Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount 1784-1865
English statesman

He was born in Westminster, of the Irish branch of the ancient English family of Temple. He was educated at Edinburgh (1800) and Cambridge (1803-06) universities. In 1802 he succeeded his father as viscount and was elected MP in 1807 for Newport (Wight). He represented Edinburgh from 1811 for 20 years, but lost his seat when he supported the Reform Bill. Afterwards he was returned for South Hampshire, lost his seat in 1835, but found a seat for Tiverton. He was junior Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary at War under Spencer Perceval, the Earl of Liverpool, George Canning, Frederick Ripon and the Duke of Wellington (1809-28). His official connection with the Tory Party ceased in 1828 and he entered the Foreign Office in Earl Grey's Whig government in 1830. With England and France acting in concert, Palmerston took a leading part in securing the independence of Belgium, establishing the thrones of Maria of Portugal and Isabella II of Spain, and endeavouring, in alliance with both Austria and Turkey, to check Russian influence in the East. In 1841 Palmerston and the Whigs lost office on the question of free trade in corn, and under Lord John Russell in 1846 he again became Foreign Minister. The Spanish marriages (see Fran�ois Guizot), the revolutions in 1848, the rupture between Spain and Great Britain, the affair of Don Pacifico (a Gibraltar Jew living in Athens, who claimed the privileges of a British subject), and the consequent quarrel with Greece, combined with his self-assertive character, brusque speech, and interferences in foreign affairs, made him a controversial figure. He became known as 'Firebrand Palmerston' and a vote of censure on him was carried in the House of Lords (1850), but it was defeated in the House of Commons. In December 1851 Palmerston expressed to the French ambassador his approbation of the coup d'�tat of Louis-Napoleon (Napoleon III), without consulting either the premier or the queen, and Russell advised his resignation. He shattered the Russell administration soon after on a militia bill, refused office under the Earl of Derby, but was Home Secretary in the Earl of Aberdeen's coalition (1852), whose fall (1855) brought him the premiership. Defeated in 1857 on Richard Cobden's motion condemning the Chinese war, he appealed to the country, and met the House of Commons with a greatly increased majority, but fell in February 1858 over the Conspiracy Bill. In June 1859 he again became Prime Minister, remaining in office till his death. The chief events of his premiership were the American Civil War, Napoleon III's war with Austria, and the Austro-Prussian war with Denmark. It was his ambition to be the minister of a nation rather than of a political party, and his opponents admitted that he held office with more general acceptance than any minister since William Pitt, the Elder (1st Earl of Chatham).

Bibliography: Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (1970)