8 
firmity or any mental failing, she expired in February 
1820 ;—and Nathaniel, lieutenant-colonel of the 
honourable East India Company’s artillery service, 
whose only son was the friend through life of his 
cousin, the subject of this memoir. 
Mr. Smith, the father of Sir James, was a man 
of strong understanding and of a cultivated mind. 
Having in his early youth occasion to reside some 
time at Clifton hot-wells for the recovery of his 
health, he was induced by the kindness of a lady 
there, who conceived a partiality for him as a clever 
and superior boy, to employ his leisure hours in 
learning French, and with the language he acquired 
a taste for reading the best authors of a country 
whose history more especially engaged his attention, 
and perhaps few men in his own or any station read 
more, or enjoyed in a greater degree the charm of 
good composition. He left remarks upon the style 
and character of most of the works belonging to 
the book-club of which he was a member ; and they 
are indicative of the acute and sound judgement he 
possessed*. 
_ * The following is a specimen, though a very short one, of 
Mr. Smith’s notice of the books he read : 
* Some Thoughts concerning Education, 1693. 
“ This little useful treatise was written by the celebrated Mr. 
Locke, and is truly valuable, although the luxury and effeminacy 
of the present times will not, cannot conform to the rules he de- 
livers. He recommends a private education, because he says the 
first, the greatest object of education is virtue and goodness. In 
reading his observations, ‘tis impossible not to reflect how very 
different is the mode of education in the great schools from that 
he thinks proper.”—Common-place Book. 
