Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 49

1887. _January 3rd_.--Came to London. 10th, dinner at Pender's to meet Stanley, the African traveller, before he went to find Emin Bey.

_19th_.--The third part of Greville published, 3,007 copies subscribed.

Among the many letters which the publication of these last volumes of the 'Greville Memoirs' brought him, the following from Sir Arthur Gordon [Footnote: Fourth son of the Earl of Aberdeen.]--now Lord Stanmore, and then Governor of Ceylon--have a peculiar interest from their exact criticism of a point of detail with which the writer was personally acquainted at first hand:--

Queen's House, Colombo, June 18th.

My dear Mr. Reeve,--I have very long delayed answering your last letter, in the hope that, when I did so, I might at the same time be able to send you my notes on the two last volumes of 'Greville.' But these notes will be numerous, and my time is scant for such work. On one point, the 'graspingness' alleged to have been shown by the Pec.l.i.tes after the formation of the Government in December 1852, and its modification to satisfy their exigencies, I have felt constrained to address the 'Times.'

[Footnote: June 13th. The letter is reprinted in the Appenduxm _post_, p.

411.] The truth happens to have been exactly the other way, and Greville's notes are only the echo of the grumblings of the disappointed Whig placemen who talked to him. It is decidedly unjust not only to my father, Graham, and Gladstone, who are indirectly charged with this trafficking, but to the Duke of Newcastle and Herbert also, who more directly are so.

I have, of course, read the volumes with great interest, but have had my suspicions greatly heightened that whatever may have been the case before--say 1841, the confidences Mr. Greville received in the later years of his life were not unfrequently only half-confidences, for the sake of obtaining his opinion on some collateral point, or of flattering or pleasing him by the show of confidence. There are, of course, many matters treated of in these volumes as to which I have no personal or private information, and I have no reason to question what he says about them; but I have some inclination to doubt, even as to these; for I find that as regards almost every transaction of which I do happen to know the whole history, he knows a good deal about it, but not _all_ about it. He was kept specially in the dark about the real history of Lord Palmerston's resignation in 1853 which is all the odder because he very nearly found it out. Hardly anybody does know what lay behind, though the difference about Reform was a very real one, so far as it went, and quite sufficient to justify--at all events, ostensibly--Lord P.'s virtual dismissal. Again, on another occasion, I see Mr. G.'s special friend, Lord Clarendon--I will not say, deliberately deceived him, but, certainly with full knowledge --allowed him to deceive himself on the strength of a half-confidence.

[Footnote: A politic reticence, that has been called 'an economy of truth.']

I am more disappointed than I can say to find that M. de Sainte-Aulaire's elaborate Memoirs have been 'used up' for that stupid book of Victor de Nouvion's, [Footnote: Histoire du Regne de Louis Philippe (4 tom 8vo.

1857-61)], if--as I suppose-that is the book you refer to. I thought it had never got beyond the first two volumes, and have never seen any more of it.

I am vexed that M. de Sainte-Aulaire's elaborate Memoirs should have been utilised for such a book; generally, because I know M. de Sainte-Aulaire contemplated their publication, and because they deserved to appear in a separate form; and, personally and specially, because, of course, his accounts of his intercourse with my father, and the elaborate study of his character which he had written, are thus lost....

Yours ever faithfully,

A. GORDON.

_To Sir Arthur Gordon_

_C.O., June 13th_.--I have just read in the 'Times' of this morning your interesting letter on the formation of Lord Aberdeen's ministry. I have no doubt you are quite right. It _was_ John Russell and the Whigs who were rapacious for office--much more than the Peelites. John Russell, I know, kept Cardwell out of the Cabinet. You observe that Greville only notes what Lord Clarendon told him; and I have no doubt that Clarendon was rather out of humour with arrangements which were personally disagreeable to himself.

But that again was John Russell's fault, because he insisted on taking the Foreign Office _pro tem_. I shall probably publish another complete edition of Greville next year, and I think it would be well to insert in a note the whole of your letter, or at least the greater part of it. [Footnote: See Appendix, post, p. 411.] If you have any other criticisms to make, they would be valuable to me. I have availed myself of those you were so good as to send me on the second series.

You are aware that Mme. de Jarnac is dead. I do not know who has her husband's papers; but the Comte de Paris is here, and as I frequently see him, I will take an early opportunity of asking him whether he can give me any information about Lord Aberdeen's letters. M. Thureau's 'Histoire de la Monarchic de Juillet' is a remarkable book, because he has access to original sources and quotes largely from them, especially from the Memoirs of M. de Sainte-Aulaire which are still in MS. [Footnote: And _still_ so in 1898.] They appear to be extremely interesting.

We are getting on here pretty well. If the Whigs had joined the Government, there might have been a scramble for office, as there was in 1853; for the Whigs are now in the same position as the Peelites were at that time--officers without an army. It is much more to the credit of my friends to give a disinterested support to Lord Salisbury; and this alliance gives a sufficiently Liberal colour to the measures of the administration. There is every appearance that the Unionists will hold together. Mr. Gladstone continues to be in a state of hallucination and excitement which exceeds belief. It is a case of moral and political suicide. The crisis will probably end by the death of Mr. Parnell, the falling [off] of the American subscriptions, and the extinction of Mr. Gladstone; but in the meantime they have totally ruined Ireland.

_From Sir Arthur Gordon_

_August 30th_.--Your letter of June 13th must have crossed one from me, in which I explained to you why I had written to the 'Times' about the formation of the Government of 1853 instead of merely sending my observations to you as a note for future use. I need not say that I am much flattered by your proposal to insert the letter--or part of it--in a note to a future edition of Mr. Greville's Memoirs... I am struck very much by what I think I mentioned once before--the frequency with which Mr.

Greville's friends gave him what may be called 'a three-quarters knowledge'

of pending affairs. They told him a great deal, but frequently not _all_.

In the affairs with which I am really acquainted, there is almost always something--and that an important something--which does not appear in his notes... I have specially noticed this with regard to Lord Palmerston's 'resignation' in 1853, It is the more remarkable, because it is apparent from various pa.s.sages that he 'burnt'--as they say in a game of hide and seek--but never actually quite caught the true facts. I have never known a secret better guarded than the fact--which, after a lapse of four and thirty years, one may, I think, mention--that Lord P.'s resignation on that occasion was _not_ voluntary, and that he was, in fact, extruded.

[Footnote: In a later letter, June 5th, 1888, Sir Arthur Gordon wrote:--'He had given great offence to the Queen; and his colleagues--at least, his most important colleagues--distrusted his action in reference to pending negotiations, Lord Clarendon especially resenting the intrigues he believed he was carrying on. Things being in this state, he announced his hostility to Reform, and it was determined to take advantage of this announcement to remove him; and removed he would have been, but for the two causes I have noted.'] But, to be sure, half the Cabinet did not know this; and it was their ignorance, coupled with Newcastle's and Gladstone's dislike of Lord John, that brought him back again.

I must get M. Thureau's 'Histoire de la Monarchic de Juillet,' of which I never even heard. It is dreadful to reflect how utterly behindhand one gets in all things, literary, artistic, and political, through long sojourns out of Europe. But I do hope there is some prospect of M. de Sainte-Aulaire's Memoirs themselves being published at full length. I know it was M. de Sainte-Aulaire's wish and deliberate intention that they should be given to the world, and he took much trouble with them.

_From the Duke of Argyll_

Inveraray, January 22nd.

My dear Mr. Reeve,--I have been longer in getting the book off my hands than I had hoped. It is now in the press, and Douglas talks of getting it out about February 10th or a little later.... There is a good deal in the book which, in one sense, may be called 'padding,' because I have endeavoured to relieve the very dry subject of Tenures and Agricultural Improvement with historical episodes, with pictures of manners, and even with personal anecdote. But I think there is a considerable bulk of new matter, or at least of old matter put in new points of view, and every part is written with an aim to establish the principles which _we_ think 'sound'

on Law, on Property, and on Union. Your new Greville seems to be very interesting.

Yours very sincerely,

ARGYLL.

_From M. B. St.-Hilaire_

_Paris_, 29 _janvier_.--Je vous remercie de la peine que vous voulez bien prendre, et j'ai profite des corrections que vous avez bien voulu m'indiquer. J'avais deja profite des deux articles de la 'Revue d'Edimbourg' sur les chemins de fer russes en Asie et sur l'armee indienne.

I have no wish to appear more royalist than the king himself; but I cannot feel so sure as you do about the security of India. The Russians are already threatening it, and I do not think they are near stopping. The base of their operations will be in the Caucasus, where they already have very considerable forces. It is true that their finances are in bad order; but this may perhaps be an additional motive to them to undertake a war of conquest. I agree with you, however, that before the attack on India will come the attack on Constantinople, the consequences of which will be very great. On the other hand, the railway connecting Candahar with the Indus will certainly be a great obstacle to the advance of the Russians on Cabul.

In all this I see many of the elements of catastrophes which the next generation will witness. I hope I may be out of this world before they come.

_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_Foxholes_, _April 17th_.--I see the 'Athenaeum' complains that I did not correct all Vitzthum's mistakes and rearrange his book; but that is more than I undertook to do. We did correct a good many mistakes, natural enough in a foreigner; but I do not hold myself responsible for his facts or his opinions.

_April 22nd_.--I know more about M. Barthelemy St.-Hilaire's book on India than any other Englishman, for I revised and corrected the proof-sheets for him. A French writer on the subject was sure to make blunders. The book is most valuable to _foreigners_, for it is a perfectly fair account of the British administration of India; but it would be entirely useless in this country, inasmuch as it is a mere compilation from well-known English doc.u.ments. I think, therefore, that a translation into English would be a work of supererogation and a failure.

_Journal_

_April 30th_.--Dined at the Royal Academy dinner.

_May 9th_.--Great Unionist meeting at Winchester.

_28th_.--Barthelemy St.-Hilaire came to Foxholes on a visit.

_June 10th_.--Dined with the Duc d'Aumale, Moncorvo House. Electric light.

_15th_.--Dined at the Middle Temple. Grand day; Prince of Wales in the chair.

_18th_.--Dined with the Lord Mayor. Literature, Science, and Art.

_21st_.--Celebration of the Jubilee. Splendid day.

_July 3rd_.--Went to Eastbourne.

_7th_.--Dined at East Sheen with the Comte de Paris. Duc and d.u.c.h.esse of Braganza there. Duke of St. Albans, Arran and daughter, Duc de la Tremoille--twenty.

_18th_.--Duc d'Aumale's evening party; very brilliant.

_25th_.--To Ostend and Brussels. 26th, to Cologne. Great heat.

_27th_.--To Wiesbaden. Lady Dartrey died while I was at Wiesbaden. I took leave of her on her death-bed just before I started. It was the loss of a most kind, faithful, and affectionate friend.

_August 5th_.--Ill in the night; incipient fever. 6th, to Cologne. 7th, to Aix, very unwell. 9th, got back to London by Ostend-Dover.

_From Captain Bridge, R.N._

H.M.S. 'Colossus,' Gibraltar, August 3rd.

Dear Mr. Reeve,--The Naval Review and the ensuing operations have not, I hope, given you such a surfeit of naval affairs as to indispose you to hear a little of the recent cruise of the Mediterranean squadron. We left Malta, under the command of the Duke of Edinburgh, in May, and visited several ports on the coast of Italy. During H.R.H.'s absence in England, when attending the Jubilee, we stayed at the convenient harbour of Aranci Bay in the island of Sardinia. There we carried out a series of instructive torpedo and under-water mining exercises. After leaving Sardinia, we called at several Spanish ports--Barcelona, Valencia, Cartagena and Malaga--eventually reaching this place last Friday evening.