5668. William Allingham to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 27–28.
Lymington, Hants,
Dec 14/65
My dear Browning
My hope of some day doing a stroke of useful work in the elucidation of Irish History has been revived lately by some conversations with friends. During long residence in Ireland I have made many preparations, but need the command of my time, & access to libraries, records, places, & persons.
In short I would fain make a deliberate study of Ireland—historical, topographical, & social; hoping to do, if not a History, some useful work to that end.
Now for my position: I have been 19 years in the Customs service, & am now Coast Officer at Lymington with about £85 a year. My low rank, by the way, is not from any fault (the Board of Customs will give me a good character) but from injudicious exchanging from Ireland to London, & (my health giving way there) from London to this place, at great loss. Three years ago I received a Civil List pension of £60. [1] on the score of literary merit, on a memorial signed by many well known men of letters in England & Ireland, & which alluded to my being likely to do something in Irish historical literature, if placed at liberty to attempt it. Since then, I have published “Laurence Bloomfield” (which you know), giving a view of Irish affairs in poetic form. But what I long for is liberty to undertake the study of my native island with all attainable appliances, as I could do if I had my present income (of, in all, about £150 a year) continued to me, being released at the same time—after 19 or 20 years service—from further official work.
All things considered, might I not hope to prove myself better worth this sum to the country with my freedom than as a Coast Officer of Customs?
If you, and Tennyson, & Carlyle (who has often urged me on this direction), and some of the best men in Ireland think so, here are some grounds & guarantees. The thing, indeed, seems now practicable without any cost to the Treasury, if as I believe, (& it has already been mooted) in case of my withdrawal, the Customs duty here would be transferred to the Coastguard, as has been done at many other little seaports.
I am of old Irish-Protestant family, have many Roman Catholic cousins, & many friends of all parties, & am perhaps nearly an impartial man, tho’ an Irishman & lover of Ireland. My desire is 1st, that she should become a loyal member of the Kingdom, 2d that she keep her own good characteristics, & advance by a road suitable to her own character. Do you think there is any chance of the Treasury setting me free, & continuing my present allowance, from Customs & literary pension together, of about £150? That is, succinctly, the question.
But observe, I would not accept my so longed-for liberty on condition of producing what I should hope to produce—essays, lectures, books, on Ireland:—the first essential for me would be to feel myself really free.
My desire & aim are to employ myself in this work in which possibly I might even manage to do the State some service.
Forgive all this, & believe me
ever truly yours
W. Allingham.
Publication: Brent E. Kinser, “A Rather Dodgy Scheme: William Allingham’s Pension, 1865,” Carlyle Studies Annual, 31 (2015), 275–277.
Manuscript: British Library.
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