ve God with all our soul and to love
our neighbour as ourself were the two great commandments, was not
far from the kingdom of God. This surely can be known and even
followed without a priest at all.

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

MINTO, _February_ 27, 1846

You seem to have had a very pleasant dinner at the Berrys, and I
wish I had been at it. I wonder sometimes whether the social
enjoyments of life are for ever at an end for me: and in my hopeful
moods I plan all sorts of pleasant little _teas_ at Chesham
Place--at home from nine to eleven on certain days, in an easy way,
without smart dressing and preparation of any sort beyond a few
candles and plenty of tea. I feel and always have felt ambitious to
establish some more popular and rational kind of society than is
usual in London. But the difficulty in our position would be to
limit the numbers: however, limiting the hours would help to do
this; and I do not think one need be very brilliant or agreeable
oneself to make such a thing succeed well. But what a foolish
presumptuous being I am, lying here on my sofa, not even able to
share in the quiet amusements of Minto, making schemes for the
entertainment of all the London world! However, these dreams and
others of a more serious nature as to my future life, if God should
restore me to health, help to while away my hours of separation
from you, and make me forget for awhile how long I have been
debarred from fulfilling my natural duties, either to you, the
children, or the world. This, believe me, is the hardest of the
many hard trials that belong to illness, or at least, such an
illness as mine, in which I have mercifully but little physical
suffering.

_Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby_

MINTO, _March_ 1, 1846

What pleasant times we live in, when the triumph of right
principles brings about one great and peaceful change after another
in our country; each one (this from Free Trade in a great degree)
promising an increase of happiness and diminution of war and
bloodshed to the whole world. No doubt, however, its good effects
will be but slowly perceived, and I fear there is much
disappointment in store for the millions of poor labourers, who
expect to have abundance of food and clothing the moment the Bill
becomes a law. Poor creatures, the