THE GREAT DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE GREAT DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

Time has dealt gently with the public services of the Duke of Wellington ; but it has done little to soften the harsh portraits of the man, as he struck' most of his contemporaries. He had the unbounded confidence of all the soldiers who served under him, but he did not appeal to their sentiment. In political life he pursued a high ideal of duty, as he understood it, without inspiring devotion in any colleague. For popular' opinion he had a haughty contempt, and never lost bis amazement that the people should presume to dictate to their betters in public affairs. This did not endear him to his countrymen,, who refused to believe that the Tory obligarchy was the final form of government, and who could not be always expected to remember that he had saved Europe at Waterloo. In private life hi? .genial moments were seldom recorded. If he had a favourite, he did not show his partiality by pinching the fortunate one's ear, after the- manner of Napoleon; and there art. endless stories of his gruffuess in. general society, and even to members of his family. But from his family we now have a protest against this conception of him as " hard, stem, and unsympathetic." Lady Rose Weigall, daughter of Wellingtons niece, Lady Burghersh, has edited her mother's " Correspondence" with the duke (John Murray), in which we are shown his deep affection for some of his kindred, and the singular part that he played in social amenities. So great, was the trust in his judgment that he was constantly summoned to adjudicate in private quarrels, especially quarrels between husband and wife. He was great at settling disputes which arose out of intemperate letters. " People," he said, " must be cool-headed who read the letters of madmen which they are not to answer;" and therefore he held that " somebody should look at all letters," some judicial person who would show how a position can be explained "in very civil but very positive terms." Anyone who is familiar with Wellington's Writings will remember that the very civil but positive note is never absent; still, we inhouldinever have thought that it was just the note to quell the aggrieved wife or the explosive husband. The fact remains, however, that " the Dock had a word to say very often in such matters. Moreover, when anonymous letters were Hying about, he was always expected to bring them to the notice of the persons chiefly concerned. "It is like everything elae," he writes grimly to his niece, enclosing one of tin .--o missives for her husband. " Nobody el.-e will do it. The Duke of Wellington must." There was a still broader conception of his social utility. " The truth is that when I give a concert or a ball everybody else docs the same, and roust ir-u-f: all their friends invited, not by themselves, for of that 1 should not much complain', but by me." Tins picture of the Iron Duke a.s a universal master of the cere-

monies is rather staggering; but it does ■(•!. suggest that his friends counted on finding \"' ! soft places in the old man's armour.

• " Many family feuds," wrote Lady Burgbersh, after his death, "have been stilled and family misfortunes mitigated by his heneficient interference." Kindnesses are remembered often less fur their substantial value than foi the mannei in which they were done. Perhaps the duke's very civil but positive note sometimes left a chill in the favourites of his bounty. He was fond of children; Lady ISurglievdi said that he spoiled heir. " outrageous!}." But when he writes to her about their visit to Walmer Castle he makes it a point in their favour that he seldom sees or hears them: .Everyone recalls the delightful anecdote" 0 Ids sudden .-isi' '.-■• ihoVuisiry'at Strathfield'iaye, where some small visitors were at tea. The duke glared at them, and at the bread and butter, and then rang the bell violently. When a trembling footman appeared, an awful voice said: "Pray remember that when children come to tea in my house they are. to have jam Then he * stalked out .leaving the audience with the sense, of having been ordered for instant execution. Still more characteristic was the encounter with the small boy whom he found weeping bitterly in a lane with a toad squatting beside him. "I've got to go away to school, and there's nobody to take care of my toad," said the afflicted. "I'll take care of your toad," said the victor of Waterloo, and once a week the boy received a letter in these civil but positive terms: "Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Master William Huggins, and begs to inform him that •his toad is quite well." Such an experience was likely to make a lasting impression on the mind of a bov ; but it was the impression which would be left bv an affable ogre vrbtt bad unaccountably refrained from eating Master Huggins, toad, and all.

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