The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 20 December 1808
“Here is my vindication of the Indian Mission packed
up on the table; but, unluckily, too late for to-day’s coach, so it
cannot reach London before Monday. It is written with hearty good-will, and
requires no signature to show whence it comes. Now I wish you would ask
Mr. Gifford—if he thinks it
expedient to use the pruning-knife—to let the copy be returned to me when
the printer has done with it, because it is ten to one that the passages which
he would curtail—being the most Robert Southeyish of
the whole—would be those that I should like best myself; and, therefore,
I would have the satisfaction of putting them in again for my own satisfaction,
if for nobody’s else. I must still confess to you, Grosvenor, that I have my fears and ![]()
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 199 |
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suspicions as to the freedom of the Review, and this article will, in some measure,
put it to the proof: for it is my nature and my principle to speak
and—write as earnestly, as plainly, and as straight to the mark as I
think and feel. If the editor understands his own interest, he will not
restrict me. A Review started against the Edinburgh will instantly be suspected of being a ministerial
business, and a sprinkling of my free and fearless way of thinking, will win
friends for it among those very persons most likely to be prejudiced against
it, and to be misled by the Scotchmen. The high orthodox men, both of Church
and State, will always think as they are told; there is no policy in writing to
them; the Anti-Jacobin and British Critic are good enough for
their faces of brass, brains of lead, and tongues of bell-metal. I shall not
offend them, though my reasonings appeal to better hearts and clearer
understandings. I would say this to him if I knew him; but I do not desire you
to say it, because I do not know how far it might suit the person to whom it
relates.
“Spain! Spain! . . . were the resources of the nation
at my command, I would stake my head upon the deliverance of that country, and
the utter overthrow of Bonaparte. But,
good God! what blunders, what girlish panics, what absolute cowardice are there
in our measures! Disembarking troops when we ought to be sending ship after
ship as fast as they could be put on board. It is madness to wait for
transports; send ships of the line, and let them run singly for Lisbon, and
Cadiz, and Catalonia. Nothing can ruin the Spaniards unless they ![]()
| 200 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
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feel the misconduct of England as I am grieved to say I
feel it. It is the more heart-breaking because the heart of England is with
those noble people. We are not only ready, willing, and able to make every
effort for them, but even eager to do it; and yet all is palsied by plans so
idiotic that the horsewhip were a fitter instrument of punishment for them than
the halter, if it were not for their deadly consequences. God bless you!
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine. (1798-1821). Edited by John Gifford as a continuation of the brilliant
Anti-Jacobin
Magazine (1797-98) with no plates, less poetry, and more book reviews.
The British Critic. (1793-1825). A quarterly publication of conservative opinion continued as
The
British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review (1838-1843). The original editors
were Robert Nares and William Beloe.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
