In 1865 Lord John, who in the meantime had been created Earl Russell,
became, after many vicissitudes in office and opposition, Prime
Minister for the second time. The Queen, apparently hard put to
it for conversation, asked him whom he now considered the most
promising young man in the Liberal party. He replied, without
hesitation, "George Byng, ma'am," thereby eliciting the very natural
rejoinder, "But that's what you told me twenty years ago!"

This fragment of anecdotage, whether true or false, is eminently
characteristic of Lord Russell. In principles, beliefs, opinions,
even in tastes and habits, he was singularly unchanging. He lived
to be close on eighty-six; he spent more than half a century in
active politics; and it would be difficult to detect in all those
years a single deviation from the creed which he professed when,
being not yet twenty-one, he was returned as M.P. for his father's
pocket-borough of Tavistock.

From first to last he was the staunch and unwavering champion of
freedom--civil, intellectual, and religious. At the very outset
of his Parliamentary career he said, "We talk much--and think a
great deal too much--of the wisdom of our ancestors. I wish we
could imitate the courage of our ancestors. They were not ready
to lay their liberties at the foot of the Crown upon every vain or
imaginary alarm." At the close of life he referred to England as
"the country whose freedom I have worshipped, and whose liberties
and prosperity I am not ashamed to say we owe to the providence
of Almighty God."

This faith Lord Russell was prepared to maintain at all times, in