William Ewart Gladstone

For other meanings see Gladstone (disambiguation).

William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809–19 May 1898) was a British Liberal Party statesman and Prime Minister (1868–1874, 1880–1885, 1886 and 1892–1894). He was a notable political reformer, known for his populist speeches, and was for many years the main political rival of Benjamin Disraeli.

Gladstone was famously at odds with Queen Victoria for much of his career. She once complained "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting." Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as the "Grand Old Man" (Disraeli is said to have remarked that GOM should have stood for God's Only Mistake) or "The People's William." He is still regarded as one of the greatest British prime ministers, with Winston Churchill and others citing Gladstone as their inspiration.

Early life

Born in Liverpool at 62 Rodney Street in 1809, William Ewart Gladstone was the fourth son of the merchant Sir John Gladstones and his second wife, Anne MacKenzie Robertson. The final "s" was later dropped from the family surname. Although Gladstone was born and brought up in Liverpool, and always retained a slight Lancashire accent, he was of Scottish descent on both his mother's and his father's side of the family. Gladstone was educated at Eton College, and in 1828 matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford where he took Classics and Mathematics, the latter of which he had no great interest in, in order to obtain a double first class degree. In December 1831 he sat his final examinations and learnt on the same day that he had indeed achieved his desired double first. Gladstone was a President of the Oxford Union debating society where he developed a reputation as a fine orator, a reputation that followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1832 as Conservative MP for Newark. Initially he was a disciple of High Toryism, opposing the abolition of slavery and factory legislation. In 1838 he published a book, The State in its Relations with the Church, which argued that the goal of the state should be to promote and defend the interests of the Church of England. In 1839, he married Catherine Glynne, to whom he remained married until his death 59 years later.

In 1840, Gladstone began his personal efforts to rescue and rehabilitate London prostitutes, walking the streets of London and speaking to women in an attempt to encourage them to change their ways. He continued this practice even when he was Prime Minister decades later.

Minister under Peel

Gladstone was re-elected in 1841. In September 1842 he lost the forefinger of his left hand in an accident while reloading a gun; thereafter he wore a glove or finger sheath (stall). In the second ministry of Robert Peel he served as President of the Board of Trade (1843–44). He resigned in 1845 on a matter of conscience, namely the Maynooth Seminary issue. In order to improve relations with Irish Catholics, Peel's government proposed increasing the annual grant paid to the Seminary for training Catholic priests. Gladstone had previously written a book in which he had argued that a Protestant country should not pay money to other churches. Even though Gladstone supported the increase in the Maynooth grant and voted for it in the Commons he resigned rather than have opponents accuse him of compromising his principles in order to remain in office. After accepting Gladstone's resignation, Peel confessed to a friend, "I really have great difficulty sometimes in exactly comprehending what he means".

Gladstone returned to Peel's government as Colonial Secretary in December. The following year the government fell over Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws and Gladstone followed his leader into detachment from mainstream Conservatives. After Peel's death in 1850, Gladstone would emerge as the leader of the Peelites in the House of Commons.

As Chancellor he pushed to extend the free trade liberalisations in the 1840s and worked to reduce public expenditure. He also took his moral and religious ideals into politics in what was to become known as "Gladstonian Liberalism". He was re-elected for the University of Oxford in 1847 and became a constant critic of Lord Palmerston.

In 1848 he also founded the Church Penitentiary Association for the Reclamation of Fallen Women. In May 1849 he began his most active "rescue work" with "fallen women" and met prostitutes late at night either on the street, in his house or in their houses. He wrote their names in his notebook. He aided the House of Mercy at Clewer, near Windsor (which exercised extreme in-house discipline) and spent much time arranging employment for ex-prostitutes. There is no evidence he ever actually used their services, and his wife supported these activities. In 1927, during a court case over claims in a book that he had improper relationships with some of these women, the jury unanimously found that the evidence "completely vindicated the high moral character of the late Mr W.E. Gladstone." Gladstone did, from 1849 until 1859, mark in his diary a character resembling a whip. It is believed that this means he felt tempted, either by the prostitutes he helped or by "marginally salacious material" (as Roy Jenkins described it) and used self-flagellation as a means of repentance. This practice was also followed at the time by Cardinal Newman and Edward Pusey.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

During his visit to Naples in 1850 he began to support Neapolitan opponents of the Bourbon rulers. In 1852, when Lord Aberdeen became premier, at the head of a coalition of Whigs and Peelites, Gladstone became Chancellor of the Exchequer till 1855 and unsuccessfully tried to abolish the income tax. Instead he ended up raising it because of the Crimean War. Lord Stanley became Prime Minister in 1858 but Gladstone declined a position in his government because he did not want to work with Benjamin Disraeli, then Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston formed a new mixed government with Radicals added in 1859 and Gladstone joined again as Chancellor of the Exchequer, left the Conservatives and joined the newly formed Liberal Party.

As Chancellor, he made a controversial speech at Newcastle on 7 October 1862 in which he supported the independence of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War and claimed that Jefferson Davis had a "made a nation". Great Britain was officially neutral at the time, and Gladstone later regretted giving the speech. In 1864 he began to support a Bill to lower the franchise qualification and angered both Palmerston and Queen Victoria. Because of this, in the general election of 1865 he lost his seat in Oxford, but was narrowly elected for South Lancashire.

In 1858 Gladstone took up the hobby of tree felling, mostly of oak trees, which he continued with enthusiasm until 1891 at the age of 81. He became notorious for this activity which prompted Lord Randolph Churchill to comment "The forest laments, in order that Mr. Gladstone may perspire." Less remarked upon at the time was his practice of planting new trees. Gladstone was also a lifelong bibliophile.

First ministry, 1868–1874

Lord Russell retired in 1867 and Gladstone became a leader of the Liberal party. In the next general election in 1868 he was defeated in Lancashire but was elected as MP for Greenwich, it being quite common then for candidates to stand in two constituencies simultaneously. He became Prime Minister for the first time, and remained in the office until 1874.

Gladstonian Liberalism was characterised, in the 1860s and 1870s, by a number of policies intended to improve individual liberty and loosen political and economic restraints. First was the minimization of public expenditure, on the basis that the economy and society were best helped by allowing people to spend as they saw fit. Secondly, a foreign policy aimed at promoting peace helped reduce expenditure and taxation as well as help trade. Thirdly, there was the reform of government institutions or laws that prevented people from acting freely to improve themselves.

Gladstone's first premiership instituted reforms in the British Army, Civil Service and local government to cut restrictions on individual advancement. He instituted the abolition of the sale of commissions in the army and court reorganization. In foreign affairs his over-riding aim was peace and understanding, characterized by his settlement of the Alabama Claims in 1872 in favour of the Americans.

He transformed the Liberal party during his first premiership (following the enlarged electorate created by Disraeli's Reform Act of 1867). The 1867 Act gave the vote to every male adult householder living in a borough constituency. Male lodgers paying £10 for unfurnished rooms also received the vote. This gave the vote to about 1,500,000 men. The Reform Act also changed the electoral map; constituencies and boroughs with less than 10,000 inhabitants lost one of their MPs. The forty-five seats left available through the re-organization were distributed by:

giving fifteen to towns which had never had an MP;
giving one extra seat to some larger towns — Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds;
creating a seat for the University of London;
giving twenty-five seats to counties whose population had increased since 1832.

The later 1884 Reform Act gave the counties the same franchise as the boroughs — adult male householders and £10 lodgers — and added about six million to the total number who could vote in parliamentary elections.

The issue of disestablishment of the Church of Ireland was used by Gladstone to unite the Liberal Party for government in 1868. The Act was passed in 1869 and meant that Irish Catholics did not need to pay their tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. He also instituted Cardwell's Army reform that made peacetime flogging illegal in 1869, and the Irish Land Act and Forster's Education Act in 1870. In 1871 he instituted the University Test Act. In 1872, he secured passage of the Ballot Act for secret voting ballots. In 1873, his leadership led to the passage of laws restructuring the High Courts.

Out of Office and the Midlothian Campaign

In 1874, the Liberals lost the election. After the success of Benjamin Disraeli, Gladstone temporarily retired from the political scene and the leadership of the Liberal party, although he retained his seat in the House. In 1876 he published a pamphlet, Bulgarian Horrors and the Questions of the East where he attacked the Disraeli government for its indifference to the violent repression of the Bulgarian rebellion in Ottoman Empire (Known as the Bulgarian April uprising). A well-known excerpt illustrates his formidable rhetorical powers:

"Let the Turks now carry away their abuses, in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and Yuzbachis, their Kaimakans and their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province that they have desolated and profaned. This thorough riddance, this most blessed deliverance, is the only reparation we can make to those heaps and heaps of dead, the violated purity alike of matron and of maiden and of child; to the civilization which has been affronted and shamed; to the laws of God, or, if you like, of Allah; to the moral sense of mankind at large. There is not a criminal in an European jail, there is not a criminal in the South Sea Islands, whose indignation would not rise and over-boil at the recital of that which has been done, which has too late been examined, but which remains unavenged, which has left behind all the foul and all the fierce passions which produced it and which may again spring up in another murderous harvest from the soil soaked and reeking with blood and in the air tainted with every imaginable deed of crime and shame. That such things should be done once is a damning disgrace to the portion of our race which did them; that the door should be left open to the ever so barely possible repetition would spread that shame over the world."

During his rousing election campaign (the so-called Midlothian campaign) in 1879, he spoke against Disraeli's foreign policies during the ongoing Second Anglo-Afghan War in Afghanistan. (See Great Game). He saw the war as "great dishonour," and also criticised British conduct in the Zulu War.

Second ministry, 1880–1885

In 1880 the Liberals won again, and the new Liberal leader Lord Hartington retired in Gladstone's favour. Gladstone won his constituency election in Midlothian and also in Leeds, where he had also been adopted as a candidate. As he could lawfully only serve as MP for one constituency, Leeds was passed to his son Herbert. One of his other sons, Henry, was also elected as an MP.

Queen Victoria asked Lord Hartington to form a ministry but he persuaded her to send for Gladstone. His second administration — both as PM and again as Chancellor of the Exchequer till 1882 — lasted from June 1880 to June 1885. Gladstone had opposed himself to the "colonial lobby" pushing for the scramble for Africa. He thus saw the end of the Second Anglo-Afghan War, First Boer War and the war against the Mahdi in Sudan. However, he couldn't respect his electoral promise to disengage from Egypt. He also extended the franchise to agricultural labourers and others. In 1881 he also established the Irish Coercion Act, which permitted the Viceroy to detain people for as "long as was thought necessary." Parliamentary reform continued, however, and in 1884 Gladstone instituted the Redistribution of Seats Act.

The fall of General Gordon in Khartoum, Sudan in 1885 was a major blow to Gladstone's popularity. Many believed Gladstone had neglected military affairs and had not acted promptly enough to save the besieged Gordon. Critics inverted his "G.O.M." nickname (for "Grand Old Man") to "M.O.G." (for "Murderer of Gordon"). Gladstone resigned as Prime Minister in 1885, and declined Victoria's offer of an Earldom.

Third ministry, 1886

In 1886 Gladstone's party was allied with Irish Nationalists to defeat Lord Salisbury's government; Gladstone regained his position as PM and combined the office with that of Lord Privy Seal. During this administration he introduced his Home Rule Bill for Ireland for the first time. The issue split the Liberal Party and the bill was thrown out on the second reading. The result was the end of his government after a few months and another government headed by Lord Salisbury.

Fourth ministry, 1892–1894

In 1892 Gladstone was re-elected Prime Minister for the fourth and final time. In February 1893 he re-introduced a Home Rule Bill. It provided for the formation of a parliament for Ireland, or in modern terminology, a regional assembly of the type Northern Ireland gained from the Good Friday Agreement. The Home Rule Bill did not offer Ireland independence, but that was not, in any case, the demand of the Irish Parliamentary Party. It was passed by the House of Commons but rejected by the House of Lords, on the grounds that it went too far. On March 1, 1894, in his last speech in the House of Commons, he asked his allies to override the veto of the House of Lords. He resigned two days later although he retained his seat in the Commons until 1895. Many years later, as Irish independence loomed, King George V exclaimed to a friend, "What fools we were not to pass Mr. Gladstone's bill when we had the chance!"

Final years

In 1895, Gladstone bequeathed £40,000 and much of his library to found St Deiniol's Library, the only residential library in Britain. Despite being over 80, he carried most of the 23,000 books in a wheelbarrow the quarter of a mile to their new home.

In 1896 he spoke in Liverpool, denouncing Armenian massacres by Ottomans.

Gladstone died at Hawarden Castle, in 1898, aged 88, from cancer which had started behind the cheekbone and spread across his body. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. His coffin was transported on the London Underground. His wife was later laid to rest with him (see image at left).

A statue of Gladstone, erected in 1905, is situated at Aldwych, London nearby to the Royal Courts of Justice ^*. There is also a statue of him in Glasgow's George Square, and in other towns around the country. Liverpool's Crest Hotel was renamed The Gladstone Hotel in honour of Gladstone in the early 1990s.

Near to Hawarden in the town of Mancot, there is a small hospital named after Catherine Gladstone. Also near the High School in Hawardenthere is a statue of Gladstone.

Gladstone's Governments

First Gladstone Ministry (December 1868–February 1874)
Second Gladstone Ministry (April 1880–June 1885)
Third Gladstone Ministry (February–August 1886)
Fourth Gladstone Ministry (August 1892–February 1894)

Biographies

D.W. Bebbington, William Ewart Gladstone
Eric Brad, William Gladstone
Osbert Burdett, W. E. Gladstone (1928)
Philip Magnus, Gladstone: A Biography (1954)
H.C. Matthew, Gladstone: 1809-98
Roy Jenkins, Gladstone (1995) (ISBN 0333662091)

Political offices

External links

William Ewart Gladstone on the UK Prime Minister's website.
William Ewart Gladstone 1809-98 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group
Gladstone appears as a famous magician in the Bartimaeus Trilogy

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