The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Rickman, 5 April 1818
“April 5. 1818.
“My dear R.,
“I apprehended, as you know, some such demurrer on the
part of the feeble. They are, I believe, the only persons who, when engaged in
mortal combat, were ever afraid of provoking their enemies, or striking them
too hard. . . . . .
“Murray wrote me
a brief note the other day, wherein, without any mention of this paper, he said he never desired
to see another article upon either politics or religion in the Review, because they are
‘certain of offending a great mass of people.’ I replied
to this at some length in a way which for a little while would impress the
magnus homo; but because Mackintosh and a few other Ops. praise a number which does them
no harm, he fancies because they are pleased the rest of his readers must be
pleased too. This is the mere impression for the moment; but that the Review
will ever proceed in a bold, upright, and straightforward course is not to be
expected.
“I have a chance letter from Stuart: he says Cobbett has fallen one third in sale, and all such publications
are declining, but the anarchists are as active as ever, and new opportunities
will occur for bringing their venom into life. ‘These
wretches’ he continues, ‘are effecting their purposes by
libelling; they are driving off the ground every man that can oppose them;
they are conquering by scandal, and ![]()
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 299 |
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Ministers wish as
much as others to keep out of the way. Unless this spirit of scandal is put
down, unless the licentiousness of the press be restrained, certainly it
will effect a revolution,—restrained I mean by new laws, and new
regulations. It is altogether, as at present practised, a new thing, not older than the French Revolution. I can perceive
every one shrinking from it,—you, me, Wordsworth, Coleridge, &c. Every one about the press dreads
Cobbett’s scandal; and thus when a man
throws off all consideration of character, he has all others in his power.
Even the Ministry, too, and their friends, I think shrink from those who
fight their battles, when covered with filth in the fray.’
“Stuart is wrong
in two points. This sort of scandal is certainly as old as Junius and Wilkes, perhaps much older; and he mistakes my feelings upon
the subject and Wordsworth’s.
“God bless you!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Junius (1773 fl.)
Anonymous political writer who attacked the king and Tory party in the
Public Advertiser, 1769-1772. There is persuasive evidence that he was Sir Philip
Francis (1740-1818).
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Daniel Stuart (1766-1846)
Originally its printer, he was proprietor of the
Morning Post from
1795-1803; in about 1800 he became part-proprietor and editor of
The
Courier.
John Wilkes (1725-1797)
English political reformer and foe of George III who was twice elected to Parliament
while imprisoned; he was the author of attacks on the Scots and the libertine
Essay on Woman.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
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.
