The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to James White, 17 September 1816
“Keswick, Sept. 17. 1816.
“Never, I entreat you, think it necessary to apologise
for, or to explain any long interval of correspondence on your part, lest it
should seem to require a like formality on mine, and make that be regarded in
the irksome character of a debt, which is only valuable in proportion as it is
voluntary. We have both of us business always to stand in our excuse, nor can
any excuses ever be needed between you and me. I thank you for your letter and
your inquiries. Time is passing on, and it does its healing work slowly, but
will do it effectually at last. As much as I was sensible of the happiness
which I possessed, so much must I unavoidably feel the change which the
privation of that happiness produces. My hopes and prospects in life are all
altered, and my spirits never again can be what they have been. But I have a
living faith, I am resigned to what is (if I know my own heart, truly and
perfectly resigned), thankful for what has been, and happy in the sure and
certain hope of what will be, when this scene of probation shall be over.
“I shall be glad to receive your communications upon
the distresses of the manufacturers; they might probably have been of great use
had they reached ![]()
| 208 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 43. |
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me when the last Quarterly was in the press. But I may, perhaps,
still turn them to some account. There is another paper of mine upon the poor in the
sixteenth number of the Quarterly, written when the
Luddites, after their greatest outrages, seemed for a time to be quiet. In that
paper I had recommended, as one means of employing hands that were out of work,
the fitness of forming good footpaths along the road side, wherever the nature
of the soil was not such as to render it unnecessary. This was (foolish enough)
cut out by the editor; but when the great object is to discover means of
employing willing industry, the hint might be of some service wherever it is
applicable. In the way of palliating an evil of which the roots lie deeper than
has yet, perhaps, been stated, your efforts should be directed towards finding
employment, and making the small wages that can be afforded go as far as
possible; the reports of the Bettering Society show what may be done by saving
the poor from the exactions of petty shopkeepers; and as winter approaches
great relief may be given, by obtaining through the London Association supplies
of fish. Believe me, that person who should instruct the poor how to prepare
cheap food in the most savoury manner would confer upon them a benefit of the
greatest importance, both to their comfort, health, and habits; for comforts
produce good habits, unless there be a strong predisposition to evil. I have
much yet to say upon this subject, which may perhaps furnish matter for a third
paper in the Review. Sooner or later I trust we shall get the national schools
placed upon a na-![]()
| Ætat. 43. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 209 |
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tional establishment; this measure I
shall never cease to recommend till it be effected.
“I believe I have never congratulated you on your
emancipation from mathematics, and on your ordination. This latter event has
placed you in an active situation; you have duties enough to perform, and no
man who performs his duty conscientiously can be unhappy. He may endure
distress of mind as well as of body, but under any imaginable suffering he may
look on to the end with hope and with joy.
Believe me, my dear James,
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.”
James White (1793 c.-1885)
The younger brother of Henry Kirke White; educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was
curate of St George's Manchester (1826-42), rector of Stalham, Norfolk (1846-52) and Sloley
Norfolk (1852-85).
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.
