With the Right Hon. James Lowther, who died at Wilton
Castle, Redcar, on Monday, a conspicuous figure disappears from the House of Commons. He was not a far-seeing politician, nor, as he proved while Secretary for Ireland, a great administrator ; but he was a man of independent opinions, of great courage and perfect integrity, and possessed the ear of the House, where he was recognised as almost the last of the old High Tories, once so numerous and now so few. Though he lost his seat in 1880, and again in 1885, he was never really unpopular with electors ; while in the House his geniality and straightforwardness, aided, no doubt, by his claims of birth as a cadet of the great Westmorland house, secured him many cordial friends. He was greatly respected, too, as a sportsman, his stable preserving the best traditions of racing, a sport to which he was devoted, though ho never made a bet. Original figures like his tend to disappear from our political arena, to its great loss, for his opinions, wise or unwise—and some of them were much the latter—represented strong undercurrents of opinion. He was, for example, a thoroughgoing Protectionist, and we all see, as Mr. Chamber- lain's agitation drags its slow length along, how considerable a mass of bitter Protectionism must have survived the victory of Free-trade.
Previous page
