Lord John Russell

VOL. IX.--No. 463.]

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1865.

SINGLE COPIES TEN CENTS.

$4,00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1865, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

NOT QUITE IN VAIN.

By MILES O'REILLY.

How often in days of our sore distress, When we faint with an absolute weariness

Of endless labor and endless pain, The sickening thought in our souls will rise, Clouding with gloom even the brightest skies, And chilling the pulse and filling the eyes "We have lived—we have lived in vain!"

When the hearts we thought golden and trusted best Prove but shriveling dross in the fiery test

Which the Fates for all friendships ordain; As we turn the false picture with face to the wall, Or veil the lost idol with charity's pall,

How cold on the soul seems the whisper to fall—"We have lived—we have lived in vain!" When some prize of ambition, for years postponed, Is at length attained, yet we feel unatoned

For the struggle that gave us the gain—Oh, spurning the dead-sea fruit we sought, "Must it ever be thus?" is the weary thought, And again to our ears is the whisper brought "We have lived—we have lived in vain!"

Oh friends! how rare in this workaday life

Axe the prizes, it won, that are worth the strife, The clangor, the dust, and the strain! There is only one in the world below, But one, that, whatever its price of woe,

Bids the soul in the veins to exultingly know That we have not lived in vain !

'Tis that moment unspeakable—best unsaid—When blushingly downward the dear drooping head To our breast for the first time we strain; And the promise is given, not in words, but in sighs, And the sweet, humid tenderness filling her eyes—"Oh soul of my soul! If my love be a prize,

Then you have not lived in vain;"

HON. CHARLES F. ADAMS.

THIS country has fresh reason to be proud of its Minister in England—the Hon. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. His part in the remarkable correspondence which has recently taken place between him and Earl RUSSELL places him side by side with his father and grandfather as a defender of his country in the English court.

For CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS is the third member of his family who has represented this country in England. His grandfather, JOHN ADAMS, was the first American Minister to the Court of St. James. It was to him that KING GEORGE THE THIRD delivered the famous apostrophe: "I am, Sir, of all men in England, as you may imagine, the sorriest to receive you here." This was in 1785. Thirty years later the son of JOHN ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, was sent to England as our Minister, remaining at court two years. He took with him his son, the present CHARLES F. ADAMS, who was eight years old at the time they arrived in London, and went to an English school. Report states that he took his first lessons in the art of self-defense from some English fellow-pupils, whose sarcastic flings at his country was more than the young Yankee could tolerate.

Mr. ADAMS has lived a quiet, unobtrusive life. In 1848 he was a delegate to the famous Buffalo Convention, and was chosen President of that body—a post of which he discharged the duties with credit. He subsequently published the Life and Writings of his grandfather, JOHN ADAMS—a work ,of great merit, which occupies a standard place in our political literature. In 1859 he was elected to Congress. He was not a prominent member of the House ; but it is a curious fact, when considered in relation to his subsequent efforts in support of the war, that from him came the first proposition for a compromise

when the country was first threatened with civil war. He represented Massachusetts in the famous perilous committee, and probably his was the most finished speech delivered in Congress at this remark-able crisis in our national affairs.

Mr. ADAMS is now fifty-seven years of age, and has, it is said, a splendid fortune, part of which he derived from his wife. His position for the past five years has been one which demanded not only unusual sagacity but also an extraordinary equanimity of temper. His great reward is, that his expressions of confidence as to the success of his Government in the war for its self-preservation have been so triumphantly justified.

EARL RUSSELL.

EARL RUSSELL, better known in history as Lord JOHN RUSSELL, is the third son of JOHN, sixth Duke of Bedford. His mother was the daughter of the fourth Viscount TORRINGTON. He was born at Mayfair, August 18, 1792. After a preparatory course of study at Sunbury and at Westminster School, he completed his scholastic education at the University of Edinburgh, where he was for some time the pupil of the metaphysician THOMAS BROWN and of DUGALD STEWART. Under the tuition of the latter the liberal opinions which came to him as a natural inheritance from his ancestors were doubtless confirmed.

In 1813, after the formation of the Liverpool Ministry, Lord JOHN RUSSELL entered Parliament as member from Tavistock. The Whigs at this time possessed great influence, though not in office. One of the first " hits" made by Lord JOHN was an eloquent speech on Foreign Treaties, which immediately gave him a high place among Parliamentary orators. At the time of the popular outbreaks in 1817 Lord RUSSELL urged that, instead of adopting

harsh measures, timely concessions ought to be made to the people ; but his advice was nut followed by the Government. He threw his whole soul into the cause of Parliamentary Reform, and came at length to be the recognized leader in the movement. He was a strong advocate of Catholic Emancipation, and an opponent of Test and Corporation oaths. When WELLESLEY—the Duke of Wellington—came into power, in 1828, Lord RUSSELL saw his long-cherished projects carried into execution. Then came the excitement about the Reform Bill, in 1832. Then it was that Lord Joust Ruse SELL arrived at the zenith of his glory.

During Lord MELBOURNE'S Administration Lord RUSSELL became Home Secretary, and from 1835 to 1841 was the guiding spirit of the Whig party. He succeeded Sir ROBERT PEEL as Prime Minister, and remained at the helm until 1851. As often hap-pens, Lord RUSSELL while in office became more conservative and cautious ; many of his supporters, and even Lord PALMERSTON, fell away from him; and in 1852 Lord DERBY came into power. In 1859, under Lord PALMERSTON, Lord RUSSELL be-came Minister of Foreign Affairs. In July, 1861, he was raised to the peerage as Earl RUSSELL.

Earl RUSSELL has proved a very prudent, if not a very satisfactory Foreign Minister. He has for-ever been protesting and menacing, but has always failed to follow up his protests or menaces with any efficient action ; and although by his caution he has kept England out of hot water during three important wars, the English people would have been bet-ter satisfied if he had said less and made fewer angry expostulations. We give elsewhere a resume of the recent correspondence between Earl RUSSELL and Mr. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, in relation to claims made by our Government upon England for injuries done by Anglo-Rebel privateers during the rebellion.

HON. CHARLES F, ADAMS.—[PHOTOGRAPHED BY MATHEW BRADY]

EARL RUSSELL.