PALMERSTON, HENRY JOHN TEMPLE. - English statesman, b. 20 Oct. 1784 in London, d. 18 Oct. 1865 at Brocket Hall (Hertfordshire). First
Lord of the Admiralty (1807-1809) and Secretary of War (1809-32), he was Foreign Secretary (1830-41 and again 1846-51); he became Home Secretary in the Aberdeen cabinet (1852-55) and Prime Minister from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 until his death. He was almost continuously a member of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1865.
In the action carried out by P., both as holder of the Foreign Office and as Prime Minister, there is clearly reflected England's conduct of international relations over a long period of the nineteenth century. The years from 1830 to 1865, dense with events such as to give a new face to Europe and the world, marked the end of absolutist or in any case paternalistic regimes and the advent of liberal and parliamentary institutions; they determined the victory of the idea of nation and the sure affirmation of a policy of commercial, economic and colonial expansion, which brought peoples and countries closer together. In all this continental and world evolution England was represented precisely by P. He did not believe in a determined "system," nor did he intend to follow precise directives in foreign policy; indeed he confessed that he was anchored to no principle, and his only guide was the interest of his own country, while nevertheless supporting the cause of liberal and parliamentary institutions on the international stage. It is doubtful whether his system depended on considerations of the advantage England derived from it or on a sincere attachment to and desire for the spread of liberal institutions. From the time of the Belgian question, which arose in 1830, P. succeeded, by coming to an agreement with France, in guaranteeing the freedom and independence of the Belgians, and at the same time in maintaining the European balance, which was not to be broken by an excessive French influence in Belgium. The constitutional principle, so dear to P., served moreover excellently to prevent the predominance of any single power or coalition over the European continent. For this reason he opposed the Carlists in Spain and the Miguelists in Portugal. When finally even the France of Guizot, after 1846, drew close to Austria with the threat of a Franco-Austrian diarchy, once again P. supported the other side; he opposed the Catholic defense movement within the Swiss Confederation, the Sonderbund, and sent Lord Minto to Italy to give full support to the implementation of reforms by the individual Italian states. Metternich's reactionary policy was on his part always the object of harsh condemnation. The events of 1848-49 corroborated his predictions. P. shared the opinion of granting reforms, which of course were to strengthen the Habsburg monarchy and secure for Italy, Hungary and the other territories of the Empire liberal institutions, but he could not accept the dismemberment of Austria and the secession of Hungary, because for him the Habsburg monarchy constituted the pivot of the European balance and the principal barrier against Russian power. After the Congress of Paris, where the Italian problem had also been raised, P., in the discussion of the peace treaty, criticized with evident acrimony on 6 May 1856 the government of the Papal State, and complained of the fact that Lord Minto's counsels, brought to Pius IX in Nov. 1847 on the necessity of reforms, had not been followed. P.'s polemical declarations greatly indignanted Catholic circles and were refuted by Montalembert in his pamphlet Pie IX et lord P.. As he was Prime Minister in 1859-60, England was the first power to recognize the Kingdom of Italy on 30 March 1861. P. was ultimately an individualist, outside of any party, who voted in 1829 in favor of Catholic emancipation and supported electoral reform in 1832, but opposed it twenty years later. He was certainly one of the greatest English statesmen, and knew how to meet the desires of liberal European public opinion.
Bibliography6 works
Silvio Furlani