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ence with the secretary of state for the colonies, Lord Carnarvon, a somewhat important point in connection with the relation of Canada to the mother-country. Long after the Red river insurrection was repressed, the final disposal of the chief insurgents continued to be a difficult question, owing to uncertainty as to what had been really promised to them. Lord Dufferin undertook to cut the Gordian knot by an exercise of the royal prerogative under his “instructions” (by commuting the death sentence passed upon Lepine into exile), without taking the advice of his ministers. A request was then sent to the imperial government to amend the instructions, so that thereafter the prerogative of pardon, like all other prerogatives, should be exercisable by the governor only on the advice of his ministers. To this Lord Carnarvon demurred, but Mr. Blake's arguments at last convinced the imperial authorities of the absurdity and danger of leaving the way open to a governor to create serious trouble between the two countries, and the obnoxious instruction was modified as desired. The general election of 1878 was disastrous to the Mackenzie administration, and among other defeated candidates was Mr. Blake, who had sat for South Bruce for two parliaments. He remained out of the Commons for one session, and, when he returned to it as member for West Durham, he was chosen leader of the Liberal party. The discarding of Mr. Mackenzie, and the selection of Mr. Blake as the leader of the Liberals, did not take place without a decided protest on the part of many prominent in the politics of the party, as well as among the rank and file, and the result was a lack of unanimity among the liberals after Mr. Blake's assumption of the leadership. He is a very fluent public speaker, and impresses an audience with the consciousness of his exhaustless resources; but he fails to create that enthusiasm and devotion in his followers to which his great political opponent, Sir John A. Macdonald, owes his most signal successes. In the session of the Dominion parliament of 1886 Mr. Blake spoke in favor of the Landry motion, the object of which was to censure the government for the execution of Riel, the leader of the northwest rebellion. The motion was lost by a large majority, many of the leading liberals voting with the government. In 1876 Mr. Blake visited England and received many marks of public esteem. He has always enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-members of the law society of the province, of which he has for years been the presiding and chief executive officer. He has been equally fortunate in securing the suffrages of his fellow-graduates of the Provincial university, who have repeatedly elected him by acclamation to the post of chancellor. He declined the honor of the knighthood in 1877, as his father did in 1853. — Another son, Samuel Hume, jurist, b. in Toronto, 31 Aug., 1835, received his education by private tuition and at Upper Canada college, Toronto. On leaving college he spent four years with the firm of Ross, Mitchell & Co., Toronto, at the expiration of which period he began the study of law, and at the same time took a course in arts in University College, Toronto, being graduated there and admitted to the bar in 1858. He then entered into partnership with his brother, and the firm became known as that of E. & S. H. Blake. He was vice-chancellor of Ontario from 1872 till 16 May, 1881.

BLAKE, William Phipps, mineralogist, b. in New York city, 1 June, 1826. He studied at the Yale scientific school, and in 1852 was one of the seven who received the newly created degree of Ph. B. In 1853 he became geologist and mineralogist for a U. S. Pacific railroad expedition. He edited the “Mining Magazine” from 1859 till 1860, and from 1861 till 1863 was employed as a mining engineer, and in connection with explorations in Japan, China, and Alaska. In 1864 he became professor of mineralogy and geology in the college of California. He has been connected with many industrial exhibitions, publishing professional reports, and numerous papers on scientific subjects, and has invented improvements in metallurgical machinery. His report on the precious metals, forming one of the government volumes on the Paris exposition of 1867, is full of valuable information. He was the first to recognize the tellurides among the products of California, and was also the first to draw attention to the platinum metals associated with the gold-washings of that state.

BLAKE, William Rufus, actor, b. in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1805; d. in Boston, Mass., 22 April, 1863. He was of Irish parentage. When only seventeen years old he went on the stage at Halifax, N. S., taking the part of the Prince of Wales, in “Richard the Third,” with a company of strolling players. His first appearance in New York was in 1824, at the old Chatham theatre, as Frederick, in “The Poor Gentleman,” and in “The Three Singles.” While playing at the Tremont theatre, Boston, in 1827, he received the first call before the curtain ever given to an actor in this country. In 1839 he visited England, making his first appearance there in the Haymarket theatre, London. On 21 April, 1863, while playing Sir Peter Teazle, in the Boston theatre, he was suddenly taken ill, and died the next day. Mr. Blake was a man of good education, and a fluent speaker. He excelled in the delineation of old men. One of his best characters was that of Jesse Rural in “Old Heads and Young Hearts.” He was, at different times, stage manager of the Tremont theatre, Boston, joint manager of the Walnut street theatre, Philadelphia, and stage manager of the Broadway theatre, New York. He was the author of the plays “Nero”; “The Turned Head”; an adaptation of Theodore S. Fay's novel “Norman Leslie”; and “The Buggs,” a burlesque. — His wife, Caroline Placide, widow of Leigh Waring, was an actress.

BLAKELEY, Johnston, naval officer, b. near Seaford, county Down, Ireland, in October, 1781 ; lost at sea in 1814. His father, John Blakeley, brought him to this country when he was only two years old, and settled in Wilmington, N. C. Young Blakeley was sent in 1790 to New York city, where he spent five years in study, and. in 1796', entered the university of North Carolina. His father died in 1797, leaving him alone in the world, and in 1799 financial

troubles compelled him to leave college. February, 1800, he obtained a midshipman's warrant in the navy. He was made lieutenant 10 Feb., 1807, and in 1813 commanded the brig " En-