The Sun. — 1863-02-02 (London, England)

MSS. were kept together, being purchased by the British Museum; while the gallery of antique marbles was the sole portion of the collection for which the Marquis showed any appreciation,—his opinion being expressed in the fact that he purchased it from his father's executors for £6,000. He died in November, 1809, and was succeeded by his halfbrother. the late Marquis, whose first care was to purchase the antique marbles from his sister-in-law, and there at Lansdowne-house they may now be seen—some of them, as the youthful Hercules and the Mercury, considered the finest statues of the kind that have found theiriway to this country. As for the pictures, when the Marquis succeeded to the title there was not one in this splendid mansion, with the exception of a few family portraits; but love of art was an instinct of the family, and Lord Lansdowne set himself to the formation of a gallery which now comprises 200 pictures of rare interest and value, but miscellaneous in'their character, no school nor master predominating unless it be Sir Joshua Reynolds. Some of the portraits in this collection are of great interest. There is the celebrated portrait of Pope by Jervas ; Reynolds's wonderful portrait of Sterne; one of Franklin, by Gainsborough ; a beautiful one of Peg Woffington, by Hogarth ; Lady Hamilton appears twice—as a bacchante and a gipsy, from the pencil of Romney ; Horner, the old College friend of Lord Lansdowne, is not forgotten; but, most interesting of all, there is the lovely portrait of Mrs. z;heridan, as St. Cecilia, painted by Reynolds. It may recall with some vividness the fashion of those times if we record a little incident connected with this portrait. During the short-lived Ministry of " All the Talents," the Whig leaders celebrated their return to power by a continual round of festivities, in which Sheridan outvied all his colleagues. One Sunday (25th of May, 1806) he gave a grand dinner; on the Monday following a supper and ball, at which the dancing was prolonged to past 8 o'clock next morning ; on the Tuesday a christening, a masque, and another ball, the Prince being present on each occasion, and the Lord Chancellor Erskine and the young Chancellor of the Exchequer, Henry Petty, being conspicuous among the dancers. On the occasion of the dinner the portrait of Mrs. Sheridan was redeemed for one night only from the pawnbroker's, and exhibited in its place in the dining-room ; when poor Sheridan died it was still in possession of the pawnbroker; it then fell into the hands of Sheridan's solicitor, and from him it was purchased for £6OO by Lord Lansdowne. In this little incident we get some glimpses of that conviviality for which the Whigs were distinguished. "Le Whig est la femme de votre Gouvernement," says Balzac, and the truth of the remark is especially illustrated in that social influence which the Whigs have always cultivated more than the Tories. For more than 20 years after the death of Fox a brilliant social existence was almost all that the Whigs had to boast of as a party. It is useless to deny that they were unpopular with the nation ; and we naturally ask, how was it that they were so long excluded from power. Lord Jeffrey in one of his reviews tries to answer this question, and would have us believe that, by a necessity of their position as friends of progress in advance of the age, the Whigs must always be content to forego the sweets of office in virtue of their superior enlightenment. The theory is, at all events, flattering to the party. It is pleasant to forget that the Whig leaders in the House of Commons were incapable, and that the Whig policy bequeathed by Fox was anti-national ; that these two causes acted and reacted upon each other, so as more and more to estrange men of ability who might be disgusted with Tory managewent, arid to render contemptible a policy that before was only disliked and dreaded. Fox was dead; Henry Petty had gone to the Upper House, where, with Grey and Grenville, the best part of Whiggism was to be found—found, however, as effectually hidden under the three coronets as a light under a bushel, The Whig Lords were dispirited, the Whig Commons were disorganised, the whole party was at a discount. In the Lower House there were still Wyndham and Whitbread and Sheridan, but those were men who could not lead, and who very soon died out. Wynd• ham died from the effect of an accident ; Whitbread committed suicide; poor Romilly, before long, followed his ex • ample; Sheridan died a pauper; and:Ponsonby, the leader of the Opposition, died of apoplexy the day after Sheridan. He was succeeded by Tierney, who led the Whig knights of the people through many a dreary desert of debate. What could be done under such direction ? Brougham was much the most able man of the party ; but he had no following, and the Whig magnates refused to grant him the leadership of the Commons. If anything can clearly illustrate the mediocrity of the Opposition, it is the mediocrity of the Cabinet. These were the inglorious days of Castlereagh and Liverpool, who, in spite of a domestic policy that was not only invidious but stupid, retained power—so strong was the national feeling—simply from the zeal with which they carried out a foreign policy that had been bequeathed to them by greater men. Gradually the Whig policy began to make way. At first Whig measures were carried by Tory Ministers. The severity of the criminal code was mitigated; but this is a question rather of humanity than of politics, so that no wonder if all parties are agreed on the point. It is a nearer ap • proach to genuine politics to meddle with the currency of the country; still, when Peel worked up the Whig bullion scheme into a Bank Act, the question presented itself rather as one of commercial safety than of political rivalry. But next turned up the claims of the Catholics, and now the great struggle commenced that was completely to remodel parties, that was to give life and vigour to the Whigs, and that was to inaugurate a new epoch in our domestic legislation.  The question of the Catholic claims was not, strictly speaking, a question of Whig and Tory. In point of fact, it was the Whigs who wera originally to blame for that sectarian franchise of which the Catholics complained, and it was the Whigs who now sought to undo their own work. On the other hand, their opponents had never forgotten that Catholicism useci to be a synonym for Toryism, and the strength of their opposition to Emancipation consisted 7t rather of religious than political objections. These objections el ere not insuperable. Pitt had been in favour of the Catholic claims ; so among his successors were Castlereagh, Canning, paimertaton and others; and, as it turned out, those who ultimately carried Emancipation t vehemently. On this groat were precisely those who had opposed it moat