THE society's HERITAGE FROM THE MACLEAYS. 



613 



well-written book, therefore, is a most important supplement to the published 

 Obituary Notices of W. S. Macleay. 



Robert Lowe (1811-1892) arrived in Sydney in October, 1842, when he was 

 in his 31st year. He had graduated, with first-class honours, at Oxford in 1833 ; 

 was a private tutor thereafter until he began to study for the Bar, Fellow of 

 Magdalen in 1835; ajid was called to the Bar in 1842, and shortly after saOed for 

 Australia, with his wife, to whom he was married in 1836. Robert Lowe was an 

 albino, and his eyes were unprotected by a-pigmentum nigi-um. Three medical men, 

 whom he had consulted, infonned him that he would become blind in seven years, 

 and recommended him to follow some out-of-door employment in Australia or 

 New Zealand. Hence his migi-ation to New South Wales. Shortly after his 

 arrival, as he found that his eyes were prejudicially affected by the glare of the 

 Australian suuuner, he consulted a doctor, who cupped him, and advised him that 

 it was absolutely necessai-y to discontinue his practice of the law. To add to his 

 depression, he was forbidden to read. He says, in his unfinished autobiographical 

 sketch, in reference to these trials — "However, in this the lowest ebb of my 

 fortunes, I found several alleviations. The principal was the extraordinary good 

 fortune which gave me the acquaintance, and I am proud to say, the friendship, 

 of Mr. William [S.] Macleay. He had been secretary at Paris for claims of 

 English subjects, and aftei-wards had been a commissioner for the extinction of 

 the slave trade at Cuba. He was an excellent classical scholar, he knew more 

 of modern history and biogi-aphy than anyone with whom I was ever acquainted, 

 and in addition to all this he was a profoundly scientific man, thoroughly conver- 

 sant with Zoology and entomology. An excellent companion, with a store of 

 caustic wit, he reminded me continually of the best part of Scott's Antiquary. 

 It fell to my lot to do him some service from which he never knew how to be suffi- 

 ciently grateful. It would have been a good find to meet with such a person 

 anywhere, but in a remote colony it was a good fortune for which one could not 

 be sufficiently srateful. I have not seen and shall not see his like again" ["Life," 

 i.,p.41]. 



Of this. Lowe's biographer says — "Such is Lord Sherbrooke's tribute to 

 William Sharpe (sic) Macleay, his most cherished Australian friend, who fully 

 returned his affection, and whose admiration for his gTeat abilities, indomitable 



courage, and personal worth was unbounded It is not difficult to imagine 



what a solace the conversation of so cultivated a man must have been to one who 

 felt that, despite hie own great powers and grasp of mind, his career, from im- 

 pending blindness, was about to close before it had well begun" [Vol. i., p. 183]. 



The following extracts are of great interest: — "It must be frankly admitted 

 that Mrs. Lowe's letters of this period [1845] are not very complimentary to 

 the society of Sydney. But she thoroughly appreciated the high qualities of 

 the one or two intim.ate friends whom they saw frequently at Nelson Bay. Of 

 these she specially mentions three: Sir Thomas Mitchell, W. S. Macleay, and 

 Sir Alfred Stephen 



"Sir Thomas Mitchell, Sir Alfred Stephen, William Sharpe Macleay, and the 

 future Lord Sherbrooke, sitting together, as tliey frequently did at Nelson Bay, 

 all in the full vigour of their rare conversational powers, would have been con- 

 sidered a distinguished greup in any city in the world. Lord Sherbrooke always 

 declared, though in after years he was intimate with the cleverest and most cul- 

 tured men in England, that he had met no one whose conversation was more 



