head of affairs, but though he was received by the king with

distinguished marks of regard, Lord Townshend was appointed secretary of state, and Sunderland, much to his dissatisfaction, was obliged to put up with the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. In 1715, on the death of the marquis of Wharton, he was permitted to exchange this post for the office of privy seal, and a seat in the cabinet. Finding, however, that he was still excluded from all real influence in the management of affairs, he became sullen and restless, took no part in defending the measures of government, and putting himself at the head of a number of disaffected whigs, waited a favourable opportunity to overthrow his colleagues. In 1716 he went to Aix-la-Chapelle to drink the waters; and having obtained permission to visit the king, who was then residing at Hanover, attended by Secretary Stanhope, he soon acquired the complete confidence both of the king and of the secretary. When, shortly after, Lord Townshend was removed from office, Sunderland was in the first instance appointed treasurer of Ireland for life; and the ministry having been completely reconstructed in the following year (April, 1717), the earl and his friend, Addison, were nominated secretaries of state, the former holding also for some months the presidency of the council. In 1718 an exchange of offices took place between Sunderland and Stanhope, and the chief post at the treasury, together with the management of home affairs, was transferred to the former, who became now in name, as he had all along been in reality, the head of the government. In 1719 he introduced the famous bill for limiting the number of peerages, which though passed without a division by the lords, was fortunately thrown out by the house of commons, mainly through the influence of Walpole. The premier submitting with a good grace to his defeat, wisely entered into an alliance with the great commoner, and in the beginning of June, 1720, reinstated both Walpole and his friend Townshend in the government. He speedily reaped the benefits of this prudent policy, for these new allies proved his most powerful defenders when in the beginning of the following year, the premier was accused (there is every reason to believe unjustly) of having received a large bribe from the South Sea directors. He was acquitted of the charge by a great majority, but the popular ferment was too strong to allow him to remain at the head of the treasury. He resigned his office very reluctantly, and much to the regret of the king, and was succeeded by Walpole. He was accused of having subsequently entered into intrigues with the Jacobites, but the charge has been disproved. There is probably more truth, however, in the allegation that he attempted to undermine the authority of his rival, Walpole, and to bring about his own return to office. In the midst of his ambitious schemes he died suddenly of heart disease on the 19th of April, 1722, in the forty-seventh year of his age.—Charles, second son of the earl by his second wife, on the death of his elder brother in 1729, became earl of Sunderland, and on the death of his aunt in 1733, succeeded to the titles and estates of his famous grandfather.

John Spencer, youngest son of Charles, third earl of Sunderland, and of Anne, daughter of the great duke of Marlborough, inherited the greater part of the immense wealth of his grandmother, the duchess of Marlborough. At her decease he was appointed ranger of the great park of Windsor, the only place he was allowed by her will to accept. He represented Woodstock for fifteen years, and died at the age of thirty-six, says Walpole, "and in possession of near £30,000 a year, merely because he would not be abridged of these invaluable blessings of an English subject, brandy, small beer, and tobacco." His only son was created Viscount Althorp and Earl Spencer.—George John, second earl, born in 1758, was a leading member of the whig party during the violent struggles with the court towards the close of last century. But in 1794, when the duke of Portland and other great whig nobles, becoming alarmed at the progress of the French revolution, formed a coalition with the ministry. Earl Spencer became lord privy seal, and a few months later was appointed first lord of the admiralty, in the room of the indolent and incapable earl of Chatham. Earl Spencer continued to discharge the duties of this office till the dissolution of Pitt's ministry in 1801. He held the office of home secretary in the ministry of "all the talents" in 1806. He was a high-minded, upright statesman, somewhat stately in his manners and in his mode of life; but with a kind heart like all the Spencers, and distinguished for his love of literature. At his death in 1834, he was succeeded by his eldest son, John Charles, third earl, who is best remembered by his courtesy title of Viscount Althorp. He was born in 1782; educated at Harrow, and Trinity college, Cambridge; and in his twenty-second year was returned to parliament as member for Oakhampton. On the death of Mr. Pitt, Lord Althorp was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the university of Cambridge against Lord Henry Petty, late marquis of Lansdowne, and Lord Palmerston; but in the same year, after a very severe struggle, he was elected for Northamptonshire, which he continued to represent till his accession to the peerage. During the Fox and Grenville administration. Lord Althorp held office as a junior lord of the treasury; and during the subsequent long reign of the tories, he was a vigilant and active opponent of the government, and a strenuous but judicious supporter of liberal principles, and lost no favourable opportunity of recommending their adoption to the legislature and to the country. On the accession of the whigs to power in 1830, Lord Althorp was appointed chancellor of the exchequer, and leader of the house of commons. He laboured under serious disqualifications for this post, for he had nothing of the orator in his character and disposition; but on the contrary was shy and diffident, and his articulation was thick and unpleasant. His high reputation, however, for honesty, disinterestedness, and candour, together with his industry, clear and vigorous mind, warm affections, imperturbable temper, and simple manners, gave him vast influence both in the house and in the country. And the good sense, "and calm, clumsy, courageous, immutable probity," as Lord Jeffrey expresses it, of "honest Lord Althorp," as he was usually named, carried him over many a difficulty which would have overwhelmed a much abler man who was destitute of his high moral qualities. The position of the ministry at this period was difficult and critical, assailed on the one side by the tories, and on the other by the radicals, with a dissatisfied sovereign and a hostile house of lords; but Lord Althorp on the whole acquitted himself admirably in his trying position. And in conducting through the house the measures brought forward by the government—especially the reform bill and the poor law amendment bill—showed an amount of candour and patience, and a mastery of the details as well as of the principles of these measures, which commanded the confidence of his party, and the respect of both sides of the house. The death of his lordship's father in 1834 afforded the king an opportunity, for which he had been waiting, of dissolving the Melbourne administration; and on the return of the whigs to office in 1835, Lord Althorp, now Earl Spencer, declined to take office again. He had no liking for politics indeed, and gladly welcomed his release from their turmoil and bustle. "What a sacrifice," said an old farmer who knew him well, "to shut such a trump as that up in the hot parliament house; he that liked gossiping in the market-place, tasting and blowing samples of wheat, and handling a fat bullock, and never so happy as when hallooing the fox-hounds." Earl Spencer was always fond of agricultural pursuits; and on his retirement from public life, he devoted all the energies of his active mind to practical farming, the rearing of cattle, and the establishment of agricultural societies. By his judicious management and improvement of his estates, he paid off the whole of the heavy incumbrances which his father left upon the property. He was for many years president of the Smithfield Cattle Club; he suggested in 1837 the formation of the Royal Agricultural Society, and was its first president. His energy, skill, and excellent business habits made him a most desirable associate in any undertaking, and no nobleman in the kingdom has done so much for the agricultural improvement of England. Lord Spencer was strongly attached to literature and arts, and he was one of the original members of the Roxburgh Club, of which his father was the first president. He was also vice-chairman of the council of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Lord Brougham dedicated to him his Discourse on Natural Theology, published in 1835; and it was understood that his lordship's Dialogues on Instinct were carried on with his old colleague in the government. The library at Althorp, described in such glowing terms by Dr. Dibdin in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, is one of the finest private libraries in the kingdom. Earl Spencer died in 1845. The family titles and estates are now possessed by his nephew, John, fifth earl.—J. T. SPENCER, John, a learned antiquarian and divine, was born in 1630 at Boughton in Kent. He was educated at the foun-