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Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 3. Previously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 150-152.
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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As this letter will in all probability reach
you before the expiration of your trial-term with Mr Martineau
Your entering the church could not prejudice
Edward.
because the immediate object is to secure a part of my Uncles
preferment,
Again. you deem yourself unqualified for
university studies. of these I can only say that they are so trifling
that you will be ashamed of your task. the trick of writing
Latin verse is the only one in which you are deficient. that
worthless habit is little necessary & may soon be
acquired to the needful extent.
All this I have said that you may make your judgement knowing all the circumstances. the most important is upon what principles you could enter the establishment. Whatever your opinions be, right or wrong, they must as yet be the prejudices of friendship, & personal attachments. it is not possible that you should yet have knowledge whereon to found belief or disbelief. My conduct ought not to influence yours. the cases are wholly different. Nor would I advise you or any one to be as inattentive to worldly advancement as I have been.
Should you continue in your present choice, you know your expectations. application may raise you to eminence & affluence – you will have a profession most useful & most honourable, & if the surgical studies are at first loathsome there is pleasure enough in chemistry amply to counterbalance what is unpleasant in anatomy. your alternative presents nothing terrifying. it is to accept a competence – or acquire it.
In the case of your fixing with Mr Martineau, you ought to know with what
money you can be supplied for cloaths washing &c. at
present more than 20£ a year cannot be afforded or procured.
My expences are increased here, & my resources for the
time cut off. there is the heavy charge of returning to look
on to. a years hard labour in England will hardly make me
again equal to the world. from my employments here I expect
emolument but it will be distant & is doubtful. to
recommend decent oeconomy is needless. You would I think do
well by keeping for your own satisfaction an account of your
expences.
Our return may probably be hastened. May is
the month fixed, but the state of Portugal is become
uncertain & dangerous. if France be resolved to shut
this port also against England, there is nothing but Famine
to prevent her. Spain is weak willing but weak. the force of the country
absolutely nothing, no preparation whatever of magazines or
even ammunition. yet a French army must bring their own food
– for they cannot find it here. & a weeks blockade would
starve Lisbon, for here we are dependant upon almost daily
supplies by sea. We cannot protect Portugal by land – France
cannot support it by water – the country cannot please both
powers, & may be ruined by either. this is exactly our
state – & France & England are equally imperious in
injustice. the merchants are preparing to secure their
property, those who can. to the many whose trade is selling
to the natives it will be utter ruin. That the danger may
again be bought off is merely possible. the Spanish
Ambassador
My stay when prolonged to the utmost will be
so inadequate to my wants & wishes that I can ill afford
to have it shortened by the accidents of politics. A rupture
with Spain will seriously inconvenience me. I have sent for
books there of indispensable importance. they are indeed
accessible in England but in an unpleasant manner – I could
quarter myself upon Lord Bute
My Uncle returned very unwell & pale & thin.
but this climate & good food after his voyage-fast are
recovering him. he is anxious to remove his books as
speedily as possible from danger. I also only wait an
opportunity to ship off mine – for already I have bought
more than would have been justifiable were not they not my stock in
trade & responsible debtors. I must return to Lisbon –
even if my health (which there is little reason to expect)
should endure the blighting-blasts of England.
We are now in Lent, suffering for the follies of our neighbours. it is difficult to procure meat. indeed were there not beef killed for the few troops that remain here we must more than once already have done penance upon fish. in about another week the people will fall sick & eat flesh with a safe conscience.
Write to me soon. inform Wm Taylor that I have received his
letters – & thank him for his arrangement.