ROBERT LOWE.*

THE English public never succeeded in understanding Robert Lowe. And for this reason. For a man to be intelligible to the mass of mankind, he must be capable of being ticketed. off under some well-known head. When he can be described as a particular species of a particular genus, the world begins to realise him, and to feel for him that sympathy which comes from comprehension. But it was absolutely impossible to ticket Robert Lowe, physically, morally, or intellectually. Directly he was safely put down in one category, it became necessary to change him to another. He was always attacking abuses, sneering at the aristocracy, assailing vested interests, and desiring to admit men to the public service by competi- tive examinations. Clearly, then, he was an unbending Radical. Yet hardly was Lowe ticketed, before be was leading the resistance to Reform, and denouncing democracy and all its ways as it had never been denounced before. He was a Tory, then ? Not a bit of it, for a Tory, however intellectual, relies upon tradition and custom, and deprecates change, and Lowe was all for cutting down whatever would not conform to reason and common-sense. At any rate, cried England in despair, he is opposed to Imperialism, and against a spirited foreign policy. Yet even here it was im- possible to place Lowe, for though he would speak against Jingoism, the Manchester School found in him no support for their views of foreign policy. Men tried again, and called Lowe a Professor, but this would do as little as the other labels. It was idle to use such a description of the man who attacked whatever was academic, and who, though (as the Master of Balliol told him) be was one of the best Greek scholars in the kingdom, used all his authority to discredit the study of the classics, and to disparage the intellectual claims of a. University education. Here was a man with a power of scholarship greater than even Matthew Arnold's, arguing in favour of the curriculum of the 'Commercial Academy,— phiz, bang, and the air-pump. It was even impossible to tell whether Lowe belonged properly to the classes or the muses. His birth, his education, and his intellectual attitude seemed no doubt to place him among the former; but at the same time, his scorn for so much that is dear to the classes threw him into the company of their bitterest opponents. Even in his love of literature there seemed evidence of this same incapacity for classification. He was passionately devoted to the Eddas and Sagas, and yet held that there was no poetry like Pope's.

Yet, in truth, there was no mystery about Lowe's mental standpoint. He was a man of almost perfect independence of mind who took to politics, and who applied to them the analytical processes which be would have applied to a point of scholarship or a problem in mathematics. Lowe's plan of examining all questions in vaouo, and of letting himself be guided by pure reason alone, was intensified by his physical defects. His inability to see what sort of impression his words Were making on the minds of his hearers tended to in- crease his intellectual isolation. His mind was, as it were, prevented from coming into full contact with other minds, and from undergoing modification by such contact. Hence, though in many ways keenly alive to all that was going on around him, he did not fully sympathise with the intellectual movements of his age. The man had in him the true marks of genius, and yet affected the world far less than many men of smaller mental gifts, solely because he failed in the power of sympathy.

* (1.) Life and Letters of the Right Honewrable Robert Lowe, Viscount Sher. brooks, G C B., D.0 L. By A. Patchett Martin. 2 vols. With Portraits. Lot. don Longmans, Green, and Co. 1898.----(2.) Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke. By James rranom Hogan. London Ward and Downey, 11393.

In Mr. Martin's two volumes, the story of Lowe's life is told with great good-sense and discretion. The biographer is clearly in mental agreement with the subject of his book, and is able to appreciate as well Lowe's sense of humour and love of good literature. The book, in spite of it somewhat alarming size—the two volumes are very thick—is thus thoroughly

interesting, and there is hardly a page which has not some- thing upon it which is worthy of notice. Mr. Martin, as a

good biographer should, has kept well in the background, and placed as few verbal obstacles as possible between the reader and Lord Sherbrooke. Where, however, it was absolutely necessary to draw the narrative together by comments of his own, Mr. Martin shows himself a thoughtful political historian.

Judged by the hardest and yet the only safe test of books; Mr. Martin must be congratulated on a success. He has made

a readable book. The work is done in no perfunctory manner, but has clearly interested the writer, and he has been able to transfer that interest to his readers.

It is difficult to know what to select from these volumes, since in them we have marked some fifty passages for quota- tion. The first volume contains an autobiographical sketch written by Lowe in 1876, which exhibits the mastery of phrase and style which belonged to its author. It begins by a. declaration that the writer had little material on which he could draw ; and goes on with the characteristic reflection :- ' I never was able to understand the use of keeping accounts or keeping a journal. Accounts are, of course, indispensable to those who are entrusted with other people's money ; but why a man should keep accounts against himself, I never could understand." This interesting chapter of autobio- graphy notices that Lowe, as a boy, guessed the secret of the " Waverley Novels" from internal evidence, and was rebuked for setting his opinion against that of his elders and betters.

Yet Lowe proved right. "I hope," he adds, with the inevitable touch of irony, "I bore my victory with becoming moderation, but am by no means clear on the point." We cannot find space to quote Lowe's pathetic account of his virtual blind- ness, or to notice his splendid perseverance and his refusal, to become soured by his misfortunes. This can be best read in the book itself. Instead, we shall illustrate LOWO'FI clearness

of political vision and acuteness by quoting what be said

in regard to Home-rule, in an article in the Quarterly, in the year 1868. A more masterly treatment of the subject cannot

be imagined:—

" Ireland is the problem of problems to the English statesman. In its future, the future of our empire, of our race, of our civilisa- tion is wrapped up. It is to be feared that we do not sufficiently estimate the enormous interval between our relations to Ireland and those towards the dearest and most favoured dependency of the British Crown. Much as we may talk of our colonies, they are, after all, justly called by our law the foreign dominions of her Majesty. They are subject, indeed, to the control of Parlia- ment, but that control is rapidly becoming merely nominal. It the matter is closely examined the benefits we derive from them are far less than the benefits they receive from us. . . . . . If we. once taxed them, they now heavily tax us. The United Kingdom is the Cinderella who does all the work of the Imperial household. The fairy tale is reversed and the younger sisters have en- slaved the elder It cannot be too earnestly impressed on the mind of England that Ireland is not a colony ; never can be treated as a colony ; never can be for weal or for woe anything else than an integral and vital part of' the British empire, whose union and amalgamation with Great Britain, so far from being like the union or independence of a colony, a matter of small account, is a matter which we cannot permit for a single moment to be called in question. This difference between Ireland and all the rest of the empire depends on its proximity to us. If Cato could work upon the fears and passions of the Roman Senate by exhibiting to them the figs which he had gathered with his own hands at Carthage, only three days' sail from the Tiber, what should be the feelings of an English Parliament when the distance is measured by three hours instead of three days P Were Ireland a country capable of maintaining itself in independence, the ease might be likened to that of the dominions of the Plantagenets in France; but we know only too well from the violent factions which divide the country, from its poverty and the large portion of it that lies, and probably always must lie, useless, that its strength is in no proportion to its Size; and that if it ceased to be the partner, on perfectly equal terms, of the empire of Great Britain, Ireland would infallibly fall into the hands of some Power who would use it as a post from which. to direct attacks upon our coast and our commerce."

Equally good is the following :— "The problem which Ireland presents is not one of abstract justice but of political expediency ; not what may be claimed as a right by those who deny us any right at all, but what. is necessary if we would maintain the integrity of the British Empire, and its present position among the Powers of the World. The funda- mental principle is that under no conceivable circumstances would England be justified in entertaining for a single moment the idea of the dismemberment o the Empire as would be involved, in the political separation of Ireland from Great Britain We do not treat Ireland as a dependency, we do not exercise domination over her. We give the Irish an influence over the government of Great Britain, reference being had to the size, population, and wealth of the two countries, fully equivalent to that which we exercise over her."

We cannot leave this necessarily imperfect notice of one of the most interesting of modern biographies, without men- tioning the able " persqnal memoir" of Lord Sherbrooke, contributed by the Master of Balliol. As a critical estimate of the man, it could not be bettered. The dignity and sweet- ness of temper with which Lord Sherbrooke endured the eclipse of his intellectual powers is dwelt on by the Master in a passage of great 'beauty and pathos "The time came when that luminous intellect grew dim, and that eloquent voice could only speak in broken accents. Warned by the case of a friend, he knew what was happening to him, but he did not complain. He seemed only to study bow he could be more gentle and considerate to others He was still sometimes to be seen in the gallery of the House of Lords, or at the entertain- ments of friends. The battle of life was over ; he never dreamed of returning to it. Though sometimes only half-awake to the things which were going on around him, he was always conscious that he had treasures of affection lavished upon him. He did not show the least impatience, or utter a word unworthy of himself. His friends could not think his lot unhappy when they saw with what dignity and fortitude he met the stroke of adversity, and how lovingly he was cared for to the end."

We have left ourselves little room to speak of Mr. Hogan's Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke. Mr. Hogan's account of Lowe cannot, of course, compare with that of Mr. Martin. It is merely a sketch, and is based not on the personal and family

papers, but for the most part on material already given to the world. The account of Lowe's Australian career is probably the best part of the book, but here even it is not so full as the Life and Letters.