1887 - 1891

William Henry Smith (1825-1891) took over his father's newsagency business, converting it into a national institution. Religious-minded and philanthropic, he was returned to Parliament at the Westminster election of 1868 as a reform-minded Conservative; he entered the government in 1874 and the cabinet in 1877. In opposition after 1880, he suffered, like Stafford Northcote, the contempt both of Gladstone and the young Turks on his own back-benches, but returned to office in the Conservative administrations of 1885-86 and 1886-92, replacing Randolph Churchill as first Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons on the latter's resignation in 1886. Widely admired, he held the position until his death in 1891.

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