be recollected, little move than fourteen years of age! He wrote every
species of Latin verse with the utmost facility--of which he gave, on
one occasion, a proof not yet forgotten by his schoolfellows: for, one
evening, shortly after going there, he wrote all the Latin verses for
the entire school, from the highest to the lowest--in all metres, and on
every variety of subject. This feat was lately communicated to me by one
of his then schoolfellows; and I also recollect him once mentioning the
subject to me himself; adding, if I recollect correctly, that there was
not a blunder found in any of the verses which he had written. During
his vacations he visited France, and mastered the French and Italian
languages, with both of which, up to the period of his death, he
continued perfectly familiar, and very partial to the writers of both.
About this time he began to cast about for a profession; and entertained
the notion of either going out to India, in a military capacity, or
entering Woolwich academy as a cadet. His father persuaded him to
relinquish the former step, but assented to his adopting the latter; and
he paid close attention to engineering. He has often expressed to me the
delight he took in studying _fortification_; adding, that he had
sometimes regretted having abandoned that line of life, for that he
fancied he should have been successful in it. His father would have
procured him an appointment in conformity with his wishes, had not his
views concerning him been changed by his friend, the Right Honourable
Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, then Vice-treasurer of Ireland, who gave his
son an appointment in the Vice-treasurer's office at Dublin Castle. Sir
George quickly detected the superior talents and acquirements of young
Smith, and became much attached to him; evincing peculiar satisfaction
in conversing with him, and listening to his quaint, exact, pithy
answers to questions proposed to him. About this time he was smitten
with the love of Lord Byron's poetry, which he devoured with avidity,
and his own love of verse-writing revived. He became, indeed, very