“21 December, 1836.
Combe Florey.
“My dear Panizzi,
Various Bishops, of whom the Archbishop of Canterbury is at the head, on the Ecclesiastical Commission, combine in recommending that the revenues of their various churches should be seized, the patronage confiscated, and the numbers abridged. Now, the Archbishop, at his consecration, took a solemn oath that he would preserve the rights, revenues, and property of his Cathedral; moreover, in the debates on the Catholic question, the said Archbishop laid a great stress upon the King’s oath at his Coronation, so did the Bishop of London. I have no books here; would you do me the favour to look into the debates on that subject, and extract any short passage from the speeches of either of the prelates on the sanctity and importance of this oath. You will find what has been said, of course, in Hansard. I shall be much obliged to you to do this for me.
Ever yours truly,
Sydney Smith.”
Fortunately even the power of Sydney Smith’s opposition failed to hinder the carrying out of a reform, perhaps the least revolutionary that could have been devised for the administration of the property of the Church.
In the same proportion as diversity of topics enters into a series of correspondence, will, as a rule, be the amount of amusement to be derived by the public from its perusal. But one more letter from Sydney Smith to Panizzi is in our possession, and this, so far as it goes, and in conjunction with the letter already quoted, sufficiently fulfils the above condition. It certainly treats of no grave question of ecclesiastical or other politics, but is concerned with nothing mean or unimportant, since it relates to an invitation to dinner sent by the writer to the recipient, and is eminently characteristic of its author:—
“23 April, 1844,
“My dear Panizzi,