The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-15 00:00:00

answered. -
" In his manner and address the Duke was always frank,
and, when he pleased, dignified and graceful. Easy of
access, the soldier's complaint was as attentively listened to
as the remonstrance of the general. If a favour were re-
quired, it was promptly granted, or as decisively refused ;
and on the merits of a statement, when once a decision was
made, influence would be used in vain, and entreaty pass
unheeded.
" In personal simplicity, the Duke's costume was in keep-
ing with his character. He despised everything like parade,
and, excepting when their services were necessary, dispensed
with the attend-Ince of his staff. Nothing could be more
striking than the plainness of his appearance in public,
when contrasted with the general frippery and parade of his
opponents ; and the peasantry could scarcely be persuaded
that the unpretending personage who courteously listened to
their story, or returned a passing salute, was the great
captain whom conquest had attended from the Tagus to the
Seine.
" In estimating the military talents of Napoleon and Wel-
lington—for to compare either with any other commander of
the age would be absurd—to the former, a superiority has
been generally conceded for the decision with which be fol-
,lowed up a defeat, and the important consequences which
I always were attendant upon his victories. Both were ad-
I mated to have possessed an inimitable skill in handling
masses of men, with the same facility that ordinary com-
manders directed the movements of a brigade. Their com-
binations were beautiful—their conceptions grand—they
'were not the laboured efforts of military art, but the out-
breakings of military genius—formed in a moment—executed
as rapidly—changed, should circumstances require, and
adapted to meet the emergency that might arise. If Wel-
lington did not push his victories to grand results, let us in-
quire the causes ; and when Napoleon's military improvisa-
tion is declared unequalled, let us see how far Wellington's
was behind.

" The circumstances under, which these two great com-
manders conducted their campaign different ; for
Napoleon had never Wellington's , difficulties to contend
with. The former was a free agent. His battles were deli-
vered to clear away obstacls that impeded an advance, while
Wellington's were generally received to enable him to main-
tain a position in the Country. • Napoleon, when victorious,
had always tbe means in hand to push his success, and secure
the fruits of conquest. Wellington's battles were frequently
defensive ; and the heavy repulses which masterly combina-
tions enabled him to inflict were unadorned with the trophies
which accompany a bold advance ; and often his most bril-
liant fields were followed by regressive movements, which
always follow a defeat, and rarely attend on victory.
" That Wellington possessed within himself the rapid re-
sources and daring confidence which mark a great com-
mander, his conduct when •placed in dangerous positions, or
at the crisis of a doubtful day, will best establish.f What
operations could me more masterly than his retreat across
the Tagus,:t or his advance across the Douro? What act
more daring than to hold the height of Guinaldo with two
weak divisions, within cannon shot of an army strong enough,
not to defeat, but annihilate him ? Look at the sudden ruin
inflicted on Marmont at Salamanca—the seizure of Arinez§—
the counter-stroke at Sauroren Follow the footsteps of the
Peninsular army from Rolica to Toulouse. Commence his
history at Assaye, and close it on the night of Waterloo.
Test his military character by his acts—let him then dispute
the palm with Napoleon—and who will pronounce him second
to any general of the age ?
" In the prime of manhood, Wellington's appearance indi-
cated both activity and strength. In height he was nearly
five feet ten inches ; his shoulders were broad, his chest ex-
pansive, his arms long; the hand large but well formed; the
wrist unusually bony ; the whole frame-work evincing a
capability of enduring the extremity of fatigue. The keen
gray eyes were brilliant, and his sight remarkable acute.
His face was long, the features striking ; the nose acquiline ;
the brow open and developed ; and ' the lower portion of the
face contradicting, in a singular manner, the stern and al-
most iron expression of all above the mouth.'
" The general expression of the duke's face was cheerful.
In, probably, the most trying moment of his career, when
the failure of the attack on the great breach at Badajoz was
communicated, he was observed to be ' pale, but perfectly
collected.' In the hour of his triumph, when he had ascer-
tained the extent of his conquest, and found that the laurels
of Salamanca were added to his wreath. the admirable his_

torian of his wars II thus describes him as he stood :—` I
saw him late in the evening of that great day, when the ad-
vancing flashes of cannon and musketry, stretching as far
as the eye could command, showed in the darkness how well
the field was won ; he was alone—the flush of victory was
on his brow, and his eyes were eager and watchful, but his
voice was calm and even gentle. More than the rival of

Marlborough, since be had defeated greater warriors than

Marlborough ever encountered, with a prescient pride he
seemed only to accept this glory as an earnest of greater
things.' _

" What he is now, the portrait taken expecially
_for this
work will faithfully depict.
" Seventy-one winters have shed their snows upon his
honoured head, and those iron nerves which war and climate
could not shake, have felt the hand of time, and owned his
power—but, though the frame has yielded, the mind retains
its vigour, and the heart beats firmly as it once did upon the
battle-field. Like the oak of that proud ship which bore
the flag of Nelson, decay is placed upon the surface, but the
core remains intact. True to his country, that voice which
turned the heady fight' to victory, still gives its fearless
counsels in the senate—uninfluenced by party predilection,
and reckless whether its honest sentiments accord with po-
pular opinion, or provoke the clamour of the crowd.
" When a century shall have passed away ; when beauty
fades into kindred dlist, statesmen are forgotten, the rotten-
ness of demagogues is exposed, and a new generation won-
ders only how a past one could be fooled—in the page of
England's history one name will stand out in bold relief—
and one consenting voice pronounce—that the greatest soldier
Britain had produced, was Arthur, Duke of Wellington."

" * Napier.
t' As for the Englishman's hardiness and enterprise,
bear witness the passage of the Douro at Oporto, the capture
of Ciudad Rodrigo, the storming of Badajoz, the surprise of
the forts at Marabete, the march to Vittoria, the passage of
the Bidassoa, the victory of the Nivelle, the passage of the
Adour below Bayonne, the fight of Orthez, the crowning
battle of Toulouse ! To say that he committed faults is only
to say that he made war; but to deny him the qualities of a
great commander is to rail against the clear mid-day sun for
want of light. How few of his combinations failed. How
many battles
httltese
Bridgehefoughotf,
ovictorious o
.in all!'—Napier.
§ At Vittoria.
II Colonel Napier.

The Limerick Board of Guardians have resolved to dismiss
any of the paupers who refuse to eat rice.
POPERY UNCIIANGED.—Th9 liberalism of the day must
indeed be possessed of gigantic influence, nay, of power equal
to omnipotence, if, as we are repeatedly told, she has actually
effected a mutation for the better in that which ever was, and
still remains, " infallible." Mad, and worse than mad,
must the people of England be, if, with the broad-blown
banner of haughty Rome flaunting to their gaze, with the
blood-dyed inscription, " semper eadem," burning in cha.
racters of flame upon it, the conviction of the solemn truth
flashes not across their mind with irresistible energy,—that
the same measure she meted out in the plenitude of her
power to our martyred forefathers will she measure out to us,
should we, by our lethargy or impiety, suffer her again to es.
tablish her despotic sway in these highly-favoured islands.—
From Gems of Protestant Truth.