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634 CLARENDON of omission and commission, deliberately made. Indeed, Clarendon wrote an "apology" or " vindication " of the royal party, and not a history of the contest between that party and their opponents. Yet it has become a classic ; and, to use the language of the author's de- scendant and biographer, "the arrangement of its materials, the dignity of its tone, the happy combination of disquisition with description, the felicity of expression which it frequent- ly displays, the development of motives, the discrimination of character, have received the warm and merited admiration of many generations of readers." Two of Claren- don's granddaughters, Mary and Anne, became queens regnant of England. Clarendon's " Life and Administration " has been written by T. II. Lister, one of his descendants. His "Life," and other autobiographical writings, are not to be trusted, and are inferior in value and interest to the "History of the Rebellion." It was not until more than 150 years alter his death that his "History" and "Life" were published in a perfect state, for which we are indebted to the learned Dr. Bandinel. CLARENDON, George William Frederirk Villiers, fourth earl of, and Baron Hyde of Hindon, a British statesman, a descendant of the prece- ding through the female line, born in London, Jan. 12, 1800, died there, June 27, 1870. His earliest appointment was as commissioner of customs in Ireland. In 1833 he was appointed by Lord Grey's government envoy extraordi- nary and minister plenipotentiary to Spain. He tilled this post, at that time one of impor- tance and difficulty, in a manner highly credit- able to himself and acceptable to the con- stitutional party in Spain, which was in a state of anarchy and civil war during the first years of his mission. The success with which Mr. Villiers had conducted the negotiation of a treaty for the effectual suppression of the slave trade, and the manner in which he had per- formed his other official duties, were warmly eulogized by Lord Palmerston in his speech on the foreign affairs of the country in April, 1837. On the decease of his uncle, the third earl, he succeeded to the peerage, Dec. 20, 1838, and returning to England in 1839 took his seat in the house of lords. He was soon called to vindicate the policy of the ministry by which he had been employed, and his own conduct as their representative in Spain, against the attacks of the marquis of Londonderry, a champion of the Carlist faction. His defence of the Spanish character and the policy of the constitutional party in Spain was so acceptable in that country, that a gold medal was struck in his honor. In 1839 Lord Clarendon became a member of the Melbourne government as lord privy seal, and in 1840 he was made chancel- lor of the duchy of Lancaster. He retired from the ministry on Sir Robert Peel's accession to power in 1841, but supported all the liberal measures of his government. When the repeal of the corn laws was brought forward in 1846, Clarendon made an able speech in its support. On the change of administration, and the ac- cession of Lord John Russell to power in 1846, Clarendon was appointed president of the board of trade, which office he filled until the death of the earl of Bessborough, May 16, 1847, who had been appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland under the same administration, when he was transferred to that office. He was at first ex- tremely popular. His situation, however, soon became one of embarrassment. The distress produced by the famine was severe, and the measures for its mitigation adopted by the im- perial* parliament were attended with very limited success. Nothing within the power of the executive was neglected by Clarendon. The short-lived rebellion of Smith O'Brien followed. It Avas subdued with the smallest possible amount of bloodshed ; but Clarendon's popularity with both parties was impaired. The disaffected looked upon him with aversion as the agent of an odious government, and the Orange faction were disgusted with his mild- ness. He experienced the too common fate of moderate counsels, in alienating both extremes of party. His conduct was not only unpopular with both factions in Ireland, but was severely denounced by Lord Stanley (afterward earl of Derby) in the house of lords. Clarendon on this occasion left his government in Ireland, and, appearing in his seat in parliament, vindi- cated his conduct. On the formation of the first Derby ministry in 1852, Clarendon was superseded by Lord Eglinton in the govern- ment of Ireland. Under Lord Aberdeen's pre- miership, the department of foreign affairs, after it was resigned by Lord John Russell, was intrusted to Lord Clarendon (1853), and was conducted by him with acknowledged ability. Of all Aberdeen's ministry, he retained perhaps the greatest share of the public favor, and remained in office on Lord Palmerston's accession to power. The important negotia- tions relative to the Crimean war and the ad- justment of the balance of Europe at its close were carried on by Lord Clarendon with marked though not ostentatious vigor, and in a conciliatory spirit. He signed the treaty of alliance between Great Britain and France, April 10, 1854; remained at his post during the ministerial crisis of February, 1855 ; had an in- terview with Napoleon III. at Boulogne (March 3) on occasion of the death of the emperor Nicholas; took a prominent part in the peace conference at Paris, when he came forward as a champion of the liberal institutions of Belgium, and signed the treaties of Paris of March 30 and April 15, 1855. He was less fortunate in conducting the relations of England with the United States. The negotiations relative t<> Central America and the enlistment question produced a temporary coldness toward the government of the United States, and the dis- missal of Mr. Crampton, the British minister at Washington. Clarendon continued to ad- minister the foreign office till the earl of Derby