SMITH, GOLDWIN, LL.D., son of a Berkshire physician, was b. at Beading in 1823. He received his education at Eton, from whence he proceeded to Oxford, and matricu lated at Christ's church, but was soon afterward elected to a Demyship at Magdalen. His undergraduate career was one of unusual brilliancy, only equaled, indeed, by sir Bounden Palmer and prof. Conington. He gained both university scholarships, the Latin verse, and the two prize essays, and was placed in the first class in 1845. In 1847 he was elected fellow of University college, where he officiated for a time as tutor. In the same year he was called to the bar at Lincoln's inn. The ministry of the day availed themselves of Mr. Smith's services in carrying out their plans of university reform. He was nominated assistant-secretary to the first, and secretary to the second Oxford com mission, by which the somewhat antiquated statutes of the university were recon structed, and the rich endowments of the colleges opened to public competition. Mr. Smith was also a member of the popular education commission appointed in June, 1858. The chair of modern history having been vacated about this time by the resigna tion of prof. Vaughan, was offered by lord Derby to Mr. Smith. He accepted the offer, and discharged his professional duties with zeal and efficiency until his resignation in 1866. In 1868 he was elected to the chair of English and constitutional history in the university at Ithaca, N. Y. He has lately resided in Canada. Goldwin Smith has long been known as a publicist of the highest class, and has completely identified himself with the more advanced school of refOrmers. During the American war he was an
earnest defender of federal interests, and combated with success in the Daily News and elsewhere, the singular theories of the rights of slavery and the duties of neutrals, which were then somewhat fashionable. He was also active in denouncing the Jamaica mas sacres, and in advocating an extended measure of reform. His lectures on " Thrce English Statesmen," delivered at some of the chief towns in the north, called forth the remark from Mr. Disraeli, that he was a "wild man of the cloister, going about the country maligning men and things." Mr. Smith's writings are characterized by great extent and accuracy of information, by a style singularly vigorous and condensed, and by great powers of sarcasm. Among his principal publications may be enumerated: Irish History and Character; • Two Lectures on the Study of History, with a Supplementary Lecture on the Doctrine of Historical Progress; • The Empire, a reprint from the Daily News of 1862-63; England and America, a lecture delivered before the Boston fraternity, and reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly; A Plea for the Abolition of Tests at Orford; Rational Religion and the Objections of the Hampton Lecture in 1858; several pamphlets on the American question; contributions to Oxford essays; A Short