electioneering, from the distant days when, as a Westminster boy, he cheered for Sir Francis Burdett, down to September, 1892, when he addressed his last meeting in support of Mr. Howard Whitbread, then Liberal candidate for South Bedfordshire.  A speech which he delivered at the General Election of 1886, denouncing the “impiety” of holding that the Irish were incapable of self-government, won the enthusiastic applause of Mr. Gladstone.  When slow-going Liberals complained of too-rapid reforms, he used to say:  “When I was a boy, our cry was ’Universal Suffrage, Triennial Parliaments, and the Ballot.’  That was seventy years ago, and we have only got one of the three yet.”

In local matters, he was always on the side of the poor and the oppressed, and a sturdy opponent of all aggressions on their rights.  “Footpaths,” he wrote, “are a precious right of the poor, and consequently much encroached on.”

It is scarcely decent for a son to praise his father, but even a son may be allowed to quote the tributes which his father’s death evoked.  Let some of these tributes end my tale.

  June 29_th_, 1894.

My DEAR G. RUSSELL,

I am truly grieved to learn this sad news. 
It is the disappearance of an illustrious figure to
us, but of much more, I fear, to you.

  Yours most sincerely,
    ROSEBERY.

  June 30_th_, 1894.

DEAR G. RUSSELL,

I saw with sorrow the announcement of your father’s death.  He was a good and kind friend to me in the days long ago, and I mourn his loss.  In these backsliding days he set a great example of steadfastness and loyalty to the faith of his youth and his race.

  Yours very truly,

    W. V. HARCOURT.

  July 31_rd_ 1894.

DEAR RUSSELL,

I was very grieved to hear of your revered father’s death.

He was a fine specimen of our real aristocracy, and such specimens are becoming rarer and rarer in these degenerate days.

There was a true ring of the “Grand Seigneur” about him which always impressed me.

  Yours sincerely,
    REAY.

  July 1_st_, 1894.

My DEAR RUSSELL,

I thank you very much for your kindness in writing to me.

You may, indeed, presume that it is with painful interest and deep regret that I hear of the death of your father, and that I value the terms in which you speak of his feelings towards myself.

Though he died at such an advanced age, it is, I think, remarkable that his friends spoke of him to the last as if he were still in the full intercourse of daily life, without the disqualification or forgetfulness that old age sometimes brings with it.

For my part I can never forget my association with him in the House of Commons and elsewhere, nor the uniform kindness which he always showed me.

  Believe me, most truly yours,
    ARTHUR W. PEEL.