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Leader (1850-1860), 30th June 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17

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      L Etter S Of Syd N Ey Smith . Memoir Of ...

      is here , and will certainly settle in Scotland next winter . She is , for a woman , well informed and very liberal : neither is she at all disagreeable ; but the information of very plain women is so inconsiderable , that I agree with you in setting no very great store by it . lam no great physiognomist , nor have I much confidence in a science which pretends to discover the inside from the out : but where I have seen fine eyes , a beautiful complexion , grace and symmetry , in women , I have generally thought them amazingly well-informed and extremely philosophical . In contrary instances , seldom or ever . Is there any accounting for this ? Amusing it is to read in Macaulay how , under Charles and James , the war was managed or mismanaged in precisely the same style as now under Victoria and a Reformed Parliament ; the same thing meets us in Sydney Smith ' s lamentations : —

      Many people are now quite certain Buonaparte is an instrument , etc . It turns out , however , that the instrument has been baking biscuit very diligently at Bayonne for three months past , and therefore does not disdain the assistance of human means . We ( who probably are not instruments ) act as if we were . We send horses that cannot draw , commissaries who cannot feed an army , generals who cannot command one . " We take our enemy out of -a place where he can do us no harm , and land him safely in the very spot where lie can do us the greatest mischief . We are quite convinced that Providence has resolved upon our destruction , because Lord Mulgrave and Lord Castlereagh have neither sense nor activity enough to secure our safety . Elsewhere he says , anticipating the Times , " Linendrapers and shoemakers might , perhaps , save Spain—in the hands of dukes and bishops it is infallibly gone . " And to Lord Grey he writes : — There is no man -who thinks better of what you and your coadjutors can and will do ; but I cannot help looking upon it as a most melancholy proof of the miserable state of this country , when' men of integrity and ability are employed . If it were possible to have gone on without them , I am sure they would never have been thought of . Is there , then , no difference betwixt our state and that of our ancestors and fathers ? As respects Administration and Routine , none ; but as respects the Nation , there is this enormous difference , namely , that if we are mismanaged we know the fact to the full extent—and the knowledge is one step towards rectification . As a country parson Sydney Smith had two rules : — I lave laid down two rules for the country : first not to smite the partridge ; for if I fed the poor , and comforted the sick , and instructed the ignorant , yet I should be nothing fvorth , if I smote the partridge . If anything ever endangers the Church , it will be the strong propensity to shooting for which the clergy are remarkable . Ten thousand good shots dispersed over the country do more harm to the cause of religion than the arguments of Yoltaire and Rousseau . The squire never reads , but is it possible he can believe that religion to be genuine whose ministers destroy his game ? Here is a bit on Scotch love-making : — My dear Lady Holland , I shall be extremely happy to see , and will leave a note for him at the tavern where the mail stops , to say so . Xothing can exceed the dulness of this place : but he has been accustomed to live alone with his grandmother , which , though a highly moral life , is not an amusing one . There are two Scotch ladies staying here with , whom he will get acquainted , and to whom he may safely make love the ensuing winter ; for love , though a very acute disorder in Andalusia , puts on a very chronic shape in these northern latitudes ; for , first , the lover must prove metapheezically that he ought to succeed ; and then , in the fifth or sixth year of courtship ( or rather of argument ) if the summer is tolerably warm , and oatmeal plenty , the fair one is won . Tliis is excellent : — I mean to make some maxims , like Rochefoucauld , and to preserve them . My first is this : —After having lived half their lives respectably , many men get tired of honesty , and many Avomen of propriety . And this : —

      Brougham seems to have made an excellent stand against the Lonsdales ; and if Lord Thanet will back him again he will probably carry his point . The Tories here arc by no means satisfied with , who is subjected to vacillations between right and wrong . They want a man steadily base , viio may be depended upon for want of principle . I think on these points Mr . might satisfy any reasonable man ; but they are exorbitant in their demands . A playful description of the establishment of a landed baby is given in this letter : — Dear Mrs . Meynell ,

      It u ill give me great pleasure to hear of your health and continued well-doing , i suspect the little boy will be christened Hugo , that being an ancient name in the Meynell family' ; and the mention of the little boy is an additional reason why you should write to me before ho comes . You will never write after , for the infant of landed estate is so precious , that ho would exhaust the sympathies , and fill up the life , of seven or eight mothers . The usual establishment for an eldest landed baby is two wot nurses , two ditto dry , two aunts , two physicians , two apothecaries ; three female friends of the family , unmarried , advanced in life ; and often , in the nursery , one clergyman , six flatterers , and a grandpapa ! Less than this would not be

      decent . Here is a humorous argument for Peace : — My clear Lady Grey , In Kcoing my handwriting again so soon , you will say that your attack upon me lor my indisposition to letter-writing lms been more successful than you wished it to bo ; but I cannot help saying n word about war . For God ' a sake , do not drag mo into another war ! I am worn down and worn out with crusading and defending Europe , and protecting mankind ; I mvst think a little of my . self . I am sorry for the Spaniards—I am sorry for the Greeks—I deplore the fato of tho Jews ; the . pcoplo of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the mast like the atiito of the Delta

      detestable tyranny ; Hagdiul is oppressed—I do not present —Thibet is not comfortable . Ami to light for « ll these people < > I ho world la bursting with win anil sorrow , Am I to be champion of tho Decalogue , and to bo etcrn ) Uy raising fleets ami nrniics to make nil men good and happy t Wo have just done saving Europe , and I taw afraid the consequence will be , that wo HhnH cut each otkor ' H throats . No war , dour Lady Grey ! - no eloquence ; but npathy , HeHi . shnoss , common sense , arithmetic ! 1 beseech you , secure Lord Grey ' s nworrt and pistols , as tho housekeeper did Don Quixote ^ armour . If t here is another war , hfo will not bo worth having . 1 will tfo to war with the King of Denmark if he in impertinent to you , or doon any injury to Howiclc ; but , for no othor cnuso . " BUy tho vengoanco of Heaven" overtake ull tho Legitimates of Verona I but , in tho present atato of rent and taxes , they must ho left to tho vengeance of Hoavon . 1

      allow fighting in such a cause to be a luxury ; but the business of a prudent , sensible man is to guard against luxury . This parody is perfect : — It struck me last night , as I was lying in bed , that Mackintosh , if lie were to write on pep ' , would thus describe it : — " Pepper may philosophically be described as a dusty and highly-pulverised seed of an oriental fruit ; an article rather of condiment than diet , which dispersed lightly over the surface of food with no other rule than the caprice of the consumer , communicates pleasure , rather than affords nutrition ; and by adding a tropical flavour to the gross and succulent viands of the North , approximates the different regions of the earth , explains the objects of commerce , and justifies the industry of man . " The following is like Charles Lamb : — My dear Lady Holland ,

      I have written to Maltby , and stated ( in order to accumulate motives ) that you are a considerable scholar , but shy , and must be pressed a good deal before you develop such-like knowledge ; particularly , that you have peculiar opinions about the preterpluperfect tense ; and this , I know , will bring him directly , for that tense has always occasioned him much uneasiness , though he has appeared to the world cheerful and serene . This also : — I think the Jews should be kept for the private tyranny and intolerance ' of the Bishops . Thirty thousand Jews !—it is but a small matter ! Do not be too hard upon the Church ! An English spring gives him this happy illustration : —

      We have had the mildest weather possible . A great part of the vegetable world is deceived , and beginning to blossom , —not merely foolish young plants without experience , but old plants that have been deceived before by premature springs ; and for such , one has no pity . It is as if Lady were to complain of being seduced and betrayed . Here is a letter full of charming , easy humour : — My dearest Child , Few are the adventures of a Canon travelling gently over good roads to his benefice . In my way to Heading I had , for my companion , the Mayor of Bristol when I preached that sermon in favour of the Catholics . He recognised me , and we did very well together ? I was terribly afraid that he would stop at the same inn , and that I should have the delight of his society for the evening ; but he ( thank God !) stopped

      at the Crown , as a loyal man , and I , as a rude one , went on to the Bear . Civil waiters , wax candles , and off again the next morning , with my friend and Sir W . W , a very shrewd , clever , coarse , entertaining man , with whom I skirmished a V aimable all the way to Bath . At Bath , candles still more waxen , and waiters still more profound . Being , since my travels , very much gallicised in my character , I ordered a pint of claret ; I found it incomparably the best wine I ever tasted ; it disappeared with a rapidity which surprises me even at this distance of time . The next morning in the coach by eight , with a handsome valetudinarian lady , upon whom the coach produced the same effect as a steam-packet would do . I proposed weak warm brandy and water ; she thought , at first , it would produce inflammation of the stomach , but presently requested to have it warm and not weak , and she took it to the last drop , as I did the claret .

      Quite in his own vein of banter is this on the Church : — I see you are destroying the Scotch Church . I think we are a little more popular in England than we were . Before I form any op inion on Establishments , / should like to know the effects ' they produce on vegetables . Many of our clergy suppose that if there was no Church of England , cucumbers and celory would not grow ; that mustard and cress could not be raised . If Establishments are connected so much with the great laws of nature , this makes all the difference ; but I cannot believe it . And these two notes : — My dear Lady Ashburton , On one day of the year , the Canons of St . Paul ' s divide a little money—an inadequate recompense for all the troubles and anxieties they undergo . This day is , unfortunately for me , that on which you have asked me ( the 25 th of March ) , when we all dine together , endeavouring to forget for a few moments , by the aid of meat and wine , the sorrows and persecutions of the Church . I am sure Lord Ashburton and yourself , and your son Francis , feel for us as you ought to do . Dear Lady Ashburton

      , _ _ „ _ .. , _ -x . Miss Mildmay told me yesterday that you had been looking about for a print of the Rev . Sydney Smith . Here he is—pray accept him . I said to the artist , " Whatever you do , preserve the orthodox look . " This note to the geologist suggests " thoughts beyond the reaches ofanatomy : "Dear Murchison , , ¦»«¦ . n . ~* i . « Many thanks for your address , which I will diligently read . May there not be some one among tho infinite worlds where men and women are all made ofatone i Perhaps of Parian marble ? How infinitely superior to flesh and blood ! What a Paradise for you , to pass eternity with a greywacke woman ! We have thus run through the volume , picking out all the plums which will bear separation from tho pudding ; so that our readers may suppose themselves to have turned over a " marked copy . " If they want more than we have given , they know where to find it .

      No, 275, June 30, 1855.] The Lea-Deb. 62...

      No , 275 , June 30 , 1855 . ] THE LEA-DEB . 629

      Russian Conquest Op Finland. Narrative Q...

      RUSSIAN CONQUEST OP FINLAND . Narrative qfthe Conquest of Finland by the Hussions in ^ eJT ^ rs 1808-9 . **>»* «• UnpJLhed Work by a Russian Officer of Hank . Edited by General Monteith , Madras Engineers . 1854 . . " Thk reopening of the Baltic , tho presence of an English fleet ^» n sjg hit of Swoaborc and the Spit of Oricnbaum , tho prospective mterest that is cloutedI b ^ the name of Finland , will bo our apology for recurring at this date to an excellent book which was published last year and . whichthen Monteith did SOOcT serv ^ to history

      e c " aped our no ^ cT Gen ^ raf a ^ Sfe d ^^&^ t ^— al ^ r > XeiS ^ £ a now chapfeHn . niliUry histor y , although there-- ^ ing new in Ac wwaommm

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061855/page/17/