Ministry," and kissed her
affectionately, and was so cordial to both that they were greatly
touched.' He told Lady Russell that he had enjoyed his life. 'I have
made mistakes, but in all I did my object was the public good!' Then
after a pause: 'I have sometimes seemed cold to my friends, but it was
not in my heart.' A change for the worse set in on May 1, and the last
sands of life were slipping quietly through the glass when the
Nonconformist deputation came on the 9th of that month to present Lord
Russell with an address of congratulation on the occasion of the jubilee
of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts.[45] Lady Russell and her
children received the Deputation. In the course of her reply to the
address Lady Russell said that of all the 'victories won by that great
party to which in his later as in his earlier years Lord John had been
inseparably attached,' there was none dearer to his memory at that
moment than that which they had called to remembrance. 'It was a proud
and a sad day,' is the entry in Lady Russell's journal. 'We had hoped
some time ago that he might perhaps see the Deputation for a moment in
his room, but he was too ill for that to be possible.'

A few days later, there appeared in the columns of 'Punch' some
commemorative verses entitled 'A Golden Wedding.' They expressed the
feeling that was uppermost in the heart of the nation, and two or three
verses may here be recorded:--

The Golden Wedding of Lord John and Liberty his love--
'Twixt the Russells' House and Liberty, 'twas ever hand and glove--
His love in those dark ages, he has lived through with his bride,
To look back on them from the sunset of his quiet eventide.

His love when he that loved her and sought her for his own
Must do more than suit and service, must do battle, trumpet blown,
Must slay the fiery dragons that guarded every gate
On the roads by which men travelled for work of Church and State.

Now time brings its revenges, and all are loud to own
How beautiful a bride she was, how fond, how faithful shown;
But she knows the man who loved her when lovers were but few,
And she hails this golden wedding--fifty years of tried and true.

Look and listen, my Lord Russell: 'tis your golden wedding-day;
We may not press your brave old hand, but you hear what we've to say.
A blessing on the bridal that has known its fifty years,
But never known its fallings-out, delusions, d