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. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 121–124 [in part; dated ‘October 1800’]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 137–139 [in part; dated [30–31] October 1800].Dating note: This letter was written very shortly after Southey returned to Lisbon on 28 October 1800.
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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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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At last the opportunity is arrived of sending my important parcel.
In literature, as in the playthings of school-boys & the frippery of women there are the ins & outs of fashion.
sonnets & satires & essays have their day – & my Joan of Arcn fair estimate of its merits & defects.
I can now explain to you the whole state of the paper-money – if you can have patience to receive information in the
scrip-scrap way that I receive & communicate. on issuing it six per cent interest was promised – & this interest they still
profess to pay, but whoever applies for it is sure to be wearied out with the eternal evasion that it is not his turn – there are older
bills – & prior applicants. In paying any sum half may be tendered in paper. but the smallest bills of half a moidore are very
scarce. the more current are of thirty shillings value (five milreas). They pay their officers &c wholly in
paper. of course this paper must be sold at the discount – a loss of twenty per cent – where then half-paper is tendered it is at par.
whole payments are at the discount. But as this is variable & never for the better, every one puts a higher price upon his goods as
the insurance for the risque of loss.
Forged Bills have already been imported from England. The wise financiers of this country are about to adopt another
measure. to call in their copper new coin it & issue the ten-rea piece for twenty – at double its value. meantime a clumsy
agriculture renders all provision scarce – & a hungry foreign soldiery are ready to pay any price – when the People of England
discharge the bills. We expect the wise Expeditions here dailydieting upon a short allowance of salt beef for
the scurvy. literally true! we have letters of lamentations! – moreover we are threatened from England with five thousand Dutch
troops. a pleasant addition to society. when I tell you that thro the summer nine shillings have been paid at Cintra for the daily keep of a horse – after all allowances for tavern-extortion you will see the
scarcity & dearness of fodder. The expences of our troops when they first arrived – are now for the same number of men, in the
proportion of 4 to 9. more than doubled. this is roguery for the price of provisions is not doubled quite, nor of any article.
Foreign Jews are tolerated in Lisbon – that it is they are in no danger from the Inquisition, tho forbidden to exercise
the ceremonials of their faith. the intercourse with Barbary brings a few Moors here – so that the devout Portugueze are accustomed to
the sight of Turks – Jews – & Heretics. you remember Davys story of the
Cornishmans remark when his master said, now John we are in Devonshire. – “I don’t see but the Pigs have got tails the same as along o
we.” if the nations here have sense enough to make a similar inference, they will be one degree wiser than their forefathers. Lisbon
grows. many a cornfield in which I have walked five years ago is now covered with houses; – this is a short-lived increase of
population – a fine February day. for the English tenant these habitations, & when the army shall be recalled the houses will be
desolate. but the city exhibits an unequivocal sign of recovering industry & opulence. the gaps in the new streets that have stood
vacant since the disgrace of Pombal,idiot <ass> Kings of Europe seem are always showing there is. The
Italian Opera is in my mind not only high treason against common sense, but mischievous in its effects. nothing is attended to but the
music – the drama is simply a substratum for the tune. & the mind lies fallow while the sensual ear is gratified. the encouragement
of a national theatre may call up talents that shall confer honour upon the nation.
My first publication will probably be the literary part of the history
What money you may get for Thalaba remit to John May. Richmond Green. Surry. write it must bring me 100 guineas – to apprentice my brother Harry with a surgeon – Poor Amos
Cottle!