Prussia, and was offered, but refused, the order of the Prussian Black Eagle on the occasion. In 1863 he was present at Frankfurt to report unofficially to the British government the proceedings of the conference; and in 1864, on Palmerston's death, he took office again as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He was second British plenipotentiary at the conference in London on the Danish question, and returned to the foreign office in the Russell government in 1865. He resigned with the rest of the liberal ministry in 1866, and Lord Derby, when first he attempted to form a coalition government, applied to him, but in vain (ib. ii. 358).
When the liberals returned to office in 1868, Clarendon was the only possible foreign secretary. The principal event of this portion of his career was the conclusion of the convention, already negotiated by his predecessor, Lord Stanley, with the American representative, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, for the settlement of the Alabama and other outstanding claims. It was signed on 14 Jan. 1869. The basis adopted was that the claims of injured individuals, whether British or American, should be presented separately, as in private litigation, and not collectively, as though proceeding from an aggrieved nation. On this ground the senate of the United States on 13 April refused to ratify the convention; but the negotiations continued, and prepared the way for the definitive settlement ultimately effected.
Clarendon died on 27 June 1870 suddenly at his house in Grosvenor Crescent, London. He was buried at Watford in Hertfordshire on 2 July. He married, on 4 June 1839, Katherine, eldest daughter of Walter James Grimston, first earl of Verulam, and widow of John Forster-Barham of Stockbridge, Hampshire, by whom he left three sons and three daughters. Of his sons, Edward Hyde succeeded him, while George Patrick Hyde and Francis Hyde entered the diplomatic service.
All his contemporaries agreed that by character, knowledge, and training, Clarendon was especially fitted to be a great minister of foreign affairs for Great Britain. He was at the same time an aristocrat and a liberal; he was industrious and laborious in the last degree, and yet had a quick and comprehensive grasp of affairs. He was a familiar master of most European languages, deeply learned in all European affairs, a man of the finest and most dignified manners, an acute judge of character (see a curious anticipation of Mr. Gladstone's career made by him in 1860, Greville Memoirs, 3rd ser. ii. 291), a clear and voluminous writer, an attractive and witty talker. He impressed other diplomatists with confidence in his frankness, and imbued his subordinates with zeal and devotion to himself and their work. On the other hand, he had neither Palmerston's vigour of manner nor his intense devotion to British interests. Clarendon was especially the guardian of peace and civilisation, rather cosmopolitan than patriotic. Personally he was very disinterested. Though of small private fortune, he twice refused the governor-generalship of India, and twice refused a marquisate. In 1856 Napoleon III pressed on him the Legion of Honour, but he steadily declined to accept it. His portrait, painted in 1863 by George Richmond, is in the possession of the present Earl of Clarendon.
[Eastern Papers, 1853; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea; Times, 28 June 1870; Greville Memoirs; Memoirs of Henry Reeve, 1898; Martin's Life of the Prince Consort; Poole's Life of Stratford Canning; Fraser's Magazine, ii. 159 (1870), article by Henry Reeve; Macmillan's Magazine, xxii. 292; Ashley's Palmerston; Walpole's Lord John Russell; Memoirs of Count von Beust; St. Petersburg and London, Count Vitzthum von Eckstädt; Hansard, cviii. 826, 923; Walpole's History of England.]
VILLIERS, HENRY MONTAGU (1813–1861), bishop of Durham, fifth son of George Villiers (1759–1827), and younger brother of George William Frederick Villiers, fourth earl of Clarendon [q. v.], was born in London on 4 Jan. 1813. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 29 April 1830, held a studentship at his college from 1830 to 1838, graduated B.A. in 1834, M.A. in 1837, and became D.D. by diploma on 28 Feb. 1856. In 1836 he was ordained to the curacy of Deane, Lancashire, and on 25 Jan. 1837 was removed to the vicarage of Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The lord chancellor (Lord Lyndhurst) gave him the wealthy rectory of St. George's, Bloomsbury, London, in 1841, and it was as rector of St. George's that he made his reputation, displaying great ability and untiring zeal in the management of his large parish. He was an extreme low churchman, and especially appealed as a preacher to the poor. The dissenters in his vestry eagerly supported him, and with men of every sect and stamp who belonged to the evangelical order he avowed the fullest sympathy. He introduced an admirable system of management into his parochial schools. From 26 March 1847 to 1856 he was a canon of St. Paul's Cathedral. No minister in London was more popular than Villiers when in 1856
