VAIL, William Berrian, Canadian member of parliament, born in Sussex, New Brunswick, 19 December, 1823. He is a grandson of Robert Vail, a loyalist, who removed from the United States to New Brunswick at the close of the Revolution. He is a lieutenant-colonel of militia, was a member of the executive council and provincial secretary of Nova Scotia in 1867-'74, and on 30 September, 1874, became a member of the privy council of Canada, and was appointed minister of militia and defence. This portfolio he resigned in January, 1878. He represented Digby in the Nova Scotia assembly from 1867 till his appointment to office in the Dominion government, when he was returned for the same constituency in the Canadian parliament. He was not a candidate at the election in 1878, but was elected in February, 1887. He is a Liberal, favors free-trade relations with all countries, and the maintenance of the integrity of the British empire. Mr. Vail's father, John C. Vail, was a representative in the New Brunswick house of assembly for twenty-five years; and his brother, Arnold Vail, M. D., was a member of the house for fifteen years, for eight years speaker, and at his death, in July, 1886, was a member of the executive and legislative councils of New Brunswick.