tion of those literary and classical tastes to which he had been devoted in his youth. The Marquis was twice married. His first union, with Mdlle. Roland, a French lady, was unhappy, and they lived separate for many years. In 1825, nine years after her death, he married an American Catholic lady, Mrs. Patterson, sister-in-law of Jerome Napoleon, and grand-daughter of Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Marquis of Wellesley died in London, 26th September 1842, aged 82. He was not wealthy—considering his position and opportunities, which would have enabled a less scrupulous man to amass a large fortune. He sold the family estates and crippled himself for many years to pay his father's debts. In India he voluntarily resigned large sums of prize money for division amongst subordinates. In 1837, when it was known he was involved in pecuniary difficulties, the East India Company made him an allowance of £5,000 per annum, ultimately changed into a grant of £20,000. The Marquis gave to the world some Latin poems, and papers connected with India and Spain. The Company published his despatches in five volumes. Blackwood says they "offer a striking contrast in point of style to those of his more gifted brother. They are verbose, elaborate, and full of ornament." The Marquis left no legitimate children. His son Henry Wellesley, D.D. (born 1792; died 1866), Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, the author of several works, was a man of the most cultivated tastes; his knowledge of Spanish and Italian art and literature "was supreme." The Dowager Marchioness died in Hampton Court Palace, 17th December 1853. 16 97 124 168 342
Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Wellington, younger brother of preceding, was born at 24 Upper Merrion-street, Dublin, 29th April 1769. [For ancestry, see notice of his father, p. 550.] When but twelve years of age he lost his father, and little care appears to have been bestowed upon him by his mother, a somewhat harsh woman, who believed the "slender, blue-eyed, hawk-nosed, and rather sheepfaced boy" to be hopelessly deficient in mental ability. He spent a short time at Eton, and was then sent to the Military College at Angers, in France, where for several years he studied under Pignerol, the great engineer. In March 1787 he was appointed an ensign in the 73rd Regiment. His promotion was rapid, in consequence of the growing political influence of his brother; he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Camden, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and by September 1793 he had attained the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 33rd Regiment. He was elected member for Trim in the Irish Parliament, in the session commencing 20th January 1791; and held the seat until that Parliament was dissolved on 5th June 1795. Reference to the Irish Debates shows that he addressed the House on five occasions. On 10th January 1792 he seconded the address on the speech from the Lord-Lieutenant — supporting Government in its warlike policy towards France and its discouragement of the Volunteers, or "National Guards," and thus expressed himself on the Catholic question: "I have no doubt of the loyalty of the Catholics of this country, and I trust when the question shall be brought forward we shall lay aside animosities, and act with moderation and dignity, and not with the fury and violence of partisans." On 28th January 1793 he spoke in favour of the House vindicating its privileges in the matter of the printer and proprietor of the Hibernian Journal, accused of publishing a libel on their body. On the 25th of February he supported a Catholic Relief Bill, but deprecated the admission of Catholics into Parliament. On 24th January 1794 he expressed himself with reference to a return regarding enlistment. On 13th March 1795 he defended the conduct of the Lord-Lieutenant in permitting a large number of regular troops to be sent out of Ireland for the defence of the Empire, assuring the mover of a resolution, that, "however he may treat the new levies with contempt, they were not objects of contempt to the enemies of their country." Arthur Wellesley and Lord Edward FitzGerald sat in Parliament at the same time, and served together on committees. Sir Jonah Barrington thus describes the former in 1793: "He was then ruddy-faced and juvenile in appearance, and popular enough among the young men of his age and station; his address was unpolished; he occasionally spoke in Parliament, but not successfully, and never on important subjects; and evinced no promise of that unparalleled celebrity and splendour which he has since reached, and whereunto intrepidity, decision, good luck, and great military science, have justly combined to elevate him. … I became rather intimate with Captain Wellesley and Mr. Stewart [afterwards Lord Castlereagh], and perceived certain amiable qualities in both, which a change of times, or the intoxication of prosperity, certainly in some degree tended to diminish." Lord Plunket often told
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