Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 31

Henry Greville's executors had been consulted as to the publication of Mr.

Charles Greville's Journals of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV., I think it right to say that they were in no way consulted by me, nor was their a.s.sent asked for, because I believed it to be the wish of Mr. Greville that his family and executors should be relieved from all responsibility in the matter.

The journals were not left to Mr. Henry Greville, nor did they pa.s.s to his executors, having been given to me by Mr. Greville himself before his death, as stated by me in the preface, for the purpose of eventual publication, but the time and manner of publication were left to my sole discretion. I am, therefore, alone responsible for the production of this portion of the journals at the present time, and any beneficial interest in them is a matter entirely between my publisher and myself. Beneficial interest in the publication had not, however, the slightest influence on the course I thought it right to pursue, and I take this opportunity of stating that, in my opinion, many years must elapse before the more recent portions of these journals can with propriety be published.

On the actual publication he received many encouraging letters, a few of which are here given, together with a remarkable expression of opinion from Lord Russell, one of the few public men then living who could speak of the regency and the reign of George IV. from personal knowledge.

_From Mr. Delane_

October 22nd.

Dear Reeve,--I am glad you are pleased with the first notice of Greville's Journals. There are at least two more to come, which will, I hope, be equally gratifying to you. Certainly you did not publish too soon. The world moves too quickly for long intervals of suppressed publication. I suppose the book is not really published, as I have only seen it in sheets.

Yours ever faithfully,

J. T. DELANE.

_From Lord Derby_

Knowsley, October 31st.

Dear Reeve,--The Greville papers are quite the most interesting and amusing work of the year; and, considering the extreme difficulty of editing such a work without spoiling it--on the one hand, by too much suppression, or by leaving in it pa.s.sages which would give reasonable cause of offence to private persons--I think you have been singularly judicious.... As to the journalist's criticisms on public men, they seem to me to be the harsh judgements of a man trying to be impartial, though inclined to be acrimonious. There is certainly nothing in them which you could have the slightest scruple about publis.h.i.+ng, or which the relatives of those concerned can resent.

Very sincerely yours,

DERBY.

_From Mr. E. Cheney_

St. Anne's Hill, Chertsey, October 31st.

My dear Reeve,--... I have been reading Charles Greville with much interest and entertainment. I think you are quite right in publis.h.i.+ng now, and not waiting for a generation 'who knew not Joseph.' There is always a clamour against those who tell the truth. Charles Greville may very likely [have been], and certainly was, very often wrong; but he believed he told the truth, and he certainly uttered his genuine sentiments. These journals throw a strong light on contemporary events, and will be very valuable to the future historians of the period. Ch. G. was a man who felt much and expressed himself strongly; and had you attempted to soften his language you would have injured the effect and destroyed the _couleur locale_.

He was a man naturally of a quick and irritable temper, and he had been a spoilt child all his life. His original education was defective. He lived with the selfish and the self-indulgent, and naturally became selfish and self-indulgent himself. At six years old an old friend of his mother's found him crying at dinner because he had not got the liver wing of the chicken; and to the last he would have wanted 'the liver wing.' But he had naturally a kind heart, and a just perception; and he admired what was n.o.ble and generous, if he did not always practise it. He suffered greatly in health, and he was too self-indulgent, even with the certainty of pain before his eyes, to moderate his appet.i.te. His last years were unhappy. The indulgence of his temper made his company often disagreeable, and he very keenly felt the neglect of his old friends. With a better education he would have been a most valuable man, for his natural powers were considerable. Like so many other London men, he thought the whole world was bounded by Oxford Street, Pall Mall, the Parks, and the City; and he took his opinions from the clubs in St. James's Street and Pall-Mall, and, as those opinions varied, so we find his judgements in these journals vary.

But he himself was convinced, and he uttered the genuine sentiments of the moment.... I hope you will publish the rest of the four vols. before long, and that you will preserve exactly the same plan you have done in these....

Yours very sincerely, E. C.

_From Mr. Harvie Farquhar_

16 St. James's Street, November 28th.

The yeast of society ferments easily, and--at present--C. G.'s manes are the best abused in or out of Hades; but all will settle down soon, and when people have done throwing stones, and the water is placid enough to enable them to see below the surface, they will better appreciate what lies at the bottom. Whether abused or not, the book will be in every library--on its merits.

_From the Queen of Holland_

The Hague, Monday, November 30th.

My dear Mr. Reeve,--Sat.u.r.day night, November 28th, the books arrived. I am afraid, after Sunday church, more of my time than ought to have been Sunday's occupation was given to these three volumes. Of course, I have not _read_ them; I _rushed_ through, and am now going to read page by page.

The interest is an immense one. Not only that I have _known many_ of the persons named, but I have _heard_ from all, and they seem to me like shadows reviving, returning to light and life. Dear Lord Clarendon's name struck me several times; and I remember, when Mr. Greville died, Lord Clarendon wrote me 'his papers had been given to the person most able to judge them.' At that time I did not know Mr. Reeve; but I recollect the words perfectly. Pray give my best compliments to Mrs. Reeve, and believe me very sincerely yours,

SOPHIE.

_From Lord Russell to Mr. T. Norton Longman_

_December 9th_.--I was much interested in C. Greville's Memoirs. He is not a bit too severe on George IV. A worse man has not lived in our time.

On the other hand, many of the papers criticised the work in a hostile and violent manner. It was, they said, a breach of official confidence for a man in Greville's position to keep a journal at all. Greville--whose name it was fatally easy to rhyme to Devil--was described as a man delighting in listening at keyholes, and habitually misrepresenting the only half-heard secrets. Here is a specimen; one epigram out of many, all to the same effect, and all ending with the same rhyme:--

For fifty years he listened at the door, And heard some secrets, and invented more; These he wrote down, and statesmen, queens and kings, Are all degraded into common things.

Though most have pa.s.sed away, some still remain To whom such scandal gives a needless pain; And though they smile, and say 'Tis only Greville,'

They wish him, Reeve, and Longman at the devil.

The 'Quarterly Review,' too, in a peculiarly venomous article, compared the relative positions of Greville and Reeve with those of Bolingbroke and Mallet, as painted by Dr. Johnson. Bolingbroke, he had said, was a cowardly blackguard, who loaded a gun which he was afraid to fire off himself, and left a s.h.i.+lling to a beggarly Scotchman to pull the trigger after his death. The inference was inevitable; and though Reeve was neither a Scotchman nor a beggar, he unquestionably felt the sting, coming, as it did, from a friend of more than forty years' standing, Abraham Hayward [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. pp. 12, 34.]. The friends.h.i.+p was not unnaturally broken, nor does the old intimacy appear to have been ever renewed.

Of course the gravamen of this charge, made not only by the 'Quarterly Review,' but by other less distinguished journals, was that Reeve had been mainly, if not solely, influenced by the idea of making a good thing out of it. The sale of the work--they said--was very great. Commercially, it had been a brilliant success. Reeve's trained insight into literary affairs had shown him that it must be so, and, tempted by the _auri sacra fames_, he had yielded, maugre the counsels of his better part. Never was charge more unjust, more untrue. Reeve, though not a wealthy man, was now in easy circ.u.mstances, with a sufficient and a.s.sured income. Prudent in the management of his property and in his expenditure he seems to have always been; but as far removed, both by temperament and education, from parsimony as from extravagance. Money he valued only for what it could give him; and both in fact and in sentiment he was in a position to say with the poet--

mihi parva rura et Spiritum Graias tenuem Camoenae Parca non mendax dedit, et malignum Spernere vulgus.

Still, the charge was made at the time, was currently repeated, and has been believed by many. It happens, however, that the most complete contradiction of it remains in the shape of Reeve's letters to Mr. T.

Longman, some of which we can now read.

_C. O., November 7th_.--Nothing could end better for me than the amicable discussion with H. Farquhar, and I am exceedingly glad to have had an opportunity of writing the letter which appears in the 'Times' and 'Post'

to-day.

I have never desired to make this book a source of profit to myself, beyond a reasonable remuneration for the time and labour I have spent on it.

The returns have already exceeded my expectation and desire. It is not, therefore, my wish or intention to press or urge the sale of the book. I have no doubt the second edition will go off fast enough--indeed a good part of it is already bespoken. But I have not at all made up my mind to proceed to a third edition if the second is exhausted. I am inclined to think I shall hold my hand. I have no wish to make more money out of the book, or to make it a very common popular work; and my feeling is that I should best consult my own dignity by leaving matters as they are, at any rate for the present.

However, it is needless to decide this now, as the demand for a third edition may never arise. But I think it right to let you know my view of the matter, because you are by no means called upon to advertise largely, or make efforts to extend the sale--at least, not more than you think necessary to cover your own interests. But I believe you would be sure to sell this second edition without any advertising at all. I certainly do not wish to have any puffing advertis.e.m.e.nts. I had rather that the book were to become scarce and dear than that you should sell ten thousand copies.

_November 9th_.--There is a good deal of truth in what you say about not publis.h.i.+ng a third edition if the second is sold off. People would probably attribute it to the wrong motive, and say I had been stopped in some way, or was afraid; and n.o.body gets any credit for disinterestedness.

Fortunately the first edition was a very small one, for you could have sold 5,000 as easily as 2,500, and this has given a check to the sale, which I do not regret. If necessary, I suppose these editions must go on as long as there is a demand for the book. But the desire to get hold of new books is a short-lived pa.s.sion, and is soon turned aside by some other novelty. I shall not wish to publish the book at all in a cheaper form, and I think it will require very little outlay in advertising.

Reeve would, however, have been more than human if the continued success of the book had not greatly modified his views, and reconciled him to the steady sale; and some months later he wrote again:--

_January 25th_, 1875.--The general impression seems to be that Hayward's article is a fiasco. It has done me no harm, and his clients have no reason to thank him. The fourth edition of Greville will contain a good many improvements and corrections, and will be the best edition to keep. I believe they are printing 1,000. I wish they had made it 1,500, for this multiplication of editions is troublesome, and I have no doubt that 1,500 will ultimately be sold. The book has struck root below the stratum of the circulating libraries.

_April 15th_, 1875.--Nothing seems to be wanting to the indirect advertis.e.m.e.nt of Greville's Journals, though the usual advertis.e.m.e.nts were by my desire restricted. I do not recollect another instance of a book being made the subject of a hostile motion in the House of Commons.

CHAPTER XIX

FOXHOLES

Anyone whose memory needs refres.h.i.+ng will find in the 'Edinburgh Reviews'

of the next five years sufficient indication of the interest which Reeve continued to take in the great questions of the day, whether at home or abroad; but his private correspondence at this time is mainly devoted to social or literary topics. The death of Lord Clarendon in England, of M.

Guizot in France, had deprived him of the living keys to the dark problems of policy, and there was no one with equal knowledge and opportunities to take their place. He was, too, in opposition. In form, at least, the principles of the 'Edinburgh Review' differed widely from those of the Government; and though many things even then told of a probable _rapprochement_ of moderate Whigs and moderate Conservatives, it was still held by most to be an extravagant dream. But even had it been otherwise, the personal element was wanting. With Disraeli, Reeve's acquaintance was limited; with Lord Salisbury, though on friendly terms, he had never been intimate; his intimacy with Lord Derby was of a later date. From our foreign emba.s.sies and from India, his communications were on a more familiar footing; but many of these took the form of articles for the 'Review,' and of the rest, in view of the delicacy of the subjects discussed, the frankness with which they were discussed, and the comparatively recent date, it has seemed unadvisable to publish much. The result of all which is that during this peculiarly busy, exciting and important time, Reeve's available correspondence is more purely personal than at any other period of his working life. The Journal is seldom anything else. It records here:--

_October, 1874_.--M. de Jarnac was now French Amba.s.sador, to my great delight, as he was a very old and valued friend. The first planting at Foxholes was done in the course of this autumn, but the garden was not made till the following spring.