2358.1. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [c. December 1813/ January 1814]
2358.1. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [c. December 1813/ January 1814] *
My dear Wynn
I inclose a few lines to Edward telling him how things stand & gently reproving him for his insincerity, rather for the purpose of showing him that he does not impose upon me, than for any thing else. About his marriage or non-marriage I have said nothing. He will leave the girl as he found her. There is no fear of his marrying her, – it would be a symptom of grace which I am by no means prepared to expect from him. [1]
The subscription to Roberts’s poems was 10/6d, & may be paid at Longmans. [2] I do not recollect what number of names you sent me, nor do I recognize any in the list of subscribers as likely to have come from that quarter.
Amadis is omitted in the list of publications as being out of print & not likely to be reprinted. [3]
I fear a peace as much as you do, – but incline to think that Buonpaparte will fall, if the Bourbons show themselves. Peace with him, on any terms, would do more injury to morals & upon national feelings than xxx the whole course of the French Revolution has yet produced. Remember his lies & his murders, & his conduct toward Holland – Portugal – Spain – indeed toward all nations. [4] France will speak of all these things as she speaks of the September massacres, the noyades &c when he is destroyed: [5] – but as long as he reigns the same system of falsehood will be continued, x all his measures will still be represented to the people as just & xxxxx politic & the indignation of the people will be directed against the nations who have thrown off the yoke, — instead of against the Tyrant who imposed it.
God bless you
RS.
Notes
* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqre M.P./ Wynnstay/
Wrexham
MS: National Library of Wales, MS 48123D
Unpublished.
Dating note: dated from content, Southey’s dealings
with his brother Edward. BACK
[1] Edward Southey had claimed to have married a Miss Lack (dates unknown); see Southey to John Rickman, [2 November 1813], Letter 2322. In fact no marriage had taken place. BACK
[2] Poems and Letters of William Isaac Roberts (1811), edited by Paul Moon James and Edward Hogg. Southey had solicited subscribers; see Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 4 April 1810, Letter 1768. BACK
[4] Bonaparte had put an end to France’s ally, the Batavian Republic, in 1806 and installed his brother, Louis (1778–1846), as King of Holland. In 1810 he deposed Louis and Holland was absorbed into France. Bonaparte was also responsible for ordering the French invasion of Portugal in 1807 and Spain in 1808. BACK
[5] The ‘September massacres’ occurred during 2–7 September 1792. A mob stormed the Parisian prisons and summary trials led to the execution of over 1,400 prisoners. The ‘noyades’ were mass drownings of perceived counter-revolutionaries at Nantes in November 1793–February 1794. Possibly as many as 4,000 people were executed in this manner. BACK
