Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 55

_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 cla.s.sed 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 cus.h.i.+on 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 princ.i.p.al embarra.s.sment 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 bl.u.s.tering 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 suns.h.i.+ne 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 j.a.pan.

It seems to me that, in spite of her victories, j.a.pan 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 j.a.panese 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 n.o.body 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 j.a.pan 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 a.s.sociation, 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 subst.i.tuted 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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.