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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 72–74; Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 111–112.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
I am just now enabled to give you some intelligence concerning my self. In this topsey-turveying of ministers Wynn was very anxious as he says ‘to pick something out of the fire’ for me. The
Registership of the Vice Admiralty Court in St Luciefor we have xxx
been intimate for 19 years) – he has now nearly doubled his expenditure by marrying, & his wifes fortune could have been very
little. This I suppose is asked for, & granted to me as a man of letters – in which character I feel myself fully & fairly
entitled to receive it, – & you know me too well to suppose that it can make me lose one jot of that freedom both of opinion &
of speech, without which I should think myself unworthy – not of this poor xxxx earthly pittance alone – but of Gods air
& sunshine, & my inheritance in heaven.
I sent you the Specimens,you (I trust) before you will receive
Espriella
Thank you for all your kindness to Harry – I have been daily in hopes of hearing what you thought of him.
This change of ministry – I am as hostile to the measure which was the pretext for it as the King himself, – but having
conceded that measure, the Kings conduct is equally exceptionable.always a lack of talents in the English Government.