The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-24 00:00:00

ficult, of course, to give upon the instant a com-
plete enumeration of them ; but at any rate the
more salient start at once to almost every intelli-
gent observer's recollection. Leader of the Great
Whig Party. Prime Minister during six years
consecutively. Maker and destroyer of Adminis-
trations. Chief and subordinate of Lord PAL-
MERSTON. Colleague and antagonist of Lord
DERBY. Leader—now of the Whig-Radical Op-
position—now of the Whig-Tory, or at any rate the
Whig-Conservative Government. Biographer of
his famous ancestor Lord WILLIAM RUSSELL.
Author of the long unread, because really
unreadable tragedy of " Don Carlos." Author
too, of an unknown Novel, the very name of which
has long since been obliterated from recollection.
Friend of THOMAS MOORE, and of how many others ?
—it might almost be said, without exaggeration, of
nearly all his illustrious contemporaries. Reformer
—of how many of our national institutions?—but
pre-eminent amongst them all of our municipal
institutions, and of our whole complex fabric of
popular representation. Admirable always as a
Debater. Rarely great, but really sometimes great,
as an Orator : whenever, that is, as Sir BULIVER
LYTTON has sung of him in his satire of the New
7imon, whenever— •
" Languid Johnny glowed to glorious John."
The catalogue, here, might readily, of course, be
yet further extended. But—we pause, we hesitate
to adventure further upon its extension. And this,
not merely because the reduplication of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S manifold claims in this way
upon the national attention would, if much
longer persisted in, come to be regarded in all
probabilityas at once tedious and superfluous—
tedious by reason of being superfluous—but because
as we advance nearer and nearer to our own time
the gloss of those once all-shining titles to popular
consideration would, in all likelihood, be found to
be sadly dimmed and obscured in its lustre. We
might readily, of course, overleap, as long since
nobly expiated, the still incomprehensible, momen-
tary declaration for Finality! But, if we were to
come down much further in the record of the career
of this eminent statesman, we should infallibly run
the risk of stumbling over the inopportune reminis-
cence of his fatal Essay—once upon a time—it was
at Vienna—as a Diplomatist. Besides, in scanning
the official career of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, as a
statesman, it would be absolutely impossible not to
recognise, again and again, throughout its annals—
(and those annals, remember, are literally part and
parcel of the history of the British Em pire)—it would
be absolutely impossible not to recognise perpetu-
ally through the record of Lord Joint's ministerial
existence, justification upon justification of one of
Mr. DISRAELI'S wittiest flashes of irony, " A Con-
servative in Disguise ? It is a Whig in Place !" If
there were needed any single and all-sufficient de-
monstration of the accuracy of which saying, by the
way, that conclusive and definitive illustration of
the perfect truthfulness of Mr. DISRAELI'S
witticism would be adducable, of course,
upon the instant by a simple reference to that inane
hiatus or political gap revealing a total absence of
all reforms whatever, good, bad, or indifferent, the
melancholy, dull dead-level of those five or six
years during which Lord JOHN held supreme power
as chief of a so-called Liberal and Reforming Ad-
ministration. Yet in spite of any such deplorable
incident—we all of us know full well, we all of us
remember with the very liveliest gratitude what
large and glorious and imperishable claims Lord
JOHN RUSSELL has upon our regard in his charac-
' ter as A Reformer. With him—uttered by his lips,
cherished in his heart, championed by his energy,
guarded by his intelligence—" Civil and Religious
1 Liberty" has been no empty phrase. Nobly has
he "many a time and oft " fought the good fight.
Eloquently has he, time and again, vindicated
those lofty principles. And it is when viewed in
this light, it is when regarded in the
recollection of all his words and acts, of all his
memorable sayings and doings as a great and illus-
trious Advocate of the principles of Civil and Reli-
gious Liberty throughout not only the remotest
parts of the British Empire, but of the whole civi-
lised world, that Lord JOHN RUSSELL has good
reason, in very truth, to glory in Lis title as A
Reformer.

It is intimated that simultaneously with, or at
any rate immediately after, the noble lord's entrance
into the House of Lords as Earl RUSSELL—[and
never, all things considered, has a Great Servant
of the Crown and of the Country more worthily
earned the coronet of an Earldom]—" Lord JOHN"
will receive, as additional evidence of the Royal
Favour, the Star and the Blue Ribbon of the Garter.
But already—without any need of the magical
accolade from the Sword of State in the hands of
the Sovereign—Earl RUSSELL may take his place
among the peers of the realm with a brighter star
than even that coveted star of the Garter, his own
fair fame as A Reformer. Taking his place there
not for the purpose of closing, but rather of con-
tinuing his career as a Legislator, a Statesman, and
an Administrator. Continuing his public life there
upon a loftier, though a less prominent stage in the
double arena of Parliament. The transference of
Lord JOHN from the House of Commons to the
House of Lords, his own transformation from a
patrician Commoner into a Peer of the Realm,
while gratifying, and even, to some
extent, consolatory to himself, now that
he is advancing in years and not far short of
having attained the dignity of a septuagenarian—
must at the same time and in an especial manner be
replete with poignant regrets and many sorrowful
and long-lingering
statesmanlookin g back
a century musthave •
in severing those popular • •
political fortunes directly with those
of England—ties first linking them
recollections. The grey-headed
over this lapse of nearly half
experienced a certain reluctance
entetrieeds b.lnling his own
of the People
House
eheorf whenCom-
mons
for thetheboro
young Lord JOHN first
greatugh
in 1813 (before the close a
wars of NAPOLEON) as M.P.
of Tavistock. Forty seven or eight years
as one of the national representatives—„
1
member for Tavistock, as member for Bandon
Bridge, as member for Stroud, as
imy
,em from
mer 4
during
81
to
these last twenty years conti
1861, for the City of London—nearly
ashAalf
I‘alceemn thuerry,
thus past by Lord JOHN RUSSELL
latterly as foremost: among The Leaders of the
British House of Commons, cannot, we may
feel perfectly assured, be brought at length to
a conclusion without awakening sentiments of pro-
found emotion in the heart and intellect of this
eminent man. Now that he is quitting the scene
of so many of his triumphs—triumphs political and
Parliamentary, oratorical and Administrative—we
can only remember all the good he has done for
those who, like himself, exult in the title and
revere the rights appertaining " the world o'er "
to every Free-born Englishman. Honourably
and laboriously has Lord JOHN earned for himself
that comparative rest which will henceforth,
during the remainder of his life, be secured to him
by his seat in the House of Lords as Earl RUSSELL.
And long may he enjoy it !

Congress does not intend to bare a long ses-
sion. There is, we believe, one provision against
it very efficient in America—they are paid nothing
for an extra Session. It will not, however, be