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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 statement :—

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A special newspaper train was run by Messrs W. H. Smith & Son from Euston to Glasgow via York and Newcastle 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 Russell'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, wrapping—many thousands of newspapers are thus despatched, and the precision with which the addresses require to be kept involves an immense 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 discontinuance 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

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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 entered 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 distinction, which was enjoyed only by a few large firms. When the late Mr Cecil Raikes became Postmaster-General, he laid his veto on the continuance of this custom, which had forthwith to be discontinued. Mr Smith, at that time First Lord of the Treasury, could of course offer no remonstrance 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 containing some literary curiosities-flotsam and jetsam of the long history of the firm. One of these is an envelope, on which the London postmark shows the date 1864, and the only indication of its destination is contained in the cryptogram—

thisel log,

near abseelengly.

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.

CHAPTER IV.

1855-1865.

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 undertakings 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 intervals of leisure as it afforded to useful or philanthropic schemes. His duties in connection with King's College Hospital brought him acquainted 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, be

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coming 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 tragically 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 susceptible to the attractions of Mrs Leach than 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.

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 affectionsomething more inspiring than devotion to aged parents. It was now to receive the complement essential to happy human circumstance; and in 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-and-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

1 Now the Hon. Mrs Codrington, widow of Rear-Admiral Codrington.

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:

DEAR GUSSY,-All right.

STRAND, Feb. 25, 1858.
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 visit to his betrothed, then staying with some friends at Bedford, a few days after their engagement, 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 character 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 exerted 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 strengthening 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 year. Before this event, old Mr Smith had 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

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