EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

ellicose, and sometimes treasonous. 130 He was, however, immensely popular with the
British public.
His relationship with Leopold went from practical acceptance of his position as
king of the Belgians to a growing distrust of his attempts to control both Victoria and
later Albert. Despite this growing sense of distrust between the two men, Leopold
generally heeded, if not respected, Palmerston’s opinion, especially in response to
Belgium’s attempted colonial adventures.
An overview of the majority of the correspondence between Victoria and
Palmerston and Leopold and Palmerston does not seem to indicate that Leopold
attempted or was successful in pressuring England in respect to Belgian colonialism
through Victoria, and certainly not through Palmerston. Belgian interests in Central
America, in a Transamerica canal project and a protectorate in Honduras, received
Palmerston’s attention and his quick response to what he considered to be the
inopportune attempts to project Belgian power. 131 Palmerston's continuous distrust of
what he considered the Germanic element, its relationship to the queen, and his attempts
to arrest it resulted in his termination in 1851 at Victoria's request, although it was a
short-lived victory. As Leopold began to fade from the European scene in the late
1850s, with Stockmar’s return to Germany about the same time, and with Albert's death
130
“Palmerston, the most feared, the most hated and the most admired statesman in Europe…”
Herbert C. F. Bell, Lord Palmerston (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966), 26.
131
“The Foreign Office announced the opposition of the entire British Cabinet to the idea,…and
reminded Brussels that the Belgium’s limited military and naval resources were insufficient to guarantee
the integrity of a protectorate” , Schwemmer, "Belgium and the Nicaraguan Canal Project (1841-1845)",
301.
70