1550. Robert Southey to Thomas Smith, 5 December 1808 ⁠* 

Keswick. Dec. 5. 1808.

My dear Sir

I should send you this prospectus [1]  with great pleasure, were it not for certain doubts & fears as to the regularity & perseverance with which the work will be carried on. Ability there is an abundance, but for stability I dare not be a voucher. That Coleridges head is full every body knows. & I know that his common place books are full also; – if he has but the resolution to arrange them & put his scattered materials <fragments> in order. there will be no lack of materials, [MS torn]atever he will do, will be of the best very best order, – no man living is so capable of instructing [MS torn]blic, & if he puts his design in execution it will be doing great food at a seasonable time.

You will wish me to say something about that country of which we are all thinking, & for which so many are fearing & desponding. I have no fears for Spain. Great reverses we must hear of, Bonaparte at Madrid, [2]  probably at Lisbon, – but not master of Spain, – never – never – never. If there is any nation under heaven whose spirit is unconquerable it is the Spanish nation. No people are so proud of their ancestors & of their country, – no people have such reason to be proud. They have done greater things there ever way other people atchieved, & we have already witnessed what that remembrance has enabled them to xxxxx <do> in their present contest. Bad as their religion is it is a mighty ally in times like these: xx they are as sincere in it as ever, & probably more attached to it because the higher clergy have long been men of most exemplary lives. – Bad as their government is, it has never corrupted the people as ours has done. – they are patriots, – we alas, are whigs & tories, outs & ins. – tantararara  [3]  or rogues all – is the burthen of the song. Manufactures have not vitiated the lower class. Commerce has not given the middle one an interest distinct from that of the country. – there will be no clamourers for peace because their looms are stopt, & their cotton pieces on hand. Of all men under heaven the Spaniards can best bear the privations & hardships of actual service. – they will starve out the French. – absolutely hunger & watch them to death. Then they have no Duke of York, [4]  no royal family, & no rotten Boroughs. – When I look at the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry, & see King, Ministers & Lord-Mayor endeavoring to stifle the only generous cry that it has been my lot to hear from the depth of England, [5]  I get ashamed of my country, & am obliged to think of such men as Sidney & Hutchinson [6]  & Milton, – least I should wish to renounce my birth place, & talk Spanish for the rest of my life.

Yet there is hope at home as well as abroad. That cry which was heard against the cursed Cintra convention came from the heart of England. & there is a stirring among the bones which seems to indicate that the Day of xxxxxxxxxxx Resurrection <& of Judgement> is at hand. at public meetings men do as they are bid. because their votes are bought & sold like any other dirty commodity. – but in private you hear but one opinion, – one sense of national degradation. – one feeling ‘that it is not & it cannot come to good’ [7]  – which is a sure presage that good is coming.

I have reason to expect our excellent good friend Danvers here at midsummer. He is to conduct his wards to Liverpool, & will bring David on to the Lakes. This last summer is the only one that we have past without some abiding guest. My brother Tom was called off in June by the Admiralty, & is now I trust lying snug at anchor in Torbay. that shocking system of keeping up the blockade thro all weather, having happily been given up, to the salvation of ships & seamen. The Doctor is officiating at Durham, with fair prospect of soon halving the practice of the place. – but I look at the Magazine Obituaries, & do not find any such increase of mortality there as should induce me to think he has much to do. He would grin at me with anger if he heard that sentence. As I not have not seen him since his return from Lisbon, I purpose paying him a visit early in the new year. We are but fourscore miles asunder, & it is good fortune that our lots have not been more distant.

Of myself the news is that I am weary of waiting for any reduction in the price of paper, & so my History of Brazil will set off this week to the press. [7]  And that the Hindoo romance, [8]  the beginning of which xxxxx you heard at Bownham, [9]  has been only now resumed, & is now three parts done. Early in the spring I hope to have it compleated.

Edith begs to be remembered to Mrs Smith –

believe me yours very truly

Robert Southey

I have mislaid your present address & must direct to Bownham.