A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1810
Sydney Smith to Francis Jeffrey, [3 July 1809]
Heslington, July, 1810.
My dear Jeffrey,
Respecting my sermons, I most sincerely beg of you
* This refers to some outbreaks of insubordination
among the students at Haileybury College.—Ed. |
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 75 |
to extenuate nothing. Treat me exactly as I deserve. Remember only what it is you are reviewing,—an
oration confined by custom to twenty or thirty minutes, before a congregation
of all ranks and ages. Do not be afraid of abusing me, if you think abuse
necessary: you will find I can bear it extremely well from you.
As for the Quarterly
Review, I have not read
it, nor shall I, nor ought I—where abuse is
intended, not for my correction, but my pain. I am however very fair game: if
the oxen catch the butcher, they have a right to toss and gore him.
I can only trifle in this Review. It takes me some time to
think about serious subjects, not having my head full of all arguments on all
subjects, like a certain friend of mine,—to whom all happiness!
I get my hay in on Monday.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.