In the intervals of his official labours, he occupied himself with inquiries into a wide range of subjects--history, politics, philology, anthropology, and antiquarianism.

His works on 'The Astronomy of the Ancients,' and 'Essays on the Formation of the Romanic Languages,' might have been written by the profoundest of German SAVANS.

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.