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Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount

Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount ( 1784 – 1865 )
British Whig statesman, Prime Minister ( 1855 – 58 ; 1859 – 65 ). He left the Tory Party in 1830 to serve with the Whigs as Foreign Secretary ( 1830 – 34 ; 1835 – 41 ; 1846 – 51 ). In his foreign policy Palmerston was single-minded in his promotion of British interests, declaring the second Opium War against China in 1856 , and overseeing the successful conclusion of the Crimean War in 1856 and the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1858 . He maintained British neutrality during the American Civil War.

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