PRIME MINISTERS AND SOME OTHERS A BOOK OF REMINISCENCES BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE W. E. RUSSELL TO THE EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON, K.G., I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK, NOT SHARING HIS OPINIONS BUT PRIZING HIS FRIENDSHIP NOTE My cordial thanks for leave to reproduce papers already published are due to my friend Mr. John Murray, and to the Editors of the _Cornhill Magazine_, the _Spectator_, the _Daily News_, the _Manchester Guardian_, the _Church Family Newspaper_, and the _Red Triangle_. G. W. E. R. _July_, 1918. CONTENTS I.--PRIME MINISTERS I. LORD PALMERSTON II. LORD RUSSELL III. LORD DERBY IV. BENJAMIN DISRAELI V. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE VI. LORD SALISBURY VIII. ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR IX. HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN II.--IN HONOUR OF FRIENDSHIP I. GLADSTONE--AFTER TWENTY YEARS II. HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND III. LORD HALLIFAX IV. LORD AND LADY RIPON V. "FREDDY LEVESON" VI. SAMUEL WHITBREAD VII. HENRY MONTAGU BUTLER VIII. BASIL WILBERFORCE IX. EDITH SICHEL X. "WILL" GLADSTONE XI. LORD CHARLES RUSSELL III.--RELIGION AND THE CHURCH I. A STRANGE EPIPHANY II. THE ROMANCE OF RENUNCIATION III. PAN-ANGLICANISM IV. LIFE AND LIBERTY V. LOVE AND PUNISHMENT VI. HATRED AND LOVE VII. THE TRIUMPHS OF ENDURANCE VIII. A SOLEMN FARCE IV.--POLITICS I. MIRAGE II. MIST III. "DISSOLVING THROES" IV. INSTITUTIONS AND CHARACTER V. REVOLUTION--AND RATIONS VI. "THE INCOMPATIBLES" VII. FREEDOM'S NEW FRIENDS V.--EDUCATION I. EDUCATION AND THE JUDGE II. THE GOLDEN LADDER III. OASES IV. LIFE, LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE V. THE STATE AND THE BOY VI. A PLEA FOR INNOCENTS VI.--MISCELLANEA I. THE "HUMOROUS STAGE" II. THE JEWISH REGIMENT III. INDURATION IV. FLACCIDITY V. THE PROMISE OF MAY VI. PAGEANTRY AND PATRIOTISM VII.--FACT AND FICTION I. A FORGOTTEN PANIC II. A CRIMEAN EPISODE I PRIME MINISTERS PRIME MINISTERS AND SOME OTHERS I _LORD PALMERSTON_ I remember ten Prime Ministers, and I know an eleventh. Some have passed beyond earshot of our criticism; but some remain, pale and ineffectual ghosts of former greatness, yet still touched by that human infirmity which prefers praise to blame. It will behove me to walk warily when I reach the present day; but, in dealing with figures which are already historical, one's judgments may be comparatively untrammelled. I trace my paternal ancestry direct to a Russell who entered the House of Commons at the General Election of 1441, and since 1538 some of us have always sat in one or other of the two Houses of Parliament; so I may be fairly said to have the Parliamentary tradition in my blood. But I cannot profess to have taken any intelligent interest in political persons or doings before I was six years old; my retrospect, therefore, shall begin with Lord Palmerston, whom I can recall in his last Administration, 1859-1865.