Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/226

 on the following day he finally resigned. He was installed K.G. on 31 March, when he withdrew from the order of St. Patrick. On 11 May the assassination of Perceval caused a ministerial crisis. On the 22nd Wellesley was commissioned by the prince regent to ascertain whether a fusion could be brought about between the leaders of the two parties on the understanding that the Roman catholics were to be relieved from civil disabilities and that the war should be prosecuted with vigour. Canning was willing to join, but Lord Liverpool and some of his colleagues refused to become members of an administration to be founded by Lord Wellesley. He then communicated with Lords Grey and Grenville, who were quite prepared to support the removal of catholic disabilities, but did not share his views as to the urgency or possibility of a vigorous prosecution of the war. Up to this point Wellesley had been employed by the prince regent merely to ascertain and report to him the possibility of forming a government including representatives of the two great parties; but on 1 June he received authority to form an administration. In this, however, he failed, and on 3 June he announced in the House of Lords his resignation of the commission entrusted to him, observing that he had failed in consequence ‘of the most dreadful personal animosities and the most terrible difficulties arising out of complicated questions.’ He subsequently explained that in using the phrase ‘dreadful personal animosities’ he had had in his mind Lord Liverpool and some of his colleagues in the administration which came into office upon Wellesley's failure to form one. Lord Liverpool's government, which, it was supposed, would not last long, lasted for fifteen years. It met with reverses at an early period of its existence, but was saved by Lord Wellington's victory at Salamanca on 22 July 1812. From that time until the end of 1821 Wellesley remained out of office, but during the greater part of this period he showed an active interest in the political questions of the day. His views and those of his illustrious brother, whom he had so loyally supported both in India and in Spain, gradually drifted apart. He opposed the treaty of Fontainebleau, foreseeing that Napoleon would not observe it, and on Napoleon's return from Elba he opposed a renewal of the war, and was in favour of recognising Napoleon as a constitutional ruler on the throne of France. On two important domestic questions the views of the two brothers were absolutely discordant. Wellesley was in favour of removing the disabilities of the Roman catholics, while Wellington opposed any such measure until he and Peel felt compelled by the state of Ireland to adopt it in 1829. Wellesley was a free-trader, while Wellington supported a policy of protection to the end. On this question Wellesley was one of a small body of peers who signed a protest against a protective policy as imposing an unjust burden upon the consumer. This protest was directed against a recommendation made in 1814 by a committee of the House of Lords, that as long as the price of wheat should be under 80s. a quarter the ports should be closed against supplies from other countries.

But the most notable point upon which the two brothers differed was the foreign policy of the country. The man who as governor-general of India had done so much to extend and consolidate our Indian empire, and whose military policy had been essentially a forward policy in India and in Spain, and more recently as foreign secretary in London, was now all for a policy of peace and retrenchment. If it had rested with him there would have been no Waterloo campaign. After the war the military charges would have been at once reduced, and every effort would have been made to lighten the burdens of the people. He was not, however, prepared to oppose the government during the crisis in 1819 memorable for the ‘Peterloo massacre,’ when the peace of the country seemed to be actually in danger. On that occasion he supported the government in a vigorous speech. He still continued his efforts in favour of catholic emancipation and in support of a free-trade policy. In 1820 George III died, and in the following year Lord Grenville and some of his followers having joined the government, Wellesley was again offered, and on this occasion accepted, the post of lord lieutenant of Ireland. His wife, from whom he had been practically separated for some years, had died on 5 Nov. 1816, and was buried at Penkridge in Staffordshire.

Wellesley's appointment was received with acclamation. He was known to have been for many years in favour of Roman catholic emancipation, and was therefore acceptable to the Roman catholics. With the protestants, or with what of late years has been called the English garrison, he was popular on account of the brilliant public services which had been rendered by him and by his illustrious brother, and with Irishmen generally the fact of his being an Irishman by birth told in his favour. His first levée was numerously attended by members of all parties. At a meeting of Roman catholic