CHESHAM PLACE, March 3, 1846

I am so happy to find you have had a good night and are stronger in feeling.  If you had not told me how weak and ill you have been I should have been beyond measure anxious; but, as it is, and with your letters, I have been very unhappy and exceedingly disappointed.  For my hopes are often extravagant, and I love to look forward to days of health and happiness and gratitude to God for His blessings....  Need I say after all I have suffered on your account that while I am conducting my campaign in Italy [28] my thoughts are always with you? ...  I cannot bear your absence.  The interest of a great crisis, and the best company of London cannot make me tolerably patient under the misfortune of your being away; and it is you, and you alone who could inspire me with such deep love.

[28] An allusion to Napoleon’s letters to Josephine from Italy, which she had been reading.

Peel had taken the first step towards feeding the poor at home.  He had also done his best to relieve the immediate distress of Ireland.  Shiploads of Indian corn had been landed, and public works for the help of the destitute established up and down the country.  But the chief grievance of the Irish, which was at the bottom of half the agrarian crime, had not been remedied.  The House of Lords, by having thrown out Peel’s Bill for compensating outgoing tenants for improvements their own money or exertions had created, was largely responsible for the violence and sedition now threatening life and property throughout Ireland.  The true remedy having been rejected by the Lords, the Government had to meet violence by violence.  No sooner had the Corn Bill been passed in the House of Commons than Peel brought in a stringent Sedition Bill for Ireland.  Lord John and the Whigs disliked the Bill because it was extremely harsh.

    Lady John to Lord John Russell

    EDINBURGH, March 12, 1846

Nothing that I read in the speeches in favour of the Coercion Bill convinced me that it would do the slightest good....  It must embitter the Irish against England, for which there is no need.  Nothing can be more shocking than the continual outrages and murders in Ireland; but it is the penalty we pay for a long course of misgovernment, and from which nothing but a long course of mild and good government can set us free; certainly not severe indiscriminate measures which mark out Ireland still more as an unhappy conquered province, instead of a part of the nation.  Such are my sentiments, dearest, on this subject, which always makes my blood boil....  I read the “Giaour” two nights ago to Addy—­it has as great and as numerous beauties as any poem Byron ever wrote—­but I find I am not old enough, or wise enough, or good enough to bear Byron, and left off feeling miserable, as he always contrives to make one; despair is what he excels in, and he makes it