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Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 24. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 490–492.
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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I replied to you in haste, & upon chewing the cud of the business, perceive that all which should have been
said has not been said, & that what was said has not been exactly what it should.
A more valid objection to my writing about Spain than the probable want of length in the article is to be found in
the way in which I contemplate this war with Bonaparte. Peace while he lives & reigns would be suicide, – & the struggle
between us is on our side, a business of national life & death. Yet however the men in power may feel the first of these
propositions, they would probably fear to sanction it, & still less would they suffer me to speak of the Convention & Sir
Hew,
If I wrote upon the Hindoo question, the various pamphletts & books upon the subject should be sent me, &
form the heading or text of the chapter.
Do not infer that I am unwilling to write about Spain, or that I refuse to do it. I have only stated my own feeling
of unfitness. On the other hand no man better understands the Spanish character. something I know of the country, much of their
history, every thing of their literature. – & the heart of man is not capable of a stronger interest than what mine feels in
their present cause. If it be thought proper that I should write I will do my best & Gifford may expunge what is too strongly marked with the stamp of Robert Southey, – xxx or knead such parts
as he thinks with any body elses article, – or reject the whole. On such occasions I have no mutinous feelings about me state this
to him, – tell me his determination with the least possible delay – & let me know the names of some of your Respectables –
that I may see into what company I am likely to get.
A good thing would be an article upon Spanish literature if a text could be found. There is a collection of their poets not yet compleated, but I am afraid at a stand & of too old a date: otherwise it would supply three or four striking articles, with translated specimens. With the fine literatures of France & Italy I am well acquainted, – our own I have no desire to meddle with. not being disposed to knock calves on the head.
My Uncle, Mr Hill, is just married. This is to
me a circumstance of great joy, for the only thing that lay with any weight upon my mind, was the thought of his solitary
situation at a time of life when solitariness is not desirable. My Uncles age I believe is xxx 57. This is somewhat
late for marriage, but having been plucked up by the roots from that country & society wherein all his habits had grown, he
had new ones necessarily to acquire, & the main objection to so late a change of life is therefore not applicable. You are to
understand that neither immediately nor remotely does this match in any way affect my fortunes. My new relation is the daughter of Lovelace Bigg Wither a Hampshire
gentleman of the very ancient family of good old George Wither the Poetxxx family connection on the evening which brought your letter, &
possibly my reply might have been fuller & better if my thought had not sometimes been wandering in consequence of
intelligence so unexpected.
Walter Scotts first scruples of conscience against the Edinburgh Review were probably
brought out by my refusing to bear a part in it, for its base politics, among other reasons.
Curse the land tax. – This pension might as easily have been made nominal three hundred as two, – one consolation however is that whenever it is taken from me for speaking like an Englishman (as likely enough it one day may be) I have the less to lose. At present I am swimming with the stream, but it is the stream that has turned, not I.