HUBERT. BEAUMONT
 
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 EDITED BY 
 
 STUART J. REID
 
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 URL
 
 VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, K.G. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 MARQUIS OF LORNE, K.T. 
 
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 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
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 1892 
 
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 P REPACK 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON'S long and busy life extended over more 
 than eighty years, and for nearly sixty of those years he was 
 almost continuously in office. He left behind him an 
 enormous amount of correspondence, official and private, 
 and considerable manuscript material dealing with his 
 actions and opinions. This being so, in the preparation 
 of this brief life the plan has been deliberately chosen of 
 allowing him to speak, wherever this could be done, and 
 thus indicate in his own way, at all prominent points in his 
 career, the objects and motives that influenced him. At 
 the same time, it must be borne in mind that he lived too 
 near the present time to allow of the publication of much 
 that he wrote. Although it is undesirable to repeat what 
 has been already so well told by Lord Palling and Mr. 
 Evelyn Ashley, it has been impossible to avoid occasion- 
 ally traversing the same ground. Special interest attaches 
 to many quotations in this volume from the fact that the 
 author has had access to a large mass of unpublished 
 material, and some of the letters quoted, and almost all 
 the long comments and criticisms upon public affairs from
 
 vi LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the pen of Palmcrston, appear in print for the first time in 
 these pages. 
 
 To show how Lord Palmerston did his duty, what 
 he thought was his duty, and why he thought the line he 
 took should he followed, is the kind of biography he 
 himself would have liked best, and this, within the limits 
 assigned, is what the author has attempted. Palmerston 
 never cared for fulsome adulation, nor would he have 
 desired to be painted either as a saint or a demi-god. 
 He was a 'fair and square' political fighter, who made 
 his way to power when and where he could, but always 
 by above-board work, and always by expressing in public 
 the reasons he gave in private. To bespatter him with 
 flattering epithets would have seemed to his straight- 
 forward and unimaginative temperament misplaced atten- 
 tion and in the worst possible taste praise absurd in 
 form, as silly in thought. 
 
 He would have said to such people, if they desired 
 to praise him for old age and length of office, what his 
 colleague, Wellington, said to a worshipper who, seeing 
 the old Duke about to cross alone the crowded street 
 from the Green Park to Apsley House, begged to be 
 allowed to escort him. After the worshipper had walked 
 with the Duke across to the pavement near the Duke's 
 house, the gentleman who had thus volunteered his com- 
 pany took off his hat to the Field-Marshal, and, with a 
 low bow, expressed his deep sense of the high honour that 
 had been permitted to him, &c. On which the old Duke,
 
 PREFACE Vli 
 
 standing on the pavement, turned his eagle nose and blue 
 eyes on him, and said only, ' Don't be such a damned 
 fool, sir I ' 
 
 Sentiment, unless sentiment had sense at its back, had 
 no attraction for these men. They could both govern 
 without ' gush,' or the impulse devoid of prudence which 
 often garnishes the speech of the politician catering to feed 
 the crowd's enthusiasm of the moment. He looked at both 
 sides of a question, and did not hasten to champion one 
 aspect of the matter simply because it had christened itself 
 ' Justice,' or ' Right,' or ' Liberal.' Thus of Ireland he said, 
 ' "Tenants' right " is often "landlords' wrong," ' and he sifted 
 down the big words of ' gush ' until he got the fine sand of 
 truth. It has been said that genius consists in taking pains, 
 but the saying is of doubtful value. Palmerston was 
 emphatically painstaking, but he was not a genius, whose 
 work may be manifold, but whose career is seldom steady. 
 Genius is more apt to give trouble to others than to take 
 pains itself. 1'almerston had a good head, good health 
 which is seldom found with genius, and a matter-of-fact 
 way of going ahead, making his experience of one matter 
 the solid step from which to judge of the next that came 
 before him. He repeated himself over and over again 
 consistently, in act as well as in phrase a very ungenius- 
 like quality. A plain Englishman, with many an English- 
 man's want of the feminine attributes of character, but 
 with most of its best masculine qualities, he plodded on, 
 and finally won that goal of an English statesman's ambition
 
 viii LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the honourable, but not always enviable, position of First 
 Minister of the Crown. 
 
 Palmerston was, in a sense, fortunate in the period of 
 his life and work. He would in all probability have felt 
 himself strangely out of place in this last decade of the 
 nineteenth century. But with shrewd sagacity he knew 
 how to take fortune at the flood, and if he cannot rank 
 with the greatest of England's Prime Ministers, his career 
 testifies to his own abilities, and also enables us to judge 
 the men and the political forces of the generation to which 
 he belonged.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 - ., . !: Kf '-'-' 
 
 1. 1 ARIA 1. 1 VI: AND KIH'CATIOV . . I 
 
 II. ENTRANCE INTO F'UUI.IC LI I I- 
 
 III. >ECRKTARY AT WAR. iSoQ-lSlS . ... l~ 
 
 IV. IN Till: CAHINET AM) IN OlM'OMTION, 1827 1830 . 3" 
 V. I-OREKIN MINISTER KilR Till- riKST !TMI-. 
 
 1830 1841 ... . . 65 
 
 \ 1. IN Ol'I'OSliION AND AC.AIN AT TIM. 1-uKKICN 
 <'KHCI., l84t iSil .... 
 
 vn. PAI.MERSTON'S FOREICN POI.ICV FROM 1848 1850 101 
 
 vm. THE; SUMMARV DISMISSAL I-KOM THL FORLIGN 
 
 OKFICK 151 
 
 IX. DKH 1'INf, INTO WAR 147 
 
 X. i'KIMI MINI. VI I R 10K TIH IIRS1 IIM1. . . . 1 6 ; 
 
 XI. PRIME .MIXI.-'II.R A SI (ONI) TIMI. .... K;O 
 
 XII. -i.>Ml PKKSC\AL CHAKAC I I RISTU > Ol I.OkI> 
 
 I'AI.MKR>TC>N ^1 i 
 
 INDEX
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 
 
 HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, afterwards Lord Palmerston, was horn 
 at Broadlands, the family seat in Hampshire, on October 
 20, 1784. He sprang from an old family, proud of their 
 descent. He came in direct line from the younger brother 
 of Sir William Temple, the friend of William III., who was 
 Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and whose son, 
 Henry, was made an Irish peer in 1722. His grandson 
 married a Miss Mee, who belonged to a Gloucestershire 
 family, and who by this marriage became the mother of 
 the future Prime Minister. 
 
 In 1795, at the age of eleven, young Henry Temple was 
 sent to Harrow, and when two years had passed, according 
 to the testimony of an old school friend, he had acquired 
 the reputation of being the best-tempered and most plucky 
 boy in the school. 
 
 That he was full of life and fun is shown by some 
 extracts from his schoolboy letters to his mother, addressed 
 to Catharine Place, Bath : 
 
 ' We came down very jolly all the way ; ' but at an inn 
 
 B
 
 2 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 there was some mistake about fresh horses, ' and Mr. Stanly 
 was in a great passion, and swore at the man, for, by the 
 way, all his horses were out with the lawyers, for the quarter 
 sessions were then on.' This Mr. Stanly must have been 
 good ballast, for young H. Temple writes in another letter : 
 ' Mr. S. may be very agreeable in a house, but he is very dis- 
 agreeable to go in a post-chaise with he sits ten foot broad.' 
 During his school days at Harrow he wrote a letter in Italian 
 and in French in order to show off his accomplishments. 
 * I hope that brother and sisters all ride out with as much 
 courage as before I left you, and that the black pony has 
 not run away with anybody.' Of an old character about the 
 place he says : ' Dicky Martin, famous for his lies, hobbles 
 about with his stick, and is very attentive to find out new 
 ways of cheating.' He gives many details of the plays he 
 saw when in London during a vacation. 'I wish you 
 would send me two pairs of stumps for cricket, and a good 
 bat. We have accepted the challenge sent us by the Eton 
 boys, who have challenged us to fight, not with cannon and 
 balls, but with bats and balls, eighteen against eighteen.' 
 ' We are going to town to-day to see the King and Queen, 
 and Fortune's Fool; I do not know what the pantomime 
 will be. I want a new hat, and new coat and breeches. 1 ' I 
 got a little cold, which I caught the night I came here by 
 getting up in my sleep, and sitting down upon the foot of 
 my bed, I dare say.' ' I saw the King, Queen, and five 
 Princesses, but as they were in mourning it was not very 
 brilliant ; the Queen gives me the idea of a housemaid, 
 and the King is a good-looking man.' It was often re- 
 marked in after years that reverence was not a failing of 
 Lord Palmerston's ! ' Have you heard the joke of our 
 cannons having made the Holy Trinidad more holy ? I
 
 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 3 
 
 suppose you know that Sir John Jervis is gone after another 
 fleet loaded with dollars to the amount of two or three 
 million.' 
 
 There was a strike of which Henry Temple much 
 approved. A half-holiday had been expected and not ob- 
 tained, ' therefore we all determined not to go into school 
 after dinner, of which the Doctor hearing, threatened if we 
 did not, to expel all the big boys. At last at a meeting it 
 was determined to give the point, and go into school.' ' The 
 boy whom we tossed in a blanket for stealing four shillings 
 has made ample amends for it, having not only paid the boy 
 from whom he stole it, but given him a hare and a pheasant 
 he had sent to him. Lord Althorp is come back with a very 
 bad cold and headache, which he caught going down to the 
 Hove with his Majesty, having been upon deck all night 
 when it blew a heavy gale.' ' A man came here to-day with 
 a nest of hedgehogs in a basket. If I had known where to 
 have put it, I should certainly have. bought one to keep 
 Fanny's guinea-pig company, for he must be very solitary.' 
 ' We are both very well in health, tho' not in beauty, Willy's 
 lip being rather swelled by a lick with a ball, and my two 
 blue eyes being exchanged for two black ones in consequence 
 of a battle.' ' Willy ' was the brother with whom in later 
 years Lord Palmerston so constantly corresponded. 
 
 In those times, perhaps more than at present, it was the 
 custom to send youths to some intermediate place of learn- 
 ing before they entered the English Universities. Brougham, 
 Russell, and Palmerston were sent to Scotland, not to take 
 their chance in lodgings as did other students, but to be 
 placed with 1'rofessors of the Universities of Glasgow or 
 Edinburgh. Dugald Stewart had a high reputation, and 
 it was to him at Edinburgh in 1800 that young Palmerston
 
 4 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 was sent. Stewart was then at the height of his fame, 
 and Henry Temple, as he then was, carefully copied out 
 the professor's lectures. ' In these three years,' he wrote long 
 after, ' I laid the foundation of whatever useful knowledge 
 and habits of mind I possess.' Professor Dugald Stewart's 
 opinion of his pupil is given in a letter dated April 27, 1801 : 
 ' With respect to Mr. Temple, it is sufficient for me to 
 say that he has completely confirmed all the favourable im- 
 pressions which I received of him. His talents are un- 
 commonly good, and he does them all possible justice by 
 assiduous application. In point of temper and conduct he 
 is everything his friends could wish. Indeed I cannot say 
 that I have ever seen a more faultless character at his time 
 of life, or one possessed of more amiable disposition.' 
 
 To his mother he was always most loving and respectful, 
 repaying the devotion she showed to him in full. On 
 April 17, 1802, his father died, and the lad, who was now in 
 his eighteenth year, succeeded to the family title. His mother 
 addressed a long and solemn letter to him, counselling him 
 as to his future life, advising him to remain at Edinburgh 
 until Professor Dugald Stewart's classes were over, and 
 then to enter Cambridge. There was not one of the 
 wishes expressed by the father in regard to the son's 
 education which was not strictly carried out by his 
 mother. To the wisdom of both parents he was indebted 
 for the excellent start he made in life. He had on his side 
 rank and wealth, but these are often temptations rather 
 than advantages. Luckily for him, the early initiation into 
 political life far more easily accomplished a century ago 
 than at present held him by its interests and threw over 
 the early years of his manhood its peculiar spell. It was his 
 mother, too, who led him to visit his Irish estates as soon
 
 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 5 
 
 as possible, and her constant aim was to make her buys 
 truthful, and manly, apt at languages, and diligent in 
 study. 
 
 In 1803 Pahnerston removed from Edinburgh to St. 
 John's, Cambridge, where he remained until 1806, when he 
 was called on to take part in an electoral contest. Two 
 years after he had entered college he lost his mother, of 
 whose loss he spoke with the most bitter sorrow. His own 
 letters and extracts from them will here, as later, be quoted, 
 since the true way to show what a man was is to let him 
 speak for himself. No gloss of his words, no translation of 
 his feelings into the words of a critic or narrator, can be M; 
 satisfactory as the quotations of letters describing his own 
 feelings from time to time as events shaped his career. 
 Those written at this time to ' my dear Fanny,' his sister, 
 give us much insight into Lord Palmerston's habits, thoughts, 
 and character while at Cambridge : 
 
 'Your pen was so bad you could not even spell with 
 it "... Then after a passage about a horse, and a masque- 
 rade : ' I am glad to hear the King is getting better, and I 
 hope he will soon recover entirely, and I dare say you 
 heartily concur with me, both from your loyalty and l;o;n 
 your impatience to enjoy the pleasure of being presented. . . 
 You have now some hopes of breaking your shell, which 
 was rather a forlorn hope, and it would have been a great 
 pity to have provided all your salt smelling bottles in vain. 
 ... I hear there is only one objection to the plan of blocking 
 up the Boulogne Harbour, which is that it is wholly imprac- 
 ticable. ' He writes a good deal about music, of which he was 
 very fond, and concerts, and the songr, that were well sung 
 are always mentioned. Then come in bits en politics. ' I 
 participate very sincerely in the general joy at the minister's
 
 6 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 exit. How well Ashburton will dance for the next fortnight I 
 I quite envy his partners. ... I have no doubt that Lord 
 B.'s marriage will be very happy, for I have seldom 
 seen a young lady who was on better terms with her- 
 self, and as he will be her better half, perhaps she may 
 transfer some portion of her esteem to him. ... I began 
 this letter last night, but was too sleepy to finish it, and 
 indeed I make it a rule always to be in bed by one o'clock, 
 as I am regularly up at seven. . . A friend of mine was in 
 company with one of Fox's intimates the other day, who 
 maintained that Pitt and Fox had always thought alike, and 
 that however they might have differed on particular subjects, 
 they always agreed upon the main principles of government. 
 When his friends hold such language, I think it is pretty 
 evident what Fox's plans are.' A tour with a friend is 
 discussed : ' I think that in five weeks at the utmost we 
 shall be able to see all the southern part of Wales, so, if we 
 set out at the end of June, we shall be at Broadlands at the 
 beginning of August.' 
 
 But his mind turns constantly to public affairs : 'What 
 a large proportion of titles there is on the Ministerial list ! 
 I thought Canning would come right again,' says this pre- 
 cocious undergraduate, 'and not quarrel with his bread 
 and butter. It never answers. I hear that Bonaparte has 
 offered advantageous terms of peace provided we recognise 
 the Emperorship. . . . You will no doubt by this time 
 know the cause of the confusion which reigned at Doncaster 
 when we passed through. The Sheffield and Rotherham 
 volunteers received in the morning orders by express to 
 march immediately to Doncaster. The cavalry just entered 
 when we arrived, and an express was sent on to town. A 
 court-martial that was sitting immediately broke up, and
 
 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION 7 
 
 the officers ran to the top of the steeple to see Rendle- 
 stone Beacon smoking. Nobody knew what the cause 
 of alarm was, but all supposed the French to be landed, 
 but whether at Liverpool, Scarboro', or Harrogate, none 
 could tell. In our mail coach companions we were very 
 lucky. We met with a Colonel Brown, who had served 
 during the whole of the American war, and commanded a 
 large body of Indians Choctaws, Cherokees, &c. ... I 
 suppose you have heard the account of the English 
 prisoners taken by the French and confined at Verdun. 
 They do not seem to be ill off, although indeed their 
 treatment must depend a great deal on the meaning of 
 those sottises for which they are liable to be shut up. I 
 hope that making bad puns did not come under that appel- 
 lation. If so I pity the Johnians who may be there.'
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 
 
 IN 1806 Lord Palmerston entered into a contest for the 
 representation in Parliament of the University of Cambridge, 
 and showed the same dogged determination which he ex- 
 hibited in all his after-life. In his autobiography he gives 
 the reasons which induced him to take this course, and a 
 very clear light they throw upon the University life of that 
 day. ' Dr. Outram, my private tutor at Cambridge, more 
 than once observed to me that, as I had always been in the 
 first class at College examinations, and had been commended 
 for the general regularity of my conduct, it would not be 
 amiss to turn my thoughts to standing for the University 
 whenever a vacancy might happen. My father died in 
 April, 1802, and I lost my mother in January, 1805. The 
 last misfortune delayed a few months the taking of my 
 degree as Master of Arts, which it was usual at that time 
 for noblemen to take as an honour, conferred without 
 examination, at the end of two years after admission. In 
 January, 1806, Mr. Pitt died, and the University had to 
 choose a new member as well as the King a new minister. 
 I was just of age and had not yet taken my degree, never- 
 theless I was advised by my friends at St. John's to stand.' 
 These reasons, inadequate as they seem now, and as 
 they were felt to be then, induced Palmerston to offer him-
 
 ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 9 
 
 self as a candidate for the seat. He canvassed everyone, 
 and though unknown in comparison with his rivals, Petty 
 and Althorp, afterwards Lords Lansdowne and Spencer, he 
 made a good fight, but came in last at the polling. 
 
 A curious estimate of Palmerston is expressed by Lord 
 Brougham, in a letter written to Lord Macaulay, in 1806, 
 in favour of his opponent, Lord H. Petty, when young 
 Palmerston had made up his mind to stand for Cambridge. 
 He was certainly young enough to excuse Lord Brougham 
 for misjudging a character that could not have been clearly 
 formed at that time : 
 
 ' The Government candidate is Lord Palmerston, a young 
 man who only left college a month ago and is devoid of all 
 qualifications for the place. I remember him well at Edin- 
 burgh, where he was at college for several years, and what 
 I know of his family and himself increases a hundredfold 
 my wish for Petty's success. The family are enemies to 
 Abolition in a degree that scarcely ever was exceeded. 
 I presume,' says the foreseeing Brougham, 'that he is so 
 himself. His maxim is that of all the objects of ambition 
 in the world the life of a courtier is the most brilliant. 
 Don't you think that the friends of the cause have the more 
 reason to support Petty the more strenuously ? ' The future 
 Chancellor made a very bad shot at the character of his 
 Edinburgh fellow-student the future Prime Minister! 
 
 Lord Brougham's letter is remarkable as showing how 
 little known Palmerston was even to his contemporaries, but 
 no opportunity was lost of making himself better known, and 
 after his defeat in the contest of 1806 his first Parlia- 
 mentary battle he stood for Cambridge in 1807 and was 
 again beaten ; this time by four votes only. ' I did not 
 certainly expect so large a number of voters,' he said, 'and
 
 IO LORD I'ALMEKSTON 
 
 at some future time I may meet with better success.' He 
 had not long to wait, and at the age of twenty-three found 
 himself member of the House of Commons for Newtown, in 
 the Isle of Wight, a constituency controlled by Sir Leonard 
 Holmes. A careful journal was kept by him at this time 
 and at intervals for many years afterwards, and the con- 
 ditions on which he was nominated by Sir Leonard are 
 mentioned in it. ' One condition was that I would never, 
 even for an election, set foot in the place so jealous was 
 the patron lest any attempt should be made to get a new 
 interest in the borough.' 
 
 Nothing can be clearer or more concise than the account 
 he gives in this journal of the events happening in Europe, 
 and much of it has been published by Lord Bailing, who 
 singles out an observation on Napoleon as showing great 
 sagacity. 'It is a singular circumstance in Buonaparte's 
 political conduct that, so far from concealing his designs, 
 he purposely publishes even the most violent of his pro- 
 jected innovations some time before they are put in execu- 
 tion ; and the consequence has uniformly been that, instead 
 of being alarmed and prepared to resist, the world has, 
 by anticipating conquests and changes, become by degrees 
 reconciled to them, and submitted almost without a murmur 
 to the mandates of the tyrant.' He writes of Fox when 
 he died : ' There scarcely ever lived a statesman for whom 
 as an individual the people felt more affection, or in whom 
 as a politician they placed less confidence.' He dissects 
 briefly and with quick penetration the popular movements 
 in politics, and states his views simply and briefly, and with 
 a maturity of thought very striking in one so young. 
 
 In 1807, a few months before he secured a seat in the 
 House of Commons for the first time, he was appointed a
 
 ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE II 
 
 Junior Lord of the Admiralty by the then Prime Minister, 
 the Duke of Portland. Thus early his interest in foreign 
 affairs was well known to his friends, and he would in the 
 same year have had the refusal of the Under- Secretaryship 
 had it not been accepted by a Mr. Bagot, to whom it had 
 been offered before Mr. Canning knew of Palmerston's wishes. 
 Nearly a generation, however, was to pass before he took his 
 place at the Foreign Office. 
 
 It was not until 1808 that Lord Palmerston delivered 
 his maiden speech. In a letter to his sister he gives his 
 own impression of the performance, one which, as usual, 
 differed considerably from that given by the hearers : 
 
 Admiralty: Feb. 4, 1808. 
 
 ' My dear Elizabeth, You will see by this day's paper 
 that I was tempted by some evil spirit to make a fool of 
 myself for the entertainment of the House last night ; how- 
 ever, I thought it was a good opportunity of breaking the 
 ice, although one should flounder a little in doing so, as it 
 was impossible to talk any very egregious nonsense upon 
 so good a cause. Canning's speech was one of the most 
 brilliant and convincing I ever heard ; it lasted near three 
 hours. He carried the House with him throughout, and I 
 have scarcely ever heard such loud and frequent cheers.' 
 
 How others viewed the speech is shown by the following 
 extract from a letter to his brother. The subject of debate 
 was the action of the Government in the expedition against 
 
 Copenhagen : 
 
 Admiralty : Feb. 6, 1808. 
 
 ' Many thanks for your congratulations. I certainly felt 
 glad when the thing was over, though I began to fear I had 
 exposed myself ; but my friends were so obliging as to say
 
 12 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 I had not talked much nonsense, and I began in a few 
 hours afterwards to be reconciled to my fate. The papers 
 have not been very liberal in their allowance of report to me ; 
 but the outline of what I said was as follows. In the first 
 place, that the House was, to a certain degree, pledged by 
 the address, in which they expressed their approbation of 
 the expedition ; but that the papers were in themselves 
 improper to be produced, as they would betray the sources 
 from whence we obtained intelligence, and expose the 
 authors to Buonaparte's vengeance. That they were un- 
 necessary, because the expedition could be justified without 
 them. That Zealand and the Danish fleet was an object to 
 France ; that the neutrality of Denmark would have been 
 no protection, as Buonaparte never did respect neutrality, 
 and was not likely to do so now, when the temptation was 
 the strongest, and his facility the greatest : and that in fact 
 it was evident he did intend to seize the fleet. That Den- 
 mark was unable to resist ; but, if she had possessed the 
 means, was unwilling to have exerted them, since it was 
 evident from various circumstances that she had determined 
 to join France.' 
 
 ' I was about half an hour on my legs ; I did not feel so 
 much alarmed as I expected to be. 
 
 ' Ever your affectionate brother, 
 
 ' PALMERSTON.' 
 
 It cannot be said that Palmerston's manner of speaking 
 was particularly good then or at any other time, but there 
 never was any doubt as to what he meant when once the 
 words were pronounced. He often hesitated some time 
 in search of the right word and phrase, and his oratory was 
 never distinguished for any art. It took its strength and
 
 ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 13 
 
 secured any effect it produced more because it proceeded 
 from the man than because it was beautiful either in sound 
 of voice or eloquence of expression. 
 
 Palmerston always found time amid his work to maintain 
 a lively correspondence with his immediate relatives and 
 friends, and the following extracts from his letters show him in 
 harness, but enjoying to the full the life alike of office and of 
 society. Thus, in writing to his sister while at the Admiralty, 
 he says : ' I am unable to come down to Broadlands, as we 
 are only three at the board, which is the minimum for an 
 official purpose. Our ball last night was very good. We 
 had two quadrilles, which on the whole were tolerably 
 danced. Two of the ladies did very well, the two others but 
 indifferently.' He does get home for a short time, and 
 household details occupy his attention. 'The drawing-room 
 curtains will be applied to mend the chairs and sofas, which 
 are in a state of great decay, and new curtains of sarsnet will 
 be put up, hanging down by the side of the windows in the 
 modern style. The saloon and bookroom will have new 
 curtains of the suppressed green, with carpets less likely to 
 show stains than the present. The eating-room curtains will 
 remain for the present ; these arrangements will make the 
 house look exceeding smart for the present.' After such a 
 holiday, he says : ' I find all my colleagues glad to have my 
 assistance again.' And then his lifelong dislike of indistinct 
 writing appears. 'The common ink one buys is so dread- 
 fully pale, and yours is of a good deep black.' 
 
 'The news of the Portuguese insurrection is not be- 
 lieved, as indeed it was impossible that it could be true, 
 coming as it did from an American captain.' He is keen 
 about maritime rights, and it is curious how in these letters 
 to his kinswomen he plunges from the lightest topic into
 
 14 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the most important, giving them his opinions just as he 
 would were he writing to one of his colleagues. ' We have 
 always insisted that the grand principle that neutral bottoms 
 do not make neutral goods should be explicitly recognised, 
 and it was so established in our latest treaties with Russia 
 and Denmark after the last armed neutrality. To allow it, 
 therefore, now to be passed over in silence, would be to 
 recede from the full extent of our former pretensions, and 
 give up at least half our rights. It is of no force to say that 
 every country may do what it likes in spite of treaties, and 
 that at the beginning of a new war neutrals might resist the 
 principle, though they now admitted it. The difference in 
 the two cases is great and striking. If the principle is now 
 recognised by treaty at the commencement of a new war, 
 should neutrals reject it, they would be the violators of the 
 laws of nations. If it is now passed over in silence, and 
 we should hereafter enforce it, they will be on the defensive, 
 and we shall be endeavouring to establish a maritime code 
 which, they will contend, cannot in justice be binding on 
 them, since they never consented to its enactment. If, 
 moreover, Buonaparte and his satellites think so lightly of 
 the obligation of treaties, they ought to feel less repugnance 
 at agreeing to our demands.' 
 
 ' I hope you do not lay your account with coming to a 
 gay metropolis. The town looks as dull as fogs and east 
 winds can make it. Every other person one knows has 
 measles or ophthalmia. The Chancellor is going to shut up 
 the Opera. Scarcely one party is given in a week. Even 
 at that nothing is to be seen but women yawning at each 
 other. The only two things anybody says are " Do you 
 belong to the Argyle, and have you read 'Marmion'?" 
 And before you have pronounced the first to be bad, and the
 
 ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 15 
 
 second inferior to the " Lay," you are called upon to answer 
 the same interrogatories to a dozen other people.' 
 
 In 1808 he visited Ireland, and gives a deplorable account 
 of the roads about Killarney. He was enchanted with the 
 beauty of the Lakes, but his pleasure was marred by the 
 news of General Dalrymple's fiasco in Portugal ; with charac- 
 teristic bluntness he declared, ' If I were in the Cabinet I 
 would have Dalrymple shot.' 
 
 In the autumn of the same year he made himself person- 
 ally acquainted with the condition of his Sligo estates, and 
 in the following letter we gain an interesting glimpse of the 
 young peer as a landlord : 
 
 ' Thursday I employed in walking and riding about the 
 town of Sligo with Chambers, and Friday we took another 
 ride over the whole of that part of the estate which lies 
 connected by the sea-coast. I find there is a great deal, I 
 may almost say, everything, to be done, and it will be abso- 
 lutely necessary for me to repeat my visit next summer, and 
 probably make it annual for some time. It is a tract of 
 country about two miles broad and six long, bounded on 
 one side by the sea, and on the other by bog and high, 
 craggy mountains. It is wholly unimproved ; but almost 
 all the waste ground or bog is capable of being brought into 
 cultivation, and all the arable may be rendered worth three 
 times its present value. This, however, must be the work 
 of time, and to accomplish it much must be done. The 
 present objects which I must in the first instance set about 
 are to put the parish church in a state of repair, so as to 
 make it fit for service ; to establish schools, to make roads, 
 and to get rid of the middlemen in some cases where it can 
 be accomplished. After that, as opportunities occur, I mean 
 to endeavour to introduce a Scotch farmer to teach the
 
 16 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 people how to improve their land ; to establish a little 
 manufacturing village in a central part of the estate, where 
 there are great advantages of water and stone ; and to build 
 a pier and make a little port near a village that stands on 
 a point of land projecting into Donegal Bay, and called 
 Mullaghmore.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston was not the man to shirk his responsi- 
 bilities as a landowner, nor was he too much engrossed with 
 politics or society to neglect the interests of the humble 
 tenantry on his ancestral estates.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 
 
 A MOST flattering proposal was made to Palmerston in the 
 year 1809. Perceval had become Prime Minister ; and 
 when at Broadlands Lord Palmerston received a letter from 
 him ' desiring me to come to town immediately, as he had 
 a proposal to make to me which he thought would be 
 agreeable. I went up to him, and he offered me the Chan- 
 cellorship of the Exchequer. I was a good deal surprised at 
 so unexpected an offer, and begged a little time to think of 
 it and consult my friends : Perceval said that if I declined 
 to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, he should perhaps be 
 able to offer to me the War Office.' 
 
 Young as he was for the high office thus placed at his 
 disposal, he showed his sound sense by refusing to be dazzled 
 by either the Chancellorship of the Exchequer or by a seat 
 in the Cabinet. He chose the War Office without the latter 
 distinction, and that decision shaped his whole career as a 
 statesman. In a letter to his warm friend, Lord Mahnes- 
 bury, dated October 16, 1809, he thus balances the pros 
 and cons : 
 
 'Of course one's vanity and ambition would lead one to 
 accept the brilliant offer first proposed ; but it is throwing 
 for a greaf stake, and where much is to be gained, vcrv muck 
 also may be lost. I have always thought it unfortunate for 
 anyone, and particularly a young man, to be put above his 
 
 c
 
 I 8 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 proper level, as he only rises to fall the lower. Now, I am 
 quite without knowledge of finance, and never but once 
 spoke in the House. The approaching session will be one 
 of infinite difficulty. Perceval says that the state of the 
 finances of this country, as calculated to carry on the war, 
 is very embarrassing ; and from what has lately happened in 
 public affairs, from the number of speakers in opposition, 
 and the few debaters on our side of the question, the war- 
 fare of the House of Commons will certainly be for us very 
 severe. I don't know upon which of the two points I should 
 feel most alarmed. By fagging and assistance I might get 
 on in the office, but fear that I never should be able to act 
 my part properly in the House. 
 
 'I should myself strongly incline to being Secretary at 
 War. From what one has heard of the office, it seems one 
 better suited to a beginner, and in which I might hope not 
 to fail, or in which one would not be so prominent if one 
 did not at first do as well as one ought to do. 
 
 ' One consideration not to be wholly overlooked is, that 
 we may probably not remain in long enough to retrieve any 
 blunders made at the outset ; and the ground of the War 
 Office is, I think, quite high enough for me to leave offupon. 
 Our party is certainly ill off for second-rates, but if Perceval 
 cannot find another as good as me for the Exchequer, it's 
 clear, I think, that we are too weak to stand.' 
 
 Malmesbury replied, urging him to accept the War Office 
 with a seat in the Cabinet. To this Palmers ton responded : 
 
 ' Perceval having very handsomely given me the option 
 of the Cabinet with the War Office (if I go to it), I thought 
 it best on the whole to decline it ; and I trust that, although 
 you seemed to be of a different opinion at first, you will not, 
 on the whole, think I was wrong. The office is one which
 
 SECRKTARV AT \VAK, 1^09 1818 1 9 
 
 does not invariably, or, indeed, usually go with the Cabinet. 
 A seat there was consequently not an object to me for 
 appearance' sake ; and considering how young I am in office, 
 people in general, so far from expecting to see me in the 
 Cabinet by taking the War Office, would perhaps only 
 wonder how I got there. With the Exchequer it would 
 have been necessary, but with the War Office certainly not ; 
 and the business of the Department will, I take it, be quite 
 sufficient to occupy one's time without attending Cabinet 
 Councils. It would undoubtedly have been highly interest- 
 ing ; but for all purposes of business or debate, Perceval 
 will of course keep one sufficiently informed to answer al! 
 one's wishes, at first at least.' 
 
 Admiralty: Oct. 27, 1809. 
 
 ' It was yesterday settled that I should be Secretary at 
 War, and I accordingly entered upon my functions this 
 morning. There appears to be full employment in the 
 office, but at the same time not of a nature to alarm one, 
 and I think I shall like it very much.' 
 
 The duties of the post upon which this young man of 
 twenty-five thus entered were very different from those which 
 now fall upon the Secretary for War of to-day. There was 
 then a Secretary for War, responsible for the policy and field 
 operations, and a Commander-in-Chief who looked after 
 discipline, recruiting, and promotions. It was the work of 
 the office \yhich Palmcrston now held to control, or attempt 
 to control, military expenditure, and to supervise and keep 
 all the needful accounts. That he was fully alive to the 
 opportunities for work to which the post invited him, his 
 letters show : . 
 
 'There is a irood deal to be done : but if one is confined
 
 2O LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 it is some satisfaction to have some real business to do : and 
 if they leave us in long enough, I trust much may be accom- 
 plished in arranging the interior details of the Office. The 
 business is to superintend all the accounts of the army, the 
 militia, and volunteers ; and from the great increase of our 
 military establishments of late years, there is an immense 
 arrear of accounts unsettled and daily accumulating. It will 
 be a very fatiguing situation, and I fancy admits of scarce any 
 holidays during the course of the year. However, one must 
 do something, and if one can make oneself useful one must 
 submit to a certain degree of inconvenience and labour.' 
 
 In 1809 great preparations were made at every place in 
 town and country for illuminations, and distribution of food 
 to help the poor to take part in celebrating the jubilee of 
 George III. ; and Lord Palmerston gave the most minute 
 instructions as to what he wished to take place at Broadlands. 
 
 The unfortunate expedition to Walcheren is jokingly 
 mentioned in the same correspondence : ' As to the further 
 objects of the expedition, you must excuse me if I abstain 
 from committing myself. The only information which I am 
 at present at liberty to communicate is that Lord Chatham, 
 and Sir Robert Strachan (the commanders of the British 
 forces by sea and land) are to be instantly created Duke of 
 Walcheren and Baron Rompert. Sir Eyre Coote is said to 
 have the promise of a considerable grant of Verdonkenland. 
 These arrangements are to be effected without delay lest any 
 unforeseen event should render it desirable for us to evacuate 
 the Scheldt. As to Sir Arthur Wellesley, it is amazingly pro- 
 voking that he should have lost an opportunity of annihilat- 
 ing Victor. He came up with him at Talavera, attacked his 
 outposts on the 22nd, and drove them in. He meant to make 
 a general at'.ack on the 23rd, but the Spanish general who had
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 21 
 
 joined him made objections to that day, and prevailed on 
 Wellesley to postpone it till the 24th. In the meantime 
 Victor, who knew his own weakness, broke up and marched 
 off towards Madrid. This was very odd, as Cuesta is good for 
 nothing but fighting, of which he is particularly fond. He 
 never won a battle in his life, and never will, but he always 
 puts himself in the front of battle, although he gives few orders, 
 and those very bad ones. However, Spanish affairs are now 
 a very secondary consideration. It has been clearly proved 
 that the Spaniards have neither the energy nor the means 
 to defend themselves, and they will, therefore, follow the 
 fate and fortune of Austria. They have not, in the course 
 of the war, found one general capable of commanding a 
 brigade. They have done nothing since the Austrian 
 campaign began ; and now, after a respite of four months, 
 they have not one army capable of making any resistance. 
 1 >esultory individual efforts they can and will make, but war 
 upon a large scale is above them.' 
 
 He was now hard at work with his official duties, and the 
 news from the war in the Peninsula was for the next few 
 years the all-engrossing subject of his thoughts. Yet he- 
 was too sensible a man not to allow himself brief spells of 
 recreation : ' I went down,' he writes in 1810, 'to Conyers 
 on Monday and returned on Tuesday. The day was terribly 
 stormy and blew an absolute hurricane, and therefore I 
 killed only a brace of pheasants. Lamb (Lord Melbourne) 
 was luckier, and always found the wind lower when he fired, 
 by which means he killed four brace. ... I enclose a draft 
 for 5<D/. for the Romsey people as usual. Tell William he 
 may hunt Pitch whenever he likes, and I am sure he will be 
 well and pleasantly carried.' 
 
 In the House of Commons, in the speech in which, for the
 
 22 LORD PALMERSTON . 
 
 first time, he moved the Army Estimates, he made the fol- 
 lowing statements, which are quite in his later avis Romanus 
 sum style, and which show him in his true character, as an 
 ardent upholder of the power and fighting ability of the 
 nation. ' The masculine energies of the nation were never 
 more conspicuous, and the country never at any period of 
 of its history in so proud and glorious a position. After a 
 conflict for fifteen years against an enemy whose power 
 has been progressively increasing, we are still able to 
 maintain the war with augmenting force, and a population, 
 by the pressure of external circumstances, consolidated into 
 an impregnable military mass. Our physical strength has 
 risen as the crisis that required it has become more impor- 
 tant, and if we do not present the opposition of those 
 numerous fortresses to invaders which are to be found on 
 the Continent, we do present the more insuperable barrier 
 of a high-spirited, patriotic, and enthusiastic people.' This 
 was quite the tone which age did not impair, and which 
 sprang from the healthy mind in a healthy body, making 
 him in the eyes of the people the very ideal of English 
 manliness and pluck. 
 
 Palmerston limited himself to his department, taking 
 little part in general debates. A very characteristic passage 
 of arms took place between him and the Commander-in- 
 Chief, Sir David Dundas, who regarded the Secretary at 
 War as a subordinate, named only to execute the orders 
 he issued. Palmerston stubbornly refused to view his 
 office in this light. He said he considered himself ' placed 
 as a sort of barrier between the military authority of the 
 officers in command of the army and the civil rights of the 
 people, and no alteration in this situation can take place 
 without the interference of Parliament.' Against both
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 23 
 
 Dundas, and later on the Duke of York also, Palmerston 
 insisted upon the clear recognition of the authority of his 
 department, and his right of direct and personal access to 
 the King on all matters of importance connected with it. 
 
 On May 1 1, 1812, Percival was assassinated in the lobby 
 of the House of Commons, and in the new Government 
 which Lord Liverpool formed Palmerston remained in the 
 War Office. It was at this time that he took the line he 
 always adhered to in the future with regard to giving the 
 franchise to Catholics, and the following significant passage 
 occurs in a speech which he made in 1813 on that subject. 
 
 ' Is it wise to say to men of rank and property, who 
 from old lineage or present possessions have a deep 
 interest in the commonweal, that they live in a country 
 where, by the blessings of a free constitution, it is possible 
 for any man, themselves only excepted, by the honest 
 exertion of talents and industry in the avocations of 
 political life, to make himself honoured and respected by 
 his countrymen, and to render good service to the State ; 
 that they alone can never be permitted to enter this career ; 
 that they may indeed usefully employ themselves in the 
 humbler avocations of private life, but that public service 
 they can never perform, public honour they shall never 
 attain ? What we have lost by the continuance of this 
 system it is not for man to know ; what we might have lost 
 can be more readily imagined. If it had unfortunately hap- 
 pened that by the circumstances of birth and education a 
 Nelson, a Wellington, a Burke, a Fox, a Pitt, had belonged 
 to this class of the community, of what honours and of what 
 glory might not the page of British history have been de- 
 prived ? To what perils and calamities might not this country 
 have been exposed ? The question 13 not whether we would
 
 24 LORD PALMEKSTON 
 
 have so large a part of the population Catholic or not. 
 There they are, and we must deal with them as we can. It 
 is in vain to think that by any human pressure we can stop 
 the spring which gushes from the earth. But it is for us to 
 consider whether we will force it to spend its strength in 
 secret and hidden courses, undermining our fences and cor- 
 rupting our soil, or whether we shall at once turn the 
 current into the open and spacious channel of honourable 
 and constitutional ambition, converting it into the means of 
 national prosperity and public wealth.' 
 
 In 1816 he encountered in debate the man who had 
 written so disparagingly of him when a youth, about to 
 fight his first political battle, namely, Lord Brougham. 
 ' The hon. and learned member has made an accusation, 
 which I certainly cannot retort upon that honourable gentle- 
 man himself, namely, that he very seldom troubles the House 
 with his observations ; and at all events will abstain from all 
 declamation and from any dissertation on the Constitution, 
 and confine myself to the business at present in hand, the 
 Army Estimates of the current year.' 
 
 In the year 1818 an attempt was made by an insane 
 man to assassinate him, but, fortunately, he escaped with a 
 slight wound. 
 
 Palmerston continued steadily to labour for the increased 
 efficiency of the army, and this period of his life made him 
 form opinions as to the duty that English statesmen owed 
 to England in making her worthy of the place of a great 
 nation, by the maintenance of forces by land and sea, 
 which he was able in higher offices to give effect to, and 
 adequately enforce. His power of repartee made him 
 dreaded in debate. In reply to the stern economist Mr. 
 Hume, he declared that he had ' heard of an ancient sage,
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 25 
 
 who said that there were two things over which even the 
 immortal gods had no power, namely, past events and arith- 
 metic. The hon. gentleman, however, seemed to have power 
 over both.' 
 
 After the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, and the 
 conclusion of peace, Lord Palmerston, in common with large 
 numbers of his countrymen, enjoyed what had become only 
 a memory to most Englishmen a trip to Paris. His office 
 had brought him into the closest contact with the operations 
 that led to Bonaparte's defeat, and he naturally took a keen 
 interest in the consequences of that defeat. 
 
 Occasionally he visited France, and always made notes 
 of the events of the hour. In 1815 he attended a review at 
 Paris, and says : 'The foreign troops all march with a shorter 
 and more constrained step than ours. The Emperor of 
 Russia was so much struck with the active swinging step of 
 our men that he ordered his troops immediately to adopt it. 
 In two days afterwards he had a body of them out in the 
 Champ de Mars. The men, as might naturally be expected, 
 were confused and puzzled between the step they were used 
 to and that which they were now required to march with. 
 The consequence was they marched remarkably ill. The 
 Emperor was in a great passion, and put three colonels of 
 regiments into close arrest in one of our guard-rooms. His 
 aides-de-camp thought themselves lucky that he did not order 
 them to dance like Vestris, at twenty-four hours' notice, under 
 penalty of being sent to Siberia.' He gives also an account 
 of a review of the Russain army : ' The troops manoeuvred 
 with great quickness and accuracy, and the Duke of Welling- 
 ton was much pleased with their manner of deploying from 
 column. He said he was satisfied that our manner of advanc- 
 ing in line instead of in column was one reason why we had
 
 26 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 always beaten the French. That if troops are steady, and the 
 line is well formed, the line will always have an advantage over 
 the column, from presenting so much larger a front of fire ; 
 and that by attacking the column rapidly they are prevented 
 from deploying, which is an operation that cannot be per- 
 formed under a close fire. The object of the column attack 
 is to penetrate into the enemy's position and deploy in their 
 rear ; if he succeeds in this the result is certain. Twice in 
 the Peninsula the French had established a column on our 
 position at Busaco and Albuera, but in each instance they 
 were immediately charged by fresh troops and destroyed. At 
 Busaco the Duke had had a regiment of Portuguese militia to 
 make a road ; the work had, however, been done before they 
 came, and he was going to send them back. They begged 
 that as a battle was likely to take place they might be kept ; 
 he consented, and desired them to remain on the very 
 ground where they then were. This happened in the course 
 of the action to become an important point, and the French 
 made a great effort to get possession of it. The militia soon 
 found that they had made a hard bargain of it, and lost no 
 time in debating who should go away first. The Duke, 
 however, immediately brought up two British regiments, and 
 before the French column could deploy on the ground it 
 had seized, it was cut to pieces. He said he had not above 
 16,000 to 18,000 British infantry at Waterloo ; that he 
 started with the very worst army that ever was got together ; 
 but that four or five regiments who had been in the Peninsula 
 soon gave a tone and character to the entire army. The 
 other troops under his command did very well. The 
 Nassaus ran away, and fired at him when he rode up to rally 
 them. 
 
 The Prussian army started with double his force, but
 
 Sl-XRETARY AT WAR, 1809.1818 2J 
 
 by the time he reached Paris he was as strong as they 
 were, though he had received no reinforcements, and they 
 had not lost any great number in battle. But their disci- 
 pline was so relaxed that their numbers rapidly diminished 
 during the march. He had brought 60,000 to Paris, and 
 they not more. The system of individual plunder had been 
 the ruin of the French army, and would be the destruction 
 of the Prussian. When officers were allowed to make 
 requisitions for their troops they soon made them for them- 
 selves, and those who demanded provisions to-day would 
 make demands for money to-morrow. War then assumed 
 a new character. The profession of arms became a mercenary 
 speculation, and the officers' thoughts grew to be directed 
 towards the acquisition of plunder instead of the attainment 
 of glory. The Duke had succeeded in keeping his army well 
 in hand. No officer was permitted to make any requisition 
 himself, but was obliged to state his wants to the Commissary, 
 who applied to the agents of the French Government for 
 the articles required ; and, the supply being made through 
 channels known to the people, and by authorities recognised 
 by them, the burthen was not felt to be so oppressive as if the 
 exaction had been made by the immediate order of an enemy, 
 and at the caprice of individual officers. The consequence 
 was that, though both the Prussians and ourselves lived 
 equally at the expense of the country, the first are detested 
 and the latter liked. The inhabitants who deserted their 
 villages at the approach of the Prussians returned the moment 
 our troops came in, and, confidence being restored, provisions 
 followed of course. The difficulty of raising contributions in 
 money in France was very great, there being no large fortunes. 
 Property was very much subdivided. The nol'Icssc, of course, 
 had been ruined, and those of the nom-eaux riches who
 
 28 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 had made large fortunes had been compelled by Buonaparte 
 to spend them in supplying and equipping his army. One 
 \vas ordered to find forage, another shoes, a third trousers, 
 so that he treated them like leeches, allowed to suck only 
 to disgorge. 
 
 'Nothing, he thought, could surpass or indeed equal the 
 British troops in the field. The sense of honour among 
 officers existed in no other service to the same degree. 
 He felt always confident when he put a detachment into 
 a post that they would maintain it against any force till 
 they dropped. We did not look so well in a review as 
 some of the others, and, indeed, he thought we paid too 
 little attention to the dress and smartness of our men ; and 
 that in a military point of view the tenue of a soldier was 
 of importance, and that he would be more likely to be 
 orderly and well-behaved if obliged to be attentive to the 
 neatness of his appearance. He seemed to think the cuirasses 
 good things, and that they might be adopted with advantage 
 by our heavy cavalry.' 
 
 During his stay in Paris, Lord Palmerston dined with 
 Lord Castlereagh, where, he says, were present Lord Kinnaird 
 and an old intrigante, the Baroness de Vaudemont. She 
 began to attack Lord Castlereagh about the restitution of 
 the pictures taken by the French from various European 
 nations, and these pictures were at the time being sent away 
 from the Louvre. She said we were a set of filibttstiers. 
 1 But madam,' said he, in his quiet way, ' you French think 
 that because we are very good to you we should also show 
 all sorts of sentiment for you, but, although we have plenty 
 of sentiment for the women, we have none at all for the 
 men of your nation.' 
 
 ' The Duke had his army out for a field day before Paris.
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 29 
 
 He supposed his object to be to gain possession of some 
 heights in front of Montmartre, or rather the brow of the 
 hill itself. He detached part of two divisions from the right 
 towards St. Denis to go round and take the supposed enemy 
 in flank, while he himself attacked them in front. He 
 marched the army about a couple of miles across the 
 country, describing a sort of quarter circle round Mont- 
 martre, and the manner in which the columns of infantry 
 advanced, with occasional charges of cavalry and bayonet, 
 gave one a perfect representation of the attack of an army 
 in an engagement, with the exception that there was no 
 firing. At last when those who did not understand his 
 evolutions least expected it, he suddenly deployed the whole 
 into two lines in the most beautiful order imaginable. 
 There was then a general salute. The Sovereigns having 
 taken part on the spot where they happened to be, the whole 
 army marched by, in about an hour and a half. Nothing 
 could exceed the precision and steadiness and rapidity 
 with which the manoeuvres were performed. There was no 
 confusion at any point. The men got over the ground at a 
 surprising pace ; and, when the deployment was made at last, 
 the lines were as correct as they could have been when on 
 parade. The foreigners who had been in the Prussian review, 
 where the whole thing had been diligently rehearsed for two 
 days beforehand, and where the plain was covered with little 
 posts with bunches of straw on the top of them, to point out 
 to each division the ground it was to occupy, were surprised 
 and astonished to find that no such preparations had been 
 made on our part, and that Wellington set out to move an 
 army of about 60,000 men with as much ease as he would 
 have done to move a set of chessmen upon a board. It 
 was some time before they could believe that no orders had
 
 30 LORI) PALMKRSTON 
 
 been given or plan formed, and Prince Maurice Lichten- 
 stein did not seem to credit it, till he had been assured of 
 the fact by almost all our generals of division, whom he 
 successively asked. They were also much struck at seeing 
 the Blues and the Life Guards charge over two Very deep and 
 wide ditches, that ran on each side a road which they were 
 ordered to cross, and which they effected with very little 
 loss, having only three or four tumbles. That which our 
 men did least well was marching by. The army was very 
 much admired for its lightness and regularity and the care 
 with which it was manoeuvred. The Highlanders and the 
 horse artillery seemed particularly to excite attention, and 
 though the proceedings at the gallery of the Louvre (the 
 taking away of the pictures stolen from other countries) had 
 put us out of favour with the Parisians, still there was a con- 
 siderable number of French spectators, and many carriages 
 full of ladies, a thing never seen at the Prussian reviews.' 
 
 ' Dined at Verey's with, amongst others, Monsieur 
 Bresson, a man who has been chief of the police under 
 Buonaparte. He told us some anecdotes of the Buonaparte 
 family. He said that Napoleon was very much swayed and 
 influenced by them, and particularly by his sisters, who were 
 clever and ambitious women, and who often made him change 
 determinations which he had formed with apparent obstinacy. 
 He said the brothers were, most of them, weak and foolish, 
 and had all of them the inconceivable folly to imagine that, 
 when they were sent to be sovereigns of conquered States, 
 they were really meant to be independent kings, and that it 
 was often difficult to convince them of their mistake. He 
 was at Cassel when Jerome came to take possession of the 
 Kingdom of Westphalia, and said that the little man strutted
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 3! 
 
 about and gave orders to the right and left just as if he 
 were fixed there for eternity, and when Nervins hinted to 
 him something about the Emperor, he replied with admi- 
 rable dignity, " Sachez que je suis Empereur chez moi." 
 Nervins, however, whose particular business it was to keep 
 him in order, suggested that perhaps the Emperor might 
 send a general of division to take possession of his kingdom 
 if he gave himself too many airs ; and Jerome appears at 
 length to have been accessible to the force of such persua- 
 sive reasoning. 
 
 1 One day at a levee a courier arrived with despatches 
 from Buonaparte. Nervins, who had sent complaints of 
 Jerome, and entreated Buonaparte to give him a lecture, 
 was curious to see how it would be taken, and maliciously 
 pressed the little King to let them know what the Emperor 
 said. Jerome opened the letter, and with the utmost cool- 
 ness and self-possession read it aloud to the ministers and 
 persons present, and as he read it, it ran that Buonaparte 
 was delighted to hear how well he went on ; that his 
 administration was so prudent and popular, his finances 
 so flourishing and his army so well established, that he 
 every day saw fresh reason to approve the choice he had 
 made of him for that kingdom, and ended by assuring him 
 of his undiminished affection and regard. Nervins smiled 
 at the manoeuvre, and having observed that a tall officer 
 of hussars had taken advantage of his superiority of stature 
 to crane over little Jerome's shoulders while he was reading 
 the letter, he asked him as they went out what he thought 
 of the letter. " Think of it ? " replied the officer, " I never 
 was so thunderstruck in my life. Why, would you believe 
 it? I read the letter over the King's shoulder, and it was
 
 32 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 word for word the direct contrary of what he read in so 
 unhesitating a manner to us." ' 
 
 Ever anxious to pick up knowledge useful to him as 
 Secretary at War, Palmerston visited Paris again in 1818 
 for the purpose of seeing the last of the allied armies on 
 French soil. At Cambray he met at dinner Alava, the 
 Spanish general who had been our ally in the campaigns of 
 the Peninsula. ' Alava in the evening told us in a sneering 
 manner, strongly demonstrative of the feeling of contempt 
 that Spaniards entertain for the Portuguese, " A foreign 
 officer wants a gros Portuguese to march quicker : he means 
 to say ' vivo ' that is, ' go on ; ' but he says ' viva,' which 
 being a compliment, the gros Portuguese stops and takes 
 off his hat, making a low bow." ' 
 
 Lord Palmerston was present at the Grand Review, and 
 gives a full account of it, from which we take a few extracts : 
 
 'We reached the ground by 10 o'clock, and found the 
 army drawn up ready to receive the Sovereigns their right 
 to the left of the road from Cambray to Quesnoy, their left 
 upon the old road to Valenciennes. They were in close 
 columns the Danes on the extreme left, the British next, 
 then the Hanoverians, then the Saxons and the Prussians. 
 The supposed object of the movement of the day was to 
 take possession of the height of Famars, in order to recon- 
 noitre thence the town of Valenciennes, that of Bouchain 
 being supposed to be in the hands of the enemy. The 
 army of the enemy was represented by some Cossacks, 
 some artillery, and the staff corps of the cavalry, and some 
 infantry. Their infantry was supposed to be posted behind 
 the Escaillon, and their cavalry to occupy the open country 
 between that river and the Selle, which latter was imme- 
 diately in front of our position. The armies were thus
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 33 
 
 separated by two rivers, and the space between those rivers 
 was in the hands of the foe. The plan of the day's move- 
 ments was drawn out by the Duke and Sir G. Murray, and 
 the Duke told me he could not help fancying he was writing 
 a harlequin farce. 
 
 ' We had ridden about half-way down the line, beginning 
 with our troops on the left, when the advance of cavalry 
 took place, preceded by a hurry-scurry of Cossacks. We 
 were in the middle of it, and obliged to dodge to the right 
 and left to avoid the different bodies which were riding 
 away, as the lie of the ground rendered their descent to the 
 river most easy. We crossed the Selle with the artillery, 
 and saw some very pretty manoeuvring of the British cavalry. 
 We then went away to the right to see the advance of the 
 Prussians, who were to turn the flank of the enemy, and 
 crossed the Escaillon with them near Bermerin. Their 
 advance was regular, but slow. They had been practising 
 the manoeuvre upon the very ground, so that it was all 
 familiar to them. Lord Ueresford, with whom wo were 
 riding, said, " Does not that opposite brow, with those solid 
 columns scattered about, look like a gentleman's park and 
 its plantations ? " They seemed to have fewer officers than 
 our troops. They certainly are slow movers, and it would 
 not be easy to extricate them from any difficulties in which 
 they might be entangled. Having continued with the 
 Prussians until they and the Saxons got to Querenain, we 
 rode across till we met the redcoats advancing in three lines 
 to the front attack which was to finish the brief operations 
 of the day. It was not national prejudice that made us 
 exclaim at onre " How beautiful ! " The superiority of our 
 troops in activity and facility of manoeuvre is now univer- 
 sall admitted.
 
 34 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 ' Half-way up the first height a charge of bayonet was 
 ordered, and, with that " Hurrah " which can never be heard 
 by an English heart without emotion, our troops rushed 
 forward and in a few minutes crowned the height. 
 
 'After the last charge of cavalry, and before the marching 
 past, the Duke took Alexander down to see a new pontoon 
 bridge. The Duke availed himself of the occasion to say 
 what he thought of him and his army, and praise from such 
 a quarter would not fail to have its due effect. I had a 
 great deal of conversation with the Duke. He observed 
 that the Prussians were showing us the three kinds of 
 columns used in modern war. The column of one battalion, 
 the column of two or three used by the Prussians, and the 
 great mass employed by the French, consisting of three lines 
 one behind the other ; and each line containing three bat- 
 talions in column abreast of each other. 
 
 ' " Look," said he, pointing to one of these masses, " how 
 formidable that looks ; and yet I defy the French " (clapping 
 one hand against the other) " to mention any one instance 
 in the whole war in which these masses had made the 
 slightest impression on our lines." The way he usually me 
 them was to cover his lines behind any little rising ground 
 that might be at hand, and let the mass come on. Then, 
 when they got within a fair distance, he used to order his 
 men t:> stand up, to advance, and to open a fire upon the 
 mass. The eflect of the fire of a long line on five or six 
 thousand men huddled up together like sheep in a fold, was 
 necessarily destructive. On the other hand, none but the 
 outside men could fire to any purpose. Still, however, it 
 was usually found that they all began firing. " Then," said 
 he, " these thick columns begin to waver ; and as an instance 
 of what an odd thing human nature is, it was invariably
 
 SECRETARY AT WAR, 1809-1818 35 
 
 those in the rear, who were furthest away from danger, that 
 were the first to run away. As the French columns ran 
 from the rear, one used to sec the men huddling together 
 and running to the right or left, just as they saw the means 
 of sheltering themselves behind a body of fellow fugitives, 
 so that at a little distance they went waddling like ducks. 
 At Waterloo a column of French were firing across the 
 road at one of our regiments. Our people could not get at 
 them to charge them because they would have been dis 
 ordered by crossing the road. It was a nervous moment. 
 One of the two forces must go about in a few minutes it 
 was impossible to say which it might be. I saw about two 
 hundred men of the 74th who seemed to have had more 
 than they liked of it. I formed them myself about twenty 
 yards from the flank of the French column, and ordered them 
 to fire, and in a few minutes the French column turned 
 about." This anecdote, related simply and incidentally 
 without the least parade, shows the dangers he exposed 
 himself to in battle.' 
 
 In 1820, George IV., who never liked Lord Palmerston, 
 succeeded to the Throne ; Napoleon died in 1821 ; Castle- 
 reagh in the following year, when Canning became Foreign 
 Minister, a post soon to be exchanged for that of Prime 
 Minister. Lord Palmerston wrote in 1824 the following 
 note in view of Russian advances on Turkey, and the pro- 
 posed mediation of Great Britain : 
 
 ' To preserve the peace of the world is the leading obier 
 of the policy of England. For this purpose it is necessary 
 in the first place to prevent to the utmost of our power the 
 breaking out of new quarrels ; in the second place, to com 
 pose, where it can be done by friendly mediation, existing 
 differences ; and, thirdly, where that is hopeless, to narrow 
 
 I) 2
 
 36 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 as much as possible their range. Fourthly, to maintain for 
 ourselves an imperturbable neutrality in all cases where 
 nothing occurs to affect injuriously our interests or our 
 honour. With respect to the mediation itself, it is almost 
 unnecessary to say that the extent to which we should be 
 prepared to go is only that of an intervention strictly ami- 
 cable; but that we are not disposed in any case to join 
 either party in the war, and that we could not consent to 
 hold out a menace which we have no design to cany into 
 execution.' 
 
 These sentences show that early, as late, in his political 
 career he set before himself the ideal that Britain's office 
 was to be an active agent in promoting peace, and in 
 maintaining for that end the balance of power among the 
 European nations.
 
 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION, 1827-1830 
 
 DURING the years 1824-1827 Palmerston had leisure enough 
 to look after his Irish properties, and to undertake works for 
 their benefit at Sligo. Some time was spent in trying to 
 improve the Irish estates and the industrial habits of the 
 people on them. He sought to reclaim sterile and marshy 
 lands and to improve the condition of his tenants. 
 
 The following extracts from his correspondence show 
 that he threw himself into his duties as a landlord with all 
 his customary energy and shrewdness : 
 
 August 5, 1825. 
 
 ' I am going in a fortnight to Sligo again, to see the 
 progress of my harbour, and to settle some further improve- 
 ments with Mr. Nimmo, the civil engineer whom I have 
 employed to survey my bogs. He recommends me to lay 
 down an iron railroad of about six miles in length, by means 
 of which I should be enabled to bring up a shelly sand 
 from the sea-beach to reclaim the bogs, and to carry down 
 in return to my new harbour turf from the bogs, prepared 
 as fuel ; and he thinks that a very considerable export trade 
 of this turf could be carried on with the town of Sligo and 
 the coast beyond it. This would require a capital of between 
 five and six thousand pounds to be immediately laid out ;
 
 38 LORD I'ALMEKSTON 
 
 but I am inclined to think it will answer, and I could get 
 the money advanced by the commissioners in Ireland, who 
 are authorised by Parliament to issue Exchequer bills in aid 
 of public works of this kind for the internal improvement of 
 Ireland, taking repayment by annual instalments of so much 
 per cent, added to the interest. But this matter I shall 
 settle when on the spot.' 
 
 The following letter is still more interesting because of 
 its comments on public affairs : 
 
 Londonderry : Oct. 21, 1826. 
 
 ' I went on to Sligo, where I remained eighteen days, 
 the greater part of the time at Cliffony, with Nimmo the 
 engineer, looking over the progress of my improvements, 
 and planning arrangements for the future. My harbour is 
 nearly completed, and will be an excellent one for my pur- 
 poses : it will be about one and a quarter English acres in 
 extent, and will have fourteen feet water at high spring tides 
 enough depth to admit vessels of 300 tons, and as much 
 as any harbour on the west coast of Ireland, and it has an 
 excellent anchorage in front of it, where ships may wait the 
 tide to enter. 
 
 ' I have been planting bent upon a great tract of blowing 
 sand, and I think with success. I have about 600 acres of 
 that description on the coast, and this year I planted bent 
 on about 140 acres, which only cost me SQ/. The bent 
 was taken up from parts where it grows in clusters, and 
 planted closely in rows fourteen feet apart ; it is almost all 
 growing, and I see that in another year it will very much 
 stop the sand, and I have no doubt that, by extending my 
 plantation, I shall succeed in covering the greater part of the 
 600 acres with green bent, and when that has stopped the 
 blowing of the sand it soon gives way to grass, but it is itself
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 39 
 
 very good food for cattle. I have established an infant 
 linen market at Cliffony, and have no doubt of its prosper- 
 ing. I have got two schools on foot, but am at war with 
 my priest, who forbids the people to send the children. I 
 know that if I was resident I should beat him in a moment, 
 and I hope to do so even though an absentee. I am getting 
 the people to build some houses according to a plan Nimmo 
 and I have laid out, and as a proof that my tenants and I 
 are not on bad terms, I found one fellow was building a good 
 house, two stories high and to have a slated roof, which will 
 cost 1507., on a piece of ground of which he has no lease. I 
 have established a limekiln. I have a great mind when I go 
 to Cambridge to find some zealous Simeonite who would curb 
 the ardent enthusiasm which would impel him to the Ganges, 
 and might content himself with winning his Jerusalem spurs 
 by a campaign in the parish of Ahamlish. 
 
 ' The Catholic and anti-Catholic war is, however, carried 
 on more vigorously than ever, and the whole people are by 
 the ears, like an undisciplined pack of hounds. It is most 
 marvellous, to be sure, that sensible statesmen should be 
 frightened by the bugbear of foreign interference clashing 
 with domestic allegiance, and should see with calmness and 
 apathy a civil war raging throughout Ireland, engrossing all 
 the thoughts and passions of the people, diverting them 
 from the pursuits of industry, and retarding the progress of 
 national prosperity, and menacing, in the event of foreign 
 hostilities, inconveniences of the most formidable and em- 
 barrassing description. I can forgive old women like the 
 Chancellor, spoonies like Liverpool, ignoramuses like West- 
 morland, old stumped-up Tories like Bathurst ; but how 
 such a man as Peel, liberal, enlightened, and fresh-minded, 
 should find himself running in such a pack is hardly intelli- 
 gible. I think he must in his heart regret those early
 
 4O LORD FALMERSTON 
 
 pledges and youthful prejudices which have committed 
 him to opinions so different from the comprehensive and 
 statesmanlike views which he takes of public affairs. But 
 the day is fast approaching, as it seems to me, when this 
 matter will be settled as it must be ; and in spite of the orgies 
 in this town and Armagh, the eloquence of Sir George Hill 
 and Lord G. Beresford, and the bumpers pledged to the 
 " 'Prentice Boys' " motto of " No surrender" the days of 
 Protestant ascendency I think are numbered. It is strange 
 that in this enlightened age and enlightened country people 
 should be still debating whether it is wise to convert four or 
 five millions of men from enemies to friends, and whether 
 it is safe to give peace to Ireland.' 
 
 Early in 1827 Lord Liverpool died. His party had 
 ranged themselves under the leadership of Lord Eldon on 
 the one hand, and of Canning on the other. The latter 
 triumphed in the ensuing struggle. Canning succeeded to 
 the premiership. Palmerston had previously thrown in his 
 lot with Canning, and hence probably was not greatly sur- 
 prised at the receipt of the following letter : 
 
 Foreign Office : April 1827. 
 
 ' My dear Lord, I should be very glad of a few minutes' 
 conversation with you, any time after 4 this afternoon. 
 
 ' Very sincerely yours, 
 
 ( GEO. CANNING.' 
 
 Viscount Palmerston. 
 
 On the back of this note there is written the following 
 in Lord Palmerston's hand: 
 
 ' Canning informed me he wished me to be either Secre- 
 tary of State for Home Department or Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, that the King made a point of having an anti-
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 4! 
 
 Catholic in the first office, but if lie could not be found, 
 which was probable, Canning would like me to be there. 
 If not, he should wish me to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 Sturges Bourne was afterwards made Home Secretary, and 
 it was settled that I should be Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and Canning wished me to take the office immediately, so 
 as to have my writ moved the first day after the recess. I 
 wished to delay it until the end of the session, because, as 
 Sir John Copley had just been made Chancellor (Lord 
 Lyndhurst) and vacated his seat, and as Bankes and Goul- 
 burn and Tindal were going to fight for his seat, I felt that 
 if I vacated then I should come into their contest, and at 
 least be sure of much trouble if not worse results, as all 
 three were anti-Catholic, and I alone for the Question. 
 Canning on these grounds consented to let the matter stand 
 over till the end of the session, but called me immediately 
 to the Cabinet. In the meantime the Whigs joined the 
 Government. Sir William Knighton felt that it would be a 
 great convenience to him as Keeper of the Privy Purse, and 
 to the King, to have Canning continue First Lord of the 
 Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, instead of being, 
 as he wished, First Lord of the Treasury and Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs, making me Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer. He rries, the Secretary to the Treasury, was an old 
 friend of Knighton's. He was also a friend of Rothschild. 
 Canning was from these quarters, I believe, though I don't 
 actually know it, persuaded of that which, however, was 
 really true, namely, that he ought, as Prime Minister, to be 
 at the head of the Finance, and continue Lord of the 
 Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He therefore, 
 towards the end of the session, told me this change of arrange- 
 ment in a manner very kind, but which showed that he felt
 
 42 LORD PALMEKSTON 
 
 he was doing an ungracious thing, stating that, at any future 
 time when my situation as Secretary for War should be 
 divested of the importance that then belonged to it by the 
 reappointment of a Commander-in-Chief, I should, if I liked 
 it, be made a Peer, and have any other practicable arrange- 
 ment which might be agreeable to me ; in short, gave me 
 all these general assurances, which mean nothing at all. The 
 fact was, as I believe, that Knighton and others thought that 
 while Canning was Chancellor of the Exchequer, being also 
 leader of the House of Commons and head of the Govern- 
 ment, Herries, as Secretary of the Treasury, would of necessity 
 be virtually Chancellor of the Exchequer, in consequence of 
 the multiplicity of Canning's other occupations, but that if 
 I were appointed, having nothing else to do, I should be 
 effective in the office, and Herries would sink into a mere 
 instrument. My reason for believing this is the great struggle 
 which the King, urged on as I know by Knighton, made in 
 August following, on Canning's death, to have Herries ap- 
 pointed Chancellor of the Exchequer instead of me, Gode- 
 rich having again proposed me to the King for that office. 
 Canning, at the interview last alluded to, told me that the 
 King had said to him that he had good reason to know that 
 the thing of all others which I should like would be to 
 succeed the Duke of Manchester as Governor of Jamaica ; 
 that he, Canning, said he thought it very unlikely, but if 
 the King really thought such a thing would be agree- 
 able to me, the best way to ascertain the fact would be for 
 him (Canning) to ask me the question. I could not help 
 laughing so much at this idea that I perceived that I had 
 unintentionally disconcerted Canning for an instant He 
 afterwards proposed to me to be Governor-General of India 
 in succession to Lord Amherst. I told him how much I
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 43 
 
 felt flattered at the offer of so distinguished an appointment, 
 which was so legitimate an object of any man's ambition, 
 but that the same offer had been made to me twice before, 
 once in the summer of 1826 by Peel at Lord Liverpool's 
 suggestion, and afterwards in November last by Courtenay, 
 Secretary to the Board of Control, at Wynn's desire, but 
 that I had on both those occasions declined an appointment 
 which, from climate and distance, had to me objections which 
 outweighed the very splendid inducements which it held out, 
 and that my decision on those former occasions was founded 
 upon full consideration of the matter, and the same motives 
 led me now to decline. The fact is that I have the ill-luck, 
 from many and various circumstances, to be displeasing to the 
 King, and he would not willingly see me in any office which 
 brought me in contact with him, and would be glad to get 
 me civilly out of the way. He said to Madame de Lieven in 
 August 1 82 7, " Connaissez-vous Palmerston ? " " Oui, je Fai 
 connu bien depuis longtemps, mais ce n'cst quedernierement 
 que je 1'ai gonnu bien, et je vous assure que je Faime 
 beaucoup." " Eh bien," said he, " il y a quelque chose en 
 lui qui me deplait, il a Fair toujours si fier." She answered 
 him I was a " bon garc.on " an " excellent gar^on," ' &c. 
 
 In this connection we may quote the following con- 
 temporary testimony as to Palmerston's manners at the time 
 when he, like a later Prime Minister, had the reputation of 
 being something of a dandy : 
 
 ' I remember my mother used to tell us of her first re- 
 collections of Lord Palmerston, when she was a girl of 
 fourteen or fifteen. Her father was at the Admiralty, and 
 Lord Palmerston lived there also when he first started 
 in official life. Her father was at that time always praising 
 up this model young man as a pattern of industry and
 
 44 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 virtue, and prophesying that he would rise to the top of 
 the tree. But she and her sisters used to think him very 
 pedantic and very pompous, and laugh at him accordingly, 
 and among them he went by the nickname of " Sir Charles 
 Grandison," because he was so priggish and so sedate ! She 
 used to laugh about it, and say how strangely unlike his 
 after character this was, but it must have been part of his 
 determination to succeed.' 
 
 Although Canning only lived four months after becom- 
 ing Prime Minister, far-reaching changes were introduced 
 into the relations of political parties, and movements began 
 which were to culminate in the great Reform Bill of 1832. 
 The old Court party the so-called ' Protestant,' and cer- 
 tainly the most reactionary, clique began to disappear, and 
 the modern Liberal party to emerge. Deserted by the 
 Tories, Canning looked to the Whigs. What happened can 
 best be given in Palmerston's own summary : 
 
 Stanhope Street : May 4, 1827. 
 
 ' My dear William, All arrangements are now settled, 
 at least as to general principle. The Whigs join us in a 
 body and with zeal, and some of them will come into office 
 immediately. I am in the Cabinet, but continue Secretary 
 at War till the end of the session, having in addition to my 
 own duties those of the Commander-in-Chief to perform. 
 This is the natural constitution of my office, that in the 
 absence of a Commander-in-Chief the patronage of the 
 army devolves on the Secretary at War. At the end of the 
 session I shall be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and then, 
 in my opinion, some military man ought to be placed in the 
 command of the army. The advantage of the present ar- 
 rangement is, that it leaves the door open for the Duke .of
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 45 
 
 Wellington's return when the other arrangements are made, 
 without dispossessing any individual. You will see by the 
 debates that the Whigs have joined us manfully and in 
 earnest, and have boldly faced all charges of inconsistency, 
 declaring that they know it to be impossible that the Catholic 
 question should be made a Cabinet measure, and do not 
 join us upon any such expectation, but simply because they 
 see as well as Peel that the having Canning at the head of 
 the Government must of itself necessarily give a great ad- 
 vantage to the question ; and because they agree with him 
 on almost all other great questions of foreign and domestic 
 policy ; and because, if they did not support him, he could 
 not, by reason of the defection of his colleagues, maintain 
 his position. Nothing can be more satisfactory to Canning 
 than the footing on which their accession is placed ; he 
 gives up no opinion either on parliamentary reform or any 
 other question, and distinctly said so last night in the House. 
 They make him a compliment of most of the questions on 
 which they differ with him. He, in the first place, makes 
 his Government and carries it through the session, and they 
 come in as joining a Government already formed, and not as 
 original ingredients in its composition.' 
 
 During the years in which Canning and the Duke 
 of Wellington were the chief political personages, Peel's 
 star was rising. Palmerston's place remained the same, 
 Secretary at War. Canning died in August, 1827, his 
 Ministry thus lasting only four months ; but it marks the 
 starting-point of English political progress and reform 
 in the nineteenth century. Troublous times followed. 
 Canning was succeeded by Lord (ioderich, whose Minis- 
 try lasted (.inly eight days longer than Canning's, and on
 
 46 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 January 25, 1828, the Duke of Wellington became Prime 
 Minister. Lord Palmerston was soon summoned to an 
 interview by the Duke, and has left the following record 
 of what passed on the question of his joining the 
 Cabinet : 
 
 1 Before I gave the Duke of Wellington my final answer, 
 I wished to have some distinct explanation upon one or two 
 points. First, I concluded that his Government is to be 
 upon the same understanding as Liverpool's and Canning's 
 as to the Catholic question, viz. that every member of the 
 Cabinet is to be at liberty to propound the question either 
 in the Cabinet or in Parliament according to his own dis- 
 cretion. To this he entirely assented. I then said that I 
 should wish an assurance that the patronage of the Govern- 
 ment should be administered and its influence exerted, upon 
 all occasions and by all its members, in a spirit of strict 
 neutrality with reference to the Catholic question ; and 
 particularly that the support to be given to candidates at 
 elections should not depend upon the opinions which such 
 candidates may hold upon that question ; and I wished, 
 thirdly, that it should be understood that the Lord- Lieutenant 
 and Chief Secretary in Ireland should at no time be persons 
 decidedly hostile to the Catholic claim a condition which 
 I said was, I thought, essential to tranquillity in that country. 
 He seemed to feel like a person who was more used to 
 impose than to receive stipulations, and was disinclined to 
 come to any specific assurance, laughing the matter off by 
 saying that the first was asking him whether he was an 
 honest man, and the second whether he was a madman- 
 that he had himself governed Ireland, and knew that to send 
 such a person as I described would be to blow up a flame 
 in the country, and that he had no intention of doing any
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 47 
 
 such thing. I said with respect to the first, that I had no 
 distrust of him or of Peel ; but that, when I saw Bathurst 
 in high office, and Goulburn at the Treasury, and when I 
 looked back to what I knew had been done in former times, 
 I could not consider such an understanding as unnecessary. 
 He said, " Well, then, I may send in your name." I said 
 that I considered these matters of more importance than he 
 seemed to do, and that I must take time to think the matter 
 over, and we parted, saying that he should hear from me again. 
 ... I have no doubt that the Duke will give me such an 
 assurance as ought to be satisfactory between man and man.' 
 
 The Canningites Huskisson, Lamb, Dudley, Palmer- 
 ston, and others acted with the Duke, but without any 
 cordiality, and his administration was doomed from the 
 start. It lasted only three hundred and one days. Palmer- 
 ston sums up in a sentence the part played by his section : 
 1 We joined the new Government in January. We left it in 
 May. We joined as a party ; as a party we retired.' They 
 sided with Huskisson in the great quarrel which he had with 
 Wellington, and in June, 1828, Palmerston for the first time 
 was in opposition. His correspondence gives us glimpses 
 of the state of affairs at this time. 
 
 In a letter to his brother, dated ' Stanhope Street, June 8, 
 1828, he writes : 
 
 ' I will send you the " Mirror of Parliament," which will 
 contain a pretty accurate report of the debate of last 
 Monday about Ministerial explanations. Peel declares that 
 no change of measures or of policy will take place, and 
 perhaps it may be so. I do not think that any material 
 change can take place as long as he remains in the Govern- 
 ment, because he is perfectly liberal and enlightened on all 
 subjects except the Catholic question, on which indeed I
 
 48 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 suspect that he is quite of your opinion but is bound by 
 early pledges. It is not at all impossible, too, that the other 
 members of the Government may be more disposed to be 
 liberal, now that they will themselves have the credit of 
 whatever they may do in that line, than they were when 
 they might be supposed to be swayed by their colleagues. 
 This is not unnatural, and, from what I have lately heard, 
 seems to be the case. At all events, if they o not pursue 
 a liberal course, the Government cannot possibly stand. 
 The opinion of Parliament and the country is decidedly that 
 way, and if they were to try to run counter to it they would 
 be beat in the House of Commons and not supported by 
 the country if they were then to dissolve. A dissolution, 
 too, under present circumstances with an anti-Catholic 
 Government would be too serious a thing in Ireland to be 
 lightly encountered, and I do not think there will be one 
 this year. It would look too like an attempt to get rid of 
 the Finance Committee. The ejected Liberals are, for a 
 nascent party, strong in Parliament. The new Govern- 
 ment is somewhat too military to be very pleasing to the 
 country, but it will go on until something happens untoward 
 to discompose it. It is so many years since I have been 
 entirely my own master that I feel it quite comical to have 
 no tic, and to be able to dispose of my day as I like. I 
 have ceased for a week to attend the War Office, though 
 Hardinge has not. yet begun. My speech on Monday has 
 been generally approved of. Huskisson thanked me very 
 warmly. His friends were delighted, while, on the other 
 hand, none of the Tories could find fault with anything I 
 said, but have rather taken the tone of crying up my 
 speech as contrasting it with Huskisson's. The greatest 
 praise 1 have had, however, has been some violent abuse
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 49 
 
 from the Duke of Cumberland, who declares I am grown 
 quite a Democrat. The other day Prince George said to 
 the Duke of Clarence, " They say you are in favour of the 
 Catholics ; I hope that is not true." " Yes, my little 
 fellow," said Clarence, " I am, and as far as I know myself 
 I always shall be, and so you may tell your father." I 
 was much struck and amused with the contrast between 
 these Dukes on two occasions. At the child's ball at St. 
 James's, which was given before Retford came in, Clarence 
 was civil, to me as usual, but nothing particular. Cumber- 
 land was very gracious, asked me much about you, begged 
 to be remembered to you, said you were a very good fellow, 
 and they were very sorry to lose you, and in short was as civil 
 as possible. At the full-grown ball, the Monday after the 
 change had taken place, Cumberland barely recognised me, 
 and passed with a slight acknowledgment, and a simple " It's 
 very hot to-night." Clarence, on the contrary, reached out 
 his hand to me across three people, shook me with the 
 greatest cordiality, and said, " I am very glad to see you," 
 with great emphasis. 
 
 ' Miguel in Portugal seems to be fast approaching the 
 fate he deserves. They say Heytesbury is to he sent imme- 
 diately to the head -quarters, Stratford Canning to Corfu. 
 The policy of the Austrian Government in declaring for 
 absolute independence for Greece is curious. I am, how 
 ever, for taking her at her word. I am sure it would be the 
 best arrangement. 
 
 ' Though we have all parted, yet we have parted perfectly 
 good friemls, especially Peel aiul I.'
 
 5O LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Stanhope Street : June 27, 1828. 
 
 ' We are going on here quietly. Everybody and all 
 parties seem determined to wait and watch, and see the 
 result, and whether the declarations that have been made 
 will be kept to. In the meantime there is no opposition, 
 and it is well for the Government that there is not, for Peel 
 is the only man in the House of Commons on the Treasury 
 Bench who can make a speech as a minister should do. 
 In the only two debates we have had, one about the ship- 
 ping question, and the other about the 250,000^ sent from 
 French indemnities to Naslie's Palace, if it had not been 
 for the assistance lent by Huskisson and Grant, the Govern- 
 ment would not have made a very brilliant figure. Calcraft 
 is a good, useful, and ready debater, but a man who changes 
 sides so suddenly and singly fights at a great disadvantage ; 
 and his sharp style of debating will not do in his present 
 position so well as when he fought on his own account only. 
 Fitzgerald is unpopular in the House of Commons, although 
 a clever man and able speaker does not hit the House, as 
 Burke said, between wind and water. Murray makes an 
 elegant speech upon preparation, and with practice would 
 be a useful debater, but it is too late in life for him to take 
 up this exercise with hopes of excelling in it. However, the 
 ship will sail well enough. . . . 
 
 ' The King is remarkably well in health, and stronger on 
 his legs, and walked the other day all over Windsor Castle 
 with a party from Ascot. The Duke of Cumberland says 
 he loves us so much he means to settle here and send for 
 his Duchess. The Duke of Sussex was talking of him to 
 me the other day ; I said how abominable it was for that 
 man to come over here to do so much mischief, treating him 
 as if he were a Ghibelline instead of a Guclph. He and
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 51 
 
 Eldon and the rest must, however, be little satisfied with 
 the result of their intrigue, for, though they have satisfied 
 personal feelings, they have been utterly disappointed in 
 their political expectations ; and are even worse off in politics 
 than they were. The tone of public opinion hds fairly over- 
 powered them, and, at the moment when they thought every- 
 thing within their reach, has wrested everything from their 
 grasp. The declaration of the Duke in the Lords as to the 
 Catholic question, let him mean what he may and there are 
 great differences of opinion as to what he does mean has 
 advanced that question immensely, because it throws over- 
 board all objections on principle, and places the matter simply 
 on the ground of comparative arrangement. As long as the 
 Prime Minister declared that on no terms and no conditions 
 would he ever consent to admit Catholics into Parliament, so 
 long the anti-Catholics throughout the country had a clear 
 course and knew what to do and what language to hold. 
 But the moment the Minister says there is no invincible 
 objection to their admission, and that he can imagine ar- 
 rangements which would render such a measure harmless, 
 the column is broken and every man looks to himself and 
 his own feelings and opinions, and, finding his general 
 meditates a retreat, determines not to be the last to stay. 
 I expect, therefore, that our majority in the Commons next 
 year will be very considerably increased. This cannot be 
 very palatable to the Duke of Cumberland and Co. The 
 exclusion of Eldon, the taking in of Calcraft, the overtures 
 made to Lord Grey all these things must be exceedingly 
 distasteful to those persons who objected to the ejected as 
 being too anti-Tory. Our session is now drawing nearly to 
 a close. 
 
 ' We may now hope to be in a settled state (as to finance)
 
 52 LOUD PALMERSTON 
 
 as the Government have positively determined to adhere to 
 the abolition of the one-pound notes as fixed by the present 
 law, which forbids any such note being issued after April, 
 1829, and this paper currency was the great element of all 
 our convulsions and revulsions. While such notes pass 
 current, gold cannot remain in the country ; and when there 
 is no gold, or at least only a small quantity, the law may 
 require that notes should be convertible. But what is there 
 to convert them into? And as to the bankers giving 
 security, exchequer bills and estates and three per cents, 
 cannot be coined into sovereigns when panic happens, and 
 therefore do not guard against the evil. Panic will always be 
 liable to happen as long as we have paper money, because 
 there is a tendency in paper to become, every now and 
 then, excessive, and, when the issuers think they have too 
 much in circulation and begin to withdraw it, prices fall. 
 The moment prices fall, there are more sellers than buyers, 
 because all expect a greater fall, and the sellers hasten to 
 get what they can, and the buyers wait for the lower price. 
 Then comes bankruptcy by persons selling for less than 
 they bought at, instead of for more. Then alarm, then run 
 on banks, and if the banks have one-pound notes in the 
 hands of poor people, who cannot afford to trust and wait, 
 and if there is not a gold circulation to change the notes, 
 stoppages follow, and extensive ruin and misery. Upon 
 this point Government mean to stand or fall and the 
 public is with them. 
 
 'About Portugal I cannot think that Miguel will stand. 
 His proceedings are much too violent. He has certainly 
 shut up upwards of two thousand people in Lisbon. No 
 country can stand this sort of thing. There must be a 
 reaction even among his friends, and when Palmella and
 
 IN TIIK CABINET AND IN O1TOSITIOX 53 
 
 Saldanha get to Oporto in their steamboat, which they pro- 
 bably will in spite of the blockade, the Pedroists will have 
 the head they want. I fear, however, they want heart as 
 much as head.' 
 
 In his journal Palmcrston notes the significance of 
 O'Connell's return for Clare, and the change of front going 
 on in the Cabinet with regard to Catholic Emancipation : 
 
 ' Irish affairs have gone on from bad to worse ever since 
 the summer. The Clare election began a new era, and was 
 an e^och in the history of Ireland. O'Connell did not at 
 first mean to stand himself, but no eligible Protestant 
 candidate could be found ; and as all the landholders, with 
 scarcely an exception, were for Fit/gerald, nothing perhaps 
 I, nit the influence of O'Connell as a candidate could have 
 carried the point. The event was dramatic and somewhat 
 sublime. The Prime Minister of England tells the Catholics, 
 in his speech in the House of Lords, that if they will only 
 be perfectly quiet for a few years, cease to urge their claims, 
 and let people forget the question entirely, then, after a few 
 years perhaps something may be done for them. They reply 
 to this advice, within a few weeks after it is given, by raising 
 t'ne population of a whole province like one man, keeping 
 them within the strictest obedience to the law, and, by 
 strictly legal and constitutional means, hurling from his seat 
 in the representation one of the Cabinet Ministers of the 
 King. There were thirty thousand Irish peasants in and 
 about Ennis in sultry July, and not a drunken man among 
 them, or only one, and he an Englishman and a Protestant, 
 and O'Connell's own coachman, whom O'Connell had com 
 rmtted upon his own deposition for a hrearh of the peace. 
 No Irishman ever stirs a mile from his hour,e without a 
 stick : not a stick was to be seen at the election.
 
 54 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 ' Lord Anglesey begged that when I got back to London, 
 if I was able by any means whatever to pick up what were 
 the intentions of the Government, I would write him word. 
 The Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland begging a private gentle- 
 man to let him know, if he could find out, what the Prime 
 Minister meant upon a question deeply affecting the peace 
 and welfare of the country which that Lord- Lieutenant was 
 appointed to govern, and upon which question he was every 
 week stating to the Government the opinions he himself 
 entertained a strange instance of the withholding of that 
 confidence which, for both their sakes, ought to have existed. 
 He said he had had a good deal of communication with the 
 Catholics, and could answer for keeping them quiet for the 
 present. They were contented with impartiality and justice. 
 The Protestants, on the contrary, required partiality to 
 themselves, and injustice to the Catholics. Still, some of 
 those leading Protestants would be very glad to have the 
 question settled for them by an overruling authority ; as 
 long as it remained unsettled they are compelled or, rather 
 think themselves compelled to keep their places in their 
 party by heading meetings,' &c. 
 
 Lord Palmerston's interest in foreign affairs continued to 
 deepen, and early in 1829 he visited Paris again. He writes 
 of French and Eastern affairs as follows : 
 
 July, 1829. 
 
 'Polignac expects to be taken into the (French) Govern- 
 ment, and says that he is not afraid of the responsibility, 
 and that the only way is to be strict and determined, and 
 to terrasser one's opponents. If he acts upon this system 
 he will terrasser himself in a short time. That system will 
 not do in Frarfce unless he could abolish the Constitution.
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 55 
 
 and it is now happily too late for such a man as Polignac 
 to think of accomplishing a change like that. Madame 
 d'Escars is come over probably with the hope of welding 
 Polignac and his party with our King, but she has failed as 
 yet in getting more than an hour's audience in London, 
 instead of being invited down to the lodge at Windsor. She 
 says, " Que le bon Dieu me le pardonne, mais, pour vous 
 avouer la ve'rite', j'adore le Due de Wellington." This got 
 round to the King, and, as he by no means partakes in that 
 worship, did not much please him.' 
 
 On the Russian campaign in progress against Turkey he 
 says in a letter to his brother William : 
 
 ' The advantage gained by Diebitch over the Vizier 
 was even more considerable than was at first supposed. 
 The sooner the Turks get well thrashed in a pitched battle, 
 the sooner they will agree to reasonable terms of peace, and 
 it is only by making peace quickly that they can save their 
 Danube fortresses, and, if those are once taken, it may not 
 be so easy for them to get them back again, and it is quite 
 certain that England never will spend a single shilling for this 
 purpose. The Duke of Cumberland stays here, and has 
 sent for his Duchess and son. This will annoy the Duke 
 of Wellington, because the Duke of Cumberland is deter- 
 mined to get him out if he can, and, by being on the spot 
 and with the King constantly, he has it in his power to 
 blow into a flame every little difference between the 
 King and the Government. The Monday before Parliament 
 was prorogued, Cumberland went over to the King and 
 advised him to object to any paragraph in the proposed 
 speech which might convey an opinion that the settlement 
 of the Catholic question had been a good thing, and
 
 56 LORI) FALMERSTON 
 
 accordingly when the Council met that day, and the Duke 
 showed the King the draft of the speech, the King struck 
 out a whole paragraph about the Catholic question, and 
 obliged the Duke of Wellington to go back and frame a new 
 paragraph such as you saw, only expressing a hope, and no 
 opinion. The King and Cumberland consider this as a 
 victory over the Government, and as giving the King the 
 upper hand with them, and proving that if he only resists 
 them they will give way. They will not, however, do so 
 upon all things. In the meantime matters at home are in a 
 state in which they can hardly remain.' 
 
 The following letter from Palmerston to his brother-in- 
 law gives a very clear view of the state of affairs immediately 
 preceding the formation of Earl Grey's Administration : 
 
 Shugborough : October 7, 1829. 
 
 ' My dear Sulivan, I arrived here the day before yes- 
 terday, Littleton having transferred his party to this place, 
 on account of some private theatricals holding here in which 
 Lord Anson and Lord and Lady Belfast performed with toler- 
 able success, and divers other ladies and gentlemen with 
 remarkable want of skill. I go to-day to Lord Anglesey's, 
 and thence to Liverpool, where I shall take steam to Dublin. 
 So at last peace is made between Russia and Turkey, and 
 upon Russia's own terms. I hope and trust that Greece 
 will now be placed upon a proper footing, and our Govern- 
 ment will find that they have failed of both their objects, 
 having succeeded neither in preventing the establishment 
 of Greece, nor in protecting the Sultan from the arms of 
 Russia. We shall, therefore, have lost our influence both 
 with the free and the despot. This is the fate of those 
 who are unable to pursue a straight course, because, their
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 57 
 
 inclination leading one way and necessity driving the other, 
 they are forced into the diagonal. 
 
 ' I had a curious conversation on Saturday evening at the 
 Travellers' with Sir Richard Vivian, the member for Corn- 
 wall. Sir William Heathcote had called on me at Broad- 
 lands last week, and told me he expected Vivian at Hursley, 
 and that he would be sorry to find me absent from Hamp- 
 shire. Finding Vivian at dinner at the club, I sat down by 
 him and fell to forthwith to politics and cutlets, and the 
 dialogue ended in his proposing to me to be leader of the 
 House of Commons to a Mansfield, Eldon, Newcastle, and 
 Knatchbull Administration. I began by observing that the 
 Duke seemed to be getting the Tories round again, and re- 
 covering his strength so as to be able to meet Parliament 
 again without any reinforcements. Vivian said this was quite 
 a mistake, that the Tories were more adverse than ever, that 
 few people knew better than he did what they were about, 
 that the Duke of Wellington was tottering more than ever, 
 and that even in a fortnight or three weeks a new Govern- 
 ment might be formed ; that the King had not seen his first 
 Minister since some day in August, and was only watching 
 for an opportunity to get rid of him ; that, at all events, 
 Peel could not possibly meet the House again as leader. 
 
 1 He then asked how I felt myself, and to what degree 
 bound to Huskisson, whether I could and would take office 
 without him, and whether I should be disposed to join such 
 a Government as that he mentioned ; that Huskisson fright- 
 ened the country gentlemen : that I had only pledged 
 myself on foreign politics, and was tree about trade and 
 currency ; that I should probably feel no difficulty about 
 leading the House of Commons. I said that, as to Huskisson 
 and myself, we found ourselves from various circumstances
 
 58 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 acting together, and that we agreed in opinions, but that 
 we were each of us free with respect to the other ; that I 
 should have no cause to complain if he accepted office 
 without me, and I considered myself as having a similar 
 freedom with respect to him ; that, as to my opinions on 
 trade and currency, it had certainly so happened that no 
 occasion and opportunity had arisen for me to express them 
 in Parliament in any detail, but that they were formed, and 
 formed upon some reflection, and, as far as I could judge, 
 were not likely to be altered, and that they were entirely in 
 unison with that system which, though much older than 
 Huskisson, was perhaps first carried extensively into practice 
 by him, and which had exposed him to such undeserved 
 censure ; that consequently I should not be disposed to join 
 any Government who intended to retrace the steps which 
 Parliament has taken on these subjects ; that, as to joining 
 any particular Government, all I could say was that I had no 
 personal antipathies, but that no man could answer such a 
 question in the abstract and by anticipation, but must first 
 know who the men were who were to be proposed to him as 
 colleagues, and what system of government they intended to 
 pursue. 
 
 ' He went on in the same way, and at length said that 
 the question he had for some time been desirous of put- 
 ting to me was whether I should have any objection to 
 have my name mentioned to the King as willing to be 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, and leader of the House 
 to such a Government as he had alluded to, saying that 
 I should be a great card to them, and that the King 
 might be more likely to agree to the formation of such a 
 Government if he found that a certain number of persons 
 were already willing to become members of it. He had in the
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 59 
 
 commencement of the conversation expressed his opinion that 
 the Duke of Wellington was a man of most unmeasured 
 ambition, who wants to make all Europe a military camp 
 and to govern upon arbitrary principles, in proof of which 
 he adduced the recent establishment of Polignac in France 
 and the late Police Bill here. My reply to this specific pro- 
 position was of course a negative. I said I certainly could 
 not wish my name so to be mentioned to the King ; that if 
 any proposition was made to me by a Government already 
 formed or in the act of being formed, my answer would be 
 the same as that which I made to the Duke in 1828 " First 
 tell me who are your men, and what are to be your measures 
 and then I shall be able to say whether it would suit me to 
 become your colleague." 
 
 ' He then went on to discuss lightly various men, appa- 
 rently with the view of letting me see indirectly how it was 
 intended that the projected Government should be formed. 
 Lord Mansfield would, he said, of course be the head. 
 Eldon would be a member. Brougham, he thought, must 
 be got out of the House of Commons, as he would be too 
 formidable an antagonist, and why should he not make an 
 excellent Chancellor ? Lyndhurst had been tried and must 
 go. Fitzgerald, he said, is a quick, clever fellow and would 
 be most useful did I think he would unite himself with 
 such a Government ? I said I thought he scarcely could or 
 would join a Government formed upon the ruins of that of 
 the Duke and Peel. Young Stanley he praised as a man 
 that should be obtained, and he discussed whether Stanley 
 would require a Cabinet office or would take one out of 
 the Cabinet. Herries he commended as a man full of the 
 most useful knowledge. Huskisson he mentioned in con 
 nection with the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Robei
 
 60 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Grant would make an admirable Speaker, and Charles 
 Grant (who, I suppose, is too much identified with Free 
 Trade for this party) might be made Governor of Jamaica. 
 (This appointment, by the way, seems to be the Chiltern 
 Hundreds of political men who are to be got out of the 
 way.) Lord Grey was deemed impracticable as a colleague. 
 Falmouth unmanageably obstinate. The Duke of New- 
 castle lauded generally for his good sense and understanding, 
 and Sir E. Knatchbull pointed out as Secretary to the Home 
 Department. 
 
 ' My part in all this was chiefly that of listener and 
 suggester of general remarks for the purpose of leading 
 on the conversation. I said I should much doubt the suc- 
 cess of such a Governmeut as he was sketching out, and 
 thought that no Government would sufficiently carry public 
 opinion with it that did not contain more persons with whom 
 as public men the country was already acquainted ; that 
 the King, too, must have some ostensible reason for changing 
 his Government, and could not here do as in France, and 
 send word one fine morning to his Ministers that he had 
 appointed another lot ; and that, moreover, the Govern- 
 ment must be turned out for doing something or for not 
 doing something, and that their successors must be bound 
 to do the reverse of that, whether omission or commission, 
 for which they were dismissed. This he treated very lightly, 
 saying the King never could be at any greater loss for a 
 reason to turn out his present Ministers than Russia always 
 is for a reason to make war on Turkey ; at all events, he 
 said that if nothing were done before Parliament met, yet 
 that the very first day, if the Tories and Whigs and Can- 
 ningites would only unite in an Amendment, the Govern- 
 ment must be beat. When we parted he asked where he
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION 6l 
 
 should direct to me. He also remarked that the Duke of 
 Cumberland was getting round again in public opinion. 
 
 ' All this is curious as showing how busily Cumberland 
 and Eldon are still at work and how much they flatter them- 
 selves with success in getting the Duke out, provided they 
 can only hold out to the King the prospect of a decent 
 Government. It is plain they have opened their eyes to the 
 impossibility of making a purely Tory Government, and 
 that they are now come to the next step, that is, to try to 
 mix, with a predominance of old fellows saturated with the 
 brine of Toryism, a few young men of the Liberal parties 
 who shall not be able to set up as objectors to any course 
 proposed. They wish to tempt me by brilliant offers to 
 forego opinions to which I do not happen to be personally 
 tied by anv public declaration. I suspect that Foreign 
 Affairs are intended for Vivian himself. He is violently 
 against the Metternich and Apostolical school of which the 
 Duke and Aberdeen are disciples. Stanley they think would 
 be a good decoy for the Whigs. As far as I individually am 
 concerned, it seems to me that my interest as well as in- 
 clination leads me to adhere to the party with whom I am 
 thrown. I consider myself as being free if I choose, because 
 we never have met or consulted as a party, and have upon no 
 occasion voted as a body. We sit together, but upon almost 
 every question last session voted different ways. But as to 
 going to the Tory party, even if they really and in good 
 earnest were to propose to me to be their House of 
 Commons leader, though I should not be quite in the same 
 false position as Peel, because he has always concealed his 
 opinions more or less, and I have avowed mine, yet still to 
 belong to people you do not think with cannot answer. In 
 fact, the only Government which could answer the wants of
 
 62 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the nation would be one composed of men known and 
 looked up to. The Duke has a great hold upon public 
 feeling. No other individual now living has perhaps so 
 great a one. Whether this is ill or well founded is nothing 
 to the purpose, but so it is.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston had been now for some time out of 
 office, and although he was invited by the Duke of Welling- 
 ton to rejoin his Administration, the negotiation failed, as 
 Lord Palmerston said he must vote in Parliament for a 
 reform in the franchise. 
 
 We close this period of Lord Palmerston's life, his long 
 apprenticeship to the public service, as it may be termed, 
 with a letter written some years later, which throws a strong 
 light upon the tangled politics of that day : 
 
 Broadlands : December 21, 1838. 
 
 1 When Lord Goderich was turned out, and the Duke of 
 Wellington sent for, in consequence of Goderich going to 
 George IV. and telling him that there was an irreconcilable 
 difference between Huskisson and Herries, and that he, 
 Goderich, did not know what to do, the Duke of Welling- 
 ton sent for Huskisson, and asked him and the rest of 
 Canning's friends to join the Government about to be formed. 
 Huskisson then called a meeting of Canning's friends then 
 in London, and C. Grant, Binning, Dudley, Littleton, 
 and myself met at his house. Melbourne (then William 
 Lamb) was at that time in Dublin, and I forget whether 
 Warrender was at the meeting or not. The two questions 
 which at that moment excited the deepest interest were the 
 Catholic question and the recently concluded Greek treaty. 
 The Tory party had stoutly opposed Catholic emancipation, 
 and had utterly condemned the withdrawal of Greece from
 
 IN THE CABINET AND IN OPPOSITION' 63 
 
 Turkish domination. Canning's party had been strongly 
 for emancipation and for the Greek treaty. Huskisson told 
 us that the inducement held out by the Duke to persuade 
 us to join him was that, if we did so, the Government would 
 be neutral as to the Catholic question, leaving that question 
 an open one as it had hitherto been, and that if we 
 declined he should be obliged to fill up his Government 
 with men of the old Tory party, and the whole influence 
 of the Administration would then be forthwith against eman- 
 cipation. He said, moreover, that, if we joined him, the 
 Greek treaty should be scrupulously acted upon, and that, 
 as a security that Canning's system of foreign policy should 
 be continued, the Foreign Office should be given to Lord 
 Dudley, and that, as a security for a liberal commercial 
 system, Charles Grant should have the Board of Trade. 
 Having well considered all these matters, we determined 
 that it became us to accept the Duke's offer, and we joined 
 his Government. But we soon found that putting men of 
 different opinions together does not unite them, and every- 
 day showed more and more the divergence of sentiments 
 which prevailed. Then came the question about East Ret- 
 ford and Penryn, which led to the resignation of Huskisson 
 and the rest of Canning's friends. In the September follow- 
 ing happened the tragical death of Huskisson on the Liver- 
 pool and Manchester Railway. 
 
 ' Soon after that event I received at this place a letter from 
 the late Lord Powis, an old and intimate college friend, who 
 wrote from Powis Castle asking me to meet him in London. 
 I went, and he told me he had been requested by the Duke 
 of Wellington to see me and to ascertain whether I would 
 then join his Government. He wished to know who the 
 persons were with whom I considered myself acting in public
 
 64 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 life, and said that, if I accepted, the Duke would make room 
 for (I think) two of my friends in the Cabinet. I said at 
 once that Dudley, C. Grant, and VV. Lamb were the persons 
 with whom mainly I considered myself acting that, no 
 doubt, the offer was very handsome and flattering, but that 
 I should not like to belong to the Government unless Lord 
 Grey and Lord Lansdowne also were to become members 
 of it, because I felt that I and my two friends would not alone 
 and unsupported be enabled to make our views prevail when 
 they might differ from those of other members of the Cabinet. 
 I afterwards the next day, I believe was sent for by the 
 Duke, and had a private interview with him at Apsley 
 House, when he repeated what Lord Powis had been desired 
 by him to say to me, and I repeated what I had said. Of 
 course the condition which I attached to the acceptance of 
 the Duke's offer put an end to the negotiation, because, as he 
 said, though he might have the means of creating two or 
 three vacancies, he was not prepared for such a remodelling 
 of the Administration as the admission of Lord Grey and 
 Lord Lansdowne would necessarily imply. We parted, and 
 in order to relieve myself from further proposals in this 
 matter, and to show that my answer was final, I went off 
 immediately to Paris, whither I had no previous intention 
 of going, and I remained there until it was time to come 
 back for the meeting of Parliament in October.'
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FOREIGN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME, 1830-184! 
 
 TOWARDS the close of 1830 the Ministry of the Duke of 
 Wellington was overthrown, and Lord Grey was commis- 
 sioned to form a Government. The accession of Lord 
 Grey to power enabled Palmerston to reach the goal of his 
 ambition the appointment of Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 This was the post that was dear to his heart, the only 
 one in which he displayed ability of a very high order, and 
 the subsequent record of his life is occupied very largely 
 with the policy he thus inaugurated, and the results flowing 
 from it. 
 
 Lord Palmerston was in favour of the great Reform Bill 
 carried by Lord Grey, but he confined his efforts in that 
 direction mainly to consistent voting in the right way. It 
 was upon England's relations to the great diplomatic world 
 that he kept his gaze steadily fixed. His letters and diaries 
 enable us to follow very closely both his action and also 
 his thoughts and opinions upon public affairs at this great 
 crisis in English history. 
 
 31 Oct. 1831. 
 
 'After dinner yesterday I went and slept at the " Star and 
 Garter " to have a cool night and a fresh ride in to-day, besides 
 getting four hours' work at a paper I had to draw up, free from 
 
 F
 
 66 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 one single interruption. People ought to be many months 
 confined in London to know the value of even a few hours of 
 fresh air and exercise. We are still without positive results at 
 the Hague or Brussels, but Adair says that there is no doubt 
 that the Belgians will accept by a large majority, but, like 
 an African tribe, they insist upon having their palaver out, 
 though every man has declared how he shall vote. We 
 have not yet heard from the Hague since they knew of 
 the sailing of our fleet. I think it will rather surprise 
 them and bring them to reason. The riot at Bristol is un- 
 pleasant, and it seems that the officer in command of 
 the troops made improper concessions to the mob, and 
 agreed to withdraw his men because they were unpopular, 
 leaving only a handful of one regiment which was in better 
 odour with the people. Reinforcements have been sent, 
 and the authority of the law will be maintained. 
 
 ''November i. -There has been a tremendous row at 
 Bristol. All the public buildings of the town burnt, besides 
 many private houses, and three hundred of the mob killed 
 or wounded by the sabres of the cavalry. A proclamation 
 will be issued to-morrow, calling on all persons to assist in 
 maintaining the peace, and all requisite measures of vigour 
 will be taken. 
 
 ' November 5. Five of the leaders of Monday's meeting 
 had an interview with Melbourne, who told them that their 
 assembly would be illegal, seditious, and possibly treason- 
 able. He had no advice to give them. The Government 
 would take all necessary measures for preserving the peace. 
 It is quite a godsend to Melbourne to have an important 
 affair in his hands. It rouses him wonderfully, and his 
 activity is always in proportion to the urgency of the case. 
 
 ' November 8. I do not regret that the meeting was
 
 FOREK1N MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 67 
 
 put off. Prevention is always better than cure, and when 
 we can prevent disturbance, it is always right to do so ; ' ce 
 qui est diffcre est perdu,' is a much truer maxim than the con- 
 trary. The only good effect of cutting down some hundreds 
 of vagabonds, at the price of many broken heads of respect- 
 able persons, and the burning of many honest men's houses, 
 would have been to convince the rogues that the law and the 
 Government are too strong for them, and if we have succeeded 
 in inspiring that conviction by other means, why, so much 
 the better. I take it they did not much relish the awkward 
 words "sedition" and "high treason." The Government 
 mean to use their influence to prevent the formation of these 
 unions in various parts of the country. There were quantities 
 of special constables sworn in yesterday. This let free the 
 whole of the regular police to act against the mob in a bod}-, 
 if there had been need. 
 
 ' Nwember 16. At last you may wish me joy. This 
 morning, between two and three, we signed, sealed, and de- 
 livered six copies of the treaty of friendship and acknowledg- 
 ment between the five Powers and Leopold, thus virtually and 
 substantially-settling this long-pending and complicated affair, 
 for, Belgium being now constituted and placed under the 
 guarantee of the five Powers, the Dutch King may sulk if he. 
 will ; but he can no longer endanger the peace of Kurope, 
 since all the five would be equally bound to resist him, and 
 his only hopes were placed in the possibility of a division 
 among them. Leopold had instructed Van de Weyer to 
 obtain the promise of an acknowledgment before he signified 
 his acceptance. Van de Weyer has now obtained actu;il 
 acknowledgment, which is more. Leopold's acceptance was 
 couched in doleful terms of complaint and reproach, and 
 Talleyrand said it was an acceptance di<>\~ et si in He instead 
 
 i j
 
 68 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 of what we had asked for, pure et simple. We signed also 
 between the four Powers and Van de Weyer an agreement 
 to serve as the basis of a Convention about the fortresses, 
 subject to confirmation by Leopold, from whom Van de 
 Weyer had no instructions on this head. We consent to 
 the demolition of Menin, Ath, Mons, Philippeville, and 
 Marienbourg preserving the citadel of Tournay and Char- 
 leroi, which France wanted to demolish, and demolishing 
 Philippeville and Marienbourg, which they wanted to, 
 preserve. But the two former are useful for the defence of 
 Belgium, and by demolishing the two others we shall destroy 
 the motive which makes France so anxious to get possession 
 of the nook of territory in which they stand. In signing 
 this agreement, which was dated subsequently to the treaty, 
 Van de Weyer signed second by virtue of alphabetical pre- 
 cedence, and he looked as pleased as if he had been made 
 a prince himself. I suspect he will go back forthwith and 
 become Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a very good one he 
 will make. There was a doubt at one time last night whether 
 all the things could be got ready in time to sign, and I said 
 to Wessemberg that perhaps we should have to put it off till 
 to-day. " No," said he, " old Talleyrand won't quit this roof 
 without signing ; his orders to his stockbroker are all given, 
 and he must have the treaty signed before to-morrow morn- 
 ing." By-the-by, Talleyrand has lost a large sum lately at 
 Paris, by a man whom he employed in these kinds of trans- 
 actions, to buy and sell, not in Talleyrand's name, but in 
 his own. This agent, getting into difficulties, has contended 
 that what stands in his own name belongs to himself, and it 
 will be hard, they say, to prove the contrary. To-day Lieven 
 and Talleyrand and I have a little trio upon Greece. 
 
 November 17. Sebastiani is delighted at the idea of
 
 FORKICN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 69 
 
 our treaty (the Belgian Treaty), and he said that it would 
 give such a security to the peace of Europe that France 
 would he able to disband a hundred thousand men at least, 
 and that they would not have occasion to avail themselves 
 of the law for mobilising the National Guard. They will, 
 moreover, agree to some tolerable arrangement for a mutual 
 right of search on the African coast to put an end to the 
 slave trade. This will be popular here both with the saints 
 and West Indians. We do not despair either of getting them 
 to consent to some relaxation of their commercial codes, so 
 as to let in our commodities upon a fairer footing. 
 
 ' Xovember 28. Reform difficulties in the Cabinet. Grey 
 and Althorp stick steadily to their point. The rest all have 
 each their own objections, but it seldom happens that more 
 than two or three concur in the importance of anyone pro- 
 position, and thus are beaten in detail. We have ascertained 
 the number of voters the io/. qualification will give in some 
 of the large places Birmingham 4,450, Manchester 12,639, 
 Leeds 6,683, Liverpool 14,127, Bradford 1,083, Sheffield 
 
 4,575- 
 
 ' December 3. The French Minister has had instructions 
 
 to make strong representations about Poland. The weight 
 of Russian vengeance is to fall unmitigated upon Lithuania 
 and the other Polish provinces incorporated with Russia. 
 Siberia and confiscation, and deprivation even of the few 
 privileges the people possessed, are to be the order of the day 
 for those unfortunate districts. This is the course in despotic 
 countries. First the people are goaded to rebellion by 
 grievances unredressed, and then those grievances are in- 
 creased tenfold to punish them for not having been con- 
 tented. 
 
 ' December 31. My day was not an idle one, for, having
 
 7O LORD I'ALMKKSTON 
 
 left the office only at three in the morning the night before, 
 I had, before the Cabinet at one, to write an important 
 despatch to Vienna, to hear Czartorynski's account of the 
 whole Polish war, and to discuss with Ompteda all the 
 squabbles of the German Diet. After the Cabinet I had to 
 see Van de Weyer, Lieven, Bulow, Esterhazy, and Wessem- 
 berg upon various different subjects, and afterwards to send 
 off messengers with despatches and private letters to Vienna, 
 Berlin, Paris, and Brussels. However, I contrived to get it 
 all done by about two this morning and now, for my con- 
 solation, I have staring me in the face thirteen boxes full of 
 papers, which ought all to be read forthwith, and which have 
 come to me since yesterday morning. . . . As to the French, 
 I was quite right in maintaining that, if we only held our 
 ground, the French fury would end in bluster, and would 
 not lead to any unpleasant results. Talleyrand is quite 
 come round upon that subject, swears that so far from 
 having blown the coals, as we happen to know he did, he 
 always preached temper and moderation, and, instead of de- 
 manding the demolition of God knows how many fortresses 
 if we wish to avoid war, he hopes we will write him a civil 
 note, assuring him that the Convention has nothing in it 
 hostile to France.' 
 
 The partition of the districts of the Low Countries between 
 Belgium and Holland, the diplomatic matter referred to in 
 the above extracts, occupied Lord Palmerston and the repre- 
 sentatives of foreign Powers much at this time, and the 
 business was not finally settled till 1839. 
 
 The kingdom of Holland as constituted, mainly by the 
 influence of England, in 1814-15 was dissolved, and the in- 
 dependence of Belgium under King Leopold secured and
 
 FOREIGN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 71 
 
 guaranteed. The details of the settlement are too intricate 
 and too extensive to be dealt with here, but the treaty signed 
 in 1831 was the first, and has so far been one of the most 
 lasting, of Palmerston's diplomatic triumphs. His second 
 was the treaty known as the Quadruple Alliance, which 
 linked England and France together in defence of constitu- 
 tional government in Spain and Portugal. This was signed 
 in London on April 22, 1834, and writing about it a few 
 weeks later Palmerston said, ' This treaty was a capital hit, 
 and all my own doing.' 
 
 Meanwhile in domestic affairs the passage of the Reform 
 Bill was the all-absorbing interest. On a renewal of an Irish 
 Coercion Bill, Lord Grey resigned, and Lord Melbourne, 
 with whom Lord Palmerston had always been in close 
 sympathy, succeeded to the first place in the Ministry. 
 With a brief interruption while Sir Robert Peel's Govern- 
 ment held office for a few months in 1834 and 1835, ne 
 remained for many years at the Foreign Office. King 
 William was not unfriendly, as his predecessor had been, 
 to Lord Palmerston, and he spoke with apparent hearty 
 approval the Speech from the Throne, which in 1834 
 alluded to the Slavery Abolition Bill, stating that the manner 
 in which that measure had been received throughout the 
 Colonies, and the progress made in carrying it into effect 
 in Jamaica, ' afforded just grounds for the happiest results." 
 
 Three years later civil war broke out in Spain. The Tories 
 supported, while the Whigs steadily discountenanced Don 
 Carlos, the man of whom Palmerston said, ' He is a mere 
 pretender, seeking a throne he never sat on, invading and 
 carrying civil war into a country to which he had no claim.' 
 Lord Palmerston was attacked for allowing a British Legion, 
 several thousand men in number, to take part in the struggle,
 
 72 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 and defended his policy in speeches of great vigour and 
 force. ' Did not history tell us,' he said, ' that it was in 
 the character of the Spanish people to be more reckless of 
 the shedding of blood than any other nation in Europe ? 
 And was it for those who had seen the arms of England 
 aided by the ruthless guerillas to urge this part of the Spanish 
 character as a reason for refusing them their co-operation ? 
 He trusted that one of the first fruits of the Spanish regener- 
 ation through the means of a free constitution would be the 
 creation of a public opinion tending to correct these faults 
 in the national character .... However skilfully the question 
 might be disguised, it involved nothing less than the alter- 
 native whether England should continue to fulfil her en- 
 gagement to the Queen of Spain, or disgracefully abandon 
 an ally she had pledged herself to succour. 
 
 'With respect to the assertion that the moral influence 
 of England has declined since I came into office, I think 
 it rather inconsistent with the hosts of assailants which 
 the same policy has called up with regard to Belgium, 
 Portugal, and Spain. It is rather surprising that our 
 Government should obtain so much countenance and re- 
 spect from foreign countries as to be made the arbiter of 
 their disputes ; and when we find two great naval Powers like 
 France and America each of them in former times opposed 
 to us in war, and each of them supposed to be our rivals in 
 the arts of peace as well as in the pursuit of war when we 
 find them conceding to us the adjustment of their differences, 
 I think I may appeal with confidence to that single fact in 
 reply, and say that whatever is the estimate formed of us by 
 our opponents, France and America at least do not seem 
 persuaded that our moral influence has sunk to so low a 
 >tate.'
 
 FOREIGN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 73 
 
 When France demanded the expulsion of French poli- 
 tical refugees from Switzerland he replied : ' If I might pre- 
 sume to give advice to the Swiss in such a case it would 
 he that the course to be pursued under the circumstances, 
 and conformably with the good understanding that ought 
 to prevail betwixt neighbouring States, would be that any 
 persons who are really guilty of such practices (as con- 
 spiring against the Government of France) should be re- 
 quested to leave the country, the shelter of which they have 
 abused.' 
 
 He defended the part he had taken in the Quadruple 
 Alliance, and the allegation that we had reduced Spain, one 
 of the Powers that made the treaty, to weakness, was denied. 
 Of her and of Portugal he said : ' Portugal, not yet recovered 
 from the fierce struggle in the midst of which she has ac- 
 quired her free institutions, is now in that situation in which 
 she must be looked upon as one of the substantive Powers 
 of Europe. Spain holds out to us a fair and legitimate hope 
 that she may yet become what she has been in former times 
 a flourishing and even a formidable Power among the 
 European kingdoms.' 
 
 It was in this year also that William IV. died and Queen 
 Victoria was called, when a girl of eighteen, to the throne. 
 Palmcrston was present at the formal beginnings of the new 
 reign, and has left on record his impressions : 
 
 'June 20, 1837. The poor King (William IV.) was 
 released from his sufferings at an early hour this morning. 
 The Privy Council met this morning at Kensington, and 
 was most numerously attended. The Queen went through 
 her task to-day with great dignity and self-possession. One 
 saw that she felt murh inward emotion, but it was fully
 
 74 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 controlled. Her articulation was particularly good, and her 
 voice remarkably pleasing. To-day and to-morrow the two 
 Houses do nothing but take the oaths. On Thursday there 
 will be a message, as usual in such cases, to the two Houses, 
 and an address in reply. 
 
 ' June 27. To-day the Queen received the addresses of 
 the House of Commons, and afterwards the Foreign Minis- 
 ters. They were introduced one by one. Nothing could 
 be better than her manner of receiving them ; it was easy 
 and dignified and gracious.' 
 
 In the following year England had to keep a tight hand 
 both on Mehemet AH in Egypt and on the Porte. Affairs 
 were already tending in the direction that led ultimately to 
 the Crimean War. Lord Palmerston writes : 'In regard to 
 the Turks themselves, may I venture to observe that the 
 genius of their manners and conversation is that of yielding 
 everything at first ? They begin by saying " Good ; Yes," but 
 when you come to the matter in question and to its details, 
 you will find all those fine expressions mean nothing. Like 
 all people in a feeble position, they respect you according to 
 their opinion of your force. If, however, you wish that force 
 to have a permanent influence and to be unaccompanied by 
 dislike, you must blend its exercise with justice ; and if you 
 wish to arrive at a quick result through all that ambuscade 
 of intrigues and doubts and fears and prejudices which will 
 be sure to be secretly formed against it, you must tell the 
 Turk what he is to do, why he is to do it, when he is to do 
 it, and show him that you only ask quietly and reasonably 
 what you have a right to demand. In this way and in this 
 way alone, you will do business with him. If he sees you 
 act thus he will not only agree with you, but rely upon you.'
 
 I'OKEIC.N MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 75 
 
 On French affairs Lord Palmerston writes, November 
 1840 : 
 
 ' I hope no one will believe that there exists at present 
 in France that danger of internal revolution and of external 
 war which the French Government, to serve its own diplo- 
 matic purposes, endeavours to represent. There is, no doubt, 
 a large party among the leading politicians in France who 
 have long contemplated the establishment of a virtually, if 
 not actually, independent State in Egypt and Syria, under 
 the direct protection and influence of France, and that party 
 feel great disappointment and resentment at finding their 
 schemes in this respect baffled. But that party will not 
 revenge themselves on the four Powers by making a revolu- 
 tion in France, and they are enlightened enough to see that 
 France cannot revenge herself by making war against the 
 four Powers, who are much stronger than she is. The late 
 French Government, in order to intimidate the four Powers, 
 raised a war-cry in France, and excited the nation by assert- 
 ing that France had been insulted and deceived, and when 
 a government begins the work of agitation it cannot fail of 
 being successful. But the King of the French co-operated 
 with his Minister in this agitation, and therefore must have 
 felt an inward conviction that the excitement could be con- 
 trolled, if it should not produce the desired effect. It was, 
 in fart, certain that when the stimulating action of the 
 Government should cease to act, the excitement created by 
 that action would gradually die away, and this is beginning 
 already to be seen, as is proved by the immense and un- 
 expectedly large majority in favour of the Government in the 
 election of the Speaker. The French Government, who 
 wish to have the double advantage of the reality of strength 
 at home and of the character of weakness abroad, say that
 
 76 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 this division is no test of the relative strength of parties on 
 the question of peace and war, but it surely must be an 
 indication that the peace party is much the stronger, 
 although the majority may vary. . . . Even had M. 
 Thiers remained Minister, France could not have made war 
 before the beginning of next summer, because France would 
 not have had 300,000 men disposable for aggressive war 
 till new levies had been raised, which could not have been 
 completed till then, and even that amount of force would 
 have been considerably inferior in number and composition 
 to the force which Germany could bring into the field. But 
 we may be sure that there is in France an immense mass of 
 persons possessed of property and engaged in pursuits of 
 industry who are decidedly adverse to unnecessary war, and 
 determined to oppose revolution, and although those persons 
 have not hitherto come prominently forward, yet their voice 
 would have made itself heard, when the question of peace 
 or unprovoked war came practically to be discussed. With 
 regard to internal revolution, there is undoubtedly in 
 France a large floating mass of republicans and anarchists, 
 ready at any moment to make a disturbance if there was no 
 strong power to resist them ; but the persons who would 
 lose by convulsions are infinitely more numerous, and 
 the National Guard of Paris, consisting of 60,000 men, are 
 chiefly persons of this description, and are understood 
 to be decidedly for internal order and for external 
 peace. 
 
 ' It is very natural that the French Government, after 
 having failed to extort concessions on the Turkish question, 
 by menaces of foreign war, should now endeavour to obtain 
 those concessions by appealing to fears of another kind, 
 and should say that such concessions are necessary in order
 
 FOREIGN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 77 
 
 to prevent revolution in France ; but I am sure that this 
 appeal is not better founded than the other, and that a firm 
 and resolute perseverance on the part of the four Powers in 
 the measures which they have taken in hand will effect a 
 settlement of the affairs of Turkey which will afford great 
 additional security for the future peace of Europe without 
 producing in the meantime either war with France or 
 revolution in France. France and the rest of Europe are 
 entirely different now from what they were in 1792. The 
 French nation is as much interested now to avoid further 
 revolution as it was interested then in ridding itself by any 
 means of the enormous and intolerable abuses which then 
 existed. France then imagined she had much to gain by 
 foreign war. France now knows she has everything to lose 
 by foreign war. Europe then (at least the Continental 
 States) had also a strong desire to get rid of innumerable 
 abuses which pressed heavily upon the people of all 
 countries. Those abuses have now in general been re- 
 moved. The people in many parts of Germany have been 
 admitted, more or less, to a share in the management of 
 their own affairs. A German feeling and a spirit of nation- 
 ality has sprung up among all the German people, and the 
 Germans, instead of receiving the French as liberators, as 
 many of them did in 1792 and 1793, would now rise as one 
 man to rep>el a hateful invasion. On all these grounds I am 
 convinced that the appeals made to us by the King of the 
 French upon the score of the danger of revolution in 
 France unless concessions are made to the French Govern- 
 ment have no foundation in truth, and are only exertions of 
 skilful diplomacy.' 
 
 He was able at intervals to enjoy the quiet of his beau- 
 tiful home in Hampshire.
 
 78 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 The Foreign Minister writes from Broadlands (March 
 
 1841) : 
 
 ' We are here alone, doing all sorts of country business, 
 and trying to set straight a variety of things which have 
 gone wrong under Holmes's neglect, and while I was too 
 busy to attend to my own affairs. I have not much time to 
 write, as it is late ; and I have only just returned from John 
 Day's (the trainer), where I have been to see Ilione and a 
 filly I have there, and to look over Day's stable. I saw old 
 Mrs. Day, still well and glad to see an old friend. We 
 have got a new gardener, who is a jewel of a man, an active, 
 little fellow, very intelligent and zealous. Stewart was too 
 tall to be worth anything. I am convinced by my observa- 
 tion of mankind that being about five-foot ten is a strong 
 primd facie presumption against a man's intelligence and 
 activity of mind.' 
 
 In May, 1841, Lord Palmerston wrote to his brother 
 William : 
 
 ' We have had another May crisis. This month has 
 been the one which is dangerous to administrations. Hus- 
 kisson and the rest of us left the Duke's Government in May, 
 1828 ; and I think most of the resignations that have hap- 
 pened in Lord Grey's time and in Melbourne's have taken 
 place in May. We doubted long whether we should resign or 
 dissolve, but the country has taken our part so decidedly that 
 we have determined to dissolve. There remains some routine 
 business to get through before the session can be closed, 
 and I imagine the dissolution will take place in about three 
 weeks. It is not easy to foresee the result of a general 
 election, but I think we shall increase our majority. The 
 country is with us, and the Tory party cannot make the 
 same great efforts all over the country at a general election
 
 FOREIGN MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 79 
 
 which they can at a single place upon one particular vacancy. 
 The Anti-Slavery cry has certainly failed. The Poor Law 
 cry is failing also, while on the other hand, the Corn Law 
 and Free Trade cries are telling immensely. At one time we 
 thought that the Tories might have tried to prevent us from 
 dissolving in order to compel us to resign instead. Rut 
 such a course would not suit the views and opinions of the 
 Duke or of Peel. It would be too factious, and too openly 
 hostile to the Crown and to the Prerogative to admit of its 
 being adopted by either of them. I doubt not that many 
 of the inferior men in the party wished it. Parliament will 
 meet as soon as possible after the elections, some time in 
 August, and do what may be left undone at the dissolution. 
 But its meeting then will short.' 
 
 Events did not in this instance fully bear out Lord 
 Palmerston's forecast. Defeated by a majority of one on a 
 vote of want of confidence, proposed by Sir Robert Peel in 
 June, 1841, Lord Melbourne dissolved Parliament, and in 
 the new Parliament, on an amendment to the Address moved 
 by Sir Robert Peel, was left in a minority of ninety-one. 
 Melbourne at once resigned, and Peel formed the Govern- 
 ment which, little as he then imagined, was to repeal the 
 Corn Laws. Meanwhile Lord Palmerston, once again in 
 opposition, watched the course of public affairs with the 
 keenest interest.
 
 80 I.ORL) PAI.MKRSTON 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AGAIN AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE, 
 1841-1851 
 
 AT the close of 1841 Sir Robert Peel was not only the 
 foremost man in England, but one of the most powerful 
 ministers of modern times. The finances of the nation 
 had been allowed to fall behind. Great commercial reforms, 
 supported by some of the ablest and most eloquent English- 
 men, were steadily moving forward. Released from the 
 stress of Foreign Office work, and keenly alive to the fact 
 that the time had arrived when, if ever, he was to make it 
 evident that he possessed qualities fitting him for the highest 
 of all political posts, Lord Palmerston threw all his energy 
 into the work of opposition. He gave further evidence of 
 his power as a speaker, and his capacity for telling and 
 convincing debate. From his correspondence at this time 
 it is evident that he kept his eye upon most departments of 
 the active life of the day. 
 
 ' There is a storm getting up about the income tax, but 
 I think Peel will carry it notwithstanding. Malmesbury 
 said to me the other day : " Peel hit us a right-hander with 
 his Corn Law, and a hard left-hander with his income tax, 
 but this tax about timber is a regular facer. My father 
 and grandfather have not touched a stick for forty years, 
 and now I was thinking of doing some good" with my elms
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 8 1 
 
 and firs, when down comes Peel with his free importation of 
 Canada timber, and my trees will not be worth a farthing. " 
 
 While voting with Lord John Russell in favour of a 
 moderate fixed duty on corn, Palmerston seems very early 
 to have reached the conviction that the abolition of all 
 imposts of the kind was only a matter of time. 
 
 Near the end of the session of 1842 he made a vigorous 
 attack upon the whole policy of the Government. Speak- 
 ing of Lord Stanley, he said : ' The noble Lord made a 
 very good off-hand speech, for no man is a better off-hand 
 debater than the noble Lord. But off-hand debaters are 
 sometimes apt to say whatever may come into their heads 
 on the spur of the moment without stopping to consider, 
 as they would do if they had time, whether what they are 
 going to say is strictly consistent with the facts to which it 
 applies. I remember to have heard of a celebrated minister 
 of a foreign country, who lived about the middle of the last 
 century, who was giving instructions to one of his agents 
 as to the language he should hold in regard to the conduct 
 of another Government. The agent, having listened to the 
 instructions, ventured with great humility and very submis- 
 sively to suggest that the language he was ordered to hold 
 was not strictly consistent with fact, and might indeed be 
 thought to be altogether at variance with fact. What was 
 the minister's answer? "Never mind that\ What in the 
 world does that signify ? It is a good thing to say and take 
 care you say it." That minister would, I think, have made 
 not a bad off-hand debater in this House.' 
 
 Palmerston proceeded to repel the charge levelled by 
 Lord Stanley against the Government of which he had been 
 a member, to the effect that their policy had been a restless 
 meddling with the business of the world. 'So far,' he says, 
 
 o
 
 82 LORD I'ALMEKSTON 
 
 ' from having left embarrassments to our successors, we have 
 bequeathed to them facilities. Why, what have they been 
 doing since they came into office ? They have been living 
 upon our leavings. They have been subsisting upon the 
 broken victuals which they found upon our table. They 
 are like a band of men who have made a forcible entrance 
 into a dwelling, and who sit down and carouse upon the 
 provisions they found in the larder.' 
 
 In 1844 he writes to his brother : ' I send you "Con- 
 ingsby," well worth reading and admirably written ; the 
 characters are many of them perfect portraits. You will recog- 
 nise Croker in Rigby, Lord Hertford in Monmouth, Lowther 
 in Eskdale, Irving in Ormsby, Madame Zichy in Lucretia, 
 but not Lady Strachan in Countess Colonna, though the 
 character is evidently meant to fill her place in the family 
 party. Sidonia is, I suppose, meant as a sort of type of the 
 author himself, and Henry Sidney is Lord John Manners.' 
 
 In this year Palmerston again travelled on the Continent, 
 visiting Berlin and Wiesbaden and Dresden. ' At Berlin 
 we dined with the King, the Prince of Prussia, Prince 
 Charles and Billow, and nothing could be more courteous 
 than the Royal family were. They are really a very re- 
 markable family and would be distinguished persons in any- 
 rank of life. The King is a man of much acquirements, 
 much natural talent, and enlightened views, and there can 
 be no doubt that under his reign Prussia will make great 
 and rapid advance in improvement of every kind. The 
 greater part of the nobility in Prussia spend most of the 
 year on their estates, and do not live much at Berlin. The 
 King makes up for this by surrounding himself with men 
 of science, literature, and art, and Prussia is accordingly 
 making great progress in intellectual development. The
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 83 
 
 late King endeavoured to keep everything stationary and 
 stagnant ; the present King is all for improvement. He 
 was a great patron of Schinkel, the architect, and is himself 
 full of taste that way, and he is going to pull down an ugly 
 church in the great square before the old palace, and to 
 build in its stead a Campo Santo for the Royal family, 
 to be ornamented in the inside with frescoes, for which 
 Cornelius is making a magnificent design. . . . Nature 
 has not been bountiful to Prussia, at least to the district 
 round Berlin, as regards soil and perhaps climate ; but 
 she has been more liberal as to mental endowments, and 
 one cannot visit the country without being struck with the 
 great intellectual activity which shows itself in all classes. 
 There is scarcely a man in the country who cannot read 
 and write. In short, Prussia is taking the lead in German 
 civilisation ; and as Austria has gone to sleep, and it 
 will be long before she wakes, Prussia has a fine career 
 open to her for many years to come. One is the more 
 struck with the activity of the people in these parts of 
 Germany in intellectual development because they are so 
 far behind in most of the mechanical arts connected with 
 the habits of domestic life. In a country where the winters 
 are very severe there is not such a thing as a window-shutter 
 to be seen, doors and windows never shut, locks are such as 
 were made in England a century and a half ago, and all 
 things of this kind are still a hundred years behind what are 
 seen with us now. To be sure, their palaces are magnificent ; 
 but that is characteristic of imperfect civilisation. The 
 middle ages and half civilised countries have combined 
 splendid palaces with comfortless habitations for private 
 individuals ; not, however, that the German houses are 
 
 l, 2
 
 84 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 uncomfortable, for we have met everywhere with very good 
 inns.' 
 
 Palmerston's foreign travels had not enamoured him of 
 foreign tariffs. In 1845, speaking in the House of Commons, 
 he asked : ' Is the state of our commercial relations with 
 foreign countries a reason why we should maintain the 
 system of Protection ? Some people say it is. Some 
 gentlemen argue that Free Trade might do very well if it 
 were practised by all nations, but that one-sided Free Trade 
 will not do ; that our example will not be followed, and that 
 this system, not being mutual and reciprocal, will be an 
 injury to ourselves and an advantage to other nations. 
 Now, I hold this to be just as great a fallacy as the other. 
 For what is the effect of mutually hostile tariffs between 
 ourselves and other countries ? Take any foreign country 
 take France, for instance. The high tariffs of France and 
 of England are alike injurious to both countries. Our high 
 tariff against French commodities is an injury to ourselves 
 as consumers and to the French as producers ; while the 
 high tariff of France against British commodities is an injury 
 to the French consumers as well as to the English producers. 
 Here then is an inconvenience on both sides of the water.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston was ever anxious that his activity in the 
 interests of England should not be dubbed ' warlike inter- 
 ference,' and in this connection a letter from Mr. Disraeli, 
 written from Paris in the year 1845, possesses special 
 value. It was docketed by Lord Palmerston : ' Mr. Disraeli 
 Conversations with the King of the French and M. Guizot 
 about prospect of my return to the Foreign Office.' The 
 letter runs as follows : 
 
 ' M. Guizot invited me to a private conversation on the 
 ntelligence which had arrived from London. In some
 
 IN Ol'l'OSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 85 
 
 casual talk previously with the Uuc Decazes, I had ascer- 
 tained that it was M. Gui/ot's opinion that Sir R. Peel 
 would be restored to power " dans une quinzaine." M. 
 Guizot did not express this opinion to me, but he elicited 
 mine, that the return of Sir R. Peel, assuming the supposed 
 causes of his retirement to be correct, was highly improba- 
 ble. Yesterday the King, whom I had had the honour to 
 see during the throes of the last fortnight, in which, though 
 anxious, he seemed confident as to Peel's triumph, sent for 
 me to St. Cloud. I found his Majesty grave and calm, 
 more ready to listen than to talk, very consecutive and 
 keeping to the point. His Majesty told me that M. Guizot 
 had mentioned in the morning at the Council that he had 
 seen me on the previous eve. His Majesty's belief in Peel 
 had evaporated ; he repeated, more than once, that Guizot 
 was disabused of his idea that Peel would return ; that 
 every resignation weakened a man, and was almost as silly 
 a thing as frequent Cabinet Councils. After some conver- 
 sation on this head the probable materials of the new 
 Ministry the King, assuming that there would be a ^Vhig 
 Government, spoke to me very much of your Lordship's 
 accession to office. Your Lordship is doubtless aware of 
 the apprehensions which the people of this country entertain 
 on that subject, and therefore I will not dwell on them. 
 Your Lordship is a person of too gr;>at experience and of 
 too great a mind either to exaggerate or depreciate the 
 importance of such circumstances. In the present instance, 
 being not unfamiliar with the subject, it was in my power 
 to discuss it in all its bearings, and to m;ike those repre- 
 sentations to the King and enter into those explanations 
 and details which were desirable. I impressed on his Majesty 
 with delicacy, but with reserve, that your Lordship was our
 
 86 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 first Foreign Minister who had taken the French intimacy 
 as an avowed element of our national policy, and that the 
 original want of cordiality had not been manifested by you. 
 That from your character you required frankness and de- 
 cision from those with whom you co-operated, and that, if 
 these qualities were not wanting on the part of the French 
 Government, I felt sure that your Lordship would never 
 take a litigious view of the policy of France, but rather 
 would assist in any fair development of its influence which 
 had for its object to popularise the Throne and satisfy 
 the public. There followed on the part of the King some 
 explanations of Spanish and Egyptian affairs, which I had 
 heard from him on other occasions, but which were now 
 expressed with gravity and much earnestness. This conver- 
 sation lasted about half an hour, when the King, rising, said: 
 " We must not lose all this pretty music " (there was a concert 
 in an adjoining room, though only the Court present), "and 
 I must say a word to one or two persons, but do not go, as 
 I wish to speak to you again." Accordingly, about 10.30, 
 the concert having finished, his Majesty approached me and 
 invited me to follow him into his Cabinet. He said, the 
 moment we were seated : " What you have said of Lord 
 Palmerston has given me much pleasure. I have been 
 thinking of it. I feel also persuaded that Peel cannot be 
 brought back again in triumph, and, if he were to return, he 
 is no longer the same man. I will not deny I regret Lord 
 Aberdeen. But if Lord Palmerston will enter his adminis- 
 tration without ' rancune ' and with a friendly disposition, 
 all may be well. I consider that affairs are very serious. 
 It is not isolated questions now. Isolated questions settle 
 themselves. Or even America, the same. It is the state of 
 the Continent that occupies me." His Majesty then entered,
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 87 
 
 al great length, on this subject. I perceived that the state 
 of Germany disquiets him ; and that he believes that a vast 
 revolutionary movement in Central Europe is not to be 
 avoided. Approaching midnight, his Majesty dismissed 
 me.' 
 
 Mr. Disraeli then suggests to Lord Palmerston that some 
 step should be taken to rid the French of their distrust of 
 him. ' Had you made your projected visit to Paris and 
 become known to these impressionable people, all would 
 have been right. . . . On the meeting of Parliament, under 
 circumstances which render developments of policy on the 
 part of a government not unusual, it would not be difficult 
 to arrange something which would elicit a satisfactory 
 answer. I am sure I should be very happy to assist you in 
 this respect if Parliament be summoned speedily, otherwise 
 I do not think I shall be tempted to quit this agreeable 
 residence, especially as the great object of my political life 
 is now achieved.' 
 
 The subject of Disraeli's interesting and courteous letter 
 was alluded to by Lord Palmerston in a speech in the House 
 of Commons, in reply to some accusations against him as 
 possessing warlike tendencies : 
 
 ' I am sure it is not to be believed for an instant that I 
 do not attach the greatest importance to the maintenance, 
 not merely of peace with all foreign countries, but of the 
 most friendly relations with those leading Powers and States 
 of the world with which serious differences would be attended 
 with the most inconvenience. As to peace, I succeeded, as 
 the organ of Lord Grey's and Lord Melbourne's Govern- 
 ments, in preserving it unbroken during ten years of great 
 and extraordinary difficulty ; and if now and then it un- 
 avoidably happened during that period of time that, in pur-
 
 88 LORD PALMEKSTON 
 
 suing the course of policy which seemed the best for British 
 interests, we thwarted the views of this and that foreign 
 Power, and rendered them for the moment less friendly, I 
 think I could prove that, in every case, the object which we 
 were pursuing was of sufficient importance to make it worth 
 our while to submit to such temporary inconveniences. 
 
 ' There never was indeed, during those ten years, any real 
 danger of war, except on three occasions ; and on each of 
 these occasions the course pursued by the British Govern- 
 ment prevented war. The first occasion was just after the 
 accession of the King of the French, when Austria, Russia, 
 and Prussia were disposed and preparing to attack France, 
 and when the attitude assumed by the British Government 
 prevented a rupture. The second was when England and 
 France united by a convention to wrest the citadel of 
 Antwerp from the Dutch, and to deliver it over to the King 
 of the Belgians. If England had not been joined with France 
 Antwerp would have remained with the Dutch, and the 
 attempt to take it would have led to a war in Europe. The 
 third occasion was when Mehemet Ali's army occupied Syria 
 and when he was constantly threatening to declare himself 
 independent, and to march upon Constantinople ; while 
 Russia, on the one hand, asserted that if he did so she 
 would occupy Constantinople, and, on the other hand, France 
 announced that if Russia did so, she, France, would force 
 the Dardanelles. 
 
 'The Treaty of July, 1840, proposed and brought about by 
 the British Government, and the operations in execution of 
 that treaty, put an end to that danger, and, notwithstanding 
 what has been often said to the contrary, the real danger of 
 war, as arising out of the affairs of Syria, was put an end to, 
 and not created, by the Treaty of 1840. I am well aware, how-
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 89 
 
 ever, that some persons, both at home and abroad, have im- 
 bibed the notion that I am more indifferent than I ought to 
 be as to running the risk of war. This impression abroad 
 is founded on an entire mistake, but is by some sincerely 
 felt, and, being sincere, would soon yield to the evidence 
 of contradictory facts. At home that impression has been 
 industriously propagated to a limited extent, partly by the 
 legitimate attacks of political opponents, partly by a like cabal 
 in our own ranks. These parties wanted to attack me, and 
 were obliged to accuse me of something. They could not 
 charge me with failure, because we had succeeded in all our 
 undertakings, whether in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Syria, 
 China, or elsewhere. They could not charge me with having 
 involved the country in war, because in fact we had main- 
 tained peace ; and the only thing which was left for them to 
 say was that my policy had a tendency to produce war, and 
 I suppose they would argue that it was quite wrong and against 
 all rule that it did not do so. But, notwithstanding what may 
 have been said on this matter, the transaction which has by 
 some been the most criticised in this respect, namely, the 
 Treaty of 1840, and the operations connected with it, were 
 entirely approved by the leaders of the then Opposition, who, 
 so far from feeling any disposition to favour me, had always 
 made a determined run at the foreign policy of the Whig 
 Government. The Duke of Wellington, at the opening 01 
 the session of 1841, said in the House of Lords that he en- 
 tirely approved our policy in that transaction, and could not 
 find that any fault had been committed by us in working it 
 out ; and I happen to know that Sir Robert Peel expressed to 
 the Representative of one of the German Powers, parties to the 
 alliance, his entire approval of our course, while Lord Aber- 
 deen said to one of them that the course I had taken in that
 
 90 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 affair made him forgive me many things of former years 
 which he had thought he never should have forgiven.' 
 
 The year 1846 saw the fall of Sir Robert Peel's Govern- 
 ment. The Prime Minister's conversion to the views of 
 Cohden and Bright on the subject of the Corn Laws led to 
 their total abolition. It also led to the defection of a body 
 of his supporters under the leadership of Lord Stanley. On 
 the same night in which the House of Lords read the Corn 
 Laws Repeal Bill a third time, Sir Robert Peel was defeated 
 in the Commons on the continuance of a bill to protect life 
 and property in Ireland. Peel at once resigned, Lord John 
 Russell became Prime Minister, and Lord Palmerston 
 occupied his post at the Foreign Office for the third time. 
 
 Before entering into harness Lord Palmerston passed a 
 month in Ireland, and the following year, when the potato 
 disease began to assume disastrous dimensions in that 
 country, he was busy arranging for the comfort of those 
 who had left Ireland for richer lands. He was always most 
 generous and thoughtful for all the people on his Irish 
 estates. 
 
 In 1847, the Irish people had risen in number to over 
 double what the soil could support except for the introduc- 
 tion ot the potato ; and hence with the failure of that plant 
 came dismay and death. Along the St. Lawrence and on 
 many spots on the eastern coast of the United States are 
 still pointed out the places where the hospitals were erected 
 to shelter and isolate the wretched persons who came over 
 from Ireland by the hundred and by the thousand, smitten 
 with fever. There on the shores of the promised land very 
 many died, victims of their improvident and thriftless habits, 
 and of resistance to the introduction among them at home 
 of better agriculture, and that improvement which always
 
 IN" OPPOSITION AM) AT FOREIGN OFFICF, 91 
 
 appears to the imagination of the unmixed Celt as an alien 
 garb to fetter his limbs. 
 
 At this time a contract was made for the voluntary emi- 
 gration of some of the poor from his land in the County 
 Sligo, and Lord Palmerston wrote that if the terms were 
 not sufficient to treat his people well, to rescind the terms, 
 and put in a higher tender to enable them to get the best 
 entertainment on board the ships. ' Let every man and 
 woman,' he wrote, ' have a hot tumbler of the best Jamaica 
 rum-punch after dinner on Sundays or oftener.' But these 
 good intentions, though fully appreciated by the travellers, 
 were not quite satisfactory to some of their friends. Lord 
 Palmerston had soon to write : ' The clergy write to me that 
 I am doing away the good effected by Father Mathew 
 among the people. You will therefore sell the rum you 
 have taken on board for the punch, on arrival at Quebec, 
 and let every man, woman, and child have a cup of hot 
 coffee with a biscuit every day after dinner.' Ten pounds 
 sterling were given to each captain of ships conveying any 
 of Lord Palmerston's people, to induce the officer to be 
 kind to them, and some brandy and port wine, as well for 
 the use of the passengers if sick, as for the enjoyment of 
 the skipper. 
 
 His Irish anxieties in 1847 alternated in his mind with 
 a foreign matter which would not nowadays come home so 
 much to the mind of an English minister. This was the 
 question of the Spanish Marriages on which there are 
 volumes of correspondence by Lord Palmerston, but it will 
 not be necessary to say much about them here. It seems 
 almost strange to us that we should have feared so much as 
 we then did the extension of French influence in Spain, 
 through the family intrigues and dynastic ambition of the
 
 Q2 LORD 1'ALMERSTON 
 
 Bourbons. That Guizot and Louis Philippe should plan a 
 marriage for the Queen of Spain which should ultimately 
 turn out to the benefit of the French Bourbons was gall 
 and wormwood to British ministers and diplomatists. We 
 think now that the influence that might have been so 
 acquired was not of a formidable character, but Guizot's 
 plans were fought against as actively as if the task were that 
 of again freeing Madrid from a French army. 
 
 Marshal Narvaez had established a military despotism, 
 and Lord Palmerston writes in September, 1847 : 
 
 ' The fight between Narvaez and the interests of 
 Spain and England is still going on, but I hope we shall 
 win, though no doubt Narvaez is well furnished by 
 Louis Philippe and Christina with the sinews of war. But 
 the race is not always to the swiftest, nor the victory to him 
 who has most money. Espartero is wisely waiting to see 
 how things turn out, and will not go to Spain. They 
 want to shelve him by making him Ambassador Extra- 
 ordinary here ; and extraordinary he would be, as he would 
 have nothing to do, because they propose him to be in 
 addition to Isturitz, and it would be quite the old story of 
 John doing nothing and Tom helping him. Espartero can 
 converse in no language but his impure Castilian, and few 
 ministers can discuss affairs with him in that dialect of 
 human speech. Metternich is gone foolish, but I think we 
 shall be able to stop him, and France must go with us in 
 Italian affairs. Metternich thinks he has her in his pocket, 
 because he has had promises from Louis Philippe and 
 Guizot, but public opinion in France must be stronger than 
 the King and his minister, and as they broke their word to 
 us last year about Spain, so will they be compelled to break 
 their word this year to Metternich about Italy. I do not
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 93 
 
 fear war out of any of these matters. As to the defence of 
 this country, we are going to take this matter up, and I hesi- 
 tate not to say that we should he guilty of treason to the 
 country if we allowed things to remain as they are, and the 
 United Kingdom and its foreign possessions to be as defence- 
 less as at present. Fortifications are making and will be 
 completed to protect the dockyards from surprise. Harbours 
 will be constructed where steamers can lie, ready to intercept 
 and repel attacking squadrons. But all naval prevention is 
 uncertain, and in spite of every defensive precaution, dark 
 nights, foggy days, storms, accidents, blunders, may enable 
 an enemy to land 20,000 or 30,000 men on our coast, either 
 in England or in Ireland, or in both. The only defence that 
 can be relied upon against an attack of armed men is an equal 
 or superior body of armed men. Our regular army cannot 
 furnish us with such defence. We have some 50,000 or 
 60,000 men on paper in the United Kingdom including depots, 
 skeleton battalions, recruits just raised, and invalids about 
 to be discharged. We could not out of this motley mass 
 collect an army of 20,000 either in England or in Ireland, 
 to meet 20,000 or 30,000 French or Russians (and we might 
 have to deal with both) landed on our shores. We cannot 
 increase our regular army to the requisite amount because 
 it would be too expensive to do so. The only way to pro- 
 vide for such a contingent emergency is to have a force 
 which shall acquire a certain degree of organisation, train- 
 ing, and discipline in time of peace, so as to be moderately 
 efficient immediately on the breaking out of war ; but which 
 during peace, and when not wanted for actual service, shall 
 cost us as little as possible. The militia is such a force, 
 being trained in peace for only one month in the year. It 
 costs about one quarter of what an equal number of regulars
 
 94 LORD I'ALMERSTON 
 
 in pay all the year round would cost, and yet in a couple of 
 years it would acquire, by the month's training, military 
 habits enough to make it fit to be mixed up with troops of 
 the line at the outbreak of a war, especially if it contained a 
 good infusion of half-pay officers. The plan is to amend 
 the Act of 1802, which fixed the number of men to be raised 
 by each county. The increase of population would entitle 
 us to fix the number at 100,000 for this island, and 40,000 
 for Ireland, and if I was to decide, that should be the 
 amount of our reserve force, and it should all be organ- 
 ised, regimented, officered, clothed, armed, equipped, and 
 trained.' 
 
 In February, 1848, the London papers appeared with the 
 headings in largest type : ' Abdication of Louis Philippe 
 The Count of Paris is King The Duke of Nemours as 
 Regent is rejected The Royal Family have left Paris 
 A Provincial Government is installed, composed of Lamar- 
 tine, Ledru Rollin, Odilon Barrot, Marie Arago, Gamier 
 Pages, Louis Blanc.' 
 
 A letter to Lord Palmerston from Paris said : ' Events 
 have succeeded each other within the last twenty-four hours 
 with a rapidity unexampled in any previous revolution, and 
 the greatest changes have been produced by the most un- 
 expected incidents. At the time I wrote yesterday there 
 seemed to be every reason to suppose the population of 
 Paris had received for the moment the full satisfaction they 
 desired in the dismissal of the ministers, obtained as it had 
 been by the National Guard demanding it as the price of 
 their allegiance. You will perceive how much this had 
 already shaken the fabric of national government, and how 
 much this overt act of the National Guard had altered the 
 character of the demonstration. This demonstration on the
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREK'.N OFFICE 95 
 
 Monday, though very numerous, was perfectly peaceable 
 whenever there were large masses collected, and only 
 mischievous in small bands in different parts of the town. 
 The great mistake committed by the Government at this 
 period of the affair was that, after having announced their 
 intention to call out the National Guard on Monday morn- 
 ing, they recalled that order, and it was only at dusk, and 
 under the apprehension that those who had hitherto been 
 only idle spectators might at night take to plunder, that the 
 roll-call beat. The National Guard, disgusted with the 
 distrust which had been shown, and the nature of the service 
 alone confided to them, assembled but partially, and the next 
 morning, when they were again called out, the political feeling 
 soon showed itself in a manner which made it evident that 
 no reliance could be placed upon them by the Government. 
 Several legions marched to the Tuileries, and deputations 
 from the officers of the arrondissements met them there, and 
 the King became convinced that he had no alternative but 
 to dismiss his ministers, and he summoned Count Mole. 
 The announcement of the dissolution of the Guizot Cabinet 
 was received with enthusiasm ; the funds at once rose J> per 
 cent. ; many of the barricades were destroyed by the people 
 who had raised them ; a considerable portion of Paris was 
 spontaneously illuminated. Mobs proceeded to the houses 
 of M. Thiers, M. Odilon Barrot, and others, cheering under 
 the windows, as might occur in London before the residences 
 of any popular leaders upon a similar occasion. Up to this 
 moment all appeared calculated to inspire hope that, the real 
 cause of the discontent being removed, the town would to-day 
 resume its tranquillity, when an unexpected incident orca>u- 
 alty, as it would almost seem, completely changed the face of 
 affairs, and produced events the effects of which, it is iiupo.ssihle
 
 96 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 not to foresee, will long be felt throughout Europe. A mob of 
 about a hundred and fifty, many of them armed, were followed 
 by a curious crowd, and these had been proceeding in different 
 directions requiring that the houses should be illuminated. 
 They had succeeded in this at the Ministere de la Justice, 
 as I am told, and intended to require the same at the 
 Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, from which M. Guizot 
 is said to have already removed himself. Upon the arrival 
 of the crowd before the hotel, a single shot, by whom fired 
 will, perhaps, never be ascertained, but coming from the 
 direction of the garden wall, broke the leg of the horse on 
 which the major commanding the detachment of the i4th 
 Regiment of the Line was mounted. He immediately, with- 
 out the slightest notice, gave an order to fire a volley into 
 the crowd, which had been collected before the hotel. It 
 is stated that no less than fifty-two people, many of them 
 women and children, were killed or wounded. An English 
 gentleman, Mr. Henry Fitzroy, who was walking quietly along 
 on the other side of the Boulevards, told me that men fell 
 on each side of him. The crowd immediately dispersed 
 into the different quartiers of Paris from which they had 
 been collected, shouting vengeance and treachery. The 
 barricades were reconstructed, new ones were formed in 
 various parts of Paris, and when morning came it found the 
 whole population in the greatest state of exasperation. Many 
 of the middle classes, who had hitherto remained quiet, 
 became indignant at that which at first sight was supposed 
 to have been a massacre ordered by superior authority. 
 
 ' Some attributed it to M. Guizot, who, however, I have 
 reason to believe, had nothing whatever to do with it, and 
 was not even there. Others unfortunately openly attributed 
 treachery to the King. From the very beginning of these
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 97 
 
 disastrous affairs the misfortune has been that, as the offence 
 was taken at the tone of the King's Speech, and as it was 
 generally believed that the words were his own, the disposi- 
 tion has been to attribute every unpopular act to him 
 personally, and this incident occurring in the interval after 
 the dismissal of his ministers, the exasperation against the 
 King increased, and rendered any arrangement difficult. In 
 the course of the night the Count Mole had announced that 
 the time was passed when it was possible for him to be of 
 service to the King, and that nothing remained for him but 
 to send for M. Thiers and M. Odilon Barrot. A new 
 Ministry was announced this morning. It appears that the 
 result of the affray has been to ensure a manifestation of the 
 troops of the Line, that they did not approve of that which 
 was called the massacre committed by the i4th Regiment. 
 The sympathies of the troops had already been suspected 
 greatly, and the withdrawal of the regular troops from Paris 
 was caused by the necessity of preserving some appearance 
 of discipline. The last conflict was this morning at a corps 
 de garde, when the municipal guard were summoned to sur- 
 render the post by the people, and, refusing to do it, firing 
 commenced on both sides ; several were killed, the post 
 carried, and plundered. I have just heard that the disposi- 
 tion shown by the people has led to the abdication of the 
 King in favour of the Comte de Paris, under the regency of 
 the Duchess of Orleans. King Louis Philippe is said to 
 have left Paris an hour since.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston sent English steam packets to Havre 
 and Cherbourg ' for the purpose of affording to the French 
 King and Queen the means of escape if they should be in a 
 condition to avail themselves thereof.' He soon after received 
 news that they were at Havre, and writes stating the arrange- 
 
 11
 
 98 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 raent made for securing the escape of the King and Queen, 
 and says at the same time that the success of these arrange- 
 ments essentially depends on the strictest secrecy being 
 observed as to the place of concealment of their Majesties. 
 His correspondent had written from Havre : ' The King is 
 at Trouville in disguise, and in most friendly hands. The 
 Queen is at Honfleur, and quite safe. When the storm which 
 has now been raging for twelve hours abates, the King is to 
 embark at Trouville with the ebb tide, which will float him 
 out of the Seine, and when the fishing boat in which he is 
 to leave Trouville reaches Cape de Heve, a signal is to be 
 made to the captain of our express steamer, who will leave 
 Havre, and will be under the cape and out of sight of this 
 place. He is to go under gentle steam until the fishing 
 boat boards him. The captain thinks with me that if this 
 simple operation be carried out by the Trouville boat, that 
 the manoeuvre will be carried out without observation.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston writes on March 3, 1848 : 'The King 
 and Queen of the French landed this morning at Newhaven. 
 General Dumas says that till the morning after their arrival 
 at Dreux the King and the Queen imagined that the Comte 
 de Paris had succeeded to the throne, and that the Duchess 
 of Orleans had been declared regent ; that when they heard 
 that a Republic and Provisional Government had been 
 declared, they thought it unsafe to remain at Dreux, and 
 that they then separated in order to go by different roads to 
 Honfleur, where they were to meet at a small house belong- 
 ing to General Dumas. At that house they remained for 
 some days. The King remained two or three days at 
 Trouville, but the weather was too stormy to allow of his 
 departure as arranged. In the meantime the people of 
 Trouville found out who he was, and their demonstrations of
 
 IN OPPOSITION AND AT FOREIGN OFFICE 99 
 
 attachment became inconvenient. He therefore returned 
 to Honfleur, and the arrangements were altered. Yesterday 
 evening at seven o'clock the King and Queen and General 
 Dumas came to the ferry-boat which plies between Havre 
 and Honfleur, and were met by the Vice-Consul, who treated 
 the King as uncle of the Consul. On landing at Havre the 
 King walked straight down to the express packet which was 
 lying ready. The Queen went separately, and after making 
 a slight round through the streets of Havre, embarked also. 
 The packet then immediately started and went into New- 
 haven. General Dumas said that the whole party were 
 unprovided with anything but the clothes they wore, and he 
 was going to the King's banker to provide funds to enable 
 him to come to town, and said that the King begged him 
 to apologise for his not having at once written to Queen 
 Victoria for the interest taken in his safety. It has been 
 explained to General Dumas that arrangements have been 
 made for the King's reception at Claremont. He says that 
 the King and Queen have gone through much personal 
 fatigue and mental anxiety.' 
 
 With regard to the new French Government, Lord 
 Palmerston writes to our Ambassador at Paris : ' If the 
 Powers of Europe wished to make war against France there 
 are in the circular [one sent by M. Lamartine] abundant 
 materials wherewith to pick s. quarrel with her. If, on thr 
 other hand, the Powers of Europe are desirous of maintaining 
 peace, there is to be found in that circular the substance of 
 peace, although clothed in the garb of defiance. It seems 
 to her Majesty's Government that the wisest course which the 
 Governments of Europe can pursue will be to accept the 
 assurances of peace, and of abstinence from aggression, 
 military or political, which that circular contains, and with- 
 it 2
 
 TOO LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 out themselves giving up the obligation of treaties, to refrain 
 from attempting to exact from the Provisional Government 
 any abstract and theoretical acknowledgment of those 
 treaties of which that Government declares itself ready to 
 accept the territorial result as a fact which cannot be altered 
 without the consent of all parties concerned. It may be 
 remarked, however, that there is no doctrine in the Law of 
 Nations more universally acknowledged or more essential as 
 a foundation of international relations, than the principle 
 that a nation does not free itself from its treaty engagements 
 by changing the form of its internal government.'
 
 101 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY FROM 1848-1850 
 
 THL year 1848 was a troubled period in England, and it 
 also marked an acute crisis in the history of modern 
 Europe. The overthrow of Louis Philippe accelerated 
 all those social and political forces which have so largely 
 since that time altered the map of Europe. Lord Palmer- 
 ston, sympathising with moderate, constitutional reform, 
 but strongly opposed to anything like republican govern- 
 ment, sought to use the whole influence of England for 
 the twofold purpose of inducing, on the one hand, the 
 sovereigns of Europe to grant more in the way of reform 
 than any of them relished, and on the other, of inducing 
 the reformers to be content with less than they desired. In 
 so doing he was but following out the natural bent of his 
 mind, and the mere statement of the fact is enough to 
 show why his policy was so bitterly resented by such men 
 as Bright and Cobden. If it cannot be considered lofty in 
 aim, it was at any rate safe ; and on the whole it achieved 
 quite as large a measure of success as it deserved. 
 
 The multitudinous details of this policy, and the bulky 
 volumes of letters and despatches in which its story is pre- 
 served, possess now comparatively little interest either for the 
 general reader or for the political student. A much wider 
 spare than forty years separates the Europe of 1891 from the 
 Europe of 1848. It is hardly possible for the young man
 
 IO2 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 of to-day to form any intelligent conception of what Europe 
 . was like when Italy was composed of a multitude of petty 
 sovereignties, when Napoleon III. was preparing to ascend 
 the throne of France, when such questions as Spanish 
 Marriages were thought to be of prime political importance, 
 and when memoranda such as the one we are about to 
 quote could be written. It has never appeared in print 
 before, and is of interest because it gives Palmerston's own 
 version of the policy he pursued at this most critical time 
 with regard to Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. 
 It is dated July 2, 1848 : 
 
 'In the autumn of 1847, tne Pope, then recently elected, 
 entertained a strong desire to make reforms in the govern- 
 ment of his States, a government which had long been 
 known to be more full of practical abuses than any other in 
 Europe. The Pope found himself thwarted by opposing 
 influences from within and from without, and he conveyed to 
 the British Government by several channels, but especially 
 through Lord Shrewsbury and Dr. Wiseman, his earnest 
 request that he might receive countenance and support from 
 Great Britain, and that, for this purpose, some agent of the 
 British Government might be sent to Rome ; and that if 
 there was any legal impediment to prevent an accredited 
 envoy from being sent to him, he might, nevertheless, 
 have the benefit of the support, assistance, and advice of 
 some person of rank, weight, and, if possible, of diplomatic 
 standing, who might possess the confidence of the British 
 Government, and whose presence at Rome might be a public 
 manifestation of the goodwill of Great Britain. It appeared 
 to the British Government that it would be proper to 
 comply with this application, and it seemed to me that the 
 Earl of Mihto, who was then going abroad for a short
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848-1850 103 
 
 time with his family, exactly fulfilled the description given 
 by the Pope of the kind of person whom he would wish 
 to have at Rome, and was also peculiarly well qualified to 
 carry out the views of her Majesty's Government. The 
 Earl of Minto was, therefore, sent to Rome. But, in the 
 meantime, fresh complications began to arise in other parts 
 of Italy. The reforms begun, and the further measures 
 announced by the Pope, roused the deeply seated, though 
 long dormant, desires of the people in the other States of 
 Italy for improvements in their respective governments, 
 which, though far better than those of the Papal States, 
 were yet all founded on the arbitrary instead of the con- 
 stitutional principle. There seemed to be great chance of 
 serious conflict between the sovereigns and their subjects. 
 The sovereigns were averse to making any concessions. 
 The subjects appeared in many places inclined to extort by 
 force concessions unreasonably great. The British Govern- 
 ment thought that the mission of the Earl of Minto to 
 Rome might afford an opportunity to Great Britain to exert 
 a useful influence in other parts of Italy ; and, accordingly, 
 Lord Minto was instructed to take Turin and Florence on 
 his way to Rome. 
 
 'At Turin and Florence Lord Minto was gladly and 
 cordially received, and at these capitals he was able to 
 render important service, both to the sovereign and the 
 subject, by encouraging the Government to grant consti- 
 tutional institutions, and by exhorting the reform party to 
 accept and to be satisfied with the spontaneous concessions 
 of the sovereign ; and I think it may safely be affirmed that 
 the successful exertions of the Earl of Minto at Turin and 
 at Florence were among the principal causes which have 
 saved those capitals from serious convulsion during the last
 
 104 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 few months. At Rome the same course of policy was 
 pursued, and with the same good results ; and, although 
 persons well acquainted with Italy still maintain that the 
 danger of the establishment of republican government in 
 Italy is not yet over, I would fain believe that the reforms 
 and improvements made, and in progress, may succeed in 
 maintaining the monarchical form. From Rome the Earl 
 of Minto went to Naples at the invitation of the King of 
 Naples, and at the request of that sovereign he endeavoured 
 to negotiate a reconciliation between the King and his 
 Sicilian subjects. If the Neapolitan Government had 
 adopted the Earl of Minto's advice, an arrangement would 
 speedily have been made by which the King of Naples 
 would have retained on his own head the Crown of Sicily, 
 but blind prejudice, or ill-founded hopes of assistance from 
 other quarters, prevailed, and the golden opportunity was 
 lost ; the news of the French Revolution reached Palermo, 
 and the Sicilians drew back from the conditions which, in 
 compliance with the wishes of England, they had before 
 been willing to agree to. Still, in deference to the desire 
 expressed by the Earl of Minto on behalf of the British 
 Government, they consented to receive one of the sons of 
 the King of Naples as their sovereign ; but again a refusal 
 of the King of Naples frustrated the Earl of Minto's en- 
 deavours, and the Sicilians then proceeded to declare the 
 deposal of the Royal Family of Naples, and to look out 
 for some prince of some other Italian house ; being im- 
 pelled partly by their own preference, and partly by the 
 exhortations of British agents to adhere to the monarchical 
 instead of adopting the republican form of government. 
 
 'The Earl of Minto having nothing further to detain him 
 in Italy, and being wanted in England, then returned home.
 
 PALMERSTON'S KuKKIUN POLICY, 1848 1850 105 
 
 1 believe that there is nothing in the course of the policy pur- 
 sued by the British Government in all these Italian affairs that 
 is not honourable to Great Britain, and conducive not only 
 to the advantage of Italy, but also to the general interests 
 of Europe, and to the maintenance of its peace. But there 
 happened in Lombard}-, soon after the French Revolution 
 of February, a general rising against the Austrian rule ; and 
 so determined and extensive was the insurrection, that the 
 large Austrian garrison of Milan was compelled after a long 
 struggle to evacuate that city. 
 
 ' The fire of intense dislike to Austrian domination which 
 had so long been kept smothered by overpowering force 
 now burst out into a flame from one end of Italy to the 
 other, and a general crusade was proclaimed to drive the 
 Austrians over the Alps. The King of Sardinia was called 
 on by the people of Lombard}', and urged by his own 
 ministers and subjects, to take part in the war, and to assist 
 in endeavouring to expel the Austrian army. He was told 
 that, if he did not do so, he would run the risk of being 
 dethroned, and that a Republic would probably be declared 
 in his own dominions. To these impulses he yielded, urged 
 on at the same time, it cannot be doubted, by his own 
 personal ambition. In the summer of last year, when the 
 King of Sardinia was projecting improvements in his ad- 
 ministration, and when the movements of the Austrian force 
 in Lombard}* seemed to threaten attack in order to prevent 
 those internal improvements, the British Government made 
 a representation to the Government of Austria for the 
 purpose of dissuading any such attack. Therefore, when 
 it seemed likely that the King of Sardinia would become 
 the assailant against Austria, the British Minister at Turin, 
 without waiting for instructions, which there vas no time
 
 IO6 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 for him to ask for and to receive, remonstrated strongly upon 
 his own responsibility against the decision which he under- 
 stood the Government of Turin was about to take, and his 
 conduct in so doing was approved, and fresh instructions to 
 the same effect were sent him. But the representations thus 
 made could not be expected to outweigh the stronger 
 motives which led to the decision, and the Piedmontese 
 army began its march into Lombardy. Remonstrance and 
 argument having failed, the British Government might cer- 
 tainly have gone a step further, and might have intimated 
 an intention of taking part in the war in favour of Austria, 
 and against Piedmont. But such an active interference 
 would have been a grave step, would not have been in 
 unison with public opinion in this country, might probably 
 have been disapproved by Parliament, and would, most 
 likely, have brought France to the assistance of Italy, and 
 perhaps have involved the whole of Europe in war. It only 
 remained, therefore, for us to remain spectators and to watch 
 events. 
 
 ' Representations similar to those made by Mr. Aber- 
 cromby at Turin were made by Sir George Hamilton at 
 Florence, and by Lord Napier at Naples, but with a similar 
 result. Popular passions and national antipathies ran far 
 too strong to be controlled by a distant foreign Power ; and 
 our diplomatic agents in Italy were instructed to discontinue 
 remonstrances which experience had shown to be unavailing. 
 At last the Austrian Government, justly believing in the 
 desire of our Government to assist Austria if it had the 
 power to do so, sent M. de Hummelauer to London to re- 
 quest the interposition of Great Britain between the Emperor 
 and his revolted subjects in Italy, with a view to negotiate 
 a reconciliation. I declared to M. de Hummelauer that
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848-1850 107 
 
 the British Government would gladly undertake the task 
 if Austria would enable them to propose conditions which, 
 in the existing state of things, it was possible to expect that 
 the Italians would agree to. M. de Hummelauer's first 
 proposal was that Lombardy should be erected into an 
 Austrian principality with an archduke at its head, under 
 the Emperor as suzerain, and that the Venetian State 
 should remain as it had been ; and that Lombardy should, 
 in consideration of the arrangement, take upon herself a 
 portion of the pecuniary encumbrances of Austria. To 
 this I at once replied that such an arrangement would have 
 been accepted by the people of Lombardy with joyfulness 
 and gratitude in the autumn of last year, but that it was 
 now entirely too late, and would be rejected instantly by 
 the Italians. M. de Hummelauer entirely assented to this 
 opinion, which, he said, was quite his own also ; but he had 
 been instructed to make the proposal, and, having done 
 so, he had fulfilled his instructions. He then made a" 
 second proposal, which was, that Lombardy should be set 
 free by Austria to dispose of herself as she chose, but 
 taking upon herself a suitable proportion of the pecuniary 
 liabilities of the Austrian Empire ; and that the arrangement 
 proposed by the first plan for Lombardy should be applied 
 to the Venetian State. I said this was a plan which I felt 
 I could submit for the consideration of the Cabinet, without 
 of course anticipating what the decision thereupon might 
 be. This proposal was accordingly taken into consideration 
 by the Cabinet ; but, whatever may be their wishes that the 
 Austrian Government may remain as strong and undimi- 
 nished in extent of territory as possible, it did not appear to 
 them that we could offer to negotiate between the parties 
 on such terms, because it did not appear to them that there
 
 IOS LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 was any reasonable probability that to such terms the 
 Italians would agree. But I informed M. de Hummelauer 
 that if it should suit the views and opinions of the Austrian 
 Government to open a negotiation with the Italians for 
 relinquishing not only Lombardy, but also such portions 
 of the Venetian territory as might be agreed upon between 
 the parties, Austria receiving pecuniary compensation for 
 her cession, we, believing that an arrangement might be con- 
 cluded on such a basis, would willingly give our good offices 
 for such a negotiation. 
 
 ' M. de Hummelauer in reply said that he was not autho- 
 rised to accept, but, on the other hand, did not think himself 
 authorised to reject, such a scheme of arrangement ; that he 
 would immediately return with it to his Government and 
 submit it for their consideration. He, however, intimated 
 to me a half intention on his part to take Paris on his way, 
 and to consult the French Government on the subject, but 
 said he would be guided in that respect by my opinion ; 
 and I advised him to go straight to his own Government, 
 and not to bring the French Government into the matter 
 until he should be instructed to do so. I have received 
 no reply, but I understand from Lord Pbnsonhy that the 
 Austrian Government intend to open negotiations with the 
 Government of Lombardy direct, without using the inter- 
 vention of any other Power. 
 
 ' In this state of things it occurred to me that some 
 instructions should be given to Mr. Abercromby, and I 
 accordingly prepared the Instructions of the 23rd ultimo* 
 in which I stated that if the Venetian State could be retained 
 by Austria, usefully to herself and with the consent of all 
 parties concerned, the British Government would see such 
 an arrangement with pleasure, and that therefore Mr. Aber-
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848 1850 109 
 
 cromby was to throw no obstacle in the way of such a 
 settlement ; to which, however, I observe that the French 
 Republic has declared itself unwilling to consent. On the 
 other hand, Mr. Abercromby was instructed not to en- 
 courage the King of Sardinia to abandon the Venetians, 
 because he would not do so unless it suited his own 
 purposes and interests, and if he did so for such motives, 
 and was reproached, as he would be by the Italians, with 
 having abandoned the national cause for his own personal 
 convenience, he would then throw the blame on the British 
 Government, which would thereby lose that influence in 
 Italy, an influence that may continue to be the means of 
 doing good and of preventing evil. Mr. Abercromby was, 
 therefore, instructed not to meddle either way with the 
 question about the Venetian State, unless he should be 
 requested to do so by the Venetians themselves. This 
 being the state of the case, there is nothing in the policy 
 we have pursued in regard to Italian affairs that is not 
 perfectly honourable, and which cannot be avowed and 
 justified in the face of the world. 
 
 'A comparison has been made between the State of Italy 
 and the State of Sleswig, but there are essential differences 
 between the two as far as Great Britain is concerned. In 
 Sleswig we have been accepted by both parties as mediators, 
 which is not the case in regard to the Italian war, and a 
 Government engaged in mediation may justly urge the con- 
 tending parties to suspend the progress of the war. In the 
 case of Sleswig, too, there is a treaty guarantee which has 
 been given by the British Crown, which might, if the 
 Danish construction of it were admitt'-d. compel Great 
 Britain to become a party in the war if mediation were un- 
 successful Hut Mr. Abercromby was instructed to tvpre-
 
 110 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 sent to the Government of Turin that the arguments by 
 which it justified its advance into Lombardy might be 
 turned against itself if there were an insurrection got up in 
 Savoy, and if the French came to the aid of the insurgents ; 
 and I do not recollect at the present moment that anything 
 stronger has been addressed to the Prussian Government 
 in regard to the affair of Sleswig. It has been observed 
 that I pointed out to Chevalier Bunsen in a recent letter 
 that no new territory or state could be added to the German 
 Confederation without the consent of its sovereign, and 
 this has been held to be inconsistent with the proposed 
 incorporation of Lombardy with Piedmont. But the German 
 Confederation is in its form and essence a league of sove- 
 reigns, and not a single state, and consequently, until its 
 nature and character is entirely changed, no additional 
 state or territory can be included within the Confederation 
 except by the formal accession of the sovereign of such 
 territory or state to the existing league. There is no pays 
 de gen'eralite belonging to the Confederation in its aggregate 
 and corporate capacity, and if the Confederation were to 
 conquer any territory, and wish to include it in the limits of 
 the Confederation, it would be necessary, as matters now 
 Sitand, that such territory should come under the dominion 
 of some one of the confederate sovereigns, and should by 
 him, by a formal act, be added to the territories included 
 within the Confederation. 
 
 ' But the case of Lombardy is essentially different. It 
 is that of a province which revolts from one sovereign and 
 transfers its allegiance to another ; and the former sovereign 
 is willing to renounce his claim, and to legalise the transfer, 
 in exchange for a pecuniary consideration. In adverting to 
 the question about influence in foreign countries, it has
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848 1850 in 
 
 been said that in those countries with regard to which the 
 greatest stress has been laid on that influence, and the 
 greatest exertions have been made to obtain it, the least 
 good has been done by it, as for instance in Spain, 
 Portugal, and Greece. 
 
 1 But that British influence in Spain was advisedly, 
 though, as I have always ventured to think, most inju- 
 diciously, surrendered by the late Government in England, 
 who gave up Spain to France, and instructed Sir H. Bulwer 
 to follow in all respects the lead of the French Ambas- 
 sador. The Regent, the Duke of Vittoria, who looked 
 to Great Britain for support, because he is a good 
 Spaniard, and knows that England has no object in 
 Spain except the independence and prosperity of Spain, 
 was abandoned to the intrigues of the French Government, 
 and the party who are willing to sacrifice the indepen- 
 dence of their country at the shrine of personal interest 
 were placed in power, and have retained it ever since by 
 the same corrupt means and support by which they ob- 
 tained it. The abandonment of Spain was part of the price 
 paid for that entente cordiale which did not prevent the 
 dispute about Tahiti, and which the recent publications in 
 the "Revue Retrospective" sufficiently show to have been 
 chiefly designed to deceive us and to cajole us, while the 
 King of the French was pursuing his own schemes of family 
 interests and political ambition. 
 
 ' If British influence had been maintained in Spain as it 
 was in 1841, when Viscount Melbourne's Administration 
 went out, it ran hardly be imagined that the two unfortu- 
 nate Spanish marriages could have Km brought about, 
 and if the maintenance of British influence in Spain could 
 have prevented these two lamentable events, it was surely
 
 112 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 worth while for the British Government to have made some 
 effort for the purpose of maintaining that influence. 
 
 ' In regard to Portugal, I would observe that it was the 
 influence and action of Great Britain, co-operating as a 
 matter of policy but not as a matter of necessity with 
 France and Spain, that saved the Queen and the King of 
 Portugal from probable dethronement, and if the influence 
 of our Government has not since that time been able to 
 counteract other influences which have led the Queen of 
 Portugal away from a strict and faithful performance of the 
 spirit of her engagements, that influence has at least been 
 one among the causes which have prevented a renewal of 
 disturbance in Portugal. 
 
 'In regard to Greece, I think that the state of that 
 country is rather an example of the evil which may arise 
 from the extinction or non-existence of British influence, 
 than of the inutility of creating and maintaining it. No 
 British Government has had any influence in Greece, or, 
 more properly speaking, over the Government at Athens, 
 since the majority of King Otho, or, indeed, it may be 
 said since the end of the regency of the Count Armersperg. 
 But the reason of this circumstance lies in a narrow 
 compass. The British Government, whoever have been 
 the ministers of the Crown, has always advised King 
 Otho first to grant a constitution, and afterwards, when he 
 had been compelled by insurrection to do so, to observe 
 the constitution which he had agreed to. But this advice 
 has always been unpalatable to King Otho, and his aversion 
 to follow it has been backed and supported by the com- 
 munications which he has till very lately constantly received 
 from the Governments of France, of Austria, of Russia, of 
 Prussia, and of Bavaria.
 
 PALMERSTON'S FORLK;X POLICY, 1848 1850 113 
 
 ' When five Powers were advising the King of Greece to 
 follow his own inclinations, and one Power was urging him 
 to do that which he disliked, it was not to be wondered at 
 that the influence of the five should overpower the influence 
 of the one. But the advice and encouragement given by 
 the five have rendered the King hateful to his subjects, have 
 spread insurrection and anarchy throughout the land, and 
 have brought the State to the verge of bankruptcy ; while 
 the advice of the one would, if it had been attended to, have 
 bound the subjects by attachment to the sovereign, have 
 established peace and legal order in the country, and would 
 have freed the kingdom from its financial embarrassments/ 
 
 An amusing anecdote, communicated to the writer by a 
 friend, illustrates how well Lord Palmerston's name was 
 known in Italy at this time. ' Do you know a story which 
 Edward Lear, the artist, used to tell? -how one day, while 
 wandering in the Abruzzi, he entered the gate of a small 
 town, and was stopped by a tipsy gendarme who demanded 
 his passport, and seeing Palmerston " writ large " at the 
 bottom of it, hauled him through the streets to the Podesta 
 shouting, " Ho preso Palmerston ! Ho preso Palmerston ! " 
 ("I have taken Palmerston.")' The smallest Neapolitan 
 official knew the dreaded name. 
 
 Lord Palmerston occasionally found it needful to use 
 forcible language in his official correspondence. Challenged 
 on this subject, he thus defended himself in a despatch, 
 October, 1848: ' It is no doubt painful to have to speak 
 of sovereigns in the terms used by Viscount Palmerston in 
 regard to the King of Greece, the late King of Bavaria and 
 the King of the French. But when important public interests 
 are at stake, essential truths ought not to be withheld, and 
 nothing, he is firmly convinced, which he has said of those 
 
 I
 
 114 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 three sovereigns exceeds the truth. In regard to one of 
 them, he fears that what he said falls short of the truth, and 
 that the defects of the King of Greece lie quite as much in 
 his moral as in his intellectual qualities.' 
 
 Such a time of national upheaval could not fail to 
 influence Ireland adversely, and in 1848 some American 
 sympathisers with rebellion in Ireland were arrested, and 
 Lord Palmerston writes as follows regarding the action 
 of the Government to Mr. Bancroft, the United States 
 Minister : 
 
 ' Not only private meetings have been held, but public 
 meetings also for the avowed purpose of encouraging rebel- 
 lion in Ireland, and with a view to dismember the British 
 Empire by separating Ireland from the dominion of the 
 British Crown. It is also notorious that these associations 
 and public meetings have been composed not only of Irish 
 emigrants, but also of national-born citizens of the United 
 States, and indeed, among the number of these conspirators 
 against the peace of a country with which the United States 
 are in friendly relations, there is good reason to believe that 
 persons have been found who, for many obvious reasons, it 
 might have been hoped would not have been so engaged. 
 It is perfectly well known that these conspirators in the 
 United States have sent to Ireland, to assist the rebellion 
 which they had intended to organise, money, arms, ammu- 
 nition, and active agents. Some portions of the arms and 
 ammunition indeed have been seized, and will be confis- 
 cated, and some of the agents have been arrested, and must 
 be dealt with according to their deserts. Her Majesty's 
 Government, well knowing the constitutional difficulties of 
 the United States, and convinced that the President has 
 employed to the utmost the very limited means within his
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, ,1848 1850 115 
 
 power to check and discountenance the proceedings above 
 mentioned, have not pressed the Government of the United 
 States with representations against a state of things which under 
 other circumstances would scarcely have been compatible 
 with the continuance of friendly relations between the two 
 Governments. But then, on the other hand, the Government 
 of the United States must not take it amiss that her Majesty's 
 Government should resort to measures of precaution and of 
 repression in regard to persons, whatever their nationality 
 may be, who in this posture of affairs may come from the 
 United States to this realm ; and if there should be any 
 citizens of the United States who have chosen this period of 
 disturbance for visiting Ireland for innocent purposes, they 
 must not be surprised if, like persons whom curiosity may 
 lead into the midst of a battle, they should be involved in 
 the sweep of measures aimed at men of a different descrip- 
 tion. But her Majesty's Government will always lament if 
 mistakes happen. The utmost alacrity will be evinced by 
 the Irish Government to rectify such errors.' 
 
 In March, 1849, we find him thus speaking of the moral 
 influence of England : 
 
 ' I say, in contradiction to the honourable gentleman, 
 that this country does stand well with the great majority of 
 the foreign Powers that the character of this country stands 
 high that the moral influence of England is great a 
 moral influence that I do not take credit to this Government 
 for having created, but which is founded on the good sense 
 and the wise and enlightened conduct of the British nation. 
 Foreign countries have seen that in the midst of the events 
 which have violently convulsed other countries in Europe, 
 and which have shaken to their foundations anrient institu-
 
 Il6 LORD FALMERSTON 
 
 ions, this country has held fast to her ancient landmarks, 
 standing firm in her pride of place : 
 
 Fell not, but stands unshaken, from within, 
 Or from without, 'gainst all temptations armed. 
 
 That has given confidence to foreign countries in the 
 government and people of this country. When other 
 monarchies were shaken to their very foundations, England 
 stood unhurt, by its evident security giving confidence to 
 other Powers. They have seen that the Government of 
 England is not like that of other countries, struggling for its 
 existence, and occupied in guarding against daily dangers. 
 They have seen that the British Constitution acts in unison 
 with the spirit of the nation, with whose interests it is 
 charged. They know that its advice is worthy of being 
 listened to ; and that advice is valued and respected, and is 
 not spurned with contumely, as the honourable member 
 would wish us to suppose.' 
 
 During the same session he expressed himself in the 
 House of Commons on June 12, 1849, as against the 
 principle of submitting international disputes to arbitra- 
 tion : 
 
 ' I confess also that I consider it would be a very 
 dangerous course for this country itself to take, because 
 there is no country which from its political and com- 
 mercial circumstances, from its maritime interests and 
 from its colonial possessions, excites more envious and 
 jealous feelings in different quarters than England does ; 
 and there is no country that would find it more difficult to 
 discover really disinterested and impartial arbiters. There 
 is also no country that would be more likely than England 
 to suffer in its important commercial interest from submitting
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848-1850 117 
 
 the case to arbiters, not disinterested, not impartial, and not 
 acting with a due sense of their responsibility.' 
 
 In answer to Mr. Cobden he said he agreed with him, 
 and with those he represents, in feeling the utmost dislike 
 1 and I may say horror of war in any shape. I will not go 
 further into those commonplace remarks which must be 
 familiar to the mind of every man who has contrasted the 
 calamities of war with the various blessings and advantages 
 which attend upon peace. I cannot conceive that there 
 exists in this country the man who does not attach the 
 utmost value to the blessings of peace, and who would not 
 make the greatest sacrifices to save his country from the 
 calamities attendant upon war. It will be useful for England 
 and for Europe at large that every man should know that 
 in this assembly, and among the vast masses of men of 
 whom we are the representatives, there is a sincere and 
 honest disposition to maintain peace. But that which I 
 wish to guard against the impression that I wish should 
 not be entertained anywhere, either in this country or out 
 of it is, that while there is in England a fervent love of 
 peace, an anxious and steady desire to maintain it, there 
 should not exist the impression that the manly spirit of 
 Englishmen is dead ; that England is not ready, as she is 
 ever, to repel aggression and resent injury ; and that she 
 never will be found acting aggressively against any other 
 Power. It would be most dangerous indeed to the interests 
 of peace that a contrary opinion should prevail. I can con- 
 ceive nothing that would bring more into jeopardy our peace- 
 ful relations than that an idea should prevail among foreign 
 nations that we are so attached to peace that we dare not 
 make war, and that therefore any aggression or any injury 
 may be safely ventured against English subjects, because
 
 Il8 LORD I'ALMEKSTON 
 
 England has such a rooted aversion to war that she will not 
 repel it.' 
 
 And soon after he spoke again to the same effect : ' I 
 cannot condemn that provident provision of things which 
 cannot be created at a moment's notice, and which would 
 be necessary if we were called on to defend ourselves from 
 foreign aggression and the chance of which, if known to 
 foreign countries, would form an incitement and temptation 
 to commit wrong against this country. I think that a 
 Government acts wisely and prudently when they gradually, 
 and without overstraining the burden on the country, lay 
 up a store of those things which may be wanted on the 
 first outbreak of a war, if it should unfortunately occur, 
 and which must be provided for beforehand, while they 
 abstain from useless augmentations of men, which can be 
 raised when the emergency arises, and in a short period 
 would be just as effective as if they had been longer in mili- 
 tary training.' 
 
 In 1849 Hungary attempted to throw off the Austrian 
 yoke, and but for the assistance given to the latter by 
 Russia would in all probability have succeeded. The in- 
 surrection was repressed with great violence, and the most 
 inhuman cruelties were inflicted upon the insurgents. 
 Kossuth and other Hungarians took refuge in Turkey, 
 and when Austria and Russia jointly demanded their sur- 
 render, Palmerston supported the Sultan in his refusal 
 to comply with their demand. Nearly two years, however, 
 elapsed before they were released by the Sultan- and en- 
 abled to come to England. It was in connection with 
 these negotiations that Palmerston applied to his work an 
 image derived from the prize-fighter's arena, a spot not 
 unfamiliar to the Foreign Minister, if common report may
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICV, 1848 1850 1 19 
 
 be relied upon. He said that ' during the struggle a good 
 deal of judicious bottle-holding was obliged to be brought 
 into play.' This was at once seized upon by ' Punch ' and 
 used with great effect. 
 
 In speaking on behalf of Austria at this time he gave at 
 some length his views on the part that England should play 
 in maintaining that most shadowy and most costly of diplo- 
 matic entities ' the balance of power.' ' There are higher and 
 larger considerations which ought to render the maintenance 
 of the Austrian Empire an object of solicitude to every 
 English statesman. Austria is a most important element in 
 the balance of European power. Austria stands in the centre 
 of Europe, a barrier against encroachments on the one side 
 and against invasion on the other. The political indepen- 
 dence and liberties of Europe are bound up, in my opinion, 
 with the maintenance and integrity of Austria as a great 
 European Power ; and, therefore, anything which tends by 
 direct or even remote contingency to weaken and cripple 
 Austria, but still more to reduce her from her position of a 
 first-rate Power to that of a secondary State, must be a great 
 calamity to Europe, and one which every Englishman ought 
 to deprecate and endeavour to prevent. It is perfectly 
 true, as has been stated, that for a long course of time 
 Austria has not been a favourite with the Liberal party in 
 Europe. Austria, by the course of policy which she has pur- 
 sued, has, in the opinion of a great part of the Continent, 
 been identified with obstruction to progress. That cir- 
 cumstance unfortunately has made her proportionately a 
 favourite in the eyes of some, and when we hear such de- 
 clarations in favour of Austria, I would warn the Austrian 
 Government not to trust too much to those protestations. 
 It is not as the ancient ally of England during war it is
 
 120 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 not as the means of resistance in the centre of Europe to 
 any general disturbance of the balance of power it is as 
 the former symbol of resistance to improvement political 
 and social it is in that capacity that Austria has won the 
 affections of some men in the conduct of public affairs. I 
 shall not be expected to pass judgment between the Austrian 
 Government and the Hungarian nation. I say the Hungarian 
 nation, because I firmly believe that in this war between 
 Austria and Hungary there is enlisted on the side of Hungary 
 the hearts and souls of the whole people of that country. 
 I believe that the other races distinct from the Magyars 
 have forgotten the former feuds that existed between them 
 and the Magyar population, and that the greater portion 
 of the people have engaged in what they consider a great 
 national contest. It is true that Hungary for centuries past 
 has been a State which, though united with Austria by the 
 link of the Crown, has nevertheless been separated and dis- 
 tinct from Austria by its own complete constitution. That 
 constitution has many defects, but some were remedied not 
 long ago, and it is not the only ancient constitution on the 
 Continent which was susceptible of improvement. There 
 were means probably within the force and resources of the 
 constitution itself to reform it, and it might have been hoped 
 that these improvements would have been carried into effect. 
 I take the question which is now to be fought out on the plains 
 of Hungary to be this : whether Hungary shall continue to 
 maintain its separate nationality as a distinct kingdom, and 
 with a constitution of its own ; or whether it is to be incorpo- 
 rated more or less in the aggregate constitution that is to be 
 given to the Austrian Empire. It is a most painful sight to see 
 such forces as are now arrayed against Hungary proceeding 
 to a war fraught with such tremendous consequences on a
 
 PALMERSTON'S FORKIGN POLICY, 1848 1850 121 
 
 question that might have been settled peaceably. It is of 
 the utmost importance to Europe that Austria shall remain 
 great and powerful ; but it is impossible to disguise from 
 ourselves that, if the war is to be fought out, Austria must 
 thereby be weakened, because if the Hungarians should be 
 successful, and their success should end in the entire separa- 
 tion of Austria from Hungary, it will be impossible not to 
 see that this would be such a dismemberment of the Austrian 
 Empire as will prevent Austria from continuing to occupy 
 the great position she has hitherto held among European 
 Powers ; if, on the other hand, the war being fought out to 
 the uttermost, Hungary should be completely crushed by 
 superior forces, Austria, in that battle, will have crushed her 
 own right arm. Every field that is laid waste is an Austrian 
 resource destroyed, every man that perishes on the field 
 among the Hungarian ranks is an Austrian soldier deducted 
 from the defensive forces of the Empire. It is devoutly to be 
 wished that this great contest may be brought to a termination 
 by some amicable treaty between the contending parties, 
 which shall on the one hand satisfy the national feelings of 
 the Hungarians, and yet not leave to Austria another and a 
 larger Poland within her borders. We have been accused 
 of meddling with matters that do not concern us, and of 
 affronting nations and governments by giving an opinion as 
 to what was likely to happen ; but the result has proved 
 that, if our opinions had been acted upon, great calamities 
 would have been avoided. These very Governments used 
 to say, " The man we hate, the man we have to fear, is the 
 Moderate Reformer. We care not for your violent Radical, 
 who proposes such violent extremes that nobody is likely 
 to join with him ; the enemy we are most afraid of is the Mo- 
 derate Reformer, because he is such a plausible man. that
 
 122 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 it is difficult to persuade people that his counsels would lead 
 to extreme consequences ; therefore let us keep off of all men 
 the Moderate Reformer, and let us prevent the first step of 
 improvement, because that improvement might lead to extre- 
 mities and innovation." These Governments, these Powers of 
 Europe, have at last learned the truth of the opinion expressed 
 by Canning, that those who have checked improvement be- 
 cause it is innovation, will one day or other be compelled to 
 accept innovation when it has ceased to be improvement. 
 
 ' I say then that it is our duty not to remain passive 
 spectators of events that in their immediate consequences 
 affect other countries, but which in their remote and certain 
 consequences are sure to come back with disastrous effect 
 upon ourselves ; that, so far as the courtesies of interna- 
 tional intercourse may permit us to do, it is our duty, es- 
 pecially when our opinion is asked, as it has been on many 
 occasions on which we have been blamed for giving it, to 
 state our opinions, founded on the experience of this country, 
 an experience that might have been, and ought to have been, 
 an example to less fortunate countries. At the same time I 
 am quite ready to admit that interference ought not to be 
 carried to the extent of endangering our relations with 
 other countries. There are cases, like that of Austria and 
 Hungary, of one Power having in the exercise of its own 
 sovereign rights invited the assistance of another Power ; 
 and however we may lament that circumstance, however we 
 may be apprehensive that therefrom consequences of great 
 danger and evil may flow, still we are not entitled to inter- 
 fere in any manner that will commit this country to embark 
 in these hostilities. All we can justly do is to take advan- 
 tage of any opportunities that may present themselves in 
 which the counsels of friendship and peace may be offered
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848-1850 123 
 
 to the contending parties. We have on several occasions 
 that have happened of late in Europe been invited to " inter- 
 meddle" as it is called in the affairs of other countries, 
 although it has been said of this country that it stands so 
 low in public opinion in Europe that we are treated with 
 contempt both by governments and nations. Certainly the 
 way in which that want of respect has been shown is 
 singular, when from the north to the south, in cases of diffi- 
 culty not only between nations, but internally between 
 governments and their own subjects, we have been asked 
 and invited to interpose our friendly mediation in their 
 affairs. We have on those occasions done our best to ac- 
 complish the object which we were called upon to fulfil. 
 We have heard a great deal of " sham mediation " in the 
 contest between Germany and Denmark, but that sham 
 mediation has ended in a real preliminary treaty, and I 
 hope that will soon be followed by permanent pacification. 
 Sir, to suppose that any government of England can wish to 
 excite revolutionary movements in any part of the world 
 to suppose that any government of England can have any 
 other wish or desire than to confirm and maintain peace 
 between nations, and tranquillity and harmony between 
 governments and subjects shows a degree of ignorance and 
 folly which I never supposed any public man could be 
 guilty of which may do very well for a newspaper article, 
 but which, it astonishes me to find, is made the subject 
 of a speech in Parliament. 
 
 'We have been told that Austria is our ancient ally. 
 We have had the terms " ally " and " allies " rung in our ears 
 by those who either must be ignorant of the slipslop ex- 
 pression they are using, or who, through what I must 
 admit to have been its general acceptation, forget that they
 
 124 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 were using a totally unmeaning term. Why, what is an 
 ally ? An ally is a Power allied by treaty engagements in 
 carrying on some active operations, political or otherwise. 
 But to call a country an ally merely because it is in a state 
 of friendship with you is to use an expression that has no 
 meaning whatever, because it is applicable to every other 
 Power in the world with whom you may happen not to be in 
 a state of war. But Austria has been our ally. We have been 
 allied with Austria in most important European transac- 
 tions ; and the remembrance of the alliance ought undoubt- 
 edly to create in the breast of every Englishman who has a 
 recollection of the history of his country feelings of respect 
 towards a Power with whom we have been in such alliance.' 
 
 At the same time Lord Palmerston never disguised his 
 abhorrence of the methods employed by Austria in suppress- 
 ing the Hungarian revolt. 'The Austrians,' he says in a 
 letter dated September 9, 1849, ' are really the greatest 
 brutes that ever called themselves by the undeserved name 
 of civilised men.' In 1850 General Haynau, a man most 
 notorious for his cruelty, and said to have inflicted floggings 
 upon women, came to London, and visited the brewery of 
 Messrs. Barclay and Perkins. There he was assailed by the 
 draymen, and finally rescued by the police. In reply to the 
 Austrian demand for satisfaction, Lord Palmerston very 
 clearly and coolly stated the merits of the case : 
 
 'The people of this country are remarkable for their 
 hospitable reception of foreigners, and for their forgetful- 
 ness of past animosities. Napoleon Buonaparte, the greatest 
 enemy that England ever had, was treated while at Plymouth 
 with respect, and with commiseration while at St. Helena. 
 Marshal Soult, who had fought in many battles against the 
 English, was received with generous acclamation when he
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848 1850 125 
 
 came here as special ambassador. The King of the French, 
 M. Guizot, and Prince Metternich, though all of them great 
 antagonists of English policy and English interests, were 
 treated in this country with courtesy and kindness. But 
 General Haynau was looked upon as a great moral criminal ; 
 and the feeling in regard to him was of the same nature as 
 that which was manifested towards the Mannings, with this 
 only difference, that General Haynau's bad deeds were 
 committed upon a far larger scale, and upon a far larger 
 number of victims. The feelings of just and honourable 
 indignation have not been confined to England.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston's somewhat high-handed policy met 
 with constant opposition in the House of Commons, 
 although it was received with warm approval by the 
 majority of the members. The Whig Ministry of 1850, 
 like the Liberal adminstrations of later days, had a solid 
 Tory majority against them in the House of Lords, and on 
 June 17, 1850, Lord Stanley, by a majority of thirty-seven, 
 carried a resolution affirming 'that various claims against 
 the Greek Government, doubtful in point of justice or 
 exaggerated in amount, have been enforced by coercive 
 measures directed against the commerce and people of 
 Greece, and calculated to endanger the continuance of our 
 friendly relations with other Powers.' In reply to this, on 
 June 24, Mr. Roebuck moved in the House of Commons, 
 ' that the principles on which the foreign policy of her 
 Majesty's Government has been regulated have been such 
 as were calculated to maintain the honour and dignity of 
 this country, and in times of unexampled difficulty to pre- 
 serve peace between England and the various nations of 
 the world.' A four-nights' debate ensued, and on the 
 second Lord Palmerston delivered the famous speech which
 
 126 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 occupied nearly five hours, and in which he gave an 
 elaborate vindication of his whole foreign policy. The 
 house of Don Pacifico, a Jew, a native of Gibraltar, had 
 been sacked in open day in Athens by a Greek mob, headed 
 by the sons of the Greek Minister of War. All demands 
 for redress in his case and many others being treated with 
 contempt, Lord Palmerston finally sent the fleet to the 
 Piraeus and seized certain vessels there. This action, and 
 the subsequent international complications, gave rise to 
 the debate. Lord Palmerston's speech marks an era in his 
 career. It is now of moment chiefly for two passages, 
 which we quote. In the first, by a clever use of illustration, 
 he sketches himself : 
 
 ' However, sir, the right hon. baronet (Sir J. Graham) 
 says that these affairs of Spain were of long duration, and 
 produced disastrous consequences, because they were fol- 
 lowed by events of the greatest importance as regards 
 another country, namely, France. He says that out of 
 those Spanish quarrels and Spanish marriages there arose 
 differences between England and France which led to no 
 slighter catastrophe than the overthrow of the French 
 monarchy. This is another instance of the fondness for 
 narrowing down a great and national question to the small- 
 ness of personal difference. It was my dislike to M. Guizot, 
 forsooth, arising out of these Spanish marriages, which 
 overthrew his Administration, and with it the throne of 
 France ! Why, sir, what will the French nation say when 
 they hear this ? They are a high-minded and high-spirited 
 nation, full of a sense of their own dignity and honour. 
 What will they say when they hear it stated that it was in 
 the power of a British Minister to overthrow their Go- 
 vernment and their monarchy? (Much cheering.) Why,
 
 PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1848-1850 127 
 
 sir, it is a calumny on the French nation to suppose that 
 the personal hatred of any foreigner to their Minister could 
 have this effect. They are a brave, a generous, and a noble- 
 minded people ; and if they had thought that a foreign 
 conspiracy had been formed against one of their Ministers 
 (tremendous and prolonged cheering, which prevented the 
 noble Viscount from concluding the sentence) I say, that 
 if the French people had thought that a knot of foreign 
 conspirators were caballing against one of their Ministers, 
 and caballing for no other reason than that he upheld, as 
 he conceived, the dignity and interests of his own country, 
 and if they had thought that such a knot of foreign con- 
 spirators had coadjutors in their own land, why, I say that 
 the French people, that brave, noble, and spirited nation, 
 would have scorned the intrigues of such a cabal, and would 
 have clung the closer to, and have supported the more, the 
 man against whom such a plot had been made.' 
 
 In the second we have the most effective peroration 
 'Lord Palmerston ever delivered : 
 
 ' I believe I have now gone through all the heads of the 
 charges which have been brought against me in this debate. 
 I think I have shown that the foreign policy of the Govern- 
 ment in all the transactions with respect to which its con- 
 duct has been impugned, has throughout been guided by 
 those principles which, according to the resolution of the 
 honourable and learned gentleman, ought to regulate the 
 conduct of the Government of England in the management 
 of our foreign affairs. I believe that the principles on which 
 we have acted are those which are held by the great mass 
 of the people of this country. I am convinced these prin- 
 ciples are calculated, so far as the influence of England may 
 properly be exercised with respect to the destinies of other
 
 128 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 countries, to conduce to the maintenance of peace, to the 
 advancement of civilisation, to the welfare and happiness of 
 mankind. 
 
 ' I do not complain of the conduct of those who have 
 made these matters the means of attack upon her Majesty's 
 Ministers. The government of a great country like this is, 
 undoubtedly, an object of fair and legitimate ambition to 
 men of all shades of opinion. It is a noble thing to be 
 allowed to guide the policy and to influence the destiny of 
 such a country ; and if ever it was an object of honourable 
 ambition, more than ever must it be so at the moment at 
 which I am speaking. For while we have seen, as stated by 
 the right honourable baronet, the political earthquake rock- 
 ing Europe from side to side while we have seen thrones 
 shaken, shattered, levelled, institutions overthrown and 
 destroyed while in almost every country of Europe the 
 conflict of civil war has deluged the land with blood, from 
 the Atlantic to the Black Sea, from the Baltic to the 
 Mediterranean, this country has presented a spectacle 
 honourable to the people of England and worthy of the 
 admiration of mankind. 
 
 ' We have shown that liberty is compatible with order ; 
 that individual freedom is reconcilable with obedience to 
 the law. We have shown the example of a nation in which 
 every class of society accepts with cheerfulness the lot 
 which Providence has assigned to it, while at the same time 
 every individual of each class is constantly striving to raise 
 himself in the social scale not by injustice and wrong, not 
 by violence and illegality, but by persevering good conduct, 
 and by the steady and energetic exertion of the moral and 
 intellectual faculties with which his Creator has endowed 
 him. To govern such a people as this is indeed an object
 
 PALMERSTON S FORKICX 1'OI.ICV, 1848-1850 1 2O 
 
 worthy of the ambition of the noblest man who lives in the 
 land, and, therefore, I find no fault with those who may 
 think any opportunity a fair one for endeavouring to place 
 themselves in so distinguished and honourable a position ; 
 but I contend that we have not in our foreign policy done 
 anything to forfeit the confidence of the country. We may 
 not, perhaps, in this matter or in that have acted precisely 
 up to the opinions of one person or of another ; and hard 
 indeed it is, as we all know by our individual and private 
 experience, to find any number of men agreeing entirely in 
 any matter on which they may not be equally possessed of 
 the details of the facts, circumstances, reasons, and condi- 
 tions which led to action. But, making allowance for those 
 differences of opinion which may fairly and honourably arise 
 among those who concur in general views, I maintain that 
 the principles which can be traced through all our foreign 
 transactions, as the guiding rule and directing spirit of our 
 proceedings, are such as deserve approbation. 
 
 ' I therefore fearlessly challenge the verdict which this 
 House, as representing a political, a commercial, a constitu- 
 tional country, is to give on the question now brought before 
 it whether the principles on which the foreign policy of her 
 Majesty's Government has been conducted, and the sense of 
 duty which has led us to think ourselves bound to afford pro 
 tection to our fellow-subjects abroad, are proper and fitting 
 guides for those who are charged with the government of 
 England ; and whether, as the Roman in days of old held 
 himself free from indignity when he could say, Civis 
 Romanus sum, so also a British subject, in whatever land 
 he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and 
 the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice 
 and wrong.'
 
 130 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Although opposed by Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Disraeli, 
 and by Mr. Gladstone in one of the ablest speeches that 
 great orator ever delivered, Civis Romanus sum triumphed 
 and Lord Palmerston secured a majority of fifty-six, and 
 made a long stride towards that legitimate goal of a states- 
 man's ambition the Premiership of England.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM THE FOREIGN OFFICF. 
 
 IN the year 1851 the dispute occurred between Lord Russell 
 and Lord Palmerston, which led to the Foreign Office being 
 given to Lord Granville. It had always been Lord Palmer- 
 ston's custom in his negotiations not only to use the weapons 
 of the arguments of official despatches, but also to employ 
 very largely private correspondence, and semi-official or 
 personal representation of the case he desired to enforce. 
 He used to say that such a method of procedure was often 
 necessary to the smooth working of affairs. ' You may as 
 from yourself,' he would write to an ambassador, 'say to the 
 King, or to the minister, that it will be to his interest to act 
 in such and such a way.' Of these communications to 
 British representatives abroad there was, of course, no trace 
 left in any official correspondence. The official despatch 
 sent with the concurrence of the Cabinet would perhaps 
 follow the same general argument or even use the same 
 phrases ; but often the private letter, or the inculcation of 
 a particular tone on our plenipotentiary in dealing with the 
 ministers of a foreign Power, was not in strict accordance 
 with what would appear publicly in the Blue Book sub- 
 mitted to Parliament. It was essential, Lord Palmerston 
 said, that a Foreign Minister should be allowed to work in 
 this way. 
 
 But some of Lord Palmerston's colleagues were very 
 
 K 2.
 
 132 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 jealous of such exercise of influence. The reasons given 
 against anything being sent except the letters known to the 
 Cabinet were briefly that ' a man must either write, when 
 Foreign Secretary, letters for which in that capacity he is pre- 
 pared to be publicly answerable, or if he writes as a private 
 person he must not ask the British Minister, if the British 
 Minister at a foreign capital be his correspondent, to press 
 the views given in a private letter, because for such his col- 
 leagues at home cannot be answerable, and they do not even 
 know the purport of such practically secret communications.' 
 ' Speak either as Foreign Secretary or not at all in such mat- 
 ters,' was the language used by men distrustful of Lord Palmer - 
 ston's tendencies. ' No ; public matters can be softened and 
 disputes prevented by my private letters,' said Lord Palmer- 
 ston in effect, and he continued to act on the idea to the 
 last. 
 
 He himself would come down sharply enough on a 
 subordinate member of the Government if things were done 
 without his knowledge in even such comparatively unimpor- 
 tant matters as the arrangements in the public parks. ' I 
 saw a lot of men enclosing plots of grass, and commencing 
 plantations,' he wrote to the head of the Board of Works on 
 one occasion ; ' the grass is made for the public to walk upon, 
 and I will not, as head of the Government, be responsible 
 for the limitation you are putting on their enjoyment of the 
 grass.' But he never found fault when Prime Minister with 
 any letters a colleague may have written to prevent mis- 
 understandings abroad ; and always considered that private 
 letters, properly used, and so-called unofficial talk and repre- 
 sentations, often took away the necessity of the writing of 
 any despatch on the point on which friction and misunder- 
 standing had arisen.
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 133 
 
 From this habit it may have happened that he was apt 
 to take a too independent line, and do things on his own 
 responsibility which should only have been done with the 
 consent of his colleagues. It can readily be imagined that 
 a habit of this kind might grow, and that it was tolerably 
 certain to lead to friction. The Queen and the Prince 
 Consort paid great attention to foreign affairs, and they 
 were not likely to approve of the total disregard which 
 sometimes followed suggestions made by them in the drafts 
 of despatches submitted to them. Remonstrances from 
 Lord John Russell and a memorandum from the Queen 
 herself had no perceptible effect. Moreover, there can be 
 no reasonable doubt that he acted with precipitation when 
 his old acquaintance, Louis Napoleon, effected the coup 
 d'Etat in 1851. Comparisons were used by Lord Palmer- 
 ston in his communications with the new Government at 
 Paris which would not have been sanctioned if they had 
 been previously read to the Cabinet. I give his own account 
 of his letter, and of the motives that led to its being written. 
 ' To say that I expressed entire approbation of what the 
 President had done is giving a high colour to anything I 
 may have said. . . . The opinion I entertain of this grave 
 and important matter is, that so decided an antagonism 
 had grown up between the President and the Assembly, 
 that it was to be foreseen that they could not long co-exist, 
 and that each was planning the overthrow of the other ; 
 either meaning aggression, or believing that their cause was 
 only self-defence ; and there are circumstances which seem 
 to countenance the supposition that the Assembly intended 
 in the course of that very week to have struck a blow at the 
 President, and to have deprived him of his position. Now, 
 as between the President and the Assemblv, it seems to me
 
 134 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 that the interests of France, and through them the interests 
 of the rest of Europe, were better consulted by the preva- 
 lence of the President than they would have been by the 
 prevalence of the Assembly, and the great rise which has 
 taken place in the French funds, from 91 to 102, together 
 with the sudden spring which has been made by commerce 
 in general, seem to show that the French people in general 
 are of the same opinion, and that what has happened has 
 inspired the nation with a feeling of confidence which they 
 had not before. Indeed, to account for this, we have only 
 to look at what each of the two parties offered to France as 
 the result of their victory over the other party. 
 
 'The President had to offer unity of authority and purpose, 
 and the support of the whole army against the anarchists for 
 the maintenance of order. The Assembly had to offer im- 
 mediate division among themselves, a division in the army, 
 and in all probability civil war, during which the anarchists 
 would have had immense opportunities and facilities for 
 carrying their desolating schemes into execution. If the 
 Assembly had had any acceptable ruler to propose to the 
 nation instead of Louis Napoleon, they might with their 
 opinions and preferences have been acting as true patriots 
 by overthrowing the President. But there were scarcely 
 more than three alternatives which they could have proposed. 
 First, Henry V., who represents the principle of legitimacy, 
 and who has a devoted and considerable party in France ; 
 but that party is still a minority of the nation, and the 
 minority cannot govern the majority. Secondly, they might 
 have proposed the Count de Paris, but he is only about 
 twelve years old, and a six years' minority with a regency, 
 and with Thiers as a Prime Minister, was not a proposal 
 which a nation in a state in which the French are was at all
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 135 
 
 likely to accept. Thirdly, they might have offered the 
 Prince de Joinville as a President, or three of the generals 
 as a commission of government, but neither of these 
 arrangements would have been acceptable to the whole 
 nation. The success, then, of the Assembly would in all 
 human probability have been civil war, while the success of 
 the President promised the re-establishment of order. 
 
 ' This bitter antagonism between the President and the 
 Assembly was partly the consequence of the arrangement of 
 1848, and partly the result of faults on both sides, but chiefly 
 on the side of the Assembly. It may safely be affirmed that 
 a long duration of a centralised, as contra-distinguished from 
 a federal, republic in a great country like France, with a large 
 standing army, and the seat of government not in an un- 
 important place like Washington, but in a great capital, 
 which exercises almost paramount influence over the whole 
 country, is a political impossibility, let the arrangement of 
 such a republic be ever so well and so wisely constituted. 
 But the arrangements of 1848 greatly increased that general 
 impossibility, and indeed the work of MM. Marrast and 
 Tocqueville would more properly be called a dissolution 
 than a constitution, for they brought the political organisa- 
 tion of France to the very brink of anarchy. I need only 
 mention among other defects that there were two great 
 powers, each deriving its existence from the same source, 
 almost sure to disagree, with no umpire to decide between 
 them, and neither able by any legal way to get rid of the 
 other ; not to dwell upon that, the question in regard to 
 which the rupture took place was sure to bring about sooner 
 or later collision, and probably violence. The constitution 
 contained a regulation that the same person should not be 
 twice running elected as President ; that is, the French nation
 
 136 LORI) PALMKRSTON 
 
 should not, after the first term was over, be allowed to 
 choose the person they might prefer and think fittest to be 
 at the head of their government. Now there seemed every 
 reason to expect that the vast majority of the nation would 
 re-elect Louis Napoleon, and the great majority of the 
 Conseils-Generaux petitioned that the constitution might 
 be altered, meaning especially in this respect. But another 
 regulation of 1848 interfered. A certain proportion of the 
 Assembly was required to give validity to a resolution that 
 the constitution should be revised, and that majority the 
 Assembly did not give. 
 
 ' It had been generally expected that the actual conflict 
 would be put off till May next year, but the measures of 
 both parties brought it on sooner. The proposal of the 
 Parliament to restore universal suffrage was evidently in- 
 tended for the purpose of securing for him such an over- 
 whelming number of votes that the Assembly could not 
 have set his election aside. The Assembly tried to parry 
 this by various schemes either projected or actually put 
 forward. One plan was a law attaching punishment to any 
 elector who might vote for an ineligible candidate, but 
 this, I believe, was not actually brought forward. Another 
 was what was called the Question proposal, which went to 
 place a portion of the army under the orders of the Assem- 
 bly. This indeed was negatived, but it showed what its 
 proposers intended. Then came the proposal to declare it 
 high treason in an existing President to take any step to 
 procure his re-election, a law which, if it had passed, would 
 have obviously placed the President at the mercy of the 
 Assembly unless he could rely upon a sufficient portion of 
 the army to fight against that part of it which might go over 
 to the Assembly. It is said, with what truth I cannot tell,
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 137 
 
 that it was the intention of the leaders of the majority of 
 the Assembly, if that law had been carried, immediately to 
 have arrested within the walls and on the spot such of the 
 Ministers as were members, among whom was the Minister of 
 War, and to have also endeavoured to have sent the President 
 to Vincennes. ... It seems to me, then, that it is fair to 
 suppose that Louis Napoleon may have acted from mixed 
 motives. There is no doubt that he was impelled by ambi- 
 tion, and by a rooted belief, which he was well known to 
 have entertained from a very early age, that he was destined 
 to govern France. But he may also have felt that in the 
 present deplorable state of society in France he was much 
 more capable of promoting the interests of his country than 
 his antagonists were, and a man even with less personal 
 ambition might in his situation have thought salus Reipub- 
 lica siiprema lex. His justification will very much depend 
 upon the degree of proof which he may be able to adduce, 
 that he was acting at the moment in self-defence, and was 
 only anticipating an impending blow.' 
 
 The obvious rejoinder to this memorandum that the 
 point in dispute was not his judgment or the reasons upon 
 which it was based, but the fact that he had given an opinion 
 without consulting the Cabinet and the Queen was at once 
 made. Lord Palmerston replied that if a Foreign Minister 
 were never to converse with an Ambassadcr unless he 
 previously consulted his Cabinet there would be an end to 
 that friendly intercourse which acted so often as oil to the 
 diplomatic machine. Lord John Russell's rejoinder to this 
 was a curt letter to the effect that he had asked her Majesty 
 to appoint a successor to Lord Palmerston. 
 
 A letter from Lord Grey on Palmerston's removal shows 
 that, although in 1845 nc na d refused to join a Ministry in
 
 138 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 which Palmerston was to be Foreign Minister, and was 
 alleged by Mr. Ellice to have said that he never wished to 
 see Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office, his feelings had 
 undergone a marked change. In any case his language is 
 
 most cordial in 1851 : 
 
 December 23, 1851. 
 
 My dear Palmerston, I cannot forbear writing to you 
 to express the great concern with which I learnt at the 
 Cabinet yesterday that you are to retire from the Govern- 
 ment. I had not even the suspicion of the probability of 
 such an occurrence until I was informed by Lord Lans- 
 downe at the Grange on Sunday of the correspondence 
 which had taken place between yourself and Lord John, and 
 that the Cabinet which had been summoned had reference 
 to it. Even then I did not suppose that the matter was so 
 serious as I found it to be when I .heard the correspondence 
 read in the Cabinet, or that the difference was one which 
 would not be settled without your retirement. Though I 
 have not hesitated on one or two occasions to express openly 
 in the Cabinet my regret at some steps you have taken, I 
 have had too many opportunities of admiring the energy 
 and ability with which you have conducted your important 
 department, and of knowing how much you have contributed 
 to maintain the administration ; and I have also more than 
 once had too much reason to feel personally indebted to you 
 for your support not to be much grieved at what has hap- 
 pened. I should not perhaps have written you this letter, 
 were it not for what occurred in December 1845, DUt having 
 thought it necessary in the circumstances in which we then 
 were placed to object to your being appointed to the Foreign 
 Office, it seemed to me only right, after having served with 
 you five years and a half, during which time we have always
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 139 
 
 been on friendly terms, and I hope I have given you no 
 reason to doubt my having acted fairly by you as a colleague, 
 that I should now express to you the very great regret I 
 sincerely feel for what has occurred. 
 
 Believe me yours very faithfully, 
 
 GREY. 
 
 To this letter Lord Palmerston replied as under : 
 
 My dear Grey, I am very much obliged to you for your 
 kind and friendly letter, and I can with great pleasure and 
 truth confirm what you say, that during the five years and a 
 half that we have been acting together as members of the 
 same Cabinet the previous difference of December 1845 has 
 never had any influence on our relations, official or private, 
 and that our intercourse has been as friendly as if that inci- 
 dent had never taken place. What I am now saying to you 
 
 I have often said to others. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 
 The 'fall' of the powerful Foreign Minister caused a 
 great sensation both in Great Britain and on the Continent. 
 An extract from the Examiner of that date summarises 
 much public opinion : 
 
 ' Certain it is that his best friends and admirers have often 
 wished that the manner of his correspondence had been as 
 clear of objection as the matter and subject. Few men 
 acceding to power have been greeted with so general an ex- 
 pression of admiration as has followed Lord Palmerston 's 
 retirement. Few rising suns have been more gloriously 
 painted than his setting sun.' 
 
 In closing this chapter we may refer to an amusing in-
 
 140 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 stance of the way in which Lord Palmerston was determined 
 to let his views be known ' in the proper quarter,' no matter 
 what others of his Government at home might think of the 
 action which excited either his approval or his condemna- 
 tion. The incident occurred at Macao. The sun was high 
 and the weather beautiful at that port one summer day. 
 The town was crowded with natives and ' foreign devils,' 
 for a festa was to be honoured by a religious procession 
 through the streets, and a High Mass and impressive music 
 and ceremonies were to be seen and heard in the cathedral. 
 The bells were jingling and intoning their confused calls 
 from every steeple, and below the belfries the buildings of 
 the town, which covered the slope of the land down to the 
 water's edge, shadowed streets filled with holiday crowds. 
 At anchor in the port lay one of her Britannic Majesty's 
 frigates, commanded by Captain Keppel, the same gallant 
 officer who is now Sir Harry, Admiral of the Fleet. Soon 
 word was brought to Captain Keppel in his ship that during 
 the progress of the procession, which had been slowly making 
 its way over the steep roadways to the church above, accom- 
 panied by the priests with the holy wafer and the officials 
 of the place, including the Governor, there had happened 
 an unfortunate occurrence. 
 
 A young English clergyman from Shanghai or Canton, 
 or a mere passenger in some passing steamer, had happened 
 to be in the street when the array of priests, acolytes, pre- 
 lates, and officials, all decked out in sumptuous canonicals 
 or in uniforms, had walked past, and had failed to remove 
 his hat and to bow bareheaded as the sacred emblems went 
 by. He had been arrested, and it was feared he had been 
 put into the common gaol. Keppel had the same liking 
 that Palmerston had of expressing his opinion when any act
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 141 
 
 derogatory to the dignity of a ' Britisher ' had been perpe- 
 trated by a foreigner. So, after stamping once or twice up 
 and down his deck, he ordered one of his officers to go 
 forthwith and demand of the Governor an explanation of 
 their proceeding of the arrest of the English clergyman, and 
 to insinuate that he must be at once released. The lieu- 
 tenant went and returned with one of the Governor's staff, 
 who with much gesticulation assured Keppel that what had 
 been done could not be undone. The gallant captain said 
 that he could not parley with one of the Governor's officers, 
 for he, the gallant captain, was her Majesty's representative 
 while in command of her Majesty's war vessel at that port, 
 and that he must ask that the Governor himself should say 
 anything there was to be said. 
 
 So the subordinate returned, and his Excellency the 
 Governor himself was soon seen coming off from shore, and 
 was rowed alongside, looking very sulky, very pompous, but 
 in very fine uniform, his flag floating at a little flagstaff in the 
 stern of his boat, his men in tolerably good-looking white 
 dresses, and the whole party heated and embarrassed. As 
 soon as the deck of the British frigate was reached and 
 bows had been exchanged, the captain, who possessed, 
 as all the service knows, a pluck in a quantity contrary 
 to the number of his own inches, looked up at the tall and 
 slim foreign functionary, and asked, was it true he had im- 
 prisoned one of her Majesty's subjects ? The olive counte- 
 nance, with its dark moustache, much agitated, looked down 
 on the robust countenance and bushy eyebrows of the 
 British commander, and explained with much energy that 
 it was most unfortunate that disrespect had been shown not 
 only to the Host but to himself, the Governor, by the young 
 Englishman who had contravened the law. and that what
 
 142 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 had been done could not be helped, and much more to 
 the same purpose. Keppel's brows did not relax, as the 
 Governor may have expected they would, after such an 
 exercise of his eloquence. On the contrary, they made the 
 expression of the blue eyes much more trenchant, and the 
 words came forth as an order, 'That doesn't make the matter 
 a bit better the man must be at once set at liberty.' Then 
 did every one of the foreign party shrug his shoulders, as their 
 chief gave the example, and voluminous vociferations declared 
 the liberation impossible. Keppel was quite quiet, and when 
 a pause came in the ejaculations he took out his watch and 
 said, ' Now, sir, you will go ashore, and if in twenty minutes 
 after you land the man is not liberated, I land and I liberate 
 him myself.' There was no disobeying the first order, but 
 the second the Governor again repeated to be impossible of 
 fulfilment. The official's boat reached the town. Twenty 
 minutes passed. There was no sign. Keppel's marines 
 and blue-jackets were ready on his deck. They filled the 
 boats, which rowed ashore bristling with bayonets. 
 
 There was no opposition to their landing. The local 
 forces were evidently quite unprepared to offer any. The 
 men were formed on the quays, a guard left with the boats, 
 and with Keppel at the head of the little column, an advance 
 was instantly made through the streets to the gaol. There was 
 the greatest excitement among the people ; cries and crowd- 
 ing at every corner and along the narrow thoroughfares. 
 Presently the prison came into sight across a piazza. Here 
 all was consternation and fear. The gaoler's daughter was 
 hurried down the stairs with the keys, and handed them out 
 of a window to the nearest bluejacket, and her hurry and 
 fright were so great that as she leant out to hand the keys 
 she overbalanced herself, and fell into his arms, keys and all.
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 143 
 
 Then the door was unlocked and the young English aspirant 
 for martyrdom released, none the worse, and marched down 
 to the shore, and placed for safety on board. Again there 
 was no incident, but noise and excitement among the out- 
 raged Governor's subjects. But the affair of course got wind 
 at home, and it was equally of course that some of our 
 friends in the House of Commons, who cannot see a good 
 joke, made the cause of the Governor their own, and the 
 Admiralty of that day being not all composed of men like 
 Keppel, and perhaps being rather glad some of them to 
 have a fling at him as being of a different stamp to them- 
 selves, sent to him a formal letter of reprimand for the action 
 he had taken. Lord Palmerston knew perfectly well of this 
 letter of the Admiralty, and he was himself at the time the 
 Foreign Minister of Britain. He took good care that by 
 the same mail that took the Admiralty's reprimand, Keppel 
 should receive a formal letter from himself thanking Keppel 
 for the manner in which he had acted and supported the 
 consideration due to one of her Majesty's subjects in a 
 foreign town. Lord Palmerston had the pleasure years 
 afterwards of recommending the gallant officer for a good 
 post on shore. 
 
 A letter written to his brother William in January, 1850, 
 throws some light upon those peculiarities in Lord Palmer- 
 ston's mode of conducting the business of his office which 
 brought him into conflict with the Court and his leader : 
 
 'Our shooting has been but indifferent, owing to a bad 
 breeding season, following upon two previous years of the 
 same kind, together with a good poaching season at Rom 
 sey. But I have been able to get out three or four times 
 with the hounds, which always does me more good than 
 anything else. Our session will begin the last day of the
 
 144 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 month. We shall probably have a sharp fire from the 
 Protectionists at starting, but they can make no permanent 
 or material impression either on the House or the country, 
 and they are wholly unable to form a Government even if 
 the offer to do so could be made to them. How do you 
 get on with your demands on the Neapolitan Government for 
 compensation for the two merchants for losses during the civil 
 war ? We have given Admiral Parker instructions to go to 
 Athens when he leaves the seas of the Levant, and to back up 
 Wyse in enforcing certain demands which have been long 
 pending before the Greek Government for compensation for 
 British subjects for various wrongs at different times done 
 to them. Of course you will say nothing about this till you 
 hear that it has been done ; but when the account of 
 Parker's visit to Athens reaches Naples, you may as well con- 
 fidentially, and not in pursuance of instructions, but as the 
 result of your own good wishes to avert disagreeable events 
 from Naples, suggest to the Neapolitan Minister the possi- 
 bility that Parker might receive orders to pay a similar visit 
 to Naples for a like purpose ; and that it might be as well 
 for the Neapolitan Government to prevent this by doing 
 with a good grace that which in such a case they might find 
 it best policy to do, although with a bad grace and with 
 some derogation to the dignity of the King ; at all events, 
 I wish you would write me an official despatch reporting 
 what you have done in consequence of the instructions which 
 I sent you some months ago upon these matters.' 
 
 This letter illustrates a method often pursued by Lord 
 Palmerston himself, and often inculcated on his subordi- 
 nates, the method of speaking confidentially and unofficially 
 although the speaker may be an official. Strait doctrinal 
 officialism would say, ' You must, if in office, speak only in
 
 SUMMARY DISMISSAL FROM FOREIGN OFFICE 145 
 
 your public capacity ; if you say more or less in private than 
 you are warranted to say in public you betray in one way 
 or the other the trust reposed in you.' But Lord Palmer- 
 ston always maintained that much good might be done 
 by a Minister speaking sometimes as from himself, and not 
 publicly as though the mouthpiece of his Government. He 
 used to say it smoothed difficulties and poured oil into the 
 wheels of the machinery of diplomacy to do so, but expe- 
 rience in his case no less than others proved that whether it 
 helped diplomacy or no, it certainly produced friction with 
 his colleagues. 
 
 Two or three extracts from the ' Greville Memoirs ' illus- 
 trate some other peculiarities in Palmerston's methods : 
 
 ' Much talk with Beauvale, particularly about Palmerston ; 
 he told me an anecdote of him which shows the man and 
 how difficult he is to manage. During the Spanish dis- 
 cussions Beauvale was at Windsor, and one day when the 
 Prince was in his room the draft of a despatch from 
 Palmerston arrived to Tx>rd John Russell, which he wanted 
 to show to the Prince, and afterwards to submit to the 
 Queen for her sanction. . . . There was a paragraph in it 
 saying the succession of the Duchesse de Montpensier's 
 children would be inadmissible by the constitutional law 
 of Spain. Lord John said he thought this ought to be 
 expunged. . . .' [The Prince, Beauvale, and the Queen con- 
 curred. The paragraph was struck out.] The despatch ' was 
 returned so altered to Palmerston ; but when the despatch 
 was published, it was found that Palmerston had reinserted 
 the paragraph, and so it stood. What more may have passed 
 I know not, but it is clear that they all stood it, as they 
 always will.' 
 
 i.
 
 146 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Again, in 1849, Greville writes: 'Within the last few 
 days fresh difficulties have arisen with reference to Lord 
 Palmerston's conduct of foreign affairs, for he keeps the 
 Queen, his colleagues, his friends, and the party in con- 
 tinual hot water ; and on this occasion he seems to have 
 given serious offence to a foreign Power, insomuch that a 
 formal apology is said to be required of him. Yet Lord 
 John has made up his mind to fight through the session in 
 defence of a colleague whose proceedings give him per- 
 petual annoyance.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston was succeeded in the Foreign Office 
 by Lord Granville, and no better example of the way in 
 which Palmerston took a reverse can be found than Gre- 
 ville's account of his conduct towards his successor, Earl 
 Granville : 
 
 'Yesterday Granville was with Palmerston for three 
 hours. He received him with the greatest cordiality and 
 good-humour. " Ah, how are you, Granville ? Well, you 
 have got a very interesting office, but you will find it very 
 laborious ; seven or eight hours' work every day will be 
 necessary for the current business, besides the extraordinary 
 and parliamentary, and with less than that you will fall 
 into arrears ! " He then entered into a complete history of 
 our diplomacy, gave him every sort of information, and 
 even advice ; spoke of the Court without bitterness, and in 
 strong terms of the Queen's " sagacity," ended by desiring 
 Granville would apply to him when he pleased for any 
 information or assistance he could give him. This is very 
 creditable, and, whatever may come after it, very wise, 
 gentlemanlike, becoming, and dignified.'
 
 147 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON soon had his 'tit-for-tat with John 
 Russell.' In February, 1852, an amendment moved by him 
 to the Militia Bill was carried and Lord John Russell re- 
 signed. The Earl of Derby, 'the Rupert of debate/ then 
 formed his first Administration, in which Benjamin Disraeli 
 held office as Chancellor of the Exchequer. A dissolution 
 followed, and Lord Palmerston went to Tiverton to be 
 elected. He was unopposed, and his return on this occa- 
 sion was the fifth time he was elected member for Tiverton. 
 In the course of a long speech which he made to the 
 electors on the day of election he said he had been 
 threatened with opposition by a man of independent prin- 
 ciples. ' I presume the allusion is to principles wholly 
 independent of common sense, justice, and liberality. . . . 
 I remember to have heard that the Duchess of Gordon, 
 in the time of Mr. Pitt, was told by an elderly statesman 
 in regard to something that he himself had done unwisely, 
 "Really, madam, I feel I am growing an old woman,' 
 upon which the Duchess replied, " I am glad to hear that 
 that's all, for I really thought you were growing an old 
 man, and that's a much worse thing." Now I say that those 
 men who tell you that because you have had no invasion
 
 148 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 since the Norman Conquest, you never will have one, and 
 that you need not guard against it, are old men.' 
 
 The general election of the year 1852 did not give 
 Earl Derby a majority, and the production of Mr. Disraeli's 
 first budget led to his defeat. As a compromise between 
 Lord John Russell on the one hand and Palmerston on 
 the other, the Earl of Aberdeen was entrusted with 
 the duty of forming a Liberal Government, Palmerston 
 consenting to accept the Home Office and Gladstone the 
 Exchequer, Lord John Russell going to the Foreign Office. 
 Palmerston, in a letter to his brother-in-law, dated De- 
 cember 24, 1852, gives the reasons influencing his action. 
 'The state of the country in all its interests, foreign and 
 domestic, requires a Government as strong as there are 
 elements for making it ; and if my aid is thought by Lans- 
 downe and others likely to be useful, I ought not to let 
 personal feelings stand in the way.' A later sentence in the 
 same letter puts the matter still more clearly. ' I should, 
 if I had persisted in standing aloof, have been left in a 
 little agreeable political solitude.' Palmerston loved office, 
 and threw himself into his new duties with great spirit and 
 energy. 
 
 The following letter to his brother William, written 
 April 3, 1853, enables us to see him hard at work in his 
 new harness : 
 
 'Ever since the meeting of Parliament I have been 
 living as people do during a contested election, talked to 
 from morning to night, and with no time to do anything. 
 The mere routine business of the Home Office as far as that 
 consists in daily correspondence is very far lighter than that 
 of the Foreign Office ; but during a session of Parliament 
 the whole day of the Secretary of State, up to the time when
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 149 
 
 he must go to the House of Commons, is taken up by depu- 
 tations of all kinds, and interviews with M.P.'s and militia 
 colonels, &c. But, on the whole, it is a much easier office 
 than the Foreign ; and, in truth, I really would not on any 
 consideration undertake again an office so unceasingly 
 laborious every day of the year as that of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 ' I shall be able to do some good in the Home Office. 
 I am shutting up all the graveyards in London, a measure 
 authorised by an Act of last session, and absolutely required 
 for the preservation of the health of the town. There is a 
 company who are going to make two great tunnels under 
 London, fifty feet below the surface, one north, the other 
 south of the Thames, running nearly alongside the river, 
 beginning some way above the town and ending some way 
 below it. These tunnels are to be the receptacles into 
 which all the sewers of London and the drains are to be 
 discharged, so that nothing is to go into the Thames ; and 
 the contents of these tunnels are at the point of termination 
 to be dried and converted into manure, to be sold to agri- 
 culturists as home-made guano. I shall try to compel at 
 least the tall chimneys to burn their own smoke, and I 
 should like to put down beer-shops, and to let shopkeepers 
 sell beer like oil, or vinegar, or treacle, to be carried home 
 and drunk with wives and children. 
 
 ' Our session will be long but not dangerous. We shall 
 have to renew the Income Tax and the East India Charter. 
 There are other matters which will take time ; but I do not 
 see that another Government is at present possible. The 
 last Cabinet has been too much discredited to be put back 
 again ; and Derby, having failed in his experiment to make a 
 Cabinet out of men who knew nothing of the public business, 
 would scarcely like to make another trial with a new set
 
 I5O LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 equally ignorant and incapable. Besides, if we were beat by 
 mere numbers, there would be the resource of a dissolution, 
 to which I conclude we should have recourse rather than at 
 once give up our posts. We may have some difficulty next 
 year about Parliamentary Reform, but enough for the year are 
 the troubles thereof. As yet, nothing can be more harmonious 
 than our Coalition Cabinet. I daresay you may have heard 
 at Naples much about our harbouring conspiring refugees. 
 
 'The answer I make to those who complain of those 
 matters here is, that a handful of refugees in London 
 cannot arrange a revolution in a foreign country, and 
 send out the plan to be executed off-hand. They must, 
 in the first place, have associates and instruments many 
 thousands in number in the country to which the plan is to 
 be applied, because a revolution cannot be acted by a handful 
 of people. They must have much local knowledge to make 
 their arrangements, and this knowledge, bearing upon cir- 
 cumstances which vary from day to day, is not possessed by 
 men in London, and can only be furnished by men on the 
 spot. Therefore these London conspiracies can do nothing 
 without the co-operation of a great number of people in 
 the foreign country, with whom they must have long and 
 detailed communication either by letters or by messengers. 
 But what are the Governments of the foreign countries about 
 if they cannot, by their policy and their passport system, 
 find out the proceedings of the large mass of these conspi- 
 rators who are in their own country, and if they cannot in- 
 tercept the letters and discover and arrest the messengers ? 
 It is plain that the practical and real conspiracy is worked 
 out in the foreign country and not in England ; and these 
 foreign Governments try to throw upon us a blame which 
 really belongs to them and if arms and ammunition are
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 15! 
 
 sent or provided, it is the foreign Government that ought to 
 be able to find that out. . . . 
 
 'The country generally is highly prosperous, trade 
 flourishing, the revenue good, and the emigration having 
 gone just far enough to raise wages to a proper amount 
 without making labour inconveniently scarce. The Irish 
 emigration will, I hope, go on, and it would be a great 
 good thing if a larger number of the Catholic Celts would 
 go off to America, so that their place might be filled by 
 Protestant Anglo-Saxons. This is the kind of operation 
 that is going on. The priests are, of course, furious. Every 
 emigrant is so much out of their pocket. We have a plan 
 in prospect for a general system of drainage of the whole 
 of the valley of the Test, from Whitchurch to Red bridge. 
 I think it will be carried into execution, and if so it will 
 improve the climate as well as the soil. . . . \Ve had a tea- 
 party for the children of the Romsey School to celebrate 
 Miss Oliphant's successful exertions as schoolmistress for 
 fifty years.' 
 
 The 'difficulty next year about Parliamentary Reform' 
 came earlier, and came closer home than he anticipated ; 
 for in December, 1852, Lord Palmerston resigned his office 
 of Home Secretary, but on being told that the Government 
 proposals were not final re-entered the Cabinet after a few 
 days' absence. At the time of this crisis the Times said : ' Lord 
 Palmerston has not only proved himself as Home Secretary 
 a most efficient administrator, but he has given in a liberal 
 spirit the benefit of his advice "and judgment in the dis- 
 cussion of all the important questions of foreign policy 
 which the last twelve months have brought under the con- 
 sideration of Ministers.' 
 
 In this connection it may be of interest to glance for a
 
 152 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 moment at the objections felt by Lord Palmerston to the 
 Government scheme of reform. He has put them on record 
 with his accustomed clearness, and they form a good 
 standard by which to measure the distance we have since 
 travelled. To those who have lived through the Reform 
 Acts of 1867 and 1884 he appears to crane at very small 
 fences. His views are set forth at length in a memorandum 
 addressed to Lord John Russell, and in a letter to Lord 
 Landsdowne : 
 
 ' ... In considering the subject there are some reflec- 
 tions which naturally occur : Is it necessary to make any 
 changes in our representative system ? Does the country 
 demand such changes ? and what are the changes which, if 
 there be a demand for any, would meet that demand with 
 the least derangement of the existing balance of the Consti- 
 tution ? As to necessity, the real necessity for some changes 
 arises, not from any general demand for them by the 
 country at large, for everybody agrees that no such demand 
 exists. The necessity arises principally, if not solely, from 
 declarations made by you in the House of Commons in 
 former years, without any previous concert or agreement 
 with the other members of your Government. I say this 
 not as a reproach, but as an historical fact, not without 
 some bearing on the course which we have now to pursue, 
 because in proportion to the nature and greatness of the 
 necessity should be the nature and greatness of the 
 measure to be adopted. Still, there is in public opinion a 
 demand for reform, but the reform which most men call 
 for is not so much a general revision of our representative 
 organisation, as a remedy for those abuses of bribery and 
 corruption which were exposed by the proceedings of 
 Election Committees last session.
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 153 
 
 4 Your plan is as to distribution : 
 
 1 1. Disfranchisement of all places having less than 300 
 electors. 
 
 ' 2. Semi-disfrnnchisement of all under 500. 
 
 ' 3. Transfer of seventy seats thus created : half to 
 counties, half to learned bodies, three or four in number, 
 and to large towns. 
 
 '4. County franchise to be reduced from 5o/. and 
 occupation to 2o/. 
 
 1 5. Borough franchise to be reduced from io/. to (I did 
 not hear what). 
 
 ' 6. In places having more than two members each 
 elector to vote for two only. 
 
 ' 7. Freemen to be disfranchised. 
 
 ' Now the objection which strikes me as to the general 
 nature and effect of your plan is that it tends without neces- 
 sity to produce a great derangement in the existing balance 
 of legislative and political power as possessed by the several 
 classes of the community, and to take away a large portion 
 of such power from the aristocracy, the landowners, and the 
 gentry, and to give it over to the manufacturing, commercial, 
 and working classes. Such a transfer seems to me uncalled 
 for and unwise. The last-mentioned classes are strong 
 enough already in Parliament. They ought to be strong 
 and well represented, but their interests are so often sepa- 
 rable from the great interests of the country, that I should 
 be sorry to see them become, through a majority in the 
 House of Commons, paramount masters of the destinies of 
 the country, and the present state of things seems to give 
 them power enough for all purposes of good. These 
 remarks apply to the commercial and manufacturing classes. 
 The working men certainly have not much weight, except
 
 154 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 indirectly, but some of them are electors, and their interests 
 as a class are efficiently cared for by their employers, and by 
 the representatives of the places and counties where they 
 are found in any considerable numbers. Now what I should 
 say about your plan is as follows : 
 
 ' I agree to the disfranchisement of boroughs under 300. 
 We stand pledged to this by what passed during the progress 
 of the Reform Act. I dissent from the semi-disfranchise - 
 ment of places under 500. There was no pledge about 
 that. There is no necessity for it. It rests on no principle. 
 It would be a needless derangement of the existing state 
 of things. I think that the confiscated seats of the dis- 
 franchised small boroughs ought to be given entirely to 
 counties, to unsettle as little as possible the present balance 
 of power. The seats already confiscated by disfranchise- 
 ment for corruption would afford the means of giving 
 representation to the learned bodies, and the confiscated 
 seats of one large town could be justly transferred to 
 another large town. The town population is, I believe, 
 already over-represented as compared with the rural 
 population. 
 
 ' The county franchise might safely be reduced, but 3o/. 
 would be better than 2o/. I should be very unwilling, in 
 the present uncertain state of things as to what may in a few 
 years be the relative value of money and commodities, to 
 meddle with the borough franchise. If the vast additions 
 annually making to the quantity of the precious metals 
 should materially diminish their value as compared with 
 other things, a house now rated at 8/. may soon be rated at 
 io/., and such a change would of itself cause a considerable 
 extension of the franchise to those who do not now enjoy it. 
 Opinions are divided as to the probable effect of the gold
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 155 
 
 discoveries, hut certain it is that almost all prices have risen 
 during the last years in almost every country. Time only 
 will show whether this has been the consequence of per- 
 manent or of temporary and accidental causes. . . . 
 
 ' The scheme of giving electors only two votes for three 
 members deserves consideration . . . but there can be no 
 necessity for, or advantage in, giving additional members to 
 Manchester and such-like places in order to try the principle. 
 I threw out a suggestion at our last meeting that the con- 
 stituent body might be increased by letting into it classes of 
 men of education and intelligence, and possessed of property 
 not falling within the description which is now the qualifica- 
 tion for a vote. It might be difficult to invent a method of 
 easily ascertaining whether such persons were, at the time 
 of voting, still possessed of the property or income in right 
 of which they might claim to vote, but perhaps this might 
 be contrived, and such men, who must be numerous, would 
 be far better trustees for the nation than working men, 
 whom the late strikes have shown not to be, in many cases, 
 free agents, or masters of their own conduct, but to be the 
 instruments of leaders, who use the men for purposes not 
 those of the men themselves. . . .' 
 
 Lord Palmcrston wrote again on the same subject to 
 Lord I>ansdowne in December, 1853 : 
 
 ' I have had two conversations with Aberdeen on the 
 subject of Russell's proposed Bill, and I have said that 
 there are three points in it to which I cannot agree. These 
 points are : the extent of disfranchisement, the extent of 
 enfranchisement, and the addition of the municipal fran- 
 chise in boroughs to the io/. householders' franchise. My 
 opinion is that a disfranrhisement of twenty seats would be 
 amply sufficient, and that all the members so rut off from
 
 I$6 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 boroughs ought to be given to counties, or divisions of 
 counties, while those members who belonged to the 
 two boroughs already disfranchised for bribery might be 
 given to the Inns of Court, Stalybridge, and Burnley. I 
 object to a more extensive disfranchisement, and to that 
 addition of members to the Metropolitan boroughs and 
 great towns which would be the necessary result of such 
 more extensive disfranchisement. If hereafter any borough 
 should be disfranchised for bribery, it might be fair to 
 transfer their members to other large towns not now repre- 
 sented, but I cannot be a party to the extensive transfer of 
 representatives from one class to another which would be 
 the consequence of John Russell's plan. I cannot agree 
 to swamp the io/. householders by adding to them the 
 municipal voters, who would comprise all persons rated 
 even to one pound a year, if they could find, as they probably 
 would, some person willing to help them to pay their rates 
 for three years. We should have such an arrangement 
 increase the number of bribable electors, and overpower 
 intelligence and property by ignorance and poverty. 
 
 ' I have told Aberdeen that I am persuaded that the 
 measure as proposed by John Russell and Graham will not 
 pass through the two Houses of Parliament without material 
 modification, and that I do not choose to be a party to a 
 contest between the two Houses, or to an appeal to the 
 country for a measure which I decidedly disapprove, and that 
 I cannot enter into a career that would lead me into such 
 a position that, in short, I do not choose to be dragged 
 through the dirt by John Russell. I reminded Aberdeen 
 that on accepting his offer of office I had expressed apprehen- 
 sion both to him and to you that I might find myself differing 
 from my colleagues on the question of Parliamentary Reform.
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 157 
 
 I have thought a good deal on this matter, and should be 
 very sorry to give up my present office at this moment. I 
 have taken a great interest in it, and I have matters in hand 
 which I should much wish to bring to a conclusion. How- 
 ever, I think that the presence in the Cabinet of a person 
 holding the opinions which I entertain as to the principles on 
 which our foreign policy ought to be conducted is useful 
 in modifying the contrary system of policy, which, as I think 
 injuriously to the interest and dignity of the country, there 
 is a disposition in other quarters to pursue, but, notwith- 
 standing all this, I cannot consent to stand fonvard as one 
 of the authors and supporters of John Russell's sweeping 
 alterations.' 
 
 In a letter to Lord Aberdeen (1853) he puts forward the 
 same views : 
 
 1 There are sometimes occasions in public affairs when 
 the opinions and wishes of the great bulk of the nation are 
 strongly directed to some particular object, and on such 
 occasions it may be wise, and even necessary, for men in 
 public life to surrender their own opinion if contrary to the 
 public wish, and to yield in some degree at least to a 
 current which they are unable to stem. But the present 
 occasion is not one of that kind. The great mass of the 
 intelligent portion of the nation deprecate any material 
 change in the organic arrangements of the House of 
 Commons, though their wishes are strongly set upon some 
 measures which shall prevent the bribery and corruption 
 which have of late so flagrantly prevailed at elections. 
 Therefore, in regard to the organic changes which we may 
 propose, we shall justly be considered not as yielding up 
 our own opinions to a pressure from without, but as proposing 
 to Parliament changes of organisation which on calm con-
 
 158 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 sideration we think would be absolutely improvements 
 upon the present state of things.' 
 
 In February of the following year he again laid his views 
 before Lord Aberdeen : 
 
 ' I much wished yesterday to have taken the opinions of 
 the Cabinet on the two points of the proposed Reform Bill 
 in regard to which I circulated a memorandum some time 
 ago. I mean the proposed change in the borough franchise, 
 and the right of voting proposed to be given to anybody 
 who pays 40*. a year. That sum was, I think, agreed upon 
 without sufficient consideration. But that which I wish 
 principally to record my protest against is the proposed 
 change in the borough franchise. Its proposed extension to 
 householders rated at 6/. will admit, in all probability, about 
 a hundred and fifty thousand voters, or about a quarter of 
 the existing number. These people will be inferior to the 
 io/. in intelligence and independence. They will be com- 
 paratively poor, ignorant, and dependent. Their ignorance 
 will prevent them from exercising a sound judgment their 
 poverty will make them accessible to bribes their depen- 
 dence will make them victims of intimidation ; and thus 
 while with one hand you are disfranchising freemen because 
 they are venal, and while you are bringing in laws to check 
 bribery and corruption, you are with the other hand laying 
 the foundation for a continuance of those very abuses which 
 you profess to correct. Everybody who knows anything about 
 the working classes will tell you that they are not free agents. 
 The system of organisation which universally prevails among 
 them by means of the Trades Unions gives to their agitating 
 leaders an absolute despotism over the masses. This has 
 been abundantly proved by strikes. The strikers are com- 
 pelled to refuse to work at a certain rate of wages, on the
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 159 
 
 pretence that those wages are not enough to support them 
 with the present prices of things ; and yet other men at 
 work at those very rates are compelled to contribute a 
 portion of those wages towards the support of those who are 
 idle and earning nothing. These 61. voters will, on the one 
 hand, be coerced by their leaders to vote for Chartists and 
 ultra- Radical candidates ; and, on the other, will be urged 
 by their employers to vote for some other person. They 
 will be taken between the hammer and the anvil like the 
 Irish peasant, and will cry loudly for ballot as their only 
 protection or, where the struggle may not arise, they will 
 sell themselves to the highest bidder. Can it be expected that 
 men who murder their children to get gl. to be spent in 
 drink will not sell their vote for whatever they can get for it ? 
 'You may depend upon it that this lowering of the borough 
 franchise is particularly distasteful to the great body of our 
 friends and supporters, and is looked upon with great and 
 general disapprobation. I must be allowed to say that the 
 course which the Government is pursuing in these matters 
 is an error in statesmanship and is at variance with the plainest 
 principles of parliamentary tactics. Wise statesmen do not 
 make great and sweeping changes in the constitutional organi- 
 sation of their country without some adequate necessity. That 
 necessity may be created by the existence of practical evils 
 which urgently require correction, or by the strong and 
 general desire of the nation for some particular alteration. 
 Neither of these causes of necessity exists in the present 
 case. It will, indeed, be an interposition of that Turkish 
 providence which takes care of men because they cannot 
 take care of themselves if the Government does not sustain 
 some considerable defeat in the progress of these measures 
 through the two Houses of Parliament.'
 
 I6O LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 But while these deliberations were taking place incidents 
 had occurred which led to all thoughts of Reform being post- 
 poned for the time. Throughout the year 1853 the policy of 
 the British Cabinet was slowly but surely tending in the direc- 
 tion of war, either because the Prime Minister could not or 
 would not make up his mind as to the policy to be followed. 
 Meanwhile events moved rapidly, and on November 30 
 the Russian fleet annihilated the Turkish fleet at Sinope. 
 On December 10 Lord Palmerston addressed the following 
 memorandum to Lord Aberdeen : 
 
 ' . . . Will you allow me to repeat in writing what I have 
 more than once said verbally on the state of things between 
 Russia and Turkey ? It appears to me that we have two 
 objects in view the one, to put an end to the present war 
 between those two Powers ; the other, to prevent as far as 
 diplomatic arrangements can do so a recurrence of similar 
 differences, and through such differences renewed danger 
 to the peace of Europe. Now it seems plain that, unless 
 Turkey shall be laid prostrate at the feet of Russia by 
 disasters in war, an event which England and France could 
 not without dishonour permit, no peace can be concluded 
 between the contending parties unless the Emperor consents 
 to abandon his demands, to evacuate the Principalities, and 
 to renounce some of the embarrassing stipulations of former 
 treaties, upon which he has founded the pretensions which 
 have been the cause of existing difficulties. To bring the 
 Emperor to agree to this, it is necessary to bring to bear a 
 considerable pressure upon him, and the quarter in which 
 that pressure can at the present be most easily brought 
 to bear is the Black Sea and the countries which border 
 it. In the Black Sea, the combined English, French, 
 and Turkish Squadrons were indisputably superior to the
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR l6f 
 
 Russian fleet, and are able to give the law to that fleet. 
 What I would strongly recommend, therefore, is that which 
 I proposed some months ago to the Cabinet, namely, that 
 the Russian Government and the Russian admiral at 
 Sebastopol should be informed that, so long as Russian 
 troops occupy the Principalities or hold a position in any 
 other part of the Turkish territory, no Russian ship of war 
 can be allowed to show itself out of port in the Black Sea. 
 You will say that this would be an act of hostility towards 
 Russia, but so is the declaration already made that no Russian 
 ships of war shall be allowed to make any landing or attack on 
 any part of the Turkish territory. The only difference 
 between the two declarations is, that the one already made 
 is incomplete and insufficient for its purpose, and that the 
 other would be sufficient. With regard to the conditions of 
 peace, the only arrangement should be that the treaty to be 
 made between Russia and Turkey should be an ordinary 
 treaty of peace and friendship, and that all stipulations for 
 the Principalities, &c., should be contained in a treaty 
 between the Sultan and the five Powers.' 
 
 Then followed his temporary resignation of the Home 
 Office, and the Morning Post expresses views which were 
 doubtless very widely held at that time : 
 
 ' Lord Palmerston throughout has urged a straightforward 
 and honourable policy, and we have every reason to believe 
 that to neglect of his advice the disaster of Sinope is owing.' 
 This event was the first act of the war, begun by the invasion 
 of the harbour of Sinope by the Russian fleet, and the burn- 
 ing of the Turkish war-ships at that port. The Examiner 
 also wrote : 'When the public see the backward, lukewarm 
 policy of the Ministry with regard to the Turkish cause, 
 
 M
 
 l62 LORD PALMKRSTON 
 
 they fancy they perceive the reason why Lord Palmcrston 
 conceals the true motive of his resignation, and ascribes it 
 to his objection to the Reform project instead of to his 
 dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Eastern Question.' 
 
 The Duke of Argyll has put on record a very lively 
 sketch of both the views and the appearance of his famous 
 colleague at this trying time : 
 
 ' When the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen first began to feel 
 that war with Russia was not likely to be averted by negotia- 
 tions, they began also to consider with care how such a war 
 could be most advantageously conducted. The wildest sug- 
 gestions and the most passionate incitements abounded in the 
 country. We were urged to rouse the Poles to insurrection, 
 to subsidise the Circassians, and even to attack open and 
 undefended commercial cities. No such schemes could 
 commend themselves to responsible Ministers of any party 
 in the State. 
 
 ' But from a very early date our attention was fixed on 
 the Crimea, and the great naval station of Sebastopol as the 
 principal point of our attack. The arguments in favour 
 of this course were, indeed, obvious and unanswerable. 
 From Sebastopol came those Russian fleets and expeditions 
 which threatened Constantinople and the Bosphorus. On 
 the other hand, Sebastopol was the most accessible, and the 
 most exposed to our naval power. Nor was it less favour- 
 able as the best point of attack for our comparatively limited 
 military forces. If we could secure a safe base for our opera- 
 tions on the coast the utmost might be made of our resources 
 both by sea and land. Further, the defence of Sebastopol 
 would strain to the utmost the resources of Russia, from the 
 vast distances over which her troops must travel. Finally, the
 
 DRIFTING INTO WAR 163 
 
 main object of the war could be best attained by the destruc- 
 tion of the great naval arsenal which gave Russia the absolute 
 command of the Black Sea. 
 
 ' Immediately after the final decision had been taken, 
 I was walking one day down to a Cabinet, to be held 
 in Downing Street, from Carlton Terrace. At the foot 
 of the steps from the Duke of York's Column I overtook 
 Lord Palmerston, who at that time lived in Carlton Gardens. 
 Taking his arm and walking with him across the Parade, I 
 began a conversation on the prospects before us, and spoke 
 of the obvious seriousness of the task to which we were 
 committed. To my surprise he not only spoke with un- 
 hesitating conviction of the wisdom of the selection made (of 
 which I had no doubt), but with the most absolute confidence 
 of an easy and certain success. I was much struck with his 
 sanguine and optimistic tone. He said there was no reason 
 to doubt the issue that Sebastopol was so situated that 
 it could be practically invested that it was a maxim in 
 military science that places which could be invested must 
 ultimately fall that it was a mere question of time and of 
 endurance, &c., &c. 
 
 'His manner in saying all this was almost "jaunty," 
 the result, it seemed to me, of natural temperament 
 rather than of more reasoned conviction. I was much 
 struck with it at the time, and often looked back to it 
 afterwards in the midst of operations which strained 
 our resources to the very utmost. Confidence in general 
 maxims, such as those cited by Lord Palmerston, is never 
 quite justified, unless all the conditions which make them 
 applicable can with certainty be known. 1 did not feel 
 that this knowledge was altogether in our possession. In 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the final result he was right, but only after a triumph 
 over dangers and difficulties which he did not foresee. A 
 sanguine and confident temper was in the nature of the man. 
 He was then sixty-nine years old, and I was only thirty-one, 
 yet I could not help feeling that I was in some ways the 
 elder of the two.'
 
 i6 5 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THK FIRST TIME 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON had passed his seventieth year when 
 the Premiership came to him for the first time. On the fall 
 of the Coalition Government the Queen sent for Lord 
 Derby, and upon his failure for Lord John Russell. 
 Palmerston was willing at the express request of her 
 Majesty to serve once more under his old chief, but 
 Clarendon and many of the Whigs not unnaturally positively 
 refused to do so. Palmerston finally undertook and suc- 
 cessfully achieved the task of forming a Government out 
 of the somewhat heterogeneous elements at his command. 
 Lord Clarendon continued at the Foreign Office, and 
 Gladstone was still Chancellor of the Exchequer. The 
 War Department was reorganised, the office of Secretary at 
 War disappearing, and being finally merged in that of 
 Secretary of State for War. Although Palmerston objected 
 to Roebuck's Committee, he was practically compelled 
 to accept it, and this led to the resignation of Gladstone, 
 Graham, and Herbert ; their places being taken by Sir 
 G. C. Lewis, Sir Charles Wood, and Lord John Russell. 
 
 It looked at first as though Lord Palmerston's optimistic 
 views would be justified by facts. The allied troops of 
 England and France landed in the Crimea, September 14,
 
 166 LORD PALMEKSTON 
 
 - 1854. A few days afterwards the battle of the Alma was 
 won, and on October 3 the news of the fall of Sebastopol 
 arrived. But very speedily all this was changed. Sebastopol 
 had not fallen, but it rapidly became evident that the most 
 scandalous inefficiency characterised the administration of the 
 War Department. Sickness swept off more than the enemy. 
 Public indignation grew apace. Instantly upon the meeting 
 of Parliament, January 23, 1855, Mr. Roebuck gave notice 
 to move for a committee of inquiry upon the condition of 
 the army before Sebastopol, and the conduct of the Govern- 
 ment Departments. Lord John Russell, in one of the least 
 creditable acts of his public life, immediately resigned, thus 
 leaving his colleagues in the lurch. Roebuck's motion was 
 carried by 305 to 148, and on February 14, 1855, Lord 
 Aberdeen resigned. 
 
 Lord Palmerston wrote to the Emperor of the French, 
 February 1855 : 
 
 Appele par la Reine ma Souveraine au poste que main- 
 tenant j'occupe, je m'empresse de satisfaire au besoin que je 
 sens d'exprimer & Votre Majeste la grande satisfaction que 
 j'eprouve a me trouvcr en rapport plus direct avec le 
 gouvernement de Votre Majeste. L'alliance qui unit si 
 heureusement la France et 1'Angleterre, et qui promet des 
 re*sultats si avantageux pour toute 1'Europe, prend son origine 
 dans la loyaute, la franchise, et la sagacite" de Votre Majeste" ; 
 et Votre Majeste pourra toujours compter sur la loyaute' 
 et la franchise du Gouvernement Anglais. Et si Votre 
 Majeste avait jamais une communication a nous faire, sur 
 des ide"es non encore assez muries pour etre le sujet de 
 depeches officielles, je m'estimerais tres heureux en recevant 
 une telle communication de la part de Votre Majeste.
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 1 67 
 
 Nous aliens mettre tin peu d'ordre a notre camp devant 
 Sebastopol, et en cela nous tacherons d'imiter le bel ex- 
 cmplc qui nous est montre par le camp Franrais. A quel- 
 que chose, cependant, malheur est bon ; et le mauvais etat 
 de Farmee Anglaise adonneaux braves et genereux Franc,ais 
 1'ocrasion de prodiguer a. leurs frcres d'armes des soins qui 
 out excite la plus vivo reconnaissance tant en Angleterre 
 qu'a Balaclava. 
 
 J'ai riionneur d'etre, Sire, &c. 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 
 This letter shows Lord Palmerston's desire that the 
 Government should have informal communications as well 
 as official relations with the French monarch a principle 
 he always acted on, and one which, as we have already 
 noted, often occasioned anxiety among his friends and 
 colleagues. 
 
 His views upon the state of things at the seat of war 
 were very clear : --' With regard to the army abroad, it must 
 be obvious to anyone who has attended to the course of 
 events that a huge part of the sufferings and the sickness 
 of the army in the Crimea has arisen from causes which 
 might have been prevented by better arrangements and 
 greater activity and care on the part of the heads of the 
 staff. It has also been determined to establish a certain 
 number of hospital ships, capable of conveying 500 sick in 
 each, and that one of these ships shall every ten days leave 
 Balaclava and Scutari, bringing home its cargo of wounded 
 and sick, and that such ship shall immediately return to 
 Scutari or Balaclava loaded with hospital stores and other 
 things required for the men in the hospitals and the army. 
 It has also been determined thata Commission shall be sent
 
 l6S LORI) I'ALMERSTON 
 
 out to inquire into the Commissariat and Harbour arrange- 
 ments. We have made arrangements for procuring from 
 the small-arm manufacturers of the United States 100,000 
 Minie rifles.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston, in February, 1855, stated that he had 
 'received an important letter from the Emperor of the 
 French, in which the Emperor announces his intention of 
 going to the Crimea for the purpose of driving back the 
 Russians from Simpheropol, and then falling back to take 
 Sebastopol. He proposes to accomplish the first operation 
 with an army of 77,000 men French and Sardinians 
 leaving 66,000 English and French and Turks to maintain 
 the siege. The condition is that we should find the means 
 of transporting to the Crimea 10,000 French, 15,000 Sardi- 
 nians, and 3,000 horses ; but, whether the military operation 
 be deemed practicable or expedient or not, the Emperor's 
 personal visit to the Crimea seems wholly unnecessary for 
 its accomplishment, and might be attended with most 
 lamentable consequences.' 
 
 The Emperor was subsequently dissuaded with difficulty 
 from paying this visit to the seat of war. 
 
 On the death of the Emperor Nicholas Lord Palmerston 
 wrote : ' This may or may not produce important changes 
 in the state of affairs. It is probable that the Grand Duke 
 Hereditary will succeed quietly, notwithstanding the notion 
 that a doubt would be started whether he, as son of the 
 Grand Duke Nicholas, would not be superseded by his 
 younger brother, born son of the Czar. It is possible that 
 the new Emperor may revert to that peaceful policy which 
 he was understood to advocate in the beginning of these 
 transactions ; but he may feel bound to follow out the policy 
 of his father, and may be impelled by the headstrong am-
 
 PKIMK MINISTER l-'OU Till'. FIRST TLMK 169 
 
 liition of his brother Constantine. At all events, this change 
 at St. Petersburg should not for the present slacken the 
 proceedings and arrangements of the Allies. 
 
 Negotiations for peace had already been commenced, 
 but meanwhile the war was prosecuted with new vigour. 
 In March, 1855, the Prime Minister thus sketches his policy 
 in the Baltic : 
 
 ' It seems to be impossible to do more in the Baltic 
 than blockade the Russian ports and fleet, for which pur- 
 pose the twenty sail of the line and the five which the 
 Emperor will add to them appear to be sufficient, but not 
 more than sufficient, seeing that the Russians have twenty- 
 seven sail of the line in the Baltic, and that accidents might 
 happen in crossing to disable for a time some ships of the 
 allied fleets. The Russian fleet is all concentrated at 
 Cronstadt. There would consequently be no use in attack- 
 ing Revel or Sveaborg, which are both strongly fortified. 
 A successful attack would only knock down some stone 
 walls, which, as the places could not be occupied or kept, 
 would soon be rebuilt, and the attacking squadron would 
 necessarily sustain much damage. An unsuccessful attack 
 would of course be a disaster. Further, neither we nor the 
 French could well spare or transport to the Baltic troops 
 enough to accomplish any important operation. It seems, 
 therefore, to be good policy that England and France should 
 direct all their efforts to the Crimea, where the real battle 
 is to be fought, and that, till success is obtained there, it 
 would be unwise to weaken the exertions in that quarter by 
 attempting anything else important elsewhere. This reason- 
 ing, of course, docs not exclude operations in the Sea of 
 Azoff or along the coast of Circassia, if favourable oppor- 
 tunity present itself.
 
 170 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 A month later he criticises the Emperor Napoleon's plan 
 of campaign : 
 
 ' It seems to me that we should say to Lord Raglan that 
 he should enter into cordial concert and dispassionate con- 
 sultation with Canrobert on the subject of this plan, and 
 that our wish is that whatever may seem on full considera- 
 tion to be best should be undertaken ; that we are of 
 opinion with the Emperor that Sebastopol cannot be taken 
 until it is fully invested ; and that it cannot be fully invested 
 unless the Russian covering army is driven away from its 
 present position, from which it communicates with the 
 town. That for this purpose it seems advisable to divide 
 the aggregate force into three armies, as proposed by the 
 Emperor, of which one should maintain the siege, while 
 another moves forward to complete the investment ; the 
 third making a diversion, which would be a feint, to draw 
 off the Russians from their position near the town, or a 
 real attack on their rear, according to circumstances, and 
 especially according to the relative force of the army mak- 
 ing the diversion and the Russian force by which it might 
 be opposed. 
 
 ' The main question on which the generals would have 
 to deliberate would be the direction in which, and the point 
 from which, this diversion should be made. The Emperor 
 strongly recommends the Alashta as the starting point, and 
 Simpheropol or Batchisarai as the object. Another opinion 
 is that* Eupatoria would be the best basis of operations for 
 the army of diversion, and that from thence it should march 
 on Simpheropol, or take in the rear the Russian force to 
 the north of Sebastopol ; and that, advancing along the 
 line of coast, it should keep up its communications with a 
 squadron of the Allies which should accompany its march.
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 17 1 
 
 To this plan the Emperor states objections. These objec- 
 tions will of course be well weighed by the generals. A 
 third plan is that the third army of operation should not 
 be embarked and transported anywhere by sea, but should 
 march away from the general centres of operations at 
 Kamiesch and Balaclava, and get to Batchisarai by a road 
 leading to the eastward of McKenzie's Farm. We must 
 leave it to the generals on the spot to determine which of 
 these three plans affords the best prospect of success, and 
 is the most easily executed. Whichever plan, however, is 
 adopted, it ought to be put into execution as soon as the 
 whole of the reinforcements arrive, and the troops in- 
 tended for the two armies of operation are ready to take 
 the field.' 
 
 There was much discussion on these proposals, and 
 Lord Palmerston canvassed them in other letters in full, 
 insisting on as much concentration as possible, and arguing 
 in general in favour of only taking up a strong position to 
 the rear of the town, and maintaining the siege along the 
 southern lines we had occupied with our allies. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, meanwhile, watched with a steady 
 gaze the negotiations then going forward at Vienna for peace 
 with Russia, and French co-operation in this respect, and 
 consequent difficulties : 
 
 ' I do not see that Lord John, the English plenipotentiary 
 at the Conference, is in any degree bound to follow the ex- 
 ample of M. Drouyn de 1'Huys. Drouyn with his own hand 
 wrote down, after full deliberation with us, the conditions 
 which the two Governments were to make their ultimatum, 
 and the rejection of which by Russia was to be followed by 
 a formal breaking off of the Conference negotiations. But 
 no sooner were those conditions rejected by Russia than he
 
 172 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 hastily catches up a totally different plan proposed by Austria, 
 and pins his own Government and our plenipotentiary to 
 that different plan ; and now, because it is rejected by his 
 own Government, he breaks off his official relations with that 
 Government and drags our plenipotentiary after him. As 
 to Lord John's intention, all that one can say is that I 
 should think it was the first instance in which a plenipoten- 
 tiary, having undertaken a negotiation on instructions founded 
 on principles of which he approved, turned round upon his 
 Government, and after the plan which he had been instructed 
 to press had failed, should turn round upon his employers 
 and endeavour to force upon them a plan totally different 
 from that which he had undertaken to propose. Any ob- 
 jection Lord John urges applies with tenfold force to his 
 intention to resign (like M. Drouyn de 1'Huys), because his 
 resignation must necessarily be followed by a full parlia- 
 mentary discussion of the details and merits and demerits of 
 the plan upon the rejection of which he means to found his 
 resignation. This will drive us to argue against his plan, and 
 will compel us to commit ourselves on many points which 
 it would be better to let stand open.' 
 
 In April Lord Palmerston had already spoken of the 
 Austrian proposal adopted by M. Drouyn de 1'Huys, even 
 with his pretended modification, as 'only to be described 
 in the concise terms by which it was said that, instead of 
 making to cease the preponderance of Russia in the Black 
 Sea, it would perpetuate and legalise that preponderance, 
 and, instead of establishing a secure and permanent peace, 
 it would only establish a prospective case for war. M. 
 Drouyn would sanction a Russian fleet in the Black Sea 
 to any amount short by one ship of the number existing in 
 1853. Such an arrangement would, in my opinion, be
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 173 
 
 alike dangerous and dishonourable, and as to the accom- 
 panying alliance with Austria for the future defence of 
 Turkey, and for making war with Russia if she were to 
 raise her Black Sea fleet up to the amount of 1853, what 
 reason is there to believe that Austria, who shrinks from 
 war with Russia now that the army of Russia has been much 
 reduced by losses, now that her forces are divided and 
 occupied elsewhere than on the Austrian frontier, and now 
 that England and France are actually in the field with large 
 armies supported by great fleets what reason is there to 
 believe that this same Austria would be more ready to make 
 war four or five years hence, when the army of Russia shall 
 have repaired its losses, and shall be more concentrated to 
 attack Austria, when the Austrian army shall have been re- 
 duced to its peace establishment, and when the peace esta- 
 blishments of England and France, withdrawn within their 
 home stations, shall be less ready to co-operate with Austria 
 in war ? ' 
 
 Lord Palmcrston, no less than later Prime Ministers, 
 found the Times a source of trouble, and he did not hesitate 
 to express his views upon the conduct of that paper in very 
 plain terms : 
 
 ' Though the Times does and intends to do much 
 mischief, yet that mischief is often very temporary and 
 much limited. That paper often takes a line in hopes of 
 being followed by public opinion, but when it finds that 
 public opinion goes another way, it changes its course and 
 follows public opinion. What the managers aim at, above 
 all, is to get a great circulation for their paper, and that is 
 not to be obtained by running long against the feelings and 
 opinions of the mass of the nation. Thus it wa> that the 
 Time*) having begun by taking the pavt of Ku. i ->i.:, has now
 
 174 LORD PALMEUSTON 
 
 become one of the most insolent antagonists of Russia ; and 
 there have been many other instances of similar changes of 
 language as to men and things. I have had as much 
 reason as most people to complain of the Times, for from 
 the time when I first went to the Foreign Office, for some 
 reason or other which I never could discover, the Times 
 has been animated by undeviating hostility, personal and 
 political, towards me, and I have never known from whom 
 or from whence that hostility proceeded. Within the last 
 fortnight the Times has in some degree changed its tone, 
 with apologies for doing so, merely because the capture of 
 Sebastopol has turned public opinion strongly in favour of 
 the existing Government. But before long the paper will 
 probably revert more or less to its former course.' 
 
 Lord Palmerston was, of course, most intimately ac- 
 quainted with the policies of the various Courts with 
 regard to the peace negotiations, and also with the diplo- 
 matists entrusted with their execution. This renders his 
 letters at this time most valuable as a means of under- 
 standing the tricky and intricate manoeuvres which he 
 ultimately foiled. On October 9, 1855, he wrote to Lord 
 Clarendon : 
 
 ' It is of course to be foreseen that between this time and 
 the spring the Russian Government will make as vigorous 
 efforts to escape the further pressure and defeats which 
 another campaign is sure to bring on as they have made to 
 maintain themselves in Sebastopol, and it must be our busi- 
 ness to baffle them. With Nesselrode's two daughters, one 
 at Paris, the other at Brussels ; with Morny and all the 
 other Russian agents acting on the French Government ; 
 and with Vienna and Berlin co-operating we shall find 
 all our steadiness and skill required to avoid being drawn
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIMK 175 
 
 into a peace which would disappoint the just expectations 
 of the country, and leave unaccomplished the real objects 
 of the war. 
 
 ' I don't see any good that could result from our pro- 
 ceeding now to discuss with the French Government the 
 terms of peace ; if we want to discuss anything, let it rather 
 be the best way of carrying on the war. Whatever terms 
 of peace we might agree with the French Government to 
 demand, those terms would in a week be made known to 
 the Russian Government, and would be represented as 
 overtures coming from us. If, indeed, those terms were 
 sufficiently satisfactory to us, and if they were in conse- 
 quence rejected by Russia, no great harm would be done, 
 except that we should be attacked for insincerity in pretend- 
 ing to want peace while asking terms which, it would be 
 said, we knew Russia would not accept. The fact is, as you 
 said the other day, Russia has not yet been beat enough to 
 make peace possible at the present moment. 
 
 'With regard to the conditions sketched out by Walew- 
 ski, I should say that the first point requires more than 
 mere changes of detail. The guarantee of the five Powers 
 was a vicious principle, because whatever powers of inter- 
 ference that guarantee could confer on the five would be 
 practically exercised by Russia and Austria, and matters 
 would be worse instead of better. The only way of cutting 
 off the Austrian and Russian interference in the internal 
 affairs of the Principalities would be that which we have 
 pressed on the Porte viz. that the Sultan should give the 
 Principalities a good constitution, to be previously agreed to 
 by England and France. Walewski's plan of requiring Russia 
 to give up the Delta of the Danube, and to restore it to 
 Turkey, would be the most effectual ; but we must have
 
 176 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 brought some heavy pressure to bear upon Russia to make 
 her consent to this course. As to the third point, the idea 
 of proposing to Russia now that she should have in the Black 
 Sea four liners and four frigates, besides other smaller 
 vessels, is childish. We ought to insist on the neutrali- 
 sation plan, and if we get hold of the Crimea we ought well 
 to reflect before we give it back at all to Russia. The Turks 
 would be quite able to keep it, at all events till succour 
 should arrive, especially if Russia had no war-fleet on the 
 Black Sea. The way in which Walewski proposes to settle 
 the fourth point is certainly the best, and if the non-Mussul- 
 man population were put upon a footing of perfect equality 
 with the Mussulmans, foreign Powers might, all of them, 
 give up their respective rights, real or claimed, of protective 
 interference, retaining of course that which they could not 
 be deprived of, the right of diplomatic representation on 
 important matters in which their co-religionists were con- 
 cerned, such representation being no longer founded upon 
 any right of interference. 
 
 'As to money payments to be exacted from Russia, I 
 doubt the advisability of making such a demand. The 
 Russian Government would probably resist it, just as much 
 as it would the cession of any part of Russian territory, 
 which might have been wrested from Russia during war ; 
 and such a payment, while the burthen of it would fall on 
 the luckless nation and not on the offending government, 
 would have only a temporary effect in restraining Russia, 
 whereas the wresting from her permanently particular por- 
 tions of territory which are in her hands, sallying points 
 for attacks upon her neighbours, would lastingly diminish 
 her means and power of aggression. Such would be 
 the e fleet of taking the Crimea away from Russia while
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 177 
 
 the neutrality plan was established for the Black Sea. 
 Georgia and Circassia taken from Russia would he a better 
 security than a large money payment. If you leave in the 
 hands of Russia the advanced posts from whence she can 
 make invasions and attacks, even although you take money 
 from her, she will be sure, when she wants to do so, to find 
 money enough to make those posts available for her 
 purposes. If you take away from her those advanced posts, 
 no money can enable her to regain them except by war, 
 which the loss of them disables her from waging with the 
 same advantage. 
 
 ' Walewski's notions about Poland deserve to be borne 
 in mind, and it would be desirable to act upon them if a 
 fitting state of things should enable us to do so, but at 
 present we are not in a condition to make the demand ; 
 and he might be told that if he wishes to re-establish 
 any former condition of things in any part of Poland, 
 he must pave the way by a vigorous pressure upon Russia, 
 and by turning a deaf ear to the Russian agents and parti- 
 sans by whom he is and will continue to be surrounded 
 and beset. We know what are the terms of peace which 
 would accomplish the real objects of the war, but we have 
 not yet placed ourselves by successes in war in a condition 
 to entitle us to demand those conditions as the price of 
 peace.' 
 
 To Count Persigny, the French Ambassador in London, 
 he wrote in November, 1855 : 
 
 ' Mon cher Comte, Je vous ai ecrit bien fort de la hate, 
 et je pars a. 1'instant pour Windsor, mais je desire ajouter 
 deux mots a mon billet d'hier soir. D'apres notre Constitu- 
 tion et notre regime parlementaire le pouvoir executif ne 
 doit jamais faire une demarche aussi importante que celle dent
 
 178 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 il s'agit sans avoir des pieces officielles a produire au Parle- 
 ment, afin d'etre a meme d'expliquer clairement ce qui a 
 etc" propose' a 1'Angleterre, par quels motifs la proposition 
 a 6t& appuye"e, et quelles ont etc" les raisons qui ont con- 
 seille" son adoption. Mais jusqu'a present nous n'avons rien 
 de tout cela. II y a eu a Vienne une negotiation a laquelle 
 nous n'avons pas pris part ; on a signe du moins paragraphic" 
 un protocole pour nous, mais sans nous. On nous com- 
 munique confidentiellement ce protocole paragraph^, a 
 prendre ou a laisser, en nous disant qu'il faut ou le registrer ou 
 1'accepter imme'diatement, bon ou mauvais, sans en discuter 
 la redaction et les details. Cette maniere d'agir dans une 
 affaire tellement grave ne nous convient pas. Nous sou- 
 haitons nous conformer aux de*sirs de 1'Empereur, mais il 
 faut que nous soyons en regie vis-a-vis de notre Parlement, 
 et nous ne pouvons pas souscrire a une Proposition de Paix 
 a etre faite en notre nom a la Russie sans que nous soyons 
 entierement d'accord et sur la forme et sur la substance 
 d'une telle proposition. II est done indispensable que nous 
 ayons une proposition par cent, dont nous puissions bien 
 examiner la redaction, avant de pouvoir donner a 1'Autriche 
 1'autorisation qu'elle nous demande de parler a la Russie en 
 notre nom. Je dis parler en notre nom, parce que, malgre" 
 que 1'Autriche doit s'approprier la demarche qu'elle voudrait 
 faire a Pe"tersbourg, elle se propose de dire qu'elle sait 
 d'avance que sa proposition serait adoptee par la France et 
 1'Angleterre si elle venait d'etre acceptee par la Russie. La 
 nation anglaise serait enchanted d'une bonne paix qui 
 assurait les objets de la guerre, mais plutot que d'etre en- 
 trainee a signer une paix a des conditions insuffisantes elle 
 prefe"rerait continuer la guerre sans d'autres allies que la 
 Turquie, et elle se sent tout a fait en etat de soutenir le
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 179 
 
 fardeau et de se tirer ainsi d'affaire. Soumettez, je vous 
 prie, ces observations a Walcwski.' 
 
 In February, 1856, he wrote the following vigorous de- 
 scription of the state of Russia : 
 
 ' If it should turn out that the British Plenipotentiaries 
 should be left alone in the Conference, all the others siding 
 with Russia, that would be a very awkward state of things, 
 and would require serious consideration. But that does 
 not at present appear to be likely, and it is much more 
 probable that the Russians will give way. They will not, 
 perhaps, do so at once, but will suspend the conferences, 
 and say they must refer to St. Petersburg, and in the mean- 
 time will try the effect of intrigue, cajolery, and menace ; 
 but if the Allies are firm, being, as they are, clearly and 
 indisputably in the right, the opinion we have heard from 
 Russia will most probably be verified, and Russia will 
 and must give way. What they say varies according to 
 times, places, and persons. Russia is in great exhaustion. 
 She has not more than 400,000 men for her whole line 
 from Finland to Georgia fit to go into action, and her 
 supplies of all kinds are deficient. The limit placed on 
 the armistice is a screw put upon her, and if she does 
 not yield before the end of March, that epoch will most 
 likely bring her to terms. If not, the contemplated opera- 
 tions in the Crimea cannot fail to be successful. I saw 
 yesterday an intelligent person just returned from Paris. 
 He says that the Emperor is known to be firm in alliance 
 with us that the Ministers are Stock Exchange gamblers 
 the Orleanists and Legitimists the open partisans of Russia 
 that in society in Paris the Russians are made much of, and 
 the Austrians neglected that the bourgeoisie do not share
 
 1 83 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the peace-at-all-price feeling of the salons : they speak 
 openly of the corruption of those in power, and, though glad 
 to have peace, would not buy it by a sacrifice of national 
 honour that the army would prefer a continuance of the 
 war that men for the army are abundant, and large numbers 
 of soldiers whose term of service has expired have enlisted 
 again for a second period. His conclusion is that the 
 Emperor would find no difficulty anywhere but among some 
 of his own Ministers in going on with the war if peace can- 
 not be had on acceptable conditions.' 
 
 The month of March was occupied with negotiations 
 for the settlement of peace, Lord Clarendon being the 
 British representative at the Conference held in Paris. The 
 Emperor of the French being very anxious to conclude 
 peace, ' it was determined,' as Lord Palmerston said, ' to 
 inform Lord Clarendon by telegraph that his arrangements 
 were approved of, and that he might yield to the impatience 
 of the Emperor and the members of the Congress and 
 sign the treaty. It is proposed that the Tower and the 
 Park guns shall not be fired until Monday morning. Lord 
 Clarendon has also been told that the peace being made 
 to begin from the exchange of ratifications, which is the 
 simplest plan, the armistice should be formally prolonged 
 to a time sufficiently distant to cover the exchange of 
 ratifications, which may be expected to take place in 
 about three weeks. . . . We must congratulate ourselves 
 upon an arrangement which effects a settlement that is 
 satisfactory for the present, and which will probably last 
 for many years to come, of questions full of danger to 
 the best interests of Europe. Greater and more brilliant 
 successes by land and sea might probably have been 
 accomplished by the Allies if the war had continued, but
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME l8l 
 
 any great and important additional security against future 
 aggression by Russia could only have been obtained by 
 severing from Russia large portions of her frontier territory, 
 such as Finland, Poland, and Georgia ; and although by 
 great military and financial efforts and sacrifices those terri- 
 tories might for a time have been occupied, Russia must 
 have been reduced to the lowest state of internal distress 
 before her Emperor would have been brought to put his 
 name to a treaty of peace finally surrendering his sovereignty 
 over those extensive countries ; and to have continued the 
 war long enough for those purposes would have required 
 greater endurance than was possessed by our Allies, and 
 might possibly have exhausted the goodwill of our own 
 people.' 
 
 The Treaty of Paris was signed on March 30, 1856, and 
 thus came to an end a war which cost England 25,000 lives 
 and which added 5o,ooo,ooo/. to the National Debt. How 
 little it accomplished in the way of putting any permanent 
 check upon Russian aggression the events of the last fifteen 
 years very clearly show. 
 
 In the usual shower of rewards and decorations that 
 follow a war, Lord Palmerston's share was the Garter. 
 Upon its receipt in April, 1856, he wrote the following letter 
 to the Queen : 
 
 ' Viscount Palmerston is unable to express in words the 
 gratification and thankfulness which he feels upon the 
 receipt of your Majesty's most gracious and unexpected 
 communication. The utmost of his ambition has been, so 
 to perform the duties of the high position in which your 
 Majesty has been pleased to place him, as to prove himself 
 not unworthy of the confidence with which your Majesty 
 has honoured him ; and the knowledge that your Majesty
 
 1 82 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 has found no reason to be dissatisfied with your choice, 
 and that his endeavours properly to discharge his duties to 
 your Majesty and the country have met with your Majesty's 
 approval, would of itself be an ample reward for any labour 
 or anxiety with which the performance of those duties may 
 have been attended ; and therefore the gracious commu- 
 nication which he has this morning received from your 
 Majesty will be preserved by him as in his eyes still more 
 valuable even than the high honour which it announces 
 your Majesty's intention to confer on him. That high and 
 distinguished honour Viscount Palmerston will receive with 
 the greatest pride, as a public mark of your Majesty's gra- 
 cious approbation, and he begs to be allowed to say that the 
 task which he and his colleagues have had to perform has 
 been rendered comparatively easy by the enlightened views 
 which your Majesty has taken of all the great affairs in 
 which your Majesty's empire has been engaged, and by 
 the firm and steady support which in all these important 
 transactions your Majesty's servants have received from the 
 Crown.' 
 
 Early in 1857, in consequence of the high-handed policy 
 pursued by Lord Palmerston towards China in what was 
 known as ' the affair of the lorcha " Arrow," ' Cobden moved 
 what was practically a vote of censure. This was carried 
 by a majority of sixteen votes. Palmerston at once dis- 
 solved Parliament, and in the ensuing General Election 
 scored a great triumph. John Bright, Milner Gibson, and 
 Cobden all lost their seats. 
 
 ' The results of the General Election,' Palmerston wrote 
 in April, 1857, 'have in the aggregate been most satis- 
 factory. Many objectionable members of the last House 
 of Commons have been thrown out, and though a few
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 183 
 
 men who have been now elected would have been better 
 away, yet on the whole the composition of the new members 
 is good, and there are in the present House of Commons 
 more gentlemen and more men of character than has 
 usually been the case.' 
 
 In June, 1857, the news of the Indian Mutiny reached 
 England. Sir Colin Campbell instantly started to take chief 
 command, and strong bodies of troops were hurried to that 
 distant part of the world. Into the details of that famous 
 story we have no space to enter. We can but give two or 
 three characteristic extracts from the Prime Minister's cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 On a proposal to enlist foreign troops for India, Lord 
 Palmerston wrote : ' I am strongly of opinion that we 
 ought to win this innings against the Sepoys off our own 
 bat. We all know how much the reputation and standing 
 of Austria suffered by the necessity in which she found 
 herself of asking or of receiving assistance from Russia to 
 put down her revolted subjects in Hungary ; and a Power 
 which cannot maintain order within its own territories by 
 its own means, may regain its territories by foreign aid, 
 but inevitably sinks in public estimation. As regards the 
 struggle in which we are now engaged in India, my view 
 is not gloomy. I feel perfectly confident that we shall by 
 our own means re-establish our authority in India, and 
 there cannot surely be a doubt that we shall stand far higher 
 as a nation by doing so than if we were to have recourse to 
 the help of foreigners to bring us through. I send you a 
 note showing that, whilst people said we should get 100 
 or at most 200 recruits a week in August, we have in that 
 month raised 2,500 recruits, and I doubt not that in this 
 and in the other months from this time to June and July
 
 1 84 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 next our success will be much greater. No doubt we shall 
 lose many men by climate and disease, but not so many as 
 some people expect. We are not going to enter into a great 
 campaign against a regular army in the field ; our troops 
 will have to hunt down and exterminate bands of mutineers 
 without magazines, resources, commanders, head-quarters, 
 or any of those foundations on which armies are built, and 
 our Government in India will be able to supply them with 
 means and assistance of all kinds to render movement as 
 little fatiguing as possible, and climate as little injurious as 
 may be. The cool season is coming on, and the chief opera- 
 tions will be in the northern part of India, where the climate 
 is more favourable than in the south to European constitu- 
 tions.' 
 
 This was a cheery note sounded in a dark time of depres- 
 sion ! 
 
 Again, a little later : ' Delhi cannot be taken till rein- 
 forcements shall have reached the army before that place ; 
 and General Havelock with an inadequate force, having to 
 choose between relieving Agra or Lucknow, or punishing 
 Nana Sahib, must have left two of those objects unaccom- 
 plished. But when Delhi shall have been taken the cha- 
 racter of the operations will change, for the mutineers, 
 without a base of operations, and without stores and money, 
 will be unable to continue a contest in the field, and those 
 who may shut themselves up in fortified places will only 
 render their capture and punishment the more certain. 
 Scattered bands of marauders may prowl about the country, 
 but they must live by plunder, and the people whom they 
 rob will take part against them. Our chief difficulty will be 
 to get from place to place in pursuit of these bands, and to 
 rat;h them and bring them to justice.'
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 185 
 
 The following letter shows that the sanguine spirit of 
 Lord Palmerston stood high as ever : 
 
 ' I am sorry to have received an account of the extension 
 of the mutiny among the native troops in India. But I 
 have no fear of its results. The bulk of the European force 
 is stationed on the north-west frontier, and is therefore 
 within comparatively easy reach of Delhi, and about five or 
 six thousand European troops will have returned to Bombay 
 from Persia. It does, however, seem to be advisable to 
 send off at once the force, amounting to nearly 8,000 men, 
 now under orders for embarkation for India, and when the 
 despatches arrive, about the middle of next week, it will be 
 seen whether any further reinforcements will be required. 
 The extent of the mutiny seems to indicate some deeper 
 cause than that which was ascribed to the first insubordina- 
 tion. The cause may be, as some allege, the apprehension 
 of the Hindoo priests that their religion is in danger by the 
 progress of civilisation in India, or it may be some hostile 
 foreign agency.' 
 
 The direct result of the Indian Mutiny was the reorgani- 
 sation of the whole system of government in that part of 
 the world. It was evident to all that the days of ' John 
 Company ' were numbered ; it was not quite so clear what 
 form of control could best take its place. Lord Palmerston, 
 in October, 1857, placed upon record his idea of the best 
 form the Imperial Government of India may take : 
 
 ' It is my strong personal opinion that the present 
 double government of India ought not to continue, and it 
 is my belief that the nation at large is prepared for a change. 
 We should introduce a measure for the abolition of the 
 Board of Control, the Court of Directors, and the Court of 
 Proprietors, and appoint a Secretary of State for India, to
 
 1 86 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 be assisted by one or two under-secretaries, who should 
 be capable of sitting in either House of Parliament, and 
 should be political officers changing with the Government, 
 and they should be assisted by a Council of non-political 
 men, possibly four in number, who should not sit in Parlia- 
 ment, and should not change with changes of Government, 
 but should be in the position of the Permanent Under- 
 secretaries of the four Secretaries of State, with the con- 
 dition that no one should be appointed who has not served 
 in India in a civil or military capacity. There will, of 
 course, be much opposition on the part of all persons con- 
 nected with the India Company, and the Opposition in 
 Parliament might take up their cause, and the matter, 
 therefore, will require to be well weighed.' 
 
 A Bill embodying this policy was brought before the 
 House of Commons in February, 1858 ; it was carried by the 
 unexpectedly large majority of one hundred and forty-five. 
 
 Lord Palmerston at this juncture seemed to stand in a 
 sure place. He was at the head of a Government supported 
 by a large majority, and he was himself at the very height 
 of his personal popularity ; and yet in a few days he was 
 suddenly hurled from power. 
 
 On January 14, 1858, an attempt was made to assassi- 
 nate Napoleon III. by a gang of desperadoes, headed by 
 Orsini, whose head-quarters had previously been in London. 
 Not without some reason it was felt in France that such men 
 ought not to be able to find shelter in this country, and the 
 French Minister was ordered to make representations to that 
 effect. Lord Palmerston, always anxious to cultivate the 
 good feeling of the French nation, desired to pass a measure 
 which should give to the British Government the power to 
 banish from England any foreigner conspiring in Britain
 
 I'KIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 187 
 
 against the life of a foreign sovereign, designing thereby to 
 meet the wishes of the Emperor of the French, who had 
 been deeply moved by the attempts on his life made by 
 Orsini and others. An unfortunate outburst of vituperation 
 against England in the French press, and the repetition of 
 such language by officers of the French army who were 
 received by the Emperor when they waited on him as a de- 
 putation, aroused very angry English feeling. Lord Palmer- 
 ston had already introduced the Bill he desired to pass, and 
 it had been read the first time by a majority of two hundred. 
 But the foolish action of the French papers changed 
 entirely the current of popular opinion. Lord Derby saw his 
 advantage. An amendment to the second reading, which was 
 practically a vote of censure, was carried against Lord Palmer- 
 ston, and to his own surprise no less than to that of the 
 country, he was obliged to resign. Lord Derby succeeded 
 to Palmerstorvs vacant office, and after a quiet summer the 
 ex-Premier visited Napoleon atCompiegne, and enjoyed the 
 stag-hunting and the other sports at that charming country 
 place, and said of his hosts : 'They were all very civil and 
 courteous, and one evening, while a dance was going on, the 
 Emperor walked up and down with me in a neighbouring 
 room, and told me of his ideas in reference to an improve- 
 ment he wished to carry out in the French franchise. He 
 desired that, instead of universal suffrage, the right of voting 
 should only be permitted to married men. Men who are not 
 married, he said, do not have the same sentiments in regard 
 to their country as do those who are married, and they have 
 a greater stake in the welfare of their country. Moreover, 
 such a limitation of voting power to married men would 
 exclude the soldiers and also the priests, and those classes 
 ought to be excluded. I answered that I thought that pro-
 
 1 88 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 perty of some kind ought to be the real basis for the suf- 
 frage, and while many bachelors would always be possessed 
 of property, married men might have no property.' 
 
 Lord Derby's second Ministry was wrecked upon the 
 fatal rock of Reform early in 1859, and at once appealed to 
 the country. At Tiverton, Lord Palmerston was again re- 
 turned without opposition. As no specimen of his hustings 
 manner has been given in these pages, a little of the oft- 
 repeated ' chaff ' that was exchanged between him and a 
 Radical butcher of that place may be quoted. Rowcliffe, for 
 this was the man's name, was always present at the open-air 
 speaking at Tiverton to give Lord Palmerston a ' bit of his 
 mind,' but the old Minister always got the best of the en- 
 counter. Rowcliffe this time declared Lord Palmerston was 
 a downright Tory, and the best representative the Tories 
 could possibly have. He hoped his lordship would answer 
 his questions in an honest manner. Lord Palmerston said 
 ' he was delighted to find that his old friend, however far 
 advanced in years, retained that youthful vigour which he 
 possessed when first he knew him, and with his vigour he had 
 retained also his prejudices and opinions. (Laughter and a 
 cry of " No chaff.") His friend asked for a straightforward 
 answer, and he would give him one. He totally disagreed 
 with him in almost all his opinions. (Laughter.) Rethought 
 the day would never come when he and Mr. Rowcliffe would 
 agree in political faith. (Much laughter.) His friend asked 
 him what he thought on many points. In the first place he 
 would say he was opposed to the ballot. He was against 
 manhood suffrage. (Rowcliffe: " How far will you go with the 
 suffrage ? ") He would give a straightforward answer to that. 
 He would not tell him. (Laughter.) He held it was his 
 duty after the confidence they had reposed in him to act ac-
 
 PRIME MINISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME 1 89 
 
 cording to his judgment in any measure relating to Reform. 
 (Cheers.) He hoped that the political difference between his 
 friend and himself would not alter their private friendship. 
 (Much laughter.) He was sorry to disagree with his friend, 
 but no man could agree with everybody. The man who 
 did agree with everybody was not worth having anybody to 
 agree with him. (Cheers and laughter.)'
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 
 
 THE election of 1859 failed to give the Conservatives a 
 majority, and soon after the opening of the session they were 
 defeated upon a vote of want of confidence moved by Lord 
 Hartington. Earl Granville was commissioned by the 
 Queen to form a Ministry, because her Majesty felt that 
 ' to make so marked a distinction as is implied in the choice 
 of one or other as Prime Minister of two statesmen so 
 full of years and honour as Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
 Russell would be a very invidious and unwelcome task.' 
 Each of these veterans was willing to serve under the other, 
 but neither would follow the lead of a third. And so 
 Granville failed, and to Palmerston was entrusted the task. 
 He succeeded in forming what was considered the strongest 
 Ministry of modern times; so far as the individual ability of 
 its members was concerned. Russell went to the Foreign 
 Office and Gladstone to the Exchequer. Thus, at the age 
 of seventy-five, Lord Palmerston once again assumed the 
 burden of government and the leadership of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 During these political changes at home, the memorable 
 battles of Magenta and Solferino had been fought in Northern 
 Italy, and early in July France concluded a provisional treaty
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 191 
 
 with Austria. These events had an all-powerful influence 
 upon Italian politics, and were matters at this time of daily 
 concern to Lord Palmerston. As heretofore, we give his 
 views in his own words. 
 
 In June, 1859, Lord Palmerston wrote : 
 'The future condition of political existence to be en- 
 joyed by the Lombards and Venetians, and by the Italians 
 generally, ought to be determined by the natives themselves. 
 In what manner the national will should in each case be 
 ascertained will be a matter for future consideration. The 
 fancied interests of other States out of and beyond the 
 Italian Peninsula ought not to control the Italian will. But 
 what are the interests of England in this matter, and how 
 ought our wishes and moral influence to be directed ? It 
 is surely for the interests of England that there should be 
 created in Northern Italy a State as independent as possible 
 of foreign dictation, and as likely as possible to consult its 
 own interests, which would lie in commerce and peace. 
 But the weaker a State is, the more dependent it is on its 
 neighbours ; the stronger it is, the more able it is to have a 
 policy of its own. It seems, then, to be for our interest that 
 there should be in Northern Italy a State as considerable, 
 and therefore as strong, as circumstances will permit ; and 
 such a State must be built up on the present kingdom of 
 Sardinia. 
 
 4 1 can see no danger to English interests in the annexa- 
 tion of Venice to such a State ; on the contrary, a State 
 possessing Genoa and Venice would of necessity make 
 commerce its vital principle, and having two seaports, both 
 of which might, in case of war with England, be blockaded 
 by British squadrons, such a State would have a double in- 
 ducement against a rupture with England. How far south
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 the new Sardinian territory should go must depend upon 
 events, but I think it is probable that Parma and Modena 
 at all events would be included, and possibly Tuscany. I 
 have doubts as to the opinion expressed that no English 
 Minister ought to sign a treaty of peace that does not 
 provide efficient reforms for the States of the Church. It 
 is most desirable that such reforms should be made, but the 
 making of them might probably be left to the Italians 
 themselves, if all foreign interference were withdrawn.' 
 
 France, apparently without any real desire for it, proposed 
 British mediation between France and Austria in July, 1859, 
 and upon this proposal Lord Palmerston expressed himself 
 as under : 
 
 'Neutrality between belligerents means, in its proper 
 sense, abstinence from giving to either party assistance in 
 carrying on the war, but it does not preclude good offices or 
 mediation with a view to the restoration of peace, and, in 
 fact, it is only a neutral Power that can advantageously 
 perform those functions. But a mediator, to be useful, 
 must not merely be content with transmitting from one 
 party to the other propositions and answers, but should 
 accompany those communications with such opinions, re- 
 commendations, and advice as may conduce to an amicable 
 arrangement according to the best judgment which the 
 mediatory Power may form. There is, therefore, nothing 
 in our position of neutrality which should prevent advice 
 being given, either to the Allies or to Austria, to accept any 
 proposals which the British Government might at the 
 request of the one party transmit to the other ; and if it be 
 thought, as seems pretty clear, that a continuation of the war 
 would lead to a state of things in which Austria would not get 
 conditions of peace as little disadvantageous as those which
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 193 
 
 have now been offered, it would be a friendly office towards 
 Austria, and in no degree whatever inconsistent with the 
 character of neutrality, to advise Austria to accept those 
 conditions. 
 
 ' But, moreover, it seems generally admitted that to the 
 treaty of peace which is to conclude this war, and to 
 the arrangements of that treaty, Great Britain with other 
 Powers, not parties to the war, ought to be parties. But 
 Great Britain cannot be party to a treaty simply to register 
 arrangements made by other Powers. If Great Britain 
 is to be a party to a treaty, the British Crown and Govern- 
 ment must be a party to the negotiations by which that 
 treaty is to be settled, and must approve of the arrangements 
 which such treaty is to sanction ; and it is therefore perfectly 
 in accordance with the double character in which we stand, 
 as neutral in the war and of future party to the treaty of 
 peace, that we should express an opinion as to any proposals 
 tending to establish a basis on which negotiations for peace 
 should be founded ; and the more especially when invited 
 by the proposing party to do so. The present position, 
 however, of the belligerents, I admit, does not encourage 
 expectation of an immediate arrangement. The Emperor 
 of the French cannot depart from his declaration that Italy 
 must be free to the Adriatic, and, on the other hand, the 
 Emperor of Austria may find it difficult to abandon a strong 
 position taken up by an unbroken though defeated army, to 
 evacuate fortresses not yet attacked, and to relinquish a 
 province of which he still holds possession ; and he may 
 think that the erection of that province into an independent 
 separate State, even under a member of his family, would 
 not be sufficient satisfaction. To overcome his reluctance 
 by setting before him the probable results of continued
 
 IQ4 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 hostilities would be a friendly office, and may not be alto- 
 gether a hopeless one. It may be mortifying to Austria to 
 make willingly the concessions required of her, but would 
 it be more for her advantage to sustain further defeats and 
 larger military losses, and to have her inability successfully 
 to resist her antagonists shown to the utmost extent ? . . . 
 If Austria were to consent to the conditions now offered her, 
 she might retain that connection with Venetia which the 
 placing an Austrian Archduke as its ruler would give.' 
 
 In August, 1859, he wrote : ' We should incur a heavy 
 responsibility, from which we should be unable to relieve 
 ourselves, if force should be used to coerce the people of 
 Italian States to take back their former dynasties, and it 
 could be alleged that the British Government, foreseeing 
 that such employment of force was possible, had not em- 
 ployed the moral influence of Great Britain to prevent it by 
 a timely remonstrance and protest. The real question at 
 issue is, whether a nation belongs to its ruler, or whether the 
 ruler belongs to the nation ? The first position is maintained 
 by the despotic sovereigns of Europe, and was the doctrine 
 of the House of Stuart and their adherents ; the latter posi- 
 tion the foundation on which the Houses of Great Britain, 
 of France, and of Belgium rest. And with regard to any 
 reversionary rights which Austria may claim upon those 
 duchies, if it be admitted that the people of those States are 
 entitled to set aside the existing dynasties on account of 
 their participation with Austria in hostilities against Italian 
 freedom, they must surely be equally entitled to set aside 
 the contingent and reversionary rights of Austria herself. 
 When the British nation declared the abdication of James 
 II., and called William III. to the throne, they set aside not 
 only the existing rights of James, but also the contingent
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 195 
 
 and reversionary rights of any persons who might claim 
 through him. It seems very difficult to foretell how the 
 Italian complication will be cleared up, but the hasty and 
 vaguely worded agreements of Villafranca appear to contain 
 the seeds of much difficulty and conflict of opinion' sound 
 doctrine, not quite recognised by many in England at that 
 time, when they wished to back the pouvoir legit im? of the 
 Austrian Archdukes in Parma, Tuscany, and Modena. 
 
 He again writes a little later: 'The intervention [in 
 Italian affairs] which all parties agreed that their country 
 ought to abstain from, was active interference by force of 
 arms in the war then going on [between France and 
 Austria], but neither of the great political parties meant or 
 asserted that this country should not interfere by its advice 
 and opinions in regard to the matters to which the war re- 
 lated. Neither I nor any of those who acted with me ever con- 
 templated giving any other meaning to the doctrine of non- 
 intervention, and that such a meaning was never attached 
 to it by the Conservative leaders while they were in office 
 is proved from one end of the recently published Blue Book 
 to the other. The whole course of the Derby Government 
 in regard to the matters on which the war turned was one 
 uninterrupted series of interventions by advice, by opinions, 
 and by censure, now addressed to one party, now to another. 
 Whatever may be thought of the judgment shown by them, 
 or of the bias by which they were guided, the principle on 
 which they acted was undoubtedly right and proper. 
 England is one of the greatest Powers of the world. No 
 event or series of events bearing on the balance of power 
 or on possibilities of peace or war, can be matters of indif- 
 ference to her, and her right to have and to express opinions 
 on matters thus bearing on her interests is unquestionable ;
 
 196 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 and she is equally entitled to give upon such matters any 
 advice which she may think useful, or to suggest any 
 arrangements which she may deem conducive to the general 
 good. There is no doubt that the Conservative party since 
 they have ceased to be responsible for the conduct of affairs 
 have held a different doctrine, and in their anxiety lest the 
 influence of England should be exerted for the benefit of 
 Italy, and to the disadvantage of Austria, have contended 
 that any participation by Great Britain in the negotiations 
 for the settlement of Italy would be a departure from the 
 principle of non-intervention, but their own practice while 
 in office refutes their newly adopted doctrine in opposition ; 
 and if that doctrine were to be admitted, Great Britain 
 would by her own act reduce herself to the rank of a third- 
 class European State.' 
 
 In December, 1859, he remarks : ' I have argued, and I 
 think conclusively, that the principle once admitted that no 
 force shall be used to coerce the people of Central Italy, the 
 measure of annexation to Piedmont ought to follow as a 
 necessary consequence, provided that the people of Central 
 Italy continue to desire that union, for it would be a mere 
 play upon words to say that no compulsion shall be put upon 
 the people of Central Italy directly, but that indirectly and 
 through the Sardinian Government threatened with force, 
 compulsion shall be put upon them to prevent them from 
 obtaining what they desire to have. The policy which we are 
 urging in regard to Italy is precisely the same in principle as 
 that which I laboriously, perseveringly, and successfully acted 
 upon throughout the long negotiations upon the affairs ot 
 Belgium. There was then in this country a Dutch party, as 
 there is now an Austrian party, desirous of compelling a people 
 to submit again to a domination which had been irksome,
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 197 
 
 and which they had shaken off. But there is this difference 
 between the two cases, that the Dutch party was numerous, 
 whereas we may depend upon it the Austrian party, as 
 regards the re-subjection of Italy to the Austrian yoke, is 
 extremely small, and in no respect represents the public 
 feeling of this country. I have said that Piedmont even 
 with the addition of Central Italy will have to lean on 
 Italy for support, though it would not have so often to 
 apply for aid as if it were a smaller or weaker State. This 
 statement was well founded, and was intended to meet the 
 objections which some persons about the Emperor are 
 understood to have made to the union, namely, that Pied- 
 mont, so enlarged, would become hostile, or at least dan- 
 gerous, as a neighbour to France. It is self-evident that, 
 the more Piedmont is strengthened by enlargement, the 
 less dependent on France she will be ; but it is also clear 
 that, enlarged as she may be, she must always, from 
 geographical contiguity with the larger Power, France, and 
 also in contact with a hostile neighbour in Austria, be 
 obliged to look to France for support. With regard to the 
 annexation of Central Italy to Piedmont, the Prussian 
 Government take a similar view of that matter, and are of 
 opinion that, if the Archdukes cannot be restored (and it is 
 impossible now to suppose that they can be), the annexation 
 of Central Italy to Piedmont would be a much better 
 arrangement than the creation of a separate State. The 
 affairs of Italy, its pacification, and the best mode of 
 assuring its internal and external independence, are the 
 main and almost the only objects for which the Congress is 
 invited to meet.' 
 
 In May, 1860, he thus sums up the general position in 
 Europe :
 
 1 98 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 ' The events of the last few months have made a great 
 and serious change in the aspect of European affairs, and in 
 the prospect of European tranquillity. From the time when 
 the present Emperor of the French ascended the throne of 
 France till the conclusion of the recent Italian wars, the 
 policy of the French Government seemed to be founded on 
 an abnegation of foreign conquest and territorial aggrandise- 
 ment, and upon friendly alliance with Great Britain. These 
 two principles of French policy were indeed so far insepar- 
 ably connected that alliance between England and France 
 can exist only so long as the policy of France is not directed 
 to territorial aggrandisement. During the above-mentioned 
 period, notwithstanding some of those occasional differ- 
 ences of opinion which must inevitably from time to time 
 arise between the Governments of two great nations having 
 frequently divergent interests in various parts of the world, 
 her Majesty's Government had no reason materially to 
 complain of the Government of France. When the 
 aggression of Russia upon the Turkish Empire called for 
 measures of repression on the part of those Powers of 
 Europe who are more especially interested in preventing the 
 dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and that derange- 
 ment of the balance of power which would arise from the 
 annexation of portions of the Turkish Empire to any already 
 powerful State, the Emperor of the French loyally co-operated 
 with us. 
 
 'The French Emperor, indeed, at that time appeared 
 to be so far from animated by a systematically warlike 
 policy, that he was more anxious for an early termina- 
 tion of the war than was the British Government, and in 
 the course of our negotiations for peace our Government 
 found that the Emperor was disposed to make peace upon
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 199 
 
 terms which we thought too easy for the enemy. In the 
 same manner the French Emperor readily concurred with 
 us in concluding a treaty with the King of Sweden for 
 securing against Russian aggression some important naval 
 stations on the northern coast of Norway. Soon after the 
 conclusion of the Russian war the Sepoy mutiny in India 
 broke out, and the Emperor offered us every facility for the 
 passage of our troops through France, and tendered his good 
 offices with the Pacha of Egypt to obtain permission for 
 their passage through Egypt in order to hasten the arrival in 
 India of reinforcements we were sending thither. 
 
 ' In the beginning of 1859 the Emperor for the first time, 
 by a speech which he made on January i, gave indications of 
 an intention to disturb by warlike preparations the tranquillity 
 of Europe. The war which soon after broke out in Northern 
 Italy between Austria on the one side, France and Sardinia 
 on the other, had indeed for its immediate cause the invasion 
 of Piedmont by the Austrian army ; but it is undeniable 
 that both the belligerent parties had for some time previ- 
 ously contemplated a rupture, and had been making active 
 preparations for such a contingency. The Emperor Na- 
 poleon, however, professed by his public declarations that 
 he entered into that war in the most disinterested spirit 
 to rescue Italy from foreign domination, and to restore 
 Italy to the Italians. These declarations obtained for the. 
 French arms the sympathy of that large portion of the 
 people of Europe who took an interest in the welfare of 
 Italy. But at length it came out that from the commence- 
 ment of that war the Emperor had begun a new system of 
 policy, and that, notwithstanding his declarations of dis- 
 interestedness and boast that he had made war only for an 
 idea, he had made arrangements binding on Sardinia, by
 
 2OO LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 which the probable result of the war, namely, a considerable 
 accession of territory for Sardinia, should be deemed a 
 reason for an important acquisition of territory by France. 
 
 1 This contemplated arrangement has since been carried 
 into effect, and as the price of the incorporation of Tuscany 
 and Romagna into the kingdom of Sardinia, the county of 
 Nice and the whole of Savoy have been added to the French 
 Empire. Endeavours have been made to induce the French 
 to give to the Swiss Confederation some adequate security 
 against the danger to its independence which must arise 
 from the French occupation of Savoy, but in vain. This 
 security could not be given except by the cession to Switzer- 
 land of the southern shore of the Lake of Geneva, and of a 
 good military line on the frontier of the Valais. In the 
 meantime, reports in Europe abound of a variety of schemes 
 of French territorial aggrandisement. It is said that Ortega 
 before his execution declared that he had been encouraged 
 in his enterprise by the Emperor, and it is alleged that the 
 Emperor had agreed with Count Montemolin that, if the 
 Carlist attempt had succeeded, the price of the acknowledg- 
 ment and support of France was to have been an advance 
 of the French frontier from the Pyrenees to the Ebro, or 
 that the Balearic Islands should be ceded to France. It is 
 said that Marshal O'Donnel twice stated to the Morocco 
 plenipotentiaries that the French in Algeria will make an 
 attack on Morocco. The Emperor is reported to have said 
 that it was necessary for France to have the Palatinate, and 
 to acquire Saarbriick and Saar, part of the Rhenish territory 
 of Prussia. It is reported that there is impatience to get 
 rid of the pending questions in Italy, because the French 
 Government desires to turn its attention to Turkey. 
 
 ' These reports may be incorrect, but they have their
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 2OI 
 
 foundation in the general opinion of Europe that the Emperor 
 has adopted a policy of aggrandisement. If the French 
 Government, convinced, as all sane men must be, that no 
 Power in the world has the slightest intention of attacking 
 France, had reduced its army and navy to a moderate peace 
 establishment, less credit would be given to these reports ; 
 but, on the contrary, no doubt can be entertained that the 
 French army arrangements are so organised that a force of 
 600,000 men might be placed under arms within the short 
 period of a month, while great and incessant exertions are 
 making to place the French navy upon the most efficient 
 footing. In short, the French establishments are rapidly 
 assuming such a condition as cannot be required for peace. 
 M. Lafitte, the great Paris banker, was in England during 
 the Epsom races, and held language hostile and insulting to 
 England. He said that England wished to thwart and con- 
 trol France, but is powerless and unable to do so ; that 
 France is determined to have the left bank of the Rhine, 
 and to annex Belgium, and will do so notwithstanding the 
 ill-will of England. In the meantime the diplomatic action 
 of France is directed towards separating the Great Powers 
 from each other, and winning over to her views one Power 
 after the other by offers of arrangements suited to the 
 separate interests of each, on condition that each should 
 connive at or concur in some scheme of territorial aggran- 
 disement. 
 
 ' It is by a full and frank communication between the 
 Powers, and by a common policy for common objects, that 
 the best chance will be afforded of defeating these schemes. 
 I think it desirable to enter into confidential communication 
 with Austria and Prussia, to propose to them that each of the 
 three Powers Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia should
 
 202 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 make known to each other any overture they may receive 
 from France tending to any change of the existing state of 
 territorial possession in Europe, and that no answer should 
 be given to such proposal until the Government to which 
 it has been made shall have had an answer from the other 
 two. This should not be an agreement for joint action. . . . 
 The policy of Great Britain, subject to exception in special 
 cases, is to keep free from prospective engagements, and to 
 deal with events when they happen according to the cir- 
 cumstances of the moment. In the meanwhile, it is incum- 
 bent on the British nation to collect its strength, to place 
 its military and naval establishments in the most efficient 
 state of organisation, and to secure the means of rapid 
 augmentation if at any time the course of events should 
 render augmentation indispensable. The salutary and 
 restraining action of a great Power like England is not con- 
 fined to the employment of physical force. If it is known 
 to be strong within itself, and capable of exertion when 
 required, its diplomatic action will command attention, and 
 will often powerfully influence the course of events, and by 
 dealing timely with beginnings may prevent proceedings 
 which, if unchecked, would lead to great and disastrous 
 international convulsions.' 
 
 The fortification scheme adopted for Portsmouth and 
 other places was an outcome of the fears mentioned in this 
 note. 
 
 On the cession of Savoy to France, relations became 
 somewhat strained between England and France. In 1860 
 Lord Palmerston writes : 
 
 ' Count de Flahault came to me just as I was going down 
 to the House, wishing to have some talk before he went to 
 Paris ; and I, unable to wait, took the Count down in my
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 203 
 
 brougham to the House. Count Flahault said he should 
 see the Emperor, and wished to know what he might say to 
 him as from Lord Palmerston. I said I could only refer 
 Count Flahault to what Lord John Russell had said in the 
 House of Commons. Count Flahault hoped not, as what 
 had been then said was personally offensive to the Emperor. 
 I did not see in what way it could be so considered. Count 
 Flahault said that Lord Grey had expressed distrust, but 
 admitted that no objection could be taken to the latter part 
 of his speech as to the political course which England might 
 follow. I said distrust may be founded on either or both 
 of two grounds either upon the supposition of inten- 
 tional deceit, or upon such frequent changes of purpose and 
 of conduct as to show that no reliance can be placed upon 
 the continuance of the intentions or policy of the moment, 
 and Count Flahault must admit that, without imputing the 
 first, there is ample ground for a feeling founded on the 
 second consideration. Count Flahault said his great object 
 was to prevent war between the two countries. I said that 
 I feared the Emperor and Thouvenel had schemes and 
 views which tended to bring about that result, and might 
 array Europe against France. Count Flahault did not fear 
 that, but was apprehensive that irritation on both sides 
 might bring on war between England and France. I said 
 that I was most anxious to prevent such a war, but, if it was 
 forced upon England, England would fearlessly accept it, 
 whether in conjunction with a confederated alliance or 
 singly and by herself, that the nation would rise and rally 
 as one man, and that though, speaking to a Frenchman, I 
 ought perhaps not to say so, yet I could not refrain from 
 observing that the examples of history led me to conclude 
 that the result of a '-onfliVt between F.njish and French
 
 204 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 upon anything like equal terms would not be unsatisfactory 
 to us. Count Flahault said that he had been in the Battle 
 of Waterloo, and knew what English troops were, but that 
 the French army now is far superior to that which fought on 
 that day. I said no doubt it was, and so is the present 
 English army ; but with regard to the excellence of the 
 French army I would remind Count Flahault of what passed 
 between Marshal Tallard and the Duke of Marlborough 
 when the former was taken prisoner at the Battle of Blen- 
 heim : " Vous venez, Milord," said the Marshal, " de battre 
 les meilleures troupes de 1'Europe." " Exceptez toujours," 
 replied Marlborough, " celles qui les ont battues." " But," 
 said the Count, " what I fear is an invasion of this country, 
 for which steam affords such facilities, and which would be 
 so disastrous to England." I replied that steam tells both 
 ways, for defence as well as for attack ; and that, as for in- 
 vasion, though it would no doubt be a temporary evil, we 
 were under no apprehension as to its results ; that a war 
 between England and France would doubtless be disastrous 
 to both countries, but it is by no means certain which of 
 the two would suffer the most. Arrived at the House, 
 we took leave of each other, Count Flahault saying he 
 should not say anything to the Emperor calculated to 
 increase the irritation which he expected to find, but 
 should endeavour to exercise a calming influence. I said 
 that of course the Count would judge for himself what he 
 should say, but that the Count must have observed what 
 was the state of public feeling and opinion in this 
 country. The conversation was carried on in the most 
 friendly manner.' 
 
 During the last Ministry of Lord Palmerston political 
 parties were undergoing changes. The old order was chang-
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 2O5 
 
 ing, and changing much faster than he ever realised. Only 
 two years after his death there came in the shape of a Re- 
 form Bill passed by a Tory Administration what he would 
 probably have considered the political deluge. We have fre- 
 quently had occasion to note, that with parliamentary reform 
 as advocated by such leaders as Bright and Cobden, Palmer- 
 ston never had the slightest sympathy. Continental politics 
 were changing also. The inevitable conflict between Ger- 
 many and France, the annihilation of the Second Empire, 
 the consolidation of the German Empire, the unification 
 of Italy, and the far-reaching consequences necessarily fol- 
 lowing all these great movements, were rapidly taking form. 
 In his own Cabinet one of his colleagues was beginning to 
 make it evident to all that the next Liberal Premier would be 
 of very different stamp from the man whose own statement 
 was that he had not faction enough in him to fit him for 
 Opposition a saying which lent itself in some small degree 
 to the perverted view that he had no principles which he 
 considered worthy of eager support. His closing years were 
 thus in some measure a season of pause. The Conserva- 
 tives, afraid of what the development under any possible 
 successor might be, were not eager to displace him. The 
 Liberal party was slowly but surely reaching that parting of 
 the ways which may be said to divide the party of evolu- 
 tion and adaptation from that which favours theory at the 
 expense of experience. To some extent Palmerston was 
 conscious of this, and on one occasion remarked to Lord 
 Shaftesbury, ' Gladstone will soon have it all his own way ; 
 and whenever he gets my place, we shall have strange 
 doings.' 
 
 The old veteran, however, was allowed to pass away in 
 peace. In 1861 he became Warden of the Cinque Ports,
 
 2O6 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 and whilst he was passing through the picturesque and old- 
 fashioned forms of his installation, the opening events of 
 the great Civil War in the United States were taking 
 place. 
 
 Unlike Mr. Gladstone, who declared that Mr. Jefferson 
 Davis had ' made a nation ' when the States of the Southern 
 Confederacy were at death grip with the Northern United 
 States Government, Lord Palmerston said in 1861 : 'As to 
 North America, our best and true policy seems to be to go 
 on as we have begun, and to keep quite clear of the conflict 
 between North and South. It is true that there have been 
 cases in Europe in which allied Powers have said to fighting 
 parties, like the man in "The Critic," " in the Queen's name 
 I bid you drop your swords ; " but those cases are rare and 
 peculiar ; the love of quarrelling and of fighting is inherent 
 in man, and to prevent its indulgence is to impose restraints 
 on natural liberty. A State may so shackle its own sub- 
 jects ; but it is an infringement on national independence 
 to restrain other nations. The only excuse would be the 
 danger to the interfering parties if the conflict went on ; but 
 in the American case this cannot be pleaded by the Powers 
 of Europe. The want of cotton would not justify such a 
 proceeding, unless, indeed, the distress created by that want 
 was far more serious than it is likely to be. The only thing 
 to do seems to be to lie on our oars and to give no pretext 
 to the Washingtonians to quarrel with us, while, on the other 
 hand, we maintain our rights and those of our fellow- 
 countrymen.' 
 
 These had to be vindicated during the same year when 
 the Commissioners of the Southern Confederacy were 
 arrested on board the ' Trent,' a British steamer, by United 
 States officers. One of the last acts of the Prince Consort,
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 2O/ 
 
 whose death Lord Palmerston deplored in private as well as 
 in public, was to soften the expressions of a despatch re- 
 monstrating with the United States Government on this 
 subject, lest unnecessary offence might be given to the 
 Northern Americans when they had much to make them 
 sore. The Guards and other troops were sent to Canada, 
 and through the Prince's counsel the request made to the 
 Americans for explanation was so couched, that a conci- 
 liatory conduct was adopted, and the threatened war with 
 our brethren across the sea averted. 
 The death of the Prince, 
 
 The shadow of whose loss 
 
 Commingled with the gloom 
 
 Of imminent war, moved like eclipse 
 
 across our country, and the anxieties of the time, aggravated 
 a bad fit of gout by which Lord Palmerston was attacked, 
 and his handwriting was never afterwards as firm and bold 
 as it had been in former years. 
 
 A letter of this period to Mr. Gladstone, which is quoted 
 by Mr. Ashley, refers to Mr. Gladstone's demand in speeches 
 delivered at Manchester for increased economy : ' Increased 
 commercial intercourse may add to the links of mutual 
 interest between us and the French ; but commercial 
 interest is a link that snaps under the pressure of national 
 passions. Witness the bitter enmity to England lately freely 
 vented, and now with difficulty suppressed, by those Northern 
 States of America with whom we have the most extensive 
 commercial intercourse. A Veil, then, at the head of this 
 neighbouring nation, who would like nothing so well as a 
 retaliatory blow upon England, we sec an able, active, wary, 
 counsel-keeping, but ever-planning sovereign ; and we see 
 this sovereign organising an army, which, including his
 
 2O8 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 reserve, is more than six times greater in amount than the 
 whole of our regular forces in our two islands ; and at the 
 same time labouring hard to create a navy equal to, if not 
 superior to, ours. Give him a cause of quarrel, which any 
 foreign Power may at any time invent or create if so minded 
 give him the command of the Channel, which permanent or 
 accidental naval superiority might afford him and then cal- 
 culate if you can (for it would pass my reckoning power to 
 do so) the disastrous consequences to the British nation 
 which a landing of an army of from one to two hundred 
 thousand men would bring with it. Surely even a large 
 yearly expenditure for army and navy is an economical 
 insurance against such a catastrophe.' 
 
 The Conservatives were especially amused and delighted 
 with the manner in which Palmerston repressed the 'ad- 
 vanced wing ' of his own party, especially when they described 
 the millennium as having already arrived, and sought to per- 
 suade their country to turn all its swords into ploughshares. 
 When Cobden opposed the increase to the votes on fortifica- 
 tions, and declared that, as for fears of French invasion, 'Why, 
 the labourers on the farms in Sussex alone could throw up 
 fortifications sufficient in a week to stop a French army,' 
 Lord Palmerston rose, and, with a somewhat confused re- 
 collection of available classical quotations, but with a very 
 precise sense of the value of Cobden's advice on such an 
 occasion, said : ' The hon. gentleman talks of the Sussex 
 labourers throwing up defences that would stop a French 
 army. The hon. gentleman had best stick to his his 
 ahem "crepidam."' And much the House laughed at 
 this way of putting the good advice, ' Cobbler Cobden, stick 
 to your last.' 
 
 On the proposal of the French Emperor that we should
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 2OO 
 
 work with him in regard to the action of Prussia in agreeing 
 with the Government of St. Petersburg to support a Polish 
 rising, Lord Palmerston wrote (1863) to King Leopold of 
 Belgium : ' Your Majesty will have learnt that we declined 
 to fall into the trap which the Emperor of the French laid for 
 us by his scheme for a violent identical Note to be presented 
 to Prussia. It was evidently intended that the demands of 
 such a Note being refused, or evaded, a pretence would 
 thereby have been afforded to France for an occupation of 
 the Prussian Rhenish Provinces, and the French Govern- 
 ment has shown much ill humour at the failure of the 
 scheme. P>ut the danger to Prussia and other States is not 
 over. If the Polish revolution goes on, and Prussia is 
 led to take an active part in any way against the Poles, the 
 Emperor of the French is sure sooner or later, upon some 
 pretext, to enter the Rhenish Provinces as a means of 
 coercing Prussia to be neutral. Your Majesty would render 
 an essential service to Prussia and to Europe if you could 
 exert your influence with the King of Prussia to abstain 
 from any action of any kind whatever beyond the frontiers 
 of his own territory.' 
 
 Roebuck in the House of Commons entered into an 
 account of his communications with the Emperor of the 
 French on the subject of the French navigation laws and 
 about American affairs. Lord Palmerston, in July 1863, 
 expressed his hope that this might be the last time that any 
 member of Parliament should bring to the British Parliament 
 a message from a foreign sovereign, or relate to Parliament 
 any conversation he had had with any foreign sovereign. 
 
 In 1863 occurred the recrudescence of the dispute be- 
 tween the Ihnes and Germans in reference to Schleswitt- 
 Holstein, which ended in the annexation of the whole country 
 
 p
 
 2IO LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 by Germany. 1 remember a dinner at which a lady much 
 inclined to ' pump ' Ministers on politics was seated between 
 Lord Palmerston and me. She opened fire on Lord Pal- 
 merston on this question of the Duchies, and I heard him 
 say, ' Well, I had that matter once at my fingers' ends, but, 
 upon my word, I h r ive quite forgotten all its complications.' 
 He never liked to ' become expansive ' on public topics in 
 private society, although to his own correspondents among 
 the ladies he opened his mind freely enough on political 
 subjects. 
 
 In 1864 he thus sums up his views of the situation : 
 ' It is not unlikely that Austria and Prussia, reckoning 
 upon our passive attitude, contemplate the occupation of 
 Copenhagen, and think to imitate what the first Napoleon 
 did at Vienna and Berlin, and mean to dictate at the 
 Danish capital their own terms of peace. We should be 
 laughed at if we stood by and allowed this to be done.' 
 To Lord J. Russell he wrote : ' I wrote this morning to 
 Apponyi [Austrian Ambassador], asking him to come to 
 me to give me half an hour's conversation. He came 
 accordingly. I said I wished to have some friendly 
 and unreserved conversation with him, not as between an 
 English Minister and the Austrian Ambassador, but as 
 between Palmerston and Apponyi ; that what I was going 
 to say related to serious matters, but I begged that nothing 
 I might say should be looked upon as a threat, but only as 
 a frank explanation between friends on matters which might 
 lead to disagreements, and with regard to which, unless 
 timely explanations were given as to possible consequences 
 of certain things, a reproach might afterwards be made that 
 timely explanation might have diverted disagreeable results. 
 I said that we have from the beginning taken a deep
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 211 
 
 interest in favour of Denmark, not from family ties, which 
 have little influence on English policy, and sometimes act 
 unfavourably, but, first, that we have thought from the 
 beginning that Denmark has been harshly and unjustly 
 treated ; and, secondly, we deem the integrity and inde- 
 pendence of the State which commands the entrance to the 
 Baltic objects of interest to England. That we abstained 
 from taking the field in defence of Denmark for many 
 reasons from the season of the year from the smallness 
 of our army and the great risk of failure in a struggle with 
 all Germany by land. That with regard to operations by 
 sea the positions would be reversed : we are strong, 
 Germany is weak ; and the German ports in the Baltic, 
 North Sea, and Adriatic would be greatly at our command. 
 Speaking for myself personally, and for nobody else, I must 
 frankly tell him, that if an Austrian squadron were to pass 
 along our coasts and ports and go into the Baltic to help in 
 any way against Denmark, I should look upon it as an 
 affront and insult to England. That 1 could not and would 
 not stand such a thing ; and that, unless in such a case 
 a superior British squadron were to follow, with such orders 
 for acting as the case might require, I would not continue 
 to hold my present position : and such a case would pro- 
 bably lead to collision that is, war ; and in my opinion 
 Germany and especially Austria would be the sufferer in 
 such a war. I should deeply regret such a result, because 
 it is the wish of England to be well with Austria ; but I am 
 confident that I should be borne out by public opinion. 
 I again begged that he would not consider this communica- 
 tion as a threat, but simply as a friendly reminder of conse- 
 quences which might follow a possible course of action.' 
 In 1865 there was another general election, and Lord
 
 212 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Palmerston was again elected, and for the last time, M.P. 
 for Tiverton ; but his health was failing, and in October the 
 mournful news spread that he had died at Brocket in har- 
 ness to the last. I well remember how his grandson, Lord 
 Jocelyn, then with me at Trinity, Cambridge, brought me 
 the first news, and how every student in the streets and 
 halls that day spoke sadly of the event, and we all felt that 
 a type of some of the best qualities in English manhood 
 had been lost to our country. Mr. Ashley says that he was 
 himself a witness of an incident of the last weeks of Lord 
 Palmerston's life, which he thought most characteristic of 
 the man. 'There were some high railings immediately 
 opposite the front door, and Lord Palmerston, coming out 
 of the house without his hat, went straight up to them after 
 casting a look all round to see that no one was looking. 
 He then climbed deliberately over the top rail down to the 
 ground on the other side, turned round, climbed back again, 
 and then went indoors. It was clear that he had come out 
 to test his strength, and to find out for himself in a prac- 
 tical way how far he was gaining or losing ground. Not 
 that he had any excessive dread of death, for, as he put it 
 one day in homely fashion to his doctor, when pressing for 
 a frank opinion as to his state, " When a man's time is up, 
 there is no use in repining." ' 
 
 On the sad day when all that was great and distinguished 
 in England met in the old historical Abbey on the banks of 
 the Thames to pay a last mark of respect to the statesman 
 who had gone from us, in the midst of gloom, moral and 
 physical, a gleam of sunshine appeared at the very moment 
 when his body was being lowered to its last abode, and 
 the prevailing darkness was for a time dispelled. That 
 slight, that accidental coincidence, gave rise to a beauti-
 
 PRIME MINISTER A SECOND TIME 213 
 
 ful expression from a great and eloquent clergyman, who 
 said that ' when human minds gifted beyond their fellows 
 quitted this world, they left something of light behind 
 them ; and at this moment I believe there is not one of us, 
 whatever may be our powers, whatever our opportunities, 
 who will wish to go away without determining to follow that 
 bright example.'
 
 214 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 MANY of the middle-aged among us can still recollect the 
 man of whom Sir Robert Peel, an antagonist, said in 1848, 
 immediately after he had delivered his oft-quoted speech 
 in the 'Don Pacifico' debate, 'We are all proud of him.' 
 We can recollect the fretting occasioned among the Liberals 
 by his so-called ' high-handed ' way of dealing with foreign 
 Powers, and the fear they had of him as one who dreaded 
 not war. We can remember the curiosity with which 
 Tories regarded him, as one who could act with their 
 opponents and yet was so much one of themselves in 
 desiring that Britain should not lose her influence as a 
 Power in the world. We heard of his popularity as a 
 thorough Englishman, who loved sport, spoke and acted 
 straightly, ' gave back as good as he got ' in debate, and 
 who used to be called ' the evergreen Premier.' 
 
 Some of us may have more personal reminiscences to 
 tell, and may have seen him rise quickly and lightly, when 
 near fourscore, from his seat in the House of Commons, 
 and speak with clearness and directness, but with no attempt 
 at eloquence, and often with some hesitation, at the table ; 
 his black frock-coat buttoned across the well-knit and erect 
 figure of middle stature, his sentences spoken towards the
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 215 
 
 bar of the House ; his grey short hair brushed forward, and 
 the grey whiskers framing the head, erect on the shoulders. 
 Some may remember, under the shaven chin, the loose 
 bow-knot, neatly tied, at the throat, the bit of open shirt- 
 front with short standing collars. Some may have seen that 
 same figure standing unwearied at the low brass railing 
 that encircles the space which is devoted to 'Privy Coun- 
 cillors in front of the Throne in the House of Lords, or, 
 if they were admitted there as youths connected with the 
 Peers, may have stood beside the veteran political leader 
 as he listened to the discussion proceeding in the ' gilded 
 chamber,' and may have looked up at that refined and reso- 
 lute face, and, with the irreverence of youth, have noticed 
 that the whiskers were much greyer close to the cheek, 
 and that the darker hue that pervaded them was not the 
 result either of old age or of early nature. Some may 
 have attended his last receptions at Cambridge House, 
 that handsome white building standing a little retired 
 from Piccadilly, to which its court opens by two wide 
 entrances. There they may have been charmed with the 
 old-fashioned and frank courtesy that bade them welcome 
 as soon as they had reached the centre room at the stair 
 top, which was the place at which the firm figure of the 
 old statesman, clad in well-made evening dress and very 
 neat polished boots, met them and gave them a hearty 
 shake of the hand, as they passed on to be greeted with 
 equal courtesy by Lady Palmerston. But age was telling 
 in those days even on her husband, and he used to forget 
 whom he had greeted, and repeat the kindly hand-shake 
 twice or even thrice. 
 
 One of the last of the great receptions was given in 
 honour of General Garibaldi. This was a sere subject with
 
 2l6 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 most of the Conservatives, who could not bear that the red- 
 shirted patriot and revolutionary soldier should be courted 
 and caressed. He, more than any other, had made Italy a 
 nation under one monarch, and had shown himself favour- 
 able to the House of Savoy. But that he had caused the 
 King of Naples to fly, and had attacked the Pope as an 
 earthly sovereign, was sufficient to make good Tories shake 
 their heads. Was it possible, they asked, that the Duchess 
 of Sutherland was to receive him at Stafford House ? And 
 when he came accompanied by the shouting myriads of 
 London who gave him such a reception as they had given to 
 no foreign crowned head, it was said that in the Cabinet 
 the result of Garibaldi's visit on public feeling was ques- 
 tioned, and that one member said, ' What shall we do with 
 Garibaldi ? ' ' Do ? ' said Lord Palmerston ; ' oh, let's marry 
 him to the rich Miss -' ' But he has a wife already,' was the 
 
 rejoinder. ' Oh, then,' said Palmerston, ' we'll get 
 
 (mentioning an eminent colleague) ' to explain her away ! ' 
 
 It was during these days that he astonished everyone by 
 his wonderful spirits, and by the physical power shown by 
 him. He thought nothing of riding down to Harrow for a 
 speech day, and the ' boys ' of that time remember how 
 lightly he dismounted from his horse and came into the 
 Hall, arranging his hair with a little pocket-comb he carried. 
 Then after the speeches were over there was a holiday 
 asked for, and the head-master, conscientious and strict, 
 felt bound to declare that two days had already been given, 
 and that he felt much difficulty in granting a third. ' Oh, 
 I remember,' said the Prime Minister, ' that Price in his 
 book on the Picturesque lays it down as a canon in paint- 
 ing that you should never only have two objects of promi- 
 nence in a picture, that there should always be a third.
 
 'PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 217 
 
 Don't you think the principle m;iy 1)C applied here, and 
 that two days only would not present a perfect picture?' 
 What he was as a hoy he remained to his life's end : strong 
 in body and robust in mind ; led by no fantastic genius, 
 but by the good light of fair judgment. 
 
 No one ever had a better appetite either for food or 
 for work. It was remarked that often at dinner he never let 
 a dish pass without taking some of it. So it was in ' affairs '- 
 which word generally denotes with us our business as citixens 
 rather than our own. He never let any public event, or in- 
 cidents leading to events, pass without sounding to the best 
 of his ability the depth of public feeling which was around 
 him, and the set of the currents he experienced. But, un- 
 like some men, he had no idea of being carried helplessly 
 along on any current, however strong, which might lead him 
 whither he would not. He formed his opinions, and he 
 held fast to them. The energy of his character was not 
 'ailed out to defend surrender to that which he had de- 
 nounced, nor was it enlisted to further that which he had 
 called wrong. He was a leader led by his own honest 
 thoughts of what was best for his country. He never could 
 be called a leader who might be reckoned on to lead where- 
 soever the majority of his followers told him he must go. 
 He could never capitulate to a despotic power, whether that 
 were exercised under the guise of religion, or held its sway 
 under the travesty of freedom, nationality, or justice. He 
 put aside the sham, and worked for the cause of constitu- 
 tional liberty wherever he recognised it, though it might not 
 be the power to lift him to office. ' I will not be dragged 
 through the dirt,' he exclaimed on one occasion when urged 
 to acquiesce in what his conscience disapproved. 
 
 Nor with all his hard-headed common sui.-e wa-- he un-
 
 2l8 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 concerned when he saw the troubles of others, nor were his 
 affections and his sympathies the less keen because he ' would 
 stand no nonsense.' He laboured assiduously, sparing 
 neither time nor expense, to help his Irish tenants and cottiers 
 during their day of difficulty, assisting those who desired to 
 go to America to find comparative wealth there, and lavishly 
 aiding those who remained to step out on paths that might 
 lead them to better conditions at home. In the circle 
 of his own family there was nothing, even when he was 
 most busy, that escaped his affectionate care, and to the 
 time of his death he and his house were the beloved centre 
 of a large array of kinsfolk. 
 
 Sir Augustus Clifford said of Lord Palmerston's boy- 
 hood that he was reckoned the best-tempered and most 
 plucky boy at Harrow, as well as a young man of great 
 promise. ' I can remember Temple fighting " behind 
 school " a great boy called Salisbury, twice his size, and 
 he would not give in, but was brought home with black 
 eyes and a bloody nose.' 
 
 His appearance in 1837 is thus described : 'In person 
 Lord Palmerston is tall and handsome. His face is round 
 and of the darkest hue. His hair is black, and always 
 exhibits proofs of the skill and attention of the friseur. 
 His clothes are in the extreme of fashion. He is very 
 vain of his personal appearance.' 
 
 Sir William Eraser sketches him as he appeared to a later 
 generation : ' Lord Palmerston on horseback looked a big 
 man, and standing at the table of the House he did not 
 appear ill-proportioned. Each foot, to describe it mathe- 
 matically, was a " four-sided irregular figure." His portraits 
 in Punch are very like him. Those with a flower or straw 
 in the mouth are the best. He had a very horsey look.'
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON' 2 19 
 
 Through the ' Greville Memoirs ' we get two or three 
 glimpses of him as he appeared to that none too kindly 
 observer : ' Palmerston is beaten in Hants, at which every- 
 body rejoices, for he is marvellously unpopular; they would 
 have liked to illuminate the Foreign Office. The other 
 night I met some clerks in the Foreign Office to whom 
 the very name of Palmerston is hateful, but I was surprised 
 to hear them . . . give ample testimony to his abilities. 
 They said that he wrote admirably, and could express 
 himself perfectly in French, very sufficiently in Italian, and 
 understood German ; that his diligence and attention were 
 unwearied he read everything, and wrote an immense 
 quantity ; that the foreign Ministers (who detest him) did 
 him justice as an excellent man of business. His great 
 fault is want of punctuality, and never caring for an en- 
 gagement if it did not suit him, keeping everybody waiting 
 for hours on his pleasure or caprice. This testimony is 
 beyond suspicion, and it is confirmed by the opinions of 
 his colleagues ; but it is certain that he cut a very poor 
 figure in Parliament all the time he was in office before.' 
 
 The views entertained by the clerks and subordinates 
 about their chief may have been coloured by the fact that 
 he much objected to anything ' slipshod,' whether in expres- 
 sion or in orthography. It is remarkable how he never 
 hesitated to repeat the same word over and over again in 
 a sentence if additional clearness of meaning could thereby 
 be given. He wrote an uncommonly good hand, and was 
 always very intolerant of anyone less blessed with that 
 description of manual skill. The secretaries at home and 
 abroad ' caught it hot ' when a badly written despatch came 
 into his hands. The scathing memoranda which he penned 
 for the benefit of the delinquent were written, as one of his
 
 22O LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 old subordinates says, ' on a half sheet of note-paper, with 
 a reference carefully made in the left-hand corner to the 
 despatch remarked upon, inserted by him into it, and 
 returned in it to the department, and afterwards sent by 
 the latter in original to the embassy or legation concerned 
 with the next batch of despatches. I recollect having 
 received a memorandum in 1851, when the others in the 
 chancellerie were all on leave. I won't vouch for the 
 exact words, but it was, as far as I remember, in the follow- 
 ing terms : " Tell the gentleman who copied this despatch 
 to write a larger, rounder hand, to join on the letters in 
 the words, and to use blacker ink." You will recollect 
 that " blacker ink " was the refrain of most of his memo- 
 randa, and that it made us think he was going blind. 
 But it was not handwriting alone, but likewise on spelling 
 and construction that "Palmy" kept a sharp look-out. 
 I remember at Berlin an amusing memo, sent to our lega- 
 tion. Our Charge d'Affaires at the time had occasion to 
 use the word battalions, and inadvertently spelt it with one 
 "t" and two "1's," " batallions," instead of "battalions." 
 This brought down the following remark : " Tell A. B. to 
 direct his amanuensis to place his battalions on the English 
 and not on the French footing." The attache who had made 
 the copy was very indignant, and said that Lord Palmerston 
 had himself used an expression, " amanuensis," which was not 
 English, and, moreover, that his (the attache's) duty was only 
 to copy. In another case, where the letter had, as the writer 
 thought, been most clearly expressed, but had repeated after 
 a parenthesis a " that " which had already been placed 
 before the parenthesis, Lord Palmerston observed, "Tell 
 
 to strike out his redundant ' that.' " The writer was 
 
 much annoyed at what he called this freedom, but I after-
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OK 1'ALMEKSTOX 221 
 
 wards had frequently to remonstrate with him because he 
 would always strike out " thats " which were necessary to 
 make the sense quite clear.' 
 
 Sir William Eraser, to whom reference has already been 
 made above, has left on record some reminiscences which 
 deserve a place here. ' Lord Palmerston presided at an 
 annual dinner of the Royal Literary Fund. I asked 
 Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton, how Pal- 
 merston got on at the dinner he answered, " For a man 
 who never read a book in his life, I think he did very well." 
 Lord Palmerston might have led the House of Commons 
 at thirty-five ; but declined : giving as his reason that "his 
 life would be a perpetual canvass," and that he could not 
 endure it. Whether this were the real cause or not I do not 
 know ; the reason of his ultimately achieving his position in 
 Parliament was that he was twenty years older than any 
 other leading man : that he knew the country well : and 
 that on one subject he knew a great deal, and no one else 
 knew anything : foreign affairs. 
 
 'Lord Palmerston never was a good speaker : he had a 
 hesitation which came in at the most inappropriate times : 
 a good voice, but no art ; in speaking he would constantly 
 use an anti-climax : he would say, for instance, ''The lan- 
 guage of the honourable gentleman is unusual, unparlia- 
 mentary, violent, discreditable, and ahem !"- a pause -"to 
 be deprecated." I never knew him rise to real eloquence, 
 and on one occasion only did I hear him speak with great 
 ability : this was on the Danish question. Everybody who 
 attended to such matters had been completely puzzled by 
 the complicated affairs of Schleswig-Holstein. The clearest 
 heads could make nothing of it, and the vast majority of the 
 House of Commons did not attempt it. Lord Palmcrston
 
 222 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 made a speech admirable in its clearness. I could not have 
 believed it possible that he could make such a speech, 
 solving the difficulties, and presenting the essential points 
 of the question to the appreciation and comprehension of 
 the House. Disraeli, seeing the effect that had been pro- 
 duced, in his reply characterised the speech as "perspicuous, 
 but not satisfactory." It was splendidly perspicuous. I was 
 not in Parliament at the time of the celebrated " Pacifico 
 speech," nor up to this time have I been able to under- 
 stand by reading it the effect which it produced ; but I may 
 say that except on these two occasions Lord Palmerston 
 never made a great speech. 
 
 ' It is supposed that a laugh is indicative of character 
 and feeling. I never heard a heartier laugh than Lord Pal- 
 merston's : very deep down, and musical. He gave you the 
 impression of perfect good-humour.' 
 
 Palmerston had very considerable power of repartee, 
 and now and then used very apt and striking language. 
 ' Nothing,' he once remarked, ' can be more deplorable 
 than an inheritance of triumphant wrong.' When Lord 
 Derby's translation of the ' Iliad ' was first announced, a guest 
 at Broadlands told Palmerston that he must keep pace 
 with his great rival by translating the ' Aeneid.' ' Stop till I 
 am out of office, and the parallel will be complete.' On 
 another occasion he laughingly quoted the authority of an 
 eminent physician, that continuance in office, with the 
 resulting employment, was good for the health. ' Would not 
 active opposition do as well ? ' ' No, no ; that stirs up the 
 bile and creates acidity. Ask Disraeli if it does not.' 
 
 Nothing created acidity in him ; he never said or sanc- 
 tioned an ill-natured remark on anybody. On being told 
 that a clever assailant regretted a personal attack, he said,
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 223 
 
 ' Tell him I am not the least offended, the more particularly 
 because I think I had the best of it.' 
 
 When at the Home Office, a deputation came to him 
 from the town of Rugeley asking that its name might be 
 changed. Why was this request made? Because a man 
 named Palmer, a citizen of that town, had been con- 
 demned to death, having been found guilty of poisoning 
 with strychnine a number of people. 'The Rugeley case ' was 
 known wherever the English language was spoken. The 
 town smelt of poison, thought its unhappy inhabitants. The 
 name must be changed, and Lord Palmerston was invoked 
 for permission. He listened quietly, and then, in his merry, 
 jaunty way, said, 'Well, gentlemen, I am very sorry for you, 
 and the only thing I can do is to suggest that you call your 
 town " Palmerston " ' Palmer being the name of the poisoner. 
 
 ' He was fond of billiards,' writes Hayward, ' and when at 
 Brocket or Broadlands played three games (neither more 
 nor less) before retiring for the night. He was about on a 
 level with those who play a good deal without taking rank 
 as players. His best stroke was the winning hazard, and 
 fortune favoured him as much in this as in the political 
 game. After three or four flukes he would say, " I think I 
 had better not name my stroke." He was never the least 
 put out by losing, although he enjoyed winning, especially 
 if Lady Palmerston was looking on.' 
 
 A correspondent who saw a good deal of him says : 
 ' The impression my intercourse with him left on my mind 
 is simple. He left on my recollection the impression of the 
 possessor of a strong character, and intellect with a coarse 
 grain in it, verging sometimes almost on brutality ; and of 
 a mind little exercised on subjects of thought beyond the 
 immediate interests of public and private life, little culti-
 
 224 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 vated, and drawing its stores not from reading, but from 
 experience, and long and varied intercourse with men and 
 women reminding one in that respect of such women as 
 Madame de Lieven, however otherwise masculine. 
 
 ' An illustration of this habit of mind occurs to me as I 
 write in Lord Palmerston's well-known doctrine on some 
 public occasion that " Men are naturally good," quite un- 
 conscious that there was such a widely held theological 
 dogma as that of "original sin." He did not say it contro- 
 versially, only it did not occur to him that he was contra- 
 dicting all the Churches. My clearest picture of Lord 
 Palmerston at Cambridge House is as I used to find him in 
 his working room, standing up at his high desk, almost un- 
 approachable from the fortification of office boxes piled 
 around him. At Broadlands one seldom saw him except at 
 meals, at which, so far as I can remember, he did not talk 
 much. I don't think he cared much for conversation, nor 
 shone in it, though he told a good story now and then. 
 There was always a very long waiting for dinners because 
 Lord Palmerston's messenger was sent off at the latest 
 possible moment. The longest and most animated dis- 
 course that I remember hearing from him, and I think he 
 had no audience but myself, was one day when he got on 
 the subject of Louis Philippe and the Spanish marriages, 
 and grew very hot upon it. A conversation which took 
 place on a railway platform between Lord Palmerston and 
 Sir Culling Eardley was amusing from the contrast between 
 the cwo men, though there is little in it. Sir Culling 
 Eardley was trying to persuade the Prime Minister to have 
 a day of public humiliation ordered on account of long- 
 continued rain (or drought), and Lord Palmerston was 
 fighting him off. " Are things really so bad, Sir Culling ? "
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 2^5 
 
 " My lord, I have just come from the country, and the crops 
 are ruined." "Then it's too late, Sir Culling -past praying 
 for." I think it was at the same time, at the end of his 
 last session, and at Brocket, that I remember Lady Palmer- 
 ston telling me that he had had a letter from the Queen 
 which gratified him very much, thanking him for the admi- 
 rable letters which he wrote every night from the House of 
 Commons, describing the debates, &c.' 
 
 The constancy with which he attended the sittings ot 
 the House of Commons was the wonder of more youthful 
 and more restless members. Hour after hour he sat on 
 the Treasury bench, the daylight from the high-placed 
 windows, or the gas-light from the ceiling of the Chamber, 
 when dusk had come, falling on his grey locks, which were 
 always carefully brushed forward in the old fashion. He 
 seemed usually to be absently regarding the lower wood- 
 work of the massive table, whose top was garnished with 
 multitudinous papers and books of reference and an occa- 
 sional despatch-box the table at which the three clerk-, 
 sit below the Speaker's chair a heavy piece of furniture, 
 which bears the gilt mace, and sees new members sworn at 
 its side, and is so placed that it resembles a great wooden 
 altar at which the officiating priests of the British Constitu 
 lion are ranged on their seats on either side, so that each, 
 when he harangues the assembly and delivers incantations 
 to support the faith of his followers, stands at this table. 
 The long rows of the oaken benches, whether they were 
 black with members during an interesting debate, or whetlu i 
 they were almost destitute of occupants and showed then 
 green leather coverings to the eyes in the strangers' gallery, 
 witnessed that resolute and watchful, though seemingly do/ing 
 figure, seated constantly in its place. During a ' great night '
 
 226 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 it was curious to see how apparently unmoved and passive 
 he remained during all the phases of the debate, his face in 
 repose, his eyes looking steadily in front of him, often half 
 closed, his frock-coat buttoned neatly across him, his gloves 
 always on his hands, his neat trousers of a light-toned cloth 
 strapped down to his neat boots. Not a turn of the argu- 
 ments used escaped him, and yet, when at the end he rose 
 to conclude the debate and to reply, it did not follow that 
 he would reply point by point. On the contrary, important 
 points were sometimes avoided, or he would play round 
 them, and, with the jaunty fun and half mocking raillery he 
 knew so well how to use, he would ' pitch into ' an opponent, 
 give the salient facts and the chief motives and reasons 
 he had for his action, in plain phrase, strongly worded but 
 not always expressed with fluency, and then he would call 
 upon his friends to vote in some effective passage which 
 combined English common sense with the concise phraseo- 
 logy born of long knowledge and the ring of an undoubted 
 patriotism and honesty of conviction, which told on his 
 party and ensured him the majority he expected. 
 
 A remarkable instance of his characteristic assiduity 
 was the resolution with which he in 1855 set himself to 
 master the forms of the House of Commons. He had 
 been until then chiefly a Departmental Minister, and when 
 he found himself at the head of the Cabinet and leader of 
 the House of Commons, he discovered that even his long 
 experience of that body had not made him familiar with 
 many of its usages. Time after time did the summer 
 morning still find him at his post. 
 
 Those who doubt his powers of acute analysis should 
 study his speeches on the international questions which 
 have been discussed. He evinced in these debates a grasp
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 22J 
 
 of general principle, a perspicacity of reasoning, which the 
 greatest lawyers in the House might have envied, and which 
 in point of power and cogency gave his views a value for 
 beyond those of any of the other lay members. 
 
 It was said that he was inclined to treat matters of grave 
 import with levity. Anecdotes about him have been absurdly 
 used to illustrate this. This accusation of levity was especially 
 the keynote of those who desired to disparage him during 
 the last year of the Crimean War. The public, however, 
 very soon discovered that no accusation could be more un- 
 just. The critics could not distinguish between the subject 
 itself and their own views in regard to it ; nor could they 
 see that, while the Premier contented himself with launch- 
 ing a witty javelin against assaults he thought worthy of 
 no more solemn refutation, he at the same time thought 
 deeply on topics which he conceived them not qualified to 
 handle. 
 
 In Palmerston's views of the service he owed to his 
 Queen and country there was not a tinge of levity, lie 
 was eminently a man with an earnest sense of duty ; and 
 underneath his gay and insouciant exterior he bore about 
 with him a never-ceasing and conscientious impression of 
 the deep responsibility of his office. He knew all its 
 affairs. Probably no First Minister ever ruled this country 
 who was better informed from day to clay even of the 
 minor details relating to the different departments of the 
 Government. 
 
 Mr. Ashley mentions that in Lord Palmerston's eightieth 
 year he rode all over the heights to the north of Portsmouth 
 to see the long line of forts he had caused to be constructed 
 there, and quotes a short, purposclike speech delivered at 
 the opening of a new railroad, on the advantages of quick
 
 228 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 communication by steam, the want of which he could well 
 remember. 
 
 ' In former times a gentleman asked his friend in London 
 to come down to him in the country, and the friend came 
 with things to last him a fortnight or three weeks, and he 
 took, perhaps, a week on the journey. Now, if a friend 
 meets another in St. James's Street and says, " I shall have 
 some good shooting next week ; will you come down to me 
 and spend a few days?" The friend says, "Oh, by all 
 means ; I shall be charmed. What is the nearest station 
 to your house ? " " Well," the friend says, " I am not very 
 well off at present in regard to railway communication ; 
 the nearest station is sixteen miles from my house, but it 
 is a good road ; you will get a nice fly, and you will come 
 very well." Upon which the invited guest says, " Did you 
 say it was Tuesday you asked me for?" "Yes," says the 
 countryman, " and I think you told me that you were free 
 on that day." Upon which the other replies, " I have a very 
 bad memory. Upon my word, I am very sorry, but I have 
 a particular engagement on that day. Some other time I 
 shall be happy to come down to you." (Laughter.) Then 
 he offers himself as a visitor to some other friend who has a 
 station within one or two miles of his house. (Cheers and 
 laughter.)' 
 
 Mr. Ashley says that Lord Palmerston would never 
 give up anything on account of age. ' He used to go out 
 partridge shooting long after his eyesight was too dim to 
 take correct aim, and persevered in his other outdoor 
 pursuits. Twice during this year, starting at nine o'clock 
 and not getting back till two, he rode over from Broadlands 
 to the training stables at Littleton, to see his horses take a 
 gallop in Winchester Racecourse. He rode down in June
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 22Q 
 
 to the Harrow speeches, and timed himself to trot the dis- 
 tance from his house in Piccadilly to the Head- Master's 
 door, nearly twelve miles, within the hour, and accom- 
 plished it.' 
 
 Only a few days before his end, when, so far as the 
 aspect of his face could betoken illness, he appeared as ill 
 as a man could be when about and at work, Lady Palmer- 
 ston at breakfast alluded to the cattle plague, which was 
 then making great havoc in England. He at once remarked 
 that all the symptoms of the disorder were described by 
 Virgil, and repeated to me some eight lines out of the 
 ' Georgics ' descriptive of the disease. He then told me a 
 story of a scrape he got into at Harrow for throwing stones, 
 and the excess of laughter, which he was unable to restrain, 
 with which he recalled the incident was the only token that 
 could have betrayed to Lady Palmerston, to spare whom 
 he always sought to conceal his illness, how weak he was. 
 
 ' If Lord Palmerston,' said one, soon after his death, who 
 knew him well, ' was the type of an Englishman, he was in 
 many, both of its every-day and of its rarer, aspects a model 
 of official life. Nature was lavish to him of many gifts, and 
 it is the lot of few to bring to the public service that strong 
 will, that iron constitution, and that charm of manner which 
 stood him in such stead during more than fifty years of 
 office. But he had other qualities, homelier it is true, but 
 not the less essential to the position which he attained, ll 
 has been said that Lord Palmerston's success was due not 
 so much to any surpassing ability, as to a rare combination 
 of ordinary qualities. But the remark, although in some 
 respects true, is superficial. Probably his greatest intel- 
 lectual peculiarity was the equipoise of his powers, which 
 gave them an air of complete symmetry, and somewhat
 
 230 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 baffled the estimate of them in detail. He possessed 
 a union of qualities seldom found to exist together in equal 
 excellence. That a man should be really both grave and 
 gay, both witty and earnest, devoted alike to the routine of 
 an office and to the love of sport and of society in short, 
 that a statesman should be both merry and wise shocks 
 the pedantry of the public ; and the public are so far right 
 that it requires unusual powers to effect the combination ; 
 and these Lord Palmerston possessed.' 
 
 Mr. Lowe (now Viscount Sherbrooke) said at Romsey 
 on July 22, 1876 : 
 
 ' Greatly as we all admired Lord Palmerston's intellectual 
 power, there was one thing in him that I admired even 
 more his inexhaustible and indomitable industry and per- 
 severance in the discharge of his duties. At eighty years 
 of age Lord Palmerston was by far the most regular atten- 
 dant in the House of Commons of any of his Ministry. He 
 came at 4 P.M. and for four nights of every week he stayed 
 if necessary till 2, never stirring from his place, except per- 
 haps for the purpose of taking a cup of tea. There he was 
 always accessible to everybody, always courteous to every- 
 body, friend or opponent ; no reverse, no taunt, none of 
 those accidents to which political life is subject, not the 
 weight of years, not the laborious exertions which he felt 
 called on to make, ever ruffled his temper or disturbed his 
 good-humour, nor did he even seem to think it wonder- 
 ful that at his age he should be able to undergo these 
 labours. I say then that he was not only a great political 
 leader but a great Englishman. When he undertook a duty 
 he did it thoroughly. He never spared himself. He who 
 had the best society in Europe at his command left it all 
 when work was to be done.'
 
 I'ERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF I'ALMKKSTOX 231 
 
 But at the head of a long list of private and public 
 testimonies to Lord Palmerston's character, abilities, and 
 influence stands that which came from the heart of his 
 friend and colleague, Karl Grunville : 
 
 ' Political contests never deadened the feelings of his 
 heart and warmer affections. There is hardly one of us 
 who, even in his busiest hours, has not received from him 
 timely and considerate advice on mailers of purely private 
 and personal nature. Well do I remember, at a time when 
 he delighted the Huuse of Commons at the age of nearly 
 eighty years by giving so dose an attendance to his parlia- 
 mentary duties as had never been given before by any leader 
 of the House, at a time when he \va ; fulfilling all the duties 
 of his high office, he found time for weeks daily to write 
 sheets of social and political ne\\s to relieve the hours of 
 sickness of a dear young colleague who was sinking under 
 disease in a far and foreign land. It is impossible not to 
 connect these private virtues, these personal qualities, with 
 the public character of this great man. I had the honour 
 of serving under him at the Foreign Office. Lord Palmerston 
 had very high notions of what ought to be the organisation, 
 the discipline of a public office, and both in the Foreign 
 Office and the War Office his name at first was looked on 
 with almost more of fear than love. Kut win n the permanent 
 staff had time to observe his inflexible justice ; when they 
 learned how much harder he was on himself than on the 
 meanest clerk in his department ; how, almost to a fault, he 
 took all the great and small labour of the office on himself, 
 thus acquiring a power which enabled him to deal in .in 
 extraordinary manner with every departmental qm stion, 
 both in Parliament and in negotiating with foreign 
 Ministers when they saw this, and when, above all. (hey
 
 232 . LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 observed the chivalry with which he threw himself into the 
 defence of the very meanest of his subordinates if he had 
 a right to claim the protection of his chief, the persons 
 employed in his department instead of offering, as I am 
 bound to say they do, a measured attachment to their 
 chief when they think he fulfils with ability and conscien- 
 tiousness the duties of his office, these men felt for Lord 
 Palmerston more of the devotion, the passionate attach- 
 ment, which a conquering army feels for its chief, which 
 the Tenth Legion felt for Caesar, or the Old Guard for 
 Napoleon.' 
 
 Speaking of his political career, Earl Granville con- 
 tinued : 
 
 ' If Lord Palmerston had faults, those faults sprang from 
 the overflowing of the great qualities which he possessed, 
 and from the patriotism which influenced every act of his 
 life. Lord Palmerston knew how to make concessions 
 under changing circumstances, as all wise men do. He 
 knew how to move with the spirit of the age ; but there 
 were some great principles which he never deserted through 
 life his passionate attachment to civil and religious liberty 
 all over the world ; his opposition to anything like religious 
 persecution or injustice ; his horror of oppression and 
 perfect detestation of slavery in all its forms. His great 
 stimulus was the patriotic feeling to which I have alluded, 
 and to this feeling he added an unbounded belief in the 
 destinies of the country to which he belonged, and a wish 
 to place every Englishman collectively and individually on 
 a pinnacle of honour and glory. These were the qualities, 
 together with unwearied industry, accompanied by gifts of 
 a lighter and more graceful, but not less useful, nature 
 which God had bestowed upon him, which extorted even
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALMERSTON 233 
 
 from unfriendly critics terms of admiration of his winning 
 manner and happy temperament, his English solidity mixed 
 with something of Irish vivacity. The same terms of ad- 
 miration were expressed in regard to his quickness, his great 
 experience, and his natural and national eloquence. These 
 are the causes which induced his great rival, Sir R. Peel, 
 even in a moment of political attack, to admit that Lord 
 Palmerston was the Minister of whom England was proud, 
 and these were some of the causes which, when he was 
 taken away from us at an age which it is given to few men 
 to attain, yet in the full possession of all his faculties, made 
 it appear to the community at large, without distinction of 
 politics or of class, as almost an unexpected, a premature 
 event.' 
 
 These lines, which appeared in Punch on October 28, 
 express what very large numbers felt with regard to him : 
 
 Kut his heart was his England's, his idol her honour, 
 Her friend was his friend, and his foe was her foe ; 
 
 \Yere her mandate despised, or a scowl cast upon her, 
 How stern his rebuke, or how vengeful his blow ! 
 
 Her armies were sad, and her banners were tattered, 
 And lethargy wrought on her strength like a spell ; 
 
 He came to the front, the enchantment was scattered 
 The rest let a reconciled enemy tell. 
 
 As true to our welfare, he did his own mission, 
 
 When Progress approached him with Wisdom for guide ; 
 
 He cleared her a path, and with equal division 
 Hade quack and fanatic alike stand aside. 
 
 Two traits of Lord Palmerston's character rendered him 
 conspicuously successful as a great leader of men. He was 
 entirely fearless, and he never deserted a subordinate. Hu
 
 234 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 came to his convictions deliberately. His well-balanced 
 mind and temperament had little in it of the impulsive. 
 He thought without excitement or passion, but the con- 
 viction once attained, the resolution once taken, he never 
 looked back. He might be swayed by the public voice 
 before his determination was made, but never afterwards. 
 And having himself a strong sense of the responsibility of 
 office, he had sympathy for all under him ; and his counsel 
 in difficulty, and support under imputation, were never 
 failing the only sure way to obtain hearty and zealous 
 service. 
 
 His powers were exerted with care and skill unmarred 
 by impulse, temper, or vacillation. His mind was a vast 
 storehouse of details, historical, biographical, descriptive, 
 bearing on the whole political relations of the nations of 
 Europe, and the position of this country in regard to them ; 
 coupled with the most profound and extensive knowledge 
 of men and manners, the springs of human action, the 
 motives to sway men's judgment. No one ever heard Lord 
 Palmerston as the Laudator temporis acti. He had no 
 feeble allusions to former triumphs, nor complacent recall- 
 ings of the great deeds of yore. One could not tell, save 
 from the striking maturity of his views and the firmness of 
 his conclusions, that his experience had been greater than 
 that of his audience. That which showed the true power 
 of his mind was the lucid, well-balanced, rapid grasp with 
 which he apprehended the question immediately to hand, 
 shutting out entirely all others, and bringing to bear on the 
 topic before him all the resources of his knowledge. 
 
 A happy temperament, kindly humour, good breeding, 
 and unfailing health made Lord Palmerston friends wherever 
 he went, but the true source of the unbounded confidence
 
 PERSONAL CIIAKALTKRISTICS OF I'ALMKKSTOX 235 
 
 with which the nation regarded him was the calm, unim- 
 passioned, weighty power by which his political acts and 
 opinions were distinguished. He loved his country and his 
 country loved him. He lived for her honour, and she will 
 cherish his memory.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABERCROMBY, Mr., 106, 108, 109 
 
 Aberdeen, Earl, 86, 89, 148, 155, 156, 
 166 ; letters to, 157-161, 162 
 
 Abolition of one-pound notes, 52 
 
 Alava, General, 32 
 
 Algeria, the French in. 2 x> 
 
 Althorp, Lord, 3, 69. See also Spencer, 
 Lord 
 
 American Civil War, 206, 207 
 
 Amherst, Lord, 42 
 
 Anglesey, Lord, 54, 56 
 
 Anson, Lord, 56 
 
 Apponyi (Austrian Ambassador), 210 
 
 Arbitration, Lord Palmerston on sub- 
 mitting international disputes to, 116, 
 
 "7 
 
 Argyll, Duke of, 1^.2 164 
 
 Army estimates, Lord Palmerston and, 
 22, 24 
 
 'Arrow,' the lorcha, 182 
 
 Ashley, Mr., 207, 212, 227, 228 
 
 Assassination, Lord Palmerston's at- 
 tempted, 24 
 
 Athens, 144 
 
 Austria, 21, 83, 8S, 102, 172, 173 ; and 
 Lombard)-, 105-110; and Hungary, 
 118-124; France and, 190 200; and 
 Prussia, 210, 21 1 
 
 BAGOT, Mr., n 
 
 Balaclava, 167 
 
 Baltic, Lord Palmerston's policy in the, 
 
 169, 21 1 
 
 Bancroft, Mr., 114, 115 
 Bankes, Mr., 41 
 Barrot, Mons. Odilon, 95, 97 
 Bathurst. Lord, 39, 47 
 Beauvale, 145 
 Belfast, Lord, 56 
 Belgium, 66 70 
 Beresford, Lord, ^3, 40 
 Berlin Lord Palmerston at, 82-84 
 Binning, Mr., 62 
 Black Sea, the, 160-163, 176 
 Bourne, Sturges, 41 
 Bresson, Mons., 30 
 
 Bright, Rt. Hon. John, 90, 101, 182, 205 
 Bristol, riot at. 66 
 Broadlands, i . 17, 78 
 
 DAY 
 
 Brocket, Lord Palmerston's death :t 
 
 212 
 
 Brougham, Lord, 3, 9, 10, 24, 59 
 Brown. Colonel, 7 
 Bulwer, Sir H., 1 1 1 
 Bunsen, Chevalier, no 
 Buonaparte, Napoleon, 6, 10, 25, 124 
 
 anecdotes <jf, 30-32 ; death of, ;s 
 Busaco, battle of, 26 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, Lord Palmerston at, 5 7 ; 
 
 and University of, 8, 9 
 Cambridge House, 215, 224 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, 183 
 Canning, Lord, 6, 35, 4042, 44, iu ; 
 
 death of, 45 
 Canrobert, 170 
 Castlereagb, Lord, 35 
 Catholic question, the, .-3, ^q, 47 49, si, 
 
 53 56, 62, 63 
 Chatham, Lord, 20 
 China, i . 
 
 ( '/7-/.v Kotnaniis sum, 120, i v> 
 Clare eleui.m, 53 
 Clarence, Duke of, 49 
 Clarendon, Lord, 165, 174, 180 
 Clifiony (Ireland), 38, 19 
 Cliliord, Sir A., and Lord Palrm-rM <>::. 
 
 218 
 
 Cobden, 90, loi , 117, 182, 205, 208 
 Coercion Bill, 71 
 
 ' Coningsby,' Lord Pnimerstnn and, S? 
 Consort, Prince, and foreign affairs, i ;<, 
 
 145 ; death of, mf*, ->i<7 
 Conspiring refugee-, in I..M.I!.MI, i so 
 Coote, Sir Kyre, 20 
 Copenhagen, 210 
 
 Copley, Sir John (Lord Lyndhiirxl), 41 
 Corn I,aws, 79, So, 90 
 Correspondence, Lord PaJmcrM n ami, 
 
 13 
 
 Crimean War, 74. i*<> 163, I'H i-'i ;]; 
 Cumljcrland, Duke nf, 49, 511. 5.-, 5;, 
 
 61 
 
 DAI.LIMO, Lord, 10 
 Dalrymplc, C,rn., in Port n K.I' 
 Day, Ji'lin the ir.iinrr. 7-1
 
 233 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Delhi, 184, 185 
 
 Denmark, 12, 14, 210, 211, 221 
 
 Derby, Earl of, 147-150, 165, 187, 188 
 
 D'Escars, Madame, 55 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 130, 147, 148, 222 ; 
 
 letter to Lord Palmerston, 84-87 
 Disraeli's ' Coningsby,' 82 
 Don Carlos, 71 
 Don Pacifico, 126-129, 214 
 Doncaster, 6 
 
 Drainage of the Test valley, 151 
 Drouyn de 1'Huys, Mons., 171, 172 
 Dudley, Lord, 47, 62, 63, 64 
 Dumas, Gen., 98, 99 
 Dundas, Sir David, 22 
 
 EARDLEY, Sir C., 224, 225 
 
 East India Charcer, 149 
 
 East Retford, 63 
 
 Edinburgh, schooldays at, 3-5 
 
 Egypt, 74 
 
 Eldon, Lord, 40, 51, 59, 61 
 
 Elections. See Newtown, Tiverton 
 
 Ellice, Mr. Edward, 138 
 
 Emigration from Ireland, 90, 91, 151 
 
 England, moral influence of, 72, 115, 
 116 ; and Spain, 91, 92 ; foreign policy 
 of, in 1850, 127-129 ; and France, 202- 
 204, 208 ; in the Crimea, 160 
 
 Espartero, 92 
 
 Esterhazy, Count, 70 
 
 Eton, 2 
 
 Europe, events in, 10 
 
 FALMOUTH, Lord, 60 
 
 Famine in Ireland, 90, 91 
 
 Fitzgerald, Mr., 50, 53, 59 
 
 Fitzroy, Mr. Henry, 96 
 
 Flahaut, Count de, 202-204 
 
 Foreign affairs, Lord Palmerston and, 
 ii, 54-56, 65-80, 132, 133 ; Office, 65- 
 80, 131, 148, 149 
 
 Fox, Mr., 6, 10 
 
 France, army of, at Busaco,26 ; at Water- 
 loo, 34, 35 ; visits to, 25-35 ; Polignac 
 and, 54, 55, 59 ; and Belgium, 68-70, 
 73 ; and Syria, 75-77, 88 ; tariffs in, 
 84; and Spain, 112, 126; Lord Pal- 
 merston and, 133-137 ; and Crimean 
 War, 160, 165-181 ; and the attempted 
 assassination of Emperor Napoleon, 
 186-188 ; and Austria, 1^0-200 ; and 
 Sardinia, 199, 201 ; and England, 202- 
 204, 208 ; and Germany, 205 
 
 Franchise, the, 62, 152-159 
 
 Fraser, Sir Wm., and Lord Palmerston, 
 218, 221 
 
 Free Trade, 79, 84 
 
 GARIBALDI, Gen. 215, 216 
 
 George III., jubilee of. 20 ; death of, 35 
 
 George IV., 50, 55-58, 60,62 
 
 Germany, 77, 83, 205, 210 
 
 Gibson, Mr. Milner, 182 
 
 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 130, 148, 
 
 165, 190, 205, 207, 208 
 Goderich, Lord, 42, 62 
 Gordon, Duchess of, 147 
 Goulburn, 41, 47 
 Graham, Sir James, 126, 156, 165 
 Grant, Charles, 60, 62, 63, 64 
 Grant, Robert, 50, 60 
 Granville, Earl, 131, 146, 190; on Lord 
 
 Palmerston, 231 
 
 Greece, 56, 62, 63, 102, 112, 113, 125 
 'Greville Memoirs,' extracts from, 145, 
 
 146, 219 
 Grey, Earl, 51, 56, 60, 64, 65, 69, 71, 87, 
 
 137, 203 ; letters to Lord Palmerston, 
 
 138, 139, M3-I45 
 
 Guizot, Mons., 84-87, 92, 95, 96, 125, 
 126 
 
 HAMILTON, Sir George, 106 
 
 Hardinge, Viscount, 48 
 
 Harrow, schooldays at, 2, 216, 218, 229 
 
 Hartington, Lord, 190 
 
 Havelock, Gen., 184 
 
 Haynau, Gen., 124, 125 
 
 Heathcote, Sir Wm., 57 
 
 Herbert, Rt. Hon. Sidney, 165 
 
 Herries, Mr., 41, 42, 59, 62 
 
 Highlanders at Paris review, 30 
 
 Hill, Sir George, 40 
 
 Holmes, Sir Leonard, to 
 
 Home Office, Lord Palmerston at, 148- 
 
 164 
 
 Houghton, Lord, 221 
 House of Commons, Lord Palmerston 
 
 in, 10, n, 21, 22, 214-235 
 Hume, Mr., 24 
 
 Hummelauer, Mons. de, 106-108 
 Hungary, Austria and, 118-124 
 Huskisson, Sir J., 47, 48, 50, 57-59, 62, 
 
 78 ; deaih of, 63 
 
 INCOME-TAX, 80, 149 
 
 Indian Mutiny, 183-186, 109 
 
 Ireland, 15, 37-40, 46, 53, 114, 115 ; bill 
 
 to protect property in, 90 ; potato 
 
 famine in, 90, 91 ; emigration from, 
 
 '5 1 
 Italy, 102-106, 109, 113, 216; France, 
 
 Austria, and, 190-200 
 
 JAMAICA, 71 
 Jerome, Gen., 30-31 
 Jervis, Sir John, 3 
 Jocelyn, Lord, 212 
 
 KF.PPEL, Sir Harry, 140-143 
 Killarney, 15 
 Knatchbull, Sir K., 60 
 Knighton Sir Wm., 41, 42
 
 INDEX 
 
 239 
 
 LAFITTE, Mons., 201 
 
 Lamartine, Mons., 90 
 
 Lamb, Wm. See Melbourne, I/ord 
 
 Landowner, Lord Palmerston as a, 16 
 
 Lansdowne, Lord, 9, 64, 138, 152 
 
 Leopold I., King, 67, 68, 70, 209 
 
 Letters of Lord Palmerston, schoolboy 
 to mother, 1-3 ; to sister, 5-7, 11-16 ; 
 to brother, 44, 45, 47-53, 55-6.2, 78, 79, 
 82-84, 148-151 '. to Lord Malmesbury, 
 17-20 ; Russian advances on Turkey, 
 35. 3^ ' on pblic affairs (1826), 38-43 ; 
 interview with Canning, 40-43; written 
 in 1838, 62-64 on ' ne Turks, 74 : on 
 French affairs, 73, 75 ; about Mr. Day 
 the trainer, 78 ; on Marshal Naryaez, 
 92, 93 ; about King Louis Philippe, 
 98-100 ; to Earl Grey, 139 ; to Sulivan, 
 148; to Lord Lansdowne, 152-157; 
 to Earl Aberdeen, 157-159; to Em- 
 peror Napoleon, 166, 167 ; to Lord 
 Clarendon, 174-177; to Count Per- 
 signy, 177-179 ; on state of Russia, 
 179, 180; to Queen Victoria, 181, 182 ; 
 on Indian Mutiny, 185 ; on Italy, 191, 
 192 ; on France and England, 202- 
 204 ; to King Leopold, soy ; to Lord J. 
 Russell, 210, 211 
 
 Lewis, Sir G. C., 165 
 
 Lichtenstein, Prince AL, 30 
 
 Lieven, Madame de, 43, 224 ; Mons., 
 68, 70 
 
 Life Guards at Paris review, 30 
 
 Littleton, 56, 61 
 
 Liverpool, Lord, 23, 39, 43 : death of, 40 
 
 Lombardy, Austria and, 105-110, 191 
 
 Ixjndon conspiracies, 150 
 
 Lowe, Mr., on Lord Paimcrston, 230 
 
 Lyndhurst. Lord, 41, 59 
 
 MACAO, incident at, 140 143 
 Macaulay. Lord. 9 
 Magenta, battle of. ic,o 
 Malmesbury, Lord, 17-20, 80 
 Manchester, Mr. Gladstone's speech at, 
 
 207, 208 
 
 Man;hes;cr, Puke of, 42 
 Manners, Lord John, 82 
 Mansfield, Lord, 59 
 Mehcmet Ali, 74, 88 
 Melbourne, Lord, 21, 47, 62, 64, 66, 71, 
 
 79, 87, in 
 
 Metternich, Prince, 92, 125 
 Miguel in Portugal, 49, 52 
 Militia Kill, 147 
 Militia, the, 93 
 Milnes, K. Monckton (Lord Hotighton), 
 
 221 
 
 Minto, Earl of, 102-105 
 Mold, Count, os, 97 
 Montpensier, Duchesse de. i.<5 
 ' Morning Po.st,' and Eastern Question, 
 
 iij, 162 
 Murray, Sir G., 33, 50 
 
 NAPIER, Lord, 106 
 
 Naples, Earl of Minto at, 104 
 
 Napoleon, Prince Louis, 133-137, 166- 
 171, 180, 199, 209 ; attempted assassi- 
 nation of, 186-188 
 
 Narvaez, Marshal, 92 
 
 Nervins and Jerome, 31 
 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 60 
 
 Newtown, Isle of Wight, 10 
 
 Nicholas, Emperor, death of, 168 
 
 Nimmo, Mr., 37-39 
 
 O'CoNNELL, Mr., 53 
 
 One-pound notes, abolition of, 52 
 Oratory, Lord Palmerston's, 12, 13 
 Otho, King of Greece, 112 
 Outram, Dr., 8 
 
 PALMERSTON, Lord, birth of, i ; educa- 
 tion, 1-7 ; and Cambridge University, 
 8-10 ; appointed junior Lord of the 
 Admiralty, 10-11; maiden speech, 
 11-13; in Ireland, 15-16; Secretary 
 
 ^ r , Wa !>,;r,?. 6 ; a dand 5'' 43-44 : and 
 Duke of Wellington, 46, 47 ; on foreign 
 affairs, 54-56 ; at the Foreign Office, 
 65-80, 00-130 ; and foreign travels 
 82-84 ; Mr. Disraeli and, 84-87 ; and 
 King Louis Philippe, 94-100 ; dis- 
 missal from Foreign Office, 131-147; 
 and Sir H. Keppel, 143 ; and Karl 
 Granville, 146: at the Home Office, 
 148-164 ; and Parliamentary Reform, 
 150-160: Prime Minister, 165-212; 
 Warden of the Cinque Ports, 205 ; and 
 Mr. Cobden, 208 ; death of, 212, 213 ; 
 personal characteristics of, 214-235. 
 See also Elections, Letters, Speeches 
 
 Pans, Lord Palmerston at, 25-35. 54. 
 64 : events in, 94^96 ; Treaty of, 181 
 
 Parker, Admiral, 144 
 
 Parliamentary Reform, 150-160, 188, 
 205 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 30, 43, 45, 47, 50, 57, 
 71, 79, 80, 85, Kf; So, 130, 214, 233 
 
 Peninsular War, the, 20, 21, 26 
 
 Penrhyn, t>i 
 
 Perceval, Rt. Hon. Spencer, 17-19; as- 
 sassination of. 2; 
 
 Pi.Ts.igny, Count, 177 17^ 
 
 Petty, Lord H. St.- I-ansdowne, Fx>rd 
 
 Philippe, King Louis, gz ; otcrthruw of. 
 94-101 
 
 Piedmont, 107, 199 
 
 Pitt, Mr., 6. 8, 147 
 
 Poland, Russia and, 60, ->o 200 
 
 Police Hill. v> 
 
 Polignac anil French Government, 54. 
 55, $'> 
 
 Ponsonby, Lord, ic/f 
 
 Portland, Ihikc of, 11 
 
 Portugal, 13, rj, 3,-, 53, 71 . 102. nj 
 
 Potato r:>ni!!; in Ireland. <,<. ui 
 
 Poui N Lord, (;, 64
 
 240 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON 
 
 Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston as, 
 
 165-212 
 Prussia, army of, at Paris, 26-33, 88, 
 
 209, 210 ; the King of, 82-84 
 ' Punch,' and Lord Palmerston's policy 
 
 in 1849, "9 : on ^e death of Lord 
 
 Palmerston, 233 
 
 QUADRUPLE alliance of 1834, 71, 73 
 
 RAGLAN, Lord, 170 
 
 Reform, 65, 71, 150-160, 188, 205 ; Bill 
 
 of 1832, 44 
 Repartee, Lord Palmerston's power of, 
 
 24, 25, 222, 223 
 
 Reverence, Lord Palmerston and, 2 
 Roebuck, Mr., 125, 165, 166, 209 
 Rome, Earl of Minto at, 102-104 
 Rowcliffe, Mr., at Tiverton, 188, 189 
 Russell, Lord John, 3, 81, 90, 131, 133- 
 
 148, 152, 156, 165, 166, 190, 203, 210, 
 
 211 
 
 Russia, 14, 88, 118 ; and Turkey, 35-36, 
 55, 56, 60, 160-163, *98 ; an d Poland, 
 69; and the Crimean War, 165-181 
 
 SARDINIA, 105, 109; France and, 199, 
 200 
 
 Savoy, French occupation of, 200, 202 
 
 Schinkej the architect, 83 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein, 209, 210, 221 
 
 Scutari, 167 
 
 Sebastiani, 68 
 
 Sebastopol, 162, 163, 166, 170 
 
 Sepoy Mutiny, the, 183, 199 
 
 Sewers of London, the, 149 
 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 205 
 
 Sherbrooke, Viscount. See Lowe, Mr. 
 
 Shrewsbury, Lord, 102 
 
 Sinope, 160, 161 
 
 Slavery Abolition Bill, 71 
 
 Sleswig, State of, 109, no 
 
 Sligo, Lord Palmerston's estates in, 15, 
 1 6, 37-40, 91 
 
 Solfenno, battle of, 190 
 
 Soult, Marshal, 124 
 
 Spain, 102, in, 112, 126; Sir A. Welles- 
 ley in, 20, 21 ; and Portugal, 32 ; Civil 
 War in 71-73 
 
 Spanish marriages, the 91, 92 
 
 Speeches of Lord Palmerston : maiden, 
 in House of Commons,ii-i3 ;on Army, 
 Estimates, 21, 22 ; on giving the fran- 
 chise to Catholics, 23, 24 ; on Spanish 
 Civil War, 72 ; and Lord Stanley, 81, 
 82 ; reply to his possessing warlike 
 tendencies, 87-90 ; on submitting inter- 
 national disputes to arbitration, n6, 
 117 ; re Don Pacifico, 125-129, 214, 
 222 ; at Tiverton, 188, 189 ; on France 
 
 and Austria, 192-200 ; on American 
 Civil War, 206, 207 ; on the opening of 
 a new railway, 228 
 
 Spencer, Lord, 9 
 
 Stanley, Lord, 59, 61, 81. 90, 125 
 
 Stewart, Professor Dugald, 3-5 
 
 Strachan, Sir R., 20 
 
 Strike, school, at Harrow, 3 
 
 Strikes, 158, 159 
 
 Sulivan, Mr., Lord Palmerston's brother- 
 in-law, 56-62 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, 50 
 
 Sutherland, Duchess of, 216 
 
 Syria, France and, 75-77, 83 
 
 TALAVERA, battle at, 20 
 
 Talleyrand, 67, 68, 70 
 
 Tariffs, Lord Palmerston and foreign, 84 
 
 Temple, Henry John. See Palmerston, 
 Lord 
 
 'The Times' on Lord Palmerston as 
 Home Secretary, 151 ; Lord Palmer- 
 ston and, 173, 174 
 
 Thiers, Mons., 76, 95, 97 
 
 Tiverton, 147, 188, 213 
 
 Trade Unions, 158 
 
 Treaty of Paris, 181 
 
 Turkey, 74, 76, 88 ; Russia and, 35, 36, 
 55, 56, 60, 160-163, 173, 175, 198 
 
 UNITED STATES, 114, 115 ; Civil War in, 
 206, 207 
 
 VICTORIA, Queen, accession of, 73, 74 ; 
 and foreign affairs, 133, 146; Lord Pal- 
 merston's letter to, 181, 182 
 
 Vienna, 171, 178 
 
 Villafranca, agreements of, 195 
 
 Vittoria, Duke of, in 
 
 Vivian, Sir Richard, 57, 61 
 
 WALEWSKI, Count, 175-177 
 
 War Office, Lord Palmerston at, 17 36, 
 
 165 
 
 Warrender, 62 
 
 Waterloo, battle of, 25, 26, 35 
 Wellesley, Sir Arthur. See Wellington, 
 
 Duke of 
 Wellington, Duke of, in Spain, 20, 21, 
 
 26 ; at Paris, 25-35, 45~47, 55. 57, 62, 
 
 64, 65, 89 
 
 Westmoreland, Lord, 39 
 Weyer, M. Van de, 67-70 
 William IV., 71; death of, 73 
 Wiseman, Dr., 102 
 Wood, Sir Chas., 165 
 
 YORK, Duke of, 22 
 
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