The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Walter Scott, 6 July 1809
“I have just been informed that the stewardship for
the Derwentwater estates (belonging to Greenwich Hospital), now held by a
Mr. Walton, is expected soon to be
vacated by his death. It is a situation which would give me a respectable
income, perfectly suit my present place of abode, and not impose upon me more
business than I could properly perform with comfort to myself. Mr. Sharp tells me this, and from him I learn
that Mr. Long is one of the Directors.
Could this be obtained for me I should be well provided for, and in a pleasant
way; so I have thought it right to mention it, in consequence of your last
letter, and having so done shall dismiss the subject from my thoughts.
Pelle timorem, spemque
fugato, is a lesson which I learnt early in life from Boethius, and have been a good deal the happier
for practising.
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| Ætat. 35. |
OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. |
241 |
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“The second Quarterly is better than the first. The affairs of Austria are
treated with great power, great spirit, and clear views. I expected the utter
overthrow of the House of Austria, and my fears have happily been disappointed.
They have profited by experience, and though everything is now upon the
balance, and one cannot open the newspaper without great anxiety and many
doubts, still it does appear that the chances are in our favour. One defeat
will not destroy the Emperor, if he is
only true to himself, but one defeat would destroy Bonaparte. His authority, out of France, is maintained wholly
by force; in France by the opinion of his good fortune and the splendour of his
successes. One thorough defeat will dissolve the spell. His colossal power then
falls to pieces, like the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream. I am afraid our expedition will be too late to turn the scale. If it
were now in Germany it might do wonders; but we are always slow in our
measures, and game so timorously that we are sure to lose. Why not twice forty
thousand men? It has been proved that we can always beat the French with equal
numbers, or at any time when we are not previously out-numbered. Why then send
a force that can so easily be doubled or trebled by the enemy? For allied
armies cannot act together, and whatever battle we have to fight must be fought
alone. Marlborough was the only general who
could wield a confederacy.
“I have made offer of my services to Gifford to undertake Frere’s justification against the
friends of Sir John Moore, if it be
thought advisable. I have ![]()
| 242 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
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offered also to provide for
the fourth Number a paper upon Methodism,—which would be in all things
unlike Sidney Smith’s, except in having as much dread
of its progress. I should examine the causes of its progress, the principles in
human nature to which it appeals, and by which it succeeds; its good and its
evil; the means of preventing the one, and of obtaining the other at less risk;
and instead of offending the whole religious public, as they call themselves,
by indiscriminate ridicule, I should endeavour to show of what different
parties that public is composed, how some of them may be conciliated and made
useful, and others suppressed,—for there are limits which common sense
must appoint to toleration.
“I have finished an English Eclogue, which is at Ballantyne’s service, either for his
Annual Register or his Minstrelsy, and which shall be
transcribed and sent him forthwith. I have never yet thanked you for Lord Somers, a very acceptable
addition to my library,—a very valuable collection, and made far more so
by your arrangement and additions. I am sorry my life of D. Luisa de Carvajal is printed,
or I would have offered it you, as worthy of being inserted among the Tracts of
James I. time. Believe me.
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.”
James Ballantyne (1772-1833)
Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the
financial collapse of 1826.
Boethius (480 c.-524)
Philosopher and Christian theologian, author of
The Consolations of
Philosophy.
King Charles I of England (1600-1649)
The son of James VI and I; as king of England (1625-1649) he contended with Parliament;
he was revered as a martyr after his execution.
Charles, Archduke of Austria (1771-1847)
Leader of the Austrian forces during the Napoleonic Wars; he was victorious at
Aspern-Essling, defeated at the Battle of Wagram.
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
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).
Charles Long, baron Farnborough (1760-1838)
Tory politician, connoisseur, and advisor to George IV on matters of taste; he was
paymaster general 1807-26, and raised to the peerage in 1826.
Sir John Moore (1761-1809)
A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr.
John Moore, the author of
Zeluco.
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).
Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835)
English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published
Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the
Edinburgh
Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House
denizens.
Nicholas Walton (1734 c.-1810)
Of Newcastle; one of the receivers of the revenue of Greenwich Hospital. In 1809 Robert
Southey considering applying for his office.
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.
