The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-13 00:00:00

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serve in this present Parliament for the bo;N, ugh of
Tiverton.

The announcement was received with loud and con.
tinted applause, and three cheers having been given for
the Queen, Lord P3lmerston, the Mayor, the Army a nd
Navy, the Emperor of the French, and the ;` gleriAai
Frenc:a Army," the atsembly dispersed.

mEmolie, OF LORD PALM. RSTON.

Henry Temple, Viscount Palmerston, our new Pre-
mier, was born the 20th October, 1784. Ile was 18
years of age when he succeeded to the title. He waa
educated at Cambridge, and in 1806, about the tires of
Mr. Pitt's death, entered Parliament. He ranged him-
self on the Minieterial side of the house, and supported
the Government by his vote and influence. Is the next
Parliament lie wan returned for Newport, in the Isle of
Wight. Having joined the Portland Administration
in 1807, lie was made °tie of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty. Dr 1809, during the Administration of the
Duke of Portland, he obtained the office of Secretary-
at-War, in the room of Lord Granville Lawson Gower ;
and in 1311, vacating his seat for Newport, was elected
for the University of Cambridge. He contiseued to fill
the office of Secretary-at-War for nineteen yonees succes-
sively—namely, from October, 1809, to May, 1828—
when he gave place to Sir Henry Hardinge, in conse-
quence of the breaking up of Wellington's Cabinet. A on:i
time prior to 1825 he was fired at and slightly wow-lased
by a man, without his having given the least iirovoca. -
ton ; but on inquiry the roan was proved to be clearly
11:Aill10. The office which Lord Palmerston filled for so
long. a period, extending through the successive Ad-
innesfeations of Peaseval, Liverpool, Canning-, Gode-
rich, and Wellington, is One of acknowledged im-
portance and of no inceneiderable difficulty -
and the beet proof of his lordship's corn:
petency for discharging its functions is to be found in
his continuing to retain it undisturbed amid the conflict
of parties and the perpetual changes which in other
offices were continually taking plane. It is pretty evi-
dent that Lord Palmerston for much of this time must
have avowed Tory politics and given his support to
them. But it is equally plain that he latterly imbibed
the more liberal principles of Mr; Canning ; and after
that lamented stateman's death he discovered an evident
leaning towards the enlightened policy of Lord Godorick
and Mr. Husliisson. Though, like the latter, he accepted
the office of Secretary-at-War in the Wellington Minis-
try, he took Mr. Huskisson's part in the fracas occa-
sioned by that gentleman's vote on the East Retford.
queetwe, and resigned his place on account of what he
considered to be the arbitrary conduct of "the Duke"
on that occasion. He aided the Peel and Wellington
Cabinet in the removal of the Catholio disabilities, a
measure of which he was ono of the most powerful adve'-
advocates. %Vhen the first Reform Bill was introduced
to the House of Commons, in 1831, by Lord J. Russel!„
Lord Palmerston appeared ainona his supporters, and
he continued to give that measure his powerful suppor
t.
until the efforts of its promoters were finally crowned
with success. This line of action coot him his seat for
the University of Cambridge, which he had held sinen
1811. He was, however, returned in 1831 for Blotch--
iugley. In 1832 he sat for South Hants, but was
defeated at the general election in 1834. In 1835
he was elected for Tiverton, which ho continues to
represent. He held the seals of the Foreign Secre-
taryship from 1830 until the dissolution of the Whig
Ceb:net in November, 1834. In the April following he
resumed that office, and resigned it again in 1841. With
the return of the Whigs to office in 1346 he again took
the same, office, which he resigned December 22, 1851.
His lordship is one of the best practised statesmen of
which England can boast. The extent of his experience
gave him a consciousness of superiority in his own de-
partment which during the last few years of his official
career was found most inconvenient by his colleagues, be-
traying itself iu impatience of advice and an unwillingness
to submit his intentions to the Cabinet. This is believed to
have been the determining cause of his retirement from
office. Shortiy alto; the French Revolution of 1848, when
what is commonly called "reaction" had set in all over
Continental Europe, Lord Palmerston became, to
use a common but expressive phrase, a "marked man."
He was, as far as his department was concerned—viz.,
Foreign Affairs—the independent Minister of a free
people ; and he was, moreover, the most feared antago-
nist of that tortuous policy and of those- unscrupulous
politicians which had cost the late King of the French
the loss of his Crown, and had caused the expatria-
tion of his family. It was at this time that the public
opinion of the country rallied to the side of a Minister
whom the Tories and a few of the extreme Radicals,
for opposite and yet allied motives, combined to crush.
A motion, condemning his policy, was proposed and
carried, in ISSO, in the House of Peers. The Govern-
ment demanded the opinion of the Commons. A debate
ensued, which was continued for several nights, and was
remarkable as being the last occasion on which the late
Sir R. Peel addressed the House of Commons. The
departed statesman voted against him, while paying se
tribute to his talents and character, in the exclamation
—" We are all proud of him." Palmerston's conduct;
was approved by a considerable majority of the house.
The spark once struck, the flame soon followed. The
first expression of public feeling was the ceremony of pre-
ser ting a portrait of Lord Palmerston to his lady. Then
came meetings innumerable in all parts of the country in
aid of his policy; next came a grand entertaintment at
the Reform Club, which must be looked upon as the ex-
ponent of the general feeling of the liberal portion of the
community, and that immense section of the British po-
pulation which advocates progress. After this his lord-
ship undertook an appeal to the common sense and hu-
manity of the continent by sending to every European
Court Mr. Gladstone's well-authenticated acconne of tris
wholesale violation of decency and disregard of the first
principles of society by the King of Naples, consorting
in the arbitrary imprisonment of hundreds of sonafttgs,
ox-Ministers of State, judges, and patriots, who wstra
subjected to horrible treatment by this ruler. During the years 1849-5041, Palmerston had rigorously exertecn
himself to obtain from the Porte the liberation of Kossuth who bad been in the first instance preserved from deli!. very to the Austrians by his influence. In the autumn of
1801 he succeeded in procuring the release of the great
Hungarian and his fellow-exiles, in spite of the opposi-
tion of Russia and Austria. Soon afterwards a deputa-
tion from the districts of Islington and Finsbury waited
on him with an address of thanks, containing some strong
remarks on the conduct of the autocratic Sovereigns.-
His lordship expressly guarded himself from appearing
to adopt this language ; but the fact that he did not
altogether refuse the addresses so worded, and some
little license of expression in which he indulged in his
reply (he talked of " bottle-holding" to the constitutional
States), were laid hold of by Austria and Russia., and
worked with great effect by the Ministers of those Courts,
who demanded explanations of a nature which Pal-
merston was not likely to give. His lordship's resigna-
tion shortly after took place. Lord Palmerston has
negotiated some of the most difficult affairs in modern
European politics. One of these was the settlement of
that intricate question in Belgian affairs which followed
so closely upon the steps of the French Revolution of
1830, and threatened to throw all Europe into convul-
sions; a settlement which realised the long-cherished
dream of baffled statesmen, who, for upwards of a century,
strove to interpose a barrier to the military compact of
the great Northern 'Powers. Such a consummation
was reserved for Lord Palmerston, when he secured the
tranquillity of Europe by the quadruple alliance of Eng-
latJ, France, Spain, and Portugal. Never was there a
period of greater difficulty than when Lord Palmerston
for the second time pacified Europe by the solution of
the Eastern question. It was on this occasion that the
political prescience of the British Minister, the genius
that characterises his diplomacy, shone forth in all its
splendour. The interference of Great Britain in the
last Portuguero revolution saved the monarchy and the
constitution. In a fortnight the Queen would have been de-
throned, and a republic, or a nominal regency in favour of
her infant son, would have been proclaimed. Spain would
have immediately interfered by force of arras, would have
swept away the republic or the regency, and would have
re-established the Queen with the mere semblance of a
constitution. England interfered, and Portugal was
governed by a Parliamentary- constitution. Upon his
reported approval of Louis Nap oleon's coup d'ttai much
public feeling was excited, and Lord Palmerston subse-
quently resigned the seals of the kroreign-offiee.
When
the Earl of Aberdeen formed his ,coalition Cabinet in
1852, Lord Palmerston became Hoi.u!i Secretary. In
December, 1853, his sudden resignation of office, for
some inexplicable reasons, created comoiderable sensa-
tion ; but, after a few days' withdrawal, he yielded to
the representations of his colleagues, and returned to
his department, which he retained until the more bril-
liant office' of Prime Minister was placed within his
reach. Iu 1832 ho was created a G.C.8.; and in 1841 a
K.T.S. of Portugal.