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CLARENDON, GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK V...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 435 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLARENDON, See also:GEORGE See also:WILLIAM See also:FREDERICK See also:VILLIERS, 4TH See also:EARL OF (in the Villiers See also:line) (1800-r87o) , See also:English diplomatist and statesman, was See also:born in See also:London on the 12th of See also:January 'Soo. He was the eldest son of Hon. George Villiers (1759-1827, youngest son of the 1st earl of Clarendon (second creation), by See also:Theresa, only daughter of the first See also:Lord Boringdon, and See also:grand-daughter of the first Lord See also:Grantham. The earldom of the lord See also:chancellor Clarendon became See also:extinct in the See also:Hyde line by the See also:death of the 4th earl, his last male descendant. Jane Hyde, countess of See also:Essex, the See also:sister of that nobleman (she died in 1724), See also:left two daughters; of these the eldest, See also:Lady See also:Charlotte, became heiress of the Hyde See also:family. She married See also:Thomas Villiers (1709-1786), second son of the 2nd earl of See also:Jersey, who served with distinction as English See also:minister in See also:Germany, and in 1776 the earldom of Clarendon was revived in his favour. The connexion with the Hyde family was therefore in the See also:female line and somewhat remote. But a portion of the pictures and See also:plate of the See also:great chancellor was preserved to this See also:branch of the family, and remains at The See also:Grove, their family seat at See also:Hertfordshire. The 2nd and 3rd earls were sons of the 1st, and, neither of them having sons, the See also:title passed, on the death of the 3rd earl (See also:John See also:Charles) in 1838, to their younger See also:brother's son. See also:Young George Villiers entered upon See also:life in circumstances which gave small promise of the brilliancy of his future career. He was well born; he was See also:heir presumptive to an earldom; and his See also:mother was a woman of great See also:energy, admirable See also:good sense, and high feeling. But the means of his family were contracted; his See also:education was desultory and incomplete; he had not the advantages of a training either at a public school or in the See also:House of See also:Commons.

He went up to See also:

Cambridge at the See also:early See also:age of sixteen, and entered St John's See also:College on the 29th of See also:June 1816. In 1820, as the eldest son of an earl's brother with royal descent, he was enabled to take his M.A. degree under the statutes of the university then in force. In the same See also:year he was appointed attache to the See also:British See also:embassy at St See also:Petersburg, where he remained three years, and gained that See also:practical knowledge of See also:diplomacy which was of so much use to him in after-life. He had received from nature a singularly handsome See also:person, a polished and engaging address, a ready command of See also:languages, and a remarkable See also:power of See also:composition. Upon his return to See also:England in 1823 he was appointed to a commissionership of customs, an See also:office which he retained for about ten years. In 1831 he was despatched to See also:France to negotiate a commercial treaty, which, however, led to no result. On the 16th of See also:August 1833 he was appointed minister at the See also:court of See also:Spain. See also:Ferdinand VII. died within a See also:month of his arrival at See also:Madrid, and the See also:infant See also:queen See also:Isabella, then in the third year of her age, was placed by the old See also:Spanish See also:law of female See also:inheritance on her contested See also:throne. See also:Don See also:Carlos, the See also:late See also:king's brother, claimed the See also:crown by virtue of the Salic law of the House of See also:Bourbon which Ferdinand had renounced before the See also:birth of his daughter. Isabella II. and her mother See also:Christina, the queen See also:regent, became the representatives of constitutional See also:monarchy, Don Carlos of See also:Catholic See also:absolutism. The conflict which had divided the despotic and the constitutional See also:powers of See also:Europe since the See also:French Revolution of 183o See also:broke out into See also:civil See also:war in Spain, and by the Quadruple Treaty, signed on the 22nd of See also:April 1834, France and England pledged themselves to the See also:defence of the constitutional thrones of Spain and See also:Portugal. For six years Villiers continued to give the most active and intelligent support to the Liberal See also:government of Spain.

He was accused, though unjustly, of having favoured the revolutionof La Granja, which drove Christina, the queen mother, out of the See also:

kingdom, and raised See also:Espartero to the regency. He undoubtedly supported the chiefs of the Liberal party, such as Espartero, against the intrigues of the French court; but the See also:object of the British government was to establish the throne of Isabella on a truly See also:national and liberal basis and to avert those complications, dictated by See also:foreign See also:influence, which eventually proved so fatal to that princess. Villiers received the grand See also:cross of the See also:Bath in 1838 in See also:acknowledgment of his services, and succeeded, on the death of his See also:uncle, to the title of earl of Clarendon; in the following year, having left Madrid, he married Katharine, eldest daughter of See also:James See also:Walter, first earl of Verulam. In January 184o he entered Lord See also:Melbourne's See also:administration as lord privy See also:seal, and from the death of Lord See also:Holland in the autumn of that year Lord Clarendon also held the office of chancellor of the duchy of See also:Lancaster until the See also:dissolution of the See also:ministry in 1841. Deeply convinced that the See also:maintenance of a cordial understanding with France was the most essential See also:condition of See also:peace and of a liberal policy in Europe, he reluctantly concurred in the See also:measures proposed by Lord See also:Palmerston for the See also:expulsion of the See also:pasha of See also:Egypt from See also:Syria; he strenuously advocated, with Lord Holland, a more conciliatory policy towards France; and he was only restrained from sending in his resignation by the dislike he See also:felt to break up a See also:cabinet he had so recently joined. The See also:interval of See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel's great administration (1841–1846) was to the leaders of the Whig party a See also:period of repose; but Lord Clarendon took the warmest See also:interest in the See also:triumph of the principles of See also:free See also:trade and in the See also:repeal of the See also:corn-See also:laws, of which his brother, Charles See also:Pelham Villiers (q.v.), had been one of the earliest champions. For this See also:reason, upon the formation of Lord John See also:Russell's first administration, Lord Clarendon accepted the office of See also:president of the See also:Board of Trade. Twice in his career the See also:governor-generalship of See also:India was offered him, and once the governor-generalship of See also:Canada;—these he refused from reluctance to withdraw from the politics of Europe. But in 1847 a sense of See also:duty compelled him to take a far more laborious and uncongenial See also:appointment. The See also:desire of the cabinet was to abolish the lord-lieutenancy of See also:Ireland, and Lord Clarendon was prevailed upon to accept that office, with a view to transform it ere See also:long into an Irish secretaryship of See also:state. But he had not been many months in See also:Dublin before he acknowledged that the difficulties then existing in Ireland could only be met by the most vigilant and energetic authority, exercised on the spot. The crisis was one of extraordinary peril.

Agrarian crimes of horrible atrocity had increased threefold. The Catholic See also:

clergy were openly disaffected. This was the second year of the Irish See also:famine, and extraordinary measures were required to regulate the See also:bounty of the government and the nation. In 1848 the revolution in France let loose fresh elements of discord, which culminated in an abortive insurrection, and for a lengthened period Ireland was a See also:prey to more than her wonted symptoms of disaffection and disorder. Lord Clarendon remained See also:viceroy of Ireland till 1852, and left behind him permanent marks of improvement. His services were expressly acknowledged in the queen's speech to both Houses of See also:Parliament on the 5th of See also:September 1848—this being the first See also:time that any civil services obtained that See also:honour; and he was made a See also:knight of the Garter (retaining also the grand cross of the Bath by See also:special See also:order) on the 23rd of See also:March 1849. Upon the formation of the See also:coalition ministry between the Whigs and the Peelites, in 1853, under Lord See also:Aberdeen, Lord Clarendon became foreign minister. The See also:country was already " drifting " into the See also:Crimean War, an expression of his own which was never forgotten. Clarendon was not responsible for the policy which brought war about; but when it occurred he employed every means in his power to stimulate and assist the war departments, and above all he maintained the closest relations with the French. The See also:tsar See also:Nicholas had speculated on the impossibility of the sustained See also:joint See also:action of France and England in See also:council and in the See also:field. It was mainly by Lord Clarendon at See also:Whitehall and by Lord See also:Raglan before See also:Sevastopol that such a See also:combination was rendered practicable, and did eventually triumph over the enemy. The See also:diplomatic conduct of such an See also:alliance for three years between two great nations jealous of their military honour and fighting for no See also:separate See also:political See also:advantage, tried by excessive hardships and at moments on the See also:verge of defeat, was certainly one of the most arduous duties ever performed by a minister.

The result was due in the See also:

main to the confidence with which Lord Clarendon had inspired the See also:emperor of the French, and to the See also:affection and regard of the empress, whom he had known in Spain from her childhood. In 1856 Lord Clarendon took his seat at the See also:congress of See also:Paris convoked for the restoration of peace, as first British plenipotentiary. It was the first time since the See also:appearance of Lord Castlereagh at See also:Vienna that a secretary of state for foreign affairs had been See also:present in person at a congress on the See also:continent. Lord Clarendon's first care was to obtain the See also:admission of See also:Italy to the council chamber as a belligerent power, and to raise the barrier which still excluded See also:Prussia as a neutral one. But in the See also:general anxiety of all the powers to terminate the war there was no small danger that the See also:objects for which it had been undertaken would be abandoned or forgotten. It is due entirely to the firmness of Lord Clarendon that the principle of the neutralization of the See also:Black See also:Sea was preserved, that the See also:Russian See also:attempt to See also:trick the See also:allies out of the cession in See also:Bessarabia was defeated, and that the results of the war were for a time secured. The congress was eager to turn to other subjects, and perhaps the most important result of its deliberations was the celebrated See also:Declaration of the Maritime Powers, which abolished privateering, defined the right of See also:blockade, and limited the right of See also:capture to enemy's See also:property in enemy's See also:ships. Lord Clarendon has been accused of an See also:abandonment of what are termed the belligerent rights of Great See also:Britain, which were undoubtedly based on the old maritime laws of Europe. But he acted in strict conformity with the views of the British cabinet, and the British cabinet adopted those views because it was satisfied that it was not for the benefit of the country to adhere to practices which exposed the vast See also:mercantile interests of Britain to depredation, even by the cruisers of a secondary maritime power, and which, if vigorously enforced against neutrals, could not fail to embroil her with every maritime state in the See also:world. Upon the reconstitution of the Whig administration in 1859, Lord John Russell made it a condition of his See also:acceptance of office under Lord Palmerston that the foreign See also:department should be placed in his own hands, which implied that Lord Clarendon should be excluded from office, as it would have been inconsistent alike with his dignity and his tastes to fill any other See also:post in the government. The consequence was that from 1859 till 1864 Lord Clarendon remained out of office, and the See also:critical relations arising out of the Civil War in the See also:United States were left to the guidance of Earl Russell. But he re-entered the cabinet in May 1864 as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; and upon the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, Lord Russell again became See also:prime minister, when Lord Clarendon returned to the foreign office, which was again confided to him for the third time upon the formation of Mr See also:Gladstone's administration in 1868.

To the last moment of his existence, Lord Clarendon continued to devote every See also:

faculty of his mind and every instant of his life to the public service; and he expired surrounded by the boxes and papers of his office on the 27th of June 1870. No See also:man owed more to the influence of a generous, unselfish and liberal disposition. If he had rivals he never ceased to treat them with the See also:consideration anfl confidence of See also:friends, and he cared but little for the See also:ordinary prizes of ambition in comparison with the See also:advancement of the cause of peace and progress. He was succeeded as 5th earl by his eldest son, See also:EDWARD HYDE VILLIERS (b. 1846), who became lord See also:chamberlain in 1900. See also the See also:article (by See also:Henry See also:Reeve) in See also:Fraser's See also:Magazine, August 1876.

End of Article: CLARENDON, GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK VILLIERS, 4TH EARL OF (in the Villiers line) (1800-r87o)

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