the same person to sit in both assemblies. In July 1867 he entered the Ontario coalition ministry of John Sandfield Macdonald as provincial treasurer. He gained a high reputation as financial minister, his budget speeches being clear and able. He introduced the scheme for the settlement of the municipal loan fund of Upper Canada, and brought to a conclusion the arbitration between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec on the financial questions raised by confederation, drafting the award with his own hand. In December 1871 he resigned office, though retaining his seat in parliament. His action diminished his popularity, and he was accused of deserting his leader while the fortunes of his government were wavering. In 1872 he was made queen's counsel, and in 1873 was elected a bencher of the Law Society. In the same year he resigned his seat in the Ontario legislature, and on his return to the Canadian House of Commons for West Durham he vehemently attacked Sir John Alexander Macdonald's government for their action in connection with the Pacific scandal. He held his seat until 11 March 1874, when the administration of Alexander Mackenzie [q. v.] appointed him chief justice of Manitoba. In this capacity he instituted several important legal reforms. His decision in the case of Ambrose Lepine, who was tried for his part in the murder of Hugh Scott during the Red River rebellion of 1870, was upheld by the English courts. His judicial conduct failed, however, to give universal satisfaction, and in 1882 an attempt was made to impeach him in the House of Commons at Ottawa for ‘misconduct, corruption, injustice, conspiracy, partiality, and arbitrariness,’ and a petition was presented in support of the charges. Wood replied, denying the accusations and justifying his conduct. A special commission was appointed to investigate the charges against him, but before any progress had been made in the matter he died at Winnipeg in Manitoba on 7 Oct. 1882. Wood had a singularly deep voice, and Thomas D'Arcy McGee [q. v.] gave him the name of ‘Big Thunder.’ He was an able man, but he was accused of being unscrupulous.
[Appleton's Cyclop. of American Biogr.; Dominion Ann. Reg. 1882, p. 364.]
WOOD, ELLEN (1814–1887), better known as Mrs. Henry Wood, novelist, born at Worcester on 17 Jan. 1814, was the eldest daughter of Thomas Price, who had inherited from his father a large glove manufactory at Worcester. Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Evans of Grimley. Her father, a man of scholarly tastes, who enjoyed the high esteem of the cathedral clergy at Worcester, was subsequently depicted as Thomas Ashley in ‘Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles.’ As a child Ellen Price lived with her maternal grandmother, and developed a remarkably retentive memory, which she exercised both upon general and upon local family history. While still a girl she was afflicted by a curvature of the spine, which became confirmed and affected her health through life. Most of her numerous novels were written in a reclining chair with the manuscript upon her knees. Miss Price was married at Whittington, near Worcester, in 1836 to Henry Wood, a prominent member of a banking and shipping firm, who had been for some time in the consular service. The next twenty years of her life were spent abroad, mainly in Dauphiné, whence she returned with her husband in 1856 and settled in Norwood. During the latter part of her stay abroad she had contributed month by month short stories to ‘Bentley's Miscellany’ and to Colburn's ‘New Monthly Magazine.’ Of these magazines Harrison Ainsworth was proprietor, and his cousin, Francis Ainsworth, who was editor, subsequently acknowledged that for some years Mrs. Henry Wood's stories alone had kept them above water. For these stories she received little payment. Her first literary remuneration came from a novel called ‘Danesbury House’ (1860), written in the short space of twenty-eight days, with which she won a prize of 100l. offered by the Scottish Temperance League for a tale illustrative of its principles. In January 1861 her much longer story entitled ‘East Lynne’ began running through the pages of the ‘New Monthly Magazine.’ The new novel was highly commended by the writer's friend, Mary Howitt, and its dramatic power alarmed Ainsworth, who foresaw the loss of the ‘Scheherazade’ of his magazine. Some difficulty was nevertheless experienced in finding a publisher for the work in an independent form, and two well-known firms rejected the book before it was accepted by Bentley. Upon its appearance in the autumn of 1861 it was praised in the ‘Athenæum’ and elsewhere, but its striking success was largely due to the enthusiastic review in the ‘Times’ of 25 Jan. 1862. The libraries were now ‘besieged for it, and Messrs. Spottiswoode [the printers] had to work day and night.’ It was translated into most of the European and several oriental tongues. The dramatic versions are numerous, and the drama in one form or another remains one of the staple productions of touring companies both in England and
