" "I am tired of liberty and revolution!
Where is it to end? Are all political agglutinations to be unglued?
Are we prepared for a second Heptarchy, and to see the King of Sussex
fighting with the Emperor of Essex, or marrying the Dowager Queen of
Hampshire?"
Just before the first elections under the Reform Act, he wrote to a Scotch
friend:--
"What oceans of absurdity and nonsense will the new liberties of
Scotland disclose! Yet this is better than the old infamous jobbing,
and the foolocracy under which you have so long laboured."
Sydney Smith's first term of official duty at St. Paul's began on the 1st
of February 1832. On the eve of the new year he wrote to his married
daughter:--
"We are debating how to come up to town, and how to make a Stage Coach
compatible with Saba's aristocracy and dignity. The Coach sets off
from Taunton at four o'clock. It is then dark. I recommend her
hurrying in three minutes before the Coach departs with her face
covered up. But there is a maiden lady who knows us and who lives
opposite the Coach. I have promised to keep her in conversation whilst
Saba steps in. Once in, all chance of detection is over.
"_PS._--We think Miss Y---- has discovered us, for, upon meeting her
in Taunton, she spoke of the _Excellence of Public Conveyances_. I
said it was a fine day, and, conscious of guilt, retired.
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