Dear Tom
As for the Boyne [1] — I am sorry for the poor fellows
lost. the sight must have been tremendously sublime. I saw a merchant man burnt
some weeks ago & can form some idea by comparison. my Lectures [2] are finished & that very quietly. I gave
thirteen [3]
— & said bolder truths than any other Man in this country has yet
ventured. speaking of my friend Tom — I cried — O Paine! [4] hireless Priest of Liberty! unbought
teacher of the poor! chearing to me is the reflection that my heart hath ever
acknowledged — that my tongue hath proudly proclaimed — the Truth &
Divinity of thy Doctrines!
I came here on Thursday on foot over Lansdown. to night I am
engaged to tea at Kingswood on my return. my Joan of Arc goes to the Press next
week — it will take three months in printing — the moment it comes out I will
forward you one. twill want no luxury of type & paper. the types are new
on purpose — & the paper which I have seen is most excellent. would the
poetry were as faultless. my Lectures have occupied so much time that I have
written little else. I wait with much anxiety the coming out of the Citizen [5]
— as with 80 pound a year I can live in the wilds of Wales very comfortably.
Your prize is better than nothing. — but if it were the best
except one yet taken your share would be very considerably greater.
as for news we have none — but the enormous price of provisions
& insurrections every where in consequence. the Colliers are expected in
Bath to day to sell the meat at their own price. tis said this has been done at
Bradford. I was there last night & enquired No (said the woman) they
have not rised yet — but tis almost time they should. You must have heard that
the King has applied to parliament to pay the Princes debts — 700,000 pounds
!!!!!!!! 180,000 are the annual expences of the United States of America.
what think you of these titles
his most sacred Jolter-head & his August Jobbernowl?
there is a Proclamation offering a reward to whoever will inform
where a Sailor lies hid that so he may be prest! I take this to be the most
damnable piece of villainy ever practised. Well Tom — when I have a house in
Wales — quit you the navy & come to us — & see if the Devil or
xx his August Jobbernowl shall press [6] you there.
Richard Brothers [7] makes a
strange outcry — Whitchurch & Crease here have written in defence of
him. [8] some Mr
Charles Cotter [9] has had a vision & he declares that London will be
destroyed by an earthquake next week. many very many have left town on the [MS
scuffed]ngth of this wise acres xxxxxxx
revelation.
fare thee well. can you not get leave of absence for a few weeks
during this summer. I wish very much to see you.
yrs fraternally.
RS.
Bath.
Saturday. May 9. 1795.
Notes
* Address: Thomas Southey/ Aquilon Frigate/
Spithead
Stamped: BATH
Seal: [partial] red wax; design
illegible
Endorsement: post paid
MS: British
Library, Add MS 30,927
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New
York, 1965), I, pp. 93–95. BACK
[1] The Boyne, the flagship of John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent
(1735–1823; DNB), caught fire and exploded while
berthed at Spithead on 1 May 1795. BACK
[2] Southey had delivered a series of
‘Historical Lectures’ ‘Unconnected with the Politics of the Day’ in
Bristol. BACK
[3] The prospectus for the
lectures, Bodleian Library, Autogr. b. 7 (9), only advertised twelve. BACK
[4] Thomas Paine (1737–1809; DNB),
author and revolutionary. BACK
[5] Southey had been promised a position on a
new periodical by John Scott (dates unknown), editor of the London newspaper
the Morning Advertiser. Nothing came of it. BACK
[6] In wartime, experienced sailors could be
conscripted into service in the Royal Navy by press-gangs, the popular name
for the Impress Service. BACK
[7] Richard
Brothers (1757–1824; DNB), prophet and author of
A Revealed Knowledge and Prophecies of the
Times (1794), claimed to be the ‘Prince of the Hebrews’ and to
have predicted the deaths of Gustavus III of Sweden (1746–1792; reigned
1771–1792) and Louis XVI (1754–1793; reigned 1774–1792). Popular interest in
his prophecies was at its height in the mid 1790s. In March 1795 he was
arrested, declared insane and confined as a criminal lunatic. BACK
[8] S. Whitchurch (dates unknown),
Another Witness! Or Further Testimony in Favor of
Richard Brothers: With a Few Modest Hints to Modern Pharisees, and
Reverend Unbelievers. Also Some of the Scriptural Marks of the Present
Times, or Prophetical Latter Day (1795); J. Crease (dates
unknown), Prophecies Fulfilling: or, the Dawn of the
Perfect Day; with Increasing Light Breaking Forth into all Directions.
Addressed to all Scoffing Sectarians and Others, who, in the Plenitude
of Their Folly, Despise and Reject Richard Brothers, as the Jews also
Despised and Rejected Jesus Christ (1795). BACK
[9] Christopher Cotter (dates
unknown), A Solemn Warning to the Inhabitants of Great
Britain: or London to Be Destroyed by an Earthquake, in Less Than
Twenty-Nine Days! As Revealed to Mr. Christopher Cotter on Monday Night,
April 13, 1795 (1795). Cotter seems to have been a supporter of
Richard Brothers, who had predicted an earthquake in London on 4 June 1795.
Brothers’s prophecy was caricatured by James Gillray (1756–1815; DNB) in The Prophet of the Hebrews —
The Prince of Peace Conducting the Jews to the Promised Land
(1795). BACK
