“Before I say anything of my own doings, let me rejoice
with you over these great events in the North. Never in civilised Europe had
there been so great an army brought together as Bonaparte had there collected, and never was there so total and
tremendous a destruction. I verily think that this is the fourth act of the
Corsican, and that the catastrophe of the bloody drama is near. May his fall be
as awful as his crimes! The siege of Dantzic, and the accession of Prussia to
our alliance, will, probably, be our next news. Saxony will be the next
government to emancipate itself, for there the government is as well disposed
as the people. I wish I could flatter myself that Alexander were great enough to perform an act of true wisdom as
well as magnanimity, and re-establish Poland, not after the villanous manner of
Bonaparte, but with
| Ætat. 39. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 15 |
“Was there ever an infatuation like that of the party in this country who are crying out for peace? as if this country had not ample cause to repent of having once before given up the vantage ground of war, at a peace forced upon the state by a faction! Let us remember Utrecht, and not suffer the Whigs of this day to outdo the villany of the Tories of that. There can be no peace with Bonaparte, none with France, that is not dictated at the edge of the sword. Peace, I trust, is now not far distant, and one which France must kneel to receive, not England to ask.
“The opening of the Baltic will come seasonably for our
manufactures, and, if it set the looms to work again, we may hope that it will
suspend the danger which has manifested itself, and give time for measures
which may prevent its recurrence. You will see in the next Quarterly a paper upon the State of the
Poor,—or, rather, the populace,—wherein I have pointed out
the causes of this danger, and its tremendous extent, which, I believe, few
persons are aware of. I shall be sorry if it be mutilated from any false
notions of prudence. It may often be necessary to keep a patient ignorant of
his real state,
| 16 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 39. |
“In the last number I reviewed D’Israeli’s Calamities of Literature, the amusing book of a very good-natured man.
“The poem goes on slow and sure. Twenty years ago
nothing could equal the ardour with which I pursued such employments. I was
then impatient to see myself in print: it was not possible to long more eagerly
than I did for the honour of authorship. This feeling is quite extinct; and,
allowing as much as may be allowed for experience, wiser thoughts, and, if you
please, satiety in effecting such a change, I cannot but believe that much must
be attributed to a sort of autumnal or evening tone of mind, coming upon me a
little earlier than it does upon most men. I am as cheerful as a boy, and
retain many youthful or even boyish habits; but I am older in mind than in
years, and in years than in appearance; and, though none of the joyousness of
youth is lost, there is none of its ardour left. Composition, where any passion
is called forth, excites me more than it is desirable to be excited; and, if it
were not for the sake of gratifying two or three persons in the world whom I
love, and who love me,
| Ætat. 39. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 17 |
