Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/452

 seconded Thomas Duncombe's motion 'that the petitioners for the national charter be heard at the bar of the house.' In the same session (18 Feb.) he supported G. P. Villiers's motion for the total repeal of the corn laws. On 13 Feb. 1844 he spoke in behalf of the liberties of Canada, which he joined Roebuck in championing. He was not heard in the house again (, Debates, 1836-44).

While in the house Leader was prominent in all phases of London society, and extended his large acquaintance on holiday tours in Italy and France. His intimacy with Brougham grew and he was his only companion, on 21 Oct. 1839, in the carriage accident near Brougham Hall, Cumberland, which led to the sensational report of Brougham's death ( Reminiscences, v. 229). He entertained largely at his residence at Putney and at a house which he rented in Stratton Street. His friend Edward John Trelawny [q. v.] long lived with him at Putney. Other of his guests there included Richard Monckton Milnes, Charles Austin, and French, Italian, and American visitors to the country (see for list Autob. of J. A. Roebuck, 1897, pp. 106-7). He saw much in London of Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III, who, when projecting his descent on Boulogne in 1840, solicited Leader's influence with his French friends. He cultivated intercourse with men of letters and artists, and showed an interest in Gabriele Rossetti, the father of Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( Reminiscences, 1906, pp. 366-7).

In 1844 Leader's career underwent, without explanation, a sudden change. Abandoning his promising political prospects and his manifold interests at home, he left England for the Continent, and although his life was prolonged for nearly half a century he thenceforth paid his native country only rare and brief visits. At first he spent much time at Cannes with his friend Brougham, and here Cobden met them both in 1846. Like Brougham, Leader acquired property at Cannes, and exerted himself to improve the place. He built a residence there, which was known as the 'Château Leader,' and the municipality named a thoroughfare 'Boulevard Leader.' But he parted with his possessions at Cannes some time before his death.

It was with Florence that Leader's exile was mainly identified. In that city and its near neighbourhood he purchased many old buildings of historic interest, elaborately restoring them at munificent cost and filling them with works of art and antiquities. On 16 Feb. 1850 he bought the ancient Villa Pazzi, in the village of Majano near Florence. On 5 March 1855 he purchased the ruined medieval castle of Vincigliata, in 1857 a house in the Piazza dei Petti in Florence itself, and on 8 April 1862, the Villa Catanzaro, also at Majano. All these edifices were practically rebuilt under his supervision. The two houses at Majano were each renamed Villa Temple Leader (La parocchia di S. Martino e Majano: Cenni storici. Florence, 1875., Simpatie di Majano, Lettere dalla Villa Temple Leader, Florence, 1883). In the restoration of the gigantic castle of Vincigliata Leader took immense interest. The exhaustive reconstruction was the work of Giuseppi Fancelli, son of the fattore or steward of Leader's Florentine estates, whom he had had trained as an architect. As at his villas at Majano, Leader provided at Vincighata a spacious swimming-bath in the grounds, where he indulged his favourite pastime winter and summer till near his death. Although he lived part of each year in the restored castle, he freely opened it to the public. His pride in it increased with his years, and he delighted in conducting through it distinguished visitors. His visitors' book at Vincigliata abounded in autographs of persons of eminence in royal, artistic, and literary circles throughout Europe; Queen Victoria signed the book on 15 April 1888. He commemorated many of these visits by inscriptions on marble slabs which he affixed to the castle walls. Some of his Florentine guests renewed old associations. In January 1888 he acted as cicerone to Gladstone and his family, and he opened an intimate correspondence with the statesman which continued till the end of Gladstone's life. He surprised Gladstone by his vitality, and interested him in a collection which he formed of English words derived from the Italian (cf. Philological Pastimes of an Englishman in Tuscany, with some Letters of Gladstone to J. T. Leader, 1898).

Leader's practical interest in Florentine archæology, which extended beyond his own possessions, was rewarded by the bestowal on him of the knight commandership of the crown of Italy by King Victor Emmanuel. Under his auspices many archaeological treatises concerning Vincigliata and Majano were compiled and published, and several Italian manuscripts of literary, historical, or genealogical interest were printed at his expense. Zealously studying the careers of historical personages who were associated