SOME LANDOR LETTERS TO J. E. FITZGERALD

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 2, 1 July 1940, Page 8

SOME LANDOR LETTERS TO J. E. FITZGERALD

A.G.B.

A MINOR parallel to the literary friendship of Browning and T~IL Domett may be found in the association of W. S. Landor and }. E. Fitzgerald. A group of letters from Landor to Fitzgerald which has recently been presented to the library throws light on this friendship of the colonial statesman, once Canterbury superintendent and native minister, and the poet of independence whose span had already encompassed the lives of Byron, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats.

The letters commence at a time when Fitzgerald was still on the staff of the British Museum, but giving increasing attention to the problem of colonization. They reveal, in addition to the expected interest of one friend in the movements of another, Landor’s attitude towards the Irish question on which Fitzgerald had written, and his opinion on colonial matters prompted by the publication of the younger man’s work on the Hudson Bay company*. Forster in his biography has well said of Landor that “ the charge was not at any time to be made against him of siding with the strong against the weak, or of passing over the neglected and unguarded.” That such was the case is to be plainly seen by the following extract from a letter on the Irish question characteristic of his occasional public utterances, disconcerting to his contemporaries, coming as they did, from a man of spirit and property. “ The greater part of the Irish landlords are the vilest miscreants under the canopy of heaven. This calamity will frighten them into the pale of humanity. What would they and the people have done, had they succeeded in dissolving the Union ? Were I minister, I would dissolve it to-morrow morning. " Why does not the queen give up her lands in that country for the benefit of the starving people ? They produce her but about six thousand a year, and may be worth two hundred thousand. More land is held under the bishop of Derry than any man in England possesses. So long as any bishop has more than a thousand pounds a year I would withold any subsidy. I heartily wish the people would rise and right themselves, sweeping off the caterpillars that consume not only their potatoes but their vitals.”

A sympathy almost revolutionary in its intensity was matched by practical kindness as is witnessed by this reply to a request invoking Landor’s assistance for some unfortunate. “It grieves me that I can do so extremely little for Padre Gasezzi. But out of my poor 300 a year which is all I receive from an estate of 3000, I have given, the Hungarian 30, and must help some few Italians poorly indeed. Tell the Padre that humble as my offering is, I would have accepted the same from him in the same circumstances. ...”

In commenting on Fitzgerald’s colonization schemes Landor did not hesitate to prophesy. That such prophecies have been fulfilled only in part does not diminish their interest. “ I look forward to the time when the wiser and more equitable government of America will induce the inhabitants of Vancouver to unite with those of Oregon. Only one great advantage can be derived from the goldmines of California. They will attract inhabitants, who will starve without agriculture. The gold is merely the manure which fertilizes the surface and fructifies the seed. California, before the end of next century, must be the most commercial state in the world. Virtually she will command both India and China and at no expense of fleets and armies.” Again in another letter two years later, (1851), he returns to the same theme.

“ On more than one occasion I have published my opinion on the importance of California. That blind blunderer Canning might have obtained it when he acknowledged the independence of Mexico. Even this he could not have done unless a wiser man had prompted him : I mean Huskisson the best of our statesmen, not only of the present age, but of any.” Fitzgerald’s arrival in New Zealand on the Charlotte Jane in 1850 prompted Landor to further prognostications. “ Strange it appears to me that any man should fix himself at such a distance from his country, when the finest and most fertile

regions of America lie open to him and when land can be purchased for a quarter of the money. France and America will contend for the occupation of the Pacific and England is out of the question : her power is lost irretrievably. Nations, like plants scatter their seeds before they perish: ours has done so in New Zealand. . . . The United States, whether they continue united or not, must within the life-time of some now born (for some will live a century) contain three hundred millions of inhabitants, even if Ireland and Germany should send over only half a million yearly, and only for the next ten years.”

Further on in the same letter he refers to “ . . . the son of an old friend of mine, Charles Brown. . . . He took from England a good deal of expensive machinery and bought land—but government, as usual, blasted his prospects. The young man has succeeded to a property by the death of an uncle—but his machinery no doubt has fallen to pieces, and whether he remains on the island I know not. He is a virtuous, high-minded, enterprising and intelligent young man. My sons prefer the idleness and ease of Italy.” There was little of literary interest in the association of Landor and Fitzgerald but one letter criticizes what was presumably a poem submitted by Fitzgerald. Unfortunately the original is not extant but one gains the impression that Fitzgerald, although possibly Domett’s peer in statecraft had not his proficiency in verse. It may be of interest to students of Landor, that the letters are accompanied by a small group of cuttings from The Examiner and other journals, of letters by the writer himself.

The following is a list of Landor first editions in the library. As will be seen there are many prominent gaps, notably “ Gebir ” and “ Pericles and Aspasia.”

The poems of Walter Savage Landor. 1795. Poems from the Arabic and Persian ; with notes by the author of Gebir. 1800. Simonidea. 1806. Count Julian : a tragedy. 1812. Imaginary Conversations, 5 vols. 1824-1829. Citation and Examination of 'William Shakespeare, 1834. The letters of a conservative ... By Walter Savage Landor. 1836. Andrea of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples. 1839. Popery : British and Foreign. By Walter Savage Landor. 1851. Poemata et Inscriptiones. 1847. Antony and Octavius. Scenes for the Study. By Walter Savage Landor. 1856. Dry sticks, fagoted by Walter Savage Landor. 1858. Letters of an American, mainly on Russia and revolution. . . . Edited by Walter Savage Landor. 1854. Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans. 1853. Heroic Idyls, 1863.

* An examination of the charier and proceedings of the Hudson's Bay company with reference to the grant of Vancouver’s Island. By James Edward Fitzgerald, London : Treldwny Saunders, 1849.

* Charles Armitage Brown, 1786-1842, the friend of Keats, who was with his son, Charles Brown, 1820-1901, an early settler in New Plymouth. Brown the younger, was later colonial treasurer in the first N.Z. ministry and was twice superintendent of Taranaki province.