Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/443

* TOWNSEND. 385 TOWNSHIP. pointed judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, and in 1902 judge of the United States Circuit Court, second circuit. In 1881 he became professor of the law of contracts at Yale. He wrote The }iew Connecticut Civil Officer. TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. A wood-war- bler {Dcndropca Toicnsenili) of the Pacific Coast of the United States, black and yellow in color (see Colored Plate of Wood-Warblers ), and hav- ing the general habits of its congeners. (See Warbi.er. ) It is not numerous, and lives in the mountain forests. This and several other birds of the West owe their names to the naturalist J. K. Townsend, who, in 1834, in company with Thomas Nuttall (q.v.), traveled overland to the Pacific Coast and brought to the notice of science many novel species of animals. TOWNSHEND, toun'zend, Charlks, second Viscount (1G74-1T3S). An English statesman. A descendant of a very ancient English family of Norfolk, he succeeded to the peerage in 1C87, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and took his seat as a Tory in the House of Lords in 1607. He was named by the Godolphin Admin- istration one of the commissioners for arranging the union with Scotland (1706); was joint plenipotentiary with JIarlborough at Gertruy- denberg; and negotiated with the States-General in 1710 the Barrier Treaty, which pledged the States-General to the Hanoverian succession, and England to procure the Spanish Low Countries for the United Provinces, as a barrier against France. In 1712, upon the formation of the Harley Ministry. Townshend was dismissed from his places, and the Barrier Treaty was censured by the House of Commons, which voted that Townshend and all who had been concerned in the treaty were enemies to the Queen and kingdom. This persecution raised him from the rank of a follower to the station of a leader. He main- tained a close correspondence with the Court of Hanover, and obtained the entire confidence of George I., who on his accession to the throne of England made Townshend Secretary of State, with power to name his colleagues. He selected General, afterwards Earl, Stanhope, and formed a Ministry entirely Whig in its party character. He strengthened it by the addition of Walpole, who, from being at first paymaster of the forces, was soon made Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury. Through misrepre- sentations on the part of his colleagues, Towns- hend lost favor with the King, and was, in 1716, dismissed from oflice. After the breaking up of the South Sea Bubble, and the death of Sun- derland (q.v.) and of Stanhope. Townshend again (1721) became Secretary of State. But he was no longer the acknowledged leader of the Whigs. The superior talent of Walpole, his financial abilities, and his influence in the House of Com- mons, cau!;pd a change in the relative position of the two I.Iinisters, and converted the two men into rivals and enemies. Townshend, resigning the contest, retired to Rainham. to cultivate his paternal acres. "Xever Minister had cleaner hands." said Cliesterfield ; and his reputation for both private and public integrity remains un- snllieil. TOWTJSHEND, Charles (1725-67). An Eng- lish statesman. He was the second son of the third Viscount Townsheiul, and was edu- cated at Leyden and probably also at O.xford. He entered Parliament in 1747, and attaching himself to Lord Halifax, he was given by him a position in the Board of Trade in 1748. In 1754 Townshend was made a Lord of the Admiralty, but resigned the following year. Becoming a member of the Privy Council under Pitt in 1757, upon the dissolution of the Whig Govern- ment in 1761 he was won over by Bute with an ofl'er of the post of Secretary of War. On Bute's resignation in 1763 he was appointed prcsi<lent of the Board of Trade. After opposing tlie (Iren- ville Administration he accepted the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer under Pitt in 17G6. But Pitt soon lost control over his colleagues by his acceptance of the peerage and his long periods of illness, so that Townshend began to advocate measures to which Pitt was opposed. In 1767 his first budget was rejected, and he thereupon proposed those taxes on certain goods imported into America which ultimately caused the Revolution. Townshend himself did not live to see this result, but died suddenly on Sep- tember 4, 1767. He was ranked as an orator with Pitt, and was far more popular than the Great Commoner with the House of Commons. At present he is chiefl}' remembered on account of the policy which led to the American Revolu- tion. Consult: Fitzgerald, Charles Toii-nshend, ^Yit and Statesman (London, 1866) ; Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England to 1803 (Lon- don, 1800-20). TOWNSHIP (AS. U'lnscipe, from tun, in- closure, town + -scipe, Eng. -ship). A minor political or territorial division in England and the United States. In England, in Anglo-Saxon times, as a political unit it was known as the tunscipe; as an ecclesiastical area it was the parish. As a political unit it had a popular assembly (tun moot) ; as an ecclesiastical unit it had a vestry meeting. The chief executive officer was the tun reeve. He with the priest and four other persons repi'esented the township in the popular assembly of the hundred and county. L'pon the settlement of the American coloniea the township was transplanted to America, and still survives, like many other political institu- tions of English origin. Here it is a subdivision of the county, and its political importance varies with the locality of the State. In New Eng- land, under the name of the town, it plays a far more important part in the work of the local administration than the county — in fact, it per- forms most of the business of local government which in the Southern States is attended to by the county. (See Tow:<^.) In the Jliddle and Western States the township plays a somewhat less important part in the work of the local government than it does in New England, the county there sharing with the township many of the important functions of local government. In the Southern States the township is not an administrative unit of much importance. On account of early social and political conditions there, the county has been from the first the chief unit of local government, although there are signs of development in the Southern township which may increase its administrative importance in the future. In some of the Jliddle and Western States the town meeting exists, having been transplanted from New England. Elsewhere the