2096. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 18 May 1812 ⁠* 

Monday. May 18. 1812.

My dear Rickman

The fate of poor Perceval has made me quite unhappy ever since I heard of it, not merely from the shock & the private misery which it is impossible to put out of mind, but from the whole train of evils to which this is but the beginning. [1]  I would fain have believed the report that Mr Abbott  [2]  was to take his place in the H. of Commons, – because if he could have found tongue, I knew where whatever <else> might have been wanting was to be found. But it was not likely that he should quit a better situation for one of so much anxiety & labour.

Wellesley & Canning I doubt not ratted upon the Cath. question because they expected the Prince upon that ground would eject Perceval & then they should have a better chance than the Early Friends. If they come in, as I fear they will, we may have the war carried on, but we shall have Catholick concessions, – after which the Church property is not worth seven years purchase. They will sell the tythes, – the next step will be to put up the Establishment xxx situation <to sale> in the way of contracts, the minds of the people (which God knows need no farther poison,) will then be totally unsettled, – & the ship will part from her last cable, on a lee shore xx in the height of the storm. [3] 

At this moment the Army is the single plank between us & destruction, & no I believe the only thing doubtful is whether we shall a military despotism before we go thro the horrors of a Bellum servile, [4]  – or after it. This I am certain of, that nothing but an immediate suspension of the liberty of debate & the liberty of the press can preserve us. Were I minister I would instantly suspend the Habeas Corpus, [5]  & have x every Jacobine Journalist confined, so that it should not be possible for them to continue their treasonable vocation. There they should stay till it would be safe to let them out, which it might be in some seven years. I would clear the Gallery whenever one of the agitators rose to speak: & if the speech were printed I would teach him his p that his privilege of attempting to excite rebellion did not extend beyond the walls of Parliament; – that he might talk treason to those walls as long as he pleased, – but that if he printed it <treason>, he was then amenable to the vengeance of his country.

I did not forget the main question about reading. – One month suffices for a xxxx xxxxxx dozen or a score pair of ears in the p tap rooms & pot houses, where Cobbett & Hunt [6]  are read as the Evangelists of the populace. There is no way of securing the people against this sort of poison but by the old receipt of Mithridates, [7]  – dieting them from their childhood with antidotes, & making them as ready to die for their church & state as the Spaniards. We are beginning to attempt this when it is xxx too late. A judicial xx fatuity seems to have fallen been sent among us, – we have one set of op Romanists, Sectarians of every kind <description>, your Liberality-men, & your Philosophers of every kind, & of every degree of folly & emptiness, are united for the blessed purpose of plucking up old principles by the roots, – each with <for> their own separate ends, but all sure of meeting with the same end if they are successful. We who see this xx danger have no power to prevent it, & they who have the power cannot be made to see it. – I think sometimes that it is not without good reason that I take so especial an interest in the affairs of Spain, – that country may be free when I shall no longer be able to live in this open to me & my children when we shall no longer be able to live in this.

This is a melancholy strain. We must however work the ship till she sinks, & a vigorous minister xx might take advantage of the feelings of the sound part of the country at this moment, & the avowal which the Burdettites have made – for strong measures of prevention & vengeance. The greatest immediate danger it is from the army, – if the Burdettites had not xxxx luckily xxxx so often insulted & abused them, that damnable business of flogging would at this moment turn the scale. [8]  I am desirous that means should be taken of winning their attachment, – the best way of securing their obedience, – by the institution of honorary rewards; & increase of pay with length of service, & certain provision after a certain number of years. By such measures they might be xxxx secured, – I would give the poor gratuitous education in parochial schools, – a boon which all among them who care for their children, would rightly estimate, – & if the work of coercion kept pace with that of conciliation we might hold on till our battle in Spain f ended in the ruin of overthrow of the enemy. But alas where is the Dictator who has cour is to save the Commonwealth?

Perceval had a character which was worth as much as his talents. The only statesman who has this advantage in any approaching degree is Ld Sidmouth, [9]  but he wants those abilities which in P. seemd always to grow according to the measure of the occasion. Yet he would be the best head of a ministry for the weight which his good intentions would give him. Vansittart would do for Ch. of Exc. [10]  If there were any other efficient minister in the Commons. There is Sir J. Mackintosh [11]  to be <upon sale,> but whose <would be> tongue & talents <brain xxxxxx> may be worth taking xxxx xxxxxx the drawback of xxxx all the rest – the carcase is in bad odour, but the tongue & the brains might be worth a high price.

I am going to write upon the French Revolution for the Q. R. [12]  a well-timed subject, – the evil is that it is writing to those readers only who are in the main of the same way of thinking. Our contemporaries read not for <in> xxxxx <hope> of being instructed, but to have their own opinions flattered. – xxx if you cannot <you> persuade some body to run the risque of being murdered for closing the gallery when Burdett speaks? Your county member Fuller would be an exceedingly proper subject, – xxxxxx he does not want courage, & has a sort of mob credit <with the mob> x for his fluent honesty! [13]  If they should murder him you know the gallery would of course be closed for ever more, & he would become the Decius of our Parliament history. [14] 

I want to furnish your Lobby with a statue of Perceval, & have sent Bedford to Herries in hope that it may be attempted. [15] 

I am in great odour at Cadiz. The (Zaragozan) Countess of Bureta [16]  has written me a letter. – Thank the Capitaneus for me. I have not heart at this time to reply to him about his klinkers [17]  & vowels & bowels as I should wish.

RS.