“ In 1882 he became Conservative member for King’s County, N.B., in the Dominion parliament, and in 1885 entered the cabinet of Sir John Macdonald as minister of marine and fisheries; in 1888 he became minister of finance, which position he held till the defeat of his party in 1896. A careful and even brilliant financier, and a keen debater, he became known as a strong believer in protection for Canadian industries and in preferential trade within the British empire. ”