The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 4 January 1812
“Concerning Whitbread, I believe, in every instance, the text of his speech
will justify the comment. ![]()
| 324 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 38. |
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You have heard of taking the
wrong sow by the ear: he had better take a wild boar by the ear than haul me up
to London upon this quarrel. I should tell him it was true that I had said his
speeches were translated into French, and circulated through all the
departments of France, but I had not said—what has since come to my
knowledge—that, when they were thus circulated, nobody believed them
genuine; nobody believed it possible that such speeches could have been uttered
by an Englishman. I should ask the House (that is, his side of the House; and,
of course, in that humble language becoming a person at the bar) at what time
they would be pleased to let their transactions become matter for history; and
I should give the party a gentle hint not to delay that time too long, for
reputations, like every thing else, find their level; and if he, and such as
he, do not get into history soon, they may run a risk of not getting into it at
all. I should speak of the situation in which Spain and England stand to each
other, and contrast my own feelings with those which he has continually
expressed. I should appeal to the whole tenour of the book whether the design
of the writer was to vilify Parliament, or to bring the Government into
contempt. And, as an Englishman, a man of letters, and an historian, I should
claim my privileges.
“Phillidor has made his appearance, and shall be
returned in the first parcel, with the reviewal of Azara. Out of pure conscience, I have promised Gifford to take all these South American
travellers myself, because I cannot bear that the Edinburgh should gain credit upon this subject,
when I am so much better versed in it than any other man in ![]()
| Ætat. 38. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 325 |
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England possibly can be. I am heartily glad the state of
South America is in
Blanco’s hands; it will be
highly useful to the Review, and, I hope, to himself also; for he works hard,
with little benefit, and, when he has once tried his strength in the Review, it
will not be difficult to find other appropriate subjects for him. I have a high
respect for this man’s moral and intellectual character, and earnestly
wish it were possible to obtain a pension, which never could be more properly
bestowed. Canning has smitten the Quarterly with a dead palsy upon the
Catholic Question, or else Blanco could supply such an
exposition upon that subject as would entitle him to anything that Mr. Perceval could give.
“Here is a man at Keswick, who acts upon me as my own
ghost would do. He is just what I was in 1794. His name is Shelley, son to the member for Shoreham; with
6000l. a year entailed upon him, and as much more in
his father’s power to cut off. Beginning with romances of ghosts and
murder, and with poetry at Eton, he passed, at Oxford, into metaphysics;
printed half-a-dozen pages, which he entitled ‘The Necessity of Atheism;’ sent
one anonymously to Coplestone, in
expectation, I suppose, of converting him; was expelled in consequence; married
a girl of seventeen, after being turned
out of doors by his father; and here they both are, in lodgings, living upon
200l. a year, which her father allows them. He is
come to the fittest physician in the world. At present he has got to the
Pantheistic stage of philosophy, and, in the course of a week, I expect he will
be a Berkleyan, for I have put him ![]()
| 326 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 38. |
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upon a course of
Berkeley. It has surprised him a
good deal to meet, for the first time in his life, with a man who perfectly
understands him, and does him full justice. I tell him that all the difference
between us is that he is nineteen, and I am thirty-seven; and I dare say it
will not be very long before I shall succeed in convincing him that he may be a
true philosopher, and do a great deal of good, with 6000l. a year; the thought of which troubles him a great deal more at
present than ever the want of sixpence (for I have known such a want) did me. .
. . . God help us! the world wants mending, though he did not set about it
exactly in the right way. God bless you, Grosvenor!
Félix de Azara (1742-1821)
Spanish officer and naturalist who published
Voyage dans l'Amerique
meridionale depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1801 (1809).
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 Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne (1685-1753)
Bishop of Cloyne and philosopher; author of
A New Theory of Vision
(1709, 1710, 1732),
A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human
Knowledge (1710, 1734), and
Three Dialogues between Hylas and
Philonous (1713, 1725, 1734).
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
Edward Copleston, bishop of Llandaff (1776-1849)
Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he was a fellow of Oriel, Oxford Professor of
Poetry (1802-12), dean of St. Paul's (1827-1849), and bishop of Llandaff (1827-49); he
published
Three Replies to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review
(1810-11).
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).
Spencer Perceval (1762-1812)
English statesman; chancellor of the exchequer (1807), succeeded the Duke of Portland as
prime minister (1809); he was assassinated in the House of Commons.
Harriet Shelley [née Westbrook] (1795-1816)
Shelley's first wife, with whom he eloped in 1811 and who committed suicide after he had
transferred his affections to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of
Queen
Mab (1813),
The Revolt of Islam (1817),
The Cenci and
Prometheus Unbound (1820), and
Adonais (1821).
Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815)
The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved
with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties
led him to suicide.
Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841)
Emigrated to England from Seville in 1810, studied at Oxford and was tutor to Lord
Holland's son Henry; he wrote for the
New Monthly Magazine and
published on theology.
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.
