Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 16

My dear Reeve,--The end and aim of the 'Reign of Law' is to exalt our conceptions of its head, and to destroy pretenders to the throne. The Duke has shown, as you observe, caution in avoiding the latter application. But the old 'Edinburgh' was once eminently iconoclastic, and its reputation still floats on the brave work of its youth. I fear, too we should have lost some best bits and hits of dear old Sydney had his editor been too precise in defining a personality. As to the other old Sidney, I, too, know him well; his libellus _is_ small game, but it is the type of a cla.s.s doing much mischief. You think I have been too outspoken. Believe me, it is only a question of time; and _you_ will speak out quite as plainly when the 'Forlorn' has made the breach safe. But one would wish to see the 'Blue and Yellow' in the post of honour.

I had misgivings at the first that I might be unfit for your want. My time draws on, and, under a sense of responsibility for its use, I cannot write plat.i.tudes.

Sincerely yours,

RICHD. OWEN.

The Journal for 1867 begins with--

Usual engagements in the early part of the year. Circourt came in April, and we went together to Norwich.

To Paris in April. Met Mrs. Grote and Hayward on the road. Morny gave me a card to see the Great Exhibition before it opened. A great banquet at the Emba.s.sy on the 25th. On the 30th with Chevalier to Lemaire's fabrique. He gave me my aluminium binocle. Ball at the Marine. Dined at Julian Fane's.

[Footnote: The secretary of the emba.s.sy.] Binet came to Paris from Geneva.

May 6th, went to see Thiers on the last evening. May 7th, dined with Mon, the Spanish amba.s.sador. Home on the 8th.

_May 11th_.--Some of the Novar pictures were sold. I bought my Cuyp, small Claude, P. Veronese, Watts, Rubens' drawing, Palma Vecchio, and some small ones.

Visit to Torry Hill in June, but Lord Kingsdown was dying. [Footnote: He died on October 7th.] I took De Mussy down to see him. I went there again in July.

_From Lord Kingsdown_

_Torry Hill, June 26th_.--It is most kind in you to write to me as often as you do, and always whenever you have anything agreeable to tell me. Both your last letters are full of such matter. It is inexpressibly pleasing to me to receive so many marks as I do of the kindness and affection of my friends; and if any or all of those who professed a disposition to come and see me would do so, I should be delighted to receive them, collectively or individually. I have a letter from Cranworth this morning, most kindly offering to come down here on Sat.u.r.day next. If you could look up and send down anybody as a companion to him, it would be more agreeable to him and to me. Possibly Peel [Footnote: Sir Lawrence Peel.] might be induced to come.

I have not, of course, the face to ask you to come down on Sat.u.r.day, but I hold you to your promise to see me again here before you go to the North.

I am, truly and gratefully yours,

KINGSDOWN.

The Journal mentions some of the functions of the season.

_June 27th_.--Dinner at home to the F. Stanleys, [Footnote: The present Earl and Countess of Derby.] Mme. Mohl, Seaforth, Lecky, Blumenthal, T.

Bruces, Fords remarkably pleasant.

_29th_.--Dinner at the Duc de Chartres', at Ham. The Russells, Clarendons, Saxe-Weimars, Waldegraves, A. Kinnaird.

_July 10th_.--Holland House garden party. Lady Derby's party to the Pasha of Egypt. On the 19th, grand ball, at the India Office, to the Sultan.

_From Lord Cairns_

5 Cromwell Houses, South Kensington, July 17th.

Dear Reeve,--I enclose the Indian judgement, revised, and also the 'Agra'

judgement [Footnote: A case of collision in the Channel between the s.h.i.+p 'Agra' and a bark, 'Elizabeth Jenkins.' The judgement was delivered on the 20th by Sir William Erle.] with a few verbal alterations. I am sorry I cannot deliver the latter; but the state of our work in Chancery is such that the sittings cannot be well curtailed, even for an hour. I trust some member of the board, with a strong nautical tw.a.n.g, will be so good as to deliver it; and if the speaker could but adopt that hitch of the trouser which made Lord Clarence Paget so effective in the House of Commons, it would, I have no doubt, add much to the effect of a composition otherwise so tame.

Yours faithfully, CAIRNS.

_From Lord Kingsdown_

_Torry Hill, July 30th_.--I hear you are starting for Scotland the end of this week, and I cannot let you go without repeating to you once more my earnest and most cordial thanks for the great kindness which you have shown to me during my long sickness, both in constantly writing to me and in many other ways. I wish I had a letter from you this morning, for the upshot of what pa.s.sed last night in the House of Lords far pa.s.ses my comprehension.

If you should find occasionally a leisure half-hour, and will employ it in informing me of your proceedings on the moors, I shall be very grateful.

I think it not impossible that in the course of your wanderings you may fall in with Jowett. If you do, pray explain to him how very sensible I was of his friends.h.i.+p in offering to come down here to see me, and how very much I was mortified at being obliged to decline his offer. In my present condition, it is absurd even to suppose plans for the future; but I do not _quite_ despair of seeing you here during this next partridge or pheasant season.

The Journal mentions that--

Gladstone agreed to write the political article for the 'Edinburgh' in October. It was called 'Sequel to the Session.' Curious conversation with him about the Irish Church.

_August 3rd_.--Went down to Weybridge to see Mrs. Austin. It was the last time, for she died on the 8th, when I was at sea, on my way to Scotland. We arrived at Aberdeen on the 9th, and learned it there. To Novar and Ardross, where good shooting. Then to Uppat, boating and fis.h.i.+ng with the Duke of Sutherland, George Loch, and Forsyth.

We went from Uppat to Brahan; then to Dunnichen and Springfield, a place near Roslyn the Dempsters had taken. Then to Abington and home.

_From M. Guizot_

Val Richer, 15 Aout.

My dear Sir,--Sir Alexander Gordon m'avait annonce la perte que nous venons de faire. Je dis nous, car Madame Austin etait pour moi une vraie et intime amie. Je l'ai connue dans mes joies et mes tristesses, dans mes succes et mes revers. Je l'ai trouvee toujours la meme, la meme elevation d'esprit, le meme coeur sympathique et devoue. Je n'esperais plus la revoir; je le lui disais dans la derniere lettre que je lui ai ecrite, et en me repondant il y a un mois, elle me disait presque adieu. Mais la distance est grande entre l'adieu annonce et l'adieu reel. Sa mort est pour moi un vrai chagrin. Et pour mes filles aussi, a qui elle a temoigne tant d'affection et de bonte.

J'ai prie Sir Alexander de m'envoyer la meilleure gravure en photographie qui existe d'elle. Envoyez moi aussi, je vous prie, ce qui sera publie sur son compte, et ajoutez y tous les details que vous recueillerez.

Sadly and sincerely yours,

GUIZOT.

CHAPTER XVI

CHURCH POLITICS

Early in October, Reeve, with his wife--Miss Reeve--was staying in Scotland--set out for Geneva, and, travelling by easy stages through Antwerp, Luxembourg, Metz--'a very pretty, attractive town,' not yet brought into vulgar repute by its siege and surrender in the Franco-German war--Nancy, Strasbourg, and Bale, arrived on the 12th. The weather was cold and wintry; and, after a short stay at Geneva, they went on to Ma.r.s.eilles, where Reeve's uncle, Philip Taylor, the founder of the 'Forges et Chantiers,' was still living, a hale old man of eighty, with his wife, 'some seven years younger, and not at all old in figure, look, and voice.'

Then to Cannes, which was coming fast into note--'building going on with great activity, and ground fetching higher prices every year'; and, after an excursion to Nice and Mentone, they turned northwards, were at Paris on November 6th, and reached home on the 10th. The Journal adds:--

_January 6th, 1868_.--Went on a visit to Loseley Park, then occupied by the Thomson Hankeys--the old seat of Sir Thomas More. Mlle. Ernestine declaimed there.

_From Lord Westbury_

_January 14th_.--Pray, if you can, give us a paper with some variety, and not wholly composed of dreary Indian appeals, the hearing of which always reminded me of the toil of Pharaoh's charioteers, when they drave heavily their wheelless chariots in the deep sands of the Red Sea.

Who is it that has dug so deep into the Talmud, and written that remarkable paper, [Footnote: 'The Talmud,' _Quarterly Review,_ October 1867.] for which, a century ago, he would have been the subject of a writ _De haeretico comburendo_?

_Hinton St. George, January 16th_.--Your arrangement is a very good one, but, for fear of accident, I will certainly leave this place on Monday, February 3rd, so that you may count on me for Tuesday if required. The gorge rises at the thought of being fed on curry, rice, and chutnee sauce for three weeks; I shall certainly contract a disease of the liver. If you can send us occasionally to sea on an Admiralty case, it will be a little relief. I have observed that pet.i.tions for prolongation of patents frequently occupy an (apparently) undue time. If there are any such, I think we may despatch them. I hope Lord Justice Cairns will use the days he gains for reducing the arrears in Chancery. I am much obliged to him for his kind expressions.

The best advice that his friends can give Rolt [Footnote: Sir John Rolt resigned in February 1868, and died in June 1871.] is to resign. It is the only chance of long life. Let him not be afraid of ennui from idleness.

He has a great love of the country and country pursuits, and that is all-sufficient. Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale its infinite variety. And it is so much better to be a looker-on than an actor in life.

Aristotle, in the last chapter of his 'Nicomachean Ethics,' sets himself to consider what can be the happiness of the G.o.ds; and he finds nothing in which he can put it but in contemplation. And it might be so, if it were still true. 'And G.o.d saw (contemplated) all that He had made, and behold it was very good.'