THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 51, 5 May 1863, Page 3

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.

With the Marquis of Lansdowne has passed away a political spectacle peculiar to this country — that of an aristocratic gentleman of moderate abilities, and politics which might he called accidentally liberal, being connected with the entire political history of his time by the force of consistency alone. Consistency is, from the character of the time 3 not only so out of fashion, but for most people so out of the question, that any one signal instance of it fixes as much attention at the present day as conversion and innovation did in a former one. Lord lansdowne remained steadfast while the Wellingtons and Peels were changing on the one hand, and the Burdetts and the Broughams on the other; and everybody is interested in seeing how

this happened. The first suggestion in the case is that it could not have happened if he had not been of high and ancient family. It could not have happened if his early course had not been determined in a liberal direction ; nor if he had hot been of sound reputation; nor if he had been a man of genius, or of any vigorous ability. * A brief survey of his career will make the case plain. It cannot be other than one of great interest. The family of Lord Lansdowne figure in Irish history as Barons of Kerry for several hundred years. His father was the celebrated Lord Shelburne, the first Marquis of Lansdowne, and the late Marquis was the son of a second marriage. He was never, nor were his elder brothers, the pupils of Dr Priestly, as is supposed by many people. Dr Priestley was never a tutor in the family at all, but resident, nominally as librarian to Lord Shelburne, but really as a friend and scholarly companion. Lord Shelburne had a dread of public schools, and his two eldest sons were educated at home ; but Henry, the subject of this notice, so earnestly desired a public school education, that he was sent to Westminster. It really appears as if his life-long solicitude on behalf of education beg;an with his own. From Westminster he went to Edinburgh, and was one of the band of youths, since become statemen, who debated at the Speculative Society, and worshipped Dugald Stewart, The judgment of his comrades on him was, as Homer tells us, tbat he was "distinguished by a cool, clear-thinking bead, and a plain, firm, manly judgment.'' One would like to know whether, in the presence of the Speculative Society, he manifested the inaptitude for speculation and the propensity to detail which distinguished his mind in after-life. It was a joke of (he season, 40 > ears after, when he and Sydney Smith, with a companion or two, went incognito to Deville, in the Strand, to have their characters read from their skulls, and were most perversely interpreted, Lord Lansdowne was pronounced to be so absorbed in generalisation as to fail in all practical matters, and Sydney Smith to be a great naturalist — " never so happy as when arranging his birds and his fishes.'' "Sir," said the divine, with a stare of comical stupidity, "I don't know a fish from a bird;" and the cabinet minister was conscious that "all the fiddle faddle ofthe cabinet" was committed to him, on account of his Jove of what he called practi cal business. In 1801, when he was just of age, he graduated at Cambridge. After travelling on the continent with Dumont, he took his seat for Oalne, the family borough, and he sat tor two sessions silent, as he thought became his youth, but diligent in attendance, ancl earnest in his study ofthe chief orators of the time, Fox being his great admiration. His maiden speech was on a politico-economical subjeet— the effect on Ireland of tbe working of the Bank Restriction Act. The remark at the time was that this young Lord Henry Petty justified his descent from Sir Win. Petty, who had that to say in Cromwell's time which caused him to be called the father of political economy in England. The first very strong impression made by the young member was, however, on the Sth of April, 1805, in ihe Melviile business, when, in addition to the discretion and good sense which were noted as remarkable in a man of five-and-tweiity, he showed a power which never re-appeared. Fox declared it the best speech that was made that night. When Parliament was prorogued, he went to Ireland with Dumont, to explore it politically, beyond the bounds of the family property. On the opening of the session of 1800 he was to have moved the amendment on the address — that amendment which was given up because Pitt was dying. By that lime, the first marquis was dead, and was succeeded by Lord Henry's half-brother, who afterwards died without issue, devolving the title and estates on him. On Pitt's death, Lord Henry Petty came in for Cambridge University, over the head of the young Palmerston, who was a grave and modest youth in those days Fox used to say in private that he looked upon Petty as his political successor; but still, in the notices of the time, it is always the gravity, consistency, anddiligence of che young man that we find extolled, and no t any power of a higher order. He wa g made Chancellor of the Exchequer a t once, in the Grenville Administration . and he brought, forward a financial scheme' which was prodigiously admired by his colleagues, who were but too like Fox in their aversion to Adam Smith and the subject of his book ; but Lord Henry Petty's firancial scheme would not bear examination. His operations ended in a great increase of ihe assessed taxes and the property tax ; and there are caricatures yet in our libraries in which Fox and Petty are seen as bear and dftg, taught to dance by Lord Grenville as trainer; and again as tax-gatherers bearding John Bull. Already we find him busy in doing what he delighted in doing through life, helping peo- ' pie to a position, or fitting people and places to each other. The last entry in Horner's journal bears date June, 1806, and it relates to a negotiation set on foot by Lord Henry Petty for bringing his t friend Horner into Parliament under the auspices of Lord Kinnaird. A few monihs afterwards the Grenville Administration j went out, letting the Tories into power for : nearly a quarter of a century. Cambridge would have no more of the young Liberal ; but he indulged himself in a " last act" of patronage, or propitiation of , patronage, even at that moment. He got Professor Smyth, the " amiable and accomplished," as his friends called him, appointed to the chair of Modern History. It was, like most of Lord Lansdowne's aopointments, an act of kindness to the individual, but scarcely so to the public. There is no saying what benefit might have accrued to British statesmanship if a man of more vigor, philosophy, and comprehensiveness of mind than Professor Smyth had been appointed to so important a professorship. In 1808, Lord H. Petty married Lady Louisa Emma Strangways, his cousin — a woman whohad, without seeking it, everybody's praise. She was beautiful ; and every advantage of natural ability was improved by education, and sanctified and endeared by the finest moral qualities. Thay lived together to old age. The year after their marriage, the second marquis died, and they began, at Bowood, the long series of hospitalities which made that abode as celebrated in its own way as Holland-house was in a somewhat different one. The difference lay in the hostess ; and it was wholy to the advantage of Bowood. It is amusing to see, in " Moore's Diary," an account of consultations between the visitors of the two houses — Rogers, Tierney, Barnes and Moore— about which of the noblemen-was the more aristocratic in his habit of [ feeling, Lord Holland or Lord Landsowne— the impresssion of those who knew them best being that neither could be more so

M—if-fg-lfflHllf Hi-TT" ■"■■«■■ tl-Mil!-_l-VJ>l--^W«--f«^MMI'tTOgIPJUIMIIM'IWW»«WWBt^^i»« than the other, while both were blinded to it in themselves, as superficial observers were, by the genuine benevolence which was the prevailing mood of each. As to the ladies — there is no need to describe the hostess of Holland-house. Lady Lansdowne had her aristocratic tendencies, as was natural ; but they were less than the shyness of her manners led some to suppose ; and they were subdued to perfect harmlessness by her personal humility and all-pervading modesty. The hospitalities of "Rowood, so conducted might well form, as they did, a social feature of the time. During the quarter century of Tory rule, Lord Lansdowne was steady in his advocacy of the great questions of his youth, aud, we mav now add, of his old age. When Lord Grey came into power he was President of the Council— an office which suited him and the Council admirably. He continued in office with the Melbourne Ministry — going out when Sir R. Peet was sent for to Rome in November 1 854. and returning on the breaking up of the Peel administjation, in the next April. After Lord Grey's retirement he was the leader, when necessary, of Opposision in the Lords, and during the Russell Administration, of Government, and it was during that long course of years, that his finest qualities appeared — his moderation, his courtesy, his knowledge of and deference for Parliamentary forms and usages; and better, his sincere zeal in causes which bore least relation to party warfare. In 1836 he lost his elder son, the Earl of Kerry, who left a widow and one son ; and in 1851 the Marchioness of Lansdowne died. He had a son and a daughter left; but every one felt as he did, that his life was drawing towards that closing period which should he one of repose. He took leave of active, and, as he thought, of official life, when Lord John Russell made way for Lord Derby in the spring of 1852. No speech tbnt he ever made won him so many hearts, and so much respectful sympathy as (hat in which he declared that, though he should appear in his place in Parliament on occasion, he was then taking his leave of active public life. When the Coalition Ministry under Lord Aberdeen came into power, Lord Lansdowne reluctantly consented to take a seat among them, without office, to afford the Government the benefit of bis charactor of conservative whiggism, of his dignified presence in Parliament, of his urbane and moderating influence in council, and of his experience in the business of statemanship. This was understood to be only another form of that farewell to public life which he had announced, rather more expressly, on the occasion of the Derby ministry. { Lord Lansdowne had been gradually declining for some months, but his death was hastened, if not actually occasioned, by an accident that occurred on the 21st January. The venerable nobleman while walking on the terrace at Bowood stumbled and fell, and in falling cut his head severely. The shock was too much for his enfeebled frame, and after gradually sinking for some days he expired at six* o'clock on the evening of January 31. — Daily News.