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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 9 (February 25, 1927)

Viscount Palmerston

Viscount Palmerston.

Viscount Palmerston was born at Broad-lands, on 20th October, 1784, and was educated at Harrow, Edinburgh and Cambridge. He was elected to Parliament as member for Newport in the Isle of Wight at the age of twenty-three being at once appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. Two years later he was offered the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer which he did not accept. He accepted, however, the Secretaryship at War, and served in this capacity with great ability and efficiency for nearly twenty years. In 1830 he became Foreign Secretary, and immediately confirmed the independence of Belgium, an action which was to mean so much to future history. For the next eleven years, and again from 1846 to 1851, he was recognised as one of the greatest Foreign Ministers in Europe. “His policy raised the prestige of England to a height which she had not occupied since Waterloo.” He preserved peace, rendered notable services to oppressed peoples, worked for the suppression of the slave-trade and for the reduction of the working hours of women and children. He was Home Secretary in 1852–3, and from 1855 to 1858 and 1859 to 1865 he was Prime Minister. Viscount Palmerston held political power for forty-seven years and died on 18th October, 1865, full of years, of dignities and honours.

Viscount Palmerston

Viscount Palmerston

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Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield).

Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield).

Benjamin Disraeli was born in London on 21st December, 1804, and was educated at private schools at Islington, Black-heath and Epping. His first speech in the House of Commons was received with considerable hostility which drew from Disraeli the memorable words “I sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me.” He became Prime Minister in 1868, and again in 1874. One of Disraeli's wise strokes of policy was to secure for the Empire the chief influence in the Suez Canal by the purchase of the Khedive's shares at a cost of £4,000,000. Another characteristic stroke was to bestow on the Queen the title of Empress of India. Through his great knowledge of the world and of men he scored many a diplomatic triumph for England. The phrase “Peace with Honour” was coined by him as expressive of his victory at the Congress of Berlin where, besides other concessions, he secured Cyprus for the Empire.

His bewildering genius was freely acknowledged. In moving an address to the Crown for a monument to Beaconsfield in Westminster Abbey, Gladstone referred to his “extraordinary intellectual powers, his strength of will, his long-sighted persistency of purpose” and said that “his career was in many respects the most remarkable in Parliamentary history.” He died on 19th April, 1881.