he pursued his course, gradually rose to a commanding position in parliament and in the country, became leader of his party, was thrice Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1852, 1858-59, and 1866-68, in which last year he became Prime Minister, which office he again held from 1874 till 1880.  To return to his literary career, in 1844 he had pub. Coningsby, followed by Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847), and in 1848 he wrote a life of Lord G. Bentinck, his predecessor in the leadership of the Protectionist party.  His last novels were Lothair (1870), and Endymion (1880).  He was raised to the peerage as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, and was a Knight of the Garter.  In his later years he was the intimate friend as well as the trusted minister of Queen Victoria.  The career of D. is one of the most remarkable in English history.  With no family or political influence, and with some personal characteristics, and the then current prejudices in regard to his race to contend with, he rose by sheer force of will and intellect to the highest honours attainable in this country.  His most marked qualities were an almost infinite patience and perseverance, indomitable courage, a certain spaciousness of mind, and depth of penetration, and an absolute confidence in his own abilities, aided by great powers of debate rising occasionally to eloquence.  Though the object, first of a kind of contemptuous dislike, then of an intense opposition, he rose to be universally regarded as, at all events, a great political force, and by a large part of the nation as a great statesman.  As a writer he is generally interesting, and his books teem with striking thoughts, shrewd maxims, and brilliant phrases which stick in the memory.  On the other hand he is often artificial, extravagant, and turgid, and his ultimate literary position is difficult to forecast.

Lives by Froude (1890), Hitchman (1885), see also Dictionary of Nat.  Biog. etc.

BEATTIE, JAMES (1735-1803).—­Poet and philosophical writer, s. of a shopkeeper and small farmer at Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, and ed. at Aberdeen; he was, in 1760, appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy there.  In the following year he pub. a vol. of poems, which attracted attention.  The two works, however, which brought him most fame were:  (1) his Essay on Truth (1770), intended as an answer to Hume, which had great immediate success, and led to an introduction to the King, a pension of L200, and the degree of LL.D. from Oxford; and (2) his poem of The Minstrel, of which the first book was pub. in 1771 and the second in 1774, and which constitutes his true title to remembrance.  It contains much beautiful descriptive writing.  The Essay on Truth and his other philosophical works are now forgotten.  B. underwent much domestic sorrow in the death of his wife and two promising sons, which broke down his own health and spirits.