Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/189

CHAPTER XII.

recollections of the duke of wellington.

Official visit to see the Difference Engine in 1829—Extract from a letter from the late General Sir William Napier—Loss of the troopship "Birkenhead"—The Author accompanies the Duke to the Exhibition of 1851—Fixed in the crowd, the Duke plays with a child of two years old—The late Countess of Wilton asks a question about the Difference Engine—The Author's explanation—The Duke's remark—Sketch of one portion of the Duke's intellectual character—University Addresses—The Duke helps a dumpy fellow to see the Queen—The Author saves a Master of Arts from hanging—The Duke and the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise—The Duke an economist of time— Character of the French Marshals.

My acquaintance with the late Duke of Wellington commenced in an official visit from himself and Mr. Goulburn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to inspect the drawings and works of the Difference Engine No. 1. This was in November, 1829. Afterwards I met the Duke in private society at the houses of one or two of his intimate friends, and subsequently I was honoured not unfrequently by receiving him at my own. During the Exhibition of 1851 I very often accompanied him in his examination of the contents of that building. I made no notes of any of the conversations, some of them highly interesting, which occurred on such occasions, because I felt that the habit of recording privately the conversations with our acquaintances was a breach of faith towards the individual, and tended to destroy all confidence in society.