E. P.

“ Russell tells us in a frankly written preface to Portraits of the Seventies, publishers in London regard his intimate knowledge of English politics of the last forty years and of English society of the same period as a valuable asset. There are readers of his books and of his contributions to the periodical press, especially readers who recall his contributions to the Manchester Guardian, who also appraise quite highly his peculiar and intimate knowledge of English politics, and his ability to write on English politics, which comes partly from the fullness of his knowledge. ”

“ There is no man in England to-day—no man who has made any position for himself as a writer—who is better acquainted than Mr. Russell with the history of the Whig party from the Reform Act of 1832 to the eclipse of Whiggism that resulted from the extension of the parliamentary franchise in 1884-1885, and the epoch-making division in the Liberal party over Gladstone's bill for Home Rule for Ireland of 1886. Mr. Russell was born into the Whig cult. ”

“ Russell's book is devoted to men who later were his contemporaries in Parliament when he was of the House of Commons from 1880 to 1895, he writes also of bishops and clergymen of the Established Church, of dignitaries and priests of the Roman Catholic Church in England, of poets and physicians, of the wives of statesmen, and of other women who in the seventies and eighties were famous as hostesses. ”