I say you cannot stand on the Relief Act, but must pass a measure to meet the particular act of the Pope complained of, and to prevent the repetition of such acts in future. I have no desire to infringe the religious privileges of the Roman Catholics; on the contrary, I wish them to enjoy every means of following their religion with perfect freedom. I would wish to make no alteration in the Relief Act, but I do not see how this measure can be avoided. I confess I view without Lords," he said, "I cannot concur in the proposition of my noble friend (Aberdeen), that the bill shall be read a second time this day six months. Circumstances have occurred which render it impossible for you to return to the position in which you stood before this act of the Pope was committed. The object of the passing of the Relief Act was to repeal all the laws adopted against the Roman Catholics, first at the Reformation, next at the time of what was called the Popish Plot, and thirdly, in conse-apprehension the effect which this quence of the Popish reign of James measure may have in Ireland. We II., and the war of succession in have had a good deal of experience of Ireland, out of which, and its conse- the effect produced in Ireland by quences, grew all the penal enactments measures passed by the legislature. against Catholics in that country. It There was the Relief Act. A great was, I say, the object of the Relief deal was expected from that, and it Act to get rid of these altogether. was said that it would put an end to But those who brought forward that agitation in Ireland for ever. But in act-those who urged your Lordships the very year, nay, I believe, almost in and the other House to support it the very month, in which it became repeatedly stated that nothing therein the law of the land, Irish agitation touched the laws on which the Re- commenced. How often, since then, formation was founded. That was has the Crown, from time to time, had cautiously avoided. When we, the occasion to complain of agitation in authors and promoters of the Relief Ireland? How often has the Crown Act, were charged with having touched come to demand additional powers for the Reformation, we distinctly proved the purpose of putting down the agithe contrary, and showed that we had tation, or worse than agitation, existing done nothing to affect the laws by in that country, the Relief Act notwhich the Reformation was established withstanding? My advice to your in this country. In 1846, however, in Lordships is to do that which is just the reign of the present Queen, certain and necessary to maintain the power old statutes were repealed, and among and prerogative of the Crown, and to them one relating to the introduction protect the subjects of this country, of bulls into this country. If the law and no more; and you may rely on it had not been repealed, it would have you will have the support and good been impossible that the act of the wishes of the loyal people of Ireland, Pope could have taken effect; and, as well as of this country.' consequently, all fresh legislation would have been unnecessary. Cardinal Wiseman would not have dared to have come to England and published the Pope's bull or rescript establishing the new hierarchy. The thing was impossible; it could not have happened. Under these circumstances, I say you cannot return to the position in which you stood when the Relief Act was passed, or before the act of 1846 passed, which repealed the penalties attaching to all the acts with which it dealt, but left the acts themselves standing as misdemeanours. | The legislation on this subject stands in this state-that misdemeanours may be committed, but cannot be punished. Under these circumstances, In the ensuing session, in February, upon the motion that the Address in auswer to the royal speech should be inserted upon the Lords' Journals, the noble Duke took the opportunity of expressing his sense of the services of General Sir Harry Smith, lately in command at the Cape. The question of the fitness or unfitness of Sir Harry for command in such irregular and savage warfare, had long been made the subject of angry dispute; but the noble Duke at once pronounced in favour of the tactics employed by Sir Harry, and spoke with more than his wonted energy in his defence. "Sir Harry Smith," he said, "is an officer who, from his high reputation in the service, ought not to require any com mendation from me; but having filled a high command in several important military operations, long before carried on under his direction, and having now been recalled by her Majesty's Government, it is but justice to him to say that I, who am his commanding officer, though at a great distance, entirely approve of all his operations, of the orders which he has given to his troops, and of the arrangements which he has made for their success. . My firm belief is that everything has been done by the commanding general of the forces and the other officers, in order to carry into execution the instructions of her Majesty's Government." The projectile inventions of Captain Warner having been made the subject of a motion by Earl Talbot in the House of Lords, the Duke of Wellington, who was of opinion that the matter had already been sufficiently investigated, or, at all events, that a committee of lay Peers could elicit nothing beyond the facts brought out by the inquiries of the Board of Ordnance, moved, on the 21st of May, that an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty would be pleased to give directions that there be laid before the House of Lords copies or extracts of any report made to the Master-General of the Ordnance on the subject of Mr. Warner's inventions, and supported the motion on the grounds we have set forth. (Lansdowne) states that he would pre- it will give you a force that may not do all you desire at once, but by degrees it will become what you want -an auxiliary force to your army.” On the 23rd June, his Grace moved an humble address to her Majesty for a copy of an order with respect to the transmission of reinforcements to the Cape, &c. This was his final public act within the walls of the House of Lords, if we except his attendance (and, as was his wont, he was among the "earliest of the arrivals ") at the ceremony of the prorogation of Parliament, on the 2nd of July. Almost the last speech of the venerable Duke was in support of the Militia Bill. His Grace spoke with difficulty, and the long pauses between his sentences, and sometimes between the very words, betrayed the effort it required to proceed. But, as ever, his remarks In reviewing the main events of the were fully to the point. He asserted Duke of Wellington's career as a polithat the addition of the militia now tician, the conclusion is almost forced proposed to be enrolled, would not upon us that, although his name is assoswell our peace establishment to more ciated with two of the greatest legislathan its fair constitutional proportions, tive changes in our era, it was never and that our peace establishment ought as a voluntary agent that he made to have been augmented long before. concessions to the popular wishes. He "We have never," he observed," up to imported into the peaceful struggles of this moment, maintained a peace esta- Parliament the tactics of war; always blishment that is the real truth. And fighting to the last in defence of every I say that we are now in that situation position, and only abandoning it when that it is necessary for us to form an he found it no longer tenable. In the establishment such as this country instance of Catholic Emancipation, this always has had up to this moment, was avowedly the case. In the repeal a regular peace establishment founded of the Corn Laws we may infer that upon a militia.... The noble Marquis | he pursued the same course, because, up to a very recent period before the passing of that measure he had emphatically declared his belief that "the Corn Laws could not be repealed without peril to the country." On an administration, an imperious necessity to interfere, with advice and authority, in the political affairs of foreign nations; thus he was half a statesman ere he became a Minister; and if, in the course of his domestic government at home he sometimes too easily remembered his habits of military command, his errors were more than atoned for by the qualities of the statesman and the civil administrator, developed during his career in India, in the Peninsular, and even in France. To foreigners generally, our admiration of his character seems excessive; but it is because foreigners rarely are competent to appreciate the patience, selfdenial, probity, and almost plodding perseverance, which were the great agents of his success. They will at least admit that there has seldom been a great Captain who has exhibited less of the arrogance of the conqueror, or who more rigidly observed the laws of justice and moderation in the hour of victory. In his political career similar influences prevailed in his conduct. From the moment that he had aban the other hand, he conferred one great benefit on the English nation by teaching the privileged aristocracy when to yield. It is scarcely too much to say, that, without the sanction of his high authority, the foresight of Sir Robert Peel would not have sufficed to carry the Catholic question; indeed, there is proof of this in the care and anxiety of the distinguished commoner to set before the Duke, in a full and confidential correspondence, all the reasons for a settlement, during the autumn of 1828. Nor could his arguments have prevailed with a less practical mind than that of the Duke. If, in the case of Corn-Law Repeal, the Premier of 1845 again took the initiative in proposing a change; it was, perhaps, less on account of the right attaching to his station than that he felt the necessity of offering to the Duke solid inducements of statesmanship ere he could expect him to abandoned a legislative principle, or carried don the existing law. Accustomed as we now are to find public opinion immediately responded to by statesmen, we must, in doing justice to the Duke of Wellington, remember that he was by temperament and ingrained habit a Tory, and constitutionally indisposed to yield. We must also bear in mind the character of the Tory aristocracy a quarter of a century ago, and the difficulty of inducing them to listen to any views which were not enforced by their own apprehensions of danger, and their respect for authority. On the other hand, the extreme positiveness of the Duke's character, his inflexibility, his common sense, much augmented his authority; because it was felt that, if he called on his friends to yield, it must be that there was no longer any hope of successful resistance. Thus the very defects of his character became turned into benefits so soon as he was put in motion for great popular or national purposes. It has been well remarked that he always knew what was best to be done at the right moment. This was an advantage derived from his military habits. While in command of armies he had often added to his military duties a civil administration; or, if not a measure, he forgot the asperities of the strife, and accepted the new with the same frankness of loyalty that had led him to hold on by the old. If he saved the nation by his military triumphs, he still more signally served it, and saved its institutions, by teaching in precept and example the duty of caring for the public wants, and the necessity of conceding to the public will. MARLBOROUGH AND WELLING- ADMIRATION and criticism alike naturally imply, and resolve into, compari son. Such epithets as brave, skilful, heroic, are soon exhausted, or are used without meaning; we then resort to ideal or embodied standards of excellence, and sentiment employs the methods of science. The numerous eulogists of the illustrious man lately deceased, have thus almost invariably concluded their enumeration of his great qualities by drawing parallels between him and certain of his contemporaries or predecessors. None of these comparisons is so natural and appropriate, in our judgment, as that between Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. As a fitting supplement to the preceding biography, we will point out some points of resemblance and difference between those two great English commanders and statesmen. It may enliven our interest in this disquisition, if we first realize to our mental eye the persons of each of these illustrious men. With that of Wellington, in its latest aspect, we are all as familiar as though he were our kinsman. His daily ride, during the sittings of Parliament, down Whitehallhis regular morning visits to the Chapel Royal and the Horse Guardshis invariable appearance in public pageants--his annual journey to the Trinity House on Tower Hill, usually on horseback or in an open chaise-in | short, his reliability and prominence as one of the "sights of London," made this "foremost man of all the world," the acquaintance of nearly every dweller in the metropolis, and to thousands of provincials. Nor is it as an old, white-headed, and stooping man alone that we know "the Duke." Statues, pictures, medals, and images have preserved and universalized the figure erect and majestic - the countenance, severe, yet commanding the eagle eye, and imperial nose-of the hero in his prime of manhood and flush of fame. But of Marlborough it may be needful to limn a portrait. Sir Godfrey Kneller's picture, preserved at Blenheim, represents him as an eminently handsome man. Beneath the flowing peruke of the period of William III., and surmounting a well-proportioned body, clad in closely-fitting armour, is a face of almost feminine beauty, a high and rounded forehead, large soft eyes, Grecian nose, small mouth, and dimpled chin. The art of the painter does not exaggerate the opinion of contemporaries. At twelve years of age, John Churchill was the "pretty page" of the Duke of Yorkat eighteen, the "handsome captain" of the Foot Guards. He was so much the rage with the court ladies, that he based his fortune on their gifts. In his first Continental campaign, he received from Marshal Turenne the soubriquet of "my handsome Englishman." Now let the reader remember the costume of the courts and camps in which Marlborough figured. A low-crowned hat, with broad brim and drooping feather; a flowing peruke, descending to the shoulders; a long surcoat and shoulder-belt, elaborately embroidered; ruffles that extended from the elbow to the wrist; laced cravat; silk hose, and buckled shoes these probably constituted the town dress of Captain Churrchill;-in the camp, he would wear a helmet, corslet, and cuirass; contrasting advantageously with the pomatumed queue and bearskin cap of the time of Ensign Wellesley. In the military education of Marlborough and Wellington, there is some coincidence. Both learned the art of war from the people they were destined to encounter and overcome; Wellington in the school of AngiersMarlborough under Lewis XIV. and Marshal Turenne. After a brief service in Tangiers, Captain Churchill went to serve, with the contingent commanded by the Duke of York, in the French expedition against Holland. Besides earning the confidence of the Marshal, he saved, by his personal prowess, the life of Monmouth, received the thanks of the king in front of Maestricht, and was advanced to the rank of colonel. In the causes of their advancement a further coincidence may be observed. Both enjoyed the friendship of parties able to give them opportunities of rising but in both, the improvement of these opportunities was a personal merit. In the case of Wellesley, however, there was nothing disreputable in the connexions to which he owed promotion-while it is too probable that Churchill's ensigney in the Guards was the price of his sister's compliance with the will of her lady's husband (she was maid of honour to the Duchess of York); and it is certain that by his wife's extraordinary influence over the Princess Anne, his ambitious designs were greatly promoted. In the occasion of the wars in which Marlborough and Wellington gained their chief distinctions, there is some resemblance. In both cases Spain was the object, though not the field, of conflict. The War of the Succession was that in which Marlborough immortalized himself by the victories of Blenheim, Ramilies, and Malplaquet. It was undertaken by England, Germany, and Holland, to prevent the settlement of the crown of Spain on a member of reader, was undertaken for the expulsion from Spain of the king set up there by Napoleon. the house of Bourbon. The eldest sister of Charles II. of Spain married Louis XIV. of France: Charles dying without issue, and having no brothers, In the conditions of the war,-and, the Dauphin would consequently have consequently, the circumstances in been heir to the Spanish throne, but which the commanders were placed,for an act of renunciation, executed there is much similarity; although the by the Princess at her marriage, and military art had been revolutioned in confirmed by the Cortes. Charles's the interval, by the soldiers of the younger sister married Leopold, Em- French Republic, no less than the politiperor of Germany; and she also had cal geography of Europe. In the time of renounced her claim to the throne, but Marlborough, war was a tedious game, a the act had not been confirmed by the prolix trial of skill, a system of exhausCortes. A daughter of the Emperor tive manoeuvres, the science of stratemarried the Elector of Bavaria. The gem. The field of operations having Emperor was himself first cousin to been marked out, there were so many Charles. Both the Elector and the fortified places to take or defend; so many Emperor laid claim to the crown, and lines of communication to establish; the Dauphin did the same. The Dau- and the day of battle had to be avoided phin, however, proposed in his place, till such a conjuncture of circumstances his second son, Phillip of Anjou; and should arrive that success was certain. the Emperor, his second son, the Arch- It was the undisciplined and ill-produke Charles. England, France, and vided, but irresistibly ardent, armies Holland agreed to a Treaty of Parti- of the Convention, that broke up this tion, by which the Prince of Bavaria system. They rushed upon the threatwas to take Spain, the Indies, and ened invaders of France; crossed the the Netherlands; the Emperor, the frontiers with naked feet, regardless Milanese; and the Dauphin, the two of the fortresses that frowned upon Sicilies. To this the claimants con- them as they passed; fought and consented; but the Prince inopportunely quered in the heart of the enemy's died. By a second Treaty of Partition, country; and dictated, at the gates of it was settled that the Archduke should his capital, their terms of peace. Bonatake the dominions assigned to the de- parte systematized this novel though ceased Elector, and France have Lor- natural mode of warfare; crossed the raine, or some equivalent. Charles was Rhine before the foe supposed he had prevailed upon, however, by French quitted Paris; and pierced their centre intrigue, aided by papal influence, to with the heads of his columns, while make a will, in his last days, bequeath- they were stretching out their right ing all his dominions to Phillip of and left according to the maxims of Anjou. Charles died in 1700. William Saxe. Marlborough had not sufficient III. at once broke with his old enemy, of original genius to venture on so Louis; but it is doubtful whether the bold an innovation as this; but he had English Parliament and nation would sagacity and independence enow to have given him the means of war, had avoid a pedantic adhesion to theoretic not Louis, in one of his grand moods, rules. În his first and second camacceded to the entreaties of the paigns, the war was confined, so far widowed queen of James II. to recogas himself was concerned, to the nize her son as Prince of Wales. In- Netherlands. He had to defend with stantly war was resolved upon, and an army of British, Dutch, Germans, vigorous preparations made for its and Danes, the frontiers of Holland prosecution. William and Marlborough and Germany, threatened by a larger repaired to Holland, and succeeded in force than his own; while the Earl of forming a coalition against France. Peterborough assailed the French in Before actual hostilities had com- Spain, and Prince Eugene held against menced, William died (March 8, 1702); them upper Italy. The summer months and he is said to have recommended of 1702 and 1703 were consumed in Marlborough to his successor with his marchings and counter-marchings, latest breath, as the fittest person in sieges and blockades. Not a single the realm to "head her armies, and pitched battle was fought. By the direct her counsels."-The Peninsular close of the second campaign, though a War, it is only needful to remind the number of towns had been taken, the |