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  as colonel of the 33rd, of which he had continued to be lieutenant-colonel up to that time.

On 1 April 1806 Wellesley was returned to parliament for Rye, a government seat which he accepted in order to reply to the charges brought against Lord Wellesley by James Paull [q. v.] He spoke on this and other Indian subjects, and wrote a full memorandum on it at the end of the session (Speeches, 22 April, &c.; Suppl. Desp. iv. 546-86). Parliament was dissolved in October, and on 15 Jan. 1807 he was returned for Mitchell, Cornwall. In March 1807 the Granville ministry resigned, on the king's demand that he should hear nothing more of concessions to the catholics. The Portland ministry succeeded it, the Duke of Richmond becoming lord lieutenant and Wellesley chief secretary of Ireland. He was sworn of the privy council in London on 8 April, and at Dublin on the 28th.

He held this office for two years, but he had stipulated that it should be no bar to his employment on active service, and he was twice absent on that account. The lord lieutenant grumbled, but did not wish to part with him. The state of Ireland was such as to call for the whole attention of its chief secretary. The people were looking eagerly to a French invasion, and among the first things to which Wellesley turned his thoughts was how to guard against it. 'The operations which the British army would have to carry on would be of the nature of those in an enemy's country, in which the hostility of the people would be most active. ... I am positively convinced that no political measure which you could adopt would alter the temper of the people of this country' (Suppl. Desp. 7 May &c.) The tithe agitation soon became vigorous. He held that exorbitant rents, not tithes, were the real grievance; but he suggested that the clergy should be enabled to grant leases of their tithes and should be obliged to reside in their benefices. He recommended increased expenditure on canals, which would lower rents and improve agriculture. He reorganised the Dublin police, and so laid the foundation for the Irish constabulary. He had been re-elected for Mitchell on becoming chief secretary, but parliament was dissolved soon afterwards, and in May he was returned for Tralee, co. Kerry, and Newport, Isle of Wight. He chose the latter seat.

He was given command of the reserve in the army sent to Zealand under Lord Cathcart, to secure the Danish fleet, and embarked at Sheerness on 31 July. As the crown prince refused to surrender the fleet, the army landed on 16 Aug., Wellesley leading the way with the light troops; and Copenhagen was invested next day. A Danish force of regulars and militia soon threatened the rear of the army, and on the 26th Wellesley was sent against it with five battalions, eight squadrons, and two batteries of artillery. The Danes fell back before him to Kioge, where they had some intrenchments. He attacked them on the 29th and routed them, taking fifteen hundred prisoners. On 7 Sept. Copenhagen surrendered, Wellesley being one of the commissioners who arranged the terms of capitulation. By the 30th he was in England again, and on 1 Feb. 1808 he received the thanks of the House of Commons in his place. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 25 April, having already, on 12 Nov. 1807, had that rank given him in Ireland in case of invasion.

He had been frequently consulted by the ministers, especially by Castlereagh, about schemes for attacking the colonial possessions of Spain, and had written several memoranda. But the change of dynasty and the uprising of the Spaniards against Napoleon in May 1808 altered the situation. He saw that 'any measures which can distress the French in Spain must oblige them to delay for a season the execution of their plans upon Turkey, or to withdraw their armies from the north,' and he recommended that all the British troops that could be spared should be sent to Gibraltar to act as circumstances might suggest (Suppl. Desp. vi. 80). General (afterwards Sir) Brent Spencer [q. v.] was at that time off Cadiz with a force of five thousand men, having been sent out to do what he could to hinder the French plans of naval concentration. On 14 June Wellesley was given command of a force of about nine thousand men, assembled at Cork, with general instructions to assist the Spaniards or the Portuguese.

He sailed on 12 July, and put into Coruña, where the junta of Galicia informed him that they needed only money and arms, and advised him to take his troops to Portugal. He went on to Oporto, and, having consulted the bishop and the Portuguese generals, and the British admiral off the Tagus, he decided to land his men in Mondego Bay, and sent orders to Spencer to join him there. It was a bold step, for the French army under Junot, which had been in occupation of Lisbon since November, numbered nearly thirty thousand men. But Wellesley knew that they were scattered and had to find garrisons, and supposed the total to be under eighteen thousand. The Portuguese, who had promised 