but I must tell you that since 1832 Ireland has been a main object of all my political career....  I am not without hope that the House of Commons will pass a reasonable Land Bill, and adhere to the plan of national education, which has been in force now for nearly forty years.  At all events, the present government of Ireland gives no proofs of the infallibility of our rulers.  Tell Lizzy that it is not a plate of salted cherries, but cherries ripe, without any salt, which I propose to lay before the Irish.

    Yours affectionately,

    RUSSELL

In the closing passage of the “Introduction” referred to in the above letter Lord Russell gives a modest estimate of his own career:  “My capacity I always felt was very inferior to that of the men who have attained in past times the foremost place in our Parliament, and in the Councils of our Sovereign.  I have committed many errors, some of them very gross blunders.  But the generous people of England are always forbearing and forgiving to those statesmen who have the good of their country at heart; like my betters, I have been misrepresented and slandered by those who knew nothing of me, but I have been more than compensated by the confidence and the friendship of the best men of my own political connection, and by the regard and favourable interpretation of my motives which I have heard expressed by my generous opponents, from the days of Lord Castlereagh to those of Mr. Disraeli.”

    Lady Russell to Mr. Rollo Russell

    SAN REMO, February 17, 1870

How awful Paris will be after the easy, natural, unconventional life of San Remo, one delight of which is the absence of all thought about dress!  Whatever may be and are the delights of Paris—­and I fully intend that we should all three enjoy them—­that burden is heavier there than in all the world beside—­and why? oh, why?  What is there to prevent human nature from finding out and rejoicing in the blessings of civilization and society without encumbering them with petty etiquettes and fashions and forms which deprive them of half their value?  Human nature is a very provoking compound.  It strives and struggles and gives life itself for political freedom, while it forges social chains and fetters for itself and wears them with a foolish smile.  And with this fruitless lamentation I must end.

    Lady Russell to Lady Dunfermline

    SAN REMO, February 23, 1870

I don’t know a bit whether we shall be much in London during the session—­it will be session, not season, that takes us there....  The longer I live the more I condemn and deplore a rackety life for any girl, and therefore if I do what I myself think right by her and not what others may think right, she shall never be a London butterfly.  Would that we could give our girls the ideal society which I suppose we all dream for them—­that of the wise and