SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 159 | Next

Russell, George William Erskine, 1853-1919

"Sydney Smith"


On the 28th of August 1828 he wrote to a Roman Catholic friend:--
"Brougham thinks the Catholic question as good as carried; but I never
think myself as good as carried, till my horse brings me to my
stable-door.... What am I to do with my time, or you with yours, after
the Catholic question is carried?"
To the same friend he wrote:--
"You will be amused by hearing that I am to preach the 5th of
November[93] sermon at Bristol, and to dine at the 5th of November
dinner with the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol. All sorts of bad
theology are preached at the Cathedral on that day, and all sorts of
bad toasts drunk at the Mansion House. I will do neither the one nor
the other, nor bow the knee in the house of Rimmon."
On the 5th of November 1828, he wrote to Lord Holland:--
"To-day I have preached an honest sermon before the Mayor and
Corporation in the Cathedral--the most Protestant Corporation in
England! They stared at me with all their eyes. Several of them could
not keep the turtle on their stomachs."
The sermon[94] well deserved the epithet. It glanced, as the occasion
demanded, at the civil grievances of the Roman Catholics, and then it went
on to lay down some simple but sufficient rules by which men should
regulate their judgment on religious forms and bodies with which they do
not sympathize.


Pages:
147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171