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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1837
Sydney Smith to Lord John Russell, 3 April 1837
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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April 3rd, 1837.
My dear John,

At eleven o’clock in the morning, some years ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury called upon a friend of mine (my informant) and said, “I am going to the King (George III.) to meet Perceval, who wants to make Mansell Bishop of Bristol. I have advised the King not to assent to it, and he is thoroughly determined it shall not be. I will call in an hour or two, and tell you what has passed.” Canterbury did not return till eleven at night. “Quite in vain,” he said; “Perceval has beaten us all; he tendered his imme-
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.399
diate resignation.—‘If he were not considered to be a fit person for recommending the dignitaries of the Church, he was not a fit person to be at the head of the Treasury.’ After a conflict carried on all day, we were forced to yield.”

Such a conflict, carried on once, and ending with victory, never need be repeated.

I know not, by alluding to the chess-board, whether you mean the charges which —— might make against me, or against liberal men in general. I defy —— to quote a single passage of my writing contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England; for I have always avoided speculative, and preached practical, religion. I defy him to mention a single action in my life which he can call immoral. The only thing he could charge me with, would be high spirits, and much innocent nonsense. I am distinguished as a preacher, and sedulous as a parochial clergyman. His real charge is, that I am a high-spirited, honest, uncompromising man, whom all the bench of Bishops could not turn, and who would set them all at defiance upon great and vital questions. This is the reason why (as far as depends upon others) I am not a bishop; but I am thoroughly sincere in saying I would not take any bishopric whatever, and to this I pledge my honour and character as a gentleman. But, had I been a bishop, you would have seen me, on a late occasion, charging —— and —— with a gallantry which would have warmed your heart’s blood, and made Melbourne rub the skin off his hands.

Pretended heterodoxy is the plea with which the Bishops endeavoured to keep off the bench every man of spirit and independence, and to terrify you into the
400MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
appointment of feeble men, who will be sure to desert you (as all your bishops have lately and shamefully done) in a moment of peril. When was there greater clamour excited than by the appointment of ——, or when were there stronger charges of heterodoxy? Lord Grey disregarded all this, and they are forgotten.

* * * * *
Believe me to be, dear John, sincerely yours,
Sydney Smith.

P.S.—Make Edward Stanley and Caldwell, a friend of Lord Lansdowne’s and mine, bishops; both unexceptionable men.