When you study with attention the splendid English engravings that represent the misfortunes and downfall of Tippoo Saib, surrounded by his mourning family; when you gaze upon the magnificent Indian scenery, steaming with heat and moisture, the feathery palm-trees, the elephants with their gilded howdahs, the black Sepoys in European costume, intermingled with the English troops, whose cool determined spirit and military resignation are stamped upon their countenance; while in the back-ground appear the high walls of Seringapatam, and their heavy cannon breathing forth slaughter and defiance; in these scenes, amidst the wreaths of smoke and the gleaming of scimetars, the figure of a young officer may be discerned, with a calm countenance, quiet and reserved manners, and the meditative look which presages a great destiny:--that officer is Sir Arthur Wellesley, since then so celebrated as the Duke of Wellington.
Sir Arthur, the fourth son of Gerard Colley Wellesley earl of Mornington, and of Anne Hill, daughter of Viscount Duncannon, was born at Dungan Castle, on the 1st of May, 1769, one year after that which gave birth to Napoleon; it was a period fertile in great geniuses of all kinds, who came to humanise and to add greatness to the times of the Revolution. Sir Arthur was brought up at Eton, and afterwards went to the military college of Angers in France: our country at that time possessed the best military establishments and the most frequented universities; and I have already observed that Prince Metternich and Benjamin Constant were educated at Strasbourg.
Arthur Wellesley entered the army at an early age, and obtained a commission in the 41st Foot; in 1793 he purchased the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 33d regiment, and made part of the expedition to Ostend against the French republic, where he commanded, at the age of twenty-four years, a brigade in the retreat from Holland under the Duke of York. The English dominions are so vast, that it is by no means uncommon to see men even of the noblest families sent from one extremity of the earth to the other in the service of their country, and young Arthur Wellesley embarked for Jamaica; but the fleet was driven back by a tempest, and after recruiting his regiment in Ireland, the young officer found his destination had been altered; and he was now directed to proceed with it to the banks of the Ganges, with his brother, the Marquis Wellesley, who had been appointed governor-general of India. He distinguished himself greatly in the war with Tippoo, that noble ally of France and of Louis XVI; and was present at the taking of Seringapatam, at the head of the auxiliary troops furnished by the Nizam; he was afterwards acting as governor of the conquered city in 1800, when Dhoondiah Waugh, an Indian adventurer, made an incursion into the Company's territory at the head of 5000 horse.