Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough

Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (2 January 1760 – 17 January 1838) was an English politician and connoisseur of the arts. Born in London, he was the fourth surviving son of West Indies merchant Beeston Long and his wife Sarah Cropp. A senior branch of the family of Hurts Hall in Suffolk established themselves in Jamaica after the conquest of the island in 1665. Educated at a private school in Greenwich and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Long matriculated in 1779, but is not known to have taken a degree. He was entered at the Inner Temple, later making the grand tour between 1786 and 1788, exploring Rome and laying the foundation of his art collection under the tuition of James Byres. Long was a friend of William Pitt, whom he had met at Cambridge, and his involvement in politics began as early as 1788 when he was canvassing for Lord Hood, the ministerial candidate in the Westminster election, and he himself entered parliament in January 1789 as member for Rye, a Treasury controlled seat. He afterwards sat as member for Midhurst (1796–1802) and for Wendover (1802–06), (boroughs whose parliamentary representatives were nominated by Pitt's friend Lord Carrington) and for Haselmere (1806–26), where the sole patron was the Pittite Earl of Lonsdale. Becoming junior secretary to the Treasury in 1791, he acted as parliamentary whip and teller and in 1796 on the government's behalf, undertook much of the general election management. In 1801 when Pitt left office, Long followed, and was rewarded with a yearly pension of £1500. At Pitt's behest he was appointed Treasury advisor to the Prime Minister Henry Addington, and in 1802 was sworn of the Privy Council. The following year his house at Bromley Hill in Kent was the location for negotiations between Pitt and Addington, in which he was the chief intermediary. When Pitt returned to power in 1804 Long was made a lord of the Treasury (1804–06) and then chief secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1805–06). He took office in the Portland ministry as paymaster-general of the forces after Pitt's death in 1806, a post he retained until 1826 when he retired from politics. He was offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and the Secretaryship at War by Perceval, both of which he refused, considering himself neither inclined nor fit to fill either position. Except on matters arising from his ministerial responsibilities, he rarely spoke in the House of Commons. Rather than an initiator of policy, his strengths lay in his loyal and efficient political adjucations. In 1792 with Sir James Bland Burges, Long established the Sun newspaper as an instrument of the Tories, and he was the author of pamphlets on the French Revolution (1795) and the price of bread (1800). In 1820 King George IV made Long a Knight of the Bath, and on his retirement from political life in 1826 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Farnborough, of Bromley-Hill-Place, in the county of Kent. (Farnborough was then a village in Kent, near his country residence). Long was elected FRS in 1792, FSA in 1812, and was given an honorary LLD by his old university in 1833. The arts were Long's real passion, but due to limited resources he was unable to be a major patron or collector in his own right, however, as a minister and MP he was influential in furthering artistic causes such as the establishment of the National Gallery and the purchase of the Elgin marbles, and was a founder of the British Institution in 1805. He acted as intermediary in 1792 between Pitt and Humphry Repton over improvements to the former's grounds at Holwood, and in 1799 when the Altieri Claudes were brought to England, they were first exhibited to English connoisseurs at Long's house in Grosvenor Place. In subsequent years he maintained a high profile in connection with his public patronage of the arts. A committee of taste was appointed in 1802 to supervise the erection of monuments to the heroes of the Napoleonic wars, of which Long was chairman, and in 1809 the responsibilities were extended to the repair of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster, with money voted by parliament. Long was consulted on everything from the need for a fig-leaf on the heroic statue honouring the Duke of Wellington, that had been subscribed for by the ladies of Great Britain (1821), to the appropriate order for the facade of the privy council offices in Whitehall (1824).查尔斯·朗，第一代法恩伯勒男爵（Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough，1760年1月2日—1838年1月17日），是英国政治家与艺术鉴赏家。他生于伦敦，为西印度群岛商人比斯顿·朗（Beeston Long）与妻子萨拉·克罗普（Sarah Cropp）的第四位存活子嗣。萨福克郡赫茨庄园（Hurts Hall）家族的一支旁系，于1665年牙买加被英格兰征服后定居该岛。朗先后就读于格林尼治的一所私立学校与剑桥大学伊曼纽尔学院（Emmanuel College），1779年注册入学，但未见其获得学位的记录。他曾注册进入内殿律师学院（Inner Temple），并于1786至1788年间进行欧洲大游学，游历罗马，且在詹姆斯·拜尔斯（James Byres）的指导下奠定了个人艺术收藏的基础。 朗与威廉·皮特（William Pitt）为挚友，二人于剑桥相识。他的政治生涯最早可追溯至1788年，当时他为威斯敏斯特选举中的大臣派候选人胡德勋爵（Lord Hood）拉票，并于1789年1月当选为莱伊（Rye）选区议员——该席位由财政部掌控。此后他先后担任米德赫斯特（Midhurst，1796—1802）、温德沃（Wendover，1802—1806，其议会代表均由皮特挚友卡林顿勋爵提名）以及哈斯勒米尔（Haselmere，1806—1826，该选区唯一赞助人为皮特派的朗斯代尔伯爵）的议员。1791年，他出任财政部副秘书，兼任议会督导与计票员；1796年，他代表政府主导了多轮大选的筹备工作。1801年皮特卸任后，朗追随其一同离职，并获年俸1500英镑的养老金作为嘉奖。应皮特要求，他被任命为时任首相亨利·阿丁顿（Henry Addington）的财政部顾问，并于1802年宣誓加入枢密院（Privy Council）。次年，他位于肯特郡布罗姆利山的宅邸成为皮特与阿丁顿谈判的场所，他本人则担任此次谈判的核心中间人。1804年皮特重新掌权后，朗出任财政部大臣（1804—1806），随后担任爱尔兰副总督首席秘书（1805—1806）。1806年皮特去世后，他在波特兰内阁中出任英军军需总长，该职位他一直担任至1826年退休。珀西瓦尔曾邀请他出任财政大臣与陆军大臣，均被他婉拒，他称自己既无意亦无才担任此类职务。除与自身政务职责相关的议题外，他极少在下议院发言。相较于政策倡议者，他的长处在于忠诚高效的政治协调工作。 1792年，朗与詹姆斯·布兰德·伯奇爵士（Sir James Bland Burges）共同创办《太阳报》（Sun newspaper），将其作为托利党的宣传工具；他还曾撰写关于法国大革命（1795年）与面包价格（1800年）的政论小册子。 1820年，乔治四世国王册封他为巴斯骑士团骑士；1826年退出政坛后，他被晋封为贵族，获封法恩伯勒男爵，领地为肯特郡布罗姆利山广场——彼时法恩伯勒是一处毗邻其乡间宅邸的肯特郡村庄。朗于1792年当选皇家学会会员（FRS, Fellow of the Royal Society），1812年当选古物学会会员（FSA, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries），并于1833年获其母校授予的荣誉法学博士学位（LLD）。 艺术才是朗真正的挚爱，但受限于财力，他无法成为顶尖的艺术赞助人与收藏家。不过，作为大臣与议员，他在推动艺术事业发展方面颇具影响力：例如助力国家美术馆（National Gallery）的设立、促成埃尔金大理石雕（Elgin marbles）的收购，并于1805年参与创办英国美术协会（British Institution）。1792年，他曾作为中间人，在皮特与景观设计师汉弗瑞·雷普顿（Humphry Repton）之间斡旋，协助后者改造皮特在霍尔伍德的宅邸庭院；1799年奥尔捷里奥克劳德画作（Altieri Claudes）被运抵英国后，首批鉴赏展便在他位于格罗夫纳广场的宅邸举办。此后多年，他始终以公共艺术赞助人的身份活跃于艺术领域。1802年，政府设立艺术鉴赏委员会以监督为拿破仑战争英雄建造纪念碑的事宜，朗担任该委员会主席；1809年，委员会职责扩展至修复威斯敏斯特教堂亨利七世礼拜堂，资金由议会拨款。从为纪念威灵顿公爵的英雄雕像（由英国女性联名捐资打造，1821年）加装遮羞无花果叶，到白厅枢密院办公楼外立面的建筑风格选择（1824年），各类艺术相关事务均会咨询朗的意见。