We have a great difference of opinion in the members of the Digest Commission. Many think that the work should be handed over to two or three very able men (not judges or Emeriti Chancellors), who should be well paid; and that to them, with a staff of subordinates, all the work should be committed. Others think that there should be added to this establishment some presiding power, consisting of one, two, or three distinguished judges, to whom all questions should be referred, and whose duty it should be to give an imprimatur to the work. So we cannot agree on a recommendation to the Government; and when we shall do so, but little weight will attach to it.
The Journal here notes:—
May 6th.—Mansfield came back from India.
At the time of the Russian war, Reeve and Mansfield had been on terms of intimacy, and, in fact, it was largely through Reeve's interest with Lord Clarendon that Mansfield had been sent to Constantinople in 1855, as military adviser to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. Since then the intimacy had been interrupted by Mansfield's absence in India, where he had served with distinction during the Mutiny, and afterwards in command of the Bombay army and as commander-in-chief since 1865. In the following year he was raised to the peerage as Lord Sandhurst. The Journal notes:—
May 26th.—The King of Portugal made me a Commander of the Order of
Christ; but this was solely as chairman of the Lusitanian Mining Company.
The Duc d'Aumale, Mansfield, Lord Dunsany, Lord Northbrook, Stirling
Maxwell, Lady Molesworth dined with us.
From the Marquis of Salisbury
40 Dover Street, June 1st.
Dear Mr. Reeve,—It is my pleasing duty to inform you that the University of Oxford wish to express their sense of your literary services and attainments by conferring on you an honorary degree at the approaching commemoration. I trust that it will not be disagreeable to you to accede to their wishes in this matter, and that you will be able without inconvenience to attend at Oxford to receive the degree. The day on which they will be conferred will be on Tuesday, the 21st inst.
Believe me, yours very truly,