thurlie, Renfrewshire. Mr. Graham succeeded to his father's place as
head of the firm of William Graham & Co., merchants. The principal
business in which he is engaged is that of cotton-spinning, the firm
owning the Lancefield Factory, which, if not one of the largest, is at
any rate one of the oldest establishments of its kind in Glasgow, and
carries the memory back to the days when cotton and not iron was the
industrial King of the West. At the Lancefield Factory there are upwards
of 1000 hands employed, principally women, and the annual output of
cotton is nearly equal to that of some of the largest mills in
Manchester. Besides being a cotton-spinner, however, Mr. Graham is also a
wine importer on a very considerable scale, and is largely engaged in
the East India produce trade. Vintages of the choicest quality, and
ports of the heaviest "body," are imported by the firm direct from
Lisbon and Oporto, where they have branch establishments; and so
conspicuous for their excellence are the wines which they import, that
when _paterfamilias_ wants to impress upon his guest that he is enjoying
an unmistakeable treat, he announces that the grateful beverage under
discussion "was imported direct by William Graham & Co." In his father's
days, Mr. Graham represented the house both in India and on the
Continent, and since he became head of the firm, he has devoted himself
with the utmost assiduity to the management and direction of affairs at
home. Thus, unlike either of his colleagues, Mr. Graham takes an active
personal supervision of a large mercantile concern, at the same time
that he earns the credit of being one if the most regular attenders in
the House of Commons. Indeed, he makes it a matter of duty to attend the
House closely, and it is a fair matter of doubt whether there are
half-a-dozen members--not in office--who attend to their Parliamentary
duty with more punctuality and unfailing attention than the three
representatives for Glasgow.

On the retirement from Parliamentary duties, through commercial
misfortunes, of Mr. Buchanan, who had for many years been the senior
member for the city, Mr. Wm. Graham came forward as a candidate. His
address to the electors, dated the 11th May, 1865, contained the
following:--"A native of Glasgow, an alumnus of her University, and
connected with the city by the closest ties of business and of
friendship, I have felt that for the honour and usefulness of such a
position the cares o