Eminently Quotable

Is the great Whig politician, the third Lord Palmerston (1784-1865).

Palmerston famously practised "gunboat diplomacy" when a British subject, one Don Pacifico was attacked by an anti-semitic mob in Greece in 1847 while the Greek police stood idly by.  Palmerston, very much a Liberal, believed that any British subject should be able to rely on his government for full protection and support.  To this end he sent a warship to blockade the port of Piraeus, provoking an international row and a political storm at home: he managed to upset not only Russia and France but perhaps more impressively, Her Majesty Queen Victoria herself!

Nevertheless I admire such confidence; surely the last British politician to demonstrate such resolve was Winston Churchill?

And it was Palmerston who made the famous statement as follows (often misquoted incidentally):

"Therefore I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow."

It was a BBC television programme that prompted this piece: the programme concerned the 150th anniversary of the openeing of the first underground railway service in the world, in London in 1863.  Of cousre the first train was to carry a collection of VIPs, and Lord Palmerston, then 79, was invited.

He declined with the observation that "I'd like to think that I shall remain above ground a little longer."

Stylish I think.

Until the next time.