DISRAELI, BENJAMIN. 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



253 



hamshire, and in the same year he published 

 " Ixion in Heaven," with other tales ; and also 

 "Tancred; or, The New Crusade," in some 

 respects the best of his novels. He himself 

 says, in the preface to his collected works 

 (1870), that " Coningsby," " Sibyl," and Tan- 

 cred," form a trilogy, the object of which 

 was to delineate the origin and character of 

 English political parties. 



He now began to take a leading part in the 

 House of Commons. His severe attacks on Sir 

 Eobert Peel, for alleged treachery to his party 

 in the adoption of his free-trade policy, are 

 among the most remarkable speeches in the 

 annals of the British Legislature. They estab- 

 lished Disraeli's reputation as one of the most 

 powerful debaters and keen and polished satir- 

 ists in that body. In 1849 he became the rec- 

 ognized leader of the Conservative party in 

 Parliament. A biography of his father, Isaac 

 Disraeli (1849), and a memoir of his personal 

 and political friend, Lord George Bentinck 

 (1852), were his next literary productions. In 

 March, 1852, in the first Derby administration, 

 he received the appointment of Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, was made a member of the 

 Privy Council, and became leader of the minis- 

 terial party in the House of Commons. He 

 went out of office with the rest of the Derby 

 ministry, in December of the same year. In 

 February, 1858, when Lord Derby again ac- 

 cepted the t^sk of forming a new cabinet, 

 after the downfall of Lord Palmerston, Disraeli 

 again became Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 

 February, 1859, he brought forward an elabo- 

 rate plan of electoral reform, a principal feat- 

 ure of which was the extension of the suf- 

 frage to the whole body of the educated class, 

 without regard to property. The bill was de- 

 feated in the House of Commons, March 31st, 

 and Parliament was dissolved April 23d. The 

 Derby administration retained its place till 

 June llth, when the new Parliament passed 

 a vote of want of confidence, and the ministry 

 resigned. It was succeeded by the Palmer- 

 ston-Kussell cabinet, and on the death of Lord 

 Palmerston, October 18, 1865, by the Russell- 

 Gladstone ministry, which remained in power 

 till June, 1866, when, owing to the unsatisfac- 

 tory nature of the reform bill proposed by them, 

 a vote of want of confidence was passed, and 

 they resigned. Disraeli, during this period, 

 was the leader of the opposition in the House 

 of Commons. A new ministry was formed 

 July 6th, the Earl of Derby being Prime Minis- 

 ter, and Disraeli Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

 He was the chief supporter of the reform bill, 

 signed by the Queen, August 15, 1867, which 

 extended the right of suffrage to all house- 

 holders in a borough, and to every person 

 in a county who had a freehold of 40s. The 

 Earl of Derby resigning in February, 1868, 

 Disraeli became Prime Minister ; but a majority 

 in Parliament was opposed to the position 

 which the ministry took on the question of 

 disestablishing the Church of Ireland. Parlia- 



ment was dissolved, but the new election 

 showed a strong majority for the opposition ; 

 and, without waiting for its meeting, Disraeli, 

 with his colleagues, resigned, December 2, 1868, 

 and was succeeded as Prime Minister by Mr. 

 Gladstone. 



In 1870, Disraeli published "Lothair," a 

 politico-religious novel, aimed at the Fenians, 

 Communists, and the Jesuits. It had a great 

 success, its circulation in the United States 

 alone exceeding 80,000 copies. In 1868 he 

 was offered a peerage by the Queen, which he 

 declined for himself, but accepted for his wife, 

 who was made Viscountess Beaconsfield, on 

 November 28th of that year. She died De- 

 cember 23, 1872. In February, 1874, the par- 

 liamentary elections having resulted in a Con- 

 servative majority, Mr. Gladstone resigned, 

 and Mr. Disraeli again became Prime Minister. 



On February 17, 1876, Mr. Disraeli intro- 

 duced a bill in the House of Commons, to 

 authorize the Queen to take, in addition to her 

 other titles, that of " Empress of India." After 

 much opposition the bill became a law, April 

 27th. On the 16th of August, Mr. Disraeli 

 was raised to the peerage, with the title of 

 Earl of Beaconsfield. 



DOMINION OF CANADA. The year was 

 marked by the close of the proceedings of the 

 Fisheries Commission, under the Treaty of 

 "Washington, which had been in session for 

 some time at Halifax. 



The fishery question dates from the article 

 in the Treaty of 1783, which conceded to the 

 Americans the right to fish in the Gulf, the 

 Grand Bank, and all other banks and waters in 

 the deep sea ; and the liberty to fish on certain 

 British coasts, and in certain waters within the 

 territorial jurisdiction of Great Britain, with 

 liberty also to land on British coasts for drying 

 and curing purposes. This article gave rise to 

 no dispute until 1814, when, in negotiating the 

 Treaty of Ghent, the British Commissioners 

 maintained that the war had destroyed its va- 

 lidity. The Americans, on the other hand, con- 

 tended that the fishery rights secured them by 

 the Treaty of Independence were irrevocable 

 and inalienable. The rival diplomatists left the 

 question open, and nothing was said of it in 

 the Treaty of Ghent. The controversy was re- 

 vived in 1815, and an attempt was made to 

 settle it in 1818 by the convention of that year, 

 which granted the Americans the right to fish 

 in the deep sea, and to dry and cure on British 

 coasts, as by the Treaty of 1783, while they re- 

 nounced all claim to fish within three marine 

 miles of the British coasts, bays, creeks, or 

 harbors ; still retaining, however, the right to 

 enter such coasts, bays, etc., for shelter, repair- 

 ing damages, and purchasing wood. 



This agreement did not allay the dispute, 

 and the fishery question was embittered by the 

 Canso and headland questions, involving, prac- 

 tically, the right of Americans to fish in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, and 

 the Bay Chaleur. This dispute, so far as it re- 



