ral that that seems
a great deal. The Gladstones with daughter Mary to dine. Gladstone
was unanimously pronounced to be most agreeable and delightful. I
never saw him in such high spirits, and he was as ready to talk
about anything and everything, small and great, as if he had no
Ministerial weight on his shoulders. He carries such fire and
eloquence into whatever he talks about that it seems for the moment
the most important subject in the world.

_Lady Russell to Mr. Rollo Russell_

37 CHESHAM PLACE, _March_ 2, 1869

London is extremely agreeable now, not rackety, but sociable--at
least to the like of us who do not attempt to mix in the very gay
world....

Arthur Russell called last night after hearing Gladstone's great
speech [on Irish Disestablishment], well pleased himself and
expecting the country to be so--_the_ country, Ireland, more
especially. _On_ the whole your father is satisfied, but not
_with_ the whole; he does not approve of the churches being
left to the Protestants for ever, as there is nothing granted to
the Roman Catholics. Neither does he like the appropriation of
national money to charities. [72]

[72] The Bill transferred to the new disestablished Episcopal Church all
the churches, all endowments given since 1660, while the remaining funds
were to be handed over to the Government for the relief of poverty and
suffering.

Lord Russell had followed up his first letter to Mr. Chichester Fortescue
by two more letters, in which he again advocated both the disestablishment
and disendowment of the Irish Church. He warmly supported Gladstone's
measure; though he again insisted that the funds of the Irish Church should
be used to endow the other Churches. He was in constant attendance at the
House of Lords, and during the same session he proposed, without success, a
measure which would have added a limited number of life peers to the Second
Chamber. These incursions into politics seem in no way to have taxed his
strength.

_Lady Russell to Mr. William Russell_

_June_ 3, 1869

It is a great misfortune that we have so few really eminent men
among the clergy of England, Scotland, or Ireland--in any of the
various communities. Such men are greatly needed to take the lead
in what I cannot but look upon as a noble march of the progress of
mankind, the assertion of the right to think and spe