The political life of William Gladstone closely reflects the impact of most of the Parliamentary Reforms which occurred in the nineteenth century, the later ones which Gladstone himself had a hand in bringing about. He was first election to the House of Commons for a rotten borough¹, lost one of the two seats at Oxford University on the first appearance of the postal ballot and tried to solve the Irish Home Rule situation through legislation. All the time Gladstone never gave up on what he saw as his God given task to serve through being a Christian member of the House of Commons. He even crossed the House² from the Tory benches to the Liberals, for whom he served four terms, 1868-74, 1880-85, January-July 1886 and 1892-94, as Prime Minister. He also served many years as Chancellor of the Exchequer however, despite his opposition to Income Tax. This had been revived by the Peel administration in 1842, in which Gladstone was a minister, he was, however, never able to abolish it.

Early Life

John Gladstone's forth son and fifth child³ William was born on the 29th December 1809 in Liverpool, he was named after a close friend of his father William Ewart. John Gladstone had risen from humble beginnings from the docks of Leith, which serve Edinburgh to be a highly respected and wealthy businessman through his interests in the West Indies, America and India. John Gladstone was a friend of Sir Robert Peel the Prime Minister from 1834-5 and 1841-1846, who in later life conferred a baronetcy upon John Gladstone, sat in Parliament from 1818 to 1827 and was master of many slaves upon his various oversees properties and plantations. His wealth enabled him to give his sons the start in live that he never had and thus William was dispatched to Eton in 1821 for his schooling.

At home the Gladstone children had been encouraged to discuss any manner of subject on a basis of equality with the adults, and William as the youngest son had learnt from an early age the need to be heard by his elders. When he arrived at Eton he sought further outlets for his thoughts, both through debating, at the Eton Society and publications, two traits which remained with him, and were utilised by him, throughout his life. However, even at Eton although he had a great desire to debate, he did so at an intellectual level that left most of his listeners not very clear as to the actual point. Sadly for many of the members of the House of Commons they were to suffer the same fate in later life. Gladstone was very much a supporter of William Pitt, even at such a young age, and was a great supporter of the laissez-faire economics⁴ of the day. His friends whilst at Eton included George Selwyn, later Bishop of Lichfield, Arthur Hallum, son of Whig (Liberal) historian Henry Hallum, and therefore of the opposite political view to Gladstone, Horace Walpole,son of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, and Francis Doyle, later a civil servant.

In October 1828, Gladstone went up to Christ Church, Oxford. Here he continued his fascination with debating and on the 16 May 1831 spoke in the Oxford Union against the Reform Bill, which at the time passing through the House of Commons, helping to win that debate, in Oxford at least, for the Bill became an Act of Parliament in 1832. One of his friends from his Eton days, Lord Lincoln, was so impressed he wrote to his father, the Duke of Newcastle, asking for Gladstone to be given one of the seats his father controlled. He went on to be awarded a double first in Classics and Mathematics. Before embarking on a tour of Europe.

During his days at Oxford and on his European Tour Gladstone had been considering whether his future lay in him entering the church. However in 1832 Lord Lincoln wrote to Gladstone saying that his father was willing to use his influence in the Borough of Newark at his disposal. William jumped at the change as he felt that he could do a lot of good for the church from a position in Parliament, which he couldn't do as a humble cleric. Despite the Reform Act passing into law in June 1832 the influence of certain gentlemen, which it was aimed at limiting, was to go undiminished for a few years to come.

Elections to the commons

Gladstone was first elected to parliament in 1833, the first election following the Great Reform Act of 1832. He was returned for the 'pocket borough'⁵ of Newark, under the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle. The Duke's son Lord Lincoln having written to his father following an impassioned speech by Gladstone at the Oxford Union in opposition to the Reform Act. He was to be active in politics for the next 62 years until the election of July 1895 when at last he took no part, representing a total of four constituencies.

On 12th December 1833 having the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle and being opposed to the Reform Act only a matter of months before, Gladstone gave the following acceptance speech. 'You return me to Parliament not merely because I am the Duke of Newcastle's man; but because the man whom the Duke has sent, and the Duke himself, are your men.'. Maybe a hint the new member for Newark had learnt some lessons from the Reform Act after all. He defended Newark twice unopposed in 1835 and 1837 before actually facing an opponent in 1841. He wrote to his father saying that 'there will be no resort to bribery...I believe we shall get through without mischief'. So, even a decade after the Reform Act, votes were still up for the highest bidder. Gladstone however was proved right and was returned with the most votes. In all he served the constituency until 1845. In that year he accepted the post of Colonial office and as was the custom of the time all Cabinet Ministers had to resign their seat on taking such an appointment. However because of differences over taxation policies between Gladstone and his patron the Duke of Newcastle being a protectionist wouldn't sanction Gladstone to stand again in a seat over which he was the chief landlord. So Gladstone was left in the cabinet without a seat.

It was not until 1847 that Gladstone returned to the commons in the General Election of July/August for one of the seats for Oxford University, his much loved place of learning. However even his connections with the old university were not to keep him here indefinitely for Gladstone as he opposed the disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Ireland. The Clerical Graduates of Oxford displeased by their member's attitude in this matter, as well as his defection from the Conservatives, used the newly instated postal vote in 1865 to remove Gladstone from the commons for a second time when the result was declared.

However the nature of the election process then was long and drawn out and Gladstone was able to reserve a nomination for South Lancashire, near the City of his birth. Before the result was even declared in Oxford, but looked ominous, Gladstone was heading north to start campaigning afresh, and on the 18 July he opened his speech in Manchester with the words "At last, my friends, I come amongst you. And I am come...unmuzzled", and unmuzzled at last he was from trying to appease his electorate of Graduates. On the 22nd July Gladstone was duly returned as the Member of Parliament. So finally after representing a pocket borough and Oxford University Gladstone after twenty-two years in Parliament had faced a real election campaign, where he had to address and engage the voters, and emerged the victor.

Following his first term as Prime Minister however, Gladstone refused to bow out of public life, seeming to know that he would return to the highest office, refusing elevation to the Lords, he did however relinquish, in name at least, the leadership of the Liberal Party, This role came to be shared between Lord Hartington in the Commons and Lord Granville in the Lords.

The Midlothian Campaign

In 1879 Gladstone started to campaign for the new seat of Midlothian. He spent two weeks touring the seat speaking from Edinburgh to East Calder to crowds that were often in the hundred of thousands. The following year with an election looming he again toured the constituency as well as key loactions on the way up to it from London. He was successfully returned as the MP for Edinburghshire and was joined by his son Herbert who won his back up seat of Leeds.

Gladstone in Government

Gladstone was first called upon by Sir Robert Peel to take a Junior Lordship in the Treasury in December 1834. However following an election, which was called the following month he was offered the post of Under-Secretary for the Colonies shortly afterwards as the previous incumbent had failed to retain his seat. Lord Aberdeen his Secretary sat in the House of Lords, therefore on colonial matters Gladstone was in charge in the Commons. However this spell off office was short lived as the Government fell in April over the matter of endowments of the Irish Church, Thus two of the great concerns of Gladstone's live, the Church and Ireland, where to remove him from his first term of office.

In 1841 when Peel returned to power, Gladstone took up the Vice-Presidency of the Board of Trade. It was not a cabinet post which Gladstone was not very pleased about. His fellow rising Tory, and later rival, Benjamin Disreali was not even offered a junior post despite writing to Peel. Peel however assured Gladstone that he would be sitting at the table in the Cabinet Room as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

It wasn't too long a wait as two years later he was promoted to President of the Board of Trade and sat for the first time at the cabinet table. In 1844 in this role he was responsible for the Railway Bill which

His control of the Treasury

The post in government, which Gladstone held most, was as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He served as Chancellor under four Prime Minister's, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerstone, Lord Russell and William Gladstone. Initially when he stepped up to Prime Minister he did not trust any other Liberal to maintain the spendthrift policies he had previously brought in his budgets.

He first held the post in 1853 under Lord Aberdeen and started to show his colours as a prudent economist limiting excessive public expenditure and therefore being able to reduce duties both in value and in range of goods on which these had effect.

However Gladstone stood adamant on the principle of free trade and harboured long-term ambitions abolish income tax. Gladstone maintained this determination until the onset of the Crimean War made this impossible. It was then seen as the easiest way to gather the funds needed for the war effort. So Income Tax remained with the British ever since and no chancellor since has been anywhere near as able to get rid of Gladstone was on the eve of the Crimean war.

On Aberdeen's death Palmerstone succeeded as Prime Minister and offered Gladstone the chance to continue as Chancellor, although not able to eradicate Income Tax Gladstone did what he could to alleviate the tax burden in other ways. He saw this as being important to encourage the economy to grow and compete on the world stage. He served in this role again for the duration of Palmerstone's second administration from 1859-1865.

At the time he first held the Chancellor's office every single change announced in the budget had to be ratified by a separate Bill, this had lead to several revolts in the House of Lords or occasionally the Commons, which had unseated governments. Following one such defeat for Gladstone, The Paper Bill (1860), the following year he inaugurated a single Finance Bill to cover all the clauses, taxes etc. mentioned in the budget in one. This was to deter the Lords from jeopardising the elected houses financial programmes by taking umbrage at one part of it and possibly destabilise the whole system. This innovation of Gladstone's is the means by which government still ratifies its budget today.

The red box that Gladstone used to carry his budget from No. 11 Downing Street⁶ had continued to be used as a ritual box by most chancellor’s since. Usually this box has be carried following the picture on the front step before heading to the house with the budget inside.

Gladstone as Prime Minister

The 1st Gladstone Administration December 1868 - February 1874

There were a number of sweeping changes to occur in Gladstone's first administration, and he spent many long hours drafting speeches and defending his policies at every turn. In the early years he even kept a tight leash on financial policy by remaining Chancellor. The reason for this was that he feared that he couldn't trust any of his liberal colleagues to be as prudent in this role as he had been in previous administrations.

The 2nd Gladstone Administration April 1880 - June 1885

Whilst in opposition Gladstone was a very vocal critic of Disreali's policies and upon his re-election he set about a programme of a number of land and agricultural reforms. However these reforms were to be overshadowed by the outbreak of the First Boer War in 1881.

The 3rd Gladstone Administration (January - July 1886)

The entire life, and in the end fall, of Gladstone's third administration rested on one issue it was taken over almost entirely by the whole Irish question.

The 4th Gladstone Administration (August 1892 - March 1894)

At the age of 82 Gladstone was once more returned to the highest elected position in the land. Also at this election the first ever socialist, James Keir Hardie was returned for parliament for Holytown, Lanarkshire. Unknown to Gladstone and the Liberals was the long-term effect this would have in keeping them from holding power for the majority of the Twentieth Century.

He was to return to the question of Irish Home Rule. He believed the only reason that God had preserved him and kept him active this long was to see this bill finally enacted. So he navigated the second Home Rule Bill (1892) successfully through the Commons only to be defeated on it in the Lords. As a consequence Gladstone relinquished the Premiership and leadership of the Liberal Party in 1894 to Lord Rosebery and retired from public life, standing down at the next election. The Queen didn't offer him a peerage as she knew from their dealings in the past that he would not have accepted it anyway.

Gladstone and Queen Victoria

In 1846 the Queen invited Gladstone to bring his wife and children to Buckingham Palace, the Princes and Princesses played with the Gladstone children. This is an image that was to become overshadowed by Victoria's later actions when she would refuse to have audiences with him and leave him out of events against all sense of protocol. She even in the end refused to acknowledge his death in the Court Circular, despite the fact that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York⁷ acted as two of the ten pall bearers for his coffin. So what did lead to this schism between the monarch and the man who served as her Prime Minister during 4 terms, for a total of eleven and a half years.

Gladstone was a man to whom everything was black and white, right or wrong. He may have changed his view on a number of topics through the course of his life, but once he had his mind set on a course of action he was set. So when a problem arose with the unpopularity of the Royal Family Gladstone thought about how best to preserve that institution much as he had already done through his life for the Church of England. The Queen may have started her life-long mourning for Prince Albert, her consort, but Gladstone felt that to offset the growing feeling of Republicanism that had spread from Europe to British shores that some presence needed to be felt.

He recommended initially that the Prince of Wales should be given a job to do, his suggestion was that the should serve as Governor of Ireland and spend at least 2 months of the year residing at Dublin Castle. He later added that he felt that the Prince and Princess of Wales should spend time in London acting on behalf of Her Majesty as she was not attended public engagements at all. Gladstone went about presenting these ideas in his typical headstrong manner and the Queen became tired of his incessant badgering her about this issue.

His speeches and lifelong crusades

Gladstone's maiden speech in the House of Commons was in defence of his father and the treatment of his slaves during a debate on the emancipation of slaves. His brother Thomas was able to answer an accusation by Lord Howick⁸ that John Gladstone was systematically working his slaves to death. It was a long drawn out debate and Gladstone wasn't called for over 3 weeks. In his response he cited facts and figures to prove his father's innocence but also urged the need for a gradual and therefore safe emancipation of the slaves enabling them to be able to adjust to life without masters. From the first speech the young Gladstone had already caught the attention of some of the older political hands. These old hands included Lord Stanley and Sir Robert Peel, even George IV wrote to the leader of the House of Commons expressing an interest.

Gladstone spent most of his life trying to 'rescue' the prostitutes of London. The way he went about this was always open to misinterpretation as he would wonder the streets and talk and try to persuade them to come to one of his half way houses to try and set them on the straight and Christian path. During the nineteenth century this approach would have had serious implications for anyone, never mind someone of such a high public profile, not just in safety but also in terms of reputation. Several times there were concerns from within his own party that Gladstone should refrain from having such a close personal involvement in these projects especially as he carried on once he was Prime Minister.

Gladstone and the Church

Gladstone was brought up in a Christian household and everywhere he travelled he tired to get to as many Anglican or Episcopal services as he could, sometimes going to more than one service a day, even on weekdays. While at Eton he considered that he future lay in the Church but while in Rome on his tour of Europe and at Oxford he came to the conclusion that he would best serve God in the political field, although he did write a number of sermons which he shared with his family at their prayer time. He put his longevity both in live and Parliament down to God having one more important task for him to complete.

From this background then it is hardly surprising that Gladstone took a keen interest in the institutional ramification of the Church of England being so closely tied to the State.

Gladstone and Ireland

Gladstone only visited Ireland once in his long and illustrious life, however it did not prevent the whole issue of Ireland featuring significantly in his long political career. The whole dilemma of Irish Home Rule was starting to crescendo at the time that Gladstone first took a seat in the House. Little would he know that the subject he fought for so earnestly for years would still be a raging issue over 100 years after his death.

The first time that Gladstone got involved in Irish issues was not in connection with home rule but with his other life long concern the church. During his first administration he disestablished the Irish Church (1869) something he had felt strongly about since his first term as an MP. The fact that the Church in Ireland was paying money to the Government in London had been seen by Gladstone and other's as one of the thorns in the Irish situation which was leading to all the tension and potential violence against the English landowners. The fact that most of the government including Gladstone had never visited Ireland and seen the situation on the ground and the conditions of the tenant farmers was something that had never really been addressed since the repel of the Corn Laws.

He did however also produce an Irish Land Act in 1870 allowing compensation for improvements to tenants evicted by their landlords.

Gladstone's Personal Life

Following the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837 Gladstone was returned unopposed for his seat in Newark. He however, spent the remainder of the term of that parliament looking for a suitable young woman to consent to marry him. He was not the world's greatest suitor suffering a number of refusals before Catherine Glynne agreed to marry him. The service took place along with that of her younger sister Mary Glynne to Lord Lyttleton on 25 July 1839 at Hawarden the Glynne family home in Flintshire, North Wales. Sir Stephen Glynne the brides' brother was Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire and was to become a close friend of Gladstone.

William and Catherine Gladstone were to have eight children William, Agnes, Helen, Henry, Herbert, Mary, Catherine Jessie, John. William, Herbet and John all followed their father into parliament. John becoming Home Secretary from 11 December 1905 until 19 February 1910.

Gladstone the Author

One of Gladstone's legacies was the amount of written material he was to produce throughout his life. Not just various books on political, religious and classical themes but also the largest collection of letters held from any Prime Minister by the British Museum in it's collection. He also wrote a vast range of personal correspondence, much of which is still in the library he had built at Hawanden, as well as extensive diaries. As will be expected of such a prolific statesman most of his writing not relating to events of the day was carried out whilst he was out of Government and sitting on the opposition benches.

In opposition for the first time following the defeat of Peel's government in January 1835 and between thinking of marriage Gladstone did some study on the state of relations between the church and the state. His first book The State and its Relations with the Church was published in July 1838, it was the start of Gladstone's continued interest in the Church and State debate and whether the Anglican Church should be disestablished. In 1840 he revised it making it almost twice the length⁹ before he expanded the theme in a new book Church Principles Considered in their Results.

He was later to try and correlate the works of Homer with Christian teaching in a series of books that most Greek Scholars and Theologians dismissed as fanciful. His first book on the subject Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age (1858) was followed and enlarged upon in 1869 in Juventus Mundi and Homeric Synchronism in 1876. In each of these he maintained a belief in a personal Homer and that Homer was recounting factually all the events of the Trojan War. By liking Homer with Christian teachings he was also trying to justify classical studies as having a valid basis in Christian education a thought at the time condoned by the Church.

He was also deeply concerned about the situation that was brewing in Europe especially Italy, which he had visited extensively, and the Balkans¹⁰ and produced a pamphlet Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East (1876).

Reforms brought about by Gladstone

As well as the Finance Bill, which he introduced as Chancellor to ease the budget through both Houses more easily, Gladstone was responsible for a number of important reforms to government and the nation as a whole.

The 1867 Reform Act may have allowed a great number of working class men the vote, all male lodgers paying £10 for unfurnished rooms in a Borough Constituency now had a vote, making them the majority. But employers still used their sway over their employers to influence the vote, by being present or sending representation to check on votes. In 1872 Gladstone introduced the Ballot Act which instituted secret ballots for all local and government elections. At last the employers would have no idea how the votes were going, another part of the electoral reform that was advancing towards the current situation of electoral law. In 1880 having been returned for a third time he tried to extend the working class vote to the rural seats as well. Initially though accepted in the Commons, the Lords rejected this Bill, but in 1884 they accepted it when Gladstone re-introduced it providing that it came in with redistribution of seats. He also passed at this time a Corrupt Practices Act, which limited the amount candidates, could spend on a campaign. It also banned the purchase of food and drink for voters as well as setting a limit on the number of vehicles that could be used to transport voters to the polls.

In 1870 he along with his Education Minister worked an Education Act through Parliament which saw the introduction of schools boards throughout Britain.

In 1868 passed laws, which restructured the high courts.