Note H — Chapter IX · PALMERSTON AS FOREIGN SECRETARY TILL HIS DISMISSAL, IN 1851.

When we read Mr. Kinglake’s picturesque account of the manner in which the Coup d’Etat was prepared, we find it hard to understand that Lord Palmerston should have believed as he did. It is odd that two honest men should have entertained opinions so different. Lord Palmerston, no doubt, spoke immediately after the event, and the historian did not give his account till ten years later. But in the meantime the Emperor had been generally “approved of” in England, and the question arises whether the approval had been deserved. There were many here in England who never thought so, and to them the assent of Lord Palmerston has always been distressing.