point of advantage to the public interest. I have had sufficient
experience in public life to know that this must be the case. I am
convinced that it is that feeling which has induced you to pay this
tribute of respect to the person holding the situation of Lord Warden of
the Cinque Ports, in order that you might encourage others hereafter to
perform their duty honestly and conscientiously in the same honourable
office."

On the 18th November, the same year, the Duke had an attack of epilepsy,
which for a short time alarmed the public greatly for his safety, on
account of his advanced age. Sir Astley Cooper and Dr. Hume were down at
Walmer with him for a week, at the end of which time he recovered,
greatly to the joy of the whole nation. It turned out that the Duke had
brought on the attack adopting, to cure himself of a slight illness, a
mode of treatment which would not be the most wise in a man of
twenty-five, but was most dangerous to one so advanced in years. The
Duke is very determined on such points--can never be persuaded that he
is not the same man in point of constitution that he was when in the
Peninsula; and still preserves all the hardy habits of a soldier's life.
On this occasion he had sought to cure himself by fasting and cold
bathing: he then, while under this treatment, followed the hounds, the
consequence of which was that he fainted, and was soon afterwards seized
as described.

On the return of Sir Robert Peel to power, in 1841, the Duke of
Wellington again joined him; but this time he took no office, though
accepting a seat in the cabinet. He still continued to lead in the
lords, where his influence is fully felt, and where he constantly
astonishes the house and silences his detractors by displaying a degree
of knowledge on all legislative subjects scarcely compatible with his