Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith 1771-1845, English clergyman, writer, and wit, ordained in the Church of England in 1794. In 1798 he went as a tutor to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, occasionally preached, and with Jeffrey and others founded (1802) the Edinburgh Review. His brilliant contributions were a strong factor in the periodical's success. Moving to London in 1803, Smith lectured on moral philosophy at the Royal Institution and became a well-known figure in literary society. His "Peter Plymley" letters (published anonymously in 1807-8) in defense of Catholic Emancipation were the first of his many appeals for religious toleration. In 1809 he moved to Yorkshire, where he had been given a living of £500 a year. There he also acted as magistrate and village doctor. He went to a parish in Somerset in 1829; in 1831 he was given a residentiary canonry at St. Paul's. Smith's religion was strong and of a practical nature. A lover of justice and truth, he was a life-long defender of the oppressed. His failure to rise higher in the church is attributed to his wide reputation as a master of wit and satire. He is placed among the premier English wits and has been compared to Swift and to Voltaire.

Bibliography: See his works (4 vol., 1839-40); his letters (ed. by N. Smith, 2 vol., 1953); selections from his writings (ed. by W. H. Auden, 1956); memoir by his daughter, Lady Holland (2 vol., 1855); biographies by G. W. Russell (1905, repr. 1971), H. Pearson (1934, repr. 1971), G. W. Bullett (1951, repr. 1971), and A. Bell (1980).

Smith, Sydney (1771–1845), lived for a time as a tutor in Edinburgh, where he became a friend of Jeffrey and Brougham with whom he founded the Edinburgh Review in 1802. He came to London in 1803, lectured with great success on moral philosophy at the Royal Institution, and became the wittiest and one of the most beloved of the Whig circle at Holland House. He published The Letters of Peter Plymley (1807) in defence of Catholic emancipation, and a considerable number of sermons, speeches, essays, and letters. He was made a canon of St Paul's in 1831.

Smith, Sydney (1771–1845),English clergyman and author, famous as a critic for the Edinburgh Review and creator of many bons mots, one of which made him notorious in America because he asked in a review of Seybert's Annals of the United States (Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1820): “In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue?” In a speech (1831) Smith compared the opposition of the House of Lords to the progress of reform with the attempt of Dame Partington to brush away the Atlantic Ocean, and this suggested to B.P. Shillaber his humorous character Mrs. Partington.