Top 10 Henry John Temple Palmerston Quotes at QuotationFun

Displaying Top 10 Viscount Henry John Temple Palmerston quotes

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A Frenchman, thinking to be highly complimentary, said to Palmerston: If I were not a Frenchman, I should wish to be an Englishman. To which Palmerston replied: If I were not an Englishman, I should wish to be an Englishman.

William Ewart Gladstone recounting the conversation to Lord Rendel in 1889, from F. E. Hamer editor. The Personal Papers of Lord Rendel - London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1931.

Politics, Patriotism

The Truth is that a vote is not a Right but a Trust. All the Nation cannot by Possibility be brought together to vote and therefore a Selected few are appointed by Law to perform this Function for the Rest and the Publicity attached to the Performance of this Trust is a Security that it will be responsibly performed.

Palmerston's memorandum - 15 May 1864.

Politics, Patriotism

As to the notion that the Brazilian nation see the criminality of slave trade and have for ever abjured it such a notion is too childish for a grown man really to entertain, however it may suit the Brazilians to endeavour to make it accepted. The plain truth is that the Portuguese are of all European nations the lowest in the moral state and the Brazilians are degenerate Portuguese, demoralized by slavery and slave trade, and all the degrading and corrupting influences connected with both. I have laboured indefatigably all the time I was at the Foreign Office to put an end to the slave trade, and though not with entire at all events with some considerable success and nothing shall induce me to load my conscience with the guilt of having been a party to promoting its revival. I am afraid Bright has been at you upon these Brazilian matters. He has always professed great horror of slave trade and has invariably opposed the employment of any and every means by which it could be made to cease.

Letter to John Russell - 5 October, 1864.

Politics, Patriotism

I have read your speech and I must frankly say, with much regret as there is little in it that I can agree with, and much from which I differ. You lay down broadly the Doctrine of Universal Suffrage which I can never accept. I intirely deny that every sane and not disqualified man has a moral right to a vote - I use that Expression instead of “The Pale of the Constitution”, because I hold that all who enjoy the Security and Civil Rights which the Constitution provides are within its Pale. What every Man and Woman too have a Right to, is to be well governed and under just Laws, and they who propose a change ought to shew that the present organization does not accomplish those objects. If every Man has a Right to have his Share in chusing those who make Laws, why should he not have a right to express his own opinion on Laws to be made. You did not pronounce an opinion in Favor of a specified Franchise, but is there any essential Difference between naming a Six Pound Franchise, and naming the additional numbers which a Six Pound Franchise was calculated to admit. I am not going to perform the Duty which Whiteside...ingly assigned to me, of answering your Speech but if you will not take it amiss, I would say, that it was more like the Sort of Speech with which Bright would have introduced the Reform Bill which he would like to propose than the Sort of Speech which might have been expected from the Treasury bench in the present State of Things. Your Speech may win Lancashire for you, though that is doubtful but I fear it will tend to lose England for you. It is to be regretted that you should, as you stated, have taken the opportunity of your receiving a Deputation of working men, to exhort them to set on Foot an Agitation for Parliamentary Reform - The Function of a Government is to calm rather than to excite Agitation.

Letter to William Ewart Gladstone - 12 May, 1864. Philip Guedalla editor. Gladstone and Palmerston, being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston with Mr. Gladstone 1851-1865 - London: Victor Gollancz, 1928.

Politics, Patriotism

Lord Palmerston: Then you did not vote for me, friend Rowcliffe; you preferred voting for a Tory. William Rowcliffe: I did not vote for you, my Lord, for if I had, I should have voted for a Tory.

During the general election of summer 1865 where the Chartist Rowcliffe voted for a Conservative and another Liberal in order to oust Palmerston from the two-member constituency. Quoted in F. J. Snell, Palmerston's Borough - Tiverton, 1894.

Politics, Patriotism