The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-08 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

We have mentioned the report, now going the
round of the papers, that the Rev. John Dufton,
Rector of Warehorne, and author of an admirable
pamphlet on the education question, is to be the new
Bishop of Manchester. We know not what truth
there is in it, but we believe that the gentleman
named, besides being a tried friend of civil and reli-
gious liberty, possesses eminent qualifications for the
dignity to which rumour has raised him by anticipa-
tion. At a public dinner given at Whitby, on the
25th of March, 1835, during the short-lived Admi-
nistration of Sir Robert Peel, the Rev. Mr. Dufton
was called upon to propose the health of Lord John
Russell, which he did in the following terms :
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen—The chairman having
intimated his commands that I should give the
next toast on the list, I assure you I have great
pleasure in complying with his dictum, more parti-
cularly as I find myself called upon to give the
health of that distinguished patriot, Lord John
Russell.—(Loud cheers.) I am perfectly aware
that this is not the place, nor is it the time,
to enter at large upon the subject; but I feel I
cannot avoid saying a few words with respect to it,
more especially as the noble person to whom I have
alluded has something so peculiar and marked in his
character, as, at the present time, to render him, in
my humble opinion, of the greatest importance to his
country.—(Cheers.) That noble individual was born
to the possession of high rank, and in almost princely
splendour, and has been surrounded by the dangers
to which a person in his situation is particularly ex-
posed. The flattery of the Court, and the allure-
ments of power, have never caused him to swerve
from that firmness of purpose—have never shaken
that steady adherence to principle, which are his pre-
eminent characteristics, and which have fitted him
for being what be always has been—the friend of the
people.—(Much cheering.) Sir, I know no man, in
modern days, who has so devotedly given up his
time to the public good, to which, I believe in my
conscience, he has always looked in all his actions ;

it has been, throughout, his aim and object
to improve the institutions of his country, and
to promote happiness, and peace, and good-
will amongst men.—(Loud cheers.) In all this
he has worthily trod in the steps of his ancestors ;
and, doubtless, were he called upon to do so, would
be prepared, like them, to show to the last his attach-
ment to liberty.—(Great applause.) Were it my
wish to imbue others with a desire to engage in the
same course of patriotism, I would say, visit the halls
of the abbey of Woburn, where the portraits of a line
of patriots appear drawn out in long succession, and
claiming for their founder, not the mail-clad baron of
the reign of John, but, with appropriate fitness, the
English country gentleman of the olden time.—
(Hear, hear.) Such being my conviction, and en-
tertaining such opinions, I look upon the noble per-
son, the object of our toast, as entitled to the highest
praise—to our admiration and esteem.—(Loud
cheers.) Therefore, without trespassing further on
your attention—without entering into a detail of the
great measures which the Noble Lord has introduced
and mainly assisted in carrying through the Legisla-
ture, for the public benefit—without even alluding to
his benevolent exertions in the cause of religiousin-
struction and humanity, I beg to propose The health
of Lord John Russell, and civil and religious liberty.
—Liverpool Mercury, Aug. 27.