"I should be happy of the opportunity of testifying my sense of the merits of your work by consenting to the dedication to me of the Second Edition, only that I have long been under the necessity of declining to give a formal consent to receive the dedication of any work.
"I conceive that by such consent I give a sort of tacit guarantee of the contents of the work so dedicated. I know that I should be considered to have placed myself in that situation by some who might not perhaps approve of those sentiments. From what I have above stated, you will see that I could have no objection to stand in the situation described in relation to your work; and I must admit that it would be better to draw a distinction between good and meritorious works and others, and to give my sanction, so far as to consent to receive the compliment of their dedication gives that sanction, to the first and not to the last. But then there comes another difficulty. Before I give such sanction I must peruse the work proposed to be dedicated to me; and I must confess that I have neither time nor inclination to wade through the hundreds, I might almost say thousands, of volumes offered to my protection, in order to see whether their contents are such as that I can venture to become a species of guarantee for their truth, their fitness, &c. &c. I have therefore taken the idlest and the shortest way of getting out of this difficulty, by declining to give a formal consent to receive the dedication of any work. This mode of proceeding frequently gives me great pain, but in no instance has it given more than on this occasion, as you will perceive by the trouble which I give you to peruse and myself to write, these reasons for declining to give a formal consent to accept the compliment which you have been so kind as to propose to me.
"If, however, you should think proper to dedicate your Second Edition to me, you are at perfect liberty to do so; and you cannot express in too strong terms my approbation and admiration of your interesting work.—I have the honour to be, dear Sir, yours most faithfully,
Wellington."
"I was informed when I landed at Dover in April of the change of your line of life and circumstances by one of your former brother officers."
I need scarcely say that of the indirect sanction thus afforded I gladly availed myself; and it is a melancholy satisfaction to be able to add, that the acquaintance thus begun ripened, on the Duke's part, into kind and generous feelings towards myself—on mine, into sentiments of reverence and attachment, which have long survived their illustrious object, and will end only when I follow him to "the land where all things are forgotten."
The Dedication took this shape:—
TO HIS GRACE,
ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
My Lord Duke,—I trust that I shall not be deemed guilty of an act of unpardonable presumption, if I venture to dedicate to your Grace a little volume, of the merits of which you have been pleased to speak in terms far more flattering than they deserve.