TOWNSHEND, toun'zend, CHARLES, second Viscount (1674-1738). An English statesman. A descendant of a very ancient English family of Norfolk, he succeeded to the peerage in 1687, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and took his seat as a Tory in the House of Lords in 1697. He was named by the Godolphin Admin istration one of the commissioners for arranging the union with Scotland (1706) ; was joint plenipotentiary with Marlborough 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 L, 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. Ile 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 bend lost favor with the King, and was, in 1710, dismissed from office. 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 lie 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. caused a change in the relative position of the two Ministers, and converted the two men into rivals and enemies. Townshend, resigning the contest, retired to Bainham. to cultivate his paternal acres. "Never Minister had cleaner hands," said Chesterfield; and his reputation for both private and public integrity remains un sullied.