SPIRIT OF THE MAGAZINES. FROM THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. MEMOIRS OF LORD WELLINGTON, HAVING been so fortunate as to procure an admirable resemblance of the subject of this brief memoir, we are happy in being able to present it to the public, and to commence our monthly labours with some account of the services of one of the most rising officers of the present day. Sir Arthur Wellesley is the third surviving son of Gerald Earl of Mornington, of the Kingdom of Ireland, by Anne, eldest daughter of Arthur, first Viscount Dungannon, of the same country. He was born on the 1st of May, 1769, and received his early education at Eton-whence he proceeded to Angers in France, where he went through his exercises, at that celebrated military academy, of which M. Pignerole was then principal, with great and distinguished credit. Sir Arthur's destination being the army, he entered it as a subaltern at an early age; but the country being then in a state of profound peace, he attained the rank of field-officer, without having had any opportunity of distinguishing himself. During this period, however, his time was not lost, as he applied closely to the study of his profession, as well of its theoretic as practical branches, and thus rendered himself equal to the arduous commands which subsequently fell to his lot. We may be allowed also to remark, that he never spent any part VOL. VF. H of this period in the family of a general officer, either as aide-de-camp'or brigade major; and perhaps he owes to that very circumstance the strong energies of his mind, and his habits of decision in moments of the extremest difficulty. During the first revolutionary war, Sir Arthur Wellesley served as a fieldofficer in the small army of ten thousand men, despatched from this country in aid of the Duke of York, under the command of the Earl of Moira. The fatal campaign of 1794 is too well known and remembered to be here dwelt upon. It gave Sir Arthur, however, the opportunity he had long sought of displaying those military talents he must have been conscious he possessed: at the head of a brigade of three batallions, he conducted its retreat under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, in such a manner as to excite the applause, and gain the approbation of his superiors. We next find Sir Arthur Wellesley embarked on board the great fleet des tined for the West Indies, commanded by Admiral Christian. The seve rity of the gales which this armament encountered, having forced the greater part of it to return home, the expedition itself fell to the ground, and was never again resumed on the same vast scale. A brighter period in the life of this : gallant officer now approaches. When happily for the interests of the British empire, the Marquis Wellesley, then Earl of Mornington, elder brother of Sir Arthur, was appointed Governorgeneral of Bengal and its dependencies, the subject of this memoir having succeeded by purchase to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 33d regiment of infantry, he sailed with it from Ireland and had scarcely arrived in India, when he was put in orders for the expedition then on foot for the reduction of Manilla, and actually embarked therewith. But the political horizon of India blackening at that moment, from the discovered hostility of Tippoo Sultaun, and the intrigues of France in concert with him, for the destruction of the British empire in Hindostan, the design was laid aside, and has never since been resumed. When the great and comprehensive mind of the Governor-general bent itself to the destruction of the tyrant of Mysore, a step become absolutely necessary from the causes above adverted to, Colonel Wellesley, was attached to the Madras army, then commanded by Lieutenant-general Harris, who soon after appointed him to the command of that division of it which was assembled at Lall Pitt, preparatory to the Mysorean war, which was now upon the eve of commencing. grand army under General Harris, its separate command was given to Colonel Wellesley, under which it maintained, for the residue of the campaign, the highest reputation for discipline, bravery, and activity—qualities very foreign in general to the character of the native troops of India. On the ever memorable 4th of May, 1799, when the same blow which put an end to the life of Tippoo Sultaun terminated that dynasty of which he was the second of its princes, and gave his capital to the conquering arms of Britain-a day which, to use the energetic language of the Governor-General, "raised the reputation of the British arms in India to a degree of splendour and glory unrivalled in the military history of that quarter of the globe, and seldom approached in any part of the world;" Colonel Wellesley commanded the reserve at the assault of the fort of Seringapatam, and was thanked in public orders by General Harris, for his gallant conduct in that severe and trying affair. In order for the arrangement of the division of the territories of the late Tippoo Sultaun, the Governor-general deeming it expedient to establish a commission for the purpose of the settlement of Mysore, Colonel Wellesley was named, in conjunction with General Harris, the Hon. Henry Wellesley, and Lieutenant-colonels Kilpatrick and Close, to this important duty; a task which they seem to have performed with a spirit of zeal, activity, and justness of decision never surpassed, under circumstances equally intricate and arduous. He was also one of the military commission appointed by General Harris for the distribution of the prize treasure taken at Seringapatam. pointments serve to show the high consideration in which this young officer was held. But a far more important and delicate appointment now After the reduction of the French force in the Deccan, by one of those masterly enterprises which distinguish the Marquis Wellesley's Indian government above all which have ever preceded it, had released the Nizam from a species of oppression and control he knew not how to resist; that prince cheerfully furnished a contingent force in aid of the British armies, now on full march from several points of India, to the attack of Tippoo.His highness's arms consisted of a subsidiary body of 6000 of the company's troops, about as many of his own, and a large proportion of cavalry.-awaited him. It having been judged As soon as it arrived at a point where it could act in conjunction with the Those ap proper that Seringapatam and its fortress should become united to the British territory; immediately on its reduction, Colonel Wellesley was appointed Governor of the city; a trust which, in that instant of time required a person of approved military talents and integrity, and the utmost vigilance and care. It would far exceed our limits to point out here in detail the difficulties of such a task. Let it however be remembered, that Seringapatam had been the capital of the most powerful and bitterest enemy the English interests ever encountered in India; that it contained a vast population, all inimical to the last degree, to the persons and nation of the conquerors; in a state of entire misrule and insubordination, and ready to manifest their dislike to any measure proposed by their new masters by the most violent acts of contumacy and rebellion, wherever the opportunity presented itself. Notwithstanding however, the magnitude of these obstacles, and great they must be allowed to be, Colonel Wellesley found the means not only to overcome them during the period of his command, but, to a degree rarely known, conciliate the affections and attach to his person the whole of the inhabitants: no easy task, when it is considered that this population was a mised one of Hindus and Mahometans, the natural enemies of each other. To account for this in some measure, it must be stated, that the care of, and attention due to the family of the deceased Sultaun, fell particularly within the line of his duty, as also their removal from the capital of their father and grandfather, to the residence appointed for them by the .Governor-general. It was equally his province to raise from the humiliating condition in which the tyrannous policy of Hyder and Tippoo had placed him, to one of dignity and empire, the infant descendant of the ancient Hindoo sovereigns of Mysore- functions" which could not be intrusted" (to use the words of the commission) "to any person more likely to combine every office of humanity with the prudential precautions required by the occasion." In effect his conduct upon these trying points was so well regulated, so strongly marked by forbearance and integrity, so temperate, and yet so firm and decisive, that he gained the universal suffrage of every party concerned, and at the period of the ter mination of those duties, was publicly thanked by the Governor-general in Council for their very meritorious discharge. It must also be mentioned, that whilst in this important command, he applied himself most particularly to the improvement of Sering apatam, as well in its external appearance as in its police, in both of which points he was eminently successful. At the commencement of the year 1800, General Harris having quitted India for Europe, the command of the Madras army devolved upon Major-general Brathwaite; about which period it was judged expedient to order Colonel Wellesley upon an expedition against the freebooter Dhoondia Waugh, who was at this time in considerable force, and committed the most violent outrages upon the company's territory, and of whom it was necessary to make a severe example. In the month of September, 1800, this gallant officer took the field; on the 5th, he entered the Nizam's territories; and on the 9th, after a series of the most masterly novements, executed with almost unexampled vigour and rapidity, he intercepted Dhoondia's force, consisting of 5,000 cavalry, at Conahgull, on his march to the westward. This body was strongly posted, its rear and left flank being covered by the rock and village of Conahgull; and at this moment the horse alone of Colonel Wellesley's army were come up. With these, however, he determined to attack the enemy, and at the head of the 19th and 25th dragoons, and 1st and 2d regiments of native cavalry, extended into one line, in order to prevent his being outflanked, he commenced the battle. The enemy at first showed much firmness; but such was the determination and rapidity of the charge, that he soon gave way, and was pursued for several miles by the conquerors: Dhoondia, with vast numbers of his followers were killed, and the whole body was so broken up and dispersed, as never again to cause any disturbance. For this great and essential service Colonel Wellesley received the thanks of General Brathwaite and of the Governor-general in council, for the indefatigable activity which he displayed in all his operations-his judicious arrangements for the supply of his army, and the masterly disposition which terminated in the defeat and discomfiture of the enemy. In effect, this short but brilliant and decisive campaign raised the character of Colonel Wellesley in India to a degree, in the estimation of military men, which even his subsequent great actions in that country have not heightened. At this time the first revolutionary war, which preceded the short-lived peace of Amiens, raged in every quarter of the globe. Having established an apparently profound tranquillity throughout India, the great and comprehensive mind of the Governor-general, now Marquis Wellesley, meditated an expedition to Batavia, to be commanded by General Baird, who had distinguished himself by leading the assault at Seringapatam. In the event of the success of this enterprize, a part of the force was to have been detached for the purpose of attacking the Mauritius and the Isle of Bourbon. Colonel Wellesley was destined to this important duty. Accordingly, in the month of December, 1800, that officer was recalled from his command in the Mysore, and quitted his government of Seringapatam, followed by the good wishes and prayers of the native inhabitants, and the sincerest testimonies of friendship and respect from the troops so long under his command. From some strange misconception of the powers of the Governor-general, the necessary co-operation of Admiral Rainier, then commanding in chief in the Indian seas, could not be obtained to this great and desirable object; and it accordingly fell to the ground, very much to the detriment and injury of the British interests in India. This circumstance enabled the Governor-general to avail himself once more of the services of Colonel Wellesley in the Mysore; and he was accordingly remanded to the command of the forces in that country, and to his government of Seringapatam; to which capital he returned in May, 1801. In the interval between this period and the Marhatta war, in which the subject of this memoir took such a distinguished part, he attained the rank of Major-general in his majesty's forces. It would be as foreign to the plan of this part of our publication, as it would far exceed our limits, to enter into a detailed account of the causes and origin of the hostilities commenced by the British government of India against the Marhatta chieftains, Bhoosla and Scindeah, in November, 1802, and which terminated so gloriously for England in the following year. To dwell upon the profound policy, the unabating energy, and the unchecked prosperity which marked this contest from the beginning, would be to enter upon the eulogium of the Marquis Wellesley-a subject far beyond our feeble pen, and to be handed down to posterity by far other abilities than those we presume to possess. Suffice it for the present, that when the intrigues of these chieftains, their predatory spirit, and the usurpation of the Peishwah's authority by one of them, had rendered it indispensably necessary to the existence of the Bri tish power in India that they should be checked in their career, Lord Clive, then at the head of the Madras government, assembled an army of 19,000 men, under Lieutenant-general Stuart, on the north-western frontier; whence it became necessary to detach a very considerable force into the Marhatta territories, in order to rescue Poonah the capital of the Peishwah, our ally, as well as the person of that prince himself, from the rapacious grasp of Scindeah and Holkar, who were contending which should possess himself of both. This force, consisting of about 12,000 men, was placed under the command of Major-general Wellesley who had also under him Colonel Stevenson, at the head of the Nizam's subsidiary force of nearly 9,000 troops, strengthened by 6,000 of that prince's disciplined infantry, and about 9,000 of his cavalry: making in the whole, an army of nearly 35,000 men, with a proportionate train of artillery. Having, by the judicious position of the force under Colonel Stevenson, secured his communication with the latter, and supplies of provisions for his own army, General Wellesley deemed it essential to advance to Poonah the whole of the force destined to rescue the Peishwah from the tyrannous usurpation of the Marhatta chieftain Holkar, who was not only in possession of his person, but of his capital and dominions. On the night of the 19th of April, therefore, having undoubted information that Holkar's general was determined to plunder and burn Poonah on the approach of the British troops, he pushed forward over a rugged country, through a dangerous and difficult pass, and in thirty-two hours reached the capital of the Peishwah, at the head of his cavalry, after a forced march of sixty miles! The unexampled celerity of this movement saved Poonah from the dreadful fate by which it was menaced; and in a few days he had the satisfaction of restoring this city to its lawful sove reign, amidst the rejoicings of the inhabitants, who, as well as the Feishwah, manifested the greatest gratitude to the British general, for their unexpected and almost unhoped-for deliverance. The result of this brilliant achieve. ment was of the utmost consequence to the British interests in India, at a very critical juncture. Independently of its defeating a project of almost unparalleled barbarity, it enabled General Wellesley, in thus restoring the chief of the Marhatta confederation to his just rank and dignity in those states, to take the full benefit of the treaty of Bassein, concluded between the Peishwah and the British government the December preceding, and rendered that prince a most useful ally in the approaching war with Scindeah and the Berar rajah. Having succeeded in completely restoring tranquillity in the dominions of the Peishwah, and placed the revenues and troops of that prince upon the best footing, in contemplation of the approaching campaign, rendered more than probable by the hostile confederation of Bhoosla and Scindeah, immediately under the influence of French intrigue and interference, General Wellesley marched from Poonah on the 4th of June, with the main body of his army, and, on the 14th, took up his ground at Walker, a strong post belonging to Scindeah, within a short distance of the city, and almost impregnable fortress of Amednagur, belonging also to that chieftain, and eighty miles distant from Poonah: a position chosen with the greatest judgment, as it placed the British army in the best situation for commencing hostilities, should the pending negociations be broken off between the British government and the Marhatta confederates. In this advanced point of the Deccan, it became necessary for the governour-general, on the ground of avoiding unnecessary delay in the important discussions to which we have above adverted, to west General |