MEN OF BUSINESS.
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before
kings.”—_Proverbs of Solomon_.
“That man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought
up to business and affairs.”—_Owen Feltham_.
HAZLITT, in one of his clever essays, represents the man of business as a
mean sort of person put in a go-cart, yoked to a trade or profession;
alleging that all he has to do is, not to go out of the beaten track, but
merely to let his affairs take their own course. “The great requisite,”
he says, “for the prosperous management of ordinary business is the want
of imagination, or of any ideas but those of custom and interest on the
narrowest scale.” {263} But nothing could be more one-sided, and in
effect untrue, than such a definition. Of course, there are
narrow-minded men of business, as there are narrow-minded scientific men,
literary men, and legislators; but there are also business men of large
and comprehensive minds, capable of action on the very largest scale. As
Burke said in his speech on the India Bill, he knew statesmen who were
pedlers, and merchants who acted in the spirit of statesmen.
If we take into account the qualities necessary for the successful
conduct of any important undertaking,—that it requires special aptitude,
promptitude of action on emergencies, capacity for organizing the labours
often of large numbers of men, great tact and knowledge of human nature,
constant self-culture, and growing experience in the practical affairs of
life,—it must, we think, be obvious that the school of business is by no
means so narrow as some writers would have us believe. Mr. Helps had
gone much nearer the truth when he said that consummate men of business
are as rare almost as great poets,—rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints
and martyrs. Indeed, of no other pursuit can it so emphatically be said,
as of this, that “Business makes men.”
It has, however, been a favourite fallacy with dunces in all times, that
men of genius are unfitted for business, as well as that business
occupations unfit men for the pursuits of genius. The unhappy youth who
committed suicide a few years since because he had been “born to be a man
and condemned to be a grocer,” proved by the act that his soul was not
equal even to the dignity of grocery. For it is not the calling that
degrades the man, but the man that degrades the calling. All work that
brings honest gain is honourable, whether it be of hand or mind. The
fingers may be soiled, yet the heart remain pure; for it is not material
so much as moral dirt that defiles—greed far more than grime, and vice
than verdigris.
The greatest have not disdained to labour honestly and usefully for a
living, though at the same time aiming after higher things. Thales, the
first of the seven sages, Solon, the second founder of Athens, and
Hyperates, the mathematician, were all traders. Plato, called the Divine
by reason of the excellence of his wisdom, defrayed his travelling
expenses in Egypt by the profits derived from the oil which he sold
during his journey. Spinoza maintained himself by polishing glasses
while he pursued his philosophical investigations. Linnæus, the great
botanist, prosecuted his studies while hammering leather and making
shoes. Shakespeare was a successful manager of a theatre—perhaps priding
himself more upon his practical qualities in that capacity than on his
writing of plays and poetry. Pope was of opinion that Shakespeare’s
principal object in cultivating literature was to secure an honest
independence. Indeed he seems to have been altogether indifferent to
literary reputation. It is not known that he superintended the
publication of a single play, or even sanctioned the printing of one; and
the chronology of his writings is still a mystery. It is certain,
however, that he prospered in his business, and realized sufficient to
enable him to retire upon a competency to his native town of
Stratford-upon-Avon.
Chaucer was in early life a soldier, and afterwards an effective
Commissioner of Customs, and Inspector of Woods and Crown Lands. Spencer
was Secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, was afterwards Sheriff of
Cork, and is said to have been shrewd and attentive in matters of
business. Milton, originally a schoolmaster, was elevated to the post of
Secretary to the Council of State during the Commonwealth; and the extant
Order-book of the Council, as well as many of Milton’s letters which are
preserved, give abundant evidence of his activity and usefulness in that
office. Sir Isaac Newton proved himself an efficient Master of the Mint;
the new coinage of 1694 having been carried on under his immediate
personal superintendence. Cowper prided himself upon his business
punctuality, though he confessed that he “never knew a poet, except
himself, who was punctual in anything.” But against this we may set the
lives of Wordsworth and Scott—the former a distributor of stamps, the
latter a clerk to the Court of Session,—both of whom, though great poets,
were eminently punctual and practical men of business. David Ricardo,
amidst the occupations of his daily business as a London stock-jobber, in
conducting which he acquired an ample fortune, was able to concentrate
his mind upon his favourite subject—on which he was enabled to throw
great light—the principles of political economy; for he united in himself
the sagacious commercial man and the profound philosopher. Baily, the
eminent astronomer, was another stockbroker; and Allen, the chemist, was
a silk manufacturer.
We have abundant illustrations, in our own day, of the fact that the
highest intellectual power is not incompatible with the active and
efficient performance of routine duties. Grote, the great historian of
Greece, was a London banker. And it is not long since John Stuart Mill,
one of our greatest living thinkers, retired from the Examiner’s
department of the East India Company, carrying with him the admiration
and esteem of his fellow officers, not on account of his high views of
philosophy, but because of the high standard of efficiency which he had
established in his office, and the thoroughly satisfactory manner in
which he had conducted the business of his department.
The path of success in business is usually the path of common sense.
Patient labour and application are as necessary here as in the
acquisition of knowledge or the pursuit of science. The old Greeks said,
“to become an able man in any profession, three things are
necessary—nature, study, and practice.” In business, practice, wisely
and diligently improved, is the great secret of success. Some may make
what are called “lucky hits,” but like money earned by gambling, such
“hits” may only serve to lure one to ruin. Bacon was accustomed to say
that it was in business as in ways—the nearest way was commonly the
foulest, and that if a man would go the fairest way he must go somewhat
about. The journey may occupy a longer time, but the pleasure of the
labour involved by it, and the enjoyment of the results produced, will be
more genuine and unalloyed. To have a daily appointed task of even
common drudgery to do makes the rest of life feel all the sweeter.
The fable of the labours of Hercules is the type of all human doing and
success. Every youth should be made to feel that his happiness and
well-doing in life must necessarily rely mainly on himself and the
exercise of his own energies, rather than upon the help and patronage of
others. The late Lord Melbourne embodied a piece of useful advice in a
letter which he wrote to Lord John Russell, in reply to an application
for a provision for one of Moore the poet’s sons: “My dear John,” he
said, “I return you Moore’s letter. I shall be ready to do what you like
about it when we have the means. I think whatever is done should be done
for Moore himself. This is more distinct, direct, and intelligible.
Making a small provision for young men is hardly justifiable; and it is
of all things the most prejudicial to themselves. They think what they
have much larger than it really is; and they make no exertion. The young
should never hear any language but this: ‘You have your own way to make,
and it depends upon your own exertions whether you starve or not.’
Believe me, &c., MELBOURNE.”
Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, always produces its
due effects. It carries a man onward, brings out his individual
character, and stimulates the action of others. All may not rise
equally, yet each, on the whole, very much according to his deserts.
“Though all cannot live on the piazza,” as the Tuscan proverb has it,
“every one may feel the sun.”
On the whole, it is not good that human nature should have the road of
life made too easy. Better to be under the necessity of working hard and
faring meanly, than to have everything done ready to our hand and a
pillow of down to repose upon. Indeed, to start in life with
comparatively small means seems so necessary as a stimulus to work, that
it may almost be set down as one of the conditions essential to success
in life. Hence, an eminent judge, when asked what contributed most to
success at the bar, replied, “Some succeed by great talent, some by high
connexions, some by miracle, but the majority by commencing without a
shilling.”
We have heard of an architect of considerable accomplishments,—a man who
had improved himself by long study, and travel in the classical lands of
the East,—who came home to commence the practice of his profession. He
determined to begin anywhere, provided he could be employed; and he
accordingly undertook a business connected with dilapidations,—one of the
lowest and least remunerative departments of the architect’s calling.
But he had the good sense not to be above his trade, and he had the
resolution to work his way upward, so that he only got a fair start. One
hot day in July a friend found him sitting astride of a house roof
occupied with his dilapidation business. Drawing his hand across his
perspiring countenance, he exclaimed, “Here’s a pretty business for a man
who has been all over Greece!” However, he did his work, such as it was,
thoroughly and well; he persevered until he advanced by degrees to more
remunerative branches of employment, and eventually he rose to the
highest walks of his profession.
The necessity of labour may, indeed, be regarded as the main root and
spring of all that we call progress in individuals, and civilization in
nations; and it is doubtful whether any heavier curse could be imposed on
man than the complete gratification of all his wishes without effort on
his part, leaving nothing for his hopes, desires or struggles. The
feeling that life is destitute of any motive or necessity for action,
must be of all others the most distressing and insupportable to a
rational being. The Marquis de Spinola asking Sir Horace Vere what his
brother died of, Sir Horace replied, “He died, Sir, of having nothing to
do.” “Alas!” said Spinola, “that is enough to kill any general of us
all.”
Those who fail in life are however very apt to assume a tone of injured
innocence, and conclude too hastily that everybody excepting themselves
has had a hand in their personal misfortunes. An eminent writer lately
published a book, in which he described his numerous failures in
business, naively admitting, at the same time, that he was ignorant of
the multiplication table; and he came to the conclusion that the real
cause of his ill-success in life was the money-worshipping spirit of the
age. Lamartine also did not hesitate to profess his contempt for
arithmetic; but, had it been less, probably we should not have witnessed
the unseemly spectacle of the admirers of that distinguished personage
engaged in collecting subscriptions for his support in his old age.
Again, some consider themselves born to ill luck, and make up their minds
that the world invariably goes against them without any fault on their
own part. We have heard of a person of this sort, who went so far as to
declare his belief that if he had been a hatter people would have been
born without heads! There is however a Russian proverb which says that
Misfortune is next door to Stupidity; and it will often be found that men
who are constantly lamenting their luck, are in some way or other reaping
the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, improvidence, or
want of application. Dr. Johnson, who came up to London with a single
guinea in his pocket, and who once accurately described himself in his
signature to a letter addressed to a noble lord, as _Impransus_, or
Dinnerless, has honestly said, “All the complaints which are made of the
world are unjust; I never knew a man of merit neglected; it was generally
by his own fault that he failed of success.”
Washington Irying, the American author, held like views. “As for the
talk,” said he, “about modest merit being neglected, it is too often a
cant, by which indolent and irresolute men seek to lay their want of
success at the door of the public. Modest merit is, however, too apt to
be inactive, or negligent, or uninstructed merit. Well matured and well
disciplined talent is always sure of a market, provided it exerts itself;
but it must not cower at home and expect to be sought for. There is a
good deal of cant too about the success of forward and impudent men,
while men of retiring worth are passed over with neglect. But it usually
happens that those forward men have that valuable quality of promptness
and activity without which worth is a mere inoperative property. A
barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.”
Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, and despatch, are
the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of
any sort. These, at first sight, may appear to be small matters; and yet
they are of essential importance to human happiness, well-being, and
usefulness. They are little things, it is true; but human life is made
up of comparative trifles. It is the repetition of little acts which
constitute not only the sum of human character, but which determine the
character of nations. And where men or nations have broken down, it will
almost invariably be found that neglect of little things was the rock on
which they split. Every human being has duties to be performed, and,
therefore, has need of cultivating the capacity for doing them; whether
the sphere of action be the management of a household, the conduct of a
trade or profession, or the government of a nation.
The examples we have already given of great workers in various branches
of industry, art, and science, render it unnecessary further to enforce
the importance of persevering application in any department of life. It
is the result of every-day experience that steady attention to matters of
detail lies at the root of human progress; and that diligence, above all,
is the mother of good luck. Accuracy is also of much importance, and an
invariable mark of good training in a man. Accuracy in observation,
accuracy in speech, accuracy in the transaction of affairs. What is done
in business must be well done; for it is better to accomplish perfectly a
small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much. A wise man used
to say, “Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner.”
Too little attention, however, is paid to this highly important quality
of accuracy. As a man eminent in practical science lately observed to
us, “It is astonishing how few people I have met with in the course of my
experience, who can _define a fact_ accurately.” Yet in business
affairs, it is the manner in which even small matters are transacted,
that often decides men for or against you. With virtue, capacity, and
good conduct in other respects, the person who is habitually inaccurate
cannot be trusted; his work has to be gone over again; and he thus causes
an infinity of annoyance, vexation, and trouble.
It was one of the characteristic qualities of Charles James Fox, that he
was thoroughly pains-taking in all that he did. When appointed Secretary
of State, being piqued at some observation as to his bad writing, he
actually took a writing-master, and wrote copies like a schoolboy until
he had sufficiently improved himself. Though a corpulent man, he was
wonderfully active at picking up cut tennis balls, and when asked how he
contrived to do so, he playfully replied, “Because I am a very
pains-taking man.” The same accuracy in trifling matters was displayed
by him in things of greater importance; and he acquired his reputation,
like the painter, by “neglecting nothing.”
Method is essential, and enables a larger amount of work to be got
through with satisfaction. “Method,” said the Reverend Richard Cecil,
“is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much
again as a bad one.” Cecil’s despatch of business was extraordinary, his
maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing
at once;” and he never left a thing undone with a view of recurring to it
at a period of more leisure. When business pressed, he rather chose to
encroach on his hours of meals and rest than omit any part of his work.
De Witt’s maxim was like Cecil’s: “One thing at a time.” “If,” said he,
“I have any necessary despatches to make, I think of nothing else till
they are finished; if any domestic affairs require my attention, I give
myself wholly up to them till they are set in order.”
A French minister, who was alike remarkable for his despatch of business
and his constant attendance at places of amusement, being asked how he
contrived to combine both objects, replied, “Simply by never postponing
till to-morrow what should be done to-day.” Lord Brougham has said that
a certain English statesman reversed the process, and that his maxim was,
never to transact to-day what could be postponed till to-morrow.
Unhappily, such is the practice of many besides that minister, already
almost forgotten; the practice is that of the indolent and the
unsuccessful. Such men, too, are apt to rely upon agents, who are not
always to be relied upon. Important affairs must be attended to in
person. “If you want your business done,” says the proverb, “go and do
it; if you don’t want it done, send some one else.”
An indolent country gentleman had a freehold estate producing about five
hundred a-year. Becoming involved in debt, he sold half the estate, and
let the remainder to an industrious farmer for twenty years. About the
end of the term the farmer called to pay his rent, and asked the owner
whether he would sell the farm. “Will _you_ buy it?” asked the owner,
surprised. “Yes, if we can agree about the price.” “That is exceedingly
strange,” observed the gentleman; “pray, tell me how it happens that,
while I could not live upon twice as much land for which I paid no rent,
you are regularly paying me two hundred a-year for your farm, and are
able, in a few years, to purchase it.” “The reason is plain,” was the
reply; “you sat still and said _Go_, I got up and said _Come_; you laid
in bed and enjoyed your estate, I rose in the morning and minded my
business.”
Sir Walter Scott, writing to a youth who had obtained a situation and
asked for his advice, gave him in reply this sound counsel: “Beware of
stumbling over a propensity which easily besets you from not having your
time fully employed—I mean what the women call _dawdling_. Your motto
must be, _Hoc age_. Do instantly whatever is to be done, and take the
hours of recreation after business, never before it. When a regiment is
under march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front do
not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same with
business. If that which is first in hand is not instantly, steadily, and
regularly despatched, other things accumulate behind, till affairs begin
to press all at once, and no human brain can stand the confusion.”
Promptitude in action may be stimulated by a due consideration of the
value of time. An Italian philosopher was accustomed to call time his
estate: an estate which produces nothing of value without cultivation,
but, duly improved, never fails to recompense the labours of the diligent
worker. Allowed to lie waste, the product will be only noxious weeds and
vicious growths of all kinds. One of the minor uses of steady employment
is, that it keeps one out of mischief, for truly an idle brain is the
devil’s workshop, and a lazy man the devil’s bolster. To be occupied is
to be possessed as by a tenant, whereas to be idle is to be empty; and
when the doors of the imagination are opened, temptation finds a ready
access, and evil thoughts come trooping in. It is observed at sea, that
men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least
employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would
issue the order to “scour the anchor!”
Men of business are accustomed to quote the maxim that Time is money; but
it is more; the proper improvement of it is self-culture,
self-improvement, and growth of character. An hour wasted daily on
trifles or in indolence, would, if devoted to self-improvement, make an
ignorant man wise in a few years, and employed in good works, would make
his life fruitful, and death a harvest of worthy deeds. Fifteen minutes
a day devoted to self-improvement, will be felt at the end of the year.
Good thoughts and carefully gathered experience take up no room, and may
be carried about as our companions everywhere, without cost or
incumbrance. An economical use of time is the true mode of securing
leisure: it enables us to get through business and carry it forward,
instead of being driven by it. On the other hand, the miscalculation of
time involves us in perpetual hurry, confusion, and difficulties; and
life becomes a mere shuffle of expedients, usually followed by disaster.
Nelson once said, “I owe all my success in life to having been always a
quarter of an hour before my time.”
Some take no thought of the value of money until they have come to an end
of it, and many do the same with their time. The hours are allowed to
flow by unemployed, and then, when life is fast waning, they bethink
themselves of the duty of making a wiser use of it. But the habit of
listlessness and idleness may already have become confirmed, and they are
unable to break the bonds with which they have permitted themselves to
become bound. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by
study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone for
ever.
A proper consideration of the value of time, will also inspire habits of
punctuality. “Punctuality,” said Louis XIV., “is the politeness of
kings.” It is also the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of
business. Nothing begets confidence in a man sooner than the practice of
this virtue, and nothing shakes confidence sooner than the want of it.
He who holds to his appointment and does not keep you waiting for him,
shows that he has regard for your time as well as for his own. Thus
punctuality is one of the modes by which we testify our personal respect
for those whom we are called upon to meet in the business of life. It is
also conscientiousness in a measure; for an appointment is a contract,
express or implied, and he who does not keep it breaks faith, as well as
dishonestly uses other people’s time, and thus inevitably loses
character. We naturally come to the conclusion that the person who is
careless about time will be careless about business, and that he is not
the one to be trusted with the transaction of matters of importance.
When Washington’s secretary excused himself for the lateness of his
attendance and laid the blame upon his watch, his master quietly said,
“Then you must get another watch, or I another secretary.”
The person who is negligent of time and its employment is usually found
to be a general disturber of others’ peace and serenity. It was wittily
said by Lord Chesterfield of the old Duke of Newcastle—“His Grace loses
an hour in the morning, and is looking for it all the rest of the day.”
Everybody with whom the unpunctual man has to do is thrown from time to
time into a state of fever: he is systematically late; regular only in
his irregularity. He conducts his dawdling as if upon system; arrives at
his appointment after time; gets to the railway station after the train
has started; posts his letter when the box has closed. Thus business is
thrown into confusion, and everybody concerned is put out of temper. It
will generally be found that the men who are thus habitually behind time
are as habitually behind success; and the world generally casts them
aside to swell the ranks of the grumblers and the railers against
fortune.
In addition to the ordinary working qualities the business man of the
highest class requires quick perception and firmness in the execution of
his plans. Tact is also important; and though this is partly the gift of
nature, it is yet capable of being cultivated and developed by
observation and experience. Men of this quality are quick to see the
right mode of action, and if they have decision of purpose, are prompt to
carry out their undertakings to a successful issue. These qualities are
especially valuable, and indeed indispensable, in those who direct the
action of other men on a large scale, as for instance, in the case of the
commander of an army in the field. It is not merely necessary that the
general should be great as a warrior but also as a man of business. He
must possess great tact, much knowledge of character, and ability to
organize the movements of a large mass of men, whom he has to feed,
clothe, and furnish with whatever may be necessary in order that they may
keep the field and win battles. In these respects Napoleon and
Wellington were both first-rate men of business.
Though Napoleon had an immense love for details, he had also a vivid
power of imagination, which enabled him to look along extended lines of
action, and deal with those details on a large scale, with judgment and
rapidity. He possessed such knowledge of character as enabled him to
select, almost unerringly, the best agents for the execution of his
designs. But he trusted as little as possible to agents in matters of
great moment, on which important results depended. This feature in his
character is illustrated in a remarkable degree by the ‘Napoleon
Correspondence,’ now in course of publication, and particularly by the
contents of the 15th volume, {277} which include the letters, orders, and
despatches, written by the Emperor at Finkenstein, a little chateau on
the frontier of Poland in the year 1807, shortly after the victory of
Eylau.
The French army was then lying encamped along the river Passarge with the
Russians before them, the Austrians on their right flank, and the
conquered Prussians in their rear. A long line of communications had to
be maintained with France, through a hostile country; but so carefully,
and with such foresight was this provided for, that it is said Napoleon
never missed a post. The movements of armies, the bringing up of
reinforcements from remote points in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany,
the opening of canals and the levelling of roads to enable the produce of
Poland and Prussia to be readily transported to his encampments, had his
unceasing attention, down to the minutest details. We find him directing
where horses were to be obtained, making arrangements for an adequate
supply of saddles, ordering shoes for the soldiers, and specifying the
number of rations of bread, biscuit, and spirits, that were to be brought
to camp, or stored in magazines for the use of the troops. At the same
time we find him writing to Paris giving directions for the
reorganization of the French College, devising a scheme of public
education, dictating bulletins and articles for the ‘Moniteur,’ revising
the details of the budgets, giving instructions to architects as to
alterations to be made at the Tuileries and the Church of the Madelaine,
throwing an occasional sarcasm at Madame de Stael and the Parisian
journals, interfering to put down a squabble at the Grand Opera, carrying
on a correspondence with the Sultan of Turkey and the Schah of Persia, so
that while his body was at Finkenstein, his mind seemed to be working at
a hundred different places in Paris, in Europe, and throughout the world.
We find him in one letter asking Ney if he has duly received the muskets
which have been sent him; in another he gives directions to Prince Jerome
as to the shirts, greatcoats, clothes, shoes, shakos, and arms, to be
served out to the Wurtemburg regiments; again he presses Cambacérès to
forward to the army a double stock of corn—“The _ifs_ and the _buts_,”
said he, “are at present out of season, and above all it must be done
with speed.” Then he informs Daru that the army want shirts, and that
they don’t come to hand. To Massena he writes, “Let me know if your
biscuit and bread arrangements are yet completed.” To the Grand due de
Berg, he gives directions as to the accoutrements of the
cuirassiers—“They complain that the men want sabres; send an officer to
obtain them at Posen. It is also said they want helmets; order that they
be made at Ebling. . . . It is not by sleeping that one can accomplish
anything.” Thus no point of detail was neglected, and the energies of
all were stimulated into action with extraordinary power. Though many of
the Emperor’s days were occupied by inspections of his troops,—in the
course of which he sometimes rode from thirty to forty leagues a day,—and
by reviews, receptions, and affairs of state, leaving but little time for
business matters, he neglected nothing on that account; but devoted the
greater part of his nights, when necessary, to examining budgets,
dictating dispatches, and attending to the thousand matters of detail in
the organization and working of the Imperial Government; the machinery of
which was for the most part concentrated in his own head.
Like Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington was a first-rate man of business;
and it is not perhaps saying too much to aver that it was in no small
degree because of his possession of a business faculty amounting to
genius, that the Duke never lost a battle.
While a subaltern, he became dissatisfied with the slowness of his
promotion, and having passed from the infantry to the cavalry twice, and
back again, without advancement, he applied to Lord Camden, then Viceroy
of Ireland, for employment in the Revenue or Treasury Board. Had he
succeeded, no doubt he would have made a first-rate head of a department,
as he would have made a first-rate merchant or manufacturer. But his
application failed, and he remained with the army to become the greatest
of British generals.
The Duke began his active military career under the Duke of York and
General Walmoden, in Flanders and Holland, where he learnt, amidst
misfortunes and defeats, how bad business arrangements and bad
generalship serve to ruin the _morale_ of an army. Ten years after
entering the army we find him a colonel in India, reported by his
superiors as an officer of indefatigable energy and application. He
entered into the minutest details of the service, and sought to raise the
discipline of his men to the highest standard. “The regiment of Colonel
Wellesley,” wrote General Harris in 1799, “is a model regiment; on the
score of soldierly bearing, discipline, instruction, and orderly
behaviour it is above all praise.” Thus qualifying himself for posts of
greater confidence, he was shortly after nominated governor of the
capital of Mysore. In the war with the Mahrattas he was first called
upon to try his hand at generalship; and at thirty-four he won the
memorable battle of Assaye, with an army composed of 1500 British and
5000 sepoys, over 20,000 Mahratta infantry and 30,000 cavalry. But so
brilliant a victory did not in the least disturb his equanimity, or
affect the perfect honesty of his character.
Shortly after this event the opportunity occurred for exhibiting his
admirable practical qualities as an administrator. Placed in command of
an important district immediately after the capture of Seringapatam, his
first object was to establish rigid order and discipline among his own
men. Flushed with victory, the troops were found riotous and disorderly.
“Send me the provost marshal,” said he, “and put him under my orders:
till some of the marauders are hung, it is impossible to expect order or
safety.” This rigid severity of Wellington in the field, though it was
the dread, proved the salvation of his troops in many campaigns. His
next step was to re-establish the markets and re-open the sources of
supply. General Harris wrote to the Governor-general, strongly
commending Colonel Wellesley for the perfect discipline he had
established, and for his “judicious and masterly arrangements in respect
to supplies, which opened an abundant free market, and inspired
confidence into dealers of every description.” The same close attention
to, and mastery of details, characterized him throughout his Indian
career; and it is remarkable that one of his ablest despatches to Lord
Clive, full of practical information as to the conduct of the campaign,
was written whilst the column he commanded was crossing the Toombuddra,
in the face of the vastly superior army of Dhoondiah, posted on the
opposite bank, and while a thousand matters of the deepest interest were
pressing upon the commander’s mind. But it was one of his most
remarkable characteristics, thus to be able to withdraw himself
temporarily from the business immediately in hand, and to bend his full
powers upon the consideration of matters totally distinct; even the most
difficult circumstances on such occasions failing to embarrass or
intimidate him.
Returned to England with a reputation for generalship, Sir Arthur
Wellesley met with immediate employment. In 1808 a corps of 10,000 men
destined to liberate Portugal was placed under his charge. He landed,
fought, and won two battles, and signed the Convention of Cintra. After
the death of Sir John Moore he was entrusted with the command of a new
expedition to Portugal. But Wellington was fearfully overmatched
throughout his Peninsular campaigns. From 1809 to 1813 he never had more
than 30,000 British troops under his command, at a time when there stood
opposed to him in the Peninsula some 350,000 French, mostly veterans, led
by some of Napoleon’s ablest generals. How was he to contend against
such immense forces with any fair prospect of success? His clear
discernment and strong common sense soon taught him that he must adopt a
different policy from that of the Spanish generals, who were invariably
beaten and dispersed whenever they ventured to offer battle in the open
plains. He perceived he had yet to create the army that was to contend
against the French with any reasonable chance of success. Accordingly,
after the battle of Talavera in 1809, when he found himself encompassed
on all sides by superior forces of French, he retired into Portugal,
there to carry out the settled policy on which he had by this time
determined. It was, to organise a Portuguese army under British
officers, and teach them to act in combination with his own troops, in
the mean time avoiding the peril of a defeat by declining all
engagements. He would thus, he conceived, destroy the _morale_ of the
French, who could not exist without victories; and when his army was ripe
for action, and the enemy demoralized, he would then fall upon them with
all his might.
The extraordinary qualities displayed by Lord Wellington throughout these
immortal campaigns, can only be appreciated after a perusal of his
despatches, which contain the unvarnished tale of the manifold ways and
means by which he laid the foundations of his success. Never was man
more tried by difficulty and opposition, arising not less from the
imbecility, falsehoods and intrigues of the British Government of the
day, than from the selfishness, cowardice, and vanity of the people he
went to save. It may, indeed, be said of him, that he sustained the war
in Spain by his individual firmness and self-reliance, which never failed
him even in the midst of his great discouragements. He had not only to
fight Napoleon’s veterans, but also to hold in check the Spanish juntas
and the Portuguese regency. He had the utmost difficulty in obtaining
provisions and clothing for his troops; and it will scarcely be credited
that, while engaged with the enemy in the battle of Talavera, the
Spaniards, who ran away, fell upon the baggage of the British army, and
the ruffians actually plundered it! These and other vexations the Duke
bore with a sublime patience and self-control, and held on his course, in
the face of ingratitude, treachery, and opposition, with indomitable
firmness. He neglected nothing, and attended to every important detail
of business himself. When he found that food for his troops was not to
be obtained from England, and that he must rely upon his own resources
for feeding them, he forthwith commenced business as a corn merchant on a
large scale, in copartnery with the British Minister at Lisbon.
Commissariat bills were created, with which grain was bought in the ports
of the Mediterranean and in South America. When he had thus filled his
magazines, the overplus was sold to the Portuguese, who were greatly in
want of provisions. He left nothing whatever to chance, but provided for
every contingency. He gave his attention to the minutest details of the
service; and was accustomed to concentrate his whole energies, from time
to time, on such apparently ignominious matters as soldiers’ shoes,
camp-kettles, biscuits and horse fodder. His magnificent business
qualities were everywhere felt, and there can be no doubt that, by the
care with which he provided for every contingency, and the personal
attention which he gave to every detail, he laid the foundations of his
great success. {283} By such means he transformed an army of raw levies
into the best soldiers in Europe, with whom he declared it to be possible
to go anywhere and do anything.
We have already referred to his remarkable power of abstracting himself
from the work, no matter how engrossing, immediately in hand, and
concentrating his energies upon the details of some entirely different
business. Thus Napier relates that it was while he was preparing to
fight the battle of Salamanca that he had to expose to the Ministers at
home the futility of relying upon a loan; it was on the heights of San
Christoval, on the field of battle itself, that he demonstrated the
absurdity of attempting to establish a Portuguese bank; it was in the
trenches of Burgos that he dissected Funchal’s scheme of finance, and
exposed the folly of attempting the sale of church property; and on each
occasion, he showed himself as well acquainted with these subjects as
with the minutest detail in the mechanism of armies.
Another feature in his character, showing the upright man of business,
was his thorough honesty. Whilst Soult ransacked and carried away with
him from Spain numerous pictures of great value, Wellington did not
appropriate to himself a single farthing’s worth of property. Everywhere
he paid his way, even when in the enemy’s country. When he had crossed
the French frontier, followed by 40,000 Spaniards, who sought to “make
fortunes” by pillage and plunder, he first rebuked their officers, and
then, finding his efforts to restrain them unavailing, he sent them back
into their own country. It is a remarkable fact, that, even in France
the peasantry fled from their own countrymen, and carried their valuables
within the protection of the British lines! At the very same time,
Wellington was writing home to the British Ministry, “We are overwhelmed
with debts, and I can scarcely stir out of my house on account of public
creditors waiting to demand payment of what is due to them.” Jules
Maurel, in his estimate of the Duke’s character, says, “Nothing can be
grander or more nobly original than this admission. This old soldier,
after thirty years’ service, this iron man and victorious general,
established in an enemy’s country at the head of an immense army, is
afraid of his creditors! This is a kind of fear that has seldom troubled
the mind of conquerors and invaders; and I doubt if the annals of war
could present anything comparable to this sublime simplicity.” But the
Duke himself, had the matter been put to him, would most probably have
disclaimed any intention of acting even grandly or nobly in the matter;
merely regarding the punctual payment of his debts as the best and most
honourable mode of conducting his business.
The truth of the good old maxim, that “Honesty is the best policy,” is
upheld by the daily experience of life; uprightness and integrity being
found as successful in business as in everything else. As Hugh Miller’s
worthy uncle used to advise him, “In all your dealings give your
neighbour the cast of the bank—‘good measure, heaped up, and running
over,’—and you will not lose by it in the end.” A well-known brewer of
beer attributed his success to the liberality with which he used his
malt. Going up to the vat and tasting it, he would say, “Still rather
poor, my lads; give it another cast of the malt.” The brewer put his
character into his beer, and it proved generous accordingly, obtaining a
reputation in England, India, and the colonies, which laid the foundation
of a large fortune. Integrity of word and deed ought to be the very
cornerstone of all business transactions. To the tradesman, the
merchant, and manufacturer, it should be what honour is to the soldier,
and charity to the Christian. In the humblest calling there will always
be found scope for the exercise of this uprightness of character. Hugh
Miller speaks of the mason with whom he served his apprenticeship, as one
who “_put his conscience into every stone that he laid_.” So the true
mechanic will pride himself upon the thoroughness and solidity of his
work, and the high-minded contractor upon the honesty of performance of
his contract in every particular. The upright manufacturer will find not
only honour and reputation, but substantial success, in the genuineness
of the article which he produces, and the merchant in the honesty of what
he sells, and that it really is what it seems to be. Baron Dupin,
speaking of the general probity of Englishmen, which he held to be a
principal cause of their success, observed, “We may succeed for a time by
fraud, by surprise, by violence; but we can succeed permanently only by
means directly opposite. It is not alone the courage, the intelligence,
the activity, of the merchant and manufacturer which maintain the
superiority of their productions and the character of their country; it
is far more their wisdom, their economy, and, above all, their probity.
If ever in the British Islands the useful citizen should lose these
virtues, we may be sure that, for England, as for every other country,
the vessels of a degenerate commerce, repulsed from every shore, would
speedily disappear from those seas whose surface they now cover with the
treasures of the universe, bartered for the treasures of the industry of
the three kingdoms.”
It must be admitted, that Trade tries character perhaps more severely
than any other pursuit in life. It puts to the severest tests honesty,
self-denial, justice, and truthfulness; and men of business who pass
through such trials unstained are perhaps worthy of as great honour as
soldiers who prove their courage amidst the fire and perils of battle.
And, to the credit of the multitudes of men engaged in the various
departments of trade, we think it must be admitted that on the whole they
pass through their trials nobly. If we reflect but for a moment on the
vast amount of wealth daily entrusted even to subordinate persons, who
themselves probably earn but a bare competency—the loose cash which is
constantly passing through the hands of shopmen, agents, brokers, and
clerks in banking houses,—and note how comparatively few are the breaches
of trust which occur amidst all this temptation, it will probably be
admitted that this steady daily honesty of conduct is most honourable to
human nature, if it do not even tempt us to be proud of it. The same
trust and confidence reposed by men of business in each other, as implied
by the system of Credit, which is mainly based upon the principle of
honour, would be surprising if it were not so much a matter of ordinary
practice in business transactions. Dr. Chalmers has well said, that the
implicit trust with which merchants are accustomed to confide in distant
agents, separated from them perhaps by half the globe—often consigning
vast wealth to persons, recommended only by their character, whom perhaps
they have never seen—is probably the finest act of homage which men can
render to one another.
Although common honesty is still happily in the ascendant amongst common
people, and the general business community of England is still sound at
heart, putting their honest character into their respective
callings,—there are unhappily, as there have been in all times, but too
many instances of flagrant dishonesty and fraud, exhibited by the
unscrupulous, the over-speculative, and the intensely selfish in their
haste to be rich. There are tradesmen who adulterate, contractors who
“scamp,” manufacturers who give us shoddy instead of wool, “dressing”
instead of cotton, cast-iron tools instead of steel, needles without
eyes, razors made only “to sell,” and swindled fabrics in many shapes.
But these we must hold to be the exceptional cases, of low-minded and
grasping men, who, though they may gain wealth which they probably cannot
enjoy, will never gain an honest character, nor secure that without which
wealth is nothing—a heart at peace. “The rogue cozened not me, but his
own conscience,” said Bishop Latimer of a cutler who made him pay
twopence for a knife not worth a penny. Money, earned by screwing,
cheating, and overreaching, may for a time dazzle the eyes of the
unthinking; but the bubbles blown by unscrupulous rogues, when
full-blown, usually glitter only to burst. The Sadleirs, Dean Pauls, and
Redpaths, for the most part, come to a sad end even in this world; and
though the successful swindles of others may not be “found out,” and the
gains of their roguery may remain with them, it will be as a curse and
not as a blessing.
It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast
as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer
kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should
for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and
save character. For character is itself a fortune; and if the
high-principled man will but hold on his way courageously, success will
surely come,—nor will the highest reward of all be withheld from him.
Wordsworth well describes the “Happy Warrior,” as he
“Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honour, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow, on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all.”
As an example of the high-minded mercantile man trained in upright habits
of business, and distinguished for justice, truthfulness, and honesty of
dealing in all things, the career of the well-known David Barclay,
grandson of Robert Barclay, of Ury, the author of the celebrated ‘Apology
for the Quakers,’ may be briefly referred to. For many years he was the
head of an extensive house in Cheapside, chiefly engaged in the American
trade; but like Granville Sharp, he entertained so strong an opinion
against the war with our American colonies, that he determined to retire
altogether from the trade. Whilst a merchant, he was as much
distinguished for his talents, knowledge, integrity, and power, as he
afterwards was for his patriotism and munificent philanthropy. He was a
mirror of truthfulness and honesty; and, as became the good Christian and
true gentleman, his word was always held to be as good as his bond. His
position, and his high character, induced the Ministers of the day on
many occasions to seek his advice; and, when examined before the House of
Commons on the subject of the American dispute, his views were so clearly
expressed, and his advice was so strongly justified by the reasons stated
by him, that Lord North publicly acknowledged that he had derived more
information from David Barclay than from all others east of Temple Bar.
On retiring from business, it was not to rest in luxurious ease, but to
enter upon new labours of usefulness for others. With ample means, he
felt that he still owed to society the duty of a good example. He
founded a house of industry near his residence at Walthamstow, which he
supported at a heavy outlay for several years, until at length he
succeeded in rendering it a source of comfort as well as independence to
the well-disposed families of the poor in that neighbourhood. When an
estate in Jamaica fell to him, he determined, though at a cost of some
10,000_l._, at once to give liberty to the whole of the slaves on the
property. He sent out an agent, who hired a ship, and he had the little
slave community transported to one of the free American states, where
they settled down and prospered. Mr. Barclay had been assured that the
negroes were too ignorant and too barbarous for freedom, and it was thus
that he determined practically to demonstrate the fallacy of the
assertion. In dealing with his accumulated savings, he made himself the
executor of his own will, and instead of leaving a large fortune to be
divided among his relatives at his death, he extended to them his
munificent aid during his life, watched and aided them in their
respective careers, and thus not only laid the foundation, but lived to
see the maturity, of some of the largest and most prosperous business
concerns in the metropolis. We believe that to this day some of our most
eminent merchants—such as the Gurneys, Hanburys, and Buxtons—are proud to
acknowledge with gratitude the obligations they owe to David Barclay for
the means of their first introduction to life, and for the benefits of
his counsel and countenance in the early stages of their career. Such a
man stands as a mark of the mercantile honesty and integrity of his
country, and is a model and example for men of business in all time to
come.