IV
LORD JOHN RUSSELL
THOMAS MOORE TO LORD RUSSELL
[About the year 1816 Lord Russell's health being delicate he was rarely in his seat in the House of Commons, and even expressed his determination to withdraw from public life altogether. This "Remonstrance" from the poet Thomas Moore is valuable at least for the view which it gives of the considerations which impelled the scion of the great Whig house to serve his country.]
What! thou, with thy genius, thy youth, and thy name!
Thou, born of a Russell, whose instinct to run
The accustom'd career of thy sires is the same
As the eaglet's to soar with his eyes on the sun;
Whose nobility comes to thee, stamp'd with a seal
Far, far more ennobling than monarch e'er set;
With the blood of thy race offer'd up for the weal
Of a nation that swears by that martyrdom yet!
Shalt thou be faint-hearted, and turn from the strife,
From the mighty arena, where all that is grand,
And devoted, and pure, and adorning in life
Is for high-thoughted spirits like thine to command?
Oh no! never dream it; while good men despair
Between tyrants and traitors, and timid men bow,
Never think for an instant thy country can spare
Such a light from her dark'ning horizon as thou!
With a spirit as meek as the gentlest of those
Who in life's sunny valley lie shelter'd and warm,
Yet bold and heroic as ever yet rose
To the top cliffs of Fortune, and breasted her storm;
With an ardour for liberty, fresh as in youth
It first kindles the bard and gives light to his lyre,
Yet mellow'd e'en now by that mildness of truth,
Which tempers, but chills not, the patriot fire;
With an eloquence, not like those rills from a height,
Which sparkle and foam, and in vapour are o'er,
But a current that works out its way into light
Through the filt'ring recesses of thought and of lore:
Thus gifted, thou never canst sleep in the shade;
If the stirring of genius, the music of fame,
And the charm of thy cause have not power to persuade,
Yet think how to freedom thou'rt pledged by thy name.
Like the boughs of that laurel, by Delphi's decree,
Set apart for the fame and its service divine,
All the branches that spring from the old Russell tree
Are by liberty claim'd for the use of her shrine.
ON BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS
[After his unsuccessful contest for a seat in the House of Commons for Huntingdon in 1826, Lord John Russell drafted a measure for the prevention of bribing and sent it to Lord Althorp with a letter which was published in "The Times " and attracted much notice. The following passages are extracted.]
Bribery is clearly forbidden by the law, and it is competent for every British subject to petition the House of Commons, praying them to inquire into any particular instance of that offense which may have occurred under his own observation. The House may, if it thinks fit, refer such a petition to the Committee of Privileges, or to any other committee it may choose to appoint for the purpose.
Bribery in a candidate, however, makes void the election, and a petition complaining of bribery committed, with a view to the last election in a borough, is properly an election petition. But a term of fourteen days is the limited period within which a petition of this nature can be presented, and various onerous duties are imposed upon the petitioner—he must enter into a recognizance to pursue his complaint, and must incur an expense of some hundreds or even some thousands in prosecuting the inquiry.
Still this mode of inquiry is now so established that when upon two or three occasions complaints have been sent to me of bribery in a particular borough, I feared to bring them before the House of Commons lest I should be told that the petition was an election petition which could not otherwise be entertained.
. . .
From this state of things great impunity has been allowed to gross acts of corruption. A gentleman from London goes down to a borough of which he scarcely before knew the existence. The electors do not ask his political opinions; they do not inquire into his private character; they only require to be satisfied of the impurity of his intentions. If he is elected no one, in all probability, contests the validity of his return. His opponents are as guilty as he is and no other person will incur the expense of a petition for the sake of a public benefit. Fifteen days after the meeting of Parliament a handsome reward is distributed to each of the worthy and independent electors.
This is the practice against which the resolutions of the late House of Commons were directed. They pledge the House to inquiry not on a question between two rivals contending for a seat, but on a question affecting the character and purity of Parliament. They allow complaints to be made not only against the sitting member, but against the borough; they enlarge the time within which such complaints may be made, and instead of deterring petitioners by expense, they provide that a specific complaint, if fit to be inquired into, shall be inquired into for the sake of the public at the public cost.
Such is the proposition approved by the late House of Commons, and which I venture to think not unworthy of being countenanced by a Whig reformer. There are many other abuses in our present mode of elections, to which local remedies might, I think, be successfully applied; nor is there any one more fit or more able than yourself to conduct such measures. Undoubtedly many obstacles would be raised to delay our progress, especially on the part of "the presiding genius of the House of Lords." But I am persuaded that reformers in general have never made a sufficient estimate of the support they would receive, or set a sufficient value on the objects they might attain, by a vigorous attack on particular abuses.
THE CHAMPION OF REFORM
[Lord John Russell's share in carrying the Reform Act of 1832 was celebrated by Lord Lyttleton in the following lines.]
In England's worst days, when her rights and her laws
Were spurned by a Prince of the fell Stuart line,
A Russell stood forth to assert her lost cause,
And perish'd a martyr at liberty's shrine.
The smell of that sacrifice mounted to heaven;
The cry of that blood rose not thither in vain;
The crime of the tyrant was never forgiven;
And a blessing was breathed on the race of the slain.
Dethroned and degraded, the Stuart took flight,
He fled to the land where the Bourbon bore sway,
A curse clung to his offspring, a curse and a blight,
And in exile and sorrow it wither'd away.
But there sprang from the blood of the martyr a race
Which for virtue and courage unrival'd has shone;
Its honors still worn with a patriot grace,
Still loved by the people, revered by the throne.
And see where in front of the battle again
A Russell, sweet liberty's champion, appears;
While myriads of freemen compose his bright train,
And the blessing still lives through the long lapse of years.