Produced by Robert Connal, Graeme Mackreth and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. Page images were generously made available by BNF/Gallica (http://gallica.bnf.fr). [Illustration: FIELD MARSHAL HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G. COMMANDER IN CHIEF &c. &c. &c.] MAXIMS AND OPINIONS OF FIELD-MARSHAL HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, SELECTED FROM HIS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES DURING A PUBLIC LIFE OF MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY. With a Biographical Memoir, BY GEORGE HENRY FRANCIS, ESQ. "Cujus gloriae neque profuit quisquam laudando, nec vituperando quisquam nocuit." LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER. GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET 1845. ADVERTISEMENT * * * * * So many works have already appeared of which the Duke of Wellington has been the subject, that an explanation is due to the public on the occasion of adding one more to the number. That explanation consists in the fact, that those works have been almost exclusively occupied with the military exploits of the Duke, which rendered him so illustrious during the first twenty years of his public life; while his political career, which may be said to have constituted a second life, distinct and different from the other, has been comparatively neglected. To meet the want thus left unsatisfied, the Editor of the following pages has endeavoured to supply materials, by which a just estimate may be formed of the Duke of Wellington's claims as a minister and as a statesman. The volume will be found to contain the Duke's deliberate opinions as a member of the House of Peers, and, during many years, as a minister, upon the great questions which have agitated the public mind since the commencement of the present century. If there are those who hold the Duke of Wellington in light estimation as a politician, they will not continue to entertain that opinion, the Editor believes, after having dispassionately read the extracts of which this work is composed. Interspersed with the Duke's more elaborate OPINIONS, will be found his MAXIMS on public policy, which, though few and unpretending, may be said to have sunk into the national mind. The Editor has added a few remarkable sentences and passages from the dispatches of the Duke; with a cursory memoir of his life, which becomes more elaborate from the commencement of his political career; and has also attempted to portray some of his characteristics, as a soldier and as a civilian. LONDON, _February_, 1845. MEMOIR OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, is the fourth son of Garret, second Earl of Mornington, by Anne, the eldest daughter of Arthur Hill, Viscount Dungannon. He was borne at Dangan Castle, in the county of Meath, Ireland, on the 1st of May, 1769.