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which he had undertaken of unveiling the statue and window which were dedicated to Lord Palmerston's memory in the town and abbey of Romsey; and, early in August, Lord Russell, with his three unmarried children and two of his grandchildren, left Richmond for Scotland, where they spent a month at St. Fillans, occupying a second month in visits at Inverary, Minto, Woburn, Adisham, and Walmer, and finally reaching home on the 5th of October.

Lord Russell during the holiday was in excellent health and spirits. His sister-in-law Lady William wrote to him—

Letters from the Abbey, and Lacaita viva voce, proclaim that you never were so brilliant, so agreeable, or so charming as September 1868. I said you really could be divine. I did not say you were occasionally a mere mortal-which is when you disagree with mebecause these are family matters.

A little more than a month after Lord Russell's return to Richmond, the Parliament of 1865 was dissolved, and the general election of 1868 occurred. The Conservatives, though the counties remained faithful to them, were routed hip and thigh in the boroughs; and the Ministers, without waiting to face the Parliament which they had convened, placed their resignations in the Queen's hands. The Queen at once sent for Mr. Gladstone, who wrote to Lord Russell

II Carlton House Terrace, S. W.: December 3, 1868. My dear Lord Russell,-I have this morning undertaken by her Majesty's command to attempt the formation of a new Administration.

In proceeding to this task, I cannot, without much misgiving, compare myself with you and with others, so much more competent than I am, in whose steps I am thus endeavouring to tread.

Neither can I forget the generous declarations of confidence, and the unequivocal support, which I have received from you in the hour of difficulty, and which have helped to bring me onwards to responsi bilities, I fear, beyond my strength.

Looking to the formation of a Government, I have before me the

Lady Palmerston earnestly urged him to make the effort as Palmerston's oldest and best friend. The italics are hers.

2 On private grounds the results of the election were not satisfactory to Lord John. His son, Lord Amberley, was defeated in Devonshire; and his brotherin-law, Mr. George Elliot, was beaten by Mr. (now Sir George) Trevelyan in the Border Burghs.

declarations in which you have claimed an exemption, without doubt nobly and amply earned, from the heavy burdens of the great offices you have so often borne as a Minister and as a leader in both Houses of Parliament.

Under all circumstances, I should look with hope and confidence to full and frequent communications with you, and to the benefit of your friendship and advice.

There remains, however, a question. You have an experience and knowledge to which no living statesman can pretend. Of the benefit to be derived from it I am sure that all with whom I can be likely to act would be deeply sensible. Would it be too great an invasion of your independence to ask you to consider whether you could afford it [sic] as a member of the Cabinet without the weight of other responsibility?

I send this letter instead of disturbing you by a telegram at night; but, if it be convenient to you to come up to-morrow forenoon, I should be most happy to explain to you the precise point I have reached in the first stage of my arduous proceedings.-Believe me, my dear Lord Russell, very sincerely yours,

W. E. GLADSTONE.

Lord Russell, though he felt deep regret that the weight of advancing years should have prevented his accepting Mr. Gladstone's offer, at once made up his mind to refuse it; and Mr. Gladstone replied―

The snapping of ties is never pleasant, but your resolution is probably a wise one, and I rejoice to think there are ties between you and us which cannot be snapped. Perhaps it is selfish of me to think of and mention them, rather than to dwell upon those ties which inseparably associate your name with so many great and noble passages in the history of your country.

But Lord Russell, though he refused the responsibility of power, had no intention of being idle. On the 18th of January he published a third pamphlet on Ireland in the shape of a third letter to Mr. Chichester Fortescue. In this pamphlet he not merely dealt with the Irish Church; but, taking Mr. Trench's 'Realities of Irish Life' as his text, strenuously advocated the reform of the Irish Land Laws. So far as the Irish Church was concerned he declared himself in favour both of its disestablishment and disendowment, though he desired that an interval of about a year should be allowed in which it should

be enabled to frame a scheme for its future organisation. He proposed too that the Church should be allowed to retain certain portions of its property to which it might have an equitable title; endowments of equal amounts being handed over both to Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. So far as the land was concerned he desired to give the tenant some security against ejectment and some compensation for improvements. He concluded

When the great work of conciliation has been, in spite of unjust aspersions and unfounded calumnies, gloriously accomplished, Mr. Gladstone may take to himself the consolation of Dante, that his life travels into the future, far beyond the mark to which the arrows of his enemies can reach, and he may say proudly

If I'm traduced by tongues which neither know

My faculties nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing, let me say

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through.

Holding these opinions Lord Russell warmly supported the Bill which Mr. Gladstone introduced, expressing his satisfaction that

This question has been taken up in a befitting manner by a great Minister who, by his able, his honest, and his courageous policy has been fortunate enough to awaken in the people of the United Kingdom a sentiment of justice and sympathy towards the people of Ireland which they have never hitherto had the good fortune to see prevail.

But, at the same time, he voted in the majority against the Government on a proposal of Lord Salisbury's for giving the clergy of the Establishment the continued possession of their glebe houses; he supported on the third reading a fresh clause, introduced by Lord Stanhope but really framed by himself, for providing glebe houses for the clergy of all denominations. When the Bill was returned from the Commons he again voted with the Conservative party, declaring, however, that he would rather assent to the harsh provisions sent up from the House of Commons than lose the measure altogether; and, on the final stage of all, when the two

Houses had practically compromised their differences, he again expressed a hope that

Parliament will be at liberty to see whether there are any objects likely to be of advantage to Ireland which have superior claims to those of unavoidable calamity or suffering.'

Thus from the first to the last Lord Russell had maintained the same opinion. He preferred the disendowment of the Irish Church to the maintenance of its monopoly. But he would have liked still better to have used the funds of which the Church was deprived for the endowment of other branches of the Christian religion.

Though, however, he had been unable to shape the details of the measure to suit his own views, he thoroughly rejoiced at the conclusion of a great controversy, writing to Mr. Gladstone to congratulate him on his success. Mr. Gladstone repliedChislehurst July 27, 1869.

My dear Lord Russell,-Thank you very much for your kind note, and I can well believe in the satisfaction you are entitled to feel upon the passing of the Irish Church Act. It is really founded on principles of which you were the expositor long ago; and, although you may consistently regret that it does not embody all your views, you are not the man to desire that a secondary purpose should be preferred to one that is primary. Sincerely yours,

W. E. GLADSTONE.

The Irish Church Bill necessarily formed the chief legislative measure of 1869. But in the same session Lord Russell made a serious effort to deal with another evil by empowering the House to add a limited number of life peers drawn from men distinguished in arms, in law, in the public service, and in letters or science, to the House of Lords. The proposal was no new one for Lord Russell to make. Nearly twenty years before, during his own Administration, he had brought the matter before the Queen, and had received her sanction of the offer of a life peerage to a distinguished lawyer, Dr. Lushington. Dr. Lushington, however, declined the offer. Lord Palmerston's action in 1856 in conferring a life peerage on Lord Wensleydale was defeated by the refusal of the Lords to allow a life peer to sit. And the subject was not

renewed till it was brought forward by Lord Russell in 1869. The Bill, which Lord Russell introduced for this purpose, reached, though it did not pass, its third reading, when it was rejected on the motion of Lord Malmesbury, who was so proud of his effort that he has published his speeches both on the second and the third reading in his 'Memoirs.' It does not seem necessary to publish in this memoir the speeches which Lord Russell made on the same occasions. Yet the time may possibly come when, in this matter too, Conservatives may regret that, from resisting improvement because it was innovation, they should have to submit to innovation which they may not consider improvement.

In the course of the session Lord Russell paid short visits to Oxford, which his youngest son had now joined, and to his daughter Lady Georgiana Pcel at Wrexham. Towards the close of it he was the Queen's guest at Windsor, where he was invested with the Grand Cross of the order of St. Michael and St. George; and he subsequently visited Lord and Lady Amberley at Rodborough, thence proceeding, through one of the most beautiful valleys in England, to Ross, Tintern, and Chepstow. Three months later, on the 26th of October, he left home on a longer journey, travelling through France, in deep snow, to Cannes and San Remo, which he and his family reached on the 3rd of November, and where they remained for some months in the Villa Garbarino.

Our landlord, the Marchese Garbarino, was an ardent Liberal and Italian patriot; and to our surprise and delight we found painted on the ceiling of our pretty little drawing room, a portrait of John. There was one in each angle, the three others being Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour.

The five months were among the very happiest of our lives, and we reckon it among the three earthly paradises to which our wanderings have taken us-La Roche, St. Fillans, and San Remo. It was a very quiet life, but with a pleasant amount of society, many people we much liked passing through, or staying awhile, or, like ourselves, all the winter. Our Cambridge and Oxford boys spent a delightful Christmas vacation with us. We had a little party of English and Italians every Wednesday.

Of the doings of San Remo; of a visit of the Crown

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