Sherbrooke, Robert Lowe, Viscount

Sherbrooke, Robert Lowe, Viscount shûrˈbro͝ok [key], 1811–92, British statesman. He emigrated (1842) to Australia and achieved recognition as a reform politician. Returning (1850) to England, he entered (1852) the House of Commons, distinguished himself as a speaker, and held subordinate offices in the ministries of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston. In 1866 he led the “cave of Adullam,” the insurgent Liberals who attacked and defeated their government's reform bill. Despite this action, he served William Gladstone as chancellor of the exchequer (1868–73). In his first budgets Sherbrooke successfully reduced taxes, but he carried the Liberal policy of retrenchment too far and was transferred (1873) to the post of home secretary. He was created viscount in 1880.

See study by R. Knight (1966).

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