Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/27

 laws,’ in which he demonstrated that, in a country largely dependent on home supplies, variations in price were the natural outcome of good or bad seasons. This treatise was followed in 1759 by ‘Considerations on the Laws relating to the Import and Export of Corn,’ and by ‘A Collection of Papers relative to the Price, Exportation, and Importation of Corn.’ These papers, which were republished with notes in 1804 by George Chalmers under the title of ‘Tracts on the Corn Trade,’ show an intimate acquaintance with the subject, and are written with much clearness and ability. They earned the praise of Adam Smith, and are valuable from the light they throw on the English corn trade in the eighteenth century. Smith was killed by a fall from his horse on 8 Feb. 1777. He married, in 1748, Judith, eldest daughter of Isaac Lefevre, son of a Huguenot refugee. By her he had two children: Charles Smith of Suttons, near Ongar in Essex, M.P. for Westbury in Wiltshire in 1802, and a daughter.

[Memoir by George Chalmers, prefixed to Tracts on the Corn Trade; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. 1816; Georgian Era, iv. 465; m'Culloch's Literature of Political Economy, p. 68; Smith's Wealth of Nations, 1839, p. 224.]

 SMITH, CHARLES (1749?–1824), painter, born about 1749, was a native of the Orkneys and a nephew of Caleb Whitefoord [q. v.] After studying at the Royal Academy, where he was befriended by Sir Joshua Reynolds, he attempted to establish himself as a portrait-painter in London, but lost his patrons in consequence of his extreme and violently expressed political opinions. About 1783 he went to India, where he remained some years, and after his return styled himself ‘painter to the Great Mogul.’ From 1789 to 1797 Smith resided chiefly in London, and was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, sending mythological and fancy compositions as well as portraits. In October 1798 a musical entertainment entitled ‘A Day at Rome,’ written by Smith, was unsuccessfully performed at Covent Garden Theatre, and he subsequently printed it. In 1802 he published ‘A Trip to Bengal, a musical entertainment.’ He died at Leith on 19 Dec. 1824. A portrait of Smith, in oriental dress, painted by himself, was mezzotinted by S. W. Reynolds, and a small plate, also by Reynolds from the same picture, is prefixed to his ‘Trip to Bengal.’

[Miller's Biogr. Sketches; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Academy Cat.]

 SMITH, CHARLES (1786–1856), singer, born in London in 1786, was grandson of Edward Smith, page to the Princess Amelia, and son of Felton Smith, a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford. At the age of five, owing to his precocity, he became a pupil of Costellow for singing. Later, in 1796, on the advice of Dr. Arnold, he became a chorister at the Chapel Royal under Ayrton, and sang the principal solo in the anthem on the marriage of Charlotte Augusta Matilda, the princess royal, to the Prince of Würtemberg on 18 May 1797 [see, (1766–1828)]. In 1798 he was articled to John Ashley, and in the following year was engaged to sing at Ranelagh, the Oratorio, and other concerts. In 1803 he went on tour in Scotland, but, his voice having broken, he renounced singing temporarily, and devoted himself to teaching and organ-playing, in which he was sufficiently proficient to act as deputy for Knyvett and John Stafford Smith at the Chapel Royal and for Bartleman at Croydon. On the latter's retirement, Smith was appointed organist there; but shortly afterwards he went to Ireland with a theatrical party as tenor singer, and on his return, a year later, he became organist of the Welbeck chapel in succession to Charles Wesley. In conjunction with Isaac Pocock [q. v.], he next turned his attention to writing for the theatres, and produced in rapid succession the music to the farces ‘Yes or No’ (produced at the Haymarket on 31 Aug. 1808 and published next year); ‘Hit or Miss’ (produced at the Lyceum on 26 Feb. 1810); ‘Anything New’ (produced on 1 July 1811); and ‘The Tourist's Friend,’ a melodrama; but withdrew from theatrical matters when Pocock left Drury Lane. In 1813 he was singing bass parts at the Oratorio concerts; in 1815 he married Miss Booth of Norwich; and in 1816 went to fill a lucrative post at Liverpool. He ultimately retired to Crediton in Devon, where he died on 22 Nov. 1856. He was an excellent organist and a fine singer. Many of his compositions enjoyed a considerable vogue, the most popular being a setting of Campbell's ‘Battle of Hohenlinden,’ ‘a work of rare and extraordinary merit.’

[Quarterly Mus. Mag. and Rev. ii. 214; Georgian Era, iv. 304–5; Dict. of Musicians, 1824.]

 SMITH, CHARLES FELIX (1786–1858), lieutenant-general, and colonel commandant of royal engineers, second son of George Smith of Burn Hall, Durham, by his wife Juliet, daughter and sole heiress of Richard Mott of Carlton, Suffolk, was born on 9 July 1786 at Piercefield, Monmouthshire. Elizabeth Smith [q. v.] was his sister, and George Smith (1693–1756) [q. v.] was his great-grandfather. He joined the Royal