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LIFE

OF

LORD

JOHN RUSSELL

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CHAPTER I.

EARLY YEARS.

Woburn, August 18, 1803.-This is my birthday. I am eleven years old, 4 feet 2 inches high, and 3 stone 12 lbs. weight. The Duchess gave me a Shakespeare. It is a very hot day. Mr. Thornton and Mr. Higgins came here to-day; there was a ball in the evening.

The little boy who made this, the first, entry in his first. journal was destined to lead the House of Commons for a longer period than any of Mr. Pitt's successors, and to become twice Prime Minister of England.

It is the common practice of biographers to anticipate the story of their hero's life by tracing the achievements of his immediate ancestors; and this custom, which is perhaps justified by the increased attention which thoughtful men are paying to the modern doctrine of heredity, may at first sight seem peculiarly applicable to the present memoir: for, if the qualities of a man be really derived from his forefathers, the eminence of Lord John Russell may be traced to circumstances antecedent to his birth. It is at least a striking circumstance that the statesman, who throughout his life was the uncompromising champion of civil and religious liberty, should have been the descendant of men one of whom was sacrificed by autocracy on the scaffold, and another of whom is described, on the high authority of Mr. Lecky, as the first LordLieutenant [of Ireland] who showed himself unequivocally in favour of a relaxation of the penal code.'

VOL. I.

B

Yet, if an introduction of this kind may be defended at first sight as appropriate, it may be rejected, on second thoughts, as unnecessary. It would be superfluous to cumber a work which is intended to be concise with information easily accessible elsewhere. The fame of the Russell who drained the Bedford Level, and of the Russell who perished on the scaffold, is part of the history of the seventeenth century. One at least of the Russells, who succeeded to the honours of the family in the eighteenth century, is not likely to be forgotten : for the letters of Junius preserve, if they distort, the character of the fourth Duke of Bedford, who, from the fall of Walpole to the rise of Rockingham, exercised a commanding influence on English politics.

The fourth Duke of Bedford died in 1771. Four years before that date his eldest son, Lord Tavistock, had been thrown from his horse and killed. By his wife, a daughter of the second Lord Albemarle, Lord Tavistock had three sons. The eldest, Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, born in 1765, succeeded to the dukedom in 1771, and died unmarried in 1802. The second, John, born in 1766, became sixth Duke on his brother's death. The third, William, a posthumous child, was murdered by his valet, Courvoisier, in 1840.

John, the second son, who succeeded unexpectedly to the dukedom in 1802, married in 1786 Georgiana, a daughter of the fourth Lord Torrington. This lady presented him with three sons: Francis, who will appear in these pages as Lord Tavistock, and seventh Duke of Bedford, born in 1788; George William, commonly known as Lord William Russell, born in 1790, the father of the present Duke of Bedford, of Lord Arthur Russell, and of the late Lord Ampthill; and John, the subject of this memoir.

After her youngest son's birth, Lady John Russell suffered from confirmed ill-health. In a letter, which is undated, but which was probably written in 1796, she says to her sister, Lady Weymouth

Ill-health, like every other misfortune, brings with it the consolations which enable us to support it. To you I appear more to be pitied than I really am; and I am sensible that I have acquired a melancholy way of expressing myself, for which I am very blamable.

Indeed, my Isabella, I ought to be happy, and if I am only resigned it is a fault. I deserve no pity. I am surrounded with advantages of every sort. If there is a character on earth who deserves the reverence of mankind, it is the man to whom I am united. His principles are superior to those of every person whom I ever met with; and if I was but half as good as him, I should deserve all that your partial friendship says of me. Heaven grant him a long life, for certain I am that it will grow every day more useful to his fellow citizens. Not so with mine, sweet Isabella; it is unfortunately bowed down-bent like the willow never to rise again; but at least, whilst it lasts, I have the comfort of knowing, from the calmness that I inwardly experience, that, however unworthily I may have passed my useless life, the not having done any wicked action leaves to the mind

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,

The soul's calm sunshine.

Lady John Russell unfortunately transmitted the illhealth from which she suffered to her youngest son, who was born in Hertford Street in 1792. But perhaps this very circumstance made him her favourite child. She certainly won his love. In his old age, in 1871, he said—

I was very fond of her. I used to call her in the morning, and from that hour during the whole of the day she showed me the utmost affection. I used to delight in reading to her 'Plutarch's Lives' in the morning.'

To complete the picture of his early life, it may be well to quote the conclusion of the sentence :—

In the middle of the day I worked at a little garden, following the directions which my father gave me in a little almanack, partly in print and partly written by him for me. The place I remember where I passed my early childhood was Stratton Park2 in Hampshire, where Lord and Lady Russell passed many happy years; but when I was about eight years old Stratton was sold by my uncle Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Oakley in Bedfordshire was lent to my father instead. I never liked Oakley so well.

But greater changes were in store for him than the removal from Stratton to Oakley. He was sent to what he

This and the succeeding quotations are taken from a memorandum dictated by him to Lady Russell in 1871.

2 Stratton is now the property of Lord Northbrook.

himself called a very bad private school at Sunbury.'

There

he received the only letter from his mother which is preserved. It is written on a little sheet of note paper, with a blue pattern on the border; and the envelope, which matches the paper, is addressed To the best of all good little boys, J. R.' It is as follows:—

I thank you, my dearest, for your dear little letter. I am glad you like school, and I hope you will try to learn, as nothing but the necessity of learning could make us part with such a dear good little boy. Therefore, my love, pray study, give your whole attention to your different lessons, and we shall once more be happy together. I miss your dear voice when I wake, and I regret you every moment of the day. Soon I hope to see you, and to hear a very good account of you from Dr. Moore and Mrs. Moore, to whom I beg you will give my compliments. God bless you, my love. Your papa says you was very good on the road, and very pleasant.

to dear William.

Give my love

It was at this school that his brother William and he 'were suddenly afflicted' by the news of their mother's death on October II, 1801.

A mother's loss leaves a lasting impression even on the mind of a little child of nine. But perhaps his uncle's death, in the following spring, and the change of life which it entailed on the family, may have served partially to distract the thoughts both of the widower and his children. Thenceforward their father was Duke of Bedford, and owner of the vast possessions which had accrued to the Russells by grants, marriages, and purchases; and his sons, instead of passing their holidays at Oakley, came home either to Woburn or London.

In the year which followed his accession to the title, and

1 I have found on the last page of an old MS. book a list of the boys at Dr. Moore's school, Sunbury, April 1, 1800. The list includes the names of Lord John's two eldest brothers, but not his own, and was presumably written in the book by one of his brothers immediately before Lord John was sent to Sunbury. The list is a long one, and many names in it, FitzRoy, Seymour, Bridgeman, Acland, Mildmay, Stanhope, Churchill, &c., prove that the school was a fashionable one. In 1836 one of the ushers at this school wrote to Lord John for pecu niary help. His private secretary suggested a civil refusal, but Lord John endorsed the letter, I will send a draft.'

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