806. Robert Southey to William Taylor, 13 July 1803 ⁠* 

Bristol. Wednesday. July 13. 1803

My dear friend

You will see by the date above, that I have travelled westward from London. I had some thought of advancing to Norwich, but the plan which I am about to communicate has made me delay that till I be settled nearer.

I have projected, & negociated with Longman & Rees, & now actually undertaken the management of a Bibliotheca Britannica. [1]  upon a very extensive scale, to be arranged chronologically, & made a readable book by biography, criticism & connecting chapters. to be published like the Cyclopæda [2]  in parts. terms 150 £ to me for editing each volume, (the volume 800 quarto pages) & for authorship four guineas per sheet, five where the subject – author hath written in any language but English. the page 40 lines. the full & absolute choice of all associates & the distribution of the whole to be mine.

Now the first important point is to allot to every one that for which he is most fitted – & then to turn over the papers of one to another to collect as much as can be had upon the subject. I am thus stocked with certain associates, for Saxon & Welsh Sharon Turner who has found out that he writes badly. for early voyages & all Science thereunto appertaining Captain Burney. for old surgery Carlisle. for xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxx for Roger Bacon, [3]  Rickman. at present I do not look beyond the subjects of the first volume. the Schoolmen I hope Coleridge will take. there remain poets, romancers, <lawyers> theologians & historians. the latters down to the conquest fall under Turners knowledge. Will you help me? & bring your stock of northern knowledge & of theology to bear upon the history of English literature. What I would ask from you is to at write upon the progress of the language – upon the history of our popular superstitions – upon the English history of religion – a little more covertly this last than you do for the Magazine, [4]  for you go beyond heterodoxy there. the first volume may perhaps come down to Mary or Elizabeth. [5]  think upon English literature down to that period, & tell me what you should like to write – for that you will help me I have little doubt. I would have you examine what I & what Turner write, & add thereto, & annotate thereupon. you who have seen a Reviewers account know how lines are reckoned up into pages, & that the fragments being gathered up, nothing is lost.

We talk of getting a first part – that is a half volume, ready by Xmas 1804. I go to reside near London for this express purpose. xx there can be no difficulty in getting out a volume yearly, & as little of the success of the book if well managed. I calculate upon it for an income of from 200 to 250 £. & shall remove to Richmond, where John May has already obtained for me the refusal of a house.

The review of M^rs Lathoms Poem [6]  perished in what Hamilton [7]  calls “the late tremendous fire which destroyed the whole of my extensive premises”. it would be too late for A Aikin – for I was too late to notice a Greek Poem upon Bonaparte. [8]  but you can now send it again to the Critical.

My politics are that France calculated upon the weakness of our most miserable ministers, & was carrying on a system of insult & injury to which it would have been utter ruin to have submitted. that Bonaparte [9]  is drunk with success. that Malta was a bad ground for quarrel – the worst that could have been selected because of least general or national concern, but that there was cause enough for war. my belief is that invasion will be attempted – but that “the Christ of the Lord” [10]  oh curse his blasphemous soul! will not adventure himself. my hope is that he may. their landing is a chance – & the chances are against it. if they land they will perhaps reach London – but not a man of them returns to France, & we shall have such a monument as the Swiss reared to Charles of Burgundy. [11]  that our victory by sea or by land turns the scale & the Northern Powers, [12]  who have more reason to hate France than England will then join us. that then Holland will be free, & Switzerland & Italy be made independant of France, & the peace of Europe established for a century to come. but first Bonaparte must go to the Devil – & perhaps our national debt too. But I have not a fear for England. we have Jacobines enough in England to destroy Bonaparte, the country was never so united & therefore never so strong.

Let me hear from you soon.

God bless you –

R Southey.