a friend, to whom, by many years' intimacy, and a perfect knowledge of the virtues of his mind, which inspired ideas superior to the common race of men, I was bound by the strongest ties of affection; a grief to which even the glorious occasion in which he fell, does not bring the consolation which perhaps it ought; his lordship received a musketball in his left breast, about the middle of the action, and sent an officer to me immediately with his last farewell; and soon afterwards expired.

Immediately previous to the dreadful shot being fired, which deprived his country of its brightest ornament, his lordship was standing on the quarterdeck of the Victory, moving, as was his custom, whenever he was much pleased, the shoulder, or rather sleeve of his right arm, up and down with the greatest rapidity, but having unfortunately remained too long in the same posture and situation, he afforded sufficient time for a marksman on the poop of the Bucentaure, which then lay on the Victory's quarter, to take a deliberate, and unhappily too correct an aim at him. Captain Hardy, who was standing near his lordship, observed him in the very act, and had hardly time to exclaim, 'Change your position, my lord! I see a rascal aiming at you;' the fatal shot unhappily took place at the same instant. Lord Nelson, on receiving his wound, was immediately sensible it was mortal; and said with a smile to Captain Hardy, with whom he had been talking at that moment, They have done for me at last! He was soon obliged to be carried off the deck; and as they were conducting him below, he remarked the tiller-rope being too slack, which he desired them to acquaint Captain Hardy with, and have it tightened. His anxiety for the event of the day was such, as totally to surmount the pains of death, and every other consideration; he repeatedly sent to inquire how the battle went, and expressed the most lively satisfaction to

find it favourable. Whilst bearing down on the enemy's line, he had repeatedly said, that it was the happiest day of his life, and that from the plan of attack he had laid down, he expected that he should have possession of twenty of their ships before night? His lower extremities soon became cold and insensible, and the effusion of blood from his lungs often threatened suffocation; but still his eyes seemed to brighten, and his spirits to revive, at hearing the cheers given by the crew of the Victory as the different ships of the enemy surrendered. Soon after he expired."

The body was brought to England, and interred in St. Paul's Cathedral. The service of the interment was performed in a manner the most impressive; and during the whole of the ceremony the greatest order prevailed, and every testimony of sorrow and respect were shown by all ranks to the remains of their much-lamented hero.

The Parliament also showed their respect and gratitude to the memory of Lord Nelson, by appropriating £150,000 for the purpose of purchasing land and building a suitable edifice, which should be considered as the natural property of his family; and also by directing a monument to be erected to his memory in the church of St. Paul. The king likewise evinced his approbation and sense of the services of the departed hero, by a particular mark of his favour to William Earl Nelson, his brother and sole heir.

Lord Nelson was, evidently, from his earliest years, a youth of genius, and of a firm, ardent spirit. These leading qualities, cultivated by early direction to professional objects, and by the almost uninterrupted application of them to these, in every instructive variety of exertion, during the period of life in which our habits, talents, and character are unalterably formed, rendered him that pride of the naval glory of his country, which we now venerate and

deplore. What would have been blind rashness in a man of less nice and correct professional skill, less prompt and accurate discernment, less cool and steady resolution, or in minds less secure against the flurry and agitations of fear and anger, was, in Lord Nelson, only discreet and temperate effort. The cast of his mind, and the nature of his seaman experience, did what the undiscerning might ascribe to blind rashness and fortune. Danger only roused all his energies; and rendered all the faculties. of his soul alive to exertion. This was the grand peculiarity of his mind. Experience had made him continually more fearless, by showing him how very little there is, comparatively, to be feared, where a man is not wanting to himself. Intrepidity charms or awes every person. But the intrepidity of a brute, or a barbarian, makes them indifferent to the safety of others, because they dare to meet danger themselves. Such was not

Lord Nelson's. He had a generous tenderness for the welfare and personal safety of his seamen, which so endeared him to the whole navy, that there was not a sailor who would not have joyed to follow him into any perils. He had a sailor's scorn of all that was sordidly selfish. He coveted nothing but the consciousness and the praise of unrivalled excellence. He was no mean lover of money. Where others acquired thousands, he scarcely acquired hundreds. He delighted in the endearments of domestic life. He was fondly attached to his father, to his brothers, and to his sisters. He had peculiar pleasure in gratifying Lady Nelson with the information that her son had saved his life. Though free from the pride or vanity of weak and ungenerous minds, he had a heart to enjoy the praise and rewards of his country, and the consciousness that they had been fairly and dearly earned, as they were generously bestowed.

EARLY CAREER

ER OF THE

PUKE OF WELLINGTON.

IR ARTHUR WELLESLEY, K.B., Viscount Wellington, afterwards Duke of Wellington, was fifth son of Richard, first Earl of Mornington in Ireland, and younger brother to the Marquis Wellesley. His lordship was born May 1, 1769,

and, embracing a military life, served in India under Marquis Cornwallis, and obtained the lieutenantcolonelcy of the thirty-third, the marquis's regiment, early in the war then raging. On April 20, 1802, he obtained the rank of major-general; and on April 25, 1808, of lieutenant-general. On February 12,

1806, on the death of Marquis Cornwallis, he was appointed to the command. of the thirty-third regiment.

In India, during the Mahratta war, he found a field for the display of his military talents. His brother, the Marquis of Wellesley, was at this critical period governor-general, and displaying all the energies of a great mind in counteracting the deep-laid schemes of France among the native powers of Hindostan.

The Marquis of Wellesley justly regarded the north-west part of Hindostan as the most valuable part of our East India empire. He could not therefore observe with indifference the hostile and menacing attitude assumed by Dowlut

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of 1803 into the Mahratta territory, necessarily required the united exertion of military skill and of great political experience; and Lord Clive was of opinion that it could not be confided with equal prospects of advantage to any other person than the hon. Major-General Wellesley, whose extensive local knowledge and personal influence among the Mahratta chieftains (acquired by his conduct in his command of Mysore, and by his victories over Doondiah and other refractory chiefs) were peculiarly calculated to insure success to the intended operations. Lord Clive accordingly

train of artillery, and a body of from fifteen to twenty thousand horse. This confederate force was in a state of preparation towards striking a fatal blow at our military greatness; but the marquis penetrated their designs, and was determined to anticipate the meditated attack. His plan of operations was extensive and judiciously combined.

at once

The command of the advanced detachment of the troops marching in the spring

desired that General Wellesley might be appointed to the command of the advanced detachment. The detachment consisted of one regiment of Europeans

and three regiments of native cavalry, two regiments of European, and six battalions of native infantry, with a due proportion of artillery, amounting altogether to about nine thousand seven hundred and seven men, and to this force was added two thousand five hundred of the Rajah of Mysore's horse. Major-General Wellesley commenced his march from Hurryhur on March 9th, and crossed the Tumbudra river on the 12th. The progress of the British troops through the Mahratta territories was most successful.

After some fruitless negotiations, he marched, on the 8th of August, 1803, towards the fortress of Ahmednuggur, which, after a gallant assault, surrendered on the 12th.

He then moved on to attack the confederates Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar, who were encamped at the distance of about six miles from the ground on which General Wellesley had intended

to encamp.

The right of the enemy, which consisted entirely of cavalry, was posted in the vicinity of Bukerdun, and extended to their line of infantry, which was encamped in the neighbourhood of the fortified village of Assye. The British army had marched fourteen miles to Naulmair, and the distance from that place to the enemy's camp being six miles, it was one o'clock in the afternoon before the British troops came in sight of the combined army of the confederates. Although MajorGeneral Wellesley arrived in front of the right of the enemy, he determined to attack their left, where the guns and infantry were posted; and accordingly marched round to their left flank, covering the march of the column of British infantry, by the British cavalry in the rear, and by the Mahratta (the Peishwah's) and Mysore cavalry on the right flank.

The British troops passed the river Kaitna at a ford, beyond the enemy's left flank, near the village of Pepulgaon.

Major-General Wellesley formed the infantry in two lines, with the British cavalry as a reserve in a third, in an open space between the Kaitna and the Juah rivers, which run nearly parallel. The Peishwah's and the Mysore cavalry occupied the ground beyond, or to the southward of the Kaitna river on the left flank of the British troops, and kept in check a large body of the enemy's cavalry, which had followed General Wellesley's route from the right of their position. The first line of Major-General Wellesley's infantry consisted of the advanced pickets to the right, two battalions of Sepoys, and his majesty's seventy-eighth regiment; the second, of his majesty's seventy-fourth regiment, and two battalions of Sepoys; and the third, of his majesty's nineteenth dragoons, with three regiments of native cavalry. The number of British troops engaged appears to have amounted to about one thousand two hundred cavalry, European and native, one thousand three hundred European infantry and artillery, and two thousand Sepoys, in all about four thousand five hundred men. The force of the enemy consisted of sixteen regular battalions of infantry (amounting to ten thousand men), commanded by European officers; a well-equipped train of artillery, exceeding in number one hundred guns; and some very large bodies of horse, consisting, it is stated (and as it would appear from a reference to the statement of the forces of the confederates as they stood at the commencement of the month of August), of between thirty and forty thousand men.

The enemy commenced a cannonade (but with little effect) as the British troops advanced to the Kaitna river, and having discovered General Wellesley's intention to attack their left, changed the position of their infantry and guns, which no longer (as at first) was along the north bank of the Kaitna river, but extended from that river cross to the village of Assye, and its rear to

the Juah river, along the bank of which it extended in a westerly direction from the village of Assye. General Wellesley immediately attacked the enemy, and the British troops advanced under a very severe fire from the enemy's cannon, the execution of which was terrible. The British artillery had opened upon the enemy at the distance of four hundred yards, but General Wellesley finding that it produced little effect on the enemy's powerful and extensive line of infantry and guns, and that his guns could not advance on account of the number of men and bullocks which had been disabled, ordered his artillery to be left behind, and the whole line to move on; at the same time the general directed Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell, with the British cavalry, to take care of the right of the infantry as the line advanced towards the enemy, who were soon compelled (notwithstand ing their tremendous cannonade) to fall back upon the second line in the front of the Juah river. At length the enemy's line, overawed by the steady advance of the British troops, gave way in every direction, and the British cavalry, who had crossed to the northward of the Juah river, cut in among their broken infantry, and charged the fugitives along the bank of the river with the greatest effect. General Wellesley's force was not equal in numbers to the duty of securing all his advantages in the heat of the action, and many of the enemy's guns, which had been left in his rear, were turned again upon the British troops by individuals, who having thrown themselves upon the ground near the enemy's guns, had been passed by the British line under the supposition that they were dead, and who availed themselves of this artifice (which is often practised by the troops composing the armies of native powers in India) to continue for some time a very heavy fire.

Some of the enemy's corps, however, went off in good order, and LieutenantColonel Maxwell was killed in charging with the British cavalry (who had recrossed the Juah river) a body of infantry which had retired, and was again formed. Some time elapsed before the fire which the enemy kept up with the guns, which they had manned in the rear of the British line, could be stopped, and General Wellesley was himself obliged to take the seventy-eighth regiment, and the seventh regiment native cavalry, to effect this object. In the course of this operation, the general's horse was shot under him. The enemy's cavalry also, which had been hovering round the British troops throughout the action, still continued near General Wellesley's line. In a short time, however, the body of the enemy's infantry, which had formed again, and had been charged by the British cavalry, gave way; and General Wellesley having compelled the parties of the enemy in the rear of the line to abandon the guns which they had seized and turned against the British troops, the victory was decided, and the enemy retreated, leaving one thousand two hundred men dead on the field of battle, the whole country covered with their wounded, and in the possession of the British. troops ninety-eight pieces of cannon, seven standards, their camp equipage, a great number of bullocks and camels, and a large quantity of military stores and ammunition.

For this victory, and for the other Indian operations, Major-General Wellesley received the unanimous thanks of both Houses of Parliament in May, 1804, and the same year obtained the distinction of the Order of the Bath. He was thus early recognised as the most brilliant and hopeful of all our military commanders, at a period so important in our history.