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Professor R.D. Havens (according to Curry). Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 175–177 [in part]; R. D. Havens, RES 5 (1929), 320–322; Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 483–485.Dating note: The year (1808) added to Southey’s date in pencil, and internal evidence (i.e. refs to Cintra Convention would confirm that date.
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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I have had a visit this morning from Wordsworth &
Speddingdisclaimed abandoned our vantage ground, betrayed the cause of Spain &
Portugal, & disclaimed, as far as his authority extends, the feelings which the Spaniards are inculcating, & in
which is their strength & their salvation, by degrading into a common & petty war between soldier & soldier, that which is
the struggle of a nation against a foreign usurper. a business of national life or death, a war of virtue against vice, Light against
Darkness, the Good Principle against the Evil One.
It is of importance to make the country feel this. & these sentiments would appear with most effect if they were
embodied in a County Address, of which the ostensible purport might be to thank his Majesty for having instituted an Enquiry, &
perhaps to request that he would be pleased to appoint a day of national humiliation for this grievous national disgrace.
This will not be liable to the reproof with which he thought proper to receive the City address, because it prejudges nothing, –
military proceedings are out of the question; – what is complained of is the <a> breach of the law of nations, &
an abandonment of the moral principle, which the words of the Convention prove, & which cannot be explained away by any Enquiry
whatsoever.
Now the reason why I have been called upon is this. Such an address might easily be carried by delivering it over to
Mr Curwen,as such. They wish me therefore to apply to you to sign the requisition, your sign name being of
the main importance, – & they wish me also to ask you whether you would object to write to Lord Lonsdale upon the subject. To make him consider it in a moral point of view is
probably not to be expected, & we know well enough how little Government are desirous of having any thing so considered. But if he
could be convinced that this business is aloof from all party questions, he might be contented to let it take its course, without using
any direct or indirect means of impeding it, if he did not chuse to give it his open sanction.
Spedding & Calvert
The carriers have disappointed me, or I had hoped to have sent your Father,in where it will be in such good company.