when, as the articles of capitulation had been broken by the enemy, he considered himself justified in beaking his parole, and escaped. Returning to England, in 1807, he was immediately made colonel of the eighty-eighth regiment, and sent, with the temporary rank of major-general, in command of the land part of the expedition against Madeira; of which, on its capture, he was appointed governor.

Early in 1808, he obtained the rank of major-general; and, having joined the British army in Portugal, during the summer of that year, was employed as a commissioner, to adjust the terms of the notorious convention of Cintra. He then accompanied Sir John Moore into Spain, and was present during the retreat to, and at the battle of, Corunna, where he covered the embarkation of the troops. In March, 1809, he returned to the seat of war, having been appointed marshal and generalissimo of the Portuguese army. When the French attacked the north of Portugal, he commanded twelve thousand men, on the Upper Douro, which he crossed in sight of the division under General Loison, whom he drove back, and, combining his Portuguese troops with the British under Lord Wellington, vigorously pursued the retreating enemy.

During the remainder of the peninsular war, he was repeatedly engaged. At Albuera, he defeated Soult, with the loss, however, of seven thousand of his own troops. The French suffered still more severely; the havock committed among their officers being so great, that the troops, in many cases, were destitute of commanders; and to this circumstance, their final retreat was, by the prisoners, chiefly ascribed. At one period of the battle, the French were on the brink of victory: the peninsular troops had given way; and a body of British, which advanced to their support, had lost a great number of men, an entire brigade of artillery, and eight stand of colours; but, at this critical moment, some British, who had just come up, and a Portuguese brigade, which had frequently repulsed the enemy, were sent forward by Beresford; and the attack was renewed, with such success, that three of the eight stand of colours, and all the captured guns, except one howitzer, were re

taken, and the French compelled to retire, in this, as in other parts of the field. The marshal behaved with the greatest heroism throughout the action, exposing himself dauntlessly, not only wherever his presence, as a commander, was required, but in the hottest of the fight, for the purpose of animating the peninsular troops, by a splendid example of gallantry on the part of their leader. He, individually, encountered a Polish lancer, whom he grappled by the throat, and, by muscular strength, hurled to the ground. The Pole, when on the point of making a blow at the marshal, was shot by a Spaniard, and Beresford kept the horse of his antagonist as a trophy.

In 1810, he became representative of his native county, Waterford, in parliament. During the campaigns in the peninsula, of 1812 and 1813, being then a lieutenant-general, he acted as second in command. Early in 1814, he contributed much to the victory of Orthes; took possession of Bourdeaux, when the inhabitants declared in favour of the Bourbons; and afterwards bore a distinguished part in the battle of Toulouse. In the course of the same year, (1814,) he was raised to the peerage, by the title of Baron Beresford, with a parliamentary grant of £2,000 per annum, for himself, and the two next inheritors of the title. The city of London also presented him with a valuable sword; and, in July, 1815, he received the personal congratulations of the Prince Regent on his successes.

He was afterwards employed, by the Portuguese government, at Rio Janeiro; where, in 1817, he repressed a conspiracy. On his return to Europe, he was not permitted to land at Lisbon, being, as it was supposed, the bearer of orders hostile to freedom. In 1822, he became lieutenant-general of the ordnance department; and, in the following year, he was created a viscount, and made colonel of the sixteenth foot. In 1825, he became a general in the army; and, in 1828, master-general of the ordnance. He has also received, for his services, grand crosses of the Bath, and of the Guelphic order, of the Tower and Sword, of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, of St. Hermenegilde, and of St. Fernando; the title of Marquess of Campo Major, and Duke of Elvas, from Spain;

order of the Tower and Sword; and knight of the Austrian order of Leopold. The colonelcy of the seventy-second foot was given him in 1817; and, in 1819, he exchanged the governorship of Edinburgh Castle for that of the Military College.

On the 14th of June, 1820, the honorary degree of D. C. L. was conferred upon him, in the theatre of the University of Oxford; on the 9th of September, 1823, he was gazetted colonel of the forty-second foot; and in January, 1824, he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society. On the following 6th of March, he was gazetted lieutenant-general of the ordnance department; and, during the same year, he was returned to parliament for Perthshire. In July, 1826, he was again elected a member of the house of commons; and on the 21st of June,

1828, he was gazetted secretary of state for the colonial department, with a seat in the cabinet. On the 17th of September of the same year, he became one of the commissioners for the affairs of India; and on the following 28th of October, was elected a fellow of the Medico-Botanical Society.

On the 24th of September, 1829, he was gazetted as governor of Fort George; on the 17th of February, 1830, he was again gazetted secretary of state for the colonies; and, on the following 23rd, opposed Lord John Russell's motion for transferring the elective franchise of corrupt boroughs to Birmingham and Manchester. His political principles are opposed to those of the liberal party, and his intellectual acquirements are very considerable. His military fame, though for no particular service, is deservedly of a very high order.

THE HONOURABLE ARTHUR WELLESLEY, fourth son of the Earl of Mornington, was born at Dengan Castle, the seat of his ancestors, in Ireland, on the 1st of May, 1769, the same year that gave birth to Napoleon, a circumstance on which Louis the Eighteenth remarked, "La Providence nous devait bien cette compensation." Being deprived of his father at an early age, young Wellesley became the chief care of his mother, by whom he was sent to Eton; and, after remaining there a short time, was removed to the military academy of Angers, in France. At this school he studied the principles of military science, and, in 1787, received his first commission as an ensign of the fortyfirst foot. In 1788, he exchanged into the twelfth, and in 1792, into the eighteenth light dragoons, and thus enjoyed the advantage of obtaining an early acquaintance with the field duties of both cavalry and infantry. In the April of 1793, he was promoted to a majority in the thirty-third regiment; and, shortly afterwards, obtained the lieutenantcolonelcy of the same corps, which was purchased for him by his brother,

the present Marquess Wellesley. "A young man, in the command of a fine regiment," says Major Sherer, one of the duke's biographers, "he sailed upon his first service from the cove of Cork, in the month of May, 1794."

Having landed at Ostend, the evacuation of which had been just determined on by Lord Moira, Lieutenant-colonel Wellesley accompanied that nobleman to join the camp of the Duke of York before Antwerp. "It was here," says the authority above cited, "that the future hero of England first saw an army in the field. It was at this moment, and upon this theatre of war, where there was no sound but of reverses, and no prospect but one dreary with expected disappointments, that the conqueror in so many battles made his first essay in arms.

Notwithstanding, however, the discouraging situation in which he was placed, and the few opportunities he found for distinction, he omitted, in none that occurred, to take advantage of, and improve them. His regiment was concerned in every affair with the French republican forces; and on the river Neethe, at the village of Boxtel,

and in a hot skirmish in the Waal, he was conspicuous for his prudence and valour. Though his conduct on the above occasions was not officially noticed, it won the admiration of those who were present, and, in particular, of General David Dundas, by whom he was selected to cover, with the brigade to which his regiment was then attached, the memorable retreat from Holland. This was a trying service, performed during a hard frost, through a desert and hostile country, amidst rigours and hardships sufficient to dishearten the most experienced general; yet it was concluded by Lieutenant-colonel Wellesley in a manner which few could have equalled and none surpassed.

On his return to England, he was ordered to join an expedition then fitting out for the West Indies, and sailed with the fleet early in 1795. Being, however, repelled by adverse winds, he put back to land; "and thus," says Major Sherer, "a star, which might have set early in the west in obscurity, and perhaps death, arose in the east with life and brightness." Accordingly, on the appointment of his brother to the governor-generalship of India, the subject of our memoir sailed with him in 1797, having, in the May previously, been promoted to the rank of colonel. During his voyage to India, he occupied much of his time in reading military books, and was generally to be found in his cabin, thus quietly laying the foundation of his renown.

On the arrival of Colonel Wellesley in the east, war being declared against Tippoo Sultaun, he was appointed to a command in the army of the Carnatic, and commenced his campaign with a force of eleven battalions. The first action in which he was engaged, took place at Malavelly, where, at the head of his own regiment, the thirty-third, he greatly contributed to the victory obtained by the British troops under the command of General Harris. His next services were at the siege of Seringapatam, before which he found himself encamped in the beginning of April, 1799. On the 4th of May, the town was taken by storm; but he had no share in the attack, having been intrusted with the charge of the reserve. He was, however, appointed commandant of the captured city, and,

in that capacity, directed the funeral of Tippoo, which he superintended with the utmost delicacy and judgment. He was also nominated one of the commissioners for disposing of the conquered territories; his particular duty being to remove from the country the families of Hyder Ali and the late sultan, which he performed with great judgment and the most considerate humanity. Whilst acting as commandant of Seringapatam, he had many duties to enact totally unconnected with military service; but he accomplished them all in a manner that gained him much influence and respect. "It is remembered," asserts our previous authority," that he early prepared a paper upon the state of the coinage in Mysore, in which it was shown that he had studied the subject, and was not less able to project a measure of finance in the closet than to guide a column in the field. To this hour, indeed, the memory of all these services, and more particularly of those which he rendered to the terrified and desolate natives in the moment of our triumph and their distress, is cherished by the aged inhabitants of Seringapatam with a grateful feeling, with which we are unwilling to disconnect the after successes of Colonel Wellesley's life." His next service was in putting an end to the career of an adventurer, named Dhoondiah Waugh; who, at the head of five thousand horse, threatened the tranquillity of Mysore; but he and his followers were completely routed by Colonel Wellesley, who, in one resolute charge, decided the fate of this lawless horde.

In December, 1800, he was about to quit the government of Seringapatam, to accompany the army into Egypt; but new dangers threatening the Mysore country, he was remanded, and gazetted to the local rank of a brigadiergeneral in India. The British arms were, shortly afterwards, put in motion against the Mahrattas, who, headed by Holkar, a rebel of fierce courage and great military talent, and assisted by French intrigue, had nearly succeeded in subverting the Anglo-Indian government. Having been appointed to the rank of major-general in the spring of 1802, Colonel Wellesley again took the field; and, on the 20th of April, 1803, put to flight a body of the Mahrattas at Poonah,

which town they had threatened to destroy. The subject of our memoir now received a specific authority to conclude peace, or to engage in hostilities, as his judgment and knowledge of the objects of government might suggest. Accordingly, on the refusal of Scindia, an ally of Holkar, to withdraw his troops from the frontier of the Nizam, Major-general Wellesley marched immediately against him, and captured the town or pettah of Ahmednuggur, a fortress which secured the communication with Poonah, afforded a safe depôt, and was the centre and the capital of a district yielding six hundred and thirty-four thousand rupees. This happened on the 12th of August; and, before the end of the following month, he had followed up his success by the complete dispersion of the Mahratta army, which amounted to fifty thousand, and had given battle near the village of Assaye and the river Juah. In this affair, our officer had his horse shot under him; and "never," says Dr. Southey, "was any victory gained under so many disadvantages. Superior arms and discipline have often prevailed against as great a numerical difference; but it would be describing the least part of this day's glory to say that the number of the enemy were as ten to one: they had disciplined troops in the field, under European officers, who more than doubled the British force; they had a hundred pieces of cannon, which were served with perfect skill, and which the British, without the aid of artillery, twice won with the bayonet."

In consequence of these and subsequent successes, a treaty of peace was concluded between the British government and Scindia; and General Wellesley departed from India in the height of a fame and popularity which one of his eulogists calls "glory enough for a single life." In Calcutta, a monument was erected to commemorate his victory at Assaye; he was presented, by the inhabitants of the city, with a sword; his own officers marked their admiration of his conduct by giving him a golden vase; and, in England, he was made a knight companion of the Bath, and obtained the thanks of the British parliament. The inhabitants of Seringapatam declared,

in an address of gratitude, that they had reposed, for five years, under the shadow of his protection; and implored the God of all nations to hear their constant prayers for his health, his glory, and his happiness.

In 1805, Sir Arthur Wellesley returned to England, with his brother, and, in the November of the same year, embarked for Hanover, in command of a brigade under Lord Cathcart; but the army, after having landed on the continent, speedily reimbarked, in consequence of the battle of Austerlitz. In 1806, he became colonel of his regiment, by the death of the Marquess Cornwallis; and, soon after, he took his seat in the house of commons as member for Newport, in the Isle of Wight. He had previously sat in the Irish parliament, where he spoke and voted in favour of catholic emancipation; but won little distinction, at that time, as a senator, being noted more for his candour than his eloquence. In the year last mentioned, he married the Honourable Catherine Pakenham, daughter of the Earl of Longford, to whom he had been engaged before his departure for India; and who, it is said, having lost, by illness, much of her personal beauty, offered to relieve him from his contract. He, however, declared himself desirous of fulfilling his engagement, and they were accordingly wedded; though, after a few years, the marriage ceased to be a happy one. The only remark we shall make upon it is, that produced Sir Arthur two sons. Not long after his union, he took advantage of his experience in Indian affairs, to expose to government the absurdity of a project then contemplated for the employment of negro troops in the East Indies, and of sepoys in the West; but which, in consequence of the remonstrance of Sir Arthur, was abandoned. In 1807, he accompanied the Duke of Richmond to Ireland, as chief secretary; and, by virtue of that office, was sworn in, on the 8th of April, a member of the British privy council. He made himself unpopular in Dublin, by the introduction of a new police, which was objected to, on account of its expense, by the inhabitants. During his official residence in Ireland, he advocated catholic emancipation as a measure not of right, but necessity; though he once afterwards went so far as to