How far do you agree that “Palmerston always vigorously defended his countries interests?”
How far do you agree that “Palmerston always vigorously defended his countries interests?”
Palmerston was a diligent believer in protecting the rights of British citizens across the world and therefore defending Britain as a nation which was reflected in his foreign policy. In 1848-49 Palmerston was more intent upon preserving the general peace than upon trying to please his party or parliament. In 1849-51, however, he won Radical applause for his denunciations of the cruelty of counterrevolutionaries; for his release of British arms to Sicilian insurgents and his later endorsement of William Ewart Gladstone's exposure of King Ferdinand's treatment of political prisoners; by his evident approval of the hostile reception given to the Austrian general Julius, Freiherr von Haynau, when he visited Britain; by his pressure on the Turks; and by his acceptance, when the defeated Hungarian patriot Lajos Kossuth visited Britain, of addresses describing the rulers of Austria and Russia in slanderous terms. Palmerston appeared to condemn anybody or anything that challended the superiority of Britain or to one extent its allies. This approach gave him great favour with the British public.
This propagandist diplomacy infuriated Prince Albert and embarrassed Cabinet colleagues who, like Queen Victoria, were not kept fully informed. But Palmerston defeated Russell's intention of removing him from the foreign office by a famous dusk-to-dawn speech on July 8, 1850, in which he defended the British bombardment of Athens and the sabotaging of an agreement reached in London with France and Russia over British subjects' claims against Greece. The matter was concerning a man called David Pacifico (known as Don Pacifico), a Portuguese Jew who, having been born in Gibraltar in 1784, was a British subject. After serving as Portuguese consul in Morocco and then as consul-general in Greece, he settled in Athens as a merchant. In 1847 his house was burned down in an anti-Semitic riot, the police standing quietly by. Pacifico demanded compensation from the Greek government and was supported by Britain's foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston. Palmerston sent a naval squadron to blockade the Greek coast (January 1850) and forced the Greeks to meet Pacifico's demands. This brought protests from the French and the Russians, with whom Britain shared a protectorate of Greece. Nevertheless, the Greeks acceded to the payment of £4,000, though, because of the loss of some papers, a commission awarded Pacifico only £150. He moved to London, where he died on April 12, 1854.
