[HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, Viscount Palmerston, born October 20, 1784,
near Romsey, Hampshire; died October 18, 1865, Brocket Hall;
succeeded to the title and the Irish peerage in 1802; educated at
Harrow and Cambridge; Member of Parliament, 1807; at once made a
Junior Lord of the Admiralty; 1809-1828, Secretary at War; about
1830 joined Whig party; 1830-41,1846-51, Secretary for Foreign
Affairs; 1852-55, Home Secretary; 1855-58, 1859-65, Prime
Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. Buried in Westminster
Abbey.]
The Peace is the accepted name for the condition which succeeded
in England the generation which had been spent in the wars with
France and the first Napoleon. For forty years after the Battle
of Waterloo (1815), this condition was unruffled by actual
hostilities between England and any European power, unless that
"untoward event" the Battle of Navarino (1827) and the
bombardment of Antwerp (1832) should be so considered. Petty wars
with the native princes of India and on the Afghan frontier
occurred from time to time, it is true, and the infamous Opium
War was waged against China (1839-42), but until the Crimean
Campaigns (1853-56) and the Indian Mutiny (1857) the war spirit
of the nation was never stirred to its depths. Continental Europe
during these years passed through many convulsions. Bloody
revolutions shook many states, and Prussia, Austria, Denmark,
Turkey, and Italy were involved in wars. The hand that piloted
England among the rocks of the tortuous channel of foreign
politics for nearly a generation was that of Lord Palmerston, for
nearly twenty years Foreign Secretary and twice Prime Minister of
the Queen's government.
Henry John Temple was the descendant of an historic English
family, and was born on the Temple estates at Broadlands in
Hampshire, October 20, 1784. He was, therefore, four years older
than Sir Robert Peel, whom he long survived, and twelve years the
senior of his sometime colleague, Lord John Russell. From Harrow,
where he was reckoned the jolliest boy in the school, and the
pluckiest fighter, he was sent to Edinburgh in charge of Dugald
Stewart, one of the great Scottish teachers of the time, and
thence, after three years under exceptional educative influences,
to Cambridge. His father's death had given him the title of
Viscount Palmerston in the Irish peerage, and before receiving
his degree, his ambition led him to offer himself to the
university as its candidate for the House of Commons. Though
rejected there, a pocket borough was provided for him, and in
1807, at the age of twenty-three, he took his seat as a member
for Newtown, a borough in which he had never set foot. An office
was soon found for him in the Perceval government as Secretary at
War, a post which was charged with the supervision and control of
military expenditure and accounts--no small responsibility at
this juncture. During his score of years in this capacity the
young Palmerston gave evidence of superior abilities as a bureau
chief, while on the floor of the House his speeches marked him as
a stanch asserter of the power of England, and a dangerous man to
trifle with--so quick and powerful was his gift of repartee.
During the brief ministries of Canning and Goderich he received
flattering offers of advancement, leaving the cabinet in May,
1828, with Canning's followers, who opposed the government of
Wellington.
The young aristocrat who had impressed some of his school-fellows
as having no ambitions higher than to be a courtier, had forsaken
"pigtail Toryism," as he called it, and was developing along
liberal lines. He had been a consistent advocate of Catholic
emancipation, an admirer of Canning's broad views, and hospitable
to moderate propositions for the reform of Parliament. When Lord
Grey's government was formed, in 1830, he naturally accepted
office under it, becoming what he had long wished to be,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Except for a few months
he was the spokesman of England in the world's councils until the
downfall of the Whigs, in 1841.
For the duties of his office Palmerston had many qualifications.
His long training in public business; his familiarity not only
with the languages of western Europe, but with foreign public
men, and the national customs and peculiar modes of thought and
feeling; his social faculty which gave him ready access to the
minds of others; and his unfailing confidence in his country and
in himself, brought him well off from a hundred diplomatic
battles. As time went on the nation recognized in him some of its
own most striking characteristics, and his popularity at last
transcended party lines. In Lord Palmerston "John Bull"
recognized himself.
Of the governing principles of his foreign policy Palmerston's
own statement, made in 1848, is as good as can be given. It was
not based upon any permanent alliance with other states, but
provided for such freedom of action as should secure the
"balance of power" in Europe, lest any single state should
become a menace, like France in the Napoleonic era. Palmerston's
statement was, "As long as England sympathizes with right and
justice she will never find herself alone. She is sure to find
some other state of sufficient power, influence, and weight to
support and aid her in the course she may think fit to pursue.
Therefore I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this
country or that is marked out as the perpetual ally or the
perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we
have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and
perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. And if
I might be allowed to express in one sentence the principle
which I think ought to guide an English minister, I would adopt
the expression of Canning, and say that with every British
ministry the interests of England ought to be the shibboleth of
policy."
The achievement of Belgian independence was the first and almost
greatest success of the new Foreign Secretary. When the powers
at Vienna, in 1815, were rearranging the map of Europe they had
joined Belgium with Holland as the kingdom of the Netherlands,
with the idea of forestalling any further advance of France in
that quarter. The union was unnatural. Race, language, and
religion were opposed to it, and in 1830, the Belgians revolted.
A congress of the powers met in London to labor for a peaceful
solution. Between the claims of Holland and the aggressive
policy of France, a rupture was with difficulty avoided. But
eventually, by tact and firmness, Palmerston had his way, and
Belgium became an independent state, without precipitating a
general European war.
The formation of the Quadruple Alliance was the next incident in
this vigorous foreign policy. Portugal and Spain were plunged in
civil wars, the pretenders, Don Miguel and Don Carlos,
attempting to wrest the scepter from the hands of the
constitutional queens. Austria, preparing to interfere in behalf
of despotism, was met, in 1834, by the announcement that a
treaty of alliance had been signed by the four powers-- England,
France, Spain, and Portugal. Though it remained in force but a
short time it served its purpose.
The Eastern Question next took on threatening form. Mehemet Ali,
Pasha of Egypt, rose against the Turkish Sultan, and his son,
Ibrahim, invaded Syria and threatened Constantinople itself. The
Turkish empire seemed about to break in two, France supporting
the Pasha, and so gaining a foothold in Egypt, and Russia
befriending the Porte, and advancing her frontier to the
Bosphorus. Such a consummation would have interposed two hostile
powers between England and her Indian empire. In July, 1840,
Palmerston completed the Quadrilateral Alliance, by which
England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia agreed to restore peace in
the Porte's dominions. This bold stroke, backed by England's
warlike attitude, and Palmerston's characteristic threat that
"Mehemet Ali will just be chucked into the Nile" took the spirit
out of the French government. Mehemet Ali was left to make the
best terms he could with the Quadrilateral, and the crisis was
at an end. This was in July, 1841. The next month the Whig
ministry fell, and Sir Robert Peel returned to power. Palmerston
went out of office with flying colors. "He had created Belgium,
saved Portugal and Spain from Absolutism, rescued Turkey from
Russia, and the highway to India from France." It is true that
the picture had another side, and that the very brilliancy of
his moves, the cleverness with which he played the game of
diplomacy, and his recklessness of the interests of foreign
courts left feelings of bitterness and defeat in the hearts of
many European and American statesmen. His enemies called him a
bully, and denounced his methods as "high handed," but his
countrymen were satisfied.
From 1841 to 1846, as a member of the opposition, the ex-
Minister exercised his functions as a critic of the spiritless
foreign policy of Lord Aberdeen, for which he could find no
better name than "antiquated imbecility." Upon Peel's overthrow,
after the repeal of the Corn Laws (1846), he resumed the foreign
portfolio in the Cabinet of Lord John Russell.
At once the question of the "Spanish marriages" became acute.
King Louis Philippe of France, and his Minister, Guizot, had
been plotting to marry the child-queen, Isabella of Spain, to
her worthless cousin, Don Francisco, and her sister, the
Infanta, to the Duc de Montpensier, Louis Philippe's brother,
with results most promising to the King and to France, but most
distasteful to England, as Palmerston was prompt to declare,
"Such an objection on our part may seem uncourteous and may be
displeasing, but the friendships of states and governments must
be founded on natural interests and not upon personal likings."
Yet despite these protests, the marriages were celebrated.
France seemed to have outwitted Palmerston for once. But
vengeance was not long delayed. The "Citizen King" had few
friends among the monarchical states of the Continent, and in
forfeiting the friendship of England he kicked away one of the
props of his own throne. Within two years came the Revolution
of 1848, which cost him his crown.
Eighteen hundred and forty-eight was a year of revolutions.
Throughout western Europe the popular aspirations were
struggling for expression. Constitutional government was
clamorously demanded, and the despotism which had ground the
Italian states under the heel of Hapsburg and Bourbon was for
the moment shaken. Through her outspoken Foreign Secretary
England let her liberal sympathies be known, but even Palmerston
was careful to keep within the bounds of peaceful protest,
avoiding all provocation to war.
In April, 1847, at Athens, the house of Don Pacifico, a
Portuguese Jew born on British soil at Gibraltar, was destroyed
by a mob of Jew-baiters. As a British citizen he put in a claim
for damages and asked the foreign office to collect it.
Palmerston had other scores to settle with Greece, and when his
demands met with slow response, he sent a British fleet to the
Piraeus to lay hands on Greek shipping. Greece appealed to
France and Russia for protection. The trouble grew to such
proportions that the British Parliament took it up. The Lords
censured the government for its harsh and unjust treatment of a
friendly state. In the Commons a vote of confidence in the
foreign policy was moved, and on this question Lord Palmerston
delivered the greatest speech of his life. It was an exposition
and defense of his entire official career, and no argument could
break the force with Englishmen of the triumphant sentence in
which it culminated. "I fearlessly challenge the verdict which
this House, as representing a political, a commercial, a
constitutional country, is to give on the question before it;
whether the principles on which the foreign policy of this
country has been conducted, and the sense of duty which has led
us to think ourselves bound to afford protection 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 the days of old held himself free from indignity when
he could say 'Civis Romanus sum,' so also a British subject, in
whatever land he be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye
and the strong arm of England shall protect him against
injustice and wrong!"
This "Civis Romanus" speech raised the orator to the highest
pitch of popular regard. But the premier had found him a very
troublesome colleague on account of his confirmed practice of
committing the government on important matters without
consulting with his chief. He was warned by the Queen's personal
memorandum that this habit must cease, but an unpardonable case
occurred in 1851. Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, president of
the French republic, executed his coup d'etat and overthrew the
constitutional government. Without consulting Queen or Premier,
and contrary to their express desire, Palmerston, in
conversation with the French ambassador, approved the bold
stroke of the Prince-President. For this indiscretion Lord
Russell summarily dismissed him.
When Lord Palmerston again took a portfolio, it was to be Home
Secretary in the coalition cabinet of Lord Aberdeen (1852-55).
He had become the warm friend and admirer of Lord Shaftesbury,
whose mother-in-law, Lady Cowper, was now Lady Palmerston, the
most gracious and skilful helpmeet that any statesman could wish
to have. His inclination and his position enabled him to put
through much legislation suggested by the philanthropic peer for
the welfare of the working- classes. His knowledge of foreign
affairs was at the service of the government, and came into
active play when the Czar's claim to a protectorate over all
Greek Christians in the Turkish empire brought the Eastern
Question again to a fever heat, in 1853. The Czar Nicholas had
said in a conversation with the British Minister concerning the
political weakness of Turkey, "We have on our hands a sick man-
-a very sick man; it will be a great mistake if one of these
days he should slip away from us before the necessary
arrangements have been made." His idea of "arrangements" was
that Turkey in Europe should fall under Russian protection,
leaving England free to control her direct route to India by way
of Cyprus and Egypt. English diplomacy encouraged the Sultan to
reject the Russian claim to the uttermost. The result was war.
Turkey first declared it against the Russians, who had already
invaded her Danubian principalities. Palmerston held that it was
the duty of Europe to preserve the balance of power by
preventing Russia from aggrandizing herself at the expense of
Turkey, and when the Czar refused to withdraw from the
principalities England joined with France in declaring the war,
which, from the scene of its chief operations against Russia,
has since been called the Crimean. Forty years had passed since
Waterloo and war was an exciting novelty for British youth.
England plunged into it with enthusiasm, but the feeble and
incompetent prosecution of the campaign against Sebastopol, with
the mismanagement of commissary and hospitals, evoked a storm of
opposition, before which the Aberdeen ministry collapsed. Lord
Palmerston was the natural choice of Queen and nation to succeed
him. He became Prime Minister in February, 1855, and though past
his seventieth year, his energy put a new face on the military
situation, and his diplomacy gained a substantial advantage over
Russia in the Treaty of Paris (March, 1856), which closed the
inglorious conflict, and postponed for twenty years her advance
toward the Bosphorus. The Queen, who had many reasons to dislike
the personality of her chief minister, honored him with the
Garter, in recognition of his services to the state.
Palmerston's government held together until early in 1858,
handling with vigor the various problems of Eastern policy which
grew out of the Crimean War, waging the brief expeditionary wars
with China and Persia, and dealing with characteristic decision
and pluck with the great Sepoy Mutiny in India, in 1857. To
Palmerston belongs the credit of selecting the right person in
Sir Colin Campbell to restore the British power in the revolted
provinces, and his ready optimism helped to nerve the nation in
this year of trial. John Bull felt a new pride in "Old Pam"
when, in his Mansion House speech, in this time of national
foreboding, he served notice on any foreign nation whom it might
concern that "it would not be a safe game to play to take
advantage of that which is erroneously imagined to be the moment
of our weakness."
Palmerston's willingness to alter the English conspiracy laws
for the sake of the Emperor of the French, whose life had been
attempted by the assassin Orsini, cost him his official head in
February, 1858. The second Derby administration which ensued
lasted but fifteen months, giving way, in June of the following
year, to Palmerston's second and last government, with a
brilliant array of advisers; Earl Russell as Foreign Secretary,
and Mr. William Ewart Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The lifelong determination to spare nothing which might be
required for the defense of his country was still strong within
him, as is shown by his strenuous advocacy of increased
armaments, better coast defenses, and more and more powerful
ships. "He never ceased for a single moment to keep before the
nation the great lesson that empires are kept as they are
gained, by courage and self-reliance."
The Civil War in America afforded one of the latest opportunities
for the display of his characteristics in dealing with foreign
affairs. The sentiment of the ruling class in England, the class
to which Lord Palmerston was allied by birth, interest, and
lifelong political association, openly showed its sympathy with
the Southern side. Moreover, the English cotton-mills were shut
down for lack of the raw staple, and English merchants looked
longingly at the blockaded markets of the Confederacy. The Prime
Minister, true to his guiding principle, made "the interests of
England" the watchword of his policy. He was prompt to recognize
the "belligerent rights" of the revolted states against an angry
protest from the Union side; he was strenuous in his demand for
apology and restitution in the case of the Confederate envoys
whom Captain Wilkes, U.S.N., seized on board the British steamer
"Trent"; and he taxed the endurance of Mr. Lincoln's government
to the uttermost by allowing the "Alabama" and other Confederate
commerce-destroyers to be built and outfitted in British ports.
Not even the heavy bill of damages which his country had to pay
at Geneva for this breach of neutrality has softened the
bitterness of feeling which his action at that time engendered
in the United States. If Lord Palmerston was the embodiment of
"John Bull," he here exhibited the national character at its
worst.
The "evergreen" premier, vigorous almost to the last, died at
Brocket in October, 1865. He had outlived many of the traits
which had laid him open to attack and criticism in his younger
days, and had gained in weight and dignity. The knowledge of
what he had done for England, how he had stood for her interests
in the Commons, and won victories for her in foreign courts,
and had penetrated and frustrated the designs of her enemies,
gave him a splendid position in the esteem of English patriots.
They even looked kindly upon his foibles, his foppish attire,
his fondness for the turf, and his frivolous gayety, which shone
undaunted when the national gloom was blackest. When he died
there was a general belief that England had lost a son who had
spared nothing in laboring for her aggrandizement, and he went to
his last resting-place in Westminster Abbey as one who had
earned a place among her most useful servants.