should proceed by Bill. First, perhaps, a Bill for triennial Parliaments; then a Bill for a purchase of a few of the boroughs, as Mr. Pitt proposed, and an extension of the franchise to Manchester, Birmingham, &c. . . . The right of voting should certainly be allowed to copyholders. . . . The House of Commons should proceed in the work by regular and constant steps, not by one great and hazardous step.

These recommendations, made while the author was still in his teens, differed materially from his later opinions. In his 'History of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht,' published thirteen years afterwards, Lord John defended the Septennial Act and condemned triennial Parliaments; while, in 1831, he originated a Reform Bill, which, discarding regular and constant steps, marched to the result by one bold stride. His essay as usual was forwarded to his father, who encouraged him to persevere.

Let me urge you to continue the 'Register,' if it be only to give you a habit of reasoning and writing on political subjects, which cannot fail to be of the greatest service to you hereafter.

At the time, at which this article was written, the Whig party had encountered a disappointment which had made. many of them despair either of power for themselves or of victory for their principles. In the autumn of 1810, the cloud descended upon the faculties of the King which was never completely removed. Mr. Perceval's Administration, following the example of Mr. Pitt, induced Parliament to confer a Regency, limited as to time and restricted as to power, on the Prince of Wales; and the Prince, angry because of the fetters thus imposed on him, made no secret of his intention, so soon as the Regency Bill was passed, of dismissing his father's Ministers and of sending for the chiefs of the Whig party. The Whigs were so confident of office that they actually made provisional arrangements for the distribution of power. The Prince's resolution, however, was never very constant. Symptoms which held out hopes of his father's recovery gave

1 History of Europe, 2nd edition, 1826, vol. ii. p. 53.

him an excuse for continuing the Tories in office; and he announced his intention in a letter to the Duke of York which is not likely to be forgotten while Mr. Moore's parody of it survives. The Duke of Bedford saw, with some soreness, that his own name was not included by his friends in the projected arrangements; and perhaps from sharing his father's feelings, Lord John himself had very little patience with the conduct of his party.

Lord Holland tells me that you pay him the compliment of saying that he is the only remaining Whig in England. I am sorry that you should exclude me from this honoured distinction.1 You are rather severe upon the late intended Ministers: perhaps you may be softened towards our friends if I tell you that you was [sic] proposed to be included in their arrangements. If Lord Grey had returned to the Foreign Office he proposed to entrust an important mission to Mr. Adair, who kindly offered to take you with him, in any capacity which the forms of office would admit of; but I told him that I thought a few months (or indeed a year or two) more with Mr. Playfair was very requisite before you commenced your diplomatic course.2

An effort has been made to trace the interests which occupied Lord John's attention at Edinburgh. But the session of the university hardly occupied six months out of every twelve ; and the picture will not, therefore, be complete if something be not said of the manner in which Lord John passed his

1 Duke of Bedford to Lord J. Russell, March 27, 1811.

2 Ibid., Feb. 8, 1811. The arrangement was again contemplated in 1812, when Mr. Adair was once more thought of in connection with an important mission. Mr., afterwards Sir Robert, Adair was first cousin to the Duke of Bedford, his mother and the Duke's being sisters. It may be added that Lord John celebrated the reconstruction of Mr. Perceval's Ministry with a parody on the Witches' chorus in Macbeth :

Trouble, trouble, toil and trouble,

Honour's smoke, and faith's a bubble;

Round the cauldron, sisters, turn,

And with its flame let Britain burn,

Twenty years later he himself appeared as one of the witches in one of Mr. Doyle's (H. B.'s) caricatures, saying:

Round about the cauldron go,

In the Constitution throw.

holidays. His long sojourn in Spain during 1808-9 had given him an enduring interest in the fortunes of the campaign. In 1810 he seems to have addressed a strong remonstrance to Lord Holland on a speech in which Lord Grey had declared that, if he had been Minister, he would not have sent an expedition to the Peninsula ;1 and the interest which he was thus taking in the progress of the war was increased by the circumstance that his brother had become one of the combatants. Lord William Russell had embarked with his regiment for the Peninsula in the summer of 1809. He was present at Talavera, where he was wounded and narrowly escaped being made a prisoner; 2 and in the following year he was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir Thomas Graham, who commanded the garrison at Cadiz, at that time closely besieged by the French. Lord John decided on employing his summer holidays in 1810 in paying his brother a visit. At four in the morning on August 30 he left Plymouth in the Latona, a fine

3

1 The speech to which Lord John alluded is apparently that reported in Hans. Parl. Deb. xvii. p. 598. Lord Holland thought it worth while replying in four closely written sheets to a letter which he did not like the less for being warm; especially as warmth in the cause of liberty is easily cooled, but coldness is not very readily thawed.

? Lord John said that at Talavera the cavalry, consisting of the 23rd Dragoons and a German regiment, was ordered to charge two divisions of the enemy's infantry, moving up on the English left. Between the two armies was a very large hollow or ditch too wide to leap. The 23rd crossed it with some confusion. The German colonel, when he came to the hollow, exclaimed, 'I will not kill my young men,' and led his regiment back. In the meanwhile the 23rd, passing between the enemy's columns, 'sustained a very heavy fire. A captain and a considerable number of privates were made prisoners; the rest of the regiment turned round and galloped back as fast as they could; among them my brother, being accosted by a French officer with the word "Prisonnier," replied "Pas encore," and, clapping spurs to his horse, had a desperate struggle for life. He was wounded in the side; a bullet struck his cloak, which was strapped behind him, and two more bullets struck his horse in the neck and head. However, he got back, and did not long suffer from the wound. This,' Lord John goes on to say with reference to a visit which he paid to the battlefield in 1813, 'was the part of the field which I was anxious to examine. But, though I found a spot answering the description, I cannot be at all sure that it was the identical hollow way through which the English and Irish dragoons dashed so madly, and at sight of which the German colonel so prudently halted."

3 Sir T. Graham is better known by his later title of Lord Lynedoch.

38-gun frigate lately fitted up as a troopship. On September 12 he reached Gibraltar.

At the Governor's house I saw some proclamations to be distributed amongst the French army, offering a reward in the name of the Governor to all deserters, French or otherwise, which seems to be both unlawful and impolitic, for I cannot understand how it can be just to entice away the troops that serve the enemy, or how it can be profitable to show your own troops the honour and emolument to be acquired by desertion. Late in the evening we set sail for Cadiz, and arrived there at two o'clock upon Sunday, the 16th. Upon landing I found General Graham, and I went with him to dine at Mr. Wellesley's.1 . . . I stayed at General Graham's house, excepting a few visits to Cadiz, till October 22.

The diary proceeds with a detailed account of the arrangements for the defence, and does not enter into politics. But, as the following letter will show, Lord John was taking a warm interest in the proceedings of the Cortes.

2 ISLA, October 6, 1810.

MY DEAR FATHER,--You will perhaps be surprised to find that the packet brings this letter instead of me; but notwithstanding I mean to be in England by the end of October. But I find so much amusement here, and so much interest in the Cortes, that I cannot agree to leave this place to-morrow.

The Cortes are the only moving creatures here at present. They are still going on well but slowly. The members are very zealous and independent, for they are yet too unrefined to admit rotten boroughs. They have appointed a finance committee, and the general wish seems to be to reform the old abuses and establish a limited monarchy. The institutions and forms of England are much quoted. The greatest danger to be feared was a love of concealment, and, indeed, of popular clamour; but some of the members spoke so strongly on this subject that they have agreed to have the House open the greater part of their sitting. A victory in Spain would make the session safe for the winter, and next year the Spaniards themselves may make a

1 Mr. H. Wellesley, afterwards Earl Cowley, who had succeeded Lord Wellesley as our representative in Spain.

2 i.e., Isle de Léon at Cadiz.

figure in war as great as they did before despotism weakened William desires his love to you. Your affecJ. RUSSELL.1

their arms. tionate son,

The promise to return was not fulfilled. As October was drawing to a close, Lord John ascertained that two officers, Captains Stanhope and Walpole,2 were ordered to carry despatches to Lisbon.

They proposed to me to accompany them, and the offer was too tempting to allow me to decline it. The commander of a gun-brig gave us a passage, which proved a very stormy one, to Faro in the province of Algarve. The next day we got mules, and had a pleasant and amusing journey of some days towards Lisbon... On the day following our arrival at Lisbon, we continued our ride to General Hill's headquarters. A high and precipitous range of cliffs, reaching nearly to the Tagus, was furnished with batteries and protected this part of the lines, which have since been known by the name of Torres Vedras. General Hill was on the extreme right, as Torres Vedras was near the extreme left, of the position. The village of Alhandra lay immediately below the cliffs I have mentioned, and it had been intended that the village should be left to the French. But, as it was completely commanded by the guns of our batteries, General Hill thought it best to retain possession of the village and to throw up abattis on the high road immediately beyond it. I rode into the village with General Hill on the morning after our arrival at his headquarters. On the same day we pursued our road along the tops of mountains and through deep valleys to the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Arthur Wellesley. These were situated in a small village at some distance from the great fort of Sobral, which formed the centre of the position. I had never before seen our great com

1 I am not writing a life of Lord W. Russell, but I cannot resist adding that young gentleman's postscript to his brother's letter.

'MY DEAR FATHER,-John has told you all the news, so I will be silent. There were two pointer puppies sent to Woburn for me by Capt. Todd; they are a famous Spanish breed, remarkable for the excellence of the nose, so I will thank you to order they may be taken great care of, and well broke. I think there will be some amusement here soon. My love to all, and believe me affectionately yours, G. W. R.'

2 Captain James H. Stanhope, third son of the third Earl of Stanhope, and Captain John Walpole, fourth son of the second Earl of Orford.