パーマストンとアメリカ南北戦争 : 閣内対立と対外政策決定過程

The mid-19th century in Britain, which was that country's golden age, is generally called the Age of Palmerston, because Viscount Palmerston controlled British foreign policy during this era from 1830 to 1865 as Foreign Secretary or Prime Minister. His foreign policy was the so-called gunboat diplomacy. In other words, it was an Imperialism of Free Trade and was well in evidence in the cases of the Turkish-Egyptian War in 1839, the Opium War in 1840, the Don Pacifico Affair in 1850, the Arrow War in 1856, and the Indian Mutiny in 1857. However, during the second Palmerston Ministry, British foreign policy was cautious not to interfere in wars or overseas affairs. For instance, Britain was never concerned in the Italian War in 1859, the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, the Polish Insurrection in 1863, and the Danish-Prussian War in 1864. In this paper the author analyzes the reason why the Second Palmerston Ministry never interfered with these affairs. On the one hand there was Palmerston's double standard of foreign policy, or of his innate care concerning foreign affairs. On the other hand, some historians conclude that the older Palmerston became the more cautious his foreigh policy appeared. However, the author argues that there are some defects in this reasoning, and urges the study of the history of British party politics at that time, because the Second Palmerston Government was the first Ministry of the Liberal Party after the Willis's Rooms meetings of June 1859. This cabinet was a coalition cabinet consisting of Whigs, Peelites and Radicals. In June 1859, Palmerston and his followers had to cooperate with Lord John Russell, who was a rival for the Liberal leadership and aligned with the Peelites and Radicals, in order to form the Second Palmerston Government. Therefore, Palmerston had to offer important offices to Russell, and Gladstone, a leading Peelite. So, some of his followers had to give up their claims to the offices they wanted. For instance, the Earl of Clarendon could not become Foreign Secretary because of Russell's assumption of that office, and Sir George Lewis could not be the Chancellor of the Exchequer because of W.E. Gladstone's requirement. In the end, the Second Palmerston Ministry consisted of 9 Whigs, 5 Peelites and 2 Redicals, and it was actually a coalition cabinet, but included many members who had formely opposed Palmerston's foreign policy. Therefore, Palmerston could not have the dominant voice in his cabinet concerning the process of decision-making in foreign policy. When the cabinet framed its policy toward the American Civil War, in which Russell, Gladstone, Lewis and Clarendon were leading actors, Russell and Gladstone advocated to propose mediation of the War, and Lewis and Clarendon (who was not in cabinet, but held strong influence among several cabinet members) opposed them. Also, their confrontation seemed to originate in the personal conflicts concerning the formation of the Government in the first place. Palmerston could not control his Second Ministry as he had ruled his first in the mid-1850's. One of reasons why he could not control his Government, and why he did not promote his gunboat diplomacy in his later years, seems to be the weakness of the newborn Liberal Party at a time when the Two-Party politics had yet to appear in Britain.