PALMA CHRISTI 



PALMERSTON 



725 



inferior merit, though lie modelled his style on 

 that of Titian, Palma Vecchio, and Tintoretto. 

 Except for eight years in Koine, lie spent all his 

 life at Venice. 



I'alnia Christ!. See CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 



Palmblad, VILHELM FREDRIK, a Swedish 

 hitrian, was horn 16th December 1788, at Lil- 

 jested, in East Gothland, where his father held a 

 post under the government, studied at Upsala, and 

 became professor of Greek in the same university 

 in 1835. He died 2d Septeml>er 1852. Amongst 

 his works ( which deal with geography, history, 

 and classical philology) are the Biognifisk Lexikon 

 (23 vols. 1835-59) and the historical novel A urora 

 Kuningsmark ( 1 847 ). 



Palmellacese. See ALGJE. 



I'allili'r ( Lat. palmifrr, 'a pal m -hearer '), pro- 

 perly so called, was a pilgrim who had performed 

 the pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, and hat! 

 returned, or was returning home alter the fulfilment 

 of his vow. The Palmers were so called from their 

 carrying branched of the oriental palm, in token of 

 their accomplished expedition. On arriving at 

 tlicir home they repaired to the church to return 

 thanks to G<xl, and offered the palm to the priest, 

 to he placed upon the altar. 



Palmer. EIAVARD HENRY, the 'Sheikh Abdul- 

 lah,' was born 7th August 1840, at Cambridge, and 

 while a -rln ml buy there picked up Romany (the 

 Gypsies' tongue), while a clerk in the City Italian 

 and French. In 1859 he all but died of consump- 

 tion ; in 1860 at Cambridge began to devote himself 

 to oriental studies Arabic, Persian, and Hindu- 

 stani ; in 1863 obtained a sizarship at St John's ; 

 ami in 1867. graduating with a third-class in classics, 

 was yet elected a Fellow of bis college. During 

 l^i.s 70 lie was engaged for the Palestine Explora- 

 tion Fund in the survey of Sinai, and, with Charles 

 Tyrwhitt Drake, of the Desert of the Wanderings, 

 acquiring meanwhile a marvellous knowledge of 

 the wild Arab tribes. In 1871 he was appointed 

 Lord Almoner's professor of Arabic at Cambridge 

 (his stipend 40, 10s., augmented next year by 

 250); and in 1874 he was also called to the bar. 

 So ten years went by of work and play he was a 

 wonderful conjurer of sorrow, too, and trouble, 

 for he lost his first wife and got involved in money 

 difficulties, till in 1881 he turned London journalist, 

 writing principally for the filniii/(tril. Finally, in 

 June 1882, on the eve of Arabics Egyptian rebellion, 

 he was pitched on by government for the perilous 

 mission of winning over the Sinai tribes to Britain 

 and hindering the destruction of the Suez Canal. 

 He made two expeditions the first his great ride 

 from Gaza to Suez (July 15-31), and the second 

 when, starting from Suez with Captain Gill, R. E., 

 and Lieutenant Charrington, R.N. , he and they on 

 August 11 were betrayed and murdered in the 

 ravine of Wady Sudr. Eight months later the 

 three were buried in St Paul's. 



Of a score of works by Professor Palmer may be men- 

 tioned his Desert </ the Kxadui ( 1871 ), Araliif, Gvnmmar 

 ( 1874 ), Sonri of the Reed ( 1876 ), Poems of Bfhfi ed Din 

 Zohfir (1876-771, Persinn-Enylish and Enf/li*/i- Persian 

 Dictionary (1876-83), Haroun Alnur/M (18.SO). and a 

 translation of the Koran (1880). See his Lift; by W. 

 Besant (1883). 



Palmer, ROUNDELL. See SEI.BORNE ( LOUD). 



Palmer, SAMCEL. See ENGRAVING, Vol. IV. 

 p. 380. 



Palmerston, HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, VIS- 

 COUNT, was bom at the family mansion, Broad- 

 lands, near Romsey, Hants, 20th October 1784, and 

 belonged to the Irish branch of the ancient English 

 family of Temple, taking name from Temple in 

 Leicestershire. Sir W. Temple, the diplomatist 

 and patron of Swift, was a member of this family, 



which removed to Ireland about 1601, and which 

 was ennobled in 1722, when Henry Temple was 

 created a peer of Ireland with the dignities of 

 Baron Temple and Viscount Palmerston. His 

 grandson, Henry, second Viscount (1739-1802), 

 was father of the great minister, and superintended 

 his education at Broad lands, until he sent him to 

 Harrow. Young Temple in 1800 went to the 

 university of Edinburgh, where he attended the 

 lectures of Dugald Stewart and other professors. 

 In 1802 he succeeded his father as third Viscount, 

 and in 1803 he matriculated at St John's College, 

 Cambridge. His eminent abilities were early recog- 

 nised, for he was scarcely of age when the Tory 

 party in the university selected him (1806) as 

 their candidate to succeed Mr Pitt in the repre- 

 sentation. Unsuccessful at Cambridge then and 

 again in 1807, he entered parliament in the latter 

 year for Newport, in the Isle of Wight, his 

 colleague being Arthur Wellesley, then Chief- 

 secretary for Ireland. In 1811 he exchanged New- 

 port for the university of Cambridge, enjoyed the 

 distinction of representing his alma mater for 

 twenty years, and only lost his seat when he 

 became a memlier of the Grey administration and 

 supported the Reform Bill. For the last two years 

 of tlie unreformed parliament he sat for the now 

 extinct borough of Bletchingly. At the first election 

 after the Retorm Act he was returned for South 

 Hampshire, but lost his seat at the general election 

 of 1835. He immediately afterwards found a seat 

 for the borough of Tiverton. 



Having traced his representative, we now turn 

 to his olhcial career. Palmerston entered life as a 

 member of the Tory party, and accepted the otlice 

 of Junior Lord of the Admiralty find Secretary at 

 War (without a seat in the cabinet) in 1809. This 

 office he held during the successive governments of 

 Mr Perceval, the Earl of Liverpool, Mr Canning, 

 Lord Goderich, and the Duke of Wellington a 

 period extending from 1809 to 1828. There was 

 ample scope at the War Office for Palmereton'l 

 administrative talents and activity. The military 

 system swarmed with abuses, and the labour 

 thrown upon the Secretary at War during the 

 Peninsular campaigns was prodigious. In 1816 an 

 attempt was made to assassinate Palmerston by an 

 insane army-lieutenant, named Davis, who fired 

 a pistol at him as he was entering the Horse 

 Guards ; the bullet, however, only inflicted a 

 slight wound. Palmerston early attached himself 

 to the Canning section of the Liverpool administra- 

 tion, and he accepted a seat in the cabinet of 

 Mr Canning. His official connection with the 

 Tory party ceased in 1828, when the 'Great 

 Duke' insisted on accepting Mr Huskisson's 

 resignation, which was followed by Palmerston's 

 retirement. The Duke's government was swept 

 away in the reform flood of 1830; and Earl Grey, 

 who became prime-minister, offered the seals of 

 the Foreign Office to Palmerston. The European 

 horizon was so disturbed at this crisis that a great 

 political authority declared that if an angel from 

 neaven were in the Foreign Office he could not 

 preserve peace for three months. Palmerston 

 falsified the prediction. Louis-Philippe then filled 

 the throne of France ; and for the first time on 

 record England and France acted in concert, and 

 without jealousy, under Palmerston's foreign 

 ministry. He took a leading part in securing the 

 independence of Belgium, in establishing the 

 thrones of Queen Isabella of Spain and Queen 

 Maria of Portugal on a constitutional basis, in 

 endeavouring, in alliance with Austria and Turkey, 

 to check Russian influence in the East, and in 

 the war with Mehemet Ali. In 1841 Palmerston 

 went out of office with the Whigs on the question 

 of free trade in corn; but on their return in 1846 



