First Palmerston ministry

Palmerston addressing the House of Commons

The Viscount Palmerston, of the Whigs, first formed a government by popular demand in 1855, after the resignation of the coalition government of Lord Aberdeen. He was heavily criticised by Parliament in 1857 over the conduct of the Second Opium War and called a dissolution, but the nation voiced its support in the resulting general election and he remained in power. In 1858 he resigned when defeated "on a measure for removing conspiracies to murder abroad from the class of misdemeanour to that of felony", and was succeeded by another short-lived Conservative government under Lord Derby.

Cabinet

February 1855 – February 1858

• Lord Palmerston – First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Cranworth – Lord Chancellor
• Lord Granville – Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
• The Duke of Argyll – Lord Privy Seal
• Sir George Grey – Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Lord Clarendon – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Sidney Herbert – Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Lord Panmure – Secretary of State for War
• Sir James Graham – First Lord of the Admiralty
• William Ewart Gladstone – Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Sir Charles Wood – President of the Board of Control
• Lord Stanley of Alderley – President of the Board of Trade
• Lord Harrowby – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet – First Commissioner of Works
• Lord Canning – Postmaster-General
• Lord Lansdowne – Minister without Portfolio

Changes

• Later in February 1855 – Sir George Cornewall Lewis succeeds Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord John Russell succeeds Herbert as Colonial Secretary. Sir Charles Wood succeeds Sir James Graham as First Lord of the Admiralty. R.V. Smith succeeds Wood as President of the Board of Control
• July 1855 – Sir William Molesworth succeeds Russell as Colonial Secretary. Molesworth's successor as First Commissioner of Public Works is not in the Cabinet.
• November 1855 – Henry Labouchere succeeds Molesworth as Colonial Secretary
• December 1855 – The Duke of Argyll succeeds Lord Canning as Postmaster-General. Lord Harrowby succeeds Argyll as Lord Privy Seal. Harrowby's successor as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is not in the Cabinet
• 1857 – M.T. Baines, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet.
• February 1858 – Lord Clanricarde succeeds Harrowby as Lord Privy Seal.

List of Ministers

Members of the Cabinet are indicated by bold face.

References

• C. Cook and B. Keith, British Historical Facts 1830–1900
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 edition

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