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British Library, Add MS 47890. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 210–212 [in part].
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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
[illegible large scrawl] – There Tom, – tell me what that hieroglyphic is if you can. the Devil himself must be a good guesser if he finds it out.
We want a Nelson in the army.sent, – & the men been therefore disembarked. Good God had there been twenty
thousand fresh troops at Corunna, to have met the French what a victory should we have obtained, when even with the wreck of an army
foot-sore, broken-hearted, & half starved, we defeated them so compleatly at the last!last action, – the fear of
invasion must be at rest for ever. We can beat the French, under every possible disadvantage, & with two, almost indeed three to
one, against us. Come then Bonaparte! the sooner the better.
Ministers are jarring with each other. It is Canning who stands
up for Spain, – & I learn from Walter Scott that they will stand by the
Spaniards to the last cost what it may – But they paralize one another, & the rest of the Cabinet by meeting him half-way, – doing
half what he proposes, utterly undo everything. Still if we had a few such men as Cochraneplace <have> the same faith in
British bottom by land as we have at sea, – that faith would redeem us. To be upon the defensive in the field is ruin. Men never can
win a battle unless they are determined to win it, – & that cannot be the case when they wait to be attacked. 100,000 men in Spain
would overthrow & destroy Bonaparte, – but we sent them in batches to be cut up. We squander the strength of the country, we waste
the blood of the country, we sacrifice the honour of the country – bring upon ourselves a disgrace, which Bonaparte were he ten times
more powerful than he is could never bring inflict upon us, were there but true wisdom & right courage in our
rulers.
I have written more letters than one since Dec. 12.xxx a Republic. – for <which> you may remember I pointed out the peculiar fitness which their
separate states afforded.
I am very busy. Some books of main importance to my history which I vainly attempted to buy, I have succeeded in
obtaining from a public library, by secret favour, – against rule.
The new review is to be called the Quarterly, & will I suppose soon start. I fancy W Scott has taken care of the Cid there.xxx for these books now employ my morning time, – & before they came restless nights occasioned by little illnesses of
the children made me lie till breakfast time. With my first possible leisure I shall hurry thro your transcription – It would be
convenient if I could borrow from my Hindoo Gods a few of their supernumerary heads & hands,
Holding that my face will ‘carry off a drab’ – I have a new coat of that complexion, just come home from Johnny
Cockbaines, the King of the Tailors.
I will conclude by copying part of a letter from Stuart which you
will think very curious, & will interest you more than any I could add of my own. ‘Of this motion against the Duke of Yorkrs Clarke. The Duke of Kentx. Cobbet is certainly in the interest of the D Kent & P of Wales. I know a person employed by the D Kent confidentially & officially,
for the Duke keeps an office! – who has also been deeply in the confidence & money concerns of Lord Moira,rs Clarkes favourite & confident while
she lived with the D York. I know farther that Wardel sits in that seat for Oakhampton,paid the expences in the last Parliament.of, high in official station, & a married man) with all the virtuous part of the community. He cannot come off with
honour, whatsoever may become of the actual motion against him.’ – Is not this very curious? – I will post have just room to
add that half the newspapers are at this time under prosecution from the D York, & that in Stuarts words he has nearly silenced the Newspaper press.
The hieroglyphic at the beginning of the letter is a facsimile of the x way in which you signed your
christian name at the end of your last.