813. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 28 July [1803] ⁠* 

July 28.

I believe George the Second is grown somewhat xxx more helpable than he was. he wants employment & bread & thinks, not unreasonably, that a Surgeons mates birth in army or navy, is the most feasible thing he can look out for. A months attendance in our infirmary, he says, will show him as much of the practice as he wants, having seen a good deal in Edinburgh. Now what I plague you for is to ask you to ask how these things are xxxxxx get-at-able. in the navy I should judge, they require only application to the Board, [1]  without interest, for they have always a want of surgeons. in the army Carlisle can tell you how they are to be got – for he pushed Allen on, & when one knows what interest can do in such a case then the Second George may try Lord Stanhope [2]  if it be needful.

poor Devil – if he should one day cut off a leg above the tourniquet by mistake – God forgive me if he should – but what can be done – for he will neither drown himself nor turn Methodist parson.

RS.