New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-15
A SELF-WILLED STATESMAN
LIFE oE LORD PALMERsToN.

strongly upon the Imagination, ouV hs"i. 0'"
corning the significance Of which the most "'eiSe
opjpions were entertained during MS hie anu
win he for perhaps another gchera'io"' AN
CARLYLE might have said. he was strenuous
man swift TO act, not always pausing to make
sure that he was right, impulsive, insubordinate'
inclined to arrogance in his dealings with for-
.;crers fun of sturdy English preludices, and
xvitbal capable shrewd, defangable in work
and ,,nnerturbable in temper. The great store
house of facts about him is, of course, the hve-
volume biography by Dalling and Ashley huV
6ye-volume biographies are not for the generai
public and the editor of The International
Statesmen Series has packed into the mooeSt
compass of the volume before US quite as iull
an account Of the statesman as Is needed 10
understand him and what he did for his country
and himself II is an almost unavoidable re-
Election that Palmerston fitted into his period
as he could not have fitted into that which
followed his generation. The slapdash foreign
polcy which characterized him was not only
possible in his time, but was often really the
best and most effective OF methods. "heh
Great Britain actually held the balance OF power
in Europe when neither France nor Austria, nor
Prussia, nor Germany, Spain, nor even Rus-
sa were in a position TO take Important steps
without knowing in advance what Ehgiahu
would do: when the Louis Philippes ana Louis
.Nanoleons-parvenus and brigands-owed ther
Euronean status to the recognition ana Alliance
of England; when Belgium. and Holland. Den
mark and Sweden, Portugal and Italy, looked
10 Great Britain for political indications ;-lu
was nossible for "Old Pam as the populace
loved to call him, to bully continental powers
N make monthly hair-breadth escapes oil war, 10
achieve sometimes great results by daring menace
and bluster.
II is easy to understand how PaimerSton pe-
came the most hated man In Europe so lar DIS
the continental diplomatists were concerned. lie
was intensely English, he was always ready 10
dare anything for the preservation OIL what ne
regarded las his country's interests and he
WAS apt TO be wanting IN uat
hlandness ana suavity of official style which
;s considered necessary in foreign bureaucratic
,,rcles There never was a more seli-wllled
roreign Secretary He had the instincts OF a
assnot in some things. At Downing Street he
assired to be untrammeled, and he revolted from
the shackles of routine and precedent 1t was
his constitutional duty to lay before the queen
all important foreign dispatches This cha1ed
him. especially because Prince Albert constantly
suggested changes in the Secretarys drafts. An
other man so circumstanced would have resigned,
hut not so Palmerston. lie had two resources
Sometimes he calmly altered the dispatches after
they had received the royal ENDORSEMENT; some
times he sent them off without submitting them
"a any one. In 1850 the Queen was driven
TO issue very sharp and imperative memorandum,
requiring her Foreign Secretary, On pam oil DIS
'p,issal 10 submit to her all dispatches destined
10 foreign Governments Palmerston promised
compliance excusng his derelictions on the ground
of a press Of busness-and in less than month
he was at his old tricks, sending oil we'ghty dis
patches, not only without showing them TO the
Oueen. but without consulting the head of the
Government.
More than once he paid the penalty OF this
insubordination his colleagues refusing to main
tain tbs position nc had taken, and leaving him
TO suffer humiliation and defeat. His buoy
ant nature however, carried HIM lightly over
such disagreeables, and his indomitable will kept
him from reforming his ways. Lord Firebrand7
was one of the niclxrames applied 10 him In the
House of Commons His colleagues were
afraid of him. He was regarded as dangerous. and
vet he could not be shelved. Nor can it be doubted
that he achieved many important things, and that,
especially, he maintained English prestige through
ont the world by the fathfulness with which
he backed up his agents everywhere. He never,
like Russia, dscredited abandoned them tie
held that it was necessary to give them assurance
of home support in all legitimate circumstances,
and he found his accounts IN It, AS TO Palmer
stons politics, it must be said that they were
more than "a little ambiguous. lie had been
Tory and he became nominally Wing. But
he was Wing who retained many Tory principles,
and who, in particular, had no stomach for Par
liamentary reform, The ballot he did not be-
iieve ill., and lie said so publicly. But, though
he made an excellent Home Secretary, he always
preferred to occupy himself with foreign politics,
and there he at home though he lacked
much of being thoroughly informed upon Euro
pean and especially German affairs. Probably
the subject which interested him most deeply was
the Eastern question, and on that his views were
clear and firmly grounded in knowledge Of the
situation.
Among the things for which he has been blamed
As his opposition to the Suez Canal: but that OPP
position grew out, of apprehensons, the justifi-
cation of which has never been tested, and GER
tainly cannot be dismissed with contempt He
argued that, in case of war between England and
France. the latter could and would instantly
throw troops into Egypt and seize the canal TO
hold it fer her own operations against India, and
20 close it to her enemy. That situation is sull
in the future. but the English military authorl-
ties are to-day agreed that IN the event OF war
the canal would be an injury and not help 10
England. Pamerston wrong in his estimate
of the commercial effects of the canal, but he did
not pretend to know much about commerce. He
was mistaken in his estimate of Louis Napoleon,
whom he got himself into trouble by recognizing
after the coup d'etat-as usual, without consult
ing his colleagues. When the Indian Dutiny
broke out he at first moderated the gravity of the
danger but the moment the true extent of the
calamity was perceived by him he rose to the
occasion and instituted the most prompt and vigor-
GUS measures Louis Napoleon deceived Palmer
ston in the Italian business but half Europe was
gulled by the imperial sharper at the same time.
The unifcaton Of Italy was always approved by
the friend of Cavour and Victor Emmanuel, though
he could not bring his Government TO afford ma
ferial aid TO the undertaking.
OF course it is finally an English statesman
that Palmerston must be regarded, and it may well