Editing John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (section)

=== Foreign Secretary under Palmerston: 1859–1865 ===
{{Further|Liberal government, 1859–1866}}
{{See also|United Kingdom and the American Civil War}}
In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Foreign Secretary]] in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the [[Unification of Italy]] (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process{{sfn|Trevelyan|1909|p=120-123}}), the [[American Civil War]], and the [[Second Schleswig War|1864 war]] over [[Schleswig-Holstein]] between [[Denmark]] and the [[German Confederation|German states]]. Russell arranged the [[London Conference of 1864]], but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).{{sfn|Reid|1895|loc=Ch. 14}}