FRENCH PRESS ON WELLINGTON.

Wellington Independent, Volume VIII, Issue 763, 2 February 1853, Page 4

FRENCH PRESS ON WELLINGTON.

The Const itwlionnel pays a just tribute to his calm and lofty nature, aud the absence of self-glorification in his great deeds. The image with which the passage concludes is veiy striking, and is an, epitome of his life. "To sum up : Lord Wellington was an English general in, the full acceptation of the word; cool, calm, methodical, without enthusiasm, but without any false brilliancy, sure of himself, confident in bis soldiers, and always firm both in good and bad It has been justly remarked that, in tho numerous despatches which he published, and which form twelve enormous,volumes, the word ' glory ' never occurs. His only dominant passion was love "of his country. His conduct and his .character ma/!be summed up in a word—he was a Pif on horseback." .

The Pays testifies to thpy ,J i ver sal influence of his name,'atVoiK'iie effect his death will produce in Europe ;—" The mime of the Duke of Wellington was European. The vast events in which ho was mixed up, the immense part which he played during many long years in the destinies of the'world, the eminent place which he occupied in the councils of the Crown of England, and the great authority which he exercised over his party in Parliament, have made this personage one of the most remarkable of our,time. The news of his death will produce a profound sensation in Europe." ,✓ " The Steele applauded his adan*j#ion to the spirit of peace, and the wfa/ts of a new civilization, in preference to his glory in battle, of which it can hardly be expected that a French journalist would have much to say in the wav of admiration :—"The fields of battle on winch France and England have so fiercely con* tended have become transformed, and the pacific conflicts of manufacturers and commerce have succeeded to sanguinary contests. In our eyes, the Duke of Wellington's best title to glory is, that he derslood in the latter years of his life this striking transformation", and identified himself with the spirit of the ■century.. We will make no other reflections in the presence of the tomb,' into which the old general is about to descend.. In 1815 ho went about Paris' with five cockades'in. his hat, as the papers of those days relate, and the cosmopolitism which he then displayeifrhad a-gigniFicatiou which = no doubt hefdid npfdiviue, but which had a prophetic characters The union of nations, whose!'.symbols'he wore, tends every day to become'a;truth. ,.

The Assemhlee Nationale enters into a long contrast between Ityyolebn and Wellington, and, casting-as//e.'all narrow' patriotism,' renders full Justice to "the great English captain. To this article the Pays puts in an ;augry rejoinder, in which it says that oijr epoch has supplied a whole gallery >f men equal to Wellington, but thnfreenturies are required to produce an Alexander, a Cmsar, a Napoleon ! The [Dchats, the Union, and the Travers, puMish. short'hiogra* pines, followed up by notices, from which amidst some special .French sophistries ■ we finally extract a reluctant homage to the unquestionable greatness of a hero, diplomatist, and statesman, who will stand out in history as the foremost mau ol his age., • ■'~ , : ... ,