About half after five in the evening (three feet of snow on
the ground, and all communication with Christendom cut off) a chaise and four
drove up to the parsonage, and from it issued Sir
James and his appendages. His letter of annunciation arrived the
following morning. Miss Mackintosh brought me your kind
reproaches for never having written to you;
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 233 |
I am so very modest a man, that I am never afraid of giving my opinion upon any subject. Pray tell me if you understand this sort of modesty. There certainly is such a species of that virtue, and I claim it. But whether my claim is just or unjust, my opinion is, that there will be some repeals of heavy taxes, and a great deal of ill-humour,—probably a Whig Administration for a year,—no reform, no revolution: if no Whig Administration, Canning in for about two years, till they have formed their plans for flinging him overboard: Canning to be conciliatory and laudatory for about three months, and then to relapse: prices to rise after next harvest.
You have read ‘Peveril;” a moderate production, between his best and his worst; rather agreeable than not.
I hope you have read and admired Doblado. To get a Catholic priest who would turn King’s evidence is a prodigious piece of good luck; but it may damage the Catholic question.
Lord Grey has, I hear, been pretty well. I was called up to London a second time this year, and went to Bowood, where I spent a very agreeable week with the Hollands, Luttrell, Rogers, etc. It is a very cheerful, agreeable, comfortable house.
We have a good deal of company in our little parsonage this
year;—all pure Whigs, if I may include ——
in this number. That young man will be no-
| 234 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
God bless you, dear Lady Grey! Kindest regards to Lord Grey and your children, from your sincere friend,
Mackintosh had seventy volumes in his carriage! None of the glasses would draw up or let down, but one; and he left his hat behind him at our house.
You are quite right about happiness. I would always lay a wager in favour of its being found among persons who spend their time dully rather than in gaiety. Gaiety—English gaiety—is seldom come at lawfully; friendship, or propriety, or principle, are sacrificed to obtain it; we cannot produce it without more effort than it is worth; our destination is, to look vacant, and to sit silent.
My articles in the last number are, the attack on the Bishop of Peterborough, and on Small Pox. If you do not know what to think of the first, take my word that it is merited. Of the last you may think what you please, provided you vaccinate Master and Miss Meynell.
I am afraid we shall go to war: I am sorry for it. I see
every day in the world a thousand acts of op-
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 235 |
Adieu, my dear old friend. I shall be very glad to see you again, and to witness that happiness which is your lot, and your due; two circumstances not always united. God bless you!
In seeing my handwriting again so soon, you will say that your attack upon me for my indisposition to letter-writing has been more successful than you wished it to be; but I cannot help saying a word about war.
For God’s sake, do not drag me into another war! I am
worn down, and worn out, with crusading and defending Europe, and protecting
mankind; I must think a little of myself. I am sorry for the Spaniards—I am
sorry for the Greeks—I deplore the fate of the Jews; the people of the Sandwich
Islands are groaning under the most detestable tyranny; Bagdad is oppressed—I
do not like the present state of the
| 236 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
“May the vengeance of Heaven” overtake all the Legitimates of Verona! but, in the present state of rent and taxes, they must be left to the vengeance of Heaven. I allow fighting in such a cause to be a luxury; but the business of a prudent, sensible man, is to guard against luxury.
I shall hope to be in town in the course of the season, and that I shall find your health re-established, and your fortune unimpaired by the depredations of Lady Ponsonby at piquette. To that excellent lady do me the favour to present my kind remembrances and regards.
“Doblado’s Letters’ are by Blanco White, of Holland House. They are very valuable for their perfect authenticity, as well as for the ability with which they are written. They are upon the state of Spain and the Catholic religion, previous to the present revolution.
The line of bad Ministers is unbroken. If the
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 237 |
I beg your pardon for my mistake, but I thought you had written constantly in the Review; and, so thinking, I knew Spanish subjects to be familiar to you.
Upon the absurd and unprincipled conduct of the French there can be but one opinion; still I would rather the nascent liberties of Spain were extinguished than go to war to defend them. I am afraid these sentiments will displease you, but I cannot help it. We fight in this case either from feeling or prudence. If from feeling, why not for Greece? why not for Naples? why not for the Spanish colonies? If from prudence, better that Spain and Portugal were under the government of Viceroy Blacas or Chateaubriand, than that we should go to war.
I object to your dying so soon as you propose; I hate to
lose old and good friends. I am not sure that we could find the same brains
over again. I am not
| 238 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
Hannibal would not enter Capua. I have got back all my rural virtues. Would it be prudent to demoralize myself twice in a season by re-entering the Metropolis? I will stop short at the Green Man at Barnet, and venture no further. Yours,
I was prepared to set off for London, when a better account arrived from Dr. Bond. I think you mistake Bond’s character in supposing he could be influenced by partridges. He is a man of very independent mind, with whom pheasants at least, or perhaps turkeys, are necessary.
Nothing can be more disgusting than an Oratorio. How
absurd, to see five hundred people fiddling like madmen about the Israelites in
the Red Sea! Lord Morpeth pretends to say
he was pleased, but I see a great change in him since the music-meeting. Pray
tell Luttrell he did wrong not to come
to the music. It tired me to death; it would have pleased him. He
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 239 |
We have been visiting country squires. I got on very well, and am reckoned popular. We came last from —— ——. Mrs. —— and I begin to be better acquainted, and she improves. I hope I do; though, as I profess to live with open doors and windows, I am seen (by those who think it worth while to look at me) as well in five minutes as in five years.
I distinguished myself a good deal at M. A. Taylor’s in dressing salads; pray tell Luttrell this. I have thought about salads much, and will talk over the subject with you and Mr. Luttrell when I have the pleasure to find you together.
I am rejoiced at the Duke of Norfolk’s success, and should have liked to see Lord Holland’s joy. A few scraps of victory are thrown to the wise and just in the long battle of life.
I could have told before that bark would not do for the Duke of Bedford. What will do for him is, carelessness, amusement, fresh air, and the most scrupulous management of sleep, food, and exercise; also, there must be friction, and mercury, and laughing.
The Duchess wrote me a
very amusing note in
| 240 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
Many thanks for your kind and affectionate letter. I cannot recollect what you mean by our kindness; all that I remember is, that you came to see us, and we all thought you very pleasant, good-hearted, and strongly infected with Lancastrian tones and pronunciations. God bless you, dear child! I shall always be very fond of you, till you grow tall, and speak without an accent, and marry some extremely disagreeable person.
No pecuniary embarrassments equal to the embarrassments of
a professed wit, like Mr. ——:—an eternal demand upon him
for pleasantry, and a consciousness, on his part, of a limited income of the
facetious;
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 241 |
Pity a wit, and remember with affection your stupid friend,
| ≪ PREV | NEXT ≫ |
