Our time here is slipping away fearfully fast—­there are so many impossibilities to be done.  I am hungry to see every brother and sister comfortably and alone, and hungry to be out all day seeing every old spot and old face in the place and village, and hungry to be always with Papa and Mama, and hungry to read all the books in the library—­and none of these hungers can be satisfied.  We are all much pleased with Mr. Chichester Fortescue.  He is agreeable and gentlemanlike and good, and Lotty and Harriet got on very well with him, which is more than I am doing with my letter, for they are singing me out of all my little sense—­“Wha’s at the window” was distracting enough, but “Saw ye the robber” ten times worse.

In September the Papal Bull dividing England into Roman Catholic sees threw the country into a state of needless excitement.  The year had been a very critical one for the Church of England.  The result of the Gorham case, which marked the failure of the High Church clergy to get their own way within the Church, hastened the secession to Rome of Manning, James Hope, and other well-known men.  Lord John’s letter to the Bishop of Durham, in which he expressed his own strong Protestant and Erastian principles, increased his popularity; but it was unfortunate in its effect.  It encouraged the bigoted alarmist outcries which had been started by the Papal Bull, although his own letter differed in tone from such protests.  The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which the Government brought forward in response to popular feeling, seems to have been one of the idlest measures that ever wasted the time of Parliament.  It remained a dead-letter from the day it passed, yet at the time no Minister had a chance of leading the country who was not prepared to support it.

The Budget made the Ministry unpopular at the beginning of the session; and in February Mr. Locke King succeeded in passing, with the help of the Radicals, a measure for the extension of the franchise, in spite of opposition from the Government.  Lord John had a measure of his own of a similar nature in view, as we have seen; but, in spite of his assurance that he would introduce it during the following year, the Radicals voted against him on Mr. King’s motion, and on February 20th he resigned.

The state of parties was such that no rival coalition was possible.  Lord Stanley was for widening the franchise, but being a Protectionist he could not work with the Peelites; while Lord Aberdeen would not consent to the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and was impossible as a leader so long as the anti-Catholic hubble-bubble continued.  Lord John was therefore compelled to resume office.

    Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

    PEMBROKE LODGE, November 22, 1850