LOWE, Right Hon. ROBERT, English politician, b. 1811, at the rectory of Bingham, Notts, of which parish his father, the rev. Robert Lowe, was rector. Ile was educateil at Winchester, and University college, Oxford, where he was first-class in classics, and second-class in mathematics, 1833. He remained at Oxford, was elected fellow of 3Iag dalen in 1835, devoted himself to tuition, and obtained the reputation of being one cf the best private tutors in the university. In 1836 he married, and gave up his fellow ship. He was called to the bar by the honorable society of Lincoln's Inn, iu 1842, and went to Australia to push his fortune. He soon attained a lucrative practice at the Sydney bar. He also took a leading.part in the political struggles of the colony. In 1843 he WM nominated one of the legislative council. In 1848 he was elected member for Sydney. Some successful land speculations put him in possession of a moderate competency.; and he returned to England, in 1850, with the design of entering upon a parliamentary career. Returned in 1852 for Kidderminster as an independent member with conservative tendencies, he, in 1853, took office under lord Aberdeen, as secretary to the board of control. He went out with lord Aberdeen's government, but in Aug., 1855, he accepted frorn lord Palmerston the post of vice-president of the board of trade. At the general election in Mar., 1857, he was invited to offer Iiiincelf for Manchester, but he preferred to remain at Kidderminster. Here, however, he became unpopular with the working-classes. He gained his seat, but not without an election riot, in which he was severely injured. In 1859 lie exchanged this turbulent constituency for the borough of Caine, where the influence of the marquis of Lansdov;ne procured his return. He sat for Caine till 1868, when, at the general election, he Via9 returned for the London university, which he still (1879) represents. In June, 1859, he became virtual minister for education in lord Palmerston's second administration; and he held this office until April, 1864, when the house of commons, on the motion of lord Salisbury, then lord R. Cecil, having condemned an alleged' practice of the privy council office in tampering with the reports of the education inspectors, Lowe, unnecessarily, as it was thought, resigned office. The introduction of the revised code of 1860, with its principle of payment by results," signalized his administration of the education department. Time has shown that this was a valuable reform, but it brought upon him much obloquy, which his per sonal characteristics by no means teuded to avert or mitigate. His emancipation from the restraints of office exhibited Mr. Lowe in a new phase. No speaker, dining the session of 1865, was so logical, so original, aud so daring: In 1866, on the introduction of the whig reform bill, Lowe delivered the first of a series of powerful speeches, which largely contributed to insure its rejection. He was, with other members of what was called the party of " adullainites, ' offered a post in the Derby government, but he declined to leave the liberal party, though describing himself as an outcast from it.
When the Derby government, in 1867, attempted to deal with the reform question, Lowe, in a series of speeches, vindicated his consistency as an opponent of all redue,tion of the suffrage. Circumstances had, however, changed, and the successful opponent of the comparatively moderato whig measure found himself almost alone in protesting against the establishment of household suffrage. In 1868 Lowe's feud with the liberal party was made up, or rattier, was forgotten, in the strenuous aid he gave the liberal leaders in carrying resplutions in the house of commons for the disestablishment of the Irish church. Accordingly, in Dec. of that year, when a general election brought the liberal party into power, with Mr. Gladstone as prime-minister, Mr. Lowe obtained in the liberal ministry the office of chancellor of the exchequer. This post he filled till Sept., 1873, when he exchanged it for that of home secretary. He went out of office with the Gladstone government in Feb., 1874, when it became plain that the chances of a general election had given the conservatives a majority. He was home secretary for too short a period to test Ws fitness for that trying office. As chancellor of the exchequer, he was not deemed decidedly successful. The chief reforms effected by him during his tenure of office, were the substitution of license duties for the assessed taxes, a chancre in the time of collecting the income-tax, and in the assessment of that tax on small incomes, and a, great reduction of the sugar duties. He did himself much harm with his first budget by proposing a tax on matches,—a proposal easily put in ludicrous lights and which excited strong opposition. During his occupancy of this office, however, the annual surpluses were large almost beyond example. This was due partly to eco nomical management, but much more to the prosperous state of the country. Lowe exerted himself earnestly to keep down the public expenditure. It was considered, however, that his regard for the public purse was pushed to the verge of parsimony, and of injustice to iudividuals; and his curt and ungracious treatment of all claimants of public money undoubtedly brought much odium upon himself and the government to which he belonged. Some faults of administration came to' light in the later days of his administration, which vvere naturally made the most of. Lowe's oratory is deficient in passion; but in acuteness, in felicity of illustration, and in cocrency of argument, he is almost unequaled among the public speakers of his day. His elocution is rapid, and his manner nervous and embarrassed; but his great intellectual power always commands the attention and admiration of the house of commons. Several collections of speeches and letters by him on public questions have appeared. As an educational reformer, he is an energetic opponent of the pre-eminence still allowed to the study of the classics. Lowe was made an honorary LL.D. by Edinburgh university in 1867, and D.C.L. by -Oxford in 1870.