LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 3*7 



iKerein referred to. If it should ever reach the duke he will return 



it to Mr. . The duke has no relation with Bridgewater ; he has 



no knowledge upon the subject to which he understands the petition 

 relates, either as affecting the local interests of Bridgewater or the 

 interests of the public in general. He begs leave to decline to con- 

 stitute himself, or to be made by others, the presenter-general to the 

 House of Lords of all petitions which no other lord will present." 

 The request had been to present a petition from Bridgewater. 



The note which I possess is not in the strain of either of these. It 

 is addressed in a frank and cordial tone to Sir Robert Peel, and it 

 l-elates to public business : it is dated too from Walmer Castle, the 

 place which became invested, some twenty years later, with increased 

 interest as being the scene of the duke's death. " Walmer Castle, 

 August 20th, 1829. My Dear Peel,— Upon Lord EUenborough's 

 suggestion, I obtained the King's consent at Windsor, on Monday 

 last, to Lt. Colonel John MacDonald, of the East India Company's 

 Service, of the establishment of Fort St. George, Envoy Extraordinary 

 from the Supreme Government of India to his Majesty the Shah of 

 Persia, to be Knight of the Bath ; to Commander John Hayes, of 

 the E. I. Company's Marine ; to Lt. Colonel Commandant Robert 

 Henry Cunliffe, of the E. I. Company's Service, of the. establishment 

 of Fort WUliam, in Bengal ; to Lt. Colonel Jeremiah Bryant, of the 

 E. I. Company's Service, of the establishment of Fort William, in 

 Bengal, to be created Knights by Patent. Ever, my dear Peel, 

 yours most sincerely. Wellington. The Cross of the Bath intended 

 is the small Cross." Here was a concise yet full and minute memo- 

 randum for Sir Robert Peel's information. In what momentous 

 affairs was the hand once engaged which traced the liaes we have 

 transcribed. With what a variety of sensations was that hand 

 grasped, and by what a multitude of personages — in India, in Sixain, 

 in Portugal, in France, in England, in Ireland ! Well has Tennyson 

 spoken of the Duke of Wellington as one — 



" Whose life was work, whose language, rife 

 With rugged maxims hewn from life ; 

 Who never spoke against a foe ; 

 Whose eighty winters freeze in one rebuke 

 All great self-seekers trampling on the right : 

 Truth-teller was our English Alfred named ; 

 Truth-lover was our English duke ; 

 Whatever record leap to light, 

 S He never shall be shamed." 



