Background
George Cornewall Lewis was born on 21 April 1806, the elder son of Thomas Frankland Lewis and his first wife, Harriet Cornewali.
politician statesman writer Home Secretary Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Cornewall Lewis was born on 21 April 1806, the elder son of Thomas Frankland Lewis and his first wife, Harriet Cornewali.
He was educated at Eton and at Oxford. He then trained in the law and joined the Oxford circuit in 1831. However, owing to ill health, he soon decided to pursue a career in literature, making good use of his command of half a dozen languages. His legal skills also brought him occasional work in public investigations.
In 1833 he was appointed assistant commissioner to inquire and report on the condition of the poor in Ireland, and in 1834 he became a member of a commission of inquiry into religious and other instruction in Ireland. This was followed, in 1836, by his appointment as joint commissioner to inquire into the affairs of Malta, focusing on the political and economic condition of the island and the changes in its laws. In 1839 he replaced his father as one of the Poor Law commissioners of England and Wales. This was a thankless task; during his seven years in this office, he and his fellow commissioners were continually attacked by authorities who wished no changes in the Poor Law structure, and were berated as a result of the inquiry into the management of the Andover workhouse in 1846, a notorious case of cruelty.
In August 1847, Lewis was elected to the House of Commons as Liberal M.P. for Hert¬fordshire, and that November he became one of the secretaries of the Board of Control in Lord John Russell’s first ministry. An able young man, he began to rise in government circles by performing well in a number of junior government posts, most notably those of undersecre¬tary at the Home Department in 1848 and of financial secretary to the Treasury in 1850. He lost his seat in the general election of July 1852 and became, for a time, editor of the Edinburgh Review, one of the famous radical journals of the day.
In 1855, following the death of his father, he returned to the House of Commons as M.P. for Radnor boroughs, his fathers old seat, and was immediately appointed chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Palmerston’s first ministry, becoming a member of the Privy Council in the process. In drafting his first budget, he faced a £23 million deficit—a problem that he surmounted largely by borrowing and by increasing income tax from 14d to 16d in the pound (then 240 pence) and by raising duties on sugar, tea, coffee, and spirits. His 1856 budget also borrowed money to pay for the cost of the Crimean War; but in 1857 he more than halved income tax from 16d to 7d in the pound.
When Palmerston formed his second ministry, in 1859, Lewis was replaced by William Ewart Gladstone as chancellor and in return accepted the post of home secretary. Lewis filled this role until 1861, when he was appointed secretary for war. He died suddenly on 13 April 1863, while serving in this post. As a result of his death, the activity of the House of Commons was suspended for one day.