4303. Robert Southey to John Taylor Coleridge, 24 December 1824

 

Address: To/ J.T. Coleridge Esqre/ 2. Pump Court/ Temple.
Postmark: 7. NIGHT.7/ 27. DE/ 1824; Bge St West
Endorsement: 1824 Decr 27th/ R Southey Keswick
MS: British Library, Add MS 47553. ALS; 6p.
Previously published: W. Braekman, ‘Letters by Robert Southey to Sir John Taylor Coleridge’, Studia Germanica Gandensia, 6 (1964), 139–141.

Keswick. 24. Dec. 1824.
My dear Sir

I am heartily glad that the QR. is in your hands,

(1)

John Taylor Coleridge was editor of the Quarterly Review 1824–1825.

– for many reasons public & private. That it will injure your professional interests I do not think, & I am quite sure that in rescuing a part of your time from professional pursuits, it will promote your better interests, & enable you to exercise a wider & much more beneficial influence! That Journal will now become what it ought to be. I am not so hasty as to suppose a thorough reform can be immediately effected: but we shall at least make peace with America, without delay, & have no more such papers as those upon Keats & Maturin.

(2)

Two notoriously hostile reviews by John Wilson Croker: of John Keats (1795–1821; DNB), Endymion: a Poetic Romance (1818), Quarterly Review, 19 (April 1818), 204–208, published 26 September 1818; and of Charles Maturin (1782–1824), Melmoth, the Wanderer. By the Author of Bertram (1820), Quarterly Review, 24 (January 1821), 303–311, published 6 April 1821.

You will be able to avoid gross offences at first, – & gradually to bring it in all its departments to something like consistency, & to your own standard.

Now let me say something about contributors. Hartley will be a very competent one: but one upon whom you never can depend for punctuality. You will do well therefore never to reckon upon a paper from him, till you receive it, & taking him with that caution, it will be as serviceable to the Review to employ him, as it will for him to be so employed. There is another person of whom just the same may be said, & whom Murray wished to engage many years ago – De Quincey. There is no man who can so well supply some papers upon German literature, in any of its branches, a subject upon <in> which the QR. has hitherto been wholly deficient. It is with him precisely as with Hartley; he is very able – & not to be depended on.

I must get my brother to bring you acquainted with Henry Taylor, – for his sake. It will do him good, & he is worth all that can be done for him. That paper upon Landors Conversations

(3)

A review of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824), Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), 508–519, published 28 August 1824, by Henry Taylor (though amended by William Gifford).

is his – I have not seen it (for Murray forgot to send me the last number,) – but I know from himself that it was originally written in a very reprehensible spirit, & made ten times worse by Gifford, – who struck out all the qualifying & redeeming parts – more suo.

(4)

‘in his own manner’.

– But you will form a better opinion of Henry Taylor if you will look at some memoirs of Charles Featherstonehaugh in one of the London Magazine for one of the last spring months.

(5)

Henry Taylor, ‘Memoir and Remains of Charles Foster Featherstonehaugh’, London Magazine, 9 (February 1824), 133–139.

You will see there not only how he writes – but some thing very like his own history.

I must tell you more of him. At present he is in the Colonial Office, – & in a fair way, from his talents, of becoming one day a very considerable person. In fact whoever may be the mouth piece for that office, what is in that mouth will come from his head. – He is a fine, generous, noble, creature. But he wants religion: – more by his misfortune than his fault; for he was not trained up in the way that he should go.

(6)

Henry Taylor had largely been educated at home by his father, an enthusiast for the principles of William Godwin (1756–1836; DNB).

His father (a most extraordinary man for acquirements, talents, & strength of character) is the second of three brothers: the elder of whom, William Taylor was a Northumberland Laird, born to a good property, – I think the estate was let for 1200 a year.

(7)

George Taylor was actually the third and youngest of three brothers. His two elder brothers were: William Taylor (1761–1826) and Thomas Forster Taylor (b. 1769). Both attended Trinity College, Cambridge. William Taylor inherited the small estate of Swinhoe-Broomford in Northumberland.

This head of the family was ruined by the French Revolution, – in a manner most honourable to himself, – & which you will know how to appreciate, tho it is hardly to be expected that any man who did not live in those stirring times, can tell what the elevation of mind was which they produced. He thought the law of primogeniture unjust, & therefore – without dividing the estate, gave his brothers their equal share of the its worth, – & thus embarrassed himself for life – without benefitting them.

(8)

Henry Taylor, Autobiography of Henry Taylor, 2 vols (London, 1885), I, p. 5, relates the estate’s difficulties were caused by a prolonged lawsuit over a property in Kent.

The younger brother squandered his portion, – & with it his character, – so that he has disappeared from society.<George> The second (Henry T’s father) was afflicted with a complaint in the eyes, just at the time when he ought to have gone to college; – & during those years his education was finished (I will venture to say better than it would then have been done at college) by William, – who read to him, while he sate in darkness. These two brothers farmed together in the county of Durham, & were well known as some of the most scientific farmers in England. George married & was early left a widower with three sons.

(9)

George Taylor married Eleanor Ashworth (1766–1802), the daughter of a Durham ironmonger, in 1797. They had three sons: George Taylor (c. 1798–1817); William Taylor (c. 1799–1817); and Henry Taylor.

He educated them himself, – & I will venture to say that no family could produce three brothers of greater promise. The two elder grew up & were both in a public office,

(10)

George Taylor was an Assistant in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts, but William Taylor was studying medicine. It was Henry Taylor who held the other minor government post, with the Storekeeper-General.

when the one was seized with typhus, – the other caught it in nursing him, – & the father arrived in London – to find the one dead, – & witness the death of the other.

The blow could not have fallen upon a man who would have felt it more, – or borne it better. For whatever has been said of Roman or Stoic virtue is to be found in G. Taylor. In the course of my experience (which has not been a very limited one, even tho I have long lived in retirement) – I have only known one other person who was so compleatly

Lord of his own resolves, of his own heart absolute master: –

(11)

Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1822), Canto 6, line 20.

& that was my early friend Edmund Seward, to whom I owe more than to any other human being.

His boys were bred up in the highest principles of honour & integrity – but for religion they were left at large; – the disease of the family was a dislike to existing establishments. I suppose if the <father> had called himself any thing it would have been an Unitarian. Time & affliction have wrought a great change in him. He married again about three or four years ago,

(12)

George Taylor married, for a second time in 1818, Jane Mills (1770–1853), daughter of Henry Mills (1737–1807), a minor landowner in County Durham, wine merchant and partner in the Durham bankers, Mills, Hopper & Co.

– the attachment had been of long standing, – but the marriage was delayed till he <should> have fulfilled his duty to his children: – nor did it take place till after the loss of the two eldest. – My brother will tell you more of him, – & what I have said will induce you to regard his son with some interest. But the young man is a most promising person, with the heart & mind of a poet.

If you would like an article (& it would be very useful at this time) upon the quiet, real – substantial reforms which are going on in the North of Germany, Henry Robinson can supply you with one. I think you know him: but if you do not, he may be applied to thro Gooch, – or thro me.

(13)

Despite Southey’s helpful advice, none of Hartley Coleridge, Thomas de Quincey, Henry Taylor or Henry Crabb Robinson contributed to the Quarterly Review during John Taylor Coleridge’s brief editorship.

A word or two now concerning my own contributions. I have begun Bayard for your first number;

(14)

Sara Coleridge’s translation, 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 gave this a glowing recommendation in Quarterly Review, 32 (October 1825), 355–397.

& am planning (as I mentioned in my last) a paper on the Church-Societies.

(15)

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.

You shall have an article regularly for every number for some time to come, & if you desire, a shorter paper also upon any book of travels,

(16)

Southey’s review of Marianne Baillie (1788–1831; DNB), Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822 and 1823 (1824), Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 378–390, published 11 March 1825.

– it is but to say so. And it will be well to make a good shew of strength at your commencement. Tell Murray to send me the new edition of Baxters Works, that I may write a life of him for you.

(17)

The Puritan clergyman, Richard Baxter (1615–1691; DNB). It is not clear which edition of his works Southey is referring to: he may have heard of the forthcoming The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter with a Life of the Author and a Critical Examination of his Writings (1830), edited by William Orme (1787–1830; DNB). Southey did not write on the subject for the Quarterly Review.

This I shall enjoy doing. I have his own Life & times,

(18)

Richard Baxter, Narrative of His Life and Times (1696), no. 239 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

– & I have also as most useful auxiliaries Ormes rascally life of Owen (upon whom (i.e. Orme) the lash shall be well laid.)

(19)

William Orme (1787–1830; DNB), Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Religious Connections of John Owen D. D. (1820), no. 2062 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a biography of the Nonconformist theologian, John Owen (1616–1683; DNB).

Jacksons life of Goodwin,

(20)

Thomas Jackson (1783–1873; DNB), The Life of Thomas Goodwin, A. M. (1822), no. 1490 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a biography of the Nonconformist preacher, John Goodwin (1594–1655; DNB).

& that rich repository of ill arranged materials Nichols’s Arminianism & Calvinism compared.

(21)

James Nichols (1785–1861; DNB), Calvinism and Arminianism Compared in their Principles and Tendency (1824), no. 2032 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

I have also cart loads of Quakerism, so that I want only Baxters own works

Another subject that I can undertake is the present state of Portugal.

(22)

Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review at this time, beyond his comments in his review of Marianne Baillie (1788–1831; DNB), Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822 and 1823 (1824), Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 378–390, published 11 March 1825.

And now God bless you –
yrs affectionately
RS.

I am desired to say that Sara thanks you for your letter, – & that Mrs C. will communicate your message to Hartley.

(23)

An invitation to Hartley Coleridge to write for the Quarterly Review.

– I had nearly forgotten to say that I shall thankfully receive your Blackstone

(24)

John Taylor Coleridge had just edited the sixth edition of Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780; DNB), Commentaries on the Laws of England (1825), no. 305 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

Notes

1. John Taylor Coleridge was editor of the Quarterly Review 1824–1825.[back]
2. Two notoriously hostile reviews by John Wilson Croker: of John Keats (1795–1821; DNB), Endymion: a Poetic Romance (1818), Quarterly Review, 19 (April 1818), 204–208, published 26 September 1818; and of Charles Maturin (1782–1824), Melmoth, the Wanderer. By the Author of Bertram (1820), Quarterly Review, 24 (January 1821), 303–311, published 6 April 1821.[back]
3. A review of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824), Quarterly Review, 30 (January 1824), 508–519, published 28 August 1824, by Henry Taylor (though amended by William Gifford).[back]
4. ‘in his own manner’.[back]
5. Henry Taylor, ‘Memoir and Remains of Charles Foster Featherstonehaugh’, London Magazine, 9 (February 1824), 133–139.[back]
6. Henry Taylor had largely been educated at home by his father, an enthusiast for the principles of William Godwin (1756–1836; DNB).[back]
7. George Taylor was actually the third and youngest of three brothers. His two elder brothers were: William Taylor (1761–1826) and Thomas Forster Taylor (b. 1769). Both attended Trinity College, Cambridge. William Taylor inherited the small estate of Swinhoe-Broomford in Northumberland.[back]
8. Henry Taylor, Autobiography of Henry Taylor, 2 vols (London, 1885), I, p. 5, relates the estate’s difficulties were caused by a prolonged lawsuit over a property in Kent.[back]
9. George Taylor married Eleanor Ashworth (1766–1802), the daughter of a Durham ironmonger, in 1797. They had three sons: George Taylor (c. 1798–1817); William Taylor (c. 1799–1817); and Henry Taylor.[back]
10. George Taylor was an Assistant in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts, but William Taylor was studying medicine. It was Henry Taylor who held the other minor government post, with the Storekeeper-General.[back]
11. Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1822), Canto 6, line 20.[back]
12. George Taylor married, for a second time in 1818, Jane Mills (1770–1853), daughter of Henry Mills (1737–1807), a minor landowner in County Durham, wine merchant and partner in the Durham bankers, Mills, Hopper & Co.[back]
13. Despite Southey’s helpful advice, none of Hartley Coleridge, Thomas de Quincey, Henry Taylor or Henry Crabb Robinson contributed to the Quarterly Review during John Taylor Coleridge’s brief editorship.[back]
14. Sara Coleridge’s translation, 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 gave this a glowing recommendation in Quarterly Review, 32 (October 1825), 355–397.[back]
15. 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]
16. Southey’s review of Marianne Baillie (1788–1831; DNB), Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822 and 1823 (1824), Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 378–390, published 11 March 1825.[back]
17. The Puritan clergyman, Richard Baxter (1615–1691; DNB). It is not clear which edition of his works Southey is referring to: he may have heard of the forthcoming The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter with a Life of the Author and a Critical Examination of his Writings (1830), edited by William Orme (1787–1830; DNB). Southey did not write on the subject for the Quarterly Review.[back]
18. Richard Baxter, Narrative of His Life and Times (1696), no. 239 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
19. William Orme (1787–1830; DNB), Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Religious Connections of John Owen D. D. (1820), no. 2062 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a biography of the Nonconformist theologian, John Owen (1616–1683; DNB).[back]
20. Thomas Jackson (1783–1873; DNB), The Life of Thomas Goodwin, A. M. (1822), no. 1490 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a biography of the Nonconformist preacher, John Goodwin (1594–1655; DNB).[back]
21. James Nichols (1785–1861; DNB), Calvinism and Arminianism Compared in their Principles and Tendency (1824), no. 2032 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
22. Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review at this time, beyond his comments in his review of Marianne Baillie (1788–1831; DNB), Lisbon in the Years 1821, 1822 and 1823 (1824), Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 378–390, published 11 March 1825.[back]
23. An invitation to Hartley Coleridge to write for the Quarterly Review.[back]
24. John Taylor Coleridge had just edited the sixth edition of Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780; DNB), Commentaries on the Laws of England (1825), no. 305 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
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