Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCLXXVI

Blackwood's Edinburgh
Magazine, No. CCCLXXVI

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,
No.
CCCLXXVI. February, 1847. Vol. LXI., by Various This eBook is for
the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org
Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCLXXVI. February,
1847. Vol. LXI.
Author: Various
Release Date: April 28, 2006 [EBook #18278]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***

Produced by Brendan O'Connor, Jonathan Ingram, Taavi Kalju and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Library of Early Journals.)

BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
No. CCCLXXVI. FEBRUARY, 1847. VOL. LXI.

CONTENTS.
MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN WILLIAM SMITH, OF THE INNER
TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. MODERN ITALIAN HISTORY.
FRENCH PLAYERS AND PLAYHOUSES. THE REIGN OF
GEORGE THE SECOND. MILDRED: A TALE. THE EARLY
TAKEN. A RIDE TO MAGNESIA. DIRECT TAXATION.
* * * * *

MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN WILLIAM SMITH, OF THE INNER
TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
BY SAMUEL WARREN, OF THE INNER TEMPLE,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into
sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, And slits
the thin-spun life.
MILTON.--Lycidas.
The name of John William Smith, barrister-at-law, of the Inner Temple,
now appears, possibly for the first time, before nineteen-twentieths of
the readers of Blackwood's Magazine. It is that, however, of a
remarkable and eminent man, just cut off in his prime, before he had
completed his thirty-seventh year: having as yet lain little more than a
twelvemonth in his grave, to which he had been borne by a few of his
sorrowful and admiring friends, on the 24th of December, 1845.
Another eminent member of the English bar, Sir William Follett,

belonging to the same Inn of Court, and also cut off in the prime of life,
while glittering in the zenith of his celebrity and success, had been
buried only five months previously. I[1] endeavoured to give the
readers of this Magazine, in January 1846, some account of the
character of that distinguished person; and Mr. Smith, learning that I
was engaged upon the task, with morbid anxiety repeatedly begged me
to show him what I was writing, up to within a few weeks of his own
decease: a request with which, for reasons which will become obvious
to the reader of this sketch, I declined to comply. With Sir William
Follett's name all the world is acquainted: yet I venture to think that the
name of John William Smith has greater claims upon the attention of
readers of biography. His character and career will, it is believed, be
found permanently and intrinsically interesting,--at once affecting,
inspiriting, and admonitory. He fell a martyr to intense study, just as
that competent and severe body of judges, the English bench and bar,
had recognised his eminent talents and acquirements, and the shining
and substantial rewards of unremitting exertion were beginning to be
showered upon him. He came to the bar almost totally unknown, and
was destitute of any advantages of person, voice, or manner. His soul,
however, was noble, his feelings were refined and exalted; and, when
he departed from the scene of intense excitement and rivalry into which
his lot had been cast, those who had enjoyed the best opportunities for
forming a true judgment of him, knew not whether more to admire his
moral excellence or his intellectual eminence, which shone the more
brightly for the sensitive modesty which enshrouded them. Many have
expressed surprise and regret that so interesting a character should fade
from the public eye, without any attempt having been made by his
friends to give a full account of his character and career. I was one of
his very earliest friends; witnessed the whole of his professional career,
shared his hopes and fears, and, with two or three others, attended upon
him affectionately to the very last. During the year which has since
elapsed, I have reflected much upon his character, and had many
opportunities for ascertaining the respect with which his memory is
cherished in the highest quarters. I shall endeavour, therefore, though
with great misgivings as to my competency for the task, to present to
the reader an impartial account of my gifted friend: no one else, with
one exception,[2] having, up to this time, undertaken the task.

[1] This narrative was originally composed in the third person; but so
much of it consists of my own personal intercourse with Mr. Smith,
that the use of that circuitous form of expression became as irksome to
the