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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 182–183.
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.
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That a direct tax upon Incomemore than one
pound a year more than him who has 184? cast your
eye upon the latter part of the scale & you will see the
same blunder at every jump. upon this scale 201 £ make a
less neat income than 199. are not these schoolboy blunders?
you talk of the deduction for children − it is too little –
the man who has 60 £ a year & one child − is allowed
sixpence a year for it. the tax certainly falls very heavy
upon the rich, but the progression ceased too soon. ten per
cent is too much to take from 200. it is acting upon the
metaphor of Bishop Watson,
The commercial objections to it are less easily removed. in the country it must happen that many a man has for his commissioner his principal creditor. every body knows how much business depends upon credit. where is the use of secresy in this case? the consequence is that to keep up credit – they over-rate their income. the revenue indeed profits by this – but it is grievous upon the individual.
Direct taxation was one of Turgotswilling to pay the money to help
prosecute the war, in the next Dictionary the parliamentary
meaning must be affixed to the word.
I shall be in town as late as possible in the term – on May day I believe, & shall stay over the vacation to keep the next. I expect to pass the greater part of the time at Cambridge.
I was sorry to hear a bad account of the
Ancient Britons in Ireland
The Pneumatic Institution
I long to see North Wales & to become familiar with its scenery. the first sketch of Madoc, for I look upon as not much more, draws to its conclusion – & I may perhaps have the whole outline to show you in May. in the first books I have spoken of Snowden & Cader Idris – & that is all. careless & hasty as I am thought in my writings I would willingly go to Orleans to enable myself to describe its situation – & take the journey from Aberffraw to Mathrafal – thence to Dinevor & back to Aberffraw for the same purpose.
I wish these March winds were over. by day I feel nothing – a general relaxation – but at night every sound startles me. it has hung on me a long while & God knows when I shall shake it off.