Many thanks for two fine Gallicia hams; but as for boiling them in wine, I am not as yet high enough in the Church for that; so they must do the best they can in water.
You have no idea of the consternation which
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The new Review of Ellis and Canning is advertised, and begins next month.
We have admitted a Mr. Baring, importer and writer, into the King of Clubs, upon the express condition that he lends £50 to any member of the Club when applied to. I proposed the amendment to his introduction, which was agreed to without a dissenting voice.
You know Mr. Luttrell is prisoner in Fez. Mufti has been ill, but the rumour of a Tory detected in a job has restored him. Horner is ill. He was desired to read amusing books: upon searching his library it appeared he had no amusing books,—the nearest of any work of that description being The Indian Trader’s Complete Guide!
I cannot tell you how much I miss you and Lord Holland; for besides the pleasure I have in your company, I have contracted a real regard and affection for you,—wish you to get on prosperously and wisely,— want other people to like you, and should be afflicted if any real harm happened to you and yours.
Nothing can be better written than Burns. The Bishop’s Spanish America opens badly. We shall
talk
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I by no means say I will not go on with the Edinburgh Review,—by no means say that I will not contribute more copiously, and articles of better stamp, than I yet have done; but whether I will do so or not, will depend upon the result of our conference. Meet we must, as I shall be either where you are coming to, or where you will pass through; in which of these two places, I do not know. My first object is to sell my house: if I do it before Lady-day, I will quit London at that period. It is very improbable however that I shall do so now; and I guess that I shall stay in London till the birthday.
I beg you very seriously to take a little pains with your handwriting: if you will be resolute about it for a month, you will improve immensely: at present your writing is, literally speaking, illegible, and I have not now read one-half of your letter. You talked of reviewing my sermons, now published: I should be obliged to you to lay aside the idea; I know very well my sermons are quite insignificant.
Spain is quite gone. In all probability the English army will be entirely destroyed; and though the struggle will be long, the greater chance surely is that this country will at length be involved in the general ruin.
I have received from you two or three very kind
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I am glad to find that it has pleased Providence to restore you to your reason, and that you are coming home. You may depend upon it, there is no country like this for beauty, and steadiness of climate, as well as for agrémens of manners; we are a gay people, living under a serene heaven.
I have had thoughts of writing a political pamphlet, but have adjourned it to another year. From time to time I will make a resolute and lively charge upon the enemy.
The Edinburgh Review for February is come. It is the best, I think, that has appeared for a long time; ‘Burns and Warburton,’ by Jeffrey; ‘Code de la Conscription,’ by Walsh, Secretary to the American Ambassador; ‘Spanish America,’ by a Mr. Mill;* ‘Society for the Suppression of Vice,’ by a Mr. Sydney Smith; ‘West Indies,’ by Brougham; ‘Steam Engine,’ by Playfair; ‘Sanscrit Grammar,’ by Hamilton; ‘Copenhagen,’ I believe, ditto. The Quarterly Review is out also; not good, I hear.
The division upon the Orders in Council has surprised everybody, and St. Stephen told Brougham he thought it decisive of their repeal. Three bishops voted with Lord Grenville. Something of this division may be attributed to Mrs. Clarke and the Duke. The conversation of the town for the last fortnight has, as you may suppose, been extremely improper. I
* James Mill, Esq., author of ‘British India.’ Mr. Mill was intimately acquainted with General Miranda, from whom he doubtless derived much, information about Spanish America.—Ed. |
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I will review, if you please, ‘Cœlebs in search of a Wife,’ and must beg the favour of an early answer to know if it is at my disposal. I may, perhaps, review something else; but at present I know of nothing. Suggest something to me.
Would you like a review of Fenelon by Mr. Butler,* of Lincoln’s Inn? Has a Mr. Blomfield,† of Trinity College, Cambridge, offered you any classical articles? Do you want any? and will you accept any from Dr. Maltby‡; I think I will review Cockburn’s attack upon the Edinburgh Review—why not? What do you think of the Quarterly? I have written twice to John Murray, to beg the favour of him to make some inquiries for me. Will you have the goodness to find out whether my letters have been received, and whether it is inconvenient to him to do what I have asked him to do? Pray answer these queries punctually, and by return, because time presses for the next number.
Mrs. S. begs to be kindly remembered. It will, I am sure, give her great pleasure to see you again. I
* Charles Butler, Esq., the celebrated Real Property Lawyer. † The present Bishop of London. ‡ The present Bishop of Durham. |
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 53 |
This is the third day since I arrived at the village of Heslington, two hundred miles from London. I missed the hackney-coaches for the first three or four days in York, but after that, prepared myself for the change from the aurelia to the grub state, and dare say I shall become fat, torpid, and motionless with a very good grace.
I have laid down two rules for the country: first, not to smite the partridge; for if I fed the poor, and comforted the sick, and instructed the ignorant, yet I should be nothing worth, if I smote the partridge. If anything ever endangers the Church, it will be the strong propensity to shooting for which the clergy are remarkable. Ten thousand good shots dispersed over the country do more harm to the cause of religion than the arguments of Voltaire and Rousseau. The squire never reads, but is it possible he can believe that religion to be genuine whose ministers destroy his game?
I mean to come to town once a year, though of that, I suppose, I shall soon be weary, finding my mind growing weaker and weaker, and my acquaintance gradually falling off. I shall by that time have taken myself again to shy tricks, pull about my watch-chain, and become (as I was before) your abomination.
I am very much obliged to Allen for a long and very sensible letter upon the subject of
Spain. After
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Mrs. Sydney is all rural bustle, impatient for the parturition of hens and pigs; I wait patiently, knowing all will come in due season!
I hope you are quite well, dining with, and giving dinners to, agreeable people; free from all bores, and not displeased with yourself.
I am told Mr. Allen is quite miserable at being defeated by the Archbishop. The trial of skill was remarkable, and it is now quite clear that the atoms have no real power and influence in this world.
My life for the summer is thus disposed of:—I walk up and down my garden, and dine at home, till August; then come my large brother and my little sister; then I go to Manchester, to stay with Philosopher Philips, in September; Horner and Murray come to see me in October; then I shall go and see the Earl Grey; then walk up and down my garden till March.
Are we to see you?—(a difficult thing at all times
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The European world is, I think, here at an end; there is surely no card left to play.
Instead of being unamused by trifles, I am, as I well knew
I should be, amused by them a great deal too much; I feel an ungovernable
interest about my horses or my pigs, or my plants; I am forced, and always was
forced, to task myself up into an interest for any higher objects. When, I ask,
shall we see you? I claim, by that interrogation, an answer to a letter of
special invitation, written to you from Philips’s, and which I cordially renew, and would
aggravate, if I could, every
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Though you are absent, jokes shall never fail; I’ll kill the fatted calf, and tap the foaming ale; We’ll settle men and things by rule of thumb, And break the lingering night with ancient rum. |
I hear you laugh at me for being happy in the country, and
upon this I have a few words to say. In the first place, whether one lives or
dies, I hold, and have always held, to be of infinitely less moment than is
generally supposed; but if life is to be, then it is common sense to amuse
yourself with the best you can find where you happen to be placed. I am not
leading precisely the life I should choose, but that which (all things
considered, as well as I could consider them) appeared to me to be the most
eligible. I am resolved, therefore, to like it, and to reconcile myself to it;
which is more manly than to feign myself above it, and to send up complaints by
the post, of being thrown away, and being desolate, and such like trash. I am
prepared, therefore, either way. If the chances of life ever enable me to
emerge, I will show you that I have not been wholly occupied by small and
sordid pursuits. If (as the greater probability is) I am come to the end of my
career, I give myself quietly up to horticulture, etc. In short, if it be my
lot to crawl, I will crawl contentedly; if to fly, I will fly with alacrity;
but, as
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 57 |
I beg pardon for saying so much of myself, but I say it upon this subject once for all.
We had a meeting of our Club last Saturday, and a very agreeable one, where your journey to Spain was criticized at much length. Some inclined to this opinion, others to that,—but upon my mentioning that several agreeable dinners at Holland House were irretrievably lost, there was a perfect unanimity of opinion. Sharpe said, “It was a blow.”
I met —— in the Strand today. He had the two first sheets of his poem in his pocket, and I believe nothing else, for he told me he had spent all his money, and was rather put to it.
Poor Dumont has lost his sister, and is in great affliction; but he dines with me on Saturday, and I hope to raise up the pleasures Nos. 13 and 24.
No news of any kind, except that this pert and silly answer of Canning’s to the citizens has made a considerable impression in the City. Some say that Lord Hawksbury attempted this piece of pertness in imitation of Canning.
I have read the Review, and like the review of Rose exceedingly. How can any one dislike it? Parliamentary Reform
exceedingly good, with some objections; Miss
Edgeworth over-praised; Strabo, by Payne Knight,
excellent; the Bakerian Lectures
very good;
| 58 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
I am about to open the subject of classical learning in the Review, from which, by some accident or other, it has hitherto abstained. It will give great offence, and therefore be more fit for this journal, the genius of which seems to consist in stroking the animal the contrary way to that which the hair lies.
I dare say it cost you much to part with Charles; but in the present state of the world, it is better to bring up our young ones to war than to peace. I burn gunpowder every day under the nostrils of my little boy, and talk to him often of fighting, to put him out of conceit with civil sciences, and prepare him for the evil times which are coming!
Ever, respectfully and affectionately, your sincere friend,
I shall be extremely happy to see ——, and will leave a note for him at the tavern where the mail stops, to say so. Nothing can exceed the dulness of this place: but he has been accustomed to live alone with his grandmother, which, though a highly moral life, is not an amusing one.
There are two Scotch ladies staying here, with whom he will
get acquainted, and to whom he may safely make love the ensuing winter: for
love, though a very acute disorder in Andalucia, puts on a very chronic
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 59 |
Pray exert yourself with such friends as your heterodox opinions on Longs and Shorts have left you in Oxford, in favour of Lord Grenville for the Chancellorship. I am sure you would do it con amore if you had heard our conversation at Dropmore the other day, and the warm and enthusiastic way in which he spoke of Peter Plymley. I did not fail to remind him that the only author to whom we both thought he could be compared in English, lost a bishopric for his wittiest performance; and I hoped that if we could discover the author, and had ever a bishopric in our gift, we should prove that Whigs were both more grateful and more liberal than Tories. He rallied me upon my affectation of concealing who it was, but added that he hoped Peter would not always live in Yorkshire, where he was persuaded he was at present; for, among other reasons, we felt the want of him just now in the state of the press, and that he heartily wished Abraham would do something to provoke him to take up his pen. But I must write some more letters to Oxford people. Yours ever,
| 60 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
I have been meditating a visit to Howick Castle, and was meditating it before Lord Castlereagh shot Mr. Canning in the thigh, which will make you Secretary of State. If they do not choose to surrender, and attempt to patch up an Administration, then you will remain in the country; and I purpose to stay with you a few days, if you will accept my company, towards the end of the month. I suspect, however, before that period you will be evacuating Walcheren, contracting for bark and port-wine, selling off the transports, and putting an end to that system of vigour which, when displayed by individuals instead of nations, is usually mitigated by a strait waistcoat and low diet.
There is no man who thinks better of what you and your coadjutors can and will do; but I cannot help looking upon it as a most melancholy proof of the miserable state of this country, when men of integrity and ability are employed. If it were possible to have gone on without them, I am sure they would never have been thought of. Yours ever most truly,
I would have answered your kind note sooner, but that it followed me here, after being detained for a day or two at York.
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 61 |
Whatever little interest or connection I may have shall be exerted in favour of Lord Grenville, to whom I sincerely wish success.
It will be doing a good action, I conjecture, if his lordship ever brings Peter Plymley out of Yorkshire; because, though the said Peter does not by any means dislike living in the country, he would, as I understand, prefer that the country in which he does live were nearer his old friends. I should not be in the least surprised if this grave writer, in some shape or another, made his appearance next spring, if the then state of affairs should enable him to write with effect and utility.
The noble Earl here is in perfect health, and so are all his family. I have been spending a fortnight with him, and think him in appearance quite another person from what he was last year.
I have a project of publishing in the spring a pamphlet, which I think of calling ‘Common Sense for 1810;’ for which I will lay down some good doctrines, and say some things which I have in my head, and which I am sure it will be very useful to say. If I do, I will write it here, and improve it when I obtain further information from you in town. But what use is there in all this, or in anything else? Omnes ibimus ad Diabolum, et Buonaparte nos conquerabit, et dabit Hollandiam Domum ad unum corporalium suorum, et ponet ad mortem Joannem Allenium.
| 62 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
I have just returned from Lord Grey’s, and have only leisure to reply to the business part of your letter. You may write to Payne Knight without scruple, and, using your old illustration of Czar Peter, you may mention money; or rather leave that to me, and I will write to him about it. I hope you will not be affronted if I seriously advise you to dictate a letter to him. Your motto is, Mens sine manu.
Blomfield is an admirable scholar. Publish his review, and Payne Knight will write you something else; but this is just as you please; I have no wish really upon the subject. I will write soon at length. God bless you!
I am much obliged to you for your book, to which I see but one objection, and that is, that there will be an end of Spain before the Cortes can be summoned, or the slightest of your provisions carried into execution,—admirable rules for diet to a patient in the article of death. I shall read it however, as a Utopia from your romantic brain.
I beg my congratulations to the Lord and Lady of the
Castle on the event which your postscript announces to me for the first time.
Let the child learn
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 63 |
As for the Opposition, if they give up the Catholics, I think their character is ruined. Ireland is much endangered, and the King will kick them out again after he has degraded them. A politician should be as flexible in little things as he is inflexible in great. The probable postponement of such a measure in such times for ten years,—how is it possible for any honest public man to take office at such a price? I have no doubt that the country would rather submit to Massena than to Whitbread. If the King were to give the opposition carte blanche tomorrow, I cannot see that they could form an administration in the House of Commons. I have not promised, as you say, to write a pamphlet called Common Sense, in the spring; it is of very little or no consequence whether I do write it or not, but I have by no means made up my mind to do it.
We have a report here that the measles and hooping-cough have got amongst the New Administration; it is quite foolish to make such young people ministers.
P.S.—I will send you in return for your pamphlet a sermon against horse-racing and coursing, judiciously preached before the Archbishop and the sporting clergy of Malton.
| 64 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
I have not yet written to Payne Knight, nor do I think any man but yourself has sufficient delicacy and felicity of expression to offer a man of ten thousand a year a few guineas for a literary jeu d’esprit; I think, therefore, I must turn it over to you, with many apologies for the delay occasioned by the mis-estimation of my own powers.
I should like to review a little pamphlet upon Public Schools, Pinkey’s ‘Travels in the South of France,’ and Canning’s Letter, if published in a separate pamphlet, as I believe it is.
I have just published a sermon, which I will send you,—very commonplace, like all the others, but honest, and published for a particular reason.
The question in politics is, if the Catholics will be given up? That the whole business will be brought to that issue I do not doubt;—that everything (in spite of Lord Wellesley’s acceptance) will be offered to the late Administration, if they will give up the gentlemen of the crucifix.
Nine bishops vote for Lord Grenville at the Oxford election! and the Archbishop of York has written and circulated a high panegyric upon his (Lord G.’s) good dispositions towards the Church; I mean, circulated it in letters to his correspondents.
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I have been long intending to write you a letter of congratulation. There is more happiness in a multitude of children than safety in a multitude of counsellors; and if I were a rich man, I should like to have twenty children.
It seems to me that Canning would come in again under Lord Wellesley, and the whole of this eruption would end with making a stronger Ministry than before.
My wishes for Lord Grenville’s success are, I confess, not very fervent: it would be exceedingly agreeable, considered as a victory gained over the Court, but it would connect Lord Grenville personally with high Tories and Churchmen, and operate as a very serious check to the liberal views which he now entertains; and as I consider Lord Grenville as a Magdalene in politics, I always suspect there may be a hankering after his old courses, and wish therefore to keep him as much as possible out of bad company. The Archbishop of these parts not only votes for him, but writes flaming panegyrics upon him, which he has read to me. There are eight other bishops who vote for him. It seems quite unnatural,—like a murrain among the cattle.
I hear you have a good tutor for Henry, which I am
exceedingly glad of. Lord Grey has met with
no tutor as yet; tutors do not like to go beyond Adrian’s Wall. You are
aware that it is necessary to fumigate Scotch tutors: they are excellent men,
but require this little
| 66 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
Will you be so good as to send me the names of the original contributors to the Review?
I have scarcely any belief in a change of Administration if they get Canning; if they do not, they are surely as blamable as a man who, intending to go a journey with great expedition, does not hire a chaise-and-four.
I like Playfair’s review, though I comprehend it not; but, as a Dutchman might say, who heard Erskine or you speak at the bar, “I am sure I should be pleased with that man’s eloquence, if I could comprehend a word he said.” So I give credit to Playfair for the utmost perspicuity and the most profound information, though I understand not what he says, nor am at all able to take any measure of its importance.
God bless you, my dear Jeffrey! Your affectionate friend,
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 67 |
Whoever wants a job done goes to ——; whoever wants sense and information on any subject applies to you.
Do you think Canning’s pamphlet a fit subject for the Review? Does it appear to you, as it does to me, a very inefficient and unsatisfactory answer? Don’t you think, even from his own account, that he used Castlereagh ill in endeavouring for the first two months to ascertain whether or not he was informed of his (Canning’s) objections? Did he not behave very ill to the country in remaining so long a time in office with this (as he thought) bad minister? and in suffering him to retain the management of such an expedition? Do you not think that Lord Wellesley was waiting the result of this intrigue? I shall be very much obliged to you to give me your opinion on these points as soon as you can, that I may (if it shall appear expedient after the receipt of your letter) prepare a proper mixture for my friend.
I fear you will think me capricious, but in the interval
between my letter and yours, I received a letter from Jeffrey, strongly pressing me to give up the
idea
| 68 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
I have received four or five letters from some of our friends respecting my sermon; not a word about perseverance in the Catholic question: I see plainly the Protestant religion is gaining ground in the King of Clubs.
I have sent my sermon to John the Silent, and should be obliged to him for the living of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, in return. Scire potestates herbarum usumque—I should take for my motto.
I have had a long letter from Brougham upon the subject of my sermon. Do you not think his conduct of the war admirable? I would not for the earth tell you the complimentary simile I have made to him upon it. Ever yours, dear Allen, very faithfully,
I have no doubt of Lord Morpeth’s good disposition towards, me, but he is afraid of introducing such a loquacious personage to his decorous parent. This however is very fair; and I hope my children will have the opposite dread, of introducing very silent people to me in my old-age.
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 69 |
I like Lord Morpeth,—a man of excellent understanding, very polished manners, and a good heart.
I take it this letter will follow you to Burgos, as I conclude you are packed up for Spain. Dumont, Bentham, and Horner sail in September, with laws, constitution, etc. A list of pains and pleasures, ticketed and numbered, already sent over; with a smaller ditto of emotions and palpitations.
I mean to make some maxims, like Rochefoucauld, and to preserve them. My first is this:—After having lived half their lives respectably, many men get tired of honesty, and many women of propriety.
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