SMITH 



SMITHFIELD 



521 



morning, so that the night coaches were overtaken, 

 and the delivery of news secured twenty-four hours 

 in advance. As the business expanded, to this was 

 added the right of selling books and newspapers at 

 railway stations (Birmingham Railway, 1849). Mr 

 W. H. Smith was as strong in organising faculty 

 as his father had been, and Imsiness was extended. 

 He represented Westminster, 1868-85 ; was re- 

 turned for the Strand in 1885 and again in 1886. 

 He held the posts of Financial Secretary of the 

 Treasury (1874-77), first Lord of the Admiralty 

 (1877-80), Secretary of State for War (1885); 

 in Lord Salisbury's ministry he was first Lord of 

 the Treasury and leader of the House of Commons 

 till his death, October 6, 1891. His widow was 

 raised to the peerage as Viscountess Hamhleden. 

 He was distinguished for conscientious discharge of 

 duty, and in 1889 received a handsome memorial 

 from members of the House of Commons, and was 

 entertained to a banquet. He was an honorary 

 D.C.L. of Oxford. He left a fortune of 1,776,000 

 in personalty, besides several estates. See his Life 

 by Sir Herbert Maxwell (2 vols. 1893). 



Smith, WILLIAM ROBERTSON, theologian and 

 orientalist, was born at Keig, Aberdeenshire, on 

 8th November 1846. He received all his early 

 training from his father, the Rev. William Pirie 

 Smith, D.D., minister of the Free Church at Keig. 

 He entered the university of Aberdeen in 1861, and 

 graduated after an exceptionally brilliant career in 

 1865. He afterwards studied theology at the Free 

 Church College, Edinburgh, at I'.onn, and at 

 Gottingen ; while in Edinburgh he was also assist- 

 ant to the professor of Physics ( Professor P. G. 

 Tait) in the university there. Immediately on 

 the conclusion of his theological studies he was 

 elected by the Free Church Assembly of 1870 to 

 the vacant chair of Hebrew and Old Testament 

 Exegesis in the Free Church College, Aberdeen ; 

 his suggestive inaugural address being What His- 

 tory teaches u to seek in the Bible ( 1870). At an 

 early stage in the preparation of the ninth edition 

 of the Encyclopedia Britannica he was invited to 

 contribute articles upon Biblical subjects. The 

 first of these ( ' Angel ) appeared in 1875. That on 

 'Bible 1 (1875), a brief objective account of the 

 now well-known historical and scientific facts of 

 the subject, was almost immediately assailed on 

 the ground of ite heterodoxy especially for its ac- 

 ceptance of the non-Mosaic authorship of Deuter- 

 onomy. (The question of the date of the Priestly 

 writing see PXMTATKUCB witli Noldeke on one 

 side and Graf and Kuenen on the other, was at 

 that early stage of the discussion left open in the 

 encyclopa-dia article.) In consequence of the ex- 

 citement that had lieen aroused, the Assembly of 

 1876 referred all Mr Smith's articles then publis'hed 

 to a committee, which reported in 1877 that there 

 was no ground for a heresy prosecution, but added 

 that a majority of the meml>ers of the committee 

 had found cause for ' alarm ' and ' anxiety ' in the 

 article 'Bible' on account of its 'dangerous and 

 unsettling tendency.' In these circumstances a 

 prosecution for heresy was instituted l>efore the Free 

 Presbytery of Alwrdeen. A long process ensued, in 

 the course of which Mr Smith displayed remark- 

 able debating talents, and in the end, after many 

 vicissitudes in the various courts of the church, 

 the trial resulted in the acquittal of the accused at 

 the Assembly of 1880 by a majority of 7 in a house 

 of nearly 600 memlwrs. In consequence, however, 

 of the article on ' Hebrew Language and Literature,' 

 which appeared in the Ency. Brit, in June 1880, Mr 

 Smith was not allowed to resume his teaching 

 duties during the following winter ; and although 

 no new heresy was alleged to have been broached 

 in that article, he was removed from his chair 

 Without a trial by a considerable majority at 



the Assembly of 1881. Mr Smith, who, beside* 

 contributing largely to successive volumes of the 

 Encyclopcedia Britannica, had written several im- 

 portant pamphlets in connection with his trial, 

 delivered at the request of a number of laymen in 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1880-81-82 two series of 

 lectures substantially repnblished in the two well- 

 known volumes entitled The Old Testament in the 

 Jewish Church ( 1881 ) and The Prophets of Israel 

 (1882). In 1881 Mr Smith transferred his residence 

 to Edinburgh, and became actively associated with 

 Professor Baynes in the editorship of the EIU-IJ. 

 Brit. ; on the death of his colleague he had the 

 undivided responsibility of editor-in-chief. In the 

 beginning of 1883 he was appointed Lord Almoner's 

 professor of Arabic in the university of Cambridge, 

 where shortly afterwards he was elected to a fellow- 

 ship at Christ's College. His work on Kinship anil 

 Marriage in Early A rabia was published in 1885. 

 In 1886 he was elected by the Cambridge senate to 

 the university lihrarianship, which office he ex- 

 changed for the Adams professorship of Arabic in 

 1889. As Burnett lecturer he delivered at Aber- 

 deen in 1889-91 three courses of lectures on the 

 religion of the Semites ; the first series was published 

 as the Religion of the Semites ( 1889). After several 

 years of greatly impaired health, he died 31st 

 March 1894. Mr Smith received in 1890 the degree 

 of D. D. from the university of Strasburg ; the 

 published eloge (understood to be from the pen 

 of Professor Reuss) particularises with justice and 

 discrimination his conspicuous acumen, unsurpassed 

 learning, indefatigabihty and success as a historical 

 investigator, and sedulous and pious promotion of 

 untrammelled criticism. 



Smith, SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY, the heroof Acre, 

 was born at Westminster, 21st July 1764, entered 

 the navy at eleven, and received a lieutenancy for 

 his courage at Cape St Vincent in 1780. After 

 further service under Graves and Rodney, he rose 

 to the rank of captain in 1782 ; gave advice to the 

 king of Sweden in the war with Russia ( 1790-92), 

 being knighted as a reward ; was next sent on a 

 mission to Constantinople, and aided Hood in 

 burning the ships and the arsenal at Toulon in 

 December 1793. He next watched the Channel 

 for French privateers, but was taken prisoner in 

 Havre-de-Grftce harbour in April 1796. He suc- 

 ceeded in making his escape in 1798, and in October 

 was sent as plenipotentiary to Constantinople, 

 whence he hastened to St Jean d'Acre on hearing 

 that Bonaparte was al>out to attack. On the 16th 

 March 1799 he captured the enemy's vessels, and 

 he held the town heroically until Napoleon raised 

 the siege, leaving his artillery behind, on the 20th 

 May. For this Tie received the thanks of parlia- 

 ment and a pension of 1000. Sir Sidney Smith 

 next aided Abercromby in Egypt, became rear- 

 admiral of the blue in 1805, and successively 

 guarded Sicily and Naples, destroyed the Turkish 

 fleet in Abydos (1807), blockaded the Tagus, 

 became vice-admiral of the blue in 1810, K.C.B. 

 in 1815, and admiral in 1821. He died at Paris, 

 26th May 1840. See the Life by Barrow ( J848). 



Siuil hlicld. or SMOOTHFIELD, is an open space 

 of 5j acres in London, used for centuries as a 

 market for sheep, horses, cattle, and hay. Being- 

 a little north of Newgate and west of Alders- 

 gate, it was outside the city walls, and available 

 for jousts, tournaments, executions, and burnings. 

 It was also a place of recreation for the people, 

 and the celebrated Bartholomew Fair (q.v. ) was 

 held in Smithfield. Here the patriot Wallace ^yas 

 executed by Edward I. ; here in the great agrarian 

 revolt Wat Tyler, at the head of 30,000 peasants, 

 encountered Richard II., and was stabl>ed by Wai- 

 worth, the Mayor of London ; and it was here 





