Arthur
Wellesley, the son of the Earl
of Mornington, was born in Dublin in 1769.
After being educated at Eton and a military
school at Angers he received a commission in the 73rd Infantry. Eventually
Wellesley obtained the rank of captain and became aide-de-camp to
the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
In 1797 Wellesley was sent to India. With Napoleon gaining victories
in Egypt, Wellesley was dispatched to deal with Tippoo Sahib of Mysore.
As brigade commander under General George Harris he impressed his
superiors throughout the Seringapatam expedition and was made administrator
of the conquered territory.
Wellesley returned to England in 1805 and the following year he was
elected as the MP for Rye in Sussex. A
year after entering the House of Commons,
the Duke of Portland appointed Wellesley
as his Irish Secretary. Although a member of the government, Arthur
Wellesley remained in the army and in 1808 he was sent to aid the
Portuguese against the French. After a victory at Vimeiro he returned
to England but the following year he was asked to assume command of
the British Army in the Peninsular War. In 1812 the French were forced
out of Spain and Wellesley reinforced his victory against the French
at Toulouse.
In 1814 Wellesley was granted the title, the Duke of Wellington. He
was then put in command of the forces which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo
in June, 1815. Parliament rewarded this military victory by granting
Wellington the Hampshire estate of Strathfieldsaye.
In 1818 the Duke of Wellington returned to politics when he accepted
the invitation of Lord Liverpool to
join his Tory administration as master-General
of the Ordnance. In 1829 Wellington assisted Robert
Peel in his efforts to reorganize the Metropolitan Police.
In 1828 Wellington replaced Lord Goderich
as prime minister. Although Wellington and the Home Secretary, Robert
Peel, had always opposed Catholic Emancipation
they began to reconsider their views after they received information
on the possibility of an Irish rebellion. As Peel said to Wellington:
"though emancipation was a great danger, civil strife was a greater
danger". King George IV was violently
opposed to Catholic Emancipation but
after Wellington threatened to resign, the king reluctantly agreed
to a change in the law.
In 1830 unemployment
in rural areas began to grow and the invention of the threshing machine
posed another threat to the economic prosperity of the farm labourer.
The summer and autumn of 1830 saw a wave of riots, rick-burnings and
machine-breaking. In a debate in the House of
Lords in November, Earl Grey, the Whig
leader, suggested that the best way to reduce this violence was to
introduce parliamentary reform. The Duke
of Wellington replied that the existing constitution was so
perfect that he could not imagine any possible alternative that would
be an improvement on the present system. In the speech Wellington
made it clear that he had no intention of introducing parliamentary
reform. When news of what Wellington had said in Parliament was reported,
his home in London was attacked by a mob. Now extremely unpopular
with the public, Wellington began to consider resigning from office.
On 15th November, 1830 Wellington's government was defeated in a vote
in the House of Commons. The new king,
William IV, was more sympathetic to
reform than his predecessor and two days later decided to ask Earl
Grey to form a government. As soon as Grey became prime minister
he formed a cabinet committee to produce a plan for parliamentary
reform. Details of the proposals were announced on 3rd February 1831.
The bill was passed by the House
of Commons by a majority of 136, but despite a powerful
speech by Earl Grey, the bill was defeated in the House
of Lords by forty-one.
Wellington attended the opening of the Liverpool
to Manchester Railway but was deeply upset by the way he was booed
and hissed by the crowds as his train entered Manchester.
This was a reaction to his views on the Peterloo
Massacre and his opposition to the 1832 Reform
Act. This experience made him hostile to the railways and he warned
that cheap travel may result in revolution. However, Wellington later
changed his mind about the railways after he developed a close relationship
with George Hudson. Hudson helped Wellington
make a great deal of money by advising him when to buy and sell railway
shares.
Wellington retired from public life in 1846
but in 1848 he organised a military force to protect London against
possible Chartist violence at the large
meeting at Kennington Common. Arthur
Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington died in 1852 and is buried
in St Paul's Cathedral.
Robert
Peel, Duke of Wellington and the Pope (1829)
(1)
Harriet Arbuthnot, the wife of Charles Arbuthnot, the Tory M.P., was
a close friend of the Duke of Wellington. Harriet Arbuthnot kept a
diary during 1830.
4th
November, 1830: Parliament was opened by the King on the 2nd. He was
very well received by the people who, however, were very disorderly,
hooted and hissed the Duke wherever they could see him. People complain
that the Duke did harm by declaring publicly he would not lend himself
to any reform and that he thought, in its results, no form of representation
could be better than ours. I don't believe there will be any disturbance.
The wretched state to which Belgium is reduced by their desire for
reform is a pretty good lesson for sober and reflecting people such
as we are.
7th November, 1830: We hear the radicals are determined to make a
riot. The King gets
quantities of letters every day telling him he will be murdered. The
King
is very much frightened and the Queen cries half the day with fright.
The Duke is greatly affected by all this state of affairs. He feels
that beginning reform is beginning revolution, and therefore he must
endeavour to stem the tide as long as possible, and that all he has
to do is to see when and how it will be best for the country that
he should resign. He thinks he cannot till he is beat in the House
of Commons. He talked about this with me yesterday.
(2)
John Cab Hobhouse, a Whig politician,
kept a journal in 1830.
The
Duke of Wellington made a speech in the Lords, and declared against
Reform. I hear he was hissed, and hurt by a stone. I heard this evening
(November 4th) that a very unpleasant feeling was rising among the
working classes, and that the shopkeepers in the Metropolis were so
much alarmed that they talked of arming themselves.
(3)
Charles Greville, Clerk of the Privy Council, kept a journal in 1830.
8th
November, 1830: The Duke of Wellington made a violent and uncalled
for declaration against Reform, which has without doubt sealed his
fate. Never was there an act of more egregious folly, or one so universally
condemned by friends and foes.
(4)
Letters from the Duke of Wellington to Mrs Arbuthnot (April/May, 1831)
(28th April) I learn from John that the mob attacked
my House and broke about thirty windows. He fired two blunderbusses
in the air from the top of the house, and they went off.
(29th April) I think that my servant John saved
my house, or the lives of many of the mob - possibly both - by firing
as he did. They certainly intended to destroy the house, and did not
care one pin for the poor Duchess being dead in the house.
(1st May) Matters appear to be going as badly
as possible. It may be relied upon that we shall have a revolution.
I have never doubted the inclination and disposition of the lower
orders of the people. I told you years ago that they are rotten to
the core. They are not bloodthirsty, but they are desirous of plunder.
They will plunder, annihilate all property in the country. The majority
of them will starve; and we shall witness scenes such as have never
yet occurred in any part of the world.
(5)
James Grant, Random Recollections of the House of Lords (1836)
One of the greatest defects in the character of
the Duke as a statesman is, his neither anticipating public opinion,
nor keeping abreast with it. He generally resists it until it has
acquired an overwhelming power. Had he, when in office, only granted
a moderate measure of uniform, the nation would have been satisfied
at least for a time, and he might still have been Prime Minister of
the country.
The Duke of Wellington is not a
good speaker. His style is rough and disjointed. His manner of speaking
is much worse than his diction. He has a bad screeching sort of voice,
aggravated by an awkward mode of mouthing the words. His enunciation
is so bad, owing in some measure to the loss of several of his teeth,
that often, when at the full stretch of his voice, you do not know
what particular words he is using.
(6) Duke of Wellington,
letter to Mr. Gleig (11th April, 1831)
The conduct of government would be impossible,
if the House of Commons should be brought to a greater degree under
popular influence. That is the ground on which I stand in respect
to the question in general of Reform in Parliament.
I confess that I see in thirty members
for rotten boroughs, thirty men, I don't care of what party, who would
preserve the state of property as it is; who would maintain by their
votes the Church of England, its possessions, its churches and universities.
I don't think that we could spare thirty or forty of these representatives,
or with advantage exchange them for thirty or forty members elected
for the great towns by any new system.
(7) The
Observer (13th May, 1832)
At a quarter past twelve o'clock, the Royal carriage in which their
Majesties were seated, without attendants, reached the village of
Hounslow. The postillions passed on at a rapid rate till they entered
the town of Brentford; where the people, who had assembled in great
numbers, expressed by groans, hisses, and exclamations, their disapprobation
of his Majesty's conduct with respect to the Administration. The Duke
of Wellington had entered the Palace in full uniform about a quarter
of an hour before the Majesties, and had been assailed by the people
with groans and hisses. The Duke of Wellington, after remaining more
than three hours with his Majesty, left about a quarter-past four,
amidst groans and hisses even more vehement than when he arrived.
Lord Frederick Fitzclarence was received with the same disapprobation,
and loud cries of "Reform".
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