The Nun of
Arrouca,' a story founded on a romantic incident which occurred during
his travels in the Peninsula. The book appeared in 1822, and in the
same year--he was restless and ambitious of literary distinction at the
time, and had not yet found his true sphere in politics--he also
published 'Don Carlos,' a tragedy in blank verse, which was in reality
not merely a tirade against the cruelties of the Inquisition, but an
impassioned protest against religious disabilities in every shape or
form. 'Don Carlos,' though now practically forgotten, ran through five
editions in twelve months, and the people remembered it when its author
became the foremost advocate in the House of Commons of the repeal of
the Test and Corporation Acts. Amongst other minor writings which belong
to the earlier years of Lord John Russell, it is enough to name 'Essays
and Sketches of Life and Character,' 'The Establishment of the Turks in
Europe,' 'A Translation of the Fifth Book of the Odyssey,' and an
imitation of the Thirteenth Satire of Juvenal, as well as an essay on
the 'Causes of the French Revolution,' which appeared in 1832.

It is still a moot point whether 'Letters Written for the Post, and not
for the Press,' an anonymous volume which appeared in 1820, and which
consists of descriptions of a tour in Scotland, interspersed with dull
moral lectures on the conduct of a wife towards her husband, was from
his pen. Mr. George Elliot believes, on internal evidence, too lengthy
to quote, that the book--a small octavo volume of more than four hundred
pages--is erroneously attributed to his brother-in-law, and the Countess
Russell is of the same opinion. Mr. Elliot cites inaccuracies in the
book, and adds that the places visited in Scotland do not correspond
with those which Lord John had seen when he went thither in company with
the Duke and Duchess in 1807; and there is no evidence that he made
another pilgrimage north of the Tweed between that date and the
appearance of the book. He adds that his father took the trouble to
collect everything which was written by Lord John, and the book is
certainly not in the library at Minto. Moreover, Mr. Elliot is confident
that either Lord Minto or Lord John himself assured him that he might
dismiss the idea of the supposed authorship.

After his final retirement from office, Lord John published, in 1868,
three letters to Mr. Chichester Fortescue on 'The State of Ireland,' and
this was followed by a con