SMITH. 263 SMITH. Chapel and published Six Sermons (1800). In 1802 he joined .Jeffrey, Horner, and Brougham ill founding the Eflinhurgh Revicv:, the first three numbers of which lie mainly edited. To this periodical he contributed during the next 25 years about 80 articles of various kinds. In 1803 he gave up tutoring, which he had hitherto combined with preaching, and settled in London. He' there gained fame as preaclier, lecturer, and humorist. Church preferment, however, came slowly. In 1800 he obtained from Lord Erskine the rectory of Foston-le-Clay in Yorkshire. In 1809 he settled at Hesslington, near his parish, and in 1814 moved to Foston. where he rebuilt the rectory in which he lived for 14 years.* He proved au admirable village parson. In 1828, to his great delight. Lord Lyiulhurst, the Chancel- lor, presented liim to a prebend in Bristol Cathe- dral. and the next year enabled him to exchange Foston for Combe-Florey, a more desirable rec- tory in Somersetshire, where he now nioed. In 1831 Earl Grey appointed him one of the canons residentiary of Saint Paul's; and this completed his round of ecclesiastical preferments. In 1839 he inherited from his brother £50,000 and took a house in Grosvenor Square, London. Smith's writings comprise the famous Letters on the Subject of the Catholics, to my Brother Abraham, who Lives in the Coiintrij, by Peter Plymley (anonymous, 1807-08), written to pro- mote the cause of Catholic emancipation, and abounding in wit and irony worthy of Swift; Three Letters to Archdeacon Singleton on the Ecclesiastical Cotnmission (1837-39); and Let- ters on American Debts (1843). Though the works of Smith relate mostly to temporary con- troversies, they yet hold a place in our literature as specimens of clear and vigorous reasoning, rich humor, and solid good sense. His jokes, exaggeration, and ridicule are all logical, driv- ing home his arguments; and his wit is sportive, untinctured with malice. The House of Lords, standing in the way of reform, he likened to the excellent Mrs. IPartington attempting with her mop and pail to hold back the Atlantic Ocean in storm. This story, related in detail in a speech delivered at Taunton (October 11, 1831), is one of the humorist's best-known in- ventions. Consult: Memoir by his daughter, Lady Hol- land (London, 1855) ; Reid, Sketch of Life and Times (4th ed., ib., 1896) ; Saintsbury, Essays in English Literature (1st series, ib., 1890); Wit and Wisdom of S. Smith, with memoir, by Duyc- kinck (New York, 1856, often reprinted) ; Works (London, 1840; Philadelphia, 1844) ; Selections, ed. by Rhys (London, 1892), and in Elia Series (New York, 1897) ; Peter Plymley's Letters (Saintsbury's Pocket Library, ib., 1891) ; and Bon Mots of Smith and Sheridan, ed. by Jerrold (New York, 1893). SMITH, Sir Thomas (1513-77). An English statesman and scholar, born at Saffron Walden, in Essex, and educated at Queen's College, Cam- bridge. He traveled and studied abroad and re- ceived honorary degrees from the universities of Padua, Cambridge, and Oxford. As a teacher at Cambridge he tried to change the pronuncia- tion of Greek from the modern method then in use to the Erasmian system ; in defense of his reform he wrote (1542) his De Recta et Emen- data LingucE Groecce Pronuntiatione (Paris, 1568). In 1544 he became Regius professor of civil law in Cambridge, and in 1547 received from Edward VI. the post of clerk of the Privy Council, and in 1548 was made Secretary of State. A zealous supporter of the Reformation, he lived in retirement under Mary, but in Eliza- beth's reign lie became eminent as a statesman and diplomatist. In 1564 he negotiated the peace of Troyes with France. Wliile in Paris he wrote his De Repuhlica Anglorum ; The Maner of Gov- ernment, or Policy of the Realmc of England (London, 1583). From this dale diplomatic missions occupied much of his time. In 1572 he succeeded Burleigh as Secretar_y of State, but in 1576 ill health compelled him to retire. In addition to the works mentioned above he trans- lated psalms, composed orations and essays, and wrote voluminous letters on official matters. Especially interesting is his De Recta et Emen- data Lingua; Anglicce Scriptione Dialogus (Paris, 1568). a proposed reform in spelling. Consult also Strvpe, Life of Sir Thomas Smith (Oxford, 1820). SMITH, WiLLi.M (1709-1839). Called 'the father of Englisli geology,' one of the foremost of the early workers in this field. While practicing the profession of civil engineering lie became in- terested in the study of rocks and soils. As a result of his investigations he formulated the principle that stratified rocks exhibit a definite order of succession and that the different hori- zons in the stratigraphical series may be identi- fied by their included fossils. In 1794 he made a long tour through England, examining the geo- logical structure of arious regions and gather- ing evidence in support of his theories. Some of the data thus collected were published in Order of the Strata and Their Embedded Organic Re- mains, in the Neighbourhood of Bath, Examined and Proved Prior to 1199 (1799). Following this he began the preparation of a geological map of England and Wales on a scale of five miles to one inch, which occupied nearl.T 15 years of his life, and which was supplemented by separate maps of the counties published in colors on 21 sheets. These were the first geological maps of England to be ])ublished and the first attempt to show the distribution and arrange- ment of the rock formations of a whole country. His services were recognized officially by a Gov- ernment pension, while the Geological Society of London conferred upon him the Wollaston medal. Besides his geological contributions he published a treatise on Irrigation (1806). For an estimate of his scientific work, consult Geikie, The Found- ers of Geology (London, 1897). SMITH, Sir WiLLWM (1813-93). An English classical and biblical scholar. He was born in London and graduated at London University. He was made professor of Greek, Latin, and Ger- man in Highbury and Homerton colleges, then independent; and when they were consolidated as New College he became professor of the Greek and Latin languages and literatures. Further- more he was classical examiner in London Uni- versity in 1853 and editor of the Quarterly Re- vieiv in 1867. He was knighted in 1892. He was the editor of many valuable works, especially students' manuals and dictionaries. The more important of these, with their latest editions, are the following: English-Latin Dictionary (1899); Dictionary of Greek and Roman An-
