by Reeve but inspired by Lord Clarendon, and subsequently in an unfavourable notice of Froude's Catharine of Aragon. But some of Reeve's judgments are startling. He spoke very slightingly of Emmanuel Deutsch's article on the Talmud in the Quarterly Review, and held that the Life of Pusey 'laid bare, as nothing else has done, the total weakness and inconsistency of the Tractarians and their absolute disloyalty to the Church of England'! After such a verdict the reader will be prepared to learn that Reeve's Journal is a complete blank upon the Oxford Movement, which was working before his eyes, but whose significance he entirely failed to comprehend. Nor was he gifted either by capacity or conviction to deal with Church questions. A chapter in the second volume of the Memoirs bears the title of Church Politics,' but its space of thirty pages contains little beyond the most meagre reference to Gladstone's measure for Irish disestablishment, save a letter from Lord Westbury in the unexpected guise of a Church defender, on the twofold ground-first, that stripping the Irish Church of its property to convert it to secular uses was robbery; and second, that destroying episcopacy in, and the Queen's supremacy over, the Established Church in Ireland was a wanton, unnecessary, and mischievous act. The latter reason betrays singular confusion of thought in one so clear-headed, as though episcopacy could be touched by Act of Parliament: but the concern expressed for the Queen's supremacy was in full harmony with the Erastian views the writer shared with his correspondent. It is only just to add that Reeve appears to have been sincerely attached to the Church's forms of worship, and that he had a distinct abhorrence both of the then somewhat fashionable materialism and of the Darwinian theory, in which he discovered the same fatal tendency. We cannot reopen the controversy which raged over the publication of the Greville Memoirs, which Mr. Laughton defends in somewhat half-hearted fashion. He admits that the Queen was not unnaturally much offended, and that Reeve himself was fully alive to the great responsibility he was undertaking; but he endeavours to defend him from the charge of being influenced by pecuniary motives. The latter point is of small account compared with the wide question whether Greville in his official position was justified in keeping a 'Journal,' and whether Reeve, knowing as he did the disposition of the writer, should have allowed it to see the light. The publication gave birth to many epigrams, all to the same effect, and all ending with the same rhyme, of which Mr. Laughton gives the following specimen : '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 passed away, some still remain It is singular how scanty are the quotable sentences from Reeve's Diary when we recall the very exceptional social advantages he enjoyed. Scores of pages in the aggregate would be filled with the bare names of those whom he entertained or met at dinner, and they include all the wits, writers, and statesmen of the day; yet we rarely find a single bon mot or a sparkling repartee. Occasionally a brief comment causes some surprise. An Edinburgh Review dinner, with Sir J. Stephen, Bonamy Price, Mrs. Jameson and Milnes, assuredly included some brilliant talkers, but is noted, 'not, to say the truth, a very exhilarating assembly.' One of the best things given us is the reply of Metternich to Lord Clanwilliam, à propos of Guizot's motto- Via recta brevissima. 'Lord Clanwilliam said the shortest way was also the best.' 'Yes,' added Metternich, and it has also the advantage that on that path you don't meet anybody.' It was natural that Reeve's estimate of statesmen on his own side should be biassed by the degree of intimacy they allowed him, but Lord Granville has perhaps hard measure in being described as always waiting upon fortune, but utterly incapable of taking a strong resolution based on principle and conviction.' Is the explanation given in a previous sentence? He is so cautious and reserved that it is impossible to extract any definite opinion or advice from him. I have tried repeatedly, and I never got so much as a hint from him worth repeating.' This was unprincipled indeed! The obiter dicta in Guizot's letters might fill many a page, but we have only space for a small selection from them: There is no purely Eastern question; as soon as one is started, it will become the Western question; and as soon as a serious question is raised in the West it will become the revolutionary question: the question of social change, of territorial readjustment throughout Europe-the question of chaos' (i. 291). Of the Crimean war and its conclusion he foretold that the verdict of posterity would be, Guerre faite sans raison suffisante de part ni d'autre; paix faite sans raison suffisante de part ni d'autre' (i. 331). The longer I live the more I am convinced that to understand revolutions and revolutionists one must have lived in the midst of them. Seen from afar, they are rearranged and recast at will, to suit or confirm our preconceived ideas of history or art' (i. 343). Macaulay's History is a brilliant embroidery on strong material. Great qualities are so rare that when I find them I forget the faults' (i. 344). The great historian's opinion on any historical point is worth recording. 'I do not want,' he says, 'political or moral appreciations. What I should like would be a book in which all the events of any importance are related in chronological order. I particularly hold to knowing the correct dates. It is only on this condi tion that history can be materially known and morally understood' (ii. 155). It is impossible to reproduce within the limits of a review a tithe of the sparkling passages in the letters of Reeve's distinguished correspondents. The uncertainty which besets even contemporary history is well illustrated in Lord Brougham's forgetfulness of his own exact share in Lord Grey's administration, and his eccentricities appear in the copious and characteristic letters with which he favoured the Clerk of the Council. Lord Westbury, again, is seen in these pages, not only as a brilliant and fascinating correspondent, but as the most indulgent and domestic of fathers, delighting in his family circle and surrounded by a whole swarm of children and grandchildren. What glimpses, too, are given us of the intricate web which is woven in most political combinations; of the serious misgivings with which the most conspicuous actors on the world's stage are ofttimes constrained to play their parts; of the mutual distrust existing between members of the same Cabinet behind the mask of unanimity presented to the outer world; of the organized hypocrisy or the reasonable compromise (as the same transaction is viewed by friend or foe) with which men, nominally all of one party, adopt measures insisted on by their colleagues, but which in their hearts they abhor. With what scorn does Lord Westbury denounce the inclusion of Mr. Bright in the Cabinet of 1880! With what despair Lord Ebury refers to Mr. Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule and his alliance 'with Parnell and his ragged regiment. The Times is working most patriotically; but why in the world did it or he not find out earlier what the G.O.M. really was and is?' (ii. 343). We must do Reeve the justice to note that his political perspicacity early discerned Gladstone's dangerous tendencies, and, although he was no admirer of Lord Beaconsfield, Reeve expressed his unqualified disgust at the method in which the electoral campaign of 1880 was won. The late Lord Derby's estimate of Earl Russell is too good to be omitted: 'He was more thoroughly and essentially a partisan than anyone I have known, and sometimes open to the comment that he seemed to consider the universe as existing for the sake of the Whig party' (ii. 374). This recalls Mrs. Poyser's description of the cock who thought that the sun got up in the morning to hear him crow. Of deeper and more enduring interest is the store of material bearing upon important subjects of contemporary history which fills the copious communications of Reeve's foreign associates. We had marked many passages for condensation or quotation, but we are already at the end of our allotted space, and can only crave room for one extract of exceptional value at the moment when the character of Prince Bismarck is so widely discussed. The writer, M. de Circourt, although unknown to the outer world, was a man of very wide attainments and general culture, and one of Reeve's most intimate allies. The estimate is drawn up by no friendly hand, but it should be remembered that it was written twenty years ago, and it will be seen that it is singularly in accord with the latest appreciations. 'Prince Bismarck, I apprehend, has lived too long. He begins to feel the fickleness of fortune. He has never had any friends; he begins to be burdensome to his associates. I don't know whether he could have managed a Parliament elected after the actual method on the Continent. I am certain that he did not, and never was able to, uphold a consistent and honourable system whatever. He is no financier, no economist; and as he does always act upon the interests of the present hour, without regard to past engagements, he can have with him but those who superstitiously deem him a prophet, or those who choose to servir à tout prix. He is rude, suspicious, and vindictive. The only great minister with whom he can be compared, Richelieu, was at least frank and open towards friend and foe. Bismarck has never negotiated with any man, nor charged any man with an important measure, without becoming their ruin, or changed them into implacable enemies-Savigny, Usedom, Arnim, Gortschakoff. The good genius of his country has protected Moltke against his insidious praises and bitter censures. It is easy to prove that, during the late war, all the good advice given to the king came from Moltke; all hurried, or lame, or improvident, or perfidiously cruel measures came from the Chancellor. Why did he leave half of the forts round Paris in the power, not of our army, but of the armed rabble, to which he left the possession of fifteen hundred field-pieces and three hundred thousand guns, while he disarmed the regulars to the last man? To his calculations we owe the Commune; posterity will hold him responsible for that incalculable calamity, which it was at every hour in his power to avert or to crush instantly' (ii. 268-9). To the end of his long life Reeve continued to be an energetic worker, nor did his interest slacken in the world of politics. After Mr. Gladstone's submission to Home Rule he joined the Liberal Unionists, and in his eightieth year we find him lamenting the return of the Radicals in 1891 to office if not to power. Of course, as age crept on early friends kept dropping off, and the volume of his correspondence was greatly diminished; but it was not till the month of October 1895, when he was eighty-three, that he ceased to be literary adviser to the Longmans, and probably his last letter was dictated on the business of the Review. He literally died in harness. If his range of knowledge and sympathies were somewhat contracted, he knew thoroughly what he knew, and he was consistently faithful to the principles in which he believed. If he were one of fortune's favourites, and occasionally displayed some of the venial weaknesses of those whom that capricious goddess spoils, there must have been in him sterling qualities which attracted and retained so many precious friendships; and Mr. Lecky tells us he was quick and generous in recognizing rising eminence. On the same authority we learn that he looked forward to the end with a perfect and most characteristic calm, without fear and without regret. It was the placid close of a long, dignified, and useful life.' ART. VIII.-SACERDOTALISM. 1. Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life. By WILLIAM BRIGHT, D.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. (London, 1898.) 2. The Ministers of Jesus Christ. A Biblical Study. By the Rev. J. F. LEPINE. (London, 1898.) 3. The Claims of the Priesthood considered. By HENRY HARRIS, B.D. Second and Revised Edition. (London, 1898.) SACERDOTALISM is a favourite word in times of controversy about the Christian Ministry. It is comprehensively |