The

the second meeting of the Congress at Liverpool. addresses which he made on these several occasions must have required both thought and time. The first of them was subsequently published, and will repay perusal, especially by those who wish to understand its author's opinions. The main obstacle to moral and political progress was, in Lord John's opinion, the abuse of the functions of Government. The attempt of authority to suppress inquiry and to direct opinion had interfered, over and over again in the world's history, with improvement; and progress, therefore, depended on that civil and religious liberty which was both the basis of the lecturer's creed and the object of his career. In certain countries, however, the human conscience was no longer shackled by Government or by laws. In these, Lord John added-probably with special reference to his audience— other obstacles to moral and political progress remained. The vice of intemperance, the want of education, were interfering with the advancement of the poor; just as sensuality, excess, selfishness, evil-speaking, and want of charity were retarding the development of the rich. Civilisation had shown, in the days both of Augustus and of Louis XIV., that it was powerless to deal with these evils.

It is to Christian principle, Christian morals, and a Christian spirit, that we must look for a better and higher civilisation than any that has been attained. . . . Some there are who shut their eyes to one truth lest it should impair another that they deem more sacred. But one truth can no more quench another truth than one sunbeam can quench another sunbeam. Truth is one, as God is one. Go forward to meet her in whatever garb, welcome her from whatever quarter, she comes: till at last, beyond the grave, you shall hail her in a blaze of glory which mortal eye can only strain in vain to contemplate.

The lecture was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. M. Panizzi, who was present, declared that Lord John's

The metaphor, as it originally stood, was more elaborate, and referred to the inability of one ray of light to quench another ray, or of one sound to destroy another sound. But it was pointed out to Lord John that his metaphors were wrong. 'Two rays of light have the power of extinguishing each other, and two waves of sound have a similar power, under certain circumstances;' and he consequently slightly modified the passage.

success was splendid,' 'a triumph.' Professor Owen, who merely read it in the 'Times,' said of it

It is worthy of being printed in letters of gold-or, still better, in good legible type of printer's ink-and [read] by millions, that the excellence of its teaching and the beauty and truth of its illustrations, may be known wherever the English language is spoken or read. I should calculate the good it will do as equal to that of all the speeches and sermons which have been spoken and preached in the present century.

Three years afterwards, in the address at Liverpool, Lord John travelled over another but a very wide field: Bankruptcy Reform; the codification of the statute book; the statistics and prevention of crime; the punishment of criminals; the gradual abolition of transportation which was making it a necessity for us to consume our own crime; the reformation of juvenile offenders; the happy and increasing influence of women on society; the extension of education; and the requirements of sanitary reform.

It was remarkable that Lord Shaftesbury, who had presided over the lecture in 1855, was present at the Social Science Congress in 1858, and, to quote his diary—

refused to move a vote of thanks to Lord J. Russell, because I could not honestly praise him (a political intriguer, and the unfeeling adversary of the wretched chimney-sweeps).

The extract is only equalled by the statement in the same diary, which has already been quoted, that its author had long considered Peel and John Russell among the most criminal of mankind. But, as hasty entries of this kind, never intended for the public eye, have been published, it is right to contrast them with Lord Shaftesbury's true and deliberate opinion of Lord John :

To have begun with disapprobation; to have fought through many difficulties; to have announced, and acted on, principles new to the day in which he lived; to have filled many important offices, to have made many speeches, and written many books; and in his whole course to have done much with credit, and nothing with dishonour, and so to have sustained and advanced his reputation to the very end, is a mighty commendation.

During most of the period in which Lord John was thus

reverting to the old literary pursuits in which he took so deep an interest, he continued chiefly to reside at Pembroke Lodge. In 1857 he let his London house to Lord Panmure, sleeping the few nights in which Parliament detained him. in town at an hotel. But during the four years he paid many visits to his friends, and made some longer excursions. In August 1855 he was the guest of his old friend Lord Fortescue in Scotland, but was unfortunately hurriedly recalled to Pembroke Lodge by Lady John's serious and sudden illness. Later in that year he resided for many months at a property which he had just bought in the immediate neighbourhood of Stroud. Rodborough Manor, the name of this estate, is in the parish of Amberley, and the purchase was therefore destined ultimately to confer a second title on its

Lord John never resided at Rodborough after the autumn and winter of 1855-56. The place was let soon afterwards to Lord Ribblesdale; and, at a still later date, was occupied by Lord John's son, Lord Amberley. Later still it was sold, and passed away from the family of the man who has made the name of the parish in which it was situated familiar as a household word.1

In 1856 the whole family took a longer and more interesting excursion. On the 16th of July Lady John and her four children crossed from London to Rotterdam, spending the next eight days with her sister Lady Mary Abercromby,

1 At Christmas, 1855, Lord John paid a visit to Woburn, taking with him his eldest daughter (Lady Georgiana Peel) and his youngest son. He was detained there longer than he had expected, from his son being attacked by croup, and he received the following consolatory letter from his eldest son :

My dear poor Papa,-As you get so very few letters, I thought I would write to you. We were so very sorry to hear that Rollo was ill, and that you would not be home for such a long time. The weather has been very cold, but to-day is a most beautiful day. . . . At eleven we drove in the brougham to Mr. Lycett. His room upstairs was very cold. We walked home very quick and got nice and warm. My feet now are itching dreadfully, which makes me write badly. . . . I had a very nice letter from Rollo, and I shall write one to him to-morrow. It had no stop all the way through, but was full of little lines, which is a very funny plan of Georgy's. Good-bye, dear papa.- From your affectionate son, J. RUSSELL.

...

If Lord Amberley had been spared to undertake the task, which I have attempted to discharge, of writing his father's life, he would hardly have pitied his 'poor papa' for getting so very few letters.

whose husband represented this country at the Hague. On the 25th they joined Lord John and his two eldest daughters at Antwerp. The family thence travelled slowly to Switzerland, resting on their way at Bonn, Mayence, and Heidelberg. They reached Basle on the 4th of August, and Lucerne on the 5th, and settled in a villa near Lausanne on Lord John's sixty-fourth birthday. The villa was delightfully situated on elevated ground, with a chestnut wood at its back and a glorious view of the mountains in front; and the children were naturally in raptures at a place and at a life so new to them. Lord John was equally pleased with his abode. Revolving in his own mind his projected 'Life of Fox,' and meditating on the advice of Sir G. Lewis to enlarge it into a greater work, he wrote

I have got some books here, and a terrace-which I walk up and down, preparing to appear as a second Gibbon.

The Russells remained at Lausanne till the end of September, when they set out for Italy, crossing the Simplon in merciless rain; staying a few days in Piedmont, and dining with Sir James Hudson to meet men so well known in Italian story as Cavour, Azeglio, Massari, Farini, La Marmora, Rattazzi, and Mamiami. From Turin they proceeded to Florence, where Lord Minto had already arrived, and where they occupied for the next three months the Villa Capponi, the property of the old Marquis Gino Capponi.

We looked from our beautiful villa1 upon the glorious town on one side, and Fiesole and the Apennines on the other; and we soon forgot the dreariness of our neglected garden with its mouldering statues and weedy walks.

Lady John had never before been at Florence. Thirty years had passed since Lord John-to use his own expression -had last seen the Raphaels; and his wife and he had therefore ample to occupy their time in visiting and revisiting the galleries and churches of the City of Flowers. But they had also other interests to occupy them. The Villa Capponi soon became the centre of all that was liberal in Florence;

The Villa Capponi stands outside the Porta San Gallo, nearly due north of Florence.

while at Lord Normanby's, who represented the United Kingdom at the Court of Tuscany, the Russells had the opportunity of meeting all that was reactionary. The Tuscan Government regarded the presence of Lord John with grave uneasiness, and is said actually to have set a watch at the Porta San Gallo to spy out his visitors. Yet the Government may have been almost pardoned for its suspicion, for Count Capponi himself thought that the visit of Lord John had a political object, and that he had come to Florence to ascertain the chances of revolution in Tuscany.

The Russells remained at Florence till the 12th of January, when they bade adieu to their Italian friends and English relations, and turned their faces homewards. They travelled to Pisa, and thence drove for no railway had at that time penetrated one of the most beautiful roads in the worldthrough Spezzia, Sestri, and Genoa, to Nice. As they passed Carrara, Lord John delivered the following impromptu :O'er these beautiful regions the German bears sway : See yonder his fortress all frowningly stand. His hand is the iron his soldiers display,

His heart is the marble that whitens the land.

The Russells rested for a few days at Nice, where Lord John had a private interview with Count Cavour ; 2 and, travelling slowly, only reached London on the 3rd of February. During 1857 and 1858 they made no such long excursions as in 1856. They passed most of these years at Pembroke Lodge; and such change as they obtained they gained from visits to friends in various parts of England.

Changes, in the meanwhile, were occurring in Lord John's domestic circle. His sister-in-law the Duchess of Bedford died in the summer of 1857. His father-in-law, Lord Minto, showed symptoms in 1858 of the gradual decay to which he succumbed in 1859. But, while its older members were Gino Capponi: Memorie, raccolte da Marco Tabarrini, pp. 304, 305. 2 Count Cavour wrote to him

Jeudi, 22.

Mon cher Lord John,-Désirant causer quelques instants avec vous sans crainte d'être dérangé, j'irai aujourd'hui à trois heures vous chercher à votre hôtel avec mon collègue, M. Rattazzi, &c.

C. CAVOUR.