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 xlvi work's general management he took keen interest and played an active part in it from first to last.

While the 'Dictionary' was in progress many gratifying proofs were given Smith on the part of the public and of the contributors, with whom his relations were uniformly cordial, of their appreciation of his patriotic endeavour. After he had indulged his characteristically hospitable instincts by entertaining them at his house in Park Lane in 1892, they invited him to be their guest in 1894 at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Smith, in returning thanks, expressed doubt whether a publisher had ever before been entertained by a distinguished company of authors. In 1895 the university of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A. Some two years later, on 8 July 1897, Smith acted as host to the whole body of writers and some distinguished strangers at the Hôtel Métropole, and six days afterwards, on 14 July 1897, at a meeting of the second international library conference at the council chamber in the Guildhall, a congratulatory resolution was, on the motion of the late Dr. Justin Winsor, librarian of Harvard, unanimously voted to him 'for carrying forward so stupendous a work.' The vote was carried amid a scene of stirring enthusiasm. Smith then said that during a busy life of more than fifty years no work had afforded him so much interest and satisfaction as that connected with the 'Dictionary.' In May 1900, in view of the completion of the great undertaking. King Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) honoured with his presence a small dinner party given to congratulate Smith upon the auspicious event. Finally, on 30 June 1900, the Lord Mayor of London invited him and the editors to a brilliant banquet at the Mansion House, which was attended by men of the highest distinction in literature and public life. Mr. John Morley, in proposing the chief toast, remarked that it was impossible to say too much of the public spirit, the munificence, and the clear and persistent way in which Smith had carried out the great enterprise. He had not merely inspired a famous literary achievement, but had done an act of good citizenship of no ordinary quality or magnitude.

After 1890 Smith's active direction of affairs at Waterloo Place, except in regard to the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' somewhat diminished. From 1881 to 1890 his elder son, George Murray Smith, had joined him in the publishing business; in 1890 his younger son, Alexander Murray Smith, came in; and at the end of 1894 Reginald John Smith, K.C., who had shortly before married Smith's youngest daughter, entered the firm. After 1894 Smith left the main control of the business in the hands of his son, Alexander Murray Smith, and of his son-in-law, Reginald John Smith, of whom the former retired from active partnership early in 1899. Smith still retained the 'Dictionary' as his personal property, and until his death his advice and the results of his experience were placed freely and constantly at the disposal of his partners. His interest in the fortunes of the firm was unabated to the end, and he even played anew in his last days his former rôle of adviser in the editorial conduct of the 'Cornhill Magazine.' The latest writer of repute and popularity, whose association with Smith, Elder, & Co. was directly due to himself, was Mrs. Humphry Ward, the niece of his old friend Matthew Arnold.