had been thought necessary before, reminded him of the unfortunate wag mentioned in Joe Miller, who was so fond of rehearsing a joke that he always repeated it at the wrong time.1

Such is the full report of Lord J. Russell's speech. His sally may have caused a laugh; it did not influence the result. The Alien Act of 1814, like its many predecessors, became law.

Not much interest attaches to these early speeches. And perhaps, so far as Lord John Russell is concerned, there is more significance in an event which happened in Bond Street than in either of the two speeches which he made in the House of Commons. For, in 1814, he became a member of

Grillion's Club.2

It has been the good fortune of Grillion's that, from its first formation, it has embraced the foremost men on both sides of politics. The statesmen opposed to one another in Parliament have met at its table; and the asperities of political warfare have been smoothed by the easy and pleasant friction of social converse. Lord John was a frequent attendant at its meetings; and, though the older members of the club hesitate to publish the many good stories which they tell and retell in private, some of them could recount how 'Johnnie,' as he was almost universally called, after he had ripened into the full dignity of a Cabinet Minister, was one of the leading actors in at least one scene of boisterous good humour.

Lord John was not in London when Parliament reassembled. The air of Southern Europe was preferable to the atmosphere of Westminster; and, like a bird of passage, he had again spread his wings for a long flight to the South.

Touching on his way to the Mediterranean at Lisbon, he wrote to Mr. Horner: 3—

1 Hansard, xxvii. 862, and xxviii. 715.

2 The late Sir Philip Egerton wrote a short account of Grillion's Club (for private circulation). From that book I find that in 1844 Lord John, having been thirty years a member, was invited to become an honorary member. He must therefore have joined the club in 1814.

3 Mr. Francis Horner, who was born in 1778, and who died prematurely in 1817, was one of the most prominent members of the Liberal party.

DEAR HORNER,afterwards to Rome.

LISBON, October 28, 1814.

We sail to-morrow for Nice, and go Pray give me your advice as to my plans for the next two years. My health is hardly good enough yet to attend zealously to the House of Commons, and it would not be of much use to me to be in London merely for the last two months of the session. These reasons make me think of travelling till Christmas next year, in which time I may improve both my constitution and my understanding. But if you think there will be anything of importance in the House of Commons this year, or that I ought to lose no time in devoting myself to the study of business there, I shall be ready to return from Rome or even from Nice. . Yours truly,

J. RUSSELL.

Five weeks afterwards he commenced a new diary in Italy.

Leghorn, December 4, 1814.—After five weeks spent on the sea and in a Lazzaret, you may suppose that we return to the habitations of men with a greater appetite than is usual to travellers newly arrived in Italy.

Thus Lord John commenced his new diary, and the same reflection again occurred to him on reaching Florence.

I shall hardly be safe in describing the beauties of this place; for, to those who have spent six weeks between a sea voyage and a Lazzaretto, every object has a colour much richer than to ordinary travellers; so that, whilst many of the English here are complaining, some of the cold, some of the wet, some of the journey, and almost all of the inns, I listen with great satisfaction and unconcern to their lamentations.

His stay at Florence was, however, only short.

On the 17th I left Florence with Mr. Whitmore1 and Captain Adye of the Partridge. We went to Lucca, visiting this place in our way to Leghorn.

For an opportunity such as falls to the lot of few men, and such as Lord John himself had not hitherto enjoyed, had arisen. Napoleon was detained at Elba, and to Elba Lord John was bending his way.

1 Mr. Whitmore was the husband of Lord John's cousin, Lady Lucy Bridgeman.

More than fifty years afterwards, in November 1868, Lord John sent to M. Van de Weyer an account, which was privately printed, of the interview which he then had with the Emperor. More interest, however, naturally attaches to the narrative which he wrote at the time.

Porto Ferrajo, December 25, 1814.-At eight o'clock in the evening yesterday, I went to the Palace according to appointment to see Napoleon. After waiting some minutes in the ante-room I was introduced by Count Drouot, and found him standing alone in a small room. He was dressed in a green coat, with a hat in his hand, very much as he is painted; but, excepting the resemblance of dress, I had a very mistaken idea of him from his portrait. He appears very short, which is partly owing to his being very fat; his hands and legs being quite swollen and unwieldy. That makes him appear awkward, and not unlike the whole-length figure of Gibbon the historian. Besides this, instead of the bold-marked countenance that I expected, he has fat cheeks, and rather a turn-up nose, which, to bring in another historian, makes the shape of his face resemble the portraits of Hume. He has a dusky grey eye, which would be called vicious in a horse, and the shape of his mouth expresses contempt and decision. His manner is very good-natured, and seems studied to put one at one's ease by its familiarity; his smile and laugh are very agreeable; he asks a number of questions without object, and often repeats them, a habit which he has no doubt acquired during fifteen years of supreme command. To this I should also attribute the ignorance he seems to show at times of the most common facts. When anything that he likes is said, he puts his head forward, and listens with great pleasure; but when he does not like what he hears, he turns away as if unconcerned, and changes the subject. From this one might conclude that he was open to flattery and violent in his temper.

Lord John was with the Emperor an hour and a half, conversing on many subjects-the Russell family, Lord John's own allowance from the Duke, the state of Spain and Italy, the character of the Duke of Wellington, and the arrangements likely to be made at Vienna for the pacification of Europe. He used to say in his old age that, as the Emperor became interested in his conversation, he fell into the singular habit

which he had acquired, and pulled him by the ear. Two days afterwards Lord John left Elba for Civita Vecchia and Rome. But amidst the interests of the Eternal City he unfortunately omitted to continue his diary, and only resumed it, some weeks afterwards, at Terracina on the road to Naples. On Tuesday, February 7, he left Naples for Pæstum, stopping at Pompeii, where he made the characteristic observation that 'every one was slain in his vocation-the rich man carrying away his money, the priests eating, and the soldiers entertaining a woman.' After leaving Pompeii, Lord John thought the descent to Salerno 'one of the most magnificent views I ever saw.' On arriving at Pæstum, he described one of its temples as 'the most perfect specimen of Greek architecture that I have had the luck to see;' and, on his return to Rome, he was delighted with Frascati and Tivoli.

...

On March 28, 1815, Lord John 'left Rome, not without regret ; . . . it is a dull place, but full of inspirations which come athwart its habitual gloom and make it interesting.' Lord John took the road to Sienna and Florence, which he reached on April 1; and, after only a two days' stay, went on to Bologna.1 His route then lay through Modena, Parma, Milan, Verona, Venice, Padua; across the Brenner to Innspruck; by Stuttgart and Mannheim to Mayence; down the Rhine to Coblentz and Bonn; and so through Aix, Brussels, and Ghent to Ostend and England.

This journey, like many of the journeys which Lord John Russell took in his youth, is accomplished annually now by hundreds, or thousands, of Englishmen. In 1814, the Continent had been closed by war, and the conditions of travel made the grand tour only possible to rich men. Lord John's

...

1 It may be of interest to insert Lord John's views of art in 1815. The School of Painting of Bologna is very ancient and famous. Ludovico Carracci restored it, and founded the school so well known of his cousins Guido, Guercino, Albano, and Domenichino. Except Raphael, there is nothing in the Roman school to compare to these names, and each excels him in one department. Guido is my favourite. His colouring is bad; but he has a noble and a simple manner. Perhaps I like him because he is more easily understood by an ignorant person.'

homeward journey, moreover, derived an additional interest from the circumstances of the time in which it was undertaken. For Napoleon, in March, having escaped from Elba, landed in France; and his return, prompted on his part by 'un peu d'espoir et beaucoup de désespoir,' 1 animated some struggling nationalities with hope, and filled some baffled statesmen with despair.

In Italy the feeling was in Napoleon's favour, At Sienna, on the last day of March, Lord John went into

the Casino of the Nobili, where they were all very animated about the news. One man spoke very eloquently on the miserable condition of Italy, which felt every convulsion of Europe directly, but was not considered in the wise arrangements of the high and mighty allies.

Two days afterwards he records at Florence a rumour that

The Neapolitans had entered Bologna-great alarm among the English. Rogers off in a hurry, all the horrors of captivity in his face.

And when he reached Bologna

He found the town in a great state of joy without any riot. Joachim Murat had two days before proclaimed the independence of Italy. The people here hate the Germans for many reasons.

Owing to these causes, many volunteers (2000, they say) have appeared; and the few scholars left in the University all took up arms at the command of their professor, probably very glad to get rid of his lectures.

On his arrival at Modena he found that 'there had been fighting all day, and much confusion.' But on April 12 he writes

The Neapolitan troops went out last night without doing any mischief. A German picquet came in about eight in the morning; a division soon after followed, received with loud huzzas by

1 The phrase is Count Mosbourg's, a Minister of Murat, and is quoted by Lord John in his letter to Mr. Van de Weyer giving an account of his interview with Napoleon. It has recently been requoted by Mr. Clayden in his Rogers and his Contemporaries.

VOL. I.