4306. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 26 December 1824

 

Address: To/ J Rickman Esqre 
Endorsement: 26. Decr./ 1824
MS: Huntington Library, RS 456. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 455–456.

Keswick 26 Dec. 1824
My dear R.

I have had a letter from Dr Stoddart,

(1)

John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB), founder and editor of the pro-government New Times newspaper 1817–1828

praying me – almost in formâ pauperis,

(2)

‘in the form of a pauper’. A legal term for a litigant who was allowed to proceed with their case without paying the usual fees, on the grounds of their poverty.

to send him now & then a letter for the New Times, & to let it be known that I do so. I am very sorry that his paper is in such poor repute as to put him upon this expedient of correspondence; – & not much I have not much hope that this sort of correspondence will prove a better speculation to him upon the scale, than it did upon a larger some years ago.

(3)

Stoddart had also founded the short-lived journal, The Correspondent; Consisting of Letters, Moral, Political and Literary, between Eminent Writers in France and England; and designed by presenting to each Nation a Faithful Picture of the Other, to Enlighten both to their True Interests, promote a mutual Good Understanding between them, and render Peace the Source of a Common Prosperity (1817).

No doubt you have heard from him to the same effect. – I have promised to help him occasionally, – in hopeless good will. – His paper – in spite of every possible advantage, is dying of the incurable disease of dulness. The only sure means of saving it would be to put it into the hands of a new editor, which – if he could bear to do it, – he could not afford to do.

The QR. is at last consigned to John Coleridge, & Murray may thank me for having provided him with an Editor, – for he knew not where to find one. If any adequate person, or any person supposed to be adequate, could have been found, I am not without a suspicion that my recommendation would have stood in J.C’s way, both in Giffords opinion & in Murray’s. G. holding me to be too liberally inclined, & Murray on the other hand xxxx entertaining an equal fear of my bigotry. Both therefore would be disinclined to an Editor who would confide in me, & in whom I could confide. – The change will be of serious advantage to the Review, & as far as that Review acts upon the public, a very desirable one. And for myself I shall write with the better will, as being no longer liable to capricious mutilations, – nor in any danger of having what I have said in one number, purposely contradicted in the next.

If the weather be as wet on the continent as it is with us, Holland will be in some danger of being drowned. I see they have called in Mr Telford at Bath in a case of this kind.

(4)

The city of Bath was liable to flooding because of the number of weirs and other obstructions downstream on the River Avon. Telford was consulted about the matter in 1824 and proposed that the river channel should be enlarged and redirected; however, nothing was done, partly because of the estimated cost of nearly £50,000.

What a noble way of spending some fifty millions it would be to employ him in taming the inundations of the Rhine & its tributaries! – & providing the snows of Switzerland with a safe course to the German sea!

I shall be glad to hear that Willy

(5)

William Charles Rickman (1812–1886), Rickman’s only son.

is quite recovered.

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB), founder and editor of the pro-government New Times newspaper 1817–1828[back]
2. ‘in the form of a pauper’. A legal term for a litigant who was allowed to proceed with their case without paying the usual fees, on the grounds of their poverty.[back]
3. Stoddart had also founded the short-lived journal, The Correspondent; Consisting of Letters, Moral, Political and Literary, between Eminent Writers in France and England; and designed by presenting to each Nation a Faithful Picture of the Other, to Enlighten both to their True Interests, promote a mutual Good Understanding between them, and render Peace the Source of a Common Prosperity (1817).[back]
4. The city of Bath was liable to flooding because of the number of weirs and other obstructions downstream on the River Avon. Telford was consulted about the matter in 1824 and proposed that the river channel should be enlarged and redirected; however, nothing was done, partly because of the estimated cost of nearly £50,000.[back]
5. William Charles Rickman (1812–1886), Rickman’s only son.[back]
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