CHURCH POLITICS
Early in October, Reeve, with his wife--Miss Reeve--was staying in
Scotland--set out for Geneva, and, travelling by easy stages through
Antwerp, Luxembourg, Metz--'a very pretty, attractive town,' not yet
brought into vulgar repute by its siege and surrender in the Franco-German
war--Nancy, Strasbourg, and Bale, arrived on the 12th. The weather was
cold and wintry; and, after a short stay at Geneva, they went on to
Marseilles, where Reeve's uncle, Philip Taylor, the founder of the 'Forges
et Chantiers,' was still living, a hale old man of eighty, with his wife,
'some seven years younger, and not at all old in figure, look, and voice.'
Then to Cannes, which was coming fast into note--'building going on with
great activity, and ground fetching higher prices every year'; and, after
an excursion to Nice and Mentone, they turned northwards, were at Paris on
November 6th, and reached home on the 10th. The Journal adds:--
_January 6th, 1868_.--Went on a visit to Loseley Park, then occupied by the
Thomson Hankeys--the old seat of Sir Thomas More. Mlle. Ernestine declaimed
there.
_From Lord Westbury_
_January 14th_.--Pray, if you can, give us a paper with some variety, and
not wholly composed of dreary Indian appeals, the hearing of which always
reminded me of the toil of Pharaoh's charioteers, when they drave heavily
their wheelless chariots in the deep sands of the Red Sea.
Who is it that has dug so deep into the Talmud, and written that remarkable
paper, [Footnote: 'The Talmud,' _Quarterly Review,_ October 1867.] for
which, a century ago, he would have been the subject of a writ _De
haeretico comburendo_?
_Hinton St. George, January 16th_.--Your arrangement is a very good one,
but, for fear of accident, I will certainly leave this place on Monday,
February 3rd, so that you may count on me for Tuesday if required. The
gorge rises at the thought of being fed on curry, rice, and chutnee sauce
for three weeks; I shall certainly contract a disease of the liver. If you
can send us occasionally to sea on an Admiralty case, it will be a little
relief. I have observed that petitions for prolongation of patents
frequently occupy an (apparently) undue time. If there are any such, I
think we may despatch them. I hope Lord Justice Cairns will use the days he
gains for reducing the arrears in Chancery. I am much obliged to him for
his kind expressions.
The best advice that his friends can give Rolt [Footnote: Sir John Rolt
resigned in February 1868, and died in June 1871.] is to resign. It is the
only chance of long life. Let him not be afraid of ennui from idleness.
He has a great love of the country and country pursuits, and that is
all-sufficient. Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale its infinite
variety. And it is so much better to be a looker-on than an actor in life.
Aristotle, in the last chapter of his 'Nicomachean Ethics,' sets himself
to consider what can be the happiness of the gods; and he finds nothing in
which he can put it but in contemplation. And it might be so, if it were
still true. 'And God saw (contemplated) all that He had made, and behold it
was very good.'
I thought it was an 'Ebrew Jew' that wrote the article entitled 'Talmud.' I
have only read a few extracts. It is quite in keeping with the times that
it should be in a Tory journal. The Conservatives have begun by being
avowed reformers, and next they will be declared free-thinkers. This is the
first step to their confession. Their great schoolmaster, Dizzy, gets his
compatriot to publish this article. I am glad to hear from you that it is
shallow; but novelty and originality now are nothing but the reproduction
of forgotten things; and, to speak seriously, I thought it seemed a thing
likely to lead many to some form or other of Arian opinions.
The following refers to a work recently published by Longmans. Mr. Longman
had apparently suggested it as a fit subject for an article in the 'Review
':--
_To Mr. T. Longman_
_C. O., January 31st_.--I have read Rudd's translation of Aristophanes with
a good deal of interest. It is as good as it can possibly be without the
slightest gleam of fun or genius. Frere's translations are blazing with
both, and that constitutes their charm. Rudd is evidently a worthy, dull
man, who administers the Aristophanic champagne as if it were mere brown
stout. It is for this reason that I have felt a difficulty about reviewing
him, and the more so as I am overladen with all kinds of articles. But if a
favourable opportunity occurs, I will not forget it.
I am deeply grieved at the loss of poor Head. [Footnote: Sir Edmund Head
died suddenly on January 28th.] He was one of the best and pleasantest
companions I have ever known, and latterly we have lived very much indeed
together. It is frightful to think how very many are already gone of those
who made life agreeable; and gone, most of them, suddenly and prematurely.
The Journal records:--
_February 11th_--I was elected to be treasurer of The Club in place of
Sir Edmund Head [deceased]. I proposed Lord Cranborne, afterwards Lord
Salisbury, at The Club.
For many years from this time The Club was such an important factor in
Reeve's social life, and enters so largely into both his Journal and his
correspondence, that a list of its members, as it stood in 1867, has a
strong personal interest.
_The Club_
March, 1867 Date of Election
1 Lord Brougham March 9th, 1830.
2 Earl Stanhope May 14th, 1833.
3 The Dean of St. Paul's February 23rd, 1836.
4 Sir Henry Holland February 18th, 1840.
5 Mr. Charles Austin March 7th, 1843.
6 Lord Kingsdown February 25th, 1845.
7 Earl of Clarendon May 20th, 1845.
8 Professor Owen May 20th, 1845.
9 Monsieur Van de Weyer February 9th, 1847.
10 Sir David Dundas February 23rd, 1847.
11 The Duke of Cleveland June 5th, 1849.
12 The Bishop of Oxford June 5th, 1849.
13 Lord Overstone June 25th, 1850.
14 The Duke of Argyll June 17th, 1851.
15 Lord Cranworth June 17th, 1851.
16 Sir Wm. Stirling Maxwell February 21st, 1854.
17 Mr. Gladstone March 10th, 1857.
18 Earl Russell April 21st, 1857.
19 Mr. George Grote March 9th, 1858.
20 Lord Stanley February 14th, 1860.
21 Sir W. Page Wood February 14th, 1860.
22 Mr. George Richmond February 14th, 1860.
23 The Bishop of London April 9th, 1861.
24 Mr. Henry Reeve April 9th, 1861.
25 Sir Roderick I. Murchison June 18th, 1861.
26 Sir Edmund Head February 25th, 1862.
27 Mr. Robert Lowe May 12th, 1863.
28 Mr. Spencer Walpole March 8th, 1864.
29 The Dean of Westminster February 28th, 1865.
30 Mr. J. A. Froude February 28th, 1865.
31 The Duc d'Anmale March 14th, 1865.
32 Mr. Alfred Tennyson March 14th, 1865.
33 Lord Cairns February 27th, 1866.
34 Mr. Edward Twisleton April 24th, 1866.
_From Lord Clarendon_
_Rome, February 2nd_.--I cannot let an old friend like yourself hear by
common report an event most interesting to us, and which will therefore, I
am sure, not be without interest to you. Emily [Footnote: Lord Clarendon's
youngest daughter. The marriage took place on May 5th.] is to marry Odo
Russell. [Footnote: Afterwards Lord Ampthill.] It has been an attachment of
some standing on his part, and as she has become very certain of its depth
and sincerity, they came to an understanding two days ago. His worldly
goods are not superabundant, but he is very rich in all the qualities
likely to make a woman happy; he is very clever and accomplished, and I
speak with a knowledge of him for many years when I say that he is one of
the best-tempered and kindest-hearted men I ever was acquainted with. Such
a son as he has always been must make a good husband. In short, we are all
very happy....
How I should like to have a talk with you upon home and foreign affairs,
and how I should like to think that you viewed them less gloomily than I
do! There is great expectation at Rome that Italy will break up, and that
the Holy Father will recover his provinces. Italy, mishandled as she has
been by quacks, is doubtless very sick; but she is still proud of the
union, and will fight for it against all comers. Things look black, and
are, to my mind, getting blacker, every day in France. That _paries
proximus_ concerns us, in our present uneasy condition, more than one likes
to think of.
_From Lord Chelmsford_
_7 Eaton Square, February 10th, 11 P.M._--Your letter, just received, has
caused me the greatest perplexity. To provide you help on the sudden is
impossible; and, agreeing with you that it is desirable to supply Lord
Kingsdown's place with a strong man, I ask, Where is the judicial Samson
to be found? I think it highly improbable that Mellish would abandon his
professional profits for the barren honour of a right honourable title and
a seat at the board. Besides, there is no knowing what the Commission,
which is inquiring into all the superior Courts, both original and
appellate, may recommend; and I hear of very sweeping suggestions being
made. I therefore feel that, at present, I am fettered in my attempts to
add strength to the Judicial Committee. In your difficulties, I hardly know
what to advise; but could you not take the Admiralty cases and postpone the
others, getting Phillimore to join you till Kindersley can return? This is
the only possible escape from the necessity of closing your sittings that
occurs to me at the present moment.
The Journal here notes:--
_February 12th_--The Duc d'Aumale dined with us, to meet Lady Minto, G.
Lefevre, and E. Cheney. A spy got hold of this little dinner, and it
was reported to the French Government as a conspiracy. Mon [the Spanish
Ambassador in Paris] told Raymond of it afterwards.
_14th_--I dined with the Joinvilles; and on the 16th with the Duc de
Nemours at Bushey. Xavier Raymond was staying with us.
_February 23rd_--I walked back from the Temple Church with Lord Chancellor
Chelmsford. Two days afterwards he was turned out of office by Disraeli.
_From Mr. Robert Lytton_ [Footnote: At this time secretary of legation at
Lisbon, and known in the world of letters as 'Owen Meredith.' Afterwards
Earl Lytton.]
Lisbon, February 22nd.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--I am ashamed of having left so long unanswered your
last very kind letter. But for the last three weeks I have had little
leisure, and less health to enjoy it. Indeed, this is really my first free
moment since your letter reached me. Your excellent and welcome news of
Emily's engagement [Footnote: Lady Emily Villiers. See _ante_.] to Odo
Russell was confirmed by the same post in a line from Emily to Edith,
[Footnote: Mrs. Lytton, the Lady Emily's first cousin.] and has given us
the greatest pleasure--me especially; for I have a great regard for Odo,
and any other settlement of this particular Roman question [Footnote: Odo
Russell was at this time, and had been for the last ten years, living at
Rome, practically--though not formally--ambassador to the Vatican.] would
have much disappointed my hopes. Emily, in her letter to my wife, spoke of
remaining at Rome for another month or more (the marriage not being fixed
to take place before May, at the Grove); but I see by the papers that Lord
Clarendon is already on his way homeward, and I am much _intrigué_ by that
article in the 'Times,' which has, I see, been re-echoed by other papers,
suggesting some modification in the present Cabinet on account of Lord
Derby's health.
The present Portuguese Government does not seem to be at all favourably
disposed towards Mr. Flores, or to think more highly of him than you do.
But in this country one can never be quite sure what the pressure of
political opposition or support may wring from a weak Government in the way
of concession to any _intriguant;_ and, if Flores can command votes, he may
be listened to; otherwise not, I fancy.
The monthly F. O. bag has just brought me the January 'Edinburgh,' for
which a thousand thanks. I have not yet had time to cut the leaves of it.
Pray accept my best thanks for the cheque mentioned in your letter. I am
all the more grateful to you for the good will on behalf of 'Chronicles and
Characters,' to which you so kindly and generously give renewed expression,
because I have just seen what I cannot but think a very unjust notice of
the book in the 'Athenaeum.' In endeavouring to illustrate a continuous
strain of thought passing over a wide range of subject, one of my chief
aims was diversity of form and variety of style; but there can be no doubt
that versatility is always in danger of running into imitation. Play always
on the Jew's harp, and no one will accuse you of imitating the tone of any
other instrument. I do not pretend that my own instrument is an organ: but
I would rather it should be the smallest harmonicum than the strongest and
shrillest Jew's harp.
_From Mr. S. H. Walpole_
Ealing, March 29th.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--I am quite ashamed of myself for not having thanked you
before for your valuable hints about the effect and ultimate consequences
of Gladstone's motion. [Footnote: March 30th, for the Disestablishment of
the Irish Church, of which notice was given on March 23rd.] I have long
thought that his aim and object has been for years to separate the Church
from the State, and so set up an episcopal and sacerdotal power, which
would endeavour to exercise an unbounded control over the consciences,
actions, and private judgement of men. The only check upon this is the
supremacy of the civil power in the external government of the Church, and
the obligation of the clergy to submit and subscribe to the doctrine
and liturgy which, once for all, the Church and State have concurred in
prescribing. All ritualism, all tractarianism, and much high-churchism is
in secret, if not in avowed, rebellion against such a supremacy; and if it
[Footnote: _Sc_. the supremacy of the civil power.] could only be struck
down in Ireland, it would not be long before an attack on it was made in
England. What may happen to-morrow I cannot regard with much satisfaction.
Gladstone's motion is the most impudent assault on the Crown which any
ex-minister ever made; and Stanley's amendment is an illogical surrender
of our best defence. He ought to have ended in plain words, by saying that
'the House is of opinion that the disestablishment and disendowment of the
Church in Ireland would be contrary to, and in direct violation of, the
fundamental and essential articles of the Treaty of Union.' The country
would have then understood what we were about; it can hardly understand it
now.
I am out of heart and have many misgivings when ex-ministers of the Crown,
and the actual minister of the Crown, assail or abandon the Crown's
prerogative for the value of place and power.
Yours always very sincerely,
S. H. WALPOLE.
Walpole's interpretation of Gladstone's 'aim and object' may now appear
strained. It was, however, certainly held, at the time, by many who argued
that Gladstone's character was itself a direct contradiction to the charge
of his proposed measure being one of spoliation and robbery. [Footnote: See
_post_.] It is, perhaps, more probable that he was greatly influenced by
the Utopian sentimentalism which so powerfully influenced his later career,
and led him to the extreme courses so bitterly condemned by many of his old
colleagues and adherents. At the same time it must be remembered that when,
nearly thirty years later, a Radical measure was brought forward for the
disestablishment of the Church in Wales, with the avowed intention of
advancing by it to the disestablishment of the Church of England, although
the great body of the Church, clergy and laity, vehemently denounced it as
antagonistic to the best interests of the Church and the country, there
were many of the extreme ritualistic section who openly favoured and
supported it, with freedom on their tongues and sacerdotalism in their
hearts.
The Journal here has:--
Went to St. Leonard's with the Watneys for Good Friday (April 10th). On
Easter Sunday to Holland, with Circourt. Dined with Baudin, [Footnote:
The son of Charles Baudin, the distinguished admiral. Cf. _Les Gloires
Maritimes de France_, par Jurien de la Gravière.] the French minister at
the Hague.
_April 13th_.--Spent the evening with the Queen of Holland at the Old
Palace. 14th, evening with the Queen. 16th, went on, by Utrecht, to Aix,
where Circourt and I remained ten days. Came home by Antwerp.
_From Mr. Robert Lytton_
Madrid, April 29th.
Dear Mr. Reeve,--I must apologise for not having sooner thanked you for
your very kind letter of the 8th, which reached me just as I was starting
(paperless and penless) for Madrid. The cares of this world (in the shape
of house-hunting), quite unaccompanied by the deceitfulness of riches,
have, I am sorry to say, eaten up every hour of my time not otherwise
absorbed by official visits and presentations, &c., since we reached--a
week ago--this pretty, busy, but horribly hot and dear, town.
I am really pained to think that your kind intention on behalf of my book
should already have been the occasion of so much trouble to you, dear Mr.
Reeve; and I can only say that I am all the more grateful to you for not
having altogether abandoned it. A notice in the 'Edinburgh' will at all
times be most valuable; and the more touches there may be in it from your
pen, the more valuable it will be. The notice in the 'Times' was indeed
very kindly written, and very kindly inserted, and I doubt not that it will
be very advantageous to the book in many ways.
I am greatly and agreeably struck by the animation and showiness of
Madrid--after Lisbon, which is one of the dullest towns I ever saw. Life
at Lisbon is _en robe de chambre_; here it is all _en toilette_. Madrid is
like a pretty provincial who has been to Paris, and come back _mise à la
mode_, and with a decided taste for spending more money than she has at
her bankers'. The beauty of the women's faces, too, as you see them in the
streets, the Prado, and at the opera (for I have not yet seen the _beau
monde_ at home), is very agreeable. Pretty faces seem to be as plentiful
here as gold nuggets in the streets of Eldorado, when Candide saw them.
The day after we got to Madrid, Narvaes died, and till yesterday he has
been lying in state and receiving the visits of a grateful public at all
hours of the day. Yesterday his body, _empaillé_, was removed with due
honours to be buried in Andalusia. The story goes about the town that on
his deathbed his confessor, having told him to forgive his enemies, he
replied: 'I have none.' 'Impossible! A man who has been governing Spain so
long must have many.' 'But I assure you there is no man alive whom I even
suspect to be my enemy.' 'No enemies?' 'None; I have shot them all!'
I sincerely hope that you will be able to visit Spain in the autumn. About
that time, if still here, I shall try to see Seville and the South. But my
plans are entirely dependent on Crampton's [Footnote: Sir John Crampton,
minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, retired from the public service on
July 1st, 1869.] movements; and I fear we shall have to pass the summer at
Madrid, which I rather dread on account of the children, who have already
caught feverish colds. With my wife's affectionate greetings, and my own
respects, to Mrs. Reeve, pray believe me to be yours very faithfully,
R. LYTTON.
The Journal records:--
_May 6th_.--Disraeli was in the chair at the Literary Fund dinner. [He
spoke--wrote Mrs. Reeve--with grace, and had a brilliant reception. I never
heard such cheering at any previous dinner. He has stormy nights in the
House of Commons, and how it will end is still uncertain; but his
wonderful tact and control of feature, voice, and language give him marked
advantage.]
_From the Comte de Paris_
York House, Twickenham, le 20 mai.
Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,--Je ne puis résister au désir d'appeler votre
bienveillante attention sur le dernier numéro de la 'Revue des deux
Mondes,' que je ne vous envoie pas, sachant que vous la recevez, où notre
excellent ami X. Raymond a traité la question de l'église d'Irlande.
Je veux en même temps réclamer votre indulgence pour son travail, et vous
demander de ne pas vous étonner si vous n'y retrouvez ni la clarté de
style ni la variété de connaissances qui distinguent votre ami. Ne le lui
reprochez pas trop sévèrement, car, s'il est coupable, ce n'est pas de
cela.
Élevé dans le respect de la loi, je ne puis vous en dire davantage, et je
me bornerai à vous rappeler qu'il y a actuellement dans la loi française
deux articles, l'un interdisant aux exilés d'écrire dans les journaux,
qui ne me permet pas de me présenter comme collaborateur de la 'Revue;'
l'autre, punissant les journaux qui publient des articles sous des
signatures autres que celle de l'auteur, qui ne me permet pas de vous en
dire davantage.
Je termine en vous priant de me croire toujours
Votre bien affectionné,
LOUIS-PHILIPPE D'ORLÉANS.
_From the Dean of St. Paul's_
Deanery, St. Paul's, June 19th.
My Dear Reeve,--Your article [Footnote: 'The National Church,' which
appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July.] I think admirable. I have
ventured to make one or two verbal suggestions, but on the main of your
argument I am fully with you. There are only two points which I should
propose for your reconsideration. I do not quite see the bearing of your
argument about the Cardross case, and do not quite understand the decision
of the Scotch judges. [Footnote: The Free Church minister of Cardross had
been deposed by the Church Courts for drunkenness. He applied to the civil
court for redress, and was thereupon summarily ejected from the Free
Church. The Court of Session decided that the defenders--the Church
Courts--'are invested with no jurisdiction whatever, ecclesiastical or
civil.'] Surely every corporation, or, indeed, every club, has, and must
have, the power of excluding--excommunicating is only the theologian's term
for the same thing--any member who flagrantly violates its rules and first
principles. If a member of the Athenaeum were to get roaring drunk and
disturb the place, and endanger the character of the club, the committee or
a general meeting might eject him, though he would have some plea in his
vested right in the property of the club--the house, library, &c. If the
mistake in the Cardross case was that the culprit was ejected without
trial, that, I think, should be distinctly stated. If the flaw is that it
was done by the Church officers, without the general consent or sanction of
the Kirk, this also should be made clear. I rather demur to the division
of the ecclesiastical property now held by the Irish Church, according
strictly to the proportion of its members to the rest of the population.
Possession, and possession for three centuries, ought, I think, to be taken
into account. But this is a question rather of detail than of principle.
But the real difficulty you have stated fairly and clearly: On what terms,
and under what character, is the Protestant Church, when disestablished,
to hold the property--the churches, parsonages, &c.--which is to remain to
her? The Church must have a constitution--I do not see why not ratified by
Act of Parliament--by which the trustees which represent her will legally
hold that property. She must not be exposed in a few years to a Lady
Hewley's charity case. [Footnote: Sarah, Lady Hewley, at her death, in
1710, left landed property in trust for the support of 'poor and godly
preachers of Christ's holy Gospel.' The original trustees were all
Presbyterians; but in the course of a hundred years the trust had got into
the hands of Unitarians, and the case was brought to the notice of the
Charity Commissioners. After a prolonged litigation, it was finally decided
by the House of Lords (August 5th, 1842) that, by the terms of the bequest,
Unitarians were excluded from participating in the charity.] I suggested
to the Archbishop of Armagh--a good-natured, but not a very powerful,
man--that the Irish Church, when in one sense free, should yet retain, of
its own will, the advantages of the supremacy of the Crown and of the law.
She should take, as the fundamental tenet of her constitution, conformity
to the Articles and Formularies of the Church of England, which the
majority of the English hold, in their meaning and interpretation. On
this principle she might retain a jurisdiction, amenable to law, over her
members; her members be protected against episcopal tyranny, against that
which is now the great danger, parsonocracy, which I rejoice to find that
you repudiate as strongly as I or Stanley. Ever very truly yours,
H. H. MILMAN.
_From Lord Cairns_
_July 23rd_.--Many thanks for the copy of your article on the National
Church. I had begun to read it with great interest in the 'Edinburgh
Review,' not knowing that it was directly from your pen, and I shall now
continue the perusal with increased pleasure.... I will enclose with this,
in exchange for your paper, a copy of my speech on the Irish Church--a
Diomedean exchange; the value of ten oxen for a hundred.
During all this spring Reeve had suffered a great deal from gout, so, by
the advice of Sir Henry Holland, who spoke strongly of the necessity of
change of air and of rest from all work and effort, he and his wife started
for the Continent on July 24th. Passing through Paris, and staying a few
days at Fontainebleau, they went on to Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne, and
to Royat, then newly come into vogue as a health resort. After about three
weeks of the baths and the mountain air, Reeve was so far recovered as to
be able to walk a little; and on August 18th they passed on to Geneva,
where they were joined by their friends the Watneys, with whom they went
on to Evian, and thence by the Valais to the Bel Alp, an hotel 7,000 feet
above the sea-level, commanding magnificent views. 'Christine,' wrote Reeve
in his Journal, 'went up the Sparrenhorn with Binet,' whilst, according
to Mrs. Reeve, 'Henry and Mrs. Watney, not being moveable bodies, sat at
windows and pooh-poohed the energetic use of legs.' From the Bel Alp,
Reeve, still very much of a cripple, 'was carried'--the expression is his
own--to Brieg. Thence, by the Furca, to Hospenthal and to Zurich, the falls
of the Rhine, Bâle, and Paris, where they stayed a few days, and returned
to London on September 10th.
_From the Comte de Paris_
_York House, July 26th_.--I had already seen the remarkable article which
you have just published in the 'Edinburgh Review,' when I received the copy
you so kindly thought of sending me, and which I shall keep as a souvenir
of the author. I hasten to thank you, and to tell you with what interest
I have read this study, so full of curious facts and remarkable
appreciations. If I was called on to decide the question in its entirety,
I should decline, in the first place as a Catholic. Indeed I cannot place
myself at the Protestant point of view so as to judge what services the
union of Church and State has rendered to the religious principles which
are the basis of the Protestant faith. And the lay system of the official
Church of England is so foreign to our ideas of religious authority that it
is difficult for us to be impartial towards it. Those who do not belong to
the Anglican Church are naturally tempted to attribute to this subjection
everything in her which, in their eyes, is error or change. I should also
decline as a Frenchman, for I confess that what troubles me most at the
present time is the relation between the Catholic Church and the State,
a relation which has been equally prejudicial to both, when founded on a
political union.
But without trying to judge such a delicate question, which will be a
subject of controversy as long as the world is given up to the disputes of
man, I have found a real pleasure in seeing this clear explanation of the
principles which form the basis of a system whose adherents are so many and
so distinguished....
_From Lord Clarendon_
_The Grove, August 2nd._--Lord Russell does not much like some parts of the
article on the Irish Church, and wishes to write five or six pages on the
subject for the November [Footnote: _Sic_ for October.] number; but
not feeling sure whether you would accept them, he has asked me to
inquire--which I hereby do. If you have not set out for Russia, [Footnote:
_Sc._ or other out-of-the-way place. It has been seen that, at the time,
Reeve was at Royal.] perhaps you will write him a line yourself, as I start
for Wiesbaden on Tuesday.
As no note from Lord Russell appeared in the October number, it would seem
probable that Reeve did not encourage the idea. His own relations to Lord
Russell were not such as to prompt him to any undue complacence, and he was
at all times extremely averse from anything like a controversy either in
or about the 'Review.' It has happened to the present writer to have
statements or opinions put forward in his contributions to the 'Review'
called in question in the daily or weekly papers, and to have been
pointedly requested by the editor to take no notice of the hostile letters
or criticisms. As the articles were strictly anonymous, the responsibility,
of course, rested with the editor, who, probably for that very reason, was
strongly opposed to an early revelation of a writer's personality.
The Journal notes visits to Farnborough and Denbigh, and some shooting at
Torry Hill; but the gout was still troublesome, and in October Reeve and
his wife went into Cornwall, where, after a week's visit to Lady Molesworth
at Pencarrow, they went to Penzance, to the Land's End and the Logan
Stone--on to which Mrs. Reeve clambered--and thence to Falmouth and
Torquay, where they met the Queen of Holland and Prince Napoleon, with whom
they spent two evenings. 'Her Majesty,' wrote Mrs. Reeve on November
4th, 'is a clever, original woman, speaking four tongues perfectly well,
conversant with literature and politics, and finding in them consolation
for an uncongenial family.' The sittings of the Judicial Committee, which
began on November 10th, called Reeve back to town, where, on the 27th, he
had the sad news of the death of his old friend Colonel Ferguson of Raith,
and, for the last three years, of Novar.
_From Lord Clarendon_
Grosvenor Crescent, November 13th.
My dear Reeve,--The Queen of Holland has proposed to dine here in the
unfurnished cupboard where we have our frugal repasts, on Monday next at
eight. We have no servants, plate, or usual appurtenances, and only six can
be crammed into the locale. Will you be one of them? and will Mrs. Reeve
excuse us for asking you alone on account of our no room? Please let me
have an answer as soon as you can.
Ever yours truly,
CLARENDON.
_Endorsed_--The dinner consisted of the Queen, Cockburn, Seymour, and self.
From the Bishop of Lincoln [Footnote: Christopher Wordsworth. Cf. _ante,_
vol. i. pp. 31, 68. VOL. II.]
November 21st.
My dear Reeve,--It is very good of you to write as you do concerning my
promotion. I should indeed have been well content to remain in the peaceful
harbour of Westminster for the remainder of my days, instead of putting out
to sea in a rather weather-beaten bark in stormy weather. But such kind
words as yours encourage me to hope that, if I am wrecked in the storm, I
may be picked up by some friendly vessel and brought to land again. I have,
my dear friend, your congratulations, and let me have also your prayers. I
am, my dear Reeve,
Yours sincerely,
CHR. WORDSWORTH. [Footnote: He had not yet adopted the episcopal
signature.]
I send you three pamphlets. Do not think me troublesome, but you ought
really to take up (pardon me for saying so) the question of the approaching
great Roman Council, which will probably affirm the personal infallibility
of the Pope, and be fraught with the most important results to Europe,
political as well as ecclesiastical.
_From Lord Cairns_
Windsor Castle, November 29th.
My dear Reeve,--I send you in a separate cover my notes of a judgement in
Rugg _v._ Bishop of W. for printing and circulation; and I enclose in this
a letter which I have had from Lord Westbury, which is in accordance with
the judgement as it stands, but which it would perhaps be best to put in
print and circulate along with the judgement. I hope in a week or ten days
to have Mackonochie ready--that is, if I am not smothered in the meantime
by the books and pamphlets which the Ritualists daily shower upon me.
Yours faithfully, CAIRNS.
As the general election had left his party in a minority of about 130,
Disraeli resigned on December 4th, and Mr. Gladstone, who had put the
disestablishment of the Irish Church prominently before the electors,
formed a ministry which was from the beginning pledged to the measure. It
was known that this would meet with no support from Lord Westbury, so that
he was necessarily 'left out in the cold,' not without some misgivings as
to what a man so cunning in fence might say or write when his opinions were
sharpened by a sense of personal injury. To Lord Westbury, however,
the slight was lost in his wrath at the barefaced avowal of a plan of
spoliation; and, without taking the trouble to date his letter, he wrote:--
_From Lord Westbury_
[_December_].--These written judgements are a great bore. I imagine
(no doubt from vanity) that, at the end of the argument, I could have
pronounced _viva voce_ a much more effective and convincing judgement than
that which I have written. The _vis animi_ evaporates during the slow
process of writing; the conception fades and the expression becomes feeble.
What we shall do with the other case of Mackonochie I dread to think. I
wish we had knocked it off while the iron was hot, as we used to do
the running down cases. There is no chance of a decision this side of
Christmas.
I have come up to town on some private matters, and have not the least
notion of mingling in any political matters. In fact, I gave my people to
understand so clearly last session that I would reject with abhorrence
any measure that embodied these two wicked things--l. Stripping the Irish
Church of its property to convert it to secular uses, which is robbery; 2.
Destroying episcopacy in, and the Queen's supremacy over, the Established
Church in Ireland, which is a wanton, unnecessary, and most mischievous
act--that of course I could not expect any communication from them.
The weakness of the Government in its legal staff in the House of Commons
will be very great, but the opposition will be weaker. It cannot be
expected that Palmer [Footnote: Sir Roundell Palmer, afterwards Earl of
Selborne, had been successively Solicitor--and Attorney-General during the
whole of the Liberal Administration 1859-66; but on the formation of Mr.
Gladstone's Government declined the Great Seal with a peerage, on account
of his disapproval of the proposed disestablishment and disendowment of the
Irish Church. Notwithstanding Lord Westbury's forecast, he did speak very
strongly against the Bill on the second reading (March 22nd, 1869), voted
with the minority against it, and took an active part against it in the
Committee.] will take a very active part in opposition. Then what lawyer
have they? But in the House of Lords I hope the principles of English law
and of political expediency will be abundantly illustrated and explained,
and shown to be in direct opposition to the Government's destructive and
revolutionary measure; and if this be done, as the people of England are a
law-loving and law-abiding people, there may be a great reaction in public
feeling. And what will Wood be able to do against those opposed to him?
What a Cabinet! 'Misery,' says Trinculo, 'makes one acquainted with strange
bedfellows'--so, it seems, does unlooked-for prosperity. Only fancy
Granville, Clarendon, and the rest, pigging heads and tails with John
Bright in the same truckle bed! I am very thankful that I have an
opportunity of conversing in quiet with philosophers and poets at Hinton.
The following, written in a feminine hand on a half-sheet of note-paper,
belongs to this time. It is endorsed by Reeve--'Lord Derby's acrostic on
Gladstone;' but it does not appear whether the attributing it to Lord Derby
was on positive knowledge or on mere current gossip. The name of the author
was certainly not generally known.
G was a Genius and mountain of mind;
L a Logician expert and refined;
A an Adept at rhetorical art;
D was the Dark spot that lurked in his heart;
S was the Subtlety that led him astray;
T was the Truth that he bartered away;
O was the Cypher his conscience became;
N was the New-light that lit up the same;
E was the Evil-One shouting for joy,--
'Down with it! down with it! Gladstone, my boy!
[Footnote: Another, slightly different, edition of this acrostic, with the
answer to it from the Radical point of view, is given in Sir M. E. Grant
Duff's _Notes from a Diary,_ 1873-81, vol. i. p. 126.]
_From Lord Cairns_
_December 7th_--Putting aside the well-regulated party feeling which we
ought all to endeavour to cultivate, the sensation of a period of repose
after twenty-five years of hardish work is, to me, so novel and agreeable
that I fear I do not look on my exit from office [Footnote: On the fall of
Disraeli's ministry.] with the solicitude that I ought. But I do not the
less appreciate the kind sentiments in your note, and I can safely say that
upon the Judicial Committee, whether as Chancellor or as Lord Justice,
it has been a very great pleasure to me to co-operate with anyone whose
anxiety and efforts for the efficiency of the tribunal, and whose ability
to contribute to that end, are as great as yours.
I am most desirous that the two ecclesiastical judgements should be given
before Christmas, as I may be absent for some weeks after that day. I hope
to send you my draft in Mackonochie on Wednesday, and I will beg you to
print and circulate it as soon as possible. I wish I could have done it
sooner; but it is _magnum opus et difficile_, and I have had judgements in
chancery and other work on hand, and in this I felt obliged to trust to no
amanuensis.
The following letter is from the widow of Sir James Smith, the botanist
(_d_. 1828), and at this time in her ninety-sixth year. By her maiden name
she was Pleasance Reeve, an old family friend, but not a relation of
her namesake. Her letters are not less remarkable for the clearness and
strength of the writing, than they are for the vigour of the thought and
the lucidity of the expression. Five years later, just as she had completed
her one hundredth year, Reeve and his daughter paid her a visit at
Lowestoft, which is recorded on a later page. [Footnote: See _post_, p.
215.]
_Lowestoft, December 16th_--Surely, dear Mr. Reeve, this is not the first
time you have inquired of me concerning Lowestoft china? Either you, or Dr.
Hooker it might be; whichever it was, I sent him all that I knew about it,
and that all is very little, for I am one of the sceptics, and have been
filled with doubt and surprise at the reports I have heard. But I am told
I am quite mistaken, and that it surely had arrived at a great state of
perfection; that foreign artists had been employed; and that, if what is
shown is not Lowestoft china, what other is it? For there is a peculiarity
in it which those acquainted with [it] know at first sight, and which
is totally different from Chelsea, or Derby, or Worcestershire, or
Staffordshire. This I admit. One peculiarity Mr. S. Martin observed. The
bottoms of the saucers have very slight undulations, looking, as he said,
like a ribbon that requires ironing to be perfectly flat and smooth. This,
when he showed me, I also noticed; and, I must add, I have seen the same in
real Chinese china; but he told me he could distinguish better, and that it
was not the same. Also, there is a uniformity in certain little flowers
and roses which is seen in no others. The shapes are good, and as the
manufacture advanced the painting was improved; armorial bearings were
represented, and gilding.
S. Martin, who could send you a much more perfect account than I can,
always calls on an old woman--the widow of Rose, a painter--who recollects
their melting guineas for gold to gild with. She, perhaps, is dead now, for
when he last called she was bedrid, and nearly insensible. I recommend you
to ask of Mr. S. Martin, Liverpool, who, I am sure, would give you much
information I cannot.
What I do know I will tell as well as I can--That in my early youth there
was a manufactory; that I often went and _saw_ Mr. Allen dab a piece of
white clay on a wheel, and, with his foot turning the wheel, with his
right hand he formed a handsome basin or cup in a minute or two. The china
basins, cups, saucers, pots, jugs--everything was made here, painted here,
by poor sickly looking boys and girls, for it was a very unwholesome
trade--baked here; and they had a shop in London, which, I suppose,
took off the bulk of their manufactured articles. I remember the great
water-wheel which ground the clay--a fearful monster, sublime, I must say,
for it 'hid its limits in its greatness;' but the beautiful lake that
supplied it with water, and was covered with water-lilies, was one of my
favourite resorts.
Gillingwater [Footnote: _Historical Account of the Ancient Town of
Lowestoft_ (1790).] tells us that Mr. Hewling Luson found the clay on his
estate in 1756, made experiments, was defeated; other persons took it up,
and were also hindered through jealousy; another trial proved unsuccessful,
but repeated efforts succeeded, and the manufacture began, and went on till
about the end of the century, or early in 1800, when my brother bought a
few articles at the final sale by way of remembrance, but these, though
pretty, are by no means the choicest specimens. A man in the town has a
whole dinner service, with, I think, ducal bearings; and only last summer
Mr. Bohn [Footnote: Henry George Bohn, the well-known publisher, and almost
equally well-known collector of articles of vertu.] gave 5 £ to an old
man for one little cup, which the poor fellow intended as a legacy to his
daughter, and he unwillingly sold it; but 5 £ bribed him--or it might be
more; the original price was probably 4_d_. or 6_d_. at most.
Pray, dear Mr. Reeve, take no trouble to correct the name in Mrs.
Palliser's book of pottery. I never was a patroness of the Lowestoft china,
know but little about it, and do not wish my name to appear as being in
any other way connected with it than as being an inhabitant of the same
town.--I am, dear Mr. Reeve, yours faithfully,
P. SMITH.
And the Journal winds up the year with--
_December 31st_--To Hinton St. George, on a visit to Lord Westbury.
1869. The year opened at Hinton, shooting with Lord Westbury. Montague
Smith was there. Nothing ever amused me more than Lord Westbury's society,
and I became intimate with him. He was a strange mixture of intellectual
power and moral weakness, and his peculiar mode of speaking was at once
precise, pertinent, and comical. He had hired Hinton from Lord Paulet, and
lived there with a host of children and grandchildren. On Sundays all dined
together--I think, thirty-two of them.
_From the Duc d'Aumale_
_Woodnorton_, 16 _janvier_.--... Nous aurons une passable chasse à tir le
jour sacramental du lr février. Voulez-vous en être? L'ennui est que
c'est un lundi, et que le train du dimanche est d'une lenteur fabuleuse.
Voulez-vous venir dîner et coucher ici samedi 30, ou dimanche 31?
H. D'O.
From a later note of the Duke's, it appears that Reeve was unable to accept
the invitation to the _passable chasse,_ which he would have enjoyed,
especially as after four years there was no longer a question of the 'loose
box' or the 'kitchen dresser.'
The next letter, from Lord Westbury, is in evident answer to one from
Reeve about Lord Campbell's 'Lives of Lyndhurst and Brougham,' then newly
published, of which a very severe--not, it was thought, too severe--article
appeared in the 'Review' for April. The article was not by Reeve; but we
may fairly suppose that he--to some extent, at least--inspired it; and
that--also to some extent--the inspiration was supplied by Lord Westbury.
_Hinton St. George, January 24th_--I wish you were here for two or three
days' shooting before the season closes, as the weather is so mild and
beautiful, and I hear that in London it is miserably cold. So tell Mrs.
Reeve that her Zomerzet is a favoured county after all.
As to what you say about the book, I remember a celebrated dinner at the
Temple, to which I invited Lyndhurst, Brougham, Campbell, and Charlie
Wetherell, when the latter warned Lyndhurst and Brougham of Campbell's
design, in terms almost prophetic of what has occurred. 'My biographical
friend will excel in exhibiting every little foible; _Hunc tu Romane
caveto_.' I cannot describe the whole scene to you, but will some day _vivâ
voce_.
_From the Duc d'Aumale_
Woodnorton, January 31st.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--An absence at Badminton, where I struggled for a few
hours' sport, first with the frost and then with hurricanes, has prevented
me from sooner answering your letter of the 26th.
I have searched the archives at Monte Cassino very minutely; I do not know
those of La Cava, which have the reputation of being very curious, but
more local and of less general interest than those of Monte Cassino.
The Cassinesi had a printing press, to which we owe many beautiful
publications, some unpublished sermons of St. Augustine's, several works by
the eloquent and learned Father Tosti, &c. They had prepared an edition of
an unpublished Commentary on Dante, and also of the valuable correspondence
of Mabillon, Montfaucon, and other clerics of the Congregation of St. Maur,
when, in consequence of the events of 1848, their printing presses were
sequestrated. At that time they were suspected of Liberalism. Now, when
secularisation has replaced sequestration, it seems to me that the Italian
Government ought to continue the literary and archaeological work of the
monks, as it has substituted itself in their proprietary rights; just as,
after the French Revolution, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres
carried on the immense work of the clerics of the Congrégation de St.-Maur.
This is my first impulse on reading M. de Circourt's letter. However, we
will speak of it further when I have the pleasure of seeing you again,
which I hope will be soon. _Mille amitiés._
H. D'ORLÉANS
The Journal notes:--
In London the usual dinners. Dined at Mr. Gladstone's on February 1st. This
was the first dinner he gave after becoming Prime Minister. There were
present Lord Lansdowne, Clarendon, Hammond, Northbrook, Helps, Kinnaird,
Doyle, Hamilton, and Salomons [Footnote: Created a baronet on October 26th
of the same year.]--an odd party. He received us in the hall.
_April 9th_--To Paris. 10th, at the Institute; saw Guizot, Mignet,
St.-Hilaire, Wolowski, Chevalier, &c., there. 18th, Chapel at the
Tuileries; saw the Emperor there--I think for the last time. 20th, went to
La Celle, [Footnote: La Celle St.-Cloud, about four miles from Versailles,
where M. de Circourt lived throughout the evening of his life.] and spent
some days there with Circourt. ['Henry,' wrote Mrs. Reeve, 'enjoyed his
days in the country with M. de Circourt vastly. We thought it unreasonable
to go all three, and a maid, to his small house; so Hopie and I careered
about the streets, went to a play, and to a dance at the Chinese
Embassy!--not very Chinese, as the minister is American, so also is his
wife, and the guests were mostly his country-folk.']
_23rd--Dined at M. Guizot's. 25th_--Dined with Thiers, and met Mignet,
St.-Hilaire, Duvergier, and Rémusat.
The Royal Academy Exhibition took place for the first time in Burlington
House. I dined with the R.A.s at Pender's.
_From M. Guizot_
_Val Richer, May 13th_--I took up my summer quarters here a week ago,
leaving the fifth volume of my 'Mémoires' in Paris, ready printed and on
the eve of publication. You will receive it next week. It deals entirely
with my embassy to England in 1840. I am anxious to know what will be
said of it in England; it will be very kind of you to supply me with the
information. You know that I love and honour England sufficiently always
to say what I think of her; and what she thinks of me concerns me closely,
whether our opinions are or are not the same.
I have found many letters and conversations of yours for 1840. But it was
more especially after this, and during the first year of my ministry,
that you helped me so effectively in preserving peace and re-establishing
friendly relations between our two countries. I hope you will not object to
my saying so....
The Journal mentions:--
_May 22nd._--Visit to Tom Baring's, at Norman Court. [Mr. Baring--wrote
Mrs. Reeve--is the head of the house of Baring Brothers; an elderly
gentleman and a bachelor, very simple, but very kindly. The house is not
large for the park and property, which is, all together, about 7,000 acres;
but pictures and china are renowned; so is the cooking; and, with such
wealth as is at our host's command, all the details are in perfection.
In the park there are many fine beech and other trees, and the yew grows
wonderfully, contrasting its dark tint with the soft, white may. On the
slope of the hill, about three miles off, grow service-trees and juniper;
and, from the ridge, one sees across the New Forest to the Solent and the
Isle of Wight.]
_June 4th_--Went to Windsor to see Mr. Woodward and the Queen's library.
Then to Farnborough for the Ascot week.
_July 2nd._--Watney's water-party to Medmenham Abbey, where we were all
photographed.
_13th_--Lucy Duff Gordon died at Cairo. Alexander asked me to write an
epitaph, which was put up there.
_From M. Guizot_
_Val Richer, July 14th_--When your letter of the 8th arrived I was on the
point of writing to ask you to tell me what is the best History of England
from the accession of Queen Anne to that of Queen Victoria. I have the
'Pictorial History of England,' Lord Stanhope's 'Eighteenth Century,' and
Mr. Alison's big volumes on the recent revolutionary times. These do not
satisfy me; I do not want political or moral appreciations. What I should
like would be a book in which all the events of any importance are related
in chronological order. I particularly hold to knowing the correct dates.
It is only on this condition that history can be materially known and
morally understood. It will be very kind of you to give me the information
I want. I amuse myself by relating to my grandchildren, at one time, the
history of France, at another, the history of England. They take great
interest in it. I want them to know both correctly, and understand them
well.
The Journal continues:--
_July 16th_.--Met the Duke of Leinster at Robartes' at dinner. He had made
a capital speech in the House of Lords a few days before, which I heard. It
lasted only three minutes; but it stated these facts:--That he had given
land and houses, with complete success, to priests, Presbyterians, and
Episcopalians; that all were grateful, and they lived happily together.
He afterwards told me, at this dinner, that he had not given the houses and
glebes to any ecclesiastical persons, but to certain lay members of each
congregation, in trust for their respective ministers. This was exactly
what I had suggested some little time before. The Duke said that, having
called one day to inquire for a very old Catholic priest living in one
of these houses, while he was sitting by his bedside, the Episcopalian
clergyman came into the room for the same purpose.
_Sunday, 18th_.--Dinner at Lord Granville's. I had not dined with him for
some years--since his marriage. The room was rather dark when I went in.
Lord Granville said something, as I understood, about a foreign countess to
whom he presented me, but I did not catch her name, and concluded she was
some Italian relative of the Marochettis. Lady Granville did not appear,
being unwell; and Lady Ailesbury, the only other lady present, did the
honours. The party consisted of the Duc de Richelieu (whom I had met the
night before at the Clarendons'), the Duca di Ripalta, Lord Clanwilliam,
Lord Tankerville, Baron Brunnow, Count Strogonoff, Chief Justice Cockburn,
and myself.
Upon sitting down at table I found myself between the Duc de Richelieu and
Lord Clanwilliam, and one removed from the foreign lady, who turned out
to be H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia. Strogonoff is the man she
married three years after her first husband's death--but she had to wait
till Nicholas died too. When Nicholas first observed his daughter's
preference for the young officer, he took him by the arm and pointed out
from the window the view of Fort George. Strogonoff thought the Emperor's
manner strange, but did not take the hint till his brother officers
reminded him that Fort George is a State prison; so there was no more
love-making till after the Tsar's death.
The Princess is at this time fifty, still extremely handsome, with a long
string of enormous pearls round her neck. Nothing could be more lively and
agreeable. She first carried on a contest with my neighbour, the Duc, about
the Emperor Napoleon; said he was only _trop bon_, and lauded him to the
skies. The Duc came out as the pure Legitimist, though he said his own
party had not a shadow of a chance; that the Emperor had been going down
ever since the fatal Italian campaign; that there were no Orleanists in
France, and that the Duc d'Aumale was conspiring against the Comte de
Paris, &c. &c.--a tissue of absurdity. Then, _sotto voce_ to me, 'Je
voudrais bien jouir davantage de votre société, mais vous voyez comme
je suis placé' (i.e. next the Princess). 'Très conservative dans mes
principes, je n'aime pas les princes. Il faut vivre avec ses égaux.' He
said this twice. The second time I replied, 'Monsieur, cela est bon pour
les ducs--mais nous autres?'
'Ah! sous ce rapport je ne fais aucune distinction. Hors des princes, tout
est égal.'
A good deal of conversation about the Irish Church Bill which is just now
in the crisis of the Lords' amendments. H.I.H. asked me my opinion. I
replied that they were now disputing about nothing at all--i.e. the
application of a surplus which will not exist for many years. Brunnow said
he was of the same opinion.
Lord Clanwilliam and I had a great deal of talk. He had been with Lord
Castlereagh at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. Spoke a good deal
of Metternich, justly. When M. met Guizot in London after 1848, he
was struck by the motto G. had adopted--_via recta brevissima_. Lord
Clanwilliam said that the shortest way was also the best. 'Yes,' added
Metternich, 'and it has also the advantage that on that path you don't meet
anybody'--'auf diesen Weg wird niemand begegnet.'
Sitting upstairs after this dinner I had a curious conversation with
Brunnow and Lord Granville on the causes of the Crimean War. They agreed
that had either Aberdeen or Palmerston been in power alone, the war would
have been prevented; but that the combination of the two rendered it
inevitable.
Brunnow said that there was, at one moment, a period of about ten days
during which the war might have been prevented, if Lord Granville had been
sent off on a special mission to St. Petersburg, but the Cabinet refused;
and then came Sinope. He declared that he had always told the Emperor that
Aberdeen, though averse to war, had not the power to prevent it; and in
proof of his own sincerity he caused a million of Russian money which was
in the Bank of England to be removed, as early as September 1853, though
this was against the opinion of Nesselrode.
After his return to England on the peace, Lord Aberdeen said to him,
with great emotion, 'I never deceived you, my dear Brunnow.' To which B.
replied: 'No; my dear lord, you never did.' He said that at Paris in 1856
Walewski had at once told him that the Emperor Napoleon was resolved to
have peace.
It was a most pleasant and curious evening, and everyone went away in good
humour.
_25th_--Went to Aix with Helen Richardson. Over to Cologne and Kreuznach
with the Watneys and Boothbys. Dined with Goldsmid at Bonn. Saw Professor
Sybel there.
The following letter, on a subject in which Mrs. Oliphant took much
interest, was addressed to Reeve rather in his editorial than his personal
capacity. The two were very well acquainted, but do not seem to have
corresponded in ordinary course.
Dunkerque, August 14th.
Dear Sir,--You will, I have no doubt, think it extremely womanish and
unreasonable on my part to have proposed writing a paper on such a
much-discussed subject as Mr. Mill's book, without indicating the manner in
which I should treat it; but my object was, first, to know whether it was
open, and if you would be disposed, other things harmonising, to entrust it
to me. I will not say, as was my first impulse, that your own intention of
taking up the subject is quite sufficient answer for me; for, of course,
you are the best judge in that respect, and I am really anxious to have
an opportunity of saying my say, with gravity and pains, on a matter so
important.
I entirely agree with you in your opinion of Mr. Mill's theory of marriage
and the relations between men and women. I think it is not only fallacious,
but a strangely superficial way of regarding a question which is made
only the more serious by the fact that a great deal of suffering and much
injustice result, not from arbitrary and removable causes, but from nature
herself, and those fundamental laws which no agitation can abrogate.
My own idea is that woman is neither lesser man, nor the rival of man, but
a creature with her share of work so well defined and so untransferable, as
to make it impossible for her, whatsoever might be her gifts and training,
to compete with him on perfectly fair terms. There may or may not be
general inferiority of intellect--I have no theory on the subject; but
intellect, in my opinion, is not the matter in question. Could the burdens
of maternity be transferred, or could a class of female celibates be
instituted, legislation might be able to do everything for them. But beyond
this, I do not see how we can go, except in the case of such measures as
those you refer to for the protection of the property of married women,
which has already been anticipated by ordinary good sense and prudence, and
thus been proved as practicable as it is evidently needful.
I am disposed to accept gratefully such safeguards of practical justice,
and also every possibility of improved education, though I put no great
faith in the results of the latter; the great difficulty in the case of
every female student being, in my opinion, not the want of power, or
perseverance, or energy, but the simple yet much more inexorable fact that
she is a woman, and liable, the moment she marries, to interruptions
and breaks in her life, which must infallibly weaken all her chances of
success. This is the line I should take in any paper on the subject; and
as few people could speak more fully from experience, I think perhaps my
contribution to the discussion--from within, as it were, and not from
without--might be worth having. Believe me, truly yours,
M. O. W. OLIPHANT.
And, on the lines here indicated, Mrs. Oliphant wrote the article on 'Mill
and the Subjection of Women' in the October number of the 'Review.'
On August 24th, Reeve with his wife started for Scotland; but the grouse
had been nearly exterminated by the disease, the shooting was everywhere
very indifferent, and a month was passed in a number of friendly visits, of
which little trace is left beyond the bare names. On September 21st they
returned to London, where, in preparing for a contemplated journey to
Portugal, he had to arrange for the sittings of the Judicial Committee
immediately after his return. The following shows the kind of difficulty he
had to contend with:--
_From Lord Cairns_
_September 27th_--I am very sorry that I shall be unable to take part in
your sittings after Michaelmas Term. I have arranged to give up November to
that dreadful arbitration of the London, Chatham, and Dover, which, in a
weak moment, Salisbury and I undertook; and, after that, I go to Mentone,
where I have taken a house for the winter.... I should regret very much to
dissever myself from the sittings of the Judicial Committee, which I
have always found agreeable, both from the interesting character of the
business, and from the pleasant composition of the tribunal; and I hope in
next year to be able to afford more service than I have in this; but for
the next sitting I must not be reckoned on. I hope you will enjoy your run
to Portugal.
This contemplated tour was, no doubt, mainly for the pleasure and interest
of visiting a country still unknown to him, but with a slight pretext of
business, as chairman of the Lusitanian Mining Company. A few days before
his departure he received the following from Lord Clarendon:--
_The Grove, October 3rd_--You will not find Murray at Lisbon, as he is
on leave; but a letter shall be written, and to Doria, the _chargé
d'affaires_, to render you any service in his power. Do you want one to the
consul at Oporto?
I am glad you approved what I said at Watford. I never dreamt of the speech
making a sensation, but it has; and as there was nothing remarkable in it,
it is a proof that people were looking for an assurance from somebody that
a policy of spoliation was not meditated.
I can't say I got much good from Wiesbaden, where mental torpor, and not a
dozen red boxes per day, is required.
* * * * *
And so, accompanied by his wife and daughter, and armed with these letters
of introduction and 'a Foreign Office bag, more,' wrote Mrs. Reeve, 'to
give us importance, I suspect, than to convey despatches,' Reeve started as
soon as his work was cleared off and the October number of the 'Review' was
fairly out of his hands.