Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.
Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>
By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions:
Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.
British Library, Add MS 47890. Not previously published.
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 afraid the Voyage
Do not be surprized if you get a square frank. Knowing your industry, & greatly admiring your manuscripts, I
accepted an offer of that other Spanish manuscript for transcription, which you did not transcribe last winter, –
as a pretty employment for you this, – the Argentina – Take it leisurely, & think of the figure it is to make upon my shelf, among
the Magnificos, itself the greatest magnifico of all.
I am a little vexed that you should have been so compleatly duped by the misrepresentation of Dr Bells system, & – I am now enlarging my article into a pamphlett,beautiful & important discovery
which has been made since printing was invented. The importance of the principle can only be equalled by the beauty of the system,
which as perfect in all its parts, & renders education as certain as a science. Dr Bell has been in Keswick these three weeks. I have
seen the very bottom of his heart, – & except Clarkson I never saw that man
for whom I had a higher veneration, or a more thorough esteem. My pamphlett will be as decisive as Douglas’s refutation of Lauder;rests depends upon
recorded, dated & authenticated facts, – with proof at every step which would be admitted in a Court of Justice. – It will be the
heaviest blow which the Edinburgh Review has ever received, for I shall convict the reviewer of direct & wilful falsehood.Jeffrey the critic.// The Prince of Reviewers is Jeffrey,
by jingo!/ Who damns authors by wholesale in horrible lingo,/ And hears the poor devils so dismally groan,/ With a heart that’s as
hard – as his grandpapa’s hone.// Then he writes for amusement, nor pockets a boadle;/ So gratis he fractures
poor Priscian’s noddle./ But as to his wit! a good wager I’d lay sir,/ ’Tis as keen as his grandpapa’s razor.// For whatever
pilgarlicks (or pig-tail or crop)/ This shaver so dextrous lugs into his shop,/ Of Brough’m his mad ’prenctice
becoming the butt,/ Like his grandpapa’s customer’s – sorely they’re cut.// To cure the itinerant Thelwall of
roaming,/ He gave his black locks a right barberous combing,/ Till the froth and cold sweat stood the Orator’s face on,/ Like – the
lather that foams in his grandpapa’s bason.// But Thelwall, provok’d by this villainous shock,/ Started up in a
passion and kick’d down the block,/ And bestirr’d him so nimbly – that, ’spite of their bloods,/ Both Jeff and
his ’prentice were left in the suds.// Now invoke, O ye authors! on Thelwall a blessing,/ For giving this brace of barberians a dressing./ And may prigs who vend malice in critical barter,/ Like Jeff, cut their fingers, – by catching a Tartar.’; see an <your> opinion upon such insufficient evidence.
I got my answer from Ballantyne at last, couched in proper
terms of apology. The next volumeweary long work it will
be, – but I shall curtail the debates as much as possible, – taking advantage of the objection which has been made to the extent of my
last years labours. I curtail it now, – but it will be only the debates that I shall retrench, – every thing else as much or in detail
as my authorities enable me to give it. Jeffray has given a striking proof of
his honesty towards me in the last number of the Review.xxx I was the author, – & now no phrase of contempt is too
strong for it. It has made that party so angry, that he attacks it in one note, & Brougham in another. This attack on the part of Brougham I am glad of, because xx
my Uncles acquaintance with him had previously made me a little sorry when I
learnt it was he who had so slandered Dr Bell.
I have sent over a xxxx succinct account of the Madras System to Abella. Last night Dr Bell received an
official letter saying that the Prince Regent by the D of Yorkssho in the service
should have one of its Sergeants appointed schoolmaster to the children & requesting him to form as clear & precise a manual of
instruction for this purpose as possible. –
Our love to Sarah & a kiss to my niece. – They get on slowly with Madoc & J of Arc.d – I wish he may not be shipwreckt on the way. – You shall have all
the new editions together when they are ready.