Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/194

 174 24 February 1773, at the age of 16, Ferris and Pearce, the latter afterwards dean of Ely and Master of the Temple, being his tutors and became M.A. in 1775 and LL.D. in 1811. In order to qualify himself for public life he went to the bar and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 1 6 July 1774. Townshend was in early life remarkable above his fellows for his energy and for his supreme grace of manners. A special feature that characterised him was his "pathetic bow." While still very young he became a constant associate in the daily routine and in the political sympathies of Charles James Fox. He adopted the principles of the Whigs with enthusiasm and stuck to them throughout his life. His great desire was to represent the university of Cambridge, and the opportunity came to him in, when the marquess of Granby succeeded his grandfather in the dukedom of Rutland and caused a vacancy in the representation. The new duke gave him the support of his influence, in spite of the scandalous story repeated by Cole, the malicious old parson of Milton, of Townshend's conduct a few months previously to the marchioness of Granby. The fight was remarkable in the history of the university's representation in parliament. Three candidates stood — James Mansfield, of King's College, then solicitor general and afterwards chief justice of the common pleas, Townshend, who stood in the "independent interest," and lord Hyde, both of whom were of St. John's College, so that the interest of that powerful body was divided. Every nerve was strained in the contest, the marquess of Townshend even sent up an elector to vote for lord Hyde and against his own son, but Cole allows that had it not been for this unfortunate split in his college, the superior address and management of John Townshend, which far exceeded those of his two competitors, would