Gift of
George L. Fox
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THE LIFE
OF
WILLIAM EWAET GLADSTONE

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THE LIFE
OF

WILLIAM EWAET
GLADSTONE

HERBERT WOODFIELD PAUL

WITH A PORTRAIT

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1901
[AU rights reserTed]

PEEFACE

This little book is an expansion of the article which
I wrote for the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' Or
rather, to be chronologically accurate, the article in the
Dictionary was an abridgment of this book. Mr.
Sidney Lee, not only brief himself, but the cause that
brevity is in other men, was on this occasion most
generous in the allotment of space. But the career
of Mr. Gladstone, which was almost beyond example
crowded with events, caused me to pass the bounds,
and the article was reduced to about one-third of its
original size. Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co. were then
good enough to suggest that it should appear as it
origiaally stood in a volume of its own. They con
sidered that it might be useful as a work of reference
for politicians or students of history. It is a ^dry
unadorned narrative of facts with their appropriate
dates, and has no claim to be a formal life of Mr.
Gladstone. I have made use only of sources open to
the public and of facts within my own recollection or
knowledge. The materials at the disposal of Mr.

vi LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Gladstone's family are in the hands of Mr. Morley,
whose forthcoming Memoir is expected with such
eager interest.
Although I have concealed neither my personal
admiration for Mr. Gladstone, nor my general agree
ment with his policy at home and abroad, I have
abstained from expressing, and, so far as was possible,
from implying any opinions of my own. It has been
my object to tell the story from Mr. Gladstone's own
point of view, explaining rather than criticising, but
not vyithout reference to contemporary criticism on the
one hand, and to the verdict of events on the other.
My personal acquaintance with Mr. Gladstone was
slight, and confined to his old age. But he was several
times good enough to favour me with reminiscences of
much interest and value. Though I made no note
of them, it is difficult to forget what Mr. Gladstone
said. I have not hesitated to avail myself of them so
far, and so far only, as they threw light upon historic
incidents whose main features were already known.
Mr. Gladstone's theological tenets and ecclesiastical
leanings have been indicated with severe brevity.
This is mainly a record of his political doings, which
include his political sayings. While pointing out the
earnestness and consistency of his Churchmanship, I
have not otherwise dealt with it, except where it was
connected with public affairs. The effect of the

PEEFACE vii
Gorham case upon his mind could hardly be passed
over in complete silence. For, although it led to no
definite act on his part, I believe it to have confirmed
him in his growing conviction that the patronage of
the State was injurious to the Church.
Mr. Gladstone's career is a curious, and probably a
singular instance of mental development. Although,
when Macaulay described him as a stern and un
bending Tory, he was really a Canningite, he entered
public life as an opponent of the Eeform Bill, a
supporter of ecclesiastical establishments, and an
enemy of all organic change. Most men become
more Conservative as they grow older. With Mr.
Gladstone, as with Sir Eobert Peel, the reverse was the
case. For the last four years of his life Peel was a
Liberal in the modern sense of the term. Had he
lived to be eighty he might have been a Eadical and a
Democrat, for he had grown to hate the Tories as
much as they hated him. But he died at sixty-two,
and the Peelites gradually melted away. Mr. Glad
stone was by far the most distinguished of them. He
was Peel's pupil in pohtics and finance. In eccle
siastical questions he went his own way, which cer
tainly was not Peel's. Peel was a worldly, political
Churchman. Gladstone's sympathies were vrith the
advanced section of the High Church, and those who
knew him superficially beHeved that he would become

viii LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
a Eoman Catholic. As a matter of fact, he was
always loyal to the Church of England, as loyal as
Pusey or Keble, though he would have liked to set her
free from the trammels of Brastianism. His eccle
siastical principles coloured his public action, and led
him into those scholastic subtleties which had such an
irritating effect upon men of the world. He was quite
unaffected by Darwinian speculations or modern
thought. Of physical science he knew little or no
thing, and for philosophy, except Bishop Butler's, he
had no taste. It was not through any change of
intellectual conviction that he became a Liberal. Mr.
Gladstone was before all things practical. He always
wanted to be doing something, and was impatient of
restraint or delay. The first Cabinet in which he sat —
Peel's — was perhaps the most efficient and business
like of the last century. Next to it was the Cabinet
over which he presided himself from 1868 to 1874.
Peel broke up Toryism, at least for the time, and
founded Conservatism. But Conservatism was only
the negative side of his creed. He believed in steady
and gradual progress. Although his will was strong
and his temper stiff, his mind was flexible, and he
was always open to argument if the argument was
of a practical kind. Such a book as Gladstone's
'Church and State' was to him 'stuff.' No good
could come of it ; it had no relation with the realities

PEEFACE ix
of public life. Gladstone himself came to see that this
was so. His ideal community, which was really a
theocracy, had no more chance of being embodied in
England than Plato's Eepublic had. Gladstone was not
the man to waste labour and energy in pursuing the
unattainable. His book, as he said, made no disciples.
It was born out of due time. He voted for the
endowment, or rather the increased endowment, of
Maynooth, because Eoman Catholicism was the re
ligion of Ireland. On the same occasion he formally
abandoned the principles of ' Church and State.' From
and after the year 1845 he was at heart a Voluntaryist,
and when he came to disestablish the Irish Church he
had no scruples to overcome. Within that quarter of
a century he had swung slowly round from tbe party of
stagnation to the party of change. Free Trade was the
schoolmaster that brought Peel to Liberalism. With
Gladstone it was rather the failure of his own early
beliefs when appHed to the business of government.
At the bottom of many active and powerful minds there
is a feeling that if you cannot get what you want, you
may do anything you Hke. Mr. Gladstone, as a
Christian and a moralist, would have disavowed such
a doctrine. But it is nevertheless true that he was
started on the path which led him to the leadership of
the Liberal party by discovering the impossibility of a
dogmatic and authoritative State Church.

X LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
It is notorious that long after Peel's death Mr.
Gladstone received overtures from the Conservatives.
Even in 1858 Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli did not
despair of him. Even in 1859 he voted against the
whole Liberal party in favour of Lord Derby's
Administration. Immediately afterwards, for reasons
fully considered in their proper place, he joined the
Government which succeeded Lord Derby's, and be
came Lord Palmerston's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Thereupon he left the Carlton Club, and the Con
servatives gave him up for lost. Nevertheless, when
he led the House of Commons after Lord Palmerston's
death in the Government of Lord Eussell, he gave
great offence to academic Liberals by opposing the
removal of University tests. This was the last remnant
of the old Adam, and in 1871 he carried the abolition
of the tests himself. Palmerston's death followed by a
few months the loss of Gladstone's seat for Oxford,
and with these two events he may be said to have
acquired complete political freedom. After Peel's
death he had set himself to carry out the financial
policy of his master, and his task was not frustrated,
though it was interrupted, by the Crimean War. The
Budgets of 1860 and 1861 were the logical sequel to
the Budget of 1853. Palmerston did not interfere with
Gladstone's Budgets, much as he disliked some of them,
but he suppressed Parliamentary Eeform. To that sub-

PEEFACE xi
ject, and to Irish legislation, most of Mr. Gladstone's
remaining years were devoted. He was, in truth, more
of a Democrat than a Liberal. When he asked
whether the working classes were not our flesh and
blood, he was really stating by implication the doctrine
of a natural right to the franchise. ' Vox popuH, vox
Dei,' was a maxim to which he more and more inchned,
though he never hesitated to oppose a temporary
majority when he thought it in the wrong. If five-
sixths of the Irish people demanded Home Eule,
that was presumptive evidence that Home Eule was
right. Of course the presumption might be rebutted,
as by showing that Home Eule destroyed the integrity
of the United Kingdom, which Mr. Gladstone always
denied that it did. But the will of the people con
stitutionally expressed was regarded by him as some
thing almost sacred. On the other hand, he did not
like admitting that he had been wrong, though he
sometimes made the admission. He was too fond of
proving his own consistency, and would seldom say
simply that he had changed his mind. Pew politicians
will. It is always, according to them, circumstances
that have changed, not they. Small weaknesses appear
large when they are exhibited by great men. Eeaders
of these pages can judge for themselves how far Mr.
Gladstone's career remains at the close
Qualis ab incepto prooesserit, et sibi constet.'

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. Parentage and Education. 1809-1832 . . 1

II. Early Life in Parliament. 1832-1841 .
III. Peel's Great Ministry. 1841-1846
rV. The Peelites. 1846-1850 ....
V. The Neapolitan Question. 1850-1853
VI. The Coalition. 1853-1855 . . . ,
VII. The Period of Transition. 1855-1860
VIII. Gladstonian Finance. 1860-1865 .
IX. Unmuzzled. 1865-1868 
X. The Irish Church. 1868 
XI. Prime Minister. 1868-1874 ....
XII. The Conservative Reaction. 1873-1874 .
XIII. Rest, and be Thankful. 1874-1876
XIV. The Eastern Question. 1876-1879 .
XV. The Midlothian Campaign, and its Results,
1879-1880 
XVI. The Land League. 1880-1882 .
XVII. Egypt. 1882-1884 
XVIII. The County Franchise. 1884-1885 .
XIX. Gladstone and Gordon. 1885.

6
22313947 55
71
91
105110
124 129
135
155168195
206
213

XX. Home Rule. 1885-1886  225
XXI. The Paenellite Alliance. 1886-1888 . . . 241
XXII. Parnellism and Crime. 1888-1890 . . .260
XXIIL The Fall of Parnell. 1890-1892 . . . . 273
XXIV. Gladstone's Last Government. 1892-1894 . . 283
XXV. The Closing Years. 1894-1898 . . . . 306

LIFE OF W. E GLADSTONE
CHAPTEE I
PAEENTAGE AND EDUCATION
William Ewaet Gladstone was bom December 29,
1809, at 62 Eodney Street, Liverpool. His father, John
Gladstone, afterwards Sir John, one of the very few
baronets created by Sir Eobert Peel, was a native of Leith,
whence he removed to Liverpool. He married as his
second wife Anne, daughter of Andrew Eobertson, of
Stornoway, and died in 1851. They had six children,
of whom WilHam Ewart was the third son. Thus, as
Mr. Gladstone said when he became member for
Midlothian, he had no drop of blood in his veins which
was not Scotch. The name of the family, originally
settled at Liberton, in Lanarkshire, had been Gledstanes,
afterwards Gladstones, finally, by Eoyal Licence in 1835,
Gladstone. WilHam Gladstone was educated at Sea
forth Vicarage (four miles from Liverpool), at Eton, and
at Oxford. His tutor at Seaforth was the Eev. WilHam
Eawson, the incumbent. His father was then living at
B

2 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Seaforth House. He went to Eton at the age of eleven,
after the summer hoHdays of 1821, and boarded at a
dame's (Mrs. Schurey's) ; Dr. Keate was then Head
master. His tutor was the Eev. Henry Hartopp Napp.
He became fag to his eldest brother Thomas, afterwards
Sir Thomas Gladstone of Fasque.
The range of studies at Eton in those days was
extremely narrow, being almost confined to the Greek
and Latin languages. Mr. Gladstone was accustomed
to say in later years that, limited as the teaching was,
its accuracy was ' simply splendid.' There were boys,
he added, who went through the school and learnt
nothing. But it was impossible to learn anything
inaccurately. Gladstone was an industrious boy, what
is called at Eton a ' sap.' He was distinguished even
in those days for his high moral and religious character.
Bishop Hamilton's statement that at Eton he himself
was thoroughly idle, but ' was saved from some worse
things by getting to know Gladstone,' has been often
quoted. When a coarse toast was drunk at an
' Election ' dinner young Gladstone turned down his
glass. His most intimate friend at Eton was Arthur
Hallam, the subject of ' In Memoriam,' about whose
wonderful promise Gladstone entirely agreed with
Tennyson. The two boys boarded in different houses,
but for some years they ' messed ' together at breakfast
every morning, turn and turn about. Of Gladstone's

PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION 3
other contemporaries the most famous were Sir George
Cornewall Levyis, who succeeded him as Chancellor of
the Exchequer in 1855, and Charles Canning, son of
the Prime Minister, afterwards Earl Canning, Governor-
General of India at the time of the Mutiny. Gladstone
played cricket and footbaU, but his favourite recreation
was boating. He kept a ' lock-up ' or private boat, and
was, as he continued to be almost throughout his life,
a great walker. He made no particular mark in the
school, though the few who knew him well always
beHeved that he would rise to eminence.
The fact is, as Mr. Milnes GaskeU's privately
printed correspondence of his father shows, that
Gladstone and his cleverest contemporaries were in one
respect premature men. They were ardent poHticians,
studying Parhamentary debates, vnriting about them to
each other in the holidays, and even keeping such
division lists as they could get hold of. Gladstone
began early to use both his tongue and his pen. He
spoke frequently in ' Pop,' the school debating society,
and he edited the ' Eton Miscellany,' which, however,
only lasted from June to December, 1827. Current
pohtics were then forbidden in 'Pop,' but historical
subjects and abstract questions afforded ample scope
for eloquence. Gladstone's first speech was dehvered on
October 15, 1825, when he supported the modest proposal
that education was ' on the whole ' good for the poor.
B 2

4 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
After the death of George Canning, in August, 1827,
Gladstone wrote a fervent eulogy of him in the ' Eton
Miscellany.' This was the first of many tributes to
Canning from the same source. Gladstone, as he told
the House of Commons in 1866, ' was brought up under
the shadow of the great name of Mr. Canning.' His
father had induced Canning to stand for Liverpool in
1812, and the crowd at that election was the first thing
Gladstone could remember. When he went from
Eton to Oxford he was a Canningite in politics, and
a Canningite in foreign politics he always remained.
Gladstone left Eton at Christmas, 1827, and read
for six months with a private tutor, Mr. Turner, after
wards Bishop Turner of Calcutta. In October, 1828,
he took up his residence at Christ Church, of which he
was nominated a student in 1829. Dr. Samuel Smith
and afterwards Dr. Gaisford were Deans. Among the
undergraduates were Charles Canning, Lord Lincoln,
Henry George Liddell (afterwards Dean), Sir Francis
Doyle, and Sir Thomas Acland, who died a few days
after Mr. Gladstone, his friend for nearly seventy years.
The Oxford Movement, in which Gladstone was so
much interested, had not yet begun. Keble was not
resident ; Newman was still an Evangelical ; Pusey was
suspected of sympathy with German Eationalism.
For the greater part of his time Gladstone ' kept ' in
Peckwater, near Canterbury Gate. He read hard, was

PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION 5
abstemious in the use of wine, and maintained in every
respect the high character he had gained at Eton. His
coUege tutor was the Eev. Eobert Brisco ; but he studied
the classics privately with Charles Wordsworth, after
wards Bishop Wordsworth of St. Andrew's. His only
exercise was walking. At Oxford, as well as through
life, he was extremely, and, as men of the world thought,
ostentatiously religious. He founded an essay society,
which was called after him 'W. E. G.' He was first
Secretary and then President of the Oxford Union.
Like a good Canningite, he defended Catholic Emanci
pation but denounced the Eeform Bill. His speech
against the Bill excited the most enthusiastic admi
ration, and led Charles Wordsworth to predict with
confidence that he would be Prime Minister. It
obtained notoriety many years afterwards, when Mr.
Disraeh was not ashamed to quote it in the debate on
the second reading of the Eeform Bill of 1866. Along
vrith Charles Wordsworth and Lord Lincoln, Gladstone
promoted a petition to the House of Commons against
Parliamentary Eeform. This was signed by more than
700 undergraduates and presented on July 1, 1831, by
Lord Mahon the historian, afterwards Lord Stanhope.
In December, 1881, Gladstone took a double first in
classics and mathematics. His mathematics he must
have learnt at Oxford or at home ; it was impossible
for him to learn them at Eton.

LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE II
early LIFB IN parliament
Aetbe leaving Oxford, in the spring of 1832, Glad
stone spent six months in Italy, and acquired a
familiarity with the Italian language which he never
afterwards lost. His command of Italian was indeed,
by the judgment of Italians, perfect; and when he
visited the Ionian Islands as Lord High Commissioner
in 1858 he addressed the Senate at Corfu in the Itahan
tongue. It appears that he had some thoughts of
taking holy orders. But his father was bent upon
making him into a statesman, and had interest with
Sir Eobert Peel. Sir John Gladstone was not a man
to be trifled with, and, in December, 1832, he had the
satisfaction of seeing his brilliant son returned to the
first Reformed Parliament as one of the members for
Newark. Newark was a nomination borough which
the Eeform Act had spared, and the patron was the
Duke of Newcastle, father of Gladstone's friend Lord
Lincoln. Gladstone was elected at the head of the
poll, and the Whig candidate, Serjeant Wilde, after
wards Lord Chancellor Truro, was defeated. On

EAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 7
January 25, 1833, Gladstone was admitted a student
of Lincoln's Inn ; but, like Disraeli, who went through
the same process, he was never called to the Bar. On
January 29 Parliament met, with Lord Althorp as
Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House
of Commons. Gladstone sat among the Tory Op
position, which was led by Sir Eobert Peel. On
March 6 he was elected a member of the Carlton
Club, from which he did not vrithdraw till March,
1860, after he had definitely joined the Liberal Party
and become Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
second Administration of Lord Palmerston. Except
for a few unimportant remarks on petitions from
Newark and Edinburgh, Gladstone's maiden speech
was delivered on June 3. It was a defence of his
father, who had a plantation in Demerara, where,
according to Lord Howick, afterwards third Earl Grey,
there was undue mortahty among the slaves. This
Gladstone strenuously denied, declaring that his
father's slaves were happy, healthy, and contented.
He favoured ' gradual ' emancipation, with full com
pensation to the ovTners. This speech was remem
bered, and used against Gladstone when, in 1862, he
expressed sympathy with Jefferson Davis and the
South. But he never supported the principle of
slavery. The speech made a most favourable impres
sion upon both sides of the House, and received a high

8 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
compHment from Mr. Secretary Stanley, afterwards
fourteenth Earl of Derby. A previous speech on the
same subject (May 17), which has been erroneously
attributed to Gladstone, was really made by his brother
Thomas, then member for Portarlington. Except for
the great session of 1846, when he was a Secretary
of State without a seat in Parhament, and the first
session of 1847, Gladstone sat continuously in the
House of Commons from 1833 tiU his final retirement
in 1894. His speeches were innumerable, and it is
utterly impossible, within the compass of a volume
like this, to notice more than a very few of them.
His speech on the Irish Church Temporalities Bill
(July 8, 1833) is interesting, both as the first which he
made on Ireland and as the beginning of his con
nection with the subject of ecclesiastical establishment.
He denounced the Appropriation Clause, which diverted
part of the revenues of the Irish Church to secular
purposes. The Appropriation Clause was withdravm,
and the Bill, thus lightened or weakened, passed the
House of Lords.
Such was the first utterance on Irish ecclesiastical
matters of the statesman who disestablished the Irish
Church. On July 28, 1834, after Lord Grey had
retired and had been succeeded as Prime Minister by
Lord Melbourne, Gladstone vehemently opposed the
third reading, moved by Joseph Hume, of a Bill for

BAELY LIFB IN PAELIAMENT 9
admitting Dissenters to the Universities. The third
reading was supported by Lord Palmerston, then
Foreign Secretary, and carried; but the BiU was
throvm out by the House of Lords. Gladstone
pointed out, among other things, that it would be
inoperative, because it only appHed to the Universities
and not to the CoUeges. There were then no un
attached students. It was not tiU 1871 that the last
disabUities, in the shape of Tests, were removed from
Dissenters' at the Universities by a Govemment of
which Gladstone was the head.
On November 14, 1834, WiUiam IV. dismissed Lord
Melbourne, who was not unvTiUing to be dismissed, on
the ground that. Lord Althorp having become Lord
Spencer, there was no member of the Government in
the House of Commons quahfied to lead the House.
The King sent for the Duke of Wellington, who re
commended that Sir Eobert Peel should be asked to
form a Government. A message was accordingly sent
to Peel, who was then in Eome, and on December 9 he
arrived in London. On December 29 Peel was
gazetted First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Gladstone being included in the same
commission as Junior Lord. He had refused to be
Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies because of
his father's connection with the West Indies. His
appointment having vacated his seat, he at once issued

10 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
an address to the Electors of Newark, in which he
condemned the late Ministers for rash, violent, and
indefinite innovation, and for having promised to act
on the principles of Radicalism. He especiaUy de
nounced the Ballot, which, thirty-eight years later, he
carried into law. On December 29 Parliament had
been dissolved for the third time within the short reign
of the King. Mr. Gladstone was re-elected for Newark
without opposition, his colleague being Serjeant Wilde,
a Whig. Before his constituents he defended the
King's dismissal of Melbourne, for which Peel had
become constitutionally responsible, but which he
himself deprecated when, in 1875, he reviewed Sir
Theodore Martin's ' Life of the Prince Consort.' On
January 17, 1835, Gladstone for the first time met Dis
raeli, at a dinner given by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst,
but nothing came of the meeting. On January 19
Mr. Stuart Wortley, Under-Secretary for War and
the Colonies, was defeated in Forfarshire, and at once
resigned. The post was again offered to Gladstone, who
this time accepted it. The Secretary of State was
Lord Aberdeen, and this was Gladstone's first introduc
tion to a statesman whom he ever afterwards regarded
with the highest reverence and esteem. His final judg
ment of Lord Aberdeen's character is contained in a
letter of great interest and singular eloquence, which
Lord Stanmore has printed in his ' Life ' of his father.

BAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 11
Of Gladstone, as Under-Secretary for the Colonies,
two judgments delivered vyithin the office are recorded.
Sir Henry Taylor wrote: 'I rather Hke Gladstone,
but he is said to have more of the devil in him than
appears — in a virtuous way, that is — only self-vpiUed.'
Sir James Stephen, on the other hand, pronounced
that for success in poHtical life he wanted pugnacity.
Peel's first Government had a short and troubled career.
It never, indeed, had a constitutional right to exist at
all. The Dissolution, unwarrantable as in the circum
stances it was, resulted in the gain of many seats to
the Tory Party ; but it did not give them a majority
in the House of Commons. Before the King's Speech
was dehvered they were defeated on the choice of a
Speaker ; Mr. Abercromby being elected in the place
of Sir Charles Manners-Sutton. A hostile amendment
was carried to the Address, but stUl the Government did
not resign. On March 30, however. Lord John Eussell
moved a resolution in favour of applying the surplus
revenues from the Irish Church to the purposes of
secular education. This was carried against Ministers
by a majority of thirty-three, and, on April 8, after
three defeats on the Irish Tithe Bill, Peel resigned.
Lord Melbourne returned to office vdth Lord John
EusseU, whom the King had declajed incompetent, as
leader of the House of Commons. The consequence
of his Majesty's rashness was that the Whigs came

12 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
back not as his servants, but as his masters. Glad
stone, of course, foUowed Peel into Opposition. His
real official career did not begin till 1841.
At this time Gladstone lived in chambers in the
Albany. He then began the practice of giving break
fast parties, which he continued when he was Prime
Minister. He went a good deal into society, especially
to musical parties, where he often sang ; and rode
regularly in the Park. But he was a born student,
and the amount of reading which he accomplished in
those days was prodigious. Homer and Dante were his
favourite authors, but it is recorded that at this period
he read the whole of St. Augustine's works in twenty-
two volumes octavo.
In Gladstone's first speech to his constituents after
leaving office (June 11, 1835) he bitterly attacked
O'ConneU, to whose memory more than fifty years
afterwards he made ample amends in his review of
the Irish patriot's published correspondence. On
August 21, in the House of Commons, he defended the
co-ordinate authority of the Lords in matters of legis
lation, and denounced the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Mr. Spring-Eice, for, as he put it, threatening to coerce
them by postponing the Consolidated Fund Bill. In
1860 their positions were exactly reversed. Mr. Glad
stone, then himself Chancellor of the Exchequer,
denied, and Mr. Spring-Eice, who had become Lord

BAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 13
Monteagle, asserted, the moral right of the Lords to
throw out a Bill which repealed a tax. Gladstone's
mother died on September 23, 1835, and for the re
mainder of the year he took no active part in politics.
His next important appearance in public was at the
great political dinner given to Sir Eobert Peel in
Glasgow on January 13, 1837. Upon that occasion he
once more attacked the ' reckless wickedness ' of
O'ConneU. Speaking at Newark, on his way south, on
January 17, he said that the great distinction of the
day was not between Whig and Tory, but between
Conservative and Destructive, and that the time had
come for a union of men to support the Church, the
monarchy, and the peerage. In the House of Commons,
on March 15, he spoke in support of compulsory church
rates, which he abolished in 1868, when he was in
power, though not in office. On July 17 he opposed a
return demanded by Hume of those to whom compen
sation had been granted for the loss of slaves in the
West Indies. The opposition, however, was with
drawn, and when the return appeared, it showed that
Gladstone's father had received more than 75,000L
Whatever else may be thought of Gladstone's early
speeches on slavery, they at least proved his moral
courage. At the dissolution of 1837, consequent upon the
death of William IV., Gladstone was again returned

14 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
without a contest for Newark, and again in the
company of his Whig colleague, Serjeant Wilde.
He was invited, but declined, to stand for Manchester.
The Manchester Tories, however, persisted in nomi
nating him, but he was placed at the bottom of the poll.
In December, 1838, appeared Gladstone's once famous
book, 'The State in its Eelations with the Church.'
He was assisted in writing it by his friend, James Hope,
afterwards Mr. Hope-Scott, Q.C, then a Tractarian,
who subsequently joined the Church of Eome at the
same time with Dr. Manning. The book is now
chiefly known through the brilliant, if rather shallow,
essay which Macaulay wrote upon it in the ' Edinburgh
Eeview.' It has not, and it never had, much real
interest for practical politicians ; it was suggested by
a series of lectures delivered by Dr. Chalmers in the
Hanover Square Eooms. Gladstone affirms that the
State has a conscience, that that conscience must be
a religious one, and that it is impossible for the State,
as for the individual, to have more than one religion.
This is, in fact, a plea for a Theocracy, for the exact
opposite of Erastianism, for the subordination of the
State to the Church. As Gladstone says in his chapter of
autobiography, written thirty years afterwards, his views
were, even in 1838, hopelessly belated. Although the
book was warmly praised, and its author's seriousness .
highly commended, he obtained no real support from

BAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 15
any quarter, and within ten years he himself perceived
that his position, though it might be ideal, was un
tenable. The historical interest of the book is that its
doctrines were inconsistent with the Parliamentary
grant to Maynooth College for training Eoman Catholic
priests in Ireland.
On April 10, 1839, Gladstone wrote to Macaulay to
thank him for ' the candour and single-mindedness ' of'
his Eeview. Macaulay sent a most cordial acknow
ledgment, and Sir George Trevelyan mentions that
Gladstone's was the only letter he ever preserved. Sir
James Stephen described the book as one of ' great
dignity, majesty, and strength.' But Wordsworth
said that he could not distinguish its principles from
Eomanism ; and Sir Eobert Peel, who detested the
Oxford Movement, is said by Lord Houghton to have
exclaimed, as he turned over the pages : ' That young
man wiii ruin his fine political career if he persists in
writing trash Hke this.' In 1840 Gladstone published
a second book caUed ' Church Principles Considered in
their Eesults.' When Macaulay saw the advertisement,
he vsTote to the editor of the ' Edinburgh Eeview ' that
the subject belonged to him. But when he got the
book he declined to review it on the grounds that it
was purely theological, had no connection with poh
tics, and might have been written by a supporter of
the Volimtary system. It is, indeed, an ecclesiastical

16 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
treatise, stating the views of a strong High Churchman
on the apostolical succession, the authority of the
Church in matters of faith, and the nature of the
Sacrament. It had a very small circulation, and is
chiefly interesting as a curious example of the way in
which an active young member of Parliament employed
his leisure. On June 20, when Lord John Eussell
proposed an increase of the meagre grant then made
by the State for education, raising it from 26,300Z. to
30,000Z., Gladstone delivered an elaborate speech on
a subject which he pronounced to be connected with
the deep and abstruse principles of religion. He
condemned the Ministerial plan because it recog
nised the equality of all religions, arguing that it
led to latitudinarianism and atheism. His own
opinion was in favour of Denominational teaching,
and this opinion it may be doubted whether he ever
changed. On July 25, 1839, Gladstone was married at
Hawarden to Catherine, elder daughter of Sir Stephen
Glynne. On the same day and at the same place Sir
Stephen's younger daughter Mary was married to
George, fourth Lord Lyttelton ; and it was in memory
of this occasion that Gladstone and Lyttelton, more
than twenty years afterwards, published their joint
volume of poetical translations. In April, 1840, they
examined together at Eton for the Newcastle Scholar-

BAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 17
ship which had been lately founded at Eton by Glad
stone's political patron, the Duke of Newcastle.
Meanwhile the Whig Govemment was tottering to
its fall, and Gladstone's friends began to anticipate his
early appointment to high office. He had risen to a
position of considerable influence in the House of
Commons, and so early as January 30, 1838, when
it was proposed by George Grote, the historian, that
Mr. Eoebuck should be heard at the Bar as agent for
the Assembly of Lower Canada against the Canada
Bill, Gladstone relieved the House from a difficulty
by suggesting that Eoebuck should be heard, but not as
agent. This was universaUy approved and unanimously
adopted. Gladstone argued that the Canadians had no
real grievances to justify a rebellion ; but that it was
impossible to retain possession of a British Colony
v?ithout the free consent of the inhabitants. On
AprU 9, 1839, he spoke against the Government
Bill suspending the Constitution of Jamaica for flve
years. The motion for going into Committee on this
Bill was only carried by five votes, and Lord Melbourne
resigned. What is called the Bedchamber difficulty
prevented Peel from forming a Government, and the
Whigs returned to office ; but their power was gone.
At the opening of the session of 1840 Gladstone was
for the first time invited to Peel's Parliamentary
Dinner for the front Opposition Bench. 0

18 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
In the summer of 1840 Gladstone took part with
James Hope and Dean Eamsay in founding Trinity
College, Glenalmond, of which Charles Wordsworth
was the first Warden, for the higher education of
Scottish Episcopalians. At this time, as, indeed,
throughout his life, Gladstone was keenly interested
in ecclesiastical affairs, and on April 27, 1841, he took
part in the establishment of the Colonial Bishoprics'
Fund. Of this fund Archbishop Howley was the
first President, and Gladstone, who was always one
of the Treasurers, spoke at the Jubilee meeting on
May 29, 1891, when Archbishop Benson was in the
chair. In the session of 1840, Gladstone took a prominent
part in opposition to the first Opium War with China.
In doing so he separated himself from many members of
his party ; but to the policy he then avowed he always
consistently adhered. He denounced in the strongest
language what he called the infamous contraband
traffic in opium, and he asserted in the most uncom
promising manner the right of the Chinese Govemment
to resist the importation of the drug by force. For the
first time he drew upon himself serious obloquy by the
use of words which were held to imply a justification
of the Chinese for poisoning the wells. 'They have
given you full notice,' he said, ' and vdsh to drive you
from their coast. They had a right to drive you from

EAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 19
their coast if you persisted in carrying on this infamous
and atrocious traffic. . . . You allowed your agents to aid
and abet those who were concerned in carrying on that
trade ; I do not know how it can be heard as a crime
against the Chinese that they refused provisions to
those who refused obedience to their laws while
residing vdthin their territories.' He explained that
he had not made himself responsible for the charge of
weU-poisoning, and had merely referred to it as the
aUegation of the Government. But the Whigs did not
let the matter drop, and Palmerston in particular stig
matised him as defending a barbarous method of war
fare. At the beginning of the session of 1841 Glad
stone opposed a BiU enabling the Jews to hold office in
Corporations. He entered into the whole subject of
Jewish disabihties, and declared against the principle of
admitting into the Legislature persons whose religious
behef was incompatible vdth the duties they would
have to perform. In 1885, twenty-seven years after
aU Jevsdsh disabilities had been removed by Parliament,
Gladstone was responsible for the creation of the first
Jevpish peer. In the same session the Govemment
proposed to reduce the duty on foreign sugar. Lord
Sandon, on behalf of the Opposition, moved an amend
ment that such a course would assist slavery and the
slave trade. The debate lasted for eight nights, and
Gladstone spoke in support of the amendment. He made
c 2

20 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
a personal appeal to Macaulay, who was then a member
of the Cabinet : ' I can only speak,' he said, ' from
tradition of the struggle for the abolition of slavery;
but if I have not been misinformed, there was en
gaged in it a man who was the unseen ally of Mr.
Wilberforce and the pillar of his strength ; a man of
profound benevolence and acute understanding; of in
defatigable industry and of that self-denying temper
which is content to work in secret and to seek for
its reward beyond the grave. The name of that man
was Zachary Macaulay, and his son is a member of
the present Administration.'
Sir Eobert Peel had now resolved that the time
was come for a formal attack upon the Government of
Lord Melbourne, and he asked the House of Commons
to affirm that they had lost the confidence of Parha
ment. The motion was carried by a majority of one, and
on June 22 Parliament was dissolved. In his address
to the electors of Newark, Gladstone said : ' I regard the
protection of native agriculture as an object of the first
national and economical importance.' He accordingly
favoured a graduated scale of duties upon foreign corn.
On this occasion he stood with Lord John Manners,
afterwards Duke of Eutland. The Whig candidate
was Mr. Thomas Hobhouse. Gladstone and Manners
were returned. Lord Melbourne, in accordance with
what was then the unbroken practice, met the new

EAELY LIFE IN PAELIAMENT 21
Parliament, although he was in a hopeless minority.
But on August 20 he was defeated in the House of
Commons by a majority of ninety-one, and finally
retired from office. Mr. Gladstone used to say that
there was no man he more regretted not to have known
than Lord Melboimie.

22 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE III
peel's gbeat ministry
On August 31, 1841, Sir Eobert Peel offered Glad
stone the Vice-Presidency of the Board of Trade.
With this office was held the Mastership of the Mint,
and Gladstone was sworn of the Privy Council, but not
admitted to the Cabinet. He was disappointed with
this offer though he accepted it, for he had at that
time no practical knowledge of commerce, and he had
hoped to be Chief Secretary for Ireland. But it was
really the making of his career. Sir Eobert Peel at once
set himself to reform the tariff, and Gladstone was his
principal assistant in the task. Gladstone's nominal
chief was the Earl of Eipon ; but he soon mastered the
business and became the real head of the department.
Peel's second and great Administration was, in Mr.
Gladstone's opinion, a model one. Peel was a real
Prime Minister, superintending every department and
leading the House of Commons as it had never been
led before. Though Mr. Goulburn was ChanceUor of
the Exchequer, Peel was the true Minister of Finance,
and his two greatest Budgets he introduced himself as

PEEL'S GEEAT MINISTEY 23
First Lord of the Treasury. Finance had been the
weak point of the Whigs, and Peel had to meet a deficit
of two mUlions and three-quarters. Long afterwards,
when he was opposing the foreign policy of Lord
Beaconsfield, Gladstone said that in his youth the Tories
were the party of economy and peace, and the Whigs the
party of extravagance and war. The Budget of 1842
first showed Peel's fuU powers as a financier. It was,
in fact, a long step towards Free Trade, and the Duke
of Buckingham resigned the office of Privy Seal on
that express ground. Peel met the deficit by proposing
an Income Tax, which had hitherto only been levied
in time of war, at sevenpence in the pound for three
years on all incomes exceeding 1501. The rest of
the money thus raised he devoted to aboHshing or
reducing the duties on no less than 750 imported
articles. The labour of preparing the new tariff
was enormous, and it feU almost entirely upon
Gladstone's shoulders. He was in charge of the
Customs BiU, and in the course of the Session spoke
129 times. The main principles of this great financial
reform were, that there should be no prohibition of any
foreign goods ; that the duties on raw materials of
manufacture should be nominal, and that where the
process of manufacture was not, on importation,
complete, they should be as small as possible. No
work of Gladstone's life, except, perhaps, the settlement

24 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
of the Succession Duty in 1853, was more arduous
than this, and for a time it seriously injured his eye
sight. The Budget also comprised a very considerable
reduction of the duties on foreign corn, although the
principle of Protection, and even the method of the
sliding scale, pronounced by Lord Melbourne to be as
absurd as anything in ' Eabelais,' were retained. Lord
John Eussell moved an amendment in favour of a
fixed duty, but he was defeated by a majority of 123.
Throughout the year 1842 industrial distress was
acute, and at the opening of the Session of 1843 Lord
Howick moved for a committee to inquire into the
causes of it. He attacked Peel's new settlement of
the Corn Laws as inadequate, though he did not at
that time pronounce for a final repeal. Gladstone in
reply to this speech did not argue in favour of Protec
tion on general grounds. He contented himself with
the much narrower statement that the Government were
not prepared to abandon the principles of the Com
Laws while Protection was applied to other articles
of commerce. Again, when Mr. ViUiers, on May 16,
moved that the Corn Laws should be repealed, Glad
stone confined himself to the plea that it was too soon
to alter the elaborate provisions of the year before.
On May 11, Lord Fitzgerald, President of the Board of
Control, died, and was succeeded by Lord Eipon. On
May 19, Gladstone became President of the Board of

PEEL'S GEEAT MINISTEY 25
Trade, and took his seat for the first time in the
Cabinet. The first question on which he had to give
an opinion as a Cabinet Minister was the vnthdrawal
of the Educational Clauses in the Factory Bill. On
June 13, Lord John Eussell, returning to his point,
again moved to substitute a fixed duty for the sliding
scale. This time Gladstone energetioially protested
against the unsettling effect of constant proposals for
change, and Lord John's motion was defeated by a
majority of ninety-nine. It may be observed that
Gladstone never, or hardly ever, replied to Cobden.
That duty was undertaken by Peel himself tiU the
memorable day in March, 1845, when, at the close of
Cobden's greatest speech, Peel, in response to the
proposal of his coUeagues that he should answer it,
tore up his notes and said : ' Those may answer it who
can.' Before the end of the session Gladstone took
another step towards Free Trade by carrying a Bill to
remove the restrictions which had hitherto impeded
the export of machinery.
In 1844, Gladstone, as President of the Board
of Trade, introduced and carried the first General
Eailway Bill, which was a measure of very great
importance. It provided what were known as Parha
mentary trains for the accommodation of the poorer
classes. The fares charged for third-class passengers
by these trains were not to exceed a penny a mile,

26 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
the trains were to stop at every station, and the speed
was not to be less than twelve miles an hour. In
the same Session he took a prominent part in debate
on a very different subject, which had no connection
with his official duties. He made an eloquent and
highly interesting speech on bhe second reading of the
Dissenters' Chapels Bill. This was a Bill introduced
by the Government in consequence of legal decisions
which threatened the property of Unitarian congre
gations in their ov?n chapels and endowments. It
had been held by the House of Lords, in their judicial
capacity, that no deed of foundation could be construed
to include a religious body which was not, at the time
the deed had been drav^n up, tolerated by law. The
result of this startling judgment was to deprive
Unitarians, who had long been brought within the
pale of the Constitution, of the legal rights which all
other Churches enjoyed. The Bill altered the pre
sumption of law as laid down by the Lords, and gave
every congregation a Parliamentary title to religious
endowments which they had held for twenty years.
It was, in fact, a Bill to quiet possession, and was
supported by the leading men of both parties in both
Houses. But a violent agitation was raised against
it out of doors by Churchmen as well as by orthodox
Dissenters, and against this ignorant prejudice Glad
stone directed his speech. He entered fully into the

PEEL'S GEEAT MINISTEY 27
history of Nonconformity and the dislike of Non
conformists to doctrinal subscription. But at the same
time he pointed out that the question was one not of
theology but of justice, and that Parliament had no more
right to vpithhold protection from the property of
Unitarians than a judge would have to deprive a man
of an estate because his moral character was bad.
This was the first Liberal speech made by Gladstone
on a subject connected with religion.
On January 28, 1845, a few days before the
meeting of Parliament, Gladstone resigned office.
When Parhament met he explained that his reason for
doing so was the intention of the Government to pro
pose an increased grant to Maynooth, to make the
grant permanent instead of annual, and to render the
Board of Works in Ireland liable for the execution of
repairs. Maynooth was a college for the education of
Eoman Catholic priests. The increase of the grant
was from 9,000Z. to 39,000Z. a year. Gladstone felt
that this policy was inconsistent with the principles of
his book on Church and State, because it recognised the
right and duty of the Government to support more re
ligions than one. Most politicians regarded his reasons
for resignation as altogether inadequate, and Peel did
all he could to keep his valued lieutenant at the Board
of Trade ; but Gladstone was not to be moved, believing
that his public character was at stake. Having

28 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
resigned, however, he felt himself at liberty to support
Peel's proposal, arguing that, as grants were made by
Parliament for other religious purposes not connected
with the Church of England, it was unjust to exclude
the Church of the majority in Ireland. The grant to
Maynooth was part of Peel's general scheme for im
proving University education in Ireland. He also
proposed the foundation of unsectarian institutions
which Sir Eobert Inglis, in a nickname that stuck,
called the 'godless colleges.' These also Gladstone
defended, on the grounds of justice to Ireland and the
interests of higher education. Before he resigned
Gladstone had prepared another tariff, still further
reducing the number of taxable articles imported
from abroad. After his resignation he employed his
leisure in writing a very important pamphlet, which he
called ' Eemarks upon Eecent Commercial Legislation.'
This tract is in truth a free-trade manifesto and is histori
cally connected with the great change of the succeeding
year. Gladstone argues that it should be the first duty of
a sound financier to encourage the growth of commerce
by removing all burdens from the materials of industry.
Now corn is as much the material of loaves as cotton
is the material of dresses. In the winter of this year
Gladstone, while out shooting, injured the first finger of
his left hand so seriously that it had to be cut off.
On December 4, 1845, the ' Times ' announced that

PEEL'S GEEAT MINISTEY 29
the Cabinet had decided upon the total and imme
diate repeal of the Corn Laws. The statement was
indignantly denied by other newspapers, and nobody
knew what to believe. But the ' Times ' was partly
right, having indeed obtained its information from a
Cabinet Minister, Lord Aberdeen. Only it omitted
to state that Sir Eobert Peel had resigned. He did
so because the resignation of Lord Stanley had, in
his opinion, fataUy weakened his Government. The
Queen sent for Lord John Eussell, who, so lately as
November 22, had informed his constituents by letter
that he was converted to total and immediate repeal.
Lord John, however, failed to form a Government,
because Lord Grey declined to sit in a Cabinet with
Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary. On December 20
Sir Eobert Peel resumed office, and Gladstone succeeded
Lord Stanley as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
His appointment vacated his seat for Newark, but he
did not offer himself for re-election. The Duke of
Newcastle was a staunch Protectionist, and the electors
of Newark were commonly of the same opinion as
the Duke. Throughout the famous and stirring Session
of 1846 Gladstone was a Secretary of State and a
Cabinet Minister without a seat in Parliament. He
did not re-enter the House of Commons till after the
General Election of 1847. On June 25, 1846, the Bill
for the Eepeal of the Corn Laws was read a third time

30 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
in the House of Lords and passed. On the same night
the second reading of the Irish Coercion Bill was
rejected in the House of Commons by a strange and
sinister alhance of Whigs, Eadicals, and Protectionists.
Sir Eobert Peel resigned, and Lord John Eussell became
Prime Minister. Cobden urged Peel to dissolve, but
Peel replied that it would not be proper to go to the
country on the question of exceptional laws for Ireland.
He was, in fact, eager to quit office, and he begged the
Queen, as a personal favour, that she would never
again entrust him with the task of forming an Adminis
tration. Gladstone of course retired with his chief,
and was thus without either an office or a seat.

31

CHAPTEE IV
THE PEELITES
Foe the four remaining years of his life Peel, though
nominally in opposition, gave a steady support to the
Whig Government of Lord John Eussell. He was,. in
fact, a Liberal. But it was known that he would never
again take office unless he thought the principle of
Free Trade was in serious danger. His foUowers called
themselves, and were called, Peelites ; but they were
not, in the proper sense of the term, a party. They
were a group of able and high-minded men united in
devotion to Peel, but agreeing only, or chiefly, in
hostility to Protection. On July 23, 1847, Parliament,
having sat for six years, was dissolved. Mr. Estcourt,
one of the members for the University of Oxford,
retired, and Gladstone was brought forward as a
candidate. His opponent was Mr. Bound, an extreme
Tory and Protestant. Gladstone's address was mainly
a defence of his vote for Maynooth, which Mr. Eouud
opposed, but which Mr. Estcourt had supported. Sir
Eobert Inglis, an opponent of the grant, who had sat
for the University since he defeated Peel in 1829, was

32 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
returned at the head of the poll with 1,700 votes.
Gladstone came second with 997, and Eound, the
defeated candidate, polled 824. The Whigs obtained
a majority and remained in office. The Prime Minister's
colleague in the representation of London was Baron
Eothschild, who, though not legally inehgible, was
unable, as a Jew, to take the Parliamentary oath ' on
the true faith of a Christian.' Lord John Eussell
moved a resolution that these words ought to be
omitted and Gladstone supported him. Alluding to
his previous vote against the admission of Jews to
municipal office, he repeated his previous argument
that if they were admitted to corporations, as they had
since been, it was illogical to exclude them from
Parliament. The resolution was carried, but the
necessary legislation was not introduced that year, and
it was eleven years before Jews were enabled to take
their seats. In 1848, on the eve of the Chartist rising,
Gladstone was sworn in a special constable. His
most important speech that year was made in favour
of a Bill which came down from the House of Lords
for authorising diplomatic relations with the Court of
Eome. Peel had for some time been in favour of this
measure, which, on August 29, was read a third time,
and became law at the end of the session. The year
1849 was chiefly remarkable for the repeal of the
Navigation Laws, which provided that, with some

THB PEELITES 33
exceptions, foreign goods must be imported either in
British ships or in the ships of the country from which
they came, and which restricted the employment of
foreign saUors in the merchant service. On March 13
Gladstone gave a qualified support to this Bill, which
was in thorough accordance vyith the principles of
Free Trade, but urged, not very consistently, that its
adoption shoiUd depend upon the adoption of the same
pohcy by other States. He did not, however, press his
point to a division, and the BUl — though Brougham un
expectedly opposed it in the Lords — received the Eoyal
Assent. On the Canadian Indemnity BiU Gladstone urged
that there should be no indemnity to rebels, and strongly
asserted the authority of Parliament to legislate for the
Colonies. He opposed the Deceased Wife's Sister BiU, to
which he never became reconcUed. The second reading
of this BiU was carried by 177 votes against 143. But,
on July 21, it was withdrawn, and ovTing to the persis
tent opposition of the Peers, especially the Bishops,
it has not yet become law. The principal measure of
1850 was Lord John Eussell's Colonial Government
BUl, which gave the right of self-government to many of
the British colonies. It was introduced on February 8,
and Gladstone, having been Colonial Secretary, took
a prominent part in the debates. He moved amend
ments in favour of a second chamber, and of suspending
the BUl until the opinion of the colonies had been taken
D

34 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
on it. He was unsuccessfiU in both instances. But
there is no British colony without a second chamber
now, and the Australian Federation Bill of 1900 was
not submitted to Parliament until the Legislatures and
the people of the Australian Colonies had expressed
their approval of it. On February 19, Gladstone
supported a motion brought forward by Mr. Disraeli.
Disraeli proposed, as a remedy for agricultural distress,
that the Poor Laws should be revised, and that the
burden of the poor-rate should be transferred from
real property to the Consolidated Fund. Gladstone
favoured the transference of at least a part of the rate,
and argued that the relief would go to the tenants
rather than to the landlords. Peel was against him
on both points, and Gladstone afterwards came round
to Peel's opinion. The motion was defeated by a
majority of twenty-one. On March 8, 1850, Lord
Langdale, then Master of the Eolls, delivered judgment
in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Mr.
Gorham's appeal from the Court of Arches. The Dean
of the Arches, Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, had held that
the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Phillpotts, was justified in
refusing Mr. Gorham's institution to the benefice of
Brampton Speke, which the Lord Chancellor had con
ferred upon him, because Mr. Gorham did not believe
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as defined by the
formularies of the Church of England. The Judicial

THB PEELITES 35
Committee, on which the two Archbishops sat, reversed
this decision, and found that Mr. Gorham had not gone
beyond the Hmits of permissible opinion in the Church.
Lord Langdale's judgment was characteristically de
scribed by the great historian who heard it as worthy
of Lord Somers or Chancellor d'Aguesseau. But it
gave great offence to the High Church party, and it led
to the secession of Dr. Manning from the Church of
England. A petition against the sentence of the Court
was dravm up, which Manning was the first to sign.
Mr. Gladstone, whose signature had been confidently
expected by Manning and Hope- Scott, drew back at
the last moment on the technical plea that he was
a Privy CouncUlor. Sidney Herbert took the same
objection, and no member of the Privy CouncU did
actuaUy sign. Not aU the signatories, nor half of them,
seceded, and no direct result foUowed from the protest.
But it is plain that Mr. Gladstone never seriously con
templated, any more than Pusey or Keble, the act of
leaving the Church in which he was baptized. The
most memorable debate of 1850 began on June 24.
It was memorable, not only for the briUiancy of
the speeches dehvered in it, of which the most
briUiant was Gladstone's, but also for the fact that
it was the last in which Peel took part. The sub
ject was Lord Palmerston's quarrel with the Greek
Govemment, who had failed to protect Don Pacifico, D 2

36 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
a Maltese Jew, but a British subject, from the vio
lence of an Athenian mob. The British fleet, under
Sir William Parker, was ordered to the Piraeus and
seized a number of Greek ships to enforce compensation.
A vote of censure upon this high-handed proceeding
was moved and carried by Lord Stanley in the House
of Lords. The majority against the Government there
was thirty-seven. In the House of Commons, Mr.
Eoebuck moved a counter-resolution, expressing con
fidence in the Government, and Lord Palmerston
defended himself in a speech five hours long, which
lasted, as Gladstone put it, from dusk to dawn. He
uttered upon that occasion the celebrated phrase ' Civis
Eomanus sum,' and boasted that, wherever a British
subject might be, the watchful eye and the strong arm
of England would protect him. It was undoubtedly
a popular speech, though Palmerston's enemies pro
nounced it to be claptrap. Gladstone, taking a less
popular line, pointed out the dangers of Palmerston's
pohcy. ' What, sir,' he asked, ' was a Eoman citizen ?
He was the member of a privileged class ; he belonged
to a conquering race, to a nation that held all others
bound down by the strong arm of power. For bim
there was to be an exceptional system of law, for him
principles were to be asserted, and by him rights were
to be enjoyed that were denied to the rest of the
world. Is such the view of the noble lord as to the

THE PEELITES 37
relation which is to subsist between England and
other countries ? ' Such, at all events, was the view of
the House of Commons, and Mr. Eoebuck's motion
was carried by a majority of forty-six. But before the
House divided. Peel, in a brief speech of singular
dignity, eloquence, and wisdom, expressed his ' reluctant
dissent ' from the motion, and uttered his final caution
against perverting diplomacy, ' the great engine used by
civihsed society for the purpose of maintaining peace,
into a cause of hostility and war.' This speech was
delivered on the night of June 28. On the afternoon
of the 29th Peel was thrown from his horse on Con
stitution Hill, and on July 2 he died.
When the House of Commons met on July 3, the
first motion stood in the name of Joseph Hume. But,
instead of moving it, he proposed that the House should
at once adjourn as a tribute to the memory of Sir
Eobert Peel. Gladstone seconded the proposal in a
brief speech, full of deep feeling, in which he quoted
the noble lines from ' Marmion ' on the death of Pitt.
Macaulay was in error when he described Gladstone as
' the rising hope of the stem and unbending Tories,'
who were inclined to rebel against the authority of Sir
Eobert. He was a thorough Peelite, and never thought
of setting himself up as a rival to that Ulustrious man.
Peel, he said, at the close of his own life, was upon the
whole the greatest man he ever knew. After Peel's

38 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
death he called no one master ; but the statesman to
whom he most attached himself was Lord Aberdeen.
The death of their chief did not dissolve the Peelites,
who continued to act and vote together on most
questions, if not on all, until they coalesced with the
Whigs in Lord Aberdeen's Administration.

39

CHAPTEE V
THE NEAPOLITAN QUESTION
The only other important subject on which Glad
stone spoke in the Session of 1850 was Mr. Heywood's
proposal that a Eoyal Commission should be issued to
inquire into the management of the Universities.
Lord John Eussell unexpectedly accepted Mr. Hey
wood's motion, which was carried by a majority of
twenty-two. But Gladstone, as member for Oxford,
opposed it, using the argument which afterwards
became so familiar, though it ceased to weigh with him,
that the interference of Parliament would discourage
the generosity of founders and benefactors.
The winter of 1850-51 was spent by Gladstone at
Naples, and momentous consequences followed from his
visit. He discovered that Ferdinand II. , King of the
Two Sicihes, had not only dissolved the Constitution,
but had confined some 20,000 persons as political
prisoners. Nearly the whole of the late Opposition, and
an actual majority of the late Chamber, were in gaol.
They were herded vdth the worst criminals, some of
them were subjected to actual torture ; and the state of

40 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
the prisons in which they were confined was a scandal
to civilisation. One statesman in particular, Poerio,
was seen by Gladstone himself, chained to a murderer,
and suffering terrible privations, although, as Gladstone
said, his character stood as high as that of Lord John
Eussell or Lord Lansdowne. Moved by these dis
coveries, Gladstone addressed a very eloquent and
extremely indignant letter to Lord Aberdeen, in which
he told the whole story of King Ferdinand's cruelty
and atrocities from the beginning. He had not
selected the most sjrmpathetic correspondent, for Lord
Aberdeen, in his foreign policy, had more in common
with Metternich than with Cavour. The letter was
dated April 7, 1851, but it did not actually appear
till July. The delay was due to Lord Aberdeen, who
earnestly entreated Gladstone to abstain from publica
tion on the ground that it would render more difficult
the task of procuring release for these Italian patriots.
Lord Aberdeen's good faith cannot be doubted, and
even his judgment should not be lightly impugned ;
but Gladstone's moral indignation was not to be
restrained, and the letter was published. It was followed
by two others, in the second of which Gladstone replied
exhaustively and conclusively to the official defence
put forward by the Neapolitan Government. Lord
Palmerston, who on this point, and perhaps on this
point only, entirely agreed vdth Gladstone, sent a copy

THE NEAPOLITAN QUESTION 41
of the first letter to the British representative at every
Court in Europe, and told the House of Commons, in
reply to Sir De Lacy Evans, that he had done so.
Gladstone's letters undoubtedly contributed to the
ultimate independence and union of Italy. But Lord
Aberdeen was so far justified that they did not im
mediately procure the liberation of the captives, and it
was Lord Derby's Government who procured the
freedom of Poerio. At this time Gladstone took the
trouble to translate the whole of Farini's 'Eoman
State from 1815 to 1850.'
Gladstone returned home towards the end of
February, 1851, and found himself in the middle of a
poHtical crisis. The whole country was agitated by
popular fury against the Papal Bull which had divided
England into Eoman Catholic Sees. The public
feeling was shared by no one more strongly than by
the Prime Minister, and he had already introduced the
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which provided penalties for
the assumption by Eoman CathoHc prelates of titles
taken from any territory or place in the United
Kingdom. But the Whig Govemment was tottering
to its fall. A motion by Mr. Disraeh, nominally
designed to relieve agricultural distress, but really
meant to bring back Protection, had been defeated by
only fourteen votes, and, on February 20, Mr. Locke
King's proposal to reduce the county franchise to 101.,

42 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
at which it stood in boroughs, was carried against the
Ministry by a majority of nearly two to one. Lord
John Eussell thereupon resigned, and a new Govern
ment was not formed tUl March 3. Lord Stanley,
for whom the Queen sent, declined to make one until
Lord John had attempted a conjunction with the
Peelites. The Peelites refused to join him because
they disapproved of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
Lord Stanley then tried to obey the Queen's commands,
and he invoked Gladstone's assistance. He also
proposed that Lord Canning, another Peelite, should
enter the Cabinet. They, however, would not serve
under a Protectionist, and Lord Stanley gave up the
task in despair. Lord John returned to Downing
Street, and proceeded with the Ecclesiastical Titles
Bill in a modified form. On March 14, Gladstone
made a powerful speech against the BiU, urging that
it was a violation of religious freedom, and that the
act of the Pope, being purely spiritual, was one with
which Parliament had no concern. Public opinion,
however, was strongly the other way, and the second
reading was carried by 438 votes against 95. The
Bill, strengthened in committee by Tory amend
ments, passed both Houses and became law. But
nobody obeyed it, nobody was punished for disobeying
it, and, twenty years afterwards, it was repealed at the
instance of Gladstone himself.

THE NEAPOLITAN QUESTION 43
In the winter of 1851 Lord John Eussell's Govern
ment, already weak, was still further weakened by the
dismissal of Lord Palmerston, who had recognised the
absolute power of Louis Napoleon without consulting
the Prime Minister or the Queen. This was in
December, and on February 20, 1852, Palmerston had
what he characteristically called his ' tit-f or-tat with
Lord John Eussell ' by turning him out on the Militia
BUl, when Ministers were left in a minority of nine.
Lord John again resigned, and this time Lord Stanley,
who had become Lord Derby, succeeded in forming an
Administration without recourse either to Whigs or to
Peehtes. He did, indeed, approach Lord Palmerston,
but without effect. The new Government consisted
almost entirely of new men, and Mr. Disraeli, who had
never held office before, became Chancellor of the
Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. The
Govemment, though in a minority, struggled through
the Session, which was a short one, for Parliament
was prorogued and dissolved at the beginning of July.
The result of the elections was the return of 315
Liberals (counting the Irish), 299 Conservatives, and
40 Peelites. Gladstone was re-elected for Oxford,
though he was opposed by Dr. Marsham, Warden of
Merton. When the new Parliament met in November,
Mr. Vilhers proposed several resolutions in favour of
Free Trade, which threatened the existence of the

44 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Cabinet. It was generally recognised that, after the
appeal to the country, Protection was dead. But Mr.
Villiers invited the House of Commons formally to
declare that the repeal of the Corn Laws was a ' wise,
just, and beneficent ' measure. These ' odious epithets,'
as Mr. Disraeli called them, gave great offence to the
Conservative Party. There was a long and angry
debate upon the resolution. But Lord Palmerston
came to the rescue of the Government wifb. an
amendment which, though substantially identical
with Mr. Villiers's proposals, omitted the offensive
words. Gladstone strongly supported the amendment,
on the ground that it was in accordance with the well-
known magnanimity of Sir Eobert Peel, and that it
would give Protection a decent burial. The amend
ment was carried by a majority of eighty, and Lord
Derby was, for the moment, safe. But it was not for
long. Mr. Disraeli's first Budget was an unfortunate
one. He proposed to reheve the agricultural depres
sion by taking off half the duty on malt, and to supply
the deficiency by doubling the duty on inhabited
houses. In his reply, at the close of the debate, Mr.
Disraeh, turning aside from financial details, made a
slashing personal attack, in his most reckless and
satirical vein, upon his principal critics, especially Sir
James Graham and Sir Charles Wood, afterwards
Lord Hahfax. He sat down late at night, and Glad-

THB NEAPOLITAN QUESTION 45
stone immediately rose to reply to a speech which
must, he said, be answered at the moment. This was
the beginning of that long oratorical duel which only
ended in Mr. Disraeli's removal to the House of Lords,
nearly a quarter of a century later. The House was
vehemently excited, and Gladstone's earher sentences
were interrupted by tumults of applause. He severely
rebuked Mr. Disraeli for the terms in which he had
spoken of eminent and distinguished men, his pre
decessors in office. But the bulk of his argument was
entirely financial, and he condemned the Budget
because, as he said, it ' consecrated the principle of
a deficiency.' He proved that the small surplus which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer estimated was not a
real one, and that therefore his whole scheme was
vdthout solid foundation. On a division, which was
taken in the early morning of the 17th, the Govern
ment were left in a minority of nineteen. The same day
Lord Derby went down to Osborne, and the first of his
three Administrations was at an end. 'England,' Mr.
Disraeli had said in his speech, ' does not love coalitions.'
She was now to try one. Lord Aberdeen became Prime
Minister, and constructed a mixed Cabinet of Whigs
and Peehtes, vdth one Eadical, Sir William Molesworth.
Gladstone became Chancellor of the Exchequer. His
acceptance of office of course vacated his seat, and
there was a fierce contest at Oxford, which lasted for

46 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
fifteen days. Gladstone had excited the animosity of
a clerical faction, led by Archdeacon Denison, who, five
years before, had been one of his strongest supporters.
Their candidate was Mr. Dudley Perceval, son of the
Prime Minister, and Gladstone's majority was consider
ably reduced. At the close of the poll the numbers
were — For Gladstone, 1,034 ; for Perceval, 885.

47

CHAPTEE VI
the coalition
Lord Aberdeen was well fitted to preside over a
Coalition Government. In home politics he was an
advanced Liberal ; in foreign policy he was a pro
nounced Tory, who adhered, so far as it was possible,
to the principles of 1815 and to the Treaty of Vienna.
Lord John Eussell consented to serve under him as
Foreign Secretary, but he very soon resigned this office,
in which Lord Clarendon succeeded him, and he led the
House of Commons as President of the Council. Lord
Palmerston did not then, or ever again, return to the
Foreign Office, but became Home Secretary, though
his principal interest then, as always, was in foreign
affairs. On April 18, 1853, Gladstone introduced his
first, and, in some respects, his greatest. Budget. But
before he did so he had provided in a separate measure
for reducing the National Debt by eleven milhons
and a half every year. This memorable Budget was
universally admitted to be a masterpiece of financial
genius, worthy of Peel or Pitt. In introducing it Mr.
Gladstone spoke for five hours, though not longer than

48 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Mr. Disraeh had spoken on a similar occasion a few
months before. The results, however, were very
different. Disraeli's Budget had been a disastrous
failure; Gladstone's was a splendid success. The
leading principles of it were the progressive reduction
of the Income Tax, and the extension of the Legacy
Duty, under the name of Succession Duty, to real
property. It was estimated to produce an annual sum
of 2,000,000?., but at first it brought in less than half
that sum. The Income Tax was to remain at Id
in the pound, from April, 1853, to April, 1855. From
April, 1855, to April, 1857, it was to stand at 6d. ;
from April, 1857, to April, 1860, it was to be 5d., after
which it was to be entirely extinguished. It was ex
tended to incomes between lOOZ. and 150Z., but on them
it was at once to be calculated at 5d. in the pound. It
was also, for the first time, to be imposed in Ireland. On
the other hand, and as a set-off, the debt incurred by Ire
land at the time of the great famine, six years before,
was wiped out. But Ireland was a loser by the transac
tion; for while the interest on the debt was 245,000?., the
Irish Income Tax brought in about twice as much.
This financial statement has never been surpassed,
and scarcely ever been equalled, for felicity of phrase,
lucidity of arrangement, historical interest, and logical
cogency of argument. Among its other provisions, it
repealed the Soap Tax, it reduced the Tea Duty by

THB COALITION 49
gradual stages to Is. in the pound, and it took off the tax
on more than a hundred minor articles of food. As origi
nally framed, it lowered the advertisement duty, which
had been a heavy burden on newspapers, and a great
check to their multiplication, from eighteen-pence to
sixpence. But in the month of July, mainly at the
instance of Mr. Milner Gibson, who distinguished him
self by persistent hostUity to what he caUed the taxes
on knowledge, the duty was abolished altogether, in
spite of opposition from the Government, by seventy
votes against sixty-one. Otherwise Gladstone's triumph
was so complete that no effective resistance could be
offered to his main proposals in the House of Commons.
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton,
divided the Committee against the continuance of the
Income Tax, but he was beaten by a majority of
seventy-one. This Budget promised to be the beginning of a liew
financial era, which would carry out and carry further
the principle of Free Trade. But Gladstone's plans
were seriously delayed, though not ultimately defeated,
by an event which, at the beginning of 1853, nobody
could well have foreseen. A quarrel arose between the
Eoman and Greek Churches about the custody of the
Holy Places in Jerusalem. Turkey took one side and
Eussia the other. The Emperor Nicholas, besides
espousing the cause of his own Church, claimed a
B

50 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
general protectorate over Greek subjects of the Porte,
and in June a Eussian army invaded the Danubian
Principalities of Moldavia and WaUachia. On October 4
Turkey declared war against Eussia. On the 12th
Gladstone went to Manchester to unveil a statue of
Peel. In an eloquent and earnest speech he described
Eussia as ' a Power which threatened to override all
the rest.' He added, in language which though con
ciliatory in form was in substance ominous, that the
Government was stUl anxious to maintain peace.
That was true of himself, of the Prime Minister, and
of perhaps half the Cabinet ; but the Government
was a divided one. Lord John Eussell disliked his
subordinate position. Lord Palmerston, though an
excellent Home Secretary, was uneasy in the Home
Office, and had his eye always on foreign affairs.
It was he and Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe, British
Ambassador at Constantinople, who, together with
Lord Clarendon and the Emperor Nicholas, made the
Crimean War. The causes of that war have been
variously and inconsistently defined. Gladstone, who
as a Cabinet Minister was, of course, jointly responsible
for it, always maintained that it was not undertaken
on behalf of Turkey, but to preserve the balance of
power, to vindicate the public law of Europe, and to
restrain the ambition of an overweening autocrat.
Meanwhile there were troubles within the Cabinet.

THB COALITION 51
In December Lord Palmerston resigned. The nominal
cause of his resignation was Lord John Eussell's per
sistence in attempting to introduce a Eeform Bill.
But when he returned to office, a few days afterwards,
the British Fleet was ordered to the Black Sea. On
March 28, 1854, England and France declared war
against Eussia. MeanwhUe, on March 6, when war
was known to be imminent, though it had not actually
begun, Gladstone introduced his second Budget. It
was very different from the first. He had to provide
for an expenditure of which he had no idea in the
spring of 1853. But he declined to borrow. He
made an animated protest against carrying on war by
means of loans, which he said had nearly ruined the
coimtry at the close of the last century. His proposal
was to double the Income Tax for half the year, thus
raising it from Id. to Is. Id., and to collect the whole of
the increase within the first six months. On May 8,
however, he was obliged to introduce a Supplementary
Budget, and to double the tax for the second half-year
too. He also raised the duty on spirits, increased the
Malt Tax, much to the disgust of the agriculturists,
and made a small addition to the duty on sugar. He
courageously defended these proposals, on the double
ground that the year's expenditure should be met
within the year, and that all classes of the nation
should contribute to the cost of a national war. Al-
e2

52 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
though there was a good deal of grumbHng, this
Budget also passed without serious difficulty. On
December 12, Parhament met for a winter session.
But the country was now enthusiastic for the war, and
the Government were able to do exactly what they
pleased. The vdnter of 1854-5 was one of unusual and
almost unprecedented severity throughout Europe.
The sufferings of the troops in the Crimea were terrible,
and were brought prominently before the notice of the
public by Mr. William Howard Eussell, afterwards
Sir William Eussell, the war correspondent of the
' Times.' When Parliament met, after the Christmas
recess, on January 23, Mr. Eoebuck, the Eadical
member for Sheffield, at once gave notice that he
would move for a Select Committee to inquire
into the condition of the Army, and into those
public departments which were responsible for it.
Lord John Eussell, feeling himself unable to oppose
this motion, resigned, and his resignation was an
nounced on the 25th. On the same day Eoebuck
proposed his motion. On the 29th Gladstone spoke
vyith great energy against it, and in doing so severely
condemned, by implication, the conduct of Lord John.
' If,' he said, ' the Government had accepted such a
resolution, or had retired rather than meet it, they
would have deserved to be described as " men who, to

THB COALITION 53
escape punishment, ran away from duty." ' His argu
ments, however, were unavailing. The House of
Commons was thoroughly indignant vdth the Govern
ment, and Eoebuck's motion was carried by the
enormous majority of 157. This put an end to the
Ministry of Lord Aberdeen. The Queen sent for
Lord Derby, and he again made overtures to the
Peelites. He first, however, invited Lord Palmerston.
But he suggested to Palmerston that Gladstone and
Sidney Herbert should come in with him. To Lord
Derby's extreme annoyance and surprise, they all
refused ; thus, in his opinion, justifying his statement,
in 1851, that the Peelites used their talents chiefly for
the purpose of making aU government impossible.
They promised him, indeed, an independent support :
but for that he did not care ; and it was upon this
occasion that he favoured her Majesty, vwth his cele
brated definition of an independent member as a
member who could not be depended on. Lord Derby
having felt himself unable to form a Government out
of his own party, and Lord John EusseU having failed,
as, under the circumstances, might have been anti
cipated, the old Govemment was reconstructed, with
Lord Palmerston as Premier in place of Lord Aber
deen. The Duke of Newcastle, who, as the first
Secretary of State for War, had been the chief target
of attack, retired with his chief; but Gladstone,

54 LIFE OF W. E. ^GLADSTONE
though on February 5 he warmly defended his old
friend the Duke against the strictures of Lord John,
remained for a few weeks in office. On February 22,
however, he resigned, together with Sir James Graham,
Mr. Herbert, and Mr. Cardwell. Their ground for
taking this step was that Lord Palmerston had agreed
to accept Mr. Eoebuck's committee, although he was
himself opposed to it, and had given them an assur
ance that he would resist it. They also took the line
that the committee, which included no member of the
Government, was unconstitutional, inasmuch as it
tended to relieve the Executive of a responsibility which
belonged only to Ministers of the Crown. Their ex
planations were made in the House of Commons on
February 23, in the course of a miscellaneous debate,
rendered memorable by Mr. Bright's great speech,
with its famous and familiar image of the Angel of
Death.

55

CHAPTEE VII
the period of transition
Lord Palmerston, immediately after the formation
of his Government, sent Lord John EusseU, who had
accepted office under him as Colonial Secretary, on a
special mission to Vienna, to negotiate terms of peace.
The effort failed; but from that time Gladstone ceased to
defend the war, and contended that its ultimate objects
had been secured. The Protectorate had, he argued,
been given up ; the unfair pretensions of Eussia were
abated, and the destruction of her preponderant power
in the Black Sea was not a sufficient reason for
continuing the struggle. During the progress of the
war the House of Commons, like the coimtry, took
little interest in any other subject. But, on July 12,
1855, Gladstone spoke strongly in favour of open
competition in the public service, as recommended in
a report signed, nearly two years before, by Sir Charles
Trevelyan and by Sir Stafford Northcote, who had been
his own private secretary at the Board of Trade. On
August 3 he returned to the subject of the Vienna
Conference, and in supporting a motion made by

56 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Mr. Laing, pleaded once more vainly for peace. He
relied upon the satisfaction of Austria with the Eussian
terms, and protested against imposing upon the new
Czar, who had succeeded his father in February, un
necessarily humiliating conditions. On March 30, 1856,
the Treaty of Paris, which terminated the war, was
signed, and on May 5 Gladstone joined in the general
congratulations of the Government upon the establish
ment of an honourable peace. But he pointed out
that the neutralisation of the Black Sea involved a
' series of pitfalls,' and no one acquainted with this
speech can have been surprised at his acquiescence
in the removal of that article from the Treaty
when he was himself Prime Minister fifteen years
afterwards. On March 8, 1856, just before the proclamation of
peace. Lord John Eussell, who had again resigned
office on his return from Vienna the year before, pro
posed in the House of Commons, as an iudependent
member, a series of resolutions on the subject of
national education. They nominally provided for
increasing the powers and duties of the Committee of
Council ; but they really contained the germs of
School Boards, and of a Conscience Clause. They
would have confined religious instruction to the daily
reading of the Bible in elementary schools. Lord
John did not press them to a division, and the debate

THE PEEIOD OF TEANSITION 57
was adjourned till April 10, when the House went into
Committee on the whole of- them. Even then Lord
John intimated that he would not take the sense of
the Committee on them one by one. But there was a
long debate upon the whole subject, in the course of
which Gladstone delivered an elaborate defence of the
voluntary system. The two points to which he espe
cially objected were the increased centralisation, which
he discerned in Lord John's plan, and the purely
secular teaching to which he believed it would lead.
Ultimately all the resolutions were disposed of by a
preliminary motion, on which 158 members voted for
them and 260 against them.
On February 20, 1857, Mr. Disraeli moved that the
Income Tax ought to be finally remitted in the year 1860.
This was in accordance with Gladstone's first Budget,
and he spoke in support of the motion. At the same time
he severely criticised the financial arrangements of his
successor. Sir George Lewis, which he said reversed the
principles of the last fifteen years, as laid down in Peel's
great Budget of 1842. He especially condemned the
increase of indirect taxes, such as the duties on tea and
sugar. The motion was , defeated by a majority of
eighty. But, on the report of Supply, Gladstone re
turned to the subject, and pleaded with great"earnest-
ness for the necessity of ."cutting down the^national
expenditure, which had, he said, quite apart from the

58 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
war, outgrovTu to a dangerous degree the resources of
the country.
But the moment was not altogether opportune for
economy. The Speech from the Throne had referred
to ' acts of violence, insults to the British flag, and
infraction of treaty rights committed by the local
Chinese authorities at Canton.' These acts, ' and the
pertinacious refusal of redress, had rendered it necessary
for her Majesty's officers in China to have recourse to
measures of force to obtain satisfaction.' The reference
was to the case of the lorcha ' Arrow.' The ' Arrow '
was a small boat called by that Portuguese name from
which Governor Yeh of Canton had taken twelve men
on a charge of piracy. The ' Arrow ' was not an English
boat, though it was flying the British flag. But Mr.
Parkes, the British Consul at Canton, contended that
the flag protected the men, although they were Chinese,
and demanded their surrender with an apology. The
men were given up, but the apology was refused, and
the British Minister at Pekin, Sir John Bowring, a
Eadical and a friend of Cobden, proceeded to make
war on China by the bombardment of Canton. The
date of the seizure was October 8, 1856, and the bom
bardment lasted from October 23 to November 13.
On February 24, 1857, Lord Derby moved in the House
of Lords a vote of censure on the Government for
these proceedings. He was supported in his protest

THE PEEIOD OP TEANSITION 59
against their illegality by the high authority of Lord
Lyndhurst, but his motion was rejected by a majority
of thirty-six. There was a very different division in
the House of Commons. The last Whig Government,
as Palmerston's first Administration may fairly be
called, had the singular experience of being absolved
by the Lords and condemned by the Commons. On
February 26, Mr. Cobden moved that ' the papers which
have been laid upon the table fail to establish satisfac
tory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at
Canton in the late affair of the " Arrow." ' Cobden was
supported by Gladstone, who, true to the principles he
had laid down in 1840, severely denounced this high
handed and unjustifiable treatment of a weak nation.
The Government were defeated by a majority of sixteen.
In the course of the debate Disraeli had chaUenged
Palmerston to appeal to the country. Palmerston,
who understood the temper of the middle classes
better than any statesman of his time, at once responded
to the challenge. The division had been taken on
March 3 ; on March 5 the dissolution of Parliament
was announced. Palmerston obtained from the con
stituencies a large majority, and his Chinese policy was
emphatically endorsed by the nation. His principal
opponents, including Cobden, Bright, Milner-Gibson,
and Fox, the member for Oldham, lost their seats.
Gladstone, however, was more fortunate, for the Uni-

60 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
versity of Oxford did not even put him to the trouble
of a contest.
In the first Session of the new Parliament Glad
stone's activity was almost entirely confined to the
Bill for establishing the Divorce Court, which came to
the House of Commons from the House of Lords, and
of which the second reading was moved on July 24.
Gladstone opposed this Bill with greater vigour and
pertinacity than he ever displayed in resisting any
other measure, before or since. In his speech upon
the second reading he took the high line that mar
riage is absolutely indissoluble, and that no human
authority could set aside a union of which the sanction
was Divine. In a historical review of the whole
question he sought to prove that re-marriage in the
hfetime of both parties had never been allowed in the
first three centuries of the Christian era, and he
described divorce as inconsistent with the character of
a Christian country. The Bill was carried by large
majorities, and there was one argument which its
opponents, with all their ability, failed, in the general
opinion, to meet. They talked as if divorce had been
impossible and unknovm before the year 1857. As a
matter of fact, it was constantly granted by Act of
Parliament ; which meant that it was a privilege of the
rich, and that it was denied to the poor. Gladstone,
however, fought the Bill steadily through Committee,

THE PEEIOD OF TEANSITION 61
and came into frequent collision with the Attorney-
General, Sir Eichard Bethell, afterwards Lord West
bury, who had charge of it. Intellectually the com
batants were weU matched, and their argumentative
battle was one of the most exciting that the House of
Commons has seen. Gladstone had the courage to
support Mr. Drummond's amendment, which would
have given to a woman the right to divorce on the
same terms as a man. But even this proposition,
against which it was hard to find tenable reasons, was
rejected by nearly two to one. The only concession
which Gladstone extorted from the Government was
that no clergyman should be compelled to celebrate
the marriage of a divorced person. The Bill was not
read a third time in the House of Commons till
August 21, and when it went back to the House of
Lords for consideration of the Commons amendments
it only escaped defeat by two votes. The expediency
of this measure is still acutely controversial, and the
High Church party have never been reconciled to it.
Gladstone always maintained that it was wrong in
principle, and pernicious in its consequences ; but he
felt that to repeal it was out of the question.
On January 14, 1858, an attempt was made by an
Italian called Felice Orsini, and others, to assassinate
the Emperor of the French. The Emperor escaped,
but several bystanders were kUled. Orsini, with one

62 LIFB OP W. E. GLADSTONE
confederate, was executed, and the indignation in
France was extreme. It was proved at the trial that
the conspiracy had been partly hatched in London, the
bombs having been made in Birmingham, and the
French Minister for Foreign Affairs sent, on January 28,
an angry despatch, in which he demanded that England
should give up her practice of harbouring criminal
refugees. In consequence of this despatch the Govern
ment introduced a Bill which made conspiracy to
murder felony, punishable with penal servitude, instead
of a misdemeanour, punishable only with a short term
of imprisonment. But, meanwhile, the British public
had been highly incensed by the violent language of
some French officers, which had found its way into the
' Moniteur,' the official organ of the French Ministry.
There was a strong feeling against abridging the right
of asylum, and Palmerston was attacked for not
having immediately replied to Count Walewski's
demands. Milner-Gibson, who had found another seat,
expressed this sentiment in a long amendment, which
he moved on the second reading of the Bill. Glad
stone spoke in favour of the amendment, maintaining
that to pass such a measure, at such a time, involved
moral complicity with the repressive acts of despotic
monarchies. The second reading of the Bill was
moved on February 19 ; the amendment was carried
by a majority of nineteen, and on February 22 Palmer-

THB PEEIOD OP TEANSITION 63
ston announced his resignation. The Queen sent for
Lord Derby, who again appHed to Gladstone. Glad
stone, however, refused the invitation, and a purely
Conservative Government was again formed. But
when, in May, Lord EUenborough, the President of the
Board of Control, resigned. Lord Derby pressed the
office upon Gladstone, and Disraeli entreated him to
accept it. If he had complied with this invitation he
would have been the last President of the Board and
the first Secretary of State for India. He declined it,
however, and this was the last offer be received from
the Tories. On May 4 he moved an address to the
Crown in favour of reuniting the Danubian Princi-
pahties, in accordance with the wishes of their inhabi
tants and with the Treaty of Paris. The motion was
defeated by a majority of 178, but it was only premature.
Within three years, in December, 1861, Moldavia and
WaUachia became the single Principality, now King
dom, of Eoumania. Gladstone's only other important
speech in that Session was delivered against the
third reading of Sir John Trelawny's Bill for the
abohtion of Church rates, which he was afterwards
himself to abolish.
Gladstone had now been more than three years out
of office, and the fruits of his comparative leisure
appeared in his work on Homer and the Homeric age.
Although Gladstone never attained, nor deserved, the

64 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
same celebrity as a writer Vhich he enjoyed as an orator,
he was indefatigable with his pen, and had been for
some years a pretty regular contributor to the
' Quarterly Eeview,' as he became long afterwards to
the ' Contemporary Eeview,' the ' Nineteenth Century,'
and other periodicals. It was in the ' Quarterly ' that
he first wrote on the subject of Homer, being induced
to do so by the destructive criticisms of Lachmann upon
the integrity of Homer's text. The book, published in
the summer of 1858 at the Oxford University Press, is
one of the most extraordinary that have ever been com
posed by a man of affairs. It is not, never has been,
and never can be popular; but it is a monument of
erudition, of eloquence, of literary criticism, of poetic
taste, and of speculations the most fantastic in which
a student ever indulged. It can only be judged by
scholars, and their judgment is very different upon the
different aspects of the work. Gladstone was himself
a thorough scholar in the old-fashioned sense of the
term. He knew the Greek and Latin classics as weU as
they could be known by anyone who had not devoted
his life to their study — as well as Pitt, or Fox, or Peel,
or Macaulay, or Lord Derby. In his accurate and
minute acquaintance with Homer he has never been
surpassed. His account of the social, personal, and
pohtical life which Homer describes is not only most
interesting, but most valuable, even when he comes

THB PEEIOD OF TEANSITION 65
into conflict with the more prosaic mind but sounder
judgment of Mr. Grote. He was not, however, con
tent with expounding the Homeric poems. He made a
whole series of assumptions, and from them he deduced
inferences which, however subtle, have no sohd ground
to rest upon. He assumed that Homer was an actual
person, that he was the sole author both of the ' Iliad '
and of the ' Odyssey,' and that the whole text of those
poems is equally genuine. He put into Homer's mind,
or into the minds of the Ballad-mongers who, as some
think, are called by that collective name, ideas which
were utterly alien to the Greek mind, and which would
have been quite as strange to Aristotle as to Homer.
He saw in Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades — that is to say,
in Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto — an analogue of the
Trinity. He connected the Homeric Ate vsdth the
devil, and he regarded Apollo as a ' representative of
the Messianic tradition that the seed of the woman
should crush the serpent's head.' To the comparative
phUologist, to the scientific mythologist, and to the
merely secular scholar, these ideas have no real mean
ing at all. But the work remains a marvellous example
of deep and even sublime meditation upon all that is
contained and all that is suggested by the greatest
epic poems of the world.
It was said to be partly in consequence of this book,
and of the enthusiasm for modern Greece expressed in it.

66 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
that in November, 1858, Sir Edward Lytton, Secretary
for the Colonies, entrusted Gladstone with a special
mission to the Ionian Islands. These seven islands, of
which Corfu is the chief, had been under a British
protectorate since the peace of 1815. That they were
well administered was not denied; but they had a
strong desire for union with Greece, and their discontent
became so serious that the Govemment felt it necessary
to make inquiry into its origin. Gladstone visited the
Islands, and did his best to discourage the agitation by
promising them a larger measure of self-government
under English rule. But there was only one thing they
wanted, and a proposal for incorporation with the
Greek kingdom was carried unanimously by the Legis
lative Assembly at Corfu. Gladstone left Corfu on
February 19, 1859, and duly reported what he had
seen. But it was not till 1864, when King Otho
abdicated and was succeeded by King George, that the
Islands finally became Greek.
On February 28, 1859, Mr. Disraeli, now for
the second time Chancellor of the Exchequer and
leader of the House of Commons, brought in his first
Eeform BiU. It was, however, as much Lord Derby's
as his, and Lord Derby, though now the leader of
the Conservative Party, had aU his life been a Par
liamentary reformer. The BiU was of the mildest
possible character. It extended the 101. franchise from

THE PEEIOD OF TEANSITION 67
boroughs to counties, and it introduced the first form
of the lodger vote. But it entirely ignored the working
classes, while it proposed some kinds of franchise
unknov?n before and unheard of since. It proposed to
give votes to everyone holding 101. in any Government
security, or &01. in a savings bank, or receiving 201.
by way of a pension, as well as to all graduates, clergy
men, lav?yers, doctors, and schoolmasters. Mr. Bright,
in one of his happiest phrases, dubbed these proposals
' fancy franchises,' and this expression was really the
death of the Bill. Small as the measure was, however,
it was too large for two members of the Cabinet. On
March 1, Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley intimated
their resignation. On March 20 the second reading
of the Bill was moved, and the debate was continued
for seven nights. Lord John Eussell proposed a
hostile amendment, against which Gladstone spoke.
He did not approve of the Bill, which he considered
totaUy inadequate. But he defended vrith unexpected
vigour the maintenance of pocket boroughs, and he
expressly declined to give a vote which might have the
effect of turning out Lord Derby's Administration.
His advocacy of the Government was, however,
unsuccessful. On April 1 the House divided, and
the second reading of the Bill was rejected by a
majority of thirty-nine. On April 20, Lord Derby
and Mr. Disraeli announced the dissolution of Parlia-
p 2

68 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
ment. The policy of this dissolution was severely
criticised, and Gladstone was among the critics. But
though he himself was again returned without opposi
tion for Oxford, the Government gained a considerable
number of seats. They did not, however, gain enough.
The Liberal Party, after the election, had a small but
a sufficient majority. At a meeting held in Willis's
Eooms, and attended by Mr. Bright, they all agreed to
act together. The new Parliament met on May 31, the
Queen's Speech was read on June 7, and Lord Hart
ington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire, who now
appeared for the first time in politics, at once gave
notice, as an amendment to the Address, of a vote of
no confidence in the Government of Lord Derby. The
debate turned partly upon the impolicy of the recent
dissolution, but its main subject was foreign affairs.
A war had broken out between France and Austria
which, it was argued, the Government might have
averted. Lord Malmesbury, the Foreign Secretary,
was suspected, not without reason, of hostility to
Italian independence, which was the avowed object of
the war on the part of France. By some design, or
accident never fully explained, Mr. Disraeli did
not present the Blue Book, which proved, even in
Mr. Cobden's opinion, that the Government had
observed an attitude of strict neutrality, till after
the division in the House of Commons. In that

THB PEEIOD OF TEANSITION 69
division the Ayes were 323 and the Noes 310 ; thus
giving the Opposition the narrow majority of thirteen.
Gladstone voted silently with the Government. Lord
Derby resigned, and the Queen, feeling it invidious
to choose between Lord Palmerston and Lord John
Eussell, sent for Lord Granville. Lord Granville,
however, failed, chiefly because Lord John refused to
serve under him, and the Queen then sent for Lord
Palmerston, who succeeded VTithout difficulty in form
ing an Administration. He offered the Chancellorship
of the Exchequer to Gladstone, who accepted it. This
was one of the strangest incidents in Gladstone's
career, and he felt the necessity of an explanation.
Having twice voted in favour of Lord Derby's Govern
ment, he had immediately taken service with Lord
Derby's rival and successor. Not being able, as a
University member, to address his constituents, he
wrote a long letter on the subject to Dr. Hawkins, the
Provost of Oriel. No one could accuse him of being
an office-seeker ; he had three times refused office
and twice resigned it. It was extremely improbable
that he would ever again be approached by the Tories,
and if, Hke Mr. Cobden, he had declined Lord Palmer
ston's offer, it was quite possible that, like Mr. Cobden,
who had had no official experience, he would have
remained a private member for the rest of his life.
There can be httle doubt that he felt himself at that

70 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
time to be the man best capable of managing the
national finances, which were by no means in a satis
factory state. To Dr. Hawkins he pointed out that
most of the new Cabinet, which contained only one
Eadical, Mr. Milner-Gibson, were the men with whom
he had acted in the Government of Lord Aberdeen.
But feeling at Oxford was much excited by what
appeared to be his permanent enlistment in the Liberal
ranks, and his seat, vacated by his appointment, was
keenly contested. The Tory candidate was Lord
Chandos, afterwards Duke of Buckingham, who polled
859 against 1,050 for Gladstone. Gladstone's first
official duty was to introduce the Budget, which had
been unduly delayed by the General Election. He had
to provide for a deficit of nearly 5,000,000?. He did
so mainly by raising the Income Tax from 5d. to 9d.,
the whole of the increase to be paid in the first half
of the financial year.

71

CHAPTEE VIII
gladstonian finance
The Budget of 1860 was one of Gladstone's greatest
and most memorable achievements. It had been
preceded by the Commercial Treaty with France
which Mr. Cobden, holding no official position, had,
under Gladstone's superintendence, concluded in the
autumn with the Emperor of the French. By this
Treaty, which was to last for ten years, England agreed
to abolish aU duties on manufactured goods and to reduce
the duties on brandy and vyine. France agreed to
lower her tariff on English goods and to treat England
on the footing of the most favoured nation. In his
Budget speech, which was a briUiant success, and
revived the memories of 1853, Gladstone met the
arguments of those who said that a Commercial Treaty
was an abandonment of Free Trade. He showed that
the duties abolished were essentiaUy protective, so that
his scheme was in effect the completion of what Peel
had begun in 1842, and continued in 1846. Meeting
a plea that his Budget reheved only the rich, because
the taxes remitted were not paid by the poor, he

72 LIFE OF W. B, GLADSTONE
proved that the poor did not pay them only because
they were prohibitive, and confined the articles on
which they were imposed exclusively to the well-to-do.
The deductions, he said, would have been advantageous
to this country even if France had done nothing, and
the concessions made by France rendered them doubly
profitable. Before closing that part of his great speech
which dealt with the Treaty, he paid an eloquent
tribute to Cobden, who had performed for the second
time in his life, without fee or reward, an inestimable
service to his country. The Budget also made further
reductions in the taxes upon articles of food. ]'t
imposed a registration duty of a penny a packet upon
imported and exported goods, and a duty of 6s. upon
chicory, which was largely used in the adulteration of
coffee. An Excise licence was granted to the keepers
of eating-houses, enabling them, for the first time, to
sell beer and wine on the premises, and thus affording
an alternative to the public-house. The Paper Duty
was repealed. The Income Tax was raised to 10c?.
upon all incomes above 150?., and to Id. below that
amount. Incomes below 100?. had never paid it since
the time of Pitt. To illustrate the effect of his pro
posals in promoting the freedom of commerce, Glad
stone explained that while in 1845 the number of
articles subject to Customs duties was 1,163, and in
1853, 460, it was now brought down to 48.

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 73
The first opposition to this historical Budget was
raised on Febraary 20, when Mr. Disraeh moved that the
assent of the House should be obtained for the Treaty
before they discussed the items of the Budget. Glad
stone's reply was chiefly founded on precedent, especially
the precedent set by Pitt in 1798. The majority for
the Govemment was sixty-three. The next day Mr. Du
Cane moved an amendment hostile to the whole prin
ciple of the financial scheme. But this was defeated
by 116, and with one exception the proposals of the
Budget were now safe. To meet the scruples of those
who apprehended that the House of Commons was
losing its control over commercial instruments, a
ministerial member, Mr. Byng, moved, on March 8, an
address to the Crown in favour of the Treaty, which
was carried by 282. To the Bill providing for the
repeal of the paper duty a much more serious resistance
was offered. It came partly from the manufacturers
of paper, and partly from the proprietors of the more
expensive journals, who were afraid of the competition
it would encourage. But the second reading was
carried by a majority of fifty-three, and the House rose
for the Easter recess.
Meanwhile, on March 1, the exact anniversary
of the day on which the great Eeform BiU had been
moved by Lord John Eussell, Lord John, now Foreign
Secretary, introduced his second Eeform Bill. There

74 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
were no fancy franchises in it. It reduced the county
franchise to 10?. and the borough franchise to 6?. It
provided for a slight redistribution of seats, and
gave a member to the University of London. The
second reading was moved on March 19, and on May 3,
after a speech from Gladstone in support of it, was
carried without a division. But the Conservatives,
though they would not take the sense of the House,
resorted to dilatory tactics, which fatally impeded the
progress of the measure, and on June 11 it was with
drawn. On April 16, Gladstone, who had been elected
Lord Eector of the University of Edinburgh, delivered
an address on the function of Universities, which is
now chiefly interesting as being the first of the kind
that he was called upon to give.
When Parliament met again after the Eecess
a very formidable campaign was opened against the
Paper Bill, and the third reading was only carried
by a majority of nine. In a letter to the Queen, for
which it would be difficult to find a precedent. Lord
Palmerston, who was of course as much responsible for
the Bill as Gladstone himself, intimated that this divi
sion would probably encourage the House of Lords to
throw it out, that if they did so they would perform a
public service, and that the Government might well
submit to so welcome a defeat. Throughout Lord
Palmerston's second Administration a feehng of more

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 75
or less active hostUity prevaUed between himself and
his ChanceUor of the Exchequer. They agreed upon
scarcely any subject except Italian unity, and it is
marveUous that they should have remained in the same
Cabinet so long. But though Gladstone frequently
threatened to resign, he remained in office for the rest
of Lord Palmerston's Hfe, and for some time afterwards.
On May 21, Lord GranviUe moved the second reading
of the Paper BiU in the House of Lords. After a learned
argument from Lord Lyndhurst to prove that the
Lords might reject though they could not amend a
money BUl, and a personal attack on Gladstone by Lord
Derby, which he combined with effusive compliments
to Lord Pahnerston, the BiU was thrown out by a
majority of eighty-nine. On May 25, Palmerston moved
for a Committee to inquire into the privileges of the
House of Commons and the rights of the House of
Lords in matters of taxation. The Committee having
sat and drawn up a purely historical report, Palmerston
moved, on July 5, a series of resolutions, carefully framed
and of great political value, which set out in effect that
the grant of supply is in the Commons alone. His
speech, as might have been expected, was a mild one,
and advanced Liberals complained that he had prac
ticaUy given up the case. But Gladstone made amends
in their eyes for the deficiencies of his chief. In the
most Eadical speech that he had yet made, he affirmed

76 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
that for two hundred years the Lords had never ventured
to retain a tax which the Commons had remitted, and,
answering Lord Lyndhurst by implication, he pointed
out that it was not their power to reject money BiUs,
but their right to interfere with taxation, which the
representatives of the people were bound to combat.
In significant language, not sufficiently noticed at the
time, he reserved to himself the right of enforcing the
Commons privileges, not by words, but by action.
The vote of the Lords was, however, decisive for the
year, and on August 6 the House of Commons divided
upon retaining the Customs duty on foreign paper,
which was not touched by the vote. Gladstone, how
ever, pointed out that this question was concluded by
the Treaty, and his view was sustained by a majority
of thirty-three. In the month of July it became
necessary for the ChanceUor of the Exchequer to pro
vide for the cost of the Chinese Expedition jointly
carried out by England and France under Lord Elgin,
who had superseded Sir John Bowring and Baron
Gros. He found the money by increasing the spirit
duties Is. a gallon.
Gladstone's budgets were the greatest and most
popular events of Palmerston's second and longer
Administration. They excited unparalleled interest in
the country, and the House of Commons was always
crowded from floor to roof when they came on. Mr.

j' GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 77
Disraeh, who, though he was three times Chancellor of
the Exchequer, never became an expert financier, could
make no head against them, albeit his Parliamentary
genius was never more fully displayed than as leader of
the Opposition in the Parliament of 1859. But before
the Budget of 1861 Gladstone introduced a social and
economic reform which has proved immensely advan
tageous to the lower and middle classes of society. This
was the Post Office Savings Bank Bill, which he brought
in on February 8, and which became law without any
serious difficulty. Hitherto small savings could only be
invested on the security of Government through the
savings banks, which were 600 in number, and open for
but a few hours in the day. The Bill enabled them to be
invested through the postal and money-order offices, of
which there were then between 2,000 and 3,000, and
which were open from morning till night. The rate of
interest was two and a half per cent., which, though not
large, was quite sufficient for the purpose ; and the
success of the measure was as immediate as it was com
plete. On February 27, Gladstone, speaking as member
for Oxford, and not as a Cabinet Minister, again opposed
the Bill for the abolition of Church rates. He ex
plained that if he had been in favour of it he should
have felt bound to resign his seat, although, as he said,
there would have been some difficulty in his conferring
the Chiltern Hundreds upon himself. He proposed.

78 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
however, a compromise, which the Dissenters would not
accept, that it should be left for each parish to deter
mine whether they would have a Church rate or not.
While he voted against the Bill, Lord Palmerston and
Lord John EusseU voted for it. On March 4 began a
very important debate in the House of Commons upon
Italian policy. It was raised by Mr., afterwards Sir,
John Pope Hennessy, who made a strenuous attack
upon Lord John Eussell for his Italian sympathies.
On March 7, the last night of the debate, Gladstone
spoke with great fervour and eloquence on behalf of
Italian unity and independence.
On April 15 he introduced his Budget, in a speech
which was pronounced by some impartial critics to be
the finest he had yet delivered. He took off the penny
which he had put on the Income Tax the year before,
bringing it down again to 9d. for the larger and 6d.
for the smaller incomes. He again proposed the repeal
of the Paper Duty. As for the Income Tax, he declared
that it depended entirely upon the national expenditure.
If, he said, the country would be content to be governed
at the cost of 60,000,000?., they might get rid of the tax.
If they persisted in spending 70,000,000?., it was im
possible for them to dispense with it. The repeal of
the Paper Duty was once more vigorously opposed, and
Mr. Horsfall, supported by the whole of the Conserva
tive Party, moved that the Tea Duty should be abolished

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 79
instead. The motion was defeated by a majority of
eighteen ; but the Conservatives made a good deal of
play with the cry of tea before paper. Gladstone had
been subjected to some ridicule for his defeat by the
House of Lords in the previous year. But those laugh
best who laugh last. It now became apparent that he
knew well what he was about when he reserved to him
self in 18S0 the right of asserting by action the
privileges of the Commons. By a bold and practical
innovation, which has ever since been the rule of
Parliament, he included all the taxes in one Bill. This
BiU, being a money Bill, could not be amended by the
Lords, who were, therefore, reduced to the alternative
of either accepting it as it stood or of refusing to con
cur in any provision for the public service of the year.
This masterly stroke succeeded. Although the removal
of the tax was finally carried in the House of
Commons by the small majority of fifteen, the Lords
did not venture to interfere, and, on June 7, they
adopted v?ithout a division the Customs and Inland
Eevenue Bill, which included the|abohtion of the Paper
Duty. From this time dates the cheap press, and the
first publication of penny papers forthwith began. On
May 7 the subject of the Ionian Islands was brought
before the House of Commons, and Gladstone naturally
took part in it. He did not approve of their immediate
incorporation with the Greek Kingdom, pleading that

80 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Greece did not want them. But the whole Govern
ment were of opinion that when Greece did want them
she ought to have them, and soon after the accession
of King George, in 1863, they were made over to her.
The excessive expenditure of which Gladstone
complained was mainly due to the large sums which
Lord Palmerston demanded for the fortification of
the coasts and of the seaports. Against these heavy
grants Gladstone more than once protested, and his
protests went to the verge of resignation. He agreed
rather with Mr. Cobden than with his Chief ; and when
the subject was under discussion his absence from the
House was observed. Many of the Conservatives were
disposed to take the same line, including Mr. Disraeli,
who denounced ' bloated armaments.' They went
so far as to propose a motion in that sense which, if
carried, would have put an end to the Government.
But at the last moment, by the advice of Lord Derby,
and much to Mr. Disraeli's disgust, Mr. Walpole, who
had given notice of it, withdrew it, and the House
unanimously agreed to a vague resolution in favour of
economy, suggested by Lord Palmerston himself.
The Budget of 1862, introduced on April 3, was
comparatively prosaic. The Civil War in America,
and the blockade of the southern ports which it
involved, had greatly raised the price of cotton, and
seriously diminished British trade with the United

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 81
States. That, and a succession of bad harvests, the
worst of which feU in 1860, had interfered vyith the
growth of the revenue, and no great remission of
taxation was possible. Gladstone, however, repealed
the Hop Duty, a very unpopular impost, and substituted
for it a readjustment of brewers' hcences, which made
the larger brewers pay more and the smaller brewers
pay less. He also modified the scale of the wine
duties, giving a further advantage to the light as
against the strong sorts of wine. It is to this Budget
and to the Budget of 1860 that we owe the name of
'Gladstone claret.' To this Budget there was no
opposition worth speaking of, though Lord Overstone,
a great authority in the City, expressed to the House of
Lords grave misgivings about what he considered a dan
gerous reduction in the number of taxable commodities.
On April 11 the state of Italy was again brought
before Parhament, this time by Sir George Bowyer.
Indeed, it was only the Irish Catholics who took
any prominent part in resisting the Italian policy
in which Lord Palmerston, Lord John, who had
now become Earl, EusseU, and Gladstone equally
shared. This debate led to no definite result ; but
it is memorable for Gladstone's fuUest and most
elaborate statement of the views which he had long
felt on the liberation of the Italian Peninsula. He
concluded, as a friend of France, with a courteous

82 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
but most earnest protest against the occupation of
Eome by the French troops. The rest of his speeches
during the year were made, for the most part, outside
the walls of Parliament. In March he took the chair
at a meeting of Old Etonians, who presented a
testimonial to their distinguished schoolfellow, Charles
Kean, the eminent actor, and spoke of the great moral
influence which Kean's representation of Shakespearian
characters had exercised. In April he delivered, at
Manchester, an appreciative eulogy of the Prince
Consort, who had died at the end of the previous year.
A less fortunate utterance, in some respects the most
unfortunate of his life, occurred in a speech at New
castle on October 7. He then said that Jefferson
Davis, leader of the Confederate Eebellion, had made
an army, had made a navy, and, what was more, had
made a nation. He also expressed his opinion that
the reunion of the North and the South, as a result of
the war, was impossible. These views were held at
the time by the vast majority of the upper and middle
classes in England, though the working classes, who
suffered most by the war, never subscribed to them.
The prophecy, however mistaken, was repeated in even
stronger terms by both Lord EusseU and Lord Derby
in the following year. It has to be remembered that
the war was not ostensibly begun for the extinction of
slavery, but for the maintenance of the Union, and that

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 83
even Lincoln declared himself at the outset to be no
abolitionist. But it was against slavery that the
troops of the North reaUy fought ; and in 1867 Glad
stone had the manhness to avow that he had entirely
misunderstood the real nature of the struggle.
On April 15, 1863, Gladstone, for the first time,
supported the Burials BiU, then in the hands of Sir
Morton Peto, which proposed to give Dissenters the
right of being buried with their ovtu ceremonies in the
parish churchyards. But the BiU was rejected by 221
votes against 96 ; and it was seventeen years before this
reform was carried. The next day, AprU 16, Gladstone
brought in his annual Budget. There was a large
surplus, notvsdthstanding the cotton famine in Lanca
shire, which had become terribly severe, and the great
distress in Ireland caused by the failure of crops. The
price of cotton had risen during the war from 6d. to 2s.
a pound, and our trade with America suffered heavily in
consequence. The benefits of the Commercial Treaty
VTith France were now for the first time fully seen,
and the enormous increase in Anglo-French trade
made up for the loss in the Anglo-American. Gladstone
was enabled to take 2d. off the Income Tax, reducing it
from 9d. to Id. in the pound ; he also raised the limit
of partial exemption from incomes of 150?. to incomes
of 200?. a year, and he abolished the penny a packet
duty on registration, which he had himself imposed in
G 2

84 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
1860, but which had proved a failure ; he also lowered
the Tea Duty from Is. 5d. to Is. So far the Budget
encountered no opposition, though a proposal to Hcence
clubs was withdrawn. But another proposal, to remove
the exemption from Income Tax enjoyed by charitable
endovsTnents, excited a furious controversy. On May 4,
Gladstone received the largest deputation which had
ever waited on a Minister, and which came to protest
against this change. It was headed by the Duke of
Cambridge, and attended by both the Archbishops, as
well as by many other bishops, clergymen, and philan
thropic laymen. Gladstone declined to argue the
matter with them, and reserved what he had to say for
the House of Commons the same evening. Upon that
occasion he dehvered what has been described by com
petent judges as the most convincing piece of abstract
argument ever addressed to a legislative assembly. He
pointed out that the exemption was not really given to
charities, but to charitable bequests, which, as they did
not take effect tiU after the death of the testator, were
not real charity at all. Every penny given by a man
to charitable objects in his lifetime, though it might
involve not only generosity but privation, was taxed to
the uttermost. He asked whether it was right and just
that Parhament should not merely allow perfect
freedom of bequest, but should speciaUy favour wills
which might endow a charitable institution and leave

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 85
the testator's family to starve. He showed that, while
endowed hospitals were favoured, unendowed hospitals
received no indulgence ; he contrasted Christ's Hospital,
which received under this exemption a large sum, and
King's CoUege, which received nothing ; he gave an
appaUing Hst of charitable endowments which had
been proved by Eoyal Commissions to be actively
mischievous ; he asserted that an exemption from a
tax was a grant of pubhc money, and he denied the
moral right of Parhament to grant money vTithout
retaining control of it. No serious attempt was made^
or ever has been made, to answer this speech. But it
had absolutely no effect upon the House ; no indepen
dent member on either side supported the ChanceUor of
the Exchequer. The Govemment declined to make it
a question of confidence, and the proposal was vyith-
drawn. On July 2, Gladstone, speaking this time vyith the
full authority of the Govemment and supported by
Mr. Disraeh, suffered an overwhelming defeat. His pro
posal to purchase the buUdings used for the Exhibition
of 1862, for 105,000?., was rejected by 287 votes against
121. It was apparently regarded as a Court job. In
the course of this year Gladstone brought out, with
Lord Lyttelton, a joint volume of translations. Glad
stone's were from Greek, Latin, Itahan, and German,
into Enghsh, as well as from Enghsh into Greek and

86 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
Latin. In the latter accomplishment, however, he was
far inferior to Lord Lyttelton. The best of his classical
translations is from the battle-piece in the fourth book
of the 'Iliad,' with the famous simile of the waves
breaking on the beach. But the best in the whole
book is his spirited rendering into English of Manzoni's
ode on the death of Napoleon. The most popular, or
at least the best known, is the version, in rhyming
Latin, of Toplady's famous hymn ' Eock of Ages.'
The Budget of 1864 was introduced on April 7;
the surplus was two millions and a half. With this
Gladstone reduced the sugar duties by a sum of
1,700,000?., and further lowered the Income Tax from
Id. to 6c?. He also made a small concession to the
agricultural interest— for which he got no thanks — by
exempting from duty malt employed in feeding cattle.
The principal measure of the year, besides the Budget,
was a BUl for providing Government annuities and
Government insurance through the Post Office Savings
Banks. The Bill was severely criticised ; but Gladstone
saved it by consenting to lay it before a Select Com
mittee, which reported favourably upon it, and it passed
into law without further difficulty.
The subject of Schleswig-Holstein was brought
before Parhament by Mr. Disraeh on July 4. By a treaty
of 1852, England, France, and Eussia were pledged to
protect the integrity of the Danish Kingdom as it stood

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 87
at the accession of King Christian. Austria and Prussia
had, however, occupied the Duchies on the ground that
they were not Danish but Grerman. Lord Malmesbury
carried in the House of Lords, by nine votes, a motion
censuring the Govemment for not fulfiUing its pledge
under the treaty. Mr. Disraeh, whUe criticising the
pohcy of the Grovemment with great severity, stopped
short of saying that they ought to have gone to wax
without France and Eussia, who had refused to inter
fere. This was the mainstay to Gladstone's argument
in defence of the Cabinet. He contended that the
habihty was joint and not several, so that it ceased
with the refusal of the other Powers to act. The
motion was lost by a majority of eighteen, and the
result greatly strengthened Lord Palmerston's Grovem
ment. But Gladstone's most important speech this year
had been made at an earher date. On Wednesday
afternoon, May 11, Mr. Barnes, afterwards Sir Edward
Baines, moved the second reading of his Eeform BiU,
which lowered the franchise from 101. to 6Z. Since
the removal of Lord EusseU from the House of Com
mons the Grovemment had done nothing in the direction
of Parhamentary Eeform. But on this occasion, in Lord
Palmerston's absence, Gladstone gave Mr. Baines's
BUl his powerful support. This was the most frankly
democratic speech he had yet made. He pointed out

88 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
that only one-fiftieth of the working classes had votes.
He claimed the right of every man, not disquaHfied, to
come within the pale of the Constitution, and he stated
that the burden of proof rested with those who denied
any man's right to vote. He implored the House not
to wait for agitation before they widened the suffrage,
and he appealed to the fortitude of the operatives in
the Lancashire famine as a proof that they were
eminently qualified to discharge all the duties of
citizens. The ultimate effect of this spirited declara
tion was immense ; but it had little or no influence on
the division, and the House refused, by 272 votes
against 56, to read the Bill a second time.
On March 28, 1865, Mr. Dillwyn, Liberal member
for Swansea, asked the House of Commons to declare
that the position of the Irish Church was unsatisfactory,
and demanded the early attention of the Government.
Gladstone declined on behalf of the Cabinet to accept
the motion. But he did so only on the ground that it
was inopportune. He fully admitted that the Irish
Church was what Mr. Dillwyn described it. Establish
ments, he said, were meant for the whole nation, but
barely one-eighth of the Irish ' people belonged to the
Established Church. As a missionary Church she had
been a failure, for the proportion of Irish Protestants
to Irish Catholics was far smaller in the nineteenth
century than in the sixteenth. But the Government

GLADSTONIAN FINANCE 89
were not at that moment prepared to say what should
be done. The great difficulty was the disposal of the
endovraaents, which the Eoman Catholics had no
desire to share. The motion came to nothing, for the
debate was adjourned and never resumed. But it was
the beginning of the end.
On AprU 27, Gladstone introduced his Budget, and
triumphantly pointed to a considerable decrease in the
national expenditure. Eevievdng the commercial legis
lation of that long Parhament, he paid once more an
eloquent tribute to the pubhc services of Mr. Cobden,
which derived a melancholy interest from Cobden's
death a few weeks before. He announced a surplus of
four miUions, vrith which he lowered the duty on tea
from Is. to 6d. in the pound, and the Income Tax
from 6d. to 4cZ., which he declared to be its proper
rate in time of peace. The question whether it should
be retained at all he left to the new Parliament. He
reduced the tax on fire insurance by one-half, not
vpillingly, but of necessity, having been previously
defeatedin the House when he resisted Mr. Sheridan's
proposal for its reduction. On the other hand, he
refused, in spite of a subsequent defeat, to abolish the
duty on the certificates of attorneys and solicitors.
On June 14, Mr. Goschen moved the second reading of
a Bill removing theological tests for University degrees.
Gladstone opposed the Bill in a speech which gave great

90 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
offence to many of his Liberal admirers. He said that
he would be no party to separating knowledge from
rehgion, and he praised the wisdom of the denomi
national system. The academic Liberals complained
that their leader had turned round and fired in their
faces.

91

CHAPTEE IX
UNMUZZLED
On July 6 Parhament was prorogued, and, having
lasted six years, was immediately afterwards dissolved.
The result of the General Election, which excited Httle
interest, was the return of 367 Liberals and 290 Con
servatives. This was a Liberal gain of forty-eight votes
on a division. The chief Liberal victories were in
Ireland, where the CathoHcs heid been greatly incensed
at an attack made upon them by Lord Derby in the
House of Lords. But the chief event of the elections
was Gladstone's defeat at Oxford. The nomination
took place on July 13, and the poU, under an Act
passed the year before, lasted for five days. The same
Act also aUowed, for the first time, the use of voting
papers, which could be sent by post, and thus, by in
creasing the practical power of the non-residents, con
tributed to Gladstone's defeat. His Tory coUeague,
Sir WiUiam Heathcote, was virtually unopposed. But
the Tories ran a second candidate, Mr. Gathome Hardy,
afterwards Earl of Cranbrook. On July 18 the numbers
were declared as foUows : Heathcote, 3,236 ; Hardy,

92 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
1,904 ; Gladstone, 1,724 ; being a majority for Hardy
over Gladstone of 180. Gladstone had a majority
among the resident members of the University, and
even among the heads of houses. Of the professors,
twenty-four voted for him, and only ten against him.
Bishop Wilberforce used all his influence in support of
his old friend, who received the suffrages, not only of
Jowett and Pattison, but of Keble andPusey. On Julyl7,
the day before the declaration of the poll at Oxford,
Gladstone had been nominated for South Lancashire.
On the 18th he wrote a dignified farewell to the
University, and on the same day arrived at Manchester,
where he addressed a crowded meeting in the Free
Trade Hall. Borrowing a word which Lord Derby
had appHed to the Catholics, and which had become
notorious, he described himself as 'unmuzzled,' and
intimated that a serious check to his Liberal develop
ment had been taken away. There was, however,
another which was soon to follow it. On October 18,
full of years and honours, Lord Palmerston died.
Gladstone, who had on July 29 been returned for
South Lancashire below two Conservatives, at once
wrote to Lord EusseU and offered, in the event of the
Queen sending for the Earl, to continue in office as
Chancellor of the Exchequer, with or without the lead
of the House of Commons. The Queen did send for
Lord EusseU ; he became Prime Minister, and requested

UNMUZZLED 93
Gladstone to lead the House in his present office. The
relations between Gladstone and EusseU were ex
tremely cordial, whereas Palmerston had more than
once written to the Queen about his ChanceUor of the
Exchequer in terms of sarcastic censure, which would
have been unusuaUy strong if apphed to a pohtical
opponent. The principal duty of the new Parhament, after sus
pending the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland to provide
against the first appearance of Fenianism, and passing
a BiU to authorise the compulsory slaughter of cattle as
a protection against the rinderpest, was to deal with
Eeform. On March 1 2, Gladstone introduced the Eeform
BiU in the House of Commons. The BUl reduced the
franchise in counties from a property quahfication of
50i. to one of 10?. and the borough franchise from lOZ.
to 7?. It gave votes to compound householders, whose
rates were nominally paid by the landlords, and to every
man who, for two years, had had 50?. in a savings bank.
It also disfranchised the labourers in Govemment dock
yards. A vehement opposition to the BiU was at once
declared from the Liberal as weU as the Conservative
side of the House. The most eloquent and powerful
of its Liberal opponents was Mr. Lowe, afterwards
Viscount Sherbrooke, whose speeches against h were
among the most pohshed and pointed ever dehvered in
Parhament. Mr. Bright, in language which has become

94 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
a permanent part of the political vocabulary, compared
Lowe and his friends vyith the company of the dis
appointed and discontented whom David gathered into
the Cave of AduUam. Lord Grosvenor, afterwards
Duke of Westminster, one of the AduUamites, gave
notice to move, on the second reading, that the House
would decline to proceed with the Bill without having
a scheme of redistribution before it ; and Lord Stanley,
afterwards Earl of Derby, was announced as his
seconder. The second reading was postponed till after
Easter, and during the recess, on April 6, Gladstone
made an important speech at a Liberal dinner in Liver
pool. After deploring the fact that two leading mem
bers of the aristocracy had combined to defeat Eeform,
he emphatically declared that in no circumstances
woiUd the BiU be withdrawn. ' We have,' he said,
' crossed the Eubicon, broken the bridge, and burned
the boats behind us.' On AprU 12 he moved the
second reading, and took occasion to point out that the
working classes, who had less share in the representa
tion than they enjoyed before the great Eeform Act, paid
five-twelfths of the taxes. He ridiculed the idea that
they would all vote together as a class, and no pre- -
diction has ever been more amply fulfiUed. The debate
lasted for eight nights, and closed with a reply from
Gladstone, which is generally considered to be the
highest flight that his eloquence ever reached. Eising

UNItTUZZLED 95
at one in the morning, he reviewed the whole course of
the debate, directing himself more especiaUy to the
arguments of Mr. Lowe. His speech was a master
piece of classical eloquence, freely adorned and Ulus-
trated by those rich Viigihan hexameters with which,
like Mr. Lowe, he dehghted to season his Parhamentary
oratory. On this occasion he went as far as Aristo
phanes, quoting in English, with reference to the
AduUamit^, the great comedians famous description
of • depraved and crooked httle men.' Contrasting
him.self with Lord EusseU, a life-long Eeformer, he
admitted the tardiness of his own conversion, and
thanked the Liberal party for accepting him as leader.
ffis ^eech was, in fact, far too great for the BiU. But
he concluded with a prophecy, fulfiUed more speedfly
than even he could have anticipated, that time was on
his side; that the great social forces, which the tumult of
debate couldneither impede nor disturb, werefightingfor
him, and would end in a certain if not distant victory.
As soon as he sat down the House divided, and Lord
Grosvenor's amendment was rejected by a baremaJQEity
of five. A scene of wfld enthusiasni foUowed, in which
Mr. Lowe and his friends stood up and cheered them
selves hoarse. Their triumph was to be greater stiU
but it was not to last long.
Before the House went into Committee on the Bill,
and amidst a fever of pubhc excitement out of doors.

96 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
Gladstone, on May 3, produced his Budget. The surplus
was nearly a mUHon and a half. With it he repealed the
duty on timber, and the Pepper Duty, and reduced the
duty on bottled wine to the same level as that on wine
in casks. He also lowered the tax on cabs and omni
buses from a penny to a farthing a mile. He announced
that commercial treaties, on the model of the Treaty
with France, had been concluded with Belgium, vdth the
German Zollverein, and vrith Austria. He then turned
to the subject of the National Debt, and pleaded
earnestly for the importance of making a more serious
effort towards paying it off. Eeferring to Sir Eoderick
Murchison, Dr. Percy, Mr. Stanley Jevons, and other
scientific authorities, he warned the country that the
supply of coal would probably be exhausted in a hundred
years, and that the consequent diminution of productive
power would be enormous. This prediction, though
supported in debate by Mr. Mill, was generaUy regarded
as fantastic. But it was revived many years afterwards
by Mr. Jevons, and it cannot be said to have ever been
refuted. He then propounded a scheme by which,
beginning with a sum of half a million a year, debt to
the amount of fifty millions would have been extin
guished by 1905. But he did not remain in office long
enough to carry this plan into effect. On May 7, Glad
stone fulfilled his promise to the House by bringing in
a Eedistribution BiU. By grouping the small boroughs

UNMUZZLED 97
and taking away one member each from several of them,
he obtained forty-nine seats, which, without altering the
number of the House, he distributed among the larger
towns, the more populous divisions of counties, Scot
land, and the University of London. On May 14 the
Bill was unanimously read a second time.
On the 28th, which had been fixed for the Committee
of the Eeform Bill, the serious troubles of the Govern
ment began. Sir Eainald Knightley, afterwards Lord
Knightley, carried against Ministers, by a majority of ten,
an instruction to include in the Bill provisions for dealing
with bribery. Captain Hayter, afterwards Sir Arthur
Hayter, then moved an amendment against the system
of grouping in the Eedistribution BiU, which had been
referred to the same Committee as the Eeform Bill ;
but Gladstone, after a protest against obstruction,
declared that he did not regard the principle of
grouping as vital, and the amendment was not pressed.
Then came the tug of war. Lord Dunkellin, an inmate
of the Cave, moved in Committee to substitute
rating for rental as a qualification for the franchise.
Gladstone opposed this on the double ground that
it would give the assessors of rates control over the
suffrage, and that it would much diminish the number
of new voters. But on June 18 the amendment was
carried by a majority of eleven, and on the 19th
Lord Eussell's Govemment resigned. The Queen was
h

98 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
unvdlling to accept their resignation, first because she
regarded the question on which they had been defeated
as one of detail, and, secondly, because foreign politics
were disturbed by the imminence of war between
Austria and Prussia. Ministers, however, succeeded in
overcoming her Majesty's scruples, and, on June 26,
Gladstone defended in the House of Commons the
course which they had taken. His reasons were mainly
two. He said that the only alternative to resignation
was the frank acceptance of the amendment, and that
the Cabinet had entirely failed to find any practicable
means of carrying it out. He further stated that the
measure, as originaUy drawn, was smaller than the
Bill of 1860, and that the Government could not con
sent to any further diminution of it. The Queen sent
for Lord Derby, who became, for the third time. Prime
Minister, with Mr. Disraeli once more Chancellor of the
Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, the popular enthusiasm for Eeform
had become intense. On June 27, 10,000 Londoners
assembled in Trafalgar Square and marched in pro
cession to Gladstone's house. Gladstone himself was
not at home, but Mrs. Gladstone, in response to
calls, appeared on the balcony, and there was tumul
tuous cheering. On July 23 a great procession of
Eeformers marched to Hyde Park. The police, by
direction from the Home Office, closed the gates and

UNMUZZLED 99
endeavoured to exclude them. But the crowd broke
down the railings and entered the park in triumph.
Both Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, having taken office,
calmly declared that they had never been opposed to
the principle of Eeform, and that they had just as good
a right to deal with it as their political opponents.
Gladstone replied, at Salisbury, by saying that he would
give an impartial consideration to any plan they might
propose. Little surprise was therefore felt when a
paragraph in the Queen's Speech for 1867 announced
another Eeform Bill. But there was some laughter
when, on February 11, Mr. Disraeli expressed the
opinion that Eeform should no longer be allowed to
determine the fate of Cabinets. He added that, by way
of taking the House of Commons into their confidence,
the Govemment would propose resolutions which might
be freely discussed before introducing a Bill. The
resolutions themselves were colourless, and did not
satisfy the public curiosity. But, on Febraary 25,
Disraeli announced that he should propose four kinds
of franchise. The first was educational, giving votes to graduates
and members of the learned professions ; the second
took the possession of 30?. in a savings bank for a
year as the title to a vote ; the third gave the
franchise to every one who had 50?. in the public
funds ; and the fourth, to everyone who paid 20s. of
H 2

100 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
direct taxes. There was to be a 6?. rating franchise in
the boroughs, and a 20?. franchise in counties. There
was to be machinery for punishing cases of bribery,
and corrupt boroughs were to be disfranchised and the
seats given to other towns, with the University of
London. Gladstone complained that this plan would
not give the suffrage to more than half as many persons
as his own measure which had just been defeated.
On February 26 there was a Liberal meeting at
Gladstone's house, and it was decided that Gladstone
should demand a BiU in place of the resolutions. But
the same night the Government gave way on this
point, and a Bill was promised for March 18. On
the 4th were announced the resignations of Lord Car
narvon, Lord Cranborne (formerly Lord Eobert Cecil),
and General Peel. On tbe 18th, Disraeli introduced
the Bill, which explained the resignations. Every rate-
paying householder was now to have a vote. But this,
as soon appeared, was a very different thing from house
hold suffrage. The educational franchise was preserved,
with the qualifications of the savings bank and the fuuds.
So was the 1?. of direct taxes, but it was specified
that these were not to include licences. This was to
meet a remark of Mr. Bright's, that the clause would
enfranchise a rat-catcher who kept four dogs. Dual
voting was introduced, two votes being given to every
householder whose direct taxes amounted to 1?. The

UNMUZZLED 101
franchise in connties was to be 15?., not 20?. The
redistribution, such as it was, was the same ; there were
to be voting-papers for lazy electors. This was the
famous 'ten minutes BUl,' as it was called, after the
very candid speech in which Sir John Pakington,
afterwards Lord Hampton, explained to his constituents
the desperate hurry in which it had been concocted.
Gladstone at once protested against the principle of
dual voting, and insisted upon votes being given to
lodgers as weU as to compound householders. On
March 25, Disraeli moved the second reading of the
BUl, and Gladstone took the opportunity of asking
what concessions the Government were prepared to
make in Committee. Disraeh replied that he would
not be unreasonable, which was understood to mean
that he would be flexible, and the BUl was read a
second time without a division. But dual voting was
dropped so early as April 1.
On the 5 th there was another meeting at Glad
stone's house, when it was arranged that Mr. Coleridge,
afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England, shQuld move
an instruction to the Committee, which would have the
effect of enlarging the number of householders enfran
chised. But, in consequence of a protest made at what
was caUed the ' Tea-room meeting,' part of this instruc
tion was dropped, and Mr. Coleridge only moved that
the Committee should have power to deal with rating.

102 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
This Disraeli accepted, and Gladstone thereupon
moved in the Committee that all householders should
have votes, whether their rates were paid for them or
not. This amendment was rejected by a majority of
twenty-one. The blow to Gladstone's authority, as
leader of the Opposition, was rather serious, and in
reply to a letter from one of his supporters, Mr. Craw
ford, member for the City, he intimated that he should
not move his other amendments. But during the
Easter recess a number of meetings were held to
demand a thorough-going reform, and on May 2 the
process of enlarging the Bill was begun. Mr. Ayrton
carried, by a majority of eighty-one, an amendment
reducing the period of qualification from two years to
twelve months. Mr. Torrens moved to enfranchise all
lodgers, and the Government agreed to enfranchise all
whose rooms were worth 10?. a year unfurnished. Mr.
Hodgkinson moved, Gladstone supported, and Disraeli
accepted an amendment which enfranchised all house
holders by the simple, but, as it proved, highly in
convenient, process of abolishing the system under
which a landlord was permitted to compound for the
rates of his small tenants. This was the principle of
Gladstone's rejected amendment in another form. The
county franchise was further lowered from 15?. to 12?., the
educational franchise was given up, and the investment
franchise followed it. Mr. Laing carried, by fifty-seven

UNMUZZLED 103
votes, a scheme of redistribution more thorough than
the Government's, and Mr. Torrens succeeded in getting
rid of voting by papers. Lord Cranborne, in an incisive
speech, pointed out that the Bill, as it left the House
of Commons, was not Disraeli's but Gladstone's.
Gladstone, he said, had demanded and obtained, first,
the lodger franchise ; secondly, the abolition of distinc
tion between compounders and non-compounders ;
thirdly, a provision to prevent traffic in votes ; fourthly,
the omission of the taxing franchise ; fifthly, the
omission of the dual vote ; sixthly, the enlargement of
the distribution of seats ; seventhly, the reduction of
the county franchise ; eighthly, the omission of voting-
papers; ninthly and tenthly, the omission of the
educational and savings bank franchises. Mr. Mill
observed that when Disraeli told the working classes that
he had given them the vote, they replied, ' Thank you,
Mr. Gladstone ; ' and when the Bill reached the House
of Lords, where it was very little altered, the Duke of
Buccleuch declared that the only part of it due to her
Majesty's Government was the introductory word
' Whereas.' On November 19, Parliament met for an Autumn
Session to vote supplies for the Abyssinian Expedition.
Gladstone admitted that there was a good cause for
war, but protested against territorial aggrandisement
and the assumption of new political responsibilities.

104 LIFB OP W. B. GLADSTONE
He did not object to the extra penny on the Income
Tax to pay for the expedition, but when the tax was
further raised from 5c?. to 6c?. he strongly condemned
the extravagance of the Government. The session
was continued over Christmas by adjournment ; and on
February 19, 1868, Gladstone moved the second reading
of a Bill to abolish compulsory Church rates. It was read
a second time without a division, passed the House of
Lords, and became law, thus putting an end to a very
long and very obstinate dispute. On February 26
Lord Derby resigned, from failing health, and the most
brilliant of political adventurers became Prime Minister
of England. But Disraeli had to govern as best he
could with a minority, and he was constantly defeated
in the House of Commons. On the Scottish Eeform
Bill, Mr. Baxter, supported by Gladstone, carried an
amendment which saved the members of the House
from being increased, and provided for the disfranchise
ment of more smaU boroughs in England ; and Mr,
Bouverie succeeded in omitting the payment of rates
as a condition of the franchise in Scotland. But more
important victories of the Liberal party were at hand.

105

CHAPTEE X
THE IRISH church
On March 16, an Irish member, Mr. Maguire, moved
that the House should go into Committee to consider
the state of Ireland. The debate lasted for four nights,
and on the fourth night Gladstone expressed the
opinion that the Irish Church as a State Church must
cease to exist. This declaration produced immense
excitement, and Mr. Maguire, more than satisfied,
vrithdrew his motion. On the 23rd, Gladstone gave
notice of three resolutions, declaring that the Church
of Ireland should be disestablished and disendowed,
and the exercise of pubhc patronage in it at once sus
pended to avoid the creation of new vested interests.
Instead of meeting these resolutions with a direct
negative, or with the previous question. Lord Stanley,
on behalf of Ministers, merely proposed an amendment
that the subject should be left for the new Parliament
to deal with. On March 30, Gladstone moved that
the House should go into Committee on his resolutions,
and in his speech explained his own personal attitude.
He had never, he said, since 1846 adhered to the

106 LIFB OP W. E. GLADSTONE
principle of the Irish Estabhshment, and it was his
refusal to do so in the debate on Mr. DiUwyn's motion
that lost him his seat for Oxford. He explained that
his policy was to pass only a suspensory Bill in that
Parliament, leaving the whole question of disestablish
ment and disendowment to be decided by the next.
After a long debate, and a reply from Gladstone, in
which he pointed out that concurrent endowment was
too late. Lord Stanley's amendment was rejected by
a majority of sixty ; and by a majority of fifty-six the
House determined to go into Committee on the resolu
tions. There was, by this time, a great deal of interest
out of doors, and meetings on both sides were held
during the Easter recess. At one of them, in St.
James's HaU, Lord Eussell, who had retired from the
leadership of the Liberal Party the previous Christmas,
presided, and spoke strongly in favour of Irish dis
establishment, adding an eloquent eulogy of Gladstone
as his successor.
On April 27, Gladstone moved his first resolution in
favour of disestablishment, and argued that, so far as
the Church of England was concerned, a bad estabhsh
ment did not strengthen, but weakened, a good one.
After three nights' debate the resolution was carried
by a majority of sixty-five, and Disraeli asked for
time to reconsider the position of the Government.
On May 4 he made a rather obscure statement in

THE lEISH CHUECH 107
the House of Commons, which was understood to
mean that he had offered the Queen the alternative
of dissolving Parliament in the autumn or of accept
ing his resignation. Her Majesty had refused the
resignation, but had given her assent to an autumn
dissolution. Strong protests were made, especially by
Mr. Bright, against bringing in the Queen's name and
implying that she had expressed an opinion as between
two policies suggested by her Minister. Gladstone
also strenuously objected to holding a dissolution over
the House as a menace, and threatening that if it
voted against the Government again it would be forth-
vrith dissolved. His remaining resolutions were adopted
without a division, and, in reply to the third, her
Majesty assented to placing her own patronage in the
Irish Church at the disposal of Parliament. On May
23, Gladstone moved the reading of the suspensory
Bill, explaining that with disestablishment the May
nooth grant to the Catholics and the Begium donum,
to the Presbyterians would cease. The second reading
was carried by a majority of fifty-four. But in the
House of Lords, where Lord Carnarvon supported it,
and Lord Salisbury, who had recently succeeded his
father, opposed it, it was rejected by ninety-five.
Parliament was prorogued on July 31, and dissolved
on November 11, the registration having been acce
lerated by statute so as to enable the new electors to

108 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
vote. The great question before the country was the
disestablishment of the Irish Church, and the popular
verdict, the first taken under household suffrage, was
decisive, the Liberal majority being 115. Disraeli,
making a new and sensible precedent, resigned without
meeting the new Parliament, and, on December 4,
Gladstone was summoned to Windsor. He had been
defeated in South-west Lancashire by Mr. Cross,
afterwards Lord Cross, but elected at the same time
for Greenwich. By December 9 his Government was
complete. The Cave had been broken up by the Con
servative Eeform Bill, and Mr. Lowe, who eagerly
supported the disestablishment of the .Irish Church,
became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Bright,
who had refused the India Office, entered a Cabinet
and a Government for the first time as President of
the Board of Trade. Lord Eussell refused a seat in
the Cabinet without office, and Sir George Grey de
clined to join the new Administration. Sir Eoundell
Palmer refused the woolsack because he objected to
the disendowment, though not to the disestablishment,
of the Church in Ireland. The new Chancellor was Sir
William Page Wood, now created Lord Hatherley.
The Government was, on the whole, a remarkably
strong one, and Gladstone was especially fortunate in
securing for the War Office the services of Mr. Card-
well, afterwards Lord Cardwell, who was probably,

THE lEISH CHUECH 109
with the exception of Sir James Graham and himself,
the ablest of aU the administrators trained tmder Sir
Eobert Peel. Gladstone's eldest son, William Henry,
member for Whitby, and afterwards for East Worcester
shire, became a Junior Lord of the Treasury. Mr.
W. H. Gladstone died before his father, in 1891.

110 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XI
PRIME MINISTER
The life of a Prime Minister is the history of
England, and the history of England cannot be told
here. An attempt must be made to separate and
distinguish those measures and acts of policy with
which Gladstone, whether in office or in opposition,
was directly and personally concerned. The chief
business of the session of 1869, the Disestablishment
of the Irish Church, was emphatically his own.
Parhament met on February 16, and on March 1
Gladstone introduced the Irish Church BUl in a
speech which, by the admission of Mr. Disraeli, did
not contain a superfluous word. The Bill provided
for the immediate disendowment of the Church, and
for its disestablishment as from January 1, 1871.
The Church was hereafter to govern itself, and the
governing body was to be incorporated. There was to
be full compensation for vested interests, but the Irish
bishops were to lose at once the few seats which they
held by rotation in the House of Lords. The Church
was to retain all private endowments bestowed since

PEIME MINISTEE 111
the year 1660. The Maynooth grant to Catholics
and the Begium donum to Presbyterians were to
be commuted. The tenants of Church lands were to
have the right of pre-emption. This clause, due to 'Mr.
Bright and knovrai by his name, was the origin of the
many Land Purchase Acts which have since been passed
for Ireland. The funds of the Church were not to be
used for any ecclesiastical purpose, but for the relief
of tmavoidable calamity and suffering. This was
the only part of the Bill which underwent any
serious alteration in Parliament. The second reading
was flxed for March 18, when Mr. Disraeli moved
its rejection. It was carried by a majority of 118, and
passed easUy through Committee. On May 31 it was
read a third time, by a majority of 114, and sent to the
House of Lords. The Conservative majority of that
House were divided in opinion. Lord Cairns, the
titular leader, and a strong Irish Protestant, was for
rejecting the Bill. But Lord Salisbury and Lord Car
narvon supported the- second reading, on the ground
that the question had been directly decided by the
constituencies of the United Kingdom. After a long
and eloquent debate — in which the best speeches, except,
perhaps, the swan-song of Lord Derby, were made by
Bishop Magee against the BUl, and by Bishop Thirl
wall in its favour — the second reading was carried by
thirty-three votes. Great changes were, however, made

112 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
in Committee ; with almost all of these the House of
Commons, by large majorities, refused to agree. For
some time there was serious danger that the Bill
would be lost. But Lord Cairns, having done his best
to defeat the Bill and failed, set himself with great
ability to obtain the most favourable terms he could
get from a Government too strong to be resisted.
The Queen also, through Archbishop Tait, intervened
on behalf of a peaceful settlement. The result,
however, was that the Bill passed substantially as
it left the Commons, with one most important
exception. By an amendment, which Lord Cairns
moved, and which the Government ultimately accepted,
the funds of the Church were applied, not to the
exclusive relief of suffering, but to such purposes as
Parliament might direct. As a matter of fact, they
have scarcely ever been employed in the relief of
suffering at all ; but they have played a most valuable
part in the development of Irish agriculture and
industry. Thus altered, the Bill received the Eoyal
Assent on July 26.
In the autumn of this year Gladstone excited the
bitter resentment of orthodox Churchmen, with whom
he was himself in complete doctrinal agreement, by
appointing Dr. Temple, Head Master of Eugby, Bishop
of Exeter. Dr. Temple had contributed to the volume
called ' Essays and Eeviews,' which Convocation con-

PEIME MINISTEE 113
demned as heretical, though the only two essays which
were made the subject of proceedings in the Ecclesias
tical Courts had been pronounced by the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council to be harmless. The
protests made against this appointment were exceed
ingly violent, and some members of the Chapter
braved the penalties of praemunire by voting against
the nominee of the Crown. But Gladstone's best
justification is, that neither in 1885, when he himself
nominated Dr. Temple to the Bishopric of London,
nor in 1896, when Lord Sahsbury nominated him to
the Archbishopric of Canterbury, was the faintest
objection raised from any quarter whatever. Although
Gladstone afterwards made Dr. Fraser Bishop of
Manchester, and Dr. Bradley Dean of Westminster,
he gave the High Church Party at least their share
in the dignities and emoluments of the Church. In
1869 appeared ' Juventus Mundi,' prematurely called
by Mr. Lowe ' Senectus Gladstoni,' which partly
summarised and partly developed Gladstone's larger
treatise on Homer, published eleven years before.
The session of 1870 was partially, as the session of
1869 had been wholly, an Irish one. On February 15
Gladstone introduced his first Irish Land Bill, a mild
and moderate measure, founded on the report of the
Devon Commission, which had been issued five and
twenty years before. The BiU gave legal effect to the

114 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Ulster custom, in other words, to tenant-right in the
northern counties of Ireland, and, under conditions,
to other similar customs elsewhere. It gave the
tenant compensation for disturbance, if he had been
evicted for any other reason than not paying his rent.
It also gave him compensation for improvements, and
reversed in his favour the old presumption that they
had been made by the landlord. It authorised the
issue of loans from the Treasury for enabling the
tenants to purchase their holdings, thus carrying a step
further the policy of the Bright clauses. The second
reading was not seriously opposed, and only eleven
members were found to vote against it. The Lords
altered it a good deal in Committee ; but they aban
doned most of their amendments on report, and the Bill
passed substantially as it was brought in. With the
great Education Bill of this year, which established
School Boards and compulsory attendance throughout
the country, Gladstone had little to do. He left it
almost entirely to Mr. Forster, though he occasionally
made concessions to the Church, which seriously
offended Dissenters. He was, in truth, a Denomi-
nationalist, and had no sympathy with the unsectarian
teaching of religion given in Board Schools.
The great event of 1870 was the war between
Prussia and France. The British Government pre
served a strict neutrality. But when the Draft Treaty

PEIME MINISTEE 115
between Count Bismarck and Monsieur Benedetti was
published in the ' Times,' on July 25, ten days after
the outbreak of the war, Gladstone and Lord Granville,
who had just succeeded Lord Clarendon as Foreign
Secretary, entered into negotiations with both the
belhgereiiJi>p«we]iaJor maintaining the independenceof
Belgitmirs The Draft Treaty, a scandalous document,
communicated to the ' Times ' by Bismarck himself,
purported to assure France of Prussia's aid in the con
quest of Belgium, whose neutrality had been under a
-joint European guarantee since 1839 j On"llLUgust 9
and 11, respectivSlyrEussmanB~France both pledged
themselves to England that this neutrality should be
respected, as, in the result, it was. But the only step
which the Government asked the House of Commons
to take was an increase of the Army Estimates by two
miUions sterHng and 20,000 men. In October of this
year Gladstone took what was for a Prime Minister
the singular course of contributing to the ' Edinburgh
Eeview ' an article on England, France, and Germany.
In it he freely criticised the conduct of both foreign
Powers, defended his own Government, and con
gratulated the country on being divided from the
complication of Continental politics by ' the streak of
silver sea which traveUers so often and so justly
execrate.' We know, on Gladstone's own authority,
that this was the only article written by him which he
I 2

116 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
intended to be, in fact as well as in form, anonymous.
But anonymity is difficult for Prime Ministers. The
authorship was disclosed by the ' Daily News ' on
November 5.
The administrative history of this year is important.
On August 31 all the public departments, except the
Foreign Office and the Education Office, were opened
to competition. At the same time the dual control of
the War Office and the Horse Guards was abolished ;
the Commander-in-Chief being for the first time
placed under the Secretary of State. Halfpenny post-'
cards were introduced, of which no one made more
lavish use than the Prime Minister himself. Just
before the end of the year Gladstone announced the
release of all the Fenian prisoners in English gaols on
the condition that they remained for the rest of their
lives outside the United Kingdom. The condition was
severely criticised, and it may be doubted whether the
discharged convicts would not have been less danger
ous to England in Ireland than they became in the
United States.
The year 1871 opened with the Black Sea Confer
ence, which met in London on January 17. It was
called to consider the clause in the Treaty of Paris
which provided for the neutrahsation of the Black Sea.
This the Czar announced his intention of repudiating.
Gladstone was accused of allowing Eussia to tear up

PEIME MINISTEE 117
the treaty, but, as a matter of fact. Lord Granville
declined to recognise the right claimed by Eussia, and
it was the Conference which put an end to a restric
tion which could not have been permanently enforced
against a Great Power.
The first and chief business of the session was the
Army Eegulation Bill, vvhich, among other things,
abolished the purchase of commissions in the Army.
The BiU was strenuously resisted by the military
members of the House, and 'the Colonels,' as they
were caUed, initiated the system of obstruction, which
was afterwards more artisticaUy developed by the Irish
members. In the House of Lords the Bill was met by
a dilatory motion demanding a more complete scheme
of Army Eeform. This, after a violent speech from
Lord Salisbury, was carried by a majority of twenty-five.
Two days afterwards Gladstone announced in the House
of Commons, in reply to Sir George Grey, that purchase
had been aboHshed by Eoyal Warrant, and would be
illegal after November 1. Thus the only result of the
Lords refusing to proceed with the Bill would be that
officers could not get the compensation which it pro
vided. In these circumstances the Bill passed. The
Lords consoled themselves with passing a vote of cen
sure on the Government, which had no effect at all.
Some Eadicals, however, represented by Mr. Fawcett,
denounced the use of the prerogative, even for pur-

118 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
poses of which they approved; while so moderate a
Liberal as Sir Eoundell Palmer, not then a member of
the Government, supported it as the only practicable
course. As a matter of strict law, the Queen did not
act on this occasion by virtue of her prerogative as the
head of the Army, but under the powers of a statute
passed in 1779.
This year Gladstone succeeded in passing the
University Tests Bill, which had long been before
Parliament, and which opened the prizes of the
Universities to men of all creeds. Speaking on the
Women's Suffrage BUl of Mr. Jacob Bright, Gladstone
made the rather surprising admission that he would
not object to women voting if the ballot were intro
duced. To this isolated expression of opinion he never
gave any practical effect. On the other hand, he made
a strong and uncompromising speech against Mr.
Miall's motion for the disestablishment of the Church
of England. In May of this year the Treaty of Washington
between England and the United States was signed.
The purport of it was to submit to arbitration the
claims of the American Government for damages
caused by the ' Alabama ' and other cruisers fitted
out at British ports during the Civil War. This
Commission was appointed by Gladstone, who put
at the head of it Earl de Grey, created, for his

PEIME MINISTEE 119
services. Marquis of Eipon; and included in it his
political opponent, though personal friend, Sir Stafford
Northcote. The Commissioners agreed upon three rules
which practically concluded the case against England,
so far as the ' Alabama ' was concerned, and which had
not previously been an undisputed part of international
law. But the treaty, though open to technical
criticism, was substantially just, and put an end to a
very dangerous state of feeling between the two kindred
nations. Gladstone and his Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley,
incurred much unpopularity by the appointment,
during the recess, of Sir Eobert Collier, afterwards
Lord Monkswell, to the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council. It was not denied that Sir Eobert
Collier, then Attorney-General, was a competent lawyer,
and, as a matter of fact, he made an excellent judge.
But the statute under which he was appointed provided
that a paid member of the Judicial Committee must be
or have been a judge of a superior court. Sir Eobert
Collier was accordingly made a Judge of the Common
Pleas for two days, that he might be technically
qualified. Chief Justice Cockburn and Chief Justice
Bovill vehemently protested against what they called
an evasion of the law ; but Mr. Justice Willes, a lawyer
of profound learning, maintained that nothing illegal
or irregtUar was done.

120 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Soon after Parliament rose Gladstone delivered,
at Aberdeen, a speech which was often used against
him in future years. Eeferring to the Irish demand
for Home Eule, which then came from only a small
section of the Irish people, he said that if given to
Ireland it must be given also to Scotland, and asked
if they were prepared to make themselves ridiculous
by disintegrating the great capital institutions of the
country. In October he met his constituents at
Greenwich, who were dissatisfied partly with his
neglect of their interests, and partly with the discharge
by the Government of labourers from the dockyards.
He spoke for two hours in the open air to an audience
estimated at 20,000. At first there was so much noise
and so much hostile demonstration that he could not
be heard. But in a few minutes he put the inter
rupters to silence, and at the close of his speech he
received a practically unanimous vote of confidence.
Both physically and intellectually this was one of his
greatest achievements.
When Parliament met in 1872, Sir Eobert CoUier's
case was brought before both Houses, and votes of
censure were moved. The motion was rejected in the
House of Commons by twenty-seven, and in the
House of Lords by two votes. Though the Lord
ChanceUor explained that two judges had refused the

PEIME MINISTEE 121
post, and Sir Eoundell Palmer supported the Govern
ment, the result was damaging to the Ministry and
especially to Gladstone himself. The bad effect was
increased by his appointment of Mr. Harvey to the
Eectory of Ewelme. The patronage of Ewelme was
in the Crovra, but it was a necessary qualification
of the incumbent that he should be a member of
Convocation at Oxford. Mr. Harvey was a graduate of
Cambridge, and was admitted to the Oxford Convoca
tion for the purpose of enabling him to take the living.
Gladstone argued in the House of Commons that he
had no control over the University, and that he was
not responsible for its admission of Mr. Harvey, whose
pohtics were the reverse of his own. But the two
transactions, taken together, produced the impression
that the Prime Minister was too much inclined to evade
the law. The chief measure of this session was the
Ballot BiU, which the Lords had rejected the previous
year, and which they now passed with an amendment
limiting its operation to the year 1880. Since that
date it has been annuaUy included without objection in
the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill.
But the most important event of the year was the
sitting of the Arbitrators at Geneva to determine the
' Alabama ' Claims. This was the first international
arbitration of serious importance. Its value as a pre-

122 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
cedent was inestimable, and it will always be associated
vdth Gladstone's name. The President of this great
court was Count Sclopis, an Italian jurist. The
British arbitrator was Chief Justice Cockburn, and the
leading counsel for this country was Sir Eoundell
Palmer. A preliminary difficulty almost proved
fatal to the arbitration. The Cabinet of President
Grant put forward extravagant proposals of compen
sation for incidents alleged to arise out of privateering,
which the British Government declined to recognise.
For some days there was a serious deadlock. But at
last the indirect claims, as they were called, were with
drawn at the voluntary suggestion of the arbitrators, and
the case proceeded. The United States had demanded
a sum exceeding nine millions sterling. The majority
of the arbitrators awarded them three millions and a
quarter, in respect of losses inflicted by the ' Alabama,'
the ' Florida,' and the ' Shenandoah.' Chief Justice
Cockburn, in an elaborate judgment, dissented from
this award, holding that England was liable for the
' Alabama ' only. But he earnestly recommended that
the decision of his colleagues should be accepted, and
the money was paid.
In the autumn of this year the Government received
a great accession of strength by the appointment of
Sir Eoundell Palmer to be Lord Chancellor, with the
title of Lord Selborne, in the room of Lord Hatherley,

PEIME MINISTEE 123
who retired on account of iU-health. Gladstone's
principal utterance outside Parliament was a powerful
and eloquent address to the students of Liverpool
CoUege, in which he combated the sceptical theories of
the time as embodied in Dr. Strauss's recent volume,
' The Old Faith and the New.'

124 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XII
THE CONSERVATIVE REACTION
In 1873, Gladstone proceeded to deal with the third
branch of the Irish Question, and on February 13, in
an exhaustive speech of three hours, produced his Irish
University Bill. The difficulty, which remains a
difficulty still, was that the Irish Catholics, with few
exceptions, refused to let their sons matriculate at the
Protestant University of Dublin. The Bill proposed to
meet their scruples by forming a new university, of which
Trinity College should be the centre, but which would
contain also other affiliated colleges. The expenses of
this university would be defrayed by annual grants of
12,000?. from Trinity College and 10,000?. from the
Consolidated Fund. The first Council or governing
body was to be appointed by Parliament, but vacancies
in it were to be filled by the Crovm. There were to be
no religious tests, but, on the other hand, there were to
be no Chairs of Theology, Philosophy, or Modern His
tory, and no compulsory examinations in these subjects.
Some extraordinary provisions, which came to be known
as 'the gagging clauses,' imposed penalties upon any

THE CONSEEVATIVE EEACTION 125
teacher who offended the religious convictions of his
pupils. The reception of the Bill, largely owing to the
effect of Gladstone's eloquence, was favourable. But
before the second reading, which was postponed for three
weeks, serious obstacles arose. The Catholic Bishops of
Ireland declared themselves dissatisfied with the measure ;
while English Eadicals, especially Mr. Fawcett, bitterly
denounced the gagging clauses and the restrictions
upon the teaching of philosophy and history. Although
Gladstone defended the Bill with a force and ingenuity
seldom surpassed, the second reading was rejected by
three votes, and the Government at once resigned.
The Queen sent for Mr. Disraeli, who, however,
refused to take office without a majority, and persisted
in his refusal although the Queen gave him the option
of dissolving Parliament. Gladstone contended that it
was Disraeli's constitutional duty to accept office after
defeating the Government. Disraeli replied that there
was no adequate cause for the resignation of the
Government, and a controversial correspondence of
much historical importance was carried on by the two
statesmen, each of them addressing himself in form to
the Queen. In the end Disraeli had his way, and Glad
stone resumed office with weakened credit. The Irish
University question was settled for the time by the
passing of Mr. Fawcett's Bill abolishing religious tests
in the University of Dublin. On Mr. Trevelyan's

126 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
annual motion for household suffrage in counties,
Mr. Forster read a letter from the Prime Minister, who
was prevented by illness from being present, pronounc
ing tor the first time in favour of that reform, which
he carried out eleven years afterwards. During the
autumn several changes were made in the Government.
Lord Eipon retired on account of his health, and Mr.
Bruce, who had not been successful at the Home
Office, succeeded him as President of the Council, with
the title of Lord Aberdare. Mr. Lowe, who had been
unpopular ever since his abortive Match Tax, was
transferred to the Home Office, and Gladstone himself
took the Chancellorship of the Exchequer.
His acceptance of this office raised a grave constitu
tional question, which was never finally decided. Before
the Eeform Act of 1867 the acceptance of any office
of profit under the Crown vacated the seat of the ac
ceptor. By that Act it was provided that a Minister
already holding such an office should not vacate his
seat if he accepted another in lieu of it. It was clear,
therefore, that Mr. Lowe did not vacate his seat on
becoming Home Secretary instead of ChanceUor of
the Exchequer. But Gladstone took a new office
without giving up an old one. He remained First
Lord of the Treasury as well as Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and eminent lawyers were of opinion that
he had ceased to be member for Greenwich. He did

THB CONSEEVATIVE EEACTION 127
not, however, take that view himself, and did not seek
re-election. The question would have been raised
when Parhament met, and, according to Lord Sel
borne's 'Posthumous Memoirs,' it was one of the
reasons for the sudden dissolution of January, 1874.
On the 24th of that month the public were startled to
find in the newspapers long address from Gladstone
to his constituents, announcing that Parliament would
be dissolved on the 26th. His ostensible reasons for
this step were, first, that since Disraeli's refusal of
office there was not the proper constitutional check of
a possible alternative Government in that House of
Commons ; and, secondly, that the by-elections did not
show the confidence of the country in the Ministers of
the Crown. Proceeding to deal with the Income Tax,
he pointed out that Mr. Lowe had reduced it from 6d.
to 3c?., and he calculated that, with a surplus of
five millions and a half, he would be able to abolish
it altogether. He also offered a grant in aid of local
rates, which the House of Commons had, by a majority
of 100, voted for against him, and some reduction of
indirect taxes. These promises would have more
than exhausted the surplus; but Gladstone believed
that the balance would have been provided by greater
economy in the public service.
Disraeh at once replied to this manifesto in an
address to the electors of Buckinghamshire. He

128 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
taunted Gladstone with being afraid to defend his
conduct in retaining his seat, and sarcastically observed
that any Chancellor of the Exchequer with a surplus
would employ it in remitting taxation. He afterwards
declined to give a specific pledge that, if returned to
power, he would give up the Income Tax. At this
election, the first under the ballot, the Conservative
majority was estimated at forty-six. But, as this
calculation combined Irish Home Eulers with British
Liberals, it underrated the Conservative strength.
Gladstone retained his seat for Greenwich, but was
elected as junior colleague to a gin-distiller. Follow
ing the precedent set by Mr. Disraeli in 1868, the
Prime Minister resigned office without meeting Parlia
ment, and his rival succeeded him.

129

CHAPTEE XIII
REST, AND BE THANKFUL
At the beginning of the session, on March 12,
Gladstone wrote to Lord Granville, the leader of the
Liberal Party in the House of Lords, intimating that he
could not long remain at the head of the Opposition,
that he wished for comparative repose, and that if the
Party desired a chief who would attend more assiduously
to the business of the House of Commons, he was quite
ready to resign at once. He was, however, induced to
defer his retirement for a time. During the session of
1874 he opposed the Endowed Schools Bill, the Public
Worship Bill, and the Bill for abolishing private
patronage in the Church of Scotland. On this last
measure he delivered an historical review, pointing out
that the question was the one on which the Free Church
had seceded in 1843, and arguing that the Bill would
give a powerful impetus to disestablishment in Scot
land. The Bill easily passed ; but he succeeded in
defeating the more important part of the Endowed
Schools BiU, which proposed to abolish the Endowed
Schools Commission, and to restore to the Church of
K

130 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
England certain schools which had been placed under
secular management. The work of the Endowed Schools
Commissioners, whom Gladstone had appointed, and of
whom Lord Lyttelton was the chief, was transferred
to the Charity Commissioners, who had quite enough
to do without it, and this part of the Bill passed. But
Gladstone fought so strongly against the reactionary
nature of the clauses clericalising schools, and made
such a powerful plea for continuity in legislation, that
Mr. Disraeli discovered his inability to understand the
clauses, and they were dropped.
But the Bill which interested Gladstone most was
the Public Worship Bill. This was not a Government
measure. It was introduced into the House of Lords
by Archbishop Tait, and severely criticised by Lord
Sahsbury, then Secretary of State for India. In the
House of Commons the second reading was moved by
Mr. Eussell Gurney, the Eecorder of London. It was
exceedingly popular on both sides of the House, and
Disraeli warmly supported it, declaring that its object
was ' to put down Eitualism.' Gladstone attacked the
Bill in a long, eloquent, and elaborate speech, which
maybe described as the case against Erastianism. He
pleaded for reasonable liberty within the Church, and
he declared that, during his forty years of public life,
Eitualism had had a different meaning in every one of
them. He ended by giving notice of six resolutions.

EBST, AND BE THANKFUL 131
Of these the most important was the last, which pro
nounced that the Government should consult repre
sentatives of the Church before introducing ecclesi
astical legislation. On this occasion Gladstone's party
declined to follow him. The Bill was read a second
time without a division, and the resolutions were
never moved. The Bill, which became an Act before
the end of the session, provided a new Ecclesiastical
Court, in which three aggrieved parishioners might,
with the consent of the bishop, prosecute a beneficed
clergyman for irregularities of ritual. A conflict arose
between the two Houses over an amendment which
the House of Commons carried, and which gave the
aggrieved parishioners an appeal from the Bishop of
the Diocese to the Archbishop of the Province. This
amendment the Lords rejected, after a violent attack
on it by Lord Salisbury, and rather than lose the Bill
the Commons gave way ; but the debate was a very
heated one. Sir William Harcourt, always staunchly
Erastian, disavowed the policy of his leader, and called
upon Mr. Disraeli to vindicate the rights of the House.
Gladstone replied to his former colleague in a master
piece of sarcastic irony, and Mr. Disraeli retorted upon
Lord Salisbury in language seldom used to one
member of the Cabinet by another. The Act cannot
be said to have succeeded in its object. It was not,
like the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, a dead letter from
K 2

132 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
the first. Many Eituahstic clergymen were brought
before Lord Penzance, the new ecclesiastical judge, and
several of them were imprisoned for contumacy. But
while, on the one hand, these proceedings led to a
series of rather scandalous conflicts between the
ecclesiastical and civil tribunals, it was felt, on the
other hand, that the punishments inflicted were
altogether inappropriate to the nature of the offences
proved. The Bishops gradually ceased to allow any
further prosecutions, and the statute fell into complete
disuse. During the Parliamentary recess, Gladstone pub
lished in the ' Contemporary Eeview ' an essay on
Eitualism, in which he surprised everyone by a
trenchant attack on the Church of Eome. Comment
ing upon the allegation that Eitualism led to Eomanism,
he said that there had never been a time when the
Eoman Church presented less attraction to converts.
She had, he declared, substituted for her proud boast
of semper eadem a policy of violence and change in
faith ; nor could any man now enter her communion
without placing his loyalty and civil allegiance at the
mercy of another. This reference to the dogma of
Papal Inf allibihty, which Pius IX. had proclaimed four
years before, elicited numerous replies from Enghsh
CathoHcs. Gladstone, dropping the subject of Eitualism
altogether, issued a special pamphlet on the Vatican

EEST, AND BE THANKFUL 133
Decrees, in which he reiterated and supported his state
ments. To this pamphlet many answers were written,
of which the most important were Dr. Newman's,
Dr. Manning's, and Lord Acton's. But the champions
of the Church of Eome did not agree amongst them
selves. Dr. Manning earnestly defended the dogma
of Infallibility ; Dr. Newman reluctantly submitted to
it, and Lord Acton repudiated it altogether. A schism
among the English Catholics ensued, which divided
even members of the same family, and some Old
Catholics, as they called themselves, were excommu
nicated. In the course of the controversy several
CathoHc laymen took occasion to declare that they
were as loyal subjects and as good patriots as any of
their Protestant fellow-citizens. Gladstone, in another
pamphlet, entitled ' Vaticanism,' expressed his satis
faction at these assurances, and his pleasure at having
called them forth. With that the discussion closed ;
but many Englishmen who were not Catholics held
that the matter was one with which Protestants had
no concern, and that a man who had been Prime
Minister of England should abstain from attacking the
Church to which so many of her Majesty's subjects
belonged. During the autumn of this year Gladstone re
ceived at Hawarden a deputation of strikers from the
Aston Hall Collieries, and gravely remonstrated with

134 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
them for refusing to work with men who were not
members of their trade union. His plea for individual
freedom prevailed, and the unionists withdrew their
demand that the non-unionists should be discharged.
At the beginning of 1875, Gladstone, in another
letter to Lord Granville, intimated that the time had
now come when he must formally relinquish the
leadership of the Liberal Party. His resignation was
regretfully accepted, and Lord Hartington was chosen
to succeed him. During the session of this year he
was not much seen in the House of Commons.
Mr. Disraeli correctly interpreted his recent victory
as meaning that the country desired repose, and had
no wish for large measures. Gladstone had exhausted
the energies of the nation, and seemed for a time to
have almost exhausted his own. The Government of
1868 is, perhaps, the only one that has been turned out
for doing too much. The one important contribution
made by Gladstone to Parliamentary debate in 1875
was his severe criticism of the new Sinking Fund
proposed by Sir Stafford Northcote, afterwards Lord
Iddesleigh, the Conservative Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Sir Stafford showed courage as well as
skill in defending himself against his old master, and
this was the only financial discussion in which Glad
stone took part without scoring an easy triumph.

135

CHAPTEE XIV
THE EASTERN QUESTION
In the year 1876 the Eastern Question assumed a
new and very serious aspect. Parliament met on
February 8, and the Andrassy Note, drawn up by Count
Andrassy, the Austrian Chancellor, in consultation with
the Chancellors of Eussia and Germany, had just been
presented to the Porte. It proposed that the in
habitants of the Herzegovina, who had risen in rebel
hon the previous July, and whom the Sultan was
unable to subdue, should be granted religious Hberty,
and that the farming of their taxes should be abolished.
The British Government, after some hesitation, acceded
to the terms of the Note, and Gladstone, in the debate
on the Address, expressed his approval of this course.
He took occasion to point out, as a surviving member
of Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet, which made the Crimean
War, that that contest was waged on behalf of
European and not merely of British interests. On
February 19 there was a debate on the shares in the
Suez Canal, which the Government had, on Novem
ber 26, 1875, bought from the Khedive of Egypt for

136 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
four miUions sterling. The money was borrowed from
Messrs. Eothschild, who received 15 per cent, for the
accommodation. Gladstone, while not blaming the
Eothschilds for taking what they could get, denounced
this as an extravagant rate of interest where the security
was perfect, and condemned the employment of a
private firm for a public purpose. The case for the
Government was that Ismail Pasha, being, as usual,
in pecuniary difficulties, would have sold the shares to
some other Power if England had not bought them.
Gladstone called upon Ministers to say what harm
would have been done if he had. But the purchase
was popular, and the money was granted without a
division. From a commercial point of view this
speculation has been most profitable. Politically it is
the origin of the British occupation in Egypt and the
Soudan. On March 9, Gladstone spoke against the
Eoyal Titles Bill, which conferred upon the Queen the
title Empress of India. He argued that the designation
was unsuitable to a British monarch, inasmuch as it was
not hereditary, but elective, and implied absolute power.
Before the end of the session there appeared in the
' Daily News ' a series of letters describing horrible
massacres and tortures which had been inflicted upon
the inhabitants of Bulgaria by their Turkish rulers.
The Prime Minister, when questioned on the subject,
jeered at these narratives as ' Coffee-house Babble,' and,

THB EASTEEN QUESTION 137
in reference to the special charge that the Turks
impaled their victims, cynically observed that Oriental
governors usuaUy disposed of culprits in a more
expeditious manner. Parliament rose on August 15,
and a few days afterwards appeared the official report
of Mr. Baring, the British Consul, which entirely
confirmed the correspondents of the ' Daily News.'
Gladstone was deeply stirred by these revelations, and,
on September 6, published a pamphlet called ' Bulgarian
Horrors and the Question of the East,' which had a
rapid and general sale. In this he demanded that the
officers of the Porte, from the lowest to the highest,
should be cleared ' bag and baggage ' out of the
countries which they had desolated and destroyed. A
few days afterwards, on the 9th, he addressed his
constituents on Blackheath, and, after a tremendous
denunciation of Turkey, declared it to be the duty of
England to act with Eussia in securing the indepen
dence of the Sultan's Christian provinces. ' Never
again,' he said, 'whUe the years roll their course,'
must the conscience of mankind be shocked by the
misrule of the Turk in Bulgaria. Disraeli, who had
now become Lord Beaconsfield, replied to these argu
ments at Aylesbury, and again, on Lord Mayor's Day,
at the GuildhaU. At Aylesbury he said that the
conduct of those who made political capital out of the
Turkish atrocities was worse than the guilt of those

188 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
who committed them. At the Guildhall he made a
bitter attack upon Servia, who, assisted by her neigh
bour, Montenegro, had come to the rescue of their feUow-
Christians, and had declared war on Turkey. The
close of this speech was very warlike, and he used
language which furnished the text of a once famous
music-haU song. England, he declared, did not desire
war, but no country was so well prepared for it, and
her resources were such that she need not shrink
from a second or even a third campaign. These
two speeches of the Prime Minister excited great
indignation among Liberals, and it was determined
to hold a conference at St. James's Hall to protest
against any further support of the Turkish Empire.
The conference was held on December 8. But, on
November 20, Lord Salisbury left England for Con
stantinople, to take part with Sir Henry EUiot, the
British Ambassador, in a consultation with the repre
sentatives of the other Great Powers on the state of
things in the Christian provinces of Turkey. Lord
Sahsbury was considered at that time far less Turkish
in his sympathies than his chief, and the best hopes
for the success of his mission were expressed in St.
James's HaU. Clergymen and men of letters such as
Dr. Liddon and Mr. Freeman attended this meeting,
as weU as practical poHticians. The Duke of West
minster took the chair in the afternoon, and Lord

THB EASTEEN QUESTION 139
Shaftesbury in the evening. A letter was read from
Mr. Carlyle eulogising Eussia, and recommending that
' the unspeakable Turk ' should be struck out of the
question. Gladstone spoke in the evening with careful
moderation of tone, but emphatically asserted that
the English people would be content with nothing'
less than the strict fulfilment of those duties to the
Christian subjects of the Sultan which were the result
of the Crimean War.
In 1876 appeared Gladstone's third book on Homer,
' Homeric Synchronism,' which is sufficiently described
in its second title as ' An Inquiry into the Time and
Place of Homer in History.'
The Conference at Constantinople lasted till January
20, 1877, when it broke up without result, Turkey
having refused to accept the demands of the Powers.
Early in the year Gladstone entered upon an active
political campaign. He attacked the Government, at
Frome, for failing to discharge their obligations ; and, at
Taunton, between two trains, he made the first of those
wayside speeches which played afterwards so effective
a part in English politics. At Taunton he dwelt on
the failure of the Conference, and accused Turkey of
having trodden the Treaty of Paris under her feet.
Parliament met on February 8, and in the debate on
the address, Gladstone, after compliments to Lord
Salisbury on the line he had taken at Constantinople,

]40 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
pronounced the Eastern Question to be, without excep
tion, the most solemn which the House of Commons
had ever had to discuss. On the 16th he drew
attention to Lord Derby's despatch condemning the
Bulgarian massacres, and asked what course the
Government intended to adopt. The unexpected mild
ness of his speech led to a curious Parliamentary
incident. After Mr. Gathorne Hardy had repHed in a
guarded manner to Gladstone's question, and the debate
had proceeded for some time in a rather humdrum
fashion, Mr. Chaplin suddenly interposed with a per
sonal attack upon Mr. Gladstone, accusing him of
making charges against his opponents behind their backs
which he was afraid to repeat in the House of Commons.
To give Gladstone an opportunity of replying, Mr.
Chaplin moved the adjournment of the House. Glad
stone at once rose to second the motion, and, in doing
so, delivered off-hand one of the most amusing as well
as one of the most effective replies ever heard in the
House of Commons. He overwhelmed Mr. Chaplin
with ironic sarcasm and good-humoured banter, dis
posing, incidentally, of Lord George Hamilton, who had
rashly ventured to interrupt him. The columns of
' Hansard ' contain no more diverting or more readable
speech. But at the end he took a serious tone, declar
ing that England was responsible for the power which
Turkey had abused, and that Englishmen were resolved

THE EASTEEN QUESTION 141
that justice should be done. The debate was finally
adjourned, and never resumed.
The real straggle came nearly three months later.
The reason for Gladstone's unexpected mildness in Par
hament was that the Liberal Party were not agreed, and
especially that their titular leader. Lord Hartington, did
not go so far as Gladstone in zeal for the Christians of
the East. MeanwhUe the Eastern Question was being
settled by sterner methods than Parliamentary debates.
On April 24, Eussia declared war against Turkey, being,
as she said, resolved to do single-handed what Europe
would not do coUectively. Gladstone gave notice that, on
May 7, he would move four resolutions, defining his
Eastern pohcy, and a fifth combining them all in an
address to the Crown. The first of these resolutions was
a censure of Turkey for not fulfilling her obhgations.
The second declared that she was entitled to neither
moral nor material support from England. The third
laid down the principle that the Christian subjects of
the Porte were entitled to local liberty and practical self-
government. The fourth defined the concert of Europe
as the proper method for carrying these proposals into
effect. These resolutions were too strong for the mode
rate Liberals, and Sir John Lubbock, afterwards Lord
Avebury, gave notice on their behalf that he would move
the previous question, which it was understood that Lord
Hartington would support. But before the debate came

142 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
on an arrangement was made. Gladstone agreed to move
only the first of his resolutions, for which the whole
Liberal Party were ready, with a slight verbal amend
ment, to vote. In bringing forward this motion, how
ever, which he did in one of his greatest rhetorical
efforts, Gladstone contrived to argue on behalf of his
whole policy. He spoke under most difficult conditions.
The Ministerialists, taking advantage of the oppor
tunity which his change of purpose afforded them, got
up a preliminary wrangle in which they taunted him
with his vacillation, and succeeded in putting off the
beginning of his speech to the time at which it would
naturally have ended. But Gladstone rose at seven
o'clock as fresh as if he had risen at five, and there was
no trace, either in his arguments or in his delivery, of
physical or mental exhaustion. He pointed out that
though the Treaty of Paris was still valid between the
other Powers, Turkey, by breaking it, had forfeited
all right to its protection. It could give her, he said,
no right to oppress her subjects, whereas it did give her
subjects the right of appeal from her oppression. The
kneU of Turkish tyranny, he exclaimed, had sounded,
and ai^y attempt on the part of this country to assist
Turkey in the future would not only be immoral but
impolitic, and would be playing into the hands of
Eussia, whom his opponents most distrusted. The
debate, thus begun, lasted till May 14, when Gladstone

THE EASTEEN QUESTION 143
rose at midnight to reply. Less rhetorical than his
opening statement, this speech was a model of com
pression, and summed up the arguments on his side
with singular power. He contrasted the tone of
Lord Derby, who had done all that words could do in
bringing Turkey to her senses, with the tone of
Sir Henry EUiot, who had cynicaUy observed that
British interests were not affected by the number of
Christians massacred in Bulgaria. Denying that he
was or ever had been in favour of joining Eussia to
make war upon Turkey, he declared himself for the
coercion of the Porte by united Europe, and it was the
British Govemment, he added, which had stood in the
way of European unity. His motion was, however,
rejected by a majority of 131, which was very much
in excess of what the Government could ordinarily
anticipate. Out of doors his popularity ran very high, and soon
after Parhament rose there occurred a remarkable
example of the hero-worship vsdth which his name
became afterwards associated. Early in August he
received at Hawarden a deputation of Liberals from
Bolton. He refused to address them on pohtics, or to
interrupt his occupation for the afternoon, which was
his favourite amusement of cutting down a tree; but
he admitted them to the Park, and while he was thus
occupied they gathered roimd him to pick up the chips

144 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
which feU from his axe. In October of this year
Gladstone paid one of his rare visits to Ireland, where
he was presented with the freedom of Dublin, and
delivered a speech on the successful working of the
Irish Land Act. In Ireland he said nothing about
Eastern affairs ; but he dealt with them at Holyhead
on his way back, and paid an eloquent tribute to the
Nonconformist Churches of the land for the help which
they had given him in his efforts for the Christians of
Bulgaria. On November 15 he was chosen to be Lord
Eector of Glasgow in succession to Lord Beaconsfield,
his competitor being Sir Stafford Northcote.
Meanwhile the war had proceeded rapidly. At
first the Turkish troops, who fought splendidly, gained
some victories. But the superior numbers of the
Eussians, guided by the strategy of General Todleben,
soon prevailed; and by the beginning of 1878 Turkey
was at the feet of Eussia. Parliament was summoned
for January 17, an unusually early date, and the Queen's
Speech announced that Turkey had asked for the media
tion of the Queen's Government, which her Majesty was
not indisposed to offer. The debate on the Address was
tame ; but great excitement was caused on January 25,
when Lord Carnarvon announced his resignation in
the House of Lords. The reasons for this step were
two. In the first place. Lord Beaconsfield had severely
condemned Lord Carnarvon's announcement to a de-

THB EASTEEN QUESTION 145
putation that no Englishman would be mad enough to
repeat the blunder of the Crimean War. In the second
place, the Govemment had ordered the Mediterranean
fleet to Constantinople with the ostensible object of
protecting British subjects. The fleet did not, as a
matter of fact, pass the Dardanelles, having been ordered,
amid some ridicule, to return. But Lord Carnarvon's
retirement, in which he persisted, was regarded as
ominous by the party of peace, and their apprehensions
were renewed when, on January 28, it was announced
that the Govemment would ask the House of Commons
for a vote of credit to the amount of 6,000,000?. It
was arranged that this vote should be taken on the 31st,
and, on the 30th, Gladstone attended at Oxford, which
he had not visited since his rejection by the University,
the foundation of the Palmerston Club. Speaking at
the inaugural dinner, he condemned in very strong lan
guage the despatch of the fleet to the Dardanelles,
and, referring to the charge of being an agitator,
admitted that circumstances had driven him into a
course of agitation for the last eighteen months. He
confessed that during that period he had laboured day
and night to ' cotmter-work the purposes of Lord
Beaconsfield.' On the next evening the vote of credit was to have
been moved in the House of Commons by Sir Stafford
Northcote ; but, before the Speaker left the chair, Mr.
L

146 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Forster moved a preliminary amendment, declaring
that, as neither combatant had infringed the principles
of neutrality, there was no ground for taking steps
which implied a possible extension of the war. The
debate lasted till February 7, and Gladstone spoke on
the 4th, denouncing 'prestige,' in almost the same
language used by Lord Sahsbury eleven years before,
as a hateful sham. He made also a powerful plea for
the right of Turkey's Hellenic provinces to the sym
pathy and protection of Europe. Alluding to the pro
posal of a European Conference, he protested against
accompanying pacific negotiations with the clash of
arms. On February 7 it was announced, on the authority
of Mr. Layard, who had succeeded Sir Henry Elliot
as British Ambassador at Constantinople, and who
was even more Turkish in his leanings than Sir Henry,
that the reported armistice between the two Powers
had not been signed, and that the Eussian Army was
close to Constantinople. Mr. Forster thereupon asked
leave to withdraw his amendment, and though, later in
the evening. Sir Stafford Northcote read a telegram from
Prince Gortschakoff absolutely denying Mr. Layard's
assertion, it was not moved.
On March 3, the Treaty of San Stefano, between
Eussia and Turkey, brought the war to an end,
without any occupation of Constantinople, though
the British fleet had entered the Dardanelles. This

THB EASTEEN QUESTION 147
treaty recognised the independence of Servia and
Bulgaria. But the British Government insisted upon
its revision, under the Treaty of Paris, by a Conference
of the Powers, and to this course Eussia ultimately
consented. The conduct of Mr. Layard, whose
alarming reports had proved to be unfounded, was
brought before the House of Commons on March 12
by Mr. Evelyn Ashley, who moved a vote of censure on
him for having taken up a charge, made by a corre
spondent of the ' Daily Telegraph,' that Gladstone had
been trying to stir up rebeUion among the Sultan's Greek
subjects. The charge was admitted on all hands to be
unfounded. But Mr. Layard was proved to have made
a sort of apology, and the motion was rejected by a
majority of seventy-four, Gladstone taking no part in
the debate. On March 28, Lord Derby resigned office
without stating his reasons, which proved afterwards to
have been the decision of the Government to call out
the reserves and to occupy Cyprus. He was succeeded
at the Foreign Office by Lord Salisbury, who, on April 1,
criticised, in a long and able despatch, the terms which
Eussia sought to impose on Turkey. The expediency
of calling out the reserves, which could only be done in
time of national emergency, was discussed in the
House of Commons on April 8, when Gladstone com
mented strongly upon Lord Salisbury's despatch, which
he described as substituting England for Europe. At
L 2

148 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
this time his unpopularity in London, and especially in
the House of Commons, was extreme. His house in
Harley Street was attacked by a mob of the people then
first called Jingoes, and he himself, with Mrs. Gladstone,
was hustled in the streets.
On April 12 there was an unprecedented scene at
the House. In a debate upon the murder of Lord
Leitrim, an Irish member, Mr. O'Donnell, made
aspersions upon Lord Leitrim's moral character, in
order, as he said, to show that the murder was not
agrarian. An Irish Conservative moved that strangers
should be excluded, and by a majority they were.
Gladstone, Lowe, and Hartington were hooted in the
Lobby, as they went out to vote against the ex
clusion, an insult of which Lord Hartington bitterly
complained. On April 16 the House of Commons
adjourned for a long Easter recess, after a positive
assurance from Sir Stafford Northcote that the
Govemment contemplated no immediate change of
policy. On the 17th it was announced that 7,000
Indian troops had been ordered to Malta. When
Parliament reassembled, the Liberal leaders, including
Gladstone, argued that this step was unconstitutional,
and inconsistent with the Mutiny Act, which deter
mined the number of the standing Army. But the
Government were supported by large majorities in both
Houses.

THE EASTEEN QUESTION 149
On June 13 the European Congress met at Berlin,
under the presidency of Prince Bismarck, the British
representatives being Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Salisbury,
and Lord Odo Eussell, afterwards Lord Ampthill.
While the Congress was sitting the ' Globe ' published a
copy of an agreement between England and Eussia,
defining, among other things, the Hmits within which
independence should be given to part of Bulgaria.
This document, though surreptitiously obtained, was
strictly accurate. The treaty signed on May 30 was
intended to be secret, but the understanding which it
proved to exist between England and Eussia strength
ened the case of those who had urged that there was no
ground for warlike preparations before the Congress.
A further agreement between England and Turkey
furnished the text for a vigorous speech which Glad
stone dehvered at Bermondsey on July 20. This
convention provided that, in return for the cession
of Cyprus, and the usual promises of reform, England
should protect the remaining territories of Turkey in
Asia. Gladstone called it 'an insane covenant,' and
protested that none of the Conservative statesmen
with whom he had acted in past years would have
dreamed of assenting to it. On July 23 he pro
posed, without success, in the House of Commons,
that proceedings under the Vernacular Press Act, by
which Lord L3rtton had established a censorship of

150 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
the Native Press in India, should be laid before Parlia
ment. On July 30 the Treaty of Berhn was brought before
the House by Lord Hartington, who moved a resolu
tion, sarcastically described by Lord Beaconsfield as ' a
series of congratulatory regrets.' Lord Hartington
asked the House to condemn the failure of the
Congress to satisfy the just claims of Greece, and to
censure the Government for having incurred a liability
to defend the Asiatic dominions of the Sultan. To the
debate thus raised Gladstone contributed an elaborate
and argumentative speech, unusually devoid of rhetoric,
and devoted to an exhaustive analysis of what the
treaty did and failed to do. None of his Parlia
mentary speeches delivered in Opposition show signs
of having been more carefully prepared, and it is
one of the very few which he revised before it appeared
in 'Hansard.' He began with a reference to the
personal attack made upon him a few nights before by
Lord Beaconsfield at a dinner in the Knightsbridge
Eiding School. Lord Beaconsfield had then charged
Gladstone with indulgence in very gross personalities,
and in particular with having described him as a danger
ous and even devilish character. Gladstone at once
wrote a letter, beginning ' Dear Lord Beaconsfield,' in
which he asked for a specification of the time and
place in which he had used such language, or any other

THE EASTEEN QUESTION 151
of a personal as distinguished from a political kind.
Lord Beaconsfield replied in the third person that he
was ' much pressed with affairs ' and unable to
examine the speeches of two years. But he cited
an instance in which someone, not Gladstone, had
compared him, in Gladstone's presence, with Mephis
topheles. This was all the satisfaction that Gladstone
ever received. Passing from this repulsive subject, as
he called it, Gladstone proceeded to deal with the
Treaty, which he said had been described by its admirers
as concentrating the Turkish Empire. Pointing out
that more than half of the Sultan's subjects had been
wholly or partially removed from his jurisdiction, he
observed that this sort of concentration might be
obtained in the case of a man by cutting off his limbs.
Half Bulgaria was free, though, unfortunately, not the
whole. Eoumania and Servia were now nominally as
well as practically independent. The independence of
Montenegro was formally recognised. But nothing
had been done for Greece except that a possible
rectification of frontier was left over for future settle
ment. Thus the Slavs, who relied upon Eussia, had
got most, if not all, of what they wanted ; whereas the
Greeks, who had never been Eussian in sympathy, had
got nothing. What a lesson, he observed, for the
enemies of Eussia to teach the South-east of Europe !
He severely criticised the conduct of Lord Beaconsfield

152 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
and Lord Salisbury for having actively opposed at the
Congress the claims of Greece, which had been urged
especially by the representatives of France. At the
close of his speech he turned from the Treaty to the
Anglo-Turkish Convention, which he described as not
only impolitic but a breach of public law, inasmuch
as it seriously modified the Treaty of Paris with
out the consent of the other Powers. Finally, he
attacked the Government for abusing the prerogative
of the Crown to make treaties without the consent of
Parliament. The Treaty of Berlin, he said, not
having been ratified, was open to Parliamentary
disapproval. But the Treaty of Berlin was good so far
as it went, and no one desired to disavow it. The
separate engagements between England and Turkey,
which he and the Opposition regarded as wholly bad,
had been ratified, and were therefore beyond the power
of Parliament altogether. Lord Hartington's motion
was, however, after a long debate, defeated by a
majority of 143.
In the autumn of this year Lord Lytton, the
Viceroy of India, made war upon Shere Ali, the Ameer
of Afghanistan. The ground of hostilities was the
refusal of the Ameer, who had received a Eussian
envoy, to receive an English one. The English envoy,
escorted by a small army, started from Pesha\?ur on
September 21, but was stopped on the frontier by an

THE EASTEEN QUESTION 153
Afghan force. On November 20, Afghanistan was in
vaded, and after severe fighting Cabul was occupied.
On November 30, Gladstone, who had determined not
to contest Greenvyich again, dehvered to his consti
tuents a fareweU address at Plumstead. The greater
part of this speech was an indictment of Lord Lytton's
policy, approved and adopted by the Cabinet. He
argued that it was a breach of faith to force a British,
as distinguished from a native, Eesident (to whom Shere
AH had no objection) upon the Ameer. He denied that
Shere Ali had given any just cause of offence, and
maintained that if this country had grounds of com
plaint it was not against Afghanistan, but against
Eussia, who had undertaken not to interfere in that
country. Thus the Govemment spared the strong
State, which was to blame, and crushed the weak State,
which was not. In a peroration of singular eloquence,
he quoted the famous words of Lady Macbeth : ' All
the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this httle hand,'
and added, in reference to the physician's familiar
answer : ' In this the patient must minister to himself,'
that the disease of an evil conscience was beyond the
skill of aU the physicians in all the countries of the
world. The outbreak of war made it necessary to
caU Parliament together in the vpinter, and both Houses
met on December 5. An amendment to the Address,
condemning the Afghan policy of the Government, was

154 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
moved by Mr. Whitbread on the 9th, and on the 10th
Gladstone spoke. He quoted freely from the Blue
Books presented by the Government, to show that the
Ameer had not, as was said, insulted either the British
envoy or the Indian Govemment. In a subsequent
debate he also protested against saddling the expenses
of the war upon the taxpayers of India. But the
Government were quite unassailable in the House of
Commons, and their majorities suffered no appreciable
diminution.

155

CHAPTEE XV
THE MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN, AND ITS RESULTS
The session of 1879, though it witnessed the rise
of Mr. ParneU as a political force, was comparatively
flat and tame. A General Election was thought to
be imminent, and statesmen on both sides were
more anxious to address the constituencies than the
House of Commons. None of Gladstone's speeches in
the House this year were of great importance. On
April 17 he spoke in favour of Mr. Cartwright's
motion calling upon the Govemment to satisfy the
claims of Greece, and pointed out that she had a clear
right to rely upon the expectations held out to her by
Lord Sahsbury. On April 28, speaking to a motion
proposed by Mr. Eylands against the extravagance of
the Estimates, he maintained that Sir Stafford North
cote, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had departed, by
unnecessary borrowing, from the sound principles of
finance, had destroyed his own Sinking Fund, and had
failed in time of peace to pay for expenditure out of
revenue. On July 15 he seconded Lord Hartington's
efforts to procure the abolition of flogging in the Army.

156 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
But it is only fair to say that th'is reform, adopted
by Gladstone and Hartington in 1881, was brought
within the range of practical politics by the persistent
efforts of some Irish members, among whom Mr.
ParneU was the most conspicuous. On July 22, the
unfulfilled portions of the Treaty of Berlin were again
brought before the House, this time by Sir Charles
Dilke. Gladstone, in supporting him, claimed for
Greece the moral right to Epirus, Thessaly, and Crete.
Dealing with the scare of Panslavism as a danger to
the east of Europe, he prescribed Pan-Hellenism as
the best remedy for the disease.
But Gladstone's chief efforts in 1879 were made
outside the walls of Parliament. At the request of
Lord Eosebery and other influential Liberals, he agreed
to contest the county of Midlothian against Lord
Dalkeith, the eldest son of the Duke of Buccleuch.
He at once entered upon a political campaign, which
for vigour and energy was never surpassed even
by himself. He left Liverpool on November 24,
and from that date till December 9, when he re
turned to Hawarden, there was scarcely a lawful day
on which he did not deliver at least one speech ;
more often it was two or three. Before he crossed the
Border he had spoken at several railway stations, and
on November 25 he addressed a crowded meeting in
the Music Hall at Edinburgh. Here he dwelt upon the

THB MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 157
danger of enlarging our responsibihties, and proclaimed
that the real strength of the Empire must always lie
in the population of the United Kingdom. He again
condemned the Afghan War, which by this time had
led to the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari, the British
Eesident at Cabul. He denounced, also, the Zulu
War, made by Sir Bartle Frere, the High Com
missioner for South Africa, against the instruc
tions of the Govemment, who censured, but did
not recaU him. Criticising the annexation of the
Transvaal, which had occurred in 1877, he contended
that the people of Great Britain had been misled into
supposing that the Boers vsdshed to become British
subjects. Since the annexation two-thirds of the
burghers had signed a petition against it, and thus
proved it to be, in his view, unjustifiable. At Dalkeith,
on the 26th, he spoke chiefly on home affairs, express
ing his behef in the principle of local option, and in a
general extension of local govemment, so far as was
compatible with the supremacy of Parliament. Dis-
estabhshment, he said, was a question for the people of
Scotland themselves ; he had no wish either to advance
or to retard it. At West Calder, on the 27th, he
returned to the subject of foreign politics, maintaining
that the Govemment had at the same time aggrandised
and alienated Eussia. His reception in Scotland was
more enthusiastic than had ever before been given to

158 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
any statesman, and on one occasion he addressed as
many as 20,000 people within the walls of the Waverley
Market at Edinburgh. His campaign ended for the
year at Glasgow, where, in an elaborate oration, he
surveyed the whole foreign policy of the Government.
The responsibility for that policy, he said, rested at
present upon the Cabinet and the House of Commons
alone ; but the question must very soon be submitted
to the people, who would have to deal vpith the
Ministerial majority, not collectively, but individually.
Laying particular stress upon the fundamental prin
ciple that large and small States should be treated with
equal justice and forbearance, he protested strongly
against the aggressive Imperialism of the Prime
Minister, of which the motto was borrowed from a
Eoman statesman. The words Imperium et libertas —
Empire and liberty^ — -meant, in the mouth of a Eoman,
liberty for himself and empire over the rest of mankind.
That pretension in the mouth of an Englishman he
emphatically condemned ; and he called upon the people
of the United Kingdom to dissociate themselves from a
policy which had led to nothing but humiliation and
disaster. At Glasgow he also delivered his address as
Lord Eector of the University, and turning aside from
politics, as no one could more readily do, he impressed
upon the students the superiority of knowledge to
wealth as an object of human endeavour.

THB MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 159
Parliament met on February 5, 1880, and there was
nothing in the Queen's Speech to show that the session
would be shorter than usual. But, as a matter of fact,
only one subject of any importance was raised in it.
On March 5, Sir WUfrid Lawson brought forward his
annual resolution in favour of Local Option, and
Gladstone took part in the debate. WTbile declaring in
favour of the principle, he refused to vote for the
motion on the ground that no practical plan had been
proposed, and that there was no reference to the
vested interests which wotUd be disturbed. Three days
afterwards, on March 8, it was announced in both
Houses that Parliament would be dissolved immediately
after the Budget. Lord Beaconsfield, having no con
stituents, addressed to the Duke of Marlborough, then
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a public letter, in which
he said that a danger more serious than pestilence or
famine threatened the Irish nation, through the devices
of men who were bent at aU costs upon repeahng the
Union. Although the style of this letter was justly
criticised, and its exaggerations reasonably censured, it
must be admitted that Lord Beaconsfield, perhaps
because he was in office, showed more knowledge of
Irish politics than his rival. On the 12th appeared
Gladstone's address to the electors of Midlothian, in
which he cast ridicule upon the Prime Minister's
gloomy prophecies, and accused him of seeking to hide

160 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
the misdeeds of his Ministry by 'terrifying insinua
tions.' On the same day Gladstone spoke in Marylebone,
and expressed a hope that, whatever the result of the
General Election might be, it would be unmistakable.
He also took the opportunity of announcing that Lord
Derby had formally joined the Liberal Party.
Onthe 16th he left London for Edinburgh, addressing
a crowd that had assembled at King's Cross, and speaking
at every station where the train stopped. It was after
wards found that in each of these places there had
been a Liberal victory. On the 17th he delivered one of
his finest speeches in the Edinburgh Music Hall. This
speech contains the clearest and fullest exposition of
foreign policy in its general principles which Gladstone
ever put forward. He dealt first with the allegation
that if he and his party came into power they would
repudiate the engagements of their predecessors. He
pointed out that this was impossible, inasmuch as an
international treaty bound future Governments as much
as the Government which made it. He separated him
self and the Liberal Party in general from the doctrines
of the Manchester School and of peace at any price.
Paying a high tribute to the Manchester School for
their lofty aspirations and unselfish motives, he never
theless declared it to be a ' noble error ' that the world
could at present be governed without the risk of war.
Examining the policy of Lord Beaconsfield, particularly

THB MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 161
as embodied in the Treaty of Berlin, compared with
the Treaty of San Stefano, he showed that Bessarabia
had been handed over to Eussian despotism, and
Macedonia to the worse than despotism of the Turk.
Eecalling the ridicule which had been cast upon his
prescription of ' bag and baggage,' he proved that it
had been strictly carried out, not only in Bulgaria, but
in Eastern Eoumelia, from which the official Turks had
entirely disappeared.
One allusion in this speech led to rather serious
consequences. Quoting from the ' Standard ' the
report of a conversation between the Emperor of
Austria and Sir Henry EUiot, the British Ambassador
at Vienna, in which the Emperor was made to
denounce him by name as an enemy of the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy, Gladstone denied that he was
the enemy of any country. But he censured in
strong language Austria's hostility to the freedom of
her neighbours, and defied any one to put his finger
upon any part of the map of Europe and say, ' There
Austria did good.' On March 22, speaking at Gilmer-
ton, in Midlothian, Gladstone dealt vyith Lord Salisbury's
charge against him that he had disestablished the Irish
Church three years after declaring the question to be
outside the range of practical politics. Admitting the
fact, he said that the phrase meant within the lifetime
of the Parliament elected in 1865, and was therefore M

162 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
accurate. But he went on to employ a simile which
became the subject of much not unnatural criticism.
The Estabhshed Church in Ireland, he said, had long
been a grievance. But the attention of the English
people was forcibly called to it by the Fenian outrages
in Manchester and Clerkenwell. They were not the
cause of disestablishment, still less its justification.
The sound of a church bell was not the reason why a
man went to church, but it reminded him that it was
time to go. On the 23rd, speaking at Pathhead, he
recurred to the subject of Austria, expressed a fear
that she might intend to enlarge her borders at
the expense of the Balkan Principalities, and invited
her to disclaim all aggressive designs. On the 25th, at
Penicuik, he referred to a contradiction by Sir Henry
EUiot of the language attributed to the Emperor, and
once more challenged the Austrian Government to
disclaim any intention of going beyond the Treaty
of Berlin. At Stow, on the 30th, he discussed the
financial arrangements of the Govemment, and, with
special reference to the Afghan War, observed : ' We do
not know the worst.' This remark was destined to
receive a singular and starthng verification ; for, on
May 6, the public learnt, by a telegram from India, that
Sir John Strachey, the Finance Minister, had made an
extraordinary blunder, and that the war would cost, not
6,000,000?. but 15,000,000?.

THB MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 163
At this election Gladstone made fifteen set speeches,
without counting occasional addresses. Lord Harting
ton, however, made twenty-four. The pollings began on
March 31, and, after the first day, the final result was
never for a moment doubtful. The Liberals swept the
country ; 349 of them were returned, as against 243
Conservatives and 60 Home Eulers. Gladstone himself
was successful in Midlothian, polling 1,579 votes against
1,368 given for Lord Dalkeith. He was at the same time
placed at the head of the poll for Leeds, where, after he
had elected to sit for Midlothian, he was succeeded by
his youngest son. At this time the Queen was abroad,
and there was consequently some delay in the change
of Govemment. Lord Beaconsfield, however, took the
earliest opportunity of resigning, and on April 22 her
Majesty sent for Lord Hartington. This was in strict
accordance with constitutional usage, as Gladstone had
retired from the Liberal leadership five years before.
Lord Hartington did not at once decline to form a
Government, but, after an interview with Gladstone
on the 22nd, when he returned from Windsor, he
abandoned the idea. On the 23rd he and Lord Gran
viUe saw the Queen together, with the result that her
Majesty sent for Gladstone the same afternoon. He at
once formed, without the slightest difficulty, a strong
Administration, becoming himself, as he had been in
1873, First Lord of the Treasury and ChanceUor of the .
u 2

164 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
Exchequer. Lord GranviUe, and Lord Hartington,
whose conduct was irreproachable, both took office
under him, the former as Foreign Secretary and the
latter as Secretary for India. In other respects the
Govemment much resembled that of 1868. Lord
Selborne returned to the woolsack, and Mr. Bright,
to whom official work was never congenial, became
Chancellor of the Duchy. Lord CardweU's health had
faUed, and Mr. Lowe was extinguished under a coronet
with the title of Lord Sherbrooke. Sir WiUiam Har
court, who had been for a short time Sohcitor-General,
became Home Secretary ; whUe Mr. Chamberlain, whose
poHtical association, commonly caUed the Birmingham
Caucus, had been of great practical value to the Liberal
Party, entered a Govemment and a Cabinet for the first
time as President of the Board of Trade. Of the other
Eadicals, Mr. Fawcett was made Postmaster-General,
without a seat in the Cabinet, for which his blindness
was held to disquahfy him, and Sir Charles DUke
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Goschen
refused to join the Government because he was not
prepared to vote for the extension of the county
franchise, and he was sent as Special Ambassador to
Constantinople. A good deal of feeling was excited
among fanatical Protestants by the appointment of one
CathoHc, Lord Eipon, to be Viceroy of India, and
another. Lord Kenmare, to be Lord Chamberlain.

THE MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 165
On May 7 the ' Daily News ' announced that Lord
Granville had sent a circular to the Powers, urging a
joint enforcement of the unfulfilled clauses in the
Treaty of Berlin, such as those which dealt with
Montenegro, Greece, and Armenia. The object of
Mr. Goschen's mission was to impress upon the Sultan
the duty of fulfilHng these engagements. On May 10
there appeared a letter from Gladstone to Count
Karolyi, the Austrian Ambassador, which was the
subject of much excited comment. Eeferring to letters
and conversations with the Ambassador, which, un
fortunately, were never pubhshed, Gladstone intimated
that he had obtained from Austria those assurances of
fidehty to the Treaty of Berlin which he had called
upon her to give. In these circumstances, he said, it
was not his intention to repeat or defend in argument
language which he had used in a position of greater
freedom and less responsibility. The phrase was
felicitous, and has become part of the political vocabu
lary. But the Opposition bitterly denounced the letter
as unworthy of a British Minister, ignoring the fact that
Gladstone's challenge had been answered, and that he
had received precisely what he asked for. Thus, while
Lord George HamUton caUed the letter shameful and
shameless. Lord Salisbury pointed out that Gladstone
had withdrawn nothing, and expressed surprise that
the Austrian Government should be so easily satisfied.

166 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
On May 20 the Queen's Speech was delivered. It
contained a hope for the pacification of Afghanistan,
an assertion of supremacy over the Transvaal, and an
opinion that the ordinary law would be sufficient in
Ireland. This meant that the Peace Preservation Act,
which expired on June 1, was not to be renewed. On
the 21st, Gladstone, who had been re-elected without
opposition after taking office, had his first experience
of the perplexing case raised by Mr. Bradlaugh, one of
the members for Northampton, who had refused to
take the oath of allegiance, on the ground that it had
no specially binding effect on his conscience. This
was before Gladstone came back to the House, and
Lord Frederick Cavendish, Financial Secretary to the
Treasury, as representing the Government, had moved
that the case should be referred to a Select Committee.
The Committee reported, by a majority of one, that Mr.
Bradlaugh, not being a Quaker, had no right to make
an affirmation in lieu of an oath, as he had claimed to
do. Bradlaugh now came forward to take the oath,
casting the responsibility upon those who would not
let him affirm. Sir Henry Wolff objected, and Gladstone
proposed the appointment of another Committee, to
consider whether the House had a right of interference
vsdth the discretion of a duly-elected member. He
pointed out that the duty of taking the oath was
imposed by statute, and that the proper interpreters of

THBj^MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 167
statutes were the Courts of Law. After a long debate.
Sir Henry Wolff's motion that Bradlaugh, having no
religious belief, could not take an oath, was defeated by
289 votes to 214, and the Committee was appointed.
They reported that Bradlaugh was incapable of taking
an oath, but recommended that he should be allowed
to affirm at his own risk. On June 21 a motion to
that effect was made by Mr. Labouchere, the other
member for Northampton, and supported by Gladstone ;
but, after two nights' debate, it was defeated by a
majority of 45. On the 23rd, Bradlaugh again appeared
to take the oath, but, in accordance with the resolution
of the House, the Speaker refused to have it admin
istered to him. He was, however, allowed to be heard
on his own behalf at the Bar, He was then ordered
to withdraw, which he declined to do, and was taken
into custody by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Gladstone
declined to interfere. The House, he said, had rejected
his advice, and the duty of proceeding further in the
matter devolved upon the leader of the Opposition.
On June 24, Sir Stafford Northcote, to the general
surprise, moved that Bradlaugh should be released, and
released he was. On July 1 the question was settled
for the year by Gladstone's motion, which the House
adopted, that any person claiming to affirm should be
allowed to do so. Bradlaugh accordingly affirmed,
and took his seat.

168 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XVI
THE LAND LEAGUE
On June 10, Gladstone, as ChanceUor of the
Exchequer, introduced a Supplementary Budget, Sir
Stafford Northcote's Budget having only provided for
the early part of the year. It was the first time he
had made the financial statement of the Govemment
for fourteen years. The principal feature of it was the
unexpected repeal of the Malt Tax, for which Con
servative representatives of the farming interests had
clamoured for many years, but which no Conservative
Govemment had found itself able to touch. Glad
stone substituted for it a duty on beer, and provided
for the incidental loss to the revenue by putting
another penny on the Income Tax, all hope of
abolishing that tax having long since vanished. The
Budget met with little opposition, and was generally
popular. The principal struggle of the session, after
the case of Mr. Bradlaugh had been temporarUy
disposed of, arose out of the Irish Compensation BUl,
which Mr. Forster, the Chief Secretary, was compelled
to introduce by the prevalence of severe distress in

THB LAND LEAGUE 169
Ireland, and by the conduct of those landlords who took
advantage of it to evict their tenants. The BUl, which
was originaUy a single clause in a general measure for
the rehef of Irish distress, gave compensation for dis
turbance to tenants evicted for not paying their rent,
and, therefore, not within the Land Act of 1870. It
was confined to cases arising out of the recent faUure
of the crops ; and-Gladstone defended it as an exceptional
measure required to maintain the principle of property.
The second reading was carried by 295 votes against
217. But the BUl did not satisfy the Home Eulers,
who refused to vote for going into Committee on it,
and also abstained on the third reading. The BiU was
read a second time on June 25, and a third time on
July 26. But the labours of the House of Commons
upon it were throvsm away ; Lord Beaconsfield
strongly opposed it, and on August 3 the House of
Lords rejected it by 282 votes to 51. Mr. Forster
strongly protested against this decision, and laid upon
the House of Lords the responsibihty for the condition
of Ireland. The session was unusuaUy prolonged,
owing to Tory obstruction and to the resolve of the
Govemment that Parhament should not be prorogued
untu aU the principal BiUs in the Queen's Speech
had been passed. These were the Ground Game
BiU, which enabled tenants, in spite of leases, to kill
hares and rabbits on their own farms ; the Employers'

170 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
LiabUity Bill, which modified the doctrine of common
employment by giving workmen compensation for the
neghgence of foremen as well as masters ; and the
Burials Bill, which settled a very old controversy by
permitting .Dissenters to bury their dead with their
own services in the parish churchyard. All these
Bills became law before the prorogation, which oc
curred on September 7. In August, Sir Wilfrid Law-
son carried for the first time his proposal for Local
Option, although Gladstone again declined to support
an abstract resolution which he was not prepared to
embody in a Bill. On August 2 it was announced in
the newspapers that the Prime Minister, almost for
the first time in his life, was seriously ill. He was
suffering from fever, accompanied by congestion of the
lungs. For some days his condition was the cause of
much anxiety, and his opponents, from Lord Beacons
field dovsoiwards, showed a sympathetic interest in his
health. He soon recovered, however, and on August 28
appeared again in the House of Commons, which
had in his absence been temporarily led by Lord
Hartington. During the autumn further efforts were made to
carry out the Treaty of Berlin. On September 14 a
naval demonstration, organised by all the Great Powers,
was made off the coast of Albania. The Opposition,
especiaUy Lord Salisbury, scoffed at this empty show

THB LAND LEAGUE 171
of force. But it had its effect upon Turkey, and on
November 26 Dulcigno was formaUy ceded by the
Porte to Prince Nicholas of Montenegro. MeanwhUe,
the state of Ireland was going from bad to worse.
Distress continued, and so did evictions, which, however,
the excitement of pubhc opinion made it extremely
difficult to carry out. The Land League, which had
been founded in 1879, daUy increased in influence,
under the lead of Mr. PameU, and the system known
as ' Boycotting ' was now for the first time completely
organised. The Govemment endeavoured to meet the
prevailing discontent in two ways. They appointed an
Irish Land Commission, of which Lord Bessborough
was Chairman, to inquire into the best means of
amending the Irish Land Act, and they also took
active steps against the promoters of resistance to the
law. On November 2, criminal informations were
filed against Parnell and thirteen other leaders of the
popular party. Their trial was fixed for December 28.
Meanwhile they took no notice of the prosecution, and
continued to act as before. An Irish landlord. Lord
Mountmorres, was brutally murdered, for reasons which
were never fuUy explained, and no one was made
amenable for the crime. There was a clamour in
England for measures of repression, many meetings
of the Cabinet were held, and it was decided that Par
liament should be called together on January 6, 1881.

172 LIFB OP W. B. GLADSTONE
On November 9, Gladstone, speaking at the Lord
Mayor's dinner, declared, in very emphatic language,
that the law would be enforced in Ireland at all costs,
and by whatever means might be required for the
purpose. The session of 1881 was almost exclusively Irish.
It was tmusuaUy long, lasting from January 7 to
August 27. The Queen's Speech announced that her
Majesty's forces would be withdrawn as soon as
possible from Afghanistan, and that Candahar, which
had been occupied by Lord Lytton, would not be
permanently retained. It also promised a Bill for the
protection of property in Ireland, another for the pro
tection of life, and a third for the reform of the Land
Laws. Gladstone gave notice that as soon as the
debate on the Address was finished he should ask for the
precedence of the Irish Coercion Bills, to give them
their popular name. Irish obstruction at once began.
The debate on the Address was prolonged for eleven
nights, and was almost wholly devoted to Ireland. Mr.
Parnell moved an amendment against coercion, and
Mr. McCarthy proposed that evictions should not be
enforced by the Government until the Land Bill had
been passed. When these motions had been disposed
of, Mr. Forster introduced his Peace Preservation BiU,
of which the principal feature was the absolute power
of the Lord-Lieutenant to arrest anyone officially sus-

THE LAND LEAGUE 173
pected of treasonable practices, and detain him without
trial, till September 30, 1882, when the Act would expire.
This was a strange Bill for a Liberal Government to
bring in. But the state of Ireland was so serious that
Ministers were supported by the vast majority of the
House. Opposition came only from the Irish Home
Eulers, and from a few independent Eadicals, such as
Mr. Cowen, Mr. Labouchere, and Mr. Charles Eussell,
afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England. Gladstone
declared that the BiU was directed against intolerable
tyranny, and that it was required to maintain ' the first
conditions of Christian and civilized existence.' While
these debates were in progress, the trial of Mr. Parnell,
Mr. DiUon, and the other State prisoners, came to an
end at Dublin. The jury were unable to agree, and
the Govemment did not put the defendants on their
trial again. The Irish members endeavoured by
physical endurance to prevent the Coercion BiU from
being brought in. The knot seemed inextricable; it
was cut. The House of Commons sat continuously
for forty-one hours — from four o'clock on Monday,
January 31, to nine o'clock on the following Wednesday
morning. Mr. Speaker Brand then came into the House,
and, having taken the chair which the Deputy-speaker
vacated, declined to caU on Mr, Biggar, who had risen
to continue the debate, put the question, and threw
himself upon the support of the House, He explained

174 LIFE OP W, E. GLADSTONE
that a grave crisis had arisen for which ordinary rules
did not provide, and with which he was compeUed
therefore personally to deal.
The first reading of the BiU was carried by 164 to
19, and Gladstone at once gave notice of a motion for
accelerating its further progress. This was that, on the
proposal of the Speaker, supported by forty members
rising in theii places, public business might be declared
urgent by a division without debate, and that thereupon
the control of procedure should pass into the hands
of the Speaker for so long as he thought necessary.
This resolution was to be moved on February 3.
But the Irish members were determined to prevent it
from coming on. They had been exasperated by
Sir William Harcourt's annoimcement that Michael
Davitt's ticket of leave had been withdrawn, and when
Gladstone rose, Mr. Dillon, following an unfortunate
precedent set by Gladstone himself on July 14, 1880,
moved that he should not be heard. He was at once sus
pended, and removed by the Serjeant-at-Arms. But the
obstruction was continued by the thirty-five other Home
Eulers who were present, until, by half -past eight, they
had all been turned out of the House. Then, at last,
Gladstone was able to propose his resolution, with
amendments, which he accepted from Sir Stafford
Northcote, to the effect that a motion for urgency must
be made by a Minister, that it might be brought to an

THB LAND LEAGUE 175
end by another motion, and that at least 200 members
must vote for it. In a speech, which Sir Stafford
described as having enthralled and entranced the House,
Gladstone said that his personal interest in the question
was small. His lease was almost run out, but he im
plored the House of Commons not to aUow itself to be
made the laughing-stock of the world. At the sug
gestion of Sir Stafford Northcote, the resolution was
still further modified so as to include only a particular
BUl, and it was added that urgency must be voted by a
majority of three to one in a House of 300 members.
The resolution, thus altered, was carried by 234 to
156. On February 4 the Speaker, acting upon it,
laid certain rules upon the table, the chief of which
enabled him to put the question whenever he thought fit.
The Irish members, however, continued the struggle, and
on February 18 the Speaker produced further rules,
one of which contained the time limit, afterwards
knovsm as the gag. Taking advantage of this, Gladstone,
on Febraary 21, moved, and carried by an overwhelming
majority, that the proceedings in Committee on the
Bill should be brought to a close on the next day. But
of the sixty-three members who voted against this resolu
tion thirteen were Conservatives. The report of the Bill
was hastened in the same way, and on February 24 it
was read a third time, and passed the House of Lords
in three days. Urgency was then applied to the Arms

176 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
BUl, which prohibited for five years the carrying of
weapons in proclaimed districts of Ireland, and gave
the police the right of search for them. This BiU,
which was in the hands of Sir William Harcourt, had
to be forced through the House by the same drastic
methods as its predecessor.
Twice in this session Gladstone had occasion to
deliver one of those obituary speeches in which he
excelled all his contemporaries. On March 13, Alex
ander II. , Emperor of Eussia, was murdered in St.
Petersburg, and on the 15th a vote of condolence with
the Imperial family was moved by Gladstone in the
House of Commons. He paid an eloquent tribute to
the memory of the Sovereign who liberated the serfs,
and quoted Homer, perhaps for the only time in his
life, not in the original, but in Pope. Lord Beacons
field's death, which had been for some time expected,
occurred on April 19, and on May 9 Gladstone pro
posed that a national memorial should be erected to
him in Westminster Abbey. His speech was a master
piece of tact and taste. Without saying anything he
did not believe, he praised, in just and adequate terms.
Lord Beaconsfield's singular tenacity of purpose and
great Parliamentary courage. On April 5, Gladstone
made his financial statement. But the days of his
great Budgets were over, and his proposals were tame.
He had a surplus of rather more than a miUion. By

THE LAND LEAGUE 177
means of this, and by substituting a probate duty of
one and a half for a legacy duty of one per cent., he
was enabled to take off the penny from the Income Tax
which he had put on the year before. He also pro
posed a reduction of debt to the amount of sixty
millions by turning short into long annuities. On
AprU 7 the claims of Greece, for which Gladstone had
pleaded so earnestly in Opposition, were settled by the
transfer to the Greek kingdom of Thessaly and part
of Epirus. Janina and Metzovo, however, remained
Turkish. On April 22, Gladstone was able to announce in
the House of Commons the terms which had been
made vsdth the Government of the Transvaal. So
early as December 16, 1880, the Boers had taken the
most practical means of showing that they were not in
favour of annexation by rising in armed rebellion, and
proclaiming the South African Eepublic. On January 21,
during the debate on the Address, Mr. Eylands proposed
an amendment condemning the annexation of the
country. Gladstone objected to it as inopportune, and,
as a matter of fact, negotiations were at that time
proceeding through President Brand, of the Orange
Free State. While they were in progress, on January 26,
Sir George CoUey made an unfortunate attack upon
the Boers at Laing's Nek, which was repulsed with
heavy loss. On February 27 he was himself attacked

178 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
at Majuba ; his little force was routed, and he himself
was killed. Sir Evelyn Wood, who succeeded to the
command, assured the Government that he was in
sufficient strength to crush the rebellion. Bat the
Government refused to interrupt the negotiations on
account of these defeats. On March 6 an armistice
was concluded, and the war was never resumed.
The conditions of peace, as explained by the Prime
Minister, were that the suzerainty of the Queen over the
Transvaal should be maintained, and that the burghers
should enjoy complete self-government ; but that their
foreign relations should be under British control, and
that there should be a British Eesident at the capital.
A Eoyal Commission was to determine the rights
and provide for the protection of the natives. This
settlement was bitterly attacked, both inside and out
side Parliament, as a cowardly surrender. Gladstone,
however, defended it on the ground that to break off
negotiations already begun on account of defeat
would have been a useless, and therefore wicked,
sacrifice of life. It was not till July 25 that the
question was fully discussed in the House of Commons.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach then moved a vote of
censure on the Government, and Gladstone formally
justified the policy of the Cabinet. He laid stress upon
the fact that the first overtures to peace had come
from Mr. Kruger through President Brand, and he

THE LAND LEAGUE 179
declared, on the authority of the High Commissioner,
Sir Hercules Eobinson, afterwards Lord Eosmead,
that the whole Dutch population of the Cape were in
sympathy vsdth the desire of the Transvaal for inde
pendence. He explained the measures that had been
taken on behalf of the native population, and maintained
that they were adequate. Sir Michael's motion was
rejected by 315 votes against 204.
On April 7, Gladstone introduced his second Irish
Land Bill, which is, perhaps, the greatest of all his
legislative achievements. It did not so much amend
the Act of 1870 as provide a different system and a new
code more in harmony with the facts and customs of
Irish hfe. Dealing with the reports of the Duke of
Eichmond' s Commission, appointed by the late Govern
ment, and of Lord Bessborough's, appointed by his
own, he showed that the Commissioners, though they
differed in many important respects, were, with one ex
ception, in favour of a Land Court. Such a Court he
proposed to constitute for the fixing of judicial rents.
Either landlord or tenant could apply to the Court ; the
rent, when fixed, was to last for fifteen years ; it was
perpetually renewable, and no tenant, paying a judicial
rent, was to be evicted so long as he paid it. Every
tenant was to have the right of selling his farm, and no
contract was to be valid against the Act in the case
of any holding valued at less than 100?. of rental.
N 2

180 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
There were to be three Land Commissioners, of whom
one would have the rank of a judge, and there were to be
Assistant Commissioners for every county. If a tenant
wished to purchase his holding, the Commissioners were
to advance three-fourths of the purchase money by way
of loan, and there was to be an absolute Parliamentary
title. Provision was also made for the sale of a whole
estate, when three-fourths of the tenants holding three-
fourths of the value desired to purchase. Gladstone
was accused of having, in this speech, banished poli
tical economy to Saturn. The foundation for this
singular charge was, that in alluding to the report of
Professor Bonamy Price, who was against all inter
ference with supply and demand, Gladstone remarked
that the Professor proposed to legislate for Ireland as
if he were legislating for Saturn or for Jupiter. Any
political economist, even Eicardo, would admit that a
statesman, in framing a law, must consider the circum
stances of the country to which it would apply. This
Bill led to the resignation of the Duke of ArgyU, who
considered that his colleagues had departed from sound
economic principles. The Duke's office, the Privy Seal,
was a sinecure ; but he was the most eloquent spokes
man of the Cabinet in the House of Lords. He was
succeeded by Lord Carlingford, a less brilhant but a
more useful Minister. The second reading of the BiU
was moved in the House of Commons on April 26, and

THE LAND LEAGUE 181
the debate continued tUl May 18, when it was carried
by 352 to 176. Mr. PameU and th^ty-five of his
foUowers abstained from voting, on the ground that the
BUl was inadequate, and they did much to delay the
progress of the measure in Committee. On July 14,
Gladstone strongly denounced their obstructive tactics ;
but on the 30th the BiU was at last read a third time.
The final opposition to it came from Lord Eandolph
ChurchiU, now the recognised leader of what was
caUed the Fourth Pa-rty. Sir Stafford Northcote, vnth
most of his foUowers, dissociated themselves from Lord
Eandolph, who had only fifteen supporters in the
Lobby. In the House of Lords the Bill was read a
second time on August 2 vsdthout a division. But very
serious alterations were made in Committee, most of
which the House of Commons refused to accept. The
Lords adhered to them, and for some days it seemed
probable that the conflict between the two Houses
would result in the loss of the Bill. Ultimately, how
ever, the Lords gave way on almost all points except
ing the clause, originaUy proposed by Mr. Parnell, for
giving the benefit of the Act to tenants already evicted.
On August 16, Gladstone abandoned this clause on the
grotmd that Mr. PameU himself attached Httle impor
tance to it. The Lords dropped most of their other
amendments, and the BiU became law.
A good deal of time was wasted this session in futile

182 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
wrangling over the case of Mr. Bradlaugh, who had
been unseated by the judgment of the Courts and
subsequently re-elected for Northampton. On April
26 he again claimed to take the oath, but Sir Stafford
Northcote moved that he was incapable of taking it,
and should not be aUowed to do so. Gladstone sup
ported, in a purely legal speech, an amendment moved
by Mr. Horace Davey, afterwards Lord Davey, to the
effect that the House had no right to interfere with
the conscience of a duly elected member. But the
original motion was carried by 208 to 175, and Brad
laugh, refusing to withdraw from the table, was
removed from it by force. Gladstone declined to inter
fere, on the ground that the House would not take his
advice, and that the responsibility for further steps rested
with those whose advice it had taken. The next day
Mr. Bradlaugh again appeared, and this time Gladstone
so far met the demand of the Opposition, that the
Government should take some step, as to promise that
he would introduce a Bill if morning sittings could,
by arrangement, be set apart for it. This proposal,
however, was strenuously resisted by the Conserva
tives, and finally failed. On May 10, Mr. Bradlaugh,
tired of waiting, again presented himself; and this
time was, on Sir Stafford's motion, excluded from
the precincts of the House. In accordance with this
resolution, he was, on August 3, taken from the Lobby

THB LAND LEAGUE 183
by the police and dragged downstairs into Palace
Yard. For this proceeding the Speaker assumed
responsibility, and Gladstone agreed that he had no
other course open to him than to carry out, by any
means available, the instructions of the House.
During this autumn the state of Ireland, with the
working of the Peace Preservation Act and the Land
Act, absorbed public attention. Although more than
1,000 persons were at one time imprisoned without a
trial by the warrant of the Lord-Lieutenant, the
peace of the country continued to be seriously dis
turbed. Speaking at Leeds on October 7, Gladstone
compared Parnell very unfavourably with O'ConneU,
who, he said, had always acted for the good of the
Irish people as a whole. Parnell, on the contrary,
endeavoured to prevent a friendly settlement between
landlord and tenant. He stood, like Moses, between the
living and the dead, but, unlike Moses, his object was
to spread the plague. While denouncing Parnell's
conduct in stringent terms, Gladstone also complained
that the loyal classes in Ireland were apathetic, and did
not give the Government the support which it had a
right to expect. Five days afterwards, when receiving
at the Guildhall the freedom of the city, Gladstone
excited enthusiastic cheering from an audience, which
must have been chiefly composed of Conservatives, by
announcing that a warrant had been issued for the

184 LIFB OP W. E. GLADSTONE
arrest of Mr. Parnell on suspicion of treasonable prac
tices. This warrant was executed on the 15th ; two
other members of Parhament, Mr. Sexton and Mr.
O'Kelly, being also apprehended. The reply to this step
was the issue from Kilmainham Gaol, by the captives, of
the No-Eent Manifesto, urging the Irish tenants not to
pay their landlords anything until their champions were
released and their arrears were wiped out. The same
day the Land League was suppressed by the proclama
tion of the Lord-Lieutenant as an illegal body, which
it had been declared from the judicial bench to be. It
was feared that the winter in Ireland would be, in the
political sense, very stormy, and the number of troops
there was raised to 25,000. On October 26, Gladstone,
accompanied by Lord Derby, addressed a Liberal
meeting at Liverpool, and charged the leaders of the
Land League with marching through rapine to the
dismemberment of the Empire.
Parliament met on February 7, 1882. Nearly a
month before, on January 12, at the annual dinner
to the tenants on the Hawarden estate, Gladstone
announced that the first duty of Parliament was now
to improve its own procedure in the interests of
public business. But he reckoned without Ireland,
which again consumed the greater part of the ordinary
session. The first question to arise, however, was the
apparently interminable case of Mr. Bradlaugh, who.

THE LAND LEAGUE 185
on February 7, again presented himself to take the
oath. Sir Stafford Northcote again moved the resolu
tion of April 26, to prevent him from doing so, and,
though Gladstone supported the previous question, on
the old ground that the matter was one for the Courts,
Sir Stafford's motion was carried against the Govern
ment by 286 to 228. On Febraary 21, Mr. Bradlaugh
varied the monotony of these proceedings by suddenly
advancing to the table and administering the oath to
himself. An angry debate foUowed, which was adjourned
to the next day. Gladstone then stated the decision of
the Cabinet, which was that the Conservative Party had
taken the case out of the Government's hands, and must
therefore be left to deal with it themselves. Sir Stafford
Northcote thereupon moved and carried that Bradlaugh
should be expeUed the House, But he was re-elected
for Northampton by an increased majority. Before
he could appear in the House, however, Sir Stafford
Northcote once more moved that he should not be
permitted to take the oath, and, though Gladstone
opposed the motion, it was carried by fifteen votes.
The Irish Question was at once raised on the Address
by Mr, Smyth's amendment in favour of Home Eule,
Gladstone, in a remarkable speech, which surprised
many of his supporters and many of his opponents,
directed his arguments, not against the principle of
Home Eule, but against its practicabUity tmder present

186 LIFB OP W. B. GLADSTONE
conditions. No plan, he said, had been produced which
would be workable under the British Constitution and
which would provide for the supremacy of the Imperial
Parliament. Mr. Plunket, afterwards Lord Eathmore,
replying on behalf of the Opposition, described this
speech as at least a partial surrender to the Home
Eulers, and said that Gladstone could no longer in
consistency oppose the Irish demand for a Parhamentary
inquiry. This was on February 9, and a week later,
Gladstone, in response to numerous challenges, pro
tested that his views were unchanged, inasmuch as
the question had always been for him how the supre
macy of Parliament could be preserved.
On February 20, Gladstone proposed his resolutions
for reforming the procedure of the House, of which the
most important were the adoption of the closure and
the appointment of standing committees as substitutes
in certain cases for Committees of the whole House.
The debate had not proceeded far when it was inter
rupted by other matters, and it was not till March 30
that even the principle of the closure, as distinguished
from the resolution that embodied it, was carried by
318 to 279 ; the further consideration of the subject
had to be postponed tiU the autumn.
Early in the session Lord Donoughmore carried, in
the House of Lords against the Government, the appoint
ment of a Select Committee to inquire into the working

THB LAND LEAGUE 187
of the Land Act. The Cabinet refused to recognise the
Committee, and no Ministeriahst sat upon it. Gladstone
took so strong a view of the conduct of the Lords in
seeking to interfere, as he put it, with the proceedings
of a statutory tribunal, that on February 27 he moved
in the House of Commons a protest against the appoint
ment of the Committee, which was really a vote of
censure on the majority of the other House. He
called upon the House of Commons to declare that
such a proceeding was tmconstitutional, and dangerous
to the peace of Ireland. After a long debate, his motion
was carried on March 9 by 303 to 235. Meanwhile the
Committee had been appointed, and it continued to sit
and take evidence. But it prudently abstained from
asking the Commissioners to explain then judicial deci
sion, and nothing practical came of it.
In Ireland the question of arrears became more
urgent, and on March 26, in a debate on Mr. Eedmond's
BiU for amending the Land Act, Gladstone stated that
whUe he could not consent, after so short an interval,
to any general alteration of the law, the Govemment
were not indisposed to deal vyith the specific question
of arrears which had been omitted from' the Act by the
vote of the Lords. A grave crisis occmTed soon after
wards in Irish pohtics. On April 28, Lord Cowper,
the Lord-Lieutenant, resigned ; the ostensible ground
of his resignation was weak health. He was succeeded

188 LIFB OP W. B. GLADSTONE
by Lord Spencer, who, unlike his predecessor, had
a seat in the Cabmet.
While the public were still speculating on the true
reasons of this change, Gladstone announced, on May 3,
that Mr. Parnell and his coUeagues had been released
from custody, that an inquiry would be made into the
cases of all persons detained on suspicion, and that, as a
substitute for Mr. Forster's Act, another Bill would be
introduced to strengthen the ordinary law. Mr. Forster
resigned, and Lord Frederick Cavendish, Gladstone's
intimate friend and nephew by marriage, was appointed
to succeed him. On May 5, Mr. Forster explained the
grounds of his resignation. He had been unable, he
said, to concur in the opinion that the release of the
suspected persons was justified, either by any satisfac
tory assurances from them or by the condition of
Ireland. Gladstone, in reply, referred to his own speech
on Mr. Eedmond's Bill, and intimated that, in the
opinion of the Government, the peace of Ireland would
be greatly furthered by an Arrears Bill, in which they
might hope for the support of the Irish Home Eulers.
If a reconciliation could be effected, it would be un
reasonable to detain in prison men who might help
in carrying it out.
These sanguine expectations were doomed to a
terrible disappointment. On May 6, Lord Frederick
Cavendish was sworn in at Dublin Castle as Chief

THB LAND LEAGUE 189
Secretary for Ireland. At seven o'clock on the same
evening he and Mr. Burke, the Under-Secretary, were
murdered in the Phcenix Park. Mr. Forster made a
chivalrous offer to return to Ireland and carry on the
business of the Castle, but this was not accepted, and
Mr. Trevelyan became Chief Secretary. On May 8
the House of Commons at once adjourned after a few
brief speeches, in which the representatives of all
parties expressed their horror of the crime. Gladstone,
speaking with evident difficulty, and with an emotion
which he hardly ever showed in public, deplored the
loss of a man devoted to the best interests of Ireland.
Mr. PameU also spoke VTith evident feehng, and it
afterwards became knovTu that he had shown his
sincerity by offering, in a private letter to the Prime
Minister, that he would retire from public Hfe if the
Govemment thought it in the public interest that he
should do so.
On May 11 the funeral of Lord Frederick Cavendish,
near Chatsworth, was attended by a large proportion
of the House of Commons, headed by the Prime
Minister ; and the same evening Sir Wilham Harcourt
introduced a BiU for the Prevention of Crime in
Ireland. Although it did not authorise the detention
of untried persons on suspicion, it was extremely, per
haps excessively, stringent. It provided that, for three
years, treason, murder, and agrarian offences might be

190 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
tried by a commission of judges without a jury.
Against this provision the Irish judges protested, and
one of them, Baron Fitzgerald, resigned ; but, though
passed, it was never put in force. The Bill also gave
the police the power to search dwelling-houses for
arms by day or by night, and conferred upon the Executive
the right to expel aliens at their discretion. News
papers could also be suppressed by the Irish Govern
ment ; meetings which the Lord-Lieutenant regarded as
unlawful could be dispersed ; witnesses could be com
pelled, under pain of imprisonment, to attend inquiries
into crimes, although no one had been arrested as a
criminal. This last provision, and the clauses which
enlarged the power of selecting jurymen by changing
the venue, and otherwise, proved to be by far the most
useful in the Bill.
As a set-off against this severe measure, which
the Home Eulers almost unanimously condemned,
Gladstone, on May 15, introduced his Arrears Bill.
The object of this Bill, confined to tenancies below
the annual value of 30?., was to wipe out arrears of
rent in Ireland altogether where the tenants were
unable to pay them. It was a condition that the
tenant must have paid his rent from November, 1880,
to November, 1881. If he had done that and could,
in the opinion of the Land Court or the County
Court, pay no more, he was to receive, as a free gift

THB LAND LEAGUE 191
from the State, half the amount of the arrears which
might have accrued before -November, 1880, and the
remainder was to be cancelled. The sum required for
this purpose was estimated at 2,000,000?., of which Glad
stone calculated that three-fourths could be obtained
from the stirplus of the Irish Church, while the rest
would have to come from the Consohdated Fund.
But before this Bill or the Crimes BiU cotUd be
seriously discussed, the Opposition raised a debate upon
what they caUed the Treaty of Kilmainham. It had trans
pired that, before ParneU's release, correspondencepassed
between him, the Prime Minister, and Mr. Chamber
lain, through Captain O'Shea, an Irish Whig. Writing
to Captain O'Shea, PameU gave the assurance that, if
the question of arrears were settled, he would be able to
co-operate with the Govemment in the restoration of
order. When this letter was first read by Captain
O'Shea to the House of Commons, he imfortunately
omitted a paragraph in which Parnell offered to act
vsdth the Liberal Party in the promotion of Liberal
principles. The suppressed paragraph was brought out
by Mr. Forster, who added that he would have con
curred in the release of the prisoners if PameU had
promised for the future to act within the law. Mr.
Forster produced a great impression by asserting that,
in a private conversation. Captain O'Shea, on ParneU's
behalf, undertook that the conspiracy, which had been

192 LIFB OF W. B. GLADSTONE
used to promote outrages, should, if his terms were
accepted, be employed to put them down. Mr.
Balfour brought the whole subject before Parliament
by moving the adjournment of the House, and declared
that the Govemment had incurred indelible infamy.
Gladstone, speaking for the whole Cabinet, except, of
course, Mr. Forster, gave a positive assurance that the
prisoners had been released because, in the opinion of
her Majesty's Ministers, there was no sufficient
ground for detaining them further. He protested
emphatically that there had been no bargain whatever,
and that as soon as he heard of Mr. ParneU's offer to act
with the Liberal Party, he told Mr. Forster that it was
one he had no right either to expect or to accept. This
did not satisfy the Conservatives, and an angry debate
followed. But no division was taken, and the dis
cussion was never renewed.
The House then proceeded with the Crimes Bill,
and sat, for the first time in thirty-six years, on Derby
Day. Mr. Dillon took this opportunity to make an elabo
rate defence of boycotting, in what Gladstone called ' a
heartbreaking speech.' Gladstone himself, who after
wards came to see a good deal more in Mr. Dillon's
arguments than he then admitted, described boycotting
as combined intimidation by means of starvation and
ruin. The sanction of it, he said, was ' the murder which
was not to be denounced.' After the drastic application

THE LAND LEAGUE 193
of ' urgency ' rules, and the suspension of Irish mem
bers in a batch, on the ground that, according to
Mr. Playfair, the Chairman of Committees, they had
been guilty of combined obstruction, though some of
them were absent, and some were actuaUy in bed, the
Crimes Bill was forced through Committee early in
July. On the 7th of that month, at the stage of
report, the Govemment suffered an unexpected defeat.
Gladstone had given a promise to Mr. PameU in
Committee that he would not insist upon the clause
which authorised the pohce to search dwelling-houses
for arms at night. He accordingly proposed to omit
it in the House, both on accotmt of his pledge, and
also because the power was not required by Lord
Spencer, who considered it more irritating than useful.
Several Liberals, including Mr. George EusseU and
Mr. Lambton, joined the Conservatives in protesting
against this concession, and Gladstone intimated that if
the Govemment were defeated he might have to recon
sider his personal position. But, in spite of this veUed
threat, the Government were put inaminorityof thirteen,
the PameUites, for whom the concession was made^
refusing to vote. Gladstone said that in ordinary
circumstances the Govemment would, after such a
vote, have dropped the BiU, but that the state of Ireland
made such a course impossible. This was on a Friday ;
on Monday the Prime Minister announced that the
0

194 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
Govemment considered it the more manly course to
remain at a post which no one was likely to envy
them. The Arrears Bill passed without much difficulty
through the House of Commons, and the Opposition
did not divide against the second reading in the
Lords. But, in Committee, Lord Salisbury, who had
succeeded Lord Beaconsfield as leader of the Con
servative Peers, carried an amendment which made
the Bill voluntary, thus enabling every landlord to
prevent its operation on his estate, and, in the opinion
of the Government, making it absolutely worthless.
The House of Commons disagreed with Lord SaHs-
bury's amendment, and when the Bill went back to the
Lords there was every prospect of a constitutional
crisis, which might have led to a change of Govem
ment. But Lord Salisbury was deserted by his fol
lowers. In withdrawing his amendment, on August
10, he spoke strongly against the BiU, which he
denounced as robbery, and against the Minister who
had introduced it. For himself, he said, he was quite
wiUing to take his responsibUity for the consequences
of rejecting it ; but others thought differently, and he
was, therefore, reluctantly compelled to give way.
Some smaller amendments of the Lords were agreed
to by the Commons and the BiU became law.

195

CHAPTEE XVn
EGYPT
The affairs of Egypt came before Parliament several
times during the session, and Gladstone's Egyptian
policy was severely criticised by some of his Eadical
foUowers. But at that time Gladstone's power and
influence were such that he could do almost any
thing he Hked. During this summer the dual control
of England and France practically broke down,
though it was not formaUy abolished tiU the foUowing
January. The authority of the Khedive Tewfik Pasha
was threatened by a mihtary movement under an
adventurous soldier called Arabi. On June 11 there
were fatal riots in Alexandria, and the British Consul,
Mr. Cookson, was wounded. A month later, after
repeated warnings against the arming of the forts,
which was considered a menace to the foreign and
especially the British ships. Admiral Sir Beauchamp
Seymour, afterwards Lord Alcester, bombarded the forts
and destroyed them. This action on the part of the
British Govemment, in which the French Chamber o2

196 LIFB OP W. E. GLADSTONE
would not aUow the French Government to assist, led
to the retirement of Mr. Bright, who declared it to be
a violation of the moral law. Gladstone, on the other
hand, maintained that the rule of Arabi was a mihtary
tyranny, from which it was the duty of the British
Government, on account of their position in Egypt, to
reheve the Egyptian people. Mr. Bright's place was
filled by Mr. Dodson, afterwards Lord Monk-Bretton,
and Sir Charles Dilke entered the Cabinet for the first
time as President of the Local Government Board.
On July 25 the reserves were called out, and an
expedition was sent, under Sir Garnet Wolseley, after
wards Lord Wolseley, to restore order and the authority
of the Khedive. The rebellion of Arabi Pasha was
crushed at Tel-el-Kebir, and Arabi himself was banished
to Ceylon. On July 24, Gladstone, making his last appearance
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved a vote of credit,
on account of the Egyptian Expedition, for 2,300,000?.
In his ordinary Budget, introduced on April 24, he had
proposed no financial change, except an increase of the
Carriage Duty to relieve the Highway Eates. He
now raised the Income Tax from 5d. to O^c?., or to 8c?.
for the half year, within which the whole of the increase
was to be coUected. This covered the vote of credit to
which the House agreed on July 27, but which turned
out to be a very small part of what interference- in

EGYPT 197
Egypt was to cost us. On August 18 the House of
Commons adjourned tiU October 24, for the purpose of
dealing with Gladstone's resolutions on procedure.
These were not passed tUl December 2, when Parlia
ment was at last prorogued. The first resolution,
providing that closure must be voted by more than 200
members, or if the minority were less than 40 by more
than 100, was not carried till November 10. The
most important of the other rules were that which
established Grand Committees, and that which provided
that opposed business should not be taken after half-
past twelve.
After the prorogation several changes were made
in the Cabinet. Gladstone gave up the Chancellorship
of the Exchequer to Mr. Childers; Lord Hartington
became Secretary for War ; Lord Kimberley for India ;
and Lord Derby joined the Liberal Govemment for
the first time as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
On September 1, Archbishop Tait died, and Gladstone
gave satisfaction to his political opponents, as well as
to his ecclesiastical friends, by nominating for the
Primacy Dr. Benson, Bishop of Truro, one of the
youngest prelates on the Bench.
The labours of this protracted session were too
much even for Gladstone's strength. His health broke
down, for the time ; he was ordered to the South of
France, and though Parliament did not meet in 1883

198 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
tiU Febraary 15, he was unable to be present at the
opening of the session.
He returned, however, before Easter, and, on
AprU 26, in the debate upon the second reading of
the Affirmation BUl, he delivered one of the most
eloquent speeches ever heard in the House of Commons.
The Bill was a very simple one, for enabHng any
member of Parhament to make an affirmation instead
of taking an oath. But it was, of course, regarded as
a Bradlaugh Belief BUl, and attacked with violence
accordingly. Gladstone showed how vain were the
fears of those who resisted the entrance intd Parlia
ment of CathoHcs and Jews. The Catholics had
not impaired the Protestantism nor the Jews the
Christianity of England. He did not shrink from
dealing with the purely religious aspect of the question,
and the last part of his speech reads like a sermon.
What, he asked, was the value of pure Theism ?
Quoting some magnificent lines of Lucretius, he argued
that Agnosticism and not Atheism was the special
danger of the time. In a peroration of singular beauty
he implored the House not to connect the traths of
religion with the sense of political and personal in
justice. The BiU, however, was, on May 3, rejected by
292 votes agamst 289.
On the 4th, Mr. Bradlaugh had again appeared to
take the oath, Gladstone once more declined to interfere,

EGYPT 199
and Sir Stafford Northcote carried another motion that
Bradlaugh shotUd not be permitted to go through a
meaningless form. Gladstone supported the previous
question, which was moved by Mr. Labouchere.
At a meeting of the party held in the Foreign
Office on May 29, Gladstone, dealing with the require
ments of public business, and the smaU progress
hitherto made vnth Government BUls, indicated the
Corrupt Practices BiU as one which it was pecuharly
essential to pass. This BUl, which became law before
the end of the session, did a good deal to check the
more obvious forms of bribery. But its most useful
feature was the pectmiary Hmit which it imposed even
upon legitimate expenditure in proportion to the size of
the constituency. Besides this the principal measures
of the year were Mr. Chamberlain's Bankruptcy Act,
which gave jurisdiction, in cases of insolvency, to the
Board of Trade, and the Agricultural Holdings Act,
which conferred upon farmers the right of compensa
tion for improvements.
Before the summer was over the case of Mr.
Bradlaugh cropped up once more. On July 8 he
vsrrote to Gladstone announcing his intention of taking
his seat. Gladstone, who, since his first defeat on
the question, had always disclaimed responsibUity,
forwarded the letter to Sir Stafford Northcote,
who again carried a resolution excluding Bradlaugh

200 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
from the precincts of the House. Gladstone dedhned
to vote one way or the other. On July 27 he had the
difficult task of defending a proposal to charge the
revenues of India with a seventh part of the money
spent upon the Egyptian campaign. He did so on the
rather flimsy ground that the Suez Canal was an
Indian interest. Just before the close of the session,
after protracted debates on the Irish Estimates, Glad
stone, rising above the sordid level of mutual re
crimination, made a dignified and pathetic appeal to
the Irish members, in which he implored them to ask
themselves what good purpose could be served by the
constant use of inflammatory language. It was the
sort of speech which only he could have made. But
Mr. Healy, to whom it was specially directed, after
expressing personal admiration of the Prime Minister,
replied that the only thing which prevented war
between the two countries was physical force. In
September of this year, Gladstone, accompanied by his
old friend Mr. Tennyson, took a short trip on Sir Donald
Currie's ship, the ' Pembroke Castle,' to the North of
Scotland, and afterwards to Copenhagen, where they
met several Eoyal personages, including the Czar.
At Kirkwall, where the Prime Minister and the Poet
Laureate both received the freedom of the borough,
Gladstone made the most graceful of his occasional
speeches, contrasting the perishable nature of the

EGYPT 201
statesman's fame with the immortal renown of the
great poet. One result of this voyage appeared in
the ' London Gazette ' of the foUowing January, when
it was announced that her Majesty had conferred a
peerage upon Mr. Tennyson, the first poet who entered
the House of Lords as such. It was on January 9,
1884, at Hawarden, that Gladstone delivered his famous
speech on jam. A Prime Minister on jam is an easy
subject for ridicule ; but Gladstone's advice, that more
time and trouble should be given to the cultivation of
frait, was adopted vsdth great profit in several parts of
England. The session of 1884 was again disturbed by Mr.
Bradlaugh, who, on Febraary 9, duly introduced by two
other members, came up to the table, and for the
second time administered the oath to himself. His
object was to obtain a legal decision upon the question
whether he was qualified to take an oath, and in this
he succeeded. For, although Sir Stafford Northcote
again moved and carried a motion that he should not
be aUowed to go through this form, he voted in the
division. The House decided by a majority that his
vote should be disaUowed. But he voted in that
division, and as it was obvious that this process could
be indefinitely repeated, the matter was not further
pressed. He could now be sued for a penalty if he
had not taken the oath according to law, and therefore

202 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
the question was ripe for decision by the judges.
MeanwhUe, in case he had vacated his seat, he apphed
for the Chiltern Hundreds, and was re-elected at North
ampton. But the House again excluded bim from its
precincts, in spite of a solemn protest from Gladstone,
who reminded them that Bradlaugh had appealed to
the law.
A far more serious question soon engaged the
attention of Parliament. In November, 1883, an
Egyptian army, under Hicks Pasha, a former colonel in
the Indian service, had been defeated and destroyed by
the forces of the Mahdi in the Soudan. The Egyptian
garrisons were in great danger, and, on January 18,
General Gordon, of Chinese fame, who had once been
Governor-General of the Soudan, undertook, at the
request of the British Govemment, to effect their rehef
by peaceful means. After an interview with Sir Evelyn
Baring, afterwards Lord Cromer, at Cairo, he left for
Khartoum without a military escort, and accompanied
only by his aide-de-camp. Colonel Stewart. But, on
February 12, it was announced that the garrison of
Sinkat had been cut to pieces ; and when, on the same
evening, Sir Stafford Northcote rose to move a vote of
censure on the Egyptian pohcy of the Govemment,
Gladstone's position was a difficult one. He defended
himself, however, on the double ground that the great
source of evU in Egypt was the dual control which he

EGYPT 203
had inherited from his predecessors, and that since the
British occupation began valuable reforms had been
carried out. As for the future, there was to be no re-
conquest of the Soudan, but the garrison of Tokar was to
be reheved from Suakim. Adopting a phrase from Sir
WUfrid Lawson, he said the policy of the Govern
ment was to 'rescue and retire.' The motion was
rejected by the narrow majority of eighteen, and a similar
motion in the House of Lords was carried by 100.
A few days after the division came the news that
Tokar had surrendered to Osman Digna. Eecurring
to the subject, on AprU 3, Gladstone declared that
Gordon had fuU authority to return whenever he
thought proper, and denounced the plea for intervention
as merely made in the interests of the bondholders.
Meanwhile the pubhc became anxious about Gordon's
fate, and on May 12 another vote of censure was
moved, this time by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who
complained that the Govemment were doing nothing
at aU. Gladstone repHed that Gordon had never asked
for soldiers, and had started on the understanding that
there was to be no invasion of the Mahdi's territory.
On this occasion both Mr. Forster and Mr. Goschen
severely criticised the Govemment from the Ministerial
benches ; but the motion was rejected by a majority of
twenty-eight. On June 28 a Conference of the Powers, -with Lord

204 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
GranviUe in the chair, met in London to arrange the
finances of Egypt. But on August 2 Gladstone had
to teU the House of Commons that it had failed to
arrive at any result, and on August 11 Lord North
brook was sent to examine the whole subject at Cairo.
One important piece of phUanthropic business, in
which both parties concurred, distinguished the session
of 1884. On February 22, Lord Sahsbury moved for
a Eoyal Commission to inquire into the housing of the
poor. To this the Government at once assented. Sir
Charles Dilke was selected by Gladstone to be chair
man, among his colleagues being the Prince of Wales,
Cardinal Manning, and Lord Salisbury himself. At
the close of the debate on the Address in the House of
Commons, Sir Henry Brand resigned the office of
Speaker, and was succeeded by Mr. Arthur Peel. The
Speaker is of course formally elected by the House ; but
the nomination comes from the Prime Minister, and
experience soon proved what an admirable choice
Gladstone had made.
On February 27, Lord Derby concluded with
President Kruger, and two other Boer delegates,
the Convention of London, which modified the Con
vention of Pretoria in favour of the Transvaal.
The suzerainty of the Queen over the South African
Eepublic was in terms aboHshed, though the precise
effect of the clause which did so was afterwards

EGYPT 205
disputed. It was, however, provided that treaties
between the Transvaal and all foreign Powers except
the Free State should be subject to the approval of the
British Government. The policy of this Convention
did not come before the House of Commons till July 30,
when the debate turned chiefly upon the sufficiency of
the protection exercised by the paramount Power over
the native tribes. Gladstone defended the settlement,
and also the restoration of Cetewayo, which he de
scribed as the only possible amends for the iniquities
of the Zulu war. The very important questions which
afterwards arose between the British Government and
the Boers were not then present to anyone's mind.

206 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XVIII
THE COUNTY FRANCHISE
The Franchise Bill, which was the principal work
of this session, and which, in the opinion of many
Liberals, had been too long postponed, was introduced
by Gladstone on February 29. Although his speech
lasted for two hours, and was a luminous exposition of
the whole subject, the purport of the Bill was extremely
simple. He gave to householders and to lodgers in
counties precisely the same suffrage enjoyed by the
same classes in the boroughs. He also conferred a new
right of voting, called the Service Franchise, on men
who occupied houses and rooms in respect of their
employment. Gladstone made a powerful appeal on
behalf of the agricultural labourers, who would be chiefly
affected by the measure, and whose good qualities as
citizens he extoUed. The Bill would, he calctUated,
enfranchise about two millions, raising the electorate
from three milhons to five. Deahng with the argument
that the extension of the franchise should be accom
panied by a redistribution of seats, he said that to
take this course would overload the Bill ; but he

THE COUNTY PEANCHISB 207
admitted that franchise must be followed by redistri
bution. This was the point on which the Conservative
Party, who did not oppose the principle of the Bill,
elected to fight. On the second reading, which was
moved on March 24, Lord John Manners, afterwards
Duke of Eutland, proposed an amendment to the effect
that the BiU was incomplete vsdthout a readjustment
of political power. He cited the precedent set by
Lord Derby, then Lord Stanley, who, in 1866, had met
in a similar way the Eeform Bill of Lord Eussell.
The debate was a long one. Gladstone did not reply
tiU April 7, when he pledged himself to bring in and,
if he could, to carry, a Eedistribution Bill before
Parliament was dissolved. The second reading of the
BiU was carried on the same night by a majority of
130. The most important amendment moved in Com
mittee (May 20) was one to exclude Ireland from the
scope of the BUl. The Irish peasantry were, it was
said, both poorer and less well educated than the
Enghsh. The amendment, moved by Mr. Brodrick,
was supported by Mr. W. H. Smith ; but the Oppo
sition were divided. Lord Eandolph Churchill ridi
culed what he called the ' Mud Cabin ' objection,
declaring that there was far less difference between the
cottage of the EngHsh and the cabin of the Irish
labourer than there was between the palatial residence
of Mr. Smith and his ovsm -humble abode. Gladstone

208 LIFE OP W. K GLADSTONE
in his speech addressed himself especially to the Irish
members, and in an eloquent apostrophe assured them
that the only weapon which would enable them to
injure the British Empire would be the injustice of
England. The amendment was rejected by 332 to 137,
and the BUl was read a third time vsdthout a division on
June 26.
In the House of Lords, however, the straggle was
renewed with more serious results. Lord Cairns, on
July 7, carried an amendment to the second reading,
by 205 votes to 146, which had the effect of suspending
the BUl untU a scheme of redistribution was introduced.
In the division on this amendment, Gladstone was sup
ported by Archbishop Benson and almost aU the other
bishops present. In the debate he found unexpected
aUies in the Duke of ArgyU and Lord Wemyss. The
refusal of the Lords to pass the BUl excited much
popular feeling, and a procession of agrictUtural
labourers, who marched through the streets of London
vsdth hop-poles on July 21, was received with sympathy,
even among those not usuaUy friendly to such demon
strations. Gladstone announced to a meeting of his
party, and to the House of Commons on July 10, that
Parhament would be prorogued as soon as possible,
and that the BUl wotUd be reintroduced in an autumn
session. Lord Wemyss, taking advantage of the fact
that the Lords had not technicaUy throvra. out the BiU,

THE COUNTY PEANCHISE 209
and that, therefore, the second reading might be moved
again, suggested, on July 17, that it shotUd be passed,
on the understanding that the autumn session would
be devoted to redistribution. To this Gladstone,
through Lord Granville, readily acceded. But Lord
Sahsbury declined, on the ground that the Lords would
then be obliged to pass any Eedistribution Bill the
Government brought in, on pain of an appeal to the
new constituencies without any redistribution at all.
An offer made by Gladstone, through Lord Granville
and Lord Cairns, to Lord Salisbury, that if the Lords
passed the Franchise Bill the Government would
pledge themselves not to dissolve until a Eedistribution
BiU had been passed, was equally unsuccessful. The
prorogation of Parliament put an end to the Bill.
During the recess, Gladstone paid a visit to his
constituents, who received him, if possible, with
greater enthusiasm than before. Speaking at Edin
burgh on August 30, he protested against the claim
of the Lords to force a dissolution, or, as he put it, to
pass capital sentence on the Commons. The next day
he dealt with the Egyptian question, saying that it
was honour and pHghted faith which led to the
occupation, as the Govemment were bound to carry
out even the unwise engagements of their predecessors.
At this time the conflict between the two Houses
showed no signs of a peaceful solution. But it was
p

210 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
observed that whUe Gladstone was in Scotland he
went to Balmoral, and that he was foUowed by the
Duke of Eichmond, who soon afterwards received a
visit from Lord Sahsbury and Lord Caims.
On October 8 there appeared in the ' Standard ' what
purported to be the Ministerial plan of redistribution.
The pubUcation was of course surreptitious, and the
authenticity of the document was denied. But it
turned out to have been dravTn up by a committee of
the Cabinet, and, though not a final scheme, it
undoubtedly represented the general ideas of the
Government, and the knowledge of their intentions
suggested a way out of the difficulty. It took some
time, however, to compose the quarrel. When Parlia
ment met on October 23, Gladstone said that the
question was whether the representative or the unre
presentative majority was to prevail. The debates on
the new BUl, which was the same as the old, were
interrupted by an attack made, on October 30, by Lord
Eandolph Churchill upon Mr. Chamberlain for organis
ing a riot at a Conservative meeting in Aston Park,
near Birmingham, where Sir Stafford Northcote and
Lord Eandolph himself were the speakers. Gladstone
stoutly defended his coUeague ; but Lord Eandolph
made a great impression on the House, and the
majority for Mr. Chamberlain was only thirty-six.
The second reading of the second Franchise BiU was

THE COUNTY PEANCHISE 211
moved on November 6, when Colonel Stanley, after
wards sixteenth Earl of Derby, repeated the amend
ment of Lord John Manners. Next day the Bill was
read a second time by a majority of 140 ; no amend
ments were made in Committee, and on November 13
it was back in the Lords. On the 17th the terms of
the arrangement, now seen to be inevitable, were an
nounced by Gladstone and GranviUe. If the Lords
passed the Franchise BiU at once, the Government
would consult the leaders of the Opposition upon the
details of their Eedistribution Bill before bringing it
in, and would then proceed with it forthwith. On the
18th the Lords read the Bill a second time without
a division ; but the Committee was postponed for a
fortnight, to give time for the proposed consultation.
In this the Govemment were represented by Gladstone
and Sir Charles Dilke ; the Opposition by Lord
Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote. An agreement
was soon made, and, on December 1, Gladstone, in a
business-like statement, explained the Eedistribution
Bill. All boroughs whose population was below
15,000 were to be merged in the counties. Boroughs
whose population was under 50,000, and which had
two members, were to lose one of them. London was
to have thirty-seven additional members, though the
City would lose two out of four. The total number
of members was to be raised from 652 to 670, England p 2

212 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
receiving six of the eighteen, and Scotland twelve.
The representation of Ireland was not to be touched.
Boroughs and counties were to be divided into
districts, each returning a single member, except the
City of London and towns with a population between
50,000 and 165,000. A boundary commission was at
once appointed, of which Sir John Lambert, Secretary
to the Local Govemment Board, was chairman. On
December 4 this Bill was read a second time in the
House of Commons, and on the 6th the Eoyal assent
was given to the Franchise Bill. Mr. Courtney,
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, resigned his
office, being opposed to single members and in favour
of proportional representation.
On January 8, 1885, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of
Clarence, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, attained his
majority. The Prime Minister, writing ' as the oldest
among the confidential servants of her Majesty,'
addressed to the young Prince an earnest and dignified
letter upon this important epoch in his life, and upon
his prospect of occupying at some distant date a throne
which, he said, ' to me at least appears the most illus
trious in the world.' The letter derives a special and
melancholy interest from the premature death of the
Duke of Clarence in January, 1892.

218

CHAPTEE XrX
GLADSTONE AND GOEDON
The weakest point in Gladstone's second Adminis
tration, and the one which led to their ultimate
defeat, was their pohcy in Egypt, if, indeed, they can
be said to have had an Egyptian pohcy at aU. An
expedition under Lord Wolseley had been sent, in
the autumn of 1884, to rescue Gordon and reheve
Khartoum, But, on February 5, 1885, the terrible
news reached London that Khartoum had faUen on
January 26. There was no specific information of
Gordon's fate, but the pubhc rightly assumed that he
had perished v?ith the garrison which he had vainly
attempted to defend. Lord Wolseley's expedition was
just too late, A Cabinet was immediately summoned,
and 7,000 men ordered to Suakim. At this crisis, on
February 9, Lord Eosebery showed his chivalrous
devotion to his chief by joining the Govemment,
which had just received such a formidable blow, as
Lord Privy Seal and First Commissioner of Works.
The salary attached to the sinecure office of Privy
Seal was from this time aboHshed. Parhament met on

214 LIFE OF W. B, GLADSTONE
February 19, and Gladstone announced that the power
of the Mahdi was to be overthrown at Khartoum,
He went on, in language which made a painful impres
sion even on his supporters, to argue that Gordon had
not availed himself of the means of securing his per
sonal safety which were open to him. He afterwards
explained that he meant no reproach to Gordon, but was
merely defending the Government. On February 24,
Sir Stafford Northcote moved a vote of censure on the
Govemment for their failure to rescue Gordon, and
Mr. John Morley proposed an amendment against the
pohcy of overthrowing the Mahdi. Gladstone was
thus attacked simultaneously on both sides. In reply,
he pointed out that Gordon had never asked for British
troops, and that he went to Khartoum on an entirely
peaceful mission. As for the reconquest of the Soudan,
he compared it to chaining the sands of the desert
when the winds were howling over them. Acknow
ledging that the situation in Egypt was critical, he
expressed a hope that they should not present to the
world the spectacle of a disparaged Government and
a doubtful House of Commons. On February 26 Sir
Stafford Northcote's motion was rejected by the
narrow majority of fourteen. But the significance of
the division was somewhat diminished by the fact that
forty Irish Home Eulers, who did not share the views of
the Conservatives, voted with them against the Govern-

GLADSTONE AND GOEDON 215
ment. The Lords carried a vote of censure by 189 to
68, Gladstone said very Httle against Mr, Morley's
amendment, which, indeed, the Govemment, though it
was defeated by a large majority, practically adopted.
For, on May 11, Lord Hartington announced the
abandonment of the Soudan ; and the Mahdi was not
overthrovsm, though he soon afterwards died,
MeanwhUe, the relations between England and
Eussia had become so unsatisfactory, that, on March 26,
the reserves were called out, and vvithin a month the
two countries were on the brink of war. The difficulty
arose out of an Anglo-Eussian Commission which had
been appointed to settle the boundary between Eussia
and Afghanistan, Sir Peter Lumsden, the British
Commissioner, waited for his Eussian colleague, but
the Eussian coUeague did not come. On April 8,
Gladstone informed the House of Commons that it
was true the Eussians, under General Komaroff,
had attacked an Afghan force and occupied Penjdeh,
which was tmdoubtedly Afghan territory. This he
described as an act of unprovoked aggression, and he
admitted that the state of affairs was grave, though not
hopeless. On AprU 21 he gave notice that he would
ask for a vote of credit to the amount of eleven
milhons, of which four and a half would be for the
Soudan. The remainder was intended for the Navy in
case of a European war. The Prime Minister moved

216 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
this vote, on April 27, in a speech which took the House
by storm, and swept away all opposition. He dwelt on
the country's obligations to the Ameer, which any
jGovernment would be bound to fiUfil, and upon the
forbearance which had been shown in deaUng with
Eussia. He closed an eloquent and powerful appeal to
the patriotism of the House by declaring that, subject
only to justice and to honour, he and his colleagues
would continuously labour for the purposes of peace.
When he sat down the vote was at once agreed to, amid
the general cheering of the House. On May 4, Glad
stone was able to state that Great Britain and Eussia
had accepted the arbitration of a friendly sovereign, who
was afterwards announced to be the King of Denmark.
But this arrangement was never carried out, and the
matter was finally settled, after Gladstone left office, by
direct negotiation.
Once more, and only once, Egypt came before this
Parliament. The financial mission of Lord North
brook, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who had left
England for Cairo, in company with Lord Wolseley,
on August 30, 1884, resulted in complete failure, and
the financial position of the Egyptian Government was
desperate. In these circumstances the Powers jointly
proposed a loan of 9,000,000?., and on March 26, 1885,
Gladstone moved in the House of Commons a guarantee
for the British share. He protested that the loan

GLADSTONE AND GOEDON 217
would give the Powers no right of controUing Egypt,
whieh, in a strictly political sense, was true. But
objection was not unnaturaUy taken to the right of
financial interference which it would involve, and the
motion was only carried by a majority of forty-eight.
On May 15, just before Parliament separated for
the Whitsuntide recess, Gladstone suddenly announced
that the Govemment would ask Parliament to renew
some ' valuable and equitable ' provisions of the Irish
Crimes Act. This gave much dissatisfaction to the
Eadicals, and Mr. John Morley gave notice that he
would oppose any such measure. He had, however,
no opportunity of doing so. The end was at hand.
On June 8, Mr. Childers moved the second reading of
the Budget BUl. The Budget was extremely unpopular.
The expenditure of the country had run up, for the first
time, to 100,000,000?., then considered a gigantic sum,
and, including the vote of credit, the ChanceUor of the
Exchequer had to estimate for a deficit of 15,000,000?.
The Opposition attacked the Budget in form. The
particular points which they chose to assail, and which
were embodied in an amendment to the second reading
by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, were the increased duties
on beer and spirits, and the addition to the Succession
Duty on land, which was not accompanied, as the Con
servatives argued it should have been, by a relief of
local rates. Sir Michael, in his speech, suggested that

218 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
the duty on tea might have been raised instead of the
duty on alcohol, and of this rather unfortunate sugges
tion, Gladstone, in his reply, made the most. He called
upon the House not to interfere with the principle of
adjusting direct to indirect taxation. But the amend
ment was carried by 264 to 252, and the Govemment
at once resigned. Six Liberals and thirty-nine Home
Eulers voted with the Tories in this division, from
which many Liberals abstained. On June 12, when
Gladstone formally declared the resignation of himself
and his coUeagues, the Eedistribution BiU, which had
not been seriously altered in Committee, was passed in
the House of Lords, and thus the work of electoral
reform was complete. On June 13 the Queen, who
was at Balmoral, sent for Lord Salisbury. Lord Sahs
bury objected to taking office in a minority without an
assurance that the Liberal Party would not impede the
remaining business of the session ; and on this subject
he had a long correspondence with Gladstone, through
the Queen, which was read by Gladstone in the House
without comment on June 24. Lord Salisbury, on
June 17, in his first letter, pointed out that the Eedis
tribution Act, coupled with the Eegistration Act, made
it impossible to dissolve Parliament before November.
He therefore thought that he had a right to ask for aU
the time of the House required to vote the supplies of
the year, and for a promise that this business would

GLADSTONE AND GOEDON 219
not be obstructed. Gladstone replied on the same day
that he had no intention of embarrassing the Govern
ment, but that it was not in his power to give any definite
pledge. On June 18, Gladstone went to Windsor and
had an audience of the Queen. On the same day,
Lord Salisbury wrote to her Majesty that he could not
accept office except under the conditions he had pre
scribed ; but Gladstone refused to go beyond his former
letter. On June 19, Lord Salisbury again asked that
there should be precedence for financial business, and
no opposition to an eightpenny Income Tax. Glad
stone again declined to give any specific undertaking ;
but repeated, in more emphatic language, that he had
no intention or desire to harass the Ministers of the
Crown. With this. Lord Salisbury, at the earnest
request of the Queen, had to be content, and on June 25
he informed the House of Lords that he had under
taken to form an Administration. Making a precedent
in English history, he became both Prime Minister
and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The Queen
offered Gladstone an earldom, but this he respectfully
declined ; and on June 29 he wrote to his committee
in Midlothian that he was prepared to contest the
county once more.
The new Ministers in the House of Commons
having been re-elected, Mr. Bradlaugh, for the last
time in this Parliament, presented himself to take the

220 LEPB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
oath. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who had become
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House
of Commons, moved that it should reaffirm its resolu
tions of last year, which prevented Bradlaugh from
taking the oath or coming within the precincts of the
House. Gladstone supported an amendment, moved
by Mr. Hopwood, in favour of dealing vsdth the diffi
culty by legislation ; but this was rejected by 263 to 219,
and Mr. Bradlaugh withdrew. With that the long
controversy ended. For, after the General Election,
Mr. Speaker Peel ruled that the new Parliament could
take no cognisance of what had been done in the old,
and that Mr. Bradlaugh, being one of the members
returned for Northampton, had as much right to take
the oath as anybody else. On July 7, Gladstone, in
a speech which Lord Eandolph Churchill, now Secre
tary of State for India, described as magnanimous,
promised to assist the new Govemment so far as he
could. He commented, however, upon the declaration
of Lord Carnarvon, the Lord-Lieutenant, that he was
prepared to administer Ireland with the ordinary law,
and remarked that whenever he himself acted in har
mony with the representatives of the Irish people, his
doing so was made the subject of outrageous imputa
tions. The Government, he said, had incurred a grave
responsibility; but it was theirs, and he left it vsdth
them. Writing to Mr. Childers, on July 16, he pointed

GLADSTONE AND GOEDON 221
oui that! a Gonssvative Govenunent had casi upon
piopersy, in the shape of additional Income Tax. the
fdicde increase of expenditure which was to be defrayed
out of revenue.
Both sides had ample time to piepaie for the
Gieneral Election, and it was not tfll September IS
that Gladstone issued bis address to his constiraents.
In this document, which was of unusual length, he
dealt, in a spirit of singular moderation, with a great
vazi^ of subjects. He e^ressed a hope that it would
be possible at an early date to withdraw British
troops from Egypt ; he j^posed a r^orm of the land
laws, chicly by the abolition of erLiails. and of aU
seHitoB^ils whieh impeded the free exchange of land ;
he pleaded for unity in the Liberal Party, and for the
freedom of aU sections who accepied lis Tnain prin-
ci^es to p:iisue dieir special objects. The disesta-
bUshmeni ci the English Church he relegated, in a
famous phrase, to the dim and distant courses of the
fotnie. To Ireland he referred in some remarkable
sentence vdiich attracted at the time les attention
than they deserved. ' In my opmion,' he said, • not
now for the first time delivered, the hmit is dear
widiin which any desires of Ireland, eonstirutionally
ascsctained, may, and beyond which they cannot, rec^ve
the assent of Padiament. To main tain the supremacy
of the Crown, the unity of the Empire, and all the

222 LIFE OF W, E, GLADSTONE
authority of Parliament necessary for the conservation
of that unity, is the first duty of every representative of
the people. Subject to this governing principle, every
grant to portions of the country of enlarged powers for
the management of their own affairs is, in my view, not a
source of danger, but a means of averting it, and is in
the nature of a new guarantee for increased cohesion,
happiness, and strength,'
Gladstone's address was regarded by the Eadicals as
disappointingly tame, and it led Mr. Chamberlain to put
forward more advanced proposals, which made him for
a time the most popular of aU speakers at Eadical meet
ings. On October 2, Gladstone wrote to contradict a
statement, made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that
the late Government had decided to dispense with all
coercion. He said that, on the contrary, they had deter
mined to retain the power of changing the venue, the
right to summon special juries in criminal cases, and the
clauses against boycotting. On November 9 he started
for his campaign in Scotland, where he again dwelt upon
the need for Liberal unity. Even in Scotland he disap
pointed many of his most ardent supporters by intimating
that the time was not ripe for the disestablishment of the
Scottish Church. As for Ireland, he held that she was
entitled to the utmost measure of local self-government
consistent vsdth the integrity of the United Kingdom.
Mr. ParneU declared that this was the most important

GLADSTONE AND GOEDON 223
dehverance on Irish affikirs which had hitherto come
from any British statesman, and caUed upon Gladstone
to say particularly what his plan of Irish self-govem-
ment was. Speaking at West Calder on November 17,
Gladstone declined this chaUenge, saying that Ireland
had not yet spoken, and that he awaited her verdict.
Chi November 21 appeared a manifesto from the Irish
Nationahst Party, signed by Mr. T. P. O'Connor,
attacking the Liberals in violent terms, and tuning aU
Irish electors in Great Britain to vote against those
who had coerced their coimtry. On November 23,
Gladstone, turning aside, as he so readUy did, from
psirty pohtics, dehvered an address upon the historical
associations of Edinburgh, to which he had just pre
sented a new market cross in place of the old one
long since destroyed. Chi November 27 the result of
the Midlothian election was declared. Gladstone's
majority surpassed aU expectation. He defeated Mr,
Dahymple, the Conservative candidate, by more than
two to one, the numbers being for Gladstone 7,879, for
Dahymple 3,245.
But the Enghsh elections h£id not gone altogether
in favour of the Liberal Party. The f aU of Khartoum,
and the death of Gordon, weighed heavUy on the pubhc
mind. Professional poUtieians, who never cared two
straws for Gordon, ahve or dead, made the most of
them. Bat they seriously Eiffected aU classes of the

224 LIFE OP W, E. GLADSTONE
community. Liberals as well as Conservatives, and
they undoubtedly turned many votes. In the English
boroughs the strange doctrine of Fair Trade, which
would have limited the policy of free exchange, by
confining it to our intercourse with countries that
were not Protectionist, found many supporters, and
Conservatives won in consequence many seats.
The passage in these Midlothian speeches which
was best remembered by Gladstone's opponents, and of
which, after his conversion to Home Eule, they made
most use, occurred in his speech at Edinburgh on
November 9, when he caUed upon the country to
return a Liberal majority which would be strong
enough to act against a combination of Conservatives
and Parnellites, Even Liberals, he added, could not
be trusted to deal fairly with the Irish Question if it
were in the power of the Irish members to turn them
out at any moment.

225

CHAPTEE XX
HOME ETJLE
The final result of the election was a new House of
Commons composed of 335 Liberals, 249 Conser
vatives, and 86 foUowers of Mr. PameU. Thus, the
Conservatives and the PameUites combined, as they
had been combined at the General Election, exactly
balanced the Liberal Party in the House. Such a
confused state of things had never before existed,
and, as Parhament was not to meet tUl January,
every possible form of speculation about the futiire
was freely advanced. But, on December 16, there
appeared, simultaneously in the ' Standard ' and the
'Leeds Mercury,' a paragraph which caused intense
excitement. The purport of it was that Gladstone
had made up his mind to propose a scheme of Home
Eule, with an Irish Legislature sitting at DubHn,
and an Irish Executive responsible for Irish affairs.
Gladstone at once telegraphed that this statement was
published without his knowledge or authority. But
no stronger or more direct denial was forthcoming, and
it was observed that Mr. Herbert Gladstone, one of the
Q

226 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
members for Leeds, had arrived there from Hawarden
just before the appearance of the paragraph.
This announcement of Gladstone's views on Home
Eule, or what he called this speculation on them, took his
former colleagues, most of whom he had not consulted,
by surprise. Lord Hartington seized the first oppor
tunity of declaring that he knew nothing about them,
and Mr. Chamberlain spoke as if they were new to him.
But it afterwards transpired that, towards the end of
December, Gladstone had, both in conversation and by
letter, urged Lord Salisbury, through Mr. Balfour, to
take up the Irish Question, stating his own opinion that
it ought not to be made a subject of dispute between
parties. Mr. Balfour replied in courteous language
that Lord Salisbury acknowledged the friendly tone
of Gladstone's communications, but that, as Parliament
was to meet so soon, he did not think it desirable to
forestall the statement of policy which he would then
have to make. To this Gladstone rejoined that he
neither expected nor desired anything of the kind.
He had made his offer and was satisfied. In talking to
Mr. Balfour, though not in his letters, Gladstone had
expressed the belief that, unless the Irish problem were
speedily solved, the party of violence and assassination
would get the upper hand in Ireland. Parliament met
on January 12, but the Address was not moved tiU the
21st, and meanwhile Gladstone refused to receive a

HOME EULE 227
deputation of Irish landlords headed by the Mayor of
Belfast, who desired, as they said, relief from the
tyranny of the Land League, on the ground that to do
so would be encroaching on the functions of the
Government. On January 21, speaking to the Address,
he declared that Home Eule was not a question of
party, and, turning to the new members, he reminded
them that, as an ' old Parliamentary hand,' it would not
be wise for him to make a premature disclosure of his
plans. But he significantly added that the mainte
nance of the Empire, though an excellentobject,in which
they were all agreed, was not enough to constitute a
policy. The resignation of Lord Carnarvon, and the
appointment of Mr. W. H. Smith to be Chief Secretary,
with a seat in the Cabinet, were immediately followed
by a notice from Sir Michael Hicks-Beach that a Bill
would be introduced for the suppression of the National
League. This notice, as Gladstone afterwards said,
convinced him that the Conservatives would not deal
with Home Eule, and that he must therefore take
his own independent course. An opportunity for dis
placing the Government immediately occurred. On
January 26, Mr. Jesse Ceilings moved an amendment
to the Address in favour of giving local bodies com
pulsory power to obtain land for allotments. This
proposal, under the name of ' Three Acres and a Cow,'
had been very popular in the counties at the General (42

228 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
Election, and the name of Mr. Colhngs was generaUy
associated with it. Gladstone spoke in support of the
amendment, and so did Mr. Chamberlain. The
Govemment, assisted by Lord Hartington and Mr.
Goschen, opposed it, but it was carried against them
by a majority of seventy-nine.
Lord Salisbury at once resigned, and on February 1
the Queen sent for Gladstone. A formidable spht in
the Liberal Party foUowed. Lord Hartington refused
to join a Government pledged to consider favourably the
question of Home Eule, and his example was foUowed
by Mr. Goschen. Sir Henry James, though offered his
choice of the Woolsack or the Home Office, also declined.
It was knovsTi that Mr. Bright and Lord Selborne were
hostUe to any material change in the Act of Union.
On the other hand, Gladstone had the invaluable aid
of Lord Spencer, whose firm administration of Ireland
had broken up the most dangerous and murderous con
spiracy that ever existed in that country. Sir Farrer
HerscheU, formerly Solicitor-General, became Lord
ChanceUor, and proved a tower of strength to his party
in the House of Lords. Lord Eosebery's appointment
to the Foreign Office gave general satisfaction. Lord
Granville joined the Cabinet as Colonial Secretary.
Mr. John Morley, who had the confidence of the Irish
Nationalists, became Chief Secretary for Ireland, vrith a
seat in the Cabinet, where Lord Aberdeen, the new Lord-

HOME EULE 229
Lieutenant, had no place. Gladstone, in his address
to his constituents, reiterated the necessity of preserving
Imperial unity, but urged at the same time that no
half measures would suffice, and that, in dealing with
Ireland, they must go to the source and seat of mischief.
But the new Government were unlucky from the
first. On February 8 there were serious riots in Trafalgar
Square, due to the simultaneous meeting of unemployed
workmen and of the Social Democratic Federation.
The rioters marched, without resistance from the
pohce, through Pall Mall into Piccadilly, where, and in
South Audley Street, they smashed the windows of
shops and pillaged their contents. Mr. Childers, who
had only been Home Secretary for a few hours, was
not really responsible for this catastrophe, which led to
the resignation of Sir Edmund Henderson, the Com
missioner of Metropolitan Police. But it undoubtedly
damaged the Govemment, whose prosecution of the
Social Democratic leaders ended in a verdict of
acquittal. On February 18, Parliament met again
after the re-election of Ministers, but all that Gladstone
would say at that time was, that there would be no
penal legislation for Ireland. In the House of Lords,
Lord Eosebery announced that England had joined
the other Powers in preventing Greece from going to
war with Turkey. This policy was not agreeable to
the Eadicals, but it was not seriously challenged.

230 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
When the Army Estimates were proposed, the Govem
ment came very near to defeat. Mr. Howard Vincent
moved for an increase in the capitation grant to Volun-\
teers. Gladstone's view of this motion, though consistent
and characteristic, came upon most of his foUowers as a
surprise. Taking the matter out of the hands of Mr.
Campbell-Bannerman, the Secretary for War, he at once
rose, and, speaking with great emphasis, declared that he
would not take orders from the House of Commons to
increase the national expenditure. The House might
get a Minister who was ready to do so, but it would not
be the Minister who stood at that table. The motion
was only defeated by a majority of twenty-one. On
March 26 another blow fell upon the Govemment.
Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan announced their
resignation. Mr. Chamberlain, for whom higher office
was expected, had entered the Cabinet vsdth some
reluctance as President of the Local Government
Board. His place was taken by Mr. Stansfeld. Mr.
Trevelyan, who had been Secretary for Scotland, was
succeeded by Lord Dalhousie. Before he left the
Govemment, Mr. Trevelyan, on February 25, had
introduced a Bill for giving fair rents and fixity of
tenure to the crofters in the Highlands of Scotland.
This Bill, which received the Eoyal Assent on June 25,
was the only legislation of any importance carried
through the Parliament of 1885.

HOME EULE 231
On April 8, Gladstone brought in his Home Eule
Bill. He began by observing that, in the opinion of
the Cabinet, the question of Home Eule was closely
connected vrith the question of the land, and that, but
for the fear of overloading the measure, he would have
dealt with them both at the same time. As it was, a
Land Bill would almost immediately follow. He pro
ceeded to argue that the abandonment of coercion by
the late Government had made it for the future
impossible, and that an alternative must be found.
The great difficulty of governing Ireland was, he said,
that the law came to the Irish people in a 'foreign
garb.' He dwelt at some length on the analogy of
federal Home Eule in Sweden and Norway, and in
Austria and Hungary. He emphatically protested
that he had no intention of repealing the Union, for
that would be to restore Grattan's Parhament, which
was absolutely independent. He proposed, however,
to create a legislative body, which would sit in Dublin,
for dealing with affairs exclusively Irish. The Irish
Eepresentative Peers would cease to sit in the House of
Lords, and the Irish members would cease to sit in the
House of Commons. Ireland would tax herself in all
branches of revenue except Customs and Excise. The
balance of Customs and Excise duties, after the dis
charge of Ireland's obligations to the British Govem
ment, would be paid into the Irish Exchequer. Certain

232 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
powers would be reserved to the Imperial Parliament.
These would be questions which affected the Crown,
the Army, the Navy, and foreign or colonial relations.
The Irish Legislature would be expressly prohibited
from endovring any religious body. In that Legislature
there would be two orders. The first order would
consist of the twenty-eight Eepresentative Peers, and
seventy-five other members elected every ten years on
a property franchise of 200?. a year. This body would
have the right of delaying, but not of ultimately defeat
ing. Bills passed by the other and more strictly elective
order. The second order would consist of the 103
Irish members then sitting at Westminster, and 101
others elected in the same way. The Viceroy would
hold office permanently, and the disability of Catholics
for the Viceroyalty would be removed. The present
judges would have the right of retiring on full pensions,
and all civil servants in Ireland would have the same
right after two years. The Eoyal Irish Constabulary,
so long as it continued to exist, would remain under
Imperial control. The actual cost of that force was
then 1,500,000?., but Ireland would not be called upon
to pay more than 1,000,000?. The remainder would
be supplied from the Imperial Exchequer. Gladstone
expressed a hope that the Eoyal Irish, who were
rather a military than a civil body, could be safely
disbanded when Home Eule had had time to work.

HOME BULB 233
To the general expenditure of the United Kingdom,
Ireland would contribute a proportion of one in twenty-
six. At the conclusion of his speech, Gladstone referred
to the complete success of Home Eule in the British
Colonies, and drew from that fact the inference that it
would be equaUy successful in Ireland.
The next day, Mr. Chamberlain rose to explain the
reasons for his resignation. But his speech was inter
rupted by Gladstone, when he attempted to deal with
his objections to the Land BiU, which had not yet been
introduced, and was known only to the Cabinet. This
was the first pubhc altercation between Mr. Chamberlain
and his former chief. The debate lasted tiU April 13,
when Gladstone rephed. He then said that the exclusion
of the Irish members, to whieh Mr. Chamberlain and
other speakers had especiaUy objected, as infringing the
principle of no taxation without lepresentaticn. vs-as
not vital to the BiU. Meeting the argument that the
countiy had given the Government no 'mandate' for
Home Eule, he retorted that there was equaUy no man
date for coercion. He maintained that his plan held the
field, and that, though it had many enemies, it had no
rival. The BiU was then r^,d a first time without a
division ; and on April 16 Gla^btone introduced the
Land Purchase BiU. This he described as the second
portion of the Ministerial scheme, and necessary for

234 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
the maintenance of social order. England, he said,
was responsible for the power of the Irish landlords,
and for the mischief which some of them had done.
It was, therefore, incumbent upon Parhament to give
them an opportunity of withdrawing from the country
if they did not like Home Eule. Accordingly, those of
them who so desired would be bought out. The Irish
Legislature would set up a State authority to be the
instrument of purchase, and the requisite sum would
be advanced through a three per cent, stock. AU
agricultural landlords would have the option of selling
their estates, of which the occupiers would become the
proprietors. But a tenant whose annual rent was less
than 4?. would not be compeUed to buy, and in the
congested districts the proprietor would be the State
authority. The terms would be twenty years' purchase
on judicial rents. Where no judicial rents had been
fixed, the prices would be settled by the Land Court.
The amount of the stock to be immediately issued
wotUd be 50,000,000?., but it was possible that that sum
might ultimately be more than doubled. The interest
was to be coUected by the State authority, and paid
into the Treasury through a Eeceiver-General, who
would be a British, not an Irish, officer. This BUl also
was read a first time without a division ; but it went
no further. During the interval between the first and
second readings of the Home Eule BiU, Gladstone

HOME EULE 235
wrote a letter to his constituents, in which he fuUy
explained and justified his new Irish poHcv. He told
them that he had received numerous expressions of
sympathy from British colonists, and he characterised
Ireland as the one faUure of the British race. The
Land BiU, he said, was an offer to the Irish landlords,
which they must accept or reject; and he reminded
them that the sands were running in the hour-glass.
He predicted that there could be only one end to the
controversy now raised, and, in a phrase which excited
much resentment, he described his opponents as con
sisting of 'class and the dependents of class.'
The debate on the second reading of the Home
Eule BiU began on May 10, and was prolonged, with
intervals, tUl June 7. Gladstone, in moving that the
BiU be read a second time, intimated that he was not
unwilling to reconsider the question of retaining the
Irish members at Westminster, though he gave no
hint of the manner in which this could be done. In
a spirited peroration, he declared that the path of
boldness was the path of safety, and he called upon
his opponents to say what they considered was the
alternative to Home Eule. Lord Hartington moved
the rejection of the BiU in a powerful speech. It was
EissaUed from both sides of the House, and, apart from
Gladstone's own speeches, it was feebly defended, with
the exception of a vigorous apology, in the classical

236 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
sense of the term, from Mr. Morley, who spoke with
genuine conviction and enthusiasm. The debate had
to be interrupted on May 20, in order that Mr. Morley
might propose the renewal of the Arms Act for
Ireland. This gave Gladstone an opportunity for
attacking Lord Eandolph Churchill on the subject of
his recent declaration that if Home Eule were passed,
Ulster would fight, and Ulster would be right. It was
only, said the Prime Minister, the stability of our
institutions which enabled such inflammatory utter
ances by public men to be made with impunity. The
Nationalists contented themselves with dividing against
the Bill as a protest, and they were almost alone in the
Division Lobby. The Bill passed rapidly through
both Houses, and received the Eoyal Assent on June 4.
Meanwhile, the discussion of the Home Eule Bill
dragged rather heavily, and the Government were
accused by the Conservative Party of prolonging it in
order to stir up public opinion in its favour. On May
27 a very important meeting of Liberals was held at
the Foreign Office, to hear from Gladstone what course
he proposed to take. He reminded them that there
was one thing which even Parliament could not do,
and that was to divest itself of its own powers. It
must remain supreme, even if its supremacy were not
expressly reserved in the Bill. As regarded the position
of the Irish members, he was willing to consider any

HOME EULE 237
plan for their retention which did not impair the
efficiency of the House of Commons, or interfere with
the autonomy of Ireland, and he suggested that they
might have the right to vote whenever it was proposed
to alter the relative taxation of Ireland. He added,
that if the BiU were read a second time, the Govem
ment wotUd proceed no further with it during that
session, and that, whether Parhament were prorogued
or adjourned, the Cabinet would reconsider the subject
during the recess. TSTien the House of Commons met
the next day. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, having faUed
to obtain smy further information from the Govem
ment, moved the adjournment of the House. He
protested against the Prime Minister's ambigtiity,
declared that the Home Eule BUl had become merely
a measure for the continuance of the Govemment in
office, and demanded to know whether, if the second
reading were carried, Parhament would be adjourned
or prorogued. Glstdstone, in a vehement reply,
denounced this as an tmjustifiable motion, repeated
what he had said at the Foreign Office about the Irish
members, smd said that the possible reconstruction of
the BUl only referred to that particular clause which
excluded them from Westminster. This speech was
a great disappointment to those Liberals who hoped,
like Mr. Chamberlain, that the Irish members would
be definitely retained. The only other information

238 LIFE OP W, E. GLADSTONE
extracted from the Govemment was, that if the Bill
passed its present stage the Cabinet would advise the
Queen to prorogue Parliament. The motion having
been negatived, the debate on the second reading was
resumed, and, at last, on June 7, Gladstone rose to
reply. His speech was admitted, both by friends and
foes, to be, from a rhetorical point of view, one of the
finest he ever delivered. He began with an appeal to
the history of Canada, which had been brought from
active rebellion to enthusiastic loyalty by the con
cession of Home Eule. He predicted that, if this
controversy were prolonged, the hideous features of
the transactions by which the Union was accomplished
would inevitably be brought to light. He called upon
the House to Hsten to the voice of Ireland, now, for
the first time, clearly heard. He implored them not
to strengthen the party of violence by rejecting her
constitutional demands, and, in a picturesque though
faulty image, he pronounced that the ebbing tide was
with those who resisted the BUl, and the flowing
tide with those who supported it. As soon as he
sat down, the division was caUed, and the BiU
was rejected by a majority of thirty. The Ayes to
the right were 343; the Noes to the left were
313. Ninety-three Liberals voted against the BiU;
only one Conservative, Sir Eobert Peel, voted in its
favour. The Irish Nationahsts were, of course, unani-

HOME EULE 239
mous. Mr. ParneU, indeed, had received Gladstone's
proposals with characteristic coldness, and had severely
criticised the financial clauses ; but he accepted the
scheme as, upon the whole, satisfactory, while Mr.
Dillon and Mr. O'Brien gave it a much warmer welcome.
On Jtme 8 the Cabinet met and decided that they
would recommend her Majesty to dissolve Parliament.
The Queen, not unnaturally, objected to a second disso
lution within seven months. But Gladstone persisted,
holding that any other course would be ' showing the
white feather,' and the Queen gave way. On June 14
Gladstone issued his address to his constituents, in which
he warned them that the only alternative to Home Eule
was the renewal of the coercive legislation which had
been tried throughout the century and had utterly failed.
He described the union with Ireland as merely a paper
union, which had been consummated by force and fraud.
In conclusion, he argued that the only way to restore
the efficiency of the Imperial Parliament was to give
Irishmen the management of their own affairs. On
June 17 he left London for Scotland, where he was
received vsdth apparently unabated warmth. Speaking
in Edinburgh, on the 21st, he said that the Land Pur
chase Bill was an offer to the Irish landlords, that they
had not accepted it, and that, so far as he was con
cerned, it would not be renewed. On his return from
Scotland he spoke at Manchester on the 25th, and.

240 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
feeling it necessary to meet the general disapproval of
separating the Habihty to be taxed from the right to
vote, he assured his audience that, under the recon
structed Bill, Ireland would be heard in Parliament
whenever her own interests were affected. The next
day Parliament was formally dissolved, and on the 28th,
in a final speech at Liverpool, he maintained it to be
historicaUy true that, in all great matters of policy, the
classes had been wrong while the masses had been
right. Let them, he said, do away with the one excep
tion to the universal loyalty of the British Empire,
which could not afford to have a Poland within it.
The result of the General Election was disastrous to
Home Eule. There were returned 316 Conservatives,
78 Liberal Unionists, as those Liberals who left Mr.
Gladstone called themselves, 191 Liberals who adhered
to him, and 85 Parnellites as before. This gave the
Conservatives and Liberal Unionists combined a work
ing majority of 113.

241

CHAPTEE XXI
THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE
On July 20 the Cabinet met for the last time, and
agreed to resign at once. The Queen sent for
Lord Salisbury, who invited Lord Hartington to join
him, and even offered to support a Liberal Unionist
Administration. But the Liberal Unionists showed
their disinterestedness by refusing office, and Lord
SaHsbui:y formed a purely Conservative Ministry.
All idea of retirement seemed to have vanished from
Gladstone's mind. He had been returned without
opposition for Midlothian, and he at once resumed the
lead of the Liberal Party. He and his followers entered
into an open and avowed alliance with Mr. ParneU and
the Irish Nationalists, for the purpose of carrying Home
Eule. At the meeting of the new Parliament on
August 5, Gladstone was in his place to second the re
election of Mr. Peel as Speaker. When the Address was
moved, on the 19th, he expressed his firm and growing
conviction in the sotmdness of his own policy. He was
extremely glad, he said, to find that the Government
proposed no Coercion Bill, though, so far as he could see,

242 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
there was more reason for one then than there had been
in January. He concluded by entreating the Govem
ment not to delay the announcement of the manner in
which they intended to deal with the Irish Question.
Lord Eandolph ChurchiU, who had become Chancellor
of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons,
replied that Sir Eedvers Buller would be sent to restore
order in Kerry and the adjoining districts, where alone
it was seriously disturbed, and that two Eoyal Com
missions would be appointed — one upon the Irish land
laws, and the other upon the best means for developing
the material resources of Ireland. Mr. PameU moved
an amendment to the Address, calling for the revision
of judicial rents on account of the fall in agricultural
prices. For this Gladstone declined to vote, although
he entreated the Government to take the matter up
themselves. Immediately after this second speech, Gladstone
went for a short holiday to Bavaria, and visited at
Munich his venerable friend Dr. Dollinger, the excom
municated leader of the Old CathoHcs. On the eve of
his departure appeared an interesting pamphlet, in
which he explained, among other things, how he came
to take up Home Eule. The first part of it, called the
' History of an Idea,' was autobiographical. He had
never, he wrote, publicly condemned Home Eule in
principle, nor pronounced it to be at variance with

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 243
the Constitution. But not before 1885 had there been
an unequivocal demand for it in Ireland. So long ago
as 1874, in the time of Mr. Butt, he had recognised
and acknowledged that Home Eule did not mean
separation. In 1880 he had complimented Mr. Shaw
upon the honourable and straightforward manner in
which he had dealt with it ; while in 1881, when he
received the freedom of the City at the Guildhall, he
had told the citizens of London that he should hail
establishment of local govemment in Ireland with the
satisfaction and delight. Again, in 1882, he had made
in the House of Commons a speech, which Mr. Plunket,
vsdthout remonstrance from him, had declared to be an
argument for Parliamentary inquiry into the subject.
In the second part of his pamphlet, called ' Lessons of
the Elections,' Gladstone analysed the position of the
majority. He pointed out that, while the proportion of
Liberal Unionists to Liberals was, among the Peers,
five-sixths, it was, among the working classes, no more
than one-twentieth. He showed that Ireland, Scotland,
and Wales were all in favour of Home Eule, England
alone being against it. Exaggerated apprehensions of
the consequences to which the Land Purchase Bill
would lead were, he believed, the real cause of his
defeat, and that Bill was altogether dead. Finally, he
contended that Home Eule was, in its essence, a Con
servative policy. R 2

244 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
Gladstone returned from Bavaria in time to support
Mr. ParneU's Land Bill, for which the Government
found time, and of which the second reading was
moved on September 20. This Bill ,proposed, in sub
stance, that evictions should be suspended in Ireland
on payment of one-half the current rent with arrears,
and that leaseholders should be brought under the
Act of 1881. In his speech for this Bill, Gladstone
contended that by appointing a Eoyal Commission the
Government had admitted the existence of the hard
ships which Mr. Parnell sought to redress. The
Liberal Unionists, however, strongly opposed the Bill,
the Government declined to accept it, and it was
thrown out by a majority of 95. The immediate
consequence of this vote was the Plan of Campaign,
which was formed by Mr. Dillon, Mr. O'Brien, and
others, in the month of October. The gist of this Plan,
from which Mr. Parnell always held aloof, was that on
any estate where reasonable reductions of rent were
refused, the tenants should pay what the landlord
would not take into a common fund, and that trustees'
should keep it in their own hands until the landlord
came to terms. On October 2, Gladstone received, at
Hawarden, an Irish deputation, which conferred upon
him the freedom of four towns. In reply he quoted
O'Connell's phrase about the two islands being united
by the golden link of the Crown, and repeated that

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 245
Home Eule was opposed to separation. For himself,
he said, he remained at the head of the Opposition
only to carry Home Eule, and he would at any
moment retire into private life if that would conduce
to the success of the movement.
The year 1887 opened with an attempt to reconcile
the conflicting elements of the Liberal Party, which
came to be knovm as the Eound Table Conference.
Gladstone, who had been favourably impressed by a
speech of Mr. Chamberlain's, at Birmingham, just before
the close of the previous year, vsrote, on January 2, a
public letter to Sir William Harcourt, in which he
suggested that representatives of the Home Eulers
and Liberal Unionists might meet and endeavour to
remove the causes of difference between them. He was
of opinion that there should be no concealment in the
matter, and that the fact of the consultation should be
made generaUy knovsm. Lord Hartington, without
expressing disapproval of this proposal, declined himself
to take part in the proceedings. But Mr. Chamber
lain accepted the invitation, and it was agreed to meet
at Sir WUham Harcourt's house. The Chairman was
to be Lord HerscheU. Sir WilHam Harcourt and Mr.
Morley were to attend on behalf of Gladstone, while
the Unionist delegates were to be Mr. Chamberlain and
Sir George Trevelyan. Mr. Chamberlain thought it
wotUd be better to postpone the consideration of Home

246 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Eule, and to take up other Irish subjects, on which
there was more likelihood of harmony. But Gladstone
was strongly in favour of dealing at once with the
principal question, and this course was adopted. The
Conference held its first meeting on January 13, and
sat for three consecutive days, when it was adjourned
till after the meeting of Parliament, apparently with
every hope of coming to terms. But when it re
assembled, on February 14, the expected progress was
not made. On February 25 there appeared, in a news
paper called ' The Baptist,' a letter from Mr. Chamber
lain, in which he asked why the Welsh people should
have to wait for disestablishment and other reforms in
deference to the disloyal Irish. This letter gave great
offence to many Liberals, who regarded it as incon
sistent with the honourable truce to be observed while
the Conference lasted. Mr. Chamberlain, however,
declared that he was not the aggressor, and that he had
been attacked before he replied. On March 9 he
intimated to Sir William Harcourt that he should
attend no more, and the Conference broke up. Sir
George Trevelyan soon afterwards returned to the
Liberal Party, but Mr. Chamberlain continued to act
with the Liberal Unionists under Lord Hartington.
Meanwhile, on January 27, Parliament had met.
Gladstone's first speech was an eloquent and touching
tribute to his old friend and former secretary, the Earl

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 247
of Iddesleigh, better known as Sir Stafford Northcote,
whose death immediately followed his rather uncere
monious removal from the Foreign Office. WhUe
ftUly acknowledging Lord Iddesleigh's sagacity and
courage, Gladstone dwelt chiefly upon his sympathetic
courtesy, and affiirmed that gentleness was the founda
tion of his character. In the debate on the Address,
Gladstone strongly supported the plea for economy
made by Lord Eandolph ChurchUl, who had resigned
the Chancellorship of the Exchequer rather than
assent to what he regarded as extravagant estimates for
the Army and Navy. He also criticised the arrange
ment by which the Prime Minister was also Foreign
Secretary, declaring that the two duties could not be
adequately discharged by one man. In reply to a
chaUenge that he should say what he thought about
the Plan of Campaign, he answered that, in his opinion,
it was a direct consequence of the vote by which the
House of Commons had rejected Mr. ParneU's Land
BiU in the previous September. WhUe not maintain
ing its legahty, he compared it with the praiseworthy
efforts made by the Chief Secretary, Sir Michael Hicks-
Beach, to exercise pressure upon the landlords within
the law, which had themselves been condemned from
the Bench as iUegal by Chief Baron PaUes.
On February 21, Mr. Smith, who had succeeded Lord
Eandolph ChurchUl as Leader of the House, moved the

248 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
first of his new rules, which estabhshed the closure in
a novel form. This rule provided that, instead of the
Speaker declaring the evident sense of the House to
be in favour of an immediate division, any member
might move the closure, which was forthwith to be put
unless the Speaker or the Chairman of Committees
withheld his assent. Gladstone took the rather subtle
objection that this plan would be less consistent than
the old one, for which he himself was responsible, with
the impartiality of the Chair. The motion was debated
at great length, and was not finaUy adopted tUl March
18. On the 17th, at a dinner of Yorkshire Liberals,
Gladstone declared that Ireland blocked the way, and
that until the obstacle was removed no other business
could be done. On the 24th, when the Government
demanded precedence for the Crimes Bill, he pointed
out that the House did not know what the BiU was,
and that they had had no Ministerial statement of the
grounds for introducing it. He also dwelt upon what
he caUed the grave and menacing policy of carrying
coercion by closure. The motion was, however,
adopted, and the Bill was brought in by Mr. BaUour,
who had succeeded Sir Michael Hicks-Beach as Chief
Secretary. It defined the offence of intimidation,
commonly called boycotting, and made it triable by two
resident magistrates, vsdthout a jury, who should have
power to inflict a sentence of six months' imprisonment

THB PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 249
vrith hard labour. It enabled the Lord-Lieutenant to
proclaim any association as illegal, and thereupon such
association was to be dissolved. It differed from all
similar measures in the past by fixing no date at which
it was to come to an end. Gladstone vehemently
attacked this permanent form of coercion, and also
another proposal, which was subsequently abandoned,
to try Irishmen in London for offences committed
in Ireland. On April 19, speaking at the Eighty Club,
he described the Nationalists as the Constitutional
Irish Party, and dissected the policy of the Liberal
Unionists, which he called the ' Grammar of Dissent.'
From this time forward he may be said to have entirely
identified himself with the cause of Home Eule and
with the Irish movement for obtaining it by Parlia
mentary means. Indeed, he seldom spoke at this
period upon any other subject. But on April 25, in
the debate on Mr. Goschen's first Budget, he renewed
his protests against the wastefulness of grants in aid,
and deprecated Mr. Goschen's interference with the
Sinking Fund. At Singleton Abbey, on June 4, after
expressing sympathy with the cause of Welsh National
ism, he put forward another proposal for dealing with
the Irish members in a Home Eule Bill. Eeversing
a suggestion made by Mr. Whitbread, he held that
they might be excluded from Parliament for a time
only, until they had established self-government on a

250 UFE OP W. E, GLADSTONE
sound footing. At Cardiff, on June 7, he appealed to
the judgment of the civihsed world as having been
pronounced in favour of his policy. A month later, he
moved the rejection of the Crimes BiU on the third
reading, dwelling especiaUy on the novelty of its
form, and on the weakness of the case set up for it as
compared with previous statistics of Irish crime. Ad
dressing his coUeagues in the representation of Scot
land at the National Liberal Club, on July 16, he
expressed confidence that, whatever might be the final
form of Home Eule adopted for the British Islands,
Scotland would be able to hold her own.
As soon as the Crimes BiU had been passed, the Lord-
Lieutenant proclaimed the National League to be an
iUegal association. On August 19, Gladstone moved an
Address to the Crown, praying that this proclamation
should be rescinded. In his opinion the League was a
legitimate combination, and there was a form of boy
cotting known in O'ConneU's days as exclusive dealing,
which, not being accompanied by force, ought not to
be treated as a crime. He appealed to the testimony
of Sir Eedvers BuUer, who had said that in some parts
of Ireland the tenants regarded the League as their
only friend. The Address was, however, rejected by
272 to 194.
During the recess, on October 4, Gladstone received
at Hawarden a Liberal deputation from Kidderminster,

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 251
and cited, as an instance of the effect produced in
England by absolute govemment in Ireland, the
domicihary visit of the London pohce to a Socialist
named Lyons, who had been asked, by the authority
of Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner, whether
he intended to speak at a Sociahst meeting. Mr.
Lyons was, he held, fuUy entitled to show the pohce
the door. On the 18th, addressing the Liberal Con
ference at Nottingham, Gladstone attacked the Irish
Govemment for their conduct at Mitchelstown. A
meeting had been held at Mitchelstown and poHce-
men were sent to it as reporters. They had not asked
for admission, but endeavoured to force their way
through the crowd to the platform. The restUt was
a serious af&ray, in which two Hves were lost ; and a
coroner's jury found a verdict of wilftU murder against
the chiefs of the pohce. The Govemment, however,
persisted that the pohce had done no more than their
duty, having fired in self-defence, and would not aUow
them even to be put upon their trial. The affair ex
cited great indignation among Liberals, and ' Eemember
Mitchelstown ' became a popular cry. Speaking again
at Nottingham, on the 19th, Gladstone, for the first
time, gave his adhesion to the principle of one man
one vote, and, in language bitterly denounced by his
opponents, intimated that Scottish or Welsh dises-
tabhshment wotUd have precedence according to the

252 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
degree of support received from each country by Home
Eule. On this occasion he was led into an tmfortunate
error, for which, after he had been threatened with an
action for libel, he apologised. He charged an Irish
land agent, named Dopping, on information supplied to
him, with having, during an eviction, pointed a rifle at
a boy. Mr. Dopping proved that the rifle was unloaded,
and therefore could have done no harm. It should be
added that, as afterwards explained by Sir Charles
Eussell in the House of Commons, Gladstone had,
under his advice, determined to omit the passage from
the authorised version of his speech before there was
any talk of a lawsuit.
At Derby, on October 20, Gladstone recommended
a union of hearts as a substitute for a union of paper ;
and at Eipon, on the 25th, he affirmed himself to be
simply a Liberal, repudiating vsdth almost equal energy
the two epithets of Separatist and Gladstonian. But
while incessant in his attacks upon Irish administration,
he did not always oppose the Govemment. On Novem
ber 14, referring to the prohibition by the Home Secre
tary of a meeting summoned for Trafalgar Square, he
said that if the Ministers of the Crown, under advice,
declared the use of the Square for such a purpose not to
be a legal right, their decision ought to be respected and
obeyed. On December 28, Gladstone left England for
Italy, and, speaking at Dover, strongly protested against

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 253
the imprisonment of Mr. Sulhvan, the Lord Mayor of
DubHn, for whose character he expressed the highest
esteem. He returned from Italy on February 8, 1888,
the day before the meeting of Parliament ; and on the
Address, in a conciliatory speech, assured the Govern
ment that he had no wish to renew the embittered
combats of the previous year. He gave, however, a
strong support to Mr. ParneU's amendment against
Mr. Balfour's administration, referring at some length
to the interview between Lord Carnarvon and Mr.
PameU, when the former was Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. This interview, held in the summer of 1885,
was strictly private, and known at the time only to
Lord Salisbury. Lord Carnarvon, while admitting
that he had consulted Mr. Parnell about the future
govemment of Ireland, denied that he had any
authority, either from the Prime Minister or from the
Cabinet, to make any promise of Home Eule. Mr.
PameU, on the other hand, repeatedly declared in
positive language that Lord Carnarvon, whom he under
stood to be representing the Government, had offered
for his acceptance a scheme of Home Eule, with
special power for the Irish Legislature to protect Irish
manufactures. Proceeding to deal with the reduction
of crime in Ireland, Gladstone said it was due not to
penal laws, but to the Land Act of 1887, which gave
relief to leaseholders ; and, in regard to the coercive

254 LIFB OF W. E, GLADSTONE
policy of the Cabinet, he asked ' Is it wise, is it hope
ful, is it conservative ? '
When the remainder of the new rules, which had
been dropped the previous session, were brought up,
Gladstone supported the proposal that there should be a
Standing Committee for Scotland. This was defeated ;
but such a committee was afterwards appointed under
a Liberal Administration. On March 12 he expressed
entire approval of Mr. Goschen's scheme for converting
Consols from 3 per cent, to 2f , and, ultimately, to 2|.
On AprU 11, at the National Liberal Club, he caUed
upon the Government, if they would not have Home
Eule, at least to produce their Local Govemment Bill
for Ireland. When the second reading of the Budget
BiU was moved, on the 23rd, Gladstone proposed an
amendment for equahsing the Succession Duty on real
and personal property ; but this was defeated by 310
to 217. The next day Mr. Justin McCarthy moved the
adjournment of the House in order to protest against
the increase, on appeal, by the County Court judges in
Ireland, of sentences passed under the Crimes Act by
resident magistrates. Gladstone, premising that the
right of appeal had been given in favour of the accused,
denounced this practice as ' mean and miserable.'
Instances of similar acts were quoted from the time of
Lord Spencer ; but the protest was effective, and the
practice was abandoned. On May 9, in receiving an

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 255
address from Nonconformist ministers at the Memorial
HaU, Gladstone pronounced the Government to be
really responsible for the Plan of Campaign. In the
House of Commons, on June 18, he had the melancholy
duty of expressing the universal regret caused by the
death of the Emperor Frederick, in whom, he said,
there was a singular union of wisdom vsdth virtue and
vrith valour.
Supporting Mr. Morley's motion, on the 26th, against
alleged abuses of the Crimes Act, Gladstone pleaded
for the special treatment of poHtical prisoners, and
strongly condemned the indignity put upon Mr. Dillon
by making him wear prison dress. On the 27th the
Channel Tunnel BiU came up for second reading.
Gladstone spoke in favour of it, making light of danger
from France, and pointing out that Lord Palmerston's
Govemment, which was said to have opposed the
tunnel, merely declined to give a financial guarantee.
But on this subject he did not carry the whole of his
ovm party with him, and the Bill was rejected by 307
to 165. On June 30, speaking at Hampstead, Gladstone
described the Plan of Campaign as an evil, but a
smaUer evil than leaving people to die of starvation.
On July 18, at a dinner given by Sir Wilfrid Lawson
to the Liberal members for Northumberland and
Westmorland, he dealt vsdth the charges made by the
' Times ' against Mr. Parnell, which afterwards proved

256 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
to be false. He argued that Mr. PameU, as a member
of the House of Commons, was entitled to the Parha
mentary inquiry, for which he asked, into the authen
ticity of discreditable letters imputed to him, which he
had denotmced as forgeries. On August 20 he turned
to the subject of poHtical prisoners, pointing out that,
of 85 Irish Nationalists in Parhament, 21 were in gaol ;
and declared that even King Bomba distingtiished
poHticians from felons. This was shown to be not
strictly accurate ; but Gladstone maintained that there
were very few exceptions, and that, as a rule, the dis
tinction was made even in the prisons of Naples nearly
forty years before.
Gladstone was due at Wrexham on September 4 to
address the Welsh Eisteddfod. He caused some dis
may among the Welsh Conservatives by afterwards
accepting an invitation to speak at a pohtical meeting
at the same place within a few hours. But he fulfiUed
both engagements, and told his supporters that the only
example he had seen at Naples of a poHtical prisoner
treated like a felon was Poerio, who had been convicted
of high treason. At the Eisteddfod he dwelt on Shake
speare's fondness for Wales, which seems a harmless topic ;
but it did not save bim from the accusation of fostering
Welsh particularism. On November 5 he met the Liberal
Two Thousand at Birmingham, and condemned Mr.
Balfour as an absentee Minister. He concluded his

THB PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 257
speech with a fervent and eloquent prayer for the recovery
of Mr, Bright, who was seriously, and, as it proved,
f ataUy UI, On the 7th he spoke in Bingley HaU, and pre
scribed concUiation instead of coercion as the remedy for
the state of Ireland,
On the 19th, Parliament met for an autumn session,
and the Govemment introduced a Bill for extending
the advances to Irish tenants under Lord Ashbourne's
Purchase Act from five milhons to ten, Gladstone
opposed the BiU, on the double ground that it faUed
to deal with the urgent question of arrears, and that
it would stand in the way of equitable arrangements
between landlord and tenant. On this occasion two
of his younger foUowers, Sir Edward Grey and Mr,
Haldane, dissented from him, holding that the creation
of a peasant proprietary was of the first importance for
Ireland. The only other subject upon which Gladstone
spoke during these short sittings was the proposed expe
dition to Suakim, in discussing which he seconded Mr,
Morley's protest against any attempt to conquer the
Soudan, which, however, the Govemment disavowed.
On December 15, at a meeting of London Liberals in
Limehouse, Gladstone finaUy abandoned aU hope of
Liberal reunion. Liberal Unionists, he said, were
now the most effective foes of the Liberal Party.
Parhament met on Febraary 21, 1889, and, on
March 1, Gladstone had an opportunity of reviewing s

258 LIFE OF W, E. GLADSTONE
the administration of Ireland, on an amendment to the
Address, moved by Mr, Morley, which condemned it as
oppressive and unjust, ahenating the loyalty, and im
pairing the rights, of her Majesty's Irish subjects.
Admitting that there had been a diminution of serious
crime, Gladstone attributed it to the renewed hopes of
the Irish people for the restoration of their seU-govem-
ment. On the other hand, there was no decline in
legitimate combination, against which he argued that
the so-caUed Crimes Act was reaUy directed. The
amendment was defeated by a majority of seventy-nine.
On March 27 in this year occurred the death of
John Bright, whose condition had for some time been
hopeless. AU parties in the House of Commons, includ
ing the Irish Nationahsts, joined in a sympathetic eulogy
of the great orator. But no speech was more impres
sive than Gladstone's. It was characteristic that he
singled out, as worthy of special praise, the moral eleva
tion of character which led Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden
to sacrifice their popularity, and even the influence
over pubhc opinion, which they so highly valued, by
opposing what they regarded as the injustice of the
wars with Eussia and vrith China.
On April 4, Gladstone protested against the new
pohcy by which the Navy Estimates, or, rather, so
much of them as were required for the proposed
addition to the Navy, were spread over five years, thus

THE PAENELLITE ALLIANCE 259
destroying, or at aU events diminishing, the annual
control of the House of Commons upon expenditure,
and increasing the power of the House of Lords,
On April 9, foUowing his usual practice, Gladstone
refused to vote for Dr. Clark's abstract resolution in
favour of Home Eule for Scotland, Eeturning to
the subject of Ireland, he spoke, on May 6, about the
arrest of Mr, Conybeare, a member of the House,
and a yotmg Irish gentleman named Harrison, for
cheering prisoners in the custody of the Irish pohce,
Eeprobating this as a high-handed act of an abused
authority, he said that the pohce were less to blame
than the Ministers whose speeches encouraged them
to such acts.

s 2

260 LIFE OF W, E, GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XXII
PAENELLISM AND CRIME
The Parnell Commission had begun its sittings on
October 17, 1888, but the interest in them did not
reach the highest point till just before the meeting of
Parliament, in Febraary, 1889, when Eichard Pigott,
who had forged the letters attributed by the ' Times '
to Mr, Parnell, broke dovsm in the witness-box, con
fessed his crime, absconded, and committed suicide.
The effect of this disclosure was immense, and Parnell
became for a time a hero of the Liberal Party, On
his first appearance during the session all the Liberals
in the House rose to receive him. Lord Spencer con
gratulated him at a dinner of the Eighty Club, Mr.
Morley attended a meeting in his company at St.
James's Hall, and, on May 22, when the Women's
Liberal Federation assembled in the Grosvenor GaUery,
Gladstone took the opportunity of publicly shaking
hands with him.
At this time Gladstone seldom spoke on other than
Irish subjects. But on May 28 he strongly protested
in the House of Commons against the refusal of the

PAENELLISM AND CEIMB 261
Govemment to let the British Ambassador attend the
centenary of the Eevolution at Paris. This he caUed
an error of judgment of a very gross kind, and just as
unreasonable as if the French had decHned to take part
in celebrating the EngHsh Eevolution of 1688.
Gladstone spent the Whitstmtide recess this year in
making a poHtical tottr through the cotmties of Devon
and Comv?aU. Leaving London on June 5, he spent a
few days vrith Sir WUliam Harcourt in the New Forest,
and on the 8th dehvered a long speech at Weymouth.
On this occasion he pointed out that foreigners habi
tually coupled the treatment of Ireland by England vrith
the treatment of Poland by Eussia ; and he reminded
his audience that one of the solemn undertakings given
to Ireland at the time of the union was the promise of
equal laws. Speaking on Jtme 12, at St. AusteU, he
declared himself in favour of federal Home EtUe for
the United Kingdom, which came to be knovsm by the
cant phrase of Home Eule aU round. Turning to the
topic of disestabhshment, he pronounced that, as far
as England was concerned, he cotUd not expect to have
anything to do vrith it ; but he considered that, in
Scotiand and Wales, the question was ripe for settle
ment, as in both countries there was an unequivocal
majority in its favour. On this point he proclaimed
himself a disciple of Lord Hartington, who had said,
before the Liberal Party was divided by Home Eule,

262 LIFB OP W. E. GLADSTONE
that the future of the Scottish Church must be de
termined by the Scottish people. On July 20 the
freedom of Edinburgh was conferred upon Mr. PameU.
After the ceremony Mr. Parnell addressed a meeting
in the Corn Exchange, at which the Chairman, Lord
Aberdeen, read a congratulatory letter from Gladstone.
In this letter Gladstone described Mr. Parnell as a
great conservative force, and declared that the Govern
ment were bringing the cause of law and order into
discredit by their abuse of the one and their dis
turbance of the other.
On one important subject Gladstone found himself
this year at variance with many of his most earnest
supporters. The maturity of the Duke of Clarence,
now 24, and the approaching marriage of Princess
Louise of Wales, induced her Majesty to ask for an
addition to the grants made by Parliament for the
maintenance of the Eoyal Family. A Select Committee,
of which Gladstone was a member, was appointed
by the House of Commons to consider the Queen's
message. In the Committee Gladstone proposed, and
the Government agreed, that a quarterly payment of
9,000?. should be made to the Prince of Wales, that
out of this he should provide for his ovsm children,
and that no further application should be made to
Parhament. When, on July 25, Mr. Smith, as Leader
of the House, moved the adoption of this report, it

PAENELLISM AND CEIMB 263
was opposed by the Eadicals, including Mr. Morley
and Sir Edward Grey, and Mr. Labouchere moved
a hostile amendment to it. Gladstone, however,
strongly supported the Government, and, in an
eloquent speech, rapturously applauded by the Con
servative party, pleaded for maintaining the British
monarchy, not only with dignity, but with splendour.
He carried vrith him the Irish vote. But the Eadicals
went into the other Lobby, and their relations with
the PameUites were severely strained.
On July 26, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone celebrated their
golden wedding. They received an address from the
National Liberal Club. But perhaps the most interest
ing part of the anniversary was the affectionate letter to
Mrs. Gladstone from the venerable Cardinal Manning,
who had been estranged from her husband by "the con
troversy over the Vatican Decrees, but who was now
a warm supporter of Home Eule for Ireland.
At the beginning of September, 1889, Gladstone,
always anxious to promote friendly relations vrith
France, and vexed at what he considered the slight
put upon the French Government by Lord Sahsbury,
paid a week's visit to Paris with his wife. On the 7th
he was entertained at dinner by a number of politicians,
chiefly Free Traders, and in response to the toast
of his health, proposed by M. L6on Say, delivered in
French a cordial speech on the natural links between

264 UFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
the two cotmtries. His presence, and his remarks,
met with a warm welcome from the French Press.
Gladstone's first speech in England during the
recess was made at Hawarden on September 23,
when he received a deputation from the Hyde Eeform
Club. On this occasion he caused some surprise by
the extreme vigour with which he denounced the
nationahsation of the land, then rather popular with
advanced Eadicals. If, he said, the State took the
land without paying for it, that would be robbery;
if they bought it, that wotUd be foUy. Gladstone
had always taken a most sympathetic interest in the
affairs of Italy. But he could not approve of the
ambitious pohcy in which, under Signor Crispi, she
had indulged ; and in the ' Contemporary Eeview ' for
October, writing under the name of ' Outidanos,' or ' A
man of no account,' he implored her to be on her guard
against excessive armaments, to avoid alhance with
Austria, and to discard her jealousy of France. This
article provoked a spirited reply from Signor Crispi,
who persisted in his pohcy, vrith results that aU the
world knows. On October 23, speaking at Southport,
Gladstone referred to the atrocities committed by the
Turks in Crete and in Armenia, which, he said, promised
to rival the worst horrors of BtUgaria. Dwelhng upon
the great power of combination among workmen, as
shown in the recent and successftU strike of dock

PAENELLISM AND CEIMB 265
labourers in London, he declared that what was law
ful in England would be criminal in Ireland. On
December 2 he attended, at Manchester, the annual
meeting of the National Liberal Federation, and urged
the necessity of completing local government by the
establishment of district and parish councils. In a
second speech, made also at Manchester, on the follow
ing day, he accused the Liberal Unionists of having pre
vented the Conservatives from taking up Home Eule,
and protested against the promotion of Mr. Peter
O'Brien, who had been conspicuous as a jury-packer,
to be Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Towards the
end of this year, Mr. PameU spent some days as a
guest at Hawarden.
On January 9, 1890, Gladstone devoted his annual
speech, at the dinner of the Hawarden tenants, to the
decay of the agricultural population, which he pro
nounced to be a great evil, both for the rural districts
and for the tovsms. His first political speech for the
year was made on January 22, at Chester, when he
gave his celebrated definitions of Liberal and Conserva
tive principles. ' Liberalism,' he said, ' was " trust in
the people qualified by prudence ; " Conservatism was
" distrast of the people, qualified by fear." '
On January 31, Gladstone, availing himself of his
position as an Honorary Fellow, went into residence
for a few days at All Souls', where he astonished and

266 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
amused the Common Eoom by the intensity of his
academic conservatism. On February 5, just before
his return to London, he addressed the Oxford Union,
of which he had been President sixty years before, on
the connection between Assyrian discoveries and the
text of Homer. In reply to a vote of thanks, proposed by
Archdeacon Palmer, Lord Selborne's brother, he declared
his deep and undying affection for his old University.
The first business at the opening of the session, on
February 11, was the consideration of the report made
by the three judges who had tried the issues between
the Irish Nationalists and the ' Times.' The judges
had acquitted the Irish members of complicity in crime,
and had stigmatised as forgeries the letters aUeged to
have been written by Mr. Parnell. But they found
that the defendants had engaged in a conspiracy for
the expulsion of the landlords, under the name of the
' English Garrison,' had encouraged intimidation, and
had persisted in the advocacy of boycotting, although
they knew that it led to violence. Both parties were
therefore enabled to claim a victory, although the most
serious of the personal charges were dismissed. Before,
however, the report was considered, Sir William Harcourt ^
moved, with Gladstone's approval, that the ' Times '
had committed a breach of privilege in publishing, on
April 18, 1887, the day arranged for the dirision on
the second reading of the Crimes Bill, the first of the

PAENEIiUSM AND CEIME 267
forged letters vrith Mr. ParneU's signature attached to it.
This motion having been rejected by 260 to 212, and the
Address having been agreed to, IVtr. Smith, on March 3,
moved a simple resolution of thanks to the judges. To
this Gladstone proposed an amendment denouncing a
resort to the weapons of calumny and forgery, and
caUing upon the House to condemn the 'flagrant
iniquity ' of the attacks upon Mr. ParneU's character.
He severely criticised some parts of the report, describ
ing it as ' a disproportioned and Ul-balanced judgment.'
At the close of a singularly powerful speech, which
provoked applause from both sides of the House, he
made an impassioned appeal to the consciences of Con
servative members. He implored them in the most
solemn language to disregard on this occasion the ties
of party, and to consider, as individuals, as gentlemen,
as Christians, the reparation rightfuUy due to a man
who, whatever they might think of his pohtics, had
suffered for years a grievous wrong. If a division had
been immediately taken, the result might have been
different from what it was. But the debate was pro
longed for a week, and ended, on March 10, in the
defeat of the amendment by ntunbers which almost
exactiy represented the balance of parties in the House
of Commons. On AprU 24, Gladstone spoke against Mr. Bal»
four's Land Purchase BUl, a great enlargement and

268 UFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
extension of the Ashbourne Acts, on four specific
grounds. First, he said, the Irish Nationahsts were
opposed to it ; secondly, the principle had been con
demned in the case of his own BUl at the General
Election ; thirdly, it was inexpedient to put the State
in the place of a landlord ; and, fourthly, the voluntary
character of the measure meant reaUy the option of
the landowner, who, by the weapon of unpaid arrears,
could force the tenant to buy. The second reading
was, however, carried by 348 to 268, On May 2,
Gladstone, for the first time, spoke and voted for dis-
estabhshing the Church of Scotiand. On May 12,
when the Local Taxation BiU came up for second
reading, Gladstone, supporting an amendment moved
by Mr. Caine, condemned the proposal that County
CouncUs should have the power of buying the goodwiU
of pubHc-houses. He pointed out that the judges had
decided against the right of a pubHcan to the renewal
of his Hcence, and argued that this measure, which he
caUed a Pubhc- house Endowment BUl, would give the
pubHcan, for the first time by statute, a right which he
had not hitherto possessed. The second reading of the
BUl was carried, but the Hcensing clauses were so stub
bornly resisted in Committee, and the majorities of the
Govemment sank so low, that it was ultimately dropped.
On May 16, speaking at Norwich, Gladstone pointed
out that one-third of the Ministerial majority had been

PAENELLISM AND CEIME 269
destroyed by the by-elections. In this and other
speeches, as well as in articles contributed to magazines,
he endeavoured to make electoral statistics into an
exact science, and deduced from figures the inference
that at the next General Election the Liberals would
have a majority of 100.
The business of the Government had made such
slow progress this year that the Prime Minister sug
gested a reform of Parliamentary procedure, which
would enable BiUs to be taken up in a new session at
the point which they had reached in the old. Mr.
Smith gave notice of a standing order for this purpose.
But, at Gladstone's request, he consented to the appoint
ment of a Select Committee, in which Gladstone moved
that it would be unconstitutional for one House of
Parliament to postpone a measure which had been
passed by the other. This proposal suggested so many
difficulties that the Government did not persist in their
standing order.
On July 7, in a debate on the Irish Estimates,
Gladstone spoke with great indignation of the prac
tice caUed 'Shadowing,' which Mr. Balfour had
introduced into Ireland. He said it was an intole
rable grievance that men should be followed by the
police wherever they went, merely because the autho
rities chose to suspect them without any evidence. On
this point Gladstone received a good deal of more or

270 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
less articulate sympathy from his pohtical opponents,
and shadovring was condemned by a Parliamentary
foUower of the Government in most unparhamentary
language. On July 24, Gladstone, ably seconded by
Sir WilHam Harcourt, raised a constitutional point
which had escaped general notice. Lord Sahsbury had
made an agreement with Germany by which, in return
for the abandonment of German claims over Zanzibar,
the little island of Heligoland was ceded to the German
Empire. A Bill was introduced into Parhament for
giving effect to this international arrangement. Glad
stone, while not objecting to the substance of the
treaty, complained that the Government, by making it
a subject of legislation, had abandoned the treaty-
making prerogative of the Crown. This seemed a strange
argument to come from a Liberal. But the real
significance of it was seen when Gladstone proceeded
to show that the prerogative of the Crovra, exercised by
the Ministers of the day, was subject to review by the
House of Commons, and by the House of Commons
alone; whereas a BiU required the sanction of the
House of Lords. The Govemment, however, pro
ceeded with their Bill and carried it, the Land BiU
being reserved for an autumn session in November.
At the end of July, Gladstone was entertained by a
number of Wesleyan Liberals at the National Liberal
Club, and took the opportunity of criticising the pohcy

PAENEIiUSM AND CEIME 271
of Sir Tiintom Simmons's mission. Sir Lintom
Simmons had been sent to Eome to procure the assent
of the Pope for Protestant marriages in Malta, and
Gladstone declared with much vehemence that this
was a distinct recognition by the British Government
of Papal authority within the Queen's dominions.
In October, Gladstone, now in his eighty-first year,
entered upon a fresh Midlothian campaign. Speaking
at Edinburgh on the 21st, he caUed attention to the
increasing number of dereUct farms in Ireland, which,
he said, proved that the pohcy of coercion had done
nothing for the landlord. Irishmen, he added, were
justified in hating the law, though nothing could justify
them in breaking it. At West Calder, on the 22nd, he
expressed disapproval of a general Eight Hours BUl ;
but admitted that the case of the miners was excep
tional, and that there was much to be said for it as
regarded them. At Dalkeith, on the 25th, he aroused
great enthusiasm by the statement that, south of the
Tweed, C!hurch Defence meant Toryism. 'I am,' he
said, ' supposed to be a sort of Churchman myseK, but
they never ask me to join a Church Defence Society.'
Speaking again, at Edinburgh, on the 27th, he denied
having said that it passed the wit of man to provide
for Irish representation at Westminster under a Home
Eule BUL What he had said was that no such scheme
could be framed which was not open to objections.

272 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
But these objections might be overcome, and the Liberal
Party had, he feared, plenty of time before them.
Then and always, though pressed not only by oppo
nents but by some of his foUowers, such as Mr. Asquith,
he consistently refused to say what changes he would
make in his Home Eule BUl, if he had another oppor
tunity of introducing it. He would not go beyond a
general assurance that the Irish members were not to
be entirely excluded from Parhament. On October 29
he received the freedom of Dundee, and, addressing an
audience of both poHtical parties, dealt vrith the new
McKinley tariff in the United States, pointing out
that, though apparently unfavourable to British traders,
it was indirectly advantageous to them, because, by
raising American prices, it hampered American com
petition in neutral markets.

273

CHAPTEE XXin
THE FALL OP PARNELL
At this time the prospects of the Liberal Party
were highly favourable. The by-elections were going
against the Govemment, and many Conservatives were
beginning to doubt the wisdom of Mr. Balfour's pohcy
in Ireland. But, in November, there came a great and
sudden change. A personal and apparently immaterial
event produced a revolution of public feeling, for which
it would be difficult to find a parallel in the history
of Enghsh pohtics. Mr. ParneU had been made
co-respondent in a divorce case. He did not appear
in the vritness-box to deny the charge upon oath,
and, on November 17, judgment was given against
him. On November 20, the National Liberal Con
ference held its annual meeting at Sheffield. It was
attended by Sir WUham Harcourt and Mr. Morley.
No pubhc reference was made to Mr. PameU in the
course of the proceedings. But, on their return to
London, the two Liberal leaders informed their Chief
that, in the unanimous opinion of the Liberal delegates,
the continuance of Mr. PameU at the head of the

274 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Nationalist Party would mean the abandonment of
Home Eule by English Liberals. This was called the
revolt of the Nonconformist conscience, though it is
certain that a large proportion of the delegates were
Churchmen. On November 24, Gladstone wrote a letter to
Mr. Morley, which was to be shown to Mr. PameU
and to Mr. Justin McCarthy, but not to the other
Irish Nationalists, if Mr. Parnell voluntarily retired.
Mr. McCarthy failed to communicate vrith Mr.
ParneU, who was, on the 25 th, the day of the meet
ing of Parliament, unanimously re-elected chairman
by his colleagues. At the time of the re-election the
letter was not known to the Irish members. It was
immediately afterwards published. It contained the
expression of Gladstone's view that, if Mr. ParneU
remained where he was, many friends of Home Eule
would be estranged and Gladstone's own leadership
would be made ' almost a nullity.' On November 29,
Parnell replied in a manifesto, which informed the
Irish people that he was being thrown to the ' EngHsh
wolves.' He went on to assure them that when
he stayed at Hawarden in December, 1889, Gladstone
told him what the next Home Eule Bill would be.
The Irish members were to be reduced in number to
thirty-four, and the Imperial Parliament was to have
exclusive control over the question of Irish land. The

THE FALL OF PAENELL 275
judges and the police were also to be withdrawn from
the jurisdiction of the Irish Legislature. Mr. Parnell
added that, on November 10, 1890, Mr. Morley had
offered him the Chief Secretaryship for Ireland, and
had asked whether another Irish member could not be
appointed a law officer of the Crown. Those proposals
he declared that he had refused; and he added that
Irish Nationahsts were now independent of aU EngHsh
parties. These statements Gladstone immediately and
totaUy denied. He said that in his confidential talk
with Mr. PameU at Hawarden he had merely exchanged
ideas. He had made no definite proposals, and had
never even mentioned the particulars which Mr. Pamell
detaUed. AU that passed between them he had in
confidence communicated to his coUeagues in the late
Govemment. Mr. Morley, for his part, positively
contradicted the assertion that he had invited Mr.
PameU tobe Chief Secretary in a Liberal Administration.
He had merely asked Mr. PameU whether the refusal
of the Irish members to take office in a British Govern
ment was to be regarded as final, and PameU had
answered that it was.
In consequence of Gladstone's letter, a second
meeting of the Irish party was held on December 1,
at one of the Committee-rooms of the House of
Commons, and PameU was called upon to resign.
He said he would do so if Gladstone gave an
T 2

276 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
asstu'ance that Ireland shotUd be aUowed to manage
her own pohce and legislate for her own land.
Gladstone refused to give any pledge, or to go beyond
an intimation that no Home EtUe BUl cotUd be carried
or ought to be proposed which did not meet with the
general concurrence of the Irish people. After a pro
longed and acrimonious discussion, during which
PameU, as chairman, succeeded in postponing, upon
technical grounds, a direct vote, a majority of those
present, being forty-five, withdrew to another room,
deposed PameU from the leadership, and elected Mr.
McCarthy as sessional chairman. This animated
struggle diverted attention from the regular proceed
ings of Parhament, and Mr. Balfour's Land Purchase
BiU, though unfavourably criticised by Gladstone, was
read a second time without serious opposition. It
became law the foUowing year.
On January 27, 1891, the House of Commons per
formed a tardy act of justice. Upon the motion of Mr.
Hunter, member for North Aberdeen, who was sup
ported by Gladstone, the House tmanimously expunged
the resolution passed on June 22, 1880, which contra
vened the right of Mr. Bradlaugh to take the Parlia
mentary oath. Mr. Bradlaugh was then dying ; and it
is doubtful whether he knew what was done. He had,
by universal consent, been an exceUent member of
Parhament, and had himself carried an Act which

THE FALL OP PAENELL 277
enabled those who disapproved of oaths to make an
affirmation of their aUegiance. Gladstone alluded to
this long controversy, and to its final result, when, on
February 4, in one of his most eloquent speeches, he
moved the second reading of the Eeligious Disqualifica
tion Eemoval Bill. The object of this measure was to
relieve Catholics from their disqualification for the
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland and the Lord Chancellor
ship of England, the only offices still denied to them.
Gladstone pointed out that a Eoman Catholic, Mr.
Matthews, was at that time Home Secretary, and that
the Woolsack, with all the ecclesiastical patronage
which it involved, might be occupied by a Mahome
dan, a Buddhist, an Agnostic, or an Atheist. The
Government, however, opposed the BiU. It was nick
named a Eipon and EusseU Eelief Bill, and rejected by
256 votes to 223.
/.. few days afterwards, in supporting Mr. Morley's
annual vote of censure upon the Irish Administration,
which was rejected by the usual majority, Gladstone
charged the Government with fostering sympathy
for those who broke the law. It was observed that,
in this division, all the Irish Nationalists, despite
their differences, voted together. On February 20
a motion in favour of Welsh disestablishment, for
which Gladstone spoke, describing the Welsh Church
as the Church of the few and the rich, was only

278 UFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
rejected by the narrow majority of thu-ty-two. Mr.
Chamberlain, and several of his political friends,
voted for the motion. On March 3, Gladstone both
voted and spoke for Mr. Stansfeld's motion in favour of
one man one vote, and the reduction of the quahfying
period from twelve months to three. The plural vote
was, he said, a ' lottery,' and not a real representation
even of wealth ; but on this occasion the Govemment
had a majority of more than 100.
Gladstone took very little part in the debates of
1891. Most of his speeches were made outside Parlia
ment, and were directed to the constituencies. On
March 14, however, he visited Eton, and lectured to the
boys, or such of them as were members of the Literary
Society, on the Homeric conception of Artemis. In
the course of this interesting address he mentioned that
it was Dr. Pusey, also an Eton man, who first excited
his interest in the gods and goddesses of Homer.
Five days afterwards he returned to politics, and, in a
speech at Hastings, criticised the financial policy of the
Government, as illustrated by the Naval Defence Act.
This Act, he said, stereotyped the naval expenditure of
the country to the amount of 1,400,000?. a year for seven
years, and gave the House of Lords a control over public
expenditure to which it was not entitled. Moreover,
he continued, it was absurd to determine the nature of
ships to be built seven years hence, inasmuch as their

THE FALL OF PAENELL 279
fashion changed as rapidly as the fashion of ladies'
bonnets. In the month of April there were a number
of by-elections, which were regarded as omens of the
future ; and Gladstone, in a letter to the Liberal candi
date for Woodstock, which was the first of these con
stituencies to poU, attacked the Government for not
having redeemed the pledge to introduce an Irish Local
Govemment Bill, given five years before. Mr. Balfour
attempted, though unsuccessfuUy, to fulfil this promise
in 1892. On October 2, Gladstone attended the meeting
of the National Liberal Federation at Newcastle, and
gave his support to the Newcastle programme, which,
for the next four years, was the platform of the Liberal
Party. Putting ;Home Eule first, he added to it the
disestabhshment of the Welsh and Scottish Churches,
local veto, one man one vote, the payment of election
expenses from public funds, and the establishment of
parish councils. He declared that if the House of
Lords were to throw out a Home Eule Bill passed by
the House of Commons, it would become a dangerous
power between the Throne and the people. As regarded
the payment of members, he would have confined it to
those who had been taken from the working classes.
But this distinction was unpalatable to the trade
unions and was afterwards dropped. On December 10
a conference of villagers was held at the Memorial

280 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Hall, in Farringdon Street, and the next morning Glad
stone met the delegates at breakfast in the Holborn
Eestaurant, when he spoke on parish councils and
allotments, and the division of rates between owner
and occupier. The Government had carried an Allot
ments Act, but it was argued by the Opposition that
the powers of acquiring land under it were too expen
sive and complicated to be practically useful.
The session of 1892 was, if possible, tamer than the
session of 1891, and Gladstone took little more part
in the second than he had in the first. When the
second reading of the Women's Franchise Bill was
moved, on April 22, Mr. Samuel Smith, who pro
posed its rejection, read a letter from Gladstone against
the principle of the Bill. He objected to it, in the
first place, because it only enfranchised unmarried
women. But, going beyond this point, which could
easily have been altered, he contended that if women
had votes they must have seats ; and that if they were
eligible for seats they must be qualified for office ; and,
in short, used the argument, so common in Tory
mouths, which is known as the thin edge of the wedge.
The Bill was rejected by the small majority of twenty-
three. On April 28, Gladstone, speaking rather as a
Churchman than as a politician, came to the assistance of
the Government, and strongly supported the Clergy
Discipline Bill, which provided facilities for removing

THE PALL OF PAENELL 281
immoral clergymen from their benefices. The Bill was
opposed, and even obstructed, by Eadical members,
especiaUy Eadicals from Wales. But Gladstone
implored the House of Commons to fulfil their duty
to the parishes who ' sought relief from unsuitable
ministers ; and such was his zeal for the Bill that, for
the only time in his life, he attended a Standing Com
mittee to help in passing it.
A month later, on May 24, he once more appeared
as leader of the Opposition, and delivered a vigorous
speech against the second reading of Mr. Balfour's
Local Govemment Bill for Ireland. He complained
that Mr. Balfour, who had become Leader of the House
on the death of Mr. Smith, in October, 1891, was putting
off Ireland with a kind of local government inferior to
what they had given to England and Scotland, and he
dwelt, vrith especial severity, upon the proposal that two
Irish judges should have power to dissolve a county
council which had misconducted itself. The second read
ing of the BUl was carried by 339 votes to 247. But
the ridicule excited by what was christened the ' put
them in the dock ' clause proved fatal, and the Bill was
withdrawn. Addressing a meeting of Nonconformists, at the
Memorial Hall, on May 31, Gladstone repHed to a speech
in which Lord Salisbury had declared that Ulster would
be justified in forcibly resisting Home Eule. There

282 LLFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
were, he said, fools and rogues everywhere. But the
Prime Minister's assumption that sober and respectable
citizens in Ulster would resist the law of Parhament
was an unmerited slur upon their loyalty and good
sense. The Ulster Convention, held in the foUovring
month, at Belfast, did, however, express sentiments very
like those which Lord Salisbury imputed to them ; and,
on June 18, Gladstone, who had been invited to meet
some Nonconformist ministers at Dr. Guinness Eogers's
house in Clapham, did his best to allay the fears of
Ulster Protestants. The power of Eome was, he
thought, exaggerated in their minds, and he pointed
out that the Papal rescript against the Plan of
Campaign had had Httle or no effect in Ireland. At
the same time, he acknowledged that the language of
Ulstermen was more moderate than that of Lord
Salisbury ; and in reply to the question why Ulster could
not have separate treatment in a Home Eule BUl, he
said the reason was that Ulster herself repudiated it.

283

CHAPTEE XXIV
Gladstone's last government
The Parhament of 1886 was now weU advanced in
its seventh year, and a dissolution was known to be
impending. The actual date was June 29. But most
election addresses, including Gladstone's, which was
dated the 24th, had been issued before that time. It
was in view of an immediate appeal to the country that
the London Trades CouncU came on a deputation to
Gladstone, and asked him to take up the question of a
legal eight hours day. This was on June 16. Glad
stone's reply was a refusal. He said that Ireland had
the first claim upon him, and that he cotUd not at his
age embark upon great changes such as the deputation
desired. He had striven his utmost for the working
classes, and in proof of this proposition he said, 'I
appeal to my Hfe.'
Gladstone's address contained no information about
a future Home Eule BUl, and is chiefly remarkable for
having been written, as it says, in the sixty-fifth year
of his poHtical hfe, when he could not expect to face
another General Election. The day after it was written.

284 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
June 25, he went to Chester to speak at a Liberal
meeting. On his way he was struck in the eye with a
hard piece of gingerbread, which gave him great pain
and inflicted rather serious injury. The identity of the
thrower, a woman, was discovered by the police, but
Gladstone declined to prosecute her. In spite of the
pain, he made his speech, and announced that if the
Lords threw out a Home Eule Bill he should not regard
it as a proper ground for dissolving Parliament.
On June 30 he spoke with all his old energy at
the Music Hall in Edinburgh, and afterwards made
a succession of speeches at Glasgow and elsewhere.
But he did not satisfy public curiosity about his
intentions, and the enthusiasm of Scotland for him
was perceptibly diminished. His own majority in
Midlothian sank from more than 4,000 to less than 700.
His opponent. General Wauchope, who afterwards fell
at Magersfontein, was one of the most popular men in
Scotland, and had been dUigently nursing the con
stituency for years. But nothing could explain away
a reduction so enormous. The result of the election
was the return of 355 Liberals, including Irish
Nationalists, and of 315 Conservatives, including
Liberal Unionists, who suffered more severely than any
other party. This gave a majority of forty for Glad
stone and Home Eule. The Government, exercising
their undoubted right, determined not to resign, but

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 285
to meet the new Parhament on August 4. On
August 8 the Queen's Speech was read, and Mr.
Asquith, on behalf of the Opposition, moved as an
amendment a direct vote of no confidence in the
Ministry. This was seconded by Mr. Burt, the oldest
of the labour members, and carried, on August 11, by
350 votes against 310. Gladstone spoke on the second
night of the debate, but decHned to say what he would
do if he were the head of a Liberal Government,
which must still be regarded as a ' nebulous hypothesis.'
He expressed, however, an opinion that the Coercion
Act of 1887 should be repealed, and intimated that he
would not resign office if the Home Eule Bill were
rejected by the House of Lords. In conclusion, he
said that the question of Ireland was to him, personally,
almost everything, and that he remained in public Hfe
to settle it. After the division the Govemment at once
resigned, and, on August 15, Gladstone accepted office
as First Lord of the Treasury and Lord Privy Seal.
Never was a Govemment formed under greater
difficulties. The Prime Minister was eighty-two, and
though his strength was unabated, the infirmities of
age were creeping upon him. His majority was
entirely dependent upon the Irish vote, and the Irish
party itself had not been reunited by the death of
Mr. PameU, in October, 1891. Some of the Liberal
leaders, including Lord Eosebery, returned to office

286 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
with great reluctance. But Gladstone felt that he had
a duty which he ought not to decHne, and that he must
do what he could to carry Home EtUe. He strengthened
his Administiation by including in it some young
Liberals of distinguished promise. Mr. Asquith be
came Home Secretary ; Mr. Arthur Acland, Minister
of Education, with a seat in the Cabinet ; and Sir
Edward Grey, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
Gladstone's first speech, as Prime Minister for the
fourth time, was made at Carmarthen, on September 12,
when he dealt chiefly with the principle of rehgious
equality as appHcable to Wales. There was no autumn
session, but a good deal was done by Ministers them
selves before Parhament met. On September 26, Mr.
Morley announced, in a letter to Mr. McCarthy, the
appointment of a commission to consider the best
means of restoring the evicted tenants in Ireland. On
September 29 the Cabinet was unexpectedly summoned,
and it was soon afterwards announced by Lord Eose
bery, as Foreign Secretary, that the Govemment would
hold themselves responsible for the administration of
Uganda, which the East African Company had been
compeUed to relinquish. On October 19, Mr. Asquith
disposed of the tioublesome questions which had arisen
out of the claim to hold pubUc meetings in Trafalgar
Square, by deciding, in consultation with the First
Commissioner of Works, that they might be held on

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 287
Sundays, and Saturday afternoons, when they could
not interfere with the traffic.
Gladstone's utterances during the remainder of
this year were not political. On October 24 he
dehvered the first Eomanes Lecture at Oxford, and
chose for his subject the history of Universities,
which he had carefully, if not exhaustively, studied.
On December 3 he received, not too soon, the
freedom of Liverpool, his native town, and gave some
picturesque recollections of Liverpool as he first
knew it. Perhaps the most interesting of these, to
practical politicians, was the fact that the Liverpool
merchants had returned Mr. Canning and Mr.
Huskisson, from 1812 to 1830, free of all expense. A
remarkable feature of Gladstone's fourth Administra
tion was a new rule, afterwards cancelled by Lord
Salisbury, that no member of the Cabinet should be a
director of any pubhc company. During the autumn
Gladstone intimated to M. Waddington, the French
Ambassador in London, his wilHngness to discuss with
the French Government the British occupation of
Egypt. But Lord Eosebery, as Foreign Secretary,
demurred, and the proposal came to nothing.
Parliament did not meet in 1893 till January 31,
after which it sat in every month throughout the year
except October. Two Ministerial decisions of some
importance were, however, announced before the day

288 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
of meeting. On January 21 it was officially stated
that two Irish political prisoners, Egan and Callan,
had been released. There had always been a doubt
whether Egan, though duly convicted of a criminal
conspiracy, in which dynamite was employed, had him
self been actuaUy concerned in the use of that explosive.
Callan's discharge had been ordered by Mr. Matthews
before he left office, for reasons which were never
explained in public. On January 24, Mr. Mundella,
the President of the Board of Trade, told a deputation
that he had decided to form a Labour Department of the
Board, and to publish officially a ' Labour Gazette,' for
the spread of industrial statistics. Both these reforms
were permanently adopted.
The Queen's Speech contained a paragraph to the
effect that recent events in Egypt had made it necessary
to increase the number of her Majesty's forces there.
The reference was to the impulsive conduct of the new
Khedive, Abbas Pasha, a very young man, who had en
deavoured to emancipate himself from the control of the
British Eesident, Sir Evelyn Baring, afterwards Lord
Cromer. The paragraph added that the Khedive had
reconsidered his position, and would in future follow Sir
Evelyn Baring's advice. It was also announced that no
changes of policy in Egypt were contemplated by the
Government. Another paragraph informed Parha
ment that the Crimes Act would not be further enforced

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 289
in Ireland. But the Govemment could not find time
for the repeal of the Act, even if the House of Lords
wotUd have consented to such a course. In his speech
on the Address, the Prime Minister stated that a Eoyal
Commission would be appointed to consider the sub
ject of the land laws in Wales.
On February 9 there was a rather serious conflict
between the Home Secretary and the Irish members.
Mr. Asquith peremptorUy refused to release any more of
the Irish dynamiters then in EngHsh prisons, or to
treat them otherwise than as ordinary criminals. The
Irish Nationalists voted against him in a body ; but he
was supported in his refusal by the Opposition. On
February 11, Gladstone dehvered a spirited speech
against any interference with the landing of foreigners,
even if they were destitute, upon the shores of this
country. But he conceded to Mr. Lowther, who had
raised the question, an inquiry into the American
system of partial exclusion.
Not tiU February 13 did Gladstone find an oppor
tunity to introduce his second Home Eule BUl. It
was substantiaUy, though not in detail, the same as
the first, with the great and important exception
that the Irish members were for some purposes to
have the power of voting in the Imperial Parhament.
Their number was to be reduced from 103 to 80,
and they were not to vote upon any purely British u

290 UFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
question; but upon a proposal that an EngHsh or
Scottish measure should be extended to Ireland they
wotUd stUl be entitled to do so. The Opposition did
not divide against the first reading of the BiU.
But with the Welsh Suspensory BUl, which Mr.
Asquith introduced on Febraary 23, they took a different
course, and its intioduction was only permitted by 301
votes to 245. This was intended to be the first step to
wards Welsh Disestabhshment. The object of the BiU,
framed on the analogy of the Irish measure in 1868, was
to suspend the right of ecclesiastical patronage in Wales
untU Parhament had dealt with the whole question
of the Welsh Church. Eeplying to Lord Eandolph
Churchill's taunt, that he oiUy took up this subject for
the sake of furthering Home EtUe, Gladstone declared,
with much energy, that he was equaUy ready to vote for
Irish Home EtUe and for Welsh Disestabhshment. On
the 28th, in resisting a proposal for the estabhshment
of International Bi-metaUism, Gladstone made a speech
which placed him for a time in a most unusual position,
as the most popular man in the City of London. His
main argument was neither more nor less than the
stabUity of gold and the instabihty of sUver, But
although he did not discuss the matter from a severely
scientific point of view, the speech is unrivaUed as a
plain statement, which everyone can understand, of the
case for mono-metaUism, The motion was rejected

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 291
by 229 votes to 148. On March 27, Gladstone called a
meeting of his party at the Foreign Office, and addressed
them with much earnestness on the backward state of
public business. The second reading of the Home
Eule BiU had not yet been moved, and little or no
progress had been made with Supply. Governments
with small majorities had, he said, often been long-
lived, such as the second Administrations of Lord
Melbourne and Lord Palmerston. But if he and his
colleagues were to succeed in the gigantic task before
them, they must be able to rely upon the self-sacrifice
of their followers, and to dispose of almost all the
time available for public business. Before the second
reading of the Home Eule Bill, moved on April 6,
Gladstone was reminded of the serious difficulties
vrith which he had to contend, by two important
deputations, one from Belfast, and the other from the
City of London. The first of these quoted figures to
show that since the Bill was introduced there had
been a marked depreciation in the value of Irish
railways and banks. To this Gladstone answered, that
the panic which caused the fall was itself the result of
political prejudice and groundless alarm. To show
that commercial prosperity could exist under Home
Eule, he cited the past instance of Grattan's Parlia
ment, and the flourishing condition of Canada at the
present time. The deputation from the City predicted u 2

292 LIFB OF W, E. GLADSTONE
that if Ireland were exempt from the control of the
Imperial Parliament, her borrowing powers would be
severely curtailed. Gladstone pointed out that the
Corporation of Dublin, which was under Nationalist
control, had raised its credit higher than it had ever
stood before. And, he added that, in spite of warnings
from particular classes, he felt bound to carry out
the wishes expressed by the majority of the United
Kingdom. At last, on April 6, Gladstone was able to move the
second reading of his principal measure. In doing so,
he gave what he called a summary, and his opponents
called a caricature, of the assumptions upon which
resistance to the Bill was grounded. The Irish, he
said, in the distorted vision of English Unionists, had,
except in Ulster, ' nothing human about them except the
form.' He vehemently protested against the hypothesis,
which he declared to be contradicted by history, that
Irishmen would not loyaUy carry out their obligations
both to their own country and to Great Britain. He
gave a long list of historical analogies to show that
the union of a State was always promoted and not
retarded by the autonomy of its component parts.
And, in defending the financial clauses of the Bill, he
gave it as his opinion that Ireland had long paid to
the Imperial Exchequer a sum greatly in excess of her
material resources, as compared vrith those of England.

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 293
In conclusion, he said that, if this BUl were rejected,
the responsibUity for the denial of justice to Ireland
would he upon the nation as a whole. The rejection
of the BiU was moved by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach,
and the debate lasted tiU April 21, when Gladstone
repHed upon the whole of it. WhUe maintaining that
his original strictures upon the Land League in 1881
were justified by the excesses which it then counte
nanced, but had afterwards repudiated, he made the
significant admission that vrithout the Land League
there would have been no Land Act. The second
reading was carried by 347 votes to 304.
On May 3 the Eight Hours BUl for miners came
before the House of Commons, and was read a second
time. Gladstone supported the second reading. But
he did so without much appearance of conviction, and
he suggested that counties such as Durham and
Northumberland, which objected to the Bfll, should not
be included in it. Before the Home Eule BiU went
into Committee the House of Commons, by 295 votes
to 240, passed a resolution inviting the Lord ChanceUor
to appoint magistrates for the cotmties, if necessary,
vrithout consulting the Lords-Lieutenant. Much com
plaint had been made by Liberals that, as most of the
Lords-Lieutenant were Tories, Liberal politics excluded
men from the Bench. Mr. Bryce, as ChanceUor of the
Duchy, had, on his own authority, appointed justices

294 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
of the peace in Lancashire without a recommendation
from Lord Sefton, the Lord-Lieutenant. But Lord
HerscheU, as Chancellor, declined to depart from
established usage without a positive direction from the
representatives of the people. In both cases the
practice was reversed, and the old custom restored, by
the next Government.
On May 8 began the discussion of the Home Eule
Bill in Committee. Gladstone himself took personal
charge of it, assisted by Mr. Morley, as Chief Secretary,
and by the law officers of the Crown in England.
The Irish law officers had no seats in the House,
History records no more marvellous example of physical
and mental vigour in a man of 83, Twelve years
before, Gladstone had surprised everyone by the skill
and success with which he had piloted the Irish Land
Bill through a similar stage. But then all his faculties
were fresh and vigorous ; whereas now, his hearing was
grievously impaired. Yet he seldom left the House, he
spoke on almost every amendment, and he developed
resources of illustration as well as argument, which, if
they did not always promote the rapid progress of the
measure, excited the admiring wonder of the whole
House. Not many changes were made, though, on
May 16, the Government accepted an amendment
from Sir Henry James, which expressly reserved the
supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. But the Bill

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 295
was opposed with unexampled pertinacity, and it
became evident that without some change of procedure
it could not be passed within the Hmits of an ordinary
session. The Chairman, Mr. Mellor, Gladstone's own
choice, was too scrupulous to put the closure upon
the whole or any part of a clause whenever it
would have shut out substantial amendments. This
decision was not followed by his successor, and is
difficult to reconcile with the terms of the rule. At
length, on June 28, the Prime Minister announced
that he would propose a motion for closure by compart
ments. On specific days, to be set forth in the resolu
tion, the debate on fixed portions of the Bill would
come to an end, and at ten o'clock the Chairman
wotUd, by order, proceed to put the remaining clauses
of that portion from the Chair. On the 29th the
resolution was moved by Gladstone, who quoted in its
favour the precedent of the Crimes Act, passed by the
same method in 1887. The motion was carried by a
majority of thirty-two. On July 12, Gladstone made a
concession to the majority of his English supporters by
allovsdng the Irish members to vote, as at present, for
all purposes whatsoever. But this was only carried by
twenty-seven votes, and it gave the Conservatives a
dangerous weapon for use at by-elections. Irishmen,
they argued, would now be able to govern, not only
Ireland, but England, Scotland, and Wales.

296 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
On July 27, the last day of Committee, a serious and
unprecedented outbreak occurred in the House. Eising
a little before ten o'clock, when the final clauses were
to be put, Mr. Chamberlain delivered a speech which,
though highly aggressive and provocative, was not
beyond the recognised limits of Parliamentary debate.
But he excited the Irish members beyond their powers
of self-control, and was greeted when he sat dovsm vrith
cries of Judas. An English Conservative moved that
these words should be taken down. The Chairman, not
hearing him in the din, or not regarding his motion as in
order, proceeded to put the question. Many Conserva
tives refused to leave the House for the division, and
a few turbulent individuals engaged in physical con
flict. The scene was naturally exaggerated by descrip
tive reporters, but it was universally regarded as
disgraceful to the House, and it had some effect in
quieting the passions excited by Home Eule. The
Speaker was sent for, and though neither the Leader
of the House, nor the Leader of the Opposition, who
had both gone out to vote, could tell him exactly what
had occurred, his presence, his influence, and his dig
nity, succeeded in procuring an almost instantaneous
calm. The report of the BiU had, however, to be
carried by a repetition of the same drastic methods, and
even then it was not till August 30 that the third
reading could be moved. In moving it, Gladstone

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 297
reminded the House that eighty-two days had been
spent upon the BUl, and maintained that, in spite of
what was called the gag, all its cardinal principles had
been discussed. Tho opposition to the third reading
was led by Mr. Courtney, and, on September 1, it
finaUy passed the House of Commons by a majority
of thirty-four, or nine less than had carried the second
reading. WhUe the BUl was before the House Httle else could
be done. But, on June 16, a resolution, supported by
Gladstone, was unanimously adopted in favour of general
arbitration vrith the United States. On June 30, Glad
stone opposed the total stoppage of the Indian tiaffic
in opium, but agreed to the appointment of a Eoyal
Commission on the subject.
In the House of Lords the second reading of
the Home Eule BiU was moved, on September 5, by
Lord Spencer. The Duke of Devonshire proposed
its rejection, and, on September 8, it was rejected by
an enormous majority. The contents were forty-one,
the not-contents were 419. No step was taken by
the Govemment in consequence of this vote, and
the House of Commons proceeded vrith the business
of Supply tiU September 21, when it adjourned, tUl
November 2, for an autunon sitting. On September
27, Gladstone spoke at Edinburgh, and in mysterious
language, never fuUy explained, predicted that another

298 UPE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
session would not pass without seeing Home Eule
again appear upon the waves.
When the House of Commons met, on November 2,
1893, nothing more was heard of the Welsh Suspensory
BiU ; but the House proceeded to take up the Parish
Councils BUl, which had only been introduced, and the
Employers' LiabUity BUl, which had passed through the
Standing Committee on Law. Several other subjects,
however, came under the notice of the House. On
November 9, Gladstone defended, against the criticisms
of Mr. Labouchere, the war which the South Africa
Company was making against Lobengula, the King of
the Matabele. Mr, Labouchere obtained httle support,
and did not press his motion to a division. It was then
generaUy beheved that the war was necessary for the
protection of the peaceful Mashonas against the war
like Matabele. But when the Matabele had been
crushed the Company proceeded to deal with the
Mashonas, and eventuaUy annexed the territories of
both tribes.
During this autumn a general strike in the coal
tiade against a reduction of wages had spread to an
alarming extent, and seriously threatened the whole
manufacturing trade of the country. At last the
Govemment, by the advice of Mr. MundeUa, intervened,
and, on November 13, Gladstone read in the House of
Commons a letter which he had sent to the representa-

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 299
tives of both sides. In it he reminded them that the
strike had now entered upon its sixteenth week, vsdth
out any prospect of a conclusion ; and he suggested a
friendly conference, with a member of the Cabinet, Lord
Eosebery, in the chair. Lord Eosebery was not to sit
as arbitrator, but merely to preside over the deliberations,
and to bring the parties together if he could. The
conference met at the Foreign Office on the 17th, and
Lord Eosebery's good offices were successful. It was
arranged that the men should return to work at the
old rate of wages till February 1, 1894, and that, mean-
whUe, a permanent Board of Conciliation should be
established. On November 27 the question of better
ment, on the principle that all owners whose property
was improved by municipal undertakings should con
tribute to the cost, came before the House. The Lords
had struck out of the County CouncUs Improvement
BiU the clauses which, for the first time, introduced
this principle, and the Bill had consequently been
dropped. The Lords then passed a resolution that a
joint Committee pf both Houses should be appointed
to consider the question as a whole. Gladstone, on
behalf of the Govemment, refused his assent to this
proposal. The House of Commons, he said, had ex
pressed their opinion, and it was not for the House of
Lords to suggest that they should change their minds.
Meanwhile, the Parish Councils BUl, which was in

300 UFE OF W, E, GLADSTONE
the hands of Mr, Fowler, had been read a second time
and had got into Committee. It was making fairly satis
factory progress, when, on December 3, Mr, Fowler,
supported by the Prime Minister, accepted a Eadical
amendment enabling parish councUs to appoint a
majority of the trustees in aU local charities which
were not ecclesiastical. This decision induced the Con
servative Party to oppose the further stages of the BiU
with great vehemence. The session had to be pro
tracted over Christmas, and the BiU was not sent to the
House of Lords tUl January 10, 1894.
On December 19 the state of the Navy was raised
by Lord George HamUton, who had been First Lord
of the Admiralty, and who moved that the recent
increase of Continental fleets caUed for a corre
sponding enlargement of our ovsm. Gladstone re
garded these tactics as unconstitutional, and him
self proposed an amendment to the effect that it
was the sole duty of her Majesty's Govemment to
provide for the defence of the cotmtry at the proper
time. He also argued in his speech that there was no
danger either to the cotmtry or to commerce, inasmuch
as the Navy was equal to any two other navies com
bined. Lord George's motion was defeated by a
majority of thirty-six. Public opinion, however, was
not satisfied with the Prime Minister's assurance, and
Lord Spencer soon afterwards added a considerable

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 301
sum to the Navy Estimates for building new ships.
But by that time Gladstone had ceased to be responsible
for pubUc affairs.
The House oiUy adjourned for a few days at Christ
mas, meeting again on December 27, On the 29th an
agreeable incident varied the course of polemical discus
sion. It was Gladstone's eighty-fourth birthday, and
Mr, Balfour, on behalf of the Conservative Party, offered
him congratulations, which he cordiaUy acknowledged.
At the opening of the new year an important
step was taken by the Government as an employer
of labour. The Secretary for War, Mr, Campbell-
Bannerman, announced that the eight hours day, or,
to speak more accurately, the forty-eight hours week,
would be introduced into the Ordnance Factories as
weU as into the Dockyards. This experiment, though
regarded with some suspicion at the time, was in every
way successful. Early in January, Gladstone went for
a short holiday to Biarritz, a favourite resort of his old
age ; and whUe he was there, on January 31, the ' Pall
Mall Gazette ' startled the world by an apparently
authoritative statement that the Prime Minister had
determined to resign. The significance of this para
graph was not diminished by the carefully qualified
contiadiction which it received. From Gladstone him
self there came no word. But, in reply to inquiries. Sir
Algernon West, an old friend and former secretary, who

302 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
was staying with him at Biarritz, sent a long telegram,
in which he denied that the Prime Minister had formed
any such intention. Mr. Gladstone, he said, was
ignorant of the turn which evente might take, even
during the present session. But his eyesight was
giving bim trouble, which added considerably to the
burdens of office. He was, in fact, suffering from
catara<;t, for which he afterwards underwent a success
ftU operation. He returned, however, soon afterwards,
to London, where a conflict between the two Houses
had produced a serious crisis. Mr. Asquith's Employers'
Liabihty BUl, as it passed the House of Commons,
aboHshed the doctrine of common employment, and
made the master Hable for iujtuies caused to one ser
vant by the neghgence of another. This principle was
generaUy adopted. The conteoversy turned upon the
question whether masters and servants shotUd be
aUowed to contia-ct themselves out of the BUl. The
House of Commons supported the Govemment in
deciding that they should not ; and this was the view
of the trades unions. The House of Lords, taking up
the cause of the voltmtary insurance societies, which
the directors of most raUways declared that they would
have to abandon if the BUl passed in its present form,
introduced a clause for conditional contracting out;
and to this amendment they resolutely adhered. The
consequence of the deadlock was the loss of the BiU.

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 303
Gladstone had intended to move, on February 20, that
the Commons disagree with the Lords' amendment,
and to take a division. But a technical difficulty arose.
The Speaker ruled that, as the Lords had adhered with
out modification to an amendment rejected by the
Commons, either the amendment must be accepted or
the Bill must be dropped. Gladstone, therefore, could
only move the withdrawal of the BiU, and this rather
impotent conclusion deprived his speech of much of
its force, as it deprived the division of all meaning.
On March 1, however, he returned to the subject, in
connection with the Parish Councils Bill, and took the
opportunity of reviewing the whole history of the con
flict. The Lords had, in Committee, so entirely altered
this BiU, which established district as well as parish
councils, that it was hardly recognisable by its authors.
The House of Commons refused to accept any impor
tant amendment made by the Lords. Lord Salisbury
was for fighting the matter out, even at the risk of
losing the Bill ; but, as the Duke of Devonshire and
the Liberal Unionists declined to follow him, he gave
way. Most of the Lords' amendments were abandoned,
and they adhered only to two. One of these altered
the size of the parish entitled to a cotmcil from 200 to
300. The other left it vrith the Charity Commissioners
to decide whether in each case a parish council should
have control of charities. Eather than drop the Bill,

304 LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE
Gladstone, on these two points, gave way. But he
added that, in his opinion, the relations between the
two Houses had become intolerably strained, and that
the controversy must now go forward to its close. ' For
ourselves,' he said, speaking of the Cabinet, 'we take
frankly, fuUy, and finaUy, the side of the House of
Commons.' This declaration was enthusiastically applauded
by his foUowers, very few of whom knew that it
was his last speech, and, indeed, his last appearance,
in an assembly where he had sat with scarcely a
break for more than sixty years. From this and other
speeches, it is reasonable to infer that Gladstone wotUd
have appealed to the country against the Lords at that
time if he had been able to conduct a political campaign,
and if he had been supported by his coUeagues ; but
his physical powers were exhausted. The marveUous
energy which he had displayed in the summer, when
the Home Eule BiU was before the House, deserted
him when it had been disposed of, and the avenues
of sense, as he patheticaUy said, were closing. On
March 3, Parliament was prorogued after an unex
ampled session of thirteen months, to meet again for
a new one on the 12th. But it met vrith another
Prime Minister. On the day of the prorogation
Gladstone resigned, and the Queen made no effort to
retain his services. She at once sent for Lord Eosebery.

GLADSTONE'S LAST GOVEENMENT 305
Gladstone was not consulted upon the choice of his
successor. The Queen, in strict accordance vrith the
constitutional principle laid down in 1846 by Sir Eobert
Peel, acted upon her own initiative. The choice of
Lord Eosebery, though agreeable to most of his col
leagues, was due to the Crown, and to the Crown alone.
It is characteristic of Gladstone's mental energy and
versatility that on the very day of his retirement he
completed his translation of Horace's ' Odes.' Horace
has never been really translated into English. But
among the many attempts to perform an apparently
impossible task, Gladstone's holds a high place. It is
scholarly, lucid, and dignified. If it wants the lightness
and ease which are part of Horace's inimitable charm,
it preserves the beauty of the original, and it shows
perfect appreciation of an author whose ideas, tastes,
and thoughts were removed by an infinite distance from
those of the translator.

306 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE

CHAPTEE XXV
the closing yeabs
Gladstone's involuntary retirement was received by
all parties vrith respectful regret. Lord Salisbury, with
an exquisite felicity, rare even in him, said that the
country had lost the most brilliant intellect ever
devoted to the service of the State since Parliamentary
government began. On March 21, Gladstone, though
he remained a member of Parliament till the dissolution
of 1895, issued his fareweU address to the electors of
Midlothian. In this he made a dignified appeal to the
masses of the people, in whose hands, he said, political
power now rested. He warned them that they
must be on their guard against the temptation to
pursue their own selfish interests, which sometimes
beset every portion of the community. For himself,
he proclaimed his unalterable devotion to the cause of
Home Eule ; but his personal connection with it was
at an end. Writing, on July 7, to Sir John Cowan,
the Chairman of the Liberal Association for Midlothian,
he announced his definite retirement from pubHc Hfe.
But he could not prevent the nation from eagerly

THE CLOSING YEAES 307
scratinising aU his published utterances, and a letter
from him, which the Bishop of Chester, an advocate of
the Gothenburg system, read at Aberdeen, on Septem
ber 17, caused some dismay to the supporters of Local
Option. Gladstone had been, at least nominally, re
sponsible for the introduction of the Local Veto BiU.
But in this letter, after pronouncing in favour of strong
drink being sold for the pubhc profit only, which is the
Gothenburg system, he went on to stigmatise a mere
limitation in the number of drink shops, ' the idol of
the pubhc for the last twenty years,' as Httie better
than an imposture if it claimed to be a perfect remedy.
The subject, however, which most interested him
in his retirement was the persecution of the Armenian
Christians by the Sultan of Turkey. On December 29,
his eighty-fifth birthday, he received at Hawarden an
Armenian deputation, and spoke with an eloquence
worthy of his prime. Denouncing the recent massacres
by Kurds in Armenia, who were tmdoubtedly instigated
by the Porte, he said they were as bad as anything
that had happened in Bulgaria eighteen years before.
He warned the StUtan that he was rushing on his ovsm
destruction, and he recaUed the fact that, during his
ovsTi lifetime, the Turkish Empire had been diminished
by more than half. What was left of it, he exclaimed,
was a disgrace to civUisation, and a curse to mankind.
On June 14, 1895, Gladstone went, in Sir Donald
X 2

308 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Currie's ship, the ' TantaUon Castie,' to Hamburg, for
the opening of the Baltic Canal, and, though not
supposed to be a popular statesman in Germany, was
received with great enthusiasm by the inhabitants.
On June 18 the pohtical world was startled by an
announcement in the ' Times ' that he had cancelled
his pair with Mr. Villiers. No authentic explanation
of this step was given, and it was not of much political
mport ance, as Mr. Villiers had long ceased to attend
the House. But it was asserted, and not denied, that
Gladstone considered the Bill for the disestablishment
of the Welsh Church, then in Committee, to be unduly
harsh in some of its provisions. After the dissolution
of Parliament, on July 8, Gladstone, who took no
part in the General Election, retired permanently to
Hawarden, and occupied himself with the foundation of
St. Deiniol's Library, intended for theological students.
In the deed by which he established the library, he
expressed the opinion that theology should be studied
in connection with history and philosophy. Its shelves,
therefore, contain historical and philosophical books as
well as works on divinity. He further explained that,
though primarily intended for members of the Church
of England, he wished it to be open to other Christian
Churches, and even to those who were not Christians.
But there is an honourable obligation upon all who
avail themselves of it, not to use it for merely secular

THE CLOSING YEAES 309
purposes. Even in his eighty-sixth year Gladstone
was stiU ahve to the calls of humanity. The continu
ance of the Armenian massacres drew him from his
repose, and at Chester, on August 6, he addressed a
pubhc meeting caUed to express horror at the conduct
of the Sultan. The Duke of Westminster, an old
political foUower, who had been estranged from his
chief by Home Eule, but who, like the Duke of Argyll,
had been brought back to friendly aUiance vrith him by
this recent phase of the Eastern Question, was in the
chair. Gladstone maintained that we had a right of
interference under the Treaty of Paris, and that by the
Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1878 we were not merely
authorised, but bound, to protect the Asiatic subjects of
the Porte. But moral considerations, he said, had no
weight at Constantinople. The word ' ought ' meant
nothing there, the word ' must ' meant everything. He
returned to the subject on December 17, in a public
letter, which ironicaUy described the six Great Powers
of Europe as prostrating themselves at the feet of the
impotent Sultan. In 1896 Gladstone took part in a
curious discussion, which led to no practical result,
upon the vahdity of Anglican Orders. Leo XIII.
had issued an EncycHcal that was interpreted by
Gladstone and others as implying an intention to
inquire into the possibility of an EngHsh clergyman
being recognised as a priest by the Church of Eome.

310 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Impressed by the urbanity characteristic of the Pope,
Gladstone, in a letter to Cardinal EampoUa, the Papal
Secretary of State, reviewed the history of the subject,
and earnestly pleaded for a recognition which he
thought might be a first step to the reunion of
Christendom. This letter was pubhshed, on June 1, by
the Archbishop of York, and considerably astonished
Gladstone's Nonconformist admirers, who did not
realise that, little as he cared for Establishments, he
believed in the absolute necessity of a Church. The
dignity, gravity, earnestness, and courtesy of the letter
were universaUy admired. But ordinary Protestants
could not understand what the Pope had to do with
the Church of England, while his Holiness finally
closed the discussion by intimating, with great polite
ness, that, for all Englishmen — clergymen and laity
alike — the Church of Eome kept an open door. But
those who entered it must do so upon the terms laid
down by the Church, and not upon their own. Writing
from Cannes, in March, 1897, Gladstone expressed his
disappointment with a plainness and vigour which
recalled the old days of the Vatican Pamphlet. On
Jtme 26, 1896, the Prince of Wales was installed as
Chancellor of the new Welsh University at Aberystwith.
Among the recipients of honorary degrees were the
Princess of Wales, who received a degree in music,
and Gladstone, who was greeted with the utmost

THE CLOSING YEAES 311
enthusiasm by the Welsh audience. At the end of
August, the Sultan, taking advantage of an unimportant
rising among the Armenians at Constantinople, ordered
a general butchery of the Armenian residents in the
city. This horrible crime, committed almost under
the eyes of the Ambassadors of the Great Powers, who
could do nothing to stop it, drew Gladstone once more
into the poHtical arena. On September 24 he spoke,
with undiminished eloquence and power, to a mass
meeting of 6,000 persons in Hengler's Circus at Liver
pool. The meeting was composed of both political
parties, and the Lord Mayor, the Earl of Derby (a
Conservative) presided. Gladstone suggested that the
British Ambassador should be recalled from Constanti
nople, and that the Turkish Ambassador in London
should be given his passports. The Sultan, he said,
could not defy united Europe, and if England would
undertake not to seek any personal advantage for her
self, the Powers would not object even to her isolated
interference. On the other hand, if they did, she
would have done her duty, and could do no more. He
followed up this argument in the ' Nineteenth Century '
for October, strongly urging that this country was
under a moral obligation to intervene, and that if she
did not discharge it, the word honour should be dropped
from the language. The speech and article, though
they had no visible effect upon the policy of Lord

312 LIFB OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Salisbury's Government, produced a result which Glad
stone could scarcely have anticipated. For they were
among the reasons given by Lord Eosebery, in his
valedictory speech at Edinburgh, for retiring from the
leadership of the Liberal Party. Lord Eosebery in
timated his dissent from Gladstone's proposals, which
would, in his opinion, have led to a European war.
This was on October 8, and on the 19th, at a meeting
in St. James's Hall, with the Bishop of Eochester in
the chair, a letter from Gladstone was read replying
to Lord Eosebery, though not by name. Premising
that he desired not to attack the Government, but to
strengthen Lord Salisbury's hands, he described the
Sultan as the great assassin, and announced as a ' wild
paradox ' the fear of war. During the year 1896 there
appeared, in two instalments, Gladstone's contribution
towards the study of Bishop Butler, to whose dry and
bracing philosophy he had been devoted since his
Oxford days.
Early in the year the Clarendon Press published
his edition, in two volumes, of the 'Analogy' and
the ' Sermons,' with brief explanatory notes, a re
arrangement of the text in paragraphs, and a complete
index, which must have been a work of enormous
labour. Soon afterwards there came out an additional
volume caUed 'Studies Subsidiary to the Works of
Bishop Butler,' in which Gladstone defended the

THE CLOSING YEAES 813
Bishop against some of his modern criticH, and entered
at large into raodern speculations on the immortality
ofthe soul.
In 1897, though his published utterances were
almost entirely confined to the new phase ot the
Eastern Question, Gladstone spoke at Hawarden, on
May 4, in favour of the Bishop of Ht. Asaph's Diocesan
Fund; and at Queen's Ferry, on Juno 2, when the
Victoria Jubilee Bridge was opened over the Dee. On
March 13, in a letter to the Duke of Westminster, he
paid an eloquent tribute to ' tho recent and marvellously
gallant action of Greece,' in going to tho assistance of
Crete. ' She has made it impossible,' he wrote, ' to
palter with this question as we paltered with the
blood-stained question of Armenia. She has extricated
it from tho meshes of diplomacy, and placed it on the
order of the day for definitive solution, I can remem
ber no case in which so small a State has conferred
so great a benefit.' Greece, however, fell an easy prey
to the superior discipline of the Turkish Army, and, on
September 21, Gladstone summed up the previous two
years of Eastern policy in the following words : ' First,
100,000 Armenians slaughtered, with no security
against repetition,' and great profit to the Assassin.
Secondly, Turkey stronger than at any time since the
Crimean War. Thirdly, Greece weaker than at any
time since she became a kingdom. Fourthly, all this

314 LIFE OP W, B. GLADSTONE
due to the European Concert : that is, the mutual
distrust and hatred of the Powers.' Crete, however,
was liberated from Turkey, and, after a period of
government by European admirals, was placed under
the control of a Christian administrator, Prince George
of Greece. Gladstone's speech at Queen's Ferry, on June 2,
was the last he delivered. In the summer of 1897
he suffered very acute pain, supposed at first to be
neuralgia, and, in November, he went again to Cannes
for the benefit of the southern sun. But he grew
worse ; and in February, 1898, returned to England.
At Bournemouth, on March 18, the doctors told him
that the pain was due to a disease which must soon
prove fatal, and on the 22nd he returned to Hawarden
a dying man. The remaining weeks of his life were
spent chiefly in religious devotion, fortified by the
rites of the English Church ; and early in the morning
of Ascension Day (May 19) he died. Among the in
numerable messages which he received during his last
illness was a unanimous vote of sympathy passed by
the Senate of Italy, the country to which, after the
United Kingdom, his greatest services had been
rendered. On the day of his death the House of
Commons at once adjourned as a mark of respect to
his memory. On May 20 an address was carried by
both Houses for a public funeral and national monu-

THE CLOSING YEAES 315
ment in Westminster Abbey. On this occasion
speeches were delivered upon Gladstone's character
and career by the leading members of the House of
Lords and the House of Commons, The most
interesting, because the most personal, was Lord
Eosebery's, But Mr, Balfour's, which was read from
manuscript, is careful, appreciative, and valuable to
the historian.
On May 25, Gladstone's body was brought from
Hawarden to London, and the coffin was placed in
Westminster Hall, During the 26th and 27th the
Hall was open to the public, an unbroken procession
moved round the bier, and it was estimated that a
quarter of a million people joined in it. On Saturday,
May 28, Gladstone was buried in the Abbey, and laid
in ' Statesmen's Corner,' where the public, appropriately
enough, pass daily over his grave. Mrs. Gladstone was
able to be present at the funeral, which was attended
by both Houses of Parliament, though not in State.
The Queen was represented by the Lord Steward, the
Earl of Pembroke. The pall-bearers were the Prince
of Wales and his son the Duke of York ; Lord Sahsbury,
Lord Kimberley, Mr. Balfour, and Sir WilHam Harcourt
(the four leaders of the two Houses) ; Lord Eosebery, his
immediate successor in the Premiership, and the Duke
of Eutland, his former colleague in the representation
of Newark ; Lord Eendel and Mr. Armitstead, two of

316 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
his most intimate friends. The Queen, writing to
Mrs. Gladstone, said : ' I shall ever gratefully remember
his devotion and zeal in all that concerned my per
sonal welfare and that of my family.' The ceremony
was none the less impressive because, in obedience to
Gladstone's wishes, it was conducted with the utmost
simplicity and all possible avoidance of pomp.
Gladstone was for the greater part of his life a
frequent, though irregular, contributor to reviews and
magazines. Most of these contributions, except such
as were avowedly controversial or purely classical, he
republished through Mr. Murray under the title of
' Gleanings from Past Years.' The seven volumes of
the ' Gleanings ' appeared in 1879. An eighth and
supplementary volume was printed in 1890. This
coUection of essays, ranging over forty years, and
dealing with a great variety of subjects, contains much
which is only interesting because Gladstone wrote it,
some literary criticisms which have a permanent value,
and a few constitutional essays of the highest possible
importance. Several competent judges have expressed
the opinion that Gladstone's article on Leopardi, in
the ' Quarterly Eeview ' for March, 1850, is the high-
water mark of his critical capacity. It is a singularly
interesting study of a strange, brilliant, and pathetic
career. Count Giacomo Leopardi, born in 1798, died
in 1837, a year younger than Byron. He was subject

THE CLOSING YEAES 317
to constitutional melancholy, and his Hfe was a long
disease. But in a time when classical scholarship was
almost dead in Italy, he was amongst the profoundest
scholars of the age. His poetry has been compared,
for condensation, with Dante, and his prose, for lucidity,
vrith Galileo's. It is characteristic of Gladstone that,
while doing full justice in eloquent language to
Leopardi's genius, at once precocious and mature, he
devotes many pages to a refutation of the young poet's
pessimistic paganism, and to an exposure of the
mendacious narrative by which a Jesuit priest repre
sented him as a tardy convert to the Church. Gladstone
was always an ardent Tennysonian, and in October,
1859, on the appearance of the ' Idylls,' he wrote for
the ' Quarterly Eeview ' a comprehensive survey of the
poems which Tennyson had then published, including
'The Princess,' 'In Memoriam,' and 'Maud.' Although
the general tone of the article was laudatory, and even
enthusiastic, Gladstone felt it his duty to protest against
the glorification of war which he found in 'Maud.'
But he recognised the unfairness of attributing to an
author opinions dramatically expressed, and in a note,
added twenty years afterwards, he admitted that he
had done less than justice to the poem. Tennyson,
he said, with genuine insight, was the severest of his
own critics, and he attributed to him, in common with
Homer and Dante, the ' power of purging out vulgarity

318 LIFE OP W. E GLADSTONE
from ideas ordinarily tinged with it.' The ' Quarterly
Eeview ' for July, 1876, contains the fullest, fairest,
and most original estimate passed upon Sir George
Trevelyan's 'Life of Macaulay.' Gladstone's personal
acquaintance vrith Macaulay was slight ; but they
had been brought into friendly correspondence by
Macaulay's review of Gladstone's first book, and they
had sat together for many years in the House of
Commons. Although the general account of Macaulay
as a historian, politician, and man of letters, is appre
ciative and judicial, the portion of the article most
distinctively Gladstonian is a powerful and ingenious
argument to prove that Macaulay had in his history
underrated the social position of the clergy.
Gladstone's constitutional essays consist of three
articles upon three successive volumes of Sir Theodore
Martin's 'Life of the Prince Consort,' and of one
article in the ' North American Eeview ' called ' Kin
beyond Sea.' The first chapter in what is reaUy a
Prime Minister's commentary upon the former half of
the Queen's reign, appeared in the 'Contemporary
Eeview ' of June, 1875, and was signed ' Etonensis.' In
it Gladstone contrasted the present powers of the
British monarchy with those which it had wielded in
the past, and described the change as the substitution
of influence for authority. When the second volume
of Sir Theodore's book appeared, Gladstone wrote a

THE CLOSING YEAES 319
notice of it in the ' Church Quarterly Eeview ' for
January, 1877. In this he examined the constitu
tional doctrines of Baron Stockmar, who was on inti
mate terms with the Prince, and who endeavoured,
rather crudely, to reconstruct the British Constitution
on a German model. Gladstone passes over this
enterprise vrith courteous irony, suggesting that the
time had gone by for Bolingbroke' s patriot king.
But he takes the opportunity of pointing out what
seemed to him really a dangerous innovation, in the
fact that the House of Commons had taken upon itself
to propose an increase of public expenditure. For,
although it was still impossible that any private
member should move an addition to the Estimates, he
might commit the House to an abstract vote which
would involve the outlay of millions. Exactly a year
later, in January, 1878, Gladstone contributed to the
same periodical a review of Sir Theodore Martin's third
volume. This instalment of the Prince's biography
covers the period of the Crimean War, and therefore
gave Gladstone an opportunity for putting on paper
the doctrines he had repeatedly expressed in speeches,
that the object of the campaign was to vindicate pubhc
law in Europe, Eussia, he said, set herself in opposi
tion to aU the other Great Powers, It was only be
cause no material help could be obtained from Austria,
and no help whatever from Prussia, that England and

320 LIFE OP W, E. GLADSTONE
France were left to act on behalf of the whole Western
continent. The third volume also gave Gladstone
occasion for enforcing the views he always held on
public economy, and for pointing out that the panics
due to fear of invasion had become greater with the
progress of extravagance. In 'Kin beyond Sea,'^
Gladstone compares the British and American Con
stitutions. He begins by describing the United States
as England's only commercial rival, and predicts for
them the future primacy in commerce. The great
obstacle to their achievement of it was, he thought,
Protection. The chief interest of the article, however,
lies in Gladstone's account of the Cabinet, which con
stitutional historians ignore, as an essential element in
the working of the Constitution. The Cabinet on his
testimony, than which none can be higher, stands
between Parliament and the Crown as a necessary
and sufficient link. The function which the Cabinet
performs for the Sovereign and the Legislature de
volves upon the Prime Minister as a medium between
the Sovereign and his colleagues. Whatever differences
of opinion there may have been in the Cabinet, the
Premier conveys to the Throne a uniform and col
lective judgment.
The best portrait of Gladstone was painted by
MUlais in 1879, and hangs in the National Gallery. It
' North American Beview, September, 1878,

THE CLOSING YBAES 321
was sold by the first Duke of Westminster to Sir
Charles Tennant, who gave it to the nation. Glad
stone, though not tall, was above the middle height,
broad-shouldered, but otherwise slight in figture, and
muscular, vrith no superfluous flesh. He was gifted
vrith an abundance of physical strength, and enjoyed
throughout his life remarkably good health. His hair,
in his youth and the prime of his manhood, was black.
His complexion was pale, almost pallid, and an artist
compared it with alabaster. His eyes were large, lus
trous, and piercing ; not quite black, but resembling
agate in colour. His face, always handsome, acquired
in old age an expression of singular dignity, majesty,
and power. His voice, naturally musical and melodious,
gained by practice an ahnost tmexampled range of
compass and variety. Scarcely any building was too
large for it to fill, and at a meeting in the open air it
could be heard by many thousands with perfect ease.
Yet he could modulate it at will, and even sink it to a
whisper vrithout ceasing to be audible. There were
traces in its tone of his Lancashire origin, especially
in the pronunciation of the word ' sir,* which he had so
often to employ. But its marvellous richness always
fell pleasantly on the ear. His manners were courteous,
even ceremonious, and to women habituaUy deferential.
He was a great stickler for social precedence, and would
not go out of the room before a peer of his own crea-
Y

322 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
tion. Bishops, and, indeed, all clergymen, he treated
with pectUiar respect. His temper, though quick, and,
as he himself said, 'vulnerable,' was in private life
almost invariably under perfect control. In Parlia
ment he sometimes gave way to indignation, for his
wrath was kindled by public causes, and not by any
thing petty or personal. His talk was copious, lucid,
and full of phrases which stamped themselves upon the
memory. He was earnest and eager in argument,
tenacious of his proposition, but ready to hear anything
which could be said against it. Hard to convince at
the time, he often came round afterwards to the view
of an opponent, and would then make the admission
with the utmost candour. He was a good listener as
well as a good talker, and he had the instantaneous
rapidity of perception supposed to be characteristic of
great lawyers. His range of study, though it excluded
physical science, was very vride, and his acquaintance
with a subject was hardly ever superficial. He used to
say that he had not a good verbal memory ; but he
was seldom guilty of a misquotation, and he retained
in his mind with accuracy an enormous number of
facts. No scholar in Europe had a more thorough
knowledge of Homer, and few, even of Italians, were
so well versed in Dante. He was an acute and learned
theologian. The defect of his conversation was that he
could not help being earnest on all subjects, and failed

THE CLOSING YEAES 323
to see that his views on the making of violins were less
interesting than his experience of govemment by
Cabinet. In combined breadth and subtlety of intellect
no statesman of his own, or perhaps of any, age sur
passed him. He was equaUy at home in dravring up
a great measure hke the Irish Land Act of 1881, and
in refining upon the point whether the retention of the
Irish Members under Home Eule was a principle, or an
'organic detaU.' Sometimes his subtlety led him to
draw sophistical distinctions. His minute and punc
tihous scrupulosity in the smallest things often led to
charges of equivocation, and the very completeness
with which he defended himself against them pro
duced a vague sense of distrust. Though himself the
best abused man in England, his own judgments were
uniformly charitable, and he was seldom heard to say
anything harsh of a political opponent in private.
It has sometimes been alleged that Gladstone had
no humour. Such a broad and unqualified state
ment is certainly untrue. Irony is a form of humour,
and of irony he was a master. But it is true that his
sense of humour was fitful and capricious. Many
forms of it did not appeal to him. Wiih all his love
of poetry he had a literal mind, and was too apt to
assume that people meant exactly what they said.
Lord Houghton once spoke of the humorists who had
taken the chair at the Cobden Club ' from Dickens down
T 2

324 LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE
to Gladstone.' Two of Gladstone's speeches may be
mentioned which, read in cold blood at a great distance
of time, would make anybody laugh. One is his satirical
description of Lord Palmerston's attitude to Eeform in
1859. The other is his reply to Mr. Chaplin's personal
attack in 1877. Gladstone's favourite form of recreation
was turning from one kind of mental employment to
another. He was an omnivorous reader of ancient and
modern languages, prose and poetry, history and bio
graphy, sermons and novels. In the ' Temple of Peace,'
as he called his ample library at Hawarden, he was
always happy. As a young man he rode and shot,
though he never became a sportsman. He cared
little for games. Chess he thought too serious for an
amusement, but he sometimes played whist with
concentration. His favourite pastime of cutting down
trees was begun in the woods of Clumber, which he
inspected as the Duke of Newcastle's trustee. Till
after seventy he was a great walker, and no stretch,
however long, seemed to tire him. Wordsworth's
plain Hving and high thinking was Gladstone's standard.
His father left him a sufficient fortune, which exempted
him from the necessity of adopting any other profession
than politics. Hawarden Castle, his Welsh home,
belonged to his wife's brother. Sir Stephen Glynne,
and, after he died unmarried, to Mrs. Gladstone for
her life. His habits were simple and domestic. He

THB CLOSING YBAES 325
was a regular church-goer, even on week-days, and
on Sundays he usually read the Lessons. He was
frugal without being abstemious, but against luxury
and ostentation he set his face. He spent a large
proportion of his income on books, and gave away
a stiU larger in charity. But he had enough of the
commercial spirit to drive a good bargain, and was
in aU respects an exceUent man of business. He was
not, however, in the ordinary sense, a man of the
world. He approached moral questions rather as a
clergyman than as a layman, and in dealing with in
dividuals he wanted the tact which he displayed in
dealing with assemblies. He had a bad memory for
faces, and he did not always pay the personal attention
which political followers of the less elevated kind expect.
His power was over masses ; and no one quite knows
what he was who has .not heard him address a great
pubhc meeting. Even in the House of Commons, though
he almost always dehghted it, and at times roused it to
such enthusiasm as no one else could elicit, he often
provoked antagonism which he might have avoided.
He could not, as Disraeli said that Peel could, play
upon the House like an old fiddle. Having entered
pubhc Hfe a Tory, and left it a Eadical, Gladstone was
naturally accused of being an ' opportunist,' or, in plain
EngHsh, a time-server. Such an accusation is incon
sistent with his whole character, except on the hypo-

326 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
thesis that he was a conscious and deliberate hj'-pocrite.
It has been rather more plausibly contended that he
had no fixed principles in politics. But, independently
of other considerations, this theory ignores economy
and finance, in which he never substantially changed.
He was always in favour of peace and retrenchment.
He had to be converted to Eeform. The great plunge
of his life, the sudden, or seemingly sudden, adoption
of Home Eule, he has himself explained. By argu
ments which to him were satisfactory, but which drew
upon him the shaft of Mr. Lowell's wit (' life-long con
victions to extemporise '), he showed that his opinions
forced him to become a Home Euler when five-sixths of
the Irish people were so, and when Home Eule could be
given without endangering the unity of the Empire.
Whether it would endanger that unity was the great
question, and there can be no doubt that Gladstone
sincerely held it would not. The charge of precipitation
is, from his point of view, no charge at all. Lord
Eandolph Churchill's phrase, ' an old man in a hurry,'
was rough and rude in form, but in substance it was
neither unfair nor untrue. It is really a variation of
the Duke's fine saying that he had ' no time not to do
what was right.' Gladstone himself confessed that
he had been in a hurry for forty years. Prompt action
in an emergency is no crime. Gladstone thought that
a great national crisis had arisen, and that he at seventy-

THE CLOSING YBAES 327
six must cope with it. He could not have expected
that he would live to be eighty-eight. There was, at
least, one sphere in which Gladstone's mind did not
fluctuate. From the straight line of orthodox Christi
anity he never swerved by the breadth of a hair. The
Christian religion guided every day and every act of
his life. He was, as Lord Salisbury said, after his
death, ' a great Christian man.' As an orator, Glad
stone's only contemporary rival was John Bright.
But it is difficult to compare them. Gladstone was
always speaking, and usually had to speak, whether he
liked it or not. Bright could choose his own subject
and his own time. Bright's style was simpler, and his
Enghsh perhaps purer than Gladstone's ; but his
range was much narrower, he seldom argued, and he
never debated. Gladstone was great in Parliament,
great on a platform, great even in those occasional
addresses on miscellaneous topics which are apt to
drive the most paradoxical into platitude. There was
no audience which he could not charm, none to which
he did not instinctively adapt himself. His fault as an
orator was a tendency to diffusiveness, and in particular
to the employment of two words where one would do.
But when he was pressed for time, no one could be
terser, and his speeches of close reasoning or of pure
exposition scarcely contain a superfluous syllable. His
oratorical method and arrangement were borrowed from

328 LIFE OP W. E. GLADSTONE
Peel. The fire, the energy, the enthusiasm, the fusion
of reason and passion, the intense and glowing mind,
were all his own.
As a financier, Gladstone can only be compared with
Walpole, Pitt, and Peel. Walpole's great speech on the
Peerage Bill has been coupled with Gladstone's speech
on the taxation of charities as the best examples of
abstract reasoning addressed to the House of Commons.
Gladstone's fixst financial statement, made in 1853,
shows that he had carefully studied the principles
of Pitt's financial legislation. He was the pupil and
disciple of Sir Eobert Peel, whose labours in pro
moting the freedom of commerce he continued and
completed. His intellectual supremacy was never
more fully shown than in framing and carrying the
Budgets of 1853, 1860, and 1861. Gladstone's principal
defect as a statesman was that, with the two great
exceptions of Italian independence and the rescue of
Eastern Christians from the rule of the Porte, he
paid no continuous attention to foreign affairs. He
trusted too much to his old and tried friend. Lord
Granville, who, though able and tactful, was dilatory
and procrastinating. A critic, even a friendly critic,
might say of Gladstone that he tried to do too many
things at a time. From 1886 to 1894, Home Eule
absorbed him, and he considered almost every

THB CLOSING YEAES 329
subject as it affected that great issue. But at other
periods, even when he was Prime Minister, he occupied
his scanty leisure with art, with theological specula
tions, vrith literature, with historical research, and
with practical philanthropy. In his zeal to reclaim
the faUen, and to console the wretched, he did what
no man of the world would have dared to do without
fear of misconstruction, or even of scandal. Indeed,
he did not know what fear was. As Lord Eosebery
said of him, he was the bravest of the brave. During
his second Government he was in serious danger of
assassination. But the only thing which troubled and
annoyed him was the discovery that he was under the
special protection of the police. When his doctor
told him, in 1894, that he had cataract, he desired
him to operate then and there, that he might
resume, as soon as possible, 'the great gift of
working vision.' He loved popularity, having come
to believe more and more as he advanced in years
that the instincts of the people were, on broad ques
tions, right, and their judgment in the long run sound.
But, in 1878, he set himself deliberately against a
wave of public enthusiasm which he thought mis
taken, with the result that he was hardly safe in the
streets of London. No English statesman has been
more fervently adored or more intensely hated than

330 LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE
Gladstone. While his political admirers were extolling
him to sympathetic crowds as equal or superior to the
most illustrious of the human race, he was being
accused in anonymous letters of the foulest crimes.
Even his religion, like the very different religion of
Cromwell, was set down in some quarters as the basest
hypocrisy. But his personal enemies, as distinguished
from his political opponents, were men who did not
know him. Of his personal friends, at different periods
of his life, the most conspicuous were Arthur Hallam,
Alfred Tennyson, Samuel Wilberforce, and John
Morley. The immortal phrase of the Eoman bio
grapher cannot be applied to Gladstone. He was not
' happy in the occasion of his death.' The cause on
which he bestowed the last years of his health and
strength was submerged ; the party which he had led
was shattered in pieces. Peel broke up his party, but
he carried Free Trade. Gladstone did not live to carry
Home Eule. The list of his legislative achievements
stops at 1885. But what a list it is ! He reformed
the tariff of his country ; he was the real author of
household suffrage ; he gave Ireland religious equality
and agrarian justice ; he established the system of
elementary education ; he protected the voter by the
baUot ; he made the Army a national institution ; he
restored efficiency to the House of Commons ; he gave
the franchise to the agricultural labourer. He was a

THE CLOSING YEAES 331
demagogue in the proper sense of the term, a true leader
of the people. He exhorted them always to employ
the pohtical freedom which he had so largely given
them, less for their own material advancement than
for the best and highest interests of mankind.

INDEX

Abbas Pasha, Khedive of Egypt,
288
Abercromby, Mr., 11
Aberdare, Lord, 126
Aberdeen, Lord, 10, 29, 38-41,
45-47, 53, 70, 135, 228, 262
Acland, Arthur, 286
— Sir Thomas, 4
Acton, Lord, 133
Afghanistan, Ameer of, 152, 153
Alcester, Lord, 195
Alexander II., Emperor of Russia,
176
Althorp, Lord, 7, 9 (see also under
Spencer, Lord)
Ampthill, Lord, 149
AncGrassy, Count, 135
Arabi Pasha, 195, 196
ArgyU, Duke of, 180, 208, 309
Aristophanes, 95
Aristotle, 65
Armitstead, Mr., 315
Ashbourne, Lord, 257
Ashley, Evelyn, 147
Asquith, Mr., 272, 285-290, 302
Austria, Emperor of, 161
Avebury, Lord, 141
Ayrton, Mr., 102

Baines, Sib Edwakd, 87
Balfour, Mr., 192, 226, 248, 253,
256, 267-269, 273-281, 301, 315
Baring, Mr., 137
Baring, Sir Evelyn (afterwards
Lord Cromer), 202, 288

Baxter, Mr., 104
Beaconsfield, Lord, x, 5-10, 23, 34,
41-48, 57-87, 98-111, 125-137,
144-151, 159-176, 194, 325
Benedetti, Monsieur, 115
Benson, Archbishop, 18, 197, 208
Bessborough, Lord, 171, 179
Bethell, Sir Eichard (afterwards
Lord Westbury), 61
Biggar, Mr., 173
Bismarck, Prince, 115, 149
Bolingbroke, Lord, 319
Bouverie, Mr., 104
Bovill, Chief Justice, 119
Bowring, Sir John, 58, 76
Bowyer, Sir George, 81
Bradlaugh, Mr., 166-168, 182-185,
198-201, 207, 219, 220, 276
Bradley, Dr. (Dean of Westmin
ster), 113
Brand, President, 177, 178
— Sir Henry (Speaker of the
House of Commons), 173, 204
Bright, Jacob, 118
— John, 54, 59, 67, 68, 93, 100,
107-114, 164, 196, 228, 257, 258,
327
Briscoe, Eev. Eobert, 5
Brodrick, Mr., 207
Brougham, Lord, 233
Bruce, Mr. (afterwards Lord Aber
dare), 126
Bryce, Mr., 293
Buccleuch, Duke of, 103, 156
Buckingham, Duke of, 23, 70
Buller, Sir Eedvers, 242, 250

334

LIFE OF W. E. GLADSTONE

Burke, Mr., 189
Burt, Mr., 285
Butler, Bishop, viii, 313
Butt, Mr., 243
Byng, Mr., 73
Byron, Lord, 316

Caine, Mb., 268
Cairns, Lord, 111, 112, 208-210
Callau, Mr., 288
Cambridge, Duke of, 84
Campbell-Bannerman, Mr., 230,
301
Canning, Charles (afterwards Earl
Canning), 3, 4, 42
Canning, George, 4, 287
Cardwell, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Cardwell), 54, 108, 164
Carlingford, Lord, 180
Carlyle, Mr., 139
Carnarvon, Lord, 100, 107, 111,
144, 145, 220, 227, 253
Cartwright, Mr., 155
Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 157
Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 166,
188, 189
Cavour, M., 40
CecU, Lord Eobert (see under
Cranborne, Lord)
Cetewayo, King of the Zulus, 205
Chalmers, Dr., 14
Chamberlain, Joseph, 164, 191,
199, 210, 222-237, 245, 246, 278,
296
Chandos, Lord, 70 (see also under
Buckingham, Duke of)
Chaplin, Mr., 140, 324
Chester, Bishop of, 307
Childers, Mr., 197, 217-220, 229
Christian, King of Denmark, 87
Churchill, Lord Eandolph, 181,
207, 210, 220, 236, 242, 247,
290 326
Clarence, Duke of, 212, 262
Clarendon, Lord, 47, 50, 115
Clark, Dr., 259
Cobden, Mr., 25, 30, 58, 59, 68-72,
80, 89, 258

Cockburn, Chief Justice, 119-122
Coleridge, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Coleridge), 101
CoUey, Sir George, 177
Collier, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Monkswell), 119
CoUings, Jesse, 227, 228
Conybeare, Mr., 259
Cookson, Mr., 195
Courtney, Mr., 212, 297
Cowan, Sir John, 306
Cowen, Mr., 173
Cowper, Lord, 187
Cranborne, Lord, 100, 103
Cranbrook, Earl of, 9i, 92 (see also
under Hardy, Gathorne)
Crawford, Mr., 102
Crispi, Signor, 264
Cromer, Lord (see under Baring,
Sir Evelyn)
Cromwell, Oliver, 330
Cross, Mr. (afterwards Lord Cross),
108
Currie, Sir Donald, 200, 308

D'Aguesseau, Chancellor, 35
Dalhousie, Lord, 230
Dalkeith, Lord, 156, 163
Dalrymple, Mr., 223
Dante, 12, 317, 322
Davey, Horace (afterwards Lord
Davey), 182
Davis, Jefferson, 7, 82
Davitt, Michael, 174
Denison, Archdeacon, 46
Denmark, King Christian of, 87,
Derby, Lord, X, 41-45, 53, 58, 63-69,
75, 80-82, 91-99, 104, 111,
140-147, 160, 184, 197, 204-211,
307 (see also under Stanley)
Devonshire, Duke of, 68, 297, 303
(see also under Hartington,
Lord)
Dickens, Charles, 323
Dilke, Sir Charles, 156, 164, 196,
204, 211
DiUon, John, 173-174, 192, 239,
244, 255

INDEX

335

DiUwyn, Mr., 88, 106
Disraeli, Benjamin (see under
Beaconsfield, Lord)
Dodson, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Monk-Bretton), 196
Dollinger, Dr., 242
Donoughmore, Lord, 186
Dopping, Mr., 252
Doyle, Sir Francis, 4
Drummond, Mr., 61
Du Cane, Mr., 73
Dunkellin, Lord, 97

Egan, Mk., 288
Elgin, Lord, 76
EUenborough, Lord, 63
EUiot, Sir Henry, 138, 143, 146,
161, 162
Estcourt, Mr., 31
Evans, Sir de Lacy, 41
Exeter, Bishop of (Dr. Temple),
112

Fabini, 41
Fawcett, Henry, 117, 125, 164
Ferdinand II., King of the Two
Sicilies, 39-40
Fitzgerald, Baron, 190
— Lord, 24
Forster, Mr., 114, 126, 146,
168-172, 188-192, 203
Fowler, Mr., 300
Fox, Charles James, 59, 64
Fraser, Dr., 113
Frederick, Emperor of Germany,
255
Freeman, Mr., 138
Frere, Sir Bartle, 157
Fust, Sir Herbert Jenner, 34
Gaisjoed, Dr., 4
Galileo; 317
GaskeU, Milne, 3
George, King of Greece, 66, 80
Gibson, Milner, 49
Gladstone, Herbert, 225

Gladstone, John (afterwards Sir
John Gladstone), 1, 6
— Mrs. (nie Anne Eobertson), 1
— Mrs. («ee Catherine Glynne), 16,
98, 263, 315, 316, 324
— Sir Thomas, 2, 8
— WiUiam Henry, 109
Glynne, Sir Stephen, 16, 324
Gordon, General, 201-203, 213,
214, 223
Gorham, Mr., 34, 35
Gortschakoff, Prince, 146
Goschen, Mr., 89, 164, 165, 203,
228, 249, 254
Goulburn, Mr., 22
Graham, Sir James, 44, 54, 109
Grant, President, 122
GranviUe, Lord, 69, 75, 115-117,
129, 134, 163-165, 204,209-211,
228, 328
Grattan, 291
Greece, King George of, 66, 80
— King Otho of, 66
— Prince George of, 314
Grey, Earl de (afterwards Marquis
of Eipon), 118, 119
Grey, Lord 8, 29 (see also under
Howick, Lord)
— Sir Edward, 257, 263, 286
— Sir George, 108, 117
Gros, Baron, 76
Grosvenor, Ijord, 94, 95 (see also
under Westminster, Duke of)
Grote, George, 17, 65
Gurney, Eussell, 130

Haldane, Mr., 257
Halifax, Lord, 44
Hallam, Arthur,
Hamilton, Bishop, 2
— Lord George, 140, 165, 300
Hampton, Lord, 101
Harcourt, Sir William, 181, 164,
174-176, 189, 245, 246, 261, 266,
270-273, 315
Hardy, Gathorne (afterwards Earl
of Cranbrook), 91, 92, 140
Harrison, Mr., 259

336

LIFE OP W. B. GLADSTONE

Hartington, Lord, 68, 134, 141,
148-156, 163, 164, 170, 197, 215,
226-228, 235, 241, 246, 261 (see
also under Devonshire, Duke of)
Harvey, Mr., 121
Hatherley, Lord, 108, 119, 122
Hawkins, Dr., 69, 70
Hayter, Captain (afterwards Sir
Arthur Hayter), 97
Healy, Mr., 200
Heathcote, Sir WiUiam, 91
Henderson, Sir Edmund, 229
Henley, Mr., 67
Hennessy (afterwards Sir) John
Pope, 78
Herbert, Sidney, 35, 53, 54
HerscheU, Lord, 245, 294
— Sir Farrer, 228
Heywood, Mr., 39
Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 178, 179,
203, 217-220, 227, 237, 247, 248,
293
Hicks Pasha, 201
Hobhouse, Thomas, 20
Hodgkinson, Mr., 102
Homer, 12, 63-65, 139, 266, 278,
317, 322
Hope, James (afterwards Mr.
Hope-Scott, Q.C), 14, 18, 35
Hopwood, Mr., 220
Horace, 305
HorsfaU, Mr., 78
Houghton, Lord, 15
Howick, Lord (afterwards third
Earl Grey), 7, 24
Howley, Archbishop, 18
Hume, Joseph, 8, 13, 37
Hunter, Mr., 276
Huskisson, Mr., 287
Iddesleigh, Eakl of, 247 (see also
imder Northcote, Sir Stafford)
IngUs, Sir Eobert, 28, 31
Ismail Pasha, 136
James, Sir Hekey, 228, 294
Jevons, Stanley, 96
Jowett, Benjamin, 92

Karolyi, Count, 165
Kean, Charles, 82
Keate, Dr., 2
Keble, Mr., viii, 4, 35, 92
Kenmare, Lord, 164
Kimberley, Lord, 197, 315
King, Locke, 41
Knightly, Sir Eainald (afterwards
Lord Knightly), 97
Komaroff, General, 215
Kruger, Mr., 178, 204
Labouchere, Henry, 167, 173, 193,
199, 263, 298
Lachmann, 64
Laing, Mr., 56, 102
Lambert, Sir John, 212
Lambton, Mr., 193
Langdale, Lord, 34, 35
Lansdowne, Lord, 40
Lawson, Sir Wilfrid, 159, 170, 203,
255
Layard, Mr., 146, 147
Lee, Sidney, v
Leitrim, Lord, 148
Leo XIII., Pope, 309
Leopardi, Count Giacomo, 316, 317
Lewis, Sir George, 57
— Sir George Cornewall, 3
Liddell, Henry George (afterwards
Dean LiddeU), 4
Liddon, Dr., 138
Lincoln, Abraham, 83
— Lord, 4-6
Lobengula, King of the Matabele,
298
Lowe, Mr. (afterwards Viscount
Sherbrooke), 93-95, 108, 113,
126, 127, 148, 164
Lowell, Mr., 326
Lowther, Mr., 289
Lubbock, Sir John (afterwards
Lord Avebury), 141
Lucretius, 198
Lumsden, Sir Peter, 215
Lyndhurst, Lord, 10, 59, 75, 76
Lyons, Mr., 251
Lyttelton, Lady {-nie Mary Glynne),
16

INDEX

337

Lyttelton, Fourth Lord, 16, 85, 86,
130
Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer (after
wards Lord Lytton), 49, 66, 149-
153, 173
Maoaulat, Lord, vii, 14, 15, 20, 37,
64, 318
— Zachary, 20
Magee, Bishop, 111
Maguire, Mr., 105
Mahdi, the, 201-203, 214, 215
Mahon, Lord (afterwards Lord
Stanhope), 5
Malmesbury, Lord, 68, 87
Manchester, Bishop of (Dr.
Frazer), 113
Manners, Lord John, 20, 207, 211
(see also under Eutland, I)uke
of)
Manners-Sutton, Sir Charles, 11
Manning, Dr. (afterwards Car
dinal), 14, 35, 133,204, 263
Manzoni, 86
Marlborough, Duke of, 159
Marsham, Dr., 43
Martin, Sir Theodore, 10, 318, 319
Matthews, Mr., 277, 288
McCarthy, Justin, 172, 254, 274-
276, 286
Melbourne, Lord, 8-11, 17, 20, 21,
24, 291
Mellor, Mr., 295
Metternich, 40
MiaU, Mr., 118
MiU, Mr., 96, 103
Millais, Sir John, 320
MUner-Gibsou, 59, 62, 70
Molesworth, Sir WiUiam, 45
Monk-Bretton, Lord, 196
MonksweU, Lord, 119
Monteagle, Lord, 13
Morley, John, vi, 214-217, 228, 236,
245, 255-263, 273-277, 286, 294,
330
Mountmorres, Lord, 171
MundeUa, Mr., 288, 298
Murchison, Sir Eoderick, 96
Murray, John, 316

Napoleon Buonaparte, 86
— Louis, 43, 61, 71
Napp, Eev. Henry Hartopp, 2
Newcastle, Duke of, 6, 17, 29, 53,
54, 324
Newman, Dr., 4, 133
Nicholas, Emperor of Eussia, 49,
50, 116
— Prince of Montenegro, 171
Northbrook, Lord, 204, 216
Northcote, Sir Stafford (afterwards
Earl of Iddesleigh), 55, 119, 134,
144-148, 155, 167, 168, 174,
175, 181-185, 199-202, 210-214,
247
O'Brien, Peter^ 265
— WilUam, 239, 244
O'ConneU, Daniel, 12, 13, 183, 244,
250
O'Connor, T. P., 223
O'DonneU, Mr., 148
O'Kelly, Mr. 184
Orsini, Felice, 61
O'Shea, Captain, 191
Osman Digna, 203
Otho, King of Greece, 66
Overstone, Lord, 81
Paoifioo, Don, 35
Pakington, Sir John (afterwards
Lord Hampton), 101
PaUes, Chief Baron, 247
Palmer, Archdeacon, 266
Palmer, Sir Eoundell, 108, 118,
121, 122 (see also under Sel
borne, Lord)
Palmerston, Lord, X, 7-9, 19, 29, 35,
36, 40-62, 69, 74-81, 87, 92, 93,
145, 291, 324
Parker, Sir WiUiam, 36
Parkes, Mr., 58
ParneU, Cjjiarles Stewart, 155, 156,
171-173, 181-184, 188-193, 222,
239-247, 253-267, 273-275, 285
Pattison, Mr,, 92
Peel, General, 100
— Arthur (Speaker of the House
of Commons), 204, 220, 241

338

LIFE OF W. B. GLADSTONE

Peel, Sir Eobert, vii-x, 1-37, 44-
50, 64, 71, 109, 238, 305, 325-330
Pembroke, Earl of, 315
Penzance, Lord, 132
Perceval, Dudley, 46
Percy, Dr., 96
Peto, Sir Morton, 83
Phillpotts, Dr., 34
Pigott, Eichard, 260
Pitt, WiUiam, 37, 47, 64, 72, 73,
328
Pius IX., Pope, 132
Playfair, Mr., 193
Plunket, Mr. fafterwards Lord
Eathmore), 186, 243
Poerio, 40, 41, 256
Price, Professor Bonamy, 180
Prince Consort, 10, 82, 318, 319
Pusey, Dr., viii, 4, 35, 92, 278

Eabelais, 24
EampoUo, Cardinal, 310
Eamsay, Dean, 18
Eathmore, Lord (see also under
Plunket, Mr.), 186
Eawson, Eev. WiUiam, 1
Bedolifie, Lord Stratford de, 50
Eedmond, Mr., 187
Eendel, Lord, 315
Eicardo, D., 180
Eichmond, Duke of, 179, 210
Eipon, Earl of, 22, 24, 126, 164,
277
Eobertson, Andrew, 1
Eobinson, Sir Hercules (afterwards
Lord Eosmead), 179
Eochester, Bishop of, 312
Eoebuck, Mr., 17, 36, 37, 52-54
Eogers, Dr. Guinness, 282
Eosebery, Lord, 156, 213, 228,
229, 285-287, 299, 304, 305, 312,
315, 329
Eothschild, Baron, 32
— Messrs, 186
Eound, Mr., 31, 32
Eussell, Charles (afterwards Lord
EusseU of Killowen), 173, 252,
277

Eussell, George, 193
— Lord John, 11, 16, 24, 25, 29-33,
39-57, 67-73, 78-82, 87, 92-
97, 106, 108, 207
— Lord Odo (afterwards Lord
Ampthill), 149
— (afterwards Sir) WiUiam
Howard, 52
Eutland, Duke of, 315 (see also
under Manners, Lord John)
Eylands, Mr., 155, 177

St. Asaph, Bishop of, 313
St. Augustine, 12
Salisbury, Lord, 107, 111, 117,
130, 131, 138, 139, 146-155, 161,
165, 170, 194, 204, 209-211, 218,
219, 226-228, 241, 253, 263, 270,
281, 282, 287, 303-306, 312-315,
327
Sandon, Lord, 19
Say, M. L6on, 363
Sohurey, Mrs., 2
Sclopis, Count, 122
Sefton, Lord, 294
Selborne, Lord, 122, 127, 164, 228,
266 (see also under Palmer, Sir
Eoundell)
Sexton, Mr., 184
Seymour, Admiral Sir Beauchamp
(afterwards Lord Alcester), 19
Shaftesbury, Lord, 139
Shaw, Mr., 243
Sherbrooke, Viscount, 93, 94, 164
(see also under Lowe, Mr.)
Shere Ali, 152, 153
Sheridan, Mr., 89
Simmons, Sir Lintorn, 271
Smith, Dr. Samuel, 4, 280
— W. H., 207, 227, 247, 262, 267-
281
Smyth, Mr., 185
Somers, Lord, 35
Spencer, Lord, 188, 193, 228, 254,
260, 297, 300
Spring-Eice, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Monteagle), 12
Stanhope, Lord, 5

INDEX

339

Stanley, Colonel (afterwards 16th
Earl of Derby), 211
— Lord (afterwards 14th Earl of
Derby), 8, 29, 36, 42, 94, 105,
106, 207 (see also under Derby,
Lord)
Stanmore, Lord, 10
Stansfeld, Mr., 230, 278
Stephen, Sir James, 11, 15
Stewart, Colonel, 202
Stockmar, Baron, 319
Strachey, Sir John, 162
Strauss, Dr., 123
SulUvan, Mr., 253

Tait, Archbishop, 112, 180, 197
Taylor, Sir Henry, 11
Temple, Dr., 112, 113
Tennant, Sir Charles, 321
Tennyson, Lord, 2, 200, 201, 317,
330
Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt,
195
ThirlwaU, Bishop, 111
Todleben, General, 144
Toplady, 86
Torrens, Mr., 102, 103
Trelawuy, Sir John, 63
Trevelyan, Mr., 125, 189, 230
— Sir Charles, 55
— Sir George, 15, 245, 246, 318
Truro, Lord, 6 (see also under
WUde, Serjeant)
Turkey, Sultan of, 137, 307-309,
811, 312
Turner, Bishop, 4

Victoria, Queen, 29, 30, 42, 43, 53,
63, 69, 74, 92, 97, 98, 107, 112,
118, 125, 136, 144, 163, 166,
178, 218, 219, 228, 288-241, 262,
304, 305, 315, 316
Vilhers, Mr., 24, 43, 44, 808

Vincent, Mr. (afterwards Sir)
Howard, 230

Waddington, M., 287
Wales, Prince of, 204 262, 310,
315
— Princess of, 310
— Princess Louise of, 262
Walewski, Count, 62
Walpole, Mr., 67, 80, 328
Warren, Sir Charles, 251
Wauchope, General, 284
Wellington, Duke of, 9
Wemyss, Lord, 208
West, Sir Algernon, 301
Westbury, Lord, 61
Westminster, Dean of (Dr. Brad
ley), 113
— Duke of, 94, 138, 309, 313, 821
Whitbread, Mr., 154, 249
Wilberforce, Bishop, 92
— Mr., 20
— Samuel, 330
Wilde, Serjeant (afterwards Lord
Truro), 6, 10, 14
WiUes, Mr. Justice, 119
WUliam IV., King, 9-11, 13
Wolff, Sir Henry, 166, 167
Wolseley, Sir Garnet (afterwards
Lord Wolseley), 196, 213, 216
Wood, Sir Charles (afterwards
Lord Halifax), 44
— Sir Evelyn, 178
— Sir WiUiam Page, 108 (see also
under Hatherley, Lord)
Wordsworth, Charles (afterwards
Bishop Wordsworth), 5, 15, 18,
324
Wortley, Stuart, 10

Yeh, Governor, 58
York, Archbishop of, 310
— Duke of, 315

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SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUMES OF
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JUST publishIib.
THREE SUPPLEMENTARY VOIiUMES
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It was originally intended that the Supplement to the ' Dictionary '
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zoo6e