way to a more generous interpretation of the problem than that which is
commonly attributed to him. His own words on this point are: 'I should
have been very glad if the leaders of popular opinion in Ireland had so
modified and mollified their demand for Home Rule as to make it
consistent with the unity of the Empire.' His mind, till within a few
years of his death, was clear, and did not stand still. Whether he would
have gradually become a Home Ruler is open to question, but in 1874 he
had gone quite as far in that direction as Mr. Gladstone.

Lord John, though the most loyal of subjects, made it plain throughout
his career that he was not in the least degree a courtier. His nephew,
Mr. George Russell, after stating that Lord John supported, with voice
and vote, Mr. Hume's motion for the revision of the Civil List under
George IV., and urged in vigorous terms the restoration of Queen
Caroline's name to the Liturgy, as well as subscribing to compensate an
officer, friendly to the Queen, whom the King's animosity had driven
from the army, adds: 'It may well be that some tradition of this early
independence, or some playful desire to test the fibre of Whiggery by
putting an extreme case, led in much later years to an embarrassing
question by an illustrious personage, and gave the opportunity for an
apt reply. "Is it true, Lord John, that you hold that a subject is
justified, under certain circumstances, in disobeying his Sovereign's
will?" "Well," I said, "speaking to a Sovereign of the House of Hanover,
I can only say that I suppose it is!"'[43]

[Sidenote: IMPULSIVE BUT CHIVALROUS]

Looking back in the autumn of last year on the length and breadth of
Earl Russell's public career, the late Earl Selborne sent for these
pages the following words, which gather up his general, and, alas! final
impressions of his old friend and colleague: 'I have tried to imagine in
what words an ancient Roman panegyrist might have summed up such a
public and private character as that of Lord Russell. "Animosa
juventus," and "jucunda senectus," would not inaptly have described his
earlier and his latter days. But for the life of long and active public
service which came between, it is difficult to find any phrase equally
pointed and characteristic. Always patriotic, always faithful to the
traditions associated with his name, there was, as Sydney Smith said,
nothing which he had not courage to undertake. What he undertook he did
energeti