Gladstone

Gladstone, Right Hon. William Ewart, was born in Liverpool in 1809. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was one of the most brilliant opponents of Reform and Emancipation; and it was as a Tory that he was elected for Newark In the first reformed Parliament (December, 1832). He soon made himself a position in the House, and in two years was made a Junior Lord of the Treasury by Sir Robert Peel. A year later he became Under-Secretary for the Colonies. In the second Peel Ministry he was successively Vice-President and President of the Board of Trade, and the revised and reduced Customs Tariff of 1842 was understood to be mainly his work. But he resigned in 1845 on the question of the proposed Maynooth grant, to which he was opposed. In the previous year he had been entrusted with the carrying of the Railway Bill, which provided for cheap trains and permitted the erection of electric telegraphs. He now retired from Parliament for a year; and thus was brought to a close his first period - that of "firm and unbending Toryism." The second, commencing with his election for Oxford University (1847), was one of transition. So long as his old chief lived, Gladstone did not call himself a Liberal. The measures, however, which he supported were of a truly liberal nature - the Removal of Jewish Disabilities, the Repeal of the Navigation Laws, and, above all, the Abolition of the Corn Laws. As Colonial Secretary he had also to do with the changes that were made in the government of dependencies. In 1851, a year after the death of Peel, he definitively separated himself from his old associates, and became Chancellor of the Exchequer (December, 1852) in the coalition of Whigs and Peelites under Lord Aberdeen. His speech on the affairs of Greece in 1850 had finally established his position as one of the first of living orators; and his attack on Disraeli's Budget two years later proved his great ability as a financier and brought about the fall of the Derby Government. His first Budget speech enhanced his reputation, and in the Palmerston Cabinet, which succeeded the coalition, he continued to hold the Chancellorship. Considering himself, however, bound to oppose inquiry into the conduct of the Crimean War, he retired with the other Peelites in a few weeks. Mr. Gladstone also opposed Palmerston's Chinese policy, and joined the Conservatives in defeating the Conspiracy to Murder Bill. In 1858 he was sent to Corfu as High Commissioner to negotiate for the reunion of the Ionian Islands to Greece. For a third time, during the years 1860-1866, he was Chancellor Of the

Exchequer, first under Palmerston and then under Earl Russell. During this period he carried the Post Office Savings Bank Bill, the Repeal of the Paper Duties, and some remissions in taxation rendered possible by the commercial treaty with France. He now also first came into collision with the House of Lords, and emerged triumphant. In consequence of his growing Liberalism he lost his seat for Oxford University, and had to migrate to South Lancashire. In 1865, when Russell became a peer, Mr. Gladstone became, for the first time, leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons. In that capacity he introduced but failed to carry a Reform Bill, while in opposition he effected the abolition of Church' Rates, and carried a resolution in favour of the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. On this question the General Election of 1868 was fought; and, though Gladstone lost his seat for South Lancashire, his party won the day, and, being elected for Greenwich, he became Prime Minister. During the six years which followed, the Irish Church Act (1869), the Education Act and the first Irish Land Act (1870), and the Ballot Act (1872), were placed on the Statute-book; and the purchase of commissions in the army was abolished by royal warrant. The settlement of the Alabama claims by arbitration made the Ministry somewhat unpopular, and the Irish University question (on which Mr. Gladstone had long changed his views) proved fatal to it. The Liberal Premier resigned, but resumed office until the General Election, when, being defeated, he went into opposition. During the early days of the Conservative Administration he laid down the leadership of his party, but was roused by accounts of Bulgarian atrocities to enter upon a fervid denunciation of Lord Beaconsfield's foreign policy. In the General Election of 1880 he attacked and carried the Conservative constituency of Midlothian, and, having obtained a majority in the constituencies, became First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He resigned the latter office three years later, and had his first serious illness in the autumn of 1884. In 1881 was passed a Coercion Bill, and, after a struggle with the House of Lords; a second Irish Land Bill; but the Irish were not conciliated, and the Phoenix Park murders were followed by a Prevention of Crimes Act and an Arms Act, giving further powers to the Irish executive. The Arrears Act, another attempt at conciliation, was also passed. The Egyptian question was yet more thorny than the Irish. The rebellion of Arabi was crushed, and Alexandria bombarded; but revolt in the Soudan followed.

Hicks Pasha was defeated and killed ; and General Gordon, when sent out, was poorly supported, and finally perished at Khartoum before the relieving expedition could reach him. Frequent votes of censure were moved in the Commons, and some of them nearly carried. Meanwhile, a new Franchise Bill was brought forward and carried through the Commons, but was rejected by the Lords, because not coupled with a Redistribution of seats. A violent agitation followed in the autumn (1884), but a compromise was arrived at, and the Redistribution scheme appeared early in 1885. After the passing of these measures, which had temporarily reunited the Liberal party, dissensions again broke out, and the defeat on the Budget question in May, 1885, was looked upon as a welcome deliverance. The Conservatives (in a minority) held office till after the General Election of 1885, when Mr. Glad. stone obtained their defeat on the Allotments question, and for a third time became Premier.

He held office for a few months only, as his change of opinion on the Irish question alienated some of his supporters. The Home Rule Bill of 1886 was defeated, and the country ratified the decision of their representative. Now followed six years of Anti-Home Rule Government, during which Mr. Gladstone, in spite of his years, continued to lead the Opposition. In the General Election of 1892 he was triumphant, and for the fourth time became head of the Government. A Home Reele Bill was introduced, but was thrown out by the House of Lords, and in 1894 he retired from public life. He reappeared, however, on a public platform in 1896, in connection with the Armenian agitation.

He died in 1898, and was accorded a public funeral at the expense of the State. As a zealous Churchman he wrote on the relations of Church and State; attacked Romanism (The Vatican Becrees, 1875); Vaticanism (1875) as a political force; and did battle with the Agnostics. In 1858 he published Studies in Homer, and wrote similar works on the subject in defence of the personality of the poet and the unity of the works attributed to him. Jutentus Mundi appeared in 1869.