army, which, five years before, amid the menacing host of the enemy and the ill-boding omens of its friends, had maintained a precarious footing on the crags of Portugal, now bivouacked in uncontested triumph on the soil of France;" and it may be added that the same general, who, in 1809, had chased a British army from Madrid to the western sea, now vielded the frontier provinces of his native land to the same nation. Great changes had come over Europe during the last year. Whilst Wellington had broken into France, Napoleon had been driven back upon the Rhine with one-fifth of the great army he had advanced upon the Elbe, and in consequence, the whole of the princes of Europe had entered into a grand alliance to crush him. Wellington opened the memorable campaign of 1814, by blockading Bayonne, and advancing with his whole force against Soult on the Adour; he defeated him with much loss at Orthez, on the 27th of February, and crossed the Adour on the 1st of March. On the 12th Bordeaux declared for the Bourbons. Wellington continued to press hard upon Soult, who contested every available point, until arriving before Toulouse, on the 24th of March, having concentrated his army, and with the Garonne between him and his enemy, he determined to await the coming struggle. On the 27th Wellington came up with him, but owing to the continued rains, did not cross the river until the 9th of April; on the 10th the battle was fought, and after the most obstinate resistance, the French Marshal was forced to withdraw into the town, which he evacuated during the night. At Toulouse Wellington learnt the abdication of Napoleon and the proclamation of Louis XVIII. This was the last victory of the Peninsular war, which had been begun with so much fear, and carried on under the greatest difficulties, with a force at all times numerically inferior to the enemy, and composed of troops of three nations, in the greatest part of whom Wellington placed little confidence, arrayed against the flower of the French army, commanded by its most celebrated marshals. Against these Wellington had at first acted on the defensive, until, seeing the impossibility of the enemy concentrating, for any length of time, such large forces as they had at their command, he with his compact army attacked their severed battalions. Victory followed on victory, until he drove them from the country in which he had but six years before landed general of "an expedition" in aid of allies, and quitted the greatest commander, and with the highest honours Europe could bestow upon him. The Prince Regent made him a duke (3rd of May), Parliament voted him 400,0007., and each of the European sovereigns bestowed upon him the insignia of their highest orders, and the greatest military rank. But Wellington's duties were not yet over. Although actively employed in the Peninsula, he had not been unmindful of the general affairs of Europe; accordingly, when Lord Castlereagh repaired to Paris, as representative of Great Britain, at the Congress of the Great Alliance, he advised the Prince Regent to appoint Wellington ambassador to the Court of France. He arrived at Paris on the 4th of May; but he was thence recalled to Madrid to reconcile the contending factions that already threatened King Ferdinand, and to settle the commercial interests of Great Britain between Spain and her colonies in the west. On the 10th of June, he returned to his army at Bordeaux, and on the 14th took leave of them at Toulouse, thanking them "for bringing the war to such an honourable termination, for their gallantry and spirit in the field, and regularity and good conduct in the camp, and that they quitted the country with a reputation that would be lasting." The infantry embarked at Bordeaux, the cavalry marched through France to embark at Calais for their own shores. Some of these brave fellows he was yet to lead again into the field; but the greater part were destined to perish from pestilence and fever on the other side of the Atlantic. On the 23rd of June, the Duke of Wellington arrived in England, and hastened to pay his respects to his Sovereign and the allied Princes then assembled at Portsmouth. On the 28th he took his place in the House of Peers for the first time, when the patents for his successive creations of viscount, earl, marquess, and duke were read together, a circumstance unparalleled in history, and all won in five years by achievements of the greatest renown. On this occasion the House of Lords presented to him their thanks and congratulations. On the 1st of July he received the public thanks of the Commons of England, by the mouth of their Speaker. His anxiety to resume his duties as ambassador, forced him to leave London in August. at Vienna, to assist as representative of Great Britain, at the general Congress which met in that city to adjust the territorial arrangements of Europe. So far as England was concerned, her representative had an easy task; she had nothing to ask, nothing to forgive; England readily, far too readily, gave up her superb colonial conquests, and surrendered enormous claims for re-imbursement. She asked, in return for all her sacrifices, but freedom of commerce and the suppression of the slavetrade-as great a boon to the granters as to the askers. The former of these claims was granted. The jealousies and contending interests of the continental States had well-nigh broken out into a war, when, suddenly, on the 7th of March, the members of the Congress received the stunning intelligence of the escape of Buonaparte from Elba. In April the Emperor was in full possession of his imperial power, surrounded by his veterans and his tried Imperial Guard. The energy of the English representatives and of the Emperor of Russia, imparted life to the European sovereigns; it was resolved that the contest was one of life or death; all jealousies were stilled before the storm; and it was unanimously determined to march the whole forces of combined Europe on Paris, and to put a final end to the restless ambition of the French. The Duke of Wellington was appointed to the command of the British forces on the Continent, and joined the army at Brussels, on the 11th of April. But of all the national armaments which were to take part in the contest, the Prussians alone were ready for ac In February, 1815, he arrived tion, when, on the 14th of June, Napoleon, with 150,000 men, was on the frontier of Belgium, threatening Wellington with 74,000, of whom 33,000 alone were British, and few of them those who had fought under him in the Peninsula, and Blucher who had about the same number at Ligny. Napoleon's plan of the campaign was boldly conceived; it was to throw himself on the right wing of Blucher's army, and having defeated him and separated his army from the English, to throw himself with his full force on Wellington. He conceived that the Prussians would be easily defeated, and would never rally; and that, Wellington once disposed of, he had little more to fear. He accordingly attacked Blucher on the 16th, at Ligny, occupying the British by a fierce attack, conducted by Ney, at Quatre Bras. The English were victorious and kept their ground; the Prussians were beaten and retreated; on which Wellington so retired his army to the memorable field of Waterloo, that the allies, far from being separated, were in better communication than before. tier. This was the most critical, the most hard-fought, and the most decisive of the battles of the great Revolutionary War; and it was the last. The results secured the great object of the renewal of the wara general and permanent peace. Of the conduct of either army in this terrible battle much has been said; unquestionably both exhibited the most heroic courage. The French, the veterans of a hundred battles, fought with the impetuosity of their nation, under a leader who had conquered nearly all Europe, and who had but two days before wiped out the stain on the French arms by a splendid victory; and with desperation, for they knew that the fortunes of France and their own safety depended on that one day. The English stood their attacks with unflinching resolution. The knowledge of six years of victory over their antagonists gave security to every bosom; their general had been invincible in every field; they stood rooted to the ground, nothing could shake that astonishing infantry; at length the moment for action arrived, the men closed their ranks, and with firm step and flashOn the 18th of June, at Water- ing eyes swept over the field and loo, Napoleon measured himself rested not until the last living 'with Wellington, for the first, and, Frenchman was driven from the happily for the peace of Europe, ground. To the general the vicfor the last time. England's com- tory must have seemed as it mander and England's troops did seemed to the world-the crown of their duty. The conflict was long fame. For six years he had enand stern; the glory dearly bought. countered in succession the most By eight o'clock in the after-famous champions of France, and noon the French were repulsed, and broken in every part of the line; and Blucher having come up and gained the right flank of the French, Wellington advanced his whole army and swept the broken French from the field. The Prussians took up the pursuit, and chased the fugitives across the fron had overthrown or foiled them. Finally, he encountered in a pitched field the greatest conqueror that modern times have known—the victor of victors-and had given him an overthrow so decisive that neither he nor his people attempted further resistance. Of all Wellington's victories none were so decisive on the field as this at Waterloo. At Salamanca, although the French were dispersed, yet they rapidly re-organised. At Vittoria, although all the matériel and artillery fell into the hands of the English, yet the flower of the army escaped to renew the contest in the Pyrenees. At Waterloo, the whole of the artillery was abandoned, the cavalry was totally dispersed, and the redoubtable Guard broken, defeated, and well-nigh cut to pieces. As a military power, the empire of Napoleon was destroyed on that field. The Anglo-Prussian army, having driven the French from Flanders, marched with little resistance to Paris. On the 3rd of July Paris capitulated, and on the 7th the British and Prussian troops occupied it; and on the 8th Louis XVIII. returned. The following year was occupied by arranging the conditions for the general settlement of Europe, in which the Duke of Wellington, who, on the 22nd of October, had been made commander-in-chief of the army of occupation, was the most prominent actor. It was a critical position for him to occupy ; for, against the voice of all the other allies, he insisted and prevailed that the occupation of Paris should only be temporary; that no military contribution should be levied, nor the monuments of the empire be destroyed. After the execution of Marshal Ney, Wellington was bitterly assailed as having been instrumental to his death, because he did not intrude in his behalf: but the Duke had no power by the convention, as is admitted by his assailants themselves, to interfere. A short time after this his life was twice attempted in Paris, but providentially preserved. In November, 1818, he quitted Paris to represent England at the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. Upon this occasion, he took a final leave of the armies in a manly Order of the Day. After thanking the troops for their good conduct, his Grace proceeds :-"It is with regret that the General has seen the moment arrive when the dissolution of this army is to put an end to his public connections and his private relations with the commanders and other officers of the corps of the army. The Field Marshal deeply feels how agreeable these relations have been to him. He begs the Generals commanding in chief to receive and make known to the troops under their orders, the assurance that he shall never cease to take the most lively interest in everything that may concern them; and that the remembrance of the three years, during which he has had the honour to be at their head, will be always dear to him." With the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France, the Duke's military career, at least as a commander in the field, finally closed. Henceforward we enter upon an entirely new phase of his prolonged and illustrious life. To the science of government, his Grace, as we have already seen, was no stranger. His able administration of the Mysore territory, his subsequent experience of home affairs as Chief Secretary for Ireland, and his clear-sighted and energetic views of national policy in the civil transactions of Spain and Portugal, had denoted him a man no less fitted to play an important part in government in times of peace, than his uninterrupted success in arms had proved his military genius. His conduct of the interests of Great Britain in the congresses of the Sovereigns, had now placed him on an equality with the most celebrated statesmen of Europe in respect of the grand principles which regulate the comity of nations. Henceforward we have to consider him as a politician and statesman. And if in the long course of thirty-five years, during which he took a prominent and frequently a leading part in the affairs of the British Empire, there are no such brilliant successes as marked his military service, it is rather because the nature of political measures and combinations do not admit of the same unmistakeable marks of progress, or the same appropriation to to the individual, than that large intelligence, clear views, and rapid action were wanting to the man. Napoleon has pointed out that the civil capacities are more important elements of success in a great commander than those which are merely military; and of this his own marvellous career is a most prominent example. In estimating the civil services of the Duke of Wellington, we shall form the most just appreciation of his influence upon the affairs of this country, if we consider the numerous measures which he proposed or sanctioned or withstood, the general result of Parliamentary action on our condition and progress, and com measures he opposed have passed into institutions of the land, that many to which he gave a most reluctant consent, are now acknowledged to be the land-marks of our progress; but to these, not less than to those to which he was a direct party, it seems beyond doubt that his clear mind and firmness of purpose, and, above all, the weight of his character, have given a marked impress and direction; that whether in office or in opposition, he was a power in the State, whose influence was always felt and acknowledged. His Grace became a member of Lord Liverpool's Administrationas Master General of the Ordnance, to which office he was appointed on the 1st of January, 1819. When, on the death of George the Third, the Prince Regent became King, no change was made in the composition of the Cabinet. The first remarkable occurrence of the new reign was the absurd but atrocious plot called "The Cato-street Conspiracy." The design of this gang was to commence their revolutionary proceedings by the massacre of all the Ministers, at a dinner at Lord Harrowby's, at which the Duke of Wellington was to have been pre |