Catholic clergy by giving increased endowment to Maynooth, the college at which the priests were chiefly educated; (2) to promote the higher education of the Irish people by establishing colleges, Queen's colleges as they were called, in three important Irish towns; (3) to give security to the Irish tenant by affording him compensation for unexhausted improvements in accordance with some of the recommendations of a commission which he had himself appointed, and which, from the name of its chairman, is known as the Devon Commission. These great measures, great not merely from what they did, but from the principles which they introduced, were received with a shout of dismay from the Tory party. The last of them, introduced by Lord Stanley into the Lords, was practically stifled by the select committee to which it was referred, and never reached the Commons. The other measures were mainly carried through Lord John's assistance. How effectual his support was may be inferred from the circumstance that, on the third reading of the Maynooth Bill, the Minister actually, failed to command a majority of his own supporters.1 How gentlemanlike it was may be known from Mr. Greville s description : I was at Newmarket while the Maynooth debate was going on. The ultra-Tories grew more and more rabid, and Disraeli made one of his brilliant attacks on Peel. . . . Then came the speech of Macaulay, which was very fine, and ended also with a severe, but grave and dignified, Philippic against Peel. . . . On the last night John Russell and Peel spoke. The former made a speech which has excited universal admiration and applause. It was perfect, not for its eloquence or any remarkable display of ability; but for its tone, temper, discretion, and propriety. It was exactly what it ought to have been, neither more or less; it was calculated to do good, and it has raised him immensely in public estimation. It is a melancholy reflection that, while these two great men, who towered above all other contemporary statesmen, 1 Mr. Tufnell, writing to Lord John, said that the third reading of the Bill was carried by a majority consisting of 148 Tories and 169 Liberals against a minority comprising 149 Tories and 35 Liberals. were thus steadily being drawn together, they remained in another sense apart. It is perhaps the inevitable result of political rivalry that men are more apt to study the faults than the virtues of their opponents, and Lord John, at least when he was removed from the strife and excitement, was alive to this circumstance. Thus, after reflecting, in a letter to Lord Minto on December 12, 1844, on one of Peel's measures, he added I should be glad, however, to learn what you think, as the question is an important one, and constant battles against Peel and Graham may have blinded me to their merits. During the summers of 1844 and 1845, Lord John spent much of his time in the house-Unsted Wood, near Godalming--which he hired. Unfortunately his enjoyment of country life was marred by the circumstance that Lady John, losing health in the summer of 1844, was, for the next two years, afflicted with a tedious and painful illness. Lord John in consequence was frequently compelled to leave his wife at Unsted while he returned to his Parliamentary duties in London. On one of these occasions, in 1845, Lady John sent her husband what she herself called some nonsense verses : I suppose, my dear John, that you will not object For a page or two spread my poetical pinions, And waft to you some of the thoughts and opinions, Of your household, your wife, and your half-dozen bairns. And so on. Lord John was engaged to dine at Blackwall, but on his return home he scribbled off an answer, from which the following lines are extracted: From your journal in verse, my dearest of dears, The whole course of your evening most clearly appears, And I will endeavour your evening at home To repay with your husband's 'invited to roam ;' To roam to the banks of bark-covered Thames, Where prospect and provender hold forth their claims : VOL. I. 2 D Enchanted to gaze, and delighted to dine, Where (excepting the chaplain) there's nothing divine. The dinner was served to the prime of the city. Now director, now one of the Thames committee; He always eats well for the good of the nation. I've no time for the speeches: your husband made two; And the cost was defrayed from the surplus of treasure. May such honest folks flourish and good success bless 'em. As the summer of 1845 wore on, and Lady John grew no better, Lord John was tempted to remove her to Scotland. They took with them Lord Ribblesdale, one of his sisters (Mrs. Warburton), and the baby (Lord Amberley). On their way north they stopped at Gisburne, Lord Ribblesdale's seat in Yorkshire, where the tenants gave the young Lord a touching reception-'flags, bells, guns, crowds, hurrahs !' Still travelling slowly, they broke the journey at Settle and Penrith. But on reaching Minto Lady John was evidently so much worse that Lord John was compelled to give up a projected trip to the Highlands, and take his wife for medical advice to Edinburgh. There she was detained by illness till the following April, first in an hotel, and afterwards at Lauriston Castle, which Mr. Rutherford placed at Lord John's disposal. While in Edinburgh Lord John received an honorary degree 1 Mr. Masterman, the Conservative member for the City, was at the top of the poll in 1841. 2 I presume Lord Ripon. from his old University and the freedom of the city.1 But his residence there had one consequence of a more public character: it gave a name to the Edinburgh Letter.' Before referring to the circumstances in which that letter was written, it is desirable to mention a few other matters of more personal interest. To Lord John 1845 was a year of sorrow. He was harassed and depressed by his wife's long and continuous illness, while he was destined to lose many of the friends and colleagues with whom he had lived in closest communion. Mr. Sydney Smith died early in the year; on July 18 Lord Howick wrote to him to announce Lord Grey's death; in October he learned that Lord Spencer had been prematurely taken. Lord Spencer's brother said with much truth to him— 2 In public and in private life your courses and your affections have been for many years cemented; and you are among those fully aware of the many beautiful virtues which adorned my dear brother's mind, and of the purity and integrity of his conduct. What Lord John thought, however, of Lord Grey's services and Lord Spencer's conduct need not be inferred from casual correspondence. Almost immediately after hearing of Lord Spencer's death he wrote to Mr. Napier, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, proposing that he should contribute an article on the character of these two men in the great Whig 1 In January 1846 Lord John received the freedom of the city of Glasgow. I have not attempted to enumerate all the honours of this kind conferred on him by various municipalities. 2 Mr. Sydney Smith occasionally turned his joke against Lord John. 'I like, my dear Lord, the road you are travelling; but I don't like the pace you are. driving too similar to that of the son of Nimshi. I always feel inclined to cry out, "Gently, John, gently downhill"' (Sydney Smith's Works, iii. 160). Or again in the same letter: The reformers of the Church are no longer archbishops and bishops, but Lord John Russell: not those persons to whom the Crown has entrusted the task, but Lord Martin Luther, bred and born in our own island, and nourished by the Woburn spoils and confiscation of the Church' (ibid. p. 157). But Mr. Sydney Smith could not even refuse an invitation to dinner without a joke. He wrote to Lord John in 1843, 'I should have had great pleasure in dining with you, my dear John, but I am engaged to dine with Mrs. S., the singing woman. Not that I have any pleasure in the voice of singing men or singing women; but, as Adam said when they found him in breeches, the woman asked me, and I did eat... .. periodical; and the article, which occupied his leisure hours at Lauriston, and which appeared in January 1846, is a proof of the veneration and affection with which he regarded the memory of his friends. But a still more severe blow was preparing for him. In the middle of November Lady Holland died. No doubt many of those who enjoyed Lady Holland's hospitality resented her dictatorial manners, and were annoyed at her interference in affairs which did not immediately concern her. But it was not so with Lord John. From his childhood he had lived with Lord and Lady Holland on terms: of affectionate intimacy. At Holland House he had been 'treated as a son.' He wrote to Lord Lansdowne The many years she has shown the greatest kindness and affection to me, make this a bitter affliction. Lady Holland made him her executor, and left him for his life the very considerable estate which she enjoyed in her own right at Kennington.1 Some people-Lord Fortescue among them-forgetting, for the moment, that Lady Holland had property in the south of London, took Kennington for Kensington, and were disposed to question the propriety of Holland House passing away from the family. But, whatever others may have thought, those who had most right to complain acquiesced at once in the bequest which was thus made. Lord Holland's and Lady Lilford's letters to Lord John continued to breathe the warmest affection; while, as Lord John wrote— Charles Fox wrote me a very kind letter, and was as cordial as possible. He promises to live in kindness with me all the rest of our lives, and we have always been on terms which make such a promise no idle word, Lord John left his sick wife to attend Lady Holland's 1 Lady Holland communicated her intention to Lord John beforehand in the enclosed memorandum : 'The disposition of the Kennington estate, made in my will in favour of Lord John Russell, is made by me in consequence not only of my warm affection for Lord John, but of an intention previously entertained by my dear Lord to make a similar disposition of Ampthill, and I hope Lord John will accept the gift as a token of the affection and goodwill of both.' |