1846, ‘The Industrial History of Free Nations,’ showing that a number of countries had already found the advantage of free trade. He entered the House of Commons in 1847 as the representative of the borough of Dundalk, and sat for that constituency until the dissolution in 1852, when he and Sir Charles Napier stood as liberals for Great Yarmouth, but were defeated. In 1857 he was returned for Yarmouth, and in 1865 for the old and undivided borough of Finsbury, and continued its representative for twenty years and in four consecutive parliaments. He was now known as McCullagh Torrens, having in 1863 assumed his mother's name. In parliament he was an independent liberal, but he gave his attention more to social than to political questions: the need for workmen's dwellings fit for habitation, for a better and more abundant water supply, for open spaces, for more numerous primary schools, and for a kindlier system of relieving the sick in their own homes. He supported Disraeli's proposal for household suffrage in 1867, and in committee on the bill moved and carried an amendment establishing the lodger franchise. In 1868 he introduced the artisans' dwellings bill, enabling local authorities to clear away overcrowded slums and erect decent dwellings for the working classes, which was passed despite a powerful opposition. In 1869 he obtained for London boards of guardians the power to board out pauper children. The Extradition Act, in 1870, to prevent prisoners being extradited on one plea and tried on another, was based on the report of a select committee which had been appointed at his suggestion to inquire into the matter. During the discussions in committee of William Edward Forster's Education Act of 1870, he proposed and carried an amendment establishing a school board for London, and in 1885 he carried an act making the charge for water rates in the metropolis leviable only on the amount of the public assessment.
In 1885 McCullagh Torrens withdrew from parliament. On 25 April 1894 he was knocked down by a hansom cab in London, and was severely injured. He died the next day at 23 Bryanston Square, the residence of his daughter. He was twice married: first, in 1836, to Margaret Henrietta, daughter of John Gray of Claremorris, co. Mayo; and, secondly, in 1878, to Emily, widow of Thomas Russell of Leamington, and third daughter of William Harrison of the same town.
In addition to the works already referred to McCullagh Torrens wrote:
- ‘Memoirs of the Right Hon. R. Lalor Sheil,’ 2 vols. 1855.
- ‘Life and Times of Sir James Graham,’ 2 vols. 1863.
- ‘Our Empire in Asia: how we came by it,’ 1872.
- ‘Memoirs of Viscount Melbourne,’ 2 vols. 1878 (his best known work).
- ‘Life of Lord Wellesley,’ 1880.
- ‘Reform of Parliamentary Procedure,’ 1881.
- ‘Twenty Years in Parliament,’ 1893.
- ‘History of Cabinets,’ 2 vols. 1894.
The latter work, on which McCullagh Torrens was engaged on and off for twenty years, and to which he devoted the last seven years of his life, was published a few weeks after his death.
[Memoirs of Viscount Melbourne, with biographical Sketch of Torrens (the Minerva Library of Famous Books); Twenty Years in Parliament; Foster's Men at the Bar; personal information.]
TORRIGIANO, PIETRO (1472–1522), sculptor and draughtsman, was born at Florence on 24 Nov. 1472, and early devoted himself to the practice of art. He was one of the band of young artists protected by Lorenzo de' Medici. The studies of these youths were carried on chiefly in the Brancacci Chapel, at the Carmine, where they copied Masaccio's famous frescoes, and in the Medici gardens at San Marco, where they drew from the antiques under the supervision of Donatello's disciple, the aged Bertoldo. It was under these conditions that Torrigiano came in contact with Michelangelo, and that the famous quarrel took place in which Buonarroti was disfigured for life. Torrigiano's own account of the adventure is thus handed down to us by Benvenuto Cellini: ‘This Buonarroti and I used when we were boys to go into the church of the Carmine to learn drawing from the chapel of Masaccio. It was Buonarotti's habit to banter (uccellare) all who were drawing there, and one day, when he was annoying me, I got more angry than usual, and, clenching my fist, I gave him such a blow on the nose that I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit (cialdone) under my knuckles; and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave.’ Stunned by the blow, Michelangelo was carried home ‘like one dead,’ and the aggressor, banished for his violence from Florence, took service as a soldier, served in the papal army under Cæsar Borgia, became ‘Ancient’ to Pietro de' Medici, and fought at the battle of Garigliano (1503). His term of exile over, he came back to Florence, and resumed the practice of his art with such success that he became one of the best sculptors of his native city. Vasari says that he made several statues in marble and in brass for the town-hall of Florence, and he is known to have
