“PAL”
Meanwhile, at home, fresh attempts to galvanize the Queen resulted in
the promotion of Lord Palmerston (“Pal”) to the Premiership--a rather
matey minister who always wore green gloves and sucked a straw and
altered the Despatches after the Queen had signed them, so that they
became surprises for her. It was not, however, until he conceived and
carried through his heartless _Conspiracy to Murder Bill_ that the Good
(but now Horrified) Queen dismissed him. After which “Pal” spent his
time taking special trains in all directions and galloping to Harrow
on a cream-coloured pony, thus endearing himself to the People and
becoming an object of terror and admiration to all foreign governments.