«Леди Джон Расселл: Мемуары с подборкой дневников и писем»

CHESHAM PLACE, December 21, 1845

The desponding tone of your letter, yesterday, although I do not believe it was otherwise than the effect of weakness, makes me rejoice at my escape a thousand times more than I should otherwise have done. I reflect on the misery I should have felt with every moment of my time occupied here in details of appointments, while my thoughts were with you.... The Queen and the Prince have behaved beautifully throughout.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

MINTO, December 24, 1845

You will not be surprised that a great deal of the time which I meant to devote to you this morning has run away in talk to my husband. You will see by the Times what the cause of the failure is: Lord Grey's refusal to belong to the Ministry if Lord Palmerston was at the Foreign Office--a most unfortunate cause, we must all agree, but in the opinion of Papa and many other wise people, a most fortunate occurrence on the whole, as they considered it next to impossible that such a Ministry as John could have formed would have been strong enough to be of use to the country.

My husband, who is no coward, sees it differently, and thinks that with a united Cabinet he might have gone on successfully and carried not only Corn Law Repeal, but other great questions; though the probability was that they would only have carried that and then gone out. But even that would have been something worth doing, and better and more naturally done by Whigs than Tories. One good thing is that John has returned in excellent spirits. All his personal wishes and feelings were so against taking office at present, and the foretaste he had of it in this lonely and most harassing fortnight was so odious to him that his only feeling at first when he gave it all up was pure delight; and he slept, which he had not been able to do before. It certainly was a terrible prospect to us both--one immovable in Edinburgh, the other equally immovable in London--and it required all my patriotism to wish the thing to go on.

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Если бы это продолжалось и дальше, имя лорда Джона Расселла звучало бы на устах людей гораздо чаще. Широкая известность Пиля покоится на отмене хлебных законов, лорда Джона — на первом Билле о реформе. Лишь случайность — возражение лорда Грея против кандидатуры Пальмерстона на посту министра иностранных дел — помешала имени лорда Джона Расселла соединиться с именами Кобдена и Брайта и остаться неразрывно связанным с обеими великими реформами XIX века.

ГЛАВА V

1846

Page 78.

После неудачи лорда Джона в формировании кабинета министров Пиль вернулся к власти; Гладстон сменил Стэнли в Военном министерстве и министерстве колоний, а Стэнли стал признанным лидером протекционистской оппозиции. Получив заверения лорда Джона в том, что виги поддержат законодательство против хлебных законов, Пиль приступил к подготовке своего знаменитого мероприятия. Но прежде чем оно могло быть обсуждено в парламенте, пришлось пройти через обычные объяснения по поводу отставки и возобновления полномочий. В своей речи по этому случаю лорд Джон попытался по возможности оградить лорда Грея от непопулярности, которую тот навлек на себя отказом работать с Пальмерстоном в одном кабинете. Настроения по обе стороны Палаты были против лорда Грея; ибо как сторонники свободной торговли, так и протекционисты считали, что отмена законов должна была исходить от вигов, и что именно лорд Грей сделал это невозможным.

Леди Джон оставалась в Эдинбурге, слишком больная, чтобы переехать. Пока ее муж помогал Пилю в Вестминстере, между ними происходила следующая переписка:

Lord John to Lady John Russell

LONDON, January 23, 1846

I did not write to you last night, as I thought I could give you a clearer account to-day. Sir Robert Peel gave up Protection altogether on the ground that he had changed his opinion.... I dine with the Fox Club [to-day?] and at Lansdowne House to-morrow. I have rather startled Lord Lansdowne this morning by some of my views about Ireland.

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Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, January 25, 1846

I never doubted that you were as noble by nature as by name; and I am now more happily convinced of it than ever. Your whole speech was plain and excellent, but the part that I dwell upon with the greatest pleasure is that about Lord Grey.... I generally think your speeches a curious contrast to Sir Robert's, and it does not fail on this occasion. His humble confession of former errors, his appeal to our sympathies, and his heroic tone at the close, all got rather the better of my reason while I read; but the more I think over his conduct, the less becomes the effect of his words. Yours, on the contrary, as usual, only gain in force the more they are reflected on, simply because they are true. And now, having congratulated you quite as much as is good for your vanity, I must praise myself a little for the way in which I have hitherto borne your absence. What with its present pain, the uncertainty as to when it may end, and my varying and wearying state of health, I have many a time been inclined to lie and cry; and if ever I allowed myself to dwell in thought on the happy days which sad memory brings to light, I should lie and cry; those days when neither night nor day could take me from your side, and when it was as difficult to look forward to sickness or sorrow as it now is to believe that health and happiness--such happiness as that--are in store for us. But I do not dwell upon past enjoyments, but upon present blessings, and I do lie and talk and read and write and think cheerfully and gratefully.

Dearest, I know you cannot see much of the children, but when you do, pray be both Papa and Mama to them. Do not let their little minds grow reserved towards you, or your great mind towards them. Help them to apply what they hear you read from the Bible to their own little daily pleasures and cares, and you will find how delightfully they take it all in.

God bless you, my dearest. Pray go out every day, and take Isabel and Bessy or one of the small ones with you sometimes to enliven you.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, January 26, 1846

Your mention of the dreams which you had had of happiness for Ireland made me sad, and you know how I shared in those dreams.... I like the way in which politics are talked here, it is far enough from the scene of action for them to lose much of their personality, and for all the little views to be lost in the greater--and yet the interest is as great as in London.

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Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

EDINBURGH, January 28, 1846

Well, I wonder what you will say to the debate or rather the explanations in Parliament. Are not John's and Sir Robert's speeches a curious contrast? and is not John a generous man? and is not Sir Robert a puzzling one? and was there ever such a strange state of parties? What an unhappy being a real Tory must be, at least in England, battling so vainly against time and tide, and doomed to see the idols of his worship crumbled to dust one after another. In your benighted country [Italy] their end is further off; but still it must come. I am reading a book on Russia that makes my blood boil at every page. It is called "Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas," and I am positively ashamed of the reception we gave that wholesale murderer in our free country.

Lord John to Lady John Russell

CHESHAM PLACE, February 1, 1846

The Ministry will carry their Corn Measure, but will hardly last a month after it. What next? I think the next Government will be Whig, as the Protection party have no corps of officers in the House of Commons. So that their only way of avenging themselves upon Peel is to bring in a Liberal Ministry.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

MINTO, February 7, 1846

I am glad you have a satisfactory letter from the doctor. A volunteered letter from him, as this was, must be a good sign.... I shall all my life regret not having been with you at this most interesting period in our political history; for the longest letters can but barely make up for the loss of the hourly chats upon each event with all its variations which are only known in London. Then, I think how sad it is for you to have nobody to care, as I should care, whether you had spoken well or ill. But all this and much more we must bear as cheerfully as we can; and I am glad to think that though one wife is far from you, your other wife, the House of Commons, leaves you little time to spend in pining for her. I think you quite right in your intention of voting for Sir Robert's measure as it is, in preference to any amendment which would not be carried, and might delay the settlement of the question. Not, as you well know, because I am not heart and soul a Free Trader, but because I think it a more patriotic, as well as a more consistent, course for you to take. Then if you come into office, as seems probable, you may make what improvements you like, and especially put an end to the miserable trifling about slave-grown sugar; a question in which I take a sentimental interest, as your first gift to me was your great sugar speech in 1841.

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Lord John to Lady John Russell

HOUSE OF COMMONS, February 9, 1846

Here I am in the House of Commons, on the important night of Corn, having just introduced Morpeth as a new Member. It all makes me very nervous--I mean to speak to-night, and I must take care not to join in the bitterness of the Tories, and at the same time to avoid the praise of the Ministry, which I see is the fashion. ... I am glad you all take such interest in the present struggle--it would be difficult not to do so. Our majority will, I hope, be eighty. As matters stand at present no one feels sure of the Lords.

Lord John to Lady John Russell

CHESHAM PLACE, February 16, 1846

The events of the last few days have been remarkable. There has been no move, no agitation in the counties; but wherever a contest is announced the Protection party carry it hollow.... In London the Protectionists have created in a fortnight a very strong and compact party, from 220 to 240, in the Commons, and no one knows how many in the Lords--thus we are threatened with a revival of the real old Tory party. Of course they are very civil to us, and they all say that we ought to have settled this question and not Sir Robert. But how things may turn out no one can say.

Lord John to Lady John Russell

CHESHAM PLACE, February 21, 1846

I trust the feelings you have, and the enjoyment you seem to take in the flowers and buds of the garden, show that you have before you the opening Paradise of good health.

Baby's letter is very merry indeed. I long to see his little face and curly locks again.

I am going to have a meeting at twelve and of twelve on the affairs of Ireland. It is a thorny point, and vexes me more than the Corn Laws. Lord Bessborough and Lansdowne are too much inclined to coercion, and I fear we shall not agree. But on the other hand, if we show ourselves for strong measures without lenitives, I fear we shall entirely lose the confidence of Ireland.

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February 22, 1846

We are much occupied with the affairs of Ireland--I am engaged in persuading Lansdowne to speak out upon the affairs of that unhappy country, where a Bill called an Insurrection Act seems the ordinary medicine.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

Minto, February 23, 1846

You were quite right to send the children out in spite of the remains of their coughs, but how hard it is for you to have all those domestic responsibilities added to your numerous public ones. It is more than your share, while I linger away my hours on the sofa, without so much as a dinner to order for anybody. Your Coercive measures for Ireland frighten me. I do not trust any Englishman on the subject except yourself, and you cannot keep to your own opinion in favour of leniency and act upon it. I often think how unfortunate it is that there should be that little channel of sea between England and Ireland. It prevents each country from considering itself a part of the other, and a bridge across it would make it much more difficult for Orange or Repeal bitterness to be kept up. I send you Lord William's 26 letter. But first I must tell you that in a former letter from him he compared you to Antony throwing away the world for Cleopatra.... I read one of Lord Campbell's Lives aloud yesterday evening--Sir Christopher Hatton--a short and entertaining one; but from which it would appear that a man can make a respectable Lord Chancellor without having seriously studied anything except dancing....

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Lord William Russell to Lady John Russell

Genoa, February 12, 1846

My dear Sister--I thank you much for your letter of the 4th from Minto, but regret to find my letters make you not only angry, but very angry. If I was within reach I should have my ears well cuffed, but at this distance I am bold.... You will not have to get into a towering passion in defending your husband from my accusation of loving you too much and dashing the world aside and bid it pass, that he might enjoy a quiet life with his Fanny. I begin by obeying you and asking pardon and saying you did quite right not to think me in earnest, and to "know that I often write what I do not mean," a fault unknown to myself, and one to be corrected, for it is a great fault, if not worse. The letter just received pleases me much, for I find in it a high tone of moral rectitude, a noble feeling of devotion to your husband's calling, an unselfish determination to fulfil your destiny, an abnegation of domestic comfort, a latent feeling of ambition tempered with resignation, such as becomes a woman, that do you the highest honour.... I think the crisis we are going through in England very alarming ... a frightful system of political immorality is stalking through the land--the Democracy is triumphant, the Aristocracy is making a noble and last effort to hold its own, unfortunately in so bad, so unjust, so selfish, so stupid a cause, that it must fall covered with shame.... The hero of the day, Cobden, is a great man in his way, the type of an honest manufacturer, but for the moment all-powerful. I am domiciled with your brother and sister,27 under the same roof, dine daily at their hospitable table, sit over the fire and cose and prose with them, sometimes alone with your sister, who thinks and talks very like you, that is, not only well but very well.

I am very affectionately yours,

W. R.

P.S.--You say it would be unworthy of John to pine for office. I think the difficulties of a Prime Minister so great and the toil so irksome that the country ought to be full of gratitude to any man that will undertake it. I am full of gratitude to Sir Robert Peel for having sacrificed his ease and enjoyment for the good of his country, and to enable us to sit in the shade under our own fig-trees. Glory and gratitude to Peel.

Lord John to Lady John Russell

CHESHAM PLACE, February 15, 1846

I have been to St. Paul's to-day. Mr. Bennett enforced still further obedience to the Church, and what was strange, he said Papists and Dissenters were prevented by the prejudices of education from seeing the truth--as if the same thing were not just as true of his own Church. I do not see how it is possible to be out of the Roman Catholic pale and not use one's own faculties on the interpretation of the Bible. That tells us that our Saviour said, he who knew that to love God with all our soul and to love our neighbour as ourself were the two great commandments, was not far from the kingdom of God. This surely can be known and even followed without a priest at all.

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Lady John to Lord John Russell

MINTO, February 27, 1846

You seem to have had a very pleasant dinner at the Berrys, and I wish I had been at it. I wonder sometimes whether the social enjoyments of life are for ever at an end for me: and in my hopeful moods I plan all sorts of pleasant little teas at Chesham Place--at home from nine to eleven on certain days, in an easy way, without smart dressing and preparation of any sort beyond a few candles and plenty of tea. I feel and always have felt ambitious to establish some more popular and rational kind of society than is usual in London. But the difficulty in our position would be to limit the numbers: however, limiting the hours would help to do this; and I do not think one need be very brilliant or agreeable oneself to make such a thing succeed well. But what a foolish presumptuous being I am, lying here on my sofa, not even able to share in the quiet amusements of Minto, making schemes for the entertainment of all the London world! However, these dreams and others of a more serious nature as to my future life, if God should restore me to health, help to while away my hours of separation from you, and make me forget for awhile how long I have been debarred from fulfilling my natural duties, either to you, the children, or the world. This, believe me, is the hardest of the many hard trials that belong to illness, or at least, such an illness as mine, in which I have mercifully but little physical suffering.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

MINTO, March 1, 1846

What pleasant times we live in, when the triumph of right principles brings about one great and peaceful change after another in our country; each one (this from Free Trade in a great degree) promising an increase of happiness and diminution of war and bloodshed to the whole world. No doubt, however, its good effects will be but slowly perceived, and I fear there is much disappointment in store for the millions of poor labourers, who expect to have abundance of food and clothing the moment the Bill becomes a law. Poor creatures, their state is most deplorable and haunts me day and night. The very best of Poor Laws must be quite insufficient. Indeed, wherever there is a necessity for a Poor Law at all there must be something wrong, I think; for if each proprietor, farmer and clergyman did his duty there would be no misery, and if they do not, no Poor Law can prevent it. You cannot think how I long for a few acres of our own, in order to know and do what little I could for the poor round us. It would not lessen one's deep pity for the many in all other parts of the country, but one's own conscience would be relieved from what, rightly or wrongly, I now feel as a weight upon it; and without a permanent residence one does not become really acquainted with poor people in their prosperity as well as adversity; one only does a desultory unsatisfactory sort of good. I have not seen Dickens's letter about the ragged schools of which you speak. What you say of the devotion of the Roman Catholic priests to the charities of religion reflects shame on ours of a purer faith, but is what I have always supposed. The Puseyites are most like them in that as well as in their mischievous doctrines; but then a new sect is always zealous for good as well as for evil.

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Lord John to Lady John Russell

CHESHAM PLACE, March 3, 1846

I am so happy to find you have had a good night and are stronger in feeling. If you had not told me how weak and ill you have been I should have been beyond measure anxious; but, as it is, and with your letters, I have been very unhappy and exceedingly disappointed. For my hopes are often extravagant, and I love to look forward to days of health and happiness and gratitude to God for His blessings.... Need I say after all I have suffered on your account that while I am conducting my campaign in Italy28 my thoughts are always with you? ... I cannot bear your absence. The interest of a great crisis, and the best company of London cannot make me tolerably patient under the misfortune of your being away; and it is you, and you alone who could inspire me with such deep love.

Пиль сделал первый шаг к тому, чтобы накормить бедняков на родине. Он также сделал все возможное, чтобы облегчить немедленные бедствия Ирландии. Корабли с индийской кукурузой были разгружены, а по всей стране организованы общественные работы для помощи обездоленным. Но главная жалоба ирландцев, лежавшая в основе половины аграрных преступлений, не была устранена. Палата лордов, отвергнув билль Пиля о компенсации выбывающим арендаторам за улучшения, созданные их собственными деньгами или усилиями, несет большую долю ответственности за насилие и мятежи, угрожавшие теперь жизни и собственности по всей Ирландии. Поскольку истинное средство было отвергнуто лордами, правительству пришлось отвечать насилием на насилие. Едва хлебный билль был принят в Палате общин, как Пиль внес жесткий билль против мятежей в Ирландии. Лорду Джону и вигам этот билль не нравился своей крайней суровостью.

Page 86.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, March 12, 1846

Nothing that I read in the speeches in favour of the Coercion Bill convinced me that it would do the slightest good.... It must embitter the Irish against England, for which there is no need. Nothing can be more shocking than the continual outrages and murders in Ireland; but it is the penalty we pay for a long course of misgovernment, and from which nothing but a long course of mild and good government can set us free; certainly not severe indiscriminate measures which mark out Ireland still more as an unhappy conquered province, instead of a part of the nation. Such are my sentiments, dearest, on this subject, which always makes my blood boil.... I read the "Giaour" two nights ago to Addy--it has as great and as numerous beauties as any poem Byron ever wrote--but I find I am not old enough, or wise enough, or good enough to bear Byron, and left off feeling miserable, as he always contrives to make one; despair is what he excels in, and he makes it such beautiful despair that all sense of right or wrong is overwhelmed by it. I said to Addy that one always requires an antidote after reading Byron, and that she and I ought instantly to go and hem pocket-handkerchiefs, or make a pudding--and that is what she has illustrated in the newspaper I send.

Lord John to Lady John Russell

HOUSE OF COMMONS, March, 1846

Your views about the Irish Coercion Bill are very natural; but Bessborough, who is the best authority we have about Irish matters, thinks it will tend to stop crime--and especially the crime of murder. I should be loath to throw out a Bill which may have this good effect; but I shall move a resolution which will pledge the House to measures of remedy and conciliation. This may lead to a great debate.... The little girls look very nice, but Toza29 is, if possible, thinner than ever. However, she laughs and dances like a little fairy. I dined with Mrs. Drummond yesterday. Macaulay 30 was there--entertaining, and not too much of a monopolist--I mean of talk--which, like other monopolies, is very disagreeable.

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Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, March 19, 1846

After dinner we drove to Portobello sands and there got out and walked for an hour; the sea was of the brightest blue, covered with sails; Inchkeith and the opposite coast so clear that every inequality of hill or rock was seen; Arthur's Seat, grand and snowy, was behind us, and the glittering sands under our feet--the whole beautiful far beyond description and beyond what I have yet seen it in any weather; for the east wind and bright sun are what it requires. How I did wish for you! I need not say that I only half enjoyed it, as I only half enjoy anything without you. My comfort in your absence is to think that you are not taken from me for nothing, but for your country's service; and that even if we could have foreseen four years ago all the various anxieties and trials that awaited us, we should have married all the same. As it was, we knew that ours could not be a life of quiet ease; and it was for me to decide whether I was able to face the reverse--and I did decide, and I am able--

"Io lo cercai, fui preso

Dall' alta indole sua, dal suo gran nome;

Pensai dapprima, oh pensai che incarco

E l'amor d'un uomo che a gli' altri e sopra!

Perchè allor correr, solo io nol lasciai

La sua splendida via, s' io non potea

Seguire i passi suoi?"

Now I am sure you do not know where those lines are from. They are a wee bit altered from Manzoni's "Carmagnola"; and they struck me so much, when I read them to-day, as applicable to you and me, and made me think of your "splendida via" and all its results.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, March 23, 1846

Thanks for your precious letter of Saturday. You need not grieve at having brought cares and anxieties ... upon me. You have given me a love that repays them all; and such words as you write in that letter strengthen me for all that our "splendida via" may entail upon us, however contrary to my natural tastes or trying to my natural feelings. What a delightful hope you give of your getting away on the 2nd--but I am too wise to build upon it.

Lady John to Lord John Russell

EDINBURGH, March 25, 1846

.... There is a calmness and fairness and depth in conversation here which one seldom meets with in London, where people are too much taken up by the present to dwell upon the past, or look forward to the future--and where consequently passion and prejudice are mixed up with most that one hears. Dante, and Milton, and Shakespeare, etc., have little chance amid the hubbub of the great city--but with all its faults, the great city is the place in the world I most wish to see again.... At poor Lady Holland's one did hear the sort of conversation I find here, and surely you must miss not only her but her house very much.

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Lord John to Lady John Russell

April 3, 1846

At all events pray do not distress yourself with the reflexion that you will not be a companion to me during my political trials. You have been feeling strong, ... that strength will, I trust, return. I see no reason why it should not--and there is no one in existence who can think so well with my thoughts and feel so truly with my feelings as yourself. So in sickness and in sorrow, so in joy and prosperity, we must rely on each other and let no discouraging apprehensions shake our courage.

Между тем в парламенте затягивалось принятие ирландского билля о принуждении. Лорд Бесборо и другие пэры-виги переменили свое мнение о его ценности, и лорд Джон, вместо того чтобы предложить поправку, определенно выступил против него. Протекционисты, жаждавшие отомстить Пилю, который, как они чувствовали, предал их, ухватились за эту возможность и проголосовали вместе с вигами. Правительство потерпело поражение подавляющим большинством голосов в тот самый день, когда отмена хлебных законов прошла Палату лордов, и королева послала за лордом Джоном, который стал премьер-министром в июле 1846 года.

На этот раз, помимо обычных хлопот при распределении должностей, у него не было трудностей в формировании кабинета; но после формирования он оказался в необычайно трудном положении. Они удержались у власти лишь потому, что протекционисты сочли нужным прогнать Пиля, а ирландская проблема становилась все острее. Картофельный урожай 1846 года оказался еще хуже урожая 1845 года, а система общественных работ Пиля обернулась дорогостоящим провалом, превратившимся в еще больший источник нищеты, чем милостыня. Ирландское население сократилось с восьми миллионов до пяти, и выжившие пронесли через поколения усиленную ненависть к Англии, которая живет в некоторых из их потомков по сей день.

Page 89.

Осенью 1846 года лорд Джон, и помыслить не зная, что королева вскоре предложит ему дом, купил загородное имение Чорли-Вуд близ Рикмансворта.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

CHORLEY WOOD, RICKMANSWORTH, December 12, 1846

About the 10th January we all go back to town for good, as John must be there some time before the meeting of Parliament. Oh that meeting of Parliament! It is so different from any I have ever looked forward to; and though it has always been awful, this is so much more so. I shall then first really feel that John is Minister, and find out the pains of the position, having as yet little experience of anything but the pleasures of it. Then will come the daily toil beyond his strength, the daily abuse to reward him, and the daily trial to us both of hardly meeting for a quarter of an hour between breakfast and bedtime. In short, I had better not begin to enumerate the evils that await us, as they are innumerable. However, I feel very courageous and that they will appear trifles if he succeeds; and if he is turned out before the end of the session, I shall never regret that he has made the attempt. It is a fearful time to have the government in his hands; but for that very reason I am glad that he and no other has it. The accounts from Ireland are worse and worse, and what with the extreme misery of the unfortunate poor and the misbehaviour of the gentry, he is made very miserable. As he said this morning, at times they almost drive him mad.

Во время долгой болезни леди Джон в Эдинбурге Фрэнсис, лорд Джеффри, был одним из ее самых добрых друзей и помог скрасить немало тоскливых часов своими визитами и беседами.

Lord Jeffrey to Lady John Russell

EDINBURGH, December 21, 1846

It is very good in you to remember my sunset visits to you in the hotel. I never pass by its windows in these winter twilights without thinking of you, and of the lessons of cheerful magnanimity (as well as other things) I used to learn by the side of your couch. The Murrays and Rutherfords are particularly well; the latter will soon be up among you, and at his post for the opening of a campaign of no common interest and anxiety. For my part, I am terribly frightened--for the first time, I believe I may say, in my life. Lord John, I believe, does not know what fear is! sans peur as sans reproche. But it would be a comfort to know that even he thinks we can get out of the mess in Ireland without some dreadful calamity. And how ugly, in fact, do things look all round the world!

Page 90.

Одним из первых шагов правительства лорда Джона стало выделение 10 000 000 фунтов стерлингов на помощь Ирландии. В июле 1847 года парламент был распущен. Когда он собрался снова, лорд Джон был вынужден против воли просить его о голосах в поддержку ирландского билля, похожего на тот, на котором либералы сокрушили Пиля годом ранее.

Простое перечисление трудностей, обрушившихся на нового премьер-министра, дает острое ощущение его незавидного положения. Ирландия находилась на краю голода и восстания; повсюду в Европе начинали подниматься бунты, кульминацией которых стал 1848 год, казавшиеся тогда более грозными, чем они оказались на деле в своих непосредственных последствиях; в Англии чартистское движение считалось угрозой короне и конституции; к тому же страна была встревожена слабостью своей военной обороны. Наконец, ради власти справляться со всеми этими чрезвычайными ситуациями лорд Джон зависел в каждый критический момент от того, окажется ли враждебность между протекционистами и сторонниками Пиля сильнее неприязни, которую каждая из партий питала к правительству. В Палате заседало 325 либералов; протекционистов насчитывалось 226; консервативных сторонников свободной торговли — 105; так что день, когда протекционисты и пилиты придут к соглашению, станет роковым для правительства. Таковы были тревоги премьер-министра, человека, принимавшего их близко к сердцу. Что же касается его жены, ее дневники и письма показывают, что, сколь бы ни был высок ее дух и тверды ее принципы, натура ее отличалась предельной тревожностью.

В декабре 1846 года они оба отправились на короткий отдых в Чорли-Вуд, где в последнюю ночь года устроили «большой бал для детей и слуг. Все очень весело. Джон много танцевал, и я немало. Дорогой Джонни танцевал первый контрданс, держа за руку своего папу и меня».

ГЛАВА VI

1847-52

Page 91.

1 января 1847 года леди Джон записала в дневнике, что год начинается как нельзя более благополучно для нее и самых дорогих ей людей. «Внутри моего собственного дома царят мир и счастье». Месяц спустя она тяжело заболела в Лондоне.

LONDON, February 21, 1847

I have been very ill since I last wrote.... I felt that life was still dear to me for the sake of those I love and of those who depend on me.... I saw the look of agony of my dearest husband; I thought of my heart's treasure--my darling boy; I thought of my other beloved children; I thought of those still earlier loved--my dear, dear Papa and Mama, brothers and sisters. But I was calm and ready to go, if such should be God's will.... Dr. Rigby has been not only the most skilful doctor, but the kindest friend.

Весной этого же, 1847 года королева предложила премьер-министру Пембрук-Лодж. Он принял это с благодарностью, и всю жизнь как он, так и леди Джон испытывали глубокую признательность королеве за их прекрасный дом.

Пембрук-Лодж представляет собой длинный, низкий, асимметричный белый дом на краю возвышенности, образующей западную границу Ричмонд-парка. Неоднократно перестраиваемый и изменяемый, он лишен единого архитектурного плана, но сохранил собственный характер, атмосферу радостного уединения и простого достоинства XVIII века. С восточной стороны он отгорожен от дороги кустарниками и деревьями; с другой стороны, возвышаясь на вершине крутой лесистой гряды над долиной Темзы, его окна выходят на тысячу полей, сквозь которые извивается спокойная река, то текущая между плоскими открытыми берегами, то мимо групп деревьев или садов, где то тут, то там среди кедров виднеется угол старого кирпичного дома. Территория скорее вытянутая, чем широкая, и включает склон к долине и полосу вдоль вершины гряды, где бук, дуб и каштан осеняют своим зеленым и торжественным присутствием сад с подстриженным газоном и клумбами. Прогуливаясь под ними, сквозь их стволы видишь часть какого-то медленно плывущего облака или проблески далекой равнины; при спуске внизу близко открываются сады, деревенька и река. В этих крутых лесах таится особое очарование, когда верхушки одних деревьев находятся на уровне глаз, в то время как ветви других простираются высоко над головой. По мере того как тропинки спускаются по склону, они теряют свою садовую ухоженность среди папоротников и ежевики. Дубовый забор отделяет территорию Пембрук-Лоджа от окружающего парка.

Page 92.

Это был поистине идеальный дом для государственного деятеля. Когда он уставал или утомлялся от политических забот и тревог, свежий ветерок, природные красоты и тишина Пембрук-Лоджа часто помогали вернуть его уму спокойствие и отдохновение. Какой лучший вид могут открывать его окна, чем долина Темзы с Ричмонд-Хилла — тот пейзаж, который Аргайл показал Джинни Динс и который вызвал у нее признание, что «это знатная сытная пища для коров», хотя сама она предпочла бы смотреть на «скалы Артурс-Сейт и море за ними, чем на все эти огромные деревья». Конечно же, никакой другой дом не ценили и не любили сильнее, чем Пембрук-Лодж, как лорд и леди Джон Расселл, так и их дети. Много позже леди Джон писала:

In March, 1847, the Queen offered him Pembroke Lodge for life, a deed for which we have been yearly and daily more grateful. He and I were convinced that it added years to his life, and the happiness it has given us all cannot be measured. I think it was a year or two before the Queen offered us Pembroke Lodge that we came down for a few days for a change of air for some of the children to the Star and Garter. John and I, in one of our strolls in the park, sat under a big oak-tree while the children played round us. We were at that time often in perplexity about a country home for the summer and autumn, to which we could send them before we ourselves could leave London.... From our bench under the oak we looked into the grounds of Pembroke Lodge, and we said to one another that would be the place for us. When it became ours indeed we often thought of this, and the oak has ever since been called the "Wishing Tree."31 ... From the time that Pembroke Lodge became ours we used only to keep the children in town from the meeting of Parliament till Easter, and settle the younger ones at Pembroke Lodge, and we ourselves slept there Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays with as much regularity as other engagements allowed. This obliged us to give up most dinner engagements in London, and we regretted the consequent loss of society. At the same time he always felt the need of those evenings and mornings of rest and change and country air (besides those welcome and blessed Sundays) after Parliamentary and official toil, rather than of heated and crowded rooms and late hours; and he had the happy power of throwing off public cares and giving his whole heart to the enjoyment of his strolls in the garden, walks and rides in the park, and the little interests of the children.32

Page 93.

Короткие пасхальные каникулы ушли на обустройство в Пембрук-Лодже.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

PEMBROKE LODGE, October 29, 1847

... You would not wonder so much at his [Lord John's] silence lately, if you knew what nobody but English Ministers' wives can know or conceive, how incessantly either his mind or body or both have been at work on financial affairs.

He has gone to town every morning early, Sunday included; worked hard the whole day in Downing Street, writing long letters and seeing one man and one deputation after another, on these most difficult and most harassing subjects--only returning here for tea, and with no time for any other correspondence but that between tea and bed, when a little rest and amusement is almost necessary for him--then waking in the night to think of bullion and Exchequer Bills till time to get up. Now this great anxiety is partly over; for when once he has taken a resolution, after all the reflection and consideration he can give to a subject, he feels that he has done his best, and awaits its success or failure with comparative ease of mind.

Трудности этого кабинета министров были вкратце изложены в конце предыдущей главы; действуя в условиях зыбкого большинства, им приходилось справляться с голодом и восстанием в Ирландии, чартизмом в Англии и беспорядками за рубежом.

Page 94.

В декабре 1847 года они провели свой ирландский билль о принуждении. 33 Принятие этого билля было одним из немногих случаев, когда леди Джон не могла убедить себя в том, что политика ее мужа была наиболее мудрой.

Впоследствии, в ходе применения этого акта, ожесточенность нападок на ее мужа, который, как она знала, желал Ирландии добра, и вид его тревоги на время сделали ее менее сочувствующей ирландцам; но она не одобряла и не могла одобрять действия правительства в тот момент. В глазах ирландцев правительство, которое сначала выступало против торийского билля о принуждении, а придя к власти само предложило таковой, вполне могло вызвать негодование. Ирландия уже пребывала в столь жалком состоянии, что ужасы гражданской войны с призрачным шансом на лучшую долю в будущем казались ее народу вполне стоящими риска, теперь же партия, дотоле защищавшая их, приняла политику их угнетателей.

26 февраля 1848 года в Палату общин пришли вести о свержении Луи Филиппа. «Вот что случилось бы здесь, — сказал сэр Роберт Пиль, — если бы эти господа [указывая на протекционистов] добились своего». Удивление было огромным, и возросли опасения, что чартистское движение и ирландские смуты приведут к революции у себя дома.

Page 95.

Ближайшей причиной революции во Франции стало сопротивление Луи Филиппа избирательной реформе; лишь один француз примерно из ста пятидесяти обладал правом голоса при его правлении. «Королевство было отправлено на покой в наемном экипаже», а самая умеренная из парижских толп ограничилась тем, что разбила бюст короля, переломала мебель и стреляла по часам Тюильри, дабы навеки запечатлеть на их циферблате благоприятный момент его отбытия. На следующий день он отплыл в Англию, гладко выбритый и в зеленых очках, и ступил на наши береги под скромным псевдонимом «Уильям Смит». Англия не приветствовала его. Его интриги со свиданием и испанским браком естественным образом не сделали его любимцем, а его враг Пальмерстон находился в Министерстве иностранных дел. Два дня спустя Луи Наполеон Бонапарт покинул Англию, чтобы засвидетельствовать свое почтение Временному правительству. «Я спешу, — писал он в памятных словах, — я спешу из изгнания встать под знамя только что провозглашенной Республики. Не имея иной амбиции, кроме как быть полезным своей стране, я заявляю членам Временного правительства о своем прибытии и уверяю их в преданности делу, которое они представляют». Впрочем, его вежливо попросили удалиться из Франции, поскольку закон об изгнании семьи Бонапартов еще не был отменен, — обстоятельство, позволившее ему вернуться в Англию вовремя, чтобы записаться в защитники закона и порядка в качестве специального констебля на чартистском митинге.

LONDON, February 26, 1848

We and everybody much taken up with the startling and in some respects terrible events in France. The regency of the Duchess of Orleans rejected by the Chambers, or rather by the Côté Gauche, and a republic proclaimed. Sad loss of life in Paris--the King and Queen fled to Eu--Guizot, it is said, to Brussels. We dined at the Palace, and found the Queen and Prince, the Duchess of Kent, Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg, thinking of course of little else--and almost equally of course, full of nothing but indignation against the French nation and Guizot, nothing but pity for the King and Queen and royal family, and nothing but fears for the rest of Europe from the infection of such an example. I sat next the Duke of Coburg, who more particularly took this class view with very little reasoning and a great deal of declamation. Said he should not care if Guizot lost his head, and much in the same spirit. The Queen spoke with much good sense and good feeling, if not with perfect impartiality.

Page 96.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

LONDON, March 3, 1848

How anxious you must be as to the effect which the extraordinary events in France will have upon Italy. They have been so rapid and unexpected that all power of reasoning upon them has been lost in wonder. Some pity must inevitably be felt for any man "fallen from his high estate"; but if, as I trust, the report of Louis Philippe's safety and arrival in England is true, his share of it will be as small as ever fell to the lot of a King in misfortune; for the opinion that he has deserved it is general. It is seldom that history gives so distinct a lesson of retribution. You know what London is in a ferment of exciting events, and can therefore pretty well imagine the constant succession of reports, true and false, from hour to hour, the unceasing cries of the newsmen with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions of all the newspapers, the running about of friends to one another's houses, the continual crossing of notes in the streets, each asking the same questions, the hopes and fears and the conjectures one hears and utters during the course of the day, and the state of blank, weary stupidity to which one is reduced by the end of it. What I mind most in it all is the immense additional anxiety and responsibility it brings upon my poor husband, who feels it even more than he would have done any other year from being still, I grieve to say, less strong and well owing to his influenza still hanging about him.

Lady John Russell to Lady Minto

PEMBROKE LODGE, March 29, 1848

John returned to dinner, but some hours later than I expected him, which in times like these, when each hour may bring an account of a new revolution somewhere, or worst of all, of a rebellion in Ireland, is a trial to a Minister's wife. However, the reason was simply that Prince Albert had detained him talking. ... Of course we talked a great deal with our visitors of France, Italy, Germany, and Ireland; but happily, engrossing as these topics are, the bright sun and blue sky and shining river and opening leaves and birds and squirrels would have their share of attention, and give some rest to our minds.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

PEMBROKE LODGE, March 31, 1848

The preparations for rebellion in Ireland are most alarming, and John's usually calm and hopeful spirit more nearly fails him on that subject than any other. The speeches and writings of the Young Ireland leaders are so extravagantly seditious, and so grossly false as to the behaviour of England generally, and the present Ministry in particular to Ireland, that I cannot but hope they may defeat their own objects.... Poor people, the more deeply one feels for the starving and destitute millions among them and admires their patience and resignation, and the more bitterly one resents the misgovernment under which the whole nation suffered for hundreds of years, the fruits of which we are now reaping, the less one can excuse those reckless ones who are now misleading them, who must and do know that the present Ministers have not looked on with indifference and let famine and fever rage at will; that the subject of Ireland is not one to which the Houses of Parliament never give a day's or an hour's thought, but that on the contrary, her interests and happiness are daily and nightly the object of more intense anxiety and earnest endeavours on the part of her rulers than any portion of the Empire. We have had a week of such real spring with all its enjoyments, and to-day is so much finer and milder than ever, that the notion of streets and smoke and noise is odious. However, we have enough to go for, private and public. May God prosper the good cause of peace and freedom all over Europe.

Page 97.

Европейское революционное движение 1848 года не приобрело серьезного характера в Англии. На деле состоялся лишь мирный массовый митинг на Кеннингтон-Коммон, тщательно удерживаемый в рамках приличий армией гражданской полиции. В Ирландии все свелось к беспорядочной потасовке между сторонниками Смита О’Брайена и полицией, ставшей итогом грозного восстания. Но до того, как эти события произошли, будущее выглядело зловещим, особенно для тех, кто нес ответственность за возможные последствия.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

April 8, 1848

John had a late night in the House, and made two speeches on the unpleasant subjects of the Chartist meeting next Monday and Sir George Grey's "Security of the Crown" Bill; both of which ought to do good, from their mild and whiggish tone, in spite of the sadly un-whiggish nature of the topics; the very, last to which one would wish a Whig Government to have to turn its attention. All minds are full of next Monday, and at this moment we have not a manservant in the house, as they are summoned to a meeting to learn their duties as special constables for that day. I find it difficult to be in the least frightened, and I trust I am right. The only thing I dread is being long without knowing what John is about, and as he would be equally unwilling to know nothing about me, in case of any march upon this house or any other disagreeable demonstration against the Prime Minister, we have arranged that I am to go to Downing Street with him in the morning and remain all day there, as that is the place he will most easily come to from the House of Commons. My spirits have been much lowered about the whole thing this morning, as Mr. Trevelyan has been here and persuaded John that it would be madness for me either to remain in this house or go to Downing Street, both of which would be marks in case of a fight.

Page 98.

Mr. Trevelyan is very seriously alarmed, and talks of the effect the sound of the cannon might have upon me, and has persuaded Lady Mary Wood to go to his house on Clapham Common. I do not yet know what the other Ministers' wives are going to do, but I do know that I think Milton quite right in saying:

"The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,

Safest and seemliest by her husband bides."

However, I must do as I am bid, or at least I must do what makes him easiest.

LONDON, April 9, 1848

Hardly knew how much I had been thinking of to-morrow till I had to read aloud the prayers for Queen, country, and Parliament.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

DOWNING STREET, Monday, 3 o'clock

Well, here we are after all, Lady Grey, Lady Mary Wood, and I, with much easier minds than we have had for many days.

Everything has ended quietly; the meeting has dispersed at the persuasion of its leaders, who took fright. Fergus O'Connor especially has shown himself the most abject blusterer, and came pale and haggard and almost crying to speak to Sir George Grey--and told him how anxious he was that all should come to a peaceable end.

It seems too good to be true, after the various alarming reports and conjectures. Of course there will still be some anxiety until the night is well over, and till we see whether the Chartist spirit rises again after this failure. To begin at the beginning, I ought to tell you that hearing a great clattering at six this morning I got up, and looked out, and saw immense numbers of Lancers ride from the West into Belgrave Square, which they left to go to their destination somewhere about Portland Place, after performing many pretty manoeuvres which I did not understand. Many foot soldiers passed by. I admired the sight, but silently prayed that their services might not be required. We packed the brougham full of mattresses and blankets, as it seemed likely that we should have to sleep here. Now we have little doubt of getting home.

Page 99.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

LONDON, April 12, 1848

Yesterday was chiefly spent in receiving visits and congratulations without end, and very welcome they were. John and I had also a good long walk to freshen him up for a hard day in the House of Commons....

April 13, 1848

Again many notes and visits of congratulation and mutual rejoicing yesterday. God grant that this triumph of the good cause may have some effect on unhappy, misguided Ireland; there is the weight that almost crushes John, who opens Lord Clarendon's daily letters with an uneasiness not to be told.

Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell

OSBORNE, April 14, 1848

The Queen has received Lord John Russell's letter of yesterday evening. She approves that a form of prayer for the present time of tumult and trouble be ordered. She concludes it is for peace and quiet GENERALLY, which indeed we may well pray for. A thanksgiving for the failure of any attempts like the proposed one last Monday, the Queen would not have thought judicious, as being painful and unlike thanksgiving for preservation from foreign war.

Our accounts from Germany yesterday, from different quarters, were very distressing and alarming. So much fear of a total subversion of all existing things. But we must not lose courage or hope.

Посреди этих тревог и предчувствий, в день, когда королева написала вышеупомянутое письмо лорду Джону, родился их второй сын, Джордж Уильям Гилберт.

Леди Джон была тронута следующим письмом от доктора Джеймса Симпсона (выдающегося терапевта, впоследствии сэра Джеймса Симпсона), под наблюдением которого она находилась в Эдинбурге несколькими годами ранее.

EDINBURGH, March, 1848

I heard from two or three different sources that your Ladyship was to be blessed by an addition to your family....

I once made a pledge, that I would gladly leave all to watch and guard over your safety if you desired me. I have not forgotten the pledge, and am ready to redeem it--but not for fee or recompense, only for the love and pleasure of being near you at a time I could possibly show my gratitude by watching over your valued health and life.... With almost all my medical brethren here I use chloroform in all cases. None of us, I believe, could now feel justified in not relieving pain, when God has bestowed upon us the means of relieving it.

Page 100.

May 16, 1848

With a thankful heart I begin my diary again. Another child has been added to our blessings--another dear little boy. John was with me. Oh! his happiness when all was safely over. This child has done much already to restore his health and strength. Summer weather and the success of all his political measures for the last anxious months have also done much.

Но ирландские неурядицы отнюдь не закончились; 21 июля лорд Джон внес билль о приостановлении действия Закона о неприкосновенности личности (Habeas Corpus Act) в Ирландии. Его аргументы опирались на свидетельства лорда Кларендона о том, что вот-вот вспыхнет восстание, и обстоятельства, по-видимому, оправдывали эту меру предосторожности. Билл был принят без возражений и при поддержке всех видных деятелей парламента.

July 21, 1848

Irish news much the same. A Cabinet at which it was determined to propose suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. John accordingly gave notice of it in the House. I had hoped that a Whig Ministry would never be driven to such measures. I had hoped that Ireland would remember my husband's rule for ever with gratitude.

Page 101.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

LONDON, July 28, 1848

I have another letter to thank you for. You really must not describe the beauties of that place to me any more. It must so perfectly satisfy the longing for what, after some years of such a life as ours, seems the height of happiness--repose. I struggle hard against this longing, but I doubt whether I should do so successfully without that blessed Pembroke Lodge, from which I always return newly armed for the turmoil. After all, I am much more afraid of my husband being overpowered by this longing than myself. He can so much seldomer indulge in it. He is so much older, and it is so much more difficult for him to portion out his employments with any regularity, which is his best preservative against fuss. Yesterday was a most trying day for him, and the more so as he had looked forward to it as one of rest and enjoyment. It was Baby's christening-day, and we meant to remain at Pembroke Lodge after the ceremony to luncheon; but just as we were going to church came a letter from Sir George Grey with news of the whole South of Ireland being in rebellion, with horrible additions of bloodshed, defection of the troops, etc. As it has, thank God, turned out to be a hoax, a most wicked hoax, of some stockjobbing or traitorous wretch at Liverpool, I shall not waste your time and sympathies by telling you of the anxious hours we spent till seven in the evening, when the truth was made out.

And now let us trust that real rebellion may not be in store. It is dreadful to think of bloodshed, of loss of life, of the desolation of one's country and of the many, many imaginable and unimaginable miseries of civil war; but one thing I feel would be more dreadful still, weak and womanly as I may be in so feeling--to see one's husband unable to prevent the miseries, perhaps accusing himself of them, and sinking, as I know mine would, by degrees under his efforts and his regrets. Let us trust and pray, then, that we are not doomed to see the reality of so gloomy a picture. It is always difficult to me to look forward to great political failures and national misfortunes, perhaps because I have never known any; but the alarm of yesterday has made them seem more possible.

Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby