he insurgents. But the further solution of the question was reserved
for other hands. On the 3rd Louis Philippe was compelled to accept a
revolutionary ministry, and on the 22nd Wellington and Aberdeen had to
make way for a whig ministry with Grey as premier, and Palmerston as
foreign secretary.

The new foreign secretary had served a long political apprenticeship as
secretary at war in the successive administrations of Perceval,
Liverpool, Canning, Goderich, and Wellington, and under the three
last-mentioned premiers he had enjoyed a seat in the cabinet. It will be
remembered that he had been a warm champion of Greece, and had resigned
office along with Huskisson, Dudley, and Grant. He now returned in
company with Grant as a member of a whig cabinet. Although this change
of party involved the adoption of a domestic policy far removed from
Canning's, Palmerston's foreign policy remained rather Canningite than
whig. The interest and the honour of England ranked with Palmerston as
with Canning before all questions which concerned the maintenance of
European peace. But instead of Canning's versatile diplomacy he
displayed too often a reckless disregard of the susceptibilities of
foreign governments, and, if, like Canning, he lent the moral support of
Great Britain to the liberal party in every continental country, it was
not, as it had professedly been with Canning, because their success
would promote the interests of Great Britain, but because he had a
genuine sympathy with their cause. It is impossible to deny that in his
earlier years at least Palmerston's policy met with a success such as
Castlereagh and Wellington had not attempted to gain; real or imaginary
dangers at home left the foreign governments too weak to oppose the will
of the one strong man of the moment. Yet it is doubtful whether any
resultant benefits were not more than counterbalanced by the distrust
and ill-will with which the greater nations of Europe have learned to
regard the British government and people.

[Pageheading: _PROPOSED DIVISION OF THE NETHERLANDS._]

During the first few weeks of the new administration, the Belgian
question advanced far towards a settlement. On November 10 a Belgian
national congress assembled at Brussels; on the 18th it voted the
independence of Belgium; on the 22nd it resolved that the new state
should be a constitutional monarchy, and on the 24th it proclaimed the
total exclusion of the house of Nassau. Finally the