“In my last no direction was given. You will write under cover, and direct thus:—
This said personage I have not yet seen,
whereby I am kept in a state of purportless idleness. He is
| 168 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 27. |
“John Rickman is
a great man in Dublin and in the eyes of the world, but not one jot altered
from the John Rickman of Christchurch, save only that, in
compliance with an extorted promise, he has deprived himself of the pleasure of
scratching his head, by putting powder in it. He has astonished the people
about him. The government stationer hinted to him, when he was giving an order,
that if he wanted anything in the pocket-book way, he might as well put it down
in the order. Out he pulled his own—‘Look, sir, I have bought
one for two shillings.’ His predecessor admonished him not to let
himself down by speaking to any of the clerks. ‘Why, sir,’
said John Rickman, ‘I should not let myself down
if I spoke to every man between this and the bridge.’ And so he
goes on in his own right way. He has been obliged to mount up to the third
story, before he could find a room small enough to sleep in; and there he led
me, to show me his government bed, which, because it is a government bed,
contains stuff enough to make a dozen; the curtains being completely double,
and mattrass piled upon mattrass, so that tumbling out would be a
| Ætat. 27. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 169 |
“The peace was not welcome to the patricians, it took
away all their hopes of ‘any fun’ by the help of France. The
government, acting well and wisely, control both parties,—the Orangemen
and the United Irishmen,—and command respect from both; the old fatteners
upon the corruption are silent in shame: the military, who must be kept up,
will be well employed in making roads,—this measure is not yet announced
to the public. It will be difficult to civilise this people. An Irishman builds
him a turf stye, gets his fuel from the bogs, digs his patch of potatoes, and
then lives upon them in idleness: like a true savage, he does not think it
worth while to work that he may better himself. Potatoes and
butter-milk,—on this they are born and bred; and whiskey sends them to
the third heaven at once. If Davy had one
of them in his laboratory, he could analyze his fleshy blood, and bones into
nothing but potatoes, and but-
| 170 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 27. |
| Ætat. 27. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 171 |
“Did I send, in my last, the noble bull that Rickman heard? He was late in company, when a gentleman looked at his watch, and cried, ‘It is to-morrow morning!—I must wish you good night.’
“I have bought no books yet, for lack of money. To-day Rickman is engaged to dinner, and I am to seek for myself some ordinary or chop-house. This morning will clear off my letters; and I will make business a plea hereafter for writing fewer,—’tis a hideous waste of time. My love to Coleridge, &c., if, indeed, I do not write to him also.
“Edith, God bless you!
