The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 28 December 1813
“Keswick, Dec. 28. 1813.
“My dear Uncle,
“. . . . . I am sorely out of humour with public
affairs. One of our politicians (Mr.
Canning, I believe) called Bonaparte once the child of Jacobinism; but, whether Jacobinism
or anything worse bred him, it is this country that has nursed him up to his
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fortunes. After the murders of the Duc d’Enghien and Palm—avowed, open, notorious as they
were,—we ought to have made the war personal against a wretch who was
under the ban of humanity. Had this been our constant language, he would long
since have been destroyed by the French themselves; nor do I think that Austria
would ever have connected itself by marriage with a man so branded. But it is
impossible to make the statesmen of this country feel where their strength
lies. It will be no merit of theirs if peace is not made, morally certain as
every man, who sees an inch before his nose, must be, that it would last no
longer than it serves this villain’s purpose. He will get back his
officers and men, who are now prisoners upon the Continent; he will build
fleets: he will train sailors; he will bring sailors from America, and send
ships there, and we shall have to renew the contest at his time, and with every
advantage on his side.
“I spoilt my poem, in deference to Rickman’s judgment and Croker’s advice, by cutting out all that
related to Bonaparte, and which gave
strength, purport, and coherence to the whole. Perhaps I may discharge my
conscience by putting these rejected parts together*, and letting them off in the Courier before it becomes a libellous
offence to call murder and tyranny by their proper names.
“You will see that I have announced a series of
inscriptions recording the achievements of our army
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| Ætat. 40. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 55 |
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in the Peninsula. Though this is not exactly ex officio, yet I should not have thought
of it if it had not seemed a fit official undertaking. This style of
composition is that to which I am more inclined than to any other. My local
knowledge will turn to good account on many of these epigrammata.
“I had a letter a day or two ago from Kinder who is at this time forming a
commercial establishment at St. Andero. The Spanish troops, he says, had
behaved so ill that Lord W. had ordered
them all within their own frontier. From the specimens which he had seen, he
thought they combined a blacker assemblage of diabolical qualities than any set
of men whom he ever before had an opportunity of observing. Now
Kinder is a cool, clear-headed man, disposed to see
things in their best colours, and, moreover, has been in Brazil and Buenos
Ayres. The truth seems to be that, though there never was much law in Spain,
there has been none during the last six years, and the ruffian-like
propensities of the brute multitude have had their full swing.
Kinder had been to the scene of action, and dined
frequently at head-quarters. He finds Biscay more beautiful than he expected,
but has seen nothing to equal the Vale of Keswick. I shall make use of him to
get books from Madrid. My friend Abella
is one of the deputies for Aragon to the New Cortes.
“The South Sea missionaries have done something; at
last besides making better books than their Jesuit forerunners. They have
converted the King of Otahëité. His letters are in my last Evangelical Magazine, and very curious they
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prove conqueror in the civil war which
is desolating the island, this conversion may, very probably, lead to its
complete civilisation. Human sacrifices would, of course, be abolished, and
schools established. His Majesty himself writes a remarkably good hand. . . . .
“God bless you!
Manuel Abella (1763-1817)
Spanish historian and numismatist who was secretary at the Spanish embassy in London
during the Peninsular War.
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
Thomas Kinder (1844 fl.)
English commercial banker who invested in Mexican and South American mining concerns; he
was an acquaintance of Robert Southey.
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).
Johann Philipp Palm (1768-1806)
German bookseller killed on Napoleon's orders when he refused to offer up the name of an
author who had criticized the emperor.
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter
Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and John Galt.
