Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

17 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

Advertising

Record of Coming Events.

Inaccessibility of Newmarket.

RAINFALL AT PRESTATYN.

IWatch-night Services.

Our Local Parliament

Social at the Town Hall.

THE DAYS OF CROMWELL.

New Year's Day

Magistrates in Plenty.

To Encourage the Study of…

"Redcliffe."

Proposed Winter Lectures.

Presbyterian Literary Society.

THE LATE SAMUEL SMITH.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

THE LATE SAMUEL SMITH. For 20 Years M.P. for Flintshire. Reuter's correspondent at Calcutta reports the sudden death of Mr Samuel Smith, of Liverpool, late M.P. for Flintshire. About a month ago, in company with Mr Leif Jones, M.P., Mr Smith left Liverpool for India, ostensibly to attend the Indian Congress, though doubtless prompted also by a desire to escape the rigours of an English winter. His death is attributed tolheart failure. Mr Samuel Smith was born at Borgue, Kirkcudbright, in 1836. He was the eldest son of James Smith, a farmer in that district. His grandfather:was:a!Pl'esbyterian minister, and it was intended that he should follow the same calling. To this end, he went to Edinburgh University. However, he aban- doned the idea|of entering the ministry and was sent to Liverpool to serve an apprentice- ship to cotton brokers of that town. He proved himself remarkably efficient, and became a capable judge of cotton texture, a good financier, and generally a shrewd man of business. Commencing business on his own account, 0 his undertakings were speedily successful, and as he was a man of frugal habits he amassed considerable wealth. Keen in business and careful in spending, Mr Smith was nevertheless a man'of large benevolence, and gave liberallv" and often lavishly to objects of public and private charity which appealed to his sympathies. All his life he was deeply interested in religious and mis- sionary work. When a young man he was an active helper in the ragged schools in Liverpool, and later such movements as the Y.M.C.A., the Society for the Prevention "of Cruelty to Children, and the crusade against vivisection commanded his energetic support. He showed especial interest in social reform and on questions of temperance and education was regarded as!til authority. In politics a Liberal, he entered Parliament in 1882 as one of the members for Liverpool. Sustaining defeat at the general election of 1885, he visited India, and during his absence (March 1886) was elected for Flintshire—a constituency which he continued to represent until immediately before the last general election. Mr Samuel Smith (writes the Parliamentary cor- respondent of Manchester Guaadian) of late years had been compelled to relinquish much of his social and political work, but few men have held a more remarkable position in the popular Chamber than Mr Samuel Smith. His was a success of moral courage pure and simple. Externally, perhaps, he possessed few of the qualifications that go to make a good Parliamentarian. His long beard, his expres- sion of demure austerity, his thin, high-pitched Scottish accent, his absence of humour or geniality -all contributed to the picture of such an elder of the Scottish Kirk as pops up from behind the wall in the last scene of The Little Minister." But per- sistence and earnestness told. Mr Samuel Smith cared nothing for the frowns of the world or the laughter of the young Tory bloods. Mr Samuel Smith would raise subjects from which every other member of the Honse would turn away. The cry of faddist had no terrors for him. The opium traffic, the condition of India, the purity of the stage, the vice of the streets, the spread of obscene literature—these are all things from which the average member turns away with a not altogether inexplicable distaste. But he forced the House of Commons to face the facts, and by force of sheer persistence and industry he often won opinion over to his side.

Social at " Horeb."

Advertising