autumn of that year he preached
toleration to the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol, the "most Protestant
civic body in England." About the same time he exchanged his living in
Yorkshire for that of Combe Florey near Taunton.

In 1831 (i., p. 290) Lord Grey appointed him to a Prebendal Stall at St
Paul's in exchange for the inferior one at Bristol. With regard to
ecclesiastical preferment, he wrote to Lady Holland (8th October 1808):
You "may choose to make me a bishop, and if you do I . . . shall never do
you discredit, for I believe it is out of the power of lawn and velvet,
and the crisp hair of dead men fashioned into a wig, to make me a
dishonest man; but if you do not, I am perfectly content, and shall be
ever grateful to the last hour of my life to you and to Lord Holland."
And to Lady Mary Bennett, July 1820, p. 200: "Lord Liverpool's messenger
mistook the way, and instead of bringing the mitre to me, took it to my
next-door neighbour, Dr Carey, who very fraudulently accepted it. Lord
Liverpool is extremely angry, and I am to have the next!"

And to Murray: "I think Lord Grey will give me some preferment, if he
stays in long enough; but the upper parsons live vindictively. The
Bishop of --- has the rancour to recover after three paralytic strokes,
and the Dean of --- to be vigorous at eighty-two. And yet these are men
who are called Christians!"

In the following letter to Lord John Russell (3rd April 1837, p. 399) he
is for once in a way egoistic:--

"I defy X to quote a single passage in my writing contrary to the
doctrines of the Church of England; for I have always avoided
speculative, and preached practical, religion. I defy him to mention a
single action in my life which he can call immoral. . . . I am
distinguished as a preacher, and sedulous as a parochial clergyman. His
real charge is, that I am a high-spirited, honest, uncompromising man,
whom all the bench of bishops could not turn, and who would set them all
at defiance upon great and vital questions. . . . I am thoroughly
sincere in saying I would not take any bishopric whatever, and to this I
pledge my honour and character as a gentleman."

It came to Sydney's turn to appoint to the valuable living of Edmonton:
he was allowed to take it himself, but he gave it to the son of the late
parson, Tate. Sydney said to Tate junior, that by an odd coincidence the
new vicar was called Tate, and by a more singular chance Thomas Tate, "in
short