* * * * *
So many works have already appeared of which the Duke of Wellington has
been the subject, that an explanation is due to the public on the
occasion of adding one more to the number.
That explanation consists in the fact, that those works have been almost
exclusively occupied with the military exploits of the Duke, which
rendered him so illustrious during the first twenty years of his public
life; while his political career, which may be said to have constituted
a second life, distinct and different from the other, has been
comparatively neglected.
To meet the want thus left unsatisfied, the Editor of the following
pages has endeavoured to supply materials, by which a just estimate may
be formed of the Duke of Wellington's claims as a minister and as a
statesman.
The volume will be found to contain the Duke's deliberate opinions as a
member of the House of Peers, and, during many years, as a minister,
upon the great questions which have agitated the public mind since the
commencement of the present century.
If there are those who hold the Duke of Wellington in light estimation
as a politician, they will not continue to entertain that opinion, the
Editor believes, after having dispassionately read the extracts of which
this work is composed.
Interspersed with the Duke's more elaborate OPINIONS, will be found his
MAXIMS on public policy, which, though few and unpretending, may be said
to have sunk into the national mind.
The Editor has added a few remarkable sentences and passages from the
dispatches of the Duke; with a cursory memoir of his life, which becomes
more elaborate from the commencement of his political career; and has
also attempted to portray some of his characteristics, as a soldier and
as a civilian.
LONDON, _February_, 1845.