Joseph Blanco White

In thisSpanish name,the first or paternalsurnameisBlancoand the second or maternal family name isCrespo.

Pencil sketch by Joseph Slater

Joseph Blanco White,bornJosé María Blanco y Crespo(11 July 1775 – 20 May 1841), was an Anglo-Spanish political thinker,theologian,and poet.

Life

Blanco White was born inSeville,Spain. He had Irish ancestry and was the son of the merchant Guillermo Blanco (alias White, an English viceconsul, who had established himself in Seville during the reign ofFernando VI) and María Gertrudis Crespo y Neve.

Blanco White was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood. In Seville, Spain, he had worked withMelchor de Jovellanos,an adviser to the king who advocated reform.After his ordination in 1800, White's religious doubts led him to leave Spain and go to England in 1810. There he ultimately entered theAnglican Church,having studied theology at Oxford and made the friendship ofThomas Arnold,John Henry Newmanthe ReverendE.T. DaniellandRichard Whately.He became tutor in Whately's family when Whately became the Archbishop of Dublin in 1831. While in this position White embraced Unitarian views. He found asylum amongst theUnitariansof Liverpool, and he died in the city on 20 May 1841.

Pro-Spanish America writings

Blanco White editedEl Español,a monthly Spanish magazine in London, from 1810 to 1814, which was strongly for the independence of Spanish America. In its pages, he commented on the course of the insurgency based on information from Spanish America and British sources. TheRegencybanned it in Spain, since it undermined the pro-Cádiz position on trade, which gave peninsular merchants a monopoly on trade.Juan Bautista Arriazapublished a pamphlet against him in London and he suffered other attacks in the Cádiz newspapers; even in theCortes of Cádiz,in his session of 24 May 1811, he was attacked. Articles inEl Españolwere reprinted in the insurgent press. He was not for complete independence for Spanish America, but rather a moderate position. He advocated that the Spanish Cortes (parliament) recognizejuntasin Spanish America that remained loyal to the Spanish monarchy after the Napoleon's 1808 invasion of Spain and ouster of Bourbon monarchFerdinand VIIand Napoleon's placement of his brotherJosephon the throne. He also was in favor of free trade, not just the closed Spanish system ofcomercio librethat allowed free trade ports in Spain with Spanish America and all ports within Spanish America.

Other works

Plaque commemorating Blanco White's place of birth in Seville

His other principal writings includeDoblado's Letters from Spain(1822) (under the pseudonym of "Don Leucado Doblado", and written in part atHolland Housein London),Evidence against Catholicism(1825),Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion(2 vols., 1834)(a riposte toThomas Moore's satirical commentary upon the conceits of theSecond Reformation),andObservations on Heresy and Orthodoxy(1835). They all show literary ability and were extensively read in their day. He also translatedPaley'sEvidencesand theBook of Common Prayerinto Spanish.

White is also remembered for his sonnet "Night and Death" ( "Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew" ), which was dedicated toSamuel Taylor Coleridgeon its appearance in theBijoufor 1828 and has since found its way into several anthologies. Three versions are given in theAcademyof 12 September 1891.

Further reading

• Goytisolo, Juan, ed.Obra inglesa de D. José María Blanco White.Buenos Aires 1972.
• Life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White,written by himself, with portions of hisCorrespondence,edited byJohn Hamilton Thom(London, 3 vols., 1845).
• Martin Murphy,Blanco White: Self-banished Spaniard,New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

External links

• El Español,en la Hemeroteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional de España
• Works by Joseph Blanco WhiteatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Joseph Blanco WhiteatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "White, Joseph Blanco".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 600.