Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 29

P. SMITH.

Continuing the Journal:--

To Bracknell again on June 1st. Attended Ascot for the last time. The Shah of Persia was in London this year, and was received in state. The Queen lent him Buckingham Palace.

_June 25th_.--Goschen's fete to the Shah of Persia at Greenwich Hospital.

Fine sight. We steamed through the docks after the Shah.

_29th_.--Met M. de Laveleye at Van de Weyer's.

_July 14th_.--Dined at Merchant Taylors' Hall; made a speech.

_17th_.--Dined at Lambeth, to talk over the Judicature Bill with the Archbishop. Met Bishop Wilberforce as I was driving down Const.i.tution Hill.

He was killed two days afterwards (on the 19th) by a fall from his horse, riding with Lord Granville.

Count Munster came as German amba.s.sador. I dined with him at Beust's and at Houghton's.

Lord Westbury died in London on July 20th, 1873; a man whose bitter tongue made him many enemies, and procured for him a reputation as of one without respect or regard for aught human or divine. Those who knew him well told a different tale. He has been described by them as having a most kind and feeling nature. 'He did not make many professions, but had the good of his fellow-creatures at heart. He always found time to give advice and help.'

Reeve, who had been thrown into frequent and familiar intercourse with him, was in the habit of speaking of him as one whose real character was very different indeed from that a.s.signed him by popular repute; and the letter of sympathy which he wrote to Lord Westbury's daughter, the Hon. Augusta Beth.e.l.l,[Footnote: Afterwards Mrs. Parker, and, by a second marriage, Mrs.

Nash.] merely expressed his honest opinion.

Rutland Gate, July 23rd.

Dear Miss Beth.e.l.l,--I should have written sooner if I had had the use of my hand, to express to you my profound sorrow and sympathy in the loss you have sustained.

I look back with unmixed satisfaction on the relations I maintained for so many years with your father. He honoured me with his confidence and friends.h.i.+p. I have the profoundest admiration, not only for his qualities as a lawyer, but for his just and enlarged mind, his vast reading, his memory, and the inexhaustible kindness of his heart. He was one of the greatest men I have known, and one of those whose loss to us all is most irreparable. How much more so to you!

Mrs. Reeve begs to unite her condolences to mine; and we remain always

Your much attached friends,

HENRY REEVE.

The Journal notes a six weeks' tour with Mrs. Reeve in Switzerland and Germany:--

_August 1st_.--To Paris and Geneva, _via_ Dieppe. Saw Thiers in Paris. He had been turned out of office on May 4th. On August 4th reached Binet's _campagne_. Family dinners, &c., at Geneva. 12th, called at Blumenthal's _chalet_, near Vevey. 14th, to Berne, Grindelwald, and Ragaz, by Zurich.

Took baths at Ragaz. Longmans came there on the 22nd. Pleasant excursion to Glarus. 26th, to Syrgenstein [near the Lake of Constance--wrote Mrs.

Reeve--where some cousins of ours, the Whittles, bought an old schloss with some 300 acres, and settled about fifteen years ago]. 31st, by Ulm to Baden-Baden, Bonn, Aix, Antwerp; home on September 8th.

_September 10th_.--Sir Henry Holland dined with us. He had just been to Nijni Novgorod, and was starting for Naples. He died as soon as he got back, on October 27th. This was the last time I saw him. He was then eighty-five. To Bracknell in September.

_September 27th_.--To Christchurch. Ordered fences for Foxholes.

_October 3rd_.--To Cultoquhey (Lord Moncreiff's). 6th, fis.h.i.+ng at Battleby (Maxtone Graham's), in the Tay. We killed seven fish; I, one of 19 lbs.; Hopie, two, one of 25 lbs. Thence to the Colviles', at Craigflower, and on the 11th to Minto. 14th, drove to Ancrum and Kirklands. Beautiful day.

We went from Minto to Dartrey, co. Monaghan, by Carlisle and Stranraer; crossed to Larne, but had to sleep at Dundalk, on the 17th. At Dartrey found the Ilchesters, Mr. Herbert, and others. Lady Craven and the Headforts came later. Returned to England on the 27th by Greenore and Holyhead.

For the October number of the 'Review,' Reeve had written an article on the Ashantee War, in which he would seem to have been a.s.sisted by Lord Kimberley, then Colonial Secretary. On its appearance, Mr. Pope Hennessy, at this time Governor of the Bahamas, but who, in the preceding year, had been Governor of the Gold Coast, wrote to 'The Editor of the "Edinburgh Review,"' objecting to some of the statements regarding his own conduct, which, he declared, were inaccurate. And, having given utterance to his objections, he continued:--

_November 28th_.--As I have ventured on fault-finding about one article, I must not deprive myself of the pleasure of congratulating you heartily on another. Since October 1802 no article on foreign affairs has been so apropos as your Cuban one of last October. Here it has been read with avidity and universal satisfaction, and I believe it will do much to guide influential opinion in England at this crisis. I hope to see you return to the subject in January. Remember that your January number, as far as the instruction of M.P.s is concerned, is always an important political one. In view of your dealing with the subject again, I give you a few facts that may perhaps add special interest once more to the 'Edinburgh's' mode of dealing with it.

England is directly concerned in Cuba by its close proximity to the Bahamas. Cay Lobos (British territory) is but fourteen miles from Cay Confites (Cuban territory). That leaves but eight miles of high seas in width. The people of the Bahamas have made frequent complaint to the governor about the conduct of the Spanish authorities in Cuba. In August this year the Governor of the Bahamas sent a memorial to the Captain-General of Cuba about the impediments to the Bahama sponging trade caused by the arbitrary acts of the Spaniards. No notice has been taken of this. It has not even been acknowledged. In 1870 complaints were made to Sir James Walker (my predecessor) that James Fraser and three other British subjects were captured in a Bahama schooner, taken ash.o.r.e to Cuba, and there shot. The Spaniards justified this by saying that the s.h.i.+p was conveying supplies to the insurgents, and they (the Spaniards) executed Fraser and the others as pirates. In the same year a man named Williams complained that sixty or seventy Spanish soldiers landed at Berry Island (a part of the Bahama colony), chasing Cuban refugees, firing off their guns, and threatening to hang Williams if he did not aid them in their search.

Subsequently the Spanish admiral, Melcampo, made a sort of apology for this; but the Captain-General of Cuba, on the other hand, wrote to Sir James Walker, complaining that the British lighthouse-keepers on Berry Island had refused to aid the Spaniards in pursuit of 'pirates' on British soil. Lord Granville took up the matter in a proper spirit. He sent energetic remonstrances to Madrid. He got the Admiralty to telegraph to Sir Rodney Mundy, at Halifax, to despatch s.h.i.+ps of war to aid the Governor of the Bahamas in protecting the colony from the raids of the Spaniards. As to the seizing of s.h.i.+ps on the high seas under neutral flags, he telegraphed to Sir John Crampton, at Madrid, to say that it would be 'a glaring violation of the law of nations.' The Madrid Government promised to get the Captain-General's proclamation revoked; but my predecessor reported that General Dulce had not revoked it, and he returned to Spain without doing so. The half-and-half revocation that took place left 'exceptional cases' at the discretion of the Spanish cruisers. Hence the case of the 'Virginius.'

The excitement here about the recent executions is intense. Twenty-nine of those shot resided at Na.s.sau. The public feeling is now so strong that it deprives me of power (especially as all British troops are withdrawn) to stop expeditions against the Spaniard, though I am doing my best to allay it and to be strictly neutral. Indeed, in the interest of the peace and well-being of the Bahamas, I have had to write to Lord Kimberley, asking him to use his influence in getting some law-abiding government subst.i.tuted in Cuba for the present lawless rule of the volunteers. Your article will do much to support H.M. Government in a decided course now.

Believe me, yours faithfully,

J. POPE HENNESSY.

The Journal records here:--

_December 8th_.--We went to Knowsley, with Lord Cairns. There were there Lord C. Hamilton, Henry Cowper, &c. Lord Sefton shot with us. We killed 827 head on the 9th, 784 head on the 10th, 366 head on the 11th. Went to Liverpool with Lord Cairns on the 12th, and home next day.

_To Lord Derby_

_C. O., December 15th_.--The last edition of my translation of Tocqueville's book on France has probably not yet found its way to Knowsley's library, and I shall be much gratified if you will allow me to place a copy there. This edition has the advantage of containing fourteen posthumous chapters not to be found in any other, and these certainly are not the least remarkable part of the work. I was moved to translate them partly by your saying to me one day, 'Can't you give us any more of Tocqueville?'

The Journal goes on:--

To Paris for Christmas. Saw M. Guizot; dined at the Emba.s.sy. Dined with Mme. Faucher on Christmas Day; with M. Guizot on the 27th; Camille Rousset and Taine there. On the 28th dined at the Duc de Broglie's, then home minister; Apponys, Prince Orloff, Lord Lyons, Lambert de Sainte-Croix there. Dined on the 29th with the Lyttons at Mme. Gavard's; and on the 30th with the Comte de Paris at De Mussy's.

1874.--The year opened at Paris. Called on M. Guizot and dined with the Raymonds on New Year's Day. Breakfasted with the Duc d'Aumale at Chantilly on the 2nd; first time I had seen him there. Dined at Mohl's with Haussonville, the Lyttons, and Tourgueneff.

Renewed my acquaintance with Drouyn de Lhuys, who related to me the affairs of 1866. Very curious. Dined at the Political Economy Club on the 5th; and at Lytton's on the 6th. Back to London on the 7th.

_January 24th_.--To Aldermaston, with Lord Aberdare, the Samuel Bakers, Herbert Spencer, Franks and others. Pleasant and interesting; but I had the gout and was laid up for a month. This was the day Gladstone published his fatal address to the electors at Greenwich. Parliament was dissolved on the 26th. We all told Lord Aberdare that the party would be smashed, and so it was. Disraeli's Government came in on February 21st.

_21st_.--The Master of the Rolls gave judgement in the Handley suit, which gave me the Winkfield property.

The case was shortly described by Mrs. Reeve:--

'There were two wills, one of Edwin Handley, the other that of his two surviving sisters. His will was good as to devise of money, bad as to land; therefore the land pa.s.sed to the sisters, and their bequests of land come into effect. The property in Winkfield which comes to Henry is a little more than 30 acres. Of course the agricultural value is not very great; but we hope, as building and accommodation land, to make a good thing of it.'

It appears, indeed, that the advisability of settling on it themselves was considered; but there was no house on the property; so that as in either case a house had to be built, the Christchurch site was preferred. In June Reeve sold this Winkfield property for nearly 6,000 ., which--he added to a note of the sale--'enabled me to build Foxholes.'

The following is endorsed:--'M. Guizot on the death of [his daughter]

Pauline. The last letter he wrote me with his own hand.'

8 _mars_.--Je vous remercie de votre sympathie, my dear Sir. J'y comptais.

Vous etes un des anciens temoins de ma vie et de mon bonheur. Il a ete grand; mais le bonheur se paye. Je me soumets douloureus.e.m.e.nt mais sans murmure. La vie est ainsi faite. C'est pour mon gendre Cornelis de Witt que je ressens une pitie profonde. Il a joui pendant vingt-cinq ans de ce que j'ai moi-meme appele le bonheur parfait, l'amour dans le mariage. Il reste seul avec ses sept enfants. Ils viendront tous vivre avec moi, sous les yeux de ma fille Henriette,[Footnote: Mme. Guizot de Witt.] une vraie mere.

Revenez nous voir.

Je n'ai pas le coeur a vous parler d'autre chose. Je n'ai pas encore recu 'l'Edinburgh Review' des mois d'octobre et janvier dernier. Je les fais demander. Je vis aussi en Angleterre. C'est beaucoup d'avoir deux vies et presque deux patries. Mr. Burton a-t-il publie l'article qu'il projetait sur mon Histoire de France? Je vous envoie quelques pages que je viens d'ecrire sur mon excellent ami, M. Vitet. [Footnote: Louis Vitet, 'de l'Academie francaise,' _d_.June 1873. This is presumably the 'notice'

prefixed to Vitet's _Etudes philosophiques et litteraires_ (8vo. 1875).]

Encore un profond regret.

Adieu, my dear Sir. Tenez-moi un peu au courant de ce qui se pa.s.se chez vous et de ce que vous en pensez. Nous vegetons ici dans les tenebres, en attendant un mieux qui viendra, je ne sais quand ni comment. Mais je persiste a y croire. Tout a vous, GUIZOT.