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, however, 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 intrinsic merit was enhanced by the simplicity and artlessness of her manners, so utterly free from all affectation, 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 affection 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 amicitiâ, or some other tale of antique friendship, which the young heart even then was burning to anticipate."

RESIDENCE AT KILBURN.

25

CHAPTER II.

1846-1854.

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 impossible 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.

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 important 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 instructions 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.

Some time before the year 1839 his father had bought Kilburn House, a pleasant suburban villa, then standing in ample private grounds, though it has now disappeared under the advancing tide of bricks and mortar. This became the home of the family, and every week-day morning at four o'clock, summer and winter, the brougham used to

come to the door to convey the father, 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 writing to you. I never remember such a period of excitement 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 publishers, to overtake the mails; and in addition to these, when any event of unusual importance took place, or when something of interest happened 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 and customers in provincial towns.

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 report. Smith's men would be all ready to receive it and carry it into the country, thus enabling readers to get their paper on the day of publication, 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 June 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,

BECOMES JUNIOR PARTNER.

27

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, 1842, writing to his son, Mr Smith had exultingly said :—

I gave our Opposition a little taste on Saturday. I got the Mng. 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 position 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 employé whom he found neglecting or mismanaging his task!

Things go on pretty smoothly [William writes to his sister Augusta in the first few months of his partnership]. Father is of course a little testy, but generally manageable. He came down on Monday

1 Clayton, the largest news-agency of that day, and until 1854.

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 delivered by the old man, the son would wait his opportunity to pass near the culprit, and, pausing 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 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 Clayton'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 prin