“I am just now enabled to give you some intelligence concerning myself. In this topsey-turveying of ministers, Wynn was very anxious, as he says, ‘to pick something out of the fire for me.’ The registership of the Vice-Admiralty Court in St. Lucia was offered, worth about 600l. a-year. He wrote to me, offering this, or, as an alternative, the only one in his power, a pension of 200l.; but, before my answer could arrive, it was necessary that he should choose for me, and he judged rightly in taking the latter. Fees and taxes will reduce this to 160l.†, the precise sum for which I have hitherto been indebted to him; so that I remain with just the same income as before. The different source
* March 27. 1807. † The deduction proved to be 56l. reducing it to 144l. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 73 |
“I sent you the Specimens, and shall have to send you,
owing to some omissions of Bedford’s, a supplementary volume hereafter, which will
complete its bibliographical value. Of its other merits and defects, hereafter.
It will not be long before, I trust, you will receive Espriella: the printer promises to
quicken his pace, and I hurry him, anticipating that this book will give you
and my other friends some amusement, and deserve approbation on higher grounds.
Thank you for all your kindness to Harry. . . . . This change of ministry—I am as hostile to the
measure which was the pretext for it as the King himself; but, having conceded that measure, the
King’s conduct is equally exceptionable. Neither the country nor the
Commons called for the change, and they were getting credit, and deserving it,
by the ‘Arms Bill,’ the blessed ‘Aboli
| 74 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“God bless you!
