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The famous Lord Palmerston, leader of the liberal party in mid-Victorian England, was in fact the third Lord Palmerston, two ancestors having been minor political figures in the previous century. His family was an extremely wealthy one, and hs youth was quite eccentric. His father was obsessed with the developments in medication, but this led to tragedy when the young Lord Palmerston's sister died of a reaction to a smallpox inoculation. As a teen, Palmerston's family conducted an extensive tour of Europe, staying in Switzerland and Italy for five years. During this time the young Lord had an Italian tutor, and his time on the continent later gave him a very cosmopolitan outlook, and was influential in his actions as a foreign secretary.
Palmerston went to Harrow when his family returned from Europe, and left in 1800 to go to Edinburgh University. He then moved on again to Cambridge. While he was here his father died, making him the Lord at the age of just eighteen. Palmerston was heavily affected by his father's death, but less so when his mother died two years later. There was a period of inactivity following his father's death, but at the age of twenty one he stood for his first election, when he was roundly beaten. During this early part of his career Palmerston was a tory, which is interesting given that he is remembered as one of the first liberals for his later work. He lost another election the next year, and then again the year after that. However, at the age of twenty four he stood for election in the uncontested Isle of Wight seat, and was allowed to enter Parliament.
He held the post of Secretary to the War Office for eighteen years between 1809 and 1827, this lack of promotion was not because of mediocrity but because he was unwilling to stand in the spotlight. He was offered the posts of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer during this period, and in 1827 he attempted to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer on his own initiative. However, he was turned down and offered the post of Governor of Jamaica, an insignificant post at which he is said to have laughed.
In 1828 he left the Tory party, and while not quite a whig his character was more liberal after this switch. In 1830 he became Foreign Secretary, where most of his subsequent work was done.
Palmerston's time in this post was interrupted rarely over the next thirty five years. Even as Prime Minister his preoccupation was with the events on the continent. These were dramatic times in Europe, with first a series of revolutions, then threats to the peace treaties and finally the emergence of Bismarck. In the 1830s, Palmerston's main problem was stopping France from gaining any influence over Belgium, which had rcently declared its independence from Holland. Palmerston threatened the French with military action, and they backed off leaving Belgium totally independent, a condition which inadvertantly led to the first world war. Palmerston was demoted in 1841, and carried on in a non-cabinet post. Troubles began again in 1846, when he was again foreign secretary, and again with France. The French tried to gain influence in Spain by marrying into the royal family, and Britain proposed a non french alternative. However, Britain was defeated and Palmerton embarrassed. 1848 was the most important year of Palmerston's career in foreign policy, as revolution swept through Europe. France, Germany, Italy and Austria were all affected, but Palmerston could only really claim success in France, where he maintained good relations with the new government. In the other countries, however, there was a shifting in power which made Britain less of a force in Europe, and since it had a weak land army it was powerless to intervene.
Palmerston had three main priorities in foreign policy, and he maintained them with three different tactics. He wanted to preserve the peace and power balance from 1815's Treaty of Paris, to maintain British naval superiority and to protect then rights of British citizens abroad. He did this by threatening violence, using it if the opponent was on a coast and by using the navy for trade blockades. The use of the navy in almost all his dealings became known as 'gunboat diplomacy' and was effective enough in dealing with problems like those in Turkey over the Don Pacifico affair, where Turkey was fought for not paying compensation to a greek/british jew who had had his house burned down, but it was all but useless against the land masses of Europe, particularly Germany, who had a very strong land army.
Palmerston was dismissed in 1851 for two incidents which upset Queen Victoria. Firstly he had actively encouraged the beating of a visiting Austrian General called Haynau, and then he had sidied with the new Napolean's coup in France. The effect of this latter on public opinion was enough to overcome his patriotic populartity from the Don Pacifico affair and attending speech, and he was dismissed from his post at the behest of Queen and country. However, in 1853 the Criean War began in Russia, and by 1855 it was won, although at a huge cost in british lives and morale. Palmerston was not only recallled but also made Prime Minister. He was much less prominent in domestic affairs than in foreign ones, and during the three years of his first tenure until 1858 he put in little legislation apart from early attempts to clean up the pollution of London. He was more preoccupied during this time with attacking China because it had seized a British registered ship. Palmerston not only wanted to get an apology for this but also to open trade routes in China for the opium trade which Britain was involved with. Because he was able to bring the nav to bear on an extremely weak China, Palmerston won a huge victory, but in a very immoral way which proves his liberal reputation to be far from true. However, Palmerston soon lost an election which saw the Tories take control, but was then reelected in 1859. By now his powers were waning, and his policy in this tenure was generally unsuccessful, being involved with problems in the American civil war and then in Europe. Palmerston suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Bismarck's Germany, over the independence of Schleswig and Holstein and his willingness to stick to methods which had served him since 1830 was shown to be quite a mistake. Despite this he won another general election in 11865, but died almost immediately, leaving Russell to lead the liberal party.
Palmerston was an extremely respected politician, but his methods were quite inflexible, and particularly in foregn policy he was unable to adapt to the innovations of Bismark and his 'realpolitik'
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