250

THE DEATH OF HIS UNCLE HILL.

twelve years afflicted him, and impaired his health and his enjoyments. He found upon his arrival that there were few hopes of his uncle's recovery. He was seventynine years of age, and bowed down by suffering. The meeting was indeed the last, for Southey had scarcely returned home before he expired.

A curious trait of Southey's character is displayed connected with the operation he underwent. He was aware that it would be attended with much pain and considerable danger, and, well knowing how appre hensive his family would be did they suppose he intended to undergo such an operation, he left home without raising the least suspicion of his intention, and the first intimation they received of it was from his own hand, still trembling from its effects. God be thanked," he says, I shall no longer bear about with me the sense of a wearying and harassing infirmity; and though you will not give me credit for being a good bearer of pain, because I neither liked to have my finger scorched by a hot plate nor scarified by that abominable instrument called a pin, yet Copeland will."

66

66

Among his other London engagements, he sat to Sir Thomas Lawrence for his portrait and to Sir Francis Chantrey for his bust. The former is consi dered the best likeness of him that has been executed; the latter, though admired by his friends, did not satisfy the judgment of the illustrious sculptor.

Review of Southey's Labours-His Hopes and AspirationsRev. Mr. Shannon-Colloquies of Sir Thomas More, and the Rev. J. Hornby-The Church and Methodism-A Charitable Institution-Literary Labours-Visit to London— Political Excitement-Visit to Hampshire-Crediton— Bristol.

ETAT. 55-57.

66

THE incidents connected with the life of Southey, as we have observed before, are so few and far between," that we must not be surprised to find a considerable period elapse without affording matter of sufficient importance to warrant its assertion. His daily routine was so similar, that having once described it, we have given the reader a correct idea of his mode of living for upwards of forty years of the most energetic and laborious portion of his existence. Whatever diversity occurred was occasioned only by change of the subject. upon which he was engaged, the visits of his friends, or an excursion from home. His table was always crowded

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THE CHARACTER OF SOUTHEY'S WRITINGS.

"

with articles to be finished, reviews to be posted, and poems in embryo. The Quarterly," the "Foreign Quarterly," and the Annuals, pressed upon him the necessity of dispatch; whilst his "Colloquies," or "History of Portugal," were only laid aside temporarily, to be taken up as soon as the immediate pressure of engagements was removed. His writings, much as he had formerly been averse to it, had of late been political and controversial. He had been drawn involuntarily into the vortex of public discussion, and entered the arena with strong feelings and a fearless independence, which could not be affected by the influence of friends nor overawed by the denunciations of enemies. In fact, he had accustomed himself to disregard the virulent language of his political opponents so far as not to allow it to influence the proper equipoise of his spirits; though he could not occasionally help reflecting that the continued and universal attacks made upon his writings seriously injured him in a pecuniary point of view, by depreciating the value of his books and diminishing the extent of their sale. Yet such causes were impotent to change the strong conviction of his heart. He wrote what he firmly believed to be for the welfare of his country; and if he erred, as certainly he did, in the view which he took of many of the principles of government, the error was in his judg ment, for in his heart he was irreproachably sincere. He looked to the future for the justification of his

REV. MR. SHANNON.

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life and opinions, and was consoled with the hope that posterity would award to him that measure of justice which his own age apparently was so unwilling to confer.

Yet there were occasions when his feelings proved too sensitive, and his unconscious spirit was open to a wound. He had never shrunk from avowedly confessing the change which had taken place in his political sentiments, and he had borne with a smile the abuse which not a few were ever pouring upon him conscious of the rectitude of his life, and bold in the confidence that he could give a reason for the faith that was in him. But some there were who, not content to vilify him upon the realities of his life, went even so far as to misrepresent what had passed privately in conversation between him and them, and invent expressions which he had never used. Amongst this number was the Rev. Mr. Shannon, of Edinburgh, who, roused by some powerful passages in an article on the Catholic question which appeared in the "Quarterly," insidiously hoped that it was not the production of Mr. Southey, as it was utterly inhuman;" that he could remember when the enthusiasm of Southey rose to the highest pitch of indignation on alluding to the wrongs and sufferings of Ireland; " and that it was impossible that the moral sense should undergo so complete a transformation, except from causes which were liable to suspicion." An article in the "Times" gave greater

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A GROSS INSINUATION.

publicity to these sentiments, which had been embodied in a pamphlet; and many, following in the same track, were willing to receive for fact the gratuitous statement of this reverend gentleman, and to scandalise Southey with the imputation of corrupt tergiversation.

This charge, however, was ably answered and refuted by Henry Taylor, in a spirited letter to the “Times,” in which, after examining the article in question, he produced passages that, so far from exhibiting an "inhuman spirit," evinced a strong and liberal mind, and an earnest desire to rescue that unhappy people from the ignorance, misery, and degradation into which they had sunk. Southey could appeal to friends who had been his intimate associates for years, to show that what were his opinions upon Ireland and the Catholic question thirty years previously were the same then; and he himself, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Shannon, observes, "Nor do I suppose that we differ now upon anything else relating to Ireland, except upon the question whether concession to the Romanists is likely to remedy the evils of that poor country, or to aggravate them." Southey, however, considered that Mr. Shannon, in his allusion to the causes which are liable to suspicion, had done him a public wrong and owed him a public acknowledgment; but the latter gentleman persisted in maintaining the correctness of his own impression.