“Do you remember that twenty years ago a letter, directed for me at your house, was carried to a paperhanger of my name in Bedford Street, and the man found me out, and put his card into my hand? Upon the strength of this acquaintance, I have now a letter from this poor namesake, soliciting charity, and describing himself and his family as in the very depth of human misery. This is not the only proof I have had of a strange opinion that I am overflowing with riches. Poor wretched man, what can I do for him! However, I do not like to shut my ears and my heart to a tale of this kind. Send him, I pray you, a two-pound note in my name, to No. 10. Hercules Buildings, Lambeth; your servant had better take it, for fear he should have been sent to the workhouse before this time. When I come to town, I will seek about if anything can be done for him.
“I wrote to Wynn
last night to consult him about Wat
Tyler, telling him all the circumstances, and desiring him, if it be
best to procure an injunction, to send the letter to Turner, and desire him to act for me.
Three-and-twenty years ago the MS. was
| Ætat. 43. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 239 |
“Government are acting like themselves. Could I say
anything more severe? They should have begun with vigour and rigour; and then,
when they had the victory, have made their sacrifices ex propria motu, with a good grace. But
they ought not, on any account, to have touched the official salaries,—a
thing unjust and unwise, which, instead of currying favour for them with the
rabble, will make them despised for their pusillanimity. I have neither pity
nor patience for them. Was ever paper used like this last article has been to
please them! They have absolutely cut it down to their own exact measure;
everything useful is gone, and everything original; whatever had most force in
it was sure to be struck out. Of all the practical measures upon which I
touched, one only has escaped, and that because it comes in as if by
accident,—the hint about transporting for sedition. If we come out of
this confusion without an utter overthrow, it will be as we escaped the
gunpowder plot,—not by any aid of human wisdom, and God knows we have no
right to calculate upon miracles. The prospect is very dismal;
| 240 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 43. |
“Murray offers me a thousand guineas for my intended poem in blank verse, and begs it may not be a line longer than Thomson’s Seasons!! I rather think the poem will be a post-obit, and in that case twice that sum, at least, may be demanded for it. What his real feelings towards me may be, I cannot tell; but he is a happy fellow, living in the light of his own glory. The Review is the greatest of all works, and it is all his own creation; he prints 10,000, and fifty times ten thousand read its contents, in the East and in the West. Joy be with him and his journal.
“It is really amusing to see how the rascals attack me about the Court, as if I were a regular courtier, punctual in attendance, perfect in flattery, and enjoying all that favour, for the slightest portion of which these very rascals would sell their souls, if they had any. Malice never aimed at a less vulnerable mark.
“God bless you!
“Longman has just sent me the Resurrection of Sedition. The verses are better than I expected to find them, which I think you will allow to be a cool philosophical remark.”
