THE LATE EARL RUSSELL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5366, 8 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LATE EARL RUSSELL.

; The. following,'obituary notice of "this eminent British statofnau appears In th o Hawke's Bay. Herald of.the Slst.ult. ■ : 1 ; :The,late,E»rl JRussell was nearly;B6 years of age,'having beep.born pn y the2Bth .of "August, 1792.' He was the third son of the sixth Duke' of Bedford. The present Duke jis-the nephew, of the late Earl, and succeeded tp the'dukpdom in 1872. ■' Earl Russell was created a Peer on, July' 30,'1861. £ "His'Apolitical career, commenced in-'1813, ! wheh he was retiifned to the House rot Commons as the >representative of’ 1 the. family 'borough of Tavistock, in-the Whig ■ interest. He was iat; that time, and .'for some years afterwards, a .more .advanced Liberal than the generality of the. Whig: party, and he strove so earnestly in the cause of political reform that the name of .Lord; John Busaell'becatne associated with the liberal,measures of the day,’as the'strenuous . advocate .of the repeah of the Test ; and’;Oorporatioh . Acts, of ’ Catholic Emancipation; and of other measures ’of civil and religious liberty, i He made 'his first motion; in favor ’of Parliamentary reform in' 1819, and continued to bring the subject almost "annually, forward, until ho stood forward as .a Minister, of the Crown to propose the great measure .of 1831; which ultimately ,recsiyed,the royal assent omthe 4th of June, 1832.,,, After, that he intrqduoed .several other measures# reform-ysuch,as .that relating to the temporalities'of,, the, Irish Church, and also one for the reform ,pl 'the/ihuriicipalities of ‘England and Wales! - Besides these, he succeeded iri’lgetting a 1 Bill passed J for, the icommutation ’of tithes’ in ‘England, and 1 a Bill for! the l registration of birth’s,* marriages, and deaths., ijn'lßß7 he'earried'a Bill!foramending the criminal law, by 'which'capital punishment was .removed from i forgery . and, several ‘ other .offences.; " In 1841 he proposed ah alteration in the existing, corn laws, and a reduction of the. duties, bn sugar and timber, but 'he was defeated, and, an/appeal to the country ensuing, , the . Whigs were in . a , minority, and : the Melbourne , administration, .of • which Lord John Russell was a member, had -to : give place to that ’of Sir 'Robert . Peel. " At the general election Lord John was returned" for the City of London, • In the winter -of .1845, when .corn had risen to a yery high price,, he addressed . a letter to hia con/. stituents from Edinburgh,: announcing his conversion to, ,the, total and immediate-repeal of the corn,laws., Copies of this letter were posted up all over London, . and created great sensation., The letter led to the resignation of the Peel Cabinet, as Sir Robert Peel' felt that the course indicated.by Lord John Russell was the one that should be adopted, while others of his Cabinet did ■ not agree with him. " Lord John Russell" then ' attempted to form a-Ministry, but failed ' in consequence of the antipathy of Earl Grey to Lord -Palmerston. ’ Sir Robert Peel -returned to;,power, '.and carried' the repeal .of .thecorn. Jaws,’ ; but soon'; after, he -resigned, , and i Lord. ] John * Russell i be-, came Prime Minister... .This position’be held* until 18521 when his Ministry being defeated, 1 Earl'Derby, made, an unsuccessW attempt to carry .on the 'Government; and in the succeeding Cabinet of Lord'Aberdeen! Lord John: Russell consented to'fill the post of Foreign, Secretary',' with the' leadership'of the House, of Commons. -- In the' second administration of, Lord"Palmerston;.in 1859, Lord Johnbecame Foreign ■ Secretary, which office he coiitmued to.,hold,i After.-',he* had been• created"a Peer, until, he again became Prime Minister, 'on the' death of Lord. Palmerston in 1865. I During the- session- of 1866 his Ministry was defeated on a new Reform.Bill, and .soon after he resigned. .From that time he pursued an independent coujrse'in the House of Lords, always; leaning, however, to liberal measures. - He raarried'in 1835 the relict of Lord Ribblesdale;, '•she' died in 1838, and in 1841 he'parried the second daughter of the second Earl of Minto. In “.Chambers’-: Encyclopaedia,-* to whiph; .work we; ;have ■ been 'indebted . for-.por/ tiojr,; of I, the-; above, ;■ the late Earl is, thus noticed:—“, His language" is simple,, clear! plain,land ..terse, yet pregnant , with : meaning,' Upon great constitutional questions .mid; his-', torioal precedents, he .is perhaps the greatest living authority, andupon siibh high themes, his speeches' rise to a high order of eloquence. He is' an 'admirable arid fearless debater;! and , his' tact, 1 skill,' and self-reliance have ‘ often enabled him to -fight,' almost unaided,'a., not inuequal. battle '■ against the' greatest Parliamentary • orators of • his time. His-voice is .often weak; his delivery somewhat hesitating, mincing, and affected,: and- his action has'little variety. A. - certain coldness of .temper i has always .chilled the i personal enthusiasm of his followers./: His,: indomitable self-reliance;and tenacity of self-assertion were sarcastically painted by the Rev. Sydney Smith* who called, him the'* Lycargus of the' Lower House,’and said that he was ‘ utterly ignorant of all moral fear/ •- ■ ■ •’ ,

, We are brought into close intimacy'with the home life of; Earl EusSell, at' nearly the close of ilusrdaysji in <aidescriptive sketch in the World (February 21, r lß77),uuder.the. heading “ Celebrities.: at Home.”, ■ After somewhat minutely describing , Earl I Kussell’s, dodge in Biohmoud Park, .and more particularly the .rooms he usually'had;in fuse, .together, with : the furniture, &c., the writer goes on to say:— ■ «y or * several years the house in Cheshamplaoe; long .Lord Bussell’s' London residence; has been deserted'by its master. , In "advanced ago; and With''decaying strength, He;finds at Richmond' advantages' of quiet and privacy which (in Londbnfwould? be,"sought in f Vain; i But though tranquil;'.Pembroke Lodgeislnot dull. Twice a week its doors are thrown qpen to the miscellanqgus throngibf i,those,whom, in sixty public life,.Lord, Bussell'has included among his acquaiatance. Ambassadors and 'statesmen,. fashionable; ladies. apd, struggling, politicians' of every, class •arid shade, arid' scientific Jeo* - turns arid aristb'bratib chiefs; ibstle brie aripth’er on the lawns of f Pembroke Lodge,’‘arid',enjoy the graceful hospitality dispersed to them' by the ■ most ■ genial' of l hostesses, Tho\ central figure of the group is one with which the rising goneratign,i is familiar chiefly through Leach's sketches,., (The,ponderous head aud wide: chest seem at .first sight.as, if .they could ,scarcely, belong to,.the same bo^y.,as the short legs and small fairy feet, which.nothing but. a isubatan-: tial'' footstool ‘ prevents ' from, dangling ! in the' air.' :! The; broad forehead and the clear bright eyes ‘ still;"carry with' - ,them their old ! air ■of ’ gentle ■ dignity. 5: ’ The hair, might be'lwhiter arid■ thinner than of yore; !tho • skull: cap ;and, Bath-chair have replaoodth'o :white-beaver hat and iron-grey-pony which an earlier generatiotiiwill recall:; but the mind is as bright, and, vigorous, as ever, the smile as genial, and, the.eyeaight; still so: clear thatj no spectacles are required to facilitate:the regular, task of reading, the evening papers by candlelight. - ‘About 4 o’clock , the guests begin to gather on the lawn." Here tea and.ice and strawberries prevail; and presently .the Bathchair emerges from the house, and Lord Bussell appears;-wrapped in: fur, f and tended either by ‘ his; faithful Highland ; henchman; of his •younger, but ngt less devoted valet. 1 Then the chair is (established i beneath some umbrageous oak or elm;: and (Lord (Bussell receives his guests—a - few of whom, remain at Pembroke Lodge to dine in a cool and comfortable room, papered'with a bright trellis-pattern; and commanding an unequalled Vista of sunset amid forest trees. As evening changes into night they retire;' probably in some way wiser l ' ’ than when they came ; leaving Pembroke 1 to silence, and Lord . Bussell to his Times: or Quarterly Hevieio. '• “Itis in reading that Lord Russell's' days 'are chiefly , passed, -The weight of eighty years pressing on a constitution never, very robust bos made him so far an invalid 1 that the only exercise to which ho is equal is a promenade in ,his Bath-chair when the sun is warm," Mrich talking tires him; and from his appearance about midday to his retirement at 10 p.m. his day is chiefly spent among his books, -To read a few pages, .to chow the cud of what he has 'rend, ton resume 'the reading,-and to carry on this process for hours at a stretch, is Lord Bussell’s conception of study; arid the range -of books wbioh it covers is wide.'History, both of. Greece 'and England, as well!, as the polities .otth&diijfV, faViorlto study'; fitrota

and "Hume: the authors- whom -he - specially admires.' ! But that "few branches of literature have altogether escaped:this! notice: is plain enough to any who : converse/with him, over • the walnuts and wine ’ at the: round dinner table of Pembroke Lodge,, while he plays his part of host with the genial though punctilious courtesy which he learned at Woburn, and at Holland House when the century was young.

“It is a long and varied, experience of life which .has made' Lord Russell what he is, ‘Educated at Westminster in its roughest days; he' early learned ■ the essential lessons of; selfreliance and self-defence. At the University of: Edinburgh he acquired .those principles of -Liberal thought and culture which the Oxford and Cambridge of that day would have united to repudiate. Continental travel, during the most momentous period of modern history, served to enlarge the young student’s, conceptions of strategy and statesmanship. Everita which most men regard as historical must be personally familiar to a man who rode with Wellington iri the Peninsula, and talked to Napoleon in his seclusion at Elba.. Entering Parliament at twenty-one; Lord John Russell passed quickly through the various stages -of political apprenticeship to a place iri the Cabinet. ' In’lß6l Lord John Russell attained in the House of Lords " the 1 comparative repose, and additional dignity to which his long services, had entitled him;: Since that date his life has', been a gradual retirement from -political strife. Step by step he has backed out of .the .arena ~which was, the . scene sf his triumphs, and, hasassumed the functions, of a! chronicler and an authority. Now, in a bright and congenial home,'tended by the most devoted of wives and children, he display? to a younger generation the inature beauty of virtues which his life has illustrated. The pativ erioe and ’cheerfulness which supported him through a long , and arduous career find the fullest scope for their; exercise' amid the increasing infirmities of advancing- years. ] The cheerfulness and love .of. fun which 'enlivened the itedium of,office are none the fainter or dimmer for physical weakness and decay. ■ The sturdy courage with which he confronted dif-' •Acuities and dangers supports him still in the immediate prospect of the close of his life. At the'end of a long career of beneficent exertion he is confident and calm.”