Double Government, the Civil Service, and the Indian Reform Agitation,’ 1853. With his brother, F. Lushington, he wrote: 8. ‘La Nation Boutiquière, and other Poems,’ 1855. 9. ‘Two Battle-Pieces’ in Verse, 1855. 10. ‘The Italian War, 1848–49. By H. Lushington. With a biographical Preface by G. S. Venables,’ 1859. With George Stovin Venables he wrote a small book of verses, entitled: 11. ‘Joint Compositions;’ privately printed 1840.
[Gent. Mag. October 1855, p. 441; Venables's Preface to Lushington's Italian War, i. 859.]
LUSHINGTON, STEPHEN (1782–1873), civilian, was second son of Sir Stephen Lushington (d. 1807), of South Hill Park, Berkshire. His father, who was for some years director of the East India Company, and chairman in 1790, was created a baronet in 1791. His mother was Hester, daughter of John Boldero of Aspenden Hall, near Buntingford, Hertfordshire. Stephen, born in Harley Street, London, on 14 Jan. 1782, was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 26 Oct. 1797. He was elected a fellow of All Souls, and graduated B.A. 1802, M.A. 1806, B.C.L. 1807, D.C.L. 1808. On 28 Jan. 1801 he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn, but migrated in the following November to the Inner Temple. He was called to the bar on 7 Feb. 1806, and on 3 Nov. 1808 became a member of the College of Advocates. At the general election in November 1806 he was returned to the House of Commons in the whig interest for the borough of Great Yarmouth, and on 23 Feb. 1807 spoke in favour of the Slave Trade Abolition Bill (Parl. Debates, viii. 962–3). Lushington was again returned for Great Yarmouth at the general election in May following, and on 15 March 1808 took part in the debate on the Oude charge against the Marquis Wellesley, whose conduct he severely censured (ib. x. 1038–1041). His motion on 31 May 1808 with regard to the award of prize-money to Sir Home Popham, whom he accused of disgracing the character of a British officer, was defeated by a majority of 69 (ib. xi. 721–34, 763). In the following month he resigned his seat in the House of Commons, and for some years devoted himself entirely to his practice in the courts of civil and ecclesiastical law. At the general election in March 1820 Lushington was returned for the borough of Ilchester, and on 11 July following brought forward a motion in favour of the recognition of the independence of South America (ib. 2nd ser. ii. 376–82). At the reform dinner on 4 May 1821 at the London Tavern he is said to have distinguished himself ‘for the vigour or rather the violence of [his] language’ (Walpole, Hist. of England, 1878, ii. 282). In February 1822 he opposed the Irish Insurrection Bill, and maintained that the state of Ireland had never been thoroughly investigated (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. vi. 171–5). His motion on 12 July in the same year for the rejection of the lords' amendments to the Marriage Act Amendment Bill was defeated by 122 to 20 (ib. vii. 1639–40, 1648). On 16 March 1824 he supported the introduction of Canning's bill for ‘the more effectual suppression of the African slave-trade’ (ib. x. 1169–75), and on 9 April following spoke in favour of Robinson's motion for a grant of 50,000l. for the erection of additional churches (ib. xi. 346–50). On 11 June he made an elaborate vindication of the character of John Smith, a missionary, whose irregular conviction by a Demerara court-martial had aroused a great deal of just indignation in this country (ib. pp. 1206–45). He was returned for the borough of Tregony, Cornwall, at the general election in June 1826. On 12 June 1827 he presented several petitions from ‘people of colour in the West Indies,’ and urged that they should be admitted to the full protection of the law, and to all the privileges of British subjects (ib. xvii. 1242–9), which was carried out by an order of council issued in the following year. On 17 July 1828 he defended Sir John Nicholl, the judge of the prerogative court of Canterbury, from the attacks made upon him by Joseph Hume in the House of Commons (ib. xviii. 1754–9), and on 16 Feb. 1829 pronounced a high eulogium on Peel's conduct in relation to the Roman catholic emancipation question (ib. xx. 368–72). On 23 Feb. 1830 he supported Lord John Russell's motion for leave to bring in a bill conferring the right of parliamentary representation on Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham (ib. xxii. 881–4), and on 5 April spoke in favour of the repeal of the civil disabilities of the Jews (ib. xxiii. 1325–8). Lushington unsuccessfully contested Reading at the general election in the summer of 1830, but was returned for Winchelsea a few days before the dissolution of parliament, and on 15 April 1831 supported Fowell Buxton's resolution pledging the house to adopt the best means of effecting the abolition of slavery in the British colonies (ib. 3rd ser. iii. 1455–7). At the general election in this month he was returned both for Winchelsea and Ilchester, but elected to sit for Ilchester. On 15 March 1832 he spoke in favour of an inquiry into the Peterloo massacre (ib. xi. 268–9), and at
