_From Sir Henry Taylor_
Bournemouth, August 26th.
My dear Mr. Reeve,--Thanks for your very kind letter. I am so glad you can take a favourable view of my autobiography.
I am rather surprised myself that there is nothing in it of Mrs. Austin and Lucy. I was intimately acquainted with them, and I may perhaps find something said of them in letters, as I proceed with the task of sorting my correspondence. Of Mr. Austin I saw very little. He led such a secluded life. But one could not see him at all without knowing something of the intellect which lay hidden in him for so many years.
As to the date of publication, I shall leave the necessary instructions. I wish the work to be published as soon as possible after my death.
Believe me, yours sincerely,
HENRY TAYLOR.
_From the Comte de Paris_
Chateau d"Eu, 17 septembre.
Mon cher Monsieur Reeve,--Je ne veux pas tarder un instant a vous remercier de votre lettre du 14, et des felicitations que vous m"adressez a l"occasion de la naissance de mon fils Ferdinand.... Graces a Dieu, tout s"est pa.s.se aussi bien que possible et, depuis l"evenement, la mere et l"enfant vont a merveille. Je vous remercie bien cordialement des voeux que vous formez pour celui-ci. Je connais de longue date les sentiments qui vous inspirent, et vous savez tout le prix que j"y attache.
Vous avez raison de dire que l"avenir se montre a.s.sez sombre pour toutes les nations de l"Europe. Les operations de l"Amiral Courbet au Tonkin et en Chine montrent que notre marine se maintient a la hauteur de sa vieille reputation; elle le doit aux traditions, a l"esprit de corps, aux sentiments de respect pour les chefs qui s"est conserve chez elle tandis qu"il disparaissait ou s"affaiblissait partout ailleurs. Mais cette demonstration nous coute bien cher. La guerre avec la Chine nous alarme, parce qu"il n"y a pas de guerre plus difficile a terminer que celle-la. La politique coloniale est un luxe que nous aurions pu nous donner dans un autre temps, mais que ne nous convient pas dans notre situation europeenne.
Elle a de plus ete conduite d"une facon irreguliere, l"action au Tonkin succedant a l"inaction en Egypte. Cette affaire d"Egypte aurait pu servir de base a une entente avec l"Angleterre. Au lieu de cela on n"a pas voulu l"aider, puis on a boude parce qu"elle agissait seule, et lorsque les difficultes ont commence pour elle, on n"a su ni s"entendre absolument pour agir en commun, ni s"effacer derriere l"Europe pour ne pas a.s.sumer la responsabilite de l"echec de la conference. Bien des gens croient ici que toute cette politique a eu pour but de sauver le ministere Gladstone. Cela n"en valait pas la peine. Il en est resulte de l"aigreur dans les journaux.
Mais cette aigreur sent bien un peu le fonds des reptiles, et personne n"a serieus.e.m.e.nt envie de chercher querelle a la perfide Albion.
Ceux qui admirent ses inst.i.tutions et qui croient que leur ponderation est la garantie du plus precieux de tous les biens--la liberte, se preoccupent vivement des tendances jacobines de notre ami Gladstone. L"extension du suffrage est logique, l"aneantiss.e.m.e.nt de la chambre des Lords est logique.
Mais les meilleures inst.i.tutions ne sont pas les plus logiques. a force de logique on tend a remplacer le gouvernement pondere de l"Angleterre par ce que nous appelons le gouvernement conventionnel, c"est a dire le despotisme d"une a.s.semblee unique appuyee sur la brutale loi du nombre. Que Dieu vous garde d"un tel avenir. C"est le voeu d"un ami sincere de vos inst.i.tutions.
Ce qui preoccupe ici bien plus, et a bon t.i.tre, que les aventures coloniales, c"est la situation economique. La France s"appauvrit parce qu"elle perd en impots improductifs une partie de son epargne, parce que ses fils travaillent moins, depensent plus et boivent davantage, parce qu"ils demandent des salaires trop eleves, et parce que la concurrence allemande, americaine, italienne, anglaise, nous ferme peu a peu tous les marches, et enfin parce que le phylloxera ruine la moitie du pays. Le courant protectionniste se p.r.o.nonce avec une force irresistible en ce moment.
Je vous prie d"offrir mes hommages a Madame et a Mademoiselle Reeve, et de me croire Votre bien affectionne,
PHILIPPE COMTE DE PARIS.
_From M. B. St.-Hilaire_
Paris, 19 octobre.
Cher Monsieur Reeve,--J"ai recu le numero de la _Revue d"Edimbourg_, et je vous en remercie. Le redacteur de l"article a ete plein de bienveillance a mon egard, et je vous prie de lui faire savoir que je suis fort touche de l"appreciation qu"il veut bien faire de mes travaux. Je profiterai de ses justes critiques pour mes autres traductions; mais il est un point ou je ne suis pas tout a fait d"accord avec lui. Je ne trouve pas qu"il tienne a.s.sez compte a Aristote d"avoir commence la science, et de l"avoir fondee.
Les debuts sont toujours excessivement difficiles, et il ne serait pas equitable de demander a ces temps recules de savoir tout ce que nous savons aujourd"hui. Nous devons toujours nous dire que dans deux mille ans d"ici on en saura beaucoup plus que nous, tout savants que nous sommes. Ceci doit nous engager a etre reconnaissants et modestes.
Je vais mettre sous presse le Traite des Parties des Animaux en deux volumes, et je prepare celui de la Generation, qui, sans doute, en aura trois.
J"espere que vous vous portez bien, ainsi que Madame Henry Reeve; je lui presente mes respects et mes amities, avec tons mes voeux pour sa sante et pour la votre.
Votre bien devoue,
B. ST.-HILAIRE.
The Journal here has:--
_October 28th_.--Dinner of The Club to Lord Dufferin before his departure for India.
_November 14th_.--Dinner at Lady Molesworth"s to the Waddingtons.
_December 3rd_.--Small dinner at Lord Cork"s, with Gladstone and Sir H.
James.
_From Sir Henry Taylor_
Bournemouth, December 10th.
Dear Mr. Reeve,--It has come into the head of my family, and through theirs into mine, that there is no particular reason why my Autobiography should not be published now, instead of posthumously, and that there are some motives for giving a preference to present publication. The agreement with Messrs. Longman which you brought about has been, perhaps, a sort of suggestion of this change of purpose; so I write to mention it. The work was written with more unreserve than would be natural to a man who hears what he says, and some erasures will be required; but a man in his eighty-fifth year is, in some respects, as good as dead, or, at all events, as deaf: so there need not be much alteration. I hope you will not disapprove.
Believe me, yours very sincerely,
HENRY TAYLOR.
On December 17th the Reeves went to Foxholes, where they spent Christmas, ushered in the New Year, and returned to London on January 15th, 1885. The entries in the Journal are for the most part trivial, though politically the year was one of extreme interest and excitement, much of which is reflected in the correspondence.
_From the Comte de Paris_
6 _janvier_.--J"ai ete vivement touche de la lettre que vous m"avez ecrite, des voeux que vous m"adressez au moment ou nous entrons dans une annee qui semble nous reserver bien des surprises. L"avenir est plein d"incert.i.tudes et de dangers. Je n"ai pas besoin de vous dire que j"observe avec une serieuse inquietude l"etat des relations entre l"Angleterre et la France, non que je croie meme a la possibilite d"un conflit qui repugnerait egalement a tous les membres des deux nations voisines, mais parce qu"une hostilite diplomatique seule serait deja un grand malheur pour l"une et pour l"autre.... Vous avez raison de croire que le desir universel de la paix prevaudra sur les perils de la situation internationale. Ce desir est bien puissant en France, et les aventures de l"extreme Orient, dans lesquelles on nous a lances si mal a propos, ne font que lui donner l"occasion de se manifester.
Ces aventures ne font pas diversion a la crise si grave qui eprouve notre industrie et notre agriculture. Les causes de cette crise sont multiples.
Quelques-unes sont communes a toute l"Europe, d"autres le sont aux quelques nations qui avaient le monopole de certaines industries, et le perdent, grace aux facilites actuelles des transports. Il en est une, malheureus.e.m.e.nt tres-active, qui nous est propre; c"est la tendance des ouvriers depuis l"etabliss.e.m.e.nt de la Republique a chercher l"amelioration de leur sort, moins dans l"accroiss.e.m.e.nt de leur salaire que dans la diminution de leur travail. Cette funeste tendance leur a ete inspiree par les flatteries de tous ceux qui briguent leurs suffrages, et leur rappellent que toute legislation emane d"eux. Le pays produit moins, et par consequent s"appauvrit. L"imprevoyance de nos gouvernants a aggrave la crise. Aujourd"hui un cri puissant s"eleve en faveur des droits protecteurs, meme sur le ble. Il est probable qu"on en fera a.s.sez pour inquieter les consommateurs des villes, pas a.s.sez pour satisfaire l"agriculture.... Si Mademoiselle Reeve voulait faire de jolies peches de truites, c"est le 1er juin qu"elle devrait venir a Eu.
_From the Duke of Argyll_
_Inveraray, February 13th_.--The Nile affair is too miserable. No possible issue can be otherwise than a misfortune. The despatch in which the Government asked Gordon to advise them how to relieve him--in April last, when he was closely beleaguered--reads like a horrible joke now.
A horrible joke indeed:--for on February 5th news had come of the fall of Khartoum and the death of Gordon. On the 26th a vote of censure on the Government was carried in the House of Lords by 189 to 63; but a similar motion in the Commons was rejected by 302 to 288. The Government majority had fallen from 56 to 14.
On March 8th a special service was held in the Temple Church to commemorate the completion of the seventh century since its consecration. [Footnote: See _ante_, p. 322.] The Master preached the sermon on the text Psalm xc.
1--"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." [Footnote: The _Times_ of March 9th gave a pretty full abstract of the sermon.] Reeve, who was present, considered it one of Dr. Vaughan"s happiest efforts, and wrote to say how greatly he had been pleased by it. Vaughan"s acknowledgement of the kindly feeling which dictated the letter has otherwise no particular interest.
_From Sir Alfred Lyall_ [Footnote: At that time lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces.]
_March 31st_.--When we closed in 1881 the second act of the Affghan drama, I calculated on an interval of at least five years; and I thought that if we could get a joint commission to settle some boundary that Russia could provisionally agree to, the interval might be longer. But the Boundary Commission, which I first pressed for in 1881, has propelled, instead of delaying, the crisis. I suppose our Egyptian entanglement seemed to Russia to offer an irresistible opportunity; at any rate, the Russians have some reason for precipitating the issue between us, and at this moment we may be on the verge of a war. It is very curious to find ourselves so close to the collision that we have been so long trying to fend off, and to realise that a land invasion of India by a European Power, which has been the nightmare of Anglo-Indian statesmen since Bonaparte seized Egypt in 1798, is now no longer a matter of remote speculation. The Russian menace is, however, already producing one result that I had always antic.i.p.ated; it is evoking among all substantial cla.s.ses of Indians a strong desire to support the British Government in India. You may remember that in my paper of January 1884 I wrote that the natives would, in times of rumoured invasion, hold by any Power that could keep the gates of India against Central Asia; and this is now strongly showing itself. The adventurous cla.s.ses are ready to enlist and follow our colours; the propertied cla.s.ses look to us as the representatives of order and security; the educated cla.s.ses depend wholly upon our system; if the Russians calculate on any serious rising against us in India, they will be mistaken. Of course a series of reverses would change the whole face of affairs.... We are very fortunate in having Lord Dufferin here at this time. Everyone likes him, and has confidence in him.
He is clearly a Viceroy who listens to everyone, but makes up his own mind independently. And Lady Dufferin charms us all....
The Mahdi"s fortunes do not interest India. The talk in some of the papers about the necessity of smashing him, in order to avert the risk of some general Mahomedan uprising, is futile and imaginative. The Indians think the English rather mad to go crusading against him in the Soudan, and they may soon get irritated at the waste of Indian lives at Suakin, when we want our best men on the N.W. frontier; but, for the rest, they do not concern themselves about remote Arab tribes. Of course everyone sees that the English Government has now an excellent pretext for getting partially out of a hopeless mess by transferring most of our English troops from the Red Sea to the Punjab.
On April 9th news reached London that on March 30th the Russians, under General Komaroff, had attacked and carried the Affghan positions at Penjdeh, concerning which negotiations were going on. As our Government was pledged meanwhile to the support of the Amir, this action of Komaroff"s was held to be a very aggravated insult to England. Explanations were demanded, but preparations for war were hurried on, and on April 27th, after an impa.s.sioned speech by Mr. Gladstone, a vote of credit for eleven millions was pa.s.sed almost by acclamation. The negotiations, however, were continued; explanations were given: the Russians kept Penjdeh; the Affghans had lost their territory, their guns, and 500 men; and Mr. Gladstone expressed himself satisfied. Four days afterwards, May 8th, the Government was defeated on the budget, and resigned a few days later, the Marquis of Salisbury forming the new ministry.
_From Sir Alfred Lyall_
_June 5th_.--Probably you know more in England than we do in India of the course of negotiations with Russia, It seems just now more smooth than satisfactory. I fear we have lost credit in India over that unlucky Penjdeh business. One would fancy that our representatives on the spot might have been wary enough to discern that where the Russians and the Affghans were drawing close to each other, there lay the risk and the strain of the situation. I have a very moderate trust in our ally the Amir, though he is a very able, if unscrupulous, ruler. I hope fervently he has sense enough not to use those breech-loaders we are sending in such quant.i.ties, and that he won"t repeat the Penjdeh blunder by provoking some collision with the Russians on his border....