One of the sublimest things in the world is plain Truth. Indeed it is so
sublime as to be entirely out of the reach of many people.
The ancients said many fine things of Truth; but nothing to exceed in
practical worth the love of Truth shown by the great Duke of Wellington
in every phase of his wonderful career, of which the majority of us have
been, more or less, contemporary witnesses.
“The foundation of all justice,” said this truly great man, “is Truth;
and the mode of discovering truth has always been to administer an oath,
in order that the witness may give his depositions under a high
sanction.”
Elsewhere he said, when advocating the cause of the Church of England,
“I am resolved to tell plainly and honestly what I think, quite
regardless of the odium I may incur from those whose prejudices my
candour and sincerity may offend. I am here to speak the truth, and not
to flatter the prejudices of any man. In speaking the truth, I shall
utter it in the language that truth itself most naturally suggests. It
is upon her native strength—upon her own truth—it is upon her spiritual
character, and upon the purity of her doctrines, that the Church of
England rests.”
When, upon the death of Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington sought
to express what seemed to him most admirable in the character of his
friend, he said that he was _the truest man he had ever known;_ adding:
“I was long connected with him in public life. We were both in the
councils of our sovereign together, and I had long the honour to enjoy
his private friendship. In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir
Robert Peel, I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more
lively confidence, or in whom I saw a more invariable desire to promote
the public service. In the whole course of my communication with him I
never knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment
to truth; and I never saw, in the whole course of my life, the smallest
reason for suspecting that he stated any thing which he did not firmly
believe to be the fact.”
It was the instinct of a man, himself as true as he was great, thus to
place the regard for truth in the front rank of human qualities. On that
simple and noble basis his own nature rested. Wellington could not
vapour, or even utter a lie in a bulletin. Every thing with him was
simple, direct, straightforward, and went to the heart of its purpose,
if any thing could. In all that has singled out England from the
nations, and given her the front place in the history of the world, the
Duke of Wellington was emphatically an Englishman. His patience, his
probity, his punctuality in the smallest things, in every thing the
practical fidelity and reliability of his character, we rejoice to
regard as the type of that which has made us the great people that we
are. It has indeed been well said that the Duke’s whole existence was a
practical refutation of all falsehood.
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