Lady John Russell Part 36

ALDWORTH, HASLEMERE, _November_ 10, 1874

We have been going on in a happy humdrum way since I last wrote--humdrum as regards events, and all the happier that it should be so--but with no lack of delightful occupation and delightful conversation, and that intimate interchange of thought which makes home life so much fuller than society life. However, it would not do to go on long cut off from the world and its ways and from the blessing of the society of real friends, which unluckily can't be had without intermixture of wearisome acquaintances.

Rollo's reader is reading Molesworth's "History of England for the last Forty Years," and Agatha takes advantage and listens, and I read it by myself, and as your father knows it all without reading it and likes to be talked to about it, we have been living a good deal in the great events of that period, and we find it a relief to turn from the mazy though deeply interesting flood of metaphysics which this age pours upon the world, to facts and events which also have their philosophy, and a deep one too.

PEMBROKE LODGE, December 28, 1874

Finished "Life of Prince Albert." It is seldom that a revelation of the inner life of Princes would raise the mind to a higher region than before--although we all know that they _have_ an inner and a real life through the tinsels and the trappings in which we see them. But this book can hardly fail to raise any mind, warm any heart, brace any soul. Would that we all, in all conditions of life, kept truth and duty ever before us, as he did even amid the pettinesses of a Court--the solemn trifles of etiquette which would have stifled the n.o.bleness of a less n.o.ble nature. Would that all Princes had a Stockmar, [88] but there are not many Stockmars in the world; if there were, there would soon not be many Princes of the kind which now abounds, beings cut off from equality, friends.h.i.+p, freedom, by what in our supreme folly we call the "necessary" pomp and fetters of a Court. n.o.ble as Prince Albert was, those things did him harm, and as Lady Lyttelton says, n.o.body but the organ knew what was in him.... The Queen appears in a charming light--truthfulness, humility, unbounded love for him.

[88] "One of the best friends of the Queen and the Prince Consort was Baron Stockmar. This old n.o.bleman, who had known the English Court since the days of George III, and loved Prince Albert like a son, was a man of st.u.r.dy independence, fearlessly outspoken, and regarded with affectionate confidence both by Queen Victoria and her Consort."--_Daily News_, May 7, 1910. This was what Lady Russell felt about him; his fearless outspokenness at Court always impressed her.

_Lady Russell to Lord Amberley_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _December_ 29, 1874

M. d'Etchegoyen [89] has given me Mill's three essays. I have read "Nature," a great deal of which I like much, but were it to be read by the inhabitant of some other planet, he would have a very false notion of this one; for Mill dwells almost entirely on the ugly and malevolent side of Nature, leaving out of sight the beautiful and benevolent side--whereas both abound, and suggest the notion of two powers at strife for the government of the world. If you bring the "Conscious Machine Controversy," I may read it, although I feel very uncharitable to the hard, presumptuous unwisdom of some modern metaphysics.

[89] The Comte and Comtesse d'Etchegoyen (_nee_ Talleyrand) were intimate friends of Lord and Lady Russell. He was a French Republican, who had been obliged to leave Paris at the _Coup d'etat_.

_Lady Russell to Lord Amberley_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _March_ 28, 1875

This is our Agatha's birthday, and the spirit moves me to write to you. Every marked day, whether marked by sorrow or by joy, turns my heart, if possible, more than usual to you, and makes me feel more keenly how all the joy and perfect happiness once yours has been turned to bitter sorrow and desolation. I find it is far, far more difficult to bear grief for one's children than for oneself, and sometimes my heart "has been like to break" as I have followed you in thought on your long and dreary journey, and remembered what your companions.h.i.+p was when last you went to the sunny South, to so many of the same places. You have indeed been sorely tried, my child, and you have not--would that I could give it to you--the one and only rock of refuge and consolation, of faith in the wisdom and mercy of a G.o.d of love. But I trust in Him for you, and I know that though clouds hide Him from your sight, He will care for you and not forsake you--and even here on earth I look forward to much peaceful happiness for you, in your children, in books, in nature, in duties zealously done, in the love and sympathy of many--"Mutter Treu ist ewig neu," and that you may find some rest to your aching heart in that Mutter Treue, which is always hovering round you, wherever you are, and to which every day seems to add fresh strength and renewed longing to give you comfort, is my daily, nightly hope and prayer. May this letter find you well and cheerful and able to enjoy the loveliness of sea and sky and mountain; if so, I know it will not sadden you to get this drop out of the ocean of my thoughts about you--thoughts which the freshness of the wounds makes it intensely difficult for me to utter.... Kiss my two precious little boys and keep us in their memory. Is Bertrand as full of fun and merriment as he used to be? Poor pets! they look to you for all the tenderness of father and mother combined in order to be as happy as children ought to be. Give it them largely, my child, as it is in your nature to do.... G.o.d bless you all.

In August, 1875, Lady Russell notes in her diary that her husband had written a letter to the _Times_ giving his support to the Herzegovina insurgents. During the few years preceding 1876 he had become convinced that the days of Turkish misrule in the Christian provinces must be ended.

[90] He frequently spoke with indignation of the systematic murders contrived by the Turkish Government and officials, and felt that the cause of the oppressed Christians deserved support, and that the time for upholding the rule of the Sultan as a cardinal principle in our policy had pa.s.sed. He threw himself with the greatest heartiness into a movement for the aid of the insurgents. Though in his eighty-third year he was the first British statesman to break with the past and to bless the uprising of liberty in the near East. In the following letter, written from Caprera on September 17, 1875, the generous sympathy between him and Garibaldi found fresh expression.

[90] In 1874 he wrote that from Adrianople to Belgrade all government should be in the hands of the Christians.

MON ILl.u.s.tRE AMI,--En a.s.sociant votre grand nom au bien-faiteurs des Chretiens opprimes par le Gouvernement Turc, vous avez ajoute un bien precieux bijou a la couronne humanitaire qui ceint votre n.o.ble front. En 1860 votre parole sublime sonna en faveur des Rayahs Italiens, et l'Italie n'est plus une expression geographique. Aujourd'hui vous plaidez la cause des Rayahs Turcs, plus malheureux encore. C'est une cause qui vaincra comme la premiere, et Dieu benira vos vieux ans.... Je baise la main a votre precieuse epouse, et suis pour la vie votre devoue G. GARIBALDI.

[91]

[91] "MY ILl.u.s.tRIOUS FRIEND,--In a.s.sociating your great name with the benefactors of the Christians oppressed by the Turkish Government, you have added a most precious jewel to the crown of humanity which encircles your n.o.ble brow. In 1860 your sublime word was spoken in favour of the Italian Rayahs, and Italy is no longer only a geographical expression. To-day you plead the cause of the Turkish Rayahs, even more unhappy. It is a cause which will conquer like the first, and G.o.d will bless your old age. I kiss the hand of your dear wife, and remain for life your devoted G. GARIBALDI."

About a year later Lady Russell writes: "Great meetings at the Guildhall and Exeter Hall--fine spirit-stirring speech of Fawcett at the last. The feeling of the nation makes me proud, as it does to remember that John was the first to foresee the magnitude of the coming storm, when the first grumblings were heard in Herzegovina--the first to feel sympathy with the insurgents.... Many a nation may be roused to a sense of its own wrongs, but to see a whole people fired with indignation for the wrongs of another and a remote country, with no selfish afterthought, no possible prospect of advantage to what are called 'British Interests,' is grand indeed."

The last entry calls to mind a pa.s.sage by Mr. Froude in the Life of Lord Beaconsfield [92]:

"The spirit of a great nation called into energy on a grand occasion is one of the n.o.blest of human phenomena. The pseudo-national spirit of Jingoism is the meanest and the most dangerous."

[92] "Life of the Earl of Beaconsfield," J.A. Froude, p. 251.

At the beginning of 1876 Lord Russell still retained so much health and vigour that his doctor spoke of him as being in some respects "like a man in the prime of life." But another great sorrow now befell them. Their eldest son, Lord Amberley, died on January 9th. He was only thirty-three.

In his short life he had shown great independence of mind and unusual ability. His two boys [93] now came to live permanently at Pembroke Lodge.

Something of his character may be gathered from the following letter from Dr. Jowett, who had known him well at Oxford.

_Professor Jowett to Lady Russell_

_January_ 14, 1876

I am grieved to hear of the death of Lord Amberley; I read it by accident in the newspaper of yesterday. I fear it must be a terrible blow both to you and Lord Russell.

I will not intrude upon your sorrow, but I would like to tell you what I thought of him. He was one of the best men I ever knew--most truthful and disinterested. He was not of the world, and therefore not likely to be popular with the world. He had chosen a path which was very difficult, and could hardly have been carried out in practical politics. I think that latterly he saw this and was content to live seeking after the truth in the companions.h.i.+p of his wife, whose memory I shall always cherish. Some persons may grieve over them because they had not the ordinary hopes and consolations of religion. This does not add to my sorrow for them except in so far as it deprived them of sympathy and happiness while they were living. It must inevitably happen in these times, when everything is made the subject of inquiry with many good persons. G.o.d does not regard men with reference to their opinion about Himself or about a future world, but with reference to what they really are. In holding fast to truth and righteousness they held the greater part of what we mean by belief in G.o.d. No person's religious opinions affect the truth either about themselves or others. One who said to me what I have said to you about your son's remarkable goodness (while condemning his opinions) was Lady Augusta Stanley,[94] who herself, I fear, has not long to live.

[93] Frank (afterwards Earl Russell), who was then ten years old, and Bertrand, three years old.

[94] Wife of Dean Stanley.

_Dean Stanley (Dean of Westminster) to Lady Russell_

DEAR LADY RUSSELL,--Will you allow one broken heart to say a word of sympathy to another?--the life of my life is ebbing away--the hope of your life is gone. She, I trust, will find in the fountain of all Love the love in which she has trusted on earth. He, I trust, will find in the fountain of all Light the truth after which he sought on earth. May G.o.d help us both in His love.

Ever yours most truly,

A.P. STANLEY

_Queen Victoria to Lady Russell_

OSBORNE, _January_ 11, 1876

DEAR LADY RUSSELL,--My heart bleeds for you. A new and very heavy blow has fallen upon you, who were already so sorely tried! Most deep and sincere is my sympathy with you and Lord Russell, and I cannot say how I feel for you. It is so terrible to see one's children go before one! You will be a mother to the orphans and the fatherless, as I know how kind and loving you were always to them.

Trusting that your health will not suffer, and asking you to remember me to Agatha, who will be a great comfort to you, as she has ever been, believe me always,

Yours affectionately,

V.R.

In March they began once more to see their friends. "Seeing those I have not yet seen," she writes, "is like meeting them after years--so changed is our world."

PEMBROKE LODGE, _March_ 15, 1876

The dear old beech-tree in the wood blown down, and with it countless recollections of happy hours under its shade with merry boys climbing it above our heads, and little Agatha playing at our feet, and her elder sisters chatting with us and looking for nests and flowers. All, all gone. The bitter gales of sorrow have blown down our fair hopes and turned our joys to sorrow. Poor old beech-tree! Like us, it had lost its fair boughs; like it, we shall soon lay down our stripped and shattered stems.

PEMBROKE LODGE, _April_ 25, 1876

The loveliness of early spring--its nameless, countless tints, its music and its flowers, never went deeper into my soul--but oh! the happy springtide of life, where is that?

_Lady Russell to Lady Charlotte Portal_

PEMBROKE LODGE, _January 27_, 1877