wrong. The result was a firmness and tenacity of purpose which brought him through many difficulties. He said himself, ‘A man of energy may make a wrong decision, but, like a strong horse that carries you rashly into a quagmire, he brings you by his sturdiness out on the other side.’ M. Drouyn de Lhuys used the same simile when speaking of Palmerston's ‘sagacity, courage, trustworthiness’ as a ‘daring pilot in extremity.’ Lord Shaftesbury, the man whom Palmerston loved and esteemed above all others, wrote of him, ‘I admired, every day more, his patriotism, his simplicity of purpose, his indefatigable spirit, his unfailing good humour, his kindness of heart, his prompt, tender, and active consideration for others in the midst of his heaviest toils and anxieties.’ His buoyant, vivacious, optimistic nature produced an erroneous impression of levity, but this very lightness of heart carried him unscathed through many a dark crisis, and kept up the spirit of the nation, whose faults and whose virtues he so completely represented. A thorough English gentleman, simple, manly, and detesting display and insincerity, he brought into private life the same generous, kindly, happy spirit which he showed in his public career. An excellent landlord, he spent infinite pains and money over his Irish and English estates, and did his best to extirpate the middleman. He took a keen interest in all local amusements, sports, and meetings, and showed a real and genial sympathy with the welfare of farmers, labourers, and working men. A keen sportsman, he preserved game, hunted when he could, rode daily on his old grey, familiar to all Londoners, and made exercise, as he said, ‘a religion.’ He bred and trained horses since 1815, but seldom betted. His green and orange colours were especially well known at the smaller provincial race meetings. But he won the Cesarewitch with Ilione in 1841, and the Ascot Stakes with Buckthorn in 1852, and his Mainstone ran third favourite for the Derby in 1860, but was believed to have been ‘got at.’ In 1845 he was elected an honorary member of the Jockey Club. Indoors he had a genius for ‘fluking’ at his favourite game at billiards; his opponents said it was typical of his statesmanship. He was no student, and, though he could quote Horace and Virgil and the English classics, he only once refers to a book in his published correspondence—and that was ‘Coningsby.’ His conversation was agreeable but not striking; but, as Greville acutely observed, ‘when he takes his pen in his hand, his intellect seems to have full play.’ His despatches are clear, bold, trenchant, logical; there he spoke his mind with unsparing lucidity and frank bluntness. His letters, always written in a hurry, are simple, clear, honest, and humorous, and show a skilful delicacy both in reproof and praise. As a speaker, he had the great art of gauging the temper of his hearers and suiting his speech to their mood. He was ready in debate, and his set speeches, which were carefully prepared, carried his audience with him, although they were neither brilliant nor philosophical, and he often resorted to somewhat flippant jokes and fustian rhetoric to help out an embarrassing brief. But what gave him his supreme influence with his countrymen in his later life, as orator, statesman, and leader, was his courage and confidence.
The chief portraits of Palmerston are: (1) æt. 15 or 16, by Heaphy at Broadlands, formerly the seat of the Right Hon. E. Ashley; (2) æt. circa 45, by Partridge, in the National Portrait Gallery; (3) æt. 51, a sketch by Hayter, for his picture of the reformed House of Commons, at Broadlands; (4) æt. 66, a full-length by Partridge, presented to Lady Palmerston by members of the House of Commons in 1850, at Broadlands; (5) æt. 71, a large equestrian portrait, on the favourite grey, by Barraud, at Broadlands; (6) æt. 80, a remarkable sketch by Cruikshank, at Broadlands. Statues of him stand in Westminster Abbey (by Robert Jackson), Palace Yard (by Thomas Woolner, R.A.), and at Romsey market-place (by Matthew Noble). A bust by Noble and a portrait in oils by G. Lowes Dickenson are in the hall of the Reform Club. From 6 Dec. 1851, when (Sir) John Tenniel's cartoon of Palmerston in the character of the ‘Judicious Bottle-Holder, or the Downing Street Pet’ appeared in ‘Punch,’ Palmerston was constantly represented in that periodical; a straw was invariably placed between the statesman's lips in allusion to his love of horses (Spielmann, History of Punch, pp. 203–4).
[The Life of Lord Palmerston up to 1847 was written by his faithful adherent, Lord Dalling (Sir H. Lytton Bulwer), vols. i. and ii. 1870, vol. iii. edited and partly written by the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, 1874, after the author's death. Mr. Ashley completed the biography in two more vols. 1876. The whole work was reissued in a revised and slightly abridged form by Mr. Ashley in 2 vols. 1879, with the title ‘The Life and Correspondence of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston;’ the letters are judiciously curtailed, but unfortunately without indicating where the excisions occur; the appendices of the original work are omitted, but much fresh matter is added, and this edition is undoubtedly the standard biography, and has been freely used and quoted above. Palmerston wrote a brief and
