MARQUESS WELLESLEY.

Ir any one were desired to name the family in modern times which, like the Gracchi at Rome, peculiarly excelled all others in the virtues and in the renown of its members, there could hardly be any hesitation in pitching upon the illustrious house of which Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley, was the head. But I had the happiness of a long and uninterrupted friendship with that great man, and enjoyed more particularly his unreserved confidence during the last ten or twelve years of his life. It is fit, therefore, that I distrust my own feelings towards his memory; and in order to preserve impartiality, the first duty of an historian, but the most difficult in writing contemporary history, I shall confine myself in treating of him to the facts which are beyond all controversy, and which, indeed, are the best heralds of his fame.

The family of the Wellesleys originally came from Somersetshire, and by intermarriage with the Cowleys or Colleys, and by a devise from the Poles, obtained large property in Ireland, where

* Lord Maryborough, on his brother's decease Lord

they were, in 1756, raised to the Peerage. About sixty years ago they took the name of Wellesley, which, I believe, was their more ancient appellation also in this country, that of Wesley being of recent date. The father of the present generation was a person of talents and virtue, and his taste in music being cultivated in an extraordinary degree, he was the author of some beautiful compositions, which still retain their place in the favour of the musical world. Dying while some of his children were very young, the care of their education was left to their mother,* a daughter of Lord Dungannon, and the family fortune being in considerable embarrassment, her merit in bringing them through some difficulties, training them to such Mornington, was the person to whom this valuable gift was made by a gentleman distantly related to the family. His lordship was then a young midshipman, and was offered the fortune upon condition that he quitted the navy and came to reside with his kinsman. But this he refused, as the war still continued, and he thought leaving the service before the peace would be dishonourable. He supposed, as did his family, that there was an end of the benefaction; but the old gentleman declared by his will that such conduct only increased his esteem for the young man, and left him the Pole estate.

*She was daughter to the first Viscount Dungannon. Her brother died before his father; and the second and late Viscount Dungannon was her nephew. Her father was son to the great-great-grandfather of the present Marquess of Downshire. Hence the relationship of the Wellesleys to the Downshire, Salisbury, and Talbot families.

excellence and such eminence as few families ever attained, exceeds all ordinary praise. This truly venerable matron was permitted by Divine Providence to reap the highest reward which such rare virtues as adorned her character can, in this stage of our existence, receive; for her life was extended to an extreme old age; she saw all the glories of Hindostan, of Spain, and of Waterloo; and left four sons sitting in the House of Lords, not by inheritance, but "by merit raised to that proud eminence."*

Richard, the eldest son, who at his father's death had nearly attained majority, was first sent to Harrow, where he took part in a great rebellion that had well-nigh proved fatal to the school. This occasioned his expulsion, and he then went to Eton, where he was distinguished above all the youths of his time. When Dr. Goodall, his contemporary and afterwards Head master, was examined in 1818 before the Education Committee of the House of Commons respecting the alleged passing over of Porson in giving promotion to King's College, he at once declared that the celebrated Grecian was not by any means at the head of the Etonians of his day, and on being asked by me (as chairman)

* It is related of Lady Mornington, that on a crowd pressing round and obstructing her carriage when on a visit to the House late in her life, she said to Lord Cowley, who accompanied her, "So much for the honour of being mother of the Gracchi!"

to name his superior, he at once said Lord Wellesley.* Some of his verses in the Musa Etonenses have great merit, as examples both of pure Latinity and poetical talent. The lines on Bedlam, especially, are of distinguished excellence. At Christ Church, whither he went from Eton, and where he studied under Dr. W. Jackson (afterwards Bishop of Oxford), he continued successfully engaged in classical studies, and his poem on the death of Captain Cook showed how entirely he had kept up his school reputation: it justly gained the University prize. In his riper years he retained the same classical taste which had been created at school and nurtured at College. At no time of his life does it appear that he abandoned these literary pursuits, so well fitted to be the recreation of a mind like his. On the eve of his departure for the East he wrote, at Mr. Pitt's desire, those beautiful verses on French conquest, which were first published in the 'Anti-Jacobin,' and of which the present Lord Carlisle, a most finished scholar and a man of true poetical genius, gave a translation of peculiar felicity. Nor did the same taste and the same power of happy and easy versification quit him in

C

Some one of the Committee would have had this struck out of the evidence, as not bearing upon the matter of the inquiry, the Abuse of Charities; but the general voice was immediately pronounced in favour of retaining it, as a small tribute of our great respect for Lord Wellesley; and I know that he highly valued this tribute.

his old age. As late as a few weeks before his death he amused himself with Latin verses, was constant in reading the Greek orators and poets, and corresponded with the Bishop of Durham upon a favourite project which he had formed of learning Hebrew, that he might be able to relish the beauties of the Sacred writings, particularly the Psalmody, an object of much admiration with him. His exquisite lines on the 'Babylonian Willow, transplanted from the Euphrates a hundred years ago,' were suggested by the delight he took in the 137th Psalm, the most affecting and beautiful of the inspired king's whole poetry. This fine piece was the production of his eightieth year.

At Oxford he formed with Lord Grenville a friendship which continued during their lives, and led to his intimacy with Lord Grenville's great kinsman, Mr. Pitt, upon their entering into public life. That amiable man was sure to set its right value upon a heart so gentle, a spirit so high, and accomplishments so brilliant as Lord Wellesley's; but it is perhaps one of the most striking proofs which can be given of the fearless confidence reposed by the young minister in his own resources, that at a time when the phalanx of opposition was marshalled by no less men than Fox, Burke, Windham, and Sheridan, and when he had not a single cabinet colleague ever heard in debate, nor * Salix Babylonica.