ne should 'undertake the heroic task of riveting the union of the
three kingdoms by affection, even more than by statute; if he should
endeavour to efface the stains which proscription and prejudice have
affixed on the fair fame of Great Britain, then, though he may not
reunite his party ... he will be enrolled among the noblest of England's
statesmen, and will have laid the foundations of a great work, which
either he or a younger generation will not fail to accomplish.'

[Sidenote: IRISH PROPOSALS]

The proposals Lord John Russell made in the columns of the 'Times,' on
August 9, 1872, for the better government of Ireland have been claimed
as a tentative scheme of Home Rule. 'It appears to me, that if Ireland
were to be allowed to elect a representative assembly for each of its
four provinces of Leinster, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, and if
Scotland in a similar manner were to be divided into Lowlands and
Highlands, having for each province a representative assembly, the
local wants of Ireland and Scotland might be better provided for than
they are at present.' Lord John went on to say that the Imperial
Parliament might still retain its hold over local legislation, and added
that it was his purpose to explain in a pamphlet a policy which he
thought might be adopted to the 'satisfaction of the nation at large.'
The pamphlet, however, remained unwritten, and the scheme in its
fulness, therefore, was never explained. Evidently Lord Russell's mind
was changing in its attitude towards the Irish problem; but, as Mr.
Lecky points out in the personal reminiscences with which he has
enriched these pages, though in advance of the opinion of the hour he
was not prepared to accept the principle of Home Rule. Although Mr.
Lecky does not mention the year in which Lord John declared that any
statesman who 'proposed to repeal the Union ought to be impeached,' Lord
Russell himself in his published 'Recollections' admits that he saw no
hope that Ireland would be well and quietly governed by the adoption of
Home Rule. In fact, he makes it quite clear that he was in sympathy with
the view which Lord Althorp expressed when O'Connell demanded the repeal
of the Union--namely, that such a request amounted to a dismemberment of
the Empire. On the other hand, Lord John was wont in his latest years to
discuss the question in all its bearings with an Irish representative
who held opposite views. There can be no doubt that he was feeling his