Post,' another local paper. In 1860 he suggested the introduction of sixpenny telegrams, printing specimen forms similar to those afterwards adopted.
In September 1889, on the death of J. B. Firth, one of two members of parliament for Dundee, Leng was returned without opposition in the liberal interest. He was re-elected by large majorities in 1892, 1896, and 1900. retiring from the House of Commons at the dissolution in 1905. An advanced radical and a supporter of home rule all round, he made his maiden speech, on 26 March 1890, in support of the parliamentary elections (Scotland) bill, which proposed that the expenses of returning officers at such elections should be paid out of the rates. Among the topics which he brought before the House of Commons were the excessive hours of railway guards, engine-drivers, and firemen; appointment of female inspectors of factories and workshops; boarding-out of pauper children by parochial boards. He was prominent in 1893 in support of the home rule bill of Mr. Gladstone, and of the employers' liability bill. In the same year he was knighted and was made deputy-lieutenant for the county of the city of Dundee. He was made an honorary burgess of Dundee in 1902; and in 1904 hon. LL.D. of St. Andrews. Despite his journalistic and parliamentary activity he found time for extensive travel. He visited the United States and Canada in 1876, and frequently toured in France, Germany, and Holland. His first Western journey was recorded in a volume entitled 'America in 1876' (Dundee, 1877); and a visit to India in 1896 was detailed in his book 'Letters from India and Ceylon' (1897), a work translated and widely circulated in Germany. Two journeys in the Near East produced 'Some European Rivers and Cities' (1897) and 'Glimpses of Egypt and Sicily' (1902). A second American tour in 1905 was commemorated in 'Letters from the United States and Canada' (1905). In October 1906 he set out on a third tour in America, but fell ill atDelmonte, California, and died there on 12 Dec. 1906. His body was cremated and the ashes brought home and interred at Vicarsford cemetery, near Newport, Fife.
Leng married twice: (1) in 1851, Emily, elder daughter of Alderman Cook of Beverley; she died at Kinbrae, Newport, Fifeshire, in 1894, leaving two sons and four daughters; (2) in 1897, Mary, daughter of William Low, of Kirriemuir, who survived him.
A portrait by James Archer, R.S.A., was presented to him in 1889 by the staff of the 'Dundee Advertiser' when he entered parliament. In 1901 a portrait by Sir William Quiller Orohardson, R.A., presented to him by the people of Dundee, was given by him to Dundee Permanent Art Gallery. The unspent balance of the subsoriptions was increased by Leng so as to form the Leng Trust, designed to encourage the study of Scottish literature and music.
Besides the volumes mentioned, Leng published numerous pamphlets on socialism, free trade, and economic subjects. A posthumous work, edited by Lady Leng, is entitled 'Through Canada to California'. (1911).
[Dundee Year Book, 1901 and 1906; Dundee Advertiser, 1851-1906; Centenary of Dundee Advertiser, 1901; private information.]
LENG, Sir WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER (1825–1902), journalist, born at Hull on 25 Jan. 1825, was elder son of Adam Leng of Hull by Mary, daughter of Christopher Luccock, of Malton, architect. Sir John Leng [q. v. Suppl. II] was a younger brother. His father had served in the navy during the Napoleonic wars on board the Termagant; but from 1815 he engaged in commerce at Hull. After education at a private school, where he showed a taste for literature, William was apprenticed in 1839 to a wholesale chemist in Hull, and afterwards acted as town-traveller. In 1847 he began business on his own account. Meanwhile in anonymous contributions to the 'Hull Free Press,' including sketches of notable citizens (issued in book form in 1852), he championed with vigour a variety of reforms. Denouncing the overloading and mismodelling of cargo steamships, he first suggested to Samuel Plimsoll [q. v. Suppl. I] the crusade which led to the introduction of the Plimsoll 'load-line.' Proposals for municipal reforms in Hull like the demolition of slum-property were defeated in his opinion by the self-interest of prominent liberals, whose party he hitherto supported. Thereupon he declared himself a conservative, and remained through life a devoted of the conservative cause. Brought up as a Wesleyan, he joined the evangelical party in the Church of England.
In spite of divergent political opinions, William was a regular contributor of articles on municipal and national afters to the 'Dundee Advertiser,' after his brother John became editor in 1861. In 1859 William gave up his chemist's
