Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 42

The Journal mentions:--

_May 20th_.--At Foxholes, till June 13th. Bought rowing boat.

_June 20th_.--Great dinner at The Club to the Duc d'Aumale. Nineteen present.

_21st_.--Great dinner at Archbishop Tait's at Lambeth. Forty-three people.

Evening service in Lambeth Chapel.

_22nd_.--Wagner's 'Meistersinger' at Drury Lane.

_From Sir Henry Taylor_ [Footnote: A very old friend of Reeve's. See _ante_, vol. i. p. 91.]

Bournemouth, June 22nd.

Dear Mr. Reeve,--Thanks for telling me what splendours I missed at The Club dinner. You ask what Dr. Johnson would have said if he had stepped in. As it was his own Club, he would have been gracious; but it was not every dinner that could please him. Do you remember his remark as he went away with Boswell from a dinner at one of the colleges at Oxford? 'This merriment amongst parsons is mighty offensive.'

I always remember the singularly representative character of the only dinner I have had an opportunity of attending since I was elected.

Literature and Learning represented by yourself, Dr. Dictionary Smith, Lecky and Lord Acton; the Church by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Dean Stanley; political life by Lord Derby and Spencer Walpole; the Law by Lord Romilly, and the Dukes by the Duke of Cleveland--and there was no one else.

It was very pleasant, and there were not too many for conversation in common.

I always feel that, as I have not been in London for more than a day since that dinner, and am not likely to be there again, it is hardly right to occupy a place which might afford so much pleasure to some one else; but I have said this before, and your answer was that no one ever retired from The Club. As I am in my eighty-second year, I suppose it will not be long [Footnote: He lived four years longer, dying in 1886.] before Providence will place my seat at the disposal of some one who will turn it to more account. Believe me, yours sincerely,

Henry Taylor.

_From the Comte de Paris_

Chateau d'Eu, 22 juin.

Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,--J'apprends par M. Gavard que vous avez l'intention de venir en France vers le 20 juillet. Je m'empresse de vous dire tout le plaisir que vous nous ferez, a la comtesse de Paris et a moi, en commencant ce voyage par un sejour au Chateau d'Eu. Je regrette seulement que vous ayez l'intention de l'entreprendre seul. J'ai fait ici, il y a trois semaines, de fort belles peches a la truite, qui m'ont fait regretter que Mademoiselle Reeve ne fut pas ici. Vous trouverez chez nous le Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier, que vous avez deja vu ici, je crois, il y a deux ans; et un general americain, qui a servi avec moi sous M'Clellan, M.

de Trobriand.

Je ne vous parle pas de la situation de nos deux pays en Orient: elle est penible, et il me semble que le dernier numero du _Punch_ l'exprime avec une verite parfaite.

Veuillez offrir mes hommages a Madame Reeve et me croire votre affectionne,

LOUIS-PHILIPPE D'ORLeANS.

The Journal here notes:--

_July_.--The Egyptian Expedition was now resolved on. [Alexandria was bombarded on the 11th: the Army Reserves were called out on the 25th.] Lord Granville thought it would be finished before the end of August.

_16th_.--Crossed to Boulogne. Thence by Abbeville to Chateau d'Eu. Duc d'Audiffret, St. Marc Girardin, d.u.c.h.esse de Montpensier. 21st, drive in the Great Park. Treport. 24th, returned to London. 28th, to Foxholes: quiet life.

_To Mr. E. Cheney_

_Foxholes, October 20th_.--I am glad the article on Sh.e.l.ley [Footnote: 'Sh.e.l.ley and Mary,' _Edinburgh Review_, October 1882.] has interested you.

The perusal of these private letters and correspondence has considerably altered and raised my estimate of Sh.e.l.ley as a man. As to his poetry, it produces on me exactly the effect of delicious music, which enchants the ear even when you can't understand it. But these papers, which Lady Sh.e.l.ley has had printed in order to secure their preservation, are a sealed book. I believe she never can show them again to anyone--at least not at present.

The copy she lent me has been returned to her and I do not possess it.

n.o.body else does. It is, therefore, impossible to ask her for a copy. I undertook to compile an article--as I did for Lady Dorchester, on her father--_omissis omittendis_. But that is all. I think the history of Allegra is in great part new, and one of the difficulties in this matter is the connexion existing between these papers and the papers of Lord Byron, which are unpublished.

Are you going to stay in London? I hope so. I shall return to town on November 6, and should be very glad to find you there.

And the Journal accordingly has:--

_November 6th_.--Returned to London.

_18th_.--The troops came back from Egypt.

_December 3rd_.--Archbishop of Canterbury (Tait) died.

_4th_.--The Law Courts opened.

_16th_.--To Foxholes till the end of the year. Gambetta died just as the year expired.

_To Lord Derby_

_Foxholes, December 23rd_.--The Club has lost one of its most respected members in the Archbishop, and all parties seem now to feel how great and wise a man he was. Huxley would be rather an odd successor to an archbishop; but I am inclined to think that he ought to be one of our next additions.

I am a very old and fervent supporter of the Anglo-French alliance, but in the present state of France I doubt whether anything is to be gained by making sacrifices to her pretensions. In justice to other States, such as Italy and Austria, I see no reason for conceding to France any exceptional position in Egypt, and I think all countries should be treated with equal justice and liberality. It is probable that a firm though friendly att.i.tude towards the French will answer best for them and for us. Their expeditions to Congo, Tonkin, and Madagascar will do more harm to themselves than to anyone else; but they prove the weakness of the present French Government.

_From Lord Derby_

_Knowsley, December 25th_.--I agree in what you say about France, if you mean that the dual control is dead and cannot be revived; nor ought it, if it could. Other nations may fairly claim a voice in Egyptian affairs. What I lay stress upon is that we should make it clear that we are not going to take Egypt for ourselves; which nearly all foreigners suppose to be our intention, and give us credit for disguising it so well.

It is odd that the French are doing badly. The country is fairly prosperous, there is no war of cla.s.ses, no apparent revolutionary feeling, yet distrust and doubt as to the future seem universal. It almost looks as if revolutions had driven the better sort of men out of public life. I cannot believe that their colonial craze will last long. There is, in all Europe, no country to which colonies are so entirely useless; for the French never emigrate and seldom even travel; and to send conscripts to tropical settlements cannot be popular with the peasantry.

As to The Club--I am quite in favour of Huxley's admission; but have we only one vacancy? Would not any possible opposition to him be disarmed, if he were brought in, not singly, but as one of two or three? We must talk over candidates when we meet.... Poor old Owen cannot, in the course of nature, last long. [Footnote: He lived, however, for another ten years, dying at the age of eighty-eight in 1892.] Huxley would be his natural heir; more than the Archbishop's.

_To Lord Derby_

_Foxholes, December 27th_.--To return to what you say of France. Do you not think that a democratic republic, in which every citizen is striving to get all he can for his vote at the expense of the State, necessarily becomes the most rapacious and corrupt form of government? It is this which has raised the budgets of France for 1883 to 122 millions sterling; and if you add the communal expense, to 154 millions. It is this which compels them to persist in a reckless expenditure, and to invent new modes of spending money and creating places by absurd expeditions abroad. The system there, as you say, drives every man of honour and honesty out of political life, and subst.i.tutes for them adventurers and idiots. The evil will become more intolerable still, and there will come another revolution, probably at first violent in form and ultimately put down by force. This is a melancholy forecast, but it is that of all the persons in France whose judgement is of value.

As to The Club--we had better not propose Huxley while Owen is amongst us.

But we have several octogenarians--Overstone, Henry Taylor; and as for the lower grade of septuagenarians, they are numerous; but I will say nothing of them, as I shall shortly join that body. Altogether The Club presents a respectable array of years, and tends to longevity. I should like an engineer, if we could catch an agreeable one. What would you say to Sir Henry Loch? Few men have seen more of the world--in India, China, the Crimea, down to the Isle of Man; and I think him vastly agreeable. However, we can talk this over when we meet.

CHAPTER XXI

THE FRENCH ROYALISTS

Many others besides Lord Derby were at this time speculating on the chances of one more revolution in France. The state of public opinion seemed to point to a coming weariness of the corruption incidental to a republic, and a desire for the restoration of the monarchy. Since the obstinate refusal of the Comte de Chambord, in 1873, to accept the change from the _drapeau blanc_ of the Bourbon dynasty to the flaunting _tricolor_ which savoured of democracy, monarchy had seemed impossible. But the Comte de Chambord was known to be in feeble health, and he had no children. If he should die, the fusion of the antagonistic parties was possible, was indeed probable; and it was generally understood that the Comte de Paris was singularly free from the prejudices which had rendered impossible a restoration in the person of his cousin. He was, indeed, not ambitious, and he was wealthy.

The two ordinary motives of conspirators were wanting; but he loved France by force of sympathy and education, and he honestly believed that a restoration would be the best thing for his country. As a matter of love and duty he felt bound to work in order to bring about this most desirable of changes.

_From the Comte de Paris_

Chateau d'Eu, le 2 janvier 1883.