4298. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, [19 December 1824]

 

Address: To/ G.C. Bedford Esqre/ Exchequer.
Endorsements: Recd 23 Decr 1824; £30 to E.S.; Recd 23 Decr 1824; Notes sent/ 13762. £20 – 17 Novr 1824/ 19563 10 13 Novr 1824
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: Dating from content: Southey’s observation that he will write to Sharon Turner ‘this night’. Southey to John Taylor Coleridge, 21 December 1824 (Letter 4300) indicates that Southey had written to Turner two days earlier, i.e. 19 December 1824.

My dear Grosvenor

It never can be worth while to take any notice of so foul & atrocious an attack as this which you have sent me.

(1)

The Morning Chronicle, 17 December 1824, published a letter headed ‘Southey versus Lord Byron’. Although this contained a sustained attack on Southey, he eventually decided not to take legal action.

– The single truth in thxx <it> is that in my letters from Portugal a disbelief of the eternity of hell-torments is declared, – which disbelief I am ready to repeat whenever it is needful.

(2)

The fifth point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, declared his disbelief of the leading doctrine of the Scriptures – namely, Eternal Punishment in a Future State. Has he not even called it there damnable and impious; and has he not, in his other publications, represented it to be a Divine Truth, and necessary to justify God’s moral government of the world?’ Southey believed this to refer to his Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal (Bristol, 1797), pp. 525–532, where he discussed ‘the diabolical belief of …

Other charges are founded upon Espriella,

(3)

Southey’s Letters from England: Translated from the Spanish by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807). The seventh point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, published a work without his name, in which he holds up the Roman Catholic Church as the one true Church of Christ, the Reformation in England as no Reformation at all, but the destruction of her best institutions, both moral, civil, and religious, and in which he represents her Reformers as a pack of rascals altogether? And has he not published another work since with his name, [The Book of the Church, 1824]…

as if in personating a true Spaniard I had been stating my own opinion of the Catholic faith! the <first,> last,

(4)

The first point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Was Mr. Southey, or was he not, during the French Revolution, a member of a republican revolutionary society? And did he, or did he not, at that time openly avow himself to be a republican and a revolutionist?’ Southey had not, in fact, been a member of a ‘revolutionary society’, but he had certainly been a republican. The eighth and final point was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, raked up and collected together (note upon note, and line upon line) the most salacious, prurient, and filthy witticisms upon the mo…

& that about O Meara

(5)

The third point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, stigmatised the character of Mr. Barry O’Meara, for being expelled from the army (though it was only for fighting a duel, a thing very natural in a fighting man), and was he, or was he not, himself long before expelled from Balliol College, in Oxford, and if so, for what was he expelled; and when Ministers sent for Mr. Southey to Oxford for a LL.D. did Balliol or did any other College in Oxford enroll him as a Member of it?’ Barry Edward O’Meara (1786–1836) attended Napoleon Bonapa…

<& the expulsion from College> are lies in toto, without the slightest foundation or resemblance shadow of truth. – The whole is too bad to be noticed. And perhaps you do not know that the Editor of the M Chronicle

(6)

John Black (1783–1855; DNB), editor of the Morning Chronicle, 1817–1843.

is a thorough-paced scoundrel, – or you would not talk of the respectability of that paper.

My letter

(7)

Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 8 December 1824, Letter 4289, published 13 December 1824.

has annoyed these villains, as much as the former one

(8)

Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, published 11 January 1822.

enraged Lord Byron. Let them spit their venom till they blacken their own lips with it. The only answer that could be given to such an assailant would be to spit in his face, call him liar, & knock him down.

The only question is whether it would not be fitting to prosecute the M. Chronicle upon the last charge. Upon this I will take advice For that the passage is libellous there can surely be no doubt, at least there would be none, if law were any thing not the rascally craft it is.

Will you – who are my high treasurer & sole resource in time of need, – send thirty pounds to Edith.

God bless you
RS.

I write this night to Turner, & shall be guided by his advice, caring very little what that determination may be, for such enemies can do me no injury & give me no molestation.

Notes

1. The Morning Chronicle, 17 December 1824, published a letter headed ‘Southey versus Lord Byron’. Although this contained a sustained attack on Southey, he eventually decided not to take legal action.[back]
2. The fifth point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, declared his disbelief of the leading doctrine of the Scriptures – namely, Eternal Punishment in a Future State. Has he not even called it there damnable and impious; and has he not, in his other publications, represented it to be a Divine Truth, and necessary to justify God’s moral government of the world?’ Southey believed this to refer to his Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal (Bristol, 1797), pp. 525–532, where he discussed ‘the diabolical belief of eternal punishment’ (p. 525).[back]
3. Southey’s Letters from England: Translated from the Spanish by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807). The seventh point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, published a work without his name, in which he holds up the Roman Catholic Church as the one true Church of Christ, the Reformation in England as no Reformation at all, but the destruction of her best institutions, both moral, civil, and religious, and in which he represents her Reformers as a pack of rascals altogether? And has he not published another work since with his name, [The Book of the Church, 1824] in which he has extolled the Church of England, represented the Church of Rome as the whore of Babylon, the reformation of the light of the world, and the reformers of the glory of it?’[back]
4. The first point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Was Mr. Southey, or was he not, during the French Revolution, a member of a republican revolutionary society? And did he, or did he not, at that time openly avow himself to be a republican and a revolutionist?’ Southey had not, in fact, been a member of a ‘revolutionary society’, but he had certainly been a republican. The eighth and final point was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, raked up and collected together (note upon note, and line upon line) the most salacious, prurient, and filthy witticisms upon the most awful and sacred subjects, upon the Vessel of Incarnation chosen for the redemption of mankind, upon the Salutation of the Angel, upon the formation of our Holy Redeemer in the uterus, and upon the practicability of clergymen baptizing children in the vagina of their mothers’ wombs before they were brought into the world?’[back]
5. The third point in the Morning Chronicle letter was: ‘Has Mr. Southey, or has he not, in one of his publications, stigmatised the character of Mr. Barry O’Meara, for being expelled from the army (though it was only for fighting a duel, a thing very natural in a fighting man), and was he, or was he not, himself long before expelled from Balliol College, in Oxford, and if so, for what was he expelled; and when Ministers sent for Mr. Southey to Oxford for a LL.D. did Balliol or did any other College in Oxford enroll him as a Member of it?’ Barry Edward O’Meara (1786–1836) attended Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French 1804–1814, 1815) as his doctor on St Helena 1815–1818 and published Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St Helena (1822). When he encountered Napoleon, O’Meara held an appointment in the Navy. He had previously been Assistant-Surgeon to the 62nd Regiment in the Army but had been dismissed in 1807 for acting as the second in a duel. O’Meara’s conduct had been attacked in the review of his book in Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 219–264 (220), published 15 February 1823. The review was by Croker, but, as it was anonymous, it could easily be misattributed to Southey, a well-known writer for the Quarterly and critic of Napoleon. Southey had not been expelled from Balliol, but left voluntarily in 1794; he had, though, been expelled from Westminster School in 1792.[back]
6. John Black (1783–1855; DNB), editor of the Morning Chronicle, 1817–1843.[back]
7. Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 8 December 1824, Letter 4289, published 13 December 1824.[back]
8. Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, published 11 January 1822.[back]
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