3818. Robert Southey to [William Wilberforce], 3 April 1822

Endorsement: Pre Southey kind ab^t my dearest b. & ab^t duelling/ apl 1822
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick 3 April. 1822.

My dear Sir

Not seeing your name either in the debates or the divisions this session, I was afraid to enquire the cause, till to my great joy I found that you had lately been present at a public meeting. I did not know of your domestic affliction,

⁽¹⁾

till I heard of it from Wordsworth. Such afflictions are not the heaviest with which we may be visited, inasmuch as it is more tolerable to lose a child than to see one become miserable or unworthy: but I believe that no other griefs are felt so keenly, or are so unmixed. There is a wide difference between that fortitude which perhaps is natural to the heart of man, & that resignation which we know to be our duty, & which brings with it consolation & hope. You my dear Sir know where the only balm is to be found.

I should hardly have intruded upon you now, if I had not felt a strong impulse to address you upon a question on which I know what your sentiments must be, & which the fate of poor Sir Al. Boswell

⁽²⁾

has brought into full notice at this time. My own mind has long been made up upon duelling. No provocation, & no fear of man, or mans opinion, should ever make me accept a challenge. I cannot however but think that is in the power of the legislature to put an end to this absurd & wicked practice; by throwing placing such impediments in the way, & affixing such penalties to it, as few persons would be able to surmount, or would chuse to incur. The magistrates at present when they suspect an intention of this kind, bind the parties over to keep the peace, – within a certain district only, – the parties then have only to adjourn to the next county. Why should they not be bound to keep the peace within his Majestys dominions? Would not an act requiring the Magistrates to do this have the effect of preventing the meeting altogether in many, or most cases?

You try the duellist for murder if he kills his opponent, – & this is a mere mockery of law; no such case was contemplated by those who made the law against murder; neither judge nor jury will ever condemn upon such an indictment, nor if they did, would public opinion go with the sentence. Xxx A punishment should be appointed which if it did not deter men from the offence, would be willingly inflicted by the courts of justice: – for instance a heavy fine for sending a challenge or endeavouring to provoke one; & for the parties themselves, (if they went into the field,) & their seconds, banishment for a certain term. I cannot but think that this should prove effectual. And that if you were to bring the xxx matter forward, there would be a probability of immediate success, a certainty of eventually succeeding.

Windham would have defended this practise which <with> that perverseness of intellect which made the noblest-minded man of his age so often act in direct opposition to his own better feelings.

⁽³⁾

But Windham has left no successor. And were you to attempt this thing, there would be many voices xxx xxx to aid you, & all good hearts in your favour.

⁽⁴⁾

It would come from you better than from any other person. I will not say that it would give you a farther claim to the love & xxx veneration of after ages, – that reward on earth you have already secured, – but it would give you the satisfaction of having endeavoured to prevent much guilt & much misery.

That you will think the subject worth a thought, I am persuaded. I hope you may think it worth an effort: – perhaps it would be difficult to point out any way in which so much evil might probably be prevented by such easy means.

Farewell my dear Sir present our remembrances to M^rs Wilberforce & your family,

⁽⁵⁾

& believe me

Yours with the sincerest respect
Robert Southey

Notes

1. The death of Wilberforce’s elder daughter, Barbara (1799–1821), on 30 December 1821. Wilberforce had temporarily retired from public life on the advice of his doctors, though he started attending the House of Commons again in late March 1822 and spoke on 1 April. Southey had probably seen an account of Wilberforce’s presence at a meeting of the Friends of Ireland on 26 March 1822, ‘promoting the Education of the Native Irish, through the medium of their own language’.[back]

2. Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet (1775–1822; DNB), Scottish poet, bibliophile and MP for Plympton Erle 1816–1821, was mortally wounded on 26 March 1822 in a duel with James Stuart (1775–1849; DNB), lawyer, journalist and Whig supporter. Boswell had attacked Stuart vociferously in anonymous articles in the Tory newspaper the Glasgow Sentinel (1821–1823).[back]

3. William Windham (1750–1810; DNB), Secretary at War 1794–1801, Secretary of State for War 1806–1807, had staunchly defended traditional pastimes such as bull-baiting; see, for example, his speeches in the House of Commons on 18 April 1800 and 24 May 1802.[back]

4. Wilberforce was strongly opposed to dueling and was only persuaded by the hopelessness of the cause from introducing a House of Commons motion condemning the practice on 1 June 1798.[back]

5. Barbara Wilberforce, née Spooner (1777–1847) and her children: William Wilberforce (1798–1879), later a barrister and MP for Hull 1837–1838; Robert Wilberforce, later a clergyman and writer; Samuel Wilberforce (1805–1873; DNB), later Bishop of Winchester 1870–1873; Henry Wilberforce (1807–1873; DNB), later a journalist; and Elizabeth Wilberforce (1801–1832).[back]

TEI Link

TEI

Volume Editor(s)

Lynda Pratt

Ian Packer

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven