3986. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 22 March 1823

 

Address: To/ G.C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer/ Westminster
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 25 MR 25/ 1823
Endorsement: 22 March 1823
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 382–384.

Keswick. 22 March. 1823.
My dear Grosvenor

Suppose you were a young Lady in the nineteenth year of your age, very busy in preparing certain remembrances to be transmitted by a safe opportunity to her distant friends, – & that some of these remembrances could not be finished for want of ultra-marine;

(1)

A pigment for use in watercolour painting. Ultramarine is a deep blue colour.

& that one of your fathers oldest & dearest friends, holding a high situation in his Majestys Exchequer, had promised to send you a cake of this indispensable colour, under cover of an official frank, – should not you think that the whole business of the Exchequer & all things connected therewith might be suspended, while the said ultra-marine <marine> was procured?

Will you send me some Vegetable marrow seeds under the same cover, – & I will promise you that their produce shall be excellently cooked, when you come & help me to drink Lightfoot cyder which is now upon the road.

The Royal Irish Academy sent me, the other day, another tail to my name,

(2)

Southey had been elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (founded 1785), a body that existed to promote Irish scientific and cultural activities and studies.

for the benefit of my next title-page. – I am glad this was done after my Irish Ode was written, & before it has appeared in the world.

(3)

‘Ireland’, Sir Thomas More: or. Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [295]–302. The poem, Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1822, was inspired by George IV’s State visit to Ireland, 12 August–3 September 1821. Southey used his new honour on the title page of his next publication, The Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, p. [iii].

I have to day received the proofs of my paper upon the Theophilanthropists in France & the Rise & Progress of Infidelity,

(4)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), ‘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, published 8 July 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

– & of course seen it for the first time as a whole. What opinion may be formed of it I cannot foresee; – but that with regard to individuals it will do some of the good which was intended, I do not doubt. And upon this first consecutive perusal, I am glad that I have written it.

Gifford has not written to me since his recovery. It is possible that he may not be in good humour with me for endeavouring to procure a successor for him, tho it was in consequence of his expressing to me the necessity of looking out for one. I certainly wish the Journal were in John Coleridges hands, both for personal & public considerations. The good which it might do is grievously counteracted by the gross inconsistencies which are now to be found in it, – its cruel & unmanly injustices on some occasions, – & its wretched cowardice on others. – I shall ask him if he will have an article upon Spain & Portugal,

(5)

Southey did not write an article on this subject for the Quarterly Review in 1823.

– a question upon which I am quite willing to take the field against all the Whigs in the world. Oh how I could trample upon them!

I mean to ask Murray to print a selection of xxx my papers with restorations & revisions, in some such arrangement – as Essays – moral & political, which would fill two volumes,

(6)

This project became Southey’s Essays, Moral and Political (1832).

– then as many more of Essays, historical & ecclesiastical, – & lastly critical & miscellaneous,

(7)

These two further collections were not published.

keeping each collection distinct, not to alarm the public with too much at once. In this manner he might put some money in my pocket & in his own. I should include some papers from the Annual Review & make up some from the Ed: An: Register

(8)

Southey had reviewed extensively for the Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803) until the Annual Review for 1808, 7 (1809) and written the historical sections of the Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1808 (1810) until the Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1811 (1813). Essays I-III in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), I, pp. [3]–72, and Essays XI–XII in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), II, pp. [277]–328, were mainly drawn from the Edinburgh Annual Register. None of Southey’s pieces in the Annual Review formed the basis of an essay, but parts of Southey’s review of Thoma…

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. A pigment for use in watercolour painting. Ultramarine is a deep blue colour.[back]
2. Southey had been elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (founded 1785), a body that existed to promote Irish scientific and cultural activities and studies.[back]
3. ‘Ireland’, Sir Thomas More: or. Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [295]–302. The poem, Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1822, was inspired by George IV’s State visit to Ireland, 12 August–3 September 1821. Southey used his new honour on the title page of his next publication, The Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, p. [iii].[back]
4. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), ‘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, published 8 July 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
5. Southey did not write an article on this subject for the Quarterly Review in 1823.[back]
6. This project became Southey’s Essays, Moral and Political (1832).[back]
7. These two further collections were not published.[back]
8. Southey had reviewed extensively for the Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803) until the Annual Review for 1808, 7 (1809) and written the historical sections of the Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1808 (1810) until the Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1811 (1813). Essays I-III in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), I, pp. [3]–72, and Essays XI–XII in Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), II, pp. [277]–328, were mainly drawn from the Edinburgh Annual Register. None of Southey’s pieces in the Annual Review formed the basis of an essay, but parts of Southey’s review of Thomas Malthus (1766–1834; DNB), An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803), Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 292–301, were grafted onto Essay IV of Essays, Moral and Political, 2 vols (London, 1832), I, pp. [73]–155, which was mainly from Southey’s review of Patrick Colquhoun (1745–1820; DNB), Propositions for Ameliorating the Condition of the Poor: and for Improving the Moral Habits, and Increasing the Comforts of the Labouring People (1812), Quarterly Review, 8 (December 1812), 319–356.[back]
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