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IST See also:DUKE . OF 509
given up. The same misfortune attended a fresh stroke against See also:Ciudad Rodrigo, and at the end of a See also:campaign in which he had used all his skill and care to compensate for inferior See also:numbers, he withdrew behind the Coa. He had meanwhile been given the See also:local See also:rank of See also:general and had also received the Portuguese See also:title of See also:Conde de Vimeiro.
See also:Wellington had from the first seen that, whatever number of men See also:Napoleon might send against him, it was impossible, owing to the poverty of the See also:country, that any See also:great See also:mass of troops could See also:long be held together, and that the See also:French, used to " making See also:war support war," would fare worse in such conditions than his own troops with their organized See also:supply service. It was so at the end of 1811. See also:Soult had to move southwards to live, and the See also:English were again more than a match for the enemy in front of them. Wellington resumed the offensive, and on the r9th of See also:January 181 2 Ciudad Rodrigo was taken by See also:storm. Again, suddenly altering the centre of gravity, Wellington invested See also:Badajoz in the See also:middle of See also: The advance from Ciudad Rodrigo into See also:Spain was now begun. See also:Marmont, who had succeeded See also:Massena, See also:fell back to the See also:Douro, but there turned upon his assailant, and, by See also:superior swiftness, threatened to cut the English off from See also:Portugal. Wellington retreated as far as See also:Salamanca (q.v.), and there extricated himself from his peril by a most brilliant victory (See also:July 22). The French fell back on See also:Burgos. Instead of immediately following them, Wellington thought it See also:wise to advance upon the See also:Spanish See also:capital. See also: During this See also:retreat he announced in general orders that the demoralization and misconduct of the British army surpassed anything that he had ever witnessed. Such wholesale See also:criticism was bitterly resented, but indeed throughout his career Wellington, See also:cold and punctilious, never secured to himself the affections of See also:officers and men as See also:Marlborough or Napoleon did. He subjugated his army and gave it brilliant victories, but he inspired few disciples except the members of his own See also:staff. To the end of his See also:life his relations with the See also:principal generals who served under him were by no means intimate.
Wellington had been made an See also:earl after the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, and the Spanish See also:government created him duke of Ciudad Rodrigo about the same time. For Salamanca his See also:reward was a marquessate, and a See also: The advance of the allied army was irresistible. Position after position was evacuated by the French, until Wellington, See also:driving everything before him, came up with the retreating enemy at See also:Vittoria (q.v.), and won an overwhelming victory (See also:June 21st). Soult's combats in the See also:Pyrenees, and the desperate resistance of St See also:Sebastian, prolonged the struggle through the autumn, and cost the English thousands of men. But at length the frontier was passed, and Soult forced back into his entrenched See also:camp at See also:Bayonne. Both armies now rested for some See also:weeks, during which See also:interval Welling-ton gained the confidence of the inhabitants by his unsparing repression of marauding, his business-like See also:payment for supplies, and the excellent discipline which he maintained. In See also:February 1814 the advance was renewed. The See also:Adour was crossed, and Soult was defeated at Orthes. At See also:Toulouse, after the See also:allies had entered See also:Paris, but before the See also:abdication of Napoleon had become known, the last See also:battle of the war was fought. See also:Peace being proclaimed, Wellington took leave of his army at See also:Bordeaux, and returned to See also:England, where he was received with extra-See also:ordinary honours, created duke of Wellington, and awarded a fresh grant of £400,000. After the treaty of Paris (May 30) Wellington was appointed British See also:ambassador at the French capital. During the autumn and See also:winter of 1814 he witnessed and reported the mistakes of the restored See also:Bourbon See also:dynasty, and warned his government of the growing danger from conspiracies and from the army, which was visibly hostile to the Bourbons. His insight, however, did not extend beyond the circumstances immediately before and around him, and he failed to realize that the great mass of the French nation was still with Napoleon at See also:heart. He remained in See also:France until February 1815, when he took Lord Castlereagh's place at the See also:congress of See also:Vienna. All the great questions of the congress had already been settled, and Wellington's See also:diplomatic work here was not of importance. His imperfect acquaintance with French feeling was strikingly proved in the despatch which he sent See also:home on learning of Napoleon's See also:escape from See also:Elba. " He has acted," he wrote, " upon false or nc See also:information, and the king (See also: Not only the See also:prestige of his victories, but the See also:chance circumstances of the moment, now made Wellington the most influential See also:personality in See also:Europe. The emperors of See also:Russia and See also:Austria were still far away at the time of Napoleon's second abdication, and it was with Wellington that the commissioners of the provisional government opened negotiations preliminary to the surrender of Paris. The duke well knew the peril of delaying the decision as to the government of France. The See also:emperor See also: By the terms of his commission he was empowered to See also:act, in See also:case of emergency, without waiting for orders; he was, moreover, to be kept informed by the French cabinet of the whole course of business. His See also:power was immense, and it was well and wisely used. If he had no sympathy with revolutionary disturbers of the peace, he had even less with the fatuous extravagances of the See also:comte d'See also:Artois and his reactionary entourage, and his influence was thrown into the See also:scale of the moderate constitutional policy of which See also:Richelieu and See also:Decazes were the most conspicuous exponents. The administrative duties connected with the army of occupation would alone have taxed to the uttermost the powers of an ordinary man.. Besides this, his work included the reconstruction of the military frontier of the Netherlands, and the conduct of the See also:financial negotiations with Messrs See also:Baring, by which the French government was able to pay off the indemnities due from it, and thus render it possible for the powers to reduce the See also:period of armed occupation from five years to three. He was consulted, moreover, in all matters of international importance, notably the affairs of the Spanish colonies, in which he associated himself with Castlereagh in pressing those views which were afterwards carried into effect by See also:George See also:Canning. The length of time during which France was to be occupied by the allies practically depended upon Wellington's See also:judgment. On the loth of December 1816 Pozzo di Borgo wrote to the duke enclosing a memorandum in which the emperor Alexander of Russia suggested a reduction in the army of occupation: " no See also:mere question of See also:finance, but one of general policy, based on See also:reason, See also:equity and a severe morality "; at the same time he See also:left the question of its postponement entirely to Wellington. To 1Isolated fortresses were still holding out for Napoleon in See also:September 1815, e.g. See also:Longwy, which surrendered on the loth. Much trouble was caused by the behaviour of some of the allied troops, notably the Prussians. Detailed reports of the See also:condition of the country for the first months of the occupation are contained in the Bulletins de la See also:correspondence de l'Interieur, copies of which are preserved in the See also:Foreign See also:Office records (F.O. Congress. Paris. Castlereagh, See also:August, &c., 1815). Wellington the proposal seemed premature; he would prefer to wait till " the assembly had published its conduct by its acts "; for if the new See also:chambers were to prove as intractable as the dissolved Chambre introuvable, the monarchy would not be able to dispense with its foreign tutors. To Castlereagh he wrote (December 11, 1816) that although he believed that the common See also:people of the departments occupied," particularly those occupied by us," were delighted to have the troops and the See also:money spent among them, among the See also:official and middle classes the feeling was very different. In view of the weakness of the king's government, to reduce the army would be to expose the excitable elements of the See also:population to the temptation of attacking it. " Suppose I or my officers were forced to take military See also:action. Suppose this were to happen in the Prussian cantonments. The whole Prussian army would be put in See also:motion, and all Europe would resound with the alarm of the danger to be apprehended from the See also:Jacobins in France." 1 The events of the next few months considerably modified his opinions in this matter. The new chambers proved their trust-worthy quality by passing the See also:budget, and the army of occupation was reduced by 30,000 men. Wellington now pressed for the See also:total evacuation of France, pointing out that popular irritation had grown to such a See also:pitch that, if the occupation were to be prolonged, he must concentrate the army between the See also:Scheldt and the See also:Meuse, as the forces, stretched in a thin See also:line across France, were no longer safe in the event of a popular rising. But such a concentration would in itself be attended with great See also:risk, as the detachments might be destroyed piecemeal before they could combine. These representations determined the allies to make the immediate evacuation of France the principal subject of discussion at the congress which it was arranged to hold at See also:Aix-la-Chapelle in the autumn of 1818. Here Wellington supported the proposal for the immediate evacuation of France, and it was owing to his common-sense criticism that the proposal of See also:Prussia, supported by the emperor Alexander and Metternich, to establish an " army of observation " at See also:Brussels, was nipped in the bud. The conduct of the final arrangements with Messrs Baring and See also:Hope, which made a definitive financial See also:settlement between France and the allies possible, was left entirely to him. On Wellington's first entry into Paris he had been received with popular See also:enthusiasm,2 but he had 'soon become intensely unpopular. He was held responsible not only for the occupation itself, but for every untoward incident to which it gave rise; even Blucher's See also:attempt to See also:blow up the See also:Pont de See also:Jena, which he had prevented, was laid to his See also:charge. His characteristically British temperament was wholly unsympathetic to the French, whose sensibility was irritated by his cold and slightly contemptuous See also:justice. Two attempts were made to assassinate him.' After the second the prince See also:regent commanded him to leave Paris and proceed to the headquarters at See also:Cambrai.4 For the first time the duke disobeyed orders; the case, he wrote, was one in which he was " principally and personally concerned," and he alone was in' a position to See also:judge what line of action he ought to pursue.' His work in Paris, however, was now finished, and on the 30th of See also:October, in a final " order of the See also:day," he took leave of the international troops under his command. On the 23rd of October, while still at Aix, he had received an offer from Lord Liverpool of the office of See also:master-general of the See also:ordnance, with a seat in the cabinet. He accepted, though with some reluctance, and only on condition that he should be at See also:liberty, in the event of the Tories going into opposition, to take any line he might think proper. For the next three years " the Duke " was little before the See also:world. He supported the repressive policy of Liverpool's cabinet, and organized the military forces held ready in case of a See also:Radical rising. It was his influence with George IV. that led to the ' F. O. See also:Continent; Paris; Wellington (No. 32). 2 See the interesting See also:letter of Lord Castlereagh to Lord Liverpool preserved in the Foreign Office Records (Congress; Paris; See also:Viscount Castlereagh, July 7-2o, 1815), dated July 8, 1815. See also:Maxwell, Life, ii. 114 if. Suppl. Despatches, xii. 326. Suppl. Despatches, ii. 335.readmittance of Canning to the cabinet after the affair of the royal See also:divorce had been settled. It was only in 1822, however, that the tragic See also:death of his friend See also:Londonderry (Castlereagh) brought him once more into international prominence. Londonderry had been on the See also:eve of starting for the See also:conference at Vienna, and the instructions which he had See also:drawn up for his own guidance were handed over by Canning, the new foreign secretary, to Wellington, who proceeded in September to Vienna, and thence in October to See also:Verona, whither the conference had been adjourned. Welling-ton's official part at the congress is outlined elsewhere (see VERONA, CONGRESS OF). Unofficially, he pointed out to the French plenipotentiaries, arguing from Napoleon's experience, the extreme danger of an invasion of Spain, but at the same time explained, for the benefit of the duke of See also:Angouleme, the best way to conduct a campaign in the Peninsula. Wellington's intimate association for several years with the sovereigns and statesmen of the See also:Grand See also:Alliance, and his experience of the evils which the Alliance existed to hold in check, naturally led him to dislike Canning's aggressive attitude towards the autocratic powers, and to view with some See also:apprehension his determination to break with the See also:European See also:concert. He realized, however, that in the matter of Spain and the Spanish colonies the British government had no choice, and in this question he was in complete harmony with Canning. This was also at first the case in respect to the policy to be pursued in the Eastern Question raised by the war of See also:Greek See also:independence. Both Canning and Wellington were anxious to preserve the integrity of See also:Turkey, and therefore to prevent any isolated intervention of Russia; and Wellington seemed to Canning the most suitable See also:instrument for the purpose of securing an arrangement between Great See also:Britain and Russia on the Greek question, through which it was hoped to assure peace in the East. In February 1826, accordingly, the duke was sent to St See also:Petersburg, ostensibly to congratulate the emperor See also:Nicholas I. on his See also:accession, but more especially—to use Wellington's own words—" to induce the emperor of Russia to put himself in our hands." 8 In this See also:object he signally failed. He was, indeed, received in St Petersburg with all See also:honour; but as a diplomatist the " Iron Duke "—whom Nicholas, See also:writing to his See also:brother See also:Constantine, described as " old and broken (casse)"—was no match for the " Iron See also:Tsar." As for the Greeks, the emperor said bluntly that he took no See also:interest in " See also:ces messieurs," whom he regarded as " rebels "; his own particular See also:quarrel with Turkey, arising out of the non-fulfilment of the treaty of See also:Bucharest, was the concern of Russia alone; the See also:ultimatum to Turkey had, indeed, been prepared before Wellington's arrival, and was despatched during his visit. Under stress of the imminence of the peril, which Nicholas was at no pains to conceal, the duke was driven from concession to See also:con-cession, until at last the tsar, having gained all he wanted, condescended to come to an arrangement with Great Britain in the Greek question. On the 4th of April was signed the See also:Protocol of St Petersburg, an instrument which—as events were to prove—fettered the See also:free initiative not of Russia, but of Great Britain (see TURKEY: See also:History; See also:GREECE: History).? After the death of the duke of See also:York on the 5th of December 1826 the post of See also:commander-in-See also:chief was conferred upon Welling-ton. His relations with Canning had, however, become increasingly strained, and when, in consequence of Lord Liverpool's illness, Canning in April 1827 was called to the See also:head of the See also:administration, the duke refused to serve under him. On the day after the resignation of his seat in the cabinet he also resigned his offices of master of the ordnance and commander-in-chief, giving as his reason " the See also:tone and See also:temper of Mr Canning's letters," though it is difficult to see in these letters any adequate reason for such a course (see Maxwell's Life, ii. 199). The effect of his withdrawal was momentous in its bearing upon Eastern affairs. Canning, freed from Wellington's See also:restraint, carried his intervention on behalf of Greece a step further, and 6 Memorandum to Canning of January 26, 1826 (Well. Desp. di.) 7 An interesting See also:account of Wellington's negotiations in St See also:Peters-See also:burg, based on unpublished documents in the Russian archives, is given in T. Schiemann's Geschichte Russlands unter Nikolaus I. (See also:Berlin, 1go8), ii. 126-138. concluded, on the 27th of July, the treaty of London, whereby France, England and Russia See also:bound themselves to put an end to the conflict in the East and to enforce the conditions of the St Petersburg protocol upon the belligerents. Against this treaty Wellington protested, on the ground that it " specified means of compulsion which were neither more nor less than See also:measures of war." His apprehensions were fulfilled by the battle of See also:Navarino. Canning died on the 8th of August 1827, and was succeeded as premier by Lord Goderich. The duke was at once again offered the post of commander-in-chief, which he accepted on the 17th of August. On the fall of Lord Goderich's cabinet five months later Wellington became See also:prime minister. He had declared some time before that it would be an act of madness for him to take this post; but the sense of public See also:duty led him to accept it when it was pressed upon him by the king. His cabinet included at the first See also:Huskisson, See also:Palmerston and other followers of Canning. The See also:repeal of the Test and See also:Corporation Acts having been carried in the See also:House of See also:Commons in the session of 1828, Wellington, to the great disappointment of Tories like Lord See also:Eldon, recommended the House of Lords not to offer further resistance, and the measure was accordingly carried through. Soon afterwards a quarrel between the duke and Huskisson led to the retirement from the See also:ministry of all its more liberal members. It was now hoped by the so-called See also:Protestant party that Welling-ton, at the head of a more See also:united cabinet, would offer a steady resistance to See also:Catholic emancipation. Never were men more bitterly disappointed. The See also:Clare See also:election and the progress of the catholic Association convinced both Wellington and See also:Peel that the time had come when Catholic emancipation must be granted; and, submitting when further resistance would have led to See also:civil war, the ministry itself brought in at the beginning of the session of 1829 a See also:bill for the See also:relief of the Catholics. Wellington, who had hitherto always opposed Catholic emancipation, explained and justified his See also:change of front in See also:simple and impressive See also:language. His undoubted seriousness and his immense See also:personal reputation did not, however, See also:save him from the excesses of calumny and misinterpretation; and in order to impose some moderation upon his aspersers the duke thought it necessary to send a challenee to one of the most violent of these, the earl of See also:Winchelsea. No See also:mischief resulted from the encounter. Catholic emancipation was the great act of Wellington's ministry; in other respects his See also:tenure of office was not marked by much success. The See also:imagination and the breadth of view necessary to a statesman of the highest order were not part of his endowment, nor had he the power of working harmoniously with his subordinates. His Eastern policy was singularly short-sighted. There might have been See also:good reason, from Wellington's point of view, for condemning Canning's treaty of London; but when, in consequence of this treaty, the battle of Navarino had been fought, the See also:Turkish See also:fleet sunk, and the independence of Greece practically established, it was the weakest of all possible courses to withdraw England from its active intervention, and to leave to Russia the gains of a private and isolated war. This, however, was Wellington's policy; and, having permitted Russia to go to war alone in 1828, nothing remained for him but to treat Greece as a See also:pawn in Russia's hands, and to cut down the territory of the Greek See also:kingdom to the narrowest possible limits, as if the restoration to the See also:sultan of an inaccessible See also:mountain-See also:tract, inhabited by the bitterest of his enemies, could permanently add to the strength of the See also:Ottoman See also:empire. The result was the renunciation of the Greek crown by Prince See also:Leopold; and, although, after the fall of Wellington's ministry, a somewhat better frontier was given to Greece, it was then too See also:late to establish this kingdom in adequate strength, and to make it, as it might have been made, a counterpoise to Russia's influence in the See also:Levant. Nor was the See also:indulgence shown by the cabinet towards Dom See also:Miguel and the absolutists of Portugal quite worthy of England. That Wellington actively assisted despotic governments against the constitutional movements of the time is not true. He had indeed none of the sympathy with See also:national causes which began to influence British policy under Canning, and which became so powerful under Palmerston; but the See also:rule which he followed in foreign affairs, so far as he considered it possible, was that of non-intervention. As soon as Catholic emancipation was carried, the demand for See also:parliamentary reform and See also:extension of the See also:franchise agitated Great Britain from end to end. The duke was See also:ill informed as to the real spirit of the nation. He cohceived the agitation for reform to be a purely fictitious one, worked up by partisans and men of disorder in their own interest, and expressing no real want on the part of the public at large. Met with a See also:firm resistance, it would, he believed, vanish away, with no worse result than the possible See also:plunder of a few houses by the See also:city mobs. Wholly unaware of the strength of the forces which he was provoking, the duke, at the opening of the parliament which met after the death of George IV., declared against any parliamentary reform whatever. This See also:declaration led to the immediate fall of his government. Lord See also:Grey, the chief of the new ministry, brought in the Reform Bill, which was resisted by Wellington as long as anything was to be gained by resistance. When the creation of new peers was known to be imminent, however, Wellington was among those who counselled the See also:abandonment of a hopeless struggle. His opposition to reform made him for a while unpopular. He was hooted by the See also:mob on the anniversary of Waterloo, and considered it necessary to protect the windows of Apsley House with iron shutters.
For the next two years the duke was in opposition. On the removal of Lord Althorp to the House of Lords in 1834, See also: He supported Peel in his See also:Corn-See also:Law legislation, and throughout all this later period of his life, whether in office or in opposition, gained the admiration of discerning men, and excited the wonder of zealots, by his habitual subordination of party spirit and party connexion to whatever appeared to him the real interest of the nation. On Peel's defeat in 1846 the duke retired from active public life. He was now nearly eighty. His organization of the military force in London against the Chartists in April 1848, and his letter to See also:Sir See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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