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PALMERSTON, HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, 3RD VI...
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See also:PALMERSTON, See also: Through the See also:interest of his guardians Lord See also:Malmesbury and Lord See also:Chichester, the See also:duke of See also:Portland made him one of the junior lords of the See also:Admiralty on the formation of his See also:administration in 1807. A few months later he delivered his See also:maiden speech in the House of Commons in See also:defence of the expedition against See also:Copenhagen, which he conceived to be justified by the known designs of See also:Napoleon on the Danish See also:court. This speech was so successful that when See also:Perceval formed his See also:government in 1809, he proposed_to this See also:young See also:man of five-and-twenty to take the chancellorship of the See also:exchequer. Lord Palmerston, however, preferred the less important See also:office of secretary-at-See also:war, charged exclusively with the See also:financial business of the See also:army, without a seat in the See also:cabinet, and in this position he remained, without any signs of an ambitious temperament or of great political abilities, for twenty years (1809-1828). During the whole of that 'See also:period Lord Palmerston was chiefly known as a man of See also:fashion, and a subordinate See also:minister without See also:influence on the See also:general policy of the cabinets he served. Some of the most humorous poetical pieces in the New Whig See also:Guide were from his See also:pen, and he was entirely devoted, like his See also:friends See also:Peel and See also:Croker, to the Tory party of that See also:day. Lord Palmerston never was a Whig, still less a See also:Radical; he was a statesman of the old English aristocratic type, liberal in his sentiments, favourable to the march of progress, but entirely opposed to the claims of democratic government. In the later years of Lord See also:Liverpool's administration, after the death of Lord See also:Londonderry in 1822, strong dissensions existed in the cabinet. The Liberal See also:section of the government was gaining ground. See also:Canning became See also:foreign minister and See also:leader of the House of Commons. See also:Huskisson began to See also:advocate and apply the doctrines of See also:free See also:trade. See also:Roman See also:Catholic emancipation was made an open question. Although Lord Palmerston was not in the cabinet, he cordially supported the See also:measures of Canning and his friends. Upon the death of Lord Liverpool, Canning was called to the See also:head of affairs; the Tories, including Peel, withdrew their support, and an See also:alliance was formed between the Liberal members of the See also:late See also:ministry and the Whigs. In this See also:combination the chancellorship of the exchequer was first offered to Lord Palmerston, who accepted it, but this See also:appointment was frustrated by the See also: The See also:kingdom of the Nether-lands was See also:rent asunder by the Belgian revolution; See also:Portugal was the See also:scene of See also:civil war; the See also:Spanish See also:succession was about to open and place an See also:infant princess on the See also:throne. See also:Poland was in arms against See also:Russia, and the See also:northern See also:powers formed a closer alliance, threatening to the See also:peace and the liberties of Europe. In presence of these varied dangers, Lord Palmerston was prepared to See also:act with spirit and See also:resolution, and the result was a notable achievement of his See also:diplomacy. The king of the See also:Netherlands had appealed to the powers who had placed him on the throne to maintain his rights; and a See also:conference assembled accordingly in See also:London to See also:settle the question, which involved the See also:independence of See also:Belgium and the See also:security of See also:England. On the one See also:hand, the northern powers were anxious to defend the king of See also: France, however, had been a reluctant party to this treaty. She never executed her share in it with zeal or fidelity. See also: Against Russia he had See also:long maintained a suspicious and hostile attitude. He was a party to the publication of the " See also:Portfolio " in 1834, and to the See also:mission of the " Vixen " to force the See also:blockade of See also:Circassia about the same time. He regarded the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi which Russia extorted from the Porte in 1832, when she came to the See also:relief of the See also:sultan after the See also:battle of Konieh, with great jealousy; and, when the See also:power of Mehemet See also:Ali in See also:Egypt appeared to threaten the existence of the Ottoman See also:dynasty, he succeeded in effecting a combination of all the powers,who signed the celebrated collective See also:note of the 27th of July 1839, pledging them to maintain the independence and integrity of the Turkish Empire as a security for the peace of Europe. On two former occasions, in 1833 and in 1835, the policy of Lord Palmerston, who proposed to afford material aid to the Porte against the See also:pasha of Egypt, was overruled by the cabinet; and again, in 1839, when See also:Baron See also:Brunnow first proposed the active interference of Russia and England, the offer was rejected. But in 1840 Lord Palmerston returned to the See also:charge and prevailed. The moment was See also:critical, for Mehemet Ali had occupied See also:Syria and won the battle of Nezib against the Turkish forces, and on the 1st of July 1839 the sultan Mohammed expired. The See also:Egyptian forces occupied Syria, and threatened Turkey; and Lord See also:Ponsonby, then British See also:ambassador at See also:Constantinople, vehemently urged the See also:necessity of crushing so formidable a See also:rebellion against the Ottoman power. But France, though her ambassador had signed the collective note in the previous year, declined to be a party to measures of See also:coercion against the pasha of Egypt. Palmerston, irritated at her Egyptian policy, flung himself into the arms of the northern powers, and the treaty of the 15th of July 184o was signed in London without the knowledge or concurrence of France. This measure was not taken without great hesitation, and strong opposition on the See also:part of several members of the British cabinet. Lord Palmerston himself declared in a See also:letter to Lord Melbourne that he should quit the ministry if his policy was not adopted; and he carried his point. The See also:bombardment of See also:Beirut, the fall of See also:Acre, and the See also:total collapse of the boasted power of Mehemet Ali followed in rapid succession, and before the close of the year Lord Palmerston's policy, which had convulsed and terrified Europe, was triumphant, and the author of it was regarded .as one of the most powerful statesmen of the age. At the same time, though acting with Russia in the See also:Levant, the British government engaged in the affairs of See also:Afghanistan to defeat her intrigues'in Central See also:Asia, and a contest with See also:China was terminated by the See also:conquest of See also:Chusan, afterwards exchanged for the See also:island of Hong-See also:Kong. Within a few months Lord Melbourne's administration came to an end (1841), and Lord Palmerston remained for five years out of office. The crisis was past, but the See also:change which took place by the substitution of M. See also:Guizot for M. Thiers in France, and of Lord See also:Aberdeen for Lord Palmerston in England, was a fortunate event for the peace of the See also:world. Lord Palmerston had adopted the See also:opinion that peace with France was not to be relied on, and indeed that war between the two countries was sooner or later inevitable. Lord Aberdeen and M. Guizot inaugurated a different policy; by mutual confidence and friendly offices they entirely succeeded in restoring the most cordial understanding between the two governments, and the irritation which Lord Palmerston had inflamed gradually subsided. During the administration of Sir See also:Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston led a retired life, but he attacked with characteristic bitterness the See also:Ashburton treaty with the United States, which closedsuccessfully some other questions he had long kept open. In all these transactions, whilst full See also:justice must be done to the force and patriotic vigour which Lord Palmerston brought to See also:bear on the questions he took in hand, it was but too apparent that he imported into them an amount of See also:passion, of personal animosity, and imperious language which rendered him in the eyes of the See also:queen and of his colleagues a dangerous minister. On this ground, when Lord John See also:Russell attempted, in See also:December 1845, to See also:form a ministry, the combination failed because Lord Grey refused to join a government in which Lord Palmerston should resume the direction of foreign affairs. A few months later, however, this difficulty was surmounted; the Whigs returned to power, and Palmerston to the foreign office (July 1846), with a strong assurance that Lord John Russell should exercise a strict See also:control over his proceedings. A few days sufficed to show how vain was this expectation. The French government regarded the appointment of Palmerston as a certain sign of renewed hostilities, and they availed themselves of a despatch in which Palmerston had put forward the name of a Coburg prince as a See also:candidate for the hand of the young queen of Spain, as a See also:justification for a departure from the engagements entered into between M. Guizot and Lord Aberdeen. However little the conduct of the French government in this transaction of the Spanish marriages can be vindicated, it is certain that it originated in the belief that in Palmerston France had a restless and subtle enemy. The efforts of the British minister to defeat the French marriages of the Spanish princesses, by an See also:appeal to the treaty of See also:Utrecht and the other powers of Europe, were wholly unsuccessful; France won the See also:game, though with no small loss of See also:honourable reputation. The revolution of 1848 spread like a conflagration through Europe, and shook every throne on the Continent except those of Russia, Spain, and Belgium. Palmerston sympathized, or was supposed to sympathize, openly with the revolutionary party abroad. No See also:state was regarded by him with more aversion than See also:Austria. Yet his opposition to Austria was chiefly based upon her occupation of great part of See also:Italy and her See also:Italian policy, for Palmerston maintained that the existence of Austria as a great power See also:north of the See also:Alps was an essential See also:element in the See also:system of Europe. Antipathies and sympathies had a large share in the political views of Lord Palmerston, and his sympathies had ever been passionately awakened by the cause of Italian independence. He supported the Sicilians against the king of See also:Naples, and even allowed arms to be sent them from the See also:arsenal at See also:Woolwich; and, although he had endeavoured to restrain the king of See also:Sardinia from his rash attack on the See also:superior forces of Austria, he obtained for him a reduction of the See also:penalty of defeat. Austria, weakened by the revolution, sent an See also:envoy to London to See also:request the See also:mediation of England, based on a large cession of Italian territory; Lord Palmerston rejected the terms he might have obtained for See also:Piedmont. Ere long the reaction came; this See also:straw-See also:fire of revolution burnt itself out in a couple of years. In See also:Hungary the civil war, which had thundered at the See also:gates of See also:Vienna, was brought to a close by See also:Russian intervention. Prince See also:Schwarzenberg assumed the government of the empire with dictatorial power; and, in spite of what Palmerston termed his " judicious See also:bottle-holding," the See also:movement he had encouraged and applauded, but to which he could give no material aid, was everywhere subdued. The British government, or at least Palmerston as its representative, was regarded with suspicion and resentment by every power in Europe, except the French See also:republic; and even that was shortly afterwards to be alienated by Palmerston's attack on Greece. This state of things was regarded with the utmost annoyance by the British court and by most of the British ministers. Palmerston had on many occasions taken important steps without their knowledge, which they disapproved. Over the Foreign Office he asserted and exercised an arbitrary dominion, which the feeble efforts of the premier could not control. The queen and the prince See also:consort (see See also:VICTORIA, QUEEN) did not conceal their indignation at the position in which he had placed them with all the other courts of Europe. When See also:Kossuth, the Hungarian leader, landed in England, Palmerston proposed to receive him at Broadlands, a See also:design which was only prevented by a See also:peremptory See also:vote of the cabinet; and in 185o he took See also:advantage of Don Pacifico's very questionable claims on the Hellenic government to organize an attack on the little kingdom of Greece.' Greece being a state under the See also:joint See also:protection of three powers, Russia and France protested against its coercion by the British See also:fleet, and the French ambassador temporarily left London, which promptly led to the termination of the affair. But it was taken up in parliament with great warmth. After a memorable debate (June 17), Palmerston's policy was condemned by a vote of the House of Lords. The House of Commons was moved by See also:Roebuck to See also:reverse the See also:sentence, which it did (June 29) by a See also:majority of 46, after having heard from Palmerston the most eloquent and powerful speech ever delivered by him, in which he sought to vindicate, not only his claims on the Greek government for Don Pacifico, but his entire administration of foreign affairs. It was in this speech, which lasted five See also:hours, that Palmerston made the well-known See also:declaration that a British subject—" Civis See also:Romanus sum "—ought everywhere to be protected by the strong See also:arm of the British government against injustice and wrong. Yet, notwithstanding this See also:parliamentary See also:triumph, there were not a few of his own colleagues and supporters who condemned the spirit in which the foreign relations of the See also:Crown were carried on; and in that same year the queen addressed a See also:minute to the See also:prime minister in which she recorded her dissatisfaction at the manner in which Lord Palmerston evaded the See also:obligation to submit his measures for the royal See also:sanction as failing in sincerity to the Crown. This minute was communicated to Palmerston, who did not resign upon it. These various circumstances, and many more, had given rise to distrust and uneasiness in the cabinet, and these feelings reached their See also:climax when Palmerston, on the occurrence of the coup d'etat by which Louis Napoleon made himself master of France, expressed to the French ambassador in London, without the concurrence of his colleagues, his personal approval of that act. Upon this Lord John Russell advised his dismissal from office (Dec. 1851). Palmerston speedily avenged himself by turning out the government on a See also:militia See also:bill; but although he survived for many years, and twice filled the highest office in the state, his career as foreign minister ended for ever,•and he returned to the foreign office no more. Indeed, he assured Lord Aberdeen, in 1853, that he did not wish to resume the See also:seals of that department. Not-withstanding the zeal and ability which he had invariably displayed as foreign minister, it had long been felt by his See also:col-leagues that his eager and frequent interference in the affairs of foreign countries, his imperious temper, the extreme acerbity of his Ianguage abroad, of which there are ample proofs in his published correspondence, and the evasions and artifices he employed to carry his points at See also:home, rendered him a dangerous representative of the foreign interests of the See also:country. But the See also:lesson of his dismissal was not altogether lost on him. Although his great reputation was chiefly earned as a foreign minister, it may be said that the last ten years of his life, in which he filled other offices, were not the least useful or dignified portion of his career. Upon the formation of the cabinet of 1853, which was composed by the junction of the surviving followers of Sir Robert Peel with the Whigs, under the See also:earl of Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston accepted with the best possible See also:grace the office of secretary of state for the home office, nor was he ever chargeable with the slightest attempt to undermine that Government. At one moment he withdrew from it, because Lord John Russell persisted in presenting a project of reform which appeared to him entirely out of See also:season; and he advocated, with See also:reason, measures ' See also:David Pacifico (1784–1854) was a Portuguese See also:Jew, born a British subject at See also:Gibraltar. He became a See also:merchant at See also:Athens, and in 1847 his house was burnt down in an See also:anti-Semitic See also:riot. Pacifico brought an See also:action, laying the See also:damages at 26,000. At the same time See also:George See also:Finlay, the historian, was urging his own grievances against the Greek government, and as both claims were repudiated Palmerston took them up. Eventually Pacifico received a substantial sum.of greater energy on the approach of war, which might possibly, if they had been adopted, have averted the contest with Russia. As the difficulties of the See also:Crimean See also:campaign increased, it was not Lord Palmerston but Lord John Russell who See also:broke up the government by refusing to meet Roebuck's See also:motion of inquiry. Palmerston remained faithful and loyal to his colleagues in the See also:hour of danger. Upon the resignation of Lord Aberdeen and the duke of See also:Newcastle, the general sentiment of the House of Commons and the country called Palmerston to the head of affairs, and he entered, on the 5th of See also:February 1855, upon the high office, which he retained, with one See also:short See also:interval, to the day of his death. Palmerston was in the seventy-first year of his life when he became prime minister of England. A See also:series of fortunate events followed his See also:accession to power. In March 1855 the death of the See also:emperor See also:Nicholas removed his chief antagonist. In September See also:Sevastopol was taken. The administration of the British army was reformed by a consolidation of offices. In the following spring peace was signed in Paris. Never since See also:Pitt had a minister enjoyed a greater. share of popularity and power, and, unlike Pitt, Palmerston had the See also:prestige of victory in war. He was assailed in parliament by the eloquence of See also:Gladstone, the sarcasms of Disraeli, and the animosity of the See also:Manchester Radicals, but the country was with him. Defeated by a hostile combination of parties in the House of Commons on the question of the See also:Chinese war in 1857 and the alleged insult to the British See also:flag in the seizure of the lorcha " Arrow," he dissolved parliament and appealed to the nation. The result was the utter defeat of the extreme Radical party and the return of a more compact Liberal majority. The great events of the succeeding years, the See also:Indian See also:Mutiny, and the invasion of Italy by Napoleon III., belong rather to the general See also:history of the times than to the life of Palmerston; but it was fortunate that a strong and able government was at the head of affairs. Lord See also:Derby's second administration of 1858 lasted but a single year, Palmerston having casually been defeated on a measure for removing conspiracies to See also:murder abroad from the class of See also:misdemeanour to that of See also:felony, which was introduced in consequence of See also:Orsini's attempt on the life of the emperor of the French. But in June 1859 Palmerston returned to power, and it was on this occasion that he proposed to See also:Cobden, one of his most constant opponents, to take office, and on the refusal of that See also:gentleman See also:Milner See also:Gibson was appointed to the See also:board of trade, although he had been the prime mover of the defeat of the government on the See also:Conspiracy Bill. Palmerston had learnt by experience that it was wiser to conciliate an opponent than to attempt to crush him, and that the imperious See also:tone he had sometimes adopted in the House of Commons, and his supposed obsequiousness to the emperor of the French, were the causes of the temporary reverse he had sustained. Although Palmerston approved the objects of the French invasion of Italy in so far as they went to establish Italian independence, the See also:annexation of See also:Savoy and See also:Nice to France was an incident which revived his old suspicions of the See also:good faith of the French emperor. About this time he expressed to the duke of See also:Somerset his conviction that Napoleon HI. "had at the bottom of his See also:heart a deep and unextinguishable See also:desire to humble and punish England," and that war with France was a contingency to be provided against. The unprotected See also:condition of the See also:principal British fortresses and arsenals had long attracted his attention, and he succeeded in inducing the House of Commons to vote nine millions for the fortification of those important points. In 1856 the projects for cutting a navigable See also:canal through the See also:Isthmus of See also:Suez was brought forward by M. de See also:Lesseps, and resisted by Palmerston with all the See also:weight he could bring to bear against it. He did not foresee the advantages to be derived by British See also:commerce from this great See also:work, and he was strongly opposed to the establishment of a powerful French See also:company on the See also:soil of Egypt. The concession of land to the company was reduced by his intervention, but in other respects the work proceeded and was accomplished. It may here be mentioned, as a remarkable instance of his foresight, that Palmerston told Lord Malmesbury, on his accession to the foreign office in 1858, that the chief reason of his opposition to the canal was this: he believed that, if the canal was made and proved successful, Great See also:Britain, as the first See also:mercantile state, and that most closely connected with the East, would be the power most interested in it; that England would therefore be See also:drawn irresistibly into a more direct interference in Egypt, which it was desirable to avoid because England had already enough upon her hands, and because intervention might See also:lead to a rupture with France. He therefore preferred that no such line of communication should be opened. Upon the outbreak of the See also:American Civil War in 1861, Lord Palmerston acknowledged that it was the See also:duty of the British government to stand aloof from the fray; but his own opinion led him rather to desire than to avert the rupture of the See also:Union, which might have been the result of a refusal on the part of England and France to recognize a blockade of the See also:Southern ports, which was notoriously imperfect, and extremely prejudicial to the interests of Europe. The cabinet was not of this opinion, and, although the belligerent rights of the See also:South were promptly recognized, the See also:neutrality of the Government was strictly observed. When, however, the Southern envoys were taken by force from the " See also:Trent," a British packet, Palmerston did not hesitate a moment to insist upon a full and See also:complete reparation for so See also:gross an infraction of See also:international See also:law. But the difficulty with the American government over the " See also:Alabama " and other vessels, fitted out in British ports to help the Southern cause, was only settled at last (see ALABAMA See also:ARBITRATION) by an See also:award extremely onerous to England. The last transaction in which Palmerston engaged arose out of the attack by the Germanic See also:Confederation, and its leading states Austria and See also:Prussia, on the kingdom of See also:Denmark and the duchies of See also:Schleswig and See also:Holstein. There was but one feeling in the British public and the nation as to the dishonest character of that unprovoked aggression, and it was foreseen that Austria would ere long have reason to repent her share in it. Palmerston endeavoured to induce France and Russia to concur with England in maintaining the Treaty of London, which had guaranteed the integrity of the Danish dominions. But those powers, for reasons of their own, stood aloof, and the conference held in London in 1864 was without effect. A proposal to send the British fleet into the Baltic was overruled, and the result was that Denmark was left to her own resources against her formidable opponents. In the following year, on the 18th of October 1865, Lord Palmerston expired at Brocket See also: Cowper-Temple, afterwards Baron See also:Mount Temple, and then to her grandson See also:Evelyn See also:Ashley (1836–1907) son of her daughter, who married the 7th earl of See also:Shaftesbury—who was Lord Palmerston's private secretary from 1858 to 1865. The Life of Lord Palmerston, by Lord Dalling (2 vols., 1870), with valuable selections from the minister's autobiographical diaries and private correspondence, only came down to 1847, and wascompleted by Evelyn Ashley (vol. iii., 1874 ; iv., v., 1876). The whole was re-edited by Mr Ashley, in two volumes (1879),, the See also:standard See also:biography. The Life by See also:Lloyd See also:Sanders (1888) is an excellent shorter work. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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