OF

THE EARL OF CLARENDON, K.G.

THE Right Hon. George William Frederick Villiers, Earl of Clarendon, of Clarendon, near Salisbury, and Baron Hyde, of Hindon, in the county of Wilts, K.G., G.C.B., &c., who died on the 27th of June, was born in London, on the 26th of January, 1800. He was the eldest son of the Hon. George Villiers, by the Hon. Teresa Parker, daughter of John, first Lord Boringdon, and sister of the first Earl of Morley. He succeeded to the family honours, as fourth Earl, in December, 1838, upon the death of his uncle, John Charles, third Earl.

He entered the diplomatic service at an early age, and was attached to the Embassy at St. Petersburg as far back as the year 1820. Three years later he was appointed a Commissioner of Excise, and was employed in Ireland for two or three years-we believe in 1827-29 -in arranging the union of the English and Irish Excise Boards.

In 1831 he was sent to France for the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty.

In discharging the duties of these, comparatively speaking, subordinate posts, he showed so much judgment, discretion, and energy that, in September, 1833, he was accredited by Lord Grey's Administration as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Madrid. His residence in Spain in that capacity was coincident with the warfare which raged in that unfortunate country between the Queen's party, or Constitutionalists-known also as Christinos-and the adherents of the Pre

tender, Don Carlos. It would be impossible to give here a history of that sanguinary war; but it may safely be said that, placed in a post which required the greatest tact, firmness, and discretion, our Minister acquitted himself with the greatest honour, not only to his own personal character, but to the country which he represented. He was largely instrumental in procuring, in April, 1834, the signature of the Treaty concluded in London, which was known as the "Quadruple Alliance," on account of the four contracting parties, England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The object of this Treaty was the pacification of the two kingdoms of the Peninsula ; under its articles Spain and Portugal mutually engaged to assist each other in the task of expelling from their respective territories Don Carlos and Don Miguel. France bound herself to second their efforts in any way she could, and England undertook to co-operate by employing a naval force on the Portuguese and Spanish coasts. Such being the case, the position of the British Envoy at Madrid became one of extreme difficulty and delicacy, the more SO as France showed herself, if not lukewarm in the matter, at least far less disposed than England to take active measures in support of the objects of the Alliance. The advice of Mr. Villiers, therefore, was eagerly sought, and received with corresponding deference by the Spanish Government. It was also mainly through his efforts that England was successful in negotiating with Spain a treaty for the more effectual abolition of the slave trade in the Spanish Colonies, a measure

to which that most Christian Government, up to that time, had refused to listen, but which, as soon as it was ratified, was hailed with delight by the philanthropists of this country.

The services of Mr. Villiers in his diplomatic capacity were cordially ap proved by Lord Melbourne, then at the head of the Government at home, who conferred on him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, while Lord Palmerston, at that time Minister for Foreign Affairs, in his place in the House of Commons, on the 19th of April, 1837, bore personal witness to the fact "that the respect Spain entertained for this country was very much owing to the able and judicious conduct of the British Minister at Madrid; and that the high character which that Minister had personally established, joined with the good faith which the British Government had observed in its dealings, had indeed rendered the character of an Englishman a passport through Spain." A higher testimony to personal worth could scarcely have been given, or a higher compliment paid to official ability.

At the beginning of the year 1839, having recently succeeded to his uncle's title, Lord Clarendon resigned his post at Madrid, and came to London to take his seat in the House of Lords. In the month of July following the conduct of the British Government and their representative in Spain having been severely commented upon by Lord Londonderry, a speech was elicited from Lord Clarendon, which proved that, though not, of course, an accomplished debater, he could state a case so clearly and effectively as to command the attention and the sympathy of his audience. On this occasion his speech contained a masterly exposition of the policy which had been followed in dealing with the tangled web of Spanish affairs, in which he declared that no greater mistake could be made than to suppose the people of the Peninsula unfit for freedom or radically opposed to a Liberal and enlightened form of Government, and that whatever changes had lately been made had produced, at all events, some measure of free discussion, public opinion, popular representation, and a free Press. As soon as this speech reached the Peninsula a gold medal was struck in his honour, and in recognition of his services to the cause of constitutional freedom in that country. A meeting, too, was held at which it was resolved that the speech should be forthwith translated into the Spanish language, and circulated as widely as possible through

out Spain. It was also subsequently resolved to present Lord Clarendon with a handsome work of art in perpetuam rei memoriam.

In the following January, upon some changes being effected in Lord Melbourne's Cabinet, Lord Clarendon was appointed to succeed Lord Duncannon in the office of Lord Privy Seal, and in the October of the same year he succeeded Lord Holland in the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster. There is not, however, much to say about him in either of those not very laborious or very responsible posts, except that as a Cabinet Minister he rendered good service to the feeble Administration of which he had become a member so shortly before its fall. In little more than a year and a half after his joining the Cabinet came the General Election of July, 1841, the resignation of the Whig Government followed only a few weeks later, and the accession of Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives to power, with a majority of nearly a hundred votes in the House of Commons.

Having been at all times favourable to the principles of Free Trade, as soon as he saw that Sir Robert Peel was becoming convinced of their truth, Lord Clarendon, though firmly adhering to his own party, gave a hearty support to the commercial policy which that statesman inaugurated. Of the repeal, the total repeal, of the Corn Laws there had never been a more stanch and persistent advocate than his brother, Mr. Charles Pelham Villiers, the member for Wolverhampton; and when that crowning act of legislation was brought forward for discussion in the House of Peers, Lord Clarendon accompanied his vote for the measure by a speech of great ability. It was but natural, therefore, that on the return of the Liberals to office in 1846, with Lord John Russell at their head, Lord Clarendon was appointed President of the Board of Trade, and in the following year he was entrusted with the important post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In spite of the famine, caused by the failure of the potato crop, which, having begun in 1846, in 1847 was almost universal, he entered on his Viceroyalty under the most favourable auspices. His nomination was considered as one of the most popular appointments made by the new Premier ; and we have Lord Brougham as our authority for saying that the feeling of the Irish towards their new Lord Lieutenant was one not of "eulogy or praise," but of "veneration and all most worship." He at once exerted

himself to mitigate the sufferings of the people by organizing machinery for their relief, and for administering that relief in such a way as to give the full effect at once to the contributions of private charity and to the beneficent intentions of the Legislature. His popularity, it is true, was to some extent diminished by the agitation of the "Young Ireland" party, who were tempted to the very verge of treason by the success of the Paris Revolution in February, 1848; and the "veneration" and "worship" of the Celtic part of the population gave way to another set of feelings towards him, both personally and officially, when Mr. Smith O'Brien, having risen in arms against the Queen, was ignominiously defeated in a cabbage-garden, arrested, tried for high treason, and condemned to death. The sentence, however, was subsequently commuted to transportation for life-a punishment to which O'Brien's fellow-conspirators, Messrs. Meagher and Mitchell, were also sentenced. It is much to Lord Clarendon's credit that he was able in such troubled times to vindicate the law, without appealing to the Legislature for any extraordinary coercive powers. It will be remembered also that, in suppressing these seditious outbreaks among the misguided Celtic peasantry, Lord Clarendon most wisely declined the proffered services of the Orange Lodges. With similar firmness and impartiality, shortly afterwards, he superseded Lord Roden and two other members of Orange Lodges in the Commission of the Peace, on account of the "untoward" affair in the pass of Dolly's Brae. His conduct as Lord Lieutenant in this transaction was severely questioned at the time in the House of Peers, not only by Lord Roden's friends, but by the late Lord Derby; but Lord Clarendon's reply was a masterly vindication of the impartial policy pursued by the Irish Executive.

That, in spite of his supersession of Lord Roden as a magistrate, Lord Clarendon did not lose the respect even of Lord Roden's champion, Lord Derby himself, was very markedly shown, as we shall see, on a subsequent occasion. In February, 1853, he was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen, that post being vacated by Lord John Russell, after he had held it scarcely two months; and it fell to his lot in this capacity to direct the several intricate and difficult negotiations of the British Government with France, Austria, Prus. sia, Sardinia, and Turkey, which the Russian war entailed. When the Aber

deen Ministry fell in the spring of 1855, Lord Derby was commanded by her Majesty to construct a Cabinet; and on this occasion the Tory chief expressed a strong desire to leave the direction of Foreign Affairs in the hands of Lord Clarendon. Lord Derby was unable to form a Cabinet, and Lord Palmerston, who then succeeded to the helm, in reforming the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen, very naturally handed back the portfolio of Foreign Affairs to Lord Clarendon, who in that capacity and as British Plenipotentiary signed the treaty of peace which was negotiated in Paris at the commencement of the following year. His services on that occasion elicited the highest praise both in Parliament and from the Press, and it was said that he was offered, but declined, the coronet of a Marquis. He continued to hold the direction of Foreign Affairs until the retirement of his chief in 1858. In 1864 he rejoined Lord Palmerston's third Ministry as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; but resumed his former post as Foreign Secretary in the following year, under the Administration of Lord Russell. Remaining out of office with his party during Lord Derby's last Ministry and that of Mr. Disraeli, he returned in December, 1868, on the formation of the Gladstone Cabinet, to the Office which he held to the last, and with which his name will hereafter be chiefly identified.

The retrospect of so long a public and official life as that of Lord Clarendon is full of instruction and interest. His principal qualifications for the posts he filled was, perhaps, his unwearied industry. Probably there never was a harder worker. He wrote with extraordinary facility as well as felicity, and his correspondence embraced all sorts and conditions of men, and included in its range every variety of subject. He was an admirable talker, and, what is possibly equally rare, a most patient listener. If any thing were to be learnt from the most tedious visitor, he suppressed all sign of weariness, followed him through every irrelevant excursion, brought him back dexterously to the point, and elicited the one grain of worth from whole bushels of chaff. But we should do him injustice if we enlarged only on his rare power of listening. He was a master of the art of conversation. No man was more gay, more "light in hand," none more full of happy illustrations, of pleasant anecdote collected in a wide experience of society, no one could put a whole argument into an epigram more neatly, or, where the

occasion required, could deliver himself with greater weight of authority. It was his misfortune that he was never in the House of Commons. In that great school of eloquence he would have learnt the power of making the keen wit and exquisite facility of illustration, which shone so brightly in private, influence a large assembly, and command the sympathies of his countrymen. In the Lords there is not much scope for eloquence; and though he was never deficient when a course of policy had to be explained or defended, and could hold his own on such ocoasions, even against such giants as Lord Derby or Lord Ellenborough, he seldom intruded upon that apathetic audience, which, much as it relishes intellectual attainments in private, seems always to discourage the display of them in its debates. But by those whose good fortune it was to know Lord Clarendon in the unrestrained intercourse of private life he will ever be remembered, not only as the great Minister, the intimate friend of Sovereigns, and the depository of their confidences, but as the most genial of companions and the stanchest of friends, ever ready to cheer by his sympathy or to assist by advice derived from an almost unexampled experience and a most intimate knowledge of mankind and of affairs. By them his memory will be long cherished, and they will not fail to hand down to a succeeding generation the record of the qualities which in their time have won such high distinction for him whom the elders among them preferred to call "George Villiers."

SIR JAMES CLARK.

This distinguished physician, who died on the 29th of June, was the elder of the two sons of Mr. David Clark, of Findlater, in the county of Banff; his mother was Isabella, daughter of Mr. John Scott, of Glassaugh, North Britain. He was born at Findlater, on the 14th of December, 1788. He received his rudimentary instruction at the Grammar School at Fordyce, and his more advanced education at King's College, Aberdeen, from which, many years afterwards, he received his degree of M.A. He subsequently studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and passed his examination at the College of Surgeons of that city, and also of London. the end of his university career he entered the navy as an assistant-surgeon, and remained afloat until 1815, when he returned to Edinburgh, resumed his in

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terrupted studies, and in 1817 took his degree of M.D. Dr. Clark next devoted some time to foreign travel, and eventually settled down at Rome, where he practised as a physician for eight or nine years. During his residence in Italy, with an earnest desire to become acquainted with all the modes adopted by the medical men of the Continent in the treatment of various diseases, he visited the medical schools and universities of Italy, France, and Germany, and thus, by laying wide the foundation of his medical experience, he secured for himself that high position in the medical world which he enjoyed for so many years. He visited most of the mineral springs of the Continent, made himself practically acquainted with their chemical constitution, and carefully studied their several influences on the diseases of the human frame. At this time also he had the opportunity of observing the effects of climate on the diseases connected with the lungs, and especially on consumption in its various forms. Rome Dr. Clark fortunately made the acquaintance of Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg. The acquaintance was renewed at Carlsbad, and it led eventually to his appointment as physician to that prince on his settling in England. Two years after his return to England Dr. Clark was appointed Physician to St. George's Parochial Infirmary. In 1828 he published, as the result of his previous studies and observation, a work "On the Sanative Influence of Climate," which has passed through several editions, and is still in high repute. In connexion with this subject Dr. Clark drew public attention to the importance of securing correct meteorological tables, and to the influence of his remarks may be attributed much of the attention which this question has since received. In 1832 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and he has repeatedly been chosen a member of its council. On the death of Dr. Maton he was appointed Physician to her Majesty, at that time Princess Victoria, and, on her accession to the throne, he was appointed First Physician in Ordinary to the Queen. Already, as far back as 1835, he had published a "Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption and Scrofulous Diseases;" and certainly he was among the first to prove that the rise of these diseases was due to a deterioration of the system itself and a weakening of the powers of vitality.

On the foundation of the University of London Dr. Clark was chosen a member of the senate of that body, and he then produced his pamphlet on "Clinical