no word of reference to the sombre interlude, before or after. "Went
reluctantly to the House," he says in his diary, "and by the help of God
forced out what was needful on the question of the adjournment." His words
were not many, when after commemorating the marked qualities of Mr. Burke,
he went on in laboured tones and slow speech and hardly repressed
emotion:--

The hand of the assassin has come nearer home; and though I feel
it difficult to say a word, yet I must say that one of the very
noblest hearts in England has ceased to beat, and has ceased at
the very moment when it was just devoted to the service of
Ireland, full of love for that country, full of hope for her
future, full of capacity to render her service.

Writing to Lady Frederick on a later day, he mentions a public reference
to some pathetic words of hers (May 19):--

Sexton just now returned to the subject, with much approval from
the House. You will find it near the middle of a long speech.
Nothing could be better either in feeling or in grace (the man is
little short of a master), and I think it will warm your heart.
You have made a mark deeper than any wound.

To Lord Ripon in India, he wrote (June 1):--

The black act brought indeed a great personal grief to my wife and
me; but we are bound to merge our own sorrow in the larger and
deeper affliction of the widow and the father, in the sense of the
public loss of a life so valuable to the nation, and in the
consideration of the great and varied effects it may have on
immediate and vital interests. Since the death of this dearly
loved son, we have heard much good of the Duke, whom indeed we saw
at Chatsworth after the funeral, and we have seen much of Lady
Frederick, who has been good even beyond what we could have hoped.
I have no doubt you have heard in India the echo of words spoken
by Spencer from a letter of hers, in which she said she could give
up even him if his death were to work good to his fellow-men,
which indeed was the whole object of his life. These words have
had a tender effect, as remarkable as the horror excited by the
slaughter. Spencer wrote to me that a priest in Connemara read
them from the altar; when the whole congregation spontaneously
fell down upon their knees. In England, the national attitude has
been admirable. The general strain of lang