Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 41

A. C. CANTUAR.

The hint was not lost on Reeve, but it did not bear fruit till nearly six years later. In January 1887 the 'Edinburgh Review' contained a strong article on 'The Literature of the Streets,' in which the proposal was definitely made for the issue of wholesome fiction and good works of good writers, sensational and otherwise, in penny booklets. Eight or nine years later the idea was taken up by at least two publishers; such penny books are now issued by thousands, and, together with the countless number of halfpenny and penny periodicals, do something to mitigate the evil complained of by the Archbishop. The Journal notes:--

_September 9th_.--Picnic in New Forest with the Lochs and Clerkes. 30th, steamed round the Isle of Wight.

_To Lord Derby_

_Foxholes, October 6th_.--I must express to you the very great pleasure with which I have read your article [Footnote: 'Ireland and the Land Act,'

in the _Nineteenth Century_ for October. It does not attempt to argue the question of Home Rule, but concludes with the pregnant words: 'My present object will be sufficiently accomplished if I have indicated some of the difficulties which lie before us, and explained why--at least in my belief--it is premature to say, "Now we have settled our Irish troubles and may deal in peace with questions that concern England."'] on the Irish Land Act. It states in the most terse and telling language precisely the views I have entertained for the last two years; and the conclusions it suggests are even more striking than those it expresses. The ministers of England, be they who they may, have a difficult task before them. The odd thing is that our present ministers seem totally unconscious of the difficulty and the dangers. I am told that they view the state of Ireland with great complacency. It is astonis.h.i.+ng how office blinds people's eyes.

We have lost two members of The Club--Lord Hatherley and alas! Arthur Stanley. I hope you will be able to suggest somebody to replace them.

_From Lord Derby_

_October 8th_.--I am glad you liked the article in the 'Nineteenth Century.' I do believe it comes near to an accurate statement of the facts of the case--no one can hope for more than approximate accuracy in such matters--and on that account I expected it to be equally disagreeable to both sides. Its reception has been better than seemed probable. Gladstone has spoken out his mind about Parnell, and quite right too; but I wish he had not accused the unlucky loyalists in Ireland of being slack in their own defence. He does not know, evidently, how much they are overmatched...

As to The Club. Two names have occurred to me--one, Browning the poet, who is an excellent talker (I have heard him), and as unlike his books as possible; the other, Sir John Lubbock. What do you say?

The opening sentence of the next letter, from Lord Derby, appears to refer to an after-dinner speech made by Mr. Gladstone at Leeds, on the 7th, when he had alternately complimented Mr. Dillon and denounced Mr. Parnell. The latter part, the denunciation of Mr. Parnell and his faction, is unusually straightforward, and might profitably be studied in connection with some of Mr. Gladstone's later speeches.

_October 11th_.--I don't understand Gladstone's phrase any better than you. Probably the explanation of it is that in Ireland it will be read as meaning fresh concession, in England as meaning coercion. For anybody who had leisure and disposition to take it up, I think a very interesting and useful article for the 'Edinburgh Review' might be made out of the present state of Irish literature and journalism. I do not believe the Irish lower and middle cla.s.ses ever read an English book or newspaper, and their native literature is saturated throughout with the bitterest hatred to England and all that belongs to our side the water. We do not in the least know here the kind of mental food which is supplied to the amiable Celt. A good a.n.a.lysis of it would throw more light on the very old subject of why they hate us so.

Reeve adopted the suggestion, and the subject was discussed in an article on 'Irish Discontent' in the next number of the 'Review.' Lord Derby goes on:--

_October 15th_.--Since you wrote the Government has screwed up its courage to act. I never knew any proceedings so universally approved as the arrest of Parnell. [Footnote: Mr. Parnell, Mr. Dillon, Mr. s.e.xton, and the chief officials of the League were arrested in Dublin on the 13th and lodged in Kilmainham.] But we have not seen the end yet.

_October 21st_.--Many thanks for your letter, which is returned. I do believe that it would be of use, as making intelligible the present state of Irish feeling, to show to the English public (which is absolutely ignorant on the subject) what the kind of instruction is that the Irish peasant and farmer receives.

Another matter. What do you think of Matthew Arnold as a possible member of The Club? He is a good fellow and his literary reputation is very considerable. I think we could do with him if he would attend.

_From M. B. St.-Hilaire_

_November 22nd_.--You know how little value I set on my office; I only accepted it from a sense of duty, and quit it to-day, not only without regret but with great pleasure. I am glad to receive your congratulations because you correctly estimate the person to whom they are addressed.

Like yourself, I am not without anxiety for the future. In placing matters in the hands of M. Gambetta, I said all I possibly could on the affairs of Europe and our relations with Germany; but I will not swear that more attention will be paid to my advice than to that of many others.

The Journal has:--

_December 10th_.--To Timsbury; 13th to Foxholes. The Mintos were living at Bournemouth. Lunched with them on the 31st.

1882, _January 1st_.--At Foxholes. Sir A. Lyall came.

_9th_.--Returned to London. A few dinners.

_From Mr. E. Cheney_

_Badger Hall, January 19th_.--I have been reading the political articles in the last number of the 'Edinburgh' with great interest and pleasure. The one on 'The Bonapartes,' though not strictly political, amused me much, as at one time of my life I knew Hortense and Louis Bonaparte intimately.

Hortense was an agreeable woman, very French, but lively and full of anecdote. She had been and was _tres galante_, but with decency. When I knew her at Rome she was near fifty, and though not handsome, had still the appearance of once having been a desirable woman.... Her son was then with her--a youth of my own age, with whom I was intimate without liking him. He was cold, disagreeable, and full of pretension, silent and reserved in his own family, and anxious for distinction, which no one seemed willing to accord him. I believe--contrary to the usual opinion--that he was the son of Louis Bonaparte; he was like him. He was short, not ill-made, but ungraceful; his face was plain, his skin bad, complexion muddy; small pig's eyes, a coa.r.s.e nose and mouth, lank hair, with little expression, and what he had far from good. Neither I, nor any that then knew him, thought him at all clever. I remember he got into a ludicrous sc.r.a.pe by intruding, in female attire, into the apartments of the mistress of the Spanish amba.s.sador, from whence he was kicked out with every circ.u.mstance of ignominy.

When the disturbances broke out in the Papal States, he took a part in them which was eminently unfitting, as he and his mother had found hospitality in the States of the Church which they were refused in every other country.

I saw Hortense at night, just before her hurried departure from Rome, when the news of her son's partic.i.p.ation in the revolt at Ancona became public.

I had always been well treated by her, and had tasted her hospitality both at Rome and at Arenenberg, and wished to show her sympathy and interest, though I had nothing else in my power.... She received a pa.s.sport from Sir Hamilton Seymour and travelled through France. In Paris she had an interview with Louis Philippe, who was kind to her. In the days of her prosperity she had had an opportunity of showing kindness to the King's mother. She showed me a letter from that princess, in which there were very ardent expressions of grat.i.tude for the service rendered to her. This she told me she intended to show to L. Philippe as the certificate for her claims on his protection. I saw her in London several times during her stay; she returned to Switzerland, and I never saw her again.

Louis Bonaparte I only spoke to once afterwards. I happened to be at Cork when he landed there from America. I was at the same inn, and I understood he was in great distress for money. I asked to see him, and we met. I asked him if he required any trifling service that I could render him, thinking a five-pound note might take him to London. He thanked me, but said he was supplied for the moment. He lived with the D'Orsay and Blessington set, which I did not frequent. I did not call on him, and in Paris I never afterwards made the slightest effort to renew my former acquaintance with him....

I had intended saying something about the two other articles that relate to home politics, but I have been already too prolix. I must tell you, however, how much I like them. Whigs as well as Tories will soon cease to be separate; the struggle will soon be between those who have _culottes_ and those who have not. We have got already to the Girondist ministry--a party I hate particularly, in spite of their pretensions to virtue and philosophy, or perhaps in consequence of it. There are some men of birth and distinction who belong to the party; but the Levesons and the Cavendishes may soon find themselves stranded like the Narbonnes and Montmorencies amongst the Rolands and the Condorcets....

When are your new volumes to make their appearance? I long to have them as though I had not already read them.

_To Mr. E. Cheney_

_Rutland Gate, January 20th_.--I am uncommonly glad to hear from you again, and I have to thank you for a most interesting and amusing letter. My acquaintance with Louis Napoleon began when yours left off, and I saw a good deal of him in 1838 and 1839. He wanted me to translate his 'Idees Napoleoniennes.' But when he became a great man I dropped his acquaintance.

I am glad you like my tirade. I suspect my Whig friends do not; for the more one a.s.serts Whig principles, the bitterer is the reflection on those who desert and betray them. I do not believe that the majority of the country or of the Liberal Party is Radical; but the danger is that a violent minority always overpowers an inert majority. I care nothing at all for any political persons, and but little for parties. It seems to me that the right and the wrong of government lies in the principles that regulate it, some of which are as certain as the truths of mathematics.

The 'Greville Memoirs' have rather slumbered of late, but I am gradually s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up my courage to begin printing, slowly.

We are very well, and spent our Christmas pleasantly in Hamps.h.i.+re, the weather being delightful. London is dark and _un_delightful.

Then the Journal:--

_February 24th_.--Visit to the Markbys at Oxford. Vespers at New College.

Dined at All Souls.

_28th_.--The Club. I was in the Chair. Mr. Gladstone attended; Lord Derby, Maine, Hewett, Tyndall, Coleridge. Matthew Arnold elected.

_March 23rd_.--Electrical Exhibition at Crystal Palace, with Dr. Mann.

_April 1st_.--To Foxholes. Very fine weather. No rain for three months.

_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_Foxholes, April 4th_.--I like the concluding pages by Froude in the Carlyle book, but I am disappointed in Mrs. Carlyle's letters. They are pleasant and cheery, but there are thousands of women who write as well.

As for Carlyle himself, he is _odious_--arrogance, vanity, self-conceit, ingrat.i.tude to old friends--I never thought I should dislike him so much.

He seems to have looked at everything the wrong side outwards.

The Journal notes:--

_April 11th_.--Lunched with the Mintos. They drove me to Christchurch. Lady Minto died on the 21st.

_29th_.--A great salt hurricane that singed the trees all over the country, and also in France.

_May 5th_.--Saw Lord Frederick Cavendish before he started for Dublin. On the 6th he was murdered.

_From the Duke of Argyll_

_May 8th_.--You ask a difficult question about politics. On the one hand, I see no possibility of a Conservative Government being formed just now, nor do I believe that a Liberal Government could be formed on purely Whig lines. On the other hand, I have the deepest conviction of the mischievous tendencies of Gladstone's leaders.h.i.+p, and of the utter instability he is imparting to all the fundamental principles of government as. .h.i.therto understood in all civilised countries. I can only advise that the truth in this matter should be spoken freely, in the hope that when Gladstone disappears from the stage, there may be some return to sounder principles of legislation. I do not wish to see a change of Government just now. The Tories could not govern Ireland in its present condition; at least it would be a dangerous experiment. Half the Liberal party, which now supports coercion when it is forced on Gladstone, would undoubtedly oppose every possible form of it if proposed by Tories. The deplorable disaster made known to-day will have its effect. I hope it will force the Government to give form and substance to an amended Coercion Act--strengthening the ordinary law and widely extending the sphere of summary jurisdiction. If this be done well and sufficiently, it will be better than the power of arbitrary arrest. But before this event, I really feared that die Government might do nothing of the kind.