MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 338–342.
If the scheme for uniting Spain & Portugal should take effect, it is more likely to be under a republican than a kingly government. Such a termination I thought likely at the commencement of their troubles fourteen years ago,
(1)
Edinburgh Annual Register for 1808, 1.1 (1810), 390.
& thought it also the consummation to be wished looking both upon the Bourbon & Braganzan races
(2)
The Bourbons had been the ruling dynasty in Spain since 1700 and the Braganzas had ruled Portugal since 1640.
as effete; thinking that such an xxxx < a connection> required no sacrifice of feeling on the part of Portugal, & that when the general government of Spain was dissolved, a federal connection union of its respective kingdoms each retaining or modifying its own fueros,
(3)
The varying codes of laws and traditional privileges of the different regions of Spain.
was the system into which they would most easily & naturally fall. The aspects in Europe have so changed since that time & the republican spirit which was then trampled under foot in France is now so rampant every where, that I should be sorry to see the course of events tending to that issue – tho if the peninsular alone were concerned, it is perhaps that which might bring its successes xx soonest to an end. Eroles
(4)
Joaquin Ibanez Cuevas y de Valonga, Baron de Eroles (1784–1825), Spanish commander during the Peninsular War. He opposed the liberal regime and supported the French invasion of 1823.
might oppose a Braganzan king of Spain upon the same priniciple that he opposed Joseph Buonaparte
(5)
Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844; King of Spain 1808–1813).
– but the same feeling might not induce him to oppose a total change of government, which added Portugal to Spain & restored to his own principality
(6)
Catalonia, which was a principality of the Aragonese crown after 1137.
all its proud old privileges. I think if I were a Spaniard or Portugueze that this would be my aim. But as an Englishman, & regarding the question as it would affect the whole of Europe (where the tendency is certainly down the hill of democracy) I should grieve to see it.
My brother Henry who sees a good deal of the Portugueze in London, knows more of their views & politics than I do. They have in Joam 6.
(7)
John VI (1767–1826; King of Portugal 1816–1826).
an easy man of good faith, whom they can govern, & whom they can trust. Ferdinand
(8)
Ferdinand VII (1784–1833; King of Spain 1808, 1813–1833). In 1820–1823 he was virtually a prisoner under the liberal regime.
is truly a wretch, unworthy of compassion even in his present miserable condition. I wish he had no brothers, for in that case I should heartily assent to the fitness of shutting him up a convent & giving the K of Portugal the crown in right of his wife.
(9)
Charles, Count of Molina (1788–1855) and Francis, Duke of Cadiz (1794–1865). Their eldest sister, Charlotte (1775–1830), was married to John VI of Portugal.
By us at least they must be left to themselves, & I hope France will not interfere.
(10)
France invaded Spain on 7 April 1823 and defeated the liberal regime, restoring Ferdinand VII’s absolute authority.
Such intereference may be deeply injurious, in more ways than one, suppose it were successful – Ferdinand would then hold his authority only by the support of France, & the evil which you apprehend would that of Spains becoming in effect a province of France would at once be brought about. On the other if a formidable xxx resistance were made by the aid of Portugal, the republican party would thereby acquire the power of effecting their designs, – & when that train is fired – who can tell how far the explosion will reach? The Portugueze have an efficient army with British officers they would beat the French – without them I think they would have a fair chance.
(11)
The Portuguese Army had been reorganised under British control in 1808–1814, though most British officers had left the force by 1820.
But they would obtain adventurers from England as easily as the S. Americans have done. And however much the French King
(12)
Louis XVIII (1755–1824; King of France 1814–1824).
may wish to rid himself of disaffected troops, he had better keep them in France, & take his chance for fifty such conspiracies as Bertins
(13)
Probably a mistake by Southey: Louis-François Bertin (1766–1841) was a well-known French journalist, but a convinced royalist. Southey probably intended to refer to Jean-Baptiste Breton (1769–1822), a French general who headed an unsuccessful military revolt against the royalist regime on 24 February 1822. He was executed on 5 October 1822.
than engage in another peninsular war.
I have not seen the Liberal,
(14)
Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), a parody of Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821), was first published in the Liberal, 1 (October 1822), 3–39.
but a Leeds paper
(15)
The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 21 October 1822.
has been sent me containing an account of it, & including among its extracts the description & behaviour of a certain “varlet”.
(16)
The Vision of Judgment (1822), stanza 94, line 1: ‘The varlet [Southey] was not an ill-favour’d knave’.
He has certainly not offended me in the way that the pious Painter exasperated the Devil. –
(17)
Southey’s ‘The Pious Painter: a Catholic Story’, Morning Post, 2 November 1798, in which the Devil is annoyed by the painter’s accurate depiction of him.
As for the slander, –
(18)
Byron accused Southey of changing his opinions, dullness, prolixity and writing to order. He also referred to the pantisocratic scheme that Southey and Coleridge formed in 1794 as ‘less moral than ‘twas clever’ (The Vision of Judgment (1822), stanza 97, line 6), implying that the pantisocrats wished to engage in free love. The whole poem took a satirical view of the divine judgment on the deceased George III (1738–1820; King of Great Britain 1760–1820; DNB), in opposition to Southey’s serious treatment in A Vision of Judgement (1821).
it is not worth an angry feeling, & certainly has not excited a painful or an uncomfortable one. Other parts seem to be as disgusting xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx as brutality & impiety can make them.
I have been reviewing Gregoires Hist: des Sectes Religieuses,
(19)
Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
& have left his account of the Theophilanthropists to form part of another paper upon the growth & prevalence of Infidelity.
(20)
Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire, ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536, published 8 July 1823.
If Gifford will let me I may probably touch upon the Liberal here, & show Lord Byron that there can be no better preparatory exercise for writing the memoirs of the Devil, than by attempting a sketch of his Lordships <own> character & conduct
(21)
Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 513, where Southey condemned the ‘race of poets’ who corrupted the morals of sixteenth-century France, and quoted his own Joan of Arc (1796), Book 9, lines 681–685, denouncing ‘lascivious lays’, to show that their author ‘held the same moral opinions at the age of nineteen, as when he branded the author of Don Juan’ – a reference to A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), ‘Preface’, pp. xvii–xxii, where Southey condemned the ‘Satanic school’ of poets without mentioning Byron’s Don Juan (1819), though the object of his attack was clear.
Of late I have been chiefly <employed> upon Freres papers, & have gone thro about half of them. Sir R Wilsons
(22)
Sir Robert Wilson (1777–1849; DNB), radical MP for Southwark 1818–1831, had commanded the Loyal Lusitanian Legion of Portuguese troops in the Peninsular War. In December 1808 he advanced to Ciudad Rodrigo in Spain and maintained his position, despite the retreat of the main British army to Corunna. Southey believed that Wilson’s actions helped prevent the French advancing on Lisbon, History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), II, pp. 77–83, 241–245.
correspondence amused me a good deal. With what a humiliating feeling will he read what I shall have to write concerning him, the right spirit with which he acted, & the real services which he performed, when in his own words his collar was making for him by that skilful neck–twister Napoleon.
(23)
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French 1804–1814, 1815).
– There are several letters from Mayne,
(24)
William Mayne (1776–1843), son of Robert Mayne (1724–1782), banker and MP for Gatton 1774–1782. Mayne had been an Acting Lieutenant-Colonel in the Loyal Lusitanian Legion 1809–1810 and later Captain in the 1st Life Guards. He had been a contemporary of Southey and Wynn at Westminster School. Mayne’s constant re-telling of his role at the Battle of Waterloo (1815) led to his being known as ‘Waterloo Bill’.
& very bad ones they are. Doyles I have not yet begun upon. – but I have seen a good many of his among Sir Hew Dalrymples papers. Whittingham
(25)
Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham (1772–1842; DNB), a British soldier who served with the Spanish Army 1808–1814, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-General.
appears to have been very much the ablest of our officers who were in the Spanish service.
To day I have received an importation of American books from Ticknor, the Professor of modern language at Harvard College, – one of the best informed men I ever became acquainted with. There is among them the Idle Man,
(26)
Richard Henry Dana (1787–1879), The Idle Man (1821–1822), no. 1476 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
said to the best of many imitations of the Sketch Book,
(27)
Washington Irving (1783–1859), The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1820).
a volume of Travels to the sources of the Mississippi,
(28)
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793–1864), Narrative Journal of Travels through the Northwestern Regions of the United States: Extending from Detroit through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River, Performed as a Member of the Expedition under General Cass in the Year 1820 (1821), no. 2516 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
& old Dr Dwights Travels in New England & New York,
(29)
Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey reviewed this in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.
– a posthumous work in four full octavos. I have begun upon this & find in it a great deal of curious observation. If Gifford had not taken that offensive & mischievous tone in the Review concerning America I could have drawn up for him a very interesting paper from this book. There is also ‘A New England Tale’
(30)
Catherine Maria Sedgwick (1789–1867), A New England Tale; or, Sketches of New England Character and Manners (1822), no. 2529 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It contained a character called ‘Crazy Bet’. Scott’s madwomen included Madge Wildfire in The Heart of Midlothian (1818) and the eponymous Bride of Lammermoor (1819).
curious as a picture of manners & in itself very much above mediocrity, but sadly injured by the introduction of a crazy woman in imitation of Walter Scotts novels.
About Hastings’s life,
(31)
Warren Hastings (1732–1818; DNB), Governor-General of Bengal 1774–1785. Southey had been asked to write his life in July 1820, but eventually declined this task.
I have nothing to say, except that they wish me to see a Mr Baber
(32)
Edward Baber (1745–1827), Resident at Midnapore 1770–1772, President of the Provincial Council in Murshidabad 1774–1780 and Warren Hastings’s secretary. He had returned from India in 1780 and lived in Park Street, Grosvenor Square.
before he selects the papers which are to be put into my hands, & that this Mr Baber appears to have some very injudicious notions about keeping back whatever relates to Hastings’s private history & character.
(33)
There were a number of elements in Hastings’s private life that Baber may have wished to suppress, including: rumours that Hastings was the father of Eliza Hancock (1761–1813), ostensibly the daughter of Hastings’s friend, Tysoe Saul Hancock (1723–1775); and that Hastings’s second wife, Anna Marie Apollonia Chapuset (1747–1835; DNB), had been the mistress of the painter Cristoph Carl Adam von Imhoff (c. 1734–c. 1802) when she and Hastings met.
This would be unwise even if the work to be compiled were a history of his administration, – but especially one when it is to be his life. However for the sake of seeing him I must visit London early in the spring. I should have done so without this matter of business, xxx on account of my Uncle, whose age makes the usual intervals of <between> my visits longer His age is now such that the usual intervals between my visits ought to be shortened. – The two poems are in status quo, except that in my yesterdays walk some improvement was made in the plan of Oliver Newman.
(34)
Southey’s unfinished ‘Oliver Newman’, set in New England. A fragment was published posthumously in Oliver Newman: a New-England Tale (Unfinished): with Other Poetical Remains by the Late Robert Southey (London, 1845), pp. 1–90. The other poem on which Southey was working was A Tale of Paraguay (1825).
The B of the Church
(35)
Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).
is in the press, & will be published before I set off for town, which will be at the end of February or early in March.
(36)
Southey did not leave for London until 3 November 1823.
God bless you
RS.
Keswick 26. Oct. 1822
