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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 139–141.
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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The parcel with Mr Walpolesgave me xxxxx xxxxxx affected me much, – for I well know how much it must cost you to leave so
delightful a habitation as that at Richmond. But you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are acting well, & this brings with
it the peace “which passeth all understanding”,
The Chamberlains Office seems to be very much in arrears. My
salary oddly enough, commences from my birth day, Augt. 12. When they once begin to pay, the payments will I
suppose be made with tolerable regularity, once a quarter, leaving always the quarters which they are behind-hand as a sort of
post-obit.
These papers of Mr Walpoles appear to be the most valuable part of his collection, – I have merely
as yet seen the nature of their contents, which seem likely to assist me materially in that period of my Portugueze historycon will not contain much, – yet doubtless there will be something.
I hope every thing is arranged for establishing Hartley
Coleridge at Oxford. The Postmastershiphim we hear nothing &
know nothing, – except that in all probability he is doing nothing. Sooner or later this must lead to the most deplorable consequences;
– for tho by mere accident (as it may almost be called) his family are preserved from absolute want, & his children from ruin, I
know not what is ultimately to x keep him from a prison.
My main occupation at present is the Brazilian history, for which I shall be very ill remunerated, – I cannot
anticipate more than a fourth part of the profits which might be obtained by works that would not require half the time, or half the
knowledge, or be of half the a tenth part of the value. However I owe this sacrifice not only to the purchasers of the first
volume, but to my self also: & the pleasure of the pursuit must be taken into the account.will <would> be sufficient
for a separate volume, if there were encouragement for it. – In the last Quarterly there are two articles of mine, both cruelly
mutilated, – that upon the History of English Poetry,detail full account of the massacre at Jaffa,way of service which Mammon might exact in this world of his, & I am thankful that
it is not my lot to be engaged in less congenial pursuits.
I am heartily glad of the peace with America, tho not pleased with the terms.depriving
<excluding> them from the fishery: this gratifies Maddison,emp British dominions, – till it
becomes independent itself. Had the war with America continued I think France would have recovered it. The French are of all nations
the most national; – the English I fear of all nations the least so.