February 4th.—Sir Henry Maine died at Cannes. A great loss.
March 5th.—The railroad from Brockenhurst to Christchurch opened. Went down to the ceremony. Came back at 7 and dined with Millais to meet the Lord Chancellor. Mrs. Procter died.
9th—Emperor William of Germany died. Various dinners.
April 10th.—Gladstone dined at The Club. Froude, Smith, Hewett, and Hooker there.
27th—Left London for Basle with Christine at 11 A.M. and arrived there, and thence, at Lucerne, on the 28th at 9 A.M. Capital journey.
From Lucerne they went on to Milan and Bologna and to Florence, which they reached on May 3rd, which they made their headquarters for the next three weeks, seeing all that was interesting in the city and the neighbourhood, and visiting Siena, Chiusi, Perugia, and Assisi. Then to Spezia, Turin, Geneva, and to Paris on the 24th.
Meantime Reeve, having been proposed by St.-Hilaire, supported by the Duc d'Aumale, Jules Simon, and Duruy, as a foreign member of the Institut de France, in succession to Sir Henry Maine, had been elected by a large majority on May 8th. He seems to have received the first news of this from the Duc d'Aumale, who wrote from Palermo on May 10th:—
Mon ancien maître, confrère et ami, Duruy, m'ecrit que vous venez d'etre nommé associé étranger de son Académie par vingt-sept voix. C'est un beau succès dont je veux tout de suite me réjouir avec vous, en attendant que je puisse le faire de vive voix. Je compte être le 20 de ce mois à Bruxelles, et dîner avec le Club quelque jour du mois de juin.
The election had to be approved by the President of the Republic, and the
result was not officially communicated till the 19th. It would seem that
Reeve did not receive it till his arrival in Paris, and on the next day,
May 25th, St.-Hilaire wrote:—
Demain je vous accompagnerai pour votre entrée à l'Académie. Vous verrez que le cérémonial est des plus simples. Je vous présenterai spécialement à M. Franck, qui, sur ma demande, a été votre rapporteur, et qui a parlé de vous en termes excellents.