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 SMITH 121 knowledge. In 1874 he was understood to be preparing a commentary on Jeremiah, for the " Speaker's Commentary," and was engaged upon the Thesaurus Syriacus, of which up to 1872 two parts had been published. SMITH, Samuel Stanhope, an American clergy- man, born at Pequea, Pa., March 16, 1750, died in -Princeton, N. J., Aug. 21, 1819. He graduated at Princeton college in 1767, and from 1770 to 1773 was tutor there. He was then for some time a missionary in western Virginia, and was principal of the seminary which became the Hampden Sidney college. In 1779 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in the college of New Jersey, of which he was president from 1794 to 1812. In 1786 he was associated with several other clergymen of the Presbyterian church in pre- paring the form of presbyterial government which continues to the present time. He pub- lished "Causes of the Variety in the Figure and Complexion of the Human Species " (8vo, 1787) ; " Sermons " (1799) ; " Lectures on the Evidences of the Christian Religion " (12mo, 1809) ; and " A Comprehensive View of the leading and most important Principles of Nat- ural and Revealed Religion " (8vo, 1816). His Sermons," with a memoir of his life and ritings, were published in 1821 (2 vols. 8vo). SMITH. I. Seba, an American author, born in Buckfield, Me., Sept. 14, 1792, died in Patch- ogue, L. I., July 29, 1868. He graduated at Bowdoin college in 1818, and settled in Port- land, where he edited the "Eastern Argus" (1820-'24) and the " Courier " (1830-'37). In 1842 he removed to New York. He published " Life and Letters of Major Jack Downing " (Boston, 1833), a celebrated series of humorous political letters ; " Powhatan," a metrical ro- mance (1841); "Dewdrops of the Nineteenth Century," miscellanies (1846); "New Ele- ments of Geometry" (1850); "Way Down East, or Portraitures of Yankee Life " (1854) ; and "My Thirty Years out of the Senate, by Major Jack Downing " (1859-'60). II. Elizabeth Oakes (PKIXCE), an American authoress, wife of the preceding, born in North Yarmouth (now Cumberland), Me. She married Mr. Smith at the age of 16, and about the same time became an anonymous contributor of poems to the pe- riodical press. After her removal with her husband to New York in 1842 she frequently appeared before the public as a lecturer. In 1843 appeared the first considerable collection of her poetical pieces under the title of " The Sinless Child and other Poems," and her metri- cal contributions to the magazines have since been numerous. She is the author of " The Roman Tribute" and "Jacob Leisler," trage- dies; "The Western Captive" and "Bertha and Lily," novels; "The Salamander, a Legend for Christmas;" and children's books and mis- cellaneous publications. In 1851 she published "Woman and her Needs," a work devoted to the rights of woman, which Mrs. Smitfa has at various times advocated by her pen and as a lecturer. Among her .later publications are : " Hints on Dress and Beauty " (1852) ; "Shadow Land" (1852); "The Newsboy" (1855) ; " Bald Eagle, or the last of the Rarna- paughs" (1867); "Two Wives" (1871); and "Kitty Howard's Journal" (1871). She now (1876) resides at Hollywood, Carteret co., N. C. SMITH, Sydney, an English author, born at Woodford, Essex, June 3, 1771, died in Lon- don, Feb. 22, 1845. He was educated at New college, Oxford, where in 1790 he obtained a fellowship of 100 a year. He took orders, and in 1794 became curate in the parish of Netheravon, in Salisbury plain ; but three years later he went to Edinburgh as a private tutor. In 1802 he was associated with Mur- ray, Jeffrey, Brougham, Horner, and others in establishing the "Edinburgh Review," to the first number of which, as editor, he contributed seven articles. Soon afterward he went to London, where his sermons attracted large and fashionable congregations, and in 1804-'6 he delivered courses of lectures on moral phi- losophy before the royal institution. A post- humous volume, entitled " Elementary Sketch- es of Moral Philosophy" (1850), contains the substance of these. Upon the return of the whigs to power in 1806, he was presented to the living of Foston-le-Clay in Yorkshire, worth about 500 a year. In 1807-'8 ap- peared anonymously his "Letters on the Sub- ject of the Catholics, by Peter Plymley," which, owing to an admirable mixture of sound sense, irony, and pleasantry, had an immense circu- lation; and his efforts in the cause of Cath- olic emancipation were never relaxed until that measure was accomplished. In 1809 he published two volumes of sermons, and in the summer of that year removed with his family to Heslington, near York, where he re- sided for a few years, in the hope of being able to exchange Foston-le-Clay for some more desirable parish. Failing in this, he turned his thoughts toward Foston, the forlorn con- dition of which he characteristically described by saying it was " actually twelve miles from a lemon," constructed a parsonage, and in the spring of 1814 moved with his family into his new quarters. In 1828 Lord Lyndhurst ap- pointed him canon of Bristol and rector of Combe-Florey, near Taunton, and three years later he received a prebendal stall in St. Paul's. The remainder of his life was devoted to the discharge of his official duties, and to literary labors ; but he wrote nothing for the " Edin- burgh Review" subsequent to 1827. Having come into the possession of a considerable es- tate by the death of his brother Courtenay in 1843, he invested largely in the public stock of Pennsylvania ; and the neglect of that state to pay the interest on her bonds called out his " Petition to Congress" and "Letters on Amer- ican Debts," writings overflowing with hu- morous invective. His humor never left him, and under the last regimen of his physician he expressed his longing for " even the wing