But wear and tear and the anxieties of business life had made old Mr. Smith often quick-tempered, and difficult to please; and the coming of Mr.  “W.H.” into the business was hailed with pleasure by the workmen:  he was so full of tact and sympathy; and sometimes, when his father had raised a storm of ill-feeling by some hasty expressions, he was able to bring peace and calm by his pleasant and genial manner.

Yet he was every inch a man of business, and even more clear-headed and far-seeing than the senior partner, his father.

It was he who commenced the railway bookstall business.

Every one knows the familiar look of Smith’s bookstalls, with their energetic clerks, and their armies of pushing newsboys, and perchance think they were born with the railways and have grown up with them.

But such is not the case.  It was not till about 1850 that Mr. W.H.  Smith secured the entire bookstall rights on the London and North-Western Railway, much against his father’s advice.  The vast improvement in the selection of books and the service of papers, however, induced other companies to desire to have a similar arrangement, till the chief portion of all the English railways came to be girdled by Smith’s bookstalls.

From this date the business advanced with giant strides.  Managers and clerks had to be engaged, the latter in large numbers.  Here the genius of Smith as a judge of character was abundantly shown.  He came to a determination almost at a glance, and seldom erred in his judgment.

In 1868 he was returned to Parliament, and in 1874 Mr. Disraeli selected him for a place in his Ministry.  A year later he was made First Lord of the Admiralty.  How serviceable he had been in the former post may be judged by the remark made by Sir Stafford Northcote when he lost Smith’s assistance on his promotion to the higher position:  “I am troubled to know what to do without my right hand.  I don’t think he made a slip in the whole three years.”

Writing to his wife when he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Smith says:  “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.”

He often wrote to his wife whilst the debates were going on in the House of Commons.  “Here I am, sitting listening to Arthur Balfour, who is answering Mr. J. Morley,” he writes; “and I have ears for him and thoughts for my dear ones at home.”

“Remember me in your prayers” is a request he often makes to his wife and children.  In 1886 the Rt.  Hon. W. H. Smith became leader of the House of Commons, and had thus reached one of the highest positions any Englishman can occupy.  “Old Morality” was the nickname by which he was known; and this term is one of great honour.  No man ever gained higher respect from all parties, and no man was ever more fully trusted by the people at large.  Thus though Mr. Smith never entered the Church, and perchance missed a bishopric, yet he was a good citizen of the world and a humble Christian, devoting his best energies to the service of his Queen and country.