Reading a life of Lord Palmerston, the 19th-century British politician, the

following caught my eye:

“When Lord Russell was forming his ministry in 1846 he invited Palmerston to

return to the Foreign office, although he was rather nervous of what he

might do there. Palmerston gladly accepted, and proceeded to carry out his

duties with his customary energy and aplomb. Very early he made it

perfectly clear where he stood, and where he thought Britain ought to take

her stand. When in 1849 Richard Cobden expressed himself in favor of

submitting international disputes to arbitration, Palmerston disagreed. He

agreed with Mr. Cobden, he told the House of Commons, in feeling the utmost

dislike, ‘and I may say horror’ of war in any shape, and this was the

opinion of the vast mass of Englishmen. But, he went on, ‘that which I wish

to guard against–the impression that I wish should not be entertained

anywhere, either in this country or out of it–is that, while there is in

England a fervent love of peace, an anxious and steady desire to maintain

it, there should not exist the impression that the manly spirit of

Englishmen is dead; that England is not ready, as she is ever, to repel

aggression and resent injury…”

[In case you are wondering why Palmerston, a peer, was allowed to address

the House of Commons: his Viscountcy was an Irish one, and Irish peers were

allowed to sit in the Commons.]