Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/207

 Wellesley  of national defence before the Russell cabinet. Sir John Fox Burgoyne [q. v.] had furnished him with a memorandum, and sent a copy of it to Wellington. This drew from the duke his letter of 9 Jan. 1847, which, much to his annoyance, was published in the 'Morning Chronicle' of 4 Jan. 1848 (, Life of Burgogne, i. 433-51). In spite of Cobden's suggestion that the duke was in his dotage (Cobden's Speeches, i. 458), the letter made a deep impression, and its main recommendation, organisation of the militia, was proposed to parliament in February, though not carried till 1852.

As commander-in-chief, as in other positions, Wellington was averse from change. He held that the British army must always be recruited from 'the scum of the earth,' and that corporal punishment was indispensable for it (Despatches, 22 April 1829, &c.;, p. 18). He regarded old soldiers as the 'heart and soul' of a regiment, and was against passing them into an army reserve (Speeches, ii. 274;, ii. 438). He was not a friend to military education; the public school and the regiment were the best training for officers. Improvements in weapons did not meet with ready acceptance from him, yet it was in his time and with his approval that the Minié rifled musket was introduced (, iv, 102-8). He was very desirous that Prince Albert should succeed him in the command of the army, in order that it might 'remain in the hands of the sovereign and not fall into those of the House of Commons,' but he admitted the force of the prince's reasons against it. The queen remarked at this time (6 April 1850), 'How powerful and how clear the mind of this wonderful man is, and how honest and how loyal and kind he is to us both' (, ii. 252-63).

When London was threatened by the chartists on 10 April 1848 he personally planned the measures for protecting it and saw to their execution. His consultation with the cabinet was described by Macaulay as the most interesting spectacle he had ever witnessed (, p. 297). He gave much attention to Indian affairs. He was opposed from the first to Lord Auckland's policy in Afghanistan, but, as it could not be stopped in time, he would not have it attacked as a party question (, ii. ii. 100). He laughed privately at Lord Ellenborough's proclamations (ib. p. 138), but he gave him strong support and blamed, his recall (Speeches, 20 Feb. 1843, &c.;, ii. 593, &c.) After Chillianwallah he said to Sir Charles Napier, 'Either you must go out or I must;' but when Napier quarrelled with Lord Dalhousie and resigned, Wellington's opinion was against him (, iv. 117; Memo, of 30 July 1850).

He was elected master of the Trinity House on 22 May 1837, having become an elder brother on 9 May 1829; and was made ranger of Hyde Park and St. James's Park on 31 Aug. 1850. His many functions were no sinecures to him, and outside of them he had a large correspondence. 'He was profuse, but careless and indiscriminating in his charities, and consequently he was continually imposed upon,' says the brother of his private secretary (. iii. 478). It was his habit to open and answer all letters himself, though sometimes this became impossible. An instance is to be found in the 'Letters of Wellington to Miss J.,' published in 1890. A stranger to him, but a religious enthusiast bent on his conversion, this young lady wrote to him in 1834 and interested him. They seldom met, but the correspondence was carried on actively, especially on her side, till 1851, when her pertinacity and self-assertion at length exhausted his forbearance (cf. Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ix. 217;, p. 104). He had other and closer intimacies with ladies, which caused reports that he meant to marry again (. iii. 97, 476); but he once said emphatically, 'no woman ever loved me; never in my whole life' (, p. 97). In 1850 he stood godfather to the third of the queen's sons, and he was painted in 1851 in the wellknown group by Winterhalter with his godson, the queen, and Prince Albert, and the exhibition building in the background.

He was a frequent visitor to the Great Exhibition of 1851, and Cobden noted with vexation that when he entered 'all other objects of interest sank to insignificance.' He was in his usual health till September 1852, and on the 13th he drove over to Dover from Walmer. He returned to dinner two hours later than usual, was very hungry, and ate hastily and heartily. He had a fit in the night, and in the course of the 14th he gradually sank, and died in the afternoon (, pp. 354-7). Palmerston, who so often differed from him, wrote: 'Old as he was, and both bodily and mentally enfeebled by age, he still is a great loss to the country. His name was a tower of strength abroad, and his opinions and counsel were valuable at home. No man ever lived or died in the possession of more unanimous love, respect, and esteem from his countrymen ' (, ii. 250). But the finest tribute, and the best picture of him, is Tennyson's ode on his death.