Townshend, CHARLES, VISCOUNT TOWNSHEND

Townshend, CHARLES, VISCOUNT TOWNSHEND, statesman, was born in 1674, of a very old family, at Raynham in Norfolk. His father, Horatio, had been a prominent Presbyterian, but, having been one of the most forward in restoring the monarchy, was by Charles II. made Baron in 1661, and Viscount in 1682. He died in 1687, when Charles was only eleven years old. He, when of age to take his seat in the Upper House, entered public life as a Tory, but soon afterwards became a disciple of Lord Somers, and cordially co-operated with the Whigs. He was named by the Godolphin administration one of the commissioners for arranging the Union with Scotland; was joint-plenipotentiary with Marlborough at the Hague; and negotiated with the States-general the Barrier Treaty, which pledged the States-general to the Hanoverian succession, and England to procure the Spanish Low Countries for the United Provinces, as a barrier against France. Dismissed from his places in 1712, on the formation of the Harley ministry, Townshend maintained a close correspondence with the court of Hanover, and obtained the entire confidence of George I., who, while still at the Hague, on his way to his new kingdom, made him Secretary of State. With Stanhope he formed a ministry entirely Whig, in which Walpole, his brother-in-law, soon became Chancellor of the Exchequer. The principal act of the government was the passing of the Septennial Bill (1716); that same year saw Townshend's dismissal. After the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, and the deaths of Sunderland and Stanhope, Townshend (1721) again became Secretary of State. But he was no longer the acknowledged leader of the Whigs. The superior talent of Walpole, his financial abilities, and his influence in the House of Commons caused a change in the relative position of the two ministers, and converted those who had been so long friends and colleagues into rivals and enemies. After Townshend had somewhat precipitately made the treaty of Hanover between England, France, and Prussia, an open and unseemly quarrel broke out between them. Walpole said he thought the firm should be Walpole & Townshend, not Townshend & Walpole; so it was, and Townshend retired into private life in 1730. He introduced the turnip into Norfolk from Germany, greatly improved the rotation of crops, steadily refused to reappear in public life, and died 21st June 1738. See works on Walpole, and Stanhope's History.