WELLINGTON, AND THE STRUGGLE WITH NAPOLEON

[ARTHUR WELLESLEY, Duke of Wellington, born in Ireland, 1769;
died Walmer Castle, September 14, 1852; educated at Eton and at
Angers; entered Seventy-third Regiment as ensign, 1787; purchased
lieutenant-colonelcy of Thirty-third Regiment, 1793; served in
Holland expedition, 1794-95; 1796, in India with his regiment;
1803, major-general, commands in Mahratta War, victory at Assaye;
1805,in England; 1806, member of Parliament; 1807, Secretary for
Ireland; 1808, in Portugal; 1809-13, chief in command in
Peninsula, clears Portugal and Spain of the French; 1814, English
Ambassador at Paris; 1815, defeats Napoleon at Waterloo; 1815,
commander-in-chief of allied army in France; 1818, master-general
of the ordnance; 1822, represents England at Congress of Verona;
1828-30, Prime Minister; 1829, grants Catholic emancipation;
1834-35, Foreign Secretary; 1841, commander-in-chief. Buried in
St. Paul's Cathedral.]

In February, 1792, William Pitt, Prime Minister of George III.,
unfolding his annual budget in the House of Commons, declared,
"Unquestionably there never was a time in the history of this
country when, from the situation of Europe, we might more
reasonably expect fifteen years of peace, than at the present
moment." Yet within a twelvemonth after this utterance,
apparently sincere, France and England were plunged into a war
which lasted, with but one brief intermission, until 1815. It
embroiled in succession nearly every nation in Europe. In France
it provided a theater for the genius of Napoleon, who after
conquering in turn the best soldiers of the continent, was to
meet his match in the Duke of Wellington on the field of