Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/224

 that this fishery had been rendered valueless by the mode of fishing adopted by the defendants. During their investigation of the duke's title Lowther's advisers found that in the original grant to the first Earl of Portland by William III of the honour of Penrith and its appurtenances (under the general words of which grant the duke claimed the socage manor of Carlisle), the forest of Inglewood and the socage manor of Carlisle had been expressly omitted. As these hereditaments, however, had been in the undisturbed possession of the Portland family for over sixty years, no one could impeach their title but the crown, against which the ‘Quieting Act’ did not run. In order, therefore, to checkmate the duke's chancery proceedings, of which no further trace has been found, Lowther petitioned the treasury (9 July 1767) for a grant of the crown interest in these two properties ‘for three lives, on such terms as to their lordships should seem meet.’ In spite of the duke's protests the grant was made to Lowther on 18 Dec. 1767. A pamphlet warfare at once ensued, and an outcry was raised by the duke's friends that no man's possessions were safe if the legal maxim ‘Nullum tempus occurrit regi’ was to be enforced. On 17 Feb. 1768 Sir George Savile's motion for leave to bring in his ‘Nullum Tempus Bill,’ the object of which was to abrogate the legal maxim and to deprive Lowther of his rights under the crown leases, was defeated by 134 to 114 (Parl. Hist. xvi. 405–14). In the following year, however, a compromise was effected, and Savile's bill was passed with a provision excluding all grants of the crown made previously to 1 Jan. 1769 from the operation of the act, provided the grantees prosecuted their claims within the year (9 Geo. III, c. 16). Lowther thereupon instantly filed a bill against the duke, and served some three hundred writs of ejectment upon the tenants. In February 1771 Sir William Meredith failed in his attempt to carry through the House of Commons a bill for repealing the clause, which had enabled Lowther to prosecute his claims (ib. xvii. 1–35), but judgment was finally given by the court of exchequer against Lowther on the ground that the grant was bad under the Civil List Act (1 Anne, c. 1) owing to the insufficiency of the rent reserved by the crown. The duke's title, therefore, to the forest of Inglewood and the socage manor of Carlisle was never tried, and the whole of the property was sold by him to the Duke of Devonshire in 1787. On hearing the rumour, in July 1767, that the treasury had been offered to Rockingham, Lowther threatened to break off his political connection with Bute, and, ‘irritated by repeated violation of promises and by a total neglect,’ was strongly disposed ‘to enter into the most explicit engagements’ with Temple (Grenville Papers, 1853, iv. 91, 93). At the general election in March 1768, after a poll of nineteen days and an expenditure of many thousands of pounds, Lowther was returned for Cumberland, with Curwen, one of the Duke of Portland's nominees, as a colleague. A petition was, however, presented against his return, and in December 1768 Lowther was unseated, and Fletcher, the duke's other nominee, was declared duly elected (Journals of the House of Commons, xxxii. 107). It was subsequently arranged between them that the duke's nominees should retain their seats for that parliament, and that in future each party should nominate one member. Lowther was elected for the borough of Cockermouth in March 1769, and at the general election in October 1774 was returned both for Cumberland and Westmoreland. He elected to sit for Cumberland, and continued to represent that county until the dissolution of parliament, March 1784. Throughout the whole of Lord North's administration (1770–82) Lowther acted with the whigs. On 26 Oct. 1775 he seconded Lord John Cavendish's amendment to the address, and ‘attacked the whole system of colony government’ (Parl. Hist. xviii. 733–4). In November 1775, and again in April 1776, he unsuccessfully moved a resolution condemning the use of foreign troops within the dominions of the crown without the previous consent of parliament (ib. pp. 818–19, 1330–1). On 22 March 1780 Lowther drew the attention of the house to the duel which had taken place between Lord Shelburne and William Fullarton [q. v.], and pointed out that such encounters directly militated against the freedom of debate (ib. xxi. 319–20, 322–3). In the following month he voted for Dunning's famous motion in respect of the influence of the crown (ib. p. 368), and on 2 June in this year formed one of the minority of seven who voted for Lord George Gordon's motion for the immediate consideration of the protestant petition (ib. p. 660).

In January 1781 he was the means of introducing William Pitt into the House of Commons by ordering his election for Appleby, Westmoreland. On 12 Dec. 1781 he moved two resolutions for putting an end to the American war without success (ib. xxii. 802–3). Upon the death of Rockingham in July 1782, Lowther gave notice to Lord Shelburne that ‘he and his connections should withdraw their support from government un-