1639. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [28 May 1809]
1639. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [28 May 1809] *
My dear Wynn
You will think me almost as bad a correspondent as yourself. – but I have had sorrow after sorrow – not less than three serious bouts of illness in my family since last you heard from me. – & the last terminated fatally. It was but this <day> week that I lost my daughter Emma.
I have many projects to communicate when I am in better spirits, & you at better leisure than Parliament allows you. But I beseech you make leisure to read Wordsworth’s pamphlett [1] – then you will see upon what grounds it is that we found our sure & certain hope of the final deliverance of Spain. If any thing were wanting to convince me of the baleful effects of party spirit it would be sufficient to see that no member of opposition ever utters one generous sentiment in favour of the Spaniards.
God bless you
RS
Sunday night.
Notes
* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M P./ London
Stamped:
KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: FREE/1 JUN 1/1809
MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4812D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: from
internal evidence of Emma Southey’s death (21 May 1809). BACK
[1] At the Convention of Cintra (signed 30 August 1808), British generals allowed a defeated French army to evacuate Portugal. On 27 December 1808 and 13 January 1809 Wordsworth published, in The Courier, an article condemning the Convention. In May 1809 Longmans published the article as a pamphlet: Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to Each Other, and to the Common Enemy, at this Crisis; and Specifically as Affected by the Convention of Cintra. BACK
