William Ewart Gladstone on Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

“He said he had had two great objects always before him in life—one the suppression of the slave trade, the other to put England in a state of defence.”

“A Frenchman, thinking to be highly complimentary, said to Palmerston: "If I were not a Frenchman, I should wish to be an Englishman"; to which Pam coolly replied: "If I were not an Englishman, I should wish to be an Englishman."”

“Palmerston had two admirable qualities. He had an intense love of Constitutional freedom everywhere; and he had a profound hatred of negro slavery... I should not ascribe to him the overpowering conscientiousness which I ascribe to Peel.”