ally presenting a tri-colour flag
to her majesty, on the 18th of June, the anniversary of the battle of
Waterloo. These flags have been since accumulating, and hang in the
armoury of Windsor Castle, with similar trophies commemorative of
the battle of Blenheim, rendered by the heirs of the great Duke of
Marlborough.

In 1818 the duke was made master-general of the ordnance; in 1819,
governor of Plymouth; and in 1820, colonel of the Rifle Brigade.

The great continental courts in 1818 gave him the rank of field-marshal
in their respective armies, together with military and civil
distinctions, such as were only customarily conferred on crowned heads,
or the very noblest of their subjects.

Meanwhile the British Isles were intensely agitated; a cry for
parliamentary reform resounded from the gates of Buckingham Palace to
the Land's-end, to John O'Groat's house, and to the cliffs of Connemara.
Roman Catholic emancipation was another demand, which was ceaselessly
heard, and the Protestant dissenters of England were active and
importunate in demanding redress for the grievances of which they
complained. The duke was adverse to all these concessions, and
determined to resist them as long as they could be resisted, with safety
to the crown and peerage. The people hated the prince-regent, and when
he reached the throne as the fourth George, he was one of the most
unpopular monarchs in Europe. The measures adopted by this prince to
preserve illiberal institutions were bloody and remorseless; executions
for political offences were numerous all over the land, men of virtue
and honour were incarcerated for liberal opinions uttered or printed,
public meetings were put down by charges of cavalry, or by cannon loaded
with grape and canister, drawn up against an unarmed and really
loyal people, exasperated by unendurable oppressions. Against these
wickednesses the duke exerted no influence, raised his voice in no
protest, but was in the minds of the people regarded as one of the
haughtiest of their oppressors. On the death of Lord Liverpool, and the
appointment of Mr. Canning to the premiership, he received from the
duke an uncompromising, bitter, and ungenerous opposition. Canning was
professedly a Conservative, but his opinions were moderately liberal,
and everything liberal was resisted by Wellington and his _alter ego_ in
politics, Mr. Peel, afterwards Sir Robert. There was a bigoted and angry
party spirit in all the duke's proce