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Huntington Library, RS 186. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), III, pp. 341–344 [in part].
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.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
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The fate of poor Perceval has made me quite unhappy ever since
I heard of it, not merely from the shock & the private misery which it is impossible to put out of mind, but from the whole train
of evils to which this is but the beginning.
Wellesley & Canning I doubt not ratted upon the Cath. question because they expected the Prince upon that ground would eject Perceval & then they should have a better chance than the Early Friends. If they come in, as I fear
they will, we may have the war carried on, but we shall have Catholick concessions, – after which the Church property is not worth
seven years purchase. They will sell the tythes, – the next step will be to put up the Establishment xxx situation <to
sale> in the way of contracts, the minds of the people (which God knows need no farther poison,) will then be totally unsettled, –
& the ship will part from her last cable, on a lee shore xx in the height of the storm.
At this moment the Army is the single plank between us & destruction, & no I believe the only thing
doubtful is whether we shall a military despotism before we go thro the horrors of a Bellum
servile,after it. This I am certain
of, that nothing but an immediate suspension of the liberty of debate & the liberty of the press can preserve us. Were I minister I
would instantly suspend the Habeas Corpus,x every Jacobine Journalist confined, so that it should not be
possible for them to continue their treasonable vocation. There they should stay till it would be safe to let them out, which it might
be in some seven years. I would clear the Gallery whenever one of the agitators rose to speak: & if the speech were printed I would
teach him his p that his privilege of attempting to excite rebellion did not extend beyond the walls of Parliament; – that
he might talk treason to those walls as long as he pleased, – but that if he printed it <treason>, he was then
amenable to the vengeance of his country.
I did not forget the main question about reading. – One month suffices for a xxxx
xxxxxx dozen or a score pair of ears in the p tap rooms & pot houses, where Cobbett & Huntxxx too late. A judicial xx fatuity seems to have fallen been sent among us, – we have one
set of op Romanists, Sectarians of every kind <description>, your Liberality-men, & your Philosophers of
every kind, & of every degree of folly & emptiness, are united for the blessed purpose of plucking up old principles by the
roots, – each with <for> their own separate ends, but all sure of meeting with the same end if they are successful. We
who see this xx danger have no power to prevent it, & they who have the power cannot be made to see it. – I think
sometimes that it is not without good reason that I take so especial an interest in the affairs of Spain, – that country may
be free when I shall no longer be able to live in this open to me & my children when we shall no longer be able to live
in this.
This is a melancholy strain. We must however work the ship till she sinks, & a vigorous minister xx
might take advantage of the feelings of the sound part of the country at this moment, & the avowal which the Burdettites have made – for strong measures of prevention & vengeance. The greatest immediate
danger it is from the army, – if the Burdettites had not xxxx
luckily xxxx so often insulted & abused them, that damnable business of flogging would at this moment turn the
scale.& increase of pay with length of service, & certain provision after a certain number of years. By
such measures they might be xxxx secured, – I would give the poor gratuitous education in parochial schools, – a boon which
all among them who care for their children, would rightly estimate, – & if the work of coercion kept pace with that of conciliation
we might hold on till our battle in Spain f ended in the ruin of overthrow of the enemy. But alas where is the
Dictator who has cour is to save the Commonwealth?
Perceval had a character which was worth as much as his talents. The only
statesman who has this advantage in any approaching degree is Ld Sidmouth,to be <upon sale,> but whose <would be> tongue & talents <brain xxxxxx> may be worth
taking xxxx xxxxxx the drawback of xxxx all the rest – the carcase is in bad odour, but the tongue & the brains
might be worth a high price.
I am going to write upon the French Revolution for the Q. R.only who are in the main of the same way of thinking. Our
contemporaries read not for <in> xxxxx <hope> of being instructed, but to have their own opinions
flattered. – xxx if you cannot <you> persuade some body to run the risque of being murdered for closing the gallery
when Burdett speaks? Your county member Fuller would be an exceedingly proper subject, – xxxxxx he does not want courage,
& has a sort of mob credit <with the mob> x for his fluent honesty!Parliament history.
I want to furnish your Lobby with a statue of Perceval, &
have sent Bedford to Herries in hope that it may be attempted.
I am in great odour at Cadiz. The (Zaragozan) Countess of Bureta