When George Grey and Viscount Palmerston came into office, the revolted Belgians in Congress issued a declaration of National Independence and subsequently excluded the House of Orange from the throne. One of Palmerston’s reasons for supporting constitutionalism was that it would separate parliamentary France from despotic Russia. Palmerston, who had worked in the War Office for twenty years, knew the extent of their military power, but he knew that it stopped at high-water mark. Palmerston intended to keep France “in the right track”. In Palmerston’s view the Spanish and Portuguese problems were one, and despotism must be crushed simultaneously in both countries. Palmerston thought the situation so grave as to demand a veiled intervention by England. Palmerston wished to interfere in countries already endowed with constitutions, if he thought they worked badly or were in danger of coming to grief.