He was an Oxford man, who took a B.A. in 1833 as a good classic, and thereupon became for a time an University coach. Meanwhile he studied law, and finding no field at home for his undoubted talents, went out to Australia, where he laid the foundation of his fortunes. He soon gained a seat in the Legislative Council for New South Wales, and having become generally prominent in colonial affairs, in 1850 judged that the time had come for his return to England. Almost immediately he was engaged as a writer of leading articles for the _Times_ newspaper. In 1852, as Member of Parliament for Kidderminster, he began his twenty years of public service. Particularly in connection with educational matters, Lowe was soon well known in the House, one of many useful but not distinguished public men. It was in the year 1866 that Lord John Russell introduced a bill for the extension of the suffrage, a measure mild enough in view of more recent enactments, but a measure that aroused in Lowe all the opposition of his peculiar nature. For the moment he became more Tory than the Tories; and in the debates over the bill developed powers perhaps unsuspected by himself,--certainly so by his colleagues. The one voice that was heard above all others was that of Lowe, a voice emphatic, sincere, and, as the event proved, dominant. The bill was rejected. The National Biographer says: “Lowe’s triumph at the time was complete.... He had the success which attends those who believe all they are saying. At no other time did he attain to such a high level of perfection in speaking.... Mr. Gladstone and he vied with each other in aptness of classical quotation, and the keenest partisan on the ministerial side could not fail to admire Lowe’s courage and sincerity of purpose.” It was his _annus mirabilis_. It is whimsical now to read that contemporaries thought they saw in Lowe a superior to Gladstone; more whimsical to learn that the very next year the Conservatives, switched skilfully about by Disraeli, passed a much more sweeping extension of the franchise than the one Lowe had so successfully opposed. For the moment, however, his reputation was secure.