III. CHAP. which he should never have assailed, imagined that Wellington was being driven into the sea. No historian has ever disclosed the feelings with which the French general first surveyed the heights of Torres Vedras before him. One condition of the contest became, at once, clear to any competent observer: the English, from thenceforward, could not be driven from Portugal. It was still to be seen whether they could drive the French from Spain. It would be impossible in this volume to trace the strategy by which Wellington accomplished this object in the four succeeding years. The names of Fuentes D'Onore and Albuera; of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos; of Salamanca and Vittoria; of the Bidassoa, the Pyrenees, and Bayonne, will be associated with the ability of the British general and the prowess of the British army for all time. In 1809 Sir Arthur Wellesley had entered the Peninsula, a young British officer, with an Indian reputation. In 1814 he received the thanks of Parliament as Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, Duke. No other British subject, to quote Lord Eldon's involved language, had ever risen from one dignity to another until he had attained every dignity, each conferred by distinct grants, made upon different occasions, for different services, and all those services rendered to the country before he could return to it to take his seat [in the House of Lords] after the grant of the dignities.' No general since the reign of Anne had risen so rapidly; because, since the days of Marlborough, no British general had shown such capacity or achieved such distinction. Had the war finally closed with the stirring events of 1814, had Napoleon's banishment to Elba terminated the struggle, Wellington would have won the lasting gratitude of his fellow-countrymen, but his reputation would hardly have stood so high as it does now. He had met and defeated all Napoleon's favourite lieutenants, Massena, Soult, 1 Twiss's Eldon, vol. ii. p. 252. III. Junot, Victor; but he had never yet been matched with CHAP. Napoleon himself. The event, however, proved that the British general's sword was not to be finally sheathed until it had encountered the sharp onslaught of the French emperor. Napoleon escaped from Elba. The mere knowledge of his escape drove the Bourbons from the soil of France, and scattered the representatives of the Allied Powers, busily quarrelling over their conquests at Vienna. In their distress they all turned to Wellington for aid, and Wellington placed himself at the head of the British and Prussian armies in Belgium. The first shock of the war fell on the country to which he had thus repaired. With marvellous expedition, and with unrivalled skill, Napoleon threw the whole weight of the force which he had hastily collected across his northern frontier. Driving the Prussians from a badly chosen position at Ligny, and compelling the English, in consequence of the defeat of their allies, to withdraw from Quatre Bras, Napoleon, on the 18th of June, stood face to face with Wellington at Waterloo. The English general was, at last, matched on about equal terms with the greatest soldier of modern Europe. The desperate battle which was the immediate result of the conflict will always be memorable in the pages of history. It settled the map of Europe for half a century; and it gave Europe the longest period of peace which she had ever known. Yet, as a mere example of tactical skill, it deserves only slight attention. Napoleon made the mistake of imagining that he could overawe British soldiers, as he had defeated other armies, by throwing masses of troops upon them. His expectations were disappointed. The British army stood firm. Suffering fearful losses, exposed to a frightful fire, constantly attacked, never allowed to advance, the troops displayed the excellence of their discipline and the confidence which they reposed in their chief. They had foiled their adversaries' attack CHAP. III. The Minis try. before the Prussians' arrival on the field. Blucher and his troops turned a defeat into a rout. Napoleon galloped from the field on which he had lost an empire. The French army, defeated and disorganised, was scattered in every direction. The English and Prussians entered Paris as conquerors; and Wellington, as a crown to all his triumphs, had won the most decisive of his victories over the greatest of modern soldiers. The successes which the Duke of Wellington had achieved had had a happy influence on the fortunes of the ministry by whom he was employed. But, at the period at which this history commences, the duke was still absent from this country. He had been appointed to the command of the army of occupation, and soldiers of all the great Continental powers were under his orders. He was only relieved from the duty in 1817. On his return to England a vacancy was at once made for him in the Government, and he entered the ministry and the cabinet as Master-General of the Ordnance. The ministry undoubtedly gained from his accession to their councils. They had little to lean upon except their appreciation of his merits and their support of the war. Men still looked back with regret to the days in which Pitt had ruled his cabinet with a firm hand. Up to 1801 Pitt had been the strongest of modern ministers. The recollection of his earlier acts, of his leanings towards free trade, and of his alliance with the Reformers, had not been wholly obscured by the harsh measures of repression into which he had been driven by the excesses of the revolutionary party. The uniform failure of British armies on land had been redeemed by the brilliant naval victories of Camperdown, St. Vincent, and Nelson; while the union with Ireland, accomplished under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, had crowned the achievements of the minister. At the commencement of the nineteenth century Pitt's administration seemed firmer than ever. Yet the commencement of the nineteenth century witnessed its fall. Very justly and very properly his ministry desired to complete the union with Ireland by releasing the Roman Catholics from some of the political disabilities to which they were subject. George III. maintained that justice to the Roman Catholics involved a breach of his coronation oath, and refused to assent to the policy of the Government. Neither the king nor the cabinet would yield; and, as in 1801 a king was still stronger than a minister, Pitt resigned. His resignation involved the disunion of the Tory party. Addington, with some of Pitt's friends, formed a temporary and Protestant ministry; while Pitt, with others of his followers, maintained a neutral position. Addington signalised his accession to office by concluding a peace; and, while peace lasted, his rule was tolerated. But a peace thus made had no chance of permanence. War again broke out; and, with the outbreak of war, men began to clamour for the return of Pitt to power. After an interval Pitt resumed office. But he returned with only a portion of his former strength. Addington, irritated at his own humiliation, held aloof from him; George III., with indomitable obstinacy, refused to admit Fox into his counsels; and Lord Grenville declined to join a ministry from which Fox was excluded. With failing health and a breaking heart Pitt carried on the government for a few months. But Dundas was impeached; Austerlitz was lost; the pride of the minister was broken; the hopes of the minister were disappointed. Pitt died; and, at his death, all his enemies rallied under Lord Grenville's leadership; and the obstinate king had the mortification of accepting Fox as Foreign Minister. The short Ministry of All the Talents held office for only a little more than a year; and that year represents the only occasion on which, from the rise of Pitt in 1783 to the resignation of the Duke of Wellington in 1830, CHAP III. CHAP. III. the Whig party succeeded in obtaining political power. Nought's permanent among the human race, The one solitary occasion, which formed the exception to The dismissal of the Talents administration led to the formation of the remarkable ministry which, with some modifications, but in the main without change, governed Great Britain for the next twenty years. Yet, though this ministry was more permanent than any which had preceded it, it seemed, both at its outset and frequently during its continuance, on the eve of a fall. On its first formation it was supported by a minority, or at the best a slender majority, in the House of Commons. Two years and a half afterwards the retirement of its nominal chief and division among its members threatened its downfall. A little later on, the illness of the king, and the known preference of the Regent for the Whigs, made its fall apparently inevitable; and, when the 1 Colchester, vol. ii. p. 109, and cf. Moore's Sheridan, vol. iii. p. 349. |