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196 P A L M E R S T O N he might have obtained for Piedmont. Ere long the reac tion came ; this strav-fire of revolution burnt itself out in a couple of years. In Hungary the civil war, which had thundered at the gates of Vienna, was brought to a close by Russian intervention. Prince Schwarzenberg assumed the government of the empire with dictatorial power ; and, in spite of what Palmerston termed his "judicious bottle- holding," the movement he had encouraged and applauded, but to which he could give no material aid, was every where subdued. The British Government, or at least Palmerston as its representative, was regarded with sus picion and resentment by every power in Europe, except the French republic ; and even that was shortly afterwards to be alienated by his attack on Greece. This state of things Avas regarded with the utmost annoyance by the British court and by most of the British ministers. Palmerston had on many occasions taken important steps, without their knowledge, which they dis approved. Over the foreign office he asserted and exercised an arbitrary dominion, which the feeble efforts of the premier could not control. The queen and the prince consort did not conceal their indignation at the position in which he had placed them with all the other courts of Europe. When Kossuth, the Hungarian leader, lauded in England, after having been rescued by Palmerston from the demands made for his surrender, he proposed to receive this personage at Broadlands, a design which was only prevented by a peremptory vote of the cabinet ; and in 1850 he took advantage of some very questionable claims on the Hellenic Government to organize an attack on the little kingdom of Greece. Greece being a state under the joint protection of three powers, Russia and France pro tested against this outrage, and the French ambassador temporarily left London, which promptly led to the termi nation of the affair. But it was taken up in parliament with great warmth. After one of the most memorable debates of this century, Palmerston s policy was condemned by a deliberate vote of the House of Lords. The House of Commons was moved by Roebuck to reverse the sentence, which it did by a majority of forty-six, after having heard from Palmerston the most eloquent and powerful speech ever delivered by him, in which he sought to vindicate, not only his claims on the Greek Government for Don Pacifico, but his entire administration of foreign affairs. It was in this speech, which lasted five hours, that Palmerston made the well-known declaration that a British subject "Civis Ilomanus sum " ought everywhere to be protected by the strong arm of the British Government against injustice and wrong. The entire Liberal party, from motives of party allegiance and patriotism, supported the minister who uttered these words. Even Sir Robert Peel, who opposed the resolution, said that the country Avas proud of him. Yet notwithstanding this parliamentary triumph, there were not a few of his own colleagues and supporters who condemned the spirit in which the foreign relations of the crown were carried on ; and in that same year the queen addressed a minute to the prime minister in which Her Majesty recorded her dissatisfaction at the manner in which Lord Palmerston evaded the obligation to sub mit his measures for the royal sanction, as failing in sin cerity to the crown. This minute was communicated to Palmerston, who did not resign upon it. These various circumstances, and many more, had given rise to distrust and uneasiness in the cabinet, and these feelings reached their climax when Palmerston, on the occurrence of the coup d etat by which Louis Xapoleon made himself master of France, expressed to the French ambassador in London, without the concurrence of his colleagues, his personal approval of that act of lawless violence. Upon this, Lord John Russell advised his dismissal from office (December 1851). Palmerston speedily avenged himself by turning out the Government on a Militia Bill ; but, although he survived for many years, and twice filled the highest office in the state, his career as foreign minister ended for ever, and he returned to the foreign office no more. Indeed he assured Lord Aberdeen, in 1853, that he did not wish to resume the seals of that department. Notwithstanding the zeal and ability which he had invariably displayed as foreign minister, it had long been felt by his colleagues that his eager and frequent interference in the affairs of foreign countries, his imperious temper, the extreme acerbity of his language abroad, of which there are ample proofs in his published correspondence, and the evasions and artifices he employed to carry his points at home rendered him a dangerous representative of the foreign interests of the country. He accused every foreign states man who differed from him of " bully and swagger "; foreign statesmen in more polite language imputed the same defects to him. The lesson of his dismissal from office was not altogether lost upon him ; and, although his great reputation was chiefly earned as a foreign minister, it may be said that the last ten years of his life, in which he filled other offices, were not the least useful or dignified portion of his career. Upon the formation of the cabinet of 1853, which was composed by the junction of the surviving followers of Sir Robert Peel with the Whigs, under the earl of Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston accepted with the best possible grace the office of secretary of state for the Home Office. He speedily overcame the slight hesitation or reluctance he had expressed when the offer was first made to him, on the ground that the views of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Clarendon on foreign affairs had differed widely from his own ; nor was he ever chargeable with the slightest attempt to undermine that Government. At one moment he withdrew from it, because Lord John Russell persisted in presenting a project of reform, which appeared to him entirely out of season ; and he advocated, with reason, measures of greater energy on the approach of war, which might possibly, if they had been adopted, have averted the contest with Russia. As the difficulties of the Crimean campaign increased, it was not Lord Palmerston but Lord John Russell who broke up the Government by refusing to meet Roebuck s motion of inquiry. Palmerston remained faithful and loyal to his colleagues in the hour of danger. Upon the resignation of Lord Aberdeen and the duke of Newcastle, the general sentiment of the House of Commons and the country called Palmerston to the head of affairs, and he entered, on the 5th of February 1855, upon the high office which he retained, with one short interval, to the day of his death. Palmerston was in the seventy-first year of his life when he became prime minister of England. A series of fortunate events followed his accession to power. In March 1855 the death of the emperor Nicholas removed his chief antagonist. In September Sebastopol was taken. The administration of the British army was reformed by a consolidation of offices. In the following spring peace was signed in Paris. Never since Pitt had a minister enjoyed a greater share of popularity and power, and, unlike Pitt, Palmerston had the prestige of victory in war. He was assailed in parliament by the eloquence of Gladstone, the sarcasms of Disraeli, and the animosity of the Manchester Radicals, but the country was with him. The Liberals applauded his spirit and his sympathy with the cause of liberty abroad ; the Conservatives knew that he would never lend himself to rash reforms and democratic agitation at home. Defeated by a hostile combination of parties in the House of Commons on the question of the Chinese War in 1857, he dissolved the parliament and