it, the idea of convincing a Russell that he was wrong
never came across my mind. Euclid would have had a bad chance with you
if you had happened to have formed an opinion that the interior angles
of a triangle were not equal to two right angles. The more poor Euclid
demonstrated, the more you would not have been convinced."

In 1838 Sydney Smith published a second Letter to the same Archdeacon:--

"It is a long time since you heard from me, and in the mean time the
poor Church of England has been trembling from the Bishop who sitteth
upon the throne, to the Curate who rideth upon the hackney horse. I
began writing on the subject in order to avoid bursting from
indignation; and, as it is not my habit to recede, I will go on till
the Church of England is either up or down--semianimous on its back or
vigorous on its legs.... If what I write is liked, so much the better;
but, liked or not liked, sold or not sold, Wilson Crokered or not
Wilson Crokered, I will write."[122]

He now returns to the "Prebends" which the Commissioners propose to
confiscate. Some of these, he says, are properties of great value. He
instances one which will soon be worth between L40,000 and L60,000 a year.
Some of them are held by non-residentiary Prebendaries, who never come near
the Cathedral, and who have no duty except to enjoy their incomes. Those
prebends Sydney Smith, as a real though temperate reformer, would now
surrender, and make from them a fund to enrich poor livings. But for the
prebends of the Residentiaries, who perform the daily duties of the
Cathedral, he will fight to the death. With splendid courage he asserts
that these great estates, held for life by ecclesiastical officers, are as
well managed, and as profitably employed, with a view to the general
interests of the community, as the lands of any peer or squire.--

"Take, for instance, the Cathedral of Bristol, the whole estates of
which are about equal to keeping a pack of foxhounds. If this had been
in the hands of a country gentleman; instead of Precentor, Succentor,
Bean, and Canons, and Sexton, you would have had huntsman,
whippers-in, dog-feeders, and stoppers of earths; the old squire, full
of foolish opinions and fermented liquids, and a young gentleman, of
gloves, waistcoats, and pantaloons: and how many generations might it
be before the fortuitous concourse of noodles would produce