It is scarcely necessary to refer to Mr. Reeve, one
of the most prominent men of letters of my time, but
gratitude obliges me to say a word of one who, I hope,
reckons me among his friends. Mr. Reeve is perhaps
the best French scholar in England. He has admir-
ably translated De Tocqueville's works, not to speak
of some excellent books he has written. He has
given the Greville Memoirs to the world, and he is



202 MEMOKIES AND THOUGHTS OF A LIFE

a critic of remarkable skill and judgment. He suc-
ceeded Sir George Lewis, I think, in the editorial
chair, and, as every one knows, the Review has had,
during the long period of his relations with it, con-
tributors of the very highest order in the double pro-
vince of Letters and Science. If I may he allowed to
express an opinion, I would say that if it has had in his
time no Macaulay, a bright particular star, it has been
celebrated for the equable merit of the great majority
of the articles it has contained. It is conspicuous,
too, for the high breeding of manner and style that
appears in its pages — a characteristic perhaps in
some measure due to Mr. Reeve's position in London
society.
I have written some forty essays in the Edinburgh
Review, on subjects within a wide range — historical,
legal, social, political. My contributions at first were
not frequent, for an editor naturally feels his way ; of
late years they have been much more numerous. Mr.
