eninsula. His influence was the greater with a
succession of Spanish Prime Ministers in that in 1838 he had been
largely instrumental in negotiating the quadruple alliance between
England, France, Spain, and Portugal. In March 1839--exactly a year
before Borrow took his departure--he resigned his position at Madrid,
having then for some months exchanged the title of Sir George Villiers
for that of Earl of Clarendon through the death of his uncle;[135]
Borrow thereafter having to launch his various complaints and grievances
at his successor, Mr.--afterwards Sir George--Jerningham, who, it has
been noted, had his home in Norfolk, at Costessey, four miles from
Norwich. Villiers returned to England with a great reputation, although
his Spanish policy was attacked in the House of Lords. In that same
year, 1839, he joined Lord Melbourne's administration as Lord Privy
Seal, O'Connell at the time declaring that he ought to be made
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, so sympathetic was he towards concession and
conciliation in that then feverishly excited country. This office
actually came to him in 1847, and he was Lord-Lieutenant through that
dark period of Ireland's history, including the Famine, the Young
Ireland rebellion, and the Smith O'Brien rising. He pleased no one in
Ireland. No English statesman could ever have done so under such ideals
of government as England would have tolerated then, and for long years
afterwards. The Whigs defended him, the Tories abused him, in their
respective organs. He left Ireland in 1852 and was more than once
mentioned as possible Prime Minister in the ensuing years. He was
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Aberdeen's Administration
during the Crimean War, and he held the same office under Lord
Palmerston, again under Earl Russell in 1865, and under Mr. Gladstone in
1868. He might easily have become Prime Minister. Greville in his
_Diary_ writes of Prince Albert's desire that he should succeed Lord
John Russell, but Clarendon said that no power on earth would make him
take that position. He said he could not speak, and had not had
parliamentary experience enough. He died in 1870, leaving a reputation
as a skilful diplomatist and a disinterested politician, if not that of
a great statesman. He had twice refused the Governor-Generalship of
India, and three times a marquisate.

Sir George Villiers seems to have been very courteous to Borrow during
the whole of the time they were togethe