THE LATE RIGHT HON. W. H. SMITH, MP.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 24 October 1891, Page 509

THE LATE RIGHT HON. W. H. SMITH, MP.

■[TH the death of Mr W. H. Smith, the greatest of English booksellers, the present Conservative Government of England loses one of its most solid and consistent pillars of support. It was curious that a man sprang from the trading class should have become an exponent of the policy of the privileged stratum of society, but this fact represents the change which has come over the face of English Conservatism in the last generation and the wholesome tendency of English politics. Instead of rending itself rudely away from all sympathy with the people it prefers to bridge over the chasm by the importation to its ranks of .brilliant litterateurs such as Disraeli, or substantial shopkeepers such as the deceased statesman here noticed. Mr Smith’s great position in public life was due to the fact not that he was a man of vast wealth combined with commanding ability, but that he represented ‘ the Man in the Street ’ as that man has never been represented before. France worshipped Voltaire and Victor Hugo, because they typified the two highest French ideals of human genius and character. Mr Smith typified all the ideals of * the Man in the Street.’ Wealth, respectability, propriety in thought, word, and deed, sobriety, of expression, correctness of bearing, smooth, conciliatory civility, attentive business habits, and an entire absence of any outward sign of genius, intellectual brilliancy, literary and scientific culture ; these are some of the qualities that made Mr Smith what he was, Mr Spenlow it will be remembered,argued that as the price of wheat had never been higher than when Doctors Commons was in the plenitude of its power, so if you touched ‘ the Commons you would ruin the country. England has, as • a nation of shopkeepers,’ grown rich and powerful under the guidance of thetypeof mind which has reachedits apotheosis in Mr W. H. Smith ; to challenge his right to lead the House of Commons was to ruin the Empire. Walt Whitman now-a-days admits that Democracy is eliminating ‘ something that gives the last majesty to man.’ In giving Mr Smith as the leader of the House of Commons, Democracy invested the ReEresentative Chamber with a halo of ourgeois domestic virtue. But it must be allowed that it has also eliminated from it the last element of Imperial dignity, by the assumption of which leaders of the classical school created the illusion that the House of Commons was a modern reproduction of the Roman Senate. Nobody could possibly mistake Mr Smith for what Montague Tigg termed a * toga-like Roman.’ VT i7 Sainte Beuve said of Louis XIV. that he had good sense, and that in having it he had a good deal that went to make success in life. Perhaps this is the only respect in which the Leader of the House of Commons and newlyappointed Warden of the Cinque Ports resembled the kingliest of kings. His career, indeed, was the triumph .of common sense and of the patient industry so often associated with that admirable <l> To t begin with, Mr Smith had never been above his business. The son of a rich man who made a fortune as a newspaper-vendor, he enjoyed all the educational advantages that money could bestow; yet he did not despise the sources of his fortune—on the contrary, he set himself to develop them. At an age when the heirs of opulent tradesmen leave school or college to waste their lives on sport or playing at soldiers, varied by baccarat, Mr Smith set himself to‘stick to the shop,’ on Richardson’s principle that if one does so, the chances are that the shop will stick to him. And it did. Mr Smith, by hard and unattractive work, acquired a very competent knowledge of every branch of the great business of which he was for so many years the presiding genius—a business which gave him in the end the same sort of influence, direct and indirect, over the electors of Westminster, which a feudal baron wielded over his vassals. When he contested Westminster against the late Mr John Stuart Mill, he was supported on the broad ground that he was a safe man without much brain, opposing a man with too much brain who was by no means safe. His victory surprised the country. In the House of Commons this enlightened view of the Westminster election prevailed. Mr Smith, at all events, would not lecture it with an air of aggravating superiority, and the man who had delivered it from Mr Mill was sure of a warm welcome. From the outset Mr Smith’s success was assured. He entered Parliament at a time which was most favourable for those who were party men without partisanship—politicians without politics. No other man could have been got with Mr Smith's local influence and bottomless purse to rock in the cradle of Registration such a constituency as Westminster was till it was broken up by the last Reform Act, and few men ever entered Parliament with feebler political prepossessions. Mr Smith had the art of conciliating opponents, and he practised it without ceasing. He expressed a general antipathy to reforms, but in a manner which left even Radicals sorrowful because they had not succeeded in converting such a good and worthy soul, so obviously reasonable that very little was needed to convert him. He was soon discovered to be of an obliging disposition. He was always ready to do anybody little friendly services. Whenever duty that involved drudgery fell to eminent politicians of his own side,

Mr Smith was ever willing to take much of it on himself. Very soon lie came to be looked on as the general utility man of the Conservative party, and his service on Committees and in facilitating the transaction of non contentious business gradually made him a persona grata to inen on both sides of the House, who believe, with Macaulay, that compromise is the essence of politics. He developed, moreover, a very pretty talent for negotiation, and in time when intrigues had to be carried on with sickly Liberals, it was found that nobody could approach them with a manner that was more caressing and less alarming than the member for Westminster. For a long time he seemed to live by gnawing Blue-books, and he ‘ got up ’ the details of financial administration pretty thoroughly. About this period it became clear to his leaders that they would find life much pleasanter if they had such a useful and amiable person for a colleague rather than a critic, and so Mr Smith went into office as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, where again his complaisant manners and irnpertrubable temper strengthened his hold on official life. In his first great office, that of First Lord of the Admiralty, he was, however, less successful, and there was a time when it seemed as if Mr Smith’s career had ended with the fall of that famous Beaconsfield Administration, which con-

trived, like the Yankee editor, to- make so many big men out of small material. The spirit of the Fourth Party was abroad, and it was in conflict with those forces of order and decorum of which Mr Smith was the most oppressive representative. But again Mr Smith was ‘ in luck’s way.’ When that spirit triumphed, and all the virtues of the Tory Party went down before all the talents, an unexpected accident happened. The vanity and caprice which caused the collapse of Lord Randolph Churchill’s leadership, together with the chattering of the Opposition, and the strong rivalry among Conservative politicians, each eager to wrest the leadership of the Commons from his neighbour, told in favour of Mr Smith. Nor was Mr Smith unworthy of support. He worked hard. He smoothed down everybody who got ruffled in controversy. In time he amused the House by the air of complete earnestness with which he uttered the most respectable commonplaces on the most solemn and critical occasions ; and if a man has not genius, there is no better way of gaining the favour of the House of Commons than by affording it a little innocent amusement at one’s own expense. The following are the salient features in the political career of the deceased statesman. He was the son of Mr William Henry Smith, of the Strand, London, and Bournemouth, Hampshire, bookseller, publisher, ami news-agent, was born in Duke-street, Grosvenor Square, London, June 24th, 1825. He was educated at the Grammar School, Tavistock, and became, in due course, a partnerin the well-known firm in the Strand. In July, 1865, he unsuccessfully contested Westminister in the Conservative interest, but his candidature was renewed

with success in November, 1858, when he defeated Mr John Stuart Mill. He continued to sit for Westminister down to 1885, when, after the Redistribution Act, he was returned for the Strand, being again elected in 1886. He was Financial Secretary of the Treasury from Febi uary, 1874, till August 8,1877, when he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, in succession to the late Mr Ward Hunt. He went out of office on the retirement ot the Conservatives in April, 1880, and was appointed Secretary of State for War tn 1885 on the formation of the Salisbury Conservative Government in June of that year. Gn the resignation of Sir William Hart Dyke in January, 1886, Mr W. H. Smith was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, but the Salisbury Government fell immediately afterwards, and he held the appointment for only six days. In Lord Salisbury’s second administration he was appointed Secretary of State for War. When the Ministry was reconstructed on the resignation of Lord R. Churchill, Mr Smith became First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons.