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A MEMOIR
OF THE
REVEREND SYDNEY SMITH.


BY HIS DAUGHTER,
LADY HOLLAND.
WITH
A SELECTION FROM HIS LETTERS,
EDITED BY


MRS. AUSTIN.
IN TWO VOLUMES,
VOL. 1.
NEW YORK:
HARPER &. B  THERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE,
1856.








THIS MEMOIR OF MY FATHER,
THE PREPARATION FOR WIICH WAS THE CONSTANT
OCCUPATION )F MY MOTHER'S LIFE,
AND THE COMPLETION' OF-WHICH WAS THE MOST EARNEST
OBJECT OF HER DESIRE,
BOTH IN HER LIFE AND AT HER DEATH,
WHICH NOTHING BUT HER EARNEST DESIRE COULD HAVE
GIVEN ME (OURAGE TO ATTEMPT,
I NOW DEDICATE TO HER MEMORY,
BELIEVING IT
TO BE THE MOST GRATEFUL TRIBUTE I CAN OFFER
ON IIER GRAVE.








AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
SYDNEY SMITH'S Life: he who opens this book under
the expectation of reading in it curious adventures, important transactions, or public events, had better close
the volume, for none of these things will he find therein.
Nothing can be more thoroughly private and eventless than the narrative I am about to give; yet I feel
myself, and I have reason to believe there are many who
will feel with me, that this Life is not therefore uninteresting or unimportant: for, though circumstances over
which my father had no control forbade his taking that
active share in the affairs of his country, for which his
talents and his character so eminently fitted him, yet
neither circumstances nor power could suppress these
talents, or subdue and enfeeble that character; and I
believe I may assert, without danger of contradiction,
that by them, and the use he has made of them, he has
earned for himself a place among the great men of his
time and country.
Such being the case, however, his talents, and the
employment of them, are alone before the world. This
is but half the picture, and I believe few who have
known so much do not wish to know more.
The mode of life, the heart, the habits, the thoughts
and feelings, the conversation, the home, the occupations of such a man-all, in short, which can give life
and reality to the picture-are as yet wanting; and it
is to endeavor to supply this want that I have ventured
to undertake this task.
It is always more difficult to write the life of a pri



iv


PREFACE.


vate than of a public man. There are many things
likewise which make that of my father a peculiarly
difficult one to delineate; and I should shrink from the
task I have undertaken, from the fear of not doing it
justice, had not death made such fearful havoc among
his early contemporaries, and those best fitted to do justice to his memory; and age, business, or health, placed
insuperable obstacles in the way of all those abler pens
which both my mother and I had once hoped might undertake it.
I therefore, from these causes, and in accordance with
my mother's most earnest desire, repeated in her will,
that some record of his virtues should be written, venture to give to the public these recollections of my father, which I -had previously been collecting for some
years solely for myself and my children, together with
numerous contributions from various friends.
With these.materials, illustrating the selection ofhis
letters, which my friend Mrs. Austin has kindly undertaken to edit, I trust to lay before the public such a
record of my father's character, as a son, a clergyman, a
father, a husband, and a friend, as may be deemed by
them not unworthy of the reputation he has already acquired for talent and honesty by his writings.
-If I succeed, I shall have accomplished the object I
have most at heart. If I fail, I trust that with many
my motive will be some excuse; and that they will attribute it tc-o the inability and inexperience of his advocate, and not to the weakness of the cause.
In giving these annals of my father's life, the object
has been; as much as possible, to make him speak for
himself, even where (as in some few instances) a portion of them have already appeared before the public;
as these extracts serve to weave together the rest of the
narrative, and are of course far better than any thing I
could put in their place.




PREFACE. 
The points which can alone justify the publication of
these recollections and letters are, that they shall neither
hurt the living, injure the dead, or impair the reputation
of their author.  These objects we have endeavored
most strenuously to keep in view. There is little in
the whole work that could give pain, even if every particular were understood. Most of the persons alluded
to have been long since dead, and the allusions forgotten. Yet, should there be, in either the letters or
the narrative, any anecdote accidentally preserved which
may meet the eye of those who, from intimacy with
him, or from having been present at the scene described,
could lift the vail that has been purposely thrown over
it, let me here entreat them, if they loved my father in
life, and honor his memory in death, never, by their
explanations, to make the pen of Sydney Smith do in
death what it never did in life-inflict undeserved pain
on any human being.
I must add, with respect to the letters collected from
various sources, that it is a remarkable fact, as testifying the estimation in which my father was held by his
contemporaries, that there are among them many small
notes merely containing some trifling message or an invitation to dinner; things without the slightest merit
or value in themselves, yet carefully folded up, dated,
and preserved with the greatest care for years by those
who had received them from him.    This little trait
speaks, I think, volumes.  From these letters Mrs.
Austin has selected those most calculated to interest
the reader, or in any way to illustrate my father's feelings and character, without special reference to their
talent only.
It will be seen in the -narrative, and, in justice to my
father, it ought not to be forgotten, that he entered the
Church out of consideration for, and in obedience to,
the wishes of his father; and like his friend, Dr. Stan



V4


PREFACE.


ley, Bishop of Norwich, with a strong natural bias toward another profession; so that, in his passage through
life, he had often to exercise control over himself, and
to make a struggle to do that which is comparatively
easy to those who have embraced their profession from
taste and inclination alone.
But -having entered the Church from a sense of duty,
I think the narrative will show that he made duty his'guide through life; that he honored his profession, and
was honored in it by those who had the best opportunities of observing him; that, ever ready to perform its
humblest duties, he gathered (as he says) from the study
of the Bible, that the highest duty of a clergyman was
to calm religious hatreds, and spread religious peace and
toleration; that in this labor of love he exerted himself
from the time of his entering the Church to the hour of
his, death; and that he dreaded, as the greatest of all
evils, that the "golden chain," which he describes as
-"reaching from earth to heaven," should be injured
either by fanaticism or skepticism. Thus, lending himself to no extremes and no party in the Church, he endeavored through life to guard religion simple and pure,'as we received it from the hand of God, and as it is
taught in that Church to which he belonged.
It now only remains for me to express my thanks to
those who have aided my task by their contributions,
which I should gladly have done by name, had they not
been too numerous. But it has been deeply gratifying
to my feelings, and has given me courage to proceed, to
find that all my father's oldest friends have been eager
to assist me in my task, and have all, with very few
exceptions, contributed something toward it. I trust
they may not think I have misused their gifts, and, for
the- sake of the father, will receive with indulgence the
efforts of his daughter to do fresh honor to his memory
by chronicling his virtues.




PREFACE.


Vii


This slight sketch of my father's life has passed
through the ordeal of his private friends, and has been
pronounced by them to present a faithful picture of his
habits and character. The subject of it is of course so
deeply interesting to me, that I can form no estimate of
what it may be to others; but I am encouraged by these
friends to believe that the life of an honest man honestly
told, can never be without some value and interest to
every one. In deference therefore to their opinions I
now offer this Memoir to the public, with some additions
and such corrections as I have been able to make;
though I fear there may still remain many errors as to
time, inevitable in a narrative written (as this is chiefly)
from memory, and with but few data to guide me.
I do not however, I confess, offer this Memoir to the
public without some anxiety; not from the fear of any
honest opposition to my father's opinions, or censure of
the imperfect manner in which I may have performed
my task: these are of course open to criticism, and are
fair and honorable objects of attack. But I am aware
how easily the frank and fearless, because innocent, expressions of my father's conversation may be misunderstood and misrepresented, or the private feelings of my
friends wounded, should there be any one ungenerous
enough to do so. I will however trust that, as this
Memoir has been written with the most earnest desire
to tell the truth, but in doing so to avoid giving just
cause of pain to any one, I shall meet with equal delicacy from the public; and shall find that any angry
feelings which the bold, undisguised expression of my
father's opinions during life may have formerly excited
in the world, have been long since forgotten, or are
buried in the grave of him whose loss I (may I not
rather say, we all?) lament.             S. H.
London, May, 1855.








CONTENTS..
CHAPTER I.
Birth and Family.-Father.-Profession.-Marriage of Father.-Mother.-Sir Isaac Newton.-School.-Early Peculiarities.-Talleyrand.College. - Goes to Normandy. - Profession. - Curate on Salisbury
Plain.-Marries his Brother.-Becomes Tutor to Mr. Beach.-Goes
to Edinburgh.......................................................... Page 13
CHAPTER II.
Arrives at Edinburgh.-State of Society.-Manners of Scotch.-Anecdote of Mr. Jeffrey.-Acquaintance with Mr. Horner.-Marriage.Early difficulties and Poverty.-Generosity.-Birth of Daughter.Introduces Mr. Allen to Lord Holland.-Originates Review.-State
of Society.-State of Church.-Character of his Writings in Youth.
-Sketch of Opinions at the Time.-Letter by Lord Monteagle.Short Sketch  of Articles in  Review...................................... 23
CHAPTER III.
Extracts from Lectures.-Preface to Sermons.-Analysis of Sermons.
-Sermon for the Blind.-Returns to Edinburgh.-Takes Pupils.Illness of Daughter.-Moral Courage.-Studies Medicine and Moral
Philosophy...............................................  44
CHAPTER IV.
Quits Edinburgh for London.-Settles in Doughty Street.-Makes Legal
and other Friends.-Obtains Preachership of Foundling Hospital.
-Refusal of Dr. -    to enable him to lease a Chapel.-Sermon to
Volunteers.-Friendship wilh Lord Holland.-Introduction to Holland House.-Holland House, and Society there.-Obtains Preachership of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Square.-Gives Lectures at Royal
Institution.-Descriptions of their Effect.-Poverty.-Society at his
House, and Suppers.-Anecdote of Sir J. Mackintosh and Cousin.Elected to the Johnson Literary Club.-The King reads his Review,
and says he will never be a Bishop.-Preaches on Toleration at the
Temple Church. — Increase of Reputation and Friends. —Natural
Spirits; their Effects.-Some Anecdotes........,,,............ 66




X


CONTENTS.


CHAPTER V.
1806. Political Changes.-Obtains Preferment.-1807. Goes to Sunning in the Autumn.-Writes Peter Plymley.-Its Effect.-Makes
the Acquaintance of Lord Stowell.-Revisits Edinburgh.-Goes to
Howick.-No House on the Living.-Non-residence permitted.-The
Residence Bill passed.-Goes down to see the Living.-Difficulties.Returns to London.-Publishes Sermons.-Removes Family to Yorkshire.-Tries to negotiate Exchange of Living.-Difficulties of Exchange.-Necessity of Building.-Settles at Heslington...... Page 96
CHAPTER VI.
Establishment in Yorkshire.-Habits.-Mode of Life.-Reading.-Attention to Children.-Power of abstracting Thcughts. —Farmer's Dinner.-Medical Anecdotes.-Experiments.-Extracts from Diary.Practical Essays.-Metaphysical Essays.-Hints for History.-Mr.
Macaulay's Letter.-Sir S. Romilly's Visit.-Sermon on his Death.Anecdote of Roasted Quaker.-Dining out in the Country.-Brother
and Sir J. Mackintosh's return from India.-Madame De Stael's Visit
to England.-Typhus Fever.-Verses on Mr. Jeffrey.............. 105
CHAPTER VII.
Builds House.-Removes to Foston.-Description of Establishment.Visit of Sir James Mackintosh.-Becomes a Magistrate.-Visit to
Newgate with Mrs. Fry, and Sermon.-Visit to Sir G. Philips in
Immoital.-Forms the Acquaintance of the Earl of Carlisle.-Death
of only Sister.-Last Visit from Mr. Horner.-Bad Harvest and Fever. Exertions among the Poor.-Visit from Lord and Lady Holland.-Leaves off Riding.-Description of Calamity.-Shopping and
Anecdotes.-Sends Son to School.-Visits Lord Grey.-Account of
Travels.-Visit from Dr. Marcet.-Conversation, and Bunch.-Anecdote of Lord's Son.-Assizes. - Hunt's Trial. - Danger of
bad Harvest.-Death of Grattan................................ 143
CHAPTER VIII.
legacy.-Visit to Edinburgh.-Visits London: Popularity there.Letters to Home, and care of Parish.-Takes Son to Charterhouse.Visits Mr. Rogers.-Appointed Chaplain to High Sheriff.-Preaches
in Cathedral.-Anecdote at Spencer House.-Meeting of Clergy,
East Riding.-His Petition.-Speech.-Living of Londesborough.Goes to Paris.-Letter on receiving Irreligious Book.-Death of
Father.-Description of House by Friend.-Love of Chess and Singing.-Marriage of Youngest Daughter. -Becomes Canon of Bristol.-Effect produced at Bristol.-History of Apologue, by Mr. Everett............................................................................  173




CONTENTS.


xi


CHAPTER IX.
Happiness increased by his Promotion.-Death of eldest Son.-Removal to Combe Florey.-Rebuilding of House.-Lord Jeffrey's last
Visit.-Increased popularity at Bristol.-Collects Contributions to
Review.-French Revolution.-Riots at Bristol.-Speech on Reform,
-Letters on Preferment.-Appointed.Canon of St. Paul's.-Death
of Sir James Mackintosh in 1832.-Marriage of eldest Daughter in'
1834.-Village Anecdotes.-Christens Grandchild.-Buys House in
Charles Street.-Rectitude of Stewardship at St. Paul's.-Tour to
Holland in 1837.-Talleyrand.-Conversation in London, and Anecdotes.-Begins Controversy about Church.-Petitions to House of
Lords.-Inscription for Statue of Lord Grey................. Page 200
CHAPTER X.
Visit to Combe Florey.-Kindness to Grandchildren.-Sudden Wealth.
-Recollections of his Parishioners at Foston.-Death of Lord Holland: his Portrait.-Letter to Mr. Webster.-Sketch of Revue des
Deux Mondes.-Letter of Mr. Grenville.-Visit from Mr. Moore,
and Verses.-Bestows the Living of Edmonton on Mr. Tate's Son.
-Letter to Mrs. Sydney Smith.-Address of Parishioners, and Answer.-Letter of Mrs. Marcet.-Receipt for making every day happy.-Definition of Happiness.-Petition to the American Congress
in 1843.-Effects.-Speech from Mr. Ticknor.-Letter from Mr.
Wainwright.-Abuse andGifts from America.-Effect of Preaching
in old Age.-Letter of Miss Edgeworth.-Correspondence with Sir
R. Peel.-Extract from Journal with Anecdotes..................... 248
CHAPTER XI.
Pamphlet on Ballot.-Fragment on Irish Church.-Letter from Lord
Murray.-Lines written on receiving Garden-chair.-Lines by Lady
Carlisle.-Christens child.-Sketch of Life and Conversation at
Combe Florey.-Advice to Parishioners.-Conversation.-Medicines
for the Poor.-Saves Servant's Life.-Fallacies.-Studies.-Recipe
for Salad.-Letter of Marion de Lorme.-Imitation of Sir James
Mackintosh.- Close of the Day......................................... 286
CHAPTER XII.
Extract from Lady  -'s Journal.-Last Illness.-Comes to Town.Dr. Chambers called in. - Anxiety of Friends for his Recovery. -
Meeting of Brothers.-Living to poor Clergyman.-Death of Sydney
Smith.-Death of his eldest Brother...............................,... 345








ME MOIR
OF
THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
CHAPTER I.
Birth and Family.-Father.-Profession.-Marriage of Father.-Mother.-Sir Isaac Newton.-School.-Early Peculiarities.-Talleyrand.College. -Goes to Normandy. - Profession. - Curate on Salisbury
Plain.-Marries his Brother.-Becomes Tutor to Mr. Beach.-Goes
to Edinburgh.
MY father, the Rev. Sydney Smith, was born at
Woodford, in Essex, 1771, the second of four brothers
and one sister, all remarkable for their talents; the
two eldest eminently so. To these talents, as well as
to his great-animal spirits, he had an hereditary right;
for my grandfather, Mr. Robert Smith, was a man of
singular natural gifts; very clever, odd by nature, but
still more odd by design, loving to astonish, and, fully
aware that knowledge is power, he employed the activity
of a very sagacious mind, through a long and varied
life, in acquiring a minute acquaintance with the history
of all he came in contact with. On becoming early his
own master, by the death of his father, and possessed
of some money, he employed all the. early part of life
(having first married a very beautiful girl, from whom




14     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


he parted at the church door, leaving her with her
mother, Mrs. Olier, till his return from America) partly
in wandering over the world for many years, and partly
in diminishing/his fortune by buying, altering, spoiling,
and then selling about nineteen different places in England, till, in his old age, he at last settled at Bishop's
Lydiard, in Somersetshire, where he died.
My grandfather'was a very handsome and picturesque
old man when I knew him, his hair long, thin, and perfectly white. To add to the effect of his appearance
and manner, he used to affect the drab-colored dress of
a Quaker, with a large flap hat, rather like those of our
coal-heavers; this hat was so extraordinary in form, and
had seen so many years' service, that when at last he
offered its remains to his' old factotum Charles, who was
digging in his garden, the man, after twisting and twirling it round and round for some time, and examining
its proportions, returned it to him with a broad grin,
saying, "No, thank your honor, it's no use to I."  I
remember him sitting in his arm-chair basking in the
sun, leaning forward on his-crutch-stick, a fine study for
Rembrandt, and telling this story of his favorite hat till
the tears ran down his cheeks with laughter.
But though the sons inherited talent from their father, yet all the finer qualities of their mind they derived
from their mother, Miss Olier, the youngest daughter of
a French emigrant, from Languedoc, who was driven over
to England for his religious principles at the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, and was reduced to great poverty
in consequence; but his eldest daughter, a woman of
n.uch sense and energy of character, established a school
for young ladies in Bloomsbury Square, which acquired
considerable celebrity under her direction, and thus enabled her to contribute to the support of her family.
My father used to attribute a little! of his constitutional




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


15


gayety to this infusion of French blood. His maternal
grandfather, Mr. Olier, could not speak a word of English.  He married a Miss Barton, who was a collateral
descendant of Sir Isaac Newton's, through his mother's
second marriage-a very distinguished ancestor to possess, and one not to be lightly passed over.*
My grandmother, Mr. Olier's youngest daughter, had
(I have been told, for I never saw her) a noble countenance, which two of her sons inherited, and as noble a
mind.   To her early care of them, and to the respect
with which her virtues and high tone of feeling inspired
their young hearts, may be ascribed much that was
good and great in their characters.  The charm of her
mind and manner extended even to her correspondence.
I heard a singular proof of this the other day, from a
school-fellow of my father's, who said that when he or
his younger brother Courtenay received one of her letters at Winchester, the school-boys would often gather
round and beg to hear it read aloud..Her influence,
however, did not remain to them very long in after-life.
Delicate; with a husband who, though delightful from
the charm of his manner to the world, was not very well
suited to domestic life, fiom his wandering habits; and
with; the natural anxiety of a mother about four such
sons, often left for long periods entirely to her care and
guidance, she fell into ill-health while still young and
beautiful, and, to the deep regret of all who knew her,
died about two years after the, marriage of my father.
This reminds me of an anecdote of Talleyrand, who,
* At the moment of going to press, I learn from Sir David Brewster
(now engaged on a Life of Sir Isaac Newton) that there is an error in
the pedigree inserted in my first edition. In deference to his superior
knowledge I therefore omit it; but I feel sure he will excuse me for
still retaining a tradition so long preserved in our family, till I have
had more time than I can command at present to investigate the sub.
ject,




-a16   MEMOIR OF THE, REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


when living as an emigrant in this country, was on ver
intimate terms with her eldest son, Robert, more generally known by the name given him by his school-fellows
at Eton, of Bobus. The conversation turned on the
beauty often transmitted from parents.-to their children.
My uncle, who was singularly handsome (indeed I think
I have seldom seen a finer specimen of manly beauty,
or a countenance more expressive of the high moral
qualities he possessed), perhaps with a little youthful
vanity, spoke of the great beauty of his mother, on
which Talleyrand, with a shrug and a sly disparaging
look at his fine face, as if he saw nothing to admire, exclaimed, "Ah! mon ami, c'etait donc apparemment monsieur votre.pere qui n'etait pas -bien."
The peculiarities and talents of the young Smiths
were very early evinced; their mother describes them
as neglecting games, seizing every hour of leisure for
study, and often lying on the floor, stretched over their
books, discussing with loud voice and most vehement
gesticulation, every point that arose-often subjects
above their years - and arguing upon them  with a
warmth and fierceness as if life and death hung upon
the issue-a most interesting and curious spectacle to a
mother justly proud of her boys, and rejoicing in these
signs of their future distinction.
They were like young athletes, constantly trying their
intellectual strength against each other; "and the result," I have heard my father say, " was to make us the
most intolerable and overbearing set of boys that can
well be imagined, till later in life we found our level in
the world."
As his sons were so nearly of an age, Mr. Smith
deemed it advisable to separate them at school as much
as possible, that there might not be too strong rivalry
between them. Robert, the eldest, with Cecil, the third




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


17


son, were therefore sent to Eton, where Robert distinguished himself greatly, and was one of the four boys
(he was then only eighteen) who wrote the "Microcosm;" Mr. Canning, Mr. Frere, and Mr. John Smith,
being the other three.
From Eton he went to King's College, Cambridge,
where (says a sketch of him, written, I believe, by his
friend Lord Carlisle, after his death) " he added materially to the reputation for scholarship and classical composition which he had established at school; and if the
most fastidious critics of our day would diligently peruse the three triposes which he composed in Lucretian
rhythm, on the three systems of Plato, Descartes, and
Newton, we believe that we should not run the least risk
of incurring the charge of exaggeration, in declaring that
these compositions in Latin'erse have not been excelled
since.Latin was a living language. Be this said with
the peace of Milton and Cowley, with the peace of his
fellow-Etonians, Grey and Lord Wellesley."
My father was sent as early as six years of age to a
school at Southampton (kept by the Rev. Mr. Marsh, a
scholar of some' celebrity), which he always spoke of with
pleasure. While there he received. much kindness from
the family of the present Lady Mildmay, whose friendship he retained from that time, and who still survives
her- old friend. From thence he was sent, with his
youngest brother, Courtenay, to the foundation at Winchester-a rough apprenticeship to the world for one so
young-from which Courtenay ran away twice, unable
to bear it. My father suffered here many years of misery and positive starvation; there never was enough provided, even of the coarsest food, for the whole school, and
the little boys were of. course left to fare as they could.
Even in old age he used to shudder at the recollections
of Winchester, and I have heard him speak with horror




t8 -    MEMOIR OF THE REV.- SYDNEY SMITH.


of the misery of the years he spent there: the whole
system was then, my father used to say, one of abuse,
neglect, and vice. It has since, I believe, partaken of
the general improvement of education. However, in
spite of hunger and neglect, he rose in due time to be
Captain of the school; and while there, received, together with his brother Courtenay, a most flattering
but involuntary compliment from his school-fellows, who
signed a round-robin,* "refusing to try for the College
prizes if the Smiths were allowed to contend for them
-any more, as they always gained them."- He used to
say, "I believe, while a boy at school, I made above ten
thousand Latin verses; and no man in his senses would
dream in after-life of ever making another. So much for
life and time wasted."
At school he was not only leader in learning, but in
mischief, and was discovered inventing a catapult by
lamp-light, and commended for his ingenuity by the
master, who. little dreamed it was intended to capture a
neighboring turkey, whose well-filled crop had long attracted the attention, and awakened the desires of the
hungry urchins. IHe was fond of telling an incident
which happened to him when either at Winchester or
Oxford, I am not sure which. A friend who was making a tour, wrote in great distress, asking him to lend:him five guineas; he had but four, which he was conveying himself to the post, much lamenting he had not
the sum wanted, when he suddenly saw shining on the
high-road before him another guinea, and no owner be-ing to be found to claim it, he with joy inclosed it in
another cover to his friend.
I have heard my father speak of one of the first things
that stimulated him in acquiring knowledge. A man
of considerable eminence, whose name I can not recall,
* To Dr. Warton, then Head Master or Warden of Winchester.




MEMOIR OF THER REV. SYDNEY- SMITH.,


19


found my father reading Virgil under:a tree, when all
his school-fellows were at play. He took the book out
of his hand, looked at it, patted the boy's head, gave
him a shilling, and said, "Clever boy! clever boy! that
is;the way to conquer the world."  This produced a
strong impression on the young Sydney. While at
Winchester he had been one year Prsepositor of the College, and another, Prsepositor of the Hall. He left.Winchester, as Captain, for New College, Oxford, where, as
such, he was entitled to a Scholarship, -and afterward to
a Fellowship. New College was chiefly then renowned
-for the quantity of port wine consumed by the Fellows;
but the very slender income allowed him by his father,
perhaps luckily for his health, did not permit him to indulge in such habits. As my father was too proud to
accept what, he could not return, he lived much out of
society, and thus lost one of the advantages of College
to a poor man-that of making private friends..Soon after quitting Winchester, and before he became
a Fellow of New College, his father sent him.to Mont
Villiers, in Normandy, where he remained en pension,for six months, to perfect his knowledge of French,
which he always after spoke with great fluency.. -The
fierceness of the French' Revolution''was. then' at its
height, and for his safety it was thought necessary that
he should enroll himself in one of the Jacobin Clubs of
the town, in which he was entered as "Le Citoyen Smit,
Membre Affilie au Club des Jacobins de Mont Villiers."
The only revolutionary peril he encountered, however,
~was in. attending his two friends, Captain Drinkwater
and his brother, to Cherbourg. These gentlemen, who
-were excellent draughtsmen, began sketching the works,
in spite of my father's remonstrances, who said, "We
shall all- be infallibly hung on the next lantern-post, if
you are seen;" and in truth, in a few minutes they had




20      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


a gendarme upon them; and it required all my father's
skill, address, and knowledge of the language, with a few
good-humored jokes, and boasts of his own citizenship,
to extricate himself and his friends out of his hands.
When clear off —" And now, my friends, no more
sketching, if you please," said he.
I know little of his career at College, save that he
obtained his Fellowship as soon as it was possible, and
from that moment was cast upon his own resources by
his father, who never afterward gave him a farthing till
his death. Yet with this small income, about ~100 per
annum, he not only preserved that honesty, so often disregarded by young men, of keeping out of debt, but
undertook to pay a sum of ~30 for a debt incurred when
at Winchester School by his younger brother Courtenay,
who had not had courage to confess it to his father before his departure for India. Courtenay became Supreme
Judge of the Adawlut Court, subsequently made a very
large fortune, acquired great reputation as a Judge and
Oriental scholar, returned to this country in his old age,
and died suddenly a few years afterward.
On leaving College it became necessary that my father should select a profession. His own inclinations
would have led him to the Bar, in which profession he'felt that his talents promised him success and distinction, and where a career was' open to him that might
gratify his ambition. But his father, who had been at
considerable expense in bringing up his eldest brother
Robert to that profession, and fitting out the other two
for India, after giving up a project he once had of sending Sydney as supercargo to China, urged so strongly
his going into the Church, that my father, after considering the subject deeply, felt it his duty to yield to my
grandfather's wishes, and sacrifice his own, by entering
the'Church, and became a curate in a small village in




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


21


the midst of Salisbury Plain. One of the first professional duties he was called upon to perform was to marry
his eldest brother Robert to Miss Vernon, aunt to the
present Lord Lansdowne. In a letter to his mother on
the occasion, he says, "The marriage took place in the
library at Bowood,'and all I can tell you of it is, that
he cried, she cried, and I cried;" the only tears, I believe, this marriage ever produced, save those we shed
on her grave.
Sydney Smith, a curate in the midst of Salisbury
Plain! To those who knew him, and his cast of character, the mere statement of the fact will be enough to
paint his feelings; but to those who knew him not, it
would be difficult to express the famine of the mind that
came over him when planted in that great waste of Nature.  He has himself painted a curate as "the poor
working-man of God-a learned man in a hovel, good
and patient-a comforter and a teacher-the first and
purest pauper of the hamlet; yet showing that, in the
midst of worldly misery, he has the heart of a gentleman, the spirit of a Christian, and the kindness of a
pastor."
This picture can hardly be heightened, as descriptive
of a curate in the abstract; but here was a curate
formed, by his wit and powers of conversation, for the
society of his fellow-creatures, doomed to the most unbroken solitude; and, pauper as he was, with scarcely
a hamlet to interest"him, for the village consisted but
of a few scattered cottages and farms, in the midst of
Salisbury Plain.  Once a week a butcher's cart came
over from Salisbury; it was then only he could obtain
any meat, and he often dined, he said, on a mess of
potatoes, sprinkled'with a little catchup. Too poor to
command books, his only resource was the Squire, during the few months he resided there; and his only re



922     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
laxation, not being able to keep a horse, long walks over
those interminable plains.
In one of these walks he narrowly escaped with his
life, being overtaken in the midst of the Plain, far from
any habitation, by a violent snow-storm; and, having
lost all means of tracing his way, there being no trees
or vestige of human habitation for miles round, it was
by mere chance that he arrived, late at night, and fearfully exhausted, at his own home.
The Squire, after the good old orthodox fashion of
squires, asked his curate to dinner on Sunday, and, to
his surprise, found the tedium of a Sunday evening in
the country so much beguiled by the society of his young
friend, that the invitations became more and more frequent. This acquaintance soon ripened into friendship,
and ended by the Squire requesting my father to resign
the curacy at the termination of the two years, and accompany his eldest son abroad. Here my father best
paints what happened.
"When first I went into the Church, I had a curacy
in the middle of Salisbury Plain; the parish was Netherhaven, near Amesbury. The Squire of the parish, Mr.
Beach, took a fancy to me, and after I had served it two
years, he engaged me as tutor to his eldest son, and it
was arranged that I and his son should proceed to: the
University of Weimar, in Saxony. We set out; but
before reaching our destination, Germany was disturbed
by war, and, in stress of politics, weput into Edinburgh,
where I remained five years. The principles of the
French Revolution were then fully afloat, and it is impossible to conceive a more violent and agitated state
of society."




CHAPTER II.
Arrives at Edinburgh.-State of Society.-Manners of Scotch.-Anecdote of Mr. Jeffrey.-Acquaintance with Mr. Horner.-Marriage.Early difficulties and Poverty.-Generosity. —Birth of Daughter.Introduces Mr. Alien to Lord Holland.-Originates Review.-State
of Society.-State of Church.-Character of his Writings in Youth.
-Sketch of Opinions at the Time.-Letter by Lord Monteagle. —
Short Sketch of Articles in Review.
IN the year 1797, the period, I believe, at which my
father arrived in Edinburgh with his pupil, Mr. Beach,
that city was rich in talent, full of men who have acted
important parts while they lived, and many of whom
have left names that will live after them: Jeffrey, Horner, Playfair, Walter Scott, Dugald Stewart, Brougham,
Allen, Brown, Murray, Leyden, Lord Webb Seymour,
Lord Woodhouselee,* Alison, Sir James Hall, and many
others.
Society at that time in Edinburgh was upon the most
easy and agreeable footing; the Scotch were neither
rich nor ashamed of being poor, and there was not that
struggle for display which so much diminishes the charm
of London society, and has, with the increase of wealth,
now crept into that of Edinburgh.     Few days, passed
without the meeting of some of these friends, either in
each other's houses, or (in what was then-very common) oyster-cellars, where, I am told, the most delightful little suppers used to be given, in which every subject was discussed, with a freedom impossible in larger
societies, and with a candor which is. only found where
men fight for truth and not for victory.
* Father of the historian Mr. Peter Tytler.




24      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
Into this soil, then, so congenial to his mind and
tastes, my father was transplanted; and, though a perfect stranger, the kindness with which he was received
is best shown by the strong attachment he ever retained
for his Scotch friends, though far removed from them
in after-life, and by the pleasure with which he always
looked back to this period, which he often refers to in
his letters. In one of them he exclaims, " When shall
I see Scotland again? Never shall I forget the happy
days passed there, amidst odious smells, barbarous
sounds, bad suppers, excellent hearts, and most enlightened and cultivated understandings!"  I believe
he kept up, with hardly any exception, the friendships
then formed, and I heard an incident yesterday which,
trifle as it was, showed such affection for my father's
memory that it quite touched ne.  One evening my father was at his old friend Lord Woodhouselee's country-house, near Edinburgh, when a violent storm of
wind arose, and shook the windows so as to annoy
every body present and prevent conversation. " Why
do you not stop them?" said my father; "give me a
knife, a screw, and a bit of wood, and I will cure it in
a moment;" he soon effected his purpose, fixed up his
little bit of wood, and it was christened Sydney's button. Fifty years after, one of the family finding Mr.
Tytler papering and painting this room, exclaimed,
"Oh! James, you are surely not touching Sydney's
button?" but on running to examine the old place at
the window, she found Sydney's button was there, preserved and respected amidst all the changes of masters,
time, and taste.
Though truly loving them, his quick sense of the
ludicrous made him derive great amusement from the
little foibles and peculiarities of the Scotch; and often.
has he made them laugh by his descriptions of things




MEMOIR OF: THE REV. SYDNEY SAMITH.


25


which struck his English eye. "It requires," he used
to say, "a surgical operation to get a joke well into a
Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather
that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails
occasionally in the North, and which, under the name
of WUT, is so infinitely distressing to people of good
taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals. They
are so imbued with metaphysics that they even make
love metaphysically; I overheard a young lady of my
acquaintance, at a dance in Edinburgh, exclaim, in a
sudden pause of the music,'What you say, my Lord,
is very true of love in the aibstract, but-' Here the fiddlers began fiddling furiously, and the rest was lost.
No nation has so large a stock of benevolence of heart:
if you meet with an accident, half Edinburgh immediately flocks to your door to inquire after your;pure hand or
your pure foot, and with a degree of- interest that convinces you their whole hearts are in the inquiry. You
find they usually arrange their dishes at dinner by the
points of the compass;' Sandy, put the gigot of mutton
to the south, and move the singet sheep's head a wee bit
to the nor'wast.' If you knock at the door, you hear a
shrill female voice from the fifth flat shriek out,' Wha's
chapping at the door?' which is presently opened; by a
lassie with short petticoats, bare legs, and thick ankles.
My Scotch servants bargained they were not to have salmon more than three times a week, and always pulled off
their stockings, in spite of my repeated objurgations, the
moment my back was turned."  "Their temper stands
any thing but an attack on their climate; even the enlightened mind of Jeffrey can not shake off the illusion
that myrtles flourish at Craig Crook. In vain. I have
represented to him that they are of the genus OCarduus,
and pointed out their prickly peculiarities. In vain I
have reminded him that I, have seen hackney-coaches
VOL. I.-B




26      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
drawn by four horses in the winter, on account of the
snow; that I had rescued a man blown flat against my
door by the violence of the winds, and black in the face;
that even the experienced Scotch fowls did not venture
to cross the streets, but sidled along, tails aloft, without
venturing to encounter the gale.  Jeffrey sticks to his
myrtle illusions, and treats my attacks with as much
contempt as if I had been a wild visionary, who had
never breathed his caller air, nor lived and suffered under
the rigor of his climate, nor spent five years in discussing metaphysics and medicine in that garret of the earth
-that knuckle-end of England-that land of Calvin,
oat-cakes, and sulphur."
The reigning bore at this time in Edinburgh was
---; his favorite subject, the North Pole.  It mattered not how far south you began, you found yourself transported to the north pole before you could
take breath; no one escaped him. My father declared
he should invent a slip button. Jeffrey fled from him
as from the plague, when possible; but one day his
arch-tormentor met him in a narrow lane, and began
instantly on the north pole.  Jeffrey, in despair and
out of all patience, darted past him, exclaiming, "Dthe north pole!"*  My father met him shortly after,
boiling with indignation at Jeffrey's contempt of the
north pole.  "Oh, my dear fellow," said my father,
""never mind; no one minds what Jeffrey says, you
know; he is a privileged person; he respects nothing,
absolutely nothing. Why, you will scarcely believe it,
but it is not more than a week ago that I heard him
speak disrespectfully of the equator!"
My father tells of his first acquaintance with Horner,
* I see this anecdote in Mr. Moore's Memoirs attributed to Leslie,
but I have so often heard it told as applying to a very different person,
that I think he was mistaken.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


27


who was at that time among the most conspicuous
young men in "that energetic and unfragrant city."
"My desire to know him proceeded first of all from
being cautioned against him by some excellent and
feeble people to whom I brought letters of introduction, and who represented him as a person of violent
political opinions.  I interpreted this to mean a person who thought for himself, who had firmness enough
to take his own line in life, and who loved truth better
than he loved Dundas, at that time the tyrant of Scot*
land. I found my interpretation just, and from then
till the period of his death we lived in constant society
and friendship with each other." In speaking of him
after his death, in a letter to his brother, he says, "Horner loved truth so much that he never could bear any
jesting upon important subjects. I remember one even-'
ing the late Lord Dudley and myself pretended to
justify the conduct of the Government in stealing the
Danish fleet. We carried on the argument with some
wickedness against our graver friend; he could not
stand it, but bolted indignantly out of the room. We
flung up the sash, and, with a loud peal of laughter,
professed ourselves decided Scandinavians; we offered
him  not only the ships, but all the shot, powder,
cordage, and even the biscuit, if he would come back;
but nothing could turn him; he went home, and it
took us a fortnight of serious behavior before we were
forgiven."  I wish his pen had left us any account
of the other distinguished men whose friendship he
obtained in Edinburgh; but it has left but one other,
and that, I believe, was written at a later period of
life.
After two years' residence in Edinburgh he returned
to England, to marry Miss Pybus, to whom he had
long been engaged, and whom he had known from a




28     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


very early period of his life, as she was the intimate
friend and school-fellow of his only sister, Maria. This
marriage took place with the entire consent of her mother, Mrs. Pybus; but with so vehement an opposition
on the part of her brother, Mr. Charles Pybus'(who
was a strong politician, and one of the Lords of the
Admiralty under Mr. Pitt), as produced a complete
breach between them, and deprived them of the assistance and protection he might have given them on their
entrance into life.
Thus deprived of the only relation capable: of affording her protection and assistance, it was lucky that Miss
Pybus had some fortune, for my father's only contribution toward their future me'nage. (save his, own talents and character) were six small silver teaspoons,
which, from much wear, had become the ghosts of their
former selves. One day, in the madness of his joy, he
came running into the roomi and flung these into her lap,
saying, "' There, Kate, you lucky girl, I give you all my
fortune.!"
Upon this small portion (which my father's first step
was. to secure in the. strictest manner to his wife and
children, though Mrs. Pybus, who had perfect confidence
in him, had thought it would: have been better to leave
a portion of it unsettled in case of need), and the six
silver spoons, they determined to return to Edinburgh
and set up housekeeping.
"One of our early difficulties," said my mother, "was,
how we should buy the necessary plate and linen for
our new household; but my dear mother's liberality
had furnished me with the means, by.bestowing on me,
when I entered the world, my sister, Lady Fletcher's,
necklace, consisting of a double row of pearls, which
were said to be the finest, except Mrs. Hastings', that
had been brought to this country. I took them to -,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


29


and sold them for ~500, and all we most wanted was
thus obtained.: Several years after, when visiting the
shop with Miss Fox and Miss Vernon, I saw in one of
the glass cases my own necklace, every pearl of which
I knew, and had often strung.  I had the curiosity
to ask the price;'Fifteen hundred pounds,' was the
answer."
Mr.: Beach presented my father, soon after, with a
thousand pounds for his care of his eldest son, which he
put into the Stocks, and in which consisted his whole
worldly wealth. And here I must introduce a little trait,
which, though trifling in itself, yet, considering his circumstances, deserves to be mentioned.
He had made.the acquaintance, during his residence
in Edinburgh, of a family consisting of a lady (one of
the most beautiful specimens of old age I have ever
met) and four daughters, who seemed to live for no
other object than this mother. He accidentally discovered that this interesting old lady was suddenly involved in pecuniary difficulties. Regretting how little
he had to offer, he entreated she would not refuse the
loan of a: hundred pounds out of his little store; it
was accepted with the same kind feeling with which
it was offered.  I never heard the circumstance till
after his death, and I only mention it now because
she-.who received it- is —-no- more, and those few who
survive her would, I know, gladly contribute any thing
that would honor the memory of their old friend. What
added to.tlhe:generosity of this little offering was, that
he was then about to become a father, and had but little
prospect of increasing his means.
Another instance of his generosity at that time. was
in. behalf of Mr'. Leyden, who, born a poor shepherd-boy
in Teviotdale, had. become so remarkable by his learning, that an. effort was made by subscription to enable




80      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
him to attend the College classes in Edinburgh, where
he made the most astonishing progress in almost every
branch of knowledge taught there. Having obtained,
through Mr. Dundas, an appointment to India, he was
quite unable to accomplish his outfit. Sir Walter Scott
and my father, and a few others, were chiefly instrumental in effecting it, the latter contributing ~40 out of
his very small means. Mr. Leyden afterward died in
India.
About this period Lord Holland, with whom my father had been slightly acquainted, wrote to ask if he
could recommend any clever young medical man to accompany him to Spain, where he was going. My father
had the pleasure of recommending his friend Mr. Alien,
whose high character and talents were so valued at Holland House, that he never after left it, but remained
there even after Lord Holland's death, and died loved,
honored, and respected by the whole of Lord Holland's
family.
As the time approached for the birth of his child, he
constantly expressed his wish, first, that it might be a
daughter, and secondly, that she might be born with
one eye, that he might never lose her. The daughter
came in due time, according to his wish, but, unfortunately, with two eyes; however, in spite of this unpropitious circumstance, she was very graciously received,
and the nurse, to her horror, during five minutes' absence,
found he had stolen her from the nursery a few hours
after she was born, to introduce her in triumph to Jeffrey and the future Edinburgh Reviewers.
Being now in possession of a daughter with two eyes,
it became necessary to give her a name; and nobody
would believe the meditations, the consultations, and
the discussions he held on this important point. At last
he determined to invent one, and Saba was the result.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


81


About the period in which he was engaged in settling
this important domestic point, he was likewise employed
in arranging with Messrs. Jeffrey, Brougham; Murray,
and his other friends, the preliminaries of that periodical
which, under the name of the "Edinburgh Review,"
has grown into such importance, has produced such useful results, and has bestowed on its chief contributors a
European reputation.
He must state its origin and results: "Toward the
end of my residence in Edinburgh, Brougham, Jeffrey,
and myself happened to meet in the eighth or ninth
story or flat in Buccleugh Place, the then elevated residence of Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should set
up a Review; this was acceded to with acclamation; I
was appointed editor, and remained long enough in
Edinburgh to edit the first number of the Review.
The motto I proposed for the Review         was,'Tenui
Musam meditamur avena'-' We cultivate literature on
a little oat-meal;' but this was too near the truth to be
admitted, so we took our present grave motto from
Publius Syrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure,
read a single line; and so began what has since turned
out to be a very important and able journal.     When I
left Edinburgh it fell into the stronger hands of Lords
Jeffrey and Brougham, and reached the highest point
of popularity and success."*
"To appreciate the value of the Edinburgh Review,
* A distinguished periodical, speaking of the Edinburgh Review,
says: " The world will long look to this as to the opening of an important era in English literary history, for then, so to say, was founded
an. empire of criticism, wider in its objects, more vigorous in its provisions, more perfect in its administrative machinery, than any of the
dynasty which had flourished in the eighteenth century. The cause
of tolerance without licentiousness, and philanthropy without cant, was
substantially aided by its exertions and the attention they commanded.
If the good done thereby should be apportioned out, a large share
would fall to the Rev. Sydney Smith."




82      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the state of England at the period when that journal
began should be had in remembrance.   The Catholics
were not emancipated.  The Corporation and Test Acts
were unrepealed.  The Game-laws were horribly oppressive; steel-traps and spring-guns were set all over the
country; prisoners tried for their lives could have no
counsel. Lord Eldon and the Court of Chancery pressed
heavily on mankind.  Libel was punished by the most
cruel and vindictive imprisonments. The principles'of
political economy were little understood.* The laws of
debt and conspiracy were upon the worst footing.  The
enormous wickedness of the slave-trade was tolerated.
A thousand evils were in existence, which the talents
of good and able men have since lessened or removed;
and these efforts have been not a little assisted by the
honest boldness of the Edinburgh Review."
To estimate justly my father's moral courage in projecting and contributing to such a Review, not only the
personal risk to which those who expressed liberal opinions were exposed (of which nothing gives a more vivid
impression than the third volume of Mr. Fox's letters,
just published), should be taken into consideration, but
his profession, and the corrupt state of that profession
at this period. As this is a subject of which I am quite
incompetent to speak, I shall quote a short passage
from  a remarkable article on Church Parties in the
Edinburgh Review, which gives a very striking description of it.  "The thermometer of the Church of England sank' to its lowest point in the first thirty years
of George III.  Unbelieving bishops, and a slothful
clergy,-had succeeded in driving from the Church the
* "In a scarcity which occurred little more than twenty years ago,
every judge (except the Chancellor and Sergeant Runnington), when
they charged the Grand Jury, attributed the scarcity to the combinations of the farmers. Such doctrines would not now be tolerated in
the mouth of a school-boy."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


83


faith and zeal of Methodism which Wesley had organized within her pale. The spirit was expelled and the
dregs remained. That was the age when jobbery and
corruption, long supreme in the State,: had triumphed
over the virtue of the Church; when the money-changers
not only entered the.temple, but drove out the worshipers; when ecclesiastical revenues were monopolized by
wealthy pluralists; when the name of curate lost.its
legal meaning, and, instead of denoting the incumbent
of a living, came to signify the deputy of an.absentee."
The Dean of St. Paul's and others have spoken of
the remarkable increase in vigor of style and boldness
of illustration in my father's, writings as he advanced
in years; but I have seldom seen it noticed, except in
a very clever sketch of him written by some friend soon
after his death, that he had no youth in his writings;
no. period of those crude, extravagant theoretical opinions, with which the French Revolution had infected
society to a degree of which we can hardly now form
any estimate; though it is alluded to in almost every
publication of the times.
A letter from Mr. Montagu to Mr. Mackintosh, given
in the: Life of his father Sir James Mackintosh, describes this vividly: " At this time, the wild opinions
which prevailed at the commencement of the French
Revolution misled. most of us who were not as wise as
your father, and he did not wholly escape their fascinating influence. The prevalent doctrines were, thaitman
was so benevolent as to wish only the happiness of his
fellow-creatures, so intellectual as to be able readily to
discover what was best, and so far above the power
of temptation as never to be drawn by any allurements
from the paths of virtue. Gratitude was said to be a
vice, marriage an improper restraint, law an imposition,
and lawyers aiders of fraud. It is scarcely possible to
B*




84      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
conceive the extensive influence which these visions
had on society."
"Yet in the midst of this"'(continues the writer to
whom I have alluded) "Sydney Smith showed, from
the outset, a singular union of courage and good sense,
without a tincture of the extravagance by which, in so
many young men of ability, they were at that time accompanied. He did not hesitate to embrace and avow
a sound principle, however obnoxious; but neither enthusiasm or party spirit could carry him a hair's-breadth
beyond what his judgment approved."
He seems to have discerned, in the first blush of
youth, that true liberty was never in such danger of
destruction as when seized by the rude hands of her
intemperate and unenlightened worshipers; and that
true religion was never in such peril of being brought
into ridicule and contempt, as when disfigured by the
indiscreet zeal of ignorance and fanaticism. These convictions will, I think, be seen to pervade all his works,
and even his correspondence-to have been the great
incentives under which he labored to open the eyes of
our rulers, under which he endeavored to promote reforms at their legitimate source, and to ward off those
horrors which the long neglect of reform had so recently
produced in France. Speaking of reforms, in one of his
early letters, he says: "What I want to see the State do,
is to listen in these sad times to some of its numerous
enemies. Why not do something for the Catholics, and
scratch them off the list? then the Dissenters, a mitigation of the Game-laws, etc., any thing that would show
the Government to the people in some other attitude
than that of taxing, punishing, and restraining." It is
curious, in going through his writings, to observe that
there is scarcely any one principle he has advocated,
with the exception of the payment of the Catholic




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


35


clergy, that has not been granted bit by bit; and, as
my father says, after many throes and struggles, and
hard-fought battles, that justice has been reluctantly
conceded in the midst of fear and degradation, often
when it was too late, which, had it been yielded in
times of peace and strength, would have prevented
many of the miseries the last forty years have witnessed in Ireland, and the many turmoils that have at various times agitated this country, and placed it on the
verge of revolution.  "In this way peace was concluded with America, and emancipation granted to the Catholics; and in this way the war of complexion will be
finished in the West Indies."  And again, he says:
"Most of the concessions which have been given to Ireland, have been given in fear. Ireland would have been
lost to this country, if the British Legislature had not,
with all the rapidity and precipitation of the truest panic,
passed those Acts which Ireland did not ask, but demanded, in the times of her armed association."  Yet
now these measures are so confirmed by the general
sanction of society, that it seems almost trite and commonplace to allude to them.
I shall leave my father to paint the fate of those who
ventured to maintain such opinions at the period of
which I am speaking.
"From the beginning of the century (about which
time the Review began), to the death of Lord Liverpool, was an awful period for those who ventured to
maintain liberal opinions; and who were too honest to
sell them for the ermine of the judge, or the lawn of the
prelate. A long and hopeless career in your profession,
the chuckling grin of noodles, the sarcastic leer of the
genuine political rogue; prebendaries, deans, bishops
made over your head; reverend renegades advanced to
the highest dignities of the Church, for helping to rivet




36        MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the fetters of Catholic and Protestant Dissenters; and
no more chance of a Whig administration than of a
thaw in Zembla. These were the penalties exacted for
liberality of opinion at that period, and not only was
there no pay, but there were many stripes."
"It is always considered a piece of impertinence in
England if a man of less than two or three thousand a
year has any opinions at all-on important subjects;
and in addition he was sure to be assailed with all the
Billingsgate of the French Revolution-Jacobin, leveler,
atheist, Socinian, incendiary, regicide, were the gentlest
appellations used; and any man who breathed a syllable against the senseless bigotry ofthe two Georges,
or hinted.at the abominable tyranny and persecution exercised against Catholic Ireland, was shunned as unfit
for the relations of social life.  Not a murmur against
any abuse was permitted; to say a word.against the
suitorcide delays of the Court of Chancery,* or the
cruel punishments of the game-laws, or against any
abuse which a rich man inflicted and a poor man suffered, was treason against the plousiocracy,, and was
bitterly and steadily resented. Lord Grey had not then
taken off the bearing-rein from the English people, as
Sir Francis Head has now done from horses."
My father speaks of himself as having a passionate
love of common justice and common sense.        He says,
* He says, on this iubject, in his speech on the Reform Bill: "Look
at the gigantic Brougham, sworn in at twelve, and before six o'clock
has a bill on the table abolishing the abuses of-a court which has been
the curse of England for centuries. For twenty-five long years did
Lord Eldon sit in the court, surrounded with misery and sorrow, which
he never held up a finger to alleviate.. The widow and the orphan
cried to him.as vainly as the town-crier cries when he offers a small
reward for a full purse; -the bankrupt of the court became the lunatic
of the court; estates mouldered away and mansions fell down, but the
fees came in and all was well; but in-an instant -the iron mace of
Brougham shivered to atoms this house of fraud and of delay.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


speaking of justice, " Truth is its handmaid, freedom
is its child, peace is its companion, safety walks in its
steps, victory follows in its train; it is the brightest
emanation from the Gospel, it is the greatest attribute
of God. It is that centre round which human motives
and passions turn; and justice, sitting on high, sees
genius, and power, and wealth, and birth revolving
round her throne, and teaches their paths, and marks
out their orbits, and warns with a loud voice, and rules
with a strong hand, and carries order and discipline
into a world which but for her would be a wild waste
of passions."
Entering life then with these feelings, we shall, I
think, best find their fruits by following the efforts of
his pen through the greater part of his life in the Edinburgh Review. I have been told that I ought to give
some analysis of them here; but they are now before
the public in such various forms, are:so well known,
and, after various trials, I find them so much injured
by any attempt to condense them, that I shall make
his friend, Lord Monteagle, speak, for me. (as he states
in:- few lines what it would have:cost me many pages
to tell), and shall merely content myself with shortly
enumerating what were the subjects that occupied my
father's thoughts and employed his pen during so large
a portion of his life; a pen which, I think I may venture to assert, was never sullied by-private passion or
private interest, never degraded by an impure or unworthy motive, and, with all its unexampled powers of
sarcasm, never wounding but for the public good.
-Lord Monteagle says: "Looking at all he did, and
the way in which he did it, it must be an inexpressible
pleasure to all who knew, valued, and loved him, to
observe that there was scarcely one question in which
the moral, the intellectual, social, or even physical well



28    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
being of his fellow-men were concerned, to the advancement of which he has not endeavored to contribute."
Some of his earliest efforts seem to have been directed
to subjects more immediately belonging to his profession, such as the use and abuse of the pulpit for political subjects, and the very inefficient state of pulpit eloquence. He touches on clerical reforms; he endeavors
to protect the curates and inferior clergy, and to restrain
the increasing power of the bishops, or rather to define
those powers by laws, not leaving them dependent on
the caprice of individual character or prejudice, as they
then were. Toleration, from every motive, private, political, and religious, he inculcates on all occasions and
in every form; and, as connected with and mainly depending on this, no subject more earnestly or frequently
occupied his thoughts than the state of Ireland.
Education, as existing in this country in every class
and in both sexes, claimed his attention. The injurious
effects of Methodism and fanaticism on true religion in
this country; the infinite importance of correcting vice
in such a manner as should not produce hatred to virtue; the danger of religious wars, or of the total loss
of our Indian possessions from the injudicious attempts
at conversion by men totally unfitted for so important a
work; the injuries we were inflicting on some of our
finest colonies by bad governors and worse laws-all
these he describes and deprecates. He found in the
cell of the lunatic chains, darkness, terror, cruelty,
every thing that unrestrained power and human passions could add of horror to that heaviest of God's afflictions, and he brought into public notice the mild and
humane treatment of the Quakers and its beneficial
effects. He examined the state of our jails; he read
the reports of good and laborious men who had dedicated much time and attention to the subject, "but men




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


whom the fat and sleek people, the enjoyers, the mumps
simus, the well-as-we-are people of the world," had contrived to keep down and hide from the public eye; and
he endeavored to convince the unsuspecting world that
we were paying and nourishing in every county of England a public school for the instruction and encouragement of profligacy and vice: no order, no division, no
public eye; the innocent with the guilty; youth just
tottering on the threshold of sin, living with and learning from the most hardened profligates; punishments
inflicted before trial at the caprice of the magistrate or
governor; and many other evils, moral as well as physical, which it only wanted the public eye and public attention to correct and improve.
At a time when the greater part of the Bench, as well
as the Bar, with some noble exceptions, were opposed
strongly to any change in our criminal procedure, he
looked with horror at the scenes he witnessed in our
courts of law, and the judicial murders that he felt.must
often occur under such a system; and he pleaded the
cause of the poor unprotected prisoner in language so
earnest and so forcible, that it may, I hope, entitle him
to share with his great friends, Sir S. Romilly and Sir
J. Mackintosh, the merit of having aided in that great
work of mercy they fought for so long and so ably, and
the prisoner yet unborn may live to bless their names.
Though living in the midst of large landed proprietors, all zealous in the preservation of their game, the
cruelty, injustice, and increasing severity of the Gamelaws,* and their oppressive and demoralizing effects on
the poor, frequently occupied his attention and excited
his most earnest opposition.  The perplexing, but, as
he says, most trite of subjects, the Poor-laws, occupied
* In the course of the preceding year no fewer than 12000 persons
were committed-for offenses against the Game-laws.




4       Mb MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


his thoughts; though, I fear, with as little result, as has
generally been produced by all the thought that has
been expended on this. most difficult question.
"Thinking (as he says) the United States the most
magnificent picture of human happiness," and feeling
the importance of the great political experiments that
were going on there, he endeavored to bring forward
and attract public attention to both their merits and defects, urging America not to abuse the advantages she
possessed, inciting Europe to profit by the example she
set, and concluding by warning her, in a well-known
passage, against a taste for military glory.
These, I think, were among the most important subjects he treated of; but there were many others of a
lighter character, which he handled always with the
same objects in view-to promote truth and expose evil.
He leads us amusingly through the wanderings of Waterton; he unmasks the mischievous sophistry of Madame de Stail's "Delphine;" he shows the comparatively innocuous effects which the plain, unvarnished.
exposure of vice in "Anastasius" was calculated to
produce; he points out the truth of the'social picture
given in ",Granby;" he acts as middle-man to Bentham; he brings out to public notice, from the mass of
blue-books under which they were buried, all the cruel
ties to which the poor climbing-boys were exposed in
sweeping chimneys; he points out the utility of the
Hamiltonian system in diminishing the long and valuable period of time sacrificed in our places of education
to acquiring a knowledge of the learned languages.
There are some few others which he has not republished,
no longer thinking them of any general interest.
I am anxious, in this sketch, not to be thought to
attribute an undue share of influence to my father's
efforts for the public good. It is. often difficult to say




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH;


41


who gave. the death-blow to an abuse;: and my father's
blows, all will admit, were no light ones where they
fell; yet he was but one of the many wise men who
haive used their talents for the benefit of their fellowcreatures, and many of them have devoted more time
and attention to these objects than my father was enabled to do. -But I think he has one peculiarity above
almost any writer of his day-that of attracting public
attention; he was born for a teacher of the people, and,
as Lord Ashburton says in his striking address to schbolmasters, " I wish to familiarize to the youngest among
you this important truth, that no knowledge, however
profound, can constitute a teacher. A teacher must
have knowledge, as an orator must have knowledge, as
a builder must have -materials; but as, in choosing the
builder of my house, I do not select the man' who has
the most materials in his yard, but I proceed to select
him by reference to his skill, ingenuity, and taste; so
also, in testing an orator or a teacher, I satisfy myself
that they fulfill the comparatively easy condition ofpossessing sufficient materials of knowledge with which to
work; I look then to those high and noble qualities
which are the characteristics of their peculiar calling,
There were hundreds at Athens who knew more than
Demosthenes, many more that knew more at Rome than
Cicero, but there was but one Demosthenes and one
Cicero."  So I think, though there are hundreds who
have known more, labored more, thought more, in England, yet in our day there was but one Sydney Smith,
He was.a sort of rough-rider of a subject; sometimes
originating, but more frequently taking up what others
had for years been stating humbly, or timidly, or obscurely, or lengthily, or imperfectly, or dully,: to the
world; extracting at once its essence, unvailing the motives of his opponents, and placing his- case clearly, con



42     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


eisely, simply, eloquently, boldly, brightly before the
public eye. Thus the subject became read, thought of,
discussed, and often acted upon by thousands of persons, dispersed over various parts of the world. This
can not have been without powerful influence on the
opinions and conduct of society.
The peculiar talent possessed by my'father is well described in a sketch by a personal friend of considerable
talent, printed at the time of his death.
"In fact, he had read much, and always with the
sincerest desire to arrive at truth; and if he lacked that
quality of intellect which is capable of imparting original
views on profound subjects, no man was ever more successful in possessing himself of the results of other men's
thoughts, and in diffusing them in a form suited to the
apprehension of ordinary readers. A distinguished scholar now living, writing of Sydney Smith to a friend, in
1840, observes:'Ridicule seems to me to be admirably
fitted to confound fools and to destroy their prejudices.
It is not needed in order to recommend truth to wise
men, and indeed, from its generally dealing in exagger-'ation and slight misrepresentation, is likely to offend
them. It is his mastery of ridicule which renders Sydney Smith so powerful as a diffuser of ideas, for in order
to diffuse widely it is necessary to be able to address
fools. His powers as a diffuser, as compared with the
powers of a great inventor, who was latterly altogether
wanting in the diffusing power, are well shown in his
article on Bentham's- Book of Fallacies; indeed, as a
diffuser of the good ideas of other men, I do not know
whether he ever had an equal.'' When the imaginative faculty was in question, however, Sydney Smith was creative and original enough,
God knows. When in good spirits, the exuberance of
his fancy showed itself in the most fantastic images and




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


43


most ingenious absurdities, till his hearers and himself
were at times fatigued with the merriment they excited.
He had the art, too, of divesting personalities of vulgarity, and not unfrequently was the object of his wit
seen to enjoy the exercise of it quite as much as others;
in fact, many.persons rather felt it as a compliment
when Sydney singled them out for sport."
In another sketch of my father's writings I have met
with this passage, which I think so just that I shall insert it:
" Few men could write with his disregard of common
forms, and his perfect expression of individual peculiarities, without falling into coarseness of buffoonery; the
writings of Sydney are free from all vulgarities usual to
the familiar writer. The great peculiarity of his works
is their singular blending of the beautiful with the
ludicrous, and this is the source of his refinement; he
is keen and personal, almost fierce and merciless, in his.
attacks on public abuses; he has no check on his humor
from authority or conventional forms, and yet he very
rarely violates good taste; there is much good-humor
in him in spite of his severity: it would be difficult to
point out the source of this power of fascination, but it
strikes us as being different from any thing else we
have ever seen."




CHAPTER III.
Extracts from Lectures.-Preface to Sermons. —Analysis of Sermons.
-Sermon for the Blind.-Returns to-Edinburgh.-Takes Pupils.Illness of Daughter.-Moral Courage.-Studies Medicine and Moral
Philosophy.
I -HAVE endeavored in the last chapter (with as little
commentary as possible) to give a short sketch of the most
important subjects that occupied my father's thoughts,
and employed his pen, during twenty-eight years of his
life, in the Edinburgh Review.
But to perform my task':prjlorly, I ought perhaps to
add some account of the subject-matter of his lectures
and sermons.   The former of these, if done at all, must
be done by an abler pen than mine; I shall therefore
content myself with only two extracts.  The first has
often been quoted, not only for its beauty, but as affording a specimen of the high moral tone which pervades
these lectures; the second was extracted by one of his
earliest college associates (and, I believe, now oldest
friend alive), Mr. Duncan, afid sent to my mother, as
giving what he thought the best description of my father that has ever been written.  The first is from the
Lecture "On the Conduct of the Understanding;" the
second is from that on "Wit and Humor."
"Therefore, when I say, in conducting the understanding, love knowledge with a great love, with a
vehement love, with a love coeval with life, what do I
say but love innocence, love virtue, love purity of conduct, love that which, if you are rich and powerful, will




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


45


sanctify the blind fortune which has made you so, and
make men call it justice? Love that which, if you are
poor, will render your poverty respectable, and make
the proudest feel it unjust to laugh at the meanness
of your fortunes. Love that which will comfort and
adorn you, and never quit you, which will open to you
the kingdom of thought, and all the boundless regions
of conception, as an asylum against the cruelty, the injustice, and the pain that may be your lot in this outward world; that which will make your motives habitually great and honorable, and light up in an instant a
thousand noble disdains at the very thought of meanness and of fraud.
"Therefore, if any young man has embarked his life
in the pursuit of knowledge, let him go on without
doubting or fearing the event; let him not be intimidated by the cheerless beginnings of knowledge, by the
darkness from which she springs, by the difficulties
which hover around her, by the wretched habitation
in which she dwells, by the want and sorrow which
sometimes journey in her train. But let him ever follow her as an angel that guards him, and as the genius
of his life.' She will bring him out at last into the
light of day, and exhibit him to the world, comprehensive in acquirements, fertile in resources, rich in imagination, strong in reasoning, prudent and powerful above
his fellows in all the relations and in all the offices of
life."
"The meaning of an extraordinary man is, that he is
eight men, not one man;: that he has ag much wit as if
he had no sense, and as much sense as if he had no wit;
that his conduct is: as judicious as if he were the dullest
of human beings, and his imagination as brilliant as if
he were irretrievably ruined. But when wit is com



46     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.'bined with-sense:- and information; when it is softened
by benevolence and restrained by principle; when it is
in the hands of a man who can use it and despise it;
who can be witty and something more than witty; who
loves -honor, justice, decency, good-nature, morality, and
religion ten thousand times better than wit, wit is then
a beautiful and delightful part of our nature.
"Genuine and innocent wit like this is surely the
flavor of the mind. Man could direct his ways by
plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but
God has given us wit, and flavor, and brightness, and
laughter, and perfumes, to enliven the days of men's
pilgrimage, and to charm his pained steps over the
burning marle."
The character and design of his Sermons will perhaps
be best explained by a short preface he published as
early as the year 1801, but never reprinted, explaining
his reasons for the course he has taken; then showing
what that course has been, and giving a few extracts
from his sermons.
"He who publishes sermons should explain whether
he publishes speeches, or essays, or what it is he does
publish; for metaphysical dissertations, theological polemics, Scripture criticism, historical disquisition, and
moral and religious doctrine, and exhortation, are all
included under the appellation of sermons. Now every
work should be tried by the intentions- with which it
was written. A moral sermon, delivered before a mixed audience of both sexes, would be very bad, if it contained a profound analysis of human motives and actions; and such an analysis should never be attempted
before a mixed audience, because a continued attention
to a difficult subject is a very rare quality, which the




MEMOIR. OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH..4


habits of the mass of.mankind can never lead them to
acquire.  Before such an audience all these sermons
were delivered, and whoever does me the honor of judging of them at all, will, I hope, do me the justice of
judging them with a relation to this circumstance.
"The clergy have at all times complained of the
decay of piety, in language similar to that which they
now hold from the pulpit. The best way of bringing
this declamation to proof is to look into the inside of
our churches, and to remark how they are attended.
In London, I daresay, there are full seven-tenths of the
whole population who hardly ever enter a place of wor,
ship from one end of the year to the other. At the
fashionable end of the town the congregations are almost wholly made up of ladies, and there is an appearance of listlessness, indifference, and impatience, very
little congenial to our theoretical ideas of a place of worship. In the country villages half of the parishioners
do not go to church at all, and almost all, with the exception of the sick and old, are in a. state of wretched
ignorance and indifference with regard to all religious
opinions whatever.
"The clergy of a district in the diocese of Lincoln
associated lately for the purpose of forming an estimate
of the state of religion within their own limits. The
amount of the population, where the inquiry was set
on foot, was 15,042. It was found that the.average
number of the ordinary congregations was 4933, and
of communicants at each sacrament 1808; so that not
one in three attended divine service, nor one in six of
the adults (who amounted to 11,282) partook of the
Sacrament.
"Though other grave and important causes have unquestionably contributed very largely to produce this
indifference, which is by no means necessarily connect



48      MEMOIR OF THE'REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ed with infidelity, still, I am afraid, it must in some
little degree be attributed to our form of worship, and
to the clergy themselves.'That the attention of the greater part of an audience can be kept up, through many repetitions, in a
service that lasts an hour and a half, or an hour and
three-quarters, is as much to be wished as it is to be
little expected. Piety, stretched beyond a certain point,
is' the parent of impiety. By attempting to kee up the
fervor of devotion for so long a time, we have thinned
our churches,- and driven away those fluctuating, lukewarm Christians who will always outnumber the zealous
and devout, and whom it should. be our first object to
animate, allure, and fix.
4 The English clergy, though upon the whole a very
learned, pious, moral, and decent: body of men, are not
very remarkable for professional activity; and when
they have discharged the formal and exacted duties of
religion, are not very forward, by gratuitous inspection
and remonstrance, to keep alive and diffuse a due sense
of religion in their parishioners.
"To these causes may be added the low state-of pulpit eloquence.
"Preaching has become a by-word for long and dull
conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply,
in any piece of writing, the absence of every thing agreeable and inviting, calls. it a sermon.
"' One reason for this is the bad choice of subjects for
the pulpit. The clergy are allowed about twenty-six
hours. every year for the instruction of their fellowcreatures; and I can not help thinkiig this short time
had better be employed on practical subjects, in explaining and enforcing that conduct which the spirit' of
Christianity requires, and which mere worldly happiness
commonly coincides to recommend.   These are'the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.        49
topics nearest the heart, which make us more fit for this
ard -aa better world, and do all the good that sermons
ever will do. Critical explanations of difficult passages
of Scripture, dissertations -on the doctrinal and mysterious points of religion, learned investigations of the meaning and accomplishment of prophecies, do well for publication, but are ungenial to the habits and taste of a
general audience.  Of the highest importance they are to
those who can defend the faith and study it profoundly;
but, God forbid it should be necessary to be a scholar, or
ai critic, in order to be a Christian. To the multitude,
whether elegant or vulgar, the result only of erudition, employed for the defense of Christianity, can be of any consequence: with the erudition itself they can not meddle,
and must be fatigued if they are doomed to shear it. In
every congregation there are a certain number whom principle, old age, or sickness, has rendered truly devout; but
in preaching,- as in every thing else, the greater number of
instances constitute the rule, and the lesser the exception.
" A distinction is set up, with the usual inattention to
the meaning of words, between moral and religious subjects of discourse; as if every moral subject must not
necessarily be a Christian subject. If Christianity concern itself with our present, as well as our future happiness,- how can:any virtue, or the'doctrine which inculcates it, be considered as foreign to our sacred religion?
Has our Saviour forbidden justice-proscribed mercy,
benevolence, and-good faith? or, when we state the more:sublime motives' for their cultivation, which we derive
from revelation,; why are we not to display the temporal
motives also,'and' to give solidity to elevation by fixing
piety upon interest?
"There is a'bad taste in the language of sermons
evinced by a constant repetition of the same script'ural
phrases, which- perhaps were used'with great judgVOL. I.-C




sO      MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ment two hundred years ago, but are now become soc
trite: that they may, without any great detriment, be
exchanged for others.'Putting off the old man —and
putting on the new man,''.The one thing needful,'
~The Lord hath set up his candlestick,''The armor
of righteousness,' etc. etc c. etc. etc The sacred Scrip
tures are surely abundant enough to afford us the same.idea with some novelty of language: we can never-be
driven, from the penury of these writings, to wear and
fritter -their holy language into a perfect eant, which
passes through the ear without leaving any impression.
"( To this cause of the unpopularity of sermons may
-be added the extremely ungraceful manner:in which
they are delivered.  The English, generally remarkable for doing very good things in a very bad manner,
seem to have reserved the maturity and.plenitude of
their awkwardness for the pulpit. A.clergyman clings
to his velvet cushion with either hand, keeps:his eye
riveted upon his book, speaks of:.the ecstasies of joy.and fear with a voice and a face which indicate neither, and pinions his'body and soul- into the same attitude of limb and thought, for fear of being called theatrical and affected.;  The most intrepid veteran of us
all dares no more than wipe his face with:his cambric
suildirium; if, by mischance, his hand slip from its orthodox gripe of the velvet, he draws it back as from
liquid brimstone, or the caustic iron of the law, and
atones for this indecorum by fresh inflexibility and more
rigorous -sameness. Is it wonder, then, that every smidelirious sectary who pours forth his animated nonsense with the genuine look and voice of passion should
gesticulate away the congregation of the most profound
and learned divine of the Established Church, and in
two Sundays preach him bare to the very sexton?
Why are we natural every where but in the pulpit?




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY S-MITH.


No -man expresses warm   and animated feelings- any
where else, with his mouth alone, but with his whole
body; he articulates with every limb, and.talks from
head to foot with a thousand voices. Why this holoplexia on, sacred occasions alone.? Why call in the aid
of paralysis to piety? Is it a rule of oratory to bal-.nce the style against. the subject, and to handle the
most sublime truths in the dullest language and the
driest manner?  Is sin to: be taken from men, as Eve
was from Adam, by casting them into a deep slumber?
Or from what possible perversion of common sense are
we all to look like. field-preachers in Zembla,.holy lumps
of ice numbed, into quiescence, and stagnation, and
mumbling?
" It is theatrical to use action, and it is Methodistical
to use action.
"Butt-we: have cherished contempt for sectaries, and
persevered in dignified tameness so long, that while
we are..freezing common sense for large.salaries. in
stately. churches,. amidst whole acres and furlongs of
empty pews, the crowd are feasting on ungrammatical
fervor and illiterate animation in the crumbling hovels of Methodists.  If influence over the imagination
can produce these powerful effects; if this be the chain
by which the. people are dragged captive at the wheel
of.enthusiasm, why are we, who are rocked in the cradle of ancient genius, who hold in one hand the book
of. the wisdom of God,- and in the other grasp that
eloquence which ruled the Pagan world,.why are we
never to rouse, to appeal, to.inflame, to break through
every barrier, up, to the very haunts and chambers of
the soul? If the vilest interest upon earth. can daily
call forth all the powers of the mind, are we to.harangue
on public order, and public happiness, to picture a reuniting world, a resurrection of souls, a rekindling.of




52      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ancient affections, the dying day of heaven and of
earth, and to unvail the throne of God, with a wretched
apathy which we neither feel nor show in the most
trifling concerns of life?  This surely can be neither
decency nor piety, but ignorant shame, boyish bashfulness, luxurious indolence, or any thing but propriety
and sense. There is, I grant, something discouraging
at present to a man of sense in the sarcastical phrase
of popular preacher; but I am not entirely without
hope that the time may come when energy in the pulpit
will be no longer considered as a mark of superficial
understanding; when animation and affectation will be
separated; when churches will cease (as Swift says) to
bepublic dormitories; and sleep be no longer looked
upon as the most convenient vehicle of good sense.
"I know well that out of ten thousand orators by far
the greater number must be bad, or none could be good;
but by becoming sensible of the mischief we have done,
and are doing, we may all advance a proportional'step;
the worst may become what the best are, and the best
better.
"' There is always a want of grandeur in attributing
great events to little causes; but this is in some small
degree compensated:for by truth. I am convinced we
should'do no great injury to the cause of religion if
we remembered the old combination of arce et oci,
and kept our churches a little warmer.  An experienced clergyman' can pretty well estimate the number of'liis audience by the indications of a' sensible
thermometer.  The same' blighting "wind chills piety
which is fatal to vegetable life; yet our power of encountering weather varies with the object of our hardihood; we are very Scythians when pleasure is concerned, and Sybarites when the bell summons us -to
church.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


53


"No reflecting man can ever wish to adulterate manly
piety (the parent of all that is good in the world) with
mummery and parade.     But we are strange, very
strange creatures, and it is better perhaps not to place
too much confidence in our reason alone. If any thing,
there is, perhaps, too little pomp and ceremonyin our
worship, instead of too much. We quarreled with the
Roman Catholic church, in a great hurry and a great
passion, and furious with spleen; clothed ourselves with
sackcloth, because she was habited in brocade; rushing, like children, from one extreme to another; and
blind to all medium between complication and barrenness, formality and neglect. I am very glad to find we
are calling in more and more the aid of music to our
service. In London, where it can be commanded, good
music has a prodigious effect in filling a church; organs
have been put up in various churches in the country,
and, as -I have been informed, with the best possible
effect. Of what value, it may be asked, are auditors who
come there from such motives? But our first business
seems to be, to bring them there from any motive which
is-not undignified and ridiculous, and then to keep them
there from a good one: those who come for pleasure may
remain for prayer.
" Pious and worthy clergymen are ever apt to imagine that mankind are what they ought to be-to mistake,the duty for the fact-to suppose that religion can never
weary its votaries-that the same novelty and ornament
which are necessary to enforce every temporal doctrine
are wholly superfluous in religious admonition; and that
the world at large consider religion as the most important
of all concerns, merely because it is so: whereas, if we
refer- to facts, the very reverse appears to be ithe -case..Every consideration influences the mind in a compound
ratio of the importance of the effects which it involves,




54      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
and their proximity. A man who was sure to die a
death of torture in ten years would think more of the
most trifling gratification or calamity of the day than of
his torn flesh and twisted nerves years hence. If we
were to read the gazette of a naval victory from the pulpit, we should be dazzled with the eager eyes of our auidience-they would sit through an earthquake to hear us.
The cry of a child, the fall of a book, the most trifling
occurrence is sufficient to dissipate religious thought,
and to introduce a more willing train of ideas: a sparrow fluttering about the church is an antagonist which
the most profound theologian in Europe is wholly unable
to overcome. A, clergyman has so little previous disposition to attention in his favor, that, without the utmost
efforts, he can neither excite it or preserve it when excited. It is his business to awaken mankind by every]
means in his power, and to show them their true interest. If he despise energy of manner and labor of composition, from a conviction that his audience are willing,
and that his subject alone will support him, he will only
add lethargy to languor, and confirm the drowsiness of
his hearers by becoming a great example of sleep-himself.
"That many greater causes are at work to undermine religion I seriously believe; but I shall probably
be laughed at when I say that warm churches, solemn
music, animated preaching upon practical subjects, and
a service some little abridged, would be no contemptible
seconds to the just, necessary, and innumerable invectives which have been leveled against Rousseau, Voltaire, D'Alembert, and the whole pandemonium of those
martyrs to atheism who toiled with such laborious malice, and suffered odium with:such inflexible profligacy,
for the wretchedness and despair of their fellow-creatures.




MEMOIR OF THE REY. SYDNEY SMITH.


56:


"':i have merely expressed what appears to me -to be
the truth in these remarks. I hope I shall not give offense; I am sure I do not mean to do it.  Some allowance should be made for the severity of censure when
the provident satirist furnishes the raw material for his
own art, and commits every fault which he blames."
Entering on his ministry, then, with these views, we
shall, I think, find that my father's religion is tinctured
in great measure by his character-it has nothing intolerant, repulsive, or morose in his hands. He first seeks
to inspire the love of God, by painting the world overflowing with beauties of form, color, sight, taste, smell,
feeling; the mind of man filled with genius, fancy, wit,
imagination, eloquence-properties and feelings totally
unnecessary to the mere bare cold existence that might
have been the lot of man, but bestowed upon him in
such variety and profusion as almost baffles the comprehension, and shows the boundless love of the Creator
in placing such happiness within the reach of his creatures.
This feeling is evinced in the following passage, taken
from a sermon on "The Immortality of the Soul;" and
will be seen to pervade not only his sermons, butt his
lectures, and even his reviews, wherever the subject admits of any allusion to religion.
He says, speaking of the faculties of animals: "If
man, like these, had only talents to gather his support,
and defeat the hostile animals which surround him, no
hope of immortality could be gathered from a condition
like this; man would be of the earth, earthy; destined
to live in the world with qualities fitted for this world,
and to all appearance limited to it. But in speaking of
the mind of man, we forget and we pass over all those
faculties which are sufficient for the preservation of life.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
We do not wonder at man because he is cunning in procuring food, but we are amazed with the variety, the
superfluityj the i4nmensity of human talents. We are
astonished that he should have found his way over the
seas, and numbered the stars, and called by its name
every earth, and stone, and plant, and creeping reptile
that the Almighty has made. We see him gathered together in great cities, guided by laws, disciplined by instruction, softened by fine arts, and sanctified by solemn
worship. We count over the pious spirits of the world,
the beautiful writers, the great statesmen,. all who have
invented subtlely, who have thought deeply, who have
executed wisely-all these are proofs that we are destined for a second life; and it is not possible to believe
that this redundant vigor, this lavish and excessive power, was given for the mere gathering of meat and drink.
If the only object is present: existence, such faculties are
cruel; are misplaced, are useless. They all show us that
there is something great awaiting us-that the soul is
now young and infantine, springing up into a more perfect life when the body falls into dust,"
On various occasions he dwells on the evidences of
the authenticity of the Christian religion. He says:'' I have selected this train of reasoning with some care
from the best writers in defense of Christianity, because
it is always right that a man should be able to render
a reason for the faith that is within him."
In discoursing on these evidences, he enforces them
with all the powers with which he was endowed. Having shown the authenticity of the religion he teaches,
he proceeds to inculcate in a variety of forms the most
important duties that religion enjoined: among these he
has dwelt on none more frequently than "the purity
and government of the heart," which, he says, "is
God's, and to God it will return;" "it is the ark of




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH,        57
God."   "Is the passport to heaven written any where
else. than in a pure heart?"  He shows how in this
respect the Christian differs from all spurious religions,
not contenting itself with ceremonies and outward forms,
but requiring thought, word, and deed.
"The beauty of the Christian religion is, that it
carries the order and discipline of heaven into our
very fancies and conceptions, and, by hallowing the
first shadowy notions of our minds from which actions spring, makes our actions themselves good and
holy."
Toleration, long-suffering, and charity, he gathers
from every page of the Gospel.  "The Church," he
says, "must be distinguished from religion itself; we
might be Christians without any Established Church at
all, as some countries of the world are at this day. A
church establishment is only an instrument for teaching
religion, but an instrument of admirable contrivance
and of vast utility.  The Church of England is the
wisest and most enlightened sect of Christians; I
think so, or I would not belong to it another hour.
But is it possible for me to believe that every Christian
out of the pale of that Church will be consigned after
this- life to the never-ending wrath of God? If I were
to preach such doctrines, who would hear me?  Can I
paint God as the protector of one Christian creed, dead
to all prayers, blind to all woes but ours?-God, whom
the Indian Christian, whom the Armenian Christian,
whom the'Greek Christian, whom the Catholic, whom
the Protestant, adore in a varied manner, in another
climate, with a fresh priest and a changed creed. Are
you and I to live again, and are these Christians as well
as us not to live again?  Foolish, arrogant man has
said this, but God has never said this. He -calls for
the just in Christ.  He tells us that through that name
C*




58      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
He will reward every good man, and accept every just
action; that if you take up the cross of Christ he will
reward you for every kind deed, repay you seven-fold
for every example of charity, carefully note and everlastingly recompense the justice, the honor, the integrity, the benevolence of your present life. And yet,
though God is the God of all Christians, each says to
the other, He is not your God, but my God; not the
God of the just in Christ, but the God of Calvin, the
God of Luther, or the God of the Papal Crown."
"The true Christian, amidst all the diversities of
opinion, searches for the holy in desire, for the good in
counsel, for the just in works; and he loves the good,
under whatever temple, at whatever altar he may find
them."
"If I have read well my Gospel, it is in such wi'se
we should imitate the patient forbearance of our common Father, who pities the frailties we do not pity,
who forgives the error we do not forgive, who maketh
His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust."
He insists strongly on the vital importance of the
religious education of youth: "When you see a child
brought up in the way he should go, you see' a good
of which you can not measure the quantity, nor perceive the end; it may be communicated to the children's children of that child. It may last for centuries; it may be communicated to innumerable individuals. It may be planting a plant, and sowing a
seed, which may fill the land with the glorious increase
of righteousness, and bring upon us the blessings of the
Almighty."
He then points out the true pleasures, the use and
the abuse of youth; the preparations for age; the
warnings sent by a merciful God; the utility of medi



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


69


tation on death; the worthlessness of this world but
as a stepping-stone to a better. And thus, while raising the mind from earth to heaven, and urging, as he
says, "nothing foolish, nothing romantic, nothing bordering on ridicule or enthusiasm," he inculcates a recollection that there are really and truly things above this
world, and coming after this world, and better than this
world. He exhorts us to live as others live, and do as
others do, but at the same time to live to higher purposes than others live, and do greater and better actions
than others do. He then enters into the detail of those
virtues, and the attack of those vices, which the wisdom of God has either commanded or forbidden for the
happiness of man.
This, I-lelieve, will be found to be an accurate
analysis of the use he made of his ministry.  Few
extracts have been made, from the difficulty of selection; but I may venture to say that those who will
seek, and select for themselves, will not be unrewarded.
As, however, my opinion can hardly be considered
an impartial one, I may be allowed to quote two or
three extracts from publications, after his death, in confirmation of it.  "In a literary point of view," says
one writer, "these sermons stand alone among modern
pulpit discourses; they have not the theological learning which distinguishes some, or the mystical eloquence
that gives character to the outpourings of'the present
Bishop of Oxford; but how full of freshness and life
they are! There is nothing of compilation or imitation
in them; the writer has not consulted other divines for
topics and ideas, but, selecting his text, he has treated it from the stores of his own mind, exhibiting his
own view on questions of doctrine, and illustrating matters of practice from his own observation and experience




60      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
of mankind, and it bears the strong impress which vigorous life always imparts."
Another says: "Christianity was not a dogma with
Sydney Smith, it was a practical and most beneficent
creed; it was the rule of action to his life. The volume contains not a thought or opinion at war with Christian charity."
And again, one says: "But how beautiful were.the
serious moods of Sydney Smith! What a fine fullness
and solidity they had; drawn from the strength and
justice which we believe to have been the ruling.sense
of his mind, and tempered with. the warmth of character, of which no man had a larger share. What, a picture is that in one of his sermons where he describes
the village-school, and the tattered scholars, and.the
aged, poverty —stricken master, teaching the mechanical
art of reading or writing, and thinking he was teaching
that alone, while in truth he was protecting life, insuring property, fencing the altar, guarding the throne,
giving space and liberty to all the fine powers of man,
and lifting him up to his own place in the order of creation!"
I shall content myself with but one more extract,
from his Charity Sermon in. behalf of the Blind, as it
was the one which'elicited the splendid eulogium. from
Mr. Dugald Stewart, to which I have alluded elsewhere.
"The author of the book of Ecclesiastes has told us'that the light is sweet, that it is a pleasant thing for
the eyes to behold the sun.'.The sense of "sight is indeed the highest bodily privilege, the purest: physical
pleasure,, which man has derived from his Creator. To
see that wandering fire, after he has finished his journey through the nations, coming back to his eastern
heavens, the mountains painted with light, the floating
splendor of the sea, the earth waking from deep slum



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


61


ber, the day flowing down the sides'of the hills till it
reaches the secret valleys, the little insect recalled to
life, the bird trying her wings, man going forth to his
labor-each created being moving, thinking, acting,
contriving, according to the scheme and compass of its
nature, by force, by cunning, by reason, by necessity.
Is it possible to joy in this animated scene, and feel no
pity for the sons of darkness? for the eyes that will
never see light? for the poor clouded in everlasting
gloom? If you ask me why they are miserable and
dejected, I turn you to the plentiful valleys; to -the
fields now bringing forth their increase; to the freshness and the flowers of the earth; to' the endless variety
of its colors; to the grace, the symmetry, the shape of
all it cherishes and all it bears: these you have forgotten, because you have always enjoyed them; but these
are the means by which God Almighty makes man
what he is-cheerful, lively, erect, full of enterprise,
mutable, glancing from heaven to earth, prone to labor
and to act. Why was not the earth left without form
and void? Why was not darkness suffered to remain
on the face of the deep? Why did God place lights in
the firmament, for days, for seasons, for signs, and for
years?  That He might make man the happiest of
created beings; that He might give to this his favorite
creation a wider scope, a more permanent duration, a
richer diversity of joy. This is the reason why the
blind are miserable and dejected-because their soul is
mutilated, and dismembered of its best sense-because
they are a laughter and a ruin, and the boys of the
streets mock at their stumbling feet.
"Therefore:I implore you, by the Son of David, have
mercy -on the blind. If there is not pity for all sorrows, turn the full and perfect man to meet the inclemency of fate; let not those who have never tasted the




62      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
pleasures of existence be assailed by any of its sorrows;
the eyes which are never gladdened by light should
never stream with tears.
"How   merciful our blessed Saviour was wont to
show himself to their afflictions! Blind Bartimeus sat
by the wayside begging; and as the crowd passed by,
he cried with a loud voice,' Thou Son of David, have
mercy upon me!' Jesus stopped the multitude, and
before them all restored to him his siglt. The first
thing that he saw, who never saw before, was the Son
of his God! These blind people, like Bartimeus, will
never see, till they behold their Redeemer on the last
day: not as He then was, in his earthly shape, but
girded by all the host of heaven-the Judge of nations,
the everlasting Counselor, the Prince of Peace. At
that hour this heaven and earth will pass away, and all
things melt with fervent heat: but in the wreck of
worlds no tittle of mercy shall perish, and the deeds of
the just shall be recorded in the mind of God."
In giving this little sketch of his writings, I have
somewhat anticipated in my narrative, and must return
to my father's residence in Edinburgh. Mr. Beach had
requested him to receive his second son under his charge,
and at the same time Mr. Gordon, of Ellon Castle, was
intrusted to his care by his guardians.
For the care of each of these young men, he received
~400, the highest sum which had been then given to
any one but Mr. Dugald Stewart. He fully justified
the trust reposed in him; he lived with them as a father and a friend: they are both still alive, and both, I
believe, retain warm feelings of love and respect for the
memory of their former Mentor; indeed, one of them
always evinced a truly filial affection toward him.
On one occasion lie was much amused by the com



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


63


plaints made by his young friends of the difficulty of
finding conversation for their partners in the two balls a
week which he allowed them during the season. "Oh,"
said he, " I'll fit you up in five minutes: I'll write you
some conversations, and -you will be considered the two
most agreeable young men in Edinburgh."  Pewi and
ink were brought, the conversations-numbers one, two,
and;three-written down amidst fits of laughter; each
youth chose his conversation; and it would be difficult
to say who was the most amused, the writer, the
speaker, or the hearer, by this novel expedient.
During his residence in Edinburgh, though without
any clerical duties of his own, my father not unfrequently preachled in the Episcopal church, then served by
Bishop Sanford; and I believe the earliest of the charity
sermons he has preached (of which there are several
verytouching ones among those which have been published) was for the Lying-in Hospital. The singular
custom which was then always observed, of delivering
these sermons at night, seems to have given occasion to
a striking passage in it.
A few months after the birth of his daughter, he went
in the summer for a short time to Burnt Island, a small
sea-bathing place at no great distance from Edinburgh,
for the recovery of my mother's health; and here, but
for his courage and firmness, he would have lost his
long-wished-for daughter, in a way he had not at all
anticipated. When only six months old she fell ill of
the croup, with such fearful violence, that it defied all
the remedies employed by the best medical man there.
The danger increased with every hour. Dr. Hamilton,
then one of the most eminent medical men in Edinburgh, was sent for, could not come, but said, "Persevere in giving two grains of calomel every hour; I
never knew it fail." It was given for eleven hours; the




64     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY- SMITH.


child grew worse and.worse; the medical man in attendance then said, "I dare give no more; I can do no
more, the child must die, but at this age I would not
venture to give more to my own child."  "You," said
my father, "can do no more; Hamilton says, Persevere; I will take the responsibility, I will give it to her
myself."  He gave it, and- the child was saved.
Another instance of his moral courage and presence
of mind occurred in after-life, when, accidentally in the
house of a near relation soon after her confinement, who
was suddenly seized by a most alarming attack, her
husband from home, a very eminent medical man who
attended her absent; all the others sent to in this moment of distress, out also. At last, a young medical
man was brought, who declared the danger to be imminent; that if the patient were a pauper, he would bleed
her instantly, sand probably save her life: he feared,
however, to interfere in a case attended by so eminent
a man, as, if he failed, he should be ruined. My father's medical knowledge confirming this opinion, he
determined to take the whole responsibility on himself,
and insisted upon its being done before he left the
house. Relief was immediate, and, by the time the
husband returned, the patient was safe.
At the end of the autumn he returned again to Edinburgh for the winter, and his time there was divided
between his pupils, the Edinburgh Review (to which he
was at that period not only contributor but editor), the
enjoyment of the choicest society that was to be found
any where out of London, and the study of medicine,
anatomy, and moral philosophy. He was a constant
attendant on the beautiful lectures of Mr. Dugald Stewart, in the University of Edinburgh, with whom he
lived in habits of almost daily communication; as also
with that remarkable man, Dr. Thomas Brown, who




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.       65
succeeded Mr. Stewart in the Professor's chair of Moral
Philosophy, from whom he imbibed a keen love of the
subjects connected with that science. Medicine and
anatomy had always been.favorite pursuits of my father's even when at Oxford, where he bestowed so much
attention on the study of the former under Sir Christopher Pegge, that-the Professor much wished him to become a physician. Feeling now that such knowledge
might be of the greatest use in his future destination,
the Church, he pursued it with the more ardor, and
attended the Clinical Lectures in the hospitals in Edinburgh, given by Dr. Gregory.
He thus' obtained a degree of knowledge that enabled
him afterward to be of the greatest service to the poor
of his parish, who entirely depended on him for assistance, and to become the favorite doctor of his own
family, who rarely summoned any other medical man
to their aid: and I have the authority of my husband,
Sir Henry Holland (who had frequent opportunities of
observing his practice, and ascertaining his knowledge
of medicine), for saying, that both his judgment and
knowledge were very remarkable, and used with the
same prudence and good sense which he exercised on
all other subiects.




CHAPTER IV.
Quits Edinburgh for London.-Settles in Doughty Street.-Makes Legal
and other Friends.-Obtains Preachership of Foundling Hospital.
-Refusal of Dr. - to enable him to lease a Chapel.-Sermon to
Volunteers.-Friendship with Lord Holland.-Introduction to Holland House.-Holland House, and Society there.-Obtains Preachership of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Square.-Gives Lectures at Royal
Institution.-Descriptions of their Effect.-Poverty.-Society at his
House, and Suppers.-Anecdote of Sir J. Mackintosh and Cousin.Elected to the Johnson Literary Club.-The King reads his Review,
and says he will never be a Bishop.-Preaches on Toleration at the
Temple Church.-Increase of Reputation and Friends.-Natural
Spirits, their Effects.-Some Anecdotes.
IN 1803, the education of Mr. Sydney Smith's pupils
being finished, and his income in consequence much reduced, it became necessary for him     to resolve upon
some course of life which might secure to him a permanent independence..
He was most reluctant to quit Edinburgh, where he
had many valuable friends and was much sought after;
and where his name would have probably continued to
procure him pupils.My mother however was more ambitious for him than
he was for himself; and feeling that he Was meant for
better and higher things, and that his talents were worthy
of a more extensive sphere, she used all her influence
to induce him to seek it where alone it was to be found.
After much deliberation he determined to yield to her
wishes, plunge at once.into London, and endeavor to
make known, where they were most likely to be appreciated, such talents as he possessed.     He therefore
broke up his camp in Edinburgh, much to his own and




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.       67
his friends' regret, and established himself in London in
the year 1804.
On his first arrival there, he took a small house in
Doughty Street, Russell Square, attracted thither by
the legal society which then resided in that part of
London, and of which he was always very fond..This resolution to settle in London turned out the
wisest he could have taken; yet, friendless as my father then was, and obnoxious to Government as he had
become by his principles and writings, and without any
obvious means of increasing his income, it was not carried through without considerable anxiety and' a severe
and courageous struggle with poverty; and, to add to
his difficulties and anxieties, soon after his arrival in
town his family was increased by the birth of his eldest
son, Douglas.
My grandmother, Mrs. Pybus, whose death had taken
place shortly before my father quitted Edinburgh, had
left my mother her own and her eldest daughter's (Lady
Fletcher's) jewels, which were of some value. My mother, feeling that such ornaments were most unbecoming
in her present position, insisted upon their being sold
as soon as they came to London, and she describes my
father's " comical anxiety lest mankind should recover
from their illusion, and cease to value such glittering
baubles before they could be sold."  The negotiation
begun with the jeweler, Sydney was not easy till it
was accomplished; and even then, she says, she does
not think he was quite easy in his mind at having helped
to continue the illusion by accepting so large a price for
them.
Of the early part of his career in London, I, of course,
know nothing, and recollect hearing but little. He early
formed the acquaintance, and obtained the friendship of
several eminent lawyers then living in that neighbor



68      MEMOIR, OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
hood. The most distinguished of these were Sir S.
Romilly, Mr. Scarlett (afterward Lord Abinger), and
Sir J. Mackintosh. To these may be added Dr. Marcet, M. Dumont, Mr. Whishaw, Lord Dudley (then Mr.
Ward), Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Luttrell,' and Mr.
Tenant-who, under the most uncouth appearance, combined such simplicity, warmth of heart, and varied
knowledge, as made him a general favorite in the little
circle, and the mysteries of whose me'nage often afforded
amusement to his friends. He lived in a small lodging,
and his establishment consisted solely of an old black
servant, who tyrannized over him in no small degree,
called Dominique. He was overheard one morning calling from his bed, "Dominique! Dominique!" but no
Dominique appeared.  "Why don't you bring me my
stockings, Dominique?" "Can't come, massa." "Why
can't you come, Dominique?"  "Can't come, massa, I
am dronke."  Mr. Tenant, who probably thought it a
law of nature that Dominique should Jbe drunk, for he
was seldom  otherwise, submitted with the greatest
meekness.
My father also became acquainted with some of the
French emigrants, of whom there were many at this
time resident in London and its neighborhood; among
these; some, from their cultivation and the refinement of
their manners, became very agreeable additions to his
society. Of these, I remember a M. Dutens,* and a
charming old Abbe, who became quite one of the family.
I can recall his pale, mild face, his thin figure, smart
shoe-buckles, cane, and snuff-box, though I forget his
name. He was bent on inventing a universal language;
and used, in his simplicity, constantly to come and consult my father, who, much amused, suggested a few
grammatical difficulties from time to time. The poor
* Author of " Memoires d'un Voyageur qui se repose."




MEMOIR' OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


69


old Abbe, out of all patience, at last exclaimed,' Oh.
non, monsieur, ce sont la.des bagatelles!  La. seule
_difficulte que je trouve c'est de faire agir tous les rois'd'Europe au meme instant."  My father admitted that
this was a slight difficulty; but we left London, or the
old Abbe left England, before he had solved it.
In the summer of 1804 the alarm occasioned by the
idea of French invasion was rapidly increasing, and
volunteers were pouring in from all ranks and classes.
One of the earliest sermons my father seems to have
been called upon to preach was on this subject, before
a large body of volunteers collected in the Metropolis;
he closes it by saying, " I have a boundless confidence
in the English character; I believe that they have more
real religion, more probity, more knowledge, and more
genuine worth, than exists in the whole world besides;
they are the guardians of pure Christianity, and from
this prostituted nation of merchants (as they are in derision called) I believe more heroes will spring up in the
hour of danger than all the military nations of ancient
and modern Europe have ever produced. Into the hands
of God, then, and his ever-merciful Son, we cast ourselves, and wait in humble patience the result. First
we ask for victory; but if that can not be, we have only
one other prayer-we implore for death."
A year or two after, he preached another sermon for
the -suffering Swiss.
About this time he made the acquaintance of Sir
Thomas Barnard, who was so much struck with his
sense and originality that he recommended him to the
preachership of the Foundling Hospital, at ~50 per annum, which employment, small as was the'remuneration, was gladly accepted. Slight as this service was,
and probably suggested more for the-benefit of the Hospital than for that of my father, I must still feel grate



'70     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITI.
ful to one who thus held out a helping hand to a clever
and friendless young man struggling with the difficulties
of the world, and eager to perform the duties of his pro*
fession; a. kindness which was the more.felt from the.
contrast it afforded to.the impediments most unexpectedly thrown. in his way about the same time by others.
A chapel,..then occupied by a sect of:Dissenters calling. themselves. the New Jerusalem, and belonging -to
Mr. D -, was most kindly offered by him on lease
to, my father, if he could obtain the necessary license
from the rector of the parish. His earnest and touching appeal to one he believed to be his friend, to grant
this,. and thus enable him to support his family and
— benefit the parish by his exertions in his profession,.
will be seen in the following letters; and with what
result, and for what reasons rejected. I mention no
names, as I wish to excite no angry' feelings, and both
men are now gone to a higher tribunal.; but I can not
refiain from' stating one of the many difficulties my
father had to contend with.
To Dr. 
" DEAR SIR,                        "'LONDON.
"I am about to address myself to you upon a sub.
ject which very materially concerns my happiness and
interest, and on which therefore I am sure you. will
consider, with as much disposition to befriend a brother
clergyman as you can entertain consistently with your
duty. Messrs. --    and Co. have agreed to let me a
lease of the chapel in -- Street;: will you, under any
restrictions, and upon any conditions, allow me to preach
there 
"In the first place, I -can- not doubt that where a
place of worship is to exist in your parish, you would




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


71


rather that the worship of the Church of England were
carried on there, than that it should belong to such
sectaries as the Christians of the New Jerusalem (as
they entitle themselves).  I should have greater reluctance in making this request if the places of worship in
your parish were thinly attended, or if they were more
than sufficient for the population. of the parish; but, on
the contrary, numbers are sent away every Sunday from
your church for want of room. Many families have in
vain waited for years to obtain seats there; and the other
chapels.of-ease I understand to be quite filled, though
they can not be said to be so overflowing. This chapel
does not hold above three hundred and fifty persons, exclusive of servants; the mere overflowings of your church
would fill it.
":It is, I admit, of great importance for you to consider whether I am, or am not, such a person as you
would:wish to perform the duties of a minister in your
parish,.:  This you can easily enough ascertain. I have
officiated nearly two years in Berkeley Chapel, where
the Primate of Ireland, the Bishop of Lichfield, and
Dr. Dutens have seats: of the two former gentlemen I
know nothing; with Dr. Dutens I am well acquainted.
If these three dignified and respectable clergymen have
any objection to make to my doctrines, I do not wish
that the request I make to you should be successful,
and I am the first to withdraw it. But if they say of
me that my preaching commands attention, that I have
any talent for enforcing moral and religious truth, and
that I may be beneficially intrusted with such an office
in any situation-such testimony, I am sure, will have
its'due weight with you, and if you can let me preach,
you will. It has often been said of the proprietors of
chapels, that they are rather apt to tell such truths as
are pleasant, than such as are useful. I appeal to the




'72     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
same gentlemen, whether the fear of offending any one,
let his rank and situation be what it may, has ever prevented me from enforcing duties on which I thought myself bound to animadvert;,and you will excuse me if I
say that you yourself, who have nothing to gain by pleasing or to lose by offending, have not attacked the vices
of the rich and the great with more honest freedom than
I have done, though your superior years, station, and
understanding have of course enabled you to do it with
much greater effect.
"My pretensions, however, of this nature must of
course be judged by others. But of my situation in
life (as I am the only judge of it) I hope you will allow me to say a few words. I am a married man,
with two children, and as I am young my family'may
increase; I have a very small fortune, no preferment,
nor any friends who are likely to give me any.- The
chapel where I preach at present will, I fancy, soon be
sold; and it is not impossible that the clergyman who
can afford to purchase it may choose to preach'himself. It is not for want of exertion my situation in the
Church' is not better, for I have not been idle in the
narrow and obscure field which is open to the inferior
clergy. I hope you will have the kindness to consider
these circumstances, before you refuse me the opportunity of supporting my family and bettering my situation
by my own exertions.'A:few years ago, my dear Sir, when your situation
was what mine is, such considerations would' have
touched you, and you would have acknowledged their
force.  You know well the difficulties and the miseries of a curate's life;'and I am sure you are the last
man in the world to forget them, merely because you
have overcome them' with so much honor and distinction. I am aware it will be necessary to apply'to the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH...     73
patron of the living if your answer should be favorable
to me, but I fancy it is regular to make the first application to you; and I rather write than call upon you,
because I think it unfair, on such subjects, to take gentlemen by surprise, where sufficient leisure ought to be
given for deliberation. In a week's time I will call
upon you for an answer: if you grant my request, I
shall feel very grateful to you. I shall receive your
answer with great anxiety, and am,
"My dear Sir, with great respect,
"Your obedient servant,
"SYDNEY SMITH."
From the Rev. Sydney Smith to -Dr. —.
"DEAR SIR,
"If I do not hear from you to the contrary, I will
call upon you after morning service on Sunday.  I
forgot to mention in my letter to you, that -Mr. Barnard* gave me leave to make any use I please of his
name in the way of reference. I beg you to recollect
that the question before you for your decision, is a choice
between fanaticism and the worship of the Church of
England in your parish; one or the other must exist.
If I doubted of any of the doctrines of the Church of
England, if I were possessed of any foolish and absurd
tenets of my own, I should be immediately qualified by
law to open the chapel: I hope you will not disqualify
me merely because I am a firm and zealous advocate in
the same cause with yourself, for this would be to give
a bounty on dissent and heresy. It would be a very
different question if I asked you to let me open a new
place of worship; but I merely ask you to change that
worship from the present method, which you completely
* Afterward Sir T. Barnard.
VOL. I.-D




'74     MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


disapprove, to that which you completely approve and
eminently practice.
"Excuse the trouble. I give you; but when a poor
clergyman sees an honest and respectable method of improving his situation in life, you can not wonder at his
anxiety. You will make me a very happy man, if you
consent to my request.
"With great respect, etc. etc.,
SYDNEY.SMITH."
Dr. —'s first answer is not given, as Mr. Smith's
next letter states its contents.
From the Rev. Sydney Smith to Dr. —.
"DEAR SIR,
" The principal objection, which your letter contained
against the permission I requested, is the reluctance you
state yourself to feel to imposing an obligation on your
successors. Would you then object to give me leave to
preach during your life, leaving it entirely open, by such
limited concession, to those who succeed you, to continue or suspend the permission? Let me place myself
entirely out of the question, and put the argument to
you: If any new person whom you may allow to preach
in your parish, is a man very little calculated for such
an office, it is not probable that people will quit the Established places of worship to resort to him; if he is, it
is probable he will draw many to church, who would
not otherwise go, and that the mass of people who attend public worship in that parish will be materially increased; which, I presume, is a consequence that every
parish minister sincerely wishes for, and would make
some' effort to obtain. I beg you to reflect, as I said in
my last note (which crossed your letter), that I am not




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


76


asking you to let me open a place of worship in your
parish-it is already open-but I ask you to let me
change the absurd and disgraceful devotion which is goin'g on there at present (and will go on there still), for
the devotion of the Church of England. I ask you to
give me the preference over a low and contemptible fanatic; and will you allow me, without the slightest intention of offending you; to lay before you the seeming
inconsistency of your answer?
"You say,'I allow you have considerable talents for
preaching, I know you have been well educated, I am
sure you will be of great use, but I give a decided preference over you to a very foolish and a very ignorant
Methodist, whose extravagance is debauching the minds
of the lower class of my parishioners, and whom I should
be heartily glad to see driven out of my parish.' Excuse
my freedom, but such- are -inevitably to be the consequences deduced from your answer. 
"I appeal to you again, whether any thing can be so
enormous and unjust, as that that privilege should be
denied to the ministers of the Church of England which
every man who has folly and presumption enough to
differ from-it can immediately enjoy? I hope you will
give these observations some consideration, and, as soon
as you have, return me your answer upon them.'  -You- observe that what I ask is unnecessary,: and
that it is an innovation; but I sincerely hope you would
not refise me so great an advantage, unless it was pernicious as well as unnecessary; and that if the plan I
suggest is an improvement, you will: not reject it merely
because it is an innovation.
"I thank you very kindly for all the good you say
of me: I will endeavor to deserve it.
"I am, my dear Sir, truly yours,
-SYDNEY SMITH."




76      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


From Dr.      to the Rev. Sydney Smith.
C DEAR SIR,
"I was in hopes I had so expressed myself in my
letter of Wednesday, that you would have immediately
seen my unwillingness to admit the arrangement you
propose respecting this chapel; although at the same
time I am sorry to be an obstacle in the way of your
interest, I can only add, that the expediency of the
measure having been considered by my predecessors, I
mean to abide by their decision. I hope never to be offended, Sir, at the freedom of any who are so kind as to
teach me to know myself; and the inconsistency of my
letter to you, which you are so good as to point out, is,
alas! an addition to the many inconsistencies of which
I fear I have been too often guilty through life.
"You will, I dare say, be glad to hear that there exists a hope that, ere long, the dissenters from the Establishment will not enjoy greater privileges than the ministers of the Establishment themselves.
"I have the honor to be,
"Dear Sir,
"Your obliged servant,
Thus, in spite of his most earnest endeavors to obtain
employment, he remained poor for many years; indeed
it has often been an enigma to me how, in these early
days, my father contrived to meet the necessary expenses of settling in London; but I have lately discovered, from an old memorandum, that during this early
period his eldest brother Robert kindly contributed
~100 per annum for a few years; and that in 1809,
when all the expenses of his removal into Yorkshire
took. place, he lent my father about ~500; an assist



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


77


ance which must have been of the greatest importance
to him at this particular time.
I believe he had not been long in London before he
became known, and his society sought after in various
quarters.  One of the earliest friendships he formed
on coming there was that of Lord Holland, whose acquaintance he had previously made when on a visit to
his eldest brother Robert, at college; and the subsequent marriage of this brother with Miss Vernon, Lord
Holland's aunt, perhaps the more inclined Lord Holland to cultivate one with whose merits he was then but
slightly acquainted.
I have often heard my father speak of his first introduction to Holland House-the most formidable ordeal, considering the talents of its host and hostess and
the society always to be found there, that a young and
obscure man could well go through. He was shy too
then; but I believe, in spite of the shyness, they soon
discovered and acknowledged his merits, and deemed him
no unmeet company for their world-and what a world
it was!
I can hardly write of my father, and not pause a
moment to speak of that society of which he afterward
so frequently formed a part, and to which he was bound
through life by every tie of social enjoyment, gratitude,
and friendship. The world has rarely seen, and will rarely, if ever, see again, all that was to be found within the
walls-of Holland House. Genius and merit, in whatever
rank of life, became a passport there, and all that was
choicest and rarest in Europe seemed attracted to that
spot as to their natural soil.
Then the house itself-a beautiful specimen of the
olden times; with its ancient banqueting-hall, recalling
traditions of past grandeur; and its, noble library, full
of the wisdom of ages, and hung round with the por



'i8     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
traits of those who so often animated it with their presence, ought not to be forgotten.
How melancholy to feel that so many of those who,
together with their much-loved host, acted so great a part
in our own times, and have left names that will live long
after them, are now gone!
My father found in Lord Holland one able and willing
to appreciate him, and whose society it was impossible
to enjoy without loving as well as admiring him; and
they formed together one of those true friendships, so rare
in human life, "which, like the shadows of evening, increase even till the setting of the sun." I do not of course
presume to speak of Lord Holland but in reference to the
charm of his intercourse with my father, which I had
such frequent opportunities of witnessing; and it always
seemed to me on such occasions that there never were
two men who, from the constitution of their minds, were
more calculated to enjoy and understand each other's
character than Lord Holland and Sydney Smith. The
same intense love of public liberty and public happiness, the same exquisite enjoyment of wit and humor,
the same clearness and conciseness of understanding,
with great constitutional gayety of spirits, made their
conversation more charming to listen to than it is well
possible to conceive without having done so, and evidently productive of the purest enjoyment to themselves.
It was short, varied, interspersed with wit, illustration,
and anecdote on both sides; in short, it was the perfection of social intercourse, a sort of mental dram-drinking, rare as it was delightful.
From  the opportunities thus afforded my father of
meeting at Holland House all the best Whiig society,
his acquaintance in London increased rapidly; and as
he became generally known there, his company was eagerly sought for.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


79


Meantime his reputation was spreading in other and
better ways than by the powers of his conversation
alone. His negotiation to obtain a license from  the
clergyman of the parish, to preach in the chapel then
occupied by the sect of the New Jerusalem, failed, as
we have seen; but in addition to the evening preachership of the Foundling Hospital, he had for two years, at
the request of Mr. Bowerbank, the proprietor of Berkeley Chapel, in John Street, Berkeley Square, officiated
as the morning preacher there.  The chapel had been
so deserted (though the position was very advantageous),
that Mr. Bowerbank had been for some time endeavoring to dispose of it. In a few weeks after my father
accepted it, not a seat was to be had: gentlemen and
ladies frequently stood in the aisles throughout the
whole service. All idea was then given up of disposing
of it by the proprietor; and till my father left London,
in 1809, he continued morning preacher there, alternately with Fitzroy Chapel.  The concise, bold raciness of his style was singularly calculated to stir up.a
lazy London congregation, accustomed to slumber over
their weekly sermon; and the earnestness of his manner, I have reason to believe, caused many to think who
never thought before.*  Of the effect his preaching produced at different periods of his life I have the most
flattering evidence. When such a man as Mr. Dugald
Stewart exclaimed, after hearing him preach, " Those
original and unexpected ideas gave me a thrilling sensation of sublimity never before awakened by any other
oratory;" when his virtuous friend Horner expresses
his admiration of his eloquence, and of the effect it produced on his congregation; when the Bishop of Nor* My father had the satisfaction more than once of receiving letters
of gratitude, assuring him that his preaching had not been in vain, and
had stopped the writer in a course of guilt and dissipation.




80      MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
wich writes, on hearing him in the country, "He plainly
showed he felt what he said, and meant that others
should feel too;" when another very distinguished writer, on reading his sermons, says, "I opened on the Sermon on Toleration, and could not lay it down; the
wisdom, truth, and beauty of it,'and the true Christian
spirit shining through every sentence, and illuminating the whole piece as with a celestial light, perfectly
enchanted me: as he was one of the wisest of men,
so I am sure he was one of the best;" when one as
true as he is distinguished in his profession reminded me the other day how he had both seen and heard
my father's emotion in the pulpit; when such testimony is given by such men, united to that of many
others which will appear in the course of the narrative,
we are surely justified in affirming that, though originally entering into the Church reluctantly, yet having
done so, he devoted all the powers of his heart and
mind to the profession to which he had before devoted
his life.
In addition to his fame as a clergyman, he obtained
considerable increase of reputation by a course of lectures on Moral Philosophy, which Sir Thomas Barnard,
who interested himself much about the Royal Institution, proposed to him to give; and which, though
my father speaks of them as without merit in one of
his letters to his friend Dr. Whewell, afford, as I am
told, the strongest evidence of the clearness of his intellect and the justness of his opinions. They gained
so much at the time from the charm of his voice and
manner of delivery, that the sensation they created in
London is perhaps unexampled.
"You would be amused," says his friend Mr. Horner, in his Letters, "to hear the account he gives of
his own qualifications for the task, and his mode'of,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


81


manufacturing philosophy; he will do the thing very
cleverly, I have little doubt."*
"I was," says Mrs. Marcet, "a perfect enthusiast
during the delivery of those lectures.     They remain,
but he who gave a very soul to them     by his inimitable
manner is gone!     He who at one moment inspired his
hearers with such awe and reverence by the solemn piety
of his manner, that his discourse seemed converted into
a sermon, at others, by the brilliancy of his wit, made
us die of laughing.    The impression made on me by
these lectures, though so long ago, is still sufficiently
strong to recall his manner in many of the most striking
passages."
"I was -present at the lectures forty years ago,"
says the late Sir Robert Peel, "and was a very young
man at the time; but I have not forgotten the effect
which was given to the speech of Logan, the Indian
Chief, by the tone and spirit in which it was recited."'.. "I do not find," he adds, "some verses I recollect to have been quoted by Mr. Sydney Smith, to which
equal effect was given."
These verses alluded to were a beautiful little song
of Mrs. Opie's, "Go, youth beloved, in distant glades:"'
and she gives an amusing account, in a letter to my
mother, of my father suddenly telling her, as she met
-him  at the entrance of the lecture-room, that he was
going to quote it.   She describes the struggle between
her timidity and her vanity, whlether she should enter;
* An eye-witness says: "All Albemarle Street, and a part of Graf-ton Street, were rendered impassable by the concourse of carriages
assembled there during the time of their delivery. There was not sufficient room for the persons assembling: the lobbies were filled, and
the doors into them from the lecture-room were left open; the steps
leading into its area were all occupied; many persons, to obtain seats,
came an hour before the time. The next year galleries were erected,
which had never before been required, and the success was complete.
He continued to lecture there for three consecutive years."




82     -MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY' SMITH.
and the new light in which both she and her poem
seemed to shine in the eyes of her friends, after this
notice of its beauty in his lecture.
Mr. Horner, in his Life, speaks of these Lectures,
calling my father by the noma de guerre he had in their
circle, of the Bishop of Mickleham-the name of his
friend Mfr. Sharpe's cottage in Surrey, where they often
assembled.
"His Lordship's success has been beyond all possible
conjecture-from six to eight hundred hearers, not a seat
to be procured, even if you go there an hour before the
time. Nobody else, to be sure, could have executed
such an undertaking with the least chance of success.
For who could make such a mixture of odd paradox,
quaint fun, manly sense, liberal opinions, and striking
language?"
They have, since my father's death, thanks to my
mother (who luckily preserved a considerable portion
of them from the flames, to which he had as usual condemned them), been given to the public, which has confirmed this opinion of his friend Horner. Lord Jeffrey,
to whom they were submitted in manuscript, had at first
dissuaded their publication; but, on receiving a printed
copy, with his usual candor and sweetness of disposition, he wrote to my mother, only three days before the
fatal illness which terminated his noble life, the following letter:
" I am now satisfied that, in what I then said, I did
great and grievous injustice to the merit of these lectures, and was quite wrong in dissuading their publication, or concluding they would add nothing to the
reputation of the author; on the contrary, my firm impression is, that, with few exceptions, they will do him
as much credit as any thing he ever wrote, and produce
on the whole a stronger impression of the force and vi



-MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITIH.


83


vacity of his intellect, as well as a truer and more engaging view of his character, than most of what the
world has yet seen of his writings."
The following lines have been kindly sent me by Miss
Berry's executor, Sir Frankland Lewis, as found among
her papers; and as Miss Berry, from her talents, beauty,
high character, her friendship with Horace Walpole, her
ninety years of life (thus, as it were, connecting two
centuries), and the distinguished society always to be
found in her house, almost belongs to history, she gives
to these lines a value independent of their intrinsic merits:
ODE BY MISS BERRY
ON BUYING A NEW BONNET TO GO TO ONE OF MR. SYDNEY SMITH'S
LECTURES-" ON THE SUBLIME."
Lo! where the gayly-vestured throng,
Fair Learning's train, are seen,
Wedged in close ranks her walls along,
And up her benches green!
Unfolded to their mental eye
Thy awful form, Sublimity,
The moral teacher shows;
Sublimity! of silence born,
And solitude,'mid "caves forlorn,"
And dimly vision'd woes,
Or steadfast worth that, inly great,
Mocks the malignity of fate.
Whisper'd Pleasure's dulcet sound
Murmurs the crowded room around,
And Wisdom, borne on Fashion's pinion,
Exulting hails her new dominion.
Oh! both on me your influence shed;
Dwell in my heart, and deck my head!
Where'er a broader, browner shade
The shaggy beaver throws,
And with the ample feather's aid,
O'er-canopies the nose;
Where'er, with smooth and silken pile,
Lingering in solemn pause awhile,
The crimson velvet glows;




84       RMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
From some high bench's giddy brink,
With me, my friend begins to think,
As bolt upright we sit,
That dress, like dogs, should have its day,
That beavers are too hot for May,
And velvets quite unfit.
Then Taste, in maxims sweet, I draw
From her unerring lip"How light! how simple are the straw!
How delicate the chip!"
Hush'd is the speaker's powerful voice,
The audience melt away;
I fly to fix my final choice,
And bless the instructive day.
The milliner officious pours
Of hats and caps her ready stores,
The unbought elegance of spring;
Some, wide, disclose the full round: face,
Some, shadowy; lend a modest grace,
And stretch their sheltering wing.
Here clustering grapes appear to shed
Their luscious juices on the head,
And cheat the longing eye:
So round the Phrygian monarch hung
Fair fruits, that from his parched tongue
Forever seemed to fly.
Here early blooms the summer rose,
Here ribbons wreathe fantastic bows;
There plays gay plumage of a thousand dyesVisions of beauty, spare my aching eyes!
Ye cumbrous fashions, crowd not on my head!
Mine be the chip of purest white,
Swan-like, and as her feathers light
When on the still wave spread;
And let it wear the graceful dress
Of unadorned simpleness!
Ah, frugal wish! Ah, pleasing thought!
Ah, hope indulged in vain!
Of modest fancy cheaply bought,
A stranger yet to Payne!
With undissembled grief I tell
(For sorrow never comes.too late),
The simplest bonnet- in Pall Mall
Is sold for one pound eight.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


85


To calculation's sober view,
That searches every plan,
Who keep the old, or buy the new,
Shall end where they began.
Alike the shabby and the gay
Must meet the sun's meridian ray,
The air-the dust-the damp:
This, shall the sudden shower despoil,
That, slow decay by gradual soil,
Those, envious boxes cramp.
Who will, their squander'd gold may' pay,
Who will, our taste deride;
We'll scorn the fashion df the day
With philosophic'pride.
Methinks we thus, in accents low,
Might Sydney Smith address:
"Poor moralist! and what art thou,
Who never spoke of dress?
Thy mental hero never hungSuspended on a-tailor's tongue,
In agonizing doubt!
Thy tale no' fluttering female show'd,
Who languish'd for the newest mode,
Yet dares to live without!"
proceeds of these lectures-for which, after the
first series, he was allowed to name his own terms-'enabled him to furnish his new house in Orchard Street,
where he continued to live during the remainder of his
residence in London, and where two more children were
born to him; a son who died in infancy, and his youngest daughter, Emily.
In this house, though from    the various sources mentioned his means were slightly increased, yet he still
remained poor.     But it was poverty in its most pleasing form; not that struggle with wealth, not that false
shame, the outward show, the constant seeming, which
we so often witness in the world, and which is the real
sting of poverty; but the poverty of a man of sense who
respected himself.




86     MEMOIR' OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


All was consistent about him: the comfort and happiness of home he considered the "grammar of life;"
and his house, though plain, often in every sense of the
word, was all his life the perfection of comfort. Considering domestic comfort so important, he thought no
trouble too great, no detail too small, to merit his attention; and, though brought up in wealth and luxury,
affection soon taught his wife to second him. He never
affected to be what he was not; he never concealed the
thought, labor, and struggle it often was to him to obtain the simple comforts of life for those he loved; as
to its luxuries, he exercised the most rigid self-denial.
His favorite motto, which through life he inculcated on
his family, on such matters was, "Avoid shame, but
do not seek glory-nothing so expensive as glory;"
and this he applied to every detail of his establishment. Nothing could be plainer than. his table, yet his
society often attracted the wealthy to share his single
dish.
But the pleasantest society at his house was to be
found in the little suppers which he established once a
week; giving a -general invitation to about twenty or
thirty persons, who used to come as they pleased; and'
occasionally adding to, and varying them by accidental
and invited guests. At these suppers there was no attempt at display, nothing to tempt the palate; but they
were most eagerly sought after; and were I to begin
enumerating the guests usually to be found there, no
one would wonder that they were so. There are still a
few living who can look back to them, and I have always found them do so with a sigh of regret. There
was no restraint but that of good taste-no formalitya happy mixture of men and women-the foolish and
the wise-the grave and the gay-and sometimes conversation was varied by music. I see it stated in the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


Life of Sir James Mackintosh, that a great part of this
choice little society used to meet likewise every week
at Sir James's house; and one present- says, "These
social meetings left so delightful an impression on the
minds of all those who composed them, that many plans
were formed, even some years after, to renew them on
Sir James's return to England; but, alas! no pleasure
is renewed."
To these suppers occasionally came a country cousin
of my father's-a simple, warm-hearted rustic; and she
used to come up to him and whisper, "Now, Sydney,
I know these are all very remarkable men; do tell me
who they are."  "Oh, yes," said Sydney, laughing;'"that is Hannibal," pointing to Mr. Whishaw; "he
lost his leg in the Carthaginian War; and that is Socrates," pointing to Luttrell; "and that is Solon," pointing to Horner-" you have heard of Solon?"  The girl
opened her ears, eyes, and mouth with admiration, half
doubting, half believing that Sydney was making fun
of her; but perfectly convinced that if they were. not
the individuals in question, they were something quite
as great.
It was on occasion of one of these suppers that Sir
James Mackintosh happened to bring with him a raw
Scotch cousin, an ensign in a Highland regiment. On
hearing the name of his host he suddenly turned round,
and, nudging Sir James, said in an audible whisper,
"Is that the great Sir Sudney?"  "Yes, yes," said
Sir James, much amused; and giving my father the
hint, on the instant he assumed the military character,
performed the part of the hero of Acre to perfection,
fought all his battles over again, and showed how he
had charged the Turks, to the infinite delight of the
young Scotchman, who was quite enchanted with the
kindness and condescension of "the great Sir Sudney,"




88      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
as lie called him, and to the absolute torture of the
other guests, who were bursting with suppressed laughter at the scene before them. At last, after an evening
of the most inimitable acting on the part both of my
father and. Sir James, nothing would serve the young
Highlander but setting off, at twelve o'clock at night,
to fetch the piper of his regiment to pipe to "the great
Sir Sudney," who said he had never heard the bagpipes,
upon which the whole party broke up and dispersed instantly, for Sir James said his Scotch cousin: would
infallibly cut his throat if he discovered his mistake. A
few days afterward; when Sir James: Miackintosh and
his Scotch cousin werewalking in the streets, they met
my father withmy mother on his arm. He introduced
her as his wife, upon which the Scotch cousin said in a
low voice to Sir James, and looking at my mother, " I
did na ken the great Sir Sudney was married." "Why,
no," said Sir James, a little embarrassed and winking
at him,::'not.ex-act-ly married-only an Egyptian slave
he brought over with him; Fatima —you know-you
understand." My mother was long known in the little
circle as Fatima.
By this time many of his Scotch friends had likewise
come to England, which offered a wider field for the exercise of their talents-Horner, Lord Webb Seymour,
Mr. Brougham, and others, with whom he lived on terms
of the greatest intimacy, and who contributed much to
the charm of his little suppers.
He. was very early elected a member of a very agreeable dining club, calling itself by the modest title of
The King of Clubs, which he often alludes to with
pleasure in his letters; but it was not till the year
1838 that he was admitted into that very remarkable
literary Club established by Dr. Johnson and his friends,
and calling itself The Club, of which Dr. Johnson says,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


89


"There is no club like our club."  On its books maybe seen the names, not only of Johnson, Goldsmith,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Burke, Gibbon, etc.; but a list
of all the most eminent men that. England has produced in every class and rank of society since its foundation. Mr. Van de Weyer, the Belgian Minister, is,
I believe, the only foreigner that has ever been admitted since its first establishment; and, as was observed to him by a distinguished member of the Club,
on being so admitted, he has received the highest title
of naturalization that it is in the power of this country
to bestow.
My father was now, with many of his early friends,
contributing largely to the Edinburgh Review; and as
his powers and principles became more known, he of
course became more and more obnoxious to the party in
power, and was the object of much abuse and much misrepresentation. One of the earliest recollections I have,
is that of being stopped at our door, when returning
from my walk, by Mr.. —, and desired to tell my
father that the King had been reading his reviews, and
said, " He was a very clever fellow, but that he would
never be a bishop." He felt this abuse and misrepresentation-; and the hopelessness of his situation, where,
in his profession, no merit or exertion of his own could
advance him a single step, and where his only alternative was poverty or baseness; but he seldom allowed
it to depress him; for he thought, with his sensible
friend Sharpe, "if you can not be happy in one way,
be happy in another. Many-in this world -run after
felicity like an absent man hunting for his hat, while all
the time it is on his head or in his hand." And he used
to say, "One must look downward as well as upward in
human life. Though many have passed you in the race,
there are many you have left behind. Better a dinner




90      MEMOIR OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH,
ef herbs, and a pure conscience, than the stalled ox and
infamy, is my version."
An anecdote has lately reached me from a very early
friend. which is an epitome of what I have observed of
my father through life, and has quite delighted methat having once made up his mind as to what he ought
to do, he did it, be the consequences what they might
to himself.  It was on this principle he entered the
Church, on this he acted in it, and on every important
occasion of private life.  He was going to preach at
the Foundling Hospital, and had selected a sermon containing a strong attack upon opinions which he thought
were rapidly increasing, and producing most injurious.effects on religion.  My mother saw and knew the
sermon, and exclaimed, "Oh, Sydney, do change that
sermon; I know it will give such offense to our friends
the F —-s, should they be there this evening." "I fear
it will," said my father, "and am sorry for it; but,
Kate, do you think, if I feel it my duty to preach
such a sermon at all,. that I can refrain from doing so
from the fear of giving offense?"  The sermon was
preached, the offense was given, and he felt the loss
of his friends deeply, for he loved and valued those he
offended. Time however produced its usual effects on
really good men: my father lived to regain their friendship, and I have reason to believe there are few who love
or honor his memory more than the only survivor now
left.
In the year 1807 he preached a sermon on Toleration, in the Temple Church, and was requested
to- publish it.  He did so, and added the. following
preface:
"This sermon is not published from a' belief that it
has any merit in composition, or any claim to originality




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


91


of thinking, but to bear my share of testimony against a
religious clamor, which is very foolish in all those in
whom it is notvery wicked.
"I am sorry to write what I know it has been extremely disagreeable to many of those before whom I
am in the habit of preaching to hear, but I should be
infinitely more sorry that this or any other apprehension should prevent me from doing what I believe to
be my duty.
"Charity toward those who dissent fiom us on religious. opinions is always a proper subject for the pulpit. If such discussions militate against the views of
any particular party, the fault is not in him who is
thus erroneously said to introduce politics into the
Church, but in those who have really brought the
Church into politics. It does not cease to be our duty
to guard men against religious animosities, because it
suits the purpose of others to inflame them; nor are
we to consider the great question of religious toleration as a theme fit only for the factions of Parliament,
because intolerance has lately been made the road to
power. It is no part of the duty of a clergyman to,
preach upon subjects purely political, but it is not therefore his duty to avoid religious subjects which have been
distorted into political subjects, especially when the consequence of that distortion is a general state of error and
of passion."
Meantime he had the satisfaction of feeling that he
was not leading a useless life. He writes: "It pleases
me sometimes to think of the very great number of
important subjects which have been discussed in the
Edinburgh Review in so enlightened a manner; it is
a' sort of magazine of liberal sentiments, which I hope
will be read by the rising generation, and infuse into




92      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


them a proper contempt for their parents' stupid and
unphilosophical prejudices."  He had also the consolation, as his character displayed itself, of obtaining what
he said was the one "earthly good worth struggling for,
the love and esteem of many good and great men."
Among these, the two most intimately associated with
his career in after-life were Lord Grey and Lord Carlisle
(then Lord Morpeth). To the constant affection and
unvarying kindness of Lord Holland and these two
friends, he was indebted for most of the pleasures that
were shed upon a path which, to any man of less energy
of character and buoyancy of spirits, would have been
for many years avery dark and dreary one. But there
was within himself a natural source of happiness-a
perpetual flow of spirits —a cheerfulness of disposition,
for which he often thanked C(ol, as one of the greatest
benefits conferred upon him.
At this period of his life, indeed, his spirits were often
such that they were more like the joyousness and playfulness of a clever school-boy than the sobriety and gravity of the father of a family; and his gayety was so irresistible and so infectious, that it carried every thing before it. Nothing could withstand the contagion of that
ringing, joy-inspiring laugh, which seemed to spring
from the fresh, genuine enjoyment he felt at the multitude of unexpected images which sprang up in his mind,
and succeeded each other with a rapidity that hardly allowed his hearers to follow him, but left them panting
and exhausted with laughter, to cry out for mercy.
An amusing instance of this occurred once, when he
met that Queen of Tragedy, MIrs. Siddons, for the first
time.  She seemed determined to resist him, and preserve her tragic dignity; but after a vain struggle
yielded to the general infection, and flung herself back
in her chair, in such a fearful paroxysm of laughter, and




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


93


of such long continuance, that it made quite a scene,
and all the company were alarmed.
He contrived to make the most commonplace subjects
amusing, and carried every body along with him, in his
wildest flights of drollery. One evening, the subject of
conversation was the meteorological turn of mind of the
English nation.  "What would become of us had it
pleased. Providence to make the weather unchangeable?
Think of the state of destitution of the morning callers.
Now, I will give you a specimen of their conversation:
Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Jones, two respectable ancient
females, shall be calling upon Mrs. Green, and Mrs.
Brown shall join their party, and return by moonlight;
Mrs. Brown shall catch cold and expire in the arms of
her friend, calling for peppermint water, and exclaiming,'The moon! the moon!'"    And taking up his pen,
partly from the comical delight he had in what he was
doing, partly from the exquisite commonplaces he strung
together, and the faithful picture he drew of a morning
visit in England, he kept us all in such roars of laughter, and he laughed so heartily himself as he wrote, that
we all went quite exhausted to bed; the very recollection of that scene, even at this distance of time, makes
me laugh again as I write.
Another day he came home, with two hackney-coach
loads of pictures, which he had met with at an auction;
having found it impossible to resist so many yards of
brown-looking figures and faded landscapes going "for
absolutely nothing-unheard of sacrifices."  Kate hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry, when she saw these
horribly dingy objects enter her pretty little drawingroom, and looked at him as if she thought him half mad;
and half mad he was, but with delight at his purchase.
He kept walking up and down the room, waving his
arms, putting them in fresh lights, declaring they were




94      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
exquisite specimens of art, and, if not by the very best
masters, merited to be so.
He invited all his friends, displayed them at his suppers, insisted upon their being looked at and admired in
every point of view, discovered fresh beauties for each
new comer; and, for three or four days, under the magic
influence of his wit and imagination, these gloomy old
pictures were a perpetual source of amusement and fun.
At last, finding he was considered no authority in the
fine arts, and that his pictures made no progress in public opinion, off they went, to my mother's great relief, as
suddenly as they came, to another auction; but all rechristened first by himself, amidst his laughing friends,
with names never before heard of. One, I remember,
was " a beautiful landscape, by Nicholas de Falda, a
pupil of Valdeggio, the only painting by that eminent
artist." The pictures sold, I believe, for rather less than
he gave for them under their original names, which were
probably as real as their assumed ones.
On another occasion he took it into his head to make
a crusade against an unfortunate Mrs. Dumplin, who
was filled with tile ambition of giving a rout. He found
every body going away from his house, and all to Mrs.
Pumplin's rout; upon which he reasoned, he laughed,
he persuaded, he quizzed, he entreated, he painted and
described in such glowing colors the horrors of a Dumplin rout-the heat, the crowd, the bad'lemonade, the
ignominy of appearing next day in the " Morning Post"
-that at last, with one accord, all turned back, finding
it impossible to leave him. He shouted victory, and
Mrs. Dumplin was heard of no more. Yet in the midst
of all this wild mirth and genuine enjoyment of youth
and health, a pretty domestic trait occurs to my mind,
which, from such a man, then the idol of the London
world, deserves to be told. One of his little children,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.      95
then in delicate health, had for some time been in the
habit of waking suddenly every evening; sobbing, anticipating the death of parents, and all the sorrows of
life, almost before life had begun. ~He could not bear
this unnatural union of childhood and sorrow, and for a
long period, I have heard my mother say, each evening
found him, at the waking of his child, with a toy, a picture-book, a bunch of grapes, or. ajoyous tale, mixed
with a little strengthening advice and the tenderest caresses, till the habit was broken, and the child woke to
joy and not to sorrow. 
These are some of the little nothings which he had
the art to turn into somethings, but which, I fear, resume their original insignificance under my pen; for I
feel it impossible to give to them the life and raciness
they had in reality, and which constituted their chief
charm.




CHAPTER V.
1806. Political Changes.-Obtains Preferment.-1807. Goes to Sunning in the Autumn.-Writes Peter Plymley.-Its Effect.-Makes
the Acquaintance of Lord Stowell.-Revisits Edinburgh.-Goes to
Howick.-No House on the Living.-Non-residence permitted.The Residence Bill passed.-Goes down to see the Living.-Difficulties.-Returns to London.-Publishes Sermons.-Removes Family
to Yorkshire.-Tries to negotiate Exchange of Living.-Difficulties
of Exchange.-Necessity of Building.-Settles at Heslington.
IN 1806 those political changes took place which so
unexpectedly, and for so short a period, brought the
Whigs into power.
To one who, as he says, "had lived so long on the
north side of the wall, this ray of sunshine was very
cheering, and gave some hopes that he who had so well
and so honestly fought the good fight, would now have
some opportunity afforded him of exerting himself in
his profession." But as he had no connections and
little political interest, I do not know what might have
been the result, had it not been for the indefatigable
exertions of his friends at Holland House, who never
rested till they saw justice done to him, and had obtained from the Chancellor, Lord Erskine, the living of
Foston-le-Clay, in Yorkshire, for him.
For this he always felt that he owed Lord and Lady
Holland a deep debt of gratitude; as, in addition to the
immediate increase of his income, being a permanent
provision, it gave him the first feeling of independence
and security that he had enjoyed after a life of anxiety
and uncertainty. An old friend of my father's told me




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


97


the other day, "I was present at Bishopthorpe when
your father first came down to be inducted to the living
of Foston (now nearly fifty years ago), under the reign
of old Archbishop Markham; I was then so young as
to be placed at the side-table in that large dining-room;
but I well remember the unwonted animation and the
brilliant'conversation that constantly attracted all our
attention to the great table, and which we were told
proceeded from a young clergyman of the name of Sydney Smith, just come down to take possession of a
living in Yorkshire. When he went away, the old
Archbishop, I could see, though struck with his extraordinary abilities, did not half like, or understand, how
one of the inferior clergy should be so much in possession of his faculties in the presence of his diocesan. On
my return home the next day I found my family in a
state of great excitement. They had just, they said,
had a long visit from the nlost delightful- person they
had ever met, a Mr. S. Smith, who had brought letters
of introduction from Lord Abinger, then Mr. Scarlett,
saying that the bearer;was one of the most distinguished
young men then in London, and congratulating my
mother on the probability of having such a man established in her neighborhood-a piece of good fortune
which, when it did happen shortly after, she fully appreciated, and was not inclined to neglect. From this
time we saw more and more of him; and though I have
enjoyed now all that is best in life, I think if I were to
select the day of my life that has left the most agreeable
impression on my mind, it would be a long summer
afternoon we all spent with your father at Heslington.
We walked over with Lord      and several of the
lawyers of the Northern Circuit, and found a Mrs.
Hamilton in the house, who h.ad just come from Edinburgh. The weather was lovely, every thing looked
VOL. I. —E




98      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
bright, your father and Lord —  were in the highest
spirits; the conversation turned on Edinburgh, the
mode of life there, the remarkable men it contained or
had produced; it was most brilliant and interestingthe first taste I had had of what I must still think the
perfection of society. After dinner we all walked back
by moonlight.' I have never forgot that day; I think
it was one of the happiest of my life, and this has not
been an unhappy one, as you know.'"
In the summer of 1807 he took his family for a short
time to a little cottage in the village of Sunning, near
Reading, to give them their first taste of the country;
and even now I recollect with delight "each rural sight,
each rural sound"-this first breath of air, free from
carpet-shakings, that we had inhaled.
I believe it was about this period that a letter from
Peter Plymley to his brother Abraham, on the subject
of the Irish Catholics, appeared suddenly in the London
world. Its effect, I have been told, was like a spark
on a heap of gunpowder. It was instantly dispersed
all over London, was to be found on every table, spread
in every direction over the country, and was the topic
of general conversation and conjecture. It was quickly
followed by another and another; each fresh letter increased the eagerness and curiosity of the public. Every
effort was made on the part of the existing Government
to find out the author-in vain: the secret was well
kept. It is true, strong suspicion pointed toward the
little village in which my father then was, and a few of
those best acquainted with his style felt convinced there
was but one man-in England who could so write-who
could make the most irresistible wit and pleasantry the
vehicle of the soundest and most unanswerable argument; but no proof could be obtained. The editions
were bought up as fast as they could be printed, and I




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


99


am afraid from memory to state the numbers that were
sold.
At the request of the Catholics, cheaper editions were
made for dispersion in Ireland; and few works, I have
heard, ever did more to open men's minds to.he absurdity and danger of the system then pursued by England,* and there are, or rather were, few Catholics who
did not venerate the name of Sydney Smith, as one
who, though -an:honest servant of another church, felt
that the strongest tenet of that church was charity and
mercy; and-in this feeling labored incessantly to remove
the heavy burdens and disqualifications imposed on them
by the actual state of the laws.
And let no man say that he labored in vain; that:the
seeds he sowed have not brought forth fruit, though not
all the fruit they would have produced had they been
sown when they were offered.
All admit much has still to be done, and much time
must elapse before such sufferings can be forgotten; but
look what'Ireland was when'my father first entered life,
in the midst of the tumult and violence of the French
Revolution, and look at what it has been of late; look
at what he advised, and how he advised it.; look at
what has been done; and who will then say that the
efforts of such a man were unavailing, that his honest
labors were in vain, that he who -dedicated the fine talents God had given him from early youth:to the hour
of his death, to spread religious toleration, has -not done
good in his generation?  I believe that his memory will
live with the good men of every land, and that his best
monument will be the love and respect of his countrymen.
* Lord Holland, I see, bears witness to the powerful effect this work
and' the' Edinburgh Review had on this-question, in his. Reminiscences
of that period; and Lord Murray, in writing of it says, "After Pascal's
Letters, it is the most instructive piece of wisdom in the form of irony
ever-written, and had the most important ad l'asting effects'."




100    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


Referring-some time after my father had left London for Yorkshire-to Peter Plymley, Lord Holland
writes to him from Dropmore:
" MY DEAR SYDNEY,
"I wish you could have heard my conversation with
Lord Grenville 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 it 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 the affectation of concealing
who it was, but added that he hoped Peter would not
always live in Yorkshire; for, among other reasons, we
felt the want of him just now in the state of the press,
and that he wished to God Abraham would do something to provoke him to take up the pen again."
In this little village of Sunning he first made the ac
quaintance of Sir William Scott, afterward Lord Stowell,
then our nearest neighbor, whose society he found most
agreeable; and by whom, though differing on almost
every point of politics, he was fully appreciated, and his
acquaintance eagerly sought after by him, not only then,
but during the remainder of my father's life, whenever
opportunity offered, in London; and during the period
of this intercourse he not unfrequently said to my father,
"Ah, Mr. Smith, you would have been in a different
situation, and a far richer man, if you would have belonged to us." These observations, from one so cautious,
so sagacious, and so strong a politician as Lord Stowell,
were, of course, gratifying to my father, as they showed




AMliJMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEYT btMI IL.


101


that his powers and talents were fully felt and appreciated by his political opponents.
On his return to town, receiving an invitation, I believe from  his friend Mr. Sharp, to dine with him     at
Fishmongers' Hall, he sent the following playful answer,
which, trifling as it is, as my tale is made' up of trifles,
I shall give:
"Much do I love, at civic treat,
The monsters of the deep to eat;
To see the rosy salmon lying,
By smelts encircled, born for frying;
And from the china boat to pour
On flaky cod, the flavor'd shower.
Thee, above all, I much regard,
Flatter than Longman's flattest bard,
Much honor'd turbot!-sore I grieve
Thee and thy dainty friends to leave.
Far from ye all, in snuggest corner,
I go to dine with little Horner:
He who, with philosophic eye,
Sat brooding o'er his Christmas pie:
Then, firm resolved, with either thumb,
Tore forth the crust-enveloped plum,
And, mad with youthful dreams of future fi
Proclaim'd the deathless glories of his name
In the autumn of this year, 1808, he paid a short
visit to his old haunts in Edinburgh, and on his return
visited for the first time Lord Roslyn and Lord Grey;
saw the latter (where he was ever best seen) in the midst
of his family, at Howick; and laid the foundation of
that friendship which was a constant source of pleasure
and gratification to him in after-life, and ended only
with his death.
As there was no house on his living, and no means
of procuring one in the neighborhood, and the population of the parish was small, Dr. Markham, the then
Archbishop of York, permitted his continued residence
in town, on condition of his appointing an efficient curate; till the passing of the Residence Bill by Mr. Per



102     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
cival, in 1808 (a bill the most just in its intentions, and
the most unjust in its effects), compelled him to resign
or build.
From the blamable negligence on the subject of residence of the clergy, which had existed for so long a
period in the Church, one-third of the parsonage-houses
in England had gone to decay; and thus, by the effects
of this bill, one generation of clergymen was compelled
suddenly to atone for the accumulated sins of their predecessors, and to benefit their successors by building
parsonage-houses out of their own private fortunes; unaided, save by a sum (I think a two or three years'- income of the living) which they were allowed to borrow
from Queen Anne's Bounty. Of this sum they were to
repay a portion each year, with interest upon the rest;
and thus, if they retained the living a few years, they
were obliged to refund the whole sum, and it was utterly
lost to them and their families.
On receiving the startling summons from the Archbishop, my father went down immediately into Yorkshire, to see what his fate was to be. He found his
living well deserved its name of Foston-le-Clay; consisting as it did of three hundred acres of glebe-land of
the stiffest clay, in a remote village of Yorkshire, where
there had not been a resident clergyman for a hundred
and fifty years, owing to the wretched state of the hovel
which had once been a parsonage-house. This consisted
of one brick-floored kitchen, with a room above it, which
was in so dangerous a condition that the farmer, who
had occupied it hitherto, declined living any longer in
it, and which opened on one side into a foal-yard, and
on the other into the church-yard; and placed in a village where there was no society above the rank of a
farmer.
His parishioners were so unaccustomed to the sighlts




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.     103
of civilized life, that- they could hardly recover from their
surprise at the sight of a gentleman from London in a
superfine coat and a four-wheeled carriage.
The prospect, it must be allowed, was not cheering,
either morally or physically; for the country was as
unpromising as the house. The clerk, the most important man in the village, was summoned; a man who had
numbered eighty years, looking, with his long gray hair,
his threadbare coat, deep wrinkles, stooping gait, and
crutch-stick, more ancient than the parsonage-house.
He looked at my father for some time from under his 
gray shaggy eyebrows, and held a long conversation
with him, in which the old clerk showed that age had
not quenched the natural shrewdness of the Yorkshireman.   At last, after a pause, he said, striking his
crutch-stick on the ground, "Muster Smith, it often
stroikes moy moind, that people as comes frae London
is such fools,...  But you," he said (giving him a
nudge with his stick), "I see you are no fool." Having thus gained the respect of the old, prejudiced clerk,
he endeavored to prove himself no fool. He examined
carefully and understood thoroughly all the difficulties
of his position, viz. a house to be built without experience or money; a family and furniture to be moved
into the heart of Yorkshire-a process, in the year 1808,
as difficult as a journey to the back'settlements of America now, to a man of small means; the absolute necessity of becoming a farmer, the living consisting of
land and no tithe, there being no farm-buildings on it
to enable him to let it, and the profound ignorance of
all agricultural pursuits inevitable in a man who had
passed life hitherto in towns, and whose time and attention had been divided between preaching, literature, and
society.
Add to these, the moral difficulty of breaking through




104     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
all the habits of his life, and tearing himself from the
many valuable friends he had by this time formed, and
who delighted in his society. But he felt it a duty, both
to his profession and family, that the effort should be
made.
He returned immediately to London, and obtained
the means of transporting his family and furniture, by
the publication of two volumes of the sermons he had
preached during his residence there with so much success.  The means obtained, and the order of march
arranged, he set about breaking up his little establishment in London, which was not effected without
great opposition from his friends there, and many kind
attempts and schemes to detain him among them.
We all left town in the summer of 1809. He preceded the party, and hired for their reception a small
but cheerful house in a village about two miles from
York; from whence, not having been able to procure
one nearer, he proposed to do the duties of his living
for the present, while he endeavored, with Dr. Vernon
Harcourt's (fhe present Archbishop of York's) consent,
to negotiate some exchange of living, and thus to avoid
the necessity of building.
Lord Eldon required that a chancery living should
only be exchanged for another chancery living, and
that the parties so exchanging should be exactly of the
same age. These conditions rendered exchange almost
impossible; but to one with such slender means, it was
worth any effort to avoid the ruinous expense of building.  He therefore exerted himself in every possible
way, and began several negotiations, but from these
reasons they all failed.




CHAPTER VI.
Establishment in Yorkshire.-Habits.-Mode of Life.-Reading.-Attention to Children.-Power of abstracting Thoughts.-Farmer's Dinner.-Medical Anecdotes.-Experiments.-Extracts from Diary.Practical Essays.-Metaphysical Essays.-Hints for History.-Mr.
Macaulay's Letter.-Sir S. Romilly's Visit.-Sermon on his Death.Anecdote of Roasted Quaker. —Dining out in the Country.-Brother
and Sir J. Mackintosh's return from India.-Madame De Stael's Visit
to England.-Typhus Fever.-Verses on Mr. Jeffrey.
OUR first establishment at Heslington was a great
source of enjoyment to the younger part of the family,
glad to escape from the confinement of London; and
our happiness contributed not a little to reconcile my
father to the change.
He now began to arrange his mode of life and establishment.   He bought a little second-hand carriage,
and a horse, called Peter; and the groom once exclaiming he had a "cruel face," he went ever after by
the name of Peter the Cruel: in this little carriage he
used to drive himself and my mother every Sunday,
summer and winter (for she always accompanied him),
to serve his church at Foston, and returned late in the
evening.
At first it was not without fear that she intrusted
herself to so inexperienced a coachman; "but she soon,"
he said, "raised my wages, and considered me an excellent Jehus"  The streets of York required some skill
in this art. My father once exclaiming to one of the
principal tradesmen there, "Why, Mr. Brown, your
streets are the narrowest in Europe; there is not actually room for two carriages to pass."  "Not room!"
Ed'




106    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


said the indignant Yorkist, "there's plenty of room, sir,
and above an inch and a half to spare!"  He used to
dig vigorously an hour or two each day in his garden,
as he said, "to avoid sudden death," for he was even
then inclined to embonpoint, and perhaps, as a young
man, may have been considered somewhat clumsy in
figure (though I never thought so), for I have often
heard from my father that a college friend used to say
to him, "Sydney, your sense, wit, and clumsiness, always give me the idea of an Atheniana carter.'  He
spent much time in reading and composition; his activity was unceasing; I hardly remember seeing him unoccupied, but when engaged in conversation. He never
considered his education as finished; he had always
some object in hand to investigate. He read with great
rapidity. I think it was said of Johnson, "Look at
Johnson, tearing out the bowels of his book." It might
be said of my father, that he was running off with theircontents, for he galloped through the pages so rapidly,
that we often laughed at him when he shut up a thick
quarto as his morning's work, and said he meant he had
looked at it, not read it.  "Cross-examine me, then,"
said he; and we generally found he knew all that was
worth knowing in it; though I do not think he had a
very retentive memory. The same peculiarity characterized his compositions; when he had any subject in
hand, he was indefatigable in reading, searching, inquiring, seeking every source of information, and discussing
it with any man of sense or cultivation who crossed his
path. But having once mastered it, he would sit down,
and you might see him committing his ideas to paper
with the same rapidity that they flowed out in his conversation-no hesitation, no erasions, no stopping to
consider and round his periods, no writing for effect,
but a pouring but of the fullness of his mind and feel



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


107


ings, for he was heart and soul in whatever he undertook. One could see by his countenance how much he
was interested or amused as fresh images came clustering round his pen; he hardly ever altered or corrected
what he had written (as I find by many manuscripts I
have of his); indeed, he was so impatient of this, that
he could hardly bear the trouble of even looking over
what he had written, but would not unfrequently throw
the manuscript down on the table as soon as finished,
and say, " There, it is done; now, Kate, do look it
over, and put in dots to the i's and strokes to the t's"and he would sally forth to his morning's walk.'He used frequently to lay out his plans of study for
the year. I find the following have accidentally been
preserved in one of his commonplace books, and shall
give them, though not strictly belonging to this period:
Plan of Study for 1820.
"Translate every day ten lines of the De Officiis,
and re-translate into Latin. Five chapters of Greek
Testament. Theological studies. Plato's'Apology for
Socrates;' Horace's Epodes, Epistles, Satires, and Ars
Poetica.
" Plan of Study for 1821,
( Write sermons and reviews, Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday.  Read, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Write ten lines of Latin on writing days. Read five
chapters of Greek Testament on reading days. For
morning reading, either Polybius, or Diodorus Siculus,
or some tracts of Xenophon or Plato; and for Latin,
Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius.
"Monday: write, morning; read Tasso, evening.
Tuesday: Latin or Greek, morning; evening, theology.
Wednesday, same as Monday. Friday, ditto. Thurs



108    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


day and Saturday, same as Tuesday. Read every day
a chapter in Greek Testament, and translate ten lines
of Latin. Good books to read: Terrasson's'History
of Roman Jurisprudence;' Bishop of Chester's'Records
of the Creation.'"
He was very fond of children-liked to have them
with him; indeed, in looking back, it often fills me with
regret to think of the many advantages that ought to
have been turned to better account, in passing a life
with such a man.
He took a lively interest in all our pursuits and happiness (a happiness which, he often touchingly said, he
had never known in childhood); he never lost an opportunity of showing us whatever could instruct or
amuse, that came within his reach; he loved to exercise our minds; and I remember, often in childhood,
gave my elder brother and myself subjects on which to
write essays for him.  He encouraged the ceaseless
questions of childhood; he was never too busy to explain or assist; as we grew older, he endeavored to
stimulate us to exertion by shame at ignorance. He
loved to discuss with us, met us as his equals, and I
look back with wonder at his patient refutation of our
crude and foolish opinions.
As we grew up we became his companions; we were
called in to all family councils; his letters were common property; the tenderest mother could not have
been more anxious and careful as to the religious tendency of any books we read, and often he has taken
books out of my hands which I had ignorantly begun,
with strict injunctions to consult him about my studies.
He regarded it as the greatest of all evils to produce
doubt or confusion in a youthful mind on such subjects;
indeed he has said, in his sermons, that he "would a




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


1-09


thousand times prefer that his child should die in the
bloom of youth, rather than it should live to disbelieve."
After his evening walk he would sit down to his
singular writing establishment, which I shall describe
hereafter, placed by the servant always in the same
place; and here, after looking through business- papers
and bills with as much plodding method as an attorney's
clerk, he would suddenly push them all aside, and, as
if to refresh his mind, take up his pen. His power of
abstraction was so great that he would begin to compose, with as much rapidity and ease as another man
would write a letter, those essays which are before the
world, or some of those sermons of which my mother
has given a few to the public since his death; often
reading what he had written, listening to our criticisms
(as Moliere did to his old woman), and this in the midst
of all the conversation and interruptions of a family
party, with talking or music going on.
"A clergyman complaining of want of society in the
country, saying,'They talk of runts' (young cows),
Johnson expressed himself much flattered by the reply
of Mrs. Thrale's mother:' Sir, Dr. Johnson would learn
to talk of runts;' meaning that I was a man that would
make the most of my situation, whatever it was."* This
was most strikingly the case with my father; he always
endeavored to see the bright side of things, and to adapt
himself to the circumstances in which he was placed,
however uncongenial to his former tastes and habits.
He could talk of runts with those who talked only of
runts, and he not only talked, but entered so eagerly
into the subject before him that he ended by generally
finding sources -of interest in them; affording, in this
respect, a striking contrast to a brother clergyman, who
* Boswell's Life of Johnson.




110     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SM3ITHI.
about the same time (having been a popular preacher in
London) received a valuable living in Yorkshire, and
came down to a good house and a more populous neighborhood than my father's. But alas! he could not talk
of runts; he sighed after Piccadilly; his face grew thinner and longer every time we met; he used often to call,
and lament over his hard fate, and wonder how my father could endure it with so much cheerfulness; and I.believe he would have died of green fields and runts, if
he had not succeeded in effecting an exchange, which
restored-him again to London.
Talking of runts reminds me of a!ractice my father
established as soon as he was settled at Foston, of inviting some of the most respectable farmers in his neighborhood to dine with him once a year. On these occasions he did not make it a mere man's dinner, but the
ladies of his family were always present; and, without
lowering his own dignity or appearing to descend to the
level of his more humble guests, it was interesting to
observe how he drew out the real sense and knowledge
they possessed, how he discussed their opinions, and
with what tact he gave a tone of general interest to the
conversation. Trifling as this was, it was evidently of
great utility: it gave him more knowledge of them and
influence among them than he could otherwise have obtained.;' each man went away better pleased with himself and less of a grumbler than he came; and, I suspect,
with a greater value for character, which was the only
passport to his table.
My father employed himself much in acquiring a
knowledge of all rural arts and details of farming, such
as baking, brewing, fattening poultry, churning, etc.;
talking much to the working people, whose shrewdness
and blunt sense delighted him. He always acquired
some information from them, often kindly taking up




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


111


some old woman returning from market into his gig and
learning her history. He said he never found any thing
well done in a small household, if the master and mistress were ignorant of the mode in which it ought to be
done,
He began too on a small scale to exercise his skill in
medicine, doing much good among his poor neighbors,
though there were often ludicrous circumstances connected with his early medical career. On one occasion,
wishing to administer a ball to Peter the Cruel, the
groom, by mistake, gave him two boxes of opium pills
in his bran mash, which Peter composedly munched,
boxes and all, My father, in dismay, when he heard
what had happened, went to look, as he thought, for
the last time on his beloved Peter; but soon found, to
his great relief, that neither boxes nor pills had produced
any visible effects on him. Another time he found all
his pigs intoxicated, and, as he declared, "grunting God
save the King about the sty," from having eaten some
fermented grains which he had-ordered for them. Once
he administered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities
sufficient to have killed a regiment of Christians; but
the red cow laughed alike at his skill and his oil, and
went on her way rejoicing.
He never sat a moment after dinner when alone with
his family, having contracted a horror of it from the
long sittings inflicted on him in early life by his father;
who, dining at three, used to sit till dark, and expect
his family to do tie same. My father rushed into the
opposite extreme; and the cloth was scarcely removed
ere he called for his hat and stick; and sallied forth for
his evening stroll, in which we always accompanied
him. Each cow, and calf, and horse, and pig, were in
turn visited, and fed ana patted, and all seemed to welcome him: he cared for their comforts as he cared for




112     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the comforts of every living being around him. lHe
used to say, "I am all for cheap luxuries, even for
animals; now all animals have a passion for scratching
their backbones; they break down your gates and palings to effect this.  Look! There is my universal
scratcher, a sharp-edged pole, resting on a high and a
low post, adapted to every height, from a horse to a
lamb. Even the Edinburgh Reviewer can take his
turn; you have no idea how popular it is; I have not
had a gate broken since I put it up; I have it in all my
fields."
He always had some experiment going on. At one
time he was bent on inventing a method of burning the
fat of his own sheep, instead of candles; and numerous
were the little tin lamps, of various forms and sizes,
produced; great the illuminations and greater the smells,
the house being redolent of mutton-fat while this fancy
lasted.
Then he took smoking chimneys in hand, and invented patent iron backs, to throw out the heat of the
fire by contracting the chimney, and facilitate sweeping
them by the ease of removal; and, I am bound in gratitude to own, with much success.
Immediately on coming to Foston, as early as the
year 1809, he set on foot gardens for the poor; and
subsequently, Dutch gardens for spade cultivation. The
former were, I believe, among the first trials of an experiment which has been since so generally adopted, as
one of the most beneficial charities among the country
population; dividing several acres of the glebe into sixteenths, and letting them, at a low rent, to the villagers,
to whom they were the greatest comfort. It became
quite a pretty sight afterward to see these small gardens
(which were just enough to supply a cottager with potatoes, and sometimes enable him to keep a pig) filled at




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNET SMITH.


113


dawn with the women and children cultivating them before they went out to their day's labor; and there was
the greatest emulation among them whose garden should
be most productive and obtain the prize.
Then the cheapest diet for the poor, and cooking for
the poor, formed the subjects of his inquiry: and many
a hungry laborer was brought in and stuffed with rice,
or broth, or porridge, to test their relative effects on the
appetite. In short, it would be endless to enumerate
the variety of subjects and objects which the activity
and energy of his mind suggested and found interest in.
In an evening, often with a child on each knee, he
would invent a tale for their amusement, composed of
aucll ludicrous images and combinations as nobody else
would have thought of, succeeding each other with the
greatest rapidity; these were devoured by them with
eyes and ears, in breathless interest; but at the most
thrilling moment always terminated with" and so they
lived very happy ever after," a kiss on each fat cheek,
"and now go to bed."
The following are extracts from such few portions of
his diary as have been preserved, written at various
times. These slight, unfinished fragments are not, of
course, given as specimens of composition; but they
are, I think, of great value, as indicating the occupation
and direction of his thoughts,- and the wholesome training of his mind, in his leisure hours, and in solitude, of
which he seems to have felt the full value for the improvement of his character. In one of his letters to
Jeffrey about this period, he says: "Living a great
deal alone (as I now do) will, I believe, correct me of
my faults, for a man can do without his own approbation in much society, but he must make great exertions
to gain it when he is alone; without it, I am convinced,
solitude is not to be endured."




114    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"Maxims and -Rules of Life.
",Remember that every person, however low, has
rights and feelings. In all contentions, let peace be
rather your object, than triumph: value triumph only
as the means of peace.
" Remember that your children, your wife, and your
servants, have rights and feelings; treat them as you
would treat persons who could turn again. Apply these
doctrines to the administration of justice as a magistrate. Rank poisons make good medicines:; error and
misfortune may be turned into wisdom and improvement.
"Do not attempt to frighten children and inferiors by
passion; it does more harm-to your own character than
it does good to them; the same thing is better done by
firmness and persuasion.
"If you desire the common people to treat you as a
gentleman, you must conduct yourself as a gentleman
should do to them.
"When you meet with neglect, let it rouse you to
exertion, instead of mortifying your pride. Set about
lessening those defects:which expose you to neglect, and
improve those excellences which command attention and
respect.'"Against general fears, remember how very precarious life is, take what care you will; how short it is, last
as long as it ever does.
"Rise early in the morning, not only to avoid selfreproach, but to make the most of the little life that
remains; not only to save the hours lost in sleep, but to
avoid that languor which is spread over mind and body
for the whole of that day in which you have lain late in
bed.
"Passion gets less and less powerful after every de



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.     115
feat.- Husband energy for the real demand which the
dangers of life make upon it.
" Find fault, when you must find fault, in private, if
possible; and some time after the offense, rather than
at the time. The blamed are less inclined to resist,
when they are blamed without witnesses; both parties
are calmer, and the accused party is struck with the
forbearance of the accuser, who has seen the fault, and
watched for a private and proper time for mentioning it.' 
"My son writes me word he is unhappy at school.
This makes me unhappy; but, 1st. There is much
unhappiness in human life: how can school be exempt?
2dly. Boys are apt to take a particular moment of depression for a general feeling, and they are in fact rarely
unhappy; at the moment I write, perhaps he is playing
about in the highest spirits. 3dly. When he comes to
state his grievance, it will probably have vanished, or be
so trifling, that it will yield to argument or expostulation.
4thly. At all events, if it is a real evil which makes him
unhappy, I must find out what it is, and proceed to act
upon it; but I must wait till I can, either in person or
by letter, find out what it is."
"Jan. 19th I passed very unhappily, from an unpleasant state of body produced by indolence.
-" Feb. 15th. Lost two hours in bed, from dawdling
and doubting. Maxims to make one get up: 1st. Optimum  eligite, et consuetudo faciet jucundissimum.
2d. I must get up at last,.it will be as difficult then as
now. 3d. By getting up I gain health, knowledge,
temper, and animal spirits.
"May 31st. The difficulty of getting up, and I parley with the fault; the only method is, to obey the
rule instantly, and without a moment's reflection.




116     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.' Nov. 3d. Lost a day by indolence; the only method is to spring up at once.
"I am uneasy about the sort of answer which the
editor of the -  has given to my letter; but as I
can not see his answer, the best way is to wait till I can
see it; and after all, it is of very little consequence.
Every man magnifies too much what belongs to himself; nobody does this more than I do.
" Another reason for benevolence is, that you forget
your own joy from being so accustomed to it, but the
joy of others seems something new.
" —- says,'my best patients are the poor, for
God is the paymaster.'
" Death-it must come some time or other. It has
come to all, greater, better, wiser, than I.
"I have lived sixty-six ycer..
"I have done but very little harm in the world, and
I have brought up my family.
"I was seized with sudden giddiness, so as to fall,
and for twenty-two hours was affected by violent pain.
I kept my bed that day, and was weak and languid for
some days after. Mr. Lyddon attributes it to indigestion. If this is the way nature punishes us for the consumption of indigestible food, I am sure it is worth while
to be strictly temperate; I will therefore, in future,
avoid soup and fish, and confine myself to one dish. I
must not only attend to quantity, but quality. I may
not be able to do this-then I must die or be ill; but
I am sure it is the best wisdom to do it.
"Not only is religion calm and tranquil, but it has
an extensive atmosphere round it, whose calmness and
tranquillity must be preserved, if you would avoid misrepresentation.
"Not only study that those with whom you live
should habitually respect you, but cultivate such man



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


117


ners as will secure the respect of persons with whom
you occasionally converse. Keep up the habit of being
respected, and do not attempt to be more amusing and
agreeable than is consistent with the preservation of respect.
"I am come to the age of seventy; have attained
enough reputation to make me somebody: I should not
like a vast reputation, it would plague me to death. I
hope to care less for the outward world.
Hope.
"Don't be too severe upon yourself and your own
failings; keep on, don't faint, be energetic to the last.
"If you wish to keep mind clear and body healthy,
abstain from all fermented liquors.
"Fight against sloth, and do all you can to make
friends.
"If old-age is even a state of suffering, it is a state
of superior wisdom, in which man avoids all the rash
and foolish things he does in his youth, and which make
life dangerous and painful.
"Death must be distinguished from   dying, with
which it is often confounded.
"Reverence and stand in awe of yourself.
"How Nature delights and amuses us by varying
even the character of insects: the ill-nature of the wasp,
the sluggishness of the drone, the volatility of the butterfly, the slyness of the bug.
"Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in
God."
"A FEW UNFINISHED SKETCHES.*
" Of the Body.
"Happiness is not impossible without health, but it is
of very difficult attainment. I do not mean by health
From his "Practical Essays."




1'18    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
merely an absence of dangerous complaints, but that
the body should be in perfect tune-full of vigor and
alacrity.
"The longer I live, the more I am. convinced that the
apothecary is of more importance than Seneca; and that
half the unhappiness in the world proceeds from little
stoppages, from a duct choked up, from food pressing in
the wrong place, from a vext duodenum, or an agitated
pylorus.
"The deception, as practiced upon human creatures,
is curious and entertaining.  My friend sups late; he
eats some strong soup, then a lobster, then some tart,
and he dilutes these esculent varieties with wine. The
next day I call upon him. He is going to sell his house
in London, and to retire into the country. He is alarmed
for his eldest daughter's health.  His expenses are
hourly increasing, and nothing but a timely retreat can
save him from ruin. All this is the lobster: and when
over-excited nature has had time to manage this testaceous encumbrance, the daughter recovers, the finances
are in good order, and every rural idea effectually excluded from the mind.
"In the same manner old friendships are destroyed by
toasted- cheese, and'hard salted meat has led to suicide.
Unpleasant feelings of the body produce correspondent
sensations in the mind, and'a great scene of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel of indigestible and misguided food. Of such infinite consequence to happiness
is it to study the body!
"I have nothing new to say upon the management
which the body requires. The common rules are the
best: exercise without fatigue; generous living without excess; early rising, and moderation in sleeping.
These are the apothegms of old women; but if they
are not attended to, happiness becomes so extremely




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITIH.


119


difficult that very few persons can attain to it.  In
this point of view, the care of the body becomes a:subject of elevation and importance.  A walk in the
fields, -an hour's less sleep, may remove all those bodily
vexations and disquietudes which are such formidable
enemies to virtue; and may enable the mind to pursue
its own resolves without that constant train of temptations to resist, and obstacles to overcome, which it always experiences from the bad organization of its companion. Johnson says, every man is a rascal when he
is sick; meaning, I suppose, that he has:no:benevolent
dispositions at that period toward his fellow-creatures,
but that his notions assume a character of greater affinity to his bodily feelings, and that, feeling pain, he
becomes malevolent; and if this be true of great diseases, it is true in a less degree of the smaller ailments
of the body.
"Get up in a morning, walk before breakfast, pass
four or five hours of the day in some active employment; then eat and drink overnight, lie in bed till
one or two o'clock, saunter away the rest of the day
in doing nothing!-can any two human beings be
more perfectly dissimilar than the same individual under these two different systems of corporeal management? and is it not of as great importance toward
happiness to pay a minute attention to the body, as
it is to study the wisdom of Chrysippus and Crantor?"
" Of COccupation.
"A good stout bodily machine being provided, we
must be actively occupied,'or there can be little happiness.
"If a good useful occupation be not provided, it is
so ungenial to the human mind to do nothing, that
men occupy themselves perilously, as with gaming;




120     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
or frivolously, as with walking up and down a street
at a watering-place, and looking at the passers-by; or
malevolently, as by teazing their wives and children.
It is impossible to support, for any length of time, a
state of perfect ennui; and if you were to shut a man
up for any length of time within four walls, without occupation, he would go mad. If idleness do not produce
vice or malevolence, it commonly produces melancholy.
"A stockbroker or a farmer have no leisure for imaginary wretchedness; their minds are usually hurried
away by the necessity of noticing external objects, and
they are guaranteed from that curse of idleness, the
eternal disposition to think of themselves.
"If we have no necessary occupation, it becomes
extremely difficult to make to ourselves occupations as
entirely absorbing as those which necessity imposes.
"The profession which a man makes for himself is
seldom more than a half profession, and often leaves the
mind in a state of vacancy and inoccupation. We must
lash ourselves up however, as well as we can, to a notion
of its great importance; and as the dispensing power is
in our own hands, we must be very jealous of remission
and of idleness.
"It may seem absurd that a gentleman who does
not live by the profits of farming should rise at six
o'clock -in the morning to look after his farm; or, if
botany -be his object, that he should voyage to Iceland
in pursuit of it.  He is the happier however for his
eagerness; his mind is more fully employed, and he is
much more effectually guaranteed from all the miseries
of ennui.
"It is asked, if the object can be of such great importance. Perhaps not; but the pursuit is. The fox,
when caught, is worth nothing: he is followed for the
pleasure of the following.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


121


"What is a man to do with his life who has nothing
which he must do? It is admitted he must find some
employment, but does it signify what that employment
is? Is he employed as much for his own happiness in
cultivating a flower-garden as in philosophy, literature'
or politics? This must depend upon the individual
himself, and the circumstances in which he is placed.
As far as the mere occupation or exclusion of ennui
goes, this can be settled only by the feelings of the person employed; and if the attention be equally absorbed,
in this point of view one occupation is as good as another; but a man who is conscious he was capable of doing
great things, and has occupied himself with trifles beneath the level of his, understanding, is apt to feel envy
at the lot of those who have excelled him, and remorse
at the misapplication of his own powers; he has not
added to the pleasures of occupation the pleasures of
benevolence, and so has not made his occupation as
agreeable as he might have done, and he has probably
not gained as much fame and wealth as he might have
done if his pursuits had been of a higher nature. For
these reasons it seems right that a man should attend to
the highest pursuits in which he has any fair chance of
excelling; he is as much occupied, gains more of what
is worth gaining, and excludes remorse more effectually,
even if he fail, because he is conscious of having made
the effort.
" When a very clever man, or a very great man, takes
to cultivating turnips and retiring, it is generally an imposture. The moment men cease to talk of their turnips,
they are wretched and full of self-reproach. Let every
man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the
consciousness that he has done his best "
F




i22    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


Of Friendships
( Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love,
and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence.
If I lived under the burning sun of the equator, it would
be a pleasure to me to think that there were many human
beings on the other side of the world who regarded and
respected me; I could and would not live if I were alone
upon the earth, and cut off from the remembrance of my
fellow-creatures. It is not that a man has occasion often
to fall back upon the kindness of his friends; perhaps he
may never experience the necessity of doing so; but we
are governed by our imaginations, and they stand there
as a solid and impregnable bulwark against all the evils
of life.
"Friendships should be formed with persons of all
ages and conditions, and with both sexes. I have a
friend who is a bookseller, to whom I have been very
civil, and who would do any thing to serve me; and I
have two or three small friendships among persons in
much humbler walks of life, who, I verily believe, would
do me a considerable kindness according to their means.
It is a great happiness to form a sincere friendship with
a woman; but a friendship among persons of different
sexes rarely or ever takes place in this country. The
austerity of our manners hardly admits of such a connection-compatible with the most perfect innocence,
and a source of the highest possible delight to those
who are fortunate enough to form it.
" Very few friends will bear to be told of their faults;
and if done at all, it must be done with infinite management and delicacy; for if you indulge often in this practice, men think you hate, and avoid you. If the evil is
not very alarming, it is better indeed to let it alone, and
not to turn friendship into a system of lawful and un



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


123


punishable impertinence. I am for frank explanations
with friends in cases of affronts. They sometimes save
a perishing friendship, and even place it on a firmer basis
than at first; but secret discontent must always end
badly."
"Of Cheerfulness.
"Cheerfulness and good spirits depend in a great degree upon bodily causes, but much may be done for the
promotion of this turn of mind. Persons subject to low
spirits should make the rooms in which they live as
cheerful as possible; taking care that the paper with
which the wall is covered should be of a brilliant, lively
color, hanging up pictures or prints, and covering the
chimney-piece with beautiful china. A bay-window
looking upon pleasant objects, and, above all, a large
fire whenever the weather will permit, are favorable to
good spirits, and the tables near should be strewed with
books and pamphlets. To this must be added as much
eating and drinking as is consistent with health; and
some manual employment for men-as gardening, a
carpenter's shop, the turning-lathe, etc. Women have
always manual employment enough, and it is a great
source of cheerfulness. Fresh air, exercise, occupation,
society, and traveling are powerful remedies.
"Melancholy commonly flies to the future for its aliment, and must be encountered in this sort of artifice,
by diminishing the range of our views. I have a large
family coming on, my income is diminishing, and I shall
fall into pecuniary difficulties. Well! but you are not
now in pecuniary difficulties. Your eldest child is only
seven years old; it must be two or three years before
your family make any additional demands upon your
purse. Wait till the time comes. Much may happen
in the interval to better your situation; and if nothing




124     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
does happen, at least enjoy the two or three years of
ease and uninterruption which are before you. You are
uneasy about your eldest son in India; but it is now
June, and at the earliest the fleet will not come in till
September; it may bring accounts of his health and
prosperity, but at all events there are eight or nine
weeks before you can hear news. Why are they to be
spent as if you had heard the worst? The habit of tak.
ing very short views of human life may be acquired by
degrees, and a great sum of happiness is gained by it.
It becomes as customary at last to view things on the
good side of the question as it was before to despond,
and to extract misery from every passing-event.
"A firm confidence in an overruling Providence-a
remembrance of the shortness of human life, that it will
soon be over and finished-that we scarcely know, unless we could trace the remote consequences of every
event, what would be good and what an evil; these are
very important topics in that melancholy which proceeds
from grief.
" It is wise to state to friends that our spirits are low,
to state the cause of the depression, and to hear all that
argument or ridicule can suggest for the cure. Melancholy is always the worse for concealment, and many
causes of depression are so frivolous, that' we'are
shamed out of them by the mere statement of their existence."
Scattered among his papers are a few fragments on
metaphysical subjects, which always interested him.
" Benevolence.
"A child is born with the power of feeling bodily
pleasure and pain. The milk he receives from his nurse
delights him. The appearance of the nurse is always




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


125


connected with that pleasure, and, by the laws of association, because he loves the milk he at last comes to
love the nurse; that is, her presence excites in him the
passion of joy. In the same manner, if his nurse, instead of suckling him, had rubbed his mouth with wormwood, the pain of the wormwood would be united with
the appearance of the nurse; and because the taste of
the wormwood excited in him the passion of sorrow, the
appearance of the nurse would at last do the same. In
this way we begin to connect our fellow-creatures with
our pleasures and pains.
"But whence comes it that a child travels from joy
to benevolence, and wishes to do good to the person
who excites in him pleasurable sensations? Why is
he not benevolent toward the pap-boat, or the nurse's
gown, or any other inanimate object which his eye connects as, frequently with his animal pleasures as the
image of his nurse?  The progress from joy to benevolence is, I believe, entirely the result of experience, and
the latter is a passion of much later growth than the
other. As a child grows older, he perceives that the
person who ministers to his joy and sorrow has similar
feelings with himself, and that it becomes his interest to
attend to them. If he scratches, and kicks, and cries,
and knocks down glasses and tea-cups, he is shaken or
scolded, or sugar is refused; or he is put in the corner,
or whipped. If he pleases his superior, come cakes,
plums, toys, and amusing games.
"In the same manner, at school, he is every day
receiving lessons of the evils of malevolence and the
advantages of benevolence.  Kicks, cuffs, privations,
solitude, deter him on one hand; cheerful society, protection, community of joys, allure him on the other. In
this way he learns the important lesson of doing good
in order to promote his own good; and having loved




126     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the passion for its utility, he loves it at last for itself.
In after-life, the poet, the orator, the moralist, and the
preacher, praise and purify this fine passion, give it
strength, which conceals its origin, and makes it appear
primary and original.
"In order to make this more clear, let us suppose
that a child was treated, to a late period, with the same
uniform indulgence, however numerous his faults, and
however untoward his disposition; that nurse, father,
mother, school-fellow, and schoolmaster, all studied his
humors and ministered to his wants, without exacting
from him in return the slightest attention to their own
feelings. What motive could such a child have for-benevolence? How would he learn to become benevolent?
Why should he cultivate such passive human beings,
more than the spoon, or the silver mug, which, tossed
and tumbled about by his caprice to-day, are sure to
appear at the dinner of to-morrow?
" In fact, such a blind submission to the will of any
child would infallibly make him a tyrant, and extinguish in his mind every spark of benevolence: but if
an exemption from the necessity of attending to the
feelings of our fellow-creatures, destroys benevolence,
the necessity of doing so may be presumed to teach it.
Where one fact, admitted to be true, will explain other
facts equally admitted to be true, there is no occasion
to suppose other facts which are doubtful, in order to
make a new series of causes and consequences.  That
children are born capable of feeling bodily pain and
pleasure, is not disputed; that they soon learn to be
benevolent toward, or to love their fellow-creatures, is
an equally admitted fact. If one of these facts can be
shown to be the cause of the other, there is no occasion
to have recourse to a principle of benevolence as an
original principle of our nature; but this, though a curi



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


121.


ous, is not a very important question. Whether innate,
or early learnt, the most pure and disinterested benevolence exists in human nature. Howard visited prisons
and lazarettos, andcsacrificed his life for his fellow-creatures, let the metaphysical origin of benevolence be what
it may.
"The passion of benevolence, thus excited in our nature, receives the name of gratitude, when we desire to
do good to. those who have done good to us. From apparent gratitude, is to be deducted the hope of future
favor from the object of our gratitude, and the dread of
infamy for being ungrateful.  The pure passion may be
explained from the united effects of association and education. Sexual love is that benevolence to persons of
the opposite sex, which proceeds from the beauty of
their countenance or their form.
"Paternal love is the benevolence which a father feels
toward his child. This passion, like all others which
are of use to mankind, is very much increased by education and general opinion, by reason and reflection, and
by compassion, by habit, and association.  I see no
occasion for supposing the existence of any original
principle of paternal love. The analogy from animals
is entirely against it. Love, when applied to persons
of the same sex, like affection, kindness, are all modifications of the same passions of joy, or benevolence;
an agreeable, charming, or delightful person excites
these passions in us, in different degrees, gives us feelings of joy, or makes us desirous of doing him some
good. When benevolence excites us to give, it is called
generosity. Hope is the belief, more or less strong,
that joy will come; desire is the wish it may come.
There is no word to designate the remembrance of joys
past."




128    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


" Of the. iind. (A Fragment.)
"The mind is inhabited by ideas, by passions, and
by desires. Passions are strong feelings or affections
of the mind, not leading immediately to action. Desires are strong feelings of the mind, accompanied by
a wish to act.
"In revenge, I can perceive that my mind is powerfully affected, and I have a wish to act, and to give
pain to some person-this is a desire.   When the
possession of sudden wealth is announced to me, I
feel transported with joy, but I have no immediate desire to act-here I only recognize the affection of my
mind.
"In avarice, there is the feeling and the wish to act
-this is a desire. In grief there is only the affection or
perturbation of the mind-this is a passion. Every desire is a passion: every passion is not a desire. Emotion is another name for passion.
"The mind is of course the seat of all pain and pleasure. The pain of the gout is not in my toe, but in my
mind, and I refer it to the toe as the cause. If this were
otherwise, I should have ten minds instead of one, and
as many on my hands.
"The pains and pleasures of the body ought to be
classed among the passions. They are passions to all
intents and purposes. The pains of the body have all
some affinity to each other, and in consequence of that
affinity have received the common name of pain. They
are not degrees of the same feeling, but are different
feelings, though with some general' resemblance.  It
is an abuse of terms to call the pain excited by gout,
by a cut, by a contusion, and by the stomach-ache, degrees of the same feeling. In the same manner, the
pleasure arising from sweetness, smoothness, or from




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


129


savory tastes, appear to be distinct feelings, with some
common relation between them, and therefore denominated pleasures.
"What is true of pain and of pleasure referred to the
body, and in popular estimation supposed to exist in
the body, is true also of the pains and pleasures of the
mind.
"Grief, hatred, and revenge, are not degrees of the
same painfuil feeling, but distinct feelings. So are hope,
joy, and benevolence; but all the agreeable passions
have some resemblance to each other-so have all the
disagreeable passions."
I find among his papers various hints for history, such
as the following, which are many of them very characteristic:
"In 1758, the Chevalier Barras was burnt to death
at Amiens for singing a blasphemous song.  Thirtyfive years afterward the Christian religion was abolished all over France, and the church property confiscated.
"Blackstone says that for the Bull Unigenitus alone
fifty-four thousand lettres de cachet were issued. Seventy thousand persons executed in the reign of Henry
VIII. - (See BRODIE, vol. i.)
"In 1782, Louis XVI., exercising the right of issuing lettres de cachet, and in possession of full and
unrestrained power; ten years after, his head was cut
off.
"In 1770, the English Legislature taxed the American colonies, and made laws for them; in twelve years
afterward the colonies were declared an independent.State.
"In 1797, Ireland petitioned the English Parliament for some small indulgence to their commerce;
F*




180     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the petition was unanimously ignored. in eight years
afterward, Ireland was unanimously declared by the
same Parliament to be a separate and independent
kingdom.
"In America there is no waste of public money;
all public matters are conducted with exemplary frugality. On days of ceremony, two constables walk before the President, and he sits down to a joint of meat
and a pudding provided at the expense of twenty-two
republics.
"The religious mistakes of mankind have been, that
there are spirits mingling with mankind, hence demons,
witchcraft; that God governs the world by present judgments, hence ordeals; that there is a connection between
the fate of particular men and the heavenly bodies at the
time of their birth, hence astrology; that God is to be
worshiped by the misery and privations of the worshipers, hence monasteries and fagellations.
"Account of Taxesfronm William the Conqueror.
1066...................~200,000   1566............... ~1,500,000
1266...................  150,000   1666................  1,800,000
1366.................  130,000  1766................ 17,000,000
1466...................  100,000
"Four years after the Scotch Union, Lord Fmoved its repeal in the House of Lords, 54 against 54;
four proxies carried it against the motibn.
"Fleury became minister at seventy-three years of
age.
"Galileo was made to promise, on his knees, never
to teach again the motion of the Earth and the Sun; as
a part of his punishment, he was directed to write every
week the seven Penitential Psalms.
"The infamous Judge Jeffreys would not give up his
Protestantism, and lost the favor of James II.
" At. the Revolution, the debt was a million, the rev



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


131


enue two, i.e. we owed half a year's income-at present
about sixteen years' income.
" Brahmins may eat beef, if killed for sacrifice-and
there are sacrifices every day.
" The Excise and Post-office began under the Commonwealth. Court of Wards abolished in the Commonwealth.
" Colbert never taxed imports as high as ten per cent.
ad valorem f he had no prohibition.
"The Scotch members used to receive ten guineas
per week, secret service money.
" Sir John Trevor, Speaker of the Lower House, was
convicted of receiving a bribe of a thousand pounds from
the City of London between 1700 and 1716."
Among his manuscripts is a sketch he wrote at a later
period, giving an account of English misrule of Ireland
from the earliest period of our possession up to the present day, compiled from the best existing documents, and
forming so fearful a picture that he hesitated to give it
to the world when done. After his death, my mother,
thinking the time perhaps come when it might be published without injury, referred to what she justly felt
was one of the highest historical authorities of our day,
and received from Mr. Macaulay the following answer:
"1847.
"DEAR MRS. SYDNEY SMITH,
" I am truly grateful to you for suffering me to see
the sketch of Irish history, drawn up by my admirable
and excellent friend. I perfectly understand the generous feeling with which it was written, and I also think
that I see why it was never published. While the Catholic disabilities lasted, he whom we regret did all that he
could to awaken the conscience of the oppressors and to




132      1-MEMOIR OF THE. REV.: SYDNEY. SMITH.
find excuses for the faults'.of the oppressed. When
these disabilities had been removed, and when designing men still attempted to inflame the Irish against
England, by repeating tales of grievances which had
passed away, he felt that this work would no longer
do any good, and that it might be used by demagogues
in such a way as to do positive harm.      You will see,
from what I have said, that though I think this piece
honorable to his memory, I do not wish to see it published, nor do I think that, though it would raise the
reputation of almost any other writer of our time, it
would raise his;'in truth, nothing that is not of very
rare and striking merit ought now to be given to the
world under his name.     He is universally admitted to
have been a great reasoner, and the greatest master of
ridicule that has appeared among us since Swift.* Many
things, therefore, which, if they came from'an inferior
author, would be read with pleasure, will produce disappointment if published as works of Mr. Sydney Smith.
I return the papers with most sincere thanks.     Believe
me ever, dear Mrs. Sydney Smith, yours very truly,
" T. B. MIACAULAY."9
My father had not long been established in his house
* I find my father here, and indeed in almost every sketch of him
compared to Swift in the character of his writings. It is for others to
decide upon the justness of the comparison; but there is one difference
I ought, and I am proud to point out,. that there is not a single line in
them that might not be placed before the purity of youth, or that is unfit for the eye of a woman; that he has exercised his powers of wit and
sarcasm to the utmost, without ever sullying his pages with impurities,
or degrading his talents and:profession by irreligion; and this, I believe,
can in very few instances be asserted of any other eminently humorous
writer, either French or English, who have used such powers to any
great extent. Lord John Russell, in writing of my father, says on this
subject: " Too. much indulgence has been shown to the extravagance,
dishonesty, and domestic infidelity of men of wit, as if the'light that
led astray was light from heaven.' It is not light from heaven, but
flashes from a volcano which has its seat in hell."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


133


at Heslington before several of his old friends found him
out; among the first of these were Mr.'Horner, Mr.
Murray, and Mr. Adams. In August Mr. Abercrombie
and his family spent a few days with him, which gave
him much pleasure; and he had also a visit from Lord
Webb Seymour, one of the friends with whom he had
lived most intimately at Edinburgh, and whose early
death was a source of deep regret to him.
He made the resolution, when he settled in the country, never to shoot; " first," he says, "because I found,
on trying at Lord Grey's, that the birds seemed to consider the muzzle of my gun as their safest position; secondly, because I never could help shutting my eyes
when I fired my gun, so was not likely to improve;
and thirdly, because, if you do shoot, the squire and
the poacher both consider you as their natural enemy,
and I thought it more clerical to be at peace with.both."
In 1810 my father had the pleasure of receiving his
old and valued friend, Sir Samuel Romilly, and his family; and so deep was his veneration for the unbending
virtue of this great man, that it was one not easily forgotten. No two men were ever more unlike, or pursued
the same ends by such different paths; yet they had
many feelings in common, and a total. absence of all
those littlenesses which sometimes obscure.and alienate
even great men. I remember Sir Samuel went with my
father, to see Castle Howard, at which he gazed with
great admiration, and after a long pause, standing on
the steps. of the portico and looking toward the mausoleum and at the lovely landscape around, he exclaimed,
spreading out his arms, "These are indeed things that
must make death terrible!"
Somen years after, my father introduced the following
passage, on the recent death of Sir Samuel Romilly,
into a sermon on the subject of Meditation on Death,




134     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
and as it has not been published, I shall insert it here,
as a proof of his feelings toward that eminent man:
" And let me ask you, my brethren, we who see the
good and great daily perishing before our eyes, what
comfort have we but this hope in Christ that we shall
meet again? Remember the eminent men who, within
the few years last past, have paid the great debt of nature. The earth stripped of its moral grandeur, sunk
in its spiritual pride. The melancholy wreck of talents
and of wisdom gone, my brethren, when we feel how
dear, how valuable they were to us, when we would
have asked of God on our bended knees their preservation and their life. Can we live with all that is ex-.cellent in human nature, can we study it, can we contemplate it, and then lose it and never hope to see it
again?
" Can we say of any human being, as we may say
of that great man who was torn from us in the beginning of this winter, that he acted with vast capacity
upon all the great calamities of life; that he came with
unblemished purity to restrain iniquity; that, condemning injustice, he was just; that, restraining corruption,
he was pure; that those who were provoked to look into
the life of a great statesman, found him a good man
also, and acknowledged he was sincere even when they
did not believe he was right? Can we say of such a
man, with all the career of worldly ambition before him,
that he was the friend of the wretched and the poor;
that in the midst of vast occupation he remembered the
debtor's cell, the prisoner's dungeon, the last hour of
the law's victim; that he meditated day and night on
wretchedness, weakness, and want? Can we say all
this of any human being, and then have him no more
in remembrance? When you' die daily,' my brethren;




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


135


*when you remember my text, paint to yourselves the
gathering together again of the good and the just.
"Remember that God is to be worshiped, that death
is to be met, by such a life as this; remember, in the
last hour, that rank, that birth, that wealth, that all
earthly things will vanish away, that you will then
think only of the wretchedness you have lessened and
the good you have done."
I see, by letters in my possession, that on the publication of Sir Samuel's Life by his sons, my father's
letter of warm admiration was the first received by the
family; and the terms in which they speak of the value
of my father's praise is highly gratifying to those who
love his memory.
My father had by this time made a considerable acquaintance in and round York. Dining out on one occasion, he happened to meet Mr. -—, whom he always
met with pleasure, as he was a man of sense, simplicity,
and learning; and with such a total absence, not only
of humor in himself, but in his perception of it in others,
as made him an amusing subject of speculation to my
father.
The conversation at dinner took a liberal turn. My
father, in the full career of his spirits, happened to say,
"Though he was not generally considered an illiberal
man, yet he must confess he had one little weakness,
one secret wish-he should like to roast a Quaker."
"Good heavens, Mr. Smith!" said Mr. —, full of
horror, "roast a Quaker?"  "Yes, sir" (with the greatest gravity), "roast a. Quaker!"  "But do you consider, Mr. Smithi the torture?"  "Yes, sir," said my
father, "I have considered every thing; it may be
wrong, as you say: the Quaker would undoubtedly




136     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
suffer acutely, but every one has his tastes - mine
would be to roast a Quaker: one would satisfy me,
only one; but it is one of those peculiarities I have
striven against in vain, and I hope you will pardon my
weakness."
Mr. -'s honest simplicity could stand this no
longer, and he seemed hardly able to sit at table with
him. The whole company were in roars of laughter at
the scene; but neither this, nor the mirth and mischief
sparkling in my father's eye, enlightened him in the
least, for a joke was a thing of which he had no conception. At last my father, seeing that he was giving real,
pain, said, "Come, come, Mr. -—, since you think this
so very illiberal, I must be wrong;' and will give up my
roasted Quaker rather than your esteem; let us drink
wine together." Peace was made, but I believe neither
time nor explanation would have ever made him comprehend that it was a joke.
Though it was the general habit in Yorkshire to make
visits of two or three days at the houses in the neighborhood, yet not unfrequently invitations to dinner only
came, and sometimes to a house at a considerable distance.
"Did you ever dine out in the country?" said my
father; "what misery human beings inflict on each
other under the name of pleasure! We went to dine
last Thursday with Mr. -, a neighboring clergyman,
a haunch of venison being the stimulus to the invitation.
We set out at five o'clock, drove in a broiling sun on
dusty roads three miles in our best gowns, found Squire
and parsons assembled in a small hot room, the whole
house redolent of frying; talked, as is our wont, of roads,
weather, and turnips; that done, began to grow hungry,
-then serious, then impatient. At last a stripling, evidently caught up for the occasion, opened the door and




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


137


beckoned-our host out of the room. After some moments of awful suspense, he returned to us with a face
of much distress, saying,'the woman assisting in the
kitchen had mistaken the soup for dirty water, and had
thrown it away, so we must do without it;' we all
agreed it was perhaps as well we should, under the circumstances. At last, to our joy, dinner was announced;
but oh, ye gods! as we entered the dining-room what a
gale met our nose! the venison was high, the venison
was uneatable, and was obliged to follow the soup with'
all speed.
"Dinner proceeded, but our spirits flagged under
these accumulated misfortunes: there was an ominous
pause between the first and second course; we looked
each other in. the face —what new; disaster awaited'us 
the pause became fearful. At last the door burst open,
and the boy rushed in, calling out aloud,'Please, sir,
has Betty any right to leather I?' What human gravity could stand this? We roared with laughter; all took
part against Betty, obtained the second course with some
difficulty, bored each other the usual time, ordered our
carriages, expecting our post-boys to be drunk, and were
grateful to Providence for not permitting them to deposit
us in a wet ditch. So much for dinners in the country!"
This winter he had another visit from  his friend
Jeffrey, who came with an American gentleman, Mr.
Simond, and his niece, Miss Wilkes. We little suspected then that this lady, great-niece to the agitator
Wilkes, was so soon after to becomeMrs. Jeffrey. We
had also visits from Mlr. Horner, Mr. Murray, and Lord
Lauderdale. My father used to say of Mr. Horner that
he had the Ten Commandments written on his face;
in fact; that he looked so virtuous, that he might commit any crime, and no one would believe in the possibility of his guilt.




138     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
It was, I believe, in 1812 that my father's eldest
brother Robert, who had gone out to India, as AdvocateGeneral of Bengal eight years before, returned with his
wife and family to this country-a return we had all
been eagerly looking forward to. Before leaving India,
my uncle had with great generosity offered to remain
there another year, and to bestow the proceeds of his
office on my father; but my father, poor as he was,
fearing the effects of the climate on his brother, and
knowing his ardent desire to return to England, with
equal generosity refused, without a moment's hesitation, to accept of such a sacrifice. We went to their
house in town to meet them, and spent some weeks
there.
My father was received with open arms -by all his
old friends; and the pleasure and interest of this visit
to his old haunts was much enhanced by the arrival of
his friend Sir James Mackintosh, likewise from India,
after an absence from England of about the same time.
He had arrived on the eve of a general election, and
during the excitement of political changes consequent
upon the murder of Mr. Percival, and the attempt to
form a Ministry under Lord Wellesley.
In the summer Sir James went with Lady Mackintosh to the Highlands, and on their return spent some
days with my father at Heslington. In the autumn of
the following year, Madame de Stael, driven from Copet
by the persecutions of Napoleon, took refuge in England,
and was the object of general interest and attention.
She was constantly in the society of Sir James Mackintosh, and having heard much of my father, and of his
powers of conversation and argument, she was eager to
make his acquaintance, and try her eloquence upon him.
She used frequently to say to Sir James, with the odd
jumble she made of English titles and names, "Mais,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


139


votre ami Sydney Smith, ce Pretre-Amiral, pourquoi ne
vient-il pas?"
The Pretre-Amiral was unable to leave his parish during her visit here, so they never met; but she took her
revenge some years after at Nice, where she made the
acquaintance of my father's elder brother Robert, whose
wonderful powers of argument and exquisite French she
reveled in through a whole winter; though often defeated by him in discussions, to the delight of all the
English staying there, whom she had bullied terribly
before his arrival, and who looked up to him as a sort
of champion. "Ah! pourquoi ne parlez-vous pas comme
9a dans la Chambre des Communes?" said Madame de
Stael to him one day, after listening for some time to
the eloquent flow of his language. Mr. Canning used
to say, "Bobus's language is the essence of English."
Sir James Mackintosh, speaking of him in India, says,
" I hear frequently of Bobus; his fame among the natives is greater than that of any pundit since the days
of Menu."
The following year my uncle came down with his
family to visit us in Yorkshire, and remained a month
with us.  On his return to Northampton, a typhus fever
attacked his family with most fearful and fatal results,
then the nurse, and lastly himself. My aunt, in communicating these dreadful tidings, entreated my father to
come to their aid, and, after taking medical advice as to
the best precautions against infection, he set off, in spite
of my mother's earnest entreaties, without a moment's
hesitation.
An intimate friend, who was staying with us at the
time, and present at this scene, tells me, "Nothing in
my long knowledge of him ever gave me a higher idea
of your father's generosity of character and firmness of
principle than this act; for, in addition to his knowl



140    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


edge how dependent you all were upon him, and that
your mother was near her confinement, lhe went, not
ignorant of, or despising, the danger, but with his
eyes open. to it, fearing it very much, and fully believing he was going to meet death. But in spite of his
own fears and your poor mother's efforts, he resisted,
and said,'If any evil were to happen to Bobus, I should
reproach myself all my life; but,' added he,'Kate,
mind, if I do die, you must always keep the day of my
death.'"
He remained with my uncle some weeks, until he had
the satisfaction of leaving him convalescent, and comfortably established in a house near Northampton, under
the care of the most eminent physician there, Dr. Carr,
uncle to Lady Davy; and of returning in safety to my
poor mother, whose anxiety during this period may easily
be imagined.
Among our rural delights at Heslington was the possession of a young donkey, which had been given up to
6ur tender mercies from the time of its birth, and in
whose education we employed a large portion of our
spare time; and a most accomplished donkey it became
under our tuition. It would walk up stairs, pick pockets, follow us in our walks like a huge Newfoundland
dog, and at the most distant sight of us in the field, with
ears down and tail erect, it set off in full bray to meet
us.  These demonstrations on Bitty's part were met
with not less affection on ours, and Bitty was almost
considered a member of the family.
One day, when my elder brother and myself were
training our beloved Bitty, with a pocket-handkerchief for a bridle, and his head crowned with-flowers,
to run round our garden,. who should arrive in the
midst of our sport but Mr. Jeffrey. Finding my father
out, he, with his usual kindness toward young peo



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY- SMITH.


141


pie, immediately joined in our sport, and, to our infinite delight, mounted our donkey. He was proceeding in triumph, amidst our shouts of laughter, when
my father and mother, in company, I believe, with
Mr. Horner and Mr. Murray, returned from their walk,
and beheld this scene from the garden-door. Though
years and years have passed away since, I still remember the joy-inspiring laughter that burst from my
father at -this unexpected sight, as, advancing toward
his old friend, with a face beaming with delight and
with extended hands, he broke forth in the following
impromptu:
"Witty as Horatius Flaccus,
As great-a Jacobin as Gracchus;
Short, though not as fat, as Bacchus,
Riding on a little jackass."
These lines were afterward repeated by some one
to Mr.-     at Holland House, just before he was introduced for the first time to Mr. Jeffrey, and they
caught his fancy to such a degree that he could not get
them out of his head, but kept repeating them in a low
voice all the time Mr. Jeffrey was conversing with him.
I must end Bitty's history, as he has been introduced,
by saying that he followed us to Foston; and, after
serving us faithfully for thirteen years, on our leaving
Yorkshire was permitted by our kind friend Lord Carlisle to spend the rest of his days in idleness and plenty,
in his beautiful park, with an unbounded command of
thistles.
My father meanwhile had entered into various negotiations with different clergymen to effect an exchange
of livings, but the conditions imposed by Lord Eldon
had hitherto prevented them from being carried into
effect.




142    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


He continued, therefore, to drive over every week
to do duty at his living. One Sunday (to show the
very primitive state of the villagers), just as he was
about to enter the church, there was a general rush of
the clerk, the sexton, the churchwardens, and principal
farmers after him, who, with agitated countenances, exclaimed, "Please your honor, a coach, a coach!"  My
father, with a calmness that filled them with wonder,
said, "Well, well, my good friends, stand firm, never
mind; even though there should be a coach, it will do
us no harm; let us see." And certainly a carriage
was seen approaching, such as rarely appeared in those
parts; and as it advanced rapidly toward the little miserable hovel which had once been the parsonage-house,
it was discovered to contain a very fashionable lady.
The lady turned out to be Mrs. Apreece, on her way
from Scotland, bringing letters of introduction to my
father, whom she was anxious to hear preach; and this
was the beginning of an acquaintance which afterward ripened into intimacy, and several of the most
amusing of his letters are addressed to her, under her
more celebrated name of Lady Davy.    She and Sir
Humphry in after-times not unfrequently put up at the
Rector's Head (as my father -used to call his house),
and no landlord could rejoice more in "a run on the
road," or more cordially welcome the sight of an old
friend.




CHAPTER VII.
Builds House.-Removes to Foston.-Description of Establishment.Visit of Sir James Mackintosh.-Becomes a Magistrate.-Visit to
Newgate with Mrs. Fry, and Sermon.-Visit to Sir G. Philips in
Immortal.-Forms the Acquaintance of the Earl of Carlisle.-Death
of only Sister.-Last Visit of Mr. Horner.-Bad Harvest and Fever.
Exertions among the Poor.-Visit from Lord and Lady Holland. —
Leaves off Riding.-Description of Calamity. —Shopping and Anecdotes.-Sends Son to School. -Visits Lord Grey.- Account of
Travels.-Visit from Dr. Marcet.-Conversation, and Bunch.-Inscription for Duke of Bedford's Statue.-Anecdote of Lord -'s
Son.-Assizes.-Hunt's Trial.-Danger of bad Harvest.-Death of
Grattan.
THUS cheered by these occasional visits of his friends,
turning his back upon London and former habits, by
the aid of books and of the various new duties and interests he had created for himself, he contrived to pass
through three years not unpleasantly or unprofitably;
but, not having succeeded in his object of exchange,
he, according to his promise to the Archbishop, set
vigorously to work to build his house, and accomplished
it in nine months after laying the first stone.   But he
shall-here tell his own tale, as I have heard it-at various
times in detached portions.
"A diner-out, a wit, and a popular preacher, I was
suddenly caught up by the Archbishop of York, and
transported to my living in Yorkshire, where there had
not been a resident clergyman for a hundred and fifty
years. Fresh from London, not knowing a turnip from
a carrot, I was compelled to farm three hundred acres,
and without capital to build a parsonage-house.
"I asked and obtained three years' leave from      the




144     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
Archbishop, in order to effect an exchange, if possible;
and fixed myself meantime at a small village two miles
from York, in which was a fine old house of the time
of Queen Elizabeth, where resided the last of the squires,
with his lady, who looked as if she had walked straight
out of the Ark, 0or had been the wife of Enoch. He
was.a perfect specimen of the Trullibers of old; he
sroked, hunted, drank beer at his door with his grooms
and dogs, and spelt over the county paper on Sundays.
"At first, he. heard I was a Jacobin and a dangerous
fellow, and turned aside as I passed: but at length,
when he found the peace of the village undisturbed,
harvests much as usual, Juno and Ponto uninjured, he
first bowed, then called, and at last reached such a
pitch of confidence that he used to bring the-.papers,
that I might explain the difficult words to him; actually discovered that' I had made a joke, laughed till I
thought he would have died of convulsions, and ended
by inviting. me to see his dogs.' All my efforts for an exchange having failed, I
asked and obtained-from my friend the Archbishop another year to build in. And I then set my shoulder to
the wheel in good earnest-; sent for an architect; he
produced plans which would have ruined me, I made
him my bow:'You build for glory, sir; I, for use.'
I returned him his plans, with five-and-twenty pounds,
and sat down in my thinking-chair, and in a few hours
Mrs.. Sydney and I concocted a plan which has produced what I call the model of parsonage-houses.
"I then took to horse to provide bricks and timber;
was advised to make my own bricks, of my own clay;
of course, when the kiln was opened, all bad;- mounted
my horse again, and in twenty-four hours had bought
thousands of bricks and tons of timber.'Was advised
by neighboring gentlemen to employ- oxen: bought four




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


145


-Tug and Lug, Hawl and Crawl; but Tug and Lug
took to fainting, and required buckets of sal-volatile,
and Hawl and Crawl to lie down.in the mud. So I
did as I ought to have done at first-took the advice
of the farmer instead of the gentleman; sold my oxen,
bought a team of horses, and at last, in spite of a frost
which delayed me six weeks, in spite of walls running
down with wet, in spite of the advice and remonstrances
of friends who predicted our death, in spite of an infant
of six months old, who had never been out of the house,
I landed my family in my new house nine months after
laying the first stone, on the 20th of March; and performed my promise to the letter to the Archbishop, by
issuing forth at midnight with a lantern to meet the last
cart, with the cook and the cat, which had stuck in the
mud, and fairly established them before twelve o'clock
at night in the new parsonage-house-a feat, taking
ignorance, inexperience, and poverty into consideration,
requiring, I assure you, no small degree of energy.
"It made me a very poor man for many years, but
I never repented it. I turned schoolmaster, to educate
my son, as I could not afford to send him to school.
Mrs. Sydney turned schoolmistress, to educate my girls,
as I could not afford a governess. I turned farmer, as
I could not let my land. A man-servant was too expensive; so I caught up a little garden-girl, made like
a milestone, christened her Bunch, put a napkin in her
hand, and made her my butler. The girls taught her
to read, Mrs. Sydney to wait, and I undertook her
morals; Bunch became the best butler in the county.
"I had little furniture, so I bought:a cart-load of
deals; took a carpenter (who'canie to me for parish relief, called Jack Robinson), wVith a face like a full-moon,
into my service; established him in a barn, and said,'Jack, furnish my house.' You see the result!
VOL. I.-G




146    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"At last it was suggested that a carriage was much
wanted in the establishment; after diligent search, I
discovered in the back settlements of a York coachmaker an ancient green chariot, supposed to have been
the earliest invention of the kind. I brought it home
in triumph to my admiring family. Being somewhat
dilapidated, the village tailor lined it, the village blacksmith repaired it; nay (but for Mrs. Sydney's earnest
entreaties), we believe the village painter would have
exercised his genius upon the exterior; it escaped this
danger, however, and the result was wonderful. Each
year added to its charms: it grew younger and younger;
a new wheel, a new spring; I christened it the Imnmortal; it was known all over the neighborhood; the
village boys cheered it, and the village dogs barked at
it; but'Faber mesa fortuna' was my motto, and we
had no false shame.
"Added to all these domestic cares, I was village
parson, village doctor, village comforter, village magis.
trate, and Edinburgh Reviewer; so you see I had not
much time left on my hands to regret London.
"My house was considered the ugliest in the county,
but all admitted it was one of the most comfortable;
and we did not die, as our friends had predicted, of the
damp walls of the parsonage."
This year (1813) was one of great exertion and anxiety to him, both in body and mind; he calculated that
in the course of it he must have ridden several times
round the world, in going backward and forward from
Heslington to his living, as the offices of architect,
superintendent of the works, farmer, clergyman, schoolmaster, were all centred in his person; while, to add to
his anxieties and responsibilities, in September of this
year another son was born to him.
Soon after engaging on the building of his house, the




MBEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


147


Archbishop, who had been made more fully aware of
the difficulties of my father's situation, through the kind
intervention of Mr. Harcourt and other friends, sent my
father most unexpectedly his formal permission to avoid
building. On hearing this, my father received many
letters of remonstrance from Mr. Allen, and his kind
friends at Holland House, who always hoped that some
exchange might turn up to restore him again to the
south; and indeed were constantly making exertions to
accomplish this object; but as the negotiations failed,
I have not named them. They were most unwilling
that he should embark in an undertaking which they
knew would hamper him for so many years to come.
But my father felt it was his duty to himself, to his
parish, and to the Archbishop, whose indulgence it
would be base. to abuse; and being thoroughly con.
vinced of this, he persevered, in spite of this strong
temptation; though the necessity of making farm-build,
ings, as well as a house, absorbed not only all his available capital, but left him with a heavy debt besides.
At last, however, the deed was done, and I well remember the landing at Foston, March, 1814. Indeed
how should I forget it?-a day of such difficulty, discomfort, bustle, and delight, seldom occurs twice in one
life.
It was a cold, bright March day, with a biting east
wind. The beds we left-in the morning had to be
packed up and slept on at night; wagon after wagon
-of furniture poured in every minute; the roads were so
cut up that the carriage could not reach the door; and
my mother lost her shoe in the mud, which was ankledeep, while bringing her infant up to the house in her
arms.
But oh, the shout of joy as we entered and took possession!-the first time in our lives that we had in



148     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
habited a house of our own. How we admired it, ugly
as it was! With what pride my dear father welcomed
us, and took us from room to room; old Molly Mills,
the milk-woman, who had had charge of the house,
grinning with delight in the background. We thought
it a palace; yet the drawing-room had no door, the
bare plaster walls ran down with wet, the windows were
like ground-glass from the moisture which had to be
wiped up several times a day by the housemaid. No
carpets, no chairs, nothing unpacked; rough men bringing in rougher packages at every moment. But then
was the time to behold my father!-amidst the confusion, he thought for every body, cared for every body,
encouraged every body, kept everybody in good-humor.
How he exerted himself! how his loud, rich voice might
be heard in all directions, ordering, arranging, explaining, till the household storm gradually subsided! Each
half-hour improved our condition; fires blazed in every
room; at last:we all sat down to our tea, spread by
ourselves on a huge package before the drawing-room
fire, sitting on boxes round it; and retired to sleep on
our beds placed on the floor-the happiest, merriesti
and busiest family in Christendom. In a few days,
under my father's active exertions, every thing was arranged with tolerable comfort in the little household,
and it began to assume its wonted appearance.
In speaking of the establishment of Foston, Annie
Kay must not be forgotten.  She entered our service at
nineteen years of age, but possessing a degree of sense
and lady-like feeling not often found in her situation of
life-first as nurse, then as lady's-maid, then. housekeeper, apothecary's boy, factotum, and friend. All who
have been much at Foston or Combe Florey know Annie
Kay; she was called into consultation on every family
event, and proved herself a worthy oracle. Her coun



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


149


sels were delivered in the softest voice, with the sweetest smile, and in the broadest Yorkshire. She ended
by nursing her old master through his long and painful
illness, night and day; she was with him at his death;
she followed him to his grave; she was remembered in
his will; she survived him but two years, which she
spent in my mother's house; and, after her long and
faithful service of thirty years, was buried by my mother in the same cemetery as her master, respected and
lamented by all his family, as the most faithful of servants- and friends.
So much for the interior of the establishment. Outof-doors reigned Molly Mills-cow, pig, poultry, garden, and post woman; with'her short red petticoat, her
legs like millposts, her high cheek-bones red and shriveled like winter apples; a perfect specimen of a "yeowoman;" a sort of kindred spirit, too; for she was the
wit of the village, and delighted in a crack with her
master, when she could get it.  She was as important
in her vocation as Annie Kay in hers; and Molly here,
and Molly there, might be heard in every direction.
Molly was always merry, willing, active, and true as
gold; she had little book-learning, but enough to bring
up two fine athletic sons, as honest as herself; though,
unlike her, they were never seen to smile, but were as
solemn as two owls, and would not have said a civil
thing to save their lives. They ruled the farm. Add
to these the pet donkey, Bitty, already introduced to
the public; a tame fawn, at last dismissed for eating the
maid's clothes, which he preferred to any other diet; and
a lame goose, condemned at last to be roasted for eating
all the fruit in the garden; together with Bunch and
Jack Robinson, already mentioned-and you have the
establishment.
As magistrates were much wanted in our neighbor



150    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


hood, my father had now, in addition to his numerous
avocations, taken upon himself the duties of a Justice
of the Peace. He set vigorously to work to study Blackstone,:and made himself master of as much law as possible, instead of blundering on, as many of his neighbors were content to do. Partly- by this knowledge,
partly by his good-humor, he gained a considerable influence in the quorum, which used to meet once a fortnight at the little inn, called the Lobster-house; and the
people used to say they were "going to get a little -of
Mr. Smith's lobster-sauce."  By dint of his powerful
voice, and a little wooden hammer, he prevailed on Bob
and Betty to speak one at a time; he always tried, and
often succeeded, in turning foes into friends. Having
a horror of the Game laws, then in full force, and knowing, as he states- in his speech on the Reform Bill,
that for every ten pheasants which- fluttered in the wood
one English peasant was rotting in jail, he was always
secretly on the side of the poacher (much to the indignation of his fellow-magistrates, who in a poacher saw
a monster of iniquity), and always contrived, if possible, to let him escape, rather than commit him to jail,
with the certainty of his returning to the world an accomplished villain. He endeavored to avoid exercising his function as magistrate in his own village when
possible, as he wished to be at peace with all his parishioners.
Young delinquents he never could bear to commit;
but read them a severe lecture, and in extreme cases
called out, "John, bring me my private gallows!"
which infallibly brought the little urchins weeping on
their knees, and, "-Oh! for God's sake, your honor,
pray forgive us I" and his honor used graciously to pardon them for this time, and delay the arrival of the private gallows, and seldom had occasion to repeat the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


151


-threat. Indeed the subject of imprisonment occupied
his mind so much, that during a visit to town, having been much interested by the account of Mrs. Fry's
benevolent exertions in prisons, he requested permission to accompany her to Newgate; and I have heard
him say he never felt more deeply affected or impressed
than by the beautiful spectacle he there witnessed; it
made him, he said, weep like a child. In a sermon he
preached shortly after, he introduced the following passage:
"There is a spectacle which this town now exhibits,
that I will venture to call the most solemn, the most
Christian,'the most affecting which any human being
ever witnessed. To see that holy woman in the midst
of the wretched prisoners; to see them all calling earnestly upon God, soothed by her voice, animated by
her look, clinging to the hem of her garment; and worshiping her as the only being who has ever loved them,
or taught them, or noticed them, or spoken to them of
God! This is the sight which breaks down the pageant
of the world; which tells us that the short hour of
life is passing away, and that we must prepare by some
good deeds to meet God; that it is time to give, to
pray, to comfort; to go, like this blessed woman, and
do the work of our heavenly Saviour, Jesus, among
the guilty, among the broken-hearted and the sick, and
to labor in the deepest and darkest wretchedness of
life."
In February, 1815, we set out on a visit to the late
Sir George Philips; and great was the generalship,
and various the contrivances to persuade the far-famed
Immortal to convey us all safely over Blackstone Edge,
a sort of Alps between Yorkshire and Lancashire, in
the depths of winter; but under such a Hannibal, all
prospered, and the Immortal covered itself with glory.




152    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


In this house we spent some weeks so agreeablyI believe, I may say, to both parties-that the visit
was by mutual consent repeated every two or three
years. There was a constant succession of agreeable
guests; and our kind host so reveled in my father's humor, that he was incessantly stimulating him to attack
him, which my father certainly did most vigorously; yet
I believe no one present enjoyed these attacks more than
Sir George himself, who laughed at them almost to exhaustion.
After our return home, the chief event in the course
of the summer, which broke the even tenor of our lives,
was a first visit from our great neighbors, Lord and
Lady Carlisle. Though not begun under the most favorable auspices, it must be mentioned in these simple
annals; as from this visit proceeded not only much
agreeable society, but twenty years of such warm friendship; such delicate, unvarying, unoppressive kindness;
such essential benefits, from every member of that family, both old and young, as must be always remembered
with gratitude by us, contributing as they did to the
pleasure and comfort of my father's life, and giving him
a command of books and society, which would otherwise have been quite out of his reach.
Our infant colony was still in so rude a state, that
roads, save for a. cart, had hardly been thought of, when
suddenly a cry wa)s raised, that a coach and four, with
outriders, was plunging about in the midst of a plowed
field near the house, and showing signals of distress.
Plowmen and plow-women were immediately sent off
to the rescue, and at last the gold coach (as Lady Carlisle used to call it), which had mistaken the road, was
guided safely up to the house, and the kind old Lord
and Lady, not a little shaken, and a little cross at so
rough a reception, entered the parsonage; but the shakes




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


153


were soon forgotten, and good-humor restored; and after
some severe sarcasms on the state of the approach to
our house on the part of the old Earl, and promises of
amendment on the part of my father, Lord Carlisle*
drove off, and made us promise to come and stay with
him at Castle Howard.
This was the first and last difficulty he ever found
in coming to Foston.  From this time a week seldom
passed without his driving over to occupy his snug corner by the parsonage fireside, where his conversation
was so epigrammatic and full of anecdotes of past times,
that it was always a most agreeable half hour to old
and young. He never went away without leaving some
little gift in the shape of game, fruit, flowers, or other
tokens of kindness.
In 1816, my father lost his only sister, Maria, my
mother's earliest friend.  Charming in mind and character,t she had very delicate health, and lived unmarried
with her father at Bath; my father was much attached
to her, and felt her: loss severely. - He says, in a letter,
"The loss of a person whom I would have cultivated
as a friend, if nature had not given her to me as a relation, is a serious evil."  We all went to see my grandfather in consequence of her death, and remained some
time with him.
On our return home, our poor friend Mr. Horner,
whose health had been gradually failing, and had given
great anxiety to all his friends, was condemned to go
and end his sh6rt but noble career in a foreign land;
and came to make his farewell visit to us at Foston,
where he was loved and valued as a brother. His mind
appeared more pure and beautiful than ever; -but it was
* Grandfather of the present Earl of Carlisle.
f Bobus used to say she had carried off all the good temper of the
family.
GC




15o4    MiEM(OIR0 OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


a melancholy visit, extinguishing all hope, for death was
stamped on his brow. Yet, young as he was, his virtues had created, in the hearts of all who knew him, a
lasting monument of love and esteem, which death only
can destroy. My father says, in the sketch he wrote
of Mr. Horner, " There was in his look a calm, settled
love of all that was honorable and good-an air of wisdom and of sweetness; you saw at once that he was a
great man, whom nature had intended for a leader of
human beings. You ranged yourself willingly under
his banners, and cheerfully submitted to his sway."
He died at Pisa the following spring, attended by his
brother, and soothed by the frequent society and regard
of the Miss Aliens, his early friends, who happened to
be staying there: a death so mourned by his country,
that I see Sir James Mackintosh says, " Never was so
much honor paid in any age or nation to intrinsic claims
alone: a man of thirty-eight, of obscure birth, who never
filled an office, or had the power of obliging a single
living creature, and whose grand title to this distinction
from an English House of Commons was the belief of
his virtue.". My father speaks of his feelings on this
loss,:.in the following letter to Mr. Homer's younger
brother:
"FOSTON, March 23, 1817.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"I remember no misfortune of my life which I have
felt so deeply as the loss of your brother. I never saw
any man who combined together so much talent, worth,
and warmth of heart; and we lived together in habits
of great friendship and affection for many years. I
shall always retain a most lively and affectionate remembrance of him to the day of my death. We shall
be most happy to see you here if you can make us a
visit; I shall always meet you with those sentiments




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


155


of regard and respect which are due to yourself, but
never without deep feelings of grief and emotion.
"God bless you!
"S. S.
"I beg of you to give my very kind regards to your
father and mother; it is in vain to speak of their loss,
to write to them: I dare not do it."
And again, in a letter to Ir. Whishaw, he says:
" March 26, 1817.
" MY DEAR WHISHAW,
"I have received a melancholy fragment from poor
Horner-a letter half finished at his death. I can not
say how much I was affected by it; indeed, on looking
back on my own mind, I never remember to have felt
an event more deeply than his death. It is very requisite that there should be a monument to Horner: it will
be some little satisfaction to us all."
And in another, he says:
"I say nothing of the great and miserable loss we
have'all sustained. He will always live in our recollection; and it will be useful to us all, in the great occasions of life, to reflect how Horner would act and think
in them, if God had prolonged his life."
This year, 1816, from the failure of the harvest, the
distress among the poor was excessive.  The wheat
was generally sprouted throughout the country, and
unfit for bread; and good flour was not only dear, but
hardly to be procured. We, like our poorer neighbors,
being unable to afford it, were obliged to consume our
own sprouted wheat; and we lived therefore a whole
year, without tasting bread, on thin, unleavened, sweettasting cakes, like frost-bitten potatoes, baked on tins,




156    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


the only way of using this damaged flour. The luxury
of returning to bread again can hardly be imagined
by those who have never been deprived of it.  All
this bad food produced much illness among our poor
neighbors; and a fever of a very dangerous and infectious kind broke out in our village.- My father was
indefatigable in his exertions among them, going from
cottage to cottage, and providing. them. with food and
medicine, and seeing that they were properly attended
to: his medical skill stood him in good stead now. He
found it impossible at first to prevent the peasants from
crowding into the infected houses, till the number of
deaths so alarmed them, that at last he had equal difficulty in making them go at all, or in obtaining nurses
for the sick, or people even to convey the bodies to the
grave, till he shamed them into it, by threatening to become one of the bearers himself. 
He was much struck by the heroic conduct of some
of the Quakers of the village, who,- amidst the general
panic, were constant and active in their attention to the
sick. "Are you aware of the danger?" said my father.
"Oh, we have no fears; we are in the hands of God,
thou knowest," was the reply.
During the summer, Lord and Lady Holland came
to look at the new parsonage-house, and pass judgment
upon it, in their way to the North. They left their eldest daughter under my mother's care during their absence, to our great happiness; during whose stay, Mr.
Rogers spent a week at Foston, charming old and young
by his kindness and inexhaustible fund of anecdote.
Sir H. Davy, Mr. Warburton, and various others, also
found their way to the "Rector's Head" during the
summer.
My father at this period was in the habit of riding
a good deal, but, either from the badness of his horses




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


157


or the badness of his-riding, or perhaps from both (in
spite of his various ingenious contrivances to keep himself in the saddle), he had several falls, and kept us in
continual anxiety. He writes, in a letter, "I used to
think a fall from a horse dangerous, but much experience has convinced me to the contrary. I have had
six falls in two years, and just behave like the three
per cents when they fall-I got up again, and am not'
a bit the worse for it, any more than the stock in question.'  In speaking of this, -he says, "I left off riding,
for the good of my parish and the peace of my family;
for, somehow or other, my horse and I had a habit of
parting company. On one occasion I found myself suddenly prostrate in the streets of York, much to the delight of the Dissenters. Another time, my horse Calamity flung me over his head into a neighboring parish, as if I had been a shuttlecock, and I felt grateful
it- was not into a neighboring planet but as no harm
came of it, I might have persevered perhaps, if, on a
certain day, a Quaker tailor from a neighboring village, to which I had said I was going to ride, had not
taken it into his head to call, soon after my departure,
and request to see Mrs. Sydney.  She instantly, conceiving I was thrown, if not killed, rushed down to
the man, exclaiming,'Where is he? where is your
master? is he hurt?'  The astonished and quaking
snip stood silent from surprise.  Still more agitated
by his silence, she exclaimed,'Is he hurt?  I insist
upon knowing the worst.''Why, please, ma'am, it is
only thy little bill, a very small account, I wanted thee
to settle,' replied he, in much surprise. After-this, you
may suppose, I sold my-horse; however, it is some comfort to know that my friend Sir George is one fall ahead
of me, and is certainly a worse rider. It is a great proof,
too, of the liberality of this county, where every body




158     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
can ride as soon as they are born, that they tolerate me
at all."
The horse Calamity, whose name has been thus introduced, was the first-born of several young horses
bred on the farm, who turned out very fine creatures,
and gained him great glory, even among the knowing farmers of Yorkshire; but this first production was
certainly not encouraging. To his dismay, a huge, lank,
large-boned foal appeared, of chestnut color, and with
four white legs. It grew apace, but its bones became
more and more conspicuous; its appetite was unbounded-grass, hay, corn, beans, food moist and dry, wereall supplied in vain, and vanished down his throat with
incredible rapidity.  He stood, a large living: skeleton, with famine.written in his face, and my father
christened him Calamity. As Calamity-grew to maturity, he was found to be as sluggish in disposition as
his master was impetuous; so my father was driven
to invent,- his patent Tantalus, which consisted of a
small sieve of corn, suspended on a semicircular bar
of iron, from the ends of the shafts, just beyond the
horse's nose.  The corn, rattling as the vehicle proceeded, stimulated Calamity to unwonted exertions; and
under the hope of overtaking this imaginary feed, he did
more work than all the previous provender which had
been poured down- his throat had been able to obtain
from him.
He was very fond of his young horses, and they all
came running to meet him when he entered the field.
He began their education from their birth: he taught
them to wear a girth, a bridle, a saddle, to meet flags,
music, to bear the firing of a pistol at their heads, from
their- earliest years, and he maintained that no horses
were so well broken as his.
After our establishment at Foston, an old lady, the




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159


widow of an artist, a woman of some fortune, large dimensions, considerable talents, and much oddity, came
to establish herself in a small cottage at no great distance, and was so delighted with her neighbor, that she
kindly offered to drop in (as she said) frequently to tea.
My father, though the most sociable of human beings,
felt rather alarmed at this threatened invasion of his
privacy; yet, unwilling to hurt the old lady, he at last
bethought himself of writing a most comical letter, full
of all sorts of imaginary facts, to her, accepting her offer,
only begging to have full notice of her approach: " for,"
said he, "at home I sit-in an old coat, which may have
a hole in it, now I like to appear before you in my best.
When- alone we have the black kettle, we should have
the urn for you; Bunch would have on her clean apron
and her hair brushed, etc., etc."  This answered very
well to both parties. But the tale goes further. The
good widow, ripe in years, at last died, leaving her property to an amiable young female friend, whom she had
adopted, and who thus became our neighbor. About
the same time, an Italian refugee, of very good family,
had come to settle at York, and most honorably endeavored to support himself by giving lessons in Italian. He
brought letters of introduction to my father from Lord
Holland, who had known him or his family in Italy.
We found him a man of talent, cultivation, and high
feeling, and the more we saw of him the more we liked
him. The Count and our neighbor frequently met at
our house, and seeming mutually to like each other, my
father thought it right to make further inquiries respecting the character of the former, and finding it most satisfactory, he promoted their intercourse, and it ended in
a marriage from our house. The evening before the
marriage, my father, fearing the poor Count, from the
necessary preparations for his marriage, might possibly




160     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
be in some little difficulty for his immediate necessities,
delicately offered to assist him; but, with a burst of
gratitude, in his own beautiful tongue he exclaimed joyously, "No, no; thank God, I have paid every debt I
owed in the world, and have still this in my pocket!"
holding forth half-a-crown.
He did not live very many years to enjoy his good
fortune, but we had frequent opportunities during that
period of hearing of their mutual happiness.
It was somewhere about this period, I believe, that,
by Lord Ossory's death, the living of Ampthill, then
vacant, came into his nephew, Lord Holland's, gift;
and he immediately wrote, with his usual kindness, to
offer it to my father. But being untenable with Foston,
and of inferior value, my father was obliged to relinquish
what to him would have been a source of constant enjoyment, the: vicinity to Lord Holland and to all his
early friends; and to turn his mind, with renewed vigor,
to the growing necessities of his little northern colony,
which had suffered for the moment by this change of
prospects put before him.
Nothing was more amusing than to accompany my
father in a round of shopping, or providing for the ship,
as he called it. On entering a shop where he was known,
all were eager to serve him. Gradually, as he talked,
all other business was suspended; and you often saw
both customer and shop-boy forgetting their own business, and turning round to listen. In five minutes lie
seemed to know more of each man's trade than lie knew
himself, and had extracted from him, before he was
aware, not only all he meant to tell, but all he meant
to conceal; and was off on his road again, laden with
useful knowledge, before the astonished burgher was
aware of the wisdom which had gone out of him.
One day, when we were on a visit at Bishopthorpe,




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161


soon after he-had preached a visitation sermon, in which,
among other things, he had recommended the clergy not
to devote too much time to shooting and hunting, the
Archbishop, who rode' beautifully in his youth, and
knew full well my father's deficiencies in this respect,
said, smiling and evidently much amused, "I hear,
Mr. Smith, you do not approve of much riding for the
clergy?"  "Why, my Lord," said my father, bowing
with assumed gravity, "perhaps there is not much objection, provided they do not ride too well, and stick
out their toes professionally."  Mr. M., a Catholic gentleman present, looked out of the window of the room
in which they were sitting.  "Ah, I.see, you think
you will get out," said my father, laughing, "but you'
are quite mistaken; this is the wing where the Archbishop shuts up the Catholics; the other wing is full
of Dissenters."
Coming down one morning at Foston, I found Bunch
pacing up and down the passage before her master's
door, in a state of great perturbation.  "What is the
matter, Bunch?"  "Oh, ma'am, I can't get no peace
of mind till I've got master shaved, and he's so late this
morning; he's not come down yet." This getting master
shaved, consisted in making ready for him, with a large
painter's brush, a thick lather in a huge wooden bowl,
as big as Mambrino's helmet, which she always considered as the most important avocation of the morning.
Johnson says, "The truly strong and sound mind
is the mind that can embrace equally great things and
small." If this definition be just, my father's mind
fully deserved- these epithets, for he thought nothing
unworthy of his talents that could be improved by
them.' "I dislike those large white blinds," I remember he said on one occasion; "I can't afford painted
ones; now, girls, why not try patchwork?  Get rich




162    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


glazed cottons, combine your colors well, and select a
classical pattern, and I am sure the effect will be very
good." We exclaimed, laughed at him, remonstrated,
declared it would be hideous, but obeyed. Each took
a window; and under my mother's skillful direction,
much to our own surprise, executed his idea with such
success that the Combe Florey and Foston blinds excited universal admiration; and there are many now
alive who, I daresay, remember them, and some who
imitated them.
In the summer, hearing that an old friend, a lawyer
of great eminence, with his family, had been unexpectedly detained at York by the dangerous illness of a near
relation, while his two little girls were pining for fresh.
air after the hooping-cough, which they had just had,
my father immediately insisted that they should be sent
to Foston, and intrusted to my mother's care. This
made us-a little anxious, as he had never had the complaint himself: a rule therefore was made, that the dear
little girls were never to approach him nearer than arm
and stick length. I can see him even now, laughingly
warding them off, or running away from them in the
garden at Foston, to their great delight, while they pursued, and their bright young faces in merry conference
with him at the end of his stick. Years and years have
passed away since that time, and they, after-having
grown up into that beauty of mind and body which so
fitted them for it, have' long, long since, I will not say
sunk into their graves, but risen to that heaven, of
which their pure and blameless lives made all who knew
them feel they were so worthy. No evil ensued; and
this little incident only served to cement still closer a
friendship of many years' standing. I only allude to it
now to show my father's forgetfulness of self where his
heart was concerned.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


163


He never indulged in any pleasures in which his family did not share. Passionately fond of books, he hardly
added one volume, through all his years of poverty, to
the precious little store he brought down with him from
London; though without a Cyclopaedia, or many of those
books of reference, of wlich he so often felt the want in
his literary pursuits. These circumstances render yet
more remarkable all that he has said and done during
this period. When a present of books arrived (no very
unfrequent event) from some.of his kind old friends, who
knew-the pleasure it would afford, he was almost childlike in his delight, particularly if the binding was gay;
and I have often been summoned (in my office of librarian, which I held, together with that of apothecary's
boy) to arrange and re-arrange them on the shelves,
in order to place them in the most conspicuous situation.
We had all our offices: he appointed my sister (who,
from her talents, was well fitted for this office), to be
his Livy; and we have often laughed over his suggestions as to how our domestic events ought to be recorded for the advantage of posterity. But his Livy was
carried off too young, I fear, to have made any progress
in her-history.  MIy dear mother, from her skill in domestic economy, he christened Mrs. Balwhidder, in allusion to that pretty tale by Galt, called "Annals-of
the Parish," which he delighted in. Annie Kay was
prime minister; in short, my father infused something
of his spirit into the most commonplace events of life,
and he could not order even a dose of physic for his
carter but there was fun and originality in the act.
It is said that nobody could stand with Burke under
a doorway in a shower of rain without finding him out
to be an extraordinary man: so, of my father, I have
heard it often said that it was impossible to converse




164    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


with him for fivel minutes, and not feel he was not like
other men. I have seen him melt an exquisite of the
first water, in a most amusing manner. Being very
punctual (too punctual indeed-it was the only virtue
he made disagreeable), he not unfrequently arrived to
dinner before the lady of the house was dressed, and
received her company for her. A dandy would appear
all glorious without, whose neckcloth, shirt, and white
gloves were unimpeachable, and the evident result of
profound study; and who, not having been introduced,
of course, in true English style, appeared unconscious
that another mortal was in the same room with him.
My father, whose neckcloth always looked like a pudding tied round his throat, and the arrangement of whose
garments seemed more the result of accident than design
(yet, I ought to add, as I am now writing for those who
knew him not, always looked like a gentleman, in its
best sense-that is, as one who deserved respect), eyed
him calmly for a minute, as if to take his measure, then
addressed him. The dandy started, and bowed stiffly
over his neckcloth.  The second observation made him
evidently say to himself, "Can that observation come
out of that neckcloth?" The third convinced him there
was something better, or at least equal to neckcloths
in the world; and by the time the lady of the house
arrived they had sworn eternal friendship.
In the summer of this year, 1817, my uncle and his
family joined us for a month at Scarborough, and- afterward returned with us to Foston; and it was during
this visit that, finding my father quite unable to afford
sending his eldest son, Douglas, to school, he most
kindly offered to assist him. Not thinking himself justified in refusing Douglas so great an advantage, my father accepted a hundred a year for this purpose; and
in the following year placed him at Westminster school,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


165


which he quitted some years after with great distinction, as Captain of the College.
In 1820 my father went on a visit of a few days to
Lord Grey's; then to Edinburgh to see Jeffrey and his
other -old friends; and returned by Lord Lauderdale's
house at Dunbar.  Speaking of this journey, he says,
"Most people sulk in stage-coaches, I always talk. I
have had some amusing journeys from this habit. On
one occasion, a gentleman in the coach with me, with
whom I had been conversing for some time, suddenly
looked out of the window as we approached York and
said,' There is a very clever marn, they say, but a d-s
odd, fellow, lives near here- Sydney Smith, I believe.''.He may be a very odd fellow,' said I, taking off my
hat to him and laughing,'and I dare say he is; but
odd as he is, he is here, very much at your service.'
Poor man! I thought- he would have sunk into his
boots, and vanished through the bed of the carriage, he
was so distressed; but I thought I had better tell him
at once, or-he might proceed to say I had murdered my
grandmother, which I must have resented, you know.
" On another occasion some years later, when going
to Brougham Hall, two raw Scotch girls got into the
coach in the dark, near Carlisle.'It is very disagreeable getting into a coach in the dark,' exclaimed one,
after arranging her bandboxes;'one can not see one's
company.''Very true, ma'am, and you have a great
loss in not seeing me, for I am a remarkably handsome
man.''No, sir! are you really?' said both.'Yes,
and. in. the flower of my youth.''What a pity!' said
they. We soon passed near a lamp-post: they both
darted forward to get a look at me.' La, sir, you seem
very stout.''Oh no, not at all, ma'am, it's only my
great coat.''Where are you going, sir?''To Brougham Hall.''Why, you must be a very remarkable man,




1G 6    MEMOIR OF THE REY. SYDNEY SMITH.
to be'going to Brougham Hall.''I am a very remarkable man, ma'am.' At Penrith they got out, after having talked incessantly, and tried every possible means
to discover who I was, exclaiming as they went off
laughing,'Well, it is very provoking we can't see you,
but we'll find out who you are at the ball; Lord
Broughamrn always comes to the ball at Penrith, and we
shall certainly be there, and shall soon discover your
name,-?'
In the summer, Dr. and Mrs. Marcet came with their
two daughters to spend some days with us.
Mrs.: Marcet writes: "Mr. Smith was talking after
breakfast with Dr. Marcet, in a very impressive and serious tone, on scientific subjects, and I was admiring the
enlarged. and philosophic manner in which he discoursed
on them, when suddenly starting up, he stretched out
his arms:and said,' Come, now let us talk a little nonsense.'.And then came such a flow of wit, and joke,
and anecdote, such a burst of spirits, such a charm and
freshness-of manner, such an irresistible laugh, that
Solomon himself would have yielded to the infection,
and called out, Nonsense forever!"
I have been told it is the opinion of one who knew
my father well, and whose opinion I value, that I have
hardly done justice to the more serious part of his character. If this be so, I have indeed done him grievous
wrong; for this was the foundation, or rather storehouse,
from which all his wit and imagination sprang, and
which gave them such value in the eyes of the world.
The expression of my father's face when at rest was
that of sense and dignity; and this was the picture of
his mind in the calmer and graver hours of life: but
when he found (as we sometimes do) a passage that
bore the stamp of immortality, his countenance in an
instant changed and lighted up, and a sublime thought,




~MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


167


sight, or. action, struck on his soul at once, and found a
kindred spark within it.
Mrs. Marcet has just spoken of his rapid transition
from sense to nonsense; I remember a similar instance of his rapid transition from gayety to the deepest
pathos. Some ladies walking with me, seeing my father
sitting at his singular writing establishment in the bay,
went in through his glorified windows, and established
themselves round his table, he talking in his gayest
and most animated manner;-in an instant his countenance and tone changed, and he gave expression to the
thought within him, with a pathos that touched all, for
there was a tear in every eye. Strange to say, vivid as
this scene is to my mind, I can neither recall a word
he said, nor the subject of the conversation; but it
struck me as an instance of great power. His reasoning powers are sufficiently before the world in his
works. He loved argument on serious and important
subjects, but always after his own fashion; throwing
aside all extraneous matter, and by two or three pointed
questions, marching up at once to the point. He argued
with -perfect temper in society, or if he saw the argument becoming long or warm, in a moment he dashed
over his opponent's trenches, and was laughingly attacking him on some fresh point. In sorrow or misfortune,
he used to say, the great sting was self-reproach. In
all the important affairs of life a man ought to make
every possible exertion that he can with honor, and
then, and not till then, sit down and cast his care upon
God, for he careth for him. I have heard him say,
"Some very excellent people tell you they dare not
hope; why do they not dare to hope? To me it seems
much more impious to dare to despair."  I have already
shown that he studied much, and had always some useful purpose in hand. The real way to improve, he said,




168      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
is not so much by varied reading, as by finding out
your weak points on any subject, and mastering them;
this was his constant practice. But to return to Mrs.
Marcet:
"I was coming down stairs the next morning (she
continues), when Mr. Smith suddenly said to Bunch,
who was passing,'Bunch, do you like roast duck or
boiled chicken?' Bunch had probably never tasted
either the one or the other in her life, but answered,
without a moment's hesitation,'Roast duck, please,
sir,' and disappeared. I laughed.'You may laugh,'
said he,'but you have no idea of the labor it has cost
me to give her that decision of character. The Yorkshire peasantry are the quickest and shrewdest in the
world, but you can never get a direct answer from them;
if you ask them even their own names, they always
scratch their heads, and say,' A's sur ai don't knaw,
sir;' but I have brought Bunch to such perfection,
that she never hesitates now on any subject, however
difficult. I am very strict with her. Would you like
to hear her repeat her crimes?  She has them by heart,
and repeats them every day.'
"'Come here, Bunch!' (calling out to her),'come
and repeat your crimes to Mrs. Marcet;' and Bunch, a
clean, fair, squat, tidy little girl, about ten or twelve
years of age, quite as a matter of course, as grave as
a judge, without the least hesitation, and with a loud
voice, began to repeat-' Plate-snatching, gravy-spilling, door-slamming, blue-bottle-fly-catching, and courtesy-bobbing.''Explain to Mrs. Marcet what bluebottle-fly-catching is.''Standing with my mouth open
and not attending, sir.''And what is courtesy-bobbing?''Courtesying to the centre of the earth, please,
sir.''Good girl! now you may go.' She makes a
capital waiter, I assure you; on state occasions Jack




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


169


Robinson, my carpenter, takes off his apron-and waits
too, and does pretty well, but he sometimes naturally
makes a mistake and sticks a gimlet into the bread
instead of a fork."'
Once, when we were on a visit at Lord --'s, we
were sitting with a large party at luncheon, when our
host's eldest son, a fine boy of between eight and nine,
burst into the room, and, running up to his father,
began a- playful skirmish with him; the boy, half in
play, half in earnest, hit his father in the face, who, to
earry on the joke, put up both his hands, saying, " Oh,
B-, you have put out my eye." In an instant the
blood mounted to the boy's temples, he flung his little
arms round his father, and sobbed in such a paroxysm
of grief and despair, that it was some time before even
his father's two bright eyes beaming on' him with pleasure could convince him of the truth, and restore him to
tranquillity.
When he left the room, my father, who had silently
looked with much interest and emotion on the scene,
said, "I congratulate you; I guarantee that boy;
make:your hearts easy; however he may be tossed
about the world, with those feelings, and such a heart,
he will:come out unscathed."
The father, one of those who consider their fortune
but as a loan, to be employed in spreading an atmosphere of virtue and happiness around- them as far as
their influence reaches, is now no more, and this son
occupies his place; but his widowed mother the other
day reminded me how true the prophecy had proved;
and the scene, was so touching that I can not resist giving it.
My father comically alludes to the solitary life we led
at this time, saying in one,of his letters to a friend,
" Let us know when you pass, and we will write a letter
VOL. I.-H




170     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


to tell you whether we are at home or not. It is.twenty to one against our being engaged, as-we only dine
out once in seven or eight years, and that septennial
exertion was made last year."
As our opportunities for society were thus few, my
father occasionally took lodgings for us during the assizes in York, which enabled us to see a great deal of
the principal lawyers on the northern circuit. Among
these were some of the early legal friends he had made
when first settling in his little house in Doughty Street,
such as Mr. Scarlett, Brougham, Parke, Tindal, and
many others then beginning life, but all since become
of high eminence in their profession. It was on the occasion of one of these York assizes that Lord Lyndhurst,
then Sir John Copley, came there on a special-retainer,
and dined with us, together with a large party of lawyers; and contributed not a little, by his powers of
conversation, to one of the most agreeable dinners I
ever remember. Little did we then guess how much he
was to contribute hereafter to the happiness and comfort
of my father's life. At this time Hunt's trial was going
on, and excited much interest in the public mind.. My
father attended through the whole trial, and has expressed in some of his letters how much he was struck
by the natural and untaught ability which Hunt evinced
in the conduct and defense of his cause.
This summer my father went with his family to
Bishop's Lydiard, in Somersetshire, to visit my grandfather, who, though a very old man, was still in high
vigor, both of body and mind; and, I think, more picturesque and agreeable than ever.
On our return in the autumn, we were in great danger
of having a repetition of the disastrous harvest of 1816,
from the precarious state of the weather; arid it was
only by my father's constant activity and energy that




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


171


it was prevented. For he infused, by his presence, approbation; and good-humor, such activity and good-will
among his workmen, that they volunteered to continue
their labors in relays all night, and persevered till the
harvest was saved; while he came among them continually, and took care to have large tables in the barn
covered with meat and drink for them.
Among the friends my father made at the later period
of his residence in London, was Mr. Grattan. Attracted
not only by what attracted all the world (Mr. Grattan's
high character and great abilities), but by his ardent
zeal for the two objects my father had always most at
heart-Ireland, and the Catholic question-he sought
every opportunity of cultivating Mr. Grattan's society
which the short visits he was now able to make to London afforded.
The death of this great man, which took place in
1820, about the period I am now arrived at, was ascribed in great measure to his coming over with a petition on the Catholic question, when in a state of health
which rendered him unfit for such exertion. My father
joined warmly in the general regret for the loss of such
a man, and, in an article in the Edinburgh Review, on
"Ireland," shortly after, expresses his admiration in a
sketch of his friend, which, being as short as it is
beautiful, I shall extract:
"Great men hallow a whole people, and lift up all
who live in their time. What Irishman does not feel
proud that he has lived in the days of Grattan? Who
has not turned to him for comfort, from the false friends
and open enemies of Ireland? who did not remember
him in the days of its burnings, wastings, and murders?
No government ever dismayed him-the world could
not bribe him-he thought only of Ireland: lived for




172    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
no other object, dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his
elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendor of
His astonishing eloquence.
"He was so born, so gifted, that poetry, forensic
skill, elegant literature, and all the highest attainments
of human genius were within his reach; but he thought
the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men
happy and free; and in that straight line he kept for
fifty years, without one side-look, one yielding thought,
one motive in his heart which he might not have laid
open to the view of God or man."




CHAPTER VIII.
Legacy.-Visit to Edinburgh.-Visits London: Popularity there.Letters to Home, and care of Parish.-Takes Son to Charterhouse.Visits Mr. Rogers.-Appointed Chaplain to High Sheriff.-Preaches
in Cathedral. —Anecdote at Spencer House.-Meeting of Clergy,
East Riding.-His Petition.-Speech.-Living of Londesborough.Goes to Paris.-Letter on receiving Irreligious Book.-Death of
Father.-Description of House by Friend.-Love of Chess and Singing.-Marriage of Youngest Daughter.-Becomes Canon of Bristol. —
Effect produced at Bristol.-History of Apologue, by Mr. Everett.
IT was about this time that an old lady, Aunt Mary by
name, who possessed considerable wealth, suddenly proposed to pay us a visit; and, as it seemed, so much
approved all she saw in the little establishment at Foston, that on her death, the following year, she left my
"father a most unexpected legacy.   Though not large, it
then seemed to us all unbounded wealth. On receiving
this accession of fortune, my father of course immediately released my uncle from the -contribution he had so
kindly made toward my brother's education.    His next
step was to call us all around him, saying, "You must
all share in this windfall: so choose something you
would like."  We all made our selection.
In the winter of this year, we all went to Edinburgh
on a visit to Lord Jeffiey, after ten years' absence on
our side; and a most agreeable visit we had; for, in
addition to the enjoyment of Lord Jeffrey's society at
every stray moment he could steal from    business, we
were received with open arms by all our old Scotch
friends; and when they do open their arms, there are
no people so kind and so hospitable as the Scotch.




1i4    MEMOIR OF TIlE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


In May, next year (1822), my father went up to stay
a short time in his brother's house in town, as indeed
he usually did every spring. And the rush of invitations, and the struggle for his society, would have been
quite enough to turn any head less strong than his.
Many weeks before he set off, invitations used to come
down into the country; and I have known him engaged
every night during his stay, for three weeks beforehand;
but in the midst of all this dissipation and popularity-he
never forgot his home and family. Every morning, at
breakfast, appeared his letter to my mother, giving an
account of his daily proceedings, together with minute
directions about his farm and parish; not always, it
must be admitted, in the most legible hand. A family
council was often held over his directions; once, so entirely without success, that, after many endeavors on
our part to decipher what they could be, as it seemed
urgent, my mother cut out the passage and inclosed it
to him; he returned it, saying, "he must decline ever
reading his own handwriting four-and-twenty hours after
lie had written it."  He was so aware of the badness of
his handwriting, that in a letter to Mr. Travers, who
wished to see one of his sermons, he says, "I would
send it to you with pleasure, but my writing is as if a
swarm of ants, escaping from an ink-bottle, had walked
over a sheet of paper without wiping their legs."  The
handwriting of his friend Lord Jeffrey was, if possible,
still more illegible; my father wrote to him, on receiving one of his letters, "' My dear Jeffrey-We are much
obliged by your letter, but should be still more- so were
it legible. I have tried to read it from left to right, and
Mrs. Sydney from right to left, and we neither of us
can decipher a single word of it."
The interests of his villagers, too, were not neglected.
On one occasion, in a broiling sun, with no other equi



MEMOIR OF TI-HE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

171


page than his umbrella, lie paced down to one of the
public offices to obtain some information about a young
soldier, the only son of a poor laborer and his wife, in
his village, who were in a great state of anxiety about
hiim, not having received any tidings for months. He
entered the office, hot, tired, and dusty, and I daresay
very ill-dressed; and proceeded to put the necessary
questions to one of the young officials, in all the splendor
of whisker and waistcoat; but, after much delay and
cool impertinence, obtained no satisfactory answer. He
then said, giving his card, and making his bow, "I
have but one other question to trouble you with, sir, and
that is your name; as I am about to proceed from this
door to call on your master. I came here, a country
clergyman, to perform my duty to my parish, and I
shall inform him how his servants perform theirs."
These words acted like magic. In an instant the youth
stood humbled before him, " entreating pardon and
silence; that he had nothing to depend on but his
office, and this would ruin him." My father of course
yielded, but warned him to let this be a useful lesson
for the future.
In the winter of the following year, about six o'clock
in the evening, we were assembled around a blazing
fire, waiting for dinner. The weather had been'unusually severe, and the roads were so filled by drifts of
snow, that they were considered quite impassable. The
butcher and the baker even could hardly make their
way on horseback to the house, and the front door was
so blocked up by snow as to be quite unapproachable.
Suddenly a tremendous peal was heard on the bell: all
started at the unwonted sound in such a season and at
such an hour, and were lost in conjectures what it could
mean. Bunch rushed to the door, and presently -entered the room breathless, exclaiming, "Please, sir, Lord




176    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


and Lady Makincrush is com'd in a coach-and-four, and
wants to stay with you, but they can't get up to the
front door!"  Who Lord and Lady Mackincrush could
be, and why they bestowed themselves upon us, was
alike a mystery. But Sydney, calling for a lantern,.
sallied forth, and found, to his no less joy than surprise,
his old friend Sir James Mackintosh and his daughter,
half buried in the snow. They were extracted,, warmed,
and welcomed, as such friends ought to be; or rather,
with such means as the little parsonage could furnish.
The next morning, when we were sitting at breakfast,
arrived, to our infinite amusement, Sir James's letter,
announcing his intended visit, and asking whether we
could receive him.
My father's sketch, in the Life of Sir James, shows
his estimate of this great man; and the keen enjoyment
his society ever afforded him was enhanced by the rarity
of their meeting, now that he was so far removed from
his former friends.
Sir James Mackintosh went after a few days; leaving
behind not recollections only, but hat, books, gloves, papers, and various portions of his wardrobe, with characteristic carelessness.  What a man that would be,"
said my father, "had he a particle of gall, or the least
knowledge of the value of red tape!"  As Curran said
of Grattan, "he would have governed the world."
In 1823, having received a presentation to the Charterhouse from the Archbishop of York, for his second
son, Wyndham, he took him there in the spring. While
lie was in town, Mr. Rogers says, "II had been ill some
weeks, confined to my bed. Sydney heard of it, found
me out, sat by my bed, cheered me, talked to me, made
me laugh more than I ever thought to have laughed
again.  The next day a bulletin was. brought to my
bedside, giving the physician's report of my case; tlhe




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.      177
following day the report was much worse; the next
day declaring there was no hope, and England would
have to mourn over the loss of her sweetest poet;
then I died amidst weeping friends; then came my funeral; and, lastly, a sketch of my character, all written by that pen which had the power of turning every
thing into sunshine and joy. Sydney never forgot his
friends!"
In the course of the summer a young friend came
to spend a month with us, the freshness and originality
of whose character both interested and amused my father; he chanced on one occasion to call her " a nice person."  " Oh, don't call me'nice,' Mr. Sydney; people
only say that where they can say nothing else." "Why?
have you ever reflected what'a nice person' means?"
"No, Mr. Sydney," said she, laughing, "but I don't
like it."  "Well, give me pen and ink; I will show
you," said my father, "a
" DEFINITION OF'A NICE PERSON.'
"A nice person is neither too tall nor too short, looks
clean.and cheerful, has no prominent feature, makes no
difficulties, is never misplaced, sits bodkin, is never foolishly affronted, and is void of affectations.
"A nice person helps you well at dinner, understands
you, is always gratefully received by young and old,
Whig and Tory, grave and gay.
"There is something in the very air of a nice person
which inspires you with confidence, makes you talk, and
talk without fear of malicious misrepresentation; you
feel that you are reposing upon a nature which God has
made kind, and created for the benefit and happiness of
society. It has the effect upon the mind which soft air
and a fine climate has upon the body.
"A nice person is clear of little, trumpery passions,
}t



178      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
acknowledges superiority, delights in      talent, shelters
humility, pardons adversity, forgives       deficiency, respects all men's rights, never stops the bottle, is never
long and never wrong, always knows the day of the
month, the name of every body at table, and never gives
pain to any human being.
"If any body is wanted for a party, a nice person is
the first thought of; when the child is christened, when
the daughter is married-all the joys of life are communicated to nice people; the hand of the dying man is
always held out to a nice person.
"A nice person never knocks over wine or melted
butter, does not tread upon the dog's foot, or molest the
family cat, eats soup without noise, laughs in the right
place, and has a watchful and attentive eye."
This same year, his eldest son, Douglas, having left
Westminster with great distinction (and been elected
Captain of the College, after struggling with unusual
difficulties), went in the autumn to Christ Church, Oxford.*  MIy father mentions, in the autumn of this year,
* "His father had always taught him the Eton grammar. The intention of sending him to Westminster was sudden. The change of
grammar was a dreadful difficulty, only a few months before the competition, which was to admit him as a King's scholar. In addition to
this, a most severe fever seized him shortly after he went to Westminster, and for six weeks kept him confined to his bed: but so eager
was he for success, for our sakes, that even while keeping his bed
from fever and weakness, he ever had his Westminster grammar under his pillow; and, too ill to get up, he. was incessantly working at
it, in spite of all we could say. The challenges last about six weeks;
there were, this year, twenty-eight candidates, of whom.eight:were
admitted; and dear Douglas was sixth, to our inexpressible joy; for
I verily believe it would have broken his heart had he failed, so very
desirous was he, on this first occasion-that had occurred in his young
life, to repay by his success all the anxious and agitating fears his
father had felt about him for the future. Having become a King's
scholar, the hardships and cruelties he suffered, as a junior boy, from
his master, were such as. at one time very nearly to compel us to re



-MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


179


in his letters, a most agreeable visit he. made.to Bowood,
meeting there Lord Holland,' Luttrell, Rogers, and some
other friends.
In 1824, my father took us for a short time to town,
Miss Vernon having kindly lent us her house in Hertford Street.  We returned to York for the assizes, as
he had been appointed by Sir John Johnstone (then
High Sheriff) his chaplain; and it:was upon this occasion that he preached in the Cathedral two remarkable sermons, upon the unjust judge, and the lawyer
who tempted Christ. There was great curiosity to hear
him, particularly among the lawyers on the Northern circuit, to most of whom he was personally known.
The cathedral was crowded to the utmost.      I well
remember the startling effect on every one present
when, after rising and looking round with that calm
dignity so peculiar to him in the pulpit, he slowly delivered, with his powerful voice (the two judges sit-'ting immediately opposite), this text: "God shall smite
thee, thou whited wall; for sittest thou to judge me
according to the law, and commandest me to be smitten. contrary to the law?"   From   this opening his
audience were little prepared for the following splendid eulogium  which he pronounced on the office of
an English judge, such as it is now exercised in this
country:
" He who takes the office of a judge, as it now exists
in this country, takes in his hands a splendid gem, good
and glorious, perfect and pure. Shall he give it up mutilated? shall he mar it? shall he darken it? shall it emit
no light? shall it be valued at no price? shall it excite
move him from the school. He was taken home for a short period,,to
recover from his bruises, and restore his eye. His first act, on becoming Captain himself, was to endeavor to ameliorate the condition of the
juniors, and to obtain additional comforts for them from the head-master." —Fro? nwy Mofother's Journal.




180    MEMOIR'OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


no wonder? shall he find it a diamond? shall he leave
it a stone?
"What should we say to the man who would willfully destroy with fire the magnificent temple of God in
which I am now preaching? Far worse is he who ruins
the moral edifice of the world, which time and toil, and
many prayers to God, and many sufferings of men have
reared; who puts out the light of the times in which he
lives, and leaves us to wander in the darkness of corruption and the desolation of sin.
"There may be, there probably is, in this church
some young man who may hereafter fill the office of an
English judge, when the greater part of those who hear
me this day are dead and gone. Let him remember my
words, and let them form and fashion his spirit. He
can not tell in what dangerous and awful times he may
be placed: but, as a mariner looks to his compass in
the calm, and looks to his compass in the storm, and
never keeps his eye off his compass, so in every vicissitude of a judicial life-deciding for the people, deciding
against the people-protecting the just rights of kings,
or restraining their unlawful ambition-let him ever
cling to that pure, exalted, and Christian independence
which towers over the little. motives of life, which no
hope of favor can influence, which no effort of power
can control."
During one of his visits to London, at a dinner at
Spencer House, the conversation turned upon dogs.
"Oh," said my father, "one of the greatest difficulties
I have had with my parishioners has been on the subject of dogs." "How so?" said Lord Spencer. "Why,
when I first went down into Yorkshire, there had not
been a resident clergyman in my parish for a hundred
and fifty years. Each farmer kept a huge mastiff dog,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITII.


181


ranging at large, and ready to make his morning meal
on clergy or laity, as best suited his particular taste; I
never could approach a cottage in pursuit of my calling,
but I rushed into the jaws of one of these shaggy monsters.  I scolded, preached, and prayed, without avail;
so I determined to try what fear for their pockets might
do. Forthwith appeared in the county papers a minute
account of a trial of a farmer, at the Northampton Sessions, for keeping dogs unconfined; where said farmer
was not only fined five pounds and reprimanded by the
magistrates, but sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The effect was wonderful, and the reign of Cerberus ceased in the land.   " That accounts," said Lord
Spencer, "for what has puzzled me and Althorp for
many years. We never failed to attend the sessions at
Northampton, and we never could find out how we had
missed this remarkable dog case."
In the year 1825, a meeting of the clergy of the diocese having been called in the East Riding of Yorkshire,
to petition Parliament against the emancipation of the
Catholics, was held at the Tiger Inn, at Beverley.  My
father, though much disliking such meetings, felt that,
if they were called, it was his duty to attend; and, attending, to speak. Two petitions were sent up to Parliament; one to the House of Lords, to be presented by
the Archbishop of York; the other to the Commons, by
Sir Robert Peel; which were acceded to unanimously
by all the clergy present, my father's being the only
dissentient voice.*
* "A Petition drawn up by the Rev. Sydney Smith, to be proposed at a
Meeting of the Clergy at Cleveland, in Yorkshire, in 1825.
"We, the undersigned, being clergymen of the Church of England,
resident within the Diocese of York, humbly petition your honorable
House to take into your consideration the state of those laws which affect the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland.
"We beg of you to inquire whether all those statutes, however wise




182       MEMllOI-t OF TIIE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
I see, in the very interesting Life of Dr. Bathurst,
Bishop of Norwich, lately published by his daughter,
that at an advanced age he stood alone in the House
of Lords to advocate the cause of religious toleration
against all the bench of Bishops.        She speaks with
honest pride of the just admiration his courage obtained
from his friends, and the gratitude of the Ministry.
But if this required such courage in the " Good Bishop," who came to that House with all the weight of the
family connection, whose influence first placed him there;
and invested with the dignity of high office; will it be
ungraceful in me to ask, what courage it required in my
father, still young, under a Tory administration, poor,
with a heavy debt still hanging over him, without family or friends to support him     there, to  come forward
alone, in opposition to the whole clergy of his diocese,
and necessary-in their origin, may not now (when the Church of England is rooted in the public affection, and the title to the throne undisputed) be wisely and safely repealed.
"We are steadfast friends to that Church of which we are members,
and we wish no law repealed which is really essential to its safety; but
we'sibnit to the superior wisdom of your honorable House, whether.that Church is not sufficiently protected by its antiquity, by its learning,
by its piety, and by that moderate tenor which it knows so well how to
preserve amidst the opposite excesses of mankind-the indifference of
one age, and the fanaticism of another.'"It is our earnest hope that any indulgence you might otherwise
think it expedient to extend to the Catholic subjects of this realm may
not be prevented by the intemperate conduct of some few members of
that persuasion; that in the great business of framing a lasting religious peace for these kingdoms, the extravagance of over-heated minds,
or the studied insolence of men who intend mischief, may be equally
overlooked.
" If your-honorable House should in your wisdom determine that all
these laws which are enacted against the Roman Catholics can not with
safety and' advantage be repealed, we then venture to express a hope
that such'disqualifying laws alone will be suffered to remain, which you
consider to be clearly required for the good of' the Church and State.
We feel the blessing of our own religious liberty, and we think it a seriouS duty to extend it to others, in every degree which sound discretion will permit."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.       183
to advocate the same cause? * In this speech he speaks
of the advance the Catholic question had made during
the session, from the astonishment of the House at the
union of the Irish Catholics; and then, alluding to the
effects these laws were producing in Ireland, he says,
"We preach to our congregations that a tree is known
by its fruits. What has your system done for Ireland?
Her children, safe under no law, live in the very shadow
of death.  Has it made Ireland rich? has it made Ireland loyal? has it made Ireland free? has it made Ireland happy? From the principles of this system, from
the cruelty of these' laws, I turn, and turn with the homage of my whole heart, to the memorable proclamation
which the monarch of these realms has lately made to
his dominions of Hanover,' That no man should be
subjected to civil incapacities on account of religious
opinions.' This sentiment in the mouth of a king deserves, more than all glories and victories, the notice of
the historian who is destined to tell to future ages the
deeds of the English people. I hope he will lavish on
it every gem which glitters in the cabinet of genius; and
so uphold it to the world, that it will be remembered
when Waterloo is forgotten, and when the fall of Paris
is blotted out from the memory of man."
About this period a very considerable and most unexpected addition was made to my father's income by the
kind intercession and exertion of our friends at Castle
Howard, who obtained from the Duke of Devonshire the
living of Londesborough (at no great distance from Foston, and then tenable with it), for him to hold till the
Duke's nephew, Mr. Howard, should be of age to take it.
This, together with Aunt Mary's legacy, put him, for the
* I hope I shall not be understood as wishing to depreciate one whom
all good men must admire, but as only desirous of doing justice to my
father.




184     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
first time in his life, tolerably at his ease, as he had by
this time liquidated many of the first heavy expenses entailed upon him by building. But the debt to Queen
Anne's Bounty, raised on the value of the living, remained, and had up to this time obliged us to exercise
the most rigid economy. These debts had weighed
heavily on my father's spirits; giving him, as my mother has often told me, sleepless nights of anxiety as to
the future provision for his children; and I have not unfrequently seen him in an evening, when bill after bill
poured in, as he was sitting at his desk (carefully examining them, and-gradually paying them off), quite overcome by the feeling of the debt hanging over him, cover
his face in his hands, and exclaim, "Ah! I see, I shall
end my old age in a gaol!"
This was the more striking from one the buoyancy of
whose spirits usually rose above all difficulties. It made
a deep impression upon us; and I remember many little
family councils, to see if it were not possible to economize in something more, and lessen our daily expenses
to assist him.
The following year he accomplished what he had long
wished to do, but had never been able to afford-a visit
to Paris; where he found Lord and Lady Holland, and
many other English friends, and was introduced by them
to some of the best French, society.
He has given his impressions of Paris in his letters
to my mother. These Paris letters are, I am sorry to
say, almost the only ones to her which have been preserved; for though, when absent, le wrote to my mother regularly every day, yet the interesting matter they
contained was so mixed up with directions and home
details, that they were not considered of permanent
value. The only purchase he made for himself in Paris,
though he brought us all a gift, was a huge seal, con



MEMOIR OF TIlE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


185


taining the arms of a peer of France, which he met with
in a broker's shop, and bought for four francs; and
which he declared should henceforth be the arms of his
branch of the Smith family. From all he witnessed in
Paris, and seeing the little wisdom the Bourbons seemed
to have gained from misfortune, he predicted the revolution which took place so few years afterward. He renewed there his early acquaintance with two remarkable
men, Talleyrand and Pozzo di Borgo, of whom he saw
a good deal.
After his return we had a visit from Lord Jeffrey;
our old and valued friend Mr. Whishaw, the Hannibal
of his suppers; and Mr. John Romilly, now Master of
the -Rolls.
My father, who, however he might indulge in attacks
on what he thought the shortcomings of the Church,
never for a moment tolerated any thing approaching to
irreligion, even in his most private transactions, received
about this time a work of irreligious tendency from the
house of a considerable publisher in London, who was
in the habit of occasionally presenting him with books.
Many men might have passed this over as of little importanice; but he felt that nothing was unimportant that
had reference to such a subject. These feelings were
strongly evinced on various occasions, in some of his
early letters to Jeffrey, where he not only deprecates
the injury to the Edinburgh Review by the admission
of irreligious opinions; but declares his determination,
if this were not avoided, of separating himself from a
work of which he had felt hitherto so justly proud. He
writes to Jeffrey, saying, "I hear with sorrow from
Elmsley, that a very anti-christian article has crept into
the last number of the Edinburgh Review... You
must be thoroughly aware that the rumor of infidelity
decides not only the reputation, but the existence of the




186     BIMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
Review. I am extremely sorry, too, on my own account,,
because those who wish it to have been written by me,
will say it was so." And again, in another letter: "I
must beg the favor of you to be explicit on one point.
Do you mean to take care that the Review shall not
profess infidel principles? Unless this is the case, I
must absolutely give up all connection with it." On
the occasion just alluded to, my father immediately
wrote to the publisher, saying, "-that he could not be
aware that he had sent him a work unfit to be sent to a
clergyman of the Church of England, or, indeed, of any
church;" and after counselling him against such publications, even with a view to mere worldly interests, he
adds, " I hate the insolence, persecution, and intolerance,
which so often pass under the name of religion, and, as
you know, have fought against them; but I have an
unaffected horror of irreligion and impiety, and every
principle of suspicion and fear would be excited in me
by a man who professed himself an infidel."
In 1827 the Junction Ministry was formed, which
combined a portion of the Whigs with the remains of
Mr. Canning's party. 3My father, knowing that there
were in this Ministry many upon whom he had just
claims, finding his family now grown up, his son about
to enter on an expensive profession,* and aware that
his clerical income would shortly be diminished to nearly
one-third by the resignation of the living of Londesborough to Mr. Howard, felt it due to himself and his
family to make some application for preferment to his
friends. He wrote, therefore, to one or two of those in
the Ministry, and to his friend Lord Brougham likewise,
stating to him his hopes and wishes, and requesting his
influence with those in power. From Lord Brougham
I have reason to believe he received the answer he had
* I-e was destined for the Law.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


187


a right to-expect from so very old a friend. From one
of the others he received an answer politely deferring
his promises to some future period, as I presume from.
the following reply, which is so very characteristic of
my father, and so very unlike the -usual mode of address
from an expectant clergyman to a minister ofstate, that
I shall give it-though without a name, as I have not
asked permission to insert it:
"20, SAVILLE Row.
"I am much obliged by your polite letter. You appeal to my good-nature to prevent me from considering
your letter as a decent method of putting me off: your
appeal, I assure you, is not made in vain. I do not
think you mean to put me off; because I am the most
prominent, and was for a long time the only clerical
advocate of that question, by the proper arrangement
of which you believe the happiness and safety of the
country would be materially improved. I do not believe
you mean to put me off; because, in giving me some
promotion, you will teach the clergy, from whose timidity you have every thing to apprehend, and whose influence upon the people you can not doubt, that they
may, under your Government, obey the dictates of their
consciences without sacrificing the emoluments of their
profession. I do not think you mean to put me off;
because, in the conscientious administration of that patronage with which you are intrusted, I think it will
occur to you that something is due to a person who, instead of basely chiming in with the bad passions of the
multitude, has dedicated some talent and some activity
to soften religious hatreds, and to make men less violent
and less foolish than he found them.
"I am, sincerely yours,
" SYDNEY SMITH."




188    iMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
We received a visit in the autumn from a clergyman,
who, though a comparatively recent friend, was one ever
highly valued by my father, and who was afterward
promoted to the bench. A letter he wrote on this occasion, descriptive of his visit, which has been most kindly
~sent me by his widow, is so graphic, and it is so flattering to my father that such a letter should have been
written by such a man, that I can not resist inserting it
here, though it speaks of things some of which have been
alluded to before:
"A man's character is probably more faithfully represented in the arrangements of his home than in any
other point; and Foston is a fac-simile of its master's
mind, from first to last. He had no architect, but I
question whether a more compact, convenient house
could well be imagined. In the midst of a field, cominanding no very attractive view, he has, contrived to
give it an air of snugness and comfort, and its internal
arrangements are perfect.  The drawing-room is the
color you covet, the genuine chromium, with a sort of
yellow flowering pattern. It is exquisitely filled with
irregular regularities-tables, books, chairs, Indian wardrobes; every thing finished in thorough taste, without
the slightest reference to smartness or useless finery; and
his inventive genius appears in every corner; his fires
are blown into brightness by shadrachs, tubes furnished
with air from without, opening into the centre of the fire;
his poker, tongs, and shovel are secured from falling with
that horrid crash which is so destructive to the nerves
and temper.
"His own study has no appearance of comfort; but
as he reads and writes in his family circle, in spite
of talking and other interruptions, this is of less consequence.  In other respects it has its attractions:




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


189


there, for instance, he keeps his rheumatic armor, all
of which he displayed out of a large bag, giving me
an illustrated lecture upon each component part. Fancy him in a fit of rheumatism, his legs in two narrow buckets, which he calls his jack-boots; round the
throat a hollow tin collar; over each shoulder a large
tin thing like a shoulder of mutton; on his head a hollow tin helmet, all filled with hot water; and fancy
him expatiating upon each and all of them with ultraenergy.
"His bedrooms are counterparts of the lower rooms;
in mine there were twenty-eight large Piranesi prints of
ancient Rome, mounted just as we do ours, but without
frames, and, indeed, in every vacant part of the house he
has them hung up.
"HIis store-room is more like that of an Indiaman than
any thing else, containing such a complete and well-assorted portion of every possible want or wish in a country establishment.
"The same spirit prevails in his garden and farm:
contrivance and singularity in every hole and corner.
"'What, in the name of wonder, is that skeleton
sort of machine in the middle of your field?''Oh,
that is my universal Scratcher; a framework so contrived, that every animal, from a lamb to a bullock,
can rub and scratch itself with the greatest facility and
luxury.'
"I arrived there on Saturday evening, walking from
York, by which I contrived to lose my way, and take
possession of another man's home and drawing-room fireside for some time before the host appeared, and the
mistake was discovered.
" On Sunday we prepared for church; he was hoarse,
so I was to read; against preaching I had provided
by having no sermon.   Good heavens! what a set



190     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
out! The family chariot, which he calls the Immortal, from having been altered and repaired in every
possible way-the last novelty, a lining of green cloth,
worked and fitted by the village tailor-appeared at
the door, with a pair of shafts substituted for the
pole, in which shafts stood one of his cart-horses, with
the regular cart harness, and a driver by its side. In
the inside the ladies were seated: on the dicky behind I mounted with him; but his servant having
placed the cushions without first putting in the wooden
board, on sitting down, we sank through, to his great
amusement.   These preliminaries being adjusted, we
set out.
"The church resembles a barn more than any thing
else, in size and shape; though, from two old Saxon
doors, it shows claim to higher antiquity than most
others. About fifty people were assembled; I entered the reading-desk; he followed the prayers with a
plain, sound sermon upon the duty of forgiving injuries, but in manner and voice clearly proving that he
felt what he said, and meant that others should feel it
too.
"His domestic establishment is on a par with the
rest his head servant is his carpenter, and never appears excepting on company days. We were waited
upon by his usual corps donestique, one little girl, about
fourteen years of age; named, I believe, Mary or Fanny,
but invariably called by them Bunch. With the most
immovable gravity she stands before him when he giveshis orders, the answers to which he makes her repeatverbatim, to insure accuracy.
" Not to lose time, he farms with a tremendous speaking-trumpet from his door; a proper companion for
which machine is a telescope, slung in leather, for observing what they are doing.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


191


"On Monday came Lady H. Hall, her two daughters and her two, sons; the latter, Captain B. Hall,
a   raa avis I have long wished to see; and Peter
Tytler, son (is he not?) to the author. What a charm
there is in good society and well-informed people! what
would you not have given to have heard the mass of
wit, sense, anecdote, and instruction that flowed incessantly!"
The equipage alluded to in this letter requires a little
explanation. Our house was above a mile from the little church, with roads to it of the stiffest and deepest
clay, hardly passable to women in wet weather or
winter, and my mother was in delicate health. We
could not afford horses; so my father, never ashamed
of showing his poverty when he thought it right, hit
upon this rude and cheap device, to enable his family
to accompany him in all weathers to church.  Ludicrous as this description may appear to the reader,
yet the proprieties of life were attended to. The horse,
the harness, the Immortal, and the carter, all wore their
best and cleanest Sunday garb, and I think they excited respect rather than ridicule amidst his humble congregation.
A word, too, ought to be said in explanation of the
drawing-room furniture alluded to in this letter with so
much praise. It consisted of a few relics preserved from
the valuable Indian furniture left by my grandmother,
the greater part of which had been parted with by my
mother for our benefit. All the rest was plain enough,
though still in good taste. Economy, in the estimation
of common minds, often means the absence of all taste
and comfort; my father had the rare art to combine it
with both. For instance, he found it added much to
the expense of building to have high walls; he there



192     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
fore threw the whole space of the roof into his bedrooms,
coved the ceilings and papered them, and thus they were
all airy, gay, cheap, and pretty. Cornices he found expensive; so not one in the house, but the paper border,
thrown on the ceiling with a line of shade under it.
This relieved the eye, and atoned for their absence.
Marble chimney-pieces were too dear; so he hunted out
a cheap, warm-looking Portland stone, had them cut
after his own model, and the result was to produce some
of the most cheerful, comfortable-looking fireplaces I remember, for as many shillings as the marble ones would
have cost him pounds.
After my father became rich, at the end of life, he
amusingly alludes, in one of his letters, to the joy my
mother would feel on finding he had put up marble
chimney-pieces in his town-house.*
In his youth my father had been very fond of the
game of chess, but had left it off for many years. He
suddenly took it into his head to resume it this winter,
and selected me, faute de rnieux, as his antagonist.
His mode of play was very characteristic-bold, rapid
attack, without a moment's pause or indecision, which
I suspect would have exposed him to danger from a
more experienced adversary; but as it was, with a profound contempt for my skill, promising me a shilling if
I beat him, he sat down with a book in his hand, looked
up for an instant, made a move, and beat me regularly
every night all through the winter. At last I won my
shilling, but lost my playfellow; he challenged me no
more.
My father was very fond of singing, but rather slow
in learning a song, though when once he had accomplished it, he sang it very correctly. As he never tired
of his old friends, and had always some new one on the
* See Letter to Mrs. Holland in the Correspondence.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


193


stocks, there was a tolerable variety of songs to select
from; and, with my mother's beautiful accompaniment
(she was a very accomplished musician) and his own
really fine voice, our trios succeeded in pleasing him so
much,-that he would often encore himself. He was so
perfectly natural, that though I think (and I have heard
many people remark it) the general tendency of his conversation was to underrate himself, yet whenever he was
particularly pleased or satisfied with any thing he had
said or done, he would say so as frankly as if he had
been speaking of another person. "There is one talent
I think I have to a remarkable degree," I have heard
him say: " there are substances in nature called amalgams, whose property is to combine incongruous materials; now I am a moral amalgam, and have a peculiar
talent for mixing up human materials in society, however repellent their natures." And certainly I have seen
a party, composed of materials as ill-assorted as the individuals of the "happy family" in Trafalgar Square,
drawn out and attracted together by the charm of his
manner, till at last you would have believed they had
been'born for one another.
On the first of January, 1828, his youngest daughter,
Emily, was married by the Archbishop of York to Mr.
Hibbert, in the little barn church before mentioned.
-And on the 24th of the same month Lord Lyndhurst,
then Chancellor, had the real friendship and courage to
brave the opinions and opposition of his own party;
and, though differing entirely from my father in politics,
from private friendship and the respect he had for his
character and' talents, to bestow on him a stall which
was then vacant at Bristol-two interesting family
events coming closely upon each other.
For this promotion he always felt deeply grateful to
Lord Lyndhurst, as it was of the greatest importance
VOL. I.-I




194


MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


to him; less in a pecuniary point of view (as, though
rendering permanent what was before temporary, it
rather diminished than increased his previous income),
than from breaking that spell which had hitherto kept
him down in his profession, and enabling him to show
the world how well he could fulfill its duties, wherever
placed. And this was strikingly exemplified at Bristol,
where he arrived with a strong prejudice felt not only
against himself by a large party, but against the Church
generally; Bristol being full of Dissenters, and the
cathedral almost deserted at the time of his arrival.
There was a good deal of curiosity excited to hear what
line he would take.
He commenced his duties by preaching a sermon on
the 5th of November, before the Mayor and Corporation,
who came expecting to hear the usual attack on Catholics made on these occasions, and were much startled
and astonished at hearing religious toleration preached
from the pulpit of their cathedral, and from the lips of
a dignitary of the Church. This letter, sent to me by
Lord Hatherton, gives my father's account of what
passed:
"LOWER COLLEGE GREEN, BRISTOL,
"November 7, 1828.
"MY DEAR LITTLETON,
"MLany thanks for your game, and for your entertaining and interesting letter from Ireland. I direct to
your country place, not knowing exactly where you will
be, and presuming Mrs. Littleton will know. Putting
all things together, I think something will be done.
The letter from the three foolish noblemen, the failure
of Penenden-heath to excite a general and tumultuous
feeling, are all very favorable. I share in your admiration of Lord Anglesey's administration; I have reason
to believe Ministers are a little dissatisfied with his dis



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


195


position to oratory, which is thought undignified and
rash in a Vice-King.'"At Bristol, on the 5th of November, I gave the
Mayor and Corporationi(the most Protestant Mayor and
Corporation in England) such a dose of toleration, as
shall last them for many a year. A deputation of proPopery papers waited on me to-day to print, but I declined. I told the Corporation, at the end of my sermon, that beautiful rabinnical story quoted'by Jeremy
Taylor,'As Abraham was sitting at the door of his
tent,'. etc, etc., which, by-the-by, would make a charming and useful placard against the bigoted.
"Be assured I. shall make a discreet use of the intelligence you give me., and compromise you in nothing.
"Remember me, if you please, to Wilmot Horton
when you write; I like him very much, and take a sincere interest in his welfare.
"Ever yours, dear Littleton, very sincerely,
"SYDNEY SMITH."
I have heard that this s.ermon occasioned an immense
sensation at the time, "and the cathedral, from that
period, whenever he was to preach (though previously
almost deserted), was filled to suffocation. A crowd
collected round the doors long before they were opened,
and the heads of the standers in the aisle were so thickset you could not have thrust in another; and I saw
the men holding up their hats above their heads, that
they might not be crushed by'the pressure."
"He preached," says an eye-witness, "finely and
bravely on this occasion, in direct opposition to the
principles and. prejudices'of the persons in authority
present; and ended by that beautiful apologue from
Jeremy Taylor, illustrating Charity and Toleration, where




196    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


Abraham, rising in wrath to put the wayfaring man forth
from his tent for refusing to worship the Lord his God,*
the voice of the Lord was heard in the tent, saying,'Abraham! Abraham! have I borne with this man for
threescore years and ten, and canst not thou bear with
him for one hour?"'
"And yet," says the same eye-witness of whom           I
have before spoken, "never did any body to my mind
look more like a High Churchman, as he walked up the
aisle to the altar-there was an air of so much proud
dignity in his appearance; and when I saw him afterward more intimately in private life, I became aware he'had a lofty, brave soul, with an intense contempt for
every thing that was mean, base, or truckling."
The following letter from AMr. Everett gives some interesting information on this remarkable apologue, before alluded to:
* Extract from the Liberty of Prophesying, by Jeremy Taylor, D.D.,
ed. 1657, p. 606:
~ 22. "I end with a story which I find in the Jew's1 Books. When
Abraham sat at his tent-door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his
staffe, weary with age and travelle, coming toward him, who was an
hundred years of age; he received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down; but observing that the old man
eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, asked him,
why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him
that he worshiped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God: at
which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old
man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and
an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to
him and asked him where the stranger was; he replied,'I thrust him
away because he did not worship thee;' God answered him,'I have
suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonored me, and
couldst not thou endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble?'
Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetcht him back again, and gave
him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do
likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham."
1 Gentius, the Latin translator of Saadi at Amsterdam, was that Jew, as appears by
its being copied into Taylor's second edition, subsequent to its publication at Amsterdam in 1651.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


197


"CAMIBRIDGE, 18th September, 1848.
"MY DEAR MRS. SMITH,
"I duly received, a short time since, your very interesting letter of the 7th of July, with the copy of Mr.
Smith's speech, so kindly sent by you, and the memorandum relative to the Parable on Persecution. The
speech, like every thing from the same source, breathes
a spirit of noble liberality and sound sense, which can
not be too highly praised. I am greatly indebted to you
for giving me the opportunity of adding it to the collection of his works.
"The Parable on Persecution is one of the most curious topics in literary history. It has often been made
the foundation of a charge of plagiarism against Dr.
Franklin, but, as I think, without foundation. In its
modern form, it was first published by Lord Kames, in
1774. He says,'It was communicated to me by Dr.
Franklin of Philadelphia;' but he does not say that Dr.
F. claimed the authorship of it. It was not long after
inserted in a small collection of Dr. Franklin's miscellaneous writings, published by Mr. B. Vaughan (a gentleman recollected by Lord Lansdowne) in London. Mr.
Vaughan took it from Lord Kames's work. In 1788 it
was traced to its source in Gentius's preface; and Dr.
Franklin having been then charged with plagiarism,
some friend well acquainted with his habits vindicated
him in the same work, the'Repository,' in which the
charge was made. These, and some other interesting
facts, are given in the new edition (Mr. Sparks's) of
Franklin's works, vol. ii. p. 118, which, with the note
to Bishop Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor, in the first
volume of the works, p. 365, contains, I believe, all
that is known on the subject. I see one slight mistake
in this learned note: it states that the famous parable




198     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH;
did not appear in the first edition of the'Liberty of
Prophesying,' which was published in 1647, but in the
second, which was printed in 1657; tfhe work of Gentius;having appeared in the interval. I have before me
a volume which purports to be the second edition of the
Liberty of Prophesying,' published in London in 1702,
and not containing the parable, but this is quite immaterial.
"I lean a little to the opinion, that Bishop Taylor
may have taken it from some Jewish book not yet discovered. There is no reason why, if he quoted Gentius,
he should not have named him. It appears from Bishop
Heber's learned note, that a Jewish author, whom he
names, thinks he has seen the parable among the com-!intaries on Genesis xviii. 1;:and it is quite a curious
fact, that Saadi gives it as related to him, and that he,
according to his own account, while in captivity at Tripoli, was compelled to work on the fortifications'with
some Jews.' Nothing seems more likely to have'happened than that a learned Jew, being a fellow-prisoner
with'a learned Persian, should have related to him this
striking parable, of which the personages were the great
Jewish Patriarch, and a devotee of the old Persian superstition of fire-worship.
"Whatever be its source, there are few teachings as
impressive of Jewish or Christian wisdom.  It is an
undoubted chapter of that great primitive Gospel, which
God has written in the hearts and consciences of men,
but which, like the page of revelation, is too apt to
be forgotten under the influence of selfish and corrupt
motives.'I rejoice to hear that Mr. Smith's works are so frequently reprinted. In this way he will for ages to come
continue to teach lessons of toleration and humanity to all
who speak the English tongue. There is no one of my




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


199


friends in England, with respect to whom I am more frequently questioned than Mr. Smith; and I esteem it one
of the chief blessings of my residence in London to have
known him, and been honored with so much of his kindness.
" I remain, my dear Mrs. Smith, with the highest regards, ever faithfully yours, -
4 EDWARD EVERETT."
On his appointment to the prebendal stall- at Bristol,
he went for the first time to Court, and he give an amusing account of himself on the occasion:
" I found my colleague Tate, the other day, in his
simplicity consulting the Archdeacon of Newfoundland
what he should wear at the levee  a man who sits
bobbing for cod, and pocketing every tenth fish. However, I did worse when I went, by consulting no one;
and, through pure ignorance, going to the levee in
shoe-strings instead of shoe-buckles. I found, to my
surprise, people looking down at my feet; I could not
think what they were at. At first I thought they had
discovered the beauty of my legs, but at last the truth
burst on me, by. some wag laughing, and thinking I
had done it as a good joke. I was of course excessively annoyed to have been supposed capable of such
a vulgar, unmeaning piece of disrespect, and kept my
feet as coyly under my petticoats as the veriest prude
in the country, till I could made my escape; so perhaps, after all, I had better have followed my friend's
example."




CHAPTER IX.


Happiness increased by his Promotion.-Death of eldest Son.-Removal to Combe Florey.-Rebuilding of House.-Lord Jeffrey's last
Visit.-Increased popularity at Bristol.-Collects Contributions to
Review.-French Revolution.-Riots at Bristol.-Speech on Reform.
-Letters on Preferment.-Appointed Canon of St. Paul's.-Death
of Sir James Mackintosh in 1832.-Marriage of eldest Daughter in
1834.-Village Anecdotes.-Christens Grandchild.-Buys House in
Charles Street.-Rectitude of Stewardship at St. Paul's.-Tour to
Holland in 1837.-Talleyrand.-Conversation in London, and Anecdotes.-Begins Controversy about Church.-Petitions to House of
Lords.-Inscription for Statue of Lord Grey.
His promotion in the Church was a step in life
which added very materially to my father's happiness.  "Moralists tell you," said he, "of the evils of
wealth and station, and the happiness of poverty. I
have. been very poor the greatest part of my life, and
have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I
can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I
have gained.   I well remember, when Mrs. Sydney and
I were young, in London, with no other equipage than
my umbrella, when we went out to dinner in a hackney
coach (a vehicle, by-the-by, now become almost matter of history), when the rattling step was let down, and
the proud, powdered red-plushes grinned, and her gown
was fringed with straw, how the iron entered into my
soul."
"I often thank God for my animal spirits.    I called
the other day on my friend and neighbor B -, and
found him   moping over the fire, wringing his hands,
and in a state of the deepest melancholy.' Why, B,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.      201
what is the matter? Here you are in the prime of life,
with health, talents, education, a sensible wife, pleasing children, just come into possession of this fine old
place, and a good fortune, ahd have moreover the inestimable advantage of having me for a neighbor; what on
earth can you want more to make you happy?''Very
true, Sydney, very true; but' (with a deep sigh)'have
you considered the state of my roads?''No,' I said,' I
have certainly not taken that point into consideration,
but in future I will; so good morning, B —.' While
I, who have never had a house, or land, or a farthing to
spare, am sometimes mad with spirits, and must talk,
laugh, or burst."
He had now need of all his elasticity of spirits, for
there came upon him what he declares was the first real
sorrow he had known-and in truth it was a heavy one
-the death of his eldest son Douglas, just as he had
reached maturity, and gave promise of every excellence,
both of heart and mind, that could endear him to his
parents or gratify their pride.
- He died, after a long and painful illness, in town,
in the year 1829. I see, in my father's note-book, this
simple entry: "April 14th. My beloved son Douglas
died, aged twenty-four. Alas! alas!" And afterward:
"So ends this year of my life-a year of sorrow, from
the loss of my beloved son Douglas-the first great misfortune of my life, and one which I shall never, forget."
In his last hours he often called his youngest son by the
name of Douglas, showing that even then he was still in
his thoughts.
It was perhaps well for all parties, that, his promotion to the prebendal stall at Bristol having also entitled him to one of their livings, it became necessary
for my father to resign Foston, and settle in Somersetshire; and here again the kindness of Lord Lyndhurst
I*




202     MEMOIR OF THE. REV... SYDNEY SMITH.
enabled him to exchange Foston for the much smaller,
but more beautifully situated living, of Combe Florey,
near Taunton.
We all at the time deeply regretted leaving our old
haunts in Yorkshire, where we had lived so long, received so much hospitality, and made so many kind
friends; but this entire change of scene, and the necessity for immediate exertion, was very useful to all under
this severe affliction.
In the following letter, just sent me by one of our
kind Yorkshire neighbors, he' alludes touchingly to
these feelings of regret for his lost son Douglas:
" COMBE FLOREY, August 6, 1829.' "DEAR MRS. THOMSON,*
"I never heard till I came here of the intended kindness of Mr. Thomson and yourself, with a view to my
renaining in Yorkshire. I was sensibly touched with
it, and have laid it up in the archives of my mind. As
to wood and lawn, cedar and fur, and pine and branching palm, I have exchanged for the better. Good, excellent, and amiable friends, such as we met with at
Escrich, I did not expect to find. Fortune may grant
such favors once in a life, but they must not be counted
upon. Your family are always among our sincere regrets. This is a beautiful place; the house larger than
Foston, with a wood of three or four acres belonging to
it close to the house, and a glebe of sixty acres surrounding it, in a' country every where most beautiful
and fertile. The people are starving-in the last stage
of poverty and depression. Mrs. Sydney, from sorrow
and novelty, has forgotten her throat; I think the complaint has nearly vanished. I am busy from morning
* The present Dowager Lady Wenlock.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


208


till night in building-not from the love of architecture,
but from the fear of death-not from a preference for
any particular collocation of stones, but from an apprehension that, disdaining all collocation (as they are apt
to do in ancient parsonages), they should come thundering about my head. In the mean time I have, from
time to time, bitter visitations of sorrow. I never suspected how children weave themselves about the heart.
My son had that quality which is longest remembered
by those who remain behind-a deep and earnest affection and respect for his parents. God save you, my
dear IMrs. Thomson, from similar distress! Have you
read —'s America? If you have, I hope you dislike
it as much as I do. It is amusing, but very unjust
and unfair. It will make his fortune at the Admiralty.  Then he temporizes about the Slave Trade;
with which no man should ever hold parley, but speak
of it with abhorrence, as the greatest of all human
abominations. We stay here till the beginning of the
year, and then go into residence at Bristol. I hope-to
be in town in the spring, and hereafter to pay you
a visit in Yorkshire, which will be a great pleasure to
me. Accept, my dear Mrs. and Mr. Thomson, our
united respect and regards,
"And believe me,
"Your sincere friend,
SYDNEY SMITH."
We had almost to begin the labors of'Foston over
again, as we found the parsonage-house at Combe
Florey in a most ruinous state, and requiring instant
attention.  But my father now brought considerable
experience and increased wealth to the: task; and, establishing us in one corner of the house, he turned in an
immense gang of workmen, and in a very short time




204    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


(at the expense of about two thousand pounds more of
loss to his family, having almost to rebuild it) made
one of the most comfortable and charming parsonagehouses I have ever seen-a striking contrast, I must
own, in every way, to poor Foston, of which our friend
Mr. Loch, when he heard we had left it, said to my father, "Are you sure you have left Foston, Mr. Smith?"
"Yes."  "Never to return?" "Never." "Well, then,
I may venture to say that it was, without exception, the
ugliest house I ever saw."
The climate, the vegetation, and the soil were all in
strong contrast to the north; and it well deserved the
name of Combe Florey, for it really was a valley of
flowers-a lovely little spot, where nature and art combined to realize the Happy Valley.
- In the midst of our building operations, when the
greater part of the roof of the house, which required
renewing, was put together in rafters on the lawn, we
received a visit from our friend Lord Jeffrey. I well
remember our sitting out there amidst the rafters, surrounded by busy workmen, and animated by the delieious weather and the beauty of the scene around. He
and my father gave full play to their fancy and imagination; and nothing could be more delightful than to sit
and watch them, and listen to the playfulness and variety of their conversation. I have, I believe, omitted
several of Lord Jeffrey's visits; having no other recollections of them, I am sorry to say, than that of the
pleasure,they always afforded to both old and young.
But this, I think; was his last visit to us; and it was
touching to observe these two eminent men, who had
begun the struggle of life together, who had loved each
other so long and so well, who had both now attained
eminence and honor in their respective professions without one act of baseness, sitting together in this little




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


205


earthly paradise, and, in their elder age, talking over
and looking back on the past with all the pleasure and
satisfaction of well-spent lives. Such scenes are pleasant and useful to dwell upon.
As a dignitary of the Church, my father now thought
it more becoming to put his name to what he should
hereafter write, and he therefore withdrew from the
Edinburgh Review; collecting and publishing about
ten years after the greater part of his contributions to
it. He says, on doing so: "I see very little in my
reviews to alter or repent of. I always endeavored to
fight against evil, and what I thought evil then I
think evil now. I am heartily glad that all our disqualifying laws for religious opinions are abolished,
and I see nothing in such measures but unmixed good
and real increase of strength to the Establishment.
T6 set on foot such a journal in such times, to contribute toward it for many years, to bear patiently the
reproach and poverty which it caused, and to look
back and see that I have nothing to retract, and no
intemperance and violence to reproach myself with,
is a career of life which I must think to be extremely
fortunate.
"Strange and ludicrous are the changes in human
affairs! The Tories are now on the tread-mill, and the
well-paid Whigs are riding in chariots; with many faces,
however, looking out of the windows (including that of
our Prime Minister), which I never remember' to have
seen in the days of poverty and depression of Whiggism. Liberality is now a lucrative business. Whoever has any institution to destroy, may consider himself as a commissioner, and his fortune made; and,
to my utter and never-ending astonishment, I, an old
Edinburgh Reviewer, find myself fighting, in the year
1839, against the Archbishop of Canterbury and the




206     MEMOIR OF- THE REV,. SYDNEY SMITH.
Bishop of London for the existence of the National
Church."
In the winter of the year 1830 we' all accompanied
my father to his residence in Bristol, where his popularity increased more and more, in spite of the firmness
with which he preached many unpalatable doctrines,
and the minuteness with which he felt it his duty to investigate all the affairs of the Cathedral and Chapter.
These, up to this time, had been left very much to take
care of themselves: and as it was nobody's business to
look after them, they had fallen into great confusion and
disorder.
This year the French Revolution took place (the probability of which he had foretold in his letters from Paris
in 1826), producing the greatest consternation, distress,
and excitement on the Continent.
In. this country the riots at Bristol had broken out in
the spring; and, later in the year, the resignation of the
Duke of Wellington, the introduction of the Reform Bill
after Lord Grey's acceptance of the Ministry, the opposition to it in the House of Lords, and the dissolution
of the Parliament, were exciting the deepest interest,
and producing the greatest danger of violence and disturbance in every part of England.
There was to be a large county-meeting held on the
subject at Taunton; and though, as a clergyman, my
father generally avoided meetings purely political, yet
at the present moment he saw so much dangerous excitement at work among the people, and felt the crisis
to be one of such vital importance to the country, that
he considered it the duty of every man, who had the
power so to do, to raise his voice in favor of law and
order; and to urge the people with calmness and perseverance to obtain those objects they would inevitably




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


207


lose by violence. In this speech, among other things,
he says:
"Nothing can be more different than personal and
political fear: it is the artifice of our opponents to confound them together.... The greater part of human
improvements, I am sorry to say, are made after war,
tumult, bloodshed, and civil commotion.... Mankind
seem to object to every species of gratuitous happiness,
and to consider every advantage as too cheap which is
not purchased by some calamity.... I shall esteemit a singular act of God's providence if this great nation,
guided by these warnings of history, not waiting till
tumult for reform, not trusting reform to the lowest of
the people, shall amend their decayed institutions, at a
period when they are ruled by a popular Sovereign,
guided by an upright minister, and blest with profound
peace... If many are benefited by reform, and the
lower orders are not injured, this alone is reason enough
for the change. But the hewer of wood and the drawer
of water are benefited by reform; and the connection
between the existence of John Russell and the reduced
price of bread and cheese will be as clear as it has been
the object of his honest, wise, and useful life to make
it. Don't be led away by nonsense. All things are
dearer under a bad government, and cheaper under a
good one.... I am old and tired-thank me for ending; but one word more before I sit down. I am old,'but I thank God I have lived to see more than my observations on human nature taught me I had any right
to expect. I have lived to see an honest King, in whose
word his ministers could trust. I have lived to see a
King with a good heart, who, surrounded by nobles,
thinks of common men; who loves the great mass of
English people, and wishes to be loved by them; and




208    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


who, in spite of clamor, interest, prejudice, and fear, has
the manliness to carry these wise changes into immediate
execution. Gentlemen, farewell! Shout for the King!"
We attended him to the meeting. I had often seen
the silent effect produced by his eloquence in crowded
cathedrals, but I never before saw its effect on a multitude free to express their feelings; and were I to live a
thousand years, I should never forget it.
His voice seemed heard without effort in every part
of the assembly; his words flowed with unbroken fluency; his language was simple and nervous; he seemed
to hold the very heart-strings of the people in his hands,
and to play upon them, as upon an instrument, at his
pleasure; and when at last he sat down, the thunders
of applause from that sea of heads beneath was perfectly
thrilling. Such an exhibition of his powers filled one
with regret that his voice was never likely to be raised
in that assembly of his country where his talents and
his character would have made him such an ornament,
and where that noble voice would have been always
raised for such noble purposes.
And here I must allude to what my father was too
proud to speak of, except in two or three confidential
letters to some of his oldest friends. Though he had
at this period a firm conviction that a bishopric would
be destructive of his peace and happiness, and a still
firmer determination, in consequence, to reject it, should
it ever be offered, yet I know he felt deeply to the hour
of his death, that those by whose side he had fought for
fifty years so bravely and so honestly in their adversity,
and with the most unblemished reputation as a clergyman, should in their prosperity never have offered him
that which they were bestowing on many, only known
at that time, according to public report (whatever merits




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


209


they may have since evinced), for their mediocrity or
unpopularity.
He says, in one of these letters, after expressing his
feeling on this subject: "But, thank God, I never acted
from the hope of preferment, but from the love of justice
and truth which was bursting within me. When I began to express my opinions on Church politics, what
hope could any but a madman have of gaining preferment by such a line of conduct?"
In another letter again he says: "It is perhaps of
little consequence to any party whether I adhere to it or
not; but I always shall adhere to the Whigs, whoever
may be put over my head; because I have an ardent
love of truth and justice, and they are its best defenders.
But, adhering to them under all circumstances, I can
not but feel whether I am well or ill used by them."
This silence on his part I should have observed likewise, had not Lord Melbourne, with that noble candor
for which his character was so remarkable, admitted
the injury my father felt, and done my father the tardy
justice of stating to a gentleman, a mutual friend, and
a man of great accuracy (who came direct from his house
expressly to state it to me), "That Lord Melbourne
said there was nothing he more deeply regretted, in
looking back on his past career, than the not having
made Sydney Smith a bishop."
And a juster cause of regret, I believe, was never
felt. For my father's estimate of what a bishop ought
to be was so high, he was so bound in honor by his
own writings to become what he had required others to
be, and his power of doing what he felt he ought to do
was so great,* that, had he ever accepted the offer,
* He says, on one occasion, "I hope I am too much a man of honor
to take an office without fashioning my manners and conversation so
as not to bring it into discredit."




210     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
which I again repeat I firmly believe he never would at
this period of his life (though ardently desiring it when
he was a younger man), I as firmly believe there would
have been no act in the whole of Lord Melbourne's Ministry that would have reflected more honor and distinction on him. But I bless his memory for this wish only
of justice to my father.
The following short, manly statement of his case, in
a letter to Lord John Russell, on the subject of his preferment, seems, as it were, to be extorted from him by
that sense of justice which so powerfully influenced his
feelings through life toward every person, and on every
subject, less than by any wish to exalt himself, and
therefore, to a certain degree, carries conviction with it:
"I defy -   to quote one single passage of my writing
contrary to the doctrines of the Church. I defy him to
mention a single action of 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 against me is that I am a
high-spirited, honest, uncompromising man, whom he
and all the bench of bishops could not turn upon 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."*
I find a letter, written by his friend Lord John Russel, in answer, from which I shall give an extract, as it
shows that this wish to do justice to my father was
shared by his old friend, Lord John, likewise:
"' MY DEAR SYDNEY-I think you are quite right not
to be ambitious of the prelacy, as it would lead to much
* I see in this letter that he urges strongly the appointment of several of his friends, and apparently not without effect.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


211


disquiet for you; but if I had entirely my own way in
these matters, you should -have the: opportunity of refusing it."
And again:'my father wrote at a later period to Lord
Holland, saying, "You have said and written that you
wished to see me a bishop, and, I have no doubt, would
try to carry your wishes into effect. If proper vacancies
had occurred in the beginning of Lord Grey's administration, I believe this would have been done. -Other
politicians have succeeded, who entertain no such notion.
But there is a still greater obstacle to my promotion,
and that is, that I have entirely lost all wish to be a
bishop.; The thought is erased from my mind, and, in
the very improbable event of a bishopric being offered
me, I would steadily refuse it. In this I am perfectly
honest and sincere, and make this communication to
you to prevent your friendly exertion in my favor, and
perhaps to spare you the regret of making that exertion
in vain."
I lament to find that a beautiful sketch he one day
drew of'what he conceived the duties of a bishop to be,
has been lost from among his papers. But the following short extract from his fragment on the Irish Church
sufficiently shows what he felt to be the duties of so
exalted a station; though even here, as usual, he draws
no ideal picture of excellence, impossible to attain, but
one within the reach of any man of sense and real piety:
" What a blessing to this country would a real bishop
be!.. 
"But I. never remember in my time a real bishop-a
grave, elderly man, full of Greek, with sound views of
the middle voice and preterpluperfect tense, gentle and
kind to his poor clergy, of powerful and commanding
eloquence, in Parliament never to be put down when




212     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the great interests of mankind were concerned; leaning
to the Government when it was right, leaning to the
people when they were right; feeling that if the Spirit
of God had called him to that high office, he was called
for no mean purpose, but rather that seeing clearly, acting boldly, and intending purely, he might confer lasting
benefit upon mankind."
There were at this time so many mischievous publications circulating among the people, and threatening
letters so frequently sent to my father and other gentlemen in the neighborhood, that he thought it right to endeavor to counteract them, and published some cheap
letters for circulation among the poor, called ("Letters to
Swing," of which the following is one which has been
accidentally preserved:
From the "Taunton Courier" of Wednesday, Dec. 8th, 1830.
"To MR. SWING.
"The wool your coat is made of is spun by machinery, and this machinery makes your coat two or three
shillings cheaper-perhaps six or seven. Your white
hat is made by machinery at half price. The coals
you burn are pulled out of the pit by machinery, and
are sold to you much cheaper than -they could be if
they were pulled-out by hand.  You do not complain
of these machines, because they do you good, though
they throw many artisans out of work. But what right
have you to object to fanning machines, which make
bread cheaper to the artisans, and to avail yourselves
of other machines which make manufactures cheaper to
you?;" If all machinery were abolished, every thing would
be so dear that you would be ten times worse off than




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


213


you now are.   Poor people's cloth would get up to a
guinea a yard.  Hats could not be sold for less than
eighteen shillings.  Coals would be three shillings per
hundred. It would be quite impossible for a poor man
to obtain any comfort.
"If you begin to object to machinery in farming,
you may as well object to a plow, because it employs
fewer men than a spade. You may object to a harrow,
because it employs fewer men than a rake. You may
object even to a spade, because it employs fewer men
than fingers and sticks, with which savages scratch the
ground in Otaheite. If you expect manufacturers to
turn against machinery, look at the consequence. They
may succeed, perhaps, in driving machinery out of the
town they live in, but they often drive the manufacturer out of the town also. He sets up his trade in
some distant part of the country, gets new men, and
the disciples of Swing are left to starve in the scene
of their violence and folly. In this way the lace manufacture traveled in the time of Ludd, Swing's grandfather, from Nottingham to Tiverton. Suppose a free
importation of corn to be allowed, as it ought to be,
and will be. If you will not allow farmers to grow
corn here as cheap as they can, more corn will come
from America; for every thrashing-machine that is destroyed, more Americans will be employed, not more
Englishmen.
"Swing! Swing! you are a stout fellow, but you
are a bad adviser. The law is up, and the Judge is
coming.  Fifty persons in Kent are already transported, and will see their wives and children no more.
Sixty persons will be hanged in Hampshire.  There
are two hundred for trial in Wiltshire-all scholars of
Swing! I am no farmer: I have not a machine bigger
than a pepper-mill. I am a sincere friend to the poor,




214     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
and I think every man should live by his labor: but it
cuts me to the very heart to see honest husbandmen
perishing by that worst of all machines, the gallowsunder the guidance of that most fatal of all leadersSwing!"
One of the earliest uses he made of his increase of
wealth was to indulge himself by enlarging his library,
and supplying those deficiencies before alluded to, which
he had so long suffered.under; and his books, which
at Foston for many years had humbly occupied only
the end of his little dining-room, now boldly spread
themselves over three sides of a pretty odd room, dignified by the name of library —about twenty-eight feet
long and, eight feet high-ending in a bay-window supported by pillars, looking into the garden, and which he
had obtained by throwing a pantry, a passage, and a
shoe-hole together. In this pretty, gay room we breakfasted, he sat, and, when alone we spent the evening
with him. He used to say, "No furniture so charming
as books, even: if you never open them, or read a single
word."
The cholera was now spreading rapidly over the country, and exciting the greatest alarm and anxiety. This
immediately set all my father's energy to work, to have
every remedy-at hand for himself and the poor of his
parish, and to take every precaution whichthe learned
suggested: one of these was, never to read the accounts
of its progress, Which often produced such panic that
the patient was half dead of fear before the cholera arrived to perfect the deed. Luckily, however, neither his
remedies nor his precautions proved necessary, as the
cholera respected our little happy valley, and never came
near:us.
In October, Lord John Russell and his family came




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


215


to see us; and a joyful visit it was, as the Whigs had
again assumed the reins of Government under their distinguished leader Lord Grey, and, with their return,
gave assurance of obtaining the Reform Bill, and thus
tranquilizing the country.
Shortly after, when we were staying on a visit with
Lord Morley at Saltram, my father received the news
that Lord Grey* had appointed him to a prebendal
stall at St. Paul's, in exchange for the one of inferior
value he held at Bristol, which had previously been presented to him by his friend Lord Lyndhurst.t  These
glad tidings, together with the charm of the place, the
weather, the society of our charming hostess, and the
many kind, warm old friends he found assembled there,
who all seemed to rejoice really as if the benefit had
been conferred on themselves, produced such an effect
on his spirits, that it would be difficult to forget that
week. I hardly ever remember him more brilliant. On
his return he wrote the little squib of Mrs. Partington
and her battle with the Atlantic, which had a success
quite unlooked-for, spreading in every direction; and
sketches of Mrs. Partington and her mop were to be
seen in the windows of all the picture-shops about the
country.
1832.   This year brought with it, among other
events, the loss of one of his early and most valued
friends, Sir James Mackintosh; just at the moment
when his mind seemed in the highest vigor, and he
was preparing for the world some of his most important
works.
Their strong friendship had been much cemented by
* One of the first things Lord Grey said on entering Downing Street,
to a relation who was with him, was, "Now I shall be able to do something for Sydney Smith."
t His brother Bobus used to say that Sydrney's life was the only instance of undeviating honesty that he had ever known to answer.




216     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the intimacy of my mother with the ladies of his family,
and his loss was deeply lamented by both. My father
loved to think of Sir James, to speak of his virtues, and
describe him; and it was a gratification to his feelings
publicly to express his admiration of his old friend in
the letter he addressed to his son, Mr. Mackintosh, and
published in his Life of his father. In this he says:
" When I turn from living spectacles of stupidity, ignorance, and malice, and wish to think better of the
world, I remember my great and benevolent friend
Mackintosh." And, speaking of his love of truth, his
memory, and his knowledge, he says: "Those who
lived with him found they were gaining upon doubt,
correcting error, enlarging the boundaries and strengthening the foundations of truth." And again he says:
"Whatever might assuage the angry passions, and arrange the conflicting interests of nations; whatever could
promote peace, increase knowledge, extend commerce,
diminish crime, and encourage industry; whatever could
exalt human character, and could enlarge human understanding, struck at once to the heart of your father, and
roused all his faculties. I have seen him in a moment,
when this spirit came upon him, like a great ship of
war, cut his cable, and spread his enormous canvas, and
launch into a wide sea of reasoning eloquence."
During Sir James's absence in Bombay, my father
had been in the habit of writing constantly to him, to
tell him all that was going on in Europe. But these
letters, full of interest, though kindly returned by Mr.
Mackintosh on the death of his father, have, I fear, together with all the letters of my father's boyhood, preserved carefully by his poor mother, and given to mine,
fallen a sacrifice to my father's mania for burning papers.
I remember these early letters of his were most original
and characteristic; and it was one of our greatest pleas



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


211


ures- as children to hear them read aloud in the evening
by my mother. There was likewise a large collection
of letters to his friend Horner, which he destroyed from
thinking them -of no value; biut which would have been
among the most interesting of his correspondence, as
there were few whom he more loved, trusted, and honored.
In 1834 my father took a house for a short time in
Stratford Place, from whence his eldest daughter was
married to Dr. Holland.  On this occasion he writes
to Lady Holland: "We are about to be married; and
Saba will be one day Lady Holland: she must then fit
herself up with Luttrells, Rogers, and John Russells,
etc., etc.: Sydney Smith she has."  In the summer he
welcomed Dr. Holland's three children, as if they had
been' his own, to spend the whole autumn in his house
at Combe Florey.
While we were there, he was writing one morning in
his favorite bay-window, when a pompous little man, in
rusty'black, was ushered in.  ".May I ask what procures'me the honor of this visit?" said my father.
": Oh,'" said.the little man, "I am compounding a history of the distinguished families in Somersetshire, and
have called:to obtain: the Smith arms." "I regret, sir,"
said my father, "not to be able to contribute to so valuable a work; but.the Smiths never had any arms, and
have invariably sealed their letters' with their thumbs."
In truth, he could not have stumbled on a more perfect Goth than my father on the subject of ancestral
4distinctions.' For though the Smiths were not literally
reduced -'to their thumbs, yet, feeling how completely
he had been the maker of his own fortunes, my father
adopted the motto for his carriage of "Faber mese fortunse."  He loved to repeat that answer of Junot-to the
old noblesse, when boasting of their line of ancestors:
VOL. T.-K




218    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"Ah, ma foi! je n'en sais rien; moi je suis mon an
cetre."
During Lord Grey's administration, which terminated
in July, 1834, there had been but two or three vacan'
cies for bishoprics in England (Ireland, for my father;,
was out of the question). There were, of course, numerous claims on Lord Grey; and out of this small
number, King William IV., from kindness to Lord
Grey, insisted on appointing Dr. Grey, his brother,
without even consulting Lord Grey. Had Lord Grey
had more to bestow and remained longer in power, I
have good reason to believe that his old friend Sydney
Smith would not have been forgotten. This belief, it
has been seen, my father stated in his letters during
Lord Grey's life-and since his death I find it confirmed, from papers I possess, by one who best knew
Lord Grey's feelings.
I think it was about this period that an incident happened to a poor half-mad woman, who lived at. the end
of our village-with a drunken husband, and a swarm
of children-all sunk, in consequence, into a hopeless
state of poverty, dirt, and idleness, save one son, who,
strange to say, had escaped the general contagion. This
boy, first at school, then as apprentice to a shoemaker
in a neighboring village, had established a high character, and was the pride of his old mother's heart. Unfortunately, on carrying home some work, he was tempted into a public-house to drink (what no Somersetshire
man can resist) a draught of cider. Some strangers
were in the room, and shortly after the boy's entrance
a silk handkerchief was missed, immediate search made,
and the handkerchief found on young Treble, to the
poor boy's utter horror. A warrant was obtained, the
boy taken before the magistrates, who, upon the evidence, and the general character of the family, were




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


219


about to commit him to prison. The poor old mother,
frantic with grief, came before my father, imploring his
assistance, and asserting the entire innocence of her son.
My father, no longer a magistrate, but touched by her
sorrow, and believing the possible innocence of the boy
from his previous knowledge of him, undertook the affair.; went instantly to a neighboring village, where the
magistrates were sitting; obtained with some difficulty
a delay, upon his undertakingto bring fresh evidence in
favor of the boy; and then, with as much ardor as if
his own life, and honor, and every thing he held most
dear, were at stake, he wrote, he investigated, he crossexamined for nearly a week, and on the day appointed
attended the trial. He secured the best lawyer he could
find to conduct the cause; then, I believe, spoke for the
boy himself; and, by the evidence he produced, succeeded in showing, to the satisfaction of all, that the
handkerchief had been hid where the boy could nrot
have hid it under the circumstances; and that the real
culprit was undoubtedly one of the men present, of notoriously bad character, who, to save himself, when the
search was made, dexterously contrived to stuff it down
the innocent boy's collar as he was pretending to assist
in the search.
Treble was acquitted; and the wild joy and gratitude of the old ragged mother were deeply felt by my
father, and her prayers for her protector I can not believe were unheard in Heaven.
He never shrank from any duty, however revolting
to his feelings. On one occasion he set out on a winter's night, lantern in hand, to visit a poor cottager
seized with epileptic fits, of which, from some painful
~early associations, he had a peculiar horror; but they
wished for him, and he went as usual; and I remember on his return he was much overpowered by the




220     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
scene he had. witnessed,- which haunted -him. for many
days. Several volumes- of manuscript remain, of his prescriptions'for, the poor, of which he always kept a record, that he might refer to -them if necessary;: and they
now help me to bear testimony to his attentions and
kindness to them.
Soon: after, coming to town the. following year, at my
request, he christened my eldest girl;. and the emotion
and deep feeling he evinced on- the occasion added not a
little, I remember, to the impressiveness of-that beautifal:service.-: On this occasion Miss Fox, Lord Holland's sister, stood as godmother to my little girl, and
bestowed on her her own name. A few years ago my
old friend Mr. Rogers said: to me, "What a privileged
person.:you-are, to have had such a father and such
an; uncle!"" In truth I feel it so.:But he might have
added,: ( And- such a friend as'Miss Fox," though I
must share this last with: so many; for who was ever
so':loved,:so- honored, or so worthy to be:so, as Miss
Fox?:. Not to speak of her understanding (which was
such as is rarely bestowed on women), there was, such
an atmosphere of purity, simplicity, and indulgent kindness about her, that all evil passions seemed to fly. away
at her approach, and a better and more amiable tone to
be infused into society. Her heart was as a spot to
repose on' in  " the m orld,- a place: of refuge in distress, of sympathy in joy or sorrow, and of warm unvarying friendship in weal or woe..:: Int the autumn my father bought a small house in
-Charles Street, No. 33, near: St. John's Chapel, where
he-had preached with so much success when a young
man on first coming to London;. and he gives; a comical account, in one of his letters, of the. short time:. he
should require to paper, paint, furnish it,. and set.it in
order.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


221


In October he took my mother and Mr. and Mrs.
Hibbert to Paris for a short time; and in November
came to town for his residence at St. Paul's and:to
enter upon his new duties there, to his performance
of which (even those least known to the world, and
which he might have neglected almost without blame)
some of his fellow-laborers have given most kind and
gratifying testimony,.as I find in this letter to Lady
B- -, sent to my mother from Mr. Cockerell, architect and superintendent- of St. Paul's Cathedral, which
I give, as showing a part of his character little known
to the world —his powers of business:,
" HAMPSTEAD, Oct. 24th, 1851.
"DEAR LADY B,
"I have great pleasure in committing to writing, according to your request, some of those anecdotes on the
practical qualities of our lamented friend, the Rev. Sydney Smith, which you listened to with so much interest
last year. Referring as they do to. his Gesta as Canon
Residentiary of St. Paul's, superintending more especially-the repairs of the fabric, and my agency therein as
the appointed surveyor and paymaster; they certainly
exhibit the bold originality of his.mind; and the integrity of his habits in the common transactions of business, in which duty and fidelity are alone concerned,
with as much advantage as the better-known acts of his
public life. And you justly insist upon my relation of
them, however humble, and commonly considered beneath the dignity of biography; as perhaps more illustrative of conscientious motive and intrinsic merit, than
the more striking talents which made him so justly
valued and, admired by the world, and as exhibiting
his character from a point of view not hitherto perhaps
taken sufficiently into account.




222     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"The routine and technical conduct of the current
business of public bodies is ordinarily committed confidentially by them to those hands which have been found
worthy of the trust; but on his appointment the new
Canon avowed his diffidence of them in general. His
experience, acquired by the habit of careful observation,
had taught him to suspect, wherever the clearest evidence of rectitude was deficient; and he investigated
with the greatest minuteness all transactions which
were placed under his superintendence, and that with a
severity of discipline neither called for nor agreeable.
"His early communications, therefore, with myself,
and I may say with all the officers of the Chapter, were
extremely unpleasant; but when satisfied by his methods of investigation, and by a'little collision,' as he
termed it, that all was honest and right, nothing could be
more candid or kind than his subsequent treatment; and
our early dislike was at length converted into unalloyed
confidence and regard. As he expressed himself to one
of the most valued of our staff,' When I heard every
one speak well of you, I entertained the most vehement
suspicions; and I treated you as a rogue until I had
tried you so far, that you could endure such harsh treatment no longer.'
"As nothing was taken upon trust at first, great
were our disputes as to contracts, materials, and prices:
with all of which, from the rates in the market, to those
of Portland stone, putty, and white lead, he armed himself with competent information: every item was taxed,
and we owe several important improvements in the administration of the works and accounts to his acumen,
punctuality, and vigor. Not only did he thus adjust
and scrutinize the payment of works, but nothing new
could be undertaken without his survey and personal
superintendence. An unpracticed head and a podagrous




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


228


disposition of limbs might well have excused the survey
of those pinnacles and heights of our cathedral, which
are to all both awful and fatiguing; but nothing daunted
him; and once, when I suggested a fear that his portly
person might stick fast in a narrow opening of the western towers, which we were surveying, he reassured me
by declaring, that'if there were six inches of space,
there would be room enough for him.'
"During more than a quarter of a century of my
direction of these repairs, I had met with no similar
sacrifice or'minute attention to this department; and
when it is remembered that this duty in no degree affects
the funds of the Dean and Chapter, and that these repairs are from a separate fund, the administration of
which only is intrusted to one of the Canons, we shall
the more admire so conscientious a discharge of this
duty.  Such was the minor process; but the greater
measures for the enduring security of this magnificent
cathedral were most important and conspicuous.  The
disasters of York Cathedral had exhibited the unwarrantable neglect, so general in these sacred edifices, of the
common security of insurance; and in 1840, I believe,
Canterbury was the only cathedral church insured.  St.
Paul's was speedily and effectually insured in some of
the most substantial offices of London: not satisfied with
this security, he advised the introduction of the mains
of the New River into the lower parts of the fabric, and
cisterns and movable engines in the roof; and quite justifiable was his joke, that' he would reproduce the Deluge in our cathedral.'
"The fine library of the fabric, the estimation of which
was always cited by Dean Vanmildert, had long suffered
by dilapidation and damp; but a stove, American indeed, and better suited to our slender finances than the
dignity of our library, soon dispelled one evil, and ren



224     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
dered it accessible and, comfortable to the studious at
the same time; and the bindings were all roughly, but
substantially, repaired. The restoration of the noble
model, the favorite scheme of Sir Christopher Wrennow, alas! a ruin, after one hundred and forty years of
neglect-was no less in his constant contemplation; but
our funds were insufficient. The successful result of a
singular dispute as to the will of Dr. Clarke, in 1675,
which had been brought before the Chapter by our respected Chapter clerk, Mr. Hodgson, during Mr. Sydney Smith's administration, caused a great addition to
the fabric fund, which had before been insufficient for
its purposes, and effected an increase which it is hoped
will secure the cathedral from dilapidation.
"A question of law was well suited to Mr. Smith's
acumen and vigor, and he very materially assisted, during the progress of a suit in Chancery, instituted for
the purpose of establishing the will, to its being brought
to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion, to the lasting
benefit of the cathedral.
"These are some of the efficient labors of our valued
friend within my own professional knowledge, and they
might be greatly increased by that of my colleagues in
office at St. Paul's; in proof of which, I am permitted
by Mr. Hodgson, who loved and honored him, to quote
a constant saying of his,' That Mr. Sydney Smith was
one of the most strictly honest men he ever met in business.' Thus established in the respect and friendship,
I may truly say, of all of us,. you will conceive the regret with which I received his announcement, by a note,
some years before his lamented departure, that' I should
hear with pleasure, after so much trouble, that being in
the expectation of his first paralytic, he was about to
give up his superintendence of my department to abler
hands.'




MEMOIR OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMIT1H.


226


"lI have great pleasure, dear madam, in offering you
these few: anecdotes, in.: testimony of a beloved and
honored memory, however humble and insufficiently expressed.. To contribute, in any. truthful aud impartial
way, to the just appreciation of an honest and illustrious
character, is one of the most delightful duties we can-be
called upon to perform; and surely these traits of conscienceLand:integrity,: of which I -have been the witness
only, in the fastidious,: troublesome, and inconspicuous
duties of the business transactions of fabric accounts and
repairs, may, in this sense, well deserve the record to
which you have so earnestly invited me. And I have
the ionor to be, dear madam, your most respectful friend
and servant,
" C.. COCKERELL."
The following, from his old friend, the Dean of St..Paiu's, is so valuable that I can not resist inserting it:
"No man, I should say, went on improving to so
late a period of his life, both in acuteness of thought
and felicity of expression;....... Indeed the business
in. which I am at present engaged brings at every turn
my old friend before me. I find traces of him in every
particular of Chapter affairs; and on every occasion
where his hand appears, I find-stronger reason for respecting his sound judgment, knowledge of business,
and activity of mind; above all, the perfect fidelity of
of his stewardship. In his care of his own interests as
member of the Chapter, there was ever the most honest'(rarely, if I may not say singularly honest) regard for
the:interests of the Chapter and the Church. His management of the affairs of St. Paul's (for at-one time he
seems to have been the manager) only' commenced too
late,: and terminated too soon."
In the year- 1837 he made a short tour into Holland,




226     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
with my mother. le always lamented that the power
of traveling had been denied him till his body had become almost unequal to the fatigue of doing so. He
was ever most eager to see and to hear; but with the
same rapidity that characterized his thoughts, he only
liked first impressions, and never dwelt ten minutes together on the same scene or picture; declared he had
mastered the Louvre in a quarter of an hour, and could
judge of Talma's powers in ten minutes.*
On his return, by Brussels, he received much kindness and attention from his friend Mr. Van de Weyer,
who was then staying there, and made acquaintance
with Madame Van de Weyer, his mother, with whom
he was excessively struck, both from her talent and her
vigor of character. He had, while here, the honor of an
interview with King Leopold, who afterward sent him an
invitation to dine with him at his palace at Laeken, and
was kind enough to send his carriage to Brussels to take
him there and bring him back. He felt this unexpected honor and attention from the sovereign of a foreign
country as he ought. But am I wrong in believing that
such honors do more honor even to the giver than the
receiver? for are they not a pledge to the people that
their sovereign prizes talents and honesty wherever they
are found, and whether they have been employed, as
my father says, "in protecting the just rights of kings
or restraining their unlawful ambition?"
He says, in a letter from Brussels, " Holland is dear,
dirty, ugly. I was much struck with the commercial
grandeur of Amsterdam.   You must excuse me for
thinking the English to be the greatest and wisest nation that ever existed in the world; we are excelled
* It was this love of change that made him often write and speak
of Combe Florey as an earthly paradise; and again, after some weeks,
describe it as un tombeau. Both were genuine feelings at the moment.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


227


however in many things-in buildings, cooking, baking,
and in good manners..In setting out we went by Dunkirk, over a most atrocious country. With Dunkirk I
was agreeably surprised; I found an excellent inn, good
shops, and noble church and tower, and altogether a
handsome city. At Ypres I was delighted with the
Hotel de Ville, one of the most magnificent Gothic
buildings I ever saw. At Bruges the hall and tower
are quite surprising, as is the town-house here. The
Flemings are hideously ugly; so is their country; the
inns are all very good. All their great towns are melancholy and under-peopled.
"I dined yesterday with Sir Hamilton Seymour. Van
de Weyer has been extremely kind and hospitable to
us, and his old mother is an excellent person. I am to
be presented to the King to-day."
In the autumn he came again for his residence at St.
Paul's, and the eagerness to obtain his society seemed
to increase with his years. He used, during -his stay in
town, to give an evening party once a week. These
parties were always popular, though, from the numbers
now assembled at them, they had not the charm of the
little select suppers of his youth.
One evening, at his house, a few friends had come in
to tea; among others, Lord Jeffrey, Dr. Holland, and
his sister. Some one spoke of Talleyrand. "Oh," said
Sydney, "Lady Holland labored incessantly to convince
me that Talleyrand was agreeable, and was very angry
because his arrival was usually a signal for my departire; but, in the first place, he never spoke at all till
he had not only devoured but digested his dinner, and
as this was a slow process with him, it did not occur:
till every body else was asleep, or ought to have been
so; and when he did speak he was so inarticulate I
never could understand a word he said."  "It was




228     MEMOIR OF THE REV. S-DNIEY SMITH.
otherwise with me," said Dr. Holland; "I never found
much difficulty in following him."' Didinot you? why
it was an abuse of terms to call it talking- at all; for he
had no teeth, and, I believe, no -roof to his mouth-no
uvula-no larynx-no trachea-no epiglottis-no any
thing. It was not talking, it was gargling; and that,
by-the-by, now I think of it, must be the very reason
why Holland: understood him so much better than I
did," turning suddenly round on him with his merry
laugh.
"Yet nobody's wit was of so high an order as Talleyrand's when it did come, or has so well stood the test
of tim6. You remember when his friend Montrond*
was taken ill, and exclaimed,'Mon ami, je sens les
tourmens de l'enfer.''Quoi deja?' was his reply.
And when he sat at dinner between Madame de Stael
and Madame Re'camier, the celebrated beauty, Madame
de Stae, — whose beauties were certainly not those of the
person, jealous of his attentions to her rival, insisted
upon knowing which he would save if they were both
drowning. After seeking in vain to evade her, he at
last turned toward her and said, with his usual shrug,'Ah, madame, vous savez nager.' And when  -- exclaimed,'Me voil entre l'esprit et la beaute,' he answered,' Oui, et sans posseder ni lun ni lautre.' And
of Madame -,'Oui, elle est belle, tres-belle; mais
pour la toilette, cela commence trop tard, et finit trop
t6t.' Of Lord -      he said,'C'est la bienveillance
meme, mais la bienveillance la plus perturbative que
j'ai jamais connu.' To a friend of mine he said on one
occasion,'Miladi, voulez-vous me preter ce livre?''Oui,
mais vous me le rendrez?'' Oui.'  Parole d'honneur?'
* I find that Talleyrand usedato tell tthis story as having passed between Cardinal De la Roche-Guyon, a celebrated epicure, and his confessor.




MEMOIR OF THE RIEV. SYDNEY SMITH.


229' Outi.''; YVous en etes' Ot'i, oui, miladi; mais,
pour: vous le rendre, il faut -absolument d'abord me le
preteer.'
" What a talker that Frenchman:Buchon is! Macaulay
is a Trappist compared to him.
"I was,- many years ago, talking in Talleyrand'
presence: to my brother Bobus, who was just then:beginning -his career at the Bar, and sai'd, Mind,Bobus,
when you are Chancellor I shall expect one of your best
livings.''Oui, mon ami,' said Bobus,'mais d'abord je
vous ferai commettre toutes les bassesses dont les pretres sont capables.' On which Talleyrand, throwing up
his. hands and eyes, exclaimed, with a shrug,'Mais
quelle latitude dnorme!'"
Th.e conversation. then turned on society in London,
and:its -effect: upon character.  "I always tell Lady
P-a —- she has preserved the two impossible concomitants of a. London life-a- good. complexion and a good
heart. Most London dinners evaporate in whispers to
one's.next-door neighbor.:: I.  e make' irt: a rule never to
speak a word to mine, but fire'across::the table though
I broke it once when I heard' a lady'who sat next me,
in a' low, sweet voice, say,...No gravy, sir.  I had never
seen her before, but I turned. suddenly round and said,'Madaim, I have been looking for a person who disliked
gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.' She
looked: astonished, but took the oath, and what is better,
kept it. You laugh, Miss ---; but what more usual
foundation for friendship, let me ask, than similarity of
tastes?"
Talking of tastes, my father quite shared in his friend
Mrs..'Opie'a for light, heat, and fragrance. The first
was almost a passion with him, which he indulged by
means of little tin lamps with mutton-fat, in the days
of his poverty-these, when a little richer, to our great




280     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


joy, were exchanged for oil-lamps-and lastly, in the
days of his wealth, for a profusion of wax-lights. The
heat of his patent fire-places has been mentioned, and his
delight in flowers was extreme. He often went into the
garden the moment he was dressed, and returned with
his hands full of roses, to place them on the plates at
breakfast. He liked to see the young people staying in
his house dressed with natural flowers, and encouraged
us to invent all sorts of flowery ornaments, such as earrings -and necklaces, some of which were really very
graceful.
The following are some fragments of my father's conversation in London:
Some one asked if the Bishop of    was going to
marry.  "Perhaps he may," said my father; "yet
how can a bishop marry? How can he flirt? The
most he can say is,'I will see you in the vestry after
service.'"
"Oh, don't read those twelve volumes till they are
made into a consomme of two. Lord Dudley did still
better, he waited till they blew over."
Talking of tithes: " It is an atrocious way of paying
the clergy. The custom of tithe in kind will seem incredible to our posterity; no one will believe in the
ramiferous priest officiating in the cornfield."
"Our friend -     makes all the country smell like
Piccadilly."
An argument arose, in which my father observed how
many of the most eminent men of the world had been
diminutive in person, and after naming several among
the ancients, he added, "Why, look there, at Jeffrey;
and there is my little friend -, who has not body
enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is
improperly exposed."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


231


"'Oh, don't mind the caprices of fashionable women;
they are as gross as poodles fed on milk and muffins."
"Fox wrote drop by drop."
" Simplicity is a great object in a great book; it is
not wanted in a short one."
" You will generally see. in human life the round man
and the angular man planted in the wrong hole; but
the Bishop of -, being a round man, has fallen into
a triangular hole, and is far better off than many triangular men who have fallen into round holes."
"The great charm of Sheridan's speaking was his
multifariousness of style."
"When I took my Yorkshire servants into Somersetshire, I found that they thought making a drink out
of apples was a tempting of Providence, who had intended barley to be the only natural material of intoxication."
"We naturally lose illusions as we get older, like
teeth, but there is no Cartwright to fit a new set into
our understandings. I have, alas! only one illusion
left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury."
Speaking of the long debates in the House: " Why
will not people remember the Flood? If they had;
lived before it, with the patriarchs, they might have
talked any stuff they pleased; but do let them remember how little time they have under this new order of
things."
"The charm of London is that you are never glad or
sorryfor ten minutes together: in the country you are
the one and the other for weeks."
"There is a New Zealand attorney arrived in London, with 6s. 8d. tattooed all over his face.":"Yes, he has spent all his life in letting down empty
buckets into empty wells; and he is frittering away his
age in trying to draw them up again."




282     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.: If you. masthead a sailor for not doing his.duty,
why should you. not weathercock a parishioner for refusing to pay tithes?"
"IHo-w: is —?"' He is not very well." ". Why,
what is the matter?"  "Oh, don't you.know he has
produced a couplet? When our friend is delivered of
a couplet, with infinite labor and pain, he takes to his
bed, has straw laid down, the knocker tied up,-.expects
his friends to call and make inquiries, and the answer
at the door invariably is,' Mr-.-.and his little couplet are as well as can be expected.' When he produces
an Alexandrine he keeps his bed a day longer."
-. "You will find a Scotchman always says what is
undermost. I,:on the contrary, say every thing that
comes uppermost, and.have all sorts of bad jokes put
uponr me in consequence.: An American published a
book, and declared I had told him there were more mad
Quakers in lunatic asylums than any -other sect-quite
an-. invention. on his part..- Another time Prince P. M.
published my conversations; so when I next met him,
I inquired whether this was to be a printed or manuscript one, as I should talk:accordingly. He did his
best to blush."
One evening, when drinking tea with Mrs. Austin,
the servant entering into a crowded room, with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand, -it seemed doubtful, nay, impossible, he should make his way among the numerous
groups;.but, on the first approach of the steaming kettle,
the crowd receded on. all sides, my father among the
rest, though carefully watching the progress of the lad
to the table: "I declare," said he (addressing Mrs. Austin), "a man who wishes:to make his. way in life could
do nothing better than go through the world with a boiling:tea-kettle in his hand.":
"Never neglect your fire-places: I have paid great




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITIH.


233


attention to mine, and could burn you all out in, a moment. Much of the cheerfulness of life depends upon
it. Who could be miserable-with that fire.? What
makes a fire so. pleasant is,. I think,: that it is a live
thing in a dead room."..Such is the horror the French have of.our cuisine,
that at the dinner givenn i  honor of Guizot- at the
Atheneum, they say his cook. was heard to exclaim,'Ah, mon pauvre maitre! je ne e reverrai plus.' 
"Lord Wenlock told: me thatl his ground-rent cost
him five pounds a foot; that is about the price of a London footman six foot high-thirty guineas per annum."
"I believe the parallelogram between Oxford. Street,
Piccadilly, Regent Street, and Hyde Park, incloses
more intelligence and human ability, to say nothing of
wealth and beauty, than the world has ever collected in
such a space before."
"' When I praised the author of the New Poor Law
the other day, three gentlemen at table took it to themselves, and blushed up to the eyes."
" Yes! you find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence."
"It is a great proof of shyness to crumble bread at
dinner.'Oh, I see you are afraid of me' (turning to a
young lady-who sat by him),'you crumble -your bread.'
I do it-when I sit by the Bishop of London, and with
both hands when I sit by the Archbishop."
Addressing Rogers: "My dear:R., if we were both
in America, we should be tarred and feathered; and,
lovely as we are by nature, I should be an ostrich and
youan emu,"
"I once saw a dressed statue of Venus in a serious
house-the Venus Millinaria."
", Ah, you flavor every thing; you are the vanille of
society."




234     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"I think it was Luttrell who used to say' --'s
face always reminded him of boiled mutton and near
relations.'"
"I fully intended going to America; but my parishioners held a meeting, and came to a resolution that
they could not trust me with the canvas-back ducks;
and I felt they were right, so gave up the project."
"Of course, if I ever did go to a fancy ball at all, I
should go as a Dissenter."
" Some people seem to be born out of their proper
century.  -   should have lived in the Italian Republics, and --  under Charles II."
"My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way,
that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon."
"Don't you know, as the French say, there are three
sexes-men, women, and clergymen?"
"One of my great objections to the country is, that
you get your letters but once a dry; here they come
every five minutes."
On some one offering him oat-cake, "No, I can't eat
oat-cake, it is too rich for me."
" Harrowgate seemed to me the most heaven-forgotten
country under the sun. When I saw it, there were only
nine mangy fir-trees there; and even they all leant away
from it."
Dining at Mr. Grenville's, he as usual arrived before
the rest of the party; some ladies were shortly after
announced; as Mr. Grenville, with his graceful dignity
and cheerfulness, went forward to receive them, my
father, looking after him, exclaimed to Mr. Panizzi,
"There, that is the man from whom we all ought to
learn how to grow old!" The conversation at table
turned on a subject lately treated of in Sir Charles
Lyell's book, the phenomena which the earth might
present to the geologists of some future period; "Let




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


235


us imagine," said my father, "an excavation on the site
of St. Paul's. Fancy a lecture, by the Owen of some
future age, on the thigh-bone of a Minor Canon, or the
tooth of a Dean-the form, qualities, the knowledge,
tastes, propensities, he would discover from them."
And off he went, his imagination playing on this idea
in every possible way.
Some one spoke of the state of financial embarrassment of the London University at that time.  "Yes, it
is so great, that I understand they have already seized
on the air-pump, the exhausted receiver, and galvanic
batteries; and that bailiffs have been seen chasing the
Professor of Modern History round the quadrangle."
Conversing in the evening, with a small circle, round
Miss Berry's tea-table (who, though far advanced toward the fourscore years and ten which she afterward
attained, was still remarkable for her vigor of mind and
beauty of person), myr father observed the entrance of a
no less remarkable person, both for talents and years,
dressed in a beautiful crimson velvet gown; he started
up to meet his fine old friend, exclaiming, "Exactly
the color of my preaching cushion!" and leading her
forward to the light, he pretended to be lost in admiration, saying, "I really can hardly keep my hands off
you; I shall be preaching on you, I fear," etc., and
played with the subject to the infinite amusement of his
old friend and the little circle assembled round her.
"Playfair was certainly the most delightful philomath
I ever knew."
"Have you heard of Niebuhr's discoveries?  All
Roman history reversed; Tarquin turning out an excellent family man, and Lucretia a very doubtful character, whom Lady --     would not have visited."
The ladies having left the room, at a dinner at Sir
G. Philips's, the conversation turned on the black pop



236     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ulation of America. My father, turning to an eminent
American jurist, who was here some years ago, "Pray,
Mr. --, tell us why you can't live on better terms
with your black population.":"Why, to tell you the
truth, Mr. Smith, they smell so abominably that we
can't bear them near us."  "Possibly not," said my
father, "but men must not be led by the nose in that
way-: if you don't like asking them to dinner, it is
surely no reason why- you should not make citizens of
them.'Et si non alium late: jactaret odorem.
Civis erat.'" *
" Don't talk to me of-not being able to cough a speaker.down: try the hooping-cough."
Mr. Monckton Milnes was. talking to Alderman -,
when the latter turned away:- "You were speaking,"
said Sydney, "to the Lord Mayor elect. I myself felt
in. his presence like the Roman whom Pyrrhus tried to
frighten with an elephant, and remained calm."
" When so showy a woman as Mrs.       appears at
a place, though there is no garrison within twelve miles;
the horizon is immediately clouded with majors."
"To take Macaulay out of literature and society, and
put him in the House of Commons, is like taking the
chief physician out of London during a pestilence."
"How bored- children are with the wisdom of Telemachus! they can't think:why Calypso is so fond of
him."
Some one observing the wonderful improvement. in
since his success, "Ah!" he said, "praise is the
best diet for us, after all."
One day,- Mr.: Rogers took Mr. Moore and my father
home in his carriage, from a breakfast; and insisted on
* Virgil.G. eorgics ii. 132., Lcauruts in the original,




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.      237
showing them, by the way, Dryden's house, in some obscure- street. It was very wet; the house looked very
much like other old houses; and having thin shoes'on,
they both remonstrated; but in vain, Rogers got out,
and stood expecting them. "Oh! you see why Rogers
don't mind getting out," exclaimed my father, laughing
and leaning out of-the carriage, "he has got goloshes
on-but, Rogers, lend us each:a golosh, and we will
then stand on one leg, and admire as long as you
please."
"When Prescott comes to England, a Caspian Sea
of soup awaits him.":"An American said to me, "You are so funny, Mr.
Smithl! do you know, you remind me of our great joker,
Dr; Chamberlaque.''I am much honored,' I replied,'but I was not aware you had such a functionary in the
United States."'
At Mr. Romilly's there arose a discussion on the Inferno: of Dante, and the tortures he had invented. "He
may be %a great poet," said my father, "but as to invention, I consider him a mere bungler-no imagination, no
knowledge of the human heart. If I had taken it in
hand, I would show you what torture really was; for
instance (turning, merrily, to his old friend-Mrs. Marcet),
you should be doomed to listen, for a thousand years, to
conversations between Caroline and Emily, where Caroline should always give wrong explanations in chemistry, and Emily in the end be unable to distinguish an
acid from an alkali. You, Macaulay, let me consider?oh, you should be dumb. False dates and facts of the
reign of Queen Anne should forever be shouted in your
ears; all liberal and honest opinions should be ridiculed
in your presence; and you should not be able to say a
single word during that period in their defense." "And
what would you condemn r:. to, Mr. Sydney?" said a




238    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


young mother. "Why, you should forever see those
three sweet little girls of yours on the point of falling
down stairs, and never be able to save them. There,
what tortures are there in Dante equal to these?"
"Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine
in trowsers."
"When I began to thump the cushion of my pulpit,
on first coming to Foston, as is my wont when I preach,
the accumulated dust of a hundred and fifty years made
such a cloud, that for some minutesI lost sight of my
congregation."
"Nothing amuses me more than to observe the utter
want of perception of a joke in some minds. Mrs.
Jackson called the other day, and spoke of the oppress,
ive heat of last week.'Heat, ma'am!' I said;' it was
so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for
it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.'' Take
off your flesh and sit in your bones, sir! Oh, Mr. Smith!
how could you do that?' she exclaimed, with the utmost
gravity.'Nothing more easy, ma'am; come and see
next time.' But she ordered her carriage, and evidently
thought it a very unorthodox proceeding."
"Miss --, too, the other day, walking round the
grounds at Combe Florey, exclaimed,' Oh, why do you
chain up that fine Newfoundland dog, Mr. Smith?''Because it has a passion for breakfasting on parish
boys.''Parish boys!' she exclaimed,'does he really
eat boys, Mr. Smith?''Yes, he devours them, buttons and all.' Her face of horror made me die of laughing."
A most curious instance of this slow perception of humor occurred once in Brook Street, where a gentleman
of some rank dined at our house, with-a large party, of
which my father and Mr. Luttrell formed a portion. My
father was in high spirits, and in one of his happiest




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


239


veins; and much brilliant conversation passed around
from Mr. Luttrell and others. Mr. -  sat through it
all with the utmost gravity. This seemed only to stimulate my father, who became more and more brilliant,
till the table was in a perfect roar of laughter. The
servants even, forgetting all decorum, were obliged to
turn away to conceal their mirth. Mr. -  alone sat
unmoved, and gazing with solemn wonder at the scene
around. Luttrell was so struck by this that he said,
"Mr.       was a natural phenomenon whom he must
observe;" so letting the side-dishes pass by, he took
out his eye-glass to watch. At last my father accidentally struck out a subject (which, for social reasons, I
must not give, though it was inimitable), which touched
the right spring, and ie could resist no longer, but actually laughed out. Luttrell shouted victory in my ear;
and resumed his wonted attention to the dinner, saying,
he had never witnessed so curious a scene.
The conversation turned upon pictures.  "I like
pictures, without knowing any thing about them; but
I hate coxcombry in the fine arts, as well as in any
thing else. I got into dreadful disgrace with Sir G. B.
once, who, standing before a picture at Bowood, exclaimed, turning to me,' Immense breadth of light and
shade!' I innocently said,' Yes; about an inch and a
half.' He gave me a look that ought to have killed me."
At a large dinner-party my father, or some one else,
announced the death of Mr. Dugald Stewart; one whose
name ever brings with it feelings of respect for his talents and high character. The news was received with:so much levity by a lady of rank, who sat by him, that
he turned round and said, "Madam, when we are told
of the death of so great a man as Mr. Dugald Stewart,
it is usual, in civilized society, to look grave for at least
the space of five seconds."




240     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.: They do nothing in Ireland as they would elsewhere.
When the Dublin mail was stopped and robbed, my
brother declares that a sweet female voice was heard behind the hedge, exclaiming,' Shoot the gintleman, then,
Patrick dear!?"'
We were all- assembled to look at a turtle that had
been sent to the house of a friend, when a child of the
party stooped down and:began eagerly stroking the shell
of the turtle. " Why are you doing-that, B-?" said
my father.  " Oh, to please the turtle-" "Why; child,
you might as well stroke the dome of St. Paul's, to
please the Dean and Chapter."
Some one naming -     as not very orthodox, "Accuse a man of being a Socinian, and it is all over with
him: for the country- gentlemen all think it has something to do with poaching.",' I hate bare walls; so I cover mine, you see, with
pictures. The public, it must be owned, treat them
with great contempt;'and even Hibbert, who has been
brought up in the midst of fine pictures, and might know
better, never will admire them. But look -at that seapiece, now; what would you desire more? -It is true,
the moon' in the corner was rather dingy whene I first
bought it; so I had a new moon put in'for half-a-crown,
and now I consider it perfect."
Of my father's conversation in London,: where: of
course such powers were most excited and -most brilliant (except in these slight specimens, principally furnished by the kindness of a friend), I:have hardly attempted to give any idea; partly because the documents that would best have enabled men to do so (his
daily letters, when absent, to my mother) have riot
been preserved-partly because of such journals so little
can and'ought to be published, that they serve but fo
remind one of Sancho Panza's feast, where a splendid




BEMOIR'OF THE REt. SYDNEY SMITH. 


2{1


list of names promises every thing, and produces nothing- and last, though not least, as his friend Lord
John Russell observes, because it is hardly possible to
describe his manner, or convey the slightest idea of what
his powers really were,' in their most brilliant moments,.to those who have never witnessed them. Lord John
adds-and all who knew my fathoer will agree with his
conclusion —that "in his peculiar style he has never
been equaled, and perhaps will not be surpassed."  I
observe, with pleasure, that every sketch which has appeared of him has laid great stress upon the wonderful
degree of truth, wisdom, and bold illustration, that was'
often concealed in these ludicrous pictures and apparent
nonsense; and which not only made them valuable, but:
prevented their ever palling, or degenerating into mere
buffoonery.
About this period began his contest with the Ecclesiastical'Commission, which lasted nearly four years,_
and was carried on principally in a series of letters addressed to Archdeacon Singleton. In these letters, after
touching slightly upon the injustice of forming such a
Commission without any one to protect the interests
of the inferior clergy-on the permanent and arbitrary
powers granted to the Commission, under a Whig ministry- on the inclination the Commission evinced to
appropriate the patronage, at the same time that they
were claiming the honors of martyrdom (a propos to
which he introduced the episode of the old'chronicle
of Dort)-touching on these, together with many other
clauses very oppressive to the clergy (which were afterward given up), he proceeds to enforce two principles.- First, that if the laity desire an Establishment
into'which birth, wealth, station, talent, education, and
character should flow; and bestow  on it a revenue
which, if equally divided, would hardly: place the clergy
VOL. I.-L




242     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
on a footing with the upper servants of a nobleman's
family, and would not, according to the proposed plan
of spoliation, be an addition of more than ~5. 12s. 61d.
per man-payment by hope, or inequality of division,
were the only means of obtaining the desired end; and
the prizes in the lottery must be left. Or, if the inequality in some instances was too great, the remedy
should be applied where the greatest evil existed. Secondly, that the Commission, by attacking vested interests during the lifetime of the incumbents, were
not only guilty of great present injustice, but were admitting a most dangerous precedent, and overturning a principle that all governments had hitherto respected.
These letters, which by many have been considered
as evincing more talent than almost any thing he has
written, produced considerable effect at the time; and
the many private letters I possess, as well as the testimony of the public press, show that public opinion
was strongly with him - that these measures were
changes, but not reforms-that they contributed nothing to the public good-and that they diminished nothing of the public hostility to the Church. How it terminated. is well known. He concludes the controversy
with this tribute to his old friend and opponent, Lord
John Russell: "You know very well, my dear Lord,
in criticising parts of your Church reform, I mean nothing unkind or unfriendly to you personally. I have
known you for thirty years; and I do not believe that
in his country, full of good men, there is one more honest, upright, and intrepid than yourself." My father,
I find, states that he has the most honorable testimony from Lord John himself, that in conducting this
dispute he never exceeded the bounds of free discussion; and that he was influenced by no motive that did




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


243..


not affect equally the whole body to which he belonged,
and whose interests he felt bound to defend.*
I am aware that these letters have afforded plausible
ground for the insinuations that were made by some
few, that my father, a Whig all his life, deserted his
party, and attacked his friends; and, a reformer, opposed reform  the moment it affected his own interest.
These are grave charges, but are best met by a few
facts.   He attacked the Whigs when they were.in
power, and had every thing to bestow; when they were
poor and powerless, he was ever found fighting at their
side. This does not look mean and base. He opposed
not reform, but this reform; and this reform      he had
opposed upon the same principle, twenty years before,
in the Edinburgh Review, under a Tory administration,
when in his wildest dreams he had never hoped to be
a Canon of St. Paul's.t He did not, therefore, change
his opinions with his position. It did not affect his
personal interests, as he wanted the patronage neither
for himself nor his family; and the noble use he made
of valuable patronage when it did come into his hands,
must sufficiently exonerate him   from  the suspicion of
acting from interested motives in the eyes of any candid man.
The following petition from the Rev. Sydney Smith,
* I might add to this statement, that- I have very lately received
from Lord John Russell the most generous praise of these very letters
(always excepting a well-known passage, which he considered unjust);
and Lord John's last act has indeed so proved its injustice, that I feel
sure my father, were he alive, would be the first to retract it, and to
do honor to the sacrifice that has been made by his friend.
t There is also among his papers an amusing fragment on the subject of tithes, written about the period that question was being discussed, which, as it is but a fragment, is hardly worth inserting. But
in this again he speaks strongly of the necessity of inequality of payment, in order to support an Establishment so ill provided for as the
Church of England; showing still further how consistent he was from
first to last in his opinions on this subject as well as others.




244-    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
was presented and read to the House of Lords by the
Hon. the Lord Bishop of Rochester, July, 1840.
" Tb the Right Honorable the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal in Parliament assembled.
4The humble petition of the Rev. Sydney Smith,
Cmnon Residentiary of- St. Paul's, humbly showethThat your petitioner has bestowed considerable thought
and attention upon the subject of the Ecclesiastical
Duties and Revenues Bill, and prays that the same
may not pass into a law; for the following reasons:
"The Bill applies to the spiritual destitution of the
Church, that which was left for the ornaments and rewards of the Church; and in this way gets rid of the
burden of supporting the clergy, by tampering with the
sacred laws of property; making, at the same time, the
multitude believe that they are reforming abuses, while
they are only evading duties and weakening principles.
"By lessening the rewards of the Church, it prevents
men of capital from entering into it; and makes the
whole wealth of those who are engaged in the service
of the Church less, instead of increasing it.
"The whole mass of property which the Bill proposes
to confiscate, will make the poor clergy a very little
less poor, while its confiscation destroys the powerful
stimulus of hope, at the beginning of an ecclesiastical
life. Two-thirds of the present deans and prebendaries
have been cura'and small vicars: they would, at the
lowest period of their fortunes, have refused to barter
their hope of future competence, for the addition of a
few pounds to their income; and this is most. unguestionably the state of feeling among the lower clergy at
the present moment.
"The whole of the Bill supposes that deans and
chapters have made a worse use of their patronage than




MEMOIR -OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


245-.


bishops, arid this is directly contrary to truth. But
what is true of this Bill is, that one order in' the Church
who have no votes in Parliament, have-been completely
sacrificed to those who have votes-that deans and prebendaries, carefully excluded.from the Commission, have
been condemned to confiscation-and that the Prelate
Commissioners have not sacrificed one shilling of the
aggregate income of the bishops to those spiritual destitutions of the Church, which they feel so strongly, but
relieve with property not their own.
"The Bill destroys many ecclesiastical offices, which,
with' a little care and thought, might have been made
eminently useful to literature; to the present plans of
national education; to the care of dioceses in the decay and old age of bishops, and to the general support
of episcopal authority; or, what is of more importance
(in the present unrepresented and unsupported state of
the parochial clergy), to the checks upon episcopal authority.
"This Bill habituates the Legislature to the easy
and inviting power of tampering with the property of
the Church. It is utterly impossible to believe that
this will be the last and the worst act of that nature.
"The law, as it now stands, enables dignified- clergymen to bestow their patronage on their children and
relations, who may be deserving of it. Under this sanction they have given to their sons very expensive educations at the Universities. The present Bill destroys
these expectations; sets at nought vested rights; and,
instead of applying this provision to future members of
chapters, cuts off from their rights the ancient members
of. those bodies, who have laid out their whole plan of
life upon the faith of laws unimpugned and unrepealed
for centuries; and this appears to your Petitioner to be
e gross act of spoliation and injustice, and contrary to




246     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
the express provisions and arrangements of the Com-.
missioners themselves.
"To give to every clergyman who has gone through
the expense of an English University, and who is married and settled in the country, the income which they
ought in decency and in justice to receive, would require, not only the confiscation of all the cathedral and
episcopal property, but some millions of money in addition. A church provided for as ours now is, can obtain
a well-educated and respectable clergy only by those
hopes which are excited by the unequal division and
lottery of preferment. This is the real cause which
has brought capital and respectability into the English
Church, and peopled it with the well-educated sons of
gentlemen-an object of the greatest importance in a
rich country like England. Nothing would so rapidly
and certainly insure the degradation of the Church of
England, as the equal division of all its revenues among
all its members.
"For these reasons, your Petitioner believes the Bill
in question (however well intended) to be founded on
a very short-sighted policy, and that it will entail great
evils upon a Church no longer unfavorable to the civil
liberties of mankind-as yet untainted by fanaticism
-carried forward by the labors of a highly improved
clergy-and now become as useful and as active as any
church establishment which the world has yet seen.
"This, as it seems to your Petitioner, is the last of
all our institutions upon which an experiment so daring
and so dangerous ought to be tried. For these reasons, your Petitioner humbly prays that the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill may not pass into a law.
" SYDNEY SMITH."


In the previous year, a statue having been erected




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


247


at Newcastle, in honor of Earl Grey, my father was
requested to write the inscription for it.  He sent the
following; but as it did not entirely meet the views of
all the subscribers, it was not adopted; though I have
reason to believe it was much approved of by his family.
TO CHARLES, EARL GREY, K.G.,
OF HOWICK, IN NORTHUMBERLAND,
THIS MONUMENT,
IN A SPIRIT OF SOLEMN RESPECT
AND DEEP GRATITUDE,
IS ERECTED, BY MANY OF HiS FELLOW-CITIZENS.
THEY HAVE SEEN HIM THROUGH A LONG LIFE
DEDICATING HIS FINE TALENTS TO PROMOTE THE BEST INTERESTS
OF MANKIND,
AND, IN EVIL DAYS, WITH HIGH MORAL COURAGE
DEFENDING THE ALMOST EXTINGUISHED LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND!
THEY OWE TO HIM THAT MEMORABLE REFORM,
WHICH, BLENDING FREEDOM WITH LOYALTY AND ORDER,
HAS INFUSED FRESH LIFE AND ENERGY INTO ALL
OUR INSTITUTIONS;
A REFORM WHICH HE PLANNED IN HIS YOUTH,
AND BROUGHT TO TRIUMPHANT PERFECTION IN HIS ADVANCED AGE.
REMEMBERING THESE THINGS,
THEY HAVE DEEMED IT, AN ACT OF SACRED JUSTICE
TO RECORD, BY A PUBLIC MONUMENT,
THEIR ADMIRATION OF THIS GREAT STATESMAN:
NOT WITHOUT HOPE
THAT THE YOUNG, SEEING WHAT THOSE QUALITIES ARE
WHICH COMMAND THE GRATITUDE OF MANKIND,
MAY STRIVE TO BE AS GOOD AND PURE AS HE
WHOSE IMAGE IS HERE PLACED BEFORE THEIR EYES.




CHAPTER X.
Visit to Combe Florey. —indness to Grandchildren.-Sudden Wealth.
-Recollections of his Parishioners at Foston.-Death of Lord Holland: his Portrait.-Letter to Mr. Webster.-Sketch of Revue des
Deux Mondes.-Letter of Mr. Grenville.-Visit from Mr. Moore,
and Verses.-Bestows the Living of Edmonton on Mr. Tate's Son.
-Letter to Mrs. Sydney Smith.-Address of Parishioners, and Answer.-Letter of Mrs. Marcet.-Receipt for making every day happy.-Definition of Happiness.-Petition to the American Congress
in 1843.-Effects.-Speech from Mr. Ticknor.-Letter from Mr.
Wainwright.-Abuse and Gifts from America.-Effect.of Preaching
in old Age.-Letter of Miss Edgeworth.-Correspondence with Sir
R. Peel.-Extract from Journal with Anecdotes.
IN the summer we went again to spend some months
with my father at Combe Florey, which every year
became more beautiful under his fostering care. His
love of children I have before alluded to; and particularly of his little grandchildren, whose happiness he
delighted to promote.    He hardly ever dressed in a
morning without having them round him to assist him;
or to play at shaving his table with his shaving-brush
and huge wooden bowl, which still remained, though
the reign of Bunch had ceased. Among these grandchildren was an odd, clever little girl, about five years
old, who amused him much by her peculiarities; one of
which was, that she insisted upon understanding every
thing she heard, and that when baffled, as she often
necessarily was, she took to roaring and kicking.    On
one of these occasions, he was walking round his garden with his two arms swung behind over his black
crutch-stick (his usual manner of walking), and hearing
these sounds from his merry little favorite, he stopped




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


249


under the open window, and called out, "What is the
matter with my little girl?"  "Oh," said her mother,
"she can not understand something about the Hebrews. I have tried to explain it to her; but as she
has lost her temper, I have told her she must wait till
she is a little older." He looked excessively amused
at the mental ambition of the five-years-old, but walked
off in silence. Two hours after, the mother found him
closeted with the little culprit in his favorite library,
in his large arm-chair, with the child on his knee, with
maps, dictionary, and books piled around him; he explaining and she listening with apparently equal pleasure, till the difficulty was overcome, and the child satisfied.  I must add, in justice to the little girl, that
though she has..retained her love of investigation, she
has fortunately left off the habit of roaring and kicking
under mental difficulties.
The sudden death of his youngest brother Courtenay
about this time (whose debt of thirty pounds he had
paid with so much difficulty at college fifty years before) without a will, put him in possession of the third
part of the very large, but to himself useless, fortune,
which he had accumulated in India; and' thus, as my
father has said, "in my grand climacteric I became unexpectedly a rich man."  Having the means of spending now, he spent as liberally as if he had been used to
wealth all his life; for his rigid economy in poverty
had never the effect of making him penurious.
This summer, when traveling through Yorkshire, I
went with my children to see our old haunts at Foston;
and it was very gratifying to find, though nearly ten
years had elapsed since he left them, how fresh my
father's memory was still in the hearts of his villagers.
From almost every cottage some one came out to greet
me, and to remind me of some saying, or some act of
L*




250      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
kindness, or to show me his parting gift, or to remember how he' doctored" them,'and to lament his loss.
And as to old Molly Mills, who was still alive, it was
quite affecting to see the mixture of joy and sorrow in
her face, as she recalled old stories, or thought of her
present loss-" the smile on her lip, and the tear in her
eye." I felt these were humble, but not the'less precious tributes to his character.
Each year now thinned the ranks of the great men
with whom he had begun life-men not only endeared
to him by social intercourse, but by that deep interest
which a struggle for the same cause during so many
years usually inspires.  But among these losses, none
ever fell more deeply and heavily on his heart than that
of Lord Holland. He loved him (as indeed all did who
had the privilege of knowing him intimately), and he
felt deeply his debt of gratitude to him in early life.
Lord Holland's last illness was, I believe, short; and
on his dressing-table were found these few lines, which
were sent to'me by his sister, Miss Fox, after his
death 
"Nephew of Fox, and friend of GreyEnough my meed of fame
If those who deign'd to observe me say
I injured neither name."
In a letter to Mrs. M., one of our oldest friends, he
says, speaking of Lord Holland's death —'' It is indeed
a great loss to me; but I have learned to live, as a
soldier does in war, expecting that on any one moment
the best and the dearest may be killed before his eyes..    I-have gout, asthma, and seven other maladies,
but am otherwise very well.-SYDNEY SMITH."
I see among my father's papers a sketch of Lord Holland, from  which I shall make some extracts, as, I'trust, they can only give pleasure.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


261i.


"A Portrait.
Great powers of reasoning, great quickness and ingenuity of proof, and a memory in the highest degree
retentive; a knowledge varied and extensive, and in
English history and constitutional law profound...
An invincible hatred of tyranny and oppression, the
most ardent love of public happiness, and attachment
to public rights. His conversation was lively and incessant..
"As a speaker, he wanted words, which he was often
forced to stop for; and he was too slow;. but he atoned
for these defects by sense, knowledge, simplicity, logic,
vehemence, and unblemished character. There never
existed in any human being a better heart, or one more
purified from all the bad passions, more abounding in
charity and compassion, or which seemed to be so
created as a refuge to the helpless and the oppressed.
* -        *     *     *    *     *     *
"He was very acute in the discernment of character; more so, I can not help thinking, than any public
man of his time whom it has fallen to my lot to observe. He was one of the most consistent and steady
politicians living in any day; in whose life, exceeding
sixty-five years, there was no doubt, varying, nor
shadow of change. It was one great, incessant, and
unrewarded effort to resist oppression, promote justice,
and restrain the abuse of power."
When Mr. Webster was Secretary of Foreign Affairs
for the United States, my father heard it reported from
America that. an accidental mistake he had made, in
introducing Mr. Webster, on his coming to this country
some time before (I believe, to Lord Brougham), under
the name of Mr. Clay, was intentional, and by way of




252     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
joke. Annoyed that so much impertinence and bad
taste should be imputed to him, he wrote a few lines
of explanation to Mr. Webster, to which he received
the following answer:
"WASHINGTON, 1841.
"MY DEAR SIR,
"Though exceedingly delighted to hear from you,
I am yet much pained by the contents of your note;
not so much however as I should be, were I not able
to give a peremptory denial to the whole report. I
never mentioned the incident to which you refer, as a
joke of yours-far from it; nor did I mention it as
any thing extraordinary.
"My dear, good friend, do not think me such a -
as to quote or refer to any incident falling out between
you and me to your disadvantage.  The pleasure of
your acquaintance is one of the jewels I brought home
with me. I had read of you, and read you, for thirty
years. I was delighted to meet you, and to have all I
knew of you refreshed and brightened by the charms
of your conversation. If any son of   asserts that
either through ill-will, or love of vulgar gossip, I tell
such things of you as you suppose, I pray you let him
be knocked down instanter. And be assured, my dear
Sir, I never spoke of you in my life but with gratitude,
respect, and attachment.         D. 5WEBSTER."
My father wrote in answer:
"Many thanks, my dear Sir, for your obliging letter.
I think better of myself because you think well of me.
If, in the imbecility of old age, I forgot your name for
a moment, the history of America will hereafter be
more tenacious in its recollections-tenacious, because
you are using your eloquent wisdom to restrain the
high spirit of your countrymen within the limits of




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


253


justice, and are securing to two -kindred nations, who
ought to admire and benefit each other, the blessings
of peace. How can great talents be applied to nobler
ends, or what existence can be more truly splendid?
"Ever sincerely yours,
" SYDNEY SMITH."
I have mentioned that my father, for reasons already
given, had made a collection of his writings in the
Edinburgh Review and elsewhere; and retracted what
little he felt he had been led by party prejudice to say
unjustly; and I can not resist inserting here a short
passage from a French Review (I believe, the " Revue
des Deux Mondes"), because I think it is a trait in his
character that has been unnoticed by his countrymen.
"Quoi de plus frequent que de se dire, au fond du
coeur, j'ai ete trop loin-ceci n'etait pas vrai, ceci etait
injuste? mais quoi de plus rare que de Pimprimer?
Voila ce que Sydney a noblement. fait: trente ans
apres ses regards rencontrent une plaisanterie qu'un
juge moins severe de ses propres fautes aurait pu
croire innocente, il ne pent s'empecher de dire,'I1 n'y
a rien qui depare plus les letters de Plymley que cette
attaque dirigee contre M. Bourne, qui est une personne
d'honneur et de talent; mais voila out m6nent les mauvaises passions de l'esprit de parti.' Castlereagh n'etait
pas un homme venal, cependant il l'avait represente
comme capable de recevoir de toutes mains;'Je l'ai
injustement accuse',' avoue-t-il fianchement. II est beau
d'entendre de la sorte un mot fameux, et de reconnaitre,
en se condamnant soi-meme, qu'on doit surtout la verite
a son ennemi mort."
He sent a copy of his works to each of my children
in 1842, as the best memorial of himself that he could




254    MEMOIR OF THE REV. -SYDNEY SMITH.


give, them: alas! in how few years was it the only
memorial left.
I find among the papers left me a pretty letter from
his old friend Mr. Grenville, to whom my father had
sent what he believed to be a rare and valuable edition
of Lucan, which we had found among his books. The
following is an extract from it:
"MY DEAR SIR,
"Lucan was first printed in 1469; but although,
under these circumstances, Aldus of 1515 may not be
highly estimated in bibliographical reputation, still it
comes to me with all the value of a unique copy; for
I know nobody else who would have so disposed of a
book with a perfect indifference to its being worth one
hundred pounds or one hundred pence, but with; an
evident wish that it might turn out to be ranked under
the first of these two classes..Most gladly and gratefully therefore shall Lucan, 1515, repose upon my
shelves; with the unique distinction which I am proud
to attribute to it from its highly-valued donor.
"Ever most truly yours,
"THOMAS GRENVILLE.
" HAMILTON PLACE, 1842."
In the summer of 1843, we had a visit from Mr.
Moore, a visit often before promised, but never accomplished. The weather and. the place were lovely, and
seemed to inspire the charming little poet, who talked
and sang in his peculiar fashion, like any nightingale of
the Flower Valley, to the delight of us all. In true poet
style, when he departed, he left various articles of his
wardrobe scattered about. On my father writing to inform him of this, he sent the following answer:




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.:265


"SLOPERTON, 1843.
"MY DEAR SYDNEY,
"Your lively letter (what else could it be?) was found
by me here on my return from Bowood; and with it a
shoal of other letters, which it has taken me almost ever
since to answer.   I began my answer to yours in rhyme,
contrasting the recollections I had brought away from
you, with the sort of treasures you had supposed me to
have left behind.   This is part of it:
"Rev. Sir, having duly received by the post
Your list of the articles missing and lost
By a certain small poet, well known on the road,
Who visited lately your flowery abode;
We have balanced what Hume calls'the tottle o' the whole,'
Making all due allowance for what the bard stole;
And hoping th' inclosed will be found quite correct,
Have the honor, Rev. Sir, to be yours with respect.
"Left behind a kid glove, once the half of a pair,
An odd stocking, whose fellow is-Heaven knows where;
And (to match these odd fellows) a couplet sublime,
Wanting nought to complete it but reason and rhyme.
"Such, it seems, are the only small goods you can find,
That this runaway bard in his flight left behind;
But in settling the account, just remember, I pray,
What rich recollections the rogue/took away;
What visions forever of sunny Combe Florey,
Its cradle of hills, where it slumbers in glory,
Its Sydney himself, and the countless bright things
Which his tongue or his pen, from the deep shining springs
Of his wisdom and wit, ever flowingly brings.
"I have not time to recollect any more; besides I
was getting rather out of my depth in those deep shining springs, though not out of yours. Kindest regards
to the ladies, not forgetting the pretty Hebe* of the
breakfast-table the day I came away.
"Yours ever most truly,
"THOMAS MOORE."


* Sir Henry Holland's youngest daughter.




25B    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"BowooD, August, Tuesday, 22d, 1843.
"MY DEAR SYDNEY,
"You said, in your acknowledgment of my late versicles, that you had never been be-rhymed before.        This
startled me into the recollection that I had myself once
before made free with you in that way; but where the
-evidence was of my presumption, I could not remember.
The verses however,_ written some three or four years
ago, have just turned up, and here they are for you.       I
forgot, by-the-by, to tell you that, a day or two after
my return from Combe Florey (Ilike to write that name),
I was persuaded to get into a gig with Lady Kerry, and
let her drive me some miles. Next day I found out
that, but a day or two before, it had run away with her!
-no bad taste, certainly, in the horse; but it shows
what one gets by consorting with young countesses and
frisky ecclesiastics.*
"Yours ever,                   THOMAS MOORE.
*      *       *      *       *      *,,
"And still let us laugh, preach the world as it may,
Where the cream of the joke is; the swarm will soon follow;
Heroics are very fine things in their way,
But the laugh, at the long-run, will carry it hollow.
"Yes, Jocus! gay god, whom the Gentiles supplied,
And whose worship not even among Christians declines;
In our senates thou'st languish'd, since Sheridan died,
But Sydney still keeps thee alive in our shrines.
"Rare Sydney! thrice honor'd the stall where he sits,
And be his every. honor he deigneth to climb at!
Had England a hierarchy form'd all of wits,
Whom, but Sydney, would England proclaim as its primate?
"And long may he flourish, frank, merry, and brave,
A Horace to feast with, a Pascalt to read!
While he laughs, all is safe; but, when Sydney grows grave,
We shall then think the Church is in danger indeed."
* Mr. Smith had driven Mr. Moore with a somewhat frisky horse.
Mr. Moore got out of the gig, and walked home.
t " Some parts of the'Provinciales' may be said to be of the highest
order ofjeux d'esprit." —Note by: Mr. Moore.




M3EMOIR OF THE, REV.. SYDNEY SMITH.


267


About this time the very valuable living of Edmonton fell vacant, by the death of my father's fellow-canon,
Mr. Tate; and by the rules of the Chapter of St. Paul's,
it lay with my father either to take it himself or present
it to a relation or friend. Remembering the honest intrepidity of his old colleague, who, in spite of poverty
and many children, had many years before joined him
in: a minority of two against the clergy of Yorkshire,
under a Tory administration, in favor of Catholic Emancipation; and grieving at the poverty his family would
be reduced to by his death, he determined to bestow
the living on his eldest son, who had acted as his father's curate, if he found on inquiry that he was fitted
for it by his character. He has given a most touching
account of his interview with the unhappy widow and
her family on this occasion, in a letter to my mother,
from which I shall give some extracts.
" GEEN STREET, October 23.
t" DEAREST KATE,
"I meant. to have gone to Munden to-day, but am
not quite stout, so have postponed my journey there
till next Saturday, the 28th. I went over yesterday
to the Tates at Edmonton. The family consists of three
delicate daughters, an aunt, the old lady, and her son,
then curate of Edmonton; the old lady was in bed.
I found there a physician, an old friend of Tate's, attending them from friendship, who had come from London for that purpose. They were in daily expectation
of being turned out from house and curacy.. I began
by inquiring the character of their servant; then turned
the conversation upon their affairs, and expressed a hope
the Chapter might ultimately do something for them.
I then said,' It is my duty to state to you (they were
all assembled) that I have given away the living of




258     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
Edmonton; and have written to our Chapter clerk this
morning, to mention the person to whom I have given
it; and I must also tell you, that I am sure he will appoint his curate. (A general silence and dejection.) It
is a very odd coincidence,' I added,' that the gentleman
I have selected is a namesake of this family; his name
is Tate. Have you any relations of that name?'' No,
we have not.''And, by a more singular coincidence,
his name is Thomas Tate; in short,' I added,'there is
no use in mincing the matter, you are vicar of Edmonton.' They all burst into tears. It flung me also into
a great agitation of tears, and I wept and groaned for a
long time. Then I rose, and said I thought it was very
likely to end in their keeping a buggy, at which we
all laughed as violently.
"The poor old lady, who was sleeping in a garret
because she could not bear to enter into the room lately
inhabited by her husband, sent for me and kissed me,
sobbing with a thousand emotions. The charitable
physician wept too.... I never passed so remarkable
a morning, nor was more deeply impressed with the sufferings of human life, and never felt more thoroughly the
happiness of doing good.
"God bless you!
"SYDNEY SMITH."
On this act becoming known, my father received an
address from the principal parishioners of Edmonton,
stating that they had intended to address the Dean and
Chapter, respectfully soliciting their-patronage in favor
of the son of their late vicar, and adding: "But what
shall we say, Reverend Sir, of that munificent act of
liberality on your part, by which the necessity of such
a memorial is superseded? Though however that necessity is superseded, we feel, Reverend Sir, bound in




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


259


gratitude to present to you personally our united thanks,
for the great benefit you have bestowed on our parish,
and the high gratification you have afforded us." To
which my father replied:
"GENTLEMEN,
"I am very much pleased by the address you have
done me the honor to send me.... In the choice of a
clergyman for the parish of Edmonton, I was actuated
by many considerations. I had to consult the character
and dignity of the Chapter, which would have been compromised by the nomination of a person merely because
he was my friend and relation. I was to find a serious
and diligent man, in the prime of life, able and eager to
fulfill the burdensome duties of so large a parish; and I
was to seek in him those characters of gentleness and
peace which are of such infinite importance to the character of the Church, and the happiness of those who live
under the beautiful influence of these qualities. Lastly,
I had to show my strong respect for the memory of one
of the kindest and best men that ever lived; and to lift
up, if I could, from poverty and despair, his widow and
his children.
"The address I have the honor to receive from you
to-day convinces me that I have succeeded in combining
these objects; and makes me really happy in thinking
that my conduct has obtained the approbation of so
many honorable men, so well acquainted with the circumstances of the case.
"I am, Gentlemen, with great respect,
"Your obedient humble servant,
" SYDNEY SMITH."
I must add a touching little note from his old friend
Mrs. Marcet, to my mother, on this occasion:




260    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY -SMITH,


"What a happy woman you must be, my dear Mrs.
Smith, to have such a husband!  All the world know
his talents, but it is not many who know that heart, so
overflowing with generous and magnanimous feelings,
with tender mercies, and Christian charities.  God
bless him!... I will write it, though it makes my
hand ache;* it fills my heart with joy, and my eyes
with tears.
"Ever affectionately yours,
"J. MARCET."
The following letter was very kindly sent to me by
the Bishop of London, from which I give extracts:
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I am very glad you approve of my choice. Every
one of the persons who have pews in his church have
concurred in the same sentiment, as I learn from a memorial sent to me to that effect. I never saw a greater
scene of distress than when I went down to them-the
poor mother ill in bed of a fever, three delicate sisters,
a poor and aged aunt, and the curate-all expecting to
be turned out of house and curacy, with ~100 per annum
between them all. The transition from despair to joy
was awful; I shall never forget it.... Have mercy,
my dear Lord, and take ~100;t it leaves only ~700
per annum to the Vicar of Edmonton and his brothers;
this will make  T —-  Hill equal to Southgate, where
the curacy is made up ~200 per annum.
"Yours, my dear Lord, very sincerely,
"SYDNEY SMITH."
It is beautifully said somewhere-" Happiness is what
* Mrs. M. had sprained her wrist.
t The Bishop of London had wished to divide the living.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITHi.


261


all meni seek; all men have the jewel in their casket,
but how few find the key to open it-!"  The following
paragraph, which, I find my mother says, "was cut out
of our papers and preserved by Sydney," shows at least
that he had not sought for the key quite in vain.
" Receipt for making every Day Bayppy.
"When you rise in the morning form a resolution to
make the day a happy one to a fellow-creature. It is
easily done; a left-off garment to the man who needs
it, a kind word to the sorrowful, an encouraging expression to the striving; trifles in themselves light as air
will do it, at least for the twenty-four hours; and, if
you are young, depend upon it it will tell when you are
old; and, if you are old, rest assured it will send you
gently and happily down the stream of human time to
eternity. By the most simple arithmetical sum, look
at the result: you send one person, only one, happily
through the day; that is three hundred andtsixty-five
in the course of the year; and supposing you live forty
years only after you commence that course of medicine,
you have made 14,600 human beings happy, at all
events for a time. Now, worthy reader, is this not
simple? It is too short for a sermon, too homely for
ethics, and too easily accomplished for you to say, I
would if I could.'"
I know that my mother thought her husband's life
the best comment on these precepts. I see among his
scattered notes on this subject, " The haunts of Happiness are varied, and rather unaccountable; but I have
more often seen her among little children, home firesides, and country houses, than any where else; at
least I think so."




262     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
On his return to Combe Florey, in July, he spent
a few days at Nuneham, on a visit to his former diocesan, the Archbishop of York. He met there a large
and agreeable party; and a discussion arising, among
other subjects, on hardness of character, my father, at
the request of Miss G. Harcourt, wrote the following
definition of-it.
" Definition of Hardness of Character.
" Bardness is a want of minute attention to the feel-ings of others. It does not proceed from malignity or
a carelessness of inflicting pain, but from a want of
delicate perception of those little things by which pleas-:ure is conferred or pain excited.
"A hard person thinks he has done enough if he
does not speak ill of your relations, your children, or
your country; and then, with the greatest good-humor
and volubility, and with a total inattention to your
individual state and position, gallops over a thousand
fine feelings, and leaves in every step the mark of his
hoofs upon your heart. Analyze the conversation of a
well-bred man who is clear of the besetting sin of hardness; it is a perpetual homage of polite good-nature.
He remembers that you are connected with the Church,
and he avoids (whatever his opinions may be) the most
distant reflections on the Establishment.  He knows
that you are admired, and he admires you as far as is
compatible with good-breeding. He sees that, though
young, you are at the head of a great establishment,
and he infuses into his manner and conversation that
respect which is so pleasing to all who exercise authority. He leaves you in perfect good-humor with yourself, because you perceive how much and how successfully you have been studied.
( In the mean time the gentleman on the other side




MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


263


of you (a highly moral and respectable man) has been
crushing little sensibilities, and violating little proprieties, and overlooking little discriminations; and, without violating any thing which can be called a rule, or
committing what can be denominated a fault, has displeased and dispirited you, from wanting that fine vision
which sees little things, and that delicate touch which
handles them, and that fine sympathy which this superior moral organization always bestows.
"So great an evil in society is hardness, and that
want of perception of the minute circumstances which
occasion pleasure or pain!"
Toward the end of this year (1843) my father sent a
petition to the American Congress, for payment of the
debt due to England by the repudiating States.
It was said of Regnault St. Jean d'Angely, President of the French Institute, "qu'il avait passe la vie
en venant toujours au secours du pilus fort."  The
reverse might justly be said of my father: he passed
his life in minorities, and in the cause of the oppressed.
He says, in speaking of his motives for undertaking the
one in question: "I am no enemy to America; I loved
and admired honest America when she respected the
laws of pounds, shillings, and pence, and I thought
the United States the most magnificent picture of human happiness. I meddle now in these matters because
I hate fraud; because I pity the misery it has occasioned; because I mourn over the hatred it has excited
against free institutions."
This petition, and the letters which followed it, produced a most extraordinary sensation, and brought
upon him   much abuse from   the American press;
though we had reason to believe, from many sourcesc




164    ~ MEMOIR OF THE, REV. SYDNEY- SMITH.


that. they:spoke: the feelings of every honorable man
in America.''And all this storm," says the editor of the "Morning Chronicle" of the time," has been raised by a few
words from a private English gentleman! Why is it
that his words have had such a talismanic effect?  It
is true, they were words. of choice and singular excellence; but:no mastery of language or. weight of literary
reputation could so have moved America, if they did
not happen to be employed in the utterance of home
truths, which are, or ought to be, sharper.than a two,
edged sword. We repeat, that the power of these letters lies mainly in the deep moral feeling that pervades
them; and one proof of this is, the warm response they
have called forth. from those in America, in whom the
moral sense is strong enough to make them speak.out."
As one specimen of this, I shall- insert a speech or
letter, of Mr. Ticknor's, extracted from the "Boston
Semi-weekly Advertiser," and sent to my father by
Mr. Everett.
"The short and pungent petition to Congress of the
Rev. Sydney Smith, in relation to his claim on the
State of Pennsylvania, for interest-money due to him,
has already excited no little remark among us, and is
likely to excite yet more. This is probably one of the
effects its author intended it should produce; perhaps
it is one of the effects that we ourselves, as honest men
and patriots, ought to desire; for the subject of his
petition is a grave one, that can not excite too-much
discussion in any part of the United States. But we
should be careful, for our own sakes,. to assume the
right tone when speaking. of a man like Mr. Smith,
who only asks to be paid that to which he is as justly
entitled as any one of us is entitled-to any thing he
possesses.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


266


"It has therefore appeared to many persons lnseemly that the'Boston Courier' should speak of Mr. Smith's
petition to have payment made to him of the interest,
which has been solemnly promised on the faith and honor of the State of Pennsylvania, -merely as'impudence,
bombast, and impertinence.' The claims of a creditor
are not always welcome to his debtor, and, when other
means have failed, they are not always set forth by the
injured party in the most civil and gracious words; writs
and executions, for instance, are not drawn up in terms
chosen for the sake of pleasing' ears polite.' Mr. Smith
would, no doubt, have much preferred to use the good
set terms of these instruments of established authority;
and nobody would then have fancied he was doing any
thing unreasonable, since he would be doing just what
every body else does who can not in other ways get his
rights. But the great and rich State of Pennsylvania,
like the other States of our Union, has taken some' pains
to place herself above the reach of such vulgar processes
for coercing her to be honest.  She can not be sued:
her creditor, therefore, is compelled to use his own words,
instead of the more stringent words S-.: the law. No
doubt Mr. Sydney Smith, whe:doing this, does not
present himself with a very cringing air:: he uses strong
phrases, stronger than we like to hear, stronger than is
respectful; but the real difficulty in the case is, that
the strongest words he uses are true words; for just
so long as the Pennsylvanians refuse to: lay a tax of
one cent on every hundred dollars of their wealth to
pay their honest debts, just so long may they be
called -'men who prefer any load of infamy, however
great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.;' and
this is the hardest and sharpest phrase in Mr. Smith's
petition. -To be sure, it would not be easy, on the
same subject, to say any thing more cutting or' more
VOL. I.-M




266     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
terse; but, after all, the bitterness of the words lies in
their truth.
"The'New York: Evening Post' is more severe on
Mr. Smith than the'Boston Courier.' His petition is
there treated as the'ravings of one who had been disappointed'in reaping that profit from his speculations
which he expected and desired;' and, because he has
told us that we are' unstable in the very foundations of
social life,' the writer in the'Post' inquires, whether'the Bible used by the reverend gentleman teaches him
that dollars and cents are the very foundation of social
life?' Now, it is disagreeable to witness such injustice
coupled with such violence of language; the thing is
wrong in itself, and it does us much harm. The Rev.
Sydney Smith is no more a speculator than every man
is who lends money to his neighbor at the regular rate
of interest; nor does he rave any more than every man
raves, who insists, in round terms, that-he will be paid
what is plainly and lawfully due to him. Then, too, as
to the'foundations of social life,' the New York assailant of Mr. Smith really does not seem to suspect that
honesty and good faith are among them, and that all the
English clergyman asks of Pennsylvania is to be honest, in the lowest and commonest sense of that reproachful word, which we can no longer, as one would think
from the tone of this writer in the'Post,' bear to have
uttered in our presence.
"But let us now look at the matter just as it really
stands. The Rev. Sydney Smith, as any body may
learn who will inquire, is a man known throughout
Europe for his wit, logic, and the general vigor of his
mind. He was, above forty years ago, one of the founds
ers and main supporters of the Edinburgh Review; -and
he is now one of the most popular and powerful writers
of his time, read alike on both sides of the Atlantic.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


267


He is an old Whig; and for the sin of maintaining manfully, against all his worldly interests, the cause of free
institutions, the cause of Irish emancipation, and the
cause of Parliamentary reform, he was kept low in the
Church, as long as the Tories had power; and supported himself and his family, in no small degree, by his
pen. He was, in fact, for many years a very poor parson, in a very poor parish in Yorkshire, where he was
much loved by his parishioners for his active goodness;
taking pains, among other things, to study medicine, in
order to be able-to practice it gratuitously among them,
as there was no physician in their neighborhood, and
they could. not afford to send abroad for one. When
he was about sixty years old, the Whigs came into
office, and gave him a good living. From this, it seems,
he made in his old age some savings: and, having confidence in free institutions and American honesty, he invested a part, or the whole, of these savings in Pennsylvania stocks. But his interest there is not paid, and
his capital is shrunk to a merely nominal value. He
of course complains. He tells us even that we are not
honest. We answer, you'rave,' you are' impertinent,'
you are'impudent,' you are'a reverend slanderer.'
But what, in the mean time, do honorable men every
where say better about us? and how comfortably does
an American, always before so proud to call himself
such, feel, who is now traveling in any part of the world
out of his own country!  Nay, how do we ourselves
feel about our conduct and character in our own secret
hearts at home?
"One word more. The Rev. Sydney'Smith is, after
all, only the representative of a very large class of men,
chiefly in England, but also to be found scattered more
or less over the best portions of the continent of Europe,
who now think and talk of the indebted States of Amer



268    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


ica exactly as he does. They are men of moderate property and much intelligence. They have had greater confiaence in free institutions than the rich and the powerful around them. They have looked upon us Americans
especially with kindness, respect, and cheerful trust;
when others, of more worldly consideration than themselves, have looked upon us with aversion and contempt.
They have been, in short, our sincere friends; and partly because they were our friends, and believed in us
and ofr forms of government, they have lent us their
money to the amount of above a hundred millions of
dollars; perhaps more nearly two hundred. And how
have we requited their confidence? Mr. Smith's petition may inform us. We may learn from it, too, that
we must do something to regain for ourselves the decent consideration among mankind which we have forfeited-and forfeited, too, merely to save ourselves from
paying a certain number of' dollars and cents,' as the
writer in the'Evening Post' would say, which we are
quite aware we honestly owe.
"The people of Massachusetts and New England,
and indeed the people of the majority of these States,
are not called upon to take to themselves any more of
the censures of Mr. Smith than a man is obliged to take
of the censures that fall on a disgraced community with
which he is intimately associated. We may therefore
well be thankful, and in some degree proud, that these
States have committed no injustice toward their creditors; but while we are thankful for-this, we must also
be careful not to countenance the dishonest States in
their dishonesty, nor to seem eager to rebuke a foreign
creditor who comes among us boldly demanding his
dues."


But what gratified my father most was a private let



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.  269


ter he received, shortly after his American letters were
written, from his friend Mr. Wainwright, giving an account of the arrival of a steamer -at New York, with a
Sydney Smith on board. Mr. Wainwright's letter best
states what happened.
"NEW YORK, Jruly 15th, 1844.
"; REV. AND DEAR SIR,
"Upon the recent arrival of the' Great Western,' in
the list of passengers published, was Sydney Smith 
The next morning the newspapers trumpeted throughout the land that- the founder of the Edinburgh Review,''the distinguished Prebendary of St. Paul's,''the man of a thousand of the happiest sayings of the
age,' and, above all,'the scourge of repudiating Pennsylvania,' had actually arrived in this remote hemisphere  What was to be done? Should he be tarred
and feathered, or lynched?  Quite the contrary! He
was to befeted, rejoiced in, and even Pennsylvania was
to meet him with cordial salutations. A hundred dinners were arranged at the moment, and the guests selected. When, lo! he who had caused this great excitement turned out to be some humble New York
trader, of whom nobody had ever heard before! Now
he might have signed himself S. Smith, and all would
have been well; it would have passed for Samuel,
Simeon, or Shearjashub. But in an evil hour he had
the vanity or presumption to write in full, and hence
have come upon us disappointments without end. As
a proper reparation, we must insist upon his applying
to the Legislature to have an agnomen with which he
has no business changed.
"Among the disappointed were numbers of my congregation, who, seeing a very dignified clerical-looking
stranp'er in my pew at St. John's, the day after the




270     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.'Western' arrived, jumped at the conclusion, and stared
a worthy ecclesiastic almost out of countenance as he
went out of church; and his only consolation is, that
he came nearer to passing for a wit than he ever did
before, or ever will again. But the most disappointed
person was your old schoolmate, and my excellent
friend, Moore; who, being confined to the house, and
hearing the Sunday report from his family, was momentarily expecting, for three hours after service, to
take his Winchester friend by the hand.
"Now, would it be possible for you to give us the
only solace for these disappointments? The ships and
steamers are admirable, the passage in summer and autumn by no means arduous, the greeting awaiting you
the heartiest possible, and the country and people-you
will judge bf them when you come. In New York you
will find a home prepared in my house; and to show
you that you will not want others in other places, I
send you a letter which I received from the Bishop of
New Jersey, from his beautiful place, Riverside.
"Most truly your obedient friend and servant,
"J. M. WAINWRIGHT."
From the Bishop of JNew Jersey.
"RIVERSIDE, July 8th, 1844.
"CMY DEAR WAINWRIGHT,
"I notice the arrival of the Rev. Sydney Smith by
the'Great Western.' I desire to offer him the hospitality of Riverside.  You have been promising'me a
visit; I propose to you that you invite him to come on
with you on Monday or Tuesday of next week, as may
be most agreeable to you. I name that time, as we
propose a visit to Niagara, Toronto, etc., on the following week. Let me hear from you as soon as convenient.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


271


I observe that your daughter has sailed for Europe; we
follow her with our best wishes.
"' With best love to all yours, ever your affectionate
brother,                        G. W. DOANE."
Though my father made his own claims the plea for
undertaking this cause, he was now become, through
private sources, a rich man, and what he lost was a
mere trifle. But during the excitement his letters
caused, it was curious that, while abuse flowed in from
the other side of the Atlantic by every packet, which
he used to read to us at breakfast with great good-humor, on this side he was regarded as the lion's mouth
at Venice. He writes on one occasion, evidently much
amused:
"DEAR VAN DE WEYER,
" Many thanks; they seem puzzled with the whole
thing, and can not make me out. What a mistake, to
depreciate my beauty and my orthodoxy!
"Ever yours,
CSYDNEY SMITH."
Letter after letter poured in by every post; of gratitude, encouragement, thanks, tales of losses and miseries occasioned by this want of faith in the repudiating
States, as if these aggrieved persons looked upon him as
the champion of public faith throughout Christendom.
I ought, in justice, to mention, that together with the
abuse, there came frequently from America little offerings, such as apples, cheese, etc., from unknown individuals; unwilling, as they said, to share the public
shame, and offering their quota toward the payment of
the Pennsylvanian debt.




272     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
I have, in the first part of this Memoir, given some
few extracts, to show the deep impression he then produced in the pulpit; I shall now give one, written on
hearing him in his old age, by a medical man, of eminence in his profession.
" MY DEAR MR. SMITH,
"Not being'a brown man of Pennsylvania,' I pay
my just debts; and I offer to you the tribute of my
sincere thanks for one of the most impressive and eloquent discourses, delivered yesterday at St. Paul's, that
it has ever fallen to my lot. to hear. I wish I could read
it. There is i;' magic in your name, which, if it was
published, w.ould incite every body to read it, and no
one is too good or too bad not to derive profit from such
an appeal to his reason and his conscience. To pass by
your merits of style and elocution-peculiar, and beyond my praise-the simple, straightforward method of
treating your subject, delighted me. It is a rare and
refreshing gratification to listen, in these times of discord and strife on matters of faith, to a preacher whose
improvement of his text is not encumbered by references to historical or traditional details; and whose
style, clear, logical, and fervid, carries with him the
reason as well as the feeling of his audience, by making
their intellects a party to their conviction. The mystical phraseology of scriptural preachers (so called) always appears to me a hinderance, rather than a help, to
serious piety; and I should hail the day of salvation
for -the Church, not of this nor of that denomination,
but of Christ, when such sermons were heard in every
cathedral throughout the country, as that which you
delivered in the Metropolitan last Sunday; which, I
will undertake to assert, no hearer did not feel to be a
spiritual gain and encouragement."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


2'273


Another short sketch, lately sent me by my friend
Mrs. Austin, I shall also insert; giving her impressions
on hearing my father for the first time preach in St.
Paul's.  She went there at his invitation, in consequence of a previous conversation, in which Mrs. Austin, after expressing her surprise at the feeble effect
generally produced in the pulpit, attributed it in part
to the vague generalities to which preachers too often
confined themselves.  Standing there, as they do, with
the enormous advantage of duty, reason, and religion
commanding them   to speak, she thought that they
ought to make each moral evil which afflicts society the
object of special and energetic attack.
"For example," she said, "why do you not preach
a sermon against the love of war?"  My father, who
most warmly coincided with these feelings against war,
as may be seen in many of his letters, exclaimed, "You
are right; it shall be done; come and hear me." She
went, and shall tell her own impressions.
"I was immediately struck, as I have frequently
been since, at the peculiar character and aspect of the
congregation at St. Paul's; and at the remarkable sympathy that appeared to exist between the pastor and
his flock. The choir was densely filled, yet it would
have been difficult to detect in the crowd any of those
diversities of station which are usually but too strongly
marked in a London church. It appeared one homogeneous body of sedate, earnest, respectable citizens and
their families-no obtrusive air of fashion, no painful
look of poverty.
"I must confess that I went to hear Mr. Smith
preach, with some misgiving as to the effect which that
well-known face and voice, ever associated with wit
and mirth, might have upon me, even in the sacred
place. Never were misgivings more quickly and enMy




274      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
tirely dissipated.  The moment he appeared in the pulpit, all the weight of his duty, all the authority of his
office, were written on his countenance; and without a
particle of affectation (of which he was incapable), his
whole demeanor bespoke the gravity of his purpose.*
Perhaps indeed it was the more striking to one who
had till then only seen him delighting society by his
gay and overflowing wit. As soon as he began to
speak, the whole choir, upon which I looked down, exhibited one mass of upraised, attentive, thoughtful faces.
It seemed as if his deep, earnest tones were caught
with silent eagerness; and I could not but feel that the
perfect good sense, the expansive benevolence, the plain
exposition of Christian duty, which fell from his lips,
found a soil well fitted to receive it. His hearers looked
like men who came prepared' to mark,' and able' inwardly to digest,' the truths and the counsels he so
clearly and emphatically placed before them. I remember no religious service which ever appeared to me more
solemn, more impressive, or more calculated to bear its
appropriate fruit-the subjugation of fierce and restless
passions, and the culture of a just, humane, and Christian temper."
This winter Miss Edgeworth visited London for the
last time. During her visit she saw much of my father; and her talents, as well as her love and thorough
knowledge of Ireland, made her conversation peculiarly
agreeable to him.  I wish I had kept some notes of
these conversations, which were very remarkable; but
* I can not resist adding here how often and how strongly I have
felt this sudden and impressive change in my father. On entering the
pulpit, the calm dignity of his eye, mien, and voice, made one feel that
he was indeed, and felt himself to be, "the pastor standing between
our God and his people," to teach his laws, to declare his judgments,
and proclaim his mercies.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.      275
I have only a characteristic and amusing letter she
wrote to me soon after her return home, from which the
following is an extract:
"I have not the absurd presumption to think your
father would leave London or Combe Florey, for Ireland, voluntaily; but I wish some Irish bishopric were
forced upon him, and that his own sense of national
charity and humanity would forbid him to refuse.
Then, obliged to reside among us, he would see, in
the twinkling of an eye (such an eye as his), all our
manifold grievances -up and down the country.  One
word, one bon mnot of his, would do more for us, I
guess, than Mr. --'s four hundred pages, and all the
like, with which we have been bored. One letter from
Sydney Smith on the affairs of Ireland, with his namne
to it, and after having been there, would do more for us
than his letters did for America and England-a bold
assertion, you will say, and so it is; but I calculate
that Pat is a far better subject for wit than Jonathan;
it only plays round Jonathan's head, but it goes to
Pat's heart-to the very bottom of his heart, where he
loves it; and he don't care whether it is for or against
him, so that it is real wit and fun. Now Pat would
doat upon your father, and kiss the rod with all his
soul, he would-the lash just lifted —when he'd see the
laugh on the face, the kind smile, that would tell him it
was all for his good.
"Your father would lead Pat (for he'd never drive
him) to the world's end, and maybe to common sense
at the end-might open his eyes to the true state of
things and persons, and cause him to ax himself how it
comes that, if he be so distressed by the Sassenach landlords that he can't keep soul and body together, nor one
farthing for the wife and children, after paying the rint




276     IMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
for the land, still and nevertheless he can pay King
Dan's rint, aisy-thousands of pounds, not for lands or
potatoes, but just for castles in the air.  Methinks I
hear Pat saying the words, and see him jump to the
conclusion, that maybe the gintleman, his reverence,
that'haas the way with him,'* might be the man after
all to do them all the good in life, and asking nothing
at all from them.'Better, sure, than Dan, after all!
and we will follow him through thick and thin. Why
no? What though he is his reverence, the Church, that
is, our cleargy, won't object to him; for he was never
an inimy any way, but always for paying them off handsome, and fools. if they don't take it now. So down with
King Dan, for he's no good! and up with Sydney-he's
the man, king of glory!'
"But, visions of glory, and of good better than glory,
spare my longiig.ight! else I shall never come to an
end of this not.,f: ite indeed! I beg your pardon.' Yours affectionately,'" MARIA EDGEWORTH."
Miss Edgeworth says, in one of her letters to her sister, after one of the evenings spent in my father's society-" Delightful, I need not say; but to attempt to
Boswell Sydney Smith's conversation would be outBoswelling Boswell indeed." I have felt the truth of
this observation most strongly in writing these Memoirs,
and should have flung down my pen in despair had I not
* This expression, "that has the way with himl," refers to a conversation my father had with Dr. Doyle, at a time he was anxious to learn
as far as possible what effect the measures he was proposing would have
upon the Catholics. He proposed that Government should pay the
Catholic priests. "They would not take it," said Dr. Doyle. "Do
you mean to say, that if every priest in Ireland received to-morrow morning
a Government letter with a hundredpounds, FIRST QUARTER of their year's
income, they would:::efuse it?"  "Ah, Mr. Smith," said Dr. Doyle,
" you've such a way: Of putting things!"




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


277


had brighter and better, though easier things to tell, than
the effusions of his wit.
I shall now give a short correspondence between my.father and Sir Robert Peel, as it does equal honor to
both:
"May 5th, 1844.'SIR,
"I am informed there will be a vacancy in July of a
clerkship in the Record Office, in that department of it
over which Mr. Hardy, I believe, presides. There is a
family of the name of --, residing in -—, who have
formerly been in affluence, but have fallen with the fall
of the West Indies. The mother and daughter are
teaching music. The son is an excellent lad, understanding and speaking French and German, and is a
humble candidate for this situation of Clerk of the
Records, worth about eighty pounds per annum. Mr.
Hardy, a very old friend of the family, is very desirous
of getting the young man into his office. A better family
does not exist, or one fighting up more bravely against
adversity. The mother has been repeatedly to me, to
beg.I would state these things to you. I stated to her
that I had so little the honor of your acquaintance, that,
though I had met you, I should hardly presume to bow
to you in the street. But the poor lady said I had evidence to give, if I had not influence to use; and at last
I consented to do what I am doing. I beg therefore to
observe, I am not asking any thing of you (no man has
less right to do so); I am merely stating facts to you
respecting an office of which you have the disposal.
I have no other acquaintance with the family than
through their misfortunes, borne with such unshaken
constancy.
"I beg you will not give yourself the trouble to answer'this letter. If my evidence induces you to make




278     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
any inquiries about the young lad, that will be the best
answer. If not, I shall attribute it to some of the innumerable obstacles which prevent a person in your situation from giving way to the impulses of compassion
and good-nature.
"I have the honor to be, etc.,
"SYDNEY SMITH."
"WHITEHALL, May 6th, 1844.
" SIR,
"I do not recollect that I ever made a promise of an
appointment not actually vacant. I try to defer as long
as possible the evil day which brings to me the invidious duty of selecting one from a hundred candidates,
and disappointment to ninety-nine of them.
"But I am so sure that, when the particular vacancy
mentioned in your letter shall occur, there will be no
claim which it will give me greater satisfaction to comply with, than one brought under my notice by you,
from such kind and benevolent motives as those which
alone would induce you to write to me, that I do not
hesitate a moment in making an exception from my
general rule, and in at once giving you a promise, either
that Mir.-   shall have -the appointment you name, or
one equally eligible; and not at a more distant period,
if possible.
"All the return I shall ask from you is the privilege
of renewing, when we meet, the honor of your acquaintance.
"I am, Sir, with sincere esteem,
"Your faithful servant,
"ROBERT PEEL."
The office was granted, and he had the satisfaction to
hear that the young man was found most efficient in it.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


279


He shortly after sent Sir Robert Peel his works, with
the "sincere respect and. esteem of the author" written
on the title-page. He received the following answer:
" WHITEHALL.
"DEAR SIR,
"Though you have not opened to me any new source
of interest or instruction, I thank you sincerely for the
volumes you have sent me, and for the few words in the
first page which put on record my title to them.
"They are duplicates of a work which has been in
my possession since the first day of its publication. I
am very familiar with its contents; and have no feeling connected with my general recollection of them, but
those to which the combination of good sense, wit, and
genius naturally give rise.
"Believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
ROBERT PEEL."
The following are a few notes from the journal of a
lady, since distinguished, both by her talents and the
tuse she has made of them, who formed the acquaintance of my father many years ago. She gave them to
me, adding, prettily, the pleasure it gave her to be able,
by so doing, to throw one more stone on my father's
cairn. With these. I have mingled some few anecdotes
from other sources.
"If I recollect right, it was about the year 1812 that
I first had the gratification to meet Mr. Sydney Smith
-it was at the house of Mr. Josiah Wedgewood. He
arrived about the middle of the day, with his wife and
children.  He entered, and in an instant-made every
body feel at their ease, and infused a portion of his
own animation into all around him. I remember him
standing with his back to the fire, or leaning over the




280     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
back of his chair, conversing with us for several hours.
The conversation turned, among other things, on politics.'I consider the Whigs as shipwrecked forever;
no chance of my being made even a dean; so I have
laid down my plan of life. I will make myself, if not
as rich as others, at least as rich and happy as an honest man can be.' The next morning he took a long
walk over the hills with us; and most agreeable le
was, giving out his mind with a variety and abundance
of ideas which delighted us, and showed how little need
he had of external excitement to call forth his powers
of wit, and wisdom. He was at this time stout made,
his face handsome, with that pale embonpoint which
always distinguished him, and his remarkable deep dark
eye, which I think retained its character even to the last;
indeed, I should say, never was the external appearance
of any man less altered by years than his. When speaking of the impression made by his manner and appearance, his delightful laugh must not be forgotten-so
genuine, so full of hearty enjoyment, that it was a source
of gayety only to hear it. It was his custom to stroll
about the room in which we were sitting, and which
was lined with books, taking down one lot after another, sometimes reading or quoting aloud, sometimes
discussing any subject that arose.  He took down a
sort of record of those men who had lived to a great
age.'A record of little value,' said Mrs. W.,'as to
live longer than other people can hardly be the desire
of any one.'' It is not so much the longevity,' he answered,' that is valued, as that original build and constitution, that condition of health and habit of life, which
not only leads to longevity, but makes life enjoyable
while it lasts, that renders the subject interesting and
worth inquiry.'
( ( I think a good life of Erasmus much wanted; the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMIrH.


281


mild conciliating temper of the subject would make it no
unfit theme for a lady's pen.';"'You must preach, Mr. Smith,' said Mrs. W. (it
was Saturday).'We must go and try the pulpit,
then,' said he,' to see if it suits me.' So to the church
we walked; and how he amused us by:his droll way
of trying the pulpit, as he called it; his criticisms on
the little. old-fashioned sounding-board, which seemed
ready to fall on his head, and which, he said, would
infallibly extinguish him!'I can't bear,' said he,'to
be imprisoned in the true orthodox way in my pulpit,
with'my head just peeping above the desk.. I like to
look down upon my congregation-to fire into them,
The common people say I am a bould preacher, for I
like to have my arms free, and to thump the pulpit.
A singular contretemps happened to me once, when, to
effect this, I had ordered the clerk to pile up some hassocks for me to stand on.  My text was, "We are
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."  I had scarcely
uttered these words, and was preparing to illustrate them,
when I did so practically, and in a way I had not at
all anticipated. My fabric of hassocks suddenly gave
way; down I fell, and with difficulty prevented myself from being precipitated into the arms of my congregation; who, I must say, behaved very well, and
recovered their gravity sooner than I could have expected. But my adventure was not so bad as that of a
friend of mine. A tame raven had got into the church;
no sooner did he begin his sermon, than the raven, in
high caw, rushed at his book, seized it in his bill, and,had almost effected his escape with it, before the astonished preacher was aware of his danger. He caught at
it, however; the bird pulled and cawed, he tugged and
scolded; the congregation were to a man with the bird,




282    IMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
who fought valiantly for his prize; and it was not till
after a severe struggle, in which victory remained for a
long time doubtful, that my friend rescued his sermon
and banished his enemy, amidst the roars of laughter of
his congregation.'
"I have never seen any one who approached Sydney Smith in power of thought, united with the greatest candor. He was one who saw subjects on all sides
from the height of an elevated genius. His reputation
has been much founded on his powers of entertaining,
which are very great, indeed unrivaled; yet I prefer his
serious conversation. One morning, seeing me lounging in the library, looking at idle books, he took down'Berkeley on Vision,' and advised me to read it, as excessively ingenious and well worth making myself acquainted with.
"' Live,' said he,'always in the best company when
you read. No one in youth thinks on the value of
time. Do you ever reflect how you pass your life.? If
you live to seventy-two, which I hope you may, your
life is spent in the following manner: An hour a day
is three years; this makes twenty-seven years sleeping,
nine years dressing, nine years at table, six years playing with children, nine years walking, drawing, and visiting, six'years shopping, and three years quarreling.' I
did not then perhaps value these marks of interest in the
progress of a young girl's mind as I have learned to do
since.
"In 1816 I had again the happiness to pass a few
days with Mr. Smith in the same family, and we found
him, if possible, still more delightful than before: he
would sit for hours with us by the fire, discoursing and
making us all wiser and better, and of course most proud
and happy, by his notice. One day he took a walk by
the canal; he put a case of morality: a man digging a




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


283


canal discovers some limestone-rock, waits till the land
comes into the market, purchases it, and makes a great
deal of money by his discovery. I doubted whether the
man was right; he maintained the man had a right to
profit by his own discovery.. - The discussion lasted long,
but I only recollect the patience he had with my arguments; and though he did not succeed in converting me
to his opinion at that time, he did not make me feel afraid
to own it to him.
"' Keep as- much as possible in the grand and common road of life; patent educations or habits seldom
succeed. Depend upon it, men set more value on the
cultivated minds than on the accomplishments of women, which they are rarely able to appreciate. It is a
common error, but it is an error, that literature unfits
women for the every-day business of life. It is not so
with men: you see those of the most cultivated minds
constantly devoting their time and attention to the most
homely objects. Literature gives women a real and
proper weight in society, but then they must use it
with discretion; if the stocking is blue, the petticoat
must be long, as my friend Jeffrey says; the want of.
this has furnished food for ridicule in all ages.'
"' Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily,
for the habit will encroach. I once gave a lady twoand-twenty recipes against melancholy: one was a
bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things
said. to and of her; another, to keep a box of sugarplums on the chimney-piece, and a kettle simmering on
the hob.' I thought this mere trifling at the moment,
but have in after-life discovered how true it is that these
little pleasures often banish melancholy better than
higher and more exalted objects; and that no means
ought to be thought too trifling which can oppose it
either in ourselves or others.




284     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"'Oh! I am happy to see all who will visit me; I
have lived twenty years in the country, and have never
met a bore.'
"' Industry! you may do any thing with industry.
A friend of mine has mastered Greek, Latin, mathematics, and music, in an extraordinary degree, together
with all the ologies; and yet, without any remarkable
abilities, by industry alone.'
"'The Law is decidedly the best profession for a
young man, if he has any thing in him. In the Church
a man is thrown into life with his hands tied, and bid
to swim; he does well if he keeps his head above water.
But then in the law he must have a stout heart and an
iron digestion, and must be regular as the town clock,
or he may as well retire. Attorneys expect in a lawyer the constancy of the turtle-dove.'
"Some one said it was fool-hardy in General Fitzpatrick to insist upon going up alone in the balloon,
when it was found there was not force to carry up two.'No,' he said,'there is always something sublime in
sacrificing to great principles; his profession was courage.
"Many years after, I met him at the house of a relation in London. He called in on his way from some
dinner-party or.other; he was in high spirits, and never,
I think, did such a torrent of wit, fun, nonsense, pointed
remark, just observation, and happy illustration, flow
pellmell from the lips of a man. That is the only time
in my life that I ever saw him in what is called full
-force, and it made an impression on me which I can
never forget.
"I saw him again after the appearance of my first
book. How kind he was! how happy and polite were
the things he said upon the occasion! How few have
the art to do such things so well! He made me sit by




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.     285
him, and paid me the refined compliment of letting me
feel that he thought my mind worth inquiring into.
After this I saw him only as one of the general circle,
collected around him in a London drawing-room, where
he kept up the ball of conversation by his irresistible
and inexhaustible fun and fancy; but I still, as in early
life, continued to prefer his serious conversation-his
wisdom to his wit."




CHAPTER XI.
Pamphlet on Ballot.-Fragment on Irish Church.-Letter from Lord
Murray.-Lines written on receiving Garden-chair.-Lines by Lady
Carlisle.-Christens child.-Sketch of Life and Conversation at
Combe Florey.-Advice to Parishioners.-Conversation.-Medicines
for the Poor.-Saves Servant's Life.-Fallacies.-Studies.-Recipe
for Salad.-Letter of Marion de Lorme.-Imitation of Sir James
Mackintosh.-Close of the Day.
AFTER this period, the only things he wrote were a
short pamphlet on the ballot, which went through many
editions, and had much success; and the Fragment on
Ireland, which he left behind, and which my mother
published after his death; showing that he died as he
had lived, earnest in the cause of religious toleration
and -the amelioration of Ireland. But though he did
not live to see all he wished in Ireland accomplished,
yet, as Johnson says, "he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking, has at least the honor of
falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though
he missed the victory."
In the autumn, hearing that his friend Mr. Van de
Weyer and his family were coming into the west, my
father sent him the following note:
"October, 1843.
" Health to the greatest of diplomatists, and, to the Belgian kingdom, trade, glory, and peace! You must not
pass this way without visiting Combe Florey; we shall
expect you on the 9th-we dine at seven —  adame Van
de Weyer, you, and the little embassador. We are six
miles from Taunton, and Taunton is an hour and a half




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


287


from Bristol. If you write to Sweet's Hotel, they will
have horses ready for you, and the people know the way
to my house. Pray write a line to say whether we may
expect you; we shall be delighted to see you, and truly
fnortified to miss you.
"Yours ever very truly,
"SYDNEY SMITH."
They came and spent a day or two with us; days,
alas! of incessant rain, putting the chaxms of the little
parsonage to the severest trial. But if it was dark and
gloomy without, it was all gayety and sunshine within;
for our guests came disposed to be pleased with every
thing they found, and the intercourse of two such remarkable men as Mr. Van de Weyer and my father, both
loving to exercise their minds on grave and important
subjects, and both possessing such a fund of knowledge,
wit, anecdote, and clever nonsense, to intermingle with
them, made one quite forget the passage of time, and the
visit seemed over almost as soon as begun. They left
us on the most lovely morning, when Combe Florey had
put on her gayest and freshest garb; and carried away,
I trust, as agreeable impressions as they left behind. In
the evening of the same day arrived Mr. Van de Weyer's secretary, bearing a summons to Windsor, which,
owing to Mr. Van de Weyer's movements, had remained.some days unnoticed, and it became necessary to follow
him to Bowood immediately. But as Mr. De la P
could not arrive till one or two in the morning, my father
thought Madame Van de Weyer might be much alarmed
by suddenly hearing, in the middle of the night, that a
messenger had arrived from home, and it was agreed
that Mr. De la Pe-  should send in the following note,
to set their minds at ease.




288    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


" DEAR VAN DE WEYER,
"Long live the Belgiac lion! long may he roar over
the tiger of France! You are wanted at Windsor. De
la P-    is below. The young embassador and all the
children, and all the grandpapas, are quite well. There
is an air of piety in De la P — that is very agreeable
to me.
"Ever yours,
"SYDNEY SMITH.
"Get up immediately."
And he wrote at more length, to explain, as he says,
his share in the transaction.
DEAR VAN DE WEYER,
"Let me explain my share in the proceedings. Between five and six o'clock appeared, in a fly, a grave
person, who denominated himself Octave de la P-,
in search of you. I concluded, by the solemnity of his
aspect, that he was come to announce the last days of
the Belgian monarchy. On the contrary, it was to carry you off to the Castle at Windsor. He could not go
from hence, seeing the time of his arrival, till the eleven
o'clock train; and as he was resolute to have you, and
I believe Madame also, in London by six o'clock tomorrow, we agreed that nothing remained but to proceed
to Chippenham in the train, to extract you from Bowood,
and to convey you to the Metropolis. I told him he
would be most probably shot at Bowood by the watchman-; but he declared that his papers were all in order,
and to die in the performance of his duty was a glorious
death for a Belgian. I wrote a jocular note to send up
to your bedside, that you might not be alarmed about
your children.




MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


289


"If Octave de la P-   has perished in the invasion
of Bowood, I certify that he died with the deepest admiration of the ever-memorable Belgic revolution.
"Yours very truly,
"SYDNEY SMITH.
"October 12th, 1843."
A short time before my father's death, Lord Jeffrey
had likewise made a collection of his contributions to
the Edinburgh Review; which collection he did my
father the honor to dedicate to him, and, by a few words
in it, confirmed my father's account of its origin. I
have heard my father say that there was hardly any
event in the whole course of his life, that had gratified
him more deeply than this dedication from his old friend,
Lord Jeffrey.
As I am anxious to make this sketch of my father as
complete as possible, I shall here insert a few extracts
from a letter, containing his recollections of him, written
at my request by Lord Murray; who speaks not only
with the authority of his own high character, but of
early acquaintance, and an unbroken friendship of half
a century.
"Sydney's acute and almost intuitive perception of
character made him at once detect whatever was fictitious or assumed; but though this never escaped his
keen observation, he was, I firmly believe, more severe
toward himself than he was ever toward any other person. His disgust at hypocrisy made him so anxious to
avoid the semblance of any attempt to appear better
than he was, that he did not always do himself justice.
Many, I should say most, of his just or benevolent actions were only known to his most intimate friends, and
VOL. I.-N




290     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
that accidentally.* The goodness of his heart was only
revealed by his acts.
"He was so free and open in discourse, that he gave
all manner of advantage to those who were disposed to
distrust a person overflowing in genial wit and humor.
"Though Sydney Smith could not avoid being conscious of his great powers of writing and speaking, I
firmly believe that his estimate of himself and of his
own character were truly humble. He was ready to
acknowledge the superiority of persons whose abilities
were inferior to his own. He claimed little more for
himself than practical common sense; but though this
was all he claimed, he could not help clothing his sound
sense with language which was beautiful, and at the
same time more witty and humorous than that of other
men. Yet, putting himself lower in the scale, I believe,
than he had a fair right to be, he never acquiesced in
any opinions in which he did not agree, though coming
from the highest station, either secular or clerical. The
higher they were, the more he considered it his duty to
discuss and examine the opinions they proclaimed to
the public. In doing so he felt he was vindicating the
rights of the humblest curate in the Church, or defend,
ing those who could not defend themselves from the attacks of men in high stations, who often made them in
places where they could not be otherwise refuted.
"Whether he did not render a greater service to the
public and to his profession by this intrepid conduct,
than he could have done by the most respectful and submissive silence, it is for others to determine; but his
fearless assertion of what he conceived to be the right,
is perfectly consistent with the most modest estimate of
his own merits.


* Many as I have told, how many more I have been obliged to suppress, from reasons easily understood!-Author.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


291


"Sydney Smith thought it right and honest to act
openly, and avow whatever he wrote, without regard to
any personal consequence that might result to himself.
There are some men who, if a serious truth is to be
supported or enforced, insist that every argument or illustration should be equally solemn and grave. They
forget that a person of Sydney Smith's powers would
be but half an ally if he did not employ the wit and humor with which he was endowed to enforce truth or ex.
pose pretension. Such men would prefer the dullest argument to the most withering and convincing exposure
of a fallacy.
"A foreigner, on one occasion, indulging in skeptical
doubts of the existence of an overruling Providence in
his presence, Sydney, who had observed him evidently
well satisfied with his repast, said,'You must admit
there is, great genius and thought in that dish.''Admirable' he replied;' nothing can be better.'' lay I
then ask, are you prepared to deny the existence of the
cook?' Many anecdotes equally characteristic might be
furnished by his old friends, but I fear to repeat what
you may have already been told, and have merely hinted
at some traits of Sydney's character known only to his
most intimate friends."
The following is an extract from some lines written
on receiving the present of my father's garden-chair, after
his death, from the Rector of Combe Florey, by a friend
and neighbor:
"Thanks for thy gift!'twill ofttimes bring to mind
A friend who was the friend of human kind;
A,man who had no equal among men,
Whene'er he chose to wield the moral pen.
For wit, truth, genius, courage, all conspired
To make (and made at last) a sage inspired,
Whom wise men loved, and even wits admired.




292     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"Whate'er was true, he loved; but all pretense,
Pride without merit, learning without sense,
Small niggard piety, which deals in tracts,
And substitutes cant words for Christian acts,
He hated. And most holy war did wage
With each Tartuffe, who shamed our English stage.
"Peace to his spirit! many a year will run
Into oblivion ere another sun
Like his will rise and lend the world its light.
Honor to' him! to thee thanks, and good night!"
I find some lines in a letter from Lady Carlisle (one
of the kindest and warmest of my father's friends) to my
mother, written soon after his death, on passing within
sight of Foston. They have been carefully preserved by
my mother; and though meant for no eye but hers, my
father so valued any proof of Lady Carlisle's regard, that
I must not omit them here.
"Is that the roof, to friendship dear,
Where Genius once, with matchless ray,
Illumined all within its sphere,
And all was brilliant, all was gay?
"Yes! there the joyous laugh was raised,
And converse held with social glee.
Sydney, by wits and sages praised,
Shall still be loved and mourned by me."
I might, to these little tributes of affection which I
have already given, add such a list of mourners for his
loss (whose letters have all been preserved by my poor
mother*), as would claim respect for any life, and do
honor to any grave.       But if I have not already suc* After my father's death, it was the great comfort and occupation
of my mother's life to collect and arrange my father's letters and papers, for the purpose of this Memoir, and her labors have contributed
not a little toward its accomplishment. In one of her letters to me,
my mother says, "You know the great occupation of my life has been
to collect materials for some future memorial of my noble-hearted husband."  And again, "Time goes rapidly on; I tremble at each day's
delay. To have this matter unsettled is the only thing that makes death
terrible."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


293


ceeded in showing by his actions how worthy he was
to be respected in life, and to be mourned in death, I
fear I shall derive little aid even from such names, and
might run the risk of wearying my readers.  I will
therefore go on with what little remains to tell of my
narrative.
My father "was sitting at breakfast one morning in
the library at Combe Florey," said Mrs. Marcet, who
was staying with us, "when a poor woman came, begging him to christen a new-born infant, without loss
of time, as she thought it was dying. Mr. Smith instantly quitted the breakfast-table for this purpose, and
went off to her cottage.  On his return, we inquired
in what state he had left the poor babe.'Why,' said
he,'I first gave it a dose of castor-oil, and then I
christened it; so now the poor child is ready for either
world.'"
I long to give some sketch of these breakfasts, and
the mode of life at Combe Florey, where there were
often assembled guests that would have made any table
agreeable any where; but it would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the beauty, gayety, and happiness of the scene in which they took place, or the charm
that he infused into the society assembled round his
breakfast-table. The room, an oblong, was, as I have
already described, surrounded on three sides by books,
and ended in a bay-window opening into the garden: not
brown, dark, dull-looking volumes, but all in the brightest bindings; for he carried his system of furnishing for
gayety even to the dress of his books.
He would come down into this long, low room in
the morning like a "giant refreshed to run his course,"
bright and happy as the scene around him.  "Thank
God for Combe Florey!" he would exclaim, throwing
himself into his red arm-chair, and looking round; "I




294      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
feel like a bridegroom  in the honeymoon."   And in
truth I doubt if ever bridegroom felt so joyous, or at
least made others feel so joyous, as he did on these
occasions.  "Ring the bell, Saba;" the usual refrain,
by'-the-by, in every pause, for he contrived to keep
every body actively employed around him, and nobody
ever objected to be so employed.     "Ring the bell,
Saba."  Enter the servant, D.  "D, glorify
the room."*  This meant that the three Venetian windows of the bay were to be flung open, displaying the
garden on every side, and letting in a blaze of sunshine and flowers.  D —    glorifies the room with the
utmost gravity, and departs.  "You would not believe
it," he said, "to look at him now, but D —   is a reformed Quaker. Yes, he quaked, or did quake; his
brother quakes still: but D-      is now  thoroughly
orthodox. I should not like to be a Dissenter in his
way; he is to be one of my vergers at St. Paul's some
day.  Lady B     - calls them my virgins.  She asked
me the other day,'Pray, Mr. Smith, is it true that you
walk down St. Paul's with three virgins holding silver
pokers before you?  I shook my head, and looked very
grave, and bid her come and see. Some enemy of the
Church, some Dissenter, had clearly been misleading
her."
"There, now," sitting down at the breakfast-table,
"take a lesson of economy.   You never breakfasted in
a parsonage before, did you? There, you see, my china
is all white, so if broken can always be renewed; the
*'On reading this passage to two very sensible persons, I was advised
to omit this expression, as it might give offense. At first I did so, but
on reflection I am inclined to say, with our old English motto, " Honi
soit qui mal y pense!" In my father's mouth it meant only "Let in
the glorious light and the beautiful world;" and instead of any thing irreverent, his heart was overflowing with gratitude and happiness, and he
thanked God with his whole heart for the beautiful world in which he
had placed him.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


295


same with my plates at dinner: did you observe my
plates? every one a different pattern, some of them
sweet articles; it was a pleasure to dine upon such a
plate as I had last night. It is true, Mrs. Sydney, who
is a great herald, is shocked because some of them have
the arms of a royal duke or a knight of the garter on
them, but that does not signify to me. My plan is to
go into a china-shop and bid them show me every plate
they have which does not cost more than half a crown;
you see the result."
"I think breakfasts so pleasant because no one is
conceited before one o'clock."
Mrs. Marcet admired his ham.  "Oh," said he, "our
hams are the only true hams; yours are Shems and
Japhets."
Some one speaking of the character and writings of
Mr. -: (Yes, I have the greatest possible respect for
him; but, from his feeble voice, he always reminds me
of a liberal blue-bottle fly. He gets his head down and
his hand on your button, and pours into you an uninterrupted stream of Whiggism in a low buzz. I have
known him intimately, and conversed constantly with
him for the last thirty years, and give him credit for the
most enlightened mind, and a genuine love of public virtue; but I can safely say that during that period I have
never heard one single syllable he has uttered."
Mrs. Marcet complaining she could not sleep: " I can
furnish you," he said, "with a perfect soporific. I have
published two volumes of sermons; take them to bed
with you. I recommended them once to Blanco White,
and before the third page he was fast."
" This is the only sensible spring I remember (1840):
it is a real March of intellect."
"If I were to select a figure to go through life with,
I think it should be WTindham's figure and Canning's
face."




296    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"I make it a rule to endure no evil that can be renledied. D —    laughs at me for my inventions and contrivances; but what is the consequence of his indolence?
I go to his house, and find him sitting in his arm-chair,
waging war against human existence, and a prey to bluedevils: and all because his pens won't write, his ink
won't mark, his sealing-wax won't melt, his fires won't
burn, his blinds won't pull up or down, and his windows
and doors won't open and shut-evils which a nail, a
drop of water, or five minutes' exertion would have remedied."
On seeing a very foolish letter by an acquaintance in
the newspapers: "There! read that! what incredible
folly! You pity a man who is lame or blind, but you
never pity him for being a fool, which is often a much
greater misfortune."
Miss Fox was mentioned, who was at that time at
Bowood: "Oh, she is perfection; she always gives me
the idea of an aged angel."
Some one speaking of the utility of a measure, and
quoting --'s opinion: "Yes, he is of the Utilitarian
school. That man is so hard you might drive a broadwheeled wagon over him, and it would produce no impression; if you were to bore holes in him with a gimlet, I am convinced sawdust would come out of him.
That school treat mankind as if they were mere machines; the feelings or affections never enter into their
calculations. If every thing is to be sacrificed to utility,
why do you bury your grandmother at all? why don't
you cut her into small pieces at once, and make portable soup of her?
"By-the-by, talking of portable soup, my great neighbor, Lord I) —, found it necessary to look a little into
his establishment; and the first discovery he made was
that his cook had for some years been contracting to fur



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


297


nish the navy with portable soup, not made of grandmothers, but at his expense."
"I always say to young people, Beware of carelessness, no fortune will stand it long; you are on the high
road to ruin, the moment you think yourself rich enough
to be careless."
Speaking of education: "Never teach false morality.
How exquisitely absurd to tell girls that beauty is of no
value, dress of no use! Beauty is of value; her whole
prospects and happiness in life may often depend upon
a new gown or a becoming bonnet, and if she has five
grains of common sense she will find this out. The
great thing is to teach her their just value, and that
there must be something better under the bonnet than
a pretty face for real happiness. But never sacrifice
truth."
Talking of beauty of style: "What so beautiful as
that of the Bible? what poetry in its language and ideas!"
and taking it cown from the bookcase behind him, he
read, with his beautiful voice, and in his most impressive
manner, several of his favorite passages; among others I
remember-" Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head,
and honor the face of an old man;" and part of that most
beautiful of Psalms, the 139th: "O Lord, thou hast
searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways.... Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely
the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light




298    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


about me; yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but
the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light
are both alike to thee"-putting the Bible again on the
shelf.
"There is one thing I feel very grateful to my father
for-having taught me the habit of immediately hunting
out any object I found myself ignorant of."  " Remember that, F —-- (addressing one of his grandsons); I
have found it most useful: never submit to be ignorant
when you have knowledge at your elbow."
Talking of punishments: " Al! that is all very well;
but who punishes the bore, let me ask? There is no
social crime committed with such impunity."
"Have you never observed what a dislike servants
have to any thing cheap? they hate saving their masters'
money. I tried this experiment with great success the
other day. Finding we consumed a great deal of soap,
I sat down in my thinking-chair, and took the soap question into consideration, and I found reason to suspect
that we were using a very expensive article, where a
much cheaper one would serve the purpose better. I ordered half-a-dozen pounds of both sorts, but took the precaution of changing the papers on which the prices were
marked, before giving them; into the hands of Betty.'Well, Betty, which soap do you find washes best?''Oh, please sir, the dearest, in the blue paper; it makes
a lather as well again as the other.''Well, Betty, you
shall always have it, then;' and thus the unsuspecting
Betty saved me some pounds a year, and washed the
clothes better."
"No; very few people ever were so wise as Abercrombie looked, as Fox said of Thurlow."
On his little granddaughter running up to kiss him:
" Children are excellent physiognomists, and soon discover their real friends. Luttrell calls them all luna



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


299


tics; and so, in fact, they are. What is childhood but
a series of happy delusions?"
"It is lamentable to see how ignorant the poor are.
I -do not mean of reading and writing, but about the
common affairs of life. They are as helpless as children in all difficulties. Nothing would be so useful as
some short and cheap book, to instruct them what to
do, to whom to go, and to give them a little advice; I
mean, mere practical advice. I have begun something
of this sort for my parishioners; here it is.
"Advice to Parishioners.
"If you begin stealing a little, you will go on from
little to much, and soon become a regular thief; and
then you will be hanged, or sent over seas to Botany
Bay. And give me leave to tell you, transportation is
no joke. Up at five in the morning, dressed in a jacket
half blue half yellow, chained on to another person like
two dogs, a man standing over you with a great stick,
weak porridge for breakfast, bread and water for dinner,
boiled beans for supper, straw to lie upon; and all this
for thirty years; and then you are hanged there by order of the governor, without judge or jury. All this is
very disagreeable, and you had far better avoid it by
making a solemn resolution to take nothing which does
not belong to you.
" Never sit in wet clothes. Off with them as soon as
you can: no constitution can stand it. Look at Jackson,
who lives next door to the blacksmith; he was the strongest man in the parish. Twenty different times I warned
him of his folly in wearing wet clothes. He pulled off his
hat and smiled, and was very civil, but clearly seemed
to think it all old woman's nonsense. He is now, as you
see, bent double with rheumatism, is living upon parish
allowance, and scarcely able to crawl from pillar to post.




800     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SM1TH.
"Off with your hat when you meet a gentlemaln
What does it cost? Gentlemen notice these things,
are offended if the civility is not paid, and pleased if
it is; and what harm does it do you?  When first I
came to this parish, Squire Tempest wanted a postillion.
John Barton was a good, civil fellow; and in thinking
over the names of the village, the Squire thought of
Barton, remembered his constant civility, sent for one
of his sons, made him postillion, then coachman, then
bailiff, and he now holds a farm under the Squire of
~500 per annum. Such things are constantly happening.
"I will have no swearing. There is pleasure in a
pint of ale, but what pleasure is there in an oath? A
swearer is a low, vulgar person. Swearing is fit for a
tinker or a razor-grinder, not for al honest laborer in
my parish.
"I must positively forbid all poaching; it is absolute
ruin to yourself and your family. In the end you are
sure.to be detected-a hare in one pocket and a pheasant in the other. How are you to pay ten pounds?
~You have not tenpence beforehand in the world. Daniel's breeches are unpaid for; you have a hole in your
hat, and want a new one; your wife, an excellent woman, is about to lie in —and you are, all of a sudden,
called upon by the Justice to pay ten pounds. I shall
never forget the sight of poor Cranford, hurried to Taunton Jail; a wife and three daughters on their knees to
the Justice, who was compelled to do his duty, and commit him. The next day, beds, chairs, and clothes sold,
to get the father out of jail. Out of jail he came; but
the poor fellow could not bear the sight of his naked
cottage, and to see his family pinched with hunger.
You know how he ended his days. Was there a dry
eye in the church-yard when he was buried? It was a




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


301


lesson to poachers. It is indeed a desperate and foolish trade. Observe, I am not defending the game-laws,
but I am advising you, as long as the game-laws exist,
to fear them, and to take care that you and your family are not crushed by them. And then, smart, stout
young men hate the game-keeper, and make it a point
of courage and spirit to oppose him. Why? The
game-keeper is paid to protect the game, and he would
be a very dishonest man if he did not do his duty.
What right have you to bear malice against him for
this? After all, the game in justice belongs to the
land-owners, who feed it; and not to you, who have no
land at all, and can feed nothing.
"I don't like that red nose, and those blear eyes,
and that stupid, downcast look. You are a drunkard.
Another pint, and one pint more; a glass of gin and
water, rum and milk, cider and pepper, a glass of peppermint, and all the beastly fluids which drunkards pour
down their throats. It is very possible to conquer it,
if you will but be resolute. I remember a man in Staffordshire who was drunk every day of his life. Every
farthing he earned went to the ale-house. One evening
he staggered home, and found at a late hour his wife
sitting alone, and drowned in tears. He was a man
not deficient in natural affections; he appeared to be
struck with the wretchedness of the woman, and with
some eagerness asked her why she was crying.'I don't
like to tellyou, James,' she said,' but if I must, I must;
and truth is, my children have not touched a morsel of
any thing this blessed day. As for me, never mind me;
I must leave you to guess how it has fared with me.
But not one morsel of food could I beg or buy for those
children that lie on that bed before you; and I am sure,
James, it is better for us all we should die, and to my
soul I wish we were dead.''Dead!' said James, start



802     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ing up as if a flash of lightning had darted upon him;'dead, Sally! You, and Mary, and the two young
ones dead? Look ye, my lass, you see what I am now
-like a brute. I have wasted your substance-the
curse of God is upon me-I am drawing near to the pit
of destruction-but there's an end; I feel there's an
end. Give me that glass, wife.' She gave it him with
astonishment and fear. He turned it topsy-turvy; and,
striking the table with great violence, and flinging himself on his knees, made a most solemn and affecting vow
to God of repentance and sobriety. From that moment
to the day of his death he drank no fermented liquor,
but confined himself entirely to tea and water.* I never saw so sudden and astonishing a change. His looks
became healthy, his cottage neat, his children were clad,
his wife was happy; and twenty times the poor man
and his wife, with tears in their eyes, have told me the
story, and blessed the evening of the fourteenth of March,
the day of James's restoration, and have shown me the
glass he held in his hand when he made the vow of sobriety. It is all nonsense about not being able to work
without ale, and gin, and cider, and fermented lisquors.
Do lions and cart-horses drink ale? It is mere habit.
If you have good nourishing food, you can do very well
without ale. Nobody works harder than the Yorkshire
people, and for years together there are many Yorkshire
laborers who never taste ale. I have no objection, you
will observe, to a moderate use of ale, or any other liquor you can afford to purchase. My objection is, that
you can not afford it; that every penny you spend at
the ale-house comes out of the stomachs of the poor
children, and strips off the clothes of the wife.
"My dear little Nanny, don't believe a word he says.
He merely means to ruin and deceive you. You have
* A fact.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


303


a plain answer to give:' When I am axed in the church,
and the parson has read the service, and all about it is
written down in the book, then I will listen to your nonsense, and not before.'  Am not I a Justice of the
Peace, and have not I had a hundred foolish girls brought
before me, who have all come with the same story?'Please, your Worship, he is a false man; he promised
me marriage over and over again.' I confess I have often
wished for the power of hanging these rural lovers.
But what use is my wishing? All that can be done
with the villain is to make him pay half a crown a week,
and you are handed over to the poor-house, and to infamy. Will no example teach you?    Look to Mary
Willet-three years ago the handsomest and best girl
in the village, now a slattern in the poor-house! Look
at Harriet Dobson, who trusted in the promises of James
Harefield's son, and, after being abandoned by him, went
away in despair with a party of soldiers! How can you
be such a fool as to surrender your character to the stupid flattery of a plowboy? If the evening is pleasant,
and birds sing, and flowers bloom, is that any reason
why you are to forget God's Word, the happiness of your
family, and your own character?  What is a woman
worth without character? A profligate carpenter, or a
debauched watchmaker, may gain business from their
skill; but how is a profligate woman to gain her bread?
Who will receive her?"
"But this is enough of my parish advice."
"Have you observed that nothing can be done in
England. without a dinner?  When first I came to
Bristol, I found it was dinner all the day.  Not the
appetite of an alderman could have got through them,
or the stomach of an ostrich digested them.  I examined into their objects, and found the expenses of the
greater part exceeded the sum collected for the charities




304     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
for whose benefit we dined. All such I refused to dine
at, or subscribe to, and I dare say was considered a
monster in consequence. However, it is quite true what
Frere says:' An Englishman opens, like an oyster, with
a knife and fork; one never knows what is in a man till
these two agents are in active employment.'
"When I hear the rustics yawn audibly at my sermons, it reminds me of Lord Ellenborough, who, on
seeing Lord   -  gape during his own long and dull
speech, said,' Well, I must own there is some taste in
that, but is not Lord    rather encroaching on our
privileges?'
" It is a curious fact that the peasantry in England
apply the masculine and feminine gender to things, like
the French. MIy schoolmistress here, a very respectable young woman, hurt her leg. I inquired how she
was, the other day; she answered,'He was very bad;
he gave her a deal of trouble at night.' I inquired who,
in some surprise; and found it was her leg. If I complain of want of punctuality, the servants say,''Tis long
of the clock, sir.  She has gone quite wrong; she's always going wrong.'
"Some of the words used by the peasantry are very
expressive: insense, for example, is to get the sense into
a man.' Well, John,' I sometimes say,' have you insensed that man?'' Yes, your honor; and he teld me
he could na understand your honor na more than if ye
were a Frenchman.'"
Some one nentioned that a young Scotchman, who
had been lately in the neighborhood, was about to
marry an Irish widow, double his age and of considerable dimensions.  "Going to marry her!" he exclaimed, bursting out laughing; "going to marry her! impossible! you mean, a part of her: he could not marry
her all himself. It would be a case, not of bigamy, but




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


305


trigamy; the neighborhood or the magistrates should
interfere. There is enough of her to furnish wives for
a whole parish. One man marry her! it is monstrous.
You might people a colony with her; or give an assembly with her; or perhaps take your morning's walk
round her, always provided there were frequent restingplaces, and you were in rude health. I once was rash
enough to try walking round her before breakfast, but
only got half-way and gave it up exhausted. Or you
might read the Riot Act and disperse her; in short, you
might do aly thing with her but marry her."  "Oh,
Mr. Sydney!" said a young lady, recovering from the
general laugh, "did you make all that yourself?" "Yes,
Lucy," throwing himself back in his chair and shaking
with laughter, " all myself, child; all my own thunder.
Do you think, when I am about to make a joke, I send
for my neighbors C. and G., or consult the clerk and
church-wardens upon it? But let us go into the garden;" and, all laughing till we cried, without hats or
bonnets, we sallied forth out of his glorified window into
the garden.
Opposite was a beautiful bank with a hanging wood
of fine old beech and oak, on the summit of which presented themselves, to our astonished eyes, two donkeys, with deer's antlers fastened on their heads, which
ever and anon they shook, much wondering at their
horned honors; while their attendant donkey-boy, in
Sunday garb, stood grinning and blushing at their
side.  "There, Lady --! you said the. only thing
this place wanted to make it perfect was deer; what
do you say now? I have, you see, ordered my gamekeeper to drive my deer into the most picturesque
point of view. Excuse their long ears, a little peculiarity belonging to parsonic deer. Their voices, too, are
singular; but we do our best for you, and you are too




306     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
true a friend of the Church to mention our defects."
All this, of course, amidst shouts of laughter, while his
own merry laugh might be heard above us all, ringing
through the valley, and making the very echoes laugh
in chorus.
Then wandering on a little further, his black crutchstick in his hand, and his white hairs blown about by
the soft Somersetshire wind: "It must be admitted,"
said he, "if the mind vegetates, the body rejoices, in
the country. What an air this is! Our climate is so
mild, that myrtles and geraniums stand out all the
winter; and the effects of it on the human constitution
are such, that Lady -, a model of female virtue,
who never gave that excellent baronet, her husband, a
moment's anxiety, declared to me with a deep sigh,
after a week's residence here, that she must go, for she
felt all her principles melting away under its influence.
Some of my Scotch friends, it is true, complain that it
is too enervating; but they are but northern barbarians,
after all, and like to breathe their air raw. We civilized
people of the south prefer it cooked."
On observing some of the autumn crocus in flower,
he stopped: " There!" he said, "who would guess the
virtue of that little plant? But I find the power of
colchicum so great, that if I feel a little gout coming on,
I go into the garden, and hold out my toe to that plant,
and it gets well directly. I never do more without orders
from head-quarters. Oh! when I have the gout, I feel
as if I was walking on my eyeballs."
Going a few steps further: "There, now lift your
eyes, and tell me where another parsonage-house in
England has such a view as that to boast of. What
can Pall Mall or Piccadilly produce to rival it? The
church, too, which you see; it must be a satisfaction
to your ladyship to find yourself so near the church.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


30X


When first I came here, all that view was shut out by
trees. I saw at one glance what was to be done. I
called for Jack Spratt, my carpenter, and his hatchet.
Saba was in tears, Mrs. Sydney in hysterics, all the
family in despair; but I hardened my heart, Jack
Spratt cut vigorously, at every stroke the view became
more lovely, and now the whole family are converts and
deny the tears."
"Did you say a Quaker baby? Impossible! there
is no such thing; there never was; they are always
born broad-brimmed and in full quake.... Well, all
I can say is, I never saw one; and what is still more
remarkable, I never met with any one who had. Do
you believe in it? Lady Morley does not. Have you
heard the report that they are fed on drab-colored pap?
It must be this that gives them their beautiful complexion. I have a theory about them and bluecoat boys,
which I will tell you some day."
"Yes, it requires a long apprenticeship to speak well
in the House of Commons. It is the most formidable
ordeal in the world. Few men have succeeded who entered it late in life; Jeffrey is perhaps the best exception. Bobus used to say that there was more sense
and good taste in the whole House, than in any one
individual of which it was composed."
"We are told,'Let not the sun go down on your
wrath.' This, of course, is best; but, as it generally
does, I would add, Never act or write till it has done so.
This rule has saved me from many an act of folly. It is
wonderful what a different view we take of the same
event four-and-twenty hours after it has happened."
" Yes, I think the Duke of -  wore his rank most
gracefully. I have heard that he was once mounting
his horse, in company with the Archbishop of York,
and desired the groom to let go the rein. The groom




308     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
stupidly retained it. The nobleman snatched it with
some violence, and, riding off, called him a fool. He
had hardly proceeded a hundred yards, when he stopped,
saying,'Why did I call that man a fool? I dare say
he is not so great a fool as I'am.' He instantly turned
his horse, galloped after the man, and made his peace
with a kind word and half a crown."
This pretty trait reminds me of what I have not
unfrequently seen in my father, and think I may mention here; for though it is not the part of a daughter to
reveal faults, yet a fault nobly repaired or repented of,
adds to the respect and interest which a character inspires. My father was by nature quick and hasty, yet
he always struggled against it; made many regulations
to avoid exciting such feelings; and when he did give
way, it often excited my'admiration to see him gradually subduing his chafed spirit, and to observe his dissatisfaction with himself till he had humbled himself
and made peace, it mattered not with whom, groom or
child. He could not bear the reproaches of his own
heart.
"In this hard, rough, every-day working world, the
object of education should not be, as it so often is, to
excite and sharpen the acute feelings of a young person,
but to calm and blunt them; preserving only those
warm and generous feelings which give strength and
courage to perform the great duties of life."
"Once, when talking with Lord     on the subject
of Bible names, I could not remember the name of one
of Job's daughters.'Kezia,' said he immediately.
Surprised, I congratulated him upon being so well read
in Bible lore.'Oh!' said he,'my three greyhounds
are named after Job's daughters. "
"Ah!" said my father, on taking us round his farm,
"you will find it is a formidable undertaking to visit




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


309


an improver; we spare you nothing, from the garret
to the pig-sty. It is like a Frenchman's explanation;
they never give you credit for knowing the commonest facts.  C'est toujours,'Commenvons au deluge.'
My heart sinks when a Frenchman begins,'Mon ami,
je vais vous expliquer tout cela.' A fellow-traveler
once explained to me how to cut a sandwich, all the
way from Amiens to Paris."
"Yes, he was a clever and liberal man, but his wife
was a much more remarkable woman; she had a truly
porcelain understanding."
"True, it is most painful not to meet the kindness
and affection you feel you have deserved and have a
right to expect from others; but it is a mistake to complain of it, for it is of no use: you can not extort friendship with a cocked pistol."
On some one of his guests lamenting they had left
something behind: "Ah!" he said, "that would not
have happened if you had had a screaming gate."  " A
screaming gate? what do you mean, Mr. Smith?"
"Yes, every body should have a screaming gate. We
all arrived once at a friend's house just before dinner,
hot, tired, and dusty-a large party assembled-and
found all the keys of our trunks had been left behind;
since then I have established a screaming gate. We
never set out on our journey now without stopping at
a gate about ten minutes' distance from the house, to
consider what we have left behind: the result has been
excellent."
"Nothing is so tiresome to me as a person who is
always- talking Phoebuses; I prefer plain honest dullness a thousand times."
"Cultivate the love of reading in a young person;
it is an unceasing source of pleasure, and probably of
innocence."




810     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"Yes, it was a mistake to write any more. He was
a one-book man. Some men have only one book in
them; others, a library."
"I believe one of the Duke of Wellington's earliest
victories was at Eton, over my eldest brother, Bobus.
I have heard that the Duke reminded him of it on seeing him accidentally in society many years after the
Spanish campaigns."
On meeting a young lady who had just entered the
garden, and shaking hands with her: "I must," he
said, "give you a lesson in shaking hands, I see.
There is nothing more characteristic than shakes of
the hand. I have classified them. Lister, when he
was here, illustrated some of them. Ask Mrs. Sydney
to show you his sketches of them when you go in.
There is the high official-the body erect, and a rapid,
short shake, near the chin. There is the mortmainthe flat hand introduced into your palm, and hardly
conscious of its contiguity. The digital-one finger
held out, much used by the high clergy. There is the
shakus rusticus, where your hand is seized in an iron
grasp, betokening rude health, warm heart, and distance
from the Metropolis; but producing a strong sense of
relief on your part when you find your hand released
and your fingers unbroken. The next to this is the
retentive shake-one which, beginning with vigor, pauses
as it were to take breath, but without relinquishing its
prey, and before you are aware begins again, till you
feel anxious as to the result, and have no shake left in
you. There are other varieties, but this is enough for
one lesson."
On examining some new flowers in the garden, a
beautiful girl, who was of the party, exclaimed, "Oh,
Mr. Sydney! this pea will never come to perfection."
"Permit me, then," said he, gently taking her hand




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


311


and walking toward the plant, "to lead perfection to
the pea."
"I think an office for marriage would be a very good
thing. I am sure I could marry people much better
than they marry themselves; young people are so absurd, and accept and refuse for such foolish reasons. I
wish, Miss -, you would employ me; I have succeeded admirably already on two occasions: will you
take my advice?"  "Oh yes, Mr. Sydney."  "Well,
then, we will have a little private conversation, and
consider your case; but now I must go and look after
my parish."
"After luncheon may I have the honor of driving
you round my wood?" (addressing one of the ladies.)
"David, bring me my hat." And with his crutchstick in his hand, he sallied forth into his parish, where
he always seemed to carry comfort and pleasure into
every cottage he entered, for he brought what the poor
value so highly, and so seldom  obtain-synpath/y.
He appeared, and was, interested in their concerns.
When he sat down in a cottage, nothing escaped his
eye: Solomon's Temple in rockwork-the Prodigal Son
on the wall-the old woman in the ingle-nook-the
dirty, rosy infant on the floor, all came in for a share of
his notice.
"Why, John, I took you for a general officer at least,
in that new red waistcoat; but, John, I think there is
a touch of pride in those brass buttons, don't you?"
"Na, your honor, there beant," said John, highly gratified, and grinning from ear to ear. " Well, and how do
you do?" to the old woman. "Oh! the stuff your
honor sent did me a world of good."  "Ah, I thought
it would reach the right spot, Dame; well, then, you
must send the bottle for some more."




312    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"At this time," writes Mrs. Marcet, "he was in the
habit of spending half an hour every morning with a
young workman who was in the last stage of consumption;'part of that time,' he said,'was spent in preparing him for another world, and part in endeavoring
to render his last days in this as cheerful and as happy
as he could.' He used to stop and talk to the children
of the village as he passed along the road. He always
kept a box of sugar-plums in his pocket for these occasions, and often some rosy-faced urchin was made happy
by sharing its contents, or obtaining a penny to buy a
tart.'Let it be large and full of juice, Johnny,' he
would say,'so that it may run down both corners of the
mouth.' Stopping another:'What do you call me?
who am I?''Why, we calls you the Parson Doctor.''Oh, you little rogue!' pinching his cheek smilingly, and
holding up his fist at him,'I will send you a dose when
I go home.'
"At last he returned, and presently might be heard
the cry of'Jack Spratt!'-a few minutes after,'Betty
Loch!' (the garden-woman); then'Bunch!' (now converted into a cook); then'Annie Kay!' Shortly after
he would come up into the drawing-room with a large
manuscript book in his hand, and, seating himself in an
arm-chair, look round upon us.'What are you reading?''The Life of Franklin.''Oh, that is right. I
recommend the study of Franklin to all young people;
he was a real philanthropist, a wonderful man. It has
been said, that it was honor enough to any one country
to have produced such a man as Franklin. I think all
young people should read the Spectator, too-a paper a
day; I always did.'
"On Miss, and her friend Dr.'s daughter
passing through the room, some one remarked what a
pretty contrast their different styles of beauty made.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


313'Yes,' he said, L'iss -  reminds me of a youthful
31inerva; and her friend, as Dr. —'s daughter, must
be, you know, the Venus de Medicis.''"Talking of Switzerland:'Well, what are they do,
ing now in the irritable little republic?  They say a
change in the hour of shutting the gates convulsed the
whole canton of Geneva. Have they deposed M —
yet? You remember --'s answer when they sent
him a decree that he could not be permitted to fire in
the republic? "Very well," said he, "it makes no sort
of difference to me; I can very easily fire over the republic."'
"Some one mentioning a marriage about to take
place:'Why, it is like the union of an acid and an alkali; the result must be a tertium quid, or neutral
salt.'
"'What a beautiful thought (reading from a book in
his hand): a sunbeam passes through pollution unpolb
luted.'
"'Ah! what female heart can withstand a red-coat?
I think this should be a part of female education; it is
much neglected. As you have the rocking-horse to accustom them to ride, I would have military dolls in the
nursery, to harden their hearts against officers and redcoats. I found myself in company with some officers at
the country-house of a friend once; and as the repast
advanced, the colonel became very eloquent, and communicated to us a military definition of vice and virtue.
"Vice," he said, "was a d-d cocked-tailed fellow; and
Virtue," said he (striking the table with his fist, to enforce the description), "was a fellow fenced about for
the good of the service." We all burst into such an
uncontrollable paroxysm of laughter, that I began to
fear the honest colonel might think it for the good of the
service to shoot us through the head; so, for the good of
VOL. I.-O




314    MEMOIR OF THE. REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


the Church, hastened to agree with him, and we parted
very good friends.'
"'Yes, Mir.  -has great good sense, but I never
met a manner more entirely without frill.'
"Talking of Lord Denman:'What a face he has!
how well he looks his part! He is stamped by nature
for a Chief Justice. He is an honorable, high-minded
man. I have a great respect for him.'
"' I will explain to you,' said Mr. D -.'Oh, pray
don't, my dear D,' said Sydney laughing;' I did
understand a little about the Scotch kirk before you undertook to explain it to me yesterday; but now my
mind is like a London fog on the subject.'
"'But I came up to speak to Annie Kay. Where is
Annie Kay? Ring the bell for Annie Kay.' Kay appeared.'Bring me my medicine-book, Annie Kay. Kay
is my apothecary's boy, and makes up my medicines.'
Kay appears with the book.'I am a great doctor;
would you like to hear some of my medicines?''Oh
yes, Mr. Sydney.''There is the gentlejog, a pleasure
to take it-the Bull-dog, for more serious cases-Peter's
puke-Heart's delight, the comfort of all the old women
in the village-R-ub-a-dub, a capital embrocation —Deadstop, settles the matter at once-Up-with-it-then needs
no explanation; and so on. Now, Annie Kay, give Mrs.
Spratt a bottle of Rub-a-dub; and to Mr. Coles a dose
of Dead-stop and twenty drops of laudanum.'
"'This, is the house to be ill in' (turning to us);'indeed every body who comes is expected to take a little
something; I consider it a delicate compliment when my
guests have a slight illness here. We have contrivances
for every thing.  Have you seen my patent armor?
No? Annie Kay bring my patent armor. Now, look
here: if you have a stiff neck or swelled face, here is this
sweet case of tin filled with hot water, and covered with




MEMOIIt- OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITlH.


815


flannel, to put round your neck, and you are well directly. Likewise, a patent tin shoulder, in case of rheumatism. There you see a stomach-tin, the greatest comfort
in life; and lastly, here is a tin slipper, to be filled with
hot water, which you can sit with in the drawing-room,
should you come in chilled, without wetting your feet.
Come and see my apothecary's shop.'
"We all went down stairs, and entered a room filled
entirely on one side with medicines, and on the other
with every description of groceries and household or
agricultural necessaries; in the centre, a large chest,
forming a table; and divided into compartments for soap,
candles, salt, and sugar.
"'Here you see,' said he,'every human want before
you:'Man wants but little here below,
As beef, veal, mutton, pork, lamb, venison show;'
spreading out his arms to exhibit every thing, and laughing.'Life is a difficult thing in the country, I assure
you, and it requires a good deal of forethought to steer
the ship, when you live twelve miles from a lemon.
"' By-the-by, that reminds me of one of our greatest
domestic triumphs.  Some years ago my friend C —
the arch epicure of the Northern Circuit, was dining with
me in the country. On sitting down to dinner, he turned round to the servant, and desired him to look in his
great-coat -pocket and he would find a lemon; "For,"
he said, "I thought it likely you might have duck and
green-peas for dinner, and therefore thought it prudent,
at this distance from a town, to provide a lemon." I
turned round, and exclaimed, indignantly, "Bunch, bring
in the lemon-bag " and Bunch appeared with a bag containing a dozen lemons. He respected us wonderfully
after that. Oh, it is reported that he goes to bed with
concentrated lozenges of wild-duck, so as to have the




316    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITI.


taste constantly in his mouth when he wakes in the
night.'
"' Look here, this is a stomach-pump; you can't die
here. Bobus roared with laughter when I showed it to
him, but I saved my footman's life by it.*    He swallowed as much arsenic as would have poisoned all the rats
in the House of Lords; but I pumped lime-water into,
him  night and day for many hours at a time, and there
he is.  This is my medical department.       Saba used to
be my apothecary's boy before Dr. Holland carried her
off; Annie Kay is now promoted to it.'
" We spent some time in examining the wonders of
the shop, as he called it; he showing us all sorts of contrivances and comforts for both rich and poor; and, in
doing so, exhibiting at the same time that mixture of
sense, nonsense, forethought, and gayety so peculiar to
himself, and which gave a charm even to the details of a
grocer's shop. We then returned to the drawing-room:
in a short time he followed us up, with another book in
his hand.'Mrs. Sydney, I find the cook wants yeast
and eggs.''Yes, she has not been able to get any.''Why did you not write it down in my book, then-? I
always tell Mrs. Sydney, when she wants any thing, to
write it down in my book; once down in my book, and
* Literally true. The man had a passion for dough, and, returning
hungry one night, found a lump of dough which had been prepared with
arsenic for the rats, left most improperly by the gardener on the kitchen
dresser; and, indulging his passion, he devoured a considerable quantity
of it. The punishment was speedy; my father was called up, and, on
hearing what had happened, put the stomach-pump instantly into use,
and, turning to his medical books, applied incessantly the proper remedies all night, till the arrival of the medical man in the morning. The
remaining dough was analyzed, and I am afraid to state from mem.
ory the number of grains of arsenic he had swallowed. The medical
man said, nothing but the promptness of my father's remedies could
possibly have saved the poor man's life, which remained doubtful for
many days; and it was months before he recovered from its effects.
But he lived to show his gratitude to his master by his watchful and
tender care of him in his last illness.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


817


it is done directly. Look here, it is divided into different heads-the carpenter, the blacksmith, the farm, the
sick, the house, etc., etc.; that is the way to keep house
in the country. Every day I look through these wants,
and remedy them. Now, Mrs. Sydney, you want eggs
and yeast. I will mount the boys on the ponies, and
they shall scour the country forthwith, and you shall be
supplied with yeast and eggs till you cry, Hold! hold!
enough!'
"Then, looking round on us:'I wish I could sew.
I believe one reason why women are so much more
cheerful, generally, than men, is because they can work,
and vary more their employments. Lady    - used to
teach her sons carpet-work. All men ought to learn to
sew.'
" Speaking of manners as a part of education:'Yes,
manners are often too much neglected; they are most
important to men, no less than to women. I believe the.English are the most disagreeable people under the sun;
not so much because Mr. John Bull disdains to talk, as
that the respected individual has nothing to say, and because he totally neglects manners. Look at a French
caiter; he takes off his hat to his neighbor carter, and
inquires after "la sant6 de madame," with a bow that
would not have disgraced Sir Charles Grandison; and I
have often seen a French soubrette with a far better manner than an English duchess. Life is too short to get
over a bad manner; besides, manners are the shadows
of virtue.'
"' It is astonishing the influence foolish apothegms
have upon the mass of mankind, though they are not unfrequently fallacies. Here are a few I amused myself
with writing, long before Bentham's book on fallacies.




318    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"Fallacy L-' Because I have gone through it, my son
shall go through it also.'
"A man gets well pommeled at a public school; is
subject to every misery and every indignity which seventeen years of age can inflict upon nine and ten; has
his eye nearly knocked out, and his clothes stolen and
cut to pieces; and twenty years afterward, when he is a
chrysalis, and has forgotten the miseries of his grub state,
is determined to act a manly part in life, and says,' I
passed through all that myself, and I am determined my
son shall pass through it as I have done;' and away goes
his bleating progeny to the tyranny and servitude of the
long chamber or the large dormitory. It would surely
be much more rational to say,' Because I have passed
through it, I am determined my son shall not pass
through it; because I was kicked for nothing, and cuffed for nothing, and fagged for every thing, I will spare
all these miseries to my child.' It is not for any good
which may be derived from this rough usage; that has
not been weighed and considered; few persons are capable of weighing its effects upon character; but there is a
sort of compensatory and consolatory notion, that the
present generation (whether useful or not, no matter) are
not to come off scot-free, but are to have their share of
ill-usage; as if the black eye and bloody nose which
Master John Jackson received in 1800, are less black and
bloody by the application of similar violence to similar
parts of Master Thomas Jackson, the son, in 1830. This
is not only sad nonsense, but cruel nonsense. The only
use to be derived from the recollection of what we have
suffered in youth, is a fixed determination to screen those
we educate from every evil and inconvenience, from subjection to which there are not cogent reasons for submitting. Can any thing be more stupid and preposterous




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


819


than this concealed revenge upon the rising generation,
and latent envy lest they should avail themselves of the
improvements time has made, and pass a happier youth
than their fathers have done?
" Fallacy II. —'I have said I will do it, and I will do
it; I will stick to my word.'
"This fallacy proceeds from confounding resolutions
with promises. If you have promised to give a man a
guinea for a reward, or to sell him a horse or a field, you
must do it; you are dishonest if you do not. But if you
have made a resolution to eat no meat for a year, and every
body about you sees that you are doing mischief to your
constitution, is it any answer to say, you have said so,
and you will stick to your word? With whom have you
made the contract but with yourself? and if you and
yourself, the two contracting parties, agree to break the
contract, where is the evil, or who is injured?
" Fallacy III.-  I object to half-measures-it is nezt
ther one thing nor the other.'
"But why should it be either one thing or the other?
why not something between both? Why are half-measures necessarily or probably unwise measures?  I am
embarrassed in my circumstances; one of my plans is, to
persevere boldly in the same line of expense, and to trust
to the chapter of accidents for some increase of fortune;
the other is, to retire entirely from the world, and to hide
myself in a cottage; but I end with doing neither, and
take a middle course of diminished expenditure. I do
neither one thing nor the other, but possibly act wiser
than if I had done either. I am highly offended by the
conduct of an acquaintance; I neither overlook it entirely nor do I proceed to call him'out; I do neither, but
show him, by a serious change of manner, that I consider




320     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


myself to have been ill-treated. I effect my object by
half-measures. I can not agree entirely with the Opposition or the Ministry; it may very easily happen that
my half-measures are wiser than the extremes to which
they are opposed. But it is a sort of metaphor which
debauches the understanding of foolish people; and when
half-measures are mentioned, they have much the same
feeling as if they were cheated-as if they had bargained
for a whole bushel and received but half. To act in extremes is sometimes wisdom; to avoid them is sometimes
wisdom; every measure must be judged of by its own
particular circumstances."
"' Did you ever hear my definition of marriage?  It
is, that it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they
can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions,
yet always punishing any one who comes between them.'
" Some one speaking of Macaulay:' Yes, I take great
credit to myself; I always prophesied his greatness from
the first moment I saw him, then a very young and unknown man, on the Northern Circuit. There are no limits
to his knowledge, on small subjects as well as great; he
he is like a book in breeches.... Yes, I agree, he is
certainly more agreeable since his return from India.
His enemies might perhaps have said before (though I
never did so) that he talked rather too much; but now he
has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful. But what is far better and
more important than all this is, that I believe Macaulay
to be incorruptible. You might lay ribbons, stars, garters, wealth, titles, before him In vain. He has an honest, genuine love of his country, and the world could not
bribe him to neglect her interests.'
" Talking of absence:' The oddest instance of absence
of mind happened to me once in forgetting my own name.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


821


I knocked at a door in London; asked, Is Mrs. Bat home?   "Yes, sir; pray what name shall I say?"
I looked in the man's face astonished-what name? what
name? ay, that is the question; what is my name? I
believe the man thought me mad; but it is literally true,
that during the space of two or three minutes I had no
more idea who I was than if I had never existed. I did
not know whether I was a Dissenter or a layman. I felt
as dull as Sternhold and Hopkins. At last, to my great
relief, it flashed across me that I was Sydney Smith.
"' I heard of a clergyman who went jogging along the
road till he came to a turnpike.  "What is to pay?"
" Pay, sir? for what?" asked the turnpike-man. " Why,
for my horse, to be sure."  "Your horse, sir? what
horse?  Here is no horse, sir."  "No horse?   God
bless me!" said he suddenly, looking down between his
legs, "I thought I was on horseback."
" Lord Dudley was one of the most absent men I
think I ever met in society. One day he met me in the
street, and invited me to meet myself.  "Dine with me
to-day; dine with me, and I will get Sydney Smith to
meet you." I admitted the temptation he held out to
me, but said I was engaged to meet him elsewhere. An,
other time, on meeting me, he turned back, put his arm
through mine, muttering, "I don't mind walking with
him a little way; I'll walk with him as far as the end oi
the street."  As we proceeded together, W —  passed:
"That is the villain," exclaimed he, "who helped mG
yesterday to asparagus, and gave me no toast."  He very
nearly overset my gravity once in the pulpit. He was
sitting immediately under me, apparently very attentive,
when suddenly he took up his stick, as if he had been in
the House of Commons, and tapping on the ground with
it, cried out in a low but very audible whisper, "Hear!
hear! hear!"




322    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"'By-the-by, it happened to be a charity sermon,
and I considered it a wonderful proof of my eloquence,
that it actually moved old Lady C-       to borrow a
sovereign fromn Dudley, and that he actually gave it
her, though knowing he must take a long farewell of it.
I was told afterward by Lady S-      that she rejoiced
to see it had brought "iron tears down Pluto's cheek"
(meaning by that her husband), certainly little given to
the melting mood in any sense.
"'One speech, I remember, of Dudley's, gratified
me much. When I took leave of him, on quitting London to go into Yorkshire, he said to me, "You have
been laughing at me constantly, Sydney, for the last
seven years, and yet in all that time you never said a
single thing to me that I wished unsaid." This, I confess, pleased me.*.. But I must go and scour the
country for yeast and eggs;' and off he went.
"After luncheon appeared at the door a low green
garden-chair, holding two, and drawn by the two donkeys already introduced; but despoiled, to their obvious
relief, of their antlers.'This was built by my village
carpenter,' said he,'but its chief merit is that it can
not be overturned. You need not fear my driving now;
Mrs. Sydney will give me an excellent character.  She
was very much afraid of me when I first took to driving
her in Yorkshire, but she raised my wages before the
first month.  I am become an excellent whip, I assure
you.' So saying, he mounted into the little vehicle, and
set off with his lady at a foot's pace, we following in
* It is most gratifying to find how often this delicate use of his greatpowers of wit and sarcasm is alluded to by his friends and acquaintance
in the papers intrusted to me. I see it is said of him, in one of the
publications, at his death: "It is a rare distinction, but one which
ought to be written on his monument, that while he wasted no gift of
those so liberally bestowed upon him, in ministering to the unworthy
pleasures of others, or in promoting his own selfish aggrandizementas a wit he was more beloved than feared."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH,


his train down the pretty valley into which the garden
opened, and through his wood walks, till we came out
upon a fine table-land above the house, commanding a
splendid view of the fine range of the Quantoc Hills on
the one side, and the rich Yale of Taunton on the other.
"' There!' said he,'behold all the wonders of the
world beneath you! can any thing be more exquisite,
more beautiful? I often come up here to meditate. I
think of building a Gazebo here. The landscape is perfeet; it wants nothing but water and a wise man. I
think it was Jekyll who used to say, that "the further
he went west, the more convinced he felt that the wise
men did come from the east."  We have not such an
article. You might ride from the rising up of the sun
until the going down thereof in these regions, and not
find one (I mean a real philosopher) whom you would
consult on the great affairs of life. We are thoroughly
primitive; agriculture and agricultural tools are fifty
years behind the rest of England.
"' A neighboring squire called on me the other day,
and informed me he had been reading a delightful book.
The fact of his having any literary pursuits at all was
equally agreeable and surprising to me, and I inquired
the subject of his studies.  "Oh!" said he, "the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; I have just got it, and
I advise you to read it. I assure you, 3Ir. Smith, you
will find it a most amusing book." I thanked him, cordially agreed with him, but ventured to suggest that
the book was not entirely unknown to me.'
"' A joke goes a great way in the country. I have
known one last pretty well for seven years. I remember making a joke after a meeting of the clergy, in
Yorkshire, where there was a Rev. Mr. Buckle, who
never spoke when I gave his health; saying, that he
was a buckle without a tongue. Most persons within




324     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
hearing laughed, but my next neighbor sat unmoved and
sunk in thought. At last, a quarter of an hour after we
had all done, he suddenly nudged me, exclaiming, "I
see now what you meant, Mr. Smith; you meant a joke."
"Yes," I said, " sir; I believe I did." Upon which he
began laughing so heartily, that I thought he would
choke, and was obliged to pat him on the back.'
"Talking of the singular degree of obstinacy of Miss, on the most difficult and doubtful subjects,'Oh!
nothing but a surgical operation will avail; it must be
cut out of her.'
"' I see you will not believe it, but I was once very
shy.''Were you indeed, Mr. Smith? how did you
cure yourself?''Why, it was not very long before I
made two very useful discoveries: first, that all mankind were not solely employed in observing me (a belief
that all young people have); and next, that shamming
was of no use; that the world was very clear-sighted,
and soon estimated a man at his just value. This cured
me, and I determined to be natural, and let the world
find me out.'
"'Oh yes! we both talk a great deal, but I don't
believe Macaulay ever did hear my voice,' he exclaimed,
laughing.'Sometimes, when I have told a good story,
I have thought to myself, Poor Macaulay! he will be
very sorry some day to have missed hearing that.'
"'Other rules vary; this is the only one you will
find without exception-that, in this world, the salary
or reward is always in the inverse ratio of the duties
performed.'
"Some one speaking of Mr. Grenville' I always
feel.better for being in Mr. Grenville's company: it is
a beautiful sunset. You know the man in a regiment
who is selected to stand out before them as their model;
he is called the fugleman. Now, Mr. Grenville I al



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


826


ways consider as the fugleman of old age. He has
contrived to combine the freshness and greenness of
mind belonging to youth, with the dignity and wisdom
of age.'
"Some one wondering at his praises of -, and
telling Sydney that he often abused him:'Oh!' said
my father, laughing,' I know he does not spare me,
but that is no reason I should not praise him. At all
times I had rather be the ox than the butcher.'
". Talking of Sheridan:' Creevy told me, once, when
dining with Sheridan, after the ladies had departed, he
drew the chair to the fire, and confided to Creevy that
they had just had a fortune left them. "Mrs. Sheridan
and I," said he, "have made the solemn vow to each
other to mention it to no one, and nothing induces me
now to confide it to you but the absolute conviction that
Mrs. Sheridan is at this moment confiding it to Mrs.
Creevy up stairs." Soon after this I went to visit him
in the country with a large party; he had taken a villa.
No expense was spared; a magnificent dinner, excellent
wines, but not a candle to be had to go to bed by in
the house; in the morning no butter appeared, or was
to be procured for breakfast. He said, it was not a
butter country, he believed. But with Sheridan for
host, and the charm of his wit and conversation, who
cared for candles, butter, or any thing else?  In the
evening there was a quarrel among the fiddlers, they
absolutely refusing to play with a blind fiddler, who
had unexpectedly arrived and insisted upon performing with them. He turned out at last to be Mathews;
his acting was quite inimitable.'
" This brought us home again. Meeting at the door
his grandson, returning quite exhausted with a prodigious walk:' Oh, foolish boy! remember, head for glory,
feet for use.'




326     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"He then left us, and might be seen in his pretty
library; sometimes in his arm-chair, seated, with books
of different kinds piled round him, some grave, some
gay, as his humor varied from hour to hour. And this
rapid change of mood, which I see his friend Mr. Moore
remarks upon, was one thing among many which gave
such freshness and raciness to his conversation: you
never could guess what would come next. At other
times seated at a large table in the bay-window, with
his desk before him-on one end of this table a case,
something like a small deal music-stand, filled with
manuscript books-on the other a large deal tray, filled
with a leaden ink-stand, containing ink enough for a
county; a magnifying glass; a carpenter's rule; several large steel pens, which it was high treason to touch;
a glass bowl full of shot and water, to clean these precious pens; and some red tape, which he called'one
of the grammars of life;' a measuring line, and various
other articles, more useful than ornamental. At this
writing establishment, unique of its kind, he could turn
his mind with equal facility, in company or alone, to
any subject, whether of business, study, politics, instruction, or amusement, and move the minds of his
hearers to laughter or tears at his pleasure."
He used to say he never considered his education
finished. To the last years of his life, he kept up his
classical studies, his reading and analysis of the Bible
(of which I find notes in his papers), and profane and
ecclesiastical history, from  which he frequently put
down hints, some of which I have given. He was also
very fond of exercising himself in translating English
into French, which he spoke with great fluency, but did
not write correctly. He frequently interrupted these
pursuits by issuing forth into his gay garden, to take a




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


327


stroll round it by himself, stopping at intervals, with his
crutch-stick swung behind him, as usual, as if meditating on the subject of his studies; or sometimes sitting
down on the lawn to watch or join in the gambols of his
little grandchildren, or to comfort them in some childish
affliction, in which the never-failing sugar-plum box was
found a most useful assistant; sometimes in conference
with Jack Spratt or Annie Kay on some domestic concern. When we met at dinner, he was, if possible, more
agreeable than he had been during the day. "Sydney's
wit," as was happily said of him by Mr. Howard, "is
always fresh; you find the dew still on it."  It is remarked of him somewhere that "he had the power of
breathing the breath of life into a dead truism; every
thing coming from his mind seemed to be original, even
when it was old."
One of his most intimate friends writes of him-" It
is quite extraordinary how different every word that
drops from Sydney's pen is from any thing else in the
world. Individuality is stamped on every sentence,
and you can hardly read a page without coming to some
sentence that no other man could have written. It was
the same with his conversation."
It signified not what the materials were: I never remember a dull dinner in his company.*  He extracted
amusement from every subject, however hopeless.  He
descended and adapted himself to the meanest capacity,
without seeming to do so; he led without seeking to
lead; he never sought to shine-the light appeared because he could not help it. Nobody felt excluded. He
had the happy art of always saying the best thing in
* My poor mother felt the change so strongly after his death that, on
dining out for the first time alone, she said, "Every body seemed to her
so unusually flat, that she thought they must all have suffered some severe loss."




328     BIMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


the best manner to the right person at the right moment; it was a touch-and-go impossible to describe,
guided by such tact and attention to the feelings of
others, that those he most attacked seemed most to enjoy the attack: never in the same mood for two minutes together, and each mood seemed to be more agreeable than the last.  "I talk a little sometimes," said
he, "and it used to be an amusement among the servants at the Archbishop of York's, to snatch away my
plate when I began talking; so I got a habit of holding
it with one hand when so engaged, and dining at single
anchor."
"Now, I mean not to drink one drop of wine to-day,
and I shall be mad with spirits. I always am when I
drink no wine. It is curious the effect a thimbleful of
wine has upon me; I feel as flat as' -'s jokes; it
destroys my understanding: I forget the number of the
iMuses, and think them thirty-nine of course; and only
get myself right again by repeating the lines, and finding'Descend, ye thirty-nine!' two feet too long."
"Oh, Saba carves for me. I always tell her I shall
cut her off with a shilling if she ever asks me to help
her to a dish before me. It is quite a pleasure to see
her carve."
"That pudding! yes, that was the pudding Lady
Holland asked the recipe for when she came to see us.
I shook my head, and said it could not be done, even
for her ladyship.  She became more urgent; Mrs. Sydney was soft-hearted, and gave it. The glory of it almost turned my cook's head: she has never been the
same since. But our forte in the culinary line is our
salads: I pique myself on our salads. Saba always
dresses them after my recipe. I have put it into verse.
Taste it, and, if you like it, I will give it you. I was
not aware how much it had contributed to my repu



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


829


tation, till I met Lady     -   at Bowood, who begged
to be introduced to me, saying, she had so long wished
to know me.     I was of course highly flattered, till she
added,'For, Mr. Smith, I have heard so much of your
recipe for salads, that I was most anxious to obtain it
from you.' Such and so various are the sources of fame!
"To make this condiment, your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs;
Two boil'd potatoes, pass'd through kitchen sieve,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault,
To add a double quantity of salt.
And, lastly, o'er the flavor'd compound toss
A magic soup9on of anchovy sauce.
Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat:
Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
Fate can not harm me, I have dined to-day."
" Mrs. Sydney was dreadfully alarmed about her sidedishes the first time Luttrell paid us a visit, and grew
pale as the covers were lifted; but they stood the test.
Luttrell tasted and praised.   He spent a week with us,
and having associated him only with Pall Mall, I confess
I was agreeably surprised to find how pleasant an inmate
he made of a country-house, and almost of a family party; so light in hand, so willing to be pleased.  Some of
his Irish stories, too, were most amusing, and his manner of telling them so good. One:' Is your master at
home, Paddy?''  o, your honor.''Why, I saw him
go in five minutes ago.''Faith, your honor, he's not
exactly at home; he's only there in the back-yard
a-shooting rats with cannon, your honor, for his devarsion.'




830     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"A school examination, too: the children were asked
what the first woman was made of. A general burst of'Ribs of mon / ribs of mon'' And what was the first
man made of?''JDoost and ashes! doost and ashes -'
was the reply. After this trial of us, he repeated his
visits several times, and we found him a most agreeable
inmate.
" Oh, don't tell me of facts, I never believe facts: you
know, Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts,
except figures."
" My friend Ord's place is the last spot in England:
all beyond is chaos."
"That is a fine idea of Clarke's-' The frost is God's
plow, which he drives through every inch of ground in
the world, opening each clod and pulverizing the whole.'"
" VWhen some one asked what could induce the Ministry to send Lord 31 —  to Ireland and Lord C
to Scotland, Jekyll said,' Oh, it is only the doctor who
ha put wrong labels on them by mistake.' The apothecaries' boys in London do this on purpose, and change
the labels for their amusement: so Lady F. takes Lord
D.'s embrocation, and Lord D. rubs his leg with her
draught; but the most remarkable part of it all is, that
it answers just as well as if the labels had been left."
"I once dissuaded a youth from entering the army,
on which he was bent, at the risk of breaking his mother's heart, by asking him how he would prevent his sword
from getting between his legs. It quite staggered him;
he never solved the difficulty, and took to peace instead
of war."
" I agree with Sir James Mackintosh, and have found
the world more good and more foolish than I thought
when young."
"It is an unlucky book-fine sentiments fined down
till you can't see them; encouraging young ladies in




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


$31


dangerous imaginings of what is not; of an exquisite
fellow bursting with sentiment, only he is in the moon
and can't be reached.  I will, I think, write an oppositibn hero, who shall be the antidote."
"The most promising sign in a boy is, I should say,
mathematics."
" Madame de Sevigne I think much overpraised; every body writes as well now.   Lady Mary Wortley
wrote much better, sound sense.  Twelve volumes of
pretty turns are too much."
"You remember Thurlow's answer to some one complaining of the injustice of a company.'Why, you
never expected justice from a company, did you? they
have neither a soul to lose, nor a body to kick.'"
"Ah, you always detect a little of the Irish fossil, the
potato, peeping out in an Irishman."
Some one, speaking of Missions, ridiculed them as inefficient. He dissented, saying, that "though all was
not done that was projected, or even boasted of, yet that
much good resulted; and that wherever Christianity was
taught, it brought with it the additional good of civilization in its train, and men became better carpenters, better cultivators, better every thing."
He mentioned somebody rising in the House, saying,'I rise to answer the Honorable Alligator on the other
side of the House."
"Have you heard my parody on Pope?"Why has not man a collar and a log?
For this plain reason-man is not a dog.
Why is not man served up with sauce in dish?
For this plain reason-man is not a fish.
There are a great many other whys, but I.will spare you."
"Was not -       very disagreeable?'Why, he was
as disagreeable as the occasion would permit,' Luttrell
said."




332     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"Nobody was more witty or more bitter than Lord
Ellenborough. A young lawyer, trembling with fear,
rose to make his first speech, and began:' My lord,
my unfortunate client-   My lord, my unfortunate
client-  My lord-''Go on, sir, go on,' said Lord
E.;'as far as you have proceeded hitherto, the Court
is entirely with you.' This was perhaps irresistible;
but yet, how wicked! how cruel! it deserves a thousand years' punishment at least."
"Luttrell used to say,' I hate the sight of monkeys,
they remind me so of poor relations."'
"Oh, they were all so beautiful, that Paris could not
have decided between them, but would have cut his
apple in slices."
"When I went into Rundell and Bridges's, there
were heaps of diamonds lying loose about the counter.
I never saw so many temptations, and so little apparent
watchfulness.  I thought there were many sops, and
no Cerberus. But they told me, when I asked, that
there were unseen eyes directed upon me in every part
of the shop."
Speaking of Lady Murray's mother, who had a most
benevolent countenance: "Her smile is so radiant, that
I believe it would force even a gooseberry-bush into
flower."
Some young person, answering on a subject in discussion, "I don't know that," he said, smiling, "Ah!
what you don't know would make a great book, as
C —   replied to B-."
"I never go to tragedies, my heart is too soft. There
is too much real misery in life. But what a face she
had! The gods do not bestow such a face as Mrs.
Siddons's on the stage more than once in a century. I
knew her very well, and she had the good taste to laugh
heartily at my jokes; she was an excellent person, but




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH


833


she was not remarkable out of her profession, and never
got out of tragedy even in common life.  She used to
stab the potatoes; and said,' Boy, give me a knife!' as
she would have said,' Give me the dagger!'
"Oh, Mrs. Sydney believes it is all true; and when
I went with her to the play, I was always obliged to
sit behind her, and whisper,'Why, Kate, he is not
really going to kill her-she is not really dead, you
know;' or she would have cried her eyes out, and gone
into hysterics."
"All gentlemen and ladies eat too much. I made a
calculation, and found I must have consumed some
wagon-loads too much in the course of my life. Lock
up the mouth, and you have gained the victory. I
believe our friend, Lady Morley, has hit upon the right
plan in dining modestly at two. When we are absorbed
in side-dishes, and perplexed with variety of wines, she
sits among us, lightly flirting with a potato, in full possession of her faculties, and at liberty to make the best
use of them-a liberty, it must be owned, she does not
neglect, for how agreeable she is! I like Lady Morley;
she is what I call good company."
"Never was known such a summer as this; water is
selling at threepence a pint. My cows drink beer, my
horses ale."
" The French certainly understand the art of furnishing better than we do; the profusion of glass in their
rooms gives such gayety.   I remember entering a
room  with glass all round it, at the French Embassy, and saw myself reflected on every side.  I
took it for a meeting of the clergy, and was delighted of
course."
"In composing, as a general rule, run your pen
through every other word you have written; you have
no idea what vigor it will give your style."




334     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
The conversation turning on -, I forget who it
was said so well, " There is the same difference between their tongues as between the hour and the minute
hand; one goes ten times as fast, and the other signifies
ten times as much."
"I think no house is well fitted up in the country
without people of all ages. There should be an old
man or woman to pet; a parrot, a child, a monkey;
something, as the French say, to love and to despise.
I have just bought a parrot, to keep my servants in
good-humor."
"No, I don't like dogs; I always expect them to go
mad. A lady asked me once for a motto for her dog
Spot. I proposed,'Out, damned Spot!' but she did
not think it sentimental enough. You remember the
story of the French marquise, who, when her pet lapdog bit a piece out of her footman's leg, exclaimed,'Ah, poor little beast! I hope it won't make him sick.'
I called one day on Mrs.  -, and her lap-dog flew at
my leg and bit it.  After pitying her dog, like the
French marquise, she did all she could to comfort me,
by assuring me the dog was a Dissenter, and hated the
Church, and was brought up in a Tory family. But
whether the bite came from madness or Dissent, I knew
myself too well to neglect it; and went on the instant
to a surgeon and had it cut out, making a mem. on the
way to enter that house no more."
"If you want to make much of a small income, always ask yourself these two questions: first, do I really
want it? secondly, can I do without it?  These two
questions, answered honestly, will double your fortune.
I have always inculcated it in my family."
"Lady --    is a remarkably clever, agreeable woman, but Nature has made one trifling omission-a
heart; I do like a little heart, I must confess."




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


335


"I never was asked in all my life to be a trustee or
an executor.  No one believes that I can be a plodding man of business, as mindful of its dry details as
the gravest and most stupid man alive."
" I have heard that one of the American ministers in
this country was so oppressed by the numbers of his
countrymen applying for introductions, that he was
obliged at last to set up sham  Sydney Smiths and
false Macaulays. -But they can't have been goodc
counterfeits; for a most respectable American, on
his return home, was heard describing Sydney Smith
as a thin, grave, dull old fellow; and as to Macaulay (said he), I never met a more silent man in all my
life!"
Talking of Mrs.: "She has not very clear
ideas, though, about the tides. I remember, at a large
party at --  House, her insisting that it was always
high tide at London-bridge at twelve o'clock.  She
referred to me:'Now, Mr. Smith, is it not so?' I
answered,' It used not to be so, I believe, formerly, but
perhaps the Lord Mayor and Aldermen have altered it
lately.'"
"Mr..- -once came to see us in Yorkshire; and
he was so small and so active, he looked exactly like a
little spirit running about in a kind of undress without
a body."
Speaking of a robbery: "It is Bacon, I think, who
says so beautifully,'He that robs in darkness breaks
God's lock.' How fine that is!"
On some persons mentioning Mr. ---: "Yes, I
honor him for his talents and character, and his misfortunes have softened the little asperities of his manner, and made him much more agreeable. Tears are
the waters of the heart."
"People complain of their servants: I never had a




836     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
bad one; but then I study their comforts, that is one
recipe for securing good servants."*
"Dante, in his'Purgatorio,' would have assigned
five hundred years of assenting to -, and as many
to      ofpraising his fellow-creatures."
"I have divided mankind into classes.  There is the
Noodle-very numerous, but well known. The Affliction-woman-a valuable member of society, generally
an ancient spinster, or distant relation of the family, in
small circumstances: the moment she hears of any accident or distress in the family, she sets off, packs up
her little bag, and is immediately established there, to
comfort, flatter, fetch, and carry.  The Up-takers-a
class of people who only see through their fingers' ends,
and go through a room taking up and touching every
thing, however visible and however tender. The Clearers-who begin at the dish before them, and go on picking or tasting till it is cleared, however large the company, small the supply, and rare the contents. The
Sheep-walkers-those who never deviate from the beaten
track, who think as their fathers have thought since the
flood, who start from a new idea as they would from
guilt.  The Lemon-squeezers of society-people who
act on you as a wet blanket, who see a cloud in the
sunshine, the nails of the coffin in the ribbons of the
bride, predictors of evil, extinguishers of hope; who,
where there are two sides, see only the worst-people
whose very look curdles the milk, and sets your teeth
on edge. The Let-well-aloners-cousins-german to the
Noodle, yet a variety; people who have begun to think
and to act, but are timid, and afraid to try their wings,
and tremble at the sound of their own footsteps as
they advance, and think it safer to stand still.  Then
the Washerwomen- very numerous, who       exclaim,
* He hardly ever lost a servant but from marriage or death.




3MEMOIUR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.'Well! as sure as ever I put on my best bonnet, it
is certain to rain,' etc. There are many more, but I
forget them.
" Oh yes! there is another class, as you say; people
who are always treading on your gouty foot, or talking
in your deaf ear, or asking you to give them something
with your lame hand, stirring up your weak point, rubbing your sore, etc."
"The advice I sent to the Bishop of New Zealand,
when he had to receive the cannibal chiefs there, was to
say to them,'I deeply regret, sirs, to have nothing on
my own table suited to your tastes, but you will find
plenty of cold curate and roasted clergyman on the
side-board;' and if, in spite of this prudent provision,
his visitors should end their repast by eating him likewise, why I could only add,'I sincerely hoped he
would disagree with them.' In this last sentiment he
must cordially have agreed with me; and, upon the
whole, he must have considered it a useful hint, and
would take it kindly. Don't you think so?"
On joining us in the drawing-room, and sitting down
to the tea-table: "Thank God for tea! What would
the world do without tea? how did it exist? I am glad
I was not born before tea. I can drink any quantity
when I have not tasted wine; otherwise I am haunted
by blue-devils by day, and dragons by night. If you
want to improve your understanding, drink coffee. Sir
James Mackintosh used to say, he believed the difference
between one man and another was produced by the
quantity of coffee he drank."
" O'Connell presented me to the Irish members as the
powerful and entertaining advocate of the Irish Catholic
claims."
Talking of the ardor of country gentlemen for preserving game: " I believe --- would die for his game. He
VOL. 1.-P




$38    nMEMOIR OF TIE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
is,truly a pheasant-minded man; he revenged himself
upon me by telling all the Joe Millers he could find as
my jokes."
"Oh, the Dean of   -deserves to be preached to
death by wild curates."
"I am old, but I certainly have not that sign of old
age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.
On the contrary, the progress of the world in the last
fifty years almost takes my breath away. Steam and
electricity have advanced it beyond the dreams of the
wildest visionary two hundred years ago. By-the-by,
on the subject of steam, I have a most curious letter,
which I extracted from a periodical, and will show- you;
it struck me as so interesting, that I made inquiries about
it from the author of the publication, and have some reason to believe it is authentic."
fetter of uarion de ]orme to the.Marquis de CinqXars.
"PARIS, February, 1641.
" MY DEAR EFFIART,
"While you are forgetting me at Narbonne, and giving yourself up to the pleasures of the Court and the
delight of thwarting M. le Cardinal de Richelieu, I, according to your express desire, am doing the honors of
Paris to your English lord the Marquis of Worcester;
and I carry him about, or rather he carries me, from
curiosity to curiosity, choosing always the most grave
and serious, speaking little, listening with extreme attention, and fixing on those whom he interrogates two large
blue eyes, which seem to pierce to the very centre of
their thoughts. He is remarkable for never being satisfied with any explanations which are given him, and he
never sees things in the light in which they are shown
to him; you may judge of this by a visit we made to



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


339


gether to Bicetre, where he imagined he had discovered
a genius in a madman,
"If this madman had not been actually raving, I
verily believe your Marquis would have entreated his
liberty, and have carried him off to London, in order
to hear his extravagances from morning till night, at
his ease. We were crossing the court of the madhouse, and I, more dead than alive with fright, kept
close to my companion's side, when a frightful face ap.peared behind some immense bars, and a hoarse voice
exclaimed,'I am not mad! I am not mad! I have
made a discovery which would enrich the country that
adopted it.''What has he discovered?' asked our
guide.'Oh!' he answered, shrugging his shoulders,' something trifling enough: you would never guess it;
it is the use of the steam of boiling water.' I began
to laugh.' This man,' continued the keeper,'is named
Salomon de Caus; he came from Normandy four years
ago, to present to the King a statement of the wonderful effects that might be produced from his invention. To listen to him, you would imagine that with
steam you could navigate ships, move carriages; in
fact, there is no end to the Miracles which, he insists
upon it, could be performed. The Cardinal sent the
madman away without listening to him. Salomon de
Caus, far from being discouraged, followed the Cardinal wherever he went with the most determined perseverance, who, tired of finding him forever in his path,
and annoyed at his folly, shut him up in Bicetre, where
he has now been for three years and a half, and where,
as you hear, he calls out to every visitor that he is not
mad, but that he has made a valuable discovery. He has
even written a book on the subject, which I have here.'*
* This book is entitled, "Les Raisons des Forces mouvantes, avee
diverses machines tant utiles que puissantes." (Pub. 1615, in folio.)




840     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMIITH.
"Lord Worcester, who had listened to this account
with much interest, after reflecting a time, asked for
the book, of which, after having read several pages, he
said,'This man is not mad; in my country, instead of
shutting him up, he would have been rewarded. Take
me to him, for I should like to ask him some questions.' He was accordingly conducted to his cell; but,
after a time, he came back sad and thoughtful.  He is
indeed mad now,' said he;'misfortune and captivity
have alienated his reason; but it is you who have to
answer for his madness; when you cast him into that
cell, you confined the greatest genius of the age.' After
this we went away, and since that time he has done nothing but talk of Salomon de Caus."
"I destroy, on principle, all letters to me, but I have
no secrets myself. I should not care if almost every
word I have written were published at Charing Cross. I
live with open windows."
"This is a noble description of God's omnipresence
(turning over the leaves of a book),'His centre is every
where, his circumference is nowhere.'"
Talking of New-Year's Day and Christmas: "No,
the returns of those fixed periods always make me melancholy. I am glad when we have fairly turned the
corner, and started afresh. I feel, like my friend Mackintosh,'there is another child of Time lost,' as the year
departs.
"What a loss you had in not knowing Mackintosh!
how was it?.... Yes, his manner was cold; his
skake of the hand came under the genus'mortmain;'
but his heart was overflowing with benevolence. I like
that simile I made on him in my letter, of' a great ship
cutting its cable;' it is fine, and it well described Mackintosh. His chief foible was indiscriminate praise. I




MEMOIR (OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


341


amused myself the other day," said he, laughing, "in
writing a termination of a speech for him; would you
like to hear it? I will read it to you:''It is impossible to conclude these observations
without expressing the obligations I am under to a person in a much more humble scene of life-I mean, sir,
the hackney-coachman by whom I have been driven to
this meeting. To pass safely through the streets of a
crowded metropolis must require, on the part of the
driver, no common assemblage of qualities. He must
have caution without timidity, activity without precipitation, and courage without rashness; he must have a
clear perception of his object, and a dexterous use of
his means. I. can safely say of the individual in question, that, for a moderate reward, he has displayed unwearied skill; and to him I shall never forget that I owe
unfractured integrity of limb, exemption from pain, and
perhaps prolongation of existence.
*''Nor can I pass over the encouraging cheerfulness
with which I was received by the waiter, nor the useful
blaze of light communicated by the link-boys, as I descended from the carriage. It was with no common
pleasure that I remarked in these men, not the mercenary bustle of venal service, but the genuine effusions
of untutored benevolence; not the rapacity of subordinate agency, but the alacrity of humble friendship.
What may not be said of a country where all the little
accidents of life bring forth the hidden qualities of the
heart-where her vehicles are driven, her streets illumined, and her bells answered, by men teeming with all
the refinements of civilized life?' I can not conclude, sir, without thanking you for
the very clear and distinct manner in which you have
announced the proposition on which we are to vote. It
is but common justice to add, that public assemblies




342    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH


rarely witness articulation so perfect, language so select,
and a manner so eminently remarkable for every thing
that is kind, impartial, and just.' "
At ten we always went down stairs to prayers, in the
library.  Immediately after, if we were alone, appeared
the "farmer" at the door, lantern in hand.      "D'avid,
bring me my coat and stick;" and off he set with
him, summer and winter, to visit his horses, and see
that they were all well fed, and comfortable in their regions for the night.  He kept up this custom all his life.
On returning to the drawing-room, he usually asked
for a'little music.  "If I were to begin life again, I
would devote much time to music.      All musical people
seem to me happy; it is the most engrossing pursuit;
almost the only innocent and unpunished passion.
" Never give way to melancholy: nothing encroaches
more; I fight against it vigorously.t    One great remedy is, to take short views of life.  Are you happy now?
Are you likely to remain so till this evening? or next
week? or next month? or next year?       Then why destroy present happiness by a distant misery, which may
never come at all, or you may never live to see it? for
every substantial grief has twenty shadows, and most of
them shadows of your own making."
Speaking of -: "It was a beautiful old age; how
fine those lines of Waller are-'The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Let in new lights through chinks that Time has made!'"
* This trifling critique on his old friend, good-humored as it is, I
should not have given without the permission of his family, who knew
that Sir James, had he seen it, would have been the first to smile
at it. I ought to add, that the same kind indulgence has been granted
me wherever I have ventured on any anecdote that I feared might give
pain.
t Yet I see, in his note-book —" I wish I were of a more sanguine
temperament; I always anticipate the worst."




MEMOIR OF THE- REV. SYDNEY SMITII.    34:I
" Yes; --     was merry, not wise. You know, a man
of small understanding is merry where he can, not where
he should. Lightning must, I think, be the wit of
heaven."
1Mr. P —  said to him, " I always write best with an
amanuensis."  "Oh! but are you quite sure he puts
down what you dictate, my dear P.?"
Speaking of a Revolutionist: "No man, I fear, can
effect great benefits for his country without some sacrifice of the minor virtues."
"I often think what a different man I might have
been if, like my friend Lord Holland, and others, I had
passed my life with all that is most worth seeing and
hearing in Europe, instead of being confined through the
greater part of it to the society of the parish-clerk. I
always feel it is combating with unequal weapons; but
I have made a tolerable fight of it, nevertheless. I am
rather an admirer of O'Connell: he, it can not be denied,
has done a great deal for Ireland, and, on the whole, I
believe he meant well; but' hell,' as Johnson says,' is
paved with good intentions.'"
A little more of such talk, intermixed with those brilliant and amusing bursts of humor and attack-which I.
see prettily compared, in one of the printed sketches of
him, to "summer lightning, that never harmed the object illumined by its flash"-and then to bed; and all
was quiet, and at peace, in the little parsonage.
I have endeavored here-partly from recollection, partly from my own and my friends' notes-to give some
faint idea of the style of my father's conversation and his
manner of living with his family and friends. I flatter
myself, by those who knew him intimately, it will not be
thought an unfaithful copy. But, alas! without the look,
the voice, the manner, the laugh, the thousand little del



344     MEMOIE OF THIE ZIEV. SYDNEY SMITH.
icate touches, the quick repartee, the connecting links
from which these observations sprang-without the master-spirit's voice to animate the whole-without all this,
I feel it is but a body without a soul. Yet, body as it
is, to me it is most precious, as all that now remains to
me of my father; and I would fain believe there are a
few still alive who will accept this relic of a great man
gone, with gratitude-will live with him again in these
pages-will be reminded, by them, of him as he was, and
not as I have here imperfectly attempted to describe him.




CHAPTER XII.
Extract from Lady -'s Journal.-Last Illness.-Comes to Town.Dr. Chambers called in.- Anxiety of Friends for his Recovery. -
Meeting of Brothers.-Living to poor Clergyman.-Death of Sydney
Smith.-Death of his eldest Brother.
I HAVE but little more to add; my (to me) sad tale
is nearly told; but I will here insert some extracts from
a journal of a dear Scotch friend, who spent a month in
his house, which, though never meant to see the light,
have most kindly been given to me at my request; and
which I feel to be valuable, not only because they are
nearly the last notes I have of him (being taken the year
before his death), but because they also, on many points,
confirm, from notes taken at the moment, the traits I
have given of him from mere recollection.
"'Do you not like the country?''I like London a
great deal better; the study of men and women, better
than trees and grass.'
"' Oh! some men are born happy. I often think,
what a fortunate circumstance it was for me, in going to
Edinburgh (quite a stranger), to fall at once into intimacy with such remarkable men as Jeffrey and the rest.''How was it?''I went to Edinburgh with a pupil-I
had nothing else. Then the Edinburgh Review-what
a machine that has been!'
"'I love Jeffrey very dearly;' and, speaking of his
knowledge of all subjects, and his review of Madame de
Stail:' I used to say then that the nearest thing Jeffrey
p*




:46   MIEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITM.


had ever seen to a'inc Parisian lady was John Playfair.'
How we laughed at this!
"' Miss Edgeworth was delightful-so clever and sensible! She does not say witty things, but there is such
a perfume of wit runs through all her conversation as
makes it very brilliant.'
"We walked home after church; he paid visits to the
cottagers, speaking to them frankly and cheerily, or
scolding them for not coming to tell him they were better, or that they wanted more medicine.
"' Nobody' (says a sketch in the' Spectator,' written
by some friend)' too obscure for Sidney to put in goodhumor with themselves.' Nay, I have seen him brighten
the countenance of his poor parishioner for the day, by a
captivating phrase or two, when he met them, or visited
their cottages. On one occasion, his parish-clerk being
laid up with a broken shin, Sydney called to inquire.'I'm gettin round, your honor, but I sha'n't be fit for
duty on Sunday.'   Sorry for that, Lovelace; indeed,
we shall miss you at the singing.' Then, turning to me,'You can't think what a good hand Lovelace is at a
psalm; you should hear him lead off the Old Hundredth.'
At which the old clerk's eyes fairly glistened, and he
stammered out,' Oh! your honor's only saying that to
cheer me up a bit.'
" Sometimes he had a good report to give of an absent
son or daughter, whom he had seen in London, and obtained a place for.. He employed many old people about
the-garden, and was anxious that every body near him
should be comfortable.'Have you seen my doctor's
shop? Come, I'll show it you.' I expressed my wonder.'Yes, life is a difficult thing; here's every thing
prepared-stomach-warmers, sore-throat collars, etc. I
studied medicine, and went through the hospitals at Edinburgh; I know a good deal. I often regret that medical




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITI.


men will not talk more of their profession. It is a very
interesting subject to every one, at least a little of it';
but I never can get any of them to speak-they look
quite offended.'
"The poor people and the servants are very fond of
him; he does them so much good, and gives them clothes,
books, medicines. They look to him for every thing,
and they like his free speaking to them; he is so merry
and fiank: so my maid tells me.
b' He sometimes read aloud to Mrs. Sydney and me in
the evening, when any thing struck him-such as parts
of Liebig-so clearly and distinctly, observing shortly on
parts as lie read, and listening good-naturedly to our observations. We had each our arm-chair, lamp, and book
in the evening, and not much conversation when alone.
Occasionally lie would sit with an air of profound meditation, and would begin as thus: Forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive them that trespass against us.
That is new; that is peculiar to the Christian religion.'
Or he would repeat the sublime prayers for the queen,
in his grand tones, to mark their fine composition.
"' I dine sometimes at -, and the head of the
bank sits at the foot of the table, looking so attentive,
and bowing so obsequiously; and when I talk, a tort et
d travelrs, as I am apt to do, I see by his expression
that he says to himself, " There is a man I would not
lend money to at fifteen per cent.; he's a rash man; he
would buy bad Exchequer bills; he is not to be trusted."  He little knows me.''That is very true,' said
IMrs. Sydney;'people are not aware that Sydney, with
all his mirth, is one of the most cautious, prudent men
that ever existed; he is always looking forward, and
providing against what may happen.''Yes, I always
expect the worst; but it has a good effect, for it makes
me cautious.'




348     MEMOIR OF THE, REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"' When I went to Edinburgh I had two introduce
tions, to Sir William Forbes and Professor -. IHe
was clerk to the General Assembly of the kirk. He
said to me one day after dinner, "D-n the solemn
league and covenant! it has spoiled the longs and shorts
in Scotland."'
"' I like Dr. Ferguson much. William Clerk is an
original man; how rare it is to meet an original man!'
"'I wish sometimes that I were a Scotchman, to have
people care about me so much.'
"' The Americans, I see, call me a Minor Canon.
They arc abusing me dreadfully to-day: they call me
Xantippc; they might at least have known my sex: and
they say I am eighty-four. I don't know how it is,'
said he, laughing,'but every body who behaves ill to
me is sure to come to mischief before the year's out. I
am not angry with them; I only say, I pity you, you
are sure to suffer.'
"' Were you remarkable as a boy, Mr. Smith?''Yes,
madam, I was a remarkably fat boy. I was at one
time to have been a supercargo to China, to Hong Kong.'
"'Here is a hymn-book that an old man of eightyfour sends me, he says, because of his pleasure in hearing of my giving the living of Edmonton to Tate's son.
I should have been better pleased if it had not cost me
a shilling.'-'Oh!' said Mrs. Sydney,'I would willingly have given a guinea for it.'
"' Here is an anonymous letter from some one who
has a quantity of Mississippi bonds, asking me what he
should do with them? How can I tell? they are not
worth sixpence.'
"T.hat month every post brought letters to him, either of complaint of the Americans, of the income-tax,
or of some evil, which the writers (strangers) entreated
Mr. Smith to write against, and to help them to rem



M3EMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITI.


edy. There were also many feeling letters on the subject of his generosity to the family of Canon Tate. He
could not conceive why the world praised him so much
for that; he always spoke so simply about it, that it
showed me how natural it was to his disposition to be
kind and generous. He was evidently pleased by some
of the newspapers' clever notices of his Letters to America.' W7ell, they lay it on pretty thick to-day; where
is Mrs. Sydney?' He was perpetually coming to her
with something for her sympathy or consultation; and
richly did she deserve that happiness, from her devoted
love and admiration. One day I pointed out an article
in the'Times,' of one who was reckoned the Sydney
Smith of Spain: it amused him.
"'I had once a mind to write a letter to young bishops; bishops I have known speak to their inferior clergy
worse than they do to their footmen.''Why do you
not, Mr. Smith?'' Oh, it would be a life of contention;
I am too,old to bear a life of contention now.'
"' There is a specimen of national honesty! read that
marked with red ink.''Do you mean a joke?''No,
no.'' Do give me a sign.'' Well, I'll sometimes give
you a sign when there is no joke, and you'll be sure to
laugh. Frere used to tread on a man's toes to make
him think he said something wrong.... When I was
in Edinburgh, I said to a lady, speaking of the Dean of
Faculty, that we thought our Deans in England had no
faculties.  She said, "Well, I call that a very good
joke!"'
"' I hope solnebody will tell me when I grow old and
prosy; though I am not likely to get very prosy, I'm
in general so short.''Yes, too short, Mr. Smith.'
" Christmas-day was one rich in recollections. The
weather was fine. I looked out, and saw the maid Maria gravely and busily tying on oranges to the branches




350;IMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH,


of the bay-trees, that were planted in large green tubs
round the lawn. The effect was gay and sunny, and
pleased him mightily. The sermon that day was a glorious one-on Christmas, the contrast of the world before the blessed era, and the sudden effect after-gratitude, immortal life, etc. I hope the sermon is preserved. I can not give a good account of all that was
interesting at that time-of the children's feast, the
schools, the prizes, the charities, etc; but I remember
my admiration of the variety of character which Mr.
Smith displayed that day. From the sublime duties
of the morning, he became, with the large family-party
assembled at dinner, the Sydney Smith of London society; and in the evening he was delightful.  (I crave
for music, Mrs. Smith; music! music!' He sang, with
his sweet, rich voice,'A few gay soarings yet.' He imitated an orchestra preluding, talking French, telling
stories, and laughing so infectiously. Next morning he
was merrier than ever; I found the party all at breakfast,
waiting till I came, before he would allow a Scotch cake
to be touched, which my maid had prepared (bad enough).
He had often asked me to suggest some improvement to
his house, something new-(poor I could think of nothing.new, but cakes made with soda and buttermilk!);
it was this cake we were all to take the same chance of
suffering from, by eating it together.  Let us make a
tontine for the survivor,' said he, laughing.  It was
wonderful how he played upon this cake, on me, and on
Scottish luxuries; he fancied that I feared to be too
comfortable.'Oh, that easy couch! you'll suffer for
that a thousand years hence, depend upon it.'
"' Want of money is a great evil: I declare, every
guinea I have gained I have been the happier. I was
very poor till I was appointed to St. Paul's; that made
me easy, and then my brother Courtenay's death made




MEMOIR OF THE REV, SYDNEY SMITH.


3.51


me rich.' An old friend congratulating him on his appointment to St. Paul's:' Why, I think it makes me
most happy to feel I can now keep a carriage and horses
for her, in her old age (pointing to Mrs. Sydney), which
I could not have done before.'
"' I once rode on a turtle five feet along, supported
by two people: piety trampling luxury underfoot! Do
you take it?'
( The first sermon I heard in Combe Florey church
was certainly meant for my good:' Cast your care upon
God, for he careth for you.' It was so comforting and
encouraging! With what delight did I look and listen,
in that church, to the grand form and powerful countenance, noble and melodious voice! In reading the Lessons and Psalms, he read so as almost to make a commentary on every word, and the meaning came out so rich
and deep. His sermons were not given in St. Paul's
with more'interest and effect; and yet they were adapted to the congregation, from their plain and practical
sense. Remembering him in St. Paul's crowded cathedral, and looking at him in the little village church,
filled with peasantry, I was pleased to see him always
the same.
" I wish I could convey the idea of his appearance as
he sat in the bay-window of the library, writing. I used
sometimes, in walking past, to venture near, to look at
him. There was power, profundity, and meaning in
his countenance; and lie would often take up his papers with an amused expression. I was convinced that
he was a very happy man. I often regretted that I had
no spirits or courage to speak to him, or to join him in
his walks in the garden, but I have much'respect for
the silence of a great man.
" These memorandums seem very simple, but I wished to be able to recall to myself tle looks and tones of




352    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


one whom I ihad been accustomed to admire through
much of my life; and I feel, when writing for vmyself,
that my impressions are conveyed.
"On New-Year's Day, we were walking in the garden; he discovered a crocus, which had burst through
the frozen earth; lie stopped suddenly, gazed at it silently for a few seconds, and, touching it with his staff,
pronounced solemnly,' The resurrection of the world! "
To this pretty, simple journal I have little to add.
Yet how different are the minds of men! An apple fell
to the ground, and Sir Isaac Newton saw in it one of
the great laws of nature. How many men would have
passed that little crocus, and seen it only a flower: while
to my father's mind (not quite unworthy of this great
ancestor) it brought at one glance to his thoughts all
the wonderful effects the breath of life, which had gone
forth, was producing in every portion of the world, for
man's benefit now, and was to produce on man himself
in a world to come.
lie saw but one resurrection upon earth more. In
the spring he went up to London, as usual, for a short
time; and while there, met, at the house of Mr. Van de
Weyer, a literary man of some eminence who afterward
published a sketch of him in the "Revue des Deux
Miondes;" in which he introduced a short and humorous
answer of my father's to him, not however intended for
publication. My mother wishing to know some particulars of this from Mr. Van de Weyer, after my father's
death, he had the kindness, amidst all the hurry of a sudden departure for Germany, to write out the following
account of the transaction for her, which he has given
me permission to insert.




MEMOIR OF THE REV.-SYDNEY SMITH.


353


June, 1852.
"MY DEAR MRS. SYDNEY SMITH,
"I hasten, before our departure for Germany, to inclose, according to your wishes, several extracts from the
letters which my poor friend Eugene Robin wrote to me
on the subject of the article published by him in the'Revue des Deux Mondes.'
"In 1844, Eugene Robin, who had left Brussels,
where he had been educated, and had, at a very early
age, distinguished himself, both as a poet and a critic,
spent a few days with us in London; and, as he was
anxious to know the best and most original writers of
England, we had long conversations together on the
works of Mr. Sydney Smith, which I lent him, and for
which he soon felt and expressed a great admiration. On
the 22d of April, I received from him the following letter:
"'Vous vous souvenez peut-etre de m'avoir parle de
la collection des ecrits de Jeffrey et de Sydney Smith
sur lesquels -il y avait de bons articles a faire pour la
"'Revue ds Dudeseux ondes." Le "Jeffrey" a ete traite par
M. Forcade, dans la derniere livraison; mais le "Sydney
Smith" vient de m'echoir en partage. J'ai demande le
livre a Londres: mais je voudrais bien, comme vous connaissez intimement l'auteur, que vous cussiez la bonte,
si vos loisirs vous le permettent, de me dire si cc sont la
reellement tous ses ouvrages; de me donner (c'est bien
indiscret de vous demander ces choses-la) sur l'homme et
sur l'ecrivain de ces details qu'avec votre esprit d'observation, vous seul pouvez bien connaitre. Ils ajouteraient
singulierement de prix a un travail fait avec conscience.
J'ai le pain de mon article; j'attends de vous le sel.
Pourquoi m'avez-vous encourage a ne voir en vous que
l'homme de lettres bienveillant pour scs jeunes confreres?
Je ne vous importunerais pas de la sorte.'
"I immediately answered that I very much regretted




354    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


not to be able to comply with his request, my very intimacy with Mr. Sydney Smith preventing me, without his
consent, from sending for a Review any biographical anecdotes or critical observations on his life and writings;
but I advised M. Robin to write himself to Mr. S. Smith,
and I offered to deliver his letter, and to explain both his
reasons for doing so, and any reasons for not acceding to
his demand, and to obtain an answer for him. M. Robin
sent me a charming letter (I regret that I have not kept
a copy of it) for Mr. Sydney Smith, who kindly approved
of what I had said and done, and intrusted to my care
an answer to Eugene Robin's letter.*
" More than two months elapsed before Eugene Robin
acknowledged the receipt of this letter to me in the following words:
"'PARIS, le 3 Sept., 1844.
"'Vous avez bien voulu m'envoyer la lettre amicale
et'toujours spirituelle de votre ami le Reverend Sydney
Smith. Elle m'a grandement encourage a faire Particle
dont je vous avais parle; maintenant, ce travail est fini
depuis plus de quinze jours; il n'y manque plus que
quelques petits details biographiques, qui, transmis par
vous, selon le desir exprime par IM. Sydney Smith, releveraient singulierement mon recit et ma critique. Si vous
vouliez faire un effort en faveur de l'aimable Chanoine de
Saint-Paul, que ne vous devrais-je pas?'
"I have not kept a copy of my answer to him, the
substance of which was communicated to 3Mr. Sydney
Smith.  The article appeared soon after, and Mr. Sydney Smith was informed of its publication by M. Robin.
This letter was not sent through me: I heard of it by
the two following notes from Mr. Sydney Smith:
* The letter, having been already published, is not given here.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITII.


355


"' October 21, 1844.
"' You may remember I wrote through you to Eugene Robin, giving, at his request, some account of myself. I have received a letter from him, stating that the
Review is published, and that he has quoted a part of my
letter. I confess this rather alarms me. Will it be putting you to an inconvenience if I beg the loan of the Review for two or three hours? I will deviate from my
usual custom, and return it punctually.'
"' October 24.
"' I have received the Review by post, so I will not
trouble you for yours.
"'Eugene has said more about me than I deserve.
He is of himself a little long; but I am very much pleased
and flattered by the approbation of so clever a man.
"( I-e had better not have quoted my letter; but there
is no great harm. Yours,         SYDNEY SMITH.'
" We leave to-morrow. Believe me, my dear Mrs.
Sydney Smith, yours very faithfully,
C; SYLVAIN VAN DE WVEYER."
Here, though slightly anticipating events, I shall insert
two most touching letters from his fiiend Lord Jeffreythe one on the occasion of his long, last illness, and the
other on receiving the fragment on the Irish Church, after
my father's death. And I give them  with the more
pleasure, as they not only furnish fresh proof of the tenderness and kindness of Lord Jeffrey's nature, but afford
ample testimony to the devotion and admiration he bore
my father, and which my father's deep love for him so
fully deserved. To my regret, this has been almost
passed over, or barely alluded to, in the Life lately published of Lord Jeffrey.




356   IMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"EDIBLURGrI, Feb. 10th, 1845.
" MY DEAR SABA,
"I do not know when I have felt more moved and delighted, than when Professor Pillans came into my room
yesterday with a short letter from our beloved Sydney
(but in his wife's handwriting), cheerfully written; and
saying, among other things, and in substance, that he' looked forward to his recovery, and at all events was
making very valuable progress:' I think those were the
words. I need not tell you how sad we have all been
about him, nor what a gloom the accounts we have lately
received have thrown over the circle of his ancient friends.
While that lasted, I for one at least had not courage to
distress you by any inquiry; but this letter has excited
a less painful anxiety, and I hope you will forgive me
for the trouble it leads me to give you. You can not overestimate the interest. I take in the oldest and truest of
my remaining friends; and I believe I may say the same
of Murray. Do then, my dear child, let us know whether
we may not hope again.
"And believe me always affectionately yours,
F. JEFFREY."
HAILEYBURY COLLEGE, HERTFORD, April 21, 1845.
"MY VERY DEAR SABA,
"I have felt several times in the last six weeks that
I ought to have written to some of you; but in truth, my
dear child, I had not the courage; and to-day it is not
so much because I have the courage, as because I can
not help it.
"That startling and matchless Fragment was laid
upon my table this morning; and before I had read out
the first sentence, the real presence of my beloved and
incomparable friend was so brought before me, in all Ilis




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


357


brilliancy, benevolence, and flashing decision, that I
seemed again to hear his voice and read in his eye, and
burst into an agony of crying. I went through the whole
in the same state of feeling: my fancy kindled, and my
intellect illumined, but my heart struck through with the
sense of our loss, so suddenly and so deeply impressed
by this seeming restoration.
"I do not think he ever wrote any thing so good, and
I feel mournfully that there is no one man alive who
could have so written. The effect, I am persuaded, will
be greater than from any of his other publications: it is
a voice from the grave. And it may truly be said that
those who will not listen to it, would not be persuaded
though one were to rise from the dead.
"It relieves me to say all this, and you must forgive
it. Heaven bless you, my dear child! With kind remembrances from all here,
"Ever very affectionately yours,
"F. JEFFREY."
During the summer of this year, he received many
of his old friends; and, among others, his eldest and
now. only brother, Robert, Mr. Hallam, and Mr. Everett, the American minister. Of this visit I find this
touching notice in a letter of Mr. Everett's to my mother, on receiving the volume of posthumous sermons she
published:
" One of them I heard him preach in his little village
church at Combe Florey. The reading of it brings back
to me, in the freshest recollection, that delightful visit
-one of the brightest spots in my English residencethough I am painfully affected by considering that the
two great men whose society I then enjoyed are gone;
men who, in their peculiar paths of eminence, have not
left their equals behind them."  On another occasion




358     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
Mr. Everett says: "The first remark that I made to
myself, after listening to Mr. Sydney Smith's conversation, was, that if he had not been known as the wittiest
man of his day, he would have been accounted one of
the wisest."
My father opened his house for a month to that poor,
interesting family for whom he had interceded with so
much success with Sir Robert Peel, and who were pining for a little fresh air. Among these was a clever,
imaginative little boy, by whom he was much interested.
Every evening he examined into his conduct during the
day; and, if blameless, sent him to bed with a large
red wafer stuck in the middle of his forehead as a reward. The Order of the Garter could not have made
the child more proud. Once only, during his visit, did
he forfeit the red wafer, and went sobbing and brokenhearted to bed; having been convicted, first, of cutting
off the whiskers of Muff, Annie Kay's favorite cat; and
last, though not least, meddling with the poetical salad
when dressed. Such crimes could not, of course, be
pardoned!
My father went, for a short time, in the autumn, to
the sea-side, complaining much of languor. He said,
"I feel so weak, both in body and mind, that I verily
believe, if the knife were put into my hand, I should
not have strength or energy enough to stick it into a
Dissenter."
In October my father was taken seriously ill; and
Dr. Holland went down immediately to Combe Florey,
and advised his coming up to town, where he might be
constantly under his care. He bore the journey well;
and for the first two months, though very weak, went
out in his carriage every day, saw his friends, broke out
into moments of his natural gayety, saying one day,
with his bright smile, to General Fox (when they were




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


359


keeping him on very low diet, and not allowing him any
meat), "Ah, Charles! I wish I were allowed even the
wing of a roasted butterfly;" and was at times so like
his former self, that, though Dr. Holland was uneasy
about him, we could not give up hope.
But other and more urgent symptoms coming on, Dr.
Holland became so anxious, that he begged that Dr.
Chambers might be called in. My father most unwillingly consented-not from any dislike of Dr. Chambers,
but from having the most perfect confidence in Dr. Holland's care and skill.
That evening he, for the first time, told his old maid
and nurse, Annie Kay, that he knew his danger; said
where and how he should wish to be buried; then spoke
of us all, but told her we must cheer him, and keep up
his spirits, if he lingered long.
But he had such a dread of sorrowful faces around
him, and of inflicting pain, that to us he always spoke
calmly and cheerfully, and as if unaware of his danger.
He now never left his bed. Though suffering much,
he was gentle, calm, and patient; and sometimes even
cheerful. He spoke but little. Once he said to me,
taking my hand, "I should like to get well, if it were
only to please Dr. Holland; it would, I know, make
him so happy; this illness has endeared him so much
to me."
Speaking once of the extraordinary interest that had
been evinced by his friends for his recovery (for the
inquiries at his door were incessant)-"It gives me
pleasure, I own," he said, "as it shows I have not misused the powers intrusted to me." But he was most
touched by the following letter from Lady Grey to my
mother, expressing the feelings toward him of one of
the friends he most loved and honored-one who was,
like himself, lying on that bed from which he was never




360    MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


to rise, and who was speaking as it were his farewell
before entering on eternity.
"Lord Grey is intensely anxious about him. There
is nobody of whom he so constantly thinks; nobody
whom, in the course of his own long illness, he so ardentlywished to see. Need I add, dear Mirs. Sydney,
that, excepting only our children, there is nobody for
whom we both feel so sincere an affection. God knows
how truly I feel for your anxiety. Who is so sadly
entitled to do so as I am? But I will hope the best,
and that we may both be blessed by seeing the person
most dear to us restored to health."
One evening, when the room was half-darkened, and
he had been resting long in silence, and I thought him
asleep, he suddenly burst forth, in a voice so strong
and full that it startled us"We talk of human life as a journey, but how variously is that journey performed! There are some who
come forth girt, and shod, and mantled, to walk on
velvet lawns and smooth terraces, where every gale is
arrested, and every beam is tempered. There are others
who walk on the Alpine paths of life, against driving
misery, and through stormy sorrows, over sharp afflictions; walk with bare feet, and naked breast, jaded,
mangled, and chilled."
And then he sank into perfect silence again.- In quoting this beautiful passage from his sermon on Riches,
his mind seems to have turned to the long and hard
struggles of his own early life.
The present painful struggle did not last many days
longer. He often lay silent and lost in thought, then
spoke a few words of kindness to those around. He
seemed to meet death with that calmness which the




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


361


memory of a well-spent life, and trust in the mercy of
God, can alone give.
Almost the last person he saw was his favorite and
now only-surviving brother, Bobus; and nothing could
be more affecting than to see these two brothers thus
parting on the brink of the grave; for my dear uncle
only left my father's deathbed to lie down on his own
-literally fulfilling the petition my father so touchingly
made to him in one of his. early letters, on hearing of
his illness, "to take care of himself, and wait for him'"
-and before the end of a fortnight had followed him to
the grave.
"HESLINGTON, 1813.; DEAR BOBUS,
"Pray take care of yourself. We shall both be a
brown infragrant powder in thirty or forty years. Let
us contrive to last out for the same, or nearly the same
time. Weary will the latter half of my pilgrimage be,
if you leave me in the lurch. Ever your affectionate
brother,                        SYDNEY SMITH."
Of the genius, learning; and virtue that were lost to
the world in that grave, I dare not attempt to speak; it
belongs to other and abler pens than mine to tell; but
to me my uncle's death was as the death of a second
father-the extinction of all I have ever known or conceived that was brightest and best in the world.
A very eminent man, who had the rare privilege of
associating intimately with my uncle, writes of him to
Sir Henry Holland: "I never knew a mind with so
gigantic a grasp. Our talk when alone was always
most serious."
These beautiful and characteristic lines were found in
my uncle's desk, supposed to have been composed by
him shortly before his death:
VOL. I.-Q




362      MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"'I' H  jacet!'-O humanarum meta ultima rerum!
Ultra quam labor et luctus curteque quiescunt,
Ultra quam penduntur opes et gloria flocci;
Et redit ad nihilum vana hsec et turbida vita:
Ut te respicerent homines! Quae bella per orbem,
Qui motus animorum et quanta pericula nostra
Acciperent facilem sine c.ede et sanguine finem!
Tu mihi versare ante oculos, non tristis imago,
Sed monitrix, ut me ipse regain, domus hec mihi cum sit
Vestibulum tumuli, et senii penultima sedes."
"'Hie jacet!'-Oh last goal of human things, beyond
which labor and mourning and cares are at rest-beyond
which riches and glory are weighed as nothing, and this
vain and turbid life returns to nought!     Oh that men
would thus regard thee!      What wars throughout the
world, what passions of the soul, how      many dangers
besetting us, might so obtain an easy termination without slaughter or blood!   Ml/ayest thou be present before
my eyes, not a mournful image, but an admonisher,
that I should regulate myself; since this house is to me
the vestibule of the tomb, and the next to closing seat
of my old age!"
My father died at peace with himself and with all the
world; anxious, to the last, to promote the comfort and
happiness of others. He sent messages of kindness and
forgiveness to the few he thought had injured him.
Almost his last act was bestowing a small living of
-~120 per annum     on a poor, worthy, and friendless
clergyman, who had lived a long life of struggle with
poverty on ~40 per annum.*        Full of happiness and
gratitude, he entreated he might be allowed to see my
Tather; but the latter so dreaded any agitation that he
* In dictating a few words in his favor (for he was too weak to
write) to the Bishop of Llandaff, he says: "In addition to his other
merits, I am sure he will have one in your eyes, for he is an out-andout Tory." So little did party feelings influence my father in bestowing preferment!




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


363


most unwillingly consented, saying, " Then he must not
thank me; I am too weak to bear it."  He enteredmy father gave him a few words of advice-the clergyman silently pressed his hand, and blessed his deathbed.  Surely such blessings are not given in vain!
MIy father expired on the 22d of February, 1845his death caused by hydrothorax, or water on the chest,
consequent upon disease of the heart, which had probably existed for a considerable time, but rapidly increased during the few months preceding his: death.
His son closed his eyes. He was buried, by his own
desire, as privately as possible, in the cemetery of
Kensal Green; where his eldest son, Douglas, and now
my mother, repose by his side.
And if true greatness consists, as my dear and valued
old friend Mir. Rogers once quoted here from an ancient
Greek writer, "in doing what deserves to be written,
and writing what deserves to be read, and in making
mankind happier and better for your life," my father
was a truly great and good man.
Mly mother's anxiety to have a Memoir written of
my father had induced her to apply very soon after his
death to M1r. Moore, for his able assistance; but upon
further consideration it was thought the event was then
too recent; and before sufficient materials could be
collected, Mr. Mloore's health rendered the task impossible.  The following letter refers to my mother's
request to Lord Jeffrey to contribute his recollections
of my father:
"June 14, 1845.
"' MY DEAR MRS. SMITH,
"I do not systematically destroy my letters, but I
take no care of them, and very few, I fear, have been




364     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
preserved. I shall make a search, however, and send
you all I can. I was very glad to hear some time ago,
that Moore had agreed to assist in preparing the memorial, about which you are naturally so much interested.
He will do it, I am sure, in a right spirit, and with the
feeling which we are all anxious to see brought to its
execution. Then he writes gracefully, is so great a
favorite with the public, that the addition of his name
can not fail to be a great recommendation. If it occurs
to me, on reflection, that there is any thing I can contribute in the way you suggest, I shall be most happy
to have my name once more associated with his on such
an occasion. You know it must always be a pleasure
to me to comply with any request of yours; and the
form in which you wish this to be done, is certainly
that which I should prefer to, any other. Yet the
models to which you refer, might well deter me from
attempting any thing that might lead to comparison.*
"I am glad to think of you at Munden,t rather than
in Green Street, in this charming weather; and beg to be
most kindly remembered there to my beloved Emily and
all her belongings.
"I have not had much to boast of in the way of health
since my return, but have still been well enough hitherto to get through with my work. We are fixed here
now, I think, pretty much till winter, and expect to be
joined by Charley and her infant, in a fortnight.
"With kindest regards,
"Ever very affectionately yours,'; F. JEFFREY.
" CRAIGCROOK."
* Sydney's Letters to the Editors of Sir J. Mackintosh and Mr.
Horner's Memoirs.
t Mr. Hibbert's house in Hertfordshire.




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


865


" DERBY.
"MY DEAR MRS. SYDNEY,
"Your kind note of the 12th came to me at the Euston
Hotel this morning, when I was in the act of sallying
forth to join the train which brought me here two hours
ago.  So you see I could not possibly thank you any
earlier, for your kind inquiries; nor gratify myself by
the interesting pilgrimage to Green Street, which I should
otherwise have undertaken with such a deep devotion of
feeling. I hope yet to live, however, to commune with
my heart at that shrine.'  I am glad that Eddis has
been so successful. For calm and true expression, and
the rendering of what is moral, rather than passionate,
in our natures, I think he is the first of our living artists. I have indeed been very ill and recover but slowly, though I have little actual suffering, and hope to be
a little less feeble and shabby yet before I die. Notwithstanding, I have no anxiety, nor low spirits, though
the animal vitality is at times low enough, God knows.
My affections and the enjoyment of beautiful nature, I
thank Heaven, are as fresh and lively as in the first poetical days of my youth, and with these there is nothing very miserable in the infirmity of age. We are
taking two of our grandchildren down with us, and I
hope to have the whole household reunited at Craigcrook
on the first days of July. They are all (except the poor
patriarch who tells you so) in the full flush of health
and gayety, and would make a brightness in a darker
home than mine.
"Give my true and tender love to my dear Emily.
I often think of her in her early home at Foston, and in
that still earlier Yorkshire home, where she tempted me
to expose myself on the jackass.t
* A portrait of my father, which Mr. Eddis had just painted for my
mother.                        t See Narrative, p.- 153.




866    MMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


"With kind remembrances to Hibbert and all his
descendants, God bless you all, and always.
Very affectionately yours,
"F. JEFFREY."
Hints on Fezale Education.
Though the subject of education is now much more
generally studied and understood than it was formerly,
yet the following slight hints, written at the request of
a very young mother, when my father was a very young
man, may not be entirely without value and interest to
some young mother now; and at least show how early
he felt the value and importance of education to women.
I received them too late to insert them in their proper
place.
"I am afraid, my dear madam, you will find in these
few hints little which you have not already anticipated,
and that their only merit will be, that intention of being
useful to your children by which they are dictated.
Your daughters will have a great deal to do, and you will
have.a great deal to superintend; and exertion on their
part, and inspection on yours, will lose very-much of
their effects without a systematic distribution of.time.
I can not compliment you with having been a great economist of life. In your own instance indeed it is not of
much importance; but the education of your daughters
ought to (and I am sure will) impose upon you a restraint of natural propensities. If you wish to be useful to them, you must be active, persevering, and systematic; you must lay out the day in regular plots and
parterres;. and toil and relax at intervals, fixed as much
as your other affairs will permit. The consideration of




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY -SMITH.


367


religion may perhaps be brought too frequently before
the minds of young people. Pleasure and consolation
through life may be derived from a judicious religious
education;. a mistaken zeal may embitter the future days
of a child with superstition, melancholy, and terror.
Short prayers at rising and going to bed; a regular attendance at church; the precepts of a mother as a friend,
sparingly and opportunely applied, appear to me to be
the best kind of foundation for the superstructure of religion. It will be wise perhaps to teach them very early,
that Sunday is a day on which their ordinary studies
should be laid aside, and others of a more serious nature
attended to. What the religious books are which are to
be put into the hands of children, you know best; but
there are some which, when their understandings become
more enlarged, your daughters should certainly read,
such as...
"God has made us with strong passions and little
wisdom.: To inspire the notion that infallible vengeance
will be the consequence of every little deviation from
our duty is to encourage melancholy and despair. Women have often ill health and irritable nerves; they want
moreover that strong coercion over the fancy which judgment exercises in the minds of men; hence they are apt
to cloud their minds with secret fears and superstitious
presentiments. Check, my dear madam, as you value
their future comfort, every appearance of this in your
daughters; dispel that prophetic gloom which dives into
futurity, to extract sorrow from days and years to come,
and which considers its own unhappy visions as the decrees of Providence. We know nothing of to-morrow;
our business is to be good and happy to-day.
* Omitted, because, since this period, works fitted for the young
have beeome so numerous and are so improved, that the list is of little
use.




368    IMEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
"One of the great practical goods which Christianity
is every day producing to society is that extreme attention to the necessities of the poor, for which this country is so remarkable. I hope you will give your daughters a.taste for active interference of this kind; nothing
makes a woman so amiable and respectable.
"I would keep from my daughters immoral books,
skeptical books, and novels; from which last I except
Sir C. Grandison. I confess I have a very great dread
of novels; the general moral may be good, but they
dwell on, subjects and scenes which it appears to me it
is the great object of female education to exclude. A
woman's heart does not want softening; it is a strange
composition of tears, sighs, sorrows, ecstasies, fears,
smiles, etc., etc.-a man is all flesh and blood.
"I hope at the proper time you will take your children into the world.- It will please them, relieve them
from that painful shyness and embarrassment inseparable from a retired life, and give them the fair chance
they ought to have of settling to advantage.
"The accomplishments are of use, as they embellish
and occupy the mind; but after all, they are subordinate points of education, and too much time may very
easily be given to them. It is very agreeable to look
at good drawings; it is very delightful to hear good
music; but good sense, sound judgment, and cultivated
understanding, are superior to every thing else-they,
make the good wife, the enlightened mother, the interesting companion. Do not suppose I am decrying accomplishments. I am only giving them their just rank,
and guarding against that exclusive care and absorbent
eagerness with which it is at present the fashion to cultivate them.
"You mean to give your girls a taste for reading.
Nothing else can so well enable them to pass their lives




MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


369


with dignity, with innocence, and with interest. Let us
go into detail, and see if we can chalk out a convenient
plan for them. They must learn French; do you know
enough of this language to instruct them, or must they
have a master? If the latter, the grammar, pronunciation, etc., will be his affair. In the choice of books it
will be very much in your power to direct them; the
first will be easy, and suitable to children in point of
language; such books abound-you can not mistake
them; then the whole field of French literature is open
for you to select from. For example, when you think
them old enough, and sufficiently acquainted with the
language, let them read Bourdaloue and Massillon's Sermons, Bossuet's Oraisons Funebres, Sermons of Father
Elisde, as specimens of the sacred eloquence of the
French; let them read some of the best plays of Pierre
Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Voltaire's tragedies, some of
Boileau, particularly the Lutrin, the Henriade of Voltaire.  Supposing they wish to read French history, always take care to make geography and chronology go
hand in hand with history, without which it is nothing
but a confused jumble of places and events. When they
have read the history of Greece and Rome, they should
not fail to read Plutarch's Lives; one of the most delightful books antiquity has left us. They will of course
pay an early attention to the history of their own country, which they will find curiously detailed in Henry,
philosophically in Hume, dryly and accurately in Rapin.
With the poets and dramatic writers of our own country
you are as well acquainted as myself. I hope they will
learn Italian. In arithmetic it does not appear to be of
consequence that they should go far, not further, perhaps, than compound division; but I would certainly
endeavor, by much practice, to make them very dextrous in the common operations of subtracting, multiply



370     MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
ing, and adding. It is of great importance to give them
correct notions in the common elements of geography
and astronomy, and to make them quite at their ease in
the use of maps: this will be done in very little time.
In the order of study, the acquirement of what is preparatory to general literature will first require your attention, as well as those which are of indispensable necessity; I mean writing, ciphering, French, geography,
spelling, etc. When these first difficulties are got over,
put them boldly on the Greek and Roman history in
the mornings, and poetry or belles lettres-English or
French-in the afternoons. Remark to them, encourage them to make their remarks to you; applaud, blame,
encourage, and use every little pious artifice in your
power to give them that sure, best, and happiest of all
worldly attainments-a taste for literary improvement.
" I have recommended a division of studies into those
of the morning and evening, because I think it can be
very easily done without producing confusion, and it is
tedious to dwell upon one subject for a whole day. If
you can get them to read in a connected method, you
will have gained a point of great importance. For example, Spenser precedes Dryden, Pope, etc.; and by
following this order of precedence, you see the improvement of language, and remark how each poet is indebted
to those who went before him. Voyages and travels,
and the history of modern Europe, would exhaust the
longest life. Botany they will be delighted with.
" I have given a list of some few books in the principal departments of knowledge, in case they should strike
into any one of them. The truth is, it is not important
what part of knowledge they love best. A woman who
loves history, is not more respectable than a woman who
loves natural philosophy; either will afford innocent, dig.
nified, improving occupation. If they show no predilec



MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.


371


tion, then give them one: if they do, follow it. We
move most quickly to that point where we wish to go.
"Let your children see that you are sorry to restrain
them, happy to indulge them. Confess your ignorance
when they put questions to you which you can not answer, and refer them elsewhere; and relax from your instruction and authority in proportion as your children
want them less. I write positively, my dear madam, to
avoid the long and circuitous language of diffidence, not
because I attach any value to my opinions.
"I have contented myself with general hints, because
in writing on these subjects it is no very difficult thing
to slip into a folio volume. I have omitted the mention
of many things which I know you will do well, and have
purposely introduced that of others where I have some
apprehensions of you. If it were not to make you an
offer unworthy of acceptance, I should say that my serious and most zealous advice is always at your command.
"Adieu, my dear madam; take courage, exert yourself. If there be one sight on earth which commands
interest, respect, and assistance from men, it is that of a
good mother, who, under -the providence of God, exerts
her whole strength for the advantage and improvement
of her children.
"Your most sincere well-wisher,
" SYDNEY SMITH."








epitap..
TO
SYDNEY SMITH,
ONE OF THE BEST OF MEN.
HIS TALENTS, THOUGH ADMITTED BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES TO BE GREAT,
WERE SURPASSED BY
HIS UNOSTENTATIOUS BENEVOLENCE, HIS FEARLESS LOVE OF TRUTH,
AND HIS ENDEAVOR TO PROMOTE THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND)
BY RELIGIOUS TOLERATION
AND
BY RATIONAL FREEDOM.
HE WAS BORN THE 3D OF JUNE, 1771; HE BECAME CANON RESI)DENTIARY
OP ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, 1831; HE DIED FEBRUARY THE 22D, 1845.
[On the opposite side of the Tomb.]
DOUGLAS SMITH,
THE ELDEST SON OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH,
AND OF
CATHARINE AMELIA, HIS WIFE.
HE WAS BORN FEBRUARY 27, 1805; HE DIED APRIL 15, 1829.
HIS LIFE WAS BLAMELESS.
HIS DEATH WAS THE FIRST SORROW
HE EVER OCCASIONED HIS PARENTS,
BUT IT WAS DEEP AND LASTING.




LIST OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH'S ARTICLES IN THE
EDINBURGH REVIEW.


Vol.  Art.  Page.
1  2  18
1  3  24
1  9  83
1  12  94
1  16  113
1  18  122
1  20  128
1  6  314
1  10  382
2  2  30
2  4  53
2  6  86
2  14  136
2  17  172
2  22  202
2  2  287
2  4  330
2  10  398
3  12  146
3  7  334
3  9  355
9  12  177
10  4  299
10-  6  329
11  5  341
12  5  82


Vol.  Art.  Page.
12  9  151
13  2  25
13  5  77
13  4  333
14  3  40
14  11  145
14  5  353
14  13  490
15  3  40
15  3  299
16  7  158
16  3  326
16  7  399
17  4  330
17  8  393
18  3  325
21  4  93
22  4  67
23  8  189
31  2  44
31  6  132
31  2  295
32  2  28
32  3  309
32  6  111


Vol.  Art,  Page.
32  6  389
33  3  68
33  5  91
34  5  109
34  2  320
34  8  422
35  5  92
35  7  123
35  2  286
36  6  110
36  3  353
37  2  325
37  7  432
38  4  85
39  2  43
39  2  299
40  2  31
40  7  427
41  7  143
42  4  367
43  2  299
43  7  395
44  2  47
45  3  74
45  7  423




INDEX.


Absence of mind, page 320, 321.
Abstraction, power of, 109.
Allen, Mr., recommendation of, to Lord
Holland, 30.
Amalgams, moral, 193.
America, reported visit to, 269.
Animals, interest in, 111, 112, 158; medicine administered to, 111; scratcher for,
112.
Apologue on Toleration, 195, 196; letter
of Mr. Everett relating to, 196.
Apothecary's shop, 315, 346.
Arms of the Smith family, 217.
Austin's (Mrs.) account of sermon at St.
Paul's, 273.
Ballot, pamphlet on the, 286.
Banker, dining with a, 347.
Belgium, visit to, 226, 227; interview with
the King of, 226.
Benevolence, fragment on, 124, 125.
Berkeley. Chapel, morning preachership at,
79.
Berry, Miss, Ode by, 83; visit to, 235.
Bible names, 308.
Birth and-ancestry, 13, 14.
Bishop, duties of a, 211; marriage of a, 230.
Bishopric; views with regard to a, 209,210,
211; probability of elevation to, 218.
Bishopthorpe, visit to, 160, 161.
Blind, sermon for the, 57.
Blinds, colored patchwork, 161.
Bobus. See Smith, Robert.
Body, the, a fragment on, 117.
Books, love of, 163, 214.
Bristol, becomes Canon of, 194; sermon
at the Cathedral, 194; popularity at, 206;
riots at, 206.
Bunch, 145, 161, 168, 175.
Business habits, 109, 347.
Calamity, horse so named, 158.
Carlisle, Lady, lines by; 292.
Carlisle, Lord, commencement of friend*ship of, 152; frequent visits of, 153.
Catholic Emancipation, petition for, 181;
speech in favor of, 183.
Cheerfulness, remarks on, 123.
Chess, 192.
Children,- fondness for, 108, 113, 312; interest in the pursuits of, 108, 249.
Chimneys, smoky, 112.
Cholera, spread of the, 214.


Christianity, evidences of, 56; toleratt
spirit of, 57.
Christmas-day at Combe Florey, 349, 350.
Church, state of the, 32.
Classes of society, 336.
Clergyman, poor, living obtained for a, 362.
Club, the, 88, 89.
Cockerell, Mr,, letter from, on performance
of duties as Canon of St. Paul's, 221.
Combe Florey, removal to, 202; rebuilds
parsonage-house, 204; visit of Lord Jeffrey, 204; library at, 214; visit of Lord
John Russell, 214, 215; mode of life at,
293; Christmas-day at, 349; sermon at,
351; last return to, 358.
Composition, rapid, habit of, 106.
Court, presentation at, 199.
Courtenay Smith, death of, 249.
Curacy on Salisbury Plain, 21; the squire,
22.
Dandy, thawing a, 164.
Dante, tortures described by, 237.
Davy, Lady, visit of, 142.
Deer, parsonic, 305.
Delinquents, juvenile, 150.
Denman, Lord, 314.
Diary, portions of, 114-117.
Dining out in the country, 136.
Dogs, dislike of, 180, 334.
Donkey, a favorite, 140.
Douglas Smith, birth of, 67; sent to Westminster School, 164; goes to Oxford, 178;
death, 201; letter to Lady Wenlock relating to his death, 202Dryden's house, 237.
Dudley, Lord, anecdotes of, 321, 322.
Ecclesiastical Commission, contest with
the, 241.
Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill,
petition against, 244.
Economy practiced, 184.
Edgeworth, Miss, visit of, to London, 274;.letter from, 275; conversation of, 346.
Edinburgh, society-at, 23; residence at, 23,
62, 346.
Edinburgh Review, origin of, 31; state of
society at the establishment of, 32; moral courage in contributing to, 32; character of writings in, 37-43; Sydney
Smith ceases to write for, 205; publication of his contributions to, 205,




s76


INDEX.


Edmonton, the living of, 257; address of Humor, instances of want of perception
parishioners, 258; letter to the Bishop  of, 238, 324.
of London relating to, 260.         Hunt, trial of, 170.
Education, 38; importance of religious, 58;
views on, 283, 297, 317; female, hints Immortal, the, 146, 151, 190, 191.
on, 366.                            Immortality, evidence of, 56.
Ellenborough, Lord, anecdote of, 332.  Impertinence, official, 175.
Erasmus, life of, 280, 281.           Innocence vindicated, 218.
Everett, Mr., visit of, 357           Ireland, condition of, 99; sketch of English
Exchange of living, efforts to obtain, 104,  misrule in, 131.
141.                                Irreligion, abhorrence of, 185.
Italian refugee, marriage of an, 159.
Fallacies, 318.
Farmers, annual dinner to, 110.       Jeffrey, Lord, visit of, at Heslington, 137,
Female education, hints on, 366.        140; lines on, 141; visit to, at EdinFilial affection, instance of, 169.     burgh, 173; letters to, on the principles
Freplaces, importance of, 232, 233.     of the Edinburgh Review, 185; visit to
Fishmongers' Hall, invitation to dine at,  Combe Florey, 204; Sydney Smith's re101.                                  gard for, 345; letters from, during last
Flowers, love of, 230.                 illness, 356; letters relating to Memoir,
Foston-le-Clay, obtains the living of, 96,  363.
induction, 97; conversation at the Arch- Johnson, Dr., anecdote of, 109.
bishop's, 97; compelled to reside on liv- Journal of a Lady, 279; of a Scotch friend,
ing. 102; resolves to build, 103; com-  345.
mences building, 143; house completed, Justice, love of, 36, 209.
147; the household, 148, 149, 163; ac- Justice of the Peace, Sydney Smith becount of a visit, by a clergyman, 188;  comes a, 150.
Mr. Loch's opinion of the parsonagehouse, 204; revisited, 249.         Kay, Annie, 148, 163, 314, 359.
Foundling Hospital, appointed to the
preachership of the, 69; anecdote, 90.  L-')?-1?, doctors', 330.
Fox, Miss, 220.                       Lcc.a.res, extracts from, 44-46; delivery
Franklin, admiration of, 312.           of, at the Royal Institution, 80; public
Friendship, remarks on, 122.           interest excited by, 80-82.
Fry, Mrs., a visit with, to Newgate, 151. Legacy, 173.
Lemons, store of, 315.
Game-laws, 39, 150.                   Leyden, Mr., 29.
Garden chair, 322; lines on receiving, 291. Liberal opinions, advocacy of, 34; penalGardens for the poor, 112.              ties attending, 35.
Grattan, Mr., death of, 171; character of, Liberty, views respecting, 34.
171.                                License for a chapel, efforts to obtain, 70;
Grenville, Mr., old age of, 234, 324; letter  correspondence relating to, 70-76
from, 254.                          Life, how usually spent, 282.
Grey, Lord, first visit to, 101; fall of his Londesborough, obtains the living of, 183.
administration, 218; proposed inscrip- London, removal to, 67; society in, 68, 77,
tion for monument to, 247.            86, 229, 231.
Longevity, 280.
Handwriting, badness of, 174.         Lucan, a copy of, sent to Mr. Grenville, 254.
Happiness, recipe for, 261.           Luttrell, Mr., visit of, 329.
Hardness of character, 262.           Lyndhurst, Lord, visit of, 170; promotion
Harvest, failure of, in 1816. 155.      by, 193, 194; renewed kindness of, 201,
Hatherton, Lord, letter to, 194.        202.
Heslington, residence at, 105; mode of life
at, 105; visits of friends, 133.    Macaulay, Mr., letter from, on English misHints, historical, 129.                rule in Ireland, 131; opinion of, 320.
Holland, Lord, friendship of, 78. 92; letter Mackintosh, Sir J., anecdote of, 87; return
from, relating to Plymley's Letters, 100;  of, from India, 138; visit of, at Heslingvisits Foston, 156; offers the living of  ton, 138; at Foston, 176; Sydney Smith's
Ampthill, 160 i letter to, relative to a  regard for, 176, 215; death of, 215; charbishopric, 210; death of, 250; portrait  acter, 216; correspondence with, 216;
of, 251.                              remarks on, 337, 340; imitation of a
Holland House, first visit to, 77; society  speech of, 341.
at, 77. "                           Manners, on the neglect of, as a part of
Holland, Dr., attendance of, in last illness,  education, 317.
358.                                Marcet, Dr. and Mrs., visit of, 166; inciHolland, tour in, 225, 226.             dents related by Mrs. Marcet, 166, 168,
Horner, L., first acquaintance with, 26, 27;  293; letter from, 260.
character of, 27, 154; removal to London, Marion de Lorme, letter of, 338.
88; declining health and death, 154; let- Marriage, 27, 28; office for, 311; definition
ter of Sydney Smith to his brother, 154. 1 of, 320.




INDEX.


3.'7


Maxims and rules of life. 114.
Medicine, study and practice of, 64, 65, 111,
219, 314.
Melancholy, remedy for, 342.
Mind, the, a fragment on, 128.
Missions, opinion of, 331'.
Moore, T., visit of, 254; letters from, 255;
- requested to write Memoir, 363.
Moral philosophy, study of, 65; lectures
on, 80.
Murray's (Lord) sketch of Sydney Smith,
289.
Music, remark on, 342.
Netherhaven, curacy of, 20; life at, 21;
intimacy with the squire, 22.
New Zealand, advice to a Bishop of, 337.
Newton, Sir Isaac, an ancestor, 15.
Nice person, definition of a, 177.
North Pole, Jeffrey and the, 26.
Occupation, incessant, 106; essay on, 119.
Olier, Miss, character of, 14.
Opinions, moderation of, 33.
Paris, visit to, 184.
Parish-clerk at Foston, 103.
Parishioners, advice to, 299.
Parsonage-house at Foston, account of
building the, 144; removal to, 147.
Partington, Mrs., 215.
Paul's, St., becomes Canon of, 215; letter
from Mr. Cockerell relating to Canonry,
221; remarks of the Dean, 225.
Peasantry, significance of words used by
the, 304.
Peel, Sir Robert, correspondence with,
277.
Peter the Cruel, 105, 111.
Philips, Sir G., visit to, 151.
Pictures, purchase of, 93; appreciation of,
239, 240.
Plymley's Letters, appearance of, 98; public interest in, 98; letter from Lord Holland relating to, 100.
Poor, sympathy with the, 311, 346, 347.
Pope, parody on, 331.
Preaching at St. Paul's, impression produced by, 272; at Combe Florey, 275.
Preferment, letters on, 209-211.
Promotion, hopes of, 186; letter on, 187;
becomes Canon of Bristol, 193; and of
St. Paul's, 215.
Pybus, Miss, marriage to. 27.
Quaker, roasting a, 135.
Quakers, heroic conduct of, 156.
Raven, anecdote of a, 281.
Reading, rapid, habit of, 106.
Religious views, 55.
Repudiation, American, 263; Mr. Ticknor's letter on, 264.
Residence Bill, passing of the, 101.
Riding, unskillful, 156, 161.
Robin, M., article by, in the "Revue des
Deux Mondes," 353; correspondence relating to, 353-355.
Rogers, Mr., visits Foston, 156; illness of,
176.


Romilly, Sir S., visit of, at Ieslington, 133;
sermon on the death of, 134.
Royal Institution, lectures at the, on Moral Philosophy, 80.
Russell, Lord John, letter to, 210; reply
of, 210.
Salad, recipe for, 329.
Scotch, regard for the, 24; peculiarities of
the, 24.
Scratcher, the universal, 112.
Screaming gate, the, 309.
Sermons, preface to, 46-55; characteristics
of, 59-62; effect produced by, 79; publishes two volumes of, 104; preached at
York, 179.
Sevign6, Madame de, 331.
Shaking hands, lesson on, 310.
Sheridan, dining with, 325.
Shooting, objections to, 133.
Shopping, 160.
Shyness, 233, 324.
Siddons, Mrs., 92, 332.
Singing, fondness for, 192.
Sister, death of, 153.
Sketches, a few unfinished, 117.
Smith, Robert, return of, from India, 138;
remarkable conversational powers of,
139; Indian fame of, 139; visit of, at
Heslington, 139; illness, 139; visit to his
brother during last illness, 361; death,
361; character, 361; lines written by,
362.
Smith, Robert, sen., singular character of,
13, 14; visit to, 170.
Smith, Sydney: birth and ancestry, 13;
early character, 16; school days at Winchester, 18; goes to Oxford, 19; residence in France, 19; college life, 20;
choice of a profession, 20, 21; becomes
a curate on Salisbury Plain, 21; engaged
as tutor by Mr. Beach, 22, 62; arrival at
Edinburgh, 23; marriage, 27; his fortune, 28; early housekeeping, 28; generosity, 29; birth of a daughter, 30; moral courage, 32; freedom from crude opinions, 33; illness of daughter, 63; studies medicine, 65; quits Edinburgh, 66;
birth of son, 67; removal to London, 67 
cheerfulness, 92, 200; obtains the rectory of Foston,96; removes to Sunning,
98; compelled to reside on living, 102;
leaves London, 104; removes to Heslington, 105; visits London, 138; generosity
of character, 138, 139, 162; commences
building, 143; birth of second son, 146;
removal to Foston, 147; the living of
Ampthill offered, 160; visits Edinburgh,
165, 173; visit to his brother in London,
174; improved circumstances, 183; visits Paris, 184; hopes of promotion, 166;
marriage of youngest daughter, 193; becomes Canon of Bristol, 193; resigns
Foston, and removes to Combe Florey,
202; ceases writing for the Edinburgh
Review, 205; publishes his contributions, 205; marriage of eldest daughter, 217; christens granddaughter, 220;
takes a house in London, 220; revisits
Paris, 221; fragments of conversation,




~3'17~8                 INDEX.
230-241; return to Combe Florey, 248; Toleration, 57; sermon on, in the Temple
unexpected wealth, 249; revisits Fos-  Church, 90; and in the Cathedral -at
ton, 249; mode of life at Combe Florey,  Bristol, 194, 195; Taylor's apologue in
293, 342, 347; habits of study, 326; last  illustration of, 195, 196.
return to London; 352; goes to the sea- Traveling, amusing incidents of,.165.
side, 358; last illness, 358, anxiety of Turtle, stroking a, 240; riding on a, 351.
friends, 359; visit of his brother Robert,
361.                                Utilitarians, 296.
Somersetshire, climate of, 306.
Squire, a country, 144.               Van de Weyer, M., 227; letters to, 271,
Stael, Madame de, visits England, 138;  286, 288: visit of, 287; letter from, rebecomes acquainted with Mr. Robert   lating to M. Robin, 353.
Smith, 139.                         Visitation sermon, 161;
Stewart, Dugald, death of, 239.       Volunteers, sermon to, 69.
Stomach-pump, 316.                    Vulgarity, freedom from, 43.
Stowell, Lord, 100.
Study, plans of, 107.                 Wainwright, Rev. J. M., of New York, letStyle, beauty of, 297.                  ter from, 269.
Suppers, weekly, 86; the country cousin, 87. Wealth, views of, 350.
Swing, Letters to, 212.               Webster, Mr. Daniel, correspondence with,
251.
Talleyrand, anecdote of, 16; acquaintance Wenlock, Lady, letter to, 202.
with, 185; conversation of, 228; opinion Whishaw, Mr., letter to, on the death of
of his wit, 228.                      Horner, 154.
Taunton, speech at county meeting held Winchester School, 17.
at, 207; effect produced by, 208.   Writings, character and subjects of his,
Taylor, Jeremy, apologue by, on Tolera-  37-43.
tion, 195, 196.
Thomson, Mrs., letter to, relating to the York, residence near, 104; streets of, 105;.death of his son, 202.               the assizes at, 170, 179; sermons preachTicknor, Mr., letter of, on repudiation, 264.  ed at the Cathedral, 179.


E'ND OF VOLUME I.