Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/360

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and in 1858 a royal academician. He continued to contribute to the exhibitions of the Academy till 1861, but in consequence of a dispute about the arrangement of the sculpture at the following exhibition he refused to exhibit again. Among the finest of his exhibited works not already mentioned were ‘The Mother,’ 1851; ‘Egeria,’ 1856; ‘The Elder Brother in Comus,’ his diploma work, 1860; and ‘Oliver Goldsmith,’ 1861. More important, however, than these were some of his subsequent works, the three equestrian statues of Lord Canning, Lord Hardinge, and Sir James Outram for Calcutta; and the group of Asia and the figure of the prince for the Albert Memorial, the latter of which was not erected till after his death. Among his other works in public places are: ‘Caractacus’ and ‘Egeria’ at the Mansion House, ‘John Stuart Mill’ on the Thames Embankment, ‘Sir Charles Barry’ in the House of Commons, and ‘Lord Herbert’ in Pall Mall. His statues of O'Connell, Lord Gough, Goldsmith, and Burke are at Dublin, Lord Clyde at Glasgow, Father Mathew at Cork, Clive at Shrewsbury, the Hon. J. Stuart at Ceylon, and General Stonewall Jackson in America. Of Foley's sepulchral monuments the most remarkable are those erected to Admiral Sir William Cornwallis and others in Melfield Church, Hampshire, to General the Hon. Robert Bruce in Dunfermline Abbey, and to Brigadier-general John Nicholson in Lisburn Cathedral. If we add his statues of Grattan, Faraday, and Reynolds, his monument to James Ward, R.A., and his relief of Miss Helen Faucit (Lady Martin), the list of his more celebrated works will be nearly complete; but he also designed the seal of the Confederate States of America, and we must take account of a large number of busts and other commissions of minor importance before we can fully appreciate the fulness of his employment and the industry of his life. He was a very conscientious and fastidious workman, consulting his friends as to his designs, and altering them continually in course of execution. After a life of devotion to his art he died at Hampstead of pleuritic effusion of the heart, 27 Aug. 1874. He left his models to the Dublin Society, and the bulk of his property to the Artists' Benevolent Fund.

Foley fully deserved the favour which he enjoyed almost from the beginning to the end of his career. His earlier and more ideal works, like ‘Ino and Bacchus,’ ‘Innocence,’ and ‘The Mother,’ were marked by a natural grace and freshness of conception which were at that time rare in modern sculpture. His later figure of ‘Egeria’ is touched with finer poetry, and in his conception of ‘Caractacus’ he displayed that vigour of imagination and grasp of character which distinguished his statues of public men from the work of most of his contemporaries. His three noble equestrian statues of Indian worthies are perhaps his greatest works. They are all very different from one another; but that of Sir James Outram, reining up his horse and turning round as it were suddenly in his saddle, is the most vivacious and original.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists, 1878; Art Journal, 1865, 1875, 1877; Works of John Henry Foley, R.A.; English Encyclopædia; Encyclopædia Britannica; Clement and Hutton's Artists of the Nineteenth Century.]

C. M.

FOLEY, PAUL (1645?–1699), speaker of the House of Commons, second son of Thomas Foley [q. v.] of Witley Court, Worcestershire, founder of the Old Swinford Hospital, was born in or about 1645 (Mon. Inscript.) In 1670 he purchased the estate of Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, from Alice Lingen, and between 1697 and 1699 pulled down the old house and built the present one. In 1679 he was chosen by the city of Hereford as one of its representatives, and served in the same capacity in seven parliaments in three successive reigns. He bore a high reputation for integrity and personal piety, due, perhaps, in part to the good influence of Richard Baxter, his father's bosom friend. In politics he was a strong tory, but was among those who insisted most strenuously upon the vacancy of the throne caused by the flight of James II. He was a member of the Convention parliament, and was one of the managers of the free conference between the two houses of parliament which took place in 1689 and led to the settlement of the succession. In 1690 (26 Dec.) Foley was elected by the House of Commons one of the commissioners for stating the public accounts, and showed himself a good financier, though his opinions on certain points were singular. If we may credit Roger North, he held that ‘all foreign trade was loss and ruinous to the nation’ (Life of Lord Guilford, i. 293)—a statement which may have meant only that by means of foreign trade the crown was rendered too independent of parliamentary supplies. But his honesty and industry were conspicuous and commended him to the House of Commons when it had to choose a speaker in place of the venal Sir John Trevor. An attempt was made by Wharton to impose on the house a nominee of the king, but, a division taking place, Foley was elected on 14 March 1694–5, and in the next parliament (November 1695) was again unanimously chosen. His conduct in the chair, which he occupied until December 1698, was upright and impartial. His inde-