conquerors at last,
and be the better for them. Hush! Fanny, no more; even that is too
much. God bless thee.

Ever thine,

F.R.

[111] Lady Russell had written in 1857 to her father about Minto: "I can
well imagine the loveliness of that loveliest and dearest of places. There
is now to us all a holy beauty in every tree and flower, in rock and river
and hill that ought to do us good." Later, in a letter to her sister, Lady
Elizabeth Romilly, she writes of "the Minto of old days, that happiest and
most perfect home that children ever had."

In 1889 the "Life of Lord John Russell" by Mr. Spencer Walpole, was
published.

_Mr. Gladstone to Lady Russell_

HAWARDEN CASTLE, CHESTER, _October_ 30, 1889

MY DEAR LADY RUSSELL,--The week which has elapsed since I received
from Mr. Walpole's kindness a copy of his biography has been with
me a busy one; but I have now completed a careful perusal of the
first volume. I cannot help writing to congratulate you on its
appearance. It presents a beautiful and a noble picture. Having so
long admired and loved your husband (and the political characters
which attract love are not very numerous), I now, with the fuller
knowledge of an early period which this volume gives me, both
admire and love him more. Your own personal share in the
delineation is enviable. And the biographer more than vindicates
the wisdom of your choice; his work is capital, but it could not
have been achieved except with material of the first order. O for
his aid in the present struggle, which, however, is proceeding to
_our_ heart's content. Believe me always most sincerely yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE

A little later Mr. Gladstone sent Lady Russell a proof copy of an article
by him on the Melbourne Ministry, [112] from which the following passages
are here quoted:

... He [Lord John Russell] brought into public life, and he carried
through it unimpaired, the qualities which ennoble manhood--truth,
justice, fortitude, self-denial, a fund of genuine indignation
against wrong, and an inexhaustible sympathy with human
suffering.... With a slender store of physical power, his life was
a daily assertion of the superiority of the spirit to the flesh.
With the warmest domestic affections, and the keen susceptibilities
of sufferings they entail, he never failed to rally under sorrow to
the call of publ