THE 1 [BRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CAL [FORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM HENEY SMITH, M.P.
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY TH, M.P. 
 
 SIR HERKEBTjJ^AXWELL, BART.. M.P. 
 
 WITH 
 
 PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Civis tails, qualis et prudentissimus 
 etfortund optimd esse debet. CICERO. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCXCIII
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 3 IN preparing these Memoirs, there has been 
 >. present to me the difficulty besetting every one 
 
 DC 
 
 te who attempts to deal with political events dur- 
 
 - 1 ing the lifetime of many who have borne a part 
 
 in them. There is much that cannot be alluded 
 
 to without reviving slumbering controversy, or 
 
 /reflecting on the actions of public men, until 
 
 the charitable finger of Time shall have touched 
 
 the harshness out of recent events, and brought 
 
 Q them into right perspective with the history of 
 
 ^ the country. 
 
 ^ Yet I am not without the courage to hope that 
 3 in recording the chief incidents in the career of 
 o one with whom it was my privilege to be associ- 
 3 ated, and to follow as leader during some anxious 
 *= and eventful years, I may have succeeded in
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 avoiding obvious errors, and giving a true ac- 
 count of a life nobly led and purely ended. 
 In whatever measure that hope may be real- 
 ised, it is owing to the abundance of material 
 placed at my disposal by the family and friends 
 of Mr Smith, and to the assistance willingly 
 given by many who had been associated with 
 him in commercial, philanthropic, and political 
 affairs. It is possible that in the attempt to 
 give a true impression of the course steered by 
 Mr Smith in politics, I have found it necessary 
 to refer to the actions of those opposed to 
 him in terms which their friends may consider 
 unfavourable. They will, however, be slow to 
 suspect me of any intention of serving the ends 
 of party, or indeed of any motive other than 
 that of giving a faithful narrative. 
 
 In requesting me to undertake the compilation 
 of these volumes, Lady Hambleden has reposed 
 a degree of confidence in me which I am not 
 likely to undervalue. She has put at my dis- 
 posal the private papers and correspondence of 
 her husband, and her daughters have greatly 
 lightened my labours by arranging these, and 
 copying some which were least easy to decipher.
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 Among others who have given me valuable in- 
 formation have been the Duke of Rutland, the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Harrowby, 
 the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord Rowton, Lord Ash- 
 combe, the Right Hon. Edward Stanhope, M.P., 
 the Rev. Sir Emilius Laurie, Sir Edward Lawson, 
 Sir Henry Acland, Mr Penrose Fitzgerald, M.P., 
 the Rev. Canon Jacob, the Rev. Canon Ince, the 
 Rev. Canon Pinder, the Rev. M. A. Nisbet, Mr 
 W. Lethbridge, Captain Blow of the Pandora, 
 Mr White and Mr Monger of 186 Strand. To 
 all these, as well as to others too numerous to 
 mention, my hearty thanks are due. 
 
 HEEBERT MAXWELL. 
 
 MONREITH, October 1893.
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1784-1846. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory The brothers Smith Their parentage The 
 house in Duke Street They set up a branch office in the 
 Strand The junior partner buys out his brother Letter 
 from Leigh Hunt Birth of a son, William Henry His 
 boyhood Goes to Tavistock grammar-school His aver- 
 sion to Methodism Desires to enter Holy Orders Defers 
 to his father's wishes and enters the business His indif- 
 ference to games and his love of music Correspondence 
 with William Ince, ........ 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1846-1854. 
 
 Disappointment in choice of a profession Residence at Kil- 
 burn House Young Smith enters the business, and on 
 coming of age becomes his father's partner His influence 
 in the office Beginning of the bookstall business 
 Acquires monopoly of the North- Western Railway stations 
 His dealings with employes Expansion of the business 
 Work on the Committee of King's College Hospital, . 42
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1854-1893. 
 
 Effect of the repeal of the newspaper stamp-duty Growth of 
 the business Smith & Son become sole agents for the 
 ' Times ' Failing health of the senior partner Increasing 
 work Its effect upon young Smith The firm become con- 
 tractors for railway advertising Extracts from letters and 
 journal The principles of private life carried into business 
 affairs The lending library set on foot Publication of 
 cheap novels Its success and abandonment Present aspect 
 of the Strand office Early morning work Despatch of 
 newspapers, 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1855-1865. 
 
 Smith is elected to Metropolitan Board of Works His mar- 
 riage in 1858 to Mrs Leach Old Mr Smith retires from 
 business Philanthropic work The Bishop of London's 
 fund Friendship with Lord Sandon Smith contemplates 
 standing as a Liberal for Boston And for Exeter Is black- 
 balled for Reform Club Becomes Conservative candidate 
 for Westminster His address to the electors The election 
 And its result, 99 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1865-1868. 
 
 Death of Lord Palmerston And of the elder Smith Earl Rus- 
 sell's Reform Bill And Mr Disraeli's Dissolution of Par- 
 liament Smith is elected for Westminster The Revivalist 
 movement, 128 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1868-1869. 
 
 Petition against Mr Smith's return The trial and verdict 
 Smith's maiden speech Debate on pauperism Smith's 
 mistrust of charitable donations Anecdotes illustrating his 
 principles of giving The Telegraph Bill Debates on dis- 
 establishment of the Irish Church, . . . . 145
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1870-1871. 
 
 Visit to Paris State of parties in Parliament The smoking- 
 room of the House of Commons Irish Land Bill Ele- 
 mentary Education Bill Smith's motion on the Thames 
 Embankment Defeat of the Government thereon Letter 
 on affairs in France Smith elected to first London 
 School Board Religious difficulty arising there settled on 
 his motion Assists emigration to Canada Debates on 
 Army Bill, Budget, and Ballot Bill Damaged position of 
 the Government Irish Home Rule Mr Gladstone's 
 speech at Aberdeen, 167 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1872. 
 
 Meeting of Parliament Unpopularity of Ministers The 
 Ballot Bill The Thames Embankment Scheme again 
 Smith sails for America Journal of travel, . . . 201 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1873-1874. 
 
 Increasing unpopularity of Ministers Irish University Bill 
 Defeat and resignation of the Government Disraeli 
 declines to form a Cabinet Mr Gladstone resumes office 
 Debate on Budget Resolutions Dissensions in Cabinet 
 Dissolution of Parliament General election Conservative 
 victory The poll in Westminster Disraeli forms a 
 Cabinet Mr Smith becomes Financial Secretary to the 
 Treasury Resigns Treasurership of S.P.C.K., . . . 236 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1874-1876. 
 
 Retirement of Mr Gladstone from lead of Liberal party 
 Debates on Public Worship Regulation Bill Beginning of 
 Smith's friendship with Northcote He settles to work 
 at the Treasury Visits Bournemouth Mr Gladstone and 
 the Vatican Decrees Lord Hartington chosen leader of
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 the Liberals The session Official visits to Edinburgh 
 and Dublin The Suez Canal shares Consolidation of the 
 Home Rule party The Burials Bill Visits to the dock- 
 yardsWork, 260 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 1876-1878. 
 
 Difficulties of the Government The Bulgarian atrocities 
 The " Bag-and- Baggage " policy The Journal of a Dis- 
 contented Man Obstruction in the House of Commons 
 Death of Mr Ward Hunt Smith appointed First Lord of 
 the Admiralty Misgivings as to his own ability Proposal 
 to -put the Post Office in commission Congratulatory 
 banquet in St James's Hall War between Russia and 
 Turkey Meeting of Parliament The Fleet sent to Galli- 
 poli Resignation of Lords Carnarvon and Derby Votes of 
 censure The Berlin Congress " Peace with Honour," . 286 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 1878. 
 Journal of a tour to Cyprus, 335
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE FIRST YOLUME. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT OP THE RIGHT HON. W. H. SMITH, . . Frontispiece 
 
 THE HOUSE AT KILBURN, ...... 44 
 
 MESSRS W. H. SMITH AND SON'S PREMISES IN THE STRAND, 58 
 MESSRS W. H. SMITH AND SON'S STRAND PREMISES (iN- 
 
 TERIOR), ........ 90 
 
 KNOT USED IN TYING PARCELS OF NEWSPAPERS, . . 91 
 
 ANOTHER PORTRAIT OP THE RIGHT HON. W. H. SMITH, . 128
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 THE EIGHT HON, W. H, SMITH, 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 1784-1846. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY THE BROTHERS SMITH THEIR PARENTAGE 
 
 THE HOUSE IX DUKE STREET THEY SET UP A BRANCH 
 
 OFFICE IN THE STRAND THE JUNIOR PARTNER BUYS OUT 
 
 HIS BROTHER LETTER FROM LEIGH HUNT BIRTH OF A 
 
 SON, WILLIAM HENRY HIS BOYHOOD GOES TO TAVISTOCK 
 
 GRAMMAR-SCHOOL HIS AVERSION TO METHODISM DESIRES 
 
 TO ENTER HOLY ORDERS DEFERS TO HIS FATHER'S WISHES 
 
 AND ENTERS THE BUSINESS HIS INDIFFERENCE TO GAMES 
 
 AND HIS LOVE OF MUSIC CORRESPONDENCE WITH WILLIAM 
 
 INCE. 
 
 NOT very long before the following pages began 
 to be penned, Sir Charles Bowen commented with 
 caustic good - humour on what he termed the 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 growing tendency of the age to write ponderous 
 biographies of Nobody. 
 
 It must always be a matter of opinion to what 
 exact degree of eminence a man should rise above 
 the mean level of character, or what store of 
 achievement it should be possible to lay to his 
 account, before the public are invited to the 
 perusal of his biography. 
 
 " Oh ! vain attempt to give a deathless lot 
 To names ignoble, born to be forgot." 
 
 There is an ominous sentence in one of Horace 
 Walpole's letters : " One can never talk very long 
 about folks that are merely excellent I mean, 
 unless they do not deserve it, and then their 
 flatterers can hold forth upon their virtues by 
 the hour." The affection of his family the 
 predilection of his friends the gratitude of those 
 whom he may have benefited the admiration 
 of humbler men from among whom he may have 
 raised himself the success with which Fortune, 
 so partial in her favours, so indifferent to merit, 
 may have filled his sails, all these have to be 
 liberally discounted before the figure of a public 
 man can be viewed in the just perspective essential 
 to critical narrative. 
 
 But when such a man has brought his life out 
 of a surrounding no more than commonplace,
 
 SCOPE OF HIS CAREER 3 
 
 when he has conducted an ordinary commercial 
 undertaking to a position beyond competition, 
 and then, having accomplished what would 
 satisfy most men as a life's work, has set him- 
 self to political enterprise, and, by sheer dint 
 of the esteem awarded, not to audacity or sur- 
 passing powers of speech, but to unselfish in- 
 tegrity and faultless common-sense, has risen from 
 one office of trust to another, till his party at a 
 moment of extreme perplexity, by an involuntary 
 and common impulse, turned towards him and 
 laid upon him the hazardous duties of leader, 
 when a man has set his hand to so much 
 and succeeded in every step of his career, in 
 such a life there cannot fail to be much that 
 is worthy of record, much that will be of ser- 
 vice for the guidance and encouragement of 
 others. 
 
 It is this feeling which has actuated the writer 
 of the following Memoirs : there has been also 
 the additional motive of warm personal regard 
 towards the subject of them, and gratitude for 
 unvarying kindness. It is difficult, in dealing 
 with the actions and character of one lately de- 
 parted, to avoid undue eulogy and to keep in 
 right proportion incidents of private life which, 
 however much their memory may be cherished 
 by relatives and intimate friends, cannot be ex-
 
 4 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 pected to occupy the interest of general readers. 
 The object, therefore, has been aX^Beveiv iv ayd-Try 
 affectionately to tell the truth ; to state im- 
 partially the origin and incidents of a life which 
 rose from circumstances of comparative obscurity 
 to those of distinction and responsibility ; to show 
 the qualities and principles which secured for 
 William Henry Smith the unbounded confidence 
 of those who were associated with him, and the 
 ungrudging respect of those who, in public life, 
 were opposed to him. 
 
 In the primitive community, while the use of 
 metals was still limited and the craft of working 
 them was known only to a few, he who possessed 
 it became the most important person in the vil- 
 lage to those whose business it was to maintain 
 life by implements, or defend it by weapons of 
 iron. Hence in every such society the smith, or 
 worker in iron, became a central figure, and 
 hence the frequency with which, when surnames 
 became fixed, that of Smith established itself in 
 every part of our land where English was spoken. 
 As society became more complex under the feudal 
 system, the smith, or he who wrought, took a 
 lower place in the social scale than the lildford 
 lord, or he who gave loaves : the seller, instead
 
 HIS GRANDFATHER. 5 
 
 of being all-important to the buyer, became de- 
 pendent on his favour. But inasmuch as metal 
 work is necessary to every branch of industry, 
 and the humblest hamlet possessed its forge, so 
 it has come to pass that Smith is the commonest 
 surname among our people, and to trace the 
 lineage of one of that name, upon whose descent 
 obscurity has fallen, is almost as hopeless a task 
 as can be set to the genealogist. 1 
 
 Of Henry Walton Smith, who towards the close 
 of the eighteenth century came to London from 
 Devonshire, it has not been possible to ascertain 
 the parentage, although inquiries have been made 
 and renewed by his descendants at intervals be- 
 tween the years 1844 and 1887. It is said that 
 he was educated at Harrow, and it is known that 
 by his marriage he gave deep offence to his family, 
 who seem thereafter to have withdrawn all coun- 
 tenance from him. 2 His wife's name was Anna 
 
 1 Various degrees of importance are attached to patronymics by 
 different people. Sydney Smith, on being asked who was his grand- 
 father, replied, " I know something about my father, because I 
 remember him, but of my grandfather I know nothing, except that 
 he disappeared about the time of York assizes." On the other hand, 
 it is told of the late Lord Chelmsford, an exceedingly dignified in- 
 dividual, that while he was still Sir Frederick Thesiger, he was one 
 day accosted in the street by somebody who mistook him for an 
 acquaintance and addressed him as " Smith," upon which Sir Fred- 
 erick drew himself up and said, with awful hauteur, " Sir, do I look 
 like a person of the name of Smith ? " 
 
 2 The following memorandum, apparently written about the year
 
 6 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Eastaugh, to whom he was married at Christ 
 Church, Middlesex, on October 27, 1784. That 
 the bride was of humble parentage is apparent 
 from the fact that, instead of signing the register, 
 she appended her mark X to it. They had three 
 children, the youngest of whom, William Henry, 
 was born in 1792. Very shortly after the birth of 
 this child, the father died, aged about thirty-five, 
 and his widow would never in after-years tell her 
 children anything about their father's family, ex- 
 cept that, from the time of his death, she never 
 received either help or notice from them. The 
 only fragments of correspondence by Henry 
 Walton Smith which remain, are portions of 
 letters to his sweetheart, afterwards his wife 
 
 1841, is in the handwriting of his youngest son, William Henry 
 Smith, senior : 
 
 " My father's name was Henry Walton Smith. His father was 
 an officer in the Navy. Henry Walton Smith died in August 1792, 
 when I was a few days old, since which time I know nothing of his 
 family." 
 
 This seems to have been written for the information of his son 
 (the subject of this Memoir), who at this early age (sixteen) had 
 already begun those endeavours to trace the origin of his family 
 which he continued to within a few years of his death. In 1841 he 
 received a letter from his father : 
 
 " I do not think it worth while troubling ourselves about the old 
 Family Arms : the Herald Office would require me to prove my 
 right to use them, which I cannot do, through the circumstance of 
 my Father having quitted this life while I was only a few days old. 
 If I should ever happen to be at or near Wrington, I might make 
 enquiries, it is a matter of such very little consequence that I do 
 not wish enquiries to be made."
 
 THE BROTHERS SMITH. 7 
 
 - " dearest Anna," " my Nanny," and " my 
 dearest Nanny " written in most affectionate 
 terms, but referring also to circumstances of 
 grief and perplexity in which he found himself, 
 the nature of which is not explained, though 
 it was probably of a pecuniary kind. In one 
 of these letters he desires his wife to send him 
 another volume of ' Pamela.' Having no in- 
 dependent means, Henry Smith and his wife 
 were forced to separate shortly after their 
 marriage ; he entered the service of one Mr 
 Rogers, and she lived with a Mrs Brown at 
 96 Watling Street, London. From Richmond, 
 Smith writes a desponding letter, of which the 
 only date is " Sat. morning, 3 o'clock." 
 
 . . . Mr Eogers is in a state that would alarm a stronger 
 mind than mine. I have been up with him ever since we 
 have been here, and I believe his stay in this variegated 
 life is of very short duration. The melancholy situation 
 in which he lies makes nature shudder, and at the same 
 time tells me the miserable state of man. ... I cannot 
 say I am well ; if I did it would be flatt'ring myself too 
 much, therefore if anything should happen it will only 
 rid you of a troublesome fellow and make you once more 
 easy ; and then perhaps you may form connexions with 
 one who will better deserve your esteem. . . . Our Lifes 
 are in the hand of an all wise Creator, and he will dispose 
 of them as seemeth best. 
 
 Somewhere within the first quarter of the
 
 8 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 present century, the brothers Henry Edward and 
 William Henry Smith, sons of Henry Walton 
 Smith, set up the business of " newsmen," as it 
 was then termed, in an unpretending shop in 
 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. Probably there 
 was nothing to distinguish it from dozens of 
 other houses doing a similar business nothing 
 to mark it as the source of what has grown into 
 an important tributary of the Pactolus of British 
 trade. In those days penny and halfpenny dailies 
 may, indeed, have been somebody's dream, but 
 one not more likely to be realised than any other 
 dream. Besides the paper - tax, there was the 
 duty imposed on each copy of every newspaper : 
 the sheets, before going through the press, had 
 all to be sent to Somerset House to receive the 
 official stamp. There was also the advertisement- 
 tax, payable by the publisher. 1 
 
 But in spite of these restrictions, the business 
 of Messrs Smith prospered and increased, so that 
 it - became desirable to secure premises near the 
 offices of the principal newspapers. About the 
 year 1820 the house 192 Strand was purchased, 
 and formed into a branch office, the head office 
 remaining in Duke Street. 
 
 1 The practice of withholding information as to the price of books 
 under review in magazines or journals originated in the intention 
 of avoiding the tax on advertisements.
 
 EARLY DAYS OF NEWS-AGENCY. 9 
 
 Now the partners in this firm were of very 
 different degrees of capacity, and the younger 
 brother, William, soon found that, as the scope 
 of their transactions extended, so the necessity 
 for organisation and punctuality increased. 
 Henry, the elder, was old-fashioned, and, in 
 truth, somewhat dilatory. Part of his duty was 
 to prepare the addresses for country parcels at 
 the Duke Street office ; these were then sent off 
 to the Strand, where William attended to their 
 despatch by the mails. Many a time the neigh- 
 bours used to see the younger brother running- 
 out in his shirt-sleeves into the Strand, watch in 
 hand, looking impatiently for the lingering 
 messenger, before whose arrival the day's papers 
 could not be sent off, and exclaiming, " What is 
 that lazy brother of mine about ? " 
 
 At last the situation became intolerable. 
 Punctuality was the very soul of the business, 
 and punctuality was just what the senior 
 partner could not contribute ; so an arrange- 
 ment was made by which William Henry became 
 sole proprietor of the concern. 1 Sole proprietor 
 and sole manager, also, in every sense of the 
 word. He was no believer in delegated authority 
 or subdivision of responsibility. He worked 
 as hard as any apprentice in the daily, manual 
 
 1 Henry Edward Smith died in 1846.
 
 10 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 labour, being noted as the quickest packer in 
 the establishment. He prided himself on this, 
 and it was a standing rule that any lad who 
 could pack up a greater number of newspapers 
 than his master in the morning was entitled 
 to a gratuity of a shilling. Indefatigable him- 
 self, he was intolerant of anything short of the 
 utmost exactitude in others ; he was relentless 
 in reproof of negligence, and so stern in dealing 
 with any shortcoming that, as is a common expe- 
 rience, his presence had an effect the reverse of 
 inspiriting on his staff. Nevertheless, to use the 
 expressive phrase of one who knew him well, 
 and still occupies a position of trust in the firm, 
 he brought the business up to that point beyond 
 which it could not be taken by a single individual. 
 It was an arduous, unremitting life that was 
 required in those early days of one who would 
 succeed in the trade of newsman. Competition 
 was keen and profits so smalj that success could 
 only be attained by constant watchfulness to 
 make use of every opportunity to extend the 
 business. The trade of disseminating literature 
 contains branches which are not all drudgery. A 
 publisher's profession, for instance, implies plenty 
 of hard work, and a keen sense of the public 
 taste ; but it also means something akin to leisure, 
 enriched by literary occupation. But an active
 
 HARD WORK. 11 
 
 news-agent is bound to laborious routine : William 
 Smith would suffer no one to share his authority 
 in the house ; every letter that came was opened 
 by his own hands and the answer dictated, often 
 it was written, by himself. Yet here and there in 
 his correspondence, buried deep in piles of letters 
 from irritated customers complaining of delay in 
 the delivery of their papers, or from editors 
 negotiating terms for a supply of their journals, 
 there occurs a trace of more attractive material- 
 something to hint that from this incessant daily 
 routine there were filched occasional moments of 
 that lettered loitering which so effectually beguiles 
 the tedium and eases the fatigue of the journey 
 through life. The following note, for instance, 
 from the author of * Ultra Crepidarius ' the pro- 
 totype of Harold Skimpole lies among letters 
 received early in the forties ; and if it be the case 
 that Mr Smith had taken the book from the 
 London Library for his own perusal, the sugges- 
 tion is one of a wider and more sympathetic 
 culture than might have been suspected : 
 
 32 EDWARDES SQUARE, KENSINGTON. 
 
 A stranger is sorry to intrude this note on Mr Smith ; 
 but if Mr Smith, without any immediate inconvenience to 
 himself, could oblige a fellow-subscriber to the London 
 Library with Baldelli's life of Boccacio for a few days, & 
 if he could also be so kind as to take the trouble of direc-
 
 12 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 ting it to this place by the parcel delivery company, it 
 would be a great accommodation to his humble servant, 
 
 LEIGH HUNT. 
 
 William Henry Smith, senior, married Mary 
 Anne Cooper, on June 24, 1817, at St George's, 
 Hanover Square. For some years thereafter they 
 continued to live over the office in Duke Street, 
 and in that house their two eldest children, 
 Mary Anne l and Caroline, 2 were born ; but some 
 time previous to 1825 the family removed to the 
 house in the Strand, where, on the anniversary 
 of their marriage in that year, a son was born, 
 to be named after his father, William Henry, the 
 subject of the present Memoir. There has been 
 much misapprehension as to the station in life to 
 which this child was born. It has been reported, 
 and commonly believed, that his first employment 
 was that of a poor newsboy. Had that been the 
 case, there would have been no attempt on the 
 part of his family least of all on his own to con- 
 ceal his humble origin. But the facts of the case 
 were otherwise, and the mistake has probably 
 arisen from the circumstance that what we now 
 call a "news-agent" was known sixty years ago 
 as a " newsman," and the son of a newsman 
 
 1 Married in 1839 to Rev. William Beal. 
 a Married to Mr R. M. Reece.
 
 HIS BOYHOOD. 13 
 
 might, by a strained interpretation, be described 
 as a newsboy. Whatever may have been the 
 descent of his grandfather, Henry Walton Smith, 
 the late Mr W. H. Smith was born of parents 
 occupying the position of respectable and pros- 
 perous tradespeople. 
 
 A less eventful boyhood than William Henry's, 
 the younger, it could hardly be the lot of a 
 biographer to describe. Until eight or nine 
 years of age he remained in the schoolroom 
 with his four elder sisters, under the teaching- 
 
 o 
 
 of their governess. Then the services of a tutor, 
 the Rev. William Beal, of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, were secured for him ; and, when twelve 
 years old, he went with his mother and sisters 
 to Paris, where they remained for some weeks. 
 Meanwhile, Mr Beal had become engaged to the 
 
 7 O c? 
 
 eldest Miss Smith, and on his receiving from the 
 Duke of Bedford in 1838 the appointment of 
 head - master to the newly revived grammar- 
 school at Tavistock, their marriage took place. 
 This led to William's only and brief acquaintance 
 with a public school, or, indeed, with school of 
 any sort. He was placed there as a boarder 
 early in 1839, being then fourteen years old, 
 and in June his name appears as second in the 
 second form, William Lethbridge (of whom more 
 hereafter) being first. The following note ap-
 
 14 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 pears on the report of the midsummer examina- 
 tion for that year : 
 
 The medal for Mids r- 1839 gained by, and awarded to, 
 W. H. Smith of Kilburn, London. W. BEAL. 
 
 But William Smith's name is not again found 
 
 on the school - lists after that date. The boy 
 
 returned home, and another private tutor, the 
 
 Rev. Alfred Povah, of Wadham College, Oxford, 
 
 .took him in hand. 
 
 There remains in one of the boy's letters, 
 written from Tavistock to his father, evidence 
 of thoughtfulness unusual at the age of fourteen, 
 and of attention directed to a class of subject 
 which, in after-years, was to occupy a great deal 
 of his energy and thoughts. 
 
 Last Wednesday being a half-holiday, Mr Beal took a 
 walk with me in the afternoon to the Union Workhouse 
 in the neighbourhood of the town, which was quite a new 
 sight to me. To all appearance the people looked ex- 
 tremely comfortable ; in fact, much more so than many poor 
 people in their own houses. I was rather surprised at seeing 
 them so comfortable, for from the noise made about the 
 new Poor Law I expected to find it rather a wretched place. 
 
 The influence which had prevailed so long to 
 keep William from school, and to remove him 
 from it after such a short experience, is not 
 difficult to trace, neither was it without im- 
 portant bearing upon his after-life. His mother's
 
 EDUCATED AT HOME. 15 
 
 family, the Coopers, were Wesleyans of the early 
 and strict kind ; and her mother, a widow, used 
 to pay long visits at her son-in-law's house in 
 Duke Street. This lady was not only extremely 
 devout, but also painfully apprehensive of the 
 perils to which young people are exposed at 
 public schools from bad companions and worldly 
 influence. She it was who prevailed to per- 
 suade the Smiths to keep their only son so 
 long at home, and probably to remove him from 
 Tavistock after so short a trial, though he had 
 made, as the prize-list shows, such a promising 
 start there. Anxiety to withdraw the lad from 
 sympathy with the Church of England, signs 
 of which he showed even at this early age, 
 and to keep him in touch with the Wesleyan 
 body, had, no doubt, a good deal to do with 
 the domestic policy. 
 
 There may be traced in the economy of this 
 Methodist-Christian home something resembling 
 the stern Lacedaemonian spirit, exacting from 
 the son unquestioning submission to the father, 
 but also putting him, while still very young, 
 in authority over others. In the refusal of 
 the Smiths to yield to their boy's intense desire 
 to go to a university, there is some analogy 
 to the edict forbidding the youth of Lacedsemon 
 to visit Athens ; in spite of the learning and
 
 16 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 philosophy of that focus of culture, there was 
 too much tittle-tattle and luxury to be recon- 
 ciled with the strenuous home life. Whatever 
 the effect of this early discipline may have been 
 in forming the young man's character, it cer- 
 tainly was the cause of lasting disappointment 
 to himself, and often, in later years, he used 
 to deplore bitterly the circumstances which had 
 debarred him from acquiring a wider culture. 
 
 After a couple of years at home, William was 
 allowed to return to Tavistock school at the 
 age of seventeen, not, apparently, as an ordinary 
 pupil, for his name does not appear on the 
 school -lists of those years, but rather as a 
 private pupil of his brother-in-law, the head- 
 master. His time seems to have been divided 
 between the pursuit of learning here, and atten- 
 tion to business in the Strand, until some time in 
 1844, after which date any learning he acquired 
 was the fruit of voluntary application of his 
 leisure. 
 
 As the lad grew in stature, his spirit struggled 
 to emancipate itself from the narrow and rather 
 sombre surroundings of his boyhood. At sixteen 
 he had already expressed to his father his strong 
 desire to go to a university and prepare for 
 Holy Orders. Whether his mother - in - law's 
 warning had given the elder Smith a genuine
 
 HIS DESIRE FOR HOLY ORDERS. 17 
 
 dread of the profligacy of universities as well as 
 of public schools, or whether he merely looked 
 upon Oxford or Cambridge as an extravagance 
 unsuited to his own station in life, he would 
 not listen to his son's pleading to be sent 
 there ; and as for the Church he gave an em- 
 phatic discouragement to that idea. In fact, he 
 gave his son to understand that if he persisted 
 in his purpose of entering Holy Orders, he need 
 not expect a shilling from his father ; whereas, 
 if he came into the business, he might count on 
 being made a partner as soon as he should come 
 of age. 
 
 The young man submitted his will to that 
 of his father, and began work in the office ; but 
 he could not bring his spirit into sympathy with 
 the Wesleyan community to which his parents 
 were so closely attached. 1 To a youth brought 
 up so constantly at home, it must have been 
 a matter of much difficulty, and have required 
 the support of strong conviction, to attempt 
 separation from the congregation in which he had 
 been reared. To support himself in the effort, 
 and to overcome his parents' objections to his 
 
 1 It is believed that the elder Smith never actually joined the 
 "Wesleyan Society, though he constantly attended their services, 
 and subscribed liberally to their funds. He was, however, married 
 in St George's, Hanover Square, and all his children were baptised 
 in the Church of England. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 attending the services of the Church of Eng- 
 land, William availed himself gladly of the 
 help of his brother-in-law and old master, Mr 
 Beal, who in 1842 wrote to him 
 
 Would you like me to name to your Father the subject 
 of your, & Augusta's and Emma's, going to church every 
 Sacrament Sunday ? I feel very confident indeed that 
 both with your Father and Mamma I could gain it for you 
 all. With this stipulation, however, that so long as you 
 are under age, this shall be the last concession made to 
 you in these matters viz., that one Sunday in a month, 
 and that the Sacrament Sunday, shall be at your own dis- 
 posal, but that the other three, you all consent willingly 
 and regularly to go wherever your Father thinks you get 
 the most wholesome spiritual food. 
 
 It would have been in accordance with what 
 very often happens, if early restraint of so strict 
 a kind had brought about a reaction as the boy 
 grew to manhood : the impulse to escape from the 
 narrow field of duties precisely defined weariness 
 of warnings against all that allures a youth as the 
 world opens before him the flush of health and 
 the free instinct of our race, these are influences 
 which have often in such cases brought about the 
 violent rupture of parental control and started 
 the prodigal down the slopes. The saving in- 
 strument in such cases is generally found in 
 warm affection ; and it implies the existence of
 
 LEAVES THE WESLEY AN BODY. 19 
 
 more endearing qualities in the parents of this 
 young man than a stranger is able to trace in 
 the record of their habit of life, that, from first 
 to last, their son never wavered in his love for 
 them, and that home influence never lost its hold 
 upon him. On the other hand, though almost 
 the first use which the younger William made 
 of the liberty of manhood was to carry out the 
 wish he had for some years entertained, of sep- 
 arating himself from the Wesleyan body and 
 joining the Church of England, the effect of early 
 training never disappeared : throughout his life 
 he remained serious, sometimes almost to despon- 
 dency, deeply religious and attentive to regular 
 worship, and accustomed, in intimate correspon- 
 dence, to express himself with more freedom and 
 fulness on spiritual subjects than is usually the 
 habit of laymen in the older Churches. This may 
 explain many passages in letters written in after- 
 years to his wife and sisters, and enable the reader 
 to understand his constantly recurring request for 
 their prayers on his behalf in whatever business 
 he happened to be engaged on at the time. It 
 must not be supposed, however, that Smith was 
 ever in the habit of obtruding his religious feel- 
 ings in general conversation or correspondence. 
 Some of those who had most constant inter- 
 course with him in public life, though they felt
 
 20 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 that they had to do with an earnest Christian, 
 may never, in the course of many years, have once 
 heard the name of the Almighty pass his lips, or 
 remember a single sentence of religious doctrine 
 still less of controversy escape from him. 
 
 Mr Beal's intervention seems to have been 
 effectual, for in 1842 there came a letter from 
 William to his sisters : 
 
 Have you heard from Mr Beal on a particular subject ? 
 Did you expect anything of the kind ? I was quite sur- 
 prised when I heard from him about it, and Father's 
 approbation too. You know of course that all things go 
 on well day by day. Father says that there is a slight 
 difference in the young generation, but you must wait till 
 Sunday, when, if you'll go to Church in the morning, you 
 shall hear it all in the afternoon, and then, by attending 
 Methody or other Chapel in the evening, you will cover 
 your double sin and go to bed a Xtian. 
 
 Not improbably the elder Smith, though him- 
 self remaining staunchly attached to the Wes- 
 leyan body, viewed without apprehension the 
 tendency of his children towards the Church of 
 England, and it is to the influence of his wife 
 and her relations that such active resistance as 
 he showed in preventing his son offering himself 
 for confirmation may be attributed. Constantly 
 and actively employed as he had been in business,
 
 WOMEN CONSERVATIVES IN RELIGION. 21 
 
 and absent from home during daylight hours, he 
 would, as is the habit of the husbands of good 
 wives, willingly resign into Mrs Smith's hands 
 the chief part of the spiritual direction of his 
 household ; yet there may also be traced, in his 
 thus yielding to Mr Beal's proposal, some of that 
 tolerant breadth which, as men approach the 
 half - hundred, generally mellows the view they 
 take of religious controversy. Indeed, though 
 the creation of the minor divisions which separ- 
 ate the Christian Church into so many parts lies 
 at the door of the men, their maintenance must 
 be placed to the account of women, who, being 
 far more conservative in spiritual as well as in 
 temporal affairs, resist all change and modifica- 
 tion as dangerous innovation. 
 
 But however tolerant the elder Smith showed 
 himself of the alteration of his children's views 
 and their alienation from the Methodist connec- 
 tion, he remained inflexible in his resistance to 
 William's inclination to enter the priesthood. In 
 this he was evidently strengthened by the cir- 
 cumstances of his private affairs. He had, by 
 diligence and active foresight, raised his business 
 from a very modest scale to one of considerable 
 importance and value. But as he advanced in 
 years, incessant work began to tell upon his
 
 22 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 health. In 1845 his friend, Mr Sercombe 
 (whose son Rupert afterwards married his 
 daughter Louisa), wrote from Exeter : 
 
 I feel persuaded that nothing but rest will do for you ; 
 will you therefore allow me to suggest to you what has 
 passed through my mind and my dear wife's, which is this. 
 If you could by advertisement or otherwise get a respect- 
 able business man, who understands your kind of business, 
 and who would take your morning work, . . . this would 
 save your health, and in all human probability prolong 
 your valuable life. 
 
 No doubt Smith felt the soundness of this advice, 
 and the result of it is shown in a letter from 
 young Smith to his sister, Mrs Sercombe, written 
 in the same year : 
 
 We have at last made an alteration a decided and, I 
 hope, an effectual one. Father has long felt that his late 
 attack of lameness resulted from overwork, and therefore 
 has so far overcome his natural predilections as to deter- 
 mine on doing less on giving up packing altogether on 
 playing the gentleman Tradesman. In order to carry out 
 this idea he has resolved to dine here [at Kilburn House] 
 regularly at 4 o'clock, excepting on Saturdays, and he has 
 purchased me a Horse a very beautiful one indeed on 
 which I am to ride backwards and forwards if necessary, 
 to stay a short time after he has left, if not to leave with 
 him or when I choose. 
 
 The weight thus lifted from the father's 
 shoulders was placed upon those of his willing
 
 YOUTHFUL RESPONSIBILITY. 23 
 
 son, who now entered upon the battle of life, 
 the labours of which varied, it is true, in 
 character as years brought him into different 
 fields of labour, but were without intermission 
 to its close. In this early begun and long- 
 sustained work may be traced the source of that 
 sense of weariness so often alluded to in the 
 letters of his later years, and the strain so long 
 endured seems to have tended to bring sooner to 
 its close a life which might, under less trying 
 conditions, have continued in vigour till at least 
 the threescore and ten. 
 
 Slow as Mr Smith had been to show confidence 
 io his son's judgment in religious matters, this 
 rearrangement of his business was not the first 
 proof he had given of reliance on William's 
 capacity and common - sense. Mr Smith had 
 shortly before this acquired some property in 
 Cornish mines, and in 1844, while the youth 
 was still a private pupil with Mr Beal at 
 Tavi stock, he wrote to him as follows : 
 
 Can you tell me the cause of the Herod's foot shares 
 being 7 each ? have you any knowledge what has been 
 paid for the set, because 256 at 7 each is about 1790 
 a goodly sum. Think about this, & let me know your 
 opinion. I do not think anything is wrong, for otherwise 
 Mr P. has my utmost confidence, but we are all apt to run 
 too fast when we get excited. Coolly think over this 
 matter, but do not think that I have any intention to
 
 24 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 withhold entering into this matter, but I wish to draw 
 your attention to a full consideration of the matter and 
 also to mining in general. I suppose you will go to the 
 Green Valley. 
 
 I do not see anything in your letter respecting the state 
 the Miners are in has any provision been made for the 
 welfare of the nobler part ? It will not do for me to attend 
 a Place of Public Worship myself, & yet put men in 
 such a situation that they have not the means of religious 
 instruction, and I am sure you will see the inconsistency 
 of subscribing to Missionary Societies, & at the same 
 .time being the cause of making my fellow-countrymen 
 heathens. I hold my hand at the present till my mind is 
 set at rest on this subject. 
 
 Do not think that I am in any way displeased respecting 
 Herod's foot far from it. I think as far as you have gone 
 you have done perfectly correct, but the other part must 
 not be neglected. 
 
 Nothing could illustrate more clearly than this 
 passage the nature of the training which gave a 
 lasting bent to the character of young Smith. 
 His father, though a peculiarly shrewd man of 
 business, with a quick eye to the main chance, 
 and constantly on the look-out for good in- 
 vestments for his savings, was also scrupulously 
 righteous, and conscientious as to the sources 
 whence he should draw his profits. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that old Mr 
 Smith was close-fisted or ungenerous. Persons 
 still living testify to his liberality and considera-
 
 A GOOD CORRESPONDENT. 25 
 
 tion for others. On one occasion, when extensive 
 additions were being made to the offices in the 
 Strand, and were on the point of completion, he 
 happened to meet on a Saturday the contractor 
 for the work, who wore an air of depression and 
 anxiety. Smith asked him why he was so down- 
 cast. " Perhaps you would be downcast, Mr 
 Smith," was the reply, " if you had come to 
 Saturday night, and had no money to pay your 
 men. The architect is out of London, and I can't 
 get a certificate for my work." " Oh, is that 
 all ? " replied Smith ; " come into my office and 
 I'll write you a cheque for 1000." He did so, 
 and the contractor, then in a comparatively small 
 way of business, now a partner in one of the most 
 powerful firms in England, still speaks gratefully 
 of this mark of confidence. 
 
 Neither at this time nor at any later period 
 of his life did young Smith possess the gift of 
 poignant expression in his letters. He wrote 
 fluently, indeed, and, making allowance for the 
 greater brevity which multiplied posts have 
 brought about in later times, his early letters 
 are certainly of more liberal measure than most 
 modern sons and brothers address to their parents 
 and sisters. Full of common-sense, they are not 
 always free from a tendency to commonplace, 
 and the homely language is often an indifferent
 
 26 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 vehicle for really dignified thought. 1 It is not, for 
 instance, every brother who, at the age of nine- 
 teen, takes the trouble to impart such true philo- 
 sophy as is contained in the following sentence 
 from a letter written by Smith in 1844 to his 
 elder sister Augusta on her birthday : 
 
 Although in a very humble and apparently confined 
 sphere of action, who can tell the effect which our influence 
 or that of our conduct may have upon others, and its re- 
 action throughout future ages ? 
 
 Written by the heir to influence and posses- 
 sion, such words might have come to be remem- 
 bered as pregnant with conscious meaning ; 
 penned as they were by the son of a London 
 tradesman, to whom the University training 
 which he had craved for had been refused, 
 they signify a thoughtful sense of responsibility 
 beyond what might have been reasonably ex- 
 pected. 
 
 In the previous year, 1843, William had already, 
 on the invitation of Mr Reece of Furnival's Inn, 
 accepted the office of one of the secretaries of the 
 Great Queen Street Branch Missionary Society, 
 an institution of which the importance was cer- 
 
 1 In spite of the profusion of his correspondence at all times of 
 his life, Smith possessed two virtues of a letter-writer he wrote 
 a distinct hand, almost ladylike in neatness, and he hardly ever, 
 even at his busiest, used contractions.
 
 THE QUESTION OF A PROFESSION. 27 
 
 tainly not underrated by its members, for Mr 
 Reece, in making his proposal to William, mod- 
 estly describes it as " the noblest and most 
 deeply interesting enterprise that either the 
 Church or the World in this or any former 
 age ever witnessed ! " 
 
 There was a time when the opposition to his 
 strong desire for ordination seemed about to be 
 removed. His father, weary of incessant work, 
 contemplated the sale of his business and retiring 
 upon the substantial means which he had gained 
 in trade. 
 
 I am most sincerely delighted [wrote Mrs Beal to her 
 brother in 1844] at the encouraging prospect of affairs. 
 You have now certainly far greater likelihood of realising 
 your long-cherished hopes and wishes. All I can say is, 
 may it please God to grant your desire, and that you may 
 live to be the useful minister of a nice little parish of your 
 own. ... I am very, very thankful dear Father has deter- 
 mined to relieve himself, but shall not be able fully to 
 believe he will sell the business he has so long cherished, 
 until I hear of some very decided move in that direction. 
 . . . Some occupation that will be interesting and not 
 burdensome must be provided. I am quite sure he cannot 
 live inactive after the life of work and bustle he has 
 passed. 
 
 Mrs Beal's incredulity was justified by the 
 result. Mr Smith overcame his sense of weari- 
 ness, pushed his business with redoubled energy,
 
 28 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 and became more resolved than ever to make his 
 son an active partner in the concern. 
 
 Don't be afraid [wrote young Smith to Mrs Beal in 
 1845] that I am becoming a Puseyite, a Newmanite, or 
 Eoman Catholic. If you think me really higher than I 
 was, I have given you a wrong impression. I am only 
 confirmed in my dislike for Wesleyanism as now carried 
 out by preachers and people, and in my decided preference 
 for the Church, and to a certain extent I judge of systems 
 and principles by their results in the lives and ideas of 
 those who hold them. I think the extremes of parties 
 are decidedly wrong ; and, besides, I should be careful how 
 I held views which would give just occasion -to certain 
 parties to exclaim against what they would state was the 
 inevitable result of a departure from Wesleyanism, for 
 the sake of the Church itself. I am sometimes so much 
 annoyed by these people that I should really say some 
 unpleasant things to them, if I did not remember that 
 they would be carefully treasured up and used at another 
 time against the Church as an illustration of its prin- 
 ciples, the aggravating cause being of course forgotten, or 
 never mentioned. 
 
 Sisters are a little strong in their views now and then, 
 and if I become a Eoman Catholic they will go first ; but 
 there is no fear. We are all quiet enough and low enough 
 to please even you, when we get amongst Church people, 
 but now the very reverse is forced down our throats. 
 . . . Nothing has transpired respecting the business 
 or the change that appears to wait me. The increase of 
 clerks promises a little ease, and, accordingly, Father does 
 not say much of selling now. His idea was that after 
 selling the business he would find sufficient employment 
 for his time in attending to the business of the public
 
 A.D. 1845.] CHRISTIAN FATALISM. 29 
 
 companies with which he is connected, and in looking 
 after his other property. ... I don't think, however, 
 that even if I go out of it he will really sell the business ; 
 he may probably do less perhaps take some one in, as 
 Cyrus, whom he could manage completely ; but he would 
 never give up the position of master in the concern, nor 
 when the time for action came would he like to give up 
 altogether the influence and income which the business 
 gives. 
 
 I shall endeavour to be perfectly content whatever may 
 be the result of all these things, for I feel I should not be 
 justified in doing that which would seem to anticipate the 
 ordering of events. The position which I desire to occupy 
 is of far too responsible a character to be regarded merely 
 as an occupation. I shall not therefore be satisfied unless 
 a clear opening presents itself, and if it does, I hope I 
 shall be enabled to fulfil conscientiously the duties to 
 which I shall then feel I am called. 1 
 
 You need not fear I have any desire to tie - myself up 
 for life. It is the opposite tendency that induces Father 
 to suggest the subject so frequently, to our great amuse- 
 ment. He thinks that if I entertain such thoughts now, 
 I shall then be settled to something like business for life. 
 But whether I take orders or not, I shall certainly not 
 think of anything like matrimony for some years to come. 
 
 1 This lofty tone of Christian fatalism remained with Smith 
 throughout his life. It is the note on which Samuel Johnson con- 
 tinually dwelt. "To prefer," he wrote to Boswell in 1776, "one 
 future mode of life to another, upon just reasons, requires facul- 
 ties which it has not pleased our Creator to give us." Again, in 
 ' Easselas ' : " ' Very few,' said the poet, ' live by choice : every man 
 is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his 
 foresight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate.' " 
 
 2 By marriage.
 
 30 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 21. 
 
 It would destroy all hope of mental improvement, and 
 make me undoubtedly " soft." 
 
 How great was the sacrifice which young Smith 
 was called on to make to his father's will, in re- 
 sisting the strong vocation he felt for the Church, 
 may be gathered from passages in a journal kept 
 through part of these years. In 1846, the year 
 he came of age, he wrote : 
 
 Aitgust 6. The past twelvemonth has been one of great 
 importance to me, and as far as man may be permitted 
 to judge, determined the particular course of life I shall 
 lead, and the object to which my best energies shall be 
 devoted. 
 
 The decision on these most serious matters was not, 
 perhaps, in accordance with the hopes and desires I had 
 long cherished. 
 
 Those who have a natural claim upon my respect and 
 obedience so strongly opposed the schemes I entertained, 
 and in such a feeling, as to render it impossible for me to 
 carry them into effect. 
 
 It is true that many friends (whose opinions were freely 
 and impartially given, and who, by their position, their 
 knowledge of the world, and] the soundness of their 
 motives, were well qualified to give them) said that they 
 thought I was fitted for, as I was inclined to, the high and 
 exalted position of a Minister, and they judged my strong 
 wishes in the matter to be an indication of the will of 
 Providence. But it is not so, at least apparently, for he 
 whose power is- absolute in the matter under Providence 
 itself by the strong expression of his wishes and inten- 
 tions obliged me to yield my own desires and views, and 
 adopt his instead.
 
 A.D. 1846.] FEELING FOR CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 3 1 
 
 By this I do not mean that he acted otherwise than 
 from the kindest wishes, as he no doubt considered the 
 course of life he contemplated for me the best and most 
 useful, and that, in fact, for which I am designed. 
 
 However it may be, I now, as a man, am called upon to 
 fulfil obligations imposed upon all men to their Maker 
 and to each other. I may not idly regret the disappoint- 
 ment of long-cherished hopes which, it may be, I have 
 not been justified in entertaining, but it is my duty to 
 acknowledge an overruling and directing Providence in all 
 the very minutest things, by being, in whatsoever state I 
 am, therewith content. . . . 
 
 My conclusion is, then, that I am at present pursuing 
 the path of duty, however imperfectly ; wherever it may 
 lead, or what it may become, I know not. 
 
 Bitterly as the young man felt the disappoint- 
 ment, he did not allow it to destroy the attrac- 
 tion which ecclesiastical matters possessed for 
 him, and the tpnor of his after-life was accu- 
 rately forecast in one of Mrs Beal's letters ex- 
 pressing sympathy for him in the turn affairs 
 had taken : 
 
 In your present situation there is nothing to prevent 
 your being very useful. I know more than I once did the 
 difficulty ministers find to get willing, intelligent, and 
 suitable persons to co-operate with them in carrying out 
 many benevolent designs : in this you may render many 
 important services. You know that you used to agree 
 with me that if a man had but the inclination he might 
 be as useful out of office as in it. I trust in future years 
 you will find this to be your experience.
 
 32 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 22. 
 
 There is no trace in the letters or journals of 
 this period of his abrupt severance from the sect . 
 in which William had been brought up. On the 
 contrary, for some time after he had become a 
 member of the Church of England, he continued 
 to attend Wesleyan services, though with a grow- 
 ing distaste for that form of worship. Thus, 
 during 1 a tour which he took in the autumn of 
 
 o 
 
 1846, after he was of age, with his mother and 
 four sisters, in the English Lake district, he 
 wrote from Kendal : 
 
 Sunday, 2nd August. Attended St Thomas's Church in 
 the morning, Mr Latrobe, an excellent man, duly valued; 
 Trinity Church in the afternoon the old church, of im- 
 mense size, having five aisles ; and the Methodist Chapel 
 in the evening. To perpetuate my remembrance of this 
 service would be unkind. 
 
 On January 29, 1847, he wrote to Mrs Beal : 
 
 I am going on very comfortably with Father now, sel- 
 dom or never going to Chapel, or asked to do so. 
 
 Another letter to the same, written a month 
 later, gives the impression made on young Smith 
 by a well-known individual : 
 
 I have had an interview with the great George Hudson, 
 the Eailway King. The ' Times ' wrote for a man to come 
 up to town, on my representation, who knew something 
 of the railways down in the North, and we went together 
 to see this great man, and to remonstrate with him con-
 
 A.D. 1847.] HIS RELIGIOUS TEMPERAMENT. 33 
 
 ceruing some errors in the arrangement of the trains. 
 We were with him about half an hour, and had a good 
 opportunity of seeing his character, of which I have not 
 formed a very favourable opinion. I think he is a cun- 
 ning, clever man, but very deficient in everything that is 
 noble and commanding respect ; very much of a bully in 
 conversation if he thinks he can succeed ; if not, possessed 
 of little courage, if any. At first he was disposed to treat 
 me very slightingly, and I felt rather angry, and in the 
 course of conversation brought in the names of the con- 
 ductors of the ' Times ' and ' Chronicle,' which had such a 
 magical effect upon the honourable gentleman that both 
 my companion and myself could hardly refrain from 
 laughing in his face. 
 
 It has been a matter of much consideration 
 how far it is expedient to unveil the most secret 
 and sacred thoughts of the man whose narrative 
 fills these pages. One shrinks from putting on 
 permanent record anything that might be but 
 the fruit of a transient mood or merely evidence of 
 a youthful phase of thought ; yet no estimate of 
 William Smith's character and work would be 
 faithful which did not show how, from very early 
 days down to his latest years, he was constantly 
 penetrated with deep religious feeling, and unre- 
 mitting in the practice both of private prayer 
 and public worship. There are those who believe 
 that this is incompatible with the higher intellect- 
 ual power ; that the bolder spirits are those which 
 show themselves somewhat impatient of church 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 34 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 services and incredulous as to the efficacy of 
 prayer : not the less would such as these have 
 cause for complaint if the leading motive of all 
 Smith's actions were kept in the background. It 
 will be for each one to form his own judgment of 
 the degree in which the man's usefulness, and 
 the confidence he gained from his fellow-men, was 
 affected by his undoubted piety. 
 
 Smith's early journals are full of religious medi- 
 tation, expressions of deep regret for failings, 
 and gratitude for deliverance from evil. 1 But 
 there would be little profit in quoting extracts, 
 differing not much from the sentences in which 
 many a serious-minded youth must have com- 
 mitted to paper his perplexity and hope, his 
 ardour and disappointment. Yet there has been 
 
 1 Like all men of prayerful natures, Smith was subject to moods 
 of deep despondency. One is reminded by the tenor of many notes 
 in his handwriting of similar expressions made use of by Dr 
 Johnson his prayerful reflection, for instance, on his fifty-sixth 
 birthday : " I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving, having, 
 from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming 
 schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, 
 therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O God ! 
 grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions, for Jesus 
 Christ's sake. Amen." In making reference to Smith's devotional 
 habit of mind, one is tempted to echo the comment passed by 
 Boswell on the passage above quoted : " Such a tenderness of con- 
 science such a fervent desire of improvement will rarely be 
 found. It is, surely, not decent in those who are hardened in 
 indifference to spiritual improvement to treat this pious anxiety 
 of Johnson with contempt."
 
 .4 SERIOUS BOYHOOD. 35 
 
 preserved on a loose slip of paper something so 
 characteristic of the writer, something that may 
 give, once for all, so clear an insight into his 
 ardent, yet withal methodical, devotion not 
 merely the sentiment of adolescence but the 
 enduring practice of his life that there seems 
 no reason to withhold it. This document, written 
 about the time Smith came of age, contains a 
 list of the subjects for which he prayed daily. 
 They are as follows : 
 
 1. For repentance. 2. Faith. 3. Love. 4. Grace to 
 help. 5. Gratitude. 6. Power to pray. 7. Constant 
 direction in all things. 8. A right understanding of the 
 Bible, and a thorough knowledge of it. 9. Deliverance 
 from my easily besetting sin watchfulness. 10. Grace 
 that blessings and talents God's gifts may not be the 
 means of withdrawing my heart's service from God the 
 Giver. 11. My wife if it is God's will I should have 
 one. 12. Like blessings for my Father and Sisters, accord- 
 ing to their several necessities. 13. My friends. 14. 
 This place. 15. Missionaries. 16. All for whom I ought. 
 17. Pardon for all ignorance and sin in all my prayers. 
 Piemember the 4th February, and pray that I yield not 
 to temptation. 
 
 Never, surely, did the boyhood and youth of 
 one whose parents were, if not in affluent, at least 
 in easy circumstances, pass with so little provi- 
 sion for amusement as did those of William 
 Smith. Games generally bulk largely in a school-
 
 36 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 boy's letters, but in the few that have survived 
 from the brief school-days of this boy, there is 
 not even a passing reference to football or cricket. 
 The only exercise which he seems to have been 
 at liberty to enjoy and that from very early 
 years was riding. Each year, however, after 
 leaving Tavistock, he used to take an autumn 
 holiday with his mother and sisters. In 1844 
 and 1846 they went to Rydal ; in 1847 they 
 made a tour in Scotland; and in 1848 and 1849 
 they travelled in Ireland. 
 
 The absence of active recreation does not seem 
 to have been compensated for by a decided appe- 
 tite for literature. True, he was at some pains- 
 after his desire to go to a University had been 
 sacrificed to his father's wish for him to enter the 
 business to carry on such studies as his limited 
 opportunities allowed, and for a couple of years 
 after he came of age he used to study with a pri- 
 vate tutor : but he used books not so much from a 
 love of literature, as from a desire for knowledge. 
 His letters are not those of a bookish man ; and 
 long- afterwards he remarked once to Mr White, 
 
 o 
 
 who still holds an important, confidential ap- 
 pointment in the head office, " I don't read, I 
 appropriate." 
 
 But he had one darling occupation one, too, in
 
 THWARTED ASPIRATIONS. 37 
 
 the pursuit of which he had the good fortune to 
 be encouraged by his father. He was passion- 
 ately fond of music, and learned to play with some 
 skill on the organ. This taste was dominant 
 with him throughout his life, and the last addi- 
 tion to his country seat at Greenlands in 1885 
 included the conversion of the kitchen into a 
 large organ - room, in which was placed a fine 
 instrument by Willis. 
 
 It is perhaps fruitless to speculate what his life 
 might have been, and to what level he might 
 have risen, had William Smith been allowed to 
 follow his inclination in the choice of a profession. 
 There are few parents who think it wise to thwart 
 the decided prepossession of their sons for definite 
 callings few that do not rejoice when such pre- 
 possession for a worthy vocation is shown. Still, 
 looking back over the circumstances surrounding 
 Smith in boyhood and manhood, it is difficult 
 to see matter for regret in the obstacles placed 
 in the way of fulfilling his ambition. One can- 
 not but see that his was a character requiring 
 external pressure to develop it : had he become 
 a clerk in Holy Orders, he might have filled a 
 rural incumbency, with diligence indeed, and 
 with profit for his own soul and the souls of his 
 parishioners, but his light would not have shone
 
 38 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 before men, showing how pure and lofty prin- 
 ciples can be successfully carried into the highest 
 and most complex conditions of modern govern- 
 ment. His private friends and parishioners 
 might have gained something, but the public 
 could not but have failed to lose much. In the last 
 year of his life, in reply to a letter from his old 
 friend, the Rev. H. H. D'Ombrain, vicar of West- 
 well, congratulating him on his appointment to 
 the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, an honorary 
 post reserved for the highest in the service of 
 the State, Smith wrote : " Our courses in life 
 have been very different, but if I had had my 
 choice at twenty-one, I should have been as you 
 are." There comes to mind a story told of old 
 John Brown, the minister of Haddington, to 
 whom a conceited young fellow, who thought 
 himself too good for his calling, had expressed 
 his ardent desire to be a minister of the Gospel. 
 "I wish," he said, "to preach and glorify God." 
 " My young friend," replied the cool-headed old 
 divine, " a man may glorify God making broom 
 besoms ; stick to your trade, and glorify God by 
 your walk and conversation." 
 
 To some such conclusion Smith's own strong 1 
 
 o 
 
 common - sense seems to have led him. Forty 
 years later in 1885 he was writing to his 
 daughter Emily, now the Hon. Mrs W. Acland,
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH INGE. 39 
 
 from Balmoral, where he was Minister in attend- 
 ance on the Queen : 
 
 Your account of yourself reminds me of my own feeling 
 when I was young. I thought my life was aimless, pur- 
 poseless, and I wanted something else to do ; but events 
 compelled me to adhere to what promised to be a dull life 
 and a useless one ; the result has been that few men have 
 had more interesting and useful work to do whether it 
 has been done ill or well than I have had. 
 
 Man proposes and God disposes, and His dispositions 
 yielded to and accepted turn out for our happiness. 
 
 One of Smith's most constant correspondents 
 during his early years was William Ince (now 
 Canon Ince, of Christ Church, Oxford). Inter- 
 spersed with copious reflections on serious sub- 
 jects, especially on the development of the 
 Tractarian movement, which Ince, as a Low 
 Churchman, regarded with suspicion and aver- 
 sion, there occur in his letters to Smith references 
 to matters of the day which are not without in- 
 terest at the present time : 
 
 30th Jan y - J844- Pray, are you acquainted with 
 Keble's ' Christian Year ' ? If not, I would advise you to 
 get or borrow it of some one, as it contains some of the 
 most melodious verses and beautiful sentiments that have 
 been produced in modern times, and you may have it 
 without much fear of being suspected of favouring the 
 party to which its author belongs, as it is read and 
 admired by all even his bitterest opponents. 
 
 30th March 1846. ... As for political parties, they
 
 40 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 appear to me to be all alike. One when in power pursues 
 the very same line of policy which it denounced when 
 out. Great broad principles are abandoned, and mere 
 expediency is the guide of conduct. 
 
 In writing to Ince about this time Smith 
 observed : 
 
 Your Bishop [Wilberforce] has come out in the House 
 of Lords in good style independently like a man, and 
 although he may have made a mistake or two, they are 
 nothing to the spirit which is in the man. He will do 
 you in Oxford immense good make men who never 
 thought of thinking for themselves (or acting, rather) 
 first admire his energetic character, and then copy it. ... 
 I am amused, even among people who are a little educated, 
 to observe the easiness with which a man first starting a 
 subject can induce all the rest to follow in his steps 
 taking the same view of it. I suppose it must be so, or 
 the world would be in a terrible mess. For my part, how- 
 ever, I should be inclined to examine any conclusion, all 
 the more because other men had arrived at it ; and I do 
 not think that even if I had thought, and expressed the 
 thought, with them on a previous occasion, it would show 
 either a dishonourable or a weak mind if, on further 
 information and more consideration, I dissented from 
 them and acted accordingly. 
 
 Here is another extract from Ince's letters : 
 
 Dec. 8, 1848. We had a grand treat here last week in 
 Jenny Lind's concert ; nobody has talked of anything else 
 since ; every anecdote of her stay and every word she 
 uttered are most assiduously treasured up. Her singing- 
 was certainly most enchanting, and besides its own
 
 AN ENDURING FRIENDSHIP. 41 
 
 intrinsic merit was enhanced by the simplicity and art- 
 lessness of her manners, so utterly free from all affecta- 
 tion, and so indicative of goodness. She sang two or three 
 songs to the servants at the Angel where she staid, sang 
 some pieces from the Messiah in New College Chapel, 
 and, when asked by the Bodleian Librarian to sign her 
 name in the book provided for distinguished visitors, 
 refused, saying, " No ; Oxford is so great and I am so 
 little." 
 
 The circumstances of Smith's boyhood and 
 youth forbade the planting of many friendships 
 at that season when the tender rootlets of affec- 
 tion creep silently and fasten themselves deeply 
 into the fabric of a human life. With Ince his 
 friendship was enduring ; he was almost the only 
 one of whom he could have exclaimed with 
 Charles Lamb : " Oh ! it is pleasant as it is 
 rare to find the same arm linked in yours at 
 forty, which at thirteen helped it to turn over 
 the Cicero De amicitid, or some other tale of 
 antique friendship, which the young heart even 
 then was burning to anticipate."
 
 42 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1846-1854. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT IN CHOICE OF A PROFESSION RESIDENCE AT 
 
 KILBURN HOUSE YOUNG SMITH ENTERS THE BUSINESS, AND 
 
 ON COMING OF AGE BECOMES HIS FATHER'S PARTNER HIS 
 
 INFLUENCE IN THE OFFICE BEGINNING OF THE BOOKSTALL 
 
 BUSINESS ACQUIRES MONOPOLY OF THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 RAILWAY STATIONS HIS DEALINGS WITH EMPLOYES EX- 
 PANSION OF THE BUSINESS WORK ON THE COMMITTEE OF 
 
 KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the agitation of alternate 
 hopes and fears as to the realisation of his 
 dream of becoming a clergyman, young William 
 Smith had shown no want of willing application 
 to the business of news-agency, upon which he 
 entered at the age of sixteen. While it is im- 
 possible to doubt the reality of his religious 
 conviction and the large place which it filled 
 in all his schemes for the future, it is equally 
 impossible not to admire the resolution with 
 which he acted on Candide's maxim il faut 
 cultiver notre jardin.
 
 A.D. 1846.] RESIDENCE AT KILBURN. 43 
 
 There is an entry in his journal for August 
 1846, highly characteristic of his thoughtful 
 and precise habit of mind : 
 
 The last few weeks have been marked with very im- 
 portant and serious events. First came the decision 
 affecting my future life, of the results of which no one 
 can form any estimate. Then my coming of age on 24th 
 June was a serious event, as, with the liberal means 
 afforded me by my father, and the general though tacit 
 concession of freedom of thought and action, . . . the 
 acknowledgment that I am a man all have opened up 
 fresh responsibilities and duties, without removing any 
 that previously existed. ... On the 30th ulto., Mr Ford 
 waited upon us by appointment to take our joint instruc- 
 tions as to the Partnership, which gives me 500 a-year 
 clear, board and lodging, a comparative interest in the 
 capital of 2000 for seven years, but liable to six 
 months' notice on either side. These terms, with which 
 was coupled an express declaration that they were only 
 temporary, as a prelude to much greater concessions, are 
 extremely liberal and considerate. 
 
 Somewhere about the year 1840 his father 
 had bought Kilburn House, a pleasant suburban 
 villa, then standing in ample private grounds, 
 though it has now disappeared under the ad- 
 vancing tide of bricks and mortar. This became 
 the home of the family instead of the house 
 in the Strand, and every week-day morning at 
 four o'clock, summer and winter, the brougham 
 used to come to the door to convey the father
 
 44 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 or son, or both of them, to the Strand office, 
 to attend to the despatch of the papers by the 
 early mails. 
 
 You are correct [wrote young Smith to Mrs Beal in 
 1847] in supposing that I have been prevented from writ- 
 ing to you. I never remember such a period of excite- 
 ment and hard work. I have been in town with Father, 
 once at 3 o'clock in the morning, and every other day 
 since the beginning of the season before 5, excepting 
 Mondays and Thursdays ; and we have already had 9 
 special express engines to Liverpool, Manchester, and 
 Birmingham, and they will run every day this week. 
 All this I have mainly to arrange, and I can assure you 
 it has worn me not a little. Constant excitement and 
 anxiety during the days, and short and disturbed sleep at 
 nights as the consequence, are gradually making me as 
 low and nervous as I was a' few months back. 
 
 But exclusive reliance was not placed on the 
 mail-coaches for the transmission of news. Light 
 carts with fast horses were employed when the 
 newspapers were late of coming from the pub- 
 lishers, to overtake the mails ; and in addition 
 to these, when any event of unusual importance 
 took place, or when something of interest hap- 
 pened too late for insertion in the papers of that 
 day, Smith had his own mounted messengers, 
 riding sometimes a couple of hours in front of 
 the mails, distributing printed slips among his 
 agents arid customers in provincial towns.
 
 "FIRST ON THE ROAD." 45 
 
 Not seldom it would happen that, when the 
 House of Commons sat late, the publication of 
 the ' Times ' was delayed until after the departure 
 of the morning mails, by reason that it was the 
 only journal which gave a full parliamentary re- 
 port. Smith's men Avould be all ready to receive 
 it and carry it into the country, thus enabling 
 readers to get their paper on the day of publica- 
 tion, instead of waiting, as they would otherwise 
 have had to do, till the arrival of the mail on 
 the following morning. By this means, on the 
 death of King William IV. in May 1837, Smith 
 was enabled to carry the news into the country 
 some hours in advance of the mails, and that not 
 only into this country, but into Ireland, for he 
 chartered a special packet to convey the papers to 
 Belfast on the same day. By this boldness and 
 activity, by never grudging expense in a matter 
 of business, and by the excellent organisation of 
 his staff, he had secured the confidence and 
 favour both of publishers and country customers. 
 " First on the road " was his maxim, and it 
 brought his house ultimately to the position of 
 first in the trade, for it enabled him to take full 
 advantage of the change of system and rapid 
 development of newspaper traffic consequent on 
 the creation of railways. 
 
 Some years after the exploit mentioned above,
 
 46 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 21. 
 
 1842, writing to his son, Mr Smith had ex- 
 ultingly said : 
 
 I gave our Opposition a little taste on Saturday. I got 
 the M n s Papers into Liverpool about 2 Hours before the 
 time of the 6 O'Clk. arriving. I had lost ground a little 
 there, but this has brought me right again. If our friend 
 K. 1 intends to continue the opposition he has begun, he 
 must turn out a little of his money. 
 
 Entering upon his first duties at the Strand 
 office in 1842, young William Smith received an 
 allowance of 200 a-year from his father. When 
 he came of age in 1846, he was taken into the 
 business on the terms noted above. At that time 
 the property was valued at 80,527, 8s. 6d., and 
 the new firm was registered as Messrs W. H. 
 Smith & Son, the title by which it is still 
 known. 
 
 From the day that young Smith took the posi- 
 tion of junior partner, new life made itself felt 
 in the place. Old Mr Smith's temper had not 
 improved with age. The early work now, as 
 was natural, devolved on the junior partner ; his 
 father used to drive over from Kilburn later in 
 the day, and woe betide the employe whom he 
 found neglecting or mismanaging his task ! 
 
 Things go on pretty smoothly [William writes to his 
 
 Clayton, the largest news-agency of that day, and until 1854.
 
 A.D. 1846.] THE ELDER SMITH'S RULE. 47 
 
 sister Augusta in the first few months of his partnership]. 
 Father is of course a little testy, but generally manage- 
 able. He came down on Monday for half an hour, 
 walked into the Counting-house, bowed to the people, 
 then walked up-stairs, had his leg dressed, and then got 
 into the carriage (which was waiting for him all the time), 
 vowing " the place stunk couldn't breathe " and he 
 " would not come down again for some time it was 
 wretched such a noise too." 
 
 There is no doubt that the senior partner's 
 rule, though just, had become increasingly harsh 
 of late years, and one who remembers the events 
 of these days in the Strand house speaks warmly 
 of the milder influence which prevailed as soon 
 as young Smith entered upon authority. Often, 
 when some clerk or workman was smarting under 
 a prolonged chiding, which might have been well 
 deserved, but was made almost unbearable by 
 the fiercely sarcastic tone in which it was deliv- 
 ered by the old man, the son would wait his 
 opportunity to pass near the culprit, and, paus- 
 ing with a kindly look in his good brown eyes, 
 tell him in a low voice not to take too much to 
 heart the injurious words addressed to him that 
 his father had a touch of gout on him did not 
 mean all he said, and so on. The effect was 
 wonderful in sweetening the daily toil ; the men 
 soon came to know that, with resolution and 
 business capacity not inferior to his father, the
 
 48 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 son was of finer fibre and gentler disposition. 
 His hand was not less firm on the reins, but it 
 was more elastic. 
 
 But the new partner's presence was not long 
 in making itself felt far outside the walls of the 
 counting-house and workshops. The business 
 began to spread far beyond its original scope. 
 Hitherto it had been strictly confined to that of 
 distributing newspapers, a trade in which Clay- 
 ton's was still the largest and leading* house : it 
 was by extending their operations to another and 
 a wider field, that Smith & Son were ultimately 
 able to turn the flank of their powerful rivals. 
 
 As railways began to cover the land and 
 travellers multiplied, bookstalls began to be a 
 familiar feature of the principal stations. Some- 
 times they had been started by the enterprise of 
 local booksellers, who generally combined a dis- 
 play of refreshment for the body with that of 
 food for the mind. Newspapers and novels were 
 ranged in amicable jumble with beer - bottles, 
 sandwiches, and jars of sweets. No regulations 
 controlled the privilege of selling on railway plat- 
 forms, and miscellaneous vendors pushed their 
 humble trade at their own pleasure. Then the 
 railway companies began to find bookstalls a con- 
 venient means of providing occupation for men 
 disabled, or for the widows of men killed, in their
 
 A.D. 1846.] RAILWAY LITERATURE. 49 
 
 service ; and in the early days of railway travel- 
 ling, when the longest stretch of rails was no 
 more than thirty miles, and nobody wanted more 
 than a newspaper to while away the journey, this 
 answered all that was required. But, as jour- 
 neys lengthened and travellers multiplied, more 
 copious literature came in demand, and it is not 
 surprising that complaints began to be heard 
 that the people who were allowed the privilege 
 of supplying it were often illiterate, and almost 
 always untrained to the business. 
 
 Another objectionable feature soon became mani- 
 fest : to supply the demand of travelling readers, 
 dealers furnished their stalls with literature of in- 
 discriminate character. Cheap French novels of 
 the shadiest class, and mischievous trash of every 
 description which no respectable bookseller w^ould 
 offer, found purchasers ; indeed, it became notori- 
 ous that some people sought for and found on 
 railway stalls books that they would have been 
 ashamed to inquire for from tradesmen with a 
 character to lose. Attention was called to the 
 disreputable nature of this traffic by letters to 
 the newspapers, and the directors of the principal 
 railways, recognising the necessity for its regula- 
 tion, began to advertise for tenders for the rent 
 of stalls on their stations. 
 
 In this hitherto unpromising soil young Smith 
 VOL. i. D
 
 50 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 25. 
 
 was not slow to discern the prospect of a rich 
 harvest ; but in opening negotiations with the 
 railway companies for the right to erect book- 
 stalls, he had to encounter his father's opposi- 
 tion, who was disinclined to go beyond what 
 he looked on as the legitimate business of the 
 firm the circulation of newspapers and scep- 
 tical as to the profits to be derived from book- 
 selling, pointing to the ill success of private 
 adventurers in that line. Howbeit, the young 
 man ultimately got his own way, and the first 
 decisive step in the course, which he had initi- 
 ated by buying up the ventures of local men 
 on liberal terms, was accomplished when he 
 concluded a lease with the London and North - 
 Western Railway Company, giving the firm ex- 
 clusive rights for the sale of books and news- 
 papers on their system. 
 
 The companies, naturally concerned more about 
 the profits of their shareholders than about the 
 morals or mental development of their passengers, 
 paid more regard to the amount offered in the 
 tenders than to the respectability of the tender- 
 ers ; consequently the quality of the wares offered 
 by Smith & Son at the London and North- West- 
 ern stations soon came into favourable contrast 
 with that of the salesmen on other lines. An 
 article which appeared in the ' Times ' of 9th
 
 A.D. 1851.] RAILWAY LITERATURE. 51 
 
 August 1851 brings this out so clearly, and 
 throws so much light on the principles on which 
 Messrs W. H. Smith & Son started and main- 
 tained their new business, and the vast advan- 
 tage which it was the first to ensure to the 
 travelling public, that it may be permitted to 
 make somewhat lengthy extracts from it. After 
 dwelling on the revolution effected by railways 
 
 O / > 
 
 in social habits, the writer went on to say : 
 
 Men cannot move their bodies and leave their minds 
 behind them. . . . When disciples are restless, philoso- 
 phers must needs be peripatetic. Are we turning this 
 rushing and scampering over the land to real advantage ? 
 Is the most made of the finest opportunity yet offered to 
 this generation for guiding awakened thought and in- 
 structing the eager and susceptible mind ? . . . Could it 
 be possible that the conductors of our railways, all power- 
 ful and responsible as they are, had either set themselves, 
 or permitted others to establish on their ground, store- 
 houses of positively injurious aliment for the hungry 
 minds that sought refreshment on their feverish way ? 
 Did they sell poison in their literary refreshment-rooms, 
 and stuff of which the deleterious effects twenty doctors 
 would not be sufficient to eradicate ? "We resolved to 
 ascertain at the earliest opportunity, and within a week 
 visited every railway terminus in this metropolis. It 
 was a painful and humiliating inspection. With few 
 exceptions, unmitigated rubbish encumbered the book- 
 shelves of almost every bookstall we visited, and indi- 
 cated only too clearly that the hand of ignorance had 
 been indiscriminately busy in piling up the worthless
 
 52 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 25. 
 
 mass. The purchasers were not few or far between, but 
 the greater the number, the more melancholy the scene. 
 Were all the buyers daily travellers ? Did they daily 
 make these precious acquisitions ? If so, it was a dismal 
 speculation to think how many journeys it would take to 
 destroy for ever a literary taste that might have been per- 
 fectly healthy when it paid for its first day ticket. . . . 
 
 As we progressed north, a wholesome change became 
 visible in railway bookstalls. We had trudged in vain 
 after the schoolmaster elsewhere, but we caught him by 
 the button at Euston Square, 1 and it is with the object of 
 making him less partial in his walks that we now venture 
 thus publicly to appeal to him. At the North- Western 
 terminus we diligently inquired for that which required 
 but little looking after in other places, but we poked in 
 vain for the trash. If it had ever been there, the broom 
 had been before us and swept it clean away. . . . When 
 the present proprietor of the Euston Square book-shop 
 acquired the sole right of selling books and newspapers 
 on the London and North-Western Railway, he found at 
 the various stations on the line a miscellaneous collection 
 of publications of the lowest possible character, and ven- 
 dors equally miscellaneous and irresponsible. ... At one 
 fell swoop the injurious heap was removed. At first the 
 result was most discouraging. An evident check had 
 been given to demand ; but as the new proprietor was 
 gradually able to obtain the assistance of young men who 
 had been educated as booksellers, and as public attention 
 was drawn to the improvement in the character of the 
 books exposed for sale, the returns perceptibly improved, 
 and have maintained a steady progressive increase greatly 
 
 1 The terminus of the London and North-Western line, where 
 Messrs Smith & Son had erected bookstalls.
 
 A.D. 1851.] THE "NORTH-WESTERN MISSIONARY."- 53 
 
 in excess of the proportion to be expected from the in- 
 crease of travelling up to the present time. . . . Un- 
 expected revelations came forth in the course of the 
 inquiry. It has been remarked that persons who appa- 
 rently would be ashamed to be found reading certain 
 works at home, have asked for publications of the worst 
 character at the railway bookstall, and, being unable to 
 obtain them, have suddenly disappeared. . . . Cheap 
 literature is a paying literature, if judiciously managed. 
 A host of readers are springing up along the lines of rail, 
 and imitators of the North- Western missionary will not 
 long be wanting at every terminus in the kingdom. 
 Eailway directors will find it their interest no less than 
 their duty to secure the co-operation of intelligent men, 
 and bookstalls will crave for wholesome food, which our 
 chief purveyors must not be slow to furnish. 
 
 In this great work of purifying the sources of 
 information and amusement, it must not be sup- 
 posed that the " North- Western missionary " was 
 acting solely upon principles of self-interest. 
 There was plenty of demand for the kind of 
 literature which he was determined to discourage. 
 It is on record that already as much as 600 had 
 been paid as the annual rent of a bookstall at a 
 London terminus, and the profits accruing from 
 the old traffic were jeopardised by a sudden 
 change. 
 
 It cannot have been an easy matter to com- 
 pile an Index Expurgatorius. From first to last, 
 letters came in from correspondents indignantly
 
 54 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 complaining of the profligacy of some of the 
 books sold. Thus in 1853 a gentleman wrote 
 expressing surprise that Byron's ' Don Juan ' was 
 on sale at some of the stations, calling upon 
 Smith to prevent " such a vile book as that to 
 pollute his stalls," and indicating his intention 
 to follow up this letter with another on the 
 subject of Alexandre Dumas's novels. As late 
 as 1888 Smith was reproached by another corre- 
 spondent for allowing the ' Sporting Times ' to 
 be exposed for sale. 
 
 There was, besides, more than the custom 
 of the trade and a depraved public taste to be 
 overcome in setting the bookstall business going : 
 young Smith had also, in this matter, an enemy 
 of his own household, for this branch of the busi- 
 ness never, from first to last, found favour in old 
 Mr Smith's eyes. Often, so long as he continued 
 to visit the Strand, when he saw a pile of books 
 in . the counting - house, he would gruffly order 
 their removal, or if he met a man carrying a 
 parcel of them, he would ask him what he meant 
 " by bringing such rubbish into my premises." 
 
 It is surprising how soon the son's quiet con- 
 fidence succeeded in establishing the bookstall 
 business. Besides acquiring the monopoly on the 
 London and North-Western system, he continued 
 to extend his operations on other lines of railway,
 
 THE BOOKSTALLS. 55 
 
 and wherever he had an opportunity, bought up 
 the local man, who was often glad to be let out 
 on easy terms. The railway companies and the 
 public soon became familiar with the bookstalls 
 of W. H. Smith & Son, and the business became 
 so extensive, that in 1849, only three years after 
 its creator had entered the firm, it became neces- 
 sary to appoint separate departmental managers. 
 It was to the well-known firm of wholesale book- 
 sellers, Messrs Hamilton, Adams, & Co., that 
 young Smith applied for assistance, and, on 
 their recommendation, selected for the book 
 department in connection with the bookstalls 
 a young man of the name of Sandifer. It was 
 a most happy choice, and the enormous develop- 
 ment of the department, and its popularity with 
 the public, must be largely credited to the unfail- 
 ing sagacity with which, for upwards of forty 
 years, it was conducted by Mr Sandifer. 1 
 
 From this humble beginning there took its rise 
 what must now be looked upon as a great institu- 
 tion. At first, each bookstall clerk had to make 
 a weekly return to the head office of every book 
 sold of one shilling and upwards in value ; it 
 often happened that one such list was easily 
 written on half a sheet of notepaper. But once 
 
 1 Mr Sandifer continued manager of this department till his 
 death, after a short illness, in 1887.
 
 56 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 started in the hands of a powerful firm, and con- 
 centrated under control of a competent manager, 
 the enterprise, which had proved so disastrous to 
 many isolated local traders, began to advance by 
 leaps and bounds. One after another the great 
 railway companies ceded to Smith & Son the ex- 
 clusive right to erect bookstalls at their stations. 
 It was not easy to meet the requirements of such 
 sudden expansions as were caused by acquiring 
 the whole of the London and South- Western sys- 
 tem about 1852, that of the London and Brighton 
 a few years later, and that of the Great Western 
 in 1862. To man and supply with literature 
 so many new stations involved taking on an 
 immense number of new hands, as well as con- 
 siderable capital expenditure. But the junior 
 partner had a quick eye for capabilities, and was 
 constantly on the watch to secure the services of 
 young men in the great wholesale houses, who, 
 as -the firm of Smith & Son rose in reputation, 
 often came to ask for employment. He never let 
 a promising young fellow past him, but was 
 always ready to engage him, even if, as would 
 sometimes happen, there was no niche into which 
 he could be fitted at the moment. 1 
 
 1 This faculty of detecting " form at a glance " (if it may be 
 permitted to borrow from the phraseology of a system so foreign 
 to Smith's habits and character as the turf) never left him. During 
 his later years it happened that lie attended a meeting of fifteen
 
 THE YOUNGER SMITH'S RULE. 57 
 
 Sometimes a young man, " too big for his 
 boots," would show an inclination to sniff at 
 being put in charge of a railway bookstall. The 
 trade had an indifferent reputation at first, and 
 such an appointment was not looked upon as that 
 of a legitimate bookseller. 
 
 " We'll raise it, Mr ," replied young Smith 
 
 to one who had offered some such objection 
 " we'll raise it. I am not at all sure that it may 
 not be made as respectable as Paternoster Row." 
 
 These young men were educated to gauge the 
 literary taste of the various districts. Some 
 curious information, showing how this varied 
 according to locality, is given in the ' Times ' 
 article quoted from above. 
 
 Stations have their idiosyncrasies. Yorkshire is not 
 partial to poetry. It is difficult to sell a valuable book 
 at any of the stations between Derby, Leeds, and Man- 
 chester. Eeligious books hardly find a purchaser at 
 
 or twenty persons, held to promote a certain object, in the house of 
 his colleague, the Right Hon. Edward Stanhope, M.P. One of the 
 gentlemen present, at the request of Mr Stanhope, acted as secre- 
 tary during the proceedings, which lasted about an hour. Twelve 
 months later, Smith went to Mr Stanhope and asked the name of 
 the gentleman who had acted as secretary on that occasion, for he 
 said he had been so favourably impressed with his business-like 
 qualities in the short time he had witnessed them that he wished 
 to meet him again, in order, if a second interview confirmed his 
 impressions, to offer him a high and lucrative post in the house in 
 the Strand.
 
 58 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Liverpool, while at Manchester, at the other end of the 
 line, they are in high demand. 
 
 One secret of young Smith's influence upon 
 young men, and the ascendancy which he gained 
 over them, was the patience he showed in wait- 
 ing for development of character and powers. So 
 long as he saw a man willing so long as his 
 shortcomings could be explained by inexperience 
 and not by negligence he was most slow to dis- 
 courage him by rebuke : he used to say that he 
 preferred, even at the risk of temporary loss of 
 profits, to let a man find out his own mistakes 
 rather than check him at once. No one knew 
 better than Smith the truth of the adage, ex 
 quovis ligno non fit Mercurius ; but no one bore 
 more constantly in mind that to be carved into an 
 effigy is not the only use to which timber may be 
 put, and that, of the two, a gatepost is more 
 often of service than a god. 
 
 It was remarkable how soon each new hand 
 entering the employment seemed to imbibe the 
 spirit pervading the concern, to become jealous 
 for its character and zealous in its interests. No 
 doubt this may be accounted for in part by the 
 system of allowing the clerks a liberal percentage 
 on the sales at their stalls ; but it is not possible 
 to discourse with one of the staff who knew the 
 business in its beginnings, without acquiring the
 
 THE STRAND HOUSE. 59 
 
 conviction that, in large measure, this esprit du 
 corps had its origin in the personal influence of 
 the junior partner. 
 
 When the Milanese critic Lomazzo chose cog- 
 nisances or emblems for the master -painters of 
 the Italian Renaissance, symbolising their various 
 genius, he assigned to Michael Angelo the dragon 
 of contemplation, and to Mantegna the serpent of 
 sagacity, but for Raphael he reserved the image 
 of man the type of intelligence and urbanity. 1 
 It may seem a strained analogy that suggests 
 itself between the characters of two men whose 
 life-work differed as widely in kind as their 
 social environment, but, in truth, the biographer 
 of each has to record traits and method of 
 influence upon others closely similar. Vasari 
 wrote of Raphael that his kindly nature pre- 
 vailed, even more than his art, to endear him 
 to men ; he dwells on his gentleness, his modesty, 
 his courtesy, his anxiety to help others above 
 all, his freedom from jealousy, a sin besetting 
 artists not more closely than statesmen. 2 These 
 are precisely the qualities which distinguished 
 Smith above his fellows, whether in the days 
 when he was busy building up the great business 
 in the Strand, or in after-days, when he was 
 
 1 Symonds, Italian Renaissance : The Fine Arts. 
 
 2 Vasari, Lives of the Painters, vol. viii. pp. 6, 60.
 
 60 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 called on to undertake some of the highest offices 
 in the State. Indeed, had he lived in an age 
 when men were named according to their personal 
 qualities, no more fitting appellation could have 
 been devised for him than Smith the Smoother. 1 
 Further, there was something in the concord pre- 
 vailing among all classes in the employment of 
 the Strand house, a concord established by the 
 younger Smith, and enduring now that he has 
 gone to his rest something in the devotion to 
 and confidence in their chief, felt and expressed 
 by every one in that vast workshop, that calls to 
 mind the spirit described by Vasari as animating 
 the painters, sculptors, builders, decorators, en- 
 gravers, and other handicraftsmen who worked 
 under Raphael in his Roman bottega. 
 
 But it would be a mistake to suppose that 
 Smith was indiscriminate in indulgence. His 
 principle was, once he had chosen and appointed 
 a man to his duty, to put complete trust in him. 
 That trust was seldom betrayed, and Smith was 
 ever slow to be convinced that it had been for- 
 feited ; but in the rare instances when he was 
 justly offended, he never gave a man an oppor- 
 
 1 There is no reality in Dean Trench's specious derivation of 
 " smith = one that smiteth " ; the laws of comparative philology 
 are against it, and point to the real affinity with "smooth." A 
 smith is therefore not one who smites but one who smooths a 
 polisher.
 
 DISCIPLINE. 61 
 
 tunity of deceiving him a second time. In visit- 
 ing neglect of duty, he was as stern as his father, 
 though not so unreserved in rebuke. Many years 
 ago, when travelling on one of the southern lines, 
 he observed that, as the train entered an import- 
 ant station, the bookstall clerk did not turn round 
 and face it according to his instructions, but re- 
 mained inattentive, and engaged in conversation 
 with some acquaintance. The man was not only 
 reprimanded, but his promotion was seriously 
 retarded by the act of negligence which his em- 
 ployer had witnessed. He has since proved 
 in a higher sphere that he was thoroughly 
 capable of discharging more important duties. 
 
 A clerk in the counting-house, who had been 
 dismissed for gross misconduct, appeared before 
 Smith one morning to plead for forgiveness. 
 
 " Think of my mother, sir," he said ; " she 
 has no one to depend on but me, and if you 
 dismiss me without a character, I shall be unable 
 to support her." 
 
 " You should have thought of your mother 
 before, sir," was all the answer given by Smith. 
 
 If the inflexible justice with which he meted 
 out punishment to wrong-doers sometimes ap- 
 proached severity, it was no more than the reflex 
 of the perfect confidence he reposed in his men 
 until they did something to forfeit it.
 
 62 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 A notable feature in the history of this house 
 has been the rareness of instances of men em- 
 ployed in it setting up in business for themselves. 
 The liberality with which they have been treated 
 their confidence in the known practice of their 
 employers to advance their interests as the pros- 
 perity of the business grew, have given them 
 such a feeling of security as to deprive them of 
 the belief they could do any better on their own 
 account. It is but fair to observe that the 
 constant expansion of the trade has tended not 
 a little towards this result. Promotion has been 
 kept moving at a rate which would have been 
 impossible in any business less constantly under 
 the influence of the flowing tide. Neither in 
 newspaper circulation nor in bookstall literature, 
 nor in the other departments into which, as will 
 presently be mentioned, the business came to 
 be extended, has there ever been a check in the 
 demand : the volume of transactions has ever 
 been on the increase, there has been no embar- 
 rassing fluctuation in prices, and the cold shade 
 of depression which has fallen from time to time 
 on nearly every industry has never yet darkened 
 the house in the Strand ; consequently the rela- 
 tions of employer and employed have never been 
 subjected to the heavy strain involved in a re- 
 duction of the rate of pay. It may occur to
 
 KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL. 63 
 
 some employers, less favoured by the turn of 
 events, that it is easy, under smiling circum- 
 stances such as these, to keep a large estab- 
 lishment in good - humour, and to retain the 
 devotion of old servants. No doubt there is 
 much practical reason in this : the influence 
 of wise management, willing service, and pros- 
 perity mutually react on each other ; but if 
 any one of these conditions is interrupted, the 
 fruits of the others are apt to be wasted. 
 
 Young Smith did not suffer close attention to 
 business to prevent him taking an active part in 
 philanthropic work. The services which he ren- 
 dered to King's College Hospital extended over 
 more than forty years, and are summarised in 
 a resolution of condolence passed by the Com- 
 mittee of Management after his death in 1891, 
 wherein they affirm that 
 
 They are bound in gratitude to recall the long, varied, and 
 important services which Mr Smith rendered to King's 
 College Hospital. The munificent contributions made by 
 him personally, and by the firm of Messrs W. H. Smith & 
 Son, would alone ensure a grateful remembrance of his 
 name. But the Committee are still more indebted to him 
 for the personal guidance and support which he rendered 
 to the Hospital, ever since he joined the Committee in 
 1849. . . . Since then, he served the offices of Auditor 
 in 1862, and of Vice-Chairman from 1862-1864 For 
 some time after his resignation of the latter office, he
 
 64 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 continued to attend the meetings of the Committee, and 
 in February 1874 he was elected a Vice-President. After 
 his public duties prevented him from taking any active 
 part in the management of the Hospital, he was always 
 ready to give his advice and assistance on any occasion 
 of anxiety or difficulty. . . . For all these benefits his 
 name can never cease to be remembered with gratitude 
 by the Committee and the friends of the Hospital, and 
 the memory of his connection with it will ever be cher- 
 ished as one of its chief honours and encouragements.
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1854-1893. 
 
 EFFECT OF THE REPEAL OF THE NEWSPAPER STAMP - DUTY 
 
 GROWTH OF THE BUSINESS SMITH & SON BECOME SOLE 
 
 AGENTS FOR THE ' TIMES ' FAILING HEALTH OF THE SENIOR 
 
 PARTNER INCREASING WORK ITS EFFECT UPON YOUNG 
 
 SMITH THE FIRM BECOME CONTRACTORS FOR RAILWAY 
 
 ADVERTISING EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS AND JOURNAL 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF PRIVATE LIFE CARRIED INTO BUSINESS 
 
 AFFAIRS THE LENDING LIBRARY SET ON FOOT PUBLICATION 
 
 OF CHEAP NOVELS ITS SUCCESS AND ABANDONMENT 
 
 PRESENT ASPECT OF THE STRAND OFFICE EARLY MORNING 
 
 WORK DESPATCH OF NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 IT is now time to trace some further steps in 
 the development of the Strand business, and 
 record circumstances which contributed to its 
 success. 
 
 Besides the expansion of newspaper traffic re- 
 sulting from the rapid increase of the population 
 of the United Kingdom, and perhaps in a greater 
 degree from the spread of education, the business 
 of journalism, and its handmaid, news-agency, 
 received a sudden and extraordinary impetus by 
 
 VOL. r. E
 
 66 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 29. 
 
 the abolition of the newspaper stamp-duty by Mr 
 Bright's Act of 1854. The immediate effect was 
 a reduction in the price of newspapers, and an 
 enormous increase in the demand for them. 
 
 The standing which the energy of the elder 
 Smith had already secured for his business in 
 the days when he worked it single-handed, the 
 indefatigable pluck which he had shown in 
 carrying out his principle of " first on the road," 
 and the perseverance which the new firm had 
 maintained in deserving the confidence of the 
 public as well as of publishers, enabled Smith 
 & Son to reap the full advantage of the sudden 
 expansion of the trade. On June 21, 1854, the 
 most signal proof was given of their pre-eminence 
 in this respect by a circular issued on that day 
 from the ' Times ' office, intimating that the 
 proprietors of that powerful journal had deter- 
 mined that for the future " all papers required 
 by Messrs Smith & Son for distribution in the 
 country shall be delivered to them by the Pub- 
 lishers before any other Agent is supplied. ' The 
 Country' is understood to include all railway 
 stations, and to exclude London and the Metro- 
 politan districts, as defined by the Post Office. 
 Messrs Smith & Son will distribute for the Lon- 
 don Agents, at a fair price, the Papers required 
 by them for the service above defined."
 
 A.D. 1854.] THE 'TIMES' WAR CORRESPONDENCE. 67 
 
 The importance of this document, which really 
 amounted to a charter of monopoly in agency for 
 the principal journal in the world, can scarcely be 
 overestimated, and the effect was practically to 
 place the firm out of reach of the competition alike 
 of Clayton's and all others which had exercised the 
 elder Smith so sorely in bygone years. It did 
 even more than this, for it obliged every whole- 
 sale agent to come to Smith's for his supply of 
 the ' Times/ 
 
 The relief afforded to newspaper proprietors by 
 Bright's Act of 1854 put them in a position to 
 deal worthily with the Crimean War, which broke 
 out in the autumn of that year. Telegraphic 
 communication had been established since the 
 last great European war, and the ' Times ' was 
 the earliest to take advantage of it by sending 
 out the first of the class of war correspondents, 
 Dr W. H. Russell, whose graphic despatches 
 enabled people at home to follow day by day, 
 not only the events of the war, but the fortunes 
 of every regiment engaged in it. This gave an 
 immense impetus to the circulation of this enter- 
 prising journal, and, of course, was to the advan- 
 tage of the firm which had become their sole 
 country agents. 
 
 The business had by this time grown to a 
 scale far beyond the failing powers of old Mr
 
 68 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Smith ; the scheme and details of organisation 
 devolved entirely upon his son, who from that 
 day forward was practically the managing head 
 of the firm. It is true that the old gentle- 
 man still continued to busy himself in the office 
 as often and as long as his health permitted. 
 He used to drive down in his brougham from 
 Kilburn about nine in the morning, attended 
 to correspondence, and pored over the ledgers, 
 till, as sometimes happened, he fell down in a 
 swoon. His presence, however, far from help- 
 ing business, was a hindrance to it, for the 
 breakdown of his health, while it left his will 
 as imperious as ever, had told disastrously on his 
 temper. Yet his son, however sorely he must 
 have been tried sometimes, never failed in loyal 
 support to his father's authority. One day a cus- 
 tomer came into the office to complain that a bill 
 which he had already paid had been sent in a 
 second time. Old Smith vowed that such a thing 
 was impossible, and maintained that the bill had 
 not been paid. The customer was equally con- 
 fident that it had been settled, lost his temper, 
 and roundly abused his would-be creditor, upon 
 which young Smith left his seat, and, saying 
 quietly to the justly irate customer, " I can't 
 allow any one to speak to my father like that, 
 sir ! " led him to the door, and assured him that
 
 THE ELDER SMITH IS OVERTAXED. 69 
 
 strict inquiry should be made into the matter. 
 The result was to prove that the account had 
 been settled, as had been alleged. 
 
 On another occasion, after considerable trans- 
 actions had taken place with the great printing 
 house of M'Corquodale, old Mr Smith insisted 
 upon going over the accounts himself. Although 
 it had long been his custom to spend much time 
 examining the books and accounts of the firm, he 
 had not the gift of following any but clear debtor 
 and creditor statements of simple transactions ; 
 complicated details always threw him into a state 
 of hopeless perplexity, and the irritation he felt 
 at the consciousness of his want of capacity in 
 this respect sometimes found vent in a momentary 
 explosion of wrath against those who happened 
 to be nearest. So, having landed himself in a 
 maze of bewilderment over these accounts, he 
 suddenly brought his fist down on the book with 
 a bang, and exclaimed hotly that his son and 
 M'Corquodale were in a conspiracy to ruin him. 
 Young Smith rose and, laying his hand on his 
 father's shoulder, said earnestly : " Father, you 
 know that I would rather lose my right hand 
 than see you robbed." The ebullition was over 
 in a moment. 
 
 The labour thrown upon the willing shoulders 
 of the junior partner soon became more than one
 
 70 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 29. 
 
 man could transact. For several years it was 
 his practice to rise each week-day at four in the 
 morning, swallow a cup of coffee, and drive to 
 the Strand office, by 5 A.M. People still in the 
 business can remember how he was then the cen- 
 tral figure in the paper-sorting office, with coat 
 off, shirt-sleeves rolled back, and hands and arms 
 deeply dyed with printers' ink off the wet sheets; 
 and they speak warmly of his admirable method. 
 The newspapers were often delivered so late from 
 the printing-houses as to cause much anxiety, yet 
 there was a complete absence of the fuss and 
 hustling from which, under other management, 
 the staff had sometimes had to suffer. 
 
 One of these early morning starts from Kil- 
 burn was marked by an unpleasant incident 
 which might have had serious consequences. It 
 was the duty of a servant to put some coffee 
 ready overnight for his master, who, on rising, 
 lighted the spirit-lamp, so that by the time he 
 was dressed, a hot cup was prepared for him. 
 By a sleepy-headed blunder one night this ser- 
 vant put into the pot, not coffee, but cayenne 
 pepper, either wholly or in part. Smith, not 
 observing in the dim light any difference in the 
 mixture, gulped down half a cupful before he dis- 
 covered the mistake ! He afterwards described 
 the sensation as nothing short of excruciating.
 
 A.D. 1854.] SHORTENED WORK-HOURS. 71 
 
 But if he was ungrudging in the length and 
 severity of his own labours, he soon gave prac- 
 tical proof of his consideration for the reasonable 
 recreation of others. This was before the time 
 when much had been heard of the early-closing 
 movement, yet he was one of the earliest and 
 most practical advocates of it, for he very soon 
 brought about a shortening of the hours in the 
 Strand office. Saturday half-holidays were al- 
 most unknown in the " fifties " ; young Smith 
 took a leading part in establishing what is now 
 an almost universal and beneficial rule in good 
 trading houses. He organised periodical excur- 
 sions on the river for the whole staff in the 
 Strand, and provided intellectual recreation for 
 them for after-work hours. A monthly parlia- 
 ment was set up for the discussion of questions 
 affecting the working classes, but it soon lan- 
 guished and died, for the employes of the firm 
 found they had no grievances to discuss. How 
 long, it may be asked, would interest in the 
 debates at Westminster endure, if there were 
 no grievances, no Supply, and no foreign 
 policy ? 
 
 Devoted and capable as he was, young Smith 
 began, about the year 1854, to find the strain 
 of constantly increasing work getting beyond his 
 powers. In this year he renewed acquaintance
 
 72 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [XT. 29. 
 
 with an old Tavistock schoolfellow, William 
 Lethbridge, then an assistant master at Rossal 
 school. Smith invited his old friend to pay him a 
 visit ; the result was that their early intimacy was 
 renewed ; Lethbridge became interested in the 
 details of the newspaper and bookstall business, 
 and in the end was admitted into the firm as 
 a partner. 
 
 Previously to this, a totally new branch of 
 business had been entered upon, which was be- 
 ginning to reach proportions hardly inferior to 
 those of the bookstall trade. Advertising may 
 be said to have been in its infancy at the com- 
 mencement of the railway movement, but the 
 instincts of trades-people began to awake to the 
 opportunity afforded by the blank walls of rail- 
 way stations of making known to travellers the 
 merits of their goods. It seemed to them ex- 
 pedient that as, in the latter days, men began 
 to _run to and fro, so should their knowledge 
 (of the excellence of Heal's bedsteads and Brog- 
 den's watch-chains, &C. 1 ) be increased. The first 
 stages of what has now become an enormous sys- 
 tem were as modest and ill-regulated as those of 
 the bookstalls : the course adopted was the same ; 
 
 1 These two firms were almost the first to avail themselves of the 
 great impetus to advertisement given by the Great Exhibition of 
 1851, and to start pictorial advertisement.
 
 A.D. 1854.] RAILWAY ADVERTISEMENTS. 73 
 
 the companies began to advertise for tenders for 
 the use of their walls, and in almost every case 
 Smith & Son were the successful tenderers. 
 
 But it was some time before the firm could feel 
 satisfied of the prudence of their new under- 
 taking. The initial outlay of capital was very 
 heavy, and for a time the returns were insigni- 
 ficant. Old Mr Smith fidgeted and fumed at the 
 rent paid to the railway companies, and at the 
 cost of providing frames for advertisements, of 
 printing, agents, and bill-posters. But young 
 Smith's sagacious confidence enabled him to 
 overcome all opposition, and in 1854 the balance- 
 sheet of this branch showed a slight profit 
 on the year's transactions, with prospects of in- 
 definite improvement. The expenses during 
 that year amounted to 9800 (including 7100 
 paid as rent to the railway companies), the re- 
 ceipts came to 9930, producing a net profit of 
 130. But the corner had been turned, the 
 future was big with indefinite increase, and the 
 anxiety caused by the absorption of so much 
 capital was once and for all at an end. 
 
 The business in 1854 thus consisted of three 
 great branches, each in process of swift and some- 
 times sudden expansion the newspaper agency, 
 under direct control of the younger Smith ; the 
 bookstall trade, managed by Mr Sandifer ; and
 
 74 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 the railway advertisement department, under 
 Messrs Moore and Small. A fourth branch, 
 hardly less important than the others, was to be 
 added in the course of a few years ; but before 
 alluding further to that, it may be instructive 
 to examine into the effect all this incessant work, 
 and the splendid success attending upon it, had 
 upon the mind and habits of one whose early 
 inclination had been for a very different sphere 
 of action. 
 
 Had the press and strain of business, and the 
 excitement of fortunate enterprise, driven from 
 his thoughts those subjects upon which, as a 
 youth, he had pondered so deeply and con- 
 stantly ? Had the flush of achievement and the 
 seduction of increasing gains blotted out those 
 higher views, or loosened the strict principles 
 which guided him into manhood ? By no means. 
 It is only necessary to turn over some of the 
 letters written by Smith at this period, and 
 especially the private notes (they are not con- 
 secutive enough to amount to a journal), in- 
 tended for no eye but his own, to be convinced 
 that he was still deeply devout, and concerned 
 far more about another and better world than 
 he was about the affairs of this one. 
 
 To read his character aright to learn that a 
 tradesman may be sagacious, industrious, am-
 
 LETTER TO HIS SISTER. 75 
 
 bitious, and successful, and yet never lose sight 
 of the object set before him by a simple unfailing 
 faith it is necessary to quote a few sentences 
 showing the matters upon which his mind, as 
 soon as he was released from business, continu- 
 ally revolved. His sister Augusta was always 
 a favourite correspondent, and the letters he 
 addressed to her while he was at school were 
 the first of a series which extended through his 
 life till within a few weeks of its close. Here 
 is part of one written in pencil during a journey 
 to Dublin. 
 
 3. 3. '53. 
 
 MY DEAR GUSSY, I am flying along the London and 
 Xorth-Western by Express Train somewhere near Tring 
 at this moment, probably near Eugby before I have done. 
 . . . Father wishes me to stay in Dublin a fortnight, but 
 I don't think I ought to be away from home more than 
 three days at the outside, and I therefore think of leaving 
 Dublin again on Friday, even if I have to return next 
 week. 1 I have not told him so, because it is best to let 
 him think he is having his way. Although in really 
 good health, as far as I can see and you know I have as 
 nervous a disposition with regard to him as any one can 
 have he chafes more under the small annoyances of 
 business, so as to become nervously irritated beyond 
 anything I ever remember, giving three people notice to 
 leave in one day, and suchlike things ; but he is most 
 kind and considerate to me. Still all this occasions 
 
 1 Messrs Smith & Son had at this time a branch office in Dublin.
 
 76 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 anxiety to me, and I am almost afraid of going away, not 
 knowing what violent changes may take place in my 
 absence, in his desire to get rid of the business. I find, 
 too, that his excitement is much greater when I am away, 
 and increases in proportion to the length of time, as 
 everything comes before him. ... I trust Providence, 
 who makes a way for us in the greatest difficulties, will 
 make our way straight before us. If it were not for the 
 perfect confidence I feel that this must be so cannot be 
 otherwise I should sometimes be very unhappy ; for 
 with the positive certainty of great changes impending, I 
 know not what may be the next step I ought to take. 
 
 I sometimes feel that Father's happiness in his later 
 days, and the comfort of the family, depend on me, and 
 then I feel and know I am absolutely blind, and can 
 really do nothing whatever of my own judgment ; but I 
 know also that if I, and we all, desire absolutely and 
 without reservation to be guided aright, that guidance 
 will be granted to us, and we need not and ought not to 
 fear or doubt in the darkest night of uncertainty and 
 human difficulty. I do sometimes tremble lest I should 
 fail to do a man's part in the order of God's providence, 
 for although He orders, guides, and directs, there is still 
 the responsibility of action with us after all, and there- 
 fore I pray that my eyes may be opened to comprehend 
 what He would have me to do, and I am assured that a 
 way and means and strength will be given for any and 
 every occasion. The confidence that all things are 
 absolutely right, however painful and difficult now, turns 
 what would otherwise be troubles into sources of thank- 
 fulness so I feel of all the unsettled circumstances of 
 the past and present. They are necessary to some good 
 and right end, if we (for I believe there is a power in 
 Man to thwart Providence) will have it so.
 
 HIS JOURNAL. 77 
 
 I have gone on writing this without quite intending it, 
 just as I would talk with you ; . . . but there is solid 
 pleasure in the conviction that we are of one mind in 
 these things: wherever we are, we can think of each 
 other, and we can pray that we may each, individually 
 and as one family, be directed in all things by a wisdom 
 which can do no wrong, and whose purposes are, I entirely 
 believe, both present and future happiness with regard to 
 us. Do not think I am at all low or sad. With the 
 exception of very transient occasions, I never felt greater 
 reason for cheerfulness. 
 
 All this was written currente stylo evidently 
 without premeditation or reconsideration, for 
 there is hardly a word altered from first to last. 
 It is the genuine, spontaneous expression of the 
 writer's meditation unadulterated communion 
 with a sister to whom he was accustomed to talk 
 and write without reserve. There may be some 
 readers, impatient of religious epanchement, dis- 
 posed to smile at the simple faith so openly 
 confessed ; but even to these, if they have any 
 desire to understand the man, it is necessary 
 to know what he thought of, and how he ex- 
 pressed it. 
 
 Journals are, as a rule, tainted with the sus- 
 picion of self-consciousness : one fancies that the 
 diarist harbours, and does not shrink from the 
 prospect of ultimate, though perhaps posthum- 
 ous, publicity. Nevertheless, there is in Smith's
 
 78 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 30. 
 
 journals something so apart from vainglory so 
 much in contrast with his daily arena of prosper- 
 ous, bustling commerce that a few extracts must 
 be made from these time-stained pages. 
 
 Saturday, March 17, 1855. ... I know the Sin 
 which most easily besets me, and have now solemnly 
 vowed never again to give way to it, even by thought and 
 by desire, and I register this my resolve, made, not in my 
 own strength, but in humble dependence on one who is 
 able to save all who trust in him, and who did not teach 
 his disciples to say in vain, " lead us not into temptation, 
 but deliver us from evil." . . . 
 
 Monday, March 19. . . . The world has had the 
 dominion in its cares and anxieties. I have also been 
 depressed and not sufficiently trustful for my future 
 domestic life. It is very difficult for man to draw the 
 line between the intelligent exercise of the personal duties 
 and responsibilities devolving upon him his own part 
 in working out the designs of Providence and that anxious 
 care which becomes Sin. Let me remember the word 
 " being careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer 
 and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be 
 made known unto God, and the peace of God shall keep 
 your hearts," &c. 
 
 Tuesday, April 10. A day of many mercies and of one 
 trial ; but I will praise God for all his mercies, and pray 
 to him for more, and I shall not be disappointed, for 
 none ever asked in faith and was sent empty away. 
 The Lord increase my faith and enable me to pray 
 always. . . . 
 
 Thursday, April 12. I have passed through a day of 
 much care and anxiety and occupation. It has also been
 
 A.D. 1855.] HABITS OF DEVOTION. 79 
 
 marked by a step which may affect my future life. Oh 
 that I could more entirely trust in Him who has the dis- 
 posing of events, who ordereth all things well; but I 
 deplore for myself that- depression as to things material 
 and temporal w h arises from a want of trust in Him who 
 ruleth. May I trust in him with all my heart, and 
 possess the Peace which passeth all understanding ! . . . 
 Monday, April 16. I am thankful that I have not 
 been so desponding to-day as I have been on former days, 
 but, on the other hand, I am aware of ideas and schemes 
 within me wilich may not proceed so entirely from a 
 desire to render glory to my God as they ought to do. 
 I pray again that he may direct me in all my ways, for 
 no earthly good can be less than evil unless it be 
 blessed by Him. 
 
 Enough ! we have in these passages, taken at 
 random from among much else of similar tenor, 
 not the sentimental lucubrations of a self-con- 
 scious idler or the vague apprehensions of a 
 morbid-minded youth (Smith at this time was 
 thirty), but the key-note of a laborious use- 
 ful life, which, though far from purposeless in 
 material concerns or wanting in sympathy for 
 fellow-men, was directed resolutely yet humbly 
 towards a lofty and distant goal. The sceptic, 
 even if he does not envy the confidence, can- 
 not impugn the manliness of this simple faith, 
 nor doubt its sincerity ; while he who shares it, 
 however imperfectly, must be encouraged by the 
 proof given that there is nothing to prevent one
 
 80 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 who is an earnest and anxious Christian being 
 also a good man of business and a citizen of the 
 world. 
 
 But, after all, however pious, and even blame- 
 less, may be the private life of an individual 
 however wisely he may moralise, and however con- 
 stantly he may ponder on motives of conduct 
 however strict may be his observance of religious 
 ordinances, he cannot but earn mistrust unless 
 the effect of it all can be clearly traced in his 
 worldly action. So it is natural that one should 
 scrutinise closely the extent to which the prin- 
 ciples, so clearly and constantly professed in the 
 family and congregations, moulded the conduct of 
 the Smiths in their business. It was marked 
 very plainly, indeed ; and through all the years 
 which have passed since the time described, the 
 character and regulation of the house have been 
 in consistency with the profession of its founder. 
 Men in the employment speak enthusiastically of 
 the justice, consideration, and liberality with 
 which they have always been treated ; but these 
 virtues are no monopoly of Christians, still less of 
 strict Methodists, or members of the Church of 
 England. The point on which more importance 
 is laid by these bodies than by any other section 
 of the Church, except, perhaps, the Presbyterian 
 Church of Scotland, is the observance of the
 
 NO WORK ON SUNDAYS. 81 
 
 Lord's Day. Men may hold what views they 
 please about the best means of keeping it holy ; 
 each one may hear the voice of his own con- 
 science, if he listens for it, telling what it is right 
 to do for that end, and what it is wrong not to 
 refrain from doing. But all men would agree, 
 and would be just in agreeing, in condemnation 
 of those who, holding certain observances to be 
 necessary or conducive to their own salvation, 
 should call upon men for service incompatible 
 with their respecting the same observances. 
 
 It has always been a rule in Smith & Son's 
 that no work should be done on Sundays. To 
 this rule there is on record only a single excep- 
 tion. This occurred in September 1855, shortly 
 after the battle of Alma : the despatches con- 
 taining the nominal list of killed and wounded 
 arrived late on Saturday night, and after consulta- 
 tion with his father, young Smith called upon the 
 staff to sacrifice their Sunday rest in order that 
 special supplements might be distributed in Lon- 
 don and the provinces. 
 
 In contrast to this incident, and to show that 
 this was done, not to enhance the reputation 
 of the firm or to conciliate customers, but to 
 put a speedy end to the doubts, fears, and 
 alas ! to the hopes of many distracted families, 
 it is only necessary to mention another incident 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 which happened some years later. Messrs Smith 
 received a command to supply one of the Royal 
 Family with newspapers. Among other journals 
 on the list accompanying the command was the 
 ' Observer/ published then, as now, on Sunday 
 morning. The command was complied with, but 
 it was explained that, as Sunday work was con- 
 trary to the rules of the firm, the ' Observer ' 
 could not be supplied. This was followed by 
 a visit from an indignant official, who seemed 
 at a loss to understand how a regulation of a 
 firm of news-agents could stand in the way of 
 a Royal command ; but even the threat of with- 
 drawal of the whole order did not avail to 
 cause a departure from the rules of the house. 
 To this day, though Sunday papers have in 
 the meantime multiplied many times, and are, 
 moreover, a peculiarly popular form of litera- 
 ture, those who desire them have to obtain 
 them elsewhere than from Smith's agents. 
 
 The last branch of the business of Smith & Son 
 which remains to be described took its rise, 
 not unnaturally, out of the bookstall business, 
 which, before 1862, had been established on well- 
 nigh every important line of railway in England, 
 and in the demand made by people living in 
 remote rural districts for a supply of books on
 
 THE CIRCULATING LIBRARY. 83 
 
 loan. This was some years after old Mr Smith 
 had retired from the business, which he did about 
 1858, and the active partners, consisting of his 
 son and Mr Lethbridge, felt no inclination for an 
 experiment which, while it called for a heavy 
 capital expenditure, did not promise a very re- 
 munerative return. However, it was always a 
 leading principle with the younger Smith l that 
 when any section of the public expressed a desire 
 for the kind of literature it was his business to 
 supply, and it was in the power of the firm to 
 comply with it without hazard of serious loss, 
 it was their duty to make the endeavour, even 
 should the prospect of gain be doubtful. Negoti- 
 ations, accordingly, were set on foot with that 
 firm which held the same pre-eminence in the 
 circulating and lending library business as Smith 
 Son did in that of news-agency and bookstalls, 
 with the view of acting as agents for Messrs 
 Mudie in such provincial towns as were in want 
 of a supply. But the negotiations came to 
 nothing, and the result was the foundation of 
 Smith & Son's circulating library. 
 
 Whatever may have been the misgivings in 
 Smith's own mind about this new venture, once 
 
 1 From this point, when the elder Smith disappears from active 
 life, it will be unnecessary to use terms to distinguish between 
 father and son. AVhen " Smith " is spoken of in future, it will be 
 the son who is indicated.
 
 84 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 he had made up his mind to it, he did not allow 
 them to interfere with the liberal investment of 
 capital. To one long connected with the house, 
 who expressed doubts as to the prudence of 
 risking so much, Smith remarked : " God blesses 
 all I touch. I think there must be some truth 
 in the motto on my father's seal Deo non 
 fortund fretus." l 
 
 The enterprise has proved successful, not, in- 
 deed, in the extraordinary degree attained by 
 the other branches of the business, for it is still 
 the least remunerative department ; but Mr Faux, 
 who presides over it, has charge of the circulation 
 of more than 300,000 volumes. 
 
 It had always been one of Smith's rules not to 
 have the smallest property in any publication. 
 He held it important to be free to deal impar- 
 tially with every publishing house, just as in the 
 early days of bookstalls he had avoided bringing 
 himself into competition with local tradesmen, 
 but preferred to act in concurrence with them, 
 often, as has been shown, being in a position to 
 relieve them of a business which they were carry- 
 ing on at a loss. This was the origin of the 
 establishment of the branches in Birmingham, 
 Liverpool, and Manchester. But a time came 
 when the supply of bookstall literature ran 
 
 1 " Freighted not by fortune but by God."
 
 RAILWAY NOVELS. 85 
 
 low ; Murray's " Traveller's Library " was prov- 
 ing rather heavy for the tastes of those it was 
 chiefly designed to attract ; there was a dearth 
 of harmless, yet lively publications ; the quality 
 of cheapness in novels had hitherto been insepar- 
 able from that of nastiness, or, at least, of worth- 
 lessness : the receipts from the bookstalls, so bril- 
 liant at first, began to show a decline ; something- 
 had to be done to restore their popularity. A 
 decided step was taken, which, for the first time, 
 enabled people to buy the best romances at a 
 trifling cost. The copyright of Lever's novels 
 was acquired by Smith & Son ; Mr Sandifer, the 
 manager of the bookstall department, was com- 
 missioned to buy paper, contract for printing, 
 receive designs for covers, and, in short, under- 
 take all the necessary steps in setting out on a 
 heavy publishing venture. But, inasmuch as the 
 firm were only concerned to supply a want felt 
 by a peculiar class of customers the travelling 
 public and as they did not wish to engage in 
 competition with established firms, these books 
 were issued by arrangement with Messrs Chap- 
 man & Hall, whose name, and not that of Smith 
 & Son, appeared on the titles. 
 
 The success of the venture was immediate and 
 unmistakable. A new vein had been struck ; the 
 copyrights of other authors were acquired, and
 
 86 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Sandifer's enthusiasm knew no bounds as the 
 steam-presses flew and the well-known " yellow- 
 backed novels " multiplied in the land. The 
 profits were immense : the books sold off as fast 
 as they could be printed at 2s. a-piece, and the 
 cost of production was only 9d. 
 
 But Smith did not feel happy about all the 
 consequences of this splendidly successful enter- 
 prise. The cheap novels had taken better than 
 he had either expected or intended ; they were 
 driving other works off the stalls. It was the 
 object, of course, of every clerk, seeing that he 
 received commissions on sales, to give the most 
 saleable books the preference, and one morning 
 Smith stood on the platform at Rugby in mourn- 
 ful contemplation of the effects of a revolution 
 which he himself had created. The bookstall at 
 that station was a coruscation of yellow novels 
 and white -newspapers ; volumes of essays, secular 
 and religious, travels, science, poetry all were 
 thrust into odd corners or out of sight, for the 
 public would have nothing but fiction. Smith 
 sadly shook his head, but, true to his principles, 
 would not discourage the clerk in charge by 
 expressing any distrust of his discretion : the 
 management of the stall had been committed to 
 him, and he must not be interfered with. 
 
 Messrs Ward & Lock were the next firm to
 
 THE BUSINESS IN 1893. 87 
 
 come upon this field of enterprise, and as soon 
 as they and others proved able to conduct the 
 business successfully, Smith felt that his mission 
 in that respect had been accomplished namely, 
 the stimulation of a supply of cheap and sound 
 literature and the issue of these works was 
 stopped. The copyrights acquired by the firm 
 were sold in 1883 for 10,000. 
 
 The scale to which the business of Messrs W. 
 H. Smith & Son has grown at the present time 
 has made it necessary to acquire much of the ad- 
 joining ground. The frontage is still in the Strand, 
 but the counting-house and offices are at the back 
 in a splendid new range of buildings, having their 
 entrance in Arundel Street. Although Mr W. 
 H. Smith retired from active partnership in 1877, 
 he continued to take a warm interest in the pro- 
 ceedings of the firm and the welfare of their 
 employes down to the close of his life, but he was 
 not permitted to see the completion of the new 
 buildings. The book department keeps up the 
 supply for the railway bookstalls, and may be 
 seen at its busiest at the close of each month, 
 when the magazines come out. The lending 
 department contains, as has been said, upwards 
 of 300,000 volumes in circulation. The work- 
 shops for making bookstalls and frames for rail-
 
 88 LIFE OF W, H. SMITH. 
 
 way-station advertisements are in Water Street. 
 It is a singular part of the system that all 
 damaged or dilapidated bookstalls, even in remote 
 parts of the country, are packed up and sent 
 here for repair. 
 
 In Water Street also are the extensive stables, 
 kept with the regularity and little short of the 
 discipline of a cavalry barracks. Here stand 
 between fifty and sixty horses for the service of 
 the red newspaper carts, and the bloom on their 
 coats speaks plainly to good condition and careful 
 grooming. At the entrance to the yard hangs 
 the drivers' roister, showing the date and hour 
 when each man comes on duty. The printing- 
 house, where the railway advertisements are pre- 
 pared, is at some distance off, in Fetter Lane. 
 
 Of all the busy scenes in busy London, there is 
 none more brisk and orderly than that which 
 may be witnessed any morning, Sundays ex- 
 cepted, throughout the year in the packing de- 
 partment of 186 Strand. On the first four 
 working days in the week, when there is not 
 much except the dailies to deal with, work begins 
 shortly after 3 A.M. ; but on Fridays and Saturdays 
 the pressure is increased by the weeklies, and 
 then the start is made an hour earlier. Few of 
 those who know the Strand and Fleet Street 
 only in the hours when the side-pavements are
 
 EARLY MORNING IN THE STRAND. 89 
 
 hidden with swarms of busy men, and the 
 thoroughfare is blocked with vehicles, can have 
 formed any idea of their aspect at daybreak in 
 summer, or imagine the singular beauty of the 
 view eastward from a point, say, opposite 160 
 Fleet Street. The perspective of varied house- 
 fronts on either side converges on St Paul's 
 Cathedral, a shapely, soft - toned mass against 
 the pale sky ; and looking westward from the 
 Law Courts, the eye surveys a scene, not so im- 
 pressive or harmoniously composed as the other, 
 yet far redeemed from commonplace by the 
 quaint churches of St Clement Danes and St 
 Mary-le-Strand, and that block of houses, long 
 threatened by the plans of the city improver, 
 which shuts out Holywell Street from the Strand. 
 Save a policeman or two, and here and there a 
 belated wanderer creeping home, there is not 
 a human being in sight, till, as the bells ring 
 out half -past two, the first of Smith & Son's 
 well-known scarlet carts comes clattering down 
 the narrow thoroughfare laden with piles of 
 the ' Illustrated,' the ' Queen,' or some other 
 great weekly journal. This is followed by others, 
 till, at three o'clock, the street is crowded with 
 vehicles, each bringing its load of " raw papers " 
 to be carried into the office and sorted into 
 parcels for the country.
 
 90 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Inside matters present an appearance in which 
 the casual visitor might, in default of a clue, 
 despair of tracing either method or motive. The 
 place is like an ant-hill ; men are running about in 
 every direction carrying bundles on their shoul- 
 ders, as aimlessly to all appearance, and as cease- 
 lessly, as ants do their white pupse when some- 
 thing has disturbed them. Sometimes they 
 pause to swallow a mug. of excellent coffee, which, 
 with bread and butter, is supplied for the work- 
 ers. But the simplicity of the system is apparent 
 once it is explained. A stream of bundle-bearers 
 comes in from the street, each tossing down his 
 parcel on a large table on the right side of the 
 hall ; these are " raw papers "- papers, that is to 
 say, as they come from the publishing office. 
 Then each of the parcels for the country is passed 
 round, checked by a list, and receives its proper 
 contents, which are again checked before the 
 parcel is sent forward to be packed. Watching 
 the packers, one is impressed not only by their 
 swiftness and dexterity for an inexperienced 
 hand would find it a very difficult matter to tie 
 up securely in a single sheet of paper a parcel 
 weighing 50 or 60 lb., composed of newspapers of 
 various size, shape, and substance but also by 
 the amount of knocking about these apparently 
 fragile parcels afterwards endure with impunity.
 
 EARLY MORNING IN THE STRAND. 91 
 
 One part of the secret is the excellence of the 
 stout twine used, and the peculiar slip-knot em- 
 ployed, which enables the packer to draw the 
 cord almost as 
 tightly as if by 
 machinery. The 
 amount of this 
 twine used is 
 prodigious : in the 
 twelve months 
 of 1892 the 
 consumption was 
 9,264,410 yards, 
 or 5271 miles (at 
 the rate, that is, 
 
 Knot used in tying parcels of newspapers. 
 
 of about 100 miles 
 
 a- week), weighing over 59 tons. The parcels, 
 when finished, are carried or wheeled out to the 
 street, packed into vans, and driven off to the 
 different railway stations. 
 
 One very remarkable feature in this busy scene 
 is the absence of noise. No loud or hasty accents 
 of command are heard. Mr Monger, the head of 
 this department, who has been connected with 
 it for forty years, moves quietly through the 
 throng ; any instructions he has to give are 
 made in a gentle, almost confidential tone ; ex- 
 postulation or altercation seem quite unknown ;
 
 92 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 the contents of each parcel as it is brought in or 
 sent out are announced by the bearer ; good hum- 
 our and goodwill seem to be in the atmosphere. 
 
 It is pleasant to stand and watch the work on 
 a balmy summer morning, when the cool air flows 
 in through the open doors, and the electric lights 
 are quenched by the broadening day ; but it is 
 far otherwise on some mornings in winter. Rain, 
 cold, and, above all, fog, turn this early work into 
 a test of endurance, and the thickest clothes will 
 not suffice to neutralise the discomfort of the 
 piercing draughts. 
 
 There is an archaic survival in the packing-hall 
 of one of the elder Smith's regulations : the clock 
 is always kept five minutes fast ; but many a 
 householder can testify to the futility of this 
 shallow device. Of course the effect upon punctu- 
 ality is purely negative, and it is long practice 
 and strict discipline which has given to Smith & 
 Son's drivers the faculty of almost unerring pre- 
 cision in catching trains. At these early hours 
 the streets are clear of traffic, and the men are 
 able to calculate to a nicety the time required ; 
 so that, while it very rarely happens that a train 
 is missed, neither is there any time lost at the 
 stations. 
 
 At four o'clock Smith's vans begin to arrive 
 at the Strand house from the various offices of 
 the dailies, bearing mountains of ' Standards,'
 
 MORNING NEWSPAPER WORK. 93 
 
 ' Daily News/ ' Daily Telegraphs,' &c., which are 
 treated in the same way as the weeklies. The 
 ' Times ' is now, as of old, the latest to go to 
 press and the latest in arrival. 
 
 The necessity for punctuality in the delivery 
 of dailies is, of course, much more imperious 
 than in that of weeklies. A slight hitch or 
 accident in one of the huge printing-presses, 
 which, with deafening roar, are vomiting forth 
 folded sheets as fast as men can carry them 
 away, might cause a failure in the supply 
 or a glut at the Strand office or the railway 
 stations, which would dislocate the whole morn- 
 ing's work. Consequently Messrs Smith & Son 
 have a man at each of the great newspaper 
 offices, superintending the loading of carts and 
 the despatch of papers to the different packing- 
 places. For only part of the work of packing 
 dailies goes on at the Strand. Smith's carts 
 carry the newspapers direct from the printing- 
 offices to the railway stations, at some of which, 
 as at Paddington and King's Cross, the packing 
 is done in rooms provided for the purpose, or, as 
 at Waterloo Station, on the platform ; while on 
 other lines, such as the London and North- 
 Western and Midland, the raw papers are 
 loaded into railway vans, and the sorting and 
 packing is accomplished by Smith's men during 
 the journey.
 
 94 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Sometimes it seems to the bystander as if, say, 
 the 5.15 A.M. newspaper train from Euston must be 
 despatched without some of its load. The minute- 
 hand of the clock is within a few seconds of the 
 quarter past, and the ' Times ' has not arrived. 
 The signal to start will be given directly Man- 
 chester, Liverpool, all the North, must do with- 
 out their ' Times ' till mid-day. Suddenly a cry 
 is heard " The ' Times ' ! " a passage is cleared 
 oni the platform, a rush of barrows comes round 
 the corner, and the last bundle is flung into the 
 van as the train moves off. 
 
 Compare this with the experience of an old 
 employe of the firm, Mr Elliman, who died not 
 many years ago. In the early days of the 
 business the daily papers were not published in 
 time for the morning mails, but were despatched 
 by the evening post. Old Mr Smith saw 
 the inconvenience of this arrangement to his 
 country customers, so it became Elliman's daily 
 duty to take in hand the entire supply of the 
 ' Times ' for Manchester and Liverpool round 
 to the starting-place in John Street, Adelphi. 
 Owing to delay in publication, it would some- 
 times happen that he missed the coach, where- 
 upon he had to hurry up to try and catch it 
 at the Angel, Islington ; if he missed it there, 
 he had to saddle a horse and gallop after it 
 to the change at Colney. His orders were to
 
 THE HOME RULE DEBATE, 1893. 95 
 
 get the paper into the country at all hazards, 
 and it even happened more than once that he 
 had to pursue it as far as Birmingham. How 
 could it pay the firm, it may be asked, to be at 
 such expense in the delivery of a handful of 
 newspapers ? Well, it was by energy such as 
 this that old Mr Smith secured the pre-eminence 
 over all other newspaper agents. 1 
 
 To illustrate the prodigious development of 
 the business started on so humble a scale by 
 Mr Smith, senior, there may be given here the 
 summary of business done in the newspaper 
 trade in the Strand office of W. H. Smith & 
 Son, during a single day of the present year, 
 Tuesday, February 14, 1893. It was, it is true, 
 an exceptionally heavy day, owing to the demand 
 caused by Mr Gladstone having on the previous 
 night introduced his Home Rule Bill. 
 
 o 
 
 Total number of papers despatched 374,218 
 Quires . . . . 14,393 
 
 Weight . . .44 tons cwt. 2 qrs. 
 
 The average weight of newspapers despatched on 
 a Tuesday morning is about 35 tons. The extra 
 
 1 During the present year (1893) an Austrian gentleman requested 
 permission, which was readily granted him, to inspect the premises 
 and proceedings of Messrs W. H. Smith & Son, as he desired to 
 start a similar business in his own country. He seemed a little dis- 
 heartened when he learned through what humble and unpromising 
 ways the ascent to such a vast business had been made.
 
 96 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 supply on account of the Home Rule Bill there- 
 fore amounted to 
 
 Copies of newspapers . . 75,140 
 
 Quires . . .. . 2,890 
 
 "Weight . . .9 tons 7 cwt. 1 qr. 
 
 The firm continued the endeavour to be " first 
 on the road " long after the establishment of the 
 railway system. The ' Newcastle Journal ' for 
 February 26, 1848, contains the following state- 
 ment : 
 
 A special newspaper train was run by Messrs W. H. 
 Smith & Son from Euston to Glasgow md York and New- 
 castle on February 19. It made the journey of 472| 
 miles in 10 hours and 22 minutes : detentions amounted 
 to 50 minutes, making the actual travelling 9 hours and 
 32 minutes, being at the rate of 50 miles an hour. It 
 reached Glasgow two hours before the mails which left 
 London the previous evening. It left Euston at 5.35 A.M., 
 reached Edinburgh at 2.55 P.M., and Glasgow 3.59 P.M. 
 Lord John Eussell's financial statement was the exciting 
 topic reported in the papers on the occasion. 
 
 One other department of this establishment 
 the postal is also in full work during the small 
 hours. The work seems small in bulk compared 
 with the despatch of railway parcels ; but many 
 busy hands are at work folding, pasting, wrap- 
 ping many thousands of newspapers are thus 
 despatched, and the precision with which the ad- 
 dresses require to be kept involves an immense
 
 NEWSPAPER ADDRESSES. 97 
 
 amount of patient attention. These addresses 
 are all printed in Water Street, and preserved in 
 proof-books, of which there are no less than fifty- 
 six requiring to be gone through carefully every 
 day. If a customer writes directing the discon- 
 tinuance of a journal which he has been receiving, 
 and the address is not at once removed from the 
 proof-book, it may be that the newspaper will 
 continue to go to him for years at the expense of 
 the firm. One such instance was lately discovered, 
 where the ' Field ' had been sent to some one in 
 the country for more than twenty years after he 
 had countermanded it. 
 
 It is well remembered by men still employed in 
 the business how, when the younger Smith en- 
 tered the firm, he excelled in this department, 
 and had the reputation of being only second to 
 his father in dexterity of folding papers for the 
 post. 
 
 Surgit amari there is a source of 
 
 bitterness among the postal hands here. The 
 embossed postage on the newspaper covers had, 
 for many years, the name of Messrs W. H. 
 Smith & Son tastefully woven round it in a 
 wreath, and the staff were proud of this distinc- 
 tion, which was shared by no other firm. When 
 the late Mr Cecil Raikes became Postmaster- 
 General, he laid his veto on the continuance of 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 this custom, which had forthwith to be discon- 
 tinued. Mr Smith, at that time First Lord of 
 the Treasury, could of course offer no remon- 
 strance against his colleague's scrupulousness. 
 If it had been an enemy that had done this but 
 it was the act of a Conservative minister ! 
 
 There is a scrap-book kept in the office con- 
 taining some literary curiosities flotsam and 
 jetsam of the long history of the firm. One of 
 these is an envelope, on which the London post- 
 mark shows the date 1864, and the only indica- 
 tion of its destination is contained in the crypto- 
 gram 
 
 thisel log, 
 
 near dbseelengly. 
 
 It almost implies that the Post-office officials were 
 gifted with second-sight or thought-reading power, 
 which enabled them to convey this missive to 
 
 Cecil Lodge, 
 
 near Abbots Langley, 
 
 where Mr Smith resided at that time. 
 
 Another envelope, dated 1888, is addressed to 
 
 Mr W. H. Smith, 
 The Stationer, 
 
 Downing Street, 
 
 London.
 
 99 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1855-1865. 
 
 SMITH IS ELECTED TO METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS HIS 
 
 MARRIAGE IN 1858 TO MRS LEACH OLD MR SMITH RE- 
 TIRES FROM BUSINESS PHILANTHROPIC WORK THE BISHOP 
 
 OF LONDON'S FUND FRIENDSHIP WITH LORD SANDON SMITH 
 CONTEMPLATES STANDING AS A LIBERAL FOR BOSTON AND 
 
 FOR EXETER IS BLACKBALLED FOR REFORM CLUB BECOMES 
 
 CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE FOR WESTMINSTER HIS ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE ELECTORS THE ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 
 
 SMITH'S first connection with public business 
 seems to have been in 1855, when he was elected 
 a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works. 
 But before this date he had entered upon under- 
 takings quite disconnected with his professional 
 work in the Strand, and, among other duties, he 
 performed those of a member of the managing 
 committee of King's College Hospital from 1849 
 onwards. Except his autumn holidays, which 
 were generally spent abroad, he allowed nothing 
 to interfere with the routine of attendance in the 
 Strand, and was always ready to devote such
 
 100 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 30. 
 
 intervals of leisure as it afforded to useful or 
 philanthropic schemes. His duties in connection 
 with King's College Hospital brought him ac- 
 quainted with Mr Robert Cheere, one of those 
 most in the management of that institution, and 
 it was that gentleman who introduced him to the 
 family of Mr Danvers, who had been clerk to 
 the council of the Duchy of Lancaster since the 
 days of George IV. Mr Danvers had several 
 daughters. Smith was received on friendly terms 
 by the Danvers family ; and a friend of his, Mr 
 Auber Leach, who held an appointment in the 
 old India House, used also to visit them in 
 Lancaster Place, and, becoming engaged to Miss 
 Emily Danvers, married her in 1854. Miss Emily 
 Danvers and her younger sister were married on 
 the same day in the Chapel of the Savoy. But 
 the wedded life of the elder sister was tragic- 
 ally short, for Mr Leach died in January 1855. 
 The young widow then returned to live with her 
 parents in Lancaster Place, where her baby, a 
 girl, 1 was born. 
 
 Smith continued on most friendly terms with 
 the Danvers family, and, as time went on, it 
 became evident that he was much more sus- 
 ceptible to the attractions of Mrs Leach than 
 
 1 Now the Hon. Mrs Codrington, widow of Rear - Admiral 
 Codrington.
 
 A.D. 1855.] FALLING IN LOVE. 101 
 
 to those of her unmarried sisters. In short, it 
 soon appeared, not only to himself but to others, 
 that he was becoming deeply attached to the 
 young widow. Never was there a more com- 
 plete refutation of the seer's mournful pronounce- 
 ment in ' A Midsummer Night's Dream ' : 
 
 ' Ah me ! for aught that ever I could read, 
 Could ever hear by tale or history, 
 The course of true love never did run smooth : 
 But either it was different in blood, 
 Or else misgraffed in respect of years, 
 Or else it stood upon the choice of friends ; 
 Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 
 War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, 
 Making it momentary as a sound, 
 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, 
 Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 
 That in a spleen enfolds both heaven and earth, 
 And ere a man hath power to say ' Behold ! ' 
 The jaws of darkness do devour it up ; 
 So quick bright things come to confusion." 
 
 Smith's life had hitherto been useful, dutiful, 
 and successful ; it had been warmed with the 
 steady glow of domestic affection, but it had 
 also been almost painfully laborious and lacking 
 in that relief which can only be conferred by 
 something more ardent than sisterly affection- 
 something more inspiring than devotion to aged 
 parents. It was now to receive the complement 
 essential to happy human circumstance ; and in
 
 102 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 33. 
 
 winning the affection of Mrs Leach, Smith achieved 
 the beginning of what proved an enduring and 
 if one may venture to pass judgment on such 
 a sacred tie a perfect union. Henceforward, 
 in prosperity or anxiety, in health or sickness, 
 in happiness or in sorrow, all his hopes were to 
 be shared, his cares lightened, his projects aided, 
 by the presence in his home of one to whom he 
 never failed to turn for counsel. There are some 
 things too deeply hallowed to be treated of on 
 printed page, and of these are the letters which, 
 during three-ancl-thirty years, passed between this 
 husband and wife ; but those who only knew him 
 in business or in public affairs can form no true 
 estimate of Smith's character unless they take 
 account of the love he bore his wife, which this 
 correspondence shows to have been ever growing- 
 warmer and more impatient of separation till his 
 time on earth was accomplished. 
 
 . The happy conclusion of the courtship is told in 
 a brief note to his sister : 
 
 STRAND, Feb. 25, 1858. 
 
 DEAR GUSSY, All right. It is done for ever. Come 
 and help me to buy the ring. Ever your affectionate 
 
 WM. 
 
 Smith would have been untrue to his character 
 had he concealed the serious strain that ran 
 through all his happiness. On returning from a
 
 A.D. 1858.] LETTER TO MRS LEACH. 103 
 
 visit to his betrothed, then staying with some 
 friends at Bedford, a few days after their engage- 
 ment, he wrote to her : - 
 
 March 4, 1858. On my way up in the train I could not 
 help thinking over the change that has taken place in my 
 prospects during the last few days, and then I came to 
 think of myself and to fear that I had not been sufficiently 
 ingenuous with you. There are some points in my char- 
 acter which I am not afraid to tell you of, because you 
 love me enough to try to do me good, and even to love me 
 through them all ; but you ought to know them, that your 
 prayers may help me, and that your influence may be ex- 
 erted to correct them. Very likely I do not perceive the 
 worst myself, but I know this. I have not the strong 
 determination to do always that which is right, by God's 
 help, which I admired so much in Auber, and which I see 
 in so many men around me. I am inclined to be easy 
 with myself just as a man who would postpone a duty 
 because it is an unpleasant one, and the opportunity for 
 performing it passes altogether, and I very often neglect 
 to do a thing I ought to do because it is unpleasant and 
 would pain one to do it. 
 
 In good truth, in some things I have really a weak 
 character, and I want you to be the means of strengthen- 
 ing it, and will do so a great deal more, for although it is 
 one of my failings to desire the good opinion of the world 
 at large, I must be true and transparent to you, for my 
 own soul's sake and for our happiness in this world as 
 well as in the next. 
 
 The wedding took place in April of the same 
 vear. Before this event, old Mr Smith had
 
 104 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 33. 
 
 finally retired from active business, and his son 
 was practically head of the firm very much, it 
 must be admitted, to the comfort of all parties ; 
 for it had grown to dimensions far beyond the 
 capacity of its founder, whose health, moreover, 
 had failed so far as to make him a serious hin- 
 drance in the transaction of important details. 
 Neither the happiness he had found in marriage 
 nor the increased responsibility he had to under- 
 take in the business prevailed to diminish the 
 son's dutiful anxiety on his father's account. 
 His letters are full of directions to his sisters 
 about what is to be done for the old gentleman's 
 comfort : 
 
 I would gladly [he wrote to Miss Augusta Smith ill 
 December 1858] take upon my shoulders the house at 
 Bournemouth, if he fancied the change ; or he might come 
 somewhere eastward, to Worthing or St Leonards, if he 
 fancied the change, which are both warm. Don't talk to 
 him about anything you consider impracticable, but think 
 over what I have said, and then write to me. Only 
 remember that expense on Father's account is no con- 
 sideration with me, and if he disliked spending the money, 
 I would willingly incur ANY cost or responsibility myself 
 that you thought would add to his comfort or safety. 
 
 It was not only in concern for his father that 
 Smith showed that the new source of happiness 
 he had found was not to quench the warmth of
 
 A.D. 1858.] THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S FUND. 105 
 
 domestic ties. To the same sister he wrote after 
 his encraofement : 
 
 e> o 
 
 MY DEAREST GUSSY, Xot less dear that I have found 
 one whom I can love with a different and you won't 
 grudge her a stronger affection. Indeed I am sensible 
 already of the fact that love begets love even for those 
 who were much loved before. One's capacity is increased 
 but I must not go on, or the paper will be exhausted 
 with that which may perhaps appear foolishness to some. 
 
 Life went smoothly, if uneventfully, with the 
 Smiths for some years after their marriage. They 
 lived in Hyde Park Street ; he became more and 
 more occupied in educational, ecclesiastical, and 
 philanthropic work. At a meeting held at the 
 Bishop of London's Palace in 1861, Smith was 
 first brought into acquaintance with Lord Sandon, 
 at that time member for Liverpool now Earl 
 of Harrowbv who describes him as beintr then 
 
 ./ O 
 
 a man of very taking appearance, with very dark 
 hair and bright eyes, and a calm and resolute 
 look. At this meeting the Bishop of London's 
 Fund was first set on foot ; Lord Sandon moved, 
 and Smith seconded, the chief resolution. An 
 inner working committee was formed, of which 
 Lord Sandon was appointed chairman, and on 
 which, among others, Smith had as colleagues Mi- 
 John Talbot, 1 the Rev. Canon Rowsell, Lord 
 
 1 Now M.P. for Oxford University.
 
 106 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 36. 
 
 Radstock, Mr John Murray, the publisher, the 
 Rev. W. S. Maclagan, 1 the Rev. J. W. Bardsley, 2 
 the Rev. F. Blomfield, 3 Mr J. A. Shaw Stewart, 
 and Mr Redmayne of Bond Street. Mr G. H. 
 Croad, who is now Secretary to the London 
 School Board, joined this committee in 1866. 
 Under this committee London was divided into 
 districts Smith having charge, as was fitting, 
 over that of the Strand, in conjunction with the 
 Rev. J. W. Bardsley. He as well as the other 
 members of committee were oppressed with con- 
 cern on account of the dreadful condition of the 
 dwellings of London poor, which, though they 
 may still be judged far short of what they ought 
 to be, were at that time in a state calling far 
 more urgently for reform. 
 
 This common work, in which they were associ- 
 ated for five years, brought about a close intimacy 
 between Smith and Lord Sandon, which was to 
 ripen into a lifelong friendship. Twenty years 
 later, when, in 1882, Sandon left the House of 
 Commons to take his seat in the House of Lords, 
 he wrote to Smith, referring to this friendship 
 as- 
 One of the charms of my public life, which has only 
 
 1 Now Archbishop of York. 2 Now Bishop of Carlisle. 
 3 Now Bishop of Colchester.
 
 A.D. 1861.] CHURCH AND SCHOOL BUSINESS. 107 
 
 strengthened under the strain of business and the advance 
 of years, and must now become more and more precious 
 to my heart as time goes on. An intercourse such as 
 ours, of more than twenty years, with a constant simi- 
 larity of aim, unbroken by a single disagreement, and of 
 those who, while working together on the same public 
 platform, have enjoyed the confidence of an unreserved 
 private friendship, has certainly been one of the bless- 
 ings of my life. I can only say long may it continue ! 
 though, to my bitter regret, we cannot sit together any 
 longer on the well-known benches. 
 
 While he lived in the parish of St John's, 
 Paddington, Smith took an active part in the 
 promotion of church and school matters. The 
 Rev. Sir Emilius Laurie, at that time rector of 
 St John's, has furnished the following notes of 
 the benefit derived by the parish from Smith's 
 eager liberality : 
 
 In Mr Smith I found a model parishioner wise in 
 counsel, generous in all his impulses, hearty in his support 
 of all good work. St John's parish, at the commencement 
 of my incumbency, was hardly up to date. The church 
 itself, though a modern one, needed reconstruction, if not 
 rebuilding ; and the very insufficient school-buildings were 
 held only under a yearly tenancy, liable to be put an end to 
 at any time on the usual notice. In the somewhat serious 
 work of providing new schools in a crowded district, Mi- 
 Smith's aid was simply invaluable. The 500 subscrip- 
 tion was the least of the benefits conferred, though in 
 raising 12,000 for site and building, without any external 
 help, such assistance was not to be despised. What struck
 
 108 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 36. 
 
 me most, however, was the readiness with which, amidst 
 the engrossing calls of public life, Mr Smith gave his full 
 attention to every question of detail, the tact with which 
 he dealt with opposition, and the free hand with which he 
 overcame difficulties which from time to time arose. An 
 example of this occurred in the course of the rebuilding. 
 The new schools obstructed some ancient lights in two 
 adjoining houses. The owner objected, and threatened 
 legal proceedings, but expressed his willingness to sell. 
 The law was against us ; so, alas ! were the figures for the 
 price asked was high. Mr Smith stepped in and bought 
 the houses, and would have bought half the parish, I 
 believe, rather than leave a good work undone. 
 
 Mr Smith was prepared also to deal on a still larger 
 scale with the church. Occupying, as he said, one of the 
 finest sites in London, it was poor in architecture, incon- 
 venient and ill-ordered in its internal arrangements. Mr 
 Smith thought that a church in such a position should 
 cost not less than 30,000, and towards this he offered to 
 give 20,000. Plans were prepared by Sir F. Blomfield, 
 but it was found that, although built upon the Bishop of 
 London's estate, no room had been left for enlargement, and 
 we had to content ourselves with a modest reconstruction, 
 at a cost of 7000, leaving Mr Smith's benevolent donation 
 free for parishes in which the need was greater than at 
 St John's. . . . The Church of England owes, I believe, 
 much to Mr Smith. How much he gave to it was known 
 only to himself. 
 
 It is a common complaint that the House of 
 Commons is riot now, and has not been for at 
 least a generation, what it used to be under a 
 restricted franchise. To listen to the talk of
 
 A.D. 1861.] PUBLIC LIFE AND PUBLIC MEN. 109 
 
 some people might dispose one to the uncom- 
 fortable belief that political integrity evapor- 
 ated with the abolition of pocket boroughs, 
 that statesmanship languished when sinecures 
 began to be extinguished, and totally dis- 
 appeared with the establishment of household 
 suffrage, and that public spirit all powerful 
 when the majority of the public had no voice 
 in the direction of public affairs took flight on 
 the appearance of bloated registers. The divine 
 right of those who have never felt the pinch 
 of hunger nor, save as the direct consequence 
 of their own folly, the gnawing anguish of 
 pecuniary care, to govern those who live by 
 toil of hand or brain, was, in the belief of 
 people yet living, the Palladium of our liberty. 
 To persons of this creed it may be conceded 
 that, with the extension of popular rights, the 
 risk of social oppression has been exchanged for 
 a greater national hazard. Bacon professed his 
 distaste " for this word ' people,' " and Carlyle 
 wrote scathingly of the " collective wisdom of 
 individual ignorances " ; but neither they, nor 
 any other thoughtful seer, thought that be- 
 cause power was passing out of the hands of a 
 few into those of the many, there was any 
 cause, for those who had time to spare from 
 their private anxieties, to relax watchfulness
 
 110 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 over the destiny of the kingdom, or to refrain 
 from manly effort to lead their fellow-country- 
 men in the paths of prosperity and peace. The 
 method of statecraft has changed with the 
 
 O 
 
 broadening of the constitution, but the object 
 remains the same. As Mr Nicholl, writing of 
 the Government of Queen Elizabeth, puts it 
 with a degree of frankness, not brutal, but 
 sternly masculine, " Much must be allowed to 
 the fashion of a time when it was as customary 
 to flatter monarchs as it now is to juggle mobs." 
 Plus ya change, plus cest la meme chose the 
 same qualities of patience, foresight, knowledge 
 of men in the past and in the present, courage 
 in yielding as well as in holding back, which, 
 under the old order, had placed certain in- 
 dividuals in the front rank of statesmen, must 
 be looked for in those to whom the guidance of 
 affairs should be intrusted in the future. 
 
 The perspective of years shuts out of view all 
 but the most conspicuous characters ; looking 
 back from one end of a century to the other, 
 one discerns only the loftiest personalities the 
 Pitts, the Foxes, the Burkes ; the crowd of 
 lesser men have sunk out of view, and with 
 them has disappeared the memory of all that 
 was narrow, timid, mean, and selfish in their 
 careers. And so the impression, founded on 
 
 1 Life of Bacon, vol. i. p. 67.
 
 THE REPUTATION OF PARLIAMENT. Ill 
 
 a sentiment as old as nay, far older than 
 Horace's 
 
 " .^Etas parentum pejor avis tulit 
 Nos nequiores,"- 
 
 has gained ground, that from being the arena 
 of single-minded patriotism and the theatre of 
 eloquence, the House of Commons has become 
 but the coveted vantage-ground of self-seeking 
 busy-bodies. We are disposed to compare our 
 public men unfavourably with the great figures 
 of the eighteenth century, but Dr Johnson him- 
 self, trained as he was to philosophical reflec- 
 tion, leaned to a similar disposition. " Politicks," 
 he said, " are now nothing more than means of 
 rising in this world. With this sole view do 
 men engage in politicks, and their whole conduct 
 proceeds upon it. How different in that respect 
 is the state of the nation now from what it was 
 in the time of Charles the First, during the 
 Usurpation, and after the Restoration, in the 
 time of Charles the Second." This feeling has 
 been intensified by the degree of familiarity with 
 its proceedings which has of late been brought 
 about by the activity of the press. It is difficult 
 to preserve the august repute of Parliament when 
 every unruly scene, as well as the foibles and 
 blunders of every member of it, are minutely 
 described and dwelt upon in the newspapers. It 
 is not surprising if familiarity engenders its pro-
 
 112 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 verbial offspring in the minds of the many. Yet 
 there be some, and these riot the least intelli- 
 gent in the community, who still recognise in the 
 House of Commons not only the goal of respect- 
 able and useful ambition, but also a field in 
 which well-directed effort may, even at this day, 
 produce valuable fruit. To such natures it is 
 more congenial to be brought in direct contact 
 with the masses for whom they legislate, than 
 to study the moods and allay the apprehen- 
 sions of exalted individuals : the modern Parlia- 
 mentarian may have ruder experience to undergo 
 than had the nominee of a great lord of old, but 
 faithfulness to his task earns wider sympathy, 
 and it is more grateful to honest pride to stoop 
 to listen than to cringe to hear. 
 
 Any early indications which William Smith 
 gave of political opinion were tinged with 
 moderate Liberalism. He seems to have in- 
 clined naturally to that side of politics to 
 which his father, as a Wesleyan, adhered. 
 Thus, in 1854, he had written from Dresden to 
 his father, after describing the beauty of the 
 town and surrounding country : 
 
 There is only one obvious drawback in all this that 
 the King and the Government appear to be and to do 
 everything all that is great, beautiful, and even useful 
 appears to proceed from the Government, and the people 
 are nothing reversing the picture as it is in England.
 
 CONTEMPLATES ENTERING PARLIAMENT. 113 
 
 The idea of entering Parliament seems first 
 to have presented itself in a concrete form to 
 William Smith at the age of thirty-one. In 1856 
 he received overtures from the Liberal party at 
 Boston with the view of ascertaining if he were 
 willing to stand in conjunction with Mr Ingram, 
 who at that time represented the borough. He 
 appears to have been ready to accept the in- 
 vitation on certain conditions, clearly set out in 
 a letter, of which a draft remains in his own 
 handwriting : 
 
 The most important question after all is whether or no 
 the Party is strong enough to return a Second Member 
 on the principles on which alone I can stand, and which 
 are politically and religiously liberal. 
 
 His definition of Liberal principles which fol- 
 lows might scarcely satisfy thorough -going Radi- 
 cals of the present day, for although he was 
 in favour of abolishing Church Rates he was 
 opposed to Disestablishment ; though advocating 
 the promotion of popular education by fresh 
 legislation, he would not have it made com- 
 pulsory ; though holding the opinion that naval 
 and military expenditure should be reduced (the 
 Crimean war had then just been brought to a 
 close), it must not be brought below the point 
 of complete efficiency ; and he could not look 
 
 VOL. i. H
 
 114 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [MI. 39. 
 
 with favour on the introduction of vote by 
 ballot. 
 
 Then in the following year, 1857, overtures 
 were made on Smith's behalf with the view of 
 his becoming one of the Liberal candidates for 
 Exeter ; but the idea was abandoned for the 
 same reason that prevailed in respect of Boston 
 namely, that the party was not strong enough 
 to return two Liberals. 
 
 Nothing, therefore, came of either of these 
 projects, and the next that is heard of Smith 
 in connection with party politics is a little in- 
 cident which occurred in 1864. A personal 
 friend of his, Mr Lawson 1 of the ' Daily Tele- 
 graph,' happened to be calling one day at the 
 House on Lord Palmerston, who was then Prime 
 Minister, and remarked to him that there was 
 "a young man in the Strand who would be 
 heard of some day, and should be seen to, as 
 he would make an excellent candidate." 
 
 " Ah," replied the Premier, " I wish you'd tell 
 Brand 2 about him, will ye ? " 
 
 Mr Lawson did so, but apparently nothing 
 was done, for some time afterwards Smith came 
 up to him in the street, and said 
 
 1 Created Sir Edward Levey Lawson, Bart., in 1892. 
 
 2 Henry Brand, Esq., M.P., the chief Whip of the Liberal party, 
 afterwards Speaker from 1872 to 1884, when he was created Vis- 
 count Hampden.
 
 A.D. 1864.] MR LAWSON AND MR SMITH. 115 
 
 " My dear Lawson, do you know what I have 
 gone and done. I've accepted an invitation to 
 stand for Westminster." 
 
 " Delighted to hear it," was the reply ; " you're 
 the very man of all others we should like to 
 have. Rely upon me to do all in my power 
 for you." 
 
 " Oh, but I am the Conservative candidate, 
 vou know." 
 
 " Whew ! that alters matters rather," ex- 
 claimed Mr Lawson, for the ' Daily Telegraph ' 
 was then the leading Radical paper. " Then, 
 
 rely upon it, I'll do all I fairly can to keep you 
 
 j t " 
 out ! 
 
 And he was as good as his word, although it 
 is pleasant to record that it made no difference 
 in their friendship, which continued warm to the 
 end. 1 
 
 1 Mr Lawson was the cause of Smith's only experiences as a 
 betting man. When Mr Disraeli was forming his Government in 
 1874, Mr Lawson happening to meet Smith in the street, asked 
 him what office was going to be offered to him. " None," replied 
 Smith ; " I neither deserve nor expect one." " All the same, you 
 will have the refusal of one," said Lawson. " Not I," persisted 
 Smith ; " I assure you there is no such idea." " Well," exclaimed 
 Mr Lawson, li I'll bet you twenty guineas that within three weeks 
 you will be a member of the Government." " Done ! " said Smith, 
 and in less than three weeks he was Secretary to the Treasury, and 
 paid his debt of honour. 
 
 Again, in 1877, Mr Ward Hunt, First Lord of the Admiralty, 
 being seriously ill, Mr Lawson met Smith in the lobby of the 
 House, and said, " Well, I suppose you will be going to the
 
 116 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [XT. 40. 
 
 Now, in speculating on the influence which, 
 within eight years, had changed Smith from a 
 moderate Liberal into a moderate Conservative, 
 there is to be remembered something besides the 
 fact that Lord Palmerston had in the interval 
 gone to his place, and the restraint which he 
 had so long exercised upon his followers had 
 been removed. While Smith may be credited 
 with a large share of what the Stoics called 
 eTro^r/, or suspension of judgment a quality pecu- 
 liarly distinguishing his character in later life- 
 there is also to be taken into account the effect 
 of a rebuff he had lately received, sharp enough 
 to have discouraged a much less sensitive nature 
 than his. Smith's name had been for some time 
 on the candidates' book of the Reform Club ; 
 when he came up for election the haughty sus- 
 ceptibilities of the Whig members of the com- 
 mittee were set in arms against the admission of 
 a. tradesman, and he was blackballed. This ap- 
 parently trivial act lightly done and as lightly 
 dismissed from thought was perhaps to have 
 
 Admiralty soon." " Nonsense ! " Smith answered ; " what put that 
 into your head?" "Nonsense or not," said Mr Lawson, "I am 
 willing to have another bet about it : I'll lay you fifty pounds 
 that within six weeks you will be in the Cabinet." Again Smith 
 accepted the wager, and within the stipulated time Mr Lawson 
 called at the Admiralty to congratulate the First Lord on his 
 appointment, and receive payment of his bet. " It must seem 
 funny enough," observed Smith, " to you, who remember me work- 
 ing in my shirt-sleeves, to see me installed here."
 
 A.D. 1865.] INVITATION FROM WESTMINSTER. 117 
 
 a more lasting effect on the course of politics for 
 a quarter of a century than anybody could have 
 foreseen at the time. 
 
 To one trained like William Smith, himself a 
 hard-working man, in constant and close inter- 
 course with working men, the summons to enter 
 Parliament came with no unwelcome sound. The 
 part he had taken in social and religious schemes 
 had already accustomed him to apply energy to 
 objects beyond the confines of trade, and had 
 brought him into intimacy with members of Par- 
 liament like Lord Sandon, Mr John Talbot, and 
 the Hon. Wilbraham Egerton ; while the stand- 
 ing his firm had attained made the choice that 
 
 o 
 
 fell upon him no extraordinary one. On March 
 31, 1865, he wrote to his sister Augusta : 
 
 ' O 
 
 I remember Father has very often talked of the famous 
 election contest in Westminster when Sir Frances Bur- 
 dett stood ; and when the Troops were firing in St James 
 Street, my Father, as a boy, had to run into courts and 
 by backways to escape being shot. 
 
 Would it interest him to know that that little boy's 
 Son myself has been seriously invited to stand for 
 Westminster by a body headed by the Twinings, Stil- 
 wells, and Sambroke, and that the subject is being seri- 
 ously considered upon this understanding, that whether 
 I decide to stand or no on private grounds, upon which I 
 am quite uncertain, I should not think of doing so at all, 
 unless I am absolutely assured of success in a contest, if 
 any takes place. 
 
 If I go to Parliament, it will be as an independent
 
 118 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 40. 
 
 man. 1 . . . None but the Committee who have asked me 
 and two or three intimate private friends 2 know anything 
 at all about the affair, and it will remain undecided for 
 some time, but I shall have to give some idea of my 
 inclination on Monday. 
 
 I should like to know what Father thinks about it, 
 if he is well enough to be spoken to on the subject. I 
 can afford the expense, and my business will be well 
 managed. 
 
 And again on April 4 : 
 
 I have taken no decisive step yet. ... A contest would 
 be expensive, but when a man once becomes member for 
 Westminster, he may retain his seat pretty nearly for life 
 if his personal or moral character is good, and he attends 
 reasonably to his duties. I am anxious beyond every- 
 thing to do what is really right, and if Father really dis- 
 approved of the step, which is much less mine than my 
 neighbours', I would at once give up the idea altogether. 
 But I confess I should like to be in Parliament. 
 
 In this new project Smith was to encounter no 
 opposition from his father ; on the contrary, the 
 old gentleman, at this time in very precarious 
 health, entered upon the project with great en- 
 thusiasm, and undertook to pay all expenses. 
 
 1 By how many inexperienced candidates has this declaration 
 not been made in all sincerity how few have found it possible 
 to carry it out ! To bring any perceptible influence to bear upon 
 events, a man in Parliament must be content to act with others 
 to postpone or altogether forego favourite schemes, and to part with 
 cherished illusions. 
 
 2 Among these would certainly be Lord Sandon, the Hon. Robert 
 Grimston, and Mr Lethbridge.
 
 A.D. 1865.] SMITH'S FIRST CONTEST. 119 
 
 How thoroughly Mr Lawson succeeded in rec- 
 onciling private friendship with Smith to public 
 obligation to his party, and maintained the 
 thorough -going Radicalism of his journal, may 
 be seen by referring to the ' Daily Telegraph ' 
 of that time. There were three candidates for 
 the two seats Captain Grosvenor, the repre- 
 sentative of hereditary Whiggism, the moderate 
 Liberal ; Mr John Stuart Mill, the advanced free- 
 thinker, and, as most people then thought, the 
 extravagant and dangerous Radical ; and Smith 
 of the Strand, professing a Liberal- Conservative 
 faith, known to the few as a practical philan- 
 thropist and steady churchman to the many as 
 the owner of the bookstalls. 
 
 Mr Lawson gave the support of his newspaper 
 to Mill ; threw cold water upon Captain Grosvenor, 
 and suggested that he should retire in order to 
 avoid splitting the Liberal vote ; and attempted 
 to treat Smith's candidature as a farce. 
 
 The metropolitan boroughs [runs the leading article on 
 May 6, 1865] owe it to the country and to themselves . . . 
 not to indulge ambitious nobodies who, despairing of any 
 other distinction, want to say they were once "Metro- 
 politan members." ... In the category of political no- 
 bodies we must include Mr Smith. . . . The candidates 
 are Captain Grosvenor, Mr Smith, and John Stuart Mill. 
 Now we have already contrasted the claims of the kins- 
 man of the Marquis of Westminster with those of the 
 author of ' Liberty ' and ' Representative Government.'
 
 120 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 40. 
 
 And we should insult the intelligence of the public by 
 dwelling on such a point. 
 
 Smith, advocating extension of the franchise 
 and an amicable adjustment of the question of 
 Church-rates, stood as a Liberal- Conservative 
 a title which not only earned for him the jealous 
 suspicion of the old-fashioned Tories, but was 
 resented by the Liberals as an unprincipled bor- 
 rowing of their own peculiar plumes. Smith 
 was in the position of Pope's moderate man 
 
 " In moderation placing all my glory, 
 While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory." 
 
 Thus the ' Daily Telegraph ' on July G : 
 
 The policy of the great Conservative party with respect 
 to the elections may be aptly defended on the ground of 
 its exact similarity to that adopted by the giver of the 
 banquet celebrated in the pages of Holy Writ. In order 
 to secure a full complement of guests for his table, the 
 entertainer recorded in the parable first issued invitations 
 to all his friends and relations; then, when these hung 
 back, he brought in the halt, the maimed, and the blind ; 
 and when he found that there was still room left, he sent 
 out into the streets, and compelled the passers-by to come 
 in. This course of conduct exactly corresponds to the 
 tactics of the Tories in the approaching elections. Their 
 first object is to fill the vacant seats with their own allies 
 and retainers ; but, failing in that, they are ready to take 
 in anybody they can get, no matter what may be his 
 qualifications, or under what pretences he may be enumer- 
 ated among the guests of Conservatism. . . . There is one 
 Derby, and Disraeli is his prophet such is the shibboleth
 
 A.D. 1865.] A FORLORN HOPE. 121 
 
 which every candidate for Tory votes is required to re- 
 peat. . . . Mr Smith issues an address from "West- 
 minster, so liberal in its tone that it ought to have been 
 dated from the Reform Club, . . . yet this gentleman is 
 accounted a champion of Conservative principles, simply 
 because he is opposed to two candidates of advanced Lib- 
 eral views. 
 
 Still, sternly as the editor of the ' Daily 
 Telegraph ' succeeded in severing the office of 
 censor from that of friend in this contest, there 
 is no doubt that the business relations between 
 the firm of Smith & Son and the leading journals 
 of the day served to impart a tone of kindly 
 recognition even to the most hostile articles in 
 other newspapers. 
 
 They might well afford to be magnanimous. 
 Smith's candidature could scarcely be looked on 
 as otherwise than a forlorn hope, having regard 
 to the state of parties in the Metropolis. There 
 had not been for many years a single Conserva- 
 tive member either for a metropolitan con- 
 stituency or for Middlesex, and the county of 
 Surrey could only boast of two. Besides this 
 discouraging state of affairs, Smith had other 
 difficulties to encounter. Mr Cubitt, who in 
 after-years became his intimate friend, and had 
 at that time much influence in the party organisa- 
 tion of London, was dismayed at the Liberalism 
 of Smith's address to the electors. He consulted
 
 122 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 40. 
 
 Colonel Taylor, the Conservative Whip, as to 
 the prudence of adopting a candidate of such 
 milk-and-water views. " Take him," was Taylor's 
 advice " take him. I don't fancy his politics 
 much myself, but you'll get nobody better." T In 
 
 1 Smith showed himself scrupulously anxious not to secure 
 Conservative support by posing as a member of the Conservative 
 party, and in order that his position should be perfectly clear, he 
 wrote the following letter to Colonel Taylor, the Conservative 
 
 Whip : 
 
 April 26, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have been so heartily and so handsomely sup- 
 ported by the Conservative party that I am anxious there should 
 be no misunderstanding as to the position I should occupy wrth 
 reference to it if returned to Parliament for Westminster. 
 
 You are fully aware of the independence of party ties which I 
 felt it necessary to stipulate for when it was proposed by the Com- 
 mittee that I should stand for Westminster, but I am not sure that 
 your friends would gather as much from my address. It will be 
 well, therefore, to repeat that I am not a member of the Conserva- 
 tive party as such nor am I a member of the Liberal party, but I 
 believe in Lord Palmerston, and look forward ultimately to a 
 fusion of the moderate men following Lord Derby and Lord 
 Palmerston into a strong Liberal-Conservative party, to which T 
 should be glad to attach myself. 
 
 Such an expectation may be chimerical, but I cannot help in- 
 dulging it, and I wish to stand by it. 
 
 In the meantime, I am pledged to oppose Baine's bill (for ex- 
 tension of the suffrage in boroughs), the Ballot, and the uncondi- 
 tional abolition of Church-rates and all similar radical measures. 
 
 May I ask you to make this matter clear to your friends who 
 have so generously offered their support to me, as I would rather 
 retire now than fairly lay myself open to the reproach of obtaining 
 party support under false pretences. 
 
 To this Colonel Taylor replied : 
 
 " I consider your letter an extremely fair one, and I shall advise the 
 Westminster Conservatives to give you their unreserved support."
 
 A. T). 1865.] THE PALMERSTONIAN CANDIDATE. 123 
 
 his address to the electors, dated from the Strand, 
 April 1865, the "milk-and-water" candidate said 
 he came forward to give the 
 
 more moderate or Conservative portion of the constituency 
 an opportunity of marking their disapproval of the extreme 
 political doctrines which have been avowed hy the Candi- 
 dates already in the field. . . . Unconnected with either 
 of the great political parties, I should desire to enter 
 Parliament as an independent Member, at liberty to vote 
 for measures rather than for men. I should not be a party 
 to any factious attempt to drive Lord Palmerston from 
 power, as I feel that the country owes a debt of gratitude 
 to him for having preserved peace, and for the resistance 
 he has offered to reckless innovation in our domestic 
 
 institutions. 
 
 
 
 While not opposed to carefully considered ex- 
 tension of the suffrage, he declared himself unable 
 to support Mr Baine's bill, then before Parlia- 
 ment ; and he was prepared to resist ballot- vot- 
 ing, because he thought that the voter who was 
 afraid to act openly was " scarcely worthy of the 
 trust which he is supposed to discharge for the 
 benefit of the commonwealth." He laid special 
 stress on his anxiety to legislate in the interests 
 of education and popular thrift. 
 
 Looked at in the light of that time, there was 
 little in this address to rouse fighting spirit in 
 the ranks of the Opposition, and at first some 
 difficulty was found in getting together a good
 
 124 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 40. 
 
 election Committee. The aristocratic house- 
 holders of Belgravia and Mayfair only knew 
 Smith as a newsvendor, and were disposed to 
 lukewarmness in a contest wherein one of their 
 own order could not engage with any hope of 
 success ; arid, whether from jealousy or incredu- 
 lity in a creditable result, many of the West 
 End tradesmen showed little enthusiasm towards 
 their fellow-citizen, and at first held aloof from 
 his Committee. As time went on, however, 
 these obstacles melted to small proportions, and 
 a strong representative Committee, with Earl 
 Percy 1 as chairman, having been constituted, 
 everything pointed to a well - fought election. 
 The Liberal party in Westminster were per- 
 plexed by the candidature of Mr Mill, which 
 was unfavourably viewed by the party mana- 
 gers, and in the end Sir John Shelley, who 
 had represented the borough for many years, 
 retired in order to avoid splitting the Liberal 
 vote. 
 
 The nomination took place, according to im- 
 memorial custom, on the hustings at Covent 
 Garden, the scene of so many famous contests 
 between parties and powerful houses. It was 
 the last time when electors were to have the 
 advantage of an unlimited supply of cabbage- 
 
 1 Now sixth Duke of Northumberland.
 
 A.D. 1865.] DEFEAT. 125 
 
 stalks and rotten potatoes close at hand, for 
 with the Reform Act of 1867 came provision for 
 removing the hustings to a place with more 
 elbow-room and fewer missiles. 
 
 By the time the polling-day dawned, the hopes 
 of the Conservative party were high. Smith 
 had made an excellent impression, and received 
 promises of support to such an extent as, to one 
 new to the infirmity of electoral human nature, 
 seemed to put his success beyond question. He 
 was soon to be undeceived. It will be re- 
 membered that, under the old practice of open 
 voting, the state of the poll was known as the 
 day wore on, and was published from time to 
 time. The first note of warning was sent to 
 his wife from his committee-rooms in Cockspur 
 Street : 
 
 llth July 1865. 
 
 I think you may have a disappointment. Men have 
 broken their promises to a considerable extent, and we 
 are dropping behind. Don't be discontented ; it is all 
 for the best. I will let you know later. 
 
 Another was sent to his sister Augusta : 
 
 Things are looking a little badly for us not very much 
 so, but enough to render it possible that we may be 
 beaten. You must prepare my Father for it. 
 
 Then, finally, another to his sister, written
 
 126 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JEI. 40. 
 
 from his house in Hyde Park Street, where he 
 had gone to carry the news to Mrs Smith : 
 
 The close of the Poll made 
 
 Grosvenor ..... 4384 
 Mill . . . 4379 
 
 Smith 3812 
 
 So I was 572 behind, and am left out in the cold ; but 
 
 although disappointed, I am not at all cast down about it. 
 
 I will come to you to-morrow morning. Let* me know 
 
 how my Father is. 
 
 Disraeli was an adept in the art of attaching 
 his followers to himself by tactful and timely 
 notice of them a faculty by no means invariably 
 possessed by parliamentary chiefs. The follow- 
 ing little autograph note of sympathy was de- 
 spatched on the day of the declaration of the poll 
 in Westminster : 
 
 GKOSVENOR GATE, July 12, 1865. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Before I leave town to-day for my own 
 County, I must express to you my great regret at the 
 termination of the Westminster contest, conducted by 
 you with so much spirit, & evidently with such a just- 
 expectation of success. 
 
 I hope yet to see you in the House of Commons, &, 
 in the meantime, I trust you may find some dignified 
 consolation & some just pride in the conviction that you 
 possess the respect & the confidence of a great party. 
 I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, your faithful serv*., 
 
 B. DISRAELI. 
 
 W. H. SMITH, Esq.
 
 A.D. 1865.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR DISRAELI. 127 
 
 Smith's reply to this was as follows : 
 
 1 HYDE PARK ST., July 12, 1865. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I am grateful to you for the expression of 
 your sympathy with ine under my defeat. Seeing that I had 
 not identified myself with the party, I confess I felt surprise 
 at the warmth and earnestness with which the Westminster 
 Conservatives supported me, and the ready response to our 
 united efforts caused me to be sanguine as to the result. 
 
 But I am amply repaid for any labour or vexation 
 through which I have passed by the confidence of the 
 friends I have made in this contest, and the expression of 
 your own kindly feeling. I have the honor to be, Dear 
 Sir, yours very faithfully, WILLIAM H. SMITH. 
 
 Thus ended in decisive repulse the assault on 
 the Liberal stronghold of the Metropolis. But 
 it was not to be long before the attack was 
 renewed. The contest had revealed Conservative 
 feeling in a London constituency to an extent 
 which few could have suspected. No doubt it 
 would have been even more manifest but for the 
 confidence which the middle classes felt in Lord 
 Palmerston. It is true that Smith repeatedly 
 disclaimed any wish to see that statesman dis- 
 lodged from ofHce ; but the Liberals had the 
 advantage of claiming Palmerston as the head 
 of their party, while Smith was a follower of 
 Lord Derby, whose name, though in high repute 
 with landed gentry and farmers, was not one 
 with which to conjure in the towns.
 
 128 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1865-1868. 
 
 DEATH OP LORD PALMERSTON AND OF THE ELDER SMITH 
 
 EARL RUSSELL'S REFORM BILL AND MR DISRAELI'S DIS- 
 SOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT SMITH IS ELECTED FOR WEST- 
 MINSTER THE REVIVALIST MOVEMENT. 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON died in the autumn of 1865. 
 The night of his death October 18 was 
 marked by a phenomenon to which, in a pre- 
 scientific or more superstitious age, there would 
 undoubtedly have been attributed special signifi- 
 cance, as accompanying the removal of one of 
 great influence in the guidance of a great nation. 
 Many persons, especially in the northern part of 
 the island, as they watched the brilliant display 
 of aurora borealis, called to mind the belief of 
 the Scottish peasantry referred to by Aytoun in 
 the stanza 
 
 " All night long the northern streamers 
 
 Shot across the trembling sky : 
 Fearful lights that never beckon 
 Save when kings or heroes die."
 
 a 
 DIS- 
 
 1 in the autumn of 1865. 
 
 ...] 18 was 
 
 in a pre- 
 
 ^ ould 
 
 have 
 
 compaj! n of 
 
 iice in t : mtioti. 
 
 Mai; lieri! };u*t of 
 
 the island, as ti ^ u)t display 
 
 of aurora borealis, -1 iht? belief of 
 
 tht> Scottish p< -d to bv Aytoun in 
 
 the stanza 
 
 " All night long the northern streamers 
 
 Shot across the trembling sky : 
 Fearful lights that never beckon 
 Save when kings or heroes die."
 
 DEATH OF THE ELDER SMITH. 129 
 
 For indeed many kings and heroes have passed 
 from the earthly scene of their works with less 
 consequence to the course of affairs. With Lord 
 Palmerston's firm will and quaint, genial person- 
 ality, there was lost that sense of security which 
 made moderate men of both parties feel safer 
 under a strong Liberal administration than under 
 a weak Conservative one. Henceforward, step 
 by step, in ever-accelerating descent, the Liberal 
 party was to follow the path of reckless oppor- 
 tunism, till, as has come to pass at this day, it 
 has parted with all the men who might draw 
 to it the confidence of the educated and con- 
 sciously responsible. 
 
 During this year also drew to a close the life of 
 one who had exercised as powerful an influence 
 on Smith's character and private life as Lord 
 Palmerstoii had on his public career and political 
 opinions. Old Mr Smith, whose unremitting de- 
 votion to business had often brought upon him 
 the anxious warnings and remonstrances of friends 
 in the " connection," who found it difficult to 
 reconcile his worldly preoccupation with spiritual 
 preparedness, had comparatively early in life 
 paid the penalty of shattered health. Since 
 his retirement from an active part in the firm, 
 much of his time had been spent at Torquay 
 and Bournemouth, and it was at the last-named 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 40. 
 
 place that he breathed his last in July 1865. 
 A man of unbending integrity and ceaseless in- 
 dustry, he was a kind, if somewhat imperious, 
 parent, and his children loved and respected 
 him. In him the Wesleyan body lost a faith- 
 ful adherent and generous benefactor : one of 
 his latest acts was a gift of 2100 to the build- 
 ing fund of a chapel in London. 
 
 In the year following upon Smith's defeat in 
 Westminster, his home in Hyde Park Street was 
 darkened by the first sorrow that had fallen upon 
 it since his marriage. His first-born son a weak- 
 ling from his birth died in February 1866, and 
 he records the loss in these words in a letter to 
 Miss Giberne : 
 
 We are in trouble. Our little boy has been taken 
 from us quite quietly, gently, slowly, and, happily, pain- 
 lessly ; but he is gone like a breath or a shadow. A bad 
 cold and no strength no power and that is all ; and 
 the Doctors say now that he was not a livable child 
 that any illness must have knocked him down, and so 
 he is taken away from the sorrows to come. ... It is 
 a sad blank in our nursery a quiet little sorrow which 
 will last with us for a long time to come. But as the 
 sorrow was to come, it could not have fallen more gently 
 and more mercifully. 
 
 Much more gently and mercifully, indeed, than 
 if the parents had been called on to witness a
 
 A.D. 1866.] BIRTH OF HIS SON. 131 
 
 life carried from ailment to ailment, flickering 
 in a feeble frame, and prolonged with difficulty 
 through painful adolescence into suffering man- 
 hood. 
 
 But in August of the same year the house was 
 gladdened by a happier event, thus announced by 
 Smith to his sister : 
 
 You will be glad to hear . . . that Emily has got through 
 her trouble safely, . . . and that we have a son again. This 
 time the boy looks healthy and well, but I am hardly yet 
 able to say that I am glad. I did not desire it, although 
 we shall be very thankful if all goes well with him. I 
 have always felt there is a greater risk with boys than 
 with girls, and we have both been very well content with 
 our girls. Emily, however, looks very happy indeed with 
 him upon her arm, and if she goes on well, as I have no 
 doubt she will, I shall begin to value the little fellow at 
 his proper worth. 
 
 The first act of Earl Russell's Government 
 was the preparation of a bill for extending the 
 franchise. This was introduced on March 12, 
 1866, by Mr Gladstone, Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer and leader of the House of Commons, 
 in a speech memorable for the combined force 
 and elegance of its peroration. " We cannot," 
 he said at the conclusion of an elaborate ex- 
 planation of the proposals of the Government 
 
 We cannot consent to look on this addition consider-
 
 132 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 40. 
 
 able though it be of the working classes as if it were 
 an addition fraught with nothing but danger ; we cannot 
 look upon it as a Trojan horse approaching the walls of 
 a sacred city, and filled with armed men bent on ruin, 
 plunder, and conflagration. We cannot describe it as 
 monstrum infelix, or say 
 
 " Scandit fatalis machina muros, 
 Foeta armis : . . . medieeque minans illabitur urbi." 
 
 We believe that those persons whom we ask you to 
 enfranchise ought rather to be welcomed as if they were 
 recruits to your army. We ask you to give within what 
 we consider a just limit of prudence and circumspection. 
 Consider what you can safely and justly offer to do in 
 admitting new subjects and citizens within the pale of the 
 Parliamentary Constitution ; and having so considered 
 it, do it as if you were conferring a boon, which will 
 be felt and reciprocated by a feeling of grateful attach- 
 ment to the Constitution attachment of the people to 
 the Throne and laws under which we live, which is, after 
 all, more than your gold and silver, and more than your 
 fleets and armies, at once the strength, the glory, and 
 the safety of the land. 
 
 In spite of this powerful appeal, the bill was 
 coldly received by those who sat behind Mr 
 Gladstone. There were those who sighed 
 
 " For the touch of a vanished hand, 
 And the sound of a voice that was still." 
 
 The moderate Liberals grouped themselves 
 round such malcontents as Lord Grosvenor. 
 Mr Lowe, Mr Horsman, Lord Elcho, and Mr
 
 A.D. 1866.] THE GAVE OF ADULLAM. 133 
 
 Laing, and formed what soon came to be known 
 as the Cave of Adullam, because, as was said, 
 it contained " every one that was in distress, 
 and every one that was in debt, and every one 
 that was discontented." l On April 12 an amend- 
 ment was moved by Lord Grosveiior to the 
 effect that no bill to extend the franchise could 
 be accepted until the House was in possession 
 of the proposals of the Government for redistri- 
 bution of seats. This was seconded by Lord 
 Stanley, 2 and the debate was wound up on the 
 eighth night with a speech of extraordinary 
 warmth and eloquence by Mr Gladstone, who 
 declared that the Government would stand or 
 fall by the result. The division took place in 
 a scene of the utmost excitement at three in 
 the morning, the figures being- 
 Ayes 318 
 
 Noes ....... 313 
 
 Majority for the Government . 5 
 
 It was generally expected that Ministers 
 would resign, but, on the contrary, they per- 
 severed in carrying the bill into Committee. Mr 
 Gladstone, on being twitted with continuing in 
 office after pledging himself to stand or fall by 
 
 1 1 Samuel xxii. 2. 2 Afterwards fifteenth Earl of Derby.
 
 134 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 41. 
 
 a bill which he had only carried by a majority 
 of five, declared that as the bill still stood, so did 
 the Government. The bill, however, after several 
 exceedingly close divisions in Committee, was 
 finally wrecked on an amendment moved by Lord 
 Dunkellin, who proposed to substitute rating 
 instead of renting as the basis of the franchise. 
 On this question Ministers were in a minority of 
 eleven. The consequence was the resignation of 
 Earl Russell's Cabinet and the formation of a 
 new one by the Earl of Derby, with Mr Disraeli 
 as Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of 
 the House of Commons. It was the desire of 
 Lord Derby to include some of the Adullamites 
 in his Government, but his overtures were de- 
 clined, and he had to meet Parliament early 
 in July with a minority of Conservative members 
 in the House of Commons, and a body of dis- 
 sentient Liberals or Adullamites holding the 
 balance of power. 
 
 In the following year 18 67 --the Queen 
 opened Parliament in person for the first time 
 since the Prince Consort's death in 1861, and 
 in the Speech from the Throne chief prominence 
 was given to a measure to " freely extend the 
 elective franchise." To carry out this purpose 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer asked the House 
 of Commons to proceed in a somewhat novel way,
 
 A.D. 1867.] MR DISRAELI'S REFORM BILL. 135 
 
 by adopting thirteen resolutions embodying the 
 principles on which bills for the extension of 
 the franchise and Redistribution of seats should 
 be framed by the Government. But objections 
 to this course were pressed from all quarters 
 of the House, and after some discussion the 
 Resolutions were withdrawn, and the bill pro- 
 mised. But before it could be introduced, the 
 Cabinet had disagreed on its provisions, and 
 three Ministers Lord Carnarvon, Lord Cran- 
 borne, and General Peel resigned office. Noth- 
 ing but speedy destruction seemed to be imminent 
 upon Lord Derby's Administration. Weakened 
 as he was by the secession of three of his own 
 colleagues, his policy was now bitterly attacked 
 by the Adullamites his quondam allies who 
 denounced Mr Disraeli's bill as more sweeping 
 than that which, the previous year, had severed 
 them from their proper leaders. Then was to 
 be seen the strange spectacle of a Conservative 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer moving a measure 
 which, though condemned by many of his own 
 party, and by the whole of the Adullamites, and 
 sarcastically criticised by the Liberal Opposition, 
 was yet allowed to pass second reading in the 
 House of Commons without a division. 
 
 In the session of 1868 similar bills were passed 
 for Scotland and Ireland, and Parliament was
 
 136 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [MT. 42. 
 
 dissolved on November 11, to reassemble on 
 December 10. 
 
 Smith's experience in the contest of 1865 had 
 the usual result of practical contact with politics : 
 it tended to accentuate his opinions on public 
 questions, and to convince him that, if he would 
 influence the course of events, a man must co- 
 operate heartily with other men, and that inde- 
 pendence of action, carried beyond somewhat 
 narrow limits, must end ineffectively. Hence- 
 forward his lot was cast and his course was 
 < 
 
 steered with the Conservative party, and he 
 chose that line from deliberate conviction, not 
 because it was to land him with fewest obstacles 
 in the House of Commons. In 1867 an invita- 
 tion came to him to stand for Middlesex on 
 " unmistakable Liberal principles " ; but he de- 
 clined it because, if he stood at all, he could only 
 do so as a Conservative. Thereupon came an 
 invitation to contest the county as a Conserva- 
 tive, on which Smith placed himself in the hands 
 of the party managers, who advised him to de- 
 cline. To another invitation to contest Bedford 
 in the Conservative interest, he replied that " my 
 Westminster friends have so strongly remon- 
 strated against the proposal to commit myself 
 to a candidature for another constituency at the 
 general election, . . . that out of regard to per-
 
 A. D. 1868.] SECOND CONTEST FOR WESTMINSTER. 137 
 
 sonal considerations ... I feel bound to refrain 
 from severing myself from them." 
 
 Finally, a requisition, with 3000 signatures, 
 inviting Smith to stand again for Westminster, 
 was presented to him on behalf of the Conserva- 
 tive party in the borough, by a deputation headed 
 by the Earl of Dalkeith, M.P., 1 and this invita- 
 tion he accepted. But Westminster was not now 
 the same constituency he had courted in 1865. 
 The effect of household suffrage on the political 
 complexion of such a borough could only be darkly 
 surmised. It was true that people had begun 
 to get tired of Mr Mill : in those days the advo- 
 cacy of woman suffrage was regarded as an eccen- 
 tric novelty, and if there is one thing of which 
 the English middle class is more suspicious than 
 of novelty, it is eccentricity. Mill had also dis- 
 gusted some of his supporters by relentless prose- 
 cution of the charges against Governor Eyre ; and 
 by espousing the cause of Charles Bradlaugh, the 
 infidel and revolutionary lecturer, he had roused 
 the alarm of members of all the Churches. Still, 
 the new electors were an untried contingent, and 
 nobody could predict what their action might be. 
 
 In his new address to the electors Smith still 
 claimed to be a Liberal-Conservative, " unpledged 
 to any particular party.". But the tone was more 
 
 1 Now sixth Duke of Buccleuch and eighth Duke of Queensberry.
 
 138 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 43. 
 
 decided than in the address of 1865. There 
 was one passage to which the course of subse- 
 quent party tactics has imparted a melancholy 
 significance. 
 
 Foremost among the more prominent questions of the 
 clay is that of Ireland. 
 
 I have long been of opinion that the greatest misfortune 
 which has befallen the people of Ireland, is that their 
 condition has become the patrimony of political parties in 
 .this country, who, to obtain a fleeting popularity or a 
 few votes, fan the flame of popular discontent by attribut- 
 ing to unjust or partial legislation the existence of evils, 
 arising in great measure from causes within the control 
 of the Irish people themselves. 
 
 All through the winter 1867-68 and the suc- 
 ceeding summer, Smith and his friends worked 
 hard, holding meetings and canvassing the voters. 
 Mr Disraeli's profession of belief in the existence 
 of Conservative working men had been as much 
 the subject of misgiving among members of his 
 own party as of derision among his opponents. 
 But as the canvass proceeded, clear evidence was 
 forthcoming that there were working men of a 
 more thoughtful stamp than the rioters who, in 
 1867, had pulled down the railings of Hyde Park 
 and terrorised the West End. 
 
 The main question on which the general elec- 
 tion was to turn was the Disestablishment of the
 
 A.D. 1868.] THE ELECTION. 139 
 
 Irish Church, and those who were defending 1 it 
 
 o 
 
 against Mr Gladstone's attack were able, as has 
 been the case in every one of that statesman's 
 greater enterprises, to equip themselves with 
 weapons from his own armoury of argument, 
 which he had flung aside in successive changes 
 of front. Smith was stoutly opposed to Dis- 
 establishment, because he could see in it no 
 promise of lessened bitterness or increased good- 
 neighbourhood in Ireland, and to Disendowment, 
 because he recognised in it a principle which 
 might easily be extended to every kind of prop- 
 erty, public or private. Smith numbered among 
 his most active supporters and advisers at this 
 time the Hon. Robert Grimston, Mr Cubitt, and 
 Lord Sandon. 
 
 The nomination took place on November 16, 
 not, as by almost immemorial custom, in Covent 
 Garden, but on hustings erected at the base of 
 Nelson's Pillar. The candidates were the same 
 as in 1865 namely, Grosvenor, Mill, and Smith. 
 Smith's supporters were very hopeful ; but if they 
 were confident, he himself did not share their 
 feeling, as may be seen from the following pas- 
 sages in letters to his wife : 
 
 Nov. 10. I don't want people ... to suppose I sulk 
 if I lose the battle or am too much elated if I win. 
 
 Nov. 11. I certainly hope to succeed, but the relief of
 
 140 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 43. 
 
 rest will be so great that if I fail I shall be compensated 
 by a return to home comforts. 
 
 Nov. 12. If I go down home 1 on Tuesday evening 
 beaten I shall not feel I am disgraced, and I intend to 
 put a good and cheerful face upon it. It will all be for 
 the best, and I shall be quite content to spend more time 
 with my family and with you. . . . Everything is going 
 well with me at present, but it is quite impossible to tell 
 what the issue may be. 
 
 On the polling-day telegrams were despatched 
 to Mrs Smith at intervals. Thus : 
 
 Ten o'clock poll Smith, 2457; Grosvenor, 1745; Mill, 
 1647 ; but don't be too sanguine. 
 
 In those days the poll was closed at four 
 o'clock. The lead obtained in the morning by 
 the Conservative candidate was maintained to 
 the close. The result was beyond the expecta- 
 tion of the keenest Tory even of " Bob " Grim- 
 ston himself: 
 
 Smith (C.) 7698 
 
 Grosvenor (L.) 6505 
 
 Mill (L.) 6185 
 
 showing a majority for Smith of 1193 over 
 Grosvenor, and of 1513 over Mill. 
 
 1 His country residence was at this time Cecil Lodge, Abbots 
 Langley. The pleasant old house at Kilburn had been so closely 
 built round that it was given up when old Mr Smith retired from 
 business in 1858. As his son once expressed it " I can't even kiss 
 my sister without being seen from a dozen windows."
 
 A.D. 1868.] VICTORY. 141 
 
 The great day was over, marking a turning- 
 point in the political history of London ; for be- 
 sides the victory in Westminster, the Tories won 
 one of the four seats in the City of London, 
 thus breaking the solid phalanx of metropolitan 
 Liberalism. 
 
 His own side were very angry with Mr Mill. 
 
 It is extraordinary [said the ' Pall Mall Gazette '] that 
 a man of his acuteness and discernment should fail even 
 now to perceive how much he himself did, not only to 
 bring about this result, but to jeopardise the seats of 
 other Liberals by his patronage of Bradlaugh. ... At 
 Westminster the Conservatives, if they had only known 
 their strength, could have put in two Conservatives in- 
 stead of one ; and if both the Liberals had been ousted, 
 Mr Mill would have been mainly to blame. 
 
 The ' Daily News ' was even more vindictive : 
 
 From the date of his letter commendatory of Mr Brad- 
 laugh to his journey, a few days since, to Brighton, where 
 he delivered himself of a diatribe against the Palmerstonian 
 Liberals, Mr Mill has neglected nothing which could pre- 
 judice against him men whom, for the sake of his party and 
 his cause, he might at least have abstained from offending. 
 The late member for Westminster has himself principally 
 to thank for his defeat. The great follies of small men 
 and the small follies of great ones may be dismissed with 
 contempt or with indulgence ; but the serious errors of a 
 man of Mr Mill's character, intellect, and reputation are 
 too mischievous to be passed over in silence. 
 
 The general tone of the Liberal press was not
 
 142 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 43. 
 
 unfriendly to the new member. Most newspapers 
 on that side admitted that if a seat was to be 
 lost, it could not be lost to a better man than 
 Smith ; but of course some bitter jibes were 
 written, and one at least of these is amusing to 
 read in the light of after-years : 
 
 Westminster has shown herself incapable of keeping a 
 great man when she has got one, and has raised a wealthy 
 newsvendor to temporary prominence, and even to such 
 kind of notoriety as attends those whose names get some- 
 how embedded in the world-wide fame of an opponent. 
 
 But though the Conservative cause had tri- 
 umphed in Westminster, and though the mon- 
 opoly of metropolitan Liberalism had been further 
 demolished by the return of Lord George Hamil- 
 ton for Middlesex, and of Mr Bell for the City of 
 London, it had fared ill with the authors of 
 household suffrage in the country. It seemed as 
 if the jeers which greeted Mr Disraeli's allusions 
 to the existence of Conservative working men had 
 been justified by the result of his "leap in the 
 dark," for the state of parties in the new Parlia- 
 ment was : 
 
 Liberals 387 
 
 Conservatives 272 
 
 Liberal majority . . . . 115 
 
 Still, the beaten Prime Minister might point to
 
 A.D. 1868.] THE REVIVALISTS. 143 
 
 South-West Lancashire a genuine working-man 
 constituency where his chief opponent had sus- 
 tained a striking reverse, the result of the poll in 
 that division being : 
 
 Cross (Conservative) . . . . 7729 
 
 Turner (Conservative) . . . 7676 
 
 Gladstone (Liberal) . 7415 
 
 Grenfell (Liberal) . 6939 
 
 Before passing from the events of this eventful 
 year 1868, allusion may be made to one of its 
 notable features the Revival movement. For 
 as long as history bears witness to human pro- 
 gress, there is ample evidence of the recurrence 
 of storms of spiritual disquiet which agitate the 
 community by mingled waves of fear and fervour, 
 and, passing away as rapidly as they came, make 
 way for periods of tranquillity, to be disturbed 
 again by similar outbreaks. The form of such 
 agitations varies as much as the personnel of the 
 chief movers in them, but their general char- 
 acteristics remain the same apprehension of 
 impending judgments, imperious call to instant 
 repentance, fervid exhortation, and physical ex- 
 citement, producing manifestations claimed to be 
 of divine origin and spiritual nature. One of 
 these storms was passing over the masses of this 
 land at this time, and it is interesting to note 
 the quiet respectful attention, not unmingled
 
 144 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. OT. 43. 
 
 with suspicion, which it commanded from one so 
 earnestly concerned in religious life as Smith 
 was. On July 20, 1868, he wrote to one of 
 his sisters : 
 
 Yesterday afternoon I went to hear Lord Radstock at 
 the Eevival meetings at the Polytechnic, and although he 
 is very earnest, I doubt the ultimate value of his work. 
 
 In another letter of this date to his sister 
 Augusta, there is a little bit of melancholy but 
 practical philosophy. He has been discussing a 
 plan for affording pecuniary relief to some poor 
 relations, and observes : 
 
 It is a sad thing they should have this trouble in their 
 old days, but it is just another example of the mistake of 
 unsatisfactory marriages. Sooner or later the inevitable 
 breakdown occurs, and the heart had better have been 
 broken at first, if such a thing was possible.
 
 145 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 1868-1869. 
 
 PETITION AGAINST MR SMITH'S RETURN THE TRIAL AND VERDICT 
 
 SMITH'S MAIDEN SPEECH DEBATE ON PAUPERISM SMITH'S 
 MISTRUST OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS ANECDOTES ILLUSTRAT- 
 ING HIS PRINCIPLES OF GIVING THE TELEGRAPH BILL DE- 
 BATES ON DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE IRISH CHURCH. 
 
 THE decree which banished Mill from public 
 life and ushered Smith into it was not to pass 
 unchallenged by the friends of the former. Be- 
 fore the twenty days allowed by statute for 
 lodging petitions had elapsed, one had been 
 filed against the Conservative member for West- 
 minster. Under the law as it then stood can- 
 didates were much more in the hands of their 
 agents than they are now, for there was no 
 statutory limit to expenses, and the agent had 
 to be supplied with money according to his 
 discretion ; and not the chief agent only, but 
 a whole troop of assistant agents and active 
 partisans besides. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. OT. 43. 
 
 Certainly there had been no niggardliness 
 shown in the supply. While the published ex- 
 penses of the Liberal candidates, Grosvenor and 
 Mill, only amounted together to 2296, 2s. 7d., 
 those of the Conservative, Smith, mounted up 
 to the huge total of 8900, 17s. 7d. There had 
 also been lamentable indiscretion on the part 
 of one of Smith's warmest well-wishers, Mr 
 Grimston, to whom, indeed, it was greatly owing 
 that Smith had consented to come forward again 
 for Westminster. Mr Grimston had brought 
 up to London a tenant of his brother (the Earl 
 of Verulam), one Edwards, in order that he 
 might act as a sub-agent. This Edwards had 
 already undergone eighteen months' imprisonment 
 for his part in the malpractices which brought 
 about the disfranchisement of the borough of 
 St Albans. No doubt this worthy must have 
 possessed some special qualities which caused his 
 services to be in request, and no doubt Grimston 
 believed he was doing his friend a good turn 
 in securing him an indefatigable sub-agent, but 
 in fact his zeal very nearly brought about the 
 loss of the seat. The petition was on the 
 grounds of bribery, treating, and undue influ- 
 ence by the candidate and by other persons on 
 his behalf. 
 
 As for Smith himself, he wrote to his wife
 
 A.D. 1868.] PETITION AGAINST HIS RETURN. 147 
 
 on December 9 with a perfectly clear conscience 
 as to his own actions : 
 
 From what I hear, I think it likely the Petition will be 
 presented, but it is not certain yet, and I do not think 
 they have any matter which cannot be explained honour- 
 ably and to all the world. I am very much less con- 
 cerned about it than I was indeed I cannot be said to be 
 at all so. 
 
 Parliament assembled on December 10, and 
 Smith duly took his seat for Westminster. The 
 proceedings on the petition against his return 
 did not begin till February 12, when the 
 case was opened before Mr Baron Martin at 
 the Sessions House, Westminster, but was after- 
 wards removed, first to tbe Lords Justices' Court 
 and then to the Court of Exchequer, a change 
 rendered necessary by the crowds of persons 
 seeking admittance, and by the intense local 
 excitement attending the proceedings. Mr 
 Hawkins, Q.C., and Mr Serjeant Ballantine 
 were counsel for Mr Smith, and Mr Fitzjames 
 Stephens, with Messrs Murch and Littler as 
 juniors, for the petitioners. The trial lasted for 
 seven days, and the cross-examination of wit- 
 nesses did not fail to produce instances of 
 humour of the sort peculiar to two kinds of 
 case election petitions and actions for breach 
 of promise of marriage. For example, one wit-
 
 148 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. OT. 43. 
 
 ness who had applied to Smith's agent for pay- 
 ment of certain alleged expenses and had been 
 refused, said that he thereupon changed his 
 politics and became a Liberal, because the Con- 
 servatives were " a nasty dirty lot." 
 
 Asked by Mr Hawkins " Give us your notion 
 of what a Conservative is " a witness replied, 
 " I think a Conservative is a rank humbug." 
 
 " Well, what is a Liberal ? " " A Liberal, if he 
 acts as a man and a gentleman, is a Liberal." 
 
 " But suppose a Conservative acts as a man 
 and a gentleman, what do you think of him ? " 
 " Well but, sir, you rarely come across such a 
 one." 
 
 It was stated in evidence that at a tea-meeting 
 in the Hanover Square Rooms, a blessing was 
 first asked on the buns and the toast, and after- 
 wards there was a good deal of love-making. 
 
 " But do you consider love-making a corrupt 
 practice ? " " Quite the contrary. I consider it 
 highly laudable." 
 
 And so on, after the time-honoured custom by 
 which gentlemen in silk gowns are encouraged 
 to spend their own time and their clients' money 
 in extracting feeble jokes in protracted cross-ex- 
 amination. 
 
 Though the charge against the respondent 
 broke down, and was abandoned by the peti-
 
 A.D. 1869.] JUDGMENT. 149 
 
 tioners' counsel, the suspense remained intense 
 up to the very last. Not till the closing sen- 
 tences of Mr Baron Martin's summing up did he 
 give the slightest indication of the judgment he 
 was about to deliver. He said that 
 
 what struck against Mr Smith was the enormous 
 amount of expenditure. That expenditure had been 
 called extravagant on one side and profuse on the other, 
 and it might be described by a stronger term. At any 
 rate, it was not creditable, and its extent was almost 
 beyond belief. . . . He had never formed any "other 
 opinion of Mr Smith than that he intended this election 
 should be carried on legally, and that the law should not 
 be transgressed ; but intentions were nothing if bribery 
 were done. ... If he was convinced that any illegal act 
 had been done by a canvasser of Mr Smith's, the election 
 would be declared void, whatever Mr Smith's intentions 
 were. But the connection of agency must be made out 
 clearly, for it would be unjust to accept a light proof of 
 agency when the law was so harsh as to make the act of 
 one person to affect the seat of an honest man. 
 
 The judge wound up by declaring Mr Smith 
 duly elected, though he declined, after consulta- 
 tion with his brother judges, to make any order 
 as to costs. 
 
 It was indeed difficult to get round the stub- 
 born fact that whereas the votes registered for 
 the Liberal candidates had cost them only about 
 3s. 6d. each, Smith had been called on to pay at
 
 150 LIFE OF W, H. SMITH. [JET. 43. 
 
 the rate of nearly 22s. for each vote. The charge 
 against the respondent of treating broke down, 
 and was abandoned by the petitioners' counsel ; 
 but there can be little doubt that it was Smith's 
 personal character for integrity which alone 
 saved him from the consequences of the lavish 
 expenditure incurred on his behalf by agents 
 in fact, the judge said as much in summing up, 
 and that it was only by giving to a candidate 
 above suspicion of corrupt intention the benefit 
 of all doubts, that he was able to clear him of 
 direct responsibility. As the ' Times ' remarked 
 in a leader on the case : 
 
 A good character has, to Mr Smith at any rate, proved 
 better than riches. It may be a question whether the 
 latter won the seat for him, but there can be no question 
 that the former has saved it. 
 
 In spite of the equanimity with which, as he 
 had professed, he had contemplated the approach 
 of the trial, Smith's health gave way under the 
 anxiety of its protracted proceedings : his malady 
 took the painful form of erysipelas, and he was 
 unable to be in court during the summing up. 
 It was his friend, Mr Cubitt, M.P. (now Lord 
 Ashcombe), who had the pleasure of conveying 
 to him the propitious news. 
 
 Once safely seated within the walls of St
 
 A.D. 1869.] MAIDEN SPEECH. 151 
 
 Stephen's, the new member for Westminster 
 showed a disposition and capacity for practical 
 business. Importance is sometimes attached to 
 the maiden speech of a novice, as forecasting the 
 field in which any influence he is to have on the 
 Legislature is to be developed, and it is often 
 matter of concern to his friends that he should 
 not speak too soon, or, on the other hand, be too 
 long in the House without " making his mark," 
 as the phrase goes. Smith's outset was charac- 
 teristic of the man. It was neither on a lofty 
 theme of foreign policy nor some scheme of ardent 
 philanthropy that he chose to make his essay. 
 Choice, indeed, had little enough to do with the 
 matter : it happened simply that the second 
 reading of a bill dealing with the valuation of 
 property in the metropolis was moved by Mr 
 Goschen, then President of the Poor Law Board, 
 at the first sitting after the Easter recess, April 1 , 
 1869. It dealt with a subject concerning which 
 Smith was thoroughly well informed ; he had 
 something to say, and he said it. It was to no 
 crowded senate, brimming with applause or 
 lowering with ire, that he addressed himself, 
 but to benches sparsely filled with listless legis- 
 lators, reluctantly obeying the summons of Gov- 
 ernment Whips, who are ever anxious to get 
 some useful work through in the first few
 
 152 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 43. 
 
 days after the holidays, before the Opposition 
 shall have gathered in strength. Such was the 
 modest opening of a distinguished parliamentary 
 career. 
 
 During his first session in Parliament Smith 
 subsequently spoke on two or three other sub- 
 jects, which furnished him with that which 
 Bishop Wilberforce declared makes the difference 
 between a good speaker and a bad one the for- 
 mer speaking because he has something to say ; 
 the latter, because he has to say something. On 
 May 10 Mr Gladstone gave facilities to Mr Cor- 
 rance, to enable that gentleman to call attention 
 to the question of Pauperism and Vagrancy, and 
 in the debate arising thereon speeches were made 
 by Mr Peel, then Secretary to the Poor Law 
 Board, 1 Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Mr Albert 
 Pell, and others. Mr Smith called attention to 
 the significant increase in the amount of out- 
 door relief since the commencement of the new 
 Poor Law in 1851, showing that in London 
 alone, while the population had in the interval 
 risen by 34 per cent, the cost of relief had 
 doubled. He advocated withholding all relief 
 of able - bodied poor, except it were coupled 
 with the obligation to work, otherwise the law 
 might be interpreted as establishing the legal 
 
 1 Became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1884.
 
 A.D. 1869.] DISTRUST OF DOLES. 153 
 
 right of every man who did not, could not, or 
 would not work, and possessed no property, to 
 food, clothing, and shelter at the cost of those 
 who would, could, and did work, and possessed 
 property. 
 
 He was aware [he said] that he was touching on deli- 
 cate ground, but he was not afraid of interfering with the 
 labour market. He very much preferred the risk of such 
 interference to the certain demoralisation which arose 
 from giving relief as a matter of right to the person 
 claiming it, without value given or a sense of gratitude 
 in return. 
 
 A thoughtful, wise observation this, founded 
 on wide, practical experience of philanthropic 
 work, yet one which, in however many minds 
 it may win assent, finds too rare expression in 
 these days, when so much is heard of schemes 
 for the endowment by the State of pauperism 
 and old age. Throughout his life this was the 
 keynote of Smith's code of charity : a liberal 
 giver when the need for gifts was clear to him, 
 he always showed an alert distrust of doles, and 
 never subscribed to any fund, or gave to any beg- 
 gar, without satisfying himself, often by protracted 
 inquiry, into the merits of each case. A very large 
 part wellnigh a half of so much of his corre- 
 spondence as has been preserved (other than that 
 on political affairs) consists of letters asking for
 
 154 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 help and answers to inquiries about the appli- 
 cants. Many years after this debate on pauper- 
 ism, his friend, Sir Henry Acland of Oxford, hap- 
 pened to mention to Smith that he was about to 
 part with a yacht which he had owned for some 
 years and took great delight in. Smith dissuaded 
 him from doing so, because it was so good for Sir 
 Henry's health and such an amusement for his 
 children. 
 
 " Well, but I have come to think it selfish to 
 spend so much on yachting," replied Sir Henry ; 
 " my children are all married, it is chiefly for my 
 own gratification that I keep the yacht, and I 
 feel that the money she costs ought, in part at 
 least, to be devoted to charity." 
 
 " Charity ! " exclaimed Smith, firing up in a 
 way very unusual to him, " how much mischief 
 has been done in the name of charity ! Don't 
 you see that so long as you keep your yacht, you 
 employ Matthews, your captain, and the crew, 
 who would, if you discharged them, lose, not only 
 their employment, but the enjoyment of good 
 clothes, recreation, music, and other means of 
 culture which you provide for them ? In a na- 
 tional sense, if you withdraw this fund from 
 wages and give it in charity, I firmly believe you 
 will by so much be doing harm instead of good. 
 Charity is often most mischievous."
 
 DISCRIMINATE BENEVOLENCE. 155 
 
 He spoke very earnestly, and Sir Henry had 
 rarely heard him open out so much on any sub- 
 ject. Touching this matter of almsgiving, it 
 may be noted here how many and various were 
 the applications which flowed in upon Smith as 
 his wealth increased and his name became better 
 known. Sometimes the appeals were for thou- 
 sands of pounds, at other times for a few shillings ; 
 both were treated alike, careful inquiry was made 
 into the circumstances, and the reply depended 
 not on the amount asked for, but the grounds on 
 which it was asked. Thus Miss Giberne, a con- 
 stant and valued correspondent of Smith's, once 
 wrote to him about a hawker who drove " the 
 dearest little donkey you ever saw," but wanted 
 to sell it and his cart on the plea of necessity. 
 Probably the man saw in the kind-hearted lady 
 who petted and fed his donkey the prospect of 
 disposing of his live and rolling stock to good 
 advantage ; nor was he far out in his calcula- 
 tions, for Miss Giberne suggested that Smith 
 should buy the equipage. But both had left 
 out of account Smith's inflexible observance of 
 principle in the smallest things, and this was 
 his good-natured answer : 
 
 Dec. 16, 1876. 
 
 DEAR AUNT EMILY, Why should I buy a donkey and 
 a cart yet ? I do not propose to start as a costermonger,
 
 156 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. 
 
 but I may come to it, and then I will try to take care of 
 the donkey. 
 
 At the present moment there are two horses and one 
 pony retired from work on the premises ; one or two must 
 be shot presently, to save them from the miseries con- 
 sequent on inability to work or having no work to do. 
 There are three other ponies of the past generation, their 
 carts and one chaise, with little more than healthy work 
 for one, and there is a very fat and heavy boy to attend 
 to them. What place is there for the donkey ? 
 
 There would be nothing for it but to put him to death 
 ^-out of kindness lest he should be ill-treated stuff him 
 and place him and his cart on the lawn under a canopy, 
 with an inscription commemorating your sympathy and 
 affection for animals, and my weakness in yielding to it. 
 Ever yours aff ly ., W. H. SMITH, 
 
 The Hard Man. 
 
 There is no record of how Smith dealt with 
 another claimant on his bounty who bore these 
 credentials : 
 
 The bearer of this is an earnest Christian young man. 
 He is at present employed in a wine-cellar, an occupation 
 altogether unsuited to his tastes now that he has become 
 a new man in Christ Jesus. 
 
 And there must have been some conflict be- 
 tween benevolence and prudence in dealing with 
 the following application : 
 
 Sir i wish to know weither you are in want of a lad as i 
 am in want of a Situation, yesterday i see there was an 
 advertisment in the times for two youths to write a good
 
 A.D. 1869.] THE IRISH CHURCH. 157 
 
 hand i wish to know sir weither my hand writing will 
 suit you sir i have been used to the newspaper office for 3 
 years but has never leant Writeing the covers sir i think 
 with a little improvement i should suit you. 
 
 Smith avoided falling into the error of speaking 
 too often in the House. He spoke on one other 
 occasion only during his first session the debate 
 on the bill enabling the Postmaster-General to 
 acquire the whole of the telegraphs in the 
 country. He had been for some years a direc- 
 tor of an electric telegraph company, and sup- 
 ported the bill, though he showed that the 
 terms on which these concerns were to be 
 ceded to the Government were by no means so 
 over-liberal as the opponents of the measure tried 
 to prove. 1 
 
 Every minor question was overshadowed dur- 
 ing the session of 1869 by the discussions on the 
 bill to disestablish and disendow the Irish Church. 
 This was moved by Mr Gladstone on March 1. 
 Public interest was intensified to a degree beyond 
 what even so radical a measure might have 
 evoked, by the enormous wealth of the corpora- 
 tion which was the subject of attack, and by 
 
 1 One of the arguments used by Mr Torrens against the proposed 
 transaction was founded on what he considered Mr Scudamore's 
 extravagance in estimating the number of telegrams to be dealt 
 with by the General Post Office in the course of a year at 
 11,200,000. Last year (1892) they amounted to 69,685,480.
 
 158 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 43. 
 
 speculation as to the disposal of the spoil. The 
 
 property of the Church was estimated at the 
 following figures : 
 
 Tithe rent-charge . . . .9,000,000 
 
 Lands and perpetuity rents . 6,250,000 
 
 Money .... 750,000 
 
 Total value . . . 16,000,000 
 
 Of this large sum the bill disposed of 8,650,000 
 by providing for vested interests, lay compensa- 
 tion, private endowments, commutation of the 
 Maynooth Grant and Regium Donum, &c., the 
 free surplus remaining being between seven and 
 eight millions. Mr Gladstone's speech explaining 
 the proposals of the Government occupied three 
 hours in delivery, and, as has always been the 
 case in the perorations of his most destructive 
 orations, he brought his arguments to a close by 
 introducing some metaphor of great force and 
 elegance, and the expression of confidence that 
 the greatest advantage would accrue to the object 
 of his attack. 
 
 I don't know [he said] in what country so great a 
 change, so great a transition, has been proposed for the 
 ministers of a religious communion who had enjoyed for 
 many ages the preferred position of an Established 
 Church. I can well understand that to many in the Irish 
 Establishment such a change appears to be nothing less
 
 A.D. 1869.] DEBATE ON THE IRISH CHURCH. 159 
 
 than ruin and destruction : from the height on which they 
 now stand the future is to them an abyss, and their fears 
 recall the words used in ' King Lear/ when Edgar endeav- 
 ours to persuade Gloster that he has fallen over the cliffs 
 at Dover, and says : 
 
 " Ten masts at each make not the altitude 
 Which thou hast perpendicularly fell : 
 Thy life's a miracle ! " 
 
 And yet but a little while after the old man is relieved 
 from his delusion and finds he has not fallen at all. So I 
 trust that when instead of the fictitious and adventitious 
 aid on which we have too long taught the Irish Establish- 
 ment to lean, it should come to put its trust in its own 
 resources, in its own great mission, in all that it can 
 draw from the energy of its ministers and its members, 
 and the high hopes and promises of the Gospel that it 
 teaches, it will find that it has entered upon a new era 
 of existence an era bright with hope and potent for 
 good. 
 
 The Prime Minister's speech was distin- 
 guished, even among the greatest efforts of 
 that consummate orator, by the lucidity with 
 which he set forth a measure of infinite com- 
 plexity, investing even matter -of- fact details 
 almost with the lustre of romance. Disraeli, 
 who rose immediately after him, bore willing 
 tribute to the eloquence to which the House 
 had been listening. He said that under ordin- 
 ary circumstances it would have been the duty 
 of his party to meet the motion for leave to
 
 160 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 43. 
 
 bring in the bill with a direct negative, but 
 that the result of the general election might be 
 interpreted into permission given to Mr Glad- 
 stone to lay his proposals before the House. 
 Accordingly he would not oppose, and he advised 
 his friends not to oppose, the introduction of 
 the measure ; but he stipulated for a delay of 
 three weeks before the second reading should be 
 taken. Mr Gladstone protested against so long 
 an adjournment, but finally consented to post- 
 pone it until March 18. The second reading 
 was carried by a majority of 118, the motion 
 for going into Committee by 126, and the third 
 reading by 114. These crushing majorities en- 
 abled the Government to send the bill up to 
 the House of Lords in much the same state 
 as when it was first laid on the table of the 
 Commons. 
 
 The interest which gathered round the debates 
 on this measure in the House of Commons was 
 transferred to those in the Upper Chamber after 
 Whitsuntide. Would the Lords throw out the 
 bill, as they had in the previous year thrown out 
 Mr Gladstone's Suspensory Bill, or would they 
 recognise in this juncture one of "those rare and 
 great occasions on which the national will has 
 fully declared itself," when, as the Marquis of 
 Salisbury had laid down, it was the duty of
 
 A.D. 1869.] JOHN BRIGHT ATTACKS THE PEERS. 161 
 
 the House of Lords to yield to the opinion of the 
 country. 1 
 
 The President of the Board of Trade, Mi- 
 John Bright, took the unusual course of antici- 
 pating the decision which the Peers might be 
 expected to take, in a letter to the Birmingham 
 Liberal Association. He made use of some ex- 
 pressions of a kind with which the public has 
 since been made familiar on the lips of those 
 who claim to be known as advanced politicians ; 
 but those were days of greater reticence, and 
 
 1 The duty of the House of Lords in dealing with measures which 
 have obtained the assent of the other House has been the subject of 
 such frequent and angry controversy in the past, and is so likely to 
 give rise in the future to controversy not less frequent and angry, 
 that it is worth placing on record the pronouncement of one who 
 has long led and still leads the majority in that House. " I am not 
 blind," said the Marquis of Salisbury, in the course of the debate 
 on this Suspensory Bill, " to the peculiar obligations which lie on 
 the members of this House in consequence of the fixed and unalter- 
 able constitution of this House. I quite admit every one must 
 admit that when the opinion of your countrymen has declared 
 itself, and you see that their convictions their firm, deliberate, 
 sustained convictions are in favour of any course, I do not for a 
 moment deny that it is your duty to yield. It may not be a 
 pleasant process it may even make some of you wish that some 
 other arrangement were possible ; but it is quite clear that, whereas 
 a Minister or a Government, when asked to do that which is con- 
 trary to their conviction, may resign, and a member of the Com- 
 mons, when asked to support any measure contrary to his con- 
 victions, may abandon his seat, no such course is open to your 
 lordships ; and therefore, on those rare and great occasions on 
 which the national will has fully declared itself, I do not doubt 
 that your lordships would yield to the opinion of the country ; 
 otherwise the machinery of Government could not be carried on." 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 162 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 43. 
 
 threats directed by a Cabinet Minister against 
 the Upper Chamber were then of startling 
 novelty. 
 
 If [he wrote] the House of Lords reject the bill, it is 
 possible that a good many people may ask what is the 
 special value of a Constitution which gives a majority of 
 100 in one House for a given policy, and a majority of 
 100 in another House against it ? It may be asked also 
 why the Crown, through its Ministers in the House of 
 Commons, should be found in harmony with the nation, 
 while the Lords are generally in direct opposition to it. 
 Instead of doing a little childish tinkering about life- 
 peerages, it would be well if the Peers could bring them- 
 selves on a line with the opinions and necessities of our 
 day. In harmony with the nation, they may go on for a 
 long time ; but throwing themselves athwart its course, 
 they may meet with accidents not pleasant for them 
 to think about. 
 
 Lord Granville moved the second reading of 
 the Irish Church Bill on June 14, and the 
 debate which ensued was chiefly remarkable for 
 the speech delivered by the Bishop of Peter- 
 borough (Dr Magee) against it. It has since 
 remained in the memory of those who heard 
 it as one of the most impressive orations in 
 modern times, and although the proceedings 
 of the House of Lords are somewhat remotely 
 connected with this narrative, some reference 
 must be made to what was then universally held 
 to be the masterpiece of the debates in either
 
 A.D. 1869.] BISHOP MAGEE'S SPEECH. 163 
 
 House. 1 The Right Reverend Prelate began 
 by brushing aside certain arguments on which 
 great stress had been laid by the defenders of 
 Establishment : 
 
 I am free to confess I cannot regard this bill as a 
 proposal to violate the Coronation Oath. The Coronation 
 Oath seems to me to be the seal of a compact between 
 two parties ; and I cannot understand how because one of 
 the parties appeals to the Divine judgment to punish a 
 breach of the compact, both parties may not agree to an 
 alteration of the compact. In the second place, I cannot 
 regard this measure as a violation of the Act of Union. 
 I regard the Act of Union as a treaty not merely between 
 two Legislatures, the members of which may be, and for 
 the most part are, no longer in existence, but as a com- 
 pact between two nations which still exist, and have a 
 right to modify the terms of the treaty mutually agreed 
 on between them. 
 
 Neither did he found on the inviolability of 
 corporate property, for, accepting the proposition 
 that there was a distinction between corpo- 
 rate and private property, he used that as the 
 very ground on which to base his stoutest 
 
 1 A certain well-known Scottish baronet, then in Parliament, 
 noted rather for the force than for the length of his contributions 
 to conversation, rode into the Park after listening to Bishop Magee's 
 speech. A friend inquired if it had been a success, and what line 
 of argument had been pursued. " Oh," said Sir Robert Anstruther, 
 " it was the finest thing you ever heard. He said that Gladstone had 
 appealed to them in the name of the Almighty to vote for the bill, 
 but that for his part he would be d d if he did so."
 
 164 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JEI. 43. 
 
 resistance to the proposal for disendowment. 
 and uttered the following memorable and pro- 
 found sentences : 
 
 You will always observe in history that corporate 
 property is always the first to be attacked in all great 
 democratic revolutions. Especially is this so in the case 
 of ecclesiastical corporate property, because ecclesiastical 
 corporations for the most part are very wealthy, and at 
 the same time are very weak. . . . Eevolutions commence 
 with sacrilege, and they go on to communism ; or to put 
 it in the more gentle and euphemistic language of the 
 day, revolutions begin with the Church and go on to the 
 land. 
 
 The course of the speech was marked by out- 
 bursts of applause in the Strangers' Gallery, a 
 breach of parliamentary decorum which, unusual 
 in the highest degree in either Chamber, is 
 peculiarly at variance with the staid and impas- 
 sive atmosphere of the House of Lords. Lord 
 Derby, in opposing the second reading, took up 
 those weapons which the Bishop of Peterborough 
 had flung aside, and took his stand on the Treaty 
 of Union and the Coronation Oath ; whereas 
 the Marquis of Salisbury condemned such argu- 
 ments as " involving the inexpressible absurdity 
 that an oath taken in the days of Adam may 
 have lasted to this time, binding the whole 
 human race under circumstances absolutely dif- 
 ferent from those of the Paradisiacal period, and
 
 A.D. 1869.] DISESTABLISHMENT OF IRISH CHURCH. 165 
 
 that the duties of mankind may have been 
 settled for ever by the act of one single in- 
 dividual at that time, and we might never be 
 able to escape from them." 
 
 The division on the second reading- was a re- 
 
 o 
 
 markable one 
 
 Contents . . . . . . 179 
 
 Non-Contents 146 
 
 Majority for the Bill .... 33 
 
 It is not without interest, even a quarter of 
 a century after these events, to examine the 
 composition of the majority in this division. It 
 contained a large number of Conservative peers, 
 including the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of 
 Carnarvon, and Lord Lytton, and one Bishop 
 (Thirlwall of St David's). Thirteen English and 
 two Irish Bishops voted against the bill, while 
 the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 
 the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce) refrained 
 from voting. Many of those peers who thus 
 supported the bill on second reading did so 
 on the understanding that it would be largely 
 altered in the Committee stage, and this, in 
 effect, was done on such a scale that when 
 their lordships' amendments came to be con- 
 sidered in the Commons, Mr Gladstone, con- 
 fident in the force of a great majority, led the
 
 166 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH [>T. 44. 
 
 House to disagree with the Lords on all such 
 amendments as could be regarded as at all im- 
 portant. Ultimately, after much fierce talk of 
 the usual character about mending or ending 
 the House of Peers, a compromise was effected, 
 and the bill received the Royal assent on 
 July 26.
 
 167 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1870-1871. 
 
 VISIT TO PARIS STATE OF PARTIES IX PARLIAMENT THE 
 
 SMOKING-ROOM OP THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IRISH LAND 
 
 BILL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION BILL SMITH'S MOTION ON 
 
 THE THAMES EMBANKMENT DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 THEREON LETTER ON AFFAIRS IN FRANCE SMITH ELECTED 
 
 TO FIRST LONDON SCHOOL BOARD RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY 
 
 ARISING THERE SETTLED ON HIS MOTION ASSISTS EMIGRA- 
 TION TO CANADA DEBATES ON ARMY BILL, BUDGET, AND 
 
 BALLOT BILL DAMAGED POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 IRISH HOME RULE MR GLADSTONE'S SPEECH AT ABERDEEN. 
 
 IN the beginning of 1870, the year destined to 
 see the fall of the French empire, Smith went 
 to Paris, in order to prosecute inquiries into 
 the management of the poor in France. The 
 thorough way in which he set about his in- 
 vestigation there may best be illustrated by a 
 few extracts from letters to his wife : 
 
 PARIS, 15th Jan)>. 1870. 
 
 I wrote very hurriedly yesterday, as I had been kept out 
 by my friends much longer than I expected. Maynard 
 took me first of all to M. Dubard, an Officer of the Guard.
 
 168 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 44. 
 
 From him we all went to his brother : we had a long con- 
 versation with him. He is assistant to the Procureur 
 Imperial, who holds an analogous position to our Attorney- 
 General, and he introduced me to the Chief of the Municipal 
 Police of Paris a Mons. Nuss. He was very courteous, 
 gave me a lot of information, and knew everything himself 
 about our system, which he thinks a bad one. But first of 
 all I had been to the Hotel de Ville, and saw the Sous-chef 
 in the Secretariat of the Prefect of the Seine. From him I 
 went to the Chief of the Bureau of the Assistance Publique, 
 and he talked to me for half an hour, and gave me per- 
 mission to visit everything and to ask any questions I 
 liked. He gave me great reports to study, and I am to 
 return with any written questions, to which he will give 
 written answers. Nothing could exceed his kindness and 
 readiness to give information. From him I went to the 
 Palais de Justice, to encounter again my friend the Pro- 
 cureur's adjoint, and he took me by a tortuous dirty route, 
 by which I fancy many troubled persons have passed in 
 troubled times to the Prefecture of Police. I have told 
 you of M. Nuss, whom I saw there : from him I went to 
 the Chef of the 1st Division of Police, to get permission 
 to visit the Depot de Mendicite, and it was -his volubility 
 which nearly destroyed me. He wanted to tell me every- 
 thing, and for full half an hour he poured out a torrent 
 of words, and every time I said " Oui, vraiment," meekly, 
 he began again, until it got dark, and I became fairly 
 alarmed lest I should be detained until the post had gone, 
 and you cannot imagine the strain of mind in the en- 
 deavour to mentally translate and follow the stream of 
 what was really very useful, only it was too much. . . . 
 I am not surprised you tell me to keep out of harm's 
 way. The news in the English papers looks very threat- 
 ening, but since I have been here there has not been
 
 A.D. 1870.] VISIT TO PARIS. 169 
 
 the slightest appearance of dangerous excitement. On 
 Wednesday there was danger, and on that day and dur- 
 ing part of Thursday the troops were consigned to their 
 barracks, and had 92 rounds of ball-cartridge served out 
 to each man. On Monday I begin the tour of visits to 
 the different Institutions. 
 
 Jan. 17. 
 
 We start directly to visit one of the district bureaux de 
 bienfaisance, then we visit one of the large Hospitals, 
 questioning as we go ; then we go to Mr Gardiner, an 
 English Clergyman, who has been long here, to pump him 
 as to the condition of the Paris poor from him we hope 
 to get the names of some French Protestant Clergy who 
 can give similar and independent information. I think 
 this will be as much as we shall do to-day and to-morrow 
 I go to the Depot de Mendicite at S. Denis, and I hope 
 also to see the Head of the whole administration, to ask 
 questions arising out of the observations we may make 
 in the meantime. So my work will go on. I hope to 
 finish on Wednesday evening, after dining with the Mess 
 of the Guard. 
 
 Jan. 18. 
 
 Yesterday's work was very interesting. I arranged to 
 see the Head of the Protestant system of charity, and I 
 went over two of the Hospitals one a very large one and 
 the newest in Paris, and another for the middle-class, 
 where people are received and treated on payment, accord- 
 ing to the accommodation given, of amounts varying from 
 4 to 10 francs per day. It is an excellent institution, as 
 one could provide for one's friend or even oneself in 
 illness without being under the necessity of accepting 
 charity. . . . 
 
 Paris is quiet, but it is a very curious quiet, the more 
 one sees of it.
 
 170 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 44. 
 
 PARIS, Jan. 19, 1870. 
 
 I went yesterday with Maynard to M. Husson, the head 
 of all the poor relief of Paris, and had a long interview with 
 him. The result was, he sent ns by his Secretary to the 
 Director of the Bureau in the Mairie du Temple ; and 
 when we went to him, he arranged that a Commissaire and 
 a Visitor should be ready at 1 to-day to go with us to the 
 houses of the poor, and that we should see with our own 
 eyes the application of the system from beginning to end. 
 After this I called on M. Grand Pierre, the Protestant 
 chief Pastor of Paris, and had a long talk with him, and 
 a very interesting one. The difficulty I shall find will 
 be in digesting and arranging all this information in my 
 own mind. 
 
 Jan. 20. 
 
 I wonder what the children would have said if they had 
 been with me yesterday at the Hospice des Enfants 
 Assistes. It was most interesting, but in some respects a 
 most painful sight. One room, which was called the Creche, 
 for newly born infants or infants at the breast con- 
 tained about 50 cots, and when we were there, there were 
 about 25 babies in the room. There was a Sister of 
 Charity and a clerk engaged in marking them i.e., each 
 child when received has a necklace and distinguishing mark, 
 corresponding with a register, placed round its neck and 
 secured so that it cannot be taken off except by pincers. 
 There was a row of wet-nurses advancing in order with 
 their little bundles, and the printed paper with particulars, 
 which is affixed to the cap of the poor little baby when 
 taken in at the door, was exchanged from this necklace. 
 On a sort of ottoman in front of the fire lay a row of 
 something. As I got near to it, I found it was a row of 
 very young babies not many days old all dressed alike 
 as a short bundle, labelled on their caps, all turned the
 
 A.D. 1870.] PARISIAN CHARITIES. 171 
 
 same way and looking less like babies, except for their 
 poor little mouths and faces, than anything you can con- 
 ceive. There was one just dressed, which certainly had 
 not been born many hours, which its mother will prob- 
 ably never see again, and which certainly had never seen 
 its mother, for its eyes were not yet open. This side of 
 the picture was painful, and the sense that although there 
 was great care, it was a general and not a particular care 
 that was taken of these poor things. 1 To-day I have 
 been again to the Bureau de Bienfaisance, and have by 
 the kindness of the Sisters of Charity seen the whole 
 working of the system. I am afraid it could not be 
 carried out at all without them. I have also been since 
 the morning to S. Denis to see the Depot de Mendicite of 
 Paris, and there I saw misery enough to make one sad, 
 especially as it was of the hopeless kind springing from 
 past errors, infirmity, or incompetence of some kind or 
 other in most cases, and the place smelt stank, most 
 abominably, as you know how. I went also this morning 
 with the Visitor to see a poor family receiving relief in 
 one of the old houses in Paris, and you can only imagine 
 it I cannot describe it. 
 
 Smith entered Parliament at a time when the 
 Conservative party was staggering under a crush- 
 ing defeat at the polls. Disraeli's "leap in the 
 dark " had landed in disaster, from which, in the 
 opinion of many, and especially of the country 
 party, there was no prospect of recovery. House- 
 
 1 It will be remembered that Rousseau rid himself of his children 
 by placing them in the receptacle for enfants trouvte. " Je savais 
 que 1'education pour eux la moins perilleuse etait celle des enfans 
 trouves." ' Les Reveries,' ix me - Promenade.
 
 172 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 44. 
 
 hold suffrage seemed to have swamped the in- 
 structed classes, and the presence of Mr Bright 
 in the Cabinet, representing the extreme, and, as 
 they had hitherto been regarded, revolutionary 
 Radicals, was full of boding for all interested in 
 maintaining the old order of the Constitution and 
 the security of property. The Opposition were 
 dispirited and inactive ; they fought the Irish 
 Church Bill with resolution, but even on that 
 question there was a want of energy on their 
 front bench. Disraeli was absent from the House 
 on account of ill - health throughout the Com- 
 mittee stage of that great measure ; Northcote, 
 who should have been his lieutenant, was much 
 abroad on foreign missions ; and Gathorne-Hardy 
 was accused of want of industry. Under such 
 circumstances as these, there always springs up 
 among the younger members of the party a feel- 
 ing of dissatisfaction at the laxity of resistance 
 to the policy of the Government. It was so on 
 this occasion, and Smith took his place among a 
 small but determined band sitting below the 
 gangway, a part of the House which at that 
 time, before the broad lines of party had been 
 confused by the creation of Home Rulers and 
 Liberal Unionists, implied a degree of independ- 
 ence of strict party discipline. Conspicuous 
 among these stalwarts were Mr Richard Asshe-
 
 A.D. 1870. j THE SMOKING-ROOM. lV3 
 
 ton Cross l and Lord Sandon, with whom Smith 
 soon fell into close co-operation, and these three, 
 with some associates, soon came to be looked on 
 as the practical leaders of Opposition. It was 
 no uncommon thing, when matters were moving 
 sluggishly among the Conservatives, for Disraeli 
 to give a hint to this little group that the fire 
 wanted stirring. 
 
 The proceedings which take place, with greater 
 or less decorum, among the occupants of the 
 dingy green benches in the Chamber itself, are, 
 in a large degree, the outcome of much that goes 
 on elsewhere, and there is no corner of West- 
 minster Palace where projects spring so quickly 
 into being and are nursed into maturity than in 
 the smoking-room of the House of Commons. 
 When James I., with royal profusion of adjec- 
 tives, penned his ' Counter -blaste' against the 
 " continuall vse of taking this vnsauorie smoake," 
 asked, " What honour or policy can moove vs to 
 imitate the barbarous and beastly maners of the 
 wilde, godlesse and slauish Indians, especially in 
 so vile and stinking a custome ? " and wound up 
 by denouncing it as "a custome loathsome to the 
 eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefulle to the 
 braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in blacke 
 stinking fume thereof neerest resembling the 
 
 1 Created Viscount Cross in 1886.
 
 174 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 44. 
 
 horrible stigian smoake of the pit that is bot- 
 tomlesse," he could not have foreseen what an 
 important influence it was to have, not only on 
 the revenue, but on the general direction of 
 national policy. In 1870 there was but one 
 smoking - room for the use of members of the 
 House of Commons (there are now three), an 
 ill - lit, draughty, cheerless apartment opening 
 upon the terrace, and this was the favourite 
 resort of the most active spirits in all the politi- 
 cal sections. Here, more than elsewhere, was 
 the realm of frankness : men of the most diver- 
 gent views chatted together and discussed the 
 course of events past, present, and to come ; 
 on this neutral field Cross, Sandon, and Smith 
 used to spend much of their time. 
 
 When Parliament reassembled in 1870, the 
 condition of Ireland showed little to justify the 
 expectation professed by the authors of the Irish 
 Church Act as to the conciliatory effect it was 
 to have on disaffected persons. On the contrary, 
 the Fenian movement had become so formidable 
 towards the close of 1869 that the Government 
 had found it necessary to strengthen the force 
 in Ireland by the addition of several battalions, 
 agrarian crime increased at a frightful rate, and 
 there seemed to be no limit to the violence of
 
 A.D. 1870.] THE IRISH LAND BILL. 175 
 
 seditious language uttered in the National press. 
 Nevertheless, undaunted by the ill return shown 
 for their efforts at conciliation, the Cabinet re- 
 solved to persevere further in that direction, 
 and thereby justify, within a shorter time than 
 could have been predicted, the forecast made by 
 the Bishop of Peterborough, that, having de- 
 spoiled the Church of her corporate property, 
 they would direct their next attack against 
 private property in land ; for whatever opinion 
 
 mav be held as to the manner in which Irish 
 j 
 
 landlords had exercised their rights and the 
 spirit in which their estates had been admin- 
 istered, it cannot be questioned that the effect 
 of the Land Bill introduced by the Government 
 was to diminish very seriously the value of 
 landed property in Ireland. The appearance 
 of this Land Bill was a direct fulfilment of the 
 eloquent Prelate's forecast. 
 
 But the Conservative leaders could not be 
 blind to the state of matters in Ireland : they 
 could not fail to recognise that the rights and 
 wrongs of private ownership in land had been 
 confused by the tacit recognition in certain parts 
 of Ireland of customs of tenure, utterly unknown 
 in England and Scotland, and of tiie existence 
 in the other provinces of precisely the same
 
 176 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. OT. 44. 
 
 conditions which had led to the sanction of 
 tenant-right in Ulster. They resolved, there- 
 fore, not to oppose the bill on second reading ; 
 but, by attacking the details of it in Committee, 
 to purge it of the novel and obnoxious principles 
 it contained. A division, it is true, was taken 
 against the second reading, but it revealed the 
 grotesque proportions of 442 votes to 11, and 
 in the minority were only found two Conserva- 
 tives, one of whom, Mr, now the Right Hon- 
 ourable, James Lowther, to this day maintains 
 in Parliament a consistent and dogged resistance 
 to almost every innovation. 
 
 In Committee the first and principal conflict 
 was joined upon the third clause, which pro- 
 vided compensation for disturbance, even in those 
 parts of Ireland where tenant-right was not a 
 recognised custom. To this clause Mr Disraeli 
 moved an amendment limiting compensation to 
 unexhausted improvements- in itself an import- 
 ant concession in a country where it was ex- 
 tremely rare for improvements to be undertaken 
 by any one except the tenant. The debate on 
 this clause was long and animated ; the division 
 was momentous, because it marked the first step 
 in a long course of legislation based on the 
 principle of dual ownership, and Mr Disraeli's 
 amendment was defeated by 296 votes to 220.
 
 A.D. 1870.] COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 177 
 
 Although Smith took no active part in the 
 debates on this important measure, it seems to 
 have been at this time that his interest was 
 drawn to the subject of it, and led to the exer- 
 tions he devoted to it in after-years, and the 
 share it will be shown that he had in the efforts 
 made to relieve Irish landlords from the intoler- 
 able position in which they had been left, by 
 equitably transferring property from the owner 
 to the occupier. 
 
 To the consideration of another bill, introduced 
 by Mr W. E. Forster two days after the Irish 
 Land Bill, a measure not so startling as the 
 other in its innovation upon recognised prin- 
 ciples, but not of interest less complex nor results 
 less far - reaching the Elementary Education 
 Bill Smith was able to bring ripe experience 
 as well as sympathetic assistance. His friend- 
 ship with Forster, at that time Vice-President 
 of the Committee of Council on Education (which 
 is the cumbersome periphrasis prescribed by de- 
 partmental etiquette as the title of our Minis- 
 ter of Education), 1 probably began in numerous 
 
 1 Time, it is said, was made for slaves, and the subjects of Queen 
 Victoria, being nothing if not a free people, show a lofty contempt 
 for economy in that commodity, especially, as is well known, in the 
 House of Commons. Otherwise it might be interesting to calculate 
 how many minutes are lost in debate by observance of the rule 
 prohibiting one member alluding to another except by mentioning 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 45. 
 
 confidential conferences at the time this bill 
 was under consideration a friendship which 
 endured to the last, through many heated con- 
 troversies in Parliament on other subjects about 
 which the two men held more divergent views 
 than about education. 
 
 It is a feature to be noted in Smith's public 
 life that he never sowed any parliamentary wild 
 oats. Most men who have risen to distinction 
 in the House of Commons, at all events since 
 the Reform Bill of 1832, have brought them- 
 selves into prominence either by persistent 
 oratory, whether excellent or mediocre ; by 
 identifying themselves with some particular 
 question, in which chance or choice had made 
 them expert ; or, lastly, by threatened or actual 
 attacks upon the leaders of their party at critical 
 junctures. None of these proceedings marked 
 Smith's career at any time. Though professing 
 independence when he entered the House, he 
 found that the only practical course was to 
 abandon that idea, and he yielded unwavering 
 
 his constituency or his office. The custom, no doubt, had its origin 
 in a salutary avoidance of the risk of personal altercation and even 
 collision, which must be held to justify the use of such circumlo- 
 cutory phrases as "the honourable and learned member for the 
 - division of - shire" to designate "Mr Jones,'"' or "the 
 Bight Honourable gentleman the Chief Secretary to the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland " to indicate the ruler of Ireland for the 
 time being.
 
 A.D. 1870.] DEBATES ON EDUCATION. 179 
 
 loyalty to those who directed the party with 
 whom he found himself most in harmony : he 
 never suffered those subjects with which he was 
 most conversant to assume the proportions of 
 a "hobby" or the plumage of a "fad"; least 
 of all could he pretend to gifts of eloquence, 
 and showed no disposition to inflict himself on 
 the attention of the House except when he was 
 able to contribute something solid to its de- 
 liberations. Public education was one of those 
 subjects on the discussion of which, alike by 
 experience and inclination, he was fitted to 
 take an intelligent part ; he spoke, accord- 
 ingly, several times during the passage of 
 Mr Forster's measure, but invariably with a 
 brevity, as the records of Hansard testify, al- 
 most inverse to the weight of matter contained 
 in his speeches. 
 
 The most controversial point in the bill was 
 that dealing with the future of religious instruc- 
 tion in schools, and upon this the Opposition in 
 the House of Commons were divided. The young 
 Conservatives, among whom were Smith, Cross, 
 and Lord Sandon, were in favour of voluntary 
 religious instruction, but Disraeli and Gathorne- 
 Hardv l stood out for the full Church of England 
 
 J O 
 
 1 Created Viscount Cranbrook in 1878, and Earl Cranbrook in 
 1892.
 
 180 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 45. 
 
 teaching. There was, of course, a third party 
 in the House, stoutly advocating the total pro- 
 hibition of religious instruction under all circum- 
 stances in public schools ; but the Government, 
 supported by the advanced section of the Opposi- 
 tion, adopted a middle course, which, while it 
 gave school boards power to forbid religious 
 teaching altogether, also empowered them to 
 permit schoolmasters to read and expound Scrip- 
 ture without the introduction of Creeds or 
 Catechisms. 
 
 Another feature of novel interest may be noted 
 in this bill namely, the provision made for intro- 
 ducing ballot-voting, up to that time unknown in 
 this country, in the election of school boards ; and 
 in connection with this, Smith supported Lord 
 Frederick Cavendish's amendment in favour of 
 cumulative voting, which, devised as a safeguard 
 to the reasonable representation of minorities, has 
 since proved, as many people think, unduly fav- 
 ourable to them. 
 
 But the most important alteration in the bill 
 which Lord Sandon and Mr Smith were chiefly 
 instrumental in inducing Ministers to accept was 
 the withdrawal of the clause constituting twenty- 
 three school boards for the metropolis and sub- 
 stituting one, creating a single board for the 
 whole of London. The experience of Sandon
 
 A.D. 1870.] FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH FORSTER. 181 
 
 and Smith in the management of the Bishop of 
 London's Fund had convinced them that it was 
 important to secure the services of capable, in- 
 dependent, and responsible men to administer 
 the Act in densely populous districts, and they 
 saw clearly that there would be little to induce 
 such persons to become candidates for seats on 
 small local boards. 
 
 They urged with great perseverance upon Mr 
 Forster how necessary it was, in the interests of 
 education, to attract the best men to the work, 
 and finally convinced him, not so much by argu- 
 ments spoken across the floor of the House, as 
 during repeated and prolonged private interviews 
 in the Privy Council Office, that their view was 
 just. The consequence was the withdrawal of 
 the original clause, and the substitution of one 
 establishing the London School Board as it now is. 
 In his speech on the motion for going into Com- 
 mittee on the bill, Smith had urged that this 
 principle should be observed in the formation of 
 all school boards which should have areas coter- 
 minous with counties ; but acting on the ne sutor 
 maxim, as a metropolitan member he was sat- 
 isfied with having secured its application to the 
 metropolis. 
 
 The good understanding between Smith and 
 Forster in their endeavours to settle this ques-
 
 182 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 45. 
 
 tion is illustrated by a passage in a letter of 
 the former to his wife on July 29 : 
 
 I am very glad I was in the House last night, as 
 Forster, with whom, as you know, I like to work, came 
 to me and expressed a wish that I should hear his 
 statement on Education, and then I had to say a word. 
 
 Before the House of Commons parted with the 
 bill, Mr M'Cullagh Torrens, on behalf of the 
 Radical supporters of the Government, pro- 
 nounced a frank recognition of the part taken 
 in promoting its success by the hon. member for 
 Westminster, " whose services in connection with 
 this bill he could not too strongly acknowledge." 
 
 On another matter which formed the subject of 
 debates during this session, Smith made more 
 than one speech. As long as we have the poor 
 with us, so long the presence of persons ready 
 with advice and proposals for their betterment 
 may be reckoned on ; but it is not always those 
 who best understand the problems involved who 
 are most ready to give advice and to put forward 
 proposals. Smith had worked long and hard 
 among the London poor : his speeches on the 
 second reading of the Poor Relief (Metropolis) 
 Bill (April 25), and on Dr Brewer's motion for 
 the Better Regulation of Outdoor Relief (May 
 10), consisted of practical arguments temperately 
 expressed, illustrated by examples of shamefully
 
 A.D. 1870.] THE THAMES EMBANKMENT. 183 
 
 bad administration of the law which he himself 
 had witnessed. 
 
 But the most direct success which the member 
 for Westminster achieved was of a nature 
 peculiarly exhilarating to a somewhat dispirited 
 Opposition, bringing about, as it did, the defeat 
 of the Government, and securing to the people of 
 London a result for which they ought to feel 
 grateful at this day. In the formation of the 
 Thames Embankment below Westminster Bridge 
 
 o 
 
 an extent of land valued at 5000 a-year had 
 been reclaimed from the river, which came as 
 foreshore into the hands of the Office of Woods 
 and Forests : on this land it was proposed by the 
 Government to erect certain public offices, and 
 Smith met this scheme with a motion that an 
 address be presented to her Majesty, praying that 
 the land, which had been reclaimed at the heavy 
 expense of the ratepayers, should now be reserved 
 for their advantage as a breathing - place and 
 pleasure - ground. The Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer (Mr Lowe) and Mr Gladstone both 
 spoke vehemently against the motion, the 
 former minimising the objections to the scheme 
 of the Government as " sentimental or sesthetical 
 arguments," the latter declaring that the address 
 moved for would be " flatly contrary to the law 
 of the land, which makes it the duty of the Com-
 
 184 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 45. 
 
 missioners of Woods and Forests to turn to the 
 best profitable account the property of the Crown," 
 and that to dispose prospectively of Crown land 
 to the extent of 150,000 would be an invasion 
 of the Prince of Wales's rights of entail. Mr 
 Locke, in supporting the motion, moved the 
 House to laughter by declaring that " wherever 
 you build in this country you are sure to make 
 an eyesore of it." In the division which fol- 
 lowed, the Government were defeated by 158 
 votes to 108, and the question was hung up for 
 the time. 
 
 During this year a change was effected which 
 was destined to have a very important and last- 
 ing effect on the character and constitution of the 
 Civil Service. An Order in Council was promul- 
 gated, directing that in future all appointments 
 to situations in the Public Departments (except 
 those to the Foreign Office and certain other 
 posts requiring professional qualifications) should 
 be made by competitive examination. This year 
 also witnessed the surrender by the Sovereign of 
 the Royal Prerogative in the government of the 
 army, and the Secretary of State for War became 
 the official superior of the Commander-in- Chief. 
 
 After the prorogation Smith took a tour in 
 Scotland. The terrible disasters which had
 
 A.D. 1870.] LETTER TO MR FORD. 185 
 
 already in the early autumn begun to overtake 
 the distracted empire of France in the conflict 
 with Prussia made a melancholy impression on 
 his mind, and there are many allusions to that 
 country in his letters. Writing to Mr Ford, 
 from Tarbert, Loch Lomond, on September 12, he 
 remarked : 
 
 I cogitate as I wend my way along roads made most 
 beautifully, but along which scarcely twenty people pass 
 in the course of a day, so silent and lonely and unin- 
 habited is this district when the Tourists have passed. 
 ... If it were not for newspapers, it would be difficult 
 to believe there could be moral storms, earthquakes, 
 among societies and peoples the figure of iron and clay 
 falling, crashing, and no form of order remaining, but 
 all selfishness asserting itself one class hiding, running 
 away ; others displaying their natural instincts as savage 
 predatories ; and all law and justice in abeyance. 
 
 This is the result of a Government for the people, and 
 not by the people ; of centralisation and bureaucracy ; of 
 a resolute resolve of every individual to live for himself, 
 to ignore his share of the common burden of care and 
 work for the public weal which belongs to every man; 
 that virtue of personal service which in one way the 
 Prussian people are showing they can give to the Prus- 
 sian state, and which the French, for love of ease, love 
 of pleasure, love of money, have insisted shall be done 
 for them by a strong Government. And we see the 
 result. 
 
 The unexpected happens in this year 1870, and there- 
 fore Paris may escape a siege, and it may escape being
 
 186 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 45. 
 
 sacked by the reds, and the Eepublic may last for a time, 
 but the people will not learn, they will not change ; and 
 under whatever name whether you call it republic, con- 
 stitutional monarchy, or an Empire they will still insist 
 on being governed, not on governing themselves, and they 
 will use material riches and power only for increasing 
 mental demoralisation. 1 
 
 These sentiments will perhaps strike the reader 
 as having a good deal of insular bias, and as show- 
 ing some tendency to judge the national spirit of 
 France by the moods and motives of the populace 
 of Paris, and there is more interest in what fol- 
 lows : 
 
 I am concerning myself about the election of the 
 School Board for London, and if I hear favourable ac- 
 counts from Armstrong, 2 to whom I have written, I shall 
 stand, and Lord Sandon with me, as candidates for West- 
 minster. It is a bold thing to do, but I have two great 
 objects in view to show my earnest interest in educa- 
 tion, and to endeavour to prove that popular election 
 may result in the creation of a Board in London as 
 strong in position, character, and fitness for its work as 
 the "House of Commons itself. Forster very strongly 
 pressed me to engage in the work, and I like him, and 
 like to work with him. 
 
 The intention thus expressed Smith carried out 
 successfully, being returned to the first school 
 
 1 While these lines are being written, the papers are reporting 
 the formation of the thirtieth French Ministry in twenty-three 
 years. 
 
 2 Created Sir George Armstrong, Bart., in 1892.
 
 A.D. 1871.] THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD. 187 
 
 board for London a body which fully justified by 
 its composition the anticipation he had formed of 
 the kind of men who would be attracted to it. 
 With Lord Lawrence as chairman, the board pos- 
 sessed among its members such men of note as 
 Mr Charles Eeed, M.P., Professor Huxley, Mr 
 Hep worth Dixon, Mr M'Cullagh Torrens, M.P., 
 the Rev. Dr Angus (Baptist), the Rev. Dr Rigg 
 (Wesleyan), Viscount Sandon, M.P., and Mr 
 Samuel Morley, M.P. 
 
 The first act of the member for Westminster 
 in the deliberations of this newly constituted 
 body was characteristic of the man. The ques- 
 tion of religious education in board schools, which 
 had distracted earnest people from one end of 
 the country to the other, and had, it was fondly 
 hoped, been laid to rest by the compromise agreed 
 to in Committee on the Education Bill, was re- 
 vived in an acute form in the narrower limits of 
 the London School Board. It was Smith the 
 Smoother, the quiet, unpretentious reconciler of 
 conflicting opinions who framed a resolution 
 providing an easy escape from this formidable 
 difficulty. The purport of this resolution was the 
 adoption of a by-law ordering that the Bible 
 should be read, and instruction in religious sub- 
 jects given therefrom, in the board schools gen-
 
 188 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 45. 
 
 erally, while those interested in particular schools 
 might show cause for exemption from the whole 
 or part of this by-law ; and in all schools it was 
 to be understood that the spirit of the Act was to 
 be observed, and no proselytism allowed. This 
 proposal, though opposed by Professor Huxley 
 and two other ardent secularists, was seconded 
 by that distinguished Nonconformist, Mr Samuel 
 Morley, and, being supported by Roman Catholic, 
 Baptist, and Wesleyan members, was carried by 
 38 votes to 3. 
 
 Gratitude for relief thus afforded from what 
 had promised to be a long and bitter controversy 
 found free expression in newspapers of all shades 
 of politics. One of those most strongly opposed 
 to the party represented by Mr Smith had a 
 leading article which is such a delicious example 
 of the style dear to the English journalist in 
 moments of expansion, that it certainly ought not 
 to be allowed to pass into oblivion : 
 
 Post tenebras lux I The motto, good at any time for 
 such a body as the London School Board, is especially 
 appropriate after the proceedings of yesterday. Mr W. 
 H. SMITH, that sturdy and singularly sweet-tempered axe- 
 man, has hewed his way to the light through a tangled 
 forest of what seemed unconquerable difficulties, by dint 
 of the sharp edge of common-sense, strongly hefted with 
 broad human and Christian sympathy. The public knows 
 but too well where the School Board left off on Monday.
 
 A.D. 1871.] WORK ON THE SCHOOL BOARD. 189 
 
 Every member felt that a crisis was at hand, on the issue 
 of which depended the capacity of the body for useful 
 work in all time coming. Deep darkness and the night 
 seemed settling down upon the Board, doomed almost ere 
 it left port to suffer disabling shipwreck on obstacles of 
 its own creation. In a happy moment, Mr SMITH pre- 
 sented himself as the pilot to weather the storm. . . . 
 But the old leaven of anti-denominationalism was allowed 
 to work again after all virtue for good or ill seemed 
 taken out of it ; and when the debate is resumed, under 
 the auspices of Canon Cromwell, nobody can tell how far 
 the vessel of the School Board may have drifted away 
 from that welcome opening into blue water, which Mr 
 Smith signalised yesterday, amid the hearty approval both 
 of his friends and of those who but a minute before had 
 been his foes. 1 
 
 It would be very hard to beat the agility 
 with which this writer skips from metaphor to 
 metaphor presenting Mr Smith to his readers 
 first as the " sturdy and singularly sweet-tem- 
 pered axeman," and then as the pilot weather- 
 ing the storm, passing from the unusual pheno- 
 menon of a ship drifting upon " obstacles of 
 its own creation " to the figure of the action 
 of a sinister " leaven," working either in the 
 " tangled forest," or in the ship, or in the sea, 
 and thence once more to the restful prospect 
 of the blue sea. 
 
 Smith's work in the East End had convinced 
 
 1 Daily Telegraph, 1st November 1871.
 
 190 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 46. 
 
 him that the lot of many of the poor who 
 swarmed in the slums of London could only be 
 relieved by removing them to new lands, and 
 this led him to take an active part in the affairs 
 of the East End Emigration Club, in connection 
 with the British and Colonial Emigration Society. 
 On June 26, 1870, he went down to Gravesend 
 to bid adieu to 1197 emigrants to Canada, pas- 
 sengers in the Ganges and the Tweed. The 
 expenses of about 250 of these were defrayed 
 by himself; but his interest in them was not 
 allowed to drop with their departure, for in 1872 
 he visited Canada and devoted close inquiry to 
 the resources of that country and the condition 
 of the emigrants there. 
 
 It must always be difficult to decide where 
 legitimate opposition in Parliament ends and fac- 
 tious obstruction begins. A good deal depends 
 on the nature of the measures proposed by a 
 Government whether the resistance is directed 
 against such as are genuinely obnoxious to a 
 large party in the House, or whether dilatory 
 tactics are pursued in discussing harmless pro- 
 posals, in order to postpone progress with such 
 as are regarded with greater aversion. If their 
 proceedings during the session of 1871 be sub- 
 mitted to this test, the Opposition must be 
 acquitted of the charge of obstruction made
 
 A.D. 1871.] ARMY PURCHASE. 191 
 
 against them ; for although debates were pro- 
 longed almost beyond precedent, the subjects of 
 them were two bills of a highly controversial 
 and novel character, against which, if opposition 
 is justifiable at all, those who opposed them were 
 justified in employing all the force permitted by 
 the forms of the House. 
 
 These two measures were the Army Regulation 
 Bill, introduced by the Secretary of State for 
 War (Mr Card well), and the Parliamentary and 
 Municipal Elections Bill, introduced by Mr Forster. 
 It was about the first of these measures that the 
 hottest conflicts were joined, especially on the 
 clauses providing for the Abolition of Purchase 
 in the Army. They contained a bold proposal. 
 Purchase in future was to be illegal, but no 
 officer who had entered by purchase was to suffer 
 loss ; the public were to be called on to refund 
 not only the regulation prices of their commis- 
 sions, but whatever they had paid in excess of 
 regulation, amounting in all to 7 or 8 millions. 
 
 To summarise the arguments of the Govern- 
 ment and the Opposition in a single sentence 
 from the speeches delivered on either side, that 
 of Mr Goschen may be quoted when, in replying 
 to the toast of her Majesty's Ministers at the 
 Lord Mayor's Banquet on Easter Monday, he 
 said: "We have to buy back our army, which
 
 192 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 45. 
 
 belongs at this moment to the officers and not 
 to the nation ; " whereas the Marquis of Salis- 
 bury, in opposing the bill in the House of Lords, 
 declared that " if purchase had been described as 
 a system of seniority tempered by selection, the 
 more correct formula of the proposed system was 
 stagnation tempered by jobbery." 
 
 This bill was before the House of Commons for 
 four months : the rules of debate as they then 
 were afforded no means of bringing interminable 
 discussion to a close, till, in the second week in 
 June, Mr Cardwell announced that the Govern- 
 ment would only insist on the Purchase Clauses 
 and the transfer of control of the Militia and 
 Volunteers from the Lieutenants of counties to 
 the Crown. When at last the bill, in this muti- 
 lated condition, reached the Lords, it fell upon 
 worse times. By 155 votes to 130 they refused 
 to pass it. Then followed Mr Gladstone's coup 
 d'etat. On the second day after the division in 
 the Lords, the Prime Minister informed the 
 House of Commons that the Queen, acting on 
 the advice of her Ministers, had signed a Royal 
 Warrant abolishing the purchase of commissions 
 in the army. 
 
 The excitement caused by this announcement 
 was intense. The Peers accepted a resolution 
 proposed by the Duke of Richmond, censuring
 
 A.D. 1871.] MR LOWE'S BUDGET. 193 
 
 the Government on account of " the interposition 
 of the Executive during the progress of a measure 
 submitted to Parliament by her Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment, in order to attain by the exercise of the 
 Prerogative, and without the aid of Parliament, 
 the principal object included in that measure." 
 Explanations were demanded in the Commons 
 also, and to this day it is doubtful whether the 
 Government were in their rights in the action 
 they had taken ; for the Attorney- General (Sir 
 R. Collier) and the Solicitor-General (Sir J. Cole- 
 ridge) differed sharply in the grounds on which 
 they based their defence of what had been done. 
 Whereupon up jumped Mr Harcourt from below 
 the gangway, 1 and, amid much laughter, in racing 
 parlance asked the Prime Minister to say on which 
 horse the Government declared to win with 
 Attorney-General on Statute or Solicit or- General 
 on Prerogative. 
 
 Probably the best justification for this high- 
 handed proceeding is to be found in the consider- 
 ation urged by the Prime Minister that, once the 
 question had been raised, it was dangerous to 
 the discipline of the army to keep it longer in 
 suspense. 
 
 Mr Lowe's Budget brought the Administration 
 into deep disgrace with the country. It is mem- 
 
 1 Now the Right Hon. Sir William Vernon Harcourt. 
 VOL. I. X
 
 194 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 45. 
 
 orable, if for nothing else, for the solemn perpe- 
 tration of a pun by the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer. Casting about for some new and unob- 
 jectionable source of revenue, his envious eyes 
 fell on the match trade, which at that time 
 annually produced and disposed of 560 million 
 boxes of wooden matches and 46 million boxes of 
 wax vestas and fusees in the United Kingdom. 
 His proposal to impose a tax on matches was 
 accompanied by the explanation that this was to 
 be levied by affixing a stamp to each box, bearing 
 the legend, Ex luce lucellum a little gain out 
 of light ; but never did a proposed tax more 
 quickly kindle opposition. The match - sellers 
 were a feeble folk, it might have been thought ; 
 but they proved to be extremely combustible, and 
 produced a perfect conflagration of discontent. 
 Processions of match-girls paraded the streets, the 
 ill-starred pleasantry irritated the public, and, 
 finally, the proposal was withdrawn, and an addi- 
 tional 2d. on the Income -Tax substituted. The 
 opposition to this was led by Mr Smith, but after 
 a debate which lasted till two in the morning, his 
 amendment was negatived by 335 to 250. In 
 commenting on the debate and its result, the 
 ' Times,' which in those days always gave inde- 
 pendent support to the existing Government, 
 asserted that Smith's amendment was lost "not
 
 A.D. 1871.] POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION. 195 
 
 because the majority disapproved its principle, 
 but because they wished to spare the Administra- 
 tion. The merits of the last scheme of the Gov- 
 ernment were never fairly discussed. It was 
 tacitly, if not expressly, condemned by all. The 
 balance of reason was on one side, but the force 
 of sympathy was on the other, and the Ministry 
 secured a vote, not by argument, but by favour." 
 On May 5, on the motion for going into Com- 
 mittee of Supply, Smith called attention to the 
 operation of the Poor Law within the metrop- 
 olis, and moved for the appointment of a Royal 
 Commission to inquire into the policy and admin- 
 istration of the law. Now, of the many members 
 who rise " to call attention," only a small fraction 
 succeed in obtaining it, but Smith was one of that 
 number on this occasion. His well-known connec- 
 tion with practical philanthropy, combined with 
 the alarming increase in the number of persons 
 who were receiving relief from the rates, enabled 
 him to make out a formidable case for inquiry, 
 for he was able to show that, whereas in the 
 preceding ten years of general prosperity the 
 population of London had increased 16 per cent, 
 pauperism had risen in the prodigious ratio of 
 64 per cent. But he was unable to persuade the 
 House to adopt his resolution, which, after a 
 long and interesting discussion, was withdrawn.
 
 196 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 46. 
 
 Twenty -two years later, in the present year 
 1893, the subject has been revived. A Royal 
 Commission has been appointed to inquire into 
 the administration of the Poor Law in England 
 and Wales, and their labours have already 
 brought to light how immensely the ratio of 
 pauperism has been reduced by the consistency 
 and discrimination in giving outdoor relief, the 
 want of which formed the main burden of his 
 complaint of the state of matters in 1871. 
 
 The Parliamentary and Municipal Elections 
 Bill, or, to use the better known title derived 
 from its most important and debateable provision, 
 the Ballot Bill, was brought in early in the 
 session, but, owing to the prolonged proceedings 
 on the Army Bill, it was not till late in June 
 that progress could be made with it. Mr Glad- 
 stone, who for thirty-five years had stoutly re- 
 sisted the principle of secret voting, now per- 
 formed on this question a complete change of 
 front, and declared that the bill must pass 
 before the session should be brought to a close. 
 Midsummer Day had gone by, there was still a 
 heavy proportion of the Votes in Supply to be got 
 through, and the Tory Opposition was obstinate. 
 Moreover, there stood on the Notice Paper up- 
 wards of 200 proposed amendments to the bill, 
 half of them in names of supporters of the
 
 A.D. 1871.] FATE OF THE ALLOT BILL. 197 
 
 Government. Under these discouraging circum- 
 stances Mr Gladstone resorted to the sagacious 
 expedient of calling his party into council in 
 Downing Street, persuaded them to withdraw 
 their amendments, and to agree to a policy his 
 opponents of course called it a conspiracy of 
 silence. This proved successful ; and although 
 the Government suffered defeat at the hands of 
 two of their own supporters, Mr Harcourt and 
 Mr James, on the proposal to charge election 
 expenses on the rates, they were able to send 
 the bill up in time to be considered by the Lords. 
 Here, however, it was destined to be thrown out 
 by a majority of nearly two to one. 
 
 This was the closing event of a session which 
 had proved singularly damaging to ministers ; 
 and although it is a well-known maxim of old 
 parliamentary hands not to argue too much from 
 by-elections, the significance of the result of those 
 which took place during the autumn in the im- 
 memorial Liberal strongholds of East Surrey and 
 Plymouth could scarcely be overlooked. 
 
 The Fenian agitation had been overcome, but 
 the chronic restlessness of Irish discontent began 
 about this time to crystallise into a form all the 
 more dangerous to the integrity of the empire 
 because it assumed the guise of constitutional 
 agitation. Home Rule for Ireland began for the
 
 198 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 46. 
 
 first time to be a source of concern to politicians, 
 and the constituencies of England and Scotland 
 heard with relief the following plain bold words 
 spoken by Mr Gladstone at Aberdeen on the oc- 
 casion of his receiving the freedom of that town. 
 
 You would expect, when it is said that the Imperial 
 Parliament is to be broken up, that at the very least a 
 case should be made out showing there were great sub- 
 jects of policy and great demands necessary for the welfare 
 of Ireland which representatives of Ireland had united to 
 ask, and which the representatives of England, Scotland, 
 and Wales had united to refuse. There is no such griev- 
 ance. There is nothing that Ireland has asked and which 
 this country and England has refused. This country has 
 done for Ireland what it would have scrupled to do for 
 England and for Scotland. . . . What are the inequalities 
 of England and Ireland ? I declare that I know none, 
 except that there are certain taxes still remaining which 
 are levied over Englishmen and Scotchmen and which are 
 not levied over Irishmen, and likewise that there are 
 certain purposes for which public money is freely and 
 largely given in Ireland and for which it is not given in 
 Scotland. That seems to me to be a very feeble case, 
 indeed, for the argument which has been made, by means 
 of which, as we are told, the fabric of the united Parlia- 
 ment of this country is to be broken up. But if the doc- 
 trines of Home Rule are to be established in Ireland, I 
 protest on your behalf that you will be just as well 
 entitled to it in Scotland : and moreover I protest on 
 behalf of Wales, in which I have lived a good deal, and 
 where there are 800,000 people, who, to this day, such is 
 their sentiment of nationality, speak hardly anything but
 
 A.D. 1871.] ANXIETY ON SPIRITUAL MATTERS. 199 
 
 their own Celtic tongue a larger number than speak the 
 Celtic tongue, I apprehend, in Scotland, and a larger 
 number than speak it, I apprehend, in Ireland I protest 
 on behalf of Wales that they are entitled to Home Rule 
 there. Can any sensible man can any rational man, sup- 
 pose that at this time of day, in this condition of the 
 world, we are going to disintegrate the great capital in- 
 stitutions of this country for the purpose of making our- 
 selves ridiculous in the sight of all mankind, and crippling 
 any power we possess for bestowing benefits through legis- 
 lation on the country to which we belong ? 
 
 Such were the convincing phrases by which all 
 suspicion of Mr Gladstone's indulgence to these 
 proposals was allayed such the proclamation of 
 resolute purpose to maintain the integrity of Par- 
 liament and the realm, which it was the destiny 
 of him who spoke them in later years to minimise, 
 explain away, and retract. 
 
 Greatly as the pressure on Smith's time, 
 thoughts, and bodily strength had been increased 
 by the growing share he was taking in public 
 affairs, there may be traced in his correspondence 
 and private notes the same earnest anxiety about 
 the spiritual life which always pervaded his 
 thoughts and controlled his action. Thus, at the 
 close of this year, on Advent Sunday, he wrote in 
 his journal : 
 
 A new Christian year an attempt to look at my own 
 daily life more narrowly, to try and examine motives as
 
 200 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 46. 
 
 well as actions. Mr Eobinson of St John's [Torquay], 
 preaching of the story of Uzziah, referred to the dangers 
 of prosperity, of selfishness. Uzziah prospered, although 
 called to the throne when the kingdom of Judah was in 
 utter defeat, because he trusted in God : and he became a 
 leper because he defied his laws. A lesson for nations 
 and for individuals, to be read in the history of the Jews, 
 in the history of our own times, and borne out by my own 
 self-knowledge. 
 
 God, give me to think of them more, of Thy love to 
 me, and of my duty ; and help me to pray always with 
 faith.
 
 201 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1S72. 
 
 MEETING OF PARLIAMENT UNPOPULARITY OF MINISTERS THE 
 
 BALLOT BILL THE THAMES EMBANKMENT SCHEME AGAIN 
 
 SMITH SAILS FOR AMERICA JOURNAL OF TRAVEL. 
 
 MINISTERS were able to lay before Parliament on 
 February 6, 1872, a Queen's Speech which con- 
 gratulated her faithful Commons on the relative 
 freedom from crime in Ireland, and the remark- 
 able prosperity of agriculture in that country. 
 The Government were unpopular in the country, 
 but had been protected from sinister consequences 
 by the indifference to politics which invariably 
 springs from extraordinary prosperity. The con- 
 sequences of the financial disasters of 1866 had 
 wellnigh passed away, the anxiety of the for- 
 midable troubles in France had been relieved, and 
 the country had entered on that cycle of pros- 
 perity, the knell of which was not to be sounded 
 till, six years later, the City of Glasgow Bank 
 fell with dismal crash.
 
 202 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 46. 
 
 But the opening incident of the session was 
 as inauspicious to the Administration as the close 
 of the last had been. In defending themselves 
 against a Vote of Censure for the appointment, 
 contrary to statute, of their late Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, Sir Robert Collier, to a seat on the Judicial 
 Committee, Ministers, with a normal or nominal 
 majority of more than 100, were only able to 
 show one of 27. 
 
 In a second Vote of Censure, moved by one of 
 their own supporters, Mr Dixon, on account of 
 the operation of the 25th section of the Elemen- 
 tary Education Act, they were more fortunate, 
 being able to command the support of many Con- 
 servatives, among whom was Mr W. H. Smith, 
 who spoke in deprecation of premature interfer- 
 ence with the Act. 
 
 The Ballot Bill was once more introduced by 
 Mr Forster, and probably there never was a bill 
 secretly more detested by the House of Commons 
 than this one. Contrary as it was to all national 
 custom and parliamentary tradition, men felt 
 ashamed of compelling their fellow-countrymen 
 to accept the protection of secrecy in exercising 
 a right which had always been used with the 
 utmost openness. The measure had an un-Brit- 
 ish, almost cowardly complexion, and obviously 
 the fair corollary to it namely, secret voting by
 
 A.D. 1872.] THE BALLOT BILL AGAIN. 203 
 
 members of Parliament in the division lobbies- 
 was one that could never be claimed. Neverthe- 
 less the Opposition seem to have been afraid to 
 resist it lest the franchise might, in the general 
 election which seemed not far distant, be used 
 under cover of the ballot against the party which 
 should seek to deny this protection to electors. 
 Hence, in spite of the fact that such well-known 
 Liberals as Mr Walter and Mr Fawcett denounced 
 the system of secret voting, the debate on the 
 Second Reading was half-hearted, and the divi- 
 sion, taken in a listless and half-filled House, 
 showed in favour of the bill by 109 votes to 51. 
 Smith, who, as has been shown by his declara- 
 tions to the electors of Westminister, detested 
 the ballot, did not vote. But when the bill, 
 after a stormy passage through Committee, was 
 put down for Third Reading, the Opposition 
 plucked up heart and fought hard against it. 
 The division showed a majority of 58 in favour 
 of the bill, which was framed to expire in 1880, 
 since which time it has been necessary to renew 
 it annually by including it in the Expiring Laws 
 Continuance Bill, which is passed at the end of 
 every session. 
 
 The rest of the session of 1872 was occupied 
 principally in discussing Mr Cardwell's scheme 
 for the Localisation of the Army and the Ele-
 
 204 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 46. 
 
 mentary Education Bill for Scotland, in neither 
 of which measures was it likely that Smith would 
 take an interested part. Nor did he vote on 
 Mr Jacob Bright's motion in favour of Women 
 Suffrage, though it was supported by a good 
 many Conservatives, such as Mr Hunt, Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, Sir Charles Adderley, 1 &c. 
 
 One subject, however, in connection with which 
 Smith had taken an active part, that of the 
 Thames Embankment, on the management of 
 which he had beaten the Government in 1870, 
 came up in an altered form this year. No action 
 had been taken in consequence of the Resolution 
 of the House when Parliament reassembled in 
 1871, so Smith gave notice that he intended to 
 move that " it was desirable that the ground 
 reclaimed from the Thames between Whitehall 
 Gardens and Whitehall Place should be devoted 
 to the purposes of public recreation and amuse- 
 ment." The experience of the previous session 
 made the Government aware that they could not 
 successfully oppose this resolution ; a repetition 
 of defeat was a foregone conclusion, so before the 
 day for its discussion came on, the Prime Minister 
 took the course of referring the question to the 
 consideration of a Select Committee. That body 
 reported in favour of the disposal of the ground 
 
 1 Created Lord Norton in 1878.
 
 A.D. 1872.] THAMES EMBANKMENT QUESTION. 205 
 
 in the manner advocated by Smith and indicated 
 by the vote of the House, but still the winter of 
 1871-72 passed without any action being- taken 
 to carry the plan into effect. Indeed so tena- 
 ciously did the Treasury adhere to the principles 
 which should regulate the administration of Crown 
 property, that a new Committee was appointed 
 in 1872 at the instance of the Government, which 
 reversed the decision of the former Committee, 
 and recommended the appropriation of nearly all 
 the space in dispute for the erection of public 
 buildings. Thereupon the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer prepared and brought in a bill to 
 give effect to this recommendation, but the only 
 result was that Ministers suffered another defeat, 
 this time on the motion of Mr Harcourt, who 
 carried a resolution against them to the effect 
 that it was not desirable to proceed further in 
 the matter that year. 1 
 
 1 The settlement of this matter did not come till 1873. Smith 
 did not allow it to rest until the Commissioners of Woods and 
 Forests agreed practically to his proposal, by offering to band over 
 to the Metropolitan Board of Works almost the whole of the 
 ground for a payment of 3270, an arrangement which was con- 
 firmed by Parliament and carried out. In May 1875 the new 
 ornamental grounds, thus redeemed from being built over, having 
 been completed, were formally declared open by Mr Smith, who 
 had by that time become Secretary to the Treasury ; and it is un- 
 doubtedly to his exertions that Londoners owe the enjoyment of a 
 pretty piece of public garden. The seats therein were the gift of 
 Mr Smith, and it is only necessary to walk there on a summer 
 evening to see how much they are appreciated.
 
 206 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [ass. 47. 
 
 Having undertaken legislative responsibility, 
 Smith was conscientiously anxious to fit himself 
 for his duties by every means of acquiring know- 
 ledge of the effect of different forms of govern- 
 ment and conditions of society. To this end it 
 was natural that he should have early directed 
 his thoughts to the great American Republic and 
 the British American colonies. But the necessity 
 for a separation from wife and children, even for 
 a few months only, weighed heavily on his mind ; 
 his thoughts centred in his home, and the only 
 reward he sought for his labours was to escape 
 thither as often and for as long as might be. Cir- 
 cumstances made it inconvenient for Mrs Smith 
 to accompany him, but he held it to be his duty 
 to visit Canada and the United States, and he 
 sailed in the 'Moravian' on August 15. Dur- 
 ing his absence his letters to his wife form a 
 consecutive journal ; and although many of the 
 details contained in them are far too minute to 
 be of general interest in these days, when 
 travelling is so easy and so frequent, some of 
 the sketches in this simple narrative are worthy 
 of preservation, were it only that 
 
 " Hence th' unlearned their wants may view, 
 The learned reflect on what before they knew." 
 
 Wednesday, August 14- Brougham to the train, and 
 coachman drove so slowly that anxiety lest I should lose
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 207 
 
 it almost drove out of my head and heart the pain of 
 parting. 
 
 At the station I was fortunate enough to get into the 
 same carriage with my future fellow - passengers, the 
 Eussell Gurneys, and it was a comfort to find them almost 
 as sad at leaving as I was. On the way down Mrs 
 Gurney tried to induce her husband to say he would be 
 home again by Easter, but he talked of May ! . . . 
 
 August 16. What a change a few hours had made ! 
 Last night almost a calm ; this morning flying scud, 
 wet decks, and sad sounds below. We have been coasting 
 Ireland since daybreak, and have just (9 A.M.) passed the 
 Giant's Causeway, running for Moville, in Lough Foyle. 
 
 17th. A dirty night for our first at sea. The Irish 
 Channel was hardly worth the name of sea, and it blows 
 hard this morning. We are well away from land, and 
 out in the Atlantic. . . . Quiet prevails, with interjected 
 sighs almost groans. Food dry toast and tea. 
 
 18th. Very much the same. A serious tone prevails, 
 and we speak respectfully of the Atlantic. Very few 
 passengers visible. Food still tea and toast. Have come 
 to the belief that we are all in the habit of eating a great 
 deal too much, and that so many meals on board ship are 
 quite unnecessary. Night roll, roll. . . . Children cry, 
 and their mothers can't attend to them, and we have a 
 lively night. An old lady in the cabin has a silver bell, 
 which she is constantly ringing to assure the stewardess 
 that she hears the water bubbling about the ship, and she 
 is sure it is sinking. We are all grave, and most of us 
 selfish. Captain read service in cabin ; could not venture 
 down. . . . 
 
 20th. Fine. Ship steady. Turn up at breakfast for 
 the first time. A shoal of porpoises, which seem to race 
 with the ship for some time. Music on deck at night.
 
 208 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 No sail in sight all day. Wind gets up towards evening. 
 Rain comes with it. I turn in early, but no sleep in 
 the ship to-night. Boll, roll, roll ; crash, smash, bang go 
 china, plates, glasses, doors everything that can move. 
 The old lady's bell rings constantly, and the Captain 
 keeps to the bridge on deck. In the morning our party 
 is smaller at breakfast than usual, and we have to hold 
 our cups in our hands and seesaw them as we drink. 
 
 Mrs MacNabb, who has crossed many times, and has 
 been wrecked once, begins to tell her story over again, 
 and wonders whether last night's Aurora forebode storms. 
 No ship in sight to-day no life but sea-birds. 
 
 21st. Old lady very troublesome ; has heard there 
 is iron in the ship as cargo, and is quite sure it is 
 rolling about underneath her, and that the ship will go 
 down. Fore-cabin passengers and emigrants very miser- 
 able; all wet, and many sick. We went i.e., Mr and 
 Mrs Gurney and I after dinner to the middle deck with 
 fruit for the poor children. . . . 
 
 25th. Sunday morning, and as bright and beauti- 
 ful as a Sunday should be. The breeze fresh ahead ; the 
 ship moving a little, but running well ; every one thank- 
 ful, and in good spirits. We speedily ran past Anticosti 
 an island of bears, 120 miles long and sighted the opposite 
 Canadian shore the promontory of Gaspe, where the St 
 Lawrence may be said to commence, and from this time 
 we shall be within four or five miles off shore all the way 
 to Quebec. 
 
 The shore here for miles is rocky, covered with low 
 timber, and dotted here and there with little fishermen's 
 huts, which look like tents at a distance, but are really 
 wooden buildings covered with whitewash. . . . Old Cap- 
 tain said that he liked the Old Hundredth psalm, because 
 it always seemed to him that it went straight up to the
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 209 
 
 masthead a very simple description, but a very touching 
 one, of his own honest but unaffected devotion ; and many 
 of us felt the mysterious sympathy which links together 
 those who are using the same beautiful words and forms, 
 however widely they may be separated from those they 
 love. These words meet up higher, somewhere higher than 
 the masthead and they go straight up there. 
 
 26th. ... I have not heard the old lady's bell for 
 three days, but there is a charming old maid and her 
 canary, who are going together to California, who have 
 been very amusing. They came to church together yester- 
 day, and wherever she goes, he goes. 
 
 On the 27th they landed at Quebec, and, din- 
 ing that night with the Governor-General, the 
 Earl of Dufferin, Smith made the acquaintance 
 of his host's private secretary, Mr Jacob Luard 
 Pattisson, a gentleman who in after-years was to 
 render him invaluable and devoted service. 
 
 Leaving Quebec on 30th, Smith went to Mon- 
 treal, and here is one of his earliest experiences 
 there : 
 
 Sunday, Sept. 1. I wanted a bath early, so I told the 
 chamber-maid last night, and she promised to speak to the 
 man. No women attend upon men in their bedrooms in 
 Canada, but they look after their rooms when they are 
 out of them. At 7 I rang : boy answered. " I want a 
 bath." " Oh, do you ? Very well," and went away : at 
 20 minutes past no bath. I rang again. An old man 
 came this time. I said, " I ordered a bath a long time 
 ago, and it has not come yet." " Did you ? How long ? " 
 " More than half an hour." " Oh, I don't call half an hour 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 210 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 a long time." " Don't you ? " said I ; " then we do in our 
 country." "Ah, but it is Sunday morning, you know." 
 " Well, never mind, bring the water and the towels." 
 " You can't have any towels. The chamber-maid keeps 
 them, and she has gone to breakfast." 
 
 Is not this a free country ? 
 
 ... I have spent a very quiet afternoon in my room, 
 making use of the church-service so long used by my dear 
 love. . . . 
 
 2nd. ... I have told you already of the Lachine 
 rapids, which we shot this morning, and I will now 
 finish the day. As soon as I had posted my letter 
 for England, Mr G. Stephen l called with his carriage to 
 take us a drive round the town, which proved to be more 
 handsome than I had supposed. Private houses with 
 gardens, which sell for 15,000 and more, and large public 
 buildings all built of stone, some of it brought from 
 Caen in France, and other from Peterhead in Scotland. 
 We visited the cemetery on the mountain. Like that at 
 Quebec, it is very large, and a very large part of it remains 
 in a condition of wild or natural wood, which gives a 
 sense of rest and even solitude to the little green settle- 
 ments interspersed among the trees. A great proportion 
 of the names on the monuments are Scotch, who are very 
 successful in Canada. On our way down we had a view of 
 the St Lawrence, the Eapids, the mountains of Vermont, 
 and the country between. It was difficult to believe we 
 were not at home, so home-like was the view, except for 
 the magnitude of the river. . . . 
 
 I am learning a great deal, seeing very much that is 
 interesting, and making the acquaintance of every man of 
 note almost in Canada ; but with all this qualified enjoy- 
 
 1 Created Baron Mount-Stephen in 1891.
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 211 
 
 ment and sense of acquisition, I am looking forward so 
 gladly and so hopefully to the bright November day of 
 my return. ... At present my watch is five hours behind 
 London time, so that writing now at 12 it is 5 P.M. with 
 you, and I often imagine to myself your engagements at 
 the actual moment I am looking at the time. . . . 
 
 Descriptions of the Falls of Niagara can 
 scarcely contribute anything at this time of 
 day to the impressions of those who have not 
 visited them : nevertheless the following sen- 
 tences convey so distinctly the effect of the 
 great cascade upon one witnessing it for the 
 first time, that they are, perhaps, worth pre- 
 serving : 
 
 Sept. 4- We went to Government Island, coming 
 through the trees by a most natural and pretty path to 
 steps which led down to the edge of the American Fall. 
 I will not attempt to describe it ; but no disappointment 
 is possible to any one who can admire Nature in her 
 grandest and also most lovely forms. The mass of water 
 is absolutely astounding, and it seems almost impossible 
 it can go on with such a volume and force for ever. And 
 the colours are marvellous, owing to the very different 
 ways in which the light falls upon the falling water and 
 spray. It appears to the eye to be divided into sections 
 one part rolling over the top smoothly in deep emerald 
 green, broken as it falls way down by streaks of white 
 foam, and in other parts by millions of watery diamonds 
 glistening in the sun. Then there is a white section of 
 water, a dead white like snow in shade, as it is itself in 
 shade, a section in which the white appears tinged with
 
 212 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 violet, and yet another where it takes a brownish or 
 earthy hue. No one, I fancy, ever sees the bottom of 
 the fall; for the mass of water crashing against water 
 and rock pulverises itself and creates a cloud which is 
 constantly rising by the force of the draught created by 
 the fall, but as constantly renewed. At a distance it 
 looks like the smoke of an enormous cauldron, steam 
 from the boiling waters below ; but on coming up to it 
 you find it to be the minutest particles of water floating 
 in the air, lighter than a Scotch rnist, and as it floats 
 away in the wind it adds a fresh grace and beauty to the 
 scene, as the thinnest and most graceful of veils, through 
 which to catch glimpses of beauty and colour beyond, or 
 as affording material for the iris or rainbow lying down 
 as it were on the water, which may always be seen if the 
 sun is shining. . . . 
 
 I have never seen anything approaching these Falls for 
 grandeur as well as for beauty, for every variety of light 
 and shade, for every effect which they give in colour upon 
 water. At one moment there is a sense of awe, of fear. 
 The flow is so irresistible and tremendous. It is too 
 much to look at, as the gleams of light catch the 
 edges of the water, and they sparkle like the diamonds in 
 a, fairy palace, and there at the bottom, eddying slowly 
 away, lies the water, looking exhausted and almost dead 
 after its mighty leap. It is worth the journey to America 
 and back to see the Falls alone. . . . 
 
 5th. . . . After dinner we were taking another 
 stroll on Goat Island, and we encountered the lady fellow- 
 passenger of the Moravian, who had the canary - bird 
 which had always gone with her wherever she went for 
 9 years, and which came to church in the cabin on the 
 Sunday. She gave us the gratifying news that the bird 
 was well so far. .
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 213 
 
 6th. ... As soon as I had finished my last letter, I 
 started out for another look at the Falls, to which one is 
 drawn by an irresistible fascination. It had rained heavily 
 during the night, but the clouds cleared away by 10 A.M., 
 with a still air, steamy and hot, and a very scorching sun, 
 giving quite another effect to the Falls, all glistening in 
 the heat and light, with the cloud of steam or spray like 
 a golden veil suspended in front of them. 
 
 At mid-day off in the train to Hamilton city, en route 
 for Toronto. . . . 
 
 7th. . . . There I met a gentleman who reminded 
 me he had sat next to me at Drapers' Hall two years ago, 
 and told me what I had said to him. He took me up to 
 Professor Goldwin Smith and introduced me to him, and 
 we had a long talk about the politics of Canada and the 
 United States. The Professor says Canada enjoys a per- 
 fect constitution, complete liberty, and there is only the 
 drawback of corruption, which exists more or less every- 
 where. . . . 
 
 8th. ... I accepted an invitation to dine quietly 
 with Mr Gzowski, 1 a Polish gentleman who has become a 
 very rich and influential man here. It was an hour's 
 walk from the hotel. He told me the story of his life. 
 He was a student in a University, joined in the insurrec- 
 tion, and was taken and banished for life ; sent out to 
 America in charge of the police. Arrived here, he remem- 
 bered that the Governor-General's name was that of an 
 officer who had been taken sick and was nursed in the 
 house of his father, who had been Governor of St Peters- 
 burg. He introduced himself, was kindly received, work 
 was found for him, and he is now one of the most pros- 
 perous men in Canada. He has a beautiful place, a 
 
 1 Created Sir Casimir Gzowski, K.C.M.G., in 1890.
 
 214 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 large library in all languages, very many pictures, and, 
 being married to an English lady, is more English in his 
 habits than many Canadians. We are, I think, friends 
 for life. 
 
 Monday, Sept. 9. Visited the great Normal Schools 
 here, where masters and mistresses are educated and 
 trained. A Dr Kyerson is at the head of the institution 
 and of education in "Western Canada. He knew Mr 
 Reece and my sister Caroline very well. To educate the 
 masters and mistresses he has procured copies of many 
 of the best pictures, sculptures, busts of great men, and 
 engravings of the old world. He is a talkative, old 
 gentleman now, very kind, very attentive, but difficult 
 to escape from. . . . 
 
 To luncheon by invitation with the Board of Trade, an 
 association of merchants. There I was formally introduced 
 as Mr W. H. Smith, M.P. for Westminster, England, and 
 I had to sit down at 2 P.M. to eat and to drink, and to hear 
 and to make speeches. Everybody very kind, very .demon- 
 strative, and very anxious to show that Canadians and 
 Englishmen are one and the same people. In the evening 
 I had to attend another dinner at the Club, given by a Mr 
 Gordon and a Mr Sheddin in honour of the Directors of 
 the Grand Trunk Railway and of myself. More cham- 
 pagne and more speeches and more heat, for it is very 
 hot and muggy here. . . . 
 
 I think I am learning a great deal, and taking in 
 much ; but really it is harder work than any one would 
 suppose to look about one with the intention of retaining 
 recollection of things to ask questions and to receive 
 the amount of information which everybody is disposed 
 and glad to give. I am really quite lazily disposed some- 
 times at the end of the day, especially as we are now 
 having great heat again.
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 215 
 
 10th. Started at 7 for a trip over the Northern Rail- 
 way, in which I am interested. . . . 
 
 I travelled over 130 miles of country outwards. The 
 station-houses were neat and pretty, with nice gardens 
 attached to them, and part of the country was smiling and 
 fertile and beautiful ; but for many miles we went through 
 forest which had caught tire and been burnt, everything 
 having been destroyed fences, farm-buildings inter- 
 spersed here and there in the woods, and the stations 
 themselves. I have never seen such desolation, stumps 
 of blackened trees, some trees standing with all the 
 leaves off, but the timber of which was too green to burn 
 thoroughly, some burnt to half-way up, blackened and 
 charred timber lying all round, and this extending as far 
 as the eye could see. We touched at several lakes on 
 our way, Lake Simcoe, Lake Huron, and, on our return, 
 another portion of Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, where 
 the railway is penetrating through the backwoods into the 
 wilderness. 
 
 I saw in the distance two or three miles off an Indian 
 settlement on the shores of this lake, which is a lovely 
 one. The silence and comparative absence of man and 
 the presence of the railway are strange contrasts, and in 
 these wilds are to be found educated men from the old 
 country, their children enjoying a free life, running about 
 now in summer barefooted, but well clothed and fed, and 
 schools set up for them as soon as there is a sufficient 
 number to send. Common labourers get 6/6 a-day here, 
 with food cheap. 
 
 The names of towns and stations are pretty and full of 
 old recollections; Richmond Hill, Davenport, Bradford, 
 Allandale, and others like them. We got back at 11 P.M. 
 after a very pleasant day, and having seen a great deal of 
 the country and of the people, but it was tiring work.
 
 216 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 Wednesday, Sept. 11. Another warm day. It was a 
 golden mist in the morning, and was very thick over the 
 lake. . . . Another luncheon was to be ate to-day in 
 public ! Champagne flowed freely. The M.P. for Algoma 
 proposed the health of the M.P. for Westminster, and 
 the M.P. for Westminster had to propose prosperity to 
 Toronto, &c., &c. . . . 
 
 A good hard road is quite a rarity in Canada, and ap- 
 pears to be deemed a superfluous luxury. The footways are 
 always planks, and planks are laid across at intervals to 
 enable people to get from one side to the other, and car- 
 riages drive over these obstructions as if they were of no 
 consequence at all, passengers inside going up in the air 
 like corks, and coining down on their seats quite uncon- 
 cerned, and as a matter of course. At 7.30 dined at 
 Chief-Justice Haggerty's, an Irishman who came out at 
 17 to Canada to push his fortune, a very genial and plea- 
 sant fellow. I met Dr MacDonald again and many of 
 the principal people in the city. 
 
 Toronto is a curious place. Seventy years ago it was 
 bush, now it has 70,000 inhabitants, but it extends over 
 space large enough for 20 times that population. The 
 hotel in which I stop is in the centre of the city, near the 
 wharf where the steamers land, and the railway stations ; 
 but it must have two or three acres of land round it, and 
 except in about two or three streets it is very common to 
 find open spaces lying quite waste between houses which 
 are all numbered consecutively. A great church or a 
 public building stands alone away from everything, and 
 it is quite difficult to believe there is really a large popu- 
 lation close by. They are all out of sight. 
 
 12th. Took passage by the Athenian steamer on Lake 
 Ontario for Kingston. We were to start at 2 P.M., 
 and reach Kingston at 5.30 next morning. After I had
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 217 
 
 secured my berth I overheard a gentleman calmly dis- 
 cussing with another how long the boat would last, 
 " her back was certainly broken," and she did sink un- 
 pleasantly amid-ships ; but, he added, if there was no 
 storm she would run out the season, and if there was a 
 storm, why, there were harbours to run into every few 
 miles, and life-buoys on board. . . . We drove (Dr Mac- 
 Donald and I) after breakfast to Dr Dobbs's house an 
 Irish-English clergyman, a relative of MacDonald's. He 
 received us very cordially and took us to the Lunatic 
 Asylum. . . . After a short stay we went on to the Peni- 
 tentiary, where all the prisoners are obliged to work at 
 some trade. I was very much pleased with the discipline 
 and system. . . . 
 
 What I am seeing here impresses me with a sense of 
 the great changes which are coming over society. Every 
 man, woman, and child can earn here much more than is 
 necessary for food, lodging, and clothing, if they have fair 
 health. The commonest labourer will get 6 and 7 
 shillings a-day, and food is cheaper than it is in England. 
 The country appears healthy, but in one little town I 
 visited in the backwoods on Tuesday there were four 
 doctors, all of whom appeared to be living very com- 
 fortably. ... If it were not for the different kind of 
 houses they have, the distances between them, the very 
 bad roads, some not paved or stoned at all, but simply the 
 sand and earth which has existed since the flood one 
 would sometimes imagine oneself at home. The people 
 are very " English," live a family life, conduct their re- 
 ligious services exactly as we do; dress as we do, and with 
 one or two additions to the course, they eat and drink as 
 we do. I am sure you would like them. 
 
 Saturday, Sept. 14- Walked out to look round Ottawa 
 city. It stands very prettily half-surrounded by a noble
 
 218 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 river, from which in one part the ground rises abruptly. 
 On the top of this hill, looking down on the water and 
 over it to the wooded country beyond, are the Parliament- 
 house and the public offices for the Dominion of Canada. 
 They are worthy of the great country in which they stand. 
 Sir Francis Hincks, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 took me round and showed me everything, most kindly 
 devoting himself to me for some hours. In the afternoon 
 he drove out with me to see two large saw-mills, where 
 many saws worked by water-power, each saw having 
 eight rows of teeth, and therefore cutting eight planks 
 at a time, were at work. It was marvellous to see how 
 rapidly great trees were devoured by these monsters 
 and disappeared. The logs are cut in the woods 300 
 miles back, and floated down the stream to Ottawa and 
 other mills. The men who cut them down spend the 
 whole winter in the woods, going up in September and 
 not coming down again until April or May, being away 
 from wife, children, and friends the whole time ; but they 
 seem to like the life, and say it is healthy. 
 
 In the evening Sir F. Hincks gave a dinner in my 
 honour, and I had the good fortune to meet the Prime 
 Minister, Sir John Macdonald, the Bishop, and many other 
 celebrities. . . . Eecollection and anticipation, what 
 pleasures they give us ! 
 
 Monday, Sept. 16. Started at 7 A.M. by steamer for 
 Montreal. The banks of the river are very prettily 
 wooded, and there are plenty of wild-fowl about ; but the 
 most curious feature at this season on the Ottawa river 
 is the rafts coming down from the interior. If they are 
 fortunate it takes them 2| months from the time they 
 start before they, arrive at Quebec, and the distances 
 traversed by mighty rivers in America can be realised 
 when it is considered that these rafts go floating on night
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 219 
 
 and day with the stream for all this long time. The 
 people live on them in little wooden houses, and they 
 have generally a flag hoisted. . . . 
 
 At St Ann's encountered the famous rapids which gave 
 birth to the Canadian boat-song. A fine morning changed 
 into rain here, and I could only console myself by talking 
 to backwoodsmen about their hard but healthy life. 
 
 We noticed that at the point where the Ottawa flows 
 into the St Lawrence the waters do not mix but flow on 
 side by side, the Ottawa dark brown, the St Lawrence 
 bright green. Arrived at Montreal at 6.30 P.M. 
 
 Tuesday, Sept. 17. Went to 382 St Antoine to find 
 Lyndon Smith. . . . Returned and called on the President 
 of the Montreal Bank ; found him in a state of excitement 
 about a corner in gold at New York. Had to find out 
 what a " corner " meant, and at last ascertained that some 
 speculators had got hold of all the gold they could lay 
 their hands on, and that is called a " corner " in gold. . . . 
 Started at 3 P.M. for Boston. 
 
 Thursday, Sept. 19. Mr P., superintendent of schools, 
 called for me at 8.30 to take me the round of the schools. 
 I saw one opened at 9, of 700 boys, by simply reading a 
 chapter and repeating the Lord's Prayer. The boys 
 were of all ranks some gentlemen's sons, some with- 
 out shoes or stockings and yet the discipline appeared 
 to be most perfect. The head -master, one assistant, 
 and sometimes two, are men. All the other teachers 
 are women, and they appear to be really accomplished 
 ladies, some of them quite young and good-looking. 
 I visited two of the large schools. ... I also visited 
 numerous libraries, Athenaeums, societies, and wound up 
 with a careful look into the Boston system of giving relief 
 to the poor. 
 
 I have been going about seeing everything I can in the
 
 220 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 shape of schools, charities, and public buildings, until rny 
 eyes ache, and both my ears and my tongue are tired. . . . 
 There is much to learn, to see, to appreciate, and I may 
 never have another chance, and so I want to absorb all 
 I can. 
 
 Friday, Sept. W. Schools again, this time in very poor 
 smelly quarters, but the children for the most part come 
 regularly. To the High School for girls. It almost took 
 my breath away to see girls from 15 to 19, some hundreds 
 of them, studying at work which was beyond me. Some 
 of them looked wan and dragged. None looked fresh, 
 like healthy English girls, and as I was asked to say a 
 few words, I told them English girls lived more in the 
 open air than they did, and I hinted pretty broadly that 
 I thought they would be the better for more fresh air and 
 exercise, and a little less work. It was confessed that 
 the effect of this high training was to overstock the 
 market for teachers. . . . 
 
 New York, Sept. 32. At 2 Dr Smith came to take me 
 to see some missionary work going on in the city like 
 Field Lane in London. There was a large building in 
 which ragged and destitute boys and girls are received, 
 lodged, and fed, and then taught ; and I listened to the 
 superintendent's lecture to the children. This was called 
 the Seven Points Industrial School. 
 
 He then took me on to another chapel and school in a 
 destitute part of the city, and here a young lawyer was 
 teaching, or preaching a real children's sermon. 
 
 There are three missions, each distinct from each other, 
 with separate staff of clergymen, school-teachers, and 
 Bible-women, maintained by this one church of Dr Smith's 
 at a cost of nearly 13,000 sterling a-year. 
 
 The record of one day is very much like that
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 221 
 
 of another : this was no mere pleasure trip, but 
 hard work from morning to night schools, 
 colleges, prisons, workmen's dwellings, charities, 
 churches, banks, commercial houses, interviews 
 with public men and merchants, took up all 
 the time. 
 
 From New York Smith went to Albany, thence 
 returned to Toronto, Niagara, and started on 
 September 27 for the far West. He arrived at 
 Chicago on Sunday 29th, and noted that it was 
 
 the place that has had the biggest fire that ever was 
 known. It burnt an area covered with houses 5 miles 
 long by 3 wide. 
 
 . . . The landlord of the hotel in which I stay had his 
 house burnt, and while the fire still raged he calculated 
 from the course it was taking that another large hotel 
 would not be burnt. He went to the owner, and then and 
 there bought it. No doubt he parted with it believing 
 it would be burnt, but the fire stopped the next day on 
 the other side of the street, where some houses had been 
 blown up by gunpowder, and this is the house in which I 
 am staying. When the fire was out the seller wanted to 
 get off the bargain, but my landlord insisted on it, and 
 gained the point. There are 16 huge hotels now building 
 in the city, which will lodge 7000 people. 
 
 All wooden houses are to be moved beyond what are 
 called the fire -limits of the city, and I saw one going 
 down the street to-day on rollers to its new location. 
 
 It would be quite impossible in England, and would 
 have been taken down to be rebuilt, but it is a business 
 here to move houses as we move furniture. I visited the
 
 222 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 water-works, which were burnt, but at work again in a 
 week. Fancy a city with the gas and water works all 
 burnt in one night ! 
 
 More corn and more pigs than in any other place I 
 have ever seen ; but I did not see one child at play, or 
 one face without marks of care, anxiety, and excite- 
 ment the police only excepted, and they took life 
 easily. 
 
 Tuesday, Oct. 1. Called on Mr Pullman again, and 
 was presented with letters giving me command of his 
 cars on the railways going West, and secure provision 
 for comfortable sleeping-berths on the road. Started at 
 10 A.M. for Omaha ; made acquaintance with Mr Thomp- 
 son, an American gentleman, in the next section of the 
 carriage, who was going through, and had been in Cali- 
 fornia before. Our route lay through the State of Illinois, 
 which was covered with crops of Indian corn, not yet 
 harvested. The soil very deep and rich, but as full of 
 ague and fever as of corn. We dined in the hotel-car, the 
 dinner being cooked by coloured men in the car as we 
 travelled. Burlington was the first large town, made 
 within the last 10 years, and to reach it we crossed the 
 Mississippi on an iron bridge f mile long. I stood on 
 the platform of the car, and looked down on the great 
 river rolling below me. There is no guard or hand-rail to 
 these bridges, and although it was quite imaginary, there 
 was an appearance of danger in passing over without any 
 such protection.. . . . 
 
 We now went to bed, to wake up in the morning in the 
 same rich prairie country, thinly settled, but bearing great 
 crops, and capable of bearing much greater. 
 
 Wednesday, Oct. 2. In the morning I found the hotel- 
 car " Westminster " was attached to our train, and so I 
 had the pleasure of breakfasting in Westminster before I
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 223 
 
 crossed the Missouri on another fine iron bridge, which 
 was only completed this year, to Omaha in the State of 
 Nebraska. Here we changed into the Union Pacific Com- 
 pany carriages, in which we were to pass three days and 
 two nights. 
 
 There was another Mr Smith in the train, going to New 
 Zealand through San Francisco, and as the conductor was 
 charged to be specially careful of Mr Smith, he wished to 
 know which of us it was who could not take care of him- 
 self. I rejoiced in avowing my weakness ! . . . Our pace 
 from Omaha was not great, averaging less than 20 miles 
 an hour, including stoppages. 
 
 Thursday, Oct. 3. "We woke up on the borders of the 
 desert to a most lovely sunrise. Every hue that can be 
 imagined in the sky, and the earth in the dim light, as like 
 the sea in a calm as can well be imagined. 
 
 There were many antelopes in sight ; some stood still 
 and looked at the train, having got used to it. Others in 
 large herds galloped away more gracefully and at greater 
 speed than deer. Flights of wild-duck were common, and 
 towards mid -day we came on villages of prairie-dogs, 
 which are of a dust colour, and sit upon the mounds 
 over their holes barking as we pass. There were some 
 hundreds of these mounds within the space of three or 
 four miles. Settlers were no longer visible. Here and 
 there the railway had a station for water or coal, and 
 there was of course a drinking-" saloon," made of logs 
 covered with canvas or shingle, and letting in plenty of air. 
 Towards the afternoon we came in sight of the Eocky 
 Mountains, and the scenery became interesting. It was 
 hardly beautiful, as there were no trees ; but the rocks 
 were very water -and -wind -worn, rugged, and cut into 
 fantastic shapes. ... At evening a few stunted pines 
 reappeared, and there were stones which, placed one over
 
 224 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 the other, the larger over the smaller, looked as if they 
 were granite tables. A very slight effort of imagination 
 would have turned others into ruined castles, so well were 
 they perched. 
 
 Oct. 4 Train near Green River. This morning I woke 
 up to more complete desolation than ever. We are in 
 what is termed the great American desert, many hundred 
 miles in extent, at an elevation exceeding that of the 
 Engadine, cold, but not so cold as that district, but with- 
 out a blade of grass to cheer the eye. On the banks of 
 the river there are some few stunted bushes which are 
 green, and that is all. The landscape, if it may be so 
 termed, is a vast expanse of light-brown rock, topped by 
 a red sand-rock. . . . But even here men and cattle and 
 children are to be found, brought there by the necessities 
 of the railway, I suppose, or by that wandering adven- 
 turous feeling which belongs to some Americans. The 
 men are great gaunt - looking fellows, very rough in 
 appearance, but not so bad as they look ; and they know 
 me as an Englishman at once by, they say, my ruddy 
 look. I heard in the rail yesterday that Mr Allport, my 
 friend of the Midland Eailway in England, was on the 
 road, and that our trains would meet at 1 A.M. It was 
 a singular meeting. 
 
 " Be-o-wa-e (?), Nevada, Oct. 5. We are passing through 
 wonderful scenery for the last two days it has been 
 one prolonged pass, rivers on one side, mountains close 
 on the other; oases here and there of great loveliness, 
 but generally utter wild barrenness ; and yet there are 
 human beings who, with millions of fertile acres lying 
 waste, seem to prefer this savage and grand solitude. 
 Our travelling companions are still pleasant. Some 
 have come with me all the way from Chicago. There 
 are four or five nice children, but they want the ruddy
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 225 
 
 look of English, and have some of them a careworn 
 look. . . . 
 
 Plains again more alkali, more dust, more sage-brush, 
 but no grass. Still there are inhabitants, probably look- 
 ing for silver and gold rather than wheat or cattle. The 
 Indians now appeared, and they were not beautiful to 
 look at. The men looked lazy, well fed and clothed, 
 with very black eyes and hair, but one-half of their faces 
 covered with vermilion ; the women dirty and miserable 
 to a degree hardly human. 
 
 Oct. 6. Daylight broke upon us in the Sierra Nevada 
 Mountains, and here was magnificent scenery mountains 
 of granite raising their heads to the sky, with patches of 
 snow here and there, and covered up to the snow with 
 magnificent pine. The summit station is 7200 feet above 
 the sea, and we had forty-three miles of snow-sheds to 
 pass through before we reached the lower country. Un- 
 fortunately these snow-sheds shut out much of the view, 
 which, when we caught it, was more like the Italian side 
 of the Alps than anything I had seen in America. "We 
 now dropped down rapidly to the western side, and soon 
 realised the fact that we were in the region of the trade- 
 winds, and that it never rains here between April and 
 November. 
 
 Grapes were abundant and large dust was in greater 
 quantities. Conduits to convey water were everywhere 
 visible, but no water was to be seen. The sun shone 
 vindictively, and man, who never is content, wished 
 for shade, and consoled himself with iced water. . . . 
 We told each other we were dirty, and looked for- 
 ward to baths on our arrival. A few hours before we 
 were shivering, and the fire in the car was lighted to 
 warm us. Now we came to one vast wheat-field, ap- 
 parently hundreds of miles in extent. If there is a good 
 
 VOL. i. P
 
 226 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 47. 
 
 spring rain the wheat grows without trouble, and there is 
 no doubt of the harvest. . . . 
 
 San Francisco, Oct. 7. How delightful to be still to 
 have been in bed to have had a bath not to hear the 
 whir, whir, whir of the train, or to feel the tremendous 
 motion under one's feet ! . . . I presented my letters. 
 The talk was of wheat, of diamonds, and of gold. Why 
 won't you believe we are the richest people under the 
 sun? I politely believe my friend, but he is angry 
 because all my friends do not understand it. I looked 
 on the water right away seaward towards China, Japan, 
 and Australia, and the sea broke on those rocks with the 
 same thud and spray as those waves nearer at home, of 
 which I was reminded. But for the sands close at hand, 
 I might have closed my eyes, dreamt, and opened them 
 on Devonshire rocks. The trade-wind brought its mist 
 with it at 5 o'clock, and we drove along the firm sand 
 while the sun went down in the richest red glory I have 
 seen for years. It seemed to mark the sea with blood 
 and it might have been, for we passed the wrecks of two 
 old ships deeply bedded in the sand of gallant ships 
 which had been. It was dark when we got home. And 
 after dinner I walked to the Chinese quarter of the town. 
 There are 25,000 Chinese here, and they live almost as 
 completely in a quarter by themselves as if they were in 
 Canton. . . . 
 
 Oct. 8. ... I spent the early part of the morning in 
 looking for a joss-house in the Chinese quarter, and after 
 a time I found it in an upper room in what appeared to 
 be an ordinary Chinese dwelling-house, but the street- 
 door was open, and the staircase covered with matting. 
 The room was a small one ; there was an altar or table 
 opposite the door, and behind the altar an idol of some 
 sort. Paper reeds, -with incense in them, were smoking,
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 227 
 
 and made the atmosphere taste and smell like a Roman 
 Catholic church. There were candles burning in broad 
 daylight. On the front of the table, from the top to the 
 ground, were some very elaborate relief figures, appa- 
 rently in gold or silver gilt, representing animals in one 
 part, and men fighting in another. There were idols in 
 the corner, which were either separately worshipped or 
 change places with the idol who was the God of the day. 
 One of these at the side was a very fair representation of 
 a panther ; the other was a frightful imitation of a horrible 
 human being. A Chinaman was performing his devo- 
 tions while I was there, and I stood and watched him for 
 some minutes. He knelt down before the table, repeating 
 some prayers, holding in his hands two oblong pieces of 
 coloured wood marked with some devices. He threw 
 these down with great violence on the ground at every 
 pause in his prayer and genuflexions, and I imagine he 
 kept on till they fell in a particular way, so as to bring 
 luck. When this was ended, he went to a tray on the 
 table or altar, took out a piece of paper, lit it by the 
 candle which was burning, and then dropped it into an 
 open iron receptacle by the side of the door. This finished 
 his work, except that he had to go to the keeper of the 
 joss-house, who inhabited a small apartment behind the 
 altar, and pay him some money. This keeper had a child 
 of two years old, I should say, and I observed, while all 
 was proceeding, the child playing with what appeared to 
 be young idols. 
 
 For the next hour or so I amused myself by turning 
 over things in a Chinese shop, kept exclusively by China- 
 men. They are very shrewd, clever fellows, and write 
 and speak English well. Many of them are very wealthy, 
 and have an important part of the trade of San Francisco 
 entirely in their hands.
 
 228 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 47. 
 
 On October 9, Smith started with some 
 American friends for the Yosemite Valley, a 
 region so thoroughly well known from the ac- 
 counts given by innumerable tourists, that quot- 
 ation from his minute description of the scenery 
 may be dispensed with. Returning on the 16th 
 from Merced 
 
 A seven hours' railway journey takes us back to San 
 Francisco, and I stand on the platform of the train as we 
 approach it, and open my mouth wide to draw in the fresh 
 cool breeze the trade-wind sends off the sea. If you want 
 to be grateful for fresh air, shut yourself up in a large oven 
 for a week, and provide a constant supply of the most 
 minute dust, which, after stopping up your nose, insists 
 upon being taken into your lungs through the mouth, and 
 into the stomach as well. The Yosemite is very lovely, 
 very grand, but, as Mrs Cass said to me, I say, I won't 
 advise any lady to go there until after I have forgotten 
 the journey to it. . . . 
 
 I wound up my San Franciscan visit by a last stroll 
 through the Chinese quarter. My ideas about the Chinese 
 are greatly changed. They are a remarkably quiet, steady, 
 hard-working body of men, as exhibited in California, and 
 people there say they would gladly give us back all the 
 Irish who have invaded the country in numbers, and sub- 
 stitute Chinamen for them. No doubt a large part of the 
 great prosperity of the State is owing to these people. 
 But for them the Pacific Eailway could not be built, the 
 wheat could not be harvested, the gardens would not be 
 cultivated, and clothes could not be washed or dinners 
 cooked. They are literally servants- of -all- work to the 
 American on the Pacific coast.
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 229 
 
 Friday, Oct. 18. Started at 7 A.M. for the East. I found 
 on board the car a party of directors of the Northern 
 Pacific Bailway, to whom I had letters, and they invited 
 me into their car, which meant frequent refreshment in 
 iced champagne and good claret. They had returned from 
 the Columbia Eiver and Puget's Sound, and spoke of the 
 resources of that district as quite equalling those of 
 California, with a cooler climate. They described narrow 
 bays and inlets, with mountains rising straight up from 
 the sea, so that a ship might make fast to a tree on shore 
 and yet lie in deep water. Any amount of timber is to be 
 had for the cutting. 
 
 The railway is, in their judgment, to be the route to 
 China from Europe, and they are to have a grant of 26,000 
 acres of land for every mile of railway they construct. 
 Our journey to-day was almost as hot as the valley was 
 before. The load was heavy, and the engine unequal to it 
 on the steep ascent of the Sierra. . . . 
 
 When I went to bed we had lost three hours' time. Mr 
 Hill and Mr Thompson travelled in the same carriage 
 with me, so that between the directors' carriage, which I 
 frequently visited, and my own, I had plenty of conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 Saturday, Oct. 19. On the sage desert again dust, 
 drought, dirt in one's eyes, one's throat, one's nose, one's 
 temper grit everywhere, until I noticed everybody more 
 or less cross because the man opposite was so foolish, so 
 unreasonable, and then I began to see humour in the 
 whole thing. . . . 
 
 October 20. I part with my friends at Ogden, promising 
 to meet in New York ; they proceed east, I diverge a little 
 south to Salt Lake City, the capital of Mormondom. I 
 went to the Tabernacle to morning service mid-day I 
 should say. It is a very large, plain building, holding
 
 230 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 47. 
 
 6000 people, the roof supported without a pillar or 
 buttress, of great span, resembling an inverted dish-cover. 
 The organ is a very fine one, built on the spot. There is 
 a sort of low Exeter Hall Orchestra raised step by step, 
 one level behind the other. 
 
 There were three pulpits or stands, one on each step or 
 stage, and the preacher, Orson Pratt, took his place at the 
 middle one. His text was from the Word of God as 
 revealed to Joseph Smith, page so-and-so, on the 27th 
 December 1832, and he read it. He said the Latter-day 
 Saints believed the Bible which he had, the Eevelations to 
 Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon, each and all, one 
 as much as the other, and he went on to a defence of 
 polygamy on the grounds that under the Old Testament 
 dispensation it was permitted, and also that as other 
 Christians permitted widowers to marry again, and they 
 might therefore have two or three wives in heaven, it was 
 certainly right to have two or three on earth. Much more 
 was said which I shall not repeat, but the congregation 
 received it all. 
 
 While the singing and preaching proceeded, bread and 
 water were partaken by the members as a sacrament. I 
 never saw such women as in that place, so plain, so vacant- 
 looking, or so superstitious. Poor creatures ! The system 
 is -described by those who have courage as a hell upon 
 earth ; and although the ground bears fruit and the valley 
 teems with produce, the human beings who have adopted 
 the so-called religion look either half-crazed or entirely 
 knavish. 
 
 A meeting of Gentiles against Mormonism was held 
 last Thursday in the streets. It was the first open meet- 
 ing. Threats had been uttered that it would be broken 
 up, and the chairman announced that the first person 
 disturbing the meeting would be shot. It was known
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 231 
 
 there was a body of men armed, prepared to obey his 
 orders, and so everything passed off peaceably. 
 
 I spent the evening quietly in my room. There was 
 not much to choose between the countenances of the 
 Gentile miners who are attracted to Salt Lake by the 
 silver-mines near and those of the Mormons. A stranger 
 unarmed is perfectly safe. If you want to incur danger 
 show a six-shooter revolver, and instantly every man will 
 produce and cock his weapon. By the way, highway 
 robbers are called road-agents in these parts. Eobbers is 
 an offensive term. And so two road-agents relieved the 
 stage last week of the trouble of carrying some bullion 
 from the mines near Virginia City to Eens. . . . 
 
 Oct. 2J. . . . Eeached Ogden at 7, and found a draw- 
 ing-room in Pullman's car had been reserved for me, and 
 I am now writing in it while the train drags slowly and 
 joltingly up-hill. My drawing-room is furnished with 
 two fixed arm-chairs, a sofa which is a bed at night, and 
 a table. I have a profusion of looking-glass, and plenty 
 of room for my wife, who has been in my thoughts all 
 day, but who unfortunately absents herself. . . . 
 
 Our journey has been through the same desolate 
 country : we came through the Devil's Gate, and it really 
 looks as if it might have been the place of combat 
 between the Archangel and the Evil One. The rocks 
 are weird and worn and tormented like. There are no 
 inhabitants, few cattle, no birds but a sun, rocks, and 
 alkali-dust. 
 
 I have just discovered a party of Canadian engineers 
 who have crossed from Canada to the Pacific surveying 
 for their railway, and I am going to pick their brains. 
 Good night. 
 
 Tuesday, Oct. 22. I have become quite intimate with 
 my English and Canadian friends in the next car
 
 232 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 the captain of H.M.S. Sparrowhawk, and Mr Fleming, 
 the leader of the Canadian -Pacific Railway exploring 
 expedition. 
 
 They rode across the continent to the Pacific in two 
 months, averaging 40 miles a-day exclusive of Sundays, 
 and this strong exercise kept up for so long a time has 
 made Mr Fleming apprehensive lest a week 011 the railway 
 should upset the health of his party, one following directly 
 on the other. He therefore orders all out whenever the 
 train stops, and every man runs for exercise in a manner 
 which alarms and amazes the Americans, who never make 
 any exertion which they can avoid. Captain Eoss or 
 Eoyds of the Sparrowhawk is a very heavy man, and he 
 offered to carry the doctor of the expedition, also a heavy 
 man, 50 yards on his back, while a young active fellow 
 was running 100 yards, and to beat him. We had this 
 race on the summit level of the Eocky Mountains at 
 Sherman, 8200 feet up. I had arranged with the con- 
 ductor to keep the train a few minutes longer for the 
 purpose, and I was the starter. The fun was very great : 
 the Captain came in first with his load quite easily, but 
 running very fast. We then had another race of 100 
 yards between three young fellows ; and after that the 
 whole party played leap-frog one over the other, each 
 man giving his back in turn. 
 
 I don't know whether I laughed more at the fun itself 
 than at the surprise, the amazement, of the passengers in 
 the train and the employees of the railway. They could 
 hardly laugh. The exertion was so utterly unnecessary. 
 When I returned to the cars I was amused at the recep- 
 tion I had something between pity and "We really can't 
 understand what sort of people you are." One man said 
 to me, " You English always will be boys." I said, " Yes, 
 to the very last."
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 233 
 
 I parted with my friends at Cheyenne, and took the 
 train southwards to Denver City, a new town at the foot 
 of the mountains in Colorado, which is now a great mining 
 district. 
 
 I discussed Indian troubles with an American officer 
 on the road, and learnt that departments in America 
 are as dilatory, as weak, and as obnoxious to those who 
 serve under them in the New "World as they are in the 
 Old. . . . 
 
 At 8.30 P.M. I left Denver by the Kansas Pacific Rail- 
 way for the East. I soon found out an Englishman, a Mr 
 Teal, the manager of the Terrible Mine, who was going to 
 look for his wife and family in New York. They had 
 telegraphed their departure from England, and the message 
 reached the clerk at his station on the 9th. He was 
 drunk for a fortnight, and did not deliver it until the 21st. 
 The ship arrived on the 19th, and the family are stay- 
 ing somewhere, Mr Teal does not know where, in New 
 York helpless. Great is our indignation at the misuse 
 of whisky. We smoked several pipes together in the 
 drawing-room inveighing against it, and we were calmer 
 after the smoke, and slept soundly. 
 
 Wednesday, Oct. 23. Nothing but rolling prairie for 
 miles and miles. Everybody is looking for the buffalo, 
 and we saw many, alive and dead. They are certainly 
 grand animals, and it seems cruel to shoot them simply 
 for the pleasure of hunting, without using the meat. 1 AVe 
 
 1 This noble animal is now extinct, save for a small herd pre- 
 served in the Yosemite Park. Twenty years ago it existed in 
 migratory herds of countless thousands ; but the combined avarice 
 and cruelty of man, aided by repeating-rifles, has prevailed to 
 destroy the species off the face of the earth. The bisection of the 
 buffalo prairies by the Canadian-Pacific Railway no doubt contrib- 
 uted to extermination, for it interfered with the annual migration
 
 234 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 47. 
 
 saw antelopes, prairie-hens, and wild turkeys in great num- 
 bers ; but for the first 300 miles every station at which we 
 stopped for water there were no passengers was pro- 
 tected by one or two soldiers, who had formed for themselves 
 a sort of underground miniature fortress. The winds 
 here are so tremendous, when they blow over the prairie, 
 that men are glad to excavate, dig out the earth, and 
 form a habitation which cannot be blown away. We 
 looked into one of these underground huts, of which 
 walls, roof, and everything were earth, and although it 
 was very rough, it showed the occupier was well-to-do. 
 There was a profusion of firearms, saddles, &c., and one 
 or two large American trunks, holding clothes, &c. 
 
 Towards afternoon a tree or two became visible, and 
 we approached a small stream of water. Then large 
 herds of cattle, some three or four thousand in a herd, 
 took the place of buffalo, and wooden shanties became 
 almost frequent. At 10 P.M. I arrived at Junction City, 
 where I had to leave the Pacific train in order to go south 
 to Einporia. The names are great, and the laying out of 
 streets implies great expectations ; but at present back- 
 wood cities do not come up to the Old World ideas of what 
 constitutes cities. Here and there a brick-and-stone house, 
 a clay-built one, thirty or forty wooden shanties, and a 
 good many open spaces covered with weeds, and there is 
 the city before you. But there is always a milliner or two 
 to be found, several lawyers, a dry -goods store, and a 
 schoolhouse. 
 
 Here this epistolary journal comes to an end, 
 and the next letter is from New York. 
 
 of the herds. Buffaloes have been known to destroy themselves by 
 charging a railway train in blind fury. At the present day the 
 only traces left of them are piles of whitening bones and horns.
 
 A.D. 1872.] AMERICAN JOURNAL. 235 
 
 Nov. 5. My journey from Kansas was rather a hard 
 one. I was anxious to get on, and although the country 
 is interesting and part of it very beautiful, I am very glad 
 it is all over, and that I am now sitting down as it were 
 waiting for the door to be opened to let me in to England. 
 
 I got to Washington on Friday afternoon. . . . Mr 
 Eussell Gurney went with me to call on President Grant, 
 with whom I had some minutes' conversation. 1 His 
 secretary took me round the city afterwards, and in a few 
 hours I saw everything that was worth seeing . . . Mr 
 Froude is here, and I have been out with him this morn- 
 ing to see the polling at the elections going forward to-day. 
 It is very interesting, and the police here are very careful 
 of us ; but I must tell you when I see you not long after 
 you get this. . . . 
 
 1 After Smith's return to England, Mr Eussell Gurney, writing 
 from Washington, says : " 1 was amused with the account of a con- 
 versation yesterday at a party of very intelligent Americans. The 
 question was raised whether there were any great men in America. 
 The conclusion was pretty soon arrived at that neither in the 
 Senate nor the House were there any, though some doubt was 
 expressed as to Schurtz, who is, as you probably know, a German. 
 At last it was settled that there was one, and only one, and he was 
 Grant. I am so glad that I took you to him, as it would have been 
 a pity if you had gone away without seeing the one great man in 
 the country. I fear you were scarcely aware of your privilege."
 
 236 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1873-1874. 
 
 INCREASING UNPOPULARITY OP MINISTERS IRISH UNIVERSITY 
 
 BILL DEFEAT AND RESIGNATION OF THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 DISRAELI DECLINES TO FORM A CABINET MR GLADSTONE 
 
 RESUMES OFFICE DEBATE ON BUDGET RESOLUTIONS DIS- 
 SENSIONS IN CABINET DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT GEN- 
 ERAL ELECTION CONSERVATIVE VICTORY THE POLL IN 
 
 WESTMINSTER DISRAELI FORMS A CABINET MR SMITH BE- 
 COMES FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY RESIGNS 
 
 TREASURERSHIP OF S.P.C.K. 
 
 THE first Administration of Mr Gladstone now 
 entered upon its fifth year of existence with the 
 shadow of unpopularity deepening on its course. 
 So many apprehensions had been aroused, such 
 powerful interests harassed, that it might have 
 seemed to Ministers that their only chance of 
 conducting affairs towards the natural term of 
 the Parliament lay in avoiding sensational en- 
 terprise in legislation and in allaying rather 
 than rousing opposition. 
 
 Aliter visum ! In a fatal hour for the Govern-
 
 A.D. 1873.] IRISH UNIVERSITIES BILL. 237 
 
 ment the Prime Minister plunged once more into 
 the troubled tide of Irish politics. Already he 
 had prevailed to destroy the Irish Church and 
 revolutionise the tenure of Irish landed property ; 
 there remained a third question, the settlement 
 of which he had in his electioneering speeches of 
 1868 declared to be essential to the conciliation 
 of Irish disaffection. Perhaps in doing so he 
 had yielded to the temptation, irresistible to less 
 experienced orators, of casting rhetoric in a triple 
 mould : it is difficult to assign any other reason 
 for his having discovered in the state of Irish 
 University Education a grievance more crying 
 than the irreconcilable variance of the Protestant 
 and Roman Catholic Churches in temporal 
 matters. Although he can hardly have calcu- 
 lated on the complexity and multiplicity of 
 opposition which was to be called into existence 
 by the mere mention of this question in the 
 Queen's Speech, it has ever been a characteristic 
 of this remarkable statesman never to be so 
 happy as when dragging hesitating and even 
 reluctant followers through the turmoil of 
 parliamentary war to an issue which they 
 would fain avoid. 
 
 Such was the task he undertook in tabling his 
 Irish University Bill. The event proved that in 
 essaying to satisfy the claims of the Irish Roman
 
 238 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48.' 
 
 Catholic clergy without rousing alarm among his 
 Protestant and Nonconformist supporters in all 
 three kingdoms, he had put his hand to a work 
 beyond his power to accomplish. 
 
 There is no need to dwell on what turned out 
 to be an abortive plan : enough to say that 
 though the design was so complete and elaborate 
 as to command admiration for its author, long 
 before the day fixed for the second reading it 
 .had become clear that Ministerialists were 
 sharply divided on its policy. Professor Henry 
 Fawcett l led the Opposition against the bill, 
 and was followed on the same side by Dr Lyon 
 Playfair 2 and Mr Horsman. As the debate pro- 
 ceeded, the Government betrayed their weakness 
 by offering to leave several important points as 
 open questions to be settled in Committee, but 
 that was a stage which this ill-starred measure 
 was destined never to reach. It was thrown out 
 on Second Reading by a majority of 3 287 votes 
 to 284. 
 
 In consequence of this defeat the Government 
 resigned, but as Disraeli declined attempting to 
 form a Cabinet, the opinion went abroad that the 
 
 1 Postmaster-General in Mr Gladstone's second Administration, 
 1880-84. 
 
 2 Afterwards Postmaster-General in 1873-74, Chairman of Ways 
 and Means, 1880-83, and Vice-President of the Committee of Council 
 on Education in 1886 ; created Baron Playfair in 1892.
 
 A.D. 1873.] DISRAELI DECLINES TO TAKE OFFICE. 239 
 
 only way out of the dilemma was an appeal to the 
 constituencies. A singular feature of the situation 
 was the promulgation by the rival leaders of the 
 reasons inducing each to adopt the course he did, 
 by means of letters addressed to the Sovereign. 
 Mr Gladstone in his letter contended warmly 
 that an Opposition which had overthrown a 
 Government was bound to attempt the adminis- 
 tration of affairs, a view which Mr Disraeli in 
 his letter firmly repudiated. This correspond- 
 ence formed the subject of debate in the House 
 of Commons, in the course of which Mr Gladstone 
 announced that the Government had resumed its 
 functions, and Ministers had returned to their 
 Departments. Disraeli, of course, spoke in this 
 debate, and his peroration was a stirring and 
 eloquent one, well chosen to make his followers 
 draw their ranks closer together : 
 
 I think it is of the utmost importance that . . . there 
 should be in this country a great constitutional party, dis- 
 tinguished for its intelligence as well as for its organisa- 
 tion, that may lead and direct the public mind. And, 
 sir, when that time arrives, when they enter into a career 
 which must be noble, and which I hope and believe will 
 be triumphant, I think they may perhaps remember, not 
 without kindness, that I at least prevented one obstacle 
 from being placed in their way : that I, as the trustee of 
 their honour and their interest, declined to form a weak 
 and discredited Administration.
 
 240 LIFE OF W.- H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 Under these conditions matters settled down 
 again, and there was little more excitement 
 within the walls of Parliament during the rest 
 of that session. Smith's name will be found in 
 the annals of Hansard associated with various 
 educational and metropolitan objects of discus- 
 sion. He moved resolutions condemning the 
 schemes promulgated for the management of the 
 Greycoat School and Guy's Hospital, and called 
 attention to some anomalies in the incidence of 
 local taxation. But the most important action 
 which he took was in regard to the Budget 
 resolutions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 had a surplus, but it had been in great part 
 forestalled by the award of the Alabama Com- 
 missioners, under which this country had been 
 adjudged to pay an indemnity of 3,200,000. 
 Half of this sum was to be paid during the cur- 
 rent year, the sugar-duties were to be remitted, 
 and a penny was to be taken off the income-tax. 
 Smith's amendment was to the effect that, before 
 remitting indirect taxation by the remission of 
 the sugar-duty, the House ought to be in posses- 
 sion of the views of the Government as to the 
 adjustment of local and imperial taxation. 
 
 The Government have been urged to exempt altogether 
 from Income-tax the first 150 of everybody's income, 
 and I believe that that course will, if the Government are
 
 A.D. 1873.] THE BUDGET. 241 
 
 bent upon touching the Income-tax at all, be much better 
 than the course which they have adopted. A justification 
 might be found for that course, for there is a large class 
 among the artisans and labourers in this country who are 
 earning 150 a-year, and are not only not paying Income- 
 tax, but whom it will be impossible, or if possible, very 
 undesirable, to compel to pay. I will venture to ask the 
 House what the policy of the Budget really is. The 
 policy of the Budget is to swallow up every farthing of 
 surplus which can exist this year and next year. The 
 policy of the Budget is to deprive the House of Commons 
 of dealing with a question [Local and Imperial Taxation] 
 which it has already decided to be of very grave and 
 serious import to the taxpayers of the country. The 
 policy of the Budget is, I venture to think, to embarrass 
 the hands of any right honourable member who may next 
 year or the year after stand in the position now occupied 
 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 The general tenor of his complaint against the 
 financial proposals of the Government was that, 
 while giving relief where it was not wanted, 
 they did nothing to remedy an admitted griev- 
 ance. Mr Lowe with great warmth resisted the 
 amendment, which he referred to as "a crowning 
 insult"; but judging from comments on the de- 
 bate in Ministerialist journals, he earned little 
 gratitude outside the House for his exposition of 
 the principles on which he had framed his Budget. 
 The matter dropped, and the session moved un- 
 eventfully to its close. 
 
 VOL. i. Q
 
 242 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 But if Ministers succeeded in holding their 
 own in Parliament, the omens in the country 
 were sinister. Since 1869 nine seats, all vacated 
 by various Ministers appointed to permanent 
 places or removed to the House of Lords, had 
 been captured by Conservatives ; six more had 
 fallen into the hands of the enemy during 1873 ; 
 and against this category of calamity the Lib- 
 erals could only reckon gains at Bath and Truro. 
 There were known to be grievous dissensions 
 among Ministers themselves : Mr Baxter re- 
 signed the Secretaryship of the Treasury be- 
 cause he could not agree with the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer (Mr Lowe) ; Mr Lowe was re- 
 moved from the Treasury and appointed Home 
 Secretary ; and Lord Eipon and Mr Childers both 
 resigned office. 
 
 All this, of course, was watched with satisfac- 
 tion by the Conservatives, who were biding their 
 time ; but they too were not without chill trem- 
 ors of apprehension, arising from the adverse 
 effect on their prospects which secret voting might 
 have in a general election. Those in possession of 
 what are sometimes humorously described as the 
 " sweets of office " were far from happy, while 
 their opponents were weighed down by the pros- 
 pect of worse things which might come to pass. 
 
 Perhaps it is to this sense of uneasiness that
 
 A.D. 1873.] INCREASING BITTERNESS IN POLITICS. 243 
 
 must be traced the beginning of that sharper 
 acerbity and scanter courtesy to opponents which 
 of late years has characterised party politics. 
 There was plenty of hard fighting in the days 
 when the House of Commons was spoken of as 
 the best club in London ; but a chivalrous under- 
 standing prevailed between the two parties ; de- 
 bates and divisions were arranged to suit mutual 
 convenience ; to snap a division on a great ques- 
 tion in the dinner-hour would have been regarded 
 as a positive breach of good - breeding. How 
 greatly things are changed now many a weary 
 member can sorrowfully testify. 
 
 Perhaps the discredit for the first disregard 
 of these unwritten laws may be laid to the door 
 of the Conservative party. It had been an 
 immemorial custom with the Opposition of the 
 day not to oppose Ministers seeking re-election 
 on taking office. Elated by their success at 
 many by-elections, and anxious to score another 
 win, the organisers of the Tory party determined 
 to oppose Sir Henry James at Taunton on his 
 appointment as Solicitor -General. They failed 
 to oust him, but a bad precedent had been set, 
 which in subsequent years has been the reverse 
 of satisfactory in its effects. 
 
 In the autumn of this year Disraeli chose to 
 address a letter on public affairs to Lord Grey
 
 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 de Wilton, in which he spoke of the Government 
 in terms which gave deep offence to many of 
 his own party. 1 Writing to his friend, Mr 
 Ford, on October 11, Smith passed the following 
 melancholy comment on the incident : 
 
 Disraeli has ruined himself, and rendered reconstruction 
 of parties a new choice of leaders almost inevitable. I 
 
 1 The letter was in these terms : 
 
 MY DEAR GREY, I am much obliged to you for your Bath news. 
 It is most interesting. It is rare a constituency has the oppor- 
 tunity of not only leading but sustaining public opinion at a critical 
 period. That has been the high fortune of the people of Bath, and 
 they have proved themselves worthy of it by the spirit and con- 
 stancy they have shown. I cannot doubt that they will continue 
 their patriotic course by supporting Mr Forsyth, an able and 
 accomplished man, who will do honour to those who send him to 
 Parliament. For nearly five years the present Ministers have 
 harassed every trade, worried every profession, and assailed or 
 menaced every class, institution, and species of property in the 
 country. Occasionally they have varied this state of civil war 
 by perpetrating some job which outraged public opinion, or by 
 stumbling into mistakes which have always been discreditable, 
 and sometimes ruinous. All this they call a policy, and seem quite 
 proud of it ; but the country has, I think, made up its mind to 
 chose this career of plundering and blundering. Ever yours sin- 
 cerely, B. DISRAELI. 
 
 Looked at in the light of later days, and read in parallel 
 columns with a great deal that is said and written now in party 
 controversy, it is certainly difficult to see wherein lay the grave 
 offence of these expressions. The 'Annual Register,' usually a 
 dispassionate and impartial record of current events, emphatically 
 pronounces its condemnation : " The spirit and tone of this letter 
 call for no comment, as it carried its own condemnation and its 
 own punishment." The punishment was the loss of a seat at Bath 
 to the Tories.
 
 A.D.1873.] RE-ELECTED TO SCHOOL BOARD. 245 
 
 was going to speak at a dinner at Hertford on Thursday 
 next, but I have begged off. I have no heart for it now, 
 and I don't want to talk. 
 
 In the autumn of 1873 Smith found himself, 
 much against his will, committed to a second 
 contest for re-election to the London School 
 Board. He expressed a strong desire to retire, 
 but his supporters would not hear of it. Indeed 
 his partner, Mr Lethbridge, was waited on to 
 induce him to persuade Smith to accept the 
 Chairmanship of the new Board. " That," said 
 Mr Lethbridge, "Mr Smith will not do, if I 
 know anything of him at all." Writing to his 
 wife on this subject on December 2, he says : 
 " I said positively that nothing would induce 
 me to take it [the Chairmanship] permanently, 
 and my friends gave way, and I think I shall 
 escape being nominated." 
 
 In spite of the general disfavour into which 
 Ministers had fallen, and the discouragement 
 with which Mr Gladstone's Cabinet had to con- 
 tend, the year 1874 opened upon a kingdom 
 pervaded with general apathy in regard to po- 
 litical parties. There was no apparent reason 
 why the Parliament should not run on to its 
 full term, and no anxiety on the part of the 
 Opposition to challenge a direct issue with a 
 Government commanding a majority of 90 in
 
 246 LIFE OF JT. H. SMITH. OT. 48. 
 
 the House of Commons. People were still find- 
 ing it so profitable to attend to their own 
 business, that they showed little concern about 
 the course of public affairs. Parliament had 
 been summoned to meet on February 5. but 
 on January 24 there appeared a manifesto ad- 
 dressed by Mr Gladstone to his constituents in 
 Greenwich, in which, after referring to the course 
 of events in the previous session, he announced 
 the desire of the Government " to pass from 
 a state of things thus fitful and casual to one 
 in which the nation will have full opportunity 
 of expressing will and choice as between the 
 political parties." He rested the claims of the 
 Liberal party to a renewal of confidence partly 
 on their past performances, and partly on their 
 intention of totally abolishing the Income- Tax 
 and relieving local taxation the veiy points 
 which Smith had urged in his speech on the 
 last Budget. He further indicated an intention 
 of assimilating the franchise in the counties to 
 that in the boroughs. 
 
 a 
 
 The challenge, thus passionately and impuls- 
 ively thrown down, was promptly accepted by 
 the Tory champion. ' ; Generally speaking," ran 
 one sentence in Mr Disraeli's counterblast 
 
 Generally speaking, I should say of the Administration 
 of the last five years, that it would have been better for
 
 A.D. 1874.] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 247 
 
 all of us if there had been a little more energy in our 
 foreign policy, and a little less in our domestic legis- 
 lation. 
 
 The state of parties in Westminster was 
 considered to be more favourable to the Con- 
 servatives than it had been in 1868, and this im- 
 pression was undoubtedly owing, in a very large 
 degree, to the hold Smith had obtained on the 
 confidence and respect of those whom he repre- 
 sented in Parliament. Still, no one could fore- 
 tell the result of household franchise exercised 
 under secrecy of the ballot. If, as was loudly 
 claimed by the Liberal Party managers, the 
 effect of the Ballot Act was to be the release 
 of the artisan and labouring classes from the 
 alleged oppressive influence and constraint of 
 their employers, who were mainly Conservative, 
 there could not fail to be seen, in a constituency 
 like Westminster, a heavy addition to the Liberal 
 poll ; and that this was the genuine faith arid ex- 
 pectation of Mr Gladstone's colleagues had been 
 abundantly shown by their extreme impatience 
 to abolish the immemorial custom of open voting. 
 Consequently, there was some hesitation on the 
 part of the Westminster Conservatives to run 
 more than one candidate for the two seats. 
 Smith, standing alone, might be reckoned fairly 
 secure of being returned ; indeed, there came
 
 248 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 from the Liberals what was tantamount to an 
 understanding that the representation should be 
 divided by the unopposed return of Mr Smith 
 for the Conservatives and Sir T. Fowell Buxton 
 for the Liberals. But Smith himself could be 
 brought to accept no such compromise, and it 
 was in consequence of his strong and repeated 
 persuasion that Sir Charles Russell agreed to 
 come forward as his colleague. 
 
 It was a bold and, as many thought, a hazard- 
 ous enterprise to jeopardise the certainty of keep- 
 ing one seat in order to have the chance of win- 
 ning both, for Westminster had been for genera- 
 tions part of the patrimony of the Whigs, but 
 nobly did the ancient borough respond to the 
 confidence of its young member. 
 
 In his address to the electors, this time Smith 
 made no allusion to Liberal - Conservativism : 
 half-a-dozen years of active political life had not 
 been without effect in accentuating his political 
 views, and his common-sense had led him to 
 realise how vain, if a man is to let his influence 
 be felt, must be all profession of independence 
 of parliamentary leadership. He now stood as 
 an avowed member of the Conservative party. 
 
 In concert with my political friends [ran one paragraph] 
 I have deprecated, and should continue to deprecate, great 
 organic changes in submission to the clamour of pro-
 
 A.D. 1874.] THE GENERAL ELECTION. 249 
 
 fessional agitators, who aim at destruction rather than 
 reform. There is, in my judgment, ample work for the 
 energies of Parliament, without embarking upon great 
 constitutional changes which are not desired by the 
 people. 
 
 The result of this, the first general election 
 under the ballot, came as a welcome surprise to 
 the Conservatives - - as an unlooked-for dis- 
 couragement to their opponents. A minority 
 of 90 in the old Parliament was converted into 
 a majority of 50 in the new House of Commons, 
 and no part of the kingdom contributed to this 
 result in a proportion equal to the metropolis. In 
 the deceased Parliament Mr Disraeli had been 
 able, out of the twenty metropolitan seats, to 
 reckon but two as held by his followers ; in 
 the new one the representation was equally 
 divided between Conservatives and Liberals. 
 The verdict condemning- the late Administra- 
 
 o 
 
 tion was given in Westminster with startling 
 emphasis. The Whig ' Spectator ' for February 
 7, 1874, admitted and explained the greatness 
 of the victory. 
 
 The most tremendous of the Tory victories is that at 
 Westminster, where the two Tory candidates, Mr W. H. 
 Smith and Sir Charles Eussell, have been returned, the 
 former by a vote of close upon two to one, and that over 
 a candidate supported by the whole strength of the
 
 250 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 Licensed Victuallers and of the religious philanthropists, 
 as well as of the Liberal Party in general Sir Powell 
 Buxton. The return is as follows: 
 
 Mr W. H. Smith (C) 9371 
 
 Sir Charles Eussell (C) 8681 
 
 Sir T. F. Buxton (L) 4749 
 
 General Codrington (L) .... 3435 
 
 Now on the last occasion Mr W. H. Smith polled only 
 7648 votes, which is much fewer than Sir Charles Russell 
 has polled on this occasion, while Captain Grosvenor 
 polled 6584 votes, nearly two thousand more than Sir 
 Powell Buxton polls now. This is Conservative reaction 
 with a vengeance ! 
 
 There was no getting over it. In 1868 Smith's 
 success had been accounted for by his opponents 
 as the result of his liberal expenditure of money 
 there was no whisper of that now. By the Ballot 
 Act the working classes had been freed alike from 
 the oppressive dictation of employers and the de- 
 moralising application of wealth, and here was the 
 use they had made of their freedom on the very 
 first opportunity. A handsome acknowledgment 
 of the fairness of the conditions of battle came 
 from one of the defeated candidates. 
 
 14 GROSVENOR CRES T ., Feb. 6, 1874. 
 
 DEAR, MR SMITH, I must thank you for the courteous 
 message you sent me by Sir John Kennaway last night. 
 I can assure you I look back upon the late election with 
 satisfaction on this ground, that each side has appealed 
 only to those higher issues, national and not local or
 
 A.D. 1874.] RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS. 251 
 
 personal, which I am sure you feel with me ought alone 
 to guide the contests of parties. I remain, yours truly, 
 
 T. FOWELL BUXTON. 
 W. H. SMITH, Esq., M.P. 
 
 On Monday, February 16, Mr Gladstone's 
 Cabinet met to consider its defeat at the polls, 
 and determine its final act. The following day 
 the Prime Minister laid his resignation before the 
 Queen at Windsor, who thereupon summoned Mr 
 Disraeli and charged him with the duty of form- 
 ing a Ministry. That statesman had been justly 
 credited with the faculty of discerning capacity in 
 new men : indeed, not long before the general elec- 
 tion he had observed in public that he " piqued 
 himself on recognising ability " ; it was therefore 
 a matter of common expectation that among the 
 new Ministers there would be found more than 
 one who had not previously filled offices. But 
 Disraeli's old chief, Lord Derby, had once remarked 
 that when an appointment was vacant he was 
 invariably urged to take in " new blood," and 
 that, as often as he followed this advice, he 
 heard complaints about " raw recruits." It must 
 be the experience of every Prime Minister that 
 it is far easier to find new men of capacity than 
 to get rid of old colleagues ; consequently, in Mr 
 Disraeli's Cabinet of twelve, the only new name 
 which appeared was that of Mr Richard Assheton
 
 252 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. OT. 48. 
 
 Cross, 1 who was appointed Secretary of State for 
 the Home Department. The reappearance in 
 eleven out of twelve of the great parts of actors 
 whose services had in former years been secured 
 by the great impresario, set at rest a great 
 deal of speculation and some apprehension. Dis- 
 raeli, though he had convinced people of his 
 ability for administration and dexterity as a 
 parliamentary leader, and though he was ad- 
 mitted to be the only man in the House of 
 Commons capable of confronting Mr Gladstone, 
 had at the same time failed to secure the con- 
 fidence of the entire Tory party. They had 
 followed him since the death of Lord Derby, not 
 because they trusted him, but because they 
 feared Gladstone. The old country party had 
 grave misgivings at some of the things that had 
 been said and done ; they had not forgotten the 
 "leap in the dark" of 1867, nor forgiven the 
 disasters in which it had landed them. The 
 statesman of whose attitude at this time most un- 
 certainty prevailed was the Marquis of Salisbury 
 " the terrible Marquis," as he was then called 
 who, as Viscount Cranborne, with the Earl of 
 Carnarvon, had seceded seven years before from 
 Mr Disraeli's first Cabinet, on the question of 
 household suffrage in counties. Would Lord 
 
 1 Created Viscount Cross, G.C.B., in 1886.
 
 A.D. 1874.] MR DISRAELI'S CABINET. 253 
 
 Salisbury and Lord Carnarvon go back to their 
 old posts at the India Office and Colonial Office, 
 or would they remain outside the Government, a 
 source of disquiet and latent menace to any 
 Administration which the member for Bucking- 
 hamshire might collect together ? That was the 
 question on the solution of which depended the 
 hopes and fears of the Conservative and Liberal 
 parties. Was the Prime Minister to succeed in 
 healing old schisms, and take up the reins of 
 power with a firm hand and tolerably clear road 
 before him, or was he merely to put certain men 
 into the offices at his disposal and continue at the 
 head of affairs till some fortuitous combination of 
 political sects should drive him from place ? 
 
 The question was not long of settlement. Mr 
 Gladstone resigned on Tuesday, February 18 ; 
 on Friday 21, the list, not only of the Cabinet, 
 but of Ministers outside the Cabinet, was com- 
 plete. Lord Salisbury and Lord Carnarvon were 
 back at their old posts. No one could suspect 
 either of these two noblemen of having sunk con- 
 scientious scruples to grasp any advantage that 
 might be gained from office : Lord Salisbury, 
 especially, was well known to be devoted to scien- 
 tific and literary occupation, and that he should 
 have consented to destroy his own leisure in order 
 to take over the administration of a department
 
 254 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 48. 
 
 was accepted as a proof that an experienced 
 statesman, absolutely independent of emolument 
 and far above suspicion of selfish aims, recognised 
 Disraeli as his political leader, and was prepared 
 to yield him loyal support. 
 
 The result of the elections had been so decisive 
 as to enable Disraeli to anticipate Mr Gladstone's 
 resignation by preparing the way for this recon- 
 ciliation of the wings of the Tory party, and thus 
 to the public and the press there was afforded 
 a period short almost beyond precedent for dis- 
 cussing the process of Cabinet-making and en- 
 gendering the rumours which abound at such 
 times. The London papers had from the first 
 fixed upon Smith as one of the new men likely to 
 be brought to the front ; several of them were for 
 placing him in the Cabinet at once as Vice- 
 President of the Council or President of the Local 
 Government Board, places suggested by the part 
 he had taken in discussions on educational matters 
 and the reform of the Poor Laws. But Disraeli 
 knew him also as the head of a great and success- 
 ful commercial concern, and had early recognised 
 his fitness for another post. And here let it be 
 said that Smith's rise has sometimes been attrib- 
 uted to the friendly notices of him which had, 
 from his entry into public life, appeared in news- 
 papers of every shade of politics, and the inference
 
 A.D. 1874.] THE PRESS SUPPORTS SMITH. 255 
 
 has been drawn that his position as the leading 
 newspaper agent contributed in some measure to 
 this display of favour by the press. A paragraph 
 from an article in the ' Spectator/ a Liberal 
 weekly journal of high standing, may tend to 
 dispel this impression : 
 
 We still hope earnestly for Mr Smith, the Member for 
 Westminster, as Vice-President, and we believe that hope 
 would be very loudly expressed indeed, but for a fact that 
 it may be as well to deal with at once. Mr W. H. Smith, 
 though certain to rise some day, if not now, into the Cab- 
 inet, has one extremely strong impediment in his way. 
 He is the greatest news-agent in the world, and the pub- 
 lic have a notion that he is always, and therefore, sure of 
 newspaper support. There never was a greater delusion. 
 What he is sure of is unnecessary neglect, a dead silence 
 about his merits as a Member, lest those who praise him 
 should be suspected of wanting his goodwill. He will 
 find this a real obstacle in his career, a great impediment 
 to becoming known, and the fact may as well be stated 
 plainly and at once. The truth about him as a politician, 
 however, is that he was made for the Ministry of Educa- 
 tion in a Conservative Ministry : that he, and he only of 
 the party, except poor Sir John Pakington, 1 possesses the 
 needful knowledge, firmness, and moderation. 
 
 This hope was not destined to fulfilment. 
 Viscount Sandon became Vice-President of the 
 Council ; but there was another post in the Min- 
 
 1 Sir John Pakington had lost his seat at the general election. 
 He was created Lord Hampton in 1874.
 
 256 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 48. 
 
 istry, requiring not less knowledge, firmness, and 
 moderation than that of Minister of Education, 
 and, in addition, calling for business capacity in a 
 degree which might be more safely dispensed with 
 in the Privy Council Office. Into this post the 
 Prime Minister, with quick discernment, had 
 already fitted his man ; accordingly, forty-eight 
 hours after Mr Gladstone had resigned the seals 
 of office, the following letter was written : 
 
 Confidential. 
 
 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS, Febv. 19, 1874. 
 
 DEAR, MR SMITH, It would give me great pleasure &, 
 I believe, satisfaction to the country, were you to permit 
 me to appoint you Secretary to the Treasury. Yours very 
 faithfully, B. DISRAELI. 
 
 W. H. SMITH, Esq., M.P. 
 
 The answer was dated the same day : 
 
 2 HYDE PARK ST., Feb. 19, 1874. 
 
 DEAR MR DISRAELI, I am exceedingly obliged to you 
 for the expression of your good opinion, and for the offer 
 you have made, which I gladly accept. Believe me, yours 
 very faithfully, WILLIAM H. SMITH. 
 
 The Right Hon. B. DISRAELI, M.P. 
 
 Probably there never was a more admirable ap- 
 pointment made. Upon the Financial Secretary 
 of the Treasury devolves not only the duty of
 
 A.D. 1874.] APPOINTED SECRETARY TO TREASURY. 257 
 
 receiving the Estimates from the various Depart- 
 ments, whereby he is brought into constant com- 
 munication and consultation with all the ex- 
 ecutive heads, and of bringing the Estimates 
 into final form before presentation to the House, 
 but he is intimately concerned with the financial 
 policy of the Government, and responsible for 
 advice in guiding the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 in framing the Budget. Besides this, there de- 
 volves upon him the arrangement of the Order- 
 Book of the House of Commons, and the task of 
 keeping members on both sides in good humour, 
 the importance of which is not likely to be under- 
 valued when it is remembered how many excel- 
 lent and amiable schemes involving expense have 
 to be met with a firm but conciliatory "No!" 
 With the single exception, of late years, of the 
 Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land, there is no Minister, whether in or out of 
 the Cabinet, who has to get through such an 
 amount of hard, prolonged work as the Financial 
 Secretary. 
 
 Nevertheless, admirably as Smith was qualified, 
 by training, temperament, and business capacity, 
 for this onerous office, there were not wanting 
 those who shrugged their shoulders and looked 
 askance on this latest instance of Disraeli's dispo- 
 sition to innovation. The author of ' Coningsby ' 
 
 VOL. i. R
 
 258 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. ' [JST. 48. 
 
 had not yet " educated " his party to the point 
 whence they could discern that the Tory party, 
 if it was to have its share in guiding the destiny 
 of the kingdom, would have to draw to it the 
 confidence of other classes than that which was 
 " acred up to its chin," and the squirearchy mut- 
 tered unkind things about the Bookstall Man who 
 was thus brought into greater prominence than 
 distinguished class-men and persons of pedigree. 
 On the whole, however, the announcement of this 
 appointment was well received ; it was hailed with 
 special favour by the great middle class, and it is 
 perhaps not generally recognised how great was 
 the direct influence it had in bringing them over 
 to support the Conservative party. 
 
 A few weeks later, Smith, writing to his old 
 schoolfellow and friend the Rev. William (now 
 Canon) Ince of Christ Church, says : 
 
 I am myself surprised at iny position when I compare 
 it with the time to which you refer when w r e were both 
 young together, and yet I can say most confidently that I 
 never set to work aiming at personal advancement in the 
 slightest degree. One circumstance has led to another, 
 and I have gradually found myself of more account in 
 men's eyes, simply from doing the work of the day as it 
 presented itself to me. 
 
 Smith found it necessary, on taking office, to 
 give up a part of the active share he had taken
 
 A.D. 1874.] RESIGNS S.P.C.K. 259 
 
 in philanthropic schemes. Among others, he re- 
 signed his post as one of the Treasurers of the 
 Society for the Promotion of Christian Know- 
 ledge, which he had held for seven years ; but 
 he remained Treasurer of the London Diocesan 
 Council for the Welfare of Young Men from its 
 foundation until his death.
 
 260 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1874-1876. 
 
 RETIREMENT OF MR GLADSTONE FROM LEAD OF LIBERAL PARTY 
 DEBATES ON PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION BILL BE- 
 GINNING OF SMITH'S FRIENDSHIP WITH NORTHCOTE HE 
 
 SETTLES TO WORK AT THE TREASURY VISITS BOURNE- 
 MOUTH MR GLADSTONE AND THE VATICAN DECREES LORD 
 
 HARTINGTON CHOSEN LEADER OF THE LIBERALS THE SES- 
 SION OFFICIAL VISITS TO EDINBURGH AND DUBLIN THE 
 
 SUEZ CANAL SHARES CONSOLIDATION OF THE HOME RULE 
 
 PARTY THE BURIALS BILL VISITS TO THE DOCKYARDS 
 
 WORK. 
 
 IF the result of the general election had come 
 as a surprise, not less unexpected was its im- 
 mediate effect upon the Minister who was re- 
 sponsible for having brought it about. Members 
 of the Liberal Opposition were filled with dismay 
 one morning March 13, 1874 on taking up their 
 newspapers at the purport of a letter addressed 
 by Mr Gladstone, their leader in the House of 
 Commons, to Lord Granville, their leader in the 
 House of Lords.
 
 A.D. 1874.] LETTER TO LORD GRANVILLE. 261 
 
 At my age [it ran] I must reserve my entire freedom to 
 divest myself of all the responsibilities of leadership at 
 no distant time. ... I should be desirous, shortly before 
 the commencement of the session of 1875, to consider 
 whether there would be advantage in my placing my 
 services for a time at the disposal of the Liberal Party, or 
 whether I should claim exemption from the duties I have 
 hitherto discharged. 
 
 Now Mr Gladstone was at that time but 
 sixty-four, a period of life certainly not beyond 
 the normal limits of parliamentary activity, his 
 health was understood to be unimpaired, and 
 the only construction to be placed upon this 
 precipitate act was that he was suffering from 
 chagrin, if not from pique, at the overthrow 
 of his party. It cannot, indeed, have been 
 pleasant for him to reflect that, in dealing 
 with the Irish Church and in pressing the 
 Ballot Act through the House of Commons, he 
 had, in order to secure support for his party, 
 thrown overboard principles which he had 
 cherished through many years of public life, 
 and that, after all this sacrifice, he had failed 
 of his reward. Of course the gain to Minis- 
 terialists was proportionate to the confusion 
 caused by this announcement in the ranks of 
 their opponents. A leaderless Opposition is a 
 transcendental state of parties which a Prime 
 Minister may see in his dreams, but hardly
 
 262 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 ever hope to see realised. There was the more 
 reason for gratitude for this unlooked-for dis- 
 pensation, because Ministers could not but be 
 conscious that they came on the boards with- 
 out any very dazzling or seductive programme. 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer had inherited 
 a large surplus from his predecessors, and some- 
 thing might be expected in the way of Income- 
 Tax reduction and relief of Local Taxation. 
 But gratitude for relief from taxation is alto- 
 gether out of proportion to the unpopularity 
 incurred when it is necessary to increase it, and 
 already the Opposition press was clamorous for 
 a programme. Where are the measures of the 
 new Government ? they asked, and made reply 
 themselves, that, like snakes in Iceland, there 
 were none. 
 
 But indeed the country was only too glad to 
 be spared fresh legislation of the heroic kind. 
 Trade was active ; prices were good ; to the 
 farmers, if some of them had already descried 
 American competition in the offing, it seemed 
 no bigger than a man's hand. Nobody wanted 
 Ministers to devise an exciting programme of 
 new laws. Disraeli's tact was equal to the 
 occasion : the Opposition was downcast and 
 perplexed, he was careful to give them no 
 point on which they could rally. The word
 
 A.D. 1874.] THE RITUALISTS. 263 
 
 was passed along the Conservative benches 
 that they were to treat their opponents with 
 forbearance no more taunts about " plunder- 
 ing and blundering," no more recriminations, 
 no challenges to fruitless trials of strength. 
 
 It so turned out that the principal subject 
 of debate during the session of 1874 was a 
 measure for which the Government were not 
 originally responsible. The change which had 
 taken place in the outward forms and cere- 
 monies in some congregations of the Church of 
 England were the development of the Trac- 
 tarian movement at Oxford thirty years before. 
 With certain priests and people a taste for 
 highly ornate ritual had made great advances ; 
 indeed, it was hard to reconcile some of the 
 observances prayers to the Virgin Mary and 
 to saints, auricular confession, processions, elab- 
 orate vestments with the spirit and laws of 
 the English Protestant Church. Accordingly 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury moved thereto 
 by a petition signed by more than 60,000 
 members of the Church of England introduced 
 
 r^ 
 
 a bill into the House of Lords on April 20, 
 conferring powers on the Bishops to control 
 such practices as might be complained of in 
 their dioceses. 
 
 The bill met with opposition from all quarters.
 
 264 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury, as a Low Churchman, would 
 have none of it : he objected to the proposal to 
 increase the power of the Bishops. 
 
 Why, in some respects, my lords [he said], the better a 
 Bishop is as a Bishop, the less qualified he would be to 
 act as a calm and dispassionate judge. 
 
 Lord Salisbury, as a High Churchman, speak- 
 ing for the Government, disclaimed responsibility 
 either for the bill or for the moment chosen to 
 move a difficult question, and declared that the 
 Government would be impartial. But he allowed 
 it to appear pretty clearly how he would have 
 treated the measure had he been free to take 
 his own line with it : 
 
 If you legislate without solving this problem : if you dis- 
 regard this condition : if you attempt to drive from the 
 Church of England any one of the parties of which it is 
 composed : if you tamper with the spirit of toleration of 
 which she is the embodiment you will produce a con- 
 vulsion in the Church, and imperil the interests of the 
 State itself. 
 
 Eventually, however, it passed through the 
 House of Lords without a division. 
 
 In the Commons the second reading was 
 moved by Mr Russell Gurney. Meanwhile the 
 agitation outside Parliament was growing fast, 
 both in favour of and against the bill. Most
 
 A.D. 1874.] GLADSTONE AND SIR WM. HARCOURT. 265 
 
 of Mr Smith's constituents who wrote to him 
 on the subject (and they were exceedingly 
 numerous) strongly urged that he should vote 
 against it. 
 
 The most remarkable feature of the debate 
 was the reappearance of Mr Gladstone in the 
 House in order to offer the bill uncompromising 
 hostility, and the conflict which ensued between 
 him and Sir William Harcourt, who supported 
 it, and vehemently contested the arguments of 
 his late leader. 1 
 
 1 Mr Gladstone, in the course of his speech, bestowed a prolonged 
 castigation on Sir William Harcourt, and the spectacle of these 
 two distinguished members of the Opposition sparring with each 
 other was of the sort to give unmixed pleasure to Ministerialists. 
 
 "I cannot say," said Mr Gladstone, "that the three canons of 
 gopd taste, good feeling, and courtesy which we are accustomed 
 here to regard, and which may be very old-fashioned, are entirely 
 conformable to those of my hon. and learned friend [Harcourt], and 
 therefore it is better I should decline the controversy, and rest 
 under all the disadvantage which must necessarily attach to me 
 if I forbear to traverse the arguments and propositions he has 
 formally advanced. . . . He says he abhors vituperation, no doubt ; 
 but how does he define vituperation ? Is it perfectly consistent 
 with that declaration that he should describe language used ' else- 
 where ' as ' ill-advised railing of a rash and rancorous tongue ' '? If 
 so, a gentleman who wishes to avoid vituperation, and at the same 
 time wishes to indulge in those feelings which are commonly sup- 
 posed to produce vituperation, may derive comfort from the thought 
 that he will not vituperate though he may say anything he likes 
 about the railing of rash and rancorous tongues. 
 
 " The fact is, that my hon. and learned friend is still in his 
 parliamentary youth, and has not yet sown his parliamentary wild- 
 oats. "When he has done it, I have not the smallest doubt that all 
 the great powers he has displayed and there is no person who has
 
 266 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 48. 
 
 The tone of the debate on the first night was 
 one which Disraeli was not slow to appreciate : 
 there was evidently an immense preponderance 
 of opinion in favour of the bill, and this, intensi- 
 fied by Mr Gladstone's denunciation of it, gave 
 the Prime Minister his cue. When the debate 
 was resumed on the second day, he spoke de- 
 cidedly in support of the bill, and practically 
 announced its adoption by the Government. 
 
 Mr Gladstone had chosen to meet the motion 
 for Second Reading by giving notice of six Reso- 
 lutions hostile to the bill ; but so little was he 
 in touch with his own party at this time, that it 
 was not until Mr Hussey Vivian had warned him 
 in his speech that if he proceeded with these 
 resolutions he would not have the support of 
 twenty members on his own side of the House, 
 that he consented to abandon them. Then the 
 opposition collapsed, and the bill passed without 
 a division. In Committee an amendment was 
 adopted by a large majority on the motion of Mr 
 
 seen his development and exhibition with greater satisfaction than 
 I have will be found to be combined with a degree of temper, a 
 degree of wisdom, a degree of consideration for the feelings of 
 others, a degree of strictness and vigour in stating and restating the 
 arguments of opponents, and, in fact, with a consummate attain- 
 ment of every political virtue, that will make my hon. and learned 
 friend outshine and eclipse all former notabilities of Parliament 
 as much as he promises to eclipse them in his great ability and 
 eloquence."
 
 A.D. 1874.] THE LORDS DIFFER WITH COMMONS. 267 
 
 Holt, giving complainants the right of appeal 
 from Bishops to the Archbishop, which was rather 
 roughly handled on the bill returning to the 
 Upper House. Lord Salisbury took a strong line 
 about it, dealing with it more in his old manner 
 of an independent and merciless opponent than 
 as a member of a Cabinet which was virtually 
 promoting the measure. " I for one," he said, 
 "utterly repudiate the bugbear of a majority in 
 the House of Commons." Their lordships dis- 
 agreed with the amendment of the Commons on 
 this clause, and in the debate arising on this 
 difference of opinion between the two Houses, 
 Disraeli was at no pains to conceal that he dif- 
 fered in opinion from his colleagues in the other 
 Chamber. He said : " The bill was intended to 
 put down Ritualism, and by Ritualism he meant 
 the practices of a certain portion of the clergy, 
 symbolical according to their own admission of 
 doctrines which they were solemnly bound to 
 renounce." He urged the House to keep this 
 point in view, and not to deal with the question 
 with a view to the elements of the majority in 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 Smith settled steadily into harness at the 
 Treasury. Early training made those long office 
 hours, which so severely try the endurance of
 
 268 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 48. 
 
 men brought up to habits of country life and 
 foreign travel, comparatively easy to him. He 
 had, however, to encounter one piece of bad luck, 
 which brought upon him a sharp rebuke from 
 his leader. After a long morning at the Treas- 
 ury and some hours' attendance in the House, 
 the hard -worked Financial Secretary, seeing 
 matters going smoothly in the House, and reck- 
 oning on the usual forbearance of the Opposi- 
 tion not to divide during the dinner-hour, went 
 quietly home for an hour or two in the evening. 
 A snap division was taken, and the Government 
 was beaten. Next morning Smith received the 
 following reproof: 
 
 10 DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, 
 May 2, 1874. 
 
 Mr Disraeli presents his compliments to Mr W. H. 
 Smith, and much regrets to observe that he was absent 
 on the division which took place last evening at eight 
 o'clk., on the motion of Mr Synan ; on which occasion her 
 Majesty's Government was, by reason of the absence of its 
 members, placed in a minority ; and he would beg leave 
 to point out how difficult it must become to carry on a 
 Government which cannot reckon on the attendance and 
 support of its members. 
 
 To this the Secretary to the Treasury replied : 
 
 I have only two words to say with reference to your 
 note of Saturday, and which I own was both just and 
 necessary. I was excessively annoyed at my absence
 
 A.D. 1874.] HON. SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE. 269 
 
 from the Division, and I can fully enter into your feelings 
 of vexation. 
 
 If I had supposed it possible that a division could be 
 taken, I should have been in my place ; but I shall take 
 very good care to avoid the recurrence of such a mortifi- 
 cation so long as I remain a member of the Government. 
 
 In his immediate chief, Sir Stafford Northcote, 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Smith's lot was cast 
 with one with whom it was easy for him to work 
 on terms of perfect accord. Sir Stafford was not 
 less distinguished by personal amiability than by 
 capacity for financial business, and the combina- 
 tion of these two qualities was present in a re- 
 markable degree in both these men. The lot 
 which brought them together in the same depart- 
 ment formed the foundation of an intimate friend- 
 ship which lasted unimpaired till the death of 
 Northcote in 1887. 
 
 Smith passed the last day of 1874 at Bourne- 
 mouth, where Disraeli had summoned him to con- 
 sult about the business of the approaching session. 
 Thence he wrote to his wife : 
 
 BATH HOTEL, BOURNEMOUTH, 
 31st Dec. 1874. 
 
 I have a good fire in my bedroom, and a good sitting- 
 room, which I share with Mr Corry. Mr Disraeli came 
 in to see me for a few minutes, and to tell me there was 
 another king in Europe a King of Spain. He was very 
 pleasant and cheerful. We are all to dine together to-
 
 270 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 49. 
 
 night Disraeli, the Lord Chancellor, and Northcote, who 
 has not yet come, having missed his train, poor fellow. 
 To-morrow I dine with Lord Cairns at his house. I have 
 just called on Lord Sandon. . . . 
 
 Jan. 1, 1875. 
 
 We had a pleasant party at dinner Lord Cairns, North- 
 cote, Dizzy, and Corry and I think the purpose for which 
 I was asked to come will be attained. At 11, when we 
 parted, Disraeli said, "Well, we have been holding a 
 Cabinet Council, and we must meet again to-morrow 
 merning." I am expecting Lord Cairns and Northcote 
 about 11 to go into details, and in the evening we dine 
 together at Lord Cairns's. 
 
 January is a busy month at the Treasury pre- 
 paring for the work in Parliament, and the busiest 
 man in that department is always the Financial 
 Secretary. 
 
 TREASURY, Jan. 12, 1875. 
 
 I travelled up very comfortably, and guards and station- 
 master were all very civil to Mr Smith, who seems to be 
 too well known. ... At Bristol I found Northcote in the 
 train. He was very cheery. To-day I have seen Disraeli 
 and Hunt. D. looks well and happy. ... I am going 
 now at 5 (or 6) to see Cross, and I shall have another hour 
 and a half before I leave. I am, I think, better less stiff. 
 Work agrees with me. 
 
 Jan. 13. 
 
 I have had a busy day, commencing at 9.30 with G. at 
 Hyde Park St., and going on without cessation up to the 
 present time, 6 P.M., and I shall have at least another hour
 
 A.D. 1875.] GLADSTONE AND THE RITUALISTS. 271 
 
 of it ; but much of the work is very interesting, and so are 
 the men who come to me. To-day, Sir John Duffus 
 Hardy, Dr Hooker, Mr Goulburn, Sir Geo. Elliot, Mr 
 Few, and a heap besides. 
 
 Jan. 14. 
 
 All well, but dirty, dull, depressing, damp, dyspeptic 
 weather. Everybody cross and grumpy except Cross. . . . 
 The work accumulates, but I think I am driving through 
 it, and I shall be glad to get down to you for a few days. 
 
 In order to realise the state of parties at the 
 opening of the session of 1875, reference must be 
 made to events arising out of the debates on Rit- 
 ualism. After his intervention in these, Mr Glad- 
 stone had retired for some time from active parti- 
 cipation in affairs ; but he returned to the contro- 
 versy in the autumn by contributing an article to 
 the ' Contemporary Review ' for October, in which 
 he passionately protested against the attempt to 
 impose uniformity of practice upon the clergy of 
 the Church of England by legislation. The fol- 
 lowing passage brought upon him earnest and 
 even angry remonstrance from Roman Catholics 
 of high standing : 
 
 As to the question whether a handful of clergy are or 
 are not engaged in an utterly hopeless and visionary 
 effort to Eomanise the Church and the people of England, 
 at no time since the bloody reign of Mary has such a 
 scheme been possible. But if it had been possible in the 
 seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, it would still have
 
 272 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 49. 
 
 become impossible in the nineteenth ; when Borne has 
 substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem a policy 
 of violence and change in faith ; when she has refurbished 
 and paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought 
 to have disused; when no one can become her convert 
 without renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and 
 placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another ; 
 and when she has equally repudiated modern thought and 
 ancient history. I cannot persuade myself to feel alarm 
 as to the final issue of her crusades in England, and this 
 although I do not undervalue her great power for mischief. 
 
 Mr Gladstone plunged further and deeper into 
 the sea of polemical theology by following up this 
 essay by his celebrated pamphlet, entitled ' The 
 Vatican Decrees in their bearing on Civil Allegi- 
 ance/ in which he amplified and strengthened the 
 charges made in the ' Contemporary ' article, espe- 
 cially insisting that " no one can now become a 
 convert to Borne without renouncing his moral 
 and mental freedom, and placing his civil loyalty 
 and duty at the mercy of the Pope." 
 
 Well might Sir George Bowyer write to the 
 ' Times ' reminding the people of England that 
 four years and some months had passed since the 
 Vatican Council had passed the Decree of Infalli- 
 bility, 1 and that during that time, until February 
 
 1 An amusing story went the rounds of Mr Black, at that time 
 member for Edinburgh. At the meeting of Parliament he went to 
 shake hands with the Speaker, who asked him where he had spent 
 his holidays. " I have been to Borne, Mr Speaker," replied Mr
 
 A.D. 1874.] RETIREMENT OF MR GLADSTONE. 273 
 
 1874, Mr Gladstone had been First Minister of 
 the Crown, and glad to receive the support of 
 Roman Catholics in Parliament and in the 
 country. 
 
 Why did he not [asked Sir George], in his place in the 
 House of Commons, call attention to the portentous 
 matters which he published last Saturday regarding the 
 effect of the decrees of that Council on the allegiance of 
 her Majesty's Eoman Catholic subjects and the security 
 of the realm ? Why did he not propose some measure to 
 Parliament calculated to meet the dangers which now 
 alarm him ? During all the time referred to he held his 
 peace, and he gladly received Eoman Catholic support in 
 Parliament and the country. 
 
 While the storm of this controversy was still 
 raging, there took place what most people looked 
 on as the fall of the curtain on a remarkable 
 public career. Shortly before the meeting of 
 Parliament for the session of 1875 a letter ad- 
 dressed by Mr Gladstone to Lord Granville 
 appeared in the newspapers, announcing that he 
 could " see no public advantage in my continuing 
 to act as the leader of the Liberal party, and that 
 at the age of sixty-five, and after forty-two years 
 of a laborious public life, I think myself entitled 
 
 Black, who spoke with a strong Scots accent, " and I had an inter- 
 view with the Pope." " Indeed, and what did he say to you ? " 
 "Oh, he just said, ' How are ye, Mr Black 1 I understand you are 
 a member of the Scottish Parliament.' Now, isn't it ridiculous to 
 talk of that man being infallible ? " 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 274 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 49. 
 
 to retire on the present opportunity. This retire- 
 ment is dictated to me by my personal views as 
 to the best method of spending the closing years 
 of my life." The question was urgent, Who was 
 to follow Mr Gladstone as leader of the Liberal 
 party ? If the journals of that day are referred 
 to, it will be seen that opinion was divided be- 
 tween Mr Forster, Mr Goschen, and Lord Hart- 
 ington. A meeting to decide on a choice was 
 held at the Reform Club on February 3, which 
 resulted in the election of Lord Hartington to the 
 leadership. 
 
 Meanwhile, work at the Treasury went on as 
 steadily as if none of those great controversial 
 storms were raging. John Hill Burton, in his 
 amusing ' Book-Hunter,' remarks on the un- 
 expected fun which a reader lights upon some- 
 times in unexpected places, and illustrates this 
 by an anecdote of a law student who, consulting 
 an index to a work on legal decisions, was 
 attracted by the words " Best, Mr Justice, his 
 great mind." Anticipating an instance of con- 
 spicuous magnanimity on the bench, he turned up 
 the passage referred to, and found " Mr Justice 
 Best said he had a great mind to commit the wit- 
 ness for prevarication." Even so, one struggling 
 through the jungle of papers which accumulate in 
 the drawers of the Financial Secretary finds, from
 
 A.D. 1875.] SCHEME FOR REDUCTION OF DEBT. 275 
 
 time to time, examples of unconscious humour. 
 Of these are some of the various proposals made 
 by ingenious individuals with the object of assist- 
 ing the Chancellor of the Exchequer out of his 
 difficulties in framing a popular Budget. Thus in 
 1875 came a letter explaining a scheme which the 
 writer says has been " uppermost in his mind for 
 some time." He proposes to meet the deficit of 
 700,000 by a tax on hunting-men ! Needless to 
 say that the writer was not a hunting-man, but 
 quite eager to 
 
 " Compound for sports he was inclined for 
 By taxing those he had no mind for." 
 
 The deficit referred to was caused by the scheme 
 of a Sinking Fund for the gradual liquidation of 
 the National Debt, with which Sir Stafford North- 
 cote's name will for many years to come be asso- 
 ciated. As Northcote expressed himself in ex- 
 plaining his proposal to the House 
 
 " I think we have arrived at a time when we may 
 fairly say that, having the means, we ought to devote 
 some of our attention and some of our wealth to a con- 
 tinuous effort to reduce the National Debt." 
 
 Under this scheme the total charge to be pro- 
 vided annually for the interest and redemption 
 of the debt was fixed at 28,000,000, whereby 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer calculated that 
 in ten years 6,800,000 would be paid off; in
 
 276 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [MI. 50. 
 
 thirty years, 213,000,000. That it has proved 
 a sound and far-sighted proposal cannot now be 
 disputed ; at the same time it must be admitted 
 that its weakness is the temptation it leaves to 
 every succeeding Finance Minister to suspend the 
 payment to the Sinking Fund in years of leanness. 
 It is so much easier to stop paying off debt than 
 to levy new taxes. 
 
 The Budget was introduced on 15th April, and 
 in moving it Northcote paid a high compliment 
 to the Financial Secretary, alluding to the energy 
 and capacity for business he had shown in the 
 examination of estimates submitted to the 
 Treasury, and acknowledging the care and 
 ability with which he had discharged his 
 duties. 
 
 The best part of this session was taken up by 
 lengthy and angry discussions on the Peace 
 Preservation Bill, which the increasing disaffection 
 and lawlessness of Ireland made it necessary to 
 pass. Sir Stafford Northcote carried his Act for 
 the regulation of Friendly Societies, the outcome 
 of the Report of the Royal Commission ; and the 
 only other measure which calls for special notice 
 as the work of Mr Disraeli's Cabinet is the Agri- 
 cultural Holdings Act, for the purpose of giving 
 the tenant better security for capital invested by 
 him in the soil. It was but a permissive statute,
 
 A.D. 1875.] VISITS EDINBURGH AND DUBLIN. 277 
 
 but its acceptance by both Houses marked a new 
 departure in land legislation, by reason that it 
 indorsed a novel principle, the application of 
 which has since been made compulsory. 
 
 In December the Secretary to the Treasury 
 paid an official visit to Edinburgh and another 
 to Dublin. As was his invariable custom, he 
 kept Mrs Smith informed of the most minute 
 details of his proceedings. 
 
 EDINBURGH, Dec. 2, 1875. 
 
 I have had a sort of levie. I dined last night with Sir 
 James Elphinstone, and this morning he breakfasted with 
 me. Then came the Lord Advocate and the Lord Clerk 
 Eegister. At 11 I was carried off to the Registry House 
 and prosed to by Antiquarian Record-keepers. After that 
 the Lord Advocate carried me off to his offices, and then I 
 went to the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer. 
 I have seen the manager of two Banks doing Government 
 business, and now I am collecting myself by writing to 
 you. I give a dinner to-night to five heads of depart- 
 ments, at which Sandon will be present. 
 
 DUBLIN, Dec. 5. 
 
 I telegraphed to you last night that we had reached 
 Kingstown in safety. . . . We found wet snow in Dublin and 
 frost in the Phoenix Park. At the station Beach l met us. 
 . . . To-day we have been very busy, and now, 5.30, 1 fairly 
 confess I am tired. We called on the Lord Lieutenant 
 and have visited half-a-dozen public buildings, where we 
 were received by the several officials. Talking and stand- 
 
 1 The Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, at that time Chief 
 Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
 
 278 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 50. 
 
 ing for six hours consecutively has fairly tired us all. To- 
 morrow I dine with the Lord Lieutenant, and on Thursday 
 Beach has a dinner-party. 
 
 Dec. 8. 
 
 Another busy day, and we Sandon, Beach, Donnelly, 
 and I are now at this moment consulting and settling 
 the terms of transfer of some of the large Institutions of 
 Government. . . . S., after dining with the Irish " King," l 
 will go down to Kingstown to sleep on board the steamer 
 and go across to-morrow morning early. I wish I could go 
 with him, but I have yet a great deal of work to do, and 
 as much as I shall get through during the next two days. 
 
 The session of 1876, Disraeli's last session in 
 the House of Commons, was opened by the Queen 
 in person. The question which had occupied the 
 most anxious thoughts of the Cabinet had been 
 the proposed purchase by Great Britain of the 
 Khedive of Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal, 
 and Smith, though not in the Cabinet, was 
 asked to give his opinion from the Treasury 
 point of view. This he did in a minute, of 
 which the following is the text, taken from a 
 draft in his own writing : 
 
 Suez Canal. 
 
 This is so large a question that it is rather one for the 
 Government to consider than for a Department. 
 
 Financially it is a proposal that England shall join the 
 other Powers in guaranteeing a loan to keep the Suez 
 
 1 Mr King Harman.
 
 A.D. 1874.] THE SUEZ CANAL SHARES. 279 
 
 Canal open : the amount of the loan is estimated at one 
 million or one million and a half, and it is suggested that 
 the proportion to be borne by each Power should be regu- 
 lated by the average of the tonnage of the guaranteeing 
 nations passing through the Canal. Under this arrange- 
 ment England would have to bear about 75 per cent of the 
 burden, the other Maritime Nations bearing the remain- 
 ing 25 per cent between them. But it would not be safe 
 to calculate upon the largest amount as the measure of 
 the responsibility of England if we go into the proposed 
 Commission. 
 
 It is to decide the points at issue and to have full power 
 to conclude an arrangement ; it is to decide on the works 
 necessary to be executed, and to fix the amount of the loan 
 to defray their cost, and to sign a convention under which 
 the Powers would guarantee the payment of interest and 
 sinking fund in the event of the resources of the Company 
 proving insufficient. 
 
 There is so much uncertainty in the questions with 
 which the Commission would have to deal, that it is 
 utterly impossible for any one to foretell the financial re- 
 sponsibility which may attach to the country which has 
 the largest interest in maintaining the Canal. 
 
 I entirely agree with the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 that it is of great political importance to this country to 
 keep open the communication, and I should be inclined to 
 think it was equally important to the Government of 
 India. I believe the Canal to be of great value to the 
 commercial interests of this country, and a very large 
 amount has been invested in steam-shipping constructed 
 to pass through it ; but if we do propose an international 
 Commission with the large powers sketched by Lord 
 Derby, the possible contingencies should be considered. 
 
 There is no disclosure on these papers of the nature of
 
 280 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 50. 
 
 the proposals made to the Government by M. de Lesseps, 
 but it is clear that his views and those of Col. Boss, as to 
 the measures to be taken to prevent the closing of Port 
 Said, differ widely. M. de Lesseps shows throughout a 
 strong sense of the rights of the Proprietors, and it is no 
 doubt his object to obtain for them a satisfactory dividend. 
 He is a power in this matter of at least equal importance 
 to the countries represented in the Commission. The 
 scheme is that a Commission representing the Powers 
 shall see to the execution of certain works which they may 
 decide to be necessary. Will not M. de Lesseps dissent 
 from the views of this Commission, unless the Company 
 obtains some guarantee of interest on their capital ? Will 
 not the Commission, representing 12 Powers, of whom 11 
 between them will incur the financial responsibility of only 
 25 per cent of the whole amount to be guaranteed, readily 
 conclude an arrangement leaving the burden of 75 per cent 
 on the back of the 12th Power ? May not serious political 
 complications arise out of this partnership? We should be 
 in the position of a man with money who had become the 
 -12th partner in a mine which only required a small outlay 
 to make it productive. Our partners would go on spending 
 our money for us until we quarrelled with them. If it 
 were possible for England to purchase the Canal outright, 
 it would, in my judgment, be a safer financial and political 
 operation than that which is now suggested. We should 
 not be committed to an indefinite expenditure at the will 
 of a practically irresponsible Commission : but I am aware 
 that international jealousies would prevent anything of 
 the sort, and it is useless to entertain the idea. 
 
 I submit, however, that the information given in these 
 papers is exceedingly meagre, and insufficient to qualify a 
 committment off-hand of so serious a character as that 
 suggested.
 
 A.D. 1876.] THE SUEZ CANAL SHARES. 281 
 
 Like his chief, Sir Stafford, Smith was op- 
 posed to the purchase of these shares ; but other 
 counsels prevailed, the transaction was completed, 
 and has proved to be a brilliantly successful 
 investment for the nation. 1 The bill necessary 
 to obtain the money 4,080,000 was brought 
 in by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and hotly 
 opposed by two ex- Chancellors Gladstone and 
 Lowe. Northcote must have defended the policy 
 of the bill with some misgiving and a good deal 
 of secret sympathy with the "Treasury minds" 
 of its opponents ; nevertheless, he did the work 
 
 manfullv, and when Gladstone declared that to 
 
 / ' 
 
 spend the money of the nation in this way was 
 "an unprecedented thing" "So is the Canal," 
 retorted Northcote. 
 
 Another measure popularly supposed to be 
 the offspring of Disraeli's romantic genius took 
 
 1 On June 16, 1893, a question was put in the House of Commons 
 to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir "W. Harcourt) as to the 
 present state of the account between this country and the vendors 
 of the Suez Canal shares. The reply of the right hon. gentleman 
 was an eloquent, though perhaps involuntary, tribute to the sagacity 
 of Lord Beaconsfield. It was made to the following effect : 
 
 Price paid in 1875 4,000,000. 
 
 Present value 17,750,000. 
 
 Amount of purchase-money now paid off . . 3,805,000. 
 
 Date at which we shall begin to draw dividend, July 1894. 
 
 Dividends payable during last three years, 17, 21, and 18 per cent. 
 
 Proportion of British tonnage to whole tonnage using Canal, 75 
 per cent.
 
 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 50. 
 
 up a deal of time out of all proportion to its 
 importance. It was proposed to recognise retro- 
 spectively the transfer of the Government of 
 India from the defunct East India Company to 
 the Crown, by adding to her Majesty's titles that 
 of Empress of India. There seemed really no 
 reason for doing so at the precise time selected 
 more than at any other, except that the Govern- 
 ment happened to be without any other import- 
 ant work on hand ; but the Opposition lashed 
 themselves into a fine frenzy over the bill, and 
 again the leaders of the attack on it were Glad- 
 stone and Lowe. The debates were much pro- 
 tracted, but people in the country showed small 
 interest in what was little more than academic 
 discussion and forensic hair-splitting. 
 
 More serious in its ultimate results was the 
 organisation and activity of the Home Rule 
 party under Mr Butt, with Messrs Parnell, 
 Biggar, O'Donnell, and Callan as lieutenants. 
 Both the great parties united in resisting the 
 motion for Home Rule, and there was no diffi- 
 culty in throwing it out by a majority of more 
 than four to one ; but for the first time the Irish 
 Nationalists showed a cohesion and power of 
 debate, destined to make them the formidable 
 factor in Imperial politics which they have since 
 become. One of their number, Mr P. J. Smythe,
 
 A.D. 1876.] THE BURIALS BILL. 283 
 
 enjoyed a gift of eloquence which national fire 
 and classical elegance combined to distinguish 
 beyond his colleagues ; and he used it to some 
 purpose, for the Government were placed in a 
 minority of 57 on his motion for closing Irish 
 public-houses on Sunday. 
 
 Ministers opposed a measure Mr Osborne 
 Morgan's Burials Bill and threw it out, which, 
 a few months later, they were to include in their 
 own programme. . Doubtless it became known to 
 them after the division that party allegiance, not 
 private conviction, had secured to them the sup- 
 port of many of their own followers in rejecting 
 a measure which made it lawful for Nonconfor- 
 mists to perform their services in Church of 
 England burial-grounds, and probably some of 
 Smith's Liberal sympathy, though he dutifully 
 voted " No," lay in the "Aye" lobby. Later in 
 the session a resolution to the same effect was 
 moved in the House of Lords, in supporting 
 which Lord Selborne uttered a sentence worthy 
 of commemoration. Resisting the arguments of 
 those who opposed the opening of churchyards to 
 Dissenters, because of the injustice of invading 
 the property of the Church of England, he said 
 
 I am not one of those who say fiat justitia, mat cesium, 
 for I think the heavens are more likely to fall upon our 
 heads if we do not do justice than if we do it.
 
 284 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 51. 
 
 Left in London to finish up the work of the 
 session when his family went to Greenlands, 
 Smith kept up the usual constant correspondence 
 with his wife : 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, August 7. 
 
 One line, because it is pleasant to write to you, and to 
 think a little of home in the hurry and bustle of work. 
 ... I am sitting at the Table of the House listening to 
 Nbrthcote defending the Suez Canal Bill. . . . 
 
 August 10. 
 
 Everything went on well yesterday at the Whitebait 
 Dinner ; both Disraeli and the Lord Chancellor appeared 
 and spoke. The evening was most lovely, and the lights 
 very pretty on the river ; no doubt you are better off at 
 Greenlands, but happily we can enjoy things as they pass. 
 
 Smith spent part of September and October 
 visiting ships and dockyards with Mr Ward 
 Hunt, First Lord of the Admiralty ; and the 
 repose at Greenlands which he so earnestly longed 
 for was further curtailed by work at the Treasury 
 during the autumn sittings of the Cabinet. 
 
 TREASURY, November 24. 
 
 I was very sorry to be obliged to run away from you, 
 . . . but I think it was my duty to come here, and the 
 moment I arrived Northcote sent for me and kept me dis- 
 cussing business for an hour. The Cabinet then met, and 
 they have adjourned without fixing any future meeting, 
 so that if I had not been here I should have been wanting 
 in some parts of my work.
 
 A.D. 1876.] WORK AT THE TREASURY. 285 
 
 November 28. 
 
 Another busy day, but each day's work now leaves 
 less to be done, and there is great satisfaction in getting 
 through work. 
 
 Northcote goes away on Saturday, so I shall have much 
 less to do afterwards, as all talking with him will come to 
 an end. 
 
 December 6. 
 
 I have had a busy day again, and have had several long 
 interviews, which have left me short time to write. Such a 
 mixture of Post Office, Revenue, Exchequer Bills, Foreign 
 Affairs, Kew Gardens, S. Kensington, Royal Society ! My 
 mind is very like the cross readings on a wall or a screen 
 covered with scraps. 
 
 December 18. 
 
 I have been holding a levie, to-day, or, as ladies would 
 say, I have " received," until at last I am tired of talking. 
 I hope things look peaceful, and at all events that we 
 shall not be engaged in war. The Cabinet are cheerful. 
 
 December 19. 
 
 I have been prowling about looking for presents, but 
 I have not satisfied myself yet. It really is difficult work. 
 I am fearing I may not be able to get down to-morrow 
 night. ... I have had such a stream of people here one 
 after another, and so many difficulties to smooth over, that 
 I have not got on with my work as I hoped, and I do not 
 want to have a quantity sent down to me. 
 
 I have been engaged incessantly up to this moment 
 (6.40) by a succession of men and work, all wanting a last 
 word or touch before Christmas. ... I think I have 
 bought everything excepting the cane, but I shall come 
 down laden with parcels like a Father to-morrow.
 
 286 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1876-1878. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOVERNMENT THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES 
 
 THE " BAG-AND-BAGGAGE " POLICY THE JOURNAL OF A 
 
 DISCONTENTED MAN OBSTRUCTION IN THE HOUSE OF COM- 
 MONS DEATH OF MR WARD HUNT SMITH APPOINTED FIRST 
 
 LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY MISGIVINGS AS TO HIS OWN 
 
 ABILITY PROPOSAL TO PUT THE POST OFFICE IN COMMISSION 
 
 CONGRATULATORY BANQUET IN ST JAMES'S HALL WAR 
 
 BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY MEETING OF PARLIAMENT 
 
 THE FLEET SENT TO GALLIPOLI RESIGNATION OF LORDS 
 
 CARNARVON AND DERBY VOTES OF CENSURE THE BERLIN 
 
 CONGRESS " PEACE WITH HONOUR." 
 
 As the session of 1876 moved to a close, affairs 
 began to wear an unprosperous aspect for the 
 Administration. The Porte had been in difficul- 
 ties with its subjects in Servia, Montenegro, and 
 Bulgaria, and in the repression of insurrection in 
 the last - named country Turkish officials had 
 shown a ferocity which quickly awakened sym- 
 pathy in this country for the sufferers. Party 
 politicians are ever on the outlook for any oc- 
 currence, however remote, which may be turned
 
 A.D. 1876.] DISRAELI'S LAST SPEECH IN COMMONS. 287 
 
 to the disadvantage of their opponents, and in 
 the Bulgarian atrocities Liberals were not slow 
 to discern their opportunity. Conservative policy 
 had ever favoured the strengthening of Turkey 
 as a bulwark against the southward advance of 
 Russia, therefore the Conservative Government 
 must be called to account for the proceedings in 
 Bulgaria. Mr Evelyn Ashley took the oppor- 
 tunity aiforded, according to immemorial usage, 
 by the Third Reading of the Appropriation Bill 
 always the closing act of the session to call 
 attention to this matter, and it was in reply to 
 him that Mr Disraeli made his last speech in 
 the House of Commons. Next morning it was 
 announced that he had been summoned to the 
 House of Lords with the title of Earl of Beacons- 
 field. 1 It had been known that his health had 
 been severely strained by the more arduous con- 
 ditions under which the House of Commons had 
 begun to conduct its proceedings, and no one 
 was surprised that he had decided to bring to 
 a close his service of forty - three years as a 
 
 1 The secret had been well kept, for Disraeli loved coups de 
 thedtre. Mr Evelyn Ashley happened to meet one of Disraeli's 
 private secretaries, Mr J. Daly, on the morning after the debate, 
 before the latter had seen the morning papers. " "Well," said Mr 
 Ashley, " you see I drew your chief for his last speech in the 
 House of Commons, and he has had to take refuge in the Lords." 
 It was the first intimation received by Mr Daly of the intention of 
 Disraeli.
 
 288 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 51. 
 
 member of that House. His place as leader of 
 the House of Commons was taken by Sir Stafford 
 Northcote. 
 
 The anti - Turkish agitation continued with 
 great vehemence during the autumn. Indigna- 
 tion meetings were held in St James's Hall and 
 in the country, urging the Government to inter- 
 pose on behalf of the oppressed nationalities. 
 
 On September 8, Smith wrote from Greenlands 
 to the Prime Minister : 
 
 DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD, I cannot help saying I am 
 very sorry to have to address you in this way, but yet I 
 am satisfied the step you have taken was absolutely right 
 and necessary, if we were to retain your guidance and 
 direction, for I am sure you could not have borne the 
 strain of another session in the House of Commons. 
 
 We shall, however, miss you very much, and the night 
 will be dull and triste without you. 
 
 To say this, however, was not my intention in writing. 
 I was asked to-day to go to a meeting at Slough to sup- 
 port Mr Fremantle, but I thought it better not to go, as 
 in- the present critical condition of affairs I could hardly 
 have avoided reference to the East, and I do not feel I 
 have either the information or authority to speak. 
 
 In the present excited state of the public mind, one 
 might easily say too little to satisfy one's friends at home, 
 and too much for the difficult work in which the Foreign 
 Office is engaged. 
 
 It is very possible I may be asked again, but I shall re- 
 frain unless I have a hint from you. 
 
 If at any time you wish to see me, I can easily drive
 
 A.D. 1876.] ANTI-TURKISH AGITATION. 289 
 
 across the country on receiving a note or a telegram ; but 
 I am at the Treasury, for the present, on Mondays and 
 Thursdays. Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 W. H. SMITE. 
 
 The EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. 
 
 Perhaps precipitate folly and sagacious forbear- 
 ance could not be brought into sharper contrast 
 than in the utterances of two persons represent- 
 ing opposite views on this question. " Perish 
 our English interests," shrieked Mr Freeman in 
 St James's Hall, " and our dominion in India," 
 rather than we should protect the abomination 
 of Turkish rule. Baroness Burdett Coutts, on 
 the other hand, than whom no individual has 
 ever shown wiser capacity for administering to 
 the wants of her fellow - creatures out of her 
 opulence, wrote to excuse herself from attending 
 a meeting at the Guildhall on September 18, 
 and employed words which, by their dignity and 
 thoughtfulness, deserve a high place in political 
 literature. 
 
 If the voice of England be potential and can influence 
 the world's destiny, such a consideration should make us 
 very careful as to how far and for what definite results 
 the voice of the people shall be raised. As one of them, 
 I feel the responsibility which rests upon us very strongly. 
 Naturally, as a woman, I must be timid as to the result 
 of this great agitation. I earnestly pray that in the 
 measures taken to alleviate distress we may be calmly 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 290 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 50. 
 
 led, and not increase, rather than diminish, the distress 
 of nations by urging on the Government an amount of 
 interference better calculated, perhaps, to light than to 
 extinguish a firebrand a firebrand which may pass far 
 beyond Europe, or might even come near our own dear 
 shores. 
 
 Mr Gladstone, who in taking part in the de- 
 bates on Eastern affairs had maintained an atti- 
 tude generally favourable to Lord Derby's Eastern 
 policy, and had undertaken a defence of the 
 policy which led to the Crimean War, suddenly 
 dashed into the fray, unable, it would seem, to 
 resist the opportunity of taking the Government 
 at a disadvantage. He published an article in 
 the ' Contemporary Review ' advocating the ex- 
 pulsion of the " unspeakable Turk, bag and bag- 
 gage," from Europe. The country was moved 
 in such sort as to make intelligible the fervour 
 which, in an age generally supposed to be less 
 enlightened, made the crusades possible. 
 
 Retrospect upon these excited times must lead 
 men to credit Lord Beaconsfield with a singular- 
 degree of courage in adhering to a line of policy 
 which for the moment was widely unpopular. 
 He believed, and he manfully declared, that the 
 interest and honour of this country were alike 
 involved in refraining from embarrassing Turkey,
 
 A.D. 1877.] THE BULGARIAN QUESTION. 291 
 
 and before very long the tide turned in favour 
 of a temperate and forbearing policy. People 
 who had been carried away by the heat of Mr 
 Gladstone's invective began to reflect for them- 
 selves. Several Liberals of standing among 
 others the Duke of Somerset, Mr Forster, who 
 had lately returned from the East, and Lord 
 Fitzwilliam pronounced firmly against the " bag- 
 and-baggage " scheme ; and it was announced by 
 the Prime Minister that a Conference of the 
 Powers was to be held at Constantinople, at 
 which Great Britain would be represented by 
 Lord Salisbury. 
 
 The popular understanding of the Bulgarian 
 difficulties was not without its effect upon the 
 majority of the Government in the House of 
 Commons. By the time Parliament met for the 
 session of 1877, five seats had been lost to the 
 Conservatives at by - elections. But there the 
 reaction was stayed ; and although the Con- 
 stantinople Conference had failed, and Lord 
 Salisbury was on his way home before the 
 Queen's Speech was delivered, the Government 
 were able to enter upon the parliamentary cam- 
 paign without serious apprehension. Mr Glad- 
 stone's motion of want of confidence in Ministers 
 was rejected by a majority of 131 votes.
 
 292 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 51. 
 
 On April 5, the Financial Secretary wrote to 
 the Prime Minister : 
 
 DEAE LOED BEACONSFIELD, I hope you will be satis- 
 fied with our financial work. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer will have a surplus 
 of 440,000 on the past year, and a safe estimate of the 
 revenue for the coming year will give a small surplus 
 over the expenditure without any increase of taxation. 
 As this result is not expected out of doors, it will, I 
 think, be the more satisfactory to our friends and to the 
 country. Yours very truly, W. H. SMITH. 
 
 The note from the Prime Minister in reply was 
 one of those rewards which come to lighten a life 
 of conscientious toil : 
 
 HUGHENDEN MANOR, April 7, '77. 
 
 MY DEAE ME SMITH, I thank you for your Budget 
 Eeport, & heartily congratulate you & the country on the 
 result. After forty years' experience of parliamentary 
 life, I can sincerely say that I never knew the affairs of 
 the Treasury conducted with more thorough sense & effi- 
 ciency than while they have been under your management 
 & control. Yours sincerely, BEACONSFIELD. 
 
 During all his foreign tours, it was Smith's 
 practice to send to some correspondent at home 
 letters forming a consecutive itinerary. As is 
 usually the case in such literature, much of the 
 interest is ephemeral ; but a few passages may be 
 quoted from his description of a visit to Nor- 
 mandy which he paid with Mrs Smith in the
 
 A.D. 1877.J VISIT TO FRANCE. 293 
 
 Whitsuntide recess of this year. In it he en- 
 deavoured, with but partial success, to pose as 
 an unwilling victim, and the document is en- 
 titled- 
 
 THE JOURNAL OF A DISCONTENTED MAN. 
 
 May 18. My wife insists on a little holiday, and I 
 must go with her. Where will I go ? What trouble ! 
 I do not care : just where you please : only decide. Well, 
 then, we will go to Normandy. I ask for a deck cabin : 
 they are all engaged. I go out to get some money, and 
 my eyes and mouth are filled with dust and dirt. The 
 high wind must make dirty weather in the Channel, and 
 the boat is sure to be crowded. No deck cabin, no shel- 
 ter ; how miserable we shall be ! 
 
 We started. A crowd in Eegent Street. Bohren's cab 
 with the luggage is passed the man driving slowly. He 
 is sure to be late. We arrived first at the station, and 
 
 instantly fall on the E s, who are also off to France for 
 
 a holiday. It is impossible to be alone. We talked, and 
 then weary of each other three out of the four fall 
 asleep. I became more composed when I reflected on 
 the miseries of friendship and of society. 
 
 On board the steamer came a crowd, all of whom were 
 disagreeable to me, and some particularly so. I had 
 deposited my wife on the sofa in the ladies' cabin and 
 secured a sheltered seat for myself, when the steward 
 came and intreated me to give it up for a lady. Of course 
 I consented ; what tyrannical power attaches to this fan- 
 atical subserviency to the sex-female. Why should not 
 a man retain a comfortable seat when he had once got it ? 
 . . . Half-way across, the lady tottered up from her seat 
 in some sort of trouble and made a rush for the cabin.
 
 294 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 51. 
 
 Presently the gentlemen sitting on either side of me 
 groaned and began to kneel on the seat with their heads 
 doing homage to the sea. . . . We got into harbour 
 nearly an hour late of course, and of course the water was 
 low and we were landed near the end of the jetty. When 
 is the water high at Calais ? . . . 
 
 May 19. The lumbering carts bringing in market 
 people filled my disturbed sleep with dreams, until I 
 fairly woke under the influence of the horrible cries of a 
 quiet street in Calais. If half-a-dozen old women were 
 being squeezed to death, the screaming could hardly be 
 worse. My wife however slept like an Angel, as I am 
 sometimes inclined to think she is, so I smothered my 
 resentment against the sea, breakfasted, and descended into 
 the street for a cigar. There I instantly fell on another 
 M.P., who would be a good fellow if he was a Tory. We 
 introduced each other's wives and parted smiling, only to 
 fall on another, the - , Bart., who inquires how Mrs 
 
 Smith could leave her children, Lady having left 
 
 hers. I gave him an answer we did not speak again. 
 
 Our seats had been taken in the train by Bohren, but 
 a very fresh English husband and wife appropriated one 
 of them, and although roundly abused by the French 
 guard, the woman retained the seat ; but I had the satis- 
 faction of looking straight at the husband all the way to 
 Amiens, and of making him feel uncomfortable. At all 
 events I began to be happier. 
 
 We ought to have had 20 minutes for luncheon at 
 Amiens, but the train was late, the Eouen train was 
 waiting, and so we were hurried into it without any food. 
 Was I not right to be angry ? . . . And now it rained 
 heavily, and the country looked dreary and very like 
 England. Does it not rain in England ? Was it neces- 
 sary to leave the comforts of home to see Piain ?
 
 A.D. 1877.] JOURNAL OF A DISCONTENTED MAN. 295 
 
 We reached Rouen everything wet, every place cold 
 and dreary. Our inn is, of course, Hotel d'Angleterre by 
 way of sarcasm. Our room is several inches lower at 
 the door than at the window, and there is not room to 
 swing a cat. . . . We descend to dinner, hungry and 
 tired. Presently up trots a small French poodle, shaved 
 up to its neck, with very dirty hair over its head, and 
 red, bleary, weak - looking eyes. It looks at me, and 
 exercising a sound discretion, prefers my wife, jumps up 
 on a chair by her side and begins instantly to beg. This 
 is intolerable ! 
 
 Of course the fish, the chicken, the meat, are all 
 offered in succession to this insufferable dog. I say 
 severe things, but it is of no avail. How I hate most 
 dogs, and all little ones ! A big hound walks in. My 
 wife offers it something and pats it. The little one a 
 tenth of its size jumps down and barks furiously at the 
 hound, which slips and flounders on the polished floor, 
 turns round and goes out, chased by the little poodle, 
 who returns triumphant to the chair by the side of my 
 wife. 
 
 May 20. More rain. 
 
 May 21. No rain, but a sharp, cold north-east wind 
 as cold as England. Again I ask, Why should I travel 
 to France to meet rain and east wind, which are to be 
 had plentifully in England ? Could not get a carriage to- 
 day, because it is a holiday and everybody is out. These 
 holidays are a nuisance. At last we are allowed by a 
 driver to get into his carriage, and we proceed slowly to 
 Bonnesecours, a church on a high hill two miles from 
 Rouen, overlooking the Seine, which is here about half as 
 pretty as the Thames at Richmond. . . . Many holiday 
 folk in the cemetery, which is a cheerful way of spending 
 a happy day. . . .
 
 296 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [off. 51. 
 
 May . Once more rain, but we drove to the old 
 clock in an archery over the street, the Palais de Jus- 
 tice, which contains the old Parliament chamber, and 
 through other old places to the railway, whence we 
 started to Caen. Rouen has a river, two quays, three 
 old churches, fair wide streets, an infinite number of 
 narrow lanes and old houses, and all round it are manu- 
 factories and tall chimneys. The climate is detestable, 
 and the people rough as Englishmen. From Eouen to 
 Caen more chimneys, more rain. At Caen still more 
 rain, bitterly cold. 
 
 From the hotel in a close carriage almost dark to the 
 Church of Ste Etienne, really a grand old Norman build- 
 ing, with grotesque capitals to the round pillars, support- 
 ing the roof of a wide nave. In the gloom before the 
 high altar a plain slab marks the place where William 
 the Conqueror was buried. I am not discontented with 
 this church. It was worth coming to Caen to see ; but I 
 now understand why William came to England his own 
 climate drove him away in simple desperation. . . . We 
 returned to a grand salon and poor bedrooms, lighted up, 
 however, by fires, round which we crouched. Great 
 enjoyment, which might possibly have been exceeded at 
 home. 
 
 May 83. More rain more north-east wind. . . . 
 Paid a heavy bill, and off to the railway. The country 
 green, hilly, with a river running by the side of the line. 
 Small fields, hedgerows, and cattle like, but not so 
 pretty as, Devonshire. It would be nice if the sun ever 
 shone, but it has been raining for eight months. My 
 wife takes refuge in sleep. I groan and grumble to my- 
 self. We arrived at the junction for Villedieu, a capital 
 buffet, and seated ourselves in a dark room with three 
 Frenchmen, a mother, a bonne, and a baby ; all ate in a
 
 A.D. 1877.] JOURNAL OF A DISCONTENTED MAN. 29*7 
 
 hurry ; all, the baby included, wore a sad and preoccu- 
 pied air. . . . 
 
 May 25. I think we have seen Avranches. It is a 
 healthy town, sir, a clean town, sir; it has fine air, sir, 
 it is so high, and there are many English living here. . . . 
 Poor things ! I pity them, and almost forget my discon- 
 tent when I think of the perfect quiet of their lives. How 
 the ladies must dislike each other, and how thoroughly 
 they must know each other's faults and failings. ... I 
 am thankful, and so is my wife, that we are not obliged 
 to live there. How dull with no work, but to read and 
 walk and talk eat, drink, and sleep. 
 
 We found a carriage to take us on to Grauville with 
 difficulty. . . . The horses, poor things ! The coachman 
 a sturdy red-faced Norman. He did .not know the way 
 
 to where the live, . . . but Bohren piloted 
 
 him. Their cottage is a pretty one. . . . Poor Mrs 
 - is, she says, quite tired of apple - blossom, and 
 there is nothing else. Her husband most anxious to 
 hear of something to do anywhere and of any kind. 
 I never met a man so eager to get away from himself and 
 his own society. I asked if his wife was coming to Eng- 
 land. " I will bring her at once, if I can find anything 
 in the shape of employment India, Turkey, anywhere." 
 
 How much better it is to have too much to do than too 
 little. Never give up present employment, however dis- 
 agreeable it may be, until one has made sure of something 
 else. Poverty with work is Paradise compared with 
 either riches or poverty without work. . . . Granville 
 is a disappointment. There is a church an old one 
 but not interesting. . . . There are several dull streets 
 without trottoirs, many children crying in them, with 
 women who appear to be scolding each other. . . . Our 
 hotel Hotel du Nord was comfortable enough. We
 
 298 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 were waited upon by a Jersey woman who spoke English, 
 talking incessantly, and always of her own good qualities 
 and the many merits of her family. ... So I have done 
 and go home, more content than I left home, and cer- 
 tainly the better of my absence. 
 
 Meanwhile the development of new methods 
 of parliamentary warfare began to be painfully 
 apparent at this time. Inordinate discussion 
 upon votes in Supply, dilatory motions for ad- 
 journment, and questions to Ministers upon sub- 
 jects of the most trivial parochial, and even per- 
 sonal, subjects, formed part of the plan of campaign 
 adopted by Irish Nationalist members in order, by 
 bringing proceedings to a deadlock, to force at- 
 tention to their demands. If the legitimacy of 
 their ambition be granted, their strategy and 
 the energy and patience with which it was pur- 
 sued are deserving of admiration.. This new reign 
 of terror began in earnest on Tuesday, July 31. 
 The House met that afternoon at 4 P.M., and 
 the sitting continued till past six on Wednesday 
 evening more than twenty-six hours. Mr Butt, 
 nominal leader of the Home Rulers, protested 
 against the methods favoured by his colleagues, 
 Messrs Parnell and Biggar, but to no purpose ; 
 and henceforward Parnell was de facto the direc- 
 tor of the policy of his party. The state of 
 matters was so serious as to bring about what 
 has proved to be the first in a long series of
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 Facsimile of Letter from the Earl of Beaconsfield 
 has, Tyy an oversight, been inserted at p. 299 of vol. ii. 
 instead of at this place.
 
 A.D. 1877.] FIRST LORD OF ADMIRALTY. 299 
 
 successive alterations in the rules of Procedure, 
 rendered more and more necessary as legislators 
 departed further and further from the reasonable 
 practice of a more decorous age. 
 
 After introducing the Navy Estimates, Mr 
 Ward Hunt, First Lord of the Admiralty, fell 
 into such a state of health as to oblige his going 
 to Homburg, where he shortly after died. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the letter 
 referred to in the following one, written to Mrs 
 Smith, who was at Homburg, came to Smith as 
 a complete surprise : 
 
 HOUSE OP COMMONS, Any. 3. 
 
 This morning as I was driving down to the Treasury 
 I met Lord Beaconsfield's messenger with this letter. I 
 have accepted the office, if the Queen approves. . . . 
 The responsibility is very great, and nothing would have 
 induced me to seek it, but as I am told I am deemed fit 
 for the work, I do not think I ought to refuse it. ... 
 It has not been offered to any one else. . . . Do not say 
 one word to any one about the story, until you see it in 
 the papers, or hear from me that you may talk. 
 
 The letter is given in facsimile on opposite page. 
 Two days later he wrote from Greenlands to 
 his wife, who was at Homburg : 
 
 It is a lovely day such rest and peace around and 
 yet I am not quite at rest, for I feel the weight of re- 
 sponsibility which I have incurred in accepting the 
 Cabinet and the Admiralty. Until now, in graver mat-
 
 300 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. \jsss. 52. 
 
 ters, I only advised. Now I must act on my own judg- 
 ment, and the sphere of that action concerns the country's 
 honour and its strength. I shall want all your help 
 such help as you have ever given me since we were 
 happily made one in asking that I may have wisdom 
 and strength according to my need. I think I shall, 
 because we shall both ask. 
 
 There is a heavy drawback to this new duty. Beach 
 tells me the Cabinet have been warned that none of them 
 must go out of reach of a sudden summons to a meeting, 
 so that while Foreign affairs are in the present critical 
 state, I could not go further from London than this or 
 the coast. 
 
 The ladder which brings a Minister from the 
 Financial Secretaryship into the Cabinet has 
 frequently proved to be a short one, but it has 
 not often led to an office the holder of which, 
 representing as he does the Lord High Admiral 
 of old, had up to this time been nearly always 
 occupied by some Peer of high rank, by a terri- 
 torial magnate, or at least by the scion of a noble 
 house. That a London tradesman should step 
 into such an exalted sphere was an ascent al- 
 most as rapid and not less remarkable than 
 Whittington's. 
 
 The first thing Smith did on receiving Lord 
 Beaconsfield's letter was to seek the advice of 
 his old ally, Lord Sandon, who urged him warmly 
 to accept the offer. 
 
 The announcement of Smith's appointment
 
 A.D. 1877.] LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. 301 
 
 to the Admiralty was favourably received by 
 the public. There was, of course, the usual 
 degree of mild surprise at the working of a 
 system which places at the head of the naval 
 and military establishments individuals who by 
 training, habit, and occupation are least likely 
 to have any technical or practical acquaintance 
 with the services ; but the press generally in- 
 dorsed the sagacity of the Prime Minister's 
 choice. 1 Smith's own friends, of course, were 
 enthusiastic in congratulation, and he possessed 
 friends on both sides of politics. Sir William 
 Harcourt wrote : 
 
 I heard your writ moved to-day with great satisfaction, 
 & greeted it with an approving cheer. No one has better 
 earned & deserved the great post which you have reached 
 in a comparatively short Parliamentary career. Your 
 opponents, no less than your friends, sympathise in your 
 well-merited success, and none more amongst them 
 than 
 
 Yours sincerely, W. V. HARCOURT. 
 
 Mr Rathbone, another sturdy Liberal, gave his 
 approval thus : 
 
 I had no idea when speaking to you last night what 
 
 1 The appointment is supposed to have suggested to the irreverent 
 fancy of Mr W. S. Gilbert the character of Sir Joseph Porter in the 
 opera "Pinafore," who, it will be remembered, "stuck to his desk 
 and never went to sea," yet became the "Ruler of the Queen's 
 Navee."
 
 302 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 a great dignity I was addressing. I congratulate you 
 most heartily, though as an ex-Quaker I would rather 
 your country had your services for the works of peace 
 than of war. As you have no doubt heard, it has been 
 received not only with pleasure but great approval on 
 our side, as a very good appointment richly deserved. 
 
 The unflinching Radical, Joseph Cowen, member 
 for Newcastle, was not behindhand : 
 
 You carry with you to your new office the good wishes 
 & the sympathy of the entire House of Commons. ... I 
 have never voted for a Conservative in my life ; but if 
 there should be a contest in Westminster (where I am an 
 elector), you can safely calculate on at least one radical 
 recording his vote for you. 
 
 The voice of the Navy found expression in a 
 characteristic note from Lord Charles Beres- 
 ford : 
 
 Let me congratulate you & the Navy also at your 
 appointment. Don't think me rude if I say I was long 
 enough Shipmates with you in the House to appreciate 
 what a real good appointment the Prime Minister has 
 made. 
 
 In a letter from Sir Stafford Northcote to Mrs 
 Smith there is mingled a strain of regret at 
 losing his Financial Secretary : 
 
 I must ask leave to send you one line of Congratulation 
 and sympathy, though, by the way, I can more easily 
 sympathise with you than you can with me, for you will
 
 A.D. 1877.] MISGIVINGS. 303 
 
 not have to contend with the mixed feelings which are 
 distracting me. It is something like what I felt when 
 my daughter chose to go and marry herself off. I am as 
 troubled to know what to do without my right hand now 
 as I was then. . . . Nobody could have succeeded as your 
 husband has done in this office. He has had a very 
 important, laborious, and delicate task to discharge, and 
 I don't think he has made a slip in the whole three years. 
 He carries with him the affection as well as the respect 
 and good wishes of us all. 
 
 An old friend of the family wrote to Smith : 
 
 When I first heard of your acceptance of the office of 
 First Lord of the Admiralty, the text came into my 
 mind, " His sons come to honour and he knoweth it 
 not," as I thought of the high gratification the knowledge 
 of this appointment would have afforded to those who 
 have now passed away. 
 
 But Smith himself felt none of that confidence 
 which those who knew him best were most ready 
 to repose in him. 
 
 I am really almost sad [he wrote to Miss Giberne], for 
 now I am one of the 12 men who are responsible for the 
 Government of the country, and I am at the head of a 
 great department in which it is more easy to fail than to 
 succeed ; but I look for strength and wisdom, and I trust 
 it may be given me. Don't you understand it is not 
 matter for rejoicing with me, except as it might be with 
 a soldier charged with a great work. He may fail and he 
 may fall, but his country's welfare depends in a manner 
 on his performance of duty.
 
 304 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 Again, to his sister Augusta : 
 
 I wish my father had been alive. He certainly did not 
 expect that at 52 I should be a Cabinet Minister, and 
 now I almost wish I had never entered public life, for it 
 seems impossible to stop or to refuse work. ... I hope I 
 may have strength and judgment to do it well, and at the 
 same time to preserve the love and affection of my family. 
 
 On August 1 3 he wrote to Mrs- Smith : 
 
 I wrote to you this evening under difficulties, as I was 
 trying to listen to discussions in Cabinet and yet catch the 
 post. I told you we went down by a special train to Ports- 
 mouth with ceremony and honour. Bishop Thorold was 
 going down to do homage for his see, with Lord Wriothesley 
 JPaissell as Clerk of the Closet. They, Mr Cross, Lord 
 Coventry, Mr Sclater Booth, the Clerk of the Council, and 
 I, went in one saloon. ... At Portsmouth the train went 
 into the dockyard, and drew up at the jetty, where we 
 were received by the Admiral. The Fire Queen was 
 waiting, and we all steamed off, taking the Duke of 
 Pdchmond, who came from Goodwood, and Lord Hert- 
 ford, the Lord Chamberlain, with us. On our way we 
 met the Thunderer, which was going out for big gun 
 practice, with the Prince of Wales and some ladies on 
 board. The carriages were not at the pier when we 
 landed, but they soon overtook us. ... We had to wait 
 some time at the house, which reminds me very much of 
 Denbies. At last Lord Hertford called in Lord Coventry 
 and myself. The Queen was standing before a table. We 
 knelt down rather by her side. The oath of allegiance 
 was read over to us. We kissed the book on our knees, 
 and then kissed her hand and rose up. Then standing, 
 the Privy Councillor's oath, which is a very long one, was
 
 A.D. 1877.] LETTERS TO MRS SMITH. 305 
 
 read, and we again kissed the book, and then I shook hands 
 with all the Privy Councillors present. The Queen then 
 approved a number of Orders in Council, the titles of 
 which were read over to her ; the Privy Councillors, not 
 being members of the Cabinet, withdrew, and then the 
 Speech to be delivered to-morrow was approved. We 
 then withdrew, bowing with our faces to her the Queen 
 smiling, but not saying a word. ... A cab to Downing 
 Street for the Cabinet at 5.45. I was most kindly wel- 
 comed by all, sitting between Northcote and Salisbury, 
 opposite Lord Derby. 
 
 And on August 14 : 
 
 So much kindness brings a sense of sadness with it, of 
 weight and of fear lest failure should follow. My Patent 
 has come to-day, and I have taken my seat at the Board, 
 who address me as " Sir " in every sentence. It is strange, 
 and makes me shy at first ; and I have to do what I 
 hardly like to send for them, not to go to them; but 
 I am told they expect me, as their chief, to require 
 respect. 
 
 Mrs Smith went to Homburg during the 
 autumn, and her husband, detained in England 
 by his official duties, wrote as frequently and 
 tenderly as he was wont to do. Here is part of 
 a letter written from Greenlands : - 
 
 If I cannot look at you and talk to you, I can write to 
 you, and that is, I think, a very fit use to be made of half 
 an hour on a Sunday afternoon. . . . The swallows, which 
 are flying very low and in great numbers, just skimming 
 the top of the grass, don't seem to miss you, but it is 
 another thing with us. 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 306 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [^T. 52. 
 
 Before closing the record of Smith's connection 
 with the Treasury as its Financial Secretary, 
 it is important to notice one proposal which he 
 laid before the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 which retains more interest at the present day 
 than most of the dusty papers which have to be 
 turned over in pursuing the actions of a public 
 servant. These may have absorbed all the 
 attention and been the subject of much anxiety 
 to men of the day, consisting as they largely do 
 of deliberations on points of departmental ad- 
 ministration and the abundant record of griev- 
 ances, but they are now as the withered leaves 
 of an oak, the branches of which go on growing 
 while these moulder into dust below. But this 
 proposal contained in the following letter to 
 Sir Stafford Northcote may yet bear fruit in 
 the future : 
 
 Feb. 11, 1877. 
 
 MY DEAR NORTHCOTE, Will you consider whether the 
 moment is opportune for entertaining suggestions for a 
 change in the present system of administering the Post 
 Office ? . 
 
 It is a department of infinite detail. The gross Rev- 
 enue of upwards of seven millions sterling is collected by 
 pennies and shillings, at a cost of more than five millions ; 
 but every letter and telegram brings the servant of the Post 
 Office into contact with the Public in some shape or way. 
 There are 40,000 of these servants, and the Government is 
 made responsible for all their errors and shortcomings.
 
 A.D. 1877.] PROPOSED REFORM OF POST OFFICE. 307 
 
 It is a vast Government carrying-trade, protected as a 
 monopoly by Act of Parliament, but requiring the most 
 careful watchfulness in management more so than either 
 the Customs or Inland Eevenue, which collect revenue 
 without giving back anything in return. 
 
 The Postmaster-General has been frequently changed. 
 He is regarded as a high political officer, and is expected 
 to give assistance in Parliament to his Government. In 
 the past ... it is notorious that Postmasters-General 
 have not controlled or directed the policy and really 
 managed the business of the Department. It has been 
 open to able and ambitious officers in the Department to 
 do practically what they pleased in the name of their 
 Chief, whose nominal responsibility completely covered 
 their acts. 
 
 The whole of the - scandal arose in this way. 
 He was daring and skilful, and not being responsible 
 himself, he had no hesitation in setting the law at de- 
 fiance behind the back of his Chief, who was absolutely 
 ignorant of his acts. I do not think he would have taken 
 this course if he had been a Commissioner responsible to 
 his Colleagues and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 There is reason to believe that there is, for the time, 
 a more general sense of responsibility at the Post Office, 
 but the system which produced these evils remains. 
 
 It is beyond the power of a Postmaster -General to 
 obtain, during his short term of office, a sufficient grasp 
 of detail and of principle really to direct and control his 
 department. Is it worth while to examine whether a 
 permanent Board, similar to those of the Customs and 
 Inland Revenue, would not be a desirable substitution 
 for the office of Postmaster ? 
 
 The relations between the Treasury and the Post Office 
 are anomalous and difficult. The Postmaster cannot
 
 308 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JST. 52. 
 
 change the organisation of his Department or do any act 
 tending to increase the cost of the Service without coming 
 to the Treasury for approval. It is a Eevenue Depart- 
 ment (which, however, must be managed with a view 
 to the public convenience) presided over by a Cabinet 
 Minister, and his recommendations are challenged by 
 Members of the Government of lower official rank than 
 himself. The Treasury can, and often does, check the 
 Postmaster-General in the course he is advised by his 
 subordinates to pursue, but in the House of Commons he 
 answers for his Department as if he had no such responsi- 
 bility. ... If there were a Board in his place, there 
 would be continuity of management and of policy : there 
 would be real subordination of departmental officers, and 
 the relations between the Treasury and the Post Office 
 would be as free from strain and difficulty as they are 
 with the Boards of Customs and Inland Eevenue. 
 
 This question was suffered to drop when Smith 
 left the Treasury, but the case for a change has 
 been so well made out, Smith's arguments thus 
 set forth are so clear and weighty, that it seems 
 far from improbable that the matter must come 
 up for decision at a future day. 
 
 Smith's re-election for Westminster on appoint- 
 ment to the Admiralty had not been contested, 
 but his friends and constituents were not content 
 to allow the distinction conferred upon him to 
 pass without special marks of approval and con- 
 gratulation. On November 29 he was entertained
 
 A.D. 1877.] BANQUET IN ST JAMES'S HALL. 309 
 
 at a banquet in St James's Hall, where Lord 
 Henry Scott, M.P., presided over a company of 
 more than 500, assembled to do honour to the 
 First Lord. Smith, as every one knows, was not 
 an orator ; his speeches were never of the order 
 to faire remuer le sang, but he never spoke unless 
 he had something to say, and always succeeded 
 in making that something intelligible, and in 
 convincing his hearers of his perfect frankness. 
 In a few simple sentences he conveyed on this 
 occasion a clear impression of the circumstances 
 which had brought him into a position of such 
 dignity : 
 
 When I look back upon the past and it is only twelve 
 years ago when I was invited by some friends whom I 
 now see around me to offer myself as a candidate for the 
 representation of Westminster when I remember that I 
 failed then (not disastrously and not disgracefully) to 
 obtain the object which they rather more than I had on 
 that occasion when I remember that again in 1868 you 
 were patient and kind enough to entertain the proposal 
 that was made to you to return me as your member for 
 Westminster when I think of the period of liberty, of 
 freedom, and of comparative absence from responsibility 
 which I enjoyed as the representative of Westminster 
 for the five years that succeeded the election, I say that 
 it appears like a dream ; and I can hardly understand 
 how it is I am here to-day, not only wearing the blue 
 ribbon of parliamentary representative of the city of 
 Westminster, but also as a servant of the Crown and of
 
 310 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 the people. Frankly, I cannot tell you how it has come 
 to pass, but it has happened, that your exceeding kindness, 
 and the sympathy and support of my friends, have pushed 
 me forward into the position which I should not have been 
 tempted to seek for myself. Never once did I entertain 
 the idea of standing for Westminster until I was asked to 
 do so, and I did not again entertain the idea of seeking 
 election till I was pressed to do so. I did not seek office ; 
 it has come to me in a manner which, when I think of it, 
 is surprising to myself, and I feel deeply the responsi- 
 bility which has fallen upon me. 
 
 Next morning the ' Times/ in a leading article 
 on the principal guest at this banquet, correctly 
 defined the position which Smith had attained 
 to in the esteem of his countrymen : 
 
 Mr W. H. Smith is eminently representative of that 
 special order of men whom it is the boast of our political 
 institutions to possess. Neither an orator nor a man of 
 genius, he has risen to the foremost rank among his fellow- 
 citizens by the excellent way in which he did all the work 
 before him, and by his sterling manly character. 
 
 Another critic remarked : 
 
 One of the chief reasons of the popularity the Ministry 
 still enjoys, and of the confidence it still commands, is that 
 it- numbers in its list so many men of the Liberal type, 
 and of the special type to which Mr Smith belongs. Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, Mr Cross, and Mr Smith are all men 
 who, without conspicuous oratorical power, or any claim 
 to originality, have raised themselves to the front rank 
 by moderation, honesty, skill in business, conciliatory 
 manners, and a broad and genial Liberalism. To Lord
 
 A.D. 1877.] WARLIKE PROSPECTS. 311 
 
 Beaconsfield much credit is due for having recognised the 
 merits of men so totally unlike himself. . . . They import 
 prudence and good sense into every Conservative gather- 
 ing. They are always, as it were, brightening up the 
 boots of the party, and making it look tidy and respect- 
 able when it appears before the public. 
 
 Even ' Punch,' Liberal by tradition and practice, 
 had a kindly word for the new ruler of the Queen's 
 
 Navy : 
 
 Of Mr W. H. Smith all parties may say, as a great 
 opponent said of Lord Palmerston, " We are all proud of 
 him." . . . Xever has man or Minister more fairly earned 
 the addition of " Eight Honourable." 
 
 Some sentences in Smith's speech expressing 
 his horror of war and his earnest hope for the 
 preservation of peace were received with much 
 satisfaction in the country ; for all eyes were 
 turning anxiously towards the East, where there 
 might happen any day that which might involve 
 Great Britain in the conflict which throughout 
 the summer and autumn had been raging on the 
 Danube and the Black Sea. 
 
 The refusal of the Porte to comply with the 
 recommendations of the Constantinople Confer- 
 ence, and the consequent failure of all attempts 
 to bring Turkey into concert with other Euro- 
 pean Powers, brought that country and Russia 
 to the brink of war. On April 24, 1877, the
 
 312 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [ass. 52. 
 
 Czar, who looked upon himself as the ordained 
 champion of Sclavonic nationality, had issued a 
 declaration of war against the Sultan, without 
 the customary formula of an ultimatum. Eng- 
 lishmen have never been chary of chivalrous 
 sympathy for a weaker nation defending itself 
 against invasion by a stronger ; the old feeling 
 of comradeship, handed down from Crimean 
 days, began to revive in this country in favour 
 of our ancient allies, and was fanned into some- 
 thing like fervour by the opening acts of the 
 campaign. The gallantry and soldierly qualities 
 displayed by the Turkish troops, their successes 
 at Batoum on May 4, and at Sukhum Kale on 
 the 14th, their stout defence of Kars, and the 
 raising of the siege of that oft-beleaguered city 
 by Mukhtar Pasha, proved that far from being 
 an effete, spiritless race, the Turks were as cap- 
 able as ever they had been of splendid service 
 in the field. The Bulgarian atrocities faded into 
 insignificance before the brilliancy of the double 
 victory gained by Osman Pasha over the Rus- 
 sians at Plevna in July, and the desperate ob- 
 stinacy of the defence of the Shipka Pass. But 
 the tide of victory turned in late autumn. The 
 bravery of her devoted soldiers could not save 
 the territory of a State so rotten as that of 
 Turkey. Russian victories in Asia were followed
 
 A.D. 1878.] WAR APPEARS IMMINENT. 313 
 
 by the fall of Kars and Erzeroum, not without 
 suspicion of treason ; blood-boltered Plevna was 
 at last taken, and the Shipka Pass occupied in 
 January 1878, and then the Porte sent a Circu- 
 lar Note to the Powers, imploring them to ex- 
 tricate it from the disasters into which its own 
 obstinacy and indolence had plunged it. 
 
 On January 31 an armistice was signed at 
 
 / 
 
 Adriaiiople, and the preliminaries of peace for- 
 mulated. 
 
 Parliament was summoned to meet a full fort- 
 night or three weeks earlier than usual on 
 
 o 
 
 January 17 amid a feeling of intense uneasiness 
 and public excitement. The Queen's Speech con- 
 tained nothing to allay these : on the contrary, 
 the paragraphs referring to the Eastern situation 
 were of ominous import. After reciting how, 
 when all attempts to avert war had proved 
 futile, her Majesty had resolved to preserve 
 strict neutrality as between the belligerents, 
 and the success of Russian arms compelled the 
 Porte to bring hostilities to a close, the Speech 
 went on to describe how the Sultan, having ap- 
 pealed to the neutral Powers for their good 
 offices, and the majority of these Powers not 
 having been in favour of interfering, had ad- 
 dressed a separate appeal to her Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment. Then followed sentences of which
 
 314 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 every one who had heard or read them felt the 
 solemn significance. 
 
 Upon this subject communications have taken place 
 between the Governments of Russia and Turkey, through 
 my good offices, and I earnestly trust that they may lead 
 to a peaceful solution of the points at issue, and to a 
 termination of the war. No efforts on my part will be 
 wanting to promote that result. 
 
 Hitherto, so far as the war has proceeded, neither of 
 the belligerents has infringed the conditions on which 
 my neutrality is founded, and I willingly believe that both 
 parties are desirous to respect them, so far as it may be 
 in their power. So long as these conditions are not in- 
 fringed, my attitude will continue the same. But I can- 
 not conceal from myself that, should hostilities be un- 
 fortunately prolonged, some unexpected occurrence may 
 render it incumbent upon me to adopt measures of pre- 
 caution. Such measures could not be adequately taken 
 without adequate preparation, and I trust to the liberality 
 of my Parliament to supply the means which may be 
 required for that purpose. 
 
 Meanwhile the Russians were at the gates of 
 Constantinople : the prize for which they had so 
 long panted was within their grasp ; would they 
 relinquish it at the bidding of Great Britain ? 
 
 That the Cabinet intended to forbid the occu- 
 pation of the Sultan's capital was made certain 
 by the notice given in the House of Commons 
 that a Vote of Credit for 6,000,000 was to be 
 moved for immediately. Suddenly, on January
 
 A.D. 1878.] RESIGNATION OF LORD CARNARVON. 315 
 
 23, the startling news went abroad that the 
 British fleet had been ordered to the Dardanelles. 
 The Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, announced in the House of Lords that 
 he had resigned office, and in explaining the 
 reasons which compelled him to do so, stated that 
 he had resisted the proposal, made to the Cabinet 
 on January 12, that the fleet should be sent up 
 the Dardanelles, that he had resigned on the 15th 
 when this course had been decided on, but had 
 consented to retain office when the decision was 
 rescinded. Now, however, that the action to 
 which he objected as dangerous and unnecessary 
 had actually been taken, he had no course but to 
 leave a Cabinet with whom he found himself 
 at direct issue. 
 
 It was understood that the Earl of Derby had 
 also resigned, but, as he appeared on the Govern- 
 ment bench with his colleagues on this occasion, 
 it was evident that he was still a member of the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 Smith had a difficult task to perform on this 
 very day. In the afternoon he and Sir Charles 
 Adderley, President of the Board of Trade, re- 
 ceived the freedom of the Ancient Company of 
 Shipwrights, and were entertained at a public 
 banquet in the evening. It must have been no 
 light problem how to speak as a Cabinet Minister
 
 316 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 52. 
 
 for the Cabinet, conscious as he was that the 
 Cabinet was rent by dissension on a question so 
 momentous and beset with peril. One sentence, 
 and one only, he permitted himself to utter in ref- 
 erence to the subject uppermost in the minds of 
 all, and it was one which Englishmen of all parties 
 could receive with ringing cheers : " No greater 
 disaster than to be engaged in war could happen 
 to the country, except the loss of honour." 
 
 The view which Smith took at this most critical 
 juncture is expressed in two letters to Northcote, 
 illustrating the strain of anxiety which lay upon 
 Ministers : 
 
 ADMIRALTY, Jan. 12, 1878. 
 
 DEAR NOETHCOTE, I wish you would see Lord Derby. 
 I quite understood yesterday that he agreed to the occu- 
 pation of Gallipoli in the sense you suggested, and although 
 I have satisfied myself that the Meet can anchor there 
 without serious risk, it would be a more sensible operation 
 to take possession of the lines. 
 
 You will remember, however, that the most formidable 
 forts are at the entrance to the Black Sea, above Con- 
 stantinople. If a foreign Power holds the City, it holds 
 also the key of the Black Sea. 
 
 If we cannot come to an agreement on our policy on 
 Monday in certain events, it is a question whether it would 
 not be more patriotic to break up and resign now. It 
 will not do to be fighting in the House with the Opposi- 
 tion, and in the Cabinet with each other. Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. H. SMITH.
 
 A.D. 1878.] SMITH'S FIRMNESS IN COUNCIL. 317 
 
 Then on 1 5th : 
 
 I hope the telegram will not be sent to-night if Lord 
 Derby objects to it. The delay of a few hours is im- 
 portant, but the loss of Lord Derby would be a greater 
 evil. 
 
 Nevertheless, man of peace as he was by train- 
 ing and inclination, there is the testimony of 
 more than one of his surviving colleagues in 
 that Cabinet to prove that Smith showed 
 much firmness in this crisis. Though slow in 
 forming a judgment, he had the enviable gift, 
 once it was formed, of adhering to it without 
 anxiety. 
 
 It was not to be expected that the Vote of 
 Credit would be granted without animated de- 
 bate. The opposition to it took the form of a 
 motion of censure on the Government* moved 
 by Mr W. E. Forster. The debate is memor- 
 able for this, if for nothing else, that it gave 
 birth to a term which has become the Entrlish 
 
 o 
 
 equivalent of the French chauvinists. 1 Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson, who is nothing if not humor- 
 ous, even when he is most in earnest, quoted a 
 couplet from a popular music-hall ditty of the 
 
 1 Derived from Chauvin, a character in Scribe's ' Solclat Labor- 
 eur,' one of Xapoleon Buonaparte's veterans, and expressive of 
 boastful and aggressive patriotism.
 
 318 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 day, which he said exactly described the aggres- 
 sive spirit of the Government's policy : 
 
 " We don't want to fight, but by Jingo ! if we do, 
 We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the 
 money too." 
 
 Henceforward the war party in our country, or 
 the party suspected of warlike sentiments, was 
 to be distinguished by the name of Jingoes. 
 
 It was Smith's duty in the debate to follow 
 Mr Goschen, who had called on the Government 
 to say exactly how much money they wanted, 
 and how they intended to spend it. 
 
 The right hon. gentleman opposite says he desires to 
 strengthen the Government in the Conference in which 
 we expect shortly to take part. He is willing to give the 
 great support of his name in favour of the expression of 
 our views in the Congress, but he thinks it right to 
 say that he refuses, on the grounds of precedent and finan- 
 cial policy, to give the six millions. It appears that the 
 right hon. gentleman refuses to give the Government a 
 cheque for six millions, but he will give us a blank 
 cheque, without money expressed, to be filled up by our- 
 selves at the right time. Now if the Government are not 
 to be trusted with the responsibility of spending so much 
 as they think necessary in making preparations for guard- 
 ing their interests, in strengthening themselves where 
 they think strength is needed, then I say they ought not 
 to be trusted in going into the Conference to speak for 
 England and to commit her to the decision which will be 
 arrived at. I have taken part in financial questions dur- 
 ing the past few years, and I know no higher duties than
 
 A.D. 1878.] THE VOTE OF CREDIT. 319 
 
 to require the most exact accounts for the administration 
 of public money. But I think the principles of high 
 finance can be carried too far. It is the most earnest 
 desire and hope of her Majesty's Government that the 
 issue of war may be avoided, and none except those who 
 have occupied positions as Ministers of the Crown can 
 conceive the amount of responsibility which rests upon a 
 Minister when he expresses an opinion on such a ques- 
 tion. We believe that the course we are asking the 
 House of Commons to adopt is one which will tend in 
 the most complete and sure manner to save England from 
 the horrors of war. We believe that the making of such 
 preparations as we may deem to be necessary will be a 
 security against war. 
 
 Despite these reassuring words, each day 
 seemed to bring nearer to Great Britain the 
 necessity of a rupture with Russia. At last, on 
 February 7, there arrived a telegram from Mr 
 Layard, our Ambassador at Constantinople, to 
 the effect that the Russian army had occupied 
 that city. The effect upon Parliament arid the 
 country was electric ; the fighting spirit of the 
 nation was afire ; Mr Forster withdrew his 
 amendment to the motion for the Vote of 
 Credit, and although the extreme Radicals in- 
 sisted upon going to a division, the Vote was 
 carried that night by 295 to 96 a majority of 
 199 for the Government. It turned out that 
 the telegram was untrue : Mr Lavard had been 
 
 O ! 
 
 deceived by the presence of a number of Russian
 
 320 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 officers and men on leave in the streets of 
 Stamboul. Nevertheless, nothing could be more 
 threatening or critical than the situation, and on 
 February 8 part of the British fleet was moved 
 up to Constantinople as a precautionary measure. 
 
 Next came a message from the Sovereign an- 
 nouncing that it had been deemed expedient 
 to call out a portion of the Reserves, and the 
 Address in reply to this formed the subject of 
 another vote of no confidence in the policy of 
 the Government. But this was easily disposed of : 
 the Opposition, however deep and sincere might 
 be their disapproval of the policy of Ministers, 
 were resolved to adhere to honourable tradition, 
 and to let it be known that in foreign policy 
 there is one England and not two Englands. 
 The Address was agreed to by 310 votes to 64. 
 
 By an extract from the diary of one of the 
 First Lord of the Admiralty's daughters, a 
 glimpse is afforded of the anxious and dis- 
 turbed state of affairs at this time : 
 
 Sunday, Feb. 10. Very excited and peculiar Sunday 
 owing to telegrams on Eastern Question. Papa roused 
 between 5 & 6 A.M. to decipher telegrams ; not able to go 
 to Ch. Going to see Sir S. Northcote, L d - Salisbury, 
 also L d - Beaconsfield at 10.15 P.M. L d- Tenterden l called 
 at 5.30, & again a few minutes after 10. Capt. Codring- 
 
 1 Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office.
 
 A.D. 1878.] THE "JINGO" POLICY. 321 
 
 ton l to lunch and dinner. Six ironclads have been sent 
 to the Straits to protect English life & property at Con- 
 stantinople, but Turks would not open them passage. 
 
 Military preparations in this country went for- 
 ward amain : arsenals and factories were working 
 double time, and orders were issued from the 
 Admiralty to fit out every available ship. All 
 this time Mr Gladstone kept rather quiet within 
 Parliament ; but from time to time he addressed 
 meetings in the country, denouncing the policy 
 of " Jingoism." At length it appeared as if the 
 promptness and vigour displayed by the British 
 Government were beginning to take effect. The 
 Czar, it was known, passionately longed for 
 peace : he could not but be impressed by the 
 prospect of entering upon war with a powerful 
 enemy, wealthy, fresh, and determined, after the 
 terrible losses which his armies had endured in 
 the campaign of 1877. An agreement was come 
 to that the Russians should not occupy Gallipoli, 
 provided the English fleet withdrew from the 
 immediate neighbourhood of Constantinople. Ne- 
 gotiations, however, which had been set on foot 
 for a Congress of the Powers failed, owing to 
 dissensions in the English Cabinet. The Earl 
 of Derby resigned the seals of the Foreign Office, 
 
 1 Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, who 
 afterwards married Mr Smith's step-daughter, Miss Leach. 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 322 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 and was succeeded by the Marquis of Salisbury. 
 One of the causes which led to the last-named oc- 
 currence, to avert which so many precautions had 
 been taken, was the ordering of 7000 Indian 
 troops to Malta, and this formed the subject of 
 a second motion of censure on the Government 
 in the House of Commons. 
 
 Some idea of the intense anxiety of the situa- 
 tion may be formed from the following despatches 
 exchanged between the First Lord of the Admir- 
 alty and the Admiral commanding the Mediter- 
 ranean Squadron. They afford an interesting 
 illustration of the effect which the means of rapid 
 communication have had in controlling and direct- 
 ing the actions of armies and navy at great dis- 
 tances, and it suggests some curious reflections 
 that this duty should have been discharged by 
 one so pacific in training and character as W.- H. 
 Smith. Yet it is not always the most warlike 
 who have resoluteness at command : suaviter in 
 modo is not seldom merely ancillary to fortiter 
 in re. 
 
 The First Lord of the Admiralty to the Prime Minister. 
 
 Private. 
 
 ADMIRALTY, 
 Sunday Morning, Feb. 10, 1878. 
 
 DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD, We have had three mes- 
 sages from Admiral Hornby during the night. The two
 
 A.D. 1878.] ADMIRALTY DISPATCHES. 323 
 
 first are more or less unintelligible, and efforts are still 
 being made to decypher them. The last, dated 9 P.M., 
 shows, I think, that Mr Layard has not yet been able to 
 communicate with him. Chanak is a very strong fort at 
 the entrance of the Narrows, and it was there that the 
 Admiral received the message on the 24th ordering him 
 back to Besika Bay. Yours sincerely, W. H. SMITH. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 ADMIRALTY, S.W., 
 Feb. 10, 1878, 7.40 P.M. 
 
 DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD, I have just received the 
 telegram enclosed from Admiral Hornby, dated this morn- 
 ing from Besika Bay. 
 
 It is most singular that nothing has been heard from 
 Mr Layard ; . . . but I suppose we must wait for an 
 answer to our telegram of to-day before we give Hornby 
 instructions. 
 
 I shall be ready to come over to you at any time you 
 may require this evening ; but I am afraid we can do 
 nothing. Yours very truly, W. H. SMITH. 
 
 Telegram from Vice-Admiral Hornby. 
 No. 10. 
 
 BESIKA, Feb. 10, 9 A.M. 
 
 Sent Salamis to Chanak yesterday, and weighed with 
 ships ordered at 6 P.M. When inside Koumkaleh, Salamis 
 returned. No telegraphic communication with Ambassa- 
 dor : no Firman, and Pacha protests against squadron en- 
 tering. Anchored before Koumkaleh at night. At 1 
 A.M. Pacha received answer from Constantinople: no 
 request made by British Ambassador to Porte : contrary 
 to treaty for squadron to enter: Pacha to enforce the
 
 324 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 treaty. Have returned Besika Bay : no telegraphic com- 
 munication yet from Ambassador. 
 
 Am I to proceed by night with ships named, or to force 
 passage by day with whole squadron ? Squadron insuffi- 
 cient to begin the [unintelligible] at once should 
 
 be to pass the two lower forts and silence Medjideh first, 
 then return and silence the lower ones if passage 
 is to be kept open. Bequest instructions. 
 
 The First Lord of the Admiralty to the Prime Minister. 
 
 Private. 
 
 ADMIRALTY, 
 Feb. 13, 1878, 1.15 P.M. 
 
 DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD. I have a telegram from 
 Hornby, dated from the Alexandra at 1.30 this morning, 
 stating his intention to sail at daybreak with six iron- 
 clads in pursuance of orders. Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. H. SMITH. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 Feb. 14, 1878, 9 A.M. 
 
 We have a telegram from the Vice-Consul at the 
 Dardanelles that " the six armoured ships passed through 
 yesterday at 3 P.M. into the Sea of Marmora, the Turkish 
 authorities protesting but not resisting." 
 
 Telegram from Vice-Admiral Hornby. 
 
 No. 18. 
 
 GALLIPOLI, 2 P.M., Feb. 14, 78. 
 
 Capt. Fife informs me the Russians are in force near 
 Karak, twelve miles from Bulair : they may have 50,000 
 men there to-morrow evening: are believed to have a
 
 A.D. 1878.] ADMIRALTY DISPATCHES. 325 
 
 feasible plan to cross the Gulf of Zeros and land in the 
 rear of Bulair lines, while they attack in front. I recom- 
 mend all ships at Besika Bay, except one, be moved to 
 Zeros with me to oppose any attack arising on this pen- 
 insula, and that Eear- Admiral Commerell assist to defend 
 Bulair lines, and if they are (in) considerable force to 
 destroy heavy guns in evacuating fort of Dardanelles: 
 also that I should return immediately (to) eastward end 
 of Marmora. Rear-Admiral remains at Gallipoli with 
 Agincourt and Swiftsure. I proceed immediately to 
 Prince's Island. 
 
 Following sharply on this came an order from 
 the First Lord of the Admiralty to Vice- Admiral 
 Hornby, which seemed to shut out all hopes of 
 the maintenance of peace with Russia. 
 
 No. 23. 
 
 February 15. 
 
 All ships but one are to go from Besika Bay to Gulf of 
 Xeros, with orders to watch Russian troops, and if they 
 observe preparations for embarkation with a view to 
 landing on the peninsula of Gallipoli, they are to warn 
 Russian commander they have orders to prevent such 
 landing, and they are to oppose it by force if persevered 
 in. W. H. S. 
 
 Telegram from Rear- Admiral Commerell to the First 
 Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 GALLIPOLI, Feb. 15, 11.55 A.M. 
 
 I visited Gallipoli lines to-day with permission of 
 Suleiman Pacha. Was not favourably impressed with
 
 326 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 state of defences. Advanced post of Kussians at Kadikoi 
 in sight of Bulair, from which place I am of opinion that 
 determined attack in force would carry Turkish position. 
 Am informed positively that large quantity of munitions 
 are being collected at Kadikoi. 
 
 Telegram from Vice-Admiral Hornby to the First Lord 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 No. 24 
 
 PRINCE'S ISLAND, Feb. 17, 8 P.M. 
 
 In reference to their lordships' telegraphic communica- 
 tion of yesterday, I beg to report our force at Gallipoli is 
 insufficient to destroy heavy guns unless the Turks con- 
 sent. If the Russians capture the peninsula, the Turks 
 would probably make better terms by leaving it in their 
 hands. I beg to urge upon their lordships that I consider 
 the position of Gallipoli to be most critical, and it cannot 
 be assured without a speedy understanding with the Turk- 
 ish Government. ... It seems certain that Suleiman 
 Pacha cannot be replaced by a trustworthy general, and 
 the positions held by the united forces of the expedition 
 under English and Turkish, or English alone. I need 
 hardly point out that the squadron would render very 
 small service if Gallipoli peninsula were lost. Your tele- 
 graphic communication, No. 23 of 15th, received. Under- 
 stand it to be answer to mine of 14th, No. 18, and have 
 moved from Prince's Island to rendezvous, seven miles 
 S.S.W. of it temporarily, according to Ambassador's 
 wishes. 
 
 Please telegraph to Rear -Admiral Commerell at Gal- 
 lipoli result of Professor Abel's experiments on bursting 
 guns.
 
 A.D. 1878.] ADMIRALTY DISPATCHES. 327 
 
 Letter from Sir Stafford Northcote to the Prime Minister. 
 
 12 DOWSING STREET, WHITEHALL, 
 Feb. 20, 1878. 
 
 DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD, Will you call a Cabinet at 
 twelve to-morrow ? Smith has news which requires 
 immediate attention. Yours faithfully, S. H. N. 
 
 The news referred to is contained in the following 
 telegrams : 
 
 Telegram from Vice- Admiral Hornby to the First Lord 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 PERA, Feb. 20, 6 P.M. (from Dardanelles). 
 
 Ambassador has informed me that the Eussians have 
 demanded peremptorily Turkish fleet and to enter Con- 
 stantinople with 30,000 men. Do my orders still hold 
 not to interfere ? I have sent this by sea to Dardanelles 
 to avoid Eussian telegraph station. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 TUZLA BAY, Feb. 20, 2.30 P.M. 
 
 Telegram number 28 of 19th received. No number 
 27 received. One telegram of 18th in the vocabulary 
 cipher received, not numbered. Eussians reported to be 
 advancing to M. San Stephano, thus turning will get in 
 rear of the last line of defence Moukhtar Pacha was pre- 
 paring for Constantinople. The city and Bosphorus will 
 be at their mercy. 
 
 From Captain of Ealevjli to the Same. 
 
 KOUMKALEH, Feb. 20, 6.30 P.M. 
 
 Eear- Admiral reports wire to Constantinople cut both 
 sides.
 
 328 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 Vice-Admiral Hornby to the Same. 
 
 TUZLA BAT, Feb. 21, 5 A.M. 
 
 Eear- Admiral Commerell reports good progress in 
 strengthening Bulair lines, but the assistance of ships 
 to cover the flanks is indispensable. If he might co- 
 operate he thinks Eussia would not pass. This squadron 
 might assist materially in preventing Eussians entering 
 Constantinople, as it could command the best road for 
 guns on each flank. I think they could not enter if we 
 assist Turks at once. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 ISMID, March 10, 4.10 P.M. 
 
 Secret. 
 
 . . . Bosphorus forts would probably not stop ironclads 
 going into Black Sea, but would stop all supplies. If 
 in Eussian hands and strengthened by torpedoes, no 
 squadron could pass without severe loss. If there is any 
 idea of moving in that direction, no time should be lost 
 in opening negotiations with the Turks. Without their 
 help the Straits cannot be saved, and the Turks seem, 
 daily succumbing to Eussian influence. 
 
 N.B. The group (of cipher) standing for " Black Sea " 
 is still doubtful. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 No. 64. 
 
 ISMID, March 23, 7.30 P.M. 
 
 Your telegram No. 48 of 22d received. The Eear- 
 Admiral will decidedly require tM 7 o powerful steam- 
 vessels as long as he remains on his present duty at 
 Gallipoli. Eear - Admiral has observed two merchant 
 steam - vessels pass towards Dedeagatch under Eussian
 
 A.D. 1878.] ADMIRALTY DISPATCHES. 329 
 
 merchant colours. He ordered our cruisers in the Gulf 
 of Zeros, in the event of Eussian troops embarking at 
 Dedeagatch or elsewhere aboard any steam-vessel for the 
 purpose of passing Dardanelles, to follow such vessel in 
 an unobtrusive manner as far as Gallipoli ; and if any 
 attempt be made to land the troops, the cruiser is to act 
 in pursuance of Admiralty instructions communicated to 
 me in your telegram of Feb. 15. . . . Ambassador, 
 Constantinople, acquaints me that the minister at Athens 
 reports Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs has informed 
 him, on the authority of Italian Vice- Consul at Volo, that 
 Turks have pillaged and destroyed three villages near 
 Mount Olympus ; that they have murdered old men, 
 women, and children, and that some families escaped to 
 the mountains, where, unless rescued, they must perish. 
 I have telegraphed to send Euby to inquire, and if 
 necessary remove fugitives; if not, she returns im- 
 mediately. 
 
 Tlic Same to the Same. 
 No. 71. 
 
 ISMID, March 31, 2.55 P.M. 
 
 Following telegraphic communication received last 
 night from Ambassador viz. : 
 
 " From British Consul I hear that from more than one 
 source, but give the information under reserve, that 
 Generals Scobeleff and Gourko have received orders to 
 prepare to make a dash on Gallipoli in the event of a 
 war between England and Eussia being imminent ; and 
 that a corps d'armee is to take possession at the same time 
 of Kavak near entrance of the Bosphorus. A Greek 
 merchant who has been a large contractor for provisions 
 for the Eussian army has received orders to keep them 
 at Constantinople."
 
 330 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 52. 
 
 In view of the gravity of the situation the Ambassador 
 would like two small vessels stationed at Constantinople. 
 With Russians collecting torpedoes at Eodosto, Rear- 
 Admiral requires assistance, and Condor is going to 
 Gallipoli to him to-day. This leaves only three small 
 ships for this port and Constantinople, and to keep up 
 communication between them. 
 
 I request instructions for guidance in the event of war 
 being imminent, observing that the ships cannot remain 
 with safety in the Bosphorus at night whilst the north 
 shore is in possession of an enemy provided with White- 
 head torpedoes. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 ISMID, March 31, 3.50 P.M. 
 
 Ambassador telegraphs following message, dated to-day, 
 . . . from Captain Fife, dated Gallipoli to-day : " Large 
 bodies of Russians expected at Keshan to-day on the 
 way of Cadi Keni from Adrianople. Keshan ceased to 
 reply by telegraph to-day." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 ISMID, April 2, 2.30 P.M. 
 
 Affairs at Constantinople said to be very critical. Grand 
 Duke obtaining great influence with several military 
 Pachas. Appointment of Ministry favourable to Russia 
 thought probable. General Dickson tells me he thinks 
 Bulair lines could be held by troops now there if ordered 
 to defend them, but recommends assistance of men and 
 officers from the fleet in the event of attack to prove to 
 the troops that we are in alliance with Turkey. 
 
 He fears orders would be given from Constantinople 
 not to defend the lines. In that case he thinks we should
 
 A.D. 1878.] ADMIRALTY DISPATCHES. 331 
 
 defend the lines by taking General and troops into our 
 pay. I concur with him, and submit that the Eear- 
 Admiral should have authority to do so if the Russians 
 prepare to attack. 
 
 Eussians have lately been increasing their forces at 
 Kadikoi. 
 
 Submit in future that ' treaty should be made with 
 Turkish Government to join us if we are forced into 
 war with Russia. Our fleet cannot stay in the Sea of 
 Marmora or Black Sea for more than a very few days 
 unless some ports are open to us. If alliance with Turkey 
 could be formed, I submit that, if war is imminent, this 
 squadron should be withdrawn to Gallipoli or Besika 
 Bay. 
 
 I cannot believe Turkey would defend Gallipoli for us, 
 unless we will do something for them as well as for our- 
 selves. Time seems precious. . . . Have ordered about 
 1500 tons of Welsh coal from Malta. I think as pre- 
 cautionary measure equal quantity should follow shortly : 
 submit, therefore, that another steam collier should be 
 sent from England with agreement for delivery. 
 
 Telegram from Rear- Admiral Sir J. Commerell to the Same. 
 
 BESIKA, April 3, 12.5 P.M. 
 Secret and confidential. 
 
 I think First Pacha at Bulair would hail with delight 
 an order from Constantinople to surrender lines. Second 
 Pacha is different man altogether. 
 
 - ? soldiers would defend them if First Pacha were 
 away. 
 
 Of course if lines were given up, Hussein at Dardanelles 
 would not let me destroy guns on European side. The 
 only way I can see to ensure safety of Gallipoli is to
 
 332 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JEI. 52. 
 
 order ? be given over : embark the Maltese garrison 
 
 in the Channel Squadron and Indian troop-ships : cutting 
 the wires and allowing no ships to touch there, and send 
 the ships to rendezvous in Gulf Xeros. They need not 
 land until Russians make movement : excuse suggestion. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 Secret and confidential. 
 
 BESIKA, April 4, 8 P.M. 
 
 I am not sure about the money. If I see my way, 
 what sum may I offer ? It must be high to succeed. 
 
 By this time the month of April the war- 
 clouds were beginning to break ; Count Schouva- 
 loff had arrived in England on a special mission 
 from the Russian Court, the Berlin Congress had 
 been agreed on, and a second time the House of 
 Commons ratified the policy of Ministers by a 
 majority of 121347 votes to 226. 
 
 Needless to do more than allude to the result 
 of the Congress, the return of our Plenipoten- 
 tiaries Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury 
 an event marked in public memory by the speech 
 made by the Prime Minister from a window of 
 his house in Downing Street, in which he claimed, 
 before an enthusiastic multitude, to have brought 
 back "Peace with Honour." 1 Relieved from the 
 
 1 Lord Beaconsfield, it is said, piqued himself on his fluency in 
 French, but his idioms were rather intrepid than correct. He had 
 command of a copious vocabulary, but his accent was courageously
 
 A.D. 1878.] THE BERLIN CONFERENCE. 333 
 
 apprehension which had weighed so heavily on 
 them for so many months, people were jubilant 
 in their approval of the success gained by English 
 diplomacy. Great Britain was rehabilitated in the 
 eyes of Europe, and at the same time delivered 
 from the imminence of war. 
 
 cis-pontine, a survival of that Anglo-Gallic which developed itself 
 among English officers during the Peninsular and Waterloo cam- 
 paigns. Some consternation, therefore, arose among the English 
 who accompanied him to Berlin, when they learnt that the British 
 Prime Minister intended to deliver his opening speech at the Con- 
 ference in French, and had already devoted much time to its pre- 
 paration. It would have been a delicate matter to explain to his 
 lordship that, while it was of the utmost importance that his speech 
 should be understood by the other Plenipotentiaries, that object 
 could not be attained unless he spoke in his native tongue. In this 
 dilemma recourse was had to the good offices of Lord Odo Kussell, 
 British Minister at Berlin could he diplomatically convey to Lord 
 Beaconsfield how necessary it was that he should speak in English ? 
 
 Lord Odo pondered for some moments, and then said 
 
 " Yes, I think I see my way. Leave it to me." 
 
 That afternoon he visited Lord Beaconsfield, and before taking 
 his leave, remarked 
 
 " By the by, I must tell you how much disappointment was felt 
 by the other Plenipotentiaries when it became known that your 
 lordship intended to address the Congress in French." 
 
 " Why should they be disappointed ? " asked the Prime Minister, 
 putting up his eyeglass. "Is not French the language most generally 
 understood on the Continent ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly, my dear lord ; but they had been looking forward 
 with the keenest anticipation to the pleasure of hearing English 
 spoken by its greatest living master, and, if I might venture to 
 intercede, I would beg you to give them this gratification. It is of 
 some importance, you know, to predispose them favourably to the 
 consideration of the questions which will arise." 
 
 " I think there is a good deal in what you say," observed Beacons- 
 field ; and, in the end, he complied with Lord Odo's suggestion.
 
 334 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>r. 52. 
 
 Nevertheless, for the third time this session, 
 the Government had to defend themselves against 
 a vote of censure, moved by the Marquis of 
 Hartington, and supported by the impassioned 
 oratory of Gladstone, Lowe, and Forster. It was 
 a false move in tactics, as the division list proved, 
 for the House acquitted the Administration of 
 blame by 338 votes to 195 a crushing majority 
 of 143.
 
 335 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1878. 
 JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CYPRUS. 
 
 ONE result of the Berlin Congress had been the 
 cession of Cyprus to England, to be, as Lord 
 Beaconsfield described it, a " place of arms " in the 
 Eastern Mediterranean. The accounts of the capa- 
 bilities, resources, condition, and popular feeling of 
 this island were so conflicting that the First Lord 
 of the Admiralty and the Secretary of State for 
 War (Colonel the Hon. F. E. Stanley, M.P. 1 ) set 
 out in the autumn to inspect it for themselves. 
 
 The occasion was one not to be lost by that 
 gentle satirist, Mr Bromley Davenport, M.P., who, 
 more suo, celebrated the expedition in verse : 
 
 " The Chief of the Army and Lord of the Fleet 
 Have gone out to visit both Cyprus and Crete ; 
 The natives, delighted to see such fine stars, 
 Christened one of them Neptune, the other one Mars ; 
 They erected an altar to Stanley forthwith, 
 And put up a bookstall to W. H. Smith." 
 
 Now sixteenth Earl of Derby.
 
 336 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 On the eve of his departure for the East, Smith 
 received a letter from H.RH. the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge referring to the Royal Marines in terms 
 which, as expressing the confidential opinion of 
 the Commander -in -Chief, cannot fail of being 
 pleasant reading to the members of that dis- 
 tinguished branch of the service. 
 
 o 
 
 -p . , GLOUCESTER HOUSE, PARK LANE. W., 
 
 fnvate. Sunday, October 20, 78. 
 
 MY DEAR MR SMITH, I returned late last night from 
 a general tour of inspections, & hearing that you are to 
 start to-night for Cyprus with Colonel Stanley, I write a 
 line to say that I have had an opportunity of seeing the 
 four Divisions of Koyal Marines at their respective 
 Stations, and cannot speak in too high terms of their state 
 of efficiency & smartness. They are splendid fellows, in 
 excellent military order, & fit for any work that may be 
 required of them. I am anxious to bear testimony to 
 their excellent condition, as I occasionally see rumours in 
 the public prints that there is some idea of reducing their 
 numbers, and some naval officers go even so far as to say 
 that the Royal Marines are now become a useless body. I 
 hope you will never be induced to listen to such views. 
 All the old & valuable Officers of the Navy do not share 
 their opinions, & I trust they will not find any encourage- 
 ment on the part of the First Lord, who, after all, is the 
 authority upon whom these matters depend. I am not 
 a Naval Man and know little of Naval matters, but I have 
 been a public servant of the Crown for many years, & 
 have gained some experience in that position, & I feel 
 satisfied that the Eoyal Marines are a valuable branch of
 
 A.D. 1878.] LETTER TO DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 337 
 
 our public services, & as such deserve every encourage- 
 ment & support, & certainly not abolition, or even reduc- 
 tion. I remain, dear Mr Smith, yours most sincerely, 
 
 GEORGE. 
 To this the First Lord made the following; 
 
 C5 
 
 reply :- 
 
 H.M.S. HIMALAYA, 
 Of CYPRUS, Oct. 29, '78. 
 
 SIR, I had the honour to receive your Eoyal High- 
 ness's letter on the subject of the Eoyal Marines on the 
 day of my departure from London, and as it was only a 
 few minutes before the train started, I was unable to reply. 
 
 I am really very much obliged to your Eoyal Highness 
 for the information contained in the letter. It is most 
 gratifying to us at the Admiralty to have the very high 
 authority of your Eoyal Highness bearing testimony to 
 the efficiency of the Marines. They have appeared to me, 
 with my very limited knowledge of discipline and drill, 
 to be in a satisfactory state, but I am perfectly assured 
 now as to their condition by the statement of your Eoyal 
 Highness. 
 
 So far as the present Board of Admiralty are con- 
 cerned, there is certainly no foundation whatever for the 
 rumours to which your Eoyal Highness has referred. 
 We have no intention of effecting a permanent reduction 
 in the numbers of the corps, still less of abolishing it. 
 For my own part I regard them as a very valuable reserve, 
 capable of being used at sea or on land, and until wars 
 cease such a reserve certainly should be retained. I have 
 the honour to be, sir, your obedient humble servant, 
 
 W. H. SMITH. 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 338 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 As was always the case when duty obliged him 
 to make a prolonged absence from home, Smith 
 felt the pain of parting from wife and children in 
 a degree which, to some people, might appear 
 disproportionate to the length of the separation. 
 But his was a warmly affectionate nature, and he 
 was not ashamed to give expression to his feelings 
 in the journal which he kept during this tour. 
 
 Monday, Oct. 21, 1878. Started from Greenlands for the 
 10.10 train. Did not "light up" in the brougham as we 
 had been accustomed to do. Neither of us cared for it. 
 The two dear children had our last good-bye as we drove 
 rapidly through the gate, and although we were not sad, 
 we were, as once before, not talkative. The weather 
 cleared up, and we cleared up too, and we began to say to 
 each other, What a blessing it will be not to see a pouch l 
 for perhaps a month ! 
 
 The Admiralty was a rush. I took leave of Admiral 
 Hood, and gave him parting directions. . . . 
 
 At the Charing Cross station a saloon was provided, 
 and there we met Sir George Elliot, who had come from 
 Newcastle on Saturday to join us. 
 
 Leave-taking again with Lethbridge, and, to my sur- 
 prise, White, Sandifer, and Taylor, old Strand faces, 
 came to shake hands, and say, God bless you, sir. 
 
 We were off, with a box of cigars with which Alpiii 
 MacGregor actually ran from the Admiralty to Charing 
 Cross at the last moment, that we might not lack good 
 tobacco on the road. 
 
 1 An official " pouch " : the leather bags in which papers and de- 
 spatches are sent from the public departments to Ministers.
 
 A.D. 1878.] PARIS. 339 
 
 At Folkestone : 
 
 . . . There was also Mr Komaine, a past Secretary to the 
 Admiralty, his wife and child, all going back to Egypt. 
 
 Codrington also found an officer friend ; but the steamer 
 would not stay : the order was given, " Half speed ahead," 
 the paddles turned, and there was a good deal of dirty 
 water, but no motion in the ship, and so it went on for 
 half an hour. At last we got off fairly ; the rain had 
 ceased, and we had a good but a slow passage across. On 
 the other side we found a carriage reserved for us, and we 
 travelled comfortably to Paris, now and then saying a 
 very few words to each other, and they were very few, of 
 those we loved. Some thoughts are too precious to be 
 given expression to. There is a sort of sacrilege in allow- 
 ing the birds of the air to listen to them. 
 
 Paris had been en fete. There had been a great giving 
 away of prizes in the day, and flags on the houses and 
 illuminations in the streets ; but the people were return- 
 ing home, and the gas-lustres were out and the Chinese 
 lanterns were going out, but still the place looked cheer- 
 ful and the people happy, lingering to see the last of the 
 show. 
 
 Tuesday, 22d. . . . Called on Stanley at the Hotel 
 Balmoral. Found Lord and Lady Skelmersdale with 
 them. Promised to dine with them that evening, and 
 start with them. Proceeded to the Embassy. Saw Lord 
 Lyons, who promised his assistance to get us a comfort- 
 able journey, and sent Collet off with the Embassy fac- 
 teur to the station to secure a saloon for the trip to 
 Turin. . . . We went on to the Exhibition, and as we 
 entered at the Trocadero, looking down on the fair below 
 us, it was impossible not to admire the energy which had 
 done so much in a short time.
 
 340 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 Our object was to see the naval models of ships, and 
 the specimens of iron and steel exhibited by France and 
 England. The Creuzat Exhibition was very interesting, 
 and might almost alarm one for the supremacy of our 
 national industries in iron and steel. 
 
 Then we tried to get luncheon, and failed. Every place 
 was crammed, and the rain fell piteously. We found our 
 carriage ; cocker had left the windows open, and the seats 
 were wet, the back was wet, everything was wet. 
 
 We drove to the Hotel Bristol, and the Prince requested 
 me to see him. He told me he was almost tired of the 
 functions he had to go through. Prize-giving yesterday ; 
 deputation to-day ; a f$te at Versailles at night ; it was 
 too much. He said that his brother the Duke of Edin- 
 burgh had been staying two days with him, and only left 
 the night before for Marseilles to join his ship, and he 
 wished very much I could have seen him. We parted. 
 I returned with Codrington to the hotel to write letters, 
 and at 5 in came Mr Lawson of the ' Daily Telegraph ' to 
 ask me what I thought of affairs. 
 
 Well, I did not think much ; what did Mr Lawson 
 think ? He said his wife had not seen Venice, and he 
 was going there to-morrow for three weeks. I was off 
 that night to Cyprus. " Ah ! then you don't think any- 
 thing will happen just at present ? " " I hope not."- 
 " You wouldn't go if you thought anything would hap- 
 pen ? " " Oh, certainly not ! and it is just as well to show 
 -confidence." The ' Daily Telegraph ' and the Eirst Lord 
 shook hands and parted, with professions of profound 
 esteem and friendship ; and then we finished our letters, 
 and went out for a stroll, and to buy Tauchnitz for the 
 journey. Up and down the Eue de la Paix, lingering at 
 the jewellers' windows, admiring Sirandin's baskets, and 
 the nattily dressed girls who presided over the sweetie-
 
 A.D. 1878.] ANGONA. 341 
 
 shop ; wondering whether the electric light really was so 
 wonderful ; thinking in between of home, and of all that 
 makes home lovely. The time passed, and it was neces- 
 sary to go at once to Colonel Stanley's hotel, where we 
 were all to dine together. At dinner, in addition to the 
 travellers, there were Lady Constance Stanley, and Lord 
 and Lady Skelmersdale. Dinner was late, and there was 
 frequent looking at watches ; but we got off in good time, 
 and drove to the Lyons Station, where we found a good 
 saloon carriage reserved for us. 
 
 So the real journey commenced, and we found ourselves 
 a party of seven, with four servants and a courier, Sir 
 George Elliot, Sir Henry Holland, 1 and Captain Fitz- 
 george joining us at the station. 
 
 Thursday, 24th. ... In Italy on the Adriatic coast 
 a rich garden-like country, with olive and mulberry 
 trees planted in rows in the fields. The sea is very 
 Italian-like. Fishing-boats with the peculiar Mediter- 
 ranean sails, half red, half orange-colour, sitting like large 
 birds on the water. 
 
 ... At Ancona we found breakfast prepared for us, 
 ordered by telegraph by the consul at Turin. Still an 
 hour behind time, but we were waited for while we 
 breakfasted nevertheless. 
 
 Ancona is a large and ancient town with a considerable 
 trade, and an important port. It evidently possesses 
 great churches and public buildings of antiquity, and it 
 is a little sad that we should have to run through places 
 possessing such historical interest without looking at 
 them. The people are busily at work in the fields ; 
 women barelegged and barefooted, with stiff white 
 petticoats, blue bodices, red kerchiefs over head and 
 
 1 Created Baron Knutsford in 1888.
 
 342 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [an. 53. 
 
 neck, and straw hats over all. They look vigorous and 
 picturesque. On the shore are fishermen pulling their 
 nets ashore in the hot sun, with very little on but a pair 
 of thin trousers and a shirt. We passed Loretto, with its 
 church built round the house in which Joseph lived, 
 which flew from the Holy Land first to Albania, and 
 then, not being appreciated there, to the opposite shore, 
 alighting on the hill now named Loretto. 
 
 On we go in heat, but, thanks to the late rain, not 
 in dust. 
 
 At Foggia we left the sea and struck across a vast plain 
 to Naples, a five-and-a-half-hours' fast run. To the west- 
 ward was a range of very grand hills. There were some 
 dark clouds about them, and as the sun passed through 
 them they seemed to divide, giving golden fringes to their 
 edges, and lighting up all below and around with a golden 
 haze which could be felt but not described. The plain 
 was mostly uncultivated, and houses few and far between. 
 Troops of horses here, some hundreds together, being 
 driven home apparently ; cattle in the same way, and now 
 and then sheep. Darkness settled upon us ; the stars 
 came out brightly. We were all very tired, and those 
 who did not sleep thought again of home. 
 
 At 10.30 we rumbled into the station. Evan Macgregor 
 and Wilson were there to meet us, and, leaving them to 
 bring on the servants and the luggage, we drove off 
 through the town along the sea-front to the Mole. None 
 of us could speak Italian, and at the point where the 
 Mole turns off at right angles to the sea, three men 
 stopped the coachman and said we were to get out there. 
 We hesitated, as they did not look trustworthy, and two 
 went down to see if our boat was there. The men said it 
 had gone off with the three Codrington, Dalyell, and 
 Fitzgeorge who had preceded us in a carriage. We still
 
 A.D. 1878.] NAPLES. 343 
 
 mistrusted them, when fortunately Myers, who was in 
 charge of our pinnace, came up with his lantern, and said 
 the boat was lying waiting for us further on. The three 
 men disappeared like evil spirits in the darkness, and 
 Myers got on the box of the carriage with his lantern, 
 seated himself on the coachman's seat, and told him 
 where to drive. 
 
 It was very pleasant to find ourselves in the pinnace 
 again, and steaming out, we were soon on board the 
 Himalaya, where we were very heartily welcomed by 
 our friends who had gone before. . . . 
 
 Friday, Oct. 25. A bath what luxury ! On deck, 
 and the whole Bay of Xaples in sunshine before us ; 
 Vesuvius smoking, but clear to the top, the Observatory 
 standing on a shoulder of the mountain, olive -groves 
 and vineyards clambering up its sides, and white 
 houses, surrounded by gardens, glistening. Descrip- 
 tion is out of the question; every variety of shape in 
 rock, the sea deep blue, and the curves where land and 
 sea meet moulded by Xature as man could not mould 
 them. The Bay of Naples is very lovely, but, if I dare 
 say it, it wants the bright green of an English landscape. 
 I did not land, and therefore I saw nothing of Naples 
 and of Pompeii, which I could not see from the ship ; 
 but I should be glad when holiday-time comes to visit 
 the place again. 
 
 . . . Having agreed with Wellesley and the Con- 
 troller that I ought to visit the Italia, a large ship 
 building by the Italian Government at the Castellamare 
 Dockyard, permission was obtained from the admiral, and 
 we steamed out of Xaples Harbour at about 11, coasting 
 past the site of Herculaneum, in full view of the shore, 
 to Castellamare. 
 
 We dropped anchor at about 12, and went ashore
 
 344 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 in the pinnace. The health officer wanted to stop us, 
 but we told him the Himalaya was a man-of-war, and 
 he was at once dumb. A moment after the captain of 
 the port met us, came into the pinnace, and guided us in. 
 On landing, we were received by the assistant con- 
 tractor in charge and shown over the ship, which is 
 larger and will have more powerful engines than any 
 ship in the English -navy. Her lines are very fine, cal- 
 culated for speed. 
 
 Here follows a technical description of the 
 ship. 
 
 I was much interested, as was also Mr T. Brassey, 1 
 who came with me, and who parted from me here. I 
 had previously visited his yacht the Sunbeam, which was 
 lying close to the Himalaya. Mrs Brassey was spending 
 the day at Psestum, but we saw the cabins, and they 
 were certainly as unlike a ship's cabins as can well be 
 imagined. Every square inch of wall was covered with 
 ornaments glass, china, pictures, nick-nacks all securely 
 fastened, but to the eye only looking fragile and unsafe. 
 The yacht is a very good sea-boat, and Brassey himself a 
 thorough sailor. 
 
 The party on board the Himalaya, besides Mi- 
 Smith and Colonel Stanley, consisted of Admiral 
 George Wellesley, C.B., First Naval Lord ; Sir 
 Massey Lopes, Bart., M.P., a Lord Commissioner 
 of the Admiralty ; Admiral Sir W. Houston 
 Stewart, K.C.B., Controller of the Navy ; the 
 
 1 Created Baron Brassey in 1886.
 
 A.D. 1878.] VOYAGE TO CYPRUS. 345 
 
 Hon. Algernon Egerton, M.P., Secretary to the 
 Admiralty; Captain Codrington, R.N., private 
 secretary to the First Lord ; Mr R. Daly ell, 
 private secretary to Colonel Stanley ; Captain 
 Fitzgeorge, of the Intelligence Department of the 
 War Office ; Lord Colville of Culross ; Sir Henry 
 Holland, M.P. ; and Sir George Elliot, M.P. 
 
 . . . Steaming away from Castellamare, we passed 
 slowly out of the Bay of Naples. We left Capri behind 
 us, and gradually drew away from the land, but still near 
 enough to see its beauty. Volcanoes and earthquakes 
 have tossed up the rocks into every conceivable shape 
 and form, but almost always peaked and rugged; and 
 then tempests have scored out the softer particles of the 
 rocks, and left the harder in bold relief. We had just a 
 few clouds to produce shadows, light, and shade, and 
 the deep blue of the sea formed a contrast and pictures 
 impossible to describe. For a long way we could trace 
 a road running terrace -like high up on the mountain- 
 side, dipping from time to time into orange and olive 
 woods and emerging again. ... A gorgeous sunset 
 followed, and now I can understand pictures which have 
 hitherto appeared exaggerated and untrue. 
 
 We have now settled down to sea-life. I take iny 
 place at dinner, with Wellesley opposite to me and Stanley 
 011 my right, it being understood that others change about 
 from day to day. Everything appears well arranged, and 
 everybody quite certain we are going to have a very 
 pleasant trip. Holland and Elliot do not appear the 
 worse for their long journey, and we all agree there is not 
 a bad fellow in the party.
 
 346 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 At dinner I give H.M. the Queen, and our band 
 strikes up, and we all stand while the first bars of " God 
 save the Queen " are played. Before turning in I asked 
 the captain to call me when we passed Stromboli, if there 
 was any fire visible. 
 
 Saturday, Oct. 26. Captain White, at 3 A.M., " Strom- 
 boli, sir, on the starboard beam." It was very hot, and I 
 had not been sleeping very soundly, so I was quite glad 
 to turn out, and for an hour I watched the mountain, 
 being rewarded by one flare, like a lurid furnace at night 
 in the Black Country. 
 
 In the morning we found ourselves close in to the 
 shores of brigand Calabria, the same high mountains, 
 tossed about, seamed, rugged, convulsed, torn, and looking 
 often bare, but, with a glass, vines and olives could be dis- 
 covered, and many villages and even considerable towns 
 perched up in commanding positions in the rocks. Sicily 
 and Mount Etna had been in sight for some time, and we 
 steered rapidly to the Straits of Messina, passing through 
 Charybdis and close to the famous Scylla. Off Messina 
 we signalled to the Telegraph Station to send word home 
 that the Himalaya had passed. 
 
 Leaving Messina, our course was altered to the east- 
 ward, pointing to Cyprus, and we soon left Sicily behind, 
 keeping, however, nearer to the end of Italy. Once I 
 think I saw smoke issuing from Etna, and, if that was so, 
 I had seen three volcanoes smoking within twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 Sunday, Oct. 1 27. A lovely morning. I had previously 
 suggested to Wellesley that the band should play hymn- 
 tunes, and they appeared with the crew at church-parade 
 at 11 o'clock. We had two hymns and a good sermon, in 
 its way, from the clergyman, a Mr Kavanagh. . . . Sunset 
 again lovely ; a few clouds in the west to take the golden
 
 A.D. 1878.] CRETE. 347 
 
 light : the sun drops through them ; they seem to open to 
 let him go, and with a light too dazzling to look upon, he 
 is gone, and there remain a few light clouds which seem 
 to have absorbed his light, and they seem for a few 
 minutes only to float on the sea in the horizon like the 
 bright burning embers of a furnace. Then succeeds 
 rapidly every hue of which sky and water are capable. In 
 the east what appears to be a cloud of darkness quickly 
 rises ; in the west gold melts into deep red, red into 
 orange, orange into bluish green, and that into the colder 
 blue of the zenith ; that again disappearing before the 
 darkness rising from the east ; and it is night in a few 
 minutes from daylight. 
 
 At 10 P.M. we are off Crete, and at 11 pass Cape 
 Sparta. 
 
 Monday, Oct. 28. Still steaming away in sight of Crete, 
 four to eight miles from the shore. The island, like all 
 the rest, looks barren, and is very mountainous, but trees 
 could be detected by the glass. The outline is grand and 
 beautiful. At 11 we part company with Crete, having on 
 our port bow in the distance Caxos and Scarpento. . . . 
 
 I had sundry serious talks to-day with Stanley, Welles- 
 ley, and others as to our work at Cyprus ; for it is, I hope, 
 to be real work. 
 
 . . . When we reach Larnaca we shall be 2i hours 
 in advance of English time. I have kept my watch 
 to " home " hours ; and it is very pleasant to turn to it 
 and know perfectly well what is doing at home. I see 
 the boy l running out for a rose, and I almost hear the 
 gong, and I imagine the cold foggy mornings you have 
 had, while we are inclined to be languid from heat. . . . 
 We are now drawing close to Cyprus. Mount Olympus 
 
 His son, Frederick.
 
 348 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. |>T. 53. 
 
 and the western range of hills have been in view for some 
 hours. ... I am afraid my journal may now be inter- 
 rupted for a few days, as we shall be busy looking about 
 the island, but I will try to pick up the threads. 
 
 Oct. 29. We saw a good deal of the island as we passed 
 up. There are many trees, and in some places forests; 
 on the side nearest Limasol a gentle slope from the 
 mountains, now looking brown where there are few trees, 
 but evidently green enough in winter. We could make 
 out Paphos, famous in ancient history, and we are coming 
 on to Atium or Shittim, spoken of in Solomon's time, 
 when the island was far more prosperous than it is now. 
 It was 7.30 P.M. before we dropped anchor at Larnaca last 
 night. . . . At 10 P.M. Hornby, Wolseley, and Lord John 
 Hay, with their belongings, came on board, and we had 
 a friendly greeting. They looked well and cheery. We 
 arranged to go ashore for a ride through the town to the 
 salt lakes, to visit a mosque, and the camping-ground of 
 the troops. At daylight this morning, and before the sun 
 rose, Stanley and I started. We landed near Wolseley's 
 place, and for the first time saw a Turkish house. Horses 
 were brought, and we mounted. The horses seemed ac- 
 customed to the very broken ground, and to going up and 
 down steps. 
 
 Imagine an Italian town Orta or Lugano exagger- 
 ated, and you have Larnaca, excepting that the houses are 
 lower. Everybody is up and taking coffee, and everybody 
 is _very respectful. We ride along dusty paths, and reach 
 the salt lakes, which are a great source of revenue, as the 
 sun dries up the water in summer, and leaves a crust of 
 salt, which is gathered like a harvest. 
 
 Then we rode on to a mosque where the Prophet's nurse 
 is buried. We went into the mosque, the sheik, who is a 
 young man, being very civil. While the mollahs took off
 
 A.D. 1878.] LARXACA. 349 
 
 their shoes, we took off our hats, and examined the temple, 
 the doorway to which has very good carved stone-work. 
 
 The place is very old. They gave me some myrtle 
 leaves from the enclosure, which I send with this. Great 
 palms in fruit grew in the courtyard, and camels laden 
 lay down outside. 
 
 Wednesday, Oct. 30. Sir Garnet Wolseley, Stanley, and 
 I, with attendants, started on ponies to make the round of 
 the Government stores, offices, and hospitals. On our 
 way we passed through Printing-house Square, and by 
 the Beaconsfield Chambers, Anglo-Egyptian Street, and 
 hosts of others newly named by the municipality. The 
 Marina, from which we started, is a narrow ledge in front 
 of the houses on the beach here, and it is being widened 
 by a concrete wall built on the gravelly shingle between 
 piles and a cofferdam, the ground inside being made good 
 with stones. A motley group they were at work Xegroes, 
 Arabs, Greeks, Turks. One was reminded of " Parthians, 
 Medes, and Elamites," people of every nation and tongue. 
 Every kind of costume was seen to almost none at all, for 
 the men worked in the water with little more than a shirt 
 and a waist-belt. It was curious to be saluted by English- 
 men and recognised as one passed up and down, the pony 
 threading its way over stones and through dust and dirt 
 up and down steps. 
 
 The Commissioner, Colonel "White, had always two 
 zaptiehs, or mounted police, in front, who rode on to 
 make way, ordering bullock-carts to stop and make way, 
 swarthy fellows, all dressed differently, wearing large 
 boots, into which their baggy breeches of blue or brown 
 cotton were thrust ; then came a sash or belt, then per- 
 haps a red and white shawl, pattern shirt or waistcoat, 
 and over that a gay tunic of red, green, or yellow ; but, 
 always contrasting with other colours, a fez or turban
 
 350 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [>T. 53. 
 
 covered the head. The commissariat stores were very 
 numerous, and it was curious to see camels standing out- 
 side and mules picketed waiting for work. 
 
 . . . We went at a gallop through six inches of dust to 
 old Larnaca, to visit the hospitals, which are in two really 
 nice old houses, with a capital garden of oranges, citrons, 
 and fig-trees attached. The people came out to look at 
 us in great numbers. The Turkish women dressed 
 entirely in white linen or muslin, covering their faces so 
 that only their eyes could peep through, but they were 
 quite as curious as the rest. . . . 
 
 As there is no mention here of an incident 
 which made the subject of a messroom story at 
 the time, it may be set down as the malicious 
 invention of some idle subaltern. It was alleged, 
 however, that during this ride the guard on duty 
 turned smartly out to salute the distinguished 
 party so smartly that the ponies of the First 
 Lord of the Admiralty and the Secretary of State 
 for War turned sharply round, and these digni- 
 taries were both precipitated into the dust. 
 
 Thursday, Oct. 31. We were on shore at daylight to 
 start by the waggonette for Nicosia. The carriage was 
 really a good one, holding eight comfortably inside. We 
 started with two on the box, and one, young Lopes, on 
 the roof. We had a team of three ponies harnessed 
 abreast, and three mules in front of them. The air was 
 quite cold before the sun was up, but by the time we 
 reached Dewdrop Inn, a tent pitched by an Englishman 
 at the first change of horses, it became very hot. The
 
 A.D. 1878.] NICOSIA. 351 
 
 road was undulating and better than I expected, but the 
 country had an arid look from the want of rain ; and, as 
 much of the rock is limestone and very white, there is a 
 painful glare in the sun under the deep blue and abso- 
 lutely unclouded sky. The desolate look too is increased 
 by the fact that any houses or villages you see are built 
 of mud brick baked in the sun, and of the same colour as 
 the ground. The houses in the village are mostly of one 
 storey, with flat roofs, and from a distance they look like 
 an English stable or outhouse, but they are frequently 
 comfortable, and have trees and gardens inside the en- 
 closure. Away we sped from the Dewdrop Inn, rising to 
 the watershed between Nicosia and Larnaca, about 800 
 feet up, from which we had a good view of the plain 
 which lies to the south of the crater or northern range 
 of mountains. Generally the ground was arid-looking, 
 but there were patches of green in considerable numbers, 
 and it was evident that wherever a stream ran there was 
 great fertility and beauty. Wells were numerous, and 
 they resembled the pictures one has seen of Jacob's well ; 
 a hole in the ground and stone basins into which the 
 water is poured when it is raised, from which and the 
 stone troughs around them the sheep and the cattle 
 drink. 
 
 We arrived outside the walls of Nicosia at eleven, and 
 were met by the Commissioner, Colonel Biddulph, who 
 ordered the driver to go across some fields to the camp 
 without entering the town, and we passed for nearly a 
 mile outside the walls, which are still in good repair and 
 very thick. At the camp I was put into a hut which was 
 divided in three compartments, first occupied by Stanley, 
 the next by Wellesley, and the last by me. The rest of 
 the party were lodged in the same way, the servants being 
 under canvas.
 
 352 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [an. 53. 
 
 In the afternoon we were all mounted on ponies and 
 mules, and went off, escorted by zaptiehs, to Nicosia. I 
 rode on with Sir Garnet and Colonel Stanley, the rest 
 following. 
 
 Our way lay through the gate, passing the place where 
 camels and mules camped outside. On arriving inside 
 the gate we were received by a bodyguard of mounted 
 zaptiehs. Two led the way, and the rest followed us 
 through the bazaar, or street of shops. There were 
 quarters of bootmakers and leather-sellers a great trade 
 in Nicosia ; greengrocers, butchers, silk-mercers, every 
 trade keeping very much together. The streets are 
 paved very badly, and the horses, shod with a round ring 
 of iron, slid about. The people stared and gaped, fre- 
 quently bowing and touching their foreheads and chests 
 as we passed by. The mixture of colours and races, 
 Turkish women in white from head to foot ; Greeks with 
 black hair, large eyes, and olive face, always having con- 
 trasting colours to light them up ; men with turbans and 
 green jackets, some with a kind of long dressing-gown. 
 All but ourselves in Eastern as compared with European 
 dress. 
 
 The streets were much shaded from the sun by vines 
 trained on lattices overhead or by matting with little 
 openings overhead. 
 
 The shops were just as they are painted by J. F. Lewis ; 
 no glass fronts, and the whole front open. We went on 
 to the Mosque of St Sophia, which is an old Gothic 
 Christian church of about the thirteenth century. The 
 doorway and portico are in excellent preservation, and 
 very rich and beautiful, but the Turks have marred the 
 windows, and have of course not restored anything. It 
 is sad to witness the havoc they "have made, and their 
 apparent inability to keep anything alive. We saw an-
 
 A.D. 1878.] NICOSIA TO MATTY ANI. 353 
 
 other fine old church, which is now a granary ; went on to 
 the Konah or Government office, and a kahn which is 
 turned into zaptieh barracks and prison, the crowd in- 
 creasing to witness our proceedings. 
 
 Returning, we stopped for tea at Colonel Biddulph's 
 house, where I met the Financial Officer of the island, 
 Mr Kelner, and the legal adviser of Sir Garnet, Mr 
 Cookson. 
 
 On our way back to camp we rode over a Turkish 
 burial-ground, which is quite unprotected, and past the 
 battle-ground -where Richard Coeur-de-Lion fought and 
 conquered just a few years ago, and as darkness came on 
 we returned to camp. 
 
 Dinner under canvas with Sir Garnet Wolseley and my 
 colleagues. 
 
 Friday, Nov. 1. Very clear and very fine. Morning a 
 little cold before the sun was fairly up ; and we were all 
 in the saddle by 6.30 for a 35-mile ride to visit Mattyani 
 camp and the 7lst regiment, and General Payn's camp at 
 Dali. On our way we met many people going in to mar- 
 ket at Nicosia. The route lay for some miles over a rich 
 plain, now burnt up except where there happened to be 
 irrigation. We crossed several water-courses, some quite 
 deep and all rough, but our horses seemed rather to like 
 the climbing about. My pony was a capital one, but it 
 was smaller than Brownie, and sometimes when we were 
 cantering on broken ground I felt there was danger of my 
 legs getting mixed up with his legs. The country towards 
 Mattyani was very bare and rocky, and there was no 
 shade. When we arrived at the camp we saw breakfast 
 laid out for us under a tent, and notwithstanding heat, we 
 set to work vigorously. Then we visited the tents and 
 huts, especially the hospital, and were very glad to find 
 the regiment healthy and in good spirits. We then 
 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 354 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH, [JET. 53. 
 
 started for General Payn's camp, and lunched there. It 
 was a striking sight. The horses tethered under trees as 
 their stables, and having no other shelter, the bed of the 
 river below quite dry, and, at the back of the tents, 
 cotton plantations and trees and wells. As we were 
 lunching, a Bengal syce, used as a postman, passed in 
 front, and, with his copper-coloured face, black hair, and 
 white turban and dress, he looked, as he was, a striking 
 evidence of the variety of form England can bring to bear 
 to discharge her duties in the world. After lunch I 
 mounted a fresh horse, and rode home in the cool of the 
 evening, passing few human habitations, but many evi- 
 dences of past prosperity. Dinner in tent again and to 
 bed. 
 
 Saturday, Nov. 2. We were waited upon in camp by 
 the chief monk of the monastery, with attendant priests, 
 to pay his respects to the " Ministers/' Sir Garnet uses 
 a portion of the building for his offices, and we are en- 
 camped on ground belonging to the monks. The chief 
 was a handsome old man, with a long white beard. He 
 and his friends appeared exceedingly anxious to express 
 their delight at being under English rule. After break- 
 fast we rode into Nicosia, and paid another visit to the 
 bazaar. "We made purchases of silk, and then proceeded 
 to Colonel Biddulph's house, until it was time to start in 
 the waggonette for Larnaca. We had to wait for a few 
 minutes for some of our party, and during that time a 
 respectful but a curious crowd gathered round. Away we 
 went with our team of six, up the rugged street and out 
 through the massive gate, on which the winged lion of St 
 Mark still remains to mark Venetian rule. At the gate 
 the mounted zaptiehs formed as a guard of honour, and 
 headed by their captain, followed as an escort up to the
 
 A.D. 1878.] FAMAGUSTA. 355 
 
 top of the first hill, where they saluted, wheeled, and re- 
 turned to Nicosia. 
 
 Our journey down was as the journey up. We took a 
 cup of 4 o'clock tea at sixpence apiece all round at the 
 Dewdrop Inn, and found the landlord cheery in his little 
 bell-tent. An English friend of his, who had just come 
 over from Syria to pay him a visit, told us the people 
 there all thought themselves badly served that we had 
 not taken the mainland instead of Cyprus. Heat and 
 dust, and yet it is November 2d. . . . 
 
 Sunday, Nov. 3. Under weigh early. Church as usual 
 at 10.30, and this time the band played the usual chants 
 for the psalms as well as the hymns. I think we most of 
 us enjoyed the service thoroughly. 
 
 At 12 we were off Famagusta, where Admiral Hornby 
 was already anchored in the Helicon. We went inside 
 the reef which runs from the old harbour parallel with 
 the land, so as to constitute a breakwater almost as good 
 as that at Plymouth, within which large ships can lie in 
 perfect safety. 
 
 The town is surrounded by a very thick wall, and it is 
 only approached from the sea by a water-gate. The ship's 
 boat drew near the shore, and we saw a crowd of people 
 on the shore waiting our arrival. On lauding, we had to 
 pass under the domed gateway some hundred feet thick. 
 Inside there were ponies and mules awaiting to take us to 
 see the ruins of the town. It was impossible to walk, for 
 the sun was hotter than we had before felt it. Our first 
 work was up to the top of the bastion commanding a view 
 of the port. Such desolation I had never before wit- 
 nessed. Everything is a ruin, and much of the ruin is as 
 if it had been accomplished only a few months, or at most 
 years, ago. There are, they say, remains of forty churches
 
 356 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. \ass. 53. 
 
 in the town, and not one perfect one remaining. The 
 cathedral is turned into the one mosque in the town, dis- 
 figured and dirty, with tower and pinnacles gone, the 
 pillars outside coated with whitewash and green paint 
 where the stone capitals should be, but still in its mourn- 
 ful decay retaining externally in its doorways, windows, 
 and flying buttresses the most delicate and beautiful 
 tracery, no one window or pinnacle being like another. 
 
 We visited another splendid ruin, and on the walls 
 of the roofless apse we could trace perfectly mural paint- 
 ings of the Agony, Crucifixion, and other scenes in our 
 Lord's Passion, the peculiarity being that the drawing 
 was perfect and the colours strong and good. The place 
 was the most mournful I have ever seen. It was literally 
 a heap of ruins, and from the good preservation in which 
 some parts are found, man and not decay must have 
 created the havoc. We rode between the remains of 
 palaces and churches, and there are now only a few 
 hovels left, which are built out of the debris of past 
 greatness. The Commissioner, Captain Inglis, took us 
 to the Konah, and it seemed to give pleasure to the 
 soldier-servants to see our faces. We now returned by 
 the palace, really a vast outline of a fine building, to 
 the port, where we took leave of our friends and re- 
 embarked on the Himalaya. 
 
 There are the remains of forty churches, and only 250 
 living men in the town. Mr Millard, our surveying 
 officer, navigated the ship out of the harbour, and after 
 a lovely sunset, we steamed slowly round the land to- 
 wards Kyrenia, where we arrived by daylight on 
 
 Monday, Nov. 4- Fancy a range of hills, extending 
 quite to the height of Scottish hills, at the distance of 
 from five to ten miles from the shore, sloping from the
 
 A.D. 1878.] BAFFO. 357 
 
 last half of the distance gradually towards the sea, with 
 a somewhat thick wood as it appears from the sea; but 
 when we got ashore we found they were fine carob-trees, 
 olives, and pines, thickly planted in fields which, al- 
 though mostly bare now, are all under cultivation. We 
 landed at Kyrenia, an old Venetian port with castle 
 and walls still standing, and looking very picturesque 
 from the sea as the Union-jack floated from the ramparts. 
 Passing through the small town, we soon came to the 
 camp of the 42d Highlanders, the Black Watch. The 
 poor fellows were in a very depressed state, as they had 
 had a good deal of fever and ague, which made them 
 look washed out, and they had no games or amusements ; 
 but if all is well they will soon be moved. There is one 
 lady, a wife of an officer, but there is only one other 
 officer to call on her, so her life cannot be very cheerful. 
 
 Some of our party went up to a monastery in the 
 mountains, and brought down beautiful flowers and fruit 
 oranges, lemons. The country appears to produce 
 everything. In the evening we said good-bye to Admiral 
 Hornby, who returned to Constantinople, and we sailed 
 to Paphos or Baffo. 
 
 Tuesday, Nov. 5. Arrived at Baffo, and landed in a 
 little harbour full of rocks. There was a tower or 
 castle there, in which death was certain, it was so un- 
 healthy. More zaptiehs and more receptions. Negroes 
 and Nubians seem especially to prevail here. 
 
 On our way round from Kyrenia, and while we were 
 lying there, we could see clearly the mountains of Asia 
 Minor, and I shall therefore have seen all the quarters 
 of the world by the time I get home. 
 
 Landing at Baffo was a serious business. Our boat 
 bumped on rocks, and our poor coxswain trembled for
 
 358 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [ass. 53. 
 
 the Enchantress pinnace. At one time it appeared likely 
 we should want the aid of an Arab boat, but we got 
 on shore safely. 
 
 Every description of steed met us English ponies, Arab 
 horses, mules, donkeys with a corresponding variety of 
 saddles. 
 
 I first mounted a pony, which, however, insisted on 
 showing himself off as Euby does sometimes, and as the 
 sun poured down upon me, I begged after a few minutes 
 to be allowed to exchange it. 
 
 Another was found, and the stirrup-leather broke as I 
 put my foot into it. Then a beautiful mule was brought 
 forward with a pad on its back and loose stirrups thrown 
 across it. I mounted, balancing myself carefully, and 
 had a very comfortable ride. 
 
 Our road lay through ruins, marble and granite columns 
 many hundred years old lying by the wayside remnants 
 of two separate periods of civilisation, pagan and Chris- 
 tian. There were rock tombs and one realises that 
 Abraham was buried in a trough hewn out of the rock 
 and bits of arches and carvings of Christian churches. 
 
 So we proceeded, passing near where tradition says 
 Venus arose out of the sea, and a temple to Aphrodite 
 was raised on to the ground on which the camp of the 42d 
 detachment stands. 
 
 The men were better and more in fettle than those 
 at Kyrenia, but some were unwell. We returned in a 
 blazing sun and embarked for Limasol, coasting along a 
 rich country. 
 
 At Limasol we landed at a little pier covered with 
 myrtle, and carpeted in honour of our arrival. There 
 was a crowd and a deputation. The municipality wished 
 to present an address, which was read to us with great
 
 A.D. 1878.] PORT SAID. 359 
 
 emphasis by a gentleman in black and a top-hat. When 
 lie finished there was " Leto ! " or " Long live the Queen ! " 
 " Long live the Commissioner and the Ministers ! " in 
 good round cheers, and these were followed by " God save 
 the Queen" in Greek, sung by the schoolboys of the 
 town. We hurried through the town, for time was pre- 
 cious, to the castle, the kahn, and the jail ; and coming 
 out of that, we were met by another crowd and another 
 address in Greek, to which we listened gravely, not under- 
 standing a word, and all agreeing that Mr Gladstone 
 ought to be there to translate it. 
 
 We went on board, transferred Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 and Lord Gifford to the Humber, which was waiting, and 
 started for Port Said. Poor Sir Garnet felt our parting, 
 but he said our visit had been a real comfort to him. 
 Fine weather again favoured us, and on Wednesday, Nov- 
 ember 6, we arrived at Port Said, the mouth of the Suez 
 Canal. There were ceremonies to be gone through a 
 French admiral with his flag-ship, the Governor of Port 
 Said, the Admiralty agent, were all come on board. We 
 got through all this, and started for a short run up the 
 canal. It is much to the credit of France that M. de 
 Lesseps, persevering, accomplished the greatest work of 
 the century in making a navigable canal through the 
 sands of the desert. We returned to Port Said, and took 
 a stroll in the town. There is an Arab lake (dwelling) 
 village just outside on piles over the Lake Menzaleh, 
 which might have been one of the Swiss lake villages of 
 some hundred years ago, now being discovered or un- 
 covered. The town of Port Said is most uninteresting, 
 but it seems to embrace every kind of people and lan- 
 guage under the sun. The Arab boys were troublesome 
 in their attention to us, but a school we saw amused us
 
 36.0 LIFE OF W. H. SMITH. [JET. 53. 
 
 much. All the children made as much noise as they could. 
 They, master and all, sat as Arabs sit together, squatting 
 on a mat, and as they said or learned their lessons their 
 bodies swayed to and fro like seesaws, the master, in 
 turban, using a bamboo stick for the heads of the most 
 distant, if they failed to jabber and to sway. We went 
 on board, and sailed at 5 P.M. for Alexandria. 
 
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