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

by John Knox Laughton.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY REEVE

CHAPTER XIII

THE WAR IN ITALY

How far the murderous attempt of Orsini, on January 14th, 1858, was connected with the political relations of France and Italy it is as yet impossible to say. It was, and still is, very commonly believed that in his youth Louis Napoleon had been affiliated to one or other of the secret societies of Italy, that he was still pledged to this, was bound to obey its orders, and that Orsini was an agent to remind him that the attainment of high rank, far from releasing him from the bond, rendered it more stringent, as giving him greater power and facility for carrying out the orders he received. The independence of Italy was aimed at; and it had been intimated to the Emperor that Orsini's was only the first of similar messages which, if action was not taken, would be followed by a second, with greater care to ensure its delivery.

All this may or may not have been mere gossip. What is certain is that, during the latter months of 1858, secret negotiations had been going on between the Emperor and Victor Emanuel, the King of Sardinia, or rather his minister, Cavour; and that an agreement had been come to that Austria was to be attacked and driven out of Italy. Accordingly, on January 1st, 1859, at his New Year's reception of the foreign ministers, Louis Napoleon took the opportunity of addressing some remarks to the Austrian Amba.s.sador which, to France and to all Europe, appeared threatening.

Similarly, at Turin, it was allowed to appear that war was intended; and on both sides preparations were hurried on. In France, as in Austria, these were on a very extensive scale. A large fleet of transports was collected at Ma.r.s.eilles; troops were ma.s.sed on the frontier of Savoy; and, on the part of the Austrians, 200,000 men were a.s.sembled in readiness for action.

On April 23rd Francis Joseph, without--it was said--the knowledge of his responsible ministers, sent an ultimatum to Turin, requiring an answer within three days: at the expiration of that time the Austrians would cross the frontier. The allies utilised the delay to complete their preparations; and before the three days had ended the advance of the Franco-Sardinian army had begun.

The campaign proved disastrous to the Austrians, whose half-drilled and badly-fed troops and obsolete artillery were commanded by an utterly incompetent general. They were defeated at Palestro on May 31st; at Magenta on June 4th; and again at Solferino on June 24th. Nothing, it appeared to the Italians and the lookers-on, could prevent the successful and decisive issue; the Austrians would be compelled to quit Italy. Suddenly Louis Napoleon announced that he had come to an agreement with the Emperor of Austria and that peace was agreed on. The disappointment and rage of the Italians were very great; but, as Louis Napoleon was resolved, and as Victor Emanuel could not continue the war without his a.s.sistance, he was obliged to consent, and peace was concluded at Villafranca on July 11th.

For the next eighteen months much of the correspondence refers to the inception and result of this short war, mixed, of course, with more personal matters, and at the beginning, with news as to the state of Tocqueville's health, which was giving his friends the liveliest anxiety.

The Journal for the year opens with:--

_January 6th_.--We went to Bowood. It was the first time Christine went there. The party consisted of the Flahaults, Cheneys, Strzelecki, the Clarendons, Twisletons,[Footnote: The Hon. Edward Twisleton, chief commissioner of the poor laws in Ireland. He married, in 1852, Ellen, daughter of the Hon. Edward Dwight, of Ma.s.sachusetts, U.S.A.; and died, at the age of sixty-five, in 1874.] and Leslies. What agreeable people! For a wonder we shot there on the 10th, and killed 140 head.

_January 12th_.--We had a dinner at home--Trevelyan, just appointed governor of Madras, Phinn, Baron Martin, Huddleston, W. Harcourt, Merivale, and Henry Brougham.

_From Lord Brougham_

_Cannes, January 3rd_.--I grieve to say Tocqueville has been worse. His doctor dined here t'other day and T.'s brother came for him at ten o'clock.

I have as bad an opinion of the case as possible.

_Cannes, January 9th_. The Italian affair is very naturally cause of anxiety, but I feel a.s.sured this, for the present, will pa.s.s away. I find there is a strong feeling getting up of the Austrian army being as good as the finances are bad, but the French finances are not likely to be very much better. However, though the present alarm will pa.s.s away, what a sad thing for the peace of the world to depend, not on the general opinion and feeling, but on the caprice, or the jobbing, or the blunders of a few individuals! Who can be quite sure that Morny's stockjobbing has had nothing to do with the late most silly conversation? [Footnote: Presumably, the sinister remark addressed to the Austrian Amba.s.sador on New Year's Day.] L. N. himself is quite clear of all such blame. He tries all he can to prevent M. and others from their pillaging, but he never can succeed.

However, it is to the risk of more blunders that I look as placing peace in greatest jeopardy. I don't believe L. N. or any one of them would, _if they knew it_, run the risk of a general war (and the least war means a general war); but they may any day get into a sc.r.a.pe without intending it, for they have not the security of free discussion to warn them.

_From Lord Hatherton_

_Teddesley, January 12th_.--Do me the kindness to write me one line to tell me what you know of the state of M. de Tocqueville. Is it dangerous? There is no man out of this kingdom who possesses so much of my admiration and regard.

This general lull after the late Reform agitation is very natural. There are four parties waiting each other's moves; three, at least, exclusive of Bright's, which is the least. There are the present Government, the late Government, and the country--which, as I read it, has little in common with any of them, but is at present without a leader. Any very powerful man, who had been living by, would now have had a great field before him.

I attended the day before yesterday a very remarkable meeting of the Birmingham and Midland Inst.i.tute at Birmingham. Lord Ward [Footnote: Created Earl of Dudley in 1860.] in the chair. The report, and all the officials and speakers, especially those from the town, complained of the indifference of the artisans, mechanics, and labourers of that town to instruction and education generally. It seems, on the showing of Bright's friends, that these fellows, the noisiest of their cla.s.s about Reform, are the most ignorant and the least desirous of improving themselves. Such is the report of Bright's own friends. Mr. Ryland, the vice-president and real manager of the inst.i.tution, who is also Bright's friend there, is the loudest in his complaints of this body. Ryland further told me that he believed there was not a workman in the town who, if consulted individually, would express his approval of all Bright's principles. Mr.

Ryland is a solicitor.

I am all anxiety to see your January number.

_To the Marquis of Lansdowne_

62 Rutland Gate, January 25th.

My dear Lord Lansdowne,--I have omitted, but not from forgetfulness, to express to you the very high gratification Mrs. Reeve and myself derived from your most kind reception of us at Bowood, and I am sure we shall always retain the liveliest recollection of this most agreeable visit. But, in truth, I waited till something should occur which might have the good fortune to 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'a 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 volonte de les faire.

Je suis porte a croire que l'Empereur Napoleon serait charme de ne plus entendre parler de l'Italie; mais pour cela il faudrait qu'il n'y eut plus d'a.s.sa.s.sins italiens, plus de Roi de Sardaigne, plus de cousins a marier, plus de brouillons revolutionnaires a contenter. Aujourd'hui, et malgre toutes les paroles contraires, il me parait probable que ces causes de guerre prevaudront sur la moderation naturelle, sur le gout du repos voluptueux, sur l'avis des conseillers officiels, et sur le sentiment evident du public. Que fera l'Allemagne? Le tiendra-t-elle unie? La est la question. L'Angleterre y peut certainement beaucoup. Je ne vois plus que la 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 _idee 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 b.e.l.l.e.n.den 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 to law reform now. It is barely possible they may take it up hereafter. But surely the natural place for this statement is the 'Edinburgh Review,' and I should feel great comfort for the good cause if I thought you would thus help us. The matter in Sir E.'s book renders it very easy to show what has been done of late years.

Poor Tocqueville is one day a little better, another a little worse; but I have little or no hope of his getting through it.

Shortly after this Lord Brougham made a flying visit to London. A note in the Journal is:--

_February 26th_.--I dined at Lord Brougham's, and met Dr. Lushington, Lord Glenelg, Lord Broughton; all--with our host--over 80.

But the state of Tocqueville's health continued, for Reeve, the most engrossing personal consideration, and just at this time the deadly malady took a favourable though delusive turn. Tocqueville--says M. de Beaumont [Footnote: Gustave de Beaumont: _Oeuvres et Correspondance inedites d'Alexis de Tocqueville_ (1861), tome i. p. 116.]--hoped for the best.

'How could he do otherwise when all around him was bursting into life? and so he kept on his regular habits, his schemes, his work. He read, and was read to; he wrote a great many letters, and devoured those which he received in great numbers. There was not one of his friends who did not receive at least one letter from him during the last month of his life.'

The following is his last letter to Reeve. The writing is painfully bad, the letters often half formed, or crowded one on top of another; even the orthography is imperfect; but the words and ideas flow in full volume.

Cannes. le 25 fevrier.

Cher Reeve,--Il y a un siecle que je ne vous ai ecrit. Je n'etais pas libre de le faire. Le mois de janvier tout entier s'est pa.s.se au milieu de la crise la plus douloureuse. Je ne crois pas qu'il y ait aucun mois de ma vie qui merite mieux que celui-la d'etre marque d'une croix noire dans l'histoire de mon existence privee. Jetons dans l'oubli, s'il est possible, des jours et surtout des nuits si cruels, et bornons-nous a demander a Dieu de n'envoyer rien de semblable desormais, soit a moi, soit a mes amis.

Depuis trois semaines j'occupe fevrier a reparer les mefaits de janvier. Je vais aussi bien que possible: mes forces sont en grande partie revenues.

Les bronches semblent en voie de guerison rapide. Ainsi n'en parlons plus.

I have just been reading an excellent article on the Catacombs, in the 'Edinburgh Review.' It is a subject which has always interested me, but very likely I should not have begun with this particular article if I had not known it was by you. Circourt wrote to me about it, and so deprived me of the pleasure of finding it out for myself, which I think I could have done. But, in any case, the article is exceedingly interesting ... Though I have been enjoying myself in following you underground, what is now going on on the earth's surface calls for close attention. I am here hard by one of the old military roads which have led into Italy from time immemorial, as at this day. I hear that great preparations are being made all along the valley of the Rhone and the neighbouring country. What I am sure of, because it is taking place under my very eyes, is, that the railway from Ma.r.s.eilles to Toulon is being pushed forward at an unheard of rate. It is the only link wanting to complete the chain of communication between Brest, Cherbourg, Paris, and Toulon. There was no expectation of this railway being finished before the middle of summer; but now it is understood that it will be ready within a few days--an instance of doing the impossible.

Such efforts presuppose some great object which it is desired to accomplish at once.

I am told, perhaps incorrectly, that Prussia has decided to remain neutral--at first, at any rate; and, by the same authority, that Russia will be neutral, but in a spirit friendly to France. This would be very serious; for Russia gives nothing for nothing. If it is so, the Emperor's project would appear less silly. It would explain how an ambitious prince, whose throne is tottering, who is bound to excite the admiration of France and to gratify the national vanity, [Footnote: Fleury, one of the most faithful and attached of the Emperor's followers wrote in words almost identical (_Souvenirs_, tom. i. p. 330): 'C'etait par une serie de faits grandioses par des spectacles flattant l'orgueil et les instincts du pays, que Napoleon III allait, pendant de longues annees, non seulement occuper, rejouir la France, mais encore fixer l'attention, l'etonnement et bien souvent l'admiration du monde.'] who is stopped by no scruples, might find it an excellent opportunity for bringing on a personal war--if I may say so; for driving the Germans across the Alps and naming himself the Dictator of Italy. It is true that no great material advantage can result from it; but L. N. is sufficiently well acquainted with France to know that the glitter of such a course would probably content her. All this would be easy to understand if Maria Theresa reigned at Vienna, Frederic at Berlin, and Mme. de Pompadour at Versailles; in a word, if we were in the eighteenth instead of the nineteenth century. But being, as we are, in the nineteenth century, the designs which are ascribed to the Emperor are to be condemned as in the highest degree treasonable to humanity and to France. Kings can no longer claim to be guided only by their personal interests and pa.s.sions; and now--when it is agreed that England cannot remain neutral in a war between France and a great Continental Power; when it is admitted that a Continental war, however short, would surely awaken the hatred of all princes and all neighbouring people, and would end in a coalition against France--now, I say, to plunge into such an adventure would be not only the most silly, but the most wicked thing which a Frenchman could do.

La longueur un peu desordonnee de cette lettre, mon cher ami, vous prouvera mieux que tout ce que je pourrais dire les progres de ma sante. Je vais ecrire a Mme Grote. Rappelez-nous, je vous prie, tout particulierement au souvenir de Lady Theresa et de Sir C. Lewis. J'espere que Lord Hatherton ne m'a pas...o...b..ie. Mille et mille amities a tous les Senior. Je n'ai pas besoin d'en dire autant pour Mme et Mile Reeve. Tout a vous de coeur, A. T.

Reeve replied immediately:--