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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1841
Sydney Smith to Lady Jane Davy, 31 August 1841
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, Aug. 31st, 1841.
My dear Lady Davy,

I thank you for your very kind letter, which gave to Mrs. Sydney and to myself much pleasure, and carried us back agreeably into past times. We are both tolerably well, bulging out like old houses, but with no immediate intention of tumbling down. The country is in a state of political transition, and the shabby are preparing their consciences and opinions for a tack.

I think all our common friends are doing well. Some are fatter, some more spare, none handsomer;
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.451
but, such as they are, I think you will see them all again. But pray do you ever mean to see any of us again? or do you mean to end your days at Rome? a town, I hear, you have entirely enslaved, and where, in spite of your Protestantism, you are omnipotent. Your Protestantism (but I confess that reflection makes me melancholy)—your attachment to the clergy generally—the activity of your mind—the Roman Catholic spirit of proselytism—all alarm me. I am assured they will get hold of you, and we shall lose you from the Church of England. Only promise me that you will not give up, till you have subjected their arguments to my examination, and given me a chance of reply: tell them that there is un Canonico dottissimo to whom you have pledged your theological faith. Excuse my zeal; it is an additional proof of my affection.

Believe me, dear Lady Davy,
Your affectionate friend,
Sydney Smith.