VILLIERS. fourth Earl of ( Is00-70). An English diplomat and statesman, the eldest son of George Villiers and grandson of Thomas Villiers. who in 1752 married the heiress of the last Lord Clarendon of the Ilyde lontn•ll. and was ereated IIaron flyde, 1756, and Earl of Clarendon, 1776. He was horn in London, -January 12, 1&00, He entered Saint -John's College, Cam bridge, in his sixteenth year, and by titular privilege attained the degree in 1820. The same year he entered the diplomatic ser vice as an attach• to the British Embassy at Saint Petersburg, and by twenty-th•ee of age had acquired practical experience that was of particular value in his subsequent career. lie was an accomplished linguist and writer. Ap pointed Commissioner of Customs in 1823, ill 1S•7-29 he gained administrative knowledge in arranging the union of the English and Irish excise boards, and an insight into Irish (diame ter and affairs which made him an authority with Lord Lieutenant Paget, Marquis of Angle sey. In 1531, as coadjutor to Sir John Bow ring. he successfully negotiated a commereial treaty with France, and in 1533 was sent as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten tiary to :Madrid. where he ailuired great influ ence and a lifelong popularity. He was re warded with the Grand Cross of the Bath in IS:37, and at his mule's death. December 22, 1S3S, succeeding to the Clarendon peerage as fourth Earl, he returned to England to take his seat in the 'House of Lords. He entered Lord
:Melbourne's Administration as Lord Privy Seal in 1840. and also became Chancellor of the Dueliy of Lancaster. When the :Ministry fell, in 1S41, he became an active member of the Oppo sition. but, as a. stanch free-trader, warmly sup ported Sir Robert Peel's measures for the repeal of the Corn Laws. Under Lord Russell lie becalm! president of the Board of 'Fraile. in 1846. and ill the following year was appointed Lord Lieu tenant of Ireland. The insurrectionary follies of Smith and his followers were agi tating the eount•y; but Clarendon's prompt and decisive measures soon restored tranquillity, his tact and impartiality allayed party feeling. 1?rolli ls52, tinder Lord Aberdeen, and in 1855-5S, under Lord Palmerston, Cla,ren don was Foreign Seeretary. Upon him fell the onus of the Crimean War; and the peace of 1356, with it s beneficial results Io European testifies to his foresight and ability. Ile retired with the :Ministry in 1S5S; resumed the Foreign Seerptaryship in 1565-66, and held it again wider Gladstone from 1S6S Until his sudden death, June 27, 1570. Consult Thornton, Life of (;gorge William Frederick l'illicrs, Fourth Earl of t'larcndon, in Foreign Secretaries of the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. (London, 1881-82).