3968. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 23 February 1823

 

Address: To/ G.C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer./ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 26 FE 26/ 1823
Endorsement: 23. Febry 1823
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 136–138 [in part].

Keswick 23 Feby. 1823.
My dear G.

Your letter comes in aid of a purpose which I had entertained of putting together what I have said upon the Catholic question in the Ed. An. Register, re-casting it, & publishing it with some needful additions, in the form of a pamphlett.

(1)

Southey did not publish this pamphlet, but Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1808, 1.1 (1810), 7–12, 104–132, and Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1811, 4.1 (1813), 115–139, were eventually recast and published in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), II, as Essays XI and XII, ‘On the Catholic Question’, pp. [277]–328. Southey was totally opposed to equal political rights for Catholics.

About a week ago I put down in my note-book the first sketch of an arrangement; & actually began to piece or compose xxx fragments which compose what I have to say, in fox as a letter to some M.P. Not that it was meant to be addressed to any individual one; but having argued with Wilberforce & Sir Thomas Acland upon this subject,

(2)

See Southey to Edith Southey, 28 April 1817, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Five, Letter 2981.

I knew in what light they considered it. The course which affairs have taken in Ireland

(3)

There was persistent unrest in rural Ireland 1821–1824.

will probably have the good effect of quashing the question for this year; & in that hope I am willing to postpone my own purpose till a season which may be more convenient to myself, & when aid of this kind may be more needed.

The arguments lie in a nutshell. The law <restraints> which excludes the Catholics from political power

(4)

The Test Act (1673) confined public office to communicants of the Church of England.

xx <are> not the cause of the perpetual disorders in Ireland, – their removal therefore cannot be the cure. Suppose the question carried, two other grow from it, – like two heads from the hydras neck when one is amputated: – a Catholic establishment for Ireland, at which Irish Catholics must aim, & which those who desire rebellion & separation will promote, – a rebellion must be the sure consequence of agitating this. The people in Ireland care nothing for the Emancipation, – why the Devil should they? but make it a question for restoring the Catholic Church, & they will enter into it as zealously as ever our ancestors did into a crusade.

The other question arises at home, & brings with it worse consequences than any thing which can happen among the potatoes. The repeal of the Test Act will be demanded, & must be granted. Immediately the Dissenters will get into the Corporations – every where: their members will be returned; men as hostile to the Church & to the Monarchy as ever were the Puritans of Charles’s age;

(5)

Charles I (1600–1649; King of Great Britain 1625–1649; DNB).

– the Church property will then be attacked in Parliament, as it is now at mob-meetings, & in radical newspapers: reform in Parliament will be carried, – & then – farewell a long farewell to all our greatness. – I, who see what is coming, shall have time to determine whether I will quit the kingdom, or stay in it & be hanged: – & Wynn will either lose his senses or break his heart at the miserable consequences of his own infatuation.

(6)

Wynn favoured Catholic Emancipation.

My belief is that if we can stave off this question & that of reform for the next ten years, the country will be tired of both, especially as it becomes prosperous – And if those who think rightly will exert themselves in Parliament, & out of Parliament, I, for one, will do my duty strenuously & perseveringly.

Our constitution consists of Church & State, & it is an absurdity in politics to give those persons power in the state, whose duty it is to subvert the Church. This argument is unanswerable. – I am in good hopes that my Book of the Ch.

(7)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).

will do yeomans service upon the question.

Thank you for the Cup – which I shall be very proud of. I shall call it the Bedford-cup, & endeavor to believe that Benvenuto Cellini

(8)

Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), Italian sculptor. Bedford possessed a glass cup of which he was immensely proud and which he believed to be the work of Cellini. He had ordered a copy to be made for Southey.

was the sculptor who made it. Pray get it packed & send it me with “glass” written on it & moreover “with care”. the mail from the Bull & Mouth will be a safer conveyance than the wagon, because it will go upon springs.

I have not time to enter upon the question of Spain

(9)

In Spain the liberal Constitution of 1812 had been restored by a military revolt in 1820. France was preparing to invade Spain to restore royal absolutism and the Whigs were urging the government to pressurise France not to intervene.

only I must remark, that foreign ambassadors would be doing us a great service, as well as discharging their own duty, if they required our Government to prosecute such language as Broughams against their respective sovereigns

(10)

Brougham’s speech in the House of Commons on 4 February 1823 had strongly criticised Frederick William III (1770–1840; King of Prussia 1797–1840), Francis I (1768–1835; Holy Roman Emperor 1792–1806, Emperor of Austria 1804–1835) and Alexander I (1777–1825; Emperor of Russia 1801–1825) for advocating the suppression of the constitutional regime in Spain. Brougham was particularly critical of Alexander I, whom he strongly implied had conspired in the assassination of his father, Paul (1754–1801; Emperor of Russia 1796–1801), in order to gain the throne.

– when it gets into the newspapers. Half the provincial papers might be silenced by attacking them on this ground, – I do not mean for what is given as a report of the debates, – but for the tone which they take from such speakers.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Southey did not publish this pamphlet, but Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1808, 1.1 (1810), 7–12, 104–132, and Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1811, 4.1 (1813), 115–139, were eventually recast and published in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), II, as Essays XI and XII, ‘On the Catholic Question’, pp. [277]–328. Southey was totally opposed to equal political rights for Catholics.[back]
2. See Southey to Edith Southey, 28 April 1817, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Five, Letter 2981.[back]
3. There was persistent unrest in rural Ireland 1821–1824.[back]
4. The Test Act (1673) confined public office to communicants of the Church of England.[back]
5. Charles I (1600–1649; King of Great Britain 1625–1649; DNB).[back]
6. Wynn favoured Catholic Emancipation.[back]
7. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
8. Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), Italian sculptor. Bedford possessed a glass cup of which he was immensely proud and which he believed to be the work of Cellini. He had ordered a copy to be made for Southey.[back]
9. In Spain the liberal Constitution of 1812 had been restored by a military revolt in 1820. France was preparing to invade Spain to restore royal absolutism and the Whigs were urging the government to pressurise France not to intervene.[back]
10. Brougham’s speech in the House of Commons on 4 February 1823 had strongly criticised Frederick William III (1770–1840; King of Prussia 1797–1840), Francis I (1768–1835; Holy Roman Emperor 1792–1806, Emperor of Austria 1804–1835) and Alexander I (1777–1825; Emperor of Russia 1801–1825) for advocating the suppression of the constitutional regime in Spain. Brougham was particularly critical of Alexander I, whom he strongly implied had conspired in the assassination of his father, Paul (1754–1801; Emperor of Russia 1796–1801), in order to gain the throne.[back]
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