WELLINGTON'S CONVERSATIONS.*

MANY persons have recorded the talk of Wellington more or less fully, and Mr. Lathom Browne has made an interesting and copious compilation, drawn from various sources, and has adorned it by extracts from the Despatches. But perhaps the most attractive and amusing, as well as instructive single volume, is the work of the late Lord Stanhope. It extends over thirty years ; the contents were systematically set down from day to day, nothing being entered except that which he remembered exactly. The book is a continuous record ; and as the author lived much near Weimer, he was a constant guest at the Castle, besides seeing and hearing the Duke in London and Strathfield Saye (Wellington's mode of writing the name of his seat). Consequently, he had great advantages, and used them well. The volume is a museum of anecdote, -history, and opinion, abounding so much in good things that it is difficult to select, and almost impossible to abridge. There is, of course, a little repetition, with additions or varia- tions. Several stories have been told before; but, these draw- backs notwithstanding, the book is fresh and bright from beginning to end, and gives an excellent presentment of the man whom Lord Stanhope revered and loved. The omission .of much, not quite all, however, relating to "the politics of the day," cannot but be felt as a loss by the reader. Still, Lord Stanhope may have been right in confining his records to what he calls past history. In any case, his son has done a service in making public his father's valuable notes.

The danger besetting the report of words let fall in the freedom of conversation, is that the qualifications may be omitted, or the full meaning not grasped, or the whole purport .misapprehended. We have in this book an admirable example. The Duke admits that he frequently said that " the presence of Napoleon in the field was equal to 40,000 men in the balance." It has been generally supposed that he meant a reinforcement of troops, or used the phrase—he calls it " loose talking "—to express his estimate of Napoleon's genius. What he really meant was something more extensive, and we cannot do better than quote his own explanation. After premising that Napo- leon was a grand homme de guerre, possibly the greatest that ever appeared at the head of a French army, he thus expands his thought :—

• (1.) Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington,1831-1861. By Philip Henry, Fifth Earl Stanhope. London John Murray.—(2.i Wellington ; or, the Public and Private Life of Arthur, First Duke of Wellington. as told by Himself, his Comrades, and his Intimate Friends. By G. Lathom Browne. London : W. H. Allen and Co.

"He was the Sovereign of the country as well as the Military Chief of the Army. That country was constituted upon a military basis. All its institutions were framed for the purpose of forming and maintaining its armies with a view to conquest. All the offices and rewards of the State were reserved in the first instance exclusively for the Army. An officer, even a private soldier of the Army, might look to the sovereignty of a Kingdom as the reward of his services. It is obvious that the presence of the Sovereign with the Army so constituted must greatly excite their exertions. It was quite certain that all the resources of the French State, civil, political, financial, as well as military, were turned towards the seat of the operations which Napoleon himself should direct. Every Sovereign in command of an Army enjoys advantages against him who exercises only a delegated power, and who acts under orders and responsibilities. But Napoleon enjoyed more advantages of this description than any other Sovereign that ever appeared. His presence, as stated by me, more than once, was likely not only to give to the French Army all the advantages above detailed, but to put an end to all the jealousies of the French Marshals and their counter-action of each other, whether founded on bad principles and passions or their fair differences of opinion. The French Army thus had a unity of action."

These are very weighty considerations, and should always be borne in mind when writing of the man whom the Duke

rather enigmatically, yet still in harmony with his explanatory note, at another time described as " not a personality, but a principle." Nowhere in the recorded sayings does he under- rate the Emperor or his troops. Speaking of the famous campaign of 1814, he said it was " excellent, quite excellent ;" the very finest he ever made ;" " the study of it has given me a greater idea of his genius than any other." To Croker, the audacious, who wanted to make out to his face that the Duke did not know the difference between a scarp and a counter- scarp, and who insisted that the campaign of 1814 was unskilful, he replied that was not his opinion, adding, he beat three different armies, always with the same troops ; " and I have had experience enough to know how very exact a man must be in his calculations, and how skilful in his manoeuvres, to be able to do that." He thought that Napoleon would have succeeded, had he persevered in his original plan, and had he not thrown himself imprudently into the rear of the allies. But he "wanted patience," did not see the necessity of defensive warfare, and so was lost. The Duke held that even in 1815 Napoleon should have acted on the defensive, and played over again the game of 1814. " He was certainly wrong in attacking us." Refraining from that course, he might have manoeuvred from one army to the other, and have attacked them separately. But that did not accord with his system :—

" In fact, if you look through his campaigns, you will find that his plan was always to try to give a great battle, to gain a great victory, patch up a peace, such a peace as might leave an opening for a future war, and then hurry back to Paris. This, I should say, was the great benefit of what we did in Spain,—of what we did and enabled the Spaniards to do. We starved him out. We showed him that we would not let him fight a battle at first, except under disadvantages. If you do fight, we shall destroy you ; if you do not fight, we shall destroy you still !"

In the campaign of 1815, Napoleon reckoned that if he could beat the Prussians, they would retire upon their base, leaving Wellington at his mercy. And it seems, from a remark

made by Sir Henry Hardinge, who was with Blucher, that there was just a faint chance of that result of Ligny :—

" I was told," said Sir Henry, "that there had been a great discussion that night [16th-17th] in his [Blucher's] rooms, and that Blucher and Grolmann carried the day for remaining in com- munication with the English army, but that Gneisenau had great doubts as to whether they ought not to fall back on Liege, and secure their own communications with Luxembourg."

So that, but for the sturdiness of Blucher and Grolmann, Napoleon's conjecture might have been verified ! The old soldier, who smelt of " gin and rhubarb," was suffering from the contusions inflicted by the horsemen who rode over him twice at Ligny, but said he " should be quite satisfied if, in conjunction with the Duke of Wellington, he was able now to defeat his old enemy." What Wellington said to the Prussians at Ligny before the battle, was not that they would be " damnably mauled "—be said that to Hardinge—but to the Prussian Generals he observed : "Everybody knows his own army best ; but if I were to fight with mine here [he meant in the position occupied], I should expect to be beat." It is a

curious thing that the Duke always believed that there was no door in rear of La Haye Sainte, whereas there was one, as Sir James Shaw Kennedy has conclusively shown. Through that door ammunition might have been sent to the hardly tried garrison of the farmstead. The Duke took the blame on himself, but no one told him that there was a door.

It must not be supposed, from what has been said, that the book is made up of military reminiscences ; but one or two of them seem new, and these we have touched on. There are many pleasing glimpses of the Duke himself. Thus, we find that, instead of selling, as his predecessors had sold, the places of " Yeomen of the Guard " at the Tower, he gave them away to worthy non-commissioned officers. Cobbett said that Wellington was no miser ;" and no wonder the censorious old publicist admired the management of Strath. field Saye, when a remark in this book lets us into the secret that for several years, beginning before 1837, the Duke had spent "the whole" of the income derived from his Hampshire property upon the estate. He held that every labourer should, if possible, have an acre of land, and he not only rebuilt his cottages, but attached land to each. His kindness to children is prettily illustrated in this anecdote. In 1837, there were two little ones residing at Walmer, while their parents, Lord and Lady Robert Grosvenor, were abroad :-

"Lady Mahon was told by Lady Mary Grimston, who was staying in the house, that the children, having expressed their desire to receive letters by the post, the Duke every morning writes a little letter to each of them, containing good advice for the day, which is regularly delivered to them when the post comes in. It also appears that the Duke gratifies .Bo, as they call Robert, by playing almost every morning at football with him on the ramparts. We saw him playing with them with cushions in the drawing-room before dinner."

It was his custom, when in office, to attend George IV. with

the stamp for the Royal signature, and thus he saw the King on the Wednesday before he died :—

" He was rather irritable from the effect of a clause which Lord Grey had introduced into the Bill for the stamp, that his assent should be spoken separately to each paper requiring signature. Keppel, who was always about him, was very careful as to the due observance of this rule; once or twice when the King had only nodded, instead of repeating the same words, Keppel reminded the Duke, and the Duke reminded the King. His Majesty said with some impatience, D—n it ; what can it signify ?'—But the Duke answered, Only, Sir, that the law requires it;' upon which he complied."

He was always a stickler for obeying the law, and as exacting from the great as the little ; and, with polite forms, he spoke very plainly to Kings and Dukes. He was almost as severe on the great folks for neglecting their duties, especially on

landed proprietors, as a Leaguer, and he never fawned upon or flattered anybody.

From among the scores of piquant things, grave and gay, contained in Lord Stanhope's collection, we cannot resist extracting one or two, although they do not all illustrate the talk or the character of Wellington :—

" Met the Duke out hunting [October, 1837] ; we talked politics. Mr. Pierrepont told me an anecdote which the Duke had mentioned to him about Bradshaw's canvassing at Canterbury. On asking a man for his vote, Sir,' said the fellow, I would as soon vote for the devil.'—But, ' Sir,' said Bradshaw, not at all disconcerted, if your friend should not stand, may I hope then for your support ?"

Jokes from Sir Robert Peel are not plentiful, but one is supplied from the lips of Rogers in 1840 :-

" Once when he [Peel] was present at a meeting of the trustees of the British Museum, somebody else noticed some expensive purchases (of pictures, I think) made by young Toniline, and added, What would his grandfather (the Bishop) say if he could look up ?'—Peel said slyly, I observe you don't say look down."

A capital story is told of General Foy. When in Spain, he communicated with a certain Baron in the English camp, and got newspapers from him. Wellington put a stop to it, but wished to know what Foy wanted them for :- "What do you think was his answer? He said that he was specu- lating in the English Funds, and only wanted to know the price of the Three per Cents. ! I desired that he might be informed of the price of the Funds, but should not see the papers."

When Wellington was at Verona, it is recorded that he played at ecarte with the ex-Empress Maria Louisa, the word "Napoleon" frequently passing between them in payments for the game. It seems she had a cook, formerly in Napoleon's service, and after Waterloo in Wellington's, and learning from the cook what was the Duke's usual fare, said one day : " I am very sorry, indeed, that I could not get any roast mutton for you." She said the Duke little knew what service he had done her by winning the battle; her relations with Count Neipperg having made it desirable that she should not have to return to Napoleon. Much more might be quoted from a volume nearly every page of which contains either a striking fact, an interesting utterance, or an anecdote, pleasant or painful; but we must halt somewhere, or never end.