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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 49–43 [in part]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 64–65 [in part]; Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 50–53.
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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Your last letter entered into an interesting
subject. a young man entering the world is exposed to hourly
danger − & what more important than to discover the best
preservative? to have a friend, dear enough &
respectable enough to hold the place of a Confessor, would
assuredly be the best, − & if the station of Confessor
could always be well filled, I would give up half the
Reformation to restore it. In my moments of reverie I have
sometimes imagined myself such a character, xxxxxx can be more the
obscure instrument in promoting virtue & happiness. But
it is obvious that more evil than good results from this
power being, like all other power, in improper hands. − I
have wandered from the subject. it is not likely that I
shall ever gain the confidence of my brothers
My health fluctuates − & the necessity of
changing climate is sadly & sufficiently obvious, lest,
tho my disease should prove of no serious danger, the worst
habits of hypochondriasm fasten upon me & palsy all
intellectual power. I look with anxiety for my Uncles
letter, & think so much of Lisbon, that to abandon the
thoughts would be a considerable disappointment. it would
greatly gratify me to see my Uncle,
& I have associations with Lisbons that give me a friendship
for the place – recollected feelings & hopes – pleasures
& anxieties – all now mellowed into remembrances that
endear the associated scenes. But that my Uncle
should approve this is perhaps little probable. a few weeks
will decide, & if I do not go to Portugal – I have no
choice but Italy. for Madeira is a prison, & the voyage
to the West Indies of a terrifying length. this detestable
war! if they would make peace upon motives as light as they
made war, xxx there would be
cause enough because I want to cross from Dover to Calais.
it would save me some sea-sickness − & the wealth &
blood of the nation in to the bargain.
I have busied myself in idleness already on
the History of Portugal
You have heard me mention Rickman, as one
whose society was the
<my> great motive for taking the cottage at Burton. he is coming
to Bristol, to assist me in an undertaking which he proposed
& pressed upon me. An essay upon the state of women in
society, & its possible amelioration, by means, at
first, of institutions similar to the Flemish
Beguinages.fraternities, where the members
were engaged in some useful employment, & bound by no
religious obligation. the object is to provide for the
numerous class of women who want employment, the means of
respectable independance, by restoring to them those
branches of business which the men have mischievously
usurped, or monopolized when they ought only to have shared.
– O what a country might this England become did its
governors but wisely direct the strength & wealth &
activity of the people! every [MS torn]fession, every trade,
is overstocked, there are more adventurers in each than
possibly can find employment. hence poverty & crime. do
not misunderstand me as asserting this to be the sole cause
– but it is the most frequent one. a system of colonization
that should [MS torn] an outlet for the superfluous activity
of the country would convert this into a cause of general
good, & the blessings of civilization might be extended
over the desarts, that to the gre disgrace of man, occupy so great a part of
the world! assuredly poverty & the dread of poverty are
the great sources of guilt. want fills our streets with
prostitutes, & the dangerous imprudence of early
marriage drives many young men to a worse danger. but the
country cannot be well regulated where marriage is an
imprudence, where children are a burthen & a
misfortune.
A very – very small portion of this evil our plan if established will remove. but of great magnitude seperately considered. I am not very sanguine in my expectations of success – but I will do my best in examining the evil & proposing the remedy. if the plan be not encouraged now, it may hereafter.
I will send you a bundle of the Chatterton
proposals
y. 18.
1800.
<Edith desires to be remembered.>