Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 56

It was in his editorial capacity that I, who write these lines, first knew him in 1866, though I did not make his personal acquaintance till 1877, when he was a few months over 63. I found him a tall, stout, and--though not strictly handsome--a good-looking man, who might very well have pa.s.sed for ten years younger than he actually was, and whose burly figure might have seemed more at home in the covers or the turnip-fields than in the Privy Council Office; his weight, which cannot, even then, have been much under eighteen stone, must have stopped his hunting some time before. But in his manner there was no trace of this fancied rusticity--how could there be, indeed, in one trained in society almost from the cradle?--and his voice was soft and musical. I have seen it stated that he was pompous, self-a.s.sertive, and dictatorial. That his manners, formed by his mother and his aunt on eighteenth-century models, and perfected in Paris among the traditions of the _ancien regime_, had about them nothing of the 'hail fellow, well met' fas.h.i.+on of the present day is very certain, and, joined to his height (about 6 ft. 1 in.) and his great bulk, may sometimes have given him the appearance of speaking _de haut en bas_, and must, unquestionably, have enabled him to repress any unwelcome or undue familiarity. As an editor, of course, he was dictatorial. We may talk of the Republic of Letters; but in point of fact a successful journal is and must be an autocracy. In his private capacity, I never found in his conversation that habit of 'laying down the law' which some, with probably inferior opportunities of judging, have complained of. Of his untiring application and power of work enough has already been said; but the uniform good luck which attended him through life is worthy of notice. In the course of eighty-two years he experienced no reverse of fortune, no great disappointment, and--with the one, though terrible, exception of the death of his first wife--no great sorrow beyond what is the lot of all men. We know that fortune favours the brave. It favours also those who to ability and temper join prudence, courtesy, and careful, systematic, painstaking industry.

At the age of 82 Reeve had outlived all of his contemporaries--the men who had a.s.sociated with him and worked with him in his youth. Their opinion of him is only to be gauged by the fact that, with but few and easily explained exceptions, the friends.h.i.+ps of his early manhood were broken only by the grave. The number of friends of forty or fifty years' standing who died during the last decade of his life is very remarkable. As these are wanting, I am happy in being able to conclude this tribute to his memory by two appreciations, one English, the other French; the first, from and representing the 'Edinburgh Review' to which it was contributed in January 1896, by Mr. W. E. H. Lecky.

'Although it has never been the custom of this "Review" to withdraw the veil of anonymity from its writers and its administration, it would be mere affectation to suffer this number to appear before the public without some allusion to the great Editor whom we have just lost, and who for forty years has watched with indefatigable care over our pages.

'The career of Mr. Henry Reeve is perhaps the most striking ill.u.s.tration in our time of how little in English life influence is measured by notoriety.

To the outer world his name was but little known. He is remembered as the translator of Tocqueville, as the editor of the "Greville Memoirs," as the author of a not quite forgotten book on Royal and Republican France, showing much knowledge of French literature and politics; as the holder during fifty years of the respectable, but not very prominent, post of Registrar of the Privy Council. To those who have a more intimate knowledge of the political and literary life of England, it is well known that during nearly the whole of his long life he was a powerful and living force in English literature; that few men of his time have filled a larger place in some of the most select circles of English social life; and that he exercised during many years a political influence such as rarely falls to the lot of any Englishman outside Parliament, or indeed outside the Cabinet.

'He was born at Norwich in 1813, and brought up in a highly cultivated, and even brilliant, literary circle. His father, Dr. Reeve, was one of the earliest contributors to this Review. The Austins, the Opies, the Taylors, and the Aldersons were closely related to him, and he is said to have been indebted to his gifted aunt, Sarah Austin, for his appointment in the Privy Council. The family income was not large, and a great part of Mr. Reeve's education took place on the Continent, chiefly at Geneva and Munich. He went with excellent introductions, and the years he spent abroad were abundantly fruitful. He learned German so well that he was at one time a contributor to a German periodical. He was one of the rare Englishmen who spoke French almost like a Frenchman, and at a very early age he formed friends.h.i.+ps with several eminent French writers. His translation of the "Democracy in America," by Tocqueville, which appeared in 1835, strengthened his hold on French society. Two years later he obtained the appointment in the Privy Council, which he held until 1887. It was in this office that he became the colleague and fast friend of Charles Greville, who on his death-bed entrusted him with the publication of his "Memoirs."

'Mr. Reeve had now obtained an a.s.sured income and a steady occupation, but it was far from satisfying his desire for work. He became a contributor, and very soon a leading contributor, to the "Times," while his close and confidential intercourse with Mr. Delane gave him a considerable voice in its management. The penny newspaper was still unborn, and the "Times" at this period was the undisputed monarch of the press, and exercised an influence over public opinion, both in England and on the Continent, such as no existing paper can be said to possess. It is, we believe, no exaggeration to say that for the s.p.a.ce of fifteen years nearly every article that appeared in its columns on foreign politics was written by Mr. Reeve, and the period during which he wrote for it included the year 1848,--when foreign politics were of transcendent importance.

'The great political influence which he at this time exercised naturally drew him into close connexion with many of the chief statesmen of his time.

With Lord Clarendon especially his friends.h.i.+p was close and confidential, and he received from that statesman almost weekly letters during his Viceroyalty in Ireland and during other of the more critical periods of his career. In France Mr. Reeve's connexions were scarcely less numerous than in England. Guizot, Thiers, Cousin, Tocqueville, Villemain, Circourt--in fact, nearly all the leading figures in French literature and politics during the reign of Louis Philippe were among his friends or correspondents. He was at all times singularly international in his sympathies and friends.h.i.+ps, and he appears to have been more than once made the channel of confidential communications between English and French statesmen.

'It was a task for which he was eminently suited. The qualities which most impressed all who came into close communication with him were the strength, swiftness, and soundness of his judgement, and his unfailing tact and discretion in dealing with delicate questions. He was eminently a man of the world, and had quite as much knowledge of men as of books. Probably few men of his time have been so frequently and so variously consulted.

He always spoke with confidence and authority, and his clear, keen-cut, decisive sentences, a certain stateliness of manner which did not so much claim as a.s.sume ascendency, and a somewhat elaborate formality of courtesy which was very efficacious in repelling intruders, sometimes concealed from strangers the softer side of his character. But those who knew him well soon learnt to recognise the genuine kindliness of his nature, his remarkable skill in avoiding friction, and the rare steadiness of his friends.h.i.+ps.

'One great source of his influence was the just belief in his complete independence and disinterestedness. For a very able man his ambition was singularly moderate. As he once said, he had made it his object throughout life only to aim at things which were well within his power. He had very little respect for the judgement of the mult.i.tude, and he cared nothing for notoriety and not much for dignities. A moderate competence, congenial work, a sphere of wide and genuine influence, a close and intimate friends.h.i.+p with a large proportion of the guiding spirits of his time, were the things he really valued, and all these he fully attained. He had great conversational powers, which never degenerated into monologue, a singularly equable, happy, and sanguine temperament, and a keen delight in cultivated society. He might be seen to special advantage in two small and very select dining clubs which have included most of the more distinguished English statesmen and men of letters of the century. He became a member of the Literary Society in 1857 and of Dr. Johnson's Club in 1861, and it is a remarkable evidence of the appreciation of his social tact that both bodies speedily selected him as their treasurer. He held that position in "The Club" from 1868 till 1893, when failing health and absence from London obliged him to relinquish it. The French Inst.i.tute elected him "Correspondant" in 1865 and a.s.sociated Member in 1888, in which latter dignity he succeeded Sir Henry Maine. In 1870 the University of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L.

'It was in 1855, on the resignation of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, that he a.s.sumed the editors.h.i.+p of this "Review," which he retained till the day of his death. Both on the political and the literary side he was in full harmony with its traditions. His rare and minute knowledge of recent English and foreign political history; his vast fund of political anecdote; his personal acquaintance with so many of the chief actors on the political scene, both in England and France, gave a great weight and authority to his judgements, and his mind was essentially of the Whig cast. He was a genuine Liberal of the school of Russell, Palmerston, Clarendon, and Cornewall Lewis. It was a sober and tolerant Liberalism, rooted in the traditions of the past, and deeply attached to the historical elements in the Const.i.tution. The dislike and distrust with which he had always viewed the progress of democracy deepened with age, and it was his firm conviction that it could never become the permanent basis of good government. Like most men of his type of thought and character, he was strongly repelled by the later career of Mr. Gladstone, and the Home Rule policy at last severed him definitely from the bulk of the Liberal party. From this time the present Duke of Devons.h.i.+re was the leader of his party.

'His literary judgements had much a.n.a.logy to his political ones. His leanings were all towards the old standards of thought and style. He had been formed in the school of Macaulay and Milman, and of the great French writers under Louis Philippe. Sober thought, clear reasoning, solid scholars.h.i.+p, a transparent, vivid, and restrained style were the literary qualities he most appreciated. He was a great purist, inexorably hostile to a new word. In philosophy he was a devoted disciple of Kant, and his decided orthodoxy in religious belief affected many of his judgements. He could not appreciate Carlyle; he looked with much distrust on Darwinism and the philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and he had very little patience with some of the moral and intellectual extravagances of modern literature. But, according to his own standards and in the wide range of his own subjects, his literary judgement was eminently sound, and he was quick and generous in recognising rising eminence. In at least one case the first considerable recognition of a prominent historian was an article in this "Review" from his pen.

'He had a strong sense of the responsibility of an editor, and especially of the editor of a Review of unsigned articles. No article appeared which he did not carefully consider. His powerful individuality was deeply stamped upon the "Review," and he carefully maintained its unity and consistency of sentiments. It was one of the chief occupations and pleasures of his closing days, and the very last letter he dictated referred to it.

'Time, as might be expected, had greatly thinned the circle of his friends.

Of the France which he knew so well scarcely anything remained, but his old friend and senior, Barthelemy St.-Hilaire, visited him at Christ-Church, and he kept up to the end a warm friends.h.i.+p with the Duc d'Aumale. He spent his 80th birthday at Chantilly, and until the very last year of his life he was never absent when the Duke dined at "The Club." In Lord Derby he lost the statesman with whom in his later years he was most closely connected by private friends.h.i.+p and political sympathy, while the death of Lady Stanley of Alderley deprived him of an attached and lifelong friend.

'Growing infirmities prevented him in his latter days from mixing much in general society in London, but his life was brightened by all that loving companions.h.i.+p could give; his mental powers were unfaded, and he could still enjoy the society of younger friends. He looked forward to the end with a perfect and a most characteristic calm, without fear and without regret. It was the placid close of a long, dignified, and useful life.'

The second, the French appreciation, was spoken at the meeting of the 'Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques,' on November 16th, 1895, by the Duc d'Aumale, who, after regretting his absence on the previous occasion when the President had announced the death of their foreign member, Mr. Henry Reeve, continued:

'Je n'aurais sans doute rien pu ajouter a ce qui a ete si bien dit par M.

le President, mais je tenais a rendre personnellement hommage a la memoire d'un confrere eminent, pour lequel je professais une haute estime et une sincere amitie, et je demande a l'Academie la permission de lui adresser quelques mots.

'Qu'on l'envisage au point de vue litteraire ou au point de vue social, la figure d'Henry Reeve etait essentiellement originale, et il devait ce caractere non seulement a la nature de son esprit, mais a l'education qu'il avait recue. Sur la base anglaise de la forte instruction cla.s.sique son pere [Footnote: A momentary lapse of memory. It is scarcely possible that the Duc d'Aumale did not know that Reeve's father died whilst Reeve was still an infant, and that his education was directed by his mother.] voulut ajouter le couronnement des hautes etudes continentales, et, pour que cette culture intellectuelle n'eut rien d'exclusif ou d'absolu il fit choix de Geneve et de Munich. C'cst dans ces deux villes, dans ces deux grands centres intellectuels, que Reeve pa.s.sa une partie de sa jeunesse. Ce sejour dans des milieux si differents laissa dans son esprit une double impression qui se refleta sur toute sa vie.

'Peu de personnes, de nos jours, ont aussi bien connu que lui cette charmante et originale societe de Geneve, qui semblait dater du dix-huitieme siecle, et qui en a si longtemps conserve les traditions.

C'est la qu'il acquit la connaissance approfondie de notre langue; il en avait saisi les nuances delicates; il connaissait toute notre litterature.

Je ne connais guere d'etrangers qui puissent parler, comprendre, ecrire le francais mieux que lui.

'L'allemand ne lui etait pas moins familier. Le sejour a Munich lui inspira aussi le gout des arts envisages a un point de vue qui n'est pas tout a fait le notre. Dans un pet.i.t volume, oeuvre de jeunesse, "Graphidae," il traduisit sous une forme poetique l'impression que lui avaient laissee les oeuvres des premiers maitres italiens. On y retrouve, avec la mesure qui etait un des caracteres de cet esprit bien pondere, la trace des theories qui prevalaient alors dans l'Allemagne meridionale.

'a d'autres points de vue ce long sejour a l'etranger lui avait laisse des traces plus profondes encore. Il en avait rapporte une sorte de cosmopolitisme eclaire, tempere, entretenu par ses nombreuses relations.

Je ne veux pas dire qu'il ne fut pas Anglais avant tout. Pa.s.sionnement patriote--et ce n'est pas moi qui lui en ferai un reproche--il epousait les pa.s.sions, les coleres de son pays, mais sans rudesse, sans hauteur, sans haine ou mepris des autres peuples, sans prejuges contre aucune nation etrangere.

'Il ne cessa d'entretenir des relations intimes et constantes avec tout le parti liberal francais (je prends le mot liberal dans le vrai sens, le sens le plus large), depuis M. le Duc de Broglie et M. Gruizot jusqu'a notre venere confrere M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire.

'Malgre son impartialite j'oserai dire qu'il avait une certaine faiblesse pour la France. Certes il n'aurait jamais epouse la cause de la France engagee contre l'Angleterre; mais quand il voyait la France et l'Angleterre d'accord sa joie etait vive. Et lors de nos malheurs, sans prendre parti dans la querelle, il n'a jamais cachee la sympathie que lui inspirait la France vaincue.

'Je ne sache pas que Reeve ait ecrit aucun ouvrage de longue haleine, sauf certaines traductions difficiles, importantes: quelques-unes rappellent a cette compagnie des noms qui lui sont chers--la "Vie de Was.h.i.+ngton," par Guizot; la "Democratic," de Tocqueville, un de ses plus intimes amis.

'Il n'a pas pris une part directe au mouvement des affaires de son pays, n'ayant siege ni dans le parlement ni dans aucun cabinet; mais son influence etait considerable: sans cesse consulte, souvent charge de messages importants; enfin sa plume, sa plume surtout, ne restait jamais inactive, et ses ecrits portaient coup. Le "Times" l'a compte longtemps parmi ses princ.i.p.aux collaborateurs; plus tard il se recueillit et se consacra exclusivement a la direction de la "Revue d'Edimbourg," dont il avait ete longtemps un des princ.i.p.aux redacteurs. [Footnote: The Duke would seem to have misunderstood Reeve's position, or, more probably, his memory was confused by the lapse of forty years. Reeve was never _'un des princ.i.p.aux redacteurs'_ of the Edinburgh Review. Till he became sole editor and, in a literary sense, autocrat, he had no part in the conduct of it, nor was he a constant contributor (cf. _ante_, vol. i. p. 173).]

'Je n'ai pas besoin de rappeler a l'Academie quel role appartient a "l'editeur" dans les grandes revues anglaises, quelle part il prend au choix des sujets, a la redaction des articles, quelle autorite il exerce, ni de m'etendre sur l'histoire du plus ancien, je crois, des recueils periodiques, a.s.surement un des plus importants. La "Revue d'Edimbourg" est plus qu'un simple organe; souvent elle donne la note, la formule des idees acceptees par le parti dont elle continue d'arborer les couleurs sur sa couverture bleue et chamois, les couleurs de M. Fox.

'J'ai dit que Reeve n'avait pas pris part au gouvernement. Il exercait cependant une charge, un veritable office de judicature, dont les attributions ne sont pas d'accord avec nos moeurs et dont le t.i.tre meme se traduit difficilement dans notre langue. Attache au Conseil prive comme _Appeal Clerk_, puis comme Registrar, il jugeait des appels des iles de la Manche. [Footnote: This, as has been seen (ante, vol. i. pp. 85-6), is a very inexact and imperfect description of Reeve's duties, either as Clerk of Appeals or as Registrar.] On comprend qu'une connaissance si parfaite de la langue et des usages francais le qualifiait particulierement pour remplir ces fonctions, quand on songe que la langue officielle de ces iles est encore aujourd'hui le francais et que dans les questions de jurisprudence la coutume de Normandie y est constamment invoquee.

'Officiellement Reeve etait sous les ordres du secretaire du Conseil prive, et ces rapports de subordination avaient cree des relations intimes entre son superieur et lui. M. Charles Greville avait tenu la plume du Conseil dans des circonstances deelicates et s'etait trouve mele a une foule d'incidents; en mourant il chargea Reeve de publier ses memoires. Cette publication eut un grand retentiss.e.m.e.nt.

'Reeve etait fier d'appartenir a votre compagnie. Lorsque l'Universite d'Oxford me confera le degre de docteur il etait pres de moi.

"Rappelez-vous," me dit-il en souriant, "que l'Academie des Sciences Morales a sa part dans l'honneur que vous venez de recevoir." Fort repandu, fort apprecie dans le monde, il menait de front ses travaux litteraires, ses devoirs de juge, ses relations sociales, ses excursions; son activite etait extraordinaire. La goutte le genait quelquefois, et d'annee en annee ses visites devenaient plus frequentes.

'Il avait bati au bord la mer, en face de l'ile de Wight, sous un climat doux, une charmante villa, ou il aimait a s'enfermer avec ses livres, poursuivant ses travaux aupres de la digne et gracieuse compagne de sa vie.

Ses dernieres annees s'ecoulerent ainsi entre cette residence et la maison bien connue de Rutland Gate, ou sa table hospitaliere etait toujours ouverte a ses amis de France ou d'ailleurs. C'est a Foxholes que la mort est venue le chercher.

'Je n'ai pas la preention de p.r.o.noncer devant vous l'eloge d'Henry Reeve; la competence me manque comme la preparation. En vous rappelant quelques traits de cette n.o.ble figure je voulais, comme je vous l'ai dit tout a l'heure, acquitter une dette de coeur envers un ami qui, jusqu'aux derniers moments de sa vie, m'a prodigue les marques d'affection. Il voulut celebrer a Chantilly le 80e anniversaire de sa naissance, et un de ses derniers soucis etait de reclamer les bonnes feuilles du septieme volume de "L'Histoire des Conde," dont il voulait rendre compte dans sa Revue.

[Footnote: The present writer feels a personal satisfaction in adding that one of the last letters which Reeve dictated about the work of the _Review_, was to him, asking him to undertake this article.]

'La memoire du philosophe, du lettre, de l'erudit, dn confrere eminent, de l'homme bon et aimable, merite de rester honoree dans notre compagnie.'

APPENDIX

It has been seen (_ante_, vol. ii.) that Reeve intended quoting Lord Stanmore's letter on the formation of the Aberdeen Cabinet, in a future edition of the 'Greville Memoirs.' There seems, however, to have been no opportunity for doing so, and the letter has remained buried in the columns of the 'Times' of June 13, 1887, becoming each year more and more inaccessible. As relating to an interesting point raised by the 'Greville Memoirs,' and also as, to some extent, carrying out Reeve's intention, it is here reprinted, with Lord Stanmore's express permission.

_To the Editor of the 'Times'_

Sir,--It is only recently that the two new volumes of the 'Greville Memoirs' lately published have reached Ceylon. I fear that before this letter can arrive in England the interest excited by their appearance will have pa.s.sed away, and that, consequently, comments upon their contents addressed to you may seem as much out of place as would a letter written for the purpose of correcting some error in any well-known collection of memoirs which have been long before the world. It is therefore not without some hesitation that I venture to request permission from you to point out the inaccuracy of a statement which appears near the commencement of the first of these two volumes, and casts an undeserved imputation upon the conduct, in 1852, of the chief members of the Peelite party.

Mr. Greville, under the date of December 28, 1852, writes thus:--

'Clarendon told me last night that the Peelites have behaved very ill, and have grasped at everything; and he mentioned some very flagrant cases, in which, after the distribution had been settled between Aberdeen and John Russell, Newcastle and Sidney Herbert--for they appear to have been the most active in the matter--persuaded Aberdeen to alter it, and bestow or offer offices intended for Whigs to Peelites, and in some instances to Derbyites who had been Peelites' (vol. i.).

In the next two pages lie comments with severity on the selfishness and shortsightedness of the Peelites in reference to this matter. Now, the reflection thus cast on the foresight and disinterestedness of the Peelite leaders is in no wise warranted by the facts. What really occurred at the formation of the Cabinet of December 1852 was, in truth, the exact reverse of what is stated in Mr. Greville's pages. It was not the Peelites, but Lord John Russell and the Whigs, who, after the list of the Cabinet and of the chief officers of the State had been agreed on between Lord Aberdeen and Lord John Russell, and had been submitted to and approved by the Queen, objected to the composition of the Cabinet as 'too Peelite,' and strove to change the arrangements made originally with Lord John Russell's entire acquiescence. I will not, however, occupy your s.p.a.ce with remarks of my own; I will at once produce incontestable proof of what I have a.s.serted. I have now before me a ma.n.u.script journal kept by Sir James Graham, and from it I quote the following extracts. In reading them it should be borne in mind that the proposed distribution of offices agreed on between Lord Aberdeen and Lord John Russell had been formally approved by the Queen on December 23rd.

_December 24th_.--'Lord John Russell most unexpectedly raised fresh difficulties this morning, on the ground that the Whigs are not represented in the new Cabinet sufficiently. He wished that Sir F. Baring should be placed at the Board of Trade to the exclusion of Cardwell; that Lord Clarendon should have the Duchy, with a seat in the Cabinet; and that Lord Granville should be President of the Council. He thus proposed at one _coup_ an infusion of three additional Whigs, and talked of Lord Carlisle as the fittest person for the Lieutenancy of Ireland. It became necessary to make a stand and to bring the Whigs to their ultimatum. Lord Aberdeen consented to Lord Granville as President, and proposed that Lord Lansdowne should sit in the Cabinet, without an office. This proposition, which reduced the Whig addition, from three to two, saved the Board of Trade for Cardwell, but excluded both him and Canning from the Cabinet. Lord John did not regard it as satisfactory, and fought the point so long and so pertinaciously, that the new writs could not be moved to-day, and the House was adjourned till Monday. Towards evening, at the instance of Lord Lansdowne, Lord John Russell yielded an unwilling a.s.sent to Lord Aberdeen's last proposals...'

_December 25th_.--'Lord John Russell is very much annoyed by the disparaging tone of the articles in the "Times," which, while it supports Lord Aberdeen, attacks him [Russell] and the Whigs. He is still also dissatisfied in the exclusion of Lord Clarendon and of Sir George Grey from the Cabinet, and thinks that the Whig share of the spoil is insufficient.

It is melancholy to see how little fitness for office is regarded on all sides, and how much the public employments are treated as booty to be divided among successful combatants. The Irish Government, also, is still a matter of contest. The Whigs are anxious to displace Blackburne and to replace him with Brady, their former Chancellor; they are jealous also of St. Germans and Young, as Lord-Lieutenant and Chief Secretary, and want to have Lord Carlisle subst.i.tuted for the former. I discussed these matters at Argyll House with Lord John and Lord Aberdeen. If we three were left alone, we could easily adjust every difficulty; it is the intervention of interested parties on opposite sides which mars every settlement...'