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

I think it should be remembered,—though I cannot give absolute proof for such an opinion,—that Palmerston, previous to the Coup d’Etat, had expressed his opinion in favour of an Empire for France; and it is probable that this opinion had previously reached Napoleon’s ears. Guided by what he had seen of a former Republic, he did not believe in a new Republic for France. There might have been an idea, on the part of the Crown, that in expressing this opinion, even in private speech or in public writing, he had gone too far. His personal feeling for the Emperor was, no doubt, friendly and strong, till subsequently Nice and Savoy had, as he felt treacherously, been taken from Italy and added to France. At that date Palmerston’s personal friendship for the Emperor is supposed to have ceased.