mind to charge before Hardinge approached him on the subject. Hardinge adhered to the opinion that the movement was due to his urgent pressure on Cole (United Service Journal, July and October 1840, January 1841 ; cf. Times and Globe 1856). Napier, in the later edition of his history and elsewhere, described Hardinge as having strongly urged, instead of having ordered, Cole to advance (Bruce, ii. 406-8, ed. 1851, iii. 169).
Hardinge, whose name is misspelt ' Harding ' in the lists of the Portuguese staff in the ' Army Lists ' of that period, also served at the first and second sieges of Badajoz, at Salamanca, and at Vittoria, where he was severely wounded. He was present at the blockade of Pampeluna and in the fighting in the Pyrenees, and commanded a Portuguese brigade at the storming of the heights of Palais, near Bayonne, in February 1814. He received the gold cross and five clasps for Douro, Albuera, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and Orthez, and in after years the Peninsular medal, with additional clasps for Rolica, Vimeira, Corunna, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Toulouse. He was promoted from the Portuguese staff to be lieutenant-colonel, without purchase, in the 40th foot on 12 April 1814, and on 25 July following was transferred as captain and lieutenant-colonel to the 1st foot-guards, now Grenadier guards, in which corps he remained until 1827. On 2 Jan. 1815 he was made K.C.B.
Hardinge's abilities were soon recognised by Wellington. In the early days at Torres Vedras Wellington's letters to Beresford contain reiterated requests to send to headquarters 'Hardinge or some other staff-officer who has intelligence, to whom I can talk about the concerns of the Portuguese army ' (Gurwood, iv. 744, 749, 773). On the receipt of the news of Napoleon's return from Elba, Wellington, then at Vienna, instructed Hardinge, who was on leave from his battalion in Flanders, to obtain a passport from Prince Talleyrand, and place himself as near Napoleon as possible to report his movements (ib. viii. 3). A month later, on Wellington's arrival in Brussels early in April 1815, Hardinge was sent to the headquarters of General Gneisenau, the Prussian chief of the staff, at Liege, to smooth matters there (cf. Hardinge's letters from Liege, in Wellington's Supplementary Despatches, vol. x.) Hardinge was confirmed in the appointment of British military commissioner at Bliicher's headquarters, with the local rank of brigadierrgeneral. He appears to have been offered the separate command of the Saxon troops, who were giving the Prussians much trouble (Gurwood, viii. 126).
When sketching near the Prussian position at Ligny during the battle of Quatre Bras on the afternoon of 16 June 1815, a stone, driven up by a cannon-ball, shattered his left hand so severely as to necessitate amputation at the wrist. Improper treatment of the wound, and the necessity of retiring with the Prussians on the 17th to avoid falling into the hands of the French, caused intense suffering, but Hardinge recovered sufficiently to resume his post with Bliicher in Paris a fortnight later. On 24 Feb. 1816 Hardinge was appointed an assistant quartermaster-general on the British staff, but remained as military commissioner at the headquarters of General Ziethen, commanding the Prussian contingent of the army of occupation, until the withdrawal of the allied troops from France in November 1818. At a grand review of the Prussians, held before the Duke of Wellington at Sedan, Hardinge was invested with the Prussian order of Military Merit, and received a sword of honour from Wellington.
Hardinge was returned to parliament for the city of Durham in the tory interest in 1820, and later in the same year was made an honorary D.C.L. at Oxford. He became colonel by brevet on 19 July 1821.
Hardinge was appointed clerk of the ordnance by the Duke of Wellington when master-general in 1823, and was again returned to parliament for Durham in 1826. After Wellington became prime minister, in January 1828, Hardinge, who had retired from the guards on half-pay on 27 April 1827, and who was at first proposed by the duke for Irish secretary, was appointed secretary at war, and held the post from July 1828 to July 1830. It was during this period he acted as second to the duke in his duel with Lord Winchilsea. Hardinge was Irish secretary from July to November 1830. He became a major-general on 22 July 1830. He was returned for the borough of Newport, Cornwall, at the elections of 1830 and 1831, and for Launceston in 1834, which borough he continued to represent until his departure for India. He was Irish secretary again during Sir Robert Peel's brief administration of July to December 1834. In official life he is described as plain, straightforward, and just, and an excellent man of business. He was savagely abused by Daniel O'Connell, who called him a 'one-handed miscreant.' On Sir Robert Peel returning to office in September 1841 Hardinge again became secretary at war, a post he held until early in 1844. At the war office he was popular as a just, upright, and considerate chief. He became a lieutenant-general on 22 Nov. 1841, on the same dav as his future commander-in-chief
