LANSDOWNE, HENRY PETTY-PITZMAIDUCE, third Marquis of, an English statesman, was b. at Lansdowne house, London, July 2, 1780. His father, the celebrated earl of Shelburne, was premier to George III., and received the coronet of a marquis in 1784. Lansdowne (then lord Henry Petty) was a younger son, and was sent to Westminster school, and afterwards to Edinburgh, then the school of the young whigs destined for political life. Ile took his degree at Trinity college, Cambridge, in 1801, and when barely of age, entered parliament as m.r. for Caine. lie turned his attention to finance; and on Pitt's death Jte became, at the age of 25, chancellor of the exchequer, in the administration of lord Grenville. In 1809 he succeeded his half-brother in the mar quisate, became one of the heads of the liberal party in the house of lords, and during a long opposition consistently advocated those various measures of progress which he lived to see triumphant. When the whigs, after their long exclusion from power, came into office with earl Grey at their head. Lansdowne became lord president of the coun
cil, which post he held, with a brief interval, from Nov., 1830, to Sept., 1841, resuming it in 1846, after the fall of the Peel ministry, and again filling it until 1852. He then for mally bade farewell to office, and resigned the leadership of the house of lords; but con sented to hold a scat without office in the Aberdeen cabinet, and again in the first admin istration of lord Palmerston. After the death of the duke of Wellington, he became the patriarch of the upper house, and the personal friend and adviser of the queen. Ile had a keen relish and a cultivated taste for literature, and was the generous patron of men of letters. He formed a splendid library, and one of the noblest collections of pic tures and statuary in the kingdom. Ile refused a dukedom, and might more than once have been prime-minister. His death took place Jan. 31, 1863, at Bowood.