Loreburn's national political career began in 1880, when he was elected to the
House of Commons as Member of Parliament for
Hereford. He stayed there until 1885, when he ran unsuccessfully in
Dunbartonshire, but returned to the Commons in 1886 for
Dumfries Burghs. He remained in the House of Commons until 1905; during this time period, he was appointed to the offices of
Solicitor General and
knighted (1894) and
Attorney General (1894–1895). He was appointed a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1899 for services in connection with the Venezuela Boundary Arbitration Commission. He left the House of Commons in 1905, though, and became
Lord Chancellor under
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. On his appointment he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Loreburn, of Dumfries in the County of Dumfries. (The Loreburn was a stream which historically ran close to Dumfries, and which was the source of the town's motto and rallying cry, "A Lore Burne".) Alternative explanations include the name coming from Dumfries’ motto ‘A Lore burne’, based on the war-cry ‘To the Lower Burn’. in
Vanity Fair, 1895 During the 1900s and 1910s, many Liberal politicians took up the ideology of
Liberal Imperialism, led by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer (
H. H. Asquith), the
Secretary of State for War (
Richard Haldane) and the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (
Sir Edward Grey). This triumvirate of politicians was strongly in favour of an
entente with France, along with the creation of a
British Expeditionary Force, in the event of a war between France and Germany. These three politicians made their views known, and when Campbell-Bannerman appointed his cabinet, he appointed Loreburn Lord Chancellor as a counter to the Liberal Imperialists.
Winston Churchill referred to him as belonging to the "radical element" within the Liberal party. In 1908, Asquith became prime minister. Lord Loreburn's disagreements with Haldane, Grey, Asquith, and eventually
David Lloyd George became more prominent. Asquith, Lloyd George, Grey, Churchill, and Haldane met secretly on 23 August 1911, and when certain Cabinet members found out, they were furious.
Reginald McKenna had recently been deprived of his position as
First Lord of the Admiralty for refusing to provide military aid to the French, and he led the majority (whose members included Loreburn, McKenna,
Colonial Secretary Lewis Vernon Harcourt, and
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Jack Pease) in "a strong line about Cabinet supremacy over all other bodies in the matter of sea and land defence".
Lord Esher wrote, "There has been a serious crisis. Fifteen members of the Cabinet against five. The Entente is decidedly imperilled." He was created
Earl Loreburn on 4 July 1911. Unfortunately, Lord Loreburn's health began declining, and in the summer of 1912, he resigned his Lord Chancellorship. In a parting, "valedictory" letter to Lord Haldane, he wrote: During the
July Crisis Loreburn opposed British intervention in the impending continental war. On 31 July 1914 the
Manchester Guardian, to his delight, attacked the way in which Britain appeared to have been secretly committed to the side of France and Russia. In January 1918, the
House of Lords came to consider the
Bill which went on to become the
Representation of the People Act 1918, for the first time introducing a limited
women's suffrage. Loreburn moved an
amendment to delete from the Bill the sections which would give the vote to women, but the Lords were not persuaded and on a division the amendment was lost by 134 votes against to 71 in favour. He continued to serve as a
Law Lord in the
House of Lords. ==Personal life==