and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
LADY JOHN RUSSELL
A MEMOIR
WITH SELECTIONS FROM HER DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE
EDITED BY
DESMOND MACCARTHY
AND
AGATHA RUSSELL
WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS, OF WHICH SIX ARE IN COLOUR
SECOND EDITION
First Published ... November 3rd 1910
Second Edition ... December 1910
LADY JOHN RUSSELL AND HER ELDEST SON
From a miniature by Thorburn, 1844.
PREFACE
The manuscripts which have supplied the material for a memoir of my motherdeal much more fully with the life of my father than with her own life. Mr.Desmond MacCarthy has therefore linked into the narrative several importantincidents in my father's career.
The greater part of the memoir is written by Mr. Desmond MacCarthy; thepolitical and historical commentary is almost entirely his work. Theimpartial and independent opinion of one outside the family, both inwriting the memoir and in selecting passages from the manuscripts forpublication, has been of great value.
My grateful thanks are due to His Majesty the King for giving permission topublish letters from Queen Victoria.
I am also grateful to friends and relations who have placed letters at mydisposal; especially to my brother, whose helpful encouragement throughoutthe work has been most valuable.
Mr. Justin McCarthy, who many years ago recorded his impressions of mymother in his Reminiscences, has now most kindly contributed to this book achapter of Recollections.
My cordial thanks are also due to Mr. George Trevelyan for reading theproof sheets, and to Mr. Frederic Harrison for giving permission to publishhis Memorial Address at the end of this volume.
AGATHA RUSSELL
ROZELDENE, HINDHEAD, SURREY
October, 1910
CONTENTS
Early years--Paris--Lord Minto appointed Minister at Berlin--Germany--Return to Minto
Lord Minto First Lord of the Admiralty--Life in London--Bowood--Mrs.Drummond's recollections--Friendship with Lord John Russell--PutneyHouse--Minto--Admiralty--Her engagement
Marriage--Sketch of Lord John's career before marriage--His conversationwith Napoleon--Moore's "Remonstrance"
Wilton Crescent--Endsleigh--Chesham Place--Birth of her eldestson--Anti-Corn Law agitation--Her illness--Lord John's letter fromEdinburgh--He is summoned to Osborne--Attempts to form a Ministry
Illness in Edinburgh--Letters between Lord andLady John--Repeal of the Corn Laws--Ireland and coercion--Lord John PrimeMinister
Pembroke Lodge--