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Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library Manuscripts, MS Forster 48 D.32 MS 7. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 164–167.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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Freres defence has been performed by Ellis, with what success or ability I do not yet know, for the number has not reached me. Had
I undertaken it I should have shown that the Ambassador had the spirit & feeling of an Englishman both of which were wanting in the
General, who was cowed by the reputation of the French Generals & ran away from them. I should think that it would have been better
for an English army to have been cut to pieces than so to have effected its escape, – that either with Blake in Biscay or at
Somosierra,
There is a want of talent in the Junta,the Felipe
2.
I shall soon have to write <upon> this subject at full length, – for I have undertaken the historical part of an
Edinburgh Annual Register which the Ballantynes are about to start, under
advice probably of Scott who is their Magnus Apollo.other brother of the grey-goose-quill supplied)am have not yet received the materials which their London bookseller is to
procure for me, so that they take me wholly unprepared for the task, & will hurry me thro with it. I like it, – or their terms
would not have tempted me. It enables me so to speak <deliver> my own opinion as that many thousand persons shall hear
them, & they will be heard more willingly, & received with fairer minds than if the author were well known. You will like the
bitterness with which I speak of the last Coalition ministry,
A petty difficulty in Kehama
The first volume of my Brazilian history is far advanced in the press,
t 30.
Kehama will be compleated in two more sections. Canticles they might be called if it were not for King Solomon.is it shall the
best parts be weakened for the sake of ornamenting the what must of necessity constitute the bulk of the poem. I think not,
– but this opinion wants to be fortified by that of other persons competent to the question. Is it practicable to write the narrative
generally in rhyme, & throw it aside when the passion rises & the subject will bear it out.
About two months ago some offers of service were made to me by Canning thro Ellis & Scott. They do him credit, because my opinions are pretty well known & if they do me no good, that is not his fault as he
has no longer the power of realizing them. I asked to be made Historiographer, refusing to enter upon a diplomatic line of life, –
& declining Professorships because they are fenced about with Tests,bêtes noires, James Stanier Clarke (c. 1765–1834;
How wretchedly this game of war is played, – when if it were played well we should so certainly win every thing! What
can be more wretchedly constituted than such a Cabinet as ours! a government so managed is like an army whose whole movements are to be
directed by Councils of war instead of the General! – As for these Puss-catch-cornerhave been
tried & found wanting, they make one almost hopeless, were it not for a faith in God & in human nature.
Keswick.