in January 1813, repaired to Cadiz, to communicate in person with
the regency; by this step all doubts were dispelled, and the Spanish
army, after being better organised, was placed under his immediate
command. He was tenaciously regardful of his title of generalissimo,
and explained his plan for the campaign at the head of the combined
army of England, Spain, and Portugal, as far as Vittoria, where the
battle took place which was so fatal to our arms in the Peninsula,
and where every thing was taken by the English, even to the treasure
of Joseph Buonaparte. The utter incapacity of Marshal Jourdain, and
the avidity of some of the French generals, were among the principal
causes of this misfortune; and the efforts made to save the treasure
occasioned the destruction of the army. All the family of Napoleon, by
whom he was surrounded, being incapable of comprehending his glory,
only served to endanger his fortune; and when the day of misfortune
has arrived, what power can arrest the torrent? The battle of Vittoria
procured for Lord Wellington the elevated rank of field-marshal, so
rarely conferred in England; and it opened the road of the Pyrenees to
the Coalition. It was when approaching Pampeluna and St. Sebastian,
that the English general unfolded his plan of carrying the war into
France. Soult had again taken the command of the French troops on the
Bidassoa; for Napoleon had found it necessary to despatch from the
field of Bautzen, a marshal of skill and ability to the point most
threatened with danger, and the army in Spain was in a state of utter
confusion. Lord Wellington extended his line to Bayonne, after having
carried the position of Nivelle: it was certainly a wonderful war,
full of strategy! Marshal Soult displayed great skill in the manner in
which he manœuvred before a superior force, which only advanced when
prudence permitted; and thus the two armies remained for nearly two
months, watching each other's motions, but prevented by the severity of
the season, and the dreadful state of the roads, from proceeding any
farther. Soult made an attempt to imitate the lines of Torres Vedras
on the frontiers of France, and erected formidable intrenchments near
Bayonne; but Lord Wellington, without attacking them in front, turned
them by the right, and thus compelled his antagonist to abandon them.
The name of France inspired even the Allies with so much respect,
that they could not avoid a feeling of hesitation as to entering
her territories. When, however, we look back upon the early ages of
the French monarchy, we find that English troops had more than once
distinguished themselves on the plains of Gascony; and the exploits of
the Black Prince are interwoven with the feudal history of Guienne.
The Emperor's orders to Marshal Soult were to retreat very slowly, and
to endeavour as far as possible to avert the progress of the English,
Spanish, and Portuguese troops, by constant skirmishes. He had himself
entered into a treaty with Ferdinand VII., in the hope of separating by
this means the Spanish army from the Anglo-Portuguese force under Lord
Wellington.
Matters were, however, too far advanced to admit of the realisation
of these political plans, for the Pyrenees were already passed. After
the battle of Orthes the French army was unable to maintain the road
to Bourdeaux, and Lord Wellington, in concert with Marshal Beresford,
was obliged to give a decided opinion concerning the inclination
in favour of the Bourbons, which began to manifest itself in the
southern provinces. On this occasion he assumed a political position
for the first time; until now he had been merely a general officer,
exhibiting some degree of dexterity in his negotiations with the junta
of Cadiz, but the events of 1814 were evidently assuming a decisive
character fraught with great importance. Would he be justified in
giving a political impulse in favour of the restoration of Louis
XVIII., and what were the orders of his government on this subject when
the Allies were engaged in negotiation at Chaumont? Lord Wellington
permitted the full and energetic manifestation of the public feeling;
and Marshal Beresford made no objections to the white flag being
hoisted. The empire was gradually declining from the northern to the
southern extremity of the kingdom; and letters were received from Lord
Castlereagh, informing the chief of the English armies of the events
that had taken place in Paris. The battle of Toulouse was fought a few
days afterwards, a melancholy and useless sacrifice of human life,--for
it was incapable of arresting the progress of the coalesced armies;
in fact, all was now over, the restoration was completed, and Louis
XVIII. in the act of re-entering his capital. The English remained in
possession of Toulouse, and the peace of 1814 was concluded by all the
allied powers.
Lord Wellington took no part in this treaty, for he was then possessed
of no political influence, his life being entirely military; and Lord
Castlereagh, then at the head of the cabinet, was not inclined to yield
his ministerial influence to any one. When, however, the congress was
assembled at Vienna, the Duke of Wellington, who had been received with
the utmost enthusiasm in England, attended this meeting of crowned
heads, to exhibit the grandeur of his country, and recall to mind
the services he had rendered to the common cause. The talent he had
displayed in the Peninsular war, and the perseverance he had exhibited
during that long struggle, had cast a halo round his person, and
greatly excited the public curiosity concerning him. He was at that
time forty-five years of age, cold and reserved in his manners, but
attaching some value to the attention shewn him by some of the ladies
at Vienna; an immense number of entertainments were given to him, and
it is well known that no city in Europe offers so many resources for
those inclined to pleasure and dissipation.
In the midst of all these amusements the congress was startled by the
fall of the thunderbolt,--news was received of the landing of Napoleon
in the gulf of Juan! It was necessary immediate recourse should be had
to military measures, and without a moment's hesitation the direction
of the operations was entrusted to the Duke of Wellington, as the
person most capable of opposing Napoleon; besides which, as Great
Britain gave the impulse to the European league, it was necessary to
give her a pledge of their sincerity, and the title of generalissimo,
conferred upon the Duke, was undoubtedly due to him, in consideration
of the subsidies which the English parliament were about to vote for
the advantage of Europe. After a hurried journey to England, Wellington
returned with all speed to the Low Countries, to decide in concert
with Field-marshal Blucher upon the plan of his campaign; and when
opposed to the powerful army of Napoleon, he followed the same system
he had been accustomed to pursue in Spain; that is to say, he assumed a
defensive attitude, in a well-chosen position. His military reputation
had commenced with the lines of Torres Vedras, and was destined to
reach its zenith at Waterloo;--thus shewing that the whole of a man's
destiny is sometimes comprehended between two ideas.
I shall not enter here into military details, but content myself
with observing that the battle of Waterloo was a perfect type of the
system pursued by two men whose military capacities were entirely
dissimilar--the Emperor and the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon was
impetuous, actually sublime, when advancing to attack his enemy; but
disordered and devoid of reflection in a retreat. The Duke, on the
contrary, was timid, watchful, and undecided during an active campaign,
to such a degree that he endangered the safety of his troops whenever
he attempted a bold movement; but he was at the same time cool and
collected, and accustomed to avail himself of every advantage when
acting on the defensive. The attack made by Buonaparte at Waterloo
recalled the battles of Wagram and Austerlitz, while the Duke of
Wellington again saw the lines of Torres Vedras in the intrenched
position of Mont St. Jean.
The influence of the Duke of Wellington naturally increased after
this great battle; he was advancing at the head of a victorious army,
and though Blucher did not actually fill a subordinate situation, yet
the Duke, from his being covered with the glory of Waterloo, could
not fail to exercise a considerable influence over the mind of the
Prussian generalissimo. At last, when they approached Paris, all the
revolutionary party, with Fouché at their head, came to meet the Duke,
considering him as the supreme arbiter, whose word was to decide upon
the fate of France. Fouché opened an active negotiation with him for
the occupation of France; and the noble Duke, in a conversation with
Louis XVIII., recommended the ministry of Talleyrand and Fouché, as the
only one capable of bringing about an union between royalty and the
liberty obtained by the revolution. Was the Duke mistaken? or was he
duped? Whichever may have been the case, the coalition fell to pieces
almost immediately, and the powerful and long-continued ascendency
of Lord Castlereagh and the English government was replaced by the
personal influence of the Emperor Alexander. Talleyrand was succeeded
by the Duke de Richelieu.
By the treaty concluded in the month of November 1815, it had been
stipulated that an army of occupation should remain in France; and
it was placed under the command of the Duke of Wellington, without
making any distinction among the contingents furnished by the different
powers. He was also appointed inspector of the fortresses in the Low
Countries, which were erected as advanced posts against France, and
with the money levied upon her. The generalissimo resided in Paris,
where he saw a good deal of Louis XVIII.; and his English principles
were in perfect agreement with a system of moderation and freedom. He
possessed an honest and upright heart, and a habit of judging with ease
and simplicity of the state of events; and we must do him the justice
to say, that when on various occasions he was constituted arbiter of
the claims of the Allies, he almost invariably gave his opinion in
favour of our unfortunate country. Even when he was consulted, more
than once, upon the possibility of diminishing the army of occupation,
he declared that the state of the public mind in France would permit
this relief to be granted, which the suffering condition of the country
rendered imperatively necessary. At this period, when the Duke of
Wellington was engaged in rendering us most essential service, the
Buonapartist spirit armed a fanatic against his life, and a pistol
was fired actually into his carriage. The Duke escaped unhurt; and I
deeply regret that Napoleon, in his will written at St. Helena, should
have degraded himself to such a degree as to award a recompense to the
miscreant who had thus attacked his former military adversary. Conduct
like this communicates a stain which cannot be effaced even from the
most renowned characters in history.
After the departure of the army of occupation, and the signing of
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the Duke of Wellington quitted Paris;
his military career was at an end, and his political life may be
said to have just begun: having been raised to a seat in the House
of Peers,[37] with the rank of duke, in the enjoyment of an immense
fortune, and decorated with the stars of every order of knighthood in
Europe, he could hardly fail of possessing a considerable degree of
influence. But the order of things was now changed in England: during
the long wars against the French Revolution and Empire, the English
had shewn extreme energy, and had made great and very judicious use
of their powerful means, thus enabling the Tories to overcome all the
difficulties presented by their situation; they were successful because
they were strongly opposed to all revolutionary principles, and firmly
resolved to carry out the war. The people had then no time to think of
internal dissensions, they were breathlessly engaged in incessantly
recurring struggles, and always hoping for victory; but now that the
war was at an end, passions were reawakened, and Lord Castlereagh saw
his power gradually declining, while that of the Whigs and Radicals was
progressively increasing.
[37] He had long had a seat in the House of Peers, but the mistake
is very natural for a foreigner.--_Editor._
The Duke of Wellington was a Tory upon principle and family precedent;
he took his seat in the House of Peers among the Conservatives; and he
and Lord Aberdeen formed the centre of the Tory benches that supported
Lord Castlereagh's ministry. He was not an eloquent speaker, but he
expressed himself with great clearness and precision; and, without
being a man of a very enlarged mind, he was gifted with an instinctive
good sense, that enabled him to form an accurate judgment of the
generality of questions; while, at the same time, he was perfectly _au
fait_ of the political occurrences and situations of Europe, for he had
taken a part in too many affairs of importance not to have retained
a deep impression of them. In short, the Duke of Wellington, as a
statesman, was less distinguished for the _great_ than for the _good_
things he had done. His popularity was now on the decline; the time had
passed away when his carriage was surrounded by crowds of people on his
return to England after his campaigns, for the Hero of Waterloo was too
staunch a Tory to be a favourite with the populace. The queen's trial
had excited public opinion in the highest degree, and every thing was
progressing rapidly towards reform.
Under circumstances like these, the Duke had little political influence
except in the diplomatic circle; but he found himself mixed up with
all the serious continental affairs, in consequence of the important
part he had formerly played; and he was present at the congress of
Verona. He preserved a certain degree of influence in foreign affairs
during Mr. Canning's ministry, although the Whig party was in the
ascendant. Russia appeared at this time likely to become the rival of
England; the Greek question caused considerable public excitement, and
difficulties existed as to fixing the new boundaries of the Hellenic
territory. Mr. Canning, therefore, considered it necessary a person
of great consideration should be sent to St. Petersburg, and the Duke
of Wellington, being held in high estimation by the Emperor Nicholas,
and having also been actively engaged in most of the questions of
general interest, it was decided that his mission should be attached
to the treaty of the sixth of July, which established the independence
of Greece, and settled her territorial boundaries. It had become
necessary the business should be finally decided; and as, in England,
strong prejudices against individuals are never indulged in when
business is at stake, the Duke of Wellington was selected as being the
person most capable of being useful.
When he returned to England Mr. Canning was dead; Lord Goderich's
ministry was struggling feebly with the difficulties it had to
encounter, and as diplomatic matters were assuming a singularly
complicated appearance, the king thought it advisable to form a
Tory ministry of men of capacity and experience. It was composed of
Mr. Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the Duke of Wellington; and peculiarly
adapted for resisting any encroachments on the part of Russia. When
the Duke came seriously to examine into the state of the country, he
was convinced that one of the first steps necessary to secure the
efficiency and consistency of his ministry was the emancipation of
the Catholics. This had long been a favourite idea in his family; and
Marquis Wellesley[38] had formerly detached himself from George III.
on this very question. The Duke had no hesitation as to the course
he was to pursue, and a bill presented to parliament was passed by a
majority; the Tories were desirous of the glory of originating so just
and equitable a measure.[39]
[38] Upon this occasion the Duke of Wellington voted against his
brother's measure.--_Editor._
[39] The editor begs to remind the reader that he is not answerable
for M. Capefigue's opinions.
The revolution of July, some months afterwards, struck a fatal blow to
the heart of the Tories; for Radical opinions were already obtaining
great influence in England. The Duke hastened to recognise the events
that had taken place, but in his own mind he qualified the proceedings
with the epithet _untoward_--the same expression he had used concerning
the battle of Navarino. Had not every thing been overturned and
altered by this revolution? How, then, was it possible for the Duke
to contend with a political system which threatened to destroy the
treaties concluded in 1815? He comprehended the full consequences of
this change,--nor did he attempt to avert them; but, on the first
occasion of an equivocal majority, he sent in his resignation, and
gave up his situation to Lord Grey and the Whigs. As in England all
political characters are independent of their position, they resign
it without regret, even for some incidental circumstance. The Duke
then placed himself at the head of the Conservative party, and of the
enlightened Tories in the House of Lords; assuming there about the
same situation as Mr. Peel in the House of Commons. Conservative and
Tory signify in England men of worth and consistency, who venerate
the ancient institutions of their country, and do not wish them to
be interfered with; and it is certainly a magnificent ground for a
statesman to take up, for he places himself as a barrier to oppose
all the storms raised by parties. The Duke's Conservative principles
made him averse to the plan of reform that attacked the ancient
constitution of England: he continued to observe this steadfastness
of opinion in the House of Lords; and when, in 1833, the continental
question again became perplexed, the king proposed forming another
ministry, in which he was to be included; but on this occasion, with an
admirable appreciation of existing circumstances, Mr. Peel was placed
at the head of the cabinet, and the noble Duke only filled a secondary
place. He considered that a name belonging to the commonalty, like
that of Mr. Peel, was better suited to the juncture than that of the
Duke of Wellington or the Earl of Aberdeen. In consequence of this
arrangement the Duke found himself completely eclipsed by Mr. Peel,
and he appeared only to have been included in the ministry that he
might act as its representative in the House of Lords: as it has been
remarked by an English political writer, he certainly did not form its
basis, whatever strength and consideration he might have brought to its
assistance.
Peel's ministry was not of long duration; and the Tories were certainly
guilty of an oversight in forming this ephemeral cabinet, for nothing
more deeply injures a party than abortive efforts, or attempts which
are not crowned with success. The Duke of Wellington resumed his place
in the House of Lords, and spoke with seriousness and moderation upon
all the questions of importance that came before them. As I have
before observed, strong good sense, and clear reasoning, are the
qualities for which he is especially distinguished, and which carry
every thing before them. His manner of expressing himself is quiet
and serious; and he is always listened to with respect and attention.
His private life is essentially military; and at Apsley House he is
surrounded by pictures of all his battles, from India to Waterloo.
His favourite campaign is that of the Peninsula; and one might say
that the recollections of his youth, under the exhilarating sky of
the south of Europe, are intermingled with it. The Duke likes the old
friends, and the society that reminds him of his military adventures;
he is also very intimate with the _corps diplomatique_, and entertains
magnificently,--displaying all the splendour of an immense fortune
and the grandeur of the English aristocracy. Sometimes he speaks with
bitterness of his past popularity contrasted with the feelings evinced
towards him in later times; and he has more than once called attention
to the windows of his palace, now defended by iron gratings against the
violence of the mob, who threw stones against his windows and into his
splendidly decorated apartments. "What a contrast!" said he to Pozzo
di Borgo, in 1834. "Recollect, my dear friend, my popularity after the
battle of Waterloo, and my entry into London in the year 1815; and now
see how completely I am out of favour with these people!"
The Duke of Wellington likes to be compared to Marlborough and
Nelson--the two most illustrious of English heroes; but he avoids all
comparison with Napoleon, for their two careers are neither on the same
scale nor can be measured by the same proportion.
The Duke of Wellington, a general essentially attached to the defensive
system, always knew how to select a favourable position; received
battle, but very rarely gave it. Every time that he ventured on bold
measures he was guilty of imprudence; and he only shewed himself
eminently superior when acting on the defensive.[40] Napoleon, on
the contrary, was bold and magnificent in the attack; his plans were
cleverly laid, and were the result of a sudden inspiration,--his
wonderful genius enabled him to modify them according to circumstances;
but at the slightest reverse Napoleon was cast down, and his retreat
was almost always a flight: though his attack was made in the most
brilliant manner, he knew not how to resist; and in this he personified
the military genius of the French nation, from the times of Cressy and
Agincourt. I think it necessary to repeat this parallel, as it is the
only one that it is possible to draw between Napoleon and the Duke
of Wellington. Nelson was the only Englishman who carried into naval
warfare the spirit exhibited by Napoleon in the continental war. Had
the Emperor lived to the age of the Duke, it would have been curious to
compare these two great characters at the extreme point of existence.
[40] See Note, page 208.--_Editor._
Since the revolution of 1830, the history of parties and statesmen
has been greatly developed; Whigs and Tories have in turn been at
the helm--Lord Grey, Lord Palmerston; Mr. Peel, and Lord Aberdeen;
affording opportunities of forming a more correct judgment of the
character and personal value of each. The Tories have now returned into
power with Mr. Peel and Lord Aberdeen; but the Duke would not accept
any office beyond a sort of patronage over the House of Lords.
A parallel may now be drawn between the Whigs and Tories, embracing
the most distinguished characters among both. Lord Grey left all his
celebrity as a leader of the opposition, to become a minister of
mediocrity at the head of the government. Lord Palmerston exhibited so
much emptiness and folly in his adventurous attempt at liberalism, as
to lose all his consistency in England. The Tories on the contrary,
have retained two men of high consideration, whose reputation is
unblemished, viz. Mr. Peel and Lord Aberdeen. No man can equal the
chief of the Tory party in his clear and perspicuous manner of speaking
of business; and the Earl of Aberdeen possesses in an eminent degree
a knowledge of foreign affairs and a most extensive acquaintance with
facts: and this, in truth, constitutes the superiority and the seal of
the Tory party.
People generally mistake the Duke of Wellington's character, by
supposing him to feel a dislike to France; on the contrary, he has many
feelings quite in agreement with our national character and history.
The Tories, to a greater degree than the Whigs, are persuaded that the
predominance of France is necessary for the balance of power in Europe;
they seek all occasions to give a proof of this opinion, and are often
grieved at the prejudices which exist at the bottom of our character
against the politics of their cabinet.