Pseudo-Radicals.
ABOUT Wellington, then, he says, that he believes him at the present day to be infinitely overrated.But there certainly was a time when he was shamefully underrated.Now what time was that? Why the time of pseudo-Radicalism, par excellence, from '20 to '32.Oh, the abuse that was heaped on Wellington by those who traded in Radical cant - your newspaper editors and review writers! and how he was sneered at then by your Whigs, and how faintly supported he was by your Tories, who were half ashamed of him; for your Tories, though capital fellows as followers, when you want nobody to back you, are the faintest creatures in the world when you cry in your agony, "Come and help me!" Oh, assuredly Wellington was infamously used at that time, especially by your traders in Radicalism, who howled at and hooted him; said he had every vice - was no general - was beaten at Waterloo - was a poltroon - moreover a poor illiterate creature, who could scarcely read or write; nay, a principal Radical paper said boldly he could not read, and devised an ingenious plan for teaching Wellington how to read.Now this was too bad; and the writer, being a lover of justice, frequently spoke up for Wellington, saying, that as for vice, he was not worse than his neighbours; that he was brave; that he won the fight at Waterloo, from a half-dead man, it is true, but that he did win it.Also, that he believed he had read "Rules for the Manual and Platoon Exercises" to some purpose; moreover, that he was sure he could write, for that he the writer had once written to Wellington, and had received an answer from him;nay, the writer once went so far as to strike a blow for Wellington; for the last time he used his fists was upon a Radical sub-editor, who was mobbing Wellington in the street, from behind a rank of grimy fellows; but though the writer spoke up for Wellington to a certain extent, when he was shamefully underrated, and once struck a blow for him when he was about being hustled, he is not going to join in the loathsome sycophantic nonsense which it has been the fashion to use with respect to Wellington these last twenty years.
Now what have those years been to England! Why the years of ultra-gentility, everybody in England having gone gentility mad during the last twenty years, and no people more so than your pseudo-Radicals.Wellington was turned out, and your Whigs and Radicals got in, and then commenced the period of ultra-gentility in England.The Whigs and Radicals only hated Wellington as long as the patronage of the country was in his hands, none of which they were tolerably sure he would bestow on them; but no sooner did they get it into their own, than they forthwith became admirers of Wellington.And why?
Because he was a duke, petted at Windsor and by foreign princes, and a very genteel personage.Formerly many of your Whigs and Radicals had scarcely a decent coat on their backs;but now the plunder of the country was at their disposal, and they had as good a chance of being genteel as any people.So they were willing to worship Wellington because he was very genteel, and could not keep the plunder of the country out of their hands.And Wellington has been worshipped, and prettily so, during the last fifteen or twenty years.He is now a noble fine-hearted creature; the greatest general the world ever produced; the bravest of men; and - and - mercy upon us! the greatest of military writers! Now the present writer will not join in such sycophancy.As he was not afraid to take the part of Wellington when he was scurvily used by all parties, and when it was dangerous to take his part, so he is not afraid to speak the naked truth about Wellington in these days, when it is dangerous to say anything about him but what is sycophantically laudatory.He said in '32, that as to vice, Wellington was not worse than his neighbours; but he is not going to say, in '54, that Wellington was a noble-hearted fellow; for he believes that a more cold-hearted individual never existed.His conduct to Warner, the poor Vaudois, and Marshal Ney, showed that.He said, in '32, that he was a good general and a brave man; but he is not going, in '54, to say that he was the best general, or the bravest man the world ever saw.England has produced a better general - France two or three - both countries many braver men.The son of the Norfolk clergyman was a brave man; Marshal Ney was a braver man.Oh, that battle of Copenhagen! Oh, that covering the retreat of the Grand Army!
And though he said in '32 that he could write, he is not going to say in '54 that he is the best of all military writers.On the contrary, he does not hesitate to say that any Commentary of Julius Caesar, or any chapter in Justinus, more especially the one about the Parthians, is worth the ten volumes of Wellington's Despatches; though he has no doubt that, by saying so, he shall especially rouse the indignation of a certain newspaper, at present one of the most genteel journals imaginable - with a slight tendency to Liberalism, it is true, but perfectly genteel - which is nevertheless the very one which, in '32, swore bodily that Wellington could neither read nor write, and devised an ingenious plan for teaching him how to read.
