# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Blake, Edward

​BLAKE, EDWARD (1833-1912), Canadian lawyer and politician, the eldest son of William Hume Blake, of Cashel Grove, co. Galway, by his wife, Catharine Hume, was born at Adelaide, Upper Canada, 13 October 1833. His father had settled in Canada in 1832, and became chancellor of Upper Canada. Blake was educated at Upper Canada College and the university of Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1856. He occupied through life an unrivalled position among Canadian barristers; but his chief title to fame rests on his political career. He entered political life in 1867 at the birth of the new Dominion of Canada as liberal member for West Durham in the Dominion House of Commons, and for South Bruce in the Ontario House. At the early age of thirty-eight he became prime minister of Ontario (1871). Within less than a year, however, he resigned office (1872) and retired from the Ontario House in order that he might devote himself to federal politics. In the Dominion House of Commons he contributed greatly to the defeat of Sir John Macdonald [q.v.] over the so-called ‘Pacific scandal’ in 1878; and he ultimately became minister of justice in the administration of Alexander Mackenzie [q.v.]. His occupancy of this office, from 1875 to 1877, was of no little significance for the constitutional history of Canada and the British Empire. He brought about a considerable diminution in the powers and prerogatives of the governor-general, in regard especially to the pardoning power and the reservation of bills for the signification of the royal pleasure. In this respect he may be said to have put the coping-stone on the edifice of self-government in the Dominions.
In 1880, two years after the defeat and resignation of the Mackenzie administration, Blake succeeded Mackenzie as leader of the liberal opposition. He led the liberal party through the wilderness of two general elections, that of 1882 and that of 1887, but in neither of these was he successful in shaking the hold of Sir John Macdonald on the country. In 1888, discouraged by failure, he therefore retired in favour of (Sir) Wilfrid Laurier [q.v.]; and in 1892 he abandoned Canadian politics for British. He became the nationalist member for South Longford in the British House of Commons, and he continued to sit in the imperial parliament until 1907. In the councils of the Irish nationalist party he exerted a decided influence, especially in keeping agitation within constitutional bounds; but he never succeeded in obtaining in the British parliament the position due to his abilities and his record. In his later years it was rather as a lawyer than as a politician that he was eminent. He argued many important constitutional cases before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and by his vigour of character and his legal knowledge did much to shape its decisions. He died at Toronto 2 March 1912.
It is remarkable that hardly any British statesman of equal standing has spent a shorter time in public office than Kdward Blake. For this there were various reasons. Blake was lacking in certain qualities essential to the politician. He had little humour, and a rather mordant wit. His really warm humanity lacked the geniality which distinguished his great foeman, Sir John Macdonald. For these reasons he never attracted to himself any large personal following. But he was a man of great abilities, and in point of political idealism he was almost too far in advance of the Canada of his day.
Blake married in 1858 Margaret, daughter of the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, bishop of Huron; there were three sons and one daughter of the marriage.
[J. C. Dent, The Canadian Portrait Gallery, 1880; J.S. Willison, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party, 1908; private information.]
W. S. W.