Henry John Temple Palmerston, viscount, a British statesman, born in London, Oct. 20, 1784, died at Brockett Hall, Herts, Oct. 18, 1865. He succeeded to the title as third viscount (in the Irish peerage) in 1802, and after studying in the university of Edinburgh graduated at St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1806. In 1807 he was returned to parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight, and from 1811 to 1831 represented Cambridge university. He succeeded Lord Castlereagh as secretary at war in the Perceval cabinet in 1809, and held the office under five administrations, retiring with Huskisson from the Wellington cabinet in May, 1828. He soon afterward severed his connection with the tory party, and was secretary of state for foreign affairs under Earl Grey from November, 1830, to December, 1843, and under Lord Melbourne from April, 1835, to September, 1841. In July, 1846, he was again called to that post in the Russell cabinet; but offending the court and his colleagues by his friendly attitude toward the coup oVetat of Louis Napoleon, he retired in December, 1851. In 1852 he became home secretary in the coalition ministry of Lord Aberdeen, whom he succeeded as prime minister in 1855. In 1857 the house of commons censured his China policy, but, the house having been dissolved, the new elections were in his favor.

The defeat of the " conspiracy to murder bill," introduced with reference to the attempt of Or-sini against Napoleon III., in February, 1858, occasioned his retirement. In June, 1859, he was once more premier, and held the post till his death.' In 1861 he was appointed lord warden of the cinque ports, and governor of Dover castle. In 1862 he received the degree of D. 0. L. from (Oxford, and was elected lord rector of the university of Glasgow. He married the widow of Earl Oowper in 1839, but the union was without issue, and the title is extinct. He was buried in Westminster abbey, Oct. 27, 1865. A bronze statue of him was unveiled at Romsey in 1868, and another in Parliament square, London, in 1874. Politically, from his accession to office in the whig ministry in 1830 till his death, he was a prominent leader of the liberal party. He had previously supported Catholic emancipation. He was opposed to the settlement with the United States of the N". E. boundary, and stigmatized the treaty as the "Ashburton capitulation." In 1845 he declared in favor of the absolute repeal of the corn laws, though previously he was for a fixed duty for revenue.

As minister of foreign affairs he directed the diplomacy of the country in many difficult and delicate questions, such as the troubles in Portugal, the Swiss troubles, the revolutionary movements of 1848, the Greek imbroglio (1847-'50), the Hungarian war and the protection of the refugee chiefs, and in securing the recognition of Napoleon III. and the subsequent coalition with France. Personally he was a man of extraordinary activity of mind and body, indefatigable in business, fond of the pleasures of society, and of great culture. He preserved his health and strength almost to the close of his life. His last illness resulted from exposure to sudden cold weather, and was brief and nearly painless. His views and opinions are to be found in detail in parliamentary reports and in his occasional addresses. - Multitudes of dissertations on the foreign policy of Lord Palmers-ton have been published, among the chief of which are the publications and speeches of David Urquhart accusing him of being secretly in the service of Russia and of betraying the interests of England in the eastern question, and Count Ficquelmont's Lord Palmers-ton, VAngleterre et le continent (1852). More elaborate works are: " Opinions and Policy of the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston as Minister, Diplomatist, and Statesman, with a Memoir by G. H. Francis" (1852), made up chiefly of extracts from his speeches; " Thirty Years of Foreign Policy, a History of the Secretaryships of the Earl of Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston" (1855); and "Life of Viscount Palmerston, with selections from his Diaries and Correspondence," by Henry Lytton Bulwer (3 vols., 1870-'74).