in 



TOWNLEY, HEV. JAMES. 



TOWNSHEND, VISCOUNT. 



142 



gical opinions were Ai ian, though he was closely connected with the 

 Unitarian body. In 1778 he was chosen forenoon preacher at a chapel 

 in Nowington Green. About this time ho was engaged by the pro- 

 prietors of the ' Biographia Britannica ' to write several lives for the 

 new edition of the work edited by Dr. Kippis, of which however only 

 five volumes appeared (1777-83, down to the letter F). Towers 

 received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 

 1779. 'He died on the 20th of May 1799, in his sixty-third year. His 

 pamphlets and smaller works were collected and published in 1796, in 

 3 vols. 8vo. They are of a miscellaneous nature, but most of them 

 on political subjects. (Lindsay's Funeral Sermon.) 



TOWNLEY, REV. JAMES, the second son of a merchant, was 

 born in London in 1715. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' 

 School, elected thence to St. John's College, Oxford, and took orders. 

 After having held two lectureships in London, he was appointed, 

 through the interest of his wife's family, to the living of St. Bennet, 

 Gracechurch Street. Afterwards he was grammar-master in Christ's 

 Hospital, and in 1759 was appointed head master of Merchant Tailors' 

 School and held that office till his death in 1778, which happened soon 

 after he had been presented to a living in Wales. He is said to have 

 been admired as a preacher : and some single sermons of his are in 

 print. But he is chiefly known on account of his intimacy with 

 Hogarth and Garrick. To the former he and Morell gave material 

 assistance in the composition of his ' Analysis of Beauty ; ' and he 

 got the credit of having much assisted the latter in his dramatic works. 

 The popular farce of 'High Life Below Stairs,' first played in 1759, 

 was at length owned by him. He was also the author of two other 

 farces, which were unsuccessful ; but one of them, ' False Concord,' 

 contains both characters and dialogue which were borrowed in Garrick 

 and Colman's comedy of ' The Clandestine Marriage.' The closeness 

 of Townley's connection with Garrick is further evidenced by the 

 fact that he received from Garrick, and held for some years, the living 

 of Henclon. 



TOWNSHEND, _ CHARLES, VISCOUNT TOWNSHEND, an 

 eminent statesman in the reigns of George I. and George II., was the 

 second viscount of that name, and was born in the year 1676. The 

 family of the Townshends was a very ancient family in Norfolk, and 

 had been settled at Rainham from the middle of the 15th century. 

 Sir Horatio Townshend, the father of the subject of this article, had 

 been one of the leading members of the Presbyterian party previous 

 to the Restoration, and having zealously co-operated to bring about 

 that event, was rewarded by Charles II. with the title of Baron 

 Townshend in 1661, and was, in 16S2, raised to the rank of viscount. 

 He died in 1086, when his son was only ten years old. On the latter's 

 taking his seat in the House of Lords, when he became of age in 

 1697, he first acted with the Tories, but very soon attached himself to 

 the Whigs, and especially to Lord Somers. When William III., just 

 before his death, in the beginning of 1702, was endeavouring to form 

 a Whig administration, Lord Towushend had attained sufficient poli- 

 tical consequence to be named for- the Lord Privy Seal. (Coxe's 

 'Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole,' vol. i. p. 113, 8vo ed.). During the 

 reign of Anne, Lord Townshend was appointed, in 1705, one of the 

 commissioners to treat for the union with Scotland; in 1707, captain 

 of the yeomen of the queen's guard ; in 1709, joint plenipotentiary 

 with the Duke of Marlborough in the negociation for peace atGertruy- 

 denberg, and in the same year ambassador extraordinary to the States- 

 General of the United Provinces. In this last capacity he concluded 

 the treaty known by the name of the Barrier treaty, which secured the 

 assistance of the States-General for carrying out the Hanoverian suc- 

 cession, and engaged the endeavours of England to procure in a treaty 

 of peace the Spanish Low Countries as a barrier for the States- General 

 against France. On the dismissal of the Whig and the formation of 

 the Oxford ministry in 1710, Lord Townshend lost his appointment of 

 captain of the yeomen of the queen's guard. 



In the session of 1712 the Commons fell violently on the Barrier 

 treaty, and voted that "the Lord Viscount Townshend, and all who 

 negociated and signed, and all who advised the ratifying of the said 

 treaty, are enemies to the queen and kingdom." This vote was 

 followed up by the Representation to the queen, in which the treaty 

 was discussed very severely and at length. The Representation may 

 be read in the 'Parliamentary History,' vol. vi. p. 1095 ; or in Swift's 

 ' History of the Four last Years of the Queen/ (' Works,' Scott's edition, 

 vol. v. p. 269.) 



With the accession of George I., in 1714, there came a complete 

 change of foreign policy ; and the persecuted negociator of the Barrier 

 treaty was now,selected to be chief minister of the new king. Lore 

 Townshend had been one of the Lords Justices named by George I. 

 in pursuance of the Act passed in 1706 for securing the succession 

 and while George was yet at the Hague, on his way to England, he 

 appointed Lord Townshend secretary of state, with the power to 

 name his colleague. On the recommendation of Horace (afterwards 

 Lord) Walpole, his brother-in-law, Lord Townshend named as his 

 colleague General (afterwards Earl) Stanhope. [STANHOPE, JAMES 

 EAKL.] Lord Townshend had been recommended to George by 

 Bothmar, his agent in England, and with Bothmar's recommendation 

 the praises of all the principal statesmen at the Hague had concurred 

 Lord Townshend had now been twice married. His first wife was 

 Elizabeth, the second daughter of Thomas, Lord Pelham, and half 



later of the subsequent Duke of Newcastle. After her death ho 

 married, in 1713, Dorothy, sister to Sir Robert Walpole. 



The administration formed under Lord Townsheud waa entirely 

 Whig. Charles II. on the Restoration, and William and Anne, on 

 heir respective accessions to the throne, had pursued the plan of 

 jornbining the leading members of opposite parties in the minibtry : 

 >ut during Anne's reign party warfare assumed a more determined 

 character, and her last ministry, that of Lord Oxford, had consisted 

 xclusively of Tories. This monopolising precedent was now turned 

 ,o the advantage of the Whigs. Lord Townshend was prime minister, 

 .hough his name had not yet come to be established ; and Walpole, 

 who in a short time approached him in influence in the ministry, held 

 ,t first only the subordinate post of paymaster of the forces, but after 

 the death of Lord Halifax, in the next year, became chancellor of the 

 exchequer and first lord of the treasury. [WALFOLE, Siu ROBERT.] 

 The principal acts of Lord Townshend's ministry were the impeach- 

 ments of the principal members of that which had preceded, and the 

 Septennial Bill. The latter measure is a standing reproach against 

 its Whig authors ; and though the objection, BO often urged, to the 

 3ower of parliament to prolong the existence of the then sitting 

 House of Commons is on tho face of it absurd, the reproach is in 

 other respects deserved. Archdeacon Coxe states that Lord Towns- 

 end and Walpole were opposed to the impeachment of Lord Oxford 

 'or high treason, and strongly recommended the more judicious course 

 of charging him with high crimes and misdemeanours. (' Memoirs of 

 Sir Robert Walpole,' vol. i. p. 126.) 



The Scotch rebellion took place at the latter end of 1715. When 

 bhe participation of Sir William Wyndham in the preparatory intrigues 

 was discovered, his relationship to the Duke of Somerset, an influential 

 Whig nobleman, and a member of the cabinet, caused a difficulty 

 about arresting him, which the firmness of Townshend surmounted. 

 The scene in the council on this occasion is minutely described by 

 Archdeacon Coxe. (Id., p. 128.) "As the king retin-d into his closet 

 lie took hold of Lord Townshend's hand, and said, ' You have done 

 me a great service to-day.' " 



In the summer of 1716 George visited Hanover, and was accom- 

 panied by Stanhope : Lord Townshend remained in England. He had 

 strongly opposed the king's wish of revisiting his native dominions ; 

 and even after the repeal of the restraining clause in the Act of Settle- 

 ment, had reiterated his objections to the king's departure from 

 England. While the king was in Hanover various causes combined to 

 estrange him from the minister in whom hitherto his confidence had 

 been iinbounded, and the ultimate result was Lord Townshend's 

 dismissal from office. The causes of this event have been considered 

 at some length by Archdeacon Coxe, in his ' Memoirs of Sir Robert 

 Walpole ; ' and by Lord Mahon, in his ' History of England from the 

 Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ' (vol. i., ch. 7, 8). 

 Lord Mahon has made it his object to vindicate the conduct of his 

 ancestor Lord Stanhope in the transactions that led to Lord Towus- 

 heud's dismissal, and has succeeded in this object^ arid has also 

 corrected some misstatements in Coxe's account. 



Lord Townshend had made himself obnoxious to the king's German 

 mistresses and favourites, whose schemes of avarice and ambition ho 

 resisted. His temper was impetuous, and his manner of speaking and 

 writing frank and abrupt, so that if the king was predisposed to take 

 offence, there would be no lack of opportunity. Lord Sunderland, 

 who had aspired to be premier on George's accession, and had deeply 

 resented the precedence given to Townshend in the ministry, joined 

 the king after a time in Hanover, and waa too well disposed to join 

 with the German clique in undermining Lord Townshend's influence. 

 Subjects of difference between the king and Lord Townshend occurred 

 after the former's going to Hanover. The king, with Hanoverian 

 objects, was eager to declare war against Peter the Great of Russia, a 

 measure which Townshend vehemently resisted. A negociation was 

 proceeding at the Hague between England, France, and the States- 

 General, for a treaty to secure the successions to the English and 

 French thrones, and for the expulsion of the Pretender from France, 

 which the king and Lord Stanhope in Hanover were anxious to accele- 

 rate ; and some delays occurred through Lord Townshend, which were 

 attributed to design, owing to disapproval of the way in which the 

 treaty was to be concluded. The king was greatly offended at this, 

 and ordered Stanhope to write a strong reproof to Townshend. He 

 waa however appeased by Townshend's reply, in which he fully vindi- 

 cated himself from the charge of wilful delay. But though this storm 

 blew over, another soon succeeded. The king, anxious to continue in 

 Hanover during the whole winter, had directed Townshend to transmit 

 to him the sentiments of the cabinet on what was to be done in the 

 next session, and on the means of carrying on the business of the 

 country without his own presence. Towushend, to gratify the king's 

 inclination, did not press his return, but strongly urged that a discre- 

 tionary power should be given to the Prince of Wales. The king's 

 jealousy of his son took fright at this recommendation ; and it 

 seemed ,to him to confirm stories which Sunderland had been 

 assiduously spreading of intrigues carried on by Townshend with the 

 Duke of Argyll and others for placing the Prince of Wales on the 

 throne. The king immediately formed the determination of dismissing 

 Townshend ; and it was with much difficulty that Stanhope prevailed 

 upon him to offer the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland by way of breaking 



