that the second bride was " of London," which goes to nullify the story that she was a Dublin lady. It would appear, therefore, that the late premier, if his mother was not Irish, had very little Irish blood in his veins; for, of all the male descendants of Anthony Temple, who settled in Ireland at the beginning of the seventeenth century, only one-Sir John Temple, grandfather of the first Viscount Palmerston— married an Irish lady, named by Burke as "Jane, daughter of Sir Abraham Yarner, Knt., of Dublin," who certainly had not an Irish name. The late Lord Palmerston, who was born in one of the southern counties, was generally claimed as Irish estates, because he was an Irish peer; but from the time of the Restoration in 1660 to that of the Union in 1801, at least one-half of the Irish creations were in favor of English gentlemen. Arthur O'Connor, in Captain Rock's Letters to the King" (a volume published in London in 1828), relates how an English gentleman of considerable wealth, whose London residence was near Hyde Park, asked George III., with whom he was a favorite, permission to drive through St. James's Park, a privilege then given only to peers and certain high officials, as it would save him the détour of at least a mile when he went to and from the House of Commons. The king, answering him that the privilege could not be granted to an unofficial commoner, offered to cut the Gordian knot by converting his petitioner into an Irish peer, which was not done, as the English gentleman declared he would submit to any inconvenience rather than descend to be placed in the peerage of Ireland. The late premier does not appear to have estimated his own nobility very highly. He never adopted at or since his accession to the title the almost invariable course of establishing his right to vote in the election of Irish representative peers, who sit for life in the British House of Lords. Though titled, he was to all intents and purposes an English commoner, who declined to use or cast away his privilege of the peerage. It will be remembered how Lord Brougham has repeatedly lamented that he could not lay aside his coronet and return to the House of Commons, in which he had won his spurs as a politician and debater. One of Palmerston's biographer's says: "In reviewing the little family history thus sketched, the general results which strike one are that Lord Palmerston came from a family of very ancient gentry, never connected, as far as his branch went, with what is called the aristocracy, and generally allied by mar riage with the middle class; that it was a thoroughly English family in spite of its Irish employments, connected with England by property, and in almost every instance marrying English wives; that it has enjoyed nearly unintermitted intellectual distinction for three hundred years, and that there has been a pervading likeness of character in the line all through. Practical statesmen or lawyers; always fond of literature, and sometimes famous in it; successful men of the world, and worldly, but kind-hearted, genial, and capable of high feeling; tough in constitution in spite of the gout, and for the most part long-lived. The Temples were the natural forerunners and producers of the veteran who is just about to be laid in his grave. The old tree seems to have put forth all its force for one last crop, and to have concentrated all its hereditary qualities in the tough bit of fruit which has fallen so ripe, and yet so sound in surface and at core." Henry John Temple was sent to Harrow school in 1794, at which time he was ten years old. The head-master of Harrow was Dr. Drury, under whom he learned to submit to the give-and-take of the fagging system. He was "fag" to the late Rev. Henry Law, rector of Stanton. In 1796 he was headboy in the second remove of the fourth forma merry, genial, good-humored lad, with a fair complexion and curly hair, and was a general favorite among his schoolfellows. One of these, the late Sir John Eustace, of the Grenadier Guards, who was several years with him at Harrow, said that during the whole of that time he was never known to be out of temper, or to bully any boy." Among his schoolmates who are dead were the late Sir Robert Peel, Lord Byron, Pepys (afterwards Lord Chancellor Cottenham), Earl Spencer-the "honest Lord Althorpe" of the reform ministry-the Earl of Aberdeen, and the Earl of Ripon, both of whom preceded him in the premiership. Few of his school contemporaries survive. Among these are the Earl of Lonsdale, Earl Onslow, Sir Augustus J. Dalrymple, the Rev. Augustus Campbell (rector of Liverpool), the Earl of Roden, and Sir Robert Shafto Adair. To the very last Palmerston was much attached to Harrow, and attended its annual celebrations, before the commencement of the summer vacation, with equal regularity and enjoyment. A few years ago, passing through the great schoolroom with a friend, he showed him the panel on which he had carved his name, 66 Temple," alongside those of Byron and Peel. He quitted Harrow after six years' residence as a pupil, and went to Edinburgh, at the commencement of the present century, to attend the philosophical lectures of Dugald Stewart; and in a public speech, a few years ago, he said: "I passed three years of my youth in studying at the University of Edinburgh; and I will frankly own, without disparagement to any other seat of learning at which I had the fortune to reside, that I enjoyed greater advantages in the acquirement of useful knowledge and sound principles during my three years' residence in Edinburgh than I possessed at any other place." As viscounts' eldest sons do not, by "courtesy," bear their fathers' lower titles, it was Mr. and not Baron Temple who studied at Edinburgh. On his father's death, in 1802, Mr. Temple became Viscount Palmerston, and had not then completed his eighteenth year. In 1803 he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was able and good-humored, full of life and highspirited, fond of joining in the "Town-and-Gown " battles (being an excellent pugilist), and possessed of so much mathematical knowledge that, though not much of a reading man, he always took a high place at the college examinations. Totally devoid of pride, affectation, and conceit, he was a general favorite; but few, if any, imagined that future greatness was in store for him. According to the university practice, he might have taken his degree as a nobleman, without examination, but he received it in the usual manner, and was highly placed" among the graduates by the examiners. Lord Palmerston's mother died in February, 1805, while he was yet at the university, and was interred in Romsey Abbey Church, where his father's remains repose. mural tablet, carved by Flaxman, has been placed over their grave, with an inscription, the poetical conclusion of which, written by their son, testifies his grief, and may serve as a specimen of his poetical powers at the age of twenty-one : To those who knew the tenor of their days 'Twere worse than needless to recount their praise; Having completed his education, he found himself pos sessed of a peerage, with small means of supporting its dignity, and he resolved, like his ancestors, that his career should be political. The elder branch of his family, which had several peerages and much wealth-particularly Earl Grenville and the Marquis of Buckingham-were hereditary whigs, but Palmerston, though he had sat at the feet of the philosophic Gamaliel in Edinburgh, adhered to his father's tory politics, and avowed them when first he sought to enter the House of Commons. The victory at Trafalgar, in October, 1805, was considered by the British nation to have been dearly purchased by the death of Nelson. The very day that victory was gained, Ulm surrendered to the French, and Napoleon soon after entered Vienna. Early in December his great triumph at Austerlitz broke down the European coalition against him. The news overwhelmed Mr. Pitt, whose health was feeble at the time, and he never recovered from that blow. In January the great statesman passed away-prematurely worn out before he had completed his forty-sixth year. A new administration was formed, of which Lord Grenville was the nominal, as Charles James Fox was the virtual, head. It was chiefly composed of whigs, mostly members of the late opposition, and, from some idle boast by one of the party, was nicknamed the ministry of "All the Talents." Lord Henry Petty, then a younger brother, but afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, though only twenty-five years old (the age at which Pitt became prime minister,) and was adopted by the whigs in the University of Cambridge as their parliamentary candidate for the vacancy created by the death of Mr. Pitt, who had represented his Alma Mater from 1784 to his death. The tories set up Lord Palmerston, then little more than twenty-one years old, but Palmerston was unsuccessful. He received one hundred and twenty-eight against three hundred and thirtyone votes given to Lord Henry Petty. So, at the same place, had Pitt stood lowest on the poll, when, at the same age, he first endeavored to obtain the same public trust. Mr. McGilchrist says: "The contest was sharp and hotly contested. Lord Henry was successful. Palmerston was soon after returned for the pocket-borough of Bletchingly." This erroneous statement has been largely copied. Immediately, in connection with his friend Lord Fitzharris, he presented himself to the electors of Horsham, but the number of votes given on each side being exactly even, a double return was made. The case went before a parliamentary committee, but their decision admitted the two other candidates, Messrs. Wilder and Parry Jones. The death of Mr. Fox, in September, 1806, rendered it advisable to have a general election, and Lord Palmerston, again entering into a contest at Cambridge, was a second time defeated, though on the first day, May 8, 1807, he headed the poll. At the close of the election, however, he was fourteen votes below Lord Euston, six below Sir O. Gibbs, who were thereby declared duly elected, but was forty-five votes ahead of his former antagonist, Lord Henry Petty. Determined to enter the House of Commons, he arranged, for the purchase of a seat, with the Rev. Sir H. Holmes, who owned the borough, and became M. P. for Newport, Isle of Wight. His colleague was Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had just been appointed chief secretary of Ireland. In 1811, Lord Palmerston stood for the University of Cambridge a third time, was elected, and retained his seat for twenty years. Some months after taking his seat in the House of Commons Palmerston made a judicious defence of the expedition against Copenhagen, a measure suggested by Lord Castlereagh, and his reward was the commissionership of the admiralty, an office which his father had held for several years. The emoluments, about £1,000 to £1,200 a year, were of some consequence to a not wealthy Irish peer; moreover, it was an honor to obtain such an office before he was full twenty-four years old, and it held promise of something better in due season. He had not to wait very long. A change of ministry had taken place in 1807, the Duke of Portland becoming premier, with Mr. Percival, chancellor of the exchequer, actually ruling over him-as viceroy over the king. There was a strong infusion of toryism in the new government. Canning and Castlereagh, as well as Lords Eldon and Hawkesbury (afterwards Earl of Liverpool), entered office. The new cabinet held together for little over two years, and before it broke up Palmerston was made secretary-at-war, in which office he remained during the next twenty years. Lord Castlereagh held the seals of the colonies and the War Department, but in those days, and until the Crimean war, when a fourth secretary of state was appointed, there also was a "secretary-at-war," who actually did all the work as head of the War Department, with £2,480 per annum, |