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Huntington Library, RS 9. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 122–127.
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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The King George sails on Monday without
Thalaba.King George, which sailed between
Falmouth and Lisbon.d H. Hill, Chaplain to
the British Forces, this will frank it thro the
Portugueze office. an S by the wafer may mark it as
mine.
We are in the midst of rumours & alarms.
Of the wise expedition to Ferrolepidemic, not contagious. if so we shall escape – if not, we are
in hourly & imminent danger. No precautions are taken. a
man just arrived from Cadiz who has recovered from the
disease, is daily on the Exchange at Lisbon, & his
baggage underwent no fumigation: indeed no precautions could
be effectual. there is no natural frontier; – where the
birds & the foxes pass – the smugglers also find their
way. an immense contraband trade is carried on thro
byepasses; – had the disease been infectious I think it must
ere this have arrived. The Siroc blew for nine weeks at
Cadiz – a place always unwholesome in summer. if this was
the cause – the rains will remove it; but other accounts
ascribe its origin to a ship from Charlestown, & the
importation of the Yellow Fever. so little do we know of
what is next door to us! If it reaches Lisbon we shall
remove into the country – somewhere North among the
mountains.
So much for War & Pestilence. It was a
saying of John 5th
I told you the mines had failed. this was incorrect. you know they are worked by adventurers, & that the King receives a fifth of the produce. they grow annually less & less productive, because the Brasilians have found out that it is more profitable to raise sugar & cotton &c, near the coasts or within reach of exportation, than to go mine-hunting among the Savages. in the one case the profit is all their own. Brasil produces spices, inferior indeed to what the Dutch monopolized, but still good enough, I should have thought, to have been profitably used in England.
The Portugueze merchants have advanced so
much as to promise something for their country: they will
infallibly take their trade out of the hands of the English
& Germans who have so long enriched themselves here at
the expence of the indolent natives. xxxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx
government but this is the sole symptom of
improvement. when they acquire wealth they know not how to
employ it. they have neither arts nor sciences to encourage.
country-gentlemen are things unknown. the nobleman perhaps
visits the mansion – (house I should say) or his estate perhaps, when the fruits are ripe. he
squanders his incomes in
frippery & dangling about the court – of course has no
money for improvements, & distresses his tenants, who
cannot improve & dare not – if they could. Therefore the
church lands are the only well-managed estates. One of these
wealthy men wanted some pictures. there happened to be a
foreign artist at Lisbon of some merit. he sent for him,
mentioned the size of the pictures he wanted, & asked at
what price he would execute them. the Painter said 20
Moidores each. 20 Moidores! replied the Patron of the Arts –
I can get a Portugueze to do them for a six & thirty!
The wealthiest of the native merchants came lately to Cintra & brought
down a whole tribe of acquaintance to enjoy this Paradise.
how think you they spent their time? literally at cards from
breakfast till supper. this lasted a fortnight – his tavern
bill amounted to more than 200 pounds & then he returned
to Lisbon. Read they will not. indeed if they would they
have scarcely a book in their own language fit to be read. I
would our novel-mongers & Lanealways in the
night, & it is known by the children being black in the face. this is believed –
but this cannot be superstition on the part of the mothers
& the nurses who overlay the infants. you cannot imagine
the how these people
sleep. the driver whom we always use sleeps upon his mule as
he drives us – we wake him – the passers-by wake him – still
he has more than once endangered us, & was once driving
my
Uncle into the river. A servant of an Englishman
caught his death lately by
the thus – it rained into his room – profu violently – without
waking him. he slept in a bed half full of water till his
usual hour, & woke with a cold that killed him. I have
heard often of servants whom it is impossible to awaken by
any noise: they must be pulled & shaken. does your
servant wait at the door when you make a morning visit? in
five minutes he is stretched on the stones & snoring. a
dog does not slumber more readily. it is an act of volition
with them. the moment they cease from animal action, they
have no alternative.
There is a sort of general Hospital Board of
which on my return I shall hunt out all particulars. but you
can not easily conceive how ignorant the English here are of
the country they live in, & how difficult it is to learn
any thing. I believe its funds are chiefly derived from
legacies – however that may be, they communicate with every
municipality, & in every town a
Physician, a Surgeon, & a Apothecary receive either from
the funds of the corporation, or from this Board a certain
annuity: small indeed, but still enough to prevent a man
from starving & encourage him to settle there for this
thus he attends the paupers. Popery is a charitable
religion, & begging must be a good trade, where
alms-giving is an atonement. Every-body whom we meet in the
country begs – they affix no ignominy to it – the very man
who sells you meat or poultry takes his money & then
begs for the love of God!
Ediths remembrances. Thalaba will come by the first opportunity.