During this period Smith was preparing a book on British political history, The United Kingdom. George M. Wrong of the University of Toronto spent several months editing the manuscript, marking passages he questioned and suggesting improvements. Smith continued to write articles and book reviews for a number of periodicals, including the Americal Historical Review. In addition to buying books he needed for his work, Smith borrowed many from Toronto libraries and the Library of Parliament in Ottawa, as well as from Cornell University, to which he had given his library in 1869. Some Canadian topics that appear in the letters are the Manitoba school question, copyright legislation, an investigation of the University of Toronto, the financial status of Newfoundland, and continental union. Unemployment had become serious in Toronto, as elsewhere, and a number of Englishmen sought Smith's advice and assistance in finding work. Settlement of the Bering Sea question in favor of Britain had aroused some anti-British feeling in America, and in 1895 the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine in asking Great Britain to submit the Venezuelan boundary dispute to arbitration. This international tension was referred to by a number of correspondents. There were also letters about restrictions against Protestants in Latin America, about Australian federation, and labor disturbances in the United States.