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young Whig wit had no sooner arrived in our
capital than he was sought for and cherished
by the Whig leaders, was made one of the
magical circle of Holland House, and was
greeted by as liberal an issue of "soup-tickets
(to use a phrase of his own) as ever before or
since acknowledged the claims of a first-class
diner-out. He managed to give as well as
to take-though poor, he established suppers,
at which such men as Mackintosh, Whishaw,
Luttrell, and Horner were glad to sit. Apro-
pos of these suppers, we cannot resist an anec-
dote, which is noticeable as about the only
instance of Hookism to be found in these
volumes :-

Who could have wondered if one, possessing and removed to London. Here, though aided such weapons as Sydney Smith, and devoted by some family assistance, he had to struggle to the advocacy of causes and questions where through several years of genteel pauperism. hope of redress seemed so small, had run wild Those were years of temptation, too. The into professional agitation, or had lost himself in personal acrimony? But here, again, his excellent common sense, his charming temper, and his feeling of responsibility stood him in the stead of bridle and amulet. They reined him in when he was most triumphant on the field, they kept his spear-point out of poison. Never did man cant so little about reciprocal considerateness, brotherly love, and the like, as Sydney,-never did antagonist do such mischief to the mischievous; but as critic he never degraded himself. His jest was always the jest of a gentleman. Considering what controversy has always been-considering especially what has been the tone of Tory controversy (intoxicating enough to drag into its coarse and scandalous whirlpool one with so Sir James Mackintosh happened to bring with It was on occasion of one of these suppers that poetical a brain and so loving a heart as Wal-him a raw Scotch cousin, an ensign in a Highter Scott),—it is neither superfine nor stilted land regiment. On hearing the name of his host to assert, that the perfect measure and temper he suddenly turned round, and, nudging Sir which from first to last distinguished Sydney James, said in an audible whisper, "Is that the Smith as a writer, did "honor to his cloth far more than

many a weary sigh and many a groan

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than any abstinence from the arena of struggle -or than any wholesale renunciation of sarcasm and humor, as engines of terror and persuasion fit enough for laymen to wield, but not

" clerical!"

great Sir Sudney ?" "Yes, yes," said Sir James, much amused; and giving my father the hint, on the instant he assumed the military character, performed the part of the hero of Acre to perfection, fought all his battles over again, and showed how he had charged the Turks, to the infinite delight of the young Scotchman, who was quite enchanted with the kindness and condescension of the absolute torture of the other guests, who were "the great Sir Sudney," as he called him, and to But this lively man, whose laugh made Big- before them. At last, after an evening of the bursting with suppressed laughter at the scene otry quake within the stronghold of its Je- most inimitable acting on the part both of my richo, and Fanaticism lash itself into extra father and Sir James, nothing would serve the frenzies of rage, could do more than laugh,-young Highlander but setting off, at twelve as those who sat under his lectures and who o'clock at night, to fetch the piper of his regiment heard his sermons will attest. His Preface of to pipe to "the great Sir Sudney," who said he 1801 to the collection of his pulpit discourses then printed, is according to its form and order as remarkable for its high argument, its clear view of the wants and perils of the Church, as the best of the Edinburgh essays. That the delivery of the discourses themselves was aided by presence and delivery is true; but we cannot return to the fragments from his sermons, extracted by his biographer, without feeling afresh their vitality and earnestness, how great the speaker knew the dignity of his position to be, yet how devoid he was of the priest's arrogance.

had never heard the bagpipes; upon which the
whole party broke up and dispersed instantly, for
Sir James said his Scotch cousin would infalli-
bly cut his throat if he discovered his mistake. A
few days afterwards, when Sir James Mackintosh
and his Scotch cousin were walking in the streets,
they met my father with my mother on his arm.
He introduced her as his wife, upon which the
Scotch cousin said in a low voice to Sir James,
and looking at my mother, "I did na ken the
great Sir Sudney was married." "Why, no,"
said Sir James, a little embarrassed and winking
at him, "not ex-act-ly married,-only an Egyp
tian slave he brought over with him; Fatima-
long known in the little circle as Fatima."
you know-you understand." My mother was

Another record of his Edinburgh days is worth mentioning. It was in the Scottish metropolis that Sydney Smith acquired that Sydney Smith was not, however, by dinners knowledge of medicine which he afterwards abroad and suppers at home to be cajoled into turned to such helpful account among his the self-disrespect of extravagance,-into the parishioners at Foston and Combe Florey. forgetfulness of life's duties, when duty preBut, in 1804, having completed the education sented itself to him. Lord Holland obtained of the sons of Mr. Beach, at the instance of for him the living of Foston-le-Clay, in York, his wife "he broke up his camp in Edinburgh," shire, in the year 1809; and pleasant, though

We must still find room for a passage or two:

prosy, are the chapters which detail the ener-what dilapidated, the village tailor lined it, the gy, the mirthfulness, the clear sense and the village blacksmith repaired it; nay (but for Mrs. affectionate benevolence with which this bril- Sydney's earnest entreaties), I believe the village liant man, already the pet of poets, peers, and painter would have exercised his genius upon the politicians, betook himself to the homelier life exterior; it escaped this danger however, and of a parish priest. We can only string to its charms: it grew younger and younger; a new the result was wonderful. Each year added to gether a few traits and tales, such as assist in wheel, a new spring: I christened it the Immorsetting the Yorkshire clergyman before us:- tal; it was known all over the neighborhood; the village boys cheered it, and the village dogs He used to dig vigorously an hour or two barked at it; but "Faber meæ fortune" was my each day in his garden, as he said, "to avoid motto, and we had no false shame. Added to sudden death," for he was even then inclined to all these domestic cares, I was village parson, vilembonpoint, and perhaps, as a young man, may lage doctor, village comforter, village magishave been considered somewhat clumsy in figure. trate, and Edinburgh Reviewer; so you see 1 ** He spent much time in reading and com- had not much time left on my hands to regret position; his activity was unceasing; I hardly London. remember seeing him unoccupied, but when engaged in conversation. ** He began too on a small scale to exercise his skill in medicine, doing much good amongst his poor neighbors, though there were often ludicrous circumstances connectOne day, when we were on a visit at Bishoped with his early medical career. ** Another thorpe, soon after he had preached a visitation time he found all his pigs intoxicated, and, as he sermon, in which, amongst other things, he had declared, "grunting God save the King about the recommended the clergy not to devote too much stye," from having eaten some fermented grains time to shooting and hunting, the Archbishop, which he had ordered for them. Once he admin- who rode beautifully in his youth, and knew full istered castor-oil to the red cow, in quantities well my father's deficiencies in this respect, said, sufficient to have killed a regiment of Christians; smiling, and evidently much amused, “I hear, but the red cow laughed alike at his skill and his Mr. Smith, you do not approve of much riding oil, and went on her way rejoicing. **Immediately on coming to Foston, as early as the year 1809, he set on foot gardens for the poor; and subsequently, Dutch gardens for spade cultivation. * *Then the cheapest diet for the poor, and cooking for the poor, formed the subjects of his inquiry: and many a hungry laborer was brought in and stuffed with rice, or broth, or porridge, to test their relative effects on the appetite."

Further, Sydney Smith had to build a house, furnish and fill it. From some of his own retrospects of these operations, we must detach a few paragraphs :—

I then took to horse to provide bricks and timber; was advised to make my own bricks, of my own clay; of course, when the kiln was open, all bad; mounted my horse again, and in twentyfour hours had bought thousands of bricks and tons of timber. Was advised by neighboring gentlemen to employ oxen: bought four-Tug and Lug, Hawl and Crawl; but Tug and Lug took to fainting, and required buckets of salvolatile, and Hawl and Crawl to lie down in the mud. * * A man-servant was too expensive; so I caught up a little garden-girl, made like a mile-stone, christened her Bunch, put a napkin in her hand, and made her my butler. The girls taught her to read, Mrs. Sydney to wait, and I undertook her morals: Bunch became the best butler in the county. ** At last it was suggested that a carriage was much wanted in the establishment; after diligent search, I discovered in the back settlements of a York coachmaker an ancient green chariot, supposed to have been the earliest invention of the kind. I brought it home in triumph to my admiring family. Being some

for the clergy."-" Why, my Lord," said my father, bowing with assumed gravity, "perhaps ride too well, and stick out their toes professionthere is not much objection, provided they do not ally." Mr. M., a Catholic gentleman present, looked out of the window of the room in which they were sitting. "Ah, I see, you think you will get out," said my father laughing, "but you Archbishop shuts up the Catholics; the other are quite mistaken: this is the wing where the wing is full of Dissenters." Coming down one and down the passage before her master's door, in morning at Foston, I found Bunch pacing up a state of great perturbation. What is the matter, Bunch?"-"Oh, Ma'am, I can't get no peace of mind till I've got master shaved, and he's so late this morning: he is not come down yet." This getting master shaved, consisted in making ready for him, with a large painter's brush, a thick lather in a huge wooden bowl, as big as Mambrino's helmet, which she always considered as the most important avocation of the morning."

The following, too, from reminiscences of this period, contributed by Mrs. Marcet, is precious:

"Mr. Smith was talking after breakfast with Dr. Marcet, in a very impressive and serious tone, on scientific subjects, and I was admiring the enlarged and philosophic manner in which he discoursed on them, when suddenly starting up, he stretched out his arms, and said, "Come, now let us talk a little nonsense." And then came such a flow of wit, and joke, and anecdote, such a burst of spirits, such a charm and freshness of manner, such an irresistible laugh, that Solomon himself would have yielded to the infection, and called out, "Nonsense for ever!" * * "I was coming downstairs the next morning (she con

tinues), when Mr. Smith suddenly said to Bunch, prosperous and later period of Sydney Smith's who was passing," Bunch, do you like roast duck life in the country, after he had exchanged Fos or boiled chicken?" Bunch had probably never ton for Combe Flory, and surrounded "Bunch" tasted either the one or the other in her life, but with "a company" (as dramatic phrase is) of answered without a moment's hesitation, "Roast efficient fellow domestics-are capital and cha duck, please, Sir," and disappeared. I laughed.racteristic: "You may laugh," said he," but you have no idea of the labor it has cost me to give her that "My father' was sitting at breakfast one morn decision of character. The Yorkshire peasantry are the quickest and shrewdest in the world, but ing in the library at Combe Flory,' said Mrs. Marcet, who was staying with us, when a poor you can never get a direct answer from them; woman came, begging him to christen a new if you ask them even their own names, they al- born infant, without loss of time, as she thought ways scratch their heads, and say, "A's sur ai don't knaw, Sir;" but I have brought Bunch to breakfast-table for this purpose, and went off to it was dying. Mr. Smith instantly quitted the such perfection, that she never hesitates now on her cottage. On his return, we inquired in what any subject, however difficult. I am very strict state he had left the poor babe. with her. Would you like to hear her repeat her he, "I first gave it a dose of castor-oil, and then "Why," said crimes? She has them by heart, and repeats I christened it; so now the poor child is ready them every day." "Come here, Bunch (calling for either world." I long to give some sketch out to her)! come and repeat your crimes to of these breakfasts, and the mode of life at Combe Mrs. Marcet;" and Bunch, a clean, fair, squat, Flory, where there were often assembled guests tidy little girl, about ten or twelve years of age, that would have made any table agreeable anyquite as a matter of course, as grave as a judge; where; but it would be difficult to convey an without the least hesitation, and with a loud voice, began to repeat-"Plate-snatching, gravy-piness of the scene in which they took place, or adequate idea of the beauty, gayety, and hap spilling, door-slamming, blue-bottle fly-catching, the charm that he infused into the society as and courtesy-bobbing.""Explain to Mrs. Mar-sembled round his breakfast-table. The room, cet what blue-bottle fly-catching is."-" Standing an oblong, was, as I have already described, sur with my mouth open and not attending, Sir."- rounded on three sides by books, and ended in a "And what is courtesy-bobbing ?"-"Courtesying to the centre of the earth, please, Sir."-" Good bay-window opening into the garden: not brown, girl! now you may go. She makes a capital dark, dull-looking volumes, but all in the bright waiter, I assure you; on state occasions Jack Rob-est bindings; for he carried his system of fur inson, my carpenter, takes off his apron and nishing for gayety even to the dress of his books. waits too, and does pretty well, but he sometimes He would come down into this long, low room naturally makes a mistake, and sticks a gimlet

into the bread intead of a fork."..

--

in the morning like a 'giant refreshed to run his
course,' bright and happy as the scene around
him. Thank God for Combe Flory!' he would
exclaim, throwing himself into his red arm-chain,
and looking round; 'I feel like a bridegroom in
the honey moon.' And in truth I doubt if ever
bridegroom felt so joyous, or at least made others
feel so joyous, as he did on these occasions
Ring the bell, Saba;' the usual refrain, by the
bye, in every pause, for he contrived to keep
everybody actively employed around him, and
nobody ever objected to be so employed. Ring
the bell, Saba.' Enter the servant, D-
glorify the room. This meant that the three
Venetian windows of the bay were to be flung
open, displaying the garden on every side, and
letting in a blaze of sunshine and flowers. D

'D

No wonder is it that such a master as one who catechized" Bunch" for the benefit of the author of "Conversations on Chemistry," was well served, and rarely changed his servants. The dismal, dry, mechanical intercourse of "question and command," which makes of so many an English household a genteel sort of workhouse a composition of two separate worlds not bound together by the compact of formality and cupidity,-could not but be intolerable to a man so true in heart and so rich in humor as Sydney Smith. Should the lives of our great literary Protestant Clergymen ever be written by any one capable of - glorifies the room with the utmost gravity, doing justice to the subject, the humors above and departs. You would not believe it,' he said, 'to look at him now, but D-is a reformed journalized will figure there as individually as Quaker. Yes, he quaked, or did quake; his bro the humors of Crabbe, when the Poet des- ther quakes still: but D- is now thoroughly cended in kneebreeches and silk stockings to orthodox. I should not like to be a Dissenter his breakfast in Scotland (where Crabbe hap-in his way; he is to be one of my vergers at St pened to be, on the occasion of George the Paul's some day. Lady B calls them my Fourth's visit), and addressed sundry hairy virgins. She asked me the other day, 'Pray, Highlanders, wearing philibegs, in Latin, sup- Mr. Smith, is it true that you walk down St. posing that to be the only probable mutual Paul's with three virgins holding silver pokers language which the two parties possessed! before you? I shook my head, and looked very They will pair off, too, with the hermit, the grave, and bid her come and see. of the Church, some Dissenter, had clearly been bells, and the fountain of another clericus, misleading her. There now, sitting down at Bowles the sonneteer-so artlessly and gra- the breakfast-table, 'take a lesson of economy. phically commemorated by Moore, in the poet's You never breakfasted in a parsonage before, Diary. The entries belonging to a more did you? There, you see, my china is all white

Some enemy

so if broken can always be renewed; the same [ sleep: 'I can furnish you,' he said, 'with a perwith my plates at dinner: did you observe my fect soporific. 'I have published two volumes plates? every one a different pattern,some of them of sermons; take them to bed with you. I resweet articles; it was a pleasure to dine upon commended them once to Blanco White, and besuch a plate as I had last night. It is true, Mrs. fore third page he was fast.'-This is the only Sydney, who is a great herald, is shocked be- sensible spring I remember (1840): it is a real cause some of them have the arms of a royal March of intellect.' duke or a knight of the garter on them. But that does not signify to me. My plan is to go into a These joyous sights and cheerful sayings china-shop and bid them show me every plate belonged to a late period of Sydney Smith's they have which does not cost more than half-a-life. To be orderly, let us here remind the crown: you see the result. I think breakfasts so reader that this was a life of slow-growing pleasant because no one is conceited before one o'clock.' Mrs. Marcet admired his ham. Oh, prosperity of preferment in no respect egresaid he, 'our hams are the only true hams; yours gious-and of few vicissitudes, save such as a are Shems and Japhets. Some one speaking of holiday on the Continent, or a change from the character and writings of Mr.- Yes, I town to country furnish. This done, we may have the greatest possible respect for him; but, take leave of his personal history. But having from his feeble voice, he always reminds me of a sketched some of the characteristics which set liberal blue-bottle fly. He gets his head down Sydney Smith on so high a pedestal among and his hand on your button, and pours into you men of politics, men of letters,-and having an uninterrupted stream of Whiggism in a low expatiated on his humors as shown in his counbuzz. I have known him intimately, and conversed constantly with him for the last thirty trate the wit, the censor, the protector of try life,-v —we must return to this book to illusyears, and give him credit for the most enlight

ened mind, and a genuine love of public virtue; the modest, the shamer of the impudent; but I can safely say that during that period I from Sydney Smith's conversation and corhave never heard one single syllable he has ut- respondence. tered.' Mrs. Marcet complaining she could not

A PLEASANT COUNTRY FOR A NERVOUS MAN. | ance. But the insects! flying, creeping, jumping, running, digging, buzzing, stinging-they are A Texas Correspondent of an Eastern Paper everywhere. Ask for a cup of water, and the redescribes the Domestic Products of that favored joinder in our camp is: "Will you have it with land in glowing terms. If the half of his account is a bug, or without? The horned-frog is one of true, it must be a pleasant place for a nervous man: the greatest curiosities here, and is perfectly THE cattle are not the sole occupants of the harmless. It has none of the cold slimy qualities prairie by any means. Droves of wild horses are of his northern brother, but is frequently made a not unfrequent, and deer are in countless num- pet of. Chamelions are innumerable, darting over bers. The small brown wolf or cayeute is quite the prairie in every direction, with inconceivable common, and you occasionally get a glimpse of swiftness, and undergoing their peculiar change his large black brother. But Texas is the para- of color, corresponding to the color of the object dise of reptiles and creeping things. Rattle and under which they may be. The woods on the moccasin snakes are too numerous even to shake banks of the bayous are perfectly alive with a stick at; the bite of the former is easily cured mocking-birds singing most beautifully, and by drinking raw whiskey till it produces complete feathered game is abundant and very tame, as it intoxication; but for the latter, there is no cure. is scarcely ever sought after. The only varieties The tarantula is a pleasant institution to get into that I have seen are the quail, partridge, snipe, a quarrel with. He is a spider, with a body about mallard, plover, and prairie-hen. the size of a hen's egg and legs five or six inches long, and covered with long coarse black hair. He lies in the cattle-tracks, and if you see him, HERE is the scene of More's undying Canadian move out of his path, as his bite is absolutely cer- Boat Song, which he wrote on the fifth day of his tain death, and he never gets out of any one's way, descent of the St. Lawrence from Kingston. but can jump eight or ten feet to inflict his deadly Thirty-three years after he wrote this song, I had bite. Then there is the centipede, furnished with the pleasure of showing Moore the original manuan unlimited number of legs, each leg armed with script, which he had entirely forgotten. He had a claw, and each claw inflicting a separate wound. pencilled the lines, nearly as they stand in his If he walks over you at night, you will have Works, in the blank page of a book which hapcause to remember him for many months to come, pened to be in his canoe, from whence he transas the wound is of a particularly poisonous na-cribed them at night. The sight of the original ture, and is very difficult to heal. The stinging copy of these famous lines, recalling youthful days lizard is a lesser evil, the sensation of its wound and happy associations, produced a great effect being likened to the application of a red-hot iron on the poet, who alluded in a touching manner to the person; but one is too thankful to escape to his passage down the rapids of life. Weld's with life, to consider these lesser evils any annoy- Vacation Tour.

"ROW, BROTHERS, ROW."

From The Spectator, 9 June.
THE STRENGTH OF RUSSIA.

perstitious worship of the idea to make a concealed march upon other states; and in the encroachment upon Turkey, and upon Schles IN declaring war against Russia, the English wig-Holstein, with influences she was making Government, with its nearest ally, announced for herself in Austria, Hungary, Germany, if that it did not intend to appropriate any ter- not in Italy, she overbalanced every other power ritory belonging to Russia; and throughout of Europe, as far as in her lay. If the methere has been the implied promise on the moir which has recently been circulated on part of the Western Powers not to alter the the Continent, and is regarded as a kind of boundaries of the Russian empire. The ne- appendix to Count Nesselrode's circular, has gotiations that took place at Vienna were any authenticity-if, as is probable, it ema based upon the demands originally made by nates from Russian orders the Czar antici France and England: while those negotiations pates that his refusal to conclude peace at continued, it was perhaps a point of honor Vienna will be followed by a very general diswith the two Governments that they should turbance. He suspects France and England abide by the promise; though there were of designs to arouse "the nationalities," and many reasons why the promise should never to gain some advantages for themselves out of have been made. It had the effect of remov-the confusion that would be thus created. ing from Russia a serious apprehension, and Now, policy in France, conscience and conso far of lightening the political compulsion viction in this country, preclude the Western which might have brought her to terms. But Powers from attempting any aggrandizement the promise having been made, the English through confusion of that sort. Those who Government had almost disqualified itself for suspect others frequently do so from a conacting in an opposite sense. Not only have sciousness of their own purpose; and these the Conferences closed, however, but the charges against the Western Powers, which whole series of negotiations has terminated, we know to be innocent, suggest the same susin consequence of the absolute refusal of picion against herself. Known facts confirm Russia to accept the terms of the Western the suspicion. We have had no agents traPowers, and of her refusal to make any offer velling in the provinces of Russia for the purthat really merited discussion. This break-pose of getting hostile information and sowing ing-off of negotiations, with the entire refusal the seeds of disaffection; the attempts of on the part of Russia, cancelled all that has Russia to overbalance the power of Europe passed in the form of negotiation from the have been open, and she now actually threatcommencement of the war down to the pre-ens us with the very confusion that we have sent time, and thus England and France are made so many sacrifices to avoid. released from any obligation imposed upon Russia may be all that you say, cry the them by their own promise or profession. We Peace party; but you must submit to the begin afresh, free from any such fetters. terms that you can get, because you cannot It is not to be presumed that this freedom compel her without crushing or breaking her will be simply of a technical or theoretical up, and it is impossible to do that. This imkind. Russia has proved by her acts that possibility has been suffered to pass too long upon she will not submit to any controlling influence presumption, and it really is time to ask whether except positive and direct coercion; and she it is true? We know too little of Russia to prehas also betrayed both the purpose and the sume either way; so little, that even her bestprojects for exercising a coercion over other known roads, like the Arabat road into the governments of Europe. Down to the recent Crimea, are new discoveries to us. But here debates, Russia has been spoken of as a con- again the facts incline us to doubt the solidity servative power in Europe, whose position of the Russian empire. In the conversations must not be lightly disturbed, lest the anta- with Sir Hamilton Seymour, the Emperor of gonistic influences of the Continent should be Russia expressed great offence at having been let loose. The argument, indeed, has not called "the Czar," because he is no longer been so strongly or so amply repeated as it only "the Czar of Muscovy." He appeared was a week before; but there is still some to attach considerable importance to being talk of "the balance of power." Of all the called the Emperor of All the Russias: and governments on the Continent, the Russian perhaps he was right, for it is sometimes danwas the one which down to 1852 was regard-gerous to permit a defect of title to be implied ed as the most sincere and the most important even in careless speech. It is sometime asin preserving that balance of power. Within serted that all the province annexed to Russia little more than twelve months, we have discovered that Russia is not sincere; and that since 1844, if not long before, she entertained projects tending not to maintain but to subvert the balance. She had in fact used the su

have been completely "Russianized"-that is, reduced to a lower standard of political civilization than several of them possessed before. The Fins have ceased to be independent; a hundred years have merged Courland, and so

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