BIB_ID
415855
Accession number
MA 1854.3
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Place not specified, 1815 March 21.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.1 x 18.4 cm
Notes
Dr. Brabant was an English physician in Devizes who also had an interest in German Higher Criticism. Coleridge was a patient of Dr. Brabant during the years he lived in Calne.
This collection, MA 1854, is comprised of ten autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to R.H. Brabant, written from March 10, 1815 through December 5, 1816. It also includes 4 pages of autograph notes and one fragment of an autograph letter signed to Brabant. The fragment is written from Calne but is undated.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel to "R. Brabant Esqre."
Coleridge dates the letter "Tuesday Noon." The exact date of writing is from the published letter cited below. It appears he is writing from Calne.
This collection, MA 1854, is comprised of ten autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to R.H. Brabant, written from March 10, 1815 through December 5, 1816. It also includes 4 pages of autograph notes and one fragment of an autograph letter signed to Brabant. The fragment is written from Calne but is undated.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel to "R. Brabant Esqre."
Coleridge dates the letter "Tuesday Noon." The exact date of writing is from the published letter cited below. It appears he is writing from Calne.
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Expressing his anger over the Corn Bill; saying "Merciful God! what aweful Times! - The Corn Bill - Disgrace & a cowardly imprudent Truce under the name of Peace with America - our national Character branded with Breach of Faith in Italy - and God's Wrath in the shape of Buonaparte once more burst forth from its brief Slumber -. I feel a strong Impulse to write & publish a dithyrambic Ode, a Tocsin of Repentance, with the Title taken from the first words of the Poem - 'And Have we Not deserved it?' The question concerning the necessity of a Reform in Parliament I consider as now decided - the Land-owners & the great Farmers are our Masters, and have dared establish a minimum on the price, a maximum on the quantity, of the Poor Man's cold dry Dinner. Can the God of Truth lie? And hath he not said - Woe! Woe! to them that lay house to house, and field to field, that they may be alone in the Land! The Land is mine,, saith the Lord, it is not your's : to you I have entrusted it;" giving the prices of commodities at Calne and saying "But this can not be (say the plump Calculators). But it is so, reply the pale-faced Consumers. - But it ought not to be so, retort the former. More shame for you then, ye Calculating Legislators that make laws for yourselves! how dared you pass the Corn-Bill on the presumption that it could not raise the Quartern Loaf above a Shilling, without having first done away all the iniquities (if such exist) by which it is notorious that it will be 16d - the old Tax made payable to you of 16 millions per annum, which added to the prohibition of the Importation of Cattle, is probably above 20 millions, raised his Loaf to 11d - your new Tax will be the occasion of it's rising 4d or 5d more-. What is it to the poor man, whether it be the cause, or the occasion, or part one, part the other, if the result is the same? - As to the pretext, what Wages will rise in proportion, the proper answer however vulgar would be - a Lie! - The rejection of Lord Grenville's Clause has opened the eyes of every man, whose Lids are not weighed down by the Incubus Mammon-. You say, that nothing on earth could influence you to pass the Bill, if you thought that such and such would be it's results. Well, then if you are sincere - Let the Bill provide for it's own discontinuance, as soon as such results shall have been produced by it. No! - Then how disgraceful that in the two Houses of Legislature there was not a single Speech on the part of the Supporters of the Measure, which a Philosopher could answer, with the single exception of Lord Liverpool's. - He indeed has presented tangible somethings, & not unworthy of confutation - tho' the petitio principii, and counterfeit analogies, constitute the whole Substance of his figures in armour - One of his arguments may be thus translated - Your Goose has been revolving before the Fire for two Hours, & in every minute of these Hours the Flesh has become progressively better, & more valuable : therefore let it turn two hours longer, with a fire twice as hot, & it is hard to calculate with what geometrical rapidity it will improve - it can not do less than become a Swan;" sending his respects to Mrs. Brabant and Miss Hillier; adding, "As soon as I can, I will come over & spend a Day. Mr. Marsh will lend me a Horse to ride 5 or 6 miles, & Morgan will walk so far, & ride it back. - God bless you."
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