The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-10-24 00:00:00

Meat of ',orb fiagitigoll. •

.....--.,*............,.......

I

1

A profound feoling of regret has ben created
througliout England by the death of Lord Palmerston,
which enamored at Brackett-hell, Herta, at • quarter
before eke as. o'clock, on Wednesday morning. October
18th. Latterly, as everybody knows, the noble lord'l
had been sadly troubled by gout, bet he was met‘
suffering directlyfroin that when the fatal week begentl
le was from an inflsminatory attack that the,
Prouder died. He was driving out on the Thursday
before his death near Bro.wkett-hall, and be had been
warned to take great care of himself ; but, feeling over.
warm with the precentions adopted, he imprudently.'
exposed himself to a chill, Red returned to the hours
in such • state that collepse ensued, and but for the
presence of the phyeioian it Is possible that his worth,
here diet within two house. lie recovered, however,
hole thet ; hut lay in hie bed very weak, and very
murk changed, for the affection mounted to the vitae,
and the blood was becoming poisoned. Still, liii superb
constitution gave Imre% especially when the difficulty of
respiration become 1-se, but at night his condirion
suddenly grew much worse, and it was soon apparent
that the end approeched. His state of mind up to the
last remained um loaded: he was in full possession of
his faculties. and suffered very little pa n. But there
came a lassitude over him, whioh prevented any effort
or wish to converse; questions put to him were either
disregarded or answered by a look or sign. A silence,
bell imposed by weariness, half of his own inclination,
possessed him. On the day before his death, however,
!gun in a doze preceding the last change, hie ruind was
evidently still amid its old associati wna ; for he was
,Intard to murmur, as in a dream, "Toe treaty with
Belgium ! yes, read new that sixth clause again." But
at the last a pe,fectly peaceful demise crowned the long
and serene healthfuluese of his life; he sank away
gently, flickered a little, like an expiring lamp, and
then ':went out" rather than "died;" and they hardly
knew is the death-oliamber at wl.at exact, mantra the
meat statesman, whose name had been on every page
Of our hi-tory for fifty years, ceased to be among the
living. At that supreme moment those dearest to him
were about his bed, with the exception of Lady Palmer-
ston, who bad been gently withdrawn. There were
present the Minister of Public Works and Mrs. Cowper,
the Earl of Shaftesbury and the Countess. Viecounrees
Jocelyn, Mr. Evelyn Ashley, and the physicians. The
grief of this circle was lessened, so far as it could be. by
the spectacle of a quiet and peaceful parting, hallowed
before the shades of death came so near to the dim eyes,
rend the lip' grew no eow to move, by faith in the
words taught by that Church of which the Premier died
a true member.
Henry John Temple, third Viscount Pahnereton, was
barn at Broadlauds, Hampshire. on the 2011, October,
104_ He was a lineal desoendust of the Temple, who
was Secretary successively to Sir Philip Sidney and to
Queen Elizsbeth's Earl of Rosen, who founded the
alines of the Irish family, and whose son, Sir John
Temple, occupied a high position both under the
Commonwealth and the Restoration and died vice.
treaturer of Leland. Sir Henry, grandson of this Sir
John, was created an Irish peer in 1722, and his grand.
eon, the sound Viscount Palmerston, wan tlwe father
of the late Premier. The late lord obtained the title et
the early age of eighteen, through the death of his
father. He was educated partly at Harrow, whence he
proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, where be
attended the lectures of such distingui.hod men as
Ougal I Stewart, John Playfair, and others. From
Edinburgh Lord Palmerston repaired to St. John's
College, Cambridge, where be took his M.A. degr a in
1806, the year of Pitt's death. Shortly after, when
Lord Henry Petty (the late Marquis of Lands-
downe) beunie Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord
Greriville'e Ministry of "all the talents," Lord
Palmerston contested with him the representation of
the University of Cambridge. Lord Henry was imccess-
-1.1, but "Medi non Prange' is the Pahneraton family
motto, and after three failures, he succeeded in 1811 in
his candidature for the representation of the University
of Cambridge. During the Duke of Portland's admini-
stration, Lord Palmereton made his maiden speech in
ate House of Commons. It took place on the 3rd of
Pebruary, 1808, and was a spirited defence of the
bombardment of Copenhagen, in apology for which
Mr. Canning, the Foreign Secretary, had just
delivered • brilliant oration. He was rewarded
with a Junior Lordship of the Admiralty.
'1 he following year. on the formation of the
Percival Ministry, he was appointed Secretarywat-
War, and moved the army estimates for the fist time
on the 26th February, 1810, a per:od when France
seem. d destined I,,attain universal empire E;ghteen
years rolled on; Lord Liverpool's protracted Ministry
,aanse to an end, who was followed by Mr. Conning, he
by Lord Goderich, and lie by the Duke of Wellington,
and Lord Pelmerston was still Secretary - at• War.
In the Ministries of Mr. Canning and Lord Goderich he
oecupied a seat in the Cabinet. Although he spoke
yarely, he was marked by the discerning an a man who
]ltad a future; he was a steady champion of Catholic
emancipation, anwl of Mr. Canning's Liberalism at home
and abroad. In 1828 he joined the Duke of Wellington's
Administration as a follower of the Liberal and Free-
bade policy of Mr. Canning's surviving friend, Mr.
Huskisson. When the Duke of Wellington forced on
the resignation of Mr. fluskisson, after the East Retford
discussion, Lord Palmerston was one of the Canningites
who promptly resigned. Lord Aberdeen was the Duke
of Wellington's Foreign Secretary, and Lord Palmerston ,
lost no time in formally opposing the foreign policy of
'the new Government. For two years, in a aeries of
, eloquent speeches, especially on the off wins of Portugal,
1 he denounced the absolutist tendencies of Lord Aberdeen,
surprising the public by his eloquence and energy.
On the 16th November, 1330, the Duke of Wellington
'resigned, and Lord Pelinerston bemuse Secretary for
Foreign Affairs in the Reform Adin nietration of Earl
Grey. His advocacy of the Reform Bill lost hirn his
seat for the University of Cambridge, and he represented
successively Bletchiugley and South Hampshire, until,
In June, 1835, he was returned for Tiverton, the borough
which he from that time represented to the day of his
death. On first taking office under Earl Grey he was in hie
forty-seventh year, adding to a large experience of
public affairs and men, great powers of application, and
he was in a position to carry out his Liberal views of
what England's foreign policy ought to be. To Lord
Palmerston'a Foreign Secretaryship belong two of his
' greatest achievements—the establiehment of Belgitu*s
an independent kingdom, and his negotiation of the
treaty of the Quadruple Alliance (22nd April, 1834)
between England, France, Spain, and Portugal—a
treaty which annihilated the hopes of the Carnets and
Miguelites, and secured the ascendency of Constitutional
Governmenment in the Peninsula.. Displaced by Sir
Robert Peel's first and short ministry in December,
1834, Lord Palmerston returned to office in April, 1835,
under the Premiership of Lerd Melbourne, and not
long before bin second removal from the post by Sir
Robert Peel's return to office in 1841, he signalised his
administration by his intervention in the affairs of the
East, when the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire
was threatened through the revolt of Mehemet Ali,
which was encouraged by France, and if effectual would
have been a deep injury to English interests in the
East. The temporary integrity of Turkey was secured
by the treaty of July, 1840, the handiwork of
Lord Palmerston alone, and which was signed by all the
' peat powers of Europe except France. In the midst
of all this delicate diplomacy and daring action, Lord
"almerston in his fifty-sixth year, married for the first
a Lady Palmerston was a sister of Lord Melbourne
Pahnerston's political chief) and widow of the fifth
rl Cowper. During Sir Robert Peel's second adminis-
lion (1811-6) Lord Palmerston distinguished himself
steady opposition to what he considered the anti-
-ational policy of Lord Aberdeen. On Sir Robert
Peel's resignation, in December, 1845, when he had
decided on no longer opposing the Corn Laws, Lord
John Russell declined to form • ministry expressly
on the ground that Lord Grey (the son of the
author of the Reform Bill) refused to sit in the
dame cabinet with Lord Palineraton. On the irrevoc-
lable fall of Sir Robert Peel the following June,
Lord Palmerston had the triumph of seeing Lord Grey
aseept the Colonial Secretaryship, while he himself re-
turned once more to the Foreign Office. Lord
Relinerston's third and last Foreign Secretaryship was
las busiest and most eventful of all. He had to defeat,
and he did defeat, the underhand attacks of Louis
Philippe and Guizot jin the affair of the Sonderbund, on
the civil and religions liberty of Switzerland. And if
less succeihful in coping with their intrigues to secure a
French succession to the throne hi Spain, in the cele-
rbrated affair of the Spanish marriages, he afterwards
Saw the unscrupulous old king and his minister punished
..by the revolution of February, 1848. In the European
convulsion which followed, Lord Palmerston had a
difficult part to play. Avowedly the friend of
.00nstitutional government, he had to mediate between
republicanism on the one side and absolutism on the
other, and it is not wonderful if he failed to satisfy the
advocates of extreme parties. All must remember, how-
' ever, to his credit, the upport which he gave to Turkey
when Austria and Russia demanded with tbreata the
bstradition of Kossuth and the other refugees, who had
found a shelter in the dominions of the Sultan. Lord
Palmerston was now fairly alive to the dangerous aims
of Russia in the East, and he saw the use winch the Czar
purposed making of the little kingdom of Greece in fur-
thering designs on the integrity of Turkey. Hence the
other wise surprising fervour with which the claims of Don
Pacilico and Mr. Finlay were pressed on the Court of
Athens, and supported by the presence of a British fleet
at the Piraeus. The occasion was seized by all Lord
Palmerston's enemies in Parliament to make a formid-
able demonstration against him. The Peers passed a
vote of censure on him by a majority of 37, but this
was reversed in the House of Commons after a four
days' debate (Ist July, 1850) by a majority of 57. In
little more than a year, Lord John Rouen recommended
her Majesty to dismiss Lord Palmerston from her
councils, on the ground that the Foreign
Secretary had expressed to the French Ambassador in
London an individual approval of the Emperor's coup
deaf. On the meeting of Parliament in the February
after his dismissal, Lord Palmerston procured the defeat
of his former colleagues on their Militia Bill, and on
the 23rd of 'he month Lord John Russell's Ministry.
resigned. Then cents Lord Derby's Administration„
followed by the mention Ministry of Lord Aberdeen
in which as Home Secretary Lord Palmerston turned
against the smoke nuisance and the sanitary evils of
large towns the same energy and decision which bad
made him formidable at the Foreign Office. From the
commenument of the Russian war, it 1/1111 for seen that
circumstances would elevate Lord Palmerston to a mach
[higher post. On the downfall of the coalition Ministry
("Amery. 1855) Lord Palmerston was the only statesman
pulse °Mild form an administration. The speedy eeces-
Aden of the Peelites removed a source of weakness from
cabinet, and the resignetion of Lord John Russell,
after the conferences at Vienna, left him without a
rival at the Council Board. Under Lord Palmerston,
the Russian war was prosecuted with vigour until the
sonobision of a safe and honourable peaces in the spring
of 1856. Even then, Lord Palmerston did not allow
lulasiself he relax his exertions for the settlement of the
lliostern question, and he was successful in defeating the
-designs of Russia in the matter of the Besaarabian
'boundary. European quiet was followed by the hostili-
ties at Outten, and the Indian mutiny. A coalition in
the Commons defeated Lord Palmerston on the China
moldiest (March 3, 1857), but the consequent appeal to
country was a triumph to his 'ounistratior and in
-Ann
. .
'

Lrll

tration

nationl

of P

adminiitration,
followina.

wi11.%

, 30th