[7] It is curious that the date and place of Sydney Smith’s ordination as
    Deacon cannot be traced.  He would naturally have been ordained at
    Salisbury by John Douglas, Bishop of Sarum; but there is a gap in that
    prelate’s Register of Ordinations between 1791 and 1796.  He may have
    been ordained on Letters Dimissory in some other diocese.  He was
    raised to the Priesthood in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, on the
    22nd of May 1796 by Edward Smallwell, Bishop of Oxford; being
    described as Fellow of New College, and B.A.

    For the foregoing facts I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. A.R. 
    Malden, Registrar of the Diocese of Salisbury, and Mr. J.A.  Davenport,
    Registrar of the Diocese of Oxford.

[8] Quoted by Mr. Stuart Reid.

[9] (1735-1811).

[10] (1745-1833.)

[11] (1734-1826.)

[12] “At the commencement of the nineteenth century, the Sunday-school had
    become a part of the regular organization of almost every well-worked
    parish.  It was then a far more serious affair than it is now, for,
    where there was no week-day school, it supplied secular as well as
    religious instruction to the children.  In fact, the Sunday-school took
    up a considerable part of the day,”—­J.H.  OVERTON, The English
    Church in the Nineteenth Century.

[13] Grandfather of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, M.P.

[14] James Gregory (1753-1821), Professor of Medicine.

[15] Joseph Black (1728-1799), Professor of Chemistry.

[16] (1757-1839.)

[17] (1777-1819).  Son of the 10th Duke of Somerset.

[18] Henry Dundas (1742-1811), Lord Advocate, created Viscount Melville in
    1802.

CHAPTER II

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW—­LONDON—­“MORAL PHILOSOPHY”—­PREFERMENT

We now approach what was perhaps the most important event in Sydney Smith’s life, and this was the foundation of the Edinburgh Review.  Writing in 1839, and looking back upon the struggles of his early manhood, he thus described the circumstances in which the Review originated:—­

“Among the first persons with whom I became acquainted [in Edinburgh] were Lord Jeffrey, Lord Murray (late Lord Advocate for Scotland), and Lord Brougham; all of them maintaining opinions upon political subjects a little too liberal for the dynasty of Dundas, then exercising supreme power over the northern division of the Island.

“One day we happened to meet in the eighth or ninth story or flat in Buccleugh Place, the elevated residence of the then Mr. Jeffrey.  I proposed that we should set up a Review; this was acceded to with acclamation.  I was appointed Editor, and remained long enough in Edinburgh to edit the first number of the Edinburgh Review.  The motto I proposed for the Review was—­

      “‘Tenui musam, meditamur avena.’