Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith

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Title: Sydney Smith
Author: George W. E. Rusell
Release Date: July 22, 2004 [eBook #12994]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS
SYDNEY SMITH
by
GEORGE W. E. RUSELL
LONDON, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIVE

PREFACE
In writing this Study of Sydney Smith, I have been working in a
harvest-field where a succession of diligent gleaners had preceded me.
As soon as Sydney Smith died, his widow began to accumulate
material for her husband's biography. She did not live to see the work
accomplished, but she enjoined in her will that some record of his life
should be written. The duty was undertaken by his daughter, Saba Lady

Holland, who in 1855 published A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney
Smith. To this memoir was subjoined a volume of extracts from his
letters, compiled by his friend and admirer Mrs. Austin.
For nearly thirty years Lady Holland's Memoir and Mrs, Austin's
Selection of Letters together constituted the sole Biography of Sydney
Smith, and they still remain of prime authority; but they are lamentably
inaccurate in dates.
Lord Houghton's slight but vivid monograph was published in 1873. In
1884 Mr. Stuart Reid produced _A Sketch of the Life and Times of
Sydney Smith_, in which he supplemented the earlier narrative with
some traditions derived from friends then living, and "painted the
figure of Sydney Smith against the background of his times." In 1898
the late Sir Leslie Stephen contributed an article on Sydney Smith to
the _Dictionary of National Biography_; but added little to what was
already known.
On these various writings I have perforce relied, for their respective
authors seemed to have exhausted all available resources. Lord Carlisle
has some of Sydney Smith's letters at Castle Howard, and Lord
Ilchester has some at Holland House; but both assure me that
everything worth publishing has already been published.
I have, however, been more fortunate in my application to my cousin,
Mr. Rollo Russell, and to four of Sydney Smith's descendants--Mr.
Sydney Holland, Mr. Holland-Hibbert of Munden, Miss Caroline
Holland, and Mrs. Cropper of Ellergreen. To all these my thanks are
due for interesting information, and access to valuable records. In
common with all who use the Reading-Room of the British Museum, I
am greatly indebted to the skill and courtesy of Mr. G.F. Barwick.
So much for the biographical part of my work. In the critical part I have
relied less on authority, and more on my own devotion to Sydney
Smith's writings. That devotion dates from my schooldays at Harrow,
and is due to the kindness of my father. He had known "dear old
Sydney" well, and gave me the Collected Works, exhorting me to study
them as models of forcible and pointed English. From that day to this, I
have had no more favourite reading.
G.W.E.R.
November 12th, 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
EDUCATION--SALISBURY PLAIN--EDINBURGH

CHAPTER II
"THE EDINBURGH REVIEW"--LONDON--"MORAL
PHILOSOPHY"

CHAPTER III
"PETER PLYMLEY"

CHAPTER IV
FOSTON--"PERSECUTING BISHOPS"--BENCH AND BAR

CHAPTER V
"CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION "--BRISTOL--COMBE
FLOREY--REFORM--PROMOTION

CHAPTER VI
ST. PAUL'S--THE PARALLELOGRAM--"ARCHDEACON

SINGLETON"--COLLECTED WORKS

CHAPTER VII
CHARACTERISTICS--HUMOUR--POLITICS--CULTURE--THEOR
IES OF LIFE--RELIGION
APPENDICES
INDEX

SYDNEY SMITH

CHAPTER I
EDUCATION--SALISBURY PLAIN--EDINBURGH
A worthy tradesman, who had accumulated a large fortune, married a
lady of gentle birth and manners. In later years one of his daughters
said to a friend of the family, "I dare say you notice a great difference
between papa's behaviour and mamma's. It is easily accounted for. Papa,
immensely to his credit, raised himself to his present position from the
shop; but mamma was extremely well born. She was a Miss Smith--one
of _the old Smiths, of Essex_."
It might appear that Sydney Smith was a growth of the same majestic
but mysterious tree, for he was born at Woodford; but further research
traces his ancestry to Devonshire. "We are all one family," he used to
say, "all the Smiths who dwell on the face of the earth. You may try to
disguise it in any way you like--Smyth, or Smythe, or Smijth[1]--but
you always get back to Smith after all--the most numerous and most
respectable family in England." When a compiler of pedigrees asked
permission to insert Sydney's arms in a County History, he replied, "I
regret, sir, not to be able