January 19th.—As an Englishman and a sailor, I feel it to be a duty again to congratulate you on the article 'Naval Supremacy,' &c., in the new number of the 'Edinburgh Review.' That article and the one concerning which I previously addressed you can hardly fail to do good. The Maurician school and its 'two Army-corps and a cavalry division,' which were to be launched at the Caucasus, must have received a severe check from the earlier article. The disaster-breeding facts of the fort-builders can hardly survive many more such assaults as that so sharply driven home in 'Naval Supremacy.' The opinions of the writer of the latter, I venture to think, foreshadow those of the Navy on the subject of huge ships and huge guns. I hold it to be highly beneficial to the country that the editor of the 'Edinburgh Review' should have so keen an appreciation and, for a civilian, so rare a knowledge of naval affairs.
From Lord Derby
April 3rd—What a new Europe is beginning! Bismarck dismissed; Emperors holding Socialist conferences; more attempts to murder the Tsar; strikes all over the world; Germans going to Prussianise Central Africa! No want of novelty in our time and amusing enough, if one is far enough off.
From the Duc d'Aumale
Chantilly, 14 juin.—Où diable avais-je la tête, mon cher ami? (ne montrez pas ce préambule à nos amis puritains.) Je croyais bien vous avoir écrit que je comptais passer la mer vers le 22, dîner avec le Club le 24, embrasser mes neveux et nièces de toutes générations, voir quelques amis, et rentrer ici vers la fin de la semaine. Je persiste dans ce projet, weather permitting; c'est-à-dire sauf le cas de tempête que l'on est bien forcé de prévoir avec une pareille saison. A bientôt donc, s'il plaît à Dieu. Je finis mieux que je ne commence, et je vous serre la main.
H. D'O.
From the Duc d'Aumale
Chantilly, 26 juillet.—J'essaye de chasser par le travail les préoccupations qui m'obsèdent. Je n'y réussis pas toujours. Est-ce l'effet de l'âge? mais je suis de plus en plus anxieux sur l'avenir de mon pays et même de l'Europe. Nous sommes dans le faux depuis 1848, et il est sorti de la guerre de '70 un état de choses bien périlleux.
Au revoir et mille amitiés.
The diary and the correspondence for the rest of the year are singularly barren of interest. A troublesome attack of sciatica in the end of July led to Reeve's being advised to try Harrogate, whither he accordingly went in the beginning of August. He found the place—possibly also the water—disagreeable, and after a week's stay he went on to Bolton Abbey, to Minto, and to Chesters. By the end of the month he was back at Foxholes, where he remained throughout September. Early in October he went for a ten days' visit to Knowsley, where he met Froude and the Duc d'Aumale, with whom he returned to London. Then to Foxholes for a month, coming up to town in the middle of November, and—with the exception of a week at Easter—staying there till May 1891.