Earl Grey's Land Bill-Mr. Lowe on Downing Street Solicitude-Went- worth and the Waste Lands-Roman Nobles and Australian Squatters -Lowe's Appeal to the Squatters-To the Council-Lowe's Reply to Wentworth-His Pamphlet-The Division-Review of the Land Lowe's Address to the Electors of St. Vincent-Action of Henry Parkes Lowe's Attack on the Sydney Corporation-Proposed University for Syd- ney-Challenged by Dr. Bland-Lowe's Offence to the Emancipist' Class-Sails for England-A Footnote on Stanley, Gladstone, and LIFE OF × THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT LOWE VISCOUNT SHERBROOKE INTRODUCTION THE life of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, falls naturally into three epochs-Oxford, Sydney and London were, in turn, the scenes of his active life, and no higher testimony is needed to the greatness and versatility of his powers than the fact that in fields so dissimilar he reaped the highest distinction. Differing, however, as they did in other respects, these epochs of his life had one point in common: they were periods of incessant labour. Such a life, even under ordinary circumstances, leaves little leisure for retrospect, but, handicapped as he was by semi-blindness, the accomplishment of each day's task was sufficient without the toil of recording it. Lord Sherbrooke had, moreover, a positive repugnance to autobiography. It savoured to him of egotism; and it is solely due to the intervention of friends that he left even the brief and incomplete memoir which is here appended. Written in the interval of comparative rest which followed his resignation of office in 1876, it is marked by his habitual direct ness. VOL. I. B With characteristic energy, this memoir was 'type-written by his own hand. Even towards the close of life, and with his all but total want of sight, Lord Sherbrooke took a certain delight in mastering our latter-day mechanical contriv ances. 6 This chapter of autobiography, it will be seen, is a rapid retrospect of his entire life. At first it seemed the better plan to begin this work in the usual way, with a full account of his birth, parentage, education, and public career, weaving in from his own memoir the purple patches' of his vigorous phrases and apt allusions. By this means a certain order and continuity in the narrative might have been preserved. But after careful reflection, it was felt to be unfair to such a man as Lord Sherbrooke to break up, or in any way remodel his all too brief personal reminiscences. Here, in these few pages, we have at least his own account of those events and incidents in his life which he most vividly recalled in old age-the rough schooldays at Winchester, the studious years at Oxford, the chance meetings with Wordsworth and Darwin, the call to the Bar, the threatened total blindness, the long voyage to Australia. Here, too, he pays his pathetic tribute of affection to his wife, the faithful companion and constant helpmate in his darkest as in his happiest hours; and here he passes a singularly unbiassed judgment on his remarkable and in a sense unprecedented career, in which he gives his own explanation of his one striking failure-the failure to win the passing plaudits of the multitude in a democratic age. A CHAPTER OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY (LORD SHERBROOKE'S TYPE-WRITTEN MEMOIR-1876) IF, as is generally and not without good reason assumed, the success of an undertaking is proportionate to the care and labour employed in preparing for it, I confess I do not enter on the task of autobiography under very favourable conditions. During the course of an active and laborious life it never occurred to me that there was anything in it which was worth handing down to posterity. 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. It never occurred to me that anyone else would want to know what I said or what I did, and as for myself it always appeared to me that every one is inclined to talk and think a great deal too much about him or herself. Egotism, in fact, appeared to me just one of those tendencies of human nature which least of all require to be encouraged. I have kept no correspondence. I must also confess that my defect of sight is no slight disqualification; of its greatness those who have had no experience can form little idea. It is one of those subjects about which it is impossible to deceive oneself. Besides, I have never found my chief pleasure in society; why then should I undertake a task for which I profess no particular vocation, and for which I have neglected to store up much information which was once in my power? I have two reasons: I have been pressed by many friends to |