no advantage to me," he said, "to have my friends die with me." Conjugal
affection was the feeling that clung to his heart; and when he had taken
his last farewell of his wife, he said, "The bitterness of death is now
over." He suffered the sentences of his judges with resignation and
composure. Some of his expressions (says his biographer) imply much
good-humour in this last extremity. The day before his execution, he was
seized with a bleeding at the nose. "I shall not now let blood to divert
this distemper," said he to Burnet, who was present; "that will be done
to-morrow." A little before the sheriffs conducted him to the scaffold,
he wound up his watch. "Now I have done," said he, "with time, and
henceforth must think solely of eternity." The sad tragedy of the death
of the virtuous Lord Russel, (says Pennant,) who lost his head in the
middle of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, took place on July 21st, 1683. Party
writers assert that he was brought here in preference to any other spot,
in order to mortify the citizens with the sight. In fact, it was the
nearest open space to Newgate, the place of his lordship's confinement.
Without the least change of countenance, he laid his head on the block,
and at two strokes it was severed from his body. He was, at the time of
his death, only forty-two years of age. To his character for probity,
sincerity, and private worth, even the enemies to his public principles
bear testimony. At Woburn Abbey is preserved, in gold letters, the
speech of Lord Russel to the sheriffs, together with the paper delivered
by his lordship to them at the place of execution.

P.T.W.

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INDEPENDENCE OF PORTUGAL.