The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Philip Henry Stanhope, 22 October 1833
“Long ago I ought to have thanked you for your paper,
which had been so unbecomingly interpolated in the Quarterly Review. And now, having just completed
that portion of our naval history which has never been brought together, I was
about to have done this with my first leisure, when you give me a second
occasion for thanks, both on my own part and on Cuthbert’s, whose eyes were lit up upon finding himself
thus unexpectedly remembered.
“The French play is French indeed; and in its own way
far exceeds Calderon’s Cisma de Inglaterra. I shall
place it among my curiosities. The Loi sur
l’instruction Primaire I am glad to possess, because the
subject must, ere long, take up much of my thoughts, when preparing for the
press the Life and Correspondence
of Dr. Bell. This task will lead me to inquire into the history of
scholastic education, its present state, primary schools, Sunday
schools,—the good and the evil,—the too much and the too little.
There are no other means by which the cha-![]()
| Ætat. 58. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 219 |
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racter of
society might so beneficially and so surely be changed; but even in this the
practical difficulties are so many, that the man must have either great warmth
of enthusiasm, or great strength of principle, who is not rendered almost
hopeless when he contemplates them.
“Your account of the state of affairs in France is
almost what I should hare wished it to be. Louis
Philippe, in his own country, at least, is a Conservative; and
if the Duc de Bordeaux ever succeeds to
the throne (which, if he lives, I think, as well as hope, he will), it were
better both for him and for France that some years should have their course
before this restoration takes place;—better for him, because he must
acquire more knowledge in his present condition than he possibly could as a
reigning prince; and better for France, because in a few years death will have
removed those persons whom it might be alike injurious to punish or to pardon.
When vengeance has been long delayed, its just infliction seldom fails to call
forth compassion, even for great criminals: and a still worse effect has
followed in all restorations when old adherents are neglected, and old enemies
not only forgiven, but received into favour, and trusted and rewarded. For
these reasons, and because the citizen king will govern with a stronger hand
than the legitimate king, I incline to wish that Louis
Philippe may reign long to curb his subjects, and break in the
people to habits of obedience, by the vigorous exercise of his power.
“This reminds me of the spirit which is breathed in
the Corn Law Rhymes. I have
taken those ![]()
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poems as the subject of a paper for the Christmas Review, not without
some little hope of making the author reflect upon the tendency of his writing.
He is a person who introduced himself to me by letter many years ago, and sent
me various specimens of his productions, epic and dramatic. Such of his faults
in composition as were corrigible, he corrected in pursuance of my advice, and
learnt, in consequence, to write as he now does, admirably well, when the
subject will let him do so. I never saw him but once, and that in an inn in
Sheffield, when I was passing through that town. The portrait prefixed to his
book seems intentionally to have radicalised, or rather ruffianised, a
countenance which had no cut-throat expression at that time. It was a
remarkable face, with pale grey eyes, full of fire and meaning, and well suited
to a frankness of manner, and an apparent simplicity of character such as is
rarely found in middle age, and more especially rare in persons engaged in what
may be called the warfare of the world. After that meeting I procured a
sizarship for one of his sons; and the letter which he wrote to me upon my
offering to do so, is a most curious and characteristic production, containing
an account of his family. I never suspected him of giving his mind to any other
object than poetry, till Wordsworth put
the Corn Law Rhymes into my hands; and then, coupling
the date of the pamphlet with the power which it manifested, and recognising
also scenery there which he had dwelt upon in other poems, I at once discovered
the hand of my pupil. He will discover mine in the advice which I shall ![]()
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give him. It was amusing enough that he should have been
recommended to my notice as an uneducated poet in the New Monthly Magazine.
“In such times as these, whatever latent evil there is
in a nation is brought out. This man appeared always a peaceable and
well-disposed subject, till Lord
Grey’s ministry, for their own purposes, called upon the
mob for support; and then, at the age of fifty, he let loose opinions which had
never before been allowed to manifest themselves, and the fierce puritanism in
which he had been bred up burst into a flame. . . . .
And believe me always,
Yours with sincere regard,
Robert Southey.”
Henri comte de Chambord (1820-1883)
Son of Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry (1778-1820) and pretender to the French
throne.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
Louis Philippe, king of the French (1773-1850)
The son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans; he was King of France 1830-48; he
abdicated following the February Revolution of 1848 and fled to England.
Charles Cuthbert Southey (1819-1888)
Son of Robert Southey whose
Life and Correspondence (1849-1850) he
edited. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, he was curate of Plumbland in Cumberland,
vicar of Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset (1855-79) and Askham, near Penrith (1885).
Philip Henry Stanhope, fifth earl Stanhope (1805-1875)
Historian and man of letters, the son of the fourth earl; he published
The History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles,
1713-1783, 7 vols, (1836-53).
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
New Monthly Magazine. (1814-1884). Founded in reaction to the radically-inclined
Monthly Magazine,
the
New Monthly was managed under the proprietorship of Henry
Colburn from 1814 to 1845. It was edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from
1821-1830.
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.
