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1823 .. Sept . 7 , at Frankford , near Philadelphia ,, aged 57 , Mr . Thomas Smith , formerly " of Waddington Heath , near Lincoln . Mr . Smith was universally respected for his strict probity , his extensile information , particularly in statistics and rural economy , and his very amiable temper and manners . He was
the author of some well-written letters , published in the Lincoln and Stamford Mercury , in the year 1819 , principally ou the ancient state of the County of Lincoln , under the signature of Antiquarius , which displayed considerable research and a discriminating judgment . He was pressed by many respectable persons to
publish them in a collected form , and though he had a very humble opinion of their value , he intended to have complied with the request , and with that view had made some additions to them , but owing tp want of time ,, and a long ^ protracted state of ill health , he was prevented from completing his design .
Mr . Smith was consulted by the society of gentlemen , formed in London about three years ago , for the purpose of endeavouring to restore what is called the Cottage System ; the remains of which , in Lincolnshire and some other counties
are considered to be the principal reason why the poor rates have been and now are so much lower in those places than in most other parts of the kingdom : and it Js understood that the Society ' derived fem his communications considerable
assistance m the furtherance of thsir views . He & \ so wrote the s ^ iort History of the Presbyterian Congregation and its JVleeting-House at Lincoln , inserted in tins work ( Vol . } QV . pp . 213—216 ) . His ancestors for several generations were dissenters > and he was Trustee for , aud a very liberal contributor to , the funds of t $ at Society .
Had Mr , Smith lived to return to England , as he designed to have done in the course of the year , those who knew him would have beeji anxious to have seen published the opinions of so judicious an observer upon America , after a more than two years' residence in that country . His views , though probably more favourable than those of Fearon and Faux , were not such ds would have
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recommended emigration in the present state of things in this country . To one of his friends , he thus , on that subject , briefly wrote in May lust , after a residence there of nearly two years : —
" You will expect that I shall give an opinion of this country and people , but this would lead me into a very wide field , which , to travel through in the shortest way , would be too much for my leisure at present ; aud there are but few thiugs on which I have , as yet , made up nay
mind to speak of in any decided manner . How the flyiug travellers who scamper through three or four thousand miles of country , in the course of a summer , in stages and steam-boats , can briug themselves to talk as positively of every thing : they see , as if they had been long residents , I am at a loss to imagine ; but
their random assertions , and foolish and inaccurate remarks , have done incalculable mischief ; for never was there a country so falsely described , and in a way most fatally to mislead and deceive , as this has been by that class of travellers whose works have been most read by the great body of emigrants ; and who have thus come here with the
expectation of finding a country in which the cares and troubles of procuring the comforts of Jife are greatly lessened , compared with the old . For myself , though i had read more on America than most people , I have wondered to find so many things so totally different from what had been impressed on my mind by the
tourists ; and so many important particulars which had been wholly left uniiotiqed by them . Of the three most important and leading objects of inquiry respecting the state of a country , viz . the government , the climate , and the character of the people , I can just briefly say , of the first , that it appears to me to have all the excellencies which have been
attributed to it by its warmest admirers . The climate is most certainly . a bad one , and the people are not so good as they ought to be under such a government * There are glaring , faults in their manners
and character , which the people in the old countries have not in the same degree . They have , however , some excellencies in . which John Bull ' s people fall short . But merits and faults summed
up on both sides , there would be but a , small balance remain on either . < c If you a , re consulted by any one , either fariner , mechanic , or labourer , on the subject of emigration , avoid giving
any encouragement . There is not one Englishman , in twenty nt to con * e heve ; their very prejudice . makes tljem unhappy , though thriving ever so fast *" ' , ' '
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116 Obituary . v ^ Mr . Thom as Smith *
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Lately , at Barnes ^ agfiji 79 , the Jlev . 'Fhbophiujs Houlbrqoke , LL , B . F . B . S .. JB ., formerly of Sjt . John ' s College , Cambridge . For some time he held the office of President of the literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool . ( We hope to repeive from some correspondent a further account of this excellent man . )
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1824, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2521/page/52/
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