Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/523

 visiting San Francisco on his way to Panama. Thence he crossed the Pacific and visited all the Australasian colonies in turn. He returned home by way of Ceylon, India, and Egypt, reaching England at the end of 1867. In the following year he published the results of his studies and explorations in English-speaking and English-governed lands in a work entitled 'Greater Britain: a Record of Travel in English-speaking Countries during 1866 and 1867.' The book immediately achieved an immense success, and passed through four editions. The title, a novel and taking one, was Dilke's invention (see New Eng. Dict.), and the whole subject as treated by Dilke was as new as its title. 'The idea,' wrote Dilke in the Preface, 'which in all the length of my travels has been at once my fellow and my guide a key wherewith to unlock the hidden things of strange new lands is a conception, however imperfect, of the grandeur of our race, already girdling the earth, which it is destined, perhaps, to overspread.' Thus, while Dilke was an advanced radical through life, he was also from first to last a convinced and well-informed imperialist.

In 1868 the first general election took place under the Reform Act of the previous year. Dilke was selected by the radical party in the newly constituted borough of Chelsea, to which two members were allotted, as one of its two candidates. His colleague was Sir Henry Hoare, and their opponents were (Sir) William H. Russell [q. v. Suppl. II] and C. J. Freake. Dilke headed the poll on 17 Nov. with 7374 votes, Hoare receiving 7183, and Russell only 4177. He at once attracted the favourable notice of the party leaders and was chosen to second the address at the opening of the session of 1870. He joined the extreme nonconformists in opposition to Mr. Forster's education bill, and moved the amendment which the government accepted for the substitution of directly elected schoolboards in place of committees of boards of guardians. To the normal articles of the radical creed, Dilke added republican predilections, and he frankly challenged the monarchical form of government on many public platforms. He questioned whether monarchy was worth its cost. His statement at Newcastle on 6 Nov. 1871, in the course of an elaborate republican plea, that Queen Victoria paid no income tax excited a bitter controversy. At Bristol, Bolton, Derby, and Birmingham he pursued the propaganda, often amid scenes of disturbance. Heated protests against his attitude were raised in the House of Commons, where he moved on 19 March 1872 for a full inquiry into Queen Victoria's expenditure. His confession of republican faith was then echoed by Auberon Herbert [q. v. Suppl. II], who seconded his motion. A passionate retort followed from Gladstone, the prime minister. Sir Wilfrid Lawson and another were the only members who voted in support of Dilke's motion, for which he and Herbert told. Sharply opposed at Chelsea on the score of his advanced opinions at the next election in 1874, he yet was the only one of three liberal candidates who was elected. He polled 7217 votes, and the conservative candidate was returned as his colleague.

In 1869, on the death of his father, Dilke succeeded to the baronetcy and also to the then lucrative proprietorship of the 'Athenæum' and of 'Notes and Queries'—the former purchased and edited by his grandfather and the latter established by him in 1849—and to a part proprietorship of the 'Gardeners' Chronicle.' He always took an active interest in the conduct of the 'Athenæum' and frequently contributed to its columns, though except during the occasional absence of the responsible editor he never edited it himself. He collected for the press his grandfather's 'Papers of a Critic' (1875), chiefly contributions to the 'Athenæum.' In 1872 he married Katherine Mary Eliza, only daughter of Captain Arthur Gore Sheil.

Meanwhile he was a frequent visitor to Paris, where he became intimate with Gambetta and other republican leaders. He spoke French fluently, though not perhaps quite with the accent of a Parisian. French influence was apparent in his second literary venture, which was published anonymously in 1874. A thin brochure bound in white, it was entitled 'The Fall of Prince Florestan of Monaco.' It told the story of a light-hearted prince, educated at Eton and Cambridge, who was unexpectedly called to the sovereignty of Monaco. He at once set to work to put in action the liberal and reforming ideas he had imbibed at Cambridge, and soon found himself at loggerheads with his subjects, who were all catholics and led by a Jesuit priest. Foiled in his projects of reform, he abdicated and returned to Cambridge. The story was brightly written and displayed no little satiric humour which spared neither Dilke himself nor his radical contemporaries. It showed in Dilke a mood of genial banter and shrewd detachment from popular