not render him blind to the shortcomings of the hero of the Commonwealth.
The volume contains some sharp and telling hits at Disraeli. The most notable occurs in the discourse on Pym, where, after describing the struggle of the patriots against the impost of ship-money, and how the freeholders of Buckinghamshire rode up to London to protect Hampden from the vengeance of the King, the lecturer asks—"Where are those four thousand freeholders now? And in the place where then our English Hampden stood, speaking for English liberty, who stands now, upholding martial law as the suspension of all law?" What wonder that the Right Honourable Benjamin characteiized the lectures as the vapourings of "a wild man of the cloister, going about the country maligning men and things?"
In 1866, in consequence of injuries received in a railway accident, Mr. Smith's father began to suffer from a long and painful illness, which required the constant and watchful attendance of his son. This attendance left the latter no leisure for the preparation of his lectures, and he accordingly determined upon the resignation of his Oxford Professorship. This resolution was at once carried out, and during the succeeding eighteen months his attendance upon his father was unremitting. When, in 1868, death put an end to his. father's sufferings, he found himself without occupation. The chair of English and Constitutional History in the new Cornell University, at Ithaca, in the State of New York, was pressed upon his acceptance, and after some deliberation he closed with the proposal, and shortly afterwards took up his residence at Ithaca. He presented the university with his library, and entered upon the active discharge of his official duties. In 1871 he removed to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. His professorship at Cornell being non-resident, his removal did not cause any severance of his connection with the university, and he still continues to deliver his lectures there. Shortly after his settlement in Toronto he was appointed a member of the Senate of the University of Toronto, which position he resigned a few months ago. During his residence here he has engaged in several literary and journalistic enterprises. He practically assumed the editorship of the Canadian Monthly in 1872, and retained the position for two years, when he resigned. He was also for some time editor of the Nation, a weekly journal, which ceased to appear in September last. He lately married Harriet, relict of the late Mr. W. H. Boulton, of "The Grange," Toronto, where he now resides.
