Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 18

_February 12th_--The Duc d'Aumale dined with us, to meet Lady Minto, G.

Lefevre, and E. Cheney. A spy got hold of this little dinner, and it was reported to the French Government as a conspiracy. Mon [the Spanish Amba.s.sador in Paris] told Raymond of it afterwards.

_14th_--I dined with the Joinvilles; and on the 16th with the Duc de Nemours at Bushey. Xavier Raymond was staying with us.

_February 23rd_--I walked back from the Temple Church with Lord Chancellor Chelmsford. Two days afterwards he was turned out of office by Disraeli.

_From Mr. Robert Lytton_ [Footnote: At this time secretary of legation at Lisbon, and known in the world of letters as 'Owen Meredith.' Afterwards Earl Lytton.]

Lisbon, February 22nd.

My dear Mr. Reeve,--I am ashamed of having left so long unanswered your last very kind letter. But for the last three weeks I have had little leisure, and less health to enjoy it. Indeed, this is really my first free moment since your letter reached me. Your excellent and welcome news of Emily's engagement [Footnote: Lady Emily Villiers. See _ante_.] to Odo Russell was confirmed by the same post in a line from Emily to Edith, [Footnote: Mrs. Lytton, the Lady Emily's first cousin.] and has given us the greatest pleasure--me especially; for I have a great regard for Odo, and any other settlement of this particular Roman question [Footnote: Odo Russell was at this time, and had been for the last ten years, living at Rome, practically--though not formally--amba.s.sador to the Vatican.] would have much disappointed my hopes. Emily, in her letter to my wife, spoke of remaining at Rome for another month or more (the marriage not being fixed to take place before May, at the Grove); but I see by the papers that Lord Clarendon is already on his way homeward, and I am much _intrigue_ by that article in the 'Times,' which has, I see, been re-echoed by other papers, suggesting some modification in the present Cabinet on account of Lord Derby's health.

The present Portuguese Government does not seem to be at all favourably disposed towards Mr. Flores, or to think more highly of him than you do.

But in this country one can never be quite sure what the pressure of political opposition or support may wring from a weak Government in the way of concession to any _intriguant;_ and, if Flores can command votes, he may be listened to; otherwise not, I fancy.

The monthly F. O. bag has just brought me the January 'Edinburgh,' for which a thousand thanks. I have not yet had time to cut the leaves of it.

Pray accept my best thanks for the cheque mentioned in your letter. I am all the more grateful to you for the good will on behalf of 'Chronicles and Characters,' to which you so kindly and generously give renewed expression, because I have just seen what I cannot but think a very unjust notice of the book in the 'Athenaeum.' In endeavouring to ill.u.s.trate a continuous strain of thought pa.s.sing over a wide range of subject, one of my chief aims was diversity of form and variety of style; but there can be no doubt that versatility is always in danger of running into imitation. Play always on the Jew's harp, and no one will accuse you of imitating the tone of any other instrument. I do not pretend that my own instrument is an organ: but I would rather it should be the smallest harmonic.u.m than the strongest and shrillest Jew's harp.

_From Mr. S. H. Walpole_

Ealing, March 29th.

My dear Mr. Reeve,--I am quite ashamed of myself for not having thanked you before for your valuable hints about the effect and ultimate consequences of Gladstone's motion. [Footnote: March 30th, for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, of which notice was given on March 23rd.] I have long thought that his aim and object has been for years to separate the Church from the State, and so set up an episcopal and sacerdotal power, which would endeavour to exercise an unbounded control over the consciences, actions, and private judgement of men. The only check upon this is the supremacy of the civil power in the external government of the Church, and the obligation of the clergy to submit and subscribe to the doctrine and liturgy which, once for all, the Church and State have concurred in prescribing. All ritualism, all tractarianism, and much high-churchism is in secret, if not in avowed, rebellion against such a supremacy; and if it [Footnote: _Sc_. the supremacy of the civil power.] could only be struck down in Ireland, it would not be long before an attack on it was made in England. What may happen to-morrow I cannot regard with much satisfaction.

Gladstone's motion is the most impudent a.s.sault on the Crown which any ex-minister ever made; and Stanley's amendment is an illogical surrender of our best defence. He ought to have ended in plain words, by saying that 'the House is of opinion that the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church in Ireland would be contrary to, and in direct violation of, the fundamental and essential articles of the Treaty of Union.' The country would have then understood what we were about; it can hardly understand it now.

I am out of heart and have many misgivings when ex-ministers of the Crown, and the actual minister of the Crown, a.s.sail or abandon the Crown's prerogative for the value of place and power.

Yours always very sincerely,

S. H. WALPOLE.

Walpole's interpretation of Gladstone's 'aim and object' may now appear strained. It was, however, certainly held, at the time, by many who argued that Gladstone's character was itself a direct contradiction to the charge of his proposed measure being one of spoliation and robbery. [Footnote: See _post_.] It is, perhaps, more probable that he was greatly influenced by the Utopian sentimentalism which so powerfully influenced his later career, and led him to the extreme courses so bitterly condemned by many of his old colleagues and adherents. At the same time it must be remembered that when, nearly thirty years later, a Radical measure was brought forward for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales, with the avowed intention of advancing by it to the disestablishment of the Church of England, although the great body of the Church, clergy and laity, vehemently denounced it as antagonistic to the best interests of the Church and the country, there were many of the extreme ritualistic section who openly favoured and supported it, with freedom on their tongues and sacerdotalism in their hearts.

The Journal here has:--

Went to St. Leonard's with the Watneys for Good Friday (April 10th). On Easter Sunday to Holland, with Circourt. Dined with Baudin, [Footnote: The son of Charles Baudin, the distinguished admiral. Cf. _Les Gloires Maritimes de France_, par Jurien de la Graviere.] the French minister at the Hague.

_April 13th_.--Spent the evening with the Queen of Holland at the Old Palace. 14th, evening with the Queen. 16th, went on, by Utrecht, to Aix, where Circourt and I remained ten days. Came home by Antwerp.

_From Mr. Robert Lytton_

Madrid, April 29th.

Dear Mr. Reeve,--I must apologise for not having sooner thanked you for your very kind letter of the 8th, which reached me just as I was starting (paperless and penless) for Madrid. The cares of this world (in the shape of house-hunting), quite unaccompanied by the deceitfulness of riches, have, I am sorry to say, eaten up every hour of my time not otherwise absorbed by official visits and presentations, &c., since we reached--a week ago--this pretty, busy, but horribly hot and dear, town.

I am really pained to think that your kind intention on behalf of my book should already have been the occasion of so much trouble to you, dear Mr.

Reeve; and I can only say that I am all the more grateful to you for not having altogether abandoned it. A notice in the 'Edinburgh' will at all times be most valuable; and the more touches there may be in it from your pen, the more valuable it will be. The notice in the 'Times' was indeed very kindly written, and very kindly inserted, and I doubt not that it will be very advantageous to the book in many ways.

I am greatly and agreeably struck by the animation and showiness of Madrid--after Lisbon, which is one of the dullest towns I ever saw. Life at Lisbon is _en robe de chambre_; here it is all _en toilette_. Madrid is like a pretty provincial who has been to Paris, and come back _mise a la mode_, and with a decided taste for spending more money than she has at her bankers'. The beauty of the women's faces, too, as you see them in the streets, the Prado, and at the opera (for I have not yet seen the _beau monde_ at home), is very agreeable. Pretty faces seem to be as plentiful here as gold nuggets in the streets of Eldorado, when Candide saw them.

The day after we got to Madrid, Narvaes died, and till yesterday he has been lying in state and receiving the visits of a grateful public at all hours of the day. Yesterday his body, _empaille_, was removed with due honours to be buried in Andalusia. The story goes about the town that on his deathbed his confessor, having told him to forgive his enemies, he replied: 'I have none.' 'Impossible! A man who has been governing Spain so long must have many.' 'But I a.s.sure you there is no man alive whom I even suspect to be my enemy.' 'No enemies?' 'None; I have shot them all!'

I sincerely hope that you will be able to visit Spain in the autumn. About that time, if still here, I shall try to see Seville and the South. But my plans are entirely dependent on Crampton's [Footnote: Sir John Crampton, minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, retired from the public service on July 1st, 1869.] movements; and I fear we shall have to pa.s.s the summer at Madrid, which I rather dread on account of the children, who have already caught feverish colds. With my wife's affectionate greetings, and my own respects, to Mrs. Reeve, pray believe me to be yours very faithfully,

R. LYTTON.

The Journal records:--

_May 6th_.--Disraeli was in the chair at the Literary Fund dinner. [He spoke--wrote Mrs. Reeve--with grace, and had a brilliant reception. I never heard such cheering at any previous dinner. He has stormy nights in the House of Commons, and how it will end is still uncertain; but his wonderful tact and control of feature, voice, and language give him marked advantage.]

_From the Comte de Paris_

York House, Twickenham, le 20 mai.

Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,--Je ne puis resister au desir d'appeler votre bienveillante attention sur le dernier numero de la 'Revue des deux Mondes,' que je ne vous envoie pas, sachant que vous la recevez, ou notre excellent ami X. Raymond a traite la question de l'eglise d'Irlande.

Je veux en meme temps reclamer votre indulgence pour son travail, et vous demander de ne pas vous etonner si vous n'y retrouvez ni la clarte de style ni la variete de connaissances qui distinguent votre ami. Ne le lui reprochez pas trop severement, car, s'il est coupable, ce n'est pas de cela.

eleve dans le respect de la loi, je ne puis vous en dire davantage, et je me bornerai a vous rappeler qu'il y a actuellement dans la loi francaise deux articles, l'un interdisant aux exiles d'ecrire dans les journaux, qui ne me permet pas de me presenter comme collaborateur de la 'Revue;'

l'autre, punissant les journaux qui publient des articles sous des signatures autres que celle de l'auteur, qui ne me permet pas de vous en dire davantage.

Je termine en vous priant de me croire toujours

Votre bien affectionne,

LOUIS-PHILIPPE D'ORLeANS.

_From the Dean of St. Paul's_

Deanery, St. Paul's, June 19th.

My Dear Reeve,--Your article [Footnote: 'The National Church,' which appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July.] I think admirable. I have ventured to make one or two verbal suggestions, but on the main of your argument I am fully with you. There are only two points which I should propose for your reconsideration. I do not quite see the bearing of your argument about the Cardross case, and do not quite understand the decision of the Scotch judges. [Footnote: The Free Church minister of Cardross had been deposed by the Church Courts for drunkenness. He applied to the civil court for redress, and was thereupon summarily ejected from the Free Church. The Court of Session decided that the defenders--the Church Courts--'are invested with no jurisdiction whatever, ecclesiastical or civil.'] Surely every corporation, or, indeed, every club, has, and must have, the power of excluding--excommunicating is only the theologian's term for the same thing--any member who flagrantly violates its rules and first principles. If a member of the Athenaeum were to get roaring drunk and disturb the place, and endanger the character of the club, the committee or a general meeting might eject him, though he would have some plea in his vested right in the property of the club--the house, library, &c. If the mistake in the Cardross case was that the culprit was ejected without trial, that, I think, should be distinctly stated. If the flaw is that it was done by the Church officers, without the general consent or sanction of the Kirk, this also should be made clear. I rather demur to the division of the ecclesiastical property now held by the Irish Church, according strictly to the proportion of its members to the rest of the population.

Possession, and possession for three centuries, ought, I think, to be taken into account. But this is a question rather of detail than of principle.

But the real difficulty you have stated fairly and clearly: On what terms, and under what character, is the Protestant Church, when disestablished, to hold the property--the churches, parsonages, &c.--which is to remain to her? The Church must have a const.i.tution--I do not see why not ratified by Act of Parliament--by which the trustees which represent her will legally hold that property. She must not be exposed in a few years to a Lady Hewley's charity case. [Footnote: Sarah, Lady Hewley, at her death, in 1710, left landed property in trust for the support of 'poor and G.o.dly preachers of Christ's holy Gospel.' The original trustees were all Presbyterians; but in the course of a hundred years the trust had got into the hands of Unitarians, and the case was brought to the notice of the Charity Commissioners. After a prolonged litigation, it was finally decided by the House of Lords (August 5th, 1842) that, by the terms of the bequest, Unitarians were excluded from partic.i.p.ating in the charity.] I suggested to the Archbishop of Armagh--a good-natured, but not a very powerful, man--that the Irish Church, when in one sense free, should yet retain, of its own will, the advantages of the supremacy of the Crown and of the law.

She should take, as the fundamental tenet of her const.i.tution, conformity to the Articles and Formularies of the Church of England, which the majority of the English hold, in their meaning and interpretation. On this principle she might retain a jurisdiction, amenable to law, over her members; her members be protected against episcopal tyranny, against that which is now the great danger, parsonocracy, which I rejoice to find that you repudiate as strongly as I or Stanley. Ever very truly yours,

H. H. MILMAN.

_From Lord Cairns_

_July 23rd_.--Many thanks for the copy of your article on the National Church. I had begun to read it with great interest in the 'Edinburgh Review,' not knowing that it was directly from your pen, and I shall now continue the perusal with increased pleasure.... I will enclose with this, in exchange for your paper, a copy of my speech on the Irish Church--a Diomedean exchange; the value of ten oxen for a hundred.

During all this spring Reeve had suffered a great deal from gout, so, by the advice of Sir Henry Holland, who spoke strongly of the necessity of change of air and of rest from all work and effort, he and his wife started for the Continent on July 24th. Pa.s.sing through Paris, and staying a few days at Fontainebleau, they went on to Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne, and to Royat, then newly come into vogue as a health resort. After about three weeks of the baths and the mountain air, Reeve was so far recovered as to be able to walk a little; and on August 18th they pa.s.sed on to Geneva, where they were joined by their friends the Watneys, with whom they went on to Evian, and thence by the Valais to the Bel Alp, an hotel 7,000 feet above the sea-level, commanding magnificent views. 'Christine,' wrote Reeve in his Journal, 'went up the Sparrenhorn with Binet,' whilst, according to Mrs. Reeve, 'Henry and Mrs. Watney, not being moveable bodies, sat at windows and pooh-poohed the energetic use of legs.' From the Bel Alp, Reeve, still very much of a cripple, 'was carried'--the expression is his own--to Brieg. Thence, by the Furca, to Hospenthal and to Zurich, the falls of the Rhine, Bale, and Paris, where they stayed a few days, and returned to London on September 10th.

_From the Comte de Paris_

_York House, July 26th_.--I had already seen the remarkable article which you have just published in the 'Edinburgh Review,' when I received the copy you so kindly thought of sending me, and which I shall keep as a souvenir of the author. I hasten to thank you, and to tell you with what interest I have read this study, so full of curious facts and remarkable appreciations. If I was called on to decide the question in its entirety, I should decline, in the first place as a Catholic. Indeed I cannot place myself at the Protestant point of view so as to judge what services the union of Church and State has rendered to the religious principles which are the basis of the Protestant faith. And the lay system of the official Church of England is so foreign to our ideas of religious authority that it is difficult for us to be impartial towards it. Those who do not belong to the Anglican Church are naturally tempted to attribute to this subjection everything in her which, in their eyes, is error or change. I should also decline as a Frenchman, for I confess that what troubles me most at the present time is the relation between the Catholic Church and the State, a relation which has been equally prejudicial to both, when founded on a political union.