Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

The Right Honourable Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (October 20, 1784 - October 18, 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. He was in government office almost continually from 1807 till his death in 1865, beginning his parliamentary career as a Tory, and concluding it as a Liberal. He is remembered primarily for having directed British foreign policy as either Foreign Secretary or Prime Minister through most of a thirty five year period when the United Kingdom was at the height of its power. His achievements in that field were many, but some of his aggressive measures drew considerable criticism both in this own time and subsequently.

As Prime Minister

After a brief period of Tory minority government, the Earl of Aberdeen became Prime Minister in a coalition government of Whigs and Peelites (with Russell taking the role of Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons) but it was impossible for them to form a government without Palmerston; he was made Home Secretary in December 1852.

Related Topics:
Tory - Earl of Aberdeen - Russell - House of Commons - Home Secretary - December - 1852

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Although exiled from his traditional realm in the Foreign Office, Palmerston played a key role in securing British entry into war against Russia in 1854. Soon after, Aberdeen's government fell because of public anger at the conduct of the Crimean war and Palmerston was the public choice for Prime Minister, even though he had been as much a part of the conduct of the war as any of the other ministers of the government.

Related Topics:
Russia - Crimean

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He continued to serve as Prime Minister till his death in a term broken only by the Chinese crisis of 1857 and a failure to read the public mood in 1858. His period as Prime Minister between 1859 and 1865 was a time of considerable political stability.

Related Topics:
Chinese - 1857 - 1858

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Palmerston was an Irish Peer who always sat in the British House of Commons. He is regarded as a nationalist and as a social conservative. He was considered by some of his contemporaries to be a womaniser; The Times named him Lord Cupid, and he was cited, at the age of 79, as correspondent in an 1863 divorce case. He was also a persistent abolitionist.

Related Topics:
Irish - British House of Commons - The Times - 1863 - Abolition

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Palmerston is remembered for his light hearted approach to government. He is once said to have claimed of a particularly intractable problem relating to Schleswig-Holstein that only three people had ever understood the problem: one was Prince Albert, who was dead; the second was a German professor, who had gone insane; and the third was Palmerston himself, who had forgotten it.

Related Topics:
Schleswig-Holstein - Prince Albert

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Florence Nightingale said of him after his death "Though he made a joke when asked to do the right thing he always did it. He was so much more in earnest than he appeared, he did not do himself justice."

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