such beautiful despair that all sense of right or wrong is overwhelmed by it.  I said to Addy that one always requires an antidote after reading Byron, and that she and I ought instantly to go and hem pocket-handkerchiefs, or make a pudding—­and that is what she has illustrated in the newspaper I send.

    Lord John to Lady John Russell

    HOUSE OF COMMONS, March, 1846

Your views about the Irish Coercion Bill are very natural; but Bessborough, who is the best authority we have about Irish matters, thinks it will tend to stop crime—­and especially the crime of murder.  I should be loath to throw out a Bill which may have this good effect; but I shall move a resolution which will pledge the House to measures of remedy and conciliation.  This may lead to a great debate....  The little girls look very nice, but Toza [29] is, if possible, thinner than ever.  However, she laughs and dances like a little fairy.  I dined with Mrs. Drummond yesterday.  Macaulay [30] was there—­entertaining, and not too much of a monopolist—­I mean of talk—­which, like other monopolies, is very disagreeable.

[29] Victoria.

[30] Lord John had written to his wife in April, 1845:  “Macaulay made one of his splendid speeches again last night....  He is a wonderful man, and must with the years before him be a great leader.”

    Lady John to Lord John Russell

    EDINBURGH, March 19, 1846

After dinner we drove to Portobello sands and there got out and walked for an hour; the sea was of the brightest blue, covered with sails; Inchkeith and the opposite coast so clear that every inequality of hill or rock was seen; Arthur’s Seat, grand and snowy, was behind us, and the glittering sands under our feet—­the whole beautiful far beyond description and beyond what I have yet seen it in any weather; for the east wind and bright sun are what it requires.  How I did wish for you!  I need not say that I only half enjoyed it, as I only half enjoy anything without you.  My comfort in your absence is to think that you are not taken from me for nothing, but for your country’s service; and that even if we could have foreseen four years ago all the various anxieties and trials that awaited us, we should have married all the same.  As it was, we knew that ours could not be a life of quiet ease; and it was for me to decide whether I was able to face the reverse—­and I did decide, and I am able—­

      “Io lo cercai, fui preso
       Dall’ alta indole sua, dal suo gran nome;
       Pensai dapprima, oh pensai che incarco
       E l’amor d’un uomo che a gli’ altri e sopra! 
       Perche allor correr, solo io nol lasciai
       La sua splendida via, s’ io non potea
       Seguire i passi suoi?”

Now I am sure you do not know where those lines are from.  They are a wee bit altered from Manzoni’s “Carmagnola”; and they struck me so much, when I read them to-day, as applicable to you and me, and made me think of your “splendida via” and all its results.

    Lady John to Lord John Russell