Volume 2 — DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S THANKS (1814). Source.—Diary of Lord Colchester, 1861. Vol. ii., p. 505.

Friday, July 1st.—At three the House of Commons went up with the Address upon the Treaty, and returned by half-past four. Upon my return Lord Castlereagh acquainted the House that the Duke of Wellington was attending, according to his request of being permitted to thank the House in person. The House was crowded in all parts. The Duke was admitted, took his seat within the bar, in a chair placed for him, as usual, on the left hand of the entrance. After sitting down covered, he rose and thanked the House. When he had finished his speech, I rose, and taking off my hat, addressed him in reply. He then withdrew; the acclamation in the House and in the lobby and passages was loud, long, and reiterated till his departure. He was dressed in his Field-Marshal’s uniform, with the blue ribbon of the Garter, and another over his shoulder, and the Golden Fleece in magnificent diamonds hanging from his neck upon the blue ribbon. I kept on my full dress, and the Sergeant also his collar, after we returned from Carlton House and until the ceremony was over.

Speech of the Duke of Wellington in the House of Commons.

Mr. Speaker,—I was anxious to be permitted to attend this House in order to return my thanks in person for the honour they have done me in deputing a Committee of Members of this House to congratulate me on my return to this country, and this after the House had animated my exertions by their applause upon every occasion which appeared to merit their approbation, and after they had filled up the measure of their favours, by conferring upon me, at the recommendation of the Prince Regent, the noblest gift that any subject had ever received.

I hope it will not be deemed presumptuous in me to take this opportunity of expressing my admiration of the great efforts made by this House and the Country, at a moment of unexampled pressure and difficulty, in order to support the great scale of operations by which the contest was brought to so fortunate a termination.

By the wise policy of Parliament the Government were enabled to give the necessary support to the operations which were carried on under my direction. And I was encouraged by the confidence reposed in me by His Majesty’s Ministers, and by the Commander-in-Chief, by the gracious favour of H.R.H. the Prince Regent, and by the reliance which I had on the support of my gallant friends, the General Officers of the army, and on the bravery of the officers and troops, to carry on the operations in such a manner as to acquire for me those marks of approbation of this House for which I have now the honour to make my humble acknowledgments.

Sir,—It is impossible for me to express the gratitude which I feel. I can only assure the House that I shall always be ready to serve His Majesty in any capacity in which my services can be deemed useful, with the same zeal for my Country which has already acquired for me the approbation of this House.

The Speaker’s Reply.

My Lord,—Since last I had the honour of addressing you from this place, a series of eventful years has elapsed, but none without some mark and note of your rising glory. The military triumph which your valour has achieved upon the banks of the Douro and the Tagus, of the Ebro and the Garonne, have called forth the spontaneous shouts of admiring nations. Those triumphs it is needless on this day to recount; their names have been written by your conquering sword in the annals of Europe, and we shall hand them down with exultation to our children’s children.

It is not, however, the grandeur of military success which has alone fixed our admiration, or commanded our applause. It has been that generous and lofty spirit which inspired your troops with unbounded confidence, and taught them to know that the day of battle was always a day of victory; that moral courage and enduring fortitude which in perilous times, when gloom and doubt had beset ordinary minds, stood nevertheless unshaken, and that ascendancy of character, which, uniting the energies of jealous and rival nations, enabled you to wield at will the fate and fortunes of mighty empires.

For the repeated thanks and grants bestowed upon you by this House in gratitude for your many and eminent services, you have thought fit this day to offer us your acknowledgments. But this Nation well knows that it is still largely your debtor. It owes to you the proud satisfaction that amidst the constellation of great and illustrious warriors who have recently visited our country, we could present to them a Leader of our own, to whom all, by common acclamation, conceded the pre-eminence, and when the will of Heaven, and the common destinies of our nature, shall have swept away the present generation, You will have left your great name and example as an unperishable monument exciting others to like deeds of glory, and serving at once to adorn, defend, and perpetuate the existence of this country among the ruling nations of the earth.

It now remains only that we congratulate your Grace upon the high and important mission on which you are about to proceed; and We doubt not that the same splendid talents, so conspicuous in war, will maintain with equal authority, firmness, and temper our national honour and interests in peace.