LOWE, ROBERT, Viscount SHERBROOKE ( 1811 92). An English politician. He was horn De cembe• 4, 1811, at Bingham, Nottinghamshire. and was educated at Winchester College and at University College, Oxford. He became known as a debater, and later was elected a fellow of Magdalen College. Admitted to the bar in 1812. he immediately went to Australia, and soon took a leading part in the political struggles of the colony. In IS43 he was nominated to a seat in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and von renown as a leader in educational and financial questions, as an opponent of the exist ing land monopoly, and of the policy of sending convicts to Australia. lle amassed a large for tune, and in 1850 he returned to England with the design of entering upon a Parliamentary career. In 1852 he was elected to Parliament for Kidderminster, and in the same year be came joint secretary of the board of control, but lost this ollice with the fall of the Aberdeen Min istry in 1855. Nevertheless he was soon rein stated, and in 1659 became virtual Minister of Education in Lord Palmerston's Administration. but resigned in 1864 on account of a vensure voted by the House of Commons through a misunder standing of his actions. Ilk emancipation from the restraints of office exhibited Lowe in a new phase. No speaker in Parliament, during the session of 180, was so logical, so original, and so daring. In 1866, on the introduction of the Whig Reform Bill, Lowe delivered a series of powerful speeches, which largely contributed to its rejection. Ile was offered, together with the other Adullamites (q•v.), a post in the Derby Government, but he declined to leave the Liberal Party, though de scribing 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 oppo nent of all extension of the suffrage. In 1 S6S Lowe's feud with the Liberal Party was forgot ten in the strenuous aid he gave to in the House of Commons for the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Accordingly in December of that year, when a general election brought the Liberal Party into power, with Gladstone as Prime Minister, Lowe was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. This post lie filled till Septem
ber. 1873, when he exchanged it for that of Home Secretary. He was Ilome Secretary for too short a period to test his fitness for that trying office. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lowe's chief reforms were the substitution of li cense duties for the assessed taxes, a change in the time of collecting the income tax, and a great reduction of the sugar duties. With the fall of the Gladstone Ministry in 1874. Lowe ceased to occupy a prominent public position, though he still spoke at times. In 1880 lie was raised to the peerage as Viscount Sherbrooke. Lowe's ora tory was deficient in passion; but in acuteness. in felicity of illustration, in force of sarcasm. and in cogency of argument, he was almost un equaled among the public speakers of his day. For his Australian career, consult: Parkes. Fifty Years of Australian History (London, 18921 Mogan, Robert Loire, Viscount Sherbrooke (Lon don, 1S93). His career in England may be studied in Hansard, Parliamtntary Debates; :Martin. Life of Lord Sherbrooke ( London. 1893). LOWELL, 15'cl. An important manufactur ing city, and one of the county-seats of Middle sex Comity, Hass., 26 miles northwest of ton; at the junction of the Merrimac and Con cord rivers, and on the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven and Hartford rail roads (Map: Massachusetts. E 2). The city has an area of about square It is laid out. and offers ninny points of in terest, ineludinn• the Ladd and Whitney ment. Fort Hill Park. Pawtucket Falls 110;zers Street stone arch bridge, the city hall. Memorial Building. high school. Saint Anne's Church, and the great industrial establishments. Among, the institutions are a state Normal School. the Lowell Textile school, Rogers Ball School, a public library of over 65.000 volumes, Saint John's Hospital. Lowell Hospital, Lowell Gen eral Hospital, Old Ladies' Home, Ayer Home for Young Women and Children, and the Theodore Edson Orphanage.