure him 
 that no necessity existed for such egregious caution. 
 Their names were well known both in Spain and France ; 
 both to the Spanish and the French Grovemments. Indeed, 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE, . 405 
 
 he might add> that the publication of their names, when 
 accompanied by the mention of their hardy deeds, was one 
 of the proudest distinctions to which the Spanish patriots 
 aspired. This was the case of the several leaders of partisan 
 corps, whose names had already been published in the 
 Spanish Gazettes for the purpose of honour and fame, as the 
 noble lord would have known if he had been at all ac- 
 quainted with the real state of that distracted country. 
 Another case was that of M. Barrios, who was represented 
 as having, in retaliation for some cruel and unworthy 
 treatment inflicted on the Spanish prisoners by a French 
 general, caused 700 French prisoners to be driven into 
 the Minho. No man viewed such a deed with more 
 horror, or more lamented such outrages against the law of 
 civilised war than he did ; but was this fact first revealed 
 by the papers on the table, and what must their Lordships 
 think of the correctness of the information upon which the 
 noble baron rested his charges against Ministers when they 
 came to hear the true statement of that fact ? "Was not the 
 perpetration of that deed notorious throughout Spain — 
 notorious to the French Government? Did not Barrios 
 himself not only loudly proclaim, but proudly boast of it at 
 Seville? Was it not published in all the Spanish and 
 French Gazettes ? Had not Barrios even been publicly pro- 
 scribed by name by the French Government ? Where, then, 
 was the secret which the publication of these papers had 
 disclosed ? The transaction, however dreadful, was public. 
 M. Barrios had first made a solemn remonstrance against 
 Marshal Ney's proceedings towards the Spanish prisoners, 
 and, failing in that remonstrance, retaliation had been 
 ordered. The noble lord then pathetically deplored the 
 dangers to which the Governor of Avila had been exposed by 
 the publication of these documents. The papers would 
 .convict him of having betrayed to the Spanish General 
 
406 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 Cuesta, letters and despatches from Joseph Buonaparte and 
 General Jourdain, thereby exposing him to the most cruel 
 resentment of the enemy. But what was the fact ? Avila 
 was in the hands of the French ; and the Grovemor of Avila 
 was in the French interest. It was not he who betrayed the 
 letters into the hands of Greneral Cuesta, but they were 
 found upon a Spanish friar, to whom they had been confi- 
 dentially trusted ; what danger, then, could the Grovemor of 
 Avila incur from the production of those papers ? The 
 Grovernor of Avila was still attached to the cause of the 
 invader ; and even while he (Wellesley) was in Spain the 
 whole of these despatches, which had been delivered to 
 Greneral Cuesta, with all the circumstances of the case, were 
 published at Seville. None of the persons, therefore, for 
 whose safety the humanity of the noble lord was so alarmed, 
 had been exposed to any danger by the publication of the 
 papers on the table. He believed moreover that they were 
 then out of the reach of the enemy's power ; what then was 
 the cause which had thus disturbed the noble lord's temper 
 and perverted his judgment? The noble lord could not have 
 read the papers, or he did not understand them. With 
 what confidence then did he come there to charge others 
 with neglect, when he himself was so grossly misinformed, 
 and yet presumed to pass so severe a sentence ? The noble 
 lord had betrayed the utmost ignorance with respect to 
 every point upon which he had touched; and he (Lord 
 Wellesley) was justified in again asserting that the noble 
 lord stood convicted, either of not having read the papers on 
 the table, or, if he had read them, of not understanding 
 them. He trusted, therefore, that their Lordships would 
 spurn the imputation of indiscretion and neglect with which 
 the noble lord had charged His Majesty's Ministers; and that 
 they would reject a motion which would deprive them of 
 that full information respecting the afiairs of Spain which 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE, 407 
 
 alone could guide their future determination with regard to 
 the interests of that country. The papers already on the 
 table, and those yet to be produced, would amply supply that 
 information, and would disclose the truth in full and open 
 day. Their Lordships would then see that the weakness, 
 the dissensions, and the corruption of the Spanish officers 
 and Grovemment were the real sources and springs of many 
 disasters and calamities which had befallen the Spanish 
 nation. That knowledge would furnish the grounds of a 
 better system of policy for Spain, and perhaps for England, 
 the ally of Spain. That was a question, however, which he 
 should have another occasion more fully to discuss. At 
 present he should implore their Lordships not to accede to 
 the motion intercepting the papers by a secret committee. 
 He implored them not to obscure by their own act the lights 
 necessary for a full and clear knowledge of those great and 
 interesting questions. A most material part of the corre- 
 spondence consisted of his own despatches during his late 
 embassy to Spain. These were essential to illustrate the 
 events which had preceded his arrival in that country as well 
 as the probable course of its future fate. He, therefore, 
 implored their Lordships that they would not permit any 
 part of his own despatches to be suppressed ; that they would 
 not permit the noble lord to rob him of the advantage of a 
 fuller manifestation of the conduct which he had pursued 
 during his mission; and that at least the record of his trans- 
 actions in Spain might be presented to their Lordships and 
 the public pure and entire. 
 
 Earl Grey endeavoured to sustain some of the charges 
 made against the Minister ; but the feeling of the House 
 was too manifest to be trifled with, and the motion was 
 rejected without a division. 
 
 Apsley House was filled with felicitations all next day 
 at the triumph of the Secretary of State over his assailants. 
 
408 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 Bathurst and Harrowby were especially warm in sympathetic 
 praise; and the faithful fetch -and-carry for his patron at 
 Stowe, wrote that the result of the debate in the Lords was 
 considered by the Wellesleys as another Talavera. They 
 had been congratulated upon Lord Wellesley's speech, and 
 its effect, in a manner sufficiently flattering to make 
 them vain. The acerbity manifested in the discussion 
 between Grenville and his early friend was a theme of 
 comment and regret ; their old schoolfellow, Moss, the 
 Bishop of Oxford, doing his best to assuage the feelings of 
 bitterness. 
 
 Of (xrenville the correspondent said little to his brother, 
 by whom his unconciliatory manner and arrogance of pre- 
 tension were too well known. Even to Pitt he would not 
 give way in the choice of measures to be pursued in 1804, 
 and he provoked his illustrious kinsman to exclaim, ' I will 
 teach that proud man that I can do without him.' Since 
 then he had himself been Premier, and thenceforth could be 
 induced to think of no secondary place. But few beside 
 wished for him again in that capacity. Erskine in his cups 
 made no secret that he thought him ' the damn'dest fellow 
 in the universe.' * He was not wholly unconscious of his 
 unpopularity, and sometimes owned he felt by temperament 
 unfit for the management of men. A coolness had arisen 
 between him and his old class-fellow, unexplained at the time, 
 yet not difficult to explain. So long as the ex-Governor 
 General lay under the harrow of Paull's threats of impeach- 
 ment, Grenville was kind and considerate enough. But when 
 the cloud had passed away, Wellesley chafed at what he 
 deemed the want of due appreciation of his political value as 
 an ally, and retrospectively grew resentful at never having 
 been asked to join the Cabinet except by Perceval. He 
 would show men the difference, and assert himself without 
 * Grey Bennet's Journal. 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE, 409 
 
 anybody's leave. With Lord Buckingham and his son he 
 continued to live on a friendlier footing ; but no one could 
 talk to Grrenville about the weakness of the Administration, 
 or the need of a change of hands, without perceiving that in 
 his mind there was but one possible First Minister, — the man 
 whom nearly everyone else regarded as intolerable. And 
 lience it came to pass that, throughout the interminable 
 intrigues of 1810, all other combinations were in turn devised 
 and attempted, reverted to and given up as impracticable. 
 Sidmouth had been Premier, like Grenville, and for a much 
 longer time. Personally he had many friends, and he was the 
 favourite of the King. He was willing to waive his claim to 
 priority in favour of Wellesley, but with his old assailant 
 Canning he repeatedly refused to sit in Council; and the 
 merciless wit could not be bound over in sufficient recog- 
 nisances to keep his tongue from molesting the ' Doctor.' 
 Then there was Castlereagh, who did not pretend to the lead, 
 but who had a devoted following in Parliament, without 
 whom he was resolved that no Government should go on. How 
 to reconcile all these rivalries, or even most of them, was a 
 problem, and a perplexing one it proved. Perceval, though 
 resenting the tone taken by the Wellesleys on the Walcheren 
 aifair, professed his readiness to entertain any reasonable 
 project for strengthening the Grovemment. But he could 
 not be expected to put Sidmouth in his shoes, and neither 
 of them was desirous of holding office under him. There 
 was indeed one way of determining these difficulties, to 
 which many would accede : namely, the putting Lord Wel- 
 lesley at the head of the Government, when the hunger for 
 place, competitor ship, and pretensions might, under his 
 banner, all be adjusted and satisfied, and thus a strong, con- 
 sistent, and united Government be formed. On all hands 
 it seemed settled that the Opposition were placed at an 
 immeasurable distance from office by the late unexpected 
 
410 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. iZity 
 
 majority, and that the King's death alone could terminate 
 their exclusion. 
 
 The strange episode of Sir F. Burdett's committal to the 
 Tower, for libel on the House of Commons, diverted public 
 attention for a time from the vote on Walcheren, and the 
 discussion regarding the Papers on Spain. On the evening 
 of April 6, the inmates of Apsley House were alarmed at 
 finding it surrounded by an excited crowd, by whom all the 
 windows facing Piccadilly were speedily broken, in vengeance 
 for the support given by Government to the authority of the 
 Speaker. The houses of Wellesley Pole in Saville Kow, 
 Mr. Yorke in Hill Street, and Lord Westmoreland in 
 Grosvenor Square shared the same fate. But the especial 
 enmity of the mob was directed to the official residence of 
 Mr. Perceval in Downing Street, and the mansion in St.. 
 James's Square of Lord Castlereagh, who, though no longer 
 in office, held the first place in popular aversion. His servants 
 at first persuaded those who would have broken in that he 
 was no longer there, and to appease their incredulity ad- 
 mitted that he had escaped by the roof, and that Lady 
 Castlereagh, then an invalid, would sufier much from their 
 violent intrusion. The appearance of a party of the Cold- 
 streams interrupted the parley, and the young officer, whose 
 commission dated but a few days before, believed he had 
 come in time to prevent mischief, and amused himself with 
 listening to coarse banter interspersed with angry threats 
 as he paced up and down. To his surprise a voice over his 
 shoulder muttered through the folds of a huge muffler, in 
 which his face was nearly hidden, ' Pray let me pass ; I 
 must get in.' The astonished ensign refused peremptorily ta 
 allow the door to be opened, expostulating on the madness 
 of the risk. ' But my wife is in the house ; she has not 
 been able to follow me ; and you must let me pass.' It was 
 Castlereagh, who not without difficulty could be induced to 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 411 
 
 desist and withdraw from the scene before he could be 
 recognised. At midnight the populace dispersed, and no 
 act of violence occurred.^ 
 
 From Hyde Park Corner to St. James's Street was occupied 
 for the next two days, and throughout the night, by crowds, 
 who compelled every passenger they recognised to pay homage 
 to the member for Westminster. The Serjeant-at-Arms was 
 suffered to come and go more than once without the 
 honourable baronet, who denied the validity of the Speaker's 
 warrant, and said he would obey the King's writ alone ; and 
 he took his morning ride as usual, to the intense delight 
 of his worshippers. The Cabinet assembled to consider what 
 was to be done, and in their reluctance to resort to force, 
 prolonged the state of insecurity until the morning of the 
 9th, when all the approaches to Stratton Street being filled 
 with troops, the house of Sir Francis was broken open, and 
 he was removed to the Tower. At the moment of his entering 
 the carriage, his hand was grasped by the defaulting possessor of 
 Dangan — Eoger O'Connor, who, true to himself, was ready for 
 any turmoil. The Serjeant-at-Arms refused to allow him to 
 enter the carriage, but Sir Francis said to him gaily, ' They 
 can't prevent you from following.' He did so ; and Lord 
 Moira, as Lieutenant of the Tower, having provided such 
 comfort as was possible for his uncoveted charge, O'Connor 
 helped, as he was peculiarly qualified to do, to make the first 
 evening of State-prison ership pass convivially. 
 
 As the effervescence caused by the arrest subsided, 
 Ministerial rumours and intrigues recovered their floating 
 power, and fresh designs were said to be afoot for putting the 
 Foreign Secretary at the head of affairs. But the Walcheren 
 vote deterred waverers from embarking in a cause which had 
 about it little promise of immediate success. Mutual distrust 
 
 ' The officer was Mr. Cowell, who late in life took the name of Stepney^ 
 and sat for Carmarthen in a recent Parliament. 
 
412 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 and bitterness thenceforth prevailed indeed between official 
 colleagues, sooner or later certain to cause disruption. But 
 had it been asked, Where would the ostensible cause of sepa- 
 ration be found ? the answer would hardly have been clear. 
 Before the result of the late inquiry, and pending it, it was laid 
 down as a principle by Lord Wellesley, and in the then state of 
 things, acceded to by the other members of the Grovemment, 
 that they were too weak to go on, and that they must 
 strengthen their hands by every possible means and in every 
 event. Hence arose negotiations with Sidmouth, Castle- 
 reagh, and Canning, very little, it must be presumed, to the 
 taste of Mr. Perceval, who accordingly when the very unex- 
 pected result took place, quickly found out and maintained 
 his opinion that, with the addition of Mr. Yorke, the Govern- 
 ment was quite strong enough ; and in any case would not 
 treat with the Doctor after the vote he gave on the Walcheren 
 business. On the other hand. Lord Wellesley did not think 
 it strong enough, constituted as it then was, even with Mr. 
 Yorke (or, in other words, that no Administration that could 
 be found would be so of which he was not the head), and he 
 intended to make it weaker by resignation at the end of the 
 session. Should this take place, they would see a triple 
 alliance between Lords Wellesley and Sidmouth, and Canning, 
 to which, if they could, they would add Castlereagh ; but the 
 temptation to take the latter in would be too gre-at not to 
 induce Perceval to make him offers which he would prefer to 
 anything the malcontents could afford him. Besides that, 
 he always preferred possession to speculation. Once more 
 the confederacy was organising. The double-faced confidant 
 kept Stowe informed of what he learned in Piccadilly, 
 heightening the flavour with an occasional dash of sarcasm. 
 
 Among the minor, or rather more secret, causes of dissatis- 
 faction on the part of Perceval was his consciousness that had 
 lie been outvoted, or nearly outvoted, his sacve, was quite 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE, 413 
 
 prepared, his funeral procession marshalled out, and his 
 possessions as quietly distributed among his self-appointed 
 executors as if he were actually dead and buried. He made 
 some of them, however, pointedly feel his resuscitation, no 
 longer evincing his former deference to my Lord Marquess on 
 any point. In a matter connected with the interests of the 
 French King and Princes, where the Foreign Secretary 
 thought the honour and dignity of the country concerned, he 
 met with such opposition from the Treasury that it came to 
 a downright quarrel, which, had not a compromise taken 
 place, would have ended in a resignation. For the rest, 
 Wellesley complained that he had not sufficient weight in 
 Council ; that there was nothing doing there which marked 
 energy or activity ; that the affairs of the country were almost 
 at a standstill, and were likely to remain so ; and that so little 
 was his private interest in any of the departments, that since 
 his accession to office, he had not been able to make an 
 exciseman. Added to all this, he hardly disguised being 
 out of friendship, or even intimacy, with several of his 
 colleagues. ' Such was the public condition of the statesman,, 
 and his domestic life was not more free from the trials of 
 tantalisation. Such was the melancholy career of a man 
 of the greatest abilities, and of a tender and sensitive heart. 
 He expressed himself, with almost tears in his eyes, as to the 
 reception given him in the House of Lords by Lord Bucking- 
 ham. If the writer might be permitted on such a subject to 
 speak, he thought it was a most serious misfortune to all 
 parties, and even to the coimtry, that he was not included in 
 the 'pro^ei of Lord Grenville's Administration. In his train, 
 he was satisfied, the Marquess would have been contented to 
 remain ; an able and efficient coadjutor he would have 
 occasionally been found, while his general indolence and 
 habits of life would have kept far from his practice that 
 political activity upon which he had been forced by the 
 
414 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 apparent proscription and perpetual system of exclusion he 
 seemed doomed to meet with from all parties. The elevation 
 he was since raised to he would struggle to maintain, and 
 henceforward he would be either a most troublesome friend 
 or a most formidable enemy.' ^ 
 
 In the beginning of April, Spain wanted to obtain 
 a loan of 2,000,000^. from England, which Perceval was 
 willing to grant, at the rate of 200,000L per month till the 
 whole sum was advanced. He proceeded to lay down the 
 exact manner in which the loan should be given. Henry 
 Wellesley, however, natm-ally desired to apply to the utmost 
 extent possible the resources of this country in favour of the 
 Spanish Grovernment, and in the course of the summer he drew 
 upon the Treasury from Cadiz for 400,000^. Lord Wellesley 
 announced the fact to Perceval, who had thus the mortifi- 
 cation of seeing the money which he had collected for 
 Wellington's support diverted by his lordship's brother to 
 another purpose. The Foreign Secretary replied officially to 
 the despatch ; but before sending it he consulted the Premier, 
 who thought the whole proceeding so irregular and objection- 
 able that he strengthened some of the expressions of remon- 
 strance and rebuke, and Lord Wellesley resented these 
 alterations, because they had the appearance of reflecting on 
 his brother. 
 
 * Apsley House, Sunday, July 22, 1810. 
 
 ' My deae Sir, — I have examined the proposed alterations 
 of my despatch to Mr. Wellesley, and I have adopted such 
 of them as I could approve, after having thrown them into 
 a shape more consistent with the order of my thoughts and 
 with the general tenor of the despatch. The proposed 
 alterations respecting Mr. Wellesley's supposed drafts on 
 the Treasury, I confess, appear to me much stronger than the 
 
 * To the Marquess of Buckingham, from the correspondent already 
 quoted. 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 416 
 
 occasion requires. Indeed, all the necessary suggestions of 
 caution appear to me to be quite clearly expressed in the 
 original draft. I now send the whole to you for transmission 
 to the King, requesting you to forward it by the messenger 
 who brings it to you. 
 
 ' If you should wish the draft to be again altered, I request 
 you to return it to me, as I should not wish it to go to the 
 King without my own final corrections. 
 
 ' Yours, always sincerely, 
 
 ' Wellesley.' 
 
 The experience of the session had decisively demonstrated 
 the critical condition of the Grovernment. Its existence 
 depended on the support of persons who might at any 
 moment be driven into Opposition. The small knot of men 
 who liad allied themselves with Sidmouth, and those who had 
 identified themselves with Canning, were able at any moment 
 to convert the Ministerial maj ority into a minority. Bathiurst's 
 defection at the beginning of the session had led to the 
 defeat of the Government on the Walcheren committee ; 
 Canning's desertion towards the close had contributed to 
 Bankes' successive victories on the Sinecure resolutions. 
 Wellesley and Liverpool offered to resign their offices in 
 favour of Canning and Castlereagh, in the event of their 
 being secured. But the Cabinet interposed, as they desired 
 that other offices should be found for them than those which 
 had been the scene of their quarrel. The negotiations were 
 fruitless, the offers being declined. The following is some 
 correspondence relating to these transactions, 
 
 * Private and confidential. * Apsley House, June 14, 1810. 
 
 ' My dear Sik, — The events of the session of Parliament 
 appear to me to have proved the necessity of augmenting 
 the strength of the Government, especially in the House of 
 
416 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8ia 
 
 Commons. Yom* information and mine leads to the certainty 
 that it would not be practicable to unite the friends of Loi-ds 
 Sidmouth and Castlereagh, and of Mr. Canning ; because it has 
 been ascertained that Lord Sidmouth and his friends cannot 
 consent to act with Mr. Canning. Although the grounds of 
 this defection are entitled to great respect, I confess that I 
 cannot admit the justice and reason of such an exclusion^ 
 particularly in the present crisis, when Lord Grrey has 
 opened such an attack upon all those leading principles which 
 constituted the basis of Mr. Pitt's Government. Under 
 these circumstances I wish to urge a serious consideration of 
 the necessity of making an immediate effort for the purpose 
 of obtaining the aid of Mr. Canning and his friends. For 
 this purpose I am desirous of vacating the office which I 
 now hold, in order to admit Mr. Canning ; and I am willing 
 either to accept any other suitable office in the Cabinet, or to 
 remain in the Cabinet without office, until a vacancy can be 
 conveniently made for me. You may be assured that I shall 
 most cheerfully act under either arrangement, provided the 
 great advantage of Mr. Canning's assistance can be obtained 
 by it. I have already repeatedly stated this idea to you, 
 but it has not been regularly considered by the Cabinet ; I 
 wish you would have the goodness to take their opinion upon 
 it as soon as possible. Although I cannot positively answer 
 for Mr. Canning's acceptance of a proposal to act in the 
 present Government, I would not suggest such a plan if I 
 were not convinced that he could not decline an arrangement 
 founded on the basis which I have stated. 
 
 ' Believe me, &c., 
 ' S. Perceval, Esq.' < WeLLESLEY. 
 
 ' Private and confidential. * Dorking, July 23, 1810. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, — Some time since I took the liberty of 
 stating to you my opinion that, unless some steps were im- 
 mediately taken to favour Mr. Canning's admission into the 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 417 
 
 Cabinet, that advantage would be entirely lost to the present 
 Government ; at the same time, I renewed my former offer re- 
 specting my present office, and I stated a desire that the subject 
 should again be considered by the Cabinet. The great pressure 
 of indispensable matter of practical detail has prevented you, 
 and the Cabinet, and myself, from touching this very delicate 
 but (in my judgment) indispensable discussion. I do not 
 know whether you have had any means of consulting others 
 on the point. When I spoke to you, you seemed still to 
 consider the difficulties with regard to Lord Castlereagh to 
 be insuperable. My information leads me to hope that Lord 
 Castlereagh would be found reasonable and practicable on 
 every part of the question. At all events, it is very desirable 
 to bring the matter to a final and positive determination, 
 and (if it is determined to be either useless or dangerous to 
 accept my offer) to apprise Canning distinctly of his situation. 
 I understand that he is to see you to-morrow on some ordinary 
 business, and I think great advantage might result from 
 your conversing freely with him on the whole subject, and 
 stating your sense of the difficulties which exist, and hearing 
 his ideas with regard to their removal. For my own part, I 
 desire you to consider me to be entirely at your disposal, 
 with the most anxious wish, however, that you would employ 
 me and my office for the purpose of obtaining the benefit of 
 Canning's assistance, connected with the accession of Lord 
 
 Castlereagh. 
 
 ' Yours, &c., 
 
 ' Welleslby.' 
 
 Lord Lansdowne, who had lately been called to the Upper 
 House by the death of his brother, was bent on confuting the 
 prognostic of Palmerston * that the Opposition would seriously 
 lose by the change. He had mastered the complicated details 
 of the unsuccessfid policy and strategy which, in the three 
 » Then Secretary at War. 
 £ E 
 
418 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 preceding years, had ended in the Convention of Cintra, the 
 embarkation at Corunna, and the retreat after Talavera. 
 And he gave notice of his intention to bring the whole 
 question under the consideration of the Peers. His motion was 
 deferred from week to week in consequence of the illness of 
 Grenville ; but it took place eventually on June 8, when 
 he distinguished himself greatly by the comprehensive and 
 temperate nature of his views. In youth as little as in age 
 he was incapable of injustice to serve a party turn ; and 
 though, by training and by habit, essentially a party man who 
 enjoyed hard hitting, and took good-humouredly his share of 
 exclusion and reproach for the sake of his opinions, he never 
 was betrayed into personal acrimony or invidious exaggeration 
 of errors or of faults. In him there was no spice of faction, 
 and no taint of guile. No man more consistently and 
 efficiently throughout life leaned against the policy of aggres- 
 sive war. He hated strife at home, and did his best to 
 quench international enmities abroad. But he was no more of 
 a Quaker than a Quixote ; and with him the sole question re- 
 garding the Peninsula seems to have been. Were we justified 
 in meddling at all, if we were not reasonably certain of 
 success ? He pointed to many blots and blunders in former 
 negotiations and campaigns ; but said not a word disparaging 
 of the army or its general ; not a syllable disrespectful of the 
 new Foreign Minister. He had in truth no little sympathy 
 with him, especially with regard to Irish affairs ; and in his 
 reply Wellesley took care to repay with interest the con- 
 sideration shown him. After summing up ably the advantages 
 we still possessed, and our resources yet unexhausted, he asked. 
 Why, then, should we depart from that salutary line of policy ? 
 What is there to dissuade or discourage us from adhering to 
 it? For his part, he could discover nothing in the aspect 
 of Spanish affairs that wore anything like the hue or com- 
 plexion of despair. If, indeed, it appeared that the spirit 
 of resistance had begun to languish in the breasts of patriotic 
 
i8io THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 419 
 
 Spaniards; if miscarriages, disasters, and defeats had been 
 observed to damp the ardour and break down the energies of 
 the Spanish mind, it might be believed that further assistance 
 to the cause would prove unavailing. But, fortunately for 
 this country, not only was there life still in Spain, but her 
 patriotic heart still continued to beat high. The generous 
 and exalted sentiment which first prompted us to lend our 
 .aid to her cause, should therefore still inspirit us to continue 
 that aid to the last moment. The struggle was not merely 
 a Spanish struggle. Assuredly, in that struggle were com- 
 mitted the vital interests of England. With the fate of 
 Spain the fate of England was inseparably blended. Should 
 we not, therefore, stand by her to the last ? For his part, as 
 an adviser of the Crown, he should not cease to recommend to 
 his Sovereign to continue to assist her. It should not dis- 
 hearten us that Spain appeared to be at the very crisis of her 
 fate ; we should on the contrary extend a more anxious care 
 over her at a moment so critical. For, in nature, how often 
 have the apparent symptoms of dissolution been the presages 
 of new life and of renovated vigour ? Therefore he would 
 cling to Spain in her last struggle ; therefore he would watch 
 her last agonies ; he would wash and heal her wounds ; he 
 would receive her parting breath ; he would catch and cherish 
 the last vital spark of her expiring patriotism ; yes, — 
 
 Date, vulnera lymphis, 
 Abluam, et extremiis si quis super halitiis errat, 
 Ore legam. 
 
 Nor let it be deemed a mere office of pious charity ; an exagge- 
 rated representation of his feelings, an overcharged picture of 
 the circumstances that called them forth. In the cause of 
 Spain, the cause of honour and of interest were equally involved 
 and inseparably allied. It was a cause in favour of which the 
 finest feelings of the heart united with the soundest dictates of 
 the understanding. Under that conviction it was impossible 
 
 B E 2 
 
420 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 for him to accede to the resolutions moved by the noble mar- 
 quess, one of which tended to censure transactions which, in his 
 humble opinion, were entitled to praise, and the other purposed 
 to impute blame to those on whom their approbation might be 
 more fitly conferred.' The motion was rejected by a large 
 majority. 
 
 A few days after there was a Council at Windsor, to settle 
 the speech on the prorogation, to which all the royal dukes 
 were summoned except the Prince of Wales. Why he was 
 omitted is not easily explained, as he happened to be at the 
 Castle on the day in question ; but the Foreign Secretary had 
 to bear the brunt of his ill-humour. After an audience to 
 communicate the details of the victory of Busaco, which 
 the King naturally received with satisfaction, he hastened to 
 acquaint the Prince with the good news, full of his brother's 
 prowess, the moral effects of the victory, and so forth. His 
 Royal Highness on seeing him exclaimed, 'I condole with 
 you heartily, my dear lord, upon poor Arthur's retreat after 
 his battle. Massena has quite out-generalled him.' Neither 
 the place or the presence could restrain the little man's 
 wrath, which broke forth in terms that Lords of the Bed- 
 chamber deemed highly unbecoming and Under-Secretaries, 
 when they heard of it, lamented as imprudent. But he knew 
 better than they with whom he had to deal ; and he manfully 
 did his duty in telling the selfish and frivolous Heir- Apparent 
 the true value of a battle won in great part by native levies 
 under English generalship. What he foretold, in quivering 
 accents of indignation at the Prince's folly, has since become 
 matter of history. Busaco taught the Portuguese troops to 
 meet the onslaught of the French legions without fear. Its 
 moral effect was incalculable. Truly, said Napoleon, looking 
 back over the field of his chequered fortune, ' the difference 
 between a battle won and a battle lost is immense.' 
 > Pari. Deb. vol. xvii. pp. 495-6. 
 
421 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX 
 
 TORRES VEDRAS. 
 1810. 
 
 He had not been long at Downing Street when an officer of 
 one of the Irish regiments in the service of France presented 
 an introduction from Lord Yarmouth, who said he knew him 
 well, and believed that he had something of importance to 
 communicate. Captain Fagan said he came from Fouche to 
 inquire if England were disposed towards peace, and to give 
 assurances that France was so inclined. He brought, however, 
 no proposals of a definite kind, nor any credentials investing 
 him with a diplomatic character. The new Minister smiled 
 graciously, listened attentively, and answered blandly ; said 
 he was under no vow to make everlasting war, and that the 
 Government would give cheerfully their best consideration to 
 any terms of pacification that would restore freedom to the 
 seas and repose to so many wearied lands. But all must 
 -depend on the nature of the stipulations made, and the 
 recognition, as a basis, that any settlement of disputes must 
 comprehend the interests of our Peninsular and other allies. 
 The only scrap of his handwriting which the unaccredited 
 envoy was able to show consisted of an epitome of six lines of 
 these preliminaries. Secret correspondence with his employer 
 at Paris was circuitous and slow, and the spring wore away 
 without his being able to furnish any proof of his having 
 any authority to treat. Meanwhile a very different personage 
 
422 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8ia 
 
 presented himself on a like errand, commanding much more 
 attention ; but as it proved to no better purpose. M^ 
 Pierre Labouch^re, a leading partner in the house of Hope, 
 at Amsterdam, had married the daughter of Sir F. Baring, 
 whose great commercial eminence and ability gave him the 
 ear of every Minister when he came. Wellesley made a 
 point of consulting the great merchants on vexed questions 
 of embargo, right of search, and blockade, with whose com- 
 plicated details they were best acquainted. M. Labouch^re 
 had come to England at the instance of M. Ouverard, a well- 
 known army contractor in France, with whom he had extensive 
 dealings, and who, strange to say, without the knowledge of 
 Napoleon, had been commissioned to ascertain if possible 
 through some safe hand, if England would make peace. He 
 had much to say, and was thoroughly skilled in the art of 
 unofl&cial diplomacy, and his accurate and varied knowledge 
 of financial and trading interests enabled him to make an 
 impressive case for the expediency of putting an end to the war* 
 Napoleon's marriage with an arch-duchess was a pledge that 
 he no longer sought the overthrow of old dynasties. His 
 open quarrel with the Vatican proved equally that he did not 
 mean to tamper with religion as an element of distm-bance^ 
 If the east and north of Spain were left to Joseph, Ferdinand 
 might keep Andalusia and Valentia ; and the Eoy alists of the 
 Faubom*g St. Germain, who were beginning to attorn ta 
 the irresistible Empire, would like to see the head of the 
 exiled Bom-bons oiFered a throne in Spanish America. But 
 if the Dutch continued to mnk hard at English goods being 
 imported in spite of the Berlin Decree, Napoleon would 
 enforce his will by the annexation of Holland, providing for 
 King Louis elsewhere. And if the Continent were once 
 hermetically sealed, England would be unable to prolong the 
 struggle. In reply, the Foreign Secretary made very little of 
 the threatened absorption of the Dutch, which he treated as- 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 423 
 
 practically accomplished. He valued as little the power of 
 coastguai'ds to interdict British produce or manufactures; 
 and he pointed triumphantly to the vast increase of om- 
 shipping and exports every year since the Imperial ban had 
 been laid upon them, — a fact which his visitor understood 
 even better than himself. 
 
 Owing to our ascendency at sea, the exports of the United 
 Kingdom had risen from 30,387,490^ to 46,292,632^ in the 
 year just concluded. The Americans continued to take their 
 full share of the Mediterranean trade by putting into Malta 
 for part cargoes of English goods, as the Eussians did for the 
 like purpose at Heligoland. Their being forced to sail under 
 a neutral flag was more a point of honour than a downright 
 loss of trade. Nevertheless, if propositions duly authorised were 
 intended, they should certainly have a candid and unpreju- 
 diced consideration. M. Labouchere went back to Antwerp, 
 and conferred once more with M. Ouverard; and made a 
 second voyage to Yarmouth and a second visit to Apsley 
 House, in hopes of being instrumental in bringing about an 
 accommodation. Napoleon hesitated about superseding hi& 
 brother, and was not disinclined to rest for a while from his 
 martial labours. Unluckily his suspicions were aroused by 
 accidental circumstances that his Minister of Police was 
 acting in various matters without consulting him. Ouverard 
 was arrested, and, to save himself, disclosed all. Fouche 
 was disgraced. The desultory warfare in the southern pro- 
 vinces of Spain went on, and Holland was incorporated with 
 the Empire. 
 
 Negotiations with Sidmouth, Castlereagh, and Canning 
 were continued during the autumn, at the instance of 
 Wellesley, who ceased not to urge upon the Premier the 
 necessity of strengthening by some means the Administration, 
 Without Canning, he reiterated his personal unwillingness to 
 retain office, and to gain him as a colleague in the Secretariat, 
 
424 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 he was willing to give up the Foreign OfiSce, and take that 
 of War and Colonies, then, and for many years afterwards, 
 united. But Castlereagh, while repudiating personal resent- 
 ment, told his uncle. Lord Camden, that the public would 
 not bear with temper or treat with respect two men re-entering 
 together the Cabinet they had quitted to take each other's 
 lives scarce a twelvemonth before ; and the Premier thought 
 that the weight of unpopularity was against Castlereagh. 
 Sidmouth was still more obdurate ; he was not unwilling to 
 support Government or to share their responsibility ; but men 
 ought not to sit together in the Cabinet especially in times 
 so critical, who could neither feel or show confidence ; and 
 never, therefore, would he consent to act with Canning. To 
 make room for him, the Foreign Minister again professed his 
 readiness to resign. This all his colleagues felt to be inad- 
 missible, and they agreed to go on as they were. Ere parting 
 for the holidays, late in August, Perceval is said to have 
 pressed him to say whether, as every suggestion of his had 
 been tried to reinforce the Government, they had not a right 
 to claim his cordial and unreserved co-operation ? To this 
 in general terms he assented, but he is said to have added, 
 that as they had no longer any hopes of that efficient 
 strength and aid he had sought for, so a greater weight of 
 labour and responsibility would be thrown upon him. ' You, 
 Mr. Perceval, are going out of town ; so am I ; but when we 
 again meet, you must have your mind made up to give me 
 a greater share of patronage and influence in the conduct of 
 the war than I have hitherto had, and which, in every event, 
 I think myself entitled to.' Without any definite reply they 
 parted.^ 
 
 Two objects mainly occupied the thoughts of the Foreign 
 Secretary — the war in the Peninsula and peace with the 
 United States. He had made the adequate sustainment of 
 ' Mr. D. to Lord Buckingham, 1st October, 1810. 
 
 i 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 425 
 
 OMX armies engaged in tlie great struggle against French 
 'encroachment the sole condition of his taking office, whether 
 as Minister abroad or Minister at home. All he had seen 
 and learned during his sojourn in Spain intensified his con- 
 viction that, without vigorous and comprehensive measures by 
 sea and land, Spain could not be delivered from the yoke of 
 Napoleon ; and that parsimony and peddling in military 
 administration were, under the circumstances, mere fatuous 
 schemes for overreaching ourselves. Lisbon had indeed been 
 saved by the self-reliant and indomitable energy displayed in 
 the formation of the lines of Torres Vedras ; and he had faith 
 in his brother's calm forecast that, if duly supported from 
 home, he could hold his ground in Portugal, and compel the 
 invaders to fall back to sustain the unstable fabric of their 
 system in Spain : a promise destined to be literally and defi- 
 nitively fulfilled. But beyond the confines of the lesser king- 
 dom the tide of conquest swept unbroken almost to the 
 gates of Cadiz ; and it needed the high courage and confi- 
 dence of one who had himself planned and executed success- 
 fully great campaigns to persuade a Cabinet of second-rate 
 politicians to look their duty in the face, and risk their col- 
 lective existence as a Grovemment, day after day, on measures 
 indispensable for making any serious attempt at restoring 
 national independence. It were worse than useless for 
 England to serve as a mere auxiliary in a war of emancipa- 
 tion if the direction of affairs was to remain with the feeble 
 and distracted Executive beleaguered in the only great city 
 still recognising Ferdinand as king. He had personally 
 weighed the moral and intellectual capacity of nearly all the 
 soldiers and statesmen who spouted in the Cortes or squabbled 
 for command, and he knew that unless we were prepared to 
 undertake the responsibility in chief, and to direct the con- 
 duct of movements in the field, nothing but discomfiture 
 -could come of further conflict. It was infinitely to his credit 
 
426 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8ia- 
 
 that, under all the disheartening circumstances of the case, he 
 was able, rather by the weight of his character than by any 
 arts of suasion, to obtain the supplies requisite for what 
 seemed then a daring, if not a desperate purpose. It was a. 
 purpose condemned from first to last as impracticable, and 
 therefore impolitic, prodigal, and quixotic, by most of the 
 leaders of Opposition ; and agreed to with a shudder and a 
 sigh as perilous in the extreme by many whose hearts were 
 not big enough to hope for its success. But he had one 
 advantage, and a great one, the loyal and consistent, though 
 frugal support of the First Minister, who certainly owed him- 
 neither confidence or affection. They wrangled about other 
 matters continually, and sometimes about the application of 
 particular sums to objects of pressing moment. But Perceval 
 never swerved from his pledge to carry on the war with all 
 the resources of the country, and seldom grudged the outlay 
 that the English commander on the Tagus, or the English 
 ambassador at Cadiz, reported to be necessary. To keep the 
 peace with America was indeed his anxious desire ; and he 
 omitted nothing to confirm as far as in him lay the personal 
 goodwill subsisting between the Foreign Secretary and the 
 Eepublican Envoy at our Court. Wellington's urgent de- 
 mands for money to feed his own and the Portuguese troops 
 were met by the Treasury as fast as possible, and at the 
 beginning of May, ' money was sent in profusion to him ; 
 soldiers he wanted none.' ^ 
 
 The financial difficulties of the Grovernment are succinctly 
 but lucidly stated in the biography of the Minister. ' It was 
 true that our credit was still firm ; that money could be bor- 
 rowed on the most advantageous terms ; and that increased 
 taxation had not interfered with the growth of the revenue*. 
 But our prosperity was in part fictitious ; the supply of money 
 was large, but the money circulated only within the United 
 
 ^ Mr. D. to Lord BuckingLam, 1st May, 1810. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 427 
 
 Kingdom. The suspension of cash payments had drawn gold 
 away, and inconvertible paper was useless in the Peninsula^ 
 There every payment had to be made in gold or silver. The 
 Treasm-y had less difficulty in obtaining the ways and means 
 than in the purchase of specie. At the close of 1809 it had 
 been calculated that the war in the Peninsula would involve 
 a gross charge of 3,000,000^ a year. In the course of the 
 autumn it became apparent that a sum of at least 5,000,000L 
 would be necessary ; and the means had to be provided in the 
 face of a hostile Opposition and a doubting country.' ^ 
 
 Wellington wrote : ' Seeing, as I do, more than a chance of 
 final success, if we can maintain our position in this country 
 (Portugal), although none by our departure from our cautious 
 defensive system, I should not do my duty by the Govern- 
 ment if I did not urge them with importunity even to greater 
 exertion.' 
 
 Massena, sent by Napoleon to drive the presumptuous 
 Islanders out of Portugal, found to his surprise, the great 
 earthworks formed round the capital by Wellington impene- 
 trable. Timely supplies from England enabled him to as- 
 semble and maintain 130,000 men within the lines, a force 
 of whose collective strength past experience of the war in 
 the Peninsula did not lead the French Marshal to dream. 
 Surprised at the extent and strength of works, the existence 
 of which had only become known to him five days before he 
 came upon them, Massena spent more than a week in examining 
 their nature, without discovering any point weak enough to 
 tempt him to an attack. The war was in fact reduced to one 
 of blockade — the French commander's object being to keep his 
 army in food until reinforcements could reach him ; the Eng- 
 lish general's to starve the French ere succour could arrive. 
 Irregular corps of native militia were encouraged to act 
 upon their flanks, avoiding serious encounters in the field, but 
 
 » Mr. S. Walpole's Life of Perceval^ ii. 112. 
 
428 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 harassing their convoys and destroying local magazines. The 
 struggle throughout October was a wager of endurance rather 
 than of hardihood ; multitudes from the ravaged provinces 
 sought refuge in the city and its environs. The means of sub- 
 sistence rose to famine prices, and corn was sent for to Ireland 
 and Algiers. The Portuguese Ministers lost heart at the 
 appalling misery around them, and even British officers and 
 envoys wrote home in despair. Their letters, sent confidentially 
 by the Secretary for War, reached Wellington at the critical 
 moment of his defence of his great strategic masterpiece, 
 when, had he wavered or yielded, all would have been lost. 
 Beset on every side, the English general rose like a giant. 
 Without noticing either the arguments or the forebodings of 
 Stewart's and Spencer's letters, he took a calm, historical review 
 of the grounds upon which he had undertaken the defence of 
 Portugal. And were all other records of his genius lost, says 
 Napier, those in which he demonstrated his own prudence and 
 foresight, and traced the probable course of future events 
 both as regarded his own and the enemy's designs, woidd 
 vindicate his great reputation to posterity.^ In a tone firm, 
 almost fierce, he rebuked the pusillanimous conduct of the 
 authorities at Lisbon for pandering to the ill-humoiu: of the 
 ignorant populace, when their duty was to keep order in the 
 -city and to provide food for their compatriots in the trenches. 
 But he had been entrusted with the safety of Portugal by the 
 Eegent of that country and his own Sovereign, and he would 
 not suffer any person to interfere with his measures. Of their 
 eventual success he had no doubt. To Henry Wellesley, at 
 Cadiz, he wrote ^ while the strain was most intense : 
 
 ' I have no idea what the French will, or rather what they 
 •can, do. I think it is certain that they can do us no mischief. 
 
 • History of tlw Penimulwr War, iii. 366. 
 ' 21st October, 1810. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 429 
 
 and that they will lose the greatest part of their army if they 
 attack us. They will starve if they stay much longer, and 
 they will experience great difficulty in their retreat. 
 
 * Ever yours most affectionately.' 
 
 Within a fortnight Massena gave orders to fall back, send- 
 ing Greneral Foy to tell Napoleon the hopelessness of his under- 
 taking, without great reinforcements. For these he lingered 
 long, disputing every step with consummate skill and intrepid 
 tenacity. But week by week of winter passed in vain look- 
 ing for succour which came not, while his ranks were thinned 
 by disease and hunger. He had entered Portugal at the head 
 of 65,000 men, and recrossed the frontier with less than two 
 thirds of that number.^ Portugal was thus delivered, and 
 to that deliverance there can be no doubt that the diplomacy 
 directed by the British Foreign Office contributed in no 
 unimportant degree. 
 
 Dming the long interval of peace which followed the 
 recognition of Independence, the commerce of America throve 
 apace ; and except the occasional exercise of the old claim to 
 search on board her ships for seamen who had deserted or 
 eluded impressment, no cause of controversy arose between 
 the two Grovemments. But on the outbreak of war with 
 France in 1793, the rule of 1756 which had long remained 
 dormant was revived, whereby neutrals were forbidden, under 
 pain of capture and forfeiture, to carry produce of French 
 colonies to the mother country, or to bear her manufactures 
 to them. In a treaty, negotiated by Mr. Jay the following 
 year, indemnity was secured in certain cases to the shipowners 
 of the United States, while the rule was maintained against 
 other neutrals. And when doubts arose as to the efficacy 
 of the exemption, a formal note from Lord Hawkesbury* 
 declared that they might import anything save contraband of 
 
 » 5th April, 1811. « 11th April, 1801. 
 
430 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 war from Guadaloupe, Martinique, or Mauritius, and re- 
 export it to Havre or Marseilles. Subsequently the English 
 Court of Admiralty refused to admit proof of the pay- 
 ment of duties at New York as sufficient evidence of re- 
 export honafide^ and the cargoes were, under this decision, 
 confiscated. Indignant protests thereupon rang throughout 
 the United States. Public meetings held up the conduct 
 of the British Grovernment to obloquy as faithless and over- 
 reaching ; and President Jefferson indited more than one 
 expatiation on the natural principles that free ships made 
 free goods, and that no people had a right to govern by their 
 laws the ships of another nation navigating the ocean. By 
 what law then could they board a ship while in peaceable 
 and orderly use of the common element ? He recognised no 
 natural precept for submission to such a right. The doctrine 
 hat the rights of nations remaining quietly in the exercise of 
 moral and social duties, were to give way to the convenience 
 of those who preferred plundering and murdering one another, 
 was a monstrous doctrine. Could two nations turning tigers 
 break up in one instant the peaceable relations of the whole 
 world ? But although these principles were of great impor- 
 tance to the interests of peaceable nations, yet in the actual 
 state of things he thought they were not worth a war.^ While 
 Louisiana was still held by France, and Florida was still 
 possessed by Spain, and Canada remained loyal to England, 
 war with either of the belligerents was not to be rashly 
 ventured on by a Conamonwealth scarcely emerging from the 
 period of national adolescence. But in the following decade 
 its rapid growth in strength and opijence grew manifest in 
 nothing more remarkably than the increasing muscularity of 
 its resistance to the old country's claim to lay down the law 
 of the sea. In 1806, Jefferson felt strong enough to take a 
 more decided tone regarding neutrality. The French had 
 > To Mr. Livingston, Minister at Paris, 9th September, 1801. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS, 431 
 
 ceded Louisiana, and negotiations were proceeding with the 
 Spaniards for the annexation of Florida. That done, the 
 Government of Washington might take a more self-asserting 
 position towards European Powers. ^With England,' wrote 
 the President, 'I think we shall cut off the resource of 
 impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the 
 inviolability of our flag in our commerce with her enemies. 
 We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly 
 neutral, and truly useful to both belligerents : to the one, by 
 keeping open a market for the consumption of her manufac- 
 tures, while they are excluded from all the countries under the 
 power of her enemy ; to the other, by securing for her a safe 
 carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial, 
 while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may 
 therefore be employed in other useful pursuits.' ^ Neither 
 of the combatants, however, were in any mood to tolerate 
 abstract professions of American goodwill ; and each rivalled 
 the other in passionate resort to inflamed menace and undis- 
 criminating desire to inflict injury. 
 
 Mr. Pinkney was sent in April 1806 to act jointly with 
 Mr. Monroe in negotiating a settlement of differences, and 
 Lords Auckland and Holland were named by Mr. Fox to 
 confer with them. But such was the temper of the time that 
 ere they met, an Order in Council was issued declaring the 
 entire coast from Brest to the mouths of the Elbe to be in a 
 state of blockade. In the November following, Napoleon 
 retaliated by his celebrated Decree ^ from Berlin, imposing a 
 like interdict on all the shores of England and her depen- 
 dencies. The Commissioners tried hard to accommodate the 
 dispute, and after months of friendly conference, imagined 
 that they had hit upon terms that would have accomplished 
 their pacific purpose.' But they were deemed as little 
 
 To Mr. Bowdoin, 10th July, 1806. 2 21st November, 1806. 
 
 ' 3l6t December, 1806 
 
432 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8ia 
 
 acceptable by President Madison as by the Grrenville Cabinet ; 
 and on January 7, 1807, another step in mutual exasperation 
 was taken under the advice of Lord Ho wick, Orders in 
 Council being issued which professed to treat as in a state 
 of blockade the French Empire and all its dependencies^ 
 whether colonial or allied. The Milan decrees followed on 
 the 27 th December, and the pitiless warfare against industry 
 and civilisation continued without let or hindrance during 
 the next seven years. The new Foreign Secretary hated 
 and despised such methods of warfare ; but Madison's con- 
 fidential letters show that he had little hope of Wellesley 
 being able, though well-disposed, to drag his anti- American 
 colleagues into a change of policy, supported as they would 
 be by the speeches and proceedings of Congi-ess. From 
 these the inference would be that one party preferred the 
 submission of their trade to British regulation, and that 
 the other confessed the impossibility of resisting it ; a volun- 
 tary embargo being proclaimed by a glutted market in Eng- 
 land, and the apprehension of British blockades and French 
 confiscations.^ Supercilious talk on the part of an envoy 
 sent by Canning had wounded American susceptibilities, and 
 he was in consequence recalled ; still Madison expressed sur- 
 prise how little Wellesley's views corresponded with theirs 
 about Jackson's conduct ; and the manner in which the va- 
 cancy caused in the Legation by his recall was to be supplied 
 by an agent of subordinate rank, showed that ' a sacrifice 
 was meant of the respect belonging to their Government, 
 either to the pride of Grreat Britain, or to the feelings of 
 those in America who had taken sides with it against their 
 own. On either supposition, it would be necessary to counter- 
 act the ignoble purpose. On finding the substitution of a 
 charge to be an intentional degi*adation of diplomatic in- 
 tercourse on the part of Grreat Britain, it would be deemed 
 
 » To Jefferson, 23rd April, 1810. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 433 
 
 proper that no higher functionary should repre.sent the United 
 States at London.' ^ But Pinkney was not to lose sight of 
 the expediency of ' mingling moderation and even concilia- 
 tion ' with expressions of offended dignity. 
 
 American shipowners complained loudly of search being 
 made by British cruisers for contraband of war, and of the 
 delay and loss incurred in consequence, when any article 
 of questionable character was found on board these vessels. 
 Kepresentations of hardship thus inflicted were made through 
 the Ministers resident in London and Paris, and claims in 
 certain cases were made for compensation ; but with small 
 results in pecimiary or diplomatic satisfaction. All jurists of 
 authority, from Grotius to Kent, recognised the right of 
 belligerents to shut out supplies from enemies' ports under 
 due notice to blockade. What constituted actual blockade, 
 and what supplies were to be considered contraband of war^ 
 remained, as they, must always remain, topics of contention in 
 the Admiralty Courts in each particular case ; but about the 
 general principle of international law there could be no dis- 
 pute. Though strong things might be said in Congress, ex- 
 citing articles circulated by the press, and plausible reproaches 
 made by implication in despatches and minutes of conversa- 
 tion, no general cause of quarrel lay against this country, any 
 more than against France, because in the rage of internecine 
 war both had egregiously expanded the circle of commercial 
 interdict at the expense, and to the detriment, of the rest of 
 the world. The Cabinet of Washington tried hard indeed to 
 persuade both Grovernments to relax, if not to renounce, their 
 decrees against trade. Mr. Pinkney was instructed to assure 
 Mr. Canning and his successor at the Foreign Office that if 
 our Orders in Council were allowed to lapse, the French 
 Emperor might be relied on practically to forego the rigorous 
 execution of the Milan decrees. Wellesley seems to have en- 
 » To Mr.. Pinkney, 23rd May, 1810. 
 F F 
 
4U MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 couraged the idea of mutual relaxation, though he dared not 
 give any definite pledge, or hold out the expectation that in the 
 exasperated temper of the nation it would be possible before- 
 hand to make any formal renunciation of the rights of blockade 
 or search. The French Grovernment in its turn, was equally 
 evasive, and the American Envoy could only build up, 
 again and again, a house of cards inscribed with friendly, 
 regretful, and humane sentiments, which, by ingenuous im- 
 plication, were made to signify an intention to concede the 
 matters in dispute, but which whenever leaned upon tumbled 
 to the ground. It suited France to contend that the mouths 
 of rivers undefended by forts or flotillas were not legitimately 
 subject to blockade ; for with this exemption, merchantmen 
 under neutral flags would have been able to unload their 
 cargoes safely, and set sail with their relading, at the inland 
 wharves of the Elbe, the Scheldt, and the Seine. This, of 
 course, was inadmissible by English statesmen like Fox, 
 Grenville, Hawkesbury, Grrey, Perceval, and Canning ; each 
 and all of whom had asserted our right to blockade the whole 
 western coast of the hostile Empire ; and whatever Wellesley's 
 individual predilections may have been in favour of freer 
 trade he knew that it would have been merely suicidal on his 
 part to assert that they had all been in the wrong. There 
 was nothing for it but to temporise, wait for events, and in 
 honeyed words deprecate the imprudence of driving him to 
 endorse anew anti-commercial threats that had not been of 
 his devising. Left to himself, Mr. Pinkney was well inclined 
 to listen, half believingly at all events, to the earnest, gentle, 
 and complimentary phrases of the Marquess : but he was 
 urged continually from Washington to press for a definite 
 answer respecting the Orders in Council. The French 
 Minister of Foreig-n Affairs assured the Plenipotentiary of 
 the Republic at Paris ^ that the only condition required for the 
 » 30th April, 1810, 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 435 
 
 revocation of the Decree of Berlin would be the previous 
 revocation by the British Grovemment of her blockades of 
 France of anterior date. But this previous step was deemed 
 impossible. 
 
 In January 1807 an Order in Council was framed by 
 Lord Grey, allowing American ships to trade in security with 
 France, provided on their way they touched at some port of 
 the United Kingdom ; and the privilege was made use of to a 
 considerable extent. But as a political affront the pretension 
 to levy toll in this fashion on the traffic of the seas was 
 resented vehemently ; and there can be no doubt that the 
 strange contrivance, too clever by half, tended eventually 
 to embitter the unhappy quarrel. Congress passed, in retalia- 
 tion, a Non-intercourse Act, which forbade any French or 
 English vessel from entering their harbours, and compelled 
 such as lay there to quit immediately, with or without lading. 
 
 Yet it was not without difficulty that the Senate had been 
 induced, in the spring of 1809, to adopt this fmther step 
 of legislative retaliation. Many commercial interests in the 
 Union shrunk from the additional losses thus self-imposed; still 
 popular resentment enabled Grovemment to obtain a legislative 
 sanction for a measure which it was hoped would bring one, 
 if not both, the overbearing belligerents to terms. Napoleon, 
 furious at the injury inflicted on his subjects by a Kepublican 
 Government, which he at heart detested, as keeping up the 
 bad example of institutions he hoped to obliterate throughout 
 Christendom, and persuading himself that whatever injured 
 the Americans would, by reflex action, damage the incorrigible 
 English likewise, issued a decree ^ confiscating all American 
 ships and cargoes which had entered, or should in future 
 enter, any port of the Empire since May 20, 1808, and 
 devoted the value, without appeal, to the Sinking Fund. 
 He soon found cause to repent of a proceeding which 
 ' From Rambouillet, 14th May, 1810. 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 threatened to fix the undivided animosity of America 
 upon himself and his system ; for his reckless im- 
 patience to compel the Americans to fall in with his designs 
 had impelled him to adopt measures, compared with 
 which those resorted to by our Government seemed for- 
 bearing. Even Madison owned that his 'confiscations 
 comprised robbery, theft, and breach of trust, exceeding in 
 turpitude any of his enormities not wasting human blood.' 
 Til ere was a possibility, however, that negotiations at Paris- 
 might take a favourable turn when it was seen that the Non- 
 intercourse Act opened a way for free trade with either of the 
 belligerents that might come to terms. On the publication of 
 the diplomatic correspondence 'so strong a feeling was pro- 
 duced in the States by Greneral Armstrong's picture of French 
 robbery, that the attitude in which England was placed by 
 the correspondence between Pinkney and Wellesley was over- 
 looked. Nevertheless, public attention began to fix itself on 
 the proof afforded that the original sin against neutrals lay 
 with Grreat Britain.' ^ The temper of the American Executive, 
 under Madison, became every day more hostile. Whenever 
 party feeling seemed disposed to extenuate the reserve or 
 resistance of England, the President reverted to grievances 
 and grudges of old standing, Jackson's saucy demeanour while 
 envoy, the continued impressment of seamen, and above all, 
 the leaving only a charge d^affairs at Washington, which, it 
 was broadly hinted more than once, would fully justify Pinkney 
 in appointing a like substitute in his stead, and forthwith 
 returning home.^ 
 
 Ere these incentives to quarrel reached Europe, Greneral 
 Armstrong had persuaded M. Champagny to offer a suspension 
 of the Imperial decrees to America and England, if the latter 
 would acknowledge herself in the wrong, and revoke her Orders^ 
 
 ' To Jefferson, 25th May, and 22nd June, 1810. 
 * Madison to Pinkney 30th October, 1810. 
 
l8io TORRES VEDRAS. 437 
 
 in Council ; or to the former alone, if she would withdraw 
 the embai'go and break the blockade. Pinkney thereupon 
 resolved to lie upon his oars a little longer, and on August 9 the 
 -* Moniteur ' contained the announcement that upon the under- 
 standing (come to without our privity) that Great Britain 
 was ready penitentially to forego all she had theretofore been 
 .asserting triumphantly and profitably on the high seas, France 
 would magnanimously restore universal freedom to commerce. 
 With ineffable disdain the Foreign Secretary observed 
 absolute silence on the occasion, and made no allusion what- 
 ever to the arrogant proposition in his intercourse with the 
 •diplomatists resident at our Court. 
 
 Blandishment had suddenly become the order of the day 
 at Paris, where Kepublican interests were concerned. ' The 
 Emperor loved the Americans ; their prosperity and their 
 commerce were within the scope of his policy. The indepen- 
 dence of the States was one of the principal titles to glory 
 valued by France, and his Majesty had always taken pleasure 
 in aggrandizing the Union, and whatever could contribute to 
 its welfare and greatness he would deem conformable to the 
 interests of his Empire.' Months elapsed without any corre- 
 sponding act of revocation on the part of our Government. 
 The American Envoy grew impatient, and pressed for an 
 explanation of the delay in more than one personal interview. 
 A brief though courteous communication from the Foreign 
 Office of December 4 averred that, ' after the most accurate 
 inquiry, we had not been able to obtain any authentic intel- 
 ligence of the actual repeal of the French decrees, or of the 
 restoration of the commerce of neutral nations to the con- 
 dition in which it stood previous to their promulgation. If 
 Mr, Pinkney was in possession of any such information, 
 we should be happy to receive it.' The doubt thus cast on 
 the value of M. Champagny's pledge drew forth an elaborate 
 jeply, full of the bitterest reproach and sarcasm at om* un- 
 
438 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 readiness to meet the offer of the French with equivalent 
 concession, and ending with a renewed protest against the 
 pretensions of Great Britain to postpone the justice which she 
 owed to America. If it could even be admitted that France 
 was more emphatically bound to repeal her almost nominal 
 decrees than Grreat Britain to repeal her substantial orders, 
 what more could reasonably be required by the latter than had 
 been done by the former ? If there were room to apprehend 
 that the repealed decrees might have some operation in case 
 the Orders in Council were withdrawn, as there was no sudden 
 and formidable peril to which Great Britain could be exposed 
 by that operation, there could be no reason for declining to 
 act at once upon the declaration of France, and leave it to 
 the future to try its sincerity, if that sincerity were suspected.* 
 Wellesley, in reply, expressed his regret that it should have 
 been thought necessary to introduce any topics which might 
 tend to interrupt the conciliatory spirit in which it was the 
 sincere disposition of our Grovernment to conduct every nego- 
 tiation with that of the United States. The letter of the 
 French Minister for Foreign Affairs did not appear to contain 
 such a notification of the repeal of the decrees of Berlin and 
 Milan as could justify us in repealing the Orders in Council. 
 It stated that these decrees, from November 1, would cease to 
 be in force, it being understood that in consequence the 
 English should revoke their Orders in Council, and renounce 
 the new principles of blockade which they had attempted 
 to establish. The purport of this appeared to be that the 
 repeal would take effect provided that Grreat Britain, before 
 November 1, in consequence of this declaration, should re- 
 nounce those principles of blockade which France alleged to 
 be new. America might further understand that the decrees 
 would be repealed as far as regards her, provided she resented 
 any refusal of our Government to renounce the new principles 
 
 lOtli December. 1810. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 439 
 
 of blockade, and revoke the Orders in Council ; but that the 
 repeal would not continue in force unless, within a reasonable 
 time, we should fulfil the two conditions stated distinctly in 
 the letter of the French Minister. If nothing more had been 
 required than the repeal of our orders, we should not have 
 hesitated to declare the perfect readiness of the Government 
 to fulfil that condition. It appeared, however, not only 
 by the letter of ]M. Champagny, but by Mr. Pinkney's expla- 
 nation, that the repeal of the orders would not satisfy either 
 the French or American Governments. Our Government was 
 required to renounce those principles of blockade which the 
 French Government alleged to be new. The Berlin Decree 
 asserts that we had extended the right of blockade to com- 
 mercial unfortified towns, and to ports, harbours, mouths of 
 rivers, which, according to the principles and practices of all 
 civilised nations, is only applicable to fortified places. The 
 American Government was understood to require us expressly 
 to revoke the order of May 1806, as a practical instance of 
 our renunciation of those principles of blockade which Great 
 Britain had asserted to be ancient, established by the laws of 
 maritime war, and acknowledged by all civilised nations, and 
 on which depended our most valuable rights and interests. 
 If the French decrees were to be considered as still in force, 
 unless we should renounce those established foundations of our 
 maritime rights and interests, the time had not arrived when 
 the repeal of our Orders in Council could be claimed from us 
 with reference to the safety and honour of the nation. He 
 concluded by reiterating the assurance that the British 
 Government retained an anxious solicitude to revoke the orders 
 complained of, as soon as the French decrees should be effectu- 
 ally repealed without conditions injurious to the maritime 
 rights and honour of the United Kingdom.^ 
 
 The calmness and firmness thus manifested provoked a 
 » 29th December, 1810. 
 
440 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8ip 
 
 still angrier recapitulation of complaints, and some of the 
 expressions of the American Envoy would doubtless have 
 provoked the severity of Grrenville, or the mockery of Canning 
 had he held the pen. But pride and ambition alike whis- 
 pered prudence to him who, at the beginning of 1811, believed 
 that the day was not distant when he would be called by the 
 Regent to the head of affairs. In the existing condition of 
 parties and of external circumstances he could not be un- 
 conscious how much his perplexities would be increased by a 
 rupture with America, and how much confidence would be 
 lessened, justly or unjustly, in the Minister who happened 
 unluckily to break off amicable relations. He felt neverthe- 
 less that it was impossible to submit* to be browbeaten into 
 admitting that all that had been done, and said, and written, 
 for the last five years was in utter disregard of public right 
 and law. Having submitted Mr. Pinkney's communication ^ 
 to the Regent he was commanded, he said, to abstain from 
 any course of argument, and from any expression which 
 (however justified by the general tenor of his observations) 
 might tend to interrupt the good understanding which it was 
 the wish of his Royal Highness to maintain with the Grovem- 
 ment of the United States. J^o statement in reply to his 
 former letter appeared to affect the general principles which 
 he had the honour to communicate on December 29. Great 
 Britain had always insisted upon her right of self-defence 
 against the system of commercial warfare pursued by 
 France, and the British Orders in Council were founded upon 
 a just principle of retaliation against the French decrees. 
 The incidental operations of the Orders in Council upon 
 the commerce of the United States (although deeply to be 
 lamented) must be ascribed exclusively to the violence and 
 injustice of the enemy, which compelled this country to 
 resort to adequate means of defence. It could not even be 
 
 1 14th January, 1811. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 441 
 
 admitted that the foundation of the original question should 
 be changed, and that the measures of retaliation adopted 
 against France should now be relinquished at the desire of 
 the United States, without any reference to the actual con- 
 duct of the enemy. We couy not accede to the conditions 
 demanded by France, or to blend the questions which had 
 arisen upon the Orders in Council with any discussion of the 
 general principles of blockade. This declaration did not 
 preclude an amicable discussion upon the subject of any 
 particular blockade of which the circumstances might appear 
 to the Grovernment of the United States to be exceptional, 
 or to require explanation.^ 
 
 Mr. Pinkney asked an audience to take leave, which was 
 forthwith granted, with an intimation that Mr. Augustus 
 Foster, till then Minister at Stockholm, had been appointed 
 to Washington. The interval of several months which had 
 elapsed since the recall of Mr. Jackson, because he was unac- 
 ceptable to the American President, was unofficially explained 
 ' by the earnest desire of rendering the appointment satis- 
 factory to the United States, and conducive to the effectual 
 establishment of harmony between the two Grovernments.' 
 The Foreign Secretary was therefore ' concerned to find that 
 the Grovernment of the United States should suppose that any 
 indisposition could exist on the part of his Majesty's Grovern- 
 ment to place our mission on the most acceptable footing. 
 Under these circumstances Mr. Pinkney would exercise his 
 own judgment respecting the propriety of requiring an 
 audience of leave.' "^ This cheap sacrifice of a ram caught in 
 a thicket appeased for the moment impending wrath. The 
 American waived his audience of leave ; but, not to be too 
 condescending, wrote to say that he ' concluded it was the in- 
 tention of the British Government to seek immediately those 
 -adjustments with America without which the new appoint- 
 
 ' nth February, 1811. 2 loth February, 1811. 
 
442 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 mt^nt could produce no beneficial effect. He presumed that, 
 for the restoration of harmony between the two countries, 
 the Orders in Council would be relinquished without delay ; 
 the blockades of 1806 annulled ; the case of the ChesapeaJce 
 arranged ; and, in general, that all such just and reasonable 
 acts would be done as were necessary to make us friends. 
 His motives, he trusted, would not be misinterpreted if, 
 anxious so to regulate his conduct as that the best results 
 might be accomplished, he took the liberty of requesting 
 such explanations on these heads as his lordship might 
 think fit to give him.' ^ From Apsley House a private letter 
 repeated in terms nearly identical the general expression 
 of willingness to discuss details of any matter of complaint 
 or grievance, and referred to previous correspondence for 
 the explanation of English views and pm^poses. ' But it 
 would be neither candid or just to countenance any interpre- 
 tation which might favour a supposition that it was intended 
 by our Grovemment to relinquish any of the principles which 
 they had so often endeavoiu*ed to explain to him.^ Upon this 
 the Minister, in compliance with his instructions from Presi- 
 dent Madison, took his departure, and diplomatic relations 
 were suspended, though not actually broken off, for some time. 
 Meanwhile a change of person in the Executive power of 
 the State had taken place, which men of opposite parties, 
 who agreed in nothing else, concurred in regarding as of 
 paramount importance, and in which they were destined all 
 to be completely mistaken. After fifty years the reign of 
 Greorge III. had come to ail end, and while life and the use 
 of his bodily faculties were still left him, the feeble powers 
 of understanding he had hitherto possessed were taken away ; 
 and the son who, for a quarter of a century, he had regarded 
 with distrust, aversion, and contempt, was in everything 
 except the name substituted for him on the throne. On 
 ^ 17th February, 1811. « 23rd February, 1811. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 443 
 
 October 25, while surrounded by his usual domestic circle, 
 his Majesty, without any premonitory symptoms of illness, 
 suddenly appeared to be suffering from mental alienation, in 
 a form so painful that the Queen peremptorily dismissed her 
 children and the household, and with rare presence of mind 
 assumed the charge of her afflicted lord. The Court phy- 
 sicians were speedily in attendance, and the Ministers and 
 Princes of the blood summoned to Windsor. But among 
 many men there were many minds as to the cause, natm-e, 
 degree, and probable duration of the malady. The King had 
 been at intervals similarly afflicted before, and it was therefore 
 natural to anticipate that the delirium might again subside 
 without leaving any palpable effects. Every motive which 
 could influence men inspired to sway their judgments, and to 
 sever their courses on the occasion. Few were indeed allowed 
 access to the apartments in which the aged monarch was 
 secluded, and those who were, did not always agree in their 
 estimate of appearances or the expectations they expressed 
 with regard to the future. The Premier and the Chancellor 
 were officially bound to see the King, in order that they 
 might judge for themselves, and advise their colleagues what 
 should be done in the painful emergency. 
 
 Lord Eldon, on more than one occasion, spent some time 
 with him alone, by the advice of Sir H. Halford, because, as 
 he told the Privy Council, ' the King showed such respect for 
 the Chancellor, and awe of him,' that he would be rendered 
 thereby more amenable to advice. Whitbread pressed for 
 the meaning of the words ' respect ' and ' awe,' and asked 
 if the King did not feel the same for Mr. Perceval. Sir 
 Henry was puzzled ; but the questions and answers did not 
 appear in the examination, as they were expunged by twelve 
 to six. ^ A good deal more of the medical evidence was 
 likewise suppressed. When questioned as to the exciting 
 * MS. Journal of H. Grey Bennet, M.P. for Shrewsbury. 
 
444 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8jo 
 
 causes of previous aberration, the Court physicians, agreeing 
 with those of 1801, ascribed it to the controversy on the 
 Catholic question with Mr. Pitt, which led to his resigna- 
 tion, and with those of 1804 to the publication of his 
 Majesty's correspondence with his eldest son. In fact it ap- 
 peared that in all cases of opposition or irritation, George III. 
 was, and had been, subject to what the physicians thought fit 
 to call hurries and flurries (explained afterwards as ' tem- 
 porary deliriums).' In other words, he had been unable to 
 bring a cool judgment to the discussion of any proposition of 
 his Ministers against which he entertained a prepossession. 
 Hence his aversion to particular men, his vehemence upon 
 particular subjects, his resolution upon the Catholic question, 
 and his explanation of the Coronation oath. * 
 
 Lords Camden and Wellesley visited Windsor, and by 
 permission of the Queen, had a prolonged interview with the 
 physicians, whose hopes and misgivings, sufficiently perplex- 
 ing, they reported fully to the Cabinet. Speaking to one of 
 his confidants of the uncertainties of the future, the Foreign 
 Secretary said ' that he would not act in the matter in any 
 sneaking or mean way ; that if the King was not well enough 
 to sign the commission before the 29th, the physicians 
 should be publicly examined, and that upon their evidence he 
 would be guided as a juror. If it were favourable towards a 
 speedy recovery, he would then support the present order of 
 things to the last. If he thought it a question of doubtful or 
 distant recovery, he would not hesitate a moment in giving 
 the country an efficient Grovernment, the want of which had 
 already begun to be most seriously felt.' ^ 
 
 The Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary visited Windsor 
 again on November 1, to ascertain the opinion of the physi- 
 cians. They concurred in stating that his Maj esty was incapable 
 x)f signing any document of State ; secondly, his malady was 
 
 * MS. Journal of H. Grey Bennet, M.P. for Shrewsbury. 
 2 To Lord Buckingham, 1st November, 1810. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRA^, 445 
 
 referable to distress of mind regarding the Princess Amelia % 
 thirdly, that they had known many instances of recovery in 
 like cases. The two Ministers saw the King : when they came 
 out, Lord Eldon threw up his hands despondingly.* After 
 two adjournments of a fortnight each, it was at length thought 
 necessary that Parliament should deliberate, and determine 
 on the best means of supplying the want of supreme authority 
 in the State. As a first step the physicians were examined 
 before committees of the two Houses ; but, excepting Willis, 
 none of them could pronounce any decided opinion as to the 
 exact nature of the King's infirmity. 
 
 Public sympathy for the sad condition of the sufferer, and 
 commiseration for its immediate cause, naturally disarmed 
 political animosities for the time, and enabled Ministers 
 without difficulty to take their measures of preparation for 
 establishing a Eegency. Warned by previous experience the 
 Prince remained in comparative seclusion at Windsor, leaving 
 all parties free to conjecture what he would do if called to 
 power. A Bill, founded on the three resolutions of 1788, 
 appointing the Prince of Wales Regent of the kingdom, but 
 limiting the exercise for a year of certain prerogatives, was 
 opposed in the Commons by his political friends, but carried 
 by a large majority. On December 27 it was appointed to 
 be read a first time in the Lords ; and although it was known 
 that the Grenvilles felt bound in honour and consistency to 
 adhere to the course they had taken twenty years before, the 
 opposite opinion, strongly expressed by all the Princes 
 of the blood, was understood to be sufficiently indicative of 
 the personal feelings of the Heir Apparent, who was at 
 last about to assume the rank and power of sovereignty. 
 The Cabinet were indeed unanimous as to the proposed 
 measure, but it was felt that it behoved them to make their 
 imanimity apparent to the world. It was agreed that Lord 
 » From W. H. Freemantle, Englefield Green, 1st November, 1810.. 
 
446 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1810 
 
 Liverpool should make the introductory statement, and that 
 the Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary should be prepared 
 to reply. The prevalent belief that the Ministry would be 
 changed, and the expectation of many that Wellesley would 
 form part of a new combination, if he were not placed at the 
 head, rendered bis position not a little embarrassing ; but he 
 accepted the obligation frankly, and as was his wont, shut 
 himself up for a day or two before, in order to prepare himself 
 for the onerous duty circumstances imposed upon him. The 
 day came, and a crowded House waited with unusual interest 
 the renewal of the contention in which all the greatest men 
 of their time had been formerly engaged. Grrey was absent, 
 and the amendment on the resolutions was moved by Holland 
 and supported by the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Erskine, the 
 Duke of York, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Grrenville, who 
 expressed his astonishment at the dead silence which some 
 of the most responsible individuals in the committee observed 
 upon the occasion. The Chancellor accepted the challenge, 
 and, in his ponderous way, summed up the legal arguments 
 for limitation ; but for the rest, the defence of Grovernment 
 was left to secondary men ; and, although on a division they 
 prevailed by 100 to 74, one who watched the scene with 
 searching eye thought he ' never saw a set of men look so 
 crestfallen and beaten to the ground.' ^ For the signal 
 opportunity had come and gone, and Wellesley had failed to 
 grasp it. There he sat from hour to hour, conscious that 
 men's gaze was fixed upon him as one who was qualified, nay, 
 called upon to speak with authority, and whose silence would 
 be inexplicable. Canning, who waited restlessly to hear him 
 with that solicitude and sympathy which a great actor alone 
 can feel in a comrade whose success is linked with his own, 
 could not contain his vexation as he came out : ' You entered 
 the House the most expected man in England ; you leave 
 » Journal of . G. Bennet. 
 
i8io TORRES VEDRAS. 447 
 
 it self-undone.' He made no remonstrance, for explanation 
 he had none to give that by Canning would have been 
 credible. It was in fact one of those strange caprices of 
 fortune by which the career of an eminent man having in 
 him too much of nervous sensibility is liable to be chequered. 
 He knew too well how much his colleagues had naturally looked 
 to him as specially charged with the function of vindicating 
 their policy. In Council he had cited the words of Pitt 
 again and again ; and his intimates knew that he had for 
 days been absorbed in preparation for a great oratorical 
 effort. But when he should have risen to answer Holland 
 or Erskine, some unaccountable irresolution came upon him, 
 and he let the occasion pass without uttering a word. 
 Nothing could exceed the mortification of his friends, except 
 his own. Ill-nature quickly ascribed the cause to be a visit 
 he had paid a few hours previously to Carlton House; and the 
 whisper everywhere went round that he had ' ratted ' at the last 
 moment for the sake of power. Even his warm admirers 
 shrank from defending his unpardonable silence ; they began 
 to speak of his being gone by as a public man, wanting the 
 moral courage that can alone sustain character for consistency. 
 The crowd talked of him next day as a deserter, and his own 
 chagrin was such that he himself confessed in private, should 
 the King recover, his conduct must seem wholly inexcusable. 
 And yet there existed no substantial reason for the obloquy 
 he had brought upon himself. ' No being living was, to my 
 knowledge, more anxious to play his part upon this occasion 
 as an inheritor of Mr. Pitt's system and as a personal friend 
 to the King. His visit to the Prince was unofficial, and 
 marked by harshness and ill-humour on both sides. His 
 preparation was ample and complete, and his views of the 
 whole Regency question squared to a tittle with those of his 
 brother Ministers. To those who were most interested about 
 him, it was a species of (Uf alliance more alarming than even 
 
448 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1810 
 
 the verification of the worst suggestions of his enemies. It 
 augured un hoTnme passe : and the most dangerous symptom 
 of the whole was that he entirely agreed in the opinion. All 
 this was to be retrieved, if it could be retrieved, in the 
 progi'ess of the Bill, when he could, if he would, in reply to 
 Lord Grrey, take an opportunity of going over the whole 
 question in the fullest detail, and unequivocally declaring his 
 opinions thereon. Such were at least his pledges to his 
 friends.' ^ 
 
 ' Mr. D. to Marquis of Buckingham, undated letter, written probably 
 early in January. 
 
449 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 
 1811-12. 
 
 January was spent by Parliament in discussing the details of 
 restriction on the powers of the Eegencj. The chiefs of 
 Opposition were in daily communication with the Prince, and 
 but for their jealousies among themselves he would probably 
 have been ruled by them. His impatience at the restrictions 
 Ministers sought to impose on him beguiled them into 
 reiterated objections and protests; and parties were so nearly 
 balanced that, with Grrenville's help, an amendment of Lord 
 Lansdowne's was carried by a majority of three. But the old 
 colleague of Pitt, who had republished his speech on limited 
 Kegency as a masterpiece of constitutional wisdom, suddenly 
 revoked, and as one of his ardent Whig allies exclaimed, 
 'thereby lost the game.' He hoped indeed, to make 
 amends by moving to reduce the terms of limitation from 
 twelve to six months. This did not satisfy the Prince, 
 though he desired him and Lord Grey to frame his answer 
 to the Address of the two Houses. Over-secure of their sup- 
 posed ascendency, they tried to reconcile the opposing views 
 held upon the theory of executive sovereignty at Carlton 
 House and at Dropmore, declining the aid of the more 
 pliant Moira as a coadjutor in their task. Sheridan, who 
 had his own slights to resent, adroitly fixed the attention of 
 his revelling Highness on certain turns of phrase, which he 
 
 Q a 
 
450 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1811 
 
 condemned as ' flimsy attempts to cover Grrenville's consis- 
 tency at the expense of the Prince,' and readily framed an- 
 other draft, which being approved in preference, he handed to 
 Lord Grey at Holland House, with comments and explanations 
 ill-suited to appease the Earl's wounded dignity. A stately 
 admonition on the princely error of not being guided solely by 
 the counsel of responsible advisers, gave Sheridan ample oppor- 
 tunity for casting ridicule on the dictatorial pretensions of the 
 Ministers about to be. The inherited jealousy of Ministerial 
 mentorship thus kindled was for a time indeed repressed, 
 but thenceforth, every now and then, it threatened to break 
 out, to Moira's worldly-wise regret and disapproval. In the 
 first scheme for the distribution of offices he agreed to go 
 to Ireland as Viceroy, with Sheridan as chief Secretary; 
 but the Prince did not want to lose the company of either, 
 to which he had grown accustomed, and instead, suggested 
 Lansdowne as a better Lord-Lieutenant. Grey, Whitbread, 
 and Ponsonby were to be Secretaries of State, and Grenville, 
 though he would not resign his incompatible post of 
 Auditor of the Exchequer, took it as a matter of course that 
 he should be First Lord of the Treasury. Erskine, it was 
 felt, could not again be forced upon the Court of Chancery, 
 and he was content to be Speaker only of the Upper House ; 
 but Piggott and Romilly were unexceptionable law officers ; 
 the Great Seal might be put in commission ; and a better 
 Secretary of the Treasury than Horner there could not be. 
 Meanwhile Perceval kept his friends together, and though 
 nearly single-handed in debate, made so good a fight that 
 even his adversaries acknowledged the temper and talent he 
 had shown. Yet all the world agreed that however gallantly 
 he might prolong the struggle it could only end in his dis- 
 comfiture and displacement, as soon as the Act was passed 
 which should clothe the Heir Apparent with the Chief Magis- 
 tracy of the realm. In the prolonged discussions, WeUesley 
 
 i 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 451 
 
 took no part, and his name only appears as voting in divisions 
 and as one of the managers for the Peers in conferences upon 
 certain minor amendments in the Painted Chamber. 
 
 A last and as it proved an ill-advised attempt to modify 
 the limitations was made by Ponsonby, contrary to his 
 better judgment, to please the Prince, giving Ministers 
 an increased majority. When it was over, Mr. Brand told 
 Plummer Ward how much he admired Perceval's bearing in 
 the struggle, and said laughingly, that perhaps after all, the 
 Kegent might retain him for three months, on the chance 
 of the King's recovery, and then fall in love with him and 
 keep him on. This was on January 21, and within a week 
 his Eoyal Highness had begun to listen to suggestions 
 from the Queen, which led to the renunciation of all his 
 previous counsels. Up to January 31, Rose still believed a 
 Ministerial change was certain as soon as the Bill should 
 
 pass. ' By ! they shall not remain one hour ! ' had been 
 
 the exclamation of the Prince only a few days before ; and 
 Sheridan, blinding or blinded, maintained that it was their 
 own fault if the Tories had to go ; for if they had not been 
 so punctilious about the precedent of 1789 they might hold 
 on. Yet few had more contributed than he to keep alive the 
 feelings of impatience and dislike with which the Prince re- 
 garded the unyielding tone and reprehending look of Grrey. 
 
 On February 12 theEegent, to the surprise of all parties, 
 wrote to Mr. Perceval that he had no intention of makino- 
 
 o 
 
 any immediate change in the Administration ; and his first 
 speech to Parliament was indistinguishable in sentiment and 
 purport from those of his father. Filial duty and considera- 
 tion for the afflicted condition of his sovereign alone prompted 
 him, he said, to put in abeyance the principles he had hither- 
 to professed, and to set aside the claims and expectations he 
 had encouraged to the last moment. Lords Granville and 
 Grey were actually engaged iu forming a new Administration 
 
 a u 2 
 
452 MAR(2UESS WELLESLEY. i8ir 
 
 when the confidential Adam came in and told them ' all was 
 over.' Their anger could not be concealed ; but when they 
 had slept on it, they thought it more politic as well as 
 more dignified to say they believed the inconsistency of 
 the Prince attributable to the restrictions which in other 
 matters fettered his choice ; and that, when the statutable 
 limitation of his power should expire, they would naturally 
 and inevitably come into possession of their long-deferred 
 inheritance. Grenville and Grey took leave of the Prince 
 on February 3 : ' they parted good friends, with many pro- 
 testations on each side.' There was a Coim.cil at Carlton 
 House, at which there was a numerous attendance, almost 
 every Privy Councillor in town being present. The Prince 
 kept the Council waiting two hours ; the King never de- 
 tained anybody a minute. He was very civil to some and 
 very rude to others, particularly to the Speaker Abbot and 
 to Perceval, turning his head away while they kissed his 
 hand. He had brought into the Council room that morning 
 the busts of Mr. Fox and the Duke of Bedford ; and they 
 were placed at the head of the table. The situation of the 
 Ministers was most distressing. Upon some one wishing 
 Lord Harrowby joy, he replied, ' Joy ! how can I feel it ? 
 we have to do business with a man who hates us, and only 
 wishes power to turn us out.' He was much advised to do 
 so by Moira, Hutchinson, and Sheridan ; but Yarmouth and 
 Lady Hertford laboured the other way. The country seemed 
 against limitations, and being heartily tired of the state of 
 things, looked to a change of any sort. All the world forgot 
 what the Prince had done or not done during his previous life. 
 -People thought more was said than was true. Cobbett took 
 the lead in this tone, and was of much service to his cause. ^ 
 
 The Foreign Secretary thus found himself unexpectedly^ 
 retained in his position, and the direction of Foreign Afiairs 
 ^ Grej^ Bennet's Journal, Februarj' 1811. 
 
48ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 453 
 
 was the function which of all others he preferred if he could 
 not be First Minister. In ordinary times it involved an 
 extent and degree of individual sway in the affairs of tlie 
 world greater than that which was exercised by the head of 
 any other department ; in times like those in which the 
 oountry was engaged in life-and-death wrestle with the power 
 of Napoleon, it was one of boundless responsibility, and to a 
 man of egotistic temperament daily stimulative of the sense 
 of personal ascendency. It was a period, to use the words of 
 Canning, ' when one hour of office was worth a year of or- 
 dinary dignity and pay ; ' and few men were more capable 
 of enjoying the intoxicating pleasures of the position than 
 Wellesley. So keen indeed was his zest for the exercise of 
 far-seeing and far-reaching control in great affairs, that he 
 could not brook the idea of consulting or conferring with 
 those he deemed ineffably his inferiors, though bound up with 
 them in the bundle of official life. For weeks together he 
 abstained from attending the Cabinet, leaving to the head of 
 the Treasury and the Secretary for War the duty of explain- 
 ing the details of the measures he had concerted with them. 
 He was, besides, too impatient of contradiction and too dis- 
 dainful of the commonplace doubts and objections which less 
 daring and ambitious associates in office were apt to suggest. 
 Mr. Perceval, while he kept his temper, chafed at the want 
 of consideration, and indeed breach of conventional rule of 
 mutual confidence and intercommunication, on which the 
 Executive in a constitutional State can alone securely rest. 
 Wellesley frequently acted and no doubt felt as if he, and 
 not Perceval, were head of the Administration. 
 
 The Address in the Commons at the opening of the 
 
 first session of Regency was moved by Mr. M. Milnes,^ and 
 
 seconded, in a maiden speech, by Richard Wellesley, who 
 
 <}hiefly dwelt upon the constancy and courage of the troops 
 
 • Father of Lord Hoiigliton. 
 
454 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8ir 
 
 in Portugal, under his distinguished relative, which had 
 insured the deliverance of that kingdom from the miseries 
 of invasion. 
 
 Notwithstanding all we had done and were ready to risk 
 for Portugal, jealousy of Wellington's peremptory tone as 
 Commander-in-Chief of the allied forces, and of the equally 
 wise interposition of our envoy at Lisbon, troubled the 
 Brazilian Court, whose dreamy idleness was haunted with 
 misgivings of our ultimate purpose. From Rio, Strangford 
 wrote that symptoms of recurring ' discontent and suspicion 
 were unequivocally exhibited by the Regent at the interference 
 at Lisbon of Mr. Stuart and Admiral Berkley ' on bel^lf of 
 persons who had incurred the resentment of the local govern- 
 ment there.^ Could nothing be said to appease these ground- 
 less feelings of mistrust ? or nothing done to back the Count 
 Linhares, who, because he was our friend in council, intrigue 
 was busily endeavouring to undermine ? 
 
 Wellesley did not deign to resent the petulance and folly 
 that imputed furtive aims to England, or think of bidding 
 his inflexible brother pjtlter for a moment with the dema^ 
 gogues in office, whose fatuity, had he even seemed to yield 
 to them, would have ruined all. Months before he had 
 anticipated the distant mischief, and prepared to circumvent 
 the folly in his own Oriental way. As he read the anxious 
 plenipotentiary's despatch on March 25, he felt serenely con- 
 fident that already the wayward mood had changed, for reasons 
 he had not thought it necessary to disclose ; and on April 19 
 an account reached him of the delight and gratitude of the 
 Brazilian Court on the receipt of costly presents sent in 
 the King's name ; and above all, for the restoration of the 
 Minerva, a ship of war re-captured from the enemy, at 
 sight of which, as she entered the beautiful harbour of Rio de 
 
 » From the English Minister to Brazil, 20th January, 1811. MS. in 
 Foreiorn Office. 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 455 
 
 Janeiro, the whole population went fairly mad with joy.* It 
 was one of the fine strokes in the world-game he loved to 
 play, which by prosaic colleagues would have been deemed 
 fantastical, and by economic critics indefensible ; but which 
 history, that does not find the fate of nations governed 
 merely by huxter interest or hard logic, deems not unworthy 
 of record. Already the danger of disunion in Portugal had 
 passed away, and the French had re-crossed the frontier to 
 return no more. Grreater efforts than previovisly ought to be 
 made if we were to secure the fruit of this success. At the 
 instance of the Foreign Secretary ^ Parliament was asked for 
 two millions for the maintenance of the Portuguese army, 
 which, notwithstanding the admitted symptoms of decline in 
 the export trade, and in spite of the forebodings of Grenville 
 and Ponsonby, who argued that all our sacrifices would prove 
 vain, were granted by decisive majorities. 
 
 Lord Temple thought that Canning seemed determined to 
 abide by Wellesley, but looked for a junction with Grrenville 
 and Grey. There had for some time been a coolness between 
 himself and the Foreign Secretary ; but the latter made an 
 advance towards reconciliation which was accepted ; he ex- 
 pressed his readiness to meet Grenville, and an interview 
 between the two old friends was arranged for an early day. 
 But Thomas Grenville disliked Canning so bitterly that he 
 objected to his brother making any confidence with Wellesley, 
 and laboured to keep them apart. The friends of Gloucester 
 Lodge, meanwhile, were as outspoken about the necessity of 
 a change as those of Apsley House. The progress of the war, 
 though overhung with the darkness of uncertainty, was lighted 
 up from time to time with lurid gleams of triumph that stirred 
 the popular heart. Men had not ceased to recount the dangers 
 
 ' From Lord Strangford, 20th February, 1811, idem. 
 ' See his speech on address to the Regent pledging the Peers to 
 support Portugal, 21st March, 1811. 
 
456 MARQUESS WELLESLEV, iZii 
 
 of Barossa when they were gladdened by the success of Fuen- 
 tes D'Onore and fevered with excitement by the tragic tale of 
 Albuera.* But more and more as the strain on the national 
 resources was prolonged, the need of unifying and consolidating 
 them grew urgent in the minds of liberal and enlightened 
 statesmen ; and the infatuation grew more obvious of keeping 
 in a state of political outlawry millions of the hardiest and 
 bravest subjects of the Crown. Wellesley never disguised 
 his sentiments on the subject. In the debate on the Catholic 
 Petition on June 1 8 he did not speak, but in the division he 
 voted with the Whigs against Liverpool and Eldon. The 
 fact is worth noticing in reference to the ultimate breach 
 between him and them in the ensuing year. 
 
 A first draft of the Eegent's speech closing the session 
 did not satisfy him, and he was asked by the Premier to 
 ' let him have the benefit of his emendatory elisions.' On 
 the back of his brief note he replied, ' Happening to be out 
 of town imtil the hour of going to the House of Lords to-day, 
 I have scarcely had time to read the draft of the speech with 
 due attention, and you require that it should be returned 
 to-morrow morning. As you wish for free observation upon 
 it, you will not be offended when I tell you that I object to 
 the whole plan of it, which in my opinion, is totally inadequate 
 to the occasion. The great featm-e of the present session 
 (with respect to the very existence of this empire) is the 
 effort which Parliament has made to support the war in 
 the Peninsula ; and the principles from which that effort 
 proceeded are, in my judgment, essentially necessary to be 
 stated in the opening of the speech, quite distinctly from the 
 success of our operations. I have many other objections to 
 the draft, both in point of substance and style; but as I really 
 think that the general plan of the speech is far below the 
 magnitude of the occasion, I state tliis sentiment to you 
 » 16th May, 1811. 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 457 
 
 without delay ; I am satisfied that on reconsideration of the 
 draft you will approve very few words which are now on the 
 paper.' ^ 
 
 As delivered by commission, on July 24, it particularly 
 expressed the Kegent's approbation of the wisdom and firm- 
 ness manifested in continuing the exertions of the country 
 in the cause of our allies, to prosecute the war with increased 
 activity and vigour. The determined perseverance in a 
 system of liberal aid to the brave and loyal nations of the 
 Peninsula had progressively augmented their means and 
 spirit of resistance, while the humane attentions to the 
 suflferings of the inhabitants, under the unexampled cruelty 
 of the enemy, had confirmed the alliance by new ties of 
 affection, and could not fail to inspire additional zeal and 
 animation in the maintenance of the common cause. This 
 was his part of the speech, and Perceval was welcome to 
 formuliate the residue as he pleased. 
 
 Kussia having given indications that she was weary of 
 the war at sea, instructions were to be sent to Sir James 
 Saumarez (then commanding the Fleet in the Baltic) to 
 conclude a suspension of hostilities, and if opportunity served, 
 to sign preliminaries of peace. Perceval had ' nothing to 
 object to the draft sent to him for approval, which met 
 his ideas exactly. He enclosed, however, on a separate paper, 
 as a suggestion for consideration, another mode of turning 
 the passage, introducing the mention of the resolutions on 
 trade which would equally convey the meaning and was less 
 capable of being construed into an implied conditional 
 promise of direct aid to Russia. He saw no objection to 
 giving the admiral power to sign preliminary articles, except 
 that he doubted whether it might not, by betraying too 
 great an eagerness and forwardness on our part, rather tend 
 .to defeat our object. But upon this point particularly he 
 ' Endorsed in Mr. Perceval's handwriting, 16th July, 1811. 
 
458 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1811 
 
 lamented that they had not had a Cabinet ; he thought 
 their colleagues would be a little surprised to find such a 
 measure taken without any previous communication with 
 them ; and indeed, he would feel that if it would occasion 
 too much delay to have a Cabinet upon the paper before it 
 was despatched, it was very desirable that it should be cir- 
 culated as soon as possible. Though he did not conceive that 
 there was any point on which any of their colleagues could 
 differ from them ; it was not impossible, especially with those 
 who were every week in town, that they might not feel hurt 
 at the appearance of not having been consulted upon such 
 important subjects. This last observation applied to the 
 despatch respecting the mediation with the South American 
 colonies of Spain and the instructions sent to Mr. Smith. 
 They would be sure to have a pretty full Cabinet on Wednes- 
 day, if the Marquess would summon it for that day, and he 
 might then read to them his instructions to Mr. H. Wellesley 
 and the first forms of his letter to Mr. Smith. ^ This was 
 exactly the sort of appeal from his own confident judgment 
 which the Secretary chafed at as superfluous and even absurd, 
 and which on all possible occasions, he endeavoured to elude. 
 The Cabinet was not called by him ; and when it met, he was 
 obliged to be out of town. 
 
 In September advices were received from the Northern 
 Powers indicating the revival of a spirit of resistance to 
 Napoleon's overbearing ascendency. Alexander's pride was 
 wounded by the preference unceremoniously shown for Marie 
 Louisa's hand to that of his sister; and his country was 
 suffering severely from the operation of the Continental 
 system. He had put his army in Poland once more upon 
 an active footing, and its efficiency, under the reforming 
 influence of Barclay de Tolly, had been greatly improved 
 since the Treaty of Tilsit. If called on, as he expected to 
 * From Downing Street, 9th August, 1811. 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 459 
 
 be, to repay the war loan of ten millions due to Holland, he 
 must consider it an act of hostility, and he was ready to 
 combine with England and Prussia, if the latter could be 
 induced to move and the former to hold on her intrepid way. 
 From all quarters came the acknowledgment that the daunt- 
 less stand made in the Peninsula had rekindled hope and 
 faith that previously seemed dead. The enthusiasm of the 
 Foreign Secretary on beginning to perceive the result of his 
 policy took the form once more it had taken in India. His 
 indolence vanished, and his love of pleasure was forgotten in 
 his zest for work. Week after week he postponed leaving 
 town, and devoted hours continuously every day to the 
 expanding business of his office, whose records still preserve 
 the traces of his energetic and comprehensive labour. One 
 who saw him frequently, describes the constancy of his appli- 
 cation, and the intense satisfaction at the recognition from 
 afar of the spirit he had infused. ' It was his sanguine belief 
 that the face of Europe was about to undergo the most 
 material change for the better, and all brought about by his 
 counsels.' ^ 
 
 At Oatlands, where the Prince stayed often late in the 
 autumn, the Foreign Secretary was a frequent visitor ; and 
 his friends believed that the influence of the Duke of York 
 was exerted actively in support of his views. At Carlton 
 House the Duke of Cumberland, who leaned rather to those 
 of the Chancellor and Mr. Perceval, seems to have subse- 
 quently gained the ear of his indolent and irresolute brother, 
 who shrunk from the trouble of any immediate change of 
 hands. He was heard for the first time to complain of the 
 conduct of the Catholics in agitating in Ireland, thereby 
 weakening his Government, and perversely casting doubt 
 upon the sincerity of his intentions towards them. He 
 would not be intimidated into premature concession, and he 
 ' Mr. D. to Lord Buckingham, 17th September, 1811. 
 
466 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8ii 
 
 would make no alteration in the Ministry, which would have 
 the appearance of yielding to menace. 
 
 But again the humour changed, and subjects of renewed 
 dissatisfaction arose with the First Minister, which led him 
 to resume his former professions of preference for Apsley 
 House. 
 
 The Regent was compelled by a sprained ankle to keep 
 his room for several weeks at tlie country residence of his 
 brother, and he was glad of the society of one whose intelli- 
 gence was the newest, and whose resources in conversation were 
 the best. Foreign affairs at the time had the interest and 
 variety of romance ; and compared with the business of other 
 departments, had the supreme merit of being amusing : and 
 Wellesley knew well how to amuse. A man with whom 
 Grattan, Pitt, Canning, and Pozzo di Borgo loved to talk, 
 and whom half the women of fashion loved to call 'dear 
 Marquess,' was sure of welcome beside the sofa of the invalid 
 voluptuary. During sultry afternoons he was often con- 
 strained to stay on till dinner-time, and sometimes till too 
 late for driving into town. An opportunity thus afforded for 
 sowing the waste brain of idle royalty with martial thoughts 
 was not to be neglected ; and putting aside many claims of 
 business and pleasure that would otherwise have occupied 
 him, the Secretary held himself ready to be commanded to 
 Oatlands whenever princely idleness was in a European 
 humour. Might it not still be possible to work his vanity 
 into a species of ambition to rescue the western States of the 
 Continent from military domination? If enthusiasm for 
 mere right had never existed, and early lessons of public 
 duty had all been scoffed away or drowned in wassail, might 
 not something be made of egotism languishing for a new 
 •emotion ? Could it not be coaxed and wheedled into good — 
 the good of the public ? Even though but for a season, 
 would it not be better than high play, foppery, broad jests, 
 
i8ii OAT LANDS AND DORKING. 461 
 
 and midnight bowls ? The Koyal ennuy^ listened, and daily 
 liked to listen more, to Wellesley's ever-fresh and always 
 graphic details of war in Spain, and combinations for renewed 
 resistance at Berlin, Stockholm, and St. Petersbm*g. The 
 Eegent listened with interest to the splendid visions con- 
 tinually presented to him of concerted action abroad, organ- 
 ised by our intelligence and through our instrumentality. 
 Eussia no longer asked for subsidies, and only urged that the 
 war in the South should be pressed with unremitting vigour. 
 For this an additional effort ought to be made in Galicia^ 
 to divide the attention of the French armies, and to enable 
 Wellington once more to advance towards Madrid. Fresh 
 armaments and provision for additional expenditure of 
 3,000,000L would be indispensable ; but the country was 
 eager for the liberation of Spain, and if we succeeded in 
 allaying the irritation of America, tlie elasticity of our com- 
 merce would, without serious hiu't, sustain the increased 
 burthen. Information on this and a variety of other points 
 connected with foreign trade was sought daily from bankers 
 and merchants, to whom Wellesley gave long interviews 
 at Downing Street, and sent away impressed with the con- 
 viction that there was not another Minister like him for 
 sympathy in their interest or comprehension of their afifairs. 
 But while Perceval remained at the Treasury, it was doubtful 
 how far his policy could be carried into effect. The Prince 
 and his brothers, as far as they were consulted, were said 
 to desire a change, and the rumour ran that the Dukes of 
 Norfolk, Devonshire, and Northumberland, with Lords Hol- 
 land and Lansdowne, were ready to take part in an Adminis- 
 tration of which the Marquess should be the head, and Canning 
 spokesman in the Commons. 
 
 Pozzo di Borgo was at this time in England. He was 
 already known as a man of singular talents and attainments, 
 full of varied information and original suggestion ; a great 
 
462 MARQUESS WELLESLEV. i8ii 
 
 linguist, a rare political strategist, and above all, a good hater. 
 Napoleon bad in vain tried to appease bis aversion ; but be 
 was a Corsican, and bis life was devoted to tbe undoing of 
 bis bitberto invincible fellow-countryman. Compelled to quit 
 tbe service of tbe Czar, be bad agreed to meet Stein, tbe Ex- 
 Cbancellor of Prussia, at Troppau, in tbe autumn of 1809,^ 
 to interchange longings for vengeance, and to concert tbe 
 re-organisation of a conspiracy against Napoleon by matter- 
 of-fact politicians deemed chimerical, but which before long 
 was felt in tbe quickened pulse of every prostrate community. 
 Wellesley invited him to visit England, and he bad to make 
 bis way by Smyrna, Malta, and Cadiz. They had many 
 communings and conferences while be stayed. Few men, 
 indeed, could comprehend one another more thoroughly ; and 
 in the eventful period Avbich ensued, Pozzo di Borgo justified 
 amply the high estimate formed of his sagacity and versatility 
 by tbe English Secretary of State. With his colleagues it 
 seldom occurred to Wellesley to talk, still less to confer, on 
 ground-plans of a re-modelled Europe or tbe intricate details 
 of various designs and elevations. He thought it enough to 
 engage when he could tbe attention, or touch tbe listless 
 ambition of tbe Eoyal Sybarite, without whose sanction he 
 <jould not venture to act, and whose self-love led him to 
 prefer the anti-constitutional way of dealing with each 
 Minister about the business of his department, instead of 
 with a dozen Ministers bound together by tbe solidarity 
 of a Cabinet. Had there been in high office in 1811 any 
 second man possessing knowledge and versatility in Foreign 
 Affairs, the practice could not have arisen imperceptibly of 
 which, when it threatened to become habitual, bis colleagues 
 vaguely and moodily complained. 
 
 Tbe inconvenience of tbe head of a department acting 
 upon his own responsibility in important matters without 
 * Stein and Pozzo di Borgo, by Count Ouvaroff, 1847. 
 
i8ii OAT LANDS AND DORKING. 463 
 
 communication with his colleagues was exemplified by the 
 autocratic resolve of the Most Noble Secretary to appoint 
 commissioners who were to mediate between Spain and 
 her revolted colonies. Rose, surprised at the announce- 
 ment in the newspapers, was still more amazed to find 
 that his friends in the Cabinet knew as little about the 
 matter until a day or two before the appointment appeared 
 in the Gazette, The true reason of the hurry was, he insinu- 
 ates, an impatience to provide for Mr. Sydenham ; but the 
 alleged reason was that the Duke of Infantado pressed it with 
 so much importunity as a measure necessary to strengthen 
 the feeble hands of the governing Junta, that the English 
 Foreign Office found it difficult not to yield. The fact 
 was, says the astute party manager, that my Lord Marquess 
 had exercised absolute power so long in India that he had 
 no great relish for consultation with others in the Cabinet. 
 But if it be true that the Spanish Minister's importunities 
 drew him into that doubtful position, it will account in some 
 degree for the vexation and discontent which he betrayed in 
 a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject.* 
 
 * Private. 
 
 ' I return the draft which you have been so kind as to 
 send to me, with a few suggestions on the margin. The 
 conduct of Portugal, or rather the Portuguese Grovernment, 
 is a good exercise of political patience for a young Minister. 
 I have been engaged in one continued squabble with that 
 Government and our other ally of Spain since I held the 
 seals ; and if any statesman can point out to me the means 
 of inducing either to attend to reason, truth, or justice, I shall 
 be much obliged to him.' 
 
 Another illustration of the want of administrative inti- 
 macy, for it would be ironical to talk of consultative unity, 
 " From Dorking, 7th November, 1811. 
 
464 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8ir 
 
 in the Government, is to be found in a note of the scrupulous 
 and well-tempered, but sometimes sorely tried. First Lord to 
 the intractable Secretar}-. Beginning with a few lines about 
 a rough draft enclosed of the speech from the Throne at 
 the opening of Parliament, on which he invites the ' amplest 
 criticism,' he proceeds : ' A warrant has been brought from 
 the Treasury this morning for my signature for 1,000Z. for 
 Sir Robert Wilson, to enable him to prepare for some mission, 
 and your letter to the Lords of the Treasury, I perceive, is 
 dated 29th of November, and the warrant was ordered under 
 your instructions by the Lords of the Treasury. I do not 
 think you ever mentioned the subject of the mission to me % 
 if you have, it is so long ago that I have entirely forgotten 
 it ; and as I know not whither he is going — whether Egypt, 
 Constantinople, Palestine, or elsewhere — nor what the object 
 of his mission is, I am sure you will not be surprised at my 
 requesting to know something concerning it. I remember 
 hearing, but I think it was only from common rumour, some 
 time ago that there was a mention of sending him with 
 Mr. Liston ; but I thought it had been with some view to 
 his attending on the Turkish army, and the way of conducting 
 the campaign against the Russians. However, as he cannot 
 possibly reach that destination till the conclusion of the 
 campaign, or rather, to judge by the late news, till the war 
 itself be over, I think notwithstanding, if that were the 
 original intention, that it may have been changed. At all 
 events, I should be glad to see his instructions ; and if you 
 have prepared them, I will be obliged to you to send them 
 to me.' * 
 
 The Marquess replied the next day : ' To the best of 
 
 my recollection I communicated to you some time ago the 
 
 intention of employing Sir Robert Wilson. I have desired 
 
 Mr. Hamilton to state the object of that appointment in a 
 
 » 25th December, 1811. 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 465 
 
 note which I now enclose to you. I should certainly have 
 conversed more fully on the subject with you if I had thought 
 it deserving of your attention.' 
 
 In November we have the following : — 
 
 ' I send you a private letter from Mr. Thornton, to whicli 
 I shall pay immediate attention. Be so good as to return it 
 to me. I also send an interesting interception. 
 
 ' With the Swedish papers (which I sent to the Regent 
 this morning) I have received an order to attend at Oatlands 
 to-morrow, for the purpose of meeting Count Miinster, and 
 of discussing the affairs of the North, on which his Eoyal 
 Highness is very anxious. I am afraid that I shall not be able 
 to return in time for Lord Westmoreland's dinner.' 
 
 Late on the 27th he wrote to say : ' Just as I reached 
 Oatlands, this morning at half-past twelve, the Princesses 
 arrived from Windsor, which event prevented me from seeing 
 the Prince until a very late hour. I am but this moment 
 arrived in town, and have had no dinner, and am so much 
 tired (partly from the extreme heat of the room at Oatlands) 
 that I should have no power of rendering justice to any 
 subject of public business to-night, even if I could reach you 
 in any reasonable time. 
 
 'The subject of my audience to-day was Sweden ; but the 
 Prince generally stated to me the same ideas which I have 
 already mentioned to you, with much increased earnestness, 
 and indeed on some points with considerable force. He 
 informed me that he had seen the Queen yesterday, and 
 that her Majesty entirely approved all his views respecting 
 the King, the Household, and the settlement for the Queen 
 and the Princesses. 
 
 ' He continues to think that the dignity of the King and 
 the comfort of his situation will be best provided for by a 
 separate establishment, under a new office of the highest 
 rank. That the Eegent should have the whole Civil List, 
 
 H H 
 
466 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8ir 
 
 and the full state, as well as power, of the Crown, and should 
 resign his allowances as Prince of Wales. That the Queen 
 should have an independent allowance, and the Princesses 
 the same. He considers this part of the arrangement to be 
 inseparable from the settlement of the Regency on a per- 
 manent basis. He will state many very strong considerations 
 in favour of his plan, and appears intent on carrying it into 
 execution. He said to-day that, after the discussion with 
 you shall have taken place (unless you agreed), he should 
 wait to receive your propositions in writing, in order that he 
 might answer them. I rather understood this to be a proof 
 of his determination to abide by his own ideas than a 
 symptom of any intention to depart from them in consequence 
 of what he might receive in writing from you. 
 
 ' As, I suppose, you will pass the greater part of to-morrow 
 at Oatlands, I would fix Friday, at two, for the Cabinet on 
 the other points in my department, if that day should be 
 convenient.' ^ 
 
 The majority of the Cabinet fell in reluctantly with the 
 ideas of Carlton House. There was real need for economy 
 in the permanent charges which the Exchequer had to bear ; 
 and there was no temptation in a party sense to provide for 
 the endowment of opponents who were counting audibly the 
 days till they should come into power. Parsimony, in public 
 or in private, was not among the foibles of the Marquess, 
 but he seems to have concurred in nearly all the views pro- 
 pounded by the Treasury. 
 
 * The Prince Eegent sent an order to me, which reached 
 me at this place last night, directing me to attend his Eoyal 
 Highness at Oatlands, at twelve to-day. He began by asking 
 me whether I had seen the paper which he had received 
 from you respecting the new settlement of the Regency. I 
 said (as you know I must have said) that I had not seen the 
 ' To Perceval, 27th November, 1811 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 467 
 
 paper, but that I was acquainted with the substance of its 
 contents. He then communicated your paper to me, and 
 said that he intended to state his ideas in writing on the 
 whole subject; that he was aware of the impropriety of 
 desiring me to offer any advice in the present state of the 
 question, but that he wished to declare his sentiments freely 
 to me. I thought it was my duty to inform his Royal 
 Highness that I could not, in this stage of the discussion, 
 offer any opinion on the subject, either of your paper or of 
 his intended answer ; and as this sentiment agreed with his 
 own feeling he did not ask any opinion from me ; but he 
 proceeded to express nearly the same views of the subject 
 which he had stated to you and to me on former occasions. 
 I collected from his Royal Highness's conversation that your 
 paper had produced no change in his opinion, and that he 
 entertained a strong persuasion that his statement would 
 >have great weight, and would satisfy you that you had taken 
 an erroneous view of the question. 
 
 ' He informed me that he would send a copy to the Lord 
 Chancellor, and that he would send me another copy. I 
 should be glad to know when you propose to assemble a 
 Cabinet for the consideration of your paper and of his Royal 
 Highness's statement ? I conclude that it cannot be sooner 
 than Wednesday. I shall not be in town to-morrow.' ^ 
 
 A serious difference arose about the sum requisite to 
 clear the debts contracted by the Prince during the year of 
 Limitation. It was specially to this point in dispute that 
 the foregoing note referred. 
 
 Perceval at once replied : — 
 
 * I thank you for your letter, and regret extremely that 
 
 his Royal Highness continues so attached to his former 
 
 opinion respecting the new settlement of the Regency. I 
 
 had called a Cabinet meeting for this day, at two o'clock ; 
 
 ' MS. Dorking, 2nd December, 1811. 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8u 
 
 but I did so under the impression that I should previously 
 have received the Prince's observations upon my paper. I 
 heard from Mr. Adam last night that I was not to expect 
 them till to-morrow, and have therefore determined to post- 
 pone the Cabinet till two to-morrow. I trust you will be 
 able to attend it, and also to take a Cabinet dinner with me 
 on the same day.' * 
 
 A seat at the Board of Treasury for his son would, 
 Perceval thought, propitiate a discontented colleague ; and 
 a private note acknowledged the offer in friendly terms.* 
 Unspoken scruples would not let him accept it without 
 explanation ; he requested therefore that the Premier ' would 
 not write to the Prince Kegent respecting his son until he 
 had had an opportunity of speaking to him.' Read by the 
 incidents of the following days it is plainer to us than it was 
 then to Perceval why he did not wish the nomination of 
 Eichard Wellasley to be submitted for approval to the Prince, 
 with whom he was in constant communication. But the 
 appointment was gazetted on the last day of the year, and 
 Eichard Wellesley was returned for East Grinstead, a close 
 borough belonging to the Dorset family, which Lord Whit- 
 worth (the husband of the last Duchess) had placed at the 
 disposal of the Grovernment. 
 
 The unfortunate dispute about the claim on the Treasury 
 to liquidate the debts of Carlton House had in point of fact 
 become a cause of disagreement in the Cabinet. 
 
 Early in December the Prince had sent, through Mr» 
 Adam, a paper containing an account of the excess of expendi- 
 ture during the first year of Eegency, then drawing to a close ; 
 with an expression of his desire that a supplemental^ vote of 
 150,000^ should be proposed when Parliament met. The 
 First Lord thought he could hardly ask with propriety for so 
 
 > Draft letter from Mr. Perceval. 
 ' MS. Apsley House, 14th December. 
 
i8ii OATLANDS AND DORKING, 469 
 
 large a sum, and he was authorised by his colleagues to submit 
 their strong impression that it would not be without diffi- 
 culty 100,000^. could be obtained ; that the attempt to 
 obtain 1 50,000/. would be extremely hazardous, very likely 
 to fail in Parliament, and even if it were obtained, cer- 
 tain to be injurious in its impression on the public. He 
 could not represent tliem as unanimous upon the point, for 
 Lord Wellesley continued to think that it would be prefer- 
 able to ask for 150,000L, not conceiving that there would 
 be that difference in public impression between the two sums, 
 and feeling that less than 150,000^. would not adequately 
 meet the expenses of the former year, and of the necessary 
 establishment for the permanent Kegency. On this repre- 
 sentation of the matter Wellesley observed : — 
 
 'I return you the papers respecting the plan for the 
 settlement of the Koyal Household under the unrestricted 
 Regency, which I have examined with as much care as 
 the time would admit. Many of the objections which 
 occurred to me during the discussion are now removed, and it 
 is not my wish to record any formal dissent against such parts 
 of the arrangement as still appear to me to be imperfect, 
 nor shall I at any time hereafter express my disapprobation 
 of a plan which has been finally approved by so many persons 
 whom I respect and esteem. It would, however, be uncandid 
 to suppress from you the knowledge of my sentiments, even 
 in this stage of the transaction, and I wish this note to be 
 privately communicated by you to the Prince Regent. 
 
 ' I am of opinion that the Groom of the Stole, who is to 
 preside over the King's establishment, must be invested with 
 some new title designating his new powers ; and the prece- 
 dence which it is essential to give him must be annexed to 
 that new title. It will not be proper to give the Groom of 
 the Stole eo )iomi7ie precedence over the great officers of the 
 Household. This point, I should imagine, might be easily 
 
470 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, i8ii 
 
 arranged. But I entertain great apprehension that a sum of 
 less than one hundred-and-fifty thousand pounds will not }je 
 adequate to the relief of the Prince Regent's incumbrances, 
 and I should certainly have wished that a sum to that 
 amount should have been proposed to Parliament. I will 
 not dispute against your knowledge of the temper of the^ 
 House of Commons ; nor will I ever censure the grant as 
 inadequate hereafter. I confess, however, that I think a con- 
 siderable effort should be made on this point, and even: 
 some risk incurred, rather than expose the Prince Regent to 
 the difficulties which I apprehend. Upon inferior matters of 
 detail, and some parts of the principle of the general plan, I 
 will not repeat the observations which I have already made,, 
 and of which the foundation still remains unaltered, because 
 I am anxious to acquiesce in the sentiments of others to the 
 utmost possible extent ; and I shall not hereafter disturb the 
 unanimity which seems to prevail on these arrangements : 
 but it would neither be just to you nor to the Prince Regent 
 that the actual state of my opinions, as expressed in this form, 
 should be suppressed.' 
 
 Some delay occurred in the formal commimication he de- 
 sired, and he thus reiterated his view. 
 
 ' I did not understand clearly from you in what manner 
 you intended to signify the decision of the Cabinet to the 
 Prince Regent respecting the amount of the sum to be pro- 
 posed to Parliament for his Royal Highness's service ; but I 
 request that, in signifying it, you will communicate my 
 opinion that the sum of one hundred-and-fifty thousand 
 pounds would have been preferable to that which is now fixed.. 
 The reference seems to be of a more formal nature than 
 any document yet received from the Prince Regent during 
 this discussion. You will use your discretion as to the 
 mode of stating my sentiments ; but I conceive that, after 
 such a reference, it would not be candid on my part to allo\r 
 
iSii OATLANDS AND DORKING. 471 
 
 my opinion to be suppressed. It is indifferent to me whether 
 a regular minute of Cabinet be drawn or not ; but I wish 
 substantially that my sentiments should be stated distinctly.' 
 Wellesley Pole, then Secretary for Ireland, differed in 
 opinion from his brother, and disapproved of the course he had 
 taken. Acquainted confidentially, by Perceval's desire, with 
 what had occurred, and the views entertained by the Cabinet, 
 he expressed his concurrence with theirs, and his regret that 
 it should have been thought necessary to make the Eegent 
 aware that one of them had been dissentient. The Duke of 
 Eichmond pronounced a like judgment, though neither of 
 them, confessedly, was aware what Lord Wellesley had to 
 say about the matter ; and neither had had the experience of 
 Cabinet office which would have warranted him in deter- 
 mining how far a Secretary of State is bound, or is at liberty, 
 to keep the secrets of his fellow Ministers from the Head of 
 the State. For weeks the subject had been under discussion, 
 and during that time he was, and was known to be, in 
 constant personal communication with the Prince, whose 
 pecuniary necessities were notorious. However foolishly 
 incurred, they could not be left unrelieved without serious 
 damage to the credit and influence of Grovernment. Was it 
 strange that a Minister in his confidence should think 50,000Z. 
 an extra weight of little moment in the trembling balance 
 of the time ? Or was it conceivable that he should have 
 kept up the farce from day to day of duping a man like the 
 Kegent by pretending that he thought so, or that he could 
 retain his influence with him, if he stooped to so transparent a 
 part ? The question was not whether 100,000L was not enough 
 to grant, or whether the Cabinet were not justifiable in stick- 
 ling for that sum, on the eve as they supposed of their politi- 
 cal opponents succeeding to power. Wellesley never affected to 
 share their sectarian jealousy or party prejudice. He had 
 always avowed his belief in Catholic Emancipation as the 
 
472 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1811 
 
 wisest measure for the iDternal government of the country 
 and the best way of supporting the war. Bred a Whig, he was 
 avowedly desirous of coalition with Holland and Grrey ; trained 
 in administration under Pitt, he was the inheritor, with Grren- 
 ville and Canning, of his tolerant principles. The Prince had 
 up to this time professed the same opinions, and now that he 
 was about to become the Executive head of the State, was it 
 unnatural that Wellesley should expect to be especially trusted 
 by him, and that he should have shown, and pretended to 
 show, little sympathy with the grudging temper of a Minis- 
 terial regime supposed to be near its end ; that he looked 
 forward sanguinely to a new combination of ability and 
 experience — without regard to party antecedents, or that he 
 should have thought himself well fitted to be its chief? That 
 he assented easily at least to this particular demand of the 
 Prince for more money we may assume without proof; and 
 if so, is it imaginable that he should have submitted to be 
 misrepresented to him as one of an unanimous Cabinet who 
 made it a point of financial honour to decline recommend- 
 ing it to Parliament ? His acquiescence in the curtailment 
 of the grant did not satisfy his colleagues, who wanted its 
 sincere adoption ; and this he refused as humiliating. 
 
 Perceval and Liverpool proposed a draft speech for the 
 Regent at the opening of the session, of which their critical 
 colleague as usual disapproved. He drafted another, to which 
 they in turn demurred. They discussed it point by point at 
 Apsley House, and in the end he had his way. As ultimately 
 agreed upon, there were many touches of pathos concerning 
 the situation of the King, a just tribute to Wellington's in- 
 domitable fortitude, and fervid vows of resolution to main- 
 tain the cause of Spanish independence till the last hour. 
 His prosaic colleagues would have been more reticent and 
 matter-of-fact ; but finding him resolved to put nobler words 
 into the lips of the Heir Apparent at the opening of his virtual 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 473 
 
 reign, they gulped them all. No direct communication passed 
 between the Premier and the Kegent on the subject. Wellesley 
 was with his Royal Highness on January 2 for five hours. He 
 ijomplained of Perceval's silence, but added, ' I knew the affair 
 would ultimately be in your hands, and I did not care about it,' 
 upon which the Secretary repeated his part of it, word for word, 
 from memory, with which the Prince was delighted. He had 
 just then named physician in ordinary, Knighton, whom the 
 Marquess had taken with him to Seville. Lady Melbourne 
 wanted the place for her favourite physician, but Knighton 
 was an adept in the arts of pleasing, and was supposed to be 
 familiar with the habits and peculiarities of many in the 
 great world, a man well calculated to acquire influence and, 
 as the event proved, to keep it. Colonel MacMahon read 
 aloud to him his patron's letter of acknowledgment, which 
 he said was admirable. ' You may be as sure of it as of your 
 existence, that Lord Wellesley will be at the head of the 
 Government as soon as the restrictions are removed.' Did 
 he talk without knowing, or did anybody know ? At Holland 
 House they were full of misgivings as to what was really 
 intended ; and in Downing Street they were, or professed to 
 be, as utterly in the dark. Only at Hyde Park Corner was 
 there a placid sunshine of expectation, overcast by no cloud of 
 uncertainty. The Regent had talked so much and so often 
 and so long of his desire, and what he called his determination, 
 to have a man of superior mind for his Minister, and he had 
 lavished in turn so many epithets of antipathy on Perceval, 
 Sidmouth, and Grrey, that no one else seemed possible. A 
 few days before Parliament met the Prince suddenly asked 
 him if he would have any objection to shake hands with Lord 
 Grenville. ' Certainly not,' he replied ; * public measures 
 had separated them, but he ever had, and ever would have, 
 the greatest private regard for him.' But Grenville's speech 
 on the Address, which criticised the conduct of the war and 
 
474 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 the negotiations with America, irritated him greatly. The 
 Duke of Cumberland, true to his role of mischief-making, 
 said, ' I always knew you had a hankering after your old 
 friend G-renville — what do you say to him now?' There 
 was no division on the Address in the Upper House ; but the 
 Opposition were resolved to bring the Catholic question to 
 issue without further delay. 
 
 An apprehended rupture with America rendered the dis- 
 tracted condition of Ireland a cause for public alarm ; and 
 Lord Fitzwilliam gave notice of motion for the removal of 
 religious disabilities. Lord Liverpool, on the other hand,, 
 accepted the challenge on the part of Ministers, declaring 
 that 'by the existing system of ascendency Grovernment 
 would stand or fall.' 
 
 Wellesley's position, already sufficiently embarrassing, was 
 rendered thus no longer tenable ; and on January 1 6 he waited 
 on the Eegent, and tendered his resignation. Lord Bathurst 
 was charged by him to communicate the fact to Mr. Perceval ; 
 but, for some cause unexplained, the first intimation he 
 received of the circumstance was in audience next day at 
 Carlton House. He wrote at once : — 
 
 ' It is with great regret that I have just received from 
 Lord Bathurst the communication which you desired him to 
 make to me ; it would have taken me completely by surprise 
 had it not been for what his Royal Highness the Prince Regent 
 told me this morning, which prepared me to expect such a 
 communication. I understand that your determination is too 
 completely fixed to give me any hopes of a change in it, and,, 
 consequently, I have nothing to do except, in expressing my 
 thanks for your desire to arrange the time, both for acting 
 upon this determination and for making it known in the way 
 least likely to embarrass His Royal Highness's Grovemment, 
 to express my deep regret that you should have found it 
 necessary to adopt such a determination at all. 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 475 
 
 ' Your disposition, which Bathmst also informed me of, to 
 leave your son to act entirely as he may choose upon this 
 occasion, I receive most gladly as a mark of kindness to 
 myself, for which I am very grateful. I shall, therefore, 
 unless I should hear from you to the contrary, feel myself at 
 liberty in due time to endeavour to prevail upon Mr. Wellesley 
 to continue to hold his present situation at the Treasury, in 
 which I am persuaded he may at once be very usefully occupied 
 in introducing himself into a general knowledge of the course 
 of public business, and also be affording me the most useful 
 assistance.' ^ 
 
 The rejoinder was as follows : ' I request you to accept 
 my thanks for your letter, which has afforded me the satisfac- 
 tion of knowing that you have received my communication, 
 through our common friend Bathurst, in the spirit in which 
 it was intended ; and I assure you that my sentiments and 
 my determination are entirely unconnected with any feelings 
 of imkindness or disrespect. 
 
 ' Your disposition towards Eichard is justly entitled to 
 my sincere acknowledgments ; I have not had an opportunity 
 of conversing with him since I received your letter ; but I 
 am satisfied that he will be inclined to act in whatever 
 manner may be thought by you most convenient for the 
 Grovernment, and that he will be ready to resign both his seat 
 at the Treasury and in Parliament whenever you may wish it. 
 
 ' I intended to have mentioned my wishes to Lord Bathurst 
 sooner, but by an accident was prevented from fixing an 
 earlier hour for meeting him ; this circumstance delayed the 
 direct communication to you — my intention had been to state 
 my feelings to the Prince Regent and to you as nearly a& 
 possible at the same time.' * 
 
 In a paper confidentially shown to his friends he stated 
 
 > From Downing Street, 17th January, 1812. 
 2 Apslej House, 18th January-, 1812. 
 
476 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 his reason for resigning to be, that 'for a long time past his 
 general opinions on various important questions had not suf- 
 ficient weight to justify him towards the public, or towards 
 his own character, in continuing in office ; and because he 
 had no hope of obtaining from the Cabinet, as then consti- 
 tuted, a greater portion of attention than he had already- 
 experienced. His objections arose in a great degree from 
 the narrow and imperfect scale on which the efforts in the 
 Peninsula were conducted : it was always stated to him that 
 it was impracticable to enlarge that system. The Cabinet 
 followed Mr. Perceval implicitly ; while lie thought it per- 
 fectly practicable, and that it was neither safe nor honest 
 towards this country or the allies to continue the present 
 contracted scheme. No hope existed of converting Mr. 
 Perceval or any of his colleagues ; no alternative therefore 
 remained but to resign, or to submit to be the instrument of 
 a system which he never advised, and which he never could 
 approve. He had frequently with great reluctance yielded 
 his opinions to the Cabinet on many other important points, 
 and in doing so was convinced that he had submitted to 
 opinions more incorrect than his own ; and had sacrificed to 
 temporary harmony more than he could justify in point of 
 strict public duty. He was convinced by experience that 
 the Cabinet neither possessed ability or knowledge to 
 devise a good plan, nor temper and discernment to adopt 
 what he thought necessary. To Mr. Perceval's judgment or 
 attainments he could not pay any deference without injury 
 to the public service. With these views and sentiments he 
 had desired permission to withdraw from the Cabinet, not 
 requiring any change in his own situation, and imploring no 
 other favour than the facility of resignation.' 
 
 Doubts have been suggested as to the Catholic question 
 having been a cause of his quitting office, because it is 
 not one of the topics dwelt upon in his correspondence with 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 477 
 
 Perceval. To what purpose would it have been introduced ? 
 The Foreign Secretary had consented to join men pledged to 
 exclusion, as Fox and Grrey had done in 1806. George III. 
 still reigned, and so far he had gone to the furthermost 
 length of compromise compatible with conventional ideas of 
 self-respect. Mr. Perceval could not expect to talk him 
 out of the leading principles of his life, and he was too dis- 
 creet and well-conditioned to try. On his part Wellesley 
 could not suppose that one whose main reliance in the 
 Cabinet was Eldon, and whose chief confidant in private 
 was Sidmouth, was open to conversion to Liberal policy in 
 Church and State. The regal necessity in 1809 for post- 
 poning the vital question of the day seemed to render its 
 discussion in the Cabinet useless waste of time ; the less said 
 about it therefore the better. Both he and Canning relied, 
 as well they might, on Carlton House being favourable to 
 a policy of sectarian equality ; but it is as certainly true 
 that they did not wait for a signal there, or bate the breath 
 of their advocacy when the neutral flag was unfurled. 
 
 There was a Cabinet on January 20, at which Wellesley 
 stated his intention of declaring his views in debate on 
 the impending motion by Lord Fitzwilliam in favour of 
 Emancipation. Mr. Perceval said, good-humouredly, that 
 Canning had, on the same point, differed with most of them, 
 and yet they contrived to get on very well together. The 
 difference need not, therefore, break up the Administration. 
 When this was communicated to the Prince he summoned 
 the Chancellor, Mr. Perceval, and Lord Liverpool, to confer 
 upon the matter with the Foreign Secretary in his presence, 
 and a long discussion, in which he sided with the latter, led 
 to no actual decision. But at an audience soon after, the 
 Premier was said to have yielded so far that his Royal Highness 
 declared himself satisfied, but upon what conditions he did 
 not think it necessary to divulge. Wellesley then informed 
 
478 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 him that as the Household question was settled, he felt that 
 he could no longer serve under Mr. Perceval, but would 
 regulate his retirement in accordance with the convenience 
 of his Royal Highness. His son Eichard would give up his 
 «eat and office whenever it was desirable, but he was at 
 liberty to hold them, if he pleased. The Premier, with the 
 usual courtesies of regret, acknowledged the perfect fairness 
 which had marked the whole transaction, but he used no 
 remonstrance or solicitation to remain. Castlereagh was 
 forthwith recommended as his successor. The Prince 
 demurred to anyone being named, saying that he regarded 
 the resignation as prospective only, and not positive or 
 complete. But Perceval refused to allow matters to remain 
 in abeyance, and Mr. Peel was sent with the offer of the seals 
 to Castlereagh, for whatever interval the existing Cabinet 
 might remain in power. Instead of accepting, he said, 
 haughtily, he would not be made a stop-gap for anyone, but 
 that should the Eegent subsequently call upon him to take 
 office, as part of a permanent arrangement, he should be 
 willing to serve. The inclusion of Lord Sidmouth and his 
 friends was then proposed, which made the Prince very 
 angry ; and words went so high that he at last, exclaimed, 
 ' You cannot be ignorant of my sentiments towards that 
 person, in whom I will never have confidence, or in anyone who 
 forces him upon me.' No immediate change consequently 
 took place in the Foreign Office ; the whole of the abortive 
 negotiation with Castlereagh and Sidmouth being repeated 
 by the Regent to the person whom it most concerned.^ 
 
 He continued to discharge the duties of his department 
 with unremitting care. American affairs, however, became a 
 source of daily increasing anxiety, and the Premier urged, 
 somewhat peevishly, that there should be no delay in sending 
 instructions to our Minister at Washington. 
 
 ' Mr. D. to Lord Buckingham, 1st February, 1812 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING, 479 
 
 ' Understanding that the Gleaner is still waiting for your 
 despatches to Foster, which I had hoped had been com- 
 pletely settled on last Wednesday se'nnight, I am sure you 
 will not be surprised that, with the feeling I had that 
 Foster's last despatches required the most immediate answer, 
 I should express the most anxious wish that no further delay 
 should prevent you sending them.' * 
 
 With equanimity unruffled he put aside the untimely 
 suggestion of supervision. 
 
 ' My despatches to Mr. Foster have been signed for some 
 time past, but were detained by me from considerations which 
 I will state to you hereafter. They are now sent away. 
 The delay is not great, as the wind has been contrary. 
 
 ' Last night I received despatches from Mr. Foster, which 
 require most serious attention. I shall be able to send them 
 to you this day, with my opinion upon them for circula- 
 tion. In the meanwhile I wish to suggest that it would be 
 proper now to grant the fullest information on the American 
 question. I think you will be of my opinion as soon as you 
 have read Mr. Foster's despatches. I am confined to-day by 
 illness, and I shall not be able to attend the Cabinet.' ^ 
 
 Perceval had good reasons for believing that he should be 
 retained in his position. In a letter to Wellington, assuring 
 him of undiminished support notwithstanding his brother's 
 secession, he stated unreservedly that 'the Kegent had no 
 intention of looking to any other person than himself to 
 form his permanent Administration.' ' The very day before 
 this was written, Wellesley had a lengthened audience, in 
 the course of which he said, ' The difference between Perceval 
 and me is that he thinks the existing disabilities are benefi- 
 cial to the State, and necessary to be maintained as so many 
 safeguards to its well-being. On the contrary, I have always 
 
 ' Perceval to Lord Wellesley, 28th January, 1812. 
 '^ Apsley House, 29th January, 1812. » 22nd January, 1812. 
 
480 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1812 
 
 considered these as evils in themselves, which, sooner or later, 
 must endanger it if persisted in. He of course wishes their 
 continuance ; I think their abolition essential ; but the mode 
 of getting rid of a system which has obtained for such a 
 length of time is, I confess, a difficulty of no common weight 
 and magnitude.' * This was said to the Kegent in a long 
 audience, in the course of which his Koyal Highness said 
 more than once, * Admirable ! this will do, my dear lord ; my 
 own sentiments exactly.' And they parted well pleased with 
 the assurance that in debate these sentiments would be avowed. 
 He kept his word; and on Lord Fitzwilliam's motion 
 filled with signal courage and temper the difficult part he 
 had assigned himself, of advocating on the broadest grounds 
 Catholic enfranchisement, while keeping his word to the 
 Eegent and his late colleagues that he would never surrender 
 to the threat of violence, or humiliate authority by yielding 
 to sedition. This was his maxim and principle throughout. 
 He loved religious freedom much,, but he loved public 
 order more. He had a firm faith that equity would in the 
 end prevail; but even equity demanded by the voice of 
 tumult he would stoutly refuse. He saw too plainly the 
 vacillation and worthlessness of him whose reign was about 
 to begin, and whose first Minister he had for months been 
 assured that he should be ; and he knew that by the course 
 he was pursuing he was satisfying neither of the two great 
 parties in the State that contended for the mastery. He had 
 broken with the Tories without being adopted by the Whigs ; 
 and at the moment in question it would have been hard to 
 say whether he was viewed with more repugnance by Grrenville 
 or by Eldon. But this consideration gave him small concern. 
 His solicitude for the cause of the Koman Catholics could not 
 be surpassed. From the first dawn of his reason to the pre- 
 sent hour, his anxiety for their effectual relief had been the 
 ' Mr. D. to Lord Buckingham, 21st January, 1812. 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 481 
 
 warm sentiment of his heart ; confirmed and animated bj 
 experience and reflection, and by the deliberate exercise 
 of his judgment, not unaccustomed to the practical considera- 
 tion of great affairs of State ; he had been bred and educated 
 in the principles of rational liberality, equally remote from 
 intolerant bigotry and from licentious disregard of estab- 
 lished order. He had always supported every former pro- 
 posal for the relief of the Roman Catholics ; but the heat of the 
 contention had exaggerated and distorted the true character 
 of this question on both sides. The claim had been urged 
 in accents of violence and terror, spurning all accompanying 
 conditions, all provident or amicable delay. The demand 
 issued forth in the array of war, and no alternative appeared 
 but subnaission or battle. On the other side every delay was 
 a peremptory sentence of eternal exclusion, representing con- 
 cession as perilous to the State and sacrilegious to the Church. 
 All conditions were ridiculed as nugatory or impossible ; 
 while all the restraints of penal laws were said to be a positive 
 good — a venerable and sacred institution, consecrated as an 
 essential article of faith, not a safeguard to be respected and 
 preserved, for the temporary security of the altar, but as 
 the very ark of our religion. The path of discretion must be 
 sought between these extremes. The Catholics had formerly 
 been outlawed, not as erring sectaries, but as dangerous par- 
 tisans of despotism which sought to subvert Constitutional 
 rule. But when that danger had passed away, they had been 
 gradually admitted to hold land, to exercise the franchise, to 
 practise at the bar, to serve in the army. It ought to be 
 the policy of every wise State to collect all descriptions of 
 persons possessing political power within the general frame of 
 the community ; to mix and blend their individual pursuits 
 with the common interests of the State, and to attach them 
 by the powerful ties of honourable ambition and honest gain 
 to the established order of rule. It was no longer a question 
 
 I I 
 
482 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 whether political power should be given to the Catholics, but 
 whether they should now be refused those appendages to 
 their power which would identify its exercise with the 
 interests of the State, and would constitute bonds and pledges 
 of attachment to the Grovernment and ties of union with the 
 Oommon wealth. The restraints which still existed, cemented 
 and embodied discontent, without impairing the force or 
 activity of political power. Eemove these restraints, and you 
 •dissolve the ties of discontent, you disperse the sentiment of 
 disaffection, and you inspire the powerful motives of individual 
 interest in an Establishment which offered so many immediate 
 advantages of emolument and honour.' 
 
 Lansdowne, though differing from his fote, praised in 
 unmeasured terms the sentiments and principles enunciated ; 
 marvelling only how they could have failed to dissuade his 
 colleagues in the Cabinet from the unyielding policy of 
 intolerance they avowed. 
 
 His speech occupied an hour and a half in delivery, and 
 the debate was prolonged throughout the night. At daybreak 
 the numbers told were seventy-nine for going into committee 
 •on the state of Ireland, one hundred and sixty-two against it. 
 
 The first exercise of sovereign power advised by Perceval 
 iv^as the advance of Wellington to the dignity of an Earl, to 
 be accompanied by a message from the Regent recommending 
 the Commons to reward his services with a pension of 2,000L 
 a year, in recognition of the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo. 
 
 To a private note informing him of what was intended, the 
 outgoing Minister replied : ' I assure you that I am very sensi- 
 ble of your kindness in communicating to me the advice which 
 jou have given to the Regent, and his Royal Highness's gracious 
 reception of it, on the subject of Lord Wellington's deserved 
 honours. Better advice was never given, and advice so good 
 has seldom been so well received. I cannot (perhaps I ought 
 not) attempt to conceal the personal interest which I take in 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 483 
 
 these honours ; but I know you will do me the justice to believe 
 that my sense of their value rests entirely on the great public 
 principle that my brother merits what you have most justly and 
 honourably recommended ; and that the Eegent, in acceding 
 to your advice, has discharged the highest duty which he owes 
 to the military character of the country. I shall carefully 
 observe your injunction of secrecy, and I will not mention the 
 subject to any person whatever until I shall have received 
 your permission.' ^ 
 
 It did not escape wistful notice at the time, or fade from 
 bitter recollection afterwards, that his formal act of resigna- 
 tion took place on the very day when Parliament was engaged 
 in according its meed of acknowledgment of gallant deeds. 
 The Greneral could not but lament the severance that had 
 taken place, on public as on private grounds. He had no 
 time to waste in the expression of vain regrets ; but he made 
 no secret of his vexation, at what he justly looked on as a 
 great mistake. 
 
 To Henry Wellesley, Perceval wrote announcing his 
 brother's resolution : * I believe the ground to be that he did 
 not think the Government, as at present arranged, what it 
 ought to be, and that particularly he did not think his own 
 situation, as it were under me as Prime Minister, was what 
 it should be. 
 
 ' I am certainly anxious to know what effect this determina- 
 tion of your brother's will have upon you. I hope, when I as- 
 sure you that it is the full determination of the Grovernment 
 .and of his Royal Highness to persevere in their exertions in the 
 cause of Spain, and his concurrence in our anxious wish, that 
 we may have the benefit of your services in forwarding that 
 <cause ; that you will not feel any reason from this event for 
 wishing to retire from the mission in which we have been all 
 ^o well pleased and satisfied with your exertions. The seals 
 • Apsley E^ouse, 7th February, 1812. MS. in the Perceval Papers. 
 
 1 1 2 
 
484 MAROUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 will, till a successor can be appointed, be placed in Lord 
 Liverpool's hands.' * 
 
 A strange letter from the Secretary for War is of the 
 same date : — 
 
 ' I am not aware of the existence of any distinct difference 
 of opinion in the Cabinet on any political question of im- 
 portance which has led to your brother's determination. He 
 says generally that he has not the weight in the Grovern- 
 ment which he expected when he accepted office. I have 
 never seen any want of attention to his opinion, nor do I 
 recollect a single question (except one of comparatively little 
 moment, lately, respecting the King's and Kegent's establish- 
 ments) to which he entered a dissent. The Government 
 through a Cabinet is necessarily a Government inter jpares^ 
 in which every man must expect to have his opinion and his 
 despatches canvassed ; and this previous canvass of opinion 
 and measures appears to be absolutely necessary under a 
 Constitution where the public acts of Government will be 
 ultimately hostilely debated in Parliament. I have always 
 regretted that Lord Wellesley's habits of late have prevented 
 his seeing as much of his colleagues and mixing as much in 
 general business as is usual with persons in public office. I 
 do not believe he has attended more than half the Cabinet 
 meetings which have taken place since he has been in 
 Government ; and this circumstance, combined with others, 
 unavoidably prevented him from having the same common 
 feelings with his colleagues as exist among those who not 
 only act but live together. Lord Wellesley declares it is 
 not his intention to go into Opposition, and he does not 
 even wish his son to resign his seat at the Treasury. 
 
 ' The event is as yet a secret, but it must be known in a 
 few days. If you wish to know my opinion as to the effect 
 of it, I am persuaded it will not, under present circumstances, 
 » To Henry Wellesley, 19tli February, 1812. 
 
i8i2 OATLANDS AND DORKING. 485 
 
 materially prejudice the Government. The Prince takes 
 it very quietly, and appears now determined to support the 
 present Government with all his influence. Indeed, he says 
 he has no alternative : this may appear to you to be stninge, 
 after all that has passed ; but so it is. It is Perceval's inten- 
 tion immediately to sound Castlereagh about his return to 
 office.' » 
 
 Before he had given up the seals, Ministers in the Lower 
 House were pressed to produce the correspondence with 
 America regarding the blockade and right of search, and 
 unwisely, as he thought, they hesitated to do so. 
 
 ' I am very much concerned to find from your note that 
 my opinion in favour of the production of a portion of the 
 American papers to Parliament is not likely to meet with 
 the conciirrence of the Cabinet. Further consideration of the 
 subject has certainly confirmed my judgment of the advan- 
 tage which would be derived to our cause by producing at 
 least such of the instructions as contain the explanation of 
 the principles on which the Orders in Council were founded, 
 and are still continued in force. It is extremely disagreeable 
 to me, in the very peculiar situation in which I am now 
 placed, to urge any difference of opinion against the senti- 
 ments of the Cabinet, and I therefore wish to leave the 
 decision to them, without giving any further trouble than the 
 statement of my sentiments as described in this note. 
 
 ' It does not appear that any notice of a motion for any of 
 these papers in the House of Lords has yet been announced. 
 I certainly should feel great difficulty in refusing that part 
 of the papers which relates to the general principle of the 
 question at issue with America. But it seems probable that 
 I may not be involved in this difficulty. The Duke of 
 Infantado has not yet furnished me with the Spanish com- 
 munications which he had promised. 
 
 ' Liverpool to Lord Wellington, February 1812. 
 
486 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 ' I have not received the despatches from ]\Ir. Foster 
 which were sent in circulation until this moment. I shall 
 not be able to prepare an answer to them to be submitted to 
 a Cabinet at two to-morrow ; but perhaps it might be proper 
 to meet. I must attend the Prince Eegent between twelve 
 and one. Yoil will of course use your discretion respecting 
 the calling a Cabinet. Perhaps Monday, at two, might 
 answer better. I confess that my opinion is entirely differ- 
 ent from that which you state respecting the production of 
 the American papers. I think we ought to lay all of them 
 before Parliament. I most anxiously hope that you will not 
 prevent me from the discharge of this duty, which, in my 
 opinion, affords the best chance of avoiding a war with 
 America. Our case is yet imperfectly known — I think it is 
 solid and clear. I must therefore (excuse the phrase) most 
 seriously remonstrate against the notion of withholding the 
 documents in my office, which will (in my judgment) fully 
 explain to the public the true nature of our dispute with 
 America.' ^ 
 
 His expostulation had its effect, and the papers were 
 eventually produced. 
 
 » Apsley House, 12th February, 1812. 
 
487 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 
 1812. 
 
 The Queen still reigned at Windsor, and the Princess of 
 Wales kept open house at Blackheath ; but the Court and 
 Cabinet of the Prince was governed from Manchester Square. 
 Years and fading looks had not yet diminished the ascend- 
 ency of Lady Hertford,* who made her son Lord in Waiting,, 
 and her husband Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 Lord Yarmouth had been recalled from Paris for his 
 incompetency by Grenville, whom he hated accordingly^ 
 but he never after filled any political post. He had been 
 sent by the Regent to discuss the details of the new Civil 
 List at Apsley House, where tlie personal demands of his 
 Royal Highness were deemed unattainably large. Wellesley 
 declared that, ' either from stupidity or want of common 
 manners Yarmouth had not one solitary qualification for 
 the office he was put upon.' In fact no Minister could 
 comply with the Prince's extravagant claims. The Mar- 
 quess told his brother-in-law. Culling Smith, to tell the 
 Duke of York that if the Prince persisted in his demands 
 in too high a tone he would talk to him in a way he had 
 not yet experienced. On the other hand, Perceval was said 
 
 • Isabella, Marchioness of Hertford, daughter of Lord Irwin, married 
 1776, died 12th April 1836; Lord Yarmouth was bom in 1777. 
 
488 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1812 
 
 to have discussed the matter witli too much warmtn ; but 
 was criticised, and to some extent confuted, by the Foreign 
 Secretary. Indiscreet friends might chuckle at the idea that 
 he was taking part with the Prince against a parsimonious 
 rival ; but, in truth, he rather strove to compromise the 
 affair in a reasonable way, and his interposition went for 
 little with the Royal prodigal, who, finding he could not 
 gain all he wished, suddenly changed his coiurse, waived for 
 the time certain points in dispute, and secretly began to 
 listen to suggestions for retaining some of the Ministers. 
 Adam and MacMahon said that at the last moment the Prince 
 had given up three-fourths of the demands on his own account, 
 and that all the rest would be carried through without diffi- 
 culty. It was supposed that the part taken by Wellesley in 
 the recent controversy had not been fully made known at 
 Carlton House, and that in a fit of despair a surrender had 
 been made at discretion. 
 
 The Restrictions expired in February 1812. On the 
 13th a letter to the Duke of York proposed to Grey a 
 union of some of his friends with Ministers, suggesting 
 thereby the omission of Grenville. Grey asked leave to 
 confer with him. The step was regarded by Grenville as 
 the same by which George III. tried to separate Shelburne 
 and Rockingham, by sending for the former when the latter 
 was the recognised head of Opposition. 'But the trick 
 would entirely fail, he confidently believed. He had been 
 betrayed once by the King, and he had no taste for affording 
 to his son the same opportunity. As to coalescing with 
 Perceval or Wellesley, he believed Grey quite as determined 
 Jigainst it as himself. The whole would end in the con- 
 tinuance of Perceval, with Castlereagh and Sidmouth to help 
 him. This was what Lord Yarmouth meant, whose in- 
 tentions alone were of any consequence.' ^ We have thus 
 
 » To Lord Buckingham, from Camelford House, 13th February 1812. 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY, 489 
 
 -confessed the foregone conclusion which stood in the way of 
 all the proposals for Ministerial union noade by Wellesley; 
 :a sunken rock, of which he was not, or would not, be aware, 
 and over which the smooth waters of punctiliousness ebbed 
 and flowed for weeks and months to come, (xrey, after 
 conference with Grenville, told the Duke that they felt 
 themselves in honour bound to decline any combination 
 which was not prepared to settle forthwith the Catholic 
 ■question ; in other words, they would enter an exclusively 
 Whig Cabinet, or none. 
 
 On receipt of this reply the Prince repaired to Manchester 
 Square for feminine counsel. During his absence Wellesley 
 saw MacMahon at Carlton House, who told him that on that 
 morning his master had said to Moira that, ' let Perceval and 
 his myrmidons do what they would, no earthly consideration 
 should induce him to part with Wellesley, whom he could 
 not go on without.' But just as he was going to dinner he 
 received a message to the effect that, in consequence of 
 what had occurred, his Royal Highness had no choice but to 
 retain the existing Ministry. The same evening Wellesley 
 requested an audience to deliver up the seals, which he took 
 with him for the purpose. In the ante-room he asked 
 Colonel MacMahon if he had been aware when they met 
 that afternoon of the contents of the Regent's note, or of his 
 resolve to retain Perceval. W^ith much embarrassment the 
 private secretary assured him of his utter ignorance till 
 then of the change of views. The Prince entreated him to 
 suspend his resignation for a few days ; the Chancellor would 
 call upon him and explain that the arrangement was but 
 temporary ; and that, being his own master, he was quite 
 untrammelled in the choice of a First Minister. Once 
 more he was duped by his ambition into relying on the most 
 unreliable of men. 
 
 He told Lord Eldon, when he called next day, that he 
 
490 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 retained the seals upon the understanding that the first place 
 at the Treasury was only held ad interim. The Chancellor 
 said there must be some strange misapprehension, as his 
 Koyal Highness assured him distinctly that Perceval's re- 
 appointment was permanent. Under these circumstances 
 there was nothing to discuss, and the Chancellor withdrew. 
 On the 18th Tyrwhitt brought an offer from the Prince, in 
 flattering terms, of the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. ' "WTiat ! ' 
 he exclaimed, ' with Perceval in the front ? No no.' And 
 on the following day he finally gave up the seals. The 
 Prince as usual was full of emotion, and trusted their separa- 
 tion would not be for long. The retiring Minister adjured 
 him ' not to make a Grovernment upon the principle of re- 
 ligious exclusion.' He might still bring about a union 
 of parties through Moira or Holland, if he would ; but 
 'the wretched people who refused to listen to the claims 
 and wishes of such a portion of his subjects as the Irish 
 Catholics, ought as politicians to be driven into the ranks of 
 private life.' Liverpool was in attendance, to take temporary 
 charge of the Foreign Portfolio, which soon afterwards was 
 confided to Castlereagh. Moira, tired of the trifling and 
 tergiversation he had witnessed, had an audience to take 
 leave, saying he could be no longer useful. He was offered 
 the Grarter, Ireland, India, anything he would name; but 
 he declined with equal dignity and feeling. Lords Albe- 
 marle, Darlington, Scarborough, Gruilford, Saye and Sele, 
 were in turn offered places in the Household, and the Dukes 
 of Norfolk and Bedford refused the Blue Eiband. The House 
 of Commons showed its ill-humour by refusing, on a division 
 of 115 to 112, the salary of a sinecure office conferred on 
 Colonel MacMahon. 
 
 Richard Wellesley continued to sit for East Grrinstead,- 
 but he felt that his position daily became more embarrassing. 
 While retaining his office he was honourably bound to give 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 491 
 
 Ministers the benefit of his vote. But the questions raised by 
 Sir Thomas Turton's motion on the state of the nation caused 
 him such distress of mind that, without consulting his father, 
 he wrote to the Premier, putting an end to obligations hope- 
 lessly conflicting. 
 
 ' I cannot reconcile it to my sense of propriety and of 
 honour, in conformity with|the sentiments of Lord Wellesley, 
 which are known to me, and with my own feelings and 
 opinions, to continue to hold the seat in Parliament of which 
 you had the kindness to decline the surrender when I resigned 
 my seat at the Treasury. I was anxious not to inform you 
 of my intention before the decision of the question of last 
 night, on which I had heard that all the strength of Opposi- 
 tion would be exerted against you, and I most sincerely hope 
 that I have not chosen a moment at which you may feel any 
 inconvenience in giving me the Chiltem Hundreds, for which 
 I would request you to move as soon as it may suit with 
 your arrangements. In making this request I am unwilling 
 to omit the expression of the gratitude which I can in no 
 circumstances cease to entertain for the many instances of 
 personal and of political favour which you have conferred 
 upon me.' ^ 
 
 The Minister advised him to consult his father before he 
 insisted on vacating his seat. Having done so, he wrote 
 again : — • 
 
 ' I have lost no time in learning the sentiments of Lord 
 Wellesley, and in communicating them to you, in consequence 
 of the desire you expressed to me last night that I should be 
 present at the division of to-morrow. I find that, consis- 
 tently with those sentiments as they have been detailed to 
 me, I must request you to move for a new writ for East 
 Grinstead to-morrow, or as soon as it may be convenient ta 
 
 > 2oth February, 1812. 
 
492 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1812 
 
 you, as it would not be possible for me to vote with you on 
 the question, and I should not have felt it proper to have 
 absented myself without repeating to you, as soon as I had a 
 distinct knowledge of my father's opinions and decision, my 
 wish to have the Chiltern Hundreds.' ^ 
 
 The impending motion alluded to was avowedly meant to 
 censure the policy of the Administration, on which it was 
 expected a warm debate would arise, and a strict party vote 
 be given. The Premier's reply was polite and kind. 
 
 'I received your letter late last night. Nothing remains 
 for me to do but comply, though most reluctantly, with your 
 request ; and I have accordingly executed your appointment 
 to the Chiltern Hundreds, which I will direct the proper 
 officer to deliver to you, and I will take care that the new 
 writ shall be moved for East Grrinstead before the debate 
 takes place this day, unless upon communication with Lord 
 A\Tiitworth I shall find it his lordship's desire that it might 
 be delayed ; in which event, I am sure you will feel it due 
 to his lordship's kindness, and possibly to his interest, to 
 suffer the motion to be delayed for a day or two. 
 
 ' I cannot send this letter without taking the opportunity 
 it affords me of repeating the very sincere regret that I feel 
 at being compelled to be instrumental in removing you from 
 Parliament. I am sure you will not do me the injustice to 
 believe that the wish which I expressed that you might be 
 contented to retain your seat at East Grinstead on whichever 
 side* of the House you might place yourself, proceeded from 
 undervaluing the weight and effect of your exertions in 
 Parliament, and I therefore repeat the assurance that that 
 wish was most sincere, and that your feelings of delicacy and 
 honour could not reconcile you to retain your seat only 
 increases my regret at losing you. As I cannot refer our 
 
 ' From Grosvenor Square, 26th February, 1812. 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 49a 
 
 political separation to anj- cause which should deprive me of 
 a share of your good opinion, which I may hitherto have 
 hoped that I possessed, I shall indulge in the pleasing belief 
 that you will permit me still to consider and subscribe myself, 
 with every good wish for your prosperity, your very affectionate 
 and faithful friend and servant. ' ^ 
 
 As one reason for supporting the motion for a committee of 
 the whole House, William Lamb dwelt upon the recent with- 
 drawal of Lord Wellesley from the Grovernment. ' No one 
 would deny to him tne reputation of an enlarged and states- 
 manlike capacity. He thought Ministers had lost much of 
 their strength by his secession, and were besides rather 
 weakened by the accession of Lord Castlereagh.' Tierney 
 dwelt upon the same topic, and challenged the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer to state why, at tlie moment when support 
 to our Greneral in Spain was declared to be of paramount 
 importance, his brother had quitted the Cabinet. No re- 
 sponse was made by Perceval, and Canning feared that in 
 losing the noble Marquess the Administration had lost the 
 stimulus of those successes which had graced the last two 
 years ; he would still hope that some of his spirit might 
 linger, and that such an impetus had already been given 
 that more would be achieved in future. The general system 
 of our foreign relations he highly approved, and should any 
 other set of men be placed at the helm, who would think it 
 expedient to abandon the war in the Peninsula, by which the 
 country had been raised to its present glorious height of 
 character, he would give them his determined opposition. 
 It was proposed about the same time to bring Wellesley Pole 
 into the Cabinet. The Prince refused, saying ' he would have 
 had no objection had his brother been at the head of it, but 
 he would not reward the one by abandoning the other.' The 
 
 > Downing Street, 27th February, 1812. 
 
494 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 Qourier of March 4 announced that Richard Wellesley had 
 resigned his place at the Board of Treasury and vacated his 
 seat in Parliament. 
 
 Although both Canning and Wellesley were thought to 
 have lost influence, they continued to be regarded by men of 
 judgment, like Lords Lansdowne and Temple, as indispensable 
 elements in any party aspiring to power ; and their own 
 bearing in public and private gradually identified them more 
 and more with the leaders of the Whigs.^ 
 
 On March 12 a letter, dated from York, and bearing the 
 signature of ' Vetus,' appeared in the Times^ defending with 
 signal ability Wellesley's conduct and character. The out- 
 lines of his policy at home and abroad were traced as if by 
 his own hand ; and the subtlest distinctions of sentiment and 
 purpose were explained, as if he were thinking aloud, with 
 a certain redundancy of phrase. The style was distinguished 
 by polished sarcasm and keen invective, not unworthy of 
 Junius ; but the writer emphatically disclaimed even personal 
 acquaintance with him whom he designated the first states- 
 man of the age ; and the editor subsequently declared that not 
 a sentence of the series of which this was the beginning had 
 been suggested or even been seen by him until it appeared 
 in print. The contrary was indeed freely asserted, and 
 peculiarities of manner and opinion were fastened on as 
 proofs of imputed origin. They were in fact from the pen of 
 Major Sterling, and attracted much attention, not only from 
 their intrinsic merit, but from the unusual space afforded 
 them from time to time in a journal winning its way rapidly 
 to political and literary pre-eminence. 
 
 On March 19 Lord Boringdon sought to unite all shades 
 
 of Opposition in the Upper House in support of an Address 
 
 praying for the formation of a strong Government, founded 
 
 on the principles of unsectarian enfranchisement. Wellesley 
 
 » Lord Temple to his father, 25th April, 1812. 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 495 
 
 voted for the motion, but did not speak, and it was defeated 
 by a large majority. Popular irritation daily increased in 
 Ireland as the abandonment by the Prince of all his promises 
 and professions became generally understood. The bitterness 
 of disappointment broke forth in fierce upbraidings ; while 
 in England the acuteness of distress found utterance in pro- 
 longed complaint. 
 
 On April 21 Lord Donoughmore moved in the Peers for a 
 committee on the penal laws remaining unrepealed. He de- 
 nounced with unreserved warmth the abandonment of former 
 principles and promises by the Eegent under the spell of some 
 evil genius who might add to the allurements of Calypso's court 
 the charms of that matured enchantress. In support of the 
 motion Wellesley spoke at length : ' In answer to those who 
 would keep up civil exclusion for the sake of maintaining the 
 Anglican Establishment, he presented a picture of the weak- 
 ness of the Church as it then existed, which certainly a wise 
 Grovemment would not have failed to take into consideration. 
 I do not wish to speak with disrespect of the Protestant 
 Establishment, whose security is too readily believed in this 
 country, nor to cast any reflection upon those who preside 
 over that Establishment ; yet I know that the true state of 
 the Church of Ireland, in a very great degree, consists of 
 bishops without clergy, churches without ministers, and 
 ministers without churches ; parishes of considerable extent 
 without clergymen, church, or glebe ; many parishes fre- 
 quently consolidated into one, with a common church too 
 remote for the parishioners to resort to. Can an Institution so 
 circumstanced possess internal strength for its own defence 
 against the mass of opposition excited against it ? And is 
 not that strength less likely to be increased by arming itself 
 with violence against the mass of discontent set in array by 
 the intolerance of the laws enacted for its support ? ' 
 
 Earlier in the debate Byron's youthful voice was heard 
 
496 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1812 
 
 pleadin*!;, in treble but articulate tones, the cause of justice. 
 On May 11, as Mr. Perceval was entering the House of 
 Commons he was shot through the chest by Bellingham, and 
 in a few moments expired. While Court and Parliament 
 were filled with horror at the dreadful deed, the mob evinced 
 unmistakable signs of satisfaction. At Nottingham, when 
 the news arrived, destitute crowds paraded the streets with 
 flags and drums, and in other towns there were manifestations 
 of a similar spirit. In the Cabinet no one but the Chancellor 
 for some days avowed the belief that they might still hold 
 together. The Eegent bade him ask his colleagues indi- 
 vidually if they thought they could go on under one of their 
 number whom he might name, and the curious record is 
 preserved of their doubtings and their fears. Castlereagh 
 alc»ne was looked upon as capable of leading the Commons, 
 and Liverpool the Lords ; but which should be Premier was 
 the question. The funds rose two per cent., on the general 
 supposition that a Grovernment was about to be formed on 
 a more comprehensive basis. The Prince railed constantly 
 at ' Grrey and his other early friends, who he said had behaved 
 to him like scoundrels ; ' of Grrenville he had nothing to com- 
 plain, though he did not like him ; but he wished Canning 
 and Wellesley should be asked to join. Liverpool was 
 authorised accordingly to invite them. In an interview at 
 Grloucester Lodge ^ he explained that the general policy of 
 administration was to be unchanged ; that he himself was to 
 have the Treasury, and Castlereagh was to lead the Commons. 
 In a subsequent visit to Apsley House he intimated that he 
 had seen ]Mr. Canning, who deferred giving a reply till he 
 had consulted his friends. ' Then am I,' said the Marquess, 
 ' to be considered one of his suite ? ' The gaucherie was 
 readily excused ; but the whole tenor of the communication 
 palpably bespoke foregone conclusions. Liverpool could as 
 J Sundaj^ 17th May, 1812. 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY, 497 
 
 little expect that Wellesley would act under him as a ' No 
 Popery ' chief, as that the gi*eatest orator in the Commons 
 would play second to the least expert or effective of debaters. 
 He and Eldon saw power within their grasp, and intrepidly 
 strove for its attainment by the reconstitution of a Cabinet 
 as nearly as possible identified with the principles of sectarian 
 ascendency. With their former colleagues in prominent 
 office this would have been impossible, and upon such a basis 
 neither of them would come in. Wellesley gave his answer 
 in writing the following day. Over-rigged as usual with 
 flapping sail of compliment, it was laden as usual with well- 
 chosen articles of wisdom and of weight. 
 
 ' If the highest offices in the State are to be filled by 
 persons who still conceive themselves to be bound by duty, 
 honour, and conscience not only to resist any mitigation of 
 the present condition of the Eoman Catholics, but even to 
 prevent the consideration of the laws affecting them, I cannot 
 concur in the principle on which the Administration is to con- 
 duct this important branch of public affairs. The declara- 
 tion of Lord Liverpool precludes the hope of any such change 
 in the policy of the Administration as could satisfy my judg- 
 ment. Without any other obstacle, this alone compels me to 
 decline the proposition made to me. The Cabinet might, in 
 my opinion, be formed on an intermediary principle, equally 
 exempt from the dangers of instant unqualified concession, 
 and from those of inconsiderate peremptory exclusion ; the 
 entire resources of the empire might be applied to the great 
 objects of the war with general consent, upon a full under- 
 standing of the real exigency of the present crisis ; and con- 
 cord and union at home might secure ultimate and permanent 
 success abroad.' 
 
 The Prince shrank from being identified with a system 
 of rule utterly at variance with all the professions of his 
 past life, nd Liverpool indited accordingly a rejoinder 
 
 K K 
 
498 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 attenuating in phraseology the intolerant rigour of his 
 previous declarations. But he made no offer of re-opening 
 the door, and merely flung certain pleasing platitudes out of 
 the window. The letters, by agreement, appeared in the 
 Times and Chronicle of May 20 ; but a note was ap- 
 pended, that further correspondence would appear. ' That is 
 impossible,' exclaimed the new Premier, ' as there is no other 
 letter.' There was, however, one, of rare ability and eloquence, 
 which he received at a late hour in the evening, and which 
 the public read next day. It vindicated completely the 
 consistency of Wellesley and the construction he had placed on 
 the designs and declarations of his rival for power. Liverpool 
 was so angry at its publication without his consent, at a 
 juncture so critical, that he led most of his colleagues to 
 regard it as a final breach ; and speaking of Wellesley's use of 
 his admissions, said, ' It was not safe to be in the same room 
 with him.' ^ 
 
 On any other day the letter, which is a masterpiece of 
 courtly sarcasm and pitiless logic, terse, bland, searching, 
 and severe, would have riveted general attention. But 
 every eye was fixed on the morning of May 22 on the an- 
 nouncement in another column that the House of Commons 
 had, upon the previous night, voted want of confidence in 
 the old Ministry by a majority of four. Mr. Stuart Wortley, 
 a firm friend of Pitt, and staunch supporter of Perceval, 
 had, with the approval of many like himself, moved an 
 address to the Kegent, imploring him, in the perilous 
 condition of the coimtry, to take immediate steps for the 
 formation of a strong and eflQcient Grovernment. And it was 
 presented at the levee the same afternoon by him and Lord 
 Milton. 
 
 Wortley's success was wholly unexpected, and crazed the 
 Opposition with delight. He had been a faithM supporter 
 * Grey Bennet, who had the story from Lord Holland, MS. journal. 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 499 
 
 of Ministers through many difficulties ; they were scared by 
 his uplifted hand against them, and prostrated by the blow. 
 
 So hopeless did it seem to carry on the Grovernment, and 
 so dangerous the attempt, that most of the Cabinet were 
 ready to resign. Eldon, Liverpool, and Westmoreland 
 thought they might still go on, if they were suffered to do so ; 
 the majority, however, felt bound to advise the Regent to 
 reply that the desire of the Commons should be taken into 
 immediate consideration. Apsley House might well believe 
 the hour at length was come, when its master was, by force 
 of circumstances no one had foreseen, — Vhomrrie inevitable. 
 
 In an audience on May 22 he was directed to inquire 
 from the heads of the two great parties in Parliament 
 whether any obstacles existed to such a fusion as would meet 
 the wishes of the House of Commons. He asked permission to 
 communicate simultaneously with the leaders on both sides 
 the principles on which alone he could undertake the duty, 
 and frankly to invite their co-operation. These were, the 
 relief of Catholics from civil disability, and a more vigorous 
 prosecution of the Spanish war. The distribution of offices 
 was left entirely open. At his request, Canning called on 
 Lord Liverpool to inquire if he or any of his colleagues were 
 disposed to take part in a new combination from which 
 there should be no exclusion on account of past differences, 
 and which Grrey and Grenville would be invited to join. A 
 reply stated curtly that all the members of the late Cabinet 
 felt bound, particularly after what had recently passed, to 
 decline the proposal of becoming members of an Adminis- 
 tration to be founded by Lord Wellesley.^ Bathurst did not 
 believe the Opposition would imitate their example, for they 
 were sick of being out of office, and would take Wellesley at 
 his word.2 Canning expostulated in vain at the narrow and 
 
 * Liverpool to Canning Fife House, 23rd May, 1812. 
 ' To Rose, 24th May. 
 
 K K 2 
 
500 MAR(2UESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 invidious character of the reply, which liady Bathurst owned 
 was an angry and intemperate movement all of them re- 
 gretted when it had been sent. 
 
 Meanwhile Wellesley addressed himself directly to Lord 
 Grrey, at whose house Grrenville came to meet him. The 
 Prince Jiad warned him in the outset against resorting to 
 the chiefs of Opposition. ' He could forgive (xrenville, but 
 he would rather abdicate the Kegency than see Lord Grrey or 
 Tiemey in his service. He would have nothing to do with 
 him if he embarked with them.' Wellesley observed he 
 was ?orry for it, as he ' thought the Prince's honour and the 
 country's interest required it.' ^ He knew how valueless 
 were vows of aversion or attachment, and forthwith ten- 
 dered office to the Whig chiefs. He told them that he 
 ' considered himself merely as the instrument of executing 
 his Royal Highness's commands, to lay before him the 
 plan of a new Administration that he neither claimed 
 or desired for himself any Cabinet station. His pride would 
 have exulted in the historic fact that he had been Premier 
 of England ; but love of ease, love ot pleasure, love of 
 magnificence his means could ill afford, made him at heart 
 desire the Lieutenantcy of Ireland : and for this he would 
 have b^en willing to stand out of Grenville's way.* On 
 the 24th they answered that ' they had derived very 
 high gratification from his Lordship's powerful exertions 
 in support of the claims of the Roman Catholics, as well as 
 from the manner in which that subject was adverted to in 
 his minute ; and they did not hesitate to assure him that 
 they would warmly support any proposals made by any 
 Ministers for the immediate consideration of those claims^ 
 without which they had no hope of rendering their services 
 useful. But they were of opinion that the direction of the 
 
 » T. Gren\ille to his brother, 28th Maj-. 
 - Temple to his father, 12th November. 
 
.i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 501 
 
 military operations in an extensive war, and the more or less 
 vigorous prosecution of those operations, were questions not 
 of principle but of policy, to be regulated by circumstances, 
 in their nature temporary and fluctuating, and in many 
 •cases known only ' to persons in official stations ; and they 
 could not conceal that in the existing state of the finances they 
 entertained the strongest doubts of the practicability of an 
 increase in any branch of the public expenditure.' They 
 presented their reply in person, and were in conversation 
 told the result of Canning's fruitless attempt to negotiate 
 with members of the old Cabinet. Lansdowne, Holland, 
 andMoira signified their cordial good wishes and general con- 
 cm'rence in the note of Grrenville and Grey ; but none of them 
 considered that any definite offer had been made to them by 
 the authority of the Prince ; and the day wore on in apparent 
 indecision. In the evening Wellesley had an audience to 
 present the written answers he had received. His Royal 
 Highness thought he would dine and sleep before making up 
 his mind, and said the Marquess should hear from him. 
 The political world spent Monday likewise in going to and 
 fro and wondering how it would end. 
 
 Grrenville from the first disbelieved in the sincerity of 
 the Regent's profession of willingness to take a united 
 Administration ; for he was at heart as adverse to Wellesley 
 as to himself and Grrey, and meant only to make a case 
 -against them which might enable him to go to the House of 
 Commons and say, ' You see I cannot make persons unite 
 who refuse to do so : I must take one or other of the parties, 
 .and of the two I prefer the present to their opponents.' ^ He 
 was in such a state of irritation at this time that he could 
 not be spoken to ; and Liverpool, in the gTeatest consternation, 
 Hent an express for 'the Duke of York at Oatlands,^ — his in- 
 
 ' To Lord Buckingham, 24th May. - Grey to Grenville, 26th May. 
 
502 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 fluence being alone capable of moderating such irascibility. 
 Sheridan and Canning were frsquently at Apsley House, and 
 both were regarded as judicious friends. On the 26th, 
 Brougham, who had taken]in hand the troublesome and threat- 
 ening controversy about Orders in Council, asked if it were 
 possible that the fallen Cabinet was to be set up again. Grren- 
 ville's confidential letters to his brother describe the pitiable 
 inconsistency and irresolution of the Eegent, who some- 
 times affected to treat Wellesley's commission as at an end, 
 and sometimes as only suspended. ' Never was such a state of 
 things seen. The money in the Treasury cannot be made to 
 hold out beyond this day se'nnight. The violence and contempt 
 expressed for the Prince are beyond all imagination, and are 
 truly shocking to hear.' The air was loud with questionings 
 as to what was to be done ; but day after day passed and the 
 whispering galleries of Carlton House gave forth no intelli- 
 gible sound. By Satm-day the City was out of patience and 
 Parliament out of temper at the unexplained prolongation 
 of suspense ; and before the Commons rose Mr. Martin gave 
 notice of an Address, calling for a redemption of the pledge 
 already given, that a Grovernment would be forthwith formed, 
 able and strong enough to conduct the affairs of the country- 
 It was not, however, till June 1 that the bitter pill was 
 swallowed, and full powers given to form an Administration. 
 Canning announced the circumstance in Parliament with the 
 air of one who believed he had overcome all hindrances and 
 outrun all rivals for the long-coveted leadership of the Com- 
 mons. Wellesley was named First Lord of the Treasury ; 
 Erskine, Privy Seal ; 'Canning and Moira to have leading 
 offices ; the Opposition chiefs were to name foiu*, if the Cabi- 
 net consisted of twelve, and five if it contained thirteen 
 members. A Whig preponderance was thus suggested, not 
 only in principles of legislation but in those involved in the 
 distribution of patronage, as afterwards explained by Moira^ 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 50^ 
 
 with the approval of the Duke of Bedford.^ The reply 
 approved by forty peers, assembled on the 3rd at Camelford 
 House, and by seventy Commoners, consulted the same day 
 by Mr. Ponsonby, declined the proposal. ' It is to the prin- 
 ciples of disunion and jealousy that we object ; to the 
 supposed balance of contending interests in a Cabinet 
 so measured out by preliminary stipulation. It tends, as 
 we think, to establish within the Cabinet itself a system 
 of counteraction inconsistent with the prosecution of any 
 uniform and beneficial course of policy. We must, therefore, 
 request permission to decline all participation in a Grovern- 
 ment constituted on such principles.' 
 
 Had authority been given to explain what was meant 
 when suffering the proposition to be encumbered by unusual 
 conditions, and had it been possible to place reliance on the 
 sincerity or steadfastness of the Prince, the attempt would 
 not even then have been abandoned. But his Koyal High- 
 ness was only too eager to seize the opportunity to exonerate 
 himself from his oft-repeated promises to Wellesley ; and, 
 pointing in a rage to the palpable distrust betrayed in every 
 line of the reply, he peremptorily declared the commission 
 of the Marquess at an end, and said the task of forming 
 a Grovernment must be committed to other hands. Moira 
 was, in fact, chosen for his next dupe: a man who, with 
 many estimable and chivalrous qualities, had no intellectual 
 power or practical experience fitting him to be Prime 
 Minister in the easiest times : and the times were exception- 
 ally difficult. Yet for some days he was ostensibly employed, 
 with Sheridan's and Erskine's help, to try what could be done. 
 Private letters testified the uneasiness felt lest he should be 
 empowered to make such offers as patriotic men could not 
 well refuse, and which, notwithstanding, they felt it unsafe 
 
 ' Minute of conversation between Wellesley and Grey at Portman 
 Square, 1st June. 
 
504 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 to accept. But on his declaring that no right would be 
 conceded to change the great officers of the Household, Grey 
 and Grenville intimated haughtily that they would entertain 
 the matter no further. As a last resource he was given 
 leave to try whether it might not be possible to get together 
 a sufficient number of men, comparatively independent of 
 party ties, who might command public confidence and fill the 
 great offices of State. One or two territorial magnates were 
 supposed to be willing to join, and Canning, Erskine, and 
 Sheridan were counted on ; but when Wellesley was asked 
 to embark in the ' phantom ship ' his personal goodwill to 
 Moii-a hardly kept his indignation within bounds. 
 
 More than one sharp altercation arose in Parliament re- 
 garding what had taken place. In the House of Lords, on 
 June 3, Wellesley stated that, in obedience to the commands 
 of the Kegent,he had w^ith due deference, but with the freedom 
 which the duty of a Privy Councillor owes to the sovereign 
 and the country, stated his opinion with a view to the forming 
 of an Administration. He had that day tendered his resigna- 
 tion of the authority vested in him. He deeply lamented that 
 the most dreadful personal animosities, that the most terrible 
 difficulties arising out of complicated questions, should have in- 
 terposed obstacles to prevent that arrangement which it was so 
 highly desirable and so essential to the interests and welfare of 
 the country should be made. That such personal feelings and 
 obstacles should have stood in the way of fusion at so arduous 
 and perilous a crisis was indeed deeply to be deplored. He had 
 solicited and obtained permission to tell the House, if they 
 desired it, all the circumstances attending the progress of 
 the transaction in which he had any share. But, if permitted, 
 he would advise the Peers not to call for such disclosure, 
 being convinced that in the present situation of afiairs it 
 would be highly mischievous to the public interests. Still if 
 commanded he was ready to make it. Lord Grenville con- 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY, 505 
 
 €iirred in the advice, but disclaimed for himself and his 
 friends any share in the animosities adverted to. The Sec- 
 retary for War made a similar disclaimer, and concurred in 
 deprecating a disclosm-e of circumstances which would be 
 neither proper or decent. Moira said it had been his lot 
 to be the humble instrument of conciliation, and it had been 
 his endeavour to smooth the difficulties which unhappily 
 existed. He deeply lamented that differences and estrange- 
 ments had rendered his endeavours unavailing, and that 
 points of form should stand in the way of conciliation, and 
 of an arrangement essential to the welfare of the country. 
 G-rey thought that Moira's zeal for the service of the 
 Prince and the public had led him to overstep the line of 
 forbearance others had observed. He and Grrenville had not 
 been actuated by any consideration of points of form, but by 
 essential principles of government. In whatever share he 
 had had in these transactions, the noble Marquess would, he 
 trusted, admit that he had not been influenced in any respect 
 by personal animosities. (Lord Wellesley bowed assent, and 
 called, 'Hear ! hear !') No further observation was made and 
 the House adjourned. 
 
 On Friday, June 5, Moira recurred to the phrase ' dread- 
 ful personal animosities,' which Wellesley had used on the 
 former occasion. It had been construed as applying to the 
 highest quarter, and as such, was calculated to have the worst 
 effect on the public mind. From long personal experience 
 he could unequivocally contradict any such insinuation, as 
 he was sure the noble Marquess would do if he were present. 
 He had to state positively that, in the commission to form 
 a Government, Wellesley was entirely imshackled : no indi- 
 vidual being named by the Prince, or any seat reserved. 
 Orenville and Grey confuted this assertion by quoting the 
 terms of the proposition in writing made to them on June 1 , 
 in which four of the intended Cabinet were expressly named. 
 
506 MARQUESS WELLESLEY, 1812 
 
 Moira declared that, in his judgment, it was impossible that 
 any man placed in a situation of such difficulty could have 
 conducted himself with more high honour or more delicate 
 uprightness ; but there had been some misapprehension, which 
 when removed, negotiations would, he trusted, be resumed 
 successfully. 
 
 On the following Monday, Liverpool having announced 
 his appointment as First Lord of the Treasury, Wellesley 
 said he had authority to explain every part of the course he 
 had pursued. He wished that three great principles should 
 form the basis of the Administration : a conciliatory adjust- 
 ment of Catholic claims ; a vigorous support of the war in 
 Spain ; and that office should combine men of various politics. 
 He had used the phrase ' dreadful personal animosities ' ad- 
 visedly, and meant it to apply to the noble Earl now placed 
 at the head of affairs and his colleagues ; for it was from 
 their conduct that obstacles arose to the arrangement he 
 had hoped to make. He did not charge their animosity to 
 himself as a crime ; he merely stated the fact. 
 
 Lord Harrowby asked was it fitting such a charge should 
 be insinuated without the production of proof. If the noble 
 Marquess was prepared to state there what he had said else- 
 where of jNIinisters, let him not postpone the discussion till 
 a future day, but take the earliest opportunity of explaining 
 fully all he meant by the charge. 
 
 Wellesley had no motive for deferring the explanation 
 challenged, and his reply was among the most effective of his- 
 utterances in Parliament. 
 
 ' One would really think from the lofty tone and manner 
 of the noble Earl — a tone and manner to which I can bend 
 only in common politeness, but to which I by no means 
 submit — that I could not bring proofs of what I have asserted, 
 or that I would insinuate a charge without having ground on 
 which to support it. My noble friend Lord Grrenville had 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 507 
 
 said that the words had dropped from me incidentally ; but he 
 was too accurate to have said that I had spoken inadvertently 
 or unadvisedly. I forbore to enter into details on a former 
 occasion lest I sliould excite irritation ; and that I had rightly 
 judged upon that point, the speech of the noble Earl clearly 
 proves. But if the noble lords disclaim any personal ani- 
 mosity, I am bound, in a Parliamentary sense, to suppose 
 that I was mistaken.' 
 
 After reading the propositions for a united Cabinet laid 
 before the leading members of parties hitherto opposed, and 
 the replies respectively made by them, he proceeded : ' The 
 House must judge whether I was not justified in believing 
 that the refusal on the one side to enter into such a con- 
 bination was founded on personal animosities. Allusion has 
 been made to a statement of my reasons for resigning as 
 Secretary of State, which appeared in print after the death 
 of Mr. Perceval. Does the noble lord mean to insinuate 
 that I was a party to the publication of the statement to 
 which he alludes ? and yet, if he does not mean that, how does 
 he make out that its publication rendered it impossible for 
 him and his colleagues to unite with me in Administration? 
 He ought not to have presumed to state — I use the word in 
 its strongest sense — that the publication was by my authority. 
 I expressly deny it. The facts are simply these. When I 
 resigned my office, his Koyal Highness, with a benignity 
 peculiar to him, requested me to retain it imtil the expira- 
 tion of the restrictions upon the Regency. I obeyed his 
 commands, but finding that, previous to the expiration of 
 the restrictions, Mr. Perceval had recommended two or three 
 times my immediate supersession, I did, in conversation with 
 the Lord Chancellor, say that it was unmannerly to have 
 done so. There were many other reasons for my wishing to 
 resign. The vilest calumnies were circulated on the subject. 
 1 was charged with extravagant ambition, and with bargain- 
 
508 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 ing for power. This was all calumny. I simply asked leave 
 to resign. There are many expressions in the statement 
 manifestly not mine. Some of my friends who were anxious 
 about the cause of my retirement took down in writing ex- 
 pressions dropped in private conversation, some of which I 
 would now recall, but which I would not substantially retract. 
 A publication was uniformly refused. I was horror-struck at 
 seeing it published at the time ; and I would have given 
 any sum to have it recalled. The paper was not mine. It 
 may be a trifling thing to talk of language, but it was not 
 •couched in language which I should have used in a document 
 intended for the public eye at a moment when the country 
 had lost a man of the most irreproachable character, of the 
 most perfect integTity, and full of every private virtue. But 
 all this does not make it necessary that I should acknowledge 
 him to be possessed of that power and frame of mind which 
 marks out a man for the conduct of great public concerns. 
 It can be no insult to any man to say that he is not qualified 
 for the highest office in the State. I highly respect and esteem 
 my noble friend opposite — for so I must still call him — but it 
 does not follow from that that I am bound to consider him 
 as a fit man to be placed at the head of the Grovernment. 
 In the Cabinet I endeavoured to act as far as I could with 
 cordiality ; but I did imagine until now that I had shown 
 sufficient ill-humour to convince my coadjutors of the dif- 
 ferent opinions which I entertained. I may perhaps be 
 thought blamable in allowing the publication of the corre- 
 spondence regarding the late Ministerial negotiation. If I 
 have erred, I have erred from habit, for it is a very ordinary 
 practice with me to satisfy the public by authentic informa- 
 tion upon subjects they regard with painful anxiety. But I 
 ^m not aware that in the letters on either side there was one 
 word that ought to be withheld.' 
 
 The summary supersession of Wellesley, without affording 
 
i8i2 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 509 
 
 him an opportunity to explain away the difficulties of the 
 tri-partite scheme of a Cabinet to the Opposition lords, and 
 the peremptory transfer of his commission to Moira, told the 
 political world plainly that the supposed preference of the 
 Regent for him as First Minister need be thought of no more. 
 His rivals exulted at the dissipation of what they had always 
 believed to be a myth woven out of idle compliment and 
 hollow flatteries, as they said, by his overweening egotism ; 
 while friends, like Canning and Moira, Sheridan and 
 Holland, reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was only 
 another instance of the utter faithlessness of the Prince, who 
 had either egregiously deceived him throughout, or had 
 recklessly flung overboard at the bidding of a mistress one 
 of the ablest and most devoted servants of the Crown. He 
 could not, indeed, realise suddenly the fact in the light in 
 which others regarded it. Premier for a day he had failed, as 
 he was obliged to own, in inducing either Whigs or Tories 
 to accept him for chief ; and the chance was not given him 
 of attempting to form a combination out of the men who 
 hung loosely by party obligation ; yet he clung to the belief, 
 shared by most of the eminent politicians of the period, that 
 the Perceval Cabinet patched up, as the phrase went, under 
 Lord Liverpool could not stand. 
 
 The exigency of national affairs became daily more critical. 
 Castlereagh was still untried in the Foreign Department ; the 
 outcry against the Orders in Coimcil was at its height, the 
 tables of both Houses were laden with petitions for their re- 
 vocation, and the Commons were occupied day after day in 
 hearing evidence against their disastrous effect from mer- 
 chants and manufacturers examined at the bar. It was no 
 secret that Wellesley's last effort before quitting Downing 
 Street was towards conciliation with America ; and his suc- 
 cessor, on April 23, had advised a proclamation withdrawing 
 the blockade conditionally upon a corresponding annulment 
 
510 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. 1812 
 
 by Congress of all interdictory acts of retaliation ; but the 
 offer was not made in time. Party feeling in the States ran 
 too high to be restrained by pacific counsels, and on June 18 
 the House of Representatives, in secret session, by a majority 
 of seventy-nine against forty-nine, passed a resolution declar- 
 ing the two countries to be at war. The actual rupture was 
 unknown in England until some weeks later, and the rest of 
 the session was signalised by debates in every way calculated 
 to confirm a belief in the instability of the Cabinet recon- 
 stituted upon the principle of sectarian ascendency. Canning, 
 on June 22, moved a resolution pledging the House to take 
 the subject of Catholic Disabilities into consideration early in 
 the following session, and notwithstanding Castlereagh's pro- 
 pitiatory assurance that he was ready to fulfil the expectations 
 raised at the Union, a majority of 235 against 106 agreed to 
 the motion. More signal still seemed to be the proffers of 
 opinion made in the Peers. On July 1 Wellesley proposed 
 the same pledge in identical terms. His speech was the best 
 he ever made, comprehensive, eloquent, touching the very 
 quick of popular disappointment, and free from all taint of 
 personal chagrin. The Dukes of Kent and Sussex and most of 
 the great territorial nobles, English as well as Irish, gave him 
 their support. Ministers ventured only to move the previous 
 question, and were able to muster but 126 votes to 125, 
 escaping thus by a bare majority of one. Court and Cabinet 
 were humbled in the dust, and their friends might well tell 
 him and Canning that they would not have to wait for 
 long. Conflicting rumours were in cii'culation regarding the 
 British advance into Spain. Wellington was known to have 
 crossed the Portuguese frontier on June 13, and Marmont, 
 it was said, had fallen back in order to protect Madrid. He 
 was known to have a nmnerous and well-appointed corips 
 d'armee under his command, and the recollection of what 
 had happened three years before damped the courage of 
 
1 8 12 THRESHOLD OF THE TREASURY. 511 
 
 Ministerial augury and dipped in gall the pen of Whig 
 criticism. Wellesley refused to entertain any misgivings ; 
 he could not bring himself to believe in the failure of the 
 great policy for which he had so long contended, and for the 
 sake of which he had risked and lost the highest prize of 
 personal ambition. To all who asked his opinion he answered 
 feverishly but firmly, ' Arthur will not fail.' Still he was 
 anxious; and after Court and Fashion had gone on their 
 autumn rambles he lingered near town eager to catch the 
 first whisper of the triumph he had toiled for and foretold, 
 and which he felt was near. At length the tidings came, 
 greater even than he had mutely ventured to imagine. 
 Assaye, Talavera, and Ciudad Eodrigo were eclipsed by the 
 glory of Salamanca, not merely for the trophies won in fight, 
 but because it opened to the victors the gates of the Capital. 
 The importance of the event at the moment Napoleon was 
 about to open his long-meditated campaign against Russia, 
 could hardly be exaggerated ; and for Wellesley the sense of 
 pride, satisfaction, and delight was ineffable. For days he 
 was overwhelmed with inquiries and congratulations. He 
 could afford to forgive all his enemies and forget all his 
 disappointments now. Liverpool wrote to acquaint him that 
 an early Gazette would notify his brother's advancement to a 
 Marquisate, a fact which he at once communicated to Lady 
 Momington, then in her seventieth year. London vied 
 with Madrid in ebulKtions of popular joy: for three nights the 
 town was illuminated. Curious to observe the characteristics 
 of the scene, upon the second night Wellesley, accompanied 
 by his son and his private secretary, drove in an open car- 
 riage to Whitehall, where he was recognised and cheered 
 vociferously. In the excitement of the moment he addressed 
 a few words of cordial thanks to the crowd. The horses 
 were taken, in spite of his remonstrances, from the carriage, 
 and he was drawn in vicarious triumph to St. Paul's, on to 
 
512 MARQUESS WELLESLEY. i8i2 
 
 the Mansion House, and then back to his own residence in 
 Piccadilly : the populace insisting more than once on his 
 addressing them. 
 
 As he watched the glare over the wearied town die out 
 the fear stole over him that the part of pre-eminence in great 
 affairs he had aspired to play had come to an end. The 
 younger brother to whose advancement he had so much con- 
 tributed already outstripped him in the race of fame, and 
 would to-morrow take precedence of him in rank as a Peer. 
 The greatness of the man would fain have waived back the 
 approach of jealousy, but the weakness of the man rendered 
 him unable at times to still its whisperings. He wrote 
 felicitating the victor affectionately and in his grandest 
 manner : and on learning how ill supplied was the commis- 
 sariat and military chest, watched anxiously for news of 
 further movements in Castile. 
 
 Having given to his country an empire in the East, he 
 would fain have perfected at home the design of Union left 
 incomplete by Pitt. But his counsel was discarded. Thence- 
 forth his place in politics became of less and less importance, 
 and several years rolled by ere he was called upon again to fill 
 any responsible situation. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
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