‘The British Lion must put his tail between his legs, and “Civis Romanus” give up swaggering so loftily’

If Palmerston controversial Bill were carried, observed Greville the British Lion must put his tail between his legs, and Civis Romanus give up swaggering so loftily. The British public of the mid-nineteenth century had come to expect supremacy at sea, and even a measure of Palmerstonian high-handedness during foreign crises. In January 1859, Walker reported that having given the subject the best consideration suggested consulting both master shipwrights in the royal dockyards as well as those in the private sector experienced in iron-hulled ships. Despite the superior state of British shipbuilding during the Industrial Revolution, Walkers vision of a sea-going ironclad which would be more than a match for the French version all-but-ensured that the Gloire would still be completed first, and for less. Military and naval professionals also exerted steady and increasingly public pressure. The introduction of the iron-armoured warship added to a sense of general anxiety, not confidence and certainly not to a spirit of adventurism abroad.