3444. Robert Southey to John Kenyon, 21 February 1820 ⁠* 

Keswick. 21 Feb^y. 1820

My dear Kenyon

Immediately on the receipt of your letter the order for the char was given, & accepted; so that I thought myself sure of executing the commission. But I now learn that the fish would not be caught, & that it was not thought desirable to catch them; the fish, the fishermen, & the fish-potters being xxx unanimously of opinion that this is not the season. The proper months are October & November. [1]  Give me any directions for that time, & they shall be punctually observed.

What a world of events since the date of your letter, tho it is scarcely a month old! A new King, – an ugly question about the new Queen, – the preparations for a new Parliament, which bring on a relapse of the Election fever, before this part of England has recovered from the ill blood which the last left behind it, & this assassination in France! [2] 

You will be compelled, sooner or later, to agree with me concerning the Press, & you cannot be more unwilling to come to that opinion than I have been. There will be no security for government or society, till the constituted authorities all over Europe have the controul of the Press. The question is whether this shall be conceded to an equitable Government, which consults the public good, & regards public opinion, – as the means of preventing revolution, – or whether it will be taken by the military Autocrat to xxxx xxxxx xxxx they who escape from <who will put an end to> the series of massacres proscriptions & civil wars which this miserable country must inevitably undergo, unless the Press be curbed. We have no statesman courageous enough to venture upon the remedy, tho I cannot believe any of our statesmen can be so blind as not to understand the danger. What then is to preserve <save> us? Perhaps a premature rebellion, before the army is corrupted: this is not so likely as it was three months ago, when a day for the attempt was fixed, & when any government but ours would have caught the ring leaders in a trap. [3]  – Perhaps some frightful tragedy like this of the Duc de Berri, – & I will own to you that such a thing would surprize me less in this country, than it has done in France. It has already been twice attempted, – once on the late King, – once on the Regent; & on both times because the murderer missed his aim the newspapers made a jest of it! [4]  Infatuated as we are I believe that the shot which should take effect would be fatal to our accursed newspaper press. – I can imagine another means. It is among my uncomfortable speculations that a country which has been so long without any visitation of pestilence as England has been, has some right to expect it: so long a time never having elapsed without one before – , & it being certain that we are not preserved from it by any improvement in the healing art, nor by any precautions, nor by any change in our climate. [5]  It is a frightful thought, – but it has occurred to me who believe in the moral government of the world, (& it has made an impression upon me,) that Providence may send pestilence among us at once to punish us, & to preserve us from the only evil that would be greater, – xx xx Do you know that John Hunter was of opinion that our manufactories would engender for us some new plague? [6]  – Specific diseases many of them produce. But as yet the only plague which they have generated is a moral & political one.

My departure for the South is delayed for about a month, – chiefly because of the Kings death. I must produce some ex officio verses. [7]  When you see them you will perceive that you have xxx influenced them, in a very material point.

All here desire their kindest remembrances

God bless you

RS.