with the internal policy of an independent government. Ney was shot at nine o'clock in the morning, in the gardens of the Luxembourg, and died like a brave soldier. He would not have his face covered, he had faced ball and bullet, he said, too long for that. All the foreign ambassadors in Paris were implored to intercede for Ney, but all said that the Convention did not apply to his case. The Duke of Wellington has often been attacked for his not saving Ney's life, which no doubt it was in his power to have done, but he acted on his regular system.

ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE WELLINGTON.-NAPOLEON'S

LEGACY.

The London Courier, of February 14, 1818, in its Paris news, says: "On the 11th inst., at one in the morning, a pistol-ball was fired at the carriage of the Duke of Wellington, at the moment when his Grace was entering his hotel. No person was wounded; the carriage even was not touched. At the noise of the report, the sentinels cried out 'To arms!' but the night was so dark they looked in vain for the ball. The Duke heard the report, but attached no importance to it. He thought that the musquet of one of his sentinels had accidentally gone off."

The Duke always made light of this matter. Cantillon, once a subaltern in Napoleon's service, who was accused of the attempt, was tried and acquitted. Little indeed was generally thought or said of this circumstance until the publication of Napoleon's will, after his death in 1821, made it notable, by showing that there was, in reality, an attempt on the Duke's life; as far at least as Buonaparte knew, and he was not likely to be deceived. The will has the following bequest:

Fourth Codicil. Item. Ten thousand francs to the subaltern officer, Cantillon, who has undergone a trial upon the charge of having endeavoured to assassinate Lord Wellington. Cantillon had as much right to assassinate that oligarchist, as the latter had to send me to perish upon the rock of St. Helena.

There is then a flourish about the martyrdoms of Labedoyère and Ney, and an accusation against Wellington-coming well from such a quarter!-as the pillager of the Parisian museums! This alludes to the restitution which, not Wellington, but the chiefs of the allied armies had exacted of the masterpieces which Napoleon had conveyed to Paris, to make the Louvre the great European centre of the highest pictorial and sculptured art. Among these seizures, returned to their original possessors, were the famous Greek horses adorning Venice. Writing in 1817, Lord Byron tells that

Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass,
Their gilded collars glittering in the sun.

Nothing more transpired as to the rather mysterious affair of André Cantillon, and the Duke rarely alluded to the matter.

SETTLEMENT OF CLAIMS UPON FRANCE.

Something resembling a settlement has at length taken place through the mediation of the Duke of Wellington, between France and the various states which claim compensation from her. How far some of those claims were supported by justice, may be collected from the fact, that their original amount exceeded sixty-six millions sterling, while the award does not amount to fourteen millions.-News (London Weekly Paper), May 4, 1818.

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CABINET COUNCILS.-THE HOLY ALLIANCE."

It now became known in England, that certain of the Continental powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, and some minor states) had determined to form a "Holy Alliance;" the avowed objects of which were to promote peace, religion, and good government; but it was known also that there was a jealous desire among these sovereigns to strengthen their own arbitrary powers, if not to extend their territories. The following announcement appeared :

Cabinet Councils are almost daily being held, at which the Duke of Wellington assists. These, no doubt, relate to the

advice which England means to give to the august meeting of Legitimates.-Morning Chronicle, August 6, 1818.

In September, the Duke of Wellington and Viscount Castlereagh attended the meeting of the potentates at Aix-la-Chapelle, but both declined to take any part in, or give even the indirect sanction of the British name to, the proceedings of the Congress. This many politicians in England disbelieved, or affected to disbelieve, although Lord Castlereagh announced the fact officially in the House of Commons; and in the press and in parliament it was broadly assumed that Great Britain was, in the words of Cobbett,

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one of the Holies!" In a satirical publication by Hone and Cruickshank, there is an illustration of a dance of the Holy Alliance sovereigns, in which the Prince Regent cordially capers, holding in one of his hands that of the Pope, and in the other the paw of the Devil!

THE WATERLOO BANQUET.

The Duke of Wellington gave every year, on the 18th June, a grand banquet to all the field-officers who were present at the battle, in the Waterloo Gallery, Apsley House. The number averaged about eighty; all actual combatants in the great fight, excepting merely the Earl Bathurst-so often addressed in the duke's dispatches, -and afterwards Prince Albert. King William IV. sometimes was a guest; and on one occasion the late King of Holland (who, when Prince of Orange, was the duke's aid-de-camp, and was wounded at Waterloo) and the King of Hanover partook of the banquet. All were dressed in uniform; and the presents the duke had received from foreign powers were displayed. We may give the year 1848 as a type of the usual proceedings. After the healths of the Queen and Prince Albert had been drunk, his Royal Highness gave "Their noble host, the illustrious Duke of Wellington." The duke responded, and gave, successively "The army that fought the battle of Waterloo ;" "The memory of those brave companions in arms that fell at Waterloo" (always drunk in silence); "The cavalry that fought at Waterloo,

and the Marquis of Anglesey ;""The infantry engaged at Waterloo, and the Earl of Strafford; "The artillery at Waterloo, and Sir R. Gardiner;" "Viscount Hardinge" (then just returned from India); "The Hanoverian army, and Count Kielmansegge;" "The Sovereign Allies of England at the battle of Waterloo, and Prince Castelcicala ;" "Sir F. Adam;" "The officers present who so gallantly acted at the farm-house of Hougoumont;" "The officers on the Staff at Waterloo, and the Earl of Cathcart." All these generals mentioned by name were present, and briefly returned thanks; Sir A. Woodford representing the officers at Hougoumont. The party usually broke up about halfpast ten; and the Duke often went, after its termination, to some fashionable ball or soiree.

THE WELLINGTON STATUES.

The Duke will soon be the best-statued character in the three kingdoms. The most remarkable in London are the equestrian statue on the top of the arch in Pimlico, of which so much was said at the time; the equestrian statue in front of the Royal Exchange; and a memorial in Hyde Park, formed of cannon captured in the Duke's victories, the cost of which was defrayed by the ladies of England. On this memorial, M. Gautier, a French writer, is very smart:-" The noble Duke is idealized and demi-godded under the form of Achilles. I do not think it possible to push the grotesque and the ridiculous farther than this-to put upon the robust torso of the valiant son of Peleus, and the muscular neck of the conqueror of Hector, the British head of the honorable Duke, with his bent nose, his flat mouth, and square chin, is one of the most diverting ideas that ever entered the human brain: it is an innocent and involuntary caricature, and for that reason irresistible."

THE DUKE'S MARRIAGE.

Sir Arthur Wellesley was, in 1806, married to the Hon. Catherine Pakenham, a daughter of Lord Longford. She died in 1831, leaving two sons, the present

Duke of Wellington and Lord Charles Wellesley. The late Duke's name was associated in the way of courtship with those of several ladies, the last being his neighbour Miss Burdett Coutts, to the great amusement, it was afterwards said, of both lady and gentleman. His grace, however, died a widower.

INVASION OF ENGLAND.

A letter of the Duke's was published in 1847 (without his concurrence), showing the practicability of an invasion. During the late talk of an invasion by LouisNapoleon, Sir C. J. Napier published a pamphlet on Volunteers, &c. He says, in case of an invasion: "England and her young Queen would be in the soldiers' hearts, the ever-victorious Duke at their head; and the second edition of Waterloo would, if possible, be greater than the first."

THE DUKE'S READING.

It has been said that the Duke was never a reading man. It would be idle to say that he had little leisure, for men who have the true taste for reading make leisure. The allusions to history are not very many in his letters, but they always read fresh. Perhaps they are the most frequent in his letters to General Dumourier, which were really friendly, and not business, letters. In one of them, he says: "Yes, indeed, my dear General, we have great difficulties to contend with here in Spain. I have often been impressed with the truth of a remark made by Henri IV., that war was a great perplexity in Spain, for if you had a small army it was beaten; if you had a large army, it was starved."

In his later years, it has been said that the Duke was in the habit of reading, besides the Bible, some of the old divines; but the official documents which he considered it a duty to read occupied much of his time.

THE MEN OF THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE CENTURY. The Duke seldom cared to converse about the men eminent from their fame, or their rank, or their deeds,