2841. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 11 September 1816⁠* 

My dear Wynn

There are but few points upon which you & I should disagree when we understood each other. [1]  Upon that of the farms we are perfectly agreed, – my position being that the smallest which can be cultivated with adequate advantage to the cultivator is best. – Your plan respecting the churches is so simple & so good that one wonders it should not have been hit upon before, – & the very means proposed would include good in itself – for the service is at present too long. I have not seen the E Review – but from all I hear it seems xxx fit that I should regularly see it, for the advantage which it would give me. Some day I shall come it upon it with a heavy hand & a whip of scorpions. Malthus’s proposal which this precious Review has reviewed, you will see treated, exactly as you regard it, in my former paper upon the Poor (N^o 16.) [2] x & I wish you would cast your eye upon <over> those pages of that paper which speak of the state of public opinion as influenced by the newspapers. for some years I have believed (& most reluctantly believed xx) that we are hurrying on towards a Revolution, which according to all xx symptoms will not be less bloody nor less destructive than what has been witnessed in France. [3]  The three men in the world of <in> whose judgement I have the highest most confidence have, I know, the same ominous apprehension; & each has formed it for himself, uninfluenced by, & even unknown to, the others. [4]  I am afraid that this danger will never be perceived on your side the house, – it seems in the nature of partys spirit to make men suppose that they can always direct the whirlwind, & believe that the storm which wrecks their rivals will blow them into port. I wish you were in office for many reasons & for this among others, – that if you were, I think you xxx would lend your aid manfully & efficiently towards checking an evil, which if it be not checked will, I verily believe, involve us in utter ruin. Nine tenths of the provincial papers are now as mischievous as ever Paine [5]  was, – & you know better than I do what is the complexion of the London weekly magazines of sedition. [6] 

From what you told me of Reginald Hebers notions I imagine that he & I should agree in the main in your <our> views respecting a sort of comprehension of the Methodists, - [7]  toward which your plan for the xxx service in the school houses would contribute greatly.

Since you were here I have been much in company, to the dissipation of more time than I can well afford to lose. We have had here the Secretaries of the Bible Society one of whom I knew formerly at Bristol [8]  – the King of Prussias Librarian, [9]  – Rogers, – Glover, [10]  young Westall who is lodging here, Sir G Beaumont (also resident) – Owen of Lanark [11]  – a son of the Duke of Brescia [12]  &c &c &c – My Tea – Table d’hote as I call it is supplied with as curious a succession of guests at this season of the year as could be found perhaps any where in England. x xx Heber talks of coming. – I have been twice on Causey Pike since our expedition there, – on one of these walks the two Ediths [13]  & Bertha were with me, – they carted it to the foot of the hill, – & on our descent we dined beside the stream in the bottom. The other was with Rogers, Wordsworth, & Sir George Beaumont – neither of whom had been there before: – Wordsworth agrees with me that there is no finer point in the whole land of mountains.

I will send Oliver Newman in a few days. [14]  – A book of Toms lettering must [MS illegible] for an opportunity of conveyance.

What think you of a club of Atheists meeting twice a week at an Alehouse in Keswick, to enjoy the pleasure of denying God & Devil, – & the Landlady of their way of thinking? – Our Reverend Porpoise here is a Magistrate also; [15]  – but he nods in the reading desk, & sleeps on the bench.

God bless you

RS.

11 Sep^t. 1816