William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. IX. 1812-1819
Francis Jeffrey to William Godwin, 30 October 1817
“Edinburgh, Oct. 30, 1817.
“My Dear Sir,—It is
impossible that I can be offended with the frankness of a man of honour, or
insensible to the natural anxieties of an author. At present, however, I can
only say that I am every way disposed to oblige or to serve you, but that I
have a duty to discharge from which I am sure you have no disposition to divert
me. I know nothing whatever of any arrangement for ![]()
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committing your work, which I am very impatient
to see, either into the hands of Mr
Hazlitt or of Sir James
Mackintosh; and as it is generally my office to offer or propose
these tasks to my several contributors, I rather imagine it will be left for me
to undertake the determination in this case also. Now, before deciding such a
matter, I really must first see the book myself. I really do not quite agree
with you in the opinions you seem to hold as to the critical qualifications of
the two gentlemen you have alluded to. If the one is somewhat too cautious and
discursive, and afraid of offending, the other is far too rash and exaggerated,
and too exclusively studious of effect to be a safe, exemplary reviewer. Will
you permit me to add that if there be any particular intimacy between
Mr. Hazlitt and you, or if you have communicated
together on the project of his being your reviewer, I must certainly consider
that as a serious objection to his being intrusted with the task. I have no
doubt of his fairness and impartiality, so far as intention is concerned, but
he seems to be a person whose judgment is somewhat at the mercy of partialities
and prejudices—and, besides, the thing is of ill example, and affects the
purity of our tribunal. Nothing of the kind has ever been done before among us
to my knowledge, and I cannot give my consent to it now. I think it extremely
probable that the thing will end by my taking you into my own hands, but I
cannot now pledge myself to anything, and am not sure that I ought to encourage
any further communication on the subject. On a little reflection, I am
persuaded you will be satisfied of the propriety of all I have now said.—I am,
&c.,
“I have burned your letter, and shall not speak
of it to anybody.”
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
