groves in the vicinity. The town, founded by the French, derives its name from the kubba (tomb) of a marabout named Sidi-bel-Abbes, near which a redoubt was constructed by General Bedeau in 1843. The site of the town, formerly a swamp, has been thoroughly drained. The surrounding country is healthy, fertile and populous.
SIDMOUTH, HENRY ADDINGTON, 1st Viscount (1757–1844), English statesman, son of Dr Anthony Addington, was born on the 30th of May 1757. Educated at Winchester College and Brasenose College, Oxford, he graduated in 1778, and took the chancellor’s prize for an English essay in 1779.
Owing to his friendship with William Pitt he turned his attention
to politics, and after his election as member of parliament for
Devizes in 1784 gave a silent but steady support to the ministry
of his friend. By close attention to his parliamentary duties,
he obtained a wide knowledge of the rules and procedure of the
House of Commons, and this fact together with his intimacy
with Pitt, and his general popularity, secured his election as
Speaker in June 1789. Like his predecessors, Addington continued
to be a partisan after his acceptance of this office, took
part at times in debate when the house was in committee; and
on one occasion his partiality allowed Pitt to disregard the
authority of the chair. He enjoyed the confidence of George III.,
and in the royal interest tried to induce Pitt to withdraw his
proposal for a further instalment of relief to Roman Catholics.
Rather than give way on this question Pitt resigned office early
in 1801, when both he and the king urged Addington to form
a government. Addington consented, and after some delay
caused by the king’s illness, and by the reluctance of several
of Pitt’s followers to serve under him, became first lord of the
treasury and chancellor of the exchequer in March 1801. The
new prime minister, who was specially acceptable to George,
was loyally supported by Pitt; and his first important work,
the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens in March 1802, made him
popular in the country. Signs, however, were not wanting that
the peace would soon be broken, and Pitt, dissatisfied with the
ministry for ignoring the threatening attitude of Napoleon, and
making no preparations for a renewal of the war, withdrew his
support. Addington then took steps to strengthen the forces of
the crown, and suggested to Pitt that he should join the cabinet
and that both should serve under a new prime minister. This
offer was declined, and a similar fate befell Addington’s subsequent
proposal to serve under Pitt. When the struggle with France
was renewed in May 1803, it became evident that as a war
minister Addington was not a success; and when Pitt became
openly hostile, the continued confidence of the king and of a
majority in the House of Commons was not a sufficient counterpoise
to the ministry’s waning prestige. Although careful and
industrious, Addington had no brilliant qualities, and his mediocrity
afforded opportunity for attack by his enemies. Owing
to his father’s profession he was called in derision “the doctor,”
and George Canning, who wrote satirical verses at his expense,
referred to him on one occasion as “happy Britain’s guardian
gander.” Without waiting for defeat in the House he resigned
office in April 1804, and became the leader of the party known
as the “king’s friends.” Pitt, who now returned to office, was
soon reconciled with his old friend; in January 1805 Addington
was created Viscount Sidmouth, and became lord president of
the council. He felt aggrieved, however, because his friends
were not given a larger share of power, and when Pitt complained
because some of them voted against the ministry, Sidmouth left
the cabinet in July 1805. In February 1806 he became lord privy
seal in the ministry of Fox and Grenville, but resigned early in
1807 when the government proposed to throw open commissions
in the army and navy to Roman Catholics and Protestant
dissenters; in 1812 he joined the cabinet of Spencer Perceval as
lord president of the council, becoming home secretary when the
ministry was reconstructed by the earl of Liverpool in the following
June. The ten years during which he held this office coincided
with much misery and unrest among the labouring classes, and
the government policy, for which he was mainly responsible,
was one of severe repression. In 1817 the Habeas Corpus Act
was suspended, and Sidmouth issued a circular to the lords-lieutenant
declaring that magistrates might apprehend and hold
to bail persons accused on oath of seditious libels. For this step
he was severely attacked in parliament, and was accused of
fomenting rebellion by means of his spies. Although shaken by
the acquittal of William Hone en a charge of libel the government
was supported by parliament; and after the “Manchester
massacre” in August 1819 the home secretary thanked the
magistrates and soldiers for their share in quelling the riot. He
was mainly responsible for the policy embodied in the “Six Acts”
of 1819. In December 1821 Sidmouth resigned his office, but
remained a member of the cabinet without official duties until
1824, when he resigned owing to his disapproval of the recognition
of the independence of Buenos Aires. Subsequently he took
very little part in public affairs; but true to his earlier principles
he spoke against Catholic emancipation in April 1829, and voted
against the Reform Bill in 1832. He died at his residence in Richmond
Park on the 15th of February 1844, and was buried at
Mortlake. In 1781 he married Ursula Mary, daughter of Leonard
Hammond of Cheam, Surrey, who died in 1811, leaving a son,
William Leonard, who succeeded his father as Viscount Sidmouth,
and four daughters. In 1823 he married secondly Marianne,
daughter of William Scott, Baron Stowell (d. 1836), and widow
of Thomas Townsend of Honington, Warwickshire. Sidmouth
suffers by comparison with the great men of his age, but he was
honest and courageous in his opinions, loyal to his friends, and
devoted to church and state.
The 2nd Viscount Sidmouth (1794–1864) was a clergyman of the Church of England; he was succeeded as 3rd Viscount by his son, William Wells Addington (b. 1824).
See Hon. G. Pellew, Life of Sidmouth (London, 1847); Lord John Russell, Life and Times of C. J. Fox (London, 1859–1866); Earl Stanhope, Life of Pitt (London, 1861–1862); Sir G. C. Lewis, Essays on the Administrations of Great Britain (London, 1864); Spencer Walpole, History of England (London, 1878–1886). (A. W. H.*)
SIDMOUTH, a market town and watering-place in the Honiton
parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the river Sid
and the English Channel, 16734 m. W. by S. of London, by the
London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901)
4201. Lying in a hollow, the town is shut in by hills which terminate
in the forelands of Salcombe and High Peak, two sheer cliffs
of a deep red colour. The shore line curves away, beyond these,
westward to the Start and eastward to Portland—both visible
from Sidmouth beach. The restored church of St Nicholas,
dating from the 13th century, though much altered in the 15th,
contains a window given by Queen Victoria in 1866 in memory
of her father, the duke of Kent, who lived at Woolbrook Glen,
close by, and died there in 1820. An esplanade is built along the
sea-wall, and the town possesses golf links and other recreation
grounds. The bathing is good, the climate warm. Formerly of
some importance, the harbour can no longer be entered by large
vessels, and goods are transhipped into flat-bottomed lighters
for conveyance ashore. Fishing is extensively carried on and
cattle fairs are held. In the 13th century Sidmouth was a borough
governed by a port-reeve. Tradition tells of an older town
buried under the sea; and Roman coins and other remains have
been washed up on the beach. Traces of an ancient camp exist
on High Peak.
SIDNEY (or Sydney), ALGERNON (1622–1683), English politician, second son of Robert, 2nd earl of Leicester, and of Dorothy Percy, daughter of Henry, 9th earl of Northumberland, was born at Penshurst, Kent, in 1622. As a boy he showed much talent, which was carefully trained under his father’s eye In 1632 with his elder brother Philip he accompanied his father on his mission as ambassador extraordinary to Christian IV. of Denmark, whom he saw at Rendsburg. In May 1636 Sidney went with his father to Paris, where he became a general favourite, and from there to Rome. In October 1641 he was given a troop in his father’s regiment in Ireland, of which his brother, known as Lord Lisle, was in command. In August 1643 the brothers returned to England. At Chester their horses were taken by the Royalists, whereupon they again put out to sea and landed at Liverpool. Here they were detained by the Parliamentary
