The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the Latter — John Shaqi
The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the LatterWellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
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The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the Latter
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852 -- Correspondence
"'Now such is the character and _loyalty_ of His Grace that had the
respected Consort of his beloved though deceased King [William IV.]
only _hinted_ a desire that he should postpone his departure until
the morrow I believe it would have been sufficient to insure his
immediate obedience. Consequently I could not help lamenting the
omission for two reasons, feeling so desirous to behold Your
Majesty a shining vessel in The Lord's Hands to show forth His
praise by honouring His Commands, also, that the Duke should be
restrained from doing that which on a dying bed would pain him to
remember. That he like too many other men of the world acts
contrary to His Maker's laws in numerous instances is, Alas! but
too evident; yet I cannot for a single moment imagine him one of
Your Majesty's Advisers with regard to resisting the Laws of His
Country, feeling assured he is too much your real friend to approve
of the same and too loyal to acquiesce in an evil the consequence
of which his penetrating eye would in an instant perceive could
only tend to your dishonor.
"'Fearing an evil may arise by my thus distinguishing or singling
out the Duke of Wellington as an adviser, duty forbids my
conclusion so immediately as intended, in order that I may beseech
your Majesty to lean to no Adviser or advice in comparison with
Christ and His Gospel, which if sedulously studied will in itself
enable you rather to instruct the Duke of Wellington than to be
instructed by him; for however great and wise he may justly be
considered in a worldly point of view, he must be brought to
acknowledge all his wisdom foolishness and all his greatness,
littleness before he can appear worthy in His sight "in Whose
presence is Life." Therefore he must be humbled before he can be
exalted far beyond all that he now is even in this world, believing
as I do, that his present greatness will bear no comparison with
that which he will experience when robed in the "Wedding garment of
Salvation" and rendered meet thereby for "an inheritance among the
saints in light," considering him in The Lord's Hands a mighty
vessel intended to show forth His praise in this present generation
as powerfully as a Daniel, David, or Paul, living more to the glory
of his Redeeming God during the few short years of his eventful
life than others who have professed themselves Christians even from
their infancy, consequently ranking among those of whom it is
written "The last shall be first." When this great glorious change
takes place in so faithful and tried a subject,--I should then
encourage your Majesty to rely on his judgment not only in one case
but all.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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