CHAPTER XXIII

THE ONE MORE CHANGE

The very wide range of Reeve's studies has appeared from many indications

scattered through these pages, and it has been seen how, at different

times, he was occupying himself with various subjects far outside the

ordinary course of reading. These were, however, connected by some general

idea which pervaded the whole. Of natural science he knew little. As a boy,

the study of mathematics was irksome to him and repulsive, nor was he at

any later time more favourably inclined towards it. His acquaintance

with astronomy, chemistry, physics, and the cognate sciences was very

limited--not more, perhaps, than he picked up in his careful and

intelligent study of the articles published in the 'Edinburgh Review'

during the forty years of his editorship. His real knowledge was confined

by a band of history, but of history in its very widest sense, including

not only war and politics and law, but political economy, literature,

religion, and superstition. Of military science he had read sufficient to

take a technical interest in the details of battles and campaigns, and

he was perhaps one of the first landsmen of this age to understand the

'influence of sea-power.' His attention had been called to this at a very

early period in his career by the utter collapse of Mehemet Ali in Syria;

and reasoning on that, he had learned that 'sea-power,' or, as he preferred

to call it, 'maritime-power,' controlled and directed affairs with which,

at first sight, it seemed to have absolutely nothing to do.

Long before Captain Mahan began to teach, or to write those admirable works

which came as a revelation to the English and the European public, he had

opened the pages of the 'Edinburgh Review' to writers who, in different

ways and in different degrees, were inculcating the same doctrine, which

during the long peace, and by reason of the overwhelming superiority of the

allies in the Russian war, had been almost forgotten, even by professional

men. It would not be difficult to show how, during the thirty years which

preceded the publication of Captain Mahan's 'Influence of Sea-Power,' its

most important theories were illustrated and discussed in the pages of the

'Review.' The following, by one of the most accomplished officers in our

navy, refers to such an article in the January number:--

_From Captain Bridge, R.N._

_January 19th_.--As an Englishman and a sailor, I feel it to be a duty

again to congratulate you on the article 'Naval Supremacy,' &c., in the new

number of the 'Edinburgh Review.' That article and the one concerning which

I previously addressed you can hardly fail to do good. The Maurician school

and its 'two Army-corps and a cavalry division,' which were to be launched

at the Caucasus, must have received a severe check from the earlier

article. The disaster-breeding facts of the fort-builders can hardly

survive many more such assaults as that so sharply driven home in 'Naval

Supremacy.' The opinions of the writer of the latter, I venture to think,

foreshadow those of the Navy on the subject of huge ships and huge guns.

I hold it to be highly beneficial to the country that the editor of the

'Edinburgh Review' should have so keen an appreciation and, for a civilian,

so rare a knowledge of naval affairs.

_From Lord Derby_

_April 3rd_--What a new Europe is beginning! Bismarck dismissed; Emperors

holding Socialist conferences; more attempts to murder the Tsar; strikes

all over the world; Germans going to Prussianise Central Africa! No want of

novelty in our time and amusing enough, if one is far enough off.

_From the Duc d'Aumale_

_Chantilly_, 14 _juin_.--Où diable avais-je la tête, mon cher ami? (ne

montrez pas ce préambule à nos amis puritains.) Je croyais bien vous avoir

écrit que je comptais passer la mer vers le 22, dîner avec le Club le 24,

embrasser mes neveux et nièces de toutes générations, voir quelques amis,

et rentrer ici vers la fin de la semaine. Je persiste dans ce projet,

_weather permitting_; c'est-à-dire sauf le cas de tempête que l'on est bien

forcé de prévoir avec une pareille saison. A bientôt donc, s'il plaît à

Dieu. Je finis mieux que je ne commence, et je vous serre la main.

H. D'O.

_From the Duc d'Aumale_

_Chantilly_, 26 _juillet_.--J'essaye de chasser par le travail les

préoccupations qui m'obsèdent. Je n'y réussis pas toujours. Est-ce l'effet

de l'âge? mais je suis de plus en plus anxieux sur l'avenir de mon pays et

même de l'Europe. Nous sommes dans le faux depuis 1848, et il est sorti de

la guerre de '70 un état de choses bien périlleux.

Au revoir et mille amitiés.

The diary and the correspondence for the rest of the year are singularly

barren of interest. A troublesome attack of sciatica in the end of July led

to Reeve's being advised to try Harrogate, whither he accordingly went

in the beginning of August. He found the place--possibly also the

water--disagreeable, and after a week's stay he went on to Bolton Abbey, to

Minto, and to Chesters. By the end of the month he was back at Foxholes,

where he remained throughout September. Early in October he went for a ten

days' visit to Knowsley, where he met Froude and the Duc d'Aumale, with

whom he returned to London. Then to Foxholes for a month, coming up to

town in the middle of November, and--with the exception of a week at

Easter--staying there till May 1891.

_From Lord Derby_

_Knowsley, January 20th_.--What do you think of Home Rule in its present

phase? Chamberlain says it is dead; I say it is badly crippled, but capable

of a good deal of mischief still. I see no new question coming forward,

except that of strikes, eight-hours legislation, and Socialism generally.

Do you ever see the 'New Review'? I picked it up yesterday, and read a very

pretty Socialist programme by Morris and a Mr. Bernard Shaw, whom I never

heard of before, but who is apparently rather clever and rather cracked. I

suspect ideas of that class are making progress.

This letter, though not calling for any hurry, Reeve answered immediately,

as was his general custom. It was indeed only by this prompt attention

that, with the enormous correspondence which he carried on, he could

prevent an accumulation which would have been overwhelming.

_To Lord Derby_

62 _Rutland Gate, January 21st_.--I think Home Rule, as an English party

cry, has received a death blow, and cannot be used to bring a party into

power. But Ireland remains open, an eternal field of agitation, and the

Irishmen are still in the House of Commons. Perhaps the want of funds may

embarrass them. I have not seen the 'New Review,' but there is a vast deal

of lawlessness and wild speculation in the air, injurious to the first

conditions of social life, and I confess I have no unbounded confidence in

the boasted good sense of the English people; they are very ignorant and

very selfish. No one tells them so many sensible home truths as yourself.

As for the strikes, the strikers are the greatest sufferers.

I have published a remarkable article on the fiscal system of the United

States--by an American--which I hope you will read. My contributor thinks

there are great difficulties ahead in America, and Mr. Blaine's bluster is

an attempt to direct public attention into another channel.

I have been laid up for some days with a cold and gout, but have been out

to-day and am better. I never remember so terrible a winter; but we hope it

is passing away, though it is still freezing here.

_Foxholes, May 12th_.--I was sorry to leave London without seeing you and

Lady Derby again; but the Fates were against me: you were laid up with

cold, and I have been troubled for some weeks with sciatica, which impedes

my movements. I hope you have shaken off your attack and will get out of

town. The atmosphere of London seems to be in a very noxious state, and I

don't know that the atmosphere of the House of Commons is much better. A

committee of the whole House strikes an outsider as the clumsiest machine

for legislation that was ever invented.

An unlimited power of moving amendments brings us to the same results as

the Polish Veto.

I hope to come up to the dinners of The Club on June 2nd and 16th. On the

latter day the Duc d'Aumale will dine with us, so I trust you will keep it

free.

_From Lord Derby_

_May 13th_.--You are quite right about the House of Commons. They will

pass the Land Bill, I suppose, but scarcely anything else. Most of the

obstruction is unintended; loquacity, vanity, and fear of constituents do

more mischief than faction. I am not sure that it is an unmixed evil that

the legislative coach should be compelled to drive slowly.

For Reeve the principal social event of the year, or rather the one most

out of ordinary course, was the conferring an honorary degree on the Duc

d'Aumale by the University of Oxford. Of the preliminary step no record

remains, but it would seem that at a very early stage Reeve was requested

to sound the Duke, who wrote on November 30th, 1890, that he should feel

greatly honoured if the University of Oxford should confer on him the

degree of D.C.L.--'si pauvre légiste que je sois.' On this Reeve wrote to

Dr. Liddell, then Dean of Christ Church, [Footnote: After having held this

office for thirty-six years, Dr. Liddell retired in 1891, and died at the

age of 87, on January 18th, 1898.] who replied on December 2nd:--

Dear Mr. Reeve,--I shall be proud to propose H.R.H.'s (the Duc d'Aumale's)

name for an Honorary Degree at the next Encaenia. This will not be till

June 17th, 1891. I hope his R.H. will be my guest on the occasion.

Meantime, it is our rule that no mention should be made of the name to be

proposed. Yours very truly,

H. G. LIDDELL.

Other correspondence about this there was, and on February 25th, 1891, Dr.

Liddell again wrote:--

The arrangements you suggest for the Duc d'Aumale will suit very well. Of

course it is running it rather fine to arrive at 11.13; but we will see

about this as the time approaches. Meantime I must ask you and the Duke's

friends not to say anything about the matter at present. I shall have to

give notice to our Council in May. A fortnight after, his name will be

submitted to ballot; and though there can be no reasonable doubt that

H.R.H.'s name will be received with acclamation, they make a great point of

secrecy till the ballot takes place.

Perhaps about the beginning of May you will be so good as to send me a

complete statement of H.R.H.'s claims to an Honorary Degree. I know much

about them, but should be glad to be fully equipped.

_From the Duc d'Aumale_

_Chantilly_, 9 _juin_.--Bon! très cher ami, nous irons, s'il plaît à Dieu,

ensemble à Oxford, le 17, par 9.55 en cravate blanche. Je compte arriver le

14 au soir à Claridge's, où je serai présent le lundi, 15, de 10 à midi,

et de 6 à 7; le mardi, 16, de 10 à midi. Si vous pouvez venir m'y voir,

je serai très heureux, car j'ai encore besoin de quelques renseignements

complimentaires.

Vous m'avez offert l'hospitalité du Dean, et je lui ai écrit que je

l'acceptais. Mais en quoi consiste cette hospitalité? Simple luncheon suivi

d'un départ, ou dîner et coucher au doyenné? Je ne voudrais pas manquer de

courtoisie; but above all I would not intrude--et je suis _très disposé_

à me retirer de très bonne heure. Seulement j'aimerais à être fixé pour

prendre tous mes arrangements.

The Journal simply notes that on June 16th the Duc d'Aumale dined at The

Club; and on the 17th 'with Duc d'Aumale to Oxford, where he was made

D.C.L. Lunch at All Souls; very pleasant day.' Reeve left early and

returned at once to Foxholes.

_From the Duc d'Aumale_

_Chantilly_, 1er _juillet_.--Après votre départ de Christ Church [Oxford]

le 17 nous avons eu le ou la 'Gaudy.' Ainsi que vous l'aviez prévu, j'ai dû

dire quelques mots à peine préparés. Comme il n'y avait pas de _reporter_,

et que je n'avais aucune note, et comme l'auditoire, y compris nos

Seigneurs les évêques, avait accueilli mon _speech_ avec bienveillance, je

l'ai noté sur le papier--comme disent les musiciens--avant de me coucher.

Vous avez été presque mon parrain à Oxford, je vous en dois bien la copie.

C'est, en tous cas, un témoignage de ma fidèle amitié.

The speech which follows, although delivered under circumstances which

necessitated a complimentary tone, is a more than usually graceful tribute

to our old Universities, and the introduction of the little analogue is

singularly happy. The Duke, whose letters to Reeve are all in French, wrote

this _verbatim_ as here given, in correct English, perfectly well spelt.

Mr. Dean, my Lords and Gentlemen,--Let me first express how highly I prize

the honour which has been conferred upon me to-day, and how glad I am to be

so connected with your illustrious University. I have always admired the

University of Oxford. I have more than once visited this town, when I

received a princely hospitality in the noble baronial halls of this

neighbourhood--Nuneham, Blenheim--or when I was quietly living on the banks

of the Avon. Often I brought here my French friends, and I tried to

explain the peculiarities, the complicated machinery of this illustrious

corporation; to show how, remaining faithful to the traditions, preserving

your old customs, you did not remain deaf to what might be said without,

nor blind to the movement of the world; how, slowly perhaps, but prudently,

step by step, you managed to bring the necessary changes, the wanted

modifications, so as to keep pace with the times without breaking with the

past.

'Mais c'est le couteau de Jeannot que cette Université,' said one of my

interlocutors. Well, I will give you the tale of Jeannot's knife.

There was once a young peasant called Jeannot, and he had a knife of which

he took great care. He found that the blade was rusting and he changed the

blade. Then he found that the handle was decaying from dry-rot, and he

changed the handle; and so on. His friends laughed at him, and would not

take the same care of their knives, which they lost--one breaking the

blade, another the handle. But Jeannot, having always kept his knife in

good order, could always make use of it, cleverly and powerfully.

Well, I think there is some analogy between the tale of this humble man and

the history of your great University. It seems to me I see the huge frame

of a large fabric which has stood for centuries glorious and proud. The

stones are changed, the bricks, the mortar, or the roof are renewed; and

the fabric still stands through the ages, through the storms, glorious and

proud. And I hope it will so remain and stand everlasting, with its old

frame and the new materials; and I wish glory and prosperity to the

University of Oxford.

To all who have thought of my name and conferred upon me the honour I have

just received, and to those who have given me such a kindly reception, I

send my best thanks, and I wish prosperity and success.

At this time, and indeed ever since his retirement from the Council Office,

Reeve's chief work was in connexion with the 'Review;' but he also did a

very great deal as literary adviser of the Longmans. He had indeed, to some

extent, acted in this capacity ever since he undertook the conduct of the

'Review;' the two offices fitted into and were supplementary to each other;

and it will be remembered that in 1875 [Footnote: See _ante_, p. 243.]

he had contemplated retiring from the public service, with the view

of undertaking the main responsibility of this work for the firm.

Circumstances had delayed his retirement; but by an arrangement with the

firm in 1878, which continued in force during the rest of his life, the

number of works he examined and reported on was considerably increased, and

must have been very large. Books in French, German, or Italian offered for

translation, MSS. in English offered for publication--whatever there was of

grave, serious, or important, as well as a good deal that was not, was sent

to him for a first or a revised opinion. And this opinion was given very

frankly, and most commonly in the fewest possible words: 'My advice is that

you have nothing to do with it' was a not unfrequent formula. Another,

less frequent, was, 'He--the aspirant to literary fame and emolument--can

neither write nor spell English;' 'I wish they wouldn't send their trash to

me' was an occasional prayer; 'Seems to me sheer nonsense;'--'What a waste

of time and labour!'--'It is very provoking that people should attempt to

write books who cannot write English,' were occasional reports. Of course

many of his judgements were very different: 'A work of great interest which

must have a large sale;' 'Secure this if you possibly can;' 'A most

able work, but will scarcely command a remunerative sale;' 'Not worth

translating, but send me a copy for the "Review,"' are some of his more

favourable verdicts. But in all cases the judgements were sharp and

decisive; there was about them nothing of the celebrated 'This work might

be very good if it was not extremely bad,' or its converse. These reports

were, of course, in the highest degree confidential; and, especially of the

unfavourable ones, Reeve made a point of forgetting all about the origin of

them. On one occasion, when a reference was made to a work he had reported

on a few weeks before, he wrote in reply, 'The numerous MSS. &c. sent for

an opinion leave no trace on my memory.'

As it was with printed books and larger MSS., so it was with articles

submitted for the 'Review;' but he did not encourage casual contributions,

and seldom--perhaps never--accepted any without some previous

understanding. The political articles and the reviews of important books

were almost invariably written in response to a direct invitation; but

whether the articles sent in were invited or offered, he equally reserved

the right to express his approval or disapproval or disagreement, and to

insist, if necessary, on the article being remodelled or withdrawn. Such

an insistence is more than once noticed in his correspondence, quite

irrespective of the high reputation of the author. Probably every one whose

contributions have been at all numerous has had an opportunity of noticing

how perfectly candid and yet how courteous his remarks always were. If an

article pleased him, he said so in terms that from anyone else might have

seemed extravagant. Many letters of this type might be given; one must

suffice, written to a valued contributor, dead, unfortunately, many years

ago--Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney:--

_C. O., February 26th, 1873_.--I received the proofs of your article on Lee

last night, and therefore I conclude that you have received them also. I

don't exaggerate the least when I say that the article strikes me as

a _chef d'oeuvre_ of military biography. You have drawn a most heroic

character with peculiar grace and fervour, and the account of the military

operations is singularly clear and interesting. It only strikes me that you

have repeated the comparison with Hannibal rather too often.

Pray be so good as to return the proofs to _me_ as soon as you can, that I

may have the article made up and printed off. I feel infinitely obliged to

you for it.

The value of such praise was heightened, its apparent extravagance done

away with, by the knowledge that dissatisfaction would be expressed in

language equally unmistakable, and that either by the contributor or the

editor the modifications which seemed to him desirable would be made. It

was partly because he reserved to himself this power and accepted all the

responsibility, that he insisted so strenuously on the anonymous character

of the articles. But more even than that was his abhorrence of anything

like 'log-rolling,' which, in his opinion, was inseparable from signed

reviews. To the very last he discouraged, and indeed openly expressed his

disapproval and dislike of the presumably inspired announcements of

authors' names in the 'Athenaeum' or other journals. Here is an extract

from a letter dated October 6th, 1891, which illustrates this objection:--

'The only objection I have to the republication of articles with the name

of the writer is that it destroys their anonymous character, which ought

especially to be retained when they contain criticism of contemporaries.'

So careful was he lest anything might warp the perfect fairness of

criticism, which should 'nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.'

I, who write these lines, can say positively, after having written for the

'Review' under Reeve for upwards of twenty years, that in all that time I

never received a hint or suggestion that any book should be dealt with

otherwise than on its merits; and whilst engaged on this present work I

have learned, for the first time, that men whose books I have reviewed,

not always favourably, were personal friends of the editor. The following

letter, addressed to Mr. T. N. Longman, is merely a concrete illustration

of this:--

_December 26th_, 1891.--I thought it best to tell Froude frankly that the

review of his book [Footnote: The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon,' in the

_Review_ of January 1892.] in the 'Edinburgh' would be an unfavourable one.

At the same time I disclaimed in the strongest language any disposition

to make a personal attack on himself. Unfortunately he seems to ascribe

adverse criticism of his works to personal animosity, which, in his case,

is entirely wanting.

It is a painful necessity. Froude and his book are too important to be

passed over in silence. But the judicial character and consistency, and I

may say honour, of the 'Review' absolutely require that the truth should be

told about the book. I should consider it a derogation to my duty to the

'Review' if, from personal motives or affection, I suppressed an adverse

criticism of a work which imperatively demands an answer. The independence

of the 'Review' requires an independent judgement; but I expressly

stipulated with the writer of the article that he should abstain from

_bitterness_, which was carried too far in Goldwin Smith's article on

the same subject in 1858. The 'Review' is pledged to the views already

expressed on that occasion.

I have therefore modified as far as possible any expressions which appeared

to be of too censorious a character; but it is impossible to avoid

condemning a mistaken book because the author is a personal friend. _Judex

damnatur si nocens absolvitur_ is our motto.

Froude does not like Mr. Gardiner's book. He says, 'It's a menagerie of

tame beasts.' I think very highly of the book; and as we differ, I have

yielded to his wish to be released from the engagement.

Nobody can regret more than I do any differences between old friends; but

my duty is to look solely to the consistency and integrity of the 'Review,'

without which criticism is worthless; and this consideration leaves me no

other course.

Another point, of a similar nature, I can illustrate by my own experience.

I had undertaken, at Reeve's request, to review a rather important

historical work published by Longmans, but on reading it was so

unfavourably impressed by it that I wrote to say that the best thing I

could do would be to return the volumes; that the book was bad, and if

I reviewed it I must say so; but that doing this in the publisher's own

Review would have a certain resemblance to seething a kid in its mother's

milk, and might probably be objected to. 'Not a bit of it,' was the sense

of the reply I received by return of post: 'a bad book may be the text for

an interesting article, and we have nothing to do with who published it.'

So I expressed my opinion of the book in very plain terms; the review was

printed exactly as I wrote it, and the editor thanked me warmly for what

he was pleased to speak of as an 'excellent article.' It may, perhaps, be

assumed that this was not an isolated case; but written evidence of any

others is not before me.

After returning from Oxford, Reeve spent the rest of the year at Foxholes,

He had intended going to London and possibly to Scotland in October, but an

accidental stumble in his library over a heavy despatch box made a nasty

wound on the left shin, which took many weeks in healing and prevented his

travelling till the middle of December. On the 19th he went to town, where,

with the exception of some short visits to Bath or to Foxholes, he remained

till June, dining several times at The Club, entertaining at home in his

customary manner, and keeping up a constant--almost daily--correspondence,

such as has been indicated, with the Longmans, for the most part with the

head of the firm, whom he had known from childhood and habitually addressed

by his Christian name.

As he returned to Foxholes the country was in the throes of a general

election. Tired, it would seem, of steady and consistent government, it

longed for a change--anything for a change; and so opened the door for an

administration whose almost avowed object was to play skittles with the

Constitution--to bowl down the Union, the Established Church, the House

of Lords, the rights of property, and any other little trifles that were

sacred to law and religion. It was with deep regret that Reeve watched the

overthrow of what he considered the true Liberal party, and he wrote to Mr.

T. Norton Longman:--

_Foxholes_, _July 14th_--The results of the elections are far worse than

could be expected. Some of them are very odd. I have to deplore the defeat

of many of my friends. I suppose the Queen will have to make up her mind

to a ministry composed of men she abhors; but the majority will have in it

inherent weakness and the seeds of dissolution.

I have found it difficult to say anything about the elections and have been

as short as possible.

From a somewhat different point of view, he wrote a few days later to Lord

Derby:--

_Foxholes, July 22nd._--I have, of course, been watching with great

interest the progress of the elections, and I am happy to say that

Hampshire, like all the southern counties, comes out with a clean Unionist

bill. If the ultimate majority was to be small, is it not better to be in

opposition than in power? Mr. Gladstone's position, as the man responsible

for the conduct of affairs, is much less desirable than that of Lord

Salisbury, for he has the better half of the country dead against him. How

curious it is to trace on the map in the 'Times' the old traditions of

Saxon, Celtic, Mercian, and Danish origin in the counties of England,

Ireland, and Wales! Are the Celts to govern the Saxons?

Early in August Reeve was visited at Foxholes by Count Adam Krasinski

[Footnote: Son of Ladislas and grandson of Reeve's early friend Sigismond

Krasinski. He was born in 1870, and married at Vienna in 1897.]--a

connecting link with the past, the merry days when he was young; and on

Krasinski's departure, he went north to visit some friends in Wales and

thence on to Chesters.

Parliament met on August 4th, and on a simple motion of want of confidence,

as an amendment to the Address, the Ministry was defeated. Lord Salisbury

resigned, and Mr. Gladstone came into office with a Cabinet in which every

shade of unconstitutional opinion and every socially destructive fad were

fully represented. Reeve consoled himself with the belief that such a

ministry could not last. To Mr. T. Norton Longman he wrote:--

_Chesters, August 22nd_.--I have been paying some visits in Wales and have

come on here, where Mrs. Reeve preceded me. We find the Ogilvies very

flourishing, and the place beautiful. Here, at least, it is not hot, which

seems to be the grievance elsewhere.

We are going to Rutland Gate on Friday and to Foxholes on Monday, and shall

remain there, except for a visit to a neighbour.

I think Mr. Gladstone's Ministry a wretched affair. The old ones are worn

out, and the young ones are not broken in, and bring no weight at all.

The sole gratification of every one of them is absolute submission and

obedience to the Chief. But he will have some troublesome outsiders.

_Foxholes, September 7th_.--We shall stay here till October 6th, when I

mean to come to London for two or three days, on our way to Knowsley. The

world seems fast asleep after the excitement of the summer, and people have

nothing to talk or write about but the cholera--which is not amusing.

It was whilst at Chesters that Reeve received a curious note from the

Marquis of Lorne, written to 'The Editor of the "Edinburgh Review,"' as to

a total stranger:--

Osborne, August 21st.

SIR,--I have found a number of original unpublished letters written by the

Duke of Argyll in 1705 and the Earl of Leven in 1706, from Edinburgh, to

Queen Anne and Godolphin, on the measures taken in the Scots Parliament

for the Union between England and Scotland, and am writing a notice of and

giving extracts from these papers, and wish to ask if you would care to

have this notice as an article in your 'Review.'

I remain, yours faithfully,

LORNE.

Reeve's answer corrected the mistake, and in forwarding the MS. referred

to, to Foxholes, Lord Lorne wrote:--

Kensington Palace, September 5th.

My dear and ancient friend and editor,--I did not know, to my disgrace,

that you are still in command. I never thought when the grey mare subsided

under you at Inveraray, in--year, [Footnote: Blank in the original; meaning

presumably--'so long ago that I've forgotten.' Reeve's one recorded visit

to Inveraray was in August 1858 (_ante_, vol. i. p. 395), when the Marquis

of Lorne was a boy of thirteen.] that in 1892 I should be writing to you

about proofs! It makes me feel young again to think of you in your old

capacity. If old times' gossip suits the 'Review,' please send the proofs

to me here--to Kensington Palace--whence, if I be away, they will be

forwarded to me.

Yours very faithfully,

LORNE.

A few days later came the following letter from Count Adam Krasinski, to

whom, when at Foxholes, Reeve had given the letters of his grandfather,

Sigismond Krasinski.

Royalin, September 10th.

SIR,--On arriving in Warsaw a few days ago, I took the liberty of sending

you some bottles of wine from our cellar, among which is some

Hungarian Tokay, one of the oldest wines we have, bought by my

great-great-grandfather, the father of General Vincent, in the year of the

latter's birth. I hope you will be so good as to accept this little

present and make it welcome; for, being young myself, I have chosen an old

ambassador to thank you for your kindness to me. I can never sufficiently

thank you for the charming way in which you have made me the handsome

present of my grandfather's correspondence, which is of inestimable value

to me. The more I read it the more I realise its value. It contains the

whole developement of a noble character, and a fine nature, set forth in

long, full, and frequent letters to a trusted friend. And what a pleasure

it is to have the answers of this friend, so clearly showing your relations

to each other, and the reciprocal influence of two minds! Thanks, and again

thanks.

I am very well, and am at present with my stepfather in the Grand Duchy of

Posnanie. Our plans for the winter are not yet fixed. Paris attracts me

greatly; but, on the other hand, I am advised to go to Heidelberg, where

there is better air and a milder climate. In any case, I will endeavour to

revisit England next year, and so recall myself to your memory.

Agréez, Monsieur, l'expression de ma très grande considération, à laquelle

je joins des sentiments respectueux pour Madame votre femme.

ADAM KRASINSKI.

To Mr. Norton Longman at this time Reeve wrote--primarily on the business

of the 'Review,' but incidentally on a literary conundrum which was just

then causing a little excitement:--

_Foxholes, September 16th_.--I do not think the translation of a French

book on Political Economy is _primâ facie_ advisable. But the book seems

(from the accounts in the 'Nation') to be so excellent that I should be

glad to see it, and may have it reviewed in the 'Edinburgh.' The title is,

'Le Capital, la Spéculation et la Finance au XIXe Siècle;' par Claudio

Jannet. Published by Plon.

No one who knew Sir Richard Wallace could believe that he wrote 'The

Englishman in Paris.' I said from the first that it was a mere collection

of old gossip to be passed off on the English public as something racy. If

Grenville Murray were alive, this is exactly the sort of thing he would

have done. But Grenville Murray left a son, who must now be grown up, and

who may have inherited some of his father's sinister talents. They have

lived for many years in Paris. Sir Richard Wallace was the very type of a

gentleman of the highest breeding--rather stern, melancholy, not at all

humorous, and incapable of vulgarity or pretence.

October slipped away in visits to Stratton (Lord Northbrook's) and to

Knowsley, and the remainder of the year for the most part at Foxholes. In

December Reeve was proposing to have a review of Sir Mountstuart Grant

Duff's 'Life of Sir Henry Maine,' and consulted the author as to who would

be the best fitted to write it. This is what Sir Mountstuart wrote in

reply:--

_Twickenham, December 11th_.--I am very proud to find that so excellent a

judge thinks well of my little memoir of Maine. As to the article about

which you write, I think Sir Frederick Pollock would be very much the best

man to undertake it--the only man who could tell us, without any bias, what

I exceedingly want to know: how much of Maine's juridical speculations,

especially in 'Ancient Law,' is finally accepted. He may say that he has

said his say about Maine; but he has not; he has said a little, but I am

sure he has a great deal more to say. I wish to know the real value of each

of Maine's books.... I am writing a quite small book about Renan--the only

great Frenchman of our day whom you did not know very well.

The next was a Christmas greeting from Lord Derby, with an interesting

comment on the situation in France:--

_Knowsley, December 5th_.--Thanks for your letter of inquiry and good

wishes; the latter are cordially returned. Lady Derby joins me in the hope

that the coming year may be one of health and happiness to you and yours. I

cannot give a very rosy account of myself, being still ill and weak; even

if all goes well, I expect to have to lead in future a life of quiet

and privacy. My days of speeches are almost certainly ended; and after

forty-four years of public life, I do not much regret it.

The developement of events in 1893 will be interesting to watch. All

reports agree that Gladstone is taking the work of his office very easily,

and that he leaves nearly everything to his colleagues. That will not be so

easy in the Session. The Cabinet will be prevented by fear of ridicule

from breaking up on the Irish Bill, but all their friends and backers seem

prepared for its failure.

You are a hopeless pessimist as to French affairs. They certainly are not

going on smoothly, but where is the new Boulanger? Bourbons and Bonapartes

are played out; and France might advertise for a dictator without finding

one. If that be so, what threatens the republic? A socialist outbreak would

only strengthen it. Surely a nation may go on muddling its affairs a long

while without mortal harm.

Waddington, I am told, was informed by his friends that he had no right

to remain a Senator without taking his seat, and that he must give up one

position or the other. This is the excuse made for his recall. The truth, I

suppose, is that his place was wanted. He will be a real loss.

With the new year the party from Foxholes came to town, and there Reeve was

laid up with a serious illness which lasted nearly a month. The Journal

notes on February 7th--'I attended a dinner of The Club, and resigned the

treasurership, which I had held for twenty-five years.' A corresponding

entry a month later, on March 7th, is 'At the third dinner of The Club.

Lord Salisbury came "to my obsequies" and Gladstone wrote to me. Grant Duff

elected to the treasurership.'

Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff has been so good as to amplify this by a note

from his own diary. 'At the dinner on February 7th, 1893'--he writes--'I

was in the chair.... Reeve made a statement for which he had prepared me

by letter, to the effect that his great age, breaking health, and frequent

absences from London, would oblige him to resign ere long the treasurership

of The Club--the only office which exists in connection with it. He has

held it for some five-and-twenty years, and it is not surprising that his

voice faltered as he addressed us....

_March 21st_--Dined with The Club, taking my seat for the first time as

treasurer. After the last meeting mentioned, Reeve wrote to me to say that

there was a feeling in favour of my becoming his successor, and asked

whether I should object. I replied in the negative, and on the 7th I was

unanimously elected, upon the proposal of Sir Henry Elliot, who was in the

chair, and was seconded by Lord Salisbury.'

Of the correspondence of this period there is little. Lord Derby, who was

almost, or quite, the last of his political correspondents, was too ill

to write, and died on April 21st. On the 27th Reeve attended the funeral

service at St. Margaret's. Letters relating to the 'Review,' of course,

continued. Here are three referring to a political problem which, so lately

as five years ago, few could have the patience to be bothered with. That

Reeve, at his advanced age, could take it up with such interest is a strong

proof of the vitality and even freshness of his intellect.

_To Rear-Admiral Bridge_

62 Rutland Gate: April 27th.

My dear admiral,--I wish you would read an article in 'Blackwood's

Magazine' for May (just out) on the Russian occupation of Manchuria. I

never read a more impudent piece of _blague._ ------ must have written it.

Nobody else would boast of swindling the Chinese with a false map.

This induces me to ask whether you could not give me a short article for

the 'Review' on The Russians on the Pacific' and the naval effects of their

position at Vladivostock. They have made it a fortress, but it will take a

long time to make it a settlement. But it may become important.

Yours very faithfully,

H. REEVE.

_April 30th._--I am very glad you will revert to the North Pacific. You

should refer to your excellent article of 1880, which I have read over

again. It seems to exhaust the subject as far as relates to the settlements

on the Amoor, and even as to Vladivostock; but I suppose that thirteen

years have materially augmented the strength of Russia on the Pacific, and

any additional information would be valuable.

_Foxholes, May 23rd_.--I am much obliged to you for your interesting

article. I think the best heading would be 'Russia on the Pacific.' As I am

much pressed for room, I have ventured to excise some of your introductory

remarks, which are not essential to the main objects of the paper; but when

you come to positive business at Vladivostock, all that you say is most

excellent and important. I believe the Siberian railroad--like the line to

Samarkand--is only a single line. Such a line 5,000 miles long is a very

ineffective instrument for military and commercial purposes. How much can

it carry, allowing for return trains, chiefly empty? Where is Russia, with

a debt equal in charge to our own, to find forty millions sterling for such

a work, which would be wholly unproductive? It is true that, by employing

troops and Turkomans, the work may be done cheaply; but all this will take

a long time.

I am very glad you touch on the question between France and Siam: it is a

serious one.

In the early days of July the Reeves settled down for the summer at

Foxholes, avoiding the great heat, with the thermometer at 80° F. when in

London it was reaching as high as 93° F. In the beginning of September

Reeve, together with his wife, returned to London, crossed over to

Boulogne, and so to Chantilly, where, as the guests of the Due d'Aumale,

they spent his 80th birthday. They stayed there till the 12th, and

returned, again by Boulogne and London, to Foxholes. It was his last visit

to the France he had loved so well. The year was in many respects a sad

one. His own health was becoming very uncertain, and gout, feverish colds,

and violent bleeding of the nose laid him up for weeks at a time. The

deaths of his friends, too, recurring in rapid succession, were frequent

reminders of what he had written nearly sixty-two years before: 'Between

seventy and eighty there rarely remains more than one change to be made.'

[Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 17.] He had now exceeded the higher

limit, and it happened that the obituary of 1893 contained an unusual

number of men of high literary and scientific distinction. Through all,

however, Reeve's head remained clear, and his work was seldom disturbed.

There is no sickness or feebleness in the following:--

_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_Foxholes, October 3rd._--I have read a great part of the 'Life of

Pusey'--an appalling book from the length of the letters in it. In my

opinion it lays bare, as nothing else has done, the total weakness and

inconsistency of the Tractarians, and their absolute disloyalty to the

Church of England. It is very difficult and very important to find a

suitable person to review such a work, for it must be done in the spirit

of the articles of Arnold, Tait, and Arthur Stanley, which express the

principles of the 'Edinburgh Review.' I incline to think it had better be

done by a layman. The parsons are all hostile to their own Church.

_To Rear-Admiral Bridge_

62 _Rutland Gate, November 12th._--We are come to town, and I hope it will

not be long before I have the pleasure of seeing you. Meanwhile, I have

been reading again the article on Mediterranean Politics which you gave us

last autumn. The combination of the French and Russian fleets seems to me

to be a matter of grave importance. Both those countries are unhappily

animated by very hostile intentions to us. They have discovered that it

is only by a superiority of sea power in the Mediterranean that they can

accomplish their twofold object, which I take to be for Russia to force the

Dardanelles and for France to compel us to evacuate Egypt. This seems to me

to be the _but_ of the alliance, in as far as it is an alliance. It is all

very well to talk of our maritime supremacy, but have we got it? You

know, and I do not. But to my mind, the worst is that we have got a

Government--or rather a minister--profoundly incapable of foreseeing a

great emergency or providing against it. It is quite possible that the

Gladstone administration may be blown up by a tremendous catastrophe. These

thoughts perplex me; but I hope you will tell me that I am quite wrong and

that Britannia rules the waves.

An exceptional chance gives us a picture of Foxholes, at this time, when

twenty years' occupation had enabled its owner to perfect all the details

which go to make up comfort.

During his absence in London in the beginning of 1894, he let it, for the

only time, to his friend, Lord Hobhouse, for many years a member of the

Judicial Committee, and just then convalescent after a serious illness. A

couple of notes which Lord Hobhouse wrote during his four weeks' tenancy

may be classed as 'Interiors' or 'Exteriors' from the practical point of

view.

Foxholes, February 16th.

My dear Reeve,--I imagine that this morning Mrs. Reeve will have got a note

from my wife telling her of our settlement here. I was contemplating 'a

few words' to you, when Lady H. told me of her writing; and now comes your

letter, partly of welcome, partly of information.

I don't think it possible that we could be more happily housed. Size,

arrangement, warmth, beauty, inside and out, evidences everywhere of

cultivated taste and refined pursuits--all is calculated for enjoyment and

repose, probably for anybody, certainly for an invalid. I have established

myself in a corner of the library--which, partly from its intrinsic

advantages and partly from the presence of a thick cushion in the seat of

the armchair, I conjecture to be yours--between the writing desk and the

N.W. bookcase, with the N.E. window at my back and my legs protruding

beyond the jamb of the mantelpiece into the sacred [Greek: temeuos], which

is guarded by a low marble fence, and over which the fire which I

worship has sway. Both by day and by night the situation is perfect for

distribution of light and warmth. And I can read almost all my waking

hours; for all through my illness my head has been clear. My principal

embarrassment is to choose among the many temptations with which your

goodly bookcases beset me. However, after reading Traill's 'William III.'

(a rather thin composition, I think) I have settled into Gardiner's 'Civil

War,' which is much more solid and satisfying.

This morning I have been reading your little notice of Lord Derby; and I

think you do not speak at all too highly of his capacity for examining

political and social movements. In 1880 I delivered a lecture, which

was printed and circulated, on the eternal division of political

tendencies--movement and rest; and I took Lord Derby (then temporarily in

the Liberal Camp) as the best type of conservatism; cool, patient,

keen, sceptical, critical, just, impartial, with a mind always open

to conviction, but refusing to move until convinced. Such men are an

invaluable element in the deliberative stages of every question; but their

very critical powers paralyse action, and when movement becomes necessary

their hesitations are a drawback. I fancy that Cornewall Lewis was just

such another, but I did not know so much about him....

For me, I improve, slowly but enough, I think, to show at least that our

move was not premature. In the pick of the day (would that it were always

afternoon) I am able to walk for an hour or more, and I get good sleep in

the most luxurious of beds. Pray give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Reeve,

and believe me,

Sincerely yours,

HOBHOUSE.

_Foxholes, March 6th._--Alas, alas! time flies away, and pleasant things

come to an end, and I shall not have many days' more enjoyment of your

charming house and library and outlook. But my time has not been wasted. I

have recovered strength, a good deal more than I expected, and am probably

now--at all events hope, by our return next Monday or Tuesday, to be--able

to re-enter the ordinary routine of life. Of course, we have had, like

other people, a great deal of blustering wind--for the most part from

north-west--very cold and very noisy in your chimneys. But there has also

been a great deal of sunshine with the gales, and the exposure of your

house to south-east has, on most days, given us a sheltered walk. Moreover,

your soil is so porous and absorbent, that one gets dry walking immediately

after rain. I have only been kept indoors two days since our arrival.

A few letters from Reeve himself show the continued activity of his mind,

and at the same time his consciousness of, his readiness for, the end which

was drawing nigh.

_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_Foxholes, May 29th._--Lord Derby's Speeches contain more political wisdom

than any other book of our time. I think people will find out its permanent

value.

_June 13th._--I have nothing to correct or alter in the Greville Memoirs,

and am glad to find that some sale of them goes on.

I am much touched by the [approaching] death of Coleridge, whom I have

known so well and so long. I expect he will not survive to-day. He dined

with us at The Club on April 24th, and was then very well. _Sic transit._

_Foxholes, October 23rd_.--The notices of our old friend Froude

[Footnote: He died on October 20th, in his 77th year.] have been very

gratifying--especially the leader in the 'Times.' He leaves the world quite

glorified, and they now find out what a great man he was. I wonder

whether you are going to attend the funeral. I never send wreaths on such

occasions, but if I ever did send one it would be now, for I am truly

affected by the loss of such a friend. The newspapers seem to have

discovered that there were some big men in the last generation, and that

there are very few of them in the present.

_Rutland Gate, February 16th, 1895._--I am pretty well--not worse than

usual; but I don't go out.

My dear old friend, Lady Stanley of Alderley, died this morning. She was

only ill four days, and expired without pain or suffering at eighty-seven.

To me an irreparable loss, and to a vast circle of descendants and friends.

[Footnote: Among Reeve's papers there are a great many letters from Lady

Stanley of Alderley, telling plainly of the long and close friendship

between the two. Unfortunately, there are no available letters from Reeve

to her.]

_To Rear-Admiral Bridge_ [Footnote: At this time Commander-in-Chief in

Australian waters.]

62 Rutland Gate, May 2nd.

My dear admiral,--I wish you were in reach of us, to discuss the

extraordinary events which are taking place in the North Pacific, to which

your articles on that subject have for some time pointed; but no one

foresaw the sudden uprising of Japan.

It seems to me that, in spite of her victories, Japan is in a very critical

position, politically speaking. She lies between two huge empires, and she

has undertaken to occupy more than she can hold. Her position is absolutely

fatal to the grand design of Russia, of crossing the north of Asia to the

Pacific, and I expect Russia will not submit to it. But Russia would find

it extremely difficult to carry on military and naval operations at such

an enormous distance from her base. I doubt whether she could destroy the

Japanese fleet, and it certainly is not for our interest that it should be

destroyed. The disposition here is to observe strict neutrality and watch

the course of events.

It is curious that nobody points out that the United States are the country

with the largest future interest in the Pacific, and that they must have

a voice in this controversy. It also largely affects our own Australian

colonies. A Russian establishment in Corea would effect a momentous change

in the Pacific, and Japan will doubtless resist it to the uttermost.

We are very dull here. Lord Rosebery has sunk into complete insignificance,

and his state of health is doubtful. The Government is rotten, but

continues to hold together. I think something must occur before long to

stir the waters.

We are going to Foxholes on May 20th to stay there. I have spent a dreary

winter, being unable to go out, but I am not seriously ill--suffering

chiefly from old age. Mrs. Reeve sends you her kind regards, and I am

always

Yours very faithfully,

H. REEVE.

* * * * *

_To Miss A. M. Clerke_

_Foxholes, September 8th_.--Many thanks, dear Miss Clerke, for your elegant

and instructive Life of the Herschels; they could not have had a more

accomplished biographer, if they had waited for it another century. Your

article on Argon fills me with amazement and admiration. How can the

human mind fathom such things! I beg you to send me the corrected proofs

to-morrow by return of post, as I want to make it up immediately. If

anything new is said on the subject at the British Association, you can add

a note to be printed at the end of the number.

To-morrow is my 82nd birthday--probably the last. But I am not ill, only

feeble and tired of living so long.

Yours most faithfully,

H. REEVE.

_To Captain S. P. Oliver, R.A._

_Foxholes, September 12th._--I have sent your corrected proofs [Footnote:

'The French in Madagascar,' October 1895.] to Spottiswoode, with a few

slight suggestions of my own. They will send you a revise.... I see you

have now so far modified your opinion that you think with me that the

position of the French is most critical. Unless they can announce some

signal success in the next two weeks, there will be a disaster and an awful

row. I see by the map that on the 5th of this month they were still

at Andriba, which I take to be about three-fifths of the distance to

Antananarivo. They have been five months getting there, and as they advance

the difficulty of bringing up stores, supplies, and reliefs increases, and

will increase. In my opinion, the Hovas are quite right _not_ to treat for

peace till they see what the rains will do for them. I hope they will hold

out, but avoid fighting.

Captain Oliver writes that 'One of Reeve's last pieces of work connected

with the "Edinburgh Review" must have been the paragraphs which he

substituted for my ending to the article. He was doubtful of the eventual

French success, whereas I felt pretty certain that affairs would terminate

as they have done in that island.' The forecast of the result of a

complicated business was erroneous, but to make one at all, and to commit

it to paper, was a remarkable display of energy in a dying man who was now

in his eighty-third year.

_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_Foxholes, September 12th_.--Thanks for your birthday congratulations, but

I doubt whether great age is a subject of congratulation at all.

_29th_.--I am extremely feeble, faculties low, eyesight weak. I should

like, if I live so long, to edit the January number of the 'Review;' but

after that I must stop.

_October 2nd._--Much obliged to you for your very kind note.... You will

doubtless pay me on November 15th the sum due then; but I wish to say that

I cannot go on to receive remuneration for services I am scarcely capable

of rendering. Therefore this payment in November will be the last on that

account [as literary adviser].

This was probably the last letter Reeve wrote with his own hand. For

several months he had been very much of an invalid, though he had persisted

in continuing his work, in which he found distraction and relief. And no

complaint passed his lips. 'The kindest thing you can do for me,' he said

to his anxious wife, 'is to leave me alone.' He made a point of coming down

to breakfast; but his strength was gradually failing, and he moved with

difficulty. His medical attendant recommended an operation, but this he was

unwilling to undergo, feeling doubtful whether at his advanced age it could

be successful. Sunday, October 13th, he passed in the library among the

books he prized. He dictated a letter, listened to the Psalms of the day,

and asked his wife to read also the First Epistle General of St. Peter.

In the afternoon Dr. Roberts Thomson and Dr. Davison saw him, and after a

consultation wrote to the distinguished specialist, Mr. Buckston Browne, to

be prepared to come on receipt of a telegram. On Monday Reeve was unable

to get up; he consented to undergo the operation, and Mr. Browne was

telegraphed for. On his arrival, about 7 o'clock in the evening, it was

decided to lose no more time. The operation was successfully performed,

under chloroform, and everything, the surgeons hoped, would go well. And

this they repeated for the next few days; the wound, they thought, was

closing nicely. At 82, however, wounds do not close readily, and Reeve's

system was weakened by some years of bad health. He never regained entire

consciousness; and though from time to time he gave some directions about

the 'Review,' they were not intelligible to those who heard; they probably

had no meaning even to himself. On Monday, October 21st, at half-past

one in the morning, 'the one last change was made,' and he passed away

peacefully and without suffering.

In a letter of sympathy to Mrs. Reeve Dr. Roberts Thomson wrote:--

'I was very much struck with your husband's wonderful patience when I saw

him, and the calm way in which he was able to face the future--whatever it

had in store for him. It is some consolation to know that he did not suffer

much, and that perhaps, had he recovered from the illness, his health

would have been so affected that great valetudinarianism would have been

inevitable. To him, this would have been suffering; and for his sake we are

thankful that he was spared it.'

His remains were interred in the Brookwood cemetery at Woking on October

24th.

He died, literally in harness. On Saturday, October 12th, he dictated a

last letter on the business of the 'Review;' and his indistinct words

during the few days of partial unconsciousness showed that his mind was

still endeavouring to fix itself on what had occupied it for so many years.

It was in his editorial capacity that I, who write these lines, first knew

him in 1866, though I did not make his personal acquaintance till 1877,

when he was a few months over 63. I found him a tall, stout, and--though

not strictly handsome--a good-looking man, who might very well have passed

for ten years younger than he actually was, and whose burly figure might

have seemed more at home in the covers or the turnip-fields than in the

Privy Council Office; his weight, which cannot, even then, have been much

under eighteen stone, must have stopped his hunting some time before. But

in his manner there was no trace of this fancied rusticity--how could there

be, indeed, in one trained in society almost from the cradle?--and his

voice was soft and musical. I have seen it stated that he was pompous,

self-assertive, and dictatorial. That his manners, formed by his mother and

his aunt on eighteenth-century models, and perfected in Paris among the

traditions of the _ancien regime_, had about them nothing of the 'hail

fellow, well met' fashion of the present day is very certain, and, joined

to his height (about 6 ft. 1 in.) and his great bulk, may sometimes

have given him the appearance of speaking _de haut en bas_, and must,

unquestionably, have enabled him to repress any unwelcome or undue

familiarity. As an editor, of course, he was dictatorial. We may talk of

the Republic of Letters; but in point of fact a successful journal is

and must be an autocracy. In his private capacity, I never found in his

conversation that habit of 'laying down the law' which some, with probably

inferior opportunities of judging, have complained of. Of his untiring

application and power of work enough has already been said; but the uniform

good luck which attended him through life is worthy of notice. In the

course of eighty-two years he experienced no reverse of fortune, no great

disappointment, and--with the one, though terrible, exception of the death

of his first wife--no great sorrow beyond what is the lot of all men. We

know that fortune favours the brave. It favours also those who to ability

and temper join prudence, courtesy, and careful, systematic, painstaking

industry.

At the age of 82 Reeve had outlived all of his contemporaries--the men who

had associated with him and worked with him in his youth. Their opinion of

him is only to be gauged by the fact that, with but few and easily explained

exceptions, the friendships of his early manhood were broken only by the

grave. The number of friends of forty or fifty years' standing who died

during the last decade of his life is very remarkable. As these are

wanting, I am happy in being able to conclude this tribute to his memory

by two appreciations, one English, the other French; the first, from and

representing the 'Edinburgh Review' to which it was contributed in January

1896, by Mr. W. E. H. Lecky.

'Although it has never been the custom of this "Review" to withdraw the

veil of anonymity from its writers and its administration, it would be mere

affectation to suffer this number to appear before the public without some

allusion to the great Editor whom we have just lost, and who for forty

years has watched with indefatigable care over our pages.

'The career of Mr. Henry Reeve is perhaps the most striking illustration in

our time of how little in English life influence is measured by notoriety.

To the outer world his name was but little known. He is remembered as the

translator of Tocqueville, as the editor of the "Greville Memoirs," as

the author of a not quite forgotten book on Royal and Republican France,

showing much knowledge of French literature and politics; as the holder

during fifty years of the respectable, but not very prominent, post of

Registrar of the Privy Council. To those who have a more intimate knowledge

of the political and literary life of England, it is well known that during

nearly the whole of his long life he was a powerful and living force in

English literature; that few men of his time have filled a larger place

in some of the most select circles of English social life; and that he

exercised during many years a political influence such as rarely falls

to the lot of any Englishman outside Parliament, or indeed outside the

Cabinet.

'He was born at Norwich in 1813, and brought up in a highly cultivated,

and even brilliant, literary circle. His father, Dr. Reeve, was one of the

earliest contributors to this Review. The Austins, the Opies, the Taylors,

and the Aldersons were closely related to him, and he is said to have been

indebted to his gifted aunt, Sarah Austin, for his appointment in the Privy

Council. The family income was not large, and a great part of Mr. Reeve's

education took place on the Continent, chiefly at Geneva and Munich. He

went with excellent introductions, and the years he spent abroad were

abundantly fruitful. He learned German so well that he was at one time a

contributor to a German periodical. He was one of the rare Englishmen who

spoke French almost like a Frenchman, and at a very early age he formed

friendships with several eminent French writers. His translation of

the "Democracy in America," by Tocqueville, which appeared in 1835,

strengthened his hold on French society. Two years later he obtained the

appointment in the Privy Council, which he held until 1887. It was in this

office that he became the colleague and fast friend of Charles Greville,

who on his death-bed entrusted him with the publication of his "Memoirs."

'Mr. Reeve had now obtained an assured income and a steady occupation, but

it was far from satisfying his desire for work. He became a contributor,

and very soon a leading contributor, to the "Times," while his close and

confidential intercourse with Mr. Delane gave him a considerable voice in

its management. The penny newspaper was still unborn, and the "Times" at

this period was the undisputed monarch of the press, and exercised an

influence over public opinion, both in England and on the Continent,

such as no existing paper can be said to possess. It is, we believe, no

exaggeration to say that for the space of fifteen years nearly every

article that appeared in its columns on foreign politics was written by

Mr. Reeve, and the period during which he wrote for it included the year

1848,--when foreign politics were of transcendent importance.

'The great political influence which he at this time exercised naturally

drew him into close connexion with many of the chief statesmen of his time.

With Lord Clarendon especially his friendship was close and confidential,

and he received from that statesman almost weekly letters during his

Viceroyalty in Ireland and during other of the more critical periods of his

career. In France Mr. Reeve's connexions were scarcely less numerous than

in England. Guizot, Thiers, Cousin, Tocqueville, Villemain, Circourt--in

fact, nearly all the leading figures in French literature and

politics during the reign of Louis Philippe were among his friends or

correspondents. He was at all times singularly international in his

sympathies and friendships, and he appears to have been more than once

made the channel of confidential communications between English and French

statesmen.

'It was a task for which he was eminently suited. The qualities which most

impressed all who came into close communication with him were the strength,

swiftness, and soundness of his judgement, and his unfailing tact and

discretion in dealing with delicate questions. He was eminently a man of

the world, and had quite as much knowledge of men as of books. Probably

few men of his time have been so frequently and so variously consulted.

He always spoke with confidence and authority, and his clear, keen-cut,

decisive sentences, a certain stateliness of manner which did not so much

claim as assume ascendency, and a somewhat elaborate formality of courtesy

which was very efficacious in repelling intruders, sometimes concealed from

strangers the softer side of his character. But those who knew him well

soon learnt to recognise the genuine kindliness of his nature, his

remarkable skill in avoiding friction, and the rare steadiness of his

friendships.

'One great source of his influence was the just belief in his complete

independence and disinterestedness. For a very able man his ambition was

singularly moderate. As he once said, he had made it his object throughout

life only to aim at things which were well within his power. He had very

little respect for the judgement of the multitude, and he cared nothing

for notoriety and not much for dignities. A moderate competence, congenial

work, a sphere of wide and genuine influence, a close and intimate

friendship with a large proportion of the guiding spirits of his time, were

the things he really valued, and all these he fully attained. He had great

conversational powers, which never degenerated into monologue, a singularly

equable, happy, and sanguine temperament, and a keen delight in cultivated

society. He might be seen to special advantage in two small and very select

dining clubs which have included most of the more distinguished English

statesmen and men of letters of the century. He became a member of the

Literary Society in 1857 and of Dr. Johnson's Club in 1861, and it is a

remarkable evidence of the appreciation of his social tact that both bodies

speedily selected him as their treasurer. He held that position in "The

Club" from 1868 till 1893, when failing health and absence from

London obliged him to relinquish it. The French Institute elected him

"Correspondant" in 1865 and Associated Member in 1888, in which latter

dignity he succeeded Sir Henry Maine. In 1870 the University of Oxford

conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L.

'It was in 1855, on the resignation of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, that he

assumed the editorship of this "Review," which he retained till the day

of his death. Both on the political and the literary side he was in full

harmony with its traditions. His rare and minute knowledge of recent

English and foreign political history; his vast fund of political anecdote;

his personal acquaintance with so many of the chief actors on the political

scene, both in England and France, gave a great weight and authority to his

judgements, and his mind was essentially of the Whig cast. He was a genuine

Liberal of the school of Russell, Palmerston, Clarendon, and Cornewall

Lewis. It was a sober and tolerant Liberalism, rooted in the traditions

of the past, and deeply attached to the historical elements in the

Constitution. The dislike and distrust with which he had always viewed the

progress of democracy deepened with age, and it was his firm conviction

that it could never become the permanent basis of good government. Like

most men of his type of thought and character, he was strongly repelled by

the later career of Mr. Gladstone, and the Home Rule policy at last severed

him definitely from the bulk of the Liberal party. From this time the

present Duke of Devonshire was the leader of his party.

'His literary judgements had much analogy to his political ones. His

leanings were all towards the old standards of thought and style. He had

been formed in the school of Macaulay and Milman, and of the great French

writers under Louis Philippe. Sober thought, clear reasoning, solid

scholarship, a transparent, vivid, and restrained style were the literary

qualities he most appreciated. He was a great purist, inexorably hostile

to a new word. In philosophy he was a devoted disciple of Kant, and his

decided orthodoxy in religious belief affected many of his judgements. He

could not appreciate Carlyle; he looked with much distrust on Darwinism and

the philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and he had very little patience with

some of the moral and intellectual extravagances of modern literature. But,

according to his own standards and in the wide range of his own subjects,

his literary judgement was eminently sound, and he was quick and generous

in recognising rising eminence. In at least one case the first considerable

recognition of a prominent historian was an article in this "Review" from

his pen.

'He had a strong sense of the responsibility of an editor, and especially

of the editor of a Review of unsigned articles. No article appeared which

he did not carefully consider. His powerful individuality was deeply

stamped upon the "Review," and he carefully maintained its unity and

consistency of sentiments. It was one of the chief occupations and

pleasures of his closing days, and the very last letter he dictated

referred to it.

'Time, as might be expected, had greatly thinned the circle of his friends.

Of the France which he knew so well scarcely anything remained, but his old

friend and senior, Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, visited him at Christ-Church,

and he kept up to the end a warm friendship with the Duc d'Aumale. He spent

his 80th birthday at Chantilly, and until the very last year of his life he

was never absent when the Duke dined at "The Club." In Lord Derby he lost

the statesman with whom in his later years he was most closely connected by

private friendship and political sympathy, while the death of Lady Stanley

of Alderley deprived him of an attached and lifelong friend.

'Growing infirmities prevented him in his latter days from mixing much in

general society in London, but his life was brightened by all that loving

companionship could give; his mental powers were unfaded, and he could

still enjoy the society of younger friends. He looked forward to the end

with a perfect and a most characteristic calm, without fear and without

regret. It was the placid close of a long, dignified, and useful life.'

The second, the French appreciation, was spoken at the meeting of the

'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques,' on November 16th, 1895,

by the Duc d'Aumale, who, after regretting his absence on the previous

occasion when the President had announced the death of their foreign

member, Mr. Henry Reeve, continued:

'Je n'aurais sans doute rien pu ajouter à ce qui a été si bien dit par M.

le Président, mais je tenais à rendre personnellement hommage à la mémoire

d'un confrère éminent, pour lequel je professais une haute estime et une

sincère amitié, et je demande à l'Académie la permission de lui adresser

quelques mots.

'Qu'on l'envisage au point de vue littéraire ou au point de vue social,

la figure d'Henry Reeve était essentiellement originale, et il devait ce

caractère non seulement à la nature de son esprit, mais à l'éducation qu'il

avait reçue. Sur la base anglaise de la forte instruction classique son

père [Footnote: A momentary lapse of memory. It is scarcely possible that

the Duc d'Aumale did not know that Reeve's father died whilst Reeve was

still an infant, and that his education was directed by his mother.] voulut

ajouter le couronnement des hautes études continentales, et, pour que cette

culture intellectuelle n'eût rien d'exclusif ou d'absolu il fit choix de

Genève et de Munich. C'cst dans ces deux villes, dans ces deux grands

centres intellectuels, que Reeve passa une partie de sa jeunesse. Ce séjour

dans des milieux si différents laissa dans son esprit une double impression

qui se refléta sur toute sa vie.

'Peu de personnes, de nos jours, ont aussi bien connu que lui cette

charmante et originale société de Genève, qui semblait dater du

dix-huitième siècle, et qui en a si longtemps conservé les traditions.

C'est là qu'il acquit la connaissance approfondie de notre langue; il en

avait saisi les nuances délicates; il connaissait toute notre littérature.

Je ne connais guère d'étrangers qui puissent parler, comprendre, écrire le

français mieux que lui.

'L'allemand ne lui était pas moins familier. Le séjour à Munich lui inspira

aussi le goût des arts envisagés à un point de vue qui n'est pas tout à

fait le nôtre. Dans un petit volume, oeuvre de jeunesse, "Graphidae," il

traduisit sous une forme poétique l'impression que lui avaient laissée les

oeuvres des premiers maîtres italiens. On y retrouve, avec la mesure qui

etait un des caractères de cet esprit bien pondéré, la trace des théories

qui prévalaient alors dans l'Allemagne méridionale.

'À d'autres points de vue ce long séjour à l'étranger lui avait laissé

des traces plus profondes encore. Il en avait rapporté une sorte de

cosmopolitisme éclairé, tempéré, entretenu par ses nombreuses relations.

Je ne veux pas dire qu'il ne fut pas Anglais avant tout. Passionnément

patriote--et ce n'est pas moi qui lui en ferai un reproche--il épousait les

passions, les colères de son pays, mais sans rudesse, sans hauteur, sans

haine ou mépris des autres peuples, sans préjugés contre aucune nation

étrangère.

'Il ne cessa d'entretenir des relations intimes et constantes avec tout le

parti libéral français (je prends le mot libéral dans le vrai sens, le sens

le plus large), depuis M. le Duc de Broglie et M. Gruizot jusqu'à notre

vénéré confrère M. Barthelémy Saint-Hilaire.

'Malgré son impartialité j'oserai dire qu'il avait une certaine faiblesse

pour la France. Certes il n'aurait jamais épousé la cause de la France

engagée contre l'Angleterre; mais quand il voyait la France et l'Angleterre

d'accord sa joie était vive. Et lors de nos malheurs, sans prendre parti

dans la querelle, il n'a jamais cachée la sympathie que lui inspirait la

France vaincue.

'Je ne sache pas que Reeve ait écrit aucun ouvrage de longue haleine, sauf

certaines traductions difficiles, importantes: quelques-unes rappellent à

cette compagnie des noms qui lui sont chers--la "Vie de Washington," par

Guizot; la "Démocratic," de Tocqueville, un de ses plus intimes amis.

'Il n'a pas pris une part directe au mouvement des affaires de son pays,

n'ayant siégé ni dans le parlement ni dans aucun cabinet; mais son

influence était considérable: sans cesse consulté, souvent chargé de

messages importants; enfin sa plume, sa plume surtout, ne restait jamais

inactive, et ses écrits portaient coup. Le "Times" l'a compte longtemps

parmi ses principaux collaborateurs; plus tard il se recueillit et se

consacra exclusivement à la direction de la "Revue d'Edimbourg," dont il

avait été longtemps un des principaux redacteurs. [Footnote: The Duke would

seem to have misunderstood Reeve's position, or, more probably, his

memory was confused by the lapse of forty years. Reeve was never _'un des

principaux rédacteurs'_ of the Edinburgh Review. Till he became sole editor

and, in a literary sense, autocrat, he had no part in the conduct of it,

nor was he a constant contributor (cf. _ante_, vol. i. p. 173).]

'Je n'ai pas besoin de rappeler à l'Académie quel rôle appartient à

"l'editeur" dans les grandes revues anglaises, quelle part il prend au

choix des sujets, à la rédaction des articles, quelle autorité il exerce,

ni de m'etendre sur l'histoire du plus ancien, je crois, des recueils

périodiques, assurément un des plus importants. La "Revue d'Edimbourg" est

plus qu'un simple organe; souvent elle donne la note, la formule des idées

acceptées par le parti dont elle continue d'arborer les couleurs sur sa

couverture bleue et chamois, les couleurs de M. Fox.

'J'ai dit que Reeve n'avait pas pris part au gouvernement. Il exerçait

cependant une charge, un veritable office de judicature, dont les

attributions ne sont pas d'accord avec nos moeurs et dont le titre même se

traduit difficilement dans notre langue. Attaché au Conseil privé comme

_Appeal Clerk_, puis comme Registrar, il jugeait des appels des îles de la

Manche. [Footnote: This, as has been seen (ante, vol. i. pp. 85-6), is a

very inexact and imperfect description of Reeve's duties, either as Clerk

of Appeals or as Registrar.] On comprend qu'une connaissance si parfaite

de la langue et des usages français le qualifiait particulièrement pour

remplir ces fonctions, quand on songe que la langue officielle de ces

îles est encore aujourd'hui le français et que dans les questions de

jurisprudence la coutume de Normandie y est constamment invoquée.

'Officiellement Reeve était sous les ordres du secrétaire du Conseil privé,

et ces rapports de subordination avaient créé des relations intimes entre

son supérieur et lui. M. Charles Gréville avait tenu la plume du Conseil

dans des circonstances deélicates et s'était trouvé mêlé à une foule

d'incidents; en mourant il chargea Reeve de publier ses mémoires. Cette

publication eut un grand retentissement.

'Reeve était fier d'appartenir à votre compagnie. Lorsque l'Université

d'Oxford me conféra le degré de docteur il était près de moi.

"Rappelez-vous," me dit-il en souriant, "que l'Académie des Sciences

Morales a sa part dans l'honneur que vous venez de recevoir." Fort répandu,

fort apprécie dans le monde, il menait de front ses travaux littéraires,

ses devoirs de juge, ses relations sociales, ses excursions; son activité

était extraordinaire. La goutte le gênait quelquefois, et d'année en année

ses visites devenaient plus fréquentes.

'Il avait bâti au bord la mer, en face de l'île de Wight, sous un climat

doux, une charmante villa, où il aimait a s'enfermer avec ses livres,

poursuivant ses travaux auprès de la digne et gracieuse compagne de sa vie.

Ses dernières années s'écoulèrent ainsi entre cette résidence et la maison

bien connue de Rutland Gate, où sa table hospitalière était toujours

ouverte à ses amis de France ou d'ailleurs. C'est à Foxholes que la mort

est venue le chercher.

'Je n'ai pas la préention de prononcer devant vous l'éloge d'Henry Reeve;

la competence me manque comme la preparation. En vous rappelant quelques

traits de cette noble figure je voulais, comme je vous l'ai dit tout à

l'heure, acquitter une dette de coeur envers un ami qui, jusqu'aux derniers

moments de sa vie, m'a prodigué les marques d'affection. Il voulut célébrer

à Chantilly le 80e anniversaire de sa naissance, et un de ses derniers

soucis était de réclamer les bonnes feuilles du septième volume de

"L'Histoire des Condé," dont il voulait rendre compte dans sa Revue.

[Footnote: The present writer feels a personal satisfaction in adding

that one of the last letters which Reeve dictated about the work of the

_Review_, was to him, asking him to undertake this article.]

'La mémoire du philosophe, du lettré, de l'érudit, dn confrère éminent, de

l'homme bon et aimable, mérite de rester honorée dans notre compagnie.'

APPENDIX

It has been seen (_ante_, vol. ii.) that Reeve intended quoting Lord

Stanmore's letter on the formation of the Aberdeen Cabinet, in a future

edition of the 'Greville Memoirs.' There seems, however, to have been no

opportunity for doing so, and the letter has remained buried in the

columns of the 'Times' of June 13, 1887, becoming each year more and more

inaccessible. As relating to an interesting point raised by the 'Greville

Memoirs,' and also as, to some extent, carrying out Reeve's intention, it

is here reprinted, with Lord Stanmore's express permission.

_To the Editor of the 'Times'_

Sir,--It is only recently that the two new volumes of the 'Greville

Memoirs' lately published have reached Ceylon. I fear that before this

letter can arrive in England the interest excited by their appearance will

have passed away, and that, consequently, comments upon their contents

addressed to you may seem as much out of place as would a letter written

for the purpose of correcting some error in any well-known collection of

memoirs which have been long before the world. It is therefore not without

some hesitation that I venture to request permission from you to point out

the inaccuracy of a statement which appears near the commencement of the

first of these two volumes, and casts an undeserved imputation upon the

conduct, in 1852, of the chief members of the Peelite party.

Mr. Greville, under the date of December 28, 1852, writes thus:--

'Clarendon told me last night that the Peelites have behaved very ill, and

have grasped at everything; and he mentioned some very flagrant cases, in

which, after the distribution had been settled between Aberdeen and John

Russell, Newcastle and Sidney Herbert--for they appear to have been the

most active in the matter--persuaded Aberdeen to alter it, and bestow or

offer offices intended for Whigs to Peelites, and in some instances to

Derbyites who had been Peelites' (vol. i.).

In the next two pages lie comments with severity on the selfishness and

shortsightedness of the Peelites in reference to this matter. Now, the

reflection thus cast on the foresight and disinterestedness of the Peelite

leaders is in no wise warranted by the facts. What really occurred at the

formation of the Cabinet of December 1852 was, in truth, the exact reverse

of what is stated in Mr. Greville's pages. It was not the Peelites, but

Lord John Russell and the Whigs, who, after the list of the Cabinet and of

the chief officers of the State had been agreed on between Lord Aberdeen

and Lord John Russell, and had been submitted to and approved by the Queen,

objected to the composition of the Cabinet as 'too Peelite,' and strove to

change the arrangements made originally with Lord John Russell's entire

acquiescence. I will not, however, occupy your space with remarks of my

own; I will at once produce incontestable proof of what I have asserted. I

have now before me a manuscript journal kept by Sir James Graham, and from

it I quote the following extracts. In reading them it should be borne in

mind that the proposed distribution of offices agreed on between Lord

Aberdeen and Lord John Russell had been formally approved by the Queen on

December 23rd.

_December 24th_.--'Lord John Russell most unexpectedly raised fresh

difficulties this morning, on the ground that the Whigs are not represented

in the new Cabinet sufficiently. He wished that Sir F. Baring should be

placed at the Board of Trade to the exclusion of Cardwell; that Lord

Clarendon should have the Duchy, with a seat in the Cabinet; and that Lord

Granville should be President of the Council. He thus proposed at one

_coup_ an infusion of three additional Whigs, and talked of Lord Carlisle

as the fittest person for the Lieutenancy of Ireland. It became necessary

to make a stand and to bring the Whigs to their ultimatum. Lord Aberdeen

consented to Lord Granville as President, and proposed that Lord Lansdowne

should sit in the Cabinet, without an office. This proposition, which

reduced the Whig addition, from three to two, saved the Board of Trade for

Cardwell, but excluded both him and Canning from the Cabinet. Lord John

did not regard it as satisfactory, and fought the point so long and so

pertinaciously, that the new writs could not be moved to-day, and the

House was adjourned till Monday. Towards evening, at the instance of Lord

Lansdowne, Lord John Russell yielded an unwilling assent to Lord Aberdeen's

last proposals...'

_December 25th_.--'Lord John Russell is very much annoyed by the

disparaging tone of the articles in the "Times," which, while it supports

Lord Aberdeen, attacks him [Russell] and the Whigs. He is still also

dissatisfied in the exclusion of Lord Clarendon and of Sir George Grey from

the Cabinet, and thinks that the Whig share of the spoil is insufficient.

It is melancholy to see how little fitness for office is regarded on all

sides, and how much the public employments are treated as booty to be

divided among successful combatants. The Irish Government, also, is still

a matter of contest. The Whigs are anxious to displace Blackburne and to

replace him with Brady, their former Chancellor; they are jealous also of

St. Germans and Young, as Lord-Lieutenant and Chief Secretary, and want to

have Lord Carlisle substituted for the former. I discussed these matters at

Argyll House with Lord John and Lord Aberdeen. If we three were left

alone, we could easily adjust every difficulty; it is the intervention of

interested parties on opposite sides which mars every settlement...'

_December 27th_.--'The Whigs returned to the charge, and claimed in a most

menacing manner a larger share of the minor offices. Sir C. Wood and Mr.

Hayter came to me in the first instance and tried to shake me individually

in my opinion. I was stout and combated all their arguments, which assumed

an angry tone. We came to no satisfactory conclusion in my house, and the

discussion was adjourned to Lord John's. I found Lord John more amenable to

reason; but the whole arrangement was on the point of being broken off.

It was 1 o'clock. The House of Commons was to meet at 2 by special

adjournment, and the writs were to be issued punctually at that hour.

Sir C. Wood intimated that unless some further concessions were made

the arrangement was at an end, and that the moving of the writs must be

postponed. I said I should go down to the House, and make then and there

a full statement of the case, and recall by telegraph my address to

the electors of Carlisle, which declared my acceptance of office. This

firmness, coupled with my rising to leave the room, brought the gentlemen

to reason. I had a note in my pocket from Lord Aberdeen, which placed the

Duchy of Lancaster at their disposal, and Strutt was in the House ready to

receive it at the hands of Lord John. This offer was snatched immediately;

Strutt was consulted and accepted on the spot, and Hayter was sent to the

House of Commons, and he moved the writs of the Cabinet Ministers, of

Strutt also, and of Baines...'

_December 28th_.--'The contest as to minor offices was renewed with equal

pertinacity, but with less effect, after the moving of the principal writs.

A battle was fought for the Great Seal of Ireland, which was ultimately

yielded to Brady, the ex-Whig Chancellor. This concession was no sooner

made than an attempt to force Reddington as the Under-Secretary for Ireland

was commenced. He, being a Catholic, had consented to the Ecclesiastical

Titles Bill, against his private judgement and in defiance of his

coreligionists. His appointment would have been war with the Brigade, and

it was necessary to refuse it peremptorily. The dissatisfaction of

Lord Clarendon and of Lord John Russell was eagerly expressed, but was

ultimately mitigated by the offer to Reddington of the Secretaryship of

the Board of Control. The suggestion that Lord John might provide for him

abroad was not so favourably entertained. I have never passed a week so

unpleasantly. It was a battle for places from hostile camps, and the Whigs

disregarded fitness for the public service altogether. They fought

for their men as partisans, and all other considerations, as well as

consequences, were disregarded. Lord Aberdeen's patience and justice are

exemplary; he is firm and yet conciliatory, and has ended by making an

arrangement which is, on the whole, impartial and quite as satisfactory as

circumstances would permit.'

The evidence of Sir James Graham on points of fact will hardly be disputed,

nor will it be denied that he, who took an active part in the construction

of the Government and was in the most intimate confidence of Lord Aberdeen,

was in a better position for knowing what passed than Mr. Greville, who

was dependent on the information which he received from others. But if any

confirmation be desired it will be found in the extracts which I add from

the correspondence of Lord Aberdeen. The Queen, as I have before said,

approved the lists submitted to her on December 23rd. The same evening,

Lord John Russell wrote to Lord Aberdeen as follows:--

'I am told that the whole complexion of the Government will look too

Peelite. G. Grey suggests, and I concur, that Clarendon should be President

of the Council immediately, and when he leaves it someone else may be

named--Harrowby or Granville. I am seriously afraid that the whole thing

will break down from the weakness of the old Liberal party (I must not say

Whig) in the Cabinet. To this must be added:--President of the Board of

Trade, Postmaster, Chief Secretary for Ireland, all in Peelite hands. I

send a note which Bessborough has given me, and which is said to convey the

opinion of the Irish Liberal members. _It is not very reasonable_, but I

think Blackburne should be changed for Moore, and St. Germans for Lord

Carlisle. Palmerston consents to Bernal Osborne. You should write or see

Cranworth. Forgive all this trouble.'

Lord Aberdeen replied:--

'I do not admit the justice of the criticism made on the composition of the

Cabinet, if you fairly estimate the persons and the offices they fill. I do

not object to Clarendon; but my fear is that he will not be able to do the

business of the office in the House of Lords, and we are so weak there that

I entertain very great apprehensions.'

Lord John rejoined:--

'What I suggest is (1) that, as I have frequently proposed, with your

consent, Lord Granville should be Lord President; (2) that Sir F. Baring

should be President of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet; (3)

that Clarendon should at once enter the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy

of Lancaster; (4) that Lord Stanley of Alderley should be Vice-President,

not in the Cabinet. Let me add to what I have said that ten Whigs, members

of former Cabinets, are omitted in this, while only two Peelites are

omitted, and one entirely new is admitted--Argyll. Let me propose further

that the minor posts be recast with less disproportion. Cardwell ought not

to have office while Labouchere, Vernon Smith, and others are excluded.

'Pray let me have an answer before the writs are moved. I have sent for F.

Baring. If he will not join, G. Grey will.

'P.S.--About Ireland afterwards.'

On the receipt of this letter Lord Aberdeen wrote to the Queen that it

put it entirely out of his power to go to Windsor on that day as had been

intended, and that 'he regretted to say that the new propositions, which

had been made by Lord John that morning, although the scheme submitted to

the Queen had been approved of, were so extensive as very seriously to

endanger the success of his [Lord Aberdeen's] undertaking.'

It appears to me to be thus shown, beyond dispute or question, that it was

the Whigs and not the Peelites who, after the distribution of offices had

been fully agreed on, and approved by the Queen, sought to modify the

arrangements effected. Whether the Whigs had or had not cause for their

discontent is another question, on which it is unnecessary now to enter.

That such discontent was (considering their numerical strength) extremely

natural, none can deny. That, on the other hand, it would have been

impossible to exclude Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, or the Duke of

Newcastle from a Cabinet formed and presided over by Lord Aberdeen, and

that the important share taken by Mr. Sidney Herbert in the overthrow of

Lord Derby's Government rendered him also entitled to claim Cabinet office,

most men will admit.

While anxious to correct a statement which appears to me injurious to the

reputation of public men, some of whom are still living, I trust I may

be permitted at the same time to record my strong sense of the general

accuracy of Mr. Greville's information. Where his notes are inaccurate,

their inaccuracy may, I believe, be more generally accounted for by his

omission in those cases to insert in his diary (as in many other instances

he has done) a subsequent correction of the erroneous reports which had in

the first instance reached him.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

ARTHUR GORDON.