In the same session (18 February) he supported Charles Pelham Villiers's motion for the repeal of the corn laws. On 13 February 1844 he spoke in behalf of the liberties of Canada, which he joined Roebuck in championing. He was not heard in the house again. While in the House Leader was prominent in London society, and extended his acquaintance on tours in Italy and France. In 1836 he joined the Reform Club, of which he was a lifelong member. In February 1837, as a disciple of Brougham and Grote, he was admitted to the first council of the new London University, and in the same month he presided at a dinner for Thomas Wakley, which was attended by Daniel O'Connell, Joseph Hume and other radicals. His friendship with Brougham grew, and he was his only companion, on 21 October 1839, in the carriage accident near Brougham Hall, Cumberland, which led to the incorrect report of Brougham's death. He entertained at his residence at Putney and at a house which he rented in Stratton Street; his friend Edward John Trelawny long lived with him at Putney. Other guests there included Richard Monckton Milnes, Charles Austin, and overseas visitors; he saw much in London of Louis Napoleon, and knew Gabriele Rossetti. In 1844 Leader moved abroad, without explanation, and returned only briefly during the rest of his life. At first he spent time at Cannes with his friend Brougham, and there Richard Cobden met them both in 1846; like Brougham, Leader acquired property there. He then moved on to Florence. In Florence and its environs Leader purchased old buildings of historic interest, restored them, and filled them with works of art and antiquities. On 16 February 1850 he bought the old 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 Pitti in Florence itself, and on 8 April 1862, the Villa Catanzaro, also at Majano. All were practically rebuilt under his supervision. The two houses at Majano were each renamed Villa Temple Leader. The restoration at Vincigliata was the work of Giuseppi Fancelli, son of the steward of Leader's Florentine estates, whom he had had trained as an architect. Queen Victoria signed the visitor's book at Vincigliata on 15 April 1888.