CLARENDON, GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK VILLIEItS, Earl of, a distinguished English statesman, was b. 12th Jau., 1800. He was a descendant of Thomas Villiers, who, in 1752, married the heiress of the last lord Clarendon of the Hyde family, and was, in 1756, made baron Hyde. and in 1776, earl of Clarendon. Having studied at Cambridge, he early entered tile diplomatic service, and in 1833 was appointed to the then important post of ambassador at Madrid, where he acquired great influence, which he employed in establishing the government of Spain on a constitutional basis. On the death of his uncle, the third earl, without issue, in 1838, he succeeded to the title, and returned to England to take his seat in the upper house. In 1840, he was appointed keeper of the great. seal. When the Whig ministry was broken up in 1841, he became an active member of the opposition; hut warmly supported sir Robert Peel in his measures for the abolition of the corn-laws. Under lord JOhn Russell's premiership, he became president of the board of trade in 1816, and the following year was appointed lord-lieu tenant of Ireland. He entered upon his duties in troublous times. The insurrectionary
follies of Smith O'Brien and his coadjutors might have set the whole country in ablaze. but for the prompt rand decisive measures which C. adopted, and which soon rostered general tranquillity. At the same time, his tact and impartiality contributed to ally and reconcile the exasperations of party. The severity of his proceedings against the Orangemen on occasion of disturbances in 1849, was made the subject of a formal accu sation in the house of lords; but C. made a convincing defense, and ministers declared their complete approval of his proceedings. When the Russell cabinet resigned in 1852, C. was replaced by the earl of Eglinton; but on the formation of the Aberdeen ministry, in a later part of the same year, he was intrusted with the seals of the foreign office. When lord Palmerston became premier in 1855, C. held the seals until the resignation of the ministry iu 1858. He resumed them, under the same premier, in 1865; retired with his colleagues in 1866; and taking the same office once more in 1868, he retained it till he died in June, 1870.