hought I should
have a better chance of preventing bitter attacks than Peel would.
This may be so, or not.

_Lord John to Lady John Russell_

CHESHAM PLACE, _December_ 17, 1845

I want a security that I shall be able to carry a total repeal of
the Corn Laws without delay, and that security must consist in an
assurance of Sir Robert Peel's support. Unless I get this, I give
up the task.

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

MINTO, _Sunday, December_ 21, 1845

It is difficult to write while our suspense lasts.... It does not
seem unlikely that Lord Grey [25] will have yielded, and all be
smooth, or _smoother,_ again. Papa tells me not to wish it
even on public grounds. On private ones I certainly do not; but I
should be ashamed if at such a time my anxieties were not chiefly
for you as a _statesman,_ not as my husband, and for my
country more than for myself. If it turns out that the interests of
the statesman and the country and the wife agree, why then let us
be thankful; if not, why then let us be thankful still that we can
make some sacrifice to duty. You see that my "courage mounteth with
occasion"; and though I have low and gloomy fits when I think of my
ill-health and its probable consequences, I am sure that, on the
whole, I shall not disgrace you. Oh, what a week of toil and
trouble you have had, and how gladly I would have shared them with
you to more purpose than I can do at this _terrible_
distance.... It is so pleasant to write to you. When I have
finished my letter I always grow sad, as if I was really saying
good-bye to you. How have you been sleeping? and eating? and have
you walked every day? ... Good-bye, Heaven bless you, my dearest
love. I trust that this has been a day of rest to you, and that God
hears and accepts our prayers for one another.

[25] Third Earl Grey, son of the Prime Minister.

Lord John wrote daily to his wife, and the following three letters to her
show what he felt during this anxious time:

CHESHAM PLACE, _December_ 19, 1845

It is all at an end. Howick [Lord Grey] would not serve with Lord
Palmerston as Foreign Secretary, and it was impossible for me to go
on unless I had both. I am very happy ... at the result. I think
that for the present it will tend much to our happiness; and power
may come, some day or other, in a le