HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, VISCOUNT PALMERSTON 1784-1865 There was an Irish strain in Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, which colored his character, and without which he would very likely have failed to impress himself upon the imagination of the English people. His intellectual abilities were not extraordinary; but there was an easy jollity about him, an audacity, or faculty of bluff," which, in combination with more commonplace qualities, and with remarkable good fortune, not always deserved, made him a leading figure in English politics for many years, and, during the last ten years of his long life, Prime Minister. He loved the bustle of affairs, and had the power of applying himself diligently to business; or at all eventswhat for practical purposes was almost as good, if not better-of seeming busy; so that men his superiors in intellect, but less active and omnipresent, delegated important functions to him, and placed a confidence in him which he was clever enough not to forfeit, even when he did not fairly merit it. Upon the whole, he was a man of prodigious native talent, and his position in life gave him an immense experience; he dominated or silenced men far his superiors in real ability by his humorous savoir-faire and cool imperturbability. The people made a pet of him; he was known to them as few public men have been, largely owing to the caricatures of John Tenniel in Punch," which hit off his happy-go-lucky air and optimistic temperament, his shrewdness, his shallowness, and his knowingness, in a way which captivated the general fancy, and made him immensely popular. Palmerston was born at the family estate of Broadlands in 1784, and died at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire in 1865. The Temple family had an English and an Irish branch, and Palmerston belonged to the latter. He went to Harrow School; afterwards he went to the University of Edinburgh; and matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge. His father died in 1802, and he inherited his title and the family estates. In 1807 he took his seat in Parliament as member for Newtown, Isle of Wight, and held office as Junior Lord of the Admiralty under the Duke of Portland. From 1809 to 1828 he was Secretary of War. Taking Pitt for his political ideal, he was a consistent Tory, and favored the emancipation of the Roman Catholics. But when Lord Grey came into power in 1830, he embraced Whiggism, and made a reputation in foreign affairs, being active in the policy which placed Leopold of Saxe-Coburg on the Belgian throne. After 1840 he went out of office for five years; but became prominent again under Lord John Russell, and expressed his sympathy with the revolutionary party which was so much in evidence on the Continent in those days. His dallying with Louis Napoleon caused him to be dismissed from the foreign office; but he came in once more with Aberdeen in 1853. In 1855 he became Prime Minister, thus shouldering the responsibility of the Crimean War. He retained the office of Prime Minister, with the interval of Lord Derby's administration in 1858, until his death. His discourses were business-like, off-hand affairs, such as business men address to one another. His self-confidence bred confidence in his hearers, and prompted them to believe that he could do anything, and would never be at the end of his resources. It was not so much by speeches as by his management of debates, and by his work behind the scenes, that he produced his results and carried his purposes. His speech on "Arbitration" is an excellent example of his practical, common-sense manner of reasoning on public affairs. S ARBITRATION Delivered in the House of Commons, June 12, 1849 IR, I beg to assure my honorable friend, the member for the West Riding, that in rising to state my intention of opposing his motion, I am far from wishing to speak either of the sentiments he has himself expressed, or of the opinions of those whose organ he is, with anything but the greatest possible respect. I entirely agree with my honorable friend, and with those of whose opinion he has been on this occasion the organ, in attributing the utmost possible value to this motion, and in feeling the greatest dislike, and I may say horror, of war in any shape. I will not go into those commonplace remarks which must be familiar to the mind of every man who has contrasted the calamities of war with the various blessings and advantages which attend upon peace. I cannot conceive that there exists in this country the man who does not attach the utmost value to the blessings of peace, and who would not make the greatest sacrifices to save his country from the calamities attendant upon war. And although I differ from my honorable friend, and although I am not ready to accede to his motion, yet I cannot say but that I am glad he has made that proposition, because it will be useful for this country and for Europe at large that every man should know that in this assembly, and among the vast masses of men of whom we are the representatives, there is a sincere and honest disposition to maintain peace. But that which I wish to guard against -the impression that I wish should not be entertained anywhere, either in this country or out of it is that while there is in England a fervent love of peace, an anxious and steady desire to maintain it, there should not exist the impression that the manly spirit of Englishmen is dead-that England is not ready, as she is ever, to repel aggression and resent injury, and that she is ready to defend her rights, although she never will be found acting aggressively against any other power. Sir, it would be most dangerous indeed to the interests of peace that a contrary opinion should prevail. I can conceive nothing that would bring more into jeopardy the peaceful relations of this country, than that an idea should prevail among foreign nations, that we are so attached to peace that we dare not make war, and that, therefore, any aggression or any injury may be safely ventured against English subjects, because England has such a rooted aversion to war that she will not repel it. That is the principle on which I differ from the observations made by my honorable friend, when he condemned those provident supplies-so I may call them-for military defence, which he said, he had found by his examination in a committee above stairs had been laid up in store by this and the last Government. I quite agree with those who think that it is a useless expenditure of the public money to keep in pay an excessive number of men, either by sea or by land, beyond what the existing service of the country may demand, on an imaginary expectation of future and contingent hostilities. I think that is a wasteful application of the public money, but I cannot go along with the honorable member in condemning that provident provision of things which cannot be created at a moment's notice which would be necessary if we were called on to defend ourselves from foreign aggression-and the absence of which, if known to foreign countries, would form an incitement and temptation to commit wrong against this country. Therefore I think that a Government acts wisely and prudently when they gradually and without overstraining the burden on the country, lay up a store of those things which may be wanted on the first outbreak of war, if it should unfortunately occur, and which must be provided beforehand, while they abstain from useless augmentations of men, which can be raised when the emergency arises, and in a short period would be just as effective as if they had been longer in military training. Sir, I cannot agree with the proposal of my honorable friend because I think it is founded on an erroneous principle, and that it would be impracticable if attempted to be carried out. My honorable friend comes to his conclusion by an analogy which he draws between private life and the intercourse of nations. He says, in the ordinary transactions between man and man, what is so common as an agreement between individuals, that in the event of disputes occurring they shall be referred to arbitration? It is very true that is a common and very advantageous practice, but how stand these individuals? Why, if the sentence of arbitration is not conformable to the opinion of both parties there is a higher and superior authority-the authority of some legal tribunal, which enforces concurrence; to that tribunal the parties previously agree to submit, and it is this superior force that gives value and efficacy to the agreement for arbitration. But my honorable friend at once perceives, and fairly acknowledges, that that element is wanting in the machine by which he proposes to settle international differences; and unless we have recourse to the plan of my honorable friend who spoke last for a general tribunal of nations, with a military force to compel compliance with its decrees, it is plain that the arbitration of my honorable friend the member for the West Riding would, in truth, simply, and in most cases, resolve itself into mediation, that is, the proposal by a third party of an arrangement of differences between two other parties. Honorable members ought not to lose sight of the distinction, which is frequently forgotten, between arbitration and mediation-arbitration consisting in the pronouncing of a final decision by a third party which is to be binding on the other two; mediation consisting in the good offices of a third party to bring about, by the consent and acquiescence of the other two, an amicable termination of differences that may have arisen between them. Now, sir, my honorable friend is so internally aware of the difficulty attending the practical execution of his own idea, that he has been obliged to abandon that which most persons imagined to be his plan. [Mr. Cobden here said: I beg pardon; I never altered or abandoned my motion in the slightest degree.] Viscount Palmerston: I will not say my honorable friend has abandoned, but he has been obliged not to propose, what many persons, myself included, imagined to be his plannamely, that the court of arbitration should consist of some foreign government or governments: in turning over the matter, and bringing it to a practical bearing, he has found it neces |