The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-16 00:00:00

COAL DUTIES IN FRANCE.

In reply to an Hon. Member,
Lord STANLEY said communications had passed
with the French Government with reference to a reduc-
tion of the duty imposed on coals entering that country,
and both Governments were impressed with the import-
ance of the subject.
REPLY OF HER MAJESTY.
The reply of her Majesty to the Address of the House
was brought up by Mr. Forester, who appeared in the
uniform of one of the Officers of the Household.

BILLS PAYABLE ON THURSDAY.
Mr. Secretary WALPOLE moved for leave to bring ,
in a Bill for declaring that, the day appointed for the
funeral of the late Duke of Wellington shall, as regards
the payment of bills of exchange and promissory notes,
be treated and considered as the Lord's-day in the
cities of London and Westminster.
The motion was agreed to, and the Bill was subse-
quently brought in and read a first time.
The Bill was then read a second time, and afterwards
went through Committee.
On the motion that it be read a third time,
Mr. GLYN took the opportunity of thanking the
Government for the promptitude with which they had
brought the measure to its present stage ; and
recommended them to consider the propriety of
hereafter making the measure applicable to all similar
occasions.
The Bill was then read a third time and passed.
THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
On the motion for considering the Queen's Message,
relating to the late Duke of Wellington,
The Bill was then read a third time and passed.
CONSIDERATION OF HER MAJESTY'S
SPEECH.
The paragraph of the Queen's speech relating to the
promotion of art and science having been read,
Mr. G. A. HAMILTON gave notice that he would
to-morrow move that the House resolve itself into a
Committee of the whole House for the purpose of con-
sidering the supply to be granted to her Majesty.
THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
On the consideration of the Queen's Message,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose and
said--Sir, the House of Commons is called on to-night
to perform a sorrowful, but noble duty. It' has to re-
cognize, in the face of the country and of the civilized
world, the loss of the most distinguished of our citizens,
and to offer to the ashes of the great departed the solemn
anguish of a bereaved nation. (Hear.) The princely
personage who has left us was born in an age more
fruitful of great events than any period of recorded time.
The vastest of its incidents and the most conspicuous of
its deeds were accomplished by the Duke of Wellington
with the smallest means and the greatest obstacles. He
was, therefore, not only a great man, but the greatest
man of a great age. (Hear, hear-) Amidst the chaos
and conflagrations which attended the close of the last
century there arose a being who seemed born to be the
master of mankind. It is not too much to say that Na-
poleon combined the imperial ardour of Alexander with
the strategy of Hannibal. The kings of the earth fell
before his subtle genius, and he denounced destruction to
the only land that dared to dispute his supremacy. But
the providential superintendence of the world scarcely
ever seemed so evident as in the circumstance that the
same year should have produced the' French Emperor and
the Duke of Wellington, that they should have embraced
the same professions, and that, natives of distant islands,
they should have repaired for their military education to
that illustrious land which each in his turn was destined to
subjugate. (Hear.) During the long struggle for free-
dom, for glory, I may say for existence, in which this
country was engaged, Wellington fought and won 15
pitched battles, all of them of the highest class, and con-
cluding with one of those grand victories that give a
colour and form to history. (Hear, hear.) During this
period it can be said of him that which can be said of
no other captain, that he captured 3,000 cannon from
the enemy, and never lost a single gun. (Cheers.) But
the greatest of his exploits is perhaps surpassed by the
difficulties he had to encounter—for he had to encounter
a feeble Government, a factious opposition, a distrustful
people, scandalous allies, and the most powerful enemy
the world ever saw. (Hear.) He won victories with
starving troops, and carried on sieges without artillery;
and to complete the fatality which attended him through
life in this respect, when at last he succeeded in creating
an army of the Roman legion—worthy of himself—this
invincible host broke up on the eve of the greatest con-
juncture of his life, and he entered his last field with raw
levies and discomfited allies, but the star of Wellington
never paled. (Cheers.) He has been called fortunate;
for fortune is a divinity that ever favours those.who are
at the same time sagacious and intrepid, inven':,ive and
patient. It was his own character that created his
career, that achieved his exploits, and guarded him from
vicissitudes; for it was his sublime: self-control that regu-
lated his lofty fame. But, sir, it has been of late years
somewhat the fashion to disparage the military charac-
ter. Forty years of peace have, perhaps, made us
somewhat less aware of the considerable and complex
qualities that go to the formation of a great gene-
ral. It is not that he must be an engineer, a geo-
grapher, learned in human nature, and adroit in ma-
naging man—that he must be able to fulfil the highest
duties of a Minister of State, and then to descend to the
humblest offices of the commissary and the clerk ; but
he has to display all this knowledge, and exercise all
these duties at the same time, and under extraordinary
circumstances. At every moment he has to think of the
eve and of the morrow, of his flank and of his'rear.
(Hear, hear.) He has to carry with him ammunition,
provisions, hospitals. He has to calculate at the same
time the state of the weather and the moral qualities of
man ; and all these elements that are perpetually
changing, he has to combine. Sornetimes under over-
whelming heat, sometimes under overpowering cold,
often in famine, and sometimes amid the roar of artil-
lery. Behind all these circumstances, too, is the ever
present image of his country, and the dreadful alterna-
tive whether that country is to welcome him with lau-
rel or with cypress. Yet these images he must dismiss
from his mind ; for the general must think, and not only
think—he must think with the rapidity of lightning, for
on a moment more or less depends the fate of a most
beautiful combination, and on a moment more or less
hangs the question of glory or of shame. (Cheers.) Un-
questionably, sir, all this may be done in an ordinary
manner and by an ordinary man, as every day of our
lives we see that ordinary men may be successful Mini-
sters of State, successful authors, successful speakers ;
but to do all this with genius is sublime. (Cheers.)
Doubtless, to be able to think with vigour, with depth,
great
and with clearness in the recess of a cabinet is a
intellectual demonstration ; but to think with equal
vigour, clearness, and depth amid bullets is the loftiest
exercise and the most complete triumph of human facul-
ties. (Loud cheers.) Sir, when we take into consider-
ation the prolonged and illustrious life of the Duke of
Wellington, one is surprised how small a space was occu-
pied by that military career of his which fills so large a
space in history. (Hear, hear.) Only eight years elapsed
from Viraiera to Waterloo; and from the date of his first
commission to the last cannon-shot that he heard upon
the field of battle twenty years could scarcely be counted.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) He was destined for an.
other profession ; and the greatest and most successful
warrior, if not in the prime, at least in the perfection
of manhood, he commenced a civil career scarcely less
successful, scarcely less splendid, than that military one
which lives in the memory of man. (Hear, hear.) Re
was thrice the ambassador of his Sovereign at those great
historic congresses that settled the affairs of Europe.
Twice WS he Secretary of State, twice Commander-in-
Chief of the Forces ; once he was Prime Minister of
Telinwtrey. lost him that he
favoured by his counsel and his assistance the present (Hear, hear.)
England. And to the last hour of his life he may be
It
tid
was toh
onlya a fv elaboured
ew
monthsfor b
hisefo
advisers of the Crown respecting that war in the East,
of which no one could be so competent a judge, and he
he
drew up his views in a state paper worthy
died he died still the active chief-
tain of that illustrious army to which. ,he has left the
of his genius.
And, indeed, when,
tradition of his fame. (Great cheering.)
there is
one passage in the life of the Duke of Wellington which,
occasion,. I ought not to let
pass unnoticed,
It is our pride
in this place, and on ththisat.
that he was one of our-
selves ; it is our glory
If we review his
sat on these benches. (Hear, hear.)
ofsuccess
which in the House of Commons by the tests
though
ear
are applied to common men, his career,
Sir Arthur
brief, ' was still distinguished. He entered royal coun-
cils and exercised high offices of state. But the success
cillor
not be tested by the fact that he was a
achievedPrivy-councillor
of Sir Arthur Wellesley in the House of Commons must
or Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant ; he
et
here a success which the great most
brilliant and the
brilliant orator can never hope to accomplish.
That was a great Parliamentary triumph, when
he rose in his place to receive, as a Member of Par-
liament, the thanks of the Speaker for a brilliant vic-
tory—(Hear, hear)—and still later, sir, when at
that bar he received from one of your predeces-
sors, in memorable words, the thanks of a grate-
ful senate for accumulated triumphs.. (Loud cheers.)
Sir, there is one source of consolation which I think the
people of England possess at this moment under the se-
vere breavement which they mourn over. It is their
intimate acquaintance with the character, and even with
the person of this great man. There never was a great
man who lived so long and so much in the public eye. I
will be bound there is not a. crentleman in this House who j
has nod mega hi* many there are who have cowersed