The history of Britain in the age of Lord Palmerston is also the history of many hundreds of people from all over the globe.  It was a period of time when the forces that remade Britain were in the process of casting the world in a new mold - increasingly industrial, mechanized, and linked by global trade - and forging new parliamentarian governments that were modeled on the British system.  This book attempts a look at the life of Palmerston through the prism of high politics and social life. It examines the transformation of Britain and the world Palmerston influenced through empire and trade.