able so far to stifle the natural feelings of our hearts, so far to
obscure our reason, as to prevent us from feeling as we ought--boundless
gratitude for boundless merit. Neither can it pluck from our minds that
admiration proportioned to the transcendant genius, in peace and in war,
of him who is amongst us to-day; nor can it lighten or alleviate the
painful, the deep sense which the untried mind never can get rid of when
it is overwhelmed by a debt of gratitude, too boundless to be repaid.
Party--the spirit of party--may do much, but it cannot operate so far as
to make us forget those services; it cannot so far bewilder the memory,
and pervert the judgment, and eradicate from our bosoms those feelings
which do us the most honour, and are the most unavoidable, and, as it
were, dry up the kindly juices of the heart; and, notwithstanding all
its vile and malignant influence on other occasions, it cannot dry up
those juices of the heart so as to parch it like very charcoal, and make
it almost as black. But what else have I to do? If I had all the
eloquence of all the tongues ever attuned to speak, what else could I
do? How could a thousand words, or all the names that could be named,
speak so powerfully--ay, even if I spoke with the tongue of an angel, as
if I were to mention one word--Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington,
the hero of a hundred fields, in all of which his banner was waved in
triumph; who never, I invoke both hemispheres to witness--bear witness
Europe, bear witness Asia--who never advanced but to cover his arms with
glory; the captain who never advanced but to be victorious; the mightier
captain who never retreated but to eclipse the glory of his advance, by
the yet harder task of unwearied patience, indomitable to lassitude, the
inexhaustible resources of transcendant skill, showing the wonders, the
marvels of a moral courage never yet subdued. Despising all who thwarted
him with ill-considered advice--neglecting all hostility, so he knew it
to be groundless--laughing to scorn reviling enemies, jealous
competitors, lukewarm friends, ay, hardest of all, to neglect despising