was the only continental state, save Russia, that passed through the storm of 1848 unmoved.
Palmerston had always taken a sympathetic interest in the struggle of the Greeks for independence, and had opposed in the Wellington cabinet of 1828, and afterwards in parliament, the limitation of the new state of Greece to the Morea. He alone in the cabinet had advocated as early as 1827, in Goderich's time, the despatch of a British force to drive out Ibrahim Pasha, and had consistently maintained that the only frontier for Greece against Turkey was the line from Volo to Arta which had been recommended by Sir Stratford Canning and the other commissioners at Poros, but overruled by Lord Aberdeen. When Palmerston came into office he sent Sir Stratford on a special embassy to Constantinople, and this frontier was at last conceded by Turkey on 22 July 1832 (Lane-Poole, Life of Stratford Canning, i. 498).
The troubles in Portugal and Spain engaged the foreign secretary's vigilant attention. He had condemned the perjury of the usurper Miguel while in opposition, and when in office he sent him ‘a peremptory demand for immediate and full redress’ in respect to the British officers imprisoned at Lisbon, which was at once complied with. On the arrival of Dom Pedro, however, in July 1832, to assert his own and his daughter's interests, Miguel began a series of cruel persecutions and arbitrary terrorism, which filled the gaols and produced general anarchy. English and French officers were actually maltreated in the streets. Both countries sent ships of war to protect their subjects, and Dom Pedro was supported by a large number of English volunteers. Palmerston hoped to work upon the moderate ministry in Spain, which had just replaced the ‘apostolicals,’ and induce them to co-operate in getting rid of Dom Miguel, whose court was a rallying point for their opponents, and in sending Dom Pedro back to Brazil. He founded this hope partly on the analogy between Spain and Portugal in the disputed succession, a daughter and a rival uncle being the problem in each case. Accordingly he sent Sir Stratford Canning on a special mission to Madrid, near the close of 1832, to propose ‘the establishment of Donna Maria on the throne as queen [of Portugal], and the relinquishment by Dom Pedro of his claim to the regency during the minority of his daughter’ (Life of Stratford Canning, ii. 25). Though Queen Christina of Spain was favourable, Canning found the king, Ferdinand VII, and his minister, Zea Bermudez, obdurate, and returned to England without accomplishing his purpose. Before this Palmerston's Portuguese policy had been censured in the House of Lords, but the commons had approved the support of Donna Maria and constitutionalism, and recognised that our friendly and almost protective relations with Portugal justified our interference. The death of Ferdinand, on 29 Sept. 1833, created in Spain, as was foreseen, a situation closely parallel to that in Portugal. Ferdinand, with the consent of the cortes, had repealed the pragmatic sanction of 1713 in favour of his daughter Isabella, who thus became queen; while her uncle, Don Carlos, like Miguel in Portugal, denied the validity of her succession, and claimed the throne for himself. In this double crisis Palmerston played what he rightly called ‘a great stroke.’ By his sole exertions a quadruple alliance was constituted by a treaty signed on 22 April 1834 by England, France, Spain, and Portugal, in which all four powers pledged themselves to expel both Miguel and Carlos from the peninsula. He wrote in high glee (to his brother, 21 April 1834): ‘I carried it through the cabinet by a coup de main.’ Beyond its immediate purpose, he hoped it would ‘serve as a powerful counterpoise to the holy alliance.’ The mere rumour was enough for the usurpers: Miguel and Carlos fled from the peninsula. But France soon showed signs of defection. Palmerston seems to have wounded the sensibility of ‘old Talley,’ as he called him; and Talleyrand, on his return to Paris in 1835, is said to have avenged this by setting Louis-Philippe against him. The late cordiality vanished, and Spain was again plunged in anarchy. The presence of a British squadron on the coast and the landing of an auxiliary legion under De Lacy Evans did little good, and aroused very hostile criticism in England. Sir H. Hardinge moved an address to the king censuring the employment of British troops in Spain without a declaration of war; but after three nights' debate Palmerston got up, and in a fine speech lasting three hours turned the tables on his opponents, and carried the house completely with him. The government had a majority of thirty-six, and the minister was cheered ‘riotously.’ His Spanish policy had achieved something. ‘The Carlist cause failed,’ as he said; ‘the cause of the constitution prevailed,’ and he had also defeated the schemes of Dom Miguel in Portugal.
If France showed little cordiality towards the end of the Spanish negotiations, she was much more seriously hostile to Palmerston's eastern policy, and that policy has been more
