The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-26
FEW GLIMPSES OF THE
CAREER OF WELLINGT ON


MOTIFS. oOInellillG OCIOidl VI OAACA
College, Oxford University, England.
1t has several capital merits, the most
marked being its remarkable fairness
TO the great enemy of the British EN-
pire, and the foremost genius in mod
ern times. He died a few months ago
i'm his mental prime, and was dls-
tinctive loss to literature. he also,
among other productions, wrote
work on wellington, Soldier ana
Statesman" You can procure it for
$135 net of Putnam's Sons, New
York. The great commander, the
Iron Duke" as he was called, was
genius in war, but it is at least DOUBT
full if he was a great statesman. Judge
Morris says he was cold ana unsyih-
pathetic as a man. he describes MIN
thus:
.Wellington was of middle height
and very slightly formed. The
extant portraits of him are not very
good. they are somewhat tame ana
hardly reproduce feature which were
evidently those of a very remarkable
man. l beheld him only when in ad-
vanced old age; his figure was pent'
his stature was shrunk; but 1T was
impossible not to understand the char
acter of that wise countenance and
especially the look of that keen, pierre
ing eve, which always reminded me
of that of a raven. 1t was no aSSo-
citation of ideas that made you feel
you were in the presence OF superior
nature when you saw Wellington; FOR
the rest he had the simple and some
what reserved bearing distinctive OF
the born English gentleman; there
was nothing SNOWY or ostentatious
about him. The ground plan, SO to
speak, of his character IS evident to
those who have studied his career.
He never rose to the topmost heights
i, -, IN, inns Or IL
native force; he was less remarkable
for originality than for strong COM
mon sense. Sagacity was his chief in
tellectual gift
This is a strong portraiture of
great Irishman, who, like so many
of his own CONFERENCE.-The
Sheridan, Lecky and others-gave lus-
ire to England, and were SO generally
reckoned as natives.
Judge Morris thinks Wellington's
chief defect as a soldier was his over
cautiousness. That he fought splen-
did battles and achieved great results
must be admitted. That his greatest
failure was really at Waterloo with
which his name is so linked, and he is
credited with being the victor. Those
who are we'll UP in the best authori-
ties as to that fateful battle know
how Napoleon was defeated. and that
but for unfortunate circumstances the
Waterloo campaign would have been
one of great disaster to the British
arms. Judge Morris does not, how
ever so regard it, and says the VIC
tory would not have been decisive,
while admitting that had Napoleon's
marshals carried out his orders both
Wellington and the PruSSianS would
have been defeated. The various dis
puted points about the battle and the
orders and the conduct of Ney and
Grouchy are gone into at great length,
considering the size of the book" The
best, most conclusive work extant is
the stout volume by the late able,
faithful, fair John p. Ropes, of ,Bos-
ton, who made most exhaustive
study of the main materials that enter
in the history of Waterloo, including
the preceding days and Napoleon's
plans and orders. j 1t is accompanied
with the best maps, and you must adj
NIT, if fair, after careful study of
it, that Napoleon'S defeat is to be laid
at the feet of some of his own COM
manders, rather than to the solderly
skill and desperate fighting of his
enemies.
All of Wellingtons many campaigns
extending from 1903 to Waterloo in
1914, are considered and finely de-
scribed by Morris. 1t is admitted by
the biographer that in his own opinion
if Napoleon had had command in
Spain in person the result of the
fighting there would in all likelihood
have been far different. With the
great master at distance, however, his
well-laid plans fell to pieces in the
hands of his quarrelsome IieuIenants.
From a review of the biography in
the New York Saturday Review" /
take the following brief outline of the
hero:
Arthur Wesley (for it was not till
his brother was Governor General of
India that the family restored the
older and more aristocratic spelling of
Wellesley was born in August, 1863.
His grandfather, by. name Richard
Colley of an English family of the
Pale, adopted the name and arms OF
Wesley when he inherited the estate
of an uncle by marriage. This Richard
Colley Wesley contrived TO be made
Baron Mornington in the peerage of
Ireland, and his son Carrot was raised
two steps and made an Earl. Arthur
was the fourth son OF this Earl of
Mornington, who was not man OF
great parts. Everybody knows what
a poor opinion of the future Iron
Duke was held and expressed by his
mother, lady whose maiden name
was Hill. 1.-THE unpromising boy was
sent TO Elton and then to military
school at Anglers, directed by dis,
tinguished officer of French en-
gineers.'
Out of such unpromising material
was formed at last the second great
est military commander of Great Bri-
tain. In a few years he had risen to
the rank of Major, and he steadily
rose to be the great soldier in English
history since the Duke of Marlborough.
His career in India was brilliant and
successful He married Kitty Paken-
ham, lived a near neighbor to that
famous literary woman and most
worthy, Maria Edgeworth and was
soon acting as Secretary of Ireland 1t
is brilliant career that is traced,
and with all interest, lucidity and
skill. l doubt not. for Judge Morris
does excellent work in small compass,
1 am able to testify. The volume con-
tains but 39S pages, 12mo. / suppose,
and have long ago, seen it so stated,
that the Dukes family and that of
John Wesley were of kin. Wellington,
born IN Ireland. was descended from
English stock, it seems, a fact I had
forgotten, for / had long supposed
him to be of original Irish stock. Like
the great Dean Swift and some others,
1, % T,-;r 1a;1 n.