The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to William Lisle Bowles, 19 March 1825
“Keswick,” March 19. 1825.
“My dear Sir,
“I am induced to write to you by a letter which I have
this day received from G. Peachey. In
answer to the request which he communicates, though I am little behind you in
the vale of years, and likely, perhaps, to reach the end of our mortal journey
by a shorter road, yet, should I prove the survivor, any wish which you may
please to signify, I will faithfully, and to the best of my power, discharge.
There are three contemporaries, the influence of whose poetry on my own I can
distinctly trace. Sayers, yourself, and
Walter Landor. I owe you something,
therefore, on the score of gratitude.
“But to a pleasanter subject. Peachey tells me that you had begun to print
some observations upon Mr.
Butler’s book, but that you have suppressed them upon hearing that I was
engaged in answering it. I am sorry for this, because the more answers ![]()
| Ætat. 50. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 207 |
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that are called forth the better. False and shallow as the
book is (the Bishop of London calls it,
very justly, ‘a flimsy structure of mis statements and
sophistry’), it imposes upon shallow readers, and is gladly appealed
to as an authority by the Liberals, who are at this time leagued against the
Church. Every answer that may appear would have a certain circle, within which
no other can act with equal effect. And I am so persuaded of this, that I
desired Murray not to announce my
intended work, lest it
should have the effect of preventing others from coming forward in the same
good cause. I hope, therefore, that you will resume the pen. The Church ought
not to be without defenders at this time. If the Catholic writers had been put
down whenever they appeared during the last five-and-twenty years, as they
might and ought to have been, by an exposure of their gross and impudent
misrepresentations, that party would not have been so daring as it now is.
“Dr.
Phillpotts* is answering the theological part of Butler’s book.† My business, of course, must be,
* Now Bishop of Exeter. † Dr.
Philpott’s had thus courteously communicated his
intention to my father:— “Stanhope, Durham, Feb. 28. 1825. “My dear Sir, “I know not whether it may
interest you to be informed that (feeling as I do the
absolute necessity of some detailed confutation of
Mr. Butler’s
statement of the doctrines of his Church, contained in the
Letter X. of his book, especially when so many various
misstatements of those doctrines are continually made by
other writers and speakers,) I have resolved speedily to
undertake that work; indeed, I am at present as busy with
it as infirm health will permit. Mr.
Butler’s book did not fall in my way
until these three or four weeks. |
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| 208 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 50. |
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to attack him along the whole of his line, which I am
doing most effectually. For the sake of relieving the tone of controversy, I
take the opportunity of introducing biographical and historical matter, and
call my work therefore, Vindiciæ
Ecclesiae Anglicanae,—The Book of the Church Vindicated and
Amplified. My temper is not controversial. I had much rather be industriously
and thankfully reading old books, than detecting the defects and vices of new
ones. But when I am provoked to it, I can wield a sledge-hammer to as good
purpose as my old friend Wat Tyler
himself. God bless you, my dear Sir!
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.”
Charles Butler (1750-1832)
Of Lincoln's Inn, the first Catholic barrister to practice in more than a century; he
wrote
An Address to the Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland
(1813).
William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (1766-1848)
Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was regius professor of Divinity
(1809-13), bishop of London (1813-28), and archbishop of Canterbury (1828-48).
Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864)
English poet and man of letters, author of the epic
Gebir (1798)
and
Imaginary Conversations (1824-29). He resided in Italy from 1815
to 1835.
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.
William Peachey (1763 c.-1838)
Of Gosport, educated at Trinity College, Oxford; he was lieutenant-general in the 10th
Hussars and was a Tory MP for Yarmouth (1797-1802) and Taunton (1826-30). He corresponded
with W. L. Bowles and Robert Southey.
Henry Phillpotts, bishop of Exeter (1778-1869)
High-church Tory clergyman and controversialist opposed to Catholic emancipation; he was
dean of Chester (1828) and bishop of Exeter (1830).
Frank Sayers (1763-1817)
Of Norwich; after medical study at Edinburgh University, he became a poet and translator,
publishing
Dramatic Sketches of the Ancient Northern Mythology
(1790).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Wat Tyler (d. 1381)
Leader of the peasants' rebellion who was executed by the mayor of London after he had
presented a petition the Richard II.
