for more than
half a century, he added that to have 'begun with disapprobation, to
have fought through many difficulties, to have announced, and acted
on, principles new to the day in which he lived, to have filled many
important offices, to have made many speeches, and written many books,
and in his whole course to have done much with credit, and nothing with
dishonour, and so to have sustained and advanced his reputation to the
very end, is a mighty commendation.'

When some one told Sir Stafford Northcote that Lord John was dead, the
tidings were accompanied by the trite but sympathetic comment, 'Poor
Lord Russell!' 'Why do you call him poor?' was the quick retort. 'Lord
Russell had the chance of doing a great work and--he did it.'

Lord John was not faultless, and most assuredly he was not infallible.
He made mistakes, and sometimes was inclined to pay too little heed to
the claims of others, and not to weigh with sufficient care the force of
his own impetuous words. The taunt of 'finality' has seldom been less
deserved. In most directions he kept an open mind, and seems, like
Coleridge, to have believed that an error is sometimes the shadow of a
great truth yet behind the horizon. Mr. Gladstone asserts that his old
chief was always ready to stand in the post of difficulty, and possessed
an inexhaustible sympathy with human suffering.

It is at least certain that Lord John Russell served England--the
country whose freedom, he once declared, he 'worshipped'--with unwearied
devotion, with a high sense of honour, with a courage which never
faltered, with an integrity which has never been impeached. He followed
duty to the utmost verge of life, and--full himself of moral
susceptibility--he reverenced the conscience of every man.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] _History of the War in the Crimea_, by A. W, Kinglake, vol. ii.
sixth edition, pp. 249-50.

Lady Russell states that Lord John used to smile at Kinglake's
rhetorical exaggeration of the scene. Her impression is that only two of
the Cabinet, and not, as the historian puts it, 'all but a small
minority,' fell asleep. The Duke of Argyll or Mr. Gladstone can alone
settle the point at issue.

[45] Amongst those who assembled in the drawing-room of Pembroke Lodge
on that historic occasion were Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., Mr. Samuel
Morley, M.P., Mr. Edward Baines, Sir Charles Reed, Mr. Carvell Williams,
M.P., who came on behalf of the Protestant Dissenting Deputies. The
Congreg