William Ewart Gladstone

Prime minister of Great Britain (1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886, 1892-1894)

• Born: December 29, 1809
• Birthplace: Liverpool, England
• Died: May 19, 1898
• Place of death: Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales

The dominant figure in British politics in the Victorian age, Gladstone was a leader in Parliament for fifty years, during which time he held a number of key cabinet positions, including four stints as prime minister, and he helped lead his country on the path toward full democracy.

Early Life

The fourth son of businessperson John Gladstone, William Ewart Gladstone was born into a middle-class family that was on the rise socially and financially. The future prime minister’s father had moved to the growing port city of Liverpool from his native Scotland, establishing his fortune in shipping, real estate, insurance, and commercial ventures that included trade in the slave-based industries in the West Indies. John Gladstone was elected to Parliament in 1827; he lived to see three of his sons seek similar office and to watch his most gifted son, William, rise meteorically in a variety of cabinet positions under the mentorship of Prime Minister Robert Peel .

Gladstone’s upbringing was influenced decidedly by strong Christian principles, and though he moved gradually through a phase of rigorous commitment to the established Anglican Church to toleration for differences of form among worshipers, he was consistent in applying religious and moral touchstones to his personal and political life. Educated at Eton and then at Oxford, where he took a double first in classics and mathematics, the young Gladstone displayed his firm commitment to Tory principles while still an undergraduate.

Gladstone’s speech at the Oxford Union so impressed a classmate, Lord Lincoln, that the latter persuaded his father, the duke of Newcastle, to support Gladstone for a seat in Parliament representing Newark, a borough that the duke controlled. Gladstone, who had difficulty deciding whether to seek a career in the Church or enter politics, agreed to stand for election and received Newark’s nomination in 1832. As fate would have it, he entered Parliament in a session during which British history was changed: Under pressure from various groups throughout the country, the Parliament in that year passed the First Reform Bill , significantly enlarging the number of eligible voters and setting Great Britain on an inevitable course toward modern democracy.

At the same time that he was making a name for himself in politics, though, Gladstone was finding his social life a bit more perplexing. Though considered one of the handsomest young men in Parliament—tall with dark eyes and flowing brown locks—he suffered for half a decade the emotional paroxysms of youth in his pursuit of the opposite sex. After being rebuked by two women, each of whose hand he had ardently sought, he ultimately succeeded in winning the heart of Catherine Glynne, to whom he was married on July 25, 1839. Their union was to last a lifetime, and Mrs. Gladstone was to play a significant role in supporting her husband during his political career.

Life’s Work

The man who is remembered as the leader of the Liberals in nineteenth century England entered politics as a Tory. Gladstone’s remarkable ability as an orator and his capacity for work so impressed the Conservative leadership of the House of Commons that within two years he was offered a position in the cabinet, as Junior Lord of the Treasury (1834); within a year he had been elevated to undersecretary for the colonies. His busy schedule as a politician did not keep him from working at his first love, religious studies, and in 1838 he published The State in Its Relations with the Church , in which he supported the Church of England’s privileged political status, a position he was later to repudiate.

In 1841, Gladstone accepted a position as vice president of the Board of Trade, not considered a choice position for a young politician on the rise, but one from which he was able to grow as a manager and financial expert. In 1843, he was elevated to president of the Board of Trade. During the 1840’s, Gladstone began supporting measures that put distance between him and the leadership of the Tory Party, which now called itself the Conservative Party: tariff reform, state supervision of railroads, state subsidy for the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the rights of minorities to hold seats in Parliament.

When Peel’s government fell over the question of handling the famine in Ireland in 1845, Gladstone joined Peel in a move that broke apart the Conservative Party. In the new administration that Peel headed, Gladstone became colonial secretary but lost his seat in Newark, because he no longer held favor with the conservative duke of Newcastle. In 1847, he was returned to Parliament for Oxford, a seat he held until 1865, when his ever-advancing liberalism made him unacceptable to that electorate.

Gladstone resigned his seat in Peel’s government in 1846, over the issue of his support for the Catholic-controlled Maynooth College in Ireland. He remained a leading member of the Peelites, as the followers of Peel were called, distrustful of either the Liberals under Lord Palmerston or the Conservatives, whose leadership was passing to Benjamin Disraeli . In 1853, the Conservatives were turned out on a vote of no confidence following Disraeli’s presentation of the 1852 budget.

When Lord Aberdeen formed a coalition government, Gladstone joined the cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer. His 1853 budget was hailed as one of the most imaginative and comprehensive of the century, and secured his reputation as a financial wizard. He continued in this position until 1855 and returned to it for almost seven years, from 1859 to 1866. For a brief interlude when out of office, Gladstone served as Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands in the Mediterranean, though his record there was not especially salutary.

As early as 1865, Gladstone was being touted as a candidate for prime minister. The call finally came to him in 1868, only months after he had succeeded Lord John Russell as head of the Liberal Party. In that year he formed the first, and by all assessments the most successful, of four administrations. He assumed the prime ministership with a primary goal of settling the political turmoil in Ireland, something that had haunted him for years.

Gladstone saw his ascendancy to the head of government as a mission, and treated his work with religious fervor. Among his objectives were the disestablishment of the Church of England, a reversal of his earlier position of support for the political primacy of that religious body, and the resolution of problems between Irish tenants and their landlords, many of whom were absentee owners. His foreign policy was based on high-minded principles of mutual cooperation among nations and a belief that individual nations could operate on good faith with other countries—a policy that sometimes made Great Britain look foolish or weak within the international community. During this first administration, sweeping changes occurred in education in England, largely as a result of the Education Act of 1870, although Gladstone had little interest in or influence on the outcome. He did, however, work to abolish religious tests at the universities.

After almost eight years, the Liberals were turned out of office in 1874. Gladstone, by then in his sixties, retired from the leadership of his party, though he retained his seat in Parliament. He turned his attention to classical studies, specifically to translations of Homer and extended commentary on the Greek writer, in which he sought to establish links between Homer and Christianity, a position scoffed at in his own day and discounted by later critics. He also wrote a series of tracts on religious issues.

Turkish atrocities in the Balkans in 1876 prompted Gladstone’s return to an active role in politics. For the next four years, he argued vociferously in Parliament and throughout the country against Disraeli’s conservative policies. In 1880, a barnstorming campaign on behalf of Liberal ideology swept his party back into office, and Gladstone once again became prime minister. This second administration lasted until 1885. These years were more tumultuous than those of the first administration, and Gladstone was forced to deal with the growing violence in Ireland and problems caused by British imperialism.

On the home front, Gladstone’s growing association with Irish Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell caused dissension within his own party and gave enemies a prominent target for political attacks. The murder of Gladstone’s close friend and nephew-in-law Frederick Cavendish in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in May of 1882, escalated the difficulty, as he was forced to take sterner measures in dealing with the violence.

Abroad, British actions in the Middle East and North Africa caused additional difficulties for the prime minister. A major crisis in the Sudan in 1883 led to the massacre of a British garrison at Khartoum and the death of General Charles Gordon. Gladstone, who had hesitated to take strong action in the region for fear that it would lead Great Britain into yet another brush war, was blamed by the press and by the queen herself for Gordon’s death. Ultimately, he was forced to deal with the problems in the area and to assume some responsibility for the deteriorating political system in Egypt, a country in which England had significant interest. The height of ignominy occurred for Gladstone in June, 1885, when his government, which had supported stronger home rule measures for Ireland, was defeated on the issue of the budget by a coalition of Conservatives and Irish Nationalists.

Gladstone returned almost immediately to the prime ministership, and his third, short-lived administration was committed almost exclusively to one issue: home rule for Ireland. Only months after he began his crusade to give Ireland its own parliament and greater control over its own destiny, Gladstone saw his efforts dashed in Parliament in the summer of 1886, when the Home Rule Bill was defeated. Gladstone immediately resigned.

For the next six years, Gladstone worked as the leader of the opposition while the Conservatives held office. He continued to press for Irish home rule, working to hold his Liberal Party together as the radical element within the organization gained strength. In 1892, he formed his fourth and last administration, once again championing Irish home rule. The pressures of leadership finally proved to be too much for a man in his eighties; Gladstone resigned in March, 1894. He spent the last four years of his life at Hawarden, the estate of his wife’s family that he had helped preserve when the family was almost forced to sell it during the 1840’s. He died May 19, 1898, and after an elaborate funeral ceremony was buried in Statesmen’s Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Significance

William Ewart Gladstone’s political career can be seen as the movement of a high-minded and deeply religious individual from conservative principles and High Church convictions to an eventual championship of individual rights and religious tolerance. Some have viewed it as a four-decade struggle against the other dominant figure in nineteenth century British politics, Conservative statesman Benjamin Disraeli. From whatever angle his life is observed, there is no doubt that Gladstone, never the pragmatist, believed deeply in the rightness of any cause he championed, and often sacrificed himself, his reputation, and his political party to ideals.

Gladstone’s liberalism troubled Queen Victoria, and his manner in promoting it often offended her. The monarch who loved Disraeli frequently chastised Gladstone for his decisions and his behavior, but he always acted respectfully toward his sovereign. In spite of this stormy relationship, he was able to lead his country on the path toward democracy. Under his direction, and often only because of his strong hand, the British nation struggled—with remarkable success, in retrospect—with important human issues such as greater enfranchisement, improved working and living conditions for the lower classes, and greater concern for individual rights.

The force of his personality on British politics was recognized in his own time; during the later years of his life both friend and enemy alike took to calling him the “Grand Old Man,” or “G.O.M.” In a century that produced more than its share of giants in statesmanship, Gladstone has emerged as the dominant figure in British politics in the Victorian age.

Bibliography

Biagini, Eugenio F. Gladstone. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Biagini, a historian specializing in the nineteenth century, takes a thematic approach to assessing Gladstone’s life and political career.

Feuchtwanger, E. J. Gladstone. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975. A detailed political biography, with extensive analysis of British politics, Gladstone’s career in Parliament, and the cabinet. Extensive treatment of Gladstone’s years as prime minister. Contains a useful bibliography.

Hammond, John Lawrence. Gladstone and the Irish Nation. London: Longmans, Green, 1938. A careful scholarly study of Gladstone’s attempts to deal with the Irish nation and the question of Irish home rule, an issue that dominated his later administrations. Provides a wide-ranging look at both England and Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Knaplund, Paul. Gladstone and Britain’s Imperial Policy. London: Allen & Unwin, 1927. Reprint. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966. Focuses attention on Gladstone’s policies regarding the various colonies of the British Empire, which was the largest of all European empires in the nineteenth century. Gladstone had extensive impact on decisions regarding the colonies throughout his career, especially during his service as secretary for the colonies in Peel’s cabinet, then later as prime minister.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Gladstone’s Foreign Policy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Reprint. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1970. An assessment of Gladstone’s views on foreign policy and a review of his actions in that area during his four terms as prime minister. Includes extensive analysis of his handling of crises in the Near East and Middle East.

Marlow, Joyce. The Oak and the Ivy: An Intimate Biography of William and Catherine Gladstone. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. A dual biography of Gladstone and his wife, focusing on the personal qualities of the statesman, his personality, and his psychological makeup.

Matthew, H. C. Gladstone, 1809-1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. A concise biography by a noted Gladstone scholar. Topics include Gladstone’s education, political career, and his public and private lives.

Morley, John. The Life of William Ewart Gladstone. 3 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1903. Written by a younger contemporary; contains much detail and includes extensive quotations from Gladstone’s letters and diaries. Still a primary source for those wishing to understand the complexity of Gladstone’s character and the magnitude of his achievements in politics and other fields.

Partridge, Michael. Gladstone. London: Routledge, 2003. A reassessment of Gladstone’s life and political career. Describes how Gladstone tried but failed to resolve his great obsession—the Irish question.

Shannon, Richard. Gladstone. 2 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984-1999. A comprehensive biography by an expert on Victorian history. Originally published as two separate volumes, volume one covers the years from 1809 until 1865, while volume two covers 1865 through 1898.