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: KLO WILLIAMS
John Rickman.
(From an engraving published in 1843.)
Lamb's Friend the Census-Taker
LIFE AND LETTERS OF
JOHN RICKMAN
BY
ORLO WILLIAMS
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1912
TO MY
MOTHER AND FATHER
PREFACE
My thanks are due in the first place to the Rev. W. F.
Rickman, the grandson of John Rickman, for his good-
ness in placing at my disposal the bulk of the correspond-
ence which is in his possession. Without his kindness
this book would have been impossible. To John Rickman 's
granddaughter, Miss Lefroy, I am also very deeply in-
debted. She has allowed me to reproduce a unique
sketch made by her mother, to draw upon her mother's
very interesting reminiscences, and to use some other
letters of her grandfather's which are in her possession.
I wish to thank Miss Warter for permission to give
extracts from unpublished letters of Southey's, Mr. E. V.
Lucas and Mr. Gordon Wordsworth for permission to
print a long letter from Lamb to Rickman, Messrs.
Macmillan & Co. for permission to use letters which
appeared in Mrs. Sandford's Thomas Poole and his Friends,
and H.M. Office of Works for the loan of a photograph.
Leave to publish the Coleridge letters was given by
Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge. I also mention that two
articles by me, based on the letters, appeared in
Blackwood's Magazine this year, and that for the political
history I have received great assistance from vol. xi. of
The Political History of England.
ORLO WILLIAMS.
20 Iverna Court,
Kensington, W.
CONTENTS
PA(iE
Introduction 1
CHAPTER I
The Rickman family — Early life of John Rickman — His meeting
with Southey — BSguinages — Departure from Christchurch . 19
CHAPTER II
1800
Rickman in London — George Dyer — The Magazine — Lamb's
' pleasant hand ' — Southey's Thalaba — Dyer's preface — The
first Population Act — Rickman and the census ... 26
CHAPTER III
1801 to early 1802
George Burnett — Rickman secretary to Abbot in Ireland — Letters
from Lamb — G. D.'s rescue — His letter — ' Horse medicine '
for Burnett — His ' second birth ' and tutorship — Lamb and the
Morning Post — Abbot appointed Speaker — Rickman leaves
Ireland .......... 44
CHAPTER IV
1802-1805
Secretaryship to the Speaker — Bag and sword — Thomas Poole —
George Burnett again — G. B. quarrels with Southey — Lamb's
opinion of it — Southey's first visit to Rickman — Poole and
Poor Laws — Another letter from G. Dyer — His ' patronage ' of
Lamb — Burnett's letters — Rickman's temper — Coleridge —
Rickman finds him a ship — His letters — Ned Phillips — Over-
work — An unromantic marriage 77
x LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
CHAPTER V
PAGE
Family life at Westminster — A stern father — The houses in Palace
Yard — Church parade — Late dinner — The Burneys and
other friends — Lamb's Wednesday evenings — Driving in the
gig — Telford — Rickman's official work 118
CHAPTER VI
1806-1816
Political letters to Southey and Poole — The Friend — The Regency
Bill — The Quarterly Review — Burnett's death — Coleridge on
Lamb's weaknesses — Shelley — Murder of Perceval — Coleridge
on ' Remorse ' — Rickman's good advice to Southey — Southey
Poet Laureate — His truculence curbed by Rickman — Waterloo
— Rickman the consoler — Economic distress in the country —
Rickman on ' Mock Humanity ' and the Press . . .135
CHAPTER VII
1817-1829
Southey's ' Wat Tyler ' — Rickman's views on poor law reform — His
article in the Quarterly — A letter from Luke Hansard — Rick-
man's depression — Letters to Lord Colchester — Scottish tour
with Southey — The model beguinage — Depression again — Rick-
man on Canning — Opening of the Caledonian Canal — Bertha
Southey — Roman Catholic relief — Rickman's part in Southey's
essays — State of Ireland — Catholic Relief Bill passed — Co-
operation — Rickman Lamb's ' friend ' in 1829 . . . 188
CHAPTER VIII
1830-1832
Parliamentary reform — Letters purely political — Macaulay's
maiden speech — Rickman the political philosopher — Calls
Southey to arms — ' Monarchy or Democracy ' — The projected
Colloquies — Rickman's outline — Introduction of the Reform
Bill — Rickman on the debate — Dissolution — The second Bill
— An all-night sitting — O'Connell's Irish devils — Murray and
the Colloquies — The third Bill — Wellington's failure to form a
ministry — The Bill passes — Murray and Spottiswoode impede
the Colloquies — Rickman wishes to retire .... 249
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER IX
1833-1840
PAGE
The reformed House of Commons — The new Devils and the Whig
Devils — Lamb dines with Rickman — Rickman on Wellington —
The fire at the Houses of Parliament — A graphic account —
Henry Taylor the hero — Lamb's death — Rickman's comment
— Southey offered a baronetcy — The Exchequer demolished
— Judge Jeffreys' house — Rickman's illness and death —
Tribute of the House 299
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
JOHN RiOKMAN Frontispiece
From an engraving published in 1843
ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL AND THE SPEAKER'S HOUSE
before the fire in 1834 .... Facing page 77
From a drawing in the British Museum
THE ENTRANCE FROM NEW PALACE YARD TO THE
SPEAKER'S COURT „ 124
From Smith's ' Antiquities of Westminster '
THE SPEAKER'S COURTYARD FROM THE SOUTH-
WEST „ 124
From Smith's ' Antiquities of Westminster '
RICKM AN LEAVING THE CLERK ASSISTANT'S HOUSE „ 125
From a water-colour sketch by Mrs. Lefroy (1831)
NORTH-WEST VIEW OF WESTMINSTER HALL, TAKEN
BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF THE COFFEE-HOUSES
AND PILLARS, BY THOMAS SANDBY, R. A. . „ 129
From Smith's ' Antiquities of Westminster '
THE BURNING OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN
1834 ,,309
From a drawing in the British Museum
JUDGE JEFFREYS' HOUSE IN DUKE STREET, WEST-
MINSTER ,,317
From a water-colour sketch by T. H. Shepherd in 1853,
in the British Museum
A VIEW OF JUDGE JEFFREYS' HOUSE FROM BIRD-
CAGE WALK, TAKEN JUST BEFORE ITS DEMO-
LITION IN 1910 ,,318
From a photograph lent by H. M. Office of Works
xiii
LAMB'S FRIEND THE CENSUS-TAKER
INTRODUCTION
It was in collecting material for a memorandum on the
history of the officials of the House of Commons — of whom
I am happy to be one — that I first met the name of John
Rickman ; and it was from the memoir by his son, reprinted
from an obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine, that
I first learnt the details of his life. I discovered that one
of my own profession — for Rickman was Speaker's Secretary
for twelve, and Clerk at the Table for twenty-six, years —
had been the originator of the census in England and super-
vised the population returns for four successive decades,
that he had become a statistician celebrated even outside
England, that he was intimate with Southey and Lamb and
Coleridge, and — most interesting of all — that he had left a
large body of correspondence with these and other friends.
Now the memoir, written in the formal, lapidary style dear
to the Early Victorians, does not present Rickman as a
particularly promising subject for a biographical study.
It leaves the reader with an impression of an austere being
who lived only to perform prodigious labours : a worthy
person no doubt, but, to put it briefly, dull. Yet the
memoir is humanised by one inclusion, that of Charles
Lamb's well-known letter to Manning in 1800, describing his
new acquaintance Rickman as a ' pleasant hand ' with all
the exuberance of Elian ecstasy. The fact that Rickman
could have inspired such words from such a man was
enough to tempt me further. I determined, if it were
humanly possible, to possess myself of a correspondence
which had apparently lain hidden for seventy years. My
inquiries as to its existence were delayed by the exigencies
of other tasks, but I was able in the meantime to gather
A
2 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
such further information as was to be derived from pub-
lished sources. Rickman's name appears in many books —
frequently in Southey's voluminous correspondence, in
Mrs. Sandford's Thomas Poole and his Friends, in the corre-
spondence of Lamb, in biographies of Lamb, Southey, and
Coleridge, in Crabb Robinson's and Lord Colchester's diaries,
and in the Dictionary of National Biography — yet at the end
of my reading I seemed to have gained no more than indi-
cations of Rickman's possible interest if more were known
about him. He seemed to flit through the pages of books
like a literary ghost to whom flesh and blood had never
been given, though Mr. E. V. Lucas, in his charming and
masterly Life of Charles Lamb, has certainly been successful
in giving him some semblance of reality ; but the informa-
tion available to Mr. Lucas was comparatively scanty, and
so elusive does even his Rickman seem to be that none of
my friends — even those who prided themselves on peculiar
intimacy with Lamb's life and circle — has ever shown the
smallest sign of intelligence on my mentioning his name.
Yet Lamb lauded him to the skies, and found him the
fittest recipient of the latest drolleries of his friends ; Southey
leaned upon him for forty years ; Coleridge admired him
whole-heartedly : his life was spent in laborious service
for England, and he invented the means for his carrying
out that numbering of the people which has taken place
this year for the twelfth time. If he had lived and died in
more modern times he would have been highly honoured in
his life, and his biography would have anticipated the first
anniversary of his death. But plain John Rickman, F.R.S.,
shunned notoriety while he lived, and when he died he was
forgotten.
And why has he been forgotten ? Chiefly because we have
known nothing of the man himself — whether he was prig
or prude, witty or dull, Whig or Tory ; why he was so
prized at Lamb's Wednesday evenings, what he had to
do with such oddities as George Dyer and George Burnett,
how he regarded the political conflict of which he was a
close witness for nearly forty years. The answers to these
INTRODUCTION 3
questions are now no longer in doubt, and that is the reason
of this book. The quest of Hickman's letters proved
absurdly easy, and if Lamb's ' pleasant hand ' is still a
phantom, the fault is entirely mine.
Of the documents themselves I must say a word in
passing, for they are not inconsiderable in bulk. The
correspondence preserved in the Rickman family consists,
firstly, of the letters which passed between Southey and
Rickman from 1798 to 1839 ; secondly, of certain letters
written by Rickman to his wife or daughters, mostly
accounts of tours ; thirdly, twenty-three letters from
Charles Lamb ; fourthly, fifteen letters from Coleridge.
In the British Museum are some thirty letters from Rickman
to Coleridge's friend, Thomas Poole of Nether Stowey.
Mr. Gordon Wordsworth has another letter from Lamb,
one of the longest and most characteristic in all Lamb's
correspondence ; and there are four letters from Rickman
quoted in the diaries of Lord Colchester, to whom, as Speaker
Abbot, Rickman was secretary. The Southey-Rickman
correspondence consists of over twelve hundred letters of
varying length. It was used by the editors of Southey's
correspondence, who have published about two hundred
of Southey's, and quoted from about thirty of Rickman 's,
letters. From this mass I have had to select what was of
permanent interest, and in doing so I have only quoted
Southey sparingly, chiefly from unpublished letters, for the
tenor of his correspondence is already well known. Two
at least of Rickman's family letters are of great interest,
and with them may be classed the reminiscences of his
daughter, Mrs. Lefroy, which give many details of the
household life at Westminster. The letters from Lamb,
except that in Mr. Gordon Wordsworth's possession, were
published in Canon Ainger's 1906 edition of Lamb's Letters,
and I am precluded from using them. I publish seven of
the Coleridge letters for the first time, a proceeding which
their interest fully justifies. I have selected, again, from
the Poole letters in the British Museum, omitting some
passages included in Mrs. Sandford's Thomas Poole and
4 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
his Friends, and including others not quoted there. These
various items supplement one another particularly well,
and there are practically no lacunae making conjecture
necessary, though we cannot but lament the absence of
Rickman's letters to Lamb.
My aim, so far as possible, has been to allow the letters
to speak for themselves ; still, even for the task of selecting
and combining, a point of view is necessary. My point of
view is illustrated by the title I have chosen, which is an
answer to a difficult question frequently put to me, namely,
' Who was Rickman ? ' He was many things, as I have
said — census-taker, Parliamentary official, the friend of
several men whose names will live as long as English litera-
ture. But the quality which has appealed most of all to
my mind, and on which I base the immediate interest of
this book, is that he was Lamb's friend, that is, a human
being with certain distinctive human qualities. Rickman,
I admit, was far more intimately acquainted with Southey
than with Lamb, but to have been Southey 's friend is no
differentia. With Lamb it is different. Elia, as he tells us
himself, chose his ' ragged regiment ' of ' intimados ' with
care, and he immortalised them all — Dyer, Burnett, Jem
White, ' Ralph Bigod,' and the rest — as parts of his own
immortal character. He cared not one whit for a man's
achievements or possessions, but took a friend to his heart,
and planted him there, because, vigorous or feeble, radiant
or sickly, he was of that genus called common humanity,
which Elia loved so dearly till the day he died. I have
tried, therefore, to let Rickman reveal himself, not as the
austere, stolid worker (which was only one side of him),
but as a very definite personality with forcible views and
an interesting life. Some may think that I have treated
his actual work too summarily ; but this is not an economical
treatise on the census, which, when all has been said, is
not a particularly enlivening subject.
Who, then, was Rickman ? As I have begun, so I will
continue, by speaking first of his friendships, for they are
a clue to his character. It is remarkable that, though he
INTRODUCTION 5
was externally unbending and severe, intolerant of other
people's weaknesses, and indifferent whether his very great
benevolence was presented in acceptable form to those who
stood in need of it, his friends invariably spoke of him with
admiration and affection. Lamb, besides the letter to
Manning which I have mentioned, wrote on another occa-
sion : ' His memory will be to me as the brazen serpent
to the Israelites, — I shall look up to it, to keep me straight
and honest.' Coleridge called him a ' sterling man,' and
assured him of his unaffected esteem. Talfourd alludes
to him as ' the sturdiest of jovial companions.' From
Southey's many expressions of affection I choose this :
' God bless you, my dear R., I would often give much for
a quiet evening's conversation with you.' Southey was
Rickman's earliest friend, for their meeting took place in
1797, when Rickman was twenty-six, and the friendship
lasted without a shadow till Rickman's death. What
drew them together was a certain firmness of character
and similarity of views. Both were revolutionaries when
they met ; both crystallised simultaneously into Tories.
Rickman befriended Southey in every possible way. He
acted as his literary agent when the poet was in Portugal,
he procured him a secretaryship when he returned, he
opened his house to him whenever he visited London, he
sent him books and Parliamentary papers for his reviews,
he was never too busy to research for him and embody the
result in eight quarto pages of close writing, he paid his
fees for a doctor's degree in a particularly graceful manner,
and he would have lent him money if it had been necessary.
If he was stoical as a comforter, he was admirable as a
counsellor. With equal good sense he pointed out the
extravagances of Southey's first poem as Laureate, remon-
strated with him on his excessive use of religious epithets,
and dissuaded him from outraging public opinion by refus-
ing to adopt the incorrect name of Waterloo for Wellington's
great victory. But the friendship with Southey was so
intimate a part of Rickman's whole life that I need say
no more of it here. I will but mention the interesting fact,
6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
which comes to light, that Rickman practically wrote the
whole of one of Southey's published essays, and that the
letters, among other things, give many interesting details
of the never-finished ' Colloquies ' which the two friends
undertook in collaboration in 1831.
Mr. E. V. Lucas gives a very adequate account of Rick-
man's friendship with Lamb. It began in great warmth
on both sides. Lamb thought Rickman ' absolute in all
numbers,' and Rickman hugely enjoyed Lamb's wit. So
long as Lamb lived in London this firm attachment lasted.
Rickman attended regularly to play whist at the Wednesday
evenings, and he was one of that steadier crew who checked
the more demoralising influence of such men as Fell and
Fen wick on the volatile Elia. The affection of Lamb for
Rickman is proved by the fact that in 1803 he came to
stay in Palace Yard while Mary Lamb was suffering from
one of her attacks of lunacy, for on these occasions Lamb
shunned all ordinary society. Mrs. Lefroy gives a picture
of the Lambs on a visit — Charles ' with rather the air of a
dissenting preacher ' uttering a pun in a far corner of the
room, and Mary ' a stout, roundabout little body with a
turban, and a layer of snuff on her upper lip.' In later
years the friendship cooled to some extent. Rickman be-
came busier, the Lambs left London, and Charles became
more intemperate. Yet in 1829 — a fact not hitherto
known — Lamb again stayed with Rickman when Mary
was ill, and in 1833 he dined with him to be reconciled to
his friend Godwin. Lamb died at the end of 1834, and
his death occasioned curious remarks from both Rickman
and Southey, which are characteristic of their not too
sympathetic natures.
The chief interest of Coleridge in Rickman's life lies in
the unpublished letters. One of these is an ingenuous
comment by the opium-drinker on Hazlitt's too frequently
convivial visits to Lamb, with a curious remark about the
influence of tobacco on Lamb's desire for alcohol. Another
describes the rehearsals of his tragedy ' Remorse,' proving
that Rickman made some very acceptable emendations,
INTRODUCTION 7
The census-taker had a profound admiration for Coleridge's
genius, and an entire contempt for his character. He wrote
of him : ' If he dies, it will be from a sulky imagination,
produced from the general cause of such things, i.e. a want
of regular work and application/ Yet, as one of the letters
which I publish shows, Coleridge entertained the most
lively feelings for Rickman.
Those who have any acquaintance with Lamb's life and
letters will remember his two butts, George Dyer — ' G. D.'
or ' George I.,' — and George Burnett — •' George 11.' or the
' Bishop.' Rickman was the friend of both, and his corre-
spondence gives many new facts about them. It was George
Dyer who introduced Rickman to Lamb, and who procured
him the editorship of the Commercial, Agricultural, and
Manufacturers' Magazine. The Southey-Rickman letters
give two new and amusing stories of his relations with
Lamb. One relates how he persuaded a friend unasked to
buy Lamb's play at half-price, and gravely handed Is. 6d.
to Lamb, regretting he could do so little for his friends ;
and the other tells how the Lambs talked him into love with
a famous blue-stocking. Moreover, in this correspondence
there are preserved three original letters from George Dyer,
from whose pen no private letters have hitherto been known.
The first, which I do not print, settles a date in Lamb's life.
The second is exceedingly precious, for it is a sequel to
Lamb's exquisitely humorous letter describing Dyer's rescue
from starvation. The third is recommendation from Dyer
of a deserving young man who wished for copying work, his
character being vouched for by Dyer's washerwoman.
Rickman found the man to be an arrant rogue, and the
incident is thoroughly typical of him whom Lamb called
the ' common lyar of benevolence.'
Rickman enjoyed and appreciated what was good in
Dyer, but his feelings towards George Burnett were more
mixed. Burnett's life, if it had its humorous side, was a
sad chapter of failure, which has never been properly put
together. The Rickman correspondence supplies a good
deal of new information, which I collected in an article in
8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Blackwood's Magazine for March of this year. The scheme
of the present book prevented me from incorporating this
article en bloc, but no essential points are omitted, though
the events are recounted as they occurred as incidents
in Rickman's life. The real cause of Burnett's failure was
his indolent, vain character ; the immediate cause was
the unsettlement of his mind by his meeting Southey at
Balliol, and his introduction to Coleridge. Southey always
felt the responsibility, and I am able to give some new and
highly interesting extracts from Southey 's letters, which
set forth his views on the conduct of his unfortunate friend.
Rickman's relations with Burnett show the mixture of
harshness and benevolence in his nature. He saw the
unmistakable talent and the weak character which made
it useless. Again and again he put himself out to find work
for Burnett, after exclaiming that he would never have
any more to do with him. Whenever ' George n.' showed
the slightest tendency to reform, he could count on Rick-
man's assistance. On the other hand, Rickman never
showed any tact in his handling of that neurotic being.
He plainly displayed his contempt, he wrote him letters
which Lamb called ' a cruel dose of yellow gamboodge,'
he even went so far ' as a cosmopolite ' as to wish him dead
that some more useful being might consume his share of
sustenance. The amazing story of Burnett's commission
as a surgeon in the militia, which is told in part by Mrs.
Sandford, can now be followed to its absurd conclusion, and
in this connection I quote in full Burnett's three original
letters which Thomas Poole preserved. It is just a hundred
years ago since Burnett, the author of two quite interesting
books, died in a workhouse infirmary, and I am glad, if only
for the sake of elucidating Lamb's humorous references
to him, that I can add to the knowledge of his career.
Rickman's friendships with these men and others — Poole,
Telford, the engineer, and the Burneys — were characterised
by a certain external formality which strikes rather chill
upon the modern reader, who must remember, however, that
society a hundred years ago was more patriarchal and
INTRODUCTION 9
punctilious than it is to-day. Yet rigidity was natural to
the man. His family motto was ' Fortitude in Adversity,'
and perhaps a puritanical fortitude in everything would
best sum up his character. He was sturdily unromantic.
He could write to Southey that he had ' lately imported a
wife,' and remonstrate with Poole for supposing that he
married for love. In his family his word was law, and even
to his children his letters were rather portentously solemn.
The grave homily administered to his daughter Ann on
the occasion of her having confessed her inability to play
quadrille music at a children's party might have come out
of a Jane Austen novel. His taste for pleasure was not
very highly developed. When the Lambs took him to
Sadlers Wells he slept, and his only recreation consisted in
long driving tours in the yellow gig which Mrs. Lefroy
describes, and these tours were planned on distinctly
' improving ' lines. He had a hatred of show and affectation,
which led him to avoid ' dinner party intercourse,' and
deliberately banish the terms ' drawing room ' and ' dining
room ' from his own house. A little litany which comes at
the end of a letter to Southey gives a clue to some of his
dislikes : ' From all novelists, tourists, anecdotists, beauty-
mongers, selectors, abbreviators, et id genus omne, good
Lord deliver us ! And also from overgrown theatres, which
insure bad plays and bad acting.' The beauties of Nature,
he thought, were morbidly insisted on by the Lake
poets : in his view they should be ' as play hours.' But
Rickman was not in the least crabbed. ' You know,' he
said, ' I am in the habit of looking on the white side of
futurity ' ; and again : ' The wiser economy of life is to like
as much as possible, and to dislike as little as possible.'
Neither was he a domestic tyrant, and his excellent letters
on Bertha Southey are proof that he had a fatherly soul.
His home life, indeed, was undisturbedly happy, and it is
a pretty picture on which Mrs. Lefroy has allowed us to look.
We see Rickman, the cares of office cast away, sleeping on
his grass slope at Westminster, with his children around
weaving daisy chains and itching to pull papa's pigtail ;
10 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
we can imagine his garden with the ' Hamboro' grape ' and
the ' mound to bury kittens and canaries in ' — if indeed we
can conceive anything so pastoral in stately Westminster.
Mrs. Lefroy has preserved a charming memory of the official
' church parade ' for Sunday service at St. Margaret's, and
has drawn a portrait of her father in his tight pantaloons
with ' very pointed toes to his shoes,' his shirt frill ' very
neatly plaited,' his cravat of fine white nainsook, and his
swallow-tail coat. In early days at Westminster, Rickman's
hair was curled and powdered every day ; and though he
abandoned powder when the fashion died out, he was the
last of the clerks to wear a stock and knee-breeches at the
Table of the House.
Considering that he enjoyed intimate friendship with
men whose names are great in English literature, Rickman's
own want of literary taste is a little surprising. He had
small appreciation for belles lettres, and none at all for
poetry. His earliest letter to Southey, a criticism of ' Joan
of Arc ' from the point of view of antiquarian accuracy,
contains the remark : ' Poetry has its use and its place,
and like some known superfluities we should feel awkward
without it.' On another occasion he says : ' I abjure all
my little aversion to poetry in deference to your cogent
reasons ; I only think poetry bad in a man who may be
better employed : a toy in manhood.' Yet he was not
without some critical insight. He thought Southey 's
' Madoc ' bad, and told him so ; on the other hand, he was
enthusiastic over Lamb's play, ' John Woodvil,' and offered
to lend all the money necessary for its publication. Of
Wordsworth's articles in the Friend he said : ' It seems
to me that Wordsworth has neither fun nor common sense
in him.' In spite of his editorship of the Commercial,
Agricultural, and Manufacturers' Magazine, Rickman found
literary composition a difficult task. He could not em-
broider, but marshalled his facts in severe order. For
that reason he refused to become a regular contributor to
the Quarterly, and it was only for Southey's benefit that
he wrote the article on the poor law which appeared in
INTRODUCTION 11
that magazine. In this case and in the case of the
' Colloquies ' he strictly stipulated that Southey should
apply the file without compunction. The actual matter
of his writing was admirable, and more than once Southey
bestows on it the highest praise, but what was wanting
was that picturesque vigour of expression which gives so
strong a flavour to his letters.
Rickman's style is at its breeziest when he writes about
politics, a subject on which his remarks are both enter-
taining and extremely interesting. His political views
were, to say the least, well defined. He was, in fact, a
strong Tory. But he was neither a party politician nor
a landowning squire who imbibed his politics with his
mother's milk. He had been, with Southey, a revolu-
tionary for a glorious year or two, but a study of economic
and social subjects settled him a Tory — a Tory, if I may
say so, of the ' Manchester school,' for he held that the only
safe rule was individualism or ' selfishness,' and that the
Whigs and Reformers erred through a sentimental desire
to be benevolent, a ' mock-humanity.' He was perfectly
sincere in the conviction that, owing to the spread of Liberal
ideas, a tremendous and devastating revolution was about
to occur in England at any time before the Reform Bill
was actually passed, and so distressed was he on more than
one occasion that he confessed to a kind of melancolia of de-
spair. But it is just his intellectual Toryism which makes
his political letters unique, besides the fact that most
of the contemporary memoirs are Whig, and Colchester's
diaries end before the Reform Bill. His letters are an
expression of the point of view of an extremely intelligent
Tory, who was completely acquainted with the political
events of his day, and bound by no party allegiance. They
remind us, to whom the Tory politics of the early nine-
teenth century cannot but appear hopelessly reactionary,
what a hard-headed man then feared from the Whigs, and
by what spirit he was animated in his hatred for their
political aims.
Rickman's Parliamentary experience was longer than
12 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
that which falls to the lot of most members ; he was in the
service of the House of Commons for thirty-eight years.
When he first came to Palace Yard the House was nearing
the end of its most brilliant epoch. Burke was dead, but
Pitt and Fox, Sheridan and Grattan were still there. The
brilliance of debates was diminished under the long Tory
administration, but the House was kept from stagnation
by the unrest in the country, and the violent agitation of
the small band of reformers, led by Burdett, Whitbread,
and (later) Brougham, who raised annually the questions
of Catholic emancipation and Parliamentary reform. Of
these burning questions Rickman saw the rise, the climax,
and the settlement, and it may naturally be supposed that
his accounts of the debates are worth reading. I do not
pretend that he had any access to the inner sources of
political knowledge. His contempt for politicians was too
great for him to trouble his head about their secrets. ' One
cannot live so near the House of Commons,' he wrote,
' without becoming cynical towards all who figure there.'
His judgment, too, was often at fault. He was singularly
mistaken about Perceval's ability in 1807 : he saw in
Brougham only the ' noisy adventurer,' in Canning the
intriguer, and in Wellington ' little more of the statesman
than a vulgar appetite for power.' He was over- ready to
believe political gossip discreditable to the other side.
Thus, he was convinced in 1801 that Pitt resigned solely
to escape impeachment, and that Catholic emancipation
was not the real question at issue ; that the Duke of York's
fear of impeachment forced the Ministry of All the Talents
on the King, and that Grey's resignation after the second
rejection of the Reform Bill was a cleverly stage-managed
trick. Nevertheless, in spite of his prejudices and his
credulity, Rickman is a valuable witness. Parliamentary
officials are politely supposed to have no political opinions.
It is amusing, therefore, to imagine the Speaker's Secretary,
who was a model of correctness, putting off his bag and
sword to write to Southey or Poole that Pitt ' had genius
without acquired knowledge; whence his affectation of infalli-
INTRODUCTION 13
bility and all the woes of Europe ' ; that ' Charley Fox eats
his former opinions daily, and even ostentatiously, showing
himself the worst man but the better Minister of a corrupt
Government, where three people in four must be rogues and
three deeds in four bad ' ; or ' I expected Mr. Perceval to
be murdered, but I had expected it from the Burdetts and
other vermin rendered infuriate by the weekly poison they
imbibe from sixteen newspapers emulous in violence and
mischief ' ; or, after a joyful account of the Regent's re-
buff to Grenville and Grey in 1811, 'the pangs of the
M. Chronicle are delicious. Canting villain ! ' Still more
entertaining is it to think of Rickman from 1814 onwards,
sitting staidly at the Table in his wig and gown, courte-
ously giving his attention to members of any party who
required his advice on procedure, entering blameless
minutes, editing questions, pruning motions into orderly
shape, and all the while mentally fulminating against
those whom he called the ' Whiggamores,' or contemptu-
ously damning the Tories for their want of backbone.
Little did Brougham, Canning, Whitbread, O'Connell,
Peel, or Wellington imagine, if in the course of a full-dress
second-reading debate their eye fell for a moment on the
peacefully writing Clerk Assistant, that he was criticising
them as bitterly as any of their opponents, recording
Brougham's ' deeply infernal toned " Hear ! hear ! " ', Peel's
haughty coldness, or Macaulay's maiden speech, or urging
his friend, the trenchant reviewer of the Quarterly, to open
the eyes of England to the machinations of the ' Mobocracy '
backed by the ' hell-hounds of the Press.' The Roman
Catholic question rilled him with all kinds of gloomy fore-
bodings, and he never forgave Wellington for his oppor-
tunism in the matter, calling it ' the grossest of all specimens
of impropriety in civil government.' But the political
interest of Rickman's correspondence reaches its climax at
the time of the Reform Bill agitation. His feelings were
passionately aroused, and he called to Southey to make a
last stand with him, and to sound the bugle for all true
patriots. Then was planned the writing of those ' Colloquies '
14 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
between ' Montesinos ' and ' Metretes ' — Southey and
Rickman — which never saw the light. Rickman's first
suggested title for the book was ' Monarchy or Democracy,'
and the motto Ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat. It
was to supply Southey with necessary political knowledge
that his letters on the Reform debates are so frequent and
full, and their tone may be judged from the description of
Lord John Russell's first Reform Bill speech : ' The backing
speech of the Tricolor Donkey Lord was truly asinine.'
What strikes the reader particularly about the letters at
this period is their modernity. With a few changes of
names, they might have been written by a Unionist
at any time during the last eighteen months. The House
of Lords, the question of creating peers, an Irish party
(' O'Connell's squadron of Irish Devils ') that boasted of
holding the balance of power — there are parallels at the
moment of writing. 1 Rickman's vivacious outcries against
the ' Whiggamores,' if a little pathetic, were seriously meant.
This is proved by the fact that, after comforting himself in
1833 that ' in our Pandemonium ' the ' new devils ' were
1 cuffing and scratching the Whig Devils beautifully,' he
practically ceased to take any further interest in politics.
In his relations to political events and persons as well as
in his relations to his friends, Rickman shows intensely
human qualities. My reason, therefore, for including so
many political letters has been that they are not only
interesting for what they say, but illustrate, often most
entertainingly, a certain type of mind.
I suspect that the uncompromising nature of his views
was responsible in part for the small amount of public
recognition which Rickman received for his really important
statistical work. Yet he shunned all appearance of self-
advertisement, and would have looked with suspicion on
officially bestowed honours. Indeed, it is to be noticed
that he suspected his employment on the population returns
to be meant as a bribe. But Rickman's sole ambition was
to be of utility, and in that aim he was certainly successful.
1 May 1911.
INTRODUCTION 15
Even the industrious Southey marvelled at his prodigious
capacity for work.
His official business was to him little more than so much
routine, but he was never lax in its performance, and he
was always ready to do such extra work as came in his way —
the indexing of Hatsell and of the Journals, the institution
of a new system of publishing the Votes and Proceedings,
digesting various returns, supplying evidence for a com-
mittee, or even sending in a secret scheme for combating
the Radicals. Till his death he remained in harness, though
he certainly wished to retire in 1832, and complained of
intrigues which prevented this. His work on the three
Commissions for building the Caledonian Canal, making
roads, and building churches in the Highlands was in-
valuable. He was Telford's loyal supporter for seventeen
years in the Caledonian Canal enterprise, and it was due to
him that Southey wrote for it his three inscriptions. But
the only subject in which Rickman truly took a real interest
was what is now called economics, though he would have
hated the word, having the utmost contempt for the political
economists of his day. Social science was his study from
the time he left Oxford, and he regarded the population
returns quite rightly as giving data for the widest political
and social deductions, though he was a little too reliant on
statistical evidence in the face of palpable fact. It was
a pity that Rickman had no opportunity of dealing with
the poor laws of this country. The subject was one on
which he had very definite views, for he saw their great
defects (before 1834), if his remedies were a little drastic.
He conceived that treating poor men according to their
deserts — bread and water for the idlers — would suffice to
abolish the poor rates and introduce good character instead.
He forgot, perhaps, that many of the rich would also have
deserved bread and water. He believed in competition, in
unrestricted manufactures, and laisser-faire with a strong
police. And yet he was willing enough to be socialistically
benevolent for women. In 1800 he started as a hobby a
little speculation on the subject of beguinages in England,
16 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
which he took up again in later life, and one of his letters
gives a sketch of a model female institution — a model which
is not so far from reality now. Rickman, in fact, useful as he
was to his country, might have been far more useful, if only
governments then had known, as they do now, how to use
their permanent officials.
Rickman, at heart, was as little reactionary as he was
a tyrant. His ideal state would have been a benevolent
despotism, and in his relations with others he was inclined
to act the benevolent despot himself. Save, perhaps, in
his extreme respect for intellectual knowledge, he was a
typical John Bull. I am saved from any further effort to
sum up his character by being able to quote, in conclusion
of these preliminary remarks, a letter written by his friend,
the historian Sharon Turner, for inclusion in his son's
memoir.
1 20 Sept. 1840.
' My impression, whenever I saw your father, was,
that he had a strong and resolute mind, very discursive,
full of varied but promiscuous knowledge, ready to bring
it out whenever called upon, and always pleased to have a
reason to do so, and to talk with those who would be inter-
ested to hear him ; whoever did so, could not fail to be both
gratified and informed. For he had a large store of facts
and thoughts, and frequently viewed things in an original
though sometimes also in a peculiar manner. He was fond
of intellectual labour as an exercise of the mind as well as
for the prosecution of the object he undertook ; and what-
ever he directed his attention to, he pursued with a zeal
and perseverance, and with an almost insensibility of fatigue
that can seldom be paralleled. . . . He thought little of
those who pursued any object with indolence and indifference
and believed that mental activity always did good to the
health, and that the evils ascribed to it arose from other
causes.
' He was peculiarly a man of facts and realities, and
well adapted to all things that required close attention,
INTRODUCTION 17
investigation, and continued mental labour. He was very
anxious never to be deceived himself, and never to deceive
others. He had not a philosophical cast of mind, nor did
he view his subjects with that course and style of thought.
But he saw his main points quickly and adhered tenaciously
to them, and always threw light upon them.
' I would not call him a man of genius, but of a powerful
and solid mind — quick, ardent, penetrating, self-confident
from experienced success in what he undertook, and not
willing to yield his own opinions to the opposing conclusions
of others — he was therefore rather peremptory, both from
the strength of his own convictions, and his earnest desire
that what he deemed right should be thought or deemed
so by others : but it was always in good humour. He had
a very straightforward, upright, and honest-meaning mind,
with nothing of the base or shabby in it. I never saw any-
thing like trick or subterfuge, or fraud, or hypocrisy in him :
nor could he endure these in any other. He liked to skir-
mish in conversation, and so often attacked what he thought
wrong in all parties, and in their leaders, that it was not
easy to know what his settled opinions were on many of
our political questions. He was at times a little impatient
and stern ; but whatever his manner might be, he was
always a kind-hearted and worthy man — one of steady,
moral conduct — and desirous that all should be so. . . .'
[Note. — For the benefit of those — and they are many — who
take a particular interest in the smallest fact concerning Charles
Lamb, I summarise here the new points which the Rickman
correspondence brings to light.
(1) George Dyer's first letter in 1801 fixes the approximate
date of Lamb's removal from Pentonville to Southampton
Buildings (p. 34).
(2) Rickman's letter to Southey enclosing Dyer's second
letter of 1801 fixes within a few days the date of Lamb's long
letter to Rickman describing Dyer's rescue from starvation.
Mr. E. V. Lucas heads this letter ' ? November.' Dyer's letter,
too, corroborates Lamb's account (pp. 56-60).
(3) A short undated letter from Lamb to Rickman, printed by
18 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Canon Ainger after one on November 24, 1801, is shown to belong
to November 9 or 10 (p. 60).
(4) The allusion in Lamb's letter to Rickman of July 16, 1803,
where he refers to a ' gentle ghost ' who wishes to return, has
mystified all commentators. I think its date, together with the
contents of letters from Southey and Rickman, proves it conclus-
ively to refer to a kind of circular sent by George Burnett to his
friends, announcing his return to the paths of reason, and ex-
pressing regret for former aberrations together with a desire for
work. This confirms Mr. E. V. Lucas in a conjecture which he
seems to have abandoned (p. 90).
(5) Lamb stayed with Rickman in 1803 during one of Mary
Lamb's attacks of insanity (p. 87).
(6) On July 25, 1829, Lamb wrote to Bernard Barton describing
a visit paid, during a recent attack of Mary Lamb's, to a friend in
London, ' one of the individuals of my old long knot of friends,
card-players, pleasant companions — that have tumbled to pieces
into dust and other things.' The identity of this friend has
hitherto been unknown, but Rickman's letter to Southey of
July 14, 1829, proves him to have been Lamb's entertainer
(p. 247).
(7) Three letters from Coleridge refer to Lamb (pp. 105, 106,
157), the last giving a particularly interesting account of Lamb's
convivialities.
(8) Two new stories of Lamb's connection with George Dyer
occur in the Rickman correspondence with Southey (pp. 76, 93,
94).
(9) Lamb's estimate of Southey's and Coleridge's responsi-
bility for Burnett's aberrations is quoted by Rickman (p. 85).
(10) Mrs. Lefroy in her reminiscences gives a portrait of the
Lambs at Rickman's house (p. 128).
(11) I am able to quote Rickman's and Southey's interesting
comments on Lamb's death (p. 313).]
CHAPTER I
The Rickman family — Early life of John Rickman — His meeting with
Southey — Beguinages — Departure from Christchurch.
From the genealogical researches made by John Rickman's
father, the Rev. Thomas Rickman, it appears that the
family of Rickman, Rykeman or Richman, originated in
Somersetshire, for the arms — or, three piles azure, three bars
gules, over all a stag trippant ; with a crest, a stag's head
couped proper — were originally granted to Rickman of
Somersetshire. The family seems to have overflowed first
into Dorsetshire, where John Ritcheman is known to have
been rector of Porton in 1380, and members of the family
represented Lyme in Parliament in the reigns of Henry iv.
and Henry v. The Rickmans of Hampshire, from whom
John Rickman more immediately sprang, had the same
arms and a slightly different crest with the motto, ' Fortitude
in Adversity.' The earliest mention of the family is in
the parish register of Wardleham, where the baptism of
John Rickman, son of Richard Rickman and Isabel his wife,
is recorded in 1542. A William Rickman who lived at
Marchwood in Eling appears in 1556 among the subscribers
to the defence of the country against the Spanish Armada.
In 1623 a Richard Rickman was married at Eling to Elizabeth
Stubbs, and their son William was baptised in 1627. The
son of this William, James Rickman, was father of three sons,
William, John, and James, the first of whom was born in
1701 at Milford. John Rickman, the subject of this book,
was his grandson.
There is a letter by John Rickman, written to his eldest
daughter, which gives an interesting account of his near
ancestors. This long letter, which occupies forty-two quarto
20 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
pages, was written purely as a warning to his younger
daughter not to embark upon rash expenditure in her newly
married life. This lesson in economy — so typical of its
writer's formal mind — can only be quoted in extract. It
is dated ' 8 December, 1836,' and after the exordium con-
tinues thus : —
' The grandfather of my grandfather (a portrait of
which last we have) was a yeoman of small property, 50
or 60 acres, on the coast of Hampshire, at Hordwell in
the parish of Milford near Lymington, and possessor of a
windmill there. He being a patriot, and no Popery man,
left his plough and his mill and joined the army of the Duke
of Monmouth which was defeated at Sedgmoor in the year
1685. He escaped the slaughter of the day and the ven-
geance of Judge Jefferies, and returned home to tell of his
adventures, to boast of them (no doubt) after the triumph
of Ms party at the Revolution in 1688. The son of the
miller who succeeded to the landed property had three sons
of whom my grandfather W. R. was the eldest, and being a
studious lad of good talents was placed in the country house
of Mr. Missing, a wealthy merchant at Portsmouth, who
dying left a son remarkably unfit for business, which there-
fore devolved on my grandfather upon his marriage in the
year 1729 with the daughter of his former employer. . . .
' In the year 1739, a war commenced between England
and Spain, and my grandfather (through Portsmouth
Borough influence, I suppose) obtained the contract for
supply of provisions to the Spanish prisoners of war con-
fined in Porchester Castle. His business was very lucrative,
and as he had become a proficient in the Spanish language,
indeed well read in Spanish literature, he had opportunity
of being attentive to Don Ulloa, 1 the Spanish officer em-
ployed in mensuration of a degree of longitude near the
equator in Spanish America, who in his narrative makes
grateful mention of his English friend, Mr. Rickman.'
1 Admiral Ulloa was captured in 1745. The reference is in Book ix.
ch. ix. of his Narrative of a Voyage to S. America, and speaks of William
Rickman's great care for the prisoners' comfort.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 21
William Rickman thus became a prosperous man. He
made considerable purchases of land, was made a Justice of
the Peace, in which office he distinguished himself in bring-
ing a gang of murderers and smugglers to book for their
crimes, and in 1747 served as Sheriff for the county. This
was the summit of his prosperity. The Spanish war merged
into a French war, and another merchant was given the
contract to feed the French prisoners. William Rickman
was practically superseded, and his income fell consider-
ably. Further, he had become surety for his brother, a
Custom House collector, in £8000, a sum which he forfeited
on his rascally relative's absconding. A nephew also lost
him £1500 on another suretyship. William Rickman's
affairs thus fell into decay, so that when he died in 1764 he
had sold all his landed property.
His son, Thomas Rickman, was at this time on the
verge of entering Holy Orders. In 1766 he became vicar
of Newburn in Northumberland. He married a Miss
Beaumont in 1770, of which marriage John Rickman, born
in 1771. was the only son, the two other children being
daughters. In 1776, when the taxes caused by the American
war began to pinch, he was offered an exchange and second
benefice at Compton, near Winchester, which he exchanged
in 1780 for the livings of Ash, near Farnham in Hampshire,
and Stourpaine in Dorset, which he held till his death in
1809. In 1796, however, being no longer able to perform
divine service, he retired to Christchurch. ' Soon after this,'
says Rickman in the same letter as I have quoted above,
' the Income Tax was imposed, and I had some prospect of
employment in London. The salary of a curate at Ash
was a heavy burden on my father's income, and the price
of provisions was enormous, so that my father upon my
leaving the family broke up his little establishment, and
went to reside between Lymington and Christchurch
with some of his relations. . . . This continued till 1803,
when upon my being well established in Palace Yard my
father again ventured on housekeeping till he died in 1809.'
John Rickman himself was educated at Guildford
22 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Grammar School from 1781 to 1788, when he went to
Magdalen Hall, and thence to Lincoln College, Oxford.
No allusion is ever made by Rickman to his boyhood,
except when he mentions that he suffered several years'
reasonable misery through a mistake in deciding upon a
profession. 1 Probably he had had early ideas of entering
the Church, which residence at Oxford had dissipated.
After taking his degree in 1792 or 1793, Rickman seems to
have remained at Christchurch reading the books in the
library left by his grandfather, especially those upon
economic subjects, thus laying in the wide stock of know-
ledge which stood him in such good stead later in his career.
The recollections of Mrs. Lefroy (Rickman's elder daughter
Ann) mention that Rickman used to act as tutor in the
vacations to the son of a very rich man named Clark,
whose daughter became Marchioness of Ormond. Mr.
Clark offered Rickman a large living in Kent if he would
take Holy Orders, but he refused. He seems to have had
an attachment, not wholly unreturned, for Miss Clark,
who remained a close friend of his throughout her life.
On her death in 1818 he was made her executor, and received
a legacy of £7000.
The first event of any note in Rickman's life was his
acquaintance with Robert Southey, the future Poet
Laureate. In the summer of 1797 Southey and his wife
took lodgings at Burton, near Christchurch, and it was not
long before they met John Rickman. In a letter from
Southey to Cottle, the publisher, dated June 18, 1797, 2 he
speaks of going down Christchurch harbour in Rickman's
boat, and calls his new friend ' a sensible young man, of
rough but mild manners, and very seditious.' In a note
Cottle says : ' On visiting Southey at Christchurch, he
introduced me to the Mr. Rickman, whom I found sensible
enough, blunt enough, and seditious enough ; that is,
simply anti-ministerial.' Their dislike of Pitt's war
1 In a letter to Southey of September 23, 1817, giving advice as to the
profession which Derwent Coleridge should adopt.
2 Cottle, Reminiscences of Southey and Coleridge, p. 214.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 23
policy and their desire to ameliorate society — Southey had
not long got over the scheme of Pantisocracy — soon bound
these two friends with links of mutual respect and esteem,
and the friendship, however restrained was its expression,
ripened into a warm and lifelong affection.
The first letter of their correspondence is from Rickman,
dated November 13, 1798. It was written to thank Southey
for sending a new edition of his Joan of Arc, and contains
some detailed criticisms of that poem, chiefly on historical
matters of fact. Rickman corrects Southey on such points
as the date when the fife was introduced as military music
and the material of which cannons were first made. There
is then a gap for more than a year, and the next letter, also
from Rickman, on January 4, 1800, contains a proposi-
tion that Southey shall devote his verse to some definitely
utilitarian object.
' Poetry has its use and its place, and like some
known superfluities we should feel awkward without it.
But when I have sometimes considered with some surprise
the facility with which you compose verse, I have always
wished to see that facility exerted to some solid purpose
in prose. The objects I propose for your investigation
are therefore : the employment, and consequent ameliora-
tion, of womankind, the consequences on the welfare of
society, and some illustration of the possibility of these
things. You think it too good an alteration to be expected
— and so do I, from virtue : but if the vanity of leading
women could be interested, it might become fashionable
to promote certain establishments to this purpose, and
then it might go down.'
Rickman's purpose, in fact, was to urge the establish-
ment of beguinages on the model of those in the Netherlands.
He promises in this letter to furnish any dry deductions
on the head of political economy. He continues : —
' You like women better than I do ; therefore I think
it likely that you may take as much trouble to benefit the
24 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
sex, as I to benefit the community by this means. For
all that I have been in love these ten years, not enough to
put me beside calculation, but with a fixed and unaltered
preference.'
It was the secret of Rickman's character that no emotion
or affection ever put him ' beside calculation.' This letter
contains another personal touch in the words : ' I begin to
be almost tired of staying in this obscure place so long.
I imagine I was born for better purpose than to vegetate
at Christchurch.' This contradicts his own statement, in
the letter to his daughter quoted above, that he went to
London in 1799. The first letter to Southey mentions a
visit to London, but it is clear from this passage that Rick-
man had no occupation in London at the beginning of 1800.
Southey answered Rickman's letter with great interest on
January 9, urging him to undertake the task himself, and
pleading the unsuitability of his own style to methodical
deduction and his prospective departure, for health's sake,
to some other climate as obstacles to his own performance of
it. He ended by inviting Rickman to stay with him at
Bristol. Rickman replied that his own style was too severe
to please the public, and supplied further information upon
the subject, touching upon various other matters in the
course of a long letter. Southey then consented to under-
take the work ; his and Rickman's next letters are given
up to a discussion of the position of women in various
nations. On February 17 Rickman announced his probable
arrival at Bristol in the following week, requesting Southey
to engage him lodgings near the harbour, that he might also
observe the tides — a subject in which he took great interest.
This letter contains an early instance of Rickman's violent
political views : —
' I expect peace soon, at least to all the world except
England ; and it is better for us to fight on till slow indig-
nation shall finish Pitt and the war together. I have
laughed at Lord Castlereagh's panegyric on the compre-
hensive mind of this sorry drunkard, who in 16 years has
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 25
produced no measure of eternal utility — the paltry resources
of immediate rapacity are dignified with the name of finance ;
tins methodised pillage has stamped him a great man
among the vulgar.'
Southey looked forward to Hickman's visit with no little
enthusiasm, as is proved in his letter of February 18, 1800,
to John May describing the proposed scheme, calling Rick-
man ' a man of uncommon talents and knowledge,' and
saying that he himself would be ' little more than mason
under the master architect.' 1 Rickman, having sent his
box by coach, arrived on foot from Christchurch, and stayed
till the end of March at Bristol, where he made the acquaint-
ance of Humphry Davy, who was then experimenting at
the Pneumatic Institute. It is impossible to say what
progress was made with the beguinage scheme, for Southey
was forced by continued ill-health to set out for Portugal
in April. The project therefore dropped, but, as we shall
see, it was revived twenty years later. When Southey
left to join his vessel at Falmouth, Rickman went to London
to take up his abode. It was for him the beginning of a
wider life, the life of utility for which he always craved.
This fresh start will be better left to a separate chapter.
1 Southey 's Life and Correspondence, ii. 51.
CHAPTER II
1800
Rickman in London — George Dyer — The Magazine — Lamb's • pleasant
hand ' — Southey's Thalaba — Dyer's preface — The first Population Act
— Rickman and the census.
In April 1800, before Southey had left Falmouth, Rickman
had settled in London. It is not possible to determine
precisely what his prospects of literary employment were,
but from hints in his letters it is evident that Southey had
recommended him to the editor of the Critical Review, that
he might succeed to the place of reviewer of poetry vacated
by Southey, and that he had given him a letter of intro-
duction to George Dyer, Lamb's immortal G. D., 1 who was
at this time pursuing a literary career in Clifford's Inn.
Dyer, whom Hazlitt called ' one of God Almighty's gentle-
men,' in spite of his slovenliness, absent-mindedness, and
his execrable taste in poetry, was a most constant and warm-
hearted friend to men of letters. Southey could have re-
commended Rickman to no better person, and it is pleasant
to notice that Dyer and Rickman became firm friends.
This friendship has preserved to us three of Dyer's private
letters — no others are known — and has furnished a few more
facts in the life of the genial G. D. Rickman 's first letter
to Southey from London mentions their meeting : —
' London, Apr. ISth, 1800.
' My Dear Sir, — Having called on Mr. Dyer on Thursday
he appointed this morning (Saturday) for the proposed
1 See Lamb's Essays, ' Oxford in the Vacation ' and ' Amicus Redivivus,'
also his earlier letters. Mr. E. V. Lucas gives a very good account of
Dyer in his Life of Charles Lamb, ch. xiv.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 27
inspection of your books. [Here follow details of the
books.] G. Dyer is a great curiosity ; his room more so ;
and I was witness to the regular apologies he makes to every
visitor on its unusual disorder. Their answers are as regular,
that they never saw it otherwise. He is very busy printing
some poetry. He read me some from the manuscript :
whence he seems no unhappy forger of the Spenserian style.
He received me with the highest civility, and professes
great regard for you. . . . — I remain your obliged Servant,
'John Rickman.'
In spite of their warm friendship Rickman's style in
addressing Southey was, in accordance with his character,
most formal. The formality softened in the course of years
to ' My dear S.' and a ' God bless you, my dear S. Yrs.
J. R.', but in all letters, even to his family, he found it
difficult to express affection in words. The next letter
shows that George Dyer was able to find Rickman employ-
ment without delay.
' London, Apr. 18th, 1800.
' My dear Sir, — As I have indirect intelligence that you
could not reach Falmouth sooner than the 15th I venture
to direct another letter to your name there, supposing from
the S.W. winds that you are not yet put to sea. The letter
you found waiting at Falmouth was a hurried one, and you
may consider this as a supplement. I learnt at the India-
house that Mr. Coleridge has taken a flight northward ; to
Cumberland I think. By this I suppose his German plays
are completed, though I have not seen them. Cottle 1
cannot be more busy with Alfred at Bristol than G. Dyer
at present is about a publication. He has promised all his
friends, and the public, that an octavo of poems shall be
1 Amos Cottle, brother of Joseph Cottle, the Bristol publisher, who first
published the poems of Coleridge and Southey. The poem ' Alfred ' was
exceedingly dull. Its author died shortly after its publication, and there
is a very humorous letter from Lamb to Coleridge of October 9, 1800,
describing his visit of condolence to Joseph Cottle.
28 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
ready for delivery on the first of May. The copy is as yet very
imperfect, and the printing not commenced. But I suppose
every body knows him well enough, to know that punctu-
ality and method are not among his virtues, and the " Sad
dog " (as he calls himself) will be pardoned. He has been
very attentive to my interest, as he has offered to my
acceptance, the task of conducting a Magazine. As its
proprietor Griffiths seems no haughty bookseller, and is in
much present distress, I shall do what I can for him for this
month or two ; and afterwards consider more maturely
about the business. The circumstances of this publication
stand thus : the title is promising — The Commercial and
Agricultural Magazine. It has reached No. 8 with tolerable,
not splendid success. Indeed it has not deserved much,
and the bundle of papers the Editor has sent me for selection
are very pitiful. It is printed with about the same letter-
press as a Review. He offers 2| guineas p. sheet, and 2
guineas p. month for arrangement and correction. The last
sum seems very low. He excuses the offer by the infant
state and small returns of the Magazine. I suppose it may
be possible for me to manage this concern with success ; as
the usual subjects are things on which I have been accus-
tomed to think often. Luckily I have some short essays
(which you have not seen) which may help out the present
dearth of matter, and the editor seems rather fearfull that
I should chuse to contribute too much than too little for
the future. He seems to have been ill-used in this respect
by his last conductor, who thereby wished to get the power
of the property into his own hands — thereby also disgusting
the best correspondents.
' In my opinion to write anonymously is small trouble,
because it requires no fastidious correction ; and I am
persuaded I write better speedily, than maturely. But the
conduct of a publication infers a kind of conscious, irksome
responsibility, which I do not like so well : and I should
not meddle with this, but from a sincere wish to save a
publication from sinking, whose future repute may possibly
collect a useful body of information. I am also somewhat
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 29
biassed towards an acceptance of the task that I mayjnot
seem to undervalue the efforts of so good a man as G. D.
' He wishes of all things he could get me some employ-
ment in the reviews : I did not tell him, I had any prospect
of that sort, though I suppose your intended transfer will
be accepted by S. Hamilton, 1 if you have not failed to
promise a renewal of communication at your return. I do
not know enough of the history of poetry to execute the
business very well — the general knowledge of good and evil
is scarcely stock enough for a reviewer's observations.
However if it be offered, I must dash through thick and thin
— depending chiefly on your opinion (I fear me a partial one)
that the performance will not be below par. Thus have I
given you a faithful history of the proffered employ which
I indirectly owe to your civility. I conjecture that a
constrained abode at Falmouth will be far from adverse
to the completion of Thalaba : I have some curiosity to
watch the public taste on that intended innovation in the
Commonwealth of Poesy. . . .
4 33 Southampton Buildings, Holborn.'
Southey arrived at Lisbon on May 1, and remained there
till the middle of 1801. His letters to Rickman during that
period are chiefly descriptions of the state of Portugal. As
three of them have been published in Southey's corre-
spondence, it is unnecessary further to allude to them.
Southey was finishing his poem ' Thalaba,' and Rickman
had undertaken to negotiate for its sale and publication in
England. To this we shall have several allusions.
Rickman continued to edit the Commercial, Agricultural,
and Manufacturers'' Magazine till he went to Ireland. In the
appendix to the memoir by his son a list of the articles con-
tributed by him is given. They range over many economic
subjects — bread laws, tides, clocks, the condition of the
poor, Phoenician commerce, weights and measures, paper
money, and cottage gardens.
1 Editor of the Critical Review.
30 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Rickman's next letter is dated May 28.
'I read the letter with much pleasure which informed
me of your safe arrival at Lisbon. I suppose by this
time your sea-sickness is almost forgotten. I am glad
that you ascertained that imagination can also cure this
disease. 1 This fact may hereafter be valuable when Davy 2
shall have to give the death-blow to quacks of all descrip-
tions. It was singular that about the time (I supposed)
you sailed, a rumour was current here that the French fleet
had also sailed for Lisbon. You had then found unwelcome
guests in the Tagus. I suppose a Republican Frenchman
is a more terrible animal at Lisbon, than even an Irishman ;
I confess that in England it would be no bad regulation to
make an Irishman a contraband freight ; however as they
are soon to be imported as legislators I must take care of
the Scandalum magnatum penalties. I suppose fortune
hunting will be more successful in the Parliament House,
than it has ever been at Bath 3 to the Paddies. The Union
business has become so stale, that when the deputation of
both houses attended his Majesty with the address on that
subject, half an hour after the appointed time, they were
told that he was set out for Windsor, lest he should be too
late for dinner-time ! You must know ere this, that the
King has been fired at by a madman, 4 with little danger of
being struck, from the distance, and from the random effects
of a common pistol shot. However we thank God in the
churches for this mercy vouchsafed to a sinful people !
The man is to be tried by a special commission ; but his
lunacy is undoubted. At the first rumour I thought it
another scheme of Dundas 5 to revive the expiring flame
of loyalty — however it has not had that effect ; the pro-
1 Southey had related how an alarm of an attack by a French cutter
had cured him of sea-sickness for six hours.
1 The scientist, Sir Humphry Davy.
3 Where Pitt was recovering from the gout.
4 On May 15 in Drury Lane Theatre. The man was an old soldier called
James Hadfield.
8 Afterwards Lord Melville ; at this time Secretary for War.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 31
posal of Bonaparte for peace has sank deep into the public
mind, and the minister is at his wits' end. A proposed
severity in the collection of the income tax had not one
advocate in the City. It is therefore dropped, at least in
regard to those whose income exceeds £2000 per ann. Other
people they wish still to submit to a ruinous scrutiny. But
this seems a partiality to loan mongers too violent to go
down. Pitt under his disappointment absented himself
so long from the House, that it was currently reported he
was gone mad ! To be sure Ld. Camelford Ms a specimen
of madness in the family ; he has been in two scrapes since
I came hither, for the last of which Ld. Kenyon has hold
of him, and threatens heavily. I wrote to Davy a few
days before the Lisbon packet arrived and prophesied a
good passage to you — a lucky prophet — but you know I
am in the habit of looking on the white side of futurity —
a certain gain for the present, and little consequent loss.
I expect to hear from Davy before he visits the metropolis ;
where he ought to remain for the important purposes of
fame and fortune. If I can persuade him that the public
good is implicated in his acquisition of these things, he
perhaps may not be impregnable : arguments which have self
at bottom will not touch him. I shall have truth to help
me in my plea : for surely on his fame and repute much uni-
versal good is consequent. ... I have not heard of Hamilton
about the Review ; I am not inclined to make application
to him, nor am I very solicitous about the matter ; if it is
offered I shall do the best I can. They have a month or
two of the poetical department in store. I thank you for
your offers of assistance in the Magazine affair ; but I do
not enough care about its success to give you the least
trouble about it. The printer is a very civil man ; but
has not correspondents enough, or dash enough for the
undertaking. So let it go on jog-trot. In so far as your
enquiries relative to the Portuguese history may coincide
with its title, I should be well pleased to receive any com-
munication — on this condition, that you do not mis'pend
1 Finally killed in a duel in Kensington in 1804.
32 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
any precious time in it. I have a confused recollection
of some Portuguese edict about preventing the planting
new vineyards, under pretence of not diminishing corn-
land ; in fact to establish a monopoly in favour of some
lords who hold most vineyards. It is said that port is
raised lately to £10 per pipe in Portugal — from the above
cause perhaps. The first of your enquiries on this subject
would be acceptable : as would be any thing on the popu-
lation, agriculture, tenure of farms, commerce, supply of
Lisbon with fuel and necessaries, price of provision etc.
So far as these things may be pertinent in the history I
should like to receive them in company with Thalaba ;
the best of your poems yet published ; and I conjecture
more strictly poetical than will be Madoc. The air of
history in the epic, always (to my feel) takes off the con-
tinuous, fine edge of poetry. . . . I am in possession of the
benefit of your civility in the Westminster library, though
I have made very little use of it yet, having been much
engaged with various, compulsory company. Among the
rest the people of Christchurch seem to have combined
together to visit town. To speak of them in due order of
precedence, first, Lady Strathmore * for interment. She
was so silly as to will her body to be deposited in Poets
Corner (!) and lyes there within three yards of Shakspeare's
Monument. Concordes Animae ! Kindred Spirits ! She
was coffined in her wedding suit, and with her a speaking
trumpet ! When one recollects her confessions recorded in
Doctors' Commons, and published by Bowes, and which
(beside her amours with Gray) 2 relate two artificial abor-
tions, one must confess that according to the trumpet
application in Butler's description of fame, this interred
trumpet is in considerable danger of an unsavoury blast.
1 Mary Elizabeth Bowes, Countess of Strathmore, 1749-1800. Her
husband, the ninth earl, died in 1776. After some very indiscreet flirtations
she married an adventurer, who took her surname, treated her with great
brutality, and finally abducted her when she was suing for divorce. She
was rescued, and he was imprisoned. Her confessions, published in 1793
were probably extorted by her husband.
2 The Hon. George Grey.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 33
. . . There is a Bill pending before Parliament to prevent
nunneries in England. I hear they increase fast, and that
there are two large ones in Essex — Quocirca hoc ? Why,
it proves that if the Sex are so sensible of their forlorn con-
dition as to embrace a new religion, and unpleasant vows
for the sake of a nunnery, that they will ardentty embrace
the Beguinage when it is established. Do you go on build-
ing this institution in your head ? I should not reckon
that waste time compared with the researches for the
history of Portugal, If you mention in your next that
the Beguinage is not forgotten, I will try to proceed pari
passu ; but no faster than you will deign to march, in this
chivalrous emprize. G. Dyer has not put out his Spen-
serian volume yet. ... I see little of him, he is much
engaged in private tutorage. I imagine he does any thing
better than he writes poetry. But it would be dangerous
to tell him so ; he is so confident of not imbibing the stream
from the nether orifice of that bird in the Edda. J. Cottle is
vigorously printing unfortunate Alfred. I look with melan-
choly to his future disappointment. Amos Cottle dines
with me on Saturday. We shall drink your health, and
speedy return to the land of intellect and morality. I
hear that R. Cottle (whom I do not know) is going to com-
mence a bookselling business. Your letter is down at
Clifford's Inn. As it contained no secret, I thought it
would gratify G. D. and A. C. 1 to see themselves not forgotten,
and perhaps in some sort give you a greater latitude of
longer silence to either of them ; for of writing letters you
must be well nigh weary. I am as glad as you that you
have not forgotten Portuguese ; that will save much time.
Mrs. E. S. proceeds in that task with rapidity, I daresay ;
I think females are good at learning to talk outlandish
tongues, especially if she can accommodate herself to
Portuguese company. There are no middle-aged women
in Portugal, therefore the Prince of Wales (perhaps) did
not follow you. G. Dyer desires me to convey to you
Mrs. Opie's 2 remembrances with his own. He proposes
1 Amos Cottle. 2 The novelist and poet, wife of John Opie, the painter.
C
34 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN &ICKMAN
to send you a budget of literary news next month. His
chivalry is anxious that his respects should be particularly
conveyed to Mrs. Southey. I without chivalry desire the
same thing.'
There is nothing of particular moment in Rickman's
letter to Southey of July 29, except that one page of it is
written by G. Dyer, and that it contains the news : ' Mr.
Lamb is soon to be my neighbour in Southampton Buildings.'
Dyer's letter is written in what Lamb afterwards called his
8 Grecian's hand,' and is only just legible. It gives Southey
news of the literary world, mentioning in particular the
poems of R. Bloomfield, the shoemaker-poet. Lamb
moved in this year from Pentonville to lodge with his friend
Gutch, the law-stationer, at 27 Southampton Buildings,
and his move is announced in a letter to Coleridge. This
letter of Rickman's proves that the move was not made till
well into the summer of 1800. Rickman had as yet not
made Lamb's acquaintance, though he was familiar with
his name. Southey had known Lamb since 1795, and
Lamb had even stayed with him at Burton in 1797, but it
was presumably before he had met Rickman. The meeting
between Lamb and Rickman took place in the autumn of
this year, and Lamb describes it in an ecstatic letter to his
friend Manning dated November 3.
' I have made an acquisition latterly of a pleasant
hand, one Rickman, to whom I was introduced by George
Dyer, not the most flattering auspices under which one man
can be introduced to another. George brings all sorts of
people together, setting up a sort of agrarian law, or common
property, in matter of society ; but for once he has done
me a great pleasure, while he was only pursuing a principle,
as ignes fatui may light you home. This Rickman lives in
our Buildings, immediately opposite our house ; the finest
fellow to drop in a' nights, about nine or ten o'clock — cold
bread and cheese time — just in the wishing time of the night,
when you wish for somebody to come in, without a distinct
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 35
idea of a probable anybody. Just in the nick, neither too
early to be tedious, nor too late to sit a reasonable time.
He is a most pleasant hand ; a fine rattling fellow, has gone
through life laughing at solemn apes ; — himself hugely
literate, oppressively full of information in all stuff of
conversation, from matter of fact to Xenophon and Plato —
can talk Greek with Porson, politics with Thelwall, con-
jecture with George Dyer, nonsense with me, and anything
with anybody ; a great farmer, somewhat concerned him-
self in an agricultural magazine ; reads no poetry but
Shakespeare ; very intimate with Southey, but never reads
his poetry ; relishes George Dyer ; thoroughly penetrates
into the ridiculous wherever found ; understands the first
time (a great desideratum in common minds) — you need
never twice speak to him ; does not want explanations, trans-
lations, limitations, as Professor Godwin does when you
make an assertion ; up to anything ; down to everything ;
whatever sapit hominem. A perfect man. . . . You must
see Rickman to know him, for he is a species in one ; a new
class ; an exotic ; any slip of which I am proud to put in
my garden pot ; the clearest headed fellow ; fullest of
matter, with least verbosity. If there be any alloy in my
fortune to have met with such a man, it is that he commonly
divides his time between town and country, having some
foolish family ties at Christchurch, by which means he can
only gladden our London hemisphere with returns of light.
He is now going for six weeks.'
It is not easy to realise from his letters by what charm
Rickman, who in all that he wrote was too matter of fact
to display his winning qualities, so gained the affection of
such men as Lamb and Southey. Southey's letters from
Portugal never end without a regret that Rickman is not
there too, while there is something almost pathetic in
Lamb's enthusiasm. Lamb's letters to him are full of
affection and admiration, while Rickman, though, as we
shall see, he appreciated Lamb very highly, and was ready
to assist him in any way, never alludes to him with any
36 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
warmth of feeling, even after his death. In his next letter
to Southey of December 23, which opens with an account
of the incomplete negotiations for the sale of Thalaba to
Longmans, Rickman quotes Lamb's opinion of the poem
that ' it contains more poetry and manifests more care than
Joan of Arc.' This letter contains an allusion to Rickman 's
decision not to enter the Church. He says : —
' I am very glad to learn . . . that your brother has
a very promising prospect before him, if he chuses to
enter the Church. I hope he has not genius or severity
enough to refuse it. Though I myself have (somewhat to
my cost) declined telling lies once a week for hire, I wish
my friends a different opinion and less scrupulosity.'
Rickman goes on to speak of Cottle, whom a wicked wit
in his rooms had called the ' Epic Owl,' and concludes with
an account of the failure of Godwin's play Antonio, of which
Lamb told the story so inimitably in his essay on the old
actors in the London Magazine, and in a letter to Manning
of December 16.
The next letter to Southey deserves quotation at length.
1 Deer. 27th, 1800.
' I wish you to consider my last, as only half a letter ;
otherwise the omission of any remembrance of Mrs. Southey,
and enquiring about the state of your own health, and about
the period of your return to England may be felt as in-
civility. However you know how one sometimes slips on
to the end of the paper, unconscious. As I really wish to
be informed on the above points, satisfy my longing in your
next. About Thalaba — Longman has this day given a
three months' note payable to the order of Mr. J. May.
He made a push to obtain the edition at 100 guineas, but
I told him, time could not be afforded to consult you by
letter, and that I myself could not feel justified in taking
less than £115, thus splitting the difference between your
first demand, and his first offer. You are to have a dozen
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 37
copies. I asked for half of them on large paper : but it is
pleaded that the printing expense of those few, would be
same as of 250. Otherwise Mr. L. would make no objection.
I think his plea valid, and have given up the point. He
has a great appetite to mutilate the beauty of the title page,
by inserting, A Metrical Romance. I would not assent to
this, and the matter is compromised by liberty to say these
words on the second title, after the preface. It was necessary
to say it somewhere, and that seems the fittest place. [Here
follow further details about the printing of the poem.] . . .
G. Dyer has your letter. He dines with me to-day. I am
about to attempt to persuade him not to cancel a long
preface of 80 or 90 pages, which he has prefixed to a vol. of
poems, printed but not published — and this, because for-
sooth, he thinks he has committed himself in some opinion
given of some poet or other. Thus in this idle punctilio,
he is likely to waste £20 or £30. His poems are publishing
by subscription : I fear me much, that his necessities will
spend the money received, and the future bill from the
printer will drive him half -mad. He projects three vols. : it
is humourous to see him anxious about some feeble criticism,
which no soul will ever read. But his exertion of a fanciful
literary justice is honourable to him — I wish it was not
expensive. He exhibits an obstinacy on this point, which
I fear I shall not conquer. 1
' We feel also a scarcity here. Bread about 4| d. a lb. — and
little hope of fall till next harvest. The mob (high and low)
prate about monopoly : and if Mr. Pitt had not luckily in
his youth read Adam Smith, by this time England would
have been a scene of injustice, and the future summer had
produced an absolute and fatal famine. Rice is sent for,
and expected in June. Meat is not dear (considering);
about 7d. per lb., much the cheapest aliment ;. the people
tolerably quiet under their affliction ; perhaps it may issue
1 Lamb describes Dyer's crazy obstinacy in a very amusing letter to
Manning of December 27. The half-burnt cancelled preface bound into
Lamb's copy of the poems is in the British Museum. The first volume was
issued in 1801 without a preface, and two complete volumes in 1802.
38 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
in the first of national goods : a general inclosure Bill. . . .
Your brother goes into the Church : and the product of
Thalaba (a thing of more consequence) into your pocket.
Had I been aware of that destination, I had pushed
Longman for a shorter date. Three months I considered as
a fair distance for an apprenticeship fee. However, it may
be readily discounted. I thank you for the commercial
intelligence which you occasionally give me. By inserting
it (in a guarded shape) I make your epistles pay me much
more than the postage to and from Lisbon. I have continued
to conduct the Magazine, I mentioned to you. As it is quite
in my own way, it is rather a pleasurable occupation, and
producing about £70 per ann. The Critical Reviewers have
(I suppose) got some other poet-taster. They were not so
civil as to write to me on the subject : but from starving
scribblers, and brutal booksellers one does not expect much
attention. As I have a very mean opinion of my talents for
that task, I am glad to avoid it, hoping you will resume it
on your return. For as you must wish to read the political
effusions of the day (I had almost called them ephemeral)
the money rec ed - may be esteemed clear gain. I have
another occupation offered me : of which this is the history.
At my suggestion, they have passed an Act of Parliament for
ascertaining the population of Great Britain, and as a
compliment (of course) have proposed to me to superintend
the execution of it. Next March the returns will be made,
and I shall be busy enough for a short time, I suppose.
I suspect all this attention (it is more immediately from
G. Rose) is intended as a decent bribe : which I shall reject,
by doing the business well, and taking no more remuneration,
than I judge exactly adequate to the trouble. It is a task
of national benefit, and I should be fanciful to reject it,
because offered by rogues. As they well know me for their
foe, I cannot suspect them of magnanimity enough to notice
me with any good intention. At all events, I shall go
strait forward. I wish you and Mrs. S. a merry Xmas, and
a happy New Year ! leaving the rest of the paper to be
filled next Tuesday morning. J. R. 5
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 39
' December 30th, 1800.
' I have this morning reced. a letter from Mr. J. May,
and in consequence have transmitted to him the note of
£115. He is in Wiltshire, therefore I was so many days
in hearing from him. So that the pecuniary part of
the business is now complete. ... I sometimes think of
our projected Beguinage with satisfaction. If it can be
brought to bear (it seems not impossible) I hope all the
Ladies will allow, that at least I have a little solid gallantry
towards their sex. I have not written a word more about
it : but will with my first leisure — in February — the last
half of which, I purpose to spend in the country. I have
a very pleasant neighbour opposite, C. Lamb. He laughs
as much as I wish, and makes even puns, without remorse
of conscience. He has lately completed a dramatic piece, 1
rather tragic (without murder). The language entirely
of the last century, and farther back : From Shakespeare,
Beaumont, and Fletcher. He demurs on printing it. I
wish him to set it forth under some fictitious name of that
age — Shirley (perhaps) who was burnt out at the great
fire of London. Lamb is peculiarly happy in his heroine,
and altogether I have not seen a play with so much humour,
moral feeling and correct sentiment, since the world was
young.
' G. Dyer is miserable about his unfortunate preface. I
am quite vexed at his obstinacy. Lamb calls him,
Cancellarius Magnus, The Lord High Canceller. I have
been twice at Christchurch this year, once in Sussex. But
still London is best, though we, have not seen the sun for
the last month till to-day. Snow fell in the night. There
was never such perpetual, general fog known : an un-
healthy year throughout, except for invalids, who had
Portugal summer. Bill of mortality 23,000 — 4000 above
the average. Make my best compts. to Mrs. Southey and
your uncle. May God preserve you far into the nineteenth
century ! '
1 Lamb's play, John Woodvil. It is mentioned again in Rickman's
correspondence.
40 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
The first Population Act for Great Britain passed the
House of Lords the very day on which the first part of this
letter was written. Herein, little as he knew it then, lay the
fife- work in which Rickman was to take the highest pride,
for it enabled him to be of that ' utility ' which was his
continual aim. It is curious that he should speak of his
employment in so nonchalant a manner to Southey, for
he must have looked upon his own handiwork already with
pride. In 1796, while Rickman was still in obscurity at
Burton, he wrote a paper entitled ' Thoughts on the Utility
and Facility of a general Enumeration of the People of
the British Empire,' extracts from which are given in the
memoir by W. C. Rickman. These extracts set forth,
in a very dry manner, the economic advantages of ascer-
taining the number of the population, the probability of
its being far higher than the usual estimate, and the facility
of arithmetically deducing it from the parish registers.
This paper was communicated by Mr. (afterwards Sir George)
Rose, the member for Christchurch, to Charles Abbot, the
future Speaker, who was also interested in the subject.
Abbot introduced the Population Bill in 1800, and on its
being passed offered to Rickman the supervision of the
returns. In view of Abbot's subsequent employment of
Rickman as his secretary, it is not hard to suppose that
Rickman's suspicions of a bribe were unfounded, and that
his anti-ministerial ardours in reality blazed unseen.
I hope I may be excused here in making a short digression
upon the census, the work upon which Rickman was
occupied more or less continuously for the rest of his
life, though I do not propose to go into the question of its
economic results. The whole machinery was set to work
in 1801 by Rickman, who was given an office in the Cockpit, 1
and authority to choose his clerks. The aim was to find
out not only the number of the population, but also to
estimate the increase or decrease from the records in the
parish registers. The returns of 1801 were made by the
clergy under six heads : —
1 A little valley off the Birdcage Walk.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 41
(1) The number of inhabited houses, the number of
uninhabited houses, and the number of families
inhabiting each house ;
(2) The number of persons, excluding soldiers and sailors,
found in the parish on the day of inquiry ;
(3) The number of persons engaged in trade, agriculture,
manufacture, and the number not so engaged ;
(4) The number of baptisms and funerals during every
period of ten years from 1700 to 1780, and from
1780 to 1800, in each year ;
(5) The number of marriages yearly between 1754 and
1800 (the Marriage Act not having been enforced
till 1754) ; and
(6) Explanatory remarks.
From this short list of questions has sprung the elaborate
census paper of to-day. It is not surprising that the returns
of 1801, important as they are, were very inaccurate. The
clergy were not all equally intelligent in drafting their returns,
and there was considerable difficulty in determining what
constituted a family. The further question, requiring a
return of parish registers, was so inaccurately answered that
the results were not printed. In 1811 some improvements
were made in the questions, old houses being distinguished
from new, and in the question as to occupation families
were substituted for persons. Only the births, deaths,
and marriages were returned by the clergy, the rest of the
inquiry being entrusted to the overseers of the parish. In
1821 the questions were much the same, except that the
number of persons of various ages — the unit being 5 years
from 1 to 20 and 10 years from 20 to 100 — was specifically
asked.
In 1831 the scope of the inquiry was considerably
enlarged. The difficulty of determining the constitution
of a family was solved by applying the inquiry to males
of twenty years of age, and making a careful schedule of
the various trades and professions. The agricultural class
was divided into occupiers of land employing labourers,
42 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
occupiers not so doing, and labourers. The Parish Register
Act of 1812 enabled a return to be made of ages at the
time of death, and the whole returns were arranged for the
first time under parishes, and no longer under hundreds.
The returns of 1801, 1811, and 1821 were issued in single
volumes. Those of 1831 were more elaborate. In view
of the Reform Bill it was necessary to publish the in-
formation as soon as possible. By a stupendous effort
the digest of twenty-eight thousand returns, which did not
come in till August 1831, was published in January 1832,
in two volumes, entitled A Comparative Account of the
population of Great Britain in 1831. Rickman's very able
preface includes an account of the origins of London, and
remarks upon the increased duration of life, with a mor-
tality table for the county of Essex. But these two hastily
produced volumes were superseded in 1833 by the Abstract
of Returns, in three volumes, to which was prefaced a com-
parative account, in one volume, of the results of the four
census years. The Abstract contains a complete account
of the parish registers of England. Rickman's preface to
this Abstract shows him a master of his subject. ' A con-
troversy,' as he says, ' of some duration had existed as to
the increase or diminution of the population ; and the
result of the Act of 1801 being adverse to the opinions of
those who had taken a gloomy view of national resources,
insinuations were not wanting against the accuracy of the
enumeration.' Rickman therefore carefully explains the
machinery, proves the efficacy of the 1821 returns from
their use in the debates on the Reform Bill, and goes into
the whole question of parish areas. There is also a general
statistical inquiry to produce data for the average expec-
tancy of life, and finally a comparison of the vie moyenne
(expectation of life at birth), as calculated from the ages
of the deceased (1813-1830), with the percentage increase
of the population during the years 1801-1831 in the several
counties of England.
By his labours Rickman earned a well-deserved reputa-
tion, at home and abroad, as a statistician. He became a
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 43
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815, and in 1833 received
the honorary membership of the Societe Frangaise de
Statistique Universelle. He contributed several articles
on the probability of life to the Medical Gazette between
1835 and 1837, and translated Deparcieux's work on the
Probabilities and Duration of Human Life. During the last
years of his life he was working continuously on the returns
for 1841, as he had obtained leave to ask for returns of
births, deaths, and marriages from 1570 to 1750, where early
parish registers were known to exist. The result of this
inquiry appears in the preface to the census return of 1841,
in the form of a table giving the calculated population of
the counties of England and Wales at intervals between
1570 and 1750.
Rickman's work upon the census was in every way
patriotic. He had to make headway against many oppon-
ents, chiefly of the Malthusian school, and even in the last
year of his life he had to defend himself in a letter to the
Home Office against an anonymous attack. In this letter,
extracts from which are given in the MS. memoir in the
House of Commons Library, he proves that, though he
received on an average five hundred guineas for each return,
this payment was supposed to cover a number of other
statistical labours in intermediate years, and that on the
whole, from the necessity of advancing immediate working
expenses which could not be recovered, he was financially
an actual loser. Such a result is hardly creditable to the
governments he had served. For far less services than his
men have been heaped with rewards, but it is probable that
Rickman's uncompromising political views made it only
too easy to ignore the just claims which he himself would
have scorned to put forward.
CHAPTER III
1801 to early 1802
George Burnett — Rickuian secretary to Abbot in Ireland — Letters from
Lamb — G. D.'s rescue — His letter — ' Horse medicine ' for Burnett —
His ' second birth ' and tutorship — Lamb and the Morning Post —
Abbot appointed Speaker — Rickman leaves Ireland.
By the summer of 1801 Southey and his wife had returned
from Portugal, and were staying at Bristol with their friends
the Dan vers. Southey had a hope of returning to Southern
Europe as secretary to a legation, which explains Rickman's
allusion to his going ' cost free ' in his letter of July 13.
This and the following letter contain Rickman's views upon
the political crisis which followed the union with Ireland,
when Pitt resigned, and was succeeded by Addington. His
explanation of events is hardly one that can be accepted
in view of our present historical knowledge, but these letters
show that aversion to the Whig party and that readiness to
believe the worst of them which is so strong in his later
letters. The first mention is here made by Rickman of
the unfortunate George Burnett, the friend of Southey,
Coleridge, and Lamb, who finally died in a workhouse in
1811. Rickman's letters enable us to fill up some gaps in his
story, which has never been fully told, though his name
appears in lives of Lamb, in Mrs. Sandford's Thomas Poole
and his Friends, and in Crabb Robinson's Diary. He was
the son of a farmer in Somersetshire, and was sent to Balliol
with a view to entering the Church. Unfortunately for him
— for he was of a weak, vain character — he met Southey, then
in his most revolutionary mood. Coleridge's visit to Oxford
in 1794 resulted in the scheme of Pantisocracy, which, as
Southey told Cottle, was talked into shape by Burnett and
himself. Burnett threw up all idea of entering the Church,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 45
and devoted himself to this mad plan of settling a Utopia
on the banks of the Susquehanna. He fell entirely under
Coleridge's domination, and lived with him for a time
during his honeymoon at Clevedon. When Pantisocracy
died he seems to have studied surgery in Edinburgh, and in
1798 he was a Unitarian minister at Yarmouth, where he
became tutor to Southey's brother, and made the acquaint-
ance of William Taylor, the translator of Goethe. It is not
certain when he came to London, nor how he met Rickman.
I suspect that Dyer, the self-constituted support of the
needy, took him in hand and introduced him to Rickman,
possibly at Southey's recommendation. He was a man of
some talent, but absolutely unpractical, as we shall see.
Lamb found in him a continual source of laughter, Rickman
as continual a source of irritation. Rickman's appoint-
ment as Abbot's secretary speaks for itself. It was the
beginning of an official career which only ended with his
death. So much preface was necessary to the following
two letters to Southey : —
'July 13th, 1801.
' I received an unexpected pleasure on my return home
this evening in hearing that you once more retread your
natale solum. I suppose you stand among the last of the
English in Portugal ; your description of their campaign
is exactly what I expected of these Lusitanian heroes. I
am glad you are pleased with the appearance of Thalaba
in his new dress ; for my part I like him better in print than
I did in MS. : wherefore, I know not. ... I question
whether you have not formed a wrong opinion of the new
Ministry ; in as far as you seem to identify them with
their predecessors. I don't think there is the least con-
nection. There are mutual reasons for civility — from Pitt,
that he might escape a threatened impeachment, from them
to gain the aid of his personal friends — I should perhaps say
political friends, since his cold heart can have gained no
other. However he gave away much necessarily ; and
while gratitude is extant, must therefore retain some in-
46 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
fluence. There is some hope of the present Premier 1 ;
I suppose that even self-love cannot whisper to him that
he is a great man ; therefore he is the more likely to conform
to the public wish, and builds his hopes of stability on a
speedy peace on reasonable terms. That he is well affected
to science and improvements, I am well assured. Pitt had
genius without acquired knowledge ; whence his affectation
of infallibility and all the woes of Europe. The King's
influence has turned him out ; a good effect from a bad
cause. I am concerned, though not surprised to find you
a little embarrassed about the purse ; I wish common sense
had been suffered to take its course in your brother ; I find
Burnet is one of the delinquents there. But he is so ab-
stracted and thoughtless of the future in his own affairs,
that nothing but ignorance of the world is to be imputed
to him there. I am trying to teach him the worth of money
by making him live on two guineas per week. Incredible
as it may seem, he has spent all his resources without an
exertion at anything decisive. I wish that you may
resume the Review, that at least you may leave it to him
as a legacy at your next departure. After the respectful
criticisms on Alfred, 2 you may do that with a safe conscience.
I hope and am trying to secure him better employment
— when his present labour ceases. You know that he is a
fellow workman with me on a tedious job ; made so by the
incredible inaccuracy of the returns under the Population
Act. I write hundreds of letters to little purpose, and have
worked about 9 weeks without being able to say that any-
thing is done. However, I have made interest to have
the state of the business published that blame may be
shifted from me to those who deserve it ; and that thereby
they may be stimulated to activity. However my vexa-
tion at this delay will be well repaid ; since I am to follow
Mr. Abbot to Ireland as his private secretary ; when you
know that he is to be the real Governor of Ireland, you
will think this a post of some consideration ; especially as
I understand he means to attend the English Parliament
1 Addington. 2 Cottle's poem. See note p. 27.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 47
annually, and must therefore leave important matters to
his Suppleans.
' I thank God the Irish parliament is annihilated by the
Union ! No dirty business to manage with the vilest
assembly under the sun ! So I have heard them described
by some of themselves. I am told that I shall have no
disagreeable business, and have no objection to labour for
the improvement of Ireland. You may suppose that
nothing can be more pleasant in prospect than experiments
for the civilisation of the untutored Irish. I am to be in
Dublin (if possible) by the first of Sepr., therefore should be
glad to hear of you, how you apportion your nearest time.
I am to be partly here, and partly in Hampshire till the
time of departure ; and have a power of choice about the
" when " if timeously informed ; so that I may have much
of the pleasure of your society. Longman has twice desired
me to say, that he hopes to see you whenever you come to
town;. -. I abjure all my little aversion to poetry in deference
to your cogent reasons ; I only think poetry bad in a man
who may be better employed : a toy in manhood. Only
don't write for the Stage : I think I don't slide into too
strong a phrase, when I say, that the success of good
dramatic poetry is physically impossible in England, while
the theatres are so enormous. When the audience can no
longer hear, they must degenerate into spectators of scenery
and pantomime. I hope soon to see you in town — to hear
from you again sooner. I knew not that Davy was hence
till I learnt it from your letter. I daresay you find him
well pleased with his change of situation. He will be a great
man in this only theatre of greatness. Dan vers too is busy
— a glorious thing for a commonsense man, like him. For
my part I think in all men that science is a relaxation in
business — business in science ; so two good things go on at
a time. I am near the end of my paper — therefore dedicate
it to send my remembrances to Mrs. Dan vers, Edith, Davy
and Danvers — and to desire that I may hear of you again
at your first leisure. When you see Mrs. Southey mention
me to her.'
48 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
'London, July 24, 1801.
' . . . I was in a mistake about the rout of the English
from Portugal ; and you about the rout of Pitt, for the same
reason — distance from the scene. You speak of the Catholic
question as involved in the last affair. It was a mere
excuse — so compleatly so, that the titular Bishop (of Cork
I think) the agent here for the Irish Catholics, had only to
observe, when applied to by the Opposition, that his em-
ployers in Ireland were well enough satisfied, as things are.
And well they may be so, as what they call Emancipation,
consists only in a right to sit in Parliament — they already
vote for Members, which Catholics in England cannot do.
If the point were conceded, only four or five Catholics
would be returned — " Parturiunt montes." Here 's a plain
tale ; the King quarrelled with Pitt about the rejection
of an augmentation of Army pay and Army patronage for
the amusement of young hopefull, the Duke of York. Pitt
was in the right ; but in England the King's influence is
omnipotent with the aid of the Opposition, which he would
be sure of always against any Minister. So Pitt went out,
and both parties had obvious reasons for a decent ostensible
cause.
' I am in intention of visiting Hampshire in the commence-
ment of August, then come back to arrange the last of the
Population returns, then for Ireland. I am much distressed
about Burnet : I never saw so unconvertible talents as
his. I puzzle myself in thinking what he can ever be fit for.
He thinks too highly of himself for common purposes ; and
God knows he is fit for no other. I am trying to starve
him into common sense and moderate expectations — but
1 fear he is incurable. At present he is confoundedly out
of humour with me for administering tins horse medicine.
Our Population business is so much beneath him, that he
has not yet condescended to understand it, and does not
2 hours work in a day. I must dismiss all who cannot
employ themselves without leading strings when I go for
Christchurch ; so that his unwilling occupation will cease
on Saturday week. He might be assistant at Hackney
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 49
School ; or at a private academy at Cork if he would ! but
receives such proposals with indignation as a disparagement
to his abilities. Yet, greater men than he, have submitted
to this drudgery. I know not what to do about him. On
some surgical whim he writes to you this week. I am con-
vinced there is nothing solid to be expected by him on that
speculation. A little clinical — Edinburgh — theory is not
much to the purpose in London. I shall be glad to hear
from you by August 1st before I depart hence.'
On August 1 there is further news of Burnett in a letter
written to Southey just before Rickman's departure from
London.
' Burnet improves ; he has had a recommendatory letter
from Norwich, from Mr. Taylor to Dr. Aikin. This letter
extols the said Burnet as one of the first men of the
age ; and has had the good effect thus to rouse him from
his lethargy, and make him walk erect. Dr. Aikin will
admit his productions into the Monthly Mag. and may
perhaps get him some other literary employ. But at this
Burnet can never thrive — anything like a task scares him,
and givefs] him the Blue Devils, during whose influence he
is fit for nothing but pestering his friends with moping
epistles. I am pleased that he will soon come to knowledge
of himself, of what he can do. At present it is all in the
strong box. I am already lecturing him on this text, " Now
that you are sure your labour will not be wasted, why don't
you begin to write ? " He intends it, he says, and will
doubtless intend it, till he discovers that he is incapable of
any steady exertion. In the mean time on my expostulation,
he has at length consented to condescend to understand our
present business ; therefore of course he stays to the end
of it. Hitherto he has always said that there was nothing
to understand ; and therefore would not attend to thought
about it. He has carried his abstraction, or the affecta-
tion of it, so far, as to have asked, oftener than once, for
instructions what he should do, when he had copied any-
thing wrong. The answer, " Scratch it out, and correct it "
D
50 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
did not disconcert him at all. His abstraction was to go
for philosophy, and an indication of mental powers superior
to the business-doing part of mankind. I begin to have
hopes of him for all this, and as you may suppose, shall
do for him as much real good as I can.'
Of Rickman's departure Lamb wrote to his friend Manning
on August 31 : —
' I have just lost Rickman, a faint idea of whose
character I sent you. He has gone to Ireland for a year
or two to make his fortune ; and I have lost by his going
what seems to me I can never recover — a finished man. His
memory will be to me as the brazen serpent to the Israelites,
— I shall look up to it, to keep me straight and honest.'
Lamb constituted himself the chief news-writer to Rick-
man during his absence from London, and six letters from
him during the autumn of 1801 begin the collection of
twenty which Rickman preserved. These letters were only
published in the last edition of Lamb's Letters by Canon
Ainger (1906), so that they are little known. I am, unfor-
tunately, prevented from quoting them. The first letter,
dated September 16, is from Margate, and refers to a letter
from Rickman containing an offer about Lamb's play —
probably the offer which was repeated later to defray the
cost of its printing. Lamb refuses, as he is expecting the
repayment of a loan. He proceeds to relate the fact that
George Dyer has introduced him to the Morning Chronicle ;
that Burnett (whom Lamb nicknamed George n., the Bishop,
and G. B.) has just finished a metaphysical essay, on which
he humorously comments, and is in very comfortable rooms
with the son of a wine merchant who keeps them in two
sorts of wine ; and that Godwin is about to married, his
second play having been refused. Lamb follows this with
an inimitable description (on October 9) of a visit to George
Dyer, whom he found very dirty and inconsolable because
he had no tribute ready to the memory of Gilbert Wakefield,
the editor of Lucretius, who was just dead. George Burnett,
who was nearly well of his ' metaphyz,' had supped with him
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 51
the night before, and Lamb gives the gist of his mad argu-
ment about the ethics of prosecuting a highwayman when
you had promised under violence not to do so. He also
describes a visit from a needy visitor, for whom Lamb
humorously asks Rickman to find a post.
Rickman arrived in Ireland at the beginning of September ;
Abbot, as we learn from his Diary, 1 having arrived in July.
England was still at war, and there were considerable fears
of rebellion and invasion at Dublin. The official fife of that
ardent reformer was highly strenuous, and we can be sure
that Rickman, who makes little reference to his official
business, had all the work he could desire. In October
Southey joined his friend at Dublin. Through Rickman's
influence he had been appointed private secretary to Mr.
Corry, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer for
Ireland. He held the post, which meant alternate residence
in London and Dublin, for nearly a year. On October 16
Southey wrote to his wife 2 : —
' 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 on it.
He has astonished the people about him. The government
stationer hinted to him that if he wanted anything in the
pocket book way, he might as well put it down in the order.
Out he palled 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 his own right way.'
To his friend Grosvenor Bedford Southey wrote 3 : —
' I am reconciled to my lot, inasmuch as the neighbour-
1 Diary of Lord Colchester, i. xiv.
2 Life and Correspondence of E. S., ii. 168.
3 Selections from the Letters of E. S., i. 175.
52 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
hood of Dublin is very lovely, and in John Rickman's
society I feel little want of any other. He and I, like a
whale and a man, are of the same genus, though with great
specific differences. If he lives long enough, I expect to see
him one of the greatest and most useful men our country
has produced. He bends everything to practice. His very
various knowledge is always brought to bear upon some
point of general importance ; and his situation will now
give him the power of producing public benefit.'
Early in November Lamb wrote again to Rickman. The
following letter was found by Mr. Gordon Wordsworth,
and by his permission and that of Mr. E. V. Lucas, who
printed it in his edition of Lamb's works, I am permitted
to reproduce it. It is one of the best Lamb ever wrote : —
1 A letter from G. Dyer will probably accompany this.
I wish I could convey to you any notion of the whim-
sical scenes I have been witness to in this fortnight past.
'Twas on Tuesday week the poor heathen scrambled up
to my door about breakfast time. He came thro' a violent
rain with no neckcloth on, and a beard that made him a
spectacle to men and angels, and tap'd at the door. Mary
open'd it, and he stood stark still and held a paper in his
hand importing that he had been ill with fever. He either
wouldn't or couldn't speak except by signs. When you
went to comfort him he put his hand upon his heart and
shook his head, and told us his complaint lay where no
medecine could reach it. I was dispatch'd for Dr. Dale,
Mr. Phillips of St. Paul's Churchyard, and Mr. Frend, who
is to be his executor. George solemnly delivered into
Mr. Frend's hands and mine an old burnt preface that had
been in the fire, with injunctions which we solemnly vow'd
to obey that it should be printed after his death with his last
corrections, and that some account should be given to the
world why he had not fulfill'd his engagement with sub-
scribers. Having done this and borrow'd two guineas of
his bookseller 1 (to whom he imparted in confidence that he
1 Phillips.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 53
should leave a great many loose papers behind him which
would only want methodising and arranging to prove very
lucrative to any bookseller after his death), he laid himself
down on my bed in a mood of complacent resignation. By
the aid of meat and drink put into him (for I all along sus-
pected a vacuum) he was enabled to sit up in the evening,
but he had not got the better of his intolerable fear of
dying ; he expressed such philosophic indifference in his
speech and such frightened apprehensions in his physio-
gnomy that if he had truly been dying, and I had known
it, I could not have kept my countenance. In particular,
when the doctor came and ordered him to take little white
powders (I suppose of chalk or alum, to humour him) he
ey'd him with a suspicion which I could not account for ;
he has since explained that he took it for granted Dr. Dale
knew his situation and had ordered him these powders to
hasten his departure that he might suffer as little pain as
possible. Think what an aspect the heathen put on with
these fears upon a dirty face. To recount all his freaks for
two or three days while he thought he was going, and how
the fit operated, and sometimes the man got uppermost, and
sometimes the author, and he had this excellent person to
serve, and he must correct some proof sheets for Phillips,
and he could not bear to leave his subscribers unsatisfy'd,
but he must not think of these things now, he was going to
a place where he should satisfy all his debts — and when
he got a little better be began to discourse what a happy
thing it would be if there was a place where all good men
and women in the world might meet, meaning heav'n, and
I really believe for a time he had doubts about his soul, for
he was very near, if not quite, light-headed. The fact was
he had not had a good meal for some days and his little
dirty Neice (whom he sent for with a still dirtier Nephew,
and hugg'd him, and bid them farewell) told us that unless
he dines out he subsists on tea and gruels. And he corro-
borated this tale by ever and anon complaining of sensations
of gnawing which he felt about his heart, which he mistook his
stomach to be, and sure enough these gnawings were dissi-
54 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
pated after a meal or two, and he surely thinks that he has
been rescued from the jaws of death by Dr. Dale's white
powders. He is got quite well again by nursing, and chirps
odes and lyric poetry the day long — he is to go out of town
on Monday, and with him goes the dirty train of his papers
and books which follow'd him to our house. I shall not be
sorry when he takes his nipt carcase out of my bed, which
it has occupied, and vanishes with all his Lyric lumber, but
I will endeavour to bring him in future into a method of
dining at least once a day. I have proposed to him to dine
with me (and he has nearly come into it) whenever he does
not go out ; and pay me. I will take his money beforehand
and he shall eat it out. If I don't it will go all over the
world. Some worthless relations, of which the dirty little
devil that looks after him and a still more dirty nephew,
are component particles, I have reason to think divide all
his gains with some lazy worthless authors that are his con-
stant satellites. The Literary Fund has voted him season-
ably £20 and if I can help it he shall spend it on his own
carcase. I have assisted him in arranging the remainder
of what he calls Poems and he will get rid of 'em I hope in
another. . . . [Here three lines are lost in which Lamb makes
a transition to George Burnett.]
' I promised Burnet to write when his parcel went. He
wants me to certify that he is more awake than you think
him. I believe he may be by this time, but he is so full of
self-opinion that I fear whether he and Phillips will ever
do together. What he is to do for Phillips he whimsically
seems to consider more as a favor done to P. than a job
from P. He still persists to call employment dependence,
and prates about the insolence of booksellers and the tax
upon geniuses. Poor devil ! he is not launched upon the
ocean and is sea-sick with aforethought. I write plainly
about him, and he would stare and frown finely if he read
this treacherous epistle, but I really am anxious about
him, and that nettles me to see him so proud and so help-
less. If he is not serv'd he will never serve himself. I
read his long letter to Southey, which I suppose you have
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 55
seen. He had better have been furnishing copy for Phillips
than luxuriating in tracing the causes of his imbecillity.
I believe he is a little wrong in not ascribing more to the
structure of his own mind. He had his yawns from nature,
his pride from education.
' I hope to see Southey soon, so I need only send my
remembrances to him now. Doubtless I need not tell him
that Burnett is not to be foster 'd in self-opinion. His eyes
want opening, to see himself a man of middling stature.
I am not oculist enough to do this. The booksellers may
one day remove the film. I am all this time on the most
cordial supping terms of amity with G. Burnett and really
love him at times : but I must speak freely of people behind
their backs and not think it back-biting. It is better than
Godwin's way of telling a man he is a fool to his face.
1 1 think if you could do anything for George in the way
of an office (God knows whether you can in any haste,
but you talk of it) it is my firm belief that it would be his
only chance of settlement ; he will never five by his literary
exertions, as he calls them — he is too proud to go the
usual way to work and he has no talents to make that way
unnecessary. I know he talks big in his letter to Southey
that his mind is undergoing an alteration and that the die
is now casting that shall consign him to honor or dis-
honour, but these expressions are the convulsions of a
fever, not the sober workings of health. Translated into
plain English, he now and then perceives he must work
or starve, and then he thinks he '11 work ; but when he
goes about it there 's a lion in the way. He came dawdling
to me for an Encyclopaedia yesterday. I recommended
him to Norris' library and he said if he could not get it
there, Phillips was bound to furnish him with one ; it was
Phillips' interest to do so and all that. This was true with
some restrictions — but as to Phillips' interests to oblige
G. B. ! Lord help his simple head ! P. could by a whistle
call together a host of such authors as G. B. like Robin
Hood's merry men in green. P. has regular regiments in
pay. Poor writers are his crab-lice and suck at him for
56 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
nutriment. His round pudding chops are their idea of
plenty when in their idle fancies they aspire to be rich.
' What do you think of a life of G. Dyer ? I can scarcely
conceive a more amusing novel. He has been connected
with all sects in the world and he will faithfully tell all he
knows. Every body will read it ; and if it is not done
according to my fancy I promise to put him in a novel
when he dies. Nothing shall escape me. If you think
it feasible, whenever you write you may encourage him.
Since he has been so close with me I have perceiv'd the
workings of his inordinate vanity, his gigantic attention
to particles and to prevent open vowels in his odes, his
solicitude that the public may not lose any tittle of his
poems by his death, and all the while his utter ignorance
that the world don't care a pin about his odes and his
criticisms, a fact which every body knows but himself — he
is a rum genius. C. L.'
This letter shows Lamb's solicitude for his ' ragged
regiment ' of friends. That Burnett should have won
his affection is sufficient proof that G. B. was not without
many good qualities. He was at this time working for
Phillips upon Dr. Mavor's Universal History, which appeared
in 1802 — a dull enough compilation in some twenty volumes.
The date of Lamb's letter which Mr. Lucas gives as ' ? Nov.'
is approximately settled by Rickman's letter of November 7
(quoted below) enclosing it to Sou they x together with the
letter from George Dyer which Lamb mentions as about
to accompany his own. Dyer's letter has been preserved,
and is interesting from the fact that no private letters
from the incomparable G. D. have ever been published.
Southey had left Dublin to attend Mr. Corry in London,
and had doubtless shown to Rickman the foolish letter
written by Burnett, who had a mania for bursting out
into tirades against his friends, especially Southey, for
not making a better man of him. Similar outbursts to
1 Southey must have sent the letter on to Wordsworth, in whose posses-
sion it remained.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 57
Rickman, as we shall see, brought down thunder upon his
head in a very short time. His metaphysical essay does not
seem to have been published.
• Dublin Castle,
' Saturday Night, Novr. 7th, 1801.
' I have just received yours, from whence I gladly hear
of your arrival in town. Your letter has arrived at a
most awkward time for the immediate and solid answer,
since the next post goes not till Monday night, and it is too
late to procure English notes for transmissal. You would
think me a little tardy in not being prepared ; but I had
good reason for not moving in this business till necessary,
since the exchange has been constantly more and more
favourable, and I expect to transmit to you at 9| instead of
13|, which I believe you paid. This will be 40/ in the small
sum to be sent. You know 8| is par : and we are now
exporting beef and corn so fast that it will be there soon.
That you will be idle enough, i.e. that you will have much
time at your own disposal under Mr. Corry, I did and do
believe — but I retract the idea I held about the non-existence
of your office in peace, I have now cause almost to know the
contrary. Be that as it may, so much the better for you and
also so much the better for me. I like head work well, so
that somebody follows science for me ; that is Irish science ;
for I should be itching after some literary memory and
tokens and monuments of the present Administration here,
if I were alone, and perhaps itching in vain from over-much
occupation, but if you will take care of that part of the
business, I shall work on as comfortably and steadily as the
dullest dray-horse. I have had divers letters from London
since your departure, part of one packet I have remitted to
you, and with this you receive the rest of it, except a letter
of ineffable absurdity from G. B. to J. R. Lamb will shew
you an extract speciminis ergo. The joke was going too far,
and I have endeavoured to cure the man's insanity by a
paper containing horse medicine : coarse in itself and rather
58 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
caustic, but (as you say of cod-fish) a good substratum for
medicaments of the best kind which you must administer.
In his answer it seems that he still reveres honesty — a good
symptom. When you read his essay — P. 25 — push him
once and again upon the consequences of that page : it
contains the metaphysical gradations to determined villainy,
stopping short of the mark which the writer could not see to.
Nevertheless I am vexed that I cannot oppose anything to
such arguments, but the old, true observation — " By their
fruits shall ye know them." If you can quash them better,
and a priori, I reckon it a serious good. I send you herewith
what I much value ; a letter from Lamb of exquisite, per-
haps unparallelled description ; and of an interesting affair ;
literally and seriously, of G. Dyer starving to death and
rescued from that ruefull fate by the said C. Lamb. What
strange men do we know ! Dyer who can starve to death,
without knoiving it, Lamb who can rescue him, and enjoy it
as a joke, and Burnet of whom no mortal can make any
thing : certainly most unaccountable of all. The Goule also
must be put on your list of remarkables ; he is high on mine.
If you see him not at Lamb's, call at the Cockpit ; if the
Population gentry are at work ask for Mr. Beaumont — and
say who you are. If you converse with him three minutes,
and in casting round your eyes in pursuit of ugliness you do
not detect Simmonds, I pronounce you have no taste or nose
for Goules. . . .
' G. Dyer's letter lyes before me ; I must send it, garnished
with mischievous scrawls. Give my compts. to Burnet — the
writer of his own times — and tell him that his essay is,
mejudice, very good in choice of words, though tinged with
what my brutal taste calls modern jargon. That it is
commonplace, but very good commonplace — and that I
doubt no part of his ability to write his Introduction or
future history, except his industry and perseverance — of
which no one can pronounce, as Solon I think said, before
the end. That I have reced. his last letter, and am well
pleased with it, though I think he ought to have been a little
more angry, finally that I wish him well.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 59
Here is Dyer's letter. The exclamations in parentheses
are in Rickman's hand.
'Dear Sir, — I am much obliged by your favour, and
ought to have replied sooner, tho' indeed I have been lately
so unwell, that I have been obliged to lay aside attention to
letter writing. Yes, I have had a fever, and have been this
fortnight past the guest, night and day with our good friend
Charles Lamb ; his sister has been my kind nurse, and by
help of her, and a physician I am brought right again. How
dare you call me a railer at all Governments ? (Exquisite
George ! ! ! ) My opinion is, I think both modest and generous,
viz. : that some govern too much, and too much govern-
ment, sooner or later, defeats its own purposes, and brings
on troubles. Rulers therefore should be taught moderation ;
and should understand, that if their interest, and the interest
of the people are not the same, they are, so far, not standing
on good and solid ground. I am glad you find employment,
that you like, and I most heartily wish you could find some
for Burnett. I begin very much to fear ; from what Lamb
says, that he will succeed but poorly in authorship, for it is
not for every one, even of talents, to live by authorship
(climax here) ; and Burnett will not engage in tuition. In
short, Rickman, I fear, if you do not stand his friend he is
likely to fare but ill. I can render him, I fear, no service.
His objects are out of my sight, and his wishes are beyond
my reach. The truth is I can, now, render nobody any
service, and must confine my attention to a very few
subjects, and a very few persons : I shall be obliged to do so,
as well from the weak state of my health, as from my total
inability ; much seclusion, little company, and few anxieties
I am determined to seek after, as the only means, that can
now make me tolerably easy or render an existence for a few
years either probable or desirable. So among other cases of
distress I must give up Burnett, for, I fear his will prove one
case of distress (G. Dyer still), unless you can find him some
snug birth in Ireland ; you know the man. If I could
render him service I should be happy : but things that I
60 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
proposed to him he disapproves, and therefore I entreat you
to think of him, for he seems to me to possess some good
qualities (G. Dyer again), and if you could serve him, I
think you would have no reason to accuse your own humanity
only to cause you folly. I intend to have two volumes of
poems out in the winter, and I hope they will be more
readable, and appear in a more agreeable form, than my
last, smaller size, better print, and paper, than the first.
I shall always be very happy to hear from you. This is
one of the first letters I have written this fortnight ; for
Charles Lambe (I have not been able to write myself) has
been condescending enough to be my scribe. So I may say,
see how large a letter I have written with my own hand. —
Yrs. truly, G. Dyer.
'P.S. Lamb and sister unite in good wishes. Having
filled my letter, I am obliged to make an odd bundle of a
letter to put under cover to an M.P. — I intended to have
written to R. Southey, by this conveyance, but was not sure
he was with you ; and, indeed, he has been travelling so
about, that I never knew where I could send to him with
safety. I owe him a letter, which I shall be happy to pay
him : have however written full enough for me at present/
The letter from Burnett to Rickman must have arrived
late in October or early in November, for in a short, undated
letter to Rickman Lamb alludes to his having received
Rickman's extract from it — a demand for a place at six
weeks' notice — and takes upon himself the blame of having
so addressed the packet that it cost Rickman seventeen
shillings, a fact which added considerably to the latter's in-
dignation. In this letter Lamb says that Southey is not
arrived, which dates his own letter before November 7,
though Canon Ainger has wrongly printed it after Lamb's of
November 24. A postscript to this same letter speaks of
having received ' this moment ' a packet for Southey —
probably the letter quoted above. If so, Lamb's undated
letter certainly should be dated November 9 or 10. As we
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 61
shall see, Rickman's ire had also been roused by accounts of
Burnett's laziness over the population business, and this,
added to the fact that he received Burnett's letter after
drinking claret, which (as he says) always put him in a bad
humour, seems to have produced a downright anathema for
poor Burnett, in which he was cruelly informed that both
Rickman and Southey considered him a mediocrity. In
his letter of November 24 Lamb says he has seen this
' rouzing ' letter, and deprecates its harshness, while bowing
to Rickman's better judgment. Southey's first letter from
town, in which he begins by humorously describing his
duties, 1 which he obviously found trivial and vexatious,
makes no allusion to Rickman's ' horse medicine,' for he
proceeds : —
'Nov. 20th, 1801.
' . . . Burnett's essay may be entitled Much Ado About
Nothing. It is well written in its way, but a damned ugly
long way it is. These metaphysicians tease me — wire spin-
ning and gold beating their meaning — they have to tell you
the amount of ten times ten — they take an hour in getting
at the sum unit by unit. I am sorry you did not see his
letter to me. That is curious. It is the history of his own
mind — the out-blaze of a vanity that has been smoking
under green weeds for seven good years. Written with
warmth and feeling, for the subject was at his heart and in
his heart, if he could but be as animated by anything else —
it would do. A fair trial of the trade will do him good.
At work he is, and where no great despatch is needful George
can work as well as any of Mr. Phillips' merry-men, when he
has found out that his metaphysics are not saleable, that he
has not quickness enough ever to acquire much knowledge,
and that what knowledge he has is not ready at need, then
I suppose he will condescend to the common employment of
life. Poor fellow ! he would think himself degraded by
giving to boys the elements of learning — and yet he will
1 The first part (which I omit) and the last part of this letter are pub-
lished in Lije and Correspondence of E. S., ii. 174.
62 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
write for Mr. Phillips' hire, restricted as to subject and even
as to pages — and under Dr. Mavor's name ! If this be not
great straining and camel swallowing with a vengeance ! —
he should be sowing the grain — and he will be making the
bread.
EvprjKa. Evpq/ca. Evprj/ca.
' You remember your heretical proposition de Cambro-
Britannis that the principality had never produced and
never could produce a great man, that I opposed Owen
Glendwr and Sir Henry Morgan to the assertion but in vain,
but I have found the Great man — and not merely the Great
man — the Maximus homo — the /u,e<yio-To<; avOpcoiros, the
fjueyiaTOTaro*; — we must create a super-superlative to reach
the idea of his magnitude. I found him in the Strand — in
a shop window — laudably therein exhibited by a Cambro-
Briton, the Engraver represents him sitting in a room —
that seems to be of a cottage or at best — a farm — pen in
hand — eyes-uplifted, and underneath is inscribed,
The Cambrian Shakespear.
but woe is me for my ignorance — the motto that followed
surpassed my skill in language — tho' it doubtless was a
delectable morsel from that Great Welshman's poems.
You must however allow the justice of the name given him,
for all his writings are in Welsh — and the Welshmen say he
is as great a man as Shakespear, and they must know —
because they can understand him. I enquired what might
be the trivial name of this light and lustre of our Dark age —
but it hath escaped me — only that it meant, being interpreted
either Tom — a — Denbigh or some such everyday baptismal
denomination. And now am I no prophet if you have not
before you have arrived thus far uttered a three-worded
sentence of malediction. . . .
' To-day I go dine with Lord Holland. Wynn 1 is inti-
1 Southey's friend, C. W. Wynn, M.P., who became President of the
Board of Control in 1822 in Liverpool's ministry.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 63
mate with him and my invitation is for the sake of Thalaba,
the sale of Thalaba is slow — about 300 only gone.
' George Dyer has just been here, his disorder he said
required a violent exertion to remedy it. Lamb has made a
perfect cure. Thank you for that nonpareil letter. Edith's
remembrance. — Yours truly, R. Southey.'
This letter and a shorter one, saying that Corry had hinted
to Southey that he might write the history of the war in
Egypt, were answered by Rickman in a letter of November
26.
* Dublin Castle, Now. 26th, 1801.
* I am glad to learn by yours of the 21st inst. that
the £40 arrived safe. The packet should have reached
you the same day, and I suppose did so the next. I shall
enquire the wherefore of the delay. In the meantime I
am glad I sent the bill under a distinct cover, and put it
into the Post Office myself.
' I am amused by your no-occupation, and am well pleased
to find that as I suspected the Chan. Exchequer seems
to intend to retain you for purposes much to your taste.
Were I asked to write of Egypt, I should fear that the
official knowledge is rather dry and uncircumstantial.
However Sir Sydney Smith can aid you much if he chooses,
having (as I hear) brought over with him a copy of all the
orders issued by Bonaparte while in Egypt. In doing
justice to all parties, I do not think you will have occasion
to displease Government ; you will find Bonaparte rather
worse than at present you may perhaps suspect. Have
you heard of his slaughter of 3500 Turks at Jaffa, who
had surrendered on terms ? He drew them up in a fine
opposite to his armed troops, and gave the word, Charge
Bayonet ! In fact, he seems something between Csesar
and Alexander ; without the follies of the last, and (as
I think) without so much solidity as the first. Which of
the three be the greatest rascal, airopco ! All in their day
the enemies of mankind ; Caesar and Bonaparte of their
64 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
own country. Remember the Deux-Tiers affair ; which
first raised the Frenchman into notice ; and remember his
mean avarice of fame at the Bridge of Novi and at Marengo.
What myriads were sacrificed in vain of those to whom
he was military parent as General ! For management, and
good fortune, he is surely eminent ; whether he has litera-
ture, whether he likes it, or whether he thinks it good
policy to seem to like it, is not clear — I suspect the last —
but you know how much I detest the French — I should
hold the scales dangerously. Thank you for the Welsh-
man, whom I commend to your better acquaintance, you
must now learn Welsh of course, and translate his plays.
Your picture of G. Burnett is very just. I am quite sick
of him, longer connection naturally keeps him nearer you,
and I should be sorry he were quite deserted. Additional
to his silly letter (a place at six weeks notice) the same
post brought me a letter of information about him, for
which I had laid a train. As you have now learnt surely,
I may tell you here. I left him a trifling task — ruling
certain lines in the Population books, merely to try his
power of attention to anything like a fixed task. The
unlucky wight who was to write in the said lines suffered
for this, forced to go for the sheets one by one, to urge the
gentleman daily for supply, sometimes finding him in bed
at One, at other times at a stand on a plea of wanting ink,
and finally by necessity the task thrown up in despair !
A good specimen of activity in business. I have done with
him.
' I wish I could lend you all I ever knew or thought about
the subjects which you are to perpend. 1 There is some-
thing about most of them in that Magazine, 2 which Lamb
can lend you. I believe I can even rummage out some MS.
on the subject, 2 or 3 years old. In your next (if you think
of it) tell me whether that publication goes on. I suppose
not at all, or most vilely. Tell Lamb I want to hear from
him, and of his play. I shall receive money enough (from
1 Corry had told him to read up corn law, finance, and tythes.
2 Edited by Rickman in 1800.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 65
the Population business) soon, and he may draw largely
on that projected publication. Though as a flay (in the
abstract) it is not good, there is much too good to be lost
in it, besides I wish to give the world one more chance of
shewing taste.'
Southey meanwhile had written again. 1
' 25 Bridge Street,
'Westminster, November 27, 1801.
1 My dear Rickman, — This morning I called on Burnett,
whom I found recovering from a bilious flux and in the
action of folding up a letter designed for you. He then
for the first time shewed me your letter and his reply. I
perceived that the provoking blunder in Lamb's direction
affected the tone of yours, and that the seventeen shillings-
worth of anger fell upon George. Your caustic was too
violent : it eat thro' the proud flesh, but it has also wounded
the feeling and healthy part below. The letter which I
have suppressed was in the same stile as his last. I pre-
vailed on him to lay it up in his desk, because it was no
use showing you the wound you had inflicted, and your
time would be better anyhow employed than in reading
full pages that were not written with the design of giving
pleasure. That your phrases were too harsh I think, and
Lamb and Mary Lamb think also 'twas a horse medicine —
a cruel doze of yellow gamboodge.
' What I foresaw — or rather hoped would take place is
now going on in him. He begins to discover that hackney-
ing authorship is not the way to be great, to allow that
six hours writing in a public office is better than the same
number of hours labour for a fat publisher, that it is more
certain, less toilsome, quite as respectable. I have even
prevailed on him to attend to his hand-writing, on the
possibility of some such happy appointment, and doubt
not ere long to convince him, in his own way, of the moral
fitness of writing straight lines and distinct letters accord-
1 Selections from the Letters of R. S., i. 181-183.
E
66 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
ing to all the laws of mind. He wishes to get a tutor's
place. In my judgment a clerk's would suit him better,
for its permanence. Nothing like experience ! He would
not think its duties beneath him, and if he were so set at
ease from the daily bread and cheese anxieties that would
disorder a more healthy intellect than his, I believe that
passion for distinction which haunts him, would make
him, in the opinion of the world, the booksellers and himself,
a very pretty historian — quite as good as any of the Scotch
breed. It puzzles me how he has learnt to sound his sen-
tences so ear-tickingly. He has never rough-hewn any-
thing, but he finishes like a first journey-man.
' Write to him some day, and lay on an emollient plaister,
it would heal him, and comfort him. A very active man
we shall never have, but as active as nature will let him
he will soon be, and quite enough for daily official work.
If you could set him in the land of potatoes we should, I
believe in conscience see the Historian of the Twelve Caesars
become a great man. A more improbable prophecy of
mine about the wretched Alfred has been fulfilled.
' Mr. Corry and I have met once since my last, and no
mention was made about Egypt. The silence satisfied
me because Portugal is a better and far more suitable
subject. It is odd that he has never asked me to dine with
him, and not quite accordant with his general courtliness
of conduct. Seeing little of him I have not formed so
high an opinion of his talents or information as you had
led me to conceive. Doubtless in his own department
he possesses both, but on all other ground I am the better
traveller, and he hardly knows the turnpike when I have
beat thro' all the byways and windings and cross roads.
I found it expedient to send him my sundry books in com-
pliance with a hint to that effect. He called to thank me,
and this dropping a card has been the extent of my per-
sonal and avoidable civility. To my great satisfaction I
have entire leisure — that is to my present comfort — for it
does not promise much for the future. . . . The Magazine
exists, I certify its existence having seen one for this month
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 67
in a window. The spirit having left it I suspect Vampirism
in its present life.
1 Coleridge is in town, 1 you should commute your Star
for the Morning Post, in which you will see good things
from him, and such occasional verses as I may happen to
execute. The Anthology is revivescent under the eye of
blind Tobin, 2 to whom all the honour and glory and papers
are transferred. There will be enough of the old leaven
to keep up the family likeness to its half-brothers. Madoc
is on the anvil — slow and sure. I expect my Portugal
paper this evening with my Mother and shall return with
new appetite to my dear old folios.
' The letter to which you referred in your money-letter
as directed here, never arrived. You who have the Great
Seal at command had better always write straight, and
do give Burnett a line — your letter was too hard — and
you would do a kind action by easing him of resentment.'
The offer of money which Rickman made to Lamb
through Southey was again refused in an undated letter,
the sixth in the collection of Lamb's letters to him. It
tells of George Dyer's dining regularly with Lamb and
bringing his shilling ; of Burnett being ' much reduced,'
and Coleridge's recommendation of him to the editor of
the Morning Post, on which Lamb also hoped to get
work ; of Southey and the impending death of his mother ;
and of Lamb's friends Godwin, Fenwick, and Fell.
On December 5 a short note from Rickman to Southey
shows that he appreciated the humours of the Irish. He
announces that he has just read Castle Rackrent, and ' can
I be aisy again at all at all till I have put all my friends in
possession of a bit of the bog of Allybalry-carrickoshaughlin? '
He asks Southey to order six copies, four to be given to
his cousin Beaumont, one to Lamb, and one to Southey's
1 Coleridge was in London from November 15 till Christmas.
* Of Clifford's Inn, friend of Lamb and Coleridge. His brother was a
dramatist. Lamb refers to him in his essay ' Thoughts on Books and
Reading.'
68 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
mother. He announces having written a penitent letter
to Burnett, and ends : * I wrote to Lamb the other day,
and am quite pleased to think I have been accessory to
the regeneration and first edition of my noble Margaret
(the heroine of John Woodvil). I shall be desperately
in love when I meet her counterpart.' In a second note
he writes : —
' Under a trivial Irish name of a place, Mr. A. has
detected an Etymology which would enliven a whole page
of any dull Etymologic : Magnum.
' The Gentry about Dublin are in the habit of calling their
country seats by outlandish names. Hence we have
Marino, Bellevue, Casino, etc. in the neighbourhood.
In this taste a gentleman building a new house towards
Drogheda christened it — Bel-re tiro.
' I charge you to pause three full minutes before you turn
over ; and guess at its present trivial Irish name.
BALLYRUDDERY.
300 Copies.
Chear thee, Chear thee, Thalaba.
A little yet hold on.
Criticum Britannicum ipse vidi.
Splash ! Splash ! Splash !
< J. R.'
Southey's answer soon followed.
'Friday, December 11, 1801.
' Yesterday (the day after your letterling reached me)
I journeyed to Johnson's for my friend Thady. 1 You
were mistaken in supposing I could get them at the trade
1 Thady Quirk, the narrator of the story in Castle Rackrent, which Miss
Edgeworth published anonymously.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 69
price. I cannot even get my own books without paying
the full charge. There were no copies ready — else I should
have dropt one with Mary Lamb, and introduced myself to
Mr. Beaumont with the others. Of course they will arrive
to-day.
' Mr. Corry has found out an employment for me — to
go with him and his son to Walker's lectures — and sit two
hours every other morning hearing what I have known
God knows how long.
' Burnett has a situation which he cannot keep ! It is
only to make up matter for the Courier from the French
papers and from Peltier's * Paris, after the news has been
taken from them, mere child's work : for two or three
columns a week he receives a guinea and a half while on
trial, two guineas if he continues ; his sawneying and un-
teachable indolence almost surpasses belief. He is totter-
ing now in Coleridge's leading strings. I know not what
can become of him. He is in deep water, and will neither
strike out hand or foot to save himself. Bless the news-
papers ! Lamb also has an engagement with the Morning
Post. He will be eminently useful there, and will I doubt
not make it a permanent source of income. . . .
' London robs me of all leisure. One calls and another
calls, and if I have not those interruptions, the incon-
venience of one only sitting-room effectually prevents
continuous attention to any subject. At the year's end
I shall not be richer than if this connection with the Irish
Chancellor had not existed. True that the salary is gained
without effort, and so much exertion saved, should be
accounted gain ; with the year it must end, and my ulti-
mate gain will be what little knowledge of Ireland may be
acquired in the next visit ; it is worth a year's hard travel-
ling to see a floating Island.
' Thanks for the etymology !
1 A French refugee who edited a paper called Paris in London. His
attacks on Napoleon were made a subject of complaint by the Emperor to
the British Government.
70 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' I enclose a second note with great pleasure — to an-
nounce the real and true second birth of George Burnett.
He has found out his blunder, and actually discovered to
his own downright conviction, that he is not fit for an
author. His eyes are opened upon his own ignorance.
' Conveniently I believe that he is enough awake now
to discharge the manual duties of any situation in which
you could place him. Do not now curse him for the re-
collection of the Cock-pit, for that recollection has risen
in him like an evil conscience. For George Burnett I have
an habitual feeling of affection, as you know they have
never blinded me to his faults. I will make a report of his
progress in the next week. Think of him in any but a
claret-humour. Farewell. R. S.'
At the beginning of 1802 Southey was tired of his secretary-
ship, and depressed at the illness of his mother, who was
dying of consumption ; and Lamb had begun to write for
the Morning Post, a fact at which Rickman rejoiced, so
much so that he ordered a subscription to be taken out in
the name of his father at Christchurch. Burnett had been
appointed tutor to the two sons of Lord Stanhope, the
democratic peer. He had finished his introduction to the
Universal History. These facts explain Rickman's letter
which follows : —
' Dublin Castle, January 5th, 1802.
' . . . I am a little out of intelligence from London ; (save
from the Cockpit) last I heard of G. Dyer, who printeth —
but hath not begun his Vita Authoris schemed for him by
Lamb's ingenuity. Lamb also printeth, to better purpose,
he has pruned Margaret, he says, into my shape and con-
ception of things. I hope carefully, since certainly I know
not much of the drama ; nothing beyond instinct.
' I receive the Morning Post and search it diligently ; he
owneth certain theatrical reports, and I find jokes besides.
I think they will have an interest in paying him very hand-
somely. When daily papers run against one another in
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 71
peace, in times of no intelligence, where can such an aid
be found as Lamb ? I have heard wit from him in an
evening to feed a paper for a week. I am much pleased
that Burnet is well placed, it was an arduous task to do so,
and may be esteemed a resurrection from the dead. From
his last to me I calculated on his despair. I think he will
do well for instilling the languages into the young nobles.
Lord Stanhope is an acute man, and will instil other things
himself, and Burnet will have leisure enough. I should
like to see the famous preface, which must have almost
worn out the anvil, the arm and the hammer. It is for his
future health of soul, that he discovered that authorship
is not a resource to the idle, before this lucky hit put him
beside the acquisition of that knowledge ; were I to name
hard work, it would be that work — and followed as a book-
making trade it is not glorious — to write per sheet soon
resolves itself into not writing per excellence. I admire
your task, and do more than suspect a semi-tutorship. I
did not know of the young Chancellor, till from you. Mr. C.'s
particular wish for regular education, and knowledge of the
classics is now better explained than it was. I was puzzled
at it. What the devil has Greek to do with taxation, and
amounts and loans ? I wonder with you that you have
not dined with him, the more as I used to dine with him
so often here that I was ashamed of it. I imagine your
connections with the opposite people bears a little upon this
point. But while you have leisure, it is of little consequence.
Dabit Deus his quoque fine?n. We shall see some sequel,
if you [do your] part, you will be sure of his interest for
other purposes at all events. I hope you [will get] a certain
popular knowledge of the knowledge of the day by your
tarrying in town. I thank you for the book-commission
executed. I read 10 pages of Miss Hannah Blagden, 1 and
saw wit, and I concede a little religion to my female friends
and relations. I desire my best respects to all your ladies,
1 i.e. Hannah More. The allusion is to the ' Blagdon controversy '
which raged round the school founded by her at Blagdon in Somersetshire
from 1800 to 1802. The schoolmaster was accused of holding a conventicle.
72 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
among whom I see on your list Mrs. Lovel, 1 whom I re-
member with pleasure. Does Mrs. Edith S. like town or not ?
Coleridge seems to have done much good in town to Burnet —
Lamb — etc. What is he doing himself — and what is Davy
doing ? Do you assail him ? Do his Meta — Meta — Meta-
physicks succumb ? I suppose you attend his lectures
occasionally. . . .'
Three letters from Lamb come in here, written on January 9,
January 14, and January 18 respectively. They speak of
his work for the Morning Post, of Dyer's bringing the eccentric
Earl of Buchan to see him, and of Burnett's arrival — late as
usual — to take up his appointment. On January 17 Southey
philosophically enough announced his mother's death, with
some gossip about Cottle. On February 1 Rickman received
a characteristic account from Lamb of the elopement of
Burnett's two pupils. Their mother's family had probably
enticed them away, fearing the democratic influence of
' Citizen ' Stanhope, so ' George n.' remained with his em-
ployer as secretary instead of tutor. Rickman was now
very busy, as Abbot had gone to London, leaving his secre-
tary to represent him. By the courtesy of the present
Lord Colchester I am able to reproduce in part one of
Rickman's official letters. It refers among other matters
to the death of Lord Clare, the Irish Lord Chancellor,
which, says Abbot in his Diary, delivered the Irish and
British Governments from much trouble. He was a violent
and overbearing man, whose authority had been weakened
by the Union. A special inquiry was subsequently made
into the Board of Works, of which Rickman speaks so
feelingly.
* Dublin Castle, Feby. 1, 1802.
' Sir, — Having considered that Sunday is the quietest day
for recollecting the occurrences of the week, I propose to
dispatch the weekly letter by Monday's mail, if you see no
reason for preferring any other day of the week.
1 Sister of Mrs. Southey and Mrs. Coleridge. Lovell was also one of the
Pantisocrats.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 73
1 The occurrence which has filled every one's thoughts is
the death of the Chancellor ; all consider the loss irreparable.
I have heard of no new speculations about a successor ; the
old speculations are still heard, but with diminished con-
fidence.
' The public are much gratified by the propriety of His
Excellency in putting off the intended drawing room which
was appointed for the evening of Thursday. As it was
known that the present Government here, and the Chancellor
were not cordial, the attention shewn was unexpected and
made the greater impression on the public mind.
' Mr. Grattan is reported to have said, on occasion of the
Chancellor's death, that as the race of wolf dogs in Ireland
soon became extinct, when no wolves were left, so the
Chancellor has not long outlived the ruin of his country,
viz. the Union, caused chiefly by his means. An ill-natured
allusion, and not very happy ; if the quarrelsome, snarling
harpies of the late Irish Parliament were made to stand for
the wolves, the comparison had been more compleat ; but
could not have proceeded from the mouth of Grattan. . . .
' I have commenced the Excise returns ; because Dublin
Port which would naturally stand first in the Custom retn.
is not arrived yet. I suffer some interruption by letters
and visits from the gentlemen on the medical staff ; I cannot
blame them, neither can I hope to be clear of this nuisance
till the Admr. furnishes the account, which he promises
daily. I hope then to put the business in such train, that
no more trouble shall occur.
' I have explained your wishes about ascertaining the
number of Holyhead passengers for the last 11 years to
Mr. Lees, who promises to do all he can. . . . Mr. Lees
talks of you in the usual manner ; his applause you do not
consider as very sincere ; I confess I incline to Mr. Marsden's
opinion of the old gentleman ; that he is a political Swiss,
who is really the very faithful and devoted servant of every
successive Government, and that he may perhaps feel a
trifling preponderance to see Ireland well governed. . . .
' The Board of Works go on as might be expected ; all
74 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
confusion ; three days since Mr. Woodgate brought me
an Order issued to him, that he should forthwith inspect
and examine the mass of their old Accounts. He said to
me, that then it must of course be impossible for him to
go on with his other duties. I told him to say to them as
of himself, that he did not conceive his instructions war-
ranted him in such application of his time, and that he
feared he might displease Government in so doing — there-
fore declined the task.
' The Secretary has become visible ; but disclaims per-
formance of any duty, beyond writing his signature ; he
says he is not used to such things as taking minutes, draft-
ing official papers, etc. — In truth to work with such an
awkward tool as the Board of Works seems a great waste
of exertion. Besides ignorance and inaptitude for any real
business, they seem to exhibit some presumption, in ap-
pointing Mr. Spear Pro-Secretary, and in refusing a room
for an Office. . . .'
Rickman had requested both Lamb and Southey to
compose an epitaph on a Miss Mary Druitt who died at
Wimborne. Lamb's lines are among his poetical works,
and Southey in a not very interesting letter of February 6
refused the task. On February 14 Lamb informed Rickman
of his break with the Morning Post, and of his inability to
work to order. He alluded to Abbot's elevation to the
Speakership, which took place on February 10, to Dyer's
being kept from starvation by a committee of friends, and
to Burnett's self-importance at being sent on any trumpery
errand. On February 17 Southey wrote again, asking if
Abbot's elevation would bring Rickman to London as
Speaker's Secretary. He continued : —
' . . . You have received " John Woodville." I retain my
first opinion. It is delightful poetry badly put together.
An exquisite picture in a clumsy frame. Margaret is a
noble girl. The other characters not so well conceived.
A better imitation of old language I have never seen, but
was the language of the serving men ever the language of
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 75
nature ? Lamb has copied the old writers, I expect that
they did not copy existing characters. Those quaint turns
of words and quainter contortions of thought never could
be produced by ignorant men. The main interest of the
play (the discovery) is too foolish. The effect produced
too improbable. Withal so beautiful is the serious dialogue
that more than redeems the story. Most I like the con-
cluding scene.
' I am half amused and half provoked by the civilities
which my Secretaryship procures me, and receive them with
an accurate sense of their value. I on my part also am
more civil perhaps than usual. My wish is to get abroad,
and I am old enough never to kick away the stone which I
may want to step upon. Abroad I must go — so says my
head and my whole intestinal canal and my inclination.
Lisbon of course is the place desirable. I would com-
pound for Madrid, it is a hateful city, and only its books
can atone for a bad situation both as to earth and heaven.
If in October however I see no near chance of a legation
southward, as the world will be before me, I shall seriously
think of taking root in Portugal, and seriously labour to
get money enough for a land journey from Bilbao to St.
Sebastian thro' Biscay to Madrid, and thence elbow out
of the straight road to Toledo and Cordova. These plans
you see are post-obit speculations, for the natural death of
my office may be calculated upon.
' Did I tell you how Burnett's tutorship is like my
Secretaryship — a happy sinecure ? that his pupils have
both eloped, and that he receives his salary for eating and
drinking with Lord Stanhope, and talking late after supper %
The Historian's ambition is gone by ; a passion for the
utilities has succeeded, and we have given him the new title
Professor of Mathematics. The Lord who is not only a good
man, but a very clever one, has many mechanical inventions
to bring forward, of which I suppose some one will fall to
the share of Burnett, and so make him lazy for life by a
valuable patent. He is as happy as the Great Mogul.
Of the other George I have more doleful tidings. Mary
76 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Lamb and her brother have succeeded in talking him into
love with Miss Ben jay or Bungey or Bungay ; but they
have got him into a quagmire and cannot get him out again,
for they have failed in the attempt to talk Miss Bungay or
Bungey or Benjey into love with him. This is a cruel
business, for he has taken the injection, and it may
probably soon break out in sonnets and elegies. . . .'
The curious story of Dyer's being persuaded into losing
his heart is quite new. Lamb makes no mention of it.
The lady in question was Miss Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger,
an author who wrote a biography of John Tobin, the
dramatist. Madame de Stael described her as the most
interesting woman she had met in England. Miss Benger
was a friend of Sarah Wesley, John Wesley's niece, who
was herself a friend of Coleridge. It was through Miss
Wesley that Lamb met Miss Benger ,who was a thorough blue-
stocking. He describes the meeting to Coleridge in a letter
of April 1800. Charles and Mary Lamb went to her lodgings,
and were frightened out of their wits by her solemn priggish-
ness. Lamb said he was preparing for the next meeting by
reading all the magazines and reviews of the last month, by
which means he hoped to cut a ' tolerable second-rate figure.'
I suspect that the Lambs' persuasion of Dyer into love with
her was only a joke. Rickman answered on February 23, in
a letter which announced his near return to London as
Speaker's Secretary ' at some diminution of income, but
immense increase in happiness.' He was very glad to
leave Ireland, and had refused a permanent appointment
there worth £800 a year. On Southey's story of Dyer he
comments : ' Poor Dyer in love ! That cannot hurt him ;
he may love in sonnett, while he eats Lamb's beef. Take
away starvation and he will live like the Kings of Persia —
for ever.' Within a month he hoped to be in London.
CHAPTER IV
1802-1805
Secretaryship to the Speaker — Bag and sword — Thomas Poole — George
Burnett again — G. B. quarrels with Southey — Lamb's opinion of it —
Southey's first visit to Rickman — Poole and Poor Laws — Another
letter from G. Dyer — His ' patronage ' of Lamb — Burnett's letters —
Rickman's temper — Coleridge — Rickman finds him a ship — His
letters — Ned Phillips — Overwork — An unromantic marriage.
' I did not gain much, indeed was rather out of
pocket at the end of the first half-year [i.e. of the Irish
secretaryship] when Mr. Abbot became Speaker of the
House of Commons ; but I was offered good office (£800 a
year) if I chose to settle in Ireland. This I declined from
attachment to England or to a young lady at Chidham,
and became Speaker's Secretary, an office producing about
£300 annually and moreover about £1000 or £1200 in an
election year, which occurs about once in five years, and
was to happen by necessary dissolution of Parliament in
1802. I was expected to inhabit an official house adjoining
the Speaker's and the Exchequer in the corner of Palace
Yard, and for so doing, accepted as a useful inmate a maiden
Aunt Beaumont assisted by a maid servant, and I paid
£200 for the articles of furniture left by my predecessor,
a man of some fortune and good taste.'
This is Rickman's account, written to his daughter in
later years, of that move which was in a sense the last move
of his life. The Speaker's Secretary was, and still is, one
of the officials of the House of Commons. His duties are
to attend the Speaker on all official occasions, besides
fulfilling the ordinary functions of a private secretary.
78 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
He was then paid, as were most of the officials of the House
at that time, by fees which were charged upon every con-
ceivable proceeding of Parliament. Until the strenuous
inquiries of the reformed Parliament into official salaries
began in 1833, the only salaries fixed by law, as far as the
officials of the House were concerned, were those of the
Speaker and of the Clerks at the Table. 1 At that period
election petitions were many and costly, and the fees
brought profit to others besides the Speaker's Secretary. 2
The days of the unreformed Parliament, as far as salaries
are concerned, may well be regretted by the permanent
officials of to-day. 3 Besides his fees Rickman, as Speaker's
Secretary, enjoyed another privilege. All letters and
packages could be sent to him free under a cover addressed
to the Speaker, though this privilege only held good while
Parliament was actually sitting. Rickman profited by it
all the years that he was Speaker's Secretary, and so did
his friends ; but, as we shall see, both Coleridge and Poole
brought down wrath upon their heads by making the
Speaker an intermediary between themselves and some other
person than Rickman. He was also able to obtain ' franks '
for sending letters from the Speaker, though it was not until
he became Clerk Assistant that Rickman had the power of
franking his own letters. It was a power which was in some
ways irksome to its possessor, for all his friends expected
him to send them ' franks,' or letter-covers signed with
his name. Of Rickman's other emolument, his official
house, I shall say something in the next chapter. There is
abundant proof in the letters that he found his work at
Westminster distasteful. He became used, indeed, to
wearing the ' bag and sword,' which was in itself an innova-
tion to one whose dress had formerly been so rough that he
1 The Speaker's salary was fixed by an act of 1790, those of the Clerks
at the Table by an act of 1800.
2 But the Speaker's Secretary profited very largely from them, because
so many documents requiring the Speaker's signature were necessary, on
each of which the Secretary received a fee.
3 See my article on • The Officers of the House of Commons ' in Black-
wood's Magazine for March 1909.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 79
once narrowly escaped being seized by the Press Gang 1 ;
but what annoyed him chiefly was having to spend so much
of his time in details of routine, which were of small import-
ance. He found himself too busy to read or to devote
himself to what he considered useful studies and meditations.
If he had not wished to marry it is possible that he might
have given up official life, but marriage made a fixed salary
necessary. Nevertheless, if his work was dull, the political
life, of which he was a spectator, was interesting enough.
The House of Commons has never been more brilliant than
it then was, and feeling ran high. Abroad Napoleon,
about to break the peace of Amiens, dominated the
horizon ; at home, the quarrels of George in. and his son,
and the intrigues of the various parties, charged the political
atmosphere. The ministry of Addington was a failure,
and when war broke out again Pitt was obviously wanted
at the helm, but Addington's pride, the King's dislike of
Fox, and the disunion of the Whigs generally, caused a year
to be spent in schemes and parleyings before Pitt again took
office. Rickman did not consider that his position debarred
him from commenting strongly upon these political events
from a Tory point of view.
When the new Speaker's Secretary entered on his duties,
his friend Southey, to his regret, left London. The
secretaryship to Mr. Corry, which had become a kind of
tutorship to his son, wearied Southey, who returned to
Bristol, and refused to entertain a definite offer of a tutor-
ship. He had thoughts of looking out for a house at
Richmond, but his joint occupation of Greta Hall with the
Coleridges, at first not a wholly satisfactory experiment,
proved to be a settlement for life. The correspondence
between Southey and Rickman, which it is impossible to
reproduce in full, was frequent and copious. Southey's
projected history of Portugal, his reviews, his translation
of Amadis, requests for books to be sent, and other literary
matters fill up a good deal of the space. Rickman was
1 Southey's letter to W. S. Landor, Life and Correspondence of R. S.,
iii. 215.
80 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
always ready to put his information at his friend's service.
One letter contains a long disquisition by him on currency,
and in several others there are discussions of the etymo-
logy of words. Rickman's project of translating the
Septuagint, the troubles of Southey's brother Tom and the
escapades of his brother Edward, the prospects of George
Fricker, 1 whom Coleridge had brought to London, a quarrel
between Godwin and Southey, and a visit to Edinburgh
are other topics. The name of Captain (afterwards Admiral)
Burney, the historian of the South Seas, often occurs, and
there are several letters in his hand to Southey.
Two other friends came into correspondence with Rick-
man at this time. Coleridge he already knew, though not
very intimately. Coleridge's letters of 1804 were written
when he was in London looking for a ship to carry him to
Malta. It was Rickman who found him the vessel. The
other correspondent was Thomas Poole of Nether Stowey,
Coleridge's friend, of whom Southey said that he was more
akin in mind to Rickman than any man he knew. Mrs.
Sandford in her memoir of Poole says that Coleridge intro-
duced him to Rickman in January 1802, when they went
up to hear Davy lecture at the Royal Institution. This
cannot be so, for Rickman was at that date in Ireland.
Southey must have engineered the first introduction through
Davy in June 1802, as his and Rickman's letters in that
month show. The common interests of the two men in
economic subjects drew them together. Both had strong
views upon the Poor Laws, so that when an act, introduced
by George Rose, M.P., was passed in 1803 providing
that all parish overseers should make returns as to the
condition of the poor in their parishes, Rickman, whose
assistance Rose had requested, offered to Poole the task
of supervising in London the administration of the act, an
offer which Poole at once accepted. An office and lodgings
were found for him in Abingdon Street, Westminster, and
several clerks were put under him. In a letter to Coleridge
Poole spoke of his gratitude for Rickman's friendship and
1 Brother-in-law of Southey and Coleridge.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 81
' flattering partiality ' in the matter. His labours took
him nearly a year, during part of which Coleridge stayed
with him at Abingdon Street ; but the friendship with
Rickman, though rather formal, continued to show itself
in a correspondence which ranges over ten years.
For the greater part of 1802 I shall only take short
extracts from Rickman 's correspondence. On June 2
Southey wrote from Bristol : —
' I met Poole here on his way to France, and desired
that he would make Davy take him to you. He is a man
you will like to converse with, for his pursuits have been
chiefly agriculture and political economy.'
Rickman answered on June 12 : —
' I have seen Mr. Poole, and like him well. A little
dogmatic, from the nature of country contemplation, which
is so undistracted that a man must hug the bantling which
has cost him brain-sweat. But we were all so once ; and
I verily believe that the literary dissipation of London
can by no means suffer original thought to flourish. . . .
Davy is working hard and usefully. I reckon it a great
gain to myself and the world that he has become anti-
gallican, and has now seen enough of the great and the
famous to have learned quantum est in rebus inane. . . .
His present foible is the undue exaltation of science into
authority, where her investigations have not been most
perfect. . . . However all will be right with him in time.
Excuse a distracted letter by Saturday post. Dyer who
dines with me has been running about the room looking at
the lettering of your books, which he pronounces a fine
collection, not knowing ten of them in all.'
Later in June Rickman makes the first mention of
Captain Burney, who became a great friend of his, and on
July 2 he observes : —
' We have sent off the Parliament at last to my great
joy, being heartily sick of the misery of dressing daily,
and of doing nothing to any purpose. ... I suppose
82 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Dyer sent you his Poems with his letter. Could any body
but Dyer have been so simple as to inscribe a poem, The
Padlocked Lady ' ?
On August 5 we hear of unexpected political activity
on the part of Dyer, who, says Rickman, ' has lately been
very profitably employed considering his office of Cancel-
larius Magnus. He has been on Sir Francis Burdett's 1
committee, reckoning himself and Sir F. allied, because
the said Sir F. talked about the Bastille, and G. D. wrote
a book intituled the Complaints of the Poor.' 2
In the autumn the wretched George Burnett again began
troubling his friends. He had left Lord Stanhope, who
had paid him a full year's salary of £200, and had resumed
his literary vagabondage. He had also taken to opium,
probably from Coleridge's example ; and, as usual when
he was particularly down on his luck, he laid all his troubles
at Southey's door. On October 14 Southey writes of his
being at Bristol : —
' Burnett — God knows why — thinks my acquaintance
beneath him, and talked so very absurdly about me
to Danvers, that Danvers made him answer, " George
Burnett, if I had a horsewhip, and we were not in the street,
I would lay it over you as long as I was able." Poor fellow,
an envy of which he is too proud and too self-satisfied to
be conscious has refined into dislike, and will end in hatred.
I am really sorry, for you know what a bottom of affectionate
good-will there has been and is in all my feelings respecting
him. He talks of a pistol, and will talk of it till pure shame
forces him to play the fool with it, because he is laughed
at for his cowardly bravados. God Almighty must have
designed him for a gentleman at least, if not for higher
rank, he is so utterly unfit for any earthly employment.'
Rickman, who never suffered fools gladly, for all his
desire to help them, replied by return : —
1 The reformer, for many years M.P. for Westminster.
1 Complaints of the Poor People of England, published in 1793.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 83
' I did not suppose the Bishop would have been so
very silly as you mention, and I no longer repent of
that caustic I once applied to his overweening folly. He
envies, it seems ; why does he not emulate ? Whom
does he see succeed in any thing by yawning and meta-
physics ? Does he see you idle ? Does he see me idle ?
Did he see even Lord Stanhope idle ? . . . I believe there is
no fear of his using a pistol, but it might be well if in an
absent fit he should walk over the edge of the quay. So
would the aliment be bestowed on some more profitable
animal, which is now consumed by him. As a cosmopolite,
it is moral to wish him dead/
A few days later Burnett had come to London, having
refused a tutorship offered him at Bristol, and the benevo-
lent Dyer was trying to find him work : a ' characteristic
situation,' says Southey. Rickman's letter of December 16
deserves longer quotation. Besides the mention of his
friends, it contains the first hint of his thoughts of
marriage. It must be confessed that they were unromantic
enough.
' New Palace Yard, December 16th, 1802.
* . . . I begin to become less irritated with the daily
nonsense of Bag and Sword, and have reduced the ceremony
of dressing in costume down to 7 minutes — undressing
2 minutes. I have a wig to which the bag is appended,
and as to the lower part of my dress, that goes through
the day. So that I shall go on not displeased with my
situation immediately ; especially as the first year or two
of Parliament doubles the income : the election petitions
being great plagues, but some profit. I have not yet
become satisfied with house-keeping ; indeed it has been
managed badly, and much illness of my aunt, and some of
the maid servants, has annoyed me not a little. I begin
to think that at last I shall be forced to find out a wife,
and though I am rather past falling in love, I daresay I
should not chuse the more unwisely for that. However
this matter is sub judice ; it still appears to me a perilous
84 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
engagement and something of constraint. A man cannot
strike his tent so speedily, and want of rapidity in that,
is bad in warfare. I think I ought in conscience to keep
myself among the light infantry; for I want to do so
many things before I die, that time seems hardly sufficient,
husband it by not being a husband, as much as I may.*
' George the first dined here to-day, coming in very
orderly and comfortably about dinner time. I like to see
him happy ; I question whether anybody, with the same
scanty means, ever created so much happiness to his
numerous friends as he. He now pretends to be a little
castigated as to the generality of his benevolence, and
immediately recommends two or three " ingenious young
men " for divers purposes. Lamb met George the second
a day or two since. The gentleman looked wildly, talked
of desperation etc. In fact he takes opium, and I suppose
will some day muster up courage to take a potent dose of it.
I have no objection to his doing so. Lord Stanhope gave
him so fair a chance in giving him £200, and that fair chance
has been so completely thrown away without effort or device
for permanent subsistance, that I deem the moon-struck
man as a hopeless case. . . .
' * N.B. Lamb supped with me last night. Infection ! '
The first news of 1803 is of Burnett, who had again gone
to pour out his wrath over Southey. Southey describes the
scene on January 12 : —
' George the second has quarrelled with me in the oddest
of all possible ways : he says I treated him with neglect
and contempt in London, and that another person saw it
as well as himself. There is reason to believe he means
Lamb, and if it be so, Burnett has been making some mis-
take about him as well as me, taking jest perhaps for sober
earnest. This however is the least part of my offence. I
and Coleridge he says have been the cause of all his un-
happiness, and what he justly calls idiotism : we never
treated him properly. Now treated is here used in the dis-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 85
pensary sense of the word. " Every human being can
influence the mind of another human being if placed near
him, and upon this great truth all the principles of education
depend." The second George laid down this proposition
in Bristol streets at noonday, speaking so loud that every
body might hear him, and rolling his eyes to see who listened.
Well — now for the minor : " but you and Coleridge did not
properly influence my mind," and so the syllogism was to
end in a quarrel, that is he gravely desired never to see me
while he was in Bristol. His mind was not healthy enough
to form a sound result (tho' he was sure he was right), and
if on his recovery from a stomach complaint he found out
that he had been mistaken in thinking thus harshly of me,
why he would let me know. All this is truly absurd, but
certain old habits of affection make me sorry for it. Damn
his fool's head, he has been feeding upon Scotch meta-
physics ... he walks tiptoe and talks of his high moral
views of things and principles of action above those of
common men. " Common men ! " By God he is an un-
common one, mad as ever was Don Quixote or Loyola, and
precisely from the same cause, exclusively reading what he
did not understand.'
In answer Rickman remarks : —
'I understand that Burnet was much worse than ever
before, and it seems that Bristol does not agree with him,
nor I think will any part of this planet of ours : would he
were departed from it ; a wish conceived in charity to him.'
And in postscript to a letter of February 1 : —
' About George n. : Lamb indeed thinks that you and
Coleridge did mischief to the man by your notice and
society : but does not therein find fault with the agents but
with the patient. The fool always thought himself a wit
doubtless ; which was a mistake : and after you noticed him,
an eminent wit ; which was a greater mistake. But only
the material was to blame ; what had been polish to a
firmer substance was dissolution to his flimsy skull.'
86 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Lamb was a keen judge of men.
In March comes Rickman's first letter to Thomas Poole. 1
■ March 23rd, 1803.
' My dear Sir, — I saw your friend Mr. Coleridge on
Monday, and learned from him that you were returned to
England after having attained the objects of your pere-
grination very fully. I enclose with this letter a few pages
to be bound up with the Popn. Vols., which I believe you
have, though for my soul I cannot recollect in what manner,
yet I am sure I sent them to somebody who was to send
them to you, I think to Chancery Lane. If you have them
not, write to enquire thereof your French house.
' I understand from Mr. C. that you are working hard at
the Poor Laws (that are to be), and I long to know the
result of your speculations therein, depending on it that
something very practical and therefore useful will be
produced by you on that subject. But what will you do
with town poor ? My wish sends all London miserables
to Primrose Hill to grow vegetables for us, out-door work
seeming desirable, and the workhouses in town miserable
gaols to the inhabitants, and unwholesome for the whole
neighbourhood. However, in the winter my ragged colony
(that is, redeemed from rags. Am I in Ireland again ?) may
pursue many other manufactures, which may require most
manipulation. For the country poor I desire only a com-
pulsory law that parishes shall provide certain ground for
those thought worthy of indulgence, and the rest would soon
become worthy.
' You see how freely I write my rambling ideas, hoping
to receive something valuable in return. You must know
I take you for a sort of cosmopolite, willing to apply all
things to the best purpose for the general benefit of man-
kind. Looking upon you as a machine of some value in
that behalf, I would desire you to consider whether you
ought not to spend a year or two in London for your im-
provement. I know that the country produces or fosters
1 Quoted in Thomas Poole and his Friends, ii. 107.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 87
genius beyond the town, but of knowledge, not so. I think
that a man's store must have many chasms in it who is not
conversant with the Catalogue Men who know something
of everything and prate like parrots what they have heard
of others. They serve for vehicles of knowledge, though
one cannot hold them very high, and I think you would
gain much by being in the way of all the modes by which
knowledge here approaches to general knowledge more or
less. How often have I spent my brain in considering and
labouring certain points in the country and afterwards
found all the world has long since perfectly known and
agreed in the result of my lucubrations. It is provoking
so to waste one's self, but I think it must happen sometimes
in the metropolis as well as in other countries remote. I
suppose I have an inclination that you should be here for
the pleasure of seeing you sometimes. I am sure, however,
that is not my first motive, for I, too, in my degree of
affectation at least, chance also to be a cosmopolite, and
therefore (among better reasons) your friend and servant.'
The next letter to Southey shows how great was Lamb's
attachment to Rickman. During Mary Lamb's attacks of
insanity he used to cut himself off from all but the very
closest friends.
' March 30th, 1803.
' . . . Yesterday evening or rather afternoon, C. Lamb
came in somewhat abruptly, and at sitting down, shed some
tears. The cause is distressing ; inasmuch as his sister is
again seized with an unhappy derangement ; and has been
therefore compelled to go into custody, away from home,
but as she has usually recovered in about two or three
months, we may hope the best. Poor Lamb recovered
himself pretty well towards night, and slept at my house :
he dines with me to-day, and then hopes that he will be
steadied. He desires me to thank you for the wish you
expressed of his spending some time with you in his next
vacation. Write to him just to amuse him, he feels dreary,
88 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and would like a letter from any friend. I believe Coleridge
is going to chum with him some time for company's sake.
. . . Mr. Poole of Stowey has returned from the Continent,
as I hear, full of information about the poor of all places.
He is a solid thinking man ; and his subject of contem-
plation and enquiry well chosen — very useful and very
practicable, as I take it. Quaere — Whether a Beguinage
story may not make an appendix to anj^thing he may think
of publishing concerning the poor in general.
' I learnt of this gentleman's return from Coleridge,
whom I have seen twice. I am a little annoyed by a habit
of assentation, which I fancy I perceive in him ; and cannot
but think that he likes to talk well, rather than to give or
receive much information. I understand he is terribly
pestered with invitations to go to parties, as a singer does,
to amuse the guests by his talent ; a hatefull task I should
think : I would rather not talk finely, than talk to such
a purpose. . . .'
.Rickman had heard a rumour that Southey intended
visiting London to complete some business with his pub-
lishers. In a letter of April 4, asking him to stay, Rickman
makes a characteristic comment : —
' I understand Longman and Rees affect to furnish tea
and toast once a week to hungry Literati. A blessed
society it must be, considering the fashionable sort of con-
versation among that class of beings ; abstraction of all
sorts ; information of no sort ; envy, murmurings and
meanness. The day of little men is come ! '
Southey's visit occurred in June. It was the first of
many occasions when he stayed at Westminster with
Rickman. Writing to W. S. Landor in 1809 J Southey
thus describes his welcome : —
' His manners are stoical ; they are like the husk of
a cocoanut, but his inner nature is like the milk within
its kernel. When I go to London I am always his guest.
1 Life and Correspondence, of R. S., iii. 215.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 89
He gives me but half his hand when he welcomes me at
the door, but I have his whole heart, — and there is not
that thing in the world which he thinks would serve or
gratify me that he does not do for me, unless it be some-
thing which he thinks I can as well do myself.'
I will also quote here Sou they 's description of another
visit in 1806. 1 It is to his friend Danvers.
' So I passed much of my time, — that is at Rickman's,
— and usually got to bed at my own right reasonable
hour, as soon as the clock struck ten. ... I was left
at perfect liberty, and no difference was made in the
domestic arrangements whether I dined there or abroad.
John the boy, the happiest of all boys in London, was at
my service, to light a fire for me in the little parlour below
stairs whenever I chose, to bring me biscuits, cheese, and
ale when I was hungry, and to run errands for me when-
ever I was pleased to call him from running after a butterfly
in the garden, picking snails, playing with the cat, or
quarrelling with the maid, who is an ogress, and beats
him with the fire-shovel.'
It was during this visit in 1803 that Southey, Rickman,
and his sister went with the Lambs to Sadlers Wells to see
some absurd plays. The excursion is mentioned in a letter
from Mary Lamb to Dorothy Wordsworth, 2 who says that
while Charles and Miss Rickman laughed the whole time,
Southey and Rickman went to sleep. Southey at this
time also made an arrangement with Longmans to edit
the Bibliotheca Britannica on a large scale. Rickman was
to do articles on Bacon and others. The scheme, however,
fell through.
In July Rickman made his offer to Thomas Poole to
supervise the administration of the new Poor Law Act,
which was accepted with alacrity. The correspondence
1 Selections from the Letters of R. S., i. 374.
a Published for the first time by Mr. E. V. Lucas, Works of C. and M.
Lamb, vi. 275.
90 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
on the subject during the next few months is quoted by-
Mrs. Sandford. 1 Meanwhile, George Burnett had, in a fit
of repentance, sent a circular round to his friends (which
Southey mentions) announcing his recovery from ' mental
distortion,' and asking Rickman for a place under the
Government. Rickman's comment to Southey is that
he wishes to have nothing to do -with him. He cautions
Southey against telling him of Poole's prospective employ-
ment, because he would rather lose his right hand ' than
be accessory again to his [Burnett's] ruining office business
with his yawning presence : it was moral turpitude in me
to suffer him so long on a similar occasion ; he stopped
positive work in others to the amount of treble his own
negative idleness and unconscionable sloth.'
It is probably to this circular letter of Burnett's, which
Southey also mentions, that Lamb alludes in the short
note to Rickman dated July 16.
' Dear Rickman, — I enclose you a wonder, a letter from
the shades. A dead body wants to return, and be inrolled
inter vivos. 'Tis a gentle ghost, and in this galvanic age
it may have a chance.' 2
Lamb proceeds to mention that he and Mary are setting
out for the Isle of Wight, and on July 27 he and Captain
Burney sent a very humorous joint letter from Cowes
describing their mode of life. 3
But soon a fresh scheme was on foot for Burnett's regenera-
tion, into which Southey and Rickman threw themselves
with a will. On July 28 Southey announced that Burnett
wished to become a naval surgeon, and asked Rickman
1 Thomas Poole and his Friends, ii. 109-113.
2 In his note on this letter Mr. E. V. Lucas (Works of C. and M. Lamb,
vi. 278) says : ' I cannot explain the reference to the dead body. . . .
I have no real theory to put forward ; but it once occurred to me that
the letter from the shades was from George Burnett, who had quarrelled
with Rickman, and had now possibly appealed to his mercy through
Lamb.'
3 This was published in Ainger's edition of the Letters, ii. 253.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 91
to do what he could. ' Poor devil,' he concludes, ' if he
should one day cut off a leg above the tourniquet by mistake,
God forgive me if he should. But what can be done, for
he will neither drown nor turn Methodist parson ? ' Rick-
man, though unwilling to come into direct communication
again with George n., replied that he would give every
information. The result was that Burnett shortly appeared
in London, where Carlisle (afterwards Sir Anthony), the
surgeon, gave him hospital practice free. The even tone
of the correspondence of Southey and Rickman was broken
by the sad news of the death of the poet's daughter.
Southey's letter is very touching.
■ August 24, 1803.
' You have probably heard how my home comforts have
been cut down to the ground. My little girl was laid by
the side of Mrs. Dan vers yesterday. She was the little
wonder and favourite of the neighbourhood. I loved her
better than man ought to love anything of such uncertain
existence.
' We are going to Keswick, the best place for poor Edith,
she is almost heart-broken. Hers are all chronic feelings,
and it will be long before she recovers. As for me sup-
pression is so much my habit and system that a stricture
ought to be my natural death. I work double tides, work
bodily at packing, talk, eat, as I should do. I am resigned
and shall soon be contented — cheerful and even joyous —
but happy as I have been to that full extent and with all
that full knowledge of my own happiness, that cannot be
till I have another child, if it please God to give me another,
nor even then unless it shall be such as the one we have lost.
—God help you, R. S.'
On November 9 news came from Rickman of a jibbing
disposition on Burnett's part.
' George n. works on pretty well at the W. [West-
minster] Hospital. I have not seen him often ; but the
92 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
last time he visited me (three days since) he exhibited
rebellious symptoms against the navy, and threatened that
he would go into the militia as a more genteel situation.
I told him that I wished the navy for him, not as a school
of manners or society, but as the most likely cure for his
disease, which is yet so strong upon him, that (inter
oscitandum) he held forth for two hours about the action of
mind on mind ; of the peculiarity of circumstance which
has induced his former imbecillity ; of the particular
attention he ought to pay to a person of so much value as
himself ; of not embracing any offer of service which
might in the event lead him into any dangerous climate,
etc., etc. I look upon it, that the army is a service tending
to cause such a disease as his ; and that his longing for it
is a mark that he is incurable. If so, he may as well saunter
and yawn with a red coat on his back as any other colour.'
On the same day Rickman, obviously being in a trenchant
mood, gave his opinion to Poole of the British Government. 1
' ... It would be very pleasant if we could make
Englishmen a little better informed than they are. Whether
this can be done by any Government I know not, but feel
uncomfortably certain that such an attempt will never be
made by our Government, the distinguishing character of
which seems to consist in being more backward in proportion
to the intellect of many of its subjects than any Government
in the world. What think you of the manner of distributing
schedules throughout the Kingdom ? As it might have
been done in the days of Alfred. The institution of the
Post Office bestows no facility, because Government have
never thought it worth while to establish agents through
the country for the purpose of internal regulation and
information. I fear we shall never see our Government
worthy of our country. They make loans and new taxes ;
both badly, and that is the sum total of their exploits in
the last century.'
1 Quoted in Thomas Poole and his Friends, ii. 113.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 93
A week or two later Rickman received a characteristic
letter from George Dyer.
' 21 November 1803.
' Dear Sir, — I understood, at the time I wrote this
letter, that you was not returned : a person by the name of
Stow was to call on you, whom I recommended to you as
a writer, a man of good character, and who, as a writer,
will be able to give a good account of himself to you. I
have another case to mention to you ; if you have room
for more writers, there is a person of Clifford's Inn, who is
of (sic) admirably qualified, for quickness, elegance etc.
etc. Indeed he is qualified to possess a much higher
situation — has himself been in one — and will be so again
soon. In the mean time, he is now in great want of a
situation for a few months, and it would be great kindness
to find him employment. I am not personally acquainted
with him myself. But my laundress is his laundress, and
from what I have seen of his writing, and know of his
character and situation from Mrs. Devonshire, I know you
could not have a more proper person to copy for you.
He would I know much rather have the writings to his
own rooms to copy ; and that perhaps, might suit you as
well. But of this you will judge. If you wish to know
more, pray favour me with a fine or call, or write to or call
on " Mrs. Devonshire, Clifford's Inn." This woman is kind
and good to everybody, and keeps his rooms for him, etc.
for at present he is not in chambers. The gentleman's
name is Marrill. I do not spell his name right ; but that
is no matter. If you write to Mrs. Devonshire, or call
upon her, you will either hear from, or see him immediately.
This vile weather, conspiring with my vile complaint, pre-
vents my calling on you ; but I will the first opportunity.
Yours truly, G. Dyer. 5
This letter was sent by Rickman to Southey on Decem-
ber 4 with a delightful commentary.
' . . . Geo. i. is relapsed into the full enjoyment of
94 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
petty patronage and blind benevolence. He went to Lamb
the other day, and put 1/6 into his hand, explaining that
he had prevailed on somebody to buy the unfortunate
Jno. Woodville at that half price (he Geo. I. not having
been desired to have anything to do with the sale of the
book). Lamb pocketed the 1/6 with due complacency,
and G. D. concluded his exploit with saying, how little he
could now do for those he wished to serve ! I also send
you herewith a recommendatory letter from the said Geo. i.
which you may place in your Museum Curiosum : the
man thus recommended, turns out to be a spendthrift,
whose friends being weary of paying his debts, he is forced
to keep close.
' Geo. ii. is unus and idem. He discovered that a sea-
life and sea-companions are very unworthy of his high
moral views and intellectual enjoyment, and moreover
said he, I may be ordered to the W. Indies, and then the
yellow fever ! Said I, Why are not you to take your chance,
as do other men ? You talk in the second person, said
Geo. H. So his maritime views are abandoned, and he has
got some appointment in a militia. For this he wants
money, and wrote a begging circular to all he knew ; and
thinks himself justified in being sulky with all who did not
chuse to aid him in his militia scheme. I understood from
Carlisle, that he had properly stuffed him with surgery
for the occasion of some subordinate examination ; which
passed, Carlisle wished him to expend the rest of the
stuffing on the Surgeons' Hall Examination, which is final
for H.M. Service. George n. pleaded want of cash, £3.
This appearing a usefull expence, I sent the needfull to
Carlisle, and wrote to B. accordingly ; but true to himself
he refused the exertion, so that now if promotion in the
miserable militia should be offered him, he must again come
to town, again study, and be examined at last. I have
jyrivate intelligence that W. T. [Taylor] of Norwich has been
very munificent to this poor useless lofty wretch. . . .'
The incorrigible G. B. had taken the opportunity, on
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 95
passing his minor examination, of trying to raise loans
from all likely persons. Southey was annoyed because
Burnett had applied to his friend May for £30, without
even knowing him, and Poole, who was a near neighbour
of Burnett's in Somerset, received the following letter,
which he preserved : —
' My dear Sir, — I doubt not you will be surprised to
receive a letter from one of whom you possibly have not
even heard for some years. I have learned from Mr.
Rickman the circumstance of your being in town, as also
your place of abode. The subject of my present address
will perhaps still more excite your wonder. But I will
not take up your time by needless apologies, indeed my
only excuse for troubling you is that of necessity.
' I have lately procured an appointment as assistant
surgeon in a Militia regiment, but the expenses of equipment
are far too considerable for my purse, which in truth is
exhausted. As the regiment is in barracks, and bedding
etc., in addition to regimentals, must be found by the
officers, I have calculated, or rather it has been done for
me, by the person I am to succeed, that not less than £40
will be required to furnish the perquisites to my entering
upon duty. I know not any one among the number of my
friends who both can and will advance me such a sum.
Indeed I have already made some ineffectual applications.
Would such a favour too far exceed the limit of your
generosity ? My means of repayment are these : — My
pay will be £2 a week, exclusive of the Mess dinner, and as
the regiment is in barracks my other expenses may be
comparatively trifling. Surely I may save half my pay
and devote it to the liquidation of my debt, which I should
prefer doing by instalments as £4 or £5 a month. In the
course of a twelvemonth at any rate the whole may be
discharged.
' I have moreover a prospect of obtaining some literary
job from Phillips when I know what exercises of this sort
will be compatible with the above-mentioned situation.
96 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
On this source of repayment however, you perceive, I do
not rely.
' I have set my heart on this situation, not only because
it seems to be my only present resources for a mainten-
ance but because I feel a confidence that it will rouse me
from that joyless torpor into which I have been long
sunk. It is of little consequence whether the situation
be desirable, absolutely considered, it is enough that it
prove good as a mean. The enchantment of Pantiso-
cracy threw a gorgeous light over the objects of life,
but it soon disappeared and has left me in the darkness
of ruin !
' Allow me to request a speedy answer. I have written
not with the expectation but only with the hope that your
kindness will oblige. — Your obedient servant,
' Geo. Burnett.'
Poole apparently showed this to Rickman, who was very
incensed with Burnett for refusing to enter for the final
Surgeons' Hall examination. He forwarded Burnett's reply,
with a note of his own, to Poole.
1 Sir, — The now or never do not appear to me the only
possible alternatives. Should I hereafter determine to
look forward to advancement in His Majesty's service it
would perhaps be advisable to take out my diploma. This
expense would be considerable and I should have an
objection to incurring what I should deem an unnecessary
obligation. I thank you however for your good inten-
tions and remain, yours, etc.
1 Was ever before such an animal extant ? He lives at 27 William
Street if you chuse to give him a drive. J. R.'
Poole seems to have urged Burnett to do as Rickman
wished ; whereupon he received the following pompous
communication : —
' Sir, — I have now scarcely a doubt remaining that I
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 97
shall be able to accomplish my own object. If therefore
an examination at Surgeons' Hall should hereafter be
thought necessary it will be easy, at any time during the
ensuing winter to get leave of absence for a few days, and
to come to town for that express purpose. In this case I
shall incur no obligation.
' You say that in submitting myself to an examination
at the present time I shall oblige Mr. Rickman. Surely
in a matter which concerns my own happiness only I have
a right to choose. Whether Mr. Rickman designs me any
future good is a question impossible for me to decide. He
has never treated me with sufficient respect and confidence
to declare any intentions he might possibly have formed
respecting me. For this reason only therefore it behoves
me not to look to him for any future elevation. I have
moreover his positive declaration that I am to expect
nothing from him under any condition. Besides I had
lately a note from him in which he trusts I shall look
forward to advancement in the army or navy only for
my future means of support. Hence, unless there be
nothing in words and declarations, I have nothing either
to hope or to fear from Rickman. If the promises he has
given me be just, I have shown it would be vain to hope,
it would be in like manner absurd to fear, because I am
too insignificant a personage to be thought worthy even
of Mr. Rickman's contempt.
' Your note evidently proceeds on the supposition that
my means of going into the Militia will fail me. Allow me
also to add that your plans, if such they may be called, as
well as those of Rickman, rest on the opinion not only of
my present incapacity but on the assumption likewise of
paulo post future incapacity. This may be the case ; per-
haps it is likely it will, still I cannot help thinking that
such an inference is not perfectly logical. It is now about
five years since all enjoyment of life, that deserves the
name of enjoyment, has to me been annihilated. This is
a tyranny of condition which withers the soul more than
can be imagined by those whose situation in life has been
G
98 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
different. Yet I own that myself am chiefly to blame.
As soon as I suffered anxiety to make me idle I grew con-
tinually worse and worse till from failure of memory I
had lost the power of self -improvement. Latterly I have
been gradually rising again, and I trust that as soon as
I have a definite situation I shall be once more restored
to health, to confidence and hope. But I forget that I
am trespassing upon your time. — Yours etc'
Meanwhile Rickman had been showing Poole one of his
worst characteristics — a harsh temper. Poole's friend, Tom
Wedgwood, who was an invalid, had twice sent letters
addressed to Poole under cover to the Speaker, in spite
of one warning. On the second offence Rickman breaks
out : —
' December 3rd, 1803.
' Sir, — I see a letter at the Speaker's directed to you
which I believe came under cover to him by yesterday's
post. I am sorry to believe that the hand- writing is the
same as the former letter imperfectly addressed to me,
and on the receipt of which, (if my message was not imper-
fectly delivered) I requested you to write instantly to
stop any further such unpleasant occurrence. I request
to know of you at what post town this letter was probably
put in, that I may enclose it with a note to Mr. FreeUng,
and desire him to charge it properly. Before these instances
I never heard of any person sending under cover to another
without permission, and much less to one so much unknown
to you and your correspondent as is the Speaker, who in
common decency is not to be made a letter carrier. If
you can give any explanation which may take away from
you any blame in these two instances, I shall be very glad
to receive it, when you send me intelligence of the post
town of this letter. Both for public and private reasons
I shall be very sorry to be compelled to think ill of your
delicacy, but I must beg that you do not attempt to see
me until you have sent this explanation.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 99
Poor Poole answered at once : —
' I have this instant received your letter and I can
easily imagine good reasons for the warmth with which
it is written, and as easily convince you how little of that
warmth ought to light upon me. In the early part of
our own correspondence you desired me to address your
letters and any papers which I wished to send you under
cover to the Speaker, which I of course invariably did.
When you were in Hampshire you wrote me a letter advis-
ing me to be in town in a few days and at the same time
proposed to me to request some friend to take lodgings
for me by the time I came up. I wrote and requested
lodgings to be taken, but there was not time before it was
necessary that I should leave home for me to receive an
answer informing me where these lodgings were. I knew
my business in town would lead me immediately to you,
and I knew too that you would know where I was, and I
was not certain that any other friend of mine in town
would for some days know this fact. When I came to
Bristol I met with Mr. T. Wedgwood. He asked me where
a letter would immediately find me in town, as he thought
he should be obliged to write to me the next day requesting
me to go to the War Office concerning a Volunteer Corps
which he was raising in Westmorland. I told him I did
not know where I should be, but that Mr. Rickman would
know, and that a letter under cover to him would certainly
find me. I added, and Mr. Rickman's address you may
put under another cover to the Speaker. On the very day
on which I received that letter, agreeably to your message
to me and certainly to my own feelings I expressly informed
him that my address was now No. 16 Abingdon Street.
How he omitted to attend to this I am at a loss to imagine,
unless I may suppose that he had mislaid my letter and
forgotten the address which it contained, and yet, wishing
to write to me, had repeated his former mistake. I need
not say that I will write to him expressly on the subject,
so soon as I receive the letter which you say was received
100 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
yesterday by the Speaker, and will take care that no repeti-
tion of the circumstance occurs.
' You have now the sum of my offence, and will appre-
ciate it as you think proper. I leave it to your discern-
ment to ascertain the want of delicacy in my conduct
and to determine how far I was actuated by the desire of
saving postage. You do not yet know me, and your letter
was written hastily and with unnecessary asperity.'
Rickman's answer to this very fair excuse was grudging,
to say the least of it.
' December 5th, 1803.
' My dear Sir, — I send you the Bristol letter which I
have released from durance by reading your explanation
to the Speaker. He had already sent to No. 16 Abingdon
Street to enquire for his new acquaintance, and was to
keep the letter till applied for. You do not know how
much jealousy this affair of franks necessarily exists under ;
I myself remember once to have opened a large packet in
Ireland supposed to be a Government despatch, which
contained a quantity of smuggled muslin for a maid-servant
at the Castle.
' I am sorry that I cannot see your justification in the
same light that you put it, since I think that the Bristol
conversation with Mr. W. was rather imprudent than
blameable, and not worth notice, and that the blame alto-
gether rests on your neglect of not distinctly desiring your
friend not to direct under cover again when you found that
you had brought my name in question in so disagreeable
a manner. As to giving your own direction, that had no
reference to my desire nor to a remedy of the evil com-
plained of.
' I shall not notice this provoking affair any further,
there are reasons enough of all sorts why nothing more
should be said about it.'
Poole's dignified answer seems to have healed the breach.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 101
' I cannot describe to you, my dear sir, the pain
which the business of franks and letters has given me within
the last two or three days. When your harsh letter of
Saturday arrived I was extremely ill, and little wanted
the assistance of mental irritation to render me incapable
of fully and properly stating what I had to say in my defence.
I was conscious that I had not swerved from all the feeling
of honour and of delicacy which I had been able to collect
by the limited correspondence which I had had with the
world. I contented myself therefore with stating the
simple facts on which by some means or another originated
my conduct and left it to your own clear discernment to
deduce my justification, or at least with an excuse which
would satisfy one whom I thought a familiar friend. And
now what was my offence ? It ivas taking a liberty with
you which though it afterwards by W/s mistake turned
out to be taking a liberty with the Speaker, yet I was
utterly unconscious that such would be the event. I
took this liberty with you unthinkingly, it was the only
result of the kindness and confidence with which you had
treated me. I considered (if I considered at all, or rather
I felt without thought) that it would be a sort of affecta-
tion to have a letter directed to your house without its
being under cover to the Speaker, so much had I been in
the habit of addressing everything which was to come to
your hands under his name, and after all is not this view
of the subject very analogous to the common one which
is made of franks ? When a man gets a frank, does he
not make what use of it he pleases ? Does he not, (the
man of the nicest delicacy) transmit in it the letter of one
friend and of another, all perfectly unknown to the member
who gives the privilege, and what is the difference ? Only
that the one is going to the member, the other is com-
ing from him. The accommodation to the person who
gives is the same, the effect on the public revenue is the
same.
' As for the subsequent mistakes of the last two letters,
I am surprised at them. I am sure from the tenor of my
102 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
conversation with Wedgwood he was to direct to you only
till I could ascertain my fixed abode in town, and my fixed
abode I expressly mentioned to him in my first letter from
town, but God forbid I should cast any weight off my
shoulders, merited or not, to throw it upon his which can
so ill support it. It would make him miserable if he knew
what I had suffered on this occasion. He is already pressed
down with calamities which are almost too great for human
nature to bear. His case, considering his character, is one
of those which tempt one to rail against providence, and
to doubt the justice and benevolence of God. I know not
that I can say more ; perhaps you will think I have already
said too much. . . .
' I have now but one thing to add which I feel of great
importance. It is that you will obtain my pardon from
the Speaker, and make every due apology to him for my
having in a manner so improper, though certainly not
intended, obtruded myself on his notice. With this may
all end, and I trust that we shall be better friends, if better
could be, than ever.'
Early in 1804 Coleridge came up to London on his way to
Malta. He stayed for a short time with Poole at Abingdon
Street, and then migrated to Tobin's house in Barnard's
Inn. Rickman writes to Southey of him and others on
February 28.
' Poor Coleridge suffers from the absence of steady
work ; and as far as I can perceive labours under a disease
(which is not the Nostalgia) from that cause only. Homer
talks of persons in grief " eating up their own hearts " —
K7)p <f)i\ov e%ehwv — and I think a man of vivid genius,
idle in the country, must always do so, to the no small
annoyance of himself and co-habitants. This word reminds
me of George 2nd, who, having reached his regiment, im-
mediately discovered that it was not worth while to retain
a situation " which he might get any day." So he returned
without having purchased regimentals, and now feeds on
money procured by his mendicant circular. Quaere, Is
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 103
not this to obtain money on false pretences : uncourteously
termed in the vulgar tongue, swindling ? I understand that
he thinks, or pretends to think, that he is going with a Polish
nobleman to Poland, to take care of some books there. . . .
Poole works on pretty well : except that vanity in his em-
ployment has overset him more than could have been
expected. But the thing will be pretty well done.'
Of Poole's little weakness Rickman says in another
letter : —
' His friends are all invited to disturb the office that
they may see his greatness in it, and he writes long useless
letters continually to the Under Secretary of State, or any
other great man he can find pretence to address. In the
mean time his handwriting and his verbose indirect style
equally unfit him for official correspondence.'
During February and March Rickman, who had under-
taken to find a ship for Coleridge, received nine letters
from that wayward genius. All are not of equal interest,
but four are worthy of publication. It will be seen that
Coleridge too had some little trouble about a frank ; but
Rickman must have refrained from hurting Coleridge's sen-
sibilities, for, in addition to the warm expressions which
Coleridge uses, he says in another farewell note that he
will think of Rickman wherever he is ' in simple nakedness
of heart.'
' Feb. 18, 1804.
' My dear Sir, — You were so kind as to express your
intention of gaining some information for me from the
gentleman, whom I was so unlucky as to miss meeting. I
am not quite certain whether or not I distinctly stated the
desiderata : — 1. Are there any vessels likely to go to Malta
or Sicily ? And when ? Is there a King's ship going, with
other, or by itself ? And what chance have I of procuring
a passage on board it ? My object is to reach Catania as
shortly and inexpensively, as I can — and I suppose, that my
104 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
only, or best, way is to be landed at Malta, and thence to
Syracuse in a (by me unspellable) Spallonieri, which is but
six hours voyage. I am at present lodged at Tobin's :
wholly disengaged, every day but Friday next, and so I shall
keep myself. If you should happen to have even only an
hour or two of any of the intervening evenings, before we
meet at Tobin's, it would be a pleasure to me to be with
you — if you would let me know what time you are even
likely to be at home, and really have the time quite ad
libitum. Of course, I should not take the liberty of saying
this but that it will not give me the least pain, if your time
should be wholly pre-engaged tho' it will give me pleasure
if it should be otherwise — and if I did not know enough of
you, and hope that you know enough of me, to believe that
you will use no sort of ceremony whatsoever ; indeed, if I do
not hear from you, I shall take it for granted that your time
is anticipated. I met G. Burnet this morning. It made
my heart feel almost as if it was going to ake when I looked
at his eyes — they seemed so thoroughly those of an opium
chewer — Heaven be praised, if I am mistaken — but he
talked so nervously and stated his plans so very, very
helplessly. He is going to Poland with no French in the
power of his tongue, and much less, than he himself supposes
in the power of his eyes — and as to looking into a Sclavonic
or German Grammar — why, yes he had been thinking of it.
— Your's my dear Sir with unfeigned esteem,
' S. T. Coleridge.
' I had an excellent letter yesterday from Southey. I know
no instance of greater prospects made in vigor of mind, in
robustness of understanding, than that made by our friend
in the last two or three years/
' Tuesday Morning [Feb. 25].
' My dear Sir, — I have been day after day about to
answer your kind and to me very interesting note. I had
called on Mr. Welles, long long before Southey's letter —
indeed as early as was necessary. But the general remark
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 105
has truth in it, but not as a short [? word omitted] of my
original nature, neither does there exist on earth a man
more joyous, more various, in my enjoyments of retired
life, than I am. I have not been for some years without
great objects — and my indolence has almost altogether
arisen from my having been too constantly forced off
from these objects — but enough ! You will forgive me this
little escape of feeling — I have felt in your society a feeling
of confidence which I never felt in so short an acquaintance,
even in my younger days — a feeling arising, no doubt, in
great part from the familiarity of your name to my ears,
from Lamb and Southey, the two men, whom next to
Wordsworth, I love the best in the world. I have said this
even to you and fearless : indeed, I apprehend that we
seldom fear to say anything that we can say with the whole
heart. I have sent you some essays written at different
times in the M. Post — but the best are unfortunately not
there, especially the character of Pitt and one on Lord
Grenville's Politus, which I have never been able to think
meanly of, and (shame on me, if I speak with any affected
humility) to think meanly of what I have written, almost
immediately after the hot fit of composition, is ever a
disease of my mind. Those, I suppose that will stand the
best chance of interesting you are [on] Mr. Poole's Defence
of Farmers.
' As soon as my Volunteer Essays, and whatever of a
Vindiciae Addingtonianae I can effect by simple attacks
of the antagonists of [that] Minister, are published, they
shall be sent to you without fail. If you have heard any-
thing of the ship for Malta, you will be so good as to give
me a fine from 9 in the morning till 4 o'clock. My best
address is, Mr. Coleridge, Courier Office, Strand. After that
time No. 7, Barnard's Inn, Holborn. . . . — Believe me, dear
Sir, your's very sincerely, S. T. Coleridge.
1 1 spent yester-evening with Lamb — and shall be there
this evening sans fail.'
106 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' Wednesday, March 14, 1804.
'My dear Sir, — I thank you for your kind note. I
received the letter duly. To-morrow I must dine with
Stuart, 1 as I shall be at his office arranging my own concerns
till the very hour of dinner ; but I will be with you by a
quarter before 7 infallibly, and Mary with Lamb will come
with me. . . . The East India House has very politely
made me a present thro' Mr. Charles Lamb, an Eminent in
the Indian Service, of a hundred or so of pens ; and if the
H. of Commons would do the same, with a stick or two of
wax, in short, any little additament that might be made
instrumental in the service of G. Britain by spreading and
increasing its literary action upon the world, I should
consider as a flattering mark of respect from that Honor-
able Assembly — and should prize it considerably more than
ever a Vote of Thanks and recommendation for a title —
unless a good warm salary or estate were the gilt lace to my
Coat of Arms. — Yours, my dear sir, with affectionate well
wishing and sincere esteem, S. T. Coleridge/
' 7, Barnard's Inn, Tobin's,
1 Monday, March 26, 1804.
1 My dear Sir, — I have crawled hither, and having
crawled on to the Strand, to Stuart's, I must be carried
back. I have again been miserably ill . . . but I am
literally sick of thinking, talking, and writing about my own
miserable carcase. I have received orders from the Captain
instantly to take my place for Portsmouth, at the latest
to be at Portsmouth by Wednesday early-morning. Ac-
cordingly, I have taken my place by the Tuesday's evening
Mail. So much of myself. — As to the pacquets the greatest
part by far of my suffering arise from my imagination
having conjured up very livelily the possibility of your
having been placed in an uneasy situation — in an indelicate
one for you, and there seemed such a dreadful unappropri-
ateness in your character to the very pretence of such a
1 Editor of the Morning Post.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 107
thing, that I at first and till I received your letter, fretted
about it. My dear sir ! I am on the point of leaving my
friends, children, country — and in a very weak state of
health, and that my mind is rather in a sad and somewhat
solemn mood, will appear to most people no other than
natural. Whether I return is to my own feelings uncertain.
If I had stayed, I know that I should have had your friend-
ship, if not in the highest, yet definedly not in the common-
place sense of the word, for I should have appeared to you
finally as I am, and of the sum-total of that I am not ashamed.
Of yourself let me say a few words to you, at a minute,
when I am incapable of even thinking a thought not accorded
to by my earnest conviction. I had been taught to form
a high opinion of you by two men, whom I love and know,
and I leave you with a far higher. All your habits both
of action and feeling, your whole code of self-government —
would to God I could but imitate them as entirely as I
approve of them ! If I had written, admire them, you ought
not to have been disgusted, for approbation accompanied
by a sense of the difficulty would make no very bad de-
finition of admiration. — But I am as weak at heart as in
body and must have . . . [illegible]. If I see anything
in Malta or Sicily likely to interest you, be assured, that all
my habits of indolence will not be strong enough to prevent
me from communicating them to you. I inclose W. Taylor's
letter. It is a very sensible one — every one must have his
prepossessions. My coolest retrospects do not furnish me
with anything decisive in favour of Mr. Fox, either as a wise
or a good man. — God bless you, my dear Sir, I shall ever
remain, with affectionate esteem your friend and present
well-wisher, S. T. Coleridge.'
On Coleridge's departure Rickman comments thus to
Southey : —
< Mar. 26th, 1804.
1 1 have just heard from Coleridge, that he goes for
Portsmouth to-morrow evening. He is very unwell in
108 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
body and his mind very depressed, and very excitable
by objects to other men scarce visible or feelable. Your
prudence nail not tell this to his fireside, and the voyage
may cure him. If he dies, it will be from a sulky imagina-
tion, produced from the general cause of such things ; i.e.
want of regular work or application : which is great pity.
Happening to look into the Lyrical Ballads the other day,
there was (under the title " Lines left on Seat under a Yew
Tree ") an account of somebody so written as to be very
evidently a self-portrait — Wordsworth's I believe ; and the
same would not be very un-true of Coleridge. It is certainly
to admire Nature in the country too much, when it leads us
into final Evil, and self-discontent, so founded as those
lines demonstrate to be felt, and justly felt, can hardly be
denied. Why should not the beauties of Nature be to a
grown thinking man, what play hours are at school ?
Then no harm would be done, and the world would not
lose men capable of being the most usefull members of
society. Miserable contemplations these ! ! ! Farewell !
Let us not cease to work, and let imagination work only
when it will work.'
Two letters of this summer, written to Southey and
Poole respectively, show Rickman's opinion of the new
Government of Pitt. To Southey : —
' May 4th, 1804.
' . . . Perhaps you will expect that I should say some-
thing of the expected new Administration ; but it is not
out yet ; and I rather think Dominus Rex holds out. It
is said, that his royal stomach can digest one disagreeable
morsel, but that Pitt and Fox at once are too much for him. 1
In the mean time this is so compleatly rumour, that I myself
do not happen to believe that Fox will be proposed to him
at all. I like Fox better than I did, for having joined his
ancient foe Pitt on the needfull occasion of ousting such
1 This was, of course, the case. The King expressly refused to admit
Fox.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 109
disgraceful! and dangerous fools and Court-favourites as we
have now been governed by a long three years. Our nation
was approaching vilification at a great rate. I hope that
we have seen the last experiment of Court appointment
of an Administration. Messrs. Addington, Yorke, 1 and
Hobart 2 at London, and Mr. Drake 3 at Munich ! Tpta-
fxeytcrToi UaWe? ! It is a load off the mind, to have been
lightened of such pitifull, mean, sneaking, shuffling fellows.
They just went out in time to prevent the P. of W. putting
in for a large share of power. That virtuous character is
not now likely to gain anything by his policy and
machinations, which have been incessant lately. If the
new Ministry should be, what it may by possibility be,
we shall not for some time have to fear this man, even
though he should become King.'
To Poole :—
' August Uth, 1804.
' Your letter has followed me into Sussex where I am
trying to be as idle as I can for a week or two. I desire
among other things to see the harvest, but the sight is bad
and the prospect not very good, for the present weather is
unfavourable and the blight you speak of very visible here.
I think Billy Pitt will be glad that the Corn Law No. 1 was
lost, else he would have heard more than he wished of it
at Xmas. That the natural rise of price had actually pre-
vented export would have aided him little with the mob,
whose opinion and that of the House of Commons are the
only opinions he cares for. Your friend Mr. Giddy published
a short pamphlet about the Corn Law as now passed. If
there are people of good sense on both sides of the question
we have the better chance for improvement in knowledge
if not in practice. Indeed that may be further off, the
Government of Britain not being yet civilised enough to
have advanced beyond temporary considerations and
1 Charles Yorke, M.P. for Cambridge ; then Secretary at War.
2 Lord Hobart, ex-governor of Madras ; Secretary for War and Colonies
in Addington's ministry. In 1804 he became Earl of Buckinghamshire.
3 British envoy at Munich.
110 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
imperfect shifts in everything. I am sure our country will
be ruined before the benefit and indeed present necessity
of official government and comprehensive arrangement of
our mighty power and capabilities be enforced. A sleepy
Government of Quietism will not be safe again until France
by some accident becomes once more badly, that is in-
efficiently, governed. . . .
' At present I am much dissipated in mind. Wanting
to write something of some half dozen things I write nothing,
chiefly because I know not which to begin with, and partly
because, though sure of my foundations I have not had
time so to establish each particular part as to be fit for
examination. I have a great mind to write of many things
just as far as I know them and just as I talk of them, and
then see if the medley seems worth mending. When I
have made up my mind about this you shall know that you
may see I am not unwilling, but much more really unable
to do well what much wants doing. Be sure I have a keen
appetite to methodise, or at least to point out methods for
the good management of our noble country in many reforms
of our neglected Government of the interior ; a waste of
half our national energy.'
In May Southey came to London, where he met Captain
Burney at Rickman's. The first letter after his departure
contains a passage characteristic of Rickman's utter dis-
belief in the honesty of all reformers.
' Do you think that the verminous Wilberforce really
expected to carry through his Slave Trade Bill ? * Or
that he introduced it so late in the Session that he might
augment his odour of sanctity and philanthropy etc.,
among his devotees, and yet the slaves might still be carried
to the W. Indies ? You will observe that, had he intro-
duced it directly after Xmas, it might ere now have been
law. Oh ! Smithfield and fiery faggots for that Holy Man !
I would willingly exalt him into a martyr.'
1 It passed its third reading in the Commons on June 27, but was thrown
out in the Lords.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 111
The only other news of 1804 was that Burnett really
did go to Poland, and earned for himself the nickname of
Count Burnetski. He was for nine months a kind of
private secretary to Count Zamoyski at his country estate.
The result of this voyage was a series of letters to the
London Magazine, which appeared in 1807 as a book
entitled A View of the Present State of Poland. The reader
of this book, knowing Burnett's character, will be surprised
at the sanity and vividness of his writing. It is a most
lively description of social life in Poland, which shows that
Burnett, in spite of his faults, was truly a man of parts.
In October 1805 he returned to England, violently in love
with a Polish princess, as South ey told Rickman. This was
probably Princess Czartoriska, of whom there is a glowing
portrait in the book. For a few years after his return
Burnett lived quite an exemplary life of labour. He pro-
duced his best known work, Specimens of English Prose
Writers to the End of the Seventeenth Century, in 1807, and
in 1809 a new edition of Milton's prose works. Both of
these books show considerable erudition and acuteness of
criticism.
During 1805 there are several letters from Rickman
to Poole, who had left London, having completed his task.
Besides his own extra labours — the secretaryships to two
Royal Commissions for constructing the Caledonian Canal
and for building roads and bridges in the Highlands — of
which I shall say more anon, and a few allusions to politics,
the chief subject was one Phillips, who had been employed
by Poole as a clerk on the Poor Law business, and who
was now in debt. Rickman took up with regard to him the
same attitude of stern benevolence that he did to Burnett.
He was wilhng to help him on the condition that no sen-
timental friends interfered, and that Phillips worked out
his own salvation. Ned Phillips was a friend of Lamb,
and we know from Lamb's letters that he was disappointed
a few years later of some official post in the employment
of the Royal Society. But his salvation came in 1814,
when he succeeded Rickman as Speaker's Secretary, a post
112 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
in which he continued certainly till 1833. 1 Lamb com-
mented on this change of fortune with great joy to
Coleridge in a letter of August 13, 1814. This particular
passage is only newly discovered, and is printed by Mr.
Lucas (Works of C. and M. Lamb, vii. 972). Lamb
says that ' poor, card-playing Phillips,' who was always
hopelessly in debt and down on his luck, can hardly believe
his good fortune ; so much so that cribbage has lost its
interest for him, since he no longer plays for to-morrow's
dinners or the price of necessary clothes. The one condition
imposed was that he should remain single. ' Here,' says
Lamb, ' I smell Rickman,' for Phillips had already made
one most unfortunate marriage.
It must have been gratifying to Rickman after his failure
with Burnett to find his caustic methods succeed with
another ne'er-do-weel.
The first letter to Poole in 1805 is dated May 12.
' . . . I am obliged to you for hunting country materials
for my purpose, and that you write with satisfaction at your
own. I am sorry to think that I shall have little opportunity
of communing with you here about that or anything else,
I shall be so painfully busy for the next three weeks. The
Caledonian Canal and Scotch Roads both now claim an
annual report of me, and the materials of the labour have
been expected in vain for three weeks. When they come
(tomorrow I hope) I must set to work for ten hours a day
for some time. . . .
' I am almost low spirited at thinking of the threatened
pressure of labour before me, but suppose that as usual
when at it I shall forget that sensation in my eagerness and
haste. However you must not say anything of brain
work to me till I have accomplished my task. Highland
improvement is a good thing, but not for my conveni-
ence. . . .
' Southey's Madoc has been out some time ; a bad book ;
1 He made a return of his salary to the Committee on the Offices of the
House of Commons which sat in that year.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 113
I cannot read it through, and as I dislike to tell him so it
will be long ere I write to him about it.
' Politics go on badly ; Pitt stays in because the King
and most of his subjects are afraid of Bonaparte's friend
and advocate, C. J. Fox. The Catholics petition tomorrow.
Impudent slaves of the Pope to ask for more than Protestant
Dissenters have. They will have their one answer I trow.'
Rickman did tell Southey. His criticism is contained
in a long letter of June 27, in which he says : —
' About Madoc : I am very glad to hear that the world
admires it and buys it ; though in reading it I confess I
cannot discover that it is in any degree so good as your
two former poems which I have read lately by way of
comparison. . . . The Virgilian Preface very oddly (as I
think) sets forth the planting of Christianity in America.
It is in the license of poetry to vary circumstances
and to insert incidents, but surely not to predicate a
result notoriously false. . . . Besides this, I much dis-
like the sort of nameless division you have adopted, and
the want of numbering the lines. . . . Neither do I like
the metaphysical kind of preachings produced by your
Welshmen for the instruction of savages. . . . There are
many sparkling well- finished passages, most of which I
had seen before ; the rest seems filled up with a very ill-
assorted betweenity.'
Southey, it must be said, took this very well ; he knew,
of course, that Rickman was no judge of poetry.
Poole's next letter is wholly of Phillips.
' tih July, 1805.
' I write chiefly because you write as 'pleading for Phillips.
The truth is that neither you nor anybody can be, or
can make me, better inclined to serve him than I am ; my
little pettishness does not interfere with serious calamities.
It is, that nothing can be done, not that I am unwilling to
do all in my power. Who can serve him, who heedlessly,
H
114 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
or, as you better say, through languor in money matters,
travels the road to ruin ? Alas ! the end of that road is
not difficult to reach ! I am very glad, however, to know
of the debt to you and Dalton ; there is not the least occa-
sion that you should mention the intelligence to Phillips,
but I wish you would desire Purkis to pay me £16 less than
£50 equal £34. In a better posture of his affairs I should
have great reason to be angered with Phillips for contract-
ing debts with anybody whom he knows only through me.
In such case though one's name is not used the influence is
felt, and I am extremely glad not to have that kind of half
debt (so incurred for me without my knowledge) on my
mind. I hope Dalton will lend him no more. I am not
surprised that I never knew the extent of Phillips' embarrass-
ment, but I am truly surprised to find now, that after he
was sensible I was near upon breaking with him at his
wife's death for sending her 60 miles in a hearse, and after
his protestation then given to a common friend that his
wife's mother was not to be any kind of expense to him,
to find that the woman remained a burden on him to her
death, and — incredible ! — that he sent her down when
dead 60 miles after her daughter ! I detested this vulgar
old woman because she conveyed to Phillips his wife's
desire to be buried at Towcester. If his wife did so desire
(which I believe not) the mother should have stifled such
a heinous folly uttered in the half delirium of approaching
death ; — if the wife did not so desire, what a horrid fiction,
big with ruin to the man who with romantic generosity
married a woman distressed, who had been refused to him
till that happened. I write myself into a passion thinking
of this low-lived creature.
' The sum total of evil (so far as I can collect) is that to
do any good to Phillips £200 down and £200 a year is the
lowest reasonable computation ; this being out of the
question, he must cease to consider himself as capable of
relief, and I think should enter himself as a marine ; for
that is the best service for a man who cannot dig or beg,
and whose imprudence has made him incurable, and must
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 115
keep him so. Prevent Dalton from lending him any more
and do not throw away any money in vain yourself.'
On August 21, in a letter to Poole which alludes to
the party negotiations of Pitt, who had been having
trouble in his Cabinet since the vote of censure on Melville
(at which Rickman's ' chief ' gave the casting vote),
the Secretary grows melancholy about his own labours.
He complains that he has been wasting precious hours doing
work ' not above the capacity of an attorney's clerk,' and
continues : —
' I heartily wish you were not in a mistake about the
possibility of my doing any part of my business by proxy.
So very small a portion of it could be so done that the
attempt is hopeless. Of course I am much discontented
at this and since the prorogation have discovered myself
to have been most basely and injuriously treated where
it was least to be expected, but I am caught in a net from
which I do not see the term of my liberation. My vexa-
tion at this and other things has been very heavy upon
me lately so that I am scarcely fit for anything, and you
must accordingly excuse any seeming inattention. Say
nothing of this to anyone, nor notice it to myself.'
The chief event of 1805 for Rickman was his marriage,
though he would not have his friends consider it so. The
lady of his choice was Miss Susannah Postlethwaite of
Harting in Sussex. Rickman had intended to marry her
for some time, but he speaks of what was, in many senses of
the term, a happy marriage in a most obstinately matter-of-
fact spirit. In September 1804 he had written to Southey :
' I have some intention of writing into the country for a
wife ; but have not quite made up my mind about it ' ; and
he spent Christmas of that year at Harting, as the addresses
on his letters show. The truth was that he was tired of
being uncomfortable with ' Aunt Beaumont and a maid,'
he was in a permanent and honourable position with a
certain income, and his friends, as he told his daughter in
116 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
after years, thought the time had come to marry ; and
so he did, not without misgivings. On October 23, in the
course of a letter to Southey, he says : ' You will find here
an additional person to welcome you, as I lately imported a
wife from the country by way of experiment : I think it
will answer : we shall see. I know you are on the side
of matrimony.' His announcement of the ' experiment '
to Poole is lost, but Poole seems to have replied with
congratulations a trifle too sentimental for the sturdy
Rickman. I close this chapter with Rickman's reply.
' 30th October 1805.
' I ought to notice your last letter first and very heartily
thank you for the good wishes it contains, as does the
lady who shares in them. You seem to think I have had
various speculations or intentions in the affair of marriage,
but it is not so, for I have done it quite in commonplace
way, except it may not be common, that the main ingredient
determining my choice was not love or gain — but an esteem
of very long standing — having been well acquainted with
the lady who has consented to migrate hither rather more
than a dozen years, and having always perhaps had so
much influence over her as to cause her, sensibly or insen-
sibly, to do and to think very much after my own taste.
So that when you come to town you may expect to see a
person not much unlike myself, abating that portion of
violence or eagerness which I would not encourage in petti-
coats. As to reasons for marrying now and not before,
they have chiefly been founded on not having been at all
satisfied with my vile employment in the House of Commons,
and reckoning myself therefore but a sojourner in this
house, which otherwise seemed to ask for a mistress from
the day I took possession of it. At last I thought that
half the age which David assigns to us permitted not pro-
longed delay, and I have taken the chance of events, only
unwillingly as feeling myself hereby rather more fastened
to the House of Commons, because every woman loves to
remain in a good house, and the lady in question has im-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 117
ported a country taste for plants and a neat garden which
can be indulged here. You perceive by all this that I
have nothing to say of marriage in general, much a creature
of circumstance I should think — and I daresay, knowingly
or not — circumstance has chiefly made you think of it. It
seems to me a comfortable thing, but I have not so much
to say of rapture as you seem to expect — and heartily glad
am I of that — having a more permanent possession in a
more lasting affection from sources of slower growth and
slower decay than that. . . .
' Public news ! God help us — decision against indecision
has had the usual success 1 and the mighty coalition of
mighty powers stat Nominis Umbra ! You know I think
not the term of our national existence very long, unless we
most unexpectedly — I had almost said impossibly — alter
our deliberative form of Government. The continental
vortex is enlarged and no Government but an absolute
Government can oppose absolute power now organised
into the machine of a large French army in which tem-
porary derangement causes little defect — whose temporary
success ensures future success ad infinitum.'
1 Rickman obviously refers to Ulrn, and ignores the effects of Trafalgar.
CHAPTER V
Family life at Westminster — A stern father — The houses in Palace Yard —
Church parade — Late dinner — The Burneys and other friends —
Lamb's Wednesday evenings — Driving in the gig — Telford — Rick-
man's official work.
Hickman's marriage practically closed his chapter of adven-
tures. The few chances and changes of his uneventful life
— the choice of a career, the first census, the Irish secre-
taryship — were over ; the great friendship of his life had
been firmly wrought ; he had won the affection of Lamb,
Coleridge, Poole, William Taylor, and the Burneys. It is
possible that Westminster, with its ' bag and sword ' and
all that they implied, would not have kept him long had he
remained a bachelor. He wished himself, and his friends
wished him, in a more efficient position. But marriage
made a permanent income necessary ; it was the anchor
which held him to his official life ; so that, during all that
period of our history which was disturbed first by war
with France, then by agricultural distress and riots, and
finally by the agitation for Parliamentary reform, Rickman,
however agitated in mind, however fearful of a revolution
more terrible than the French, however infuriated against
rabid Whigs and weak Tories, however oppressed by
accumulating labours, passed the remainder of his days in
the outwardly tranquil enjoyment of a stable and assured
position, which he held even till his last breath. I have
therefore thought it permissible to depart for a moment
from the historical order of events which the sequence of
letters forces upon us, and to give a general picture of
Rickman's domestic and social life at Westminster between
the time of his marriage and the burning of the Houses of
Parliament in 1834.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 119
The entirely unromantic marriage was, so far as can
be judged from letters, a most successful ' experiment.'
Mrs. Rickman was obviously content to be under her hus-
band's thumb and to be patronised as the weaker vessel —
domestic happiness would have been otherwise impossible
for the masterful Rickman — though no doubt she was not
blind to his faults nor averse to leading him with tact.
She bore him four children, three girls and a boy, and she
died in 1836. The daughter Martha died young in 1810,
but Ann and Frances and William, the son, outlived their
father by many years. Mrs. Rickman seems to have been
favourably received by the friends of her husband's bachelor
days, though in November 1810 Lamb wrote in a letter to
Hazlitt : ' One or two things have happened . . . which
. . . gesture and emphasis might have talked into some
importance. Something about Rickman's wife for in-
stance : how tall she is and that she visits prank'd out like
a Queen of the May with green streamers — a good-natured
woman though, which is as much as you can expect from
a friend's wife, whom you got acquainted with as a bachelor.'
Here lies the germ of Elia's essay, ' A Bachelor's Complaint.'
But both Lamb and Southey seem to have got on very well
with Mrs. Rickman ; they were ready to entertain her, and
to be entertained by her, as they were, with unfailing kind-
ness. Southey always sent some courtly message to her
in his letters, and was glad to allow his daughter Bertha to
stay more than once with the Rickmans.
It is evident that Rickman was sincerely attached to his
children, but he was a formal and severe parent. Some
light is thrown upon this side of his character by the MS.
reminiscences of his daughter Ann (Mrs. Lefroy). A ' black
rattan ' was always hanging by the side of the drawing-
room chimney, and at least one occasion is recorded of its
use. But what is more remarkable in Rickman's family
relations is their old-fashioned punctilio. He almost always
referred to his daughters as ' Miss A.' and ' Miss Fr.,' and
to his son as W. C. R., even in family letters. He was
anxious for them to acquire knowledge, which he looked on
120 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
as supremely useful for its own sake, and Mrs. Lefroy records
the fact that they were accustomed to ask for their dessert
in Latin. At the same time, to use her own words, ' Papa
looked down on any routine of teaching and discipline, " no
one should be pressed to learn — there were plenty of books
(folios) in the shelves for Miss Ann to read if she cared to
do so." In truth I did not care, and I am very sorry that
I had no stiff training. I generally was occupied, seated
" square " before a sheet of " Pot paper," copying out some
official paper, circular or otherwise, or drawing papers from
beneath Papa's hand, just so exactly that he could go on
signing paper after paper without any pause, to the number
of 500 perhaps.' Rickman was no slave-driver in education,
but the following letter will show his views and his character
better than anything I can say. It is a letter which Jane
Austen would have treasured. Poor sixteen-year-old Ann !
It must have caused her bitter tears, but she preserved it
nevertheless. Its date is 1823.
' My dear Child, — I write to you, lest from what passed
yesterday morning you should feel yourself precluded from
dancing at Mr. Williamson's tomorrow evening ; for al-
though it is necessary in common civility that those who
dance in domestic parties should enable themselves to play
to others, yet I do not wish your defect, and my opinion
of it, to become very public. Dance therefore Tuesday
evening, and afterwards practice quadrille musick till you
have mastered it. You are not aware (I daresay) that you
expressed your own general defect in every thing, when you
alledged as an excuse for not being able to play, " that it
was very difficult to do so." And pray, what part of know-
ledge, or what acquirement, is meritorious, unless it is
difficult ? Because even that kind of knowledge which can
be derived from books, and even from conversation, is
difficult and even impracticable to those who cannot give
their fixed attention to any useful information which is
open to them. Much less of course can they hope to attain
that dry kind of knowledge which is only such as being
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 121
introductory to larger sources of knowledge : I speak of the
rudiments and phraseology of languages, which cannot be
acquired without willingness and determination of mind
in the learner, after the tender age in which authority and
compulsion can be exercised is passed away, as in your case.
' You will err, if you suppose what I have said to be a
preface to any endeavour to force you for your good to be
attentive to your Latin, or to any other useful study ;
quite the contrary ; because I believe that your backward-
ness and inattention is caused by your reliance on me, that
I shall be able to make you learn without any labour of
your own. But I beg to decline the task of feeding a per-
son who has no appetite, and for the future it will rest
entirely with yourself, whether you chuse to remain among
the vulgar and the ignorant, or to acquire laboriously the
degree of knowledge which becomes your station in life
and your relationship to me, whom you very well know to
have benefited largely by cultivating the talent which you
seem to undervalue.
' Considering that no expence is spared for your grati-
fication, no opportunity of giving you pleasure preter-
mitted, I am not sure whether morally speaking you have
any right to remain in ignorance contrary to the wishes of
those who shew you so much favour ; but I do not insist
on this, and leave you to your own reflections, and your
own resources, always willing to instruct you whenever
you shall bend your mind on improvement, but not willing
to accompany you as now stationed for about three years
upon what is called Pons Asinorum, that is, the difficult and
disagreeable part of study which is introductory, and where
by relying on me instead of yourself, you seem in a fair way
to remain always, forgetting exactly as much as you learn
for want of attention and strenuous effort. Remember
that in future you rely on yourself ; I cannot afford in my
hours of relaxation to be distressed by seeing and knowing
that 115- of your gaiety and happiness is obscured by a con-
sciousness of not having done what is required of you for
your own benefit. Knowledge I have found to be a good
122 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
thing in itself ; and the increasing fashion of education
places all young persons virtually in one vast school, where
all other rank is superseded by acquirements which thus
become necessary not only to him that would rise, but to
him who is unwilling to sink from the station in which
Providence has placed him. Radix Dodrinae acerba,
fructus dulcis.
' I should here finish this letter, but for one thing which
will very soon be of importance in our domestic life. I am
not without intentions of a large investigation in etymo-
logies, if I am destined to a long life ; and it would have
been in progress before now with your assistance, had you
not so unexpectedly failed in acquiring this preliminary
knowledge necessary to make you useful as a scribe and
assistant in that purpose. But there is another young lady
(Miss Fr. Rickman) of whom I ought not [to] despair without
fair trial ; and though I give you permission to be as ignor-
ant as you please, you will not I am sure expect that in
compliment to your choice of that negative quality, I am
to abstain from cultivating her taste for reading, and I
hope for knowledge. I mean by this that you ought to
prepare yourself for the possible event of her surpassing
you in what you do not seem to value, and that it will be
very unreasonable hereafter for you ever to interrupt her
in her future studies ; and still worse to suffer any sinister
feelings to intrude into your mind, if by chance I should
succeed with her better than I have with you. I shall not
insist further upon this point, because all the consequences
will be quite as obvious to your mind upon consideration as
to me. Guard yourself and prepare yourself accordingly.
I shall attempt Frances the sooner perhaps from having
thus committed you to your own care, as to all matters of
study : in which however I hope you will yet do well.
' I write no further, nor desire any answer to this, which,
as all other letters which you receive or write, you are
to communicate to your Mama, and on other occasions not
to forget to show her due deference. Farewell, my dear
child. — Your affec. father, J. R.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 123
It is to be feared that Frances equally failed to become
the desired amanuensis. Rickman's hobby for etymology
never resulted in any published work, and his loose papers
have now been lost. The second daughter came in for her
share of fatherly admonition after her marriage, when she
and her husband wished to enlarge their vicarage, as he
thought, imprudently. The long account of his own life
and finances — from which quotation has already been made,
and will be made again x — was written solely to dissuade
her from a course of action which, as it appears from a
second letter, turned out exactly as he foretold. An in-
ferior architect was employed who both did the work badly
and exceeded the estimate. Rickman generously put his
hand in his pocket, but treated his daughter to some very
salutary advice, and sketched out a budget to which he
desired that she and her husband should adhere to make
good the losses. It is plain that the Rickman of the fireside
was the same man that Lamb and Southey knew — exceed-
ingly generous, unsparing of his own time in helping, im-
proving, or teaching others, but impatient of carelessness
and weakness, judging the capacities of all by the standard
of his own strong self.
The Rickmans lived in the precincts of the Palace of
Westminster till after the fire of 1834. People of to-day,
who are accustomed to the uniform Gothic building designed
by Barry, have little idea how different Westminster Palace
looked less than a hundred years ago. Westminster Hall
is the one visible relic (from the outside) of the past.
The rest of the buildings, including the beautiful old St.
Stephen's Chapel, were a collection of different styles and
periods. Where gazers from excursion steamers now see
the Terrace, there were then only roofs of different heights,
many back windows, the east end of St. Stephen's, and a
garden or two to be seen. New Palace Yard was not the
railed-in space, jealously guarded by policemen, that it now
is. In front of Westminster Hall was a wide expanse
paved with cobble-stones ; on each side of it there were
1 See pp. 20, 21, 24, 77, 125, 127.
124 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
quite low houses, some of red brick, some of stone. On the
eastern wing of the Yard, now occupied by officials' houses
and terminated by the Clock Tower, there was only a portion
of the old Exchequer Buildings, which included the famous
Star Chamber, at the northern end of which was a water-
gate (I must mention — for it is perhaps only fully realised
at sunrise after an all-night sitting — that the river at West-
minster runs north and south). From 1802, till he became
first Clerk Assistant in 1821, Rickman lived in the official
house of the Speaker's Secretary, next to the Speaker's
house, which stood opposite the east side of Westminster
Hall, farther south than the present Speaker's house. ' Our
house,' says Mrs. Lefroy, ' was in a small court, entered by
two archways ; the " Speaker's Archway " we called one,
which looked rather new and well stuccoed, and the Speaker's
carriage always drove in and out of that, and in doing so,
passed under a buttress which belonged to the east side
of Westminster Hall. Our front door was in an old stone
wall opposite to the Westminster Hall wall with a small
bricked up old Gothic arch in it ; we were close to the other
archway entrance to the court ; this was very old and shabby
without any architectural merits, and dark to pass through,
60 or 70 feet in length. Close to our door, and closer to this
arch, was a narrow door and passage which led into a
garden in which were laburnum trees and a lawn : this was
Mr. Wilde's garden. The passage passed under some
official rooms of the Exchequer, an old wooden building
of Queen Elizabeth's time, standing on wooden legs. Mr.
Wilde held the office of Keeper of the Exchequer . . . [his
house] stood so close to the river Thames that at spring
tide there was great pleasure to us children in dipping
our fingers down into the water from the sitting room
windows. . . .
' How much better our house was than Mr. Wilde's
because it was at the beginning of the garden, so we had
a bright, pleasant piece of ground, with a terrace and rails
to the river, and the roses and other flowers grew luxuriantly,
and against the end of Mr. Wilde's house on the terrace there
... < ■§■
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 125
was a Hamboro' grape ; and we had gooseberries too and
a Morella cherry besides a very pretty Bird cherry tree . . .
and there was a corner and a mound to bury the kittens
and canaries in, and a place where we all dug. ... It was
a very smooth lawn, and in the centre a round border, with
some shrubs and a hedge of white jasmine. . . . Papa very
often in warm weather stretched himself down on the
slope of turf that formed the terrace, in the centre of which
were four stone steps : he generally went to sleep, and we
made daisy chains to dress him up, and looked at his pig-
tail, but we never quite made up our minds to pull it.'
An idyllic pleasaunce indeed, which the officials of to-day
may well envy. Rickman, in his own account written to his
daughter, gives some details of the interior. The living-
rooms were on the first floor. The best of these had three
windows looking on the river, and was called the ' sitting-
room ' : here the family lived entirely when alone. The
other room was called the ' book-room,' though it was used
as a dining-room when guests were present, and was prob-
ably the one consecrated to Southey's use. The terms
' drawing-room ' and ' dining-room ' were purposely avoided,
lest they should lead to a style of living incommensurate
with income.
When Rickman became first Clerk Assistant he moved
into a red-brick house in New Palace Yard, which occupied
the whole space between the two archways to the Speaker's
Court, the site of the present members' entrance. I repro-
duce a water-colour sketch made by Mrs. Lefroy in 1831.
The front door was in a corner facing west, and on the right
stood the old Star Chamber. There was an old watchman
there, and also a Speaker's watchman, according to
Mrs. Lefroy, who carried a lantern and wore a heavily
caped coat. He called out : ' Twelve o'clock and a cloudy
night ' in the traditional style, for in those days there was
only a little oil lamp, trimmed daily by the lamp-lighter.
Opposite this house stood the ' King's Arms,' the hotel
where the "Westminster Committee held their turbulent
meetings for Sir Francis Rurdett.
126 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Life at Westminster was not dull in those days. When
Parliament was sitting Palace Yard was full of bustle with
members arriving in their carriages. The Westminster
elections were a continuous riot, and there were several
special occasions which Mrs. Lefroy records. She saw
Queen Caroline driving every day to her trial, and the
coronation of George iv., which was celebrated with un-
exampled splendour. The special stable for the Champion's
horse was in front of Rickman's house, and it was near by
that the Queen alighted when she tried to force her presence
upon the King. ' From above,' says Mrs. Lefroy, ' we could
plainly see her and hear her say aloud " Show me to my
husband," whereupon the large porter in scarlet slammed
the door and locked it — a terrible moment for everybody.'
The new Lord Mayor brought by water in his gold barge, and
the King's Birthday procession, were annual sights. Other
excitements were the Panorama, Miss Linwood's exhibition
of needlework, a voyage by water to the Royal Academy
at Somerset House, Braham singing and fireworks at Vaux-
hall, and 'Astley's' across the river. I cannot resist closing
this paragraph with Mrs. Lefroy 's account of the official
church parade in those days. First ' the Speaker and his
wife, Mr. and Mrs. Abbott, [in] her bright emerald silk
pelisse trimmed with deep ermine, a muff as large as a
pillow with deep cuffs and a long tippet en suite. The foot-
man behind her with her prayer-book ; Mr. Abbott with
pig- tail and broad-brimmed hat, a black swallow-tail coat,
tight grey pantaloons and Hessian boots rather short with
a tassel in front. Our Father had much the same dress, but
his boots varied, and sometimes had a straight rim and no
tassel, but there was a pig-tail. Mamma had sable en
suite, her pelisse was " Waterloo blue " silk. . . . Then came
Mr. and Mrs. Dyson [the deputy-Clerk and his wife] . . .
he in country gentleman costume, the pig-tail, white stock-
ings with short nankeen gaiters, and the short knee breeches
of light drab or nankeen, a striped linen waistcoat, white
cravat, and a coat of snuff brown cloth. . . . Then Mr.
and Mrs. Wilde, she in black and black lace ... he with
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 127
black silk stockings and shorts buckled to his knees, high
shoes tied in good bows by his daughter, a large silver headed
stick, . . . and a very important pig-tail under his large
hat.'
Though he was fond of society, Rickman purposely
avoided dinner-party intercourse, as he called it, from
considerations of economy. As he told his daughter, he
' attained to this needful economy by an oval dinner table
made for six, but capable of holding eight persons well
packed, and two dishes of meat and fish, two of vegetables.'
When he became Clerk Assistant he invested in a table
which would accommodate ten. He was conservative in
his tastes. As he remained faithful to the old-fashioned
stock and knee-breeches, so he adhered to four o'clock as
the hour for dinner. Late dinners found no favour in his
sight, as we may gather from a characteristic passage : —
' It has occurred luckily I think in modern society that
a late dinner hour infers luncheon which you bestow on
morning visitors, and which renders dinner company really
injurious to rational intercourse ; which is much better
attained by your friends having really dined with or without
their children at two o'clock, and visiting you at tea-time,
their stomachs in a much better state than when distended
with a second feed and half a dozen unnecessary glasses of
wine, which separate the sexes very ridiculously during the
best hours of the evening.'
But Rickman was by no means a hermit, and Mrs. Lefroy
has preserved many memories of his friends. There was
Captain Burney, 1 whom we have met already, with his wife
and daughter, and his friend Colonel Phillips, who was
with Captain Cook when he was murdered at Otaheite.
Captain Burney was an ' odd fish,' who kept his daughter's
wardrobe very limited, and Colonel Phillips always had a
' schism between his waistcoat and his trousers.' Madame
d'Arblay was also a friend of the Rickmans, and the second
1 He accompanied Cook on his second and third voyages, and after-
wards wrote A Chronological Account of the Discoveries in the South Seas.
128 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
daughter was christened after her. The Burneys were a
very musical family, and Mrs. Lefroy records a meeting
at her father's house of a string quartet. It is a pity that
we have no record of Rickman's views on such music. We
may imagine that his ' cosmopolite ' scorn, which made him
regard poetry as a ' toy in manhood,' would have found still
more contemptuous phrases for an art that has so little
semblance of utility, in Bentham's sense of the word.
Another pair of musical friends were Mr. and Mrs. Ayrton.
Ayrton was Lamb's ' my friend A — ' in the essay ' A Chapter
on Ears ' : Mrs. Lefroy says he was ' rather a fine gentle-
man, and a joke with the set in rusty waistcoats,' among
whom she instances Charles and Mary Lamb. They ' often
came upon the scene, he so very thin and black, thread lace
stock quite as " Elia " should be, rather the air of a dissent-
ing preacher, underhung, and making a pun in a low voice
in a distant corner of the room, where he generally seated
himself. His good sister Mary Lamb, a stout, roundabout
little body, with a turban, and a layer of snuff on her upper
lip. She was so good-natured and had a gruff kind of
voice.'
Lamb's famous Wednesday evenings began in 1806, and
at them Rickman was a regular guest, he and Captain
Burney being two of the players in the game of whist which
always began the evening, before the punch came in and
tongues were loosened. It is evident Rickman was one
of the more serious set of Lamb's friends, whose influence
opposed that of the more dissolute Fell, Fenwick, and others,
who encouraged Elia's taste for alcohol and wild extrava-
gances. ' There was R.,' said Leigh Hunt in the Examiner,
'to represent among us the plumpness of office and the
solidity of government ' ; and Talfourd in his Final
Memorials called him ' the sturdiest of jovial companions,
severe in the discipline of whist as at the Table of the House
of Commons.' He was noted for his taste for argument,
so much that, writing to Sarah Hazlitt in 1810 of Hazlitt's
absence, Mary Lamb said : ' Rickman argues and there
is none to oppose him.' Hazlitt, speaking of these evenings
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LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 129
in his essay ' On the Conversation of Authors, ' gives a good
description of Rickman's conversational propensities.
' There was Rickman, who asserted some incredible
matter-of-fact as a likely paradox, and settled all contro-
versies by an ipse dixit, a fiat of his will, hammering out
many a hard theory on the anvil of his brain — the Baron
Munchausen of politics and practical philosophy.'
Crabb Robinson, 1 who does not seem to have known
Rickman intimately, often mentions his presence at Lamb's,
and records an after-dinner visit to his house at West-
minster in 1813 with Lamb and Burney. It was there
that Lamb made his famous pun on Chatterton's Rowley
poems. Rickman showed a manuscript in which there
were seventeen kinds of e's all written differently. ' Oh,'
said Lamb, ' that must have been modern — written by
one of " the mob of gentlemen who write with ease." '
After 1814 Rickman's duties at the House must have
kept him away from Lamb's whist-table, and I suspect
that he found Lamb an uncomfortable guest to entertain
at Westminster. Nevertheless, the friendship did not die
out, though it was a little tried when Rickman found it
necessary to dismiss first Tom Holcroft — son of Lamb's
friend the dramatist — and then Martin Burney from clerk-
ships he had given them. Crabb Robinson records both
these incidents, and how upset the Lambs were. On the
latter occasion Mary Lamb went to plead in person, and
told Robinson that both Mr. and Mrs. Rickman had given
her a most kind reception, and that Rickman had walked
with her as far as Bishopsgate Street. Martin Burney was
not reinstated, but Lamb's Latin letter to Rickman in 1828 2
about Burney 's prospects in the profession of law shows
that no rancour remained ; and in a letter of the following
year Rickman tells Southey that Lamb is staying with
1 In his Diary, a selection from which is published.
2 Printed in Canon Ainger's last edition of Lamb's Letters, and trans-
lated by Mr. E. V. Lucas for his own edition.
I
130 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
him during Mary Lamb's convalescence from one of her
periodical attacks.
Rickman was not one who found it necessary to divert
his ever active brain "with such harmless amusements as
sport or theatre-going. Many of the hours which were
free from professional work were devoted to the considera-
tion of certain subjects which were his hobbies. Chief
among these were etymology and architecture. His re-
searches upon these subjects were sometimes printed for
private circulation. Most of his pamphlets and papers
are lost, but there is a thin little volume, a copy of which
is in the British Museum, entitled Historical Curiosities
relating to St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, which is a
description of the windows, the beadle's staff, and the bas-
relief over the altar. It was printed at the private press
of an invalid friend of the family. Out of doors, as well
as indoors, Rickman made his recreation serve a practical
purpose. During the Parliamentary recesses, particularly
in the summer, he used to make long tours in order to see
places of interest, and the journeys were always minutely
recorded in letters home which have been preserved. Un-
fortunately, the extreme dryness of Rickman's epistolary
style to his family makes these letters unsuitable for quota-
tion. His tour in the Netherlands with Southey and Henry
Taylor (the author of Philip van Artevelde) was the subject
of a very long letter to Lord Colchester — the former Speaker
Abbot — which has the same literary defect. But the
holidays which Rickman most enjoyed were spent in driving
tours about England. The first of these took place in
1814, when, foreseeing his elevation to the Table of the
House, he bought a horse-chaise and one horse, and drove
all over the north of England, seeing the cathedrals and
other sights of interest, with a visit to Southey at Keswick
by the way. Little Ann, who was then six years old,
accompanied her mother and father on this tour, and she
was able in later years to give some account of it. The
gig, she says, ' was a comfortable large yellow affair on
two wheels, with hood to move up and down, and a pro-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 131
jection behind called " the sword case " ; in this I made
many long journeys with papa and mama, seated between
them on a high mahogany box, with stuffed green baize
on the top. ... I think we went about 24 miles a day,
resting always on Sunday. . . . Behind our feet was a
small long narrow box which held the shoes, the seat box
on which papa sat held his toilette, my little baize box
hid our Sunday bonnets, and the box under the seat took
all the rest. ... I believe when I was eight years old
I had seen every cathedral in England and Wales. . . .
There were no railways then, the good old days of fine
turnpike roads and fine inns, with old-fashioned landlords,
great civility — almost friendship — shown, and the waiter
relating the sights of the town, as he brought in the dinner,
with perhaps the special fish of the river.' The chaise
was soon succeeded by a four-wheeled gig which held all
the family, and when Rickman succeeded to the Clerk
Assistant's post, he bought two horses. With these the
children used to come up and down from Epsom, where
Rickman rented a villa. In 1830 he made a special tour
to the antiquities round Salisbury, Silchester, Stonehenge,
arid Abury, an account of which he communicated to the
Society of Antiquaries. Also, he made more than one
tour in Scotland in company with Telford, the famous
engineer, whose acquaintance he gained through his secre-
taryship to the Commissions for the Caledonian Canal and
Highland Roads. Telford and Rickman became fast friends,
and worked in complete unanimity, Telford doing the con-
structive, Rickman the business and diplomatic, parts of
the great work. When Telford died in 1834 Rickman
edited his autobiography, supplying notes, a preface, and
a supplementary account of his personality. It is interest-
ing to notice that Rickman ascribed Telford's early demo-
cratic views to the influence of the republican tendencies
in the Greek and Latin classics which that remarkable
man found time to read while he was only a hard-working
young mason. It is doubtful whether the liberal bias of
the great writers of antiquity would nowadays seem a
132 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
sufficient argument for the retention of compulsory Greek
in the eyes of modern reformers.
Having spoken of his diversions, I must give some
account of Hickman's work at Westminster. As Speaker's
Secretary his duty was to attend the Speaker on all official
occasions in ' bag and sword,' to answer letters, and assist
the Speaker in searching for precedents or answers to other
special questions. The work was tiresome rather than
arduous, and we have seen that Hickman often found it
very distasteful. But few who have begun an official
career ever give it up, and Rickman was no exception.
His average salary, produced by fees, was about £300 a
year when he entered upon his duties, with the expectation
of another £1000 or £1200 in any year of election petitions
on the sitting of a new Parliament. Rickman was for-
tunate in seeing four years of election petitions, out of
which he made £3800. In 1801 Telford made a survey
of the Highlands, and the result of his report was the
appointment of the two Commissions, which I have already
mentioned, for constructing the Caledonian Canal and for
building roads and bridges in the Highlands. From these
joint secretaryships, which he held till 1829, Rickman earned
another £400 a year. From 1825 to 1831 he was secretary,
at £100 a year, to another Commission for building churches
in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. These secre-
tarial posts were no sinecures. A considerable amount of
opposition had to be encountered, and there was a great
deal of correspondence and balancing of accounts, while
the production of the annual report often cut Rickman 's
hours of sleep down to three hours a night for a week
or more. Telford testifies to his unfailing zeal and per-
severance ; and it is indeed fortunate for Scotland that
these two men continued together for so many years.
It was in no spirit of self-laudation that Rickman told
Southey that the death of either Telford or himself would
have been most disastrous, especially for the Caledonian
Canal.
When Rickman became second Clerk Assistant, the
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 133
salary of that post was £1500, and the salary of Clerk
Assistant, to which he succeeded in 1820, was £2500.
The character of his work changed entirely upon his
translation. The duty of the Clerks at the Table was
very much the same then as it is now. They are bound to
be in their places whenever the House is sitting — except
that the Chief Clerk is absent when the House is in
Committee — and they keep a record of the actual business
done, which serves as a basis for the Votes and Proceedings
and for the Journal which are compiled by the clerks in
the Journal Office. They are also the chief authorities upon
procedure, and are continually consulted by members
throughout a sitting. During a session of Parliament the
hours of duty are in general long and wearisome, especially
when all-night sittings are frequent, and the ventilation
of the old House must have been considerably worse than
that of the present one, which is by no means ideal.
But besides this ordinary official work, which, it must be
remembered, was combined with constant and, at times,
overwhelming work upon the population returns and for
the two Commissions, Rickman found time to do other
signal services for the House of Commons. In 1817 he was
very largely responsible for the introduction of a new and
more expeditious method of printing the Votes and Proceed-
ings. Before that year the Votes — which record the pro-
ceedings of the House in a less elaborate form than the
Journal — were not published till three or four days after
the transaction of the business which they recorded.
Rickman drew up a memorandum which explained the
advantages of an improvement, which was chiefly to be
made by shortening entries and omitting unnecessary
items. His scheme was approved by a committee, and the
form which is used to-day is practically the same as that
then introduced, its advantage being that the Votes can be
published soon enough to reach members early the next
morning. The change was not made without considerable
labour on the part of the three Clerks at the Table, and it
was necessary for Rickman to remain in the office for two
134 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
or three hours after the adjournment of the House, till
things ran smoothly. In 1818 he indexed the Statutes,
having made a new index to Hatsell's Precedents and
Proceedings the year before, and in 1825 he busied himself
over the indexing of the Journals. In 1829 he produced a
catalogue of the House of Commons Library. From 1816
to 1839 he was occupied annually with making various
returns of local taxation, which were of the highest use for
the first Poor Law Act of the reformed Parliament. Not
content with all these official labours, Rickman was ever
amassing information in economic subjects which he was
ready to put at the disposal of a committee or a friend, no
matter how much labour it cost him. His letters to
Southey nearly all contain answers to questions which
had arisen in the course of Southey's literary work, and in
many cases four or five closely written folio pages followed
almost by a return some query from Keswick. Of the
article in the Quarterly for April 1818, which was nominally
the work of Southey, I shall speak in a later chapter.
Rickman's unprinted pamphlets and papers have all
been lost, though a complete list of them is given in the
memoir by his son. He published pamphlets on Poor
Law amendment and the Poor Law in Ireland in 1832 and
1833 respectively. His only other literary work was to
edit Lord Colchester's speeches, delivered when he was
Speaker, conveying the thanks of the House to the military
commanders between 1807 and 1816. The volume is en-
titled Military Thanks, and is prefaced by a biographical
sketch of Lord Colchester.
I hope that I have managed to convey some general idea
of Rickman's social and family life, his amusements and his
labours, and that this digression will explain, without need
of further comment, many allusions in the letters which
follow.
CHAPTER VI
1806-1816
Political letters to Southey and Poole — The Friend — The Regency Bill —
The Quarterly Review — Burnett's death — Coleridge on Lamb's weak-
nesses — Shelley — Murder of Perceval — Coleridge on ' Remorse ' —
Rickman's good advice to Southey — Southey Poet Laureate — His
truculence curbed by Rickman — Waterloo — Rickman the consoler —
Economic distress in the country — Rickman on ' Mock Humanity '
and the Press.
The period of eleven years, from 1806 to 1816, was a most
momentous one in English history. Home affairs were
completely overshadowed by the progress of our armies
in the Peninsula and of Napoleon's armies on the Continent.
Southey, having twice visited Portugal, was particularly
interested in the Peninsular War, and few letters passed
between him and Rickman which did not contain some
allusion to the campaigns or criticism of the strategy.
They paid less attention to Napoleon's victories in Prussia,
though they rejoiced over Moscow and Waterloo. To the
war with America there is no reference, and what is still
more strange is that the economist, Rickman, never remarks
upon the continental system or the Orders in Council,
though these measures and counter-measures affecting
trade were of vital importance to the protagonists in the
great struggle. The deaths of Pitt and Fox, the various
changes of Government before Perceval's assassination,
and the intrigues which centred round the Regency drew
comments from Rickman, though his more intimate con-
nection with the Parliamentary debates only began in 1814,
when he came as a Clerk to the Table of the House. The
subject, perhaps, which most engaged the attention of his
leisure hours was the condition of the poor, and the generally
136 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
unsatisfactory economic conditions which prevailed in
England during the later part of this period. Most of the
evils he assigned to the bad administration of the poor
rate and want of education, refusing on theoretical grounds
to admit that the undoubted excess of manufactured com-
modities over the demand, due to mechanical inventions,
was anything but a sign of prosperity. A great deal of the
correspondence with Southey was concerned with Southey's
literary work, the discussion of books, and family details
(Rickman's children were all born during this time) which
are to-day hardly of compelling interest.
In the early part of 1806 Rickman discussed with Southey
some of the questions raised in the poet's Espriella letters.
In particular, the sturdy Rickman objected to any criticism
of pugilism, contending that it was a convenient safety-
valve for violent passions. In April Southey came to
stay at Westminster and make the acquaintance of
Mrs. Rickman. However, the chief letters of interest for
this year are those from Rickman to Thomas Poole, to
whom he paid a short visit in August. The selections
which I have made chiefly refer to politics. In January
Pitt fell mortally ill, and died. After some negotiations
between Grenville, Fox, and the King the Ministry of All
the Talents was formed, which included Lord Howick
(afterwards Lord Grey) and Lord Henry Petty (afterwards
Lord Lansdowne), as first Lord of the Admiralty and
Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively. The King's
known dislike for Fox caused the wildest political rumours
to circulate as to the terms which had been agreed upon,
and it may safely be said that Rickman's story in the first
letter about the Duke of York is false. When Colonel
Wardle caused an inquiry to be made into his conduct in
1809, it was proved that his hands had been entirely clean,
however injudicious he had been in allowing the notorious
Mrs. Clarke to use illegitimate influence on behalf of her
admirers. The five letters to Poole explain themselves for
the most part, so that further preamble is unnecessary.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 137
' 31st January 1806.
' . . . The political world is very busy, but I remain
indifferent and uninterested as usual, thinking evil more
radical than to be cured by any men shackled with certain
deliberative bodies. Perhaps you do not know in the
country what made G. R. agree so soon to receive men he
hates so thoroughly and eternally. The Duke of Y. was
so terrified at the expectation of impeachment for dis-
posal of commissions in the army gazetted " without
purchase " that he prevailed on his father to make his
own non-impeachment the only stipulation. The wretch
is frightened out of his little wit and is said to have
threatened self-murder if Fox came in without that bargain.
The P. of W. was understood to be the chief mover against
his rascal brother, ipse pejor. . . .'
The army reform mentioned in the next letter was left
to be carried out by Castlereagh in the Portland admini-
stration of 1807 : the measure passed in 1806 only made
further provision for the training of the militia. The
' Duke of York's Council ' was the advisory council advo-
cated by Grenville to control the Commander-in-Chief,
but the King's opposition to the scheme caused it to be
given up. Lord Moira was Master of Ordnance ; Alexander
Davison was the Government contractor, Nelson's friend,
who was convicted in 1808 of charging buyer's commis-
sion for goods supplied by himself as merchant ; Colonel
(afterwards General Sir Herbert) Taylor was then the
King's private secretary ; Sir Robert Calder was the
admiral who was court-martialled and severely repri-
manded for his failure to follow up a victory gained off
Cape Finisterre in 1805 against the French and Spanish
' 13th March 1806.
' I am glad to learn by yours of the 18th February that
your benevolent efforts go on favourably. I do not see much
good likely to be done here in the large way, and can tell
138 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
you nothing at all about the intentions of the new Ministry
from whom I do not and did not hope much ; the evil is
more radical, I fear, than anything so trifling as this or that
Ministry can cure. I believe the present people cannot
at all agree among themselves even about the army reform
so much talked of by themselves before they were in. Yet
there is good room for easy improvement ; above two and
a half millions thrown away at present upon volunteers
would maintain about seventy thousand regulars, and the
unofficered militia swallows up about three and a half
millions which would maintain almost a hundred thousand
men. As to the Duke of York's Council I believe it is
given up and his promise of amendment accepted. It is
sufficient sign of assentation and compromise that he
remains at all, and perhaps he may not long, as the Court
at Carlton House is against him. The new Ministry have
done infinite harm to themselves by suffering the inter-
ference of the P. of W. to such an extent. He has been
appointed to most of the great offices ; the ordnance is
all his own and figures away accordingly ; Lord Moira is
a mere Don Quixote and of Alexander Davison (alias in
the House of Commons Trotter) — what can be said but
that the salary of the Treasurership of the Ordnance pays
interest for a sum of money lent by him to Carlton House !
I do not know much of Colonel Taylor ; by a report he is
a man of remarkably good abilities especially as a linguist.
As to Reform of Parliament Grey 1 has told the applicants
" this is not a proper time." Pitt said so once before and
for the same reason. I should reckon Reform of Parlia-
ment certain ruin to an old shattered edifice very unsafe
for its inmates already. By these I do not mean the House
of Commons but the people whom it governs ; which is
much worse. As for Fox he too has discovered " that
this is not a season for the Catholic claims." And all of
them have discovered " that Lord Wellesley has been
quite right in the East, though the Commerce of the E. I.
Company is ruined by his extravagance," chiefly by his
1 Charles Grey ; he succeeded to the title of Lord Howick in this year.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 139
personal extravagance. 2,300 boats to escort him on the
Ganges ! I question whether any tea can be bought in
China this year. But Lord Wellesley is a friend of Lord
Grenville's. I suppose St. Vincent's command will disgust
the whole navy. The hoary tyrant now domineers from
the Mediterranean to the North Pole. The lately pub-
lished life of Nelson proves that the action which gave him
fame, a title and a pension ought to have given him a halter
for his base desertion of Nelson, who fought the whole fleet
of the enemy but whose name is not mentioned in the de-
spatches of St. Vincent ; the omission, I understand, was
at the suggestion of Calder, another worthy who has lately
escaped hanging (or rather shooting) by the kindness of
the late Admiralty in keeping back both charges and
evidence. . . .
' Captain Burney is well and just about to produce his
second volume. . . .
' P.S. The Army estimates are voted for 2 months only,
so that within that time the mountain is to bring forth.
Do not let anyone see this letter.'
The impeachment of Lord Melville, the passing of the
motion for which in the Commons so distressed Pitt, re-
sulted in his acquittal. The charge was of misapplication
of public money when he was treasurer of the navy.
' 30th April 1806.
' I am just escaped from Westminster Hall leaving our
people and the House of Lords busy there on Melville's
impeachment. Whitbread opened yesterday, making a
tolerable exordium but nothing good afterwards : his
speech being very much the same thing as an appendix
to one of the naval inquiry reports. I suppose somebody
has told him that his savage spirit has been rather too
manifest in some of his proceedings, so he made a long
distinction between persecution and prosecution, showing
that this trial was of the latter kind. This tenor of his
mind had a ridiculous effect throughout his speech. Now
140 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and then out popped something " with a damned deal of
the Brewer in it," and when he became conscious of this
he tried to repair it by extravagant encomium on the party
aggrieved, so that in the course of his speech you learned
that he thought Pitt had been a sun in the political firma-
ment and lamented his death as a deep national loss. After
he had talked coarsely of Lord Melville as a man who had
affirmed and even written direct falsehoods he paid him
for this unnecessary insult by calling him a man of the
greatest ability, of most generous spirit, of the loftiest
contempt of pecuniary gain, admitting the propriety of
the personal attachment of his many friends. Melville
seemed to eye him with sour contempt, not at all receiving
this kind of expiation as an amende honorable. I do not
see, after this kind of absurd encomium with what pro-
priety punishment can be urged, surely such a man has
sustained more than punishment enough already. Whit-
bread himself would doubtless suck his blood to the last
drop, but I imagine nobody else cares a farthing about
him ; this is a good symptom that the trial will not be
protracted. The accusation of the man made way for the
change of administration ; without it Melville had now
headed the Pittites instead of sitting on a lowly stool at
the Lords' Bar. It is curious that the thing now praised
in him, the abolition of fees at the Navy o'ffice, is the worst
thing he ever did in his life. The effect of it has been that
the clerks are doubled in number and all business of account
in long arrear. You will understand this if you personate
for a moment a purser, or even an officer about to receive
pay ; formerly you said to any junior clerk that you desired
the thing to be done, and, a fee of a guinea being under-
stood, the clerk worked for you till the thing was done.
At present the same fee is received for the public under the
name of a fee fund and the clerks, having no power of thus
augmenting their scanty income by fair labour bestowed
for applicants at the office, slumber over the desks and
duly depart at four in the afternoon. For this reform
Melville receives applause ! And no officer receives his
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 141
pay, or purser settles his accounts, without ruinous delay,
though he pays as much as before. A curse on all re-
formers ; the few that do good bear no proportion to those
that do mischief — a bad breed who might all be hanged
with national benefit.
' Charley Fox eats his former opinions daily, and even
ostentatiously, showing himself the worst man but the
better minister of a corrupt Government where three
people in four must be rogues and three deeds in four bad.
To-day we have the new Army Bills debated. I see little
to care about in them, except the gradual abolition of the
militia which seems intended. It was foolish in Windham
to talk of the volunteers as almost enemies of their country.
There is much offence given by this, and to-day we shall
have his apologies under the title of explanation I suppose !
He has praised the Duke of Y. egregiously. The Irish
Population Bill is dropped, why I know not. I took the
trouble to correct it for the muddy-headed man that brought
it in, and I believe my observations on his errors and
blunders disgusted him. I am glad it is dropped, expect-
ing to see it in better hands next year. . . .'
' 29th June 1806.
' . . . You may well depict the conduct of the vaunted
Whigs. You know how little I expect from any Ministry
while a Ministry has so little free will, but I did not expect
what I may venture to call an ostentatious dereliction of
all the principles produced in his long political life of C. Fox.
He takes a manifest pleasure in publishing his own apostacy.
He should have died for his fame a little sooner — before
Pitt. Now he is likely to die within a fortnight and may
have such an epitaph as fair Rosamund. The probable
speculation is that at his death the Whigs and the Adding-
tons go out and Lord Grenville takes the Pittites into
partnership. Indeed if Fox lives the same thing may
possibly happen. He is said to be imperious and conse-
quently odious in the Cabinet. Windham is unfit for
business though not a Whig. Lord St. Vincent and Lord
142 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Ho wick may be reckoned the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
in partnership at the Admiralty, having nothing remark-
able but ill-nature and ill-manners. Lord Henry Petty
has been produced too soon, he should have been a recipient
(as you call him) ten years longer. He will soon sink en-
tirely at the end of his taxation before he gets through one
budget, a percentage on the assessed taxes being manifestly
a last resource, and what a resource ! Mr. Rose has pretty
well expounded his Public Accountant scheme to be a
patronage scheme. 1 There is a proverb about setting a
thief to catch a thief, but this is sparring without mufflers
and will enlighten the public too much. Heretofore there
has been an understood caution not to call the mysteries
of our Government by coarse names, which must soon
destroy its reputation even with the vulgar. . . .'
' August 3lst, 1806.
' I found your letter awaiting me here and now thank you
for your hearty invitation, which you find I acted upon by
the spirit of prophesy, or, in profaner language, of antici-
pation. I assure you I am exceedingly pleased with the
mode and capabilities of your hospitality, and enjoyed
myself even more than I expected, though I had before
no mean opinion of your fertile county or of its inhabitants.
My sister too desires to offer her best thanks for your
attention to her.
' We had a pleasant journey homewards, the rain being
trifling, you sent us one long expected scud from Bridgwater
to Polsden Hill which made us stop under shelter of a hedge
for ten minutes.
' We saw Glastonbury Ruins and Wells Cathedral and
reached Frome at 6 o'clock. The city of Wells seems to
me the most comfortable looking town I have ever seen.
I suppose the real or prepared residence of the clergy adds
many good houses to it. I was quite in a monastic humour
1 This refers to a measure passed for consolidating the Boards of Com-
missioners for auditing Public Accounts. The Commissioners were to have
large salaries, the chairman £1500, and his colleagues £1200 each.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 143
before night, being always sufficiently disposed to think
with regard of the religious institutions abolished by the
rapacity of a detestable tyrant whereby fox-hounds and
country squires have since been maintained instead of
educated men and respectable women — whereby too, mark
me, the evil of the Poor Laws was first established. . . .
' Coleridge is in town ; he is said to return poor, and says
that on some occasion he was forced to throw over-board
his MSS. intended for publication. Perhaps these were
MSS. he had intended to write. I do not forget the story
of the two quartos ready for publication which he talked
of before he commenced traveller. . . /
It is perhaps not quite easy to explain Rickman's objec-
tion to Fox's ' apostacy,' though it is to some extent
explained in the following letter to Southey. The fact
was that Fox loyally continued Pitt's policy of resistance
to Napoleon by means of alliances on the Continent, and
recognised that it was not the time for pressing his former
views of peace and Parliamentary reform. Rickman had
no desire for peace or reform, at any rate, and he does not
specify what measures would have commanded his admira-
tion. Perhaps he was secretly longing for a despotism.
'Dec. 29, 1806.
' . . . Lately we have had good specimen of this most
politic indecision : people begin to say that we pay too
dearly for the pleasure of having a Government composed
of checks, that is, of low clashing interests, which makes
our colossal strength ridiculous rather than efficient. What
a whimsical negotiation we have had ! Says Geo. ni. to
Mr. Bonaparte — " I must have my dear Hanover." " Cer-
tainly," says Mr. B., " because England will always remain
my slave while I can always threaten to seize it ; and there-
fore, you, Mr. King of Prussia, must give me Hanover, that
I may give it to England, as an equivalent for some share
of her colonies and commerce : and I must also have an
open road to this Hanover, that I may be able to take it
144 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
without discussions with you about my march thither ;
therefore, good Mr. King of Prussia, I must have your East
Friesland of you too." This K. of P. (who had made so
great a mistake as to suppose he had a good army, for no
better reason than because he had never tried it) expressed
his rage at being likely to be pillaged of his pillage, earned
by so many lies and base condescensions. So he fought,
and was conquered in about half an hour, with this appro-
priate aggravation of his misfortune, that he feared to tell the
real cause of the war, so implicated is he in French politics.
I am heartily glad at the rupture of the negotiation with us.
Who can tell the mischiefs of a peace founded on the adop-
tion of Hanover by C. J. Fox, and to be perpetuated only
by condescensions to our mortal enemy, on account of that
Hanover ? Soon it would have been obvious to the very
Vulgar that the interest of the nation had been sacrificed
to the King's private partialities, and that in fact he had
delivered us bound into the hand of France ! . . .'
The correspondence between Rickman and Southey during
1807 was mainly occupied with the details of Southey 's
history of Brazil, on which he was busily engaged. There
were one or two allusions to Burnett's improvement, and
one letter from Southey contains a strong animadversion
on Coleridge's separation from his wife, in which he declared
that Coleridge's habits were ' murderous of all domestic
comfort.' Rickman replied in much the same spirit, saying
that he had heard Coleridge called for brandy in the morn-
ing ' without respect of persons.' In this year, too, Southey
received a proposal to write for the Edinburgh Review, upon
which he consulted Rickman, finally refusing the offer.
The Ministry of All the Talents, after passing the abolition
of the slave trade — to which Rickman does not refer — fell
in March, owing to Howick's moving for leave to bring
in a bill opening all commissions in the army and navy
to Roman Catholics. The King refused his sanction, and
required his ministers to give him a written pledge never to
urge concessions to Roman Catholics upon him. This they
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 145
refused to do, and resigned. The nominal head of the new
Government was Portland, but Perceval was the real leader.
The following is an extract from a letter to Southey : —
' 26 March, 1807.
' High hustle we are in here with the change of admini-
stration, a great evil ; because now again nobody in office
will know his business for three months ; anarchy all. — Who
has done this ? The Catholic Bill gave Geo. m. opportunity,
which, by the advice of his sage sons, he has not neglected,
and now we are to have apparently a short lived admini-
stration, and perhaps a new Parliament. The very mob will
be let into the secret that without forbearances and cour-
tesies and understandings the English form of supposed
government is no govt, at all. I am glad you are agt. the
Catholic Military Service Bill. I am so, taking that to be
the common-sense side of the question. If one made them
M.P.'s and magistrates, it would be said, this is dangerous,
chiefly because it may introduce them by successive indul-
gences into the army and navy. But this bill began with
the greater mischief, by some infatuation of Grenville and
Howick. It would have produced a Roman Cath. Chaplain
into every ship of the Navy, in its immediate operation.
Would not the ships soon put into Brest ? At least we
should look for mutinies out of number, when there was a
Holy Legate over the Captain of the ship. . . .'
A letter to Poole expresses very much the same opinion.
< 8th April 1807.
' ... As to politics — all bad — I do not see how they
can help uncovering the nakedness of our venerable form
of Government, and the old lady so treated will I fear look
very ridiculous ! If the present Government stands, the
King is an absolute monarch ; if they do not stand and the
Grenville and Howick people come in again, it seems we are
to be plagued with the Catholic question. I have not seen
in the newspapers Sheridan's witticism " that he had heard
K
146 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
of people running their heads against a stone wall, but never
before of their building a stone wall for that purpose." This
seems very just of the exit of the late Ministry, and to this
hour is a most incomprehensible thing to me, how they
could commence their meditated indulgence to the wild Irish
by admitting their religion into the army and navy. In
immediate prospect the Bill permitted an R.C. Priest in
every ship of war. Who would be Captain then ? If not
the R.C. Priest, the ship would be in a mutiny and sail for
Brest. I am sick of all politics. To-morrow at this time
there will be a fine battle in the House of Commons. 1 A
game of skittles in a china shop, a battle for pillage in a
shipwreck.
' I have not heard of the opinion of the Prince of Wales'
speedy decease, but have no great objection. It is said that
the royal Dukes have much to do with present politics.
For my part I shall think nothing of any Ministry who
permit such a wretch as the Duke of Y. to remain at the
head of the army. For this thing, inter alia, I despised the
late Administration heartily. But one cannot live so near
the House of Commons without becoming cynical towards all
who figure there. It will not much improve my respect
for them if the new men have a majority tomorrow. I
hear that the parties are numbered to be within 20 of each
other. Even so there must be a good crop of apostacy.
' I conclude this odious subject with my old opinion that
with many changes our Government is nearly a nonentity,
and a habit of that sort will soon destroy it totally. Shall
we five to see an embassy to France to send over somebody
to govern us ? . . .'
The only other extract for this year is from a letter to
Southey giving Rickman's opinion of Perceval. It proves
that his estimates of ability were as fallible as those of most
partisans. It will be seen that by the time of Perceval's
death he had virtually recanted his harsh judgment.
1 On April 9 there was a debate upon a motion that it was wrong for
ministers to constrain themselves by any kind of pledge not to give advice
to the Crown on any subject.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 147
< May 23, 1807.
' . . . Another month peoples the Ho. Commons again,
with the same breed doubtless, but more in favour of the
present Ministry than was expected even by themselves.
They have made a worse administration than was neces-
sary. How could they think of disturbing the dotage of
an approved fool, and of making Perceval Chanr. of the
Excheqr. ? I suppose he never learned more than the four
first rules of arithmetic, and has not practiced one of them
for 20 years last past. A polite scholar, and a generous
man — but as Chancr. of the Excheqr. ! — Alas for England ! '
The years 1808 and 1809 produced no very striking letters.
The birth of Rickman's daughter Ann was the theme of a
humorous letter from Southey on the superiority of girls
to boys. Literary matters and the Peninsular War were the
chief topics of correspondence : Rickman gave criticisms of
a new edition of Southey's ' Cid,' and of Coleridge's paper
The Friend, in which Southey assisted. In 1808 Southey
again stayed with Rickman, who returned the visit in the
succeeding year. Of the three extracts here given from
letters to Southey, the first is to show that Rickman's view
of the power of the House of Commons differed materially
from that which he expressed in 1831 and 1832, when the
Lords were presenting a stiff front to the passage of the
Reform Bill.
1 June 22, 1808.
' . . . Tomorrow Perceval is such a blockhead as to
intend to move for a deviation from the usual manner of
putting all the grants of the year in one Appropriation Act,
and this for fear the Lords should throw it out ; as both he
and they would both rather do injustice to Palmer than
not worship the former opinions of Billy Pitt, the Talker.
If Mr. Perceval does this, which is nearly equivalent to
moving for an abolition of the power of the Ho. Commons,
he will raise a flame which will consume far beyond himself
and his associates.'
148 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
The next extract refers to the foundation of the Quarterly
Review, of which Southey became one of the pillars. The
scheme of publishing a counterblast to the Edinburgh
Review was started in 1808, and in a letter to G. C. Bedford
Southey had already suggested that Rickman's name should
stand on the list of contributors instead of Malthus.
• Rickman,' he said, ' has tenfold his knowledge and abili-
ties. There is no man living equal to Rickman upon the
subject of political economy. He, too, is a Crusader as to
this war. Malthus will prove a peacemonger.'
But Rickman had some insuperable objection to obtaining
notoriety by writing. In spite of his obvious qualifications
and his burning interest in many questions which such
a review would discuss, he could not bring himself to write
for the Press. He therefore wrote : —
■ Feb. 6, 1809.
* . . . I write in furious haste, or I would say something
about a Quarterly Review about which Mr. G. Bedford
talked to me the other day ; he says you are concerned to
help it, and that you wish me to help, which I do not know
that I can do. If you really care about it, I daresay that,
interposing you as a shield from notoriety, I could find time
for such few books as you might think fit. However I
gave the said G. B. little encouragement, not expecting the
Review likely to be the better for his being suffered to
write in it.'
The following extract speaks for itself ; I include it to
show that on occasion Rickman could translate the tender-
ness of his heart into the written word : —
'Aug. 11, 1809.
* . . . See the instability of human affairs ! I, who
talked of going to Keswick, am now at Christchurch, sum-
moned to attend the funeral of my good Father, who is
to be gathered to his ancestors at Milford . . . tomorrow.
His illness was short ... so that he has died, as desirable,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 149
at a good old age, and without the sting of mortal disso-
lution. Peace be with him ! A man of milder temper and
of more general benignity never lived. In the peacefull
qualities of the mind, a better man than his son : in activity,
perhaps in utility, inferior. You knew him, and I think
held his countenance and his heart to be in happy unison.'
The end of 1809 was notable for the unfortunate
Walcheren expedition, the duel between Castlereagh and
Canning, and the subsequent collapse of Portland's Cabinet,
which was shortly followed by Portland's death. After
considerable negotiation between the King and various
parties, Perceval became Prime Minister, Grenville and
Grey having found it impossible to accept office. The
year 1810 opened with great public discontent over
the Walcheren failure, and excitement was deliberately
fomented by Cobbett, Sir Francis Burdett, and other re-
formers. The famous arrest of Burdett, which caused
serious riots, took place in April, but the unrest subsided
before Parliament adjourned. The best letter of this year
is to Thomas Poole.
■ 11th January 1810.
' ... It seems high time that Parliament should meet,
that it may not be supplanted by the rival legislation
of linen drapers and shopmen at Guildhall. If their
impudence were not dangerous it would afford amusement
to think of these fellows bullying the poor old King to
receive personally their address, differing only by the
insertion of a little insolence from one received by him from
the Corporation of London a few days before. I have not
read Cobbett * for some time, but suppose this must be
thought a very patriotic impudence in the Livery by him
and his adherents. True it is however that the original
weakness and unlucky dissention in the present administra-
tion affords dangerous encouragement to the malcontents
1 Cobbett's Weekly Register.
150 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
and I believe it is fit that a prudent lover of his country-
should rather wish for new faces at the helm. This too
seems very likely to happen, and it must be allowed that
Lord Grenville and Lord Wellesley with Canning and
Huskisson, for a financier a Vansittart, would form a
stronger Government than we have now, however short of
what might be wished. The M. of Wellesley is said to
treat his present colleagues with intolerable hauteur, and
I suppose will find it very difficult to drop his so long
assumed character of an Eastern despot. This man has
abilities, I think, of acting with decision, orator he is not,
and of wealth and Parlimentary strength in boroughs has
little or nothing. I do not understand why he and his
brothers are so much courted. The Opposition say that
they can bring 240 votes into the field next week, and I
think they will really produce full two thirds of that number,
or even 180. This will look much like a new administration,
and I suppose if the Rump Whigs get in again they will not
ruin themselves by vainly expecting to last for ever, as
certainly they expected after Pitt's death, and provoked
the nation rather to repose in the present feeble hands.
Grenville, I hear, retreats considerably from his designs
against the Irish Protestants since he has been elected
Chancellor of Oxford, and if he moderates at all I do not see
what more he can desire for the Catholics than they have
already. I am in hopes that Grey will not come in if the
Ministry changes, and I reckon that Whitbread will by
choice stand aloof from any possible administration, and
this always that he may be able to continue his delectable
occupation of finding fault without pointing out a remedy.
' I do not ask whether you read the Friend with attention,
as I believe I perceive that you occasionally furnish matter
for it from your cabinet of letters from C. [Coleridge] when
he was in Germany, also I guess you supply part of the
ways and means, as I understand that Mr. Ward's * brother
is appointed receiver. When I call and pay for the 20
numbers I will introduce myself to him. Coleridge to be
1 Thomas Poole's partner.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 151
sure is strangely unlucky in his Pay -Day No. 20, x which
appears entirely unreadable. He should have reserved
Mr. Wordsworth's crude didactics for another time if he
must needs insert such mountain lore. 2 It seems to me that
Wordsworth has neither fun nor common sense in him.
He soars far above both, and in my notion makes himself
disagreeable and ridiculous accordingly. Of Coleridge
however I think the better for his friendly productions,
there is writing of a high order thickly interspersed — and
putting aside any expectation of method — a fulfilment of
his frequent promises ; it must be owned that he often
develops sentiments which few have elevation enough to
cogitate. As usual in his conversation, so in his writing,
he does the devil's dirty work — flattery, — without hope
of reward — and now we are to expect a grand batch of it,
in the promised eulogy of Sir Alexander Ball 3 — a man with
whom he parted on the worst terms, on a mutual notorious
hatred of each other. To be sure Sir Alexander's family
will be astonished at a panegyric from S. T. C. Yet there is
room for panegyric, and if C. had begun with saying, " Such
is the infirmity of human nature that personally I could
not endure this man, yet will I try to do justice to his merit,"
this had been well. The contrary is not very much unlike
falsehood — and partakes of the old failing, flattery without
benefit to himself.
' I have asked you about the Poor Laws — and you ask
me — the subject is too large for a letter : the outline of
any conclusion is, that the poor rate is a great evil, more
in the trouble it gives than even in the expense — and I
much question whether it does any good at all. As to
building and managing workhouses, I look upon it to be a
radical and universal absurdity to expect maintenance so
cheap or work so productive from persons under coercion
1 The scheme for subscription to the Friend was that payment should be
made after the twentieth number.
2 The article by Wordsworth was ' Reply to a letter by Mat betes.'
3 Coleridge's Friend contains a most fantastic and exaggerated eulogy of
Sir A. Ball, the famous admiral and friend of Nelson.
152 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
(I do not quite venture the parallel of slave labour) as from
those who are struggling to maintain themselves, and to
improve their condition in life. I am surprised at myself
for having been so long blind in this. I do not mean
that I was ever an advocate for workhouses, but I never
scouted them as I ought always to have done. True, I
never thought much about the matter. I think I could
make (or will you say feign ?) a splendid representation of
what England would have now been uncursed by poor
laws. You know I do not hate a thing by halves. Also
I begin to suspect that, from the perversity of human
nature, there is quite as much village learning — now that
it must be bought — as there would be if it were given gratis.
Has not every village a dame's school and most villages a
writing master ? '
The correspondence with Southey during this year
turned chiefly upon literary matters. The name of George
Burnett occurs several times. In February Rickman in-
formed Southey that he had had ' two or three begging
letters from that wretch Burnett, but his misery is so
entirely self-acquired, his view of benefit from any largess
so absurd, and his morals so shattered, that it is not worth
while to pay for the right of giving him advice.' In March
Burnett stood for the post of assistant librarian at the
London Institution, and Rickman wrote a commendation
for him, but in May told Southey that he had failed as
usual through his own absurdity, and now said that he was
starving. Rickman wished him. to return to his home at
Huntspill. The following passage from a letter to Southey
refers to the debate upon November 15, after the final
relapse of the King into insanity and blindness, on the
question of adjournment for a fortnight. It appears from
the list of the minority in Hansard that some of the official
Opposition, including Tierney, voted with Burdett and the
other Radicals.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 153
« Nov. 19, 1810.
1 . . . What a stupid debate had we the other night !
The Ho. Commons seemed to imitate the soap-suds of
Lord G. When the King is in health, the whole current
of debate rolls upon the theory, that every act of Governmt.
is not the King's but his Ministers'. WTien the King
is ill, the State is in danger from the want of its Chief
Magistrate even for a fortnight ! Precious and beautiful
art of debating ! Ponsonby was rather too late in bringing
down word from the Ho. Lords that no division was in-
tended, for just before he came, Tierney (the usual watch-
word of the party) had given word for a division. So they
were oddly mixed with the Burdetters. The Prince of
Wales affects to be a good boy on this occasion, and this
I suppose curbs the Talents a little in their indications.'
The Regency Bill raised very high feelings, the limitation
of the Regent's powers by Act of Parliament being much
resented by the Prince of Wales and his friends. But
Perceval had the precedent of 1788 before him, and was
able to pass the bill as he wished it in February 1811.
The Opposition hoped for a change of ministry, and the
Whig Lords Grenville and Grey, after private com-
munications with the Prince, drafted a speech for him
to deliver to an address from both Houses preliminary to
the Regency Bill. This draft displeased the Prince, who
adopted another composed by Sheridan. Grey and Grenville
thereupon addressed a haughty remonstrance to him, and
he decided to keep Perceval in office. This will explain a
rapturous letter from Rickman to Southey.
'3 February 1811.
' So the Scoundrels (as I told you to expect) are not to
be our masters : Settled at Windsor on Saturday — and
yesterday the P. W. gave them their conge at Carlton Ho.
Furious they are at him — and we may sing, Tantarara !
' The P. W. was so ignorant of the nature of the Govern-
ment that he expected servants, and they undeceived him
154 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
in the speech which Lords Gr. and Gr. wrote for him in
answer to the Resolutions. Sheridan swore he was ruined
for life, if he insulted Parliament in his first intercourse,
and, drunk as he was, wrote the answer finally sent. Where-
upon Lords Gr. and Gr. sent in an humble Remonstrance,
that they could be of no service to His R. H. if he varied in
anything from their advice. The P. W. then went and tried
Lord Holland, but he said he was not able to carry
majorities ; then the Prince returned to Gr. and Gr. for a
few days, but new experiments of their humble advice dis-
gusted him again. Huzza for Old England !
' 4 Febry.
' The Pangs of the M. Chronicle are delicious.
' I send a copy. Canting Villain ! '
In 1810 Southey had undertaken to write a yearly survey
of current events for the Edinburgh Annual Register, and
he was also reviewing for the Quarterly a book upon the
British army by a Captain Pasley, which he made the peg
for a vigorous attack upon the Government generally. In
both of these tasks Rickman gave him invaluable assistance,
as appears from the correspondence. Not only did he
collect and send him all kinds of Parliamentary papers,
but also frequent accounts and commentaries written by
himself for Southey to remodel : their breezy character
may be imagined from his asking Southey to allow for his
exasperation in seeing the ' villains,' Burdett and others,
so often. Among other matters Rickman discussed the
currency question, which attracted considerable attention
during 1810 and 1811.
Southey made such good use of Rickman's material in
his review for the Quarterly that he scandalised Croker and
Gifford, the editor, who refused to print the article with-
out considerable mutilation. Southey was much annoyed,
and had thoughts of throwing all the material Rickman
had sent him into an anonymous pamphlet. A letter of
Rickman's makes some observations on the incident.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 155
' 11 April 1811.
' I had no idea that the Quarterly Review was ministerial,
— that is, in avowed communication with them — and it is
entertaining to see Gifford fathering an objection upon
them, instead of their using such a man for purposes of that
kind. It is amusing to me who know Croker, to imagine
him sitting in judgment upon anything you or I may say or
think. Not that he is not a sharp fellow ; but that it is
as impossible as it is against fact that a man of Irish habits,
till within about two years, should know anything of
English affairs. Their Government anterior to the Union
was rather municipal than national, the question of taxation
the only one they had to discuss in their Parliament, save
when they once appointed the Pr. of Wales Regent. As to
external policy they had nothing to do with it, and their
ignorance of all things necessary to it is remarkable beyond
credulity. The commonest knowledge of geography and
history they really seem to have abjured in a body, and
by common consent. . . .
' The Speaker has desired to enquire on behalf of some
friend of his, what three months are the best for Laking in
Cumberland ; what the best residence from whence to
wander occasionally for that purpose, including the con-
sideration of being able to hire a house entire, and fit for
residence of a small family. And whether the place recom-
mendable with their views, be also a post town ? Answer
this question or questions in a separate note, that I may
give it him in original. — Yours, J. R.
' Of Burnet — I understand he died of a rapid decline,
and in an hospital where he had due attention. I knew not
why the thing was represented worse than this ; and I can
tell you, that the over-acted sorrow of C. [Coleridge] has
been very mischievous. Would to God he had not come to
London.'
Rickman's postscript, referring to George Burnett's
156 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
miserable end, was in answer to a passage in a previous
letter from Southey, in which he said : —
1 Your Greek tells me the end of a dismal history. It
shocked me the more because I could not but think it was
quite as well for the world that he was out of it, and better
for himself. Poor fellow, in an evil hour did he become
acquainted with me, and yet had he always listened to me
he might at this day have been a happy and useful member
of society.'
Burnett died early in March in a workhouse infirmary.
Crabb Robinson's diary has an entry for March 6 : ' After
dinner called on C. Lamb ; heard from him that Geo.
Burnett had died wretchedly in a workhouse. Hazlitt and
Coleridge were there and seemed sensibly affected by the
circumstance ' ; and a commentary on Rickman's reference
to Coleridge is to be found in the entry for March 8 : ' Learnt
that Miss Lamb had had a renewal of her attack. H. [Haz-
litt] thinks that Burnett's death occasioned the present
relapse. . . . H. thinks that poor Miss L. as well as her
brother is injured by Coleridge's presence in town, and
their frequent visits and constant company at home which
keep their minds in perpetual fever.' Coleridge was then
in town negotiating about the delivery of a course of lectures,
and his extravagant lamentations over a ruined career, for
which he was more to blame than Southey, were calculated
to upset a less excitable mind than that of Mary Lamb.
It is interesting, therefore, to find that he was still on friendly
terms with Rickman, and in his confidence with regard to
Lamb's convivial habits, as the following letter from him
shows : —
'October 1811.
' Dear Sir, — On Tuesday next Mr. Morgan 1 and myself
will avail ourselves of your kind invitation. I was (and
am) in town on the arrival of your letter. I have this
moment received it. My business has been to bring about
1 With whom Coleridge lived at Hammersmith.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 157
a lecture Scheme — the prospectus of which I shall be able
to bring with me on Tuesday. Re the subject of dining with
Lamb I had a long conversation with him yester-evening —
and only blame myself, that having long felt the deepest con-
victions of the vital importance of his not being visited till
after 8 o'clock and then, too, rarely except on his open
nights, I should yet have been led to take my friend M.
there, at dinner, at his proposal, out of a foolish delicacy
in telling him the plain truth, that it must not be done.
I am right glad, that something effective is now done — tho'
permit me to say to you in confidence, that as long as Hazlitt
remains in town I dare not expect any amendment in
Lamb's health, unless luckily H. should grow moody and
take offence at being desired not to come till 8 o'clock. It
is seldom indeed, that I am with Lamb more than once in
the week — and when at Hammersmith, most often not once
in a fortnight, and yet I see what harm has been done
even by me — what then if Hazlitt — as probably he will —
is with him 5 evenings in the seven ? Were it possible
to wean C. L. from the pipe, other things would follow with
comparative ease, for till he gets a pipe, I have regularly
observed that he is contented with porter — and that the
unconquerable appetite for spirit comes in with the tobacco
— the oil of which especially in the gluttonous manner in
which he volcanizes it, acts as an instant poison on his
stomach or lungs. — Believe me, dear Sir, yours with affec-
tionate Esteem, S. T. Coleridge.'
During 1812 the correspondence between Southey and
Rickman was mainly concerned with the war and the poor
laws, on which latter subject Southey, instructed by Rick-
man, was preparing an article for the Quarterly. Another
subject was the financial misfortunes of William Taylor of
Norwich, who had lost a large sum of money, and wrote to
Rickman asking about a vacant post at the Museum.
Rickman wrote him a most sympathetic letter, beginning :
' Your letter . . . cuts me to the heart,' but was obliged
to announce that the post had already been filled. Perhaps
158 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
the most interesting letter of the year is Southey's descrip-
tion of Shelley's sudden departure from Oxford.
* January 6th, 1812. Keswick.
* . . . Do you know Shelly the member for Shoreham ?
(not the Lewes Member). His eldest son is here under curi-
ous circumstances. At Eton he wrote poetry and romances,
went to University College, and not liking Oxford society
amused himself with studying Hebrew, metaphysics,
and Godwin's original quartos. What may become of the
Hebrew remains to be seen, what came of the metaphysics
was the usual result, followed however by consequences not
quite so usual, for the youth happened to have an excellent
heart, high moral principles, and enthusiasm enough for a
martyr. So he prints half a dozen papers which he entitled
The Necessity of Atheism, prefixed a short advertisement
requesting that any person who felt able would publish a
reply to it in the same brief clear and methodical form,
folded up one of the pamphlets with this taking title, and
directed to Copplestone. 1 Copplestone either tracing the
handwriting, or finding out the author thro' the printer
(for he printed it at Worthing), sends the argument to the
Master of University. He calls for Shelly, and asks if the
argument be his, which the philosopher of course avows.
Dr. Griffiths then offers to pass it over if he will recant his
opinion. A Christian might do that, was his reply, but
I cannot. Expulsion of course followed instanter. — Away
goes Shelly to a graduate (a friend of Hannah More's) whom
he had been zealously helping to raise a subscription for
some protegee, to settle this business with him, tells him
for what he came, and that the reason was that he was
about to leave Oxford having just been expelled for atheism,
at which terrific word the man absolutely fainted away ! !
Poor Shelly a little astonished at finding himself possessed
of this sort of basilisk property, used his best endeavours
to recover him, lets him out into the garden, and had the
farther pleasure of hearing himself addressed, as soon as
1 The famous tutor of Oriel ; afterwards Bishop of Llandaff .
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 159
the Evangelist recovered his speech in these charitable
words, I pray God, sir, that I may never set eyes on you
again.
■ Well, the story does not end here. My philosopher, feeling
how much better he himself was made by his own philo-
sophy (which in truth he was for he would have been burnt
alive for it as willingly as the Evangelical would have burnt
him), thought it incumbent upon him to extend the benefits
of his saving anti-faith, and after the examples of Mahomet
and Taylor the Pagan began with his own family. Of his
father and mother there was no hope, but he had a sister at
school who was old enough for an example. Accordingly
he writes to her upon this pleasant subject. The corre-
spondence is forbidden, but as she loved her brother dearly,
means are found of carrying it on thro' a Miss Westbrook,
her schoolfellow and esteemed friend. This is discovered
at last. Miss W. gets miserably tormented (I believe the
school was an Evangelical one) — becomes very unhappy
in consequence, — dreads the thoughts of returning to this
place of suffering after the holydays, and he to deliver her
proposes a journey to Gretna Green, — he 19 she 17. His
father has cast him off, — but cannot cut off £6000 a year,
tho' he may deprive him of as much more, — her's allow them
£200 a year, and here they are. The D. of Norfolk is trying
to bring about a reconciliation. I, liking him as you may
suppose the better for all this, am in a fair way of con-
vincing him that he may enjoy £6000 a year when it comes
to him, with a safe conscience, that tho' things are not as
good as they will be at some future time, he has been mis-
taken as to the way of making them better, and that the
difference between my own opinion and his is — that he is
19 and I am 8 and 30. No other harm has been done than
the vexation to her from her family, for as for the early
marriage I consider that rather a good than an evil, seeing
— as far as I have yet seen — that he has chosen well. If
you know the father well enough to speak upon such a
subject — endeavour to make him understand that a few
years will do everything for his son which he ought to wish.
160 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
He is got to Pantheism already, and in a week more I shall
find him a Berkeleyan, for I have put the Minute Philosopher
at his hands. He will get rid of his eccentricity, and he
will retain his morals, his integrity and his genius, and
unless I am greatly deceived there is every reason to believe
he will become an honour to his name and his country.
No possible chance have thrown him in the way of a better
physician, nor of one who would have taken a more sincere
interest in the patient. — God bless you, R. S.'
On May 12 the Prime Minister, Perceval, was assassinated
in the lobby of the House by a madman named Bellingham.
His death broke up the Government, and after fruitless
negotiations with Wellesley on the one hand, and the
Grenville party on the other, the Regent entrusted affairs
to Lord Liverpool, who formed that Tory administration
which lasted fifteen years, always harassed, but never dis-
lodged. Rickman's letter to Southey upon Perceval's
death is characteristically vigorous.
< 16th May 1812.
' . . . What shall I say of the unhappy event which has
happened here ? I expected Mr. Perceval to be murdered,
but I had expected it from the Burdetts, and other vermin
rendered infuriate by the weekly poison they imbibe from
16 Newspapers emulous in violence and mischief. In
reading your little book about the rogue Lancaster, 1 I do
not find that you discuss the main question, whether the
mob can be conveniently taught reading while the liberty
of the Press exists as at present. Every one who reads at
all reads a Sunday newspaper, not the Bible ; and if any
1 Joseph Lancaster was a young Quaker who in a pamphlet drew
attention to the use he had made in a London school of Dr. Bell's Madras
system of mutual education. A dispute arose between him and Bell,
which became, in fact, a dispute between the respective upholders of secular
and Church education. Southey took Bell's side in the Quarterly, and
published his article in 1811 as ' The Origin, Nature and Object of the New
System of Education.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 161
man before doubted the efficiency of that prescription, the
behaviour of the mob upon Mr. P.'s death, may teach them
better knowledge. The assassin's is really a respectable
character (doing a strong deed, upon what appeared to him
a great injury) compared to those who, when the horrid
deed was done, applauded it, and collected here to encourage
and rescue the assassin, who was necessarily conveyed away
through the Speaker's House to avoid them. At Notting-
ham the temper was yet worse. Poor Perceval breathed
his last on the green table in my Ho. Commons Room, which
you may remember : — but I was at home, and saw none
of the tragedy. After he was shot he walked on but 6 or
7 steps, as if unconscious, and so much in his usual gait
as to be recognised by it through the crowd, when he
approached the door of the Ho. Commons, he struck both
his hands upon his breast, and fell prostrate. Who the
Administration are to be, nobody knows ; I hope the Oppo-
sition will not profit by the murder. Their Morng. Chron.
distant apologies speak as if consciously of having instigated
more mischief than they now think may be convenient to
any future Ministry, even to themselves. Rascals ! Who
never thought but of their disappointed ambition ; and
would overthrow England, if they cannot govern England.
' Lord Wellesley and Canning would probably be the best
Administration ; but if the present men can get a Debate
in Ho. Commons they mean it is said to recollect the
Dionysian policy of not stirring till dragged out by the heels.
Poor Perceval used very unfairly to be forced to speak for
all the departments of the Government. He has rest from
his labours, — and you and I, and England, and Spain, and
Europe still have cause to rue his death ! '
The only other letter of interest for 1812 is one from
Coleridge.
« Friday, 17 July 1812.
' My dear Sir, — I well know, how little time you have
to throw away — and Mr. Morgan and myself have therefore
L
162 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
long struggled with the desire of inducing you to dine and
spend the evening with us, and one or two intelligent friends
at 71, Berner's Street. But Mr. Morgan has requested me
to ask you, whether it is in your power or plan of time to
mention any day in the next week, or the week after, which
you can afford and if there were any chance of Mrs. Rick-
man and your sister's favouring us, Mrs. Morgan would
not only be most happy to see them, but would previously
call on Mrs. R. to make a personal invitation.
' In whatever part of Christendom a genuine philosopher
in Political Economy shall arise, and establish a system,
including the laws and the disturbing forces of that mira-
culous machine of living Creatures, a Body Politic, he will
have been in no small measure indebted to you for authentic
and well guarded documents. The Prel. Obserw. 1 inter-
ested me much in and for themselves — and as grounds
or hints for manifold reflections they were at least equally
valuable. I am about to put to the press a second volume
of The Friend, and in all points but one, treated of in the
work I seem to myself to be in broad daylight, but in that
one, perplexed and darkling and dissatisfied. The subject
is the constitution of our Country and the expediency ?
and (if expedient) the practicability ? of an improvement
(for Reform is either a misnomer or a lie to all our history)
of the House of Commons. A series of weak Ministries ;
the strange co-existence of little knots and sub-parties in
the legislature ; the strength of the stronger party to do
harm and its weakness to effect, even what they themselves
consider, good, upon any system ; and above all, the rapid
increase both of inorganised and of self-organising * power
of action throughout the kingdom ; make a deep impres-
sion on me as far as the wish for some improvement goes,
while the general laxness and almost flaccidity of intellectual
manhood, the scarcity of true virile productive strong-
' * Wens, Hydatids etc., under the name of Societies, Committees,
Associations etc' [Coleridge's note. J
i.e. to the census returns for 1811.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 163
sense, renders me despondent even as to the formation in
Parliament of any grand outline. Where shall we find 500
better ? — or if I reply — the very same men would be better
if sent into Parliament by better means, then comes the
yet harder question — What are the means which, effect-
ing this one end, would not at the same time reduce the
Peerage of the Realm to a puppet shew, and the Ministers
of the Crown to a Committee of Public Safety reporting
to the National Convention ? If I have been rightly in-
formed, there never was a House of Commons that contained
so large a number of men without estates or known pro-
perty as the present. Most certainly there never was one
so cowardly plebicolar. I fear, I fear, that it is a hopeless
business and will continue so till some fortunate Grant-
mind starts up and revolutionises all the present notions
concerning the education of both gentry and middle classes.
While this remains in statu quo, I expect that good Dr.
Bell's Scheme 1 carried into full effect by the higher classes
may suggest to a thinking man the image of the Irishman
on the bough with his face toward the trunk sawing himself
off. — Excuse my garrulity and believe me, my dear sir,
your's with affectionate Respect, S. T. Coleridge.'
. The first letter of 1813 is from Coleridge, describing the
rehearsals of his tragedy ' Remorse.' In 1797 he had
written a tragedy, called ' Osorio,' at Sheridan's request,
but it had been rejected on the ground of obscurity. In
1812, through the influence of Lord Byron, this play,
rewritten under the title of ' Remorse/ was accepted by the
Drury Lane Committee. It was produced on January 23,
1813, with great success, and ran for twenty nights. From
the receipts Coleridge received £400, besides his profits
from the sale of a published edition. It will be seen from
the letter that Rickman had offered some judicious criticisms
which were accepted. The prologue to which Coleridge
refers was by Charles Lamb, while the epilogue was by
himself.
1 See note to p. 160.
164 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
1 Monday night, 25 January 1813.
' My dear Sir, — Having stayed at home this evening
from that persecuting stomach and bowel faintness of mine,
and alone too (a delightful feeling now and then, even
when those, who are for a few hours absent, are dearly
loved), for Morgan, and the women, both parlourtry and
kitchentry, are at the theatre, I have time to thank you
for your kind gratulation, and still more for your remarks,
the greater part of which coincided with my own previous
judgments, and the rest produced instant conviction. All
were acted upon this morning, except that I could not
persuade either actor or manager to give up Isidore's
description of Alvar's Cottage and the Dell, and in truth
it was somewhat odd, as the world goes, to have the writer
pleading strenuously for more and more excisions, and the
actor (and in one or two instances the manager) arguing
for their retention. Indeed it has been so far from escaping
notice, that Arnold * and Raymond, 2 I hear, have given me
the name of " The Amenable Author.'" But then with Sir
Fretful Plagiary in The Critic " I will print every word of
it." Tho' that is not true either, for many of the omis-
sions have improved the piece no less as a dramatic poem
than as an acting tragedy.
' By the bye, that most beastly assassination of Ordonio
by the Moor, that lowest depth of the fucrnreov, was so
far from being a deed of mine, that I saw it perpetrated
for the first time on Saturday night. I absolutely had
the hiss half way out of my lips and retracted it. . . .
It is, perhaps, almost the only case in which scenic life
is the same as real life. We can as little endure the
imitation of absolute baseness, as we can its reality. It
is now altered, or rather reformed to my original purpose
and so as to obviate your very just objection to Alhadra's
Sneak-Exit. After the words " These little ones will crowd
around and ask me — Where is our Father ? I shall curse
thee then ! ! ! ! " the cry of rescue " Alvar ! Alvar ! " and
1 Manager of Drury Lane. 2 Stage-manager.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 165
the voice of Valdez, is heard from behind the scenes — and
Alhadra with these words —
"Ha! a rescue ! — and Isidore un-revenged !
The deed be mine ! (Stabs Ordonio.)
Now take my life !
Alvar. Arm of avenging Heaven ! etc." 1
' I had never once attended the rehearsal of the last
act, the bowel-griping cold from the stage floor and weari-
ness from cutting blocks with a razor having always sent
me packing homeward before the conclusion of the fourth.
They attempted to justify it by the death of Coriolanus ;
but in the first place Shakespear is borne out by the historical
fact, in the second place the mode of the murder (in Shake-
spear at least, for I never saw it acted) is quite different ;
and lastly, in Morgan's copy of Shakepear's works I had
some three weeks ago expressed my incapability of explain-
ing the character of Titus Aufidius consistently with the
re-creating psychologic (if not omni-, yet) hominiscience
of " The Myriad-minded " Bard. This, my only word in it,
puts me in mind of the Prologue, of which I have yet
nothing to say in addition to your remarks. I am a miser-
able coward when pain is to be given — I hesitated and
hesitated, till (had I even plucked up fortitude enough to
have declined it) I had no longer time to substitute a better.
It is hard to say which was worse, Prologue or Epilogue,
videlicet, as Prologue and Epilogue to this particular
1 The passage ran as follows in the published edition : —
' Alhadra. Those little ones will crowd around and ask me,
Where is our father ? I shall curse thee then !
Wert thou in heaven, my curse should pluck thee thence !
Teresa. He doth repent ! See, see, I kneel to thee !
O let him live ! that aged man, his father
Alhadra. Why had he such a son ?
[Shouts from the distance of, Rescue ! Rescue ! Alvar ! Alvar ! and the
voice of Valdez heard.
Rescue ? — and Isidore's spirit unavenged ? —
The deed be mine ! [Suddenly stabs Ordonio.
Now take my life.
Ordonio (staggering from the wound). Atonement !
Alvar. Arm of avenging heaven, etc'
166 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Tragedy. Only the Prologue, because it was Pro, did
harm, and the Epi no good. However, I shall begin to
brave Nemesis by a full joy, if all go off as well to-night as
it did on Saturday. With best respects to Mrs. Rickman
and to your sister I am, my dear Sir, with unfeigned
esteem and regard, your S. T. Coleridge.
' P.S. If it would amuse Mrs. R., Miss R., or you deem
it right to let little Anne see the Pantomime at so early
an age, I have half a dozen box tickets at their service for
any day of this or the next week, should " The Remorse " run
so long. I have not yet read what the remorseless critics
of the " ano abstersurae Chartae " say of the play, but I
know that Hazlitt in the M[orning] C[hronicle] has sneered
at my presumptions in entering the Lists with Shakespear's
Hamlet in Teresa's description of the two brothers : when
(so help me the Muses) that passage never once occurred
to my conscious recollection, however it may, unknown
to myself, have been the working idea within me. But
mercy on us ! Is there no such thing as two men's having
similar thoughts on similar occasions ? To all poetry
primaeval revelation, as I have sometimes laughingly
asserted of good jests, that the very same, mutatis para-
phemalibus, are to be found in all languages, and were
revealed for the amusement of Noah and his household
during their year-long see-saw on the 5 mile deep inunda-
tion, which accounts for every phenomenon in geology, only
not for that miraculous olive tree, the leaf from which
the tame pigeon (pigeon or raven) brought back to the
Jewish Ogyges. This woundy long letter will, I fear,
remind you of another over copious correspondent — but it
is one advantage (postage out of the question) that letters
have over conversation, that a man may shut his eyes,
but has no ear-lids, and may burn an epistle, when neither
to that or to other more economic uses, he would or could
employ a talker/
In 1813 Southey was working on his famous Life of
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 167
Nelson, which was one of the chief subjects of correspondence
with Rickman, whom he informed that he was to have £105
for the first edition. Other details mentioned in the
letters were the death of George Fricker, Southey's
brother-in-law, from consumption, the finding of a man
hanged in Coleridge's shirt, and the phenomenon of a
horsehair turning into a worm when left in water, by
the accretion or growth of animalculse. This scientific
wonder was discussed by the two friends with the keenest
interest, and in one letter Rickman devoted two pages to it.
After the battle of Vittoria had been fought, Rickman sent
Southey a plan of it drawn by himself. Southey's article
on the poor appeared in the Quarterly for December 1812,
and as it was a violent attack upon Malthus, it was after
Rickman's own heart. The letter of March 12 gives his
comments thereupon. A brief word is necessary upon the
other matters mentioned by Rickman. In the new
Parliament of 1813 the affairs of the East India Company
occupied a great deal of attention. The whole House sat
in committee on the subject, and an act was finally passed
renewing its charter and confirming its privileges, but
with great restrictions. From April 10, 1814, the India
trade was thrown open, and the charter made terminable
on three years' notice after 1831. A committee was also
appointed, on Grattan's motion, to consider the claims of
the Roman Catholics, but no bill was passed. The Princess
of Wales sent a letter to Parliament at the beginning of
March complaining of certain proceedings of the Privy
Council. Brougham, who entered Parliament in 1810,
was her adviser till her unfortunate attempt to be present
at the Coronation in 1821.
« 12 March 1813.
' . . . I have read your article on the poor with good
satisfaction, for the abundance of wit it contains, and the
general truth of its statements and reflections. With some
things you know I do not agree, for instance not in your
dislike of manufactures to the same degree, especially I
168 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
do not find them guilty of increasing the poor. For instance,
no county is more purely agricultural than Sussex (as I
perfectly know) where 28 persons, parents and children,
in 100, receive parish relief : no county more clearly to be
referred to the manufacturing character than Lancaster,
where the persons relieved by the parish are 7 in 100 — not
a third part of the agricultural poverty. An explanation of
this, not in a letter, will perhaps lead you to different
views of the poor-rate plan of relief, which in agricultural
counties operates as a mode of equalising wages according
to the number of mouths in a family : so that the single
man receives much less than his labour is worth, the
married man much more. I do not approve of this, nor of
the poor laws at all ; but it is a view of the matter which
in your opinion (more perhaps than in mine) may lessen
the amount of their mischief.
' Of these things and others we may talk in May ; but I
am afraid nothing will settle my mind about your wide
education plan, — a great good, or a great evil, certainly, but
which, I am not sure, while the liberty of the Press
remains. I believe that more seditious newspapers than
Bibles will be in use among your pupils.
' We are going on badly in the Ho. Commons, — the
contemptible state of the Administration, and the more con-
temptible state of the Opposition is, taken together, very
odd. The Ministry consider nothing forsooth as a Cabinet
Question ; that is, they have no opinion collectively. I
cannot imagine any thing in history more pitifull than their
junction and alliance with the high and mighty mob against
the E. India Company, an establishment second only, if
second, to the English Government in importance to man-
kind. As to the Catholics, they will gain little from the
Ho. Commons, and nothing from the Lords ; and the issue
of the attempt I hope will be to place the Catholic orators
in no pleasant situation, and to open the eyes of the rest
of the world as to the placable conciliating disposition of
the Irish Catholics and rebels.
1 The Princess of Wales, the most shameless of her sex,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 169
seems determined to push her case into public discussion,
and as the days of beheading are past, I suppose we shall
in due have an Act of Attainder to send her into durance,
or out of England : I care not which. Brougham allows
himself to be her adviser generally ; but not of her late
letters. I believe however he wrote the first half of the
first letter, which he thus disowns because nobody thinks
well of it. It is whimsical to see the natural attraction
between B. and Her R. H. The two persons eminently
farthest removed from bashfulness in this realm. But I
think Jupiter may stultify more extensively than he has
done before we are overset. Besides if chance is some-
times against us, it is sometimes for us. Witness the stupid
presumption of the Gre Gres 1 a year ago. Their refusal
of power which, misdirected as it was in 1806, would have
dispirited Russia into peace and subjection when Alexander
was wavering, and have altered the whole destiny perhaps
of Europe for ages to come. . . .'
Later in the year comes a letter from Rickman which
shows how fearless and sensible he was in giving literary
advice to Southey, whose revulsion of feeling since his
revolutionary ardours led him to use exaggerated language
in praise of those who withstood Napoleon, and, as we shall
see, in execration of Napoleon himself.
* 20 November 1813. 2
' . . . I have not read any of your annual Regr. very
lately, but I remember some of my former mental criticisms
upon it, which I know you will have no objection to hear ;
be they right or wrong, valuable or worthless.
' In the first place, I who yet am no Puritan, can never
read sacred epithets applied to human actions without a
little shuddering ; involuntarily I believe I refer all political
1 The name Rickman and Southey used to designate the Grenville and
Grey party. The conditions they sought to impose upon the Regent in
1812 made it impossible for him to give them office.
8 In Selections from the Letters of R. S., ii. 337 sq., extracts from this
letter and Southey's answer are given.
170 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
feelings to morality (high or low as the case may be) never
to religion. Thus I would dignify the obstinate resistance
of the Spaniards by any epithets denoting the steadfastness
of their patriotism, and their heroic suffering ; but I do
not class this kind of merit, nor any not of Gospel creation,
as holy or righteous : two words which I seem to remember
often in your historical style. The founder of our national
religion said his Kingdom was not of this world, and his
Quaker precepts are utterly incompatible with national
existence, if literally followed. If you would drop all
religious epithets, you may be sure your style will still have
strength enough left ; and there is another branch of the
same question, which may best be prefaced by asking,
do you approve of the annual Church fasts and occasional
thanksgivings in war time ? I confess I do not, thinking
either that the God of all may not much prefer one nation
of his creatures before another, or that it is impertinent to
offer our opinions or wishes to him, in his government of
mankind. Here we come to the large question of a
particular providence or not. I happen to believe that the
Creator constituted the earth and all creatures in it in the
best manner for their well being ; but that he interferes
no farther ; careless (so to speak) of the individual, even
sometimes of a whole species of animals (the mammoth for
example), careful only to insure general results. The old in-
stance of the weather as well as any other may serve to refute
the notion of a particular providence. We see often enough
that " He maketh the rain to fall on the just and on the
unjust." The hitherto prosperity of the devastator of
Europe is quite as strong an instance, and if he should now
be destroyed particular providence could not be the less
disgraced in the mischief he has been suffered to do. I do
not mean by this that the disbelief of a particular providence
is to be professed ; but I think it should be the esoteric
belief of an historian.
' In another view of the same subject, we ought not to
forget, that however severe the process of conquest, without
it, the world could never have been civilised. The little
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 171
petty tribes, created by family connection, would still have
wandered over the earth incapable of any acquirement
beyond rude subsistence. The consolidation of large
kingdoms mainly results from the successes of some
conqueror, and we must suffer the end to sanctify the
means. In my creed this is universally true in politics ;
as universally as it is untrue and unallowable in private
conduct. Doubtless some conquests have introduced
slavery and barbarism, and I mourn such instances ; but
the Corsican Adventurer (for his own purposes indeed) by
loosening all attachment to reigning families and by con-
founding territorial limits in Germany, has taken the only
practicable mode of the resuscitation of that people of
mighty name, but for many centuries of feeble means, for
want of some such sweeping generalising conqueror as the
man they are now roused to resist. Even Italy, and perhaps
Switzerland, has profited in this way, and, the renovation
of Europe accomplished, we shall have to own that no less
severe a visitation could have sufficiently loosened ancient
privileges and prejudices. This you see is a further
argument against any particular providence in this or that
battle or accident favourable to Spain or England ; and,
though I allow Bonaparte no more merit in the final good
which he may do, than Judas Iscariot on another occasion,
yet I would have the tone of a serious history restrained
by such considerations, and when holding out for worthy
imitation the deeds of patriots and of heroes.
' You know very well how far I am from the sickly
liberality, which seems likely to blight every noble motive
of action, and which has grown to such a pitch, that it is
almost forgotten of ancient selfishness, that all the things
which we valued most in the world have sprung and must
for ever spring from that aboriginal but disgraced quality.
A book which should settle the just points between selfishness
and liberality would be a grand performance, though I
suppose the author would be abused for a Mandevilian.
' Thus much have I scribbled in a winter evening.
Fruere ut libet. . . .'
172 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Southey replied on November 30.
' Thank you for your letter. It cautions me well against
the indiscreet use of words which ought to be reserved for
great occasions, and I do not discover that we differ in
opinion when we understand each other. I see as you do,
and surely have often expressed, that the whirlwind of
the Revolution was necessary to clear away the pestilence
of the old governments, and think as you do that in the
moral government of the world and of the universe general
results are those which are contemplated, and that to these,
individuals, species, and nations will sometimes be sacrificed.
The belief that Good is stronger than Evil sets all right
upon the great scale, and all is set right for individuals
also in a future state. Certainly I do not believe that God
can prefer one nation to another. But in cases like the old
Dutch war against Spain, and the present struggle against
Bonaparte, the struggle is between good and evil, and the
contest is actually what the Crusades were only erroneously
called — a Holy War. However I shall be sparing of such
epithets.'
At the end of the year the Poet Laureateship fell vacant.
The post was offered to Sir Walter Scott, who retired in
favour of Southey. The new Laureate's first work was
to write an ode upon the war, which he sent to Rickman
in manuscript with the following letter : —
' December 8, 1813.
' Verses which are to be printed have a certain flavour in
manuscript analogous to the sweetness of stolen water, and
the pleasantness of bread eaten in secret, — a pleasantness,
by the bye, which I do not understand, having no taste for
a crust in a corner, nor for dry bread at any time. Mrs. R
may peradventure like to cast her eye over the Laureate's
first performance. I send it therefore unwafered. When
she has read it, consign it to the twopenny post, that it may
find its way to the Row. 1 . . .
1 i.e. Paternoster Row, where Longmans' office was and is.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 173
' If you ask me why I call it Carmen Annuum — not in
imitation of Carmen Seculare (which however justifies the
title) but because I can hit upon no suitable English appel-
lation. An Ode it is not, because of its length : so at least
I think, and Carmen is a general word.
' My next appearance in my new character will be with
a series of Inscriptions upon the event of the peninsular
war, as far as the British Army has been concerned. — God
bless you, R. S.'
Southey's poem, however, seemed to the judicious Rick-
man too truculent for an official effusion, and he replied with
a long letter of general criticism from which I take these
extracts : —
' . . . I am not sure you do not forget that office imposes
upon a man many restraints besides the one-day Bag and
Sword at Carlton House. Put the case, that through the
mediation of Austria we make peace with Bonaparte, and
he becomes in course a friendly Power — can you stay in
office, this Carmen remaining on record ? I would say
more with this view of the matter, did I not suppose that
before the Carmen is publicly seen, Mr. Croker will see it,
andhecan jud-^e the degree of official reserve necessary. . . .
In reading this I see that the stanzas which mention France
and the French Emperor in so truculent a manner are not
so many but that the Carmen might be long enough without
them, if by Mr. Croker's judgment to be in prudence omitted.
I confess I should be very sorry that you should print
without his approbation of them ; for as Laureat official,
I think you should . . . identify yourself very much with
the government. Be as ample in praise as you please, but
do not treat an enemy as though never to become a friend.
If you did not know me for as desperate an antigallican as
yourself (I wish the French one neck and a hatchet in my
hand) I should not have spoken so freely of official reserve
towards them : but I know you will take all in good part.
' I assure you I only dread your being superseded in
your office, whenever a small sacrifice may in the chance of
174 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
events be to be made to Bonaparte and the vile Whigs. . . .
As to the Whigs, it will be said, whatever they deserve, yet
not rebuke from your hand, who apparently received favour 1
from their Administration. I grant you it was only apparent,
but as you could not give the explanation, you could not
repel the charge of ingratitude, which will be made if you
lacerate them too cruelly.'
This letter was followed by another enclosing some proofs.
< 15 December 1813.
' Too late for post time to-day, was brought a proof of
the Carm. Ann., about half of it. I inclose it ; also a letter
from your brother.
' I don't think that I have anything to add to what I said
before. . . .
' If you choose to call Bonaparte a tyrant, you will say
Hiero was called so : but the assassination finale you must
not venture on. Indeed the stories you bring in aid of your
exhortation, are not well authenticated. Toussaint's and
Capt. Wright's tortures I believe, but do not know. Piche-
gru's murder I do not believe in any further than that he
murdered himself. The D. of Enghien you ruist remember
chose to station himself close to France to foment disturb-
ances ; and as to all Governments, good or bad, the right of
self-preservation indefeasibly pertains, I am not sure that he
was ill-used. I know I would willingly do the same favour
by torchlight or day-light could he be seized in Ireland and
brought here for that good purpose. Palm and Hofer I
grant you were bad and notoriously bad affairs.'
The good advice of Rickman and Croker was taken by
Southey, who cut out the dangerous passages, and published
the poem next year as ' An Ode written during the Negotia-
tions with Bonaparte in January, 1814.'
During 1814 and 1815 the correspondence between Rick-
man and Southey turned chiefly upon political affairs and
1 A small pension was given to Southey in 1806.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 175
Southey's official poems. Most of the letters are from
Southey, and there is one congratulating Rickman on his
appointment to the Table. ' You used,' he says, ' to notice
a sort of entailed longevity belonging to parliamentary
offices : may you keep up the custom, and live to a better
old age than your predecessor.' The joke about ' entailed
longevity ' is still a good one in the Civil Service, though
a statutory age limit has robbed it of some of its point.
It was in the autumn of 1814 that Rickman made his first
driving tour. For these years I only give two letters, the
first from Southey to Rickman on Napoleon's abdication,
the second from Rickman to Poole.
'April 11, 1814.
' My dear R., — So it is over, dating from the destruction
of the Bastille, a tragedy of five and twenty years ! During
two and twenty of which I have borne a full share of interest
in all the events.
4 1 am glad that the French have given fresh proofs of
their baseness; this gratifies my English feeling. And I
am satisfied with Buonaparte's fate, for this upon con-
sideration gratifies my vindictive principle. Three likely
terminations had suggested themselves to me : that he
would find enough followers to die game ; that he would
kill himself ; or that he would abscond and be lost. I did
not suspect that he — even he — was mean enough to be
pensioned off, and retire to hear the execrations of all
Europe, to read his own history, and taste of damnation
drop by drop, before the Devil drenches him with it from
a cup like the widow's cruise. (1 Kings, 16.)
' If I knew Whitbread, I should like to give him joy upon
this occasion.'
The letter to Poole mentions the corn laws. Owing to
the fluctuations in the price of corn during the war, a select
committee of the House of Commons was appointed to
consider the question in 1813. This committee reported
in favour of a sliding scale, and a bill became law in 1815
which prohibited the importation of foreign corn, so long as
176 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
wheat did not rise above eighty shillings a quarter. When
that price was exceeded, it might be imported free. To
understand Rickman's strictures on the mob, it must be re-
membered that the Luddite riots had already occurred, and
that the London mob grew very fractious over the Burdett
case in 1810 and over the contested Westminster elections.
' 16th February 1815.
' My dear Sir, — I have received yours and am glad your
desires as to the property tax and corn laws are likely to be
effected. I have not the least objection to abolishing the
one, or amending the other, but as I happen to think we
live under a Government too much influenced by the mob
(the ignorant vulgar) I go over to the other side always, by
way of helping the vessel against such shifting ballast. For
fear of this same mob I suppose we are to legislate rapidly
as to the corn laws lest we should be overwhelmed with
ignorant petitions as last session. This is our doing or not
doing or undoing anything — Vox Populi, Vox Dei — the
mob is to be chiefly regarded. About the endeavour to
enlighten this said tyrannical mob, I shall not pretend to
argue, as it is one of the few subjects upon which I have not
made up my mind. I suppose that whatever sum total of
knowledge is to be produced in society, it will still be con-
venient that the wisest should legislate for the rest. My
feeling is against the modern rage for education, because
it savours of the mock philanthropy and liberality which
during my time have been the curse of Europe, and the
tide is not yet turned. Scoundrels are to be well lodged and
well fed at the expense of others while in prison, and criminals
are to be pitied and protected instead of the society they
injure. Debtors, poor men ! are not to pay their debts. . . .'
The first letter for 1816 is another instance of Rickman's
excellent sense.
1 15 January 1816.
' My dear Southey, — G. Bedford called here four days
ago for a frank, and under great uneasiness lest you should
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 177
publicly gainsay all the English authorities for calling the
Battle of the 18th June after the name of the English head
quarters at Waterloo. I who know how strongly you feel
on that subject, should hardly venture to ask you to change
your intention of not calling it the Battle of Waterloo ; but
are you bound to call it by any name ? If you are writing
sub specie of a New Year's Ode — that will be the title, —
and you need not make yourself a martyr for the sake of
propriety of a name : for I verily believe the indignity so
pointed at the Duke's silly — indeed disgraceful misnomer —
would be resented deeply, and to your serious injury, which
would be the more vexatious, as the shrewdest people who
have traversed the field of battle, at present allow your
Quarterly Review narrative to be not only the best, but
better than themselves could compile. So that being on
the plus side with regard to that famous field, it will be the
more vexatious if you pass over to the minus.
1 Morally speaking too, I am of opinion we have no right
to be prudent in such a case ; the name and the reputation
of the Duke of Wellington is a very solid possession, valu-
able to England, and to Europe while he lives, even to
history afterwards ! Surely we are not bound, by any
superlative or hyperbolical taste for justice, to drag any
of his failings into the light. Let us grieve for them in
private as much as you please ; but not pamper French
rivalry by displaying them. As for ^hanging the name
of the battle, that is impossible — abiit in morem — the
Waterloo Men cannot be made to change their cognomen
so well earned, and you must allow that it is public mischief
— because inconvenient to all — to have contending names
of any thing. I suppose the execrable French will name
the Battle Mont St. Jean — they are welcome, so the Russians
tutored by Laharpe ; the Prussians, Belle Alliance, but
the latter came into battle very late in the day — too late
almost for any impediment to explain, and evidently too
late in their own opinion, since they think it worth while
to err three hours at least in the date of their appearance.
' Pray let history speak of the Battle of Waterloo, not
M
178 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
because it is the best possible name, but because it is become
the name. For yourself I hope you can avoid any endeavour
to assign any particular name, if you cannot endure to
countenance the new popular misnomer.'
There are many allusions to Waterloo in the correspond-
ence of 1815 and 1816, for in the former year Southey had
gone to survey the field of battle in person. He had
written an account of the battle in the Quarterly Review,
and was meditating a poem, for which Rickman sent him
some further information. In the spring of 1816 Southey
was struck down by the greatest sorrow of his life : his
son Herbert, after a decline of some weeks, died in April of
an affection of the heart. In spite of his philosophical
reserve in letters to his friends, it is quite clear that he was
heart-broken by the death of the boy he so passionately
loved. The letter announcing the news to Rickman was
only a short note.
'Ap. 19, 1816.
' I was prepared for the worst, and know how to bear it,
having much practical philosophy and much real religion
— which stands me in better stead. Time will do the rest.
My bodily frame is sorely shaken, but this will soon be
remedied. Much happiness is left me, more than falls to
the lot of most men, and I never can be too thankful for
having so long enjoyed that which is now lost.'
Rickman replied with a letter which shows the imper-
viousness of his nature to emotion, and will strike most
readers as rather over-philosophic in tone, however kindly
it was meant.
' 23rd April 1816.
' My dear Southey, — I have just read yours of the
19th, having been in the country on a melancholy errand,
the burial of Mrs. Rickman's mother, who died 10 days
since. Mrs. R. had sufficient notice of her illness, as to
go down two days before her decease, which was very
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 179
fortunate for the feelings of the now dead and of the living.
I have just brought back Mrs. R. and our young gentleman,
who was staying with the good old people.
' So much of this affair ; an extremely light loss com-
pared with yours. That an old lady should sleep in peace
after a blameless and happy life — past " Threescore years
and Ten " — is much in the order of things, but that a youth
destined to renew in himself what his parents were, who
now outlive him, is very melancholy in all cases, and pecu-
liarly so in yours. But we must not think too much on
the aggravations which might be enumerated. I have to
recede from high hopes which I had begun to form from
your late accounts of his habits and of his mind.
' I am very glad though much surprised that you can
even speak of patience on this occasion, for in truth I feared
as much for you as for the youth a fortnight ago. You
have said too that Mrs. Southey bore up during the illness,
but I always calculate that women will do so ; men are
overset sometimes by the many reasons they have against
giving vent to their feelings.'
Of the other letters from Rickman to Southey during
1816, the first, which gives the writer's views on his own
work, explains itself. The pessimistic tone of the others
is accounted for by the depression and discontent in the
country. The end of the war had brought down prices
with a run. There was a glut of British commodities in the
market, and corn was as low as fifty-two shillings and six-
pence a quarter. There were many bankruptcies, labourers
and workpeople were turned adrift, the ranks of unemploy-
ment were swelled by the disbanded soldiers — all this, added
to the fact that trade conditions were still not properly re-
adjusted after their disturbance, due to the advent of factories
and machinery, and that the price of bread was kept high,
produced intense misery among the people, with its usual
result of turbulent meetings and rioting, in which the
desire for relief was mingled with the wild clamour for
Parliamentary reform. The harvest of 1816 was a failure,
180 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and bread riots ensued. The Government, though dis-
credited in the popular view by its refusal to abolish the
income tax, by its abandonment of the malt tax, and by
its opposition to Parliamentary reform, was not blind to
the situation. Schemes for the relief of pauperism were
widely discussed, and considerable attention was drawn
to the scheme introduced by Owen at Lanark for the
common holding of land. At the same time, those in
authority, with the lesson of the French Revolution before
them, cannot be wholly blamed for their determination
to take strong measures against sedition. The misguided
violence of such men as ' Orator ' Hunt and William
Cobbett, who deliberately fostered discontent by dangling
before the eyes of the common people the wildest schemes
of democratic reform as panaceas, led the Government
not unnaturally to consider the advisability of more stringent
measures against seditious meetings and the licence of the
Press. These reactionary tendencies came to a head in
the ' six acts ' of 1819. Rickman, it must be admitted,
took an excessively doctrinaire view of things. Because
the population was increasing, and because goods were
plentiful, he persuaded himself that the cry of general
distress was a falsehood of those whom he called the ' mock
humanity ' men. Like Southey, he was a violent partisan
on the side of order and authority.
In 1816 Southey was summoned by Lord Liverpool, as
the former told Rickman, to consult with him on some
scheme for opposing ' pen to pen.' The idea seems to
have been either to found some Government newspaper
to combat the Radical Press, or to publish a book giving
the Government view of the situation. It will be seen
that Rickman strongly urged Southey not to become a
journalist in the pay of the Government. But Southey
had no desire to go to London, and as there seemed nothing
particularly advantageous in the proposition, he refused
the interview. So much will explain the allusions in the
remaining letters of this chapter, all from Rickman to
Southey.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 181
■ 22nd July 1816.
' . . . Scottish affairs all, of which, contrary to expecta-
tion and probability, I have had a more oppressive load
during the last Session than ever, but I hope at this expence
I have secured a lighter load in futurum, but I wish even
that could be laid on somebody else ; no payment can
compensate such a tantalising quantity of work, yet from
this I cannot escape without the art of brain transfusion
could be discovered, and all my memory of the subject
placed on another man's shoulders. But this cannot be,
and for 3 years more I must drudge on. Yet on the bright
side of the subject, I ought not to be dissatisfied at having
been the instrument of trying a new experiment, which I
myself much distrusted originally, and trying it success-
fully ; I speak of the aid given to Highland roads, and of
the other affair the C. [Caledonian] Canal ; I ought not
to forget that it is of unexampled dimensions, and conse-
quently of much originality in its details, that my history
of it in the Annual Reports is the first regular history of
the formation of a canal, and a history, which with the
adaptation of the appendixes, those of workmen and of
amounts, I do not fear will ever be equalled. We must see
this canal next year, taking Telford with us (or find him
there) whom I think you may have seen here — a very able
and very liberal man, whose plainness you will much like,
an early friend of T. Campbell the Poet, and of Colonel
Pasley — proof of his good taste ; both of them respect
him highly, and in his unostentatious manner I doubt not
his friendship has served them much. . . .'
' 7 September 1816.
' ... As to the schemes of cultivation by paupers, even
colonists, ardent colonists, never have succeeded in working
for a common fund, which is an insuperable premium held
out to idleness. You have read more than anybody of
the practical efforts of such a scheme in the early history
of Virginia and the colonies. Nothing can counteract it
182 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
but tyranny in every domestic and personal circumstance,
nor perhaps even tyranny unless aided by some religious
delusion — the confessional of the Moravians and Methodists
superadded to the scourge of the task master. Alas !
What is human nature and human liberty doomed to suffer
from those who mean best for both ! Habits and forms
of society have formed themselves not on argument or pre-
conceived advantages, but gradually by practice, and no
speculator in dangerous novelties opposed by such experi-
ence ought to think his chance of being in the right above
1 to 1000. Such diffidence however is unusual. I almost
forget that the Jesuits in Paraguay and in California have
taught us what kind of human beings, — men — children —
may be produced labouring and feeding in common. They
too had illusions like Owen of Lanark, and the feeble-
minded idiots paraded too in processions. But I shall tire
you and myself. One thing I wish to say as to an opinion
which you seem to entertain as to the well-being, or rather
ill-being of the poor, that their state has grown worse and
worse of late. Now if one listens to common assertion
everything in grumbling England grows worse and worse ;
but the fact in question (the belief in it) is even a curiosity.
Human comfort is to be estimated by human health, and
that by the length of human life. Now I imagine I have
proved in a very unexceptionable manner, (see p. xxii. of
my population Preface) that since 1780 life has been pro-
longed as 5 to 4, and the poor form too large a portion of
society to be excluded from this general effect ; rather
they are the main cause of it, for the upper classes had
food and cleanliness abundant before. I wish I had time
to make a few more observations in your poor laws treatise,
which is very good in the main. The Bedford lace makers
and straw platters do not enter into the computation of
agricultural net produce, which is reckoned according to
rent and tythe : they increase neither of these.
' How many theories of yours and mine have we not to
talk over next year ! and if you lead me to Lanark, and I
you to the Caledonian Canal, we shall not lessen the number.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 183
I hope all this Avill happen. I am in a bad state of mind,
sorely disgusted at the prevalence of that mock humanity
which is now becoming the instrument of dissolving all
authority, Government, and, I apprehend, human society
itself. Again we shall have to go through chaos and all
its stages. It is of no use to think, or to try to act for the
benefit of mankind, while this agreeable poison is in full
operation as at present. I retire hopeless into my own
nut-shell, till I am disturbed there, which will not be long
if the humanity men prevail. The revolution will not I
expect be less tremendous nor less mischievous than that
of France, this mocking humanity being only a mode of
exalting the majesty of the people — of putting all things
into the power of the mob. I wish I may be wrong in my
prognostic on this subject. In the mean time, Farewell ! '
' 24 September 1816.
' I have received yours, and I ought not to delay writing
when such a subject is on the anvil. It has conquered my
growing apathy, proof that the same thing would happen
to others, were the standard of resistance widely displayed.
For your own particulars, it is enough for you to say that
you expect no reward, but pray never say needlessly you
will decline any. How long has it been that the workman
in a good cause is bound to decline what is due to him ?
If nothing due, it can only be that he is an inefficient work-
man. Pray avoid superfluous liberality, the growing vice of
the age ; and much connected (as I suppose I could prove)
with the mock humanity of the day — the most powerful
tool at present of the anarchs. Justice as a general rule,
liberality as a rare exception, for if not rare it supersedes
the rule, so that the good are not protected, and the bad
not restrained. Be sure that a great deal more selfishness
than either you or I have, is but justice. Why postpone
R. S. or J. R. to the rest of the alphabet ? Why not accept
what in another's case you would be first to give, because
most justly : so far in defence of you against yourself, and
184 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
be sure if you come to town, you do so at the expense of
the secret service money.
1 As to book or journal, a book certainly first, and let
circumstances settle about the other, in which I should be
sorry to see you responsibly concerned, not only from the
obvious meanness of the occupation, connected as it must
be with private intelligence, and other necessary evils, but
much more from the total absorption of all time ; so that
as an author who writes per sheet, soon thinks most of
finishing the sheet, a journalist would soon be worried out
of all high principle, and mainly consider the easy completion
of the daily task.
' Besides, connected argument is wanted. The book
must pass whole and undivided in every one's hand, and
become the standard of the party, who must be banded
against the anarchs or the latter must needs conquer,
by repetition of attack of an undefended post, or defended
only by political Quakerism.
' A book too, if written with the understood countenance
of Government, but not at their dictation, would do the
more good, because they want many lessons which they
could not consent to promulgate themselves. Even high
interests must be attacked, in case a cyclopaedia of good
salutary measures is to be attempted, and the book would
have the more weight and reputation for that degree of
independence, which every single man in office would allow
to be good except where it touched himself. The first
being that nothing is more injurious than their tenderness
(mock humanity again !) to each other. No man is turned
out for inefficiency, or for non-attendance in his place in
Parliament — this last is an especial evil. How often were
the Gt. beaten last Session because their troops did not
appear so punctually as their opponents ? And how should
they be brought down to the H. C. from their business or
their dinners when such a Creature as A. 1 is the Secretary
of the Treasury intrusted with the important management
of the H. C. ? The members both hate and despise him,
1 Charles Arbuthnot.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 185
for his silly vanity and coxcombry, and so little is he
informed of what it is his peculiar business best to know,
that on the evening of the Income Tax defeat, 1 he assured
his employers they would carry the vote by thirty and
upwards. And yet this man still smiles and simpers in
office. You may imagine he is not the only instance of
such ill-judging tenderness, but the most flagrant and the
most dangerous of course he is. No session can pass
without defeats very discouraging to the friends of Govt,
and good order, till he is ousted.
' Your book ought to take a large range. Let Mrs. S.
have the custody of this Letter, and all that relate to it,
that in case of need she may destroy all trace. Finis.''
' November 25th, 1816.
' I send . . . the Police Report which has been procured
for me. If you read it, reflect that it is one of the maladies
of the age to abuse everything enormously which is not
quite perfect, and this confusion of various degrees of com-
parative merit with the blackest crimes is one of the bad
symptoms of our time : induced like most of our other
evils by the licentiousness of the Press, the effect of which
makes one doubt (I do very sincerely) whether the no-
information of former times or the mis-information of the
present, be the greater evil. Knowledge does not appear
to me to have increased during the period of my observa-
tion, and the gross ignorance which has been and is
manifested in the popular disputes regarding corn laws —
on both sides the most absurd proposals — makes me more
lowly in my opinion of the reasoning people of England.
True, Parliament is full enough of really wise men on this
subject and most others. But the better part of wisdom
is (really in legislators) discretion. And thence they dare
not tell the disputants, infuriated by the newspapers,
that agriculturists have been injured only by their own
1 The Government wished to diminish the tax from 10 to 5 per cent.,
but Brougham, who proposed its abolition, carried the vote against them.
186 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
extravagant expectations and consequent expences, and
that the rest of the nation are not injured at all, nor could
now be thought to be in " distress " unless the said news-
papers had said so, and thus encouraged every man who
is lazy or profligate to talk loudly of general distress. And
in truth, besides these gentlemen who are distressed through
their own demerits, there must always be a large quantity
of real distress in a large nation, but there is no more now
than usual. Somebody has told us, that Dr. Stoddart l has
lately discovered (perhaps puts his opinion in print ?) that
we labour under the evil of too much population. Now
the following facts are indisputable : — houses more than
find tenants : warehouses full of clothing, more than can
be worn ; — corn and cattle (last year throughout) more than
could be eaten. Even wool and hides almost unmarketable.
We are distressed through our own superabundance of
maintenance, and then hear of too much population. Pray
destroy this folly, and shew that an industrious race of
people cannot be too populous, that their number only
makes them more and more independent of foreign markets
for their products, manufactured and otherwise. Were it
not for the maintenance of our navy by means of the
carrying trade, I should not be afraid of going to a
Chinese, nay Japanese extent in this case as far as national
wealth is concerned. But there is no fear I believe of
our not having most of the commerce of the world for the
next half century at least, for what nation or people can
go on so well without us, as we could without them ? This
is conclusive.
' The last Edinburgh Reviews I see have a last article
about as dull and stupid as your last of the last Quarty.
is spirited and well informed. The rascals think they have
offended their spurious allies the democrats, by their not
going all lengths in Parliamentary Reform in the preceding
number, and now seek as bastard a conciliation. They
do not know how to steer between their own Opposition
tenets and the principle of the anarchists ; between the
1 Leader writer on the Times. In 1817 he started the New Times.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 187
no-principle and the principle of mischief. There is no need
to observe much upon this feeble diatribe, except only that
the admission or audience at the Ho. Commons and con-
sequent publication of debates is a weight ten-fold heavier
on the side of liberty than all the petty encroachments of
the Crown, which they alledge, and falsely alledge two
thirds of them. Certainly our Parliament ought to have,
that is, to exercise the same complete right of occasional
exclusion as is exercised in democratic America ; and the
want of that occasional practice is ten millions a year against
us in war time. . . . Demolish all this nonsense and preach
stoutly upon the parodied text, " that the power of the
populace has increased, is increasing, and must be
diminished " — or a revolution must move.
' The article on the liberty of the Press is dull enough,
but not so absurd ; I have no objection to submitting the
question of the truth of a libel to the jury, but would add by
way of rider to such a bill, that all public libels should be
punishable in your manner, and that no public meeting
should be held unless convened by the Lord Lieutenant,
or Sheriff, or three magistrates in a Corporate Town : and
that the moment such convening officers or magistrates
absent themselves, the meeting becomes illegal ; and
rebellious after the first half hour. What but arms have
been wanting to this quality in some of the late meetings
in Lancashire ? what at Nottingham ? The laws which
protect and thereby encourage constables in keeping the
peace ought to be published by Government on a half
sheet and disseminated. But they are asleep : — so are not
you, and even my quietism is stirred a little. Farewell.'
CHAPTER VII
1817-1829
Southey's ' Wat Tyler ' — Rickman's views on poor law reform — His article in
the Quarterly — A letter from Luke Hansard — Rickman's depression —
Letters to Lord Colchester — Scottish tour with Southey — The model
beguinage — Depression again — Rickman on Canning — Opening of the
Caledonian Canal — Bertha Southey — Roman Catholic relief — Rick-
man's part in Southey's essays — State of Ireland — Catholic Relief
Bill passed — Co-operation — Rickman Lamb's ' friend ' in 1829.
From 1815 onwards the correspondence between Rickman
and Southey, with the exception of three letters to Lord
Colchester, is the only source on which we can draw, but that
is a plentiful source. Between 1817 and 1832 the political
interest of the letters grows till it reaches its climax in
the almost weekly interchange of views and opinions on the
subject of the Reform Bill. During 1817, though Rickman
was overwhelmed by an ' unexpected gale of work ' —
probably the stress was due to his superintendence of the
new system for printing the Votes and Proceedings, his
work for the two Scottish Commissions, and the abstraction
of poor returns — the letters were fairly frequent. One of
the incidents of the year which closely affected Southey
was the illicit republication of his ' Wat Tyler ' poem, which
was written in the days of his revolutionary ardour. It
was no small scandal that such a youthful indiscretion
should be revived against the Poet Laureate and the
sturdy pillar of the Quarterly Review, at a time when there
were riots in England and the Habeas Corpus Act was
suspended. Southey applied ineffectually for an injunc-
tion against the publisher ; and the matter was made worse
when Mr. William Smith, the Liberal M.P. for Norwich, came
down to the House with ' Wat Tyler ' in one hand and the
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 189
Quarterly in the other, to read out conflicting extracts
from the pen of one whom his party held to be a renegade
and a time-server. But Southey's part was warmly taken
by his friends in the House ; he was defended in the Courier
by Coleridge ; and he himself ended the matter in his
' Letter to William Smith, Esq. M.P.,' which was a
vigorous and fearless attack upon his unworthy opponent.
Rickman alluded to the scene in the House in a letter
dated March 17.
' 17 March 1817.
' . . . Oddly enough, as you have seen, W. S. seems to
have suffered B. [Brougham] to have put a brief in his
hand against you. But however this happened, you may
congratulate yourself on the venom being spit, so entirely
without effect, or rather with favourable effect to yourself,
every body seeming to cry shame on the malice of the thing,
and nobody almost applauding except B. with a few of the
most deeply infernal toned Hear, Hear ! that I ever chanced
to hear. The said B. seems to recognise you as his anta-
gonist, and thus expresses his unfeigned esteem. Mr. W. W.
[Wynn] defended you very well, and after his saying that
you were not above 19 when you wrote Wat Tyler, W. S.
began to wriggle in his seat and half apologise by gesture,
afterwards by words, for so strangely lugging in so strange
a criticism in so strange an assembly. Wat Tyler may now
do his worst, which will be little. B. made a long speech
on the distress which he has created, stuffed with the usual
ingredients ; upon the faith, no doubt, of the Ministry in
their timidity not chusing to answer much that was answer-
able. Yet they answered enough to make him retract
half, under the accustomed form, that he could not have
meant the things he had said with high emphasis. Yet
the emphasis goes forth, and recantation is confined to the
Ho. Comm. For all this he was very poorly answered,
though it is plain enough that things are coming round so
far that a fortnight hence his speech of distresses could not
be uttered. Had there been no such birds of ill-omen to
190 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
fright commercial credit and enterprise, no distress what-
ever would have existed. At last the fact is working off
the sophism, and the market is glutted with the money
which should have [been] employed in the proper channels
had the Messrs. B. and Co. permitted. Farewell.'
The country was still in a very disturbed state
owing to economic distress. In December 1816 the Spa
Fields riot had occurred, and in the spring of 1817 the
Manchester Blanketeers began their abortive march upon
London. The minds of all thinking citizens were turned
upon some means of remedying the social evils of destitution
and crime, and one fact which was prominently brought to
light was the unsatisfactory state of the poor law. The
whole system of poor relief was founded upon an act of
Elizabeth's reign, which threw upon parishes the responsi-
bility for relieving the infirm and setting the able-bodied
to work. This, together with the law of settlement, passed
in the reign of Charles n., was the cause of the chief evils.
The settlement law caused an excess of labour to accumulate
in parishes, for which they had to find employment. The
labourers became idle and improvident, and were made
more so by the tendency of the preceding century — marked
particularly in Gilbert's Act — to make relief accessible to
as many as possible. The stress of the war with France
increased the laxity of poor-law administration. What
Rickman with some truth called ' mock humanity ' resulted
in the almost universal application of poor rates in aid of
wages, especially when the excuse could be made that by
such means the families of those who shed their blood for
the country were being kept from want. The poor rate
therefore increased with alarming speed, without conferring
any great benefit, for the system kept wages low and en-
couraged idleness. In 1801 the poor rate was £4,000,000
for a population of nine millions, in 1813 it was over
£6,500,000, in 1818 it was £7,870,801, or 13s. 3d. a head
for the whole population. In 1817 a committee to inquire
into the poor laws was moved for in the House, the mover
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 191
being Mr. Curwen, who recommended making the poor
rate a national charge to be levied on income. The com-
mittee sat under the chairmanship of Mr. Sturges Bourne,
and made its report in July. The actual proposals made
were so inadequate that no legislation resulted, but the
publication of the report first brought the enormity of the
abuses before the public. For this committee Rickman
abstracted the poor rate return of 1748-1750 and of 1816-
1818. After that year he abstracted the return annually
for seventeen years — work for which he received no re-
muneration. But the poor laws, ever since his association
with Poole, had been a favourite study of Rickman's ; and,
not content with statistical labours, he urged Southey to
write upon the subject in the Quarterly, undertaking to
supply him not only with all Parliamentary papers, but
also with his own views and deductions in manuscript.
It is with this subject, therefore, that most of the letters of
1817 are concerned, for Southey embraced the scheme
warmly. The first letter which I quote from Rickman
contains suggestions for an article on which Southey was
engaged early in the year. The castration of this article
by Croker and Gifford aroused Rickman's and Southey's
great indignation.
'Feb. 1817.
' . . . Pray mention another quality of our friends the
newspapers, the power of creating a newspaper distress, as
it is at present in great measure. But this must be said
not as if of the present moment, but generally — that they could
do so, and must have done so, because the prosperity we
now are instructed by them to look back at in the war, they
always called adversity. See how their cursed venom
operates. Every instance of unlucky speculation is pub-
lished with comments and exaggeration, any profitable
speculation kept snug among the merchants for future use ;
so that we, having more mercantile misfortune, as we have
more shipwrecks (because we have more ships than all the
world together), may always seem to be as unfortunate as
192 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
we please, by enumeration not comparative or proportion-
ate. So of the landed interest : a man who reads that
nobody can pay his full rent certainly will not pay his. A
lazy fellow who likes begging better than work easily joins
into the general opinion that no work can be had, and begs
or goes to the parish. Thus the newspapers create 100,000
beggars, by making it seem necessity not crime. See how
largely this tells upon the profligate in all degrees, making
each more profligate, because more excusable, as children
are set to rob lately by the mock philanthropist humanity
of no punishment. In the aggregate the good people of
England are always to be kept discontented and unhappy
by the cursed newspapers, who with as much influence as
erst the R. C. religion enforce the belief of a transubstantia-
tion of happiness and prosperity into its opposite.'
The next letter refers to Curwen's speech on the motion
for the poor law committee.
'11 March 1817.
' . . . Curwen again will be the ruin of any poor law
improvement. Such an ignorant long-tongued man to be
chairman of a committee, after having in two following
years showed different degrees of palpable ignorance in the
speech moving for such a committee ; and who will work
in it under his name and banner ? Yet many members are
very eager and very well informed : but Curwen must ruin
all. You touch on a vexatious subject, the cowardice of
the Ministry, which I anticipated but too surely. They
have passed an act for the safe custody of Cobbett, and
Hunt, and now are afraid to act at all, thus damning their
own proceedings and furnishing innumerable arguments
to the Opps. Where was the necessity of such a Bill, in-
active ? It irks me to think of these feeble creatures.'
The following letter gives a fair indication of Rickman's
very level-headed views on the poor law question. If he
was unduly sanguine of the success of individualism in
dealing with the question, he was perfectly justified in his
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 193
condemnation of parish officers and magistrates, and in his
demand that thrift and industry should be encouraged by
making relief unwelcome to those who could work.
' 8 May 1817.
' I can hardly express how much I desire to write to you,
but the days and nights are so occupied that all good things
of even half an hour's cost must be omitted.
' As to the poor rate question, pray prepare a good
common place in praise of selfishness, the only mover of
large beneficial action, because general, and from it I would
deduce that no one man shall undertake to understand
another's affairs, nor provide for his wants, real or pre-
tended, upon an investigation ruinous of valuable time, and,
from many causes, ineffectual, or worse, to its aim. No parish
officers therefore or magistrates to scrutinise, and exercise
either their ill humour against the poor, or their facility
against their neighbours. A rule of reasonable duress must
be general, mere sustenance of the cheapest kind, and
nothing better by law, whereupon in walks industry, care
and thrift in the poor ; genuine humanity, — alms judiciously
bestowed — circles of endeared dependents, — active and pas-
sive happiness to the rich. The poor must thus attain good
character or fall upon the legal sustenance, which very
soon none would fall upon, because they who had not
friends (which yet is next to impossible in case of good
character) would find establishments in aid of the friendless,
and those behaving well would attain friends. The world
would all be bound together by the mutual tye of good
character, and our English age would assure the purity
which our degree of civilisation would then be the measure
and indication of, instead of the antagonist. But you must
steel your soul for a short time for future good. Bread and
water and straw for all who have not character to elicit, or
industry to acquire, better maintenance. That each man
shall take care of his own peculiar affairs, and that no man
shall have a right to demand another's property beyond the
civilised propriety of not being starved, must be the begin-
N
194 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
ning of future good ; and I hope my hurried exposition of
what would take a just volume, will enable you to look far
into the matter ; which yet do not mention till we have had
opportunity, travelling in the Highlands, to discuss diffi-
culties and look to consequences. I feel convinced, and if
I can put into you a temporary severity for final good
purposes, we will overthrow all the evils of human society,
by abolishing poor rates, and introducing universal good
character instead. Charity in the large sense, shall then
be at least as wide as England. Perpend. Farewell, and
prosper in your journey.'
In the autumn Rickman took one of his driving tours
in the north. He visited Southey at Keswick, and went on
to stay with the Wordsworth s.
' Tuesday, 23 September 1817.
' For many reasons I write sparingly when not at home,
but as to our proceedings I must inform you that we en-
countered Miss Wordsworth in our road to Ambleside,
and made an appointment to drink tea with her, where we
saw the Rydal waterfall, and we were not too late to admire
the views, near and distant, from Rydal Mount. But
indeed the whole ride to Ambleside, especially the repose of
Grasmere, cannot be surpassed for beauty. I was sorry that
W. Wordsworth was absent from home in Furness, and if
I had seen him I believe I should have touched upon the
subject of the good and evil principles, which have to fight so
great a battle in our time, if we live many years. Hitherto
the good principle has eminently prevailed in England, as
is evident in the superior degree of civilisation we enjoy,
and the majority of well meaning people is as great as ever,
but their good meaning must be out on its guard and into
activity, or the mischievous minority, with their mighty ally
the Press, will revolutionise everything, by way of sop
till they can dare a general assault. I will read what
Mr. W. has said as to the advantage acquired by wickedness
in every contest, and I should expect that if he can con-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 195
descend to detail, nobody could better place in view this
momentous danger. But I will say no more on this subject
at present. . . .'
The following letter was aroused by the fate of Southey's
article : —
' 8 October 1817.
' . . . I heard yesterday that Mr. Gifford is dangerously
ill of a fever ; as far as the Review is concerned, his death
would be a good thing, if he be indeed the cause of the
miserable servility which goes not an inch beyond or an
inch short of the feeble and frightened Administration:
but I fear Murray himself, instigated or controlled by Mr.
Croker, chooses to keep in that narrow path. There is
good apology for the conduct of the Administration, who
have suffered the mob to encroach upon them in Parliament
and out of it, that the great cause of Europe might not be
interrupted ; at least I give them credit for such motive
in late years, and now they cannot retrieve their steps
till some revulsion (God send it) shall happen. You may
give them credit for this in the exordium of your
Peninsular History. But why should Murray keep his
Review in such a servile state, a cock boat in tow of a first
rate, instead of a consort aiming at the same good end,
but by a more direct course than allowable or possible to
Government, and by a course much more consistent with
the professions of independence which all publications
affect to make on fit occasions ? Can Murray be so blind as
not to see that in point of interest he would thus attach a
large party, and a very growing party (from the weakness
of Government becoming more and more obvious daily :
a species of weakness and confusion which must bequeath
weakness to all future Administrations :) so that a sect of
Ultras must spring up in self-defence, and what were more
noble or more profitable than to lead them, and to embody
them ? . . .'
It was not till late in October that Rickman got to work
upon his poor-law reflections for Southey.
196 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
■ 29 October 1817.
' Herewith you have Brazil, the first sheet I see of Vol. m.
Success to its progress through the press, and in the world
afterwards.
' I thought I might have written before now to you about
the poor laws, or rather the abolition of them. But lo !
I am called upon to make an index to the new edition of
Mr. HatselPs Precedents ; four vols. ; and the former
index being quite worthless is no aid. The vols, too are
very full of Ho. Commons matter, which I am supposed to
understand, and must try to do so on this occasion. So
I have stuck to it closely for the last fortnight, and have
sent to the press the index of one volume, but next month
will close before I have finished the rest, after which (my
other opera, which you wot not of, being now in train) I
shall begin to pour out my concocted animosity against
the poor laws. Will this suit your order of battle ? Pray
store up ammunition in the mean time, as occasion offers
for reflection. But we must contrive the explosion typo-
graphic to take place by the meeting of Parliament, say the
20 January. I do not know that I say any more than
already voiced in the following sketch.
' Human civilisation is founded on the sacredness of
private property, which is enormously trenched upon by the
poor laws, which take it from one person and give it to
another, who has had nothing to do in acquiring or realising
it. The poor in fact are authorised to plunder the rich by
law, when in time all must become poor and barbarian.
Never was so unjust an agrarian law.
' Liberality (which means the transfer of property
without legal compulsion) if carried to excess is the same
in operation and effect as the poor laws, but it depends
upon volition and fashion of the age, and is not capable of
gaining so far. It goes much too far however, and must be
proved to be a question of degree, and a question of justice,
inasmuch as you cannot be liberal on most occasions without
being wijust to other claims. As a king cannot be liberal
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 197
of the money of his subjects ; he only takes from some,
for the pleasure of giving to others.
' The poor then have no right to relief , they must be made
to ash and to demand it ; and in case of bad character, the
overseer, if confirmed by the decision of the magistrate,
shall be enabled to refuse it, and send the poor man of
lazy habits to the workhouse ; thus to be fed on the lowest
species of fare that any working man in Great Britain eats.
On oatmeal, potatoes, and water, till he thinks it worth to
deserve a better character. Under such a law, it is safe
to limit the poor rates so as to decrease 1/10 each year,
which would leave about £330 per Ann. out of £1000 in ten
years, and we might then see whether farther diminution
proper. Volunteer cavalry must be maintained in such
proportion as to check all Jaquery — and in time all men
would acquire industrious habits and good character, and
almsgiving would resume its proper function, peace and
goodwill spreading away thro' all the various orders of
society.
' The details are infinite under these heads, the episodical
openings many and tempting ; and if we begin, the difficulty
will be to compress the exuberant material.'
Rickman's progress was not quite so fast as he expected,
but the material which he sent to Southey was so good,
as the letters plainly show, that his paper was almost un-
touched and sent to the Quarterly, where it appeared in the
number for April 1818 under the title ' The means of
improving the People.' ' Your labours have given me a
sort of holiday from the review,' wrote Southey, who held
over the material which he himself had prepared till the
autumn number. The authorship of Rickman's article was
well concealed ; in fact, it seems to be still a secret, for the
editors of Southey's letters do not publish those in which
he admits that he only grafted about two pages in all
upon Rickman's, and softened the roughness of his style.
The article itself is a sensible discussion of the poor law
question on Tory lines, strong and straightforward : the
198 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
author points out as evils the decay of the old system of
apprenticeship, the excessive issuing of liquor licences,
the want of severity in dealing with crime, the insufficiency
of education, especially of religious education. I suspect
that the insistence of the value of catechising and of firm
religious convictions was Southey's handiwork ; for Rickman
never abandoned his somewhat matter-of-fact deistic beliefs,
and there is a clause in his will expressing the wish that
his son should not take orders. The remedies which
Rickman suggested were savings banks, which were then
being instituted, a system of general co-operation in villages
and towns, the better regulation of prisons, and the aboli-
tion of excessive legal penalties for misdemeanours, on the
ground that they only defeated their own end. Of the
subsequent publication of this essay with Southey's essays
something will be said below. In the first letter of this
year, ' E. B.' (Bennett), W. Davison, and W. T. Courtenay
are the authors of three books upon the poor, the titles of
which appeared at the head of the essay in the Quarterly.
' January 6, 1818.
' Since I wrote to you another funeral interruption has
delayed my attention to the P. L. The Marchioness of
Ormonde having died, and appointed me one of her extors., 1
I was under the necessity of going into Kent with the
funeral, instead of coming here to quiet labour ; and to
send Miss A. R. under other convoy to spend her Xtmas
with Mrs. R. and her brother and sister. All are well,
and here I am much at the service of the P. L. and even
with practical people about me ; who like very well to be
talked on the subject. My head is become so well loaded
by thinking at intervals that I shall find ease by scribbling
such sheets as now I enclose. But I must expound ;
what you have now is not only to follow the commonplaces
which you may perhaps have prepared, but the article must
begin with a sketch or catalogue of the evils of the P. L.
1 See p. 22.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 199
and an exposure (brief as possible) of all the quacking which
at different times has been applied to the subjects, — work-
houses, cow-cottagers, 1 and the like. What I send is the
back-bone of the new principle, strong enough I think,
and excellent you shall soon hope for receiving other bones,
and joints, and muscles ; these come next, and you shall
receive them in as tolerable order as I can put them
together. With them you will not have much trouble
beyond copying with amendments my scribble ; but the
main principle now inclosed ought to be quite re-written
I think in a careful manner, and in your strong style. I
have here the E. B. and W. Davison, the first is contemptible
as might be anticipated ; the latter is very respectable,
and in some parts eloquent and impressive. As to his
schemes, I shall speak hereafter. W. T. Courtenay's book
is not sold, and I cannot ask for it without giving cause
of suspicion of what I am about. So you must cut the
stitches of your copy, and put in the post under 2 oz.
packets. ... I find difficulty and restraint in writing without
using the first person ; if I do that, can you turn it into
reviewer's plurality ?
' If you are pressed for the article, tell of what importance
you think it, or communicate the important sheet when
re-written. Say also that at the meeting of Parlt. returns
will be presented, without the use of which a series of poor
rate information, necessary to the strength, or rather the
research of the article, cannot be obtained. This is true,
much beyond what can be supposed, but at present a
secret : and you may promise all the article about this
day month, which I if err not, will put out the next No. at
a three month period. But of course you will insist upon
your convenience as strongly as you please, or as strongly
as W. Gilford's occasions of illness or leisure sometimes
do. I am quite vexed at having him so inevitably and so
repeatedly pushed away from the subject in question, but
now I hope to stick to it. Farewell.
1 There were schemes put forward for providing the poor with cottages
and cows.
200 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' I hope you keep Twelfth Night ; our young ones are
looking out for a cake to-day.'
' 10 January 1818.
' I send you 3 or 4 sheets of MS. Two or three more
will lead me to the close of the article, but I can prefix to
what you now have, a history of poor rates, catalogue
raisonne of the abominable effects of the poor laws, ex-
pose of the injudicious quackeries which from generation to
generation have made bad worse. Of all this, or these large
subjects, you shall have quant, suff. for prefixing to all
an honourable mention of the article in a late Edin. Review
(by Dr. Campbell the popular preacher it was written),
and thus tormenting these northern revolutionists into
co-operation with the good instead of the bad in the poor
law question. How they will curse their own independence
in having committed themselves on the right side of a
question, and will they not writhe and twist to escape such
a misfortune ! You may even call upon the Parly. Oppn. in
the same strain, and their feelings and conduct will not be
dissimilar. Pray soften my abrupt straitforward style,
and do not let a word or a phrase remain in compliment
to me, who shall feel the more out of sight by it, and the
more comfortable. Farewell — I turn to my work.'
On the same date as the above a letter was written by
Southey to Rickman, which shows his decision to use
Rickman's article entire. It is to be observed that he
made no offer, as far as can be known, to pay Rickman any
of the proceeds of the article ; however, Rickman would
have most certainly refused any such offer.
' 10 January 1818.
' My dear R., — I send you Courtenay's letter ; he is a
worthy and well-meaning man, who has all the disposi-
tion for doing good, if he had but the ability.
1 1 have done a good deal, and altho' what I have done
should not prove to be amalgamable with your communi-
cations, there will be no labour lost, for all that is not
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 201
relevant to the thread of your argument may be set aside
to form a separate paper. It is evident that you have a
clear and connected whole in your mind, bearing as it
ought to do with full weight and force upon one point :
two head pieces might interfere with each other, so I will
act as mouth piece only. I had been spinning perhaps an
overfine thread, partly for want of straightforward matter ;
and partly to take off common attention from the main
argument, by the garnish with which it was drest up, like
gilding a pill, or sugaring the cup from which a child takes
bitter physic. Not that it is mere garnish ; on the con-
trary, it may make a wholesome and substantial dish by
itself in a following number.
' So I shall make Murray wait, and go to work upon your
papers in good hope that they may be found materially
instrumental in forwarding a great work. God help you.'
On March 1 1 Southey wrote : —
' Your finale is very good, and cannot I think be improved.
Indeed the whole paper carries such weight with it, that
surely some of the truth must make its way.'
In spite of his humanity Rickman was a firm opponent
of Romilly's criminal law reforms, on the ground that they
tended to increase crime, and were the result of exaggerated
complaints on the part of prejudiced people. Thus he
writes : —
' 25 March 1818.
' . . . I send the 2d. Police Report ; what is in it, I know not,
but know its final aim to be the impunity of crime. This
is pursued by the anarchists with a long train of mock
humanity men at their heels, and is perhaps the most
dangerous as being the most thriving pursuit of the anarch-
ists. You remember Sir S. R. [Romilly] began many years
since, and that W. Frankland gave him an answer. He has
persevered however, and will persevere till unmasked. For-
bearance towards him has gone too far. Since that we have
heard of the ill usage of prisoners, who yet have been better
202 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and better treated continually {usque nunc) to the enormous
expence of the counties, i.e. of the public who are not in
the habit of gaol-occupancy. Then gaolors were attacked
because the great Finnerty 1 was confined for a libel at
Lincoln, and a Commission appointed to examine that,
Lancashire, and I think another gaol or two. They re-
ported all excellent in care, kindness, and regulation. Of
course such a report was unnoticed, and slander continued.
Then visitations of the gaols here by our deluded Commons
(led by an anarchist) and last autumn rebellions by the
injured prisoners, in direct consequence. At four prisons
in one month I believe last autumn much damage was
done, paid for by the city, and no punishment possible of
the offenders. Now another gaol Commn. is about to
cause the do. repeated. So much for the terrors of im-
prisonment. Then the police officers are attacked, with
a cry of blood money, of course ascribed to all, if any one
or two guilty, and lately on the simple assertion of a con-
demned felon, long examinations of a meritorious officer
to the same end. So that the officer, not the thief, or
equally with the thief, is to be questioned by Mr. Thief
and associates in crime, whose testimony well managed
must be decisive. After disposing of the police, the judges
are to be slandered into insignificance ; and as to juries,
they are sacred and right just when and where and so long
as they are with the populace, and the Press which leads
and follows the mob for its weekly and daily bread. I
write in great haste but you will perceive the largeness of
the conspiracy, and the effect already is a vast increase of
crime, and of the expense of conviction, and as to injustice,
we know that the slightest question of a good man's char-
acter and conduct is worse to him than the Old Bailey
trials of a rogue, each a triumph to be boasted of. Is the
Quarterly brave enough to enter upon this theme ? and
the liberty of the Press which must soon govern or be
governed ?
1 A quite unimportant person, who brought certain charges against the
gaolers at Lincoln.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 203
1 The second Rept. on education herewith ! Mr. Brougham
was busy or on a journey — or and contented himself
with proposing a Commn. in 1817, which afterwards he
forgot I believe, till the last day almost of the Session. . . .' l
The next letter is from Southey, announcing the good
effect of Rickman's essay on Murray, Croker ' (the grand
Castrator '), and Bedford.
' 22 April 1818.
' If the paper makes as much impression abroad as it
has done upon Murraymagne, the Grand Castrator and
G. C. B., it will do its work in the world. The latter,
whom I desired not to speak of the article as mine upon
the pretext that it was well not to be marked as the writer
in case of any mobs upon the business (a valid reason, tho'
I had a better motive for caution), replies that it will not
be recognised for mine by the style ; and then he praises
the style very properly as right good English, and me
not quite so properly for having divested myself of
all mannerism. This will amuse you. The odd thing is
that he has not the slightest suspicion of my real ignorance
on such subjects as are there fathomed, nor, what is more,
of my incapacity for them. . . .'
Rickman replied on April 26.
' I inclose you another invigorating proof sheet. You
know my canon of criticism, that nobody writing a book
in one language has a right to expect any other language
to be understood by his reader. I speak of the text, not
of notes or authorities, which must have full licence.
' I am amused as well as pleased with the blindness of
G. B. [Bedford]. I had proof enough of it here, as he brought
me one or two of the proof sheets himself, and swore specially
to your hand-mark as to the fling at Malthus, (by the bye
a very odd inconsistency to let it stand so soon after the
1 Brougham's commission on education resulted in the establishment of
the Charity Commission.
204 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Malthus review probably written by himself or some of
Edin. Review friends). G. B. also recognised you in
every phrase as to the city of Ely, and only wondered that
you could possibly talk of self concealment as author of
the article. For certain I did not discourage this, and
when he asked me why I did not wish to be supposed to
correct the notes or to have furnished any of them, I told
him I could not be known to have done so without becom-
ing the common referee of all M.P.s whether ignorant or
knowing ; and that in this shape I could not consent to
incur such danger. This suited his notion of Pandemonium
very well, and though I daresay he did not think the reason
hindered him from telling Asm[odeus] G. [Gifford] who cor-
rected the notes, he also gave him the above reason for such
a trifling point of knowledge going no further. I think I
saw in G. B. that so much of communication was needful
to keep the Gr. Castrator from exercise of his talent. Alto-
gether our harmless conspiracy has been very successful.
The Poor Law Commn. have proposed feeble Bills, and if
I mistake not symptoms, the leading members are annoyed
and tired by the incessant applications of all possible parish
officers and amateur magistrates ; and besides much dis-
satisfied to find that in their own heads they can only find
that they have found nothing effectual, though after taking
much thought, they will soon become ridiculous, if not
enlightened ab extra, as soon may happen, though the
Quarterly is slow in coming out — a bad thing when an affair
in motion is in question. Already the Commn. have fore-
sworn some things for which they are therein praised,
introduced an enormous imprudence there deprecated.
But such accidents cannot be avoided.'
This political correspondence during the early part of the
year was diversified by a pleasing interchange of letters
between Southey and Rickman upon the prospects of a
young man called Robert Lovell, a common friend of them
both who had come to London to earn his living as a
printer. He was a modest, industrious person, whom
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 205
Rickman took a pleasure in helping. Accordingly when
Hansard, his employer, mentioned to Rickman that he
thought he could promote him in the office on account of
superior education, if Southey would testify that he was
so qualified, Rickman wrote asking Southey to do so.
Southey expressed all willingness, but the good designs
were partially hindered by LovelPs modesty in doubting
his own efficiency as a corrector. Rickman, however,
overrode his objections, and sent the recommendation,
which drew forth the following letter from Luke Hansard,
the original publisher of the Debates, the style of which,
says Southey, is ' truly Hansardic'
' (Mch. 1818.)
' Mr. Hansard has perused and reperused with much
pleasure Mr. Southey's classical and biographic sketch of
Robert Lovell ; a sketch equally honourable to the gentle-
man by whom it is drawn, as it is creditable to the gentle-
man who is the subject of it.
' So far as can at present be observed of Robert Lovell's
progress in the printing-office, Mr. Southey's interesting
trait is not overdrawn ; and if the young man perseveres
in the variety of trying scenes ever attendant upon a parlia-
mentary business — late and early, chiefly early hours, some
cram-full to overflowing, then standing still (but yet in
awaiting) and then to another overflowing of diversities,
still waiting and giving instant attention — Mr. Hansard
will then have fair opportunities — even though Lovell be
but a young man and a new hand but just come into camp
— Mr. Hansard will have fair opportunities, which he shall
gladly seek for and as gladly embrace, of coming up to
Mr. Southey's and Mr. Rickman's kind and solicitous
wishes.'
The beginning of 1818 had been quieter, but before the
end of the year there was a strike of cotton-spinners at
Manchester, which led to many deeds of violence. The
agitation in that city culminated the next year in the
206 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' Peterloo massacre,' at which the soldiers charged an
enormous crowd that had met in St. Peter's Fields. This
revival of agitation seems to have depressed Rickman con-
siderably, as the two following letters prove. Southey at
the time was occupied in fulminating against Brougham
in Westmorland. Rickman's depression, which recurred
more violently a few years later, was perfectly genuine,
but it may be suspected that overwork had a good deal to
do with it.
< 5 Sept. 1818.
' . . . I confess that my hopes do not improve, quite the
contrary, and if I do not write often, I am afraid you must
ascribe it to worse spirits than ever I felt before in my life.
But do not mention this.
' It is singular that the most likely to be questioned point
of the poor law review, the reprobation of friendly societies,
should so soon have found ample justification at Manchester,
where the lower order of human society is rotten to the
core. In 1816-17 they set out for the metropolis (in
imitation of the Marseillais) because they had no work.
But the then cheapness of labour renewed the suspended
export of cotton goods : that reacting raised the price and
demand for labour. Instantly a portion of that price was
vested in friendly society funds for the sake of future
mischief now in progress. The spirit which could pre-
meditate to this degree of self-privation for 20 months
will succeed in time if not now ; and the staring absurdity,
that, the price of labour raised, all commodities must
rise in price, will convince no mechanic that the
Manchester rebels are not in the right. I doubt not
they have the majority of every town and of most villages
in England in their favour. Still it is better that the
rebellion is not political in its rise — pure accident this,
but a lucky one, for their higher allies would have joined.
As it is, the Manchester rebels, I hear, damn the reformers,
their former leaders in the Blanket campaign.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 207
« 2nd Oct. 1818.
' Your notes are quite a comfort to me in my depression,
to see how vigorously you are employed. ... I don't
know when I shall be so much my former self as to think
to any purpose ; at present I see in prospect a jacquerie
aided by the scarcity of next winter, and the anarchists of
higher order all agreeing in effort to depreciate and destroy
whatever is established, if but because it is so. In this
they act together by an instinctive worldly wisdom, while
their opposers, having conscience, disagree in the points
each would defend, and will make a feeble stand accordingly.
I am vexed at seeing this, without seeing remedy. We
shall not even have a fair field for the mortal combat.'
Hickman was accustomed to write accounts of debates
in the House of Commons to his old chief, Speaker Abbot,
who had now become Lord Colchester. A few of these are
printed in Lord Colchester's Diaries, and two of them come
in opportunely for the early part of 1819, when the cor-
respondence between Rickman and Southey is scanty. The
first is a criticism of Vansittart's methods of conducting
business. A dissolution was due in June, and Rickman's
prophecies so far came true that the Opposition gained
several seats.
• March, 1819.
' My Lord, — ... I am afraid I have been inattentive
in not answering your Lordship's late letter, but, in truth,
our work at the House of Commons costs full twelve hours a
day, and I am forced to apologise to my own conscience for
as many defaults as well as I can. . . .
' The Chancellor of the Exchequer fulfils the semper
idem which was applied in the feminine gender to Queen
Anne. He went into the Committee of Supply (miscel-
laneous services) with thirty-seven M.P.'s behind him ;
among them one Lord of the Treasury, not one of the
Admiralty ; the Opposition mustering about fifty in front
of him. When they came to the Caledonian Canal, I
208 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
remembered that poor Mr. Arbuthnot, in his distress,
once referred to me in the debate, so I prudently left the
Committee in care of Mr. Brogden 1 and Mr. Ley, 2 and
retreated to one of the Serjeant's dog holes, where I heard
quite enough. However, the grant will be had hereafter ;
no thanks to the generalship of Mr. Vansittart and his
aide-de-camp, Mr. Arbuthnot, who is in himself quite
enough to overset any Administration. Equal in small
things as in great, having moved an Irish writ a day too
soon, he forgot it for a fortnight, and, I think, has not
moved any writ this session without some blunder. . . .
' I think the Opposition has a good chance to come in,
at least if it be considered that they will always be sure of
the support of the friends of the present Administration
in the impending battle between the mob and their betters,
the newspapers and Parliament ; and that themselves and
the mob, in spurious alliance, can and will hasten that
crisis. I do not see how they can fail to arrive at this.
' To be sure there will be an awkwardness in their turning
short about to oppose Reform of Parliament (now in com-
mencement at Penryn 3 ), and Juries (as now in practice
of usurped power) and the liberty of the press (incompat-
ible, as now practised, with the liberty of any other thing,
and already more powerful than Parliament) ; but all this
will be done with effrontery enough doubtless, and good men
will have to rally under the guidance of the incendiaries
when all is in flame.
' Mr. Brougham does not show himself much ; but, in
fact, he is ill, low-spirited. . . . His absence, however,
keeps concord as yet undisturbed among the Opposition.
They muster well. Lord Castlereagh, in passing Mr.
Tierney the other evening, said, " I should like to learn
the secret of your association." The Opposition has, I
think, gained in number many more than the Government
1 Chairman of Committees.
2 Clerk Assistant.
3 Disfranchised in 1828, after motions for its disfranchisement had been
made every year for several years.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 209
will allow, and gained much more in M.P.'s who always
attend. . . .
1 Always your Lordship's most obedient servant.'
The second letter describes the debate on Grattan's
motion for an inquiry into the laws affecting the state of
the Roman Catholics.
' May 4, 1819.
* My Lord, — I fear the election petition business of the
morning will allow me but a few moments to tell our last
night's history.
' Mr. Grattan made his last speech ; so he said before the
day came. Mr. Croker made an odd speech, blaming
oaths because not enacted at once. He ought to have a
code in reward of his ingenious perversions. These spoke
two hours each ; afterwards Leslie Foster an hour ; others
brought it to twelve o'clock ; then Mr. Lamb, Mr. Peel,
and Mr. Plunkett, all charged and primed, reserved their
fire for half an hour, mutually wishing the others to speak
first, till the gallery and under it were pretty well cleared
(for the popish priests, in both places, exhibited the silent
impudence and perverseness of so many Quakers on this
occasion). The Opposition had directed an assemblage at
twelve, it appeared ; so that all those of the other side,
who expected a late division or adjourned debate, were
absent. After one negative voice given, Plunkett pretended
that he wished to speak, but this Mr. Wynn's solitary point
of order withstood, and it was not permitted. The division
took place : Opposition 242, Anti-Catholic, 248. And from
the surprise practised, some of the last (sent for in haste)
came in while the dispute about Mr. Plunkett lasted and
the door opened to let out some of the most tardy of the
Papists. Then all M.P.'s were directed to state whether
or not they were in the House when the question was put,
which had been done at twelve ; disputed if final till half-
past ; put finally afterwards : so that what their statements
referred to no man could tell. A fine confusion, which
o
210 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
terminated at half-past one. Ayes, 241 ; Noes, 243, as
corrected.
' The Opposition counted 252 instead of 242, and were
sadly chagrined at rinding themselves in a minority, after
a thousand congratulations inter se, wagers won and lost,
and the supposed decision reversed, etc. . . . Yours most
obliged.'
During the autumn Southey accompanied Rickman and
Telford on a tour in Scotland, which he described in a long
letter to his friend Neville White. The party, starting
from Edinburgh, went by Loch Katrine and Dunkeld to
Dundee, thence up the east coast to Aberdeen, Banff, and
Inverness. They proceeded to follow the Caledonian Canal
to Loch Lomond, and ended at Glasgow. Southey had
many pleasant recollections of this tour, and his recollections
were transcribed for the benefit of Rickman's family. A
pleasing sequel to this tour was that, after computing
Southey's share of the expense next year, Rickman asked
his friend to consider that he had repaid the money by
devoting it to paying the fees for the honorary degree of
LL.D. conferred on him at Oxford in 1820. Two political
letters to Southey end the year. The first describes the
debate on the second reading of the Seditious Meetings
Prevention Bill, one of the so-called ' six acts ' which the
Government considered it necessary to pass for the repres-
sion of disorder.
' Friday Evening [Dec. 3, 1819].
' To-night we have holiday from debate ; Brougham's
indisposition which made him speak 2| hours after mid-
night was rather tiresome this morning. Lord Palmerston
who said a few words afterwards (in notice of some of B.'s
personalities) made a laugh by assuring the House he was
himself in perfect health and therefore they might dread
from him another speech of 3 hours. Brougham has quite
fallen off from all logic or argument ; this second long speech
of his like the first contained nothing of either, dextrous
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 211
personality and misrepresentation made the sum total of
both. Yet this noisy adventurer is likely soon to take the
post of Leader of Opposition, Mr. T. [Tierney] being very
sick of it. I am much afraid that the Administration is
about to relapse into liberality ; that they will make the
Bill temporary to save a few hours debating, and in that case
the Opp. will have to boast they were right in opposing the
Bill before it was so modified. So again will they be able
to raise their heads which at present lie in political perdition,
or at least in the slough of despond. The mania for
opposition to Government in England is stronger than the
very Opps. themselves reckoned upon. Only 30 less vote
with them now than on the dry party qn. of last year, —
the pitched battle which Mr. Tierney had cause to remember.
And their steady phalanx of 150 is no more than they
expected at the beginning of the Session. They lost indeed
22 last evening, and as Lord Darlington begins to discover
that his Durham friends are rather dangerous to his lord-
ship, the Opps. who draw more from his purse and politics
than from any other source want to escape from contest, and
in proportion to their wish for escape will be the folly of
the Government, if they permit it. The Bill which is to
curb the press is ridiculously feeble compared to the disease
— so I expected, but as I see no good done without a direct
censorship, I am not likely to be satisfied till better times
come. I called on Dr. Stoddart since my return to feel how
bravely his pulse beat. Slop ; slop, slop, was the response. 1
He praised his own prudence in not too rashly applauding or
justifying the conduct of Government in dismissal of Lord
F. 2 though he said he was desired to do this. Charm-
ing neutrality ! — of which I in my rashness comprehend
neither policy. He should take decided part for his own
sake.'
1 Stoddart, editor of the New Times, was nicknamed ' Dr. Slop ' by his
contemporaries.
2 Lord FitzWilliam was dismissed from the lord-lieutenancy of Yorkshire
for taking a prominent part in a meeting held to pass a vote of censure on
the conduct of the Manchester magistrates in the ' Peterloo ' affair.
212 LIFE AND LETTERS OP JOHN RICKMAN
< 11 Dec. 1819.
' I see the patriotism of the Oppn. is nearly weary, and
they begin to leave town, after having given up a large
fortnight of their time to the brave Radicals ; so that we
shall be able to adjourn at or soon after Xtmas. The worst
feature of our proceedings — or rather of intended proc. —
has been the actual design of granting to Mr. Bennett * a
committee — To enquire into the state of the Manufacturing
Districts — as if the effect of such a comm. would not have
been many times worse than any other sort of parly, enquiry
that could have been devised. Luckily Mr. B. prefaced
his motion with a speech which fairly displayed his inten-
tion of leading his comm. into a wide field of political
enquiry. Whether the violence of his temper or his per-
sonal disinclination to sacrifice his holidays induced him to
this declaration, I know not ; and I cannot conceive that
Govt, can be ignorant, that had his comm. been granted,
nothing could have hindered him from collecting all his
Radical allegations now extant, and a large crop which
would have sprung up for the occasion, and this would
have been printed with the apparent sanction of the Ho.
Commons. Of course all persons who have conspicuously
resisted the Radicals, especially the Manchester magis-
trates, would have been summoned, or would have appeared
without summons before this comm., and what sort of
treatment they would [have] had before a court constituted
of Mr. Bennett solus, or supported by Burdett, Lambton
and the like, Ministers ought to have considered : but they
are infatuated, or could not have adopted the liberal in-
tention of committing all things to a comm. of this kind.'
The interest of 1820 is again mainly political. The Cato
Street Conspiracy to assassinate the ministers was the first
excitement of the year. Then the King died, and was
succeeded by George rv. Finally, the whole nation was
set in commotion by the so-called ' Queen's trial,' which
1 A prominent reformer.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 213
won the Queen the highest popularity and resulted in a
virtual defeat for the Ministry. Rickman seems to have
continued in rather low spirits, and told Southey that
he was meditating a list of words by misapprehension of
which the world was governed badly, and a plan by which
a book of several chapters might be so made. Southey,
who was hard at work on his Peninsular War, was moved
by political events to begin his Colloquies, which finally
appeared in 1829. Of the four letters from Rickman to
Southey which I give for this year, three are on current
politics, and one (the third) gives Rickman's own imaginary
scheme for his beguinage, a Utopian dream of which he
never tired.
' 10 January 1820.
' Our Parliamentary campaign was sharp though short,
and left me some accumulation of various business chiefly
Highland, and now I must work hard at a Road and Bridge
Report till Parlt. meets, and in the appendages till Easter
I suppose. In fact the history of proceedings is more to
me than the business itself — a necessary evil however, and
one of which I now see the termination. Part of life has
been well spent perhaps in starting well such a novelty in
the government of civilised nations as the half contribu-
tion scheme pursued in the Highland improvements, and
on similar occasions, if ever they occur, the managers will
perceive that it is possible by care and attention to pro-
duce a satisfactory result. It has been lucky that Mr.
Hope, Mr. Telford, and I have all lived 17 years, as the
death of any one of us would have produced a terrible
derangement — De hoc satis.
' The laws that have been passed, especially those which
strike at the liberty ! of the Press, seem to me good, as a
necessary preface to better, when they are found to be
ineffectual. Have you seen the impudent declaration of
the hell-hounds of the Press, which puts the matter fairly
enough at issue, as a question of domination ? I inclose
it, copied from a famous caricature libel of theirs, which
214 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
probably has reached you. The two worst things the
Session has produced are the proof of the amazing blind-
ness of Lord C. [Castlereagh] to the effect of Mr. Bennett's
Commns., and still worse the apparent concession to the
Whig scheme of Parly. Reform, which the self complacent
little M.P. for Tavistock * introduced, and which ought
to have been answered : Yes, provided we begin with the
independent borough of Tavistock. For the plan cannot
but extinguish all boroughs in succession ; the witnesses
being forced to speak out as to all past transactions, and
as to the general character and custom of the borough. Yet
I am afraid both Lord C. and Mr. Canning are not unfavour-
able to an experiment, which very experiment will take
away all ground of argument against going farther, and
will soon produce revolution and thereby in succession a
military government of course.
'Unless the text I mentioned be openly and convin-
cingly insisted on, this cannot be prevented, especially as
the other source of revolution, an unbridled press and the
number of readers increasing geometrically, cannot so exist
without the same result. Dr. Bell's scheme seems to sup-
pose a censorship of the Press, or its omnipotence. Now
I confess it to be a sort of government I had rather not
exist under. I feel half a slave already, I wish to throw
off my chains. . . .'
' 10 February 1820.
' Oddly enough I was taking a sheet of paper to write
on to you when yours of this day's arrival made its appear-
ance. I was ruminating on your present task, and think-
ing the occasion good for clearing away the villainous mist
of prejudice and misrepresentation which by agency of
the oligarchs of the Oppn. Press prevents the nation from
recognising the indubitable signs of the unexampled pro-
sperity of the last £ of a century, and this due under Pro-
1 Lord John Russell.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 215
vidence to an unavoidable war and peculiarly to the very-
attack made on our commercial prosperity by Napoleon.
Our taxation has been enough perhaps, but certainly not
more than enough to draw forth our energies (as an un-
certain northern climate has made us improve in agriculture
and grow more corn than the countries round the Medi-
terranean where our corn is indigenous) and there can be
no real doubt (I don't include Opp. doubt) that we are
more able at the accession of Geo. iv. to make national
exertions if needed, than at any past time. The technical
question about our finances and national debt is a low
one, fit for Opp. The Chancellor of the Excheqr. may
be perplexed in finding unexceptionable machinery, but
after all a man is not the poorer for being indebted to
himself : the two sides of a ledger, merely phantoms of
Dr. and Cr. and so it is with old England and her bugbear
debt.
' And who would not extol what George iv. our Regent
has performed by his perseverance in the late war ? For
that was personal, because the devolution of power into
the hands of those early friends(\), who would not have so
persevered, was practicable and even tempting to the
Regent if but to avoid or preclude the incessant malice and
mud that he was sure enough these early friends of his
would favour him with, and if he broke from their factious
trammels, that is, declined persevering in a conspiracy
against himself, his future crown and dignity, he must
have been a fool indeed not to have foreseen the conse-
quences of still remaining a modern Whig (though indeed
these early friends did once build a stone wall for their own
purposes in that taste, and ran against it to the lasting
benefit of John Bull). Thank God their late sneaking,
denied, allowed, rejected, alliance with the Radicals has
sunk them low enough ! Did you see the pitiful answer of
the high Whig Lord Fitz. 1 to the address of the Yorkshire
Whig Radicals the other day ? The subdued tone is very
satisfying.
1 FitzWilliam.
216 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' You are in good order (by favour of Coxe) for a com-
parison of the D. of Marlborough and the English exploits
of that age in the same scenes of action (France excepted !)
with the D. of Wellington and our own age. I cannot
execrate the Opp. spirit sufficiently, when I perceive that
their perseverance working on English feelings (always
querulous, and captious of public men) has not only dis-
guised from the nation the magnitude and importance of
military exploits of the Regency, but even prevents myself,
without argument and induction, and comparison historical,
from feeling the new glories of my country. To what
extent must that misrepresentation (both in quality and
quantity) be which shall habitually influence the feelings
of the man who sees and complains of it — the very anta-
gonist power of truth which sometimes exaggerates, is
palsied ! Frightful ! '
1 20th February 1820.
* . . . My notion of a female establishment is, that any
benefactor erecting a set of chambers, shall thereby acquire
a right (alienable by will, gift, or sale, like other property)
to place inmates there on certain conditions, such as that
security shall be given that each enjoy a competent income
not less than £ while she resides there ; that she shall
be bound to the necessary rules of female decorum on
pain of instant expulsion, and to such other rules as are
indispensable to the well being of the community. But
that nothing like common meals shall be proposed, the
ladies to choose their own mutual society, of which there
would be enough, and to make all minor arrangements
among themselves. I believe for external appearance, to
prevent expence and vanity, and to restrain the number
of idle applications, a uniform dress would be proper ;
and for many purposes, such as prayers, bad weather and
peripatetic exercise, a large room would be a respectable
adjunct to the edifice, and for which the fundatores might
be taxed a per centage upon their several chambers.
' Under such easy laws as these, and considering how
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 217
fashionable and how laudable is the appetite for virtuous
patronage, I do not see how there should be failure among
the female nobility and thousands of other opulent females
so to invest part of their money. None of it could be spent
more for their own reputation and respectability, and
considering that the individuals admitted would not of
necessity (nor usually) be maintained by the foundress of
the chamber, but recommended to her by those who might
have interest or gratification in giving security for the
maintenance of the inmate, I cannot but think that the
foundress, who might even let or sell an admission, the
immediate patron of the admitted female, who might thus
exonerate himself from care and anxiety were better motive
wanting, and the admitted female, whose maintenance for
life, or at least for a specified term of years, must be secured
before her admission, would all find motive enough for
falling into a plan simple and unambiguous in its arrange-
ments, and (if not woefully mismanaged) of the highest
respectability.
' I do not know whether you are prepared to agree with
me as to the necessity of a secured income to each female,
but I have enquired enough in and about such female
societies (such there are for clergymen's widows at Branley,
at Winchester, at Froxfield, at Lichfield, and I daresay
elsewhere) as to be fully convinced that respectability
cannot otherwise be maintained. You cannot hope to
keep poverty and meanness apart, even dishonesty and
sordid habits too often accompany it, and if a female is
poor and friendless she is not for that the better or more
worthy, in short there must be a classification of relief,
and I treat of the upper class : observing only, that many
would be exalted into that upper class were the means of
so exalting them easy, and obvious to the wealthy. Few
wills would be without bequests of the competent annuity
to some humble friend. Various societies would be at
various rates. I should say from £50 to £100 per annum,
or some such minimum and if a wealthy foundress resided
herself, she would have larger facility for beneficence than
218 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
display. Her love of the community (so conspicuous
among monks in former times) would found libraries,
plantations, walks, cloisters, gaudy days (whether obit or
birthday), medical attendance, a chaplain perhaps, Creados l
sufficient for the garden, the porter's lodge, for watch and
defence and for government the foundress must legislate,
the inmates elect their executive among themselves. . . .'
< 6 March 1820.
' . . . The Opps. would be in a doleful plight, did
Governmt. stir a finger in its own behalf ; but that I suppose
is become unlawful, and I really believe that the zeal of
the hell hounds, few and contemptible as they are, will
cause the Opps. to profit by the new election in spite of the
manifestation of the outward and visible effect of Oppn.
patriotism. Yet I do not despair of reaction hereafter.
The Liberals are uncloking apace ; Germany, France,
England 2 have seen the commencement of assassination
already, and the mass of mankind cannot much longer be
blind to its origin : and if we can abolish the helhsh Press,
I do not despair of human society, founded on more bland
principles than individual independence, which is become
a power of misbehaving without punishment, and conse-
quent mob-government.'
In 1821, the year of the coronation, at which the Queen
made her ill-advised attempt to be present, Rickman was
very busy in compiling a very long Highland Roads and
Bridges report, a Caledonian Canal report, and the popu-
lation returns. His letters were, therefore, few. How-
ever, the following fragment throws an interesting light
on Rickman's early character : —
1 6 Nov. 1821.
' I have been much edified by reading your Cromwell
1 Presumably Rickman means criados= servants (Spanish).
2 Rickman refers probably to the respective assassinations of Kotzebue,
the Due de Berry, and Perceval.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 219
in the Q. Review. I even allow that the Peninsular War
ought not to grumble at such Remorae. When I was
young, no book was more in my hand than Rushworth,
so I became learned in the histy. of his time, and am agree-
ably surprised to perceive that you know more about it
than I do. . . .1 was such an Oliverian in my time at
Oxford as to have obtained the agnomen of Old Nol : but I
believe half my zeal was feigned to tease certain Royalists.
Here I am working hard at the Population Abstract into
the preliminary observations of which I think I shall be
able [? to insert] some matter, which will put to flight for
ever and aye the Distress of the Times — in past history —
with good inference when the Opps. raise that cry again.'
The quarrel between Southey and Byron, which after
the publication of Southey's Vision of Judgment late in
1821 became acute, had its echo in the correspondence
with Rickman, who sympathised entirely in the Laureate's
attack on the ' Satanic School.' Politics, however, were the
subject uppermost in his mind. At the beginning of the
year, Liverpool, who had already secured Wellesley and
Peel, tried to strengthen his party by attracting some of
the Grenville following. Grenville himself refused office,
but Southey's friend, Charles Wynn, became a cabinet
minister. Rickman, however, did not regard affairs in a
much brighter light. The prospects of the Caledonian
Canal, for instance, were viewed by him with undue
pessimism. On April 30, 1822, he wrote to Southey.
< 30 April 1822.
' . . . We continue to be much obliged to you for your
kind communication of northern remembrances. I am
sorry to say that the Caledonian Canal is a tender subject
at present. It is come to the birth, but whether strength
will be afforded in this economical year to bring it forth —
to open it throughout — I am not confident, so that I am
ill at ease on any allusion to a subject which but for this
ought to be most pleasing to me, and I am exceedingly
220 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
overwhelmed with the Population Abstract and other
business at present. After the Session I hope to recover
from a sort of depression thus occasioned. . . .'
Later in the year, in the course of a long letter com-
plaining of very heavy work, he addressed Southey in
desperation.
< 2nd July 1822.
* . . . Political affairs are tending fast to dissolution
of Government, unless, when all see that, a revulsion hap-
pens ; we shall have a chance to witness the result. At
present the country gentlemen half of them vote against
the Administration because corn is cheap ; not seeing with
whom they therefore vote, of course with the anarchists.
Practically I suppose the Ho. Commons will be the scene
of the impending dissolution of the English constitution,
as it is called. The Opps. have at this moment an un-
questionable and practical veto, somewhat acquired by
insolence and perseverance, more by the liberality (God
help the word) of the Administration, who act too without
concert and in disgust (natural enough) of the degraded
state in which they collectively feel themselves. Do you
not observe that we have been doing nothing for more than
two months, that is, nothing but listening to opposition
speeches, and resisting their motions ? Defensive war
must be successful in the sequel : already the friends of
Government are gone to their country seats, and a compact
squadron of Radicals prevent all business by clamour, or
on pretence of a late hour, or the absence of somebody who
takes interest in the proper business of the evening. In
fact half the supplies of the year and the most disputeable
are not yet granted, nor have the Govt, been able to go
into the Co. Supply since Easter, though it has been specially
appointed, and notices of motions in it given by the
Treasury oftener than once a week. But the Opps. have a
complete veto. Whether this Session (as is likely) may
disclose this irresistably, or whether they have so much
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 221
mercy in their own conscience as to defer the result, I know
not, perhaps care little, for such a contemptible state of
things is not agreeable, and this mode of destruction is
inconvenient to us of the Ho. Commons, the wear and tear
of endless debates, or to no purpose but to prove the un-
checked insolence of the Opps., and of an interminable
Session being a melancholy mode of extinction of mind and
body. And now the habit has been established by the
oscitancy of the Govt., the Press will not permit recovery
of power. In that mob-engine is no slackness, and con-
cession is never regained from it, the result of which two is
certain: what always advances, never recedes, must arrive
at its own end, at sovereignty, sooner or later, unless the
eyes of the stock-holders and of country gentlemen are
opened by some outward and visible sign of what they
cannot see without some violent process. It is quite
comical (if not of such serious import) that they continue
to be lookers on of the contest between the Govt, and the
Radical squadron, as if it were a game for their amusement.
You will not wonder if I am fatigued and disgusted at what
I must see, and cannot help to remedy, an essential neutral,
like the inhabitants of the seat of war. No comfortable
situation ; I see no chance of the Session ending till the
middle of August.
' Farewell — Mrs. R. desires her remembrances. I shall
be much gratified, if I ever exist again for rational purposes,
to see your colloquies.'
During the session Peel succeeded Sidmouth as Home
Secretary, and on August 12 Castlereagh, who had lately
become Marquis of Londonderry, committed suicide in
a fit of morbid depression. In March Canning had accepted
the governor-generalship of India, and was preparing to
depart when Castlereagh died. It was felt that Canning
was the only possible successor to the position of Foreign
Secretary, but it took some little time to overcome the
Bang's dislike for him. So on September 7 Rickman told
Southey : —
222 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' At present Canning or no Canning is the question. An
intriguing man ever, and from one of his intrigues a
Queenite. Yet such is the state of things that the Ho.
Commons business cannot be carried on, without quite
so much as his help, and Governmt. without him will
expire from lack of physical force.'
Canning was appointed on September 9, and Rickman
again vented his dislike to Southey.
' 18th September 1822.
' . . . Are we all to travel through anarchy to despotism ?
I fear it must be so, and I take the cause to lie in the one
simple aim of the wicked, against the divided opinions of
their opponents. Mr. Canning, for instance, strenuously
resists reform of Parlt., but is an advocate for at least the
present degree of the liberty of the Press, though nothing
can be more evident than the misnomer, it is indeed domina-
tion, and of a kind held intolerable by all men except in
this instance, — power without responsibility, and irresistable
in its incessant encroachments, while it so remains. I
do not think the Ho. Commons will be the death of Mr.
Canning, because I expect he will be assassinated before
that happens. His wit and eloquence when often exerted
in behalf of the established order of things, will be felt too
severely, when it is also felt that nothing stands in the way
of the dissolution of the British Government if he can be
removed ; for in that case the present Administration must
succumb from mere inanition, and the reign of the Whigs,
intolerable to the monied interest, could not last three
months unless in revolutionary form, in concessions to the
Radicals — An unpleasant prospect ! . . .'
Canning was a prominent supporter of Roman Catholic
relief, and, while he was still out of office, had brought
forward a bill to enable Catholic peers to vote in the House
of Lords. Southey and Rickman felt acutely on the ques-
tion, and on Southey's having informed Rickman of a
reported plan of Canning's to oust certain opponents of
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 223
Catholic relief from the Cabinet, Rickman replied on
December 20 : —
1 1 have to thank you for your letter of political intelli-
gence, none of which had reached me, beyond a general
intimation that Canning was at his old sport — intrigue —
from which he will never refrain till at the head of affairs.
... I should not be surprised if Mr. Canning and some
other seeming friends of the R.C. should really like a
rebellion, which would get them out of the scrape which
their liberal absurdity has placed them in. While cheap-
ness of provisions prevails, the Radicals of England are
powerless, and a religious war in Ireland will place matters
in a clear point of view.'
The beginning of 1823 saw the appearance of the first
volume of Southey's Peninsular War, upon which Rickman
wrote him a generous appreciation, though he could not keep
politics out. ' One cannot,' he says, ' in imagination picture
a more contemptible animal than a Whig Radical.' Never-
theless, he had more pleasant thoughts to fill his mind,
connected with the opening of the Caledonian Canal.
Southey, fired by his tour in 1819, wrote three inscriptions
to be put up at Clachnaharry, Fort Augustus, and Banavie
respectively. These lines were carved on stone at Rick-
man's direction as a surprise for Telford. The following
letter refers to this pleasant incident.
• 4th April 1823.
' I am much obliged to you for sundry letters, which
ungratefully or from my daily living I have not answered,
but this is the Easter week ; I have cleared away arrear
of business, and am paying my debts of private corres-
pondence.
' You have been so good I know to write inscriptions ;
et his similia, of and concerning our Highland works. All
is well there, now ; the Canal open and becoming popular,
and I foresee I shall conquer the absurd reliance which the
semi-barbarians have imbibed, that they are not to pay
224 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
for the maintenance of their roads. They have been in-
dulged so much as to believe, that they do me a favour in
suffering me to repair those roads, but it is come to such a
pass this, that I have turned upon them sharply enough
to convince them of their error, and all will be well. They
are spoiled children learning to kiss the rod, so that on the
whole you may celebrate in prose or verse, all our exploits,
with great safety, and I will support you, if needful, and
therein myself. . . .'
In April there comes an interesting letter from Rickman
to Lord Colchester, describing the debate on Plunket's
motion for Catholic relief. The Radicals seceded owing
to the high words that had arisen between Brougham and
Canning, Brougham having accused Canning of deserting
the Roman Catholics on taking office ; Plunket was then
left in a considerable minority. The first part of the letter
refers to a charge which was brought against Plunket of
unconstitutional procedure as Attorney-General for Ireland.
' April 18, 1823.
' My Lord, — . . . We go on in the House of Commons
very well as to the Catholics. Plunkett, in the anguish of
an evil conscience, and terror of disgrace, was so imprudent
as to defend himself by criminating others on notoriously
false evidence, I am told, and this is capable of proof. The
Administration, it is said, will resist Sir F. Burdett's motion
on Tuesday next for inquiry into facts. If so they will be
sure of defeat. All the Opposition with all the Protestants
on the Ministerial side of the House being quite enough to
overwhelm them, even if Plunkett should be so indecent
as to vote against inquiry himself.
' Last night we had a curious scene as to the Catholic
question. The Catholics being certain of defeat, and many
of the Opposition hating Plunkett as a rat, accused him
of bad faith, and the Radicals (about a dozen) seceded on
that pretence, to disguise the majority which they antici-
pated against the Roman Catholics. At half past twelve,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 225
nobody offering to speak, the gallery was cleared for a
division. To prevent which Sir John Nugent moved an
adjournment, because, he said, strangers were excluded.
It was of no use to say that it could not be otherwise when
the debate was over, and all sorts of adjournments were
proposed to prevent any division upon the real question,
in which the Roman Catholics would have been beaten by
about three score. . . . Yours truly.'
In connexion with the year 1823, it must be noted as
rather remarkable that no allusion was made in the corre-
spondence between Rickman and Southey to the unfor-
tunate incident between the latter and Lamb. Southey
had mildly censured the Essays of Elia, in an otherwise
favourable Quarterly review, for want of religious feeling.
Lamb replied with a very strong letter in the London
Magazine, which wholly took Southey by surprise. He
wrote a tactful private letter to Lamb, who dissolved into
penitence at once. Perhaps, however, the absence of
reference in the letters is explained by the fact that in
December Southey was in London.
During 1824 the two friends were knit together by a
new bond. In April Southey 's daughter Bertha came to
stay with the Rickmans for fourteen months as a com-
panion to Ann Rickman, and to acquire some accomplish-
ments which were not possible in remote Keswick. Rick-
man's letters upon Bertha are truly precious pieces of
comment.
■ 6^ July 1824.
' Miss Bertha S. I assure you improves fast, both in
her good looks, and strength of both kinds. As to the
timidity, which you speak of as her characteristic, no more
remains than the playful memory of it. Upon receiving
your last, I thought of a good experimentum crucis.
W. C. R. has just come home for his holidays. He was
to see the representation of the battles of Ligny, Quatre
Bras, and Waterloo at Astley's — the best spectacle ever
p
226 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
produced, the actors being Waterloo men mostly of the
Guards, above 100 infantry ; the Cavalry 50 of the
equestrian troop, and plenty of artillery. The actions
being fiercely contested, there is much gunpowder spent,
even cannons fired on the stage. All dreadful to Bertha,
when she saw it by some chance, a month since. So I told
W. C. R. to choose his party, and said nothing, beyond
asking at dinner time, who was going ? And among the
volunteers was enumerated Miss B. S. who enjoyed it as
much as anybody, and said, " She saw it all." Moreover,
as she had professed her dread of going in a boat on the
Thames, I gave her the option of so moving to St. Paul's
this morning ; and heard not a word of repugnance or of
terror. If at St. Paul's she did not go up to the ball, so
did not Miss A. R., and they are both too tall for the
experiment, which cannot be achieved, without aid for
guiding the feet from below. She is not very fond of being
taught musick and dancing, but submits with a good grace,
and improves in both.
* We go from London to-morrow — to stay a fortnight at
a farm-house — and afterwards in the island of Portsea —
the first of the time including hay-making and the cherry
season.
' Miss B. S. anticipated (as well as journeying in the
abstract,) with much pleasure, and I doubt not will like
Portsea equally well afterwards. Farewell, I am busy
enough packing necessaries, and writing letters and leaving
instructions on departing, but could not go with a clear
conscience without saying thus much of Bertha, who is a
favourite with everybody.'
The second letter contains the announcement that
Rickman was building himself a country house near
Portsmouth. His first place of villeggiatura had been
Epsom, where a house had been taken annually since
Willy had suffered from the croup. They had also fre-
quently visited the farm belonging to Rickman's brother
at Chidham in Sussex. Thenceforward, all holidays were
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 227
spent at Portsmouth, where Rickman found it very con-
venient to retire, even in winter, to recover from the effects
of overwork.
' Chidham, 8th September 1824.
' We are not at Portsmouth yet, but are to be there early
next week. I do not know whether you are aware of
part of our projected occupation, — the fitting up a house
now in shell (as the builders speak), for I find by experience
that my autumn half-year cannot be spent in desolated
Westmr. nor elsewhere with satisfaction, unless in so
fixed a place, as to find my books etc. about me ; and all
things are disregarded at Westmr. (except the purpose of
business) during the Session ; therefore, and for other causes,
I have built me an house, and we are going to reside next
door to it. Not that it stands in a street, but in a shady
lane, on an half acre of garden ground, for fruit trees and
flowers. This you will think well, and Bertha will tell
you more about it soon, she being endowed with a due
share of enquiry and observation. Financially speaking, you
are to understand, that the interest of money has so fallen
as to render house-building not imprudent. For instance,
if I spend £3000 in house and furniture, I am but £100 a
year poorer, and save more summer house rent than that.
' Of our tarrying 8 or 9 weeks, — we are at Mrs. Rickman 's
birth place, guests of her brother, who now cultivates as
much of his father's land as is near the house : with what
effect, Bertha's inclosed MS. will inform you. Large
inferences are deducible, as you will see, but the facts were
put together for Bertha's use, she having full experience
in hay-making, and harvest (just finished) and acquaintance
with the cows, calves and pigs. To the latter especially in
the form of bacon and pork, she seems most partial.
Besides this knowledge there is a poney absolutely without
volition, who goes just as fast and just as slow as the rider
pleases, and starts at nothing. By means of this animal,
Bertha has practised riding enough to go through life with
her, and as she and A. R. are fond of this exercise, which
228 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
puts to flight head-ache, the poney (hight Victor) goes to
Portsmouth with us. We live here with somewhat of
the ancient frugality of the farm house — "Waste not,
want not," — a good ingredient in the happiness of future
life, which Bertha will not let escape her ; she being as
Milton said with other meaning, in polemic pun — very
monger a — and is become I daresay very rich in country-
life imagery, for after use ; so that the time here has been
well spent, though so much of it was not intended to be so
appropriated. At Portsmouth other points of knowledge
may be pursued with advantage ; ships and fortifications
we are sure of, society of all sorts q.s., and they say a good
drawing master. In musick Miss B. S. is much improved,
and she holds herself erect at all times as much as Mrs. R.
desires. Of course, you expect her to be liable to innocent
impulses. I do not know that I can say anything unfavour-
able of her, except perhaps in a point of every day good
manners. I am not sure she would not in after life lessen
kind feelings and intentions sometimes, by not seeming to
thank cordially for any little proffered kindness for which
she has not at the moment occasion, or will to avail of it.
Thus far of the new house of Chidham, and of B. S.'
These kindly remarks were duly forwarded by Southey
to Miss Bertha, with injunctions to mend her manners.
In 1825 the question of Catholic relief, which has already
appeared more than once in Rickman's letters, became
really acute. Since Pitt's resignation in 1801 the cause had
been resolutely pushed by its supporters. From 1805
onwards motions in support of the Catholic claims were
frequently made in both Houses ; Grattan, Grenville,
Burdett and Canning were the leading supporters ; Eldon,
Peel and Wellington were in opposition. In 1812, after
Liverpool had succeeded Perceval, though the question
was left open in the Cabinet, Canning carried a motion
pledging the House to consider the question in the next
session ; and in 1813 a bill for the removal of Catholic
disabilities passed its second reading. It was, however,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 229
wrecked in committee by the opposition of Speaker Abbot.
In 1817 the motion for relief was discussed at some length,
and defeated by twenty-four. Two years later Grattan,
after a great speech, reduced that majority to two.
Finally, in 1821, a comprehensive measure for Catholic
relief passed the Commons by a majority of nineteen,
though the uncompromising hostility of the Duke of
York and Eldon ruined its chance in the Lords. From
1821 onwards, therefore, it was known that it was only
the Lords from whom successful opposition was to be
feared. An important factor in the question was the
disturbed state of Ireland since the Union. The Habeas
Corpus Act was suspended in 1803 after Emmet's
rebellion, and in several years before 1817. Violence and
outrage were common, and it was probably this state of
things which prevented the cause of the Catholics becoming
a really popular cause in England. Of Canning's bill in
1822 enabling Catholic peers to vote, of the quarrel between
Canning and Brougham, and of Plunket's fiasco in 1823
I have already spoken. In 1823 the Catholic Associa-
tion, which practically usurped the functions of government
in Ireland, was founded by O'Connell and Sheil. This
Association was not suppressed by Lord Wellesley, the
lord-lieutenant, but that it should be suppressed was
strongly held in the House. A bill for its suppression wa3
introduced in 1825 and commanded large majorities in
both Houses. Burdett, nevertheless, moved a new resolu-
tion for Catholic relief on March 1, which was carried by
a small majority. A relief bill was promptly introduced
and read a second time. This was the position when on
April 4 Rickman wrote to Southey. His eighteen months
in Ireland had engendered a firm hatred in his Saxon mind
for all things Irish, as will be seen.
' 4 April 1825.
* . . . I think if the R.C. do not carry their point this
year they will in the next Session. There is a kind of
wearisomeness in being always on the defensive, modern
230 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
liberality not permitting the use of such weapons as cut
deep, unless on the liberal side of the argument. Hence
it is that Brougham does prudently in venturing to use his
tomahawk without means of self-defence. It is not per-
mitted to say that you do not oppose the Irish R.C. quasi
R.C. simply, but as barbarians, and therefore under the
domination of their priesthood as much as Europe was in
the time of the Crusades. Not as R.C. simply, but as
savages who less than 30 years since commenced a massacre
with as hearty a good will as did their forefathers in 1641,
and who give proofs from time to time that they are not
unready for another when occasion shall serve. To me
it is strange that nobody observes in a lucid manner, that
liberality, not being justice, must always be injustice, when
it steps beyond the disposal of your own individual property
or rights, because what is given to one must be taken from
another, and you have no right to give away what you
cannot give without first taking from A. to give to B.
This no trustee or extor. is ever expected, as not empowered,
to give, but we surrender one thing after another till we are
already on the brink of merging our national Church, as
Pope did in the universal prayer, and we are approaching
the glorious time when it will be every man's interest to be
a felon. No man forsooth is to be decerned other than an
innocent till found guilty, and then the judge, prosecutor,
etc., are all to conspire for remission of punishment. Some
time since I read in a newspaper, that a woman who stole
cheese in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, was taken
to a police officer by the shopman, who said his master lost
too much not to make an example. But the woman
pleading hunger, etc., which every thief pleads in the case
of eatables, the magistrate was shocked at the inhumanity
of the cheesemonger, and the said cheesemonger hastened
to town, disowned in the police office the deed of his trusty
shopman, and found it prudent to give the woman five
shillings because she had been caught in robbing him ;
so the woman was sure of cheese, or money, or both, in
doing that for which in better times she would have been
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 231
pilloried or whipt at the cart's tail, and imprisoned. But
real punishment is obsolete ! '
Burdett's bill was carried by a majority of twenty-one
on May 10 ; Peel at once tendered his resignation to
Liverpool. Two days afterwards, the Duke of York made
a sensational and unconstitutional speech, in which he
attributed George m.'s madness to agitation on the Catholic
question, and avowed that he would remain by his principles
till his last moment ' whatever might be his station in life.'
In spite of a furious counter-attack by Brougham, the bill
was thrown out in the Lords by forty-eight.
In the summer Southey made a voyage in Holland,
where a festered foot kept him longer than he expected in
Leyden. He described his sojourn there, and his acquaint-
ance with the old poet Bilderdijk, in more than one letter
to Rickman. On Rickman, meanwhile, another burden
was laid, the secretaryship to the Commission for building
churches in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. He
acted in this capacity, in which he was again associated
with his friend Telford, till the final report of the Commis-
sion in 1830. As he said to Southey, he was ' cruelly
oppressed ' with work, and in the late autumn he endea-
voured to find relief in a tour in Normandy to view, among
other things, the Bayeux tapestry. Rickman 's account
of this tour has been preserved in part, and it shows with
how little ease he took relaxation. His love for precise
information led him ceaselessly to make notes and collect
measurements and tabulate details of all that he saw.
For him the real joy of indolent, restful travelling was an
impossibility. He kept a precise journal, which was tran-
scribed later and sent to Southey as a return for the latter's
' northern remembrances.' In spite of his voyage, the
next year only found Rickman more depressed, and Southey
urged him in three consecutive letters to take a rest. The
following are extracts.
' 30 March 1826.
' I hope the Easter holydays have been, in the language
232 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
of the Saints, improved by you, that is that you have
profited by them to get that refreshment which green
fields and an open sky afford after long and close attention
to business in London. How you stand such perpetual
wear and tear of intellect is to me marvellous. I have a
reputation for hard-working, but had this head of mine
been worked half as much, or half as intensely as yours, it
would have been under the sod long ere this. My bow is
never kept strung, and half its time only with a loose string,
which just serves for letting fly a fool's bolt. Idleness and
mirthfulness have done much towards keeping me in work-
ing trim.'
« 10 April 1826.
' I do not doubt that over-tension of mind has been the
primary cause of the evil, and probably some obscure
bodily derangement the proximate one. The remedy is
to be sought in change of circumstances, scene and air.
. . . Take a journey as soon as Parliament breaks up. . . .
You want change and sunshine, and open air, and motion,
and that sort of occupation which is amusement, and
which can in no other way be so surely attained as by travel-
ling in a foreign country.'
' 30 April 1826.
' . . . You have had more than your share of this world's
business. I doubt whether any other man who has worked
so hardly, has worked so continuously and so long. Our
occupations withdraw us all too much from nearer and
more lasting concourse. Time and nature — especially when
aided by any sorrows — prepare us for better influences,
and when we feel what is wanting, we seek and find it.
The clouds then disperse, and the evening is calm and
clear, even till night closes. . . .'
The result was that in June Southey, Rickman and
Henry Taylor, the poet, took a short tour in the Nether-
lands. Of this tour Rickman compiled a laborious account
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 233
which he sent as a letter to Lord Colchester, but it is such
an uninspiring document, that I shall do best service to
his memory by refraining from quotation. Southey,
during his absence, was elected M.P. for Downton by the
influence of his unknown admirer, Lord Radnor. As he
held a pension during pleasure, and, further, had no pro-
perty qualification, his election was void. Nevertheless,
his friend, Sir Robert Inglis, offered to purchase him a
landed estate yielding £300 a year, if he would consent to
sit ; but after due deliberation Southey wisely decided to
remain at Keswick, aloof from the busy world.
In February 1827, Lord Liverpool was stricken by a
fatal illness, and for nearly six weeks there was no Prime
Minister. The Cabinet was split into two parties led by
Canning and Peel respectively, and a conciliatory premier
of Liverpool's stamp was not forthcoming. Finally the
King, irritated by the refusals of Wellington and Peel,
decided to send for Canning. His short-lived ministry
was not a happy one. He was in failing health, and
all his Tory colleagues but Huskisson deserted him. The
general opinion, as may be seen in Colchester's Diary, was
that Canning would fail to form an administration : that
which he did form came in for unsparing criticism, and the
session ended in dissension and dispute. The following
letter, written by Rickman to Southey just as Parliament
met, contains an unwarranted accusation, for Burdett had
moved his Catholic relief motion before Canning took office,
and Canning had violently attacked the Master of the Rolls,
Copley, who opposed the motion.
' 3 May 1827.
£ . . . Certainly we have now plenty of explanation from
the ex-Ministers, in which they successfully repel all the
insinuations cunningly thrown out against them. The
result of the change, as far as the R. Catholic Qn. is con-
cerned, is curious. Its supporters, being in office are not
to stir in it nor to be urged to it. Mr. Brougham says, he
must be an enemy to his country who brings it into agita-
234 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
tion at 'present — during the Reign of Geo. iv., I suppose ;
and the Protestants having the dangers visibly before
them, with Mr. C. at the head of a R. Catholic Cabinet,
must now become zealous. The danger was in the state
of things which liberally permitted organized sedition in
Dublin and outrage in Ireland to the R.C. and on the
Protestants imposed silence and endurance. The R.
Catholics, I expect, will be furious when they understand
the effects of their friends being in office, and they will
find out how little Mr. C, Mr. Brougham, or Sir F. Burdett
really care about them. A vexatious opposition would
soon kill Canning, especially as he retains no Cabinet
Minister in that Ho. Commons to answer for him in his
absence. He has made a mistake we suppose in sending
Mr. Robinson (Lord Goodrich) to the Ho. Peers. . . .'
On August 8 Canning died, and the political sky seemed
to clear for a moment, for Goderich managed to form another
Ministry of compromise with Wellington, Huskisson,
Herries and Tierney. But for the moment a different
subject occupied the attention of Southey and Rickman.
A letter from Southey gives the details.
< 15 Aug. 1827.
' I am about to reprint in a separate form such of my
stray papers as are worth collecting from the Q. R. etc. . . .
Shall I print with these your remarks upon the Economical
Reformers — in the Ed. Ann. Register of 1810 — and your
paper upon the poor laws ? Certainly not, if you have any
intention of collecting your own papers, which I wish you
would do. But if you have no such intention, or contem-
plate it at an indefinite distance, then it would be well that
so much good matter should be placed where it would be
in the way of being read ; and there I should like it to be
as some testimony and memorial of an intimacy which has
— now for thirty years — contributed much to my happi-
ness, and in no slight degree to my intellectual progress.
In this case I will take care to notice that the credit of these
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 235
papers is not due to me, either specifying whose they are,
or leaving that unexplained as you may like best. . . .'
He followed this by another letter — which I do not quote
— giving particulars of the papers which he proposed to
republish. Rickman's reply was one of complete acquies-
cence. Peel's bill, to which he refers, was for the resump-
tion of cash payments for notes in 1823. This date was
anticipated by the Bank of England by two years.
• 13 September 1827.
' I am much obliged to you for your letter of 27th August
explanatory of your intended publication, of the success of
which there is good hope, everybody seeming to concur in
their approbation, I may say admiration, of your prose
works, so that collecting scattered parts together will
confer enlarged benefits. I agree with you that there is
no occasion to alter any of your opinions in the papers of
which you give me a list. Crazy politics are perhaps some-
what dormant at present, which I attribute to the cowardly
sort of compromise whereby the Parly. Opposition have
been kept comparatively quiet during the last 8 or 10 years,
the first very remarkable instance being the sudden con-
version of the Bullion Commees. of both Houses, I believe
in 1819, when Mr. Peel, the Chairman of the Ho. Commons
Commee., brought in the Bill which the Bank of England
Directors afterwards outran in their natural eagerness to
escape the imputations current against them. The Whigs
were consistent enough in hating paper currency, without
the domestic use of which in England their idol Bonaparte
might perhaps have prevailed ; but the Ministry should
not have gratified them by turning off so useful a servant
with disgrace ; and it is curious that the absurd discourage-
ment of what ought to be left to regulate itself, the exist-
ence of one pound notes, or any sort of currency which the
public like, and Avhich is so clearly proved on investigation
to have been the source of the prosperity of Scotland, that
the grand general principle of the Whigs cannot be carried
236 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
into effect there ; although if it be not good as a general
principle, it must needs be good for nothing. . . .'
Southey's Essays, Moral and Political, appeared in 1832,
but they contain no acknowledgment of Rickman's work.
I have already shown x that the essay on ' The means of im-
proving the People ' was almost entirely Rickman's work.
But Southey, in his letter of August 27, also refers to two
other passages for which he was indebted to Rickman, both
of which appeared in the Edinburgh Annual Register.
The first passage from the Annual Register, vol. ii. part 2,
pp. 288-294, is incorporated in Southey's essay on Sir Francis
Burdett's motion for Parliamentary reform. It is a spirited
diatribe against pure democracy, and against the reformers
for being purely factious when opportunities for so much
peaceful social reform lay ready to their hands. The
second passage, from the Annual Register, vol. hi. part 2,
pp. 211 sqq.,is incorporated in the essay ' On the Economical
Reformers.' It is a defence of sinecures and high salaries,
on the ground that they attract good men, and it contains
some characteristic paragraphs upon the better results of
paying civil servants by fees rather than by fixed salaries.
The germ of this argument we have already seen in one of
Rickman's letters to Poole (see p. 140). It is curious that
this very question arose in 1833 when a committee inquired
into the offices of the House of Commons. The old clerks
all concurred in their evidence that the subordinates worked
better when paid by the piece than at fixed rates. On this
point, however, Rickman's evidence was not taken. In these
essays Rickman's rugged style was polished by Southey, but
it is possible to recognise its craggy outlines in a passage,
which I have taken from Southey's third essay : —
' No good can ever be effected by appealing to evil
passions. He who would benefit his country, instead of
fostering the discontent of the public and pimping for their
suspicions, should address their generous feelings, encourage
1 See pp. 197-203.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 237
their national spirit, and exalt their hopes. The methods
of reform . . . are these. Institute parochial schools, . . .
extend your system of colonization, . . . establish the
principle of limited service in your fleets and armies, and
make the reward of service adequate and certain . . . Carry
on the war with all the might, all the soul, and all the strength
of this mighty Empire ; you will then beat down the power
of France ; and then, and not till then . . . the public
burden may be lessened.'
It is curious that Rickman refused, as he must have done,
to let Southey make the slightest public acknowledgment
of his assistance. It is also interesting to see what an
effect Rickman 's depression had upon his convictions. It
would seem from the extract below that he had come round
to a melancholy justification of the views on population
propounded by the execrated Malthus.
' 21 Nov. 1827.
' . . . I find that if I add annotations to the Poor Law
essay, they will be of hopeless character, as my reflections
have led me to a conviction, that the increase of poor rates
took place from increase of kindly feeling towards the
lower classes, which operated early in your life- time and
mine upon magistrates first, who were disposing of other
people's money. Since that the same feeling has operated
more extensively, and an imperceptible reliance on this has
caused undue increase of population. We cannot make the
poor comfortable without making them increase and multiply,
and as humanity is not likely to retrograde, poor rates will
not diminish ; perhaps we ought not to wish it. . . .'
The quarrel between Huskisson and Herries over the
appointment of a finance committee, and the dissensions
with the King over the battle of Navarino, brought the
Goderich Cabinet to an ignominious downfall by the end of
the year. On January 9, 1828, the King sent for Wellington,
and gave him office on the condition that Catholic relief
was not to be made a cabinet question. He was joined by
238 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Peel, Huskisson and some of Canning's followers, a mixture
which was destined to produce violent fermentation.
Rickman opened the year with a strong comment on
Southey's review of Hallam's History.
' 2bth January 1828.
' I have read your review of Hallam's work — miscalled
(as it seems) a History of England. He seems to display
the thorough-paced Whig to a degree of imprudence con-
venient to the adversaries of his friends. As they were in
the beginning, they are now, and I suppose ever will be,
self-seekers, the enemies of all good men in general, and
of their country in particular. I observe the Scottish in-
sertion versus William in. inconsistent with the honourable
mention of him in the former part of the Review. He was
not an immaculate character, sure enough, but considering
the now displayed baseness of that age which left materials
for other publicity, the actors thinking themselves as safe as
their ancestors, behind an impenetrable veil, considering that
all public men from 1660 to 1715 assured to themselves the
privilege of wickedness in various degrees, Clarendon him-
self not immaculate (as Agar Ellis's new book 1 proves)
and the Whig inventors of the Popish Plot the most in-
fernal villains that ever disgraced history, who are and
must ever be a national disgrace to us all — considering
such an age of public men, W. in. is always to be deemed
above par. I wish those 9 interpolated pages had been
filled by a vivid condensed exposure of the Popish Whigs,
who have never yet arrived at the general detestation they
deserve. You have good reason to be delicate as to the
name of Russell, and lucky it has been for the noble family
that they unknowingly laid out an anchor to windward at
Streatham, 2 or they would e'er now have drifted (cum
1 A Historical Inquiry respecting the character of Edward Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon.
2 Rickman refers to the fact that Southey's uncle, Dr. Hill, for whom
Southey had a great respect, was given his living of Streatham by the
Duke of Bedford.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 239
multis aliis their Whig companions) to the shoals of eternal
infamy to stick as a beacon for the benefit of future
ages/
The next letter refers to Wynn's disappointment at
being passed over by Wellington.
; 1th February 1828.
' I received yours of the 2nd : and have since tried to
learn more about Mr. Wynn's state of affairs. I must
speak rather from circumstantial symptoms than informa-
tion, but I suspect that a negotiation existed whether or
not the Speaker would take office as a Secretary of State
on the recent changes : and that he did not accede upon
difference of terms as to his peerage in that case (aiming
higher than a barony) and perhaps as to amount of retiring
pension, on quitting his present office, which he has filled
ten years. While it was supposed he would accept the
terms offered, I think it likely that the new Administra-
tion destined the Speakership for Mr. Wynn, who could
not be retained at the E. India Board on account of Lord
Melville not returning to the Admiralty.
' At present I collect that the Speaker has no thought of
quitting his office, unless perchance the D. of Wellington
should see cause for quitting his present unnatural office
and thereupon Mr. Peel should become the declared Premier,
(and this is not beyond speculation), in which case the
Speaker (his intimate friend) might make his own terms,
or otherwise arrange matters. At present this cannot be
calculated upon, and Mr. Wynn is applying for one of the
retiring pensions (£3000 per annum) as a Cabinet Minister
of above 3 years standing, pensions created by the Act for
abolition of sinecures, and the allowed number is not yet
filled up. Lord Goodriche applies on behalf of Mr. Wynn,
but I think the D. of Wellington will not second him, as
not only Mr. Wynn was become an efficacious friend of
Canning's, but also by some miscalculation connected his
official existence with that of Lord Lansdowne, an over-
240 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
rated Whig. Nobody seems to feel satisfied of the stability
of the present Government : the affair of Navarino, which
of course delights the Liberals, and the Whitehall Window
Question, whether General Burton is really to go as Governor
to Canada, hanging up all surmise in suspense. Deus
aliquis viderit / ' . . .
Wellington was embarrassed early in the year by a
quarrel with Huskisson, and by the strong dissent of the
Whigs from his condemnation of Codrington's action at
Navarino. His first reverse was the success of Lord John
Russell in carrying his bill for the repeal of the Test and
Corporation Acts, and in May Huskisson and the other
Canningites resigned on the question of the disfranchised
borough of East Retford. The question of Catholic relief
had not been prominent during the short administrations of
Canning and Goderich, but after the success of Lord John
Russell another motion on the subject was brought forward
by Burdett, which was carried by a majority of six. Then
all men were electrified by the Clare election. Vesey Fitz-
gerald, who became president of the Board of Trade on
Grant's resignation, offered himself for re-election at Clare.
He was a popular landlord, and held to be certain of support
by the other landlords and the forty-shilling freeholders.
O'Connell amazed the political world by standing against
him. The forty-shilling freeholders deserted the landlord
for the priest in a body, and the Catholic champion
O'Connell was elected. The Clare election made Catholic
relief inevitable. We now know that Peel shortly afterwards
made up his mind to give way, because in his view civil war
was the only alternative. But the public at large knew
nothing of the impending volte-face of the Tory leader ;
they were chiefly pre-occupied with the fresh proof of the
shocking state of affairs in Ireland. Thus on Nov. 12
Rickman wrote to Southey : —
' To be sure absenteeism is a crying evil, but if you ask
one of those to reside in his country on his estate, the answer
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 241
always is, he would rather lose it. So that the turbulence
of the people drives away the landlords, and the absence
of these reacts upon the barbarism of the Irish. An un-
pleasant reciprocity, but inevitable until this Island shall
have been under water for half an hour. You may very
well interpolate a pamphlet into your R.C. article if Murray
thinks fit — and Protestant ears are more open than they
were. Plunkett's insidious law, and O'Connell's impudence
have caused a revulsion, so that things are in a much
better state than if neither one or the other had existed :
especially considering that nothing but Protestant spirit
was left for our defence, Lord P. [Plunket] having R.
Catholicized the army, which at a distance in Lancashire,
etc., overawes what it could not resist in contact.
' I think political economists are dying a natural death,
and I am collecting poor law matter, though without any
particular encouragement. I have been thinking that
there is a good room for a new Laputa, where the said p.
economists might have a mansion with those who have
disturbed the nation with new weights and measures such
as are a glorious defiance of utility — the North Pole
expeditions, Dr. Gall and Spurtzeim * would be there, and
other worthies, if one turned one's mind to recollections of
that kind.
' The Govt, are very much like their predecessors, without
strong intentions of any kind, who would yield to the R.C.
if the Protestants had not stirred. So the Turks seem to
profit and improve from the attack made by Russia ;
nothing else could have done so much for them. Their
case is whimsically like that of the Irish Protestants.
Lethargy at an end with both. . . .
' W. C. R. is to go to Ch. Ch. Oxford and to take orders,
if he alter not his mind. He is of a quiet spirit and fit for
a quiet profession. . . .'
Southey was engaged in writing a Quarterly article against
1 Dr. Gall and Dr. Spurzeim were the founders of the science of phren-
ology.
Q
242 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
the Catholic claims, for which Rickman had sent him one
or two long letters full of historical information. He
received the sum of £150 for the essay, £50 more than usual.
Rickman had also been meditating an attack on the economic
school of Macculloch, the ' egregious absurdities ' of whom,
wrote Southey, ' no man is so capable of demolishing as
yourself.' The final paragraph in the above letter is inter-
esting, considering his determination, expressed in his
will, that his son should not enter the Church. Southey,
in his answer, rejoiced that Rickman's son, whom he always
called the ' charioteer ' from his fondness for driving, had
the intention of taking orders.
< 24 Nov. 1828.
'I am glad that my young-old friend the charioteer is
inclined to a profession which seems to me of all others
that in which a well-minded man will find most reason to
be satisfied with his choice. I know not any person who
can or ought to be happier than a clergyman who is not
dependent on his profession for a maintenance, and is
therefore exempt from all anxieties about preferment, and
may refuse to fix himself in an unhealthy spot or a place
disagreeable to him on any other account. That the
Ch. of England will have its existence set upon the die
in our children's time I think is but too probable : but if
it be so, his condition will not be the worse for belonging
to it.'
Rickman ended the year by writing the obituary of his
old friend Luke Hansard, whom he had defended earlier in
the year before a committee of the House. His notice
appeared in the Gentleman 's Magazine for December. His
praise is perhaps conventionally expressed, but it is a
sincere tribute of undisguised friendship and admiration.
After bringing the strongest influence to bear on the
King, Peel and Wellington succeeded in wringing his consent
to the introduction of a measure of Catholic relief. The
King's Speech contained some indications of such a course,
and Peel resigned his seat for Oxford University. He
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 243
failed to secure re-election, and was subsequently returned
for Westbury. On March 5 he moved a resolution in favour
of Catholic relief in a great speech. Rickman wrote on
that night to Southey.
' 5 March 1829.
' A bright day precedes a stormy evening ! Mr. Peel
however does not venture to-day further than a resolution
similar to the K.'s Speech, in general terms. However
he is to tell us what our masters intend ; against which I
expect both parties will protest to-day, and vote hereafter.
There is a subdolous scheme to introduce the concession
in one Bill, the restrictions in another ; so that the first
might pass without the last. A sad mishap, would say
Mr. Peel and Co. ! But we are not quite at their mercy ;
the Ho: Lords we know are not so recreant as to be
managed thus. Yet perhaps it may be tried. . . . Your
petition was presented yesterday, and was a good text for
Sir R. H. Inglis to descant upon, in denying the universal
stupidity and un argumentative obstinacy of all the Anti-
Caths., largely insisted on by that respectable orator, Sir
J. Mackintosh.'
This letter was soon followed by another.
' 9 March 1829.
' The demons, after three days intestine war, have agreed
to throw over the 40s. men, 1 to which abandonment the
Opps. and R. Caths. could have no real objection ; their
vows and promises to defend these wretched slaves in a
privilege bootless to the possessor kicking the beam, the
D. of W. being imperative. So I suppose the confederates
will go on swimmingly, though the Protestants numbered
about 30 on the divn. beyond expectation, and make a
better fight than was expected of them. I have begun . . .
a sketch of Irish history from the flood to 1829 ; Celts,
Kimbers, and Gaels (Gauls) (the last the generic name)
1 The disfranchisement of the 40s. freeholders was the price paid by
O'Connell for Catholic relief.
244 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
1 take to be incapable of mutual government, I mean by-
juries etc. ; a slave race who must be governed by absolute
power, and better for them if not by any of their own
breed. So I arrive at the fitness of military law in Erin,
because no other law can really exist there. An unhappy
experiment of James I., who was No. 1 of the Liberals in
this particular, gave them juries, and the massacre of 1640,
Cromwell's just severity, the war of 1688-90, all failed to
take away that misapplied privilege, because they could
not distinguish the natives from the new settlers at these
times of just severity.
' P.S. — Mr. Peel seems surprised that every body does not
turn with him, specially that his father says he will give him
no more than the £12,000 a year he has settled on him ;
and his wife is said to adhere to the opinions which she
learned from the arguments of the said R. P. forgotten only
by himself. Yes, his is a mere placekeeping affair ; the D.
of W. having Huskisson in his pocket, if he yielded not.'
The Catholic Relief Bill passed the House of Commons
by nearly two hundred, and on April 4, when Rickman
again wrote, it passed second reading in the Lords by a
hundred and five.
' 4th April 1829.
' . . . The Lords are debating a third night upon the
R. Cath. Bill. They are as bad as the Commons in yielding
to undue influence, and the business of the Bps. moves one's
bile. Yet when the first of their apostasy is seen, they
will not be unfrocked.
' I reconcile myself well with the experiment of the R.
Cath. Bill, thanking God it is not of my trying, yet not
sorry it should be tried at the peril of those base conspirators,
who have made concession almost necessary — or at least the
alternative with civil war — by encouraging the R. Cath.
and discouraging the Protestants in Ireland, recruiting
ready made rebels into the army, etc. If the experiment
fails, as I expect, may we not hope to see Liberalism
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 245
repudiated even in our time ? And is that hope worth
nothing ? The contradictory arguments of the conspirators
as to the no danger and the great danger of these R. Caths.
is worthy of a bad cause, which in point of argument was
never so low as this year. And the hero of Waterloo to
profess that he yielded from dread of a bugbear, of a
ragged mob of his countrymen. I say again the R. Caths.
look to ulterior objects — so do I with pleasure. The
Protestants will be on their guard, and put them down.'
I quote two other comments by Rickman on the session
of 1829.
' 11th June 1829.
' . . . The Session of Parlt. is arrived at termination of
business, but the Prorogation comes not, under colour of
some London Bridge question in the Ho. Lords. In fact
the Protestants will not vote with Peel, and the Opps.
laugh at the forlorn fate of their apostate, who has thus
served 6 months in office dearly. As the result, Govt,
cannot command 100 votes in the Ho. Commons (even in a
Buckingham Palace question) and the D. of Wellington
seems to hope to make a patch-work Ministry by concil-
iating some of the Whigs, and a few great families. But
patch-work never yet answered well, and the Cabinet
maker will probably find his work crack upon the first
wear and tear, dissolve the Parlt. and try a Tory
Administration hereafter. This is the future ; at present,
we suppose Parlt. is not prorogued, for the sake of new
writs upon promotion of those who are expected now to
have foot in stirrup. . . .'
• 7 July 1829.
' . . . I wish we had a new Secretary for the Home
Department ... for besides Peel's imbecil (sic) concession
and Liberality habits, his grandeur is become such that
no man (not a slave) can work with him or for him ; and no
other Cabinet Minister cares to encroach upon the province
of the Leader (God help us) of the Ho. Comm. . . /
246 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
The two letters with which I close this chapter are con-
cerned chiefly with a co-operative scheme which was
started at Brighton, and in which Southey's friend Gooch
and Southey himself contrived to interest Rickman very
strongly. He found on visiting the headquarters that it
was not a satisfactory venture, but his letters show that
his views on social reforms, if conservative, were not
unenlightened.
' 14 July 1829.
c I thank you for your intelligence de Cooperatoribus
and propose to visit them. . . . Labour in common produces
idleness in all, or injustice to the industrious, which they
will not tolerate. But under modifications, whereby
individual labour is rewarded (especially by task work)
I think the co-partnership contrivance not impossible,
and it cannot but be beneficial, if it open such prospect
as to encourage thrift and accumulation among the
numerous classes of society. I have no doubt the world
might become a place comfortable for all, if (as you will
observe) the good would be as active and zealous as the
bad. At present, for lack of proper direction, efforts to
do good much oftener do evil. Witness the lady's bazaar
and sundry — id genus — exuberances of blundering bene-
volence. If I composed Canons of Benevolence, they would
appear repulsive and severe. The down-hill path of alms-
giving and patronage is pleasant to the individuals who
give and who receive, cruelly mischievous to the com-
munity in an enlarged view of consequences. Now the
same mind which disposes to kindness and benevolence
will not endure discipline and contradiction in what seems
laudable zeal, and therefore I think it is that evil, which is
always a down-hill path (patet janua Ditis), prevails so fear-
fully. However if I could first rectify the administration
of the poor law?, in which the wasteful expense is not in
my opinion the greatest part of the evil, I should look
afield for further work.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 247
' Miss Lamb is said to be convalescent ; p. interim he
is here visiting me and enjoys himself well.'
Those to whom all Lamb's goings and comings are of
interest will see that the last paragraph supplies a fact,
which was hitherto unknown. The Lambs were now at
Enfield, and on May 3rd Mary was taken ill, and did not
return home till the end of September. Lamb's loneliness
is described in a very pathetic letter written on July 25 x to
Bernard Barton, in which he says that he spent ten days
of his loneliness ' at a sort of a friend's house, but it was
large and straggling — one of the individuals of my old
long knot of friends, card-players, pleasant companions —
that have tumbled to pieces into dust and other things.'
So far from ' enjoying himself well ' Lamb was in the last
stage of depression. London, empty of his old friends,
was not what it was, and it is to be feared that Rickman,
with his political preoccupations, was changed too. Never-
theless, it is interesting to know who was Lamb's friend of
those ten days.
Southey in his reply sent a message to Lamb : —
' Remember me most kindly to Lamb, and tell him that
the Every Day and Table Books have given me a great
liking for his friend Hone, whom I would shake hands
with heartily if he came in my way, or lay in mine.'
Co-operation and politics fill the last letter.
■ 25 Sept. 1829.
' . . . He who seeks to enter into a cooperation circle,
must be, or must mean to become, a thrifty character with
all the due appendages of respectability in his station of
life : because the new punishment of expulsion which he
thus creates against his future misconduct will weigh upon
his mind constantly — in time to the creation of propriety
in all his behaviour. . . . Cooperation would also produce
1 Lucas, WorJcs of G. and M. Lamb, vol. vii. p. 813.
248 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
the same sort of benefit as arises (without being generally
perceived) in every large family of children, wherein the
natural watchfulness of all for the benefit of each counter-
balances the seeming difficulty in providing for many. . . .
The frequent meetings of cooperators would soon lead to
such rapid intelligence of openings for the entrance into
life of suitable aspirants, as would preclude those who
chuse to live in the dark corners of the map from equal
chance : whereupon they would become worthy candidates
for admission, and universal society would rely upon good
behaviour. And this is a good large view of benefit, because
we should no longer be annoyed by frequent crime. . . .
Another evil we might abolish, if the lower orders in general
had recourse to ready money payment — the scandalous
frauds resulting from the Insolvent Debtors' Court. . . .
' I go to town for the Prorogation of 15th Oct. : as yet no
govt, exists, and I expect that the Whigs will force the
D. of W. to their terms of sharing very largely in the power
he loves to keep to himself. Of the Tory party he can find
no representatives with whom to negotiate ; for who
can answer for another that the conspiracy whereby the
R. Catholic question was carried shall be forgiven, that the
betrayer will not again betray ? I send you a curious
proof of the state of things in placable Ireland. The R.C.'s
are disarming the Protestants, and thereby arming them-
selves in the South ; and as they cannot do this in Ulster,
they modestly petition Govt, to disarm the Protestants
there for them. . . .'
I omit a very long letter written in October, which is a
summary of all Irish history for Southey's benefit. By the
end of 1829 the first political crisis which the two friends
had so long dreaded was over. Worse was to come. But
the Reform Bill needs a separate chapter.
CHAPTER VIII
1830-1832
Parliamentary reform — Letters purely political — Macaulay's maiden
speech — Rickman the political philosopher — Calls Southey to arms —
' Monarchy or Democracy ' — The projected Colloquies — Rickman's
outline — Introduction of the Reform Bill — Rickman on the debate —
Dissolution — The second Bill — An all-night sitting — O'Connell's
Irish devils — Murray and the Colloquies — The third Bill — Wellington's
failure to form a ministry — The Bill passes — Murray and Spottiswoode
impede the Colloquies — Rickman wishes to retire.
From 1830 till the passing of the first Reform Bill the
interest of the Rickman and Southey correspondence is
entirely political, and Rickman's letters during that period
seem to me to be peculiarly interesting. The Tory Lord
Colchester died in 1829, and the extant memoirs of the time,
with the exception of Croker's, are all more or less Whig.
Rickman's uncompromising accounts of the stormy sessions,
and of the scenes which he himself witnessed, supply more,
perhaps, than Colchester could have given us — the reflections
of an intelligent, if bigoted, Tory upon the Reform move-
ment, of which he did not know the inner political workings.
I, therefore, only make a passing reference here to less
important topics that appear in the letters — Rickman's
struggle with the Macculloch school of political economists
on the occasion of the census of 1831, his article on co-
operation for the Brighton Co-operator, Telford's building
of the Clifton suspension bridge, the holiday in 1830 spent in
examining harbours with Telford, the education of Southey 's
nephew, and a second long visit of Bertha Southey. Reform
and the projected Colloquies, of which further mention
will be made, take up the whole field of vision.
249
250 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
The movement for Parliamentary reform had been in
existence throughout Rickman's life, though it had received
a severe check from the outbreak of the French Revolution.
During the war against France there was a strong reaction
among the governing classes against reform, and the frenzied
outpourings of such men as Hunt, Cobbett and Burdett,
and the riots of Spa Fields and Peterloo, however much
they may have educated public opinion, only convinced the
governing classes that reform meant revolution. With
the advent of Canning and Lord John Russell, the agitation
took a calmer tone. In 1821 Lord John Russell secured
the disfranchisement of Grampound, and in 1827 East
Retford and Penryn suffered the same fate. The Tories
were apt to ascribe the decrease of violent agitation to a
general loss of interest in the cause, but in fact the body
of quiet conviction was growing more and more overwhelm-
ing. By the beginning of 1830 the air was thoroughly
charged : the great time was felt to be at hand by the
reformers, while the Tories were uneasy and painfully aware
of the weakness of Wellington's Government. Rickman's
letters up till the dissolution of Parliament in June give a
very good indication of the Tory nervousness. Sou they
and he, sturdy Britons both, felt that a last struggle must
be made, and it was Rickman who first suggested to Southey
that he should enter the field in defence of law and order.
The challenge was accepted with alacrity, but it was not
till later that the plan took shape.
A passage from a long letter of Rickman's on co-operation
early in the year may be taken as a preliminary bugle call.
' Jan. 11, 1830.
' . . . The D. of W. seems to be trying a new system of
govt, by means of the nominees of the peers in the Ho.
Comm., in which he will have so little success, I guess, as
in attempting a military govt, at once. It may issue indeed
in universal outcry for reform of Parlt. and this cause a
revolution, which if it happen at all will be on the democrat
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 251
side entirely. In all dangers however let us keep a cheerful
heart and a good countenance. . . .'
Parliament met on February 4, but the session was
unimportant, except to display Wellington's weakness.
Political unions in favour of reform were springing up all
over the country, and several reform motions were intro-
duced, though defeated, in the House. On April 15 the
King's illness was known ; on June 26 he died, and
Parliament was prorogued on July 23 by William iv. in
person. Rickman's letters during the session need little
comment.
'Monday Evening, 29^ March 1830.
' We have spent much time here in long debates, and
have arrived at nothing useful or agreeable. The Govt,
began the session knowing themselves to be outnumbered,
and have been steering their narrow course sometimes
buffetted, often yielding, and the other day beaten. Of
course the Whigs and Radicals profit by this, and few days
pass without some concession so that the Govt, must soon
to cease to govern by influence, and we shall have to choose
between arbitrary power, and democracy. I do not like
either, but the first rather better of the twain. The Admini-
stration are trying to tide it over the session, and will then
I suppose try their luck with a new Parliament. But I
think they will not fare much better than now, as trenchant
arguments are not admissable, nor anything beyond the
worn out armour of sham defence, . . . nor is it easy to go
deeper, to utter any thing adverse to mobbish prejudices
being impossible as matters stand here. I daresay we shall
have reform of Parlt. triumphant in a twelvemonth. I
do not know whether you could invent any daring truth-
telling vehicle. Otherwise the prophesies which occur here
every evening as to the growing power of 'public opinion
will doubtless produce their own accomplishment. I assure
you I see all persons hampered in the web of Liberality
which has now spread so many cords, that no argument
252 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
can be pursued to utterance without being stopped by
prudence, which is become obviously necessary to prevent
being stopped by clamour and hooting. The nonsense
of free trade and reciprocity is still unchecked, though it
wants nothing to its overthrow than pursuing the argu-
ment of selfishness, every man taking care of his own interest,
whereby the interest of all is pursued, and which by no
means could be obtained by the care of all exerted in behalf
of individuals. And if you can imagine a society of twenty
men in which they very sensibly attend to their own
interest and that of their families and the twentieth thinks
only of reciprocity, there would be little doubt that the
last would be ruined, and that without the least blame to
the rest. The sooner ruined indeed if they played the
rogue, but ruined he must be by their vigilance opposed
to his Liberality and attention to the interest of all. This
is the true picture of a State pursuing the phantom of free
trade.
' Again as affecting the internal trade (our mutual
dealings — about 6 times as important as foreign dealings)
the folly and mismanagement is not less. The story of
the Belly and Members ought to be retold. The free
trade people set each vocation against some other. The
abolition of the corn law (already ruinously weakened) is
still urged and no man could here venture to suggest that
manufacturers without customers could not prosper. I
inclose you a whimsical view of their absurdity, and I
think there are half a dozen other absurdities of the same
kind, all sacred and intangible, all surrounded by a halo
of sanctity, of beastly error in the mantle of philosophy. I
am sick of it, and I shall rebel when I have time and encour-
agement — and of time I shall have more henceforth, having
got quit of the Hd. Roads and Cain. Canal by which I was
oppressed. Of another matter. The other day a Commn.
was appointed on the state of the Irish Poor, I think intend-
ing an investigation of the fitness of poor rates in Ireland.
It chanced I fell into conversation with Spring-Rice (their
Chairman) who said they must make a great effort in
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 253
Ireland at agricultural improvemt., but could not without
advance granted by the Government. This seems singu-
larly impudent expectation in the sister nation which pays
no taxes, and I said, I thought they ought to do it on their
own resources, if they were in earnest. He, who is courteous,
asked How ? I told him that during some long speech
evening I could write evidence for his Commn., and I have
done so, much in the argument of taxing the land for its
own improvemt., as I think I wrote in the vacation to you ;
but more circumstantially, as on a single unmixed subject.
I gave him this, which he took as a God-send at a dead lift,
and says he has sent it to the printer for the edification of
his Commn. ; If I get a copy, I will send it you, and if it
does nothing else, I think it will hinder any quacking in a
matter very important, and only to be rationally dealt with
in heavy armour.
' The Whigs, certainly the Whiglings, expect office forth-
with and individuals have offered their services to the
D. of W., but what he will do I know not. He likes power
but employs inefficient instruments, people who neither
bring credit to his Govt, nor votes. Yet we are without
any hope of change for the better, so distracted are politics
and party, and the mob will break in unless repelled by
police men and bayonets. Thus you have the fruit of a
few long speeches. Sir James Graham speaks very elo-
quently but always in the wrong.'
The two following extracts — the first from Southey, the
second from Rickman — allude to Macaulay's maiden speech
which was made on Apri 1 5 for the second reading of
Grant's bill for the remission of Jewish disabilities. Rick-
man's allusion to Sierra Leone is explained by Zachary
Macaulay's having been the first governor of Sierra Leone,
which was founded by Wilberforce and others for liberated
slaves. On leaving Sierra Leone, Zachary Macaulay set
up as an Africa merchant, in which business the connexion
with Sierra Leone was doubtless of considerable benefit.
254 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
1 Ap. 13, 1830.
' . . . You have a young cockatrice in Bab Macaulay,
who is in league with the sinners by principle (if the abnega-
tion of all on which good principles can rest may be so
called) and with the Saints by blood. . . .'
' Ap. 20, 1830.
' . . . Young Mr. Macaulay threw off with a good specimen
speech, rather too epigrammatic I thought for good taste,
but shewing ability and dexterity of thought. I heard of
the admixture of saint and sinner in him. The Sierra Leone
virtual monopoly accounts for the first, native taste and
appetite, I suppose, for the second half of his character. . . .'
The next letter is a very interesting clue to the working
of Rickman's mind.
' 19th April 1830.
' . . . We have had more confinement in the Dom.
Comm. than I ever remember before Easter, and I thought
it no bad set off, to pass rapidly through the air during the
Easter week. Therefore putting post horses to an open
four wheeled carriage, I conveyed our young ladies to
Silchester, Abury, Stonehenge, Sarum, Winchester, ex-
pounding as I went partly with the aid of the " Celtic
Druids " — the title of the book above-mentioned — and as
I paid the author with written observations, you shall
have the benefit of them when copied.
' Sitting on the hinder seat alone during 262 miles, per-
haps 26 hours of journey, I hummed my tunes and thought
over affairs general and particular, in my constrained leisure,
and arrived at strong conclusions in both kinds, so that I
do not think your Colloquies x of trenchant form enough to
meet the foe, who unless met steadily front to front will
demolish the English form of Government in the course of
the next Parliament, in 5 or 6 years. At what time the
1 i.e. the Colloquies with Sir T. More (1829).
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 255
English Constitution was in its safest state, best balanced
I mean between despotism and democracy, I cannot decide,
but conjecture it already to have inclined to the latter evil
when the personal character of Geo. m. was requisite to
turn out Carlo Khan 1 and his Indian Bill. Pitt's char-
acter, or rather that of his bolder prompter R. Dundas,
afterwards attained a decided preponderance on the same
side, and the grand war carried us on by the necessity of
events till it was closed at Waterloo ; nor did we feel the
increase of democracy in or out of Parliament till the troops
returned home from Flanders occupation, and were dis-
banded not very long before our trip to Scotland. Then
came the influence of Hunt, the field of Peterloo, and the
outrageous lies about it, indicating the virulent appetite
which could swallow and propagate them.
' In fact we began to feel the want of Geo. in. before he
died, and in that event the freaks of Q. Caroline n. shewed
us what a want of ballast we had experienced. The mobo-
cracy disgraced themselves (even that became possible) by
the attack of foreign witnesses at Dover and induced the
necessity of guarding them by land and by water in their
Cotton Garden residence. The Whig aristocracy disgraced
themselves (which was possible enough, but not probable)
in taking part with a woman whom they beyond all others
had publicly represented, (justly indeed), as a notorious
Messalina on the Continent, who poisoned Ompteda at
Rome, and hired assassination for Col. Ward, though un-
successfully. Even this woman, whom in charity we must
deem insane, shook the throne as soon as it was unworthily
occupied, and from that time to this the Signa labentis
Imperii have increased upon us shadily and fearfully ; the
dark clouds rising from every point of the horizon.
' It is said, but I do not believe the alledged extent of the
change, that offices compatible with a seat in Parliament
have decreased in about 100 years (the beginning of Geo. n.)
from 250 to 50. If the first of these numbers was tolerable
and convenient long after the boasted Revolution, the last
1 Fox.
256 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
is defective to the amount of another revolution : and it
really is so, the zeal of attack rendering the Oppositions
in Parlt. much better disciplined troops than the Governt.
party, which is weakened in this respect by the Prime
Ministers, Liverpool and now Wellington being in the Ho.
Peers, and not personally suffering from the unceremonious
inattention of their Ho. Common friends, who unless the
enemy strike at the throat (a rare imprudence) prefer a
dinner party or the Opera to a debate and division. Canning
was still worse, his frequent gout and his constant personal
impatience granting all minor points rather than endure a
late debate, in fact buying off by repeated commissions
and personal gratifications the attacks which ought to have
been otherwise resisted (as our Saxon ancestors paid Dane-
geld, till in natural process a Dane became their king).
This same Canning had long been (for the purposes of his
own boundless ambition) leader of the defection which pre-
ferred R. Catholic emancipation to all other political motives ;
and the Whig Radicals, wise in their generation, understood
the benefit of having half the man, for making the Church,
which is or was, half the support of the State.
' The D. of W. with little more of the statesman than a
vulgar appetite for power, succeeds the intriguer Canning,
who in his year eased himself of a financial statement by
borrowing 7 or 8 Millions upon the promise of a Finance
Commee. in the next Session. So the D. of W. in his year
eased himself of Opposition by conceding the R.C. question
(for I do not believe in any higher or other motive), and
upon the strength of this meritorious sacrifice relied on the
steady support of the Whig Radicals for how long a time I
know not. But that he did so, is proved by the otherwise
incredible spectacle of an Administration meeting Parlia
ment with the weakest party of three in the Ho. Commons ;
and a flying squadron (Huskisson and Co.) who hate the
minister that discarded them when they tried the experi-
ment of a Canning intrigue upon him.
* And what a spectacle have we seen ! Saved on the
second night of the session by the aid of Joseph Hume & Co.,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 257
yielding many points of dangerous importance since, to
avoid defeat ; saved when Paulet Thompson 1 aimed at
the throat, at the management of the Exchequer, saved
beyond their hopes by the Bruns wickers 2 relenting for the
sake of their country, and coming down in a phalanx of 50,
which again saved the Administration. Still more degrad-
ing sight, that the Govt, party coming to a Vote with the
avowed expectation of beating the Jews 2 to 1, were beaten
by a sedulous Jew canvas of M.P.s. Thus it is plain that
the Ministry are actually afraid to enquire which way any
of their supposed friends intends to vote ; and so much
are the patrons of boroughs and their nominees at variance
that 100 M.P.s are known to have been in town on a night
of pressure and importance, but have absented themselves
from the House.
' Of course the Mob cry of distress, economy, unsparing
retrenchment, relief from taxation etc. flourishes under
such incoherent semblance of authority, and the monarchy
of England is weakened every day by the abolition of offices
high and low, which will soon leave it without a prop.
Already a motion is announced for the abolition of the office
of lord lieutenant of Ireland, and the same arguments which
have already prevailed as to lower offices, and will be re-
peated on that occasion, are equally valid against the office
of kings — now shorn of its consistent defenders by their
disgust at the virtual contempt of all public principle in
the R. Cath. concession which thus has produced evil
which seems unremediable, and I am persuaded is so, unless
good men rally for their own sakes for steady defence for
what is left ; which indeed I do not think can be merely
defended, the vantage ground must be regained, or sordid
turbulent democracy will not fail to overwhelm us with
vulgar commonplace arguments which from non-resist-
ance, have assumed the force of axioms of accredited truth,
supported of course by the spirit of the times, the march of
1 Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham and Governor-General of
Canada.
2 The anti-Catholic party.
R
258 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
intellect, liberal opinions ; and the schoolmaster whom
Mr. Brougham has put in motion.'
On May 4 Rickman begins by lamenting the revolutionary
tendency of the times, and he continues : —
' . . . This has come to pass from the R.C. Relief Bill,
and more I think from the manner than the matter of what
was very bad in itself ; but what is stratagem in warfare,
is treachery in legislation, and all M.P.s who think so,
have seceded from support of Government, many of them
venture active opposition, though in doing so they join
with the inveterate revolutionists, who cannot be kept in
check, unless the steady part of the House vote with the
Govt, on all dangerous questions. Properly speaking, an
attempt to govern without the support of a decided majority
of the Ho. Commons is unconstitutional, if not revolu-
tionary, and shows a degree of ignorance, or of dangerous
intention in the D. of W. which is tremendous in contem-
plation. It is indeed his ignorance in larger proportion
than his ambition, and of course he and his colleagues are
in a ridiculous condition, kicked and cuffed on all questions,
giving way whenever the Whig-Radicals, or the Bruns-
wickers do not find motive to help them. . . . Pitiable it is to
witness their weakness ; last evening they reckoned upon
the K's illness to carry a Windsor vote, but they reckoned
erroneously, and had to make shameful retreat. But the
same state of things which produced this, which in itself
imports little, produces also a clear prospect of reform of
Parliament in the next session ; this appearing a less evil
to many good men than a faithless Govt., which beyond
doubt is capable of anything for self-preservation. If the
D. of W. were not crest-fallen from his discovery of feeble-
ness in his expected strength (for he had actually counted
on gratitude in the R.Cs. and the Opps.) he would e'er now
have undertaken to regulate Church property, and he carries
on official reform for the sake of vulgar applause of revolu-
tionists and fools in a manner equally demonstrative of
unfeeling selfishness, as of ignorance that the influence of
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 259
the executive Govt, is already so low, that military Govt,
or democratic anarchy cannot but ensue unless some sound
defence is built behind the breach.
' This can only be done by throwing off all disguise, all
cant ; by allowing that all men being alike and none
perfect, our kind of Government can only subsist on influ-
ence : that unless a thorough conviction of this, and an
open avowal of it can be produced, false defences founded
on what does not exist (absolute purity) must fail ; and
the scum of mankind will take possession of power instead
of those who though they have not realised absolute purity
have arrived at a higher grade of morality than ever
occurred before in the history of the world. I question
indeed, whether the power of wickedness, of profligacy,
arising from no conscience and no responsibility (you
understand this well) can be resisted, unless we openly
distinguish public from private affairs, and confine to the
latter the strict rule of never doing evil that good may come ;
meaning by the evil (what Democrats declaim against)
influence on the conduct of the powerful, as far as to be
sure of their support of the existing system of Government,
without which it becomes and must remain matter of
dangerous uncertainty, how long any Government will
endure. For instance ; if the K. dies, there will be no
need to move in Parliament, that a K. is an unnecessary
officer of the State ; but a Democrat might gravely say,
That a million a year to maintain an unseen monarch in
his drives to Virginia Water and the cottage in Windsor
Park, is sadly mispent, and £100,000 a year will be fitter
allowance : and this would abolish the Civil List revenue,
and therein monarchy, in the course of 7 years.
' I aim at proving to you (in desultory manner) that it is
fit you should shew yourself in the field ; and I think it
would be far from creating deficiency in your ways and
means, if you dedicate yourself to this for the next six
months, so as to produce an 8 V0 at Christmas. I can give
you infinite matter, if I am enabled unseen to do so ; but
intimate news of essentials, and knowledge of the motives
260 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and movements of the actors and the public stage of politics
and Parliament, is indispensable, and you must seem to
acquire this yourself at some sacrifice : that is ; you must
undergo the trouble of attending a few debates in the Ho.
Commons, and spending some time in London intercourse,
to induce a probability of your knowing aliunde all I know,
and of your introducing from your so acquired stores all
the commonplaces I can produce on the effects of
Parliamentary reform, on the free trade folly, and on the
frame of human society, all on the same principle of
developing the naked truth and exposing vividly, but
civilly, all the vulgar mistakes fearfully current, as being
in their consequences incompatible with justice and social
happiness. Finally, for all good purposes, you must call
for your portmanteau, put yourself in the coach, and visit
us here for a month at least before Parlt. separates ; say
you must come in the middle of May, and dedicate yourself,
R. S., to Parly, observations, with my comments there-
upon. Are not any of your young ladies in full state of age
and acquirement, that you could bring one with you as a
half-feint of motive for coming hither, and without pre-
venting you from dedicating your time peremptorily to
what you please ?
' Consider my large scheme and perpend whether you
ought not to enable yourself to put into good form your
own thoughts, and my practical views of men, causes, and
consequences. The fertility of the subject is such that
selection, not matter, will be the difficulty.
' My time is exhausted, my paper full. Farewell.'
Southey expressed his readiness to come to London in
June to gain Parliamentary experience. But owing to the
King's illness and death, and the prorogation, he did not
pay the visit till the end of October. Rickman continued
to furnish him with food for thought.
1 12 May 1830.
' The impending Popn. Act for 1831 now in Parliament
has let loose upon me several of the Pol. Oeconts. besides
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 261
Macculloch ; their habitual insolence, (so habitual that they
manifestly are unconscious of it) is amusing, but it has
cost me 3 or 4 days hard work, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
(all the glimpse of leisure in a week) to fight them by antici-
pation ; for if once they give an opinion, judge whether I
should be able, unaided by any, to keep their nonsense out
of the act. This task, and not reaching home till daylight,
confuses me somewhat, but I think I wrote a few words to
you on Monday. The K. is in a pitiable state, dying in
asthmatic and spasmodic misery. W. iv. will continue the
Ministry, sub modo, which modus, when fully displayed,
will make them resign. Then Lord Holland, joined by
Huskisson and Co. will come in. A sincere Whig, and a
free trade intriguer. Pretty work we shall have ; two or
three changes, new Parliament and p. interim monarchy
abolished ; or perhaps only an euthanasia. You must
attend Parliament enough to render it uncertain whether
I communicate out of school or not. We expect dissolution
about the 25th May, say, the end of the month ; 50 days
go deep into July — but when Parliament meets, you must
be summoned to your duty of inspection.'
' Sunday, 23rd May 1830.
' . . . Now for our affair, the Ministry are feebler and
feebler ; and curiously enough (considering your recent
mention of Bain's limit for libel) this very week Lord
Morpeth, a promising Whigling, having given notice of
motion for repealing the law which you know inflicts banish-
ment for the second offence, was stopped last Tuesday
from doing so — And how ? By Mr. Atty. Genl. under-
taking to do it himself ; and this mean cowardly insolent
fellow has done so accordingly. You shall have a printed
copy of this bill in a day or two. You knew Scarlet[t]
was the tool of the D. of W. in two or three imprudent
prosecutions just before Parliament met, when the D.
thought himself inexpugnable and the Radicals his friends,
and this is Scarlet[t]'s peace offering, in atonement for
himself and the Duke, whose crest is fallen ; his ignorance
262 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
of parties and men, and things not military is marvellous,
yet I believe it will be expedient to apologise for his mis-
deeds, and support him, or he will doubtless turn democrat
first and tyrant afterwards. We will consider this at
leisure ; which leisure I think will soon occur. For I make
up my mind now that the K. will live long enough to carry
the session to its end. If he lives three weeks, they would
go on three weeks more and end it, leaving much business
undone. Now if Parliament was dissolved and did not
meet till November, my purpose of your obtaining
ostensible knowledge of affairs and especially of the Ho.
Commons would fail very inconveniently ; so if you please,
as soon as can be in the month of June leave the hay-fever
at Keswick, and under cover of that, and of shewing your
young lady useful novelties, let us expect you and her on
Thursday week or thereabouts ; you to suffer martyrdom
in some degree at the Ho. Commons, she to find as much
amusement and instruction as she can in London. For
your purpose you must be on a steady visit here, and I
think you will not say much of your intention of coming,
lest engagements too much anticipate and embarrass your
Parly, attendance. I think I shall be tolerably clear of my
Popn. tormentors before the end of this week, and I shall
then in the House, during the tiresome debates, oftener
squabbles, produced by the present state of affairs, ponder
my schemes of action, and mark down the topics on which
to accumulate matter. My present notion is, not to prepare
the book as of any party, but as a warning voice, to prevent
revolution finding men unawares, because it is not in the
shape of popular violence. I would treat as a problem the
effects of various forms of Govt, in England, and let all men
see that non-resistance against the growing power of the
Oppn. and non-defence of what is left to the Crown, cannot
but lead to reform of Parlt., which again cannot but abolish
tythes, seize Church land, ruin agriculture and the landed
interest by free import of corn, and under the name of
" equitable adjustment " pay as much, or rather as little,
of the interest of the National Debt, as the tax payers
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 263
think fit. Property in fact must disappear, and the obvious
inconvenience of all this, when plainly proved, will form a
strong phalanx, who ought to enter into steady combination,
and will do so, if they are heartily frightened.
' My notion of title is —
' Monarchy or Democracy
and the motto,
' Ne Quid Detrimenti Bespublica capiat.
' Whether monarchy [is] better than democracy in the
abstract, and whether it is better in England : and if so,
what is necessary for maintaining it here in due vigour.
To prove in a friendly manner to the Whigs, that they must
cease their habitual attacks on a fortress which they do
not seriously mean to batter down : to the Tories that they
must defend it steadily and keep guard as a regular army,
behind the wide breaches made since the death of Lord
Casblereagh. They must do more, and strengthen the
Crown by more numerous officers of Govt. For at present
the bodily and mental fatigue of all efficient members of
the Administration destroys them as rational beings.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof ; and I know
from my own last fifteen years existence during the session,
how impossible it is for a harassed man to think his own
thoughts, or to start into a new field of action. The answer
which is uttered, or which is kept back, always amounts
to a plea of impossibility of doing more than what is
absolutely necessary, that is, of opposing their enemies
in the Ho. Commons who during the session make incursions
into every department. This sort of annoyance goes so
far, added to the small power of the Crown to remunerate
service, that we are near in danger of finding anybody to
take office. At present Lord Althorp, the most respectable
of the Whigs, professes (and truly) that he does not aim
at it. So Sir Richard Vyvyan, the most sensible of the
Tories, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1 (who and
1 Goulburn.
264 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Hemes, are the only true labourers in office) openly pro-
fesses his office to be one which he would gladly relinquish.
So that the Govt, is in danger of dying of the dead palsy.
Brougham, who I suppose might have any thing, cannot
take office whether for good or for evil because he cannot
afford it. prudentially. Mr. Peel with his augmented
wealth will get sick of flummery, whether given or swallowed
in the m'idst of his feeble doings ; and I really believe that
as matter of calculation, I shall see refusals of the highest
offices, unless the dread of ruin consolidate the Tories and
all honest men, so as bear down the ignoble assailants who
now think themselves, and I am afraid politically speaking,
justly think themselves, of weight and consequence from
their mere power of annoyance.
' I hope you will answer that your portmanteau is airing ;
you know how happy Mrs. R. will be to receive your visit,
and for my part I have often found your friendship a species
of nobility, very useful to me, as well as ornamental, so that
from interest as well as from inclination, I say the longer
you can give us your company here the better. — Yours
truly always, J. R.
l P.S. — Monday, the K.'s symptoms recur — water collected
in thorax.'
' 29 June 1830.
' Today we are told per Message from King W. rv. that
Parliament is to be dissolved quam citissimum ; so say I,
but I doubt whether all the beating and buffetting under-
gone by the Ministers this session has made them know
that they cannot yet push in some of the foolish feeble
trash now before the House : we shall see. I think a
rattling debate (tomorrow probably) will irradiate their
obscurity and force dissolution forthwith. I hope so, at
least, heartily tired of the disgrace of fatigue about nothing
— the Ho: Comm: absolutely contemptible in its ways and
doings.'
A tremendous impetus to Liberal sentiments during the
general election was given by the July Revolution in France.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 265
Before Parliament met on October 26 fifty seats had
changed hands, and the Tory regime was doomed. During
the recess Rickman continued to discuss topics with
Southey. The following are some extracts from his letters.
' Slst August 1830.
' . . . If we may judge of our own Govt, by the Courier,
they are in contemptible timidity, palliating and seeking to
disguise from themselves the recurrence of the old spirit
of revolution. . . . Unless there be such a defection of the
Whigs, and such association of those who have property,
as at the commencement of the first Revn., our Govt, also
must change its nature — by the obvious mode of reform
of Parlt. But I think our National Debt will again be our
sheet anchor. Will. rv. will be better than his predecessor
in troublesome times. I believe Geo. iv. had not a friend
in the world ; his odious liability to sudden and capricious
dismissal of his personal and household friends keeping all
in uneasiness. Will. rv. may perchance keep the mob in
huzzaing humour, which will be clear gain. I scribble
occasionally what occurs for our purpose, and will send you
(at least) a list of topics fit to be interwoven. I am
oppressed by the multiplicity of matter which urges for
delivery, and dissatisfied therefore with whatever preference
or priority I allow to any part of so diversified a subject.
Farewell.'
< 7 September 1830.
' ... So of a reform of Parliament, I am not afraid of
it, if it arrived at the height of precluding the populace from
any share in elections, the qualification to be measured by
direct taxation : and herein all foreign nations (our imitators)
have the same advantage of us, as in juries. They can
establish better (in tabula rasa) on view of our imperfect
rudeness of antiquity ; but what our reformers require,
and the only alteration practicable, is to throw more power
into the hands of the populace, who already by their
clamorous interference, exercise great influence, even where
266 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
they have no vote. Thus if one third of the Ho. Commons
is created by the aristocracy, a full third are as direct repre-
sentatives of the mob. ' I am sent here (says Hobhouse)
for this,' when half laughing at the absurdity of his own
assumed violence in favour of his mob Parish Vestry Bill.
The county representation is also become exceptionable
from . the increase of freeholders. No man could face a
contested election either in Yorkshire or Lancashire un-
less meaning to spend £200,000. Accordingly Stewart
Wortley and Lord Milton have abandoned the former to
Whig adventurers, who were quite safe from making any
large expenditure. In fact the forty shilling qualification
ought to be made £40, for the same reason as it became
40/ when the best land was not worth 1/ per acre per annum.
' I really do not know a single place in England where
the qualification of voters is unexceptionable ; so that
though the Ho. Commons as a whole is not a bad repre-
sentation of all, yet a reform whereby property might best
protect itself might be safer than the rude manner now
in practice — the antagonism of parties, whence practically
comes a good result. Against reform therefore we need
not argue, but against any reform which gives more power
to the populace, and which could scarcely fail to be followed
by excessive national degradation for 20 or 30 years. . . .'
' Friday Morning, 17 Sept. 1830.
' . . . The Govt, cannot be in a more contemptible
posture. If you had seen the D. of W. sitting night after
night, affecting to listen to the East Retford evidence, for
the sake of credit with the reformers (who little meant to
carry that point), you would have pitied him. The enmity
of the D. of Cumb. and Huskisson is a whimsical specimen
of one poison antidote agt. another, for the contingent good
of the public. The D. of W. cares nothing about free trade
nor aught else beyond office ; in which too he is uneasy,
because he must perforce search for colleagues beyond those
who have submitted to military sway.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 267
' I hear the Whiggamores begin to be frightened (Rascals !)
and to meditate a defection as in 1792. We might make
them an excuse for it.'
The reference here to Huskisson has a pathetic interest,
for on September 15, at the public opening of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, he was knocked down by an engine
and fatally crushed. He died during the night ; but it must
be supposed that the news had not reached Rickman.
' 4 October 1830.
' . . . I think the Government since the Revolution has
been one of antagonism, the weakest of the two parties
(the outs) always ready to call in popular help, and thus
being pledged (a vile system) to yield something on coming
into office. What the Crown has thus lost : The royal
negative ; the elective votes of all employees [in the]
customs, excise, stamps as if proscribed persons ; the pre-
sence in Parlt. of all offices since 6. Anne prohibited, cum
multis aliis—iov which we must read history.
' Is antagonism the best system still ? It is found to
be so in law, where justice could not be administered unless
lawyers pleaded on both sides. This seems unfit, until the
contrary is proved to be more unfit, as may indeed be
proved. Yet no scandal is more common, none more
obvious and popular, than the blame of lawyers taking
fees on the notoriously wrong side. I support then that
antagonism is also good in political affairs ; spite of Opposi-
tion increases the responsibility of Ministers by displaying
everything, and thus injures their good conduct. Yet
this antagonism, which relies on the influence of the aris-
tocracy (unless where the useful rotten boroughs intermix
the influence of wealth) is become scandalous. Every fool
can gibe at it, and the power of such fools, and their fine
friend the Press is become so great, through the liberalism
of the said aristocracy courting popular aid, that antag-
onism can be supported no longer, and we shall make good
compromise if in a general reform of Parlt. we can keep from
voting the populace.
268 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
' But in treating of these subjects, it will be fair to display
the good arguments (recondite indeed) in favour of antag-
onism and influence, which however after nine years
surrender (I date from the death of Lord Londonderry)
I think cannot be supported.
' As to present men, I am not sure W. iv. and the D. of
W. would not join the mob rather than lose their power.
Indeed reform of Parliament from the Throne and Prime
Minister, even by surprise and stratagem, would be but
quite in march after the R.C. concession which really was
but to secure one or two years of power without further
trouble.'
Much disappointment was caused by the King's speech
on November 2, which did not mention reform, and feeling
against the government was made still stronger by the
Duke of Wellington's speech in the Lords in which he
roundly declared against reform. This declaration was
rather embarrassing to the Cabinet, but they stood by
Wellington. Brougham at once gave notice of a motion
for Parliamentary reform, but before it came on the govern-
ment was defeated on a motion regarding the civil list.
On November 16 Wellington resigned, and Lord Grey was
asked to form an administration. Meanwhile Southey
had paid a long visit to Rickman, lasting throughout
November and December. During this visit the literary
plan of campaign was matured. A new series of Colloquies
was to be written jointly by Rickman and Southey ; Southey
was to continue in the character of Montesinos, which he
had assumed in his published Colloquies, and Rickman was
to assume some other fictitious name. It was also agreed
for purposes of secrecy that the copy should be sent by
Rickman to Robert Lovell, who was in Hansard's, to be
set up privately, in the expectation that Murray, when he
was apprised of the scheme, would be willing to carry on
the printing in this manner. As will appear in the sequel,
it was chiefly owing to difficulties connected with the print-
ing that these Colloquies never appeared. After a visit to
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 269
Rickman's country home, Southey returned to Keswick
at the end of December. Rickman at once got to work,
and it was not ]ong before he sent a sketch of the projected
work to Southey, who was to compose an introduction,
describing the visit of Montesinos to his friend in London,
and his return with the friend to Keswick, where the
Colloquies should begin.
1 3 January 1831.
' . . . For my part, I have once more had cause to re-
member the old school thesis which has always haunted
me Dimidium incepti, qui bene coepit, hdbet. Beginning is
the great obstacle with me ; the other half I always find
easier, and work in good hope and eagerness : especially
as the materials may serve for something hereafter if not
now speedily in use. My persuasion that the time presses
for opposing hitherto unresisted error urges me on and I
feel that I shall work daily in January 1831. Occasionally
I have remarked to you upon various points of your colloquy
sufficiently for recognition under whatever name you choose
to assign to me. You will remain a mountaineer. I
should prefer a name not significant of anything but manner,
— suppose Instantius — a word derivable obscurely from
insto, instans, instantior, but perhaps you will hit on a
better name.
' Supposing you to begin with fit recognition — expectant
of conflict and paradox, and by no means laudatory — I
presume you to remove what you say in your Colloquies
of my notion in behalf of the National Debt, and to ask
longer explanation as much needed at present, provided
it can be given unencumbered with the modern meta-
physicks of political economy. . . . [Here follow some
detailed comments.]
' I know you are well employed, yet you see I do not offer
a sinecure for your acceptance. Of course you will say
whether to pursue the Colloquies at this expense — for
though I give needful clue for your interpellations, I bargain
that you write every word of them, and smoothe the angles
270 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
of my phraseology (which will grow smoother as I write
more), in fact, alter as much as you can. If I try to
furnish bone and muscle, you must be answerable for skin
and colour. If we can get out a 'pars prior of a volume in
February, comprizing (1) Corn Laws, (2) National Debt, (3)
Free Trade, (4) Poor Laws, (5) Currency, (6) Liberality and
Selfishness, (7) The Power of Wickedness (you are Kehama),
(8) Secondary Punishments, or any other more tempting
subject which may occur in progress of the work, this
done, the pars posterior may be political to suit the pressure
of the time not yet distinctly foreseen and unsafe till the
former part in sale as a shoeing horn — which pars posterior
may also teem with notes (preuves as the French speak)
in some detail, and presuming largely on the possible
ignorance of the reader.
' All this may make a first volume and without difficulty,
for I find (perhaps you have found) the personification of
a listener to produce much facility of composition, and
the conversational form abolishes, as conveniently for the
author as the reader, the necessity of regular classification
and induction which costs much, retards much, and spends
the brains of both parties to little purpose. Farewell. I
will not now be guilty in that kind — and pray write as
shortly as you please whether and how you wish me to
proceed. Bertha's cough is exhausted, and she is merry
with the rest.'
How much Southey appreciated Rickman's work may
be judged from the two following extracts.
« 4 Jan. 1831. 1
' . . . I will begin earnestly as soon as I get home. . . .
I cannot work with your iron industry indeed, nor with
anything like your expedition, yet I will make good haste
and no ill speed, and polish and inlay when it can be done
with good effect, taking however care never to take away
from the strength of a rough hewn style. We shall make a
1 Selections from the Letters of R. S., iv. 205.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 271
new sort of Beaumont and Fletcher, to my great gratifica-
tion, for I like dearly to think of being held in intimate
remembrance hereafter with those from an intimacy with
whom I have derived most advantage and delight.'
' Jan. 8, 1831.
' I am so in love with your work that it puts me out of
humour with my own, because pressure of time prevents
me from immediately following up my part. You will
certainly set the public right in very many most essential
points, and me also upon some, by the way.'
Two further letters from Rickman show the eagerness
with which he threw himself into the work.
' 11 January 1831.
' I have now collected a large stock of materials for
the series of Colloquies, but cannot write so confidently
(therefore less rapidly), while I feel a sensation that much
of the connecting machinery will be badly patched in
hereafter, that the spirit of conversation of characters will
have no natural touches, if it be all penurious interpolation.
So I have been thinking of addl. Mr. 'persona dramatis.
I do not see how he can carry you this kind of freight unless
from London, and therefore that you among your mountains
shall receive a visit from this gentleman whom you may
oppose in title to your Montesinos by some Spanish name,
as if a courtier or employee of some kind of Spanish office,
who has read your Colloquies with Sir T. More, but from
much business has been prevented from visiting you many
years ; who from an impediment in his speech (my situation
of hearing but not speaking in the Ho. Commons) has com-
municated his strong opinion to no one unless casually
and dogmatically, not seeking to impress them, but that the
prudential errors in all subjects becoming more and more
practical and dangerous, it may be interesting to Montesinos
to hear summarily the conclusions at which his friend has
272 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
arrived, trusting to general recollections of dates and
facts — (which to be reserved for appx. or notes).
' 1 don't think a Spanish name will be worse for being
understood by few.
' Now I turn to my National Debt heap of materials.'
' 14 January — 31.
' I received your note, pray remember " When the wicked
man turns away from his wickedness " — and let us give
him fair chance. He has talents too. May he apply them
pro bono publico.
' I see that 12 or 13 sheets will be enough for our present
purpose ; for there must be appx. or notes after the 2nd
part of the vol. as much as in your first vol. of Colloquies. I
find that Messrs Hansard have been employed by Murray
confidentially in setting up private matter — in preparation
for the Q.R. — and R. Lovell being with Messrs H., with
my influence there we may command all sort of accom-
modation. I would not consult Murray ; that will be soon
enough before the book is finally printed ; and if it prospers,
it can afford to pay the first typed MS. ; if not, I will pay
it willingly. I like very well your projected order of battle ;
provided you do not mix any party politics in your London
remarks, as I would wish to offend no man in what is really
not matter of party, but of human society. I shall try to
be smooth even with Malthus — to whom personally I owe
heavy grudges.
' Pray let me have an outlandish Spanish name. Is there
not an office about the Court and the Councils there — a
Gamerario % Would that do ? I send you 3 sheets, and
put you in sight of my National Debt conclusion. The
more I send, the more excursively you will think. I doubt
not your rapidity of execution when you reach home full
of concocted matter. I reckon on finishing the 8 subjects
before the Ho. Commons meets.'
Grey's Government, which included Althorp, Palmerston,
Melbourne, Goderich and Graham, with Brougham as Lord
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 273
Chancellor, was considerably troubled by disturbances
in the south of England, the question of the civil list, the
revolutionary movement in Belgium — which subsequently
resulted in separation from Holland — and an unsuccessful
budget. Their credit, especially shaken as it was by the
budget, was only preserved by the general anticipation of a
measure for Parliamentary reform. Rickman's letter of
February 25 strikes the general note of the opposition.
1 25 February 1831.
' I receive continuation of your MS. and send it to Mr.
Lovell, through Hansard's. It is not certain the reformers
will carry the introduction of their expected bill, unless the
other party play (I think) the better game of letting them
print the abortion, before they strangle it. This may
depend on what it is. The present Govt, (so called) is not
expected to last beyond the Easter holidays — by them-
selves ; others allow shorter term. They place their hopes
in a war, which may cover over a financial blunder, in
loans, etc. The disturbances in Ireland will produce active
union among all men of property, and give us good example
here. That done, all danger is over, but unless we can
obtain some large act of reform, in disqualifying all voters
throughout G. Britain, who are not freeholders, or do not
pay taxes for a house of £20 or £30 a year value, our calm
will not be long. It is said, that the infamous Wakley is
to be brought in for Middx. or Westminster by Mr. Taylor
Place * and the blackguards at the next general election.'
On March 1 the Reform bill, which was broadly the same
as the measure finally passed, was introduced by Lord
John Russell. After a long debate of seven days, it passed
first reading on March 9 without a division. Rickman
sent Southey frequent and spirited bulletins of progress.
'2 March 1831.
' . . . Great sport we had last evening in the Ho.
1 Francis Place, the leading spirit of the Westminster Election Committee,
and one of the originators of trades unions, was originally a breeches-maker.
S
274 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Commons in laughing at the silly though destructive plan
of Lord Johnny for reform of Parlt., and the backing speech
of the Tricolor Donkey Lord was truly asinine. No other
member of the Govt, spoke ; and there were three good
speeches against reform, touching the particular plan (for
which nobody was prepared) but slightly of course. Sir
R. P. undertakes this to-night.
' The whimsical mismanagement of this immortal plan
(for it will remain a scare crow in history) is such, that
by now excluding all bribeable freemen non-resident, and
by excluding all such in the next generation, a strong party
will be furious against it in the large boroughs, and Lord
Johnny's proposal for improving the small boroughs which
his lordship spares from proscription by infusion of districts
round them alienates all the boroughs favoured at this
expence, — this half extinction. And who is to form the
limits of the districts thus cut off from county elections
whether they will or nill ? A Commee. of the Privy Council !
' I heard it mentioned as opinion (of fact secretly obtained,
I believe) that these wisemen have enormously altered
their plan towards Radicality, much within the last week ;
and it being clear that no Govt, could go on 6 months with
a Parlt. so reformed, the inference is (drolly expressed you
will say), that the contemptible failure of budget and their
mutual recriminations in consequence, have given them
a near view of exit ; and they had rather blaze out, than
stink out. Yet in this tactic they continue to blunder ;
because their declaration of war against all bribeable
freemen will procure them internecine enemies, fiercer and
more efficacious than any idle ballot mob can be in their
favour.
' I am too closely worked to write Colloquy ; but as I
am well ahead, I shall be able to fetch up at Easter. A
speedy war and soon ! '
' 4 March 1831.
' Here we are on the fourth day of reform of Parlt. Mr.
A. Baring gave heavy fire upon the reformers last evening,
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 275
a friend of their own. His nephew Baring Wall made an
excellent speech against reform the preceding evening.
It seemed as if no Cabinet Minister (except the Tricolor
the first evening) were willing to speak. At last Lord P.
[Palmerston] lashed himself up to an uphill speech. A
Canningite in favour of reform. Then Sir Rob. Peel spoke,
the best speech he ever made, very trenchant on the
Administration in the first half, very conclusive of reform
in the latter part. I think to-day the reformers seem to
resolve on producing the great scare crow ; I feared they
were scared from it by their looks last evening. It is said
they have sent to the City for alliance from bullying City
meetings, and one of them arrived just now. . . .'
' Tuesday, 6 March —31.
' The sixth night — eloquence worn thread-bare.
' Majority of " the Reform Bill " anticipated 46. I think
more.
' Lord Howick told us last evening that England for lack
of such reform had been governed wretchedly during the
last 40 years : and this young Radical is the prime mover
of his father, Lambton the Second.'
' March 12, 1831.
' . . . The Ministers in their desperate humour are
evidently intriguing with O'Connell, and are rapacious for
radical aid, although Hunt tells them that he and his friends
will push on regardless of any such concession as is con-
tained in the inimitable bill which is to appear on Tuesday
unless (as is likely) they break their promise. In the mean-
time, every tool of agitation is at work. We reckon about
260 or 270 will vote for the bill, 300 to 320 are against it,
but there may be fearful defection by wilfull absentees.
The Coward of Kent (Sir E. K.) x already shews the white
feather in asking a fortnight's " leave of absence," fore-
1 Sir Edward Knatchbull, M.P. for Kent. He had declined office in
Grey's administration, being unable to go the whole length of the reform
measure. He did not stand at the general election, but sat again for East
Kent after the bill was passed.
276 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
seeing ill health with careful eye. In fact they hazard their
elections, as if future elections were desirable, if the bill
passes. The learned say the bill will be defeated, 46
majority against the second reading.'
The debate on the second reading of the bill occupied
March 21 and 22. In a short note on March 22 Rickman
announced the result.
' Ayes 302. Noes 301.
' The Whigs have had a shout, but their bill will drop,
without going into Commee., so they seem to allow is
necessary, because about 30 M.P.'s bullied by their con-
stituents into yes upon the 2nd reading, reserved opposition
to details. All has happened in the best possible manner,
as we shall see.'
I conjecture that an imperfectly dated letter of some
length was written next day, Wednesday, 23 March. The
Government had indeed contemplated dissolution, but not
on account of the second reading division. On March 16
they had been defeated on the proposed timber duties,
and it was only at the King's instance that they remained
in office.
' Wednesday Evening [23 March, 1831].
' You know that we have arrived at the fit termination
of Lord J. Russell's bill, for the Whigs do not pretend they
can proceed with it. Indeed to-day they have held Cabinet
Council as to immediate dissolution of Parliament, but I
believe they do not foresee their gain in this, and are going
on with the Civil List, as decency extorts from them a
tardy attention to the personal comfort of the King, who
has had to receive a quarter's salary as Duke of Clarence,
for pocket money.
' I believe the Queen is much against dissolution of Parlt.
at the bidding of the Whigs, whom by this time she cannot
but detest, and dread : but the K. hesitates between her
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 277
influence, and his mob popularity, so that perhaps the
Whigs do not think fit to put their power with W. rv. to
the test ; and as they are out of office, whenever Sir R.
Peel's party use the means in their power, perhaps the evils
of a new Parliament may be averted, which will allow
time for better thoughts. For it seemed to me that Sir
R. P. did not speak on the question for 2d reading because
he could not do so, unless avowing consent or dissent as
to the necessity of some reform of Parlt. ; most of his friends
who spoke yielding so far to the popular voice, or themselves
thinking reform of Parliament necessary ; so do you and I,
but not for other reason than that the present state . of
things is (nationally speaking) dangerous and intolerable,
the duration of every supposeable Administration being
much at the mercy of the press, and with no security against
the chance of any prevalent popular delusion.
' Lord J. Russell seems to have abandoned in pure despair
of maintainable attitude the silliest and wickedest whiggery
of his bill, whereby he and some two or three others of the
Privy Council were to settle at their discretion the com-
ponent parts of three fourths of the boroughs which they
condescend to leave in existence (if in propriety of speech
boroughs can exist without corporate rights of voting).
This high function rarely exercised by Parlt. itself in single
delinquent boroughs, he allows ought to be further con-
sidered ; but he hopes the Opposition will be so good as
to invent for him some better mode of doing this — a pleasant
devolution of employment to enemies of the bill, to do for
him what he cannot do himself, the author of it. Every
borough and its intended satellites would create a lengthened
investigation, and if appeal allowed, twenty years would
elapse before this task (itself a creature for spawning Whig
influence) could be so finished, as to go to work in member
of Parlt. making. Having considered the matter on all
sides during some of our hours of debate, I am clear in pre-
ference of your scheme for electing electors. There is no
other way of arriving at a definitive sound arrangement
such as can bear argument, and exhibit impregnable defence
278 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
if once established, without which ingredient reform is
but the preface to reform without end, in which process
the anarchists would not fail to succeed sooner or later in
their efforts, which are argus-eyed. The baseless con-
fidence of Lord J. R. that his reform would produce a limit
of reform, I cannot understand — to me an unintelligible
self-delusion, yet I think sincere, — for three months' experi-
ence of modern Whiggery in office has lowered estimation
of their intellect to this grade, without in the least raising
that of their morality. For their very reform (if human
nature do not suddenly change) is but their own death
warrant delayed — it reminds one of the exclamation of
Catiline when he rushed into hopeless rebellion.
' Things are come to this position : unless the friends of
good government emulate in some degree the activity of
the enemies of all govt., no administration can count on
stability — can be useful at home or respectable abroad.
If the friends of good govt, would combine in a corporation
society (which seems only to require a first move or move-
ment among the rich in the city) the press might perhaps find
its interest in comparative moderation, and the anarchists be
repressed. The experiment ought to be tried before adven-
turing on any reform of Parlt. or on a new election. (Saturday
morning). Supposing dissolution of Parliament not to happen
immediately as is now currently reported — but some say
not till actually in the Committee on the bill (14 April) —
I will try to put my thoughts in shape to-morrow.'
The motion for going into committee on the Reform Bill
was made on April 18, and General Gascoyne proposed to
move that the number of representatives from England
and Wales should not be diminished. The division on
this latter motion, taken on April 19, resulted in a defeat
for the Government by 299 to 291, whereupon they advised
the King to dissolve Parliament, the formal prorogation of
which took place on April 22, amidst considerable uproar.
This will be sufficient comment on the next three letters
from Rickman, who remained in the conviction that light
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 279
would eventually dawn upon the electors. It was a most
gross delusion.
' April 14, 1831.
' . . . Our precious reformers expect to be beaten as to
England retaining 513 members ; but will not be sorry for
that, calculating on so much more influence, as they have
more seats to distribute. They really seem in earnest with
their foolish bill, although it seems impossible (even with
Whig prejudices) not to foresee their own sure destruction
following close after the triumphal psean.
' I think they will withdraw this, and bring in a new bill,
or play off some such trick as may keep them in to the end
of the session, and then they have £ year of undisturbed
official existence in sure prospect. At all events they will
be unmasked finally, and nothing can be more useful.
The very mob begin to dislike ten pounder masters, who
are indeed the basest persons in human society — the very
sharks of bribery in all our election petition evidence, and
not too numerous to be bribed. The mob of universal
suffrage men could present the saving quality of difficulty
or impossibility in their very numbers. . . .'
Ap. 19, 1831. 12 o'clock Tuesday Morning.
' . . . Yesterday two rumours were launched by the
Whigs, one that Parliament should be dissolved on Wednes-
day, the other that they would modify their bill, meaning
to tide it over on pretence of the new census in May next.
' Last week, Lord J. R. fearing the success of Genl.
Gascoyne's motion, said that if the sense of the House was
in favour of it, he saw no surrender of principle in accom-
modating the bill to it. Two days after Mr. Stanley and
Lord Althorp said Lord J. R. had been misunderstood and
that it could not be conceded (this to gratify their worthy
ally O'Connell and other Irish friends, who vote for the
bill, bribed by the surrender of English franchise, of tax-
paying England— on the principle of pauper population in
Ireland being very numerous). Yesterday after two vacil-
280 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
lations (at 10 and 2 o'clock) comes down Lord J. R. with
an amended bill, giving half of what was required ; 31
members left out of 62 (or rather 72) intended to have been
retained from England, for trafficking purposes in the
progress of the Whig bill. But Genl. G. does not swallow
the bait, and when the discussion closes, it is said that the
Whigs will be defeated by majority of 26. I should rather
say half that number.
' Lord Grey said this evening in the Ho. Peers how much
he regretted that Brougham was taken from the Ho. Commons
before he made his reform of Parlt. motion, which would have
been mild and acceptable compared with the Whig bill ;
intended indeed as a shield between the Govt, and the
failure of budget and desperate in proportion to the necessity
of the case. Now, in fact, Brougham's threat in the Ho.
Commons to bring in a Reform bill made him L. Chancellor ;
Lord Grey sending for him that evening, and making him
accept or reject the sudden offer without a moment's delay,
thereby preventing the said B. from' conference with his
hungry party, who had claims in plenty. So that if any
peer had said to the veracious Premier, you he, — and know
you He — what would the noble lord have said? The
result of all is, that the Whigs knowing that their success
in this their attempt at reform is the future ruin of them-
selves, yet they hate their successors enough to act on
Catiline's resolve, — Med ruind extinguam.
' Greater wickedness no statesman ever conceived. It was
bad enough even in the Roman traitor.'
' 24 April 1831.
' Last evening produced the proclamation for dissolu-
tion of Parliament, and here I am Sunday afternoon writing
on a large sheet of paper, in recollection of the days of no
franking, which do not exceed a fortnight, and in the
interim I have means of receiving letters without expence.
Our St. Margaret's window 1 will be best as a finale, and I
1 It was intended to include Rickman's description of the antiquities of
St. Margaret's, Westminster, in the Colloquies.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 281
think in fact you must attend the meetimg of Parliament,
I had nearly said your duty in Parliament — for a watch-
man at hand will be useful in these troublous times.
' Whether the Radical Ministry will gain numerically by
the dissolution is not certain. I think they will, but I also
think that time for truth to break through the artificial
mist (in which the half-taught and therefore doubly ignorant
classes are enveloped by the unanimous press) will be
gained, so that many a man who goes into the House a
Radical on the 14th. June may find cause in himself or his
constituents to be a good subject at Xtmas. I believe the
tactic of the Radical Govt, to be solely directed to dura-
tion in office, and that when Parliament meets, it will be
thought by them too late in the year to do more than lay
on the table a new edition of their bill. If they have a
majority in numbers, this will keep them in till Xtmas ;
and my notion of such intention is much fortified by acci-
dentally knowing that they at first thought of stretching
the necessary 52 days to 60 for the meeting of the new
Parliament, which yet seems late enough in the year to do
no more than gallop through the supplies, and the private
bills left unfinished now. On the whole I congratulate
myself personally on 7 weeks holiday, which I shall try to
employ to good purpose. . . .'
During the holiday the Colloquies proceeded apace.
Rickman had finally decided to maintain his part under
the name of ' Metretes,' which is an allusion to his favourite
motto, fierpov apuiTov, ' Moderation is best.' These first
slips printed by Lovell had reached Southey on March 24,
and by the beginning of May the project was ripe for com-
munication to Murray. Southey also wished to show the
proofs to Wordsworth, as he feared that Coleridge would
' travel from Dan to Beersheba in the margin.' Southey
sent a letter to Murray, suggesting an interview with
Rickman, which the latter thus describes on May 6.
' . . . I sent Mumjy's letter yesterday evening from the
Gerrard St. twopenny post. Forthwith he trudged hither
282 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
through the rain to inquire of the opus, of which he said he
formed high expectation from your letter. It happened
a week since, Mrs. Rickman met him at Mr. S. Turner's.
I suppose he had taken a glass too much from the manner
in which he addressed her about you — with great admira-
tion, but lamenting that you did not write for the public,
in popular form and taste. So I told him Mrs. R.'s report
of the conversation, and asked if I could be any use in
giving you a hint. With some little embarrassment he
confessed he thought colloquy not so acceptable as other
forms. I said perhaps so now, but that I found most
scholars better pleased with Cicero in the Senectute, etc.,
than in his Offices and formal attempts. He affected to
know this, and to yield his opinion readily. . . .'
Meanwhile the elections had proceeded to the cry of
'the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill,' and amidst
great popular excitement. The Government found itself
with a large majority in the Commons. On June 24 the
new Reform bill, differing little from the old one, was
introduced by Lord John Russell. On July 8 it passed
second reading by a majority of 136. But the Govern-
ment was not out of the wood. Owing to opposition
obstruction, and O'Connell's quarrel with the Ministry
over the ' tithe- war ' in Ireland, the committee stage was
prolonged till September 7. The bill passed third reading
on the 21st by 109, but after a second-reading debate in
the Lords lasting five nights it was rejected by 41. On
the 20th Parliament was prorogued, but Grey remained
in office with the intention of introducing a third bill in
the next session. Several letters from Rickman cover
this period.
' 26 June 1831.
1 . . . The new Ho. Commons are better looking, and
better behaved people than the last, and I am willing to
argue well from physiognomy. The inconvenience to be
apprehended is just that which Lord A. apprehends in his
mention of Sir R. Peel, that by reason of his frozen un-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 283
cordial manner, 1 nobody personally likes him, and as a
grand apostate he has no right to claim, nor appearances to
justify confidence in him. I confess that in fact I expect
he will be in office with the Whigs before Xtmas, for his
knowledge of Parly, tactics and public business and his
eloquence (which from out-of-office leisure grows powerful,
from the opposite cause which ruins that of Sir J. Graham
and the other Whig Radicals). His eloquence is quite un-
matched at present, and alone would shame the rogues
out of office, which yet he will not take with any chance of
holding it. I believe long continuance in office, that is,
in a crowd of business so harassing as to admit no inter-
ruption from human feelings and unconstrained intercourse
with family and friends, to create no attachment, and even
to cease to feel any, has unfitted Sir R. Peel for being the
focus or polestar of any party, and this at present is sad
for England, as the Radical party (all volunteers or zealots
in a bad cause) can only be well opposed by parliamentary
combination under a good general. Our best hope is that
in the Committee on the bill, there will be woeful discord
among those who mean mischief and those who are hitherto
dupes, the last party being vastly the most numerous.
' The bill was withdrawn during the 8 weeks recess,
omitting the division of counties, and the Privy Council
Office Committee ; but they have been twitted with " the
whole bill and nothing but the bill," so effectually as to
have altered nothing but the Committee into Commissioners
to be appointed by the bill. Not so silly and indecorous as
the other scheme, but of like effect.
' Sir James Graham having struck off publickly in one
1 The following is an extract from Greville's Diary for March 1831 : —
' I continue to hear great complaints of Peel — of his coldness, incommuni-
cativeness, and deficiency in all the qualities requisite for a leader, par-
ticularly at such a time. There is nobody else, or he would be deserted for
any man who had talents enough to take a prominent part, so much does
he disgust his adherents. Nobody knows what are his opinions, feelings,
wishes, or intentions ; he will not go en avant, and nobody feels any
dependence upon him. There is no help for it and a man's nature can't be
altered.'
284 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
affair, notoriously in a second, and privately in a third,
now thinks to turn Drawcansir, 1 and to retrieve his valorous
reputation by saying " unprovoked with ire " — that he
proposes to answer anybody not in the House but in
private, who shall impugn his character. This was received
with a grunt, of unpleasant sound to him I daresay. . . .'
< 29th June 1831.
' . . . The Whigs have not said that they will not pass the
Reform bill through the House previously to the recess :
rather they insinuate that they will allow to the end of
August for the two Houses to pass the bill (a month each),
but I think this cannot happen, as the Tories of the H. C.
mean to resist pertinaciously throughout the Committee,
in order to give fair ground to the peers to resist and reject
the bill, as not carried with any appearance of concurrence
in the Ho. Commons. I suppose by the continuance of
Lord Shaftesbury as Chairman of Committees there is a
decided majority against the bill in the Ho. Lords, and we
may suppose some of them (such as Marquis Stafford and
M. Cleveland) will open their eyes, so unaccountably
closed at present, that each of them keeps his son out of
the Ho. Commons (Lord F. L. Gower and Lord W. Powlet),
because the young men foresee destruction to their families
and titles instead of reform in the Whig bill. The Bps.
are the men most to be distrusted ; their baseness in the
R.C. bill has nearly destroyed all hope of them, if pro-
motion of these reverend self-seekers is well managed.
Still the upshot of all will depend more on uncontrollable
contingencies than on Parliament : I mean on the lucky
or unlucky combination of development, when the monied
interest, the middle classes, and perhaps the landed interest
open their eyes, and set properly in full opposition to
democracy and confiscation. Then will the dark clouds
be blown away, as in 1793. We have other chances in our
favour, such as a No. 2. revolution in France, No. 3. in
Belgium, and a continental war in consequence.
1 The bully in Buckingham's The Rehearsal.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 285
' I am glad Mr. Wordsworth likes our plain speaking
colloquies. They ought to be published at Christmas.
If Murray likes not a daring refutation of popular errors,
somebody else may be found to venture the brunt. Large
topics rise before me — The praises of prejudice and of
selfishness and the odious results of independence. My
paper is filled.'
' Tuesday Evening [12 July].
' What with the Popn. work, the Highland Churches,
and the Reform bill, I have more than enough to do and
little time for thinking. At present moment, we are here
undergoing the ceremony of successive divisions on the
qn. of adjournment, urged by the foolish portion of the
Tories, much to the disadvantage of the party, who thus
early, and on such trivial occasion, cannot agree in their
mode of resistance against the bill.
' The Whigs are wholly governed by the newspapers,
the popular, and Mr. O'Connell — a short threat from whom
has prevented them from disarming his Irish subjects,
although this was rumoured as the formal and even un-
willing decision of the full Cabinet as on a matter of clear
necessity. The Ministry cannot carry their bill in the Ho.
Peers, and project a Coronation as a fair excuse for large
creation, and this will vilify that house, so that nobody
will wish to save it from destruction. Wherefore I think
even the slaves to the mob and Reform will hesitate before
they really do thus.'
' Wednesday [13 July].
1 You will find we were all night deciding the House upon
a question of adjournment in which both parties allowed
during 7 hours that they were contending for nothing ;
ergo, both equally wrong in so disgracing the House.
'Sir R. Peel went home at 12, refusing to be party to
this ; a sad proof how little the Tories cohere, but his ice-
cold distant manner attaches nobody, and I should not be
surprised if he takes sulk from the defection of last night
286 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
of | of his adherents, who almost in words abjured him as
leader. 1
' Sad work all this ; and intolerably foolish pertinacity
in that side to which all the blame will be attributed by the
Press and the populace.'
' 25/26 July 1831.
' . . . We go on in the Reform bill about as fast or about
as slow as expected, but the Government are dispirited not
only at their own defect of answer or argument, but as fore-
seeing that their labours will be lost in the Ho. Peers, where
it is said they already expect a defeat, by a growing majority
of 65 ; too many for any profligate creation of peers to
overcome, seeing that such creation is prohibited by the
adverse feeling of their friendly peers, who like not to be
thus degraded. They are to venture about three or four
creations of plebeians, [and] about 15 of eldest sons, pre-
maturely moved from home to the Upper House.
* We do not despair of strong opposition on leading
points ; on £10 voters (in fact, rulers of the realm), the
division of counties, and the Riding Commission ; and
moreover the Whigs begin to discover one after another
that they will not be sure of re-appearing here if their
monster bill should become law. Candidates of lower
grade are at work everywhere, and then (unless where
conquered by bribery) will prevail.
' It is said the Lords will entertain the bill by deciding
not to notice it till the Scottish and Irish bills pass the
Ho. Commons, and this evasion, by whatever majority
carried, will be sufficient indication of what will happen —
that is, the Whigs will not find it worth while to plague us
1 Greville alludes to this debate in his Diary for July 14, 1831 : —
' The effects of Peel's leaving the party to shift for itself were exhibited
the night before last. He went away . . . and the consequence was that
they went on in a vexatious squabble of repeated adjournments till 8 o'c.
in the morning, when the Govt, at last beat them. The Oppn. gradually
dwindled down to 25 . . . while the Govt, kept 180 together to the last. . . .
After these two nights it is impossible not to consider the Tory party as
having ceased to exist for all practical and legitimate ends of pol: association.
. . . There is still a rabble of Opposition, etc'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN 287
with those additional monsters, especially as the absurd
novelty of measuring representation otherwise than by
produce of taxation will overwhelm us with sturdy Irish
beggars, already strenuous for public grants to Irish pur-
poses, the said Irish not paying a farthing in direct taxation
and the collecting of absentee rental costing about £800,000
in the Irish Establishment.'
' Wednesday Evening [Aug. 10].
' We have jumped forward on the returning officer
clause, and I think the ten pound electors will be on the
anvil in the beginning of next week. ... As to the wide
door for imitating Liverpool bribery, that argument will not
be omitted. Perhaps the effect of the extinction of the 40/
freeholders in Ireland proves that universal, or at least
scot and lot, suffrage would allow much more influence to
the wealthy, than the £10 franchise ; it is plain the landed
aristocracy in Ireland have lost all their former influence,
by similar £10 franchise which hits the level of priestly
influence and half independence, as if by artificial adjust-
ment. If I opposed the senseless bill, I would move, in
preference to £10, suffrage to pot- wallopers, or at least all
rate payers, whereby the 50 Radicals now in the House
would and must vote against Government and the ten
pound voters, who are the basest and vilest class of men in
the kingdom. Nor would my preference be feigned — partly
because it would at least make the quick-sand bill more like
firm ground, solid brimstone in pandemonium but not
in perpetual throes and explosion. . . .
' Farewell, I am in good spirits, although in over work,
House of Commons and Popn. being two heavy weights,
but the infinite blunder of the wicked Whigs in foreign
affairs, paralleled only by their immortal budget, will be
matter of history, and the Peel currency bill (however ill
judged concession to the said Whigs) will frighten everybody
in good time, and turn the tide, for it is plain any man will
hoard gold, or at least keep such a sum by him, as to half
ruin all shopkeepers and artizans and give them a salutary
288 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
foretaste of Reform. Also the Government must forthwith
suspend payment of the saving-bank men, who thereupon
must enlist on the right side. Thus good will grow from
evil. . . .'
Thursday [Aug. 11].
' Last evening O'Connell's squadron of Irish Devils —
he rates them at 40 — testified through his mouth their
sudden quarrel with the Whigs, whom they have driven to
some unavoidable rebellion against O'Connell's wishes.
I suspect he required all Protestant yeomanry to be dis-
armed, and this the Whig absentees thought portended no
increase of their Irish rents. This squadron of 40 are now
at the service of the present Opposition, and boast they
can put out or in any party by their weight in either scale.
This looks well, as it is likely to lead to combination on this
side St. George's Channel as well as the other.'
< 17th August 1831.
' . . . The senseless bill founders in every particular,
— not a word uttered in defence of it. The Whiggery too
is attacked by the Radical Press, and if Milord Grey not
speedily out of office, he is to withdraw it as rather cumbrous
in its machinery ; and after an adjournment of a fortnight,
reproduce another hopeful chrysalis. I approve of adjourn-
ment for any reason whatever, you will rightly conclude,
being insufferably worked to no purpose. Yet in good
health and spirits.'
' 25/30 August 1831.
' We make little way in the senseless bill. As far as it
went to abolish and beat down, the operation was simple
though foolish and unjust, but when it begins to create,
and therein seeks to prove negatives, (that unforeseen diffi-
culty and mischief will not arise from any clause) the affair
becomes complex in infinite proportion, and here we are
likely to sit accordingly. The Coronation is to create
about 15 peers, but this is only to gratify so many Whigga-
mores, for I do not think that anybody now fails to foresee
LltfE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 289
entire revolution if the bill passes, and the Whigs tremble
at the possible success of their own sweet bill. . . .
' In our own affair, I have been thinking, you should
expunge all blame of the Press, as issuing from the mouth
of Metretes : in order that when you open your plan of
reform, we may strike a harder blow at the execrable abuse
of the Press, by showing that your gradation of representa-
tion would so completely abolish all chance of usurpation
in Government, that the licence now held to be necessary
as a rude corrective, in conjunction with mobs and juries,
would no longer be needful and therefore without excuse.
Much I think might be urged on this basis.
' The Radicals are become so troublesome and dangerous
to Government that I expect the Whigs and Tories are
trying to coalesce. The D. of W. and Lord Grey have met
on some fair excuse, and Sir Robert Peel's opposition is
more and more measured. He grows intimate with nobody,
and I presume will use no argument which can give offence
to the mob of any grade. The ten pound householders he
did not speak against at all, and I suppose he will soon
say, that trade stagnates so much from the prolonged dis-
cussion, that it will be better to expedite the bill to the Lords
for rejection. Thus will he escape the unpopularity of
strenuous resistance. I do not think that anj^body pos-
sesses more good arguments which he deems unspeakable,
and perhaps in proportion to their power. Thus I fear
he is not worth prompting. But he will not do anything
very wrong, and his eloquence and habits of labour in office
are indispensable to any strong Government, for all our
pigmy statesmen in mass could scarcely compose a Govt,
of decent strength or capacity. We seem to lack some
stirring event to produce something better, if the whole
generation of mankind be not really emasculated, by having
read nothing but reviews ; all the little knowledge they
have being second or third hand, and reproducing nothing,
like seed two or three years old, and effete as to procrea-
tion. How many, or rather how few, M.P.s have ever read
a folio, nay a quarto author, unless perhaps of travels ?
T
290 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Every subject discussed displays mere penury of know-
ledge and deep thought, and this lamentable symptom has
been increasing till the race of men, of thinking men, is
nearly extinct.
' Mr. Sadler is talking of Irish Poor Rates this evening,
and says the poor have a right to relief , not to be poor ; if
the application of this principle is to be judged by the 'poor
all property of course is extinct.
' Per contra, Torrens pours out all the nonsense of political
economy, of transition, etc. So that we cannot tell which
errs most widely. My Population goes on well, and though
I grumble at wasting 12 hours in 24 here, I must allow
that the dissolution of the last Parliament gave me a precious
7 weeks, in which I issued infinite instructions and placed
all the machinery in such order, as nothing else could have
enabled me to do. Now I have good materials in posses-
sion, and if I cannot produce results quite so soon as if
there were no Reform bill, that is of less moment.'
A fragment from Southey written on September 1 is
also worth quoting : —
' 1 Sept. 1831.
' . . . The bill and the Ministry are likely to go together,
and I make little doubt that Sir R. Peel will have to gather
up the fragments of both, and make what he can out of
them. . . . Never before was poor England so befooled,
be-pressed, be-whigged, and be-devilled. But it is some
satisfaction to think that they who have brought things
to this pass are in a fair way to be for their pains.'
Meanwhile, in spite of the industry of Rickman and
Southey, and the fact that six plates — views of the Lakes
— had been engraved by William Westall, there was a
hitch in the Colloquies. It seems that Murray on receiving
his first copy had proceeded to set it in type at his own
printer's, Spottiswoode's, and had expected to print all
further copy in this way. Rickman was incensed at what
he considered a high-handed proceeding, and Southey was
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 291
perturbed, because Murray not only had omitted to answer
his letters on the subject, but had not paid him for his last
contributions to the Quarterly. On October 25 Southey
received news that Murray was in seriously embarrassed
circumstances owing to the decline of the Quarterly's sales.
Rickman comments sternly on this information.
' 28 October 1831.
' I have your note of the 25 October, which puzzles me,
because I think Murray more likely to go mad, than bank-
rupt. To be sure he has thrown away great sums in idle
expenditure unbefitting a tradesman, and his Representa-
tive x experiment cost him £14,000. Yet after that I had
intimate knowledge of his affairs (as I thought) from his
brother the purser, who speaking with apparent know-
ledge said, that as Murray's mind had with difficulty over-
come the failure of a foolish but favourite project, all was
well, and the loss of little consequence farther than keeping
him in business a few years longer. Besides, his non-
correspondence previously to his now supposed pecuniary
distress was much like madness in a man of his extensive
business ; and why does his son, who seems a man of the
world, partake of this defect, which must ruinously dis-
organise all his affairs, though not immediately. The
whole is a riddle, but does he or not stop the progress of the
Colloquies ? I suppose Spottiswoode will trust him ; though
the absurd obstinacy of re-setting types already well set
(as Murray must have perceived) savours of dependance
and money due. I see that but one volume can come out
in time for the Parliament, but that will only throw your
double distilled representation into the first volume instead
of the second, and without some of the (Adminicula)
buttresses which might have helped it by graceful and
imperceptible induction ; but it may be managed well
enough. I think Sir James Mackintosh in his brilliant
1 The morning paper started by Murray in which Benjamin Disraeli
originally had a share. It ran from January to July 1826, and cost Murray
£26,000.
292 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
book of inconclusive generalities (Vindiciae Qallicae) lauds
the French notions of that kind, and I am convinced more
and more that no other popular representation is practic-
able, without inducing sure mobocracy.
' I know not whether Parliament will meet for a few
days in December to permit the Whigs to produce another
bill for the amusement of Xtmas holidays. They have
fallen low in their own estimation I well perceive, and are
in a down-hill state with the more honest mob. Farewell.
I am going to dine with Mrs. Rickman at Windsor, Cras
rediturus. Let me know what you think of a solitary
volume ? I think the time critical, for the half -reformers
Peel & Co. are more than half as mischievous as the Whigs
and quite as silly to think they could govern with a half
reform, when they found, in the irksome experience of their
three last years, they could not govern at all, without the
degrading concessions of Test and Corporation Reform,
R. Cath. Relief, Beer Bill, Cheap gin, no prosecutions of
the Press — etc. etc. etc'
On November 14 Southey wrote that the riddle of Murray's
conduct was solved. In paying Southey for two articles
he had paid at the rate of £20 per sheet instead of £100 an
article, pleading the general stagnation of business. ' With
all his follies and negligence and fits of incivility/ says
Southey, ' I am sorry for him.' Rickman petulantly replied
that Murray had better go bankrupt, and that in any case
he must decide whether he would carry on the Colloquies
or not. But the year ended without any definite answer be-
ing forced out of the procrastinating publisher, though he
satisfied Southey's demands for full payment for past work.
The final agitation for reform is too common a matter of
history to need more than bare reference. There were
riots in London and the provinces : a great open air meet-
ing was held at Birmingham, and at Bristol the mob carried
all before them, owing to the weak conduct of Colonel
Brereton, who commanded the troops. Behind the scenes
great efforts were made by the King and the moderate
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 293
peers to effect a compromise, but when Parliament again
met on December 6 no agreement had been arrived at. The
Reform bill was introduced on December 12, and on the
16th passed its second reading by a majority of two to one.
The committee stage lasted twenty- two nights, and on
March 23 the bill passed the Commons. The Lords now
remained to be dealt with. The creation of sufficient peers
to swamp the Opposition was very objectionable to the
King, and Grey promised to propose no creations at any
rate before the second reading, which was carried on April 14
by 9 votes. Two letters from Rickman are interesting on
this period.
' Sunday Evening, 5 February 1832.
' ... In the meantime their beautiful reform of Parlia-
ment bill improves in deformity as it proceeds, and the
infinite ramifications of Whig- jobbery (now that they are
borough limiting according as Whig property is situate
near every place) puzzles its parents, and they have now in
type 600 pp. of what they term " wrong reports " of boroughs,
which yet we must possess with Whig corrections, before
we can proceed far with our Commee. on the Bill. The
introduction of actual value as the criterion of £10 seems
to me a voluntary felo-de-se of the main principles of the
new bill. Lord Althorp, a diligent Chairman of Quarter
Sessions, cannot but know from litigated questions of settle-
ment of paupers that the law has twice declared such
criterion to be impracticable ; and the blunder, worthy of
Lord J. Russell, the dullest of men, whereby evidence is
virtually to be admitted on one side only, that of the
claimant to vote, crowns the mass of litigation in which
every parish every year is to be involved. After all no
other Government can come in, and we look forward into
a beautiful obscurity. It may be enlightened by the torch
of war. . . .'
' 18 April 1832.
c To-day is arrived your grand volume iii. of the
Peninsular War. I thank you much for it, but in general
294 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
times at present, too much harassed, curis et negotio, to say
or do more.
' Politics are wilder than ever ; the rebellion in Ireland
being a palpable concomitant of any such reform of Parlia-
ment as was madly promised by the Whigs in reward for
Irish support, their English friends will not go to this
length, and they must keep touch with O'Connell and Co.
or quit office. I suppose the strength of the absentees is
now on the alert against obvious consequences of the Irish
Reform, and the said absentees act in squadron on all
occasions of danger for their dear selves — and their dearer
Irish property.
' If once the Protestants were put down by a Reform
bill supervening in the open partiality of the new Govern-
ment to the R. Catholic dictation, they might duly be
beaten and massacred in due course by their rascal country-
men, and nothing but force applied on the other side by
the base absentees can avert this evil.
' Whigs, WLiggamores, Whiggissimi. I have not thanked
you for a former book from Murray — My distraction must
excuse this.'
When Parliament reassembled after a recess on May 7
difficulties at once occurred. Lord Lyndhurst moved in
committee that the consideration of Schedule A. should be
postponed. On this question the Government were beaten,
but they decided to make a stand, recommending the
King to create sufficient peerages to pass the bill. The
only alternative was for the King to accept their resignation,
and this he chose to do. Wellington was ready to step
into the breach, but without Peel he was helpless ; and Peel,
seeing that reform was inevitable, refused steadfastly to
adopt a measure against which he had so strongly declared.
Vain efforts were made by Lyndhurst and Wellington to
make a Government without Peel and his party, but after
six days of negotiation Wellington was forced to accept
the assurance of Manners-Sutton and Alexander Baring
that the attempt was hopeless, and on the 15th Wellington
LIFE AND LETTERS OE JOHN RICKMAN 295
advised the King to recall Grey. It will be seen that
Rickman's version of affairs was somewhat distorted. On
May 15 he wrote to Southey : —
« 15 May 1832.
' Here we are, in the midst of political confusion, not
worth telling of, but that at a distance such tales are
acceptable.
' The D. of W. held a conclave of peers before the Co.
on the Reform Bill, and they manoeuvred so well, that
Lord Grey professed desperation, and that he would ask
the King to create Peers Q.S. Then said Lord Ellenborough,
professing to speak the sense of his friends (the conclave),
we are willing to bid a little higher for mob favour and will
so pass the Bill.
' Lord G. having made ten times more promises than he
wished to make peers actual, takes advantage of pretended
discomfiture, and puts the question to the K. in such
shape as to invite refusal, and the next day, he and Lord A.
say they are out of office. The K. has recourse to the D.
of W. who hesitated till he could try his friends, as to
forming an Administration. But in this he fails, Sir R. P.
not thinking fit to turn about so quickly, even Mr. Croker
declining to lead the Ho. Commons, and respectable men
not much liking the trickery on both sides.
' So that last evening upon an unauthorized, I believe
unintentional, phrase or hint by Mr. A. Baring, it was said
by many with much more than usual seeming sincerity
and abstraction from party, that the Whig Government
ought to carry through their own bill, for good or for evil.
And I believe the D. of W. sees he can do no better than
follow this notion. Mundus vertitur sicut mola says some
Dutch emblem. My own affairs rest till Whitsuntide, in
a favourable position ; I think more favourably if the
Whigs are in office than otherwise.'
Grey's firmness had its reward. Most of the Opposition
peers abstained from voting on the committee stage, and
296 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
by June 7 the Reform bill received the royal assent.
Strangely enough there is no expression of disgust to be
found in Rickman's correspondence at this time. His
feelings perhaps were too strong for expression. Reform
had come, and no Colloquies had appeared to rouse the
country, for Murray had defied, possibly of necessity, all
the efforts of Southey and Rickman to get the printing
done in their own way. Rickman professes to explain his
proceedings in a letter of October 17.
' I have received your letter of 15 Oct., and now write my
budget of intelligence of Mr. Murray. Mr. Strahan (King's
Printer) died leaving two nephews, Spottiswoodes, in his
business. The youngest, a passable kind of man, died at
Carlisle a month since of a cold caught on your Lakes.
Andrew, who remains, was in Parlt. to give the K. Printer's
Vote (fitly due to Govt.), but he was ousted on petition
last Parlt. A most odious person, very greedy, but more
morose and insolent, so that he actually loses much by the
general aversion he has created towards himself. He
married the daughter of Longman, her portion [being]
that he should have all Longman's printing, and he pushes
his claim far beyond the understanding of the trade in such
cases. But he is as stout as Shylock and defies ill-will.
When he came to know of Murray's embarrassment, he was
ready to extricate him, provided he gave security, and what
Shylock took in pawn are all the plates of the edition of
Lord Byron's works, of which Murray cannot sell a copy
without accounting to A. Spottiswoode, who superadded
(on the strength of his forbearance in not publishing
Murray's circumstances) the same conditions as on Long-
man — to print all Murray's publications also. This explains
the grossness of your dialogue case, and the impossibility
of Murray's explanation, and of any communing with
Sp. If Robt. Sp. had lived, I was thinking of making an
arrangement, but with A. S. this is universally known to
be impossible. He never answers, yields or compromises.
I know the man well, and shall amuse you when we meet
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 297
with scenes I have had with him in presence of his uncle,
or when he was dependent. . . .'
Whatever the rights and the wrongs of the matter were,
the Colloquies never appeared, and the manuscript seems
to have been lost.
At the end of his letter of May 15 Rickman refers
to 'his own affair.' This was no less than a project
of retiring from his post altogether, to devote the rest of
his life to leisurely pursuits. Southey heartily praised this
determination to leave the disappointing world of official
labour, and advised Rickman to betake himself to those
books from which overwhelming work had long kept him.
Rickman seems to have anticipated no difficulties at first.
On January 13, 1832, he wrote : —
' Rejoice with me at my thus deliverance, still more you
will rejoice, if next week I appear not at the Ho. Comm.,
but this design is a secret yet.'
And again on February 5.
• 5 Feb. 1832.
1 1 foresee no reason which can prevent me from quitting
my hard service at Easter ; indeed I think I have power
(in the background) for enforcing it upon those whose
intrigues stopped me the other day. If they raise any
feeling beyond the long-lived contempt which they mistake
for abstraction, woe awaits them. . . .'
But for some reason, to which there is no clue, his retire-
ment was postponed again and again. In May it was put
off till Whitsuntide, and on June 26 he wrote : ' My escape
from the H. of C. is impeded by procrastinating manoeuvres
of which I do not well understand the motive and cannot
overcome.' Later in the year he wrote in a more
despondent mood.
' Ecce iterum ! From some unintelligible jobbery, I
am now told that as my legal claim for retirement accrues
298 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
not till a month hence, it is unsafe to go out upon trust :
true, I shall gain £150 a year by this delay. But I had
rather quit now. As it is, I have resented the lateness of
objection so far as to insist on a country trip the rest of
this week, under colour of fatigue (for I have worked so as
not to have slept above 3 hours in the 24 since Xtmas)
but really to avoid personal complaints and civilities upon
issue of the Popn. Volume ; for the eclat of closing my
appearance with which, I have so worked. If you hear
mentioned my proposed retirement, stop the rumour by
saying it was premature. The Tory party is no more ; if
they cling together so little as to leave to ruin our victorious
champion, assailed only by a radical dissenter shopkeeper,
who can ever serve them ? I do not wonder much ; but
we now have only to keep as right as we can our Whig-
Masters. For all, we will do so.'
Nevertheless, ' unintelligible jobbery ' prevailed, and
Rickman died in office eight years later. To those
remaining years a separate chapter must be devoted. The
vigour of his mind was now on the decline : the success of
the long drawn out reform movement had thoroughly
disgusted him, and from 1832 onwards the life seems to
have left his trenchant pen. He had no longer a cause for
which to fight.
CHAPTER IX
1833-1840
The reformed House of Commons — The new Devils and the Whig Devils —
Lamb dines with Rickman — Rickman on Wellington — The fire at the
Houses of Parliament — A graphic account — Henry Taylor the hero —
Lamb's death — Rickman' s comment — Southey offered a baronetcy —
The Exchequer demolished — Judge Jeffreys' house — Rickman's ill-
ness and death — Tribute of the House.
The election after the Reform bill changed the state of
parties in the House of Commons less than was generally
expected. Half of the members were Ministerial : there
were about 190 Radicals and freelances, including O'ConnelTs
following ; while it was calculated that the ' Conservatives,'
as Peel's party was now called, numbered 150, including the
remainder of the old Tories. The chief legislative task was
the settlement of the atrocious state of affairs in Ireland,
which had been inexcusably neglected in the agitation for
reform. In February the Irish Coercion bill became law,
and an Irish Church Temporalities bill was passed by August.
The new House showed extraordinary legislative activity.
Many measures of social reform, including a bill to abolish
colonial slavery and the first general Factory act, were
added to the Statute book. It was a long and tiring session,
during which the Government, in spite of its efforts,
declined in popularity, and there was a slight reaction in
the country in favour of the Tories. Rickman, as he says,
had lost all real interest in politics, but several of his letters
show that his power of caustic comment still remained.
' Friday Evening [no date].
' . . . We have seen enough of this Ho. Commons to see
it will not work, and I suppose everybody will see this in
300 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
the month of August. The composition of it is made up
of about 150 Conservatives, as many Radicals, who not
very covertly go the length of republicanism and of whom
about half go the other halfway to anarchy — Destructives
I think is their title invented for them by their heretofore
allies. I think there are nearly 100 more of the pledged
men, who will not dare to support the Administration upon
a pinching question, such as will occur too often for the
comfort, perhaps to the extinction, of the said Admn.
' I put no faith in the big words of K. W.'s speech versus
K. O'Connell as to reform of the Church, and tearing other
things to pieces, the miserable position of the Admn. will
make them more than fulfill all that the enemies of order
expect of them. But I do not despair of a revulsion (a
reaction will not be enough), and nothing short of the
abominable state of domestic, and colonial, and foreign
affairs (what a triad !) and the portentous darkness around
us as to the future would be enough to alarm (not too late)
all the holders of property, with regard to which desirable
end some one of the Conservatives (Sir R. Peel, or Mr.
Herries) ought to move a resolution on some occasion when
the House is going into a Committee of Ways and Means,
or on any motion for repeal of any tax, " That this House
will in no case consent to any proposal which shall hazard
the possibility of keeping faith with the public creditor."
About 100 of our reformed M.P.'s would object to this
motion and the alarm would perhaps commence, especially
if the Ministers, in assentation to their dreaded friends,
were to move the previous qn. 1 in escape from honesty.
This might lead to better things, but the absurdly timid
reticence upon such questions as this is exactly what the
enemies of all property pray for, until things are prepared
for suddenly producing their bad-faith as a thing of course,
prefaced by the sufferance of speeches and actions involving
the principle of national bad faith towards the public
creditor. The intention ought to be dragged into daylight,
and its enormity, with its consequences, fully explained
1 The previous question is a motion ' that the question be not now put.'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 301
in its operation in all classes above the actual pick-pocket
rabble. Consider whether you can with propriety say
anything of the fitness of speaking out and thus making
the Destructives speak out, so that a line of demarcation be
well traced, and the plague stayed. . . .'
■ 16 Feb. 1833.
' The key to the conduct of the present Govt. (I may say
of all past Govts.) as to Ireland is the dictation of the
great absentees. " Thus far shall ye go, and no further "
is said too potentially for resistance. Unhappy predicament
of the national happiness ! An absentee expectant from
his childhood is hardened in selfishness, and joins the secret
fellowship before he is of age. He sees not the misery of
exacted high rents, if an English army can secure them.
In this view we pay about 1| millions p. annum that they
may receive twice as much.'
' 18 March 1833.
' . . . Our Pandemonium would be perfectly devilish
and intolerable, did not the new Devils cuff and scratch
and tear to pieces the Whig Devilry beautifully, by making
speeches in close imitation of the factious speeches of the
latter, and always refuting their arguments out of their own
mouths, or of the former mouth of Lord Brougham.
' In time (how soon the tormented Whigs must decide)
they must resist the Radicals and their enlisted union, and
I, willing to do good in the day of need, have sent in an
easy plan for this purpose. It may lye unexecuted till
remedy is too late ; but I have done my devoir ; reckoning
this, added to bringing into daylight the unavoidable design
to cease payment of the National Debt, to be the best or
only practicable steps of proceeding. I inclose copy,
which however you will not shew, though talk founded on
it is quite lawful. You will see I have sent it in, and
through what channel. Not a bad one, as I am in good
odour, and deserve to be so, at the Home Office.
1 You have perceived by the newspapers, that at present
302 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
we are doubly harassed by the Ho. Commons, and the Irish
yells are so fierce and frequent that I can't abstract myself
so as to write letters etc. at the table, which has prevented
me from writing this during last week. . . .'
' Monday Evening, 1 July 1833.
' I am much obliged to you for your letters, inasmuch
as I give scant return, too much occupied by waste of time
and attention here and by the better occupation of the
Popn. abstract, which looks towards its close — that is
England and Wales finished, Scotland begun. This month
of July will cut deep into the remnant. I shall produce
three handsome volumes, and not leave much undone.
To-day I learn from one fresh from the Cambridge meeting
(your well named Wittenagemote) that next year at Edin:
they are to commence a statistical Commee., " and who
the leaders ? " said I. Dr. Chalmers x and Mr. Malthus,
the first an orator fluent of unusual phraseology and in
strange confusion of ideas and ideal projects about the
poor — a problem which he was attacking practicably,
when you and I were together at Glasgow. He covered
his failure by removing to a professorship at St. Andrews :
I think he has since flitted to Edin. As to Mr. Malthus,
he has himself profited more than the public by the up-side
down speculations he began to produce 25 years since ;
and the success of an impossible supposition (refuted per-
petually from the creation of the earth to that day), was
truly surprising, and the well marked comment perhaps of
the decadence of real knowledge in our time. Since that
time the Esse quam Videri is quite reversed, and mountebank
theorists, praters, and puffers have the ascendant, because
the objects of conversation have increased so much in
number that no conspicuous man can afford time to acquire
solid knowledge and to think solidly on any one subject.
Yet he must pretend to have done so of all, and is not likely
to dogmatize less because he knows less, and hence innova-
tions in all things, and even history forgotten. If I look
1 Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the eminent Scottish divine and philanthropist.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 303
round me here, how many gentlemen do I see with knowledge
in inverse quantity to their own opinion of their sweet selves !
To-night they talk of banking and currency, which touches
upon the new light of political ceconomy, which one of my
left hand debaters just now ycleped a science, without joking
in the least.
' How the session is to end, nobody can foresee. To
finish their business, 24 hours a day till Xtmas will not
suffice, so that in some manner we shall arrive at the
ridiculous but very appropriate termination of the adventure
of the cat and fiddle, and the reformed Parliament in going
to its constituents will shew its hinder parts in no honour,
nothing done. Generally speaking, the Ministry are less in
mischievous mood than they were, so are the Radicals,
but a light accident might make the latter rampant, and
their numbers are such that they may gain the ascendant.
I look on with great indifference, not sorry at present to be
within view of the process going on before me. . . .'
< 28 Sept. 1833.
' . . . I suppose we shall have the world in arms next
year — Monarchy or Democracy — and a bit of a revolution
here, when the Lord Miltonians have matured their resist-
ance to taxation. So be it, say I, come quickly. It is the
downhill slide to perdition which leaves no chance, and in
which the predecessors of the Whigs were blindly (or
wilfully) culpable. ... In any case let us keep up our
spirits. Hard work does much in this behalf, driving away
demons omnigenous. . . .'
' 21 November 1833.
' ... At present politics are dull. The Lord
Miltonians seem to be defeated, and we are in danger of
another confused session of more and more concessions to
the republican taste of the times. Large steps in tins
direction occurred last session ; the King, the constitutional
conservator of the peace if he be anything, cannot use
precaution against a mob meeting for avowed revolution,
304 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
but that two Commees. of the House of Commons are to
examine into the conduct of the Secretary of State and the
police ; a mob jury says that killing is no murder if a
policeman be the sufferer, and a second jury acquits the
murderer because the King's Solicitor General adduces
feeble evidence and says nothing for the prosecution,
because (said he) a bill was pending in Parliament to enable
the prisoner to employ counsel to plead his cause, and in
the interval, till this charming idea shall become law, it
would be illiberal to speak against a prisoner (if a mob
delinquent). So the King is supposed to command the
army. No, said the experience of last session, when we
had half a dozen courts martial of various dates called in
question, and some of the sentences remitted, to escape
further discussion. Moreover we had a Commission on
Military Governments headed by that loud-voiced thick-
headed, but eminent Whig Lord Ebrington, but we may
thank God for these disgusts are forced on army officers,
who will not forget this in the day of need.
' Worst of all is the contemptible state of the party
(if it exist) of the D. of W. and Sir Robert Peel, who have
never recovered from the suicidal stab of the Catholic
concession, whereby they became unworthy of trust,
indeed their perpetual concessions to the popular opinion
by abolition of offices, diminution of salaries, and other
varieties of folly, became more dangerous than a Whig
administration, who may perhaps produce a state of affairs
so palpably tending to ruin as to unite all the holders of
property against the already united vulgar who have no
property. I am not sorry that in France and her cousin
Belgium the mechanics are producing combinations, we
shall see the result. It is uncertain whether from dulness
or evil design Joseph Hume abolished all laws against
combination, because the masters were not prevented from
combining, all which was fair enough, provided breach of the
peace and violation of liberty in the well-disposed workman
had been effectually suppressed, which being impossible
till we have military law and cadi justice, combination must
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 305
be rampant, to the injury of the employer and employed
equally.'
A committee of the House was appointed in 1833 to
consider the establishment of the House of Commons —
one of the many committees of inquiry into public
expenditure for which the ardour of Joseph Hume was
responsible. A very large body of evidence was given by
the officials of the House of Commons which revealed a
good many abuses. 1 Rickman, in common with the other
officials, made a return of all his emoluments, and was
also examined upon the question of the Speaker's Secretary's
salary. It is a proof of his disgust with affairs generally
that no letter of his contains an allusion to this committee,
for he must naturally have resented its appointment.
Some of the old clerks, in fact, took up in their evidence
Rickman's own point of view that payment by fees ensured
better and quicker work than a fixed salary.
Several of Rickman's letters in this year were short
treatises on the corn duties for the benefit of Southey, who
was writing an article on the subject for the Quarterly.
But he does not mention a fact of more general interest,
that in July Lamb dined with him at the ' Bell ' to meet
Godwin and be reconciled after an estrangement. There is
a letter from Lamb to Miss Rickman, written on May 23,
in which he says that he is glad she likes the Essays of
Elia. It refers also to the Rickmans calling on the
Godwins.
Southey's daughter Edith was married in this year to
Mr. Warter, who afterwards edited the Selections from
Southey's correspondence. Mr. Warter stayed with the
Rickmans early in 1834, and he pays his tribute to his
host in the following words : —
' I avail myself of a note to express the high respect I
entertained for this excellent man. In 1834 I spent a fort-
1 My article on ' The Officers of the House of Commons ' in Blackwood's
Magazine for March 1909 contains a summary of the state of affairs revealed
by this evidence.
U
306 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
night at his house, and marvelled at his immense stores
of information, and at his facility as well as pleasure in
imparting them to a willing hearer like myself. I may
mention, likewise, how, under a somewhat hard exterior,
there was the deepest sense of Christian charity. I had
a never-to-be-forgotten opportunity of noticing this in a
large party at his house, on which occasion (admitting his
errors) he defended the name and memory of Porson, whom
he knew, from needless censure.' x
Rickman's attitude to post-Reform politics is well
illustrated in a passage from a letter of 12 February 1834 : —
' . . . I am fortunately arrived at a callous state, and
feel nothing of annoyance because nothing of interest in
what is going on around me : and as to result, always relying
on Shakespeare's text — ' Fair is foul and foul is fair ' —
I care not at what rate they travel towards an issue,
because I do not clearly see what pace is most likely to
lead to a good issue.'
The first political event of more than party importance in
this year was the publication of the Poor Law report,
which led to the Poor Law Amendment act. Rickman's
interest in the question, as I have shown, was constant
throughout his life, and the following passage from a letter
written three years before this date shows how deeply he
had considered poor law reform : —
' 24 April 1831.
' . . . I hesitate about the best movement towards the
amendment of the Poor Laws ; there is likelihood I think
that Sir Robert Peel would gladly try to effect this during
his absence from office, which would give him a great
reputation, but which would cost too much attention when
in office. I could fit up the apparatus readily, having
not only arguments but clauses ready drawn in store. I
would propose that he should make a circumstantial speech
and print the bill in the summer session, and I could hear
1 Selections from the Correspondence of R, S., ii. 125, note.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 307
and dispose of all observations (they would not be few)
in the autumn. . . .'
Nevertheless, when the report was issued his comment
upon it to Southey was rather grudging. In common with
many other people he seems to have regarded the recom-
mendation to appoint commissioners with great dis-
favour, as giving an opening for political jobbery — a view
somewhat inconsistent with his defence of sinecure offices as
a support for Government in Parliament.
The Government in 1834 was torn by internal dissensions
over their Irish policy. On July 9 Grey resigned, and for
a short time Melbourne, assisted by Althorp, carried on the
Administration. Rickman's commentary on the outward
aspect of affairs is worth quoting.
' 2 May 1834.
' . . . We have no light here as to the end of the session.
The ministry cannot carry their imperfect bills unless in a
huddle, as last session in the month of August, so that I
anticipate not early liberation.
' A rumour is afloat that Lord Grey from age and an
increasing rupture will no longer keep office, and who to
substitute they know not. Lord Brougham would have no
objection and the indecorum could not be greater than
making such a Keeper of the K.'s conscience.
' I value the D. of W.'s opinion not at all. As bad a
statesman as he is a good general, and curiously sub-
stituting one character for the other in the stratagem of
surprise whereby he carried the R. Cath. question, the
grossest of all specimens of impropriety in civil government.
His insult to all Scotland in the promotion of Abercromby 1
was not so bad. But the worst of proceedings from want of
foresight or pure ignorance of the working of the English
Government was the abolition of about 20 offices which
produced the regular squadron in support of Government
in the Ho. Commons. At present this band of defence is
1 He was made chief baron of the Exchequer of Scotland in 1830.
308 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
reduced to about 20, they are low enough at 50, and the
Government now lies open to defeat from any concert of
50 Democrats on any question ; and by multiplying such
questions the Democrats and Radicals cannot but succeed
in course of time. So much for the wisdom of the D. of W.
If we can arrive at a good military government, the only
chance left, the said Duke will do well enough, till then he
is best on the shelf. . . .'
During this year Mrs. Southey had been gradually sinking
into hopeless insanity. In June, writing to Rickman,
Southey refers to ' my poor Edith,' and at the beginning of
October he left her at a lunatic asylum in York. On
October 7 he writes to Rickman : ' We have an account
from York to-day, not a favourable one, yet perhaps quite
as much so as ought to have been expected.' It was the
great tragedy of his closing years, which had a very marked
effect upon bis spirits and his intellectual powers. Rickman
very truly sympathised, though he was incapable of ex-
pressing his feelings. Yet when he found that Telford
had left Southey a legacy of £500, he offered to advance at
once any sum up to £450 ' if from recent event (or otherwise)
desirable.'
On October 16 occurred the disastrous fire in which the
greater part of the Houses of Parliament were burnt down.
As is well known, it was caused by the too rapid burning of
old Exchequer tallies of wood in a stove. It began in the
House of Lords and rapidly spread. The Rickmans were
in Palace Yard at the time, except Ann Rickman, who was
in the country with her uncle. It is to this fact that we owe
the graphic account written on the very night by Frances
Rickman, afterwards Mrs. Hone, to her sister. By Miss
Lefroy's courtesy, I am enabled to reproduce it.
1 Palace Yard, 17th Oct.
' J fast 3 a.m.
' Thank God, my dearest Anne, after near eight hours
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 309
dreadful doubt, we seem all safe, though I am still partly
lighted by the still blazing House of Commons ! I fear you
will hear of the awful fire before this reaches you. ... I
will give you as collected an account as I can, for my legs
ache and I could not sleep, so I may as well write. After
dinner, at § past six this evening, Papa and Mamma taking
a nap, in came Ellis, " I think, Miss, there 's a small fire
broke out at the House of Lords." I said " Come with
me to the leads to see it," and there, even then, a volume
of flame was blowing towards the Wildes'. Papa at first
thought it could be got under, but soon it fearfully grew,
and we had little doubt the Hall would catch. The House
of Lords we could not see, but some heard that it and Mr.
Ley's and the Library were destroyed : then the flames
burst from the House of Commons windows, and sooner than
I could believe the interior of that was destroyed. Now
see my view, the west window in bow room my prospect,
front state rooms of Speaker's remain entire (outwardly),
red smoke rises from the quadrangle, and the open House
of Commons arches (ruined like Fountains Abbey) are
filled with an orange light, nearly the whole of the south
end of the Speaker's is destroyed. . . . But for the woeful
effects on us ! I first ran to the Wildes' who with Mr.
Gurtkin were in agony that, as first appeared probable,
they would be burnt ; even then blazing papers were float-
ing over and in their garden. I brought some valuables to
our house. But soon the tide turned and we were in danger,
so Papa thought we should put things together. . . . Poor
Mamma was much overcome at first, but that made me
stronger, as I felt I must look to everything, Papa being
then rather provokingly easy. By this time we had many
helps and constant knocking at the door. . . . Presently
in came poor Mr. Manning who had spent the day out . . .
he saw it in Oxford Street and rushed down. Ellis, Mr.
Pritt, Apps, James the Dean of Ripon's servant sent to
help. Mrs. Doctor Holland's ooachman and footman here,
when came a knock, and Henry Taylor answered my
"your name, if you please," before I let him in. He had
310 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
a tall, elegant friend with him, Mr. Edward Vilhers, 1 and
they insisted on being active chief managers under me,
and worked furiously, H. T. getting coaches, taking their
number, fining them, and sending a servant on the box of
each to unload . . . for the books were tied in sheets,
drawers emptied, everything dismantled. Here (bow room)
only a few chairs, sofas and the table remain. . . . Fancy
the whole house dismantled, H. T. and his friend working
away, I shall never cease to respect his judicious manage-
ment and energy. . . . Captain Colquhoun was directing on
the Speaker's House. They knocked in the roof. The furni-
ture all thrown out of the windows, even china, mirrors. . . .
The police order was beautiful. The Horse Guards down,
and H. T. as he came met Lord Munster, and consider-
1 This is curiously corroborated by a letter published for the first time
this year in Mrs. C. W. Earle's Memoirs and Memories. Mr. Edward
Villiers was her father, and on October 17, 1834, he wrote as follows to
his mother : —
' Of course the fire is the engrossing topic ; the accounts in all the news-
papers are so very full and correct that there is no use in repeating them.
I saw it all, at least from the commencement till one o'clock, and part of
the time was very actively engaged. I left the Athenaeum where I had
been dining with Taylor and Rickman, the Clerk of the House of
Commons, a great friend of his. We went to see if he wanted assistance,
as his house stands on one side of Westminster Hall, in immediate danger-
I assisted in gutting his house, and such a scene of confusion never was
seen. I got also a most splendid view of the fire which was burning all
around the house. Had I not seen half Constantinople burnt down I
would say it was the finest sight I had ever seen, and here also there were
peculiar beauties which the other could not have, such as the lighting up
of the Abbey, a more beautiful sight than that never was beheld. All
the attempts to arrest the fire were for hours unsuccessful ; they deserved
to be, for they were really contemptible considering the age in which we
live, nothing ready, nothing effective when it was ready, and no manage-
ment whatever. Nothing of great value is lost, and nothing which
cannot be replaced — so as the glorious old Hall is saved (and it really
was almost a miracle that it was), I don't so much mind, and nothing is
known as to its origin, but the evidence which they have had at the
Home Office is all in favour of accident, some stoppage in the flues. It
certainly, however, burst forth in three places at once. The people gave
three cheers when the roof of the House of Lords fell in. The King has,
I believe, offered Buckingham Palace. This is a true and particular
account of all I know on the matter. It is still burning but quite sub-
dued, and they are emptying the Thames upon it. . . .'
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 311
ately asked for a dozen soldiers to stand at our door.
What a subject for his next poem ! I am truly thankful
that I was able to use more energy than I can now believe
possible. Truly strength is given in the day of trial. Poor
Hannah was white as a sheet and Jane very frightened.
Dear Mamma soon became cool and packed in the trunks as
if going on a journey. Mr. Manning established himself
in two chairs in the long passage. Papa and Mr. Payne
took me out to the corner of Palace Yard to see the Abbey,
such a grand sight as I pray I may never see again ; the
bright moon in dark clouds, and the clear red and blue and
yellow light. Oh ! no one who did not see it can picture
it. . . . You will be astonished that H. Taylor should be the
hero. I should think the Speaker will be up soon. I hope
the Gobelin tapestry is saved. Fancy the Spanish Armada
and all etc. destroyed ! . . . The Whigs and Reform
Parliament will indeed be remembered. We need not look
for a new lease in this neighbourhood. . . .
' Half past six. Daylight, and after a hard fight to save
the Hall, the fire is all out. . . .'
At the prorogation of Parliament, which occurred soon
after, Rickman acted as Clerk, Mr. Ley, the Clerk, and his
son, the second Clerk Assistant, having lost their wigs
in the fire. Rickman announced the news to Southey with
great composure.
' 22 October 1834.
' We are all well, and the good of destroying a mass of
useless incumbrances is equivalent to the repairable evil
of £1000 £1500 in buying books for the upper rooms of the
library, the contents of the lower room little injured. The
Ho. Commons (I beg pardon of the improved St. Stephen's
Chapel) makes an excellent ruin, the crypt and beautiful
cloister adjoining prove the efficacy of arched roofs, as
they are imagined, even to the colouring of the keystones
and bosses, so you must not blame me for vilifying the
wooden substitute (a kind of architectural fraud) at York,
312 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
which caught fire in 1829, and has cost £100,000 in
reparation.
' Miss F. R. who did not quail in the least — will I think
send you a sketch — which will show how wonderfully the
hall escaped. The populace are greatly interested for that
in particular, and exulted loudly when the engines seemed
to prevail. All our books and other valuables were moved,
and all are safely at home again, the police and military
maintaining order without difficulty, no outrage attempted.
Mr. Taylor visited us early in the fire, and distinguished
himself as commander in chief of our auxiliaries till all
was over, at half past two o'clock. He will dine with us
to-morrow with other fire workers — to glory in past labours
and past peril.'
Rickman's last letter of the year refers to the change of
Ministry. On Al thorp's going to the House of Lords,
Melbourne found it impossible to carry on. The King again
had recourse to Wellington, who never disobeyed a royal
command. Peel joined him, and before going to country
early in 1835, he issued his famous ' Tarn worth Manifesto '
containing the Conservative policy.
' 26 Nov. 1834.
' ... So far as political change has gone, I look at it
with little interest ; the eagerness of the D. of W. for
office indicates surely enough that he will do anything to
keep it — and in any manner. So much of consistency one
cannot help ascribing to him after his oblique military
movement in carrying the R.C. question, whence and from
his official retrenchments, which abolished half the influence
of the Crown, followed of necessity Reform of Parlt.
which, good man ! he then opposed. Was he sincere in his
blindness ? Posterity will have to decide. And whether
Sir R. P. was duped or a confederate ? The horns of this
dilemma are awkward against him. . . .'
The year 1834 saw the death of two old friends. Coleridge
died on July 25. Southey's coldness on this event is well-
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 313
known — a lapse in an otherwise generous character. Rick-
man's attitude was very similar. On December 27 Lamb
followed Coleridge to the grave. Five days before, he had
stumbled over a stone, and the effects of the fall were fatal.
Talfourd tells how Mr. Ryle, who was co-executor with him
of Lamb's will, called to tell him of Lamb's danger. It is
therefore interesting to read Rickman's letter to Southey
upon his death. The authority which Rickman had for
ascribing the remoter cause of Lamb's death to intoxication
is, of course, vague. It will be charitable to suppose that
his severity towards certain human weaknesses had perhaps
distorted his version of what he had heard. It is certainly
melancholy to compare his cold words with Lamb's warm
letter upon their first acquaintance, more than thirty years
back. Southey had already written on January 3, 1835 : —
' . . . Poor Lamb ! It is better that he should have
gone first than that he should have survived his poor sister.
She, when she is in a condition to understand her loss,
will be better able to bear it wisely than he would have been,
because she will more naturally (as it were) fly to the only
source of consolation. When the time comes for their sad
story to be told, I know no author whose writings will be
perused with a more mournful interest. . . .'
Here is Rickman's answer.
•' 24 January 1835.
' . . . Lamb died just before I left town and Mr. Ryle
of the E. India House, one of his extors., whom I know,
notified it to me, and promised to call, but he has not yet
done so, and I believe his letter gave too favourable a state-
ment of circumstances. He said Miss L. was resigned and
composed at the event, but it was from her malady, then in
mild type, so that when she saw her brother dead, she
observed on his beauty when asleep and apprehended
nothing further. In like manner, it was said by Mr. Ryle,
that C. L. died of erysipelas, but induced (if induced at all)
I now find by some unhappy violence he sustained in a
314 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
state of reckless intemperance. I always thought such
must be his end, and am surprised how it was delayed so
long. The better side of the picture is, that he has left
about £1200, with which and otherwise, Miss L. will be well
sustained. I do not know further particulars, which you
will learn (no doubt) here.
' The new Tory Government are determined to stand, as
I believe at whatever expense of concession to their enemies,
and to outbid the Whigs in reform of Church and State.
The Whigs on their part, especially the Dissenter Whigs or
State puritans, seemed to join the Radicals during the
elections, because otherwise they had no chance of a strong
party in Parliament. How these worthies will act, we
cannot foresee. Each will jesuitize for himself I suppose,
and these will a beautiful medley. Farewell. With good
wishes to your circle.'
The end of Rickman's letter refers to the result of the
general election which was held in January. The Con-
servatives numbered about 270 in the new House, but a
coalition of the Whigs and Irish outnumbered them, the
first proof of which was the election of Abercromby as
Speaker against the Ministerial candidate, Manners-
Sutton. In April Peel saw no course open to him but
resignation. He was succeeded by Melbourne and the
Whigs, whose government remained in office till after the
accession of Queen Victoria. Rickman's last letter upon
politics was written in this year.
■ July 31, 1835.
1 We at the Ho. Commons are mispending our time sadly,
— but the Rads. and the Whiggery are so nearly matched in
the Ho. Commons, and have so lost their influence with the
Vox populi that the Ho. Lords resumes its efficacy, and no
great harm can be attempted, and less effected.
' The regular Squad of Rads. had a steady muster last
evening, and beat the Ministry and such of the Tories as
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 315
were present. 1 So contemptible is become Government
influence over their own official men, that they could not
muster half a dozen M.P.'s, and this against a motion,
which if pursued to the extent the Rads. expect, annihilates
the authority of the Crown over the army, inasmuch as a
Commn. of Rads. would reverse the sentence of a court
martial after royal approval.'
Early in the year Peel had written to Southey offering
him a baronetcy, and asking whether there was anything
else which he could do in recognition of his literary
achievements. Southey sent a long and dignified answer,
in which he refused the baronetcy, on the grounds of having
no property with which to support such an honour. But
he pointed out at the same time that his labours had been
the sole means of supporting the family to whom he was
so devoted ; and that, since old age was now upon him,
he would be grateful for anything that could make their
worldly position more secure. Peel's answer was to increase
his pension soon afterwards to £300 a year. There is a
characteristic passage in a letter from Rickman referring
to the proffered baronetcy, an honour for which he had a
great contempt.
' 7 February 1835.
' I have received your letter and am glad to learn that
I may direct to you as usual. I somewhat dreaded the
Tuesday Gazette, lest you might there have fallen under
the description of the some men " who have honours cast
upon them." You will see by this that H. T. [Taylor]
had called here, (Sunday evening in fact) and told what was
threatened. I pleaded against your baronetcy, the fitness
of landed property, almost of entailed property, and the
enormous unfitness of making honours cheap by a com-
pulsory instance. About the more sensible part of the
double intention in your favour I said what occurred to me,
1 On a motion to appoint a select committee to inquire into the conduct
of General Darling while Governor of New South Wales. The House sat
till after twelve o'clock on the 31st, and the Government were beaten by
66 to 47.
316 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
and as H. T. was to dine with the magnates on Tuesday, he
begged me to write (if time permitted) to him on Monday.
So I did, and I think urged successfully the impolicy of
grades of pension, an eternal source it would be of malice
and spite and dissension where there should be none, and
the whole affair would be disgraced by personal polemics
before the public'
In September of this year Rickman was finally removed
from his old house in Palace Yard. It was curious that
though the old Exchequer had been threatened several
years before, it had, as a matter of fact, outlived the wholly
unexpected destruction of the Houses of Parliament by
fire. As early as 1825 Southey had written : ' My dearest
associations with London will be destroyed when your house
and the Exchequer shall be pulled down.' Again on May
29, 1830 Southey wrote :—
' . . . I almost think if your house in P. Yard and the
old Exchequer were pulled down, I should hardly ever have
heart to visit London again, so many, many years have I
had a home in that corner, or made my first visit to it on
my arrival in town. From 1788 to 1792 I frequented it
as a schoolboy, and have frequented it ever since. And
never have I spent more pleasant or more profitable hours
than in your society and as your guest. The luckiest
chance of my life (for mere chance it apparently was) was
that which took me to Christchurch.'
However, the demolition scheme came to nothing, and
on February 5, 1832 Rickman wrote : —
' The old Excheqr. has a kind of reprieve in the dismissal
of Sir Henry Parnell, 1 who aimed at establishing himself
and his coadjutor, or rather bear-leader, Dr. Bowring . . . in
office for life, suspending the old fashioned Excheqr.'
1 Afterwards Lord Congleton. He was secretary at war in 1831, and
was dismissed in January 1832 for refusing to support the ministry in the
Russian-Dutch war question.
Judge Jeffreys' House in Duke Street, Westminster.
(From a water-colour by T. II. Shepherd in /SjJ.)
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 317
Now, however, the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster
made demolition inevitable, and Rickman found his last
resting-place in that house in Duke Street, Westminster,
which was built by Judge Jeffreys, and had once been
used as the Admiralty. This house, which stood till the
beginning of last year in Delahay Street, has now itself been
pulled down to make room for new Government offices.
Rickman writes of it as follows : —
' 23 Duke Street, Westmr.,
' 17 Sept. 1835.
' Your letter finds me rather unsettled, in a new abode,
as we were desired to quit Palace Yard at the end of August
to make room for the demolition of the old Excheqr., and
consequently of your ancient haunt. On the pressure of
the occasion I found a house in most desolate murky con-
dition, as a receptacle for furniture rather than inhabitants,
but window-cleaning, whitewashing, etc. have so improved
appearances that we are likely to settle here. It constitutes
a fourth part of a mansion temp. Car. n., built I believe by
Jeffries, who became known and was rewarded for his
cruelty by the Chancellorship. But the mob caught him,
I believe, at the Revolution. We possess his central
staircase and the adjoining rooms, which are sufficiently
ample. Everybody has worked with zeal, and with good
help ; yet a month's work will be required (three weeks
of it already passed) to arrive at convenience. . . .'
Southey replied : —
'Sept. 20, 1835.
' So you are unhoused at last, and when I next come to
London my old haunts of six and forty years will have dis-
appeared from the face of the earth. Well, they may
easily make a handsomer building on the Exchequer, but
pleasanter society than I have enjoyed by your presence
in that corner will never be collected upon the same
ground — or elsewhere.
' I hope your emancipation is at hand : for otherwise in
318 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
bad weather and cold nights you will feel the inconvenience
of the distance from W. Hall. . . .'
Early in 1836 the two friends had some idea of working
up the material of their Colloquies. Southey wrote on
January 31 : ' . . . Two months hence I hope to feel so
much at leisure as to work up Colloquial materials. John
Murray is now so utterly regardless of all business or forms
of business, that there could not be a fitter person to bring
into the present cabinet.'
But nothing came of the scheme. Between April 1836
and August 1838 no letters from Rickman to Southey have
been preserved. In May 1836 Mrs. Rickman died, and in
the same year Frances Rickman became Mrs. Hone. In
Southey's letters during the autumn, which are very short,
there are allusions to an operation upon Rickman's eyes.
Nevertheless, we know that between 1835 and 1837 Rick-
man contributed several articles to the Medical Gazette.
In October 1837 Southey wrote sadly : ' Our long tragedy
is now fast drawing to a close ' ; and Mrs. Southey died in
November. From then till his death Southey gradually
sunk into a state of childishness, though at first it was
only shown in a certain incapacity for concentration. In
1838 he reviewed the Life of Telford, edited by Rickman,
in the Quarterly, and in December again spoke of resuming
the Colloquies.
In 1839 Southey married Caroline Bowles, but there is no
allusion to her in his short notes to Rickman, of whom we
know nothing but that he produced in that year a large
Return of Local Taxation based upon all his former returns.
In 1840 he began to be busy with the Population Bill for
1841 which was brought in on June 1. On June 2 Rickman
fell ill. Exposure to the night air after long sittings in the
House, now necessitated by his no longer living in the
precincts, caused an ulcerated larynx. It was with diffi-
culty that he was persuaded to remain away from his work,
but even on his sick-bed he was able to write a long letter
of thirty-six paragraphs to the Home Office to defend him-
H o
£S
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN 319
self, in the words of his son's memoir, against ' a series of
anonymous strictures ' upon the methods of compiling the
Population Returns. ' The commentary proved to be
conclusive ' : but the hardy census-taker was not to see a
fifth census. Rickman's illness was fatal : ' a sad painful
struggle for breath it was,' says Mrs. Lefroy. For two
months he lingered, and died on August 11, 1840, ' in great
composure of mind and body.' He was buried beside his
wife in St. Margaret's, Westminster.
So died John Rickman in his sixty-ninth year. I cannot
conclude this memoir more fittingly than by noticing the
proceedings of the House of Commons on February 2 and 3,
1841. On February 2 the Speaker called the notice of the
House to Rickman's death, and to a letter from his son
relating to a series of papers on procedure collected by
Rickman, which he desired to place at the disposal of the
House. Lord John Russell thereupon gave notice that he
would move a resolution on the subject next day. On
February 3 the resolution was proposed by Lord John
Russell and seconded by Mr. Goulburn, both of whom
spoke of Rickman's services in the highest terms, referring
especially to the fund of information which he was always
ready to impart to those who desired it. Rickman's friend,
Sir Robert Inglis, also pronounced a eulogy, but perhaps
the most remarkable tribute was from the Radical, Joseph
Hume, with whose views Rickman was in violent disagree-
ment, as will have been gathered. He said : ' I am unwilling
to allow this vote to pass without expressing my humble
approbation of the conduct of the late Mr. Rickman. I
have never known a public officer so modest, so unassuming,
possessed of such varied knowledge respecting the affairs
of Parliament, and yet so ready to afford every information
to others. The labours of Mr. Rickman generally in
statistical matters, to which I have paid particular attention,
have been highly valuable ; and, specially as regards the
preface to the Population Returns, will stand unrivalled
in the amount of information and in the concise manner in
which he brought it before this House. I therefore most
320 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
cordially concur in expressing my sense of the value of his
services. I may add that I had frequently occasion to
consult him on matters connected with the rules of this
House, and on documents before it, and I always found him
most friendly and ready to afford every information in his
power. I am bound to say that I received most valuable
assistance from Mr. Rickman in my various duties in this
House. . . .'
The resolution, passed nem. con., ran as follows : —
' That this House entertains a just and high sense of the
distinguished and exemplary manner in which John
Rickman, Esquire, late Clerk Assistant of this House,
uniformly discharged the Duties of his situation during his
long attendance at the Table of this House.'
The portrait which forms the frontispiece of this volume
was subsequently published, and underneath was written
a verdict which Rickman himself would have considered
the highest praise —
An Honest Man.
INDEX
Abbot, Charles. See Colchester.
Abercromby, James (Lord Dunferm-
line), 307, 314.
Absenteeism, Hickman on, 241,
301.
Addington, Henry (Lord Sidmouth),
44, 46, 79, 105, 109, 141.
Aikin, Dr., 49.
All the Talents, Ministry of, 12,
136-44.
Althorp, Lord, 263, 272, 279, 282,
293, 295, 307, 312.
Arbuthnot, Charles, 184, 185, 208.
Astley's Circus, 126, 225, 226.
Ayrton, William, 128.
Ball, Sir Alexander, 151.
Baring, Alexander, 274, 294, 295.
Bedford, G. C, 51,52, 148, 176,203,
204.
Bdguinages, 15, 16, 23-25, 33, 39,
88, 216-18.
Bell, Dr., 160, 163, 214.
Bellingham, John, 160, 161.
Benger, Elizabeth, 76.
Bennet, Hon. Henry, 212.
Bilderdijk, the Dutch poet, 231.
Bourne, Sturges, 191.
Bristol, Southey at, 24, 25, 44, 81,
82, 83, 85.
Brougham, Lord, 12, 13, 167-69,
185, 189, 190, 203, 206, 208,
210-12, 224, 230, 233, 234, 258,
264, 268, 272, 273, 280, 301, 307.
Brunswickers, the, 257, 258.
Burdett, SirF., 12, 13, 82, 125, 149,
152, 153, 160, 212, 224, 228, 229,
231, 234, 236, 240, 250.
Burnett, George, 2, 4, 67.
his relations with Rickman, 7, 8,
45, 58, 68, 90-92, 94-98, 102,
103, 144, 152.
Lamb's opinion of, 18, 50, 51,
54-56, 74, 85.
Burnett, George — continiied.
early life of, 44, 45.
employed by Rickman on the
census, 46, 48, 49, 64.
idle disposition of, 49, 50, 83.
literary work of, 56, 111.
his relations with Coleridge, 44,
45, 85, 103, 104, 155, 156.
Dyer's opinion of, 59, 60.
scolded by Rickman, 60, 61, 65.
quarrels with Southey, 61, 62, 82,
84, 85.
Southey's opinion of, 61, 62, 65,
66, 71.
tutor to Lord Stanhope's sons, 71,
72, 75, 82, 83.
wishes to become a naval surgeon,
90-92.
gets a commission as surgeon in
the militia, 94-98.
gives it up, 102, 103.
goes to Poland, 103, 104, 111.
reduced to misery, 152.
dies in a workhouse, 155, 156.
letters of, to Thomas Poole, 8,
95-98.
to Rickman, 8, 96.
Burney, Admiral, 9, 80, 81, 90, 110,
118, 127, 128, 129, 139.
Martin, 129.
Burton, Southey at, 22.
Byron, Lord, 163, 219 ; works of,
296.
Calder, Sir Robert, 137, 139.
Caledonian Canal, the, 15, 111, 112,
131, 132, 181, 182, 207, 210, 218,
219, 220, 223, 252.
Campbell, Thomas, 181.
Camelford, Lord, 31.
Canning, George, 12, 13, 149, 150,
161, 214, 221-23, 224, 228, 229,
233, 234, 250, 256; administra-
tion of, 233, 234, 240.
322 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HICKMAN
Carlisle, Sir Anthony, 91, 94.
Caroline, Queen, 126, 167-69, 212,
213, 218, 222, 255.
Castle Rackrent, 67, 68.
Castlereagh, Lord, 137, 149, 208,
214, 221.
Catholic Association, the, 229.
Cato Street Conspiracy, the, 212.
Census, the. See Population Returns.
Chalmers, Dr., 302.
Chidham, Rickman at, 76, 226-28.
Christchurch, Rickman at, 21, 22,
24, 25, 32, 35, 39, 316.
Clare election, the, 240.
Clark, Miss (Marchioness of Ormond),
22, 198.
Clerks of the House of Commons,
the, 10, 78, 133, 305.
Cleveland, Lord, 284.
Cobbett, William, 149, 180, 192,
250.
Cockpit, the, 40, 58, 70.
Colchester, Lord (Charles Abbot,
Speaker of the House of Com-
mons), 40, 45, 51, 72, 74, 98-102,
115, 126, 134, 155, 207, 229,
249, and see Rickman, J., letters
of ; diaries of, 2, 3, 51, 207-10,
233.
Coleridge, Samuel Hartley, 27, 34,
76, 78, 79, 86, 112, 118, 167,
281.
his high opinion of Rickman, 2, 5,
105, 107.
on Lamb's smoking and drinking,
6, 157.
Rickman's opinion of, 7, 88, 102,
107, 108, 143, 144, 151.
his relations with Burnett, 8, 44,
45, 69, 72, 84, 85, 104, 155,
156.
works for the Morning Post in
London, 67.
Rickman finds him a ship, 102-
108.
returns from Malta, 143.
separates from his wife, 144.
edits the Friend, 147, 150, 151.
on Parliamentary reform, 162, 163.
his tragedy 'Remorse,' 163-66.
defends Southey in the Courier,
189
death of, 312, 313.
Coleridge, Samuel Hartley — contd.
letters of, to Rickman, 3, 18, 80,
103-107, 156, 157, 161-66.
Commercial, Agricultural, and Manu-
facturers' Magazine, the, 7, 10,
28, 29, 31, 38, 64, 66.
Commission for building churches in
the Highlands and Islands, 15,
132, 231,285.
Commission for building roads and
bridges in the Highlands, 15, 111,
112, 131, 132, 181, 213, 218, 224,
252.
Commons, House of, 12, 13, 14, 15,
77-79, 81, 83, 106, 109, 116, 128,
133, 134, 146, 147, 152, 153, 160,
161, 162, 167, 168, 175, 184, 185,
187, 189, 202, 207-12, 220, 221,
222, 224, 225, 228-31, 236, 243-
45, 250-54, 256-58, 260-64, 266,
267, 273-96, 299-305, 307, 308-
12, 314, 315, 319, 320.
Conservative Party, the, 299, 300,
312, 314.
Co-operation, 198, 246-49.
Corn Laws, the, 109, 175, 176, 185,
252, 270, 305.
Corporation Act, repeal of, 240,
292.
Corry, Isaac, 51, 56, 57, 63, 64, 69,
71, 79.
Cottle, Amos, 27, 33, 36, 46.
Joseph, 22, 27, 33, 44, 72.
R., 33.
Crabb Robinson, diary of, 2, 44,
129, 156.
Croker, John Wilson, 154, 155, 173,
174, 191, 195, 203, 209, 249, 295.
Cumberland, Duke of, 266.
Currency, Rickman on, 80, 235, 236,
270, 287, 288.
Curwen, John Christian, 191, 192.
Dale, Db., 53, 54.
Danvers, Charles, 44, 47, 82, 89.
D'Arblay, Madame, 127, 128.
Davison, Alexander, 137, 138.
Davy, Sir Humphry, 25, 30, 31, 47,
72, 80, 81.
Druitt, Mary, 74.
Drury Lane Theatre, Coleridge at,
163-66.
INDEX
323
Dublin, Rickman at, 51, 52, 57, 63,
68, 72-74, 76.
Dundas, R. See Melville, Lord.
Dyer, George, 2, 4, 33, 56, 58, 70,
74.
introduces Rickman to Lamb, 7,
34, 35.
procures Rickman an editorship,
7, 28, 29.
and Charles Lamb, 7, 17, 18, 34,
35, 39, 50, 93, 94.
talked by the Lambs into love with
Miss Benger, 7, 75, 76.
character of, 26.
first meeting of Rickman with, 26,
27.
poems of, 27, 37, 39, 54.
and George Burnett, 45, 59, 60,
83, 84.
rescued by Lamb from starvation,
52-54, 60, 63.
dines with Rickman, 81, 83.
on Sir F. Burdett's Committee, 82.
letters of, to Rickman, 7, 17, 34,
59, 60, 93.
Dyson, Thomas, 126.
East India Company, the, 106, 138,
139, 167, 168.
East Retford, disenfranchisement of,
240, 250, 267.
Ebrington, Lord, 304.
Economic distress in England, 37,
179, 180, 186, 190-92, 206, 207,
214, 215, 219, 257.
Edinburgh Annual Register, the, 154,
234-37.
Edinburgh Review, the, 144, 148,
186, 200, 204.
Eldon, Lord, 228, 229, 231.
Election petitions, 77, 78, 83, 132.
Ellenborough, Lord, 295.
Exchequer Buildings, 124, 125, 316,
317.
Etymology, Rickman on, 80, 122,
123, 130.
Forty-shilling freeholders, 240, 243,
266, 287.
Franking, privilege of, 78, 98-102,
103. 106, 107.
Free Trade, Rickman on, 252, 260,
270.
Fricker, George, 80, 167.
Friend, the, 10, 147, 150, 151, 162.
Fox, Charles James, 12, 13, 79, 107,
108, 113, 135, 136-38, 141-44,
255.
Gall, Dr., 241.
Gascoyne, General, 278, 279, 280.
George in., 12, 30, 46, 48, 79, 108,
113, 136, 143-45, 149, 152, 153,
212, 231, 255.
George iv„ 13, 109, 126, 137, 138,
146, 153, 154, 155, 212, 214, 221,
234, 237, 242, 243, 251, 258, 259,
260, 261, 262, 264, 265.
Gifford, William, 154, 155, 191, 195,
199, 204.
Goderich, Lord, 234, 239, 272
administration of, 234, 237, 240.
Godwin, William, 6, 35, 36, 50, 55,
80, 305.
Goulburn, Henry, 263, 264, 319.
Graham, Sir James, 253, 272, 283,
284.
Grampound, disenfranchisement of,
250.
Grattan, Henry, 12, 73, 167, 209,
228, 229.
Grenville, Lord, 13, 105, 136, 137,
139, 145, 149, 150, 153, 154, 160,
168, 219, 228.
Grenville's Diary, 283, 286.
Grey, Lord, 12, 13, 136, 138, 142,
144, 145, 149, 150, 153, 154, 168,
263, 272, 280, 2S8, 289, 293, 295,
296, 307 ; administration of, 268,
272-90, 292-96, 299-305, 307.
Griffiths, the bookseller, 28, 31.
Guildford Grammar School, Rickman
at, 21, 22.
Fees versus Salaries, Rickman on,
140, 141, 236. Hadfikld, James,
Fitzwilliam, Lord, 211, 215. j Hallam's Constitutional History, 238.
Foreign affairs, Rickman on, 46, 63, Hanover, Rickman on, 143, 144.
64, 117, 135, 143, 144, 167, 173, Hansard, Luke, 205, 242; letter of,
174, 218, 240, 284, 287, 304. to Rickman, 205.
324 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Hansard's printing office, 268, 272,
273
Hazlitt, William, 6, 26, 119, 128,
129, 156, 157, 166.
Herries, John Charles, 234, 237,
264, 300.
Hill, Dr., 39, 238.
Hobhouse, J. Cam (Lord Broughton),
266.
Holcroft, Tom, 129.
Holland, Lord, 154, 261.
Howick, Lord, 275.
Hume, Joseph, 257, 304, 305, 319,
320.
Hunt, Leigh, 128.
'Orator,' 180, 192, 250, 255,
275.
Huskisson, William, 150, 233, 234,
237, 238, 240, 244, 256, 261, 266,
267.
Inglts, Sir Robert, 233, 243, 319.
Ireland, 30, 44, 46, 47, 51, 52, 57,
68, 72-74, 100, 141, 155,223,229,
230, 240, 241, 243, 244, 248, 252,
253, 257, 273, 282, 287, 294, 299-
301.
Irish Party, the, 14; and see
O'Connell.
Joan of Arc, Southey's poem, criti-
cised by Rickman, 23.
'John Woodvi!,' by Charles Lamb,
10, 39, 64, 65, 68, 70, 74, 75, 94.
Journals of the House of Commons,
the, 15, 133, 134.
Judge Jeffreys, house of, in Duke
Street, 317.
Keswick, Southey at, 79, 91, 130,
134, 194, 225, 233, 262, 269.
Knatchbull, Sir Edward, 275, 270.
Lamb, Charles —
his friendship with Rickman, 2, 4,
34-36, 39, 118.
his Wednesday evenings, 2.
Essays of, 4, 36, 119, 225.
and George Dyer, 7, 26, 52-54, 56,
58-60, 67, 72, 76, 94.
and Burnett, 8, 54-56, 57, 59, 61,
72, 84, 85,86, 156.
Lamb, Charles — continued
his play, ' John Woodvil,' 10, 39,
64, 65, 67, 68, 74, 75, 94.
new facts about, 17, 18.
and Coleridge, 27.
introduced by Dyer to Rickman,
34, 35, 39.
his opinion of Southey's Joan of
Arc, 36.
Rickman's news-writer in 1801, 50,
51.
writes in the Morning Post, 69, 70,
71, 72.
Rickman on his wit, 39, 71.
his epitaph on Mary Druitt, 74.
stays with Rickman, 87, 88, 247.
goes to Sadlers Wells with Southey
and the Rickmans, 89.
Coleridge on, 105, 106, 156, 157,
165, 166.
and Edward Phillips, 111, 112.
on Mrs. Rickman, 119.
at Rickman's house, 128, 129.
pleads for Martin Burney, 129.
writes the Prologue for Coleridge's
'Remorse,' 163, 165, 166.
his dispute with Southey, 225.
Southey's message to, 247.
dines with Rickman in 1829, 335.
Rickman and Southey on his
death, 313, 314.
letter of, to Hazlitt, 119.
letters of, to Manning, 1, 5, 34, 35,
50.
to Rickman, 3, 17, 18, 35,
52-56, 72, 74, 90.
Frederick. See Melbourne.
Mary, 6, 9, 18> 59, 60, 65, 69,
75, 76, 87, 89, 90, 106, 128, 129,
130, 156, 247,313,314.
Lancaster, Joseph, 160.
Lansdowne, Lord, 136, 239, 240.
Ley, John Henry, 2()8, 308, 311.
Liberalism, 11, 171, 176, 183, 184,
196, 197, 211, 212, 218, 244, 245,
251, 252, 257, 258, 259, 267, 268.
Liverpool, Lord, administration of,
160, 168, 180, 184, 185, 187, 189,
192, 195, 207, 208, 210-12, 213,
218, 219-25, 22S-31, 233, 235.
and Manchester Railway,
opening of, 267.
Lincoln College, Rickman at, 22.
INDEX
325
Longmans' piiblishing house, 36, 37,
38, 47, 88, 89, 296.
Lords, House of, 14, 139, 140, 147,
153, 168, 222, 229, 231, 244, 245,
268, 280, 282, 284, 285, 286, 2S9,
293-95, 308-12, 314.
Lord Miltonians, the, 303.
Lovell, Robert, 204, 205, 268, 272,
273, 281.
Lucas, E. V., 1, 6, 17, 18, 26, 129,
247.
Lyndhurst, Lord, 294.
Macatjlay, Lord, 13, 253, 254.
Macculloch, John Ramsay, 242, 249,
260, 261.
Mackintosh, Sir James, 243, 291,
292.
'Madoc,' Southey's poem, Rickman
on, 112, 113.
Magdalen Hall, Rickman at, 22.
Malthus, Thomas Robert, 43, 148,
167, 203, 204, 237, 272, 302.
Manners-Sutton, Charles, 239, 294,
314.
Mavor's Universal History, 56, 62,
70.
May, John, 25, 36, 39.
Melbourne, Lord, 209, 272, 307, 312,
314.
Melville, Lord, 30, 115, 139-41, 255.
(son of the above), 239.
Moira, Lord, 137, 138.
More, Hannah, 71, 15S.
Morning Post, the, 67, 69, 70, 72,
105, 106.
Morpeth, Lord, 261.
Murray, John, 195, 201, 203, 241,
268, 272, 281, 282, 285, 290, 291,
292, 296, 318.
Napoleon, 31,63, 64, 79, 113, 135,
143, 144, 145, 169, 171, 173, 174,
175, 215, 235.
Natural beauty, Rickman on, 108.
Navarino, battle of, 237, 240.
Netherlands, the, Packman visits,
232, 233.
Normandy, Rickman in, 231.
O'Connell, Daniel, 13, 14, 229, 240,
241, 243, 275, 279, 282, 285, 2SS,
294, 299, 300.
x2
Ompteda, 255.
Opie, Mrs., 33.
Owen of Lanark, 180, 182.
Palmerston, Lord, 210, 272, 275.
Pautisocracy, 23, 44, 45, 96.
Parliamentary reform, 12, 118, 138,
162, 163, 179, 180, 208, 214, 222,
236, 240, 249-96, 312.
Parnell, Sir Henry, 316.
Peel, Sir Robert, 13, 209, 219, 221,
228, 233, 235, 238, 239, 240, 242-
45, 264, 274, 275, 277, 282, 283,
285, 286, 287, 289, 290, 292, 294,
295, 299, 300, 304, 306, 312, 314,
315.
Penryn, disenfranchisement of, 208,
250.
Perceval, Spencer, 12, 13, 135, 145-
47, 153, 160, 161, 228.
'Peterloo' massacre, the, 206, 211,
250, 255.
Petty, Lord Henry. See Lansdowne.
Phillips, Colonel, 127.
Phillips, Edward, 111, 112, 113-15.
the bookseller, 52, 53-55, 61,
95
Pitt, William, 12, 22, 30, 31, 37, 44,
45, 46, 48, 105, 108, 109, 113, 115,
135, 136, 138-41, 147, 228, 255.
Place, Francis, 273.
Plunket, Lord, 209, 224, 229,
241.
Poetry, Rickman on, 23, 35, 47.
Poland, Burnett in, 103, 104, 111.
Political economists, Rickman's dis-
like of, 241, 242, 249, 260, 261,
290, 302, 303.
Poole, Thomas, 3, 78, 80, 81, SO, 88,
89, 90, 95-103, 105, 118, 136,
191 ; letters of, to Rickman, 99-
102.
Poor Law reform, 15, 80, 86, 88, 89,
134, 135, 136, 143, 151, 152, 157,
167, 168, 180, 181, 182, 190-94,
196-204, 206, 237, 241, 246-48,
270, 290, 306, 307.
report of 1834, 306,
307.
Population Acts, the, 40-43.
- returns, 15, 38, 40-43, 46, 48,
86, 162, 182, 219, 220, 237, 260,
326 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
261, 262, 285, 287, 290, 298, 302
318, 319.
Porson, Richard, 35, 306.
Portland, Lord, administration of.
137, 145-47, 149.
Portugal, Southey in, 5, 29, 30, 32,
33, 35-39, 45, 75.
Press, the, Packman on, 13, 160.
161, 166, 180, 185, 187, 191, 192,
194, 202, 208, 211, 213, 214, 218,
221, 222, 267, 278, 281, 286, 288,
289, 292.
Previous question, motion of the,
300.
Prison reform, 201, 202.
Privy Council and the Reform Bill,
274, 275, 283.
Pugilism, Rickman on, 136.
Quarterly Review, the, 10, 13, 148.
154, 155, 157, 177, 178, 186, 188,
189, 191, 195, 197, 198, 203, 204,
219, 225, 234-37, 238, 241, 272,
291, 292, 305, 318.
Radicals, the. See Reform Party.
Reform Bill, the first, 11, 13, 14,
147, 188, 248, 249-51, 273-96,
299, 311.
Party, the, 11, 12, 152, 186,
212, 214, 215, 218, 220, 221, 222,
223, 224, 229, 251, 256, 258, 261,
266, 273, 280, 283, 287, 289, 299,
300, 301, 303, 308, 314, 315.
Regency, Bill, the, 153, 154.
Religious epithets, Rickman on,
169-72.
' Remorse,' by Coleridge, 6, 163-66.
Representative, the, 291.
Rickman family, origin of, 19.
Ann (Mrs. Lefroy), 119, 120-22,
124, 125, 130, 131, 147, 166, 198,
226, 227, 254, 305, 308.
reminiscences of, 3, 6, 9,
10, 18, 22, 119, 120, 124-28,
319.
Frances, 119, 122, 123, 124,
125, 198, 254, 308-11, 312, 318.
letter of, to Ann Rick-
man, 308-11.
John —
introduction passim.
born in 1771, 21.
Rickman, John — continued.
educated at Guildford Grammar
School, Magdalen Hall, and
Lincoln College, Oxford, 21, 22.
early idea of entering the Church,
22.
life at Christchurch, 22-25.
makes acquaintance of Robert
Southey, 22.
stays with Southey at Bristol in
1800, 24.
goes to London, 25.
life in London, 26-39.
meets George Dyer, 26.
becomes editor of the Commercial,
A gricultural, and Manufacturers'
Magazine, 28.
acts as Southey's literary agent,
29, 36, 37.
first acquaintance with Lamb, 35,
36.
employed in digesting the first
census, 38.
his work on the population re-
turns 1801-1840,40-43. And see
Population returns,
meets George Burnett, 46.
appointed secretary to Abbot,
Chief Secretary for Ireland, 46.
goes to Dublin, 50.
procures Southey a secretaryship
in Ireland, 51.
his troubles with Burnett, 57, 58,
60,61, 64-67, 90-92, 94-9S, 102,
152.
appointed Speaker's Secretary in
1S02, 76.
comes to live at Westminster, 77.
meeting with Thomas Poole, 80, 81.
first thoughts of marriage, 83.
Lamb stays at his house in 1803,
87.
Southey visits him, 88, 89, 110,
136, 147, 268.
his hospitality, 88, 89.
visits Sadlers Wells with Southey
and the Lambs, S9.
procures work for Thomas Poole,
80, 89.
has a tiff with Thomas Poole,
98-102.
finds a ship for Coleridge in 1804,
103-107.
INDEX
327
Rickman, John — continued.
marries Miss Postlethwaite in
1805, 115-17.
his family life at Westminster,
118-34.
at Lamb's Wednesday evenings, 6,
128, 129.
his views on education, 119-23,
152, 176.
his first honse at Westminster,
123-25, 127-29.
his house as Clerk Assistant,
125.
his holiday tours, 130, 131, 254.
his official work, 132-34.
his writings, 130, 134, 190-204,
234-37.
visits Thomas Poole, 136, 142.
visits Southey, 130, 147.
checks Southey's truculence,
169-74.
becomes second Clerk Assistant,
129, 130, 135, 175.
his work on the poor rate returns,
191.
indexes Hatsell's Precedents, 196.
depressed by the political situa-
tion, 206, 207.
tours in Scotland with Southey
and Telford, 210.
becomes Clerk Assistant, 124, 125,
130.
Bertha Southey stays at his house,
225-28.
builds a house at Chidham, 226-28.
tours in Normandy, 231.
tours in the Netherlands with
Southey, 232, 233.
witnesses debates on the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill, 243-45.
visited by Lamb in 1829, 247.
rouses Southey to action against
the reform movement, 259-264.
his views on Parliamentary reform,
262, 263, 265, 266, 267.
describes debates on the Reform
Bill, 273-90, 291-95.
wishes to retire in 1832, 297,
298.
sends in a plan for combating the
Radicals, 301.
witnesses the burning of the Houses
of Parliament, 308-12.
Rickman, John — continued.
on Lamb's death, 312.
leaves Palace Yard for Judge
Jeffreys' house in Duke Street,
316-18.
falls ill and dies in 1S40, 318, 319.
tributes to him in the House of
Commons, 319, 320.
his artistic tastes, 10.
his dress, 10, 78, 83, 126, 127.
character of, 4, 5, 9, 14, 16, 17, 51,
98, 110, 115, 116, 119, 120-23,
127, 129, 178, 231, 305, 306.
his emoluments, 77, 78, 83, 132,
133.
his honours, 43.
letters of, to his daughter Ann, 3,
9, 19-21, 77, 115, 116, 120-22.
to Lord Colchester, 3, 72-74,
130, 207-10, 224, 225, 232,
233.
to Southey, 3, 9, 10, 17, 23,
24, 26, 27-29, 30-34, 36-39,
44-50, 57, 58, 63-65, 67, 68,
70-72, 76, 81, 83-85, 88,91,92,
93, 94, 102, 103, 107-109, 110,
113, 115, 116, 129, 134, 135,
136, 143-45, 147-49, 152-56,
166-75, 176-87,188-207,210-24,
225-28, 229-31, 233, 234, 235,
236, 237-41, 243-48, 250-98,
299-305, 306-30S, 311, 312,
313-17.
to Thomas Poole, 3, 9, 86,
87, 89, 92, 96, 98, 109, 110,
111-17, 136-43, 145, 146, 149-52,
175, 176, 236.
political opinions of, 11, 12, 14,
42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 79, 92, 117,
138-47, 149, 150, 153-55, 168,
172, 176, 210-16, 218, 219,
220-24, 229-31, 235, 236, 237,
238, 240, 241, 243-45, 250-68,
273-290, 293-95, 298, 299-304,
306-308, 314, 315. See also Bur-
nett, Coleridge, Dyer, Lamb (C. ),
and Southey (R.).
and Southey, proposed Colloquies
of, 6, 13, 14, 249, 262-64, 265,
268-74, 280, 281, 282, 289,
290, 291, 292, 296, 297, 318.
Martha, 119.
— Mary, 89, 162.
328 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Rickman, Mrs., 115-17, 119, 126,
129, 131, 136, 162, 166, 172, 178,
179, 198, 221, 227, 228, 264, 282,
292, 309, 311, 318.
Rev. Thomas, 19, 21, 149.
William, 19, 20, 21.
W. C, 119, 124, 125, 198, 225,
226, 241, 242, 319.
his Memoir of John Rick-
man, 1, 40, 318-20.
Roman Catholic Emancipation, 12,
13, 48, 113, 144-46, 150, 167, 168,
209, 210, 222-25, 228-31, 233, 234,
237, 240-45, 248, 256, 258, 268,
2S4, 292, 304, 307, 312.
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 201.
Rose, Sir George, 38, 40, SO, 142.
Russell, Lord John, 14, 214, 240,
250, 273-80, 2S2, 293, 319.
Ryle, Mr., Lamb's executor, 313.
Sadlers Wells, 89.
St. Margaret's, Westminster, 1, 130,
280, 319.
St. Vincent, Lord, 139, 141.
Sandford, Mrs., Thomas Poole and
his Friends, 1, 3, 8, 44.
Scarlett, Jas. (Lord Abinger), 261,262.
Selfishness, Rickman on, 1S3, 193,
194, 196, 230, 252, 270.
Shaftesbury, Lord, 284.
Shelley, P. Bysshe, expelled from
Oxford, 158-60.
Sheridan, R. B., 12, 145, 146, 153,
154, 163.
Six Acts, the, ISO, 210, 211.
Slave Trade Bill, the, 110.
Smith, William, 1SS, 189.
Southey, Bertha, 9, 119, 225-2S, 249,
270.
Herbert, 178, 179.
Mrs., 33, 34, 38, 39, 44, 47, 72,
91, 179, 185,308,318.
Robert —
his friendship with Rickman,
passim.
meets Rickman at Christchurch,
22, 23.
his work criticised by Rickman,
23, 79, 112, 113, 136, 169-74,
176-78, 223.
visited by Rickman at Bristol, 24,
25.
Southey, Robert — continued.
goes to Portugal, 26, 29.
sale of ' Thalaba ' negotiated by
Rickman, 29, 36, 37, 39, 63, 68.
introduces Rickman to Dyer, 26.
returns to Bristol, 44.
his early connection with Burnett,
44, 45.
becomes secretary to Mr. Corry,
51,56, 63, 66, 69, 71, 75.
his life at Dublin, 51, 52.
Burnett quarrels with him, 8, 56,
82, 84, 85.
goes to London, 56, 60, 63, 66,
69.
his opinion of Burnett, 61, 62, 64,
65, 66, 67, 70, 75, 82, 84, 85,
90, 91, 95, 156.
Dyer visits him, 63.
his opinion of Lamb's play, 74,
75.
quarrels with Godwin, 80.
leaves London to settle at Kes-
wick, 79.
introduces Poole to Rickman, 80,
81.
Lamb's opinion of his influence on
Burnett, 85.
visits Rickman at Westminster,
88, 89, 110, 125, 136, 147, 268.
goes to Sadlers Wells with the
Lambs and Rickmans, 89.
loses his daughter, 91.
praised by Coleridge, 104, 105.
his poem ' Madoc,' 112, 113.
on Coleridge's habits, 144.
his work for the Quarterly Review,
148, 154, 155, 157, 167, 178,
186, 190, 195, 218, 219, 225,
238, 241, 291, 292, 305, 318.
his work for the Edinburgh Annual
Register, 154, 169.
Rickman sends him material, 134,
144, 191-94, 305.
describes Shelley's escapade, 158-
60.
his Life of Nelson, 166, 167.
becomes Poet Laureate, 172.
on the death of his son, 178.
invited to write for the Govern-
ment, 180.
Rickman's advice on the invita-
tion, 183, 184.
INDEX
329
Soutbey, Robert — continued.
bis « Wat Tyler ' attacked by W.
Smith, M.P., 188-90.
visited at Keswick by Rickman,
130, 194.
Rickman's share in bis published
work, 197-201, 203, 204, 234-
37.
writes to Hansard on behalf of
R. Lovell, 204, 205.
tours with Rickman in Scotland,
210.
his Colloquies ivith Sir T. More,
213,221.
his quarrel with Byron, 219.
writes inscriptions for the Cale-
donian Canal, 223.
his quarrel with Lamb, 225.
voyages in Holland, 231.
on Rickman's capacity for work,
232.
tours in the Netherlands with
Rickman and Henry Taylor, 22,
232, 233.
elected M.P., 233.
on Rickman's son intending to enter
the Church, 242.
interests Rickman in co-operation,
246, 247, 248.
his message to Lamb, 247.
on Macaulay, 254.
roused by Rickman to write on
Parliamentary reform, 259-64.
the proposed joint Colloquies, 6,
13, 14, 249, 262-64, 265, 268-
74, 280-82, 289-92, 296, 297,
318.
on his wife's illness, 308.
on Lamb's death, 313.
on Rickman's house in Palace Yard,
316, 317.
marries Caroline Bowles, 318.
political opinions of, 11, 175, ISO,
222, 250, 290.
letter of, to Danvers, 89.
to W. S. Landor, 88, 89.
letters of, to G. C. Bedford, 51, 52,
148.
to his wife, 51.
to Rickman, 3, 5, 18, 24,
29, 30, 35, 61-62, 65-67, 68-
70, 74-76, 81, 84, 85, 90, 111,
147, 156, 158-60, 172, 173,175,
Southey, Robert— continued.
200, 201, 203, 231, 232, 234,
235, 242, 247, 254, 270, 271,
281, 282, 290, 308, 313, 316,
317, 318.
Southampton Buildings, Lamb and
Rickman at, 34, 35, 39.
Speaker's Secretary, functions of, 77,
78.
Spottiswoode, the firm of, 290, 291,
296, 297.
Spring Rice, Thomas, 252, 253.
Spurzeim, Dr., 241.
Stafford, Lord, 284.
Stage, the, Rickman on, 9, 47.
Stanhope, Lord, 70, 71, 72, 75, 82,
83, 84.
Stoddart, Dr., 186, 211.
Strathmore, Countess of, 32.
Talfourd, Sergeant, 5, 128, 313.
'Tarn worth Manifesto,' Peel's, 312.
Taylor, Sir Henry, 130, 232, 233,
309-12, 315, 316.
Sir Herbert, 137, 138.
William, 45, 49, 94, 107, 118,
157.
Telford, Thomas, 8, 15, 131, 132,
181, 210, 213, 231, 249, 308, 318.
Ten-pound freeholders, Rickman on,
279, 286, 287, 289, 293.
Test Act, repeal of, 240, 292.
'Thalaba,' Southey's poem, 29, 36,
37, 62, 63.
Thomson, Poulett (Lord Sydenham),
257.
Tierney, George, 152, 153, 208, 211,
234.
Tobin, George, 104, 106.
Tories, 5, 11, 12, 79, 118, 150, 160,
168, 208, 233, 234, 240, 242-45,
248, 249. 250, 251, 263, 264, 277,
284, 285, 288, 289, 294, 295, 298,
299, 304, 314, 315.
Turner, Sharon, letter of, to W, C.
Rickman on John Rickman's death,
16, 17.
Ulloa, Don, 20.
Vansittart, Nicholas (Lord Bexley),
150, 207, 208.
Vesey Fitzgerald, 240.
330 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN RICKMAN
Villiers, Edward, 310.
Votes and Proceedings of the House
of Commons, the, 15, 133, 134,
188.
Vyvyan, Sir Richard, 263.
Wall, Baring, 275.
Ward, Colonel, 255.
Warter, Rev. J., on Rickman, 305,
306.
Waterloo, battle of, 177, 178, 225,
226, 255.
Wedgwood, Josiah, 99, 100, 102.
Wellesley, Lord, 138, 139, 150, 160,
161, 219, 229.
Wellington, Duke of, 12, 13, 177,
216, 228, 233, 234, 239, 240, 242,
245, 248, 250, 251, 253, 256, 258,
261, 266, 268, 289, 294, 295, 304,
307,308,312; administrations of,
237-45, 248, 250-53, 256, 257,
258-68, 312, 314, 315.
Westall, William, 290.
Westbrook, Miss, and Shelley, 159.
Westminster, life at, 10, 77-79, 81,
83, 115, 118-30, 132-34.
Palace of, 10, 123-26, 227,
308-12, 310, 317.
Whigs, 11, 14, 79, 108, 118, 141,
142, 150, 152, 153, 154, 160, 168,
174, 208, 211, 212, 215, 218, 224,
225, 235, 238, 239, 240, 242-45,
248, 249, 250, 251, 253, 255, 256,
258, 261, 263, 265, 267, 276, 277-
89, 292-96, 298, 299, 301, 303,
304, 311, 314,315.
Whiggamores. See Whigs.
Whitbread, Samuel, 12, 13, 139, 140,
150, 175.
Wilberforce, William, 110.
Wilde, Mr., 124, 126, 127, 309.
William in., 238.
William iv., 251, 261, 264, 265, 26S,
276, 277, 278, 293, 294, 295, 300,
310.
Windbam, William, 141.
Wordsworth, Dorothy, 89, 194.
William, 10, 108, 151, 194, 195,
281, 285.
Wynn, C. Williams, 61, 189, 209,
219, 239, 240.
York, Duke of, 12, 48, 136, 138,
141, 229, 231.
Zamoyski, Count, 111.
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