d
Russell's attitude on these subjects.

I had much to tell Lady Russell of the various impressions made on me
during my wanderings through the States, and by the distinguished American
authors, statesmen, soldiers--Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, General Grant, General Sherman.
With the public career of each of these men Lady Russell was thoroughly
acquainted, but she was much interested in hearing all that I could tell
her about their ways of life and their personal habits and characteristics.

Then there were, of course, political questions at home concerning which
there was deep sympathy between Lady Russell and me, and on which we had
many long conversations. She had the most intense and enlightened sympathy
with the great movements going on in these countries for the spread of
political equality and of popular education.

Every statesman who sincerely and actively supported the principles and
measures tending towards these ends was regarded as a friend by this
noble-hearted woman.

I had been for many years a leader-writer and more recently editor of the
_Morning Star_, the London daily newspaper which advocated the views
of Cobden and Bright, and I had more recently still been elected to the
House of Commons as a member of the Irish Nationalist Party, and thus again
I found myself in thorough sympathy with the opinions and the feelings of
my hostess.

Lady Russell had long been an advocate of that truly Liberal policy towards
Ireland which is now accepted as the only principle by all really
enlightened Liberal English men and women; and she thoroughly understood
the condition, the grievances, the needs, and the aspirations of Ireland.
The readers of this volume will see in some passages extracted from Lady
Russell's diaries and letters how deep and strong were her feelings on the
subject. She followed with the most intense interest and with the most
penetrating observation the whole movement of Ireland's national struggle
down to the very close of her life. Her letters on this question
alone--letters addressed to me--would in themselves serve to illumine even
now the minds of many English readers on this whole subject. Lady Russell
was in no sense a partisan on any political question--I mean she never gave
her approval to everything said or done by the leaders of any political
party merely because the one main object of that party had her full
sympathy an