“A hard person thinks he has done enough if he does not speak ill of your relations, your children, or your country; and then, with the greatest good-humour and volubility, and with a total inattention to your individual state and position, gallops over a thousand fine feelings, and leaves in every step the mark of his hoofs upon your heart. Analyse the conversation of a well-bred man who is clear of the besetting sin of hardness; it is a perpetual homage of polite good-nature. He remembers that you are connected with the Church, and he avoids (whatever his opinions may be) the most distant reflections on the Establishment. He knows that you are admired, and he admires you as far as is compatible with goodbreeding. He sees that, though young, you are at the head of a great establishment, and he infuses into his manner and conversation that respect which is so

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

297

pleasing to all who exercise authority. He leaves you in perfect good-humour with yourself, because you perceive how much and how successfully you have been studied.

It was said of Régnault St. Jean d’Angely, President of the French Institute, “qu’il avait passé la vie en venant toujours au secours du plus fort.” The reverse might justly be said of my father: he passed his life in minorities, and in the cause of the oppressed. He says, in speaking of his motives for undertaking the one in question: “I am no enemy to America; I loved and admired honest America when she respected the laws of pounds, shillings, and pence, and I thought the United States the most magnificent picture of

298

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

human happiness. I meddle now in these matters because I hate fraud; because I pity the misery it has occasioned; because I mourn over the hatred it has excited against free institutions.”

This petition and the letters which followed it produced a most extraordinary sensation, and brought upon him much abuse from the American press; though we had reason to believe, from many sources, that they spoke the feelings of every honourable man in America.

“And all this storm,” says the editor of the ‘Morning Chronicle’ of the time, “has been raised by a few words from a private English gentleman! Why is it that his words have had such a talismanic effect? It is true, they were words of choice and singular excellence; but no mastery of language or weight of literary reputation could so have moved America, if they did not happen to be employed in the utterance of home truths, which are, or ought to be, sharper than a two-edged sword. We repeat, that the power of these letters lies mainly in the deep moral feeling that pervades them; and one proof of this is, the warm response they have called forth from those in America, in whom the moral sense is strong enough to make them speak out.”

As one specimen of this, I shall insert a speech or letter of Mr. Ticknor’s, extracted from the ‘Boston Semi-weekly Advertiser,’ and sent to my father by Mr. Everett.

“The short and pungent petition to Congress of the Rev. Sydney Smith, in relation to his claim on the state of Penn-

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

299

sylvania, for interest-money due to him, has already excited no little remark among us, and is likely to excite yet more. This is probably one of the effects its author intended it should produce; perhaps it is one of the effects that we ourselves, as honest men and patriots, ought to desire; for the subject of his petition is a grave one, that cannot excite too much discussion in any part of the United States. But we should be careful, for our own sakes, to assume the right tone when speaking of a man like Mr. Smith, who only asks to be paid that to which he is as justly entitled as any one of us is entitled to anything he possesses.

“It has therefore appeared to many persons unseemly that the ‘Boston Courier’ should speak of Mr. Smith’s petition, to have payment made to him of the interest, which has been solemnly promised on the faith and honour of the State of Pennsylvania, merely as ‘impudence, bombast, and impertinence.’ The claims of a creditor are not always welcome to his debtor, and, when other means have failed, they are not always set forth by the injured party in the most civil and gracious words; writs and executions, for instance, are not drawn up in terms chosen for the sake of pleasing ‘ears polite.’ Mr. Smith would, no doubt, have much preferred to use the good set terms of these instruments of established authority; and nobody would then have fancied he was doing anything unreasonable, since he would be doing just what everybody else does who cannot in other ways get his rights. But the great and rich State of Pennsylvania, like the other States of our Union, has taken some pains to place herself above the reach of such vulgar processes for coercing her to be honest. She cannot be sued: her creditor therefore is compelled to use his own words, instead of the more stringent words of the law. No doubt Mr. Sydney Smith, when doing this, does not present himself with a very cringing air: he uses strong

300

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

phrases, stronger than we like to hear, stronger than is respectful; hut the real difficulty in the case is, that the strongest words he uses are true words; for just so long as the Pennsylvanians refuse to lay a tax of one cent on every hundred dollars of their wealth to pay their honest debts, just so long they may be called ‘men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light;’ and this is the hardest and sharpest phrase in Mr. Smith’s petition. To be sure, it would not be easy, on the same subject, to say anything more cutting or more terse; but, after all, the bitterness of the words lies in their truth.

“The ‘New York Evening Post’ is more severe on Mr. Smith than the ‘Boston Courier.’ His petition is there treated as the ‘ravings of one who had been disappointed in reaping that profit from his speculations which he expected and desired;’ and, because he has told us that we are ‘unstable in the very foundations of social life,’ the writer in the ‘Post’ inquires, whether ‘the Bible used by the reverend gentleman teaches him that dollars and cents are the very foundation of social life?’ Now, it is disagreeable to witness such injustice coupled with such violence of language; the thing is wrong in itself, and it does us much harm. The Rev. Sydney Smith is no more a speculator than every man is who lends money to his neighbour at the regular rate of interest; nor does he rave any more than every man raves, who insists, in round terms, that he will be paid what is plainly and lawfully due to him. Then, too, as to the ‘foundations of social life,’ the New York assailant of Mr. Smith really does not seem to suspect that honesty and good faith are among them, and that all the English clergyman asks of Pennsylvania is to be honest, in the lowest and commonest sense of that reproachful word which we can no longer, as one would think from the tone

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

301

of this writer in the ‘Post’ bear to have uttered in our presence.

“But let us now look at the matter just as it really stands. The Rev. Sydney Smith, as anybody may learn who will inquire, is a man known throughout Europe for his wit, logic, and the general vigour of his mind. He was, above forty years ago, one of the founders and main supporters of the Edinburgh Review; and he is now one of the most popular and powerful writers of his time, read alike on both sides of the Atlantic. He is an old Whig; and for the sin of maintaining manfully, against all his worldly interests, the cause of free institutions, the cause of Irish emancipation, and the cause of Parliamentary reform, he was kept low in the Church, as long as the Tories had power; and supported himself and his family, in no small degree, by his pen. He was, in fact, for many years a very poor parson, in a very poor parish in Yorkshire, where he was much loved by his parishioners for his active goodness; taking pains, among other things, to study medicine, in order to be able to practise it gratuitously among them, as there was no physician in their neighbourhood, and they could not afford to send abroad for one. When he was about sixty years old, the Whigs came into office, and gave him a good living. From this, it seems, he made in his old-age some savings: and, having confidence in free institutions and American honesty, he invested a part, or the whole, of these savings in Pennsylvania stocks. But his interest there is not paid, and his capital is shrunk to a merely nominal value. He of course complains. He tells us even that we are not honest. We answer, you ‘rave,’ you are ‘impertinent,’ you are ‘impudent,’ you are ‘a reverend slanderer.’ But what, in the meantime, do honourable men everywhere say better about us? and how comfortably does an American, always before so proud to call

302

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

himself such, feel, who is now travelling in any part of the world out of his own country! Nay, how do we ourselves feel about our conduct and character in our own secret hearts at home?

“One word more. The Rev. Sydney Smith is, after all, only the representative of a very large class of men, chiefly in England, but also to be found scattered more or less over the best portions of the continent of Europe, who now think and talk of the indebted States of America exactly as he does. They are men of moderate property and much intelligence. They have had greater confidence in free institutions than the rich and the powerful around them. They have looked upon us Americans especially with kindness, respect, and cheerful trust; when others, of more worldly consideration than themselves, have looked upon us with aversion and contempt. They have been, in short, our sincere friends; and partly because they were our friends, and believed in us and our forms of government, they have lent us their money to the amount of above a hundred millions of dollars; perhaps more nearly two hundred. And how have we requited their confidence? Mr. Smith’s petition may inform us. We may learn from it, too, that we must do something to regain for ourselves the decent consideration among mankind which we have forfeited,—and forfeited, too, merely to save ourselves from paying a certain number of ‘dollars and cents,’ as the writer in the ‘Evening Post’ would say, which we are quite aware we honestly owe.

“The people of Massachusetts and New England, and indeed the people of the majority of these States, are not called upon to take to themselves any more of the censures of Mr. Smith than a man is obliged to take of the censures that fall on a disgraced community with which he is intimately associated. We may therefore well be thankful,

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

303

and in some degree proud, that these States have committed no injustice towards their creditors; but while we are thankful for this, we must also be careful not to countenance the dishonest States in their dishonesty, nor to seem eager to rebuke a foreign creditor who comes among us boldly demanding his dues.”

But what gratified my father most was a private letter he received, shortly after his American letters were written, from his friend Mr. Wainwright, giving an account of the arrival of a steamer at New York, with a Sydney Smith on board. Mr. Wainwright’s letter best states what happened.

“Riverside, July 8th, 1844.

“My dear Wainwright,

“I notice the arrival of the Rev. Sydney Smith by the “Great Western.’ I desire to offer him the hospitality of

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

305

Riverside. You have been promising me a visit; I propose to you that you invite him to come on with you on Monday or Tuesday of next week, as may be most agreeable to you. I name that time, as we propose a visit to Niagara, Toronto, etc., on the following week. Let me hear from you as soon as convenient. I observe that your daughter has sailed for Europe; we follow her with our best wishes.

“With best love to all yours, ever your affectionate brother,

“G. W. Doane.”

Though my father made his own claims the plea for undertaking this cause, he was now become, through private sources, a rich man, and what he lost was a mere trifle. But during the excitement his letters caused, it was curious that, whilst abuse flowed in from the other side of the Atlantic by every packet, which he used to read to us at breakfast with great good-humour, on this side he was regarded as the lion’s mouth at Venice. He writes on one occasion, evidently much amused:—

“Dear Van de Weyer,

“Many thanks; they seem puzzled with the whole thing, and cannot make me out. What a mistake, to depreciate my beauty and my orthodoxy!

“Ever yours,

“Sydney Smith.”

Letter after letter poured in by every post; of gratitude, encouragement, thanks, tales of losses and miseries occasioned by this want of faith in the repudiating States, as if these aggrieved persons looked upon

306

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

him as the champion of public faith throughout Christendom.

I ought, in justice, to mention, that together with the abuse, there came frequently from America little offerings, such as apples, cheese, etc., from unknown individuals; unwilling, as they said, to share the public shame, and offering their quota towards the payment of the Pennsylvanian debt.

---

I have, in the first part of this Memoir, given some few extracts, to show the deep impression he then produced in the pulpit; I shall now give one, written on hearing him in his old-age, by a medical man, of eminence in his profession.

“My dear Mr. Smith,

“Not being ‘a brown man of Pennsylvania,’ I pay my just debts; and I offer to you the tribute of my sincere thanks for one of the most impressive and eloquent discourses, delivered yesterday at St. Paul’s, that it has ever fallen to my lot to hear. I wish I could read it. There is a magic in your name, which, if it was published, would incite everybody to read it, and no one is too good or too bad not to derive profit from such an appeal to his reason and his conscience. To pass by your merits of style and elocution,—peculiar, and beyond my praise,—the simple, straightforward method of treating your subject, delighted me. It is a rare and refreshing gratification to listen, in these times of discord and strife on matters of faith, to a preacher whose improvement of his text is not encumbered by references to historical or traditional details; and whose style, clear, logical, and fervid, carries with him the reason as well

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

307

as the feeling of his audience, by making their intellects a party to their conviction. The mystical phraseology of scriptural preachers (so called) always appears to me a hindrance, rather than a help, to serious piety; and I should hail the day of salvation for the Church, not of this nor of that denomination, but of Christ, when such sermons were heard in every cathedral throughout the country, as that which you delivered in the metropolitan last Sunday; which, I will undertake to assert, no hearer did not feel to be a spiritual gain and encouragement.”

Another short sketch, lately sent me by my friend Mrs. Austin, I shall also insert; giving her impressions on hearing my father for the first time preach in St. Paul’s. She went there at his invitation, in consequence of a previous conversation, in which Mrs. Austin, after expressing her surprise at the feeble effect generally produced in the pulpit, attributed it in part to the vague generalities to which preachers too often confined themselves. Standing there, as they do, with the enormous advantage of duty, reason, and religion commanding them to speak, she thought that they ought to make each moral evil which afflicts society the object of special and energetic attack.

“For example,” she said, “why do you not preach a sermon against the love of war?” My father, who most warmly coincided with these feelings against war, as may be seen in many of his letters, exclaimed, “You are right; it shall be done; come and hear me.” She went, and shall tell her own impressions.

“I was immediately struck, as I have frequently

308

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

been since, at the peculiar character and aspect of the congregation at St. Paul’s; and at the remarkable sympathy that appeared to exist between the pastor and his flock. The choir was densely filled, yet it would have been difficult to detect in the crowd any of those diversities of station which are usually but too strongly marked in a London church. It appeared one homogeneous body of sedate, earnest, respectable citizens and their families,—no obtrusive air of fashion, no painful look of poverty.

“I must confess that I went to hear Mr. Smith preach, with some misgiving as to the effect which that well-known face and voice, ever associated with wit and mirth, might have upon me, even in the sacred place. Never were misgivings more quickly and entirely dissipated. The moment he appeared in the pulpit, all the weight of his duty, all the authority of his office, were written on his countenance; and without a particle of affectation (of which he was incapable), his whole demeanour bespoke the gravity of his purpose.* Perhaps indeed it was the more striking to one who had till then only seen him delighting society by his gay and overflowing wit. As soon as he began to speak, the whole choir, upon which I looked down, exhibited one mass of upraised, atten-

* I cannot resist adding here how often and how strongly I have felt this sudden and impressive change in my father. On entering the pulpit, the calm dignity of his eye, mien, and voice, made one feel that he was indeed, and felt himself to be, “the pastor standing between our God and his people,” to teach his laws, to declare his judgments, and proclaim his mercies.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

309

tive, thoughtful faces. It seemed as if his deep, earnest tones were caught with silent eagerness; and I could not but feel that the perfect good sense, the expansive benevolence, the plain exposition of Christian duty, which fell from his lips, found a soil well fitted to receive it. His hearers looked like men who came prepared ‘to mark,’ and able ‘inwardly to digest,’ the truths and the counsels he so clearly and emphatically placed before them. I remember no religious service which ever appeared to me more solemn, more impressive, or more calculated to bear its appropriate fruit,—the subjugation of fierce and restless passions, and the culture of a just, humane, and Christian temper.”

---

This winter Miss Edgeworth visited London for the last time. During her visit she saw much of my father; and her talents, as well as her love and thorough knowledge of Ireland, made her conversation peculiarly agreeable to him. I wish I had kept some notes of these conversations, which were very remarkable; but I have only a characteristic and amusing letter she wrote to me soon after her return home, from which the following is an extract.

“I have not the absurd presumption to think your father would leave London or Combe Florey, for Ireland, voluntarily; but I wish some Irish bishopric were forced upon him, and that his own sense of national charity and humanity would forbid him to refuse. Then, obliged to reside amongst us, he would see, in

310

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

the twinkling of an eye (such an eye as his), all our manifold grievances up and down the country. One word, one bon mot of his, would do more for us, I guess, than Mr. ——’s four hundred pages, and all the like, with which we have been bored. One letter from Sydney Smith on the affairs of Ireland, with his name to it, and after having been there, would do more for us than his letters did for America and England;—a bold assertion, you will say, and so it is; but I calculate that Pat is a far better subject for wit than Jonathan; it only plays round Jonathan’s head, but it goes to Pat’s heart,—to the very bottom of his heart, where he loves it; and he don’t care whether it is for or against him, so that it is real wit and fun. Now Pat would doat upon your father, and kiss the rod with all his soul, he would,—the lash just lifted,—when he’d see the laugh on the face, the kind smile, that would tell him it was all for his good.

“Your father would lead Pat (for he’d never drive him) to the world’s end, and maybe to common sense at the end,—might open his eyes to the true state of things and persons, and cause him to ax himself how it comes that, if he be so distressed by the Sassenach landlords that he can’t keep soul and body together, nor one farthing for the wife and children, after paying the rint for the land, still and nevertheless he can pay King Dan’s rint, aisy,—thousands of pounds, not for lands or potatoes, but just for castles in the air. Methinks I hear Pat saying the words, and see him jump to the conclusion, that maybe the gintleman, his rever-

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

311

ence, that ‘has the way with him,’* might be the man after all to do them all the good in life, and asking nothing at all from them. ‘Better, sure, than Dan, after all! and we will follow him through thick and thin. Why no? What though he is his reverence, the Church, that is, our cleargy, won’t object to him; for he was never an inimy any way, but always for paying them off handsome, and fools if they don’t take it now. So down with King Dan, for he’s no good! and up with Sydney—he’s the man, king of glory!’

“But, visions of glory, and of good better than glory, spare my longing sight! else I shall never come to an end of this note. Note indeed! I beg your pardon.

“Yours affectionately,

“Maria Edgeworth.”

Miss Edgeworth says, in one of her letters to her sister, after one of the evenings spent in my father’s society:—“Delightful, I need not say; but to attempt to Boswell Sydney Smith’s conversation would be out-Boswelling Boswell indeed.” I have felt the truth of this observation most strongly in writing these Me-

* This expression, “that has the way with him,” refers to a conversation my father had with Dr. Doyle, at a time he was anxious to learn as far as possible what effect the measures he was proposing would have upon the Catholics. He proposed that Government should pay the Catholic priests. “They would not take it,” said Dr. Doyle. “Do you mean to say, that if every priest in Ireland received tomorrow morning a Government letter with a hundred pounds, first quarter of their year’s income, that they would refuse it?” “Ah, Mr. Smith,” said Dr. Doyle, “you’ve such a way of putting things!”

312

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

moirs, and should have flung down my pen in despair had I not had brighter and better, though easier things to tell, than the effusions of his wit.

I shall now give a short correspondence between my father and Sir Robert Peel, as it does equal honour to both:—

“May 5, 1844.

“Sir,

“I am informed there will be a vacancy in July of a clerkship in the Record Office, in that department of it over which Mr. Hardy, I believe, presides. There is a family of the name of ——, residing in ——, who have formerly been in affluence, but have fallen with the fall of the West Indies. The mother and daughter are teaching music. The son is an excellent lad, understanding and speaking French and German, and is a humble candidate for this situation of Clerk of the Records, worth about eighty pounds per annum. Mr. Hardy, a very old friend of the family, is very desirous of getting the young man into his office. A better family does not exist, or one fighting up more bravely against adversity. The mother has been repeatedly to me, to beg I would state these things to you. I stated to her that I had so little the honour of your acquaintance, that, though I had met you, I should hardly presume to bow to you in the street. But the poor lady said I had evidence to give, if I had not influence to use; and at last I consented to do what I am doing. I beg therefore to observe, I am not asking anything of you (no man has less right to do so); I am merely

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

313

stating facts to you respecting an office of which you have the disposal. I have no other acquaintance with the family than through their misfortunes, borne with such unshaken constancy.

“I beg you will not give yourself the trouble to answer this letter. If my evidence induces you to make any inquiries about the young lad, that will be the best answer. If not, I shall attribute it to some of the innumerable obstacles which prevent a person in your situation from giving way to the impulses of compassion and good-nature.

“I have the honour to be, etc.,

“Sydney Smith.”

“Whitehall, May 6th, 1844.

“Sir,

“I do not recollect that I ever made a promise of an appointment not actually vacant. I try to defer as long as possible the evil day which brings to me the invidious duty of selecting one from a hundred candidates, and disappointment to ninety-nine of them.

“But I am so sure that, when the particular vacancy mentioned in your letter shall occur, there will be no claim which it will give me greater satisfaction to comply with, than one brought under my notice by you, from such kind and benevolent motives as those which alone would induce you to write to me, that I do not hesitate a moment in making an exception from my general rule, and in at once giving you a promise, either that Mr. —— shall have the appoint-

314

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

ment you name, or one equally eligible; and not at a more distant period, if possible.

“All the return I shall ask from you is the privilege of renewing, when we meet, the honour of your acquaintance.

“I am, Sir, with sincere esteem,
“Your faithful servant,

“Robert Peel.”

The office was granted, and he had the satisfaction to hear that the young man was found most efficient in it. He shortly after sent Sir Robert Peel his works, with the “sincere respect and esteem of the author” written on the title-page. He received the following answer:—

“Whitehall.

“Dear Sir,

“Though you have not opened to me any new source of interest or instruction, I thank you sincerely for the volumes you have sent me, and for the few words in the first page which put on record my title to them.

“They are duplicates of a work which has been in my possession since the first day of its publication. I am very familiar with its contents; and have no feeling connected with my general recollection of them, but those to which the combination of good sense, wit, and genius naturally give rise.

“Believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,

“Robert Peel.”

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

315

The following are a few notes from the journal of a lady, since distinguished, both by her talents and the use she has made of them, who formed the acquaintance of my father many years ago. She gave them to me, adding, prettily, the pleasure it gave her to be able, by so doing, to throw one more stone on my father’s cairn. With these I have mingled some few anecdotes from other sources.

“If I recollect right, it was about the year 1812 that I first had the gratification to meet Mr. Sydney Smith,—it was at the house of Mr. Josiah Wedgewood. He arrived about the middle of the day, with his wife and children. He entered, and in an instant made everybody feel at their ease, and infused a portion of his own animation into all around him. I remember him standing with his back to the fire, or leaning over the back of his chair, conversing with us for several hours. The conversation turned, amongst other things, on politics. ‘I consider the Whigs as shipwrecked for ever; no chance of my being made even a dean; so I have laid down my plan of life. I will make myself, if not as rich as others, at least as rich and happy as an honest man can be.’ The next morning he took a long walk over the hills with us; and most agreeable he was, giving out his mind with a variety and abundance of ideas which delighted us, and showed how little need he had of external excitement to call forth his powers of wit and wisdom. He was at this time stout-made, his face handsome, with that pale

316

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

embonpoint which always distinguished him, and his remarkable deep dark eye, which I think retained its character even to the last;—indeed, I should say, never was the external appearance of any man less altered by years than his. When speaking of the impression made by his manner and appearance, his delightful laugh must not be forgotten,—so genuine, so full of hearty enjoyment, that it was a source of gaiety only to hear it. It was his custom to stroll about the room in which we were sitting, and which was lined with books, taking down one lot after another, sometimes reading or quoting aloud, sometimes discussing any subject that arose. He took down a sort of record of those men who had lived to a great age. ‘A record of little value,’ said Mrs. W., ‘as to live longer than other people can hardly be the desire of anyone.’ ‘It is not so much the longevity,’ he answered, ‘that is valued, as that original build and constitution, that condition of health and habit of life, which not only leads to longevity, but makes life enjoyable whilst it lasts, that renders the subject interesting and worth inquiry.’

“‘I think a good life of Erasmus much wanted; the mild conciliating temper of the subject would make it no unfit theme for a lady’s pen.’

“‘You must preach, Mr. Smith,’ said Mrs. W. (it was Saturday). ‘We must go and try the pulpit, then,’ said he, ‘to see if it suits me.’ So to the church we walked; and how he amused us by his droll way of trying the pulpit, as he called it;—his criticisms on

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

317

the little old-fashioned sounding-board, which seemed ready to fall on his head, and which, he said, would infallibly extinguish him! ‘I can’t bear,’ said he, ‘to be imprisoned in the true orthodox way in my pulpit, with my head just peeping above the desk. I like to look down upon my congregation,—to fire into them. The common people say I am a bould preacher, for I like to have my arms free, and to thump the pulpit. A singular contretemps happened to me once, when, to effect this, I had ordered the clerk to pile up some hassocks for me to stand on. My text was, ‘We are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.’ I had scarcely uttered these words, and was preparing to illustrate them, when I did so practically, and in a way I had not at all anticipated. My fabric of hassocks suddenly gave way; down I fell, and with difficulty prevented myself from being precipitated into the arms of my congregation; who, I must say, behaved very well, and recovered their gravity sooner than I could have expected. But my adventure was not so bad as that of a friend of mine. A tame raven had got into the church; no sooner did he begin his sermon, than the raven, in high caw, rushed at his book, seized it in his bill, and had almost effected his escape with it, before the astonished preacher was aware of his danger. He caught at it however;—the bird pulled and cawed, he tugged and scolded;—the congregation were to a man with the bird, who fought valiantly for his prize; and it was not till after a severe struggle, in

318

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

which victory remained for a long time doubtful, that my friend rescued his sermon and banished his enemy, amidst the roars of laughter of his congregation.’

“I have never seen any one who approached Sydney Smith in power of thought, united with the greatest candour. He was one who saw subjects on all sides from the height of an elevated genius. His reputation has been much founded on his powers of entertaining, which are very great, indeed unrivalled; yet I prefer his serious conversation. One morning, seeing me lounging in the library, looking at idle books, he took down ‘Berkeley on Vision,’ and advised me to read it, as excessively ingenious and well worth making myself acquainted with.

“‘Live,’ said he, ‘always in the best company when you read. No one in youth thinks on the value of time. Do you ever reflect how you pass your life? If you live to seventy-two, which I hope you may, your life is spent in the following manner:—An hour a day is three years; this makes twenty-seven years sleeping,—nine years dressing,—nine years at table,—six years playing with children,—nine years walking, drawing, and visiting,—six years shopping,—and three years quarrelling.’ I did not then perhaps value these marks of interest in the progress of a young girl’s mind as I have learned to do since.

“In 1816 I had again the happiness to pass a few days with Mr. Smith in the same family, and we found him, if possible, still more delightful than before: he would sit for hours with us by the fire, discoursing

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

319

and making us all wiser and better, and of course most proud and happy, by his notice. One day he took a walk by the canal; he put a case of morality:—a man digging a canal discovers some limestone-rock, waits till the land comes into the market, purchases it, and makes a great deal of money by his discovery. I doubted whether the man was right; he maintained the man had a right to profit by his own discovery. The discussion lasted long, but I only recollect the patience he had with my arguments; and though he did not succeed in converting me to his opinion at that time, he did not make me feel afraid to own it to him.

“‘Keep as much as possible in the grand and common road of life; patent educations or habits seldom succeed. Depend upon it, men set more value on the cultivated minds than on the accomplishments of women, which they are rarely able to appreciate. It is a common error, but it is an error, that literature unfits women for the everyday business of life. It is not so with men: you see those of the most cultivated minds constantly devoting their time and attention to the most homely objects. Literature gives women a real and proper weight in society, but then they must use it with discretion; if the stocking is blue, the petticoat must be long, as my friend Jeffrey says; the want of this has furnished food for ridicule in all ages.’

“‘Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach. I once gave a lady two-and-twenty recipes against melancholy: one was a

320

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things said to and of her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on the chimneypiece, and a kettle simmering on the hob.’ I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after-life discovered how true it is that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than higher and more exalted objects; and that no means ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it either in ourselves or others.

“‘Oh! I am happy to see all who will visit me; I have lived twenty years in the country, and have never met a bore.’

“‘Industry! you may do anything with industry. A friend of mine has mastered Greek, Latin, mathematics, and music, in an extraordinary degree, together with all the ologies; and yet without any remarkable abilities, by industry alone.’

“‘The Law is decidedly the best profession for a young man, if he has anything in him. In the Church a man is thrown into life with his hands tied, and bid to swim; he does well if he keeps his head above water. But then in the law he must have a stout heart and an iron digestion, and must be regular as the town clock, or he may as well retire. Attorneys expect in a lawyer the constancy of the turtle-dove.’

“Some one said it was fool-hardy in General Fitzpatrick to insist upon going up alone in the balloon, when it was found there was not force to carry up two. ‘No,’ he said, ‘there is always something sublime in sacrificing to great principles; his profession was courage.’

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

321

“Many years after, I met him at the house of a relation in London. He called in on his way from some dinner-party or other; he was in high spirits, and never, I think, did such a torrent of wit, fun, nonsense, pointed remark, just observation, and happy illustration, flow pellmell from the lips of a man. That is the only time in my life that I ever saw him in what is called full force, and it made an impression on me which I can never forget.

“I saw him again after the appearance of my first book. How kind he was! how happy and polite were the things he said upon the occasion! How few have the art to do such things so well! He made me sit by him, and paid me the refined compliment of letting me feel that he thought my mind worth inquiring into. After this I saw him only as one of the general circle, collected around him in a London drawing-room, where he kept up the ball of conversation by his irresistible and inexhaustible fun and fancy; but I still, as in early life, continued to prefer his serious conversation,—his wisdom to his wit.”

≪ PREV

NEXT ≫

Sarah Austin [née Taylor] (1793-1867) The daughter of John Taylor of Norwich (1750-1826); she was a respected translator unhappily married to the legal philosopher John Austin (1790-1859) in 1819.

Charles James Blomfield, bishop of London (1786-1857) Classical scholar and Tory prelate; he was bishop of Chester (1824) and bishop of London (1828-57).

James Boswell (1740-1795) Scottish man of letters, author of The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).

William Sturges Bourne (1769-1845) Tory politician educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford; he was MP for Hastings (1798-1802), Christchurch (1802-12, 1818-26), Bandon (1815-18), Ashburton (1826-30), and Milborne Port (1830-31).

Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868) Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Review in which he chastised Byron's Hours of Idleness; he defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University (1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).

Henry Clay (1777-1852) American statesman and orator from Kentucky who was speaker of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State (1825-29).

George Washington Doane, bishop of New Jersey (1799-1859) Educated at Union College, Schenectady, New York, he was an episcopal clergyman elected bishop of New Jersey in 1832. A poet himself, he edited the first American edition of Keble's Christian Year (1834

James Warren Doyle, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin (1786-1834) Educated in Portugal, he was professor of rhetoric and theology at Carlow College, Catholic bishop of Kildare and Leighlin (1819), and a pamphleteer in the Irish debates.

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Irish novelist; author of Castle Rackrent (1800) Belinda (1801), The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817).

Desiderus Erasmus (1466-1536) Dutch humanist; author of The Praise of Folly (1511).

Edward Everett (1794-1865) American statesman educated at Harvard College; he was editor of the North American Review (1820-24), ambassador to Great Britain (1841-45), president of Harvard (1846-49).

Augusta Lavinia Priscilla Fitzmaurice, countess of Kerry [née Ponsonby] (1814-1904) The daughter of John William Ponsonby, fourth Earl of Bessborough; in 1834 she married William Thomas Petty-FitzMaurice, Earl of Kerry, and in 1845 the Hon. Charles Alexander Gore. Sydney Smith wrote in 1835, “I am a convert to the beauty of Lady Kerry; her smile is charming.”

Richard Fitzpatrick (1748-1813) English military officer, politician, and poet allied with Fox and Sheridan in Parliament; he was secretary of state for war (1783, 1806) and author of Dorinda, a Town Eclogue (1775).

Hon. Caroline Fox (1767-1845) The daughter of Stephen Fox, second Baron Holland of Foxley and niece of Charles James Fox. Jeremy Bentham was among her admirers.

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out with Edmund Burke.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish and Italian; Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.

Thomas Grenville (1755-1846) The third son of George Grenville; he was a Whig MP and follower of Charles James Fox who was first lord of the Admiralty (1806-07) and bequeathed a collection of 20,000 volumes to the British Library.

Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845) Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl (d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).

Edward Venables-Vernon Harcourt, archbishop of York (1757-1847) The son of George Venables-Vernon, first Baron Vernon, educated at Westminster and All-Souls College, Oxford; he was prebendary of Gloucester (1785-91), bishop of Carlisle (1791-1807), and archbishop of York (1807-47).

Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804-1878) As clerk in the record office in the Tower of London from 1819 he became an authority on medieval manuscripts and was knighted in 1869.

Sir Henry Holland, first baronet (1788-1873) English physician and frequenter of Holland House, the author of Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia etc. during 1812 and 1813 (1814) and Recollections of Past Life (1872). His second wife, Saba, was the daughter of Sydney Smith.

Lady Saba Holland [née Smith] (1802-1866) The daughter and biographer of Sydney Smith; in 1834 she became the second wife of Sir Henry Holland.

Horace (65 BC-8 BC) Roman lyric poet; author of Odes, Epistles, Satires, and the Ars Poetica.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher and historian; author of Essays Moral and Political (1741-42), Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) and History of Great Britain (1754-62).

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850) Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of poetry.

Alfred Kingston (1829-1885) Born in Jamaica, with assistance from Sidney Smith he joined the Record Office in 1844 and rose to be deputy keeper; he was secretary of the Camden Society.

Lucan (39-65) Author of the epic poem Pharsalia about the Roman civil wars.

Georgiana Malcolm [née Vernon] (d. 1886) The daughter of Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, bishop of York; in 1845 she married General George Alexander Malcolm, son of General Sir John Malcolm.

Jane Marcet [née Haldimand] (1769-1858) Daughter of the Swiss banker Anthony Francis Haldimand; in 1799 she married Alexander John Gaspard Marcet. She published scientific textbooks, works for children, and Conversations on Political Economy (1816).

Georgina Meynell Ingram [née Pigou] (1789-1868) The daughter of Frederick John Pigou (1767-1830) and his wife Louise, friends of Samuel Rogers; in 1819 she married Hugo Charles Meynell Ingram.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) Irish politician, in 1823 he founded the Catholic Association to press for Catholic emancipation.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French philosopher and moralist, the author of Pensées (1670).

Sir Robert Peel, second baronet (1788-1850) Byron's schoolmate at Harrow, afterwards prime minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) Anglo-Irish playwright, author of The School for Scandal (1777), Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).

Catharine Amelia Smith [née Pybus] (1768-1852) The daughter of John Pybus, English ambassador to Ceylon; in 1800 she married Sydney Smith, wit and writer for the Edinburgh Review.

Sir Courtenay Smith (1773-1839) The younger brother of Sydney and Bobus Smith; educated at Winchester College, he was a judge in India.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the Edinburgh Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House denizens.

James Tate (1771-1843) Educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, he was the much-admired headmaster of Richmond School in Yorkshire (1796-1833) and canon of St Paul's (1833).

Thomas Tate (1802 c.-1863) The second son of James Tate, headmaster of Richmond School; educated at Richmond and Trinity College, Cambridge, he succeeded his father as vicar of Edmonton, Middlesex (1843-63).

George Ticknor (1791-1871) American author and Harvard professor of modern languages who travelled extensively in Europe 1815-19.

Sylvain Van de Weyer (1802-1874) Belgian politician who was minster to the United Kingdom; he married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Joshua Bates of Baring's Bank.

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright (1792-1854) Born in Liverpool, England, he was a Harvard-educated Episcopal clergyman and bishop of New York (1852).

Daniel Webster (1782-1852) American statesman and orator; he was a United States senator (1827-41, 1845-50) and secretary of state (1841-43).

Elizabeth Wedgwood [née Allen] (1764-1846) The daughter of John Bartlett Allen and sister of Lancelot Baugh Allen; in 1792 she married the younger Josiah Wedgewood; her daughter Emma Wedgwood (1808–1896) married Charles Darwin.

Josiah Wedgwood the younger (1769-1843) Of Maer Hall in Staffordshire, the son and successor of the famous potter; he was the patron of Coleridge and a founding member of the King of Clubs.

Boston Courier. (1826-1898). Edited by Joseph T. Buckingham and Samuel Kettell.

The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal. (1802-1929). Founded by Francis Jeffery, Sydney Smith, and Henry Brougham, the Edinburgh Review was for decades a principal organ of Whig opinion in Britain.

Morning Chronicle. (1769-1862). James Perry was proprietor of this London daily newspaper from 1789-1821; among its many notable poetical contributors were Coleridge, Southey, Lamb, Rogers, and Campbell.

New-York Evening Post. (1801-1832). Edited by William Coleman (1801-1829) and William Cullen Bryant (1829-1832).

Revue des deux mondes. (1829-). A Parisian monthly founded by Prosper Maurois and Ségur-Dupeyron.

George Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne (1685-1753) An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision. (Dublin: Jeremy Pepyat, 1709).

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) A Letter to Archdeacon Singleton on the Ecclesiastical Commission. (London: Longman, 1837). The first of a series of three pamphlets (1837-39) opposing ecclesiastical reform that were several times reprinted.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Letters on American Debts. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1843).

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Peter Plymley's Letters. (Dublin: M. Keene, 1807-1808). A series of ten pamphlets on the issue of Catholic emancipation.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Works. 4 vols (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1839-40). Reprinted 1840.

close

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Authors:  Saba Holland; Sarah Austin

Title:  A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin 2 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.   Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by:  David Hill Radcliffe

Completed June 2012

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

close

VOLUME 1:

i iii v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432

VOLUME 2:

iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546