“Governments are not at liberty to act solely from motives of generous sympathy for the sufferings of an oppressed people, they are bound by the severer rules of general principles, to respect rights which are inherent in other nations.”

—  Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Letter to Viscount Granville on the Portuguese Civil War (10 August 1831), quoted in Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (1970), p. 166
1830s

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Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston 72
British politician 1784–1865

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