1831. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 1 December 1810 ⁠* 

Keswick. Dec. 1. 1810.

My dear Rickman

The shoes arrived in good time, just as having drank my second cup of tea, I was lighting my candle to proceed up stairs to write a letter to you. They fit as well as possible, – & I consider myself as shod for two campaigns at least. Bedford will pay you for them, he being my receiver-general at his Majestys Exchequer. I believe he leaves Ambleside tomorrow for London, having been three weeks there taking lessons in landscape from Green, [1]  – a melancholy xxx thing it is well that he can amuse himself thus: but it is a melancholy thing to think of a man in his state of organic disease acquiring any <new> accomplishment.

Thank you for papers concerning Reform, – some of the arguments are staggering ones, – I will when occasion offers, as it will shortly do, state them fully, & give them their fair weight, whether they turn the balance in my own mind or not. [2]  xx My letter to Robinson proves an efficient one. I received a very friendly reply for him, & he has introduced me to a correspondence with the Duke de Albuquerques Secretary, – to whom I have written once, – & for whom I have proferred some specific queries upon points which he will be able to answer because they relate to affairs in which Albuquerque [3]  was principally concerned. Robinson also put me in the way of obtaining information from Colonel Carol [4]  of Romana’s [5]  movements, thro Amyot, Windhams secretary. [6]  To him x I write tomorrow. And he promises me news & publications from Cadiz as they reach there him. – This second volume is likely to be less imperfect than the first, unless I fail in the Austrian war, [7]  – tho here it is to be hoped Schill & the Tyrolese will bear me out; [8]  – as for the contest between mere French & mere Austrians, had there been nothing but the interest of these two nations at stake, I should take less interest in them than in a Long-Main. [9] 

Gemelli Careri [10]  has been generally suspected of being a traveller at home, – but I have seen (& cannot recollect where) some late assertion that his veracity has been now placed out of doubt, & that the suspicions were wholly groundless. [11]  –––

I doubt your Penrith account of the effects of arsenic, [12]  – because since Wards [13]  time it has been gradually getting into use, & no such effects have been <generally> observed. My The same thing has been said of foxglove, & may I think easily be explained in both cases, & in all similar cases. Dropsy is a disease of debility, & many a man who recovers from a disease dies of the debility which it leaves behind it – Measles not unfrequently produce dropsy & in this manner, – but the causa causans  [14]  is known, & nobody ever thinks of imputing the effect to the medicine.

I have seen to night extracts of letters from Lisbon, written by Sealy [15]  (my sister-in-laws father) a great friend of my Uncle, & a stout-hearted as well as strong-headed man. He is confident of success & in high spirits. People, he says, go from Lisbon to see the lines – just as Londoners go to a Review, at Blackheath. The sailors make a most grotesque scene – they are stationed at Alhandra, a town which has been forsaken by all the inhabitants, & there these fellows sit out in the streets in the huge old fashioned armed-chairs of the Portugueze, smoaking & drinking, & as happy as their hearts can desire. – My own opinion is that Massena [16]  will cross the Tagus, – but he must pay dearly if he does it.

God bless you

RS.