Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/477

W. H. SMITH AND SON. 435 and Son (for he had by this time taken his son into partnership), was established at almost every station of importance in the kingdom ; but the original cost of organization was enormous, and two or three years elapsed before any actual profit was realised. Soon, of course, at the railway stalls, books as well as papers were vended, and the special requirements of passengers called into being several cheap series of light works of fiction, calculated to while away the tedium of a railway journey. By degrees, too, a circulating library was formed and extended, and, as Smith and Son possessed unparalleled advantages in the way of cheap transit of goods, and in their already-established branches, extending throughout the kingdom wherever the iron horse had previously cleared the way, they were able to supplement Mudie's Library most efficiently. In 1852 W. H. Smith, senior, first felt the symptoms of a diseased heart, and in 1854 he retired from busi- ness altogether, spending the remainder of his days at his country residence at Bournemouth, and here he died on the 28th of July, 1855. Upon Mr. W. H. Smith, son of the founder, the business now devolved, and, while extending its rami- fications in all directions, he found time and oppor- tunity to embrace a career of more general utility. Elected by the householders of Westminster as a member of the House of Commons, to the exclusion of Mr. J. S. Mill, he has won the good opinions of all parties by the active part he has always taken in Metropolitan matters, and by the staunchness with which he has defended the privileges of London citizens. The confidence of the public was again expressed in his favour when he was chosen a member