the Liberal Ministry which Mr.
Gladstone formed in the end of 1868. From that moment his position
declined. He lost popularity and influence both with the country and
in the House of Commons. His speeches were always able, but they did
not seem to tell when delivered from the ministerial bench. His
financial proposals, though ingenious, were thought too ingenious, and
showed a deficient perception of the tendencies of the English mind.
No section likes being taxed, but Lowe's budgets met with a more than
usually angry opposition. His economies and retrenchments, so far from
bringing him the credit he deserved, exposed him to the charge of
cheese-paring parsimony, and did much to render the Ministry
unpopular. Before that ministry fell in 1874, Lowe, who had in 1873
exchanged the Exchequer for the Home Office, had almost ceased to be a
personage in politics. He did nothing to retrieve his fame during the
six years of Opposition that followed, seldom spoke, took little part
in the denunciation of Lord Beaconsfield's Eastern and Afghan policy,
which went on from 1876 till 1880, and once at least gave slight signs
of declining mental power. So in 1880 he was relegated to the House of
Lords, because the new Liberal Government of that year could not make
room for him. Very soon thereafter his memory began to fail, and for
the last ten years of his life he had been practically forgotten,
though sometimes seen, a pathetic figure, at evening parties. There is
hardly a parallel in our parliamentary annals to so complete an
eclipse of so brilliant a luminary.

This rapid obscuration of a reputation which was genuine, for Lowe's
powers had been amply proved, was due to no accident, and was apparent
long before mental decay set in. The causes lay in himself. One cause
was purely physical. He was excessively short-sighted, so much so
that when he was writing a letter, his nose was apt to rub out the
words his pen had traced; and this defect shut him out from all that
knowledge of individual men and of audiences which is to be
obtained by watching their faces. Mr. Gladstone, who never seemed to
resent Lowe's attacks, and greatly admired his gifts--it was not so
clear that Lowe reciprocated the admiration--used to relate that on
one occasion when a foreign potentate met the Minister in St.
James's Park and put out his hand in friendly greeting, Lowe
repelled his advances, and when the King said, "But, Mr. Lowe, you
know me quite well,