want a butler or respectable-looking groom of the
chambers? I shall be happy to serve you in either capacity; it is time
for the clergy to look out. I have also a cassock and stock of sermons
to dispose of, dry and fit for use." "I am for no more movements: they
are not relished by Canons of St. Paul's. When I say, 'no more
movements,' however, I except the case of the Universities; which, I
think, ought to be immediately invaded with Enquirers and
Commissioners. They are a crying evil." "Do not imagine I am going to
rat. I am a thoroughly honest, and, I will say, liberal person, but
have never given way to that puritanical feeling of the Whigs against
dining with Tories.

"'Tory and Whig in turns shall be my host,
I taste no politics in boil'd and roast.'"

In declining an invitation to dinner he wrote:--

"On one day of the year, the Canons of St. Paul's divide a little
money--an inadequate recompense for all the troubles and anxieties
they undergo. This day is, unfortunately for me, that on which you
have asked me (the 25th of March), when we all dine together,
endeavouring to forget for a few moments, by the aid of meat and wine,
the sorrows and persecutions of the Church."

Of Sydney Smith's official relations with St. Paul's abundant traces are
still to be found. He took a leading part in the business of the Chapter.
Dean Milman[112] wrote:--"I find traces of him in every particular of
Chapter affairs: and, on every occasion where his hand appears, I find
stronger reasons for respecting his sound judgment, knowledge of business,
and activity of mind; above all the perfect fidelity of his stewardship....
His management of the affairs of St. Paul's (for at one time he seems to
have been _the_ manager) only commenced too late and terminated too soon."

A Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1841 to inquire
into the condition of National Monuments. One fragment of Sydney Smith's
evidence is quaint enough to be recalled.--

"I hope I leave the Committee with this very decided impression, that,
in such an immense town as this, free admission into the Cathedral
would very soon inflict upon that Cathedral the infamy of being a
notorious resort for all bad characters; it would cease to be
frequented as a place of worship, and the whole purpose for which it
exists destroyed; and that to this the paym