"Colonial reforms, educational schemes, the "liberties of the subject", public press and public meetings, enthusiasm for war and yearning for peace—all of them were but false pretences for Lord John Russell. The whole man is one false pretence, his whole life a lie, all his activity a continuous chain of petty intrigues for the achievement of shabby ends—the devouring of public money and the usurpation of the mere semblance of power. No one has ever illustrated more strikingly the truth of the biblical words that no man can add one cubit unto his stature. Placed by birth, connections, and social accidents on a colossal pedestal, he always remained the same homunculus—a dwarf dancing on the tip of a pyramid. History has, perhaps, never exhibited any other man—so great in pettiness."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandLiberal Party (UK) politiciansPeople from LondonWhig (British political party) politicians
Original Language: English
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Sources
Karl Marx in Neue Oder-Zeitung, No. 377, August 15, 1855
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Russell%2C_1st_Earl_Russell
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century.
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