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 by constant re-election until his appointment as agent-general in 1871. Under the new act he was also elected to the general assembly as a representative, at first for Wanganui, and afterwards for the city of Wellington. In the general assembly he became known as one of the most determined supporters of ‘provincialism.’ His desire to retain the office of superintendent of the province of Wellington led him to reject office, except during a particular crisis. Featherston was strongly opposed to the disregard of the tribal forms of tenure among the Maoris, and held that the attempt to dispossess a tribe of its property was in direct defiance of the treaty of Waitangi (1842). He denounced (1860) the war which ensued as ‘unjust and unholy,’ and gained the regard of the natives. In 1861 he warned the governor of the growing distrust among the native tribes, and his temporary acceptance of office in July 1861 marked the accession to power of the peace party. On the renewal of the war in 1863 his influence decided the Maoris of the province of Wellington not to join the insurrection, and in 1865 he induced a native contingent to follow General Chute in his celebrated march to Taranaki.

Featherston assisted in establishing and developing the lines of steam communication between Australia and New Zealand. In 1869 he was sent as representative of the colony to Australia to urge the necessity of retaining troops in New Zealand, and for the same purpose was nominated as one of two special commissioners to England in the following year. In 1871 he became agent-general for New Zealand, and held the office till his death, 19 June 1876.

[Gisborne's New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen; Rusden's Hist. of New Zealand; New Zealand Times.]  FEATLEY or FAIRCLOUGH, DANIEL (1582–1645), controversialist, born at Charlton-upon-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, on 15 March 1582, was the second son of John Fairclough, cook to Laurence Humphrey, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, and afterwards to Corpus Christi College in the same university, by his wife Marian Thrift. He was the first of his family to adopt the vulgarised spelling of the surname. He was educated as a chorister of Magdalen College. He was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi College 13 Dec. 1594, and probationer fellow 20 Sept. 1602. having taken his B.A. degree 13 Feb. 1601. He proceeded M.A. 17 April 1606, and became noted as a disputant and preacher. In 1607 he delivered an oration at the funeral of John Rainolds, president of Corpus, his godfather and benefactor. In 1610 and the two following years he was in attendance as chaplain upon Sir Thomas Edmondes [q. v.], the English ambassador at Paris, and was noticed for his fearless attacks upon the Roman Catholic doctrines and his disputations with the Jesuits. Twenty-one of the sermons preached by him in the ambassador's chapel are printed in his 'Clavis Mystica: a Key opening divers difficult and mysterious Texts of Holy Scripture; handled in seventy Sermons preached at solemn and most celebrious Assemblies upon speciall occasions in England and France,' fol., London, 1636. Featley commenced B.D. 8 July 1613, and was the preacher at the act of that year. In his rather lengthy sermon (No. 37 in the 'Clavis Mystica') he found himself obliged to rebuke the drowsiness of his hearers. He seems to have given offence by his plain speaking, even in consecration sermons. Featley was domestic chaplain to Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury. By the direction of the archbishop, who was desirous that Marc Anthony de Dominis [q, v.], archbishop of Spalatro, should be gratified with the hearing of a complete divinity act, Featley in 1617 kept his exercise for the degree of D.D. under John Prideaux, the regius professor. The professor was so pressed as to lose his temper, and Abbot had some difficulty in effecting a reconciliation. De Dominis on being soon after appointed master of the Savoy gave Featley a brother's place in that hospital. In 1610 he had preached the rehearsal sermon at Oxford, and by the Bishop of London's appointment he discharged the same duty al St. Paul's Cross in 1618.

At the invitation of an old pupil, Ezekiel Arscot, Featley accepted the rectory of North Hill, Cornwall, which he soon vacated on his institution by Abbot to the rectory of Lambeth, 6 Feb. 1618-19. On 27 June 1623 a famous conference was held at the house of Sir Humphrey Lynde between Featley and Francis White, the dean of Carlisle, and the Jesuits John Fisher (Piercy) and John Sweet, of which an account was surreptitiously printed the same year, with the title 'The Fisher catched in his owne Net.' Thereupon Featley, by Abbot's command, prepared an elaborate report of that and other controversies, published as 'The Romish Fisher caught and held in his owne Net; or, a True Relation of the Protestant Conference and Popish Difference, A Justification of the one, and Refutation of the other, etc. (An Appendix to the Fisher's Net, etc. — A True Relation of that which passed in a Conference . . . touching Transubstantiation — A Conference by writing betweene D. Featley I ... and M. Sweet . . . touching the ground