688 



PALMERSTON, HENRY JOHN TEMPLE. 



measures of the British Government, but as the 

 " Palmerston policy." In 1841 Sir Robert Peel 

 again came into power, and Lord Palmerston 

 took his place in the opposition, and harassed 

 the Peel administration by his attacks on its 

 foreign policy, especially in regard to the Ash- 

 burton Treaty of 1842 with the United States, 

 which he persistently denominated the "Ash- 

 burton Capitulation." Early in 1845, foreseeing 

 the speedy success of the Corn-Law League in 

 their efforts to procure the entire repeal of tLe 

 Corn Laws, Lord Palmerston publicly an- 

 nounced his conversion io the principle of ab- 

 solute repeal. On Sir Robert Peel's resigna- 

 tion the same year, in order to allow the Lib- 

 eral party to take the necessary action conse- 

 quent upon the repeal, Lord John Russell, who 

 was called to form a ministry, desired to have 

 both Earl Grey and Lord Palmerston as mem- 

 bers of his Cabinet, but the Earl refused to 

 serve with Palmerston in consequence of his 

 disagreement with him in his foreign policy, 

 and the Cabinet was not organized. In 1846, 

 however, Russell was more successful, and 

 Palmerston was again installed as Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs. The epoch was a stormy one, 

 one difficult and intricate question after another 

 coming up, and being disposed of by the For- 

 eign Minister, who was really, though not nom- 

 inally, the leader of the Government. Among 

 these questions were : the troubles in Portugal ; 

 the Swiss question ; the revolutionary move- 

 ments of 1848; the Spanish imbroglio of the 

 same year ; the Greek question, extending from 

 1847 to 1850; the Hungarian war, and the pro- 

 tection of the Hungarian chiefs ; and, finally, the 

 recognition of Louis Napoleon, and the forma- 

 tion of an entente cordials with him, contrary 

 to the wishes, and indeed almost in direct de- 

 fiance of the expressed views of the Queen and 

 Prince Albert. Lord Palmerston carried mat- 

 ters with a very high hand in this measure, op- 

 posing the arts of diplomacy and some of those 

 of intrigue to the known wishes of the Queen, 

 who, under the influence of Prince Albert, was 

 strongly in favor of the German policy of non- 

 recognition of Napoleon. Palmerston believed 

 that the peace of Europe, and especially peace 

 between Great Britain and France, could be 

 best secured by an alliance with the Prince 

 President, whose career he foresaw, and he 

 hesitated at nothing to secure that alliance, 

 and in more than one instance he neither took 

 the Queen nor his colleagues entirely into his 

 confidence in the measures ho adopted. The 

 displeasure of the Queen at his conduct is 

 forcibly manifested in the following letter, 

 which she addressed to Lord John Russell in 

 1850: 



The Queen requires, first, that Lord Palmerston 

 will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, 

 in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to 

 what she is giving her royal sanction ; secondly, 

 having once given Tier sanction to a measure, that it 

 be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. 

 Such an act she must consider as failing in sincerity 

 to the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise 



of her constitutional right of dismissing that Minis- 

 ter. She expects to be Kept informed of what passes 

 between him and the Foreign Minister before im- 

 portant decisions are taken, based upon that inter- 

 course ; to receive the foreign despatches in good 

 time, and to have the drafts for her approval sent to 

 her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with 

 their contents before they must be sent off. The 

 Queen thinks it best that Lord John Russell should 

 show this letter to Lord Palmerston. 



Lord Palmerston simply acknowledged the 

 receipt of this document, but pursued his pre- 

 vious course, until, in 1851, Lord John Russell, 

 who sympathized more than his colleague with 

 the Queen, indicated to him that he must leave 

 the Cabinet. He accordingly resigned, but the 

 next year became Home Secretary in the -Earl 

 of Aberdeen's (coalition) administration, and in 

 1855 was called to the premiership on the 

 breaking up of that administration. Under his 

 Government the Russian war was brought to a 

 close, the Indian mutiny occurred and was 

 quelled, and the Chinese war commenced and 

 carried on. The House, at the prompting of 

 Mr. Cobden, passed a vote of censure upon the 

 Premier for his policy in China, and a dissolu- 

 tion was had, but he was sustained, and con- 

 tinued in power till 1858, when he was defeated 

 on the Conspiracy Bill, and resigned. Lord 

 Derby's brief administration terminated in 

 June, 1859, when Palmerston was again called 

 to the premiership, which he retained till his 

 death. His last illness was very brief and al- 

 most painless. Even up to old age (ho was 81 

 years old at his death) he had always been a 

 remarkably healthy and robust man, fond of all 

 field sports, a sound sleeper, a jolly, rollicking, 

 hearty Englishman, an embodiment of the traits 

 and qualities of the Englishman of the nine- 

 teenth century, no better and no worse than 

 the average men of his generation and nation. 

 Though an aristocrat in every fibre of his be- 

 ing, he had the tact to fall in with the popular 

 tastes of the masses, and throughout his long 

 political career of nearly sixty years to keep 

 upon the popular and winning side. He was 

 a skilful diplomatist, but not a great states- 

 man, preferring to carry his measures by dip- 

 lomatic arts and intrigue rather than by plant- 

 ing himself squarely on the platform of a great 

 principle. Principle, in its highest sense, he did 

 not possess ; he adhered, in turn, to nearly every 

 phase of policy adopted by the different admin- 

 istrations of Great Britain during the last sixty 

 years, and his sole criterion of the goodness of 

 a measure was its chances for success. Lofty 

 and self-sacrificing patriotism was something 

 above his liking or comprehension ; it was only 

 when it culminated in successful results that 

 he had a respect for it. He scoffed at and 

 chaffed Cobden and Bright during the long 

 years of their advocacy of the great principles 

 for which they contended ; but when they had 

 won the battle, he promptly ranged himself on 

 their side, and in 1859 offered Mr. Cobden a 

 place in his cabinet, which that statesman civ- 

 illy refused, on the ground that he had not such 



