litics he looked with peculiar pleasure to the services he
had rendered to the Italian cause. Italy was always very dear to him. He
had many valued friends there, and he spoke Italian (as he also did
Spanish) with much fluency. Among my most vivid recollections are those
of some happy days I spent with him at San Remo.'

Two years before the disestablishment of the Irish Church, Lord John
Russell, knowing how great a stumbling-block its privileges were to the
progress of the people, moved for a Commission to inquire into the
expenditure of its revenues. The investigation was, however, staved off,
and the larger question was, in consequence, hastened. He supported Mr.
Gladstone in a powerful speech in 1870, and showed himself in
substantial agreement with Mr. Forster over his great scheme of
education, though he thought that some of its provisions bore heavily
upon Nonconformists. The outbreak of war between France and Germany
seemed at first to threaten the interests of England, and Lord John
introduced a Militia Bill, which was only withdrawn when the Government
promised to take action. The interests of Belgium were threatened by the
struggle on the Continent, and Lord John took occasion to remind the
nation that we were bound to defend that country, and had guaranteed by
treaty to uphold its independence:--

'... I am persuaded that if it is once manfully declared that England
means to stand by her treaties, to perform her engagements--that her
honour and her interest would allow nothing else--such a declaration
would check the greater part of these intrigues, and that neither France
nor Prussia would wish to add a second enemy to the formidable foe which
each has to meet.... When the choice is between honour and infamy, I
cannot doubt that her Majesty's Government will pursue the course of
honour, the only one worthy of the British people.... I consider that if
England shrank from the performance of her engagements--if she acted in
a faithless manner with respect to this matter--her extinction as a
Great Power must very soon follow.'

[Sidenote: ATTACKS THE CLAIMS OF PIUS IX.]

Lord John's vigorous protest did not go unheeded, and the King of the
Belgians sent him an autograph letter in acknowledgment of his generous
and opportune words. On the other hand, Lord John Russell resented the
determination of Mr. Gladstone to submit the 'Alabama' claims to
arbitration, and also opposed the adoption of the Ballot and t