“If the Utilitarians would reason and write like you, they would no longer deserve to be called Futilitarians. But the metapoliticians have dealt with their branch of policy as the metaphysicians have with their branch of philosophy,—they have muddied and mystified it.
“It is not the habit of my mind to despise nor to undervalue the sort of knowledge which I do not possess, but I know enough of political economy to have perceived in the father of the British school (Adam Smith), that the wealth of nations is every thing in that school,—and the morality and happiness of nations nothing; and in the other writers which have fallen in my way, I have found their knowledge so little, and their presumption so great, as to excite in me a greater degree of contempt than I usually feel for anything in the shape of a book.
“To all that you say in its general import I agree;
but when you tell me that a tax of 1000l. per week laid
upon capitalists would have the sure effect of throwing 1000 weekly labourers
out of
| Ætat. 52. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 291 |
“I shall very soon methodise some of my views, tending to this proposition, that the prime object of our policy should be to provide for the well-being and employment of the people. Whatever lessens wages and throws men out of employ is so far an evil. There may be evil that leads to good, and good that leads to evil, and both may be instanced in the effects of machinery. If you like to see my speculations as they go through the press, let Murray direct the proofs of my Colloquies to you, and I will perpend any comments that you make upon their contents. . . . .
“I have been asked to write for the Foreign Quarterly, and replied, as willingly
as for John Murray, at the same price.
An attempt was then made to wheedle me into giving them an article for their
first number at ten guineas a sheet. Or, if that failed, then they would screw
up their price to 50l. for the article. I answered not
in the style of Jupiter Tonans but
more meo, that I wrote such
things for lucre, and for nothing else, and that if they had screwed their
price to the sticking point, I certainly should not lower mine to meet it. . .
. This brought an apology for tradesmanlike dealing, and a hope that I would be
pleased to accept the 100l. To which I con-
| 292 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 52. |
“The Royal Society of Literature have voted me a gold medal, and asked me to come and receive it. I thank them for the medal, but decline the journey. . . . .
“God bless you!
