Canadian topics dominate the papers on this reel. In a controversy over the comparative merits of public and church schools, Smith questioned the right of the state to support public schools by taxation, maintaining that the parent should bear the responsibility for educating his children and had the right to choose the kind of education he preferred. He continued to support the Toronto Athletic Club and other social and athletic organizations that he thought of benefit to the city. For some time he paid the salary of a public relief officer to coordinate the efforts of Toronto's charitable agencies, and he took part in the controversy over operating street cars on Sunday. In 1893, while he was absent from Toronto as usual in the late winter, a move was made to request his resignation from the St. George Society because of his active advocacy of union with the United States. Smith replied that an Englishman's political views were no bar to his social acceptability, but six months later, after the affair was largely forgotten, he formally withdrew from the society and sailed for England to spend the winter. There are many letters from George P. Brett of the Macmillan Company all through the reel relating to the publishing of Smith's historical work, The United States and some smaller volumes of essays and verse. In England Smith renewed his associations with literary men and arranged to write some articles for British magazines. On his return to Canada in the spring he prepared a report on the Canadian school system for the British Commission on Secondary Education. Tariff legislation and woman suffrage were frequently mentioned in the correspondence.