This was sent to Lord Palmerston by Lord John Russell, and it was acknowledged by Lord Palmerston as follows:--"I have taken a copy of this memorandum of the Queen's, and will not fail to attend to the directions which it contains." This occurred in August, 1850, more than twelve months before the occurrence of the _coup d'état_ in Paris, and in the interval Palmerston, with difficulty dissuaded from receiving Kossuth who was on a visit to England, accepted an address from the Radicals of Islington in which the Emperors of Russia and Austria were stigmatised as despots, tyrants, and assassins. A few days later he committed a fresh indiscretion in conversation with Count Walewski, the French Ambassador, to whom he expressed a strong approval of the _coup d'état_. When Palmerston was asked to explain his conduct, he evaded the point by a long defence of the action of Louis Napoleon, and Lord John Russell at last summoned up courage to dismiss him from his office. Soon after the opening of Parliament in 1852, Lord John Russell related to the House what had happened in connection with this matter. Our Ambassador in France had been instructed to abstain from all interference with the internal affairs of that country. Lord Palmerston was alleged to have held a conversation with the French Ambassador inconsistent with those instructions. The Premier wrote to him on the subject, but his inquiries had for some days been met with a disdainful silence; Lord Palmerston having meanwhile, without the knowledge of his colleagues, written a despatch, containing instructions to Lord Normanby, who had previously been advised to observe a strict neutrality, which Lord John Russell considered was putting himself in the place of the Crown and passing by the Crown; while he gave the moral approbation of England to the acts of the President of the Republic, in direct opposition to the policy which the Government had hitherto pursued. In these circumstances Lord John said he had no other alternative but to declare, that while he was Prime Minister Lord Palmerston could not hold the seals of office. The noble Foreign Secretary had been accordingly dismissed.