Rutland Gate, February 16th, 1895.—I am pretty well—not worse than usual; but I don't go out.

My dear old friend, Lady Stanley of Alderley, died this morning. She was only ill four days, and expired without pain or suffering at eighty-seven. To me an irreparable loss, and to a vast circle of descendants and friends. [Footnote: Among Reeve's papers there are a great many letters from Lady Stanley of Alderley, telling plainly of the long and close friendship between the two. Unfortunately, there are no available letters from Reeve to her.]

To Rear-Admiral Bridge [Footnote: At this time Commander-in-Chief in Australian waters.]

62 Rutland Gate, May 2nd.

My dear admiral,—I wish you were in reach of us, to discuss the extraordinary events which are taking place in the North Pacific, to which your articles on that subject have for some time pointed; but no one foresaw the sudden uprising of Japan.

It seems to me that, in spite of her victories, Japan is in a very critical position, politically speaking. She lies between two huge empires, and she has undertaken to occupy more than she can hold. Her position is absolutely fatal to the grand design of Russia, of crossing the north of Asia to the Pacific, and I expect Russia will not submit to it. But Russia would find it extremely difficult to carry on military and naval operations at such an enormous distance from her base. I doubt whether she could destroy the Japanese fleet, and it certainly is not for our interest that it should be destroyed. The disposition here is to observe strict neutrality and watch the course of events.

It is curious that nobody points out that the United States are the country with the largest future interest in the Pacific, and that they must have a voice in this controversy. It also largely affects our own Australian colonies. A Russian establishment in Corea would effect a momentous change in the Pacific, and Japan will doubtless resist it to the uttermost.

We are very dull here. Lord Rosebery has sunk into complete insignificance, and his state of health is doubtful. The Government is rotten, but continues to hold together. I think something must occur before long to stir the waters.

We are going to Foxholes on May 20th to stay there. I have spent a dreary winter, being unable to go out, but I am not seriously ill—suffering chiefly from old age. Mrs. Reeve sends you her kind regards, and I am always

Yours very faithfully,

H. REEVE.

* * * * *

To Miss A. M. Clerke

Foxholes, September 8th.—Many thanks, dear Miss Clerke, for your elegant and instructive Life of the Herschels; they could not have had a more accomplished biographer, if they had waited for it another century. Your article on Argon fills me with amazement and admiration. How can the human mind fathom such things! I beg you to send me the corrected proofs to-morrow by return of post, as I want to make it up immediately. If anything new is said on the subject at the British Association, you can add a note to be printed at the end of the number.

To-morrow is my 82nd birthday—probably the last. But I am not ill, only feeble and tired of living so long.

Yours most faithfully,

H. REEVE.

To Captain S. P. Oliver, R.A.

Foxholes, September 12th.—I have sent your corrected proofs [Footnote: 'The French in Madagascar,' October 1895.] to Spottiswoode, with a few slight suggestions of my own. They will send you a revise.... I see you have now so far modified your opinion that you think with me that the position of the French is most critical. Unless they can announce some signal success in the next two weeks, there will be a disaster and an awful row. I see by the map that on the 5th of this month they were still at Andriba, which I take to be about three-fifths of the distance to Antananarivo. They have been five months getting there, and as they advance the difficulty of bringing up stores, supplies, and reliefs increases, and will increase. In my opinion, the Hovas are quite right not to treat for peace till they see what the rains will do for them. I hope they will hold out, but avoid fighting.

Captain Oliver writes that 'One of Reeve's last pieces of work connected with the "Edinburgh Review" must have been the paragraphs which he substituted for my ending to the article. He was doubtful of the eventual French success, whereas I felt pretty certain that affairs would terminate as they have done in that island.' The forecast of the result of a complicated business was erroneous, but to make one at all, and to commit it to paper, was a remarkable display of energy in a dying man who was now in his eighty-third year.

To Mr. T. Norton Longman

Foxholes, September 12th.—Thanks for your birthday congratulations, but I doubt whether great age is a subject of congratulation at all.

29th.—I am extremely feeble, faculties low, eyesight weak. I should like, if I live so long, to edit the January number of the 'Review;' but after that I must stop.

October 2nd.—Much obliged to you for your very kind note.... You will doubtless pay me on November 15th the sum due then; but I wish to say that I cannot go on to receive remuneration for services I am scarcely capable of rendering. Therefore this payment in November will be the last on that account [as literary adviser].

This was probably the last letter Reeve wrote with his own hand. For several months he had been very much of an invalid, though he had persisted in continuing his work, in which he found distraction and relief. And no complaint passed his lips. 'The kindest thing you can do for me,' he said to his anxious wife, 'is to leave me alone.' He made a point of coming down to breakfast; but his strength was gradually failing, and he moved with difficulty. His medical attendant recommended an operation, but this he was unwilling to undergo, feeling doubtful whether at his advanced age it could be successful. Sunday, October 13th, he passed in the library among the books he prized. He dictated a letter, listened to the Psalms of the day, and asked his wife to read also the First Epistle General of St. Peter. In the afternoon Dr. Roberts Thomson and Dr. Davison saw him, and after a consultation wrote to the distinguished specialist, Mr. Buckston Browne, to be prepared to come on receipt of a telegram. On Monday Reeve was unable to get up; he consented to undergo the operation, and Mr. Browne was telegraphed for. On his arrival, about 7 o'clock in the evening, it was decided to lose no more time. The operation was successfully performed, under chloroform, and everything, the surgeons hoped, would go well. And this they repeated for the next few days; the wound, they thought, was closing nicely. At 82, however, wounds do not close readily, and Reeve's system was weakened by some years of bad health. He never regained entire consciousness; and though from time to time he gave some directions about the 'Review,' they were not intelligible to those who heard; they probably had no meaning even to himself. On Monday, October 21st, at half-past one in the morning, 'the one last change was made,' and he passed away peacefully and without suffering.

In a letter of sympathy to Mrs. Reeve Dr. Roberts Thomson wrote:—

'I was very much struck with your husband's wonderful patience when I saw him, and the calm way in which he was able to face the future—whatever it had in store for him. It is some consolation to know that he did not suffer much, and that perhaps, had he recovered from the illness, his health would have been so affected that great valetudinarianism would have been inevitable. To him, this would have been suffering; and for his sake we are thankful that he was spared it.'

His remains were interred in the Brookwood cemetery at Woking on October 24th.

He died, literally in harness. On Saturday, October 12th, he dictated a last letter on the business of the 'Review;' and his indistinct words during the few days of partial unconsciousness showed that his mind was still endeavouring to fix itself on what had occupied it for so many years.

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 passed 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-assertive, 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' fashion 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 associated 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 friendships 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 illustration 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 friendships 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 assured 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 space 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 friendship 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 friendships, 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 assume 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 friendships.

'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 multitude, 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 friendship 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 Institute elected him "Correspondant" in 1865 and Associated 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 assumed the editorship 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 Constitution. 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 Devonshire was the leader of his party.

'His literary judgements had much analogy 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 scholarship, 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 friendship 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 friendship 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 companionship 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 classique 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 passa 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 petit 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. Passionnement patriote—et ce n'est pas moi qui lui en ferai un reproche—il epousait les passions, 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 Washington," 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 principaux 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 principaux 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 principaux 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, assurement 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 titre 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 retentissement.

'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 prononcer devant vous l'eloge d'Henry Reeve; la competence me manque comme la preparation. En vous rappelant quelques traits de cette noble 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 passed 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 space with remarks of my own; I will at once produce incontestable proof of what I have asserted. I have now before me a manuscript 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 assent 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 substituted 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...'

December 27th.—'The Whigs returned to the charge, and claimed in a most menacing manner a larger share of the minor offices. Sir C. Wood and Mr. Hayter came to me in the first instance and tried to shake me individually in my opinion. I was stout and combated all their arguments, which assumed an angry tone. We came to no satisfactory conclusion in my house, and the discussion was adjourned to Lord John's. I found Lord John more amenable to reason; but the whole arrangement was on the point of being broken off. It was 1 o'clock. The House of Commons was to meet at 2 by special adjournment, and the writs were to be issued punctually at that hour. Sir C. Wood intimated that unless some further concessions were made the arrangement was at an end, and that the moving of the writs must be postponed. I said I should go down to the House, and make then and there a full statement of the case, and recall by telegraph my address to the electors of Carlisle, which declared my acceptance of office. This firmness, coupled with my rising to leave the room, brought the gentlemen to reason. I had a note in my pocket from Lord Aberdeen, which placed the Duchy of Lancaster at their disposal, and Strutt was in the House ready to receive it at the hands of Lord John. This offer was snatched immediately; Strutt was consulted and accepted on the spot, and Hayter was sent to the House of Commons, and he moved the writs of the Cabinet Ministers, of Strutt also, and of Baines...'

December 28th.—'The contest as to minor offices was renewed with equal pertinacity, but with less effect, after the moving of the principal writs. A battle was fought for the Great Seal of Ireland, which was ultimately yielded to Brady, the ex-Whig Chancellor. This concession was no sooner made than an attempt to force Reddington as the Under-Secretary for Ireland was commenced. He, being a Catholic, had consented to the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, against his private judgement and in defiance of his coreligionists. His appointment would have been war with the Brigade, and it was necessary to refuse it peremptorily. The dissatisfaction of Lord Clarendon and of Lord John Russell was eagerly expressed, but was ultimately mitigated by the offer to Reddington of the Secretaryship of the Board of Control. The suggestion that Lord John might provide for him abroad was not so favourably entertained. I have never passed a week so unpleasantly. It was a battle for places from hostile camps, and the Whigs disregarded fitness for the public service altogether. They fought for their men as partisans, and all other considerations, as well as consequences, were disregarded. Lord Aberdeen's patience and justice are exemplary; he is firm and yet conciliatory, and has ended by making an arrangement which is, on the whole, impartial and quite as satisfactory as circumstances would permit.'

The evidence of Sir James Graham on points of fact will hardly be disputed, nor will it be denied that he, who took an active part in the construction of the Government and was in the most intimate confidence of Lord Aberdeen, was in a better position for knowing what passed than Mr. Greville, who was dependent on the information which he received from others. But if any confirmation be desired it will be found in the extracts which I add from the correspondence of Lord Aberdeen. The Queen, as I have before said, approved the lists submitted to her on December 23rd. The same evening, Lord John Russell wrote to Lord Aberdeen as follows:—

'I am told that the whole complexion of the Government will look too Peelite. G. Grey suggests, and I concur, that Clarendon should be President of the Council immediately, and when he leaves it someone else may be named—Harrowby or Granville. I am seriously afraid that the whole thing will break down from the weakness of the old Liberal party (I must not say Whig) in the Cabinet. To this must be added:—President of the Board of Trade, Postmaster, Chief Secretary for Ireland, all in Peelite hands. I send a note which Bessborough has given me, and which is said to convey the opinion of the Irish Liberal members. It is not very reasonable, but I think Blackburne should be changed for Moore, and St. Germans for Lord Carlisle. Palmerston consents to Bernal Osborne. You should write or see Cranworth. Forgive all this trouble.'

Lord Aberdeen replied:—

'I do not admit the justice of the criticism made on the composition of the Cabinet, if you fairly estimate the persons and the offices they fill. I do not object to Clarendon; but my fear is that he will not be able to do the business of the office in the House of Lords, and we are so weak there that I entertain very great apprehensions.'

Lord John rejoined:—

'What I suggest is (1) that, as I have frequently proposed, with your consent, Lord Granville should be Lord President; (2) that Sir F. Baring should be President of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet; (3) that Clarendon should at once enter the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; (4) that Lord Stanley of Alderley should be Vice-President, not in the Cabinet. Let me add to what I have said that ten Whigs, members of former Cabinets, are omitted in this, while only two Peelites are omitted, and one entirely new is admitted—Argyll. Let me propose further that the minor posts be recast with less disproportion. Cardwell ought not to have office while Labouchere, Vernon Smith, and others are excluded.

'Pray let me have an answer before the writs are moved. I have sent for F. Baring. If he will not join, G. Grey will.

'P.S.—About Ireland afterwards.'

On the receipt of this letter Lord Aberdeen wrote to the Queen that it put it entirely out of his power to go to Windsor on that day as had been intended, and that 'he regretted to say that the new propositions, which had been made by Lord John that morning, although the scheme submitted to the Queen had been approved of, were so extensive as very seriously to endanger the success of his [Lord Aberdeen's] undertaking.'

It appears to me to be thus shown, beyond dispute or question, that it was the Whigs and not the Peelites who, after the distribution of offices had been fully agreed on, and approved by the Queen, sought to modify the arrangements effected. Whether the Whigs had or had not cause for their discontent is another question, on which it is unnecessary now to enter. That such discontent was (considering their numerical strength) extremely natural, none can deny. That, on the other hand, it would have been impossible to exclude Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, or the Duke of Newcastle from a Cabinet formed and presided over by Lord Aberdeen, and that the important share taken by Mr. Sidney Herbert in the overthrow of Lord Derby's Government rendered him also entitled to claim Cabinet office, most men will admit.

While anxious to correct a statement which appears to me injurious to the reputation of public men, some of whom are still living, I trust I may be permitted at the same time to record my strong sense of the general accuracy of Mr. Greville's information. Where his notes are inaccurate, their inaccuracy may, I believe, be more generally accounted for by his omission in those cases to insert in his diary (as in many other instances he has done) a subsequent correction of the erroneous reports which had in the first instance reached him.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

ARTHUR GORDON.

THE END