108. Palmerston, sometimes a liberal, always an activist

After the last few episodes and their focus on domestic issues, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Grey and Melbourne governments had practically no foreign policy. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a global power with a huge empire, Britain was actively pursuing foreign policy objectives. And in Lord Palmerston, it had a foreign minister far more activist than, Melbourne, to guide it.

In some instances that went well. But, as today, Afghanistan would prove a problem. Then when Britain used military force against China to maintain its right to push narcotics into that sad and declining empire, you might even find that it had behaved shamefully.

Illustration: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston in 1844-45, by John Partridge
National Portrait Gallery 1025

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License