and resigning partly on account of the catholic claims, and partly because he thought the war feebly prosecuted. In May, 1812, after the assassination of the prime minister, Mr. Perceval, he endeavoured, at the request of the prince regent, to form a coalition ministry, of which Lords Grey and Grenville were to be members, with Mr. Canning. But his efforts failed, and Lord Liverpool entered on his long premiership. To Lord Liverpool's ministry Lord Wellesley gave but a modified support, and with Lord Grenville he protested against the corn bill of 1815. In December, 1821, Lord Wellesley was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His administration, though an able one, was distasteful to both of the extreme parties in Ireland. His energetic maintenance of the supremacy of the law made him unpopular with the catholic malcontents, and as a lord-lieutenant who supported catholic emancipation, he was disliked by the Orange party. In March, 1828, after the accession of the duke of Wellington to office, and his declaration against the catholic claims, Lord Wellesley, their steady friend, resigned, feeling it impossible for him to support the policy of his brother. In 1831, with Lord Grey's premiership, Lord Wellesley was appointed lord-steward of the household, but he took no prominent part in the debates on the reform bill. In September, 1833, with Ireland in a state of excitement, he was once more appointed viceroy, resigning when Sir Robert Peel became prime minister in 1834. In April, 1835, with the return of the whigs to office, he was lord-chamberlain for a month, his final tenure of any office. He died on the 26th September, 1842. In 1836-37 his Indian, and in 1838 his Spanish "Despatches" were published by Mr. Montgomery Martin. Two volumes of Memoirs and Correspondence of the Marquis of Wellesley, by Mr. K. R. Pearce, appeared in 1846. Lord Wellesley was a man of superior talents and character. an able and in India a brilliant administrator—in politics at once more liberal and more consistent than his brother, the duke of Wellington. He continued to the last to cultivate poetry. In 1840 were printed some copies of his "Primitiæ et Reliquiæ," a volume of Latin and English verse, the product both of his earlier and of his later muse. It was dedicated to Lord Brougham, by whom there is a fine essay on the character and career of Lord Wellesley in the Historical Sketches of Statesmen of the time of George III.—F. E.
WELLINGTON, Arthur Wellesley, first duke of, was descended from a family of English origin, but which had been for several centuries settled in Ireland. It was about 1535 that two brothers, Walter and Robert Colley or Cowley, migrated from Rutlandshire to Ireland, and settled in the county of Kilkenny. They acquired by some means or other considerable landed possessions, and among their descendants were various persons distinguished in the army and in the learned professions. A great-granddaughter of Walter Cowley married Garret Wesley, a gentleman of Meath, descended from an English family which had come from Sussex in the latter part of the fifteenth century. There was no issue of this marriage, but Mr. Wesley adopted Richard Colley, the youngest son of his brother-in-law, and made him heir to his estates, on condition that he should assume the name and arms of Wesley. Richard Colley Wesley sat for some years in the Irish house of commons, and was raised to the peerage in 1747 by the title of Baron Mornington. His eldest son and successor Garret, a musical composer of no ordinary merit, but like his father a good deal addicted to political intrigue, was elevated to an earldom in 1760. Arthur, afterwards the great duke of Wellington, was the fourth son of this nobleman by his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Arthur Hill, Viscount Dungannon. There is some uncertainty both as to the day and the place of his birth. According to one account he was born at Dangen castle in Meath, while with more reason the capital of Ireland is assigned as his birthplace. An entry in the parish register of St. Peter's, Dublin, shows that he was baptized on the 30th of April, while on the other hand a letter from his mother states that it was on the 1st of May, 1769, he first saw the light, and this is the day which the duke himself was in the habit of keeping. Be this as it may, it is not unworthy of notice that by a curious coincidence Napoleon Bonaparte, Marshal Ney, Göthe, and the duke of Wellington were born in the same year.
The earl of Mornington died in 1781, leaving his widow with nine children in very straitened circumstances. Arthur was then in his twelfth year, and had his full share of the hardships to which the family were now exposed. He received the elements of his education at Eton, where he was long remembered as a healthy and active participator in the pastimes of the place, but, unlike his elder brother, Lord Wellesley, he gained no honours of any kind. He was no favourite of his mother, a clever, severe, strong-minded matron, who evidently thought him deficient in mental ability, and not only treated him with indifference, but even to some extent neglected his education. Having determined to send him into the army, she despatched him to the military college at Angers in France, where he studied for several years under Pignerol, the great engineer. In March, 1787, young Wesley was appointed to an ensigncy in the 73rd regiment of foot, and ten months later he became a lieutenant. He attained the rank of captain in June, 1791; in April, 1793, he was appointed major in the 33rd regiment of foot, and in the following September obtained by purchase the rank of lieutenant-colonel of that regiment. On coming of age in 1790 he was returned to the Irish parliament for the family borough of Trim. He was then attached as aid-de-camp to the marquis of Camden, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and according to report was an active promoter of the gaieties of the vice-regal court. But under the guise of apparently thoughtless gaiety he concealed industrious habits, close attention to duty, and a firm resolution thoroughly to understand his profession. He stated to a friend long after, that within a few days after he joined his first regiment he caused a private soldier to be weighed, first in full marching order, with arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, and afterwards without them, in order that he might have some measure of the power of the individual man compared with the weight he was to carry, and the work he was expected to do; knowing, as he said, that the power of the greatest armies depends upon what the individual soldier is capable of doing and bearing. He attended with diligence and care to the discharge of his regimental duties, read a great deal, investigated everything worthy of notice which passed around him, and especially all new discoveries and displays of ingenuity and skill—a habit which he retained to the last. He drew up for the management of his regiment a code of standing orders, which have been faithfully preserved ever since; he scrutinized and carefully regulated its internal economy, improved its discipline, and in a short time rendered it, according to universal testimony, a model regiment for equipment, courage, discipline, and good conduct.
Colonel Wesley's career in the field commenced in Holland, where he was ordered to join the force under Lord Moira, which in 1794 was despatched to the assistance of the duke of York, then operating with the allied powers in the Low Countries. His royal highness had suffered several reverses in his encounters with the French, and was falling back upon the Meuse when the 33rd landed at Ostend in the month of July. The first military operation of its colonel was to evacuate the town in the face of the enemy, and to take his own and the other battalions by water to Antwerp. In the month of September following the progress of the French under Pichegru obliged the Anglo-Dutch army to retire into Holland; and on the 15th Colonel Wesley for the first time came into collision with an enemy, and by his presence of mind and promptitude saved the British troops from a serious disaster. Their retreat was continued by Breda, Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, and Deventer, through Guelderland and Overyssel to Emden. In the following spring the remains of the army, having re-embarked at the mouth of the Weser, returned to England. Throughout this mismanaged and disastrous campaign the British troops suffered the most frightful hardships through the severity of the winter, the gross ignorance, utter incapacity, and scandalous negligence of their leaders. Wellington used to say long years afterwards, "You can't conceive such a state of things. It has always been a marvel to me how any of us escaped." His post in the retreat was the post of honour—the rearguard, in which he commanded a brigade, and by his gallantry and skilful dispositions assisted greatly in checking the pursuit of the enemy, and in securing the safety of the British army. There is every reason to believe that the harsh tuition which he received in this ill-starred expedition produced an indelible impression on his mind, and was of invaluable service to him in his future career.
After his return to England Colonel Wesley, for some reason which is not known, thought seriously of retiring from the service, and in June, 1795, made an unsuccessful application to Lord Camden, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, for an appointment to the revenue or treasury boards. In October of the same year the 33rd embarked for the West Indies, to take part in an expedition
