LETTERS OF SYDNEY SMITH. * THIS selection from the correspondence of

Sydney Smith owes its existence, like Lady Holland's Memoir, to the pious regard of Mrs. Smith for her husband's memory. Deterred by the opinion of friends from at once publishing a life illustrated by letters, on account of the recency of the circumstances to which they often related, it was the widow's gratification to arrange and number the manuscripts she had collected, and to consult with Mrs. Austin, who had consented to edit them, as she had also undertaken to write the life, but has been prevented by ill health. Mrs. Smith seemed to expect that she should not herself survive to see the publication; and her forebodings were verified.

The letters extend over the better part of half a century, begin- ning in 1801, and closing in November 1844, a few months before the author's death. The very early letters are mostly addressed to Jeffrey; and he continues a frequent correspondent till the close of Sydney's connexion with the Edinburgh Review, which took

A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. 'With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. Austin. In two volumes. Vol. II. Published by Longman and Co.

place when be became a Prebendal clergyman, upon principles of clerical dignity. Their feelings remained as warm as ever in the breasts of both friends: years afterwards, Jeffrey dedicated his collected essays to Sydney ; and Sydney is frequently alluding to his old associate in his letters to other correspondents. But the necessity for continuous communication having ceased, the corre- spondence was less frequent. Many of us are so constituted that the stimulus of necessity or business is requisite to bring the feel- ings into activity. Sydney Smith was not an idle man, but the very reverse ; he might not however, write without some stimulus.

The other best known persons to whom letters are most fre- quently addressed are Lord and Lady Holland, Lord and Lady Grey, XL Allen, Mr. John Archibald Murray of the Edinburgh bar, now Lord Murray, and the Misses Berry. He had of course many other correspondents : the names already mentioned, however, are the most popularly distinguished of the friends to whom he regularly wrote ; though many of the others are known in literary, political, or social circles. When they are not, the editor usually adds a note.

The topics are not of so much interest as might have been ex- pected. Throughout the whole of his life Sydney Smith never ceased to take an interest in public affairs, and he frequently al- ludes to them; but it is in a touch-and-go manner. lie had put forward his strength in his published writings, and did not care to recur to the subject at length in private communications. His animal spirits, and natural tendency to jocose exaggeration, are visible at the outset, and were evidently a part of his nature. Some of the letters throw strong light upon his biography, and will enable the attentive reader to fill up the chronology which was occasionally defective in the Memoir. Wherever Sydney's dis- tinguishing qualities of directness, animation, and practical saga- city, either on public or private matters, have an opportunity to come into play, there they will be found. His love of a joke car- ried on to mystification is ever visible, as well as his truth, honesty, and contempt for tyranny, sordidness, shabbiness, or pretence. Too many of the later letters are on matters of compliment or matters merely private. These and some jokes of a temporary character might have borne curtailment. With this exception, the selection has been judiciously made, and the book is well edited. It is in- troduced by an admirable preface ; in which Mrs. Austin explains the principles which have guided her in the selection of the corre- spondence, gives a broad sketch of Sydney Smith's public career and character, as well as a touching indication of Mrs. Smith's affectionate nature.

It is curious, in the career of Sydney Smith, to see how steadily not only the general principles but most of the particular measures he advocated have triumphed. His sagacity, like that of other Whig politicians, was at fault with regard to the Peninsula. In February 1809, when nothing seems to have been known of Sir John Moore save that he was retreating pursued by overwhelming forces, any man might have been justified in pronouncing that " Spain is quite gone " ; but even in 1812, when Salamanca had been fought and Bonaparte was approaching Moscow, he writes-

" I know not how to rejoice in the useless splendour of. Lord Wellingfon'a achievements, for I am quite a disbeliever in his ultimate success. But I am incapable of thinking of anything but building, and my whole soul is filled up by lath and plaster."

As soon, however, as anything like a whole view of the question could be obtained, his sagacity led him to a true conclusion as to Bonaparte's danger from his unpopularity among the respectable part of the French people. The date of the following is March 1814, when the Emperor was with difficulty opposing the Allies.

" I have not read a paper for these four days; but this lingering war will not do for Bonaparte. The white cockade will be up, if he do not proceed more rapidly. I have no doubt but that the Bourbons must have a very large party in France, consisting of all those who love stability and peace better than eternal war and agitation ; but these men have necessarily a great dread of Bonaparte, a great belief in his skill, fortune, and implaca- bility. It will take them years after he is killed to believe that he is dead."

Here is another Anti-Whig opinion on the Bourbons, with some good remarks on wine-drinking, addressed to Mr. Allen. '

"My dear Allen—I did not know before your letter that Lord Holland had been ill, and I received the intelligence, as you may suppose, with sincere regret. It is very easy and old-womanish to offer advice, but I wish he would leave off wine entirely, after the manner of the Sharpe and Rogers school. He is never guilty of excess ; but there is a certain respectable and dangerous plenitude, not quite conducive to that state of health which all his friends most wish to Lord Holland.

" What can you possibly mean by lamenting the restoration of the Bour- bons? What so likely to promote renewed peace, and enable the French to lay some slight foundation of real liberty ? for as to their becoming free at once, it is a mere joke. I think I see your old Edinburgh hatred of the Bourbons ; but the misfortunes of the world have been such as to render even these contemptible personages our hope and our refuge."

The following letter relates to Tom Campbell, and is as credit- able to the poet's right feeling as to the late Lady Holland's ge- nerosity.

"8 Doughty Street, Brunswick Square.

"My dear Lady Holland—I told the little poet, after the proper softenings ofwine dinner, flattery, repeating his verses, &e. &c., that a friend of mine wished lend him some money, and I begged him to take it The poet said that he had a very sacred and serious notion of the duties of independence ; that he thought he had no right to be burdensome to others from the mere apprehensions of evil ; and that he was in no immediate want. If it was necessary, he would ask me hereafter for the money without scruple • and that the knowing he lied such resources in reserve was a great comfort to him. This was very sensible and very honourable to him ; nor had he the slightest feeling of affront on the subject, but, on the contrary, of great gratitude to his benefactor, whose name I did not mention, as the money was not received: I therefore cancel your draft, and will call upon you, if he calls upon me. This, I presume, meets your approbation. I had a great deal of conversation with him, end he is a much more sensible man than I

had any idea of I have received this morning a very kind letter from Sir Francis Baring, almost amounting to a promise that I am to be a professor in his new Institution. " I cannot conclude my letter without telling you that you are a very good lady for what you have done ; and that, for it, I give you my hearty benediction. Respectfully and sincerely yours, SYDNEy SMITH."

There is nothing new in this account of the separation of Lord and Lady Byron, but it neatly tells all that is known, and con- cludes with a sentence of all that need be said.

" Lord and Lady Byron are, you know, separated. He said to Rogers, that Lady Byron had parted with him, apparently in good friendship, on a visit to her father, and that he had no idea of their being about to part when he received her decision to that effect. He stated that his own tem- per, naturally bad, had been rendered more irritable by the derangement of his fortune, and that Lady Byron was entirely blameless. The truth is, he is a very unprincipled fellow."

Time has not fulfilled the following speculation on America ; but the Model Republic has never yet been tried by circumstances that require perfect unanimity, which interest and opinion pre- vent ; the Federal States giving a constitutional and effective power of opposition to the general Government, which does not exist where the different provinces of a country have all become reduced into one state.

" It is quite contrary to all probability that America should remain in an integral state. They aim at extending from sea to sea, and have already made settlements on the Pacific. There can be no community of interest between people placed under such very different circumstances : the mari- time Americans, and those who communicate with Europe by the Mississippi, are at this moment, as far as interest can divide men, two separate people. There does not appear to be in America at this moment one man of any con- siderable talents. They are a very sensible people; and seem to have con- ducted their affairs upon the whole very well."

The following story from a letter to Lord John Russell is a curious example of Spencer Perceval's firmness. It appears from the context to have been written to point a moral touching Sydney's own preferment.

" My dear John—At eleven o'clock in the Morning, some years ago, the i Archbishop of Canterbury called upon a friend of mine (my informant) and said, I am going to the King, (George III.) to meet Perceval, who wants to make Mansell Bishop of Bristol. I have advised the King not to assent to it, and he is thoroughly determined it shall not be. I will call in an hour or two, and tell you what has passed.' Canterbury did not return till

eleven at night. Quite in vain,' he said : "Perceval has beaten us all : he tendered his immediate resignation : " If he were not considered to be a fit person for recommending the dignitaries of the Church, he was not a fit per- son to be at the head of the Treasury." After a conflict carried on all day, we were forced to yield.' " Such a conflict, carried on once, and ending with victory, never need be repeated."

Here is a little trait of the late Lord Melbourne, giving way to his love of ease, and dissatisfied for so doing.

" Melbourne gives up all foreign affairs to Palmerston, swearing at it all. Lord Grey would never have suffered any Minister for Foreign Affairs to have sent such a despatch as Palmerston's note to Guizot; it is universally blamed here. Pray don't go to war with France : that must be wrong."

With Sydney Smith's habit of persiflage, it is not always easy to get at his real meaning : if this idea of dying in great cities walls actual opinion, it is contrary to most people's.

" Paris is very full. I look at it with some attention, as I am not sure I may not end my days in it. I suspect the fifth ant of life should be in great cities : it is there, in the long death of old age, that a man most forgets him- self and his infirmities; receives the greatest consolation from the attentions of friends, and the greatest diversion from external circumstances."

This is a nice appreciation of the weak point of Jeffrey's genius, plainly but pleasantly done.

"I certainly, my dear Jeffrey, in conjunction with thegnight of the Shaggy Eyebrows,t do protest against your increasing and unpidfitable scepti- cism. I exhort you to restrain the violent tendency of your, nature for analysis, and to cultivate synthetical propensities. What is virtue What's the use of truth ? What's the use of honour ? What's a guinea but a damned yellow circle ?—The whole effort of your mind is to destroy. Because others build slightly and eagerly, you employ yourself in kicking down their houses, and contract a sort of aversion for the more honourable, useful, and clifAcult task of building well yourself."

Note. It was an error to ascribe Sydney Smith's temporary presentation of Londesborough to the Duke of Wellington, in last week's notice of the Memoirs. It should have been the Duke of Devonshire.

1. Francis Horner, Esq.