3966. Robert Southey to John Taylor Coleridge, 17 February 1823

 

Endorsements: 1823. Febry. 20th/ R. Southey. Keswick.; 17 Feb 1823
MS: British Library, Add MS 47553. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: W. Braekman, ‘Letters by Robert Southey to Sir John Taylor Coleridge’, Studia Germanica Gandensia, 6 (1964), 130–131.

My dear Sir

I am very glad that Dobrizhoffer has done so well.

(1)

An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay (1822), a translation from Latin by Sara Coleridge, published by Murray. Southey had reviewed it, very positively, in the Quarterly Review, 26 (January 1822), 277–323, published 30 March 1822.

– My advice in any matter of business is worth nothing. All I have ever been able to do with money is to spend it, without any exertion, as fast as it comes, – & to get it, with some pains-taking as fast as it is wanted. Perhaps it will be best to buy into the stocks, where from time to time it may be increased. It will not, I trust, be difficult to find other occupation for her of the same kind, & while Murray is in good humour, & we have the QR open, we are pretty sure of success.

(2)

Sara Coleridge followed this success with another translation, this time from medieval French: The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Feats, Gests, and Prowesses of the Chevalier Bayard, the Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach (1825). Unsurprisingly, Southey also gave this book a glowing recommendation in Quarterly Review, 32 (October 1825), 355–397, published 25 October 1825.

My Quarterly came to day.

(3)

Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823.

I agree with you about the last article: it is perfectly efficient, but ill put out-of-hand.

(4)

Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 219–264. This was a review, mainly by John Wilson Croker, of a number of works concerning the exile of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1815; Emperor of the French 1804–1815) on St Helena 1815–1821.

The paper on the opposition is calm & just;

(5)

A review of A Letter to His Majesty King George the IVth, King of the United Empire of Great Britain and Ireland, on the Temper and Aspect of the Times (1822), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 197–219. The author was the ultra-conservative journalist David Robinson (1787–1849; DNB), whose work was much amended by William Gifford.

but they are rogues who are not to be reclaimed by reasoning with them; the way to deal with them is to tie them up to the whipping post & lay on till they roar out for mercy. The case of Dr Ireland & the Proctor might have been left alone.

(6)

John Ireland (1761–1842; DNB), Dean of Westminster 1816–1842, had published an anonymous essay on divorce, Nuptiae Sacrae: or, an Inquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Marriage and Divorce. Addressed to the two Houses of Parliament (1801). Ireland’s work was then plagiarised in a later tract, Essay on the Scripture Doctrines of Adultery and Divorce, and on the Criminal Character and Punishment of Adultery, by the Ancient Laws of England and Other Countries (1822). The latter’s author was Henry Virtue Tebbs (1797–1876), a Proctor, i.e. a lawyer qualified to practise in the ecclesiastical cour…

The Dean indeed is a deadweight upon that Review. There is a more damnable story about France & the Slave Trade than any thing in the 9th Article.

(7)

A review of Further Papers Relating to the Slave Trade. Viz Correspondence with Foreign Powers and with His Majesty’s Commissioners, 1821, 1822 (1821–1822) and Sixteenth Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Read at the Annual Meeting, held on the 10th Day of May, 1822 (1822) by Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB), Second Secretary to the Admiralty 1804–1806, 1807–1845 (with possibly some input by George Canning), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 161–179.

One of the French Ministers at the Congress of Vienna (I have forgotten his name)

(8)

The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) decided the borders of Europe after the final defeat of France. The main French representatives were Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754–1838), Minister of Foreign Affairs 1797–1807 and 1814–1815, and Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg (1773–1833).

proposed to Alexander

(9)

Alexander I (1777–1825; Tsar of Russia 1801–1825) led the Russian delegation at the Congress of Vienna himself and was a determined opponent of the slave trade.

that France before she consent to the abolition should be allowed to import 180,000 slaves into St Domingo,

(10)

In the post-war settlement, France was pressed by Britain to make the slave trade illegal. In the Treaty of Paris (1814) France only agreed to move towards this situation over a five-year period, though Napoleon Bonaparte unilaterally (if ineffectually) abolished the French slave trade in 1815. Following a revolution by the slave population, France had finally lost control of its colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), on the western part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in 1804. However, the French government did not recognise the independence of Haiti and sent a mission to the country in…

– the proposal was delivered in writing; – & the Emperor observed that considering the state of that island, this seemed a perilous intention. The Frenchman replied that there was no danger in it for as a previous measure it was intended to cut down the existing population to six years of age.

(11)

This story is impossible to verify; but France clearly wished to recover Haiti, and Haitians feared that French reluctance to abolish the slave trade was part of a French plan to repopulate Haiti with slaves once it was re-conquered. An intensive propaganda war between France and Haiti began in 1814, with British abolitionists urging their government to press France not to intervene in Haiti. The story Southey refers to may have circulated in this context.

– Hear my authority for this, without such authority no man ought to believe such a story, even of the French. The D of Gloucester

(12)

Prince Frederick William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776–1834; DNB). A pro-abolitionist, the Prince was the first President of the African Institution when it was set up in 1807, and provided Thomas Clarkson with his initial introduction to Alexander I in 1815.

told it to Clarkson. Clarkson asked the Emperor Alexander (at Aix la Chapelle)

(13)

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) was a meeting of representatives of Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria to deal with a number of outstanding matters following the Congress of Vienna. Clarkson attended in order to press for the abolition of the slave trade and to defend the interests of Haiti. He secured a meeting with Alexander I, who was supportive, though there was no practical outcome to Clarkson’s mission.

if it were true: he confirmed, & said he exclaimed in reply abominable calcul de sang,

(14)

‘Abominable calculation of blood’.

& tore the paper – And from Clarksons own lips I heard the story.

The little article about the Poyais Bubble is very well done,

(15)

A review of ‘Thomas Strangeway’, A Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, Including the Territories of the Poyais, Descriptive of the Country; with some Information as to its Productions, the Best Mode of Culture &c. Chiefly intended for Settlers (1822) by John Barrow, Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 157–161. The book was actually written by Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845; DNB), a Scottish soldier and confidence-trickster. He claimed to be the ruler of Poyais, a fictional country in Central America, and persuaded many people to invest in loans to, and land in, the country. About 250 settlers sailed t…

that about the Bampton Lectures flat as a flounder

(16)

A review of Richard Whately (1787–1863; DNB), The Use and Abuse of Party-Feeling in Matters of Religion Considered, in Eight Sermons, Preached Before the University of Oxford, in the Year 1822, at the Lecture Founded by the Late Rev. John Bampton, M. A. Canon of Salisbury (1822), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 144–157.

Gifford has done both me & his review some disservice by delaying to notice the third volume of my Brazil:

(17)

The third and final volume of Southey’s History of Brazil (1810–1819). It was never reviewed in the Quarterly Review, nor did Southey write there on Brazil.

me, because xxx that heavy book would be assisted in xxx its motion, by a hearty shove; the review, because I do not supply it with a paper upon the present state & prospects of Brazil, till that volume has been disposed of.

God bless you
Yrs affectionately
RS.

Keswick. 17 Feby 1823

Notes

1. An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay (1822), a translation from Latin by Sara Coleridge, published by Murray. Southey had reviewed it, very positively, in the Quarterly Review, 26 (January 1822), 277–323, published 30 March 1822.[back]
2. Sara Coleridge followed this success with another translation, this time from medieval French: The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Feats, Gests, and Prowesses of the Chevalier Bayard, the Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach (1825). Unsurprisingly, Southey also gave this book a glowing recommendation in Quarterly Review, 32 (October 1825), 355–397, published 25 October 1825.[back]
3. Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823.[back]
4. Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 219–264. This was a review, mainly by John Wilson Croker, of a number of works concerning the exile of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1815; Emperor of the French 1804–1815) on St Helena 1815–1821.[back]
5. A review of A Letter to His Majesty King George the IVth, King of the United Empire of Great Britain and Ireland, on the Temper and Aspect of the Times (1822), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 197–219. The author was the ultra-conservative journalist David Robinson (1787–1849; DNB), whose work was much amended by William Gifford.[back]
6. John Ireland (1761–1842; DNB), Dean of Westminster 1816–1842, had published an anonymous essay on divorce, Nuptiae Sacrae: or, an Inquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Marriage and Divorce. Addressed to the two Houses of Parliament (1801). Ireland’s work was then plagiarised in a later tract, Essay on the Scripture Doctrines of Adultery and Divorce, and on the Criminal Character and Punishment of Adultery, by the Ancient Laws of England and Other Countries (1822). The latter’s author was Henry Virtue Tebbs (1797–1876), a Proctor, i.e. a lawyer qualified to practise in the ecclesiastical courts that dealt with divorce. Tebbs’s plagiarism was brought to light in a review of his and Ireland’s works in Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 179–188. The close friendship between Gifford and Ireland was probably the only reason why this obscure matter made its way into the pages of the Quarterly Review.[back]
7. A review of Further Papers Relating to the Slave Trade. Viz Correspondence with Foreign Powers and with His Majesty’s Commissioners, 1821, 1822 (1821–1822) and Sixteenth Report of the Directors of the African Institution, Read at the Annual Meeting, held on the 10th Day of May, 1822 (1822) by Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB), Second Secretary to the Admiralty 1804–1806, 1807–1845 (with possibly some input by George Canning), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 161–179.[back]
8. The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) decided the borders of Europe after the final defeat of France. The main French representatives were Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754–1838), Minister of Foreign Affairs 1797–1807 and 1814–1815, and Emmerich Joseph de Dalberg (1773–1833).[back]
9. Alexander I (1777–1825; Tsar of Russia 1801–1825) led the Russian delegation at the Congress of Vienna himself and was a determined opponent of the slave trade.[back]
10. In the post-war settlement, France was pressed by Britain to make the slave trade illegal. In the Treaty of Paris (1814) France only agreed to move towards this situation over a five-year period, though Napoleon Bonaparte unilaterally (if ineffectually) abolished the French slave trade in 1815. Following a revolution by the slave population, France had finally lost control of its colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), on the western part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in 1804. However, the French government did not recognise the independence of Haiti and sent a mission to the country in October 1814 to try and persuade the Haitian leaders to accept French rule (there were further unsuccessful French missions in 1816 and 1819). [back]
11. This story is impossible to verify; but France clearly wished to recover Haiti, and Haitians feared that French reluctance to abolish the slave trade was part of a French plan to repopulate Haiti with slaves once it was re-conquered. An intensive propaganda war between France and Haiti began in 1814, with British abolitionists urging their government to press France not to intervene in Haiti. The story Southey refers to may have circulated in this context.[back]
12. Prince Frederick William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776–1834; DNB). A pro-abolitionist, the Prince was the first President of the African Institution when it was set up in 1807, and provided Thomas Clarkson with his initial introduction to Alexander I in 1815.[back]
13. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) was a meeting of representatives of Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria to deal with a number of outstanding matters following the Congress of Vienna. Clarkson attended in order to press for the abolition of the slave trade and to defend the interests of Haiti. He secured a meeting with Alexander I, who was supportive, though there was no practical outcome to Clarkson’s mission.[back]
14. ‘Abominable calculation of blood’. [back]
15. A review of ‘Thomas Strangeway’, A Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, Including the Territories of the Poyais, Descriptive of the Country; with some Information as to its Productions, the Best Mode of Culture &c. Chiefly intended for Settlers (1822) by John Barrow, Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 157–161. The book was actually written by Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845; DNB), a Scottish soldier and confidence-trickster. He claimed to be the ruler of Poyais, a fictional country in Central America, and persuaded many people to invest in loans to, and land in, the country. About 250 settlers sailed to Poyais in 1822–1823. MacGregor’s fraud was uncovered when a British ship discovered the survivors in May 1823, though this news did not reach London until October 1823. Barrow’s article concentrated on the trade in bonds issued by the ‘Poyais government’, whose value had risen dramatically, only to crash when doubts arose about the security of a huge loan issued by the Colombian government.[back]
16. A review of Richard Whately (1787–1863; DNB), The Use and Abuse of Party-Feeling in Matters of Religion Considered, in Eight Sermons, Preached Before the University of Oxford, in the Year 1822, at the Lecture Founded by the Late Rev. John Bampton, M. A. Canon of Salisbury (1822), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 144–157.[back]
17. The third and final volume of Southey’s History of Brazil (1810–1819). It was never reviewed in the Quarterly Review, nor did Southey write there on Brazil.[back]
TEI Link
TEI
Volume Editor(s)
Lynda Pratt
Ian Packer