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 at War (1809–32), he served as Foreign Secretary (1830–41 and again 1846–51); 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 uninterruptedly a member of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1865.
PALMERSTON HENRY JOHN TEMPLE
Portrait – Rome, Museo del Risorgimento.
In the conduct of P.’s office, whether at the Foreign Office or as Prime Minister, there is clearly reflected the policy pursued by England in its international relations throughout a long period of the nineteenth century. The years from 1830 to 1865, crowded with events that reshaped Europe and the world, marked the end of absolutist or at least paternalistic regimes and the advent of liberal and parliamentary institutions; they determined the triumph of the national idea and the secure establishment of a policy of commercial, economic, and colonial expansion that drew peoples and countries closer together. In this entire continental and world evolution, England was represented by P. He did not believe in any fixed “system,” nor did he intend to follow precise directives in foreign policy; indeed, he confessed to being guided by no principle, and his only lodestar was the interest of his own country, though he championed the cause of liberal and parliamentary institutions on the international stage. It is doubtful whether his system derived from considerations of advantage to England or from a sincere attachment and desire for the spread of liberal institutions. From the Belgian question that arose in 1830, P. succeeded, by agreement with France, in guaranteeing the freedom and independence of the Belgians while maintaining the European balance of power, which was not to be disrupted by excessive French influence in Belgium. The constitutional principle, so dear to P., also served admirably to prevent the predominance of any single power or coalition on the European continent. For this reason he opposed the Carlists in Spain and the Miguelists in Portugal. When, after 1846, France under Guizot drew closer to Austria with the threat of a Franco-Austrian diarchy, P. once again took the opposing side; he opposed the Catholic defence movement within the Sonderbund in Switzerland and sent Lord Minto to Italy to support fully the implementation of reforms by the individual Italian states. The reactionary policy of Metternich was always the object of his stern condemnation. The events of 1848–49 confirmed his expectations. P. shared the view that reforms should be granted, which of course were meant to strengthen the Habsburg monarchy and secure liberal institutions for Italy, Hungary, and the other territories of the Empire, but he could not accept the dismemberment of Austria or the secession of Hungary, for in his view the Habsburg monarchy was the pivot of the European balance and the principal bulwark against Russian power.
After the Congress of Paris, where the Italian question had also been raised, P., during the discussion of the peace treaty on 6 May 1856, openly criticised the government of the Papal States and lamented that the advice given by Lord Minto to Pius IX in 1847 on the need for reforms had not been heeded. Palmerston’s polemical declarations greatly incensed Catholic circles and were refuted by Montalembert in his pamphlet *Pie IX et lord P.* As Prime Minister in 1859–60, England was the first power to recognise the Kingdom of Italy on 30 March 1861. P. was, in the final analysis, an individualist outside any party, who voted in 1829 in favour of Catholic emancipation and supported the Reform Bill of 1832 but opposed it twenty years later. He was certainly one of the greatest English statesmen and knew how to respond to the aspirations of European liberal public opinion.