2095. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 16 May 1812 ⁠* 

Saturday May 16. 1812.

My dear Grosvenor

I have myself so strong a sense of Mr Percevals public merits that I cannot help writing to you to say how much I wish that a statue might be erected to him. This could only be done by subscription, but surely such a subscription might soon be filled if his friends thought <think> it adviseable to begin it. Suggest this to Herries, & if the thing should be begun, pu when the list has the proper names to begin with, put mine down for five guineas, which could not at this time be better employed.

The fit place for this statue would be the spot where he fell. Permission to place it there would no doubt be obtained, & the opposition made to it would only recoil upon his political enemies. [1] 

I have often been grieved by public events; but never so depressed by any as by this. It is not the shock which has produced this, – nor the extent of private misery which this wretched madman has occasioned, [2]  – tho I can scarcely xxxx refrain from tears while I write. It is my deep & ominous sense of danger to the country, from the Burdettites on one hand, & from Catholic concessions on the other. You know I am no high church bigot, – it would be impossible for me to subscribe to the church articles. Upon the mysterious articles <points> I rather withhold assent than refuse it, – not presuming to define in my own imperfect conceptions what has been left indefinite. But the plenary inspiration of the scriptures, which is the established tenet of every church except the S modern Socinians, I decidedly disbelieve, & this is a gulph between me & the Establishment which can never be past. But I am convinced that the overthrow of the Church Establishment would bring with it the greatest misery <calamities> for us & for our children. If any man could have saved it, it was Mr Perceval. The wealth of the church will tempt the Wellesleys, [3]  who I suspect have are of the East Indian religion, – that is no religion at all. The Foxites [4]  are all Voltaireists. The Scotch mongrel-politico-xxxxxxxx-philosophisticators to a man Atheists at heart, & the greater numbers of them as arrant rascals as Fouche or Talleyrand [5]  to boot. The repeal of the test act [6]  will let in Catholicks & invite more dissenters. When the present D. of Norfolk [7]  dies, we x you will <have> Catholic members for all his boroughs. All these parties will join in plundering the church. No man is more thankful for the English Reformation than I am, – but nearly a century & half elapsed before the evils which it necessarily originated had subsided.

As for conciliating the wild Irish by con such concessions the notion is so preposterous, that when I know a man of Wynns understanding can maintain such an opinion, it makes me sea sick at heart to think upon what sandy foundations every political fabric must <seems to> rest!

I have strayed on unintentionally. – Go to Herries, & if he will enter into my feelings about the statue let no time be lost.

God bless you

RS.