January 3rd, 1871.--We had a small dinner to Sir William Mansfield and Lord Elcho. On the 5th to Aldermaston (Higford Burr), with Bruce, [Footnote: Afterwards Lord Aberdare.] Colvile, [Frank Buckland], &c. Professor Sybel was not one of Reeve's frequent correspondents, and the following extract is from the only letter of his which has been preserved, probably the only one ever written. The primary cause of it was some trifling business connected with the exchange of publications--the 'Edinburgh Review' and Sybel's 'Historische Zeitschrift;' but, having settled that, the course of events tempted him, as a German and an historian, to continue. _From Professor von Sybel_ Bonn, January 9th. Hochgeehrter Herr,--... What a change in our circumstances since I had last the pleasure of seeing you! To us, Germans, it would often appear as a dream, did not our sacrifices and our efforts bring the reality vividly before us. The desire for a speedy conclusion of the war is general; but, I am proud to say, no less general is the determination to fight and to bleed till we have brought it to a satisfactory issue. We are resolved not to be attacked again as we were in July, and on that account we will move our frontier to the Vosges. We will fight until the French acknowledge us as having rights and position equal to their own, till the organs of their Government cease from their New Year animadversion, such as the 'Siecle' has published, and we will crush everyone who calls in question our place as one of the Great Powers of Europe; and in thus rooting out this boast of supremacy, we believe we are earning the gratitude of all Europe. Hochachtungsvoll und ergebenst H. v. SYBEL. _From M. Guizot_ _Val Richer, January 16th._--I received the 'Edinburgh Review' yesterday, and read your article at once. It is excellent--the language of a profound observer, and of a true friend of France. There are pages I should like all my countrymen at all able to understand them to learn by heart, among others from these words (p. 22): 'The life of man is so short,' to these: 'the collective strength of a nation may be sensibly diminished by it.' You have here laid your finger on the great evil of our democracy: 'It readily sacrifices the past and the future to what is supposed to be the interest of the present.' If I were in Paris, I should like to have a translation of nearly the whole article [Footnote: 'France,' in the _Review_ for January 1871. The article was republished in _Royal and Revolutionary France_, with the title 'France in 1871.'] published in our newspapers. But I am not there; the Prussian shells go in my stead.