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Rh continued to represent until his death. During the break in his parliamentary career Lewis wrote his ‘Enquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History’ (London, 1855, 8vo, 2 vols.; translated into German by F. Liebrecht, Hanover, 1858, 8vo, 2 vols.), in which he assailed the results of Niebuhr's investigations, as well as the method by which he arrived at them. Lewis succeeded Mr. Gladstone as chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Palmerston's first administration, and was sworn a member of the privy council on 28 Feb. 1855. He thereupon resigned the editorship of the ‘Edinburgh Review.’ He brought forward his budget on 20 April 1855 under circumstances of exceptional difficulty (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxxxvii. 1555–80). To meet a deficit of twenty-three millions, Lewis raised sixteen millions by a new loan, three millions by exchequer bills, and the remaining four millions by increasing the income-tax from fourteenpence to sixteenpence in the pound, and by raising the duties on sugar, tea, coffee, and spirits. A proposed stamp duty, which would have produced 200,000l., was afterwards abandoned. By this budget the taxation of the country was raised to 68,639,000l. per annum, a sum ‘largely in excess of any that had ever before been so levied’ (, Twenty Years of Financial Policy, p. 268). The loan of two millions to Sardinia was readily agreed to, but the resolution adopting the convention by which the government, conjointly with France, agreed to guarantee the Turkish loan of five millions was violently attacked in the house, and carried by only 135 to 132 (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxxxix. 1268). Owing to the continual drain of the war expenses, Lewis was compelled before the session closed to apply for power to issue seven millions of exchequer bills instead of three (ib. cxxxix. 1697–1703). During the same session Lewis succeeded in carrying through the House of Commons the Newspaper Stamp Duties Bill (18 and 19 Vict. c. xxvii.), which he had ‘received as an inheritance from Gladstone’ (Letters, p. 295). On 22 Feb. 1855 Lewis applied for authority to raise a loan of five millions, in order to supply the place of the surplus on which he had calculated in the previous year (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxl. 1228–42). He introduced his second budget on 19 May 1856, when he estimated the whole cost of the Crimean war at 77,588,711l. (but see, Twenty Years of Financial Policy, p. 295; , Finance and Politics, i. 155). As no new taxes were to be levied, Lewis, in order to meet a deficiency of over eight millions, was once more compelled to find the money by means of a further loan (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxlii. 329–55). By his third and last budget, which he brought in on 13 Feb. 1857, Lewis reduced the income-tax from sixteenpence to sevenpence in the pound, and made some small reductions in the tea, coffee, and sugar duties (ib. cxliv. 629–64). Though his financial proposals were severely attacked by Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone, they were subsequently carried in a slightly modified form. In consequence of the grave commercial crisis in the autumn of 1857, the Bank Charter Act was suspended on Lewis's recommendation (Annual Register, 1857, Chron. p. 513), and on 4 Dec. 1857 he moved for leave to bring in an Indemnity Bill (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxlviii. 145–71), which was quickly passed through both houses, and received the royal assent on the 12th of the same month (ib. p. 672). He made one of his most successful speeches in the House of Commons on 12 Feb. 1858 in support of Lord Palmerston's motion for leave to bring in a bill for the better government of India (ib. pp. 1330–53), and resigned office with the rest of his colleagues on the defeat of the ministry a few days afterwards. On the formation of Lord Palmerston's second administration in June 1859, Lewis waived his claims to the chancellorship of the exchequer in favour of Mr. Gladstone, and accepted the post of home secretary. On the resignation of Sidney Herbert, lord Herbert of Lea [q. v.], Lewis, much against his wish, was appointed secretary for war (22 July 1861).

While still holding this uncongenial office, he died at Harpton Court on 13 April 1863, aged 56. The House of Commons was adjourned on the following day out of respect to his memory (ib. clxx. 13–16). He was buried on the 18th in the family vault under the lady-chapel in Old Radnor Church. A marble bust of Lewis, by Weekes, was placed in the north transept of Westminster Abbey, and monuments were erected in his honour in Old Radnor Church, in New Radnor, and in front of the Shire-hall at Hereford.

Lewis was a quiet, grave-looking man, of simple habits and undemonstrative manners. As a sober-minded, practical politician, of high principles, untiring industry, and great administrative ability, he secured the confidence of the moderate men of all parties. Greville describes him as ‘cold-blooded as a fish, totally devoid of sensibility or nervousness, of an imperturbable temper, calm and resolute, laborious and indefatigable, and exceedingly popular in the House of Com-