1812)

A GOVERNMENT POSITION

205

descending to a more popular style or choosing subjects of more ephemeral interest. This fact was to him sufficient justification for accepting and even soliciting aid. We need not have recourse to the vulgar argument that he did only what many other poets have done. He himself was too reasonable and too original to have tolerated such a defence. With him the true ground of action was his proud consciousness that he was repaying to mankind a thousandfold what a few representatives of society bestowed upon him. It was, he thought, his just dues, not charity, he received. We may readily grant his contention, and wish he had been even more liberally rewarded. There is, however, one thing which must not be forgotten; it is almost beyond the power of human nature to accept favours without some degree of submission. An irresponsible person like Coleridge could go on his way unchanged. Wordsworth would be anchored by a gift.

Thus it is with a sense of apprehension that we find him on several occasions, in 1812, asking Lord Lonsdale to find for him a Government position which shall add to his income without requiring much of his time. He writes, on February 6:

"I long hoped, depending upon my moderate desires, that the profits of my literary labours, added to the little which I possessed, would have answered all the rational wants of myself and my family. But in this I have been disappointed, and for these causes: firstly, the unexpected pressure of the times, falling most heavily upon men who have no regular means of increasing their income in proportion; secondly, I had erroneously calculated upon the degree in which my writings were likely to suit the taste of the times; and, lastly, much the most important part of my efforts cannot meet the public eye for many years, from the comprehensiveness of the subject."

Writing to Daniel Stuart for suggestions about a position of the kind desired, Wordsworth-and this will surprise those who think of him chiefly as a "Lake poet "says:

* "Letters of the Wordsworth Family," II. 1.

I have no objection, I may add, to quit this part of the country, provided the salary be adequate and the duty what I am equal to without being under the necessity of withdrawing myself wholly from literature, which I find an unprofitable concern."*

On December 27, 1812, he writes to Lord Lonsdale accepting the offer of an annual sum until a Government place shall fall vacant. He will without scruple take such a provision from the State, for it is not possible to imagine a more worthy employment of a certain portion of the revenue than rewarding acknowledged ability, and" if to bestow be a duty (and an honourable duty), to accept cannot be otherwise than honourable." The Bishop of Lincoln (" Memoirs," II. 4), with the enthusiastic approval of Professor Knight ("Life of Wordsworth," II. 211), expresses his desire that such positions should be more numerous. The public conscience has, however, been partly educated on this subject since Wordsworth's time, and indirect ways of rewarding merit are viewed with just suspicion. The effect of patronage upon science and art has, in my own opinion, been on the whole very harmful. Patronage takes many forms-from sinecures under Government to the endowment of prizes and fellowships. Its extent and the varieties of evil which it encourages might well attract the attention of a historian.

Through Lord Lonsdale's influence, Wordsworth received from Government, on March 27, 1813, the office of distributor of stamps in the county of Westmorland. The money value of this position appears to have depended upon the number of stamps purchased; it was estimated at from £400 to £600 per annum. That the Government was paying more than the service was worth is shown by the fact that Wordsworth relinquished £100 per annum to the previous incumbent, Mr. Wilkin, and that most of the work was done by a clerk, Mr. John Carter, who naturally had to be paid some

"Letters of the Wordsworth Family," II. 11, and "Letters from the Lake Poets."

↑ "Letters of the Wordsworth Family," II. 13.

1813]

REMOVAL TO RYDAL MOUNT

207

thing. Exactly how much remained cannot be known, but it was a substantial amount, and made an important difference in Wordsworth's income. It was enough to trouble his conscience, which he soothed by thinking of the responsibility incurred by keeping the stamps in his house.

The change in his circumstances was marked by his removal from Grasmere. The Rectory was associated with the sad events of the previous year. It was separated only by the village street from the churchyard where his little ones were buried. He could now afford to live in a more commodious house. Such a one was available, two miles south-east, above the road to Ambleside. It was known as Rydal Mount, and formed part of the great estate of Sir Michael Le Fleming. Rydal itself was not even a village. There was no church, and the house commanded an uninterrupted view of the woods, the water-front, and the mountains beyond. There was a human loss in leaving Grasmere which was to make itself felt in all the poet's future thought and writing. The humble intimacies of village life had been of inestimable value to him. They had kept open to him one of the main sources of his poetic vigour, the feelings and conduct of poor working people.

Rydal Mount a hundred years ago was a plainer house than it is now, yet large and comfortable. The situation is exceedingly beautiful. Here Wordsworth lived contentedly for thirty-seven years, and here he died. The family removed to it early in the spring of 1813. There is little else to record for this year. The Coleridge boys continued making their week-end visits. Of their father Dorothy wrote to Mrs. Clarkson on April 8:*

"God bless him! He little knows with what tenderness we have lately thought of him, nor how entirely we are softened to all sense of injury. We have had no thoughts of him but such as ought to have made him lean upon us with confidential love, and fear not to confess his weaknesses."

* From the original in the British Museum.

Wordsworth's political opinions had by this time taken their final bent. In a letter to Wrangham, dated August 28, 1813, he declared that he favoured "resistance of Bonaparte by force of arms," and " adherence to the British Constitution in withholding political power from the Roman Catholics," and therefore was, and had long been by principle, a supporter of the Ministry. That he was not a man to stop short of extremes when he had once taken his direction, the following extract from a letter to his patron, Lord Lonsdale, dated February 9, 1814, will show:†

Everyone knows of what importance the equestrian order was in preserving tranquillity and a balance and gradation of power in ancient Rome; the like may take place among ourselves through the medium of an armed yeomanry; and surely a preservative of this kind is largely called for by the tendencies of things at present. If the whole island was covered with a force of this kind, the Press properly curbed, the Poor Laws gradually reformed, provision made for new Churches to keep pace with the population (an indispensable measure) if these things were done and other improvements carried forward, as they have been, order may yet be preserved among us, and the people remain free and happy."

What a respectable old Tory he has become, with his fear of disorder and of a free Press, his dependence on the Church as an ally of the State, his disapproval of "the tendencies of things at present," his willingness to see an armed force cover the land for the sake of a balance and gradation of power"! This is not the language of poetry, nor had it been the language of Wordsworth's youth; but there was as yet no warrant for assuming that, because he had grown prematurely old in his attitude towards some of the greatest subjects which engage the attention of mankind, he was therefore incapable of artistic efforts of a very high order.

It is true that "The Excursion," which he had completed by the summer of 1814, contained the last abun* 'Letters of the Wordsworth Family," II. 20. ↑ Ibid., 25.