Word: palmerstonism
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...thus the lifeline of the industrialized world. So far, the Western powers have succeeded in thwarting the Russians. In the 19th century the British Empire, from such places as Ottoman Turkey, Persia and the frontiers of India, intrigued and battled against Russian expansion. Britain's Prime Minister Lord Palmerston seemed to delight in all the machinations; to him, in a phrase first attributed to Rudyard Kipling, it was "the great game." In the 20th century the game has continued, with somewhat different rules and different players. The Soviets have replaced the czars, and the U.S. has supplanted Britain...
Victoria's impulsive reach for a gunboat was as quick as Lord Palmerston's whenever the empire's prerogatives were challenged. Although Albert tried to assert the principle that the crown should be above politics, she remained, as one expects queens to be, a natural Tory. Thus she ignored the Chartist riots of 1839, largely because no minister could persuade her that the rabble mattered. Albert and Victoria concurred on one political principle, that a sovereign's duty was to save "her" people from the blunders of their elect ed representatives. By custom, the Queen ruled...
...moment of difficulty or danger, a man's British citizenship could easily be his most valuable possession. In 1849, when Don Pacifico, a Jewish merchant of Malta, was refused compensation by the Greek government for injuries he had suffered at the hands of some of its citizens, Lord Palmerston, Britain's Prime Minister, sent the British navy to blockade Piraeus. British subjects the world over, Palmerston told the House of Commons at the time, could boast as proudly of their citizenship as St. Paul did when he said: "Civis Romanus...
...Cyprus problem last week was beginning to resemble the famous Schleswig-Holstein question, which agitated Europe for nearly 100 years and caused at least four wars. Of this knotty diplomatic tangle, Britain's Lord Palmerston said, "Only three men have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who is dead; the second was a German professor who went mad. I am the third, and I have forgotten all about it." Forceful Tampering. Diplomats at the U.N. would be equally happy to forget all about the Cyprus problem, which last week was returned to the Security Council after U Thant...
Until the late 19th century, the main qualifications for a Foreign Office job were a good family, a smattering of languages, and big, clear handwriting. During Lord Palmerston's 16 years as Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, state papers were constantly returned from 10 Downing Street with testy quibbles on the writer's grammar or his handwriting, which, Palmerston insisted, should slope forward, not backward "like the raking masts of an American schooner...