I am reading a book by Grant Allen, "Science in Arcady." ... He brings wit and originality into these essays on plants, lakes, spiders, etc.

Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell

PEMBROKE LODGE, September 22, 1893

... With regard to the modern attraction of ugly subjects (not when the wish to remedy gross evils makes it a duty to study and live among them; but as common talk between young men and young women), I feel very strongly that the contemplation of God, and all that is God-like in the souls that He has created, is our best safeguard against evil, and that the contemplation of the spirit of evil, and all the hideous variety of its works, gradually taints us and weakens our powers of resistance.

Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell

PEMBROKE LODGE, October 21, 1893

... I entirely agree with you, that poetry and music "teach us of the things that are unseen" as nothing else can do. Music especially, which is an unseen thing, not the product of man at all, but found from man as a gift from God's own hand. I don't know what at some periods of my life I should have done without these blessed sympathizers and outlets and uplifting friends.

Lady Russell to Mrs. Drummond

PEMBROKE LODGE, December 16, 1893

Your long interesting letter is most welcome. You are very good and brave to do so much for the good of others, while suffering yourself. How much harder it is to bear patiently, and keep up sympathy and fellow-feeling within us in spite of illness, than to do any amount of active work while in health. I always find my highest examples in those who know how to "suffer and be strong," because it is my own greatest difficulty.

Oh, my dear child, what opinions can poor I give on the almost insoluble problems you put before me? I wish I knew of any book or any man or woman who could tell me whether a Poor Law, even the very best, is on the whole a blessing or a curse, and how the "unemployed" can be chosen out for work of any useful or productive kind without injury to others equally deserving, and what are the just limits of State interference with personal liberty. The House of Lords puzzles me less. I would simply declare it, by Act of the House of Commons, injurious to the best interests of the nation and for ever dissolved. Then it may either show its attachment to the Constitution by giving its assent to its own annihilation, or oblige us to break through the worn-out Constitution and declare their assent unnecessary. It is beyond all bearing that one great measure after another should be delayed, or mutilated, year after year, by such a body, and I chafe and fret inwardly to a painful degree. Oh for a long talk with you! I will not despair of going to you, "gin I be spared" till the days are reasonably long.

Lady Russell to Lady Agatha Russell

PEMBROKE LODGE, October 10, 1894

... Alas! for our dear Oliver Wendell Holmes! He has left the world much the poorer by his death, but much the richer by his life and works.... Lord Grey gone too, and with him what recollections of my young days, before and after marriage, when he and Lady Grey and we were very much together. We loved them both. He was a very trying political colleague to your father and others, but a very faithful friend. The longer I live the more firmly I am convinced that in most cases to know people well is to like them—to forget their faults in their merits. But no doubt it is delightful to have no faults to forget.

PEMBROKE LODGE, March 3, 1894

Touching accounts of meeting of the Cabinet—the last with dear noble old Gladstone as Minister. Tears in the eyes of his colleagues. He made his last speech as Minister in the House of Commons, a grand and stirring one.

PEMBROKE LODGE, January 23, 1895

Finished "Erasmus" a few days ago—a great intellect, much wit, clear insight into the religion "falsely so-called" of monks and clergy, but a soul not great enough to utter his convictions aloud in the face of danger, or to perceive that conciliation beginning by hypocrisy must end in worse strife and bitterness. He saw the evil of the new dogmas and creeds introduced by Luther, of any new creed the rejection of which was penal, but he did not or would not see the similar evil of the legally enforced old creeds and dogmas.

PEMBROKE LODGE, May 15, 1895

Armenian refugees here to tea—a husband and wife whose baby she had seen murdered by Turkish soldiers, and a friend who is uncertain whether his wife is alive or murdered—these three in native dress; hers very picturesque, and she herself beautiful. The three refugees, all of whom had been eye-witnesses of massacres of relations, looked intensely sad. She gave an account of some of the hardships they had suffered, but neither they nor we could have borne details of the atrocities. What they chiefly wished to express, and did express, was deep gratitude for the sympathy of our country, veneration for the memory of John as a friend of the Christian subjects of the Sultan, and thanks to ourselves.... They kissed our hands repeatedly, and the expression of their countenances as they looked at us, though without words, was very touching.

PEMBROKE LODGE, February 24, 1896

Visit from Mr. Voysey, earnest, interesting, and pathetic in accounts of Whitechapel experiences. His Theism fills him with the joy of unbounded faith in a perfect God; but his keen sense of the evil done by the worship of Jesus as another and equal God leads him to a painful blindness to that divine character and teaching.

PEMBROKE LODGE, August 5, 1897

Sinclair [115] has been reading a great deal to me since my illness began. Miss Austen's "Emma," which kept its high ground with me although I had read it too often to find much novelty in the marvellous humour and reality of the characters. Then "Scenes of Clerical Life" ... the contrast between the minds and the brain-work of Jane Austen and George Eliot very striking. Jane Austen all ease and spontaneousness and simplicity, George Eliot wonderful in strength and passion, and fond of probing the depths of human anguish, but often ponderous in long-drawn philosophy and metaphysics, and with a tediously cynical and flippant tone underlying her portraits of human beings—and a wearisome lingering over uninteresting details. Her defects are, I think, far more prominent in this than in her best later books.

[115] "While in Norfolk Street (in 1882) engaged Sinclair, my good and faithful Sinclair, as maid and housekeeper" (Recollections). She remained with Lady Russell till her death, and served her with devotion to the end.

In the summer of 1897 she had a severe illness, from which, as the following letter shows, she partially recovered.

Mrs. Warburton to Lady Agatha Russell

PEMBROKE LODGE, October 11, 1897

You can't imagine, or rather you can, what a happiness it is to be able to record a perfect drive round the Park again with Mama this most beautiful day, she enjoying it as of yore, and as full of pleasure and observation as I ever remember. In short, it is quite difficult to me to realize how ill she has been since I saw her in June. She seems and looks so well. She is a marvellous person, so young and fresh in all her interests, sight and hearing betraying so little sign of change. She says she is out of practice, and her playing is not as easy or as vigorous as it was, I thought; but how few people of her age would return to it at all after such a long illness. (There are the sounds of music overhead as I sit here in the drawing-room—how she enjoys it!) ... About the reading—Dr. Gardiner [116] was against her being prevented from a little—she enjoys it so much. Sinclair reading to her is a great comfort.

[116] Medical attendant and valued friend for over twelve years, partner to Dr. Anderson, of Richmond, with whom he attended Lady Russell till her death.

PEMBROKE LODGE, November 15, 1897

Eighty-two this day. God be praised for all he has given to brighten my old age. God be praised that I am still able to love, to think, to rejoice, and to mourn with those dear to me. But the burden of wasted years of a long life, in which I see failure on every side, is weighty and painful, and can never be lightened. I can only pray that the few steps left to me to take may be on a holier path—the narrow path that leads to God. My own blessings only brought more vividly to my mind the masses of toiling, struggling, poverty-stricken fellow-creatures, from whom the pressure of want shuts out the light of life.

My Agatha well, weather beautiful, and seventy very happy boys and girls from the school to see a ventriloquist and his acting dolls (drawing-room cleared for the occasion). The children's bursts and shouts of laughter delightful to hear.

Lady Russell was wonderfully well that day—her last birthday on earth—and joined in the fun and laughter as heartily as any of the children. Old age had not lessened her keen enjoyment of humour, nor dimmed the brightness of her brave spirit.

PEMBROKE LODGE, December 11, 1897

A beautiful day for old scholars' meeting. Ninety-four came, a larger number than ever before; table spread in drawing-room and bow-room. Not able to go down to see them, but all went well and merrily. I was able to get to my sitting-room in the afternoon, and all came up to me by turns for a hand-shake. It was pleasant to see so many kindly, happy faces.

PEMBROKE LODGE, January 1, 1898

What will 1898 bring of joy or sorrow, good or evil, life or death, to our home, our country, the world? May we be ready for all, whatever it may be.

Six days later she was attacked by influenza, which turned to bronchitis, and very soon she became seriously ill. There was for one day a slight hope that she might recover, but the rally was only temporary, and soon it was certain that death was near.

The last book that her daughter had been reading to her was the "Life of Tennyson," by his son, which she very much enjoyed. She begged her daughter to go on reading it to her in the last days of her life, and her keen interest in it was wonderful, even when she was too ill to listen to more than a few sentences at a time.

For some years Lady Russell had found great amusement and delight in the visits of a little wild squirrel—squirrels abounded among the old trees at Pembroke Lodge—which gradually became more and more tame and friendly. It used to climb up to her windows by a lilac-bush or a climbing rose-tree and look brightly in at her while enjoying the nuts she gave it on the window-sill. Before long it became very venturesome, and would enter the room daily and frisk about, or sit on her writing-table or on the tea-table in perfect content, taking food from her hand. On the last day of her life the doctor [117] was sitting by her bedside when suddenly he noticed the beautiful little squirrel bounding in at her window. It was only a few hours before she died, but her face lighted up at once, and she welcomed her faithful little friend, for the last time, with her brightest smile.

[117] Dr. Anderson, who had been for nearly thirty years a true and devoted friend.

During her illness she had spoken confidently of recovery, but the night before her death she realized quite clearly that the end was near. Her son and daughter were with her; and just before she sank into a last sleep she spoke, in a firm clear voice, words of love and faith. Her mind had remained unclouded, and her end was as calm and peaceful as those who loved her could have wished. She died on January 17, 1898.



CHAPTER XIV

The immense number of letters received by Lady Russell's son and daughter, from men and women of all classes and creeds, bore striking testimony to the widespread and reverent devotion felt for her memory. Only very few selections will be given here. The first letter—written on the day of her death—is from Mr. Farrington, the respected minister of the Richmond Free Church, who had known Lady Russell intimately for many years.

Rev. Silas Farrington to Lady Agatha Russell

January 17, 1898

To me your mother has become more and more an inspiration—a kind of tower of cheerful courage and strength. By her steadfast mental and moral bravery, by the sunshine she has been beneath the heavy clouds that have been sweeping over her, she has made one ashamed of the small things that troubled him and rebuked his petty discontent and repining. No one can ever be told how much I both have honoured and loved her for the very greatness of her noble spirit.

Rev. Stopford A. Brooke to Lady Agatha Russell

January 18, 1898

How little I thought when I saw Lady Russell last [118] that I should see her no more! She looked so full of life, and her interest in all things was so keen and eager that I never for a moment thought her old or linked to her lite the imagination of death. It is a sore loss to lose one so fresh, so alive, so ardent in all good and beautiful things, and it must leave you in a great loneliness.... How well, how nobly she lived her life! It shames us to think of all she did, and yet it kindles us so much that we lose our shame in its inspiration.

[118] On October 31, 1897.

Mr. Frederic Harrison to Lady Agatha Russell

February 16, 1898

...The news of the great sorrow which has fallen on you came upon my wife and myself as a dreadful surprise.... Over and over again I tried to say to the world outside all that I felt of the noble nature and the grand life of your mother, but every time I tried my pen fell from my hand. I was too sad to think or write; full only of the sense of the friend whom I had lost, and of the great example she has left to our generation. She has fulfilled her mission on earth, and all those who have known her—and they are very many—will all their lives be sustained by the memory of her courage, dignity, and truth. She had so much of the character of the Roman matron—a type we know so little nowadays—who, being perfect in all the beauty of domestic life, yet even more conspicuously raised the public life of her time. I shall never, while I have life, forget the occasions this last summer and autumn when I had been able to see more of her than ever before, and especially that last hour I spent with her, when you were away at Weston, the memory of which now comes back to me like a death-bed parting. To have known her was to ride above the wretched party politics to which our age is condemned. I cannot bear to think of all that this bereavement means to you. It must be, and will remain, irreparable.

Mr. James Bryce [119] to Lady Agatha Russell

March 10, 1898

Your mother always seemed to me one of the most noble and beautiful characters I had ever known—there was in her so much gentleness, so much firmness, so much earnestness, so ardent a love for all high things and all the best causes. One always came away from seeing her struck afresh by these charms of nature, and feeling the better for having seen how old age had in no way lessened her interest in the progress of the world, her faith in the triumph of good.

[119] The Right Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador at Washington.

Mrs. Sinclair to Mr. Rollo Russell

January, 1900

I loved and honoured my dear lady more than any one I ever served. In my long life of service, where all had been good and kind to me, she was the dearest and best.

The funeral service was held on the 21st of January in the village church at Chenies, where her husband had been buried among his ancestors. The Burial Service of the Church of England, the solemnity and beauty of which she had always deeply felt, was read in the presence of many friends and relations assembled to pay their last tribute of respect to her memory.

Not long before her death Lady Russell had written these lines:

O shadowy form majestic, nearer gliding, And ever nearer! Thou whose silent tread Not ocean, chasm, or mountain can delay, Not even hands in agony outstretched, Or bitterest tears of breaking hearts, that fain Would stay thy dread approach to those most dear. Vainly from thee we seek to hide; thou wield'st A sceptred power that none below may challenge; Yet no true monarch thou—but Messenger Of Him, Monarch supreme and Love eternal, Who holdeth of all mysteries the key;— And in thy dark unfathomable eyes A star of promise lieth. Then O! despite all failure, guilt and error, Crushing beneath their weight my faltering soul, When my hour striketh, when with Time I part, When face to face we stand, with naught between, Come as a friend, O Death! Lay gently thy cold hand upon my brow, And still the fevered throb of this blind life, This fragment, mournful yet so fair—this dream, Aspiring, earth-bound, passionate—and waft me Where broken harmonies will blend once more, And severed hearts once more together beat; Where, in our Father's fold, all, all shall be fulfilled.

RECOLLECTIONS OF FRANCES, COUNTESS RUSSELL

BY JUSTIN McCARTHY

Some of the dearest and most treasured memories of my lifetime are those belonging to the years during which I had the honour of being received among her friends by the late Countess Russell.

That friendship lasted more than twenty years, and its close on this earth was only brought about by Lady Russell's death.

There hangs now in my study, seeming to look down upon me while I write, a photograph of Lady Russell with her name written on it in her own handwriting. That photograph I received but a short time before her death, and it is to be with me so long as I live and look upon this earth.

I had some slight, very slight, acquaintance with the late Earl Russell, ever best known to fame as Lord John Russell, some years before I became one of his wife's friends. I met Lord John Russell for the first time in 1858, when he was attending a meeting of the Social Science Association, held in Liverpool, where I was then a young journalist, and I had the good fortune to be presented to him. After that, when I settled in London, I met him occasionally in the precincts of Westminster Palace, and I had some interesting conversations with him which I have mentioned in published recollections of mine. During all that time I had, however, but a merely slight and formal acquaintanceship with his gifted wife.

When I came to know her more closely she had settled herself in her home at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park, and it is with that delightful home that my memories of her are mainly associated. She received her friends and acquaintances in general there on certain appointed days in each week. I need hardly say how gladly I availed myself of every opportunity for the enjoyment of such a visit, and especially for the enjoyment of Lady Russell's conversation and companionship.

I have known many gifted women, among them many gifted authoresses, but I have not known any woman who could have surpassed Lady Russell in the varied charms of her conversation. Most of us, men and women, have usually the habit of carrying our occupations with us, metaphorically at least, wherever we go, and therefore have some difficulty in entering with full appreciation into conversational fields in which we do not find ourselves quite at home.

Lady Russell was not like most of us in that quality. Her chief natural interest, one might readily suppose, would have been centred in questions belonging to the domain of politics, national and international, she having been for so great a part of her life the wife and the close companion of one of England's leading statesmen.

But Lady Russell was endowed with a peculiarly receptive mind, and she felt an interest quite natural and spontaneous in every subject which could interest educated and rational human beings—in art, literature, and science; in the history and the growth of all countries; in the condition of the poor and the struggling throughout the world; in every effort made by knowledge, benevolence, and enlightened purpose for the benefit of humanity. She had evidently also a strong desire to add to her own large stock of information, and she appears to have felt that whenever she came into converse with any fellow-being she was in communication with one who could tell her something which she did not already know.

In this characteristic she reminded me strongly of William Ewart Gladstone.

There is, or there used to be, a common impression throughout many social circles in this country, that when Gladstone in private was the centre of any company, he generally contrived to keep most of the talk to himself. This always seemed to me an entire misconception, for I had many opportunities of observing that Gladstone in social companionship seemed much more anxious to get some new ideas from those around him than to pour out to them from his own treasures of information.

Lady Russell loved to draw forth from the artist something about his art, from the scholar something about his books, to compare the ideas of the politician with her own, to lead the traveller into accounts of his travels, to get from the scientific student some of his experiences in this or that domain of science, and from those who visited the poor some suggestions which might serve her during her constant work in the same direction.

Even on subjects concerning which the greatest and sharpest divisions of opinion might naturally arise—political questions, for instance—Lady Russell seemed as much interested in listening to the clear exposition and defence of a political opponent's views as she might have been in the cordial exchange of sympathetic and encouraging opinions. When I first began to make one of Lady Russell's frequent visitors, there was, of course, between us a natural sympathy of political opinion which was made all the stronger because of momentous events that had lately passed, or were then passing, in the world around.

The great Civil War in the North American States had come to an end many years before I began to visit Lady Russell at her home, and I need hardly remind my readers that by far the larger proportion of what we call "society" in England had given its sympathies entirely to the cause of the South, and had firmly maintained, almost to the very end, that the South was destined to have a complete victory over its opponents. Lady Russell gave her sympathies to the side of the Northern States, as was but natural, seeing that the success of the North would mean the abolition of that system of slavery which was to her heart and to her conscience incapable of defence or of palliation.

I had paid my first visit to the United States not many years after the end of the Civil War—a visit prolonged for nearly two years and extending from New York to San Francisco and from Maine to Louisiana. I had therefore a good deal to tell Lady Russell about the various experiences I had had during this my first visit to the now reunited States, and the lights which they threw for me on the origin and causes of the Civil War.

I may say here that Lady Russell was always very anxious that the public should fully understand and appreciate the attitude taken by her late husband with regard to the Civil War. In a letter written to me on October 20, 1879, Lady Russell refers me to a speech made by her husband on March 23, 1863, and she goes on to say:

It shows unanswerably how strong was his opinion against the recognition of the Southern States, even at a moment when the tide of battle was so much in their favour that he, in common, I think, with most others, looked upon separation as likely to be the final issue. As long as the abolition of slavery was not openly announced, as he thought it ought to have been, as one of the main objects of the war on the part of the Federals, he felt no warm sympathy with their cause. But after President Lincoln's proclamation it was quite different, and no man rejoiced with deeper thankfulness than he did at the final triumph of the Northern States, for no man held slavery in more utter abhorrence.

I have thought it well to introduce this quotation just here because it is associated at once with my earliest recollections of Lady Russell, and at the same time with a subject of controversy which may almost be said to have passed out of the realms of disputation since that day.

The American States have now long been absolutely reunited; there is no difference of opinion whatever in this country with regard to the question of slavery, and yet it is quite certain that during the American Civil War a large number of conscientious, humane, and educated Englishmen were firmly convinced that the American Republic was about to break in two, and that the sympathies of England ought to go with the rebelling Southern States. It is well, therefore, that we should all be reminded of Lord Russell's attitude on these subjects.

I had much to tell Lady Russell of the various impressions made on me during my wanderings through the States, and by the distinguished American authors, statesmen, soldiers—Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, General Grant, General Sherman. With the public career of each of these men Lady Russell was thoroughly acquainted, but she was much interested in hearing all that I could tell her about their ways of life and their personal habits and characteristics.

Then there were, of course, political questions at home concerning which there was deep sympathy between Lady Russell and me, and on which we had many long conversations. She had the most intense and enlightened sympathy with the great movements going on in these countries for the spread of political equality and of popular education.

Every statesman who sincerely and actively supported the principles and measures tending towards these ends was regarded as a friend by this noble-hearted woman.

I had been for many years a leader-writer and more recently editor of the Morning Star, the London daily newspaper which advocated the views of Cobden and Bright, and I had more recently still been elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Irish Nationalist Party, and thus again I found myself in thorough sympathy with the opinions and the feelings of my hostess.

Lady Russell had long been an advocate of that truly Liberal policy towards Ireland which is now accepted as the only principle by all really enlightened Liberal English men and women; and she thoroughly understood the condition, the grievances, the needs, and the aspirations of Ireland. The readers of this volume will see in some passages extracted from Lady Russell's diaries and letters how deep and strong were her feelings on the subject. She followed with the most intense interest and with the most penetrating observation the whole movement of Ireland's national struggle down to the very close of her life. Her letters on this question alone—letters addressed to me—would in themselves serve to illumine even now the minds of many English readers on this whole subject. Lady Russell was in no sense a partisan on any political question—I mean she never gave her approval to everything said or done by the leaders of any political party merely because the one main object of that party had her full sympathy and approval. Reading over many of her letters to me on various passages of the Home Rule agitation inside and outside Parliament, I have been once again filled with admiration and with wonder at the keen sagacity, the prophetic instinct, which she displayed with regard to this or that political movement or political man.

All through these letters it becomes more and more manifest that Lady Russell's devotedness was in every instance to principle rather than to party, to measures rather than to men. By these words I do not mean to convey the idea that her nature led her habitually into any cold and over-calculating criticism of political leaders whom she admired, and in whom she had been led to feel confidence.

Her generous nature was enthusiastic in its admiration of the men whose leadership in some great political movement had won her sympathy from the first; but even with these her admiration was overruled and kept in order by her devotion to the principles which they were undertaking to carry into effect, and by the fidelity with which they adhered to these principles. Even among intelligent and enlightened men and women we often find in our observation of public affairs that there are instances in which the followers of a trusted leader are carried away by their personal devotion into the championship of absolute errors which the leader is committing—errors that might prove perilous or even, for the time, fatal to the cause of which he is the recognised advocate.

Lady Russell always set the cause above the man, regarding him mainly as the instrument of the cause; and if the alternative were pressed upon her, would have withdrawn from his leadership rather than tacitly allow the cause to be misled. This, however, would have been done only as a last resort and after the most full, patient, and generous consideration of the personal as well as the public question.

We men do not expect to find in an enthusiastic, tender, and what may be called exquisitely feminine woman the quality of clear and guiding discrimination between the policy of the leader and the principles of the cause which he undertakes to lead. We are inclined to assume that the woman in such a case, if she has already made a hero of the man, will be apt to think that everything he proposes to do must be the right thing to do, and that any question raised as to the wisdom and justice of any course adopted by him is a treason against his leadership.

Lady Russell never seemed to me to yield for a moment to any such sentiment of mere hero-worship. She set, as I have said, the cause above the man, and she measured the man according to her interpretation of his policy towards the cause.

But at the same time she was never one of those who cannot be convinced that some particular course is not the wisest and most just to adopt without at once rushing to the conclusion that the leader who makes any mistakes must be in the wrong because of wilfulness or mere incapacity, and is therefore not worthy any longer of admiration and trust.

I have many letters from her, written at the time of some serious crisis in the fortunes of the Irish National movement, which show the keenest and the earliest intelligence of some mistake in the policy of the party on this or that immediate question without showing the slightest inclination to diminish her confidence in the sincerity and the purposes of its leaders, any more than in the justice of the cause. I can well recollect that in many instances she proved to be absolutely in the right when she thus gave me her opinion, and that events afterwards fully maintained the wisdom and the justice of her criticism. The reason why so many of Lady Russell's opinions were conveyed to me by letter was that I had to be, like all my companions of the Irish Parliamentary Party, a constant attendant at the debates in the House of Commons, and that many days often passed without my having an opportunity to visit Lady Russell and converse with her on the subjects which had so deep an interest for her as well as for me. I therefore was in the habit of writing often to her from the House of Commons in order to give her my own ideas as to the significance and importance of this or that debate, of this or that speech and its probable effect on the House and on the outer public. Lady Russell never failed to favour me with her own views on such subjects, and the views were always her own, and were never a mere good-natured and friendly adoption of the opinions thus offered to her.

Then, when I had the opportunity of visiting her at Pembroke Lodge, we were sure to compare and discuss our views in the conversations which she made so delightful and so inspiring.

One of her marvellous qualities was that her interest and her intellect were never wholly absorbed in the passing political questions, but that she could still keep her mind open to other and entirely different subjects. The chamber of her mind seemed to me to be like one of those mysterious apartments about which we read in fairy stories, which were endowed with a magical capacity of expansion and reception.

I have come to her home at a time when, for those whose lives were mainly passed in political work, there was some subject then engaging the attention of all politicians in these countries—some subject in which I well knew that Lady Russell was deeply and thoroughly interested.

But it sometimes happened that there were friends just then with her who did not profess any interest in politics, and who were mainly concerned about some new topic in letters or art or science, and I often observed with admiration the manner in which Lady Russell could give herself up for the time to the question in which those visitors were chiefly interested, and could show her sympathy and knowledge as if she had not lately been thinking of anything else. About this there was evidently no mere desire to please her latest visitors, no sense of obligation to submit herself for the time to their especial subject, but a genuine sympathy with every effort of human intellect, and a sincere desire to gather all that could be gathered from every garden of human culture.

Many of Lady Russell's letters to me on the events and the fortunes, the hopes and the disasters of our Irish National movement have in them an actual historical interest, such as the one dated November 27, 1890, which is quoted in this volume. It was written during the crisis which came upon our Irish National party at the time when the hopes of Mr. Parnell's most devoted friends in England as well as in Ireland were that after the result of a recent divorce suit Parnell would resign, for a time at least, the leadership of the party and only seek to return to it when he should have made what reparation was in his power to his own honour and to public feeling. In a letter of December 26, 1891, Lady Russell says: "Your poor country has risen victorious from many a worse fall, and will not be disheartened now, nor bate a jot of heart or hope."

Lady Russell's letters not merely illustrate her deep and noble sympathy with the cause and the hopes of Ireland, but also they are evidence of the clear judgment and foresight which were qualities at once of her intellect and of her feeling. Scattered throughout her letters to me are many other evidences of the same kind with regard to other great political and social questions then coming up at home or abroad. I wish to say, however, that her letters do not by any means occupy themselves only with political questions, with Parliamentary debates, and with legislative measures. To paraphrase the words of the great Latin poet, whatever men and women were doing in arts and letters, in social progress, and in all that concerns humanity, supplied congenial subjects for the letters written by this most gifted, most observant, most intellectual woman to her friends.

One certainly has not lived in vain who has had the honour of being admitted to that friendship for some twenty years.

I have no words, literally none, in which to express adequately the admiration and the affection and the devotion which I felt for Lady Russell. No higher type of womanhood has yet been born into our modern world.

Lady Agatha Russell is rendering a most valuable service to humanity in preparing and giving to the world the records of her mother's life which appear in this volume. A monument more appropriate and more noble could not be raised over any grave than that which the daughter is thus raising to the memory of her mother.



APPENDIX

MEMORIAL ADDRESS

BY FREDERIC HARRISON

After Lady Russell's death a few friends decided—unknown to her family, who were touched by this mark of respect—to put up a tablet to her memory and hold a Memorial Service in the Free Church at Richmond, Surrey. The tablet, which is of beaten copper, beautifully worked, bears the following inscription:—

In memory of Frances Anna Maria, daughter of Gilbert, second Earl of Minto, and widow of Lord John Russell, who was born November 15, 1815, and died January 17, 1898. In gratitude to God for her noble life this tablet is placed by her fellow-worshippers.

The Memorial Service was held on July 14, 1900, when the tablet was unveiled and the following address was delivered by Mr. Frederic Harrison.

Now that our gathering of to-day has given full scope to the loving sorrow and filial piety of the children, descendants, and family of her whom we meet to commemorate and honour—now that the minister, whom she was accustomed to hear, and the worshippers, with whom she was wont to join in praise and prayer, have recorded their solemn union in the same sacred memory, I crave leave to offer my humble tribute of devotion as representing the general circle of her friends, and the far wider circle of the public to whom she was known only by her life, her character, her nobility of soul, and her benefactions.

I do not presume to speak of that beauty of nature which Frances Countess Russell showed in the sanctity of the family, in the close intimacy of her private friends. Others have done this far more truly, and will continue to bear witness to her life whilst this generation and the next shall survive. My only title to join my voice to-day with that of her children and of this congregation resides in the fact that my memory of her goes back over so long a period; that I have known her under circumstances, first, of the highest public activity, and then again, in a time of severe retirement and private simplicity; that I have seen her in days of happiness and in days of mourning; at the height of her influence and dignity in the eyes of our nation and of the nations about us, as well as in her days of grief and disappointment at the failure of her hopes, and the break up of the causes she had at heart. And I have known her always, in light or in gloom, in joy or in misery, the same brave, fearless, natural, and true heart—come fair or foul, come triumph or defeat.

Yes! it was my privilege to have known Lady Russell in the lifetime of the eminent statesman whose name she bore, and whose life of toil in the public service she inspired; I knew them five-and-thirty years ago, when he was at the head of the State Government and immersed in public cares. And I am one of those who can bear witness to the simple dignity with which she adorned that high station and office, and the beautiful affection and quiet peace of the home-life she maintained, like a Roman matron, when her husband was called to serve the State. And it so happened that I passed part of the last summer that she lived to see, here in Richmond, within a short walk of her house. There I saw her constantly and held many conversations with her upon public affairs; and perhaps those were amongst the last occasions on which her powerful sense and heroic spirit had full play before the fatal illness which supervened in that very autumn.

I do not hesitate to speak of her powerful sense and her heroic spirit, for she united the statesman-like insight into political problems with the unflinching courage to stand by the cause of truth, humanity, and justice. She was not impulsive at all, not hasty in forming her decisions, still less did she seek publicity or take pleasure in heading a movement. But, with the great experience of politicians and of political things which in her long life and her rare opportunities she had acquired, she saw straight to the heart of so many vexed problems of our day; and when once convinced of the truth, she held fast to it with a noble intrepidity of soul. In a life more or less conversant with public men now for forty years past, I have rarely known either man or woman who had a more sound judgment in great public questions. And I have known none who surpassed her in courage, in directness, and in fixity of purpose. No sense that she and her friends had to meet overwhelming odds would ever make her faint-hearted. No desertion by friends and old comrades ever caused her to waver. No despair ever touched that stalwart soul, however dark the outlook might appear; for it was her faith that no right or just cause was ever really lost, however for the time it were defeated and contemned.

Lady Frances Elliot, as she was before marriage, came of a race of soldiers, governors, and tried servants of the State, and she married into a race which has long stood in the front rank of the historic servants of the Crown and of the people. But neither the house of Elliot nor that of Russell in so many generations ever bred man or woman with a keener sense of public duty, a more generous nature, and a more magnanimous soul. In the annals of that famous house, whose traditions are part of the history of England, there has been no finer example of the old motto, noblesse oblige, if we understand it to mean—those who have high place inherit with it heavy responsibilities. That idea was the breath of her life to Countess Russell, as assuredly it was also to her husband, and she whose memory we keep sacred to-day is worthy to take her place beside that Rachel Lady Russell of old, who, more than two centuries ago, suffered so deeply in the cause of freedom and of conscience; she whose blood runs in the veins of the children who to-day revere the memory of their mother.

The Italians call a man of heroic nature—a Garibaldi or a Manin—uomo antico—"one of the ancient type"—one whom we rarely see in our modern days of getting on in the world and following the popular cry. I have never heard the phrase applied to a lady, and, perhaps, donna antica might be held to bear a double sense. But we need some such phrase to describe the fine quality of the spirit which lit up the whole nature of Frances Countess Russell. She had within her that rare flame which we attribute to the martyrs of our sacred and secular histories—that power of inspiring those whom she impressed with the resolve to do the right, to seek the truth, to defend the oppressed, at all cost, and against all odds.

It has been my privilege to have listened to many men and to some women who in various countries and in different causes have been held to have exerted great influence, and to have forced ideas, principles, and reforms on the men of their time. But I have listened to none in our country or abroad who seemed to me to inspire the spirit more purely with the desire to hold fast by the right, to thrust aside the wrong, to be just, faithful, considerate, and honourable, to feel for the fatherless and the poor, and not to despise the humble and the meek. I know that all my remaining term of life there will remain deeply engraven on my memory all that she said, all that she felt, in the last conversation I ever held with her at the very commencement of her last fatal illness. Weak and suffering as she was, unable to rise from her invalid chair, she asked me to come and tell her what I knew, and to hear what she felt about the public crisis of that time (I speak of the end of 1897). The storm of South Africa was even then rising like a cloud no bigger than a man's hand out of the southern seas. I listened to her: and her deep and thrilling words of indignation, shame, pity, and honour sank into my mind, as if they had been the last words of some pure and higher spirit that was about to leave us, but would not leave us without words of warning and exhortation to follow honour, to serve truth, to eschew evil and to do good, to seek peace and ensue it. I knew well that I was listening to her for the last time; for her life was visibly ebbing away. But I listened to her as to one who was passing into a world of greater permanence and of more spiritual meaning than our fleeting and too material world of sense and sight. And for the rest of my life I shall continue to bear in my heart this message as it seemed to me of a nobler world and of a higher truth.

Yes! she has passed into a nobler world and to a higher truth—the world of the good and just men and women whose memory survives their mortal career, and whose inspiring influence works for good ever in generations to come. In this Free Church I can speak freely, for I too profoundly believe in a future life of every good and pure soul beyond the grave, in the perpetuity of every just and noble life in the sum of human progress and enlightenment. And in a sense that is quite as real as yours, even if it differ from your sense in form, I also make bold to say, this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality—Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of Humanity, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in Humanity.

Surely we have before us a high example of what it is to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in good work, in the memory of Frances Elliot Countess Russell, who united in herself principles typified in the historic mottoes of her own house and that of her husband's—who kept her high courage under all adversities and opposition, in the spirit of che sara sara, "stand fast come what may"—in the spirit of that other motto of the Elliots, suaviter el fortiter, "with all the gentleness of a woman and all the fortitude of a man."

INDEX

Abbotsford Abercromby, Lady Mary (see also Dunfermline, Lady)— Marriage letters from Lady John Russell letters from Lady Minto correspondence with Lord John Russell letter from Lord Minto visit of Lady John Russell mentioned in the letters Abercromby, Mr. Ralph, afterwards Lord Dunfermline Minister at the Hague Aberdeen, Lord— The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill consents to form a Ministry and Lord John Russell and the Eastern Question and Reform Lord John's resignation Lord John's appreciation of resignation Abergeldie Castle Acton, Lord, "Historical Essays and Studies" Adams, Mr. Adelaide, queen of William IV Admiralty, the, Lord Minto at Mrs. Drummond's description "Adullamites," the Affirmation Bill, Gladstone's Alabama, case of the Albert Hall, foundation stone laid Albert, Prince Consort— and Lord John Prussian sympathies visit to Pembroke Lodge and Italy at Coburg death "Trent" affair "Life of Prince Albert," otherwise mentioned Aldworth Allen, Grant, "Science in Arcady" Althorp, Lord and the Irish Coercion Bill Amberley, Lady death of Amberley, Lord, see also Russell, John— Engagement defeated at Leeds returned for Nottingham maiden speech defeat in 1868 letters from Lady Russell death of otherwise mentioned American Civil War, the— England's position seizure of the Southern Commissioners Lord Russell's speech on feeling in England Anderson, Dr., of Richmond Anti-Corn Law League bazaar at Manchester Armenian refugees at Pembroke Lodge Arrow, the, coasting vessel Athanasian Creed, the Aumale, Duc d' Austen, Jane "Emma," Austria— Influence in Germany unpopularity of the Government and Denmark Palmerston's policy towards Conference of Vienna proposals of, and resignation of Lord John Russell and Italy after Solferino Peace of Villafranca and the proposed Congress at Zurich Prussian war on cession of Venetia cause of the Franco-German War Azeglio, Marquis d', Piedmontese Minister

Balmoral Lord John Russell at Baring, Mr., Chancellor of the Exchequer tariff proposals Beaumont, Lord Bedford, (6th) Duke of Bedford, (7th) Duke of, letters from Lord Russell visit of Lord and Lady John Russell on the attacks on Lord John letter from Lady John death Bedford, (9th) Duke of Bennett, Rev. W.J.E., of St. Paul's Berlin, Lord Minto appointed Minister Bernard, Dr., acquitted Bernstorff, Count Berrys, the Miss Bessborough, Lord, Irish opinions on the Coercion Bill Birmingham, enfranchisement bombs manufactured in Bismarck, Count— In Berlin and Palmerston declares war on Austria the Franco-German War Blyth, Miss Lilian [Mrs. Wilfred Praeger] letter from Lady Russell Blyth, Rev. F.C. Bognor, news of Reform at Boileau, Mr., letters to Lady Melgund Bonaparte, Louis Bourbons, the Napoleon's questions concerning Bowhill Bowood, Lady John Russell at Bowring, Sir John, cause of the war with China Bradlaugh Braico, Dr. Cesare Brazil, Emperor of, at Pembroke Lodge Bright, John— Defeat of at Chesham Place speeches and Reform letter to Lady Russell otherwise mentioned British and Foreign School Society Broadstairs, visit of the Russells Brooke, Rev. A. Stopford, letter to Lady Agatha Russell Brooks's, news of Lord John's acceptance of the Colonial Seals Brougham, Lord— and Lord Melbourne's dismissal and the Corn Law and William IV Browning, Robert Brunow, Baron, Russian ambassador Bryant, W.C. Bryce, Mr. James, letter to Lady Agatha Russell Brydone, Mrs., death Buccleuch, Duke of lends Bowhill to Lord John on Disraeli Buehler, Miss letters from Lady Russell Buller, Charles Buol, Count, Austrian Minister Burdett, Sir Francis, and Lord John Russell Burnet, Bishop Burns, Robert Byron, Lady Byron, Lord "Giaour," "Childe Harold," quoted

Cairns, Lord, mentioned Campbell, Lord, "Lives" Canada, Governorship offered to Lord Minto Lady Fanny and the Patriots Cannes, Lord and Lady Russell at Canning, Lord Granville's correspondence with Canning, Sir Stratford, British Ambassador at Constantinople Carnarvon, Lord, resignation Castlereagh, Lord Catholic Emancipation Bill Cavour— and Napoleon III resignation the terms of unity and Garibaldi otherwise mentioned Ceremonies, religious, Lady John Russell's opinion concerning Channing's, Dr., writings Charles X Chartist movement Chartres, Duc de Chelmsford, Lord, saying of Chenies, Lady Russell's funeral at Chester, Fenian attempt on the arsenal Chesterfield, Lord, "Letters" Chillon Chinese War, the Lord John Russell's speech Palmerston's policy Chorley Wood, Rickmansworth Christian, Princess, at Cannes Chronicle, the, and the Eastern Question Church of England the Gorham case Clarendon, Lady Clarendon, Lord— Viceroy of Ireland at the Foreign Office letter to Lord Russell letter from Lord Russell despatch to Naples letter to Lord Granville Coalition Ministry, the results Cobden, Richard— Oratory Lord William Russell on comments on Lord John, motion regarding the China measures defeat in 1857 Free Trade Treaty with France otherwise mentioned Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice, speech Coercion (Ireland) Bill Coombe Wood, Richmond Conservative Party, the— "Moderate Reform" split on Catholic Emancipation position in 1852 Conspiracy to Murder Bill Corn Laws, the— Lord John Russell's proposal repeal of Macaulay on Peel's measure repeal passed Cowley, Lord Cowper, William Cranborne, Lord, resignation of (see also Salisbury, (3rd) Marquis) Crimean War— Events leading to victories Lord Malmesbury's report Bright's History cited French alliance Currie, Mr. Raikes

Daily News, the— and the Eastern Question attack on Lord John Lord Russell's letters on Baron Stockmar, article quoted Dante Davitt, Michael, "Leaves from a Prison Diary" Denmark, war with Schleswig-Holstein Derby, (14th) Earl of— Ministry, 1851 fails to form a Government, 1855 cabinet, 1858 resignation in June denounces the Government's policy and the franchise resignation, 1868 illness otherwise mentioned Derby, (15th) Earl of (see Stanley, Lord) Dickens, Charles— On the ragged schools "David Copperfield," at Pembroke Lodge congratulates Lord John Russell letters to Lady John Russell Lady Russell's preference for on Lord John Russell, quoted Dieppe, the Russells at Dillon, John, on Lord John's resignation Dillon, John, and Parnell Disraeli, Benjamin (Earl of Beaconsfield)— personality Budget and Free Trade Lady John Russell, on on Lord John Russell's motion his Franchise Bill the Duke of Buccleuch on succeeds Lord Derby resignation letter to Lord Russell Parliamentary courage otherwise mentioned Drewitt, Dr. F.D. Drouyn, M. de L'Huys, resignation of Drummond, Mrs. (see also Lister, Adelaide) on the Minto family, quoted letter from Lady Russell Duff, Sir Mount Stuart Grant, letter to Lady Russell Dufferin, Lord, letter to Lady John Russell letter from Lady John Russell Dunfermline, Lady (see also Abercromby, Lady Mary) letters from Lady Russell death in Rome Dunrozel, Haslemere Durham, Bishop of, letter from Lord John Russell Durham, Lord, in Canada

Eastbourne Eastern Question, the, events leading to the Crimean War Lord Palmerston's policy Gladstone on Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, the Edinburgh Edinburgh University Education, Lord Russell and Education Bill Mr. Forster's Act Elba, Napoleon in, Lord John Russell's account Eliot, George "Adam Bede," Lady Russell on, Elliot, Charles [Lady Russell's brother] Elliot, George [Lady Russell's brother] Elliot, George [uncle of Lady Russell] Elliot, Gilbert [brother of Lady Russell] Elliot, Gilbert, afterwards Dean of Bristol Elliot, Henry [brother of Lady Russell] _mentioned_ in the letters goes to Australia visit of Elliot, John [uncle of Lady Russell] member of Parliament for Hawick Elliot, Lady Fanny, quotation from "Reminiscences of an Idler" description of, (_see_ Russell, Lady John) Elliot, Lady Charlotte (_see_ also Portal) _mentioned_ in the letters Sir Henry Taylor and Elliot, Lady Harriet Elliot, Miss, daughter of the Dean of Bristol, a reference to Lord Russell Emerson, R.W. Endsleigh English society, Lady Russell on Etchegoyen, Comte d' Eugenie, Empress, and the Russells at Chislehurst Eversley, Lord _Examiner, the, on Lord John Russell's resignation Exeter Hall, lecture by Lord John at meetings

Factory children, education of, Bill for Farrington, Rev. Silas, letter to Lady Agatha Russell Fawcett, Professor, speech Fazakerlie, Miss Fenians, movement of 1867 Fitzmaurice, Lord "Life of Lord Granville" quoted Florence, robbers of the Russells in Foreign Exchanges, Mr. Goschen's book on Forster, W.E. the Elementary Education Act Fortescue, Chichester, Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Russell's three pamphlets Fox, Charles James— and Lord John Russell Napoleon on foreign policy otherwise mentioned Fox Club, the France— The July revolution deposition of Louis Philippe and the Greek crisis and Denmark the coup d'etat of December, 1851 events leading to the Crimean War Cobden's Free Trade Treaty Franchise, Mr. Locke King's motion Franco-German War, outbreak Franklin, Sir John "Free Church," the Free Church of Scotland, establishment Free Church, Richmond, the memorial tablet Free Trade, the new principle Lady John and number of Free Traders in 1846 Froude, J.A., at Chesham Place on removal of Irish grievances "Life of Lord Beaconsfield," passage quoted

Garbarino, Villa Gardiner, Dr. Garibaldi— Cavour and and the Sicilian rebels attack on Naples at Pembroke Lodge letter to Lord John otherwise mentioned George III Napoleon on George IV, death Napoleon on story of Germany— The Zollverein influence of French affairs on the Crown Princess the Franco-German War the Crown Prince and the war Gibbon, historian, appearance Gladstone, Right Hon. W.E.— and Lord John Russell and the Corn Laws at the War and Colonial Office his first great speech his first Budget resignation Italian sympathies letters regarding the Neapolitan prisoners Budgets defeated at Oxford and the Franchise introduces the Reform Bill, March, 1866 reports Government defeat to Lord John and Disraeli's Franchise Bill letter to Dr. Pusey quoted the Irish Church question, 1868 visits to Pembroke Lodge speech on Irish Church disestablishment conversation on Parliamentary courage the Affirmation Bill letters to Lady Russell his article on the Melbourne Ministry and Parnell Lady Russell on "Gladstonian," the term his last Cabinet mentioned in the letters Justin McCarthy on Gladstone, Mrs. letter to Lady John Russell at Pembroke Lodge Glenelg, Lord Godfrey, Miss Alice (see Russell, Mrs. Rollo) Gortschakoff, Prince, Russian emissary Goschen, Mr., appointment Graham, Sir James resignation Grant, General Granville, Lord— Letter to Lady John correspondence with Canning sent for by the Queen and Italy correspondence with Lord Clarendon Gray, Maxwell, "The Silence of Dean Maitland" Greece, the crisis of 1850 Russian policy Greville, Charles— Cited on Lord John Russell on the Greek crisis Grey, Lady Grey, (2nd) Earl— Prime Minister resignation, May, 1834 Grey, (3rd) Earl, death Grey, Sir George, "Security of the Crown" Bill and Fergus O'Connor rumoured Irish rebellion and the Conspiracy laws Guizot, and Louis Philippe dismissal and his reply to Louis Philippe

Habeas Corpus Act, suspension Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, letter to Lady Russell Harrison, Frederic— Friendship with Lady Russell letter to Lady Agatha Russell the Memorial address Hatton, Sir Christopher, life Hawick freedom presented to Lord John Russell Herbert, Sidney resignation on the Italian question Herzegovina, insurgents of Hill, Rowland, Penny Postage Hindhead Hodgkinson, Mr., amendment Holland House dinners at Holland, Lady, in Portugal death, 1845 Holland, Lord in Portugal Napoleon on Holmes, O.W. death of Home Rule Controversy, the Lady Russell on Hooker, Sir Joseph Hoole, Alderman Hope, James Horsman, Mr., opposition to Reform Howard, Lady Louisa Howick, Lord, motion of, thrown out (see also Grey, (3rd) Earl) Hudson, Mr., mission to Italy Hudson, Sir James, letter from Turin to Lady John Huguesson, Mr. Humboldt, friend in Berlin Hume, appearance Hungary, Kossuth's revolution

Ireland— The Viceregal Court situation in 1843 Lady John Russell on the Irish question state of, 1845 condition in 1846 Peel's measures for, 1846 Lady John Russell on the condition of measures for relief the rebellion of 1848, preparations suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act rumoured rebellion in the South visit of the Queen, 1849 reception of Lord Russell's letter to the Bishop of Durham Lord Russell's pamphlets the Fenian movement, 1867 the Irish Church question, 1868 Gladstone's measure Lord Russell's sympathy towards Lady Russell and the Irish movement Irish University Bill Italy— and Austria Lord John Russell and united Italy Lord Granville and federation first Parliament defeat at Custozza cession of Venetia the Russells in visit of Lord Russell, 1869

Jamaica Bill, 1839 Jaucourt, attache Jeffrey, Francis, Lord, letter to Lady John Russell Joachim, Dr. Joachim, Miss Gertrude (see Russell, Mrs. Rollo) Josephine, Empress Jowett, Dr., letter to Lady Russell

Keats, John Kent, Duchess of King, Mr. Locke, franchise motion Kinglake, cited his book Kossuth, reception in London

Lacaita, Mr. (afterwards Sir James Lacaita), mission to the Russells Lansdowne House, Lord John Russell at Lansdowne, Lady Lansdowne, Lord— and Lord Minto Lord John Russell and Irish views and the suffrage refuses office and Lord John's resignation letters to Vienna Lausanne Layard, Henry Lecky, W.E.H., a picture of Pembroke Lodge quoted Liberals— Position in 1837 number in 1846 Lady Russell on Lincoln, President Lister, Adelaide (see also Drummond, Mrs.) Lister, Elizabeth (Lady Melvill) Lister, Isabel (see also Warburton, Mrs.) Lister, Miss letters to Lord John Russell Lister, Tom (see Ribblesdale, Lord) Lockhart, "Life of Sir Walter Scott" London— Lady John Russell's life in London society, Lady John Russell on news of the revolution in France Lord John Russell returned for Italian conspirators in Longfellow, H.W. Lords, the House of— On the Corn question Peel's Irish Land Bill thrown out vote of censure on Lord Palmerston Lord Russell's proposition Lady Russell on Louis XIV Louis XVIII, Napoleon's opinion regarding Louis Philippe, and the Parisians deposition in 1848 visits Pembroke Lodge Louis, Princess, of Hesse Lovelace, Lord, "Astarte" Lowe, Robert— On Disraeli, quoted opposition to Reform his retort on Gladstone otherwise mentioned Lowell, J.R. "Democracy" Lyons, Lord, on the American situation in Paris, 226 Lyttelton, Lady, on Prince Albert Lytton, Bulwer, "The New Timon," quoted

McCarthy, Justin— Friendship with Lady Russell correspondence with Lady Russell "Recollections of Frances, Countess Russell" Macaulay, letter to his sister otherwise mentioned Malakoff, Duc de, French Ambassador Malmesbury, Lord, accounts of the Crimea reports fall of the Derby Government Manchester— Enfranchisement Anti-Corn Law League Bazaar attack on the prison van Manchester, Bishop of, and education Manning, Cardinal Manzoni, "Carmagnola" Martineau, Dr., writings Maynooth College, endowment of Mazzini Melbourne, Lord— Dismissal, 1834 Ministry, 1837 return to power his famous remark Government of 1835 defeat in 1841 at Woburn otherwise mentioned Mr. Gladstone's article on the Melbourne Ministry Melgund, Lady (see also Minto, Lady)— Letter from Lady John Russell letters from Mr. Boileau letters from Lord John Russell Melgund, Lord Melrose Abbey Michelangelo Militia Bill, the Lord John Russell defeated on Mill, J.S., "Autobiography," "Nature," Lady Russell's remarks otherwise mentioned Milton "Paradise Lost" Minto House— Description return to in 1831 in 1834 the home at Lord John Russell at visit of Lord and Lady John Russell Minto, Lady (mother of Lady Russell)— Home influence of illness in Berlin death of her mother a description arrival of Lord John Russell letters to Lady Mary Abercromby "A Border Ballad" letters written from Endsleigh letter to Lord John Russell letters from Lady John Russell illness, 1852 death mentioned in the letters Minto, Lady (Lady Melgund)— Letters to Lady Russell letters from Lord Russell Minto, Lord— At Minto and Reform appointed Minister in Berlin and the Peel Ministry First Lord of the Admiralty Mrs. Drummond's recollections quoted and Lord John Russell visits to Lady John Russell in London on Lord John Russell death of Lady Minto letters from Lady John Russell on Lord John Russell's acceptance of the Colonial Seals death otherwise mentioned Minto village Moffatt, George, letter to Lady John Russell Moore, Thomas— Songs at Bowood "Remonstrance" lines quoted by Lady John Russell papers of, edited by Lord John Russell otherwise mentioned Morley, Lord— "Life of Gladstone" cited on Lord Russell's resignation Mr. Rollo Russell's letter to The Times cited on the conduct of other Ministers otherwise mentioned Motley, J.L., on The Times Morning Advertiser, and the Eastern Question Morning Herald, and the Eastern Question Morning Post, and Palmerston's Eastern policy Morning Star, the

Napoleon I— in Elba, Lord John Russell's account story of the poisoning letters to Josephine Napoleon III— and the Provisional Government his coup d'etat of December, 1851 policy Orsini outrage on peace of Villafranca Le Pape et le Congres and Cavour Sir James Hudson on his idea of "United" Italy Garibaldi on and Lord Russell and the Franco-German War prisoner of war at Chislehurst National debt, reduction National Guard of Paris singing the "Parisienne" Louis Philippe and the Neapolitan prisoners at Pembroke Lodge Newcastle, Duke of, at the War Office otherwise mentioned Newspapers Nice, cession to France Nicholas, Emperor partition of Turkey proposed death Nonconformist deputation to Lord Russell Norton, Mrs., description of Rogers, cited Norwich, Hinds, Bishop of Nottingham Castle, burning of

O'Brien, Smith O'Brien, William, and Parnell O'Connell, Daniel arrest in 1843 and Lord John Russell O'Connor, Fergus, and the Chartists Orsini Osborne Owen, Sir Richard Oxford Oxford movement, the, Lord John Russell and

Pacifico, Don, compensation Palmerston, Lady Palmerston, Lord— On the dismissal of Lord Melbourne, cited and Grey at the Foreign Office the Greek crisis, 1850 his finest speech the Queen's letter to Lord John Russell reception of Kossuth the Militia Bill and the coup d'etat dismissal and Lord John Russell resignation on the Eastern Question and resumption of office return to power, his first Cabinet policy Lord John in the Colonial Office policy in the Crimea his appeal to Lord John Russell his reply to Lord John's offer to resign China policy general election of 1857 Conspiracy to Murder Bill resignation on the Conspiracy Bill amendment Ministry of 1859 Italian policy the Cabinet of 1859 social legislation under illness in 1865 death, otherwise mentioned Panmure, Lord Papal Bull, September, 1850 Paris— Louis Philippe and deposition of Charles X carnival Wellington in life in visit of the Russells horrors of the war Paris, Comte de "Parisienne," the Parliament, opening in 1836, description Parnell, C.S. Party Government, Lady Russell on Pasolini, Count, memoir quoted Patmore, Coventry, "1867" Paul, Herbert, on Coercion Bill cited on the Commons' debate on the Greek crisis on Russell's resignation Peel, Archibald letter from Lord Russell Peel, General resignation Peel, Lady Georgiana, letter from Lord Russell verses to letter from Lady Russell Peel, Sir Robert— The Ministry of 1835 his Tamworth manifesto resignation his position in 1837 return from Italy defeat Ministry of 1841 the Corn Law position in 1843 resignation, 1845 and Russell influence gives up Protection return to power, 1846 Lady John Russell on his speech Lord William Russell on his measures for Ireland revenge of the Protectionists and the revolution in France his last speech and death Parliamentary courage Gladstone on otherwise mentioned Peel, Sir Robert, Chief Secretary for Ireland Peelites, alliance with the Whigs Pembroke Lodge— Offered by the Queen to Lord John the "Wishing Tree" the home at visit of Louis Philippe other French visitors literary visitors a few recollections Windsor summer-house visit of Garibaldi a Cabinet dinner verses written for the summer-house visit of Queen Victoria children at a picture by Lecky Armenian refugees at otherwise mentioned People's Charter, the, 1837 Persigny, M. memoirs Petersham, church at school at Petersham Park Phillips, Wendell Pitt, William Plombieres secret treaty of Poerio Poor Laws, Lady John Russell on Pope, Napoleon's designs concerning the Portal, Lady Charlotte, letters from Lady John letter to Lady Russell Walpole's "Life of Lord John Russell" Presbyterian Church of Scotland Protectionists, abandoned by Peel and the Coercion Bill and the Peelites Prussia and Denmark Napoleon and war on Austria Prussia, Crown Prince of Prussia, Crown Princess of Punch, ballad on Lord John Russell Pusey, Dr., letter from Gladstone, quoted Puseyites, the Putney House, Lady Russell's description

Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, policy Reform, Lord John Russell and Reform Bill of 1831 1832 Lord John Russell's Bill 1854 Disraeli's Bill, 1866 Reid, Stuart, cited Renens-sur-Roche the Russells at Revolutionary movement of 1848 Ribblesdale, Lady, 1st Lady John Russell marriage with Lord John Russell her death Ribblesdale, (2nd) Lord Ribblesdale, (3rd) Lord Richmond, visit of Garibaldi Richmond, Duke of (1836) Richmond Free Church Richmond Park Rigby, Dr. Ripon, Lord Robertson, Rev. F.W. Rodborough Manor, purchased by Lord John Roebuck, Mr.— Motion of confidence motion for a Commission of Inquiry the debate on comments on Lord John Roehampton House Rogers, Samuel— Letters to Lord and Lady John Russell note to Lady John, written in his ninetieth year breakfasts Lady Russell's verses to his reply Roman Catholics, Lady John Russell on the Papal Bull, September, 1850 Romilly, Colonel on Lord John accepting the Colonial Seals letters from Lord Russell Romilly, Lady Elizabeth, letters from Lady John Russell otherwise mentioned Romilly, Sir Samuel Roseneath, Lord John Russell's stay at Russell, Lord Arthur Russell, Arthur, son of Mr. Rollo Russell, Bertrand, son of Lord Amberley Russell, Earl (Frank, son of Lord Amberley) Russell, Lady Emily Russell, George William Gilbert Russell, George W.E., on his uncle, quoted Russell, John (see also Amberley, Lord) Russell, Lady Agatha Letters from— Mrs. Drummond Lady Russell Mrs. Warburton Mr. Farrington the Rev. Stopford Brooke Mr. Frederic Harrison Mr. James Bryce Russell, Lady Georgiana (see also Peel, Lady Georgiana) letter from Lady Russell letter from Lord Russell married to Mr. Archibald Peel otherwise mentioned Russell, (1st) Lady John (see Ribblesdale, Lady) Russell, Lady John— Birth and early life at Minto beginning of her Diaries visit to the Continent return to Minto at Roehampton House in Berlin return to Minto, 1834 at the Admiralty description by Mrs. Drummond visits of Lord John her engagement at Endsleigh birth of John lines to her son at Woburn illness in Edinburgh on the government of Ireland at Chorley Wood illness in 1847 birth of George William Gilbert the Petersham School birth of Francis Albert Rollo recollections of the crisis in December, 1851 book of poems and Samuel Rogers birth of Mary Agatha death, of her mother in Vienna Italian sympathies visit of Mr. Lacaita relations with her father lines for the summer-house at Pembroke Lodge return to Endsleigh in Venice on Irish Church disestablishment Visit to Italy, 1869 her views on elementary education in Paris in Switzerland at Cannes sorrows of 1874 death of Lord Amberley the "Life of Prince Albert" death of Lord Russell her subsequent life "Family Worship" her love of children her religion favourite authors lines on Samuel Rogers his reply friendships "Lines to Georgy" sympathy for Ireland on the home at Minto lines written after reading "Leaves from a Prison Diary" visit to the Queen on Home Rule illness in 1897 last illness and death funeral "Lines on Death" "Recollections" by Justin McCarthy memorial address by Frederic Harrison Russell, Lady Victoria (see also Villiers, Lady Victoria) Russell, Lord Charles, letter to Lady John Russell Russell, Lord John— and the Oxford movement efforts for Reform loss of the first and introduction of the second Reform Bill his engagement to Lady Fanny Elliot at Minto mentioned in the earlier letters his speech on sugar returned for the City of London early life and career his account of Napoleon the "Remonstrance" of Thomas Moore character and personality and the Queen on Endsleigh, quoted and the Corn Laws speech on the Irish question his Free Trade letter called to office letters from Lady Russell the first Reform Bill Irish views opposes the Coercion Bill, 1846 his Ministry, 1846 measures for the relief of Ireland the offer of Pembroke Lodge his Irish Coercion Bill suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act school founded at Petersham at Balmoral his letter to the Bishop of Durham resignation and resumption of office events leading to the fall of the Ministry resignation and the dismissal of Palmerston foreign policy defeated on the Militia Bill and the Protestant Nonconformists his attitude towards Lord Aberdeen and Palmerston in the Coalition Cabinet the Reform Bill withdrawn resignation the attack, on fails to form a Government British Plenipotentiary at Vienna in the Colonial Office his policy at Vienna resignation "Life of Fox" lecture at Exeter Hall in Italy his speech on the Chinese question returned for the City reception at Sheffield the amendment to Lord Palmerston's Conspiracy Bill Italian sympathies Foreign Secretary under Palmerston his share in the creation of Italy determines England's Italian policy despatch of 27th October, 1860, quoted becomes Earl Russell speech on the American War Prime Minister the Reform Bill in Venice his pamphlets on Ireland character from the Diary visit to Italy, 1869 the "Introduction," quoted in Paris opinion on education at Cannes "Essays on the History of the Christian Religion" sorrows of 1874 the Herzegovina insurgents his last years Nonconformist deputation to death Gladstone on recollections of Justin McCarthy and the American Civil War otherwise mentioned Letters to— Lord Melbourne Lady Mary Abercromby Lady Russell Duke of Bedford Lady Minto the electors of London Lord Clarendon Lady Minto (Lady Melgund) Lady Georgiana Russell Archibald Peel Colonel Romilly Russell, Lord William, letter to Lady John, Russell, Lord Wriothesley, letter to Ladyl John, on the attacks on Lord John, Russell, Odo (afterwards Lord Ampthill), letter to Lord John, Russell, Rollo— his letter to The Times, letters from Lady Russell, marriage, letter from Mrs. Sinclair, otherwise mentioned, Russell, Mrs. Rollo (Miss Alice Godfrey), death of, Russell, Mrs. Rollo (Miss Gertrude Joachim), letter from Lady Russell, Russell, Rachel, daughter of Lord Amberley, Russell, Rachel, Lady, Russell, Sir Charles, and Parnell, Russell, William, Lord, Russia— Napoleon and, and England, Napoleon on, and the Greek Crisis, Baron Brunow's wish for, Palmerston's policy towards, events leading to the Crimean War, Lord John's negotiations,

St. Fillans, the Russells at, Salisbury, (2nd) Marquis of— On Disraeli's Franchise Bill, quoted, and Reform, Salisbury, (3rd) Marquis of, San Remo, portrait of Lord John at, the Russells at, Sardinia, the King of, and Garibaldi, Lord John's speech on, Savoy, Napoleon's designs, cession of, Schleswig-Holstein, war with Denmark, negotiations, Scotland, Lady Russell's love for, Scott, Sir Walter— "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Minto, "Ivanhoe," "Heart of Midlothian," otherwise mentioned, Scottish Church, the, secession from, Security of the Crown Bill, Sedan, Sedition Bill, Ireland, Selborne, Lord, Sevigne, Mme. de, story related by, Shakespeare, Sheffield, reception given to Lord John Russell, Shelley, Sherman, General, Shooting, Lady Russell on, Simpson, Sir James, letter to Lady John Russell, Sinclair, Mrs., letter to Rollo Russell, Slave question, the, the Jamaica Bill, Smith, John Abel— Letter from Lord John, letters to Lady Russell, his fears for Lord John's seat, Smith, Sydney, "Life and Letters," Soult, Marshal, at the coronation, South Africa, Spain— Napoleon on, Napoleon's policy towards, Prince Leopold's candidature, Spaventa, in England, Speculative Society of Edinburgh University, Spencer, Herbert, "The Bias of Patriotism," Spencer, (2nd) Earl, death, Spencer, (4th) Earl, Letter to Lady John, Spencer, (5th) Earl, Stanley, Dean, pamphlet, letter to Lady Russell, Stanley, Lady Augusta, Stanley, Lord, afterwards 15th Lord Derby, and the franchise, Stockmar, Baron, Gladstone's estimation, Sugar question, Lord John Russell's speech Sumner, Charles Swanwick, Miss Anna Swift, Dean, on lies, quoted Switzerland visits of the Russells Sydenham, Lord, on Lord John Russell's sugar speech

Talleyrand, Napoleon and Tavistock Taylor, Jeremy Taylor, Sir Henry— Visit to Pembroke Lodge "Philip van Artevelde" a picture of Lady Russell letter from Lady Russell Tennyson, Alfred Aldworth taken by Lord Russell death of "Life of Tennyson" his son Test and Corporation Acts, repeal Thackeray, "Sterne" and "Goldsmith" Times, The— Lord Melbourne's dismissal and Palmerston Rollo Russell's letter on the state of America Lord Russell's letter publication of the secret document Tory Party— Breaking up of position in 1843 influence of Lord Derby on Tractarianism Trent, the, Confederate emissaries seized Trevelyan, Mr., and the Chartists Trevelyan, Sir George, "Life of Macaulay," cited Tuileries, the clock incident a dinner at Turin, the Parliament of 1860 Turkey— Events leading to the Crimean War the Herzegovina insurgents Lady Russell on Tyndall, Mrs. Tyndall, Professor

Unionists, Lady Russell on the United States, European policy towards Unsted Wood, 70

Vattel, jurist, quoted Venetia, and the Federation cession to Italy Vestris, Mme. Victor Emmanuel— Policy and the Peace of Villafranca and Garibaldi King of Italy entry into Venice Victoria, Queen— First Parliament coronation and Peel Court balls and Lord John Russell on events in France the Chartist movement letter to Lord John Russell regarding the public prayer at Balmoral visit to Ireland, 1849 and Palmerston, the letter to Lord John Russell conversation with Lady John Russell on Palmerston visits to Pembroke Lodge sends for Lords Aberdeen and Lansdowne letter to Lord John Russell asking him to serve under Lord Aberdeen Palmerston's return to power Lord Derby's Cabinet, 1858 sends for Granville and afterwards for Palmerston and Italy visit to Coburg death of the Prince Consort letter to Lord Russell on Palmerston's illness refuses Lord Russell's resignation, 1866 lays foundation stone of the Albert Hall letter to Lady Russell at Cannes invitation to Lord Russell letter to Lady Russell on death of Lady Amberley character letter to Lady Russell on death of Lord Amberley letter to Lady Russell on death of Lord Russell requests Lady Russell to remain at Pembroke Lodge letter to Lady Russell on marriage of her son visit of Lady Russell to Vienna Conference of "Vienna Note," the Villafranca, peace of Villiers, Lady Victoria— Letter to Lady Russell letter from Lady Russell marriage death of otherwise mentioned Villiers, Montagu, Bishop of Durham, vote of thanks to Lord John Russell Villiers, Mrs. E. Voysey, Mr.

Wales, Prince of, illness, 1871 Wales, Princess of Walpole, Sir Spencer cited on Lord John's resignation "Life of Lord John Russell" "The History," quoted Walton, Isaac War Office incompetence Warburton, Mrs. (see also Lister, Isabel)— Letter from Lady Russell letter to Lady Agatha Russell Waterloo, Lady John Russell's impressions, George IV and Wellington, Duke of— Policy resignation in 1830 Waterloo the temporary Cabinet personality from the letters despatches Napoleon on and George IV Westcott, Dr. Westminster Abbey, coronation of Queen Victoria Westminster School Whigs, the— Position in 1841 and the Corn Laws and Peel's Sedition Bill alliance with the Peelites and Russell Wicksteed, Rev. Philip H., speech of William IV— Dismisses Melbourne opening of Parliament, February, 1836 death and Brougham Windsor Castle Lady John Russell at Wiseman, pastoral letters (1850) Woburn Abbey War, Lady John Russell on Woman, Lady John Russell on her position Wood, Lady Mary Wood, Sir Charles retirement Wyhoff, Chevalier, "Reminiscences of an Idler"

Yarrow Young Ireland party

Zuerich, Congress at, Napoleon's plans

THE END