‘L'Italie rendue à elle-même,’ he said, had become ‘l'Italie vendue à l'Autriche.’ That he maintained strict neutrality in the later negotiations connected with the proposed congress of Zürich, and his suggested triple alliance of England, France, and Sardinia to prevent any forcible interference of foreign powers in the internal affairs of Italy (memorandum to cabinet, 5 Jan. 1860), is scarcely to be argued. His efforts in conjunction with France to mediate between Austria and Sardinia had little effect beyond procuring slightly better terms of peace for the latter; but the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio's grateful letter of thanks (August 1849) showed how they were appreciated in Italy, and a result of this sympathy appeared later in the Sardinian contingent in the Crimean war. Notwithstanding the effort to seek better terms from Napoleon, Maximilian had taken several steps to secure his position in case of need, and among them ranked foremost the reorganization of the army. The inheritance of a portion of Canning's mantle explains the isolation and independence of Palmerston's position during nearly the whole of his career.

Canning's influence moulded Palmerston's political convictions, especially on foreign policy. In this he succeeded, and, in spite of the sympathy of France and Austria with the seven defeated cantons, the policy advocated by England was carried out, the Sonderbund was abolished, the jesuits expelled, and the federal pact re-established. The cause lay in the increasing alienation of France. He denounced the government's countenance of Dom Miguel, lamented that England had not shared with France the honour of expelling the Egyptians from the Morea, and ridiculed the absurdity of creating ‘a Greece which should contain neither Athens, nor Thebes, nor Marathon, nor Salamis, nor Platæa, nor Thermopylæ, nor Missolonghi.’ In home affairs he interfered but little. France could not allow its work to collapse by refusing so slight a sacrifice. Stooping down, he lifted the slight form of his wife and placed her in a chair. Here, says Lord Palmerston (in a fragment of autobiography written in 1830), ‘I laid the foundation for whatever useful knowledge and habits of mind I possess.’ Stewart gave him a very high character in every respect; and to moral qualities the boy added the advantage of a strikingly handsome face and figure, which afterwards procured him the nickname of ‘Cupid’ among his intimates.

The rupture between the Canningites and the tories threw the former into the arms of the whigs, and after 1828 Palmerston always acted with them, sometimes in combination with the Peelites or liberal-conservatives. The sacrifice hardly affected them, for their mode of living was extremely simple for a court. Palmerston and his foreign minister, Lord John Russell, now completely under his leader's influence, declined to mediate in the Franco-Austrian quarrel, as the conditions were unacceptable to Austria; but they did not conceal their disapproval of the preliminary treaty of Villafranca, which Palmerston declared drove Italy to despair and delivered her, tied hand and foot, into the power of Austria. In October 1809 the new prime minister, Spencer Perceval, offered Palmerston conditionally the choice of the post of chancellor of the exchequer, of a junior lordship of the treasury with an understood succession to the exchequer, or of secretary at war with a seat in the cabinet. Presently Canning offered him the governor-generalship of India, as Lord Liverpool had done before, but it was declined on the score of climate and health. Apparently he was content with his work, for he successively declined Lord Liverpool's offers of the post of chief secretary for Ireland, governor-general of India, and the post office with an English peerage.

English and French officers were actually maltreated in the streets. The French government objecting, the allowance stopped, and consequently any progress of army organization. On the advice of Sir Stratford Canning, supported by the French ambassador, the sultan declined to give up the refugees. He paused, billiards cabinet as if to give Mr. Crane an opportunity of resenting or denying the charge. He indicated Mr. Crane with his thumb. He turned swiftly to find Mrs. Crane standing just inside the kitchen door, a new light in her eyes. His face was a ghastly grey, his lips dry, and in his eyes was fear. Bindle, his eyes upon the light patch on the back of Mr. Crane's head. Again Mrs. Bindle nodded her head. Bindle looked eagerly at the quaking figure before him. The country looked to ‘Pam,’ and him only, as its leader, and at the age of seventy-five he formed his second administration (30 June 1859), with a very strong cabinet, including Russell, Gladstone, Cornewall Lewis, Granville, Cardwell, Wood, Sidney Herbert, and Milner Gibson. And she looked up into Bindle's face with a tremulous little smile.