“You need not be assured that I most heartily wish you success at Oxford, and that if I had a vote to give you I would take a much longer journey than that from Keswick to Oxford for the satisfaction of giving it. So would Wordsworth, who was with me yesterday, and entirely accords with us in our views of this momentous subject.
“Some old moralist has said that misfortunes are
blessings in disguise; and I am trying to persuade myself that this turn of
affairs, which upon every
| 26 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 55. |
“The feeling of the country is so decidedly Protestant, that I verily believe a man with Pitt’s powers of elocution and Pitt’s courage in the House of Commons might do as he did with the Coalition. Our pieces are lost, but we are strong in pawns, and were there but one of them in a position to be queen’d we should win the game. But this would now be at the cost of a civil war; and this it is that constitutes the gravamen of the charge against Ministers. They took none of those measures which might have prevented this alternative; they suffered the danger to grow up, knowingly, wilfully, and I cannot but add treacherously; and now they make the extent of that danger their excuse for yielding to it. They have deceived their friends, and betrayed the constitution.
“Now any war is so dreadful a thing, that even when it
becomes (as it may) a duty to choose it as the least of two evils, a good man
in making such a choice must bid farewell for ever to all lightness of heart
There will be hours of misgiving for him, let his mind be ever so strong; and
sleepless nights and miserable dreams when the thorns in his pillow
| Ætat. 55. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 27 |
“This is our position. Let us now look at that in which Mr. Peel and his colleagues have placed themselves. They have pledged themselves to impose securities; the more violent Catholics have declared that they will submit to none: and the Bishop of London (who said he should be satisfied with the minimum of security) has said in Parliament that he can devise none. And here Phillpotts, who, I daresay, was honestly upon the quest, is at fault. The difficulties here may again break off the treaty, and in such a manner that those Emancipators who think securities necessary must come round, in which case as much may be gained by an accession of strength as has been lost by this pitiful confession of weakness. I am inclined to think that these preliminary difficulties will not be got over.
“But if the measure be passed, and the Protestant flag
should be struck, and the enemy march in with flying colours, there may
possibly be a sort of honeymoon session after the surrender. Then comes the
second demand for despoiling the Irish Church, and the Catholic Association is
renewed in greater strength, and upon much more formidable grounds. Meantime
the Irish Protestants will lose heart, and great numbers will emigrate, flying
while they can
| 28 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 55. |
“I know but one danger in the present state of things which might have shaken a constant mind; that arising from the great proportion of Irish Catholics in the army. The Protestant strength of Ireland was enough to counterpoise it. But if the Duke was affected by this danger, he will take means for lessening it before the crisis comes on.
“These are my speculations, partaking perhaps of the sunshine of a hopeful and cheerful disposition. Had I been intrusted with political power at this time, I would, upon the principle that we are to trust in Providence, but act according to the clear perception of duty, have resisted this concession even to blood. In this I differ from Blanco White. I am sorry to see the part which he is taking; but I am quite sure he has a single eye, and casts no sinister looks with it.
“God speed you, my dear friend, not in this contest
alone, but in every thing. I wish you success the more, because it will be
creditable to the University,—to the national character. The mass
| Ætat. 55. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 29 |
