A Quote by – Viscount Henry John Temple Palmerston

Topic of this Quote:

Author Name:

Viscount Henry John Temple Palmerston

Born As:

Henry John Temple

Other Names:

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC.

Born:

20 Oct 1784

Died:

18 Oct 1865 
                          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.