Chapter XV: Law and Literature (1)

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 100L. 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 Abbeville. 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_.--Helas! cher Monsieur; je n'ai pas de consolation a 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 a votre place. Mon coeur est avec le votre. H. D'ORLEANS.

_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 _a 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 empresse de transmettre a l'empereur la nouvelle que vous voulez bien me donner et qui me fait grand plaisir.

Mille compliments bien desires,

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 Soulie; 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 passe samedi chez vous pour vous parler d'une affaire que j'aurais prefere traiter de vive voix. Ne vous ayant pas trouve, il me faut aujourd'hui avoir recours a la plume, car le temps presse. Je voulais vous dire que mon mariage avec ma cousine Isabelle sera decidement celebre lundi prochain, le 30 mai. Je n'ai pas _issued_ d'invitations pour assister a cette ceremonie, mais il y a certaines personnes dont la presence serait pour moi une grande satisfaction a cause des anciennes relations qui ont existe entre elles et ma famille. Je n'ai pas besoin de vous dire que vous etes de ce nombre, mon cher Monsieur Reeve, et surtout apres la lettre si aimable que vous m'avez ecrite a propos de mon mariage je ne puis me refuser le plaisir de vous avertir de sa celebration, 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 adresse a personne d'invitation formelle, qu'en vous faisant cette proposition je ne veux vous imposer aucune gene, mais que par cela meme votre presence n'aurait que plus de prix a mes yeux.

Vous m'excuserez de n'avoir cherche ce matin qu'a vous expliquer ma pensee aussi brievement que possible. En ce temps-ci tous mes moments sont comptes.

La ceremonie aura lieu a la chapelle catholique de Kingston a 10-1/2h. a.m. Le train qui part de Waterloo Station a 9h.40 pour Surbiton arrive a temps.

Votre bien affectionne,

LOUIS PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS.

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 Skibo. Thence to Brahan. On the 31st, pic-nic to the Falls of Rogie, with Lord Blandford playing on the bugle.

_September 1st_.--To Raith. 7th, to Arniston. 10th, to Ancrum, Kirklands. 16th, to see Harriet Martineau at Ambleside. 18th.--Home.

_September 22nd_.--Torry Hill. 23rd, excursion to Margate races, with Lord Kingsdown. Shooting at Torry Hill.

Mr. Richardson died at Kirklands on October 4th. Attended the funeral at Ancrum on the 10th. Mr. Liddell read the English service at the grave. To Brougham on my way back.

_October 13th_.--Left London on a visit to the Marochettis at Vaux.

_23rd_.--Visit to the Guizots at Val Richer. 27th, to Caen. 28th, to Angers. 30th, to Saumur.

_November 1st_.--Amboise. 2nd, Loches. 4th, Paris.

_7th_.--Home.

_8th_.--Dinner at Lord Granville's.

_23rd_.--Munro of Novar died very suddenly. He was buried at Kensal Green on December 1st.

_To Mr. Dempster_

_C. O., November 24th_. You may conceive with how much surprise and concern I received this morning a telegram from the factor at Novar, to announce the sudden death last night of my old and much-valued friend, the Laird of Novar, for whom, in spite of his singularities, I had a most sincere regard. I have telegraphed to Butler Johnstone, in Dumfriesshire, and to his son at Rokeby, and urged them to go down immediately; but it has occurred to me that perhaps you would take the train and go over yourself, as there is no one there to give any directions, and the factor is a new man. I have also telegraphed to Raith at Cannes.... Let me know if you hear any particulars. I wonder whether he left a will; very probably none.

_C. O., November 28th_.--We felt so much alike in our regard for Novar, that I was confident that we should feel exactly alike in this most sudden and terrible catastrophe. I could well have spared many a better man, and, in spite of his peculiarities, there are few persons for whom I could feel a more sincere and painful regret. For more than twenty years I have shared with Novar many of the pleasantest hours of life; and although we were in many respects very dissimilar, there are few persons for whom I felt a greater sympathy. I have no doubt you decided rightly as to not going to Novar. My telegram, fortunately, reached Butler Johnstone and his son, both of whom were in the country, and they speedily got down to Novar. I am told they have decided to inter our poor friend in London--a decision I should not have taken myself, but which I bow to, as it is their wish.

Mrs. Butler Johnstone was so much agitated by this event--for she was passionately attached to her brother--and so entirely solitary--for there was no one with her but young Theobald Butler--that my wife thought it her duty to go down to Brighton with her on Saturday, to endeavour to calm and comfort her until Harry can come back to his mother, which I hope will be to-morrow....

I have heard from Ferguson, who little expected to survive his cousin and inherit Novar.

_C. O., December 1st_.--I am just returned from the funeral of our poor friend at Kensal Green. It was as quiet as possible.... There is no will at all; but every paper and letter of Novar's is carefully preserved, and accurately docketed, so that the whole state of his affairs and accounts may be seen in a moment. The personal property is enormous; he cannot have had much less than 24,000 L a year. Ferguson's share of the entailed estates is about 5,000 L gross rental; everything else goes to the B. J.'s. I am very much pleased with the spirit in which B. J. takes all this--a great desire to do whatever is right to those who may have any claim on Novar, and no brag or ostentation. He and Harry immediately determined, as money is no object to them, they would allow nothing to be sold, but would keep together the gallery of pictures and everything else Novar collected. The quantities of things are incalculable.... I thought these details would interest you. For my part, I feel that I have lost one of the persons in the world with whom I had spent the most pleasant hours, and for whom I had an extreme regard.

The Journal mentions:--

Shooting at Haslemere and Farnborough to the end of the year.

_January 2nd_, 1865.--Went to Strawberry Hill. A large party in the house; Clarendon, Duc d'Aumale, Lady Hislop, Perrys, &c. On the 5th to Torry Hill. 12th, to Ampthill. 13th, down to Woburn with Lord Wensleydale and Froude. 14th, to the Grove.

When at Torry Hill I got a note from Charles Greville asking me to come up to see him. I did so on the 10th. It was then he asked me to take charge of his journals. Some further conversation took place between us. On the 17th I was with him till half-past seven, and in the same night he died. [Footnote: See _post_, p. 230.]

_From M. Guizot_

Paris, 1 fevrier.

My dear sir,--Je regrette Charles Greville. C'etait l'un des spectateurs politiques les plus clairvoyants, les plus fins et les plus equitables que j'aie rencontres en ma vie; et un ami fidele sans se donner tout entier a personne. Vous devez regretter beaucoup son amitie et sa societe. Ses memoires seront bien curieux. Je suis charme qu'il vous les ait legues. Personne ne saura mieux choisir ce qu'il en faut publier, et le moment opportun pour les publier. Quand vous prendrez une resolution a cet egard, je vous prie de m'en avertir; vous en desirerez, ce me semble, une edition francaise....

The Journal here gives a remarkable contribution to the history of the French Revolution of 1830, the substance of which Reeve afterwards published in the 'Edinburgh Review,' in an article on 'Circourt' (October 1881).

_March 14th_.--The Club elected the Duc d'Aumale and Tennyson.

_19th_.--Mrs. Gollop [Mrs. Reeve's mother] died. I joined Christine at Strode, and attended the funeral at Lillington.

_April 5th_.--M. de Circourt has been staying with us for three weeks; inexhaustible in memory, anecdote, and conversation. I first knew him at Geneva in 1830, where he took refuge after the storm of the Revolution, and where he soon afterwards married Anastasia de Klustine.

I asked him the other day what he knew of the 'Ordonnances' of July. He was at that time, with Bois-le-Comte and Vieil-Castel, one of the chief employes of Prince Polignac, in the Office of Foreign Affairs; and from his wonderful memory and facility, Polignac used often to send him to Charles X., to relate the substance of the despatches from foreign Courts. But, although he was thus versed in foreign affairs, he knew very little of what was passing in the interior of France, though from the violence of the conflict between the Court and the Chamber he foreboded a catastrophe.

Polignac told him nothing of the Ordinances, nor had he told the Princess, his wife; for Circourt dined with them on the day they were signed--it was Sunday, July 25th, 1830. The minister was _distrait_. The Princess got C. aside to the piano after dinner, and said to him: 'Il se passe quelque chose;--do you know what it is?' Neither of them knew. C. thinks, however, that Bois-le-Comte was in Polignac's confidence.

In consequence of the absence of Marshal Bourmont on the Algerian expedition, Polignac was minister of war _ad interim_ [as well as minister of foreign affairs]; but he had not made the smallest military preparations, or even inquiries, as to the possibility of putting down a popular tumult. On that Sunday, for the first time, he sent for the officers in command of the troops. A dispute arose between them, which Polignac had to settle. It then turned out that in the whole of the first military division, which included not only Paris, but Orleans and Rouen and all the intermediate places, there were not 12,000 men. In Paris itself about 3,400 at that moment, including the _gendarmerie_.

The reason of this was a political and military combination which the Government had formed, but which I never before heard mentioned by anyone. Polignac had for some time been intriguing to detach Belgium from the King of Holland's dominions--chiefly from a fanatical desire to release a Catholic population from their Protestant connexion, but in part, also, from a notion that a military demonstration on the side of Belgium would be popular in France, and would disarm the Opposition. So that the movement which took place at Brussels shortly after the Revolution of July, and was attributed to the example of that democratic explosion, had, in fact, been prepared by Polignac himself. This is strange enough; but what is still more strange is that the very means taken to promote this lawless object proved to be the ruin of Charles X. and his minister.

With a view to the occupation of Belgium, or at least of a demonstration on the frontier, they had assembled two large camps at Luneville and St.-Omer; and in these camps the bulk of the available forces of the kingdom were collected, especially as Bourmont had with him a considerable and well-appointed army in Africa. So that at the very moment when troops were most needed in Paris, one portion of the King's army was beyond the seas, and another out of reach on the Belgian frontier.

Bourmont was perfectly aware that some such scheme as that of the Ordinances was hatching, and the King had given him special orders to terminate the campaign in Algeria, to carry off the treasure from the Kasbah, and bring the troops back to France, as soon as possible. About a month before the Revolution, a ciphered despatch came from Bourmont --which, I think, Circourt said he was told to transcribe--in which the marshal earnestly entreated the King to take no important step till his return; adding that he hoped in a few weeks to terminate the African expedition, and to prove to the King what he was capable of in his Majesty's service. He had calculated that by the month of September he could bring the greater part of the army hack to Paris, and that the success they had recently had in Africa had attached the troops to himself, as their commander, so that he would be in a condition to crush all resistance; and had this plan been pursued, it is by no means impossible that the _coup d'etat_ might have succeeded, as we have seen on some subsequent occasions.

But Bourmont's despatch in cipher had exactly the opposite effect from that contemplated by the marshal. It produced in the mind of Polignac a violent jealousy of his military colleague, and the determination to act in Bourmont's absence, so as to have all the credit to himself, and remain at the head of the King's Government. On the day the Ordinances were signed, Polignac said to Circourt: 'From this day the King begins to reign, which he has not done before.' These were the motives which precipitated the blow, and caused it to overwhelm its authors with ruin and confusion.

_April 8th_.--I was elected a corresponding member of the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, in France.

_14th_.--Went to Paris, and on the 22nd took my seat at the Institute.

_From Lord Clarendon_

_The Grove, April 23rd_.--Fould is not reasonable about Mexico; for he well knows that it is we who had to complain of France, and not France of us, in the original convention, and that ever since we got out of it, so far from thwarting French designs, we have done what was in our power to support them; our Government can't help to float a bad loan, but I am sure we have done the French no harm at Washington. It will be good policy on the part of Maximilian to encourage Confederate soldiers, provided they don't come and squat in too great numbers. I understand that the French army is not to be withdrawn until it is no longer wanted by Maximilian, but that will not be till the day of judgement--if then.

The journey to Algeria is an inscrutable business. McMahon, I am told, has insisted strongly upon it, and says that the Imperial presence is indispensable to _relever_ the tone of the colony; but that is hardly reason enough for such a _grosse affaire_ as absenting himself from Paris for six weeks; but if he wishes to create alarm and make people feel how much he and social order are bound up together, and that they want him more than he them, then the expedition has a motive, and may have a great success.

Palmerston had the gout all last week, and was unable to attend the Cabinet yesterday, but he is expected in town tomorrow, so I hope it is a slight attack. The uneasiness on one side and excitement on the other, whenever he is ailing, are curious to observe; for it is pretty generally understood that until he dies there will be no real shuffle of cards. Last autumn the Tories talked tall about the majority that the general election was to give them, but of late they have come down very much, and the best informed among them now say that things will remain pretty much as they are.

The Journal continues:--

_April 27th_.--Excursion to Port Royal and Dampierre, where we were received by order of the Duc de Luynes. Circourt was with us. 28th, to Fontainebleau. Met William Stirling and Lady Anna there; they were just married. 30th, races in Bois de Boulogne. Took Mrs. Henry Baring there. Dined at the Embassy.

_May 3rd_.--Excursion to Reims with Circourt and Belveze.[Footnote: The Comte de Belveze, an intimate friend of the Circourts, a man, Reeve wrote, 'of great wit and discernment.' In 1873 he had printed, for private circulation, a small volume of _Pensees, Maximes et Reflexions_, a copy of which he gave Reeve, who 'highly valued it for its intrinsic merit and its rarity.'] Back to London by Lille and Laon.

_13th_.--My uncle, Tom Reeve, the rector, died. I attended the funeral, and went on to Thorpe Abbotts.

_June 10th_.--Party given by the Hudson's Bay Company to see their ships at Gravesend. Dined there.

Went to Bracknell and Ascot.

_From Lord Clarendon_

_The Grove, June 11th_. I make you my sincere compliment upon the article, [Footnote: 'Dissolution of Parliament,' by Reeve. It appeared in the July number of the _Review_.] and thank you for giving me an early read of it. It is by far the ablest defence I have yet seen for the donothingness of the Government about Reform; and you have most skilfully brought all the different schemes face to face, in order to knock their heads together, at the same time that you show yourself, as the organ of the Whig party, to be liberal and progressive, and not only ready, but anxious, to adopt any plan of Reform that will really effect that which reasonable men unite in desiring. I think the article will do great good; and I only wish that it could be circulated among classes rather lower than the ordinary readers of the 'Edinburgh Review.'

Might you not in the last page enlarge a little more upon the opposition which the Tories, for party purposes, or from shortsightedness, have always made to Liberal measures? For that in reality is the strong case against them; and in judging of their fitness for power, the electors should consider how the country would have stood if their persistent opposition had been successful; how we should have passed through the political crisis of '48 if the Corn Laws had been unrepealed; or the cotton famine, if Free-trade had not been established. The electors should also well consider whether they will accept, as governors and guides, men who predicted evils of the worst kind from measures which have produced the happiest results.

All these points are well alluded to in the last page, but they seem to me to want a few grains of salt; and we may be sure that Lord Robert Cecil [Footnote: The present Marquis of Salisbury. His elder brother, Viscount Cranborne, died three days after the date of this letter, June 14th.] in the 'Quarterly' will pepper the Whigs abundantly.

The Journal at this time has:--

Gout in July. Went to Aix on the 25th. The Aumales, Alcocks, and Lord St. Germans there. Home on August 17th.

_August 9th_.--To Scotland. We went again to Skibo. Harry Butler Johnstone there. Stayed at Skibo till the 30th. Then to Brahan. Found the Fergusons at Novar. Lord Kingsdown had taken Holme House, near Nairn. Went to see him there. Cawdor Castle. Then to Pitcorthie [James Moncreiff's] [Footnote: At this time Lord Advocate. Created a baronet in 1871, and a peer, as Lord Moncreiff, in 1874.] and Raith and Abington.

_September 23rd_.--Dined with Lord Granville to meet Castalia Campbell and Lady Acton. Lord G. was married on the 26th [to Miss Campbell].

To Torry Hill in October; also to Badger Hall and High Legh, and Loseley (then rented by Thomson Hankey).

_November 15th_.--Went down to Woodnorton [near Evesham], to see the Aumales at their farm. Shot there.

But the great topic of the latter part of the year, the subject which was in everyone's mind, was the cattle plague--the rinderpest--which threatened to become a matter of extreme national importance. When, at the time that now is, people are inclined to grumble at the precautionary measures adopted by Government, they should look back to the records of 1865 and read of the very serious alarm then felt. Writing to Dempster, himself a high authority on agricultural questions, Reeve naturally spoke of this, and the correspondence is largely filled with such sentences as:--

_September 22nd_.--A nearer acquaintance with the cattle disease is a very disagreeable addition to one's knowledge. They are afraid it will last for many years, and sweep off a great portion of the cattle in the kingdom.... You'll think I have got the rinderpest myself to write about nothing but these brutes.

_September 28th_.--The disease has now spread to sheep, and I verily believe we shall have a meat famine.

_October 12th_.--The ravages of the disease increase. We were to have gone to pay two visits in Essex this week, but our hosts are so distracted by the loss of their kine and the absence of dairy produce that they broke up their party and put us off.

_October 18th_.--The opinion of the Cattle Commission is that nothing can be done to stay the plague without putting a stop to all transport or movement of live cattle; and I expect this will be done. But how are we to be fed?

_November 23rd_.--The Lords of the Council have at last resolved to give all local authorities in Britain the power of stopping the entry of cattle into their own district, and all beasts brought to the Metropolitan Market are to be killed there.

And thus this plague, the illness and death of Lord Palmerston, and--more personal--the alarming illness and slow, lingering convalescence of Miss Charlotte Dempster--'my fair contributor,' as Reeve used to call her--fill the correspondence of the year. One note only, an account of Reeve's visit to Woodnorton, has a more particular interest.

_To Mr. Dempster_

_C. O., November 23rd_.--My last campaign has been in Worcestershire, where I went to see a barnful of princes and princesses in a house much more like a very wild Highland shooting quarter than an Englishman's hunting-box. However, this only made the whole party more jolly; and as the stables are very superior to the house, I shall entreat them, the next time I go, to give me a loose box instead of a bedroom. Cutbush is supposed to have slept on a dresser in the servants' hall; and a stray Frenchman who arrived one evening was laid up in the smoking-room, on a sofa.

And, according to the Journal, the year closed with--

Visits to Farnborough, Denbigh (Haslemere), and Timsbury [Ralph Dutton's, near Romsey].

Between Reeve and the Duttons there was a friendship of many years' standing, and they were there, wrote Mrs. Reeve, 'a pleasant little party of ten, only Henry has had a very bad fit of gout and could not join the shooters, or even the dinner-table some days: too provoking!' They remained at Timsbury for a week, and then:--

_January 10th_.--A pleasant party at Torry Hill, with Sir E. Head and Kit. Pemberton. Shooting in the snow, which was heavy.

_18th_.--Sir C. Eastlake was buried.

One day at a dinner party of Royal Academicians at Eastlake's, they were discussing the merits of Solomon the painter and praising him. 'Yes,' said Valentine Prinsep, 'but Solomon in all his glory is not R.A.ed like one of these.'

_24th_. We were invited rather late in the morning to the christening of Sir Robert and Lady Emily Peel's infant daughter, and to a banquet afterwards. Christine came down to my office at two o'clock, and we went across to Whitehall Chapel. Sir Robert stood _rayonnant_ at the door; Lady Emily looked the picture of maternal beauty; and in the chapel we found a small but remarkable party--Duke and Duchess of Wellington, Lord and Lady Russell, the Gladstones, Lady Ely, the Dufferins, &c., about fifty in all. Lord Russell said he had never been inside that building [Footnote: Now the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution.] before. Gladstone was very cordial, and we joined our enthusiasm about the roof of the building and the Rubenses. The Queen stood Godmother.

After the ceremony we all adjourned to Whitehall Gardens. I was unluckily obliged to go away, but Christine stayed for the luncheon, which was superb. Gladstone proposed the health of the infant.

_25th_.--Dinner at Orleans House, on Conde's departure for his journey to the East; Murchison and Trevelyan there. The Prince de Conde [Footnote: The eldest son of the Duc d'Aumale, born in 1845, died at Sydney on May 24th, 1866. The Duke's second and third sons lived only a few weeks; the fourth, the Duc de Guise, born in 1854, died in 1872.] reached Sydney, but caught a fever there and died. His poor mother never recovered the shock.

_27th_.--John Edward Taylor, my oldest friend,[Footnote: A first cousin, elder son of Edward Taylor; see _ante_, vol. i. p. 167.] died.

A couple of months later Mr. Taylor's daughter, Lucy, was married to William Markby, going out to Calcutta as a judge on a salary of 4,000 L a year. 'She is a very lucky girl' wrote Mrs. Reeve, 'her face her sole fortune, to win the love of a man so clear-headed and warm-hearted.'

Circourt came on a visit to us in March. We went together to Lincoln. I spent Easter at Lord Wharncliffe's at Wortley, with the Samuel Bakers (the African traveller) and the Tankervilles, and rejoined Circourt at Frystone (R. M. Milnes'). Thence to Ampthill, also with Circourt.

_From Lord Westbury_

_March 1st_.--I send you the proof of the judgement in Edwards _v_. Moss, corrected and purged of some of its colloquial pleonastic forms of expression. It is very difficult to reduce a speech to the accuracy of a written composition. In doing so, the merit of the speech is lost, and the 'redacted' elements form a very bad paper. Old Tommy Townshend, when he heard of a good speech being printed, used to ask 'How does it read?--for if it reads well, it was not a good speech.' A judgement orally delivered extempore may be satisfactory to the ear, but when reduced to paper, the sentences become involved and jejune.