PROFESSOR SMYTHE AND HIS OPINIONS. 



OF Professor Smythe, the Lecturer on Modern History at the 

 University of Oxford his personalities and opinions a very inte- 

 resting account is given in a work on the eve of publication, the 

 proof sheets of which are lying before us.* The author is evidently 

 a man who has seen a great deal of the world ; and one who is not 

 only possessed of very acute powers of observation, but of the means 

 of communicating his experience and impressions in a remarkably 

 neat, clear, lively, and pleasant style. His matter is very miscella- 

 neous ; and, as the title of his book implies, he treats alternately of 

 " The Court, the Camp, the Quarter-Deck, and the Cloister." He 

 is full of anecdote and tells us much about " living ladies and gen- 

 tlemen," of which, but for him, we should have been ignorant. In 

 his clerical and nautical sketches, he is so felicitous and true, that we 

 are half inclined to rank him as Chaplain of the Fleet. He is evi- 

 dently intimate with a great number of Deans, Bishops, Post-Cap- 

 tains, and Rear-Admirals. He is not much less acquainted with 

 authors and statesmen. Of Earl Grey, he tells the following story: 



" A summer or two ago Earl Grey was afflicted with a most singular dis- 

 order ; for continually present to his mind's eye was a bloody head. The 

 features rigid in death the lead-like lifeless eye the brow convulsed in agony 

 -and the neck, from which drops of gore seemed to trickle these features 

 form no very agreeable porirait. Such, however, as it was, no art could ex- 

 clude it from the Earl's presence, and it embittered every moment of his life. 



" Change of scene was prescribed, and his Lordship came to Devonport ; 

 but there his enemy followed him, and confronted him, turn where he would, 

 with its fixed and steady gaze. He then went to Endsleigh Cottage, a beau- 

 tiful country seat of the Duke of Bedford, near Tavistock. For once he 

 seemed to have distanced his pursuer, and for many days enjoyed the luxury 

 of being alone. But to a large dinner party given there, the bloody head 

 came, uninvited, and stationed itself opposite to its old intimate, whom it 

 harassed and disheartened with its presence, till the companionship became 

 unbearable, and the Earl abruptly and in disorder quitted the table." 



The paper which has pleased us best, is that on Professor Smythe, 

 of which the following is the cream : 



" It was my good fortune to have heard the entire course of Lec- 

 tures given by Mr. Smythe, Professor of Modern History at Cam- 

 bridge ; and in particular, that portion of them in which he, for the 

 first time, brought his labours down to the French Revolution and 

 the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. It was curious to 

 listen to the terms in which he alluded to that memorable era. ' It 

 was a great calamity to mankind that the French Revolution failed ; 

 that this grand experiment in the cause of liberty this grandest of 

 all causes was mismanaged!' . . . . ' I do not attempt to write the 

 history of the French Revolution ; I can only allude to those events 

 which you must study for yourselves. Some idea should be formed 

 of it by you all, and as soon as possible. You should not go into the 

 world, or long remain in it, without some settled persuasion on this 

 momentous subject The French Revolution failed failed in all 



* Whychcotte of St. John's ; or, the Court, the Camp, the Quarter-Deck, 

 and the Cloister. 2 Vols. 8vo. Effingham Wilson. 



