George Cornewall Lewis

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet, (21 April 180613 April 1863) was a British statesman and man of letters. He is best known for preserving neutrality in 1862 when the British cabinet debated intervention in the American Civil War. Early life He was born in London, the son of Thomas Frankland Lewis of Harpton Court, Radnorshire and his wife Harriet Cornewall, daughter of the banker and plantation owner Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet and his wife Catherine Cornewall, daughter of Velters Cornewall. Lewis was educated at Eton College and matriculated in 1824 at Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1828 he earned a first-class in classics and a second-class in mathematics. He then entered the Middle Temple, studying under Barnes Peacock. He was called to the bar in 1831, and briefly from November 1831 went the Oxford circuit. But he shortly gave up on a career in the law, for health reasons. He assisted Connop Thirlwall and Julius Charles Hare in starting The Philological Museum, a journal published from 1831 to 1833. Its successor was The Classical Museum, which he also supported.