l affairs; returning to office in 1846, he remained at his
old post till 1851, steering England skilfully through the Spanish
troubles and the revolutionary reaction of 1848; a vote of censure on his
policy was carried in the Lords in 1850, but, after a five hours' speech
from him, the Commons recorded their approval; he resigned owing to
differences with the Premier, Lord John Russell; in 1852 joined Lord
Aberdeen's coalition ministry, and on its fall became himself Prime
Minister in 1855; he prosecuted the Crimean War and the Chinese War of
1857, and suppressed the Great Mutiny in India; defeated in 1858, he
returned to office next year with a cabinet of Whigs and Peelites; his
second administration furthered the cause of free trade, but made the
mistake of allowing the _Alabama_ to leave Birkenhead; he was Prime
Minister when he died; a brusque, high-spirited, cheery man, sensible and
practical, unpretending as an orator, but a skilful debater, he was a
great favourite with the country, whose prosperity and prestige it was
his chief desire to promote (1784-1865).

PALMISTRY, the art of reading character from the lines and marks on
the palm of the hand, according to which some pretend to read fortunes as
well.

PALMY`RA, a ruined city of Asia Minor, 150 m. NE. of Damascus, once
situated in an oasis near the Arabian desert; a place of importance, and
said to have been founded by Solomon for commercial purposes; of imposing
magnificence as it ruins testify, as notably under Zenobia; it was taken
by the Romans in 272, and destroyed by Aurelian, after which it gradually
fell into utter decay; its ruins were discovered in 1678; it contains
the ruins of a temple to Baal, 60 of the 300 columns of which were still
standing.

PALO ALTO, 33 m. SE. of San Francisco; is the seat of a remarkable
university founded by Senator Stanford, and opened in 1891, to provide
instruction, from the Kindergarten stage to the most advanced and varied,
to students and pupils boarded on the premises; of these there were 1000
in 1897.

PALUDAN-MUeLLER, FREDERICK, distinguished Danish poet, born in Fuenen;
his greatest poem, "Adam Homo," a didactico-humorous composition; was an
earnest man and a finished literary artist (1809-1876).

PAMELA, a novel of Richardson's, from the name of the heroine, a
girl of low degree, who resists temptation and reclaims her would-be
seducer.

PAMIRS, THE, or the "Roof of the World," a plateau trav