Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/355

  familiar letters from a number of persons distinguished in politics and literature.



VILLIERS, GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK, fourth and fourth  (1800–1870), born in London on 12 Jan. 1800, was grandson of, first earl of Clarendon [q. v.], and eldest son of George Villiers, by his wife Theresa, only daughter of John Parker, first baron Boringdon, and sister of, second baron Boringdon and first earl of Morley [q. v.] While still little more than a boy he entered the diplomatic service, and in 1820 became attaché to the British embassy in St. Petersburg. In 1823 he was appointed a commissioner of customs, and from 1827 to 1829 was employed in Ireland arranging the details of the union of the English and the Irish excise boards. He became at this time intimate with Irish affairs, and was one of those frequently consulted in private by the lord lieutenant, the Marquis of Anglesey [see, first ] (Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry, p. 332). In 1831 he was selected by Lord Althorp to go with [q. v.] on a mission to France for the purpose (in which he was successful) of negotiating a commercial treaty. He was soon rewarded by being sent in August 1833 as envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to Madrid in succession to [q. v.], a position exceptionally important and difficult because of the civil war then raging between the Christinos and the Carlists. He played his part with tact and impartiality, and to his efforts was largely due the conclusion in April 1834 of the treaty between England, Spain, France, and Portugal, called the quadruple alliance. The conduct of the French government was much suspected by the other allies, and Villiers's task of watching the course pursued by Louis-Philippe and of counselling the government of Spain was arduous. He succeeded in greatly mitigating the severity of the civil war, negotiated a treaty with the Spanish government with regard to the slave trade on 28 June 1835, and was so highly esteemed by the ministry at home that he received the formal approbation of Lord Palmerston on 19 April 1837, and on 19 Oct. was made a G.C.B. by Lord Melbourne.

On the death on 22 Dec. 1838 of his uncle, third earl of Clarendon [q. v.], Villiers succeeded to the earldom. The governor-generalship of Canada was offered to him in March 1839, but he refused it, and he also surrendered his post at Madrid. Though he quitted Spain with much popular applause, the government even striking a gold medal in his honour, his Spanish policy was sharply attacked on 23 July 1839 (see Hansard, 3rd ser. xlix. 664) by Lord Londonderry in the House of Lords. Greville records that the public already marked him out for the foreign office, and some even anticipated that he would become premier in the long run.

During the discussions that took place in the summer of 1839 as to the reconstitution of the whig ministry Clarendon's name was suggested for the board of trade, and Lord Melbourne actually offered him the mastership of the mint without any seat in the cabinet, but the offer was declined. Eventually in October, ‘not very willingly,’ he entered the ministry, succeeding Lord Duncannon [see, fourth ] as lord privy seal, and was sworn of the privy council. Owing to the reputation he had won in Spain, his accession to the ministry was deemed an important reinforcement. By September 1840, however, he was in conflict with his colleagues upon Palmerston's Syrian policy, and offered to resign. Melbourne urged him to hold on, but the death of Lord Holland, whom he succeeded as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, left him unsupported in his efforts to check Palmerston, and indeed, as he wrote to Greville, Holland was ‘the only one in the cabinet with whom I had any real sympathy’ [see, third Lord]. He quitted office on the fall of the ministry in July 1841. Like his brother, [q. v.], Clarendon was a staunch free-trader. His views with regard to Ireland were liberal, and on most of the points mentioned in O'Connell's letter to [q. v.] in 1844 he thought concessions ought to be made. O'Connell knew him well, and considered him, as early as 1839, a desirable lord lieutenant for Ireland (Correspondence of O'Connell, ii. 170). He supported Peel's change of policy on the corn laws in the House of Lords, and was also in close general agreement with Lord Aberdeen on foreign policy, and, though his opponent, gave him much useful support.

Though Clarendon deprecated Russell's attempt to form a ministry in December 1845, when the whigs returned to office in 1846 he became president of the board of trade. Aberdeen told him that to him Queen Victoria and the prince consort especially looked