ting
disfavor by the fatal outcome of an army duel, in which Lieutenant Hawkes
killed Lieutenant Seaton. About the same time occurred the death of Thomas
Hood, the poet and humorist. Born in 1798, as a son of a bookseller, he
soon became a writer. As one of the editors of the "London Magazine," he
moved among all the principal wits of the day. His first book, "Odes and
Addresses to Great People," was written in conjunction with J.H. Reynolds,
his brother-in-law. This was followed by "Whims and Oddities," in prose
and verse; "National Tales," and "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," a
book full of imaginative verse. Hood's rich sense of humor found scope in
his "Comic Annual," appearing through ten successive years, and his
collection of "Whimsicalities." Among his minor poems, "The Bridge of
Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt" deserve special mention.

[Illustration: LORD TENNYSON
Painted by Frederic Sandys]

[Sidenote: Death of Sydney Smith]

[Sidenote: Pungent satire]

Sir Sydney Smith, the essayist, died shortly before this. Born in 1771, he
studied for orders and became a clergyman. At the opening of the Nineteenth
Century he entered the field of authorship with the publication of "Six
Sermons Preached at Charlotte Chapel." Then came the famous "Letters on the
Catholics, from Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham." This book
established Sydney Smith's reputation as a satirist. For nearly twenty
years he published no more books, though a constant contributor to the
"Edinburgh Review." Some idea of Sydney Smith's pungent style may be
derived from his famous remarks on England's taxation during the wars with
Napoleon: "The schoolboy," he said, "whips his taxed top; the beardless
youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the
dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid seven per cent, into
a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his
chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of
an apothecary, who has paid a license of one hundred pounds for the
privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately
taxed from two to ten per cent. Large fees are demanded for burying him
in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble,
and then he is gathered to his forefathers to be taxed no more."

[Sidenote: Meagre literary remains]

It was Sydney Smith, too, who asked the famous question: "W