The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-27
OBITUARY..
The Earl Of Clarendon.

A cable despatch published elsewhere an
nounces the sudden death in London yesterday
of the Right Honorable George William Frede-
rick Villiers, X. G., G. G. B., P. c., third Earl
of Clarendon, the British Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs.
Earl Clarendon was born January 12, 1900,
and had therefore advanced well into his
seventy-firs year at the time of his death. His
father, the late Honorable George Villiers, was
brother of the second Earl of Clarendon, to
which title he succeeded in 1888.
At an early age he entered the diplomatic
service, and subsequently was employed in the
civil service both in Ireland and abroad. His
first prominent position was that of British Min
lister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Madrid
which he filed from 1883 to 1889. From 1889 to
1S41, under Lord Melbourne's administration, he
was Lord of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster on January g. 1910, he
was made Privy Councillor, and in 1916 Pres-
dent of the Board of Trade. From 1S47 to 1852
he held the responsible position of Lord Lieu
tenant of Ireland.
In February, 1858, he was appointed Foreign
Secretary for the first time, and three times
thereafter was called to fill the same high office.
England was just entering upon the memorable
struggle with Russia, and he was called upon to
direct the difficult negotiations with France,
Austria, Prussia and Turkey, which preceded
the Crimean war. In February, 1855, on the fall
of Lord Aberdeen's Ministry he was
requested by the late Earl Derby, upon whom
devolved the task of forming new ministry, to
retain his Office. Earl Derby failed however, to
get a cabinet together; and Lord Palmerston sue
ceeded him, under whom Earl Clarendon re-
NAMED in Office as Foreign Secretary until the
retirement of his chief in 1858.
In that capacity he was called upon to sign
the treaty of Paris which in the spring
of 1856 brought the struggle in the East to an
end. In 1864 he entered Lord Palmerston S
second cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of
| Lancaster, and again on November 3, 1865, was
appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
remaining in Office until the retirement of his
colleagues in June, 1866. When Mr.. Gladstone
came into power in November,
| 1868 Earl Clarendon was appointed
Foreign Secretary for the fourth time, holding
the position at the time of his death. During
his last incumbency he completed the negotia-
tion of the celebrated treaty with this country
for the settlement of the Alabama claims which
had been commenced by his predecessor, the
present Earl Derby, then Lord Stanley, and
Reverdy Johnson, our Minister at that time.
The late Earl was descended from the brother
| VI luC ldluou5 oOoiSO NlliCio, OuhC VI DUCK
| ingham, the favorite of James i, and on his
mothers side from the equally famous Edward
| Hyde, Lord Clarendon, who was the grand
father of two Queens of England. He was
therefore a grandee of the very highest rank
and possessed a family standing and iniu.
ence which was on a par with his high
official position. He was q brother of the
Right Hon. Charles Pelham Viiliers, the cele.
| brated free-trade advocate was made Knight
| of the Garter in 1S49 and for many years was
| Chancellor of the Queens University, Ireland
The public career of Lord Clarendon, extend.
| ing as it did through full half century, has
been one of the most honorable and honored in
the annals of British statesmanship. 1t was in
| 1920, before he had attained his majority, thai
| he entered the diplomatic service as an attache
to the British embassy at st. Petersburg. When
in December, 1888, he became Earl of Claren.
| don, on the death of his uncle, he resigned his
position at the Spanish court, and entered the
House of Lords with a brilliant future before
him. Endowed with all the most desirable gifts
of fortune, in the shape of wealth. rank, and in.
fuential associations, and eminently qualified
| for his new field of labor by an experience OF
twenty years in the field of diplomacy, he was
soen enabled to assume leading position in the
House of Lords, and in less than year was fully
| lauuCu6u upon one Ol Tue IuO5L evenly success
full careers of modern times by being invited tC
a seat in the Cabinet. But his life was far from
being one of elegant and honorable ease. When
in 1876, he was appointed by Lord Russell Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade he had a difficult
task to deal with in consolidating
the results of the great com
mereial revolution which had beer
produced by the repeal of the Corn Laws
While acting as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, h,
had a still more difficult task on his hands, bu
he acquitted himself creditably in the crisis il
Irish affairs which then prevailed; and, although
he failed to conciliate the people of Ireland, h,
won increased reputation at home, and received
the order of the Garter as an acknowledgment
of his services.
In the management of the foreign relations o
England just previous to and during the Cri
mean war, he encountered perhaps the mos
difficult and thankless task that ever fell to hi
lot Party spirit ran high at the time, and ever
John Bright, who has for nearly two years sa
in the same Cabinet with him, assailed hi
policy numerically at the time, on one occasion
| remarkine with bitter sneer:-