Life of Henry Reeve, vol 2 | Page 3

interest you, and I think the accounts I continue to receive from France, on the present threatening aspect of affairs, may be of that nature. M. Guizot says to me, in a letter of the 23rd inst.:--
'Jusqu'à ces jours derniers je n'y voulais pas croire. J'essaye encore d'en douter; mais c'est difficile. Ce sera un exemple de plus des guerres faites par embarras de ne pas les faire bien plus que par volonté de les faire. Je suis porté à croire que l'Empereur Napoléon serait charmé de ne plus entendre parler de l'Italie; mais pour cela il faudrait qu'il n'y e?t plus d'assassins italiens, plus de Roi de Sardaigne, plus de cousins à marier, plus de brouillons révolutionnaires à contenter. Aujourd'hui, et malgré toutes les paroles contraires, il me para?t probable que ces causes de guerre prévaudront sur la modération naturelle, sur le go?t du repos voluptueux, sur l'avis des conseillers officiels, et sur le sentiment évident du public. Que fera l'Allemagne? Le tiendra-t-elle unie? Là est la question. L'Angleterre y peut certainement beaucoup. Je ne vois plus que là une chance pour le maintien de la paix.'
These words are so remarkable, coming from a man whose disposition is ever so much more sanguine than desponding, that I have quoted them at length.
We have all been greatly touched by the close of Mr. Hallam's most honourable, useful, and I may say illustrious life. [Footnote: He died on January 21st, 1859.] It so chanced that my sister-in-law, Helen Richardson, who has been to him a second daughter for the last few years, came up from Scotland on Thursday [January 20th]. On Friday she went down with Mrs. Cator to see him. He perfectly knew her, and seemed charmed to see her again; but before she left his bed-side the light flickered in the socket, and he expired a short time afterwards in their presence, conscious and without pain to the last. I thought the notice of him in the 'Times' of Monday very pleasing, and was inclined to attribute it to David Dundas, but I know not whether I am right....
I remain always
Your obliged and faithful
H. REEVE.
From Lord Clarendon _The Grove, January 26th_.--I am much obliged to you for M. Guizot's letter, [Footnote: Apparently that of January 23rd, quoted in the previous letter to Lord Lansdowne.] which Miladi and I have read with interest, as one always does everything he writes. I showed it to G. Lewis and C. C. G., feeling sure you would have no objection. It is impossible not to agree in his gloomy view of things. It must be owned that the position the Emperor has made for himself is one of extreme difficulty. His _idée dominante_ has been how to pacify Italian conspirators by bringing away his army from Rome, without having the Pope's throat cut or letting in an Austrian garrison there; and he determined that driving the Austrians out of Italy was the indispensable preliminary step. He was urged to do this and to think it easy both by Russia and Sardinia; and we may be sure that the Sardinians would not have committed themselves as they have done, and incurred such inconvenient expense, if they had not received promises of active support. How would it be possible then for L. N. to recede? Cavour would show him up, and fresh daggers and grenades would be prepared for him. I look upon war, therefore, as certain. We have only to hope that Austria may continue to act prudently, and not furnish the cause of quarrel which her enemies are looking for, and which might turn against her those who, for decency's sake, wish to remain neutral; and next, that Germany may be united by a sense of common danger. This may tend to limit the area of the war; but altogether it is a deplorable _gachis_, out of which L. N. can no more see his way than anyone else.
From Lord Brougham _Cannes, January 26th_.--I must throw myself and the cause of law amendment on your kindness, under a great evil which has befallen us. The 'Quarterly Review,' under Mr. Elwin, was so favourably disposed to law reform as to resolve upon inserting a full discussion of the subject on the occasion of Sir E. Wilmot's volume on my 'Acts and Bills;' and Bellenden Ker had undertaken it, and was, as a law reformer and as, under Cranworth, in office as consolidation commissioner, certainly well qualified to do the article. But he made such a mess of it; in fact, treating Eldon, Ellenborough, &c., and other obstacles to law reform not introductory, but, as I understand, making a whole article upon that. The consequence has been that the whole has failed, and this most valuable opportunity been lost of having the Tory journal's adhesion