was one for reversing the attainder of Lord Russell, in the preamble of which his execution is called a murder. In 1694, he created the Earl of Bedford a Duke, and amongst the reasons for conferring this honour, it is stated, "That this was not the least, that he was the father to Lord Russell, the ornament of his age, whose great merits it was not enough to transmit by history to posterity, but they (the King and Queen) were willing to record them in their royal patent, to remain in the family as a monument consecrated to his consummate virtue, whose name could never be forgot, so long as men preserved any esteem for sanctity of manners, greatness of mind, and a love to their country, constant even to death. Therefore, to solace his excellent father for so great a loss, to celebrate the memory of so noble a son, and to excite his worthy grandson, the heir of such mighty hopes, more cheerfully to emulate and follow the example of his illustrious father, they intailed this high dignity upon the Earl and his posterity." When the bill for reversing the attainder before mentioned came down to the House of Commons, Mr. Finch endeavoured to justify the part he had taken in the trial. But this only excited the indignation of the House. It was moved by Sir Thomas Clarges, to leave out the words in the bill" it is at the request of the Earl

of Bedford and Lady Russell only," because the justice of the nation is of more importance than the wishes of any private person.

It is not within my province to pursue any farther the sorrowful years of Lady Russell. Religion afforded, to a mind like hers, the chief motive to be resigned, when nothing could give her a reason to be consoled.

Before taking leave, however, of so admirable a person, I cannot refrain from offering some remarks upon her character.

Her life may be divided into two parts: one, in which we sympathise with her happiness; the other, in which we admire her fortitude, and feel for her distress. In the first we have seen her captivate the affections of Lord Russell; and, after having become his wife, we have mentioned her as busy in collecting political intelligence for his information, as anxiously providing for his health and comfort, directing the care, and enjoying the amusements of her children; and, above all, returning thanks to the Most High for the gift of happiness, which, though extreme, she seems never to have abused. She was to her lord the chosen mistress of his heart, the affectionate companion of his life, the tender and solicitous mother of his offspring. These qualities were sufficient to stamp her character as amiable; the conduct we afterwards related

mark it as sublime. We then saw her attend her husband in prison, upon a charge of high treason, and divide her day between the soothing attention which his situation excited, and the active enquiries which his defence required. We found her, where a nobleman's wife might not, perhaps, be expected, — acting as his secretary in a court of justice, and writing, with her own hand, the notes from which he was to plead in a cause where his life was at stake. After his condemnation, we followed her in the anxious and unceasing solicitations which she made, on every side, to obtain his pardon; and, amidst her restless endeavours to save his life, we still had to admire a heart, which could lead her to abstain from even hinting to the patriot she was about to see perish on the scaffold, that his existence might be prolonged by means degrading to his spirit, or inconsistent with his honour.

The life of Lady Russell, after the death of her lord, was occupied and embittered by that grief, of which she has left in her letters so affecting a memorial. Yet we are not to suppose that sorrow for her departed husband made her incapable of the duties which remained to her to perform. We find her on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter, expressing her resolve not to bend her child's inclinations to her own judgment. There remains a letter to

Mrs. Howland, whose daughter was to marry her son, afterwards Duke of Bedford, giving very sensible advice upon the manner in which the child, then eight years old, ought to be educated. And it is worthy of remark, that so serious a person as Lady Russell does not omit to mention dancing as one of the things which her future daughter-in-law ought to learn: for, "though I confess," she says, "fashion and those other accomplishments are, perhaps, over-rated by the world, and I esteem them but as dross and as a shadow, in comparison of religion and virtue, yet the perfections of nature are ornaments to the body, as grace is to the mind." It appears by another letter, that she gave a large sum from her own fortune, to pay the debts which her son had contracted by gambling; and, to conclude these quotations, there is another, in which she exhorts him, by every argument she can imagine, to seek for support in religion, which had been her own guide and consolation. The peculiarity which is most striking in Lady Russell is, that she was esteemed and consulted by her cotemporaries, and has been admired and revered by posterity, without any ambitious effort of her own. She neither sought to shine in the world by the extent of her capacity, nor to display, by affected retirement, the elevation of her soul; and when circumstances obliged

her to come forward on the stage of history, she showed herself in the appropriate character of a wife and a mother. Hence we may believe, that the unobtrusive modesty of private life contains many a female capable of giving the same example to her sex, and to mankind. But the hour of danger is past the liberties for which Lord Russell sacrificed his life are established"; and it is to be hoped that no English widow may, in future, have to mourn a husband, unjustly condemned, and tyrannically executed.