New-York tribune., 1868-12-17
EARL RUsSELpS REyUyCIA1IoM

Earl Russell, K seems, is not TO take Office
again. So, at least the Cable informs us; but
the Cable has played us some odd tricks during
the week, and we are not likely to be over
confident of the truth Of any story it tells us
about the arrangements Of the new English
Ministry Earl Russell is a man of sudden
impulses and very keen ambition, aud we lues-
ton whether he himself quite sees that his po-
litcal part is played out But he is u very old
man. lie sat at the feet of Fog, and talked
with Napoleon at Elba upon the art Of war. He
belongs TO tho past altogether, and he ought
to rcnounce the active work of the present
If he has actually done so, lac has behaved
with n wisdom and self-dcuial for which we
hardly gave him credit.
How can we of to day reconcile tie Earl
Russell we have known-the frigid little man
who is all ice, whose kindness frcezes-with tlc
Lord John Russell of whose rash self-cOuldence
sydney Smith gave such famous illustration,
and whom Thomas Moore likCued to young
eagle soaring ut the SUM- The truth probably
is that little Liberalism and lille courage
went n long way in the case Of young pa
trician of the great house of Bedford in the
early part Of this century. Certainly Lord
Russell never realized the promise with which
the friends and admirers of his youth endowed
him. There never was one glcam OF origisality
in his intellect; there never was any
native force in his character Great ambition
and great self-conccit lent him, sometimes
those impulses which used to bo mistaken
when he Was young, for the promptings oil
genius and daring. lie always took his ideas
from other men, and his principle of action
from the circumstances of the hour. He had
ability-in one sense, very great ability bHt
it was ability Of quite n different Kind from
that which he believed himself to be display
ing. lie was ready and keen
debater, with certain sharp and acid
flavor in his tone which some people
called shrcwish, and which Wilson Croker
characterized as "spitcful slyness." lie was
never in any Sense of the word true
statesman, and his best speeches never reached
the hight of genuine cloquence. His one grand
effort and achievement was the leading part
which, though not in the Cabinet of the day,
he took in tho framing and passing of the
Reform bill of 1892. He has lived ever since
on the memory of that achievement, and on
his rank as patrican, and his early knowl-
edge Of the great statesman and orator whom
he always described formally as "Mr. Fox
All his efforts at great legislation since 1892
were failures. Because he had no ideas OF his
own, his political life was n string OF paradoxes.
lie was a champion of religious liberty for the
Roman Catholics, and he won tho deadly hatred
Of the Roman Catholics by his famous Durham
letter and his part in the passing of the Ec-
clesiastical Titles bill. He began as n friend
and patron of Ireland, and no statesman since
tl,a LIE III .fp
He was once an ardent Philhcllcno, aud he was
ready to tramplo down Greece into the dust,
if necessary, during the Crimean War. He was
an earnest opponent of Slavery, and he pas
syely allowed the pirate Alabama to leave an
English port with the flag of n slave confed-
eracy flying from her mast. He has got much
credit for tho part he took in encouraging
Italian independence, and he deserves some
credit, assuredly, but people seem to forget that
hc actually wrote q certain dispatch pointing
out that English interests in the Adriatic
(whatever under the sun they were) ought to
be thought of before the Liberation of Venice !;
and it was the cry of anger which broke from
the English press on the publication of this
extraordinary document that drove him into
broader and more manly utterances. He played
fast and loose with the unfortunate Danes, up
to the very hour of tho Scheswig- llolsten
war; just as he tried to play fast and
loose with Mr. Adams on the subject
of the Alabama and the recognition of the
Confederacy. Nothing in his recent life be-
came him so well as his attitude Mt the Garri-
son banquet in London last year, when he had
the manhood to acknowledge how completely
he had mistaken the whole meaning of the
American struggle No statesman ever ac-
lsnowlcdgod bunder with better grace. Bat
the experience and the acknowledgment would
probably never have kept Lord Russell from
another blunder of the same kind three months
after, if he had had tho opportunity.
Even English RefQmers do not care much
abOnt this veteran Rcformer, this brother-in-
arms, of Charles Earl Grey. English political
life has long since outgrown his policy of ira
dition his second hand doctrines of Liberalism
His foreign policy was not inaccnrately, although
very ill-naturedly, described in Lord Derby's
famous phrase. "meddle and muddle." Tho
| tendency now in England is rather to under
value alike his servces-for he did render some
good service--and his ability for he had more
ability than almost any other English peer of
his day and school. IIo always meant well,
and he had at least n Platonic affection for
uoDullr freedom, But ho was always