bro and the Garonne, have called forth
the spontaneous shouts of admiring nations. Those triumphs it is
needless on this day to recount. Their names have been written by your
conquering sword in the annals of Europe, and we hand them down with
exultation to our children's children."
"It is not, however, the grandeur of military success which has alone
fixed our admiration, or commanded our applause; it has been that
generous and lofty spirit which inspired your troops with unbounded
confidence, and taught them to know that the day of battle was always a
day of victory; that moral courage and enduring fortitude, which, in
perilous times, when gloom and doubt had beset ordinary minds, stood
nevertheless unshaken; and that ascendancy of character, which, uniting
the energies of jealous and rival nations, enabled you to wield at will
the fate of mighty empires."
"For the repeated thanks and grants bestowed upon you by this house,
in gratitude for your many and eminent services, you have thought fit
this day to offer us your acknowledgments: but this nation well knows
that it is still largely your debtor. It owes to you the proud
satisfaction, that, amidst the constellation of great and illustrious
warriors who have recently visited our country, we could present to them
a leader of our own, to whom all, by common acclamation, conceded the
pre-eminence; and when the will of heaven, and the common destinies of
our nature, shall have swept away the present generation, you will have
left your great name and example as an imperishable monument, exciting
others to like deeds of glory, and serving at once to adorn, defend, and
perpetuate the existence of this country amongst the ruling nations of
the earth."
"It now remains only that we congratulate your Grace upon the high and
important mission on which you are about to proceed, and we doubt not
that the same splendid talents, so conspicuous in war, will maintain,
with equal authority, firmness, and temper, our national honour and
interests in peace."
His Grace then withdrew, making the same obeisance as when he entered;
and all the members rising again, he was reconducted by the serjeant to
the door of the house.
On the 7th July, when the Prince Regent went in state to St. Paul's, to
return public thanksgiving for the restoration of peace, the Duke of
Wellington was seated on the right hand of his royal highness, with the
sword of state before him.
On the 9th, the D
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