many pence worth of our manufactures, as the British labourer consumes pounds.* It would be a poor consolation to the British manufacturers, when labouring under the paralysis of the home-market for manufactures, consequent on the ruin of a large part of our annual income derived from land, to tell them that though they had destroyed a million of agricultural labourers at home, who consumed £7 a-head worth of their manufactures, they had called into existence an equal number of serfs in Poland or the Ukraine, who consumed 7d. per head. On Roman Catholic Emancipation, before it was made a Government measure, the following decided opinion was expressed by the Duke in April 1828 : "There is no person in this house whose feelings and sentiments, after long consideration, are more decided than mine are with respect to the subject of the Roman Catholic claims; and I must say that, until I see a very great change in that question, I certainly shall continue to oppose it.”† The "very great change" here alluded to, as the only circumstance which could induce Wellington to alter his opinion on Catholic Emancipation, was its being taken up by Government as a Government question; and so he explained the matter when he came to support the Catholic Relief Bill as prime minister, in March 1829. The grounds of this change were thus stated by the noble Duke, which we shall give in his own words, without adding any comments of our own. Hitherto, at least, the result has done anything rather than support its expediency. "If I had been going to propose a measure which would introduce a predominant Catholic power into Parliament, I should then be doing that which is clearly inconsistent with the constitution. But I am not going to do any such thing: there are degrees of power, at least. Will any man venture to affirm that Catholic power does not at present exist, either here or in Ireland? I will address myself more particularly to noble lords who are so pointedly opposed to me, and I will ask them whether Roman Catholic power was not introduced into Ireland by measures of their own? Did not some noble lords exert themselves to the very utmost to produce that power, which has now rendered a measure like that which I have announced to Parliament absolutely necessary? As such is the case, I implore noble lords to look at the situation of the country, and the state of society which it has produced? Whether it has been brought about by the existence of these disabilities, or by the Catholic Association, I shall not say; but this I will say, that no man who has looked at the state of things for the last two years, can proceed longer upon the old system, in the existing condition of Ireland, and of men's opinions on the subject, both in that country and this. My opinion is, that it is the wish of the majority of the people that this question should be settled one way or other. It is upon this principle that I and my colleagues have determined to bring it before Parliament."* The Duke's strenuous and uncompromising resistance to the Reform Bill is well known; as well as his celebrated question, "How, if this bill passes, is the King's government to be carried on?" Probably there has been no Administration since the completion of that great organic change which has not felt in their full bitterness the truth of these words. The future history of England, it is to be feared, will be little more than a commentary on their justice. Observe in what pregnant words Wellington, in the very outset, predicted its effects : "Throughout the whole empire, persons in the lowest condition of life, liable to, and even existing under, pernicious influences, are to have votes; or in other words, are to exercise political power. Persons in those stations do exercise political power already; but in a few places, in larger masses, preponderating over the other classes of society. What must we expect when these lower classes preponderate everywhere? We know what sort of representatives are returned by the places I have described: what are we to expect when the whole will be of the same description? We hear sometimes of radical reform; and the term applies to universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and their consequences. But I declare that, looking at these changes pervading every part of the representation, root and branchdestroying or changing everything which has existed, even to the relative numbers of the representatives from the three kingdoms, fixed by treaty, I should call this a radical reform, rather than a reform of any other description. I cannot but consider that the House of Commons returned by it will be a democratic assembly of the worst description; and that radical reform, vote by ballot, and all the evil consequences to be expected from the deliberations of such an assembly, must follow from its establishment. I entreat your lordships to pause before you agree to establish such a system in your country."† May God in his mercy avert these anticipated evils from this country! But is there any man now bold enough to affirm that the Duke of Wellington in this instance is not to turn out in the end a true prophet? * Lords, Feb. 5, 1829. Maxims and Opinions, 155, 156. The intellectual character of Napoleon and Wellington are singularly in unison with the parts they were respectively called to play on the great theatre of the world. No man ever surpassed the French Emperor in the clearness of his ideas, or the stretch of his glance into the depths of futurity. But he was often misled by the vigour of his conceptions, and mistook the dazzling brilliancy of his own genius for the steady light of truth. With less ardour of imagination, less originality of thought, Wellington had incomparably more justness of judgment, and a far greater power of discriminating error from truth. The young and the ardent, who have life before them, will ever turn to the St Helena Memoirs for the views of a mind of the most profound and original cast, on the most important subjects of human thought. The mature and experienced, who have known its vicissitudes, and had experience of its errors, will rest with more confidence on the "Maxims and Opinions" of the Duke of Wellington, and marvel at the numerous instances in which his instinctive sagacity beheld the shadow of coming events amidst the clouds with which he was surrounded. No one ever read the speculations of the French Emperor without admiration at the originality of his ideas, and the originality of his conceptions; none can peruse the maxims of the English general without closing the book almost at every page to meditate on the wisdom and justice of his opinions. The genius of the former shared in the fire and animation of Homer's imagination; the mind of the latter exhibited the depth and solidity of Bacon's judgment. But it was in the prevailing moral principles by which they were regulated, that the distinctive character of their minds was most strikingly evinced. Singleness of heart was the characteristic of the British hero; a sense of duty his ruling principle. Ambition actuated the French conqueror; a thirst for glory was his invariable motive. The former proceeded on the belief that the means, if justifiable, would finally work out the end; the latter, on the maxim that the end would in every case justify the means. The one exhibited the most shining example of splendid talents, devoted to temporal ambition; the other, the noblest instance of moral influence directed to exalted purposes. The former thought only in peace of accumulating the resources of future war; the latter sought only in war the means of "Pulchrum eminere est inter illustres viros; Hæc summa Virtus: petitur hac cœlum viâ." *Some of these preceding sentences have been engrossed in the Character of Wellington at the close of the Waterloo chapter in the History of Europe; but they are here retained, as not less applicable to the present subject. HUMBOLDT [BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 1845] THE Russian Emperor, who unquestionably has the power of licensing or prohibiting any of his subjects to travel at his own pleasure, is said to concede the liberty only to the men of intelligence and ability in his dominions: the fools are all obliged to remain at home. Hence the high reputation which the Muscovites enjoy abroad, and the frequent disappointment which is felt by travellers of other nations, when they visit their country. It is evident, from the character of the books of travels which every spring issue from the London press, with a few honourable exceptions, that no such restraining power exists in the British dominions. We have no individuals or particular works in view in these observations. We speak of things in general. If any one doubts their truth, let him inquire how many of the numberless Travels which annually issue from the British press are ever sought after, or heard of, five years after their publication. Our annual supply of ephemeral travels is far inferior in point of merit to the annual supply of novels. This is the more remarkable, because travels, if written in the right spirit, and by persons of capacity and taste, are among the most delightful, and withal instructive, species of composition of which literature can boast. They are so, because by their very nature they take the reader, as well as the writer, out of the sphere of every-day observation and commonplace remark. This is an immense advantage; so great indeed, that, if made use of with tolerable capacity, it should give works of this sort a decided superiority in point of interest and utility over all others, excepting History and the higher species of Romance. |