Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/216

 Wellesley obtain Rome as a capital, the fall of the kingdom of Naples, the expedition of Garibaldi which ended at Aspromonte, the Schleswig-Holstein war, the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, the invasion of Mexico, and the constant attempts of the emperor to obtain some rectification of the eastern frontier of France, kept the hands of the British ambassador at Paris constantly full during the remainder of his active career. If the ship of the French empire did not sooner strike the rocks on which it ultimately foundered, it was in no small degree owing to the wise counsels of the British ambassador and of his old chief, Lord Clarendon, who had again joined the cabinet in 1864, and at the end of 1865 returned to the foreign office, when Lord Russell had become prime minister on the death of Lord Palmerston. In the opinion of competent persons, Cowley's retirement from the embassy in 1867, followed by the death of Lord Clarendon in 1870, were potent causes in hastening the probably inevitable conflict between France and Germany by depriving the emperor of two advisers who, owing to long acquaintance, were able to put before him with a certain familiarity what others had either an interest in concealing or were afraid to speak. When in 1867 Cowley retired from the French embassy, a diplomatic banquet was given in his honour by the Marquis de Moustier, minister of foreign affairs. In replying to the toast of his health the ambassador paid a tribute to the unceasing efforts which had been made by Napoleon III to promote good relations between France and England (Times, 16 July 1884); and that this was true of the emperor personally will not now be doubted. It was noticed as ominous that the news of the tragic death of the Emperor Maximilian reached Paris on the very day on which Cowley took leave of his colleagues at this banquet.

In 1863 Cowley unexpectedly inherited the estate of Draycot, near Chippenham in Wiltshire, by bequest from his cousin, the Earl of Mornington, who had died childless. The diplomatic tact of the ambassador was perhaps never more needed than when, almost simultaneously with the announcement of the bequest, he is said to have received an invitation to Draycot from the sister of the late earl, who not at all unnaturally had assumed herself to be Lord Mornington's successor in the property. Cowley was nominated G.C.B. on 21 Feb. 1853, and K.G. on 3 Feb. 1866, and on 22 June 1870 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford. He died at Draycot on 15 July 1884. ‘I never knew a man of business so naturally gifted for his profession,’ said Lord Malmesbury, who had twice occupied the foreign office in the period covered by Cowley's embassy. ‘Straightforward himself, he easily discovered guile in others who sought to deceive him, and this was well known to such’ (Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, p. 418).

On 23 Oct. 1833 Cowley married Olivia Cecilia, second daughter of Charlotte, baroness de Ros, and Lord Henry Fitzgerald. ‘Her knowledge of the world, of society, and of courts’ not a little assisted him (ib.), especially as these gifts neutralised the effects of the diffidence in general society which occasionally hampered Cowley's diplomatic abilities. She died on 21 April 1885. Cowley was succeeded in his title by his son, Lieutenant-colonel William Henry, viscount Dangan, who had served with distinction in the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny.

 WELLESLEY or WESLEY, RICHARD COLLEY, first in the peerage of Ireland (1690?–1758), born about 1690, was the youngest son, but eventually the heir, of Henry Colley of Castle Carbury, Kildare, by his first wife, Mary, daughter of Sir William Usher of Dublin. The family of Cowley, Colley, or Cooley, was probably of English origin, and has been variously stated to have come from Rutland, Staffordshire, and Gloucestershire. The last appears the most probable; but there is substantially no evidence. They were settled in Ireland early in the sixteenth century. Robert Cowley or Colley (d. 1543) was the first of the family who is recorded to have settled in Ireland; he was bailiff of Dublin in 1515. His grandson, Sir Henry Colley (d. 1584), was knighted by Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland, in 1560, was called to the privy council, and received the grant of Castle Carbury, Kildare, in 1563. This Sir Henry's son, also Sir Henry Colley (d. 1637), received large grants of land in Wexford in 1617. His son and successor, Dudley Colley (d. 1674), a commissioner under the Irish act of settlement, was the first Lord Mornington's grandfather.

Richard Colley graduated at Trinity College, B.A. in 1711 and M.A. in 1714. In 1713 he was appointed second chamberlain