pounded to himself and to his political disciples in the beginning the question, “What is to be conserved?" and throughout his career he showed himself as radical in lopping off outworn institutions to which even his Liberal opponents still clung as he was conservative in upholding ancient and enduring social principles which were ignored in the Liberal philosophy. Disraeli's political ideal is unfolded in his novels " Coningsby" and "Sibyl." His intellectual method was not comprehended by an age and a nation educated only in the short and easy political logic of deduction from assumed universal axioms. The underlying motive of his speculations was the need which he felt of closer bonds of social interdependence, such as those which the great revolution had unloosed. Neither he nor the age was ripe for constructive developments in that direction even to commence. Disraeli was in advance of the time in recognizing the fatuity of the doctrine that unchecked selfishness is the mainspring of progress. He had the genius to discern the interior vitality of the ancient institutions, proclaimed effete, with which memories of social duties and ballowed relations were associated; and in revindicating the high mission of the throne, the national church, and the nobility, he struck a chord to which the feelings of the higher and the lower classes responded, and which did not leave the great middle class unaffected. Disraeli was a leading spirit in the movement of moral regeneration among the British aristocracy which occurred at the period when he was by hard parliamentary work gaining the reluctant reliance of the Tories upon his brilliant powers of debate and astute party tactics. The confidence and respect which, as a moral leader, he deserved of the Tory party, was tardily meted to him only on account of his political triumphs. In the field of foreign politics, in which he won and lost his great battles, Disraeli's motives were of a lower order than his social doctrines, which he could not carry out in practical politics, but which actuated him to accept democratic measures; notably to take the "leap in the dark" which extended the franchise to the rural population. Disraeli's foreign policy, loudly as it has been condemned by doctrinaires, is the historical policy of Great Britain. To strengthen the imperial authority in India was a politic and exigent course. The domination of Great Britain by the exercise of military power over all the outlying weak and barbarous nations of the world is an immorality the blame for which attaches principally to the mercantile community. They have benefited by such exhibitions of tyranny, and are only brought to condemn them when the cost is not immediately returned to them in rich profits.

Disraeli's bold preparations for war with Russia, which enabled him to reassert England's authority in the councils of Europe, and to return in triumph from Berlin bringing "peace

with honor," was a course which, in spite of subsequent defeat and depreciation, still claims the praises of English patriots. The war with Afghanistan grew directly out of the policy taken toward Russia, and the Transvaal war out of a situation of affairs for which both parties were responsible. That both these wars might with more credit have been avoided was the verdict of the people in the elections of 1880. Disraeli's precipitation from power immediately after attaining the pinnacle of greatness was rather a manifestation of the jealous ingratitude of republics than a condemnation of his policy. The dramatic effect produced by springing his political strokes upon the country as surprises, and the outward pomp and vainglorious flourish of titles in his Oriental policy, were repugnant to the sober second thought of Anglo-Saxon people.

No Continental power was disposed to restrain Russia from acting her will with Turkey after the hard-won conquest. But all the neutral powers approved the spirited stand taken by England, although the English themselves, who had become thoroughly indoctrinated withi the theory of non-intervention, acquiesced very reluctantly, until the slumbering martial passions were excited. The Russian version of the "Bulgarian atrocities" was eloquently presented to the country by Gladstone and other Liberal orators. Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon resigned from the Cabinet. With the party thus crippled and public opinion wavering and turning against him, Disraeli courageously went forward in the course which he deemed necessary to take in order to rescue England's menaced Asiatic interests. A British fleet forced the Dardanelles and anchored before Constantinople. Six million pounds were voted by Parliament for nilitary preparations, and a contingent of native troops from India was landed at Malta, as a signal that the resources of the new empire of India would be drawn upon to prevent the encroachments of Russia upon British possessions in Asia, or her approach toward the route of naval communications with India. Disraeli dictated to Russia the terms of the Treaty of Berlin, and defeated the pretensions of the Treaty of San Stefano. By placing Bosnia and Herzegovina under the domination of Austria, he interested another power in the prevention of Russian aggression beyond the Balkans. The acquisition of Cyprus by England was of doubtful advantage. Upon his return from Berlin he entered the House of Lords with the title of Earl of Beaconsfield. Upon the resignation of the Disraeli Cabinet in 1868 he had been tendered a peerage, but was unwilling at that time to retire from the House of Commons, and accepted the honor for his wife instead, upon whom was conferred the title of Viscountess Beaconsfield. The result of the elections of the spring of 1880 was a surprise to the victorious as well as to the defeated party. It was a bitter disappointment to Disraeli to see his cherished plans brought

to naught and his policy reversed. From his seat in the House of Lords during the remaining year of his life he did not often rise, but occasionally lifted his voice in indignant or sarcastic protest. The biographical details of Lord Beaconsfield's career have been related in an earlier volume (see DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, in" Annual Cyclopædia" for 1877).

DOMINION OF CANADA. Parliament, having been summoned in December, earlier than the usual time of assembling, in order to act upon the Pacific Railway contract to which the Government had pledged themselves, continued in session till March 18th. After the terms of the agreement were published, a company of Canadian capitalists offered to build and keep in operation the transcontinental railroad on terms more favorable to the Government. Their proposition was to fulfill the contract for a money subsidy $3,000,000 less and a land subsidy 3,000,000 acres less than the syndicate with which the Government had contracted, and furthermore to submit to free competition from parallel lines and roads connecting with the United States railroads, and to forego the immunities granted to the syndicate from general and local taxes and duty on imported materials. They also offered to submit to expropriation at any time on terms to be settled by arbitration. The Liberals did not press for the acceptance of these terms, but argued that the Premier's bargain was materially poorer than the one offered by the Canadian syndicate, and that yet better terms might probably be obtained if competing bids were invited, while still contending that no contract for the completion of the entire line should be entered into at present. The Opposition gained no numerical strength during the session, remaining in a small but strenuous and formidable minority. Parliament was engaged over the contract with the St. Paul syndicate for the transfer of the portions built and the completion of the Pacific Railroad during the whole of January. Mr. Blake brought in, as an amendment to the bill, a proposition to disregard the Government's provisional bargain, and make the best terms for the Dominion which could be secured by competition in the open market. Upon the rejection of this proposition, the clauses of the contract one by one were made the subject of specific amendments. The Government, in view of its inconsistency with the national policy, altered the condition by which the syndicate were granted a special inmunity from the duty on steel, and instead made steel duty free for the space of one year. On the 28th of January, in a sitting of seventeen hours, the Opposition offered eighteen amendments, which were all voted down. On the 31st the bill was passed at its third reading by a vote of 128 to 49.

The terms of the contract made provisionally by Sir John A. Macdonald with the St. Panl syndicate, after his failure to induce London capitalists to undertake the completion of

the Pacific Railway, are detailed in the "Annual Cyclopædia "for 1880. They were ratified in all essential particulars by the vote of Parliament. The company receive the sections of the road already completed and under way, the total cost of the property to be handed over to them by the Government being estimated at $32,500,000. They receive in addition a money subsidy of $25,000,000, and a land subsidy of 25,000,000 acres. The total subsidies allowed them for completing and running the road for the specified term of years are valued in the aggregate at $107,500,000. The land they are allowed to select at will, along the line of the main or branch roads, or elsewhere in the unoccupied Northwest. The portions of the line to be constructed by the syndicate were estimated by Sandford Fleming, the former Government engineer, at $48,500,000. The company are protected from competing parallel roads, and from other lines crossing the boundary, for twenty years. They are also granted immunity from taxation for ever, and are permitted to import all materials free of duty. The right of the Dominion Government to regulate freight and passenger rates is not to be exercised until the earnings on the capital exceed 10 per cent per annum. company issued $25,000,000 of bonds secured on their land grant, the amount for which they were allowed to bond the land by the terms of the charter. Of the total amount $5,000,000 are retained by the Government until the year 1901 as security for the completion of the whole line, and its maintenance. The remaining $20,000,000 they are allowed to sell for what they will bring, the proceeds to remain in the custody of the Government, and to be paid over to the company as each twenty-mile section is constructed.

The

The letters patent to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company were issued February 16th, and the requisite $5,000,000 of stock were subscribed for, and the deposit with the Government of $1,000,000 made immediately. The company was organized with George Stephen, of Montreal, as president; Duncan McIntyre, of Montreal, vice-president; J. J. C. Abbott, counsel; McIntyre, Angus, and Hill, executive committee; Charles Drinkwater, secretary and treasurer; and A. B. Stickney, general superintendent of the Western Division. The Government transferred the Pembina Branch and the completed portions of the Pacific Railway to the syndicate in the beginning of April. The company announced their intention of rapidly pushing the construction of both the eastern and western sections of the main line, and of building a branch line from a point near its eastern terminus to Sault Ste. Marie, and another from a point beyond Red River to the Souris coal-fields and the United States boundary. The latter project discourages the construction of an independent road from Winnipeg to the coal-mines, for which concessions had been obtained, and the other proposed

branch threatens competition with the line undertaken by the Ontario and Sault company. An amalgamation with the Canada Central and Intercolonial Railway, owned by the Government, was effected by the syndicate. The portions of the main line constructed are about 500 miles in Manitoba and 100 miles in British Columbia. The whole will be completed by the syndicate, it is expected, in about seven years. The entire line will be about 4,500 miles long, extending from Halifax to Burrard Inlet. Surveys have been made for a shorter route between Kamloops and Selkirk than over the Yellowhead Pass, the passage in the Rocky Mountains selected by the Government. It has been decided to construct two branch lines extending in a northwesterly direction from the main line, which will probably be deflected to the south in the Northwest Territory from the line surveyed by the Government engineers. One of the branches is to enter the main line at Brandon and one near the great forks of the Qu'Appelle.

The syndicate introduced regulations with regard to the sale of lands in the Northwest which are more inviting to settlers than those in force before. The price of land in the sections belonging to the company within the 24mile belt was uniformly fixed at $2.50 an acre, payable in seven annual installments with interest; but one half of the purchase-money payable within the first three years will be remitted to settlers who crop one eighth or more of an 80 or 160 acre tract, or 100 acres in a 320-acre tract, and a proportionate part of a 640-acre tract; and, when buildings of the value of $1,000 or more are placed upon the property, the same rebate is continued for five years. The price of a quarter-section or half a quarter-section is thus reduced for the purchaser who tills the prescribed minimum, to $2.03 an acre, not counting interest, and, if he puts up buildings of the stipulated value, to $1.72 an acre. The Government have put the same price on the even-numbered sections, but allow no rebate, the right of the pre-emptor to a contiguous quarter-section under the homestead law constituting an equivalent. The Government land is open only to actual settlers. From the 1st of January, 1882, the preemption price is due in a single payment at the end of three years. Outside the 24-mile belt one half of the land is subject to homestead and pre-emption at the price of $2 an acre, and the remainder is salable to any buyers and in any quantities at $2 cash per acre. The European companies and individuals may purchase tracts of land within the 24-mile belt at $1.25 an acre on the condition of colonizing them. The Government also reserve the power of granting tracts beyond the 24-mile belt to the Canada Pacific or other railroad companies at $1 an acre, and of leasing to cattle-breeders for terms of twenty-one years tracts of 100,000 acres or less.

A memorandum of the Minister of Agricult

ure, J. H. Pope, presenting a plan for the establishment of impoverished Irish tenant farmers upon unoccupied lands of the Dominion by the assistance of the Canadian and the Imperial Governments, was adopted by the Privy Council of the Dominion and transmitted to the Imperial Government in March. It proposed that provision be made for removing families from Ireland to the Northwest, and their maintenance until the first crop should be gathered from the land. By arrangement in advance, the farm-lots of the new-comers could be prepared, a small dwelling erected on each lot, and a portion of the farm broken up and prepared for seed before the arrival of the immigrant, and in the case of those sent late in the season actually sown, so as to insure a crop the same year that the immigrant is placed in possession. This work would afford employment to the immigrants upon their arrival and while their own crops are growing. The cost of settling immigrants on this plan was estimated at $200 for transport of a family with three children to Winnipeg, and about the same sum for preparing for seed eight acres of prairie-land. The advances which should be made by the British Government for such purpose might be intrusted to a national emigration association; and the Canadian Government could provide that the cost of preparing homesteads for the occupation of settlers and the cost of transport should form a prior charge upon the land, payable in certain annual installments with interest. The Canadian Government has provided for placing tracts of land in the Northwest at the disposal of emigrant associations or commissions for settlement by families from the old country.

A bill for the extension of the boundaries of Manitoba was brought in the Senate by the ministry in March. It provides in the same manner as a bill which passed the Manitoba Legislature, for the enlargement of the province westward by the incorporation of the settlements up to the Assiniboin, and for the inclusion of the territory eastward up to the Ontario boundary-line. The eastern boundary thus defined may become a matter of controversy, since the western and northern boundaries of the Province of Ontario are in dispute between the Ontario and Dominion authorities.

In an alien act act passed by Parliament, the principle was affirmed incidentally that the Dominion Parliament possesses concurrent powers with the Provincial Assemblies in legislation regarding property and civil rights.

The revenue for the year ending June 30th was $29,712,063, derived from the following sources:

of expenditures for 1881-'82 submitted to Parliament by the Finance Minister, Sir Leonard Tilley, was $26,465,000. In view of a probable large increase in the customs revenue, the Government has acceded to demands for larger local expenditures. The increase over the annual budgets presented by the late Government is about $2,000,000.

The amendments made by Parliament in the tariff law during the session of 1881 were all in the direction of higher and more extended protection.

The protective tariff has not resulted, as its opponents predicted, in perpetuating the condition of depression and commercial inactivity. On the contrary, the material prosperity of Canada under the new tariff has been unexampled. Yet the most intelligent of both parties under

The

stand that the development of trade and agriculture was not caused by the tariff. The tide was just turning when the new tariff laws went into operation. The opening up of fresh agricultural areas, the abundance of the crops, and the active demand in Europe for the produce, operated as in the United States to bring about and to sustain the upward movement. high tariff went into force in March, 1879. Owing to the general prosperity, the total value of imports, though less, was still so large that the revenue from import duties was considerably augmented. The exports in the first year of the tariff exceeded the imports for the first time in the commercial history of the Dominion. The following table contains the returns of the exports and imports, and the duty collected for a series of years:

1869.

1870.

1871.

1872

1878.

1874

1875.

1876.

1877.

1878.

1879.

Duty.

60,474,781

73,578,490

1830..

Aggregate..

$1,001,026,477

The value of imports for the fiscal year 1881 attained the sum of $105,330,724; the value of the imports entered for home consumption was $91,619,434. The customs taxes collected amounted to $18,778,146. The total exports, including, as in the above table, specie and foreign merchandise, were $92,026,527. There was thus an excess of imports over exports of $13,304,197, and an increase over the exports of the preceding year of $4,115,069.

The tariff completely fulfilled the design of its constructors of discriminating against the products of the United States, and in favor of the manufactures of Great Britain. If intended as a temporary retaliatory measure, its very success must greatly increase the difficulty of returning to reciprocity with the United States. Various industries have been created on the strength of the exclusion of American goods, and are already in extensive operation. The agitation in England in favor of protection and reciprocity, and of a protective league between the mother-country and the colonies, for the exclusion of the products of all other nations, lends vigor to the new policy in Canada. The farming class have not accepted the tariff with entire satisfaction. They are pressing in their demands to have the agricultural interests aided and protected wherever it is possible to lay an import duty, and even to have the excise duties remitted in their favor. A duty upon wool and an increase in the grain duties are strongly agitated. For beet-sugar an immunity

$1,214,176,382

from the excise duty for eight years is demanded. The tobacco-raisers ask for an import duty on tobacco, and a removal of the excise duty on their product.

Before the change in the tariff the imports from the United States had for several years exceeded those from Great Britain. In the first year the imports from the United Kingdom increased in value, while those from the United States fell off so greatly as to be $5,000,000 less than the British imports, whereas the year before they had been $13,000,000 greater, and had exceeded them every year since 1874. In 1874-75 the importations into the Dominion were from Great Britain, $60,000,000; from the United States, $50,000,000; from other countries, $8,000,000. In 1875-'76 the figures were: from Great Britain, $40,000,000; from the United States, $46,000,000; from other countries, $5,000,000. In 1877-'78: from Great Britain, $37,000,000; the United States, $46,000,000; other countries, $5,000,000. In 1878-'79: Great Britain, $30,000,000; United States, $43,000,000; other countries, $5,000,000. In 1879-'80: Great Britain, $34,000,000; United States, $29,000,000; other countries, $7,000,000. In 1878 the value of American goods which were entered for consumption was $48,631,739, on which duties were paid to the amount of $4,794,599, or about 94 per cent. In 1880 the value of imports entered for consumption from the United States was $29,346,948, which realized $4,521,