Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Palmerston began his career as a Canningite and served under him (and Lord Portland[?]) as Junior Lord of Admirality from 1807. In 1809 he became Secretary at War, a post he would hold for nearly twenty years. In 1828 the Duke of Wellington raised Palmerston to the Cabinet, but Palmerston resigned from Wellington's government over the issue of parliamentary representation for Manchester and Birmingham.

Palmerston's elevation to the post of Foreign Secretary[?], perhaps the post most identified with him, came in 1830 in Earl Grey's great reforming government. It was during this term in office that he successfully addressed the issues of Belgian independence and problems with control of Turkey. However, his abrasive style gained him the nickname, "Lord Pumice Stone", and his manner of dealing with foreign governments who crossed him was the original "gunboat diplomacy[?]"

Palmerston continued to serve as Foreign Secretary in the succeeding Whig governments of Lord Melbourne (1835-1841 and Lord John Russell (1846-1851).

In 1851 Palmerston resigned from the Russell government, largely because of disagreements with Russell and weeks later caused an election by bringing the same government down.

After a brief period of Tory minority government, the Earl of Aberdeen became Prime Minister in a coalition government of Whigs and Peelites (with Russell taking the role of Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons) but it was impossible for them to form a government without Palmerston; he was made Home Secretary[?] in December 1852.

Although exiled from his traditional realm in the Foreign Office, Palmerston played a key role in securing British entry into war against Russia in 1854. Soon after, Aberdeen's government fell because of public anger at the conduct of the Crimean war and Palmerston was the public choice for Prime Minister, even though he had been as much a part of the conduct of the war as any of the other ministers of the government.

He continued to serve as Prime Minister till his death in a term broken only by the Chinese crisis of 1857 and a failure to read the public mood in 1858.

Palmerston was an Irish Peer who always sat in the British House of Commons. He is regarded as a nationalist and as a social conservative. He was a womaniser; The Times named him Lord Cupid, and he was cited, at the age of 79, as correspondent in an 1863 divorce case. He was also a persistent abolitionist.

Palmerston is remembered for his light hearted approach to government. He is once said to have claimed of a particularly intractable problem relating to Schleswig-Holstein that only three people had ever understood the problem: one was Prince Albert, who was dead; the second was a German professor, who had gone insane; and the third was Palmerston himself, who had forgotten it.

Florence Nightingale said of him after his death "Though he made a joke when asked to do the right thing he always did it. He was so much more in earnest than he appeared, he did not do himself justice."

Lord Palmerston's First Government, February 1855 - February 1858

• Lord Palmerston - First Lord of the Treasury
• Lord Cranworth - Lord Chancellor
• Lord Granville - Lord President of the Council
• The Duke of Argyll - Lord Privy Seal
• Sir George Grey - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Lord Clarendon - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Sidney Herbert - Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Lord Panmure - Secretary of State for War
• Sir James Graham - First Lord of the Admiralty
• William Ewart Gladstone - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Sir Charles Wood - President of the Board of Control
• Lord Stanley of Alderney - President of the Board of Trade
• Lord Harrowby - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sir William Molesworth - First Commissioner of Public Works[?]
• Lord Canning - Postmaster-General
• Lord Lansdowne - Minister without Portfolio

Changes

• later in February, 1855 - Sir George Cornewall Lewis succeeds Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord John Russell succeeds Herbert as Colonial Secretary. Sir Charles Wood succeeds Sir James Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty. R.V. Smith succeeds Wood as President of the Board of Control
• July, 1855 - Sir William Molesworth succeeds Russell as Colonial Secretary. Molesworth's successor as First Commissioner of Public Works is not in the Cabinet.
• November, 1855 - Henry Labouchere[?] succeeds Molesworth as Colonial Secretary
• December, 1855 - The Duke of Argyll succeeds Lord Canning as Postmaster-General. Lord Harrowby succeeds Argyll as Lord Privy Seal. Harrowby's successor as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is not in the Cabinet.
• 1857 - M.T. Baines, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet.
• February, 1858 - Lord Clanricarde succeeds Harrowby as Lord Privy Seal.

Lord Palmerston's Second Cabinet, June 1859 - October 1865

• Lord Palmerston - First Lord of the Treasury
• Lord Campbell - Lord Chancellor
• Lord Granville - Lord President of the Council
• The Duke of Argyll - Lord Privy Seal
• Sir George Cornewall Lewis - Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Lord John Russell - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• The Duke of Newcastle - Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Sidney Herbert - Secretary of State for War
• Sir Charles Wood - Secretary of State for India
• The Duke of Somerset - First Lord of the Admiralty
• William Ewart Gladstone - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Edward Cardwell - Chief Secretary for Ireland[?]
• Thomas Milner-Gibson - President of the Board of Trade and of the Poor Law Board[?]
• Sir George Grey - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Lord Elgin - Postmaster-General

Changes

• late 1859 - C.P. Billiers succeeds Milner-Gibson as President of the Poor Law Board[?] (Milner-Gibson remains at the Board of Trade)
• 1860 - Lord Stanley of Alderney succeeds Lord Elgin as Postmaster-General
• June, 1861 - Lord Westbury succeeds Lord Campbell as Lord Chancellor
• July, 1861 - Sir George Cornewall Lewis succeeds Herbert as Secretary for War. Sir George Grey succeeds Lewis as Home Secretary. Edward Cardwell succeeds the Duke of Newcastle as Colonial Secretary and Grey as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Cardwell's successor as Chief Secretary for Ireland is not in the Cabinet.
• April, 1863 - Lord Ripon becomes Secretary for War following Sir George Lewis's death.
• April, 1864 - Lord Clarendon succeeds Cardwell as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Cardwell remains Colonial Secretary).
• July, 1865 - Lord Cranworth succeeds Lord Westbury as Lord Chancellor