Part 13 (1/2)
Sydney San on the 1st of February 1832 On the eve of the new year he wrote to hishow to coe Coach conity The Coach sets off from Taunton at four o'clock It is then dark I reco in three minutes before the Coach departs with her face covered up But there is a maiden lady who knows us and who lives opposite the Coach I have promised to keep her in conversation whilst Saba steps in Once in, all chance of detection is over
”_PS_--We think Miss Y---- has discovered us, for, uponher in Taunton, she spoke of the _Excellence of Public Conveyances_ I said it was a fine day, and, conscious of guilt, retired”
The removal to London was safely accomplished, and on the 29th of January he wrote:--
”I drove all thiswith Lady Holland I had refused two or three tiood deal is due to old friendshi+p, I wrote word that, if she would accept the coyman, I knew of one as much at her service She was very ill I preached to her, not 'of Tee of the two last and confined myself to the first topic 'Lay aside pepper, and brandy and water, and _baule lass of toast and water'--here she cried and I stopped; but she began sobbing, and I eak enough to alloo glasses of sherry--on which she recovered”
A few days later he wrote to his old friend Lady Morley[109]:--
”I have taken possession of my preferment The house is in Amen Corner,--an aard name on a card, and an aard annunciation to the coach any fashi+onable ive a dinner every Sunday, for three -men, at one o'clock Do me the favour to drop in as _Mrs_ Morley”
It soon beca Government, flushed with its triu hands upon the Church,[111] and the newly-fledged dignitary was alarmed On the 22nd of December 1832 he wrote--
”I see Lord Grey, the Chancellor, and the Archbishop of Canterbury have had a , which I suppose has decided the fate of the Church” ”Do you want a butler or respectable-looking groom of the chambers? I shall be happy to serve you in either capacity; it is tiy to look out I have also a cassock and stock of sermons to dispose of, dry and fit for use” ”I am for no more movements: they are not relished by Canons of St Paul's When I say, 'no more movements,' however, I except the case of the Universities; which, I think, ought to be immediately invaded with Enquirers and Cooing to rat I ahly honest, and, I will say, liberal person, but have never given way to that puritanical feeling of the Whigs against dining with Tories
”'Tory and Whig in turns shall be my host, I taste no politics in boil'd and roast'”
In declining an invitation to dinner he wrote:--
”On one day of the year, the Canons of St Paul's divide a little money--an inadequate recoo This day is, unfortunately for me, that on which you have asked ether, endeavouring to forget for a few moments, by the aid of meat and wine, the sorrows and persecutions of the Church”
Of Sydney Smith's official relations with St Paul's abundant traces are still to be found He took a leading part in the business of the Chapter
Dean Milman[112] wrote:--”I find traces of him in every particular of Chapter affairs: and, on every occasion where his hand appears, I find stronger reasons for respecting his sound judge of business, and activity of mind; above all the perfect fidelity of his stewardshi+p
His ement of the affairs of St Paul's (for at one tier) only commenced too late and terminated too soon”
A Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1841 to inquire into the condition of National Monuh to be recalled--
”I hope I leave the Committee with this very decided impression, that, in such an immense town as this, free admission into the Cathedral would very soon inflict upon that Cathedral the infa a notorious resort for all bad characters; it would cease to be frequented as a place of worshi+p, and the whole purpose for which it exists destroyed; and that to this the payment operates as a decided check”
When examined before the same Committee, the Surveyor to the Cathedral testified that there ”had been no superintendence at all comparable to that of Mr Sydney Smith”; that he had warmed the Library and rebound the books; that he had insured the fabric against fire; and had ”brought the New River into the Cathedral by er testified that the urement, and that there were ”twenty thousand names scratched on the font”; but that now by Mr
S had been repaired, cleaned, and set in order
As regards Sydney S, testimony is equally explicit He said of hi his claiuished as a preacher,” and this seee Ticknor, writing in 1835, said that he had heard froland” Charles Greville wrote;--”He is very good; reeable: rather familiar, but not offensively so” Mrs, Austin,[113] who afterwards edited his Letters, writes:--”The choir[114] was densely filled The ht of his duty, all the authority of his office, ritten on his countenance; and, without a particle of affectation, his whole deravity of his purpose”
This exactly corresponds with the impression of a listener to his famous sermon on Toleration, in Bristol Cathedral ”Never did anybody to h Churchman, as he walked up the aisle to the altar--there was an air of so nity in his appearance”
Perhaps this account of Sydney Smith's relations with St Paul's Cathedral cannot be better concluded than with some extracts from the noble sermon which he preached there on the occasion of Queen Victoria's accession It is a remarkably fine instance of his rhetorical acious patriotism It breathes a spirit of fatherly interest which excellently beco life spent in public affairs, at the possibilities, at once awful and splendid, which lay before the Girl-Queen
The preacher, in his opening paragraphs, briefly announces his the--
”Froone!
The look of favour--the voice of power, no more;--the deserted palace--the wretched monarch on his funeral bier--the mourners ready--the dismal march of death prepared Who are we, and what are we? and for what has God made us? and why are we doomed to thus frail and unquiet existence? Who does not feel all this? in whose heart does it not provoke appeal to, and dependence on, God? before whose eyes does it not bring the folly and the nothingness of all things human?”