Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1878 — Death of Earl Russell. [ARTICLE]

Death of Earl Russell.

Lord John Russell, by which name he first acquired eminence outside of England as one of the leading statesmen of the world, of late years Earl Russell, is dead. He was boro in 1792, just as the storm of revolution broke in France which signaled her new departure toward the great West of politics—Republicanism—and gave birth to a more remarkable dynasty than tiiat of the Caesars, or any that ever ruled the world, the dynasty of Napoleon. Had he lived till the Bth of August next he would have been 86 years of age. He first entered Parliament in 1813, at the age of 21. Bis most assiduous labors for many years were in behalf of parliamentary reforms. He participated in the debates and excitements that convulsed England in the era of the Corn laws. Lord Russell derived none of his prominence as a parliamentary leader from personal advantages, which he totally lacked. Undignified in bearing, without great or noticeable presence, diminutive in stature, being but five feet two inches in height, slovenly in his carriage, he impressed no one favorably till there was a significance reached which had its hiding under the surface, and was more than skin deep. Although measuring his powers of debate nightly with the great Tory leaders, in which he had always his measure of success, yet as a speaker he never was effective. He ©wed his prominence to traits which were not derived from the schools, but were inherent and peculiar. Of these, shrewdness, from the partisan standpoint, was chief. He has participated in every measure of prominence that has occupied the British Parliament during the present century, has crossed swords with all the great Tory leaders from Castlereagh down. He has twice been Prime Minister, and has had conferred upon him the honor—rarely bestowed upon a younger son—of a seat in the House of Lords.