he
suffered, as a junior boy, from his fag-master, were such as at one
time very nearly forced us to remove him from the school. He was taken
home for a short period, to recover from his bruises, and restore his
eye. His first act, on becoming Captain himself, was to endeavour to
ameliorate the condition of the juniors, and to obtain additional
comforts for them from the Head Master."--_From Mrs, Sydney Smith's
Journal_.

[97] Two donkeys, which were disguised as deer for the astonishment of
visitors.

[98] The Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill had become law on the 13th of
April 1829.

[99] Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1764-1846).

[100] Sir Charles Wetherell (1770-1846), Attorney-General, and Recorder of
Bristol.

[101] Michael Thomas Sadler (1780-1835), M.P. for Newark.

[102] This is the "Speech respecting the Reform Bill" in Sydney Smith's
Collected Works.

[103] Lord Houghton wrote in 1873--"I heard Lord Melbourne say, 'Sydney
Smith has done more for the Whigs than all the clergy put together,
and our not making him a bishop was mere cowardice."

[104] The archaic signature of the Bishops of Worcester. Mrs. Austin
transcribes it "Vigour," and puts the Protest among the letters of
1831. Sir Spencer Walpole points out that it probably belongs to the
year 1823, when Lord Ellenborough moved an Address to the Crown in
favour of intervention in Spain.

[105] Ffolliot H.-W. Cornewall (1754-1831).

[106] Robert James Carr (1774-1841). It was said that this appointment was
due to a promise made by George IV., whom Dr. Carr, formerly Vicar of
Brighton, had attended in his last illness.

CHAPTER VI

ST. PAUL'S--THE PARALLELOGRAM--ARCHDEACON SINGLETON--COLLECTED WORKS

Meanwhile the Reform Bill had passed the House of Commons and was sent up
to the House of Lords. In the summer, Sydney Smith had written to Lord
Grey--"You may be sure that any attempt of the Lords to throw out the Bill
will be the signal for the most energetic resistance from one end of the
kingdom to another." The Lords faced the risk, and threw out the Bill on
the 8th of October 1831.

Sydney's prophecy was promptly justified, and the most threatening violence
and disorder broke out in the great centres of industrial population. Whigs
and Radicals alike rallied, as one man, to the cause of Reform. On the 11th
of October a public meeting was held at Taunton to pro