WORDS ON WELLINGTON. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 389, 31 July 1889, Page 6

WORDS ON WELLINGTON. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

„ , London,. June 28. , The following , are some extracts Jrom Sir" W. Fraaer's "Word3on referred to ; by me in ."Table Talk ": —

"Great Events .from ' Little Causes 1 SPRIN6. ( Jil ''' f Among, the incidents of Waterloo, it is startling to find that Bulow's 'Division, wliose advent fiifst alarmed Napoleon, might have completely failed but for the judgment of a single * Belgian peasant, t On leaving the woods ofFriscliermontV' to ! the right of the French ,army, ' two roads diverge. The man who guided the' column hesitated ; and for a few minutes considered which path 'he, should take. He choose the left one ; saying '.' Now we' shall take them all." , Had^he led, by the other * the Prussian Division would have' fojund ib impassable b'y their artillery.' , The rain of the previous night had" rendered :the ground extremely heavy, ;■ and !' t in fact a mistake might have changed' the destiny of ' Europe. I should have thought that everyinch of ground in the ' neighbourhood of Waterloo would have teen' surveyed Y'foriitLv is well-known ,that the Duke reconnoitred ' the position the previous year ; and had previously determined where the "(fight, would be for the protection of Belgium.

The Duke's Intensely Practical • Natore. i , { Brilliant as were the abilities of fchVDiike, he, like other great men, could not' d'alt twaddle. He found no' difficulty ;in speaking to children, -whose naive manners and originality of thought delighted him; but'the wretched trash talked by grown-up" children was to him intolerable. The' story is well-known of his saying, "I haye 1 no small talk, and Peel no manners." We 1 ' cannot fancy the Duke asking, even in a' railway carriage, "Have you seen Salvim ?" not '* Do you admire Mrs Langtiy ?" The Duke's whole nature was practical. Instead of considering and theorising as to^various arms, garments, belts, &c.,' worn by the British soldier, he sent for a man of a line regiment. Having provided a large pair of 'scales, he said to the soldier, "Step into' that scale with your musket, pouch— knapsack, schako, etc." He had the weight written down. "Now* then, get out ; strip your&elf naked ; and' then get into the scale again." That settled the' question. There is, or was, at the Clothing Department in Pimlico' 'a quaint old infantry sehako. It bears Roman numerals .on the front. With it was this memorandums — " The' Duke, of Wellington has worn this schako for seven hours to-day. He considers it an excellent' head-dress for the soldier." Most men who have tried it on would be vex*y sorry to wear it for seven minutes ; and would differ with the Duke. However, " there were giants in those days."

Assisting "the Greatest Man That Ever Lived. '* The Duke detested being helped ; no* from ingratitude, but, from two distinct feelings — one, that he did not like to be thought, what he certainly was not, decrepit ; the other, that he knew very well that the majority of persons who helped him simply did so in order to be able to say that they had done so. This was to him revolting. Standing opposite to Apsley^ House in the evening in Piccadilly, when \ the street was even more crowded than it is now, the Duke was hesitating on the curbstone. A gentleman nearly as old ac s himself made some demonstration of assisting him bo cross the road, endeavouring to check the tide of cabs and other vehicles t that was , setting strongly. When the Duke reached the, gate of Apsley House, he touched his hat,' and said, " I thank you, sir." t The"elderly stranger immediately uncovered j holding .his hab at his knee, he addressed the Duke as follows: — "My lord, I have passed a Jong and not uneventful life, but never did I hope to reach the day when I might be of the slightest assistance to the greatest man that ever lived." The Duke looked at him calmly, and in a voice not in the least choked by emotion, replied, "Don't be a d d fool!" and^ walked into Aspley House.

A Hint to Autograph Huxters. On one occasion the Duke received a letter in the following terms :— I correct the spelling : •' Mr Tomkins ventures to address the Duke of Wellington. Mr Tomkins' mother is a washerwoman ; Me Tomkins regrets to say that, having washed for the Marquis of Douro for many years, his mother has been unable to obtain payment for the last three years. Mrs Tomkins is very poor ; and cannot afford to io&e fee money. She hopes the Duke {will kindly pay it. Mrs Tomkins'' address is . . . ." After carefully reading 'and considering the letter, the Duke sent the following reply: — " Field-Marshall 1 ' the Duke of Wellington has received a letter from Mr Tomkins, stating that ; the' Marquis of Douro is in debt' to> his mother, Mrs Tomkins. The Duke of Wellington is nob the Marquis of Douro. The Duke regrets to find that bis oldest son has not paid his washerwoman's bill. Mrs Tomkins has no claim upon the Duke of Wellington." The Duke recom-' mends her, failing another application, to place the matter in the hands of a respectable solicitor." Some six weeks later the Duke had a dinner party at Apsley House. One of the guests asked the Duke if he was not tormented by applications for his auto- ■ graph. The Duke replied, " Oh, yes ; constantly." The friend then said : "A tew days ago I was examining a most'interesting collection, with your grace's in the place of honour in the book," "What was that ?" said the Duke. " Well, the collector's plan is to write to ' every person of eminence, and to accajse his eldest son of bilking his washerwoman; He pastes his own lettter and the reply face to face." I should like to have seen the Duke's face when he hoard the first Prussian cannon ,at i Waterloo.; I should also like to have seen it on this occasion. !

Men Who Never Heard of Wel' lington or napoleon. Soon after the Duke's death,' Roebuck,, the member for Sheffield, told a story in" a speech at that place, which he subsequently assured me was precisely true. ~ Staying in f a country house, he hear*d the newe of the .Duke's death. He spoKe in the early morn-] ing to the gardener, an elderly man, who! 1 was mowing the lawn. He said : '" There] is bad news come." "Is there,' sir, 1 ?" said the man. " Yetf," he said ; " The Duke's| dead ab last". " Who, sir ?" ' «« The Duke of j Wellington." '"I'm" very sorry for, the] gentleman," replied the man, going bii with] his work ; " but I never heard oriiim."] Walking with' Disraeli, he told I ' me' tliej following story. I' have never made, tip my! mind whether he believed it\to bb't'rue or' not. He spoke as if he implicitly believed i it. Speaking 'of fche 'small circle in which' even the greatest move, he told me that fche'; First Napoleon, a year after he' Became Emperor, . was determined to find out 'if , there was anyone in the world who had notheard of • Him. '•' Within' a 1 - fortnight tKe police of Paris had ' discovered a wdod|choppei* at Mo'ntmartre, within Paris, wh ! o had never heard of the Revolution i nor tHe death of Louis XVI. ; nor of the Emperor.