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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1831
Sydney Smith, “Protest,” [September 1831]
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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The following Protest has been entered (we hear) upon the journals of the House of Lords by the new Bishop of Worcester.

324 MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

Dissentient,—Because the Address says that we have been dragged into the war, whereas we are deliberately walking into it.

2nd. Because scenes of horror, injustice, and oppression are never wanting upon the face of the earth; and war, arising from the generous spirit of repressing such evils, would be interminable.

3rd. Because we are ruined.

4th. Because no evil to arise from the ascendancy of France over Spain would be equal to the evil of going to war to prevent it.

5th. Because it is very probable that the Bourbons may be destroyed in the contest they have brought on themselves, without the necessity of our going to war at all to effect so desirable an object.

6th. Because a system of absolute neutrality, so essential at this moment to the welfare of Great Britain, is, from our insular situation, at all times a much safer policy here than it would be for any continental nation.

7th. Because such is the wicked and profligate extravagance with which all British wars are conducted, and so ineffectual the control exercised by a corrupt House of Commons over our national expenses, that nothing but the dread of invasion or the preservation of faith should induce this country to give up the advantages of peace.

Sydney Vigour.