The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 17 May 1812
“I received a note from Lord
Lonsdale on Saturday, enclosing a reply from Lord Hertford to his ![]()
| 340 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 38. |
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application; which reply states that a previous arrangement had been made for
the office of historiographer. Thinking you would be likely to know this as
soon as myself, I did not write to you. My interest was better than I expected.
Upon Lord Lonsdale I had reckoned; but Scott wrote for me to Lord Melville, and seemed to depend upon success. I have now
done with the state lottery. Of all things possible I most desired an
appointment at Lisbon; if it had been given me when it was desired, and when it
would have been honourable in Fox so to
have given it, knowing as he did my motive for wishing it, it would have
involved me (owing to the subsequent troubles) in pecuniary difficulties which
perhaps I should never have surmounted. That hope having failed, I looked to
that good ship the Historiographer, believing myself better qualified for the
post than most men, and, more than any other man, ambitious of fulfilling its
duties; but that good ship, it seems, is still destined to be so ill manned as
to be perfectly useless.
“This evening I have a letter from Canning, couched in the most handsome and
friendly terms. He does not know that the office is disposed of, but hints at
difficulties in the way of his obtaining it (even supposing he were in power),
which Gifford has explained. He
concludes with expressions and professions of good will, which I doubt not are
sincere. But there is nothing to which I can look forward.
“Say to Gifford
that I must beg him to end with my article instead of beginning with it. I am close pressed with the
Register, which this week will
bring, ![]()
| Ætat. 38. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 341 |
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I hope and trust, to a conclusion. Mr. Ballantyne’s historiographer is well
paid, but the office is no sinecure.
“I wish you were here to see the country in full
beauty. Your godson has just learnt to
read Greek, and I expect in my next parcel a grammar and vocabulary for him. He
promises well, if it please God that he should live. God bless you!
James Ballantyne (1772-1833)
Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the
financial collapse of 1826.
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.
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
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).
