From the Comte de Paris
York House, July 26th.—I had already seen the remarkable article which you have just published in the 'Edinburgh Review,' when I received the copy you so kindly thought of sending me, and which I shall keep as a souvenir of the author. I hasten to thank you, and to tell you with what interest I have read this study, so full of curious facts and remarkable appreciations. If I was called on to decide the question in its entirety, I should decline, in the first place as a Catholic. Indeed I cannot place myself at the Protestant point of view so as to judge what services the union of Church and State has rendered to the religious principles which are the basis of the Protestant faith. And the lay system of the official Church of England is so foreign to our ideas of religious authority that it is difficult for us to be impartial towards it. Those who do not belong to the Anglican Church are naturally tempted to attribute to this subjection everything in her which, in their eyes, is error or change. I should also decline as a Frenchman, for I confess that what troubles me most at the present time is the relation between the Catholic Church and the State, a relation which has been equally prejudicial to both, when founded on a political union.
But without trying to judge such a delicate question, which will be a subject of controversy as long as the world is given up to the disputes of man, I have found a real pleasure in seeing this clear explanation of the principles which form the basis of a system whose adherents are so many and so distinguished….
From Lord Clarendon
The Grove, August 2nd.—Lord Russell does not much like some parts of the article on the Irish Church, and wishes to write five or six pages on the subject for the November [Footnote: Sic for October.] number; but not feeling sure whether you would accept them, he has asked me to inquire—which I hereby do. If you have not set out for Russia, [Footnote: Sc. or other out-of-the-way place. It has been seen that, at the time, Reeve was at Royal.] perhaps you will write him a line yourself, as I start for Wiesbaden on Tuesday.
As no note from Lord Russell appeared in the October number, it would seem probable that Reeve did not encourage the idea. His own relations to Lord Russell were not such as to prompt him to any undue complacence, and he was at all times extremely averse from anything like a controversy either in or about the 'Review.' It has happened to the present writer to have statements or opinions put forward in his contributions to the 'Review' called in question in the daily or weekly papers, and to have been pointedly requested by the editor to take no notice of the hostile letters or criticisms. As the articles were strictly anonymous, the responsibility, of course, rested with the editor, who, probably for that very reason, was strongly opposed to an early revelation of a writer's personality.
The Journal notes visits to Farnborough and Denbigh, and some shooting at Torry Hill; but the gout was still troublesome, and in October Reeve and his wife went into Cornwall, where, after a week's visit to Lady Molesworth at Pencarrow, they went to Penzance, to the Land's End and the Logan Stone—on to which Mrs. Reeve clambered—and thence to Falmouth and Torquay, where they met the Queen of Holland and Prince Napoleon, with whom they spent two evenings. 'Her Majesty,' wrote Mrs. Reeve on November 4th, 'is a clever, original woman, speaking four tongues perfectly well, conversant with literature and politics, and finding in them consolation for an uncongenial family.' The sittings of the Judicial Committee, which began on November 10th, called Reeve back to town, where, on the 27th, he had the sad news of the death of his old friend Colonel Ferguson of Raith, and, for the last three years, of Novar.
From Lord Clarendon
Grosvenor Crescent, November 13th.
My dear Reeve,—The Queen of Holland has proposed to dine here in the unfurnished cupboard where we have our frugal repasts, on Monday next at eight. We have no servants, plate, or usual appurtenances, and only six can be crammed into the locale. Will you be one of them? and will Mrs. Reeve excuse us for asking you alone on account of our no room? Please let me have an answer as soon as you can.