Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/346

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Russell
332
Russell

acquired by a vigorous cross-examination of a secretary or member of committee which was only completed just before he rose to speak.

He had a strong view of his obligation to enforce the duty of honesty and good faith in commercial transactions. His protests from the bench against fraud in the promotion of companies and the practice of receiving commissions were offered courageously, and his sanguine disposition led him to believe that good results would follow. The secret commissions bill which he introduced in the House of Lords in 1900 cost him infinite labour, the collection of the necessary materials involving him in a personal correspondence with public bodies and individuals all over the kingdom.

He published the following works: 'New Views of Ireland, or Irish Land: grievances: remedies' (reprinted from the 'Daily Telegraph'), London, 1880, 8vo; 'The Christian Schools of England and recent Legislation concerning them,' London, 1883, 8vo; an article on Lord Coleridge, C. J., in the 'North American Review' in 1894; an article on the legal profession in the 'Strand Magazine' in 1896; 'Address on Legal Education,' London, 1895, 8vo; 'Arbitration: its Origin, History, and Prospects: an Address to the Saratoga Congress,' London, 1896.

The income that he made at the bar was very great. His fee-book shows that from 1862 to 1872 he made as junior on an average 3,000l. a year. He took silk in 1872, and for the following ten years he made at the rate of 10,000l. a year. From 1882 to 1892 his annual earnings averaged nearly 16,000l., and from 1893, when he was again appointed attorney-general, till he became a lord of appeal in April 1894, he received 32,826l.

The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Trinity College, Dublin, in 1894, by the Laval University, Canada, by Edinburgh University in 1896, and by the university of Cambridge in 1897. The best likeness of him is the portrait by Mr. J. S. Sargent, R.A., now in the possession of the family, a replica of which it is proposed to place in the National Portrait Gallery.

[Personal knowledge; Times, 11 Aug. 1900; Burke's Peerage, 1900; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage; Foster's Men at the Bar; Lincoln's Inn Reg.; Law List, various years.]

J. C. M.

RUSSELL, HENRY (1812–1900), vocalist and song composer, was born at Sheerness, where his father held a government appointment, on 24 Dec. 1812. He made his first appearance on the stage at the age of three, in connection with a travelling theatrical company. At the age of six he began to study the pianoforte, but for a time he was a boy in a chemist's shop in Seven Dials. Russell appeared as a vocalist in 1828 at the Surrey Theatre, under Elliston's management, at a weekly salary of 30s., when he sang the ' Pilgrim of Love ' and similar popular ditties. In his teens he went to Italy, first becoming an outdoor student of the Bologna conservatoire, subsequently studying under Rossini at Naples, and meeting Balfe, Bellini, Donizetti, and other musical celebrities. Upon his return to England he was for a short time chorus master at Her Majesty's Theatre.

In order to find a remunerative field of work Russell went to Canada, where he started his one-man entertainments that made him famous. For a short time he was organist of the presbyterian church, Rochester (N. Y.) From 1833 to 1841 he travelled incessantly in Canada and America, singing his songs, 'Cheer, boys, cheer,' 'There's a good time coming, boys,' 'A Life on the Ocean Wave,' 'O Woodman, spare that Tree,' and many others with extraordinary success. In 1841 he returned to England, and, in giving his entertainments in London and the provinces, repeated in his native country the triumphs which had attended him in the American continent. He subsequently, with Dr. Charles Mackay [q.v.], ran an entertainment entitled 'The Far West, or the Emigrant's Progress from the Old World to the New,' with scenery painted by Mills. This, in addition to being remarkably successful, had a distinct influence upon emigration to the far west. About 1865 Russell retired from public life. He died at 18 Howley Place, Maida Vale, on 8 Dec. 1900, and his remains are interred in Kensal Green cemetery.

Russell composed about eight hundred songs, of which not a few of the verses were written expressly for him by his old friend, Dr. Charles Mackay, other authors drawn upon being Longfellow, Eliza Cook, Charles Dickens, and other homely poets. Their themes were of so essentially domestic and popular a nature that they at once caught the fancy of the public. Not a little of the success, however, which attended them was due to their composer's remarkable enunciation of the words in the singing of his songs, combined with a dramatic intensity which thrilled his hearers. This feature of his entertainments was suggested to him when listening to the orations of Henry Clay, the great Kentucky orator. 'There is no