The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1867-02-28
EARL USSFLL.
BY MOSES COLT TYLER.

The tame OF this VenefaDle statesman
"a fame that can now count the ring
marks of more thar fifty years-has IL
Illustrated the usual course OF all earthly
regulations: it has had its fiuxes and re-
fluxes, its epochs of splendor and OF
eclipse. It seems to loom up in the his
tory of this half-century, and among the
Sreat and little men who have made
that history, like cold, noble, solitary
mountain, on which, however, you may
see at one time the sunshine and at
another the shadow resting. 1t is diff
cult for Englishmen to speak of him by
his later and statelier title; their mouths
love the old, familiar name OF Lord Rus
sell-a name they heard around their
cradles, a name possessing the charm
not only of innumerable political asso-
Citations, but of that happy mixture OF
the aristocratic and the homely which
goes straight to the warmest corner OF
the British heart. One might be sure
that Earl Russell has something moral
ly superior about, him for three reasons:
the Times finds fault with him, Panch
makes faces at him, the Saturday lie
pieso pays him the supreme compliment
Of pronouncing him failure.
Providence bestowed upon Lord John
ut the outset of life several capital adj
vantages for his career-notth the least De-
ing his birth in the Bedford family.
We have in American politics nothing
ut all corresponding in degree, and al
most nothing in kind, to this tremen-
dous family element in english politi-
cal life. Sydney Smith once said that
in England it is regarded as an impertl-
hence for man with less than two thou
sand year to have any opinions OF his
own. In similar way it is Still an I'M
pertinence in the eyes OF multitudes OF
English people for any man to aspire to
eminent political station who does not
belong to one of the great titled and his
toric families of the Kingdom; and, ifhe
but have such connection, it is amaz-
ing with what unquestioning assent
these same people behold his official adj
vancement, quite irrespective OF person.
al fitness. Lord John entered the world
through the portals OF family from
whom Englishnlen accept politlclans as
naturally as they do bitter beer from
the Bass family, Irish Whiskey from the
Kinahan family, horse-tiesh from the
Tattersall. and skittle-balls from the an
Gent firm of Mr.. Madden. Then, too,
his early training at home seems to have
heen pecuiiarly fortunate: it was thor
ough, generous, religious; and at the
University of Edinburgh, under the
teaching of DIR. Thomas Brown, and es-
pecially of Dugald Stewart, those inner
tied tendencies toward liberal opinions
which he had as Russell were confirm
ed ON basis of scholarship and philos-
ophy. 1t is impossible to interpret the
career of Earl Russell without keeping
in view the influence upon his nature
upon the acts and the utterances OF his
whole life-of what we may call his an
cestral consciousness. He belongs to a
family which is pledged bysacred blood
and by seven generations OF history to
the doctrine ofhuman rights. Since his
first access to the public service he has
evidently regarded himself as the repre-
sentative not of this borough or of that
city, but of two centuries Of tyrant- hat
ing Russells; and there are perceptible
also in him lofty and heroic tender
ness toward popular liberty, a pathos, q
fidelity. transparent conservation, as if
the mantle of the martyr, William Lord
Russell, cherished as sanity heirloom
from generation to generation in his
family, had given not merely dignity,
but holiness, to it's living possessor.
This is only another way ofstating what
has been somewhat facetiously said by
u brilliant critic in the Pal Mall Gazette
that Earl Russell ''always looks at po-
iitical subjects through the eyes of his
ancestors"
Entering the House OF Commons in