Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/335

 'A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir and Correspondence of the late John Murray, with an Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768-1843' (2 vols.; abridged edit. 1911). In 1894 there followed 'Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S., his Personal History.' His last years were mainly spent on an unpretentious autobiography, bringing his career to 1890; it was edited for posthumous issue in 1905 by his friend Thomas Mackay. Smiles' s powers slowly failed, and he died at his residence at Kensington on 16 April 1904, being buried at Brompton Cemetery.

Smiles married at Leeds, on 7 Dec. 1843, Sarah Ann Holmes (d. 1900), daughter of a Leeds contractor, and had issue three daughters and two sons. He edited in 1871 'A Boy's Voyage round the World in 1868-9,' by his younger son.

A portrait painted by Sir George Reid is in the National Portrait Gallery; it was etched by Paul Rajon. A sketch of Smiles was made at Rome by Guglielmo de Sancto in March 1889. Rossetti, an Italian sculptor, also executed a bust at Rome in 1879.

 SMITH, ARCHIBALD LEVIN (1836–1901), judge, born at Salt Hill near Chichester on 27 Aug. 1836, was only son of Francis Smith of that place, by his wife Mary Ami, only daughter of Zadik Levin. After attending Eton, and receiving private tuition at home and at Chichester, he completed his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1858. Like several of his contemporaries on the judicial bench, he rowed in the university eight in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race three years running (1857, 1858, 1859). On the last occasion the race was rowed in a gale of wind, and the Cambridge boat filled and sank between Barnes Bridge and the finish. According to tradition. Smith alone of the Cambridge oarsmen could not swim, and sat stolidly rowing until, when the water was up to his neck, he was rescued not without difficulty. Smith was also through life a good cricketer, playing frequently for the Gentlemen of Sussex. He had entered as a student of the Inner Temple on 27 May 1856, and was called on 17 Nov. 1860, when he joined the home circuit. He rapidly acquired a good and increasing junior practice, being largely employed in commercial cases and in election petitions, and having a full pupil-room. In 1879, on the appointment of Charles (afterwards Lord) Bowen [q. v. Suppl. I] to a judgeship, he was nominated by Sir John Holker [q. v.], attorney-general, to be standing junior counsel to the treasury, and after an unusually short tenure of that office he was made a judge of the Queen's Bench Division in 1883. He was elected a bencher of his inn on 12 April, and was knighted on 20 April of that year.

Smith, big and strong physically, was devoted to sport, and was in an exceptional degree 'a good fellow.' To these advantages he added cheerful and unremitting industry and great natural acuteness. Consequently it mattered very little that his voice was weak, or that he had no gift of eloquence, his language being to the end of his life confined to the homeliest vernacular. He was extremely fond of shooting and fishing; he was (in 1899) president of the M.C.C., and the university boatrace and cricket-match aroused his never-failing interest. He was, in the best sense of the words, a man of the world, and his honesty, vigour-, and good sense were everywhere recognised.

In 1888 Smith was appointed a special commissioner with Sir James Hannen [q. v.] and Mr. Justice Day to inquire into allegations published by 'The Times' affecting C. S. Parnell and other Irish nationalists. During the sitting of this tribunal the commissioners adopted a practice of silence. On one occasion, when the president, Hannen, who had a gift for saying much in the fewest words, observed that he had not thought or imputed something of which some of those appearing before the commission had complained. Smith said 'Nor I,' and Day made an inarticulate sound of concurrence; but it was believed that, with this exception, neither of the junior judges said a word during the prolonged proceedings. Smith tried, while he was in the Queen's Bench Division, the first case heard under the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, when a Colonel Sandoval was convicted of fitting out a hostile expedition against Venezuela, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.

In 1892 Smith was promoted, with general approval, to the Court of Appeal, his original colleagues there being Esher, Master of the Rolls, Lindley, Bowen, Fry, and Kay. Esher had much in common with Smith; the others were all more learned lawyers. Smith's modesty, force of character, and great intelligence enabled him however to hold his own so effectively that he was appointed in October 1900 