Sydney Smith

f emancipation, though checked by the death of Pitt, had never completely collapsed, and now it was quickened by the exertions of the "Catholic Association" in Ireland, and stimulated by th

of the Roman Catholics. A counter-petition was submitted by Sydney Smith, begging for an inquiry into all laws affecting the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, and "expressing a hope" that only those which were absolutely necessary to the safety of Church and State might be suffered to remain. It is difficult to conceive a milder proposition, but it was defeated by twenty-two votes to ten-Archdeacon Wrangham[83] and the Rev. William Vernon,[84] son of the Archbishop of York, voting in the minority. Sydney Smith's speech in su

carried on for a Catholic king, in the year 1715, nor in 1745. The government armed the Catholics in the American war. The last rebellion no one pretends to have been a Catholic rebellion; the leaders were, with one exception, all Protestants. The king of Prussia, the emperor of Russia, do not complain of their Catholic subjects. The Swiss cantons, Catholic and Protestant, live together in harmony and peace. Childish prophecies of danger are always made, and always falsified. The Church of England (if you will believe some of its members) is the most fainting, sickly, hysterical institution that ever existed i

*

id, that the disabling laws against the Catholics were a disgrace to the statute-book, and that every principle of justice, prudence, and humanity, called for their immediate repeal; but he who wishes to do any thing useful in this world, must consult the opinions of others as well as his own. I knew very well if I had proposed such a petition to my excellent friend, the Archdeacon and Mr. William Vernon, it would not have suited th

t, to adopt your own. The wisest thing I have heard here to-day, is the proposition of Mr. Chaloner, that we should burn both petitions, and ride home. Here we are, a set of obscure country clergymen, at the 'Three Tuns,' at Thirsk, like flies on the chariot-wheel; perched upon a question of which we can neither see the diameter, nor control the motion, nor influe

ad now acquired, in addition to Foston, the Rectory of Londesborough, which he held from 1823 to 1829, as "warming-pan" for his young friend and neighbour, William Howard.

ported the proceedings,

ndesborough, as they had reason to anticipate from the proceedings of a meeting in another Archdeaconry about two years ago, were yet perfectly astonished to hear him assert that the Roman Catholic religion is now changed from what it was formerly, and that the oath of a Papist may, in all cases, be relied upon with the same confidence as that of a Protestant.... It is certainly due to the

led to persuade his brother-clergy, is s

law-when this bill passes, the Orange flag will fall-when this bill passes, the Green flag of the rebel will fall-when this bill passes, no other flag will fly in the land of Erin than tha

tone,"[88] voted against him; and he was left in a minority of one. But he had the satisfaction of being able to write to a friend-"A

Crown in 1820, was running out, and both parties were making vigorous preparations

stion, with my name to it. There is such an uproar here that I think it is gallant, and becoming a friend of Lord Grey's, to turn out and take

ns, perhaps, but with a

d conceits. A Letter t

with the thrice-repeate

be believed

t such or such a person was put to death, or that he lost his property, because a Catholic was among the jurymen? Is the question ever put? Does it ever enter into the mind of the attorney or the counsellor to enquire of

Christian world were Catholics; did they live in a constant state of perjury? I am sure these objections against the Catholics are often made by very serious and honest men, but I much doubt if Voltaire has advan

*

o violence to their conscience. In all the fury of party, I never heard the name of a single Catholic mentioned, who was suspected of having gained, or aimed at, any political advantage, by violating his oath. I have never heard so bitter a slander supported by the slightest proof. Every man in the circle of his acquaintance has met with Catholics, and lived with them probably as companions. If this immoral lubricity were their characteristic, it would surely be perceived in common life. Every man's experience would corroborate the imputation; but I can honestly say that some of the best and most excellent men I have ever met with have been Catholics; perfectl

*

se persecutions, and in a totally different country. Doctor this, or Doctor that, of the Catholic Church has written a very violent and absurd pamphlet; therefore I will confound persons, and vote against the whole Irish Catholic Church, which has neither sanctioned nor expressed any such opinions. I will continue the incapacities of men of this age, because some men, in distant ages, deserved ill of other men in distant ages. They shall expiate the crimes committed, before they were born, in a land they never saw; by individuals they never heard of. I will charge them with every act of folly which they have never sanctioned and cannot control. I will sacrifice space, time, and identity, to my zeal for the Protestant Church. Now, in the midst of all this violence, consider, for a moment, how you are imposed on by words, and what a serious violation of the rights of your fellow-creatures you are committing. Mr.

*

even their children! Should the first act of liberated Greece be to recommence the Trojan war? Are the French never to forget the Sicilian Vesp

*

y may not help to pull it down. King for ever; therefore emancipate the Catholics, that they may become his loyal subjects. Great Britain for ever; therefore emancipate the Catholics, that they may not put an end to its perpetuity. Our Government is essentially Protestant; therefore, by emancipating the Catholics, give up a few circumstances which have nothing to do with the essence. The Catholics are disguised enemies; therefore, by emancipation, turn them into open friends. They have a double allegiance; therefore, by emancipation, make their allegiance to their King so grateful, that they will never confound it with the spiritual allegiance to their Pope. It is very difficult for electors,

*

t indulgent and liberal of human beings; he excludes no creed, imposes no articles; but counts Catholic cash, pockets Protestant paper, and is candidly and impartially oppressive to every description of the Christian world. Can anything be more base than when you want the

become a great and formidable people. The same dread of foreign influence makes it now necessary that they should be restored to political rights. Must the friends of rational liberty join in a clamour against the Catholics now, because, in a very different state of the world, they excited that clamour a hundred years ago? I rem

*

stant can see, with dry eyes, Lord Stourton excluded from parliament, though he would abominate the most distant idea of personal cruelty to Mr. Petre. This is only to say that he lives in the nineteenth, instead of the sixteenth century, and that he is as intolerant in religious matters as the state of manners existing in his age will permit. Is it not the same spirit which wounds the pride of a fellow-creature on account of his faith, or which casts his body into the flames? Are they any thing else but degrees and modifications of the same principle? The minds of these two men no more differ because they differ in their degrees of punishment, than their bodies differ because one wore a doublet in the time of Mary, and the other wears a coat in the reign

holics have in times past persecuted Protestants, therefore they must now be deprived of their civil

notions of history only from the conquering and triumphant party? If you think the Catholics have not their Book of Martyrs as well as the Protestants, take the following enumeration of

y VII

abet

s I.

, and Comm

les

-

al,

the author of a tract against popish connection, of Singleton, the printer, and Page, the disperser of the book. Camden saw it done. Warburton properly says it exceeds in cruelty any thing done by Charles I. On the 4th of June, Mr. Elias Thacker and Mr. John Capper, two ministers of the Brownist persuasion, were hanged at St. Edmund's-bury, for dispersing books against the Comm

w is first passed, making it high treason for a priest to exercise his function in England, and so, when he is caught and burnt, this is not relig

d, during three centuries, at home and abroad, by Anglicans on Puritans, by Protestants on Romanists, by orthodox Protestants on heterodox Protestants;

is not worth while to contend who shed the most blood, or whether death by fire is worse than hanging or starving in prison. As far as England itself is concerned, the balance may be better preserved. Cruelties exercised upon the Irish go for nothing in English reasoning; but if it were not uncandid and vexatious to consider Irish persecutions[90] as part of the case, I firmly bel

faith, before men introduced the practice of thinking for themselves in these matters. The Protestants have less excuse, who claimed the right of innovation, and then turned round upon o

merely because they worship God in the way they think best: the man who asks for your vote upon such a plea, is, probably, a very weak man, who believes in his own bad reasoning, or a very artful man, who is laughing at you for your credulity: at all events, he is a man who knowingly or unknowingly exposes his country to the greatest dangers, and hands down to posterity all the foolish opinions and all the bad passions which prevail in those times in which he happens to live. Such a

EY SM

, mastered the Louvre in a quarter of an hour, and saw Talma in tragedy and Mademoiselle Mars in "genteel comedy." At the Opera he noticed that "the house was full of English, who talk loud, and seem to care little for other people. This is their characteristic, and a very brutal and barbarous distinction it is." He keenly admired the luxury and beauty and prettiness of Paris, and especially the profusion of glass in French drawing-rooms. "I remember entering a room with glass all round it, and saw myself reflected on every side. I took

ned the queer contrast between his black coat and his snow-white head, and the equally curious contrast b

Sunday at Foston Rectory, and

ne, his soup, and his wine, among the sick. He preached a very queer sermon-the former half too fam

would have made him a prodigy; formality and bigotry would have made him a bishop;

te to a newly-elected

unded you, and how the candles and Speaker appeared.... For God's sake, open upon the Chancery. On this subject there can be no excess of vituperation and severi

EY SM

rote as follows to a

ost his seat and

d your book on the Sta

much pleasure-sensib

tten. Go on writing His

the world right ab

ot in parliament. You

en can do good. Health

EY SM

George IV. found himself, much against his will, constrained to entrust the formation of a Government to George Canning. Canning was avowedly favourable to the Roman Catholic claims, and on that account some of the most

ydney Smith. Knowing that his income would soon be materially reduced by the cessation of his tenure of Londesborough, he wrote to some of his friends amo

nd 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 everything to apprehend, and whose influence upon the people you cannot doubt, that they may, under your Government, obey the dictates of their consciences without sacrificing the emoluments of their profession. I

wrote to

f Wellington has dined with the King. Canning dead, Peel is the only man r

d Goderich, who in turn made way for the Duke of Wellington

ghter, Emily, was married to Nathaniel Hibbert, after

l as if I had lost a limb, and were walking about with

oyalty, appointed the Rector of Foston to a Prebendal Stall in Bristol Cathedral. This brought him at length official

tège when you come; looks to the south, and is perfectly snug and parsonic; masts of West-Indiamen seen from the windows...

l dignitary. He had contributed to the Review for a quarter of a century; and, by a happy accident, his last utterance, in the organ through which he had so long and so strenuously fought for fre

les apud Lambeth et Whitehall. God forbid it should ever be said of us with justice. It is pleasant to loll and roll and to accumulate-to be a purple-and-fine-linen man, and to be called by some of those nic

*

holics, by civil exertions, can equal the danger of such a position as this? How can a man of your carriages, and horses, and hounds, think of putting your high fortune in such a predicament, and crying out, like a schoolboy or a chaplain, 'Oh, we shall beat them! we shall put the rascals down!' No Popery, I admit to your Lordship, is a very convenient cry at an election, and has answered your end; but do not push the matter too far. To bring on a civil war for No Popery, is a very foolish proceeding in a man who has two courses and a remove! As you value your

olic clients, imploring them to be patient as well as firm; and

stration. Leave a locus poenitenti?!-prepare a place for retreat-get ready your equivocations and denials. The dreadful day may yet come, when liberality may lead to place and power. We und

of Trade, thereby vacating his seat. Lord Beaconsfield shall tell the remainder of the story. "An Irish lawyer, a professional agitator, himself a Roman Catholic and therefore ineligible, announced himself as a candidate in opposition to the new

e cause, for which Sydney Smith had striven so heroically, was won at

self as good as carried, till my horse brings me to my stable-door.... What am

me friend

dinner with the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol. All sorts of bad theology are preached at the Cathedral on that day, and all

mber 1828, he wrot

hed an honest sermon

thedral-the most Prot

me with all their eyes

turtle on the

ces of the Roman Catholics, and then it went on to lay down some simple but sufficient rules by whic

does not exist. Any error of this nature is between the Creator and the creature,-between the Redeemer and the redeemed. If such opinions are not the best opinions which can be found, God Almighty will punish the error, if mere error seemeth to the Almighty a fit object of punishment. Why may not a man wait if God waits? Where are we called upon in Scripture to pursue men for

*

apologue, taken from the Rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted by Bishop Taylor in his Holy Living and Dying. I have not now ac

t of this bread. And the wayfaring man said unto Abraham, I will not worship the Lord thy God, for thy God is not my God; but I will worship my God, even the God of my fathers. But Abraham was exceeding wroth; and he rose up to p

apologized in the preface for "sending to the press s

d always been delicate, but, in spite of repeated illnesses, he had become Captain of the King's Scholars at Westminster,[96] and a Student of Christ Church. His epitaph says-"His life was blameless. His death was the

at quality which is longest remembered by those who remain behind-a deep and ea

ag

viding for human beings, and watching over them for so many years, ge

hen he lay dying and h

as!" was consta

h exchanged the living of Foston for that of Combe Florey in Somerset, which could be held conjointly with

nce it to be a very pretty place in a very beautiful

oods. Red wine and white, soup and fish, commonplace dulness and prejudice, bad wit and good-nature

I continue to be delighted with the country. My parsonage will be perfection. The harvest is got in without any rain. The Cider

was very agreeable, but spoke too lightly, I thought, of veal soup, I took him aside, and reasoned the matter with him, but in vain; to speak the truth, Luttrell is not steady in his judgments on dishes. Individual failures with him soon degenerate into generic objections, till, by some fortunate accident, he eats himself into b

"throwing a pantry, a passage, and a shoe-hole together." Three sides of it were covered with books. "No furniture so charming as books," said Sydney, "even if you never open them, or read a single word." He passionately loved

ss; 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

I don't shoot or hunt, it is my only rural amusement." He wrote to a friend-"The influenza to my great joy has appeared here, and I am in high medical practice." "This is the house to be ill in," he used to say, "I take it as a delicate compliment when my guests have a slight illness

al sermons, transcribed from his own execrable manuscript by a sedulous clerk. "I like," he said, "to look down upon my congregation-to fire into them. The common people say I am a bould preacher, for I

t kindly furnishes me wit

s as it was in m

, level with the garden and opening into it. There is the old-fashioned fireplace by which he and his wife sate opposite each other in his last illness. 'Mrs. Sydney has eight distinct illnesses, and I have nine. We take something every hour, and pass the mixture from one to the other.' Outside still grow hi

nd they had an important bearing on the tranquil life of Combe Florey. On the

. Nothing is more improbable than that I should be made a Bishop, and, if I ever had the opportunity, I am now, when far removed from it, decidedly of opinion that it would be the grea

ce, which dethroned Charles X., gave a strong impetus to the democratic forces in England. Parliament was dissolved on the 24th of July. On the 14th of August Charles Greville wrote, "The elections are still going

ud that I worked as a bricklayer's labourer at it-without pay, and with th

mobs and riots everywhere. The King's projected visit to the City on Lord Mayor's Day was abandoned. The Tory Government were beaten on a motion relating to the new Civil List. "Never was any Administration so completely

n long enough; but the upper parsons live vindictively, and e

as wise as it is bold." Meetings of Reformers were held all over the country to support it. Such a

l meetings, I could not reconcile it to my conscience to be absent from this. Every year for this half century the question of Reform has been pressing upon us, till it has swelled up at la

nchisement of the "Pocket Boroughs," and this was a

scretion permits. When I was a young man, the place in England I remember as most notorious for highwaymen and their exploits was Finchley Common, near the metropolis; but Finchley Common, in the progress of improvement, came to be enclosed, and the highwaymen lost by these means the opportunity of exercising their gallant vocation. I remember a friend of mine proposed to draw up for them a petition to the House of Commons for compensation, which ran in this manner-'We, your loyal hi

as too cheap, which is not purchased by some calamity. I shall esteem it as a singular act of God's providence, if this great nation, guided by these warnings of history, not waiting till tumult for Reform, nor trus

issolved on the 23rd of April. "Bold King! bold Ministers!" wrote Sydney on the 25th. Popular feeling was now really roused. "The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill" was the war-cry from Caithness t

told them he was much larger before the Bill was thrown out, but was reduce

omposed (and published in

eech to the Freeh

common qualities, good in common times. If a man does not vote for the Bill, he is unclean-the plague-spot is upon him-push him into the lazaretto of the last cent

ll help to rule over the people of England. A neighbouring country gentleman, Mr. Plumpkin, hunts with my Lord-opens him a gate or two, while the hounds are running-dines with my Lord-agrees with my Lord-wishes he could rival the South-Down sheep of my Lord-and upon Plumpkin is conferred a portion of the government. Then there is a distant relation of the same name, in the County Militia, with white teeth, who calls up the carriage at the Opera, and is always wishing O'Connell was hanged, drawn, and quartered-then a barrister, who has written an article in the Quarterly, and is very likely to speak, and refute M'Culloch; and these five people,

ts of the Bill that the ex

shmen would, before twenty years were elapsed, if Reform were denied, rise up and destroy. Of what use have all the cruel laws been of Perceval, Eldon, and Castlereagh, to extinguish Reform? Lord John Russell, and his abettors, would have been committed to gaol twenty years ago for half only

by the long delay, and no gratitude is expressed for what has been extorted by fear. In this way peace was concluded with America, and Emancipation granted to the Catholics; and in this way the War of Complexions will be finished in the West Indies. The other method us, to see at a distance that the thing must be done, and to do it effectually, and at once; to take it out of the hands of the common people, and to carry the measure in a manly liberal manner, so as to satisfy the great majority. The merit of t

*

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,

y Smith returned to London to watch the results. On the 6th o

ess, I advised him to stay and see something of his friends, who would be coming

eep look up an

m, sir, in a delightful parsonage, about which I care a great de

July. While it was ploughing its way through Committee, the Coronation of William IV. took place on the 8th of September. The solemnity was made an occasion for public rejoicings in the countr

sh history. Another coronation has taken place since I have been in the world, but I never assisted at its celebration. I saw in it a change of ma

at last, vigorously, wisely, and faithfully applied, I admire, gentlemen, in the present King, his love of peace-I admire in him his disposition to economy, and I admire in him, above all, his faithful and honourable conduct to those who happen to be his ministers. He was, I believe, quite as faithful to the Duke of Wellington as to Lord Grey, and would, I have no doubt, be quite as faithful to the political enemies of Lord Gre

*

use a mob may gather about the House of Lords-because stones may be flung at my head-because my house may be attacked by a mob, I am a poltroon, and unfit to meddle with public affairs. But I may rationally be afraid of producing great public agitation; I may be honourably afraid of flinging people into secret clubs and conspiracies-I may be wisely afraid

have given up one atom of reform-I do not believe that a great people were ever before so firmly bent upon any one measure. I put it to any man of common sense, whether he believes it possible, after the King and Parliament have acted as they have done, that the people will ever be content with much less than the present bill contains. If a contrary principle be acted upon, and the bill attempted to be got rid of altogether, I confess I tremble for the consequences, which I believe will be of the worst and most painful description; and this I say deliberately, after the most diligent and extensive enquiry. Upon that diligent enquiry I repeat again my firm conviction, that the desire

accepted. When he feared that England might be dragged into war with France on behalf of Spain, he composed a skit purporting to be a Protest entered on the Journals of the Lords by the Bishop of Worcester, and signed it "Sydney Vigorn."[104] The Bishop of Worcester[105] died on the 5th of September 1831, and Lord Grey gave the vacant mitre to a Tory.[106] Sydney's emotions are not recorded; but on the 10th of September Lord Grey offered him a Residentiary Canonry of

d on his appointment, and met wi

ance. I saw two or three Tory lords looking at me with dismay, was informed by the Clerk of the Closet of my sin, and

am (1769-1842), Arc

arcourt {1789-1871},

Harcour

735-1816), LL.D., M.P. f

tant a

eeches, filling three close columns of a newspaper, on the one side; and not with three lines, nay, not with one, of anything said on the other side.... Surely the whole of the twenty-two clergyman who differed from the ten were not so astounded by the eloquence and display of their opponents as to remain absolutely speechless." It is further said that "on the present occasion, and after assuring his learned brethren that he was not going to inflict upon t

e village when he drove over from Foston, his other living, to preach an occasional sermon at Londesborough. His reading, and manner in the pulpit, were described to me as having been 'bold and impressive.' As soon as the sermon was over, he would hasten out of the church along with his hearers, and chat with the farme

this curious name the more i

Earl M

s to know whether his Highness would choose as many girls to be caught up: and he add, 'doubtless it is a business in which God will appear.' Supp

gleton Copley

on, vol. I.

r Treason" and other State Holy Days we

d, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffer

and useful placard against the bigoted") occurs in the Liberty of Prop

s to remove 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 himsel

were disguised as deer

ito

Emancipation Bill had

il

2nd Earl Gre

(1770-1846), Attorney-Gene

s Sadler (1780-1835

pecting the Reform Bill" in S

'Sydney Smith has done more for the Whigs than all the clergy p

s the Protest among the letters of 1831. Sir Spencer Walpole points out that it probably belongs to t

H.-W. Cornewa

ointment was due to a promise made by George IV., whom Dr. Car