ART. V. Civil Correspondence and Memoranda of F. M. the Duke of Wellington: Ireland, from March 30. 1807, to April 12. 1809. Edited by his Son. London: 1859.

ALTHOUGH the present volume may add but little to the reputation of the Duke of Wellington, it is nevertheless valuable as forming an additional link in the long chain of correspondence which enables us to trace the first soldier of his day from his earliest arms in Holland to his grave in St. Paul's. It serves, moreover, to show how one, who has justly been described as the most devoted servant king and country ever knew, comported himself, when suddenly called upon to perform a number of small yet necessary duties, all of which were strange, and many of which must have been distasteful to him.

Actuated by the principle that the King's service must be carried out quand même, the Duke appears to have discharged these duties sensibly and successfully enough, but without rising perceptibly above the very low moral standard of the corrupt times in which he was living.

In April, 1806, Sir Arthur Wellesley, at the invitation of Lord Grenville, entered the united Parliament as member for the borough of Rye, chiefly with the view of being useful to his eldest brother, Marquess Wellesley, whose administration of India was at that moment vehemently arraigned in the House of Commons by a Mr. Paull.

Early in the spring of the ensuing year, the Grenville ministry resigned, in consequence of the obstinate refusal of George the Third to make any concessions in favour of his Roman Catholic subjects in Ireland. A new administration, pledged to postpone justice and good faith to the ease of the crazy monarch's conscience, was formed under the Duke of Portland; and the Duke of Richmond, a soldier, succeeded the Duke of Bedford in Dublin, whither he was accompanied by Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, as Chief Secretary. Sir Arthur's Irish period of office lasted from March 1807, till April 1809, with two intervals; during the first of which he took part in Lord Cathcart's expedition to Denmark, and during the second fought and won the battle of Vimiero and signed the convention of Cintra. A remarkable letter in the present series (No. 70.) shows that in accepting office at home during a general European war, he had stipulated that he should be at liberty to resign

it for active military service, whenever an opportunity might

occur:

'My dear lord,' wrote he to Lord Castlereagh, 'by all accounts you are advancing the preparations for your expedition to the continent, which I now conclude will be sent. I hope that you recollect what I said to you upon this subject. It may happen that you have it not in your power to employ me as I wish, and it might have happened that I should not have been so employed if I had not been appointed to the office which I hold in this country. But that will not be believed, and it will be understood and said that I had avoided or had not sought for an opportunity of serving abroad in order to hold a large civil office. As I am determined not to give up the military profession, and as I know that I can be of no service in it unless I have the confidence and esteem of the officers and soldiers of the army, I must shape my course so as to avoid this imputation. If therefore you send the expedition, I wish you would urge Lord Hawkesbury to fix upon a successor for me, as I positively cannot stay here whether I am to be employed with it or not. When you will urge this request upon him, I beg you to tell him that the zeal and anxiety for the success of the present Government, which induced me to come here, are by no means diminished. I would do anything to serve them; but I am convinced they will all see that I should lose half the power of being of use to them if any imputation should be cast upon me.'

Sentiments such as these may be usefully remembered in the present day, when the prizes of military life are not unfrequently claimed by, and awarded to, men who have not always pressed forward very eagerly to take an active share in the toil and heat of their profession.

The

The condition of Ireland in 1807 was deplorable. cruel wounds which had been so savagely inflicted on both sides during the rebellions of 1798 and 1803, were still open and festering; the Roman Catholics were in vain claiming some instalment of the religious and political freedom which had been promised them by Pitt and Cornwallis as the price of their support in carrying the Union; whilst the Orange party, surprised and angry at the pretensions of those whom they considered as their natural enemies, were struggling hard to retain that ascendancy in Church and State, which they had long held to be their birthright. These circumstances, combined with the depressed condition and known disaffection of the lower and middle classes throughout the country, rendered the militia and yeomanry but a doubtful means of defence against foreign invasion; an event daily expected by all and wished for by many. The violence of the opposition in Parliament increased the difficulties of the Government; and rendered it necessary to maintain by any means, and by all means, a strong majority in

both Houses of the Legislature. The attainment of this object was materially assisted by the unscrupulous exercise of patronage in the wide field afforded by the separate executive establishments of Ireland, then abounding in light duties and heavy salaries.

In the very first pages of the volume before us, even before he had had time to reach Dublin, we find Sir Arthur Wellesley plunged over head and ears in the mire of Irish corruption, as Irish corruption then was. The second letter of the present series, dated from No. 11. Harley Street, exhibits him engaged in bribing over to his party an influential connexion of his own; requesting her to name a friend' whom he might appoint to the lucrative post of prize agent for certain Prussian prizes about to be sold; and hinting that he believed he could make other arrangements beneficial to her interests,' if she would undertake to support the new ministry. The lady, however, rejected the apple thus temptingly proffered to her, and being evidently an Irish patriot of some experience, referred to previous bad faith and disappointments which she had experi enced at the hands of the Tory party, declaring that until something more tangible than hints and hopes were held out to her, she could only engage to act according to the best of her 'judgment for the benefit of the empire, and of Ireland in particular.' In this, as in many subsequent cases, an over-considerate reticence as to names on the part of the noble editor, involves the reader in much perplexity and confusion.

The next letter is Sir Arthur's reply to an application-a masterpiece of importunity in its way-making the following peremptory demands: for the applicant, an Irish peerage; for himself and a friend, the entire patronage of the county in which they lived, and a seat in the Privy Council for each; for another friend, a legal office; for a third friend, a staff appointment; for a lady in whom the applicant took an interest, a pension; and for a certain Captain Bailey, immediate promotion in the army. Some arrangement as to the park' was also asked for. To all these demands, save the last, Sir Arthur appears to have acceded; explaining that there existed insuperable ob'jections' to the proposed arrangement connected with the park, emanating probably from the same royal source as those which baffled Sir Richard Phillips when he urged a request of the same nature, and was offered and accepted the Irish peerage of Milford in lieu of the carriage entrance for which he had originally petitioned.

*

* Sir N. Wraxall's Memoirs.

Such are the initiatory specimens of the way in which the Duke of Portland's government proposed to administer justice to Ireland in 1807. Sinecures, pensions, and secret service money for the governing classes; bayonets, the lash, transportation, and the gibbet for the people; and fortunate it was for the Irish that two such sensible, upright, and merciful soldiers as the Duke of Richmond and Sir Arthur Wellesley chanced at that critical moment to be set in authority over them.

On the 16th of April, Sir Arthur reached Dublin, where he found the joy of those who called themselves the loyal party,' at the change of government, too exuberant to be either acceptable or safe, for the mortified Roman Catholics were sore and savage at the final extinction of their hopes; and it became the duty of the Conqueror of Assaye to commence his civil duties by preaching a sermon on Christian charity and forbearance, to the Protestant Archdeacon of Dublin and his flock, who were desirous to celebrate the advent of the Duke of Richmond by insulting their Roman Catholic fellow subjects in a public and formal manner. Two days afterwards, a report-a false report was carelessly forwarded to the Castle by General Trench, that a French fleet was hovering about the southern coasts. Whereupon Sir Arthur Wellesley, having concluded his sermon to the Archdeacon-and a very excellent discourse it was-betook himself to organising a force wherewith to oppose the invaders. But as soon as the truth became known, and the supposed French men-of-war turned out to be English West Indiamen, he brought his energies to bear upon General Trench, wigging' him for his negligence and indifference,' in a style which, he opined, would make him more attentive ' in future.'

On the 27th April, Parliament was dissolved. Three days before, Charles Long, the Secretary to the Treasury, had written from London in the following strain, to the Chief Secretary in Dublin, on whom the management of the Irish elections devolved ex officio: The dissolution takes place on Monday next, so that you have no time to lose in making 'your engagements. You will of course, as soon as you can, 'see Pennefather respecting Cashell, Judge Day respecting Tralee, and Handcock respecting Athlone. I believe they all

'sell to the best bidder.'

Sir Arthur Wellesley replied in the same business-like key :

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'Pennefather has promised me the refusal of Cashell, but he has not yet stated his price. We shall have Athlone, I believe, but I have not yet seen Justice Day. Wynne has arranged with Canning for Sligo; I do not know whether it is the Secretary of State or

not. Lord Portarlington is in England; and the agent who settled for that borough upon the last general election was Mr. Parnell. We have no chance with him, and it would be best to arrange the matter with Lord Portarlington. I heard that he had sold the return for the last six years at the last election; and, if that should be true, of course we shall not get it now. I have written to Roden and have desired Henry* to settle with Enniskillen. I have desired Lord H. to send to Lord Charleville about Carlow. Tell Henry to make me acquainted with the price of the day.'

A voluminous correspondence ensued, on the most effectual means of corrupting the Irish constituencies. It appears to have been carried on by the gallant Chief Secretary with an unscrupulous zeal, which, in later days, would have done honour to Trail of Shrewsbury, or even to the illustrious Man in the 'Moon' himself. From it we glean the following bits, illus trative of the private history of an Irish general election, fifty years ago:

one.

6

'I have seen Roden about his borough. It is engaged for one more session to Lord Stair, under an old sale for years, and he must return Lord Stair's friend, unless Lord Stair should consent to sell his interest in the borough for the session which remains, upon which subject he has written to him. . . Enniskillen told me you might recommend to his seat at Enniskillen; he will, however, expect its value. 's seat at Dundalk might be had; as he prefers his brother's claim to a bishopric, he ought not to be suffered to sell. Long will speak to you about Lord Roden's seat. I have desired Henry to settle for Enniskillen's. I have written to Henry about a seat for myself. I should not of course like to pay much money for Send names for the following boroughs - Cashell, Tralee, Enniskillen - Athlone possibly.. A name for Athlone, in case we should have the borough. Tell Lord Palmerston to give me his interest for Sligo, and desire his agent, Henry Stewart, to do as I order him. I thought it advisable to encourage Mr. Croker to persevere at Downpatrick. He has promised allegiance, and all that he required was a sum of from 1500l. to 20004, to enable him to carry on the contest, and I have by the Duke of Richmond's advice promised to supply it. You know how we are situated in this country for want of money for services of this description. The sum which I have consented to advance for the purpose of Croker's election, must come either out of the civil list, or out of any fund applicable for election purposes in England. Indeed, I believe that at all events it ought to come in the first instance from the latter, as the process is long by which we must get the money from the civil list fund; it is wanted immediately, and, I suspect, that I shall be obliged to make use of my own credit, in the first instance, to procure it.' [Sir Arthur adds in a postscript, that

The Right Honourable Henry Wellesley.