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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1823
Sydney Smith to John Allen, 3 March 1823
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
Creative Commons License

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Produced by CATH
 
March 3rd, 1823.
Dear Allen,

I beg your pardon for my mistake, but I thought you had written constantly in the Review; and, so thinking, I knew Spanish subjects to be familiar to you.

Upon the absurd and unprincipled conduct of the French there can be but one opinion; still I would rather the nascent liberties of Spain were extinguished than go to war to defend them. I am afraid these sentiments will displease you, but I cannot help it. We fight in this case either from feeling or prudence. If from feeling, why not for Greece? why not for Naples? why not for the Spanish colonies? If from prudence, better that Spain and Portugal were under the government of Viceroy Blacas or Chateaubriand, than that we should go to war.

I object to your dying so soon as you propose; I hate to lose old and good friends. I am not sure that we could find the same brains over again. I am not
238MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
churchman enough to wish you away. We will live and laugh for thirty years to come. Yours,

Sydney Smith.