3957. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 25 January 1823

 

MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 373–375.

My dear Wynn

I had talked over just such a plan of emigration as this,

(1)

Parliament had voted £30,000 in 1822 to finance the settlement of poor Irish families in Upper Canada. Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton (1784–1841; DNB), Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1821–1828, was eager to extend this idea and produced ‘An Outline of a Plan of Emigration to Upper Canada’ in January 1823. He proposed that parishes all over the United Kingdom should be able to mortgage their poor rates in order to repay loans from the government, which would finance sending the parishes’ paupers to Canada. Each family would receive 100 acres of land.

last summer, with Clarkson, who had shipt off two or three families to Canada at the parish expence, from his own parish – Playford near Ipswich. The parish were convinced that it was good economy to rid themselves by an immediate outlay of an increasing expence. This is a proof that the plan is practicable & likely to be an succeed. And in this case the parties went without any promise of land, to seek their own maintenance, where industry is sure to find it.

Is not the proposed grant of 100 acres too large for this class of persons? In xxx offering that xx too large are become This is boon enough for a farmer, a discretionary power of allotment up to that amount might perhaps be vested in the Commissioners, according to the character of the emigrants.

An outcry will be raised against it as a scheme for transporting the poor: but it is not likely to do much harm. Indeed xxx the principle views upon this subject which I mean to bring forward in my Dialogues are that while for age & infirmity more ought to be done than our poor laws ever have provided, – if the xxx country is compelled to feed able bodied paupers, it thereby acquires the right of xxxxding <transporting> them to any place where that can be done at the easiest rate, or when the necessity for doing it may be removed.

(2)

Southey did not in the end propose this scheme in his extensive discussion of emigration and colonies in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), II, pp. 240–334.

In the case of orphans & bastards this I think might be acted upon now, with good effect, both for the children, & the workhouses.

I hope & trust that provision will be made for a clergyman in every township.

Your packet was dated on the wrong day. I congratulated myself that this was not the case with the Cambro Briton.

(3)

The Cambro-Briton (1819–1822), a journal dealing with Welsh history, no. 527 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

– Why is it that other public offices do not, like the Treasury, omit the date on their franks? It is perfectly useless where there is no limitation of numbers – x& there is no more reason why you xxxx xxx & then & Mr Freeling never uses it himself.

Read Elia if the book has not fallen in your way.

(4)

Southey commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’ (London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407).

It is my old friend Charles Lamb. There are some things in it which will offend, & some which will pain you – as they do me, – but you will find in it a rich vein of pure gold.

I am glad to see that A.

(5)

Charles Arbuthnot (1767–1850; DNB), having been Joint Secretary to the Treasury 1809–1823, became First Commissioner of Woods and Forests 1823–1827. His place at the Treasury was taken by Herries.

leaves the Treasury & that Herries goes there, because I believe you will exchange a most xx inefficient person for a very fit one.

You will not find any person to accept your Bishopric

(6)

The death of Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769–1822; DNB), first Bishop of Calcutta 1814–1822, had created a vacancy for the only Anglican episcopal see in India. Peter Elmsley had declined the post and it was eventually accepted by Reginald Heber.

who has good hopes of advancement at home; nor easily a proper person, unless he has somewhat of a missionary spirit. I think Davison

(7)

John Davison (1777–1834; DNB), clergyman, author of Considerations on the Poor Laws (1817) and contributor to the Quarterly Review. He had called on Southey in Keswick in July 1819. Davison declined the Bishopric of Calcutta too.

will not xxxxxxxx <go> – & doubt whether his formal & frig <cold> manners would not unfit him for it. His very approach benumbs one like the touch of a torpedo.

(8)

The electric ray, a fish that produces an electric shock to numb its prey.

God bless you
RS.

Jany. 25. 1823.

Notes

1. Parliament had voted £30,000 in 1822 to finance the settlement of poor Irish families in Upper Canada. Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton (1784–1841; DNB), Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1821–1828 was eager to extend this idea and produced ‘An Outline of a Plan of Emigration to Upper Canada’ in January 1823. He proposed that parishes all over the United Kingdom should be able to mortgage their poor rates in order to repay loans from the government, which would finance sending the parishes’ paupers to Canada. Each family would receive 100 acres of land.[back]
2. Southey did not in the end propose this scheme in his extensive discussion of emigration and colonies in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), II, pp. 240–334.[back]
3. The Cambro-Briton (1819–1822), a journal dealing with Welsh history, no. 527 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
4. Southey commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’ (London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407).[back]
5. Charles Arbuthnot (1767–1850; DNB), having been Joint Secretary to the Treasury 1809–1823, became First Commissioner of Woods and Forests 1823–1827. His place at the Treasury was taken by Herries.[back]
6. The death of Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769–1822; DNB), first Bishop of Calcutta 1814–1822, had created a vacancy for the only Anglican episcopal see in India. Peter Elmsley had declined the post and it was eventually accepted by Reginald Heber.[back]
7. John Davison (1777–1834; DNB), clergyman, author of Considerations on the Poor Laws (1817) and contributor to the Quarterly Review. He had called on Southey in Keswick in July 1819. Davison declined the Bishopric of Calcutta too.[back]
8. The electric ray, a fish that produces an electric shock to numb its prey.[back]
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