xistence, that counts, but what is achieved
during that existence, however short." These words of his form
his worthiest epitaph.

XI

_LORD CHARLES RUSSELL_

A man can have no better friend than a good father; and this
consideration warrants, I hope, the inclusion of yet one more sketch
drawn "in honour of friendship."

Charles James Fox Russell (1807-1894) was the sixth son of the sixth
Duke of Bedford. His mother was Lady Georgiana Gordon, daughter
of the fourth Duke of Gordon and of the adventurous "Duchess Jane,"
who, besides other achievements even more remarkable, raised the
"Gordon Highlanders" by a method peculiarly her own. Thus he was
great-great-great-grandson of the Whig martyr, William, Lord Russell,
and great-nephew of Lord George Gordon, whose Protestant zeal excited
the riots of 1780. He was one of a numerous family, of whom the best
remembered are John, first Earl Russell, principal author of the
Reform Act of 1832, and Louisa, Duchess of Abercorn, grandmother
of the present Duke.

Charles James Fox was a close friend, both politically and privately,
of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, and he promised them that he
would be godfather to their next child; but he died before the
child was born, whereupon his nephew, Lord Holland, took over the
sponsorship, and named his godson "Charles James Fox." The child
was born in 1807, and his birthplace was Dublin Castle.[*] The
Duke of Bedford was then Viceroy of Ireland, and became involved
in some controversy because he refused to suspend the Habeas Corpus
Act. When Lord Charles Russell reached man's estate, he used, half
in joke but quite half in-earnest, to attribute his lifelong sympathy
with the political demands of the Irish people to the fact that
he was a Dublin man by birth.

[Footnote *: He was christened from a gold bowl by the Archbishop
of Dublin, Lord Normanton.]

The Duke of Bedford was one of the first Englishmen who took a
shooting in Scotland (being urged thereto by his Highland Duchess);
and near his shooting-lodge a man who had been "out" with Prince
Charlie in 1745 was still living when Charles Russell first visited
Speyside. Westminster was the Russells' hereditary school, and
Charles Russell was duly subjected to the austere discipline which
there prevailed. From the trials of gerund-grinding and fagging
and flogging a temporary relief was afforded by the Coronation of
George IV., at which he officiated as Page to the actin