He took
especial delight in pursuing the abstruser branches of learning,
and found in them his chief pleasure and recreation. Lord
Palmerston sometimes remonstrated with him, telling him he was
"taking too much out of himself" by laying aside official papers
after office-hours in order to study books; Palmerston himself
declaring that he had no time to read books--that the reading of
manuscript was quite enough for him.
Doubtless Sir George Lewis rode his hobby too hard, and but for
his devotion to study, his useful life would probably have been
prolonged. Whether in or out of office, he read, wrote, and
studied. He relinquished the editorship of the 'Edinburgh Review'
to become Chancellor of the Exchequer; and when no longer occupied
in preparing budgets, he proceeded to copy out a mass of Greek
manuscripts at the British Museum. He took particular delight in
pursuing any difficult inquiry in classical antiquity. One of the
odd subjects with which he occupied himself was an examination
into the truth of reported cases of longevity, which, according to
his custom, he doubted or disbelieved. This subject was uppermost
in his mind while pursuing his canvass of Herefordshire in 1852.
On applying to a voter one day for his support, he was met by a
decided refusal. "I am sorry," was the candidate's reply, "that
you can't give me your vote; but perhaps you can tell me whether
anybody in your parish has died at an extraordinary age!"
The contemporaries of Sir George Lewis also furnish many striking
instances of the consolations afforded by literature to statesmen
wearied with the toils of public life.
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