CLARENDON, EARL OF. 



107 



.'i-rian liiif near Kiukhta, and is an irapor- 

 i.u-kct ami principal intermediate station 

 t ratio which <KM to Siberia, and is also 

 a I't'tlii- Guison-Tamba, or most impor- 

 tant I.auia-lvinu' of the Mongols. 



In Is7n tin. war against the Mohammedans 

 in Yunnan, according to the Chinese reports, 

 a turn very favorable to their Govern- 

 Tim following information on the last 

 niK\.-:ii< nt.s on this seat of war, both in the 

 southwestern and northwestern provinces, is 

 I'nuii tho North China News, of July 8th: 



Tho two imperialist armies, commanded respec- 

 tive ly \>y Tnng-ta-men and Chen-foo-tay, Lave been 

 vii-t"riou9, both at Ghao-chong and near the capital. 

 Snim' strong and important forts, together with sev- 

 eral rich nnd powerful Mohammedan chiefs, have 

 fallen into the hands of tho imperialists. The victors 

 arc pitiless toward tho vanquished, and put all to the 

 sword. There hardly seems any hope left to the 

 Mohammedans, save in their capital city of Tali, 

 where their ruler is ensconced. And this will soon 

 fall before tho cannon of Mr. Mourens. The capture 

 of tho celebrated fort near tho capital, which had 

 previously kept in awe all the Chinese army, is en- 

 tirely attributed to the Khai-noa-phao (grape-shot, 

 lit., blowing-flowers cannon) which this officer di- 

 rects. The Mr. Mourens named is an Englishman, 

 formerly in charge of a Chinese gunboat at Canton, 

 who lately left Hankow with one foreign (Greek) 

 companion for Yunnan, with some European fire- 

 arms, destined to help the Viceroy against the Mo- 

 hammedan rebels. Tnere, as in the case of the Tai- 

 pings, foreign cannon seem to be deciding the day. 



It is, however, by no means to be concluded from 

 this that the rebellion is being quelled, as the suc- 

 cesses of the imperial forces in the southwestern prov- 

 inces are more than compensated by their failures 

 in the northwest, from which direction intelligence 

 has been received from a reliable source to the effect 

 that the Mohammedan rebels have come back in 

 large numbers to the provinces of Kan-suh and Shen- 

 si ; and it is feared tnat they may also enter Honan. 

 From this it appears that tlm Mohammedans have 

 not only entered the province of Shensi, but have 

 crossed* it from west to east. The imperial troops 

 are making great efforts to stay the march of the re- 

 bellion, and the Viceroy of Hupeh has been ordered 

 to proceed with a large bodv of troops to meet the 

 Moliarnmedans, whose numbers have been largely 

 increased by the Mohammedans in the Shensi prov- 

 ince, who rose up at their approach. 



CLARENDON", Right Hon. GEORGE WILLIAM 

 FREDERICK VILLIERS, fourth Earl of, K. G., G. 

 0. B., P. C., Chancellor of the Queen's Uni- 

 versity, in Ireland, a British statesman, diplo- 

 matist, and cabinet minister, born in London, 

 January 12, 1800; died in London, June 26, 

 1870. He was educated at Oxford, and early 

 commenced a diplomatic career, being an at- 

 tache of the embassy to St. Petersburg from 

 1820 to 1823. Soon after his return he was 

 appointed commissioner of customs in Ireland. 

 In 1831 he was sent to negotiate a commercial 

 treaty with France. In 1833 he was appointed 

 British minister plenipotentiary at the conrt 

 of Madrid, where for six years he attracted 

 public attention by his firm and statesmanlike 

 course in the midst of the bloody strifes excited 

 by the succession of Ferdinand VII. As a 

 Whig, and a representative in Spain of the 

 Whig party, then in power, he manifested his 



sympathies with tho Constitutional party, of 

 which Queen Christina was then at the head: 

 but, at the same time, he contributed much to 

 modify the horrors of the civil war, and to 

 ameliorate the condition of the prisoners, whom 

 the Spanish authorities would have put to 

 death. He also advocated the cause of the 

 slaves, and urged upon Spain the repression of 

 tho slave-trade. His fine address and reputa- 

 tion for gallantry aided his popularity among 

 the Spanish people. In December, 1838, he 

 succeeded to the peerage on the death of his 

 father ; and in 1839 returned from Spain, and 

 took his seat in the House of Lords. He de- 

 fended his own course in Spain, and the policy 

 of tho ministry by which he had been em- 

 ployed, with great ability and success against 

 the attacks of the Marquis of Londonderry, 

 who had espoused the cause of the Carlists. 

 From 1839 to 1841 Earl Clarendon was Lord 

 Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Duchy of 

 Lancaster in the Melbourne ministry, and was 

 sworn a Privy Councillor in January, 1840. 

 When Sir Robert Peel succeeded to power in 

 1841, Lord Clarendon retired from tho ministry, 

 but supported all the liberal measures of Sir 

 Robert's administration. He was appointed 

 President of the Board of Trade in Lord John 

 Russell's first Cabinet, late in 1846, but on the 

 death of the Earl of Bessborongh, in May, 

 1847, he succeeded him as Lord-Lieutenant of 

 Ireland, which post he held until 1852. Though 

 popular at first, his reputation soon suffered 

 under the successive calamities which befell that 

 unhappy country. The potato-crop failed, and 

 thousands perished from want of adequate 

 measures on the part of the Government to 

 arrest the ravages of the famine which followed. 

 During the first years of his viceroy alty, Ire- 

 land was also agitated by the revolutionary 

 movement for national independence. Natu- 

 rally inclined to moderation, Lord Clarendon at 

 first attempted mild measures with the insur- 

 gents, but, finding it necessary to maintain the 

 authority of the Government, he resorted to 

 stern measures of repression, which, of course, 

 exasperated the disaffected, though they did 

 not satisfy the Orange party. In 1853 the Earl 

 was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs in the Aberdeen ministry. He accepted 

 this office when England was committed to the 

 war against Russia, which invested the position 

 of Foreign Secretary with special importance, 

 and he discharged its difficult duties with ex- 

 ceptional ability and tact. He retained this 

 office until 1858, with the exception of the 

 brief interval caused by the fall of Lord Aber- 

 deen's ministry and the reorganization of the 

 administration with Lord Palmerston as Pre- 

 mier. Lord Clarendon represented his Gov- 

 ernment at the signing of the treaty of peace 

 at Paris in the spring of 1856, on which occa- 

 sion he advocated with great zeal the estab- 

 lishment of liberal institutions in Belgium. In 

 1864 he joined Lord Palmerston's second gov- 

 ernment, and was again appointed Secretary 



