To Mr. T. Longman
Foxholes, July 15th.—I send just a line to say thatno partof the article on 'The Constitution and the Crown' is written by me. I thought it due to the writer to leave it untouched, and I don't think it is too severe.
The article in the 'Quarterly' was certainly not written by Dr. Smith, and I have reason to know that he is a good deal ashamed of it. Nobody seems to know who wrote it. I do not expect they will reply upon us; but nothing is more beneficial to the two Reviews than a little controversy, especially when serious principles are concerned. This question is precisely thecruxor test of Whig and Tory principles; it is the old fight of parliamentary power against prerogative. There has not been in England, for a hundred years, a minister so indifferent to Parliament and so subservient to the Court as Lord Beaconsfield.
Foxholes, July 16th.—Dizzy's fireworks will soon burn out; and when people come to reflect on these transactions, and their consequences, they will be found to be some of the most questionable in modern English history. He has the merit of presenting a bold front to Europe and of avoiding war; but the cost will be great and the ulterior consequences formidable. I suppose they are going to give him a Roman triumph this afternoon from Charing Cross to Downing Street.
Sed quidTurba Remi?……… Idem populus…… hac ipsa Sejanum diceret horaAugustum.
To my old eyes all this is a sham—a scene out of 'Tancred' and 'Lothair.' Depend upon it, the article on the 'Constitution and the Crown' will be read.
Foxholes, August 10th.—I never in my life read a better article than this of Froude on Copyright. It is incomparably good in force of argument, vigour of style, point, and truth, and, I think, will go far to settle the assailants of copyright. I confess I enjoy the smashing of the sages of the Board of Trade and old Trevelyan. They will see that if they attack literature, literature is able to defend itself.
From Mr. T. Longman
Farnborough Hill, August 14th.—… I entirely agree with you in the excellence of Froude's article [on Copyright]. … I see that he thinks that copyright may be in danger, and that the tendency of writing will flow into periodical literature. That I know has long been XIXth Century Knowles's opinion. He says he cares nothing for any copyright, and never asks for it. Like the 'Times,' he does not, in fact, need it. His writers are highly paid, and he and they are satisfied.
To Mr. T Longman
Foxholes, August 15th.—… No doubt any restriction of copyright in permanent works would have the effect of inducing literary men to write more and more in periodicals, which are not permanent but well paid. This argument is very important. I am not sure that Froude has laid sufficient stress upon it. Good and solid literature already suffers considerably from the fact that fugitive literature is far better paid, and that a literary man can rarely afford to write a large and substantial book requiring years of labour. Herbert Spencer's evidence is very interesting; but few men have the courage to risk their all in labouring for the future.
I shall make Froude's article the first in the next number, as I think it will attract great attention.
August 24th.—Froude's article will make nearly fifty pages of the Review, which is more than I like; but I don't know what to leave out, it is all so good and amusing to literary people, so I think we must swallow it whole.
A note from the Journal:—
August 23rd.—Visit to Highclere (Lord Carnarvon's). A good deal of gout in October. To Farnborough on the 30th. Back to town on November 4th.
To Mr. T. Longman
Foxholes, October 10th.—I see the 'Quarterly' announces an article on my 'Petrarch.' Unless Smith is the falsest of men, it will be a civil article, for he was enthusiastic in his praises of the book to me personally. But I shall not be surprised if it is another flourish of Hayward's stiletto.
October 19th.—The article in the 'Quarterly' on my 'Petrarch' is very courteous, and certainlynotby Abraham.
C. O., December 2nd.—This day's post brings me the melancholy intelligence that our friend Kirkman is so ill he is not expected to survive, and that dear old Mrs. Grote is in much the same condition. To me, by far the most painful part of advancing years is the loss of those who made life delightful. It is the only thing I regret. These friendships of forty or fifty years are quite irreparable.
The Journal notes:—
December 5th.—Parliament met. 9th, first dinner of the Club. 24th, to Ottershaw Park for Christmas. 28th, to Farnborough—last time. 29th, Mrs. Grote died. 31st, returned to town.
To Mr. E. Cheney
December 13th.—I brought up two volumes of the MS. Journals for you to read when you come to town. But I perceive the further you proceed the less can you publish. I dismiss all thoughts of that from my mind, and bequeath the task to posterity.
The debate in the Commons has been very dull, [Footnote: On a motion to condemn the policy of the Government in Afghanistan. It was defeated by a majority of 101 in a House of 555.] but the Government will have a very large majority. They tell me Dizzy is negotiating another little purchase of Seleucia and Scanderoon. Jerusalem is in the next lot.
I gave the 'Secret du Roi' to an Irishman to review, and the wretch has disappointed me. I am afraid it is now too late, or I would do it myself. [Footnote: It was reviewed in the April number (1879), but neither by Reeve nor the Irishman.] Read M. de Lomenie's book, 'Les Mirabeau'—a very amiable family.
Rutland Gate, January 4th, 1879.—This Christmas has been marked beyond all others by the most tragical events. To me, Mrs. Grote and Lord Tweeddale are deplorable losses, and I could add a catalogue of names of less note, besides those of public interest. What irony to call it the season of mirth and gaiety!
Mrs. Grote has very kindly left Hayward l,000£. I am glad of it, for it will make him more comfortable, and, I hope, less cross.
The Journal then has:—
January 7th.—Dined at Sir P. Shelley's; Spedding, Browning.
To Mr. E. Cheney
January 18th.—I fully intended to come to see you to-day, and to bring you the MS. volumes of C. C. G.; but I am very lame with rheumatism in my knee, and the weather is so infernal that I cannot use the carriage, and I am afraid to make the expedition in a cab. I must therefore defer my call till I can move better. On such a day as this one can only burrow like the rabbits.
I think the Cenci article in the new 'Ed. Rev.' will interest you.
January 22nd.—I send you Vols. III. and IV. of the mystic record. Pray keep it locked up.
In the 'True Tale of the Cenci,' by T. Adolphus Trollope, there was much that Mr. Cheney dissented from, and he wrote a long letter on the subject, which Reeve in due course forwarded to Trollope. This led to a reply, with which, as far as Reeve's correspondence shows, the discussion dropped. If it was continued further, it was without Reeve's assistance.
To Mr. E. Cheney
January 23rd.—I saw Lady Shelley to-day, and, as I told her you could not call on her, she very obligingly said she would be happy to call on you and bring you the enlarged photograph of the poet to look at. These photographs are done on porcelain. There are only three copies of them, which Lady S. has got. The negative is destroyed. … She says the drawing is the image of Shelley's sister, Helen Shelley.
January 31st.—Many thanks for your prompt return of the volumes. I am glad they have amused you, and you can give evidence that they are not very wicked. I am afraid I cannot supply any more until I have been down to Foxholes, as I find I have locked up part of the MS. there; and I must now have the whole of it bound.
February 3rd.—I send you Trelawny's book on Shelley, and I also enclose an interesting letter from Mr. Trollope in answer to your remarks on the Cenci article. You will see he has taken pains with the subject. I did not mention your name to him in connexion with the remarks, but only with reference to the Philobiblon notes. He therefore does not know that you are as well acquainted with the Italians as he is.
To Mr. Dempster
C. O., February 26th.—I hope this will not arrive too late to congratulate you on having achieved in health and good spirits three-quarters of the road to our centenary. Unluckily, the last quarter is the most difficult. Butsursum corda! When I look back and about me, I am astonished to have got so far. The great pleasure of advancing years is retrospection. One sees such groups and groups of pleasant people. The prospective eyes of youth see nothing so real or charming. I fancy I am sitting with you on a flowery bank of heather in the Highlands, about August 15th, talking of these things. There are a dozen brace of dead grouse in the bag. Donald is at the well. Don't remind me that it is February, 1 in London, the wind in the northeast.
Here the Journal records:—
February 27th.—My sister-in-law, Helen Blackett, died at Matfen.
March 4th.—Charles Newton and Sir J. Hooker elected by The Club.
April 28th.—I was named Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries for four years.
From Lord Kimberley
35 Lowndes Square, May 3rd.—There is a savage article in the 'Quarterly' (by Froude, I believe), many of the statements in which arise from mere ignorance. Whatever chance of success Carnarvon's scheme of confederation had—it was in any case small—was destroyed by Froude's blundering, which was caused mainly by his knowing nothing whatever about the political history and literature of the colony. But, for all that, his article is worthy of attention. Like you, I am very apprehensive about the Zulu war; but this is too long a story for a short note. I should very much like to talk the matter over with you.
The Journal again:—
May 15th.—Presided at Antiquaries as V.-P.
June 11th.—Great party at Count Münster's for the golden wedding of Emperor Wilhelm.
From Mr. E. Cheney
Audley Square, July 1st.—I have an impression of Shelley's portrait, which Colnaghi has just engraved. Sir Percy wishes it not to be re-copied, and he entertains no doubt of its authenticity. He says it is extremely like a maiden aunt of his—the only survivor of the past generation of the Shelleys. I beg your acceptance of an impression.
To Mr. E. Cheney
July 1st.—I am uncommonly obliged to you for the exquisite engraving of the drawing of Shelley. I shall cherish it alike in memory of him, and of a better man—yourself, and for the strange legend about it.
I am sorry to hear that ——— has taken offence at the mention of her father in the 'Greville Memoirs.' I was wholly unconscious of the offence, and indeed had forgotten that he was mentioned in them at all…. I should like, with great simplicity, to say to these eminent persons that I value the honour of being the Editor of Charles Greville's Journals infinitely more than any distinction that Queens or Duchesses could bestow on me. But I esteem the talents and good qualities of ——— and certainly I never dreamed she was offended.
And then the Journal:—
July 5th.—Lady Waldegrave died. The news came while we were attending Lord Lawrence's funeral in Westminster Abbey.
26th.—To Foxholes.August 16th.—Visit to Weymouth; 18th, drove to Abbotsbury.
August 30th.—Tom Longman died at Farnborough—seventy-five.
September 3rd.—His funeral.
5th.—To St. Malo with Christine and Hopie; 6th, to Dinard and on to Dinan; 8th, to Guingamp; 9th, to Lannion, seeing Chateau de Tonguebec on the way; 10th, to Louannec—fine rocky coast; 11th, Morlaix—drove to St. Pol de Léon; 12th, Brest, but it rained; 13th, to Auray; 14th, expedition to Carnac; 15th, expedition to Locmaria-quer; 16th, Auray to St. Malo; 18th, home again—a pleasant tour.
24th.—To Stratton, to see Lord Northbrook about article on Affghan War. Read him the article.
October 21st.—Lord Northbrook at Foxholes.
30th.—Left Foxholes. Visit to Pember's [at Lymington], Beaulieu Abbey. To town on November 1st.
Frequent mention has been made of M. de Circourt's letters, the writing of which occupied a great part of his time. In a short memoir, or, rather, an appreciation, which Reeve contributed to the 'Edinburgh Review' of October 1881, he wrote: 'It was his pleasure and his desire to live and die comparatively unknown. With an insatiable curiosity and love of knowledge, with an extraordinary facility in mastering languages, and a universal love of literature; with a memory so precise and so inexhaustible that it retained without effort all he had acquired, he found in the mere exercise of these singular gifts a sufficient employment for a long and not inactive life…. He possessed and enjoyed the friendship of an extraordinary number of men of the highest distinction, not only in France, but in all lands. The correspondence he carried on with his friends in Germany, Italy, England, Switzerland, America, and Russia was inconceivably voluminous. To each of them he wrote in their own respective language, equally vehement and profuse in every tongue.'
The bulk of his letters to Reeve alone is truly formidable. But these, and presumably most others, were to a very great extent political or literary pamphlets, which, though not given to the press, were—there can be little doubt—intended to be circulated among a select public such as he delighted in addressing. Two of the latest of these, written very shortly before his death, are here given:—
From M. de Circourt
La Celle, October 27th.
My dear Reeve,—I don't know whether the article 'Germany since the Peace of Frankfort' has done in Great Britain so much noise as the 'Affghanistan,' which has been, over here, an event in the literary-politic world. But the first one is quite equal to the second, and gives career to endless (alas! useless, too!) reflections. It is a sombre picture, quite in the style of Rembrandt, with achiaroscuromuch akin to darkness. It can be objected that the lights are sacrificed to the shades. But, excepting the strong constitution of the Imperial army, and the perfection to which, according to competent judges, the preparations for an offensive and defensive war have been pushed, I cannot see anything, in the condition of finances, industry, husbandry, and, above all, public morals, which is not threatening, if not absolutely disheartening. No traveller comes back from Germany without a tale of woe.Savior armis Luxuria incubuit, victamque ulciscitur Galliam. And while the rancour and the thirst for vengeance are still, in France, what they were in 1871, the whole of power, riches, and fashion in Germany crowding to Paris, give it a sort of transient popularity, and suffers itself to be led by what is among us most frivolous, most immoral, and even less French, in the old and legitimate sense of that word. It is very curious to observe how the strangers flock to Paris in order to enjoy the spectacle of themselves, reckoning the French for nothing save the ministers of their pleasures,et improbi turba impia vici. If, in the midst of these brilliant saturnalia, thepareswere to rise, and another Commune spring from the kennel to the day, how many of the lords of the Philistines would be buried under the ruins of the temple of Dagon? But to revert to Germany, or, rather, to her ruler.
Prince Bismarck, I apprehend, has lived too long. He begins to feel the fickleness of fortune. He has never had any friends; he begins to be burdensome to his associates. I don't know whether he could have managed a Parliament elected after the actual method on the Continent; I am certain that he did not, and never was able to, uphold a consistent and honourable system whatever. He is no financier, no economist; and as he does always act upon the interests of the present hour, without regard to past engagements, he can have with him but those who superstitiously deem him a prophet, or those who choose toservir à tout prix. He is rude, suspicious, and vindictive. The only great minister with whom he can be compared, Richelieu, was at least frank and open towards friend and foe. Bismarck has never negotiated with any man, nor charged any man with an important measure, without becoming their ruin, or changed them into implacable enemies—Savigny, Usedom, Arnim, Gortschakoff. The good genius of his country has protected Moltke against his insidious praises and bitter censures. It is easy to prove that, during the late war, all the good advice given to the King came from Moltke; all hurried, or lame, or improvident, or perfidiously cruel measures came from the Chancellor. Why did he leave half of the forts round Paris in the power, not of our army, but of the armed rabble, to which he left the possession of 1,500 field-pieces and 300,000 guns, while he disarmed the regulars to the last man? To his calculations we owe the Commune; posterity will hold him responsible for that incalculable calamity, which it was at every hour in his power to avert, or to crush instantly. Presently his tenure of office is very precarious. The Emperor is eighty-two, and has never liked Bismarck; he has given recently some signs that he feels galled by the chain. The Crown Prince may make use of him, and sacrify his personal feelings to the advantage not to upset suddenly the system of government; but, under Friedrich Wilhelm V., it is more than probable that Bismarck shall have to choose between retire or obey. Even in the present occurrence, considering that France is wholly taken up with her internal dissensions, which are not likely to become soon better, and that Russia has need of time for recruiting her exhausted resources, it was certainly not sound policy to blow the trumpet of a coalition which was, presently, dreamed of by nobody, and shall, in the future, result from the necessity of things.
The article upon the Code of Criminal Law is an excellent treatise ofCriminalison; we, too, want arefonteof our criminal law. What is called civilisation has gorged our society with an infinity of malpractices unknown to our ruder but better fathers; and we suffer from the bane of modern civilisation, that idiot charity towards the refuse of mankind, coupled to a perfect indifference for the honest people they assail or bring to ruin. To that endemic disease of the mind no penal statute can afford a remedy. MacMahon was as weak as a school-girl on such occasions; Grévy is scarce better; at least he does not call weakness Christian charity.
'The Impressions of Theophrastus Such' are little intelligible to me, merely because I have read so few books of the authoress. Doudan [Footnote: Ximenes Doudan (1800-72) was in early life a tutor in the family of the Due de Broglie, and remained attached to him. His critical judgement and sparkling conversation made him a special feature of the Duchess'ssalon. He was well known in literary society, and was compared by Reeve (Ed. Rev., July 1878) with John Allen of Holland House. Like Allen, his reputation was based almost entirely on his conversation and encyclopaedic knowledge. After his death, his few essays and numerous letters were collected and edited by the Comte d'Haussonville, under the title ofMélanges et Lettres(4 tomn. 8vo. 1876).] wrote that he could never be quite unhappy while he haddes romans anglais à lire; I confess that, when they are not first-rate, they seem to me to belong rather to the department of industry than to that of literature. The article upon the civil engineers of Britain is an admirable compilation of much that's useful to know and easy to understand; the magnificence of thetableaustrikes the fancy and weighs upon the mind. But, after all, is humanity become grander, or better, or happier by so many performances of the inquisitive and constructive genius?That's the question. With trembling hope I'll answer Yes! Life is less dark, a little longer, and better provided against the material plagues of nature: but farther?
I am pent up with a severe cold, and losing the last day of a capricious autumn. Mme. d'Affry has promised me a visit.
What of the parliamentary strife between Disraeli and his rivals? At least, it isDiomedes cum Glauco, statesman pitched against statesman. But in our camp:non melius compositus cum Bitho Bacchius. Yours truly,
The letter that follows is endorsed by Reeve 'M. de Circourt's last letter to me. He was struck with apoplexy on the 15th, and died on the 17th of November. The last token of fifty years' friendship':—
From the Comte de Circourt
La Celle, November 12th.
My dear Sir,—Many thanks for your kind letter of the 6th. I am still an invalid,conjuguantin all its tenses the verbgrippe, with its near relation bronchitis. However, I am recovering by-and-by, and the weather—not fine, still very mild—helps me towards recovering my liberty of locomotion. I am the more sorry for myréclusionthat I had begun some plantations in my garden. Fancy what it is to plant trees by half-dozens and to buy land by wheelbarrows!
We are in a state of partial fermentation and general disgust. The Presidentvidet meliora probatque, deteriora sequitur; he is absolutely sunken in the opinions, but tolerated, because he lets every party at freedom to plot and to hope. Waddington does not fare better, but Jules Simon has presently no chance of replacing him. The sympathy which Ferry has proclaimed for the Reformed Church [Footnote: SeeTimes, November 8th.]—very natural in itself—may be mischievous for them; our nation has never any sympathy for minorities. The leaders of the Clerical party have lowered their teaching and their practices to the level of the most obtuse intellects and the most childish enthusiasms; they make conquests by myriads; and as, in our present state of society, numbers are accounted for everything, the Government and ruling party have already encountered, and shall encounter more and more, a formidable opposition, which, if it does not drag the country into civil war, cannot fail to accelerate and precipitate the fate of the Republican Government. As the Duc d'Aumale seems resolved never to put himself forward, the conjectures hover between Galliffet [Footnote: General de Galliffet was more especially known for the stern justice he had meted out to the Communards of 1871.] and several others, all men of action, although none of them has the prestige which made, in 1799, the task of Bonaparte so wonderfully easy. The 'Great Unknown' will be revealed to us by some sudden stroke; our people is perfectly disposed to acknowledge a master, and prays only that 'nous ayons un bon tyran,' since we must have one.
Lord Beaconsfield's speech [Footnote: At the Mansion House on the 10th. SeeTimes, November 11th.] shall not put an end to the embarrassments of our Exchange, shaken to its foundations by the curiously tragical episode [Footnote: 'Gigantic swindle' would more correctly designate it. SeeTimes, November 7th. Philippart, having made away with some 100,000,000 francs, had judiciously vanished.] of Philippart.Imperium et Libertas, i.e. 'Domination abroad and Freedom at home,' is a proud legacy of 'the most high and palmy days of Rome'; but it will be difficult to force the submission to that maxim upon all the powers of the world. If the Turks had studied the history of classical times, they would believe that the days ofCivis Romanus sumand theReges clientes Populi Romaniare come again for the East; and what immense space does this name design, since the exclusive and dominating influence claimed by the Premier begins at the Adriatic and ends—nowhere; for the whole of Affghanistan being brought under British control, and Turkish Asia on the other side being claimed as a protected and indirectly governed country, it will become necessary that the intermediate region, Persia, be assimilated to the rest of the dependencies of an Empire which, at the farthest end, shall soon be contiguous to China.
The task of the Russian people is very different. The stern decrees of Providence have made of it the antagonist and hereditary foe of the Asiatic barbarics, which it has faced under the walls of Kief and Moscow, and pressed, by dint of repeated battles and immense sacrifices, to the foot of the Himalaya range and the course of the Upper Oxus. Sooner or later, a tremendous shock must happen between the two gigantic Empires which meet upon that debateable ground. I hope I may never witness it; but I do regret much the disparition of the ample neutral ground, which till lately stretched from the Indus to the Yaxartes….
Many wishes for your health and occupations.
Yours very truly,
The Journal gives the chronicle of the last weeks of the year:—
November 22nd.—Visit to Chatsworth. Delane died.23rd.—Chatsworth. Long talk with Lord Hartington.
29th.—Delane's funeral at Easthampstead. Went down with Barlow and Stebbing; then across by Woking to Lithe Hill (Haslemere); very cold.
At Christmas severe illness came on—gout and violent bleeding of the nose.I was totally laid up for two months.
The year had been a sad one, and had marked its progress by the death of many of Reeve's dearest and oldest friends—Lady Blackett (to whom he had always been tenderly attached), Longman, Circourt, and Delane.
The very serious illness which ushered in the year 1880, and which confined Reeve to his room till near the end of January, formed a very important era in his life. Though it passed away, so that, after a fortnight at Brighton, he was able, by the middle of February, to attend to his official duties at the Council Office, the bad effects remained. He was no longer a young man, but he had carried his years well. He had travelled, he had occasionally shot, and always with a keen sense of enjoyment. Now, the full weight of his age told at once. His illness left him ten years older; unable to undergo the fatigue of field sports, and feeling that of travel sometimes irksome.
And Foxholes afforded him a tempting excuse. From this time, instead of going for his holiday to Scotland, to France, or to Geneva, it seemed so much easier to go to Foxholes, so much more comfortable to spend it there. And for the next fifteen years a large part of his time was passed at Foxholes, where, in the most delightful climate known in this country, surrounded by beautiful scenery and with a commanding view of the sea, amid the comforts of home and in the company of his books and his chosen friends, he could say, from both the material and moral point of view:
Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.
Of course, his duties at the Council Office required him to be in town during the season and while the Court was sitting; and in the April of this year he noted a breakfast at Lord Houghton's, to meet Renan, and presiding as a Vice-President at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. Otherwise the Journal is almost a blank, containing little beyond the dates of going to Foxholes or returning to town.
But though thus in a measure withdrawing from the swirl of society in which so much of his life had been passed, he in no sense lost touch with the movements of the day, and in none of these did he take a more lively interest than in those which affected the state of France. And that seemed particularly unsettled. No one could attempt a forecast of the future, though wild guessing was easy. Nothing was certain; everything was possible. Hope was guided rather by fancy than by reason, and tinted the years to come in brighter colours than—now that those years have passed —history has warranted. For many years back the French Princes had been Reeve's occasional correspondents, but their letters had seldom had any political significance. At this time they began to have a more serious importance; and during the next six years those of the Comte de Paris, more especially, are full of deep and pregnant meaning. In England, the topics of the day were the dissolution in March, Mr. Gladstone's Mid-Lothian campaign, which will live in history as an instance of the noxious admixture of sentiment and politics, and the overwhelming success of the Liberal party at the polls, which brought Mr. Gladstone back to office, at the head of an absolute majority in the House of Commons of 56. Reeve, of course, followed the progress of the election with anxious eyes. To Mr. T. Norton Longman he wrote:—
Foxholes, April 2nd.—The Liberal gain on the Elections is far more than I anticipated, and I begin to hope there may be a decided Liberal majority. What I most deprecate is an even balance of parties. If the Liberals are strong, they will be moderate; if weak, they will be violent.
It is raining heavily to-day—rather damp for the electors, but a capital thing for the country and for my shrubs.
The further course of the election brought him the following letters from the Comte de Paris:—
Château d'Eu, le 12 avril.—Je vous remercie de tout mon coeur des voeux que vous m'adressez à l'occasion de la naissance de mon fils, et je suis heureux de pouvoir vous donner les meilleures nouvelles de la mère et de l'enfant.
Je suis bien peiné d'apprendre que vous avez été si longtemps souffrant cet hiver. La rigueur de la saison peut bien en avoir été la cause, et j'espère que l'été achèvera de vous remettre. Nous serions heureux, la Comtesse de Paris et moi, si durant cet été vous pouviez, avec Madame et Mademoiselle Reeve, renouveler la visite que vous nous avez faite au château d'Eu il y a trois ans. Depuis lors la maison a été toujours en deuil; l'événement qui vient de s'accomplir ici nous permet, j'aime à le croire, une année plus heureuse.
The result of the elections in England has caused great surprise in France. Nothing led us to expect such a complete change in the opinion of the electorate. When I saw Mr. Gladstone a few months since, he did not seem at all confident of his party's speedy return to power. A year or two ago I should have greatly regretted the fall of Lord Beaconsfield; but my opinion is entirely changed since Lord Salisbury's speech in honour of the Austro-German alliance. Lord Beaconsfield's term of power has had the one good result of obliging the Government which succeeds him to pay more and closer attention to Continental politics than the English Cabinet did in 1870 and 1871. But for some time back the Russophobia of the Foreign Office and its agents has been so great that it looked as if England was going to give up the idea of preserving the equilibrium of the Continent, and become the accomplice or the dupe of those who played on this passion.
20 avril.—Je m'empresse de vous remercier de votre lettre et de vous dire tout le plaisir que la Comtesse de Paris et moi nous aurons à vous voir ici avec Madame et Mademoiselle Reeve. Malheureusement les trois dernières semaines d'août sont le seul moment où je ne serai pas ici, et si vous venez un peu plus tôt en France je vous prierais de commencer par le château d'Eu…. I have read the article on M'Clellan by Mr. Curtis, in the last number of the 'North American Review.' It did not teach me much, for I have often talked it all over with M'Clellan, in his visits to Europe. But the article is good, and all the facts alleged are perfectly true. Lincoln was very weak in this business, the tool—without knowing it—of Stanton and Halleck. The author sometimes closes his eyes to M'Clellan's faults, which, though they do not excuse Lincoln, impartiality will not permit us to ignore. M'Clellan was an excellent organiser and a skilful general, but he made blunders; he could not take a decided resolution at the proper time, and it is not correct to say that he was considered a faultless general: he was loved, appreciated, and respected by all, and justly considered as the best chief of the Federal armies, when Grant, Sherman, and Thomas were as yet little known. Personally, he was, at times, very indiscreet: he permitted those about him to speak of the President in insulting terms, and he wrote the letter quoted by Mr. Curtis. An extremely silly thing, for it could not possibly do any good, and it was easy to see that his enemies would use it against him. With these exceptions, I entirely share the views of the author of the article.
We await the formation of your new ministry with curiosity. I agree with you that it is better that Gladstone should be its recognised head than its unofficial and irresponsible leader. I hope the experience of 1871, and the verdict of the electors in 1874, have opened his eyes to the dangers of afar nientepolicy, as practised by the Foreign Office during his last administration.
27 avril.—Je vous remercie infiniment de votre lettre du 21 et je me réjouis bien de penser que nous aurons probablement votre visite ici au mois de juillet. Je vous remercie de l'intention que vous m'exprimez d'arranger vos projets de manière à pouvoir venir en France à cette époque.
I see Mr. Gladstone has not been afraid of the fatigue you thought would be too much for him. I quite understand that after his disaster in 1874 he should insist on a material proof of his wondrous political rehabilitation. But it seems to me that he ought not to have combined the Exchequer with the leadership—unless, indeed, his friends wanted to handicap him by allowing him to take upon his strong shoulders a burden which is usually divided between two ministers. I am not surprised at this change, so complete, so striking to one who thinks of the time when Mr. Gladstone, almost disavowed by the party he had so imprudently led to defeat, could hardly find a constituency to open the doors of the House to him. It is a spectacle presented by all free countries, a salutary warning to the victors of the day, and a consolation to the vanquished, to whom hope is always left. But what does astound me is that the change should not have been foreseen. It is rather a severe democratic shock to the parliamentary machine. Is it the effect of the lowering of the franchise, or of the secret ballot? I do not know. But does not the astonishment of the leaders of the victorious party prove that their followers are escaping from their control? And if so, where and to whom will they go? However, I am confident that the practical spirit which has hitherto inspired all classes of the English people, as they have been successively called upon to take their part in the government—from the old nobility to the petty shopkeepers—will not be found wanting in the new electoral body, constituted by the last reform.
4 juin.—Si, comme je l'espère bien, vous pouvez réaliser la bonne promesse que vous m'avez faite de venir ici avec Madame et Mademoiselle Reeve dans la seconde moitié de juillet, je serais heureux de vous voir fixer votre visite aux environs du 22: en effet, nous attendons ce jour-là ou le suivant quelques personnes qui vous intéresseront certainement et qui seront charmées de vous rencontrer: le Comte et la Comtesse d'Eu, le Duc et la Duchesse d'Audiffret-Pasquier, M. et Madame de Rainneville (Rainnevillea formosa, d'après votre botanique spéciale).
19 juillet.—Je m'empresse de vous remercier de votre lettre, et de vous dire que je vous enverrai jeudi, à Dieppe, une voiture pour vous chercher à l'Hôtel de la Plage à deux heures après midi, à moins d'avis contraire.
Toutefois je dois vous prévenir que M. Alexandre Dumas, qui habite près de Dieppe, et auquel j'avais demandé de venir déjeuner ici l'un de ces jours, en lui laissant le choix du jour, m'annonce qu'il viendra déjeuner au château le jeudi 22. Le déjeuner est à onze heures et demie. Si vous désiriez le rencontrer il faudrait que vous partiez le matin de Dieppe. Dans ce cas, sur un avis de vous, je vous enverrais la voiture à neuf heures du matin, au lieu de deux heures après midi.
So on July 21st, Reeve, with Mrs. Reeve, left London for Dieppe, whence they went on to the Château d'Eu. On the 26th they went on, through St. Quentin, Namur, and Liège, to Aix, where, for the next fortnight, Reeve drank waters and took baths. They then returned through Brussels and London, reaching Foxholes on August 14th.
And there they stayed for nearly three months, during which time, beyond noting a few visits or visitors, the Journal is a blank. On November 6th they returned to London.
To Mr. T. Norton Longman
C. O., November 26th.—I have not for a long time read a book so fascinating to me as these Reminiscences of Carlyle; for though he calls them reminiscences of Irving &c., they are, in fact, essentially an autobiography. It is impossible to present the details of life with more attractive clearness and picturesque effect. The most curious thing is that the style, instead of being a mass of cloudy affectation, is simple, flowing, and natural. To me, especially, all this is most captivating. The account of Mrs. Montagu, Coleridge, the Bullers, the Stracheys, &c. revives a thousand recollections. It was through the Bullers that we first knew Carlyle, and I suppose in due time he will relate his intimacy with the Austins and Sterlings in the same manner.
It is right to say that there are many persons still alive who will not be pleased at having their portraits drawn by so strong a hand—Mrs. Procter, for instance.
Altogether, I think the book is eminently interesting and valuable, and will have a very large circulation indeed. It is the sort of book everybody likes to read, and in this case it is backed by names of great celebrity. I will send the MS. back to you on Monday. What a wonderful thing it is that Froude should have had the patience to copy all this out in his own handwriting!
I dined last night with the Chancellor, and found both him and the Home Secretary deep in 'Endymion.' Everybody abuses it more or less, but everybody reads it, so the abuse does not go for much. Only Lady Stanley (the dowager) declares she could not get through the first volume. Such is the strength of party feeling.
From the Duc d'Aumale
Chantilly, 2 décembre.
Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,—Je me fais une fête de vous revoir. J'ai vendu mon hôtel de Paris et n'ai pas encore pu y reconstituer d'établissement. Mais Chantilly [Footnote: During the next few years, before he was again exiled, the Duc d'Aumale restored Chantilly on a magnificent scale (seepost, pp. 319, 320), making it a repository for his splendid collection of pictures, works of art, and library, which included many precious MSS. By a will dated June 3,1884, he bequeathed the whole to the 'Institut de France,' in trust for the nation.] est si près! Dès que vous pourrez, donnez-moi votre adresse de Paris, et indiquez-moi quels jours vous serez libre, afin que je puisse en choisir un et vous demander de venir à Chantilly. Dites-moi aussi quels jours il vous serait agréable d'avoir ma loge aux Français.
J'espère bien avoir lu 'Endymion' d'ici là. Je vous serre la main.
Reeve was thus meditating a visit to Paris for Christmas, as soon as the Court rose. Its session ended in the death of one of its most esteemed members. Sir James Colvile, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bengal, had a house in Rutland Gate, and a great intimacy had grown up between the two. On Friday, December 3rd, he had dined with the Reeves, 'in fair health and excellent spirits,' as Mrs. Reeve wrote a few days later. 'He, with Lady Colvile and his brother-in-law, Lord Blachford, sat on for quite half an hour after the other guests left' On Saturday morning he went down to the office with Reeve. On the Monday he was dead. Sir Lawrence Peel,[Footnote: First cousin of Sir Robert Peel (the statesman), formerly Chief Justice of Calcutta, and since 1856 a member of the Judicial Committee. He died in 1884, in his 85th year.] one of his colleagues in the Judicial Committee, himself now old and feeble, wrote, apparently the same day:—
My dear Reeve,—A blow terrible indeed to all of us, to me most terrible. A man so close to death as I think myself feels more deeply the awe a sudden death causes. I know not the man to whom a sudden death could come and find more well prepared than he was. I thank you for your kind forethought. Say for me to his late colleagues that I feel his loss to them and to all of us irreparable. That he should go first! Oh God, preserve me and bless you all. Ever yours truly,
Could you say or write a line in season to Lady Colvile? They say I am better.
To Mr. T. Norton Longman
Rutland Gate, December 7th.—I have been and am horribly upset by the sudden death of Sir James Colvile, which took place yesterday morning. He was really my most intimate friend; for twenty-two years we have worked and lived together, and to all of us the loss is irreparable,
From Sir Lawrence Peel
December 11th,—One word about your 'resignation.' 'Don't.' The weaker the thing is, the more your value will be felt. Sir Montague [Footnote: Sir Montague Smith, one of the paid members of the Judicial Committee. He resigned the office on December 12th, 1881, and died, in his 82nd year, in 1891.] will go. He has as much as told me so, not very lately. It will be a new Court, not the old P. C., nor can it have the character of the House of Lords. It will have its entire way to make, and where is the stuff? It may in time win approval; but it will be a child at first. Of course if things are made unpleasant to you, Go; but my impression is the other way.
I think I do get better, but I am very bad. It [the death of Sir James Colvile] was a terrible shock; and I lie and think, yet cannot throw it off. To-day is the funeral. Alas! Alas!Nulli flebilior quam mihi!When earth covers him, not a better man will be left on its face.Tibi constabat. Ever the servant of Duty and of his God, and letting no man note in him a sign that he thought himself better than the ruck…. God bless you! Don't resign—wait.
On December 15th Reeve went to Paris alone. His Journal notes:—
17th.—Opera 'Aïda,' with the Comte de Paris and the Duc d'Aumale.
18th.—To the Français, with the Duc d'Aumale.
19th.—Breakfasted at Chantilly; went all over the Château, rebuilt.
24th.—Dined alone with Lord Lyons.
But a few letters written at this time to his wife give the best description of his visit, and call more particular attention to what seems to have been in great measure the cause of it—the paper to be read before the Institute.
Paris, December 21st.—I dined yesterday with Laugel to meet the De Witts, the young De Barantes and M. de Mérode. The Duc de Broglie came in the evening. The eldest son of Cornélis de Witt is about to marry Mlle. de Labruyère, a considerable heiress, dans l'Agénois. This is a capital marriage for the family. To-morrow I am going to a lecture by M. Caro at the Sorbonne. On Thursday there is the reception of M. Maxime du Camp (who wrote about the Commune) by M. Caro at the Académie Française, when I shall take my seat amongst the Forty Immortals. It will be interesting. On Wednesday 29th I shall probably make an address to the Institute (simple énoncé de faits) on the State of Landed Property in Ireland—a formidable undertaking!
I think now that the Radicals will break up the Government and break their own necks. I cannot conceive that the English people and Parliament will condone such monstrous conduct. I therefore now hope that they will play out their abominable game. Mr. Plunket's speech is admirable.
December 23rd.—I am just come back from the Institute, where there has been a grand function—the reception of Maxime du Camp by M. Caro on behalf of the Académie Française. All Paris was mad to go, and I believe they expected the Communards would storm the sacred building. I sat aloft among the Immortals, with the Duc de Broglie, Haussonville, Lesseps, Vieil Castel, and next Alexandre Dumas, who was very pleasant. The Duc d'Aumale was on the other side.
Yesterday we had a very pleasant dinner at the De Broglies'—Gavard, Lambert de Ste.-Croix and Cornélis de Witt. They shot 1,250 pheasants at Ferrières [Footnote: It was here that the celebrated meeting between Bismarck and Jules Favre (cf.ante, pp. 186-7) took place, on September 19th, 1870.] (Baron Rothschild's) on Sunday. The Comte de Paris brought down 300 himself.
I have written out my speech on Irish Land and read it to Gavard. It will take about fifteen or twenty minutes in the delivery. I breakfast tomorrow morning with St. Hilaire.
December 27th.—I went to the English Church in the Rue d'Aguesseau on Christmas Day—full congregation and nice service—but saw nobody I knew. Mme. Faucher's dinner was dull, but Passy and Leroy-Beaulieu were there, and there was some good music after dinner. I called yesterday on Feuillet de Conches and Mme. Mohl, each looking a thousand and older than the hills; and I spent some time in the galleries of the Louvre with my old favourites in their eternal youth. It is infinitely touching, when so much else is gone, to look at those pictures which I myself remember for sixty years in unchanging beauty. I perfectly remember the impression made on me when I was seven years old by the picture of the Entry of Henry IV into Paris.
I have copied out my whole oration to be read on Wednesday, and, in copying, enlarged it. It is chiefly taken from the Irish Land Pamphlet.
December 30th.—My discourse at the Institute went off very well. I was told by the best French writer, Mignet, that it was well written, and by the best French speaker, Jules Simon, that it was well delivered, which is enough to satisfy a modest man. The MS. will be printed and published in several forms. Léon Say sat by my side. There were about thirty people present.
I went to the Due de Broglie's reception last night. Nothing can exceed the dulness of French society—ten or twelve men sitting in a circle to discuss miserable municipal politics; not another subject, or a book, or an idea so much as mentioned. I am now going to breakfast with the Duc d'Aumale at Laugel's.
Gladstone seems to think that everything must go right since he is in power. It is a case of mental delusion, but I am curious to see how the House of Commons will deal with him.
December 31st.—We had a very pleasant breakfast with the Duc d'Aumale at Laugel's yesterday. He was most agreeable. He had a narrow escape on Monday from a stag at bay, which pursued him with fury, killed a hound and wounded a horse. He said, 'J'ai fui comme je n'ai jamais fui de ma vie.' The stags they hunt are wild red deer. He asked me to go in the evening with him to the Français to see 'Hernani,' which I did; glad to see the old piece again, though I thought it not well acted.
I am now going to breakfast with St.-Hilaire.
To Mr. T. Norton Longman
Paris, December 29th.—I am very anxious to learn what the bulk of the Liberal party in England now think of the results of a Radical policy in Ireland and elsewhere. Unhappily our friends, the Whigs, are to a certain extent responsible for having assented to it, though reluctantly; but the real author of this Irish policy is Mr. Bright. The consequences of it appear so disastrous that I cannot conceive it will last. But we are on the eve of stormy times.
The Journal continues:—
1881,January 2nd.—Returned to London in 8 1/2 hours.
The Club met in January as Parliament was sitting.
14th.—Dinner at home. Prince Lobanow,[Footnote: The Russian Ambassador.] Acton, Burys, C. Villiers, Leckys.
15th.—Small dinner at Lord Derby's.
18th.—Tremendous snow-storm. 21st. Excessive cold.
From Mr. E. Cheney
Audley Square, January 5th.—I must apologise for having kept your precious manuscript [Footnote: TheGreville Memoirs, second part], so long. The truth is, I left town for a month, and left the volumes carefully locked up, and only finished them on my return. I have read them with the deepest interest, and am truly obliged to you for having procured me so much amusement. I think these volumes even surpassing the last in interest.
I see you have marked several passages for omission which I should retain. I allude particularly to those relating to the French Revolution and the conduct of the Orleans family. It is impossible that any relation of those facts can be made so as to be agreeable to that family; and no omissions could be made that would render the narration palatable to them. Besides, these are Charles Greville's opinions, and not yours; and you are not answerable for them.
His remarks on the state of Ireland and the conduct of the Government are curious, as being exactly those which people are making at this moment. Gladstone's policy is exactly that of Lord John Russell; but the urgency of action is now still greater, and the outrages committed still more heinous. Gladstone may apply the words of the poet to himself—'In not forbidding, you command the crime.' Also the Duke of Wellington's opinions on army reform are applicable to the present moment, when such determined attacks are made upon its efficiency. The Duke said, 'We had a damned good army, and they are trying to make it a damned bad one.' Our present patriotic Government, he might say, 'are trying to make it a damned deal worse.'
What would be personally offensive to the Queen should be omitted; but as to his criticisms on public men and their measures, I cannot see why they should be suppressed. The daily newspapers all over England are free to make what comments they please, and I cannot see that a well-informed individual is not entitled to the same privilege.
His account of his quarrel with Lord G. Bentinck should in justice to him be printed; Lord G. told his own story, and Greville has every right to give his version of it. He certainly intended it, for he read me that part of his journal. The name of the Duchess of ——— should of course be left in blank, but, with this exception, I think the whole might be printed. There is no private scandal, and public men and their friends should not be thin-skinned, and must learn to bear adverse criticism. The affectation of calling Lord Russell 'John' and 'Johnny' is offensive and tiresome; also, by omitting persons' titles there is frequently some ambiguity— 'Grey' may mean Sir George or the Earl, and the context does not always make his meaning clear.
I think a few lines of preface from you explaining your motives for leaving Greville to express his own views and opinions would quite clear you with all reasonable people.
From M. B. St. Hilaire[Footnote: At this time Ministre des Affaires Etrangères.]
Paris: January 10.
Cher Monsieur Reeve,—I quite understand that the reticence of the Tories is very wise. Office is not tempting, and it is prudent to leave it to those who actually have it. But the situation is very precarious, as Mr. Gladstone will no doubt soon learn. Meanwhile he has given me powerful assistance by speaking of arbitration as he has done, supported by the complete and unanimous assent of the English Cabinet. This may very likely decide the Greeks and Turks to adopt more sensible notions. But the thing is giving me a great deal of trouble…
I hope you may be able to pacify Ireland, but it will be very difficult. Against such atrocious and persistent determination, force is almost as unavailing as gentleness. If, as we may believe, that is what Cromwell met with, we can understand the excesses into which the barbarity of his age led him; but in two hundred and thirty years we have not gained much. Even emigration has had no good effect. 'Tis a frightful sore; though during the last forty years England has done wonders to cure it.
Much might be said on this subject. I see by the newspapers that you have read before our Academy a most interesting paper on Property in Ireland. If you should print it, I hope you will not forget me. Towards the end of this month I will send you one of my latest works—to wit, a Yellow Book on Greece. It will at least be curious.
Agréez, cher Monsieur Reeve, tous mes voeux de nouvel an pour vous et pour tous ceux qui vous sont chers. Bonne santé.
Votre bien dévoué,
Paris, January 11th.—I am greatly obliged for the account of your interview with Musurus Pasha. If the key to this business is in our views on the Conference of Berlin, the house is open, and we have nothing to do but enter. I have written with my own hand three long despatches, showing by a reference to Vattel that the Conference was nothing more than the mediation promised by the XXIVth article of the Treaty of Berlin. These despatches I have communicated in the first place to Athens and Constantinople, and afterwards to all the foreign ambassadors here, as well as to Essad Pasha and to Braïlas Arméni.
If there is one thing certain, it is that the Conference of Berlin neither did nor could do anything but mediate; it merely gave advice; it did not deliver judgement to be enforced. I am doing what I can to convince the Greeks of this all-important fact, but hitherto without much success. I have even gone farther, and have pointed out to them in these despatches the limits within which arbitration will probably have to confine itself. As I am only one out of six, I can do no more, and even this was perhaps too much. The Porte and Greece cannot help knowing all this. The public also will know it by the end of the present month, when I shall publish the despatches in the yellow book which I am preparing, and which I will send to you.
The state of Ireland appears to us here to be truly dreadful. We do not see how such crimes can be tolerated.
From Mr. E. Cheney
January 13th.—I see no reason why this sequel [of the 'Greville Memoirs'] should not be published whenever it is convenient, but of this you only can be judge. There is very little private scandal, and that little should of course be omitted.
The Queen should always be spared; but as to Lord J. Russell and Lord Palmerston, they are public men, and their public conduct requires no reserve in the discussion of it;—the Queen herself, in her own Journals, speaks of them and of Gladstone in terms that prove how little reserve she thought necessary. It is amazing to me that a man who lived so much in the world [as Greville], and who had great curiosity and a taste for gossip, should so carefully have avoided all scandal.
The criticism that was sometimes made on the former volumes reminds me rather of the note on the quiz on Crabbe in the 'Rejected Addresses':—'The author is well aware how ill it becomes his clerical profession to give any pain, however slight, to any individual, however foolish or wicked.' Pain must be given, and offence will be taken; but you will do what is right and must be indifferent. I think these last volumes even more amusing than the first, and the discussions about Ireland are of peculiar interest at this moment—I am very glad that these precious volumes are again in your hands. I felt quite uneasy whilst they were in mine.
From the Comte de Paris
Chateau d'Eu, le 2 février.
Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,—Nous ne pouvions douter, ma femme et moi, de la part que vous et Madame Reeve prendriez au malheur si cruel et si inattendu qui vient de nous frapper. Vous aviez vu ici le bel enfant que Dieu nous avait envoyé il y a dix mois [Footnote:Ante, p. 275] et dont la naissance nous avait causé une si grande joie. Il était si fort et si bien portant que jusqu'à la veille de sa mort nous n'avions pas eu un instant d'inquiétude. Vous comprenez done bien notre douleur. Je ne doute pas que Mademoiselle votre fille ne s'y associe, car nous connaissons et nous apprécions les sentiments dont vous nous avez donné, tons les trois, tant de preuves.
Ma femme, qui depuis dix ans a perdu trois soeurs, deux frères, et deux fils, est, comme vous le pensez, bien accablée; mais les enfants qui lui restent l'obligeront heureusement à reprendre à la vie. Ne voulant plus après notre malheur laisser derrière elle notre dernière fille, la petite Isabelle, et ne pouvant l'emmener en Espagne dans cette rude saison, elle a remis ce voyage à l'automne prochain, et s'est décidée à ne pas quitter le château d'Eu, où l'hiver a été rude. Mais si nous avons eu le froid et la neige, l'Andalousie n'a pas été épargnée par la tempête, et les inondations y sont terribles.
Je termine en vous priant de croire aux sentiments bien sincères deVotre affectionné,
During the preceding autumn the state of Ireland had been exceptionally bad. There were many who believed that the attempt was being made, by a cold-blooded calculation, to work on the sentimental instincts of Mr. Gladstone's character. The verb 'to boycott' had been introduced into the English language; murders and agrarian outrages had been frequent; but witnesses and juries were so terrorised, that prosecution was found to be difficult and conviction impossible. In charging the grand jury at Galway on December 10th, the judge had commented on the fact that, out of 698 criminal offences committed in Connaught during the four months, thirty-nine only were for trial, no sufficient evidence as to the other 659 being obtainable. On November 2nd, fourteen members of the Land League—including five members of Parliament—were arrested and committed for trial on the charge of inciting to crime. The facts were matter of public notoriety, but the jury refused to convict, and the prisoners were discharged. The Government was compelled to act; and on January 24th Mr. Forster moved for leave to bring in a bill for the better protection of person and property in Ireland. After an unprecedented obstruction on the part of the Irish members, and after a continuous sitting of forty-one hours, the Speaker summarily closed the debate, and the bill, commonly known as the Coercion Bill, passed the first reading on February 2nd. On the 3rd, twenty-seven of the Irish members were suspended; and the bill, having passed through the succeeding stages, finally became law on March 2nd.
* * * * *
From M. B. St.-Hilaire
Paris, February 6th.—I am happy in your approval, and permit me to add that I am proud of it. I know the value and sincerity of your judgements. You have a long experience of politics, and every reason not to be deceived even by the most obscure complications. There was certainly an intrigue on foot against the Cabinet, but I believe a stop has been put to it for some time to come, and we shall now probably have all the trouble of the general election, which will be very advantageous for the republic; but, from a personal point of view, I am anything but charmed with the prospect, finding myself chained up for several months. Nothing could be more vexatious, though I put as good a face on it as I can.
We do not understand here how a political assembly can endure what your Parliament has put up with. Thanks to Mr. Gladstone, the Speaker is now armed with sufficient power, and I take for granted he will know how to use it. But Ireland, terrible Ireland, is always there. If an insurrection break out, it will be necessary to have recourse to repressive measures, more or less similar to those of Cromwell. I do not believe that there would be many in Europe to blame you. How can you do otherwise? Of their own free will, the Irish sink to the level of brute beasts, which are to be tamed only by force.
* * * * *
The next letter, and many others following it, from M. Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, refer to the action of France in regard to Tunis, as to which there was a strong feeling in England both then and since. France, it may be admitted, had grievances; whether she would have taken the steps she did for their settlement if the English Government had been stronger in its foreign policy may very well be doubted.
For many years, almost since the first establishment of the French in Algeria, there had been differences between France and Tunis, over which the French pretended a protectorate which neither Tunis nor Constantinople would allow. There had been also many commercial difficulties—some honest, some dishonest; but what led to the acute stage which these difficulties and differences assumed in 1881 was the purchase, in 1880, by the Société Marseillaise, for 100,000 £, of a large tract of land known as the Enfida—subject, it had been stipulated, 'to the provisions of the local law.' But the purchase was no sooner publicly declared than its legality was disputed; a Maltese—therefore an English subject—named Levy claiming that by the local law he had a right of pre-emption and was prepared to buy. This right the French Government denied, and alleged that the intending purchasers were really Italians—private or official—Levy being only a man of straw put forward to strengthen their case by the English name. Lord Granville, the then Foreign Secretary, instructed the English Consul at Tunis that it was an affair of Tunis law, and that he was not to interfere beyond seeing that the English subject got what the law entitled him to. The French Government, however—of which M. St.-Hilaire was the exponent—refused to be bound by Tunis law, and on May 1st landed 10,000 soldiers, and took military possession of Tunis, disclaiming all idea of being at war with Tunis, but being obliged—they said—to defend and maintain their just rights. They were neither going to annex Tunis nor to rebuild Carthage.
* * * * *
From M. B. St.-Hilaire
Paris, February 25th.—I should be quite as deeply vexed as you if any coolness should arise between England and France. I am doing everything in my power to maintain and even strengthen the good relations. I am happy to say we have a better understanding than ever in Egypt; but at Tunis matters are not so favourable, and I fear that the English Cabinet has been too hasty in taking under its protection a person who is but little deserving of it. I hope to show this very plainly. The Marseilles Company which we defend is quiteen règle, in every respect, and what M. Levy is aiming at against it is simply a forcible spoliation by means of an intrigue hatched by the principal members of the Tunis Government, [Footnote: It is quite possible that this was true, but it was merely an assertion based on the one-sided declaration of the Marseilles Company and its agents.] with the prime minister at their head. And whatever difference of opinion there may be, Lord Granville, of his own accord, said to M. Challemel-Lacour that in this there was no cause of quarrel between the two countries. That is my opinion also, and I hope to bring the English Cabinet to it; but it is not for us to sacrifice the Marseilles Company, by subjecting it to tribunals whose hostile decision is known beforehand. The whole trouble has been caused by the Italians, who have started and are prosecuting this intrigue, at the very moment in which they are asking us for a loan of six hundred and fifty millions.
The speech of M. Gambetta was eloquent, and above all dramatic, but not convincing; and it is really very difficult to believe that he knew nothing of the Thomassin mission till after it had failed. I have no knowledge of what passed between M. de Freycinet and M. Gambetta; but it is certain that for the last five months Gambetta has made no attempt to control me and my policy. He affects to show his sympathy and approval whenever he meets me, and notably so last Monday. At the same time, his newspapers attack me in every way they can, whilst he, verbally, disavows them, as he did for M. Proust and M. Reinach. This double game does not tell in Gambetta's favour; he has lost much during the last two months, and if thescrutin de listeis not passed, his influence will be greatly diminished. In short, he is playing a very equivocal part, which is injurious both to himself and to this republic. What saves him are attacks of the kind which M. de Broglie ineffectually made yesterday in the Senate….
Of current and social events the Journal notes:—
March 5th.—Visit to Battle Abbey. Duke and Duchess of Somerset there. Ed. Stanhope, Arthur Balfour, H. Brougham, Lord Strathnairn.
11th.—Dinner at home for General Roberts: but he had been ordered off to the Transvaal.
13th.—Emperor of Russia (Alexander II.) murdered.
16th.—Tennyson gave an evening party in Eaton Square.
April 7th.—To Foxholes. Cold: gouty. Lady Colvile came.
20th.—My cousin, John Taylor, died.
26th.—Lord Beaconsfield's funeral.
Of this last, he received the following account from Mr. T. NortonLongman:—
April 28th.—The sad ceremony I had the honour of attending the day before yesterday will for ever live in the memory of all who were present. Nothing could have been more simple in its character, nothing more striking in its solemnity, and nothing more in strict accordance with his wishes. I may well say I shall not forget so great an occasion, not only from the fact that the ceremony was the burial of a great man, but from the very select band of followers I had the privilege of joining. There were only 120 invitations sent out, and all these were not made use of. I travelled down in a saloon carriage with Drs. Quain, Bruce, Lord Lytton, Lord Alington, Count Münster, with all of whom I had very pleasant conversation. Sir William Harcourt, Lord Rosebery, the Danish Minister, and another ambassador were also in the carriage; so I had plenty of good company. I had a little conversation with poor Lord Rowton, and thanked him for thinking of me. 'Not at all,' he said; 'I am quite sure it would behiswish that you should be here to-day.' This was, to say the least of it, gratifying. The persons who appeared to be most touched were poor Bruce and Lord Henry Lennox. On our return to the Manor about fifty of us went into the drawing-room to hear the will read, and a very interesting document it proved to be. It is perfectly clear Lord Beaconsfield contemplated a great deal of publication. After the reading was finished and those present had mostly left the room, I waited behind a little for the three Princes to move first; and, much to my surprise, the Duke of Connaught turned round and shook me by the hand. This little incident makes it all a peculiarly interesting and eventful day. We all returned to town together (I mean the Princes and the guests); and I think I may safely say that a train never arrived at Paddington Station with a more distinguished company on board.
As I walked up from the church I could not help thinking that the last time I walked up that hill I had poor Lord B. on my arm. The demand for 'Endymion' is very great, and in fact the demand for all his novels is greater than we can meet. We are printing night and day to try and keep the trade supplied.
From M. B. St.-Hilaire
Paris, 27 avril. Il y a bien des jours que je voulais vous écrire, et ce long silence me faisait craindre que vous ne fussiez malade, comme vous l'étiez en effet; mais je me disais aussi que les vacances de Pâques vous ameneraient sans doute à Paris. J'espère que le printemps vous guérira complètement de cet accès; et que vous serez délivré de ce mal si douloureux, dès que la chaleur nous sera revenue. Ici, nous avons un temps des plus maussades.
I have done everything in my power to keep clear of this Tunis business; but the Khroumirs' affair has filled the cup to overflowing, and we are obliged to resort to force. I shall finish the business off as quickly as I can, and as we have no idea of annexation, all that we want is a treaty with the Bey, giving a lasting guarantee for the security of our frontier and our interests. I believe that even in Italy people are beginning to understand or to admit the necessity which is pressing on us; but they will owe us a grudge, and later on will resent it, if they can. For the present, the loan of six hundred and fifty millions paralyses their wrath. We are no more going to refound Carthage than Italy is going to re-establish the Roman Empire.
The death of Lord Beaconsfield is a great blow for England. I have noticed, not without some surprise, that I am of the same age as he was.