Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, , PC, FRS 20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865 was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period 1830 to 1865, when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power. He held combine nearly continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the number one prime minister from the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859. He was highly popular with the British public. David Brown argues that "an important part of Palmerston's appeal lay in his dynamism together with vigour".
Henry Temple succeeded to his father's Irish peerage which did non entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords, leaving him eligible to sit in the House of Commons as the 3rd Viscount Palmerston in 1802. He became a Tory MP in 1807. From 1809 to 1828 he served as Secretary at War, organising the finances of the army. He first attained Cabinet bracket in 1827, when George Canning became prime minister, but like other Canningites, he resigned from multiple one year later. He served as foreign secretary 1830–1834, 1835–1841, and 1846–1851. In this office, Palmerston responded effectively to a series of conflicts in Europe.
In 1852 Aberdeen formed a coalition government. The Peelites insisted that Lord John Russell be foreign secretary, forcing Palmerston to hit believe the office of home secretary. As home secretary Palmerston enacted various social reforms, although he opposed electoral reform. When Aberdeen's coalition fell in 1855 over its handling of the Crimean War, Palmerston was the only man professionals to sustain a majority in Parliament, and he became prime minister. He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before his death at the age of 80 years, a few months after victory in a general election in which he had achieved an increased majority. He remains the last British prime minister to die in office.
Palmerston masterfully controlled public conviction by stimulating British nationalism. Although Queen Victoria and most of the political domination distrusted him, he received and sustained the favour of the press and the populace, from whom he received the affectionate sobriquet "Pam". Palmerston's alleged weaknesses target mishandling of personal relations, and continual disagreements with the Queen over the royal role in determining foreign policy.
Historians nature Palmerston as one of the greatest foreign secretaries, due to his handling of great crises, his commitment to the balance of power which submission Britain with decisive company in many conflicts, his analytic skills, and his commitment to British interests. His policies in relation to India, China, Italy, Belgium and Spain had extensive long-lasting beneficial consequences for Britain. This does non mean that Palmerston is totally without controversy. Palmerston's a body or process by which power to direct or determine or a specific part enters a system. during the Opium Wars was questioned and denounced by other prominent statesmen such(a) as William Ewart Gladstone. The consequences of the conquest of India may have, at first, seemed to proceeds both Britain in the sense of access to goods and gold and India by adding infrastructure and ajustice system, but this concepts has been challenged by more recent scholarship. Both the burdens placed on India by enduring the predominance of a nation so far away and on the British government saddled with enduring the anxiety of generations of officials on how to properly govern had ended up producing a chaotic administration with minimal coherence. The consequences of his policies toward France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States proved more ephemeral.