measure containing such a clause should become law. And this difference was emphasised by the fate which almost simultaneously attended another measure. The Whig Ministers, towards the end of the session of 1835, decided on extending the principles and advantages of Municipal Reform to Irish municipalities. At the outset their decision was sharply censured by the King:

His Majesty cannot but apprehend the greatest mischief from the introduction of such a Bill. . . . A Bill of this character. may suit Mr. D. O'Connell or other agitators, but cannot tend to the advantage or tranquillity of Ireland.1

And again :

It appears to his Majesty desirable 2 at this advanced season, and considering the extraordinary length of the session, to bring forward the Appropriation Bill without further delay.

The King's advice was not taken; the session was protracted, while the Irish Municipal Bill was rapidly passed through the Commons. Its passage through that House did not ensure its success. It was thrown out by the Lords.

The session of 1835, therefore, was famous for one great success, with which Lord John had been directly connected, and for two failures. But, from a personal point of view, it was still more noteworthy for what Lord Ebrington, writing to Lord John, called 'the golden opinions you have won from all shades of our allies by your conduct,'

Lord John's protracted exertions had severely taxed his delicate organisation. He was exhausted with his long labours, and sought and obtained the King's permission to recruit his strength by seeking rest and fresh air at Endsleigh. He set out from London in the second week of

1 The King to Lord J. Russell, August 14, 1835

2 The King to Lord J. Russell, August 15, 1835.

3 Sir H. Taylor wrote to Lord John on September 4, 'His Majesty approves of your going into Devonshire at the end of next week, as he is well aware of the necessity of some rest after your active campaign.' The necessity was great. In the Plymouth address, which will be immediately mentioned, the subscribers express 'the most earnest wish that your health may be speedily re-established.'

VOL. I.

R

September, accompanied by his wife and her children. His eldest step-daughter (Mrs. Drummond) writes

I believe it was in the autumn after Lord Russell's marriage to my mother that they took me with them for a tour in Devonshire. Even then (being between eight and nine years old) I had an indistinct but real sense of the charm of [his] conversation. . . On the journey, however, I recall only a ghost story, which I made him repeat over and over again; so delightful was the terrible moment when, with deep voice and solemn countenance, he uttered the knight's rash declaration to the ghost :—

Agnes, Agnes, I am thine,

Agnes, Agnes, thou art mine,

Body and soul for ever!

A more real terror to me while travelling was the behaviour of the people in the towns and villages we passed through. They greeted the champion of Reform with shouts of joy, and at Ilfracombe they came out to meet us, took the horses out, and dragged the carriage into the town.

After travelling through the wild scenery of Northern Devonshire, the Russells turned south, and came to Endsleigh. Fresh air soon restored Lord John's health; and he probably let out the secret of his own rapid recovery in a letter (on September 28) to Lord Melbourne

I am very sorry to hear that you have not been well since the session ended. I am afraid that you do not take exercise enough, or eat and drink more than enough. One of the two may do, but not both together. I have been quite set up by leaving London, and having only a moderate quantity of business with sufficient of good air.

While Lord John was shooting his father's partridges and resting from his labours, a different man was otherwise occupied. Mr. O'Connell, imitating the example of Lord Brougham in 1834, was travelling through Scotland, addressing monster meetings, and demanding the abolition of the House of Lords. After his tour in Scotland, he returned to Ireland, left his name at the Castle, and was formally invited to dinner by the Viceroy. The alarm with which the King

had watched the agitator's progress was increased by observing that such an attention was paid to him. Mr. O'Conneli's language-so his Majesty declared-'ought to exclude him from the society of gentlemen;' and Lord Melbourne was of opinion

that nothing but the ill success of the former experiment prevents O'Connell's progress and speeches from having the same result as was produced by Brougham's tour last year. It seems to me easy to get through the sitting of Parliament, The vacation is

the trying time.

The brunt of the King's displeasure fell upon Lord John, through whom, as Home Secretary, the Lord Lieutenant's explanations flowed to the Crown. Lord Mulgrave declared that he had made a point of inviting to dinner every peer and member of Parliament who called on him; that Mr. O'Connell had called, and had been invited accordingly; and that, if he had sinned, he had sinned in good company, for Lord John himself had committed the same offence during the session. Lord John forwarded Lord Mulgrave's letter to the King, and added 1

Nor would it be fair to Lord Mulgrave if I withheld my opinion that his explanation is satisfactory. So long as Mr. O'Connell could be kept in check by the power of a Coercion Act, it was my opinion, as it was that of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, that we should be able to prevent any serious mischief from his agitation in favour of a repeal of the Union. But, when the opposition of Lord Wellesley in Ireland, and of Lord Althorp and four other members of the Cabinet at home, made that mode of government utterly impossible, I felt obliged to look cut for some other plan; and, with the best reflection that I am able to give to the question, it appears to me that a cautious and guarded conduct, neither placing in Mr. O'Connell a confidence he would probably abuse, nor driving him to angry desperation by marked exclusion . . . will afford the best chance of preserving the ignorant and inflammatory population of Ireland from disaffection and disturbance. It is, I believe, a circumstance quite new in the history of this country that there should exist

1 Lord John to Sir H. Taylor, October 21, 1835.

a man of great talents, popular eloquence, and great influence, who neither keeps within the bounds of Parliamentary warfare like Lord Chatham and Mr. Fox, and who is yet such a master of law that he can do ten times more mischief than Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Mr. Emmet without incurring any legal penalty. For the present he seems to have dropped Repeal, which is his most dangerous weapon; and, such is the state of Ireland that every month of tranquillity gained gives a fairer hope for the progress of wealth, education, and civilisation.

The King's alarm was not entirely allayed by Lord John's explanation; but his confidence was increased by the closer knowledge, which he was gradually acquiring, of Lord John's character and opinions. He had hitherto regarded him as a dangerous innovator; the autumn of 1835 was to show him that Lord John's desire for Reform was prompted by a wish to improve and preserve the constitution, which the King had perhaps feared that he was about to destroy. Much, for instance, as Lord John had suffered from the conduct of the Lords, he had no intention of lending himself to an attack upon them. He wrote to Lord Melbourne on the 7th of October

...

The Pitt party has been weakened, not strengthened, by making so many dull country gentlemen duller peers. Two or three now and then may be useful, but I should regret any large creation. The best stuff would be Liberal Irishmen, The Orange peers are so harmonious, and Duncannon is not an orator.

Twice during the recess he had an opportunity of stating these views in public. On his arrival in Devonshire, some of his old constituents-the inhabitants of Plymouth and the neighbourhood-waited on him to thank him for his great and protracted exertions, and for the attachment which he had shown to the cause of civil and religious liberty. In his reply Lord John referred in severe language to the conduct of the Lords :

The same party which prompted and led this resistance have been opposed to every Liberal measure which has been proposed for the last seven years; and upon all the most important of those

measures their resistance has ended in a confession that the struggle was hopeless, and that, although darkness was still to be desired, light was no longer to be excluded,

But he added

Fortified, therefore, by past victories, relying firmly on future progress, I earnestly recommend you to look for the triumph of further measures of Reform rather to the effect of public opinion, enlightened and matured by knowledge and discussion, than to organic changes which cannot be proposed without causing division, nor carried without risk of convulsion. . . . For my own part to the great landmarks of our liberties I must steadily adhere; to the constitution of this country in all its branches I stand pledged by feeling, by opinion, and by duty.

And at a great dinner at Bristol, on November 10, where the Reformers of that city presented him with some silver candelabra 'raised by subscriptions of sixpence each, as a testimony of their high admiration and grateful sense of his public conduct and political consistency,' he again used scrupulously moderate language.1

These two speeches won him marked approval. Lord Grey 2 wrote on November 6

I approve very much of your answer to the Plymouth address; thinking the Government bound by every consideration of duty to oppose a firm and decided resistance to Mr. O'Connell's new scheme for what some call reforming, but what he fairly acknowledges and avows to mean overturning, the House of Lords. While his father, who was in Scotland recovering from the effects of a paralytic seizure, wrote more warmly

1 The substance of the Bristol speech was published in a pamphlet (London, 1835). I have not attempted to enumerate all the occasions on which Lord John received testimonials of this character. One of them, in 1832, may be and recollected as the subject of one of H. B.'s caricatures, Ministers their in Cups.'

2 Lord Grey-so Lord Ebrington wrote to Lord John on September 26-'is sadly low, and, I must add, sadly wrong, about politics. The O'Connellphobia stronger than ever, and the notion of any change in the constitution of the House of Lords treated as an utter overturn of the Monarchy, though he was forced to admit that they had done a good deal to deserve it.'