_Hinton St. George, November 25th._--Mrs. Reeve, when I had the pleasure of seeing her at Hinton, gave me an assurance that I should not be troubled this year with any request to attend the Privy Council. Your letter, therefore, is an act of _gross domestic insubordination_--a kind of petty treason. Formerly it was the act of the husband that bound the wife; _mais nous avons change tout cela_; the act of the wife binds the husband. I appeal unto Caesar. It is very easy for Lord Chelmsford and yourself, who have your town houses in order, your servants, horses, carriages, and whole establishments, not omitting the _placens uxor_, to talk of the 'patriotic duty' of attending the Privy Council--having nothing else to do, and wanting amusement; but my house is thoroughly dismantled, having been under repair; I have not a room to sit down in with comfort, nor servants to attend to me, nor a cook to cook my dinner, nor any of those _solatia_ or _solamina_ which you have in profusion. Yet you, with great unconcern, desire me to quit my family, and all my amusements and enjoyments, that I may come to town to endure complete wretchedness, and have a bad dinner and an indigestion everyday, _ut plebi placeam et declamatio fiam_. If you think this reasonable and right, I am sure you have left all sense of reasonableness in Lusitania. Besides, have you not a plethora of judicial wealth and power? Have you not the Lord Justice, who has little else to do; and the Admiralty Judge; and that great Adminiculum, the learned and pious man whom, _honoris causa_, I call Holy Joe? [Footnote: Probably sir Joseph Napier, nominated to a place on the Judicial Committee by Disraeli in March 1868.] But to speak more gravely. Had I had the least conception that I should have been wanted--that is, _really_ wanted--I would have made other arrangements than I have done.... We shall now have a house full of people until December 20th, and I cannot, without much offence, relieve myself from these deferred engagements. A little while ago I was thrown out of my shooting-cart; I injured my arm, which has brought on rheumatism, and I am not in a condition to come up to a solitary and dismantled house in London without anything requisite for the comfort of an old man. On January 20th, until the beginning of appeals in the Lords, I will, if you need it, sit and dispose of all the colonial and admiralty appeals. When will you come down and shoot? _To Lord Derby_ 62 Rutland Gate, December 19th.