BENEFIT OF HIS EXAMPLE. 189 



gence, while we shall look up to them with firm reliance as 

 our defenders against foreign aggression. Ill will it fare with 

 Great Britain when her children shall peruse such a life as 

 that of Mr. Assheton Smith, except to see in it a model for 

 their example. Should such a day arrive, our best national 

 defences would serve us little against an invader, and our 

 empire would soon cease to maintain that proud pre- 

 eminence it has so long held among mankind. But, if I 

 know my countrymen rightly, that day need not be appre- 

 hended. Eather will this narrative of some passages in 

 the life of a true Englishman touch a chord in every heart, 

 and find its home in every clime where British resolution 

 to overcome obstacles, where British courage and emulation 

 find congenial spirits. If the prevailing defect of our age 

 be indifference of purpose,* not only in our politics, but in 

 our moral and social sympathies, ay in our very sports, no 

 more powerful spur can be found to rouse our slumbering 

 energies, and to revive within us a generous warmth of 

 sentiment and action, than the contemplation of the almost 

 certain success attending every pursuit and undertaking 

 which enthusiasm pervades ; while the honour w^e ungrudg- 

 ingly hasten to pay to a great and shining quality, even 

 though we may be wanting in it ourselves, must serve to 

 elevate the standard of conduct, and to promote a hopeful 

 spirit of emulation. 



Ilium nulla dies unquam meniori eximet sevo : 

 • Dum domus -^nese Capitoli immobile saxum 



Accolet, imperiumque pater Romanus habebit. 



Soon after the death of her husband, Mrs. Assheton 

 Smith retired to Ted worth, where she remained in strict 

 privacy, until the state of her health, which, at all times 

 delicate, had undergone a considerable shock from the 



* When this was written, the Eifle movement had not attained its 

 present formidable dimensions. 



