The Russells
Hereditary likeness is one of the commonest phenomena in the world, and is an index of the moral resemblance which makes character of a particular class run through a line, and thus, in free countries like ours, produces hereditary politics and affects the fortunes of the State, as was the case at Rome. “A Russell,” says Niebuhr, very justly, “could not be an absolutist; the thing would be monstrous.” This conviction is, no doubt, one excellent reason why Liberals glorify the race with such constancy.—Hannay. [Is not this the reason why Lord John Russell, when raised to the Peerage in 1861, preferred to the Earl of Ludlow the title of Earl Russell? He would not part with the glory.]