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and in 1852 he was returned to parliament as one of the members for the county of Meath. As his elder brother, Samuel, had married a sister of John Bright, then member for Manchester, he was probably known to one or two of the more advanced English liberals, but otherwise he was quite unknown in political circles. However, he soon became a prominent debater in the House of Commons, and by his ability and evident sincerity, even when urging unpopular opinions, he gained the respect of many of his opponents. He identified himself closely with the Irish nationalist party, supported O'Connell in his demand for repeal of the union, and fomented the agitation for tenant right. In 1853, when dissensions arose among the tenant-right party, Dr. Cullen, archbishop of Dublin, prohibited the priests in his diocese from interfering in political affairs. Lucas denounced in the 'Tablet' this action of the archbishop, and determined to appeal from the episcopal decision to the holy see, and in the autumn of 1854 he started on a mission to Rome. He had two interviews with Pope Pius IX, at whose suggestion he began to write a full 'Statement' of the condition of affairs in Ireland and of the questions at issue between himself and Dr. Cullen.

In May 1855, his health having broken down, Lucas returned to England, so altered in appearance that when he presented himself at the House of Commons the doorkeepers did not know him. He became the guest of Richard Swift, M.P., in whose house at Wandsworth he remained for two months; then he went for a short time to Weybridge; next he paid a long visit to his father at Brighton; and finally he removed to the house of his brother-in-law at Staines, where he died on 22 Oct. 1855. He was buried in Brompton cemetery.

The 'Statement' already referred to was not quite completed at the time of his death. This document, which may be regarded as a valuable state paper relating to the affairs of the catholics of the United Kingdom, occupies more than three hundred pages in the second volume of Lucas's 'Life' by his brother. About six months after his death the 'Statement' was presented to the pope.

[F. Lucas: a Biography, by Christopher James Riethmuller, London, 1862, 8vo; Life of F. Lucas, by his brother Edward Lucas, 2 vols. London, 1886, 8vo; Tablet, 27 Oct. 3 Nov. and 10 Nov. 1855; Weekly Register, 27 Oct. 1855; Gent. Mag. December 1855, p. 652; Rev. W.J.Amherst, in Dublin Review, October 1886, p. 392; The Month, 1886, lvii. 305, 473; Athenæum, 1886, i. 838; Duffy's League of North and South. pp. 330, seq.]  LUCAS, HENRY (d. 1663), founder of the Lucasian professorship, says in his will that his patrimony 'was snatched from him by unhappy suits in law during his childhood.' He studied for a time at St. John's College, Cambridge, but does not appear to have matriculated, and subsequently became secretary to the Earl of Holland, chancellor of the university. On the visit of Prince Charles Louis, elector, great palatine of the Rhine, to Cambridge, Lucas was admitted M.A. 5 Feb. 1635-6 (University Register). He was elected M.P. for the university on 11 March 1639-40, and on 24 Oct. 1640 (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return of, pt. i. pp. 480,485), and took both the covenant and engagement. He died in London on 22 July 1663, a bachelor (Addit. MS. (Cole) 5875, f. 22: Probate Act Book, P. C. C, 1663). In his will, dated 11 June 1663 (P. C. C. 96, Juxon), he directed his executors to purchase lands of the yearly value of 100l., to be employed as a stipend for a professor of the mathematical sciences in the university of Cambridge. To the university library he gave a small collection of mathematical books. The remainder of his estate (about 7,000l.) he bequeathed for the erection and endowment of a hospital in Berkshire or Surrey. The foundation was to consist of a chaplain or master and as many poor men as could be conveniently provided for. The poor men were to be nominated by his executors and their survivors, and afterwards by the Drapers' Company, out of the poorest inhabitants of the forest division in Berkshire and the bailiwick of Surrey, in or near the forest. Accordingly, a hospital was built in 1665 on Luckley Green, Wokingham, Berkshire (, Magna Britannia, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 443), and lands in Bedfordshire were purchased for its endowment, and for that of the mathematical professorship. In 1664 Isaac Barrow was appointed the first Lucasian professor, and Newton succeeded him in 1669.

[Oratio Præfatoria before Isaac Barrow's Mathematical Lectures, 1685; Whiston's Autobiography, p. 133; Peck's Desiderata, vol. ii. bk. xiv. p. 36; Addit. MS. (Cole), xlviii. 457.]  LUCAS, HENRY (fl. 1795), poet, son of Dr. Charles Lucas [q. v.], the Irish patriot, was born at Dublin about 1740, and obtained in 1757 a scholarship at Trinity College, Dublin, whence he graduated B.A. in 1759, and M.A. in 1762 (Cat. of Dublin Graduates). He became a student at the Middle Temple, but abandoned the law to write complimentary occasional verse of a very obsequious order. He published: 1. 'The Tears of