THE ANNIVERSARY CALENDAR, NATAL BOOK, AND UNIVERSAL MIRROR- EMBRACING ANNIVERSARIES OF PERSONS, EVENTS, INSTITUTIONS, AND PRESENT AGE. What hath this day deserved? What hath it done? KING JOHN. Whatever you do, do it well.-Pittacus. Acts. THE Duke of Wellington, after an absence from his country of more than five years, was this day introduced at his own request to the representatives of the British nation, when he expressed his acknowledgments for their unanimous vote of congratulation and thanks, and those high rewards which followed the convention of Paris, and the restoration of the house of Bourbon, the twelfth time his Grace had received from both Houses of Parliament that important and gratifying tribute of their just applause, 1814: Mr. Abbot, the Speaker (Lord Colchester), after the enthusiasm had subsided, addressed in these memorable words the great Captain: 'My Lord Duke,-Since last I had the honour of addressing you from this place, a series of eventful years has elapsed, but none without some note and mark of your rising glory. The military triumphs which your valour has achieved on 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 and enduring fortitude, which, in perilous times, when gloom and doubt had beset ordinary minds,' STOOD, NEVERTHELESS, UNSHAKEN! And that ascendency of character, which uniting the energies of jealous and rival nations, enabled you to wield, at will, the fates and fortunes of mighty empires! 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, an imperishable monument, exciting others to like deeds of glory, and serving at once to adorn, defend, and perpetuate the existence of this country amongst the rising nations of the earth." Louis Buonaparte abdicates the throne of Holland, 1810. The capitulation of Paris to his grace, 1815. Silistria falls, 1829. There is some moderation and good-nature in the Toupinambaltians of North America, who eat no men but their enemies. Cowley. |