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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1831
Sydney Smith to Colonel Charles Fox, 19 February 1831[?]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
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Combe Florey, Feb. 19th, 1831.
My dear Charles,

There is an excellent man here, Major C——, late of the 32nd, who instructed you, I believe, in the rudiments of your homicide profession. He is now on half-pay, has been in the service thirty years, and was in all the innumerable battles of the Duke of Wellington, ending in Waterloo, where he was wounded. Every man wishes to be something which he is not; and upon this general plan of human nature, poor Major C—— is expiring to be a colonel by brevet, I believe it is called; it carries with it no increase of pay, and is a mere appellation. Is this easy to be effected? If not over-difficult, lend the Major a helping hand; he is really a man of great merit, but has no friends to help him. He has many minds to write to you, but is modest, and will never do it; moreover Irish Majors are not clever at inditing letters. I write wholly without his knowledge. He and Mrs. —— have been remarkably civil to us, and I have taken a liking to him.

We are settled, as you may possibly have heard, in a most beautiful part of Somersetshire, where we expect Mrs. Fox and you the first time you are within
316MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ten miles of us; for I have not the vanity to suppose that we could act upon you at a greater distance. I am truly sorry to hear that the most amiable and most able of all Dukes of Lancaster is so ill with the gout: I thank God I have hitherto kept off that toe-consuming tyrant. I think Lord Grey seems to be emerging from the dark fog in which he began his career. If your father turns him off, he must give Cobbett the Garter instead of the cord. I see nobody between Lord Grey and revolution.

Pray remember me most kindly to dear Mrs. Fox, and if she has forgotten me, help her to some primary tokens;—grace and slenderness, gravity and taciturnity, and other marks which you can hit off with a bold pencil. I am panting to know a little what passes in the world. I meant to have been in London ere now, but have been prevented; above all, I want to see Brougham on his sack of wool. I see (meaning to say only a few words about poor Major ——) I have written a long letter; but if you have not time to read it, make Mrs. Fox read it, and tell you the contents.

Ever yours,
Sydney Smith.