had helped to brighten many a weary hour by
his visits and conversation.

_Lord Jeffrey to Lady John Russell_

EDINBURGH, _December_ 21, 1846

It is very good in you to remember my sunset visits to you in the
hotel. I never pass by its windows in these winter twilights
without thinking of you, and of the lessons of cheerful magnanimity
(as well as other things) I used to learn by the side of your
couch. The Murrays and Rutherfords are particularly well; the
latter will soon be up among you, and at his post for the opening
of a campaign of no common interest and anxiety. For my part, I am
terribly frightened--for the first time, I believe I may say, in my
life. Lord John, I believe, does not know what fear is! _sans
peur_ as _sans reproche_. But it would be a comfort to know
that even he thinks we can get out of the mess in Ireland without
some dreadful calamity. And how ugly, in fact, do things look all
round the world!

One of the first acts of Lord John's Government was to vote L10,000,000 for
the relief of Ireland. In July, 1847, Parliament was dissolved. When it met
again Lord John was reluctantly compelled to ask for its votes in support
of an Irish Bill resembling the one on which the Liberals had defeated Peel
the year before.

A bare enumeration of the difficulties which beset the new Prime Minister
brings home a sense of his unenviable position. Ireland was on the verge of
starvation and revolt; everywhere in Europe the rebellions which culminated
in 1848 were beginning to stir, seeming then more formidable than they
really were in their immediate consequences; in England the Chartist
movement was thought to threaten Crown and Constitution; and, in addition,
the country had taken alarm at the weakness of its military defences.
Lastly, for power to meet all these emergencies Lord John was dependent, at
every juncture, upon the animosity between the Protectionists and Peelites
proving stronger than the dislike which either party felt for the
Government. There were 325 Liberals in the House; the Protectionists
numbered 226; the Conservative Free Traders 105; so the day Protectionists
and Peelites came to terms would be fatal to the Government. Such were the
troubles of the Prime Minister, who was a man to take them hard. As for his
wife, her diaries and letters show that, however high her spirit and firm
her principles, her nature was an intensely an