ENPages
F10195_0092
42. ley to win the ultimate approval of Parliament, he had to foresee what would win that approval. Of those who came after him none equalled him in enterprise & therefore in responsibility, & those who approached him had - even at so early a date - the advantage of the gradually increasing speed of navigation.
Wellesley's character.
Wellesley's personal character is interesting & has in it much that is admirable. Ambitious for himself & zealous in his work, yet he had right & duty at heart. Firm & unbending, he was neither unjust nor cruel. He possessed the forethought, the prudence, & the courage alike necessary to his position. Penetration into the characters of other & a mind clear to grasp the most complex situations & quick to devise the most far-reaching schemes, these attributes claim for him a place among the first rank of British statesmen. But if he was great he was fully aware of his greatness. Though neither arrogant nor wholly conceited, he did not - at least - underrate his own good qualities. Vain & self appreciative, he was at the same time pleasant &
F10195_0094
43. unreserved in society, where he proved himself a brilliant conversationalist. But his aristocratic mind loved pomp & pageant as being due to high position & affording a fitting spectacle with which to awe the common crowd. The nobility of his features & the dignity of his demeanour gave him the appearance of greatness - a greatness few will deny. It is hard to withhold either admiration or approval from his Indian career. Though his recall meant the undoing of much of his work - for the time at least -, there were permanent achievements which may be claimed for him alone. He saved the Company from imminent danger of destruction; he finally crushed all chance of French rivalry; &, whereas all before him had worked only with a view to benefitting a trading body, he was incontestably the first to foresee & to found the British Empire in the East. [line]
