would be the place for us.  When it became ours indeed we often thought of this, and the oak has ever since been called the “Wishing Tree.” [31] ...  From the time that Pembroke Lodge became ours we used only to keep the children in town from the meeting of Parliament till Easter, and settle the younger ones at Pembroke Lodge, and we ourselves slept there Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays with as much regularity as other engagements allowed.  This obliged us to give up most dinner engagements in London, and we regretted the consequent loss of society.  At the same time he always felt the need of those evenings and mornings of rest and change and country air (besides those welcome and blessed Sundays) after Parliamentary and official toil, rather than of heated and crowded rooms and late hours; and he had the happy power of throwing off public cares and giving his whole heart to the enjoyment of his strolls in the garden, walks and rides in the park, and the little interests of the children. [32]

[31] When Pembroke Lodge was offered to them they remembered—­with surprise and delight at its fulfilment—­the wish of that day, known to themselves alone.

[32] Appendix at end of chapter.

The short Whitsuntide holiday was spent in settling in at Pembroke Lodge.

    Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

    PEMBROKE LODGE, October 29, 1847

...  You would not wonder so much at his [Lord John’s] silence lately, if you knew what nobody but English Ministers’ wives can know or conceive, how incessantly either his mind or body or both have been at work on financial affairs.

He has gone to town every morning early, Sunday included; worked hard the whole day in Downing Street, writing long letters and seeing one man and one deputation after another, on these most difficult and most harassing subjects—­only returning here for tea, and with no time for any other correspondence but that between tea and bed, when a little rest and amusement is almost necessary for him—­then waking in the night to think of bullion and Exchequer Bills till time to get up.  Now this great anxiety is partly over; for when once he has taken a resolution, after all the reflection and consideration he can give to a subject, he feels that he has done his best, and awaits its success or failure with comparative ease of mind.

The difficulties of this Ministry have been briefly stated at the close of the last chapter; working with a precarious majority, they had to cope with starvation and revolt in Ireland, Chartism in England, and disturbances abroad.

In December, 1847, they passed their Irish Coercion Bill. [33] The passing of this Bill was one of the few occasions on which Lady John could not convince herself that her husband’s policy was the wisest one.

[33] “The state of Ireland was chaotic, and Lord Clarendon (Lord Lieutenant) was demanding a stringent measure of coercion.  He did not get it....  The two Bills [Sir Robert Peel’s in 1846 and the Bill of 1847] were so entirely different that to call them by a common name, though perhaps inevitable, is also inevitably misleading” ("History of Modern England,” Herbert Paul, vol. i, chap. iv.  See also Walpole’s “Life of Lord John Russell,” vol. i, chap, xvii.)