On the other hand he was advanced in the peerage to an earldom on 13 Nov. 1871, and he rendered useful service as chairman of a royal commission on military education. In 1872, on the retirement of Sir John Young, Lord Lisgar [q. v.], the second governor-general of confederated Canada, Lord Dufferin was nominated his successor, and entered on duties calculated to give full play to his talents.
Lord Dufferin was installed in office on 25 June 1872. It was a critical period of Canadian history. The federal union which was inaugurated in 1867 was completed after the arrival of Lord Dufferin by the admission to the dominion of Prince Edward Island on 1 July 1873. What was needed was to kindle the imagination of the population thus brought together, and inspire the several provinces with the true spirit of confederation, familiarising both them and the United Kingdom with the conception of a great nation within the empire. Some angry controversies had fanned into flame passions which tended to disunion rather than consolidation. The rebellion in Manitoba of Louis Riel [q. v.] against the new constitution had been quelled in 1870, but Riel and his lieutenant, Lepine, had escaped. Under Lord Dufferin's rule Riel was returned to parliament in Oct. 1873 as member for a constituency in Manitoba and evaded arrest, while fanning fresh resistance. Lepine, however, was captured and sentenced to be hanged in 1875, a sentence which Lord Dufferin commuted to one of short imprisonment. Another source of disturbance of a different character was the delay in completing the Canadian Pacific railway. After the opening of the second parliament of the united dominion at Ottawa in March 1873, a storm was raised over alleged fraudulent practices of Sir Hugh Allan, to whom the contract had been granted. The 'great Pacific scandal' led to the prorogation of parliament, a commission of inquiry, and the retirement of the conservative premier, Sir John Alexander Macdonald [q. v.], in favour of his liberal rival, Alexander Mackenzie [q. v.], who remained premier from November 1873 to October 1878. Yet, despite the angry turmoil, Lord Dufferin, by his personal influence and stirring speeches, pacified the agitators, filled the minds of Canadians with pride in their dominion, and impressed his own countrymen at home with a new conception of a Greater Britain. A speech of his at Toronto was described by the 'Spectator' (26 Sept. 1874) as restoring to politics their 'glow and spring.' On 26 May 1876 he was made G.C.M.G. In his farewell address to Canada in Sept. 1878 he boasted with truth that he left Canadians 'the truest-hearted subjects of her Majesty's dominions.' He infected them with his own visions of a glorious future, and at the time no greater service could have been rendered to the dominion and the Empire. In June 1879 he received the hon. degree of D.C.L. from Oxford.
Meanwhile in Feb. 1879 Dufferin became the British ambassador at St. Petersburg. The appointment was made by Lord Beaconsfield, the conservative prime minister, but it involved no severance from the liberal party. To maintain friendly relations with Russia while insisting upon unwelcome restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Berlin, and upon the complete observance of engagements undertaken in regard to central Asia and Afghanistan, was no easy task. The political situation was over-shadowed by the prevalence of nihilism, which was already manifesting itself in attempts on the Emperor's life. It must therefore have been a relief to Lord Dufferin when in June 1881 his own party, which had returned to office, transferred him as Ambassador to the Porte. Dufferin's first important task at Constantinople was connected with the demarcation of the frontier of Greece, and the introduction of reforms into Armenia.
In September 1881 the revolt at Cairo of Ahmed Arabi Bey against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha laid on Dufferin difficult and delicate responsibilities. The Sultan professed readiness to despatch his troops to restore order and Turkish control, but neither England nor France was prepared to agree to that course without imposing strict conditions and limitations. Recourse was had to a conference which was willing to accept the Sultan's intervention with a proviso which he deprecated. The long negotiations led to little result. In the summer of 1882 England took forcible action single-handed, after France declined co-operation. Arabi Bey was defeated at Tel-el-Kebir on 16 Sept. 1882, and the process of reorganising the Khedive's administration under British auspices was commenced. Throughout the negotiations at Constantinople Lord Dufferin by his tact and quiet resolution secured for his country liberty of action without unnecessarily provoking the susceptibilities of foreign governments, and prevented any attempt on the part of the Porte to ignore
