TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE, a negro hero of Hayti, born, the son of an African slave at Breda; took part in the native insurrection of 1791, and in 1797 became a general of brigade in the service of the French, and by gallant soldiership cleared the English and Spanish out of Hayti; became president for life of the republic of Hayti, and began to work for the complete independence of the island; in 1801, when Napoleon endeavoured to re-introduce slavery, he revolted, but was subdued by a strong French force and taken to France, where he died in prison; is the subject of a well-known sonnet by Wordsworth (1743-1803).

TOWER HAMLETS, a parliamentary division of London E. of the city, originally a group of hamlets at one time within the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant of the Tower.

TOWERS OF SILENCE, towers in Persia and India, some 60 ft. in height, on the top of which the Parsees deposit their dead to be gnawed by vultures.

TOWNSHEND, CHARLES, VISCOUNT, statesman, born at Raynham, Norfolk; succeeded to the title on his father’s death, and after taking his seat in the Upper House turned Whig, and soon became prominent in the party; was one of the commissioners who arranged the Scottish Union; accompanied Marlborough as joint-plenipotentiary to the Gertruydenburg Conference (1709); got into political trouble for signing the Barrier Treaty while acting as ambassador to the States-General; under George I. rose to high favour, became acknowledged leader of the Whigs, passed the Septennial Act, but after 1721 was eclipsed in the party by the greater abilities of Walpole, and after unpleasant rivalries was forced to withdraw from the ministry (1730); gave himself then to agricultural pursuits (1674-1738).

TOWNSHEND, CHARLES, statesman and orator, grandson of preceding; entered Parliament in 1747 as a Whig, and after his great speech against the Marriage Bill of 1753 ranked among the foremost orators of his day; held important offices of State under various ministers, Bute, Chatham, and Rockingham, and as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1767 was responsible for the imposition of the paper, tea, and other duties on the American colonies which provoked the War of Independence and led to the loss of the colonies; a man of brilliant gifts and noted wit, but led by what Burke termed “an immoderate love of fame” to play “the weathercock” in politics; died when on the point of attaining the premiership (1725-1767).

TOWTON, a village of Yorkshire, 3 m.  SE. of Tadcaster, where in 1461 Edward IV. at the head of the Yorkists completely routed the Lancastrians under the Duke of Somerset.

TOYNBEE HALL, an institution in Whitechapel, London, founded in 1885 for the social welfare of the poor in the district, established in memory of Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883), who had come under Ruskin’s influence and took a deep interest in the working-classes, his zeal for whose benefit shortened his days.

TRACTARIANISM, the tenets of the High Church party in the English Church advocated in “Tracts for the Times,” published at Oxford between 1833 and 1841, the chief doctrine of which was that the Church, through its sacraments in the hands of a regularly-ordained clergy, is the only divinely-appointed channel of the grace of Christ.