"Quid memorem, qualem sub libertate Britanna Tam prorsus periere; manet, manet illa juventæ Exultare acie, et castris albescere colles."* In the same year we find the following AD GENIUM LOCI. O levis Fauni et Dryadum sodalis, Qui meos colles et aprica lætus Prata nemusque -- This was a period of great excitement and embarrassment in England. This country was at war with the revolted colonies of America, with which, on the 4th of Feb. 1778, France concluded a treaty of defensive alliance. Privateers and vessels, carrying American letters of marque, plundered British ships on the high seas, and menaced the coasts of Ireland and Britain. On the 23rd of April in that year, the audacious American pirate, Paul Jones, burnt a sloop in the harbour of Whitehaven; and afterwards, landing on the western coast of Scotland, near Kirkcudbright, pillaged the house of Lord Selkirk of money and Mobili lustras pede, nune susurros Valle meatus! Dic ubi attollat melius superbum Leniat horam? Namque Tu saltu tibi destinato Noscere terram : Dum malum noctis piceæ tenello Providus umbræ. Lauream sed campus Apollinarem Omnis et te luxuriat renascens Auspice tellus: Te, rosâ pulchrum caput impedita, Candidi conjux facilis Favoni Ambit, ut vernos tuearis æquo Numine flores. Lætus O! faustusque adeas, precamur, Nil mei prosunt sine te labores, Rustica cura. In the third volume of the Musa Etonenses, which is exclusively occupied with compositions in Greek, the first piece is by Lord Wellesley. Having spent several years at Eton, under the provostship of the Rev. Jonathan Davies, M. A., * his Lordship was sent to the University of Oxford : plate; in the following year, the united fleets of France and Spain, under Count D'Orvilliers, appeared in the Channel in great force, menacing our shores, and exciting a general fear of an invasion. * In a note written in 1840, the Marquess Wellesley thus describes this gentleman. "Doctor Jonathan Davies, Head Master and afterwards "To that fair city, wherin make abode So many learned imps, that shoot abroad, Joy to you both ye double nursery Of arts, but Oxford! thine doth Thame most glorify." He matriculated as a nobleman at Christ Church December 24th, 1778. In the congenial exercises of this college, Lord Wellesley employed himself with all the ardour of a youthful mind bent upon achieving that fair fame which the poet tells us,— "All hunt after in their lives." t It would fill a volume to enumerate all the eminent men that Christ Church College has sent forth. Among the statesmen and lawyers who have received their education there, may be mentioned Sir Dudley Carleton, Sir Edward Littleton, Edward Sackville Earl of Dorset, Lord Littleton, William Earl of Mansfield, the Right Hon. George Canning, and Sir Robert Peel, Bart.; among the poets, and other remarkable members of this great intellectual brotherhood, are, Sir Philip Sydney, Ben Jonson, Otway, Villiers Duke of Buckingham, William Penn, Locke, and Lord Bolingbroke. Lord Wellesley was much distinguished for his proficiency in classical literature; and in 1780 gained the Latin Verse Prize, "In obitum viri eximii et celeberrimi navigatoris Jacobi Cook." He remained at Provost of Eton, who had been tutor to Lord Wellesley when first he entered Eton school, at the age of eleven years, and who always bestowed the solicitude and affection of a kind parent on the education of Lord Wellesley." * Spenser. +"Love's Labour Lost." The Rev. William Jackson (afterwards Bishop of Oxford) was tutor to Lord Wellesley when he was elected from Eton a student of Oxford till 1781, when he was called away from his favourite studies to the more active business of life by the death of his father, the Earl of Mornington, who died on the 22nd of May in that year: he did not remain long enough to take a degree. The embryo statesman now returned to Ireland: he attained his majority in the month following his father's death his first act on becoming of age was characteristic of the generosity and integrity of his manly nature. He voluntarily took upon himself the numerous pecuniary obligations of his deceased father, and exhibited his filial affection toward his surviving parent by placing the estates, to which he had succeeded, under the management of his mother. His Lordship also directed his attention to the intellectual training of his brothers, who were all greatly indebted to him for his watchful and prudent superintending care in early life. On the death of their father, William Wellesley Pole was eighteen years old, Anne Wellesley + thirteen years, Arthur Wellesley‡ twelve years, Gerald Valerian§ ten, Mary Elizabeth || nine, Henry eight years old.T Christ Church Wishing that Lord Wellesley should be a candidate for the University prize, and anxious to try his powers of writing hexameter verses, he desired Lord Wellesley to translate a passage from the Arcades of Milton into that metre. Mr. Jackson approved of the verses which Lord Wellesley wrote, and encouraged Lord Wellesley to write for the prize; which he did accordingly in the year 1780, and won it by a poem on the death of the celebrated navigator Captain Cook. (Note by Marquess Wellesley.) *Afterwards Lord Maryborough. Married to Henry, son of Lord Southampton. Duke of Wellington. Lady Culling Smith. § In the Church. Lord Cowley. CHAPTER II. Lord Wellesley (Earl of Mornington) enters upon public life, 1781.— State of Europe and America.—The Age of great men— -Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Burke, Curran, Plunkett, Grattan, Flood, Grey, Erskine. Takes his seat in the Irish House of Lords.-Repeal of Poyning's Law.-Position of the Parliament of Ireland.—In favour of Catholic Emancipation.-Advocates Economy in the Government Expenditure.-A Knight of St. Patrick.-Lord Bellamont attacks the Order.-Earl of Mornington defends it.-Advocates the holding a Parliament every Year.-Censures the Profusion of Government.Supports a loyal Address to the Crown.-Objects to the Position of the Volunteers.-Armed Convention in Dublin.-Excited state of Public Feeling. Lord Mountmorres's Reply to the Earl of Mornington, ridiculing his theatrical gesture.-Speech for the Liberty of the Press. Elected Member in the English Parliament for Beeralston.—1785, Privy Councillor in Ireland.-1786, Lord of the English Treasury.Colleague of Pitt.-Speaks on the Rohilla War.-Attacks Lord North. -Returned for Saltash.-Speaks on the Treaty of Commerce with France. Elected Member for Windsor.-The King's Indisposition. -The Regency Question.-Opposes the Pretensions of the Prince of Wales in Ireland.-Protests.-Defends the Lord Lieutenant.-Extraordinary proceedings of the Irish Parliament. — Collision with the English Parliament. Remarks on the Regency Question.-Historical Retrospect.-Great Importance of the Constitutional principle at issue. -Recovery of Geo, III.-Earl of Mornington re-elected for Windsor. THE period at which the youthful Earl of Mornington entered upon public life, was one of the most eventful epochs in the history of modern Europe. Shortly afterwards the French Revolution shook, as it were with an earthquake, the whole civilized world. The principles which were promulgated in revolution |