The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-21 00:00:00

Lord Palmerston's Eightieth Birthday.

On the 20th of October. 1784, Henry John Temple,
Viscount Palmerston, now her Majesty's First Minister of
State, was born at Broad lands, in the county of Hants, Not
since the year 1710, when Sidney, Lord Godolphin, was
abruptly dismissed by Queen Anne, has a Prime Minister of
England conducted the national affairs at such an age as that
to which Lord Palmerston has attained. And on this his 80`th
birthday, while a select circle of friends assembled at Broad-
lands drinks continued life and health to the Minister who
was born in the 24th year of the reign of George 111., it
will not be amiss to cast a retrospeclive glance over the prin-
cipal events in the history of the remarkable man who still
presides over the destinies of the country.
When Lord Palmerston was born, William Pitt, then in
the 25th year of his age, had holden the Premiership
about 12 months. Fox, his great political rival, was 10
years older, and had been in Parliament 15 years; Sheri-
dan was 33, and had been four years in the house ; Burke
was 56, and had a Parliamentary experience of 18 years.
Wilberforce, who was of the same age as Pitt, had formed
one of the little band who, headed by Burke and Fox,
had not ceased to condemn the policy which had led to
the establishment of the American Republic, then in the
ninth year of its existence, William Cobbett, then just
22, with little idea of future notoriety in the Political
Register and in Parliament, was doing duty as a corporal in
the inhospitable region of New Brunswick. Louis XVI.
was barely 30, and had swayed the French sceptre for 10
comparatively ,peaceful years, scarcely dreaming of ap-
proaching bloodshed and revolution.
But Lord Palmerston's education, which was begun at
Harrow and continued at the universities of Edinburgh and
Cambridge, progressed amid events of more stirring inte •
rest. The present, Prime Minister was a very little boy when
the commencement of the trial of Warren Hastings com-
manded so much attention throughout the country. " Drag-
ging its slow length along" for seven weary years, it was far
from completed when the horrors of the French Revolution
burst like a thunderclap over Europe. It was during his
lordship's schooldays that the great State trials of Hardy,
Thelwall, and Horne Tooke created such universal excite-
ment—when Erskine's famous defence exploded for ever the
doctrine of constructive treason in England. It was during
int;he intelligence of
Nelson, pride of
C England
was from time to time maintained by
Camper-
down, and St. Vincent. t
the same period that the Prince of Wales married the un-
fortunate Prince Caroline of Brunswick; that a desperate
war was carried on against Tippoo Saib and his sons; that
the memorable Irish rebellion broke out, and the legislative
e i
union was effected ;
victories by Howe,
Cornwallis,
on:
wt that
itshe m
, Briadrpiotir
We now pass on to January, 1806. Barely three months
had elapsed since the battle of Trafalgar had annihilated
the naval forces of France and Spain
; and, amid many
tokens of national grief, the body of Nelson had just been
deposited in St. Paul's Cathedral. At that time Sir
Charles
ears laboured unsuccessfully in
the cause of Reform. Burke, who retired from the poli-
tical arena in 1794, had been dead nine years. Canning
18 6 (afterwards
had
for
some Earl)y Grey, who entered Parliament
in 7
had enjoyed a Parliamentary experience of thirteen years,
and had given repeated proofs of those great oratorical
gifts which won for him the title of the Cicero of the
Senate. Lord Castlereagh had been in the House just
one year less, and held as firmly then as he did in after life
that the people have nothing to do with the laws but toobey
them. The cumbrous proceedings in the Court of Chan-
cery, then presided over by that everlasting doubter, Lord
Chancellorrey
Bentham
was pressed
ar d I yupon impoverished suitors.
agitating for law reform,while
Romilly had just commenced his efforts for aweeping away
.some of the sanguinary penal laws then in such great force
e busily
Jeremy
on the statute book. Wilberforce, who had been denounced
by the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV.) as "a
meddling fanatic, who ought to be expelled from Parlia-
ment," had not ceased to demand the abolition of the slave
trade. Fox, with the leading men of the Opposition, bad
long abandoned all hope of arresting Pitt in his policy with
respect to the war with France, when, on the 23d January,
1806, the lofty spirit of the brilliant commoner then at the
head of the Administration sank under the overthrow of
the continental coalition against Napoleon, of which he
had been the directing genius. The death of Pitt rendered
vacant his seat for the University of Cambridge, and this
was the first opportunity for the present Premier to step
into public life.
It was the second Parliament of the United Kingdom.