Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/517

 stability not only of New South Wales but of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. He was largely successful in his mission, and was created K.C.M.G. on 23 July 1892. In 1893 a financial crisis followed, many banks closed their doors, and the panic was stopped only by the prompt action of Sir George Dibbs's government in giving the banks a state guarantee. His popularity was thereby immensely increased, but he himself became bankrupt. He resigned his seat, while retaining the premiership, and was at once re-elected. At the elections in July 1894 he was defeated, and resigned office. He retired from political life in July 1897 and from that date was managing trustee of the savings banks of New South Wales till his death at Sydney on 5 Aug. 1904.

He married in 1857 Annie Maria, daughter of Ralph Meyer Robey, of the legislative council of New South Wales. Two sons and nine daughters survived him.

 DICEY, EDWARD JAMES STEPHEN (1832–1911), author and journalist, born on 15 May 1832 at Claybrook near Lutterworth, Leicestershire, was second son of Thomas Edward Dicey, of an old Leicestershire family, who was senior wrangler in 1811, was a pioneer of the Midland Railway, and owned the 'Northampton Mercury.' His mother Anne Mary, sister of Sir [q. v.], was aunt of Sir [q. v.] and Sir [q. v. Suppl. II]. His younger brother is Professor Albert Venn Dicey.

Educated at home and, for about two years, at King's College, London, Edward went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1850, was president of the Cambridge Union, and graduated B.A. in 1854 with a third class in the classical tripos, and as a senior optime in mathematics. After leaving Cambridge he went for a short time into business without success, and then took to writing, for which he had inherited from his mother and her family a singular facility. He travelled abroad and interested himself in foreign politics. In 1861 he published both 'Rome in 1860' and 'Cavour a Memoir,' thereby establishing his position as a writer on public matters ( Life and Letters of Alexander Macmillan, p. 180). In 1862 Dicey visited America, and wrote on the American civil war in 'Macmillan's Magazine' and the 'Spectator' with 'admirable honesty of style and thought,' and in a 'quiet judicial tone' (ibid.). There followed in 1863 'Six Months in the Federal States,' which 'met with a somewhat lukewarm reception,' on account of the northern sympathies of the author (ibid.).

In 1861 Dicey became connected with the 'Daily Telegraph,' and his style and knowledge of foreign questions led to his being made a permanent member of the staff in 1862. Among his colleagues were Sir [q. v. Suppl. II], an old school friend, [q. v. Suppl. II], and [q. v.]. He was a leader-writer for the paper, and also acted as special correspondent in the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864, and the Seven Weeks' war of 1866. He embodied these experiences in the volumes 'The Schleswig- Holstein War' (1864), and 'The Battle-fields of 1866' (1866). He afterwards described other foreign excursions in 'A Month in Russia during the Marriage of the Czarevitch' (1867), and in 'The Morning Land, being Sketches of Turkey, the Holy Land, and Egypt' (1870), the result of three months' tour in the East.

While in the East in 1869 he accepted an offer of the editorship of the 'Daily News,' and held this post for three months in 1870. On leaving it he at once became editor of the 'Observer,' and filled that office for nineteen years (1870–89), continuing to write for the paper for some time after he ceased to edit it.

Subsequently he was a constant contributor to the 'Nineteenth Century,' the 'Empire Review,' and other periodicals. His interest in foreign politics remained keen, especially in the affairs of Eastern Europe. He was a frequent visitor to Egypt, and formed at first hand well-defined views of England's position there, at one time advocating the annexation of the country by Great Britain. He was a strong supporter of friendly relations between England and Germany, and closely studied South African matters in later years.

His latest books, which indicate the range of his interest, were: 1. 'England and Egypt,' mainly papers republished from the 'Nineteenth Century,' 1881. 2. 'Victor Emmanuel' in the 'New Plutarch' series, 1882. 3. 'The Peasant State, an Account of Bulgaria in 1894,' 1894. 4. 'The Story of the Khedivate,' 1902. 5. 'The Egypt of the Future,' 1907.

Dicey had entered at Gray's Inn as a student in 1865, and was called to the bar in 1875, but did not practise. During his later life he made his home in chambers in the Inn, of which he became a bencher in