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Lady Mary, word the same night, he had provided a playfellow for her. Mr Neale, who interrupts me in this my most pleasant employment, tells me, my Lord Mulgrave has the Garter given him," &c.

The fifth letter which follows is a good specimen of the daily written talk of the heart, in the first instance, and then of the intelligence with which she is at pains to amuse him for whom she lives, and thinks, and feels.

"I was very sorry to read any thing under your hand, written so late as I had one brought me to Montague House; but I heard yesterday morning, by a servant of my Lord Marquis, you got well to Teddington, so I hope you did to Basing, and our poor Stratton, and will by Saturday night to the creature of the world that loves I have lived as retired, since you best. you went, as the severest and jealous husband could enjoin a wife: so that I am not fitted to entertain you with passages in the town, knowing no more how the world goes than an Italian lady, they say, usual. ly does. The weather has been of the worst kind here, continually either snow, hail, or high winds: God keep you from colds! I wish you may know when you are well, and not stir from my Lord Marquis, whose very humble servant I am, and must be the more so, because I think he is so kind to you, as that my Lord would willingly agree to my wish. To take up as little of your time as I can, I have sent you my sister's letter to read; my answer to it you may guess at. I wrote at large what was said in my chamber: it might have been

"The following letter, written at this time from Basing, is among the very few, yet extant, from Lord Russell to his wife: "Basing, February the 8th, 1678-9. "I am stole from a great many gentlemen into the drawing-room at Basing, for a moment, to tell my dearest I have thought of her being here the last time, and wished for her a thousand times; but in vain, alas! for I am just going now to Stratton, and want the chariot, and my dearest dear in it. I hope to be with you on Saturday. We have had a very troublesome journey of it, and insignificant enough, by the fairness and excess of civility of somebody :-but more of that when I see you. I long for the time, and am, more than you can imagine, your

"RUSSELL.

"I am troubled at the weather for our own selves, but much more for my sister. Pray God it may have no ill effect upon her, and that we may have a happy meeting on Saturday. I am Miss's humble servant."

remembered, how you had accepted Bed-
fordshire, and the reports here of Sir
Richard Knight, or such, being set up. If
I had news, I should not be very ready to
send it you, being sure my Lord Marquis
would have it better expressed from several,
therefore I have been the less inquisitive.
My sister Northumberland had, last night,
a letter from the Lady Northumberland;
all the account she gives her is, that if
her grandchild likes the addresses of my
Lord Ogle better than any others, she shall
accept them: this is the whole; for all the
rest of the letter is some kind of notice how
severe she hears she is against her in her
ordinary discourse. My Lord Ogle is
come to town for certain, I think.

"Your aunt tells me your cousin New-
port will be chosen, it is declared; but she
did not tell me how her lord took it. My
sister was told yesterday Mr Montague
was off for standing knight of the shire,
but was for some borough. Mr
helps him too, and the election-day would
be Saturday; but she knew nothing of this
from him, or any thing else. Her little
girl has been so ill two days, she feared the
small-pox: I have not seen it, but she sent
me word this morning Dr Micklethwart
thought it would prove an ague. Your
sister is as well as is to be expected; but
we hear nothing of Lady Die. Our small
ones are as you left them, I praise God:
Miss writes and lays the letters by, that
papa may admire them when he comes: it
is a moment more wished for than to be
expressed by all the cloquence I am mis-
tress of, yet you know how much that is;
but my dear abuser I love more than my
life, and am entirely his.

"R. RUSSELL.”

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"Sending your victuals by the higler, I take the same opportunity to let my dearest know I have his by the coach, and do humbly and heartily praise my God for the refreshing news of his being well: yet you do not in words tell me if you are very well; and your going to the House tells no more than that you are not very ill. If your nose bleeds as it did, pray let me beg of you to give yourself time to bleed in the arm. My heart, be assured, mine is not easy, till I am where you are; therefore, send us a coach as soon as you can: it shall find us ready whenever it comes, if God bless us to be well. I wrote more

fully to this purpose in the morning, only I am willing to hint it again, in case of its miscarriage. I have sent up one maid this day, and on Monday all follow. It seems to me the ladies at Petworth are as particular to the Marquis as they were to the Duke before; but the wondrous things he tells, I may aim at, but shall never guess, nor care to do it; or any thing else, but to move towards London, and meet my better life, as I wish to see him, well and mine, as I am his, and so to be to an old age; but above all, praying for hearts and minds fitly disposed to submit to the wise and merciful dispensations of the great God. I mean to keep your friend Chesterfield's letter; and hope you will make good his character in all accidents of your life. From the sharpest trials good Lord preserve us, if it may be. guess my lord will be soon in town; pray present my duty to him. Our girls are very well: we were altogether at the farm-house this day. They are plastering the granary. Pray keep good hours, and take care of hackney coaches. Believe me your

obedient wife,

R. RUSSELL."

The twentieth letter is from London to Oxford, and here the clouds begin to thicken. Lord Russell had gone down to attend that Parliament at Oxford which began with such evil auguries, and was so abruptly dismissed. Lady Russell appears to have had a very just idea of the duties which, in extreme cases, are incumbent on a woman of sense and spirit, and allowed capacity. She appears, with all feminine modesty and do mestic quietness, to have confined herself to the ordinary paths of occupation and enjoyment, till particular exigencies called forth the more masculine powers of her mind to the assistance and support of her beloved. She appears never to have obtruded herself till required, and never to have shrunk back when urged by the circumstances of the times to obey the dictates of stern necessity. Unmeddling and unpretending, the judgment and civil courage which she displayed in the terrible exigencies that proved the strength of her character, had the effect of making her the object of unbounded confidence and respect to all who knew her. Thus, while these officious and restless characters, who, quitting the true sphere of female excellence, live upon notoriety, were shunned and dreaded, the seclusion in which she took shelter to weep in secret, could not prevent the great and

the wise from seeking aid and counsel from her experience, her fortitude, and piety.

LETTER XX.

amiss any action of mine, from seven "I hope my dearest did not interpret o'clock Thursday night, to nine on Friday morning; I am certain I had sufficient punishment for the ill conduct I used, of the short time then left us to spend together, without so terrible an addition: besides, I was really sorry I could not should, not only that I might please myscribble as you told me you designed I self with remembering I had done you I might have prevailed for the laying by a some little service at parting, but possibly smart word or so, which will now pass current, unless you will oblige a wife, after eleven years, by making such a sacrifice to her now and then, upon occasions offered. I hope, as I write this, you are safe near Oxford, though it is not noon; but being to meet Lady Inchiquin at dinner at Montague House, I thought this the best time to dispatch this affair with pleasure. If any thing offers itself, fit to be inserted, I shall gladly do it; but I doubt it. Charlton going to-day to his lady's at Barnet, he promised me, if he knew any thing before he set out, he would impart it. Lord Cavendish keeps a soldier at his back still. Vendome, another nephew, is come over; so they say he shall take Lord Cavendish's concern; but fighting must be in the end : what Lord Mordant has done can never be put up; nor he will not submit. We conclude nothing but the great Earl of Aylesbury can assist this matter; he must come of necessity.

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"The report of our nursery, I humbly praise God, is very good. Master improves really, I think, every day. Sure he is a goodly child; the more I see of others, the better he appears: I hope God will give him life and virtue. Misses and their mamma walked yesterday after dinner to see their cousin Alington. Miss Kate wished she might see him; so I gratified her little person. Unless I see cause to add a note, this is all at this time from yours only entirely

R. RUSSELL. "Look to your pockets: a printed paper says you will have fine papers put into them, and then witnesses to swear."

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We close, rather reluctantly, these extracts, with the twenty-fourth, in the end of which there is a hint of enemies and ill wishers, which shows the storm that wrecked her peace was then gathering; but has still that wholesome tone of undecaying affection and thorough confidence which animates the whole correspondence.

Lord Russell was committed to the Tower on the 26th June, tried on the 13th July, and executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields on the 21st July 1633. The particulars of this atrociously unjust sentence, and the shameful management of the trial which preceded it, as also the heroic conduct of Lady Russell upon that occasion, and the calm and pious magnanimity of her lord, have been a favourite theme with all the writers of history or memoirs at the time; and even the inveteracy of party prejudice has never raised a dissenting voice against those honours and eulogies that decked the untimely grave of Lord Russell, and shed a lustre over the sorrowful seclusion of his afflicted widow. The editor of this work, speaking of the time when he was apprehended, (not chusing to shun a trial when the escape was put in his power,) says,

"To see any body preparing, and taking their way to see what I long to do a thousand times more than they, makes me not endure to suffer their going, without saying something to my best life; though it is a kind of anticipating my joy when we shall meet, to allow myself so much before the time: but I confess I feel a great deal, that, though I left London with great reluctance, (as it is easy to persuade men a woman does,) yet that I am not like to leave Stratton with greater. They will tell you how well I got hither, and how well I found our dear treasure here: your boy will please you; you will, I think, find him improved, though I tell you so before hand. They fancy he wanted you; for, as soon as I alighted, he followed, calling Papa; but, I suppose, it is the word he has most command of; so was not disobliged by the little fellow. The girls were fine, in remembrance of the happy 29th of September; and we drank your health, after a red-deer pie; and at night your girls and I supped on a sack posset: nay, master would have his room, and for haste burnt his fingers in the posset; but he does but rub his hands for it. It is the most glorious weather here that ever was seen. The coach shall meet you at the cabbage-garden: be there by eight o'clock, or a little after; though I guess you can hardly be there so soon, day breaks so late; and indeed the mornings are so misty, it is not wholesome to be in the air so early. I do propose going to my neighbour Worseley to-day. I would fain be telling my heart more things-any thing to be in a kind of talk with him; but, I believe, Spencer stays for my dispatch: he was willing to go early; but this was to be the delight of this morning, and the support of the day. It is performed in bed, thy pillow at my back, where thy dear head shall lie, I hope, to-morrow night, and many more, I trust in His mercy, notwithstanding all our enemies or ill-wishers. Love, and be willing to be loved, by R. RUSSELL. "I have not seen your brother; yet I exercise as this. You will soon find how wish matters go well."

There are only six more preserved, perhaps the shortness of her absences from her lord gave occasion to no more; this one was dated 20th September 1631. In less than two years the fatal event took place that overwhelmed this admirable person with the deepest and most lasting affliction, filled the country with astonish ment, sorrow, and indignation, and finally was not a little instrumental in paving the way for the expulsion of that prince to whose jealousy and resentment her lord was sacrificed.

"From this moment, till after her husband's death, we know little of Lady Russell, but what is recorded in the history of her country, where her name will be embalmed with her Lord's, while passive courage, devoted and unblemished purity, are honoured in the one sex, or public patriotism, private virtues, or unshaken principles, revered in the other."

A letter to Dr Fitzwilliam, a dissenting clergyman who deservedly shared much of her confidence, gives the first notice that appears of the state of her mind under the pressure of this aggravated calamity. The Doctor had written to endeavour to assist her in lifting up her mind to heaven, when all other consolation must have been useless. She replies,

"I need not tell you, good Doctor, how little capable I have been of such an

unfit I am still for it; since my yet disordered thoughts can offer me no other than such words as express the deepest sorrow, and confused as my yet amazed mind is. But such men as you, and particularly one so much my friend, will, I know, bear with my weakness, and compassionate my distress, as you have already done, by your good letter, and excellent prayer.

and how we lived, must allow I have just cause to bewail my loss. I know it is common to others to lose a friend; but to have lived with such a one, it may be questioned how few can glory in the like happiness, so, consequently, lament the

"You, that knew us both,

like loss. Who can but shrink from such a blow !

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Lord let me understand the reason of these dark and wounding providences, that I sink not under the discouragement of my own thoughts! I know I have deserved my punishment, and will be silent under it; but yet secretly my heart mourns, too sadly, I fear, and cannot be comforted, because I have not the dear companion and sharer of all my joys and sorrows. I want him to talk with, to walk with, to eat, and sleep with. All these things are irksome to me. The day unwelcome, and the night so too; all company and meals I would avoid, if it might be: yet all this is, that I enjoy not the world in my own way; and this sure hin. ders my comfort. When I see my chil

dren before me, I remember the pleasure he took in them: this makes my heart shrink. Can I regret his quitting a lesser good for a greater? Oh! if I did but steadfastly believe, I could not be dejected; for I will not injure myself to say, I offer my mind any inferior consolation to supply this loss. No: I most willingly for sake this world, this vexatious, troublesome world, in which I have no other business, but to rid my soul of sin, secure by faith and a good conscience my eternal interests, with patience and courage bear my eminent misfortune, and ever hereafter be

above the smiles and frowns of fortune."

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Yet so was her mind borne up under this severest trial by her true piety, and the love that devolved to her from him adding a holy fervour to maternal solicitude, that she left no duty undone to his children, but watched over their health, their interest, and their instruction, with the vigilance of a mind occupied by no other care. She was loved, honoured, and sought to in her retirement, by all that was most estimable and most exalted by character as well as rank in the kingdom. Her husband's attainder was early reversed by an act of William and Mary, in which his execution was declared to be a murder. And she appears to have been in intimate correspondence with Queen Mary, and entitled to ask any favour for those she deemed worthy of her patronage. Her daughters proved worthy of their parents, and of the judicious care bestowed on their education. She had the satisfaction of seeing them, at an early age, married to the heirs of the two most illustrious families in England, one of them being Duchess of Devonshire, and the other of Rutland. Her only

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son, who appears to have been very
amiable, and the object of the most
tender and unbounded affection, died
of the small-pox in the thirty-third
year of his age, after being for several
years happily married, leaving chil-
dren to reap the benefit of his mo-
ther's wisdom and experience. Our
extracts have been so ample, that we
cannot afford room, at present, for
a valuable letter of advice address-
ed to him, nor for a very affect-
ing one addressed to Archbishop Til-
lotson after his death. She was des-
tined to have all her Christian forti-
tude called forth, to support her un-
the Duchess of Rutland, who died in
der the loss of her younger daughter,
child-bed in the same year. From
seeing this beloved child laid in her
coffin, she went to visit the Duchess
of Devonshire, likewise in child-bed,
who inquiring anxiously for her sis-
ter, her mother, with extraordinary
presence of mind, said to her, I
have to-day seen your sister out of
bed." The afflictions which Lady
Russell felt so deeply, yet supported
so firmly, would have overwhelmed
any ordinary mind, but in hers they
only called forth greater powers of
exertion, and furnished occasion for
the exercise of more severe and ex-
alted virtues. Her life, useful and
exemplary to the last, was prolonged
to her eighty-sixth year, and in enu-
merating, with humble gratitude, the
blessings that still remained to her
after her signal misfortune, she men-
tions the continuance of a greater de-
gree of health than common, which
was even improved, since all worldly
pleasures had become indifferent to
her, for in her happiest days she had
been subject to severe and frequent
headaches, which never returned in
the days of her affliction. There is
an extremely interesting fragment,
written when she was very old, in
which she had begun to take a sort of
review of her life, in a supplication to
Heaven for pardon on the transgres-
sions she recapitulates; and, as is well
remarked by the Editor, the scrupul-
ous exactness with which she dissects
these, may assure us she had not
weightier matters to bring forward in
the account.

"Vanity cleaves to me, I fear, O Lord! in all I say, in all I do. In all I suffer, proud, not enduring to slights or

neglects, subject to envy the good parts of others, even as to worldly gifts. Failing in my duty to my superiors; apt to be soon angry with, and without cause too often; and by it may have grieved those that desired to please me, or provoked others to sin by my rash anger. Not ready to own any advantage I may have received by good advice or example. Not well satisfied if I have not all the respect I expected, even from my superiors. Such has been the pride of my naught heart, I fear, and also neglect in my performances due to my superiors, children, friends, or servantsI heartily lament my sin. But, alas! in my most dear husband's troubles, seeking help from man, but finding none. His life was taken away, and so sorely was my spirit wounded, even without prospect of future comfort or consolation-the more faulty in me, having three dear children to perform my duty to, with thankfulness for such a blessing left me, under so heavy a dispensation as I felt the loss of him to be. But, alas! how feeble did I find myself both then, and also poorly prepared to bear the loss of my dear child and only son, in 1711.

"If I carry my sorrow to the grave, O Lord, in much mercy let it not be imputed as sin in me! His death was a piercing sorrow to me, yet thou hast sup. ported me, Lord! even in a very old age, and freer from bodily pains and sickness than most feel-I desire thankfully to recollect.

"Alas! from my childhood I can recollect a backwardness to pray, and coldness when I did, and ready to take or seek cause to be absent at the public ones. Even after a sharp sickness and danger at Chelsea, spending my time childishly, if not idly; and if I had read a few lines in a pious book, contented I had done well. Yet, at the same time, ready to give ear to reports, and possibly malicious ones, and telling my mother-in-law, to please her. At seventeen years of age was married; continued too often being absent at the public prayers, taking very slight causes to be so, liking too well the esteemed diversions of the town, as the Park, visiting, plays, &c. trifling away my precious time. At our return to London, I can recollect that I would choose upon a Sunday to go to church at Lord B.'s, where the sermon would be short, a great dinner, and after, worldly talk; when at my father's, the sermon longer, and discourse more edifying. And too much after the same way, much fear, at my several returns to Wales and England. In the year 1665, was brought to bed of my first child; with him too in dulging 1 fear to get strength soon, and spend my time as before, much with my loved sisters; I doubt not heedful, or not

enough so, my servants went to church, if I did, or did not go myself.

"Some time after in London, and then with my father's wife at Tunbridge, and after with her at Bath, gave too much of my time to carelessly indulging in idleness. At Bath too well contented to follow the common way of passing the time in diversion, and thinking but little what was serious considering more health of body than that of my soul. Forgive my heavi ness and sloth in spirituals, for Christ Jesus' sake.

"After this, I must still accuse myself that sometimes in Wales, and other times in England, my care in good has not suited to my duty, not with the active and devout heart and mind 1 should in the evening have praised thee, my God, for the mercies of the past day, and recollected my evil doings, or omissions of doing good in my power. Not in the morning carefully fixing my will and purpose to pass the day pleasing in thy sight, and giving good example to man, particularly such as under my care; more especially after my second marriage, forgetting by whose blessing I was so happy, consuming too much time with him.""

No one, who has the happiness of knowing the distinguished female to whom the public owe this selection of materials, can read without emotion the conclusion of the memoir. Beauty, grace, wit, elegance, all the charm. of polished and intelligent conversation, all, in short, that is calculated to excite admiration, added to the more solid virtues that exalt the female character, we see verging to decline with a feeling like that of watching a beacon light on the point of extinction. But we shall quote the passage, and conclude our extracts with this testimonial to female excellence, which may be truly styled praise from the praise-worthy.

"May the writer of these pages be permitted to hope, while fast sinking to the grave that must shortly close on an insignificant existence-may she be allowed to hope, that existence rescued from the imputation of perfect inutility, by having thus endeavoured to develope, and hold up to the admiration of her country women, so bright an example of female excellence as the character of Lady Russell? a character whose celebrity was purchased by the sacrifice of no feminine virtue, and whose principles, conduct, and sentiments, equally well adapted to every condition of her sex, will in all be found the surest guides to peace, honour, and happiness."

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