Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L.
by
John Knox Laughton
Part 2 out of 8
which is to appear in November, it would be very serviceable to the
publisher. It is only a reprint of that part of the 'Political Philosophy,'
and lays down true and sound principles--at this time necessary to be well
learnt.
_To Lord Brougham_
_62 Rutland Gate, October 2nd_.--I am extremely obliged to you for the copy
of your Glasgow address, which in some degree consoles me for not having
heard it, and for having lost the pleasure of seeing you this year at
Brougham. Nothing can be more felicitous than some of the illustrations you
have introduced, and the occasion of a mere scientific meeting has been
turned to the best political purpose. No doubt in that region the absence
of party gives a broader and a nobler aim to the exertions of your society,
and it is gratifying to see how heartily men meet to combine, in these
days, without party badges. But if this opinion were to be expressed by the
'Edinburgh Review,' we should be told by John Russell & Co. that we have
no business to wear blue and buff, which is the final cause of reviews and
editors.
The political article which I have just sent to the press is on the United
States under Mr. Buchanan--a great show-up of that scandalous scene of
corruption, slave-trading, and anarchy. I am afraid it is now too late to
introduce an allusion to your discourse. As to home politics, there is
little to be said; as to Continental affairs, there is too much. The
mountebanks in Southern Italy have now very nearly upset the coach, and the
question is whether the Sardinians or the French are to march to Naples. I
hope it will be the former, but it is quite clear Louis Napoleon means to
support the Pope in Rome.
Lord Clarendon is just come back from Wiesbaden. We start on Saturday for
Madrid, _via_ Valencia, and shall be about six weeks in Spain and Portugal.
And so they started--Reeve, his wife, and daughter--Reeve, as usual,
noting merely the stages of the tour, trusting to his wife to fill in
the details. Extracts from Mrs. Reeve's Journal are here given in square
brackets.
_Journal_
_October 8th_.--We started for Spain by Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles.
Sailed in the 'Céphise' for Valencia on the 10th.
_11th_.--[Hopie and I came on deck soon after eight. We spent the day lying
down, and only caught glimpses of the coast of Spain when a roll of the
'Céphise' brought land and sea above the line of her sides.]
_12th_.--[About 4 A.M. the wind changed, and we were able to use sail,
which steadied the vessel, besides assisting her progress. I went on deck
at nine, found the Mediterranean more like my 'Caire' experience, and was
told that we should probably be at Grao by twelve.... Henry has set up an
acquaintance with a Mexican who knows a little of England and English, and
is going to pass the winter at Valencia. About one o'clock we were in the
harbour of Grao. We landed in boats, and found ourselves surrounded by
a crowd of clamorous porters and _tartana_ drivers--one of the scenes
characteristic of landing in a country where police regulations do not
exist ensued. However, Henry's Mexican acquaintance came to his rescue, and
two courteous Gauls to mine. They were taking the French despatches into
Valencia, and offered Hopie and me seats in their _tartana_--a covered cart
not on springs, which is the cab of the country. We joyfully accepted,
leaving Henry to struggle through custom-house and other difficulties as
best he could. The drive (into Valencia) is about two miles, part shaded by
an avenue and carefully watered by men stationed at intervals, who ladled
the water in buckets out of the runlets on each side of the road. We took
up our quarters at the Fonda de Paris, and congratulated each other on
having arrived in Spain.]
_13th_.--[We went out at eight o'clock. Our first point was the market,
which we found in full activity. Such supplies of fruit and vegetables can
only be found in a city surrounded by leagues of _huerta_.... We went to
the _plateria_, but found the shops poor, and the articles displayed were
coarse and ill-wrought. We visited the churches of St. Martin, St. John,
and the cathedral, and ascended the tower _del Miguelete_. The churches are
so dark that it is quite impossible to distinguish the pictures, much less
to judge of their beauty. The panorama from the tower is most beautiful:
the city and plain of Valencia, the Mediterranean and the encircling
mountains, the fertile _huerta_, and the glorious sky of deepest blue
above....
Placards of a bull-fight on the morrow caught our eyes; and Hopie and I,
taking the bull by the horns, declared our intention of going to it, and
suggested that places should be taken. After a very feeble resistance,
Henry consented, and our _valet-de-place_ was directed to ascertain the
price of a box.]
_14th_.--[The price asked for a box being too high, we took reserved seats,
and at two o'clock started on foot.... The Plaza de Toros at Valencia is a
new building, only completed this year; it holds twenty thousand persons,
and is the largest in Spain.... 'El Tato' is the second _matador_ of Spain:
he is a well-looking and remarkably well-grown young man, and a well-grown
figure is set off to great advantage by the dress. The horses used are only
fit for the knacker's yard; they are contracted for at about six pounds
each; on this occasion thirteen or fourteen were killed. As regards the
horses, it is a cruel and disgusting sight; but as between the bull and the
_matador_, the display of courage, eye and presence of mind, as well as of
skill and agility, is most interesting and exciting.] We saw 'El Tato' kill
six bulls.... [At dinner our conversation turned on the sight of the day.
'Tableau de moeurs espagnoles,' said a Frenchman, raising his shoulders.
'In Peru, where I have seen many bull-fights,' he went on, 'they use
high-spirited and valuable horses, and the _picador_ would be for ever
disgraced if he allowed the bull to touch his horse.']
_15th_. [From Valencia to Madrid is 308 miles; the time from 4 P.M. to 6.20
A.M., and our train was pretty punctual.]
_16th_.--Saw Isabella and her Court enter Madrid. She was shot at [by a
foolish, half-witted lad, who did not know how to load his pistol, and had
no motive for the crime, or rather attempt]. Delighted with the gallery.
[There are a few seats and no visitors; and the wisest thing travellers can
do, and by far the pleasantest, is to spend all the hours of all the
days they are in Madrid that the gallery is open in contemplating its
treasures.]
_17th_.--[Immediately after breakfast, Hopie and I went to the Museum.
Henry joined us presently, and we remained till four o'clock.]
_18th, Thursday_.--[We had intended to make the Toledo excursion to-day,
but an undoubted attack of gout confines Henry to the sofa. Hopie and I
walked before breakfast to the Church of the Atocha, where we were shown
... in a wardrobe in the vestry, the crimson velvet robe which Isabella had
on when the Curé Merino stabbed her. [Footnote: On her way to the church,
February 2nd, 1852. The priest, a Franciscan, was garotted in due course.]
It has the stain of blood on the lining; the massive embroidery in gold
saved her life by turning aside the knife.... After breakfast we took a
walk through the unfashionable parts of the town: narrow streets, noisy
and crowded, where open stores with bright-coloured scarfs and petticoats
collected round them men in the peasant dress--short jackets, breeches, and
gaiters partly open. These were picturesque, but the streets and houses
were uninteresting enough.
There can be no doubt that Madrid is the least interesting capital in
Europe, and that it is only worth the traveller's while to go there for the
sake of the pictures.... It is settled that we leave Madrid on Saturday
evening, and Henry has therefore consented to our going to Toledo tomorrow
without him.]
_19th_,--[Excursion to Toledo, fifty-six miles by rail.]
_20th, Saturday_.--[After dinner started for Granada, where, after
thirty-six hours (rail and diligence), we arrived on Monday morning.]
_27th, Saturday_.--[At 6 P.M. we stow ourselves in the interior of the
diligence, and pound along the dusty road towards Santa Fé. It is dusk
before we get there, and dark after.]
_28th, Sunday_.--[From Granada to Malaga is seventy-six miles. Guards
are not only stationed along the road, but two or three are taken on the
diligence. The roads were not good; we seemed to be crossing a series of
sierras, and when day dawned, after a fresh, almost cold night, we found
ourselves amid ghaut-like hills, and wondered when the topmost point would
be gained and the descent to Malaga begun. I think it is at Fuente de la
Reina that the magnificent view of the Mediterranean, the port and city
of Malaga, and the long perspective of zigzags down spurs of mountains is
seen. Neither the French nor English Handbook speaks of this view with
the enthusiasm it deserves. It is far finer than the view on the heights
looking down on Trieste and the Adriatic.... We entered Malaga about 10
A.M.; the descent had taken about two hours.]
_29th_.--[Very early it was announced that an unexpected boat had come in,
and was going on to Cadiz.... At 2 P.M. we went on board... but she did not
steam till six. We should have been very irate at the delay but for the
remarkably good dinner they gave us.... We made a détour and went very slow
at starting, to avoid a vessel sunk in the harbour, on which a provisional
pharo is placed. This vessel, the 'Genova,' had on board shells and powder
for the Morocco war, when it was discovered that spontaneous combustion had
broken out in the coal--a defect of Spanish coal--and, fearing she would
not only blow up herself but also the city of Malaga, they determined to
sink her; and, after a deal of bad practice by the guns of fort and fleet,
she went under water, and there she has been eight months.]
_30th_.--[Cadiz. On the 31st crossed over to Puerto Santa Maria; and on
November 1st to Seville by rail.]
_November 2nd_.--[Henry has again a threatening of gout, and must have
recourse to rest and remedial measures. He sent us out to buy the works of
'Fernan Caballero;' but only one volume was to be had, and no explanation
was given us of the strange fact that the writings of the most popular
novelist in Spain are not to be obtained in the capital of Andalusia,
where she lives, and whence all her characters and scenery are taken.
No satisfactory map or guide-book of Seville could be found. I took a
catalogue of the books that the shop contained back to Henry. They were
chiefly of a religious character. Hopie and I took an exploring walk as far
as the Plaza and Church of San Lorenzo, stopping now and then to peep into
the cool _patios_ filled with flowers, and a murmuring fountain often in
the middle, which you see through the corridor, sometimes with a door of
iron trellis, sometimes open. All the windows of the basement have iron
gratings and wooden shutters; and the courting and sweethearting is carried
on with the lady inside and the lover outside the railing. Not that we saw
anything of the kind as it takes place of an evening; but the construction
of the houses explains the descriptions as given in these charming tales of
'Fernan Caballero.']
_3rd_.--[Hopie and I set out to 'do churches'... After breakfast to the
Museum.... We then joined Henry, who was better, and had been to call at
the Palace, and drove to Alfarache, about four miles' distance.]
_4th_.--[In the afternoon to Cordova (eighty-one miles), returning to
Seville on the evening of the 5th.]
_6th_.--[A decidedly grey day, unfortunately for our plans of
picture-seeing. We did a little shopping... and then went to the Museum;
but, alas! there was not more light than you would have in Trafalgar
Square; and those Murillos at a distance from the window were scarcely
visible. We were so vexed on Henry's account. We spent the afternoon in
writing letters, bathing our faces with milk, and hoping the mosquito
bites, which have driven us well-nigh distracted, will be less conspicuous
to-morrow, when we are to spend the morning at the Palace, and be presented
to the Infanta.]
_7th_.--[Nine o'clock was the hour named by the Duke, and a few minutes
after we were at the Palace of San Telmo (in bonnets and our tidiest
dresses). We were shown into a room on the ground floor, and in a few
seconds the Duc de Montpensier [Footnote: For the circumstances of the Duc
de Montpensier's marriage, see _ante_, vol. i. p. 181.] came in attended by
an A.D.C. He received us very graciously, asked if we would drive or walk
round the grounds, and said he thought we had better see the gardens first,
and then the house and pictures.... Our promenade, with an occasional rest,
took nearly two hours; and then, returning to the Palace, H.R.H. showed us
the state rooms and the pictures, many of great beauty and merit, all very
interesting; and then, suggesting we should like to take off our bonnets,
desired the A.D.C. to show us rooms.... A servant waiting outside the door
showed us into a drawing-room upstairs, where we found two ladies of the
Infanta's suite, and an old marquis, whose gold key showed he was the
chamberlain. In a few minutes the double doors of a larger room were thrown
open, and 'los Duques' and the four Infantas, their daughters, came in....
When the _dejeuner dinatoire_ was announced, the Duke told Henry to offer
his arm to the Duchess, then he advanced towards me, the chamberlain took
Hopie, the children and the suite followed. We were eighteen at table. ...
Servants stood behind us with paper flappers, whisking away the flies, who
swarmed round the sweet dishes on the table; and H.R.H. complaining of _les
mouches_, I ventured to complain of _les moustiques_. He smiled, and said,
'I noticed that you had been victimised.' Breakfast was very gay and
agreeable; the Duke has the family talent for conversation, and the Duchess
is very amiable, and of course speaks French. She wore a high, plain silk
dress of the prevailing colour, and a black chenille net. The Infantas had
black silk skirts with a broad piece of black velvet at the bottom, and
white piqué shirts. We left the table in the same order as before, and,
after a few minutes in the salon, the Duke took Henry into his private
room. The Duchess requested us to be seated, and asked us questions about
our tour, &c.... and then, rising, she said Adieu, and left the room. The
Duke took us to the large library on the ground floor, to show us the
albums and other things of interest.... There was an interesting portrait
of an elderly lady in a black dress and mantilla, which H.R.H. pointed out
as being that of the lady who writes under the name of 'Fernan Caballero;'
and on Henry's mentioning that we had tried in vain to purchase her novels,
he desired the librarian to see whether there were duplicate copies, and,
on hearing there were, gave us a set, as well as a coloured lithograph of
the Palace and photographs of the Duchess, himself, and the princesses....
It was altogether a most interesting and agreeable morning, and we came
away charmed with the courtesy and kindness of 'los Duques.']
_9th_.--Back to Cadiz; very stormy voyage to Lisbon. Home to Southampton,
November 22nd.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, December 6th_.--I was glad to get your letter, as I thought you
must be due about this time, and I had not heard of your arrival. I can
imagine no change for the worse equal to that of coming from the blue sky
and thermometer of Andalusia to the fogs and hydrometer of London, and your
impaired respiratory organs must make that change peculiarly pleasant.
I am very glad your impressions of Spain are the same as Granville's.
He raves of the things he has seen, and of the good hotels and general
civility; and says he tasted no garlic since he dined at the Maison Dorée
at Paris. Spain must indeed be changed since my time!
We returned from Ashridge [Footnote: The seat of Lord Brownlow.] this
afternoon, and are off again next week. Paterfamilias is obliged to drink
the cup of gaiety to the dregs, which is almost worse than being in office.
Pray remember us very kindly to Mrs. Reeve. As soon as we are free agents,
we shall hope for the pleasure of seeing you here.
_To Lord Brougham_
_C. O., December 10th_. I have not the slightest intention of plunging at
present into the turbid waters of Indian finance, still less of engaging in
the personal controversy of Trevelyan's merits or grievances.... I am not
sure that his view of extensive reduction is not, in reality, more rational
and possible than Wilson's view of extensive taxation. Probably, however,
both will be needed before we have done. But I suspend my judgement on the
question, and I shall not venture to discuss it in the 'Review' at present.
We returned from Spain and Portugal a few days after you had the kindness
to call in Rutland Gate. I proceeded immediately to call on you in Grafton
Street, but you had already gone north. Since then I have been unceasingly
occupied at the Judicial Committee. Our journey was very successful and
agreeable. We coasted round the whole peninsula, and went up to Madrid,
Grenada, Seville, Cordova, &c.
The changes taking place in France are (if sincere) most remarkable. My
friends think that one of L. N.'s objects is to have a debate on his
foreign policy and his relations with Italy, which--as he well knows--will
be extremely adverse to the Italian cause, and afford him a pretext for
abandoning Victor Emanuel. There is some idea that when Francis II.
evacuates Gaëta, he will surrender it, not to Victor Emanuel, but to
France. I expect this affair in Southern Italy to end by a Muratist
demonstration; in other words, the Neapolitans will place themselves under
the protection of France to escape from the Piedmontese.... Thank God, your
namesake and my friend, Henry Brougham Loch,[Footnote: Now Lord Loch,
then secretary to Lord Elgin, in China. He and Harry Parkes had been
treacherously seized by the Chinese on September 18th, and kept in vilest
durance and imminent danger of being put to death till October 8th, when,
after the capture of the Summer Palace, both the prisoners were released.]
is safe. We have been very uneasy about him, and not without cause. The
China war is a slough of despond: the further we advance the more we shall
flounder, until we are half ruined by our successes.
_62 Rutland Gate, December 24th_.--I have shut myself up for some days, to
try to get rid of an irritation in the larynx, which has troubled me for
some time past; but in this weather one's library is the most secure
retreat.
_62 Rutland Gate, January 3rd_.--I see the Court of Queen's Bench in Canada
has decided in favour of the extradition of the fugitive slave who turned
and slew his pursuer. This surprises me; for surely, by our law, such an
act is not murder. What, however, interests me most is to know whether the
case can be brought up to the Privy Council by way of appeal. I do not
know what form the proceedings in Canada have taken; but I apprehend the
proceedings are civil, not criminal, and therefore appealable. If it does
come here, it will be a matter of great interest.
The reference is to the celebrated case of John Anderson--or Jack--a negro
of Missouri, who, in 1853, had been met by one Diggs, a white man, thirty
miles away from his home. In accordance with the laws of the State, Diggs
attempted to seize him. Anderson killed Diggs, and--by 'the underground
railway'--made good his escape to Canada, where he had lived ever since.
In 1860 he had been recognised, and, on formal application for his
extradition, he had been arrested. The Court of Queen's Bench in Canada
accepted the argument that they had to decide only as to the evidence of
the commission of the crime, not as to the nature of it, and remanded the
prisoner. In England the excitement was very great. The Secretary of State
sent out an order that Anderson was not to be given up without instructions
from him; and the Court of Queen's Bench sent out a writ of _habeas
corpus_, directing the man to be brought before it. But meanwhile an
application for a writ of _habeas corpus_ had been made to the Court
of Common Pleas in Canada, and the prisoner had been discharged on the
technical ground that he was not charged with any crime included in the
Extradition Treaty, as, for instance, murder; for the indictment was that
he did 'wilfully, maliciously and feloniously stab and kill, &c.,' words
which meant, inferentially, manslaughter; and manslaughter was not
recognised by the treaty.[Footnote: See _Annual Register_, 1831, part ii.
p. 520.]
The Journal here mentions the awfully sudden death of a friend of many
years' standing:--
_January 8th_.--The Frederick Elliots and Marochettis dined with us. There
was a frost, and torches on the Serpentine. Mrs. F. Elliot drove round to
see it, and went home and died in the night [of a spasm of the heart. The
news reached Reeve by a note from Mr. Elliot, dated seven o'clock in the
morning].
_From Mr. E. Twisleton_
Bonchurch, January 24th.
My dear Reeve,--I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 18th
instant, which has been forwarded to me here. I am sorry to say that I
have so much on my hands at present that I could not undertake to write an
article on American affairs; though I am equally obliged to you for the
proposal.
I lament what has taken place in the United States. Although, in a narrow
political sense, a disruption may be useful to England, in another point of
view it is a misfortune, inasmuch as the maintenance of one confederation
during seventy-two years, over such a vast extent of territory, with no
civil war, and only two foreign wars, is the greatest thing which the
English race has done out of England, and its dissolution is sure to be
viewed with pleasure by all who in their hearts hate free institutions and
the English race.
Since Brown's attempt to excite an insurrection of the slaves in Virginia,
I have thought it impossible to avoid a civil war, if the anti-slavery
feeling in the North went on increasing in intensity, as I have known it
to increase during the last ten years; but I had not the most distant idea
that Lincoln's election would lead to immediate secession on the part of
even a single state. In the north of the Union they have been absolutely
taken by surprise, and have hardly yet made up their minds as to the course
they will pursue. If Congress had merely to deal with South Carolina, it
could easily checkmate that one state; but the difficulty arises from the
_number_ of states, which either side with South Carolina or will not act
against her.
I have the highest respect for Tocqueville's opinion; but I do not happen
to remember what he has written respecting secession. I well understand the
difficulty for a confederation if any one state has a settled permanent
determination to secede from it. But, under the constitution, Congress has
ample powers to levy the federal revenue and maintain the laws of the
Union in South Carolina--and to pass all laws necessary for this purpose.
Moreover, everyone in the Union who levies war against the United States
Government is guilty of treason, and there is no recognition in the
constitution of any right in any state to secede from the Union. Under
these circumstances, everyone in South Carolina caught in arms against the
federal Government is liable to be hanged. With such laws and powers, an
united Congress and a resolute president, like General Jackson, would soon
reduce South Carolina to submission; and my belief is that the same might
be the case if there were a league against the Union of the cotton states
alone. For a time Congress would baffle such a league quite as effectually
as the Swiss Confederation put down the Sonderbund.
Pray give my kind regards to Mrs. Reeve. I expect to be in London at the
end of next week, and I shall be happy to communicate and receive ideas on
American politics. The critical point at present is the course which will
be pursued by Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Yours very truly,
EDWARD TWISLETON.
The Journal notes:--
_February 26th_.--Dined with the Apponyis, now Austrian ambassador; Duchess
of Wellington, Clarendon, Lewis, Lady Westmorland, and Mme. de Bury, who
was in great favour at Vienna.
_To Lord Brougham_
_62 Rutland Gate, March 1st_.--Never was a session opened with so little
interest. I believe it is quite true that the Tories are resolved to
_ménager_ Palmerston as much as possible, and to enter into no hostile
combinations against him with the Radicals. In fact, Palmerston is gaining
ground with the Conservatives, and losing it with some sections of the
Liberals. He has exasperated the Irish Catholics to the last degree; and
for my own part, I think his language and conduct about Mr. Turnbull's
resignation highly discreditable. It is another specimen of the unhappy
influence of Shaftesbury's ignorance and bigotry. However, the practical
result is that the Government have lost Cork by a large majority, and that
at the next election there will hardly be a ministerial candidate returned
in Ireland.
It is impossible not to see that the general tendency of the public mind in
this country is rather towards conservatism than reform. Even the reformers
are compelled to haul down their bill; and if the Tories had better men to
fill the offices, I think they would, in two or three years, have a fair
chance of regaining power and keeping it.
At the present moment, the bishops seem to be the most eager combatants; in
France they are denouncing the Emperor [Footnote: In January 1860 Reeve was
told in Paris that the Pope spoke of him as the beast of the Apocalypse.]
as Pontius Pilate; in England they are thirsting for the blood of a few
heterodox parsons. Nothing is talked of here but 'Essays and Reviews.' In
my humble opinion they by no means deserve the importance attached to them,
either in point of style or in point of substance.
Keep my secret, but I have in preparation a regular mine under Eton
College. There has been of late a good deal of discussion about it, with
very little knowledge. Fortunately, I have lighted upon the evidence taken
by you before your celebrated committee in 1818, all which is still quite
applicable. Eton is very little improved, and the depredations of the
Fellows go on with shameless audacity. I mention this to you because your
committee has been of so much use to us; but I wish to keep the thing very
quiet till the next number of the 'Review' makes its appearance.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, March 4th_.--It is very odd that for two or three days I had been
reading and discussing with one or two Eton men here the subject on which
you propose to do infinite service, but of course I shall not even drop
the most remote allusion to your plan. The conduct at Eton is perfectly
scandalous; our two boys never cost less than 200 £. a year while they were
there; and I believe the case is understated, and not overstated, in the
'Cornhill Magazine,' and other places. One of the men who spoke to me about
it said it was no fault of mine, but of Eldon, that it had not all been set
right forty years ago--alluding to the Education Commission to which you
refer. I recollect being reluctantly forced to insert the exemption in the
Act and in the commission of inquiry. He had opposed the whole bill, and
we defeated him in the Lords when he attempted to throw it out--a very
extraordinary event in those days. But Rosslyn, Holland, and others who had
charge of the bill, were apprehensive of being beaten on a further stage if
we held out on the exemptions. In 1819 (the year after) I endeavoured to
remove the exemptions in the Extensions Act to all charities, and this gave
rise to Peel's very shabby attack on the whole inquiry when I was very
unwell, and wholly unprepared, and to my defence in the speech which I have
often said I could not now make if I would, and would not if I could. I
venture to refer to it, however, as the most remarkable I ever made in all
respects.
When you have sprung your mine, I hope and trust the 'Quarterly' will
follow your example. If Elwin was still in command I feel confident he
would, for he has always joined against Eldon & Co. I highly approve your
keeping it quite secret on every account.
Here the Journal has:--
_April 9th_.--I was elected a member of 'The Club,' in place of Lord
Aberdeen--proposed by Lord Stanhope; the greatest social distinction I ever
received.
This was the literary club founded in 1764 by Reynolds and Johnson, which,
in the course of years, had dropped all extraneous title, and become simply
The Club. 'It still continues the most famous of the dining societies of
London, and in the 133 years of its existence has perhaps seen at its
tables more men of note than any other society.'[Footnote: _Edinburgh
Review_, April 1897, p. 291.] Gibbon, who became a member of it in 1774,
had suggested the form in which a new member was to be apprised of the
distinction conferred on him. This has continued in use to the present
day, and on April 9th, 1861, a copy of it was sent to Reeve, signed by the
president of the evening:--
Sir,--I have the pleasure to inform you that you have this evening had the
honour of being elected a member of The Club.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
GEORGE RICHMOND.
This was followed, a week later, by another letter from the same writer:--
10 York Street, Portman Square, April 16th.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--I have just returned to town and found your note of the
10th inst., and I lose not a minute in writing to say that the election
which I had so much pleasure in announcing to you, I announced as president
for the night, and in the form of words prescribed by Gibbon. The moment I
had written it I began a note to you in my own proper person, but I did not
know whether it would be quite regular to send it, and I had to leave town
on the following morning. The 'Sir,' and 'I am, Sir,' which anything but
express what I feel, I most gladly exchange now, if you will allow it, for
a very different greeting, and I beg to remain, my dear Mr. Reeve,
Very faithfully yours,
GEORGE RICHMOND.
The Bishop of London was elected on the same night with you, and it may
interest you to know that the members present were:--
Lord Lansdowne.
Lord Clarendon.
Sir H. Holland.
Sir David Dundas.
The Dean of St. Paul's.
Sir Charles Eastlake.
Lord Stanley.
Lord Cranworth.
Lord Stanhope.
Duke of Argyll.
_To Madame de Tocqueville_
62 Rutland Gate, April 17th.
My dear Madame de Tocqueville,--I have just published, in the 'Edinburgh
Review,' a short notice of that book and that life which are to you the
dearest things in the world, and to all of us, his friends, among the
dearest. A few separate copies have been struck off, and I send one to you
by this post, which will, I hope, reach you with this letter. It was a
matter of sincere regret to me that I found it impossible to execute
my intention of translating the two volumes, [Footnote: Oeuvres et
Correspondance inédites d'Alexis de Tocqueville, publiées et précédées
d'une notice par Gustave de Beaumont.] partly because I found that I was
too prominently noticed in them, and partly because our friends, the
Seniors, were much bent on the undertaking. I therefore relinquished it in
their favour. But I always intended to express in my own manner my deep
affection for the memory of your husband, and my estimate of his genius
as a man of letters and a statesman. This I have attempted to do in this
article, and though I am sensible that it falls far short of the subject of
it, yet you will discover in it traces and reminiscences of that which
was one of the greatest happinesses and honours of my life--our mutual
friendship.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, April 24th_.--I have read the Eton article with great
satisfaction, and I really think it must have the best effect. But Ker, to
whom I lent my copy of the number, is not quite satisfied; but he takes
extreme views. He also thinks you have not ascribed enough to the Education
Committee of 1818, or rather to the effect of our being thwarted by Eldon,
Peel, &c. But he was very deep in that controversy at the time, having
defended the committee in a pamphlet, and I believe also in the 'Edinburgh
Review,' and may be apt, therefore, to take an exaggerated view of the
subject.
I am still cruelly hurt at the Newton monument being for ever cushioned. If
Elwin had remained editor of the 'Quarterly' it would have been taken up,
and on right grounds. Indeed, a learned professor had actually prepared a
scientific and popular article on the subject; but Elwin retired, and the
'Quarterly Review' will now do nothing. Altogether I believe there never
will be a monument to the greatest man that England ever had, or will have.
I am anxious to read the rest of the number, but have only just got it, and
I sent it to Ker after I had read the Eton; and I am unwilling to delay
thanking you for that.
The Journal notes:--
Went down to Weymouth alone for a few days in May, Read Buckle's second
volume on the way.
_June 17th_.--Dinner at Lansdowne House to the Comte de Paris and the Due
de Chartres; Elgins, Holfords, Bishop of Oxford, Grotes, &c.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_G. G., June 28th_.--I did not expect that any answer to the Eton article
would be attempted, for it was unanswerable; the facts were real facts, and
the moderation with which they were stated made them all the more telling.
The commission is the proper corollary to it; and so many parents of
ill-educated boys appear to think.
_To Mr. G. Dempster_
_62 Rutland Gate, August 5th_.--In spite of Sir H. Holland's drugs, I see
my fate is sealed; and as I cannot even now put on a shoe, it is vain to
hope that I shall be able to walk for some time; and, indeed, to avoid
relapses, I must undergo a regular cure of Vichy water. Therefore, with
extreme regret, I make up my mind to turn my face south, instead of north,
as soon as I can move.... I fear that, having lost the present month, there
is little hope of our reaching Scotland at all this year.
Accordingly, the Journal has:--
Bad fit of gout in July and August. Went to Vichy on August 10th. The heat
was extreme, and the waters made me worse. Thence to Clermont, Pontgibaud,
Gergovia. Home on the 31st.
_September 1st_.--To Torry Hill [Lord Kingsdown's]--first time; shot there.
Farnborough; Atherstone; Torry Hill again on the 21st. Stetchworth-good
shooting.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_Harpton Court, September 22nd_.--I would have gladly escaped the Prussian
mission,[Footnote: For the coronation of the King.] which is not much to
my taste, but the Queen insisted, and the Viscount [Footnote: Lord
Palmerston.] and the Earl [Footnote: Lord John, created Earl Russell on
July 30th, 1861.] attached political importance to it, so I yielded, and
Lady C. and Constance and Emily are, also on royal recommendation, to
accompany me. The two latter are of an age to like a lark, which is more
than their respected parents do. I need not say that my hope of doing any
good by a flying visit in the midst of a carousal is exceedingly small; but
I know the King well, and shall have no difficulty in telling him what I
believe to be the truth concerning his interests.
I am sorry to hear that you have been worried by gout, and that Vichy did
you no good. I am inclined to speak well of Wiesbaden, for the glorious
weather I had there (94° in the shade always) made the waters effective,
and somehow I felt younger; but that pleasant sensation is now rather on
the decline.
_From M. Guizot_
Val Richer, 7 Octobre.
My dear Sir,--Votre tante, Madame Austin, qui est ici depuis quinze jours,
a fait hier, en se promenant dans une petite voiture traînée par un âne, et
qu'elle menait elle-même, une chute dans laquelle elle s'est fait, au coude
du bras droit, une luxation qui nous a fait craindre d'abord une fracture
grave. Mon médecin de Lisieux, que j'ai envoyé chercher sur le champ,
a réduit la luxation, c'est-à-dire ramené les os du coude dans leur
emboîtement naturel. Petite opération fort douloureuse, mais simple et sans
gravité au fond. Madame Austin en sera quitte pour deux ou trois semaines
de repos et d'immobilité absolue de son bras, qui est contenu dans des
éclisses. Au premier moment, elle a été fort ébranlée par cet accident.
Mon médecin une fois arrivé, elle s'est remise; elle a eu un peu de fièvre
cette nuit; mais elle a dormi, et elle est assez bien ce matin, presque
sans souffrance de son bras. J'espère qu'elle se remettra promptement; mais
je n'ai pas voulu que vous ignorassiez la cause de la prolongation de son
absence. Ma fille Henriette écrit à Sir Alexander Gordon. Avec la santé de
Madame Austin, tout accident peut être grave; mais je crois que vous pouvez
être sans inquiétude sur les conséquences de celui-ci. Mon médecin est
un homme habile qui soignera très bien votre tante, et mes filles lui
épargneront un mal très pénible, l'ennui de l'immobilité.
Je ne vous parle pas aujourd'hui d'autre chose. Si vous étiez là, nous
causerions. De loin, il n'y a rien qui vaille la peine d'être écrit. Tout à
vous, my dear Sir,
GUIZOT.
The gout was still threatening; so, according to the Journal:--
To Aix in October; back by Paris. Went to stay with Lord and Lady Cowley at
Chantilly; they had hired the _chasse_ and the _château_. Shooting there,
November 11th. Home on the 16th.
At this time Lord Brougham was preparing the autobiography which was
published shortly after his death. Early in November his brother, Mr.
Brougham, wrote to Reeve, begging him to bring his influence to bear, and
induce Lord Brougham to make this biography interesting and amusing. He
wrote:--
_From Mr. W. Brougham_
_Paris, November 14th_.--Mind you dwell on books of biography which have
failed for lack of personal matter and anecdotes, and use this argument,
which (for reasons I need not trouble you with) will, I know, have more
weight than anything you can urge--that, irrespective of any question
of his own fame or reputation, if he wishes the book to be eminently
successful in a commercial point of view, he must give as much as possible
every detail, no matter how minute, and tell everything connected with his
own history and doings. That circumstances he may consider trivial all have
the greatest interest with the general public, who are the buyers he must
look to; that people don't want to read history in such a book as his
autobiography; what they want is his life, and not a history of his
times--anecdotes or peculiarities of his Bar and Bench friends; how he
worked as a boy to make himself mathematician and orator; how he worked
for the English Bar; his early associates in Edinburgh, both at school and
college, and all connected with the beginnings of the 'Edinburgh Review;'
his early associates in London before he came into Parliament in 1809, and
for years afterwards; all he did at Birmingham in '90, '91, and '92, when
he lived there with his tutor; all he can recollect of his mother and
grandmother-paternal, but more especially maternal. In short, every
personal thing, no matter how trifling, will be the making, as the omission
will be the marring, of the book.
I am persuaded that a good strong letter from you will have immense effect;
and don't be afraid of making it too long; the more topics like those I
have hastily put down above you can give him to think over, now he is
quietly at Cannes, the more chance we have of his digging into his mind and
early recollections, and producing what we want.
Don't forget to quote Guizot; also tell him that Lord Malmesbury's heavy
book was saved solely by the gossip in the third and fourth volumes. The
first two are heavy historical matter that would have sunk a 74.
The letter which Reeve wrote in consequence of this has unfortunately
not been preserved, but it is evident from Lord Brougham's reply that it
closely followed the lines suggested by his brother.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, November 17th_.--I have not words to express how grateful I feel
for your most kind letter, which arrived this morning. I fear I must admit
all you say on the necessity of much personal matter. However, I really
feel certain that, with the political and general, there will be a number
of personal anecdotes interspersed. Thus in the Queen's trial, numberless
singular anecdotes, professional and other; and on the changes of
government and the unity of our administration, strange things of
individuals: e.g. Lord Grey having, six months before taking office in
1830, positively declared to Lansdowne that he had resolved never to take
office; and in 1822, to me, that unless I would consent to take office, and
be leader in the Commons, nothing should induce him to take part in any
administration--there being then an expectation of an offer to us; in
answer to which I positively refused leaving the progressives. I give these
as examples of what the correspondence contains. I quite feel, however,
that something personal and in early life will be desiderated. If you look
at my 'Life of Robertson' you will see all you refer to about his being at
Brougham, and about the translation of 'Florus,' and other anecdotes, and
a good deal about my grandmother. Indeed, in that Life, and in my
contributions to the 'Law Review,' there are numberless anecdotes of
interest.
I cannot conclude on this subject without expressing how grieved I am to
see what you say of my old and dear friend Richardson. He wrote in very
good spirits last spring, and I fear he has had some severe illness since.
Pray let me know how this is.
The mention of him reminds me of an instance that matters which derive
their whole interest from connexion with myself are thus very hateful to
set down. He had given me a sermon and a hymn, written by the Principal's
father--my great-grandfather. When I attended the Glasgow congress last
year, the hymn was by mere accident sung in the church where we were on the
morning after our arrival:
Let not your hearts with anxious thoughts
Be troubled and dismayed, &c.
I believe I was the only person in Glasgow who knew that the old minister
was the author, or who knew of his existence. [Footnote: Cf. _Life and
Times of Lord Brougham_, i. 30.] Now such things would make the narrative
a tissue of mere egotism. However, I feel the force of your remarks
exceedingly. Certainly when Guizot's book came out, and I was asked my
opinion of it, and some defects were pointed out, I could not avoid saying
there was a worse defect than all they mentioned; there would be a defect
of readers. And so it has proved; I have, with all my respect for him, and
desire to read, been unable to get through a volume.
I must set about digging in my published works for anecdotes; and, as in
the case of Robertson's Life, I may find a great number which, apart from
personality, may be interesting in their connexion with events. Again
repeating my gratitude, believe me, most sincerely yours,
H. BROUGHAM.
_To Madame de Tocqueville_
Paris, November 15th.
My dear Madame De Tocqueville,--Although on the point of leaving Paris,
I must write two lines to express to you my gratitude for allowing M. de
Beaumont to return to me some of my own letters, which derive some value in
my eyes from their connexion with my ever-lamented and illustrious friend.
I have had a melancholy satisfaction here in seeing the bust which M.
Salaman has made. It surpasses my expectations, especially as regards
the mouth and forehead, and I trust that even you will not be entirely
disappointed in it.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, November 19th_.--I have only a minute for writing, as we have
had Princess Alice here all day, and I, of course, could do nothing but the
very easy task of entertaining her.
I was very glad to get your letter, as I thought you were still abroad, and
I only hope you are as glad to find yourself at home again as I am, though
I am not sorry to have been to Berlin. I rather envy you being at Paris
during the late crisis, and getting the first impressions upon it.... I
have no doubt the deficit is about what Senex [Footnote: Reeve was at this
time writing occasional letters in the _Times_ under the signature of
'Senex.' Lord Clarendon seems to have known this. Other correspondents did
not; notably Lord Kingsdown, some of whose letters innocently comment on
the opinions expressed by Senex.] puts it at. I read your admirable letter
with great pleasure, and thought it must be yours, though I did not
understand whence it was written.
I should very much like to have a talk with you. If you are not engaged,
why shouldn't you and Mrs. and Miss Reeve come here on Saturday? We have
asked Granville and C. C. G.; and I believe Lewis is coming. Miladi would
write to propose this to Mrs. Reeve, but thinks she will consider two
letters unnecessary.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, December 8th_. There is a new complication of the American case,
and I fear, though I don't join in what I find the universal feeling in
England, that the Government of Washington will hold out. But even if they
give in, this hesitation, and their manifest fear of the mob, is the most
complete confirmation of all I have been so long and so often preaching,
of the extreme mischief of mob-government. They are in the hands of the
mob--and one of the worst mobs in the world. You see they even are under
this dominion as to their military operations; for their disaster at Bull's
Run was owing to the clamour forcing their comrades to advance and do
something; and now no one can have the least doubt that, if Lincoln and
Seward were left to themselves, a war with England would be the thing they
most dreaded; yet it is very possible they may feel unable to resist the
mob-clamour, and may bring on that calamity. The mob of Paris threw France
into all the horrors of the reign of terror (1793-4), which have left such
indelible disgrace on the French, and which stopped all improvement both in
France and in Europe for a quarter of a century, and which even now create
such a force in favour of despotism--as they did in the first Napoleon's
time. But I don't think the evils of mob-government--that is, of the
supreme power being in persons not individually responsible--can be more
clearly manifested, though they may not lead to such atrocious crimes, than
in the States of America--and the southern as well as the northern--for
the mob governs in both. My opinion will be the same, even if, contrary to
probability, the Washington men are stout enough to resist the mob; for
this hesitation and this struggle against the insanity of war could only be
occasioned by the mob tyranny.
Prince Albert died on December 14th. It was impossible to allow an event so
important in the political as well as in the social history of the reign to
pass without a notice in the 'Edinburgh Review,' and that on the earliest
occasion; though, in the middle of December, some special arrangement had
to be made for it. It was, in fact, brought into the concluding pages of
the article on 'May's Constitutional History of England.' But the subject
was one which called for exceeding care and delicacy in the handling. The
services of Prince Albert to the Crown had been many and great; but by the
country at large they were still looked on with jealousy and suspicion. A
profound sympathy was everywhere felt for the death of the Queen's husband;
the death of a man regarded by an ignorant prejudice as the embodiment of
German influence in the Cabinet might easily be considered as no great
loss. Reeve seems to have consulted Lord Clarendon as to how much or how
little it was prudent to say; in answer to which Lord Clarendon wrote:--
_The Grove, December 31st_.--I feel, as you do, that the events of the last
month are too vast in themselves and in their consequences for discussion
by letter, though I should much like to have a day's talk over them with
you.
I am very glad that you mean to undertake the task--a labour of love--of
doing honour to the Prince, as I am sure it will be admirably performed;
but I would suggest to you not to be too precise as to the manner in which
he exercised his political influence.... There is a vague belief that his
influence was great and useful; but there is a very dim perception of the
_modus operandi_.... Peel certainly took the Prince into council much more
than Melbourne, who had his own established position with the Queen before
the Prince came to this country; but I cannot tell you whether it was Peel
who first gave him a cabinet key. My impression is that Lord Duncannon,
during the short time he was Home Secretary, sent the Prince a key when the
Queen was confined, and the contents of the boxes had to be read or signed
by her.
The concluding sentence in the next letter from Lord Clarendon refers to
the feeling which had been roused in Canada by the threat of war between
England and the United States. The Canadians showed an exemplary loyalty;
and great numbers of Irish--many of whom (like O'Reilly) had been known at
home as turbulent characters--now not only pressed forward to be enrolled
in the militia, but formed themselves into special regiments.
_The Grove, January 21st_.--I cannot help telling you how excellent I think
your article on the Prince. You have said the right thing in the right way,
and have so hit the happy medium between justice to him and no flattery
or exaggeration, that I am sure the article will be read with pleasure by
everybody, because it exactly reflects the public feeling.
The Belligerent and Neutral article is also very good, and I expect
that the temperate and sensible way in which the author recommends the
abandonment of rights we can never again exercise will have some useful
results.
The loyalty of Canada is far greater than I expected; but that the French
and Irish there should come out so strong for the Crown against Democracy
is indeed a surprise. That Captain Eugene O'Reilly was a tremendous patriot
in '48; and if I had not put him in prison for a little time to cool, he
would have made a greater donkey of himself than he did.
The next letter from Lord Clarendon relates to a point on which widely
different opinions have been and will be held, till it is decided in the
only practical way. It would be foreign to our present purpose to argue
it here; but it is interesting to see the opinion of the man who,
more distinctly than any other, was responsible for the great change
theoretically introduced into our maritime code by the Declaration of
Paris.
_The Grove, January 28th_.--With respect to alterations in our maritime law
and usages, I don't know what Russell's opinion may be, but I know that
Palmerston does, or did, think the time come for relinquishing rights that
we can no longer exercise. He readily assented to the doctrines laid down
at Paris in '56, and was so entirely of my opinion about going further that
he tried it on at Liverpool some time afterwards; but that part of his
speech was so ill received, and he received so many remonstrances against
giving up the _palladium_, &c. &c., that he told me when he returned to
London that the pear was not ripe, and that we must give public opinion a
little more time to become reasonable.
On January 9th Charles Sumner had spoken at great length in the United
States Senate, proving, very much to his own satisfaction and that of his
fellow-citizens, that the surrender of Mason and Slidell was a great moral
victory, confirming the principles of maritime law for which they had
always contended, and which the English now admitted. A short telegraphic
summary of this had caught the mail at Halifax, and been published in the
'Times' of the 20th; but it was not till the 27th that the United States
papers, with the full report, reached England. Of this the 'Times'--on its
own part--took no further notice; but on February 1st it published a long
and most scathing criticism of it by 'Historicus' (Mr., now Sir, William
Harcourt).
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, January 30th_.--When you can spare it, I shall be very glad to
see Sumner's speech....
Russell was, of course, guided in his despatches by the law officers, and
it is no wonder, therefore, that they should resemble the papers that had
previously appeared--many of which were written by lawyers--or that they
should be a reproduction of them; as a government could not, without risk
of failure in its peaceful object, express itself with the vigour of Senex
or the 'Edinburgh Review.' The most important despatch of all, however, and
the one upon which everything hung--viz. the demand for reparation--was
well conceived and executed, and did its work effectually.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, February 16th_.--I yesterday met Miss Courtenay, who gave me the
very pleasing information that Mrs. Austin had excellent accounts of Lady
Duff Gordon, and was quite easy about her. I trust you will confirm this
account, and also add to it a general good account of Mrs. Austin herself.
I hope there is a good article on the Amendment Cases in the 'E. R.' They
have stupidly omitted to send it from Grafton Street. The 'Quarterly' came,
and a better article than our friend your neighbour's never was written. I
admired it so much that I wrote to him about it. Pray tell him my opinion
of it, in case my letter should have miscarried, and that I admired it far
more than I did the very spiteful article of someone inspired by a personal
enmity against myself, and who has not the common sense and fairness, when
relying on the wholly immaterial circumstance of my mis-stating the day of
the Westminster election (the night of Princess Charlotte's running away),
to see that Dundonald [Footnote: _Autobiography of a Seaman_, ii. 892. It
has, however, been recently shown (Atlay's _Trial of Lord Cochrane_, pp.
330 _et seq._) that Lord Dundonald had very little to do with it.] makes
the Duke of Sussex fall into the very same mistake.
_Cannes_ [_February_].--I am much obliged to you for your kind letter, and
rejoice to hear of the good intelligence [Footnote: As to the health of
Lady Duff Gordon.] from the Cape which will be such a relief to my valued
friend, her mother.
The American news is a good deal more favourable, but still they are
not out of the wood, or anything like it; and, even if they beat the
Southerners in the field, the re-union is as far off as ever. Their only
safe course is to regard the whole campaign as a kind of drawn battle, and
both sides to negotiate as to terms of separation.
I have no doubt that a certain most intriguing ambassadress is at the
bottom of the spiteful attack in the 'Quarterly,' and she will find her own
letters rise up in judgement against her. She never will forgive my having
been at the dancing school with her, because that makes her near eighty,
and she pretends only to be seventy-four.
I am in constant expectation of a paper from a great mathematician, to
which will be added, by B. Ker, artistic matter on monuments. It will be
all sent to you, in the hope that it may assist whoever you have put on the
monument question.
_Cannes, March 17th._--I am extremely sorry to find that, after all, I
cannot finish you the Cambridge article on Newton, to be used at your
discretion, or that of your contributor; for Mr. Routh has no less than
five wranglers, including the senior, as his pupils, and this has entirely
occupied him, to the exclusion of all other work. I trust it will not
prevent the article. In truth, my discourse at Grantham contains all the
learning on the subject, and it may be used without any acknowledgement
whatever, and I shall never complain of the plagiarism.
The Journal records:--
_April 4th._--Breakfast to the Philobiblon at home. There came the Due
d'Aumale, Van de Weyer, Milman, Lord Taunton.
_To Mr. Dempster_
_Exeter, April 25th_.--If that providence which shapes our ends will but
finish those I rough-hew, I trust that the second week in October, or
perhaps a few days earlier, will see us at Skibo. We hope to start straight
for the far North as soon as ever my autumnal egg is laid....
We have hit on an Easter ramble, original and agreeable. I sent down my
horses to my father's-in-law, in Dorset, and for the last week Christine
and I have been riding gently along the coast of South Devon. Yesterday we
went to see Sir John Coleridge's place at Ottery St. Mary, and he drove
us also round the neighbourhood. To-day we have been at Lady Rolle's, at
Bicton, on our way from Sidmouth, to see her gardens and arboretum, which
are really marvels of beauty and growth. To-morrow we shall saunter on to
Dawlish, and so at last reach Plymouth, I believe. I want to get out of the
way of the Exhibition opening, which bores me. At Torquay we expect to find
the Fergusons of Raith and the Scotts of Ancrum.
I hear that other literary entrepreneurs have been as much struck as I am
by the power and judgement there is in all that is written by a certain
young author of our acquaintance.[Footnote: See ante, vol. i. p. 374.]
To write as well as that is a gift; but it is more for it cannot be done
without infinite practice, labour, and good sense.
At Devonport they saw Mount Edgcumbe and the ironclad frigate 'Warrior'
then still a novelty, and unquestionably the most powerful ship of war
afloat. The Journal adds: 'Back to town on May 3rd.'
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, April 22nd_.--I have just got the new number, and hasten to say
how much I am pleased with the only article I have had time to read with
care, the Alison.[Footnote: 'Alison's Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir C.
Stewart,' April 1862.]Nothing can be more able or more triumphant, and
it is quite fair and candid towards Castlereagh, and much more than fair
towards Ch. Stewart, Indeed, if the letter to me deserves half what is said
in its praise,[Footnote: _Sc_.' one of the most caustic and successful
pamphlets that have appeared in defence of an unpopular cause.'] he never
could have written it himself; and his gross stupidity in construing what
I have said of his brother, and affixing a meaning which none but himself
ever did, or could, was at the time admitted by his friends, whom he had
consulted, and in spite of whom he had published--among others, Strangford,
from whom I heard what had passed. I have a copy of my own, which I should
like the author of the article to see, and shall send it through you when I
return, for it is out of print. One of the blockhead's follies was the not
perceiving how great a panegyric I had bestowed on his brother's speaking
in the H. of Commons, after fully stating its defects. In fact, he had much
greater weight as leader than Canning, who, by the way, is too much praised
in the article. Such a book as Alison's is almost incredible for its
badness of all kinds; but the author (on p. 521, line six from foot) gives
him a pull or two as to style by 'ineligible for election'--though that is
a trifle. The care with which the whole subject is treated, and the gross
errors--partly from ignorance, partly from adulation--exposed is quite
admirable.
I have naturally been attracted to the Monument article, but have not had
time fully to profit by it; only I am greatly indebted to the learned
author for what he says of my Grantham address.[Footnote: 'Public
Monuments,' April 1862, p. 550.] However, I should have been far better
pleased had he left me out altogether, and dwelt at more length on the
disgrace of the country never having erected a monument to the greatest man
she ever produced--indeed, the greatest [that has] ever been. He seems
not to be aware of the one in Westminster Abbey having been raised by his
niece's family, and not by the public.
_Cannes, April 27th_.--I have a complaint to make of the 'E. R.' last
number. In the learned and able article on 'Jesse's Richard III.,' at p.
307, Lingard is referred to as having quoted the commission of the High
Constable. I have scanned every line and every word of Lingard and find no
such commission. But in a note to the third volume of Hume, note R, the
commission is given verbatim from Rymer. Jock Campbell used to hold that a
false reference was an offence that ought to be made penal. I don't go
so far, but the evil is very great. I have lost three or four hours in
consequence. Therefore, pray have inquiry made of your contributor whether
or not I am right; and if not, where in Lingard the quotation is.
Reeve referred the 'complaint' to Hayward, the writer of the article, who
replied:--
I believe B. is right, for when I corrected the proof I looked in vain in
Lingard, although I was firmly convinced that he had quoted the document.
But pray remind his lordship that, when Campbell spoke of a false
reference, he meant one with volume and page.
Lord Brougham's answer to this defence is not given, but it is impossible
to allow it to pass without protest; for, whatever Campbell may have meant,
it is very certain that a false reference, with volume and page cited,
by which the falsehood is at once made manifest, is a venial offence in
comparison with a false reference given vaguely, which may keep the victim
hunting for it for hours, as this one actually did keep Lord Brougham.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, May 7th_.--I wish to suggest to you the positive duty of taking
care that justice is done upon the trumpery, and one-sided, and altogether
insignificant Life of Pitt by Stanhope. Murray having published it, of
course the 'Quarterly' has puffed it, and done so with an entire ignorance
of the subject which is hardly conceivable. Therefore take great care
before you commit the subject to any unsafe hands.
_To Lord Brougham_
_62 Rutland Gate, May 11th_.--As I have lived for many years on terms
of personal friendship, and indeed intimacy, with Lord Stanhope, and am
indebted to him for many acts of kindness, it would be quite impossible for
me to attack his book, even if I thought as ill of it as you do. I shall,
therefore, content myself with recording the very different view which I
entertain of the success of Mr. Pitt's administration. I think it may be
shown that both in peace and in war he was one of the most unsuccessful
ministers who ever exercised great power.
On these lines Reeve himself wrote the article, which was published in the
'Review' of July, and brought him the following:--
_From Lord Stanhope_
Grosvenor Place, July 17th.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--Allow me to say how very much I have been gratified
in reading the article on my 'Life of Pitt' in the new number of the
'Edinburgh.' Had the criticism been hostile I assure you that I should not
have felt that I had the smallest reason to complain; nor should I have
inquired or even wished to know the writer's name. But as the matter
stands, I would ask to convey to him through you my acknowledgement for his
very indulgent appreciation of myself, as well as for the perfect fairness
and honourable candour with which the public questions at issue between us
are discussed. It would be a pleasure to me if either now or at some time
hereafter he would permit me to become acquainted with the name of a critic
who is evidently so accomplished as to render the praise of no slight or
mean account. Believe me,
Very faithfully yours,
STANHOPE.
It does not appear that Lord Stanhope ever knew who the writer was.
Meantime the Journal notes:--
This was the year of the second Great Exhibition.
_May 15th_.--The Binets came to see us. On the 21st the Duc d'Aumale's
_fête_ to the Fine Arts Club; took Binet there. Went to the Derby with
Binet and Stewart Hodgson. Xavier Raymond came.
_July 22nd_.--Dined at the Clarendon with the Comtes de Paris and Chartres,
on their return from the American war. Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar and the
Due d'Aumale were there.
_July 31st_.--Left London for Germany. By Ostend and Cologne to Wiesbaden,
where the Boothbys and Hathertons were. Then to Nuremberg, Munich,
Salzburg, and through the Tyrol to Venice. Stayed there till the 24th.
_August 25th_.--Went to Arquà to see Petrarch's house and tomb. Milan;
Italian lakes. Back over the St. Gothard, Lucerne, Paris. Home, September
9th.
_To Lord Brougham_
_C. O., September 11th_.--Your very kind letter of last month would
certainly not have remained so long unanswered if I had been in England.
But we have been travelling for the last five weeks in the Tyrol and the
north of Italy; my letters were not forwarded, and I only received that
which you had been good enough to address to me on my return to London
yesterday. There is probably no living opinion upon the character and
administration of Mr. Pitt so enlightened and valuable as your own, and I
am gratified in the highest degree to find that my attempt to place the
leading acts of his administration in a somewhat new light meets with your
approval. The chief defect in Lord Stanhope's book is, in my opinion, that
it does not present any connected view of Mr. Pitt as a statesman at all;
and this the reader of the article may infer from every page of it. I began
to write with a disposition to place Mr. Pitt rather higher than he had
been placed before in the 'Review;' but upon a careful survey of his
conduct on each of these questions, I found the ground crumble away under
me.
As to the state of the army from 1783 to 1803, it was deplorable. Did you
ever see Sir Frederick Adam's notes on what the army was when, at the age
of 14, he entered it.[Footnote: In 1795. These notes do not seem to have
been published.] When the Duke of Wellington first went to the Peninsula,
he gives a wretched account of the forces--ignorant officers and rascally
men. One of the grandest services the Duke rendered to his country was
that he raised the character of the army and made it a most admirable
instrument. But that was long after the days of Pitt.
The present Duke of Wellington tells me he is very well pleased with the
article on his father's supplementary despatches in the last number of
the 'Review,' and I think it is fairly done. They are a mass of most
interesting and instructive materials, but very few persons will master
them, whilst the trash that Thiers calls history circulates broadcast in
Europe. I heard in Paris on Sunday that 65,000 copies of his 20th volume
are already sold.
_To Mr. Dempster_
_C. O., September 12th_.--We returned to England on Tuesday, after a
pleasant tour, but the weather drove us from the mountains to the plains,
and instead of preparing ourselves to graduate in the Alpine Club, we
loitered in the galleries of Munich, Venice, and Milan, or amongst the
remains of Padua and Verona. On the Lago Maggiore we met the Speaker
[Footnote: Mr. Denison, afterwards Lord Ossington.] and Lady Charlotte, and
with them crossed the St. Gothard to Lucerne.... We still hope, if it suits
you, to come down to you when I have got quit of the 'Review.' I shall be
engaged in London till October 7th, and then we are going for a few days to
Raith... but I hope about the 12th or 13th we may reach the far North.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Brougham, September 14th_.--I can well believe that Wellington is
satisfied with the review [Footnote: "Wellington's Supplementary
Despatches," July 1862.] of his father's correspondence. It is very ably
and very fairly done. But I wish it had reprimanded the Duke for making
the publication nearly useless by giving no table of contents. When I
complained of this, he said it had been considered, and that an index would
have been hardly possible. My answer was that I did not want an index, but
only a dozen of pages giving the dates and the titles of the letters in
succession. As it is, one can find no letter without turning over the whole
of a volume.
Well, what shall we now say of the Disunited States? My last letter from
J. Parkes,[Footnote: Probably Joseph Parkes, the well-known agent of the
Liberal party. He died August 11th, 1865, but none of the obituary notices
mention his wife.] who is married to a Yankee, and in correspondence with
many men of note in the North, represents the feeling to be growing for
mediation, but mediation on the ground of a re-uniting of the South,
which means no mediation at all. But he says that the real feeling of the
Americans, both N. and S., is of great respect for England, and pride in
their descent from and connexion with us. The tone of the press, however,
shows that this feeling dares not be shown, and that the popular
clamour--that is, the mob-cry--is t'other way.
The Journal has:--
_September 12th_.--To Torry Hill; shooting for ten days.
_22nd_.--Rode over to Leeds Castle with Lord Kingsdown. Farnborough,
Stetchworth, Chorleywood (W. Longman's).
_October 8th_.--To Raith, with Christine and Hopie. Mrs. Norton there.
Then by Elgin and Burgh Head to Skibo. Shooting there. To Novar; back to
Edinburgh and Kirklands, October 26th. Then to Abington on the 29th, and
to Brougham--amusing visit. I was asked to read Lord B.'s Memoirs, and
dissuade him from publishing them. To Ambleside to see Harriet Martineau.
Thence to Badger Hall [Cheney's], November 8th. Went over Old Park iron
works. Home on November 11th.
_December 17th_.--We went to Chevening, and met there the Grotes, Milman,
Lord Stanley, Scharf, and Hayward. Lewis came on the 19th. Most agreeable
party.
_22nd_.--Shooting at Stetchworth.
_31st_.--To the Duke of Newcastle's at Clumber. Sir F. Rogers [afterwards
Lord Blachford] there.
_1863_.--The year opened at Clumber. The Webbes of Newstead, the
Manners-Suttons, Venables, and Herbert came there. Shooting good; caught
three pike; rode with the Duke to Thoresby and Welbeck, through Sherwood
Forest.
_January 6th_.--To the Speaker's at Ossington.
_12th_.--I was made treasurer of the Literary Club [Footnote: This must not
be confused with The Club (see _post_, 133), which had long since dropped
the 'Literary.'] (Walpole's) on Adolphus' death.
_February 25th_.--Prince of Wales' first levee.
_March 7th_.--The Princess of Wales entered London on her marriage. I saw
it from the Board of Trade rooms on London Bridge. Took the Dempsters
there.
_27th_.--The Duke of Newcastle, Baron Gros (French ambassador), Lord
Stanley, Mr. Adam, Lady Molesworth, Lord Kingsdown, and the Heads dined
with us.
It appears by the next letter, from Lord Clarendon, that Reeve had asked
him to review the first two volumes of Kinglake's 'Invasion of the Crimea,'
then on the point of publication.
_The Grove, January 11th_. Some time ago I desired my booksellers to send
me the first copy they could procure of Kinglake's book, and I shall read
it most carefully.... There are many reasons why I should not like to
review the work; but I am equally obliged to you for the offer, and I
shall, of course, communicate to you unreservedly my opinions upon it.
With this promise of help at first hand, Reeve undertook the review
himself; but the letters which follow show that, though the hand was the
hand of Reeve, the voice was the voice of Clarendon--a collaboration that
gives the article a very singular interest.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, January 23rd_.--Although I'm sure it is unnecessary, yet it
occurs to me to ask you not to quote my opinion of Kinglake's book; as, for
the present, and for a variety of reasons, I should prefer its not reaching
him in an indirect manner. I long for a quiet talk with you, and am sorry
that it must be postponed for a few days; but in the meanwhile I
may perhaps be able to refresh my memory by referring to my private
correspondence, which is in London. Let me have a line to say what
impression the book makes in the world, as far as you have yet been able
to observe. I shall look with curiosity and some anxiety for the effect it
produces at Paris.
_January 25th_.--Hayward has written to ask my opinion of the book. He is
at Broadlands, and says that Palmerston is, on the whole, well pleased with
the portrait of himself, and that Lady P. is enchanted.
I think as you do of the second volume; there is nothing finer, that I know
of, in the English language than those successive battle pictures. He beats
Napier out of the field. The 'Times' does not seem to like the portrait of
itself. I thought the article yesterday ingenious. I shall hear shortly
what effect the book produces at Paris. Persigny will, of course, prohibit
its entrance, but he will not be able to shut out all the papers that
contain extracts.
_The Grove, February 8th_.--I fear that my notes would not be legible or
intelligible to anyone but myself, and I should much like to have a little
talk with you on the book. Could you come here on Saturday next and stay
till Monday? or if you should chance to be engaged on Saturday, would you
come down by the ten o'clock train on Sunday morning? I do not propose
Saturday morning, as I must myself be in London at the Schools Commission
on that day.
_G. C., February 25th_.--I shall be very glad to see the article in print.
I am sure it will make a great sensation. Kinglake would induce people to
believe that the Emperor was under an urgent necessity to turn away the
attention of his subjects from his action at home, and that he therefore
dragged us into the war fourteen or fifteen months after the _coup d'état_.
It would, I think, be worth while to get some facts respecting his status
in France at that time. If I am not mistaken, he was in no trouble or
danger at all; for the nation had accepted him as a sort of deliverer from
the _rouges_, the fear of whom had been terrifying people out of their
senses.
_G. C., March 4th_.--The article quite comes up to my expectations, and I
like it very much. I cannot think it obnoxious to the charge of dulness;
but on that point I may not be an impartial judge, as the diplomatic
details are to me intensely interesting.
I have hardly any observations to make that would be worth your attending
to, but I will mention one or two things that have occurred to me.
And this he did at considerable length, suggesting several confirmations,
modifications, or additions.
So long as this article was to be considered as an ordinary contribution
to the 'Edinburgh Review,' it bore merely the authority of the 'Review,'
which, however great, was in no sense official; but now that the share
of Lord Clarendon in its authorship is revealed, it assumes an extreme
importance, as an original, though necessarily partial, account of what
took place, and may be held as definitely settling the fate of some of the
extraordinary misstatements which--foisted on the credulity of the public
by the literary skill, the brilliant language, and the unblushing audacity
of Mr. Kinglake--have been accepted as history, and have passed into
current belief. Perhaps nothing concerning the Russian war is more commonly
repeated than the statement that we were tricked into it by the Emperor of
the French for his own selfish ends, and in his desire to be received into
the brotherhood of sovereigns; that our ministers were blindly following
the lead of Louis Napoleon, and were guilty of a very gross blunder. It is
unnecessary and would be out of place to enter here on the examination and
demolition of all this, as given in the pages of the 'Edinburgh Review;'
and equally would it be out of place to discuss the question--as unknown to
Kinglake or to Reeve in 1863 as it was to Palmerston or Clarendon ten years
earlier--whether we were not then, whether we have not been ever since,
'putting our money on the wrong horse.' If we were, if we have been--a
thing which many among us are still unwilling to believe--it is at least
certain that in 1853, as in 1840, it was all but universally held in this
country that it would be prejudicial and dangerous to our most important
interests for either Russia or France to obtain sovereign control over the
Ottoman dominions, and that all the resources of diplomacy or of war ought
to be exerted to prevent it. In the joint article before us, the condition
of affairs in 1853 is thus stated in a few words:--'Russia had formed the
design to extort from Turkey, in one form or another, a right of protection
over the Christians. She never abandoned that design. She thought she could
enforce it. The Western Powers interposed and the strife began.... England
has no call to throw off the responsibility of the measures taken on any
other Power. Those measures were taken because they were demanded by her
own conception of the duty she had to perform; and by far the largest share
of that responsibility rests with this country. We see no reason to deny
it; and if the case occurred again, we should see no reason to act with
less determination.' And again as to the prosecution of the war after
the raising of the siege of Silistria--which, according to Kinglake, was
unnecessary; or the invasion of the Crimea--which was unjustifiable, to be
accounted for, not by any large views of politics or of war, but by paltry
personal passions and influences of the most contemptible kind:--England
and France declared by their despatches of July 22nd, that the sacrifices
already imposed on them were too great, and the cause they had taken in
hand too important, for them to desist, unless they obtained from Russia
adequate securities against the renewal of hostilities. They therefore
demanded:--l. That the protectorate claimed by Russia over the
Principalities by virtue of former treaties now abrogated, should cease. 2.
That the navigation of the mouths of the Danube should be free. 3. That the
treaty of July 13th, 1841, should be revised in the sense of a restriction
of the naval power of Russia in the Black Sea. 4. That no Power should
claim an official protectorate over the Christian subjects of the Porte. On
August 8th, Austria entirely adopted these principles, and on the 10th she
urged Russia to accede to these demands. On the 26th Russia positively
rejected these terms. Had they been accepted, it is needless to add that
the Crimean expedition would not have taken place. Here, then, is the clear
and precise ground on which the war assumed an offensive character against
Russia--viz. to compel her to submit to terms of peace, which England and
France held to be necessary to the future safety of Turkey, and which
Austria had fully adopted. This is the political explanation of the war,
and it was fully justified, as each preceding step of the allies had been
justified, by a fresh refusal on the part of Russia to agree to the terms
proposed by the allies. It is unnecessary to carry this examination
further. It has been introduced here merely as an illustration and a proof
of the historical importance of the article now that Lord Clarendon's
share in it is understood, and we are made acquainted with the peculiar
opportunities which Reeve possessed--not only as Clarendon's friend, but as
in actual, confidential conversation with Lord Stratford when he ordered up
the fleets. [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 312.]
The fine old motto of the 'Edinburgh Review,' _Judex damnatur cum nocens
absolvitur_, is, when reduced to practice, apt to strain the relations
between the 'judex' and the 'nocens;' and in this case the very outspoken
review, published under Reeve's sanction, caused a coolness between the two
men, the editor and the author, who had previously been on friendly terms.
It is, in fact, easily conceivable that, in earlier years or in other
lands, powder would have burnt or small swords flashed. Being when and
where they were, they dropped out of each other's circle. And this
continued for upwards of three years, when a chance meeting opened the door
to reconciliation.
_From Mr. Kinglake_
9 St. George's Terrace, Marble Arch,
November 14th, 1866.
Dear Reeve,--I think I perceived yesterday that my malice--malice founded,
I believe, on a couple of words, and now of some three years' standing--had
not engendered any corresponding anger in you; and if my impression was a
right one, I trust we may meet for the future upon our old terms. Shall it
be so?
Faithfully yours,
A. W. KINGLAKE.
CHAPTER XV
LAW AND LITERATURE
By what must seem a curious coincidence, in 1863 and the two years
immediately following, death carried off all who had been mainly
instrumental in forming Reeve's career. Greville, who introduced him to the
'Times,' died in 1865; his mother died in 1864; in 1863, his early patron
and assured friend, the Marquis of Lansdowne, died on January 31st, at the
ripe age of 82; his uncle, John Taylor, the head of the Taylor family, a
man of singular ability as a mining engineer, died on April 5th; and Sir
George Lewis, whose retirement from the editorship of the 'Edinburgh
Review' had paved the way for Reeve's succession, died on April 13th.
Much of Reeve's correspondence with Lord Clarendon--Lewis's
brother-in-law--refers to the wish of the widow, the Lady Theresa Lewis,
that a collected edition of her husband's contributions to the 'Review'
should be published. The wish was only partially carried into effect; seven
of the articles were collected in a volume published in 1864 under the
title of 'Essays on the Administrations of Great Britain from 1783 to
1830;' and Lewis's brother, Sir Gilbert Lewis, who succeeded to the
baronetcy, published his letters in 1870. The following letter from
Lord Clarendon refers to the death (on January 31st) of Lewis's
stepdaughter--Lady Theresa's daughter by a former marriage--and wife of
Mr., now Sir, William Harcourt:--
_G. C., February 3rd_.--I came up early yesterday morning, and only
received this evening your most kind letter directed to The Grove, or I
should have thanked you for it sooner.
A great misfortune has befallen us, and we are all very sad, but derive
some comfort from the calmness and resignation with which my sister is
bearing up against her grief. To William Harcourt it is, indeed, as you
say, a wreck of all happiness and hope; but no man under such trying
circumstances could have displayed more fortitude, or more tender concern
for others. I meet him to-morrow at Nuneham for the last sad office.
I grieve for Lord Lansdowne, and yet it is impossible not to feel that,
at his age, and with rapidly increasing infirmities, a prolongation
of existence was not to be desired. He was a rare combination of high
qualities, and we shall not look upon his like again.
The next letter, also from Lord Clarendon, refers to the 'Albert
Memorial':--
_The Grove, March 29th_.--I knew you would approve of the Cross. I myself
should prefer it to any other form of memorial, if it was in the centre of
converging roads, or of a great place surrounded by buildings more or less
harmonising with it; but placed in Hyde Park, with no local assistance
beyond its imaginary connexion with the Exhibitions of '51 and '62, I have
my fears that it will be thought unmeaning.
I forget at this moment the exact height of the design, but I do not think
it is to be 300 feet; and Mr. Scott is to consider whether the proportions
may not generally be reduced. He may wish to build the largest cross in the
world, but neither the Queen nor her committee have any such desire....
I don't think that a grant by the representatives of the people, as a
supplement to their voluntary contributions, and aided by the subscription
of the Queen, would destroy the feeling of the monument. There might
perhaps be less sentiment, but the whole would be more national.
From the Journal:--
_May 4th_.--Lord Hatherton died at Teddesley. His illness had been long.
When we parted at Wiesbaden in August last, I knew we should not meet
again. Never was there a kinder and more active friend. The confidence he
showed me was unbounded; insomuch that in November he placed in my hands
the original correspondence of the ministers with himself in June and July,
1834, on the Irish Coercion Bill, which led to the breaking up of Earl
Grey's Cabinet. These I have power to publish; but, if not published, I
mean eventually to return them to the Littleton family.
This I did in July 1864. The volume was published in 1872.
_To Mr. Dempster_
_C. O., July 10th_.--I am rather like a boy to whom some benevolent genius
offers a basket of peaches, and who feels rather shy of taking the biggest
of them; but, on the other hand, it would be a shabby return for great
kindness to keep you in suspense. I, therefore, answer that, _sauf cause
majeure_, we hope to be with you on the evening of Tuesday, August 11th. We
shall probably go down to Aberdeen by sea, starting on Saturday, the 8th,
if decent berths can be obtained, and I have sent to take them. If this
fails we should start on Sunday evening by rail. I cannot express to you
how delightful to me is the thought of the kind welcome of Skibo, and the
fresh air of your hills, after a very long and laborious season. But I have
still a month in the mill, and a huge list of causes to be disposed of.
The 'Edinburgh' will be out on Thursday. You will find it very Scotch.
The Journal notes:--
We went to Chichester, on a visit to Dr. McCarogher; and from there to
Goodwood races.
_August 8th_.--To Scotland by sea. Beached Skibo on the 11th. Shooting on
the 12th with Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Seaforth, and Dempster.
_25th_.--To Brahan. Little old General Kmety there; very good fun; but he
does not look a hero.
_To Mr. Dempster_
_Brahan Castle, August 26th_.--We performed our pleasant but slow journey
very well, and arrived at five P.M. The weather yesterday was the worst I
have seen this year in Scotland. I declined to face the woods, but we got
a walk by the Conan in a gleam of sunshine. However, the house and its
collections, and their most amusing and hospitable owner, afforded us ample
amusement. I am sorry, for my own sake, that this country is constantly
gaining stronger claims on my affection and regard; for am I not born a
dweller by our inglorious southern streams and downs? If, however, there be
such a thing as transmigration hereafter, let me hope that I shall come out
at last as a Highland laird.
The Journal continues:--
_August 28th_.--To Invergarry, where we lunched with Mr. Peabody; and to
Glenquoich--Ed. Ellice's. The Elchos, Sir F. and Lady Grey, and Lowe there.
_31st_.--Excursion from Glenquoich to Loch Hourn. Then by Oban to Glasgow.
Visit to the Belhavens at Wishaw, September 4th, and to Abington. Home on
the 10th.
_September 15th_.--Torry Hill. Shooting there for some days.
_17th_.--Mr. Ellice died suddenly [Footnote: Of heart disease and
eighty-two years. He was found dead in his bed.] at Ardochy, only a
fortnight after we left his house. That excursion to Loch Hourn was his
last.
_To Mr. Dempster_
_Torry Hill, September 21st_.--What a sudden and painful loss is this
abrupt termination of the life of our kind friend at Glenquoich! It is
scarcely three weeks since we left him in his usual health and spirits,
and now--as Evelyn says--all is in the dust.... I have had an unpleasant
accident, though--thank God!--not a serious one. Turning round very
suddenly to shoot a partridge behind me, without seeing that Lord Kingsdown
was on his pony about fifty yards off, a pellet of shot from my gun hit
him in the cheek, and another hit his pony in the eye. Conceive my horror!
Fortunately, the wound was very slight, and, indeed, was well in half an
hour; but if it had hit him in the eye I never should have forgiven myself.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, October 4th_.--I was very glad to hear from you this morning,
but very sorry to learn that you have cause for deep anxiety respecting
your mother, and I fear, from what you say, that she is hopelessly ill and
suffering much. I sympathise with you sincerely. I joined my people at
Lathom a month ago, and we returned last week from our peregrinations,
all well, except myself, who can't shake off the gout, which is a
disappointment after having taken the trouble of a Wiesbaden cure.
On the day of my last bath there I received an urgent request from our
Foreign Secretary that I should proceed to Frankfort and observe the
conference. I did so, and was interested and amused. It was an opportunity
that may never occur again of meeting the sovereigns of Germany, great and
small....
The impression made upon me by the E. of Austria was very agreeable. He had
none of the proud manner of which at one time we heard so much, but, on the
contrary, he was frank and gentlemanlike, and told me the difficulties in
which Germany was placed by such an effete institution as the Diet, and the
advances making by Democracy, which, for the first time, were dangerous,
because the people had reason and justice on their side. He told me, also,
all the steps he had taken to secure the co-operation of the K. of Prussia,
which were straightforward and deferential; and he complained, though
without bitterness, of the manner in which they had been misrepresented....
It may be that some good will come, perhaps before the close of the present
century, from a public avowal by congregated sovereigns that their subjects
had grievances of magnitude, and that delay in redressing them was full of
dynastic danger.
One can conceive no more complete diplomatic fiasco than the three great
Powers of Europe giving a triumph to Gortschakoff. The mistake originally
made was thinking that Russia was weak and in trouble, and would therefore
yield to menace. Several months ago I took the liberty of suggesting that,
although Russia was powerless for an aggressive war, she would be found as
strong and formidable as ever in resisting any attack from without, and
that foreign dictation would probably have the effect of uniting all the
parties into which Russia was divided. I don't mean to deny, however, that
intervention of some kind was inevitable; but the difficulties attending it
were either overlooked or not foreseen, and the mode of dealing with them
has consequently been unskilful.
Continuing the Journal:--
_October 5th_.--To Aiupthill. On the 17th to the Grove; Odo Russell there.
24th, to Torry Hill, with Christine and Hopie. Met the Roger Leighs there;
also the Heads and Sir Lawrence Peel. High jinks on Hopie's twenty-first
birthday.
_November 19th_.--To Shoeburyness, to see the trial of Sir William
Armstrong's 600-pounder gun.
My mother was exceedingly ill during the autumn, and it became apparent
that her illness was mortal. She was attended with great assiduity by Dr.
Fyfe. For this reason we remained within reach of London.
_From Lord Westbury_ [Footnote: At this time Lord Chancellor.]
_Basingstoke, November 28th_.--I shall be much obliged to you if, by the
application of the whip to the printer, you can get him to strike off a
few copies of the notes of my opinion on the appeals in the matter of the
'Essays and Reviews' by Tuesday afternoon, so that a copy may, on the
evening of Tuesday, be sent to Lords Cranworth, Chelmsford, and Kingsdown.
The notes are not long, but I am anxious that they should be, as soon as
possible, in the hands of the three noble lords I have named. I hope we
shall be able to give judgement about December 15th.
Lord Brougham's next letter refers to one of the few unpleasant passages in
Reeve's life. In October 1863 the 'Edinburgh Review' had an article on J.
G. Phillimore's 'Reign of George III.,' in which the book was somewhat
roughly handled. That the comment was honest is quite certain; that it was
just would probably be the opinion of most historical students; but Mr.
Phillimore thought that it was neither one nor the other, and being--as the
'Saturday Review' described him--one whose 'normal position was that of
a belligerent,' he replied to the review by a studiously offensive and
personal pamphlet, [Footnote: This sensitiveness to literary criticism was,
perhaps, a family failing. Some forty years before, Phillimore's uncle, Sir
John Phillimore, was fined 100£. for bludgeoning James, the author of the
_Naval History_, for some unflattering remarks on the discipline of the
'Eurotas' whilst under his command.] bearing the title 'Reply to the
Misrepresentations of the "Edinburgh Review."' According to this, the
article was a spiteful attack made by 'Mr. Reeve' himself; it was mainly
noticeable for its ignorance, its malice, its time-serving toadyism of Lord
Stanhope, and should be contrasted with another article in the same number
of the 'Review' on 'Austin on Jurisprudence,' which was outrageously
belauded because Austin was 'Mr. Reeve's' uncle. In point of fact, the
article on Phillimore was written by the present Judge O'Connor Morris, and
that on Austin by John Stuart Mill, neither of whom was an intimate friend
of the editor's. Phillimore did not notice, or was not sufficiently
acquainted with Reeve's family history to appraise yet another article on
'Tara: a Mahratta Tale,' by Captain Meadows Taylor--Reeve's cousin. If he
had, he would certainly have made it the subject of some more scurrilities.
_Cannes, January 7th_.--I have only a moment before the post goes to write,
and it may be too late another day. Pray allude to Phillimore's pamphlet,
and give some explanation on certain parts of it. I have not read the whole
of it, but friends here who borrowed it of me have, and they tell me that
some explanation is required. They are a good deal prejudiced, however,
owing to your having praised Stanhope's book, of which they have a very
bad opinion. I myself rather agree with them, though not going to the same
length. Of Phillimore, I only know that he did good service in the Commons
for a public prosecutor, and was very shabbily supported by the friends of
Law Amendment. But I had a very poor opinion of the book, though he is a
very clever man, and the Yankees considered him the first man in the House
of Commons.
Reeve's letters for several months had been leading up to the next sad
entry in the Journal. For a woman of seventy-five, a serious and prolonged
illness could scarcely have any other issue.
My mother's illness was approaching its melancholy end. On January 8th I
sat up all night at Brompton. On the 9th she was speechless. On Sunday,
the 10th, at 3 P.M., she died. On the 16th she was buried in the Brompton
Cemetery. Edward James Reeve read the service. Arthur Taylor, John,
Richard, John Edward, and Fairfax Taylor, Sir A, Gordon, P. Worsley, W.
Wallace, J. P. Simpson, R. Lane, Dr. Fyfe, and John Cox attended.
On the 17th I went to Essex Street Chapel, where Madge preached her funeral
sermon. He had preached my father's funeral sermon just fifty years before.
My mother survived my father nearly fifty years. This is not the place to
comment on her singular virtues!
We went to Boulogne on the 18th for the first period of mourning, and
visited Amiens and Abbéville. Home on the 25th.
_To Mr. Dempster_
62 _Rutland Gate, January 11th_.--Your long kindness and friendship tell
me how much I may rely on your sympathy. My dear mother expired yesterday
afternoon, in perfect serenity. However long one may have anticipated such
a stroke and, as I told you in July, I knew it was impending--one cannot
realise it till it falls. As Gray said to Mason, 'A man has but one
mother;' it is a blank that cannot be filled up. But I have the consolatory
thought that my dear mother's life was complete in its usefulness, its
energy, its unquenchable zeal for the good of others, its Christian
endurance of sorrow and of pain; and no one ever lived in this world more
fitted to enter upon another. Christine was with her to the last.
_From the Duc d'Aumale_
_Orleans House_, 11 _Janvier_.--Hélas! cher Monsieur; je n'ai pas de
consolation à vous offrir; je ne puis que vous assurer de ma profonde
sympathie. Je juge de ce que vous devez souffrir par ce que je ressentirais
à votre place. Mon coeur est avec le vôtre. H. D'ORLÉANS.
_From Lord Clarendon_
January 11th.
My Dear Reeve,--I heard to my great regret a little while ago that the
day of your affliction was fast approaching, and I knew at once by your
envelope this afternoon that the hour had come. I thank you for your kind
thought of not allowing me to hear by public report an event that so deeply
affects your happiness; and I know from my own sad experience how to feel
for you in this trial--the loss of a mother's never-failing love and
sympathy, and of one's own daily occupation, that real labour of love, in
ministering to her comfort and soothing the ills of declining years. You
have the consolation, and it is one to be grateful for, my dear Reeve, that
your last impressions are of a calm and painless passage from this life,
such as you would have most desired for her whom you have so loved and can
never forget. Lady Clarendon and my daughters desire me to send you their
kind regards and the expression of their sincerest sympathy.
Believe me, my dear Reeve,
Ever yours truly,
CLARENDON.
_To Madame de Tocqueville_
Boulogne-sur-mer, January 20th.
My dear Madame de Tocqueville,--One's own sorrows bring back with increased
vivacity the sorrows of others and the melancholy recollections of other
years, for at each successive blow a great gap is made in life, and one
feels that another record of the past is closed. We have come to this place
for a few days to regain a little health and spirits after the long and
anxious year we have passed by my dear mother's sick bed. All our cares
have unhappily been vain, and about ten days ago she breathed her last. I
cannot express how great a loss this is to me, or how deeply I feel it.
Your dear and ever-lamented husband was one of those who appreciated the
exquisite simplicity and energy of my mother's character, and the words he
let fall from time to time about her are very precious to me.
To any one who now reads the book, [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. ii. p. 66.]
and considers the later course of the lives of its authors, it is difficult
to conceive the excitement which was raised about the case referred to in
the next note from the Journal. The remembrance of it seems to throw a
doubt on the reality or immutability of 'first principles.'
_February 8th_.--Judgement was given by the Judicial Committee on the great
ecclesiastical cause of 'Essays and Reviews.' It was drawn with great care
by Lord Westbury, who read it all over with me before it was submitted to
the committee.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Cannes, February 13th_.--I received your melancholy letter [Footnote:
Announcing the death of his mother.] some time ago, but I did not answer
it because I felt that your excuse for not taking notice of Phillimore's
attack was too good, and I had no comfort to offer you. I suffered most
severely myself by the same loss, and I have not, after above twenty
years, learnt to forget it. Your letter brought it back strongly to my
mind, as it also did the memory of my excellent friend your father.
I find my opinion, and those I cited in support of it, is confirmed by
the articles in the journals--such as the 'Saturday Review' [Footnote:
February 6th, 1864.]--which, though attacking Phillimore in some
particulars, yet show that some answer to him, or explanation of matters
which he represents, was wanted. But I dare say his attacks will be
forgotten, and you may be right in doing nothing that can help to keep
them in people's recollection. [Footnote: Reeve, who was always averse
from any controversy of this nature, took no public notice of the
pamphlet, and Phillimore died early the next year.]
I have just got your new number and not read a page of it, as the
'Quarterly' came with it, and I was anxious to read the review of our
friend your neighbour's book, [Footnote: _The Life of Marcus Tullius
Cicero_.] which is learnedly and most justly praised, and the value of
the praise not impaired, like that of the 'Saturday Review,' [Footnote:
February 6th, 1864.] by praising Houghton's (Dick Milnes') poems in
another article.
The Journal has:--
_February 20th_.--Went to Farnborough. The Longmans just installed in their
new house.
To Ampthill at Easter. On April 1st to Paris, with Christine and the
Dempsters. I had the gout all the time.
_April 3rd_.--Races at Vincennes. Embassy ball on the 5th. Persignys and
Morny there. Breakfast at Vaux with Marochettis on the 6th. Met Sigismond
Krasinski's son Ladislas at his mother's.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_G. C., April 6th_.--As five years of freedom had augmented my inveterate
dislike of office, you may suppose that I made a gallant resistance--quite
_à la Danoise_; but at last I could not help taking an oar with old friends
in a boat which they believed to be sinking, and in which they fancied I
might be of some use. If the Government had been as clear of some of the
worst shoals a fortnight ago as it is now, nothing would have induced me to
say 'Yes.'
I hope that Stansfeld's exit and Palmerston's speech, and, more important
still, the feeling throughout the country upon the Mazzini affair, will
mend our relations with France by showing Frenchmen of all classes and
colours that the alliance is here estimated at its real value; indeed,
nothing will go well in Europe if England and France are supposed to be
pulling different ways; and if they had been acting together, instead of
being _en froid_ six months ago, the Dano-German difficulty would never
have attained its present developement. Some soreness was natural at our
not agreeing to the congress; but too much has been made of the tone of J.
R.'s answer, and offence ought not to be taken where none was intended, but
quite the reverse, as I can certify from the conversations I had at the
time with the writer....
It was this letter which suggested to Reeve to propose to Lord Clarendon
the advisability of coming over to Paris himself 'to see the Emperor and
endeavour to settle joint action on the Danish question.' He wrote also to
the same effect to Lord Granville.
_From Lord Granville_
London, April 9th.
My dear Reeve,--Many thanks for your note, and for the suggestion it
contains. I [had] already had some talk with Clarendon and Russell on the
subject. The first thought that it was too late now, and urged some minor
objections, but in my opinion he is wrong, and I hope the matter will be
arranged. Yours sincerely,
GRANVILLE.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_London, April 9th._--Your letter is very important. It has been settled at
the Cabinet that I shall go over on Tuesday. It is particularly troublesome
and inconvenient to me; but I shan't mind that, if any good is to be done
and that the friendly motive of my going is appreciated.
_From M. Fould_
Dimanche [April 10th].
Mon cher Monsieuer,--Je me suis empressé de transmettre à l'empereur la
nouvelle que vous voulez bien me donner et qui me fait grand plaisir.
Mille compliments bien désirés,
ACHILLE FOULD.
The visit led to no result, as the French refused to act. The Journal
continues:--
_April 20th_.--Interesting day at Versailles with Feuillet de Conches and
Soulié; took the Dempsters and Hamiltons of Dalziel.
My father's old friend Dr. de Roches died at Geneva on April 18th. On the
23rd, Christine and I went to Geneva on a visit to the Binets. Saw Mme.
de Roches, who also died a few days afterwards. Returned by Lausanne and
Neufchatel to Paris, and home on May 1st.
_From Lord Brougham_
_Paris, May 15th_.--I have been reading the new number of the 'E. R.,' and
have been greatly interested in it. The review [Footnote: Sc. of Renan's
_Life of Jesus_.] is most ably and learnedly done, though in one or two
places a little obscure. But the subject was most difficult to handle, and
I think no one can complain of Renan being unfairly treated; indeed he is
lavishly praised, though he is rejected--but rejected most candidly.
I have also read the first article, [Footnote: _Diaries of a Lady of
Quality._] on Miss Wynn's book. I am convinced that the facts must be taken
with large allowance; some of them are to my personal knowledge erroneously
given--from no intention to deceive, but from hasty belief. But there is
one story which on the face of it is not only untrue, but impossible; which
she appears to have had from a Mrs. Kemble, and to have swallowed whole.
How could any being believe in Lord Loughborough's telling such a tale?
Mrs. K. may have, from ignorance, supposed that a prisoner on trial for his
life can be examined by the prosecutor's counsel; but can anyone suppose
that such a story as Davison's murder of his old companion could have
happened, and no one even heard of it, or of his being hanged, as he must
have been, on his own confession? I knew intimately those friends of Miss
Baillie who are said to have been present, and I never heard a word of it
from them--probably because they regarded the story as ridiculous.
_From the Comte de Paris_
Claremont, le 23 mai.
Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,--N'ayant pas eu le plaisir de vous rencontrer
depuis mon retour d'Espagne, j'ai passé samedi chez vous pour vous parler
d'une affaire que j'aurais préféré traiter de vive voix. Ne vous ayant
pas trouvé, il me faut aujourd'hui avoir recours à la plume, car le temps
presse. Je voulais vous dire que mon mariage avec ma cousine Isabelle
sera décidément célébré lundi prochain, le 30 mai. Je n'ai pas _issued_
d'invitations pour assister à cette cérémonie, mais il y a certaines
personnes dont la présence serait pour moi une grande satisfaction à cause
des anciennes relations qui ont existé entre elles et ma famille. Je n'ai
pas besoin de vous dire que vous êtes de ce nombre, mon cher Monsieur
Reeve, et surtout après la lettre si aimable que vous m'avez écrite à
propos de mon mariage je ne puis me refuser le plaisir de vous avertir de
sa célébration, afin que, si vous le pouvez, vous veniez y assister. Si
j'avais pu vous en parler de vive voix, je vous aurais mieux dit que je
n'ai adressé à personne d'invitation formelle, qu'en vous faisant cette
proposition je ne veux vous imposer aucune gêne, mais que par cela même
votre présence n'aurait que plus de prix à mes yeux.
Vous m'excuserez de n'avoir cherché ce matin qu'à vous expliquer ma pensée
aussi brièvement que possible. En ce temps-ci tous mes moments sont
comptés.
La cérémonie aura lieu à la chapelle catholique de Kingston à 10-1/2h. a.m.
Le train qui part de Waterloo Station à 9h.40 pour Surbiton arrive à temps.
Votre bien affectionné,
LOUIS PHILIPPE D'ORLÉANS.
As to which the Journal says:--
_May 23rd_--The Raymonds and Mlle. Lebreton came.
_24th_.--Dined with Raymond at Claremont. Great royal dinner; fifty-two
persons; was presented to the Infanta Isabella.
_30th_.--Marriage of the Comte de Paris. Banquet at Claremont. Ball at the
Duc de Chartres'--Ham House. I drove Chartres from Claremont to the ball.
_June 7th_.--The centenary dinner of The Club; twenty-five members present;
Milman in the chair. Lord Brougham was there. I sat between the Bishop of
London (Tait) and Eastlake.
There was at this time much sentimental sympathy with Denmark in her
unequal struggle against the combined forces of Prussia and Austria; but as
France, Russia, and Sweden, which, equally with England, were parties
to the treaty of 1852, refused to give Denmark any active support, the
practical feeling was that English interests were not involved to such an
extent as to render it advisable to assert them by force of arms.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_G. C., June 24th_.--As far as I can make out there is no real war feeling
in the country, though a great disposition in the H. of C. to turn out
the Government, whether it decides upon being pacific or bellicose; and I
expect that a vote of censure, or want of confidence, will be successful.
If you hear anything reliable on the subject, pray let me know.
_June 26th_.--The island-occupation plan is very well devised, and if our
cat was jumping that way, it would be worthy of very serious consideration;
but it won't do to embark single-handed in such operations.... The peace
feeling at home becomes stronger every day, except for mere party purposes,
and I don't believe that sending the fleet to the Baltic even would meet
with support, as we are under no obligation to do so; though if German
operations were to extend beyond the peninsula, and Copenhagen was menaced,
a different policy must, of course, be adopted.
The Journal goes on:--
_July 20th_.--The Duc d'Aumale's ball to the Prince of Wales; beautiful
night.
_21st_.--To Ongar, to see my uncle, Edward Reeve.
_24th_.--Went to Aix by Rotterdam, with W. Wallace; met the James Watneys
at Aix. Back by Ostend, August 3rd.
_August 9th_.--Joined Christine and Hopie at Perth, and proceeded to Skibo.
Marochetti and Seaforth there. Shot with Marochetti. On the 25th left
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