Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, [late April/early May] 1793
No. 11 Hope Square
Bristol Hotwells
Dear Giddy,
I hope you received my letter from Oxford – A letter of yours directed to me at Shifnal & written in a manner suited to the gloomy complexion of the times has since reached me. For my own part I have experienced the same viccissitudes of feeling in consequence of the late events in France which I had already experienced on 2 or 3 occasions during the revolution – a great depression (almost amounting to despondency) & afterwards elevation of spirits. In the late occurrences nothing contributed so much to the revival of my hopes as the conduct of Dumourier’s army. I am not acquainted with <such> an effort of virtue shewn by such & so large a body of men under every species of discouragement. Men, capable of adhering so stedfastly to principle & with minds so free from any blind brutish attachment to persons cannot, one wd hope, be conquered or enslaved. I received yesterday from Guillemarde a very encouraging letter. Having lately traversed a good many of the central counties of England, I have been able to collect a few curious & pretty well authenticated <facts>. Respecting the toy-trade (the principal trade) of Birmingham, Mr. Keir’s expression to me was ‘those trades cannot be said to be languishing, they are dead; & perhaps will never revive’. At Birmh I received from others a full confirmation of the deplorable state of their manufactures – A Lancashire cotton-weaver said ‘I had 500 looms at work. I have not 30 at present, I wish I had not one’. A Mr Rathbone, a principal merchant at Liverpool, told me that on leaving Liverpool, he was informed that not a single ship was fitting out in that port; he added ‘I did not contradict the assertion, as I did not myself know of any one’. I asked him how many were usually fitting out at this season – he replied about 300 – The buildings here at Clifton exhibit the most melancholy appearance – you know how numerous they are, 5 weeks ago half the masons & carpenters were discharged; & 3 weeks ago all the remainder – I see not a single labourer at work – not one house in ten is covered in & I am told there is not the smallest chance of their being so before winter – part of the men enlisted – part starving. The great Worcester canal to Birmingham began with great spirit 3 weeks ago 400 hands were discharged, & I am told to day all the rest have been paid off since. Reynolds told me that all his large orders witht exception for pig iron were countermanded – I asked him what proportion the large orders bore to the whole – he said they were as ¾ – 500 workmen in iron are going to be discharged from his works. The poor men have been remonstrating; they ask why should I be discharged rather than another & then mutter out an oath that they will not starve – Lately Plymley, a democratic or semi-democratic parson & archdeacon of Salop took a very sensible survey of his archdeaconry – it comprehends the mining & pastoral districts of Shropshire – According to a survey about 20 years old, there was not one cottager in 12 who did not keep a pig; now there is not one in 20 who does. I believe that under all expensive i.e. oppressive governments the tillers of the earth are the most burdened. Under the Turkish Government & in India the wretchedness of the peasantry much exceeds that of the artificers – It must needs be so ––
I never mentioned the subject of Oxford to you – I thought it too unimportant – but you have mentioned it once or twice; so I suppose you have no objection to hear the manner & cause of my resignation. Last June I went to the V. Chancellor: this, you see, was before any political ferment took place. I said that I had no desire to read any more lectures; but that as I had given no chemical lectures that year & as I thought it unjustifiable to keep possession of the E laby witht reading lectures & as I cd not immediately with convenience remove my specimens &c., I would not formally resign until this summer; I added that I wd offer to read this spring & if I had a tolerable class wd proceed –That course however shd certainly be the last – & if they wd fix upon a successor, I wd certainly resign to him this year: & I thought the person, whoever he might be, wd be obliged to me for giving him notice so long beforehand – The Vice Chanr said, this was extremely liberal ‘but, Sir, as it is much to be desired that some salary shd be annexed to the Cheml Chair & we cannot ask it in the name of a person so eminent as yourself, I wish you wd draw up a memorial to be sent to the Secy of State & keep the lectureship till an answer be given to that memorial’ – I drew up the memorial, Ld Guildford gave it to Dundas, who as appeared from a letter of Ld Guildford’s received it very favourably – I went into the country, became eminently & much beyond my importance, odious to Pitt & his gang, as I know from an hundred curious facts – The memorial from this & other causes was forgotten & destroyed – Adams about Xmas urged me to resign, 1. because I shd have no class & 2. because he thought Stacy wd be appointed – I much wished Stacy to succeed me, as he has a large family & wd, on account of his being able to make apparatus with his own hands, be likely to give as good a course as any body I knew at Oxford. I cheerfully resigned & Dr Bourne is appointed.
Pause here
The inclosed letter is for your sister; it will be to you a very extraordinary & unexpected inclosure. I did not direct it, lest any accident in opening this letter shd occasion her any disagreeable feelings. My reasons for writing I think you wd allow to be satisfactory; to me at least after the most mature deliberation they appear to be so. My only difficulty has been to determine in what way I could get a few lines conveyed to her; & I beg it of you as a favour in which I am much interested to contrive some way of putting it into her hands witht giving her any momentary distress. If you can put me upon any better method of transmitting it, be so good as return it me here – I am sure I have not the smallest objection to your knowing the substance; nor much to your reading it, though I confess I wd rather it was only written read by the person to whom it is addressed – I hope you will write to me immediately – you may suppose I commit the letter to the post with some anxiety.
Yours
T Beddoes
Address: Davies Giddy Esq / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall// Double letter
Endorsement: Doctor Beddoes / sometime in the Autumn of 1792 or in the Winter of 92-93 / I believe after commercial flight in the spring of 1793 DG.
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 41/22
Published: John F. Mackeson, Bristol Transported (Bristol: Redcliffe, 1987), pp. 170–73