alarmed into the
semblance of modesty you would charm everybody; but remember my joke
against you about the moon;--'D---n the solar system! bad light--planets
too distant--pestered with comets--feeble contrivance;--could make a
better with great ease.'"

{177b} Horner, Francis (1778-1817), called to the Bar in 1807, and was
through the influence of Lord Carrington returned for the borough of
Wendover. He was a man of sound judgment and unassuming manners, of
scrupulous integrity, and great amiability of character. He was a
correct and forcible speaker, and though without the gift of humour,
exercised a remarkable influence in the House of Commons, owing to his
personal character. He was one of the original founders of the
_Edinburgh Review_, the other two being Jeffrey and Sydney Smith.

{178a} The closely allied name, _Sabelina_, occurs in Sir N. Moore's
_History of St Bartholomew's Hospital_, vol. i., p. 64.

{178b} It was said (i., p. 138) that the King, who had been reading
Sydney's _Edinburgh Review_ articles, remarked that he was a very clever
fellow but would never be a bishop.

{183} It appears (i., p. 282) that he felt deeply the fact that he had
not been offered a Bishopric, though he had made up his mind to refuse
it. Lord Melbourne is said to have much regretted not having made a
bishop of Sydney.

{185} Sydney wrote of Macaulay: "I always prophesied his greatness from
the first moment I saw him, then a very young and unknown man, on the
Northern Circuit." His enemies might say he talked rather too much, "but
now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation
perfectly delightful" (i., p. 415).

{186} The wife of Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
(1773-1840), only son of Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland by Lady Mary
Fitzpatrick, daughter of the Earl of Upper Ossory. He was a consistent
Liberal in politics, and supported all measures against the slave trade
and was in favour of emancipation, and this in spite of being the owner
of "extensive plantations in Jamaica." After his death the following
verse in his handwriting was found on his dressing-table:--

"Nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey,
Enough my mead of fame
If those who deign'd to observe me say
I injured neither name."

In the version quoted by Sydney Smith (_Memoir and Letters_, vol. ii., p.
457) the last line is "I tarnished neither name"; the punctuation is
slightly different from