The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Henry Southey, 27 June 1831
“Keswick, June 27. 1831.
“My dear H.,
“I returned home* on Friday, and Bertha arrived the same night, safe, and if not
sound, yet much
* The next letter explains the object of this
journey fully. |
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| 150 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 57. |
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better than she had of late been, and I hope on the
convalescent list. My journey ended as I expected, in my declining the proposed
executorship, and giving good counsel to no purpose. The poor old doctor* may live long, or soon be taken off. He
is completely speechless, but in full possession of all his other faculties,
and his mind is as quick and vigorous as ever. Nevertheless, I have reason to
believe that the will will be contested, on a most untenable plea of insanity
in the testator. If so, I must appear as a witness.
“The proofs which awaited my return I have got
through; not so the letters, which are, as usual, de
omnibus et quibusdam aliis. There were the proofs of an
article upon the New
Christianity and New System of Society, started by the St. Simonites in France;
proofs of my Essays, of
which half the first volume is printed, and which I dedicate to Inglis; and proofs of the Peninsular War. This will be ready for
publication in November. You have got my Brazilian small stock out of the fire
in good time: I should have thought myself lucky to get out at 50; and wonder
that they have not fallen so low as to prove that there are no purchasers. No
other revolution could be so injurious to the commerce of this country, nor
produce such interminable evils in its own.
“Recommend Ivan Vejeeghan, a Russian Gil Blas, to those who wish to
see a lively description of society in Poland and Russia. It contains a better
account
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| Ætat. 57. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 151 |
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than can anywhere else be met with. Were the rest of the
world undisturbed and unaffected by what may happen in and around Poland, the
war there might be regarded with much indifference, as a process which cannot
worsen the moral condition of either people, and might possibly improve it;
though that possibility is a very poor one. But how anything better than a
barbarous government, whether it be an oligarchy or a despotism, can be
constructed in a country where there is no middle class, nor any persons in a
condition to be raised into such a class, I do not perceive. The peasants are
serfs, and trade is in the hands of Jews, the vilest, filthiest, and most
superstitious of their race.
“If I had Aladdin’s lamp, the genius should transport me, and my
household and my books, to Cintra; though, just now, perhaps, one might be
safer under the paternal protection of Ferdinand than of Miguel.
But I verily believe that Spain and Portugal are the safest countries in
Europe; and that Spain will be a most peaceable and flourishing one for some
years to come. God bless you!
Andrew Bell (1753-1832)
Scottish Episcopalian educated at St. Andrews University; he was the founder of the
“Madras” system of education by mutual instruction; Robert Southey was his
biographer.
King Ferdinand VII of Spain (1784-1833)
The son of Charles IV, king of Spain; after his father's abdication and the defeat of the
French in the Peninsular War he ruled Spain from 1813 to 1833.
Sir Robert Harry Inglis, second baronet (1786-1855)
The son of Sir Hugh Inglis, educated at Winchester, Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's
Inn; he was a Tory MP for Dundalk (1824-26), Ripon (1828-29), and Oxford University
(1829-54), and president of the Literary Club.
Miguel I, King of Portugal (1802-1866)
The absolutist king of Portugal who reigned from 1828 to 1834; he spent the remainder of
his life living as an exile in Germany.
