Sherbrooke, LORD.

Sherbrooke, LORD. The Right Hon. Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, was born in 1811 at Bingham, Notts, of which parish his father was rector. He was educated at Winchester, and University College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow and tutor. Called to the bar in 1836, he emigrated in 1842, and soon attained a lucrative practice at the Sydney bar; he also took a leading part in the political life of the colony, ultimately as member for Sydney. At home again in 1850, and returned in 1852 for Kidderminster as an independent member with Conservative tendencies, he in 1853 took office under Lord Aberdeen, and in 1855 under Lord Palmerston. In 1859 he was returned for the borough of Calne by the influence of the Marquis of Lansdowne; and he represented London University from 1868 till he went to the Upper House. During 1859-64 he was vice-president of the Education Board (and virtual minister for Education) in the second Palmerston administration, resigning in 1864, and introduced the Revised Code of 1860, with its principle of 'payment by results.' He largely contributed to ensure the rejection of the Whig Reform Bill in 1866. He was, with other 'Adullamites,' offered a post in the Derby government, but he declined to leave the Liberal party, though in 1867 he was still an opponent of all reduction of the suffrage. In 1868 his feud with the Liberal party was forgotten in the strenuous aid he gave the Liberal leaders in carrying the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Accordingly he obtained in Mr Gladstone's Liberal ministry the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer; exchanging it in 1873 for that of Home Secretary. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, his proposal of a tax on matches was very unpopular; but the annual surpluses were large almost beyond example. He exerted himself to keep down the public expenditure; and his curt treatment of all claimants of public money brought odium upon him. In acuteness and cogency of argument he had hardly an equal. In education he opposed the once exclusive study of the classics. An LL.D. of Edinburgh D.C.L. of Oxford, in 1880 he went to the Upper House as Viscount Sherbrooke. He published a volume of poems (Poems of a Life) in 1884; and he died 27th July 1892, at Warlingham, Surrey. See his Life by A. Patchett Martin (2 vols. 1893).