3984. Robert Southey to Edward Hawke Locker, 21 March 1823

 

MS: Huntington Library, LR 325. ALS; 5p.
Previously published: W. A. Speck, ‘Robert Southey’s Letters to Edward Hawke Locker’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 62.1–2 (1999), 159–161 [in part].

Keswick. 21 March. 1823.
My dear Sir

I am glad to hear of the proposed edition of the Plain Englishman.

(1)

Locker’s journal The Plain Englishman (1820–1823) had folded, but he was planning a miscellany of its best contents, The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (1824).

My daughter is now transcribing for it the pieces which will accompany this letter.

(2)

Southey’s New Year’s odes for January 1820 and January 1821, ‘The Warning Voice: Ode I and Ode II’ appeared in The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), pp. 381–389.

Should they require more room than it is convenient to afford them, lay them aside without scruple, & I will send you something shorter. They are two of my annual Odes, written at the close of the years in which they are respectively dated. My successor may perhaps find the benefit of my withholding these pieces from the newspapers at thex time they are written. On my part they have been regularly prepared, & my musical colleague has as regularly composed them (that is such portions of them as have been thought suitable) – but since I held the office the performance has never been called for, & there is good hope therefore that it may fall into disuse, – being a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.

(3)

As Poet Laureate, Southey was required to write an annual New Year’s ode; but the performance of musical settings of these odes at Court had been suspended since 1810.

Thank you for the American Sermons.

(4)

Jonathan Boucher (1738–1804; DNB) was an Anglican clergyman and close friend of George Washington (1732–1799; President of the United States 1789–1797), who left America in 1775 because he opposed the American Revolution. His A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution (1797) comprised annotated versions of thirteen sermons that Boucher preached in America 1763–1775. Locker had married, in 1815, Eleanor Locker, daughter of Jonathan Boucher.

That I have read them you will perceive by an incidental reference in the next number of the Q.R. if it contains my paper upon the rise & progress of Infidelity:

(5)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire, ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536 (519), published 8 July 1823.

– & that they will be of great advantage to me will be seen as soon as I can prepare a paper upon the condition & prospects of the United States, for which Dwights Travels

(6)

Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey reviewed Dwight’s book in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.

afford good materials & opportunity. The discourses are as able as I have expected to find them; they confirm the opinions which I had formed upon the subject, & have added largely to the information upon which those opinions were founded.

Gifford has not written to me since his recovery, – but I learn from Murray that he means to die in harness. The last number

(7)

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

was a great deal better than its predecessor, which was disgraced by that wretched half-apology for Lord Byron, – & a defence of Shakespeare & Revealed Religion against him!!

(8)

Murray was the publisher of both Byron and the Quarterly Review. The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, published 23 October 1822, was not the swingeing condemnation that Southey would have liked. Heber’s article (pp. 479–487) defended English drama (not just Shakespeare) against Byron’s strictures; and Heber defended orthodox Christianity against the arg…

Neither Gifford nor Murray are aware how strong a feeling of disapprobation toward their journal has been excited by this, & other sins, both of omission & commission with which it is justly to be charged. There is a strong disposition to start a rival journal,

(9)

The proposal came from Joseph Mawman (1759–1827), a bookseller and author from York, who became a well-known London publisher. His firm was based in the City of London, rather than the West End, like Murray. The proposal for a rival journal to the Quarterly Review did not materialise.

– & offers <overtures> which few men in my circumstances would have rejected were held out to me to take the management, upon terms much more liberal than it had ever been my fortune to meet with, in all my numerous transactions with the booksellers. But tho the love of money is the last sin which besets us, it will never be my besetting sin. The great historical works which I have in hand, or in preparation, & for which I have been preparing since the year 1800,

(10)

Primarily Southey’s ‘History of Portugal’, which was never completed.

will be sufficient to occupy the remainder of my life, even should it be extended to old age; & I will not sacrifice allot more time, than is absolutely necessary, for employments of temporary interest, & for the sake of immediate emolument. – I had rather see the QR. reformed, than rivalled; it possesses greater influence than a competitor could obtain till after many years. What is published there is sure to be read by the very persons whom it is most desirable to influence upon great public questions. Of all men whom I know John Coleridge would make the best editor, for principles, talents & strength of character. Into his hands I think it must devolve.

I shall take the affairs of Spain for my next paper, if the subject is not pre occupied, & Leucadio Doblado (Blanco White) for my text.

(11)

Blanco White’s Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado (1822). Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review.

Are you acquainted with him, & his history? He is a man for whom I have the highest respect, – for tho suffering under a bad constitution & valetudinarian habits, he has done his part well; & had his countrymen listened to his warning voice, Spain might at this day have been a free & prosperous country. The only circumstance which makes me apprehend even a possibility of our being drawn into the war, is the appearance & speech of Mr Littleton at the dinner to the Ambassadors.

(12)

A public dinner was held at the City of London Tavern on 7 March 1823 to support the Spanish liberal regime, which was threatened by imminent invasion by France to restore royal absolutism. The guests of honour were Juan Jabat Aztal (1772–1825), the Spanish Ambassador 1822–1823, João Francisco de Oliveira (dates unknown), the Portuguese chargé d’affaires 1821–1822, and Lorenzo Fernandez de Villavicencio y Canas, 3rd Duke of San Lorenzo and Valhermoso (1778–1859), formerly Spanish Ambassador to France. Littleton was one of a number of eminent speakers and proposed a toast to ‘Civil and Religiou…

He, as M. Wellesleys son in law, must know what the feelings of that family are, & is likely to act in conformity to them. I was therefore surprized & grieved at what he said. The interference of France would be right, if it could be efficacious. But how is the Government which it may establish, to be supported? Where are its revenues to be found? And what is to prevent the Radicals from filling the whole country with banditti, – a course of life to which the destruction of all trade, & the total want of protection, must drive all <able-bodied men,> who chuse neither to beg nor starve. – It is a deplorable state of things. The minds of men are in such a state there, that they are equally impatient of a bad government, & incapable of a good one. As for Ferdinand & the Cortes,

(13)

Ferdinand VII (1784–1833; King of Spain 1808, 1813–1833) had been forced by an army revolt in 1820 to restore the Constitution of 1812 with its elected Cortes.

I think xxxible of both know tho what may happen to them may excite horror, <but> it will hardly raise compassion; – but that the Spaniards should be re-barbarized, & degraded, would indeed be an evil for Europe & for the World. And yet the tendency of events is to render the country one wide scene of anarchy, overrun by troops as barbarous as any of the wild Arabs, or mountaineers of Asia.

What you say of Negro emancipation coincides entirely with my feelings upon that subject. The present D of Northumberland made a motion to that effect, some sixteen or seventeen years ago;

(14)

Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland (1785–1847; DNB), had proposed a motion in the House of Commons on 16 March 1807 for leave to bring in a Bill to gradually abolish slavery, by stipulating that all children born of slaves after a certain date should be declared free; but the motion was ‘counted out’ as the Commons was not quorate.

it was not supported, & scarcely noticed; – I however sent the following lines to one of the newspapers at the time, – & if you think them worth reprinting, they are at the Plain Englishmans service.

(15)

This poem was first published as ‘Sonnet to Lord Percy, on his late motion for the gradual abolition of slavery in the West Indies’ in the Courier, 22 April 1807. It was reprinted in The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), p. 380.

Sonnet –
to Lord Percy, on his motion for the gradual
abolition of Slavery in the British West Indian Islands

Percy, “of virtuous father virtuous son,”(16)
(Thou too, like him, the friend of the forlorn)
Well hast thou done, & rightly didst advance
From bondage to redeem a race unborn,
Abandond else to their inheritance
Of vice & misery: – rightly hast thou done,
And England turns an eye of hope on thee
For this fair promise of thine opening morn.
In the good path which thou hast chosen, proceed!
Be ever thus the friend of Liberty,
And Earth & Heaven will give thee both thy meed.
Yea greener laurels will be thine in store
Than thy heroic fathers won of yore
In Tiviotdale, & on the banks of Tweed.

the allusion to his father was made, because I happened to know that the late D of Northumberland

(17)

Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (1742–1817; DNB).

was munificent in his secret charities.

I am sorry to hear that Mrs Locker is indisposed, & hope that I may find her well recovered in the month of May. – Thank you for your Views,

(18)

Locker had offered to contribute some of his drawings as sources for Westall’s A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823).

– which I shall have great interest in seeing, – they had better be sent to my brothers 15 Q Anne Street. – When these Odes, & the Algiers

(19)

Southey was unaware that his New Year’s ode for January 1817, ‘Ode on the Battle of Algiers’, had already appeared in The Plain Englishman, 3 (1823), pp. 427–428.

are xx set up, I should like to see the proof, – in the hope of improving them. Trifles catch the eye in types which sometimes escape observation in the manuscript.

Believe me
Yours very truly
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Locker’s journal The Plain Englishman (1820–1823) had folded, but he was planning a miscellany of its best contents, The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (1824).[back]
2. Southey’s New Year’s odes for January 1820 and January 1821, ‘The Warning Voice: Ode I and Ode II’ appeared in The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), pp. 381–389.[back]
3. As Poet Laureate, Southey was required to write an annual New Year’s ode; but the performance of musical settings of these odes at Court had been suspended since 1810.[back]
4. Jonathan Boucher (1738–1804; DNB) was an Anglican clergyman and close friend of George Washington (1732–1799; President of the United States 1789–1797), who left America in 1775 because he opposed the American Revolution. His A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution (1797) comprised annotated versions of thirteen sermons that Boucher preached in America 1763–1775. Locker had married, in 1815, Eleanor Locker, daughter of Jonathan Boucher.[back]
5. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire, ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536 (519), published 8 July 1823.[back]
6. Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey reviewed Dwight’s book in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.[back]
7. Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823.[back]
8. Murray was the publisher of both Byron and the Quarterly Review. The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, published 23 October 1822, was not the swingeing condemnation that Southey would have liked. Heber’s article (pp. 479–487) defended English drama (not just Shakespeare) against Byron’s strictures; and Heber defended orthodox Christianity against the arguments put forward by the characters in Byron’s Cain, especially on the issue of the compatibility of a supreme deity with the existence of evil (pp. 514–524).[back]
9. The proposal came from Joseph Mawman (1759–1827), a bookseller and author from York, who became a well-known London publisher. His firm was based in the City of London, rather than the West End, like Murray. The proposal for a rival journal to the Quarterly Review did not materialise.[back]
10. Primarily Southey’s ‘History of Portugal’, which was never completed.[back]
11. Blanco White’s Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado (1822). Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review.[back]
12. A public dinner was held at the City of London Tavern on 7 March 1823 to support the Spanish liberal regime, which was threatened by imminent invasion by France to restore royal absolutism. The guests of honour were Juan Jabat Aztal (1772–1825), the Spanish Ambassador 1822–1823, João Francisco de Oliveira (dates unknown), the Portuguese chargé d’affaires 1821–1822, and Lorenzo Fernandez de Villavicencio y Canas, 3rd Duke of San Lorenzo and Valhermoso (1778–1859), formerly Spanish Ambassador to France. Littleton was one of a number of eminent speakers and proposed a toast to ‘Civil and Religious Liberty all over the World’. Littleton was a supporter of Canning, but might be expected to know Wellington’s thoughts on Spain as he was married to Wellington’s niece, Marquess Wellesley’s daughter, Hyacinthe Mary (d. 1849).[back]
13. Ferdinand VII (1784–1833; King of Spain 1808, 1813–1833) had been forced by an army revolt in 1820 to restore the Constitution of 1812 with its elected Cortes.[back]
14. Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland (1785–1847; DNB), had proposed a motion in the House of Commons on 16 March 1807 for leave to bring in a Bill to gradually abolish slavery, by stipulating that all children born of slaves after a certain date should be declared free; but the motion was ‘counted out’ as the Commons was not quorate.[back]
15. This poem was first published as ‘Sonnet to Lord Percy, on his late motion for the gradual abolition of slavery in the West Indies’ in the Courier, 22 April 1807. It was reprinted in The Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), p. 380.[back]
16. John Milton (1608–1674; DNB), ‘Sonnet XX’ (‘Lawrence of virtuous Father virtuous Son,’), line 1, from Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions (London, 1673).[back]
17. Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (1742–1817; DNB).[back]
18. Locker had offered to contribute some of his drawings as sources for Westall’s A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823).[back]
19. Southey was unaware that his New Year’s ode for January 1817, ‘Ode on the Battle of Algiers’, had already appeared in The Plain Englishman, 3 (1823), pp. 427–428.[back]
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