TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

HENRY LORD BROUGHAM AND VAUX,

SOMETIME

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,

&c. &c. &c.

MY LORD,

THE following Memoirs of one of the most illustrious and most valued of your friends are, with the greatest respect, dedicated to your Lordship.

I have gratefully to acknowledge the honour conferred upon me by your Lordship's permission to inscribe these Volumes to you. To no person, my Lord, could such a work be so appropriately dedicated as to one who was for many years the associate of the great man whose public life is herein recorded, who for so long a period of time coöperated with him in advancing the happiness of mankind by the diffusion of principles of liberty, justice, and truth,—— and to whom the Marquess Wellesley in terms of such beauty and emphasis inscribed his own Primitia et Reliquiæ.

I also humbly conceive that the life of the Founder of the College of Fort William at Calcutta-that "light amid the darkness of Asia"-cannot be more

fitly inscribed than to the Founder of a kindred institution in the British Isles.

To you, my Lord, this nation owes a debt of gratitude for your memorable services in the cause of Constitutional Reform, and of Civil and Religious Liberty, -in the cause of the down-trodden African Slave,-of the Amendment of the Law-and preeminently in the cause of Universal Education: end in your own person you have shown that the severer studies of the Law are not incompatible with attachment to Literature and Philosophy.

It is due to your Lordship and the representatives of the late Marquess Wellesley to state, that I have undertaken this work on public grounds, without concert with any one, solely in consequence of my admiration of the character of that statesman; and that I alone am responsible for the facts and opinions advanced in these pages.

I feel, my Lord, the weight of the responsibility which I have assumed; but I can honestly say that, without having party or personal motives to serve, I have endeavoured to exhibit in their true light the actions of one of the greatest men that ever adorned this kingdom.

I have the honour to be, My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient

and most humble Servant,

ROBERT ROUIERE PEARCE.

LONDON,

JANUARY, 1846.

PREFACE.

THE events which marked the personal history, and developed themselves during the career of the illustrious subject of these Memoirs, were of no ordinary occurrence; in some respects they stand unparalleled in modern history. The transactions in which he was concerned were of the gravest importance; influencing materially the destiny of both Europe and Asia, and transmitting to posterity maxims and principles of government which modify the civilization of the nineteenth century, and which will long be felt in every part of the British Empire.

The times in which the Marquess Wellesley lived were signal; the men amongst whom he moved, and with whom he acted, were among the most distinguished and renowned that this nation ever produced.

When, by the early death of his father, this remarkable man was called from those classical studies in which he took delight, to enter upon the business of life, Great Britain and Ireland, though united under one Crown, were separate and distinct kingdoms. Under the anomalous constitution then existing, he sat as a peer in the upper legislative chamber in Ireland, and

contemporaneously was the representative of a borough in the British House of Commons. At that period the mass of the Irish people may be said to have been without the protection of the laws,-commerce was under the most stringent restrictions,-nor was it till several years subsequently, that the corn and agricultural produce of Ireland was admitted into England duty free; the discussions on the great question of the Regency, in which Lord Wellesley took a prominent part, exhibited the spectacle of the British monarchy divided against itself; and prepared the way for the Legislative Union, which was achieved soon after on the guarantee, that equal rights should be conferred upon all the inhabitants of the United Kingdom without distinction of race or creed. When the French Revolution astounded the nations of the earth, Lord Wellesley (then Earl of Mornington) was a Minister of the Crown. In all the questions which arose out of the excentric moral phenomena observable during that tremendous epoch, he took a part, and appeared publicly as a champion against the enemies of the monarchical principle and the system of Revealed Religion. He assumed a decided Anti-Gallican attitude; and strenuously advised and supported the war against the French revolutionary Government. His conflict with Mr. Sheridan on this topic in the House of Commons, established his reputation as a vigorous and eloquent debater, though his speech on the occasion referred to, had to endure comparison with one of the finest rhetorical outbursts of his brilliant and finely cultivated antagonist.

The topics of Parliamentary Reform, the Irish Volunteers, the Slave Trade, the Prosecutions for

High Treason, Seditious Meetings, the traitorous proceedings of the Society of United Irishmen organized by Theobald Wolf Tone, the India Bill, &c.,-all pass in review in tracing the life of Lord Wellesley; nearly every portion of which, from the moment of his attaining manhood, was consecrated to the public service.

Prior to his appointment as Governor-General of India in 1797, we see him sitting as a Peer in the Irish House of Lords-successively member in the Parliament of Great Britain for the boroughs of Beeralston, Saltash, and Windsor-one of the Knights of St. Patrick, on the original foundation of that illustrious order a Privy Councillor in Ireland-a Lord of the Treasury in England-a Member of the English Privy Council a Commissioner for the affairs in India-a Baron of Great Britain.

Nor is it possible to contemplate the career of the Marquess Wellesley apart from the history of those brothers and such brothers!-over whose education, establishment in life and fame, he watched with such genuine fraternal affection. To his care the venerable hero, whose military renown has become one of the most valued properties of this country, was indebted for favourable opportunities for displaying his wonderful genius in war. As Governor-General of India in the first instance, and afterwards as Ambassador Extraordinary in Spain, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquess Wellesley had the power of advancing and supporting his brother. Appreciating the sterling qualities of the man, and knowing the innate vigour and sagacity of his brother's capacious mind, he