whose age and wisdom entitle them
to anticipate consequences, or to those to whom experience of the value
of his opinions may have taught a pre-disposed deference.

At other times, however--for instance, when making ministerial
statements on matters connected with finance, or foreign policy, or
important changes in the law--this short, abrupt, devil-may-care style
is changed for one eminently adapted to the object. No one can then
complain of a want of the proper information. All the historical facts,
or figures, or principles, or general details, are then marshalled
forward with a regularity and precision only to be equalled by the
military arrangements of the Duke. There is not a word too much or too
little: you are made thoroughly to comprehend the whole bearings of the
question, without being overburthened with the useless details that so
often figure in the speeches of orators of the red-tape school. The
natural superiority of the Duke's mind is never more exhibited than in
the masterly way in which he separates the wheat from the chaff, and
weaves a clear and connected statement from masses of facts, on subjects
so foreign to the military pursuits of his youth and manhood.

To many, this praise of the Duke of Wellington, in a character in which
he is so little known to the great mass of the public, will appear
exaggerated; but those who have been accustomed to observe him in the
House of Peers, will not be surprised to hear the estimation in which he
is held by his political contemporaries of all parties. Those who have
not heard and seen him in his character of politician and statesman,
will scarcely continue sceptical (even if they are so), after having
read the extracts contained in the following pages.

Much, however, as the independent spirit of self-reliance of the Duke,
fortified by his character and experience, has secured him sway in the
House of Lords, we must not blind ourselves to the fact, that this
illustrious man has sometimes, in the assertion of his opinions
(unconsciously, we believe, and unintentionally) fallen into a practice
of dogmatising, of calling on the House of Peers and the public to adopt
his views, not so much on account of reasons urged in their support, as
because they are stated by him. Rarely, however, have such instances
occurred, and in extenuation of what, in a country of free discussion,
would justly be deemed a dangerous innovation, we must bear in mind
that where a man's o