Sydney 1771-1845 Smith

SMITH, SYDNEY (1771-1845), English writer and divine, son of Robert Smith, was born at Woodford, Essex, on June 3, 1771, the son of a wealthy and eccentric landowner. Sydney was the second of a family of four brothers and one sister, all re markable for their talents. While two of the brothers, Robert Percy, known as "Bobus," afterwards advocate-general of Bengal, and Cecil, were sent to Eton, Sydney was sent with the youngest to Winchester, where he rose to be captain of the school. In 1789 he had become a scholar of New College, Oxford ; he received a fellowship after two years' residence, took his degree in 1792 and proceeded M.A. in 1796. He was ordained priest at Oxford in 1796, and became a curate in the small village of Nether Avon, near Amesbury, in the midst of Salisbury Plain. The squire of the parish, Michael Hicks-Beach, engaged him after a time as tutor to his eldest son. It was arranged that they should proceed to the university of Weimar, but, before reaching their destination Germany was disturbed by war, and "in stress of politics," said Smith, "we put into Edinburgh." This was in 1798. While his pupil attended lectures, Smith was not idle. He studied moral philosophy under Dugald Stewart, and devoted much time to medicine and chemistry. He also preached in the Episcopal chapel, where his practical brilliant discourses attracted many hearers.

In 180o he published his first book, Six Sermons, preached in Charlotte Street Chapel, Edinburgh, and in the same year, married, against the wishes of her friends, Catharine Amelia Pybus. They settled at No. 46 George Street, Edinburgh. Towards the end of his five years' residence in Edinburgh, in Jeffrey's flat in Buc cleuch Place, Sydney Smith proposed the setting up of a review as an organ for young malcontents. "I was appointed editor," he says in the preface to the collection of his contributions, "and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number" (October 1802) of the Edinburgh Review. He continued to write for the Review for the next quarter of a century, and his brilliant articles were a main element in its success.

Life in London.

He left Edinburgh for good in 1803, when the education of his pupils was completed, and settled in London, where he was morning preacher at Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair, and "alternate evening preacher" at the Foundling Hospital. He lec tured on moral philosophy at the Royal Institution for three seasons, from 1804 to 1806, when the London world crowded to Albemarle Street to hear him. With the brilliant reputation that

Sydney Smith had acquired in the course of a few seasons in London, he would probably have obtained some good preferment had he been on the powerful side in politics. Sydney Smith's elder brother "Bobus" had married Caroline Vernon, aunt of the 3rd Lord Holland, and he was always a welcome visitor at Holland House. His Whig friends came into office for a short time in 1806, and presented him with the living of Foston-le-Clay in Yorkshire. He shrank from this banishment for a time, and discharged his parish duties through a curate; but Spencer Per ceval's Residence Act was passed in 1808, and after trying in vain to negotiate an exchange, he moved his household to York shire in 1809.

"Peter Plymley..

The Ministry of "All the Talents" was driven out of office in 1807 in favour of a "no popery" party, and in that year appeared the first instalment of Sydney Smith's most famous production, Peter Plymley's Letters, on the subject of Catholic emancipation, ridiculing the opposition of the country clergy. Its full title was A Letter on the Subject of the Catholics to my brother Abraham who lives in the Country, by Peter Plymley. Nine other letters followed before the end of 1808, when they appeared in collected form. Rumours of Peter Plymley's identity got abroad. Lord Holland wrote to him expressing his own opinion and Grenville's, that there had been nothing like it since the days of Swift (Memoir, i. iii). He also pointed out that Swift had lost a bishopric for his wittiest performance. Smith won the hearts of his Yorkshire parishioners as quickly as he had conquered a wider world. There had been no resident clergyman in his parish for 150 years; he had a farm of 30o acres to keep in order ; a rectory had to be built. All these things were attended to beside his contributions to the Edinburgh Review. He con tinued to serve the cause of toleration by ardent speeches in favour of Catholic emancipation. "I defy Dr. Duigenan,"' he pleaded, addressing a meeting of clergy in 1823, "in the full vigour of his incapacity, in the strongest access of that Protestant epilepsy with which he was so often convulsed, to have added a single security to the security of that oath." At this time appeared one of his most vigorous and effective polemics, A Letter to the Electors upon the Catholic Question (1826).