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Huntington Library, RS 11. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 237-242.
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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y. 30. 1801.
First I must thank you for your agency.th – which was
before a clumsy piece of patchwork. this business occupied
me or you would have heard my acknowledgements by the last
packet. As to the “its” in the first
paragraph – you know I attribute no undue importance to
trifles – if it seemed wrong to any person – that was reason
enough for removing it. had it been a word of sedition I
might have fought for it –. And now I have made my
alteration, & done with Thalaba, it remains only to
spend the money for which I have 115 ways
Your two letters arrived by one packet &
I had at once the home-politics of a month. you were quite
right in preventing Longmans quarto-scheme. Alfred ought to cure him
of quartos.xxx a large part of that sum
will be well spent in brick & mortar for the historical
building. my plan extends to two quartos – the Indian
history forming a seperate third. The first will be ready
for publication in the ensuing winter – & the literary
history will keep pace with it, the researches for both
assisting & relieving each other.
The death of the Marquis Ponte de Limatook
all specie & gave all paper. the
discount which before was 22 has since fluctuated from 17 to
19. – it is singular that a circumstance very similar to
this currency existed above
250 years ago. there was such a want of small coins that the
Maltese (now the paper-changers) used to change the larger
pieces at a discount. this practice was prohibited – & a
coinage gave effect to the prohibition. 1550 under John 3rd –
Febr 5. the Decree
respecting the Paper money was made public. it lies before
me & you therefore may depend upon the accuracy of my
statement. they promise to pay faithfully the 6 per cent
interest. that all sums under 100 milreas (about 27 £ only)
they will pay half in paper half in cash, all sums above one
third cash. the Troops xxxx
xxxxxx all cash, the Officers two thirds
paper.
crown lands to be sold to redeem the smaller
paper & burn it. the rest of the Edict promises to
receive all payments half & half, & declares that no
favour from the Treasury shall be shown those who do not use
the same method. they hope soon to pay all sums half &
half – & look on to totally withdrawing the paper from
circulation. They have abandoned some stupid schemes of
doubling the nominal value of copper after calling it in –
of debasing the silver – & also of a Bank – for which
there is no foundation in this tottering country. About 120
years or rather less under Pedro 2nd
The new Minister Dom (remember the Don is Spanish & ignorantly applied
to Portugueze) Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho,
An introduction to some of the Portugueze has
been highly useful to me. I am known for a curioso, a man busied upon their literature. The
Chief Librarian of the Public Library,
Little seems to be dreaded from the nearest
& almost inevitable danger – the yellow fever. it still
exists, but these unthinking people fancy it is dead –
because it sleepeth. baffling medicine here as it has done
in America, it is a dreadful calamity from which Portugal
has no possibility of escaping. x possibly the rest of Europe may be infected. we
have shall suffer from
the northern league. the neutral ships were the
corn-carriers, & our little loaves will be lessened –
but not their price. agriculture here never can improve till
the tenures be altered. It is so difficult – so almost
impossible to alienate lands, that whoever purchases an
estate purchases a dozen law-suits with it. the rich
merchants therefore never think of retiring &
establishing their family upon the graves of poor gentility.
the sale of the crown-lands will have some effect in
offering them clear tiller. – they have thought &
written upon agriculture, as x they have written upon many things &
thought of more – without the power as yet of practising.
the average number of men of information is not perhaps much
inferior to what it would be found in England. but they are
crushed b[MS torn]sorial boards, & the Inquisition. if
these were destroyed [MS torn] if the fiat lux
There is a Frenchman here, the Abbé Du
Boys,
We wait my Uncles return to commence our long planned ramble. & if the yellow fever do not advance nearer on our return, it is my intention to traverse Algarve & see Spain once more across the Guadiana.
poor Amos! – & poor Joseph! – &
alas for Alfred the long
Ediths remembrance. remember me to Lamb – & the Cancellarius Magnus.