enerally believed in England, or the continental sovereigns,
having used England for the destruction of Napoleon, were agreed to
thwart her influence, and make no concessions to her opinion, for they
unanimously supported the project of a French invasion of Spain. This
event took place, inflicting upon the Spanish people more indignity,
disdain, and injury than the invasions by Napoleon had done. The British
government talked much and did nothing. "The Holy Alliance" took no
notice of the indignant orations in the British parliament, the protests
of the ministry, and the explanations of the duke. A French invasion
overthrew liberty in Spain within little more than ten years of the date
when a British army had driven out the French in the name of liberty,
independence, and non-intervention. The Spaniards never believed that
the duke was free from some participation in this aggression, and his
popularity, such as it was at the close of the war, was never regained
in that country. The event also deprived the Spaniards of all confidence
in professions of non-intervention and respect for national independence
in England. They did not believe that her powerless protests were
sincere, but regarded her as having made the previous war in the
Peninsula for a policy exclusively her own--the suppression of the
popular and imperial elements in France. The Duke of Wellington, in his
place in the house of peers, declared that he had faithfully carried out
Mr. Canning's instructions, but that the allied courts were unmoved by
arguments or protests.

In 1826 the duke was sent by his sovereign on an especial embassy to St.
Petersburg. He was not favourably impressed with the Emperor Nicholas
or his people. He regarded the whole policy of Russia as faithless and
aggressive, and only friendly to England as far as she might be
made, through the false representations of the Russian diplomatists,
unconsciously subservient to the territorial aggrandisement of Russia,
especially in the direction of Turkey. The Emperor Nicholas himself the
duke learned to regard with distrust, mingled with personal contempt for
his duplicity.

At home, the duke was the object of innumerable honours. A mansion was
erected for him, called Apsley House, at Hyde Park Corner, L200,000 was
voted to purchase for him and the inheritors of the title, the estate
of Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, which is entailed, on condition of the
noble owner, for the time being, annu