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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1829
Sydney Smith to John Archibald Murray, 14 December 1829
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
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Combe Florey, Dec. 14th, 1829.
Dear John Murray,

My house is assuming the forms of maturity, and a very capital house it will be for a parsonage,—far better than that at Poston. Your threats of coming to see us give us great pleasure. When will you come? Let it be for a good long stay. Pray remember me kindly to Mrs. Murray, and tell her that the only fault I find in her is an excessive attachment to bishops and tithes; an amiable passion, but which may be pushed too far.

I cannot say the pleasure it gives me that my old and dear friend Jeffrey is in the road to preferment. I shall not be easy till he is fairly on the Bench. His robes, God knows, will cost him little: one buck rabbit will clothe him to the heels.

I have been paying some aristocratic visits to Lord Bath and Lord Bathurst. Lady Bath is a very agreeable, conversible woman. Lord and Lady Bathurst, and Lady Georgiana, are charming. Nothing can exceed the beauty of this country,—forty and fifty miles together of fertility and interesting scenery. I hardly think I have any news to tell you. The Duke of Bedford has given in his adhesion to the Duke of Wellington, as have all the Tories, except four. Read ‘Les Mémoires d’une Femme de Qualité sur Louis XVIII.’ It is by Madame du Cayla, and extremely interesting.

I was not at all pleased with the article in the Edinburgh Review on the Westminster Review, and thought the Scotchmen had the worst of it. How foolish and
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.303
profligate, to show that the principle of general utility has no foundation, that it is often opposed to the interests of the individual! If this be not true, there is an end of all reasoning and all morals: and if any man asks, why am I to do what is generally useful? he should not be reasoned with, but called rogue, rascal, etc., and the mob should be excited to break his windows.

God bless you, dear Murray!

Sydney Smith.