THERE are a number of reasons why Sydney Smith, the man, his writings, and the cause he has served faithfully, should be known to American readers. In the first place, by way of preparatory appeal to all candid and generous minds, he has been popularly misunderstood, and where his name is known at all, it is known not as the generous assailant of false politics, evil social grievances; not as the protector of the oppressed, or the defender of the poor prisoner; but as the last of a prejudiced and truth-perverting band who have from days immemorial been periodically sent forth, emissaries from Europe to darken the fair fame of this country. Save by his Letters on the American debts, Sydney Smith is known to very few. Yet this is hardly to be consider ed one of his serious writings; it is an admirable squib, a splendid exhibition of his satirical fence and attack, it is a cutting retort which, if it were not temporary in its application, if we did not feel it to be a jest of the moment, good only till the debts are paid, would indeed be withering. But it cannot be fastened upon the nation, and only for a short time upon a small part of it. Letting it pass for whatever it is worth, it is only a tithe of what the writer has said of America, and said too, as we shall presently see, in a very different spirit, and but a tithe of a tithe of the various nature of the man displayed through a long career in the greatest variety of practical beneficence. Not for a moment is Sydney Smith to be confounded with the rabble herd of tourists. They have nothing in common with him. Why, Sydney Smith is the old protector of the country, in the Edinburgh Review, from these very assailants.

To dispose entirely of this matter of the American debts at the outset, as we have only a bystander's perception of the satire as New Yorkers, and have no fears for the ultimate honor of the country any way, and more especially as the Reverend Sydney Smith has paid handsomely for his jests by the premature sale of his bonds, we are quite well disposed to let him have his fun undiminished, provided always he

adheres to his resolution, "as soon as the last farthing is paid to the last creditor, of appearing at the bar of the Pennsylvanian Senate in the plumeopicean robe of American controversy. Each conscript Jonathan shall trickle over me a few drops of tar, and help to decorate me with those penal plumes in which the vanquished reasoner of the transatlantic world does homage to the physical superiority of his opponents." The day is fast hastening, Reverend Sydney, towards this thy purgation, in which thou must make atonement in Dantean penance, clad as a harpy for the foulness of thy attacks upon the "drab-colored men of Pennsylvania."

But' it is for the cause of humanity and progress that Sydney Smith has served, that his writings commend themselves to the respect and affection of American readers. He has done eminent services in behalf of truth, and is still in the field her active champion. Though more than a sexagenarian, his writings have no taint of his years. He has that charm against a superannuated life-which it has been the main object of his pen to convey to the world-it is the love of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. With these he possesses the true fountain of youth, a heart that renews swifter than blood decays. The vitality of the man is wonderful. He affords an instance of a bright and vigorous age that would have charmed Cicero into giving him a place beside Scipio and Lælius. His later writings have more freedom and sprightliness even than his earlier ones, which is perhaps easily accounted for when we consider the knowledge and experience upon which wit relies for its materials, and that even many ordinarily dull men are stung by disappointment, or ripened by the lessons, the oft repeated lessons, of many years, into at least the lower forms of wit, causticity, and prudential dogmatism.

He has been identified with the great measures of Reform which have become the law of Great Britain in his time, and a great share of the good the Edinburgh Review has done the world, belongs to him, "To appreciate the

value of the Edinburgh Review," says he in the Preface to his collected works, "the state of England at the period when that journal began should be had in remembrance. The Catholics were not emancipated-the Corporation and Test Acts were unrepealed-the Game Laws were horribly oppressive-Steel Traps and Spring guns were set all over the country-Prisoners tried for their lives could have no CounselLord Eldon and the Court of Chancery pressed heavily upon mankind-Libel was punished by the most cruel and vindictive imprisonments-the principles of Political Economy were little understood-the Law of Debt and of Conspiracy were upon the worst possible footing the enormous wickedness of the Slave Trade was tolerated-a thousand evils were in existence, which the talents of good and able men have since lessened or removed; and these effects have not been a little assisted by the honest boldness of the Edinburgh Review." In all these things Sydney Smith and the Edinburgh Review are synonymous, and we may add to the list his Anti-Corn-Law agitation. In 1802, at the very commencement of the Review, he wrote, "The question of the Corn Trade has divided society into two parts-those who have any talents for reasoning and those who have not" and he has been scoring the witticism on the backs of his opponents ever since. He was one of the first to welcome WOMAN (English Woman) into the ranks of literature and art in an eloquent article on Female Education which appeared in 1810. His Peter Plymley letters in defence of Catholic Emancipation, will survive with the never dying principles of toleration he advocated in that great measure. All forms of religious and social tyranny, alike proceeding from the Establishment or Dissenters; from a tory administration; from government or from individuals; have met a poignant rebuke from his pen. He has not aimed alone at a high quarry for fame or reputation, but has taken up the cause of the helpless and neglected, Among questions of State in his writings may be found papers in behalf of Chimney Sweepers, and even a word for Poach

ers.

Such have been the employments of a man of whom we shall now give a short biographical account, some se

lections from his writings, and a slight analysis of the peculiarities which have made those writings so acceptable.

According to an article in Fraser's Magazine, Sydney Smith was born in 1768. He was educated at Eton and took his degree at Oxford, where he acquired the right to make all the jokes he has made about Greek and Latin verses, Æolic Reduplications and the exclusiveness (in England, of a classical education. In 1794 he entered the church and subsequently became junior preacher to Alison (the author of the work on Taste) in a small Episcopalian chapel in Edinburgh. He became a member of the Speculative Society with Brougham and Macintosh, and projected the Edinburgh Review. We find him afterwards in London a fashionable preacher at the Foundling Hospital, and his sermons of this period, which have been published, sustain his reputation. Fraser, a few years since, described him as "Rector of Combleflory in the county of Devon, and Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral; residing however, in fact, at No. 39 Charles street, Berkeley Square, and there habitually exercising himself in inditing letters to Lord John Russell, Thomas Barnes, Esq., and other men in place and authority, of and concerning the right honourable and right reverend Charles James, lord bishop of London, the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker, of Kensington, in the said diocess, and divers other topics and persons, as to which and whom the said Sydney agrees in the main with the said Lord John, and differs in the main from the said Thomas Barnes." with a slight change of topics is, we believe, yet his position. The Bishop of London and the Ecclesiastical Commission have given place to Sir Robert Peel and the Corn Laws. Sydney Smith is Sydney Smith still, the legitimate descendant of Eachard and Swift, and the wittiest man in England.

This

He has himself given the following account of the establishment of the Edinburgh Review:

"When first I went into the Church, I had a curacy in the middle of Salisbury Plain. The Squire of the parish took a fancy to me, and requested me to go with his son to reside at the University of Weimar; before we could get there, Germany became the seat of war, and in stress of

politics we put into Edinburgh, where I remained five years. The principles of the French Revolution were then fully afloat, and it is impossible to conceive a more violent and agitated state of society. Among the first persons with whom I became acquainted were, Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray (late Lord Advocate for Scotland), and Lord Brougham; all of them maintaining opinions upon political subjects a little too liberal for the dynasty of Dundas, then exercising supreme power over the northern division of the island.

"One day we happened to meet in the eighth or ninth story or flat in Buccleugh place, the elevated residence of the then Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should set up a Review; this was acceded to with acclamation. I was appointed Editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number of the Edinburgh Review. The motto I proposed for the Review was,

'Tenui musam meditamur avena."

'We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal.' But this was too near the truth to be admitted, and so we took our present grave motto from Publius Syrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure, ever read a single line; and so began what has since turned out to be a very important and able journal. When I left Edinburgh, it fell into the stronger hands of Lord Jeffrey and Lord Brougham, and reached the highest point of popularity and success. I contributed from England many articles, which I have been foolish enough to collect and publish with some other tracts written by me."

Of these articles, not at all "foolish," and in nowise to be repented of, we will now give some account.

We are first attracted to those relating to America. They consist of reviews of early travellers in this country, from whose books various statistics are gleaned, and upon whom and their

narratives various commentaries are

written. It will hardly be credited by those who have taken occasion to censure Mr. Everett for spending a couple of days with the author of the Letters on the American Debts that one of these articles opens as follows:

"There are a set of miserable persons in England who are dreadfully afraid of America and everything Americanwhose great delight is to see that country ridiculed and vilified-and who appear to imagine that all the abuses which exist in

this country acquire additional vigor and chance of duration from every book of Travels which pours forth its venom and falsehood on the United States. We shall from time to time call the attention of the public to this subject, not from any party spirit, but because we love truth, and praise excellence wherever we find it; and because we think the example of America will, in many instances, tend to open the eyes of Englishmen to their true interests."

Sydney Smith has exhibited many of the benefits of America to the world, the economy of her government, the simplicity of her courts of law, her religious toleration, the absence of restrictions on tradesmen ; but, alas! he could find in 1820 no American literature, and wrote that much-quoted phrase, “Who

reads an American book ?” It was coupled with some other interrogatories after the fashion of Englishmen, which time has fully answered. Indeed, some of these answers, as to the demand for statesmen and political economy, have resolved themselves into questions which have yet to be answered by the other side.

We must confess that we do not care to enter into the defence of this matter, especially in literature, where we fear the result of such limited discussion as we could afford at this time would be unprofitable. Not that the question, could not be satisfactorily enough an"Who reads an American book ?” swered, at least for all newspaper purposes of glorification and something more, but that the true American literature being yet in its infancy, so much would appear appear to the reader to be taken for granted, so much necessarily anticipated, there would be so much more philosophizing than statistics, that we forbear the discussion. The question of an American literature, in the right sense of the word, is one of great possibilities (potentialities, Dr. Johnson but of few facts. There was abundant would have said), of some probability, playfulness in Sydney Smith on this question, as on all others, and he did amuse himself with Joel Barlow and

a Mr. Dwight, who wrote some poems, and his baptismal name was Timothy.' The public, we believe, are pretty well satisfied on the poetical merits of these authors, and are suffciently content if the leviathan of wit must have a tub to sport with—to throw

over to him Joel and Timothy. Sydney sums up his view of the matter thus :

"Why should the Americans write books, when a six weeks' passage brings them in their own tongue, our sense, science and genius in bales and hogsheads? Prairies, steamboats, grist-mills, are their natural objects for centuries to come. Then, when they have got to the Pacific Ocean-epic poems, plays, pleasures of memory, and all the elegant gratifications of an ancient people who have tamed the wild earth, and sat down to amuse them

selves."

If this be so, hurry on, ye mighty nation; conquer Oregon, and hasten the time when we may write something of all this out leisurely in literature. But, remember this-Homer never waited for the glories of Athens.

Sydney Smith's advice to Jonathan on taxation is more conclusive, and as it has (besides being a capital thing) been always passed around as Lord Brougham's, we quote it entire.

We can inform Jonathan what are

the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory;-Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot; taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion; taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth; on every thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at home; taxes on the raw material; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice; on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride; at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The school-boy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road: and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed,

which has paid 22 per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a licence of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying

him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers-to be taxed no more."

The essay on Female Education, which we have alluded to, is worth many volumes which have been written on that, at present, fashionable theme It is full of passages applicable to the practical conduct of life. One set of silly objections after another are refuted with our author's accustomed force of wit and logic, till, at last, as he comes to the contemplation of old age, his such classic passages as this :style assumes a high moral tone, in

quences of knowledge, is the respect and "One of the most agreeable conseimportance which it communicates to old age. Men rise in character often as they increase in years; they are venerable from what they have acquired, and pleasing from what they can impart. If they outlive their faculties, the mere frame itself is respected for what it once contained; but women (such is their unfortunate style of education) hazard everything upon one cast of the die; when youth is gone, all is gone. No human creature gives his admiration for nothing: understanding gratified. A woman must either the eye must be charmed, or the talk wisely, or look well. Every human being must put up with the coldest civility, who has neither the charms of youth, nor slightest commiseration for decayed acthe wisdom of age. Neither is there the complishments; no man mourns over the fragments of a dancer, or drops a tear on the relics of musical skill. They are

flowers destined to perish; but the decay of great talents is always the subject of solemn pity: and, even when their last memorial is over, their ruins and vestiges are regarded with pious affection.”

The paper on "Proceedings of the Society for the Suppression of Vice " is a very honorable specimen of the penetration, good sense and watchful philanthropy of Sydney Smith. In these days of voluntary associations— in this country, where, under cover of the general freedom, such societies are of rapid growth, with all their evils of self-righteousness, proscription and irresponsible power, the lesson may be worth repeating. It thus happens that the liberties of the citizen may be infringed upon in a hundred tyrannical ways, and that the known laws of the

state, which, as a good man, he is ready to obey, are but a part of the restrictions under which he lives. Such associations are direct interferences with the laws. They either do more than the law, and are hence unauthorized and tyrannical; do less, and are of no importance at all; or they take the matter out of the hands of the authorities, and thus weaken our respect for law, and remove its obligations by discharging its duties. Such, at least, are the views of Sydney Smith:

"We doubt if there be not some mischief in averting the fears and hopes of the people from the known and constituted authorities of the country to those self-created powers; a Society that punishes in the Strand,-another which rewards at Lloyd's Coffee-house! If these things get to any great height, they throw an air of insignificance over those branches of the government to whom these cares properly devolve, and whose authority is by these means assisted, till it is superseded. It is supposed that a project must necessarily be good, because it is intended for the aid of law and government. At this rate, there should be a society in aid of the government, for procuring intelligence from foreign parts, with accredited agents all over Europe. There should be a voluntary transport board, and a gratuitous victualling office. There should be a duplicate, in short, of every department of the State, the one appointed by the King, and the other by itself. There should be a real Lord Glenbervie in the woods and forests, and with him a monster, a voluntary Lord Glenbervie, serving without pay, and guiding gratis, with secret counsel, the axe of his prototype. If it be asked, who are the constituted authorities who are legally appointed to watch over morals, and whose functions the Society usurp? our answer is, that there are in England 12,000 clergy, not unhandsomely paid for persuading the people, and about 4000 justices, 30 grand juries, and 40,000 constables, whose duty and whose inclination it is to compel them to do right. Under such circumstances, a voluntary moral society does, indeed, seem to be the purest result of volition; for there certainly is not the smallest particle of necessity mingled with its exist

ence.

"It is hardly possible that a society for the suppression of vice can ever be kept within the bounds of good sense and moderation. If there are many members who have really become so from a feeling

of duty, there will necessarily be some who enter the Society to hide a bad character, and others whose object it is to recommend themselves to their betters by a sedulous and bustling inquisition into the immoralities of the public. The loudest it against the more prudent part of the and noisiest suppressors will always carry community; the most violent will be considered as the most moral; and those who see the absurdity will, from the fear of being thought to encourage vice, be reluctant to oppose it.

"It is of great importance to keep public opinion on the side of virtue. To their authorized and legal correcters, mankind are, on common occasions, ready enough to submit; but there is something in the self-erection of a voluntary magistracy which creates so much disgust, that it almost renders vice popular, and puts the offence at a premium. We have no doubt but that the immediate effect of a voluntary combination for the suppression of vice, is an involuntary combination in favor of the vices to be suppressed; and this is a very serious drawback from any good of which such societies may be the occasion; for the state of morals, at any one period, depends much more upon. opinion, than law; and to bring odious and disgusting auxiliaries to the aid of virtue, is to do the utmost possible good to the cause of vice. We regret that mankind are as they are; and we sincerely wish that the species at large were as completely devoid of every vice and infirmity as the President, Vice-President and Committee of the Suppressing Society; but, till they are thus regenerated, it is of the greatest consequence to teach them virtue and religion in a manner which will not make them hate both the one and the other. The greatest delicacy is required in the application of violence to moral and religious sentiment. We forget, that the object is, not to produce the outward compliance, but to raise up the inward feeling, which secures the outward compliance. You may drag men into church by main force, and prosecute them for buying a pot of beer, and cut them off from the enjoyment of a leg of mutton; and you may do all this, till you make the common people hate Sunday, and the clergy, and religion, and everything which relates to such subjects. There are many crimes, indeed, where persuasion cannot be waited for, and where the untaught feelings of all men go along with the violence of the law. A robber and a murderer must be knocked on the head like mad dogs; but we have no great opinion of the possibility of indicting men into piety, or of calling in the