“I never heard till I came here of the intended kindness of Mr. Thomson and yourself, with a view to

* The present Dowager Lady Wenlock.

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my remaining in Yorkshire. I was sensibly touched with it, and have laid it up in the archives of my mind. As to wood and lawn, cedar and fur, and pine and branching palm, I have exchanged for the better. Good, excellent, and amiable friends, such as we met with at Escrich, I did not expect to find. Fortune may grant such favours once in a life, but they must not be counted upon. Your family are always among our sincere regrets. This is a beautiful place; the house larger than Foston, with a wood of three or four acres belonging to it close to the house, and a glebe of sixty acres surrounding it, in a country everywhere most beautiful and fertile. The people are starving,—in the last stage of poverty and depression. Mrs. Sydney, from sorrow and novelty, has forgotten her throat; I think the complaint has nearly vanished. I am busy from morning till night, in building,—not from the love of architecture, but from the fear of death,—not from a preference for any particular collocation of stones, but from an apprehension that, disdaining all collocation (as they are apt to do in ancient parsonages), they should come thundering about my head. In the meantime I have, from time to time, bitter visitations of sorrow. I never suspected how children weave themselves about the heart. My son had that quality which is longest remembered by those who remain behind,—a deep and earnest affection and respect for his parents. God save you, my dear Mrs. Thomson, from similar distress! Have you read ——’s America? If you have, I hope you dislike

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it as much as I do. It is amusing, but very unjust and unfair. It will make his fortune at the Admiralty. Then he temporizes about the Slave Trade; with which no man should ever hold parley, but speak of it with abhorrence, as the greatest of all human abominations. We stay here till the beginning of the year, and then go into residence at Bristol. I hope to be in town in the spring, and hereafter to pay you a visit in Yorkshire, which will be a great pleasure to me. Accept, my dear Mrs. and Mr. Thomson, our united respect and regards,

“The wool your coat is made of is spun by machinery, and this machinery makes your coat two or three shillings cheaper,—perhaps six or seven. Your white

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hat is made by machinery at half price. The coals you burn are pulled out of the pit by machinery, and are sold to you much cheaper than they could be if they were pulled out by hand. You do not complain of these machines, because they do you good, though they throw many artisans out of work. But what right have you to object to fanning machines, which make bread cheaper to the artisans, and to avail yourselves of other machines which make manufactures cheaper to you?

“If you begin to object to machinery in farming, you may as well object to a plough, because it employs fewer men than a spade. You may object to a harrow, because it employs fewer men than a rake. You may object even to a spade, because it employs fewer men than fingers and sticks, with which savages scratch the ground in Otaheite. If you expect manufacturers to turn against machinery, look at the consequence. They may succeed, perhaps, in driving machinery out of the town they live in, but they often drive the manufacturer out of the town also. He sets up his trade in some distant part of the country, gets new men, and the disciples of Swing are left to starve in the scene of

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their violence and folly. In this way the lace manufacture travelled in the time of Ludd, Swing’s grandfather, from Nottingham to Tiverton. Suppose a free importation of corn to be allowed, as it ought to be, and will be. If you will not allow farmers to grow corn here as cheap as they can, more corn will come from America; for every threshing-machine that is destroyed, more Americans will be employed, not more Englishmen.

One of the earliest uses he made of his increase of wealth was to indulge himself by enlarging his library, and supplying those deficiencies before alluded to, which he had so long suffered under; and his books, which at Foston for many years had humbly occupied only the end of his little dining-room, now boldly spread themselves over three sides of a pretty odd room, dignified by the name of library,—about

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twenty-eight feet long and eight feet high,—ending in a bay-window supported by pillars, looking into the garden, and which he had obtained by throwing a pantry, a passage, and a shoe-hole together. In this pretty, gay room we breakfasted, he sat, and when alone we spent the evening with him. He used to say, “No furniture so charming as books, even if you never open them, or read a single word.”

In October, Lord John Russell and his family came to see us; and a joyful visit it was, as the Whigs had again assumed the reins of Government under their distinguished leader Lord Grey, and, with their return, gave assurance of obtaining the Reform Bill, and thus tranquillizing the country.

Shortly after, when we were staying on a visit with Lord Morley at Saltram, my father received the news that Lord Grey* had appointed him to a Prebendal

* One of the first things Lord Grey said on entering Downing-

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stall at St. Paul’s, in exchange for the one of inferior value he held at Bristol, which had previously been presented to him by his friend Lord Lyndhurst.* These glad tidings, together with the charm of the place, the weather, the society of our charming hostess, and the many kind, warm old friends he found assembled there, who all seemed to rejoice really as if the benefit had been conferred on themselves, produced such an effect on his spirits, that it would be difficult to forget that week. I hardly ever remember him more brilliant. On his return he wrote the little squib of Mrs. Partington and her battle with the Atlantic, which had a success quite unlooked for, spreading in every direction; and sketches of Mrs. Partington and her mop were to be seen in the windows of all the picture-shops about the country.

1632.—This year brought with it, amongst other events, the loss of one of his early and most valued friends, Sir James Mackintosh; just at the moment when his mind seemed in the highest vigour, and he was preparing for the world some of his most important works.

Their strong friendship had been much cemented by the intimacy of my mother with the ladies of his family, and his loss was deeply lamented by both.

street, to a relation who was with him, was, “Now I shall be able to do something for Sydney Smith.” * His brother Bobus used to say that Sydney’s life was the only instance of undeviating honesty that he had ever known to answer.

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My father loved to think of Sir James, to speak of his virtues, and describe him; and it was a gratification to his feelings publicly to express his admiration of his old friend in the letter he addressed to his son, Mr. Mackintosh, and published in his Life of his father. In this he says:—“When I turn from living spectacles of stupidity, ignorance, and malice, and wish to think better of the world, I remember my great and benevolent friend Mackintosh.” And, speaking of his love of truth, his memory, and his knowledge, he says, “Those who lived with him found they were gaining upon doubt, correcting error, enlarging the boundaries and strengthening the foundations of truth.” And again he says:—“Whatever might assuage the angry passions, and arrange the conflicting interests of nations; whatever could promote peace, increase knowledge, extend commerce, diminish crime, and encourage industry; whatever could exalt human character, and could enlarge human understanding, struck at once to the heart of your father, and roused all his faculties. I have seen him in a moment, when this spirit came upon him, like a great ship of war, cut bis cable, and spread his enormous canvas, and launch into a wide sea of reasoning eloquence.”

During Sir James’s absence in Bombay, my father had boon in the habit of writing constantly to him, to tell him all that was going on in Europe. But these letters, full of interest, though kindly returned by Mr. Mackintosh on the death of his father, have, I fear, together with all the letters of my father’s boyhood,

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preserved carefully by his poor mother, and given to mine, fallen a sacrifice to my father’s mania for burning papers. I remember these early letters of his were most original and characteristic; and it was one of our greatest pleasures as children to hear them read aloud in the evening by my mother. There was likewise a large collection of letters to his friend Horner, which he destroyed from thinking them of no value; but which would have been amongst the most interesting of his correspondence, as there were few whom he more loved, trusted, and honoured.

In 1834 my father took a house for a short time in Stratford-place, from whence his eldest daughter was married to Dr. Holland. On this occasion he writes to Lady Holland:—“We are about to be married; and Saba will be one day Lady Holland: she must then fit herself up with Luttrells, Rogers, and John Russells, &c. &c.: Sydney Smith she has.” In the summer he welcomed Dr. Holland’s three children, as if they had been his own, to spend the whole autumn in his house at Combe Florey.

Whilst we were there, he was writing one morning in his favourite bay-window, when a pompous little man, in rusty black, was ushered in. “May I ask what procures me the honour of this visit?” said my father. “Oh,” said the little man, “I am compounding a history of the distinguished families in Somersetshire, and have called to obtain the Smith arms.” “I regret, Sir,” said my father, “not to be able to contribute to so valuable a work; but the Smiths never had

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any arms, and have invariably sealed their letters with their thumbs.”

In truth, he could not have stumbled on a more perfect Goth than my father on the subject of ancestral distinctions. For though the Smiths were not literally reduced to their thumbs, yet, feeling how completely he had been the maker of his own fortunes, my father adopted the motto for his carriage of “Faber meæ fortunæ.” He loved to repeat that answer of Junot to the old noblesse, when boasting of their line of ancestors: “Ah, ma foi! je n’en sais rien; moi je suis mon ancêtre.”

During Lord Grey’s administration, which terminated in July, 1834, there had been but two or three vacancies for bishoprics in England (Ireland, for my father, was out of the question). There were, of course, numerous claims on Lord Grey; and out of this small number, King William IV., from kindness to Lord Grey, insisted on appointing Dr. Grey, his brother, without even consulting Lord Grey. Had Lord Grey had more to bestow and remained longer in power, I have good reason to believe that his old friend Sydney Smith would not have been forgotten. This belief, it has been seen, my father stated in his letters during Lord Grey’s life—and since his death I find it confirmed, from papers I possess, by one who best knew Lord Grey’s feelings.

I think it was about this period that an incident happened to a poor half-mad woman, who lived at the end of our village—with a drunken husband, and a

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swarm of children—all sunk, in consequence, into a hopeless state of poverty, dirt, and idleness, save one son, who, strange to say, had escaped the general contagion. This boy, first at school, then as apprentice to a shoemaker in a neighbouring village, had established a high character, and was the pride of his old mother’s heart. Unfortunately, on carrying home some work, he was tempted into a public-house to drink (what no Somersetshire-man can resist) a draught of cider. Some strangers were in the room, and shortly after the boy’s entrance a silk handkerchief was missed, immediate search made, and the handkerchief found on young Treble, to the poor boy’s utter horror. A warrant was obtained, the boy taken before the magistrates, who, upon the evidence, and the general character of the family, were about to commit him to prison. The poor old mother, frantic with grief, came before my father, imploring his assistance, and asserting the entire innocence of her son. My father, no longer a magistrate, but touched by her sorrow, and believing the possible innocence of the boy from his previous knowledge of him, undertook the affair; went instantly to a neighbouring village, where the magistrates were sitting; obtained with some difficulty a delay, upon his undertaking to bring fresh evidence in favour of the boy; and then, with as much ardour as if his own life, and honour, and everything he held most dear, were at stake, he wrote, he investigated, he cross-examined for nearly a week, and on the day appointed attended the trial. He secured the

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best lawyer he could find to conduct the cause; then, I believe, spoke for the boy himself; and, by the evidence he produced, succeeded in showing, to the satisfaction of all, that the handkerchief had been hid where the boy could not have hid it under the circumstances; and that the real culprit was undoubtedly one of the men present, of notoriously bad character, who, to save himself, when the search was made, dexterously contrived to stuff it down the innocent boy’s collar as he was pretending to assist in the search.

Soon after coming to town the following year, at my request, he christened my eldest girl; and the emotion and deep feeling he evinced on the occasion added not a little, I remember, to the impressiveness of that beautiful service. On this occasion

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added not a little, I remember, to the impressiveness of that beautiful service. On this occasion Miss Fox, Lord Holland’s sister, stood as godmother to my little girl, and bestowed on her her own name. A few years ago my old friend Mr. Rogers said to me, “What a privileged person you are, to have had such a father and such an uncle!” In truth I feel it so. But he might have added, “And such a friend as Miss Fox,” though I must share this last with so many; for who was ever so loved, so honoured, or so worthy to be so, as Miss Fox? Not to speak of her understanding (which was such as is rarely bestowed on women), there was such an atmosphere of purity, simplicity, and indulgent kindness about her, that all evil passions seemed to fly away at her approach, and a better and more amiable tone to be infused into society. Her heart was as a spot to repose on in the moral world, a place of refuge in distress, of sympathy in joy or sorrow, and of warm unvarying friendship in weal or woe.

In October he took my mother and Mr. and Mrs. Hibbert to Paris for a short time; and in November came to town for his residence at St. Paul’s and to

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enter upon his new duties there, to his performance of which (even those least known to the world, and which he might have neglected almost without blame) some of his fellow-labourers have given most kind and gratifying testimony, as I find in this letter to Lady B——, sent to my mother from Mr. Cockerell, architect and superintendent of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which I give, as showing a part of his character little known to the world—his powers of business.

The following, from his old friend, the Dean of St. Paul’s, is so valuable that I cannot resist inserting it.

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In the year 1837 he made a short tour into Holland, with my mother. He always lamented that the power of travelling had been denied him till his body had become almost unequal to the fatigue of doing so. He was ever most eager to see and to hear; but with the same rapidity that characterized his thoughts, he only liked first impressions, and never dwelt ten minutes together on the same scene or picture; declared he had mastered the Louvre in a quarter of an hour, and could judge of Talma’s powers in ten minutes.*

On his return, by Brussels, he received much kindness and attention from his friend Mr. Van de Weyer, who was then staying there, and made acquaintance with Madame Van de Weyer, his mother, with whom he was excessively struck, both from her talent and her vigour of character. He had, whilst here, the honour of an interview with King Leopold, who afterwards sent him an invitation to dine with him at his palace at Laeken, and was kind enough to send his carriage to Brussels to take him there and bring him back. He felt this unexpected honour and attention from the sovereign of a foreign country as he ought. But am I wrong in believing that such honours do more honour even to the giver than the receiver? for are they not a pledge to the people that their sovereign prizes talents and honesty wherever they are found, and whether they have been employed, as my

* It was this love of change that made him often write and speak of Combe Florey as an earthly paradise; and again, after some weeks, describe it as un tombeau. Both were genuine feelings at the moment.

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father says, “in protecting the just rights of kings or restraining their unlawful ambition”?

“I dined yesterday with Sir Hamilton Seymour. Van de Weyer has been extremely kind and hospitable to us, and his old mother is an excellent person. I am to be presented to the King today.”

One evening, at his house, a few friends had come

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in to tea; amongst others, Lord Jeffrey, Dr. Holland, and his sister. Some one spoke of Talleyrand. “Oh,” said Sydney, “Lady Holland laboured incessantly to convince me that Talleyrand was agreeable, and was very angry because his arrival was usually a signal for my departure; but, in the first place, he never spoke at all till he had not only devoured but digested his dinner, and as this was a slow process with him, it did not occur till everybody else was asleep, or ought to have been so; and when he did speak he was so inarticulate I never could understand a word he said.” “It was otherwise with me,” said Dr. Holland; “I never found much difficulty in following him.” “Did not you? why it was an abuse of terms to call it talking at all; for he had no teeth, and, I believe, no roof to his mouth—no uvula—no larynx—no trachea—no epiglottis—no anything. It was not talking, it was gargling; and that, by the bye, now I think of it, must be the very reason why Holland understood him so much better than I did,” turning suddenly round on him with his merry laugh.

“Yet nobody’s wit was of so high an order as Talleyrand’s when it did come, or has so well stood the test of time. You remember when his friend Montrond* was taken ill, and exclaimed, ‘Mon ami, je sens les touraiens de l’enfer.’ ‘Quoi! déjà?’ was his reply. And when he sat at dinner between Madame de Staël

* I find that Talleyrand used to tell this story as having passed between Cardinal De la Roche-Guyon, a celebrated epicure, and his confessor.

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and Madame Récamier, the celebrated beauty, Madame de Staël, whose beauties were certainly not those of the person, jealous of his attentions to her rival, insisted upon knowing which he would save if they were both drowning. After seeking in vain to evade her, he at last turned towards her and said, with his usual shrug, ‘Ah, madame, vous savez nager.’ And when —— exclaimed, ‘Me voilà entre l’esprit et la beauté,’ he answered, ‘Oui, et sans posséder ni l’un ni l’autre.’ And of Madame ——, ‘Oui, elle est belle, très-belle; mais pour la toilette, cela commence trop tard, et finit trop tôt.’ Of Lord —— he said, ‘C’est la bienveillance même, mais la bienveillance la plus perturbative que j’ai jamais connu.’ To a friend of mine he said on one occasion, ‘Miladi, voulez-vous me prêter ce livre?’ ‘Oui, mais vous me le rendrez?’ ‘Oui.’ ‘Parole d’honneur?’ ‘Oui.’ ‘Vous en êtes sûr?’ ‘Oui, oui, miladi; mais, pour vous le rendre, il faut absolument d’abord me le prêter.’

“What a talker that Frenchman Buchon is! Macaulay is a Trappist compared to him.

“I was, many years ago, talking in Talleyrand’s presence to my brother Bobus, who was just then beginning his career at the Bar, and said, ‘Mind, Bobus, when you are Chancellor I shall expect one of your best livings.’ ‘Oui, mon ami,’ said Bobus, ‘mais d’abord je vous ferai commettre toutes les bassesses dont les prêtres sont capables.’ On which Talleyrand, throwing up his hands and eyes, exclaimed, with a shrug, ‘Mais quelle latitude énorme!’”

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Talking of tastes, my father quite shared in his friend Mrs. Opie’s for light, heat, and fragrance. The first was almost a passion with him, which he indulged by means of little tin lamps with mutton-fat, in the days of his poverty—these, when a little richer, to our great joy, were exchanged for oil-lamps—and lastly, in the days of his wealth, for a profusion of wax-lights. The heat of his patent fireplaces has been mentioned, and his delight in flowers was extreme. He often went into the garden the moment he was dressed, and returned with his hands full of roses, to place them on the plates at breakfast. He liked to see the young people staying in his house dressed with natural flowers, and encouraged us to

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invent all sorts of flowery ornaments, such as earrings and necklaces, some of which were really very graceful.

“Oh, don’t read those twelve volumes till they are made into a consommé of two. Lord Dudley did still better, he waited till they blew over.”

An argument arose, in which my father observed how many of the most eminent men of the world had been diminutive in person, and after naming several among the ancients, he added, “Why, look there, at Jeffrey; and there is my little friend ——, who has not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.”

“Fox wrote drop by drop.”

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“The great charm of Sheridan’s speaking was his multifariousness of style.”

“We naturally lose illusions as we get older, like teeth, but there is no Cartwright to fit a new set into our understandings. I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

“Yes, he has spent all his life in letting down empty

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buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his age in trying to draw them up again.”

“How is ——?” “He is not very well.” “Why, what is the matter?” “Oh, don’t you know he has produced a couplet? When our friend is delivered of a couplet, with infinite labour and pain, he takes to his bed, has straw laid down, the knocker tied up, expects his friends to call and make inquiries, and the answer at the door invariably is, ‘Mr. —— and his little couplet are as well as can be expected.’ When he produces an Alexandrine he keeps his bed a day longer.”

One evening, when drinking tea with Mrs. Austin, the servant entering into a crowded room, with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand, it seemed doubtful, nay impossible, he should make his way among the numerous groups; but, on the first approach of the steam-

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ing kettle, the crowd receded on all sides, my father amongst the rest, though carefully watching the progress of the lad to the table:—“I declare,” said he (addressing Mrs. Austin), “a man who wishes to make his way in life could do nothing better than go through the world with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand.”

“Such is the horror the French have of our cuisine, that at the dinner given in honour of Guizot at the Athenæum, they say his cook was heard to exclaim, ‘Ah, mon pauvre maître! je ne le reverrai plus.’’

“Lord Wenlock told me that his ground-rent cost him five pounds a foot; that is about the price of a London footman six foot high,—thirty guineas per annum.”

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Addressing Rogers: “My dear R., if we were both in America, we should be tarred and feathered; and, lovely as we are by nature, I should be an ostrich and you an emu.”

“I think it was Luttrell who used to say ‘——’s face always reminded him of boiled mutton and near relations.’”

“Some people seem to be born out of their proper century. —— should have lived in the Italian Republics, and —— under Charles II.”

“One of my great objections to the country is, that

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you get your letters but once a day; here they come every five minutes.”

Dining at Mr. Grenville’s, he as usual arrived before the rest of the party; some ladies were shortly after announced; as Mr. Grenville, with his graceful dignity and cheerfulness, went forward to receive them, my father, looking after him, exclaimed to Mr. Panizzi, “There, that is the man from whom we all ought to learn how to grow old!” The conversation at table turned on a subject lately treated of in Sir Charles Lyell’s book, the phenomena which the earth might present to the geologists of some future period; “Let us imagine,” said my father, “an excavation on the site of St. Paul’s. Fancy a lecture, by the Owen of some future age, on the thigh-bone of a Minor Canon, or the tooth of a Dean,—the form, qualities, the knowledge, tastes, propensities, he would discover from them.” And off he went, his imagination playing on this idea in every possible way.

Some one spoke of the state of financial embarrassment of the London University at that time. “Yes, it is so great, that I understand they have already seized on the air-pump, the exhausted receiver, and galvanic batteries; and that bailiffs have been seen chasing

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the Professor of Modern History round the quadrangle.”

Conversing in the evening, with a small circle, round Miss Berry’s tea-table (who, though far advanced towards the fourscore years and ten which she afterwards attained, was still remarkable for her vigour of mind and beauty of person), my father observed the entrance of a no less remarkable person, both for talents and years, dressed in a beautiful crimson velvet gown; he started up to meet his fine old friend, exclaiming, “Exactly the colour of my preaching cushion!” and leading her forward to the light, he pretended to be lost in admiration, saying, “I really can hardly keep my hands off you; I shall be preaching on you, I fear,” etc., and played with the subject to the infinite amusement of his old friend and the little circle assembled round her.

“Playfair was certainly the most delightful philomath I ever knew.”

“Have you heard of Niebuhr’s discoveries? All Roman history reversed; Tarquin turning out an excellent family man, and Lucretia a very doubtful character, whom Lady —— would not have visited.”

The ladies having left the room, at a dinner at Sir G. Philips’s, the conversation turned on the black population of America. My father, turning to an eminent American jurist, who was here some years ago, “Pray, Mr. ——, tell us why you can’t live on better terms with your black population.” “Why, to tell you the truth, Mr. Smith, they smell so abominably

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that we can’t bear them near us.” “Possibly not,” said my father, “but men must not be led by the nose in that way: if you don’t like asking them to dinner, it is surely no reason why you should not make citizens of them.

“Et si non alium latè jactaret odorem, Civis erat.’”*

Mr. Monckton Milnes was talking to Alderman ——, when the latter turned away: “You were speaking,” said Sydney, “to the Lord Mayor elect. I myself felt in his presence like the Roman whom Pyrrhus tried to frighten with an elephant, and remained calm.”

“To take Macaulay out of literature and society, and put him in the House of Commons, is like taking the chief physician out of London during a pestilence.”

“How bored children are with the wisdom of Telemachus! they can’t think why Calypso is so fond of him.”

One day, Mr. Rogers took Mr. Moore and my father home in his carriage, from a breakfast; and insisted on showing them, by the way, Dryden’s house,

* Virgil, Georgics ii. 132. Laurus in the original.

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in some obscure street. It was very wet; the house looked very much like other old houses; and having thin shoes on, they both remonstrated; but in vain. Rogers got out, and stood expecting them. “Oh! you see why Rogers don’t mind getting out,” exclaimed my father, laughing and leaning out of the carriage, “he has got goloshes on—but, Rogers, lend us each a golosh, and we will then stand on one leg, and admire as long as you please.”

“When Prescott comes to England, a Caspian Sea of soup awaits him.”

“An American said to me, ‘You are so funny, Mr. Smith! do you know, you remind me of our great joker, Dr. Chamberlaque.’ ‘I am much honoured,’ I replied, ‘but I was not aware you had such a functionary in the United States.’”

At Mr. Romilly’s there arose a discussion on the Inferno of Dante, and the tortures he had invented. “He may be a great poet,” said my father, “but as to invention, I consider him a mere bungler,—no imagination, no knowledge of the human heart. If I had taken it in hand, I would show you what torture really was; for instance (turning, merrily, to his old friend Mrs. Marcet), you should be doomed to listen, for a thousand years, to conversations between Caroline and Emily, where Caroline should always give wrong explanations in chemistry, and Emily in the end be unable to distinguish an acid from an alkali. You, Macaulay, let me consider?—oh, you should be dumb. False dates and facts of the reign of Queen

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Anne should for ever be shouted in your ears; all liberal and honest opinions should be ridiculed in your presence; and you should not be able to say a single word during that period in their defence.” “And what would you condemn me to, Mr. Sydney?” said a young mother. “Why, you should for ever see those three sweet little girls of yours on the point of falling downstairs, and never be able to save them. There, what tortures are there in Dante equal to these?”

“Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.”

“Nothing amuses me more than to observe the utter want of perception of a joke in some minds. Mrs. Jackson called the other day, and spoke of the oppressive heat of last week. ‘Heat, Ma’am!’ I said; ‘it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.’ ‘Take off your flesh and sit in your bones, Sir! Oh, Mr. Smith! how could you do that?’ she exclaimed, with the utmost gravity. ‘Nothing more easy, Ma’am; come and see next time.’ But she ordered her carriage, and evidently thought it a very unorthodox proceeding.”

“Miss ——, too, the other day, walking round the grounds at Combe Florey, exclaimed, ‘Oh, why do

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you chain up that fine Newfoundland dog, Mr. Smith?’ ‘Because it has a passion for breakfasting on parish boys.’ ‘Parish boys!’ she exclaimed,’ does he really eat boys, Mr. Smith?’ ‘Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.’ Her face of horror made me die of laughing.”

A most curious instance of this slow perception of humour occurred once in Brook-street, where a gentleman of some rank dined at our house, with a large party, of which my father and Mr. Luttrell formed a portion. My father was in high spirits, and in one of his happiest veins; and much brilliant conversation passed around from Mr. Luttrell and others. Mr. —— sat through it all with the utmost gravity. This seemed only to stimulate my father, who became more and more brilliant, till the table was in a perfect roar of laughter. The servants even, forgetting all decorum, were obliged to turn away to conceal their mirth. Mr. —— alone sat unmoved, and gazing with solemn wonder at the scene around. Luttrell was so struck by this that he said, “Mr. —— was a natural phenomenon whom he must observe;” so letting the side-dishes pass by, he took out his eye-glass to watch. At last my father accidentally struck out a subject (which, for social reasons, I must not give, though it was inimitable,) which touched the right spring, and he could resist no longer, but actually laughed out. Luttrell shouted victory in my ear; and resumed his wonted attention to the dinner, saying, he had never witnessed so curious a scene.

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The conversation turned upon pictures. “I like pictures, without knowing anything about them; but I hate coxcombry in the fine arts, as well as in anything else. I got into dreadful disgrace with Sir G. B. once, who, standing before a picture at Bowood, exclaimed, turning to me, ‘Immense breadth of light and shade!’ I innocently said, ‘Yes;—about an inch and a half.’ He gave me a look that ought to have killed me.”

At a large dinner party my father, or some one else, announced the death of Mr. Dugald Stewart; one whose name ever brings with it feelings of respect for his talents and high character. The news was received with so much levity by a lady of rank, who sat by him, that he turned round and said, “Madam, when we are told of the death of so great a man as Mr. Dugald Stewart, it is usual, in civilized society, to look grave for at least the space of five seconds.”

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MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

“I hate bare walls; so I cover mine, you see, with pictures. The public, it must be owned, treat them with great contempt; and even Hibbert, who has been brought up in the midst of fine pictures, and might know better, never will admire them. But look at that sea-piece, now; what would you desire more? It is true, the moon in the corner was rather dingy when I first bought it; so I had a new moon put in for half-a-crown, and now I consider it perfect.”

Of my father’s conversation in London, where of course such powers were most excited and most brilliant, (except in these slight specimens, principally furnished by the kindness of a friend) I have hardly attempted to give any idea; partly because the documents that would best have enabled me to do so (his daily letters, when absent, to my mother) have not been preserved;—partly because of such journals so little can and ought to be published, that they serve but to remind one of Sancho Panza’s feast, where a splendid list of names promises everything, and produces nothing—and last, though not least, as his friend Lord John Russell observes, because it is hardly possible to describe his manner, or convey the slightest idea of what his powers really were, in their most brilliant moments, to those who have never witnessed them. Lord John adds,—and all who knew my father will

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agree with his conclusion,—that “in his peculiar style he has never been equalled, and perhaps will not be surpassed.” I observe, with pleasure, that every sketch which has appeared of him has laid great stress upon the wonderful degree of truth, wisdom, and bold illustration, that was often concealed in these ludicrous pictures and apparent nonsense; and which not only made them valuable, but prevented their ever palling, or degenerating into mere buffoonery.

About this period began his contest with the Ecclesiastical Commission, which lasted nearly four years, and was carried on principally in a series of letters addressed to Archdeacon Singleton. In these letters, after touching slightly upon the injustice of forming such a Commission without any one to protect the interests of the inferior clergy—on the permanent and arbitrary powers granted to the Commission, under a Whig ministry—on the inclination the Commission evinced to appropriate the patronage, at the same time that they were claiming the honours of martyrdom (à propos to which he introduced the episode of the old chronicle of Dort);—touching on these, together with many other clauses very oppressive to the clergy (which were afterwards given up), he proceeds to enforce two principles. First, that if the laity desire an Establishment into which birth, wealth, station, talent, education, and character should flow; and bestow on it a revenue which, if equally divided, would hardly place the clergy on a footing with the upper servants of a nobleman’s family, and would not, accord-

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ing to the proposed plan of spoliation, be an addition of more than £5. 12s. 6½d. per man—payment by hope, or inequality of division, were the only means of obtaining the desired end; and the prizes in the lottery must be left. Or, if the inequality in some instances was too great, the remedy should be applied where the greatest evil existed. Secondly, that the Commission, by attacking vested interests during the lifetime of the incumbents, were not only guilty of great present injustice, but were admitting a most dangerous precedent, and overturning a principle that all governments had hitherto respected.

These letters, which by many have been considered as evincing more talent than almost anything he has written, produced considerable effect at the time; and the many private letters I possess, as well as the testimony of the public press, show that public opinion was strongly with him—that these measures were changes, but not reforms—that they contributed nothing to the public good—and that they diminished nothing of the public hostility to the Church. How it terminated is well known. He concludes the controversy with this tribute to his old friend and opponent, Lord John Russell:—“You know very well, my dear Lord, in criticizing parts of your Church reform, I mean nothing unkind or unfriendly to you personally. I have known you for thirty years; and I do not believe that in this country, full of good men, there is one more honest, upright, and intrepid than yourself.” My father, I find, states that he has the most honourable testi-

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273

mony from Lord John himself, that in conducting this dispute he never exceeded the bounds of free discussion; and that he was influenced by no motive that did not affect equally the whole body to which he belonged, and whose interests he felt bound to defend.*

I am aware that these letters have afforded plausible ground for the insinuations that were made by some few, that my father, a Whig all his life, deserted his party, and attacked his friends; and, a reformer, opposed reform the moment it affected his own interest. These are grave charges, but are best met by a few facts. He attacked the Whigs when they were in power, and had everything to bestow; when they were poor and powerless, he was ever found fighting at their side. This does not look mean and base. He opposed not reform, but this reform; and this reform he had opposed upon the same principle, twenty years before, in the Edinburgh Review, under a Tory administration, when in his wildest dreams he had never hoped to be a Canon of St. Paul’s.† He did not, therefore, change

* I might add to this statement, that I have very lately received from Lord John Russell the most generous praise of these very letters (always excepting a well-known passage, which he considered unjust); and Lord John’s last act has indeed so proved its injustice, that I feel sure my father, were he alive, would be the first to retract it, and to do honour to the sacrifice that has been made by his friend. † There is also amongst his papers an amusing fragment on the subject of tithes, written about the period that question was being discussed, which, as it is but a fragment, is hardly worth inserting. But in this again he speaks strongly of the necessity of inequality of payment, in order to support an Establishment so ill provided for as the Church of England; showing still further how consistent he was from first to last in his opinions on this subject as well as others.

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his opinions with his position. It did not affect his personal interests, as he wanted the patronage neither for himself nor his family; and the noble use he made of valuable patronage when it did come into his hands, must sufficiently exonerate him from the suspicion of acting from interested motives in the eyes of any candid man.

The following petition from the Rev. Sydney Smith, was presented and read to the House of Lords by the Hon. the Lord Bishop of Rochester, July, 1840.

“To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled.

“The humble petition of the Rev. Sydney Smith, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul’s, humbly showeth,—That your petitioner has bestowed considerable thought and attention upon the subject of the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill, and prays that the same may not pass into a law; for the following reasons:—

“The Bill applies to the spiritual destitution of the Church, that which was left for the ornaments and rewards of the Church; and in this way gets rid of the burden of supporting the clergy, by tampering with the sacred laws of property; making, at the same time, the multitude believe that they are reforming abuses, while they are only evading duties and weakening principles.

“By lessening the rewards of the Church, it prevents men of capital from entering into it; and makes the

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whole wealth of those who are engaged in the service of the Church, less, instead of increasing it.

“The whole mass of property which the Bill proposes to confiscate, will make the poor clergy a very little less poor, while its confiscation destroys the powerful stimulus of hope, at the beginning of an ecclesiastical life. Two-thirds of the present deans and prebendaries have been curates and small vicars: they would, at the lowest period of their fortunes, have refused to barter their hope of future competence, for the addition of a few pounds to their income; and this is most unquestionably the state of feeling among the lower clergy at the present moment.

“The whole of the Bill supposes that deans and chapters have made a worse use of their patronage than bishops, and this is directly contrary to truth. But what is true of this Bill is, that one order in the Church who have no votes in Parliament, have been completely sacrificed to those who have votes,—that deans and prebendaries, carefully excluded from the Commission, have been condemned to confiscation,—and that the Prelate Commissioners have not sacrificed one shilling of the aggregate income of the bishops to those spiritual destitutions of the Church, which they feel so strongly, but relieve with property not their own.

“The Bill destroys many ecclesiastical offices, which, with a little care and thought, might have been made eminently useful to literature; to the present plans of national education; to the care of dioceses in the de-

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cay and old-age of bishops, and to the general support of episcopal authority; or, what is of more importance (in the present unrepresented and unsupported state of the parochial clergy), to the checks upon episcopal authority.

“This Bill habituates the Legislature to the easy and inviting power of tampering with the property of the Church. It is utterly impossible to believe that this will be the last and the worst act of that nature.

“The law, as it now stands, enables dignified clergymen to bestow their patronage on their children and relations, who may be deserving of it. Under this sanction they have given to their sons very expensive educations at the Universities. The present Bill destroys these expectations; sets at nought vested rights; and, instead of applying this provision to future members of chapters, cuts off from their rights the ancient members of those bodies, who have laid out their whole plan of life upon the faith of laws unimpugned and unrepealed for centuries; and this appears to your Petitioner to be a gross act of spoliation and injustice, and contrary to the express provisions and arrangements of the Commissioners themselves.

“To give to every clergyman who has gone through the expense of an English University, and who is married and settled in the country, the income which they ought in decency and in justice to receive, would require, not only the confiscation of all the cathedral and episcopal property, but some millions of money in addition. A church provided for as ours now is, can

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277

obtain a well-educated and respectable clergy only by those hopes which are excited by the unequal division and lottery of preferment. This is the real cause which has brought capital and respectability into the English Church, and peopled it with the well-educated sons of gentlemen,—an object of the greatest importance in a rich country like England. Nothing would so rapidly and certainly ensure the degradation of the Church of England, as the equal division of all its revenues among all its members.

“For these reasons, your Petitioner believes the Bill in question (however well intended) to be founded on a very short-sighted policy, and that it will entail great evils upon a Church no longer unfavourable to the civil liberties of mankind—as yet untainted by fanaticism—carried forward by the labours of a highly improved clergy—and now become as useful and as active as any church establishment which the world has yet seen.

“This, as it seems to your Petitioner, is the last of all our institutions upon which an experiment so daring and so dangerous ought to be tried. For these reasons, your Petitioner humbly prays that the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill may not pass into a law.

“Sydney Smith.”

---

In the previous year, a statue having been erected at Newcastle, in honour of Earl Grey, my father was requested to write the inscription for it. He sent the following; but as it did not entirely meet the views of

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MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

all the subscribers, it was not adopted; though I have reason to believe it was much approved of by his family.

TO CHARLES, EARL GREY, KG.,

OF HOWICK, IN NORTHUMBERLAND, THIS MONUMENT, IN A SPIRIT OF SOLEMN RESPECT AND DEEP GRATITUDE, IS ERECTED, BY MANY OF HIS FELLOW CITIZENS. THEY HAVE SEEN HIM THROUGH A LONG LIFE DEDICATING HIS FINE TALENTS TO PROMOTE THE REST INTERESTS OF MANKIND, AND, IN EVIL DAYS, WITH HIGH MORAL COURAGE DEFENDING THE ALMOST EXTINGUISHED LIRERTIES OF ENGLAND! THEY OWE TO HIM THAT MEMORARLE REFORM, WHICH, BLENDING FREEDOM WITH LOYALTY AND ORDER, HAS INFUSED FRESH LIFE AND ENERGY INTO ALL OUR INSTITUTIONS; A REFORM WHICH HE PLANNED IN HIS YOUTH, AND BROUGHT TO TRIUMPHANT PERFECTION IN HIS ADVANCED AGE. REMEMBERING THESE THINGS, THEY HAVE DEEMED IT AN ACT OF SACRED JUSTICE TO RECORD, BY A PURLIC MONUMENT, THEIR ADMIRATION OF THIS GREAT STATESMAN: NOT WITHOUT HOPE THAT THE YOUNG, SEEING WHAT THOSE QUALITIES ARE WHICH COMMAND THE GRATITUDE OF MANKIND, MAY STRIVE TO BE AS GOOD AND PURE AS HE WHOSE IMAGE IS HERE PLACED REFORE THEIR EYES.

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Anne, queen of Great Britain (1665-1714) Queen of England (1702-1714) and of Great Britain following the Union of 1707.

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.

Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet (1753-1827) Art collector, painter, and one of the founders of the National Gallery; he was an acquaintance of Johnson and Reynolds, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron.

Lady Marion Bell [née Shaw] (1787-1876) The daughter of Charles Shaw, clerk of the county of Ayr; she married the physician Sir Charles Bell in 1811 and was his amanuensis and biographer.

Mary Berry (1763-1852) Of Twickenham, the elder sister of her companion Agnes Berry (1764-1852); she was a diarist and one of Horace Walpole's primary correspondents.

Jean Alexandre Buchon (1791-1849) French liberal, historian, and man of letters.

Samuel Cartwright (1789-1864) London dentist who was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and member of the Linnean and Geographical Societies.

King Charles II of England (1630-1685) King of England (1660-1685) upon the restoration of the monarchy.

Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863) The son of the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell whom he succeeded as surveyor of St Paul's Cathedral in 1819. He was architect to the Bank of England and professor of architecture at the Royal Academy.

Edward Copleston, bishop of Llandaff (1776-1849) Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he was a fellow of Oriel, Oxford Professor of Poetry (1802-12), dean of St. Paul's (1827-1849), and bishop of Llandaff (1827-49); he published Three Replies to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review (1810-11).

John Singleton Copley, baron Lyndhurst (1772-1863) The son of the American painter; he did legal work for John Murray before succeeding Lord Eldon as lord chancellor (1827-30, 1834-35, 1841-46); a skilled lawyer, he was also a political chameleon.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Florentine poet, the author of the Divine Comedy and other works.

John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of Of Dramatick Poesie (1667), Absalom and Achitophel (1681), Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697), The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and Fables (1700).

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.

Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845) In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.

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 Grey, bishop of Hereford (1782-1837) The son of the first Earl Grey and brother of the prime minister; educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was appointed bishop of Hereford in 1832.

François-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874) French statesman and historian; he published de la Révolution d'Angleterre (1826-27) and Histoire générale de la civilisation en Europe (1828).

Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844) Scottish seaman and traveler; after education at Edinburgh high school he entered the Navy in 1802; he published Fragments of Voyages and Travels (1831-33) and other works.

Emily Hibbert [née Smith] (1807-1874) The younger daughter of Sydney Smith; in 1828 she married Nathaniel Hibbert (1794-1865).

Nathaniel Hibbert (1794-1865) Of Munden House, Hertfordshire, the son of West-India merchant George Hibbert (1757-1837); educated at Winchester, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lincoln's Inn, he was a barrister and magistrate. He was the son-in-law of Sidney Smith.

Christopher Hodgson (1784-1874) The son of John Hodgson of Buckden, he was a solicitor and chapter clerk of St. Paul's Cathedral from 1806 to 1871.

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.

Francis Horner (1778-1817) Scottish barrister and frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review; he was a Whig MP and member of the Holland House circle.

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.

Jean-Andoche Junot (1771-1813) French general who commanded the invasion of Portugal in 1807 and was driven back by Wellington the following year.

William Lamb, second viscount Melbourne (1779-1848) English statesman, the son of Lady Melbourne (possibly by the third earl of Egremont) and husband of Lady Caroline Lamb; he was a Whig MP, prime minister (1834-41), and counsellor to Queen Victoria.

Lady Caroline Lawley-Thompson [née Neville] (1790-1868) The youngest daughter of Richard Griffin, second Lord Braybrooke; in 1817 she married Paul Beilby Lawley-Thompson, afterwards first Baron Wenlock.

Paul Beilby Lawley-Thompson, first Baron Wenlock (1784 c.-1852) The third son of Sir Robert Lawley, fifth baronet; educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a Whig MP for Wenlock and the East Riding, created first Baron Wenlock in 1839.

Leopold I King of Belgium (1790-1865) The son of Prince Francis Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; after serving in the Russian army he married Princess Charlotte in May 1816; in 1831 he was inaugurated as the first king of the Belgians.

James Loch (1780-1855) The son of George Loch of Drylaw, he was educated at Edinburgh University and was a barrister, estate commissioner, and Whig MP for St Germains in Cornwall (1827-30). He contributed to the Edinburgh Review.

Henry Luttrell (1768-1851) English wit, dandy, and friend of Thomas Moore and Samuel Rogers; he was the author of Advice to Julia, a Letter in Rhyme (1820).

Sir Charles Lyell, first baronet (1797-1875) Scottish geologist educated at Exeter College, Oxford; he was author of Principles of Geology (1830-33) and The Antiquity of Man (1863).

Thomas Babington Macaulay, baron Macaulay (1800-1859) English poet, critic, and historian, author of The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, 5 vols (1849-61).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

Robert James Mackintosh (1806-1864) The son and biographer of Sir James Mackintosh; he was lieutenant governor of Saint Christopher (1847-1850) and governor of Antigua (1850-1855).

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).

William Van Mildert (1765-1836) Educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Queen's College, Oxford, he was a high churchman, editor of the British Critic, bishop of Llandaff (1819), dean of St. Paul's (1820), bishop of Durham (1826), and a founder of Durham University.

Richard Monckton Milnes, first baron Houghton (1809-1885) Poet and politician, a Cambridge ‘apostle’ and friend of Tennyson; he published Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats, 2 vols (1848).

Casimir, Comte de Montrond (1768-1843) French military officer, diplomat, and political agent allied to Talleyrand. Sydney Smith described him as “a very witty, agreeable man” Thomas Creevey as an “infernal scoundrel.”

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.

George Murray, bishop of Rochester (1784-1860) Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was Bishop of Sodor and Man (1814) and Bishop of Rochester (1827); with Sidney Smith, he was a prominent opposer of ecclesiastical reform in the 1830s.

Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831) The son of the cartographer Carsten Neibuhr, he was a Danish-German statesman and historian of classical Rome.

Amelia Opie [née Alderson] (1769-1853) Quaker poet and novelist; in 1798 she married the painter John Opie (1761-1807); author of Father and Daughter (1801) and other novels and moral fables.

Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) Educated at Edinburgh University, he was Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology (1836) and superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum (1856).

Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879) A carbonaro who escaped to London in 1823 where he became professor of Italian at University College London before becoming an influential librarian at the British Museum (1831). He was a friend of Ugo Foscolo.

John Parker, first earl of Morley (1772-1840) The son of John Parker, first baron Boringdon (1735-1788); educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was a supporter of George Canning in Parliament, created earl of Morley and Viscount Boringdon in 1815.

Sir George Philips, first baronet (1766-1847) Textile magnate and Whig MP; in addition to his mills in Staffordshire and Lancashire he was a trading partner with Richard “Conversation” Sharp. He was created baronet in 1828.

John Playfair (1748-1819) Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University and Whig man of letters who contributed to the Edinburgh Review.

William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) American historian educated at Harvard; he published History of the Conquest of Mexico, 3 vols (1844).

Jeanne-Françoise Récamier (1777-1849) Friend of Madame de Staël and lover of Benjamin Constant; her Souvenirs et correspondance was published in 1859.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818) Reformer of the penal code and the author of Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

Sir George Hamilton Seymour (1797-1880) The eldest son of Lord George Seymour (1763-1848); educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he began a career as a diplomat under Castlereagh and retired shortly before the Crimean War.

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).

Thomas Singleton (1783-1842) Educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where was he tutor to Hugh Percy, afterwards his patron the duke of Northumberland. He was archdeacon of Northumberland and a friend of Robert Peel.

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.

Douglas Smith (1804-1829) The eldest son of Sydney Smith; educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, he died while a student at the Inner Temple.

Robert Percy Smith [Bobus Smith] (1770-1845) The elder brother of Sydney Smith; John Hookham Frere, George Canning, and Henry Fox he wrote for the Microcosm at Eton; he was afterwards a judge in India and MP.

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.

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) French woman of letters; author of the novel Corinne, ou L'Italie (1807) and De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University (1785-1809); he was author of Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792-93).

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) French diplomat; he was foreign minister under Napoleon.

François-Joseph Talma (1763-1826) French tragic actor and reformer of the stage who was admired by Napoleon.

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.

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Roman epic poet; author of Eclogues, Georgics, and the Aenead.

John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833) The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who suffered from insanity in his latter years.

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

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

William IV, king of Great Britain (1765-1837) Son of George III, who succeeded his brother as King of England (1830-37).

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) He was Professor of Astronomy at Oxford (1660), the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Surveyor General (1669-1718).

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.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) “The Inferno” in The Divine Comedy. (1320 c.). An allegorical description of Hell, the first of the three parts of the Divine Comedy, the others being the “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso.”

François Fénelon (1651-1715) Les avantures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse, ou Suite du quatrième livre de l'Odyssée d'Homère. 4 vols (La Haye: Adrien Moetjens, 1699). A didactic romance, long reprinted.

Robert James Mackintosh (1806-1864), Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Memoirs of the Life of Sir James Mackintosh. 2 vols (London: Moxon, 1836). By Mackintosh's son.

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) “Letter to Swing” in The Taunton Courier. (8 December 1830). The only surviving example of a “Letter to Swing,” a series of handbills by Smith.

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Georgics. (1st cent. BC). Four didactic poems in which political philosophy is treated under the guise of rural economy.

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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

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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