813. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 28 July [1803]

813. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 28 July [1803] ⁠* 

July 28.

I believe George the Second is grown somewhat xxx more helpable than he was. he wants employment & bread & thinks, not unreasonably, that a Surgeons mates birth in army or navy, is the most feasible thing he can look out for. A months attendance in our infirmary, he says, will show him as much of the practice as he wants, having seen a good deal in Edinburgh. Now what I plague you for is to ask you to ask how these things are xxxxxx get-at-able. in the navy I should judge, they require only application to the Board, [1]  without interest, for they have always a want of surgeons. in the army Carlisle can tell you how they are to be got – for he pushed Allen on, & when one knows what interest can do in such a case then the Second George may try Lord Stanhope [2]  if it be needful.

poor Devil – if he should one day cut off a leg above the tourniquet by mistake – God forgive me if he should – but what can be done – for he will neither drown himself nor turn Methodist parson.

RS.


Notes

* Endorsements: July 28; 1803
MS: Huntington Library, RS 39. ALS; 1p.
Published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 321-322. BACK

[1] The Sick and Hurt Board, a subsidiary of the Navy Board, was responsible for Royal Navy medical services, 1715-1806. BACK

[2] Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816; DNB), radical and scientist. Burnett had briefly been tutor to his two younger sons in 1802. BACK

People mentioned

Burnett, George (c. 1776–1811) (mentioned 2 times)
Carlisle, Anthony (1768–1840) (mentioned 1 time)
Allen, Robert (1772–1805) (mentioned 1 time)