Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Robert Southey, 9 May 1817
Selkirk, May 9th, 1817.
“I have been a strangely negligent correspondent for
some months past, more especially as I have had you rarely out of my thoughts,
for I think you will hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the
crucible of human life, the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I
can only hope for the continuance of your present family blessings to one so
well formed to enjoy the pure happiness they afford. My health has, of late,
been very indifferent. I was very nearly succumbing under a violent
inflammatory attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary treatment. I
believe ![]()
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they took
one-third of the blood of my system, and blistered in proportion; so that both
my flesh and my blood have been in a wofully reduced state. I got out here some
weeks since, where, by dint of the insensible exercise which one takes in the
country, I feel myself gathering strength daily, but am still obliged to
observe a severe regimen. It was not to croak about myself, however, that I
took up the pen, but to wish you joy of your triumphant answer to that coarse-minded William Smith. He deserved all he has got,
and, to say the truth, you do not spare him, and have no cause. His attack
seems to have proceeded from the vulgar insolence of a low mind desirous of
attacking genius at disadvantage. It is the ancient and eternal strife of which
the witch speaks in Thalaba. Such a man as he feels he has no alliance with such as you,
and his evil instincts lead him to treat as hostile whatever he cannot
comprehend. I met Smith once during his stay in
Edinburgh,* and had, what I seldom have with any one in society, a high quarrel
with him. His mode of travelling had been from one gentleman’s seat to
another, abusing the well-known hospitality of the Highland lairds by taking
possession of their houses, even during their absence, domineering in them when
they were present, and not only eating the dinner of to-day, but requiring that
the dinner of to-morrow should also be made ready and carried forward with him,
to save the expense of inns. All this was no business of mine, but when, in the
middle of a company consisting of those to whom he had owed this hospitality,
he abused the country, of which he knew little—the language, of which he * Scott’s
meeting with this Mr Smith
occurred at the table of his friend and colleague, Hector Macdonald Buchanan. The
company, except Scott and
Smith, were all, like their hospitable
landlord, Highlanders. |
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knew nothing and the people, who have their faults, but
are a much more harmless, moral, and at the same time high-spirited population
than, I venture to say, he ever lived amongst—I thought it was really too bad,
and so e’en took up the debate, and gave it him over the knuckles as
smartly as I could. Your pamphlet, therefore, fed fat my ancient grudge against
him as well as the modern one, for you cannot doubt that my blood boiled at
reading the report of his speech. Enough of this gentleman, who, I think, will
not walk out of the round in a hurry again, to slander the conduct of
individuals.
“I am at present writing at our head-court of
freeholders—a set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country gentlemen,
and whose opinions may be very well taken as a fair specimen of those men of
sense and honour, who are not likely to be dazzled by literary talent, which
lies out of their beat, and who, therefore, cannot be of partial counsel in the
cause; and I never heard an opinion more generally, and evenwarmly expressed,
than that your triumphant vindication brands Smith as a slanderer in all time coming. I think you may not be
displeased to know this, because what men of keen feelings and literary
pursuits must have felt cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have the same
access to know the impression made upon the general class of society.
“I have to thank you for the continuation of the
History of Brazil one of
your gigantic labours; the fruit of a mind so active, yet so patient of labour.
I am not yet far advanced in the second volume, reserving it usually for my
hour’s amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties for
bonne bouche: but as far as I
have come, it possesses all the interest of the commencement, though a more
faithless and worthless set ![]()
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than both Dutch and Portuguese I have never read of; and it requires your
knowledge of the springs of human action, and your lively description of
‘hair-breadth ’scapes,’ to make one care whether the hog
bites the dog, or the dog bites the hog. Both nations were in rapid declension
from their short-lived age of heroism, and in the act of experiencing all those
retrograde movements which are the natural consequence of selfishness on the
one hand, and bigotry on the other.
“I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the
state of the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of the best
mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell you the few observations I
have made—not on a very small scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have
kept about thirty of the labourers in my neighbourhood in constant employment
this winter. This I do not call charity, because they executed some extensive
plantations and other works, which I could never have got done so cheaply, and
which I always intended one day to do. But neither was it altogether selfish on
my part, because I was putting myself to inconvenience in incurring the expense
of several years at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
mine honest neighbours, who were likely to want work but for such exertion.
From my observation, I am inclined greatly to doubt the salutary effect of the
scheme generally adopted in Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a-day—tenpence, I
believe, or one shilling, with an advance to those who have families. This rate
is fixed below that of ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed
but those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is attended with this
bad effect, that the people regard it partly as charity, which is
humiliating,—and partly as an imposition, in taking their labour below its
usual saleable value; to ![]()
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which many add a third view of
the subject—namely, that this sort of half-pay is not given them for the
purpose of working, but to prevent their rising in rebellion. None of these
misconceptions are favourable to hard labour, and the consequence is, that I
never have seen such a set of idle fainéants as those employed on this system in the
public works, and I am sure that, notwithstanding the very laudable intention
of those who subscribed to form the fund, and the yet more praiseworthy,
because more difficult, exertions of those who superintend it, the issue of the
scheme will occasion full as much mischief as good to the people engaged in it.
Private gentlemen, acting on something like a similar system, may make it
answer better, because they have not the lazy dross of a metropolis to contend
with—because they have fewer hands to manage—and above all, because an
individual always manages his own concerns better than those of the country can
be managed. Yet all who have employed those who were distressed for want of
work at under wages, have had, less or more, similar complaints to make. I
think I have avoided this in my own case, by inviting the country-people to do
piecework by the contract. Two things only are necessary—one is, that the
nature of the work should be such as will admit of its being ascertained, when
finished, to have been substantially executed. All sort of spade-work and
hoe-work, with many other kinds of country labour, fall under this description,
and the employer can hardly be cheated in the execution, if he keeps a
reasonable look out. The other point is to take care that the undertakers, in
their anxiety for employment, do not take the job too cheap. A little
acquaintance with country labour will enable one to regulate this; but it is an
essential point, for if you do not keep them to their bargain, it is making a
jest of the thing, and forfeiting the very advantage you have in view—that,
namely, of inducing ![]()
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the
labourer to bring his heart and spirit to his work. But this he will do where
he has a fair bargain, which is to prove a good or bad one according to his own
exertions. In this case you make the poor man his own friend, for the profits
of his good conduct are all his own. It is astonishing how partial the people
are to this species of contract, and how diligently they labour, acquiring or
maintaining all the while those habits which renders them honourable and useful
members of society. I mention this to you, because the rich, much to their
honour, do not, in general, require to be so much stimulated to benevolence, as
to be directed in the most useful way to exert it.
“I have still a word to say about the poor of our
own parish of Parnassus. I have been applied to by a very worthy friend,
Mr Scott of Sinton, in behalf of an
unfortunate Mr Gilmour, who, it seems,
has expended a little fortune in printing, upon his own account, poems which,
from the sample I saw, seem exactly to answer the description of Dean Swift’s country house—
‘Too bad for a blessing, too good for a curse, I wish from my soul they were better or worse.” |
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But you are the dean of our corporation, and, I am informed, take some
interest in this poor gentleman. If you can point out any way in which I can
serve him, I am sure my inclination is not wanting, but it looks like a very
hopeless case. I beg my kindest respects to Mrs
Southey, and am always sincerely and affectionately yours,
Hector Macdonald Buchanan of Drumnakiln (d. 1828)
Of Ross Priory, son of Coll Macdonald of Boisdale; he was Writer to the Signet (1791) and
Principal Clerk of Session (1805-1828). He assumed the name of his wife, Jean Buchanan,
whom he married in 1793.
Robert Gilmour (1817 fl.)
Scottish poet; he was Captain in the 1st West India Regiment and published
Lothaire: a Romance, in Six Cantos (1815).
John Corse Scott of Sinton (1817 fl.)
Originally Corse; he took the name of Scott from his wife, Catherine Scott of Sinton,
whom he married in 1800. He was an acquaintance of Walter Scott
William Smith (1756-1835)
Educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, he was a Whig MP for Sudbury (1784-90,
1796-1802), Camelford (1790-96), and Norwich (1802-30), a defender of Joseph Priestley and
follower of Charles Fox. His 1817 speech in Parliament denouncing Robert Southey attracted
much attention.
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Dean of St Patrick's, Scriblerian satirist, and author of
Battle of the
Books with
Tale of a Tub (1704),
Drapier
Letters (1724),
Gulliver's Travels (1726), and
A Modest Proposal (1729).
