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Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 24. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 86–89 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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When I wished you to never to read the Classics again – it was because, like many other persons, you read nothing else: & were not likely ever to get more knowledge out of them than you had got already.read (I may say exclusively) read those from whom least was to be got – which is also another sin of the age.’had wrote about, & understand what they read, & they knew that whoever thought the one
of these writers a good poet must upon that very principle then hold the other to be a bad one. Greek & Latin poetry Grosvenor are
as opposite as French & English, (– excepting always Lucretius & Catullus), & you may <as well> suppose it possible
for a man equally to admire Shakespere & Racine, as Homer & Virgil – that is, provided he knows why & wherefore he admires
either. Elmsley will tell you this – & I suppose you will admit him to be
authority upon this subject.
You ask me about the Catholick question. I am against admitting them to power of any kind, because the immediate use
which would be made of it would be to make proselytes for which Catholicism is of all religions best adapted. Every ship which had a
Catholic Captain would have a Catholick chaplain, & in no very long time a Catholick crew: so on in the army, – just as every rich
Catholick in England at this time has his mansion surrounded by converts fairly purchased – the Jerningham family in Norfolkxxx they already enjoy) whose first principle is that their Church is infallible,
& therefore bound to persecute all others. This is the principle of Catholicism every where; & when they can they avow it &
act upon it.
If our statesmen (God forgive me for degrading the word!) – if our traders in politics – the Tantara-rara’s
xxxxx its conquests from Austria, – & that distinction Bonaparte is
at this time endeavouring to profit by. There is a regular conspiracy or system carrying on to propagate Popery in the North of
Germany, – of which Coleridge could communicate much if he would, he knowing the main directors of this new Propaganda at Rome. The
mode of doing it is curious – they teach bring the people first to believe in Jacob Behmen,
A Catholick Sea Captain would soon have a Catholick crew. Irishmen would enter with him, – & a crew of which the majority should be Irish Catholicks would very soon find their way to Brest. I could say a great deal upon this subject, & tell you some curious facts – if you really wanted to enter into the matter but it takes up time to write these things, & when I write letters, it is either because I have something to say, or in mere idleness – as an excuse for laying aside something else of which I have grown tired, & yet cannot conscientiously long put by without some such apology for so doing.
I have a favour to ask of Horace, which is that be will
do me the favour to send me the titles of such Portugueze manuscripts as are in the Museum.xx transcriber can be found, copies to present to
xx some fit Library at Lisbon; in so doing I shall render the literature of that country a most acceptable service, which
it would most highly gratify me to do, & for which I should receive very essential services in return. There are I believe in
particular, some papers of Jeronimo Lobo’sfrom the because I could do nothing which would be more essentially useful to my own views there,
but also because of the true & zealous love which I feel for Portugueze literature, in which I am now as well skilled as in that of
my own country, & into which, whenever the reign of priestcraft is at an end, I trust to be one day adopted. – You perhaps have
little conception how infinitely important the subject of my History – or series of Histories is & what a range of information it
necessarily takes in. Whenever you can find your way here you shall see good proof of my labour.
I pray you remember that what I think upon the Catholick question by no means disposes me in favour of the new ministry
– of whom those that are not fools are thorough rascals, & pledged to that question deep enough for damnation. I Mr Bedford am – as
you know – a Court Pensioner & have as you know well deserved to be so – for my great & devoted attachment to the person of his
majesty & the measures of his government – Nevertheless Mr. Bedford his ministers are men of tried & convicted incapacity, –
they have always been the contempt of Europe, whether they can be more despised than their predecessors have
uniformly & deservedly been, I know not; – I cannot tell how far below nothing the political barometer can sink till it has been
tried. There is one Paull
What is bred in the bone Mr Bedford – – shall I tell you what tune politics go to in England? – to the tune of
Tantara-rara.