Sydney Smith Part 15

One of the Bishops had emerged from silence and security to rebuke the correspondent of Archdeacon Singleton, and now he had his reward.--

"You must have read an attack upon me by the Bishop of Gloucester,[128] in the course of which he says that I have not been appointed to my situation as Canon of St. Paul's for my piety and learning but because I am a scoffer and a jester. Is not this rather strong for a Bishop, and does it not appear to you, Mr. Archdeacon, as rather too close an imitation of that language which is used in the apostolic occupation of trafficking in fish? Whether I have been appointed for my piety or not, must depend upon what this poor man means by piety. He means by that word, of course, a defence of all the tyrannical and oppressive abuses of the Church which have been swept away within the last fifteen or twenty years of my life; the Corporation and Test Acts; the Penal Laws against the Catholics; the Compulsory Marriages of Dissenters, and all those disabling and disqualifying laws which were the disgrace of our Church, and which he has always looked up to as the consummation of human wisdom. If piety consisted in the defence of these--if it was impious to struggle for their abrogation, I have indeed led an unG.o.dly life.... To read, however, his Lordship a lesson of good manners, I had prepared for him a chastis.e.m.e.nt which would have been echoed from the _Segrave_ who banqueteth in the castle,[129] to the idiot who spitteth over the bridge at Gloucester."

But the Bishop had made a rather misplaced appeal for compa.s.sion, on account of his failing eyesight; and Sydney, flinging him contemptuously on one side, pa.s.sed on to the more formidable Bishop of London.--

"I was much amused with what old Hermann says of the Bishop of London's _aeschylus_. 'We find,' he says, '_a great arbitrariness of proceeding, and much boldness of innovation, guided by no sure principle_'; here it is: _qualis ab incepto_. He begins with aeschylus, and ends with the Church of England; begins with profane, and ends with holy innovations--scratching out old readings which every commentator had sanctioned; abolishing ecclesiastical dignities which every reformer had spared; thrusting an anapaeest into a verse, which will not bear it; and intruding a Canon into a Cathedral, which does not want it; and this is the Prelate by whom the proposed reform of the Church has been princ.i.p.ally planned, and to whose practical wisdom the Legislature is called upon to defer. The Bishop of London is a man of very great ability, humane, placable, generous, munificent; very agreeable, but not to be trusted with great interests where calmness and judgment are required: unfortunately, my old and amiable school-fellow, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has melted away before him, and sacrificed that wisdom on which we all founded our security.... Whatever happens, I am not to blame. I have fought my fight. Farewell"

A little later he wrote to an old friend:--

"I don't like writing to the Bishop of London: it is making a fuss, and looks as if I regretted the part I had taken on Church Reform, which I certainly do not--but I should be much annoyed if the Bishop were to consider me as a perpetual grumbler against him and his measures--I really am not: I like the Bishop and like his conversation--the battle is ended, and I have no other quarrel with him and the Archbishop but that they neither of them ever ask me to dinner. You see a good deal of the Bishop, and as you have always exhorted me to be a good boy, take an opportunity to set him right as to my real dispositions towards him, and exhort him, as he has gained the victory, to forgive a few hard knocks."

In the summer of 1839 Courtenay Smith died suddenly, and left no will.[130]

He had acc.u.mulated wealth in India, and a third part of it now pa.s.sed to his brother Sydney. Referring to these circ.u.mstances four years later, Sydney wrote:--

"This put me at my ease for my few remaining years. After buying into the Consols and the Reduced, I read Seneca _On the Contempt of Wealth_. What intolerable nonsense!

"I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have been happier every guinea I have gained."

His novel opulence did not paralyse his pen. In 1839 he published a vehement attack upon the Ballot, from which he foresaw no better results than the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of every one, including women, universal corruption, systematic lying, and a victory for the "lower order of voters"

over their "betters." Of the great advocate of the Ballot, George Grote,[131] he says--"Mr. Grote knows the relative values of gold and silver; but by what moral rate of exchange is he able to tell us the relative values of Liberty and Truth?"

The paper on the Ballot was included in a collection of reprints, mainly from the _Edinburgh Review_, which he published in 1839. The book sold so well that in 1840 he published an enlarged edition. The articles reprinted from the _Edinburgh_ amount to sixty-five, and a memorandum by his daughter shows that twelve more were omitted from the reproduction, "probably because their subjects are already treated of in the extracted articles, or because they applied only to the period in which they were written," The complete list will be found in Appendix A.

In the preface to these collected pieces, which are styled _The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith_, the author said, after recounting the circ.u.mstances under which the _Edinburgh Review_ was founded:--

"To set on foot such a Journal in such times, to contribute towards it for many years, to bear patiently the reproach and poverty which it caused, and to look back and see that I have nothing to retract, and no intemperance and violence to reproach myself with, is a career of life which I must think to be extremely fortunate. Strange and ludicrous are the changes in human affairs. The Tories are now on the treadmill, and the well-paid Whigs are riding in chariots: with many faces, however, looking out of the windows (including that of our Prime Minister[132]), which I never remember to have seen in the days of the poverty and depression of Whiggism. Liberality is now a lucrative business. Whoever has any inst.i.tution to destroy, may consider himself as a Commissioner, and his fortune as made; and, to my utter and never-ending astonishment, I, an old Edinburgh Reviewer, find myself fighting, in the year 1839, against the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, for the existence of the National Church."

Some of the reprinted articles would be fairly ranked in the present day under the derogatory t.i.tle of "Pot-boilers"; but others are among the most effective and entertaining pieces which the author ever penned. Some of these must be specified. There is the extraordinarily amusing, but quite unjust, attack on Methodism, under which convenient heading are grouped "the sentiments of Arminian and Calvinistic Methodists, and of the Evangelical clergymen of the Church of England." The fun in this article is chiefly gleaned from the pages of the _Evangelical Magazine_ and the _Methodist Magazine_. Here we have the affecting story of the young man who swore, and was stung by a bee "on the tip of the unruly member," "one of the meanest of creatures" being thus employed "to reprove the bold transgressor." Not less moving are the reflections of the religious observer who saw a man driving clumsily in a gig.--"'What (I said to myself) if a single untoward circ.u.mstance should happen! Should the horse take fright, or the wheel on either side get entangled, or the gig upset,--in either case what can preserve them? And should a morning so fair and promising bring on evil before night,--should _death on his pale horse_ appear,--what follows?' My mind shuddered at the images I had raised."

Very curious too is the case of the people who, desiring to go by sea to Margate, found the cabin occupied by a "mixed mult.i.tude who spoke almost all languages but that of Canaan"; and started a weekly hoy on which "no profane conversation was allowed." The advertis.e.m.e.nts are as quaint as the correspondence.--

"'Wanted, a man of serious character, who can shave.'

'Wanted, a serious young woman, as servant of all work.'

'Wants a place, a young man who has brewed in a serious family.'"

On these eccentricities of mistaken devotion, Sydney pounces with delighted malice; and his jokes, acrid as they are, seem to be the vehicles of a real conviction. He honestly believed that "enthusiasm" in religion tended to hysteria and insanity; that it sapped plain morality; and turned the simple poor into "active and mysterious fools." Something, he thought, "in the way of ridicule," might be done towards checking Methodism, and to that task he addressed himself with hearty goodwill.

Equally unfair, and equally insensible to all the appeals of religious fervour, is the article on Indian Missions, for which, fifty years after, Archbishop Tait found it hard to forgive him.[133] Here again the artificial quaintness of religious phrase and thought gave him the necessary material for his fun. As he had found delight in the proper names of Methodist ministers--Shufflebottom and Ringletub[134]--so he delighted in lampooning "Ram Boshoo," and "Buxoo a brother," and "the Catechist of Collesigrapatuam." The saintly and scholarly Carey[135] ought to have been safe from his attacks, but the Baptist Missionary Society rather invited ridicule.--

"Brother Carey, while very sea-sick, and leaning over the ship to relieve his stomach from that very oppressive complaint, said his mind was even then filled with consolation in contemplating the wonderful goodness of G.o.d."

And Brother Carey's own journal was calculated to raise a smile.--

"_1793. June 30. Lord's-day_. A pleasant and profitable day: our congregation composed of ten persons."

"_July 7_. Another pleasant and profitable Lord's-day: our congregation increased with one. Had much sweet enjoyment with G.o.d."

"_1794. Jan, 26. Lord's-day_. Found much pleasure in reading Edwards's _Sermon on the Justice of G.o.d in the d.a.m.nation of Sinners_."

"_April 6_. Had some sweetness to-day, especially in reading Edwards's Sermon."

"_.1796. Feb. 6_. I am now in my study; and oh, it is a sweet place, because of the presence of G.o.d with the vilest of men. It is at the top of the house; I have but one window in it."

In reply to Jeffrey, who as Editor of the _Edinburgh Review_ rebuked his contributor for "levity of quotations," Sydney Smith wrote in 1808:--

"I do not understand what you mean. I attack these men because they have foolish notions of religion. The more absurd the pa.s.sage, the more necessary it should be displayed--the more urgent the reason for making the attack at all."

This is at any rate an explanation, even if it does not amount to a justification; but what is lamentable is that, as in the case of the Methodists at home, he seems frankly unable to conceive of the pa.s.sion for spreading the Gospel which drove men from all that is enjoyable in life to slave and die under Indian suns. He seems genuinely to believe that the spread of the Christian religion in India will produce a revolution, and he turns the ludicrous blunders of religious men into arguments for slothfulness in evangelization.--

"If there were a fair prospect of carrying the Gospel into regions where it was before unknown,--if such a project did not expose the best possessions of the country to extreme danger, and if it was in the hands of men who were discreet as well as devout, we should consider it to be a scheme of true piety, benevolence, and wisdom: but the baseness and malignity of fanaticism shall never prevent us from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and its activity. For what vice can be more tremendous than that which, while it wears the outward appearance of religion, destroys the happiness of man, and dishonours the name of G.o.d?"

In the second article on Methodism, he returns, as his manner was, to the ground formerly traversed, and claims the praise of all reasonable men for his previous strictures.--

"In routing out a nest of consecrated cobblers, and in bringing to light such a perilous heap of trash as we were obliged to work through, in our articles upon the Methodists and Missionaries, we are generally conceived to have rendered an useful service to the cause of rational religion."

But he had been rebuked by the admirers of the Cobblers, and now he turns upon his rebukers with characteristic vigour. Prominent among these was the Rev. John Styles, and Mr. Styles, unhappily for his cause and happily for his opponent, made a grotesque slip which Sydney turned to the best advantage.--

"In speaking of the cruelties which their religion entails upon the Hindoos, Mr. Styles is peculiarly severe upon us for not being more shocked at their piercing their limbs with _kimes_. This is rather an unfair mode of alarming his readers with the idea of some unknown instrument. He represents himself as having paid considerable attention to the manners and customs of the Hindoos; and, therefore, the peculiar stress he lays upon this instrument is naturally calculated to produce, in the minds of the humane, a great degree of mysterious terror. A drawing of the _kime_ was imperiously called for; and the want of it is a subtle evasion, for which Mr. Styles is fairly accountable. As he has been silent on this subject, it is for us to explain the plan and nature of this terrible and unknown piece of mechanism. _Kimes_, then, are neither more nor less than a false print in the _Edinburgh Review_ for _knives_; and from this blunder of the printer has Mr. Styles manufactured this Daedalean instrument of torture, called a _kime_! We were at first nearly persuaded by his argument against _kimes_; we grew frightened;--we stated to ourselves the horror of not sending missionaries to a nation which used _kimes_;--we were struck with the nice and accurate information of the Tabernacle upon this important subject:--but we looked in the errata, and found Mr. Styles to be always Mr. Styles--always cut off from every hope of mercy, and remaining for ever himself."

At the end of the article, the writer glories in the fact that the Government of India is beginning to harry the missionaries.--

"The Board of Control (all Atheists, and disciples of Voltaire, of course) are so entirely of our way of thinking, that the most peremptory orders have been issued to send all the missionaries home upon the slightest appearance of disturbance. Those who have sons and brothers in India may now sleep in peace. Upon the transmission of this order, Mr. Styles is said to have destroyed himself with a _kime_."

The same vigorous dislike to the Evangelical way of religion animates the article on Hannah More; and here again the criticized writer gave the critic just the handle which he required.

"We observe that Mrs. More, in one part of her work, falls into the common error about dress. She first blames ladies for exposing their persons in the present style of dress, and then says, if they knew their own interest--if they were aware how much more alluring they were to men when their charms are less displayed, they would make the desired alteration from motives merely selfish.

"'Oh! if women in general knew what was their real interest, if they could guess with what a charm even the _appearance_ of modesty invests its possessor, they would dress decorously from mere self-love, if not from principle. The designing would a.s.sume modesty as an artifice; the coquette would adopt it as an allurement; the pure as her appropriate attraction; and the voluptuous as the most infallible art of seduction.'

"If there is any truth in this pa.s.sage, nudity becomes a virtue; and no decent woman, for the future, can be seen in garments."

That is aptly said; but it is a relief to turn from Sydney Smith the Philistine--the bigoted and rather brutal opponent of enthusiastic religion, to Sydney Smith the Philanthropist--the pa.s.sionate advocate of humanitarian reform born at least fifty years before his time. Excellent ill.u.s.trations of this aspect of his character are to be found in "Mad Quakers," with its study of the improved methods of treating lunacy; "Chimney-Sweepers," "Game-Laws," "Spring-Guns," "Prisons," and "Counsel for Prisoners." Each of these essays shows a deliriously warm sympathy with the sufferings of the downtrodden and the friendless; and a curiously intimate knowledge of matters which lie quite outside the scope of a clergyman's ordinary duties. As an appreciation of character, friendly but not servile, nothing can be better than his paper on Sir James Mackintosh,[136] with the ill.u.s.tration from Curran, and the n.o.ble image (which the writer himself admired) of the man-of-war. Writing to Sir James's son, Sydney Smith says:--

"Curran, the Master of the Rolls, said to Mr. Grattan, 'You would be the greatest man of your age, Grattan, if you would buy a few yards of red tape, and tie up your bills and papers.' This was the fault or the misfortune of your excellent father; he never knew the use of red tape, and was utterly unfit for the common business of life. That a guinea represented a quant.i.ty of shillings, and that it would barter for a quant.i.ty of cloth, he was well aware; but the accurate number of the baser coin, or the just measurement of the manufactured article, to which he was ent.i.tled for his gold, he could never learn, and it was impossible to teach him. Hence his life was often an example of the ancient and melancholy struggle of genius with the difficulties of existence.

"A high merit in Sir James Mackintosh was his real and unaffected philanthropy. He did not make the improvement of the great ma.s.s of mankind an engine of popularity, and a stepping-stone to power, but he had a genuine love of human happiness. Whatever might a.s.suage the angry pa.s.sions, and arrange the conflicting interests of nations; whatever could promote peace, increase knowledge, extend commerce, diminish crime, and encourage industry; whatever could exalt human character, and could enlarge human understanding, struck at once at the heart of your father, and roused all his faculties. I have seen him in a moment when this spirit came upon him--like a great ship of war--cut his cable, and spread his enormous canva.s.s, and launch into a wide sea of reasoning eloquence."

For pure fun, one could not quote a better sample than the review of Waterton's[137] _Travels in South America_.--

"Snakes are certainly an annoyance; but the snake, though high-spirited, is not quarrelsome; he considers his fangs to be given for defence, and not for annoyance, and never inflicts a wound but to defend existence. If you tread upon him, he puts you to death for your clumsiness, merely because he does not understand what your clumsiness means; and certainly a snake, who feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping upon his tail, has little time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous and peevish. American tigers generally run away--from which several respectable gentlemen in Parliament inferred, in the American war, that American soldiers would run away also!

"The description of the birds is very animated and interesting; but how far does the gentle reader imagine the Campanero may be heard, whose size is that of a jay? Perhaps 300 yards. Poor innocent, ignorant reader! unconscious of what Nature has done in the forests of Cayenne, and measuring the force of tropical intonation by the sounds of a Scotch duck! The Campanero may be heard three miles!--this single little bird being more powerful than the belfry of a cathedral, ringing for a new dean--just appointed on account of shabby politics, small understanding, and good family!... It is impossible to contradict a gentleman who has been in the forests of Cayenne; but we are determined, as soon as a Campanero is brought to England, to make him toll in a public place, and have the distance measured.

"The Toucan has an enormous bill, makes a noise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the woods of Cayenne with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow trees? The Toucans, to be sure, might retort, to what purpose were gentlemen in Bond Street created? To what purpose were certain foolish prating Members of Parliament created?--pestering the House of Commons with their ignorance and folly, and impeding the business of the country? There is no end of such questions. So we will not enter into the metaphysics of the Toucan.

"The Sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in trees, and never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle to the sky, the mole to the ground, the sloth to the tree; but what is most extraordinary, he lives not _upon_ the branches, but _under_ them. He moves suspended, rests suspended, sleeps suspended, and pa.s.ses his life in suspense--like a young clergyman distantly related to a bishop.