Note 39 — JOHN BRIGHT. ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND; DELIVERED AT A BANQUET GIVEN IN HONOR OF MR. BRIGHT, AT BIRMINGHAM, OCTOBER 29, 1858.

Note 39, p. 186.—This is not quite accurately stated. At the time of the coup d’état Lord Palmerston was Minister of Foreign Affairs. He did indeed in a conversation with Count Walewski, the French Ambassador at London, express his approval of the course of the French Government, but so far from speaking “ostensibly for the cabinet, for the sovereign, and the English nation,” he offered simply his private opinion. The English Government formally determined upon a course of the strictest neutrality; and when it was found that Palmerston’s approval had been sent by Walewski to France, the message was not only disavowed, but Palmerston was summarily dismissed. See McCarthy, ii., chap. xxii., 148–154, Eng. ed. The coup d’état was in December, 1851; but there was no alliance till August of 1853, long after the people of France had given their sanction to the empire.