The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-02-03

| | 4
THE OLD IRON DUKE.
Memories Of Wellington. His Ways and Say
lngs rs Soldier and Statesman.
Mr.. Grenville- Murray, in the Swiss Continent
Lord Grey, who spent the flower Of his
manhood in cavil1ng at Wellington, once
took upa volume Of the dukes dispatches.
After perusing many pages he said, in an
swer to q question as to what he thought Of
them: In my opinion he was the greatest
man that ever ived."' Perhaps the queen
iis the one person now; living who would
agree with Lord Grey: Her Majesty shed
tears when she heard that the: good, gray
head which all men. knew" would no longer
be seen on this earth. and spoke of him in
terms; which have rarely been applied to
even Caesar or Napoleon. ,','s
.'He is too great'to' be subject, "said Ma
poleon in 1915. .:''He will change the
BEEN quoted in illustration of Napoleon's
ignorance of England. But the truth is,
Napoleon knew perfectly we'll what; he was
saying, and the probability is that yelling
ton might have changed the dynasty. 3 He
| did not for three reasons; He was too good
| man, too unimaginative, too satisfied with
! the position he had actually acquired: The
lack of imagination.is indeed the most Sc
nous defect in the character of Wellington
Curiously enough he was never very poPu-
lar with his men-they admired rather than
loved him. Nelson was simply worshiped
by the sailors he led to victory: A certain
GOODNESS Of. demeanor which sometimes
amounted to positive haughtiness was the
reason which prevented the establishment
of sympathetic relations between Yelling
ton and his officers. After his elevation to
the peerage he was commonly spoken of in
camp as ''the Peer partly, no doubt, to
distinguish him from certain lords who
were not peers. But what mortal seaman
would ever have dreamed of calling mel"
the Peer? -. 49,
That part of Wellingtons life which has
cival career; unjustly, as I think. He no
doubt committed grave faults; but he was
honest and courageous to degree. A Gu
rious instance of the latter quality may be
seen in his conversation with George w.,
who conceived that his f'honor'' forbade
him to accept Canning as a minister. II
can't, Arthur, cant, as a. gentleman-can
II" Your Majesty is not a gentleman, "
replied the duke to the startled king, and
proceeded to explain to him that severe
ign was not a gentleman, because some
thing more. The king gave~way. On
subsequent occasion the duke showed
equal courage, but more tact. George w.,
as is we'll known labored under the hallu-
cination that he had been present at Water
loo. One day at a state banquet he made
this amazing statement, and appealed to
the duke for confirmation. ''Your Majes-
ty has often told me so," replied Yelling
ton .. ,.s.g.1
T. lie was very hospitable, especially at
Walmer, but had his own notions on the
subject of equality. Thus he had once
asked Grisi to come down lin profession
| al capacity to entertain some illustrion,
| guests whom he was expecting. On Crisis
| arrival the duke was very civil to the ladys
and asked her, among other questions, at
what hour she would like to dine? Grisi re-
piled with her most gracious smile) that
would perfectly suit her. The duke bowed
| he had not at all intended it. And vet he
once asked clock-maker. who had come
to repair the clocks at Walmer, to dinner,
though this invitation, too is believed to
have originated in a mistake. The
duke fancied that the head of a
| famous firm had arrived in person to do the
| work, and issued the invitation ACCORDINGLY.
It was, however, mere artisan who had been
sent, but the Duke was too good natured and
too much of gentleman to withdraw il
when he learned the facts. HE is a man of
SCIENCE" quoth Wellington. and that was
enough for him. It twas a high honor-fo1
which any human being, I suppose, would
have almost given day of his life-except-
| ing the ep1curean Lord Seton. That noble
man had a very poor opinion of the Duke,
whom he once asked to dinner-to one of
those exquisite little banquets which he
alone. knew how to give. Lord Seton was
much piqued at the Dukes evident want of
appreciation of his cooks triumphs. and at
length asked the old soldier point blank his
] opinion of dish, The duke answered that
it seemed excellent, but that for his lart,
he never paid any attention to what he ate.
| .sWhy," said Lord Seton with an OATH.
he come and dine with me, then?''
The Duke, as stated above, admired tmen
i of science" also ''lawyers," wko seemed
| to him possessed of subtle craft beyond
his own powers. ; His political adversary,
Broughan, he almost loved for the learn
ing that was in him" On one occasion he
ventured to '.spar'' with the Chancellor, and
was worsted. my lord he said. lyon
will be remembered in history, not for your
exertions in abelishing slavery, or reform
ing the law, or changing our constitution
but simply from giving your name to
a new style of carriage" 'And
your Grace will not be remembered
for Salamanca, or Victoria, or Waterloo.
but for a new style Of boot" Oh
replied Wellington. A few days before he
| died he boast ed that "he could do whatever
any other man could do" and was always