The Sun. — 1870-01-15 (London, England)

LORD RUSSELL'S NEW BOOK.  The Telegraph gives, in a leader, a slight indication of the contents of Earl Russell's new work. To his speeches the noble earl has written an introduction, wherein the history of the half-century is compressed, and somewhat irreverently treated on. The Telegraph says it is a kind of " disjointed chat," only not " bald." It is written in 170 pages. Where another would make copious comment or elaborate explanation, Lord Russell simply tells a conclusive anecdote or gives a decisive opinion in ten words. For instance, " During my tenure of the Colonial Office, a gentleman attached to the French Government called upon me; he asked me how much of Australia was claimed as the domain of Great Britain. I answered, 'The whole,' and with that answer he went away." Lord Russell is proud of our extensive empire. He describes a visit to the camp of Lord Wellington in Spain in two pages, and relates how, on his return from Torres Vedras, he made a bet with Lord Pensonby that in a twelvemonth from that date the English would still hold the lines. "At the end of a year Lord Ponsonby paid me the bet;" which certainly relates a very great event from a somewhat small point of view. Lord Russell visited Napoleon I. at Elba in 1814, and adds : " I was so struck with his restless inquiry, that I expressed, in a letter to my brother in England, my conviction that he would make some fresh attempt to disturb France and govern Europe." In recording the Reform Bill of 1832, he speaks of it as the deathblow to " that Tory supremacy which had for sixty years with little interruption ruled England ; had carried on the American war and the French revolutionary war ; and had placed the country in a position of immense power, enormous debt, and great internal difficulty." The " Introduction," is not entirely retrospective. The speeches to which it is a preface do not come down beyond 1841; but there are many opinions freely given on questions of the day. The education controversy is traced from 1807 down to 1839, when the present plan of the Privy Council grants was introduced on these two principles, " that education should be religious, and that the rights of conscience should be respected." Lord Russell thinks now that a national plan must be adopted, but he does not think "compulsion" necessary, and he would permit the local ratepayers to decide whether schools should be secular or not. As regards Irish affairs Lord Russell still clings to his "concurrent endowment," idea, adding, with his usual suggestive brevity, " I cannot admit that in a country where, in the case of a murder, the sympathy of the people is with the murderer, there is no need that the State should assist and promote the teaching of religion," On the Irish land question Lord Russell also speaks. One of his proposals is to substitute yearly tenancies fortenancies at will, which would be a very minute amendment cf the. present law. In colonial questions Lord Russell inclines to the views of the colonists who meet in Cannon-street—that is, he favours a Couucil of the Empire ; but he suggests a contribution of three or four millions from the greater colonies —an idea which Australia and Canada may not readily adopt. The following are the concluding words :—"Lastly, to speak of my own wish, I can only rejoice that I have been allowed to have my share in the task accomplished in the half century which has elapsed from 1819 to 1869. ➢ly capacity I always felt was very inferior to that of the men who have attained in past times the foremost place in our Parliament, and in the councils of our Sovereign. I have committed many errors, some of them very gross blunders. But the generous people of England are always forbearing and forgiving to those statesmen who have the good of their country at heart. Like my betters, I have been misrepresented and slandered by those who knew nothing of me; but I have been more thon compensated by the confidence and the friendship of the best men of my own political connection, and by the regard and favourable interpretation of my motives, which I heard expressed by my generous opponents, from the days of Lord Castlereagh to those of Mr. Disraeli,'  A