able
after a succession of dreary debates, and the measure was withdrawn on
June 11. Lord John's first important speech in the House of Commons was
made in the year of Peterloo, when he brought forward, thirteen years
before the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed, proposals for an extension of
the franchise; and his last great speech in the House of Commons at
least showed how unmerited was the taunt of 'finality,' for it sought to
give the working classes a share in the government of the country.

[Sidenote: ACCEPTS A PEERAGE]

Early in the following year, Lord John was raised to the peerage as Earl
Russell of Kingston-Russell and Viscount Amberley and Ardsalla. 'I
cannot despatch,' wrote Mr. Gladstone, 'as I have just done, the
Chiltern Hundreds for you, without expressing the strong feelings which
even that formal act awakens. They are mixed, as well as strong; for I
hope you will be repaid in repose, health, and the power of
long-continuing service, for the heavy loss we suffer in the House of
Commons. Although you may not hereafter have opportunities of adding to
the personal debt I owe you, and of bringing it vividly before my mind
by fresh acts of courage and kindness, I assure you, the recollection of
it is already indelible.' Hitherto, Lord John--for the old name is the
one under which his family and his friends still like to apply to
him--had been a poor man; but the death, in the spring of this year, of
his brother the Duke of Bedford, with whom, from youth to age, his
intercourse had been most cordial, placed him in possession of the
Ardsalla Estate, and, indeed, made possible his acceptance of the
proffered earldom. Six months later, her Majesty conferred the Garter
upon him, as a mark of her 'high approbation of long and distinguished
services.' Lord John had almost reached the age of three score and ten
when he entered the House of Lords. He had done his work in 'another
place,' but he was destined to become once more First Minister of the
Crown, and, as Mr. Froude put it, to carry his reputation at length off
the scene unspotted by a single act which his biographers are called
upon to palliate.

CHAPTER XV

UNITED ITALY AND THE DIS-UNITED STATES

1861-1865

Lord John at the Foreign Office--Austria and Italy--Victor Emmanuel
and Mazzini--Cavour and Napoleon III.--Lord John's energetic
protest--His sympathy with Garibaldi and the struggle for
freedom--The gratitude of the It