A REMINISCENCE OF LORD RUSSELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 43, 25 October 1900, Page 10

A REMINISCENCE OF LORD RUSSELL.

A correspondent contributes the following reminiscence of the late Lord Chief Justice of England to the Belfa.it Weekly :— I remember the late Lord Russell's first appearance as an advocate in a court of Law. It was in the Glens of Antrim, in Cushendall, about 40 years ago. I was at the time C.C. to the amiable learned and accomplished parish priest of Cushendall, the Very Key. John fitzsimons. The Protestant Boupers then located in the Glens were making determined attempts to make converts or perverts, among the Catholics of the Parish of Cushendall I well remember their bold and shameless efforts to misrepresent and vilify the doctrines and devotional practices of the Catholio Church by scattering broadcast through the parish lying and disgusting leaf lete, even daringly thrusting them into the hands of youne rirla. I am ailed even now with indignation when I think of these proceedings. * The parish priest, a cautious (perhaps a little too muoh so) and prudent man, counselled forbearance and patience to his people, and no violence was offered to theae soupers, who, in the name of religion went about grossly insulting the religious convictions of men, and all that was held sacred by the staunch Catholics of the (rlens. The parish priest feared that any violence offered in return to these insults would only tend to multiply the contributions to this nefarious mission. But the soupers did all they could to provoke it, and a few Protestant boys of the town of Cußhendall, fanaticised and emboldened by their vile calumnies and impunity broke the windows of the Roman Catholic Church at Cuahendall, by throwing stones through them. But this outrage was committed in a parish where there was a Catholic population of more than 3000, and only 50 or 60 Protestants. There was, of course, great indignation among Catholics at the outrage. But the low cunning of the soupers and their abettors attempted to make it appear that the windows were broken by the Catholics themselves in order to throw the odium of it on the Protestants of district. It was at a trial in the courthouse of Cushendall on this outrage that the late Lord Russell made his first appearance as an advocate. I was present at the trial. The great future advocate in his address made a deep impression on the one-sided and bigoted Protestant bench. I remember well the opening of his address. 'Gentlemen,' said he, addressing the bench, 'driving down your beautiful Glenanff this morning, where the charms and beauties of nature are so richly displayed, amid a scene so beautiful and peaceful, it is saddening to find men quarrelling and criminating each other.' At these words the hard and cold look of the bench towards the young Catholic advocate visibly softened aud brightened, and he was listened to with riveted attention as he proceeded in his touching and eloquent address. ' One touch of nature that makes all men kin ' wrought this. His great talent in cross-examining was then apparent. In hia crossexamination of the eergeant of police, Mr. Blair, a Protestant, he led him on so skilfully and courteously as to make him contradict a statement of his sub-inspector, who was present in court. I remember him afterwards at dinner remarking that the sergeant must be an honest man, when he had the fairness and independence to contradict in court the statement of his sub-inspector. Charley Russell, as he was familiarly called, with his mother Mrs. Bussell, and the rest of the family, used, in his boyhood days, to spend some weeks every summer for several years in the beautiful Glenariff. I often heard Father Fitzsimons speak of the pleasant picnics he used to be pnsent at with the Russells on the braes and headlands of Glenariff, and of the eloquent little speeches of Mrs. Russell on these occasion*. Mrs. Russell must have been a great, good, and wise woman. bhe brought up her family so religiously and so well that three of her daughters became nuns, her younger son a distinguished Jesuit, the Very Rev. Matthew Russell, and the elder son Chief Justice of England, a man who never thrust his religion or his country into the background, but nobly and chivalrously kept them always to the front. ' It was his great, honest, and generous heart that principally carried him on to success ; the noble, honest, and generous soul of the man that shone through all his bearing and look— it was this that impressed and swayed all in his favor. It is not great talent so much as the great and noble heart that makes the great orator who can impress and sway senates, the bench, or great assemblies of men. It is the touch of nature that makes all men kin, and this must come from the heart.