Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/332

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Smeaton
322
Smiles

established his influence over both the Burmans and the semi-civilised hill tribes. In March 1891 he was appointed financial commisioner of Burma, and helped to develop the mining industries, while rigidly abstaining from any private investments. Acting chief commissioner in May 1892, and also from 25 April to 9 Aug. 1896, he officially represented Burma on the supreme legislative council from 1898 to 1902. In the council he showed characteristic independence. He advocated an amendment of the Lower Burma chief courts bill, which the government of India opposed, and he boldly criticised Indian land revenue policy in March 1902. Selected by Lord Curzon to be secretary of the famine relief committee of 1900, he showed an energy which was acknowledged by the award of the Kaisar-i-Hind medal of the first class on its institution in May 1900. Disappointed of the lieutenant-governorship of Burma in succession to Sir Frederick Fryer, he retired from the service in 1902.

Settling for five years at Winchfield, Hampshire, Smeaton interested himself in local affairs and in the cause of the liberal party. He subsequently removed to Gomshall, Surrey. On platforms in London and in Scotland he urged reform of the government of India (cf. A Future for India, a reprint from India, 12 Feb. 1904), but he did not identify himself with the extreme section of Indian agitators. At the general election of 1906 he was elected liberal M.P. for Stirlingshire. In parliament he supported the strong measures taken by the Indian government against disorder in 1907 and 1908, and in the debates on the Indian Councils Act, 1909, embodying Lord Morley's reforms, he acknowledged the importance of maintaining the essentials of British authority. He worked hard in committee of the House of Commons, and followed Scottish questions with assiduity, speaking briefly and to the point, and obeying the party 'Whip' with conscientious discrimination. Failing health disabled him from offering himself for re-election on the dissolution in January 1910. He died on 19 April 1910 at his residence, Lawbrook, Gomshall, Surrey, and was buried at Peaslake, Surrey. An oil painting by Mr. H. J. C. Bryce belongs to his widow. He married twice: (1) on 2 Feb. 1873 Annette Louise, daughter of Sir Henry Lushington, fourth baronet; she died on 17 Jan. 1880; by her he had a son, Arthur Lushington, lieutenant in the 18th Tiwana lancers, who was killed at polo in July 1903, and a daughter; and (2) on Nov. 1894 Marion, daughter of Major Ansell of the 4th (K.O.) regiment; she survived him with one daughter.

[India List, 1910; Ind. Finan. Statement and Discuasion thereon for 1902-3; Parly. Debates, 1906 to 1909; Rangoon Gaz. and Rangoon Times of various dates; Pioneer, 5 and 20 Feb. 1902; The Times, 21 April 1910; personal knowledge; information kindly supplied by Mrs. Smeaton.]

F. H. B.


SMILES, SAMUEL (1812–1904), author and social reformer, born at Haddington on 23 Dec. 1812, was one of eleven children of Samuel Smiles, at first a paper maker and afterwards a general merchant, who died of cholera early in 1832. His mother was Janet, daughter of Robert Wilson of Dalkeith. His paternal grand-father was an elder and field-preacher of the Cameronians, the sect which suffered persecution in Charles II' s reign.

After education at Haddington grammar school. Smiles was bound apprentice for five years on 6 Nov. 1826 to a firm of medical practitioners in the town. Dr. Lewins, one of the partners, moved to Leith in 1829 and took Smiles with him. The lad matriculated at Edinburgh University in Nov. 1829 and attended the medical classes there. John Brown [q. v.], author of 'Rab and his Friends,' was a fellow student. On the expiration of his apprenticeship he took lodgings in Edinburgh and, pursuing his medical education, obtained his medical diploma on 6 Nov. 1832. Thereupon he settled as a general practitioner at Haddington, but his ambitions travelled beyond the routine of his profession, and he soon supplemented his narrow income by popular lectures on chemistry, physiology, and the conditions of health, as well as by contributions to the 'Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle.' In 1837 he published at Edinburgh, at his own expense, 750 copies of 'Physical Education, or the Nurture and Management of Children' (2nd edit. 1868). The work was generally commended. A new edition with additions by Sir Hugh Beevor, bart., appeared in 1905.

Discontented with the prospects of his Haddington practice and anxious to widen his experience. Smiles, in May 1838, sold such property as he possessed and left Haddington for Hull, with a view to a foreign tour. From Rotterdam he went to Leyden, where he submitted himself to examination for a degree. A pedestrian tour followed through Holland and up the Rhine. In Sept. 1838 he paid a first visit to London, lodging in the same boarding