4296. Robert Southey to John Murray, 15 December 1824

 

Address: To/ John Murray Esqre/ Albemarle Street/ London 
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 18 DE 18/ 1824
Watermark: KINGSFORD/ 1814
Endorsement: 1824–December/ Southey R Esq 
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42552. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 15 Dec. 1824
My dear Sir

I am glad to receive your letter, & quite confident I am that you have determined wisely in a matter of no little consequence both to yourself & the public.

(1)

Murray had just appointed John Taylor Coleridge to succeed William Gifford as editor of the Quarterly Review.

I can have no hesitation in writing according to your wish to Mr Croker, – with whom I am upon such terms that a letter from me would appear as a natural & proper, tho not a common, occurrence. But with Mr Canning it would be otherwise. The personal civilities which I have received from him, are not much as to place me upon any footing of freedom with him. I can ask him a favour connected with any literary object (for example, to procure those Catalan books – if any such there had been,)

(2)

Southey to George Canning, 2 January 1824, Letter 4115. Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John …

– because it was paying him a compliment to presume upon his willingness in such a case to grant one. But I am shy of obtruding myself upon a person so high in office; & especially unwilling to arrogate to myself any importance for the part which I may have borne in the QR.

There is also another motive which would withhold me from addressing him upon this topic. The time cannot be far distant when the Q. R. must take its part upon a most momentous subject, & chuse between Mr Canning & the Church.

(3)

Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation.

I have always considered it as one of the greatest errors in the management of the Review that it should have been silent upon that subject so long. Something of what is going on, I know; (even at this distance from the sphere of public affairs) more than is publicly known; & the crisis is likely to be accelerated by the rebellion which may at any hour break out in Ireland, – where it cannot be doubted that the intention of a desperate party is to bring on a religious war. Let us take our stand upon the rock of high constitutional principles, & we shall have with us the integrity & the talents & the heart of the country. – But with this hope, & knowing what I know, it would be unfitting in me to do any thing which Mr. C. might suppose that the Q.R. would follow wherever he may lead. – There are other members of the Government to whom I can make such a communication without scruple, & for whose confidence I can answer.

I have long been looking wistfully for the books from Germany concerning the Peninsular War.

(4)

Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). The bibliography of his History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), III, p. 936, suggests that Southey was probably seeking: Hermann von Staff (1790–1867), Der Befreiungs–Krieg der Katalonier, in den Jahren 1808 bis 1814 (1821–1827); and Franz Xaver Rigel (1783–1852), Die Siebenjahrige Kampf auf der Pyrenaischen Halbinsel vom Jahre 1807 bis 1814; besonders miene eigenen Erfahrungen in disem Kriege; nebst Bemerkungen uber das Spanische Volk und Land (1819–1821), no. 2442 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

The Church Missionary Society will furnish more than one interesting subject.

(5)

Southey’s article in Quarterly Review, 32 (June 1825), 1–42. This was (ostensibly) a review of An Abstract of the Annual Reports and Correspondence of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, from the Commencement of its Connexion with the East India Missions, A. D. 1709, to the Present Day (1814); and of the Church Missionary Society’s Missionary Register (1813–1824), no. 1962 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The latter organisation was founded in 1799 by evangelical Anglicans.

Will you send me their “Proceedings”

(6)

The Church Missionary Society’s Proceedings were published annually from 1801 onwards.

– which I find announced in the Missionary Register as published in 3 volumes: the Miss: Register for 1823, & 1824; the Abstract of the Annual Reports of the Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowledge;

(7)

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is an Anglican missionary organisation founded in 1698.

– & Cruise’s New Zealand.

(8)

Richard Cruise (c. 1784–1832), Journal of a Ten Months’ Residence in New Zealand (1823). It was reviewed by Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB) in Quarterly Review, 31 (April 1824), 52–65, published 30 December 1824/1 January 1825.

My plan is to have one paper upon the Societies connected with the Established Church, – what they have done & are doing; Another upon New Zealand.

(9)

The proposed article on New Zealand was not written.

Let me have your last Number

(10)

Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), published 28 August 1824.

with these (which I have never yet seen) – & the fair sheets of the Pen. War

(11)

The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

beginning with X.

Farewell my dear Sir & believe me
Yours very truly
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Murray had just appointed John Taylor Coleridge to succeed William Gifford as editor of the Quarterly Review.[back]
2. Southey to George Canning, 2 January 1824, Letter 4115. Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John Murray: 10 July 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3509; 27 February 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3641; 11 June 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3693; and 27 July 1822, Letter 3877 and 1 November [1822], Letter 3911. Murray had then written to Spain to try and obtain these books for Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832), and Herbert Hill had also offered to help. Southey had then sought the assistance of George Canning and, finally, John Mitford.[back]
3. Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation.[back]
4. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). The bibliography of his History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), III, p. 936, suggests that Southey was probably seeking: Hermann von Staff (1790–1867), Der Befreiungs–Krieg der Katalonier, in den Jahren 1808 bis 1814 (1821–1827); and Franz Xaver Rigel (1783–1852), Die Siebenjahrige Kampf auf der Pyrenaischen Halbinsel vom Jahre 1807 bis 1814; besonders miene eigenen Erfahrungen in disem Kriege; nebst Bemerkungen uber das Spanische Volk und Land (1819–1821), no. 2442 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
5. Southey’s article in Quarterly Review, 32 (June 1825), 1–42. This was (ostensibly) a review of An Abstract of the Annual Reports and Correspondence of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, from the Commencement of its Connexion with the East India Missions, A. D. 1709, to the Present Day (1814); and of the Church Missionary Society’s Missionary Register (1813–1824), no. 1962 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The latter organisation was founded in 1799 by evangelical Anglicans.[back]
6. The Church Missionary Society’s Proceedings were published annually from 1801 onwards.[back]
7. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is an Anglican missionary organisation founded in 1698.[back]
8. Richard Cruise (c. 1784–1832), Journal of a Ten Months’ Residence in New Zealand (1823). It was reviewed by Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet (1764–1848; DNB) in Quarterly Review, 31 (April 1824), 52–65, published 30 December 1824/1 January 1825.[back]
9. The proposed article on New Zealand was not written.[back]
10. Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), published 28 August 1824.[back]
11. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
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