Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/144

 136 DISPENSATION oxen, but carrying is done mostly by hand to the creeks and ditches communicating with the canals. The productions of the Dismal Swamp consist chiefly of ship timber, boards, shingles, staves, railroad ties, and fire wood. It is espe- cially noted for its shingles. A large force of colored men is employed during the drier months of the year in preparing the lumber for market. Its dimensions were first accurately estimated by Col. William Byrd in 1728, while engaged in surveying the boundary of Virginia and North Carolina. An account of his pas- sage through the swamp has been preserved in the Westover MSS. Along the coast of North Carolina are the Little Dismal and several smaller swamps, covering in the aggregate about 2,000,000 acres. They were once noted retreats of runaway slaves. (See BOG.) DISPENSATION, the act by which an excep- tion is made to the rigor of the law in favor of some person. To make a dispensation is an attribute of sovereign power. In the United States no power exists, except in the legisla- ture, to dispense with law, and then it is rather a change of the law than a dispensation. In the Roman Catholic church a dispensation is an exemption from ecclesiastical law, granted by the proper authority for "just and reason- able causes." The pope alone, and the persons by him empowered, can dispense with the laws which bind the universal church. In local laws, whether national, provincial, or diocesan, the dispensing power resides in the bishops and in those deputed by them. The divine law and the law of nature, according to the church, cannot be dispensed with. DISRAELI, liriuamin, an English author and statesman, eldest son of Isaac Disraeli, born in London, Dec. 21, 1805. His mother's maid- en name was Basevi. He received his educa- tion at home from his father and from private tutors. An intimate friend of his father, an eminent solicitor, who had a great practice and no son of his own, wished to make Benja- min the heir of his business, and took him into his office for a time. But the young Disraeli did not like the life of a lawyer, and was not ambitious of success in that direction. He therefore abandoned the solicitor's office, with its brilliant prospect of wealth and reputation, and devoted himself to literature. His per- sonal beauty, refined manners, and remarkable powers of conversation soon made him a fa- vorite in society. At the age of 19 he visited Germany, and on his return to England pub- lished in 182f>-'7 his famous novel "Vivian Grey," the chief characters in which were faithful pictures of himself and of persons well known in English society. The originality, vivacity, and wit of this book gave it great celebrity, and it was translated into the princi- pal languages of Europe. It is said by several of his biographer* that at this period he was made editor of a daily paper, called "The Representative;" but this is not true. In 1828 he published in one volume "TheVoy- DISRAELI age of Captain Popanilla," a gay and good- humored but flimsy satire, which met with little success. The next year he commenced an extended tour in Italy, Greece, Albania, Syria, Egypt, and Nubia, and returned in 1831. Shortly afterward he published his second fashionable novel, "The Young Duke;" and in the following year another novel, " Con- tarini Fleming, a Psychological Autobiogra- phy," which Heinrich Heine pronounced to be "one of the most original works ever writ- ten," and which received high praise from Goethe and from Beckford, the author of " Vathek." Its subject is the development of the poetical nature, and it contains brilliant sketches of Italy, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. The author himself has said of it recently, "It would have been better if a subject so essentially psychological had been treated at a more mature period of life." At this time Disraeli made his first attempt to enter parliament. He presented himself to the electors of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, near his father's residence, as a tory-radical, and was defeated by the whig candidate. In December, 1834, he was again defeated in "Wycombe. He next appeared in May, 1835, at Taunton, as a thorough-going conservative. It was on this occasion that, when charged bj somebody in the crowd with " O'Connellism,' he called the great Irish agitator a " blc traitor;" to which Mr. O'Connell made th< retort, " For aught I know, the present Dis raeli is the true heir at law of the impenil thief who died on the cross." Disraeli chj lenged O'Connell's son, Morgan O'Connell who had taken up his father's quarrel ; but the challenge was not accepted. In the mean while Disraeli wrote and published several books. "The Wondrous Tale of Alroy," an oriental romance of extraordinary eloquence and power, depicting the adventures of a prince of the house of David, who in the 12th century proclaimed himself the Messiah, and called the Jews of Persia to arms, appeared in 1833, accompanied by " The Rise of Iskander," a tale founded on the revolt of the famous Scanderbeg against the Turks in the 15th cen- tury ; a political pamphlet entitled " What is He ? " in 1834, in which he tried to explain his political views ; " The Revolutionary Epic " and " The Crisis Examined " in the same year, and " A Vindication of the English Constitu- tion" in 1835. In 1836 he published a series of letters in the London "Times" under the signature of " Runnymede," which were read with great interest on account of their re- markable wit and sarcasm. Toward the close of the same year he published a love story, " Henrietta Temple ;" and in the spring of 1837 appeared " Venetia," a novel, in which he portrayed the characters and appearance of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. At last he achieved the great object of his ambi- tion. In the first parliament of the reign of Victoria, being then 32 years of age, he